Last Time...
Taking off his helm, Daxius opened the door to his bunk on the FireStorm Cruiser ship. Flicking on the switch, he was greeted by a blue Twi'lek that looked slightly annoyed.
"Reiterate why we have to share a room again?" she asked, as Daxius placed his helm on a nearby end-table.
"Well, what with Piotr needing the big room..." started the mercenary.
"Why couldn't I share a room with my HK droid?" argued Orian.
"Well, I just had to see Yiddles' face when I said he'd be sharing with HK-7..." continued Daxius, sitting down next to her.
"And Walush?..." murmured the Twi'lek.
"He snores..." muttered Daxius.
They were silent for a moment, gazing at each other. They leaned forward, and...
"-THE SHIP IS UNDER ATTACK! I REPEAT, THE SHIP IS UNDER ATTACK! EVERYONE, TO YOUR BATTLE STATIONS!!!-"
HK-7 heard the announcement with glee.
"Well Master Piddles, to battle!" he cried in his mechanical voice, and clenched his three fingered fists with a crackle of energy. The Hunter-Killer Module 7's eyes seemed to glow electric blue for a moment.
"Yiddles!" muttered the bat-eared Whill as he scampered out the training room towards the dock. "Stupid droid..."
Yiddles hurried through the corridor, the sirens insistent wails making his sensitive ears ache slightly. He took two right turns and almost crashed into Piotr in his haste.
"Whoa! Watch it! Wouldn't want you outta commission before the dogfight starts!" chortled the large four-armed alien. Piotr himself was lumbering towards the docks, glad that he had made recent modifications to his fighter and hoping that they worked.
Walush the Dug was frantically rushing about the cockpit, turning switches and pressing buttons with vigour using all four of his limbs. He switched on the shields and rotated the large ship around to meet the attackers. The Cruiser turned with great dexterity for its size, thanks to the large directional boosters equipped to the end. The missile hatches flew open, and the targeting computers calibrated the blaster co-ordinates.
"If only you were mine," said the Dug, kissing the console lightly on the screen.
T3-S6 trundled along, desperately trying to keep up with the HK-7 droid ahead of it.
"Bweep-bwoo-beep-pip!" it protested.
"If you can't keep up, Jawa-scrap, I'm not slowing down!" retorted the assassin droid. It raced forward at vast speeds, its spiked feet gaining leverage and its powered legs seeming almost spring-loaded. "I'm not going to lose any action just for you!"
With an angry buzz, T3-S6 activated its jet throttles, hurtling forward ahead of HK-7 with another whistle, before entering the dock.
"Same to me?! We'll see about that, you little bucket of bolts!"
Daxius and Orian ran swiftly down the hallway, Daxius' long thin side-braid flying behind him, Orian's lekku behind her. They both made it to their fighters in time to see the rest of the crew take off out the airlock. Piotr's massive droplet shaped fighter blasted out, its spiked tip trailing behind it. Yiddles' small trident-like vessel followed right after. HK-7 and T3-S6 were still getting into Walush's ship, a strange pronged vehicle that resembled a pod-racing unit. As Orian stepped into her elegant fighter that resembled an Alderaan four-winged hummingbird-hawk, Daxius tapped frantically away at the console to disengage the docking claws. With a quick status check he found the FireStorm Crusier itself ready to attack with maximum shields up.
"Good job, Walush," he said as he logged out.
He sprinted towards his customized SpitFire Jet Fighter and leapt into the seat, strapping on his safety harness as the hatch sealed around him and the two droids piloting Walush's ship sped off. Orian's ship was primed and ready the engines humming to life and the controls glowing. She activated her shields as Daxius did the same. Wing to wing, they both took off out of the docking bay, their faces both set in an expression of determination.
"Walush, what's the nature of the attack?" commed Orian as she headed towards the enemy ships.
"Seems to be Planetary Defence, not pirates. Their ships all seem to be standard issue, they're all the same, and their in a defensive Delta formation. No Pirates are this organized. You guys know what this means," said the Dug through the comms.
"Yeah yeah, shoot to disable," muttered Daxius. "Wouldn't want us to be exiled from another planet, would we, Walush?"
"Hey, Druckenwell was an accident. I didn't know that was a lethal virus I introduced into the water system!" the Dug replied angrily.
"So why were you laughing at them while they melted?" asked Orian dryly.
"I thought it was some cool trick! Stars, one little mistake..."
"Five thousand little lives..." continued Piotr.
"It's all that stupid HK-7's fault! He said it was a purifier!" accused Walush.
"Well, it purified a lot of meatbags, did it not?" questioned the HK unit in a mechanical whisper.
"Heads up, everyone, we're about to enter line of sight." Daxius tightened his grip on the controls as the squadron of white fighters came into view. "Remember, to disable only," he repeated.
"That means you too, HK," said Orian sternly.
"What?!" cried the assassin droid, as the astromech perched atop the cockpit offered a choice amount of whistles and beeps.
"Hey, don't make me come up there!" yelled HK-7 at Essix, who merely chirruped in amusement. "You'd like to see me try?! I'll show you..."
"Hey, cut it out you two, we're almost in range!" yelled Orian as she swerved her ship to dodge the first few stray blasts.
Piotr manoeuvred his arms to direct the four bubble turrets on his ship towards a white fighter. With a squeeze of the triggers he knocked out its engines. Taking care and aiming once again, Piotr managed to disable two more fighters as they flew towards his ship.
HK-7 grumbled as he easily manoeuvred the ship with the grudging help of Essix. They, together, managed to shoot the engines clean off one ship, while disabling another's blasters. The first fighter drifted, to be picked up by the second's mini tractor beam which it used to tow the immobilized ship out of the fray. "What fun's non lethal shooting?" wondered the droid aloud.
Orian herself was in a spot of a bit more trouble. The white fighters had flanked her and surrounded her, and she was starting to get disoriented from all the swerving she had to do to dodge their peppering blasts. She signalled Walush and set off a blinding flash of light, her minor EMP jamming blast stunning all who were nearby. The white fighters seemed to hesitate for a moment, and in that moment twelve homing missiles shot from the FireStorm and disabled twelve enemy fighters, which then proceeded to drift in space.
"Nice work, you two," complimented Daxius as he flew in to finish off the last fighter, a blue stripes on white Jet that dodged with precise ease from the issuing blasts from Daxius' SpitFire. Daxius furrowed his brow in concentration. This one was a toughie. He sped towards the Jet, giving chase as it weaved among its disabled brothers. With a jolt Daxius realised the fighter was heading towards Piotr and Orians' ships. Before he could signal them the fight managed to fire upon them, but thanks to their reflexes the two were only disabled themselves.
"Who was that guy?!" called Orian through the comms in amazed annoyance.
"Don't worry, he's mine," replied Daxius as he saw the Fighter rip into Walush's ship, effectively putting it out of action. Daxius thought he heard HK-7 growl through the comm.
Suddenly in a miraculous manoeuvre the Blue-white fighter turned and faced him, unleashing two missile pods at the ready from its sides. Daxius knew he wouldn't be able to dodge this one...
But then Yiddles swept past at lightning speed as his ship's sharp dorsal fin ripped out the ships underside, stopping it cold. Yiddles gave a whoop for joy, and then proceeded to laugh at HK-7, which Orian wasn't too impressed with.
A short time later, with all the disabled enemy fighters held in a tractor beam, and the crew safely back in the cruiser, they tried to make contact with the planet. It turned out the world of Kamino had mistaken them for a Seperatist recon ship. When they found that their pilots, which turned out to be clones, were still intact, they showed something close to relief.
"We would be honoured if you would join us here. Many apologies, but you know how it is, these past two months and the war," the Kamino representative said.
"Can you guarantee us safe passage?" inquired Daxius, still not too sure.
"Yes, we merely wish to recover our clones. If you would like, we can give you a grand tour of the facility. Believe us, you are no threat," came back the transmission. Daxius came to a decision a moment later.
"We'll be down as soon as we can. Send us the landing co-ordinates. Walush, land us down after docking the clone ships," instructed Daxius.
"Now, where were we?" asked Daxius, sitting down once more.
"Well..." explained Orian, with a sly grin.