22 BBY

Darrious Ordo fired off three more swift blasts and then swung his beskar energy sword, cutting one of the great serpents' head from its shoulder. Another one leapt over the carcass and attempted to grab Darrious but wound up with the energy sword cutting it from shoulder to hip. Thinking fast, Darrious holstered his blaster and used the flame thrower on his wrist gauntlet. A stream of blue flame sprayed out, consuming the creatures. As he locked the trigger into place, he grabbed Tarson Gale and pushed him towards the door, shouting, "Run, Tars! Go before we are totally surrounded. I'll cover us."

The pirate captain obeyed running as fast as his legs would carry him. Darrious back pedaled as fast as he could until the fuel in his flamethrower ran out, then he turned an ran himself, know that the xenomorphs behind him would catch up to him and Tarson quickly if he did not think fast. They made it to the door of the battery and Tarson slammed his hand on the control panel. The blast door behind them slammed shut. Darrious nodded and they started running. As they went, Darrious said, "That should hold against their acid for at least a couple minutes. We need to get off this ship." Tarson shook his head. "No Darrious." he said resolutely. "I can't leave her in the clutches of these things. I can't leave my crew." Darrious, stopped, took off his helmet and grabbed Tarson by the shoulders, looking him dead in the eye. "Tars, your crew is dead and your ship is already lost. We have no choice but to leave it behind. Or better yet, destroy it so no one else will find these creatures."

Tarson shook his head again, almost angrily. "NO! I can't. I won't." Darrious put his helmet back on and said in a flat voice, "Tarson Gale, you will either walk out of here or I will carry your senseless body out, but either way you are leaving with me. I will not leave a friend behind like that."

Tarson was about to protest but instead just sighed and said, "You would do it too. Alright. To your ship, Darrious. But first, we need to find a way to destroy the ship. Any ideas?"

They took off again and Darrious was silent for a few moments, trying to find a solution. Lucrehulks did not have self destruct sequences on them so they would either have to blow the main reactor or send it into something. Considering that there were no suns nearby, the reactor seemed like the best plan. "Alright, here is what we will do…" and he was about to explain when they heard screeching and hissing behind them. They knew the xenomorphs were through and chasing them again. A lowed clang from above warned them that the creatures were also in the vents above them. Darrious un-slung his blaster rifle and prepped it to fire. Suddenly, two of the creature dropped down in from of them. With two quick bursts, Darrious brought them down when suddenly, one landed on top of him from above. A hiss told him that he was in trouble. Suddenly, a snap-hiss followed by a humming swoosh and a screech were heard. The creature fell dead on top of him. Moving fast he rolled the corpse to the side and saw Tarson with his Echani light foil drawn. Darrious leapt up and they took off again. They heard a chorus of screeching down the corridor behind them, they saw a swarm of the beetle black monsters. Darrious pulled a cartridge from his belt and loaded it onto his left gauntlet, taking aim, he fired the weapon, sending a cryogenic grenade into the midst of the creatures. With a flash and bang, almost thirty of the creatures were totally or partially frozen. Turning, they began to run again, just as more began to drop out of the vent shaft. Carson blasted and slashed any that landed in front of them while Darrious attempted to stem the tied behind them. Once again, leapt through a blast door and shut it, slamming one of the xenomorphs into it. This time, they heard the vents begin to creak in protest of the weight as more and more began to leap into it. Thinking fast, Darrious fired another cryogenic grenade, this time, just as the vent opened to reveal an ugly head above them. The blast froze more of the creatures and effectively blocked the vent - for the moment at least. Turning another corner, they climbed into a turbo lift and shut the door. When they reached the bridge level, Darrious made a split second decision and stopped the lift. He turned to Tarson and said, "Look, this may be the only chance we get to destroy the ship. I am going to set it on a collision course with the Venator-Class Destroyer out there. Hopefully, that will destroy it."

Tarson nodded in agreement. They ran to the bridge and to the main controls. Inside were the scattered remains of over a dozen battle droids. Tarson ran to the helm and locked in on the Venator's signal while Darrious sent the thrusters to full speed ahead. An alarm began to sound and on a large screen it showed twenty minutes to collision. The two friends left the bridge and ran down the corridor when every light in their section went out. There steps didn't even slow as they drew their blasters and kept running. Darrious flipped on night vision on his helmet just in time to see the ceiling drop and xenomorphs begin to drop not far ahead. They stopped at a cross section in the corridors and Darrious pulled a miniature fragmentation missile from his utility belt, loaded it on his gauntlet and fired as they ran. The blast sent them flying and killed many of them. More dropped to the floor. Tarson stopped and began to open fire but Darrious grabbed him and they jumped down another corridor, basting their way through the xenomorphs that dropped down their. They could hear the creatures pursuing them both in the corridor and in the vents. A room door appeared on the left and leapt in and slammed the door. The room was one of the many armories in the ship. They were sealed off from the rest in the case that the ship was taken. No vents led into the ships because they had their own vent systems and air scrubbers. The doors were also blaster resistant, heat resistant and acid resistant. Even so, they could hear the creatures slashing and pounding on the door. Darrious took the time to find more grenades and miniature missiles such as the super battle droids used and Tarson disappeared around a rack of blaster rifles, reappearing a moment later with a massive chain rotating blaster cannon and a large power pack on his back. Darrious smiled at his friend and picked up another large weapon. It was used by the trandotions as a heavy assault weapon and put out a fierce barrage of fire. After they had restocked, Darrious looked at Tarson and said, "I don't know how we are going to get out of here."

Tarson grinned and said, "I do. You see, I have here an emergency remote control of the ships systems. And I know that this weapons blister here can be jettisoned. I also know that I can control the tractor beam from here soo…"

Darrious laughed in his helmet and clapped his friend on the shoulder, saying, excellent. Suddenly, all the noise outside the room stopped. They looked at each other, shocked. Darrious said, "Better do it fast, Tars."

The xenomorphs ran as fast as they could to reach the hanger with a massive praetorian in the lead. Unlike its brethren, who all had black exoskeletons, this one was a strange dark blue. It had be birthed in the Chiss Marlo. It was also smarter and more calculating than it's brethren which is how it understood and remembered from Marlo's memories where the hanger was. Now they would be their waiting

The armory released and shot out from the ship and was immediately picked up by the tractor beam. The two men inside had strapped themselves to the bulkhead using gravity straps that were used for cargo pallets. They gritted their teeth as they felt the vertigo of being shot out into space and then swung around to the main hanger as if in an empty bottle that was being washed down a flooding stream. It seemed like forever though it was only a matter of minutes before they were dropped on the deck of the cruiser. Reaching over to the gravstrap's control switch, Tarson turned it off and the two suddenly fell flat on their faces. This made them both chuckle a bit the problem was that the door was now about fifteen feet above their heads. Tarson grabbed a pair of harpoon guns and fired them on either side of the door. The climbed up the lines and looked at each other, realizing the flaw in their plan. Darrious looked at Tarson and said, "Well?"

Tarson said, "What? Don't look at me. I can't open it, the room does not have it's own power source. And my lightfoil is not a lightsaber. It can't handle cutting through a door."

Darrious sighed in mock exasperation and engaged a cutting torch on his right gauntlet. It took less than a minute for him to cut through the bottom half of the door and kick it out. They crawled through and jumped down from the room. Suddenly a collision alarm sounded again and a robotic voice said, "Collision in ten minutes."

Looking around, Darrious saw his ship over a hundred meters away. The two began to run as fast as they could. Suddenly, a host of xenomorphs swarmed into the hanger. Both men opened fire and ran as fast as they could. They cut down the creatures as they approached with their heavy weapons, but the creatures continued to come, including some strange ones that seemed to have four legs as apposed to front arms to run on. Tarson cursed and Darrious said, "They got to your living zoo, I think."

They both ran out of ammo half way to the ship and dropped the weapons. Darrious pulled out his blaster rifle and opened fire while Tarson used two pistols, having picked up one from the armory. They were nearly caught when they ran up the ramp and shut it behind them. Tarson said, "I'll prep her for launch, you secure all cargo."

Darrious did so, using built in wall holsters. Suddenly, a great popped up behind him and he felt himself knocked to the floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a xenomorph pinning him down. It had strange horns on its head and two yellow eyes set just above its mouth. Darrious squirmed but the thing was strong. Thinking fast, he pulled out his combat knife and stabbed the things hand next to his head, causing it to rear back just enough for him to roll over and kick the thing off of him. Then he drew his energy beskar sword and attacked the creature. Though it seemed smaller, it was also faster than the other xenomorphs and also much more clever than them. It dodged and ducked under his blows while trying to use its tale to spear and slice him. His armor managed to withstand most of the blows though they drove him back against towards the loading ramp. Thinking fast, Darrious used his combat knife in his other hand to try and ward off the blows. Timing it carefully, he was able to parry a swing from the tail and then cut it off with the energy sword. The creature screamed and jumped back. No acid leaked from the cauterized wound. Rage was plain on its face and in its eyes as it leapt recklessly at him, only to be impaled on the long sword. With a hefty kick, Darrious got it off of his blade and was about to behead the squirming body when the ship lurched and took off. Darrious got up from where he had fallen in time to see the creature leap at him. Thinking fast, he rolled under it and spun, slashing at head height. The horned creature froze. Their was no outward sign that it had been struck. Then it's head toppled to the ground followed momentarily by its body. With a sigh of relief, Darrious climbed up to the cockpit and closed the door. He looked at Tarson in front of him. The man looked tired but alive. Suddenly, Darrious realized how tired he was too. Before he settled down, Darrious said, "Hey Tars, open the ramp below the cockpit and space that thing's carcass." and after a pause he said, "I think it was birthed in a zabrack though I don't know why it still had eyes."

Tarson shrugged. He didn't care anymore, he just knew it was over.