A terrible scream bellowed through the hanger, anger and anguish echoing off the cold metal. For a moment everyone stood motionless in the wake of it; everyone except for Videsse. She fell on top of the droid, her body draping over his. She said no words but only breathed in loud vocal gasps.
Cotrel strafed slowly to the Kom'rk, keeping his aim on the three of them. "Don't try anything funny, and we'll all get off of this ship fine," he ordered.
Videsse's fists clenched and her breathing stopped. Her hand made its way down to her holster.
"Ohara," Terrah cautioned. "Don't—"
However, there was no use in the warning. Videsse was up on her feet in a flash, blaster shots storming from her pistol and blaster in a torrential downpour of fury. She screamed as the wild shots ricocheted off the walls, Blade-4, and the floors; Videsse's aim suffered as she was blinded with rage. Her tears were hidden under her helmet.
Cotrel drew a sharp breath at the attack, and dove behind the Kom'rk engine exhausts to get out of the hail of fire. He recognized the poor aim, keeping his composure as he checked how many discharges he had left in his blaster. There were plenty. Videsse's barrage kept coming. He waited.
After two dozen more shots, the onslaught stopped. It became quiet, except for Videsse's wet inhales and the rapid clicks from her empty blasters. Her fingers fluttered on the triggers, throwing clicking trills into the air. However, her storm was not finished. The blasters dropped to the ground, as she walked forward. She removed two grenades from her belt, flinging the safety pins off with her thumbs as she held them out at each side.
Cotrel emerged from behind the Kom'rk, his blaster aimed. He cautiously marked her with his aim. Videsse continued the advance, as she threw the two grenades with wrathful intent. Cotrel fired his weapon. The ship jolted at the eruption; a cataclysmic upheaval propelled everyone into the air and crashed them to the ground. Videsse spun in the air at the quake and landed on her side, motionless.
"That was no grenade blast. That's the core," Terrah said to Cheedo as she got up, but Cheedo was already gone. Terrah ran to Videsse and found her lying in a pool of her blood.
Terrah looked up at Cotrel, who was climbing the Kom'rk ladder to the cockpit. She saw red. Like Videsse, her pistols came out, and her fire hot pistol shots flew at Cotrel. However, unlike Videsse, Terrah's shots were tempered with years of experience. Her aim was sure. The Red Sun dawned, and every ray from her pistols cut through him with needled precision as he rounded the top of the ladder. His thigh ruptured in a bloody line, followed by his shoulder, his hip, his chest. He reeled and collapsed, his life waning. Blood painted the outside and interior of the cockpit as he fell from the top of the ladder into the ship. With a last effort, he closed the cockpit blast-shield, sealing himself in the ship he had won.
Terrah replaced her pistols at her side and ran to Videsse. She was unconscious; blood was dripping from her leg and clotting on the ground. Terrah held her hand over the wound and applied pressure, thanking the stars that it was not a chest shot. Videsse finally moved at the pain of Terrah's pressure.
"You nerfherder," she said in a groggy voice as she recovered her mentation. "That hurts."
"We need to get out of here," Terrah said. "The core's going to go."
A loud hum of snub engines roared close to them. Terrah looked up to see Cheedo's E-wing flying over the top of them and out of the hangar bay.
"Figures," Terrah commented as she watched the E-wing escape.
Videsse sobered at the thought of the core explosion. She turned to her side and got on her knees, wincing at the pain in her leg. "I've got to get PZ," she muttered.
Terrah helped her up, and Videsse balanced herself on her left leg, toe touching with the other.
"Could you help me get PZ, to my ship?" Videsse asked.
Terrah nodded. She remembered how Videsse associated PZ-85 with Terrah and she understood Videsse's need to save the droid.
Videsse let go of Terrah and limped on her own toward the droid. A trail of blood following her.
Then they heard it: A deafening roar from the aft door announcing the presence of the hound. Both Terrah and Videsse whipped their gaze toward the woeful howl. There it stood, the first time they had seen the creature's full and hideous form. The creature was twice as massive as a human and covered in dark-brown, airtight scales. Its muscular body rested on six sinewy legs, the two thoracic limbs ending in hand-like paws with sharp retractable claws. A dorsal ridge of coarse, gray hair lined the shoulders and back ridge of the hound. Its four black eyes were open wide as its snout lifted in the air and sniffed with loud huffs, retracting its lips to aid in its scent tracking. It stepped restlessly from the door, focused on a scent. It moved toward the Kom'rk.
"It smells the blood," Terrah observed.
The hound leapt onto the Kom'rk and started to claw at the cockpit blast door. It gripped the seal and tore the edge up, then it started to slam its head down on the glass shield. The shield cracked under the pressure and gave way in shards of splintered glass. The hound found its meal, its body heaving as it pushed its snapping jaws further into the cockpit.
"You wouldn't mind if I hitch a ride with you, would ya?" Videsse asked Terrah.
Before Terrah could answer, another huffing sound came from the forward hangar door. Terrah felt a cold chill down her spine at the realization. They turned to see a second hound. It was smaller and darker in color and with less fur on his ridge, but it had the same hungry black eyes and voracious teeth. Blue blood still stained its long claws.
The hound huffed in the air, picking up a scent and then looked directly at Videsse. Videsse looked down at her blood-stained leg. "Get PZ into your Firespray," she said. "Save him."
With that, she took a few hobbled steps toward the open hangar bay.
"No!" Terrah shouted. Videsse blasted her V-6 to get off her lame leg and accelerated to the energy shield. "Ohara!" Terrah cried out, but Videsse did not hear her.
The smaller hound, seeing its prey flee was drawn into the pursuit with a nimble gallop and it sped toward Videsse. Terrah fired desperately at the hound with no effect.
Videsse skimmed the ground, her feet barely missing the floor. The hound closed the distance. Videsse passed through the energy shield into the vacuum of space. Her air-tight Mandalorian armor could manage the vacuum of space for a few minutes; but with her leg wound, the air in her suit escaped with a spray of blood, sending her into a pencil roll.
The hound broke hard at the edge of the bay, stopping just shy of the energy shield. It was intelligent enough not to leap into the void but stared at Videsse eagerly waiting for her possible return. Saliva dripped from its greedy mouth.
Just behind it, a small, round, metal object emitted a red flash. In an instant the grenade exploded, the shockwave from the blast sending the hound hurdling through the energy shield into space. It spun and writhed as it floated away from the ship, its large nostrils flaring as it tried to huff in the void.
Videsse managed to curve her trajectory back through the energy shield and inhaled violently once back inside the ship's atmosphere. Her fuel reserves in the V-6 were just about spent, so she used the last of it to sputter halfway across the bay before collapsing on her hands and knees. "Gotcha," she said between panting breaths.
Another monstrous explosion shook the Blood Krayt. Videsse gripped the floor and yelped reflexively at the violent quake. However, before she could get up to head toward Terrah's Firespray, two large, savage feet stepped before her face. A loud huff sprayed mist over the back of Videsse's helmet. She looked up to see rows of glistening teeth emerge from under the hound's receding lips.
"Oh, sod it!" she exclaimed to herself and lowered her head in surrender, when without warning, rapid cannon fire ripped through the silence. The hound reflexively tensed at the sound, but then jolted to its side with an impact.
Terrah's ship, Raider, blasted away with its two ground buzzers, as it hovered closer to the hound. The hound fell to its side and tried to get up, but the cannon fire knocked it down again. Its skin protected it from handheld blasters, but Raider's blaster cannons battered the creature, breaking bones at first before overcoming the thick hide and piercing through to its vital organs. It tried to remain upright and run away; but Raider pursued, hovering over Videsse as the creature retreated. After a dozen direct hits, the hound foundered to the ground and writhed, dark red blood exuding from its wounds. Its chest heaved with each breath as it fought to stay alive.
Raider's ramp lowered as Terrah rushed down to Videsse. Terrah put her arm under Videsse and helped her up gently, leading her into the ship.
"Wait, PZ—" Videsse protested and tried to resist.
"Don't worry," she comforted. "I've got your droid."
"No time for talk, Red, get her in," Raider ordered.
Videsse, upon hearing the droid's voice, looked into ship. "Boba?" she asked.
Terrah did not answer Videsse, but Terrah supported most of her weight as they ascended the ramp. "Save your energy, Ohara," she said.
The ramp closed behind her as another explosion shook the Blood Krayt from within.
"Get us out of here, Raider," Terrah ordered.
"Already on it, Red," the ship replied as it passed into the cold darkness, then disappeared into the nebulous hyperspace.