Vanguard
Chapter 12
"Ready aim fire"
[In orbit over Saleucami]
Asajj Ventress was now walking onto the command bridge of her Munificent-class Star Frigate, the Justification, when the commander of the ship, a T-series Tactical Droid named TX-52, stands up from his command chair and greets her.
TX-52 clasps his hands and reports in a steady masculine monotone voice "Mistress, four ships are on approach and our weapons are primed and ready to fire."
"Good, get me Kahn."
The tactical droid nods "Yes Mistress, opening communication channel to the Bellicose."
Ventress takes her spot standing in front of the command chair shortly before a hologram of a seven foot Mandalorian, standing on the bridge of his Crusader-class Corvette, wearing a more heavily armored version of their typical body armor and his helmet featured a long carved scar all across the frontal faceplate and visor.
Ventress greets the Mandalorian mercenary "Granor Kahn, are your men ready?"
Kahn answered with a cutthroat attitude in a low raspy voice signifying an injury to his voice box some time ago "Yeah we're ready. But our scanners are picking up four ships and you said we were dealing with one."
Ventress knew Kahn was ruthless in his attacks implementing cunning tactics and sheer ferocity, which was why she hired him to help her take the Vanguard, but if Kahn catches even the faintest hint of deception then there's no chance of her getting what she wanted.
Fortunately she decided to put on her charm and use this to her advantage "Consider this; if you help me take the ship I mentioned before, then you will be paid the original amount we discussed and these additional ships will be your bonus."
The mercenary captain considered the reward then said "Alright, you'll have your ship but everything else is ours."
"Then we're in an agreement then."
Granor nodded silently and ordered to the crew aboard his ship "Alright men we're going in, all hands on deck, move it people let's go!" before his hologram dissipated from Ventress's sight.
TX-52 steps up and reports "Mistress, the ships are now coming within visual range seventeen kilometers off our ventral starboard bow."
Asajj orders "Put it on screen, I wish to see what we're dealing with."
"Yes Mistress, displaying now."
Ventress looked up to the set of large overhead monitors that hung from the ceiling and saw the four ships closing in on their position, the first two ships she noticed were the corvette size Gozanti-class cruiser and a Republic Consular-class cruiser with their weapons primed, then a small fighter craft that was taking the lead, and finally the massive black destroyer that dwarfed all the other vessels around it.
"Give the word to Kahn and send our fighters to accompany them."
"Yes Mistress" TX-52 replies before turning to the bridge crew consisting of numerous B1 droids and order "Launch all fighters!"
A chorus of droids responded "Roger Roger" and got to work.
Alongside the UNSC Vanguard Ahsoka, inside her Gozanti-class cruiser, reports "They're launching fighters."
Eva aboard the Viper Infinite adds "Yeah and those two corvettes are moving in, Crusader classes from the looks of them."
Longarm was guiding his Porax-38 Starfighter through the thin clouds of Saleucami's upper atmosphere when he gains a visual of the two corvettes being accompanied by seven Vulture Droid Starfighters launched from the frigate's small hangar bay and reports "I have visual, I'll handle those fighters while Ahsoka and Eva deals with those corvettes. Percival you have the frigate."
"Acknowledged rotating point defense turrets and preparing automated damage control . . . be advised large energy signature detected along the frigate bow."
Eva states "They're raising forward deflector shields, our weapons won't penetrate."
Only a moment later did the SPARTAN get an idea, he asks "Eva, what can their shields block?"
"Just about anything from space dust to heavy turbo lasers, but they have to even out both particle and ray shielding to effectively stop any attack."
"I bet it's probably a bit back breaking for the ship's reactors to keep up with that right?"
"Yeah I suppose so, why?"
"An idea" Longarm states before ordering the Vanguard "Percival, cycle the MAC gun and prepare to fire, ready pods one through eight for full missile barrage once the shields fall."
"MAC?" Eva asks with concern.
"Never mind that, you just focus on those corvettes and I'll handle the fighters."
"Fighters inbound!" Ahsoka calls out.
Longarm's eyes focuses on the tight cluster of droid Starfighters closing in on him, seven droid fighters built and programmed to be the most ruthless and unrelenting killers in space against a lone fighter piloted by a single SPARTAN-ll that only has training from the secret SABRE Program, 'This shouldn't be too bad' he thought to himself hoping for the best.
He then yells "Engaging!" before pressing both of his thumbs down on the triggers releasing a steady stream of red bolts of energy from his twin fire-linked blaster cannons moments before the squadron of droids returned fire.
The two Crusader gunships locked weapons and open fired on the lone fighter with their lethal array of anti-fighter blasters but it wasn't long before the Consular and Gozanti cruisers engaged with their high-powered blaster cannons firing off blue bolts of energy that repeatedly slammed against the Crusaders' shielding prompting them to turn their attention to the corvettes. The Vanguard on the other hand steamrolls through the small skirmish of fighters and corvettes so that it could get a clear shot on the Justification when the frigate itself fired off a brief volley of rounds from its heavy armament of twenty six twin turbo laser cannons. Most of the bolts of highly concentrated energy zipped passed the destroyer harmlessly except for three which impacted the titanium hull, one actually deflected off the ship's port side after striking against the heavily armored plating which was already sloped at an extreme angle for the round while the other two struck against the mid bow with one impacting above the two MAC cannons and the other detonating just below the bridge.
Percival reports "Taking fire, hull breach on deck fourteen and eleven. Structural integrity holding, MAC at thirty seven percent."
Longarm by this time was already tailing a droid fighter in a high speed pursuit when he responds "Alright Percival do what you can . . ." he falls silent to take a moment and fire off a steady three second burst of blaster fire which struck the fleeing fighter along the right wing and sent it spiraling out of control, afterwards he said "We got the situation here under control."
"Easy for you to say!" Ahsoka blurts out through the comms "This Crusader is giving me a hard time!"
"Alright hang on I'm coming to assist" the SPARTAN states before changing course to aid Ahsoka in her fight against one of the Mandalorian Crusader corvette.
From his point of view he could see Ahsoka's small cruiser already locked in broadside combat with the slightly smaller Crusader gunship, bolts of red and blue traveled back and forth and minor explosions rocked both vessels until the SPARTAN and his Porax was able to swoop in for a single strafing run sending blaster fire across the ship's dorsal hull and failing shields. As expected, the gunship quickly turned some of its guns towards the fleeing fighter and began firing off bursts of blaster fire while Tano took the given time to target the ship's cannons and destroy them with her own armament of light blaster cannons and quad laser cannons.
"Thanks for the help Longarm, think I got it from here."
"Acknowledged, breaking off."
The Viper Infinite was already engaged with the second Crusader warship as the two exchanged blaster fire each racking the other's shields when Eva calls out through the comms "We're going to need help here in a second!"
Longarm was about to go and assist until a trio of droid fighters caught up and began firing away at the Porax-38, he responded "I can't help, I got fighters on me."
Percival however complied "Acknowledged Viper, missile pod seven is ready. Target locked . . . Archers away!"
From the Vanguard's port aft section of the ship, a storm of sixty M58 Archer Ship-to-Ship Missiles shot out of one of the destroyer's oversized missile pods and raced their way towards the second Crusader gunship. The Crusader was quick to react and turned their blaster cannons to the incoming missiles as well as activated its onboard point-defense laser cannon that were designed to intercept missiles and proton torpedoes. The cannons let loose releasing a wide spread of laser fire into the vacuum of space with the occasional shot downing a single missile as they drew close, one by one the missiles were shot down but there was still too many and they were approaching fast. The missiles soon came into range of the point-defense cannon where it then began shooting down the incoming projectiles with deadly accuracy but the fire rate was too slow for the still numerical and speedy anti-ship missiles that were now seconds away from impact. The Viper Infinite immediately disengaged and changed course away from the mandalorian corvette to place distance between itself and the inevitable blast, Agos was attending to the scanners when he gradually watched that out of the sixty missiles that were launched from the Vanguard, thirteen made their mark impacting all across the ship's hull. He switches to a camera monitor and visibly watched the corvette be torn a sunder as the missiles either detonated against the outer hull causing little damage or penetrated the weaker armor plating and viciously gut the internal compartments from the inside when the warheads detonated inside.
Pathisk seemed to have shuddered at the thought of this sort of unfortunate fate by the fearsome firepower of a UNSC destroyer as he muttered "What monstrous power . . ."
Meanwhile, Longarm had managed to elude the droid fighters for enough time to look over his shoulder and see the targeted corvette slowly drift away as nothing more than a graveyard when he heard the AI report "Corvette-two is down, proceeding with next target."
"Good work Percival, Ahsoka what's the word?"
Tano responded "Corvette-one is deploying boarding craft; they're heading straight for the Vanguard!"
"Acknowledged, stay on that corvette while I handle the boarding craft, Viper you're on fighter duty."
Eva complied "Copy that, recycling shields and resetting the cannons, heads up you got three on your tail!"
The SPARTAN briefly checked his sensors to find three droid signatures closing fast behind him just moments before he see red laser bolts zip past his cockpit as they try to shoot him down.
He quickly orders "Percival I'm on route to intercept those boarding craft but these droids are going to a pain in my ass, ready the gun turrets for covering fire."
"Roger, gun turrets are online and loaded."
Longarm nodded to that and pressed the throttle lever to the farthest point gaining the maximum engine output from the fighter's dual heavy engines but the pursuing droid fighters were still able to keep up firing blaster bolts in the meantime. The SPARTAN quickly gains visual of four small transport ships, captured clone LAAT Gunships recognized by their large fuselage, downward slanted wings, and the two large tubes on top that were in fact missile launchers. He then immediately moves in and prepares to fire while the droid starfighters were still hot on his heels, his targets soon reached the kill zone of one kilometer for the Vanguard's array of eight M910 point defense guns, each turret holding two 50mm autocannons utilizing magnetic linear accelerator technology for firing, as they turned and began firing away putting hundreds of high explosive rounds downrange towards the oncoming transports and Longarm along with his pursuers. It wasn't long for the shells to make their way to the smaller craft and detonating wildly creating a dense field of flak forcing everyone to take evasive maneuvers hoping to avoid a direct hit or at least an explosion within close proximity. The SPARTAN watches a dropship ahead of him take a direct hit from a 50mm shell to the cockpit before exploding violently, shortly after he notices a droid signature drop off the sensors indicating its destruction in the heavy flak. He soon comes into range of the second ship and begins squeezing of short accurate bursts of blaster fire until he hits the dropship's left wing close to the missile launcher and sent it burning into oblivion, it was only moments later when the third dropship ahead of him tumble out of control after a shell detonated within close proximity and eventually destroyed.
That left only one dropship left but it was drawing ever so closer to the Vanguard's only hangar located along the ventral hull, the SPARTAN orders "Percival seal all hatches, do not let them pass beyond the hangar."
"Done, they only way they'll be getting through is if they say pretty please."
Longarm grinned for the briefest moment until several bolts fired from the droid starfighters struck along his right wing and caused it to catch flames making him lose control of his fighter, he does everything he could do but there was no chance of saving this vehicle, he states "I've been hit! Ejecting!"
Tano asks in worry "Is everything alright!?"
The SPARTAN-ll didn't have time to answer that question and pressed several buttons resulting in the ship's canopy to blow off and allowed him to simply jump out where he floated adrift as he watched the Porax-38 spiral out of control and slam into the underside of the destroyer. He turns around to see the droid fighters break off their attack and flee but one was easily destroyed by heavy cannon fire while the other escaped only to be cut down by the Viper Infinite's forward blaster cannon while it had two other fighters pursuing it.
Percival reports "Minor impact detected against the lower hull. Sierra-121 what's your status?"
Ahsoka asks in alarm "Longarm!?"
The SPARTAN looked around himself and responded into his helmet's comms "I'm fine everyone, I'm making my way to the hangar. Percival what do we have?"
The AI answers "I count six soldiers; well-armed and equipped, one is about as tall as you are. I advise caution."
"Copy that, what's the progress with the MAC?"
"MAC gun is currently at eighty two percent."
"Good, I'm heading in now" Longarm states before activating his armor's built in EVA thrusters slowly propelling him forward towards the edge of the Vanguard's hangar bay where he'll engage the boarding party with what weapons will be available to him.
Aboard the Viper Infinite, Eva Rha and Agos Pathisk were at their posts in the ship's small cockpit flying and monitoring the sensors while the droid crew operated other systems and manned the cannons. Cain Komari himself stood behind his two apprentices looking out through the narrow view port seeing the battle before him, he particularly paid special attention to the Vanguard as it engages the Justification with volleys of Archer Missiles only for the missiles to impact against the frigate's shields which glowed green around the areas of impact. While he seemed puzzled at understanding what possible uses projectile weaponry could have he wasn't entirely impressed by it unlike his apprentices, especially Eva who has a fascination with ships, and was therefore disgusted by the destroyer's purpose as a war machine.
Agos reports "The separatist frigate is directing their cannons onto us."
Eva asks with surprise "Us!? Why us!? The Vanguard is the one firing at them not us!"
Cain explains "Because Ventress does not want the Vanguard to be destroyed, she wants it for her own uses. And may the force help us if she was to acquire such power."
Eva comments "I haven't seen anything else other than missiles and flak, that ship doesn't seem that powerful."
"Looks can be deceitful young one, all of us should tread lightly around it for it may have many surprises in store."
A B1 battle droid with blue markings steps into the cockpit and reports "Commander, two of our cannons overheated from the last firing sequence."
"What already!? Fine, divert power from the cannons to the rear deflector shields" Eva orders.
The droid complied "Roger Roger" before leaving the cockpit when the Chiss turns her attention to Agos and says "Get Tano, tell her we're coming to help her finish off that other Crusader."
"You got it" Pathisk replied before pressing several switches and alerting Ahsoka.
Cain said nothing knowing he trusted in Eva and Agos's abilities to handle any situation, especially in situations such as this, since Eva was well trained as a pilot in the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force before deserting to become a pirate until she met him, and Agos had been by his side ever since he was eight years old when Cain took him as his apprenctice back in the Jedi Order. Outside opinions would say that Agos and Cain were as close as father and son but the two promised that they would not become emotionally attached.
The Viper moved across open space from the two clashing giants to Ahsoka's cruiser that was only seven kilometers away, Ahsoka's voice spoke through the comms "I've damaged some their cannons but they're still putting up a heavy fight, take it out so we can help Percy."
"Acknowledged Ahsoka, we're entering weapons range now" Eva responds before asking Agos "What cannons do we still have?"
The Muun quickly runs a diagnostics of the ship and reports "Front and starboard cannons are still operational."
"Good target the Crusader's bridge and set the cannons to full charge, we're ending this."
The Consular-class cruiser comes streaming in at high speed with two of the twin cannons aimed at the Crusader's bridge located at the front of the vessel with the viewport exposed and the shields faltering under the Gozanti's withering fire.
Agos states "Cannons ready!"
Eva then ordered "Fire!"
The twin blaster cannons fired away with increased firepower which ultimately shattered what remained of the corvette's shields and blew the bridge and its crew apart resulting in the ship to lose power and drift away as a useless husk of metal as what's left of the crew abandoned ship via escape pods.
Agos sees the pods jettison themselves from the downed Crusader and said "There they go! Let's make sure they don't get away!"
However Ahsoka rebukes that statement "No! They're in life pods and you want to gun them down!?"
Cain agrees "I concur with young Tano, while I despise these kind of people, if we destroy these defenseless men in cold blood then we are no better than them. Let them live this day."
Agos was agitated by his master's decision to let these thugs live he fully understood him and replied "Yes Master."
The Viper Infinite and the accompanying Gozanti-class cruiser then changed course away from the drifting ship wreck and placed all power to their engines in order to quickly make their way back to the destroyer and aid it in its fight against the separatist frigate.
Outside the Vanguard's hangar bay, Longarm slowly crept along the lower hull barely using his EVA boosters to give him propulsion until he reached the ledged leading up, he rounds the corner and floats upwards to the point where he grabbed the edge of the hangar floor and poked his head out to see inside. The LAAT gunship was settled down next to the Vanguard's only remaining D77-TC Pelican Dropship, the others were destroyed when the ship crashed on the planet's surface, and six armed men in full body armor carefully searching through the hangar while two more were on a catwalk trying to break their way through the sealed hatch.
The SPARTAN whispers into his comms "Percival you said there were six soldiers, where the hell did the other two come from?"
The AI responded "The two pilots inside the dropship came out, they're the ones working the door right now."
"And what's their progress?"
"They've brought out some tools and are slowly cutting their way through but it'll still take some time. There's a weapons station to on the port side a little ways."
Longarm looks along the wall and sees the small wall mounted weapons station containing two MA37s and two BR55HB battle rifles, "I see 'em . . . I'm heading in now" he says before activating his active camouflage and climb onto the hangar floor.
Using his stealth he slowly crept along the port hangar wall as he kept his eyes on the six foot soldiers that patrolled the hangar floor search vigilantly for anyone that might not be one of their own, it wasn't long before he noticed a rather tall soldier close to the pelican just simply standing there looking at it and judging from the heavy plated armor he had to be the leader of the others. The SPARTAN finally reached the weapon station and carefully lifted the bar which held the weapons inside and took out a battle rifle which vanished when his camouflaged hand grabbed it, he pulls the bolt back and allows it to swing back forward loading the first round into the firing chamber and slaps the rifle onto his back magnetic strip.
Now that he had a weapon he needed to find a good defendable position to fight from but he didn't have time to even move when he heard a mandalorian call out "Hey I think I saw something!"
Another calls out "Like what?"
"I don't know, come with me."
"Alright."
To his left Longarm spotted two soldiers armed with small blaster carbines that had a blocky and angular design to them and they coming ever closer, he moves off to the side and allows the two to pass him where they stopped at the weapons station and noticed something was missing.
One soldier obviously states "Hey there were four rifles . . ."
The other spoke "We gotta tell the—" before the SPARTAN grabbed hold of his head and forcibly twisted his neck with a loud bone snapping sound.
The dead soldier simply dropped like a sack of potatoes when the other jumped back yelling "WHAT TH—" but Longarm moved quickly drawing his combat knife and driving the seven inch blade into the mandalorian's abdomen causing the soldier to fall silent as his garbled voice try to utter a cry of pain but nothing came.
Longarm drops the second soldier dead only for a moment later to be struck in the back by a yellow plasma bolt which caused his shields to flash orange, a second later he hears a soldier ask "The hell is that thing!?"
The SPARTAN realized that there was no more point in hiding and reveals himself to the four remaining soldiers already lined up and aiming their weapons at him, two of them stepped back a couple of feet after seeing how tall Longarm was and what he had done to their comrades but the leader and the other soldier held their ground
The leader then roars out "Whoever kills him gets his armor!"
Then at that very moment the three other soldiers open fired with their blasters while Longarm pulls out his battle rifle and fires off a burst of rounds striking a soldier in his chest armor knocking him to the ground, the SPARTAN then started moving to the side continuously firing back at the mandalorians. The soldier that was shot slowly got back up which proved to Longarm that their armor was strong enough to withstand that kind of attack so he decides to go close quarters where he'll take them out one by one. He charges towards the group throwing his rifle aside and throws a right fist with all his augmented might catching a soldier by the helmet and smashes the faceplate inwards killing him instantly, he seizes the soldier's blaster before it fell and shoots down the other two killing them as well until taking aim at the heavily armored leader and fired off a few bolts. The leader's armor shrugged off the bolts as if it was nothing and he shot back but only managed to get one shot off before the SPARTAN slammed his right shoulder with force causing the leader to lose his grip on his blaster. He retaliates with quick blow to Longarm's gut but despite his strength he only got a small grunt out of the SPARTAN before he in turns throws a much more powerful blow to the mandalorian's helmet.
The leader staggers backwards a couple of steps with his vision dazed before growling "Nobody has ever survived a fight with me! Granor Khan!"
"Then it pleases me to be the first!" Longarm responded before he performs a roundhouse kick slamming the bottom of his right boot against Kahn's chest knocking him backwards.
Granor roared in anger and rushes the UNSC super soldier throwing a quick one-two punch landing the first successful blow to his left collarbone area but the second was deflected by the SPARTAN before he in turn sends a right uppercut straight into Kahn's stomach where he sent the concussive force of the blow rippling throughout the mandalorian's body and finishing it with a another right devastating punch to the side of his head. Kahn fell backwards from the hit but he steadily gets back up and draws a long eleven inch curved combat knife made out of a high-composite metal, Longarm in response brings out his seven inch combat knife in a reverse grip and readies himself. Kahn was the first to move lunging at the SPARTAN's throat with his knife but Longarm ducks and moves left before making a wide swing letting his blade clash against Granor's right shoulder pad. The mandalorian growled and swings his knife backwards but Longarm catches Kahn's arm with his left hand and then drives his combat knife into his side where he lets go and breaks Granor's arm forcing him to cry out in pain and let go of his combat knife. The SPARTAN then swings around and forcibly grabs him by the neck where he lifts up with his upper body strength, assisted by his augmentations, and throws him towards the hangar bay entrance where he lands on the floor close to the edge. A yellow bolt of energy strikes Longarm in the back breaking his shields before he turns around bringing out the blaster he took from the dead soldiers and expertly placed a bolt through both of the pilots' heads as they tried to come and save their leader. He turns back to Kahn and tosses the blaster aside as he walks over to the downed mandalorian where he then stomps his foot down on the man's chest and kneel down to forcibly tear his knife back out of his side and held it close to Kahn's faceplate.
Kahn muttered with hatred "Never once have I've been beaten . . . no one has ever won . . ."
Longarm responded "Yeah well there's a first time for everything, better get used to it."
Kahn then began to snarl "No . . . I will not be beaten like this! I'll tear your throat out!" and lunges up towards the SPARTAN who then quickly drove his knife through the side of his neck.
He finally froze and his voice gurgled trying to speak but he couldn't say anything as Longarm pulls the blade out and pushed him out of the hangar where he drifted out into space holding onto his neck, Longarm sheathes his knife and got onto his comms "Hangar bay cleared."
Percival responded "Acknowledged" then got onto open comms to Ahsoka and the Viper Infinite "Be advised, all units, Destroyer one-five-one Heavy is locked and MAC rounds have been authorized. Recommend keeping minimum distance and standby."
Ahsoka responded "Copy that Vanguard keeping distance."
Then Eva "Acknowledged Vanguard, Viper Infinite is maintaining safe distance."
The AI responded "Copy, standby firing MAC in three. Two. One. Firing."
From the front of the Halberd-class Destroyer's two forward mounted MAC guns came a six hundred ton Ferric-Tungsten slug moving at a fraction of lightspeed, Ahsoka and the crew of the Viper Infinite watched the orange blur move across their vision in an instant and violently smash into the frigate's energy shielding that soon collapsed under the monstrous kinetic force sending the round slamming into the starboard-bow section of the ship destroying the turbo laser emplacements and ripping apart anything else that may have been in that section.
Aboard the Justification, Ventress along with the droid bridge crew stumbled back and forth as the ship violently rocked, after getting her footing Asajj calls out "Report!"
TX-52 reports "Mistress, our shields have failed and our starboard bow weapon banks has been decimated."
"How!? The Republic doesn't have that kind of firepower, how could this one ship be superior!?"
A B1 Droid reports "Mistress, we're detecting another build up in electro-magnetic energy near the bow of the enemy ship, they're preparing to fire again."
And like that Ventress growls and flees the bridge leaving TX-52 to order "Return fire! Set a course for hyperspace!"
The droids responded "Roger Roger."
The port bow gun turrets turned and open fired sending down what available firepower it had remaining upon the destroyer's heavily armored prow causing minor explosions all across the hull but the Vanguard held true and fired its second MAC round sending it into the frigate's aft engine compartment, with the shields no longer in the way the hypervelocity round penetrated the ship's lower armor and tore straight through the engines and reactor and emerged out the upper hull where the slug still traveled at a portion of its original velocity. The second impact caused the entire frigate to shuttered and buckled as it tries to compensate for the huge loss of mass, all electrical systems went dark and the guns fell silent no longer placing the destroyer under fire.
"Whoa . . ." Tano comments after witnessing the full might of the UNSC's military power.
Eva watched the frigate's brief and brutal destruction and asks "Agos . . . think you have enough money to get us one of those?"
Agos's mouth was slightly open in awe when he answered "I don't think it'll even matter . . ."
Cain watched as the frigate slowly break apart, his horror of such a powerful weapon as well as his hatred for the unnecessary death of Asajj Ventress mixed within him, he says "This weapon is far too dangerous, even in trained hands, no one should have this kind of power . . ."
Everyone fell silent as they watched the separatist frigate slowly tear itself apart and drift into open space until Percival reports "New contact! Fighter class!"
Cain firmly states "It's Ventress! We must not let her escape!"
Eva responded "Yes Master, sending power to weapons and engines."
Ahsoka adds "I'm right behind you."
The two smaller cruisers diverted their power to the engines making their way to the shipwreck where a Ginivex-class Starfighter, commonly known as the Fanblade Starfighter, emerged from the debris and sped away towards open space.
Percival reports "Arming ASGM-10 Missile pods, acquiring target solution."
But Komari orders "No! We must capture her alive!" only for moments later when the fighter jumped into hyperspace.
Eva pounded her hand on the command console "Dammit! She escaped Master . . ."
"Fear not young one . . . we will eventually."
Percival reports "Sector clear, no hostiles detected save for those life pods, minimum hull damage."
Longarm states "Good work everyone, sorry Ventress got away Cain I know how badly you wanted her capture."
"You're apology is not needed, you succeeded in destroying the frigate and victory is yours. We will be making our way back to Coruscant now, Ahsoka Tano I wish you safety and the best of luck."
Tano replied "Thank you Komari . . . until we meet again."
"Likewise, Eva set course we're leaving this system."
Only moments afterwards did the Consular-class cruiser jump into hyperspace out of the system leaving only the Halberd-class Destroyer and Gozanti-class Cruiser, Longarm orders "Ahsoka head back to the Vanguard, we're going to figure out our next move."
"Alright setting course, and I think I know our next move . . ."
"Which is?"
"Well a while ago I got a transmission from Obi-wan, he says he wants your help in taking a separatist shipyard out in the null sector a week from now, I'm sending you the coordinates."
Percival responded "Roger receiving . . . that's a month's worth of time in slipspace."
Longarm states "We won't make it in time . . . but I think . . . Percival can we use power from Ahsoka's ship and apply it to our own?"
Ahsoka asks "Wait I thought tampering with your FTL drive will destroy the ship."
"We're not, the slipspace drive just helps us get into slipstream space, our main engines is what propels us through it thus giving us our FTL travel. If we can contribute the cruiser's power to our engines we can get to places faster than standard UNSC ships."
"It's possible, it all depends on how much power the cruiser's reactor is putting out."
"Alright then its settled, once Ahsoka docks with the Vanguard and get an ETA then we'll jump and aid Obi-wan."
Ahsoka seemed pleased knowing the SPARTAN was willing to help the Republic and said "Thanks, I'll send word to Kenobi that we're coming with some firepower."
Please leave your comments and thoughts. Thank you.
