Chapter twelve:
The space battle unfolding above Coruscant has only gotten more chaotic. That might partly just be since I'm now seeing it up close and personal.
"You might want to take a sit," Syra says. "This'll probably get rough. I could use a second pair of eyes."
I flop back in the copilot's seat and crane my neck to get a look at the Krayt. The Rebel flagship seems as though it's not long for this world. Gaping holes and craters spew vapor and wreckage and the whole ship looks like it's slowly tilting toward the planet.
A row of escape pods eject from the Kryat's side. A formation of Imperial drones swoops in and blows nearly every one to bits.
Fortunately, it seems most of the other Rebels are putting up a better fight. Fighter craft spin and careen all around us, a kaleidoscope of metal and energy blasts. It's a wonder our shuttle only takes a couple hits as Syra heads down toward the planet. Somewhere above us, a Star Destroyer gets totaled, impaled by multiple Rebel Ion cannon blasts. It splits into several massive pieces that go spinning out through the battle, wiping out every ship in their path. One shard even slams into a Rebel medical ship, and both disappear in the resultant explosion.
"So we're headed to the planet right?" Syra asks.
"Uh. Yes," I say.
"Good, we can try to take out the hyperspace jammer."
"I…yes," I say. Running and hiding had been foremost on my mind, but getting Hyperspace access back would be conducive to that in the long run. "That's what Fenric was talking about at least."
As we whip towards a particularly thick pack of combatants, Syra opens up with the laser cannons. Multiple TIEs disappear in head-on explosions or careen away, engines damaged, into whatever or whoever is nearby.
The ship rocks as enemy fighters turn their attention to us. Something smells like burning somewhere behind me, and I hear Doggs shouting about the location of a fire extinguisher.
Syra bites her lip in concentration. "Sorry 'bout that."
"I'm used to arriving on Coruscant in flames," I say. "Oh! The turrets!"
I grab the seat restraints as Syra does a barrel row, dropping us out of the line of fire from the turrets along the port side of a nearby Star Destroyer. Its emerald energy blasts instead rip through the TIEs pursuing us. Unfortunately, another Star Destroyer closes in and opens fire from above. Syra comes in low over the first Destroyer, and friendly fire shreds its armor plating.
Three Rebel fighters zip right past over our heads and unload their torpedoes into the bridge of the Star Destroyer. Syra zooms away as the battleship begins to drift to the side, free of its command station.
The Star Destroyer above us doesn't let up, and dozens of Rebel fighters go tailspinning away under its bombardment. The Krayt cuts through the battle ahead of us, plunging toward the planet, its thrusters have overloaded, torn themselves open. It's a lost ship if I've ever seen one.
Syra brings us in close to the Krayt, glancing back at the Star Destroyer. "Oh no," I realize what she's thinking, "Are you serious?"
"Trust me," she says. "It's gonna be fun."
Syra targets a single TIE bomber far above us, and fires, taking out the TIEs right wing. The bomber spins away and smashes right into the Krayt. Its payload detonates in a massive blast, propelling the rear of the Krayt over and down toward the planet. The Krayt slams into the Star Destroyer almost like a gigantic mallet, smashing both ships into some very large fragments. Flames emerge the surface of the gigantic metal shards as they begin to enter Coruscant's atmosphere.
"That's our ride," Syra dives down after them. The same heat whips at our exterior as the troop transport joins the swarm of metal fragments. Fighters and bodies spin past as we careen toward Coruscant.
The megacity comes into view below, and becomes nothing more than more flames and ruins as the metal missiles surrounding us smash into it. We're buffeted left and right, up and down, as the whole planet seems to explode around us.
Finally the chaos subsides, and Syra brings us in for a gentle landing amidst a fresh wasteland of broken ships, buildings, and bodies. We've managed to level at least the first few layers of several blocks.
I glance at Syra, and shake my head in wonder. I'm amazed that actually worked. "That was magnificent."
"Superlasers are a thing," says Syra knowingly, "But the truest weapon of mass destruction the human brain. I have one of those."
With an almighty roar, the Terror Walker bursts from the pile of hull plating ahead of us, and rams its big metal leg right through the front of our ship. Syra might've spoken too soon about having a brain, as bits and pieces of her skin and bone and blood,] splatter across me.
Before the Walker can swipe across, I'm out of my seat and diving into the back of the ship. The Walker just crunches the area where I was sitting instead, spreading more of what used to be Syra all over the place. I pluck something that might be an eyeball out of my hair and toss it over my shoulder. It doesn't bear thinking about. I can't let myself think about it. I could feel her. I felt her life swiped away, flowing into the universe, into everything. I couldn't think about that now, couldn't let myself sense it. too busy not dying.
I almost lose my footing as I leap from the ship and the field of shattered metal and broken glass shifts beneath me. Fortunately, my boots are thick. Also fortunate, the rest of the company has managed to exit the ship ahead of me. Just in time too, the Terror Walker lifts the ship and crushes it into a ball that it hurls at me. Only with a little help from the force am I able to leap far enough out of the way to avoid being crushed.
"Kara," Zanna shouts as I reach the others, who are spread out in a hapless sort of formation. She throws a small blaster rifle into the air. Looks as though my companions had managed to raid the weapons locker before our ship was crushed, everyone has blasters. Now so do I, as I grab the gun, spin and open fire along with everyone else.
It's really underwhelming. The Terror Droid is steaming and dented, but the damage is only from reentry. Our blaster fire just pings of its exoskeleton. Retreating as the droid strides toward us, I try to aim toward its joints and its optical relay. No luck.
I notice Fenric has draped a grenade belt over his shoulders. He pulls a grenade off and hurls it. It bursts right in front of the walker, enveloping its front legs, but the armor is too strong. No damage. Maybe the head on approach wasn't the best. The only issue was that is I was pretty sure this thing could and would outrun each and every one of us.
"Hey, sister," Primith shouts at me, just a bit hysterical. "Do a Jedi thing!"
"Fine," I give in. I grab a metal pipe from the ground and hurl it with all my force-enhanced strength, massaging the air to guide it just a little. The pipe pokes right in between the joints of the droid's right leg. A few sparks of electricity run up and down the pipe before the Walker manages to loosen it.
Remembering the TIE fighter on Tatooine, I spread my arms, plant my feet. Try to hold back the Walker. Keep it in place. I feel the force around it, the mechanisms inside it. I take hold and begin to push. Just as some kind of emitter on the thing's underbelly begins to glow.
I hurl myself to the side as an energy blast scorches a deep furrow in the ground right where I'd been.
The emitter begins to glow again, but the droid doesn't fire yet. Seems it takes a moment to charge.
Instead the droid pounces, right on top of Galen. Galen manages to dodge away, and disappear into what's left of a nearby building. The droid is about to smash the roof down on top of him, till Zanna and Stocking start shouting, shooting it intently in the back.
The Walker turns and fires, its energy blast slicing into the base of the remainder of a nearby building. Foundations shorn away, the huge metal ruin collapses, hiding Zanna and Stocking beneath it.
The Terror Walker turns on me next. I run like hell.
I glimpse Primith taking cover beneath a wrecked speeder. The droid runs right past her. It has eyes only for me. Or optic circuits. Whatever.
Moving towards some slightly less flattened buildings, I turn down an alleyway. Walls rise up on both sides. Doggs is running behind me, breathing hard. He's a good runner, he's just no Jedi.
Fenric clambers over the top of one of the walls above and jumps down in front of us. The walker sticks its arm down the alleyway after us and Fenric throws a grenade over our heads. No effect, other than pelting Doggs with shrapnel. As the Walker begins to tear into the buildings on either side, forging its own path toward us, I reach Fenric, and dive past him into the building.
It's so broken up inside I can't really tell what the building was. It's pretty empty, and there's lots of glass and stone. Gallery maybe. The two men are hot on my heels as the building quakes around us. Metal and masonry collapse before us in a shower of sparks, blocking the exit.
"Stand back," Fenric throws a grenade. The explosion causes the building to cave in even more, the floor shifting away beneath our feet. I find myself falling in a shower of rubble, landing a floor below, lucky to only have another dozen scrapes and bruises. Doggs gives me a hand up, swearing while he does it. We're in some kind of maintenance tunnel.
"Sorry," Fenric calls from above. He managed not to catch our ride to the level below
"Just run," I shout at him. Doggs and I certainly do, as a metal arm smashes through the ceiling and starts rooting around for us.
Droid behind us, path ahead of us, and the floor opens in a chasm to deeper darker parts unknown. I take a running leap, thrust myself forward with the force, and clear the gap. I reach back and catch Doggs by the arm, yank him to safety.
We're only a few more yards down the tunnel when I hear the Terror Walker's beam detonate above us. The tunnel shakes, and Doggs and I barrel down separate passages as it forks and slopes upward. Damn, I didn't want be out in open air again.
Though the notion sounds more appealing, as a miniature Terror Walker lands on my back. I go down, slamming into the floor, biting my tongue. I wrench the droid off, hurl it away, and kick another. I fire, shooting down several of the droids swarming me, till one rips my gun in half. Light streams from a cranny above. I punch and kick and wave my hands through the force, finally clearing my path enough to jump, push, and clamber my way away from the swarm.
I emerge to just the sort of wreckage I'd left behind, as the Terror Walker rips nearby buildings apart looking for me. I run Zanna finds me first, she's just ahead. Blood stains her scalp.
"Look out!" she yelps, firing past me. I dive away, allowing her to shoot down the droids behind me. If only the Walker itself were so easy. Zanna and I clamber over a rise and barely avoid being fried.
"Hey, you! Bastard!" Doggs shouts. He's emerged a building front to fire at the metal beast. "Over here!"
The Walker complies, stalking towards him. Doggs waits till the last second before ducking back inside the building, as the energy weapon glows-
And Fenric dives from the roof of the building.
The Terror Walker swings an arm to catch the falling victor, but Fenric lands on it like a gymnast and leaps from the arm towards the droid's underbelly, grenade belt wrapped around his arms. Grenades, energy weapon and Fenric all meet I am momentarily blinded by the resulting blast. I feel the wave of heat on my face.
When I blink my sight back all that remains of the droid is four smoking legs sticking right up in the air. That's more than can be said for Fenric.
"Oh my…" is all Zanna can choke out.
"I wish Edwin had been filming that," I say, and Zanna turns to me aghast. Oh yeah, Edwin. All cut up. I bite my lip. "Too soon?"