Chapter 31

Unknown

Xho clicked his mandibles together and said, "Course set. Two part jump. First jump aimed at another star system, to throw off pursuit. Recommend you jump now, in case the Surronian is hostile."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Jyssa said as she flipped the intership com channel open. Her voice resonated through the ship as she said, "Everybody hang on, we're gonna make a jump."

She pulled a lever, and the Red Drexl followed the Whipclaw into hyperspace. On the bridge of the pirate ship, a Weequay crewman said to Hondo, "Captain, the second ship set a course for Almania."

Hondo laughed, "Good, good. They think they can throw off our pursuit. Follow the Jedi's ship to Korriban. Sometimes I can't believe my good fortune. I may have lost my chance to get revenge on that idiot bounty hunter, but I've got a nice fat profit to make up for it."

"What about Jix and Hagle?" the crewman asked. "They're still floating out there disabled."

"Leave them. They've got enough air to last for a while. The Jedi is the most important thing right now. We've still got four fighters left."

The Surronian jumped to hyperspace, and the only ships left in close orbit around Susevfi's sun were the two disabled Flarestars.

"Bollux, get the hyperdrive cutout working! Sensor show a mass shadow coming up fast!" Ahsoka was working on trying to cut the power to the entire hyperdrive, which was a dangerous way to drop out of hyperspace. But since she didn't know what kind of mass shadow they were heading towards, it was a safer bet than letting gravity pull them out of hyperspace. She'd been in one serious ship wreck caused by a random hyperspace jump before. She didn't know if she'd be lucky enough to survive another one.

And she had Nat on the ship with her. She wasn't going to gamble with his life too.

Suddenly, the power that she'd been preparing to divert from the hyperdrive surged through the hyperdrive cutout, and the protective bubble that kept the ship in hyperspace opened gently to allow it back into real space safely, just as the engineers intended for it to do.

But the engineers of this ship did not intend for it to come out of hyperspace in the edge of an asteroid belt. A fist sized chunk of rock bounced off of the windshield, luckily leaving only a scuff mark and not a crack.

"Nat, divert all power to shields," Ahsoka yelled over the sound of pebbles ringing across the hull of the Whipclaw. She throttled back, then saw a several ton chunk of iron, nickel, and rock whirling through space right towards her position. She fired the engines at full and powered past it, just hearing a static tingle of the shield scraping the asteroid. Nat might have panicked under fire earlier, but the boy was quick.

Ahsoka maneuvered the ship around a few more larger piece of rock and found a pocket of empty space. She took a moment to look at the instrument board. "Now for the big question... where are we?"

A turbolaser blast struck one of the large asteroids that Ahsoka had just passed by, and chunks of superheated rock exploded across the clear area of space. Ahsoka hit the thrusters and spun the ship around. Through the asteroids, she could see the larger Corona-class starship hovering just outside the asteroid field, and two more Flarestar shuttles weaving through the asteroids towards her.

"We're still in trouble, that's where we are!" she yelled as she returned fire. "Nat, the turret!"

"It appears," said Bollux, "that our pursuers have a faster hyperdrive than we do."

She pushed the throttle forward and dove back into the asteroid belt. Once again, it seemed like the least risky proposition.

The Red Drexl dropped out of hyperspace, and in the distance Jyssa could see a large saucer shaped ship hovering just outside of the system's second asteroid belt. Flashes of light could be seen inside the belt.

"Grife, they beat us here. Arc, start shutting down non-essential systems. We're going dark." Jyssa flipped a few switches to shut off the ship's running lights and transponder. "Xho, find a course that sends us up above the ecliptic. I don't want to run into any asteroids, but I want to see what goes down. We can't take on that Surronian by ourselves, but we can pop in and help Ahsoka when she's out in the open."

The laser turret fired a few times, but both of the blips on Ahsoka's scope that weren't asteroids were still there.

"Just relax," she said half to herself, half to Nat. "You're a Jedi. Trust your instincts. Trust the Force."

The Whipclaw dove between two large spinning rocks, the hull meters away from both. Immediately after it passed by, the larger of the two scraped against the smaller, sending sparks and small bits of crumbled rock flying into space. The two Flarestars had to dodge around the larger rocks, losing ground to Ahsoka in the process.

Once they were around the rocks, they both opened fire again. With her eyes half closed, Ahsoka let the Force guide her movements. The Whipclaw took long, shallow curves, narrowly avoiding oncoming fire as well as heavy asteroids.

The turret fired again, and this time the shot hit a chunk of rock right in front of one of the Flarestars. It exploded, sending debris raining all over the enemy ship. In her scope, Ahsoka could see it start to fall behind. Obviously something had damaged it enough to make it either break off pursuit, or damage its flight capability.

"Good shot, kid. Keep it up, there's still one more."

Another pair of turbolaser blasts came from the port side, and Ahsoka narrowly avoided it. "Blast... where did that come from?"

"Two more Flarestars, coming from port," responded Bollux. "With your Jedi reflexes, I recommend a head to head confrontation."

"What? That's crazy." Ahsoka juked the ship a few more times, and heard the turret fire at the ship behind them. "Head to head is almost always a bad idea."

"Their position and speed indicate that they probably mapped a safe corridor through the asteroid belt. Following their trail in should lead us safely out."

Ahsoka heard a hissed noise from Nat, following the turret fire. Her scope showed that the enemy behind her was no more. "That... almost makes sense. Nat, full power to forward shields, and try to use the turret to keep them dodging. I want them more focused on avoiding incoming fire than firing at me."

She pulled the ship around to port, and all three ships opened fire. Ahsoka dodged around a large asteroid, and as she pulled back towards the ships, she snapped a quick shot off at one of the shuttles, but the shot was absorbed by the shields.

As the ships grew closer, Ahsoka found herself forced to focus entirely on dodging instead of firing back. Trusting Nat to keep them busy, she let herself feel the flow of the Force. Almost forgetting that there was a yoke in her hands, she effortlessly guided the ship around hot packets of plasma, blue bolts of ionized gas, and heavy chunks of metallic space rocks.

And then she felt a shadow in the Force. All the light was gone. There only smothering darkness. She gasped, and accidentally pushed the yoke forward. An asteroid scraped along the bottom of the ship, shorting out the fore shields and tearing a gash in the ship. Smoke trailed behind the Whipclaw as it spun out of control.