Hello my loyal readers. I'm back as I promised, and I have brought you the next chapter, which I'm sure you were dying to read. Well, that's probably not the best word to use right now, seeing as Drakken, Freya and the crew are officially being hunted by the Empire! Let's hope they make it, huh? Enjoy the chapter.
"Run…run…RUN!" Drakken called out as the nine soldiers rushed across the plain as fast as their legs would carry them. The shuttle was over a kilometer away, and to Tharcourt, it may as well have been a light-year. Where were the Imperial soldiers? Were they running into an ambush? Would TIE bombers come streaking in overhead at any moment and vaporize them where they stood? He tried to push these thoughts away and focus on getting his girlfriend and his teammates back to the ship.
The squad of Stormtroopers surrounded The Huntsman, their E-11 carbines and DLT-19 blaster rifles at the ready. The ramp was down, and a sergeant motioned for a pair of troopers to enter. The duo obeyed, jogging onto the shuttle. The sergeant nodded to a trio of troopers, and they followed their leader up into the vessel. Clearing the passenger compartment, they then checked the cockpit. Glitch greeted the newcomers with a confused series of beeps and honks.
"Just the team's droid, sir." A corporal remarked. The sergeant nodded.
"Leave it. It's just an astromech." The corporal looked again at the meter-tall robot.
"Funny looking astromech, isn't it?" He asked, leaving the bridge of the ship. The sergeant led his contingent out of the shuttle.
"Alright corporal, you…and you three troopers stay here with me. We'll guard this ship. The rest of you link up with the company." He pointed to a large group of troopers jogging away to the north. The five troopers not ordered to stay behind moved off to join the rest of their cohort.
"Ekks…Ekks!" Tharcourt called.
"Yeah Boss?" The Corellian huffed back.
"Get on the horn with Glitch. Tell him to bring the ship in if he's reading all clear."
"You got it. Glitch…Glitch, come in!" Ekks heard a line of wonks, beeps and buzzes, and cursed under his breath. "Boss, they got the ship! There's stormtroopers aboard!" Drakken halted the group. Most doubled over, trying to catch their breaths. Gallen scanned the horizon through his scope.
"Tell him…" Drakken puffed, "…that if he don't do something about those troopers, we're all dead meat."
"Glitch buddy…" Ekks began into his commlink. "The Boss says you gotta clear the rats out of the ship or none of us are getting off of this rock."
"Burrnurr-mermurnurmurrr-numurnurmun."
"Yeah. Even Freya." The pilot stated grimly. Glitch spoke again. "Well, do what you can. We'll be there as soon as we can. We're about…"
"Incoming!" Gallen yelled. "Stormtroopers, approaching from the south! Eight-hundred meters." Daraay turned that direction and pressed a button on her helmet.
"It looks like around forty or fifty…regular stormtroopers…likely five-oh-first, sir." She stated, then stiffened her posture. "And seven behind us." Drakken's expression softened defeatedly.
"Hold it right there." A voice commanded. The team turned, and Tharcourt met eyes with the Imperial Commander standing front and center of the six stormtroopers who now held their blasters on him and his team. With a frown, Drakken motioned for his men to lower their weapons. "Commander Drakken Tharcourt…you and your team are under arrest for treason." He snarled. "Well, you are. The rest of your team are to be executed immediately. You rebel scum." Drakken sighed.
"You know, that line loses some of its luster when a man hears it…" He quipped. The stormtrooper commander, replete in his black uniform and holding an SE14r, set his gaze on Daraay.
"You. Death Trooper." He called out. "I understand that you were only following the orders of your superior. Your unit is known for your particular brand of loyalty. Your fealty is however to the Emperor, and this man's is not. I will allow you the opportunity to step away from these traitors and you will be released from all blame in this." Daraay's helmet turned slightly in Tharcourt's direction. He flicked her a sympathetic smile.
"It's alright." Drakken said. "I know you wanted to stay. I don't hold it against you."
"Sir…" She spoke, but lost the ability to finish.
"Go on." He said. "It's been the greatest honor, Sergeant." Daraay looked back at the black-clad commander a few paces away.
"Well?" He said expectingly. "Come on then, Death Trooper. I will make sure you are reassigned to an officer who takes his oath to the Empire seriously." Daraay took a step forward, halted, then took three more steps toward the stormtroopers. She turned about and looked at Drakken.
"Commander Tharcourt." She said, and brought her massive MWC-35c to port-arms. "What I am about to do is…the hardest thing I have ever done…in my life."
"Meeka?" Thorne squeaked. Daraay lowered her huge blaster at Tharcourt. The stormtrooper commander behind her grinned sinisterly. Suddenly, Daraay pivoted and let fly a long burst from her weapon. The officer and the troopers behind him fell instantly. The others started to fire, several bolts glanching off of Daraay's black armor, but she simply swept the muzzle of her blaster left and right, saturating the line of white-armored soldiers with a spray of green bolts. She released the trigger as the last fell to the rocky ground. There she stood for a moment, the barrel of her blaster smoking as she stared at what she had just done. Then she turned to her team.
"My loyalty is to you, Drakken Tharcourt." She stated. "And you, sister Freya. I will follow now wherever you lead, sir." He gave her a singular nod.
"Thanks, Meeka." He said. A wave of fiery hope washed over him. "Everyone, move to the rocks. We make for the ship, and we're shooting our way clear. Once we make contact, you lay the fire down and you kick their kriffin' buckets in. Keep moving, keep shooting. They got nothing on us, nothing! We're getting out of here. Move!"
At that order, the team dashed for a low ridge of large rocks and boulders. Inside the maze of rock, they continued moving South. A red bolt struck one of the boulders. Then another. A bolt buzzed past Freya, and she yelped. Gallen slid to his side behind a rock, threw his blaster to his shoulder, and fired a round. He aimed again, and fired. The marksman hopped to his feet and continued to run.
"Two down, sir." He called out. "Aw man…shooting stormtroopers…"
"You got that right." Felian agreed. He ducked as a bolt whizzed past, and pivoted out around a boulder with his blaster. He fired five shots, ducked, and swung out again, this time lobbing a thermal detonator. An explosion sounded nearby, followed by a scream. The sergeant rejoined the team on their race to safety. "What a day…what a lovely day…"
A pair of stormtroopers emerged from the boulders ahead of them and fired. One of the rounds impacted Daraay's breastplate and ricocheted off. She downed one of the troopers as Freya shot the other six times with her small blaster. Two more troopers fired at them from behind, and Mets and Coleth threw themselves to the ground, spraying the two soldiers with dual bursts of their weapons. A detonator exploded nearby, and Drakken shielded his face from the shards of rock that filled the air. He turned to see a stormtrooper dashing in from between two of the large rocks. He brought up both of his blaster pistols and the trooper was hit four times in the chest and twice in the helmet.
Ozzel watched the scene unfold through the lens of another probe droid, situated in the air over the raging battle. Delta-7 was confined in a rocky outcropping, five-hundred meters from their ship. They were surrounded, and though they seemed to be putting up an unimaginably successful defense so far, it was only a matter of time. After all, they were only nine soldiers. The Empire had a bottomless well of troopers to send in…
"Sir, about half of first squad are down. Killed or wounded, sir." Captain Needa reported. He listened again to the cacophony of voices coming in over the comms. "Commander Ligham is dead. Wait…Lieutenant Verton is dead too…" Ozzel raised an eyebrow.
"Send in second squad." He ordered. "Tharcourt won't last much longer, Needa. He's only one man." At a nearby console, Piett hid a smirk. One man? If only they knew what they had gotten themselves into...
Aboard The Huntsman, Glitch rolled out of the cockpit and into the passenger compartment. Two stormtroopers stood inside the ship, by the loading ramp. As he approached, the two soldiers turned and stared at the juxtapose mechanical.
"You…droid, where do you think you're going?" One of the troopers asked. Glitch shrugged his arms and emitted a series of beeps.
"Secure him in the cargo hold." The other trooper advised.
The first stormtrooper placed his right hand on the droid's head as the second came over to assist. Before either knew what was happening, one of Glitch's metal claws seized the soldier's wrist and twisted it violently. The stormtrooper cried out, but was silenced when the astromech/security droid grabbed him by the throat and clamped down, breaking his neck. The second trooper raised his E-11, but Glitch dropped his first victim and sped into his second, knocking the man's blaster out of line. A spindly arm shot upward underneath the trooper's helmet, and there was a brilliant blue light and a crackle of electricity as the robot sent a high-voltage current of power into the man's body. He fell smoking to the deck.
The sergeant, standing guard outside the ship, heard some kind of commotion aboard the shuttle. Clutching his carbine, he and another trooper jogged up the ramp. They froze upon seeing their two comrades laying dead on the floor of the passenger bay. They scarcely had time to look up when Glitch rolled out of the cockpit, holding two E-11 blasters in his metal claws. With a maniacal mechanical laugh, he sprayed the two stormtroopers with bolts. They fell to the deck, and Glitch turned his insect-like head to look at the two weapons in his grasp. By his calculations, there should be one stormtrooper left outside the ship. He dropped the blasters to the metal decking. Human weapons were so inefficient…
"Keep moving!" Drakken yelled over his mic. "Fight to the ship! It's out only shot!" He fired at a newly approaching group of stormtroopers.
"Och…dunnae ye say shot!" Freya called back, blazing away with an E-11 she'd picked up from a dead foe. "I'm a tryin' me heart oot not tae be!" Thorne gave a fierce battle-cry and shot one stormtrooper as she closed with a pair of them. The other was struck in the helmet, kneed in the groin and shot in the face.
"They're everywhere!" Mets cried out, firing at a trio of enemy troopers that had emerged from a higher point on the ridge. "Holy farkle…they send the whole garrison?! Holy farkle!"
"Keep shooting, bro, keep shooting." Coleth advised. "I swear to the Void if I get outta here, I'm gonna settle down somewhere quiet and be a farmer!"
"Ill-advised, man!" Gallen called, running by. "I'd rather be shot!" He fell to a knee and dispatched a stormtrooper sergeant at fifty meters who was leading a squad down a narrow ravine toward them. Gallen shot one stormtrooper then another. Every time he downed one, two more seemed to take their place.
The group was still moving, but having to fight their way through repeated attacks, they weren't making much headway. The shuttle was still three hundred meters away. Felian turned to see a trooper aiming at him. Both shot at the same time. The enemy bolt glanced off of Felian's helmet enough to ring his bell. He shot his foe in the stomach. The stormtrooper fired again, and the sergeant's blaster was blown in half by the energy bolt. He pulled his hideout blaster and shot the white-armored man three more times before his opponent fell. Another popped out from around a boulder, and Felian took off his helmet and threw it at the stormtrooper, his bucket connecting with the other soldier's, and knocking him to the ground. Sergeant Felian ended him with three shots.
Daraay took a hit to the chest from a heavy blaster rifle, but her armor mostly absorbed and redirected the blast. She killed the foeman who had shot her, only to be hit again. This next hapless enemy trooper was propelled backwards three meters by a blast from her weapon. Now six stormtroopers surmounted the rise, firing away, and the Death Trooper felt a glancing blow to her helmet, and another to her chestplate. It was now that Ekks jumped in beside her, and they both let loose a deluge of red and green bolts from their full-auto blasters. All six of the enemy soldiers were mowed down.
"Thank you Ekks." Daraay said quickly. The Corellian grinned.
"Feel pretty good about it myself, Daraay." He commented. Ekks looked to see a stormtrooper climbing on top of a boulder with a long-barreled blaster, focusing his attention on his Boss. "Hey…what do you think you're doing, shiny boy?!" He called, and ran toward the boulder, firing his blaster until the enemy sniper rolled off and fell to the ground dead.
Lago held an E-11 in each hand, and fired at anything that moved and wasn't a friend. When a pair of red bolts came in from his left, the young trooper let himself fall to the ground. He spun about on the dirt and fired both of the blasters into a pair of white-armored Imperial soldiers. A bolt came from his right and struck Lago on the chestplate, knocking him to his back. Before his opponent could fire again, he saw his commander standing over him, dual-wielding his blaster pistols like some gunslinger from a legend. Tharcourt fired one, then the other. He gave the blaster in his right hand a spin and fired it twice. His left shot out to the side and fired twice. Then, he leaned over and took Lago by the wrist.
"Hop up son, this ain't no place to take a nap." Drakken stated. He gave the young man a shove forward, and Lago found himself next to Freya.
"Almost there, lad." She said reassuringly.
"That's good!" Lago replied. "I was starting to get scared, ma'am." Freya smiled and shot a nearby stormtrooper.
"Move and shoot! Move and shoot!" Tharcourt yelled over the din of battle. Again, the team laid down a barrage of fire and tried to close the distance between them and their means of escape. Mets and Coleth tossed two thermal detonators, and Felian threw a stun grenade into some rocks where he could hear troopers approaching.
Drakken wasn't certain how large of a contingent had been sent to kill them. How many had they killed already? Thirty? Forty? And they kept coming. At least the fire was now coming from behind them. They had managed to maneuver themselves between the Imperial forces and their ship. Now if only they could make it a little further…
"Mets…Mets!" He heard someone yell over his headset. He turned to see the scout trooper on the ground, clutching at his leg. Felian, Gallen and Freya fired wildly at the enemy as Coleth helped his companion up and they began to limp forward. Twenty meters away, stormtroopers were going down slowly, but more were running up. Suddenly, Coleth was hit twice in the back, and thrown headlong to the rocky ground. Mets stumbled and took three hits. Neither moved.
"Men down!" Tharcourt called out. He began to run toward the fallen troopers, but Felian, jogging forward again, caught him. "We gotta go back!"
"Sir, they're gone!" Rix growled. "We gotta keep going!"
"We don't leave a man behind, sergeant!" Drakken protested. Felian's grip tightened on the commander's breastplate.
"We have to, or we'll all die, Tharcourt!" The scout returned, and Drakken could now see the anger and despair on his face. He nodded and reluctantly joined the rest of the team as they ran through the boulders, and down an incline into the canyon where they had left their shuttle. Red bolts flew amongst them, some skittering off of the stone walls of the valley. Daraay took a hit to her right leg and fell. Thorne quickly helped her up, and the Death Trooper resumed her pace. A shrieking echoed off the walls of the canyon, the sound recognizable to all of the soldiers.
"TIEs!" Drakken shouted. He took three long strides to reach Freya, and dove to the ground, pushing her down and laying atop her. Two of the fighters came screaming down the stoney corridor, and began to fire down at them. Delta-7 was in a bind in the tight quarters, and could only leap out of the way as the attack craft continued their fire run. Daraay was thrown to the ground by the concussion of a heavy laser bolt hitting the ground near her, and Lago winced as shrapnel from the rocky ground peppered his back and left leg, some piercing his plastoid armor. The TIE fighters flew down the canyon, banked upwards and lined up for another run.
"We got this far, sweetheart…" Drakken panted, still laying atop Freya. "I love you." The TIEs opened fire again, but this time their gun run was cut short when the starboard wing panel of the lead fighter exploded, sending the small ship careening off into the wall of the ravine. The second had to pull up to avoid the fireball, and it was now that the troopers could see a pair of X-Wing starfighters moving in to combat the Imperial craft. The TIE juked right, and tried to line up a shot with one of the X-Wings, but the rebel pilot in the second easily locked onto the slower Imperial ship and fired a single proton torpedo. Drakken watched with morbid fascination as the glowing projectile slid through the air toward the TIE. The ship was vaporized.
"Let's go!" Tharcourt ordered as two more TIE fighters flew in to do battle with the rebel ships. They leapt to their feet and started up the canyon again as one of the X-Wings was shot down, and another TIE fighter exploded mid-air. The remaining enemy stormtroopers had closed in, and they ran through a hail of bolts. Up ahead, The Huntsman flew down the valley towards them, the ramp already lowered. It touched down, and Drakken felt a sense of relief. "Go, go! Mount up!"
"To th' ship! Go lads, go!" Freya cried out as they all ran, each turning to fire back at the approaching stormtroopers. For the first time since joining the team, Gallen was first aboard the ship. He knelt at the top of the ramp and steadied his breathing as best he could. He shouldered his blaster and started picking off the enemy soldiers to cover his comrades' retreat. Lago turned to fire at the stormtroopers, and a bolt hit the center of his breastplate. He stumbled back. Another hit close to the same spot, and another caught him in the stomach, just under the plate. The young trooper fell to his knees, and yet another red bolt struck his chest. Ekks held down the trigger of his blaster as he ran to Lago's side as the younger man fell facefirst to the dirt. Felian and Daraay joined him, firing at the stormtroopers who kept their distance.
"Pick him up…get him to the shuttle!" Drakken commanded, firing both of his blasters as Ekks slung his over his shoulder and slid his arms under Lago's. He hefted the young trooper's upper half up off the ground, and dragged him toward the waiting shuttle.
"Come on little buddy…I got you…" The Corellian spoke, his usually gruff tone now sounding gentle and somber. "We're getting' outta here, you hear me? You stay with it…"
Daraay caught a round on her breastplate, and another struck her right leg. She went down on a knee, but kept firing her powerful blaster. A bolt impacted her left shoulder, and she was thrown off balance. Meeka fell backwards, only to be caught by Freya.
Felian stood at the top of the ramp, opposite Gallen, and the two of them tried to hold the stormtroopers at bay. Ekks was dragging Lago's motionless form up the ramp, and a few meters away, Commander Tharcourt and Lieutenant Thorne were trying to help Daraay to her feet. The Death Trooper regained her footing, then fell again. An enemy bolt sliced across the side of Thorne's helmet, and she toppled over, leaping back to her feet with eyes wide with shock and fear.
"Jings that was close…" She panted "…ohmestars…" She raked her right hand across the warm dent on her helmet. She threw an arm around Daraay's shoulder, and the three of them stumbled to the ramp. A bolt hit Daraay in the back plate, and she fell from the arms of her officers. Drakken took her by the arms and dragged her upon the ramp as Freya hopped aboard.
"Take off!" He yelled back into the ship. "Get us out of here, now!" The shuttle seemed to obey in an instant, and they lifted off the ground, Gallen, Felian and Drakken still firing from the ramp as the ship moved backwards down the valley. A volley of fire from The Huntsman's forward laser cannons killed half a dozen enemy stormtroopers, and sent the rest running for a safer position. Felian and Freya dragged Daraay into the passenger compartment. Thorne took off the woman's helmet to find her alive, but barely.
"Ye hang in there, Meeka." Freya said softly. "We made it." The left side of Daraay's mouth turned up.
"We made it…little sister." She breathed.
"You…" Thorne began, and eyed Daraay up and down. Blaster marks pocked almost every centimeter of her armor, and she had blood soaking through her bodysuit at her shoulder and on her right thigh. A thin rivulet ran from her right nostril. "You alright?" Daraay groaned.
"I will be fine." She answered, her voice low and tired. "I think I need a vacation after this, Freya." Thorne shook her gently.
"Ye deserve it, ye tough, lovely lass."
"Lago?" Drakken asked. Felian glanced up from the body and shook his head. Freya looked over for a brief moment, then looked away. She closed her eyes, and tears fell down her cheeks.
"Just a boy…" Drakken sighed, and wiped his eyed. "Dammit…" He walked to the cockpit, where Ekks was at the controls, his eyebrows furrowed in anger.
"He's done, isn't he?" The pilot said bitterly. Tharcourt put a hand on the Corellian's shoulder. "Void damn it."
"I'm sorry." Was all Drakken could say. "Get us out of here, huh?" Ekks nodded and lifted high into the air, banking away from the canyon. At that moment, Freya entered the cockpit.
"Daraay's in rough shape." She stated wearily. "We need t' get her intae the bacta, I think." She leaned against the frame of the hatch. "Lago…Mets, Coleth…"
"I know." Drakken returned. "Put Meeka in the bacta tank. We're gonna…" The shuttle suddenly rocked. A TIE fighter howled past. Their ship was shaken again, and two more of the fighters shot by, one to port, the other to starboard.
"Hold on, I'm gonna smoke these Imp bastards!" Ekks exclaimed. As the trio of enemy fighters turned to attack head-on, Ekks fired a long burst from all six of the weapons at the front of the shuttle and juked right and down. The TIEs dove down after them. Ekks pulled the stick back, almost sending Drakken and Freya tumbling out of the cockpit as the ship climbed fast. In the clouds, he made a sharp right bank, and the fighters flew straight. Ekks maneuvered the shuttle into line behind them and fired again. One of the TIE fighters exploded, and the other two split up.
"Enemy shuttle…enemy shuttle…" A voice hailed over the comms. "Set down and surrender or be destroyed. Do you copy, enemy shuttle?" Freya's eyes darted about in shock.
"Och…I know that voice!" She gasped. Thorne was immediately in the co-pilot's seat, and she flipped on the comms and pressed the transmit button.
"Halresk…is that you?!" She spoke over the net.
"Affirmative. This is pilot officer Halresk. Are you prepared to set down, enemy shuttle?"
"We're not the enemy!" Thorne cried out. "Halresk, ye remember me, dunnae ye lad?! It's Lieutenant Thorne. We were on a mission t'gether!"
"I copy, Thorne. The fact that we served together is not germane to the fact that you have committed an act of treason against the Empire, and are currently in possession of stolen Imperial property. Bring that shuttle down and surrender, or we will shoot you down."
"Halresk, listen t' me, lad…" Freya pleaded. "We're not the traitors! Laird Vader's off 'is nut. He's killin' kids an' ol' wans! He's killin' his own men tryin' t' get one rebel! Yer a good man, ye have to listen' tae reason!"
"Your orders stands. You rebels have been apprised of your situation." Halresk responded. Suddenly The Huntsman was shaken violently, and two more fighters joined the fray. One banked and fired on their ship. A warning on the console screamed out.
"Aw kriff…we've just lost our starboard cannons…" Ekks announced. He fired the remaining weapons, and one of the enemy ships went spiraling to the ground. They were hit again, and he put the shuttle into a corkscrew, then banked left. He fired on another TIE fighter, and this craft too was knocked from the fight. One came screaming down from the clouds and the powerful energy bolts from its twin laser cannons impacted the port side of the cockpit. Ekks pulled the fire control trigger, but nothing happened.
"Ekks?" Drakken asked apprehensively.
"We've lost all forward weapons…" The Corellian pilot said. He jammed the stick forward, then back, and the shuttle dipped momentarily before ascending at a breakneck speed. He dove down toward a pair of the Imperial ships, and a locking sound pinged from the console. "But I still got these, you sacks of bantha crap!" With that, Ekks unleashed a quartet of proton torpedoes, and the two TIE fighters erupted in a pair of fireballs that he dove through. Drakken heard shrapnel pinging off of the hull and cockpit window as they passed through the aerial wreckage, and soon they were in clear air again.
"Halresk…are ye still there?!" Freya called over the net. "We dunnae want t' kill anyone else, lad! We jes want to leave. Won't ye just let us be, and call this thing off?!"
"You're not going anywhere, Thorne." Halresk answered, his voice full of wrath. "You or any of you turncoats! You may have just taken down most of my wing, but I'll be spaced if I let you rebels get away from me! I'm sending you to the Void personally!" The shuttle trembled as Halresk's TIE interceptor strafed them as it shot past.
"Get us out of here, Ekks." Drakken said coolly.
"Fang it Ekks! Fang it!" Thorne shouted.
"Crick…I can't outrun that." Ekks growled. "And I got nothing to shoot at it." Tharcourt held onto the top of the cockpit hatch, staring out the window.
"Think of something, Ekks…" The commander stated. The interceptor came rushing at them, and Ekks barely dodged another barrage of laser fire. He tried to accelerate into the outer atmosphere, but Halresk outpaced the slower shuttle and forced them down with a rain of laser bolts.
"Dank Farric!"
"You got this, Ekks…" Drakken continued. "You're the best pilot in the galaxy, right? You're the man, you got this…"
"Boss, buttering me up don't help the fact we're up against a starfighter that can make point-two past lightspeed and has functional weapons!"
"Let me." A voice stated. Drakken and Freya looked back to see Daraay standing by the hatch. Bruised, bloody and panting, she was leaned against the frame with one hand, while in the other was the surface-to-air launcher that had long adorned the rear bulkhead of the shuttle.
"Meeka?" Thorne squeaked.
"Opening the ramp." She stated. The former Death Trooper limped to the top of the ramp and hit the button on the wall. The loading port began to swing open, and a fierce gust of cold air tore into the passenger compartment. "Face our enemy, Ekks…eye to eye." She commanded.
"I think I know what's she's cooking." The pilot muttered with a smirk. "You got one shot, Daraay. Better make it a damned good one." He brought The Huntsman into a gentle bank, angled toward the approaching Interceptor as Meeka staggered out onto the loading ramp.
On either side of her was a ten-thousand-meter drop to the ground below. Ahead of her, three kilometers away and closing was Halresk's ship. She shouldered the heavy launcher and set the red dot of the reticle of the Interceptor. She pressed the first trigger, and there was a series of fast blips as the targeting system detected the ship ahead. Finally, the weapon let out a long beep, and she pulled the main trigger. The tube bucked, and a sixty-six-millimeter rocket issued forth.
From the cockpit, they watched the smoke trail of the projectile as it sailed toward its target. Halresk spotted it too, and brought his TIE Interceptor into a steep climb, trying to escape the missile. It detected the change in its target's direction and arced upward. For a moment, all that could be seen was the Imperial ship, climbing toward space. Then a ball of fire lit up inside the clouds like a second sun. Freya let out a despondent sigh and hung her head.
"Wot a bloody shame…" She whispered. She rose from her seat and left the cockpit.
Daraay stumbled back into the passenger compartment. She wavered on her feet for a moment, then hit the close button for the ramp with her palm and dropped the launcher to the deck. Soon after, she too dropped to the deck, and Freya caught her. The Beohan woman gave her an exasperated groan and shook her head.
"Ugh, yer a mess, ye are." She commented, then smirked. "C'mon. Let's get ye into some bacta."
"Well, where to, Boss?" Ekks asked in the cockpit. He gave a brief expression of sadness. "Lago mentioned Tatooine. That still the plan?"
"Yeah…but first, I wanna go back to The Executor." Tharcourt answered. Ekks did a double-take.
"Back?! You gone crazy or something, Boss?"
"You said you know how to change transponder codes." Drakken explained. "Can you change ours…like right now?" Ekks motioned wildly with his hands.
"I…I guess I could…I mean, it's doable…" He stammered.
"Make us look like another shuttle or something?"
"I have the codes of six other Lambdas…clearance codes, the works. Yeah, I could do it…but for kriff's sake…why?!
"What's goin' on?" Freya asked, popping her head into the cockpit on hearing the heated exchange.
"Your loverboy here wants to go back to the ship." The pilot commented. She shot Drakken a confused look. "See if you can talk some sense into him…or hit him or something. I gotta make this ship disappear."
Ekks punched in something on the console. "Send out a distress signal with our transponder signal…" He pressed some more buttons. "Shut it off at just the right moment…and…" He reached under the control panel and ripped a hand-sized box from its electronic moorings. Ekks threw it to the deck and stomped several times on it until it sparked and sent out a few tendrils of black smoke. He then brought up the ship's memory banks onto a small screen. "Now let's just rename this old girl…"
"Ye off yer heid, Drakken Tharcourt?!" Freya was harping as Ekks worked. "Jes why in the crivens ye mean t' go back?!" He started to speak, and she cut him off. "In case ye didnae notice, we're three meur lads down, Meeka's in th' blue stuff, an this pooched as ship ain' nerry got a gun t' defend ourselves wit."
"I…" Drakken started, but Freya only continued.
"We goot air chance at slippin off ye funt. Yuptae want'nae go back an git us awl slotted fer, Drakken?!" She stared at him a moment like an enraged mother. "Well ye nae gonnae speak er wot?"
"I want to go back…" He muttered. "To kill Vader."
"You wot?!" She exclaimed.
"I want to sneak back aboard, have you guys load everything you can grab onto the ship, and I'm going to go to the bridge and try to take out Vader and Ozzel at least." She looked between his eyes in a mix of fear and fascination at his insane plan. "They won't be expecting us. Ekks is fixing it to look like we were killed in the fight. We can get back aboard easily enough, and if I can get to the bridge, I think I can take that monster by surprise and assassinate him. Maybe Ozzel too. I'll make a quick exfil back to the ship and we'll jet off. That'll leave Firmus in command of The Executor. At least somebody decent will be running the fleet then." He paused and shrugged. "That's the plan at least." Freya stared at him a long moment, then shook her head.
"No talkin' ye outta this, is there?" She asked.
"You should know better at this point, Thorne." Ekks mumbled.
"I can do it." Drakken said. "I got to. Somebody…has to…" Freya sighed, and embraced him in a tight hug. After everything that had just happened, she understood why he had to do this. Why he had to get justice for their fallen comrades. In her heart, she wanted to see it done just as badly.
"Ye be careful, melove." She whispered. "Ye get up there and get a bad feelin', ye cancel yer plans and come back. Ye merk the bastart, ye make sure ye come back." She looked him in the eyes. "But you come back, Drakken." He nodded solemnly.
"I will."
What can I say? Has it all had time to sink in yet? Lago's dead. Mets and Coleth are dead. Daraay is in a bacta pod, shot to pieces. Drakken is wanting to go back and fight Vader. I'll let you all ruminate over this chapter a while. I'll have the next up soon.