I think this is my favorite chapter I've written so far, so I hope ya'll enjoy it!
The intimidating weequay guard with massive biceps opened the door and stood aside. "The boss is waitin' for ya," he said politely, motioning for the guests to enter. "Best not keep him waitin.' Bad stuff goin' down on Coruscant tonight, and he don't wanna stick around."
"We won't keep him waiting." Captain Ordonia gave her compatriot a shove through the doorway, causing him to gasp in surprise.
"Geez, Janna, take it easy," Tom said as the door slid closed noisily behind them.
"Hey, you heard what Chuck said. There's a lot of weirdness going on tonight, and I don't want to be here any more than our client does."
Tom looked back at the door they'd just come through. "That guy's name was Chuck? Wait, weirdness? What kind of weirdness?"
"I've been hearing chatter about it all night, but no one really seems to know for sure what's going on. It's all happening on the far side of the planet from here." They reached the end of the dimly lit hallway and turned left. "All I know is that, apparently, there's a heck of a lot of activity from Republic Army, and if that's the case, I don't want to stick around here any longer than we have to."
Tom made a face. "Yeah, that's probably for the best. I was hoping maybe we could see Star and Marco while we were here, but probably best if we skedaddle back to Takodonna as soon as possible."
Janna made a disgusted face. "'Skedaddle'? What are you, 90?"
Elsewhere in the facility, the YV-560 light freighter Raventalon sat in the docking bay, a continuous stream of workers climbing up and down the boarding ramp as they unloaded crates from the cargo hold. It was an old ship, built many moons ago by Corellian Engineering Corporation, but well kept by its owners. The main hull was almost saucer shaped, with a forward centrally located cockpit sitting between symmetrical front mandibles that provided the cockpit with physical protection in addition to the shields, along with housing the forward cannons and supply storage.
A light-blue astromech droid with a sharpened spike attached to the top of its dome was currently the only member of the crew on board, plugged into a computer terminal in the cockpit to monitor the workers milling about in the cargo hold through the various onboard sensors.
Something on the control panel chimed and caught the droid's attention. It was audible only, not readable through the computer terminal, so whatever was giving off an alert was not part of the ship's systems. The droid disconnected from the terminal and rolled over to the space between the pilot and co-pilot's seats, propping up as high as it could on its feet to see the control panel.
The beeping sound was coming from Captain Ordonia's commlink. She'd left it on the ship as she always did when going to meet directly with a customer so that she would not be interrupted.
A thin metal arm unfolded from the front of the droid's body and picked up the commlink, pressing the button to answer the call as the arm retracted back again. The droid whistled a greeting.
"Pony Head? Is that you?" came Star's voice from the other end of the transmission. The droid bleeped an affirmative response. "Where's Janna? I need to talk to her right now! It's really important!"
The droid gave a curt series of various noises which could be interpreted to mean "Too bad, Janna isn't here."
"Please, Pony Head, we're in big trouble, and we-"
"St-St-Star!
"Marco, I am on the comm."
"But look!"
"Ohhhh, no."
At the end of the alley, the orange-skinned male Twi'lek Star had lifted the commlink from was pointing angrily as he walked toward them. "Hey! You two!"
Star sprang up and hauled Marco to his feet. "C'mon, Marco! Run!"
They took off down the alley, the Twi'lek pouring on the speed to keep up. "Come back here with my commlink!"
They turned left at the end of the alley and nearly crashed into two clone troopers who, fortunately, were facing the other way.
"Eep!" Marco squeaked, but Star spun him around and they took off the opposite way.
"What was that?" one clone trooper asked. They both turned just as the Twi'lek emerged from the alley.
"Troopers!" the man shouted, pointing at the pair of fleeing teenagers. "Those kids stole my commlink!"
"Not our jurisdiction, sir," one clone told him. "But we can contact the Coruscant police for you."
"But they're getting away! Can't you just stun them or something?"
"Sir, we can't-"
The Twi'lek took the clone troopers completely by surprise and grabbed the nearest one's blaster riffle.
"Hey!" the clones yelled as the man took off in pursuit again.
When the Twi'lek felt he was far enough ahead of the clones to allow enough time to stop, aim, and fire, he did so, aiming directly at the spot between Star's shoulder blades and squeezing the trigger. The instant he did so, he realized he had forgotten to set the blaster riffle to stun first.
"Go get Janna, Pony! Go get Janna!" Star yelled into the commlink as she ran.
The droid replied with a series of annoyed beeps.
"I don't care! Go get-!"
Suddenly, Star felt a tremor in the Force. Acting entirely on instinct, she spun around, calling her lightsaber to her hand and igniting it as she did. She deflected the blaster bolt the Twi'lek had fired at her...
...and then froze as she saw not only the Twi'lek who had fired at her, but also the two clone troopers, all looking right at her.
"Ohhh, that's not good."
Marco realized Star was no longer beside him and stopped running. "Star?" He saw her standing a few yards behind him, her lightsaber in her hand. "Star!"
"Hey! They're Jedi!" the clone troopers could be heard yelling. One roughly grabbed his blaster riffle back from the Twi'lek. "Blast 'em!"
Marco pulled his lightsaber from his hoodie pocket and ignited it as the clones began firing on he and Star.
"Call for backup!"
"Pony!" Star yelled into the commlink as she began deflecting the salvo of blaster fire streaming toward her with her other hand. "Go get Janna, NOW!"
Tom slapped the button on the activation panel. The old door noisily slid open to reveal a large storage room that had been converted into a makeshift office space, as dim as the hallway except for the white buzzing light hanging from the ceiling above the large wooden table in the center of the room. A number of hired guns milled about the room, nearly every one a different species. There was a Twi'lek, a rodian, and another weequay, plus some sort of giant lobster wearing only a pair of purple shorts and an ammo belt. There was a being with red skin and two heads, a massive bird-like being covered in white feathers, and a huge pink thing with three eyes like Tom.
A single chair sat on the opposite side of the table, and it spun around as Janna and Tom approached, revealing their customer.
"Ah, you've arrived! Welcome Captain Ordonia!"
"'Sup, Ludo," Janna said nonchalantly, resting her right hand on the table and leaning on it.
"Hello, Mr. Avarius, sir," Tom said politely, giving a small wave.
Ludo shielded his mouth from Tom and loudly whispered to Janna. "Who's the new guy?"
"I...I'm Tom. Tom Lucitor? We've met, several times."
Ludo shrugged. "Doesn't ring a bell."
Tom started to protest, but then stopped, let his shoulders sag and said, "O-okay."
Ludo turned his attention back to Janna. "If you are here, then I am assuming that the Raventalon is in my docking bay being unloaded?"
"Yup. And don't try any funny business with my ship this time," Janna said, pointing an accusatory finger in the tiny Kappa's face. "My security force is keeping a close eye on your employees."
"Security force? You mean that funny-looking astromech with the horn on its dome?"
"That's the one. Now, let's talk business. Tom?"
Tom reached into the breast pocket of his black bantha-leather jacket and extracted a small datapad. He offered it to Ludo, who took it and examined the readout. "As promised, we transported exactly 906 kilos of sugar seeds from your farm on Felucia." Reading upside down, he pointed to various lines on the datapad's readout. "Here is our itemized expense report for fuel and supplies, plus our rate for payload weight versus distance hauled, and it all comes out to..." Tom scrolled over to the next screen. "...exactly twelve-thousand nine hundred and fourteen credits."
Ludo examined the numbers, and then picked up another datapad from the table, tapped a few commands, and then compared them side-by-side. Then he dropped both datapads on the table and squinted at Janna. "Do you know something, Captain Ordonia?"
"What's that, Ludo?"
The tiny Kappa hopped up on the table and walked over to stand right in Janna's face. "Your estimate for doing the job and your bill are exactly the same."
Janna leaned closer so that there was even less space between their faces. "I know. My occupation is 'smuggler,' not 'swindler.'"
Ludo laughed and hopped back into his chair. "And that's why I always like dealing with you. You're the most trustworthy scoundrel in the galaxy!"
"Well, that is what it says on my business card."
"Haha! So it is!" Ludo snapped his fingers. "Dennis!"
A side door slid open and a second Kappa who looked like a younger and much taller version of Ludo strode into the room carrying a briefcase.
"Oh, hey you guys!" he greeted cheerfully. "Good to see you again, Captain. And Tom, new jacket?"
Tom pointed at Dennis excitedly. "See? See? Dennis remembers me! I like him."
Dennis laughed and set the briefcase down on the table, popped the latches, and opened it. Inside were perfectly stacked rows of Republic credit chips.
"You delivered to me, so I deliver to you," Ludo said happily. "Twelve thousand nine hundred and fourteen credits."
Janna scanned the rows of credit chips and squinted at them hard, rubbing her jaw thoughtfully.
"A pleasure doing business with you," Ludo said, jumping down to the floor from his chair. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have other things to attend to before I can get off this rock. Bad things going on tonight and I would really like to get out of here." He waved goodbye without looking back as he began to walk off. "Until next time, Captain Ordonia."
There was a distinct clicking sound, one every single being in the room recognized. Dennis gasped. Ludo turned and found Janna aiming a DC-17 hand blaster at his cranium. Every hired gun in the room scrambled to aim their blasters at the teenage girl threatening their boss. Janna did not so much as flinch.
"Janna!" Tom yelped. "What are you doing?"
"Yes, Captain, what are you doing?" Ludo asked sarcastically.
Janna sneered at Ludo. "You're trying to pull the wool over my eyes, Ludo. Nobodygets one over on Captain Janna Ordonia." Reaching her hand into the open briefcase, she snatched up a fistful of credit chips and tossed them at Dennis behind the table, who jumped back in surprise. The gap left in the rows of neatly stacked credits revealed a slab aluminum hidden beneath.
"Care to explain this?"
Ludo folded his arms and smirked. "Like I said: most trustworthy scoundrel in the galaxy. Unfortunately for you, that makes you easy to take advantage of. And you know what's even cheaper than underpaying you?"
Janna narrowed her eyes at him. "I'd love to know."
"I would not," Tom quickly interjected.
Ludo's smirk grew. "Killing you."
The hired guns each took one step forward, the room filling with a series of clicks as each flipped off their blasters' safety.
"So what's it going to be, Captain?" Ludo asked. "Accepting the money I offered or a quick blaster bolt to the head?"
Dennis shrank under the table for safety, and the room became deathly quiet. For several very tense moments, everyone in the room stood like statues, waiting for Janna to react. Her eyes flickered back and forth to each of the hired guns, to the briefcase on the table, to Ludo, and back.
And then the silence was broken by the sound of the main door opening. A light blue astromech droid burst into the room, screeching to a halt directly between Janna and Ludo, beeping and twittering excitedly. The hired guns all watched the droid curiously.
"Pony Head!" Janna cried, retracting her arm so that her blaster pistol was not aimed at the droid. "What are you doing?"
"Sorry, excuse me," interjected Ludo, "your droid is called 'Pony Head'?"
"Her designation is PY-HD, but that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, so I came up with a nickname that uses those letters," Janna quickly explained. Then to the still chittering droid, "Pony Head, what's gotten into you? I told you to stay with the ship!"
The droid made another series of beeps.
"Emergency communicate? From who?"
The droid tipped back on its legs and produced a commlink from a small front compartment, held by a wiry arm. PY-HD bleeped a few times into the commlink, and then someone on the other end began to speak.
"Janna! Janna, are you there?!"
"Star? Is that you?"
"Oh, thank goodness!" In the background, there was a muffled explosion. "I don't have time to explain, but-"
"Star, look out!"
There was a loud crash and an electronic humming sound. Janna looked over her shoulder at Tom, her eyes searching for an answer, but Tom just shrugged.
A few more seconds and Star's voice returned, the words flowing out of the commlink as if the girl on the other end was talking as fast as she possibly could."I don't have time to explain, but Marco and I need to get off of Coruscant right away! And when I say 'right away' I mean, like, we are currently in the middle of a firefight and could really use a pickup immediately, if not sooner!"
Blaster fire could be heard in the background.
"Please hurry, Janna! I already- MARCO! ON YOUR RIGHT! I already sent Pony the coordinates! Please, Janna!"
And then the connection dropped, the room falling silent once again. Janna looked at Ludo, at the many guns pointed directly at her, over her shoulder at Tom, who looked panicked but said nothing, and then at PY-HD, who beeped something quiet that sounded angry.
"Ahem!" Ludo narrowed his eyes. "Sounds like your friends are in trouble. I don't think that leaves you much time for, ah, 'negotiation' if you want to save them."
"Janna?" She looked over her shoulder at Tom. "We have to go."
Janna sighed and returned her DC-17 to its holster. "You're right." She closed the briefcase and picked it up, then briskly strode toward the door, Tom and PY-HD close behind.
Ludo laughed. "A pleasure doing business with you, Captain Ordonia!"
Janna opened the door. "I'm considering this a down payment," she said, holding up the briefcase. "I'll be back to collect the rest at a later date. With interest."
"We'll see about that," Ludo snickered.
"Yes. Yes we will." And then Janna, Tom and PY-HD disappeared through the doorway.
The second they were out of Ludo's line of sight, they took off at a sprint toward the docking bay.
Two of Ludo's workers were carrying the last large crate down the Raventalon's boarding ramp as Janna, Tom and PY-HD came racing into the docking bay. They rushed up the ramp, knocking the two workers and their burden off the side, the crate smashing open on the floor.
"Hey!" they yelled angrily, but the crew of the Raventalon had already disappeared into the ship.
Janna jumped into the pilot's seat on the left side of the cockpit and was already flipping switches to fire up the sublight engines as Tom made it into the copilot's seat.
"Pony, you've got the coordinates?" Janna called. Behind her, PY-HD was plugging into the computer terminal, and the astromech chattered an affirmative reply.
"Good, get 'em on Tom's console. Tom, get the boarding ramp up."
Tom flicked a switch on the panel over his head. "Ramp is retracting."
"Engine is online, no time to wait for a warmup cycle. Everything ready, Pony?"
Pony Head whistled a yes.
"Alright, here we go!" Janna throttled up the engine to light power, piloted the ship vertically out of the docking bay, switched the control yoke from repulsorlift to sublight control, and shoved the throttle up against its stop. The Raventalon shot forward, racing to the coordinates Star had sent. "Hang on, you guys," Janna said under her breath. "We're coming for you."
Star and Marco were doing something that Jedi do not normally do: they were running for their lives. The two clone troopers who had spotted them had called for backup, and disposing of two Jedi who had yet to be executed was a high priority task. A few at a time, more troopers arrived, converging on their location from the surrounding streets, their numbers quickly overwhelming the two Padawans. Even a Jedi Master would have been outmatched. Running down the skywalks as fast as their legs would carry them and ducking down alleys between buildings was the only way Star and Marco could evade them, deflecting blaster bolts behind them with their lightsabers as they ran.
Then a clone trooper armed with a rocket launcher joined the fight. He didn't hit them, but he did hit the pathway just behind Star and Marco, the shockwave from the explosion sending the two Padawans flying through the air. Using the Force to cushion her collision with the ground, Star landed semi-gracefully, but Marco landed hard on his left shoulder.
"Argh!" he groaned as he crashed to the ground and rolled along the duracrete skywalk. "Star!" He gasped in pain. "I dislocated my shoulder again!"
Covering herself and Marco with her lightsaber, Star hurried over to her best friend and helped him up. "C'mon, Marco! We can't stop!" Unfortunately, their visit with the ground had allowed their pursuers to close the gap on them significantly. The clones were too close to run from now. At such close proximity and with only their lightsabers for protection, they almost certainly would be gunned down. In fact, before they had even taken three steps, Marco cried out in pain again as he was struck in the back of the right leg by a blaster bolt.
"Marco!" Star cried as her best friend collapsed to the ground, unable to walk.
"Augh! My leg!" Marco cried as he clutched at the injury, his lightsaber falling from his grip and clattering to the ground.
There was no chance they could make a run for it now.
Star picked up Marco's lightsaber and then hauled him up by his right arm, pulling said arm around her shoulders. Just ahead was a skywalk kiosk, a substantially built one that, when open during the day, made and sold baked confectionary treats. She helped Marco into the center of it, blaster fire clattering against the durasteel side as the clones continued to fire on them. Carefully, she propped Marco up in a sitting position against a storage compartment door and then peeked over the top of the counter.
The trooper with the rocket launcher had just finished reloading his weapon and was preparing to fire again. Star raised her hand, reached out with the Force, yanked the rocket launcher from the clone's hands, and flung it past the walkway's edge into the chasm below.
"That should buy us a little time." She looked skyward, hoping to see the familiar circular shape of Janna and Tom's ship in the night sky. "Come, on Janna, where are you?"
With an atmospheric top speed of 750 kilometers per hour, it did not take long for the Raventalon to reach Star and Marco's last known location. Janna slowed the ship's speed to a crawl as they neared the coordinates.
"Okay, we're about there," Janna announced. "Now we just have to hope they're still alive and figure out where they are."
Suddenly, an LAAT/i gunship raced underneath the Raventalon and dove into the chasm between two rows of skyscrapers. Tom followed its flight path with his eyes. "I don't think that's gonna be a problem."
Blaster bolts continued to ping off the durasteel sides of the kiosk with ever increasing frequency as even more clone troopers converged on the scene of the battle. Star and Marco huddled inside, Marco still clutching his injured right leg with his good right arm while his dislocated left one hung limp at his side.
"Star?"
She met his eyes.
"I know you really don't want to, but...they're getting close...you're going to have to start fighting back."
Star sighed. "I know." She rose up cautiously on the balls of her feet, looking over the top of the kiosk's counter. "I was this close to never once having to kill someone..." Her emerald blade came to life in her hand and she sprang up to her full height. Her glowing blade made her an easy target in the dark, but that's what she was counting on. She flipped her lightsaber quickly back and forth, deflecting the bolts of energy that came her way and trying to redirect them back at the clones who had fired them.
After a dozen or so tries, she finally managed to hit the nearest clone trooper, sending him flying to the ground.
I just killed someone. I can't believe I just did that.
It only took eight tries to take out a second clone trooper with a deflected blaster bolt, and five tries to hit a third.
"Hey, I'm actually getting pretty good at this." And I'm not feeling guilty for some reason.
Probably because I'm trying to not get me and Marco killed.
Then she heard a familiar noise. She looked up and saw the belly of a gunship descending out of the night sky toward them.
"Oh, greaaaat. One more thing to worry about!"
Janna edged the ship forward, following the gunship's flight path. When they were hovering almost directly over the spot where the gunship had disappeared, she instantly spotted the green glowing blade of a single lightsaber, standing out easily in the darkness of the early morning. It's wielder stood in the center of a skywalk kiosk, rapidly deflecting blaster fire. "There's...well, Star, at least."
"Where's Marco?"
"I only see one lightsaber and it's Star's," Janna said as she switched the controls back to repulorlifts again. "Marco could be there, but I can't see him." Below, she could see the gunship that had just blown past them floating back and forth past the kiosk where Star's lightsaber blade could be seen. Janna figured it was probably trying to figure out the angle at which to fire that would cause the least amount of collateral damage to the surrounding buildings. "You may want to get on the ventral cannon," she said to Tom as she dropped the ship down between the buildings. "I get the feeling we're gonna be shooting our way out of here."
"We'll probably get shot at as soon as they realize we're here," Tom said as he jumped from the copilot's seat and hurried back into the depths of the freighter.
"Star! I see Janna's ship!" Marco cried excitedly.
Star ducked back down behind the safety of the kiosk and looked skyward again. The unmistakable profile of the Raventalon was slowly dropping toward them.
"Woo! Janna!" Star cheered, ducking below the counter for cover. She held her lightsaber skyward and waved the glowing blade back and forth to catch Janna's attention. "Jannaaaaaa! We're here!"
A hydraulic whine caught Marco's ear. It came from the direction of the gunship that was still hovering menacingly over the chasm, and Marco knew what it meant.
"Uh...Star?" he called out, his voice laced with panic.
"What?"
"That gunship is about to fire a rocket at us!"
PY-HD let out a panicked series of boops that made Janna's eyes go wide.
"The gunship just armed it's rockets?!" She quickly keyed the intercom button. "Tom! That gunship is about fire rockets at them!"
"What?! They wouldn't! Not here so close to the buildings!"
Forty-seven seconds earlier...
The clone pilot's holo display came to life, displaying an image of Chancellor Palpatine. "Captain, have the two Jedi Padawans been destroyed yet?"
"We have them pinned down, sir, but we have not yet been able to hit them."
"If they are pinned down, then decimate their position."
"They are in the middle of the city, sir. I am trying to find a firing position that will not cause collateral damage to the surrounding buildings."
"Collateral damage is of little concern to me, Captain. Those Jedi need to be destroyed. Now."
"It will be done, my Lord."
"Whether you think they would or not, Pony Head picked it up on the sensors!" Janna yelled. "So shoot the darn gunship!"
"Okay! I'm shooting it!"
A barrage of laser fire ripped from the Raventalon's ventral cannon and struck the gunship amidship. Not expecting to be fired on by another ship, the gunship did not even have its shields up. The lasers tore through a weak point in the gunship's armor and struck the rocket magazine, and a second later the LAAT/i was shredded by a deafening explosion.
Star extinguished her lightsaber and dove against the side of the kiosk where Marco sat, both Padawans shielding their heads from the explosion as large chunks of hot shrapnel pelted the buildings, skywalk, and the kiosk.
The gunship plummeted down into the chasm between the buildings. A second later, Star and Marco felt the entire structure that supported the skywalk tremble. The remains of the gunship had collided with building several dozen stories down.
"What was that?" Marco cried.
"I don't know, but it was definitely not good."
"I didn't say blow it up!" Janna yelled. "I just wanted you to shoot it!"
"How does 'shoot it' not mean to blow it up?!"
"I just wanted you to give them a reason not to shoot at Star!"
From their positions on the skywalks below, the clone troopers turned their fire toward the Raventalon.
"Oh, great." Janna quickly stood from her seat and leaned all the way across the control board to Tom's side, flicking several switches to activate the shield generator.
As she returned to her seat, the blaster fire ceased all at once. Before Janna even had a chance to wonder why, a series of panicked beeps came from PY-HD.
"What do you mean the building is falling over?"
The massive skyscraper supporting the section of skywalk that Star and Marco were currently taking shelter on had been massively damaged by the collision with the falling gunship. A huge section of several floors midway down the building had been torn off, and now the top half of the structure was massively under supported, swaying toward the chasm.
"I think-" Star braced herself against the kiosk's counter and tried to pull herself to her feet. "I think the building is coming down!" Rising above the counter, she realized that the clone troopers had ceased firing on them. They were all scrambling for safety, rushing back to where the skywalk was supported by a different building. She held her lightsaber up above her head once more, igniting the green blade and waving it frantically skyward. "Helllllllp!" she yelled. "Get down here, Janna!"
"We've got to get down there now!" Janna cried as she sent the Raventalon descending toward her friends once again. "Tom, get down to the boarding ramp!"
"On it!"
Tom climbed out of the ventral turret and rushed to the boarding ramp. He flipped the lever on the exterior bulkhead and the boarding ramp slowly lowered, a blast of Coruscanti night air rushing into the cabin.
Up in the cockpit, Janna rotated the ship around so that the ramp faced the skywalk. Tom could see Star, still waving her lightsaber, standing in the middle of the kiosk.
"Tom!" she yelled out to him excitedly, but he was too far away to hear her over the noise from the ship's repulorlifts.
The Raventalon's decent halted with the end of the boarding ramp at the edge of the teetering skywalk, only a few meters away from the kiosk. Tom urgently waved to her. "Come on!" he yelled.
Star switched off her lightsaber and returned it to her bag. "C'mon! We gotta go, Marco!" She hauled Marco up by his good arm and pulled his arm around her shoulders as she had done before. He winced in pain as he put weight on his blaster-injured leg. "Unngh, Star! I can't-"
Star gritted her teeth in determination. "I got you, Marco! I got you!" She walked him out of the kiosk as the building trembled again. As they started toward the ship, there was a groan loud enough to rattle their ribs and the building began to tilt sharply downward.
"AHHHH!" they both screamed in surprise as they lost their balance, separating as they fell on their backs and began sliding down the skywalk toward the chasm.
Janna shoved the control yoke down and twisted it to the right, and the Raventalonshot downward, stopping several meters below where the skywalk's edge now dangled, hovering at an angle so that the ramp was exposed from above instead of blocked by the ship's hull.
Tom watched as his friends reached the edge of the skywalk, realizing they were about to fall right to him. "Oh, boy!" He held his arms out, ready to catch at least one of them if need be.
Star slid off the edge and semi-gracefully fell right onto the boarding ramp, Tom catching her to help her regain her balance.
"Gotcha!" Tom said.
Right behind her, Marco crashed down onto the edge of the ramp, crying out in pain as his injured leg buckled on the impact. He fell over backward and tumbled off the end of the ramp.
"Marco!" Star and Tom yelled.
For a second, Marco thought that was the end of his adventure. Surely, this was an unsurvivable fall. But no sooner did the thought cross his mind, he realized that he was no longer falling.
And then Star appeared above him, looking over the end of the Raventalon's boarding ramp, holding her arm outstretched, palm out, suspending him in the air with the Force. Slowly, Marco began to float upward.
"Come on...come on..." Star gasped, concentrating hard.
Tom knelt down and hooked his left arm around the hydraulic piston that raised and lowered the ramp from the outboard end. He stretched down with his other hand as far as could as Marco reached out with his own.
Seconds passed that felt like years.
Finally, Marco's hand was within reach. Tom grabbed his arm and assisted Star's Force-pull to haul the young Padawan onto the ramp. Marco nearly fell over again when his injured leg touched down, but Star was ready for him this time and caught him.
"You got him?" Tom yelled over the sound of the repulsorlifts.
"I got him!" Star called back.
Tom scurried back up the boarding ramp and flipped the handle back up. The ramp rose beneath Star and Marco until it sealed the bottom of the ship's hull.
And then Star and Marco both collapsed from exhaustion into a heap on the floor, panting for breath.
The Raventalon rose from the Coruscant skyline and sped away from the scene as the top half of the building they'd just been standing on toppled over into the chasm.
"Looks like you two had quite the adventure," Tom said with a chuckle.
"Yeah...you could...you could say that," Star managed through her labored breathing.
"Are you guys okay?"
"I'm not particularly," Marco said. "I got shot in the leg. Also-"
"I know, your shoulder," Star interrupted. "Again. I'll...I'll reset it in a minute."
"Dude, you got shot?! Let me go get the medical kit!" And Tom hurried away.
Marco looked up at Star from where he lay sprawled out on the floor. "Star...?"
And then he suddenly sound himself wrapped in a crushing hug as Star pulled him into her arms. "Oh, Marco...I thought I'd lost you."
The danger finally passed, the two friends could not help it. Tears broke free from their eyes, laced with both relief and fear.
Marco put his good arm around Star and hugged her back. "I...I was gone...but...but you..."
Star squeezed him tighter. "I got you, Marco...I got you."
SVTFOE discussion:
Let's talk about Princess Pony Head.
I wanted to include as many characters from the show in this story as I could, but some I just can't find a place for. (At least not yet) But Pony Head is a pretty darn main recurring character, and if I was going to have Tom and Janna, I felt like Pony Head should be in the story, too.
However, a floating unicorn head doesn't exactly mesh well with the Star Wars lexicon. Also, if I'm being totally honest, I'm not a big fan of Pony Head and I really doubt I could successfully write dialogue for her. So, I figured, hey, many, many Star Wars stories, whether they be movies, tv shows, video games, or comics have a droid main character. What if I just made Pony Head an astromech droid with a horn? Then I could include her in the story AND have the benefit of not having to write dialogue for her! Win-win!
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter because I was really, really happy with how this chapter came out. Let me know what you think!
More to come soon!
