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[SAGA] Star Wars - Resurgence of Darkness
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<blockquote data-quote="Beretta" data-source="post: 4623425" data-attributes="member: 12260"><p><strong>Fight or Flight…</strong></p><p></p><p>The remaining crew have just finished donning the suits and are preparing to make the trip over to the <em>Bellerophon </em>when a dull boom rocks the corvette.</p><p></p><p>“Another tremor?” asks a worried crewman. Guro, who has just finished securing his helmet, shakes his head.</p><p></p><p>“That is no tremor,” he replies, pointing out of the porthole. “Look!”</p><p></p><p>Beyond the <em>Damsel</em>’s airlock several large forms can be seen dropping onto the hulls of both ships. They are clad in bulky white armour that gleams in the light of the two ships, the mechanized gauntlets of their space armour clenching like metallic claws.</p><p></p><p>“Spacetroopers!” Khail yells in a mixture of surprise and fear. “Get your people moving now or we’re dead!”</p><p></p><p>The crew leap out of the airlock and drift in space over towards the <em>Bellerophon</em>. With its shields down the ship is a sitting duck. Khail winces as the troopers start firing their blaster cannons at the engines in an attempt to disable the freighter, fervently hoping that the armour plating is thick enough to hold them off for the short amount of time needed to get everyone across.</p><p></p><p>“Fenri, we’ve got company! Get on the turret and see if you can get rid of a couple of them! Thalo, get the ship ready to go as soon as I make it back!”</p><p></p><p>Grabbing his blaster, he lines up one of the troopers attempting to sabotage his ship and fires. The blaster bolt burns a blackened hole into the armour, but appears to do little else except attract the Imperial’s attention. Khail ducks back behind the airlock and the hull shudders from the explosive force of the blaster cannon fire.</p><p></p><p>In the meantime, Fenri has made it to the turret and is lining up the other trooper in the weapon’s targeting reticule. However, the Imperial sees gun barrel rotating in his direction. He hugs his armoured body close against the hull as the laser burns through space above him. He isn’t lucky a second time though as Fenri adjusts his aim, and the next shot vapourises the trooper completely.</p><p></p><p>“Everyone’s aboard,” Thalo’s shouts over the comlink. “We’re just waiting on you, Khail.”</p><p></p><p>Khail jumps out of the airlock to find that the spacetrooper he fired at is taking things personally. The suit’s thruster flares and the Imperial soldier floats directly towards the smuggler.</p><p></p><p>Khail triggers another desperate shot from his blaster, but again it glances harmlessly off the trooper’s heavy amour. The gap between the airlocks of the two ships suddenly appear to be light years apart as the muzzle of the spacetrooper’s blaster cannon swings up and into line with him. </p><p></p><p><em>This is it</em>, he thinks as he drifts helplessly through the expanse in between. <em>I’m done for and there’s nothing I can do about it.</em></p><p></p><p>From within the <em>Bellerophon</em>’s cockpit, Cyan senses the smugglers despair as she anxiously observes the events unfolding outside. As the blaster cannon comes up, she reaches out to the trooper’s mind and hammers it with the power of the Force. Khail watches as the troopers’ armoured form inexplicably shudders and begins to fly off-course. The blaster cannon’s aim falters and the resulting shot goes wide, exploding chunks of rock from asteroid’s cavern wall. </p><p></p><p>One final tremor rips through the asteroid and it finally begins to come apart.</p><p></p><p>Barely conscious from the sheer strength of the mental bombardment, and his senses overloaded by the Force, the trooper bounces off the hull of the corvette as Khail lands unharmed in the <em>Bellerophon</em>’s airlock. Not stopping to remove the suit, he re-pressurises the chamber and races to the cockpit. </p><p></p><p>Thalo brings the freighter’s shields online and pours on the thrust, massive slabs of rock flying in their path as the cavern entrance starts to collapse. The ship is slightly sluggish and unresponsive due to the depredations of the mynocks, but nonetheless the young Jedi manages to pilot the ship through the debris and out into the asteroid field without a single scratch. </p><p></p><p>Khail rushes into the cockpit, sparing a brief hug of gratitude for Cyan and a slap on the back for Thalo, before sliding into the pilots couch. </p><p></p><p>“Err, we’ve got a problem,” says Cyan, looking intently at the sensor panel. Four small blips have detached themselves from the sensor signature of a nearby asteroid. “TIE fighters incoming!”</p><p></p><p>Stuttering green blasts of laser fire streak past the Bellerophon as it twists and turns through the asteroid field. The ship shudders as one of the TIE pilots scores a glancing hit. </p><p></p><p>“Nothing to worry about,” Cyan grins nervously. “The shields absorbed the hit.”</p><p></p><p>Fenri returns fire, the laser cannons sending metallic debris spinning away from one of the Imperial fighters. Its pilot is tenacious though, and he keeps his craft on the freighter’s tail. </p><p></p><p>The Bellerophon is fast but no match for a TIE fighter in speed. They swarm around the freighter like jackals, weaving in and out of the asteroids with laser cannons blazing.</p><p></p><p>Khail grits his teeth as he throws the <em>Bellerophon </em>into a loop, laser cannon fire flashing harmlessly in its wake. A TIE fighter glances off an asteroid as it attempts to follow the maneuver, one of the solar panels sparking from the impact. </p><p></p><p>Fenri lets out a cheer over the comlink as he sends laser fire punching through another of their pursuers, causing the TIE fighter to explode in a magnificent orange and white fireball. </p><p></p><p>The acceleration compensators whine in protest as Khail wrenches the ship into an “Ackbar’s Slash”, bringing it up and around to just narrowly miss colliding with one of the Imperial craft. Unfortunately for the TIE’s pilot, the maneuver causes him to fly straight through the stream of laser fire from the fighter on the <em>Bellerophon</em>’s tail. Flame erupts from his ship but no major components are damaged, and it loops up and around to bear down upon the freighter again.</p><p></p><p>“Shields at seventy-five percent!” yells Cyan as the Bellerophon shudders again with the impact of several hits. Diagnostic panels light up with flashing red warnings as parts of the hull are melted away.</p><p></p><p>“We’re almost out,” Khail says. “We don’t have a minute to plot the astrogation co-ordinates normally. Thalo, once we’re free of the asteroid field, you take over the helm while I take a few shortcuts with the navicomp.” The Jedi nods grimly.</p><p></p><p>Fenri laughs again as another TIE fighter disintegrates under a hail of laser cannon fire, and then they are out of the H’ken asteroid field. Thalo, now at the helm, corkscrews the Bellerophon through space as Khail desperately punches commands into the navicomp. Again the ship lurches heavily as one of the remaining TIE’s lasers find their mark.</p><p></p><p>“Co-ordinates are locked in – go!” yells Khail, and Thalo pulles back on the hyperspace levers. The starlines flare as the freighter jumps to lightspeed.</p><p></p><p>“That was some amazing flying,” Guro says from the back of the cockpit. “Thanks for getting us out of there alive.”</p><p></p><p>“No problem,” Khail replies. “What happened out there? How did the Imperials know that your ship was New Republic?”</p><p></p><p>The Sullustan shrugs. “I don’t know. Could be that the Imperials saw through our falsified transponder codes. Either way, when the Star Destroyer hailed our ship and ordered us to heave-to, the captain gave the order for an emergency hyperspace jump. The Havoc’s commander must have suspected that we weren’t going to comply because they opened fire on us just before we can get away. The emergency cut-out brought us out of hyperspace on the edge of the asteroid field, so we transmitted a distress signal and tried to find a place to hide before the Star Destroyer plotted our exit vector and followed us.”</p><p></p><p>The smuggler frowns, a dark suspicion taking form in his mind…</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center">* * *</p><p></p><p>Aboard the Nova, Captain Bluuis smiles at the assembled group. In the background of the hangar bay, technicians and droids are already moving repair and diagnostics equipment over to the Bellerophon. </p><p></p><p>“Excellent work, everyone,” the Captain says. “Our analysts are working on decrypting the data you helped recover as we speak.” </p><p></p><p>He looks the group up and down. “It would appear that you and your ship went through quite a scrape. Not to worry; our deck crew will take care of it, and you might want to head down to the Medical Bay and get those injuries looked at. I’ve already arranged for your payments to be transferred, and when you’re all feeling up to it I have another assignment for you. It doesn’t pay as much as your last one, but it will be easy and shouldn’t involve any combat. Inform my aide Kiara when you’re ready and I’ll brief you on the details. Thanks again.”</p><p></p><p>The Captain starts heading back toward the bridge, but Khail catches him up.</p><p> </p><p>“Excuse me, sir,” he begins, “but I have some concerns about the attack. Is it possible we have spies on board who informed the Imperials about the true nature of the <em>Stellar Damsel</em>?”</p><p></p><p>Captain Bluuis shakes his head. “That’s possible - but unlikely. How would a spy get a message out from the fleet undetected? I know today’s holovid drama’s paint the Imperials as incompetent fools, but nothing can be further from the truth. Nonetheless I appreciate your concern, and I’ll be implementing procedures that will make a repeat of this event less likely to occur in future. We lost a good ship and the best part of a good crew, and that never sits well on any commanding officer’s conscience.”</p><p></p><p>“I see,” Khail frowns. “I’d better go oversee the repairs on my ship. Thanks for your time, captain.”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Beretta, post: 4623425, member: 12260"] [B]Fight or Flight…[/B] The remaining crew have just finished donning the suits and are preparing to make the trip over to the [I]Bellerophon [/I]when a dull boom rocks the corvette. “Another tremor?” asks a worried crewman. Guro, who has just finished securing his helmet, shakes his head. “That is no tremor,” he replies, pointing out of the porthole. “Look!” Beyond the [I]Damsel[/I]’s airlock several large forms can be seen dropping onto the hulls of both ships. They are clad in bulky white armour that gleams in the light of the two ships, the mechanized gauntlets of their space armour clenching like metallic claws. “Spacetroopers!” Khail yells in a mixture of surprise and fear. “Get your people moving now or we’re dead!” The crew leap out of the airlock and drift in space over towards the [I]Bellerophon[/I]. With its shields down the ship is a sitting duck. Khail winces as the troopers start firing their blaster cannons at the engines in an attempt to disable the freighter, fervently hoping that the armour plating is thick enough to hold them off for the short amount of time needed to get everyone across. “Fenri, we’ve got company! Get on the turret and see if you can get rid of a couple of them! Thalo, get the ship ready to go as soon as I make it back!” Grabbing his blaster, he lines up one of the troopers attempting to sabotage his ship and fires. The blaster bolt burns a blackened hole into the armour, but appears to do little else except attract the Imperial’s attention. Khail ducks back behind the airlock and the hull shudders from the explosive force of the blaster cannon fire. In the meantime, Fenri has made it to the turret and is lining up the other trooper in the weapon’s targeting reticule. However, the Imperial sees gun barrel rotating in his direction. He hugs his armoured body close against the hull as the laser burns through space above him. He isn’t lucky a second time though as Fenri adjusts his aim, and the next shot vapourises the trooper completely. “Everyone’s aboard,” Thalo’s shouts over the comlink. “We’re just waiting on you, Khail.” Khail jumps out of the airlock to find that the spacetrooper he fired at is taking things personally. The suit’s thruster flares and the Imperial soldier floats directly towards the smuggler. Khail triggers another desperate shot from his blaster, but again it glances harmlessly off the trooper’s heavy amour. The gap between the airlocks of the two ships suddenly appear to be light years apart as the muzzle of the spacetrooper’s blaster cannon swings up and into line with him. [I]This is it[/I], he thinks as he drifts helplessly through the expanse in between. [I]I’m done for and there’s nothing I can do about it.[/I] From within the [I]Bellerophon[/I]’s cockpit, Cyan senses the smugglers despair as she anxiously observes the events unfolding outside. As the blaster cannon comes up, she reaches out to the trooper’s mind and hammers it with the power of the Force. Khail watches as the troopers’ armoured form inexplicably shudders and begins to fly off-course. The blaster cannon’s aim falters and the resulting shot goes wide, exploding chunks of rock from asteroid’s cavern wall. One final tremor rips through the asteroid and it finally begins to come apart. Barely conscious from the sheer strength of the mental bombardment, and his senses overloaded by the Force, the trooper bounces off the hull of the corvette as Khail lands unharmed in the [I]Bellerophon[/I]’s airlock. Not stopping to remove the suit, he re-pressurises the chamber and races to the cockpit. Thalo brings the freighter’s shields online and pours on the thrust, massive slabs of rock flying in their path as the cavern entrance starts to collapse. The ship is slightly sluggish and unresponsive due to the depredations of the mynocks, but nonetheless the young Jedi manages to pilot the ship through the debris and out into the asteroid field without a single scratch. Khail rushes into the cockpit, sparing a brief hug of gratitude for Cyan and a slap on the back for Thalo, before sliding into the pilots couch. “Err, we’ve got a problem,” says Cyan, looking intently at the sensor panel. Four small blips have detached themselves from the sensor signature of a nearby asteroid. “TIE fighters incoming!” Stuttering green blasts of laser fire streak past the Bellerophon as it twists and turns through the asteroid field. The ship shudders as one of the TIE pilots scores a glancing hit. “Nothing to worry about,” Cyan grins nervously. “The shields absorbed the hit.” Fenri returns fire, the laser cannons sending metallic debris spinning away from one of the Imperial fighters. Its pilot is tenacious though, and he keeps his craft on the freighter’s tail. The Bellerophon is fast but no match for a TIE fighter in speed. They swarm around the freighter like jackals, weaving in and out of the asteroids with laser cannons blazing. Khail grits his teeth as he throws the [I]Bellerophon [/I]into a loop, laser cannon fire flashing harmlessly in its wake. A TIE fighter glances off an asteroid as it attempts to follow the maneuver, one of the solar panels sparking from the impact. Fenri lets out a cheer over the comlink as he sends laser fire punching through another of their pursuers, causing the TIE fighter to explode in a magnificent orange and white fireball. The acceleration compensators whine in protest as Khail wrenches the ship into an “Ackbar’s Slash”, bringing it up and around to just narrowly miss colliding with one of the Imperial craft. Unfortunately for the TIE’s pilot, the maneuver causes him to fly straight through the stream of laser fire from the fighter on the [I]Bellerophon[/I]’s tail. Flame erupts from his ship but no major components are damaged, and it loops up and around to bear down upon the freighter again. “Shields at seventy-five percent!” yells Cyan as the Bellerophon shudders again with the impact of several hits. Diagnostic panels light up with flashing red warnings as parts of the hull are melted away. “We’re almost out,” Khail says. “We don’t have a minute to plot the astrogation co-ordinates normally. Thalo, once we’re free of the asteroid field, you take over the helm while I take a few shortcuts with the navicomp.” The Jedi nods grimly. Fenri laughs again as another TIE fighter disintegrates under a hail of laser cannon fire, and then they are out of the H’ken asteroid field. Thalo, now at the helm, corkscrews the Bellerophon through space as Khail desperately punches commands into the navicomp. Again the ship lurches heavily as one of the remaining TIE’s lasers find their mark. “Co-ordinates are locked in – go!” yells Khail, and Thalo pulles back on the hyperspace levers. The starlines flare as the freighter jumps to lightspeed. “That was some amazing flying,” Guro says from the back of the cockpit. “Thanks for getting us out of there alive.” “No problem,” Khail replies. “What happened out there? How did the Imperials know that your ship was New Republic?” The Sullustan shrugs. “I don’t know. Could be that the Imperials saw through our falsified transponder codes. Either way, when the Star Destroyer hailed our ship and ordered us to heave-to, the captain gave the order for an emergency hyperspace jump. The Havoc’s commander must have suspected that we weren’t going to comply because they opened fire on us just before we can get away. The emergency cut-out brought us out of hyperspace on the edge of the asteroid field, so we transmitted a distress signal and tried to find a place to hide before the Star Destroyer plotted our exit vector and followed us.” The smuggler frowns, a dark suspicion taking form in his mind… [CENTER]* * *[/CENTER] Aboard the Nova, Captain Bluuis smiles at the assembled group. In the background of the hangar bay, technicians and droids are already moving repair and diagnostics equipment over to the Bellerophon. “Excellent work, everyone,” the Captain says. “Our analysts are working on decrypting the data you helped recover as we speak.” He looks the group up and down. “It would appear that you and your ship went through quite a scrape. Not to worry; our deck crew will take care of it, and you might want to head down to the Medical Bay and get those injuries looked at. I’ve already arranged for your payments to be transferred, and when you’re all feeling up to it I have another assignment for you. It doesn’t pay as much as your last one, but it will be easy and shouldn’t involve any combat. Inform my aide Kiara when you’re ready and I’ll brief you on the details. Thanks again.” The Captain starts heading back toward the bridge, but Khail catches him up. “Excuse me, sir,” he begins, “but I have some concerns about the attack. Is it possible we have spies on board who informed the Imperials about the true nature of the [I]Stellar Damsel[/I]?” Captain Bluuis shakes his head. “That’s possible - but unlikely. How would a spy get a message out from the fleet undetected? I know today’s holovid drama’s paint the Imperials as incompetent fools, but nothing can be further from the truth. Nonetheless I appreciate your concern, and I’ll be implementing procedures that will make a repeat of this event less likely to occur in future. We lost a good ship and the best part of a good crew, and that never sits well on any commanding officer’s conscience.” “I see,” Khail frowns. “I’d better go oversee the repairs on my ship. Thanks for your time, captain.” [/QUOTE]
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