Star Wars: Heroes of Another Kind

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 309: Information

“I thought we weren’t going to be stealing,” Jyren whispered hastily, as Garrol was busying doing...doing...something after he’d explained to them how they could get a hold of the mines.

Shadow rolled her eyes and flicked his ear angrily, “Did you really think we could get a hold of enough mines to stop a fleet without stealing?!”

“Well...” Jyren tried not to whimper and just rubbed his ear, “No, but that’s not the point.”

“That is the point,” Shadow growled quietly, her back to the Ryn and doing her best not to let the argument be heard. It was best to let him assume they were just discussing...not arguing.

There was a quiet sigh from Jyren, “I don’t even see how we’re going to do this! We can’t hijack an entire convoy!”

“Just one ship,” she corrected him quickly.

“Yes, but if its carrying a good sized compliment of orbital mines, then it’ll be heavily guarded..” Jyren trailed off, letting the last part of the sentence remain unspoken.

But, thanks to the link, Shadow had no trouble picking up on it, “Out here it won’t be. Yes, we might have to take out a few fighters, but the New Republic’s forces are spread so thin lately there’s no way they can field an entire squadron just for a small convoy.”

“Five cruisers is not small,” Jyren said flatly.

Shadow shook her head, “Four cargo transports and an escort is.”

“Cargo transports don’t have landing bays!” Jyren nearly yelled it, but managed to somehow keep his voice down.

“Then we’ll dock with them,” by now, Shadow was giving him a sharp, somewhat dangerous look.

Jyren did his best to ignore the look, but Shadow was getting better at it every time she used it. The link was definitely working against him in that aspect. Shaking it off, though, he shook his head, “Then we’re a sitting target for the escort to pick us off.”

This time, there was no quick response. After the pause passed, though, Shadow just patted his shoulder, “We’ll think of something.”

And before he could say anything to that, she stood up straight(which actually put her taller than him for that half second before he stood up completely, too...not something that Shadow missed) and turned around to face Garrol, “Alright, we’re interested. What’s the location?”

A broad smile appeared on the Ryn’s face, and a whistling noise escaped his beak-like nose, though his hand was still carefully holding the blaster, “When you give me the money, I will tell you where.”

“We don’t have the kind of money you want, Garrol,” Shadow said in a surprisingly unthreatening tone.

Garrol twitched slightly but managed a shrug, “Then you aren’t going to find out where that convoy is.”

Shadow didn’t need to signal Jyren. Instead, he just knew it was the right time. Casually, he extended his hand and reached out with the Force. The small blaster pistol was wrenched from the Ryn’s light grip and flew right into Jyren’s hand...and it was immediately aimed straight at Garrol’s head when Jyren had control over it, “This is more important than money. Tell us where it is.”

The Ryn had yelped and jumped back against the wall again the second that the blaster had left his grip. But one hand was rapidly scouring the wall for...something. Probably an alarm. Jyren quickly shifted his aim and fired off a quick shot that burned black mark in the wall just a little too close to Garrol’s hand, “This doesn’t have to get violent, but if you try that again, I won’t be aiming for the wall.”

“Buh..uh...bu...Jedi...” the Ryn was shaking much more now, and his eyes were darting quickly between the two Alraxians standing in front of him. Finally, they locked on Shadow, “He’s as bad as you are!”

Shadow smiled sweetly, which was disturbingly dangerous looking, “I did my best with him. Of course, you should know that he still hasn’t learned patience, so he might accidently squeeze that trigger soon if you keep stuttering and don’t tell us where the convoy’s going to be.”

Garrol made a noise that sounded like a whimper but was strangely musical at the same time. But after a moment, mumbled something under his breath. He looked up and quickly realized that he hadn’t been heard, then said much louder, “Eriadu.”

Jyren had to take a moment to think about that, then said out loud, “Where the Rimma and Hydian Way intersect...”

“Y-yes...” Garrol mumbled, still trying to back through a wall. It was a task he was having a great deal of difficulty with, “Tomorrow...an hour from now tomorrow.”

Spinning the weapon around so that he gripped the barrel, Jyren tossed the blaster to the Ryn...he didn’t catch it. Instead, it hit Garrol in the chest before bouncing down to the ground. Jyren then flashed a smile that wasn’t too much different than Shadow’s, though it definitely didn’t have the same bite, “Thank you. I believe we’ll be leaving now. If you move from that spot, I will know it. Do not move from there until we’ve left the station...consider it a nice twenty minute break.”

Shadow smiled again, nodded and then started out with Jyren following close behind. As they walked at a very fast pace around the circle and back to the hangar, she ‘said’. [You’re getting at that.]

[I learned from the best.] Jyren said with a grin on his face.

[That you do...] she gave him a look over her shoulder. [But that ‘all-seeing Jedi’ act isn’t going to work every time. I suggest figuring out a few more tricks.]

He nodded, but was actually motioning forward. [I suggest we get the hell out of here before the act wears off.]

Shadow also nodded, then reached out a little farther. [Loki, get ready to leave. We’re on our way back and the second we’re onboard it would probably be a good idea to get us out of here.]

[You are being shot at...?] Loki sounded like someone who was on the verge of laughing.

[Not yet.] Jyren cut in, but then caught some movement over his shoulder. [But I don’t think these guards are going to let it last too much longer.]

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 310: Fun

“Stop your whining, you’re not dead!” Shadow growled.

There was a yelp from Jyren and, of course, a giggle from Tobias who was up on his ‘perch’ on the control console in Loki’s cockpit. Jyren cursed a few times and slumped back down in his chair, “If you keep doing that I will be!”

Shadow sighed, rolled her eyes, and went back to brushing his tail fur straight, “Then stop fidgeting! You’re worse than Toby!” after a few more moments, she grumbled, “If you’d have run faster this wouldn’t be a problem.”

Jyren looked over his shoulder at her and glared sharply enough to prove he’d learned a thing or two from her, “They were shooting at us! Shooting with disrupters! I think I even saw some slugthrowers before we got back to Loki! I ran as fast as I could!”

“Obviously not as fast enough...” Shadow said quietly, this time forcing back a grin.

Looking back the other direction and sighing, Jyren grumble under his breath, “Sometimes I think you enjoy watching me nearly get shot.”

“Only sometimes?” she finished with his tail, patted his shoulder and leaned in to whisper in his ear, “Guess I should do a better job, hm?”

“That’s not funny,” Jyren said quietly to himself.

Perfectly time, Tobias giggled again. Shadow leaned back in her chair and laughed, “I don’t know, I think we’ve got you outnumbered here. Right, Loki?”

[What...?] the ship was currently distracted with getting the exit from hyperspace perfectly timed so they were just far enough out from the spot they needed to be at to go undetected when the convoy arrived. [Oh, yes. Right. Ha-ha. Funny.]

“Three to one,” Shadow grinned, “We win. Its funny.”

Jyren turned to sit back in his seat, too, and sent a glare towards Tobias, “Traitor.”

Of course, all that did was get Toby to giggle more. After a few moments, though, the little Alraxian laughed out loud and bounded off his spot at Jyren, who caught him and shook his head, “That’s not going to work, this time.”

Tobias grinned broadly, reached down and poked Jyren’s nose gently. The child said nothing, but just stared with a smile on his face. It didn’t take long for Jyren to sigh, set Toby down in his lap, and start scratching his ear gently, “You’re still a traitor, little guy.”

Loud, happy purring was the only response.

The silence, as usual, did not last very long. Jyren seemed to have a habit of breaking silence every chance he got. This time, he turned to Shadow and asked, “Any ideas on how we steal the cargo ship yet?”

Shadow glanced over his direction, the slightest hint of a smile tugging at her lips, “Possibly.”

That got a worried look from him, “I don’t like the sound of that...”

“Oh, come now,” Shadow grinned again, this time turning to face him completely, “It won’t be anything you haven’t done before.”

“Now I really don’t like the sound of this,” Jyren said more quietly, but noting how Shadow felt through the link, knew he’d have to press to get her to stop playing her little game, “Fine. Fine. What is it?”

Shadow shifted in her chair and nodded back towards the corridor behind them, “Does you X-Wing have an EV-suit, by any chance?”

She didn’t need to say anything more. In fact, even that had been a bit much. It was enough, though, to trigger a memory. A very, very vivid one. Also one that Jyren had thought was buried well enough that Shadow couldn’t have found it. Obviously, he’d been wrong. Right away, he was shaking his head, “No. No. No way. No.”

“Awww...its not that hard,” Shadow’s grin was growing, “Besides, you did such a good job last time you tried it, there’s no way you’ll forget to check the oxygen levels this time!”

“No!”

“You won’t even be stuck out in space!” Shadow laughed, reaching over to pat his shoulder, “Just a simple jump to an airlock.”

“Why do I have to do it?!” Jyren growled, “You’d be better suited for it!”

“I can’t fly a heavy freighter,” Shadow noted with a shrug, “But I can fly an X-Wing. Loki, how long until the convoy arrives?”

There was a short pause as Loki checked the data. [Fifteen standard hours.]

“Thank you,” she then turned back to look at Jyren, “So, if you’d like me to have the fun instead of you, you’ve got fifteen hours to teach me to fly one of those things.”

Jyren glared at her, “You’re a very evil person, you know that?”

Shadow shrugged and motioned towards the hangar, “You still have fifteen hours to teach me to fly those big things. Its not my fault if you don’t. Besides, I don’t see why you’re complaining, you get to do the fun part.”

“Fun?!” Jyren nearly yelled, but kept his voice down. Then, suddenly, something struck him, “There is no way you’d let me go and do that unless you had something else even more...more...’fun’ planned for yourself.”

The smile returned to Shadow’s face, “And I’m not telling you what it is. You’ll just have to keep your eyes open and hope you don’t miss it.”

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Just an update for everyone.

I'm currently away from home, and though I do have net access, I've been very, very busy for the last week. May be the same for the next few weeks, also. Will try to get updates up, but they will probably be a bit random when/if they appear.

This will probably continue until about the second week of January. After that, I'll be moved back to art school and things should finally be settling down again. Sorry about the delays. Hopefully this'll give people a chance to catch up on the story if need be.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 311: Focus

“Jyren! What the hell are you doing?! We’ve got ten minutes!” Shadow’s voice echoed through the corridor’s towards their room. Jyren glanced up, but knew he wouldn’t see anything but the open doorway and nothing at all. Shadow had given up using the link as the loud yelling had much more force to it. He’d been...putting on one of the flight suits, then checking all of the seals on both his and the spare for any kinds of rips or tears. The Darkwing had left far too many, and so it had taken nearly two hours to get the both of them in working order and able to withstand a vacuum and retain pressure.

This meant, of course, that he was back in his old human body again. It was still awkward to go back to it after all the time that had passed. He knew it was how he’d lived the majority of his life...and yet it felt alien to him now. Something was wrong with that.

Ten minutes.

[On my way.] he said simply through the link, finally getting to his feet, checking the blaster at his hip, and starting for the hangar with both slighsuits. The helmets were still in the X-Wing and those, thankfully, were fine.

Jyren rounded the corner to head for the hangar before Loki quickly jumped in. [Incoming from behind, Jyren.]

Normally, that would have been a signal to duck or dive for cover. But Loki’s ‘voice’ had been calm and more of a quick warning. Which meant it wasn’t Shadow ready to kill him. Not that Jyren expected that. He knew she was back in the hangar pacing and cursing his name...and through the link she was sending a thousand comments about how wonderfully punctual he always was. That meant it left...

“I don’t have time for this, Toby,” Jyren said with a sigh before he’d even finished turning around.

The little Alraxian finished padding up to him and looked all the way up...which, truthfully, wasn’t nearly as far when Jyren was a human. But Toby just shook his head, “Don’t wanna play.”

“Good,” Jyren said quickly and started to attempt an escape, “Because I don’t have time to play. Or entertain you in any way right now. We’ll play later.”

He spun around and got going the other way for two steps before there was a surprisingly rough tug on his left leg and Tobias’ voice, “Wait!”

Jyren stopped only because he wasn’t in the mood to have extra weight for the moment. The child was heavy enough as it was, and being human currently just made things more difficult. So, spinning around to look down at the clinging child, Jyren only glared. Tobias did his big-eyed look and let go, “...’s important...”

“Fine, Toby,” Jyren sighed, turning around yet again and looking straight down, “What is it?”

Unsurprisingly, Tobias took a couple tiny steps back before shuffling his feet a few hundred times. Then, finally, he revealed what was he was carrying with a hand that was behind his back. As best he could, Tobias reached up and extended the lightsaber to Jyren, “...forgot this...”

There was a very, very brief moment in which Jyren almost refused it. He had yet to pick the weapon up since Alraxia. But something(sense, probably) stopped him this time. Instead, he let out another sigh and knelt down to be closer to level with Tobias. Carefully, he reached over and gently scratched the child’s ear. After a moment, Jyren’s hand moved down and slowly took the lightsaber from Toby’s hands, “Thanks, little guy.”

Tobias smiled broadly, let out a happy purr, then scampered off in the direction he’d come from. It was...surprisingly quick. But Jyren simply got to his feet, attached the lightsaber hilt to his belt, and made his way to the small hangar. When he got there, Shadow was also human-shaped, and leaning against the X-Wing with her arms crossed over her chest. She was also grinning.

Doing his best to ignore the grin, Jyren simply walked over and tossed her the orange flight suit that had been draped over his shoulder, “I don’t want to know.”

Shadow caught the flight suit with no trouble and went right to putting it on over the morphsuit she was currently wearing, “That was too easy, you know.”

“Uh-huh,” Jyren smiled and nodded as he stepped past her, already starting up the ladder to the open cockpit of the starfighter. Currently, the best strategy was to just avoid this at all costs and get straight to business. Shadow-tactics, really.

Somehow, though, those only worked when she used them.

“Who’d have thought I’d find another easy little weakness of yours that quickly,” Shadow said over her shoulder, now zipping up the flight suit and getting the switches, oxygen lines and other things that Jyren had shown her how to do as quickly as she could. Since Jyren was not saying anything in response, it got rid of any distractions. A moment later, she was climbing up the ladder, too.

But, instead of simply climbing into the rear seat, she held the grin on her face, leaned forward, and before Jyren could get his helmet on, kissed him very strongly. When she pulled back, he made a ‘buh’ noise and Shadow just laughed, “Hmm...I think I like that one better, but Toby its just so much fun to watch you melt when Toby asks you to do something.”

If not for her previous actions, Jyren might have reacted to that. Instead, his general shock kept him in a state of ‘buh’ while Shadow laughed again and sat back into her seat. She pushed the ladder away(not caring about any kind of special way to get it in the ship), and closed the cockpit, “Fine, then. I’ll just do all the flying. You just sit there and wait until its time for you to have your fun.”

“...buh...”

Shadow reached over and patted his shoulder gently, “Helmet, dear. It won’t do us any good if you die when the cockpit opens,” she paused a moment to ask Loki to open up the hangar and got the sublight drives on the starfighter going. Thankfully, it wasn’t too difficult. As she started to bring the X-Wing out, Shadow added, “One day you’re going to have to stop freezing up like that.”

Of course, she refused to mention the fact that she had pretty much the same reaction when he surprised her like that. That, though, was not the point at the moment. Right now, they had about six or so minutes until the convoy should arrive...and then another ten minutes before they would be able to jump out. It was time to focus.

((Happy [Insert Holiday Here], everybody.))

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Well...the database thing kicked this back 5 months, but all is well.

Over the next week, I'll work on reposting everything, as I do my writing in a Wordperfect file anyway. Only thing will be finding the right point at to start, as I don't label them...but it shouldn't be too bad. New updates will resume once this is recovered.

All will be well!

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Was holding out for a possible backup from the 8th of May being loaded...but it looks like that's not possible.

Ah well. I'll start with the catching up tomorrow. Nostalgia time!

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 312: Just an Escort

“That is not ‘just an escort’, Shady,” Jyren’s voice was flat and dry as he looked out the cockpit to the emptiness around them. He then glanced back down to the sensor screen. The convoy had arrived two minutes late, but was currently in the process of setting their next jump point. It meant there was now just a few minutes to get in there and steal a ship. As they were just on the edge of sensor range and the convoy wouldn’t likely be aggressively searching for any ships, the small X-Wing would go undetected.

Sitting in her usual seat behind him, Shadow rolled her eyes and idly kicked the back of his chair, “Yes it is, now get us moving while I scan the middle ship for a suitable airlock.”

“Middle ship?!” Jyren yelled this time, doing his best to turn around and stare at her in shock despite the crash webbing that was very firmly holding him down, “Shadow, that will make us a very, very easy target.”

This time, there was an annoyed sigh from her, “Yes, dear, but it also means if they shoot at us they’ll hit their own ships.”

Jyren didn’t answer. He should have known that. He did know that! But...but this whole plan was causing him to run in circles trying to figure out exactly what he was going to have to do. Yet again, Jyren was back to his usual thinking too much...which had quickly turned into worrying. Shadow was doing her best to not yell at him, as it would only make things even worse, but if he stayed in this kind of mood nothing good was going to happen anyway.

A few long seconds passed before she felt the sublight drives kick in and Jyren started the X-Wing straight for the center of the convoy. The S-Foils would remain closed to give them a small speed boost, despite the fact that if they had to shoot at anything it would make targeting difficult. Not that it was impossible to fire with the closed S-Foils, but the cross-range of the four shots would be off from their usual position and it would be practically impossible to hit anything that wasn’t as big as the freighter they were attempting to steal.

As some of the stars that were not actually stars began to quickly grow much larger, Jyren grumbled, “A Strike Cruiser is not ‘just an escort’.”

Shadow gave him a good mental push through the link that felt more like a punch to the gut than a push, then said in a very low voice, “Jyren, we will be fine. You get to the freighter and get it into hyperspace. Let me worry about the escort.”

“They can carry up to four fighter squadrons,” was an answer to an unasked question that Jyren felt needed to be stated.

It didn’t.

“I know that,” Shadow’s voice was a bit more dangerous sounding now, and she quickly decided this would be the last civil attempt for the moment that she was willing to make, “I will be fine. Do your job, I’ll do mine.”

Thankfully, Jyren was intelligent enough to not say anything else. That did not need anything but a mental nod to show he understood that, if he argued anymore, she’d be opening up the cockpit early. Despite everything they’d been through and all she’d changed, Shadow was still not the kind of Alraxian to be messed with when she got angry. In all honesty, her mother was the same way...and though Jyren knew this only through the link, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was just a trait that helped to make a good Empress.

Again, though, he was smart enough to not speak that. Not only that, but he also made sure to keep those thoughts buried very, very deeply. He didn’t like them anymore than Shadow did.

The objects ahead of them were now clearly visible as starships. In a very neat, practical line formation were four box shaped bulk cruisers that handled like small moons. It was amazing they could maneuver at all, really. But sitting ‘above’ them in a relatively good defensive position was the long, rounded ship with a tipped nose...almost like some kind of slug made of sleek metal on the top and dark pieces of scrap on the bottom. It was an old Imperial Strike Cruiser, well enough equipped to defend the convoy from any attack from a group of pirates. It had the turbolasers for capital ship combat and the smaller, more accurate point-laser cannons ideal for fighting starfighters.

But the key problem was that no one would be insane enough to ‘attack’ in just one ship. If they operated on the usual protocol for escort, their sensors would be passive and only able to detect larger incoming ships or squadrons of starfighters. If done just right, a single ship could slip right in undetected.

The problem with this, however, was that it required knowledge of the blind spot in the Strike Cruiser’s sensors. Neither Jyren nor Shadow had that information, and that was the reason that the comm beeped and a little red light appeared as they began to get much closer. It beeped a second time but neither of them touched it. In fact, they were both currently pulling on their oxygen masks and sealing their gloves to get ready for the ‘emergency’ opening of the cockpit. By the time they were done with that, another light had come on(indicating that a targeting lock was being acquired) and there were many, many more beeping sounds.

“Underside!” Shadow said into the mask, which meant he could now only hear her through the comm(if one didn’t count the link, of course). It was so odd hearing her voice through the comm that, for a moment, Jyren almost though it was Mare. But that was pushed aside as Shadow quickly put her information up on his HUD display which put a nice little yellow box over a small section of the nearest of the bulk cruisers.

Jyren did not tell Shadow to hang on. He didn’t need to. She heard his quick intake of breath and quickly gripped the seat in response. Having not recieved any response to the hails, the Strike Cruiser had begun firing. But just as the shots began, an alarm went off and Jyren wrenched the control stick hard, sending the X-Wing into a sudden snap roll that could have caused necks to snap if not for the crash webbing. It didn’t help that he didn’t slow down one bit...the inertial dampers could only do so much.

The X-Wing rolled at least five times, the cruisers around them going in huge, lightning fast circles, before leveling out just beneath their target bulk cruiser. Behind them, green point-lasers could be seen, and a few even shot in front, but those quickly died as they shot straight under the freighter at the fastest speed the X-Wing could manage...shooting straight for the targeted airlock at an amazing speed.

“Grab the controls! We’re not slowing down!” Jyren said quickly over the comm. He said it quickly because there were only about ten seconds to react before they passed underneath the airlock.

This part had not been part of the plan. In fact, if given the time, Shadow would have shaved his tail for trying to show off like his stunt looked like he was doing. But, truthfully, he wasn’t showing off. Instead, Jyren knew that if they matched speed with the freighter, the crews of the ships would immediately know something was wrong...but if the X-Wing just shot right through...

The thought had only been half thought when the Force screamed at him, and his hand quickly hit the hot-wired switched they’d hooked up to bypass the safety systems and open the cockpit. There was a hiss of vacuum, and Jyren was immediately out of the crash webbing. He didn’t hesitate a second to jump...and Shadow didn’t hesitate a moment to get the cockpit closed again.

She knew he’d be alright. It was insane...but he’d be alright. Now, as the X-Wing continued its flyby of the convoy and Shadow realized she was once again being shot at, she gripped the controls and went to something just as important...making sure she stayed alive...and making sure the New Republic didn’t have a chance to figure out what happened very close to Eriadu, one of the most populated planets of the Outer Rim

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 313: Jump After Jump

If not for the Force, Jyren probably would have slammed straight into the hull of the freighter, cracked the faceplate on his helmet, and then gone floating off into no where while his suit quickly depressurized. Lucky for him, however, Shadow had convinced him to go back to using the Force. It meant that instead of his stunt, and it was definitely a stunt when done at such a high speed, resulting in a fairly painful and humiliating death, he actually managed to succeed.

With the help of the Force, he was able to immediately slow himself down and catch hold of a handhold that was right next to the fairly large, octagonal airlock that had been the target. Still, though, there hadn’t been any chance to look back and see if Shadow had gotten the cockpit resealed to hide any hint that something had happened. It would have been easy enough to ask through the link, of course, but that would have diverted his focus and, for now at least, he’d just have to wait and trust her.

Jyren’s eyes searched around through the slight orange tint that the faceplate on his X-Wing helmet provided, and after a moment found the small panel he was looking for. Emergency release of the airlock. It would immediately open the thing and let him in. However...it would also set off a few alarms. So, instead, Jyren’s hands searched beneath the small depression with the lever and found another panel. It would have the wiring in it. Carefully, he moved himself down and then tugged the panel open.

Inside was the usual random collection of both wires, switches, and other things that he didn’t even know the names of. He was not a slicer, and had never claimed to be. That was why Shadow had given him a rough run through of how to get the airlock open without setting off any alarms. How exactly she knew this was beyond him, but Jyren had decided it was one of the many questions best left unasked. Thankfully, though, she had been correct and Jyren was able to find the correct wires and switches and get the thing fixed without(as far as he knew) any alarms being tripped.

It took him roughly half a minute to slice through the security backups, and that was after Shadow had told him more than once he’d have to do it in fifteen seconds. So far, though...so good. And now there was just one choice left. His hand pulled back up and found the small depression. Carefully, his black-gloved hand reached in and found a lever. He gripped it tightly, and then pulled with all of his strength, overcompensating due to the fact that he knew Human bodies were weaker than Alraxian ones, and he’d been so used to his Alraxian one that he had no idea how strong his Human body was anymore.

The lever pulled outwards, and there was a sudden, silent, opening from the airlock as it swung up and past him. No lights came on, so from the looks of things the slicing had worked. Just to not push his luck, Jyren quickly pulled himself around and swung into the small airlock, hitting the switch to reseal the tiny room right away. In a matter of seconds, his feet found ‘down’ and he was standing on the deck plates. Normally, he would have removed his helmet...or at least the oxygen mask that covered the lower part of his face, which was normally left uncovered by the helmet. However, Jyren knew that right now concealing every shred of his identity was the best thing to do...just in case.

Hitting the switch to open the interior hatch, Jyren’s other hand was already moving down to the blaster pistol at his hip. The door slid open, this time with a slight hiss, and revealed a narrow, grey-white corridor that looked as if it hadn’t been used in millennia. Jyren followed it at a jogging pace, trying to get his bearings on exactly where he was in the freighter and where the bridge would be located. Some of these bulk cruisers had the oddest of configurations. When the corridor reached a four-way junction, he realized just how lost he currently was. There had to be a turbolift one of those directions...but he didn’t exactly have the time to check all of them.

Once again, he opened himself up to the Force, allowing its energy to flow through him and guide him to the right direction. In a moment, Jyren found himself turning left...so when his eyes refocused on reality, he ran that direction. He ran so fast that when the corridor took a sharp right turn, he nearly slammed into the wall ahead of him. Turning the corner, he found a set of two turbolifts.

After a quick thanks to the Force(which was unnecessary but felt like the right thing to do), Jyren ran over to them and quickly hit the ‘up’ switch in between the two tubes. It didn’t take long for the door on his right to slide open, and he immediately stepped in and scanned the control panel. It was labeled. Thank the Force, it was labeled!

He pressed the switch labeled ‘bridge’ and the lift rocketed upwards. It was...almost too easy, in all truthfulness, but Jyren wasn’t worried for once. Why not label the things? Besides, how often did these crews rotate? They’d probably need some kind of direction if they went down into the lower sections on their own. It just made...sense. Something that Jyren had gotten so used to not being anywhere near lately.

And then, probably about halfway through the trip upwards, the pale lights in the lift shifted to a blinking red.

That colour only ever meant one thing, and it was never, ever good.

An alarm.

But...the turbolift hadn’t actually stopped.

There was no sound accompanying the blinking light, but a sudden sense of danger was poking at Jyren through both the Force and the link. Neither of those made him feel particularly good. And then the ship shuddered slightly...he knew the feeling, especially in something this big. These were the kinds of ships he first started flying on.

“Oh —“ his last words were cut off by the turbolift stopping, opening, and revealing the bridge. Past everything, the viewport could be seen...and the stars were elongating all of a sudden as the bulk cruiser made its jump into hyperspace.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 314: Just Shooting

Shadow cursed.

It was a relatively exotic one, too, that she’d picked up many years ago. Despite everything, the Hutts sure knew how to curse. Considering that just a second before Shadow had watched all of the freighters and the Strike Cruiser jump to hyperspace, the curse felt perfectly appropriate. They hadn’t even bothered to fire at her when the X-Wing had emerged from underneath the freighter that had been their target.

As far as she could tell, Jyren had made it inside. This was due to the fact that, most importantly, she was alive...which meant he hadn’t been torn into hyperspace and killed and that since she couldn’t feel him anywhere in the area, he hadn’t lost grip and gone floating off into no where. In that case, also, there would have been a large amount of complaining through the link at her. So, at least, that was something.

“Loki! Get the hell over here!” she screamed into the comm, frantically pulling off the stupid, oversized helmet that just slid around her head instead of padding at all. The damned New Republic and their damned big-headed pilots. At least the suit fit...mostly. But orange?! Idiots! It was almost blinding to look at, and all the damned buttons and switches were even worse...especially the ones that blinked. They just begged to be fiddled with, but Jyren had spent a long time explaining to her that doing exactly that would be bad. She just wanted out of the whole thing. Yes, it had been her idea, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. In fact, it gave her even more of a right to complain.

After finally managing to get that horrible and awkward helmet off of her head and tossing it into the now empty seat in front of her, Shadow grabbed the X-Wing’s controls again. They were...awkward, yes, but they worked. It wasn’t as intuitive or nearly as responsive as Loki, but she had found, after that high speed loop and spin that nearly caused her to lose a few weeks lunches, that the starfighter could definitely maneuver...even if she stressed the inertial dampers a bit too much.

And then, finally, Loki appeared. His organic and distinct shape sliding across the empty black in front of her. [Problems?]

Shadow glared at the shape ahead of her and switched to a more natural form of communication, especially now that the comm(which was attached to the horrible helmet) was in the seat in front of her. [Sarcasm does not become you. Now shut up and let me in.]

As the ship began a slow spin around and the makeshift hangar opened, Loki couldn’t help but inquire further. [Where did they go?]

[I don’t know.] Shadow said flatly, now doing her best to now wreck either the X-Wing or Loki as she carefully brought the small starfighter in. [Couldn’t have been far. And they were aiming the wrong direction to continue on their course. Can you get us a short jump to the nearest star system on their heading.]

The fact that Loki didn’t respond right away should have been warning enough that something might not be just right. When, a moment later and, thankfully, after she’d gotten the X-Wing down, Loki spoke up, Shadow was immediately shown that there was a problem. [A squadron of fighters has been dispatched from Eriadu. They are...coming straight for us.]

Shadow’s eyes widened as the canopy on the X-Wing rose far too slowly, “What?! We’re supposed to be too far out of the system to have been noticed!”

[I believe the convoy got a distress call off before I was in range to jam their signals...] Loki didn’t sound apologetic, but then again, he never did unless she was really angry. At this point, she was only at annoyed.

“Fine!” her voice was muffled by the thud and the ‘oof’ sound she made from jumping straight to the deck below instead of using the ladder(which was still where she’d kicked it on the deck before they’d left). It was one of those times where Shadow forgot she was in a human body, and therefor roughly a meter shorter and much, much weaker. After a quick recovery, though, she yelled upwards, “Get us out of here before they get close enough to identify us! And jam their comms now.”

[The fighters will reach us half a minute before we can jump.] Loki announced, though Shadow could feel him readjusting his heading to prepare for the jump.

Yet again, Shadow cursed. This time, though, it wasn’t at the situation. Currently, she was attempting to run to the cockpit while peeling off the flight suit. A task that was proving to be much more difficult than it should have been. All the cords and straps and extra bits nearly threw her on her face more than once, but somehow she managed to just stumble forward. There were a few last hops before the last boot was off, and then it was only a few seconds before Shadow kicked the flight suit off completely. Now down to just her skintight morphsuit, she broke into a run down the corridors, changing back to her Alraxian boy in the process.

Tobias showed up around one corner looking excited, but didn’t get a chance to say anything. Shadow simply ran straight past, and then yelled over her shoulder in her normal, Alraxian voice, “Not now! Go play or something!”

If the child responded, she didn’t hear it. In a matter of seconds she was in the cockpit and swinging around into her usual seat and taking a quick look on both the sensors and the viewport. Distantly, she could see the star of the Eriadu system. She could also spot the fighters on the sensor board...they really were approaching fast. And then...

“Loki! Where the hell did that Star Destroyer come from?!”

There was a brief pause before the ship responded carefully. [It um...just exited hyperspace aft of us.]

“Loki, they’re trying to get a lock on us. They’re going to ID us!” she growled, trying to find some way to get them out of the system right that second.

And then an alarm went off. It wasn’t like the alarms in the X-Wing. This one sounded...well...Alraxian. It was more organic but just as annoying. There was, thankfully, no little blinking light accompanying it. Those would have been bad for Alraxians, as they could be easily distracted by such simple things at the worst of times. This alarm was one she knew well. It caused her to grip the seat very tightly and even dig her claws in, “Loki!!!”

[Its okay!] the ship screamed at her, now maneuvering at all and refusing to give her any kind of manual control. [They’re just shooting! They’ll miss a lot before they hit us!]

“Oh, really?!” Shadow started to run through the few override protocols she knew to get the stubborn ship to start moving and stop trying to be the hero. A green flash blinded her for a second and it took her a second to realize that it had, in fact, been a miss, “How much longer do we have until they hit us?!”

Loki shook violently and more alarms went off. A shock of pain ran through the Force and Shadow’s eyes caught sight of the damage. Aft shields were down and the sublight drives(well, the Alraxian equivalent) were down to half power...but the hyperdrive was still operational.

There was no chance to say a word of protest or even another curse before a sudden pang shot at her through the Force. It was not another shot hitting them. It was her danger sense. That was another feeling she knew all too well. And it was very, very urgent that they moved right that second. She had just finished getting control back and took hold of the console when, suddenly, the stars stretched and they rocketed forward into hyperspace.

Silence.

Through the low pain that still echoed from Loki in the Force, only one sound could be heard, “Loki...you’ve been around Jyren too much.”

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 315: Streak of Luck

Jyren finished his swearing just as the transport reverted back to realspace. The jump had only lasted a few half seconds...if that. Just a micro-jump to escape. That was a good sign. But then Jyren noticed something that was definitely a bad sign.

There was no response to his swear...and it had not only been a rather forceful, crude use of Corellian slang, but it had been loud enough to be easily heard throughout the freighters mid-sized bridge. No one even turned to look his direction. No one...

No one was even on the bridge! Jyren’s eyes finished the scan just after the Force had delivered that information to him. Immediately, he ran over to one of the empty pilot’s consoles and hopped into the seat to check what was going on. He’d at least expect a droid crew! In fact, he’d been ready for a serious fight to even get to the bridge in the first place. But this...a quick look over the binary running across the console screen proved that the large freighter was actually slaved together with the others and being piloted from the Strike Cruiser. And, from the countdown off to his left on a chronometer, they were preparing for another jump.

It became immediately obvious to Jyren that he needed to get manual control back to the consoles on board the freighter’s bridge.

It also quickly reminded Jyren that he was not, in fact, a slicer. That meant his best bet at getting control back was breaking something. Physically breaking, not just randomly cutting wires or other technical tasks. To himself, and in a place where Shadow could easily pick it up in his thoughts, he cursed and wished that Shadow was here instead of him.

And from the look of the chronometer, he had roughly three minutes to figure this out on his own.

Another thought quickly jumped into his mind. Even if he did get control back before the jump, it would become quickly obvious that something was wrong to the very well armed Strike Cruiser that was well within weapon’s range. The second he got control, the ship would have to be jumping to another hyperspace destination to avoid any other...troubles.

Memories reminded him of the location of the navcomputer, and he slid the chair over in between the console for the navcomputer and where the main bulk of the slaved systems would hopefully be. Almost carefully, Jyren tested the console to see if he could do anything...and was able to access the galactic map and program in jump coordinates. Not that they would be loaded into the computer itself, but he could program them then quickly load them and jump after he dealt with the slaved systems.

Though he wasn’t the best with manually calculating jumps, the training he’d been given as a fighter pilot coupled with some basic help from the navcomputer allowed him to program in a five minute jump to a small, and empty, portion of space. He could then regroup and find a way of getting to Shadow...the one part of this whole plan they’d never actually worked out.

A minute and a half was left on the chronometer.

Jyren pushed his chair over to the main systems console and looked at the odd configuration that was caused by slaving its system to another ship. He knew the basics of how it worked. All of the main systems were connected to one console, and then a special comm frequency transmitted the information between the slaved ship and the main ship that was actually being piloted. It had never been a great way of flying ships, as the more that were slaved the more problems developed, but it worked when times were desperate and things simply needed to move. Unsurprisingly, this was one of those times for the New Republic.

So, Jyren figured the best way to get control back was to cut off the comm frequency being transmitted. And, again, he was not a slicer. This was exactly why, just a few moments later, there was a snap-hiss and a blue-green lightsaber blade thrummed loudly in the silent bridge. Jyren grimaced slightly, not actually liking this crude plan, but knowing he didn’t have much of a choice with less than a minute until the jump.

After a deep breath, he spun the blade around and then jammed it straight into the console. There was a crash of sparks and a few very loud hissing and popping sounds as Jyren moved the blade around before finally slashing it out of the side. More sparks(and some small flames) spewed out, too, and multiple alarms went off.

Trying to ignore them for the moment, Jyren thumbed off the lightsaber and ran over to the navcomputer again. Without looking, he hit the switch to input the coordinates then ran back to the main pilot’s console...which was now covered in a series of red lettering. However, it didn’t say anything to indicate the ship was about to explode on him. It did, though, say that the ship was cut off from the Strike Cruiser and that new coordinates were trying to be uploaded into the navcomputer...most importantly, it wanted an override code.

This time, Jyren’s eyes went wide.

And override. They hadn’t even thought about that! It was so obvious! Damn! Damn, damn, damn! Twenty seconds...and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the Strike Cruiser was both hailing him and acquiring a target lock on the freighter. They were definitely not playing around.

His eyes darted from the view outside the bridge of the rest of the small convoy then back to the console asking for the override code in the bright red text that never meant anything good.

Ten seconds.

He could just randomly put in a code of course...but there was no way that would ever work, and there was no time to respond to the hail and use the Force to coax it out of whoever it was that was going to yell at him on the other end. Panic was starting to rise in him and only got worse when there was a loud, constant beeping to indicate that the Strike Cruiser had locked onto the ship. They would remain in this position through the jump, and be able to reacquire the target within a matter of milliseconds on the other end.

Four seconds.

Jyren’s hand had started to shake...and old habit that he’d sworn he’d gotten rid of years ago. It had started long before he was in Starfighter Command, but had only gotten worse with the first few flights...and then after Mare had died...

Two seconds.

No! Focus!

Jyren didn’t focus. In fact, he gave up and just put in the first code that came to his head.

One second.

Outside the viewport, he watched as the other ships in front of him made the jump to hyperspace.

Zero.

Just as the Strike Cruiser made the jump from above the freighter, the ship began a quick change on its heading, turning sharply starboard...then jumped in a completely different direction from the rest of the convoy.

For a long five minutes, Jyren just stood there, hands tightly gripping the console in front of him and eyes locked on the endless blue of hyperspace. He knew he’d made it. He knew the coordinates would take him far away from where the rest of the convoy had gone. He knew that it had somehow worked.

What Jyren didn’t know, however, was when this long streak of luck was going to run out.