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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1809929" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 11: Cramped Starfighters“We’re about to head up,” Akan called into the comm as they looked outside, noting that the Y-Wing was untouched and the area around it looked empty enough.    Ansion’s voice replied over the comm, “Division Two and Four are already heading to the Claw. One’s about to lift off and we’re nearly to our ship. They’re up there getting ready for hyperspace as soon as we’re all in. At least an Star Destroyer’s worth of ground troops here. They’re looking for something and we’re just in the way.”    Akan took another careful look across the tree line beyond the Y-Wing, then behind him to Zaarin. She was watching Shadow, who knelt on the other side of the entrance and looked like a predator just ready to pounce. Zaarin caught Akan’s eye and he just shrugged, then tapped the comm again, “We’ve got one of their officers. Hopefully can figure out what they’re so crazy about. Then get paid...” he trailed off a moment, glancing to Jen and lowering his voice, “This is more than I bargained for, anyway.”    “Agreed,” Ansion responded a few moments later, “Get back to the ship and we’ll figure things out from there.”    The comm clicked on the other end, and Akan turned to the others, “Looks clear to me. Probably should get out of here before any more Imperials arrive.”    Shadow simply nodded and picked up the officer, who she’d been handed and had done much better carrying him anyway. It seemed like no matter what, she was better than Akan was. As a Jedi, he knew this was stupid and everyone had their own strengths...but something about it still bothered him. Shaking off the feeling he turned back to Zaarin, who nodded as he got up and followed suit.    Blaster ready, Akan carefully moved to the Y-Wing. Nothing shot at him...good. Heading to the underside of the cockpit, he flipped a switch that opened up the very small cargo compartment. Being part of the cockpit, it had minimal life support systems for some reason. Convenient for moments like this. Shadow was behind him, and stuffed the body of the officer into the compartment before it was closed. Not only would he wake up with a horrible migraine, but his neck was going to ache too.     Climbing up onto the nose of the ship, he opened the canopy and looked back to Shadow and Zaarin. Someone was going to be riding this a friend...Akan began to voice this, but Shadow...changed. It was as disturbing as before, but somehow he almost expected it. Now, on the ground in front of the Y-Wing where she had stood, there was a small creature that looked much like she had been before. Feline...much like a Corellian sand panther, but with a mane along its back to the tail. Except this time she was smaller. Almost the right size to rest on his shoulder.    Zaarin stared in amazement and Akan managed a shrug, “Pick her up and hand her to me. Looks like you ride in the back with...” he waved his hand vaguely to what he was pretty sure was Shadow. Before Jen had the chance to actually pick the feline up, Shadow bent back and hopped up onto the Y-Wing with one leap. Impressive.    She then padded over and hopped into the gunner’s seat, waiting with a very impatient look on her ‘face’. Akan shrugged to Zaarin, and knelt down a little, extending his arm down to help her up. She took his hand and he managed to get her up onto the nose. Quietly, he said, “Look, I don’t know either. Lets just get out of here first, hm?”    Slowly, Jen nodded and climbed into the rear-facing gunner’s seat with Shadow sitting in her lap. Akan started to turn to get into the pilot’s chair but something...a quick flash shot through his mind. A second later he heard the sound of a blaster firing....far off, only one shot. With the warning from the Force, he was already moving to his left, rolling off to the side and nearly off the Y-Wing. But no...somehow the Force was wrong. He dove...into the shot, which caught him hard in the right shoulder. The pain pinned him to the metal plate next to the canopy, and as he could smell the charred flesh from the shot only one thought ran through his mind. How could that have hit him? It wasn’t aimed at him...but where he dodged to. That didn’t make sense...    But this wasn’t the time to lay still. Someone was out there that was most likely the best shot in the galaxy. And the canopy was open..leaving Zaarin and Shadow in the open. Akan’s mind forced his eyes to open and as he turned his head, he saw a red flash that coincided with the sound of the blaster shot again. Off in the trees...just to the east of the installation. This time when he rolled to the front of the nose, with the canopy behind him and providing at least minimal cover, the blaster shot hit the Y-Wing where he had been lying. Great. Not waiting for another shot, he got to his knees and climbed over the fixed part of the canopy into the pilot’s chair, “The second the power’s up fire the ion cannons into the trees back behind us!” he growled painfully, “It’ll at least scare him off!”    Zaarin was currently in the process of holding Shadow down, who was madly trying to get out and most likely go kill the shooter. No time for that, at least Zaarin understood. The first thing he did as the Y-Wing warmed up was to close the canopy. It would only provide protection for one or two shots, but it was more than nothing. More shots started ringing out at them. No longer just single...and Akan glanced to the tree line to see stormtroopers coming out of nearly everywhere. Ansion wasn’t kidding about there being a Star Destroyer’s worth on the planet...    With the Y-Wing warmed up, he immediately cut on the repulsorlifts and started getting them airborne. The ion cannon wasn’t firing...why?    “I said shoot, dammit!” Akan growled through gritted teeth as he tried to ignore the pain in his right arm. That was no easy task, of course.    Zaarin’s voice sounded panicked when she cried back to him, “I don’t know how! I don’t fly! I’m a scientist!”    “Typical!” he then cursed to himself and fired the main cannons at the trees as they got over them. Two came toppling down, but Akan didn’t give time to see the effects of the shots beyond that. They were still being shot at, and though the Y-Wing had strong armor when compared to personal weapons, lucky shots were still to be worried about. Looking across the blue sky of the planet, Akan caught sight of two Imperial Sentinel-class Landing Shuttles. One was still on the ground, but the other was just pulling out of the trees about ten or so kilometers out. At the same time, up in orbit, he could see the underbelly of a Star Destroyer. Great.    “Claw, we’re just on our way up,” he called into the comm channel that was disturbingly silent, “Can you hold on for just a few more minutes?”    There was a long pause before he heard the voice of one of the members of the Claw’s bridge crew, “Div Three just got in and we’re trying to outrun that Star Destroyer. Get up here before they get to us or meet us at these coords.”    A line of hyperspace coordinates were transmitted to him, and he kept them on the screen despite not planning on using them. Cutting the sublight engines on, the Y-Wing was sent shooting off into the atmosphere. Sensors showed that the Sentinel shuttle was following. With its weapons compliment, if it got in range they were most likely going to end up as more wreckage for the orbit of Endor. Then something started beeping.    “What’s that?!” Zaarin called out, trying to look around to see.    Akan cut off the alarm and watched the blue fade into the blackness of space. Not very far to the starboard side of the Y-Wing was the Star Destroyer...closing fast. Off to the port side, there was a small silhouette that could only be the Claw pulling away from the planet. But those weren’t the reason for the alarms, “TIEs on their way. Interceptors. Fast...we can’t outrun them,” he activated the comm, “Claw, get out of here. We’ll meet you at the destination.”    “Affirmative,” replied the same voice as before, “Good luck.”    “You, too,” Akan cut off the comm and put the engines to full. Just had to get out of the planet’s gravity well and then make a quick jump before going to the actual coordinates, “Zaarin, can you plot a hyperspace course to some system close?”    “Um...yes,” she sounded a bit unsure, but the ‘yes’ was nice.    “Do it fast, and tell me the second its done,” he was speaking in short, quick tones that were in no way friendly. This wasn’t the time to think about anything but hopeful survival. At least he’d never had to ask for an interesting life. Instead, he sometimes just wanted a day where nothing at all happened. The Force at least owed him that much.    Apparently, the Force didn’t agree. Another beeping sound started and Akan cursed as he tried to bring the fighter into enough turns so that whoever was currently trying to lock on(most likely the Sentinel which was still back behind him) would at least have some trouble. Y-Wings were not meant for speed, maneuvering, or anything really beyond bombing, assault, and support. Slow and bulky...and old.     Suddenly the cockpit was going crazy with alarms. Missile fired...behind them. The sentinel. Jen let out a yelp(as she could most likely see it coming towards them), and Akan started pulling the Y-Wing into maneuvers it was never meant to handle. It growled an argument but managed the corkscrew dive anyway, the concussion missile followed suit as best it could, but when Akan cut the thrusts off completely and pulled up just a few degrees, he held his breath. Not a second later, he watched the red missile shoot past, only a few meters from impacting the craft.    Letting out a sigh of relief, he put the engines back to full and diverted as much of the weapon’s power to the engines to get even more out of them. He gave one quick glance over his shoulder to Zaarin, “How’s it coming?!”    “...its ready!” She said almost too loudly. Good. The Interceptors were just reaching firing range, and the alarms were going crazy as multiple ships began firing on them. Not taking prisoners, obviously.     “Hold on and pray!” Akan called out, angling the ship in the correct direction and pulled the hyperspace levers. The lines of the stars pulled back slowly, so slowly that Akan was sure that they’d get hit just as they were leaving. But then, they shot forward and a tunnel of blue surrounded the cockpit of the ship. Allowing himself another sigh, Akan slumped back into the seat and said quietly, “You had better be worth all this trouble, Zaarin.”</blockquote>

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