NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2451980" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 256: Our Own Private HangarIt had taken a long time for Jyren and Shadow to finally leave and head for the X-Wing. It had taken even longer to reach the starfighter, which was about five levels up and still in an area where the Tam’day’u were fighting the war droids. Thankfully, the ship looked to have been left alone. The only scorch marks and scratches were ones that Jyren already recognized. The starfighter had sure taken a beating since it came into his possession. Yes, he knew it was stolen, but didn’t particularly like thinking of it as anything but a theft of necessity.    As they both climbed into their respective seats and the canopy on the X-Wing lowered, Jyren looked over his shoulder and asked an important question, “You’re sure Ket is up there?”    “No,” Shadow said flatly, shifting around in the seat to find a good position where her tail wasn’t crushed and her head wasn’t hitting the top of the canopy. This thing really wasn’t designed for their body shape or height.    “No?” Jyren raised an eyebrow, but still went on warming up the engines anyway.    “No,” she repeated in the exact same tone, but then added, “But he’s no fool, and won’t just run off somewhere else on the planet. And he isn’t back at the Palace.”    Nodding slowly, Jyren began to bring the starfighter up and off of the flower-like landing pad, “So, yet again, we’re probably walking into a trap?”    “As usual,” Shadow said with a nod of her own. Because of his height over the back of the seat, she could still see his nodding...and she knew he could at least feel her’s through the link.    In another few moments, the X-Wing was flying up through Alraxia’s atmosphere, with Jyren simply heading up into orbit in a random place as he had no real idea where they were going at this point. Not that Shadow did either, but she was working on it while he was doing the flying. It was the best thing she could do to keep her mind off of everything else.     “There’s a group of ships not far ahead of us,” Jyren said, breaking the silence as he looked over the sensor readings. After a moment, he added, “And a smaller group heading our direction. I think he wants us dead anyway he can get it.”    “You fly, I’ll figure out where he is,” Shadow said out loud, even though she knew she shouldn’t have to. It was the unstated plan they were already going with, but sometimes it seemed like she just needed to say things out loud for them to get through Jyren’s head.    Taking note of the sensors again, Jyren reached over and powered up the shields while at the same time opening up the S-Foils, “This may get rough.”    “Just fly,” Shadow almost growled, no longer really caring what he did as long as he kept them alive. Her eyes then closed to eliminate the distractions that were about to appear, and she immediately reached out with the Force to find Ket. If he was here, it would be easy to find him.    Jyren, on the other hand, kept his eyes open. It was a good thing to do when flying, especially when someone was about to start shooting. Another second after that thought raced through his mind, the sickening green coloured blasts of energy shot out from ahead and straight to the starfighter. The X-Wing immediately rolled away before arcing back and letting loose a long stream of red laser fire.    There was a brief flash before Jyren manage to weave the X-Wing straight through the formation of four...five...six?! Yes, it was about six of those fighters, five of which were now wrapping around to pursue, the sixth just drifting off on its original course. At least one of them took a hit.As Jyren pressed the X-Wing faster and doubled the shields on the rear of the fighter, he could now get a good sight of the fleet of starships in orbit. A large number of them were heading down towards the planet, too. Transports. But still more were staying up in orbit...all of which in odd pincer like shapes that were completely alien to anything Jyren was used to seeing, “Shadow...?”    “I’m working on it!” she suddenly snapped back before he’d even finished saying her name.    “Please work faster,” Jyren mumbled, even though he knew she could still hear him. As he continued the haphazard and zig-zag flight to avoid the pursuing fighters’ attacks, Jyren couldn’t help but have the bad feeling that those larger ships also had weapons. That would definitely be a bad thing. He didn’t even consider the possibility of shields at this point.    But at least the fighters that were shooting at them weren’t good shots. They didn’t seem to be very good at predicting Jyren’s movements, and so he didn’t have too much trouble keeping out of the way(while, of course, taking some help from the Force). But it wasn’t their accuracy Jyren was worried about. There were enough of them that they could just fire in enough direction that, eventually, he’d have no where to move to without taking at least one hit. And while the X-Wing could take one, he wasn’t about to risk it if he didn’t have to.    And then, as the larger ships began to grow even larger in the viewport, Jyren came to terms with the simple fact that everything he did was some kind of cruel joke in the Force’s mind...or whatever it had, but it had to think to continually pull such cruel tricks. Green lances of...similar whatever that was began to spout up from the large ships. Though most of them were closer to the size of Corellian Corvettes, they seemed to have as many guns as a Star Destroyer.    In a second, the black of space was alight with a wave of green. Jyren’s first reaction was to even out the shields...probably useless but it made him feel better. His second reaction was an immediate change of course. Instead of heading straight for the center of the group, he decided that he might as well at least use the ships for cover as best he could. So, rather abruptly, the X-Wing cut down into a vertical dive. Even Jyren was amazed that the fighter was capable of such a maneuver. Clearly the pursuing fighters weren’t, as most of them overshot the X-Wing before trying to wrap around...though at least two were caught in the insanely huge barrage of fire from the larger cruisers.    The dive was taking them to a point that would be right next to the nearest of the ships, which now was definitely like a giant, flying claw. Its weapons were slowly following down, but thankfully they were slower than the speed of the X-Wing. But as he got closer to the starship, other nearby cruisers began to open fire, causing Alraxia’s orbit to look more like a crisscross of green lines than anything else. Somehow, Jyren navigated through it, finding the larger holes and getting as close as he could to the nearest of the ships.    When he was probably just a few meters off, Jyren pulled up and skimmed over the cruiser’s hull. It had stopped firing, at least...as had the others. So they weren’t dumb enough to shoot on the larger ships. He wove the X-Wing around some larger tower-like structures and things that were vaguely familiar but still altogether alien in design, before coming to the conclusion that he could not simply skim the surface of this for cover forever. Sooner or later, they’d find a way to take the little X-Wing down. So, more urgently, he said over his shoulder, “Shadow...”    She didn’t respond this time. Or rather, her response was delayed. When Jyren had decided to head for one of the even larger ships that wasn’t too far off, and had made a run for it, the three cruisers around him reopened their barrage of fire...as did the ship he was heading for. And then, right on cue, Shadow said, “Go back! He’s on the one you just passed!”    Typical. If Jyren had ever done something like that to Shadow, it would have been an offense worthy of death. The only good thing was that the X-Wing was extremely maneuverable and wasn’t having too much trouble avoiding the weapon’s fire. And the pursuing fighters seemed to have backed off.    “Is there a hangar or something?!” Jyren asked quickly as one shot came a little too close, skimming the aft shields as the X-Wing spun around and nearly breaking through completely.    “I don’t know,” Shadow admitted, now with her eyes open and completely aware of the insanity around them. She was holding on again.    “Fine, we make our own,” Jyren growled, now outright angry at every single one of these energy blasts. The ship they were heading for(for the second time) had stopped firing again, likely because the X-Wing was in too close. That was one good thing, “Arm a torpedo and fire it somewhere at the hull.”    Shadow nodded, not having to ask anything as it had been half her idea which he’d simply pulled through the link. Carefully, she reached over and took the stick that was in front of her. At least it didn’t control the ship right now. It didn’t take too long to remember how to arm the weapons, and in a second she was ready. When that happened, she didn’t need to ask when to fire. She knew the answer as well as Jyren did.    And in a second, the whole X-Wing shuddered as a bright blue proton torpedo rocketed away. Jyren made a mental note that there were only about two left now. It was also becoming easier to weave away from the other ships’ firing as less guns were able to come to bear on them now. Then there was a bright flash.    Normally, at the speed they were going and considering how hard it was to see, pulling up and out of the way would have been the wise choice. But Jyren wasn’t about to push his luck and put them in range of all the weapons again. So, instead, he pushed his luck and squeezed the trigger on the quad cannons for good measure, firing into the still burry place where the torpedo had hit.    And then he could see it. Just a few hundred meters away and there was a huge gap in the cruiser’s hull...large enough for the X-Wing to get in and probably just barely deep enough. As quickly as he could, Jyren closed the S-Foils and cut as much power from the engines as he could to slow them down. He even put the landing gears out for good measure...but stopping to enter carefully wasn’t an option, and so they continued in at a speed that was definitely too fast.    No one said ‘hang on.’ It wasn’t necessary. It was an obvious fact that it was time to hang on.  And then in a shatter and a crash, they ‘landed’ in the makeshift docking bay.</blockquote>

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