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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3455541" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 449: GroundedThe one thing that the Duros native language had the most in common with Basic was the sheer number of curses that it contained. Thousands of years of space travel added onto the older parts of the language only added to such a wide variety of choices when things didn’t go well. When an explosion rocked the corridor that Rulae Nok was charging down to get to the hangar, he decided it was time to utter one of those words...and he picked one that didn’t have any equivalent in Basic, and was definitely far more foul than most.    There was a reason he decided it was a necessary word, even if no one was around to hear it.    The explosion had been nearby, so much so that it had thrown him to the ground. He heard a loud, violent crashing noise and when he looked up, saw that the corridor itself had collapsed in a good five meters ahead of him. Light from Gyndine’s native star was now seeping into the corridor from the large, open hole in the ceiling that was now above a section of very large pieces of duracrete that were blocking the way to the hangar.    Not one to let things get in between him and a starfighter, Rulae got to his feet and ran to the rubble. His first attempt was to dig through it, but it proved to be both too heavy to move most of the pieces and too deep. The sparks from severed wires weren’t terribly comforting, either. So the Duros took the second option, and started to climb the debris to get out instead of turning and going back the way he’d come.    The second he started up, he was able to see the sky above. The grey-blue sky of Gyndine was now littered with hundreds of objects. Rulae could make out the teardrop shapes of Yuuzhan Vong Coralskippers, as well as various other flying-rock-like designs that looked to be larger and gave Rulae a bad feeling. Amongst the Vong ships were everything from TIE Fighters, to X-Wings, to A-Wings, and even a few E-Wings from the looks of it. All of this was ignoring the bright flashes of red-orange molten fire from the Vong ships and the bright lights of the other starfighter’s laser cannons that lit the sky up. And looking even farther up, Rulae could see the shapes of the defense fleet in orbit...the larger ships, at least. The fact that they were in such a tight orbit to be seen with the naked eye was not a comforting feeling to him.    A piece of duracrete moved under his booted foot and Rulae nearly slid down the jagged wall he was trying to climb. When he caught himself, he decided it was best to focus on the task in front of him rather than above him. He took a careful scan of the so-called ‘wall’ again and this time took more time in selecting foot and handholds to scale the few meters to get out of the corridor. It paid off, and in a matter of moments he was up and on top of the building’s roof...    ...and looking straight at a huge blaze of fire at the end of the corridor he’d been following. The large building at the end was the hangar, and from the looks of it, had been quickly identified and targeted by the Vong. Despite the flames, though, Coralskippers continued to strafe the building, firing globs of molten something from their nose cannons and causing showers of liquified durasteel and duracete to shoot into the air.    So much for getting to his X-Wing.    For the first time, Rulae’s two red eyes looked down to the chaos he was hearing from that direction. The corridor he had been in was an enclosed bridge, of sorts, between the hangar and the main administration building and it was a good two stories above the ground level. In the street below, Rulae could see a mass of people moving in every direction they could...panicking, obviously.He cursed again, then felt the roof of the corridor under him start to give way to his weight. Typical. Immediately, he moved closer to the hangar, looking back as the roof where he’d been in also collapsed. The section he was now on would likely go soon, too...the entire structure wasn’t going to last...and not only was Rulae stuck on top of it, but the street below had far too many people and if it fell, it wasn’t going to be pretty.    Thinking quickly, Rulae retrieved a grappling gun from his belt, glad that he was in at least half of his flightsuit, then tried to figure out how exactly he was going to get off of the building and then down before it all collapsed. No elegant solutions came to mind, especially since none of the buildings around him got much higher at all. Most of the solutions he came up with would mean him being splattered against a building’s wall, and that wasn’t exactly ideal. The other option was...was...    ...was something that he figured Jyren would have been crazy enough to do.    But there wasn’t much choice left and he knew the corridor wouldn’t hold much longer, not with the hangar still being pounded by Coralskippers and some of the shots getting closer and closer. So with a tight grip on the grappling gun and making sure he wasn’t a complete fool, Rulae took a few steps back.    When he felt the roof giving way under his feet again, Rulae was left with no chioce. He got a quick, running start, then jumped off the corridor. As he jumped, he was spinning himself around while at the same time trying to find a sturdy spot to aim at. Considering he was falling very quickly, there wasn’t time for that...and so he just pulled the trigger and hoped. The cable shot out, digging into the duracrete. In a fraction of a second, the cable went taut and yanked hard on Rulae’s arm, forcing the gun out of his grip and dropping him into a fall.    Thankfully, two stories wasn’t far at all, and he’d taken most of the distance down already...and though it wasn’t his plan to land hard on the ground below, he did manage to tuck into a quick roll and only barrel into a few people in the process. His entire body hurt from hitting the ground, as he had still fallen a good five meters unexpectedly, but Rulae was scrambling to his feet as fast as he could, yelling, “Clear this area, everyone!”    Despite his yelling of this, not many people seemed to get exactly why. And it sure didn’t help that he heard cries from some members of the crowd to not listen to him. But that was about the time the corridor above decided it was enough, and finally crumbled under the pressure of the attacks. Rulae glanced up again, then yelled again for people to move while he, himself, bolted away from where he was and tried to push as many of the currently stunned people with him as possible.    He got a good distance before realizing there had been no loud crash behind him. Rulae stopped and spun around, immediately noticing that there were hundreds of pieces of the corridor just...floating there above the heads of the few stunned people not smart enough to get out of the way.    Rulae’s eyes scanned the area, and quickly say a young looking human with his arms outstretched and a look of concentration on his face. Rulae wasn’t an idiot, and connected the dots quickly...also noting that there were still people in the way.    Against his better judgement, Rulae turned and ran back, grabbing the people still under the now-floating pieces of duracrete and durasteel and moving them out of the way as fast as he could, while yelling at them the whole while to motivate others. In a matter of seconds, they seemed to all come to their senses and were out of the way.    At that, Rulae looked to the Jedi who was now just a few steps in front of him and said, “Its safe now...thank you.”    Before he got any response, the Jedi slowly lowered the pieces of the rubble, then, once it was down, nearly collapsed from what looked like exhaustion. Rulae stepped over to help him, but was pushed away, “I’m all right.”    Even though he was being pushed away, Rulae helped the young man up to his feet again. Once the Jedi was straightened, a renewed strength seemed to take hold of him, and he quickly seemed to notice the rank insignias on Rulae’s uniform, “Shouldn’t you be in the sky?”    “Shouldn’t you be finding another place to make a dramatic entrance?” Rulae asked, a hint of a simle on his large mouth.     The Jedi chuckled slightly then looked over his shoulder and down the street towards a section of the city that was ablaze just like the hangar was, “I have to go.”    Rulae nodded, reaching for his comlink to figure out where he would be needed now that he was grounded, “May the Force be with you, friend.”    Though the Jedi had already turned to leave, the words stopped him. He looked over his shoulder to Rulae and allowed a smile on his hardened features, “And with you, sir.”    Then he darted off through the crowd of people towards the flames.</blockquote>

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