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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3938236" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 547: The Greatest Show Off of Them AllManaging a very careful glance around the corner, Marix managed to get an updated look at her situation before she had to duck back behind the wall due to a volley of blaster fire coming straight for her. Pieces of rock exploded from the corner of the wall as blaster bolts slammed into it. Causing her to shift slightly and nearly drop the unconscious Yuuzhan Vong she still carried. This would only have been a bad thing due to the fact that it might somehow shake him back into consciousness, and that was the last thing she needed right now.    More yelling echoed her way, but Marix still couldn’t make out any actual words. That didn’t matter, it told her something else. The voices were closer, and the pitch was odd...they were running straight for her, or close enough to get a clearer shot if she popped out again. Where the hell was Loki?!    A rumbling echoed through the building suddenly, shaking the walls just enough to send a layer of dust down from the carved ceiling a meter above her. There was a shout from Torno’s men, and then another rumbling that was much louder and much deeper.    And then came half-second long, roar that was nearly deafening, which also violently shook everything, nearly throwing Marix to the ground. She managed to stay put against the wall, free hand digging claws in just to be safe, but still not moving. Vaguely, she could hear more shouts and yells before another, much louder roar exploded through the main entranceway to the mountain stronghold, this time joined by the distinct sound of metal buckling.    There.    Her head was spinning due to the sound, her legs barely able to keep her up thanks to the structure losing a great deal of its strength, and her shoulder was aching thanks to the damned Vong, but Marix knew exactly what that sound was. It was time to move.    Marix didn’t use the Force to keep her steady and to compensate for the heavy-headed feeling and ringing in her ears. She could have, but instead she just did what she was best at: gritted her sharp teeth, stood up straight, said a simple curse to gravity, and then ran.Despite having a heavy, unconscious humanoid to carry, Marix bolted around her cover at an amazing speed. Her eyes took in the sight as she was moving. Far ahead, her destination, the huge main doors to Torno’s little stronghold had been completely smashed, the corners still red-hot. Dust and ash and smoke blanketed all of the entrance, with bodies littered everywhere. A few stood, but only the ones that had been coming towards her, and even then they were hunched over, clinging skulls or wearily and unsteadily getting to their feet.    Marix leapt easily over a downed Rodian as she sprinted for the opening, seeing a slight dark colour growing in the distance through the light that came through the doorway’s new opening. The sound of a blaster bolt behind her caught Marix’s attention, but thankfully the shot went well over her head. Marix gripped the Vong with claws now, her free hand pushing her off one of the crates that had been used as cover by Torno’s men not seconds earlier.    Through the light and the dust, the large object in the sky continued to grow at an amazing speed. Loki was diving at a speed that was very dangerous in an atmosphere, and Marix could see red streaks coming up towards him from the ground. That was why he was having to move so fast.    Reaching the remains of what had once been a barricade, Marix was greeted by burning crates, bodies, and an absolute mess of molten durasteel. Behind her, one of Torno’s men was still firing a weapon, but he was so bad a shot she didn’t bother paying him any attention, instead focusing on climbing through the mess to get outside right away.    She was halfway through the remains of the barricade when the not-so-distant shape of Loki made a very dramatic and sudden shift. He spun around ninety-degrees, cutting thrust so that his momentum now carried him right for where she was...sideways.    [Oh, you show off!] Marix growled.    [Don’t yell at me until after we’re not dead!]    Marix rolled her eyes as she got to the ground again, realizing that standing right in front of the doorway with the speed Loki was going at was not the best of ideas. She looked to the side and made her way as quickly as she could for the side entrance just to use it as cover. [That wasn’t even a coherent sentence!]    And then the one constant stream of blaster bolts towards her became much, much more. Marix was alerted to the danger through the Force, turning her head to see through the ruined crates and boxes and bodies to see at least twenty of Torno’s guards charged right for her, blasters blazing. Apparently some of Torno’s men only came to play after the rest were dead and dying.    Finally, Marix relieved her shoulder of its pain and dropped the Vong to the ground beneath her, getting a grunt of out him but nothing else. She dove down at the same time, landing face first against hard, duracrete at such force that she managed to get shocks of pain through everything from her knees to her chest to her face. But at least the blaster bolts all went over her and hit what was left of the huge, durasteel door.    A few seconds of constant blaster fire continued, but then it suddenly stopped. When that happened, Marix knew what it meant, so her hands quickly went to the back of her head, protecting herself as best she could physically while she readied herself to draw on the Force for some extra protection.    Loki hit the duracrete stairs outside the main building first, with a violent shake to the entire building’s foundation and a loud crashing sound. The entire ground under Marix continued to rumble under her as Loki slid against the duracrete, throwing chunks of it into the air which slammed into the durasteel door in loud, worrying pangs. It wasn’t long at all, barely a second, before more pieces of the door began to collapse inwards, and much of the ceiling began to come with it as the foundations lost much of their strength.    But before anything could hit the ground, Loki hit the door.    Whatever pieces of it had been left standing lost their strength, coming crashing down as Loki’s starboard ‘wing’ cut into the remaining frame, with the bulk of his body following. But the momentum was gone, and the impact after impact was enough to slow him down to the point where, finally, the ship came to a stop with a loud groan.    Of course, the ceiling and the door was collapsing inwards still. The first sounds of impacts were heavy thuds on Loki’s starboard side, denting and cutting into his thick hull before bouncing off and slamming into the other rubble caused by his shooting at the door before charging straight in. Marix had managed to shift to her side, seeing Loki’s main body stopped a good seven meters from her, but the shield of his wing well away from her. Eyes shifted up to see much of the ceiling and door coming for her, and the prepared and very natural reaction in the Force was not that much of a strain for her.    Reaching out with her arms and then the Force, Marix managed to stop many of the pieces that were right above her a good three meters above her. Around both her and the Vong, the rest of the debris hit, bouncing away and some nearly slamming into her but somehow managing to miss. Still holding a handful of large pieces of debris above her, Marix could see that much of the rest of the ceiling was coming down, too, but the initial wave had just hit...    A free hand lashed out and grabbed the nearest arm of the Yuuzhan Vong as Marix darted to her feet, letting go of the debris above her finally. She ran, literally dragging the Vong across the rubble behind her but fast enough that the debris above hit just behind him instead of crushing him and making everything a waste of effort. Her eyes had a new goal: the suddenly open main hatch on Loki’s underside.    A few smaller pieces of ceiling hit her as she ran for it, but they were easily ignored and in matter of seconds, Marix was inside screaming at Loki to go right now before people realized he was still in condition to fly and started shooting again and oh are you actually okay enough to be able to keep flying because if not I’m leaving you!    When the hatch closed behind Marix, the one in front to the main corridor irised open and Marix charged in, Vong still dragging right behind. She opened up a nearby room, threw him in, sealed the door, and ran as fast as she could to the cockpit, getting thrown from one bulkhead to the next as Loki shifted suddenly and definitely was being shot at again.    “Go go go go go!” she was yelling the words without realizing it just as she entered the cockpit and literally jumped into the pilot’s chair.    [Going as...as fast as I can...as fast as I can...] Loki’s ‘voice’ sounded pained, which was not that surprising. [Kind of...a bit...numb right now.]    That wasn’t good.    Marix reached forward and took hold of the controls herself, “I told you not to show off!”    [Not until we’re...until we’re not...we’re not dead, remember?]    Through the viewport in front of her, Marix could barely see anything but red and green bolts of energy. Obviously, Torno was a bit angry and had managed to get some ships into the air because they were nearly already into low orbit. Marix’s eyes darted to the sensors. At least four ships were after them, and gaining...or, no, Loki was losing speed.    “C’mon, Loki, hang on!” she tried to encourage the ship, not liking what she was seeing on the monitors that showed his vital signs, “You can do this. We just need to get to hyperspace.”    The control yoke wasn’t responding well to her, which meant that Loki was hurting pretty badly. She could barely maneuver him enough to dodge the turbolaser fire from behind them, and it was getting more and more sluggish.  A violent jolt rocked the ship and nearly sent her head first into the controls. Marix glanced to the vital signs again to see the damage done and couldn’t help but cringe. But they were in orbit now, and despite the risks she put even more power to what was left of Loki’s engines.    Loki rocketed away from the small planet at a speed that was very dangerous for his current state, with three similarly sized transports firing turbolaser batteries at them, and an even larger freighter doing the same, but with more guns. Marix’s limited control thanks to Loki’s injuries meant that the best she could do was just push forward faster, shifting the Kanyak slightly from one side to the next and in soft rolls to avoid the clumsy shots...    A light came on just in front of her, a soft blue-green colour to indicate they were free of any nearby gravity wells. Marix nearly pounced on the hyperspace controls, and in a sudden, wonderful moment, the stars began to twist and stretch...then Loki shot off into hyperspace.    But Marix didn’t let out a sigh of relief and collapse into the chair.    Instead, she twisted the seat around and then bolted out of it, scrambling down the corridor towards Loki’s aft section where all of his organs and vital systems were. He was bleeding internally according to the vital signs in the cockpit, with the entirety of his underside nearly gone and much of his hull so damaged that it was amazing he hadn’t come apart in the atmosphere.    Their escape wasn’t going to matter if he died now, and Marix wasn’t going to let that happen.</blockquote>

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