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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2699869" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 17: Head OnThe turbolift came to an abrupt halt at the lowest of the underground levels, and the door immediately slid open to reveal a relatively small room with a few older Jedi herding the younger students to the safer storage areas. Esah and Gant did not leave the turbolift. Instead, they simply got the younger students out, made sure they the older Jedi knew there was another group, and hit the switch on the lift to head back up right away.    Halfway up, the turbolift came to another abrupt halt...but this time there was a loud explosion above to add to the stop...and they both felt the turbolift’s safety features kick in and lock them into place to prevent the thing from falling. Esah had instinctively gripped the wall of the lift and shut her eyes...but soon opened them back up to find little had changed, “What was that?”    Gant’s head was turned up and he seemed to be focusing on whatever the source of ‘that’ was, “The top level is gone...the two below it are severely damaged.”    Esah shifted slightly to look up, reaching out with the Force as she did so. After a moment, her head turned back to face him. She knew he couldn’t see through walls. He’d said it himself more than once. He saw in the Force like they all did when solid objects got in the way of the scanner-like vision his species had. So, after rubbing her forehead with a webbed hand, Esah asked, “How can you be sure?”    Now, Gant’s head went own and turned to face her, “I feel nothing up there.”    Esah took another moment and concentrated again. He was right. The emptiness of the sky seemed to occur much lower down than it usually did. The feeling of emptiness caused her stomach to turn, “We have to get up there.”    She was starting to reach up and open the top section of the turbolift to get out of the now-frozen-in-place lift. But Gant reached up and caught her wrist, saying flatly, “The bombers are still out there, Esah. They will kill us.”    One thing that Gant was very good at was leaving things unsaid. How he’d learned to speak only two sentences but cause her to think of five others was still beyond her. The Mon Calamari let out a watery sigh, “Then what are we supposed to do?! Just stand here while people...while Cira and Cowan could be dead?”    “They aren’t dead,” Gant answered before she’d finished the word ‘dead’, “But they can handle themselves.”    Again, Esah listened to the things that Gant was implying. But instead of asking a stupid question, she went straight to the point, “What do you want to do?”    Gant let go of her wrist now, motioning for her to open the hatch up so they could get into the actual lift tube, “Something needs to be done about the bombers.”    After Esah finished getting the hatch open, she climbed up and out to look up the small tube, saying down to her Miraluka companion, “I get the feeling there’s more to your idea than shooting at them.”    A moment later and up next to her on top of the turbolift, Gant smiled and nodded, “That’s about all I have at the moment...but the climb down should give us a little time to think.”    The climb down did give them time to think...but it was more than a little time. By the time they had reached the main hangar level, at least three more violent explosions had rocked the temple. They got the main door open and exited the tube into the hangar again, finding it to be in much worse shape than they’d left it. Parts of the ceiling had collapsed in places, and two of the larger columns were crumbling from the violent explosions. But the Jedi and New Republic troops were pushing the Shadow Academy and their troops back. No longer was the fight right at the edge of the hangar’s entrance, and it was still moving back towards the tree line.    Now, though, Gant and Esah knew what they were going to do. They just needed...    “This one,” the Mon Calamari called over to Gant, waving a blue hand at him as she headed for a fairly small shuttle. It was the kind of box-shaped transport that was really only used because it had to be, not because anyone actually liked them. But they worked...they were easy to fly...and most importantly, no one was watching it.    The two Jedi apprentices ran across the hangar to the shuttle, glad to find the hatch wasn’t locked or sealed...not that it would have stopped them. Esah would have been able to open it. But it did mean they didn’t have to wait anymore and that was just that much less time for the bombers to get another run in. The Mon Calamari was immediately in the pilot’s chair, her webbed hands clumsily working around controls that hadn’t been designed for her species. But, despite this, she was working amazingly fast and the ship’s systems were online before Gant was even seated next to her. By the time he was down and strapped in, Esah had the repulsorlifts operating and was already heading out of the hangar.    “You can use the sensors, yes?” she asked out of the side of her mouth, currently focusing on not flying into any of the Jedi that were making it interesting to get out of the hangar.    Gant nodded, but said nothing. He could see them, yes, but it was a bit ‘fuzzy’, if that was the right word to use. His species’ vision didn’t always like to cooperate with computer screens, and it took a lot of training and focus to really be able to ‘see’ them. Gant had just enough...which was all that mattered right now, anyway.    “Two clicks north,” he announced after those few moments of concentration, “There’s four of them and they’re starting to pull around.”    Esah nodded, despite the fact that he wasn’t even paying attention to her and likely couldn’t even sense the motion. He did, of course, feel the ship pulling around as she said, “We’ll head right for them.”    This was, finally, her turn to leave something important unsaid. And, thankfully, Gant didn’t miss it. They were heading straight at four TIE Bombers, which weren’t heavily armed but still had two blaster cannons...more than their shuttle had. They wouldn’t just let a shuttle rush them without putting up a fight.    Gant was going to have to get this right the first time.</blockquote>

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