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Chapter Seventy Three Mumbling
to himself as he makes the final preparations for their emergence into
Chandrillan space, Jae-Lee finally decides everything is ready. “Okay, Mees? I
need you to power up the weapons and shielding systems as soon as we revert.
We’re gonna be coming in really close to the atmospheric line and I don’t
want any passing patrol flight taking pot shots at us.” “Got
it… You want fire control, too?” She asks as she completes the last of her
checklists. “Yeah,
but only stutterfire… I’ll leave the big guns to you.” He says playfully. “Aww,
I never knew you cared.” She replies, kicking his seat to add to her sarcasm. Looking
at his display, and then hearing the reversion bell warning, he calls out, “We
revert in five, four, three, two…” Suddenly,
the starlines are gone and they face to face with the watery planet Chandrila.
However, that is not all they are face to face with, a freighter is staring down
their nose and closing in fast. “Mees! Contact at “Coming
up now, shielding is already in place… Another ten seconds on the weap-…”
She stops as she looks up to get a visual on the approaching ship. “Hold it,
Jae!” “Hold
it, my ass! This guy already has his weapon systems online and he’s bigger
than we are, Mees. Get me that fire control, NOW!” Jae is frantic, not
understanding why his friend is stalling him, until he takes a closer look
himself, with more than his sensor package. Staring a few moments longer, before
he says another word. “I just don’t Fraggin believe it!” “Is
that any way to greet an associate?”
Over the comm comes the stern and very dry voice of Vic Orion. Mees
is the first to respond, “How in the name of Corel, did you ever-…” He
cuts her off. “Do
you really need to ask that question, Sahran?”
His words are all she needs to hear. Meesahran should know by now that Vic is
never so far away from her, as to not know what is going on. She
smiles a bit before she answers, “I guess not, Victor.” Jae
is suddenly struck by the difference in the man’s tone as he speaks to his
dearest friend. Maybe, just maybe, there is something in this man he believed to
have no soul that is redeemable. At least, it appears to be true through the
eyes and heart of his friend. “So,
Jae, you better get the others in here if we’re gonna get anything done around
here.” Vic’s
comment instantly shocks Jae back into the present and the task at hand. He
quickly keys in the coordinates and the sends them along the correct frequency,
using that bulky little transmitter Meesahran installed shortly before they left
on this mission. He
has to wait only a few moments before a response is sent back the same way.
“Rendezvous in five minutes.” “Good
that will give me enough time to clear a landing zone for all four ships. Alert
me on the same frequency once they arrive and you are ready to break
atmosphere.” And with those words his ships suddenly dips down into the
atmospheric layer of Chandrila, and quickly vanishes from sight. “What
the…” “Jae,
even you should, Vic is a man of action, not words.” Meesahran responds to his
rhetorical question. “Yeah,
but he could have at least said hello!” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The
situational awareness technician asks of the commander, “What is their
designation, Sir?” “Call
them, Fleet Battle Dog, their flagship is Battle Dog One and so on down,
Ensign.” Responds Commander Orian, finally putting a name to the voice. “Aye,
Sir!” As the technician goes about his task, the commander brings up his
tactical display in order to better use this new resource to its fullest. Seeing
a real weakness in Grid Two, he quickly formulates a battle plan. “Get
me Battle Dog One!” “Aye,
Sir!” The comm officer quickly sets about his task. “Coming online now,
Sir.” The
room momentarily fills with static as the signal is cleaned up, “You rang,
Commander?” “We’ve
given your fleet the designation of Battle Dog, the Ensign is sending over a
list of call signs for each ship ID now.” The commander hopes to draw him out
with his clever title. “Appropriate
title… And how may I be of use to you, friend?” The man is too clever for
Silvas’ little test. “Grid
two is weakening, if you could deploy a third of your fleet to that area, I
believe it will influence the tide there.” The time for games has passed,
Silvas has a much more important task at hand. “Very
well, consider them there… And the rest of my little band?” Little
indeed,
thinks Silvas as he attempts to find a good place to divert these new ships.
“Your current position is nearly mopped up, correct?” “Yes
it is… If I may suggest an option?” The man’s manners are impeccable. “By
all means…” “I
could send my fighters and lancers to Grid One to help on the homefront, but I
have other plans for the blastboats as well as my flag ship at the moment.”
The man’s tone is almost sinister. “And
may I ask what they are?” Silvas questions the man’s intent. “I’ll
let you know if my information proves accurate. Battle Dog One out.” As
the transmission ends, Silvas finds that a third of the mysterious pirate fleet
has just jumped into the fray on Grid Two, followed a few moments later by the
fighters and lancers sent his way to protect his flagship. Though
the fighting is still fierce, and his flagship, Tsunami Gale, continues to be
rocked by the constant barrage of attacks, Commander Silvas Orian is seeing
light at the end of this tunnel for the first time since the fighting began.
Perhaps there is hope yet to be had for this untested battle commander. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sitting
in the darkness of his command chamber, Ruler Vanquar Shesh watches the
statistics of the battle playing out upon the vidscreen before him. A sinister
smile begins to curl his usually stoic lip as he watches the tally of
Chandrillan ships destroyed by his numerically superior fleet. He had planned on
a much more decisive victory over the Chandrillans, but somehow they seem to
have found a way around his technological advances. Their communications appear
to be unaffected by his jammer ships, and the speed of their crafts is far
beyond what he was told of their capabilities. In addition, the Chandrillans
seem to have been prepared for their attack, which leads him to believe that
first test of his fleet was not nearly as successful as its commander claimed it
to be. Ruler Shesh will have to deal with him later, but for now, he is
delighted with the showing his fleet is making at this moment. As
the younger and more vital copy of himself comes striding into the room, his
hair trailing behind him in the breeze left in his wake, Ruler Shesh is
comforted by his only remaining worry: the return of his First Son. “Honored
Father! I have returned, as you have gloriously instructed of me.” He bows
before his father, who then motions for him to take the seat in front of the
desk. “The insurgents have not only been delivered, but at last notice, were
within the capitol city walls.” Ruler
Shesh nods at his first son, acknowledging his news, yet still not speaking. He
continues to read the information on his vidscreen. After a few moments of
silence, the elder Shesh speaks, “You have performed as would be expected of
my First Son, and the insurgents will be left to their own devices. You may
instruct the communications deck to delete their frequency from their
directives.” Bowing
his head to his father, Vanquar the Lesser agrees, “As you wish it, Dear
Father. Are you concerned that their benefactor will have some issue with their
desertion?” The
elder Shesh looks up with an evil glint in eye and his dramatically arched
eyebrow raised, “Of whom do you believe this directive has come?” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Staring
off into the void left by Vic Orion, Jae-Lee Reklaw grows more upset with this
recent encounter with the enigmatic man. Sensing his unrest, Meesahran attempts
to distract her friend, “Once they clear the grav shadow of the moon, it will
take them about five clicks to go through the jump. After that we can make for
the surface.” Still
in his present thoughts, “What’s the deal with that guy?!” Meesahran,
knowing that he will not give it up now, decides to try and help him sort it
out. “Jae, it’s not you… Vic just isn’t one to talk a lot…” She
pauses for a brief moment to exhale sharply, “And then of course, there’s
the fact that he’s trying avoid me.” “PLEASE!
I’ve had at least a dozen encounters with Vic over the years and he's always
blown me off like that!” Jae is downright mad at this point. Slumping
her shoulders in resignation, Meesahran tries again, “Jae, I’m telling you,
it’s nothing about you. He just has trouble communicating in general. He’s
just one of those people you have read, not listen to.” Turning
around to get a look at Meesahran, Jae asks, “And I suppose you can read
him?” “Well,
better than most anyway… I’ve seen a side of him that I’m not sure many,
if any, have ever seen before. And it’s not because he said anything, it’s
because I felt it.” She stops, the pain of her memories causing her to pause a
moment longer than she intended. Jae,
sensing her pain, changes his tack, “What do you mean, ‘felt it?’” Looking
up into his eyes, Meesahran tries to explain herself in a way Jae can
understand, “Well, you know how you feel when you’re with Xana? That warmth,
the feeling of comfort, like she’s gonna get anything you have to say?” Those
words spark a certain feeling in the middle of Jae’s chest, and he instantly
begins to feel that warmth again, almost as though Xana were there with him,
right now. “Yeah, I guess so. Sort of like trust?” “Yeah,
that’s it… I trusted Vic, when I couldn’t even trust myself, I could trust
in him, and, apparently, it went both ways. When we sort of started up,
before…” She swallows hard on the unspoken words, “Before I got hurt,
there was a connection… Very different from what we had, Jae. It was, I
don’t know, almost like he had this key that could open all my defenses.” Jae
thinks about his very open conversations with Xana, right from the beginning,
“Yeah.” “So,
when… It happened, Vic was there. He knew somehow, that I needed his strength.
It was only luck the Master Mussiri was there to find me in time, since Vic was
on his way back to find me. He just knew he had to be there. Not why, not how,
he just knew. Now, up to that time, I don’t think we’d said more than few
dozen lines of actual words, but I understood him, and he me. It was really
weird, especially after everything I had heard and remembered about him from
when I was younger. We just have a connection, and that connection goes beyond
words. I mean, there were times when we could go almost a whole job without
speaking at all. And when he was helping me recover, we could go days without a
word passing between us. I sometimes think that was why we were able to connect,
because neither of us was good at expressing ourselves.” Meesahran looks away
from Jae and he turns back around in his seat. Once she is safely out of his
eyesight, she clutches at the chain around her neck with her right hand and with
her left she reaches into the leg pocket of her flightsuit pants, gently
touching the folded scarf she finds there. Both items, her only real
possessions, act as touchstones for Meesahran when she is feeling particularly
vunerable, such as she does at this moment. Jae,
felling he may have asked too much of his friend during this difficult time,
looks out the canopy of The Burn and takes the medallion out from the folds of
his shirt, holding it between his fingers. Knowing that Meesahran is feeling
very raw at this moment, causes Jae a certain amount of pain, but hearing how
she felt connected to Vic was something he needed to know, and it helps him to
understand his own predicament. In the last moments as they await the arrival of
the rest of their team, Jae’s thoughts drift off to another place far away
from his current position. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sitting
on the balcony to her family’s chambers, Xana Tryashoenu stares off at the As
she thinks about her family identity, she places a hand in the pocket of her
tunic and finds there the tiny satin satchel. Taking it from her pocket she
decides to open it up by unraveling the ribbon and then unfolding the fabric.
Wishing to see the young face of Jae-Lee Reklaw once more, and knowing that his
coin held so much importance to him, she has treasured his gift so much. So
much, in fact that she has been almost afraid to gaze upon it. However, right
now, she has a desperate need to see his face, even if it is a face that has not
belonged to him a very long while. Carefully
pushing aside the fabric she finds first a chain and grabs the end of it.
Slowly, she pulls it away from the satin. Once it reaches its end, attached to
the chain are two coins. One coin, bearing the image of Jae as a boy (the thing
that she was expecting to see, still loose in the satchel) and the other, a
newly struck coin, bearing Jae’s likeness as he is now. Upon seeing the two
objects, all breath escapes Xana’s lungs and she is completely dumbstruck by
his gesture. Placing a hand over her gaping mouth, Xana thinks back to her
studies of the Corellian culture and in an instant knows what such a gesture
represents. As this knowledge sinks in to Xana, a single tear makes its way down
her cheek. Setting
the satchel down upon the balcony wall, she carefully places the chain with the
two coins down upon the fabric. She pulls her long, golden hair down to the
front of her chest and reaches behind her neck to remove the necklace once
placed there by her mother and then lays it down next to the two coins on the
satin. Then, she gently picks up the other chain once more, slowly unraveling it
from its pendants and once the coins are dangling before her, she places it over
her head, pulling her hair out from underneath the chain and lets it lie across
her chest. Staring down at it a moment before she takes the coins into her hand
and then brings them up to her lips. As she lays a gentle kiss upon them, she
whispers under her breath, “Yes,” before gently tucking it into the folds of
her tunic. Taking
up the satchel, with her mother’s locket inside, she walks back into the main
room of her chambers. A delicate and warming smile is on her genteel face as she
enters the room. However, over in the far, dark corner, she finds her
grandmother in deep thought. Not noticing Xana’s entrance, she walks over to
her grandmother and lays a calming hand upon her shoulder. Looking
up into Xana’s eyes, Elassi Mehand is unable to hide her worry from her
granddaughter, “Sorry, Child, I did not hear you come in.” “That
is alright, Grandmother… What is troubling you so?” Xana asks while sending
out soothing emotions. She
pats the girl’s hand as it rests upon her shoulder, “I am worried about our
homeworld, child… Sanctuary has lost all communications with the surface, and
I’ve not heard from Commander Orian for some time now.” Kneeling
down to meet her grandmother’s gaze and placing a hand upon her forearm, Xana
looks deeply into her eyes as she speaks, “Grandmother, I am certain that
Commander Orian is a busy man, just now, and as for the rest… We must trust in
Master Mussiri and the others.” Elassi
nods her head, and once again pats Xana’s hand for reassurance. “I
understand these things, Child. I am simply unaccustomed to watching from the
sidelines.” Her fragile smile is enough to give Xana some comfort. “That
is always difficult, but…” Xana takes the satchel from her pocket once more
and holds it up for her grandmother to see, “I may have something for you,
that might just help you get through… I know it has helped me over these many
years on the sidelines,” and Xana gingerly hands it over to her grandmother. Looking
up from the satchel which now rests in her own hand, Elassi looks into the deep
blue eyes of her granddaughter, trying to find some hint as to the contents of
this simple package. Finding nothing there but a vibrant smile, she begins to
unfold the satin. What she finds in there nearly melts her tired old heart.
Glinting, just below the last fold is the Mehand crest embossed on the tiny
locket she once gave to her daughter. Her hand goes to her mouth as it stands
agape with the shock of such a precious gift, “Oh, Xana! I could never take
this from you!” “Please,
it would mean a great deal to me.” She says shaking her head at her
grandmother’s insistence at handing it back. “But,
Child, it is all you have of her.” Xana
closes her grandmother’s hand over the locket and shakes her head once more,
“Not anymore.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With
alarms sounding off throughout the cockpit of the two-man fighter, Jae-Lee
Reklaw operates the controls of The
Burn with blindly speed and accuracy,
“Okay, Mees… It’s either them or an ambush… You sure there isn’t a
bounty on either of our heads for Vic to collect?” His words meant as a joke
fall on deaf ears. When he receives no response he turns to look into the back
of the cockpit, and what he finds there is a little disturbing. Meesahran sits,
her eyes closed, and looking almost transparent to him, but before he has
another chance to speak, her words seem to be filling the cockpit. “Master
Falion does not find your joke amusing… Prepare to break atmosphere in.” She
instantly opens her eyes and begins the countdown as she activates the
transmitter, “Ten, nine, eight…” Jae moves the ship into position for
hitting the atmosphere, “Seven, six…” In the blink of an eye two larger
ships emerge from hyperspace and move into position alongside The
Burn. “Five…” “Last
one down is a dirty gundark!”
Shouts the voice of Master Dracul over the comm. “Two,
one. DIVE!” And on her mark, all three ships plummet into the thick atmosphere
of Chandrila. As
Jae struggles against the controls, he calls back to Meesharan, “Hey, I though
we were supposed to hail Vic once we were on our way in?” With
a very matter of fact tone in her voice, she responds, “Whose signal do you
think we’re following, laser brain?” Jae,
shocked at her revelation has to ask her to clarify, “But how?!” She
raps upon the communications array she installed in his ship
during their recent travels together, “You think you’re the only one
who gets to play with my toys?” Jae
chuckles at her admission and just shakes his head as they continue to make
their way to the surface of the planet. That’s
my Mees! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Having
loaded the last piece of needed equipment onto his speeder and his back, Vic
Orion sets the safeguard on the datapad he is leaving behind for the others.
Looking around at the landing site he has managed to acquire he feels a certain
amount of pride in his work. This site will serve them well, as it is large
enough for even a bad pilot to make a safe landing, it well enough away from any
sensors to detect the arrival of those ships, and its close enough to
underground entrance to the city that the others will need to gain access to the
Great Hall. Vic,
on the other hand, is taking a more direct route. Knowing that the others will
have a difficult time getting through the rampaging crowds of a city under
attack, he feels his best use will be to work his way in from the outside,
opening up a route of escape for the crowds and minimizing collateral damage
from coming battle. As he mounts his speeder and fires up the engines, he is comforted by one thought, I’ll be taking the greater risk in order to protect her. And as the engines reach the ready line he kicks up the speeder and blasts off into the streets, seeking out as much destruction as he can get his hands on today.
Creator: PtrsonsZOO (Jennifer)
*SPECIAL NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond our control, the rest of the story will be written by PtrsonsZOO (Jennifer)
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