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Chapter Seventy Four Watching
the decimated hulk of the Kuati capital ship careening off into the gravity well
of the moon, Silvas Orian finds that his fighters, combined with those of his
mysterious benefactor are mopping up the last of the Kuati ships in this sector.
Turning to the terminal beside his command chair, he immediately pulls up battle
reports from all fronts. Finding
his fleet fairing well, though not yet victorious, he breathes a careful sigh of
relief. However, as he begins to go over the data in more detail, he finds
something to grieve about: the casualties have been high. Before the turning of
the tide, his ships were taking an awful beating and his fighters bore the brunt
of that attack. He
sits down in his command chair and puts his chin in his hand, contemplating all
the letters of condolence he will be forced to transmit. As his thoughts turn to
a successful outcome of this battle, the young officer, Lt. Brizer, approaches
the commander. “Sir, we have reports from Green Squadron… Something about
fierce fighting in Grid Five… Sir?” Shaken
from his reverie, the commander responds, “Grid Five? I thought they cleared
that sector yestereve?” “Aye,
Sir… Kuati capital ships and support vessels, and Battle
Dog One, Sir.” The
commander rolls that information around in his mind a moment, before coming upon
an answer. “Well, I’ll be a shaved derbit!” “Commander?”
The lieutenant shows concern for the commander’s outburst. “Leave
Ocean’s Fang
here for the rest of the mop up, and have the rest of the fleet jump into Grid
Five, in the…” He quickly looks through his long range sensor data. Finding
a spot a good distance from Battle Dog One
and his crew, as well as the Kuati vessels, he points at the coordinates for the
benefit of his lieutenant. “There! Beta-Niner-Five. We’ll be able to slip in
barely noticed… Until it’s too late.” He looks up from his terminal to
find the wide eyes of his command crew. “You have exactly five minutes to make
that jump, people… Be ready to go on my mark!” And as the words leave his
lips, the crew of the Tsunami Gale erupts
into a flurry of movement in order to carry out the commander’s orders,
bringing a smile to the big man’s face: the first real one in many days. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Scrolling
through the incoming data on her vidscreen, Captain Orme Tallage perks up, just
a bit. She opens up the comm to her squadron’s frequency. “All right, Three,
looks like you’re getting your wish.” “Come
again, Green Leader?” She
chuckles at his disbelief, “Just got our new orders from the Gale.
We’re to form up and make the jump into Grid Five, Beta-Niner-Five. Then we
await further instruction… Sounds to me like we’re back in the fight
troops!” The captain’s excitement cannot be contained and she is soon joined
by her squadron, as her cockpit fills with the sounds of whoops and hollers from
her pilots coming over the comm system. “Green
Three, requesting your wing, Captain?”
The cocky, but talented Lt. Tryashoenu, shows his loyalty and enthusiasm to the
rest of the squadron. “I
have a better idea, Three…” She punches in the formation on her vidscreen
and transmits it to the remaining members of her squadron. As the formation pops
up on each pilot’s screen she is alerted to their acceptance by single clicks.
The formation shows her ship as the lead in the first group, with Eight and
Eleven as her wings; Two as second group lead, with Nine and Four as wings; and
finally Three as lead of the third group, with Ten and Six as his wings. With
the final click coming in from Green Three, Captain Tallage is proud that her
fighter group has faired better than most, with only three casualties, and one
of those to be picked up by a rescue vessel at any moment, she has indeed
trained a precision instrument for the Chandrillan defenses. Seeing
the countdown begin on her vidscreen, she alerts her pilots, “On my mark,
twelve…” “HOORAH!”
Comes over the comm for their fallen squadmate. “Ten,
nine, eight, seven…” “LONG
LIVE!”
For their stranded pilot. “Six,
Five…” “HOORAH!” “Three,
two, one… Mark!” And with that final word, each of the fighters disappears
into hyperspace with a blink of light. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From
largest to smallest the ships of the adepts land on the fertile soil of
Chandrila. Those in the MyrkrDawn
are the first to emerge from their craft and begin to unload their cargo,
including a landspeeder shuttle. SkyDancer is next to land and its gentle descent is a thing of beauty to behold
for all. Lastly, The Burn
sets down in the clearing, and its occupants immediately pop the hatch for what
hope to be a hasty departure. Jae, however, is forced to jump back up and aid
his companion in extricating herself from the small cockpit. Stretching
herself back into an appropriate shape Meesahran exclaims, “I’m taking the Dancer
back, no matter who’s on board!” To which, she and Jae both enjoy a hearty
laugh. Looking
around the landing zone, Meesahran spies a little present left behind by Vic;
two speeder bikes. “Why don’t you go check on the others, and I’ll see
what we’ve got here.” She says to Jae as he too spots the bikes. “Sounds
good. Just make sure they aren’t booby trapped or nothin’.” Meesahran
shoots him an evil look, but he quickly responds, “Hey! Ya never know if
anybody else has gotten to them before we got here.” Satisfied
with this explanation, Meesahran simply responds, “Because Vic would have
booby trapped the bikes against them,” Jae is immediately shocked by her
response, “since I have the access codes.” And now is his turn to laugh
again. Only Mees could play a joke like that on him, and it felt good, even in
this terrible time. As
Jae walks over to the others, and assists them in getting the landspeeder up and
running, Meesahran enters the access code on the bike with the blinking light,
the one with the waiting message on its datapad. As she enters the code, his
image fades into existence on the screen before her. “The best route in is
loaded into memory. Be careful on those turns, or you’ll end up vrelt
splatter. Once you reach Hanna City, you’re on your own.” His image fades
out and Meesahran sits up to see if anyone is near enough to hear before
entering a second code, “Looks like the city is a war zone… I’ll be
clearing a path into the city, and keeping the main group distracted from your
entrance. Sorry, I couldn’t do more, but I’m sure you and Reklaw will think
of something… Watch your back, kid. You still owe me, and I want to collect,
Sahran… Meet you at the usual when the smoke clears. Orion out.” The tone in
his voice was nothing Jae had ever heard before, as walked up to Meesahran. “He
have any recon for us?” Pretending not to have heard the recording, Jae comes
up behind her and places a gentle hand upon her shoulder. Quickly
regaining her composure, Meesahran reports her findings, “Yeah, I’m
downloading the routes into the speeder comps now. If we miss the patrols, we
can be in the Great Plaza by mid-afternoon.” Bowen
comes into view beside them and adds, “Then we’d better get moving now.” The
majority of The Chosen climb into the landspeeder shuttle, leaving Meesahran,
Bowen, Jae & Cherié to ride the speeder bikes doubled up. There is an
awkward moment when Meesahran and Cherié take the helms of the bikes, but it is
quickly dispelled by Master Bowen as he exclaims, Don’t know about you, but I
know when to walk away from a pointless argument.” Jae looks at him with a
moment of confusion, “Besides,” he says picking up a very large heavy pulse
rifle and sliding the shoulder strap into place, “I’d rather handle this
piece of machinery.” And he strikes the activation plate causing the deadly
weapon to surge into existence. The sinister look in Bowen’s icy, blue eyes is
enough to bring a smirk to Jae’s face. Jae reaches out to catch the second
pulse rifle just has Bowen hurls across the landing zone at him and then climbs
onto the speeder bike behind Meesahran, while Bowen does the same behind Cherié. All
three vehicles fire up their engines and blast off into the expansive tunnel
just meters away from the landing zone. With the grace of the Force, they shall
reach their target in time. In time for what, they have yet to discern, they
only know that the time has come, and they are ready. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Quickly
emerging from hyperspace, Captain Tallage takes a visual count of her squadron
to insure that they all made the jump successfully. Their comm silence makes it
impossible for her to give them one last pep talk, but by now, she knows they
are equal to the task at hand. As
she begins to scan the scene before them, the captain realizes it will not be an
easy battle, but with luck and their training, her squadron will rise to the
occasion. Her computer shows what should be unknown ships, waging a heavy battle
with the largest Kuati ship she has ever laid her eyes on. When she brings up
the unknown ships, they bear the call signs of Battle
Dogs. She searches her mind for that
reference and upon reaching the answer, finds herself saying, “Since when did
a Commenorian do anything selfless?” She shrugs away the thought, because
afterall, these ships are helping them to defeat to the Kuati Fleet. Sizing up
the battle situation, Tallage prepares her transmission for the Commander so
that she can transmit it and break comm silence with her squadron at the same
time, before heading into the fray. She
looks out onto her squadron once more, and receives nods from each of her wings,
who then turn and pass it on to the flight next to them. As she brings up her
transmitter, she punches it in and the squadron lights up their engines and soar
off into the aft end of the battle at hand. Tallage bites her lower lip, as she
comes to a sudden realization, At
least dying today, means many others may continue to live in the light of the
Chandrillan skies.
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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