Star Wars: Sailors of the Unknown Reaches(Continuation 2) Serena and Terra were led down a long corridor as their escort of an officer and 5 troopers moved them along. The clacking of stormtrooper boots and the deck beneath them maddening, until they came to a lift tube. Once inside, one of the troopers keyed in a destination code and te lift started to move. "I don't like this at all..." Serena commnted, out loud. "Quiet!" One of the white armored troopers commented. Serena shut up. When the lift stopped, the officer motioned for them to exit. They found themselves staring down a corridor, heavy doors blocking off sealed rooms. The officer smiled menacingly, it was not the "Piett" to whom Boba Fett had answered to and taken the job from, but another, lower-ranked officer. He had 2 red squares above 2 blue squares over his heart. He spoke in a low british-type accent. "Welcome to one of the Executor's detention corridors. Your cells will be seperate, and you will be miserable here. When the time comes for either your interrogation or other punishment, I will come back for you." Terra and Serena looked at each other. What a rehearsed act. He continued: "I have been informed that Lord Vader wants you..." He motioned to Serena with a quick nod. "...as a gift for the Emperor." He then turned to Terra. "But you are not on any of my lists." He gave an evil smile. "I'm not going to dispose of you yet, but you will eventually be executed." Terra grimaced, and the man smiled. These officers were ruthless! No wonder the Rebellion was started. BUT IT WAS ALL SUPPOSED TO BE JUST A MOVIE! Two of the troopers moved and removed their wrist binders. Had their transformation wands not been taken from them when they were searched, they would have transformed. But they were forcefully pushed into cells across from each other. The doors closed with a loud *HISS* behind them. And Terra found herself alone. She heard, on the other side of the supposedly soundproof doors, Serena screaming and crying, then simply layed on the padded bench and closed her eyes. ----------------------------- John was furious. This was the height of low for the Empire: bombing a civilian resataurant on a less technology-inclined planet! "Wedge, is everyone out?" Commander Antilles turned to him. "As far as I can tell. Your friends Koneko, Lina, Cat-Girl, and Wataru are out, anyone else you know there?" John breathed a sigh of relief, but his anger was still there. Very bad. "Good. Keep me informed of what's going on." Mindreap, John's R2, had popped out of his socket and rolled over to where everyone gathered about half a mile away from the UR. I have to calm down, John thought, anger is the way of the dark side! He drew in a breath through his nose, thought of the relaxation techniques he had learned, and let it out, releasing his anger with it. "Mindreap, how far away are those bombers?" A small holoprojection lit up from the astromech's holoproj unit. It counted off numbers. According to it, they were about 7 kilometers away and closing. "Thanks, Mindreap." Lina walked up to him. "So what's the deal?" "Well, the bombers are 7 kilometers away. Mindreap, what about the walkers?" The projection changed, now displaying 4 numbers: 5, 5, 5, 2" Lina's eyes went wide. "What does that mean?" John felt his face get tight. "It means they're using a Scout walker as well as 3 Assault walkers." Lina looked confused, but didn't pursue the pont further. "John," Wedge Antilles was again addressing him. "I'd feel better if I had a flight of my squadron in the air waiting for those bombers." John calculated the numbers in his head, a flight was 4 fighters, and a squadron usually had 3 flights...so that made 8 others plus him. "All right, Wedge. Take One Flight and get those bombers out of here. You're leaving the rest of the Rogues under my command?" Wedge nodded and affirmative. "Wes, Hobbie, Dix, you're with me." The three that Wedge had called followed him to where they had landed their X-wings. All John could do now was wait. ------------------------------ Luna snapped awake. She was alone in Mina's room, and Mina and Artemis were asleep on the bed. "WAKE UP!" She yelled as loud as she could. Artemis and Mina jumped awake. "Who-what-when?" "Quickly! Mina, turn on the television!" Mina looked surprised, relieved, and frightened all at once, but did so. A news anchor appeared on the screen. "...about 6 AM this morning, people started to see strange shapes in the sky above Earth. We were skeptical at first, but this amazing live footage has convinced us of one thing: these people are no crackpots." The picture switched to a live recording of several triangular-shaped objects moving around in the sky. Without the picture changing, the reporter's voice was heard. "Several hours ago the first sightings of these objects came in. We now turn you over to director of the astronomy division of the military, Dr. Drake Donovern who has some explanation about them." "Thank you. As you can see, most of the very small objects are 'swarming' around this very large object right here." The 3-inch long object in the center of the screen was illuminated. "This object alone is 8 kilometers long. The 5 medium-sized objects are approximately 3 kilometers long. One of the smaller objects vectored off towards the moon several minutes ago for an unapparent reason." "Thank you doctor. We will continue to bring you reports on the developments of this phenomenon." An offstage hand handed him a report and he read it silently, then out loud. "It appears that the largest object launched several objects from somewhere and even now these objects are heading toward Earth." Another hand. "This just in! We have footage of a ship taking off from residential Tokyo into the sky, shot early this..." At this point, the screen blinked out in a flash of white fuzz. "Oh no! We have got to find Serena and Terra!" Luna was incredibly upset. Mina finally spoke. "Luna! You're all right!" "And Terra and Serena arn't going to be unless we can find a way up to that ship!" Artemis was puzzled. "What ship?" "Those objects are incredibly huge ships! Serena and Terra are on the biggest one!" "This is terrible!" Mina was incredibly upset. "It will get even worse unless we get everyone together. Call them to the temple now!" Mina got out her communicator and started calling. -------------------------------------- Mikal Frederic sat again in the oxygen tent on Earth's moon. Then he heard the news the scanner tech was giving him. "WHAT is coming here?!" "Sir, it registers as a Firespray-class starfighter. The identifying beacon answers to the name Slave I." "Boba Fett is coming here?" He was in a state of disbelief. "That's not all sir, the Tyrant is moving to intercept course of any ships leavng this moon. We aren't going anywhere." Frederic sighed, and picked up his comlink. "Blue Squadron. We have an emergency situation. This is Captain Frederic. Red alert! Return to base at once. I repeat: return to base at once!" Again Mikal sighed. *We're gonna need a miracle to live through this one. And it had better happen soon.* ------------------------------------- Again John looked over at the holoprojection. The bombers were 1.3 kilometers away, and had already been engaged by Wedge's One Flight. The AT-ATs were 2.1 kilometers away, and the AT-ST was disabled and being manned by 2 of Rogue Squadron patrolling the area. "Rogue Squadron, we have more bad news. Death Squadron is in orbit above this planet and Vader is aboard the Executor. You are all going to get to your X-wings and rendezvous with Blue Squadron on this planet's moon." "But sir, there are walkers and dupes on their way here and..." "No 'buts' Lieutenant. You have your orders. Do a flyby and try to take out some of those walkers on your way out. Send a message to your commander as well and give him my orders. It's better we only lose one pilot today than thre quarters of the Alliance's masthead squadron. Blue Squadron is in grave danger, and you are the only ones able to save them. Understood?" The pilots all nodded. "Good. May the Force be with you." The 2 drivers from the AT-ST got out the hatch and climbed down. Then the rest of Rogue Squadron ran for their starfighters. Koneko walked up to him next, followed by Lina. "What are we going to do now?" John shook his head. "I really don't know. Unless you girls can pilot an AT-ST." Both Lina and Koneko smiled. John got that really sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. ----------------------- Rann-kun was having a wonderful dream. He and his fiance, Cat-Girl, Nuku Nuku, were getting married. Already, Rann had started walking up the aisle, and Mousse Ni crying in the back of the church. Then Nuku stepped into the aisle and started walking up. She looked wonderful in her gown, flowing white and acceuntuating her body. When she reached the front of the church, the minister started his ceremony. Everything was perfect. "But what's that droning sound?" Rann pondered, but it was forgotten as the minister started to speak. -------------------------------------- Terra awoke an undetermined amount of time later. She didn't know when she fell asleep nor where she was at first. But the hard, unpadded board that was her only means of rest and the ighted walls told her she was still aboard the Executor, wherever that was. Then the doors to her cell slid open, and in strode Darth Vader flanked by two stormtroopers. The doors slid shut behind Vader, leaving her alone with him. She felt herself go numb, he was even more imposing in person, but she kept her featurs hard and impenetrable. After a minute of hearing his breath mask filter his breathing, he spoke. "My dear, I do not know what to make of you. Bounty hunter Fett brought you along, and demanded that I pay him twice the amount agreed upon because he had done twice the amount of work. You alone cost me 300,000 credits." Terra felt her throat go dry. That's how much Serena was worth? "So you see my dilemma. I could kill you right now for making me spend that amount on you, but that would waste that money. I suppose I could turn you over to the Emperor along with your friend Serena, but I do not know what he would do." That made Terra shiver. If Darth Vader was bad, the Emperor was much, much worse. "Or I could train you myself. If you became one of my servants, I could protect you when we subjugated this planet. This far past the Rim, it wouldn't do us much good, so we would have to leave it under someone's control. It takes a standard month for even one of our fastest ships to get here." Terra froze. "W-what did you say?" "I would train you, to become a Dark Jedi, as I am." This made her blood freeze. *If I was turned against my friends...NO!* "NO! I will NEVER serve one like you! Even if I was subjected to tortures unimaginable, I would NEVER surrender myself to the dark side!" Vader was silent a moment, and Terra feared he would kill her then and there, but he merely again spoke. "Your spirit is admirable. But soon, we will know everything about you. Your friends, family, past and present. Fears, fantasies, even the darkest moments of your life. THEN I will break you, and build you again. Into my own image." He stepped to her left, and a black sphere emitting a whirring noise floated in. It had various implements fastened to it that looked as if they could cause pain, but what Terra noticed was the red "eye" and the really big needle on the droid's right side. -------------------------------------------- "Oh yeah, this is NOT good!" Lina Inverse and Koneko had piloted the AT-ST into one of the AT-AT walkers, making both explode. They were all right, their hair was frizzed, but 2 Walkers and a Bomber that had escaped Wedge were closing fast. John was running out of options. Again Wataru was berating him. "Maybe if YOU leave, they'll leave too!" "Listen, Wataru, I don't know what your problem with me right now is, but cut it while I figure out what to do!" Mindreap was beeping and blatting like crazy, so John turned to his R2. "What have you got?" 3 numbers appeared: B: 0.5 W1: 1.0 W2: 1.0 "We have trouble! That Bomber's right over the UR, in a minute we should...." Suddenly, 2 whistling projectiles flew over their heads, in the direction of the UR. Then another whistling, farther away. Then there was a huge explosion, the flame shooting into the air 300 feet. "I hope everyone was out of there when those proton bombs and AT-AT shells hit..." "WHERE IS FRIEND RANN?!" Cat-Girl screamed John looked around, he knew they'd forgot someone! He should have Force-swpt the building before they left! But now Nuku was crying like crazy, this was NOT GOOD! Then he saw a flash of light where the crater that once was the UR should be, and the TIE Bomber exploded. A humanoid being of light flew into the air and toward the group, screaming something. "ALWAYS! ALWAYS WHEN I'M HAVING THAT DREAM SOMETHING HAPPENS! NOW I'M GOING TO MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN!" The shape flew past, and John instantly recognized it. He cupped his hands over his mouth. "Rann! Try to take out a Walker!" It was apparently exactly what he had planned on doing from the start, a huge electrical burst engulfed one of the armored walkers heads and blew power converters all the way to the back of the vehicle. Now was the time to try and reason with the last walker. John flipped on his comlink. "Imperial Walker, this is Commander John of the Rebel Alliance. Surrender your troops and vehicle to me and you will go unharmed." The British-accented voice snapped back quickly. "This is General Maximillian Veers of the All-Terrain Armored Transport Blizzard 1. Commander, you decimated the walker assault group that destroyed the Hoth base! Revenge for my compatriots will be mine!" "General, I wouldn't consdier trying anything funny." The voice didn't answer, and the AT-AT's head-mounted cannon pointed toward them. Rann flew above it and was about to blast it when he disappeared in a huge gash in reality that engulfed him. "RANN!" Nuku was on the verge of losing it again. *Well. Time to try your luck.* John detached a 30-centimeter long silver cylinder from his belt, and started running toward the AT-AT as it started blasting at the group from the UR. They scattered, but all that was on John's mind was the walker. When he reached the underside, he used the Force and jumped up where on the walker's belly was a ridge he could hold on to. He thumbed a button on the cylinder... ...and the meter long blade of the lightsaber ignited with a *snap-hiss.* He used the silvery-white blade to cut a gash in the walker's belly and then took a concussion grenade from one of the pouches on the belt of his flight suit. Pulling the pin, he tossed it into the gash and dropped from the Walker, using the Force to levitate him safely to the ground. "Exactly like that move Skywalker pulled on Hoth." There was an explosion that blew upward and out of the cockpit head of the walker. "Hoth has finally been avenged." He took off back to the clearing where the others were gathered before the walker fire. Just as the war machine toppled over and exploded more. -----------------------------------------