Alien Crossfire Chapter 14

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The Errant Venture dropped out of hyperspace, two systems rimward from the Pyrias. Her red hull gleamed in the star shine. The bridge itself was a riot of sounds and voices, a controlled insanity which gave Luke a headache, but he knew that the man standing next to him thrived in it. That the massive mountain of a man, enjoyed being in the center of everything more than anywhere else in the galaxy.

Luke glanced at Booster once, and then looked down at the infant he held in his arms. The child was cooing gently, an incongruous sound on the bustling bridge of the star destroyer.

The doors of the turbolift sighed open behind them, and they turned to see a diminutive Jedi step off. Her brown hair was pulled into a sharp, severe pony tail, her robes were rumbled and her eyes were rimmed with red, as if she had been crying recently.

"You wanted to see me, Uncle Luke?"

Luke nodded his head. "Yes, I want you to go to Hapes, and bring your parents back to Borelias."

"Why not call them on the holonet?"

Luke frowned slightly. "I tried. They're not on the Falcon, and I keep running into a block when I try to contact the Queen Mother."

"Okay, Uncle Luke. Let me throw a few changes of clothes into a bag, and then I'll take my X-wing out there."

"Thank you Jaina."

He watched the teenager turned and went back to the turbolift and step aboard. Then he looked back out the viewport, just in time to witness the arrival of a fleet. The Lusanka flickered into existence, followed quickly by three other star destroyers and five Bothan assault cruisers.

The com officer called out to Booster, "We're being hailed, sir."

Booster nodded, and returned to his command throne, Luke trailing after him. Booster flipped a switch, activating the com. "This is Booster Terrik, in command of the Errant Venture, what do you want?"

"This is Commander Davrip on board the Lusanka, I was just wondering if you wanted to join our convoy."

"Where you heading?"

"Borelias, in the Pryias System."

Booster looked at Luke, surprised etched slightly on his face and Luke shrugged, signaling his own confusion as to why the most powerful warship left in the New Republic fleet would be going to Borelias.

After a moment, Booster replied, "We'd be honored for the escort, Commander."

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Captain Yakown Reth was mad.

His ire was directed entirely against Colonel Celchu. First his squadron was assigned the babysitting duty of ferrying a load of scientists out to this moon. Then once the enemy fleet had arrived in system, Celchu ordered his pilots to only launch as they completed a second pre-flight checklist. And then to launch as soon as they were ready, not waiting for the others to finish their checklists.

What this accomplished was to make Green Squadron appear as if they were launching raggedly, as if they were not prepared to perform their duty.

That was why Captain Reth was mad.

Because of the manhandling of his squadron by a superior officer, he would look like an incompetent to General Antilles. Finally, he was able to launch and join the rest of his squadron in space. He flicked on the squadron channel on his com. "All right Greens. Let's show these Vong the what-for."

He received eleven clicks in reply, and grinned as his anger bled away in the rush of adrenaline for the upcoming battle.

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Danni Quee was situated at the sensor station of the blastboat which made up the main powerhouse of the Wild Knightz squadron. While she herself was not a one of the Wild Knightz, she had found that when she was not occupied by scientific pursuits into Vong biots, that this had become her duty station. She glanced around the other crew, Jedi Knights all. And while she was as much of a Jedi as she was a Wild Knight, the Jedi Knight who Master Skywalker asked her to work with to develop her fledging skills as a Jedi, was the leader of the Wild Knightz, and the pilot of the blastboat itself. Turning back to her station, she followed the proscribed list on the datapad beside her, the sequence of things she had to ensure were done before the blastboat was able to lift off. She finished her checklist, and glanced over at the pilot's station.

Danni watched the Jedi Knight Saba Sabatyne as the black-scaled Barabel worked through her own checklist. Finally she finished, and looked up and out the viewport, her pink tongue flickering out between the rows of razor-sharp teeth.

"Pilot iz ready."

Danni replied before she even thought about it. "Sensors, ready."

As the rest of the crew called out their readiness, Saba turned to Danni. "This one does not like our orders."

"I don't much like them either, but we do as we're told in these things."

Saba hissed in frustration. "This one iz a hunter. This one does not like to run."

"This one is a scientist. This one does not like to fight."

Danni watched as Saba turned her reptilian eyes on her. Her tongue darted out, and Danni suppressed the smile that tried to bloom on her face.

"Danni can return to using human grammar now."

Danni chuckled to herself, and turned back to her station. Watching the sensor grid as the blastboat launched, followed by the various fighters which made up the Wild Knightz.

A microjump later, and they found themselves around the moon which figured so heavily in Wedge’s plan. Then the Yuuzhan Vong were there. The coral skippers flashing through their ranks, in a blind rush to get kills in the first wave.

The Wild Knightz broke, Danni watched as the fighters drifted a dozen different directions, the skips breaking from their own orderly formations to follow different fighters. Then Danni was too focused on her targets and scientific measurements to be concerned with the battle in general.

She grinned. There was a yammosk here, and she was gathering more and more data about how they communicated.

She glanced up at the sensor displaying active Wild Knightz, nodding her head as one after another broke off, showing damage and retreating back to Borelias. Slowly, but surely the Wild Knightz all exited the field of battle. As had most of Rogue group and Blue Squadron.

Then the ship bucked to port, accompanied by a wrenching sound. Danni flicked through a number of screens on the display, and then called out the damage report. "Life support is off-line, and we have a hull breach in the engine compartment." She turned to Saba. "It’s non-critical but as good of an excuse as any."

Saba hissed in frustration and nodded her head.

Danni flicked a few switches, and the ship began releasing atmosphere from canisters applied to the exterior of the blastboat for just that purpose. Danni turned on the com, and broadcasted to all Republic Forces, "This is Wild Knightz 1. We’ve taken critical damage and are venting atmosphere. Returning to Borelias."

She flicked off the com, and leaned back in her seat exhaling slowly. She glanced over to Saba once again, noting the long gashes on the side of the Barabel's console. Gashes that matched perfectly with the dark claws extending from her fingertips.

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Wyrpuuk Cha looked out the shell which served as the viewport for his vessel. Watching the flashes of light which was the battle between his yorik-ets and the Infidel's fighters. Frowning slightly, he turned back to the blaze bug display, watching the battle unfold. He knew that more and more of the Infidel forces were either destroyed or running back to Borelias. Yet something about the situation bothered him. He glanced once more at the forces around Borelias. Noting how they protected a single part of the planet, only sending out their small fighters to engage the enemy.

He considered the ramifications to sending a portion of his fleet to engage the forces arrayed there.

Then the blaze bugs changed pitch and tone, a swarm came out reconfiguring the view of the battlefield, and he frowned as they do so. A mass of bugs, too massive to be believable, resolved into shape as one of the Infidel's triangle ship. Except it was much more massive than Wyrpuuk Cha believed a thing of metal and technology could be made.

He once more glanced out the shell viewport, and saw the dark grey hull of the warship obscuring his view, blocking out all sight of any other vessel. And according to the blazebugs, it was kilometers away.

His mouth dropped open in shock, even as he heard the surprised exclamations of his officers.

Then the massive starship begins to bleed solid light from hundreds, thousands of points on her hull. A veritable waterfall of destructive energy which flashed through Wyrpuuk Cha's fleet. Shattering the yorik coral vessels as if they were less than nothing.

He turned towards Kadlah Cha. "Issue a recall and retreat order. Send a message of this tactic to the Warmaster."

Kadlah Cha nodded her head, and slipped into a cognition hood.

Wyrpuuk Cha turned back to the shell-window, just in time to watch it disintegrate under the barrage from the star destroyer.

He heard a roar in his ears, counter pointed by the steady beat of a drum. He tried to turn away from the gaping hole which used to be the control center of his ship, and could make out the anger on Kadlah Cha's face as she stared at him from beneath the edge of her cognition hood.

Breathing suddenly became hard, as a strong wind ripped past him. He could feel his fingers, and the talons embedded in his shoulders as they began to go cold. His chest began to ache as he struggled to catch his breath - to get a sip of the roaring wind which ripped past his head, pulling at the braids of his hair.

Instinctively, he rolled his body into a ball, seeking to find warmth, as could feel himself being lifted up off the deck, being pushed forward by the wind at his back.

As he floated past the smoldering edges of the shell-window, he felt an anger rip through his head, centering on his forehead, an intense pressure above anything he had ever felt before. A blinding white light appeared from somewhere behind him.

And was the last thing he ever saw.

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Wedge Antilles stood at the board displaying the entire system, thinking about the battle as it was playing out. Considering the ramifications, and implications, of the minutest of moves of any and all players. Somewhere in the back of his mind he could feel a niggle of unrest and uncertainty. A deep knowledge that something had gone wrong.

Or maybe not wrong, but definitely not according to plan.

Frowning, he turned to look at the various officers overseeing the battle. He finds Tycho leaning over the shoulder of one of them, a young female human. Sila Rooth. He focused on the pitch and timber of her voice. Noting that her speech speed had increased slightly, and her voice was rising.

"Lusanka, please repeat your identification and clearance codes."

Yes, something was definitely not going according to plan.

He took a step in that direction, and Tycho glanced over his shoulder, a confused look on his face.

Wedge closes the distance, looking over Sila’s other shoulder, focusing on the group of friendlies in the middle of the Vong fleet. Ruining his battle plan.

"Report, Lieutenant Rooth."

"We have the Lusanka and supporting fleet in-system. Commander Davip commanding."

Wedge’s frown deepened, as he processed that information. Commander Davip was a career officer, who had risen as far in the ranks as he would ever go. Though he commanded by the book, he lacked the initiative and drive required for an officer to reach flag ranks.

"Commander Davip? Why isn’t a full admiral in charge of the Lusanka?"

Tycho shook his head. "Pwoe’s stab at your picking at him probably."

Wedge ground his teeth. "That arrogant little snake." Pushing thoughts of Pwoe from his mind, he considered various tactics and the fleet reserves. "What assistance can we offer?"

Tycho shook his head. "They don’t need any. They decimated the Vong forces. It’s just a moping up exercise now."

"Shavit!"

Tycho laughed. "Look at it this way, Wedge. The history books will record that you were so good, even when you planned to loose, you still won."

Wedge rolled his eyes, and walked away without responding.

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