Prenlarr touched the two wires together and the door immediately shut and lock. From the sounds of it those things were a few doors behind, something he was thankful for.
"If I could reach a security room I could probably lock down most of the doors in the building. That should slow down both groups and buy us quite a bit of time to reach the landing pad for pick up. Or at least get close enough to stage a decent defense." Prenlarr said as he stood up.
"I could also hack the camera system and change the displayed monitors. Maybe get a better idea of what it is we face."
At Marcus's question, Rec bowed his head slightly and began to search through the surrounding area. Immediately he wished he hadn't: Coruscant's aura was very close to terrifying, even down in the Vault. Feelings of depression, despair and hopelessness crashed into his mind, threatening to overwhelm him and break him. But the hunter was made of sterner stuff than that. He shut out the external thoughts, knowing they would only hinder him, and began a search in earnest.
I am a Jedi now. I will endure the hardships that come with the name.
Apart from the obvious signatures presented by Rec's companions, there were a large number of very faint signatures scattered around their position, almost indistinguishable from the background aura of the ruin-planet. Other than those... nothing. Perhaps the Sith were planning to march in after the Jedi had weakened themselves against the creatures inhabiting the ruins. Rec brought his head back up, turning to Marcus.
"I sense nothing that could be a Sith close by, or in a large radius around us," he stated, casting a quick 'look' around once more to double-check. "Yes, I'm right. Nothing besides those monstrosities, which have weak auras around them. They are easily drowned out by the aura of the planet. I hope the Aullanger deals with those Sith quickly... the Force be with them."
"You could do that Prenlarr?....Never mind. Just gotta find out where one of those would be in here.....if there is one in here." Marcus said, still keeping his steady pace, hoping that he wouldn't encounter another room filled to the brim with those things.
Security room for one of these places? Well.....that would either be much higher up, or way farther down. Just great....
"The Aullanger can take these Sith, whoever the hell they think they are. Thanks for taking a look for me. Means we don't have to worry about the doors starting to disintegrate from lightsabers or something." Marcus replied to Rec, somewhat relieved as things didn't seem as bad as they could be.
"Anyone happen to see any signs or anything? Otherwise, we should probably start moving to the other end of this building so we can get to another one. Keep moving so they can't easily catch or track us." Marcus said, trying to give off some semblance of a plan as he continued moving through the building.
Just survive this, and done. You will never have to come back here with these people, and will never have to lead them through a wreckage ever again. Force willing, never again.
"If you can get me in the room I could shut the whole building down if you wanted me to. The system is comparatively simple compared to the security systems of today. Not to mention I'm an engineer from a species that uses complex mathematical equations that require teams almost a year to solve as a way to challenge each other. Reprogramming an antiquated system would be like asking if you can drive a speeder." Prenlarr said keeping pace with Marcus and the others.
"Aullanger to team, we're bugging out. One more hit from their beams and we're ashes. The droids should be able to secure the sky. I'm routing two squadrons to provide close air support. Aullanger signing off."
The channel went dead. Seconds later, they heard the distinctive roar of ion engines followed by laser blasts and explosions, most likely signifying the destruction of the Sith shuttle and it's escort fighters. From a distance, they could see mutants being struck with laser blasts and reduced to little more than a rapidly expanding cloud of vapor.
"This is Revenant Squadron. The droids are keeping the Sith fighters occupied. If you head for the landing pad to the north, we can cover you. Might even be able to pick you up, we've got empty gunnery chairs."
Overhead, they got a look at two distinct craft - one a standard TIE ball with four stubby solar panels and a pair of laser cannons on the 'chin', the other a larger, more sophisticated looking fighter, with a long slender fuselage and two front-swept wings. The craft bristled with firepower - most easily noted, missile launchers on either side of the fuselage and several cannons mounted on the chin and wings.
One of the larger craft made a sudden turn and came down at a close approach, passing close enough over their heads that they could feel the draft. The craft's chin-mounted cannon spun up for a moment, then fired a spray of slugs that cut down a swathe of the mutants.
About damn time. Though, how the hell are we getting out of here on that thing? Ah well, doomed regardless.
"Well everyone, here we go. Lets get off this rock!" Marcus said as he cut himself a better door and got to taking a quick run to the now waiting craft that would get them off this planet and not into the maw of those who would chop them up. He was tired, to say the least, as it was a pain keeping up the steady run for...who knows how long. But he was done, and this was it. Jump onto the shuttle, leave this Sith Cursed planet behind, and call it a good day. Get a breather, get a good rest, and let someone else decide what to do.
"Thanks for the ride. Lets try to make sure that it is a good one." Marcus said as he finally jumped aboard, tired of all this but wanting to make sure everyone got on first.
"Strap in." The fighters jolted off the planet's surface, heading for space. As the atmosphere cleared, the pilot of Marcus' craft swore.
"Frak. The Swarms are getting cleared out."
From a distance, they could see the Retribution spraying bolts of red light, occasionally punctuated by a flash of light as a flak burst went off or a fighter exploded. As they watched, the docking bay slid open, disgorging Sith fighter squadrons that engaged the swarms of droid starfighters.
"Sithspit. Warm up the hyperdrives!"
In a matter of moments, the droids were dispersed and the Sith craft began closing at an alarmingly fast pace.
"The Admiral's gonna catch up before hyperdrives warm up. Estimate one minute to her arrival..."
Joseph, now firmly seated aboard the craft, glanced around. knowing full well of the opposition, he remained calm. If he was going to die, so be it, there wasn't a whole lot he could do in the vacuum of space.
He felt something cold creep into his head. He attempted to ignore it, but the feeling persisted, and it got colder. He ignored it, and began looking through camera feeds from the team, something to keep himself busy. He was busy looking through Rec's camera feed when it happened. He felt a jabbing pain of cold in the center of his Cerebral Cortex, he grunted to himself in pain. He assumed he had just received a concussion from being slammed to the ground so hard by that mutant. He ignored it again. The pain came back, worse this time, it felt almost like a tentacle began to sift through his memories, the pain was intense, and he began to sweat within seconds. The pain was great, it was too much for him to handle, he blacked out and slumped in his harness.
To the rest of the group, it looked as if Joseph had passed out from sudden fatigue from the amount of stress he had endured. For several minutes, as the shuttle found its way through wreckage and such, Knaake laid there, motionless. Blacked out from the near maddening amount of pain.
"Take the ship, Joseph, and come to me."
To the group, Joseph's head popped right up, as if he had awakened, but to the man himself, he saw only blackness, he felt his own movement and was powerless against it, he could hear everything going on in the cabin. He, or it, unbuckled itself from it's harness and stood up, wobbling all the while as the pilots maneuvered through space. He casually walked into the cockpit
Whatever controlled Joseph, killed the pilot. With a blaster bolt to the back of the head. Spattering the control console with super heated flesh, brain and bits of skull. Pulling him out of his seat and planting himself there, taking control of the craft, and angling it towards the Retribution. By the time Joseph snapped back into reality it was too late, his former team saw him as a traitor, and the ship was almost sure to be caught in the Retribution's tractor beam. Taking Marcus and Kass with him.
Okay, sorry, there's been some misunderstanding about what's going on. You're not in shuttles, you're in two seater fighters. I thought this was understood, but I was pretty unclear looking back. My mistake. Instead of attacking the crew, Knaake just assaulted the pilot and took control of the fighter he's in, heading for the Retribution. Sorry for the misunderstandings.
Alright, the lack of clarity appears to be persisting. I'll correct. This post is going to contradict the previous post. Apologies if it causes any confusion.
The fighter Knaake was in suddenly veered off course away from the other five, heading for the retribution. From the gunnery seat of their fighters, Prenlarr, Kass, Marcus, and Rec could do little but watch. The pilot of Prenlarr's fighter shouted into the comm.
"Sir, five is..."
"Negative, you are not pursuing. Five, come in! Five!" A brief silence. "Dammit, he's not interesting, and he's already out of range of ion cannons."
In a matter of seconds, Knaake's fighter had dove into the tempest of starfighters and vanished into the Retribution's docking bay.
"No!"
With a blur of pseudomotion, the Liberation emerged from hyperspace, flanked by Aullanger and a squadron of dagger-like corvettes. Green and blue bolts of energy began lashing out at the Retribution, who began turning to escape.
"This is Admiral Cath. Revenant Squadron, dock on the Liberation. We'll cover you. Jedi, welcome back to the fleet."
Hesitantly, the Revenants began their approach to the Liberation. Moments later, Retribution vanished into hyperspace.
A few minutes later, the prospective Jedi stood on the flight deck of Liberation - victorious but not unscathed. Admiral Cath stood there. "What happened out there?" She addressed them all, but she was looking at Marcus. "Where's Knaake? What happened to Revenant Five?"
* * * * *
Revenant Five's fighter was tractored into the Retribution's docking bay, the canopy cut away. The dead pilot spilled out onto the deck, leaving Knaake seated there. He felt an invisible force lift him out of the cockpit and down onto the decking.
The interior of the battleship was dark, dim, and gothic, with elaborate scrollwork and bas reliefs on the walls, depicting ancient battles. The craftsmanship was incredible, especially for something in a docking bay. In front of him, he could see three people. Two men clad in black armor and dark cloaks, with ominous battle masks covering their faces and lightsabers at their sides, and a pale-skinned woman in close-fitting black armor with a cloak covering much of her body. She was stunningly attractive, but at the same time sent chills up his spine - pale-skinned and black-haired, with hard, aristocratic features and green eyes filled with a nameless hunger.
Marcus glanced at the Admiral, looking her over for a time. He was tired, and he did NOT sign up for this whole leader thing. In fact, he would much prefer to just go find a ship, and just fly till he couldn't fly no more. Then sell the ship for scrap, buy another one, and start flying again.
"......Admiral, can you give me a Sith spitting, bantha-shitting, Twilek dancing second to pull everything together?" Marcus muttered, finally reaching to take off his helmet, put down his cases, and pull everything back together.
"Alright....Alright. First, we got to our needed items for Jedi training and the like. Picked up a thing here or there as well. Problem is there is a shitton of.....things on the planet too. Some of them were rahkghouls, some of them were....other things, I'm not sure what. There were tons of them, and when a building falls or something happens they apparently get pissed off. After somehow getting through that hell of a mess, we were greeted by a quickly retreating group, and a Sith battleship, I imagine. They wanted us, but I sure as hell am not going with someone who has been trying to kill us all goddamned day." Marcus recounted somewhat bitterly, slightly annoyed, and quite tired.
"After sprinting through a nearby building for a while to escape both the Sith and the....freaks down there, we finally got a bit of assistance from a battleship, which shortly after proved again to not be enough. We then jumped into this fighter with....Knaake jumping into the other." Marcus seemed to finish, pausing as he thought about what he had felt before they had gotten back to the ship.
Something had scratched at me. I felt it, looking for....something. An opening maybe, which might be how Knaake got taken....or maybe it was just....Nah, it was something. Something took a swipe at my head, and it didn't work, or I defended, or something...What in all the Force happened out there?
Unconsciously, Marcus rubbed his head, not quite sure what to make of what was going on or why he had dared to step forward in this mess. He glanced at everyone else who had made it back. Almost all of them. It would have to do, and Marcus was done for now. The day had been too long, and too much had happened within it.
"Marcus has perfectly explained all that we know. We went down to the planet, collected what we needed, and suddenly found ourselves under multiple kinds of attack. I'm sure your drones have more data on anything on the planet now than we do." Prenlarr said.
I don't trust this admiral enough yet to tell her of the cloning facility. At least not until I understand more about it myself. To do that though I need to tell the group and see if I can't find a scientist specializing in cloning and a historian specializing in the jedi. One could hopefully explain the possible uses of such a facility and the other might be able to explain why it was up and running still and what its uses may have been. He thought as he stood there, his face showing nothing of it.
"I was hoping you might have better insights than the cold facts. I've got sensor logs from Aullanger and Revenant Squadron, but it doesn't really explain very well what happened." Cath sighed. "I should have been more prepared for this."
She shook her head. "I sent orders to Task Force Dxun to attempt to intercept the Sith at their battleship's most likely stopping point, but I'm not expecting a lot of luck there. For now, I think Knaake is beyond our reach." She looked at Marcus. "I'm sorry. I've had rooms readied for you all on deck six. They aren't luxurious, but they should serve your needs for the time being, until you figure out where you need to go next."
Rec thought over the Admiral's question before submitting an answer. The group had obtained what they needed on Coruscant, though they now needed somewhere to hide out and become stronger in the ways of the Force. He held no illusion of thinking that they could bring Knaake back from the clutches of the Sith; the enemy outnumbered and outgunned the would-be Jedi. It would be like trying to fight a full-grown krayt dragon with nothing but a pair of pants.
The hunter chose to give voice to his thoughts on hiding and training in secret. "I am inclined to think that remaining out in the open will only draw the Sith to us," he answered the Admiral. "With that in mind, stealth and seclusion is the optimal path. We need a place to hide, where we can train without fear of the Sith knocking on our door or venting us into the void. Aside from the deserts and dragon lairs of Tatooine, I know of no such place. Kashyyyk, maybe. We could easily hide ourselves on the industrial world."
"Kashyyyk is a long way away, and well outside Kuat space. I'll see if I can put together a list of suggestions. Given that you're going to be training as Jedi, though, I'd recommend someplace secluded and quiet, not a city world..." She rubbed her chin. "We're only a short hyperspace hop from a few places. Caamas is sparsely inhabited, most of the worlds in Koornacht Cluster are completely uninhabited. Especially N'Zoth, but it's pretty harsh - most of the atmosphere got burned away when the planet was desolated. Aside from that, there are a few abandoned deep space stations that are pretty unknown. Any of those sound promising?"
Knaake stood there, silent. He was thinking about what had just happened, he had just killed someone who he had considered part of his family. His trembled uncontrollably, he wanted to lash out and take revenge on whoever made him do it. He pulled his helmet off. Sweat dripped down his face. He dropped his helmet, it bounced a bit off the deck before finally coming to a rest. He dropped to his knees and punched the deck in frustration.
"Wha-" He struggled to say. "What do you want with me?!" He punched the deck again, causing a hairline fracture in his hand. He grunted in pain.
Marcus wasn't paying too much attention until it was mentioned that they needed to hide. Hiding was something he wasn't sure they had much experience in being able to do, especially from the Sith.
"Admiral, we were found quite easily on a supposed 'abandoned' world by the Sith. I get the feeling a city may be the only cover we have against them. That, or someplace that is....heavily affected." Marcus attempted to explain. He wasn't sure how he could explain it, but something like Alderaan might be some form of suitable cover, with all the echos that seemed to go off in his head when he was there.
"But, that is just what I think. Regardless, I am going to go to the rooms, and they don't need to be amazing. A bed, some quiet, and some damned privacy will do just fine. You guys can think of the next move, I'm damn tired." Marcus said, standing up and giving a small stretch. He walked past everyone, not particularly caring if they wanted his advice or not. He needed a rest, and some sleep would do him good.
Arriving at Deck Six, he chose one of the rooms, and sighed at its simplicity. Perfect for him, as he tossed off the bigger suit he was no longer comfortable in. Slipping back on his usual armor and clothes, he took a deep breath.
Knaake.....Good luck out there. Show those bastards a thing or two. Now....what is going on in this head of mine...?
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