Tundre headed down the corridor for the
hangar. She needed to get back to the
SSD as quickly as possible…preferably with Fox. Presenting Baron Reno with two valuable
gifts—the Force-sensitive Fox and the info about Rogue Squadron—should result
in an increase in her Whyren’s Reserve allotment. Digger tooted and rolled along in the wake of her six. Nearing the entrance to the hangar, Tundre began
to feel that prickling danger sensation at the back of her neck. Stang, I
don’t have much time to figure this out.
She quickened her pace into the hangar and came to an abrupt halt. Digger crashed into her backside.
“Digger, get to the Blade! I’ll TK ya
into it. Crank it and let’s get outta
here!”
Digger shot toward the Blade, carefully
detouring around the cloaked figure that stood between Thunder and the ship.
Thunder ignited her saber and its orange
light warmed the hangar. Her lightsaber
had yet to engage in a duel against a hostile.
The cloaked figure slowly extended an arm and lit a dark purple
lightsaber. Just what I need…Lord
Xanthis. Must be after Fox. Thunder took up a defensive posture. She needed to allow Digger to make it to the
Blade and concentrate on levitating him into the pit. Her opposition, however, decided not to oblige Thunder by waiting
for her to move. Before she knew it,
they were locked in a pitted saber duel.
Fox felt the Force rush through him—hot,
fierce, and urgent. He dropped the
hydrospanner that he had been playing with in the transport and ran to a
viewport. Thunder was battling away
with some unknown and powerful attacker.
Fox was transfixed for a few moments, lost in the beauty and grace of
their deadly blocks and thrusts. He
snapped out of his mental block by Thunder’s little astromech droid. Digger was rolling all around the outside of
the transport hooting and blaring for help.
Fox screamed at Pach and Lotan as he sprinted for ramp. He told Digger to get back to the
Blade. When Digger had returned to the
foot of the Blade, Fox closed his eyes and concentrated. He visualized lifting Digger up and into the
astromech pit. Seconds later, he could
hear the whine of the Blade’s engines and squeal of its weapons charging. Fox smiled.
He had done it.
Pach had dashed out of the transport in
the vain attempt to lend his assistance to Thunder. He had failed to completely read the situation and consider that
the cloaked figure could probably use the Force in other ways besides
dueling. After firing a few short
bursts from his blaster, Pach found himself flung against a nearby
hovercart. The two saber-wielding
combatants had checkmated themselves and were locked together.
Thunder yelled over the scream of the
lightsabers, “Pachet! Get in the transport and get out of here! Go! I’ll be
right behind you!” She could see in
Pachet’s face that he did not intend to leave a comrade behind. Mustering what little concentration she could
away from Xanthis, she Force-shoved Pachet back toward the transport. He took the hint. There was no point in trying to help when both friend and foe had
the ability to toss you around on a whim.
He cradled his left side and stalked up into the transport.
The transport lifted off the hangar’s
deck and burned for open space. Digger
had the Blade hovering and heading for Thunder. She was going to have to try to break away from Xanthis and make
a dash for her snubbie. Staying and
fighting was an option, but had no apparent benefit besides proving the better
dueler…which Xanthis would win. While
one of Thunder’s strengths was her dueling skills—blastsword or lightsaber—she
was no match for Xanthis.
Thunder risked lowering some of her concentration
to reach out for the position of the Blade.
She was going to have to carefully calculate her exit from the
duel. The Blade was just settling
itself near her when she realized that she could still feel Fox’s presence…in
her Blade, no less. Stang, that
little womprat. Fox had not
returned to the Transport.
Xanthis Force-shoved Thunder back away
from him and followed through with a lunge at her mid-rift. She countered with
a saber block that drove his blade hissing into the durasteel deck. She gave him a roundhouse kick to the side of
the head and swept her saber along the floor at his feet. He managed to absorb the kick and roll away
from her blade. This gave her enough
time to dash toward the Blade while Fox laid down some covering fire. Xanthis was too busy blocking the blasts
with his lightsaber to give chase.
Having been blinded in the past, he was forced to rely completely on the
Force to bat way the deadly photons of fire.
Thunder pulled herself to her snubbie’s
cockpit and came face to face with Fox, “We both can’t ride around in this, ya
know?! You’re gonna have to swipe one
of these other ships…and quickly while I cover you.”
Fox snarled back, “We can take him out if
we work together!”
Thunder dragged Fox out with the Force,
“No, no we cannot. Darth Xanthis is
attuned to the Force more than any Sith Lord could ever hope for an
apprentice. We are gonna keep him busy
till we both have a ship and blast out, got it?!”
Fox started running towards the front of the
hangar, “Yeah, yeah.” Moments later, he
was hotwiring a small yellow snubfighter.
When its astromech droid decided to intervene to prevent the theft, Fox
managed to short the little R5’s system.
Thunder continued sending barrages of photons in Xanthis’
direction. The Sith Lord continued to
swat them away with his lightsaber while beginning to gain ground. Out of the corner of Thunder’s eye, she
could see a Headhunter begin to drag across the floor of the hangar. Xanthis was managing to pull the snubfighter
to a position between himself and her blade with the Force while not missing
one of her shots. The small yellow
snubfighter with Fox in it shot toward vacuum.
Seconds later, Thunder was following the Slugfest’s
trail with Fox tucked into her six. Her
comm was blinking.
“Blade, this is Slugfest, what was
that all about?”
“Blade here. I have no idea, but ya better do a thorough scan of the area and
keep the guns charged.”
“No shit, Pilot Obvious. Whoa—think I got something. Check out that modified yacht heading this
way. I think it’s on an intercept
course with yours truly. You
wanna take a closer look or stick to our six?”
“I’m gonna go take a peek. Fox will escort your Transport outta
here. Where should we meet?”
“How about near Kuat? I know a few tucked away places where we
shouldn’t be disturbed. I’ll send your
astromech droid the coordinates.”
“Roger that. Breaking off.”
“Don’t get burned. Slugfest out.”
Thunder pulled away from the Slugfest
and headed towards the yacht. She
decided to forgo disguising her move and just beeline it for the ship. After all, whoever this was, obviously knew
that the little snubfighter and transport were together.
“Diggs, juice up the shields. Transfer weapons to the engines. We’re gonna be fast and roll with punches
for this trip.”
<<Compliance. Yacht accelerating to intercept Slugfest.>>
Thunder pushed her Blade’s engines as
hard as she could to make it to the yacht while the Slugfest was still
out of her range. Digger began
squealing and her HUD lit up with multiple red targets. Ack, yacht was hiding a few snubfighters
in its wake. Well, looks like we
definitely get to roll with the punches.
“Digger, keep power routed to engines and
shields only. We aren’t fighting it out
this time. I just wanna take a good
look.”
<<Compliance. Suggest evasive maneuvers. Two aggressive targets incoming.>>
“Understood. Hang on, Diggs.”
Thunder hugged the yacht’s surface as she
slid along its side and headed up towards its bridge decks. She checked her HUD. The two snubbies were on her six. Great, TIE fighters. Just what I need. She was almost to the command decks of the
yacht. As she shot over the Bridge, she
reached out and sensed the individuals on the yacht. She extended her probing as much as she could while flying. Darth Zarin didn’t seem to be on the
yacht. Digger began to hoot.
<<Armed Escort Shuttle en route to
yacht. Shuttle has fighter
escort.>>
“Thanks, Diggs. Looks like this big boy is with Xanthis and I bet ya
anything that Xanthis is on that shuttle.
But no time to cop a feel. Let’s
hype outta here. Program a nice and
confusing route out of here and to the coordinates that Pachet sent to the navicomp.”
<<Compliance.>>
Thunder continued to jink and juke while
the TIEs washed her aft shields with bolt after bolt. While her X-Wing would not have withstood the pounding this long,
her Blade was more than able to take hits from the TIEs. Should the shields fail, its strong hull
could also manage several direct hits before becoming fatal scores. Thunder smiled. She was in her element.
Fighting. It was the only
constant in her life…ever. Many a time,
she had wondered which was more important in her little universe—Whyren’s
Reserve or fighting. The answer was
still not clear. Maybe that was the
real reason why Reno had relented and allowed her to take leave. She watched as the stars elongated and the
Blade was swallowed into hyperspace.
Thunder’s Blade dropped out of
hyperspace. As usual, there was
Pachet’s transport about ten klicks away.
She caught up.
“Well, Tundre, what’d ya spy?”
“Heh…a yacht belonging to a nemesis. Darth Xanthis to be exact. His Master, Darth Zarin, must have sent him
after Fox who would make a nice additional apprentice for Zarin. Unless Zarin is just trying to prevent us
from growing any bigger. The bad news,
though, we gotta keep our scanners peeled for TOS forces.”
“So, Lotan and I are wondering: What in all the Core Worlds are TOS
forces?”
“Oh, TOS…it stands for Terror
Of Space. It is a Grazer-class
warship. The TOS movement means
to control everything. They would make
the Empire look like a goodtime. I can
only assume that Xanthis is Sith-bent on becoming another Emperor or
Force-wielding tyrant. Why Zarin would
allow this behavior is beyond me. It
doesn’t seem like a move Darth Zarin would condone. I guess the real question is whether or not Xanthis is acting
alone or has his Master’s orders.”
“Nice.
Well, ya got me for a while.
What do you want to do now? Head
back to wherever you are takin’ Fox or what?”
Thunder sat there thinking. Or what?
So, much for the whole break from everything. I try to actually get away and rest, only to find myself in the
middle of another brawl. I need to get
back to the SSD—with Fox and that info about the Rogues. Something else disturbed her, though. She had gotten away too easily from Xanthis
and his unusually small fleet. She was
missing something. Maybe Xanthis knew
the location of the SSD and would wait to ambush her while she headed
back. Xanthis could have also attached
some sort of homing device on her Blade or on Pachet’s transport. Then again, maybe Pachet was working for
Xanthis and was attempting to discover the location of the SSD. More importantly, why would Lord Darth Zarin
send out his apprentice after Fox? Fox
couldn’t possibly be that promising of a future apprentice. Darth Zarin must have sent Xanthis out to
kill Fox with or without Thunder as a bonus in hopes of reducing the number of
Reno’s squadron. That was the only
logical reasoning…as long as Zarin was the origin. If he wasn’t, Thunder had no clue as to what Xanthis was
planning. No doubt Lead would want this
information as much as her other gifts.
Digger suddenly beeped at her.
<<Thunder’s systems ok?>>
“Yeah, sorry Diggs…thanks. I got a bad case of thinking going on. Must be time for a Whyren’s Reserve. Diggs, we’re gonna need to scan our ships
for any type of devices that Xanthis or his cronies may have placed to trace
us.”
<<Compliance. Initiating scan.>>
This was becoming the most annoying
vacation that she had ever taken.
Thunder was already debating whether or not Fox was really worth all the
trouble. However, she had to at least
present the little furball to Baron Reno and let him decide Fox’s fate. Powerful as Thunder was, she would not be
able to keep a secret from Reno for long.
If nothing else, the next formidable Whyren’s Brawl would put any
secret-keeping to an end. Moments
later, Digger had finished the scan of the Blade-32, the Corellian YT-3000
Transport, and the Naboo N-1 Starfighter.
They found themselves a quiet, uncolonized, environmentally safe planet
to make some needed repairs on their ships.
Thunder’s Blade was relatively undamaged
other than some carbon scoring. She
spent the majority of her time on the Slugfest doing what she did
best—relaxing instead of helping. Lotan
was busy assisting Fox at wiping the astromech droid’s memory and firing him
back up. Once that was finished, they
would give the N-1 Naboo Starfighter a quick look-over for any other potential
problems.
Thunder stretched back in her chair and
enjoyed the feel of her Whyren’s Reserve sliding down her throat. Fighting or Whyren’s Reserve? That was the only important question and it
didn’t seem all that important at the moment.
Pachet stepped from the back bunk area into the little compartment. His posture was guarded. Thunder reached out with the Force and noted
that Pachet was also mentally guarded.
This was certainly a change in his demeanor, especially for a battle
hardened warrior as himself. He plopped
down across from her.
“Well, we’ll hang here for about another
hour or so, then head out. I noticed
you have quite the little arsenal in addition to that lightsaber on your
hip. What’s the other weapon?”
Thunder reached down and pulled up her
prized blastsword and smiled, “My blastsword, an Adumari weapon mostly used in
duels known as ground challenges or Honor duels. I don’t use it that often, but it does come in handy. I stick to using my snubbie for most disintegrations. The lightsaber is a wonderful weapon,
though. I am sometimes surprised that a
similar weapon was never developed on Adumar.
I can only surmise that sticking to the traditional weapon is more
important than advances to it. Consequently,
why do you ask?”
Pachet leaned across and Thunder thought
she could feel the slightest hint of impending danger rise up the back of her
neck.
“I’m just curious, I ‘spose. Huh, lightsabers. You certainly don’t see
much of them anymore. May I see it?”
Thunder hesitated with an answer for a
moment, not quite sure why.
“I’m rather protective of my
lightsaber…it’s my second one. It’s not
exactly a fun experience to make a new one using Sith techniques. I’m not fond of the intense heat.”
“Oh, I understand…I guess. Well, then how about demonstrating its
capabilities? I momentarily saw that
little spat in the hangar and was amazed.”
Thunder reattached the blastsword to her
waist belt and removed her lightsaber.
“I guess it would at least kill some time for us. Sure.”
Pachet stood up across from Thunder and
smiled, “Here, let’s see what that can chew through. Cut through this.” He
picked up a long cylindrical object from a nearby console and held it out.
Thunder activated her lightsaber with a
familiar snap-hiss and struck the metal pipe. There was loud pop as the saber broke through the first layer of
metal and connected with something underneath.
A fierce hot jolt surged through her before engulfing her into darkness.