Riding in on a Qoo
Cast of Characters:
Eli White
Don Erudite
Silas Doon
Feen Vida
The Wanderer
Lance Nuget
Mashi
Having escaped the Candorian plague while aboard a freighter running on its auxiliary hyperdrive, the group landed on Dantooine to check up on The Wanderer's homestead. They were greeted by an Imperial garrison ravaging the neighboring farms. The Wanderer and Eli established sniper posts, The Wanderer waiting more than patiently to save other people's villages. The party, calling themselves the Foundation, was able to save as many farmers and ranch hands as they could. This benevolence was only met with violence as the Foundation discovered that The Wanderer's homestead had been razed by the Empire.
The Foundation now had to make some decisions.
One was that the burned corpses of The Wanderer's family would not be buried but instead interred at a secret burial site on Almas where others, like Lofryyka, Hoodan Qoo, and Magnus Brand, rested.
Another was who to hunt down next.
Beel Acton, Inquisitor for the Empire, revealed through a hologram left at the scene that he was on a mission to eliminate and torture anyone connected with The Foundation. Evidence of this was shown by his documenting the slow deaths of The Wanderer's family. The Wanderer picked up the holoprojector to transfer the message onto the Net, so that others would share his rage, but Don heard the beeping noise and called upon the Force to send the explosive flying out of the door.
The party needed to get off-planet quickly.
Eli, strapping himself into the sensor station, scanned to find 48 TIE fighters, a Victory-class Star Destroyer, and two system patrol craft moving into position over The Qoo. Veen, the Twi'lek companion to Silas, threw the ship into full power and decided to vector towards the capital ships, willing to get lost in the immense turbolaser batteries instead of 48 separate pilots wishing her death.
Veen turned on the intercom. "Give me a read on those TIEs, somebody."
Don tried to focus the sensors in that quadrant of space. This was definitely not like the Jedi starfighter controls that he had read about in the Temple library. "They're far off, I think somewhere over there.
"I'm shutting down the E-Web!" yelled The Wanderer, trying to divert power to the ship's front gun turret. "How do you like that?"
"I've got nothing!" replied Eli. "Try it again!"
The Imperial dagger drew ever closer.
Eli opened up the front battery on the nearest patrol craft. Crimson streaks traced empty space until making contact. Blue sparks fizzled around the hull of the ship. Mashi, the shadowy primitive feline warrior, intuitively trained the missile lock onto another of the capital ships. The missile continued its deadly path through the vacuum.
The patrol craft and the Star Destroyer released a barrage into The Qoo's general vicinity.
"Shields are at 50% efficiency, Veen," stated The Wanderer. He gave the read-out a firm slap.
"I've rocked that patrol craft. Aim for the asteroids. I've got an idea," said Eli.
Veen brought the transport into near point-blank range. As one of the patrol craft angled itself, Lance unleashed his turret into its shields. The Imperial patrol craft's quadlasers skimmed off of the shields of The Qoo. Mashi's missile continued to pursue the patrol craft. The other patrol craft moved into range.
The Foundation was going toe-to-toe with two capital ships and a Star Destroyer closing in, the destroyer spewing green turbolasers. Lance gave retribution, but the patrol craft's shields absorbed it. The Star Destroyer moved to pinch The Qoo between the asteroid field. Mashi launched another concussion missile to join his first; the first continued its arc, but his most recent one slammed into one of the patrol craft. Eli added his turbolaser turret into the mayhem.
As Veen placed the asteroid field between The Qoo and the cruisers, Silas blasted the guns into both patrol craft. Once again, their better shields held true.
"Sithspit. I'm going to feed the cat more missiles," remarked Silas, the venerable Jedi.
As the Star Destroyer fired its lasers, asteroids absorbed the damage, their tiny fragments dusting the area.
"Good maneuvering," said Don. "Stay near those rocks."
Mashi's first concussion missile made contact with the closest pursuing patrol craft. Blue electricity fizzled and then sparked out. Mashi launched another. Lance tattooed the hull with the rear turret. Veen attempted to speed away from the patrol craft, but their initial design was for tracking down freighters such as The Qoo. The turbolasers of the Star Destroyer pelted the space around the transport.
Eli concentrated on the already weakening hull of the closest patrol craft, unloading well-placed shots. Making a heroic surge, Eli shouted, "Take some more of that!" He blinked. "What was that?"
Don scanned. Is that an inquistorius hunter ship watching us? Can't be. That would mean...
Intent on destroying the patrol craft, Lance did not sense Beel Acton's presence. The shields of the patrol craft dissipated the damage. The other patrol craft came to its defense, shaking The Qoo.
Eli lit up his friend the patrol craft. It was barely maintaining. Mashi added a concussion missile to the mess. Silas continued to feed the launcher missiles. The patrol craft tilted, spewing gouts of flame and crew as its simulated gravity gave out. In a flash it was gone.
"Those TIEs are fast approaching," mentioned Don. "We need to break free of the planet's gravity well."
The Wanderer shut down power to the E-web personnel turret. He felt lucky, even though shields were down to 30%. "We're not taking on stormtroopers anytime soon, right?" He diverted power to the engines. "That should give you some more room to move. Git goin'!"
A red light flashed next to Don. "The Imp is trying for missile lock."
"Buckle in," Veen cringed as the inertial compensators pressed her into the back of the pilot's chair. Silas grabbed onto a hatch door door as the transport twisted and turned; Silas was barely able to hold the concussion missile he was loading.
The shields came up to 50%. I knew today was a good day, thought The Wanderer.
"We're outta here!" cheered Veen.
A red light flashed next to Don.
A loud explosion rocked The Qoo. The lights went off momentarily.
"Shields are out!" cried The Wanderer.
"Power couplings are out, too," said Lance. "Does anything on this ship work?" he muttered to himself.
Dots appeared on the sensor screen.
"Well, that was really bad timing," said Don. The 48 TIEs were now in range. "We survived their first hit, but we still have two missiles out there. They're capital scale."
"How long 'til the jump?" asked Veen.
"Use all of our power to speed us out of here. I know I can get the astrogation," said Eli. "We're at Dantooine. Outer Rim, right?" He tried to recall the charts from rote memory. He skimmed through the HoloNet to try to speed up the process. "Gimme a couple of seconds."
"If you fail, so do we," replied Don.
The Wanderer whispered into his station. "Come on, baby, you can do this." Visions of worms, the caravan, and the Dark Man came before his eyes. "Not today." The shield generator sputtered to life.
"Wooha!" yelled Eli. A missile blossomed as one of his lasers hit.
Lance surrendered himself to the Force, letting it guide his hands. A perfect hit detonated the other missile.
Twin-ion engines whined as squadrons of TIEs poured into range, traveling in perfect formations of four. The lights of The Qoo flickered as twenty TIEs opened fire.
"Shields are out again," said The Wanderer. The silhouetted profile burned in his brain, calling him, comforting him.
"We're not going to last," Lance nodded towards Eli. "Let me help." Not willing to give up so easily, Eli called upon a power that he could never possibly comprehend in its fullest.
"We're out of the gravity well. Trust the Force, Jedi Nuget," coached Master Don.
TIE squadrons could be seen at the top of the main viewport, moving to to block the route.
Lance commed the captain of the Star Destroyer. "I'd like to discuss our terms of surrender." Pick up. You will be embraced in the full grip of the Force.
"We don't have time for this," Veen said as she lowered the lever.
A field of streaking starlines was all that remained of the battle as The Qoo made the jump to hyperspace.
Entering the Cularin system, the Foundation made it into the planet Almas' orbit. Even from this distance they could see that a starfighter had strafed the sacred burial grounds just moments before.
Amidst the burning ruins, The Wanderer watched as Master Don Erudite created a pyre in remembrance of The Wanderer's family. The embers and escaping cinders wafted into the stars.
Upon returning to The Qoo, the Foundation noticed that the comm light was registering a message. "I hear you guys are in need of repairs," stated General Garm Bel Iblis matter-of-factly.
Saturday, June 10, 2006