Chapter 1: Baptism By Fire

[Drake 53]

Takeshi locked down his emotions in the face of the battle. All of his life he had what seemed like two personalities. One was the fun-loving New Republic officer and the other was the battle-hardened warrior. He fell back into the latter.

Focusing on the nearest fighters, Takeshi opened fire. He burned down one enemy before half a dozen TIEs turned to face him and Three Flight.

Jareth's voice came over the comm. "Take out as many as you can before they pass us."

Tak nodded and blasted away. Enemy fire lit up his forward shields and Sixxa sent him updates on how much they were decreasing. He took out one more ship before the two fighter groups flew past one another.

***

Atzena followed Jareth's orders and opened fire. Deep down, she still felt embarrassed and upset at herself for killing a friendly those years ago. What if these Imperial pilots have families? How will their parents feel if they die? Their wives or children?

She was pulled back to the moment when a shield hit rocked her fighter. On second thought, these guys don't seem to care about me Atzena thought.

She locked onto a TIE, closed her eyes and opened fire. When her astromech let out a cheerful chirp, Atzena opened her eyes and found that she had scored a direct hit and destroyed one of the TIE fighters.

That's number two...

[Mara 29]

Kaden had noticed the six TIEs coming for his flight just as he heard Lt. Daragon's voice mention the same thing. He kept on his lasers, juking out of the way of the opposing fire.

He saw two blips blink out on his screen. Four more here.. and... too many to go...

He never let himself think that they were at an advantage, having five in their flight. Thinking that way would make him and the rest of them overconfident.

Kaden spiraled his fighter, avoiding more laser bursts from the TIEs and keeping the enemy in front of him at all times. He let loose a rapid burst of fire straight at another TIE but didn't stay long enough to watch it blink out of his display.

There were still three more within the area of Three Flight.

He picked up another target and went after it.

[Drake 53]

Captain Tunon pulled his fighter into a tight upward curve, leading his flight out of the direct fire then banked back down and rained fire from above. In response, the TIE fighters turned up to face them but two enemy fighters were already down. He was also receiving reports that more were being taken out by the other flights.

In another couple long minutes, the Revenants had already taken down at least a dozen TIE fighters quite effectively. Aeric opened the squadron comm. "Keep it up, Revenants! These eyeballs are dropping like flies."

It was then that he saw the two Star Destroyers disgorge four more squadrons of TIE fighters.

"Damn..."

[Mara 29]

We're one little X-wing squadron. How are we a threat? Kaden mused to himself, wondering what Imperials were doing this far out into space.

"Lock in some more targets, Artie. This isn't ending soon."

Artie beeped a comply and started organizing some targets for Kaden to shoot at.

Kaden followed Three Flight out to starboard, focusing on the nearest TIE squadron to their location. He figured the real way to know if those SD's wanted them was to get close and see if they fired, but he wasn't willing to do that right now. Not with dozens of TIEs coming at them. This wasn't a suicide sim mission. They just had to keep blasting out TIEs, hoping that they could finally get out of range of the Interdictor and jump.

He didn't like running, but staying here any more than was necessary would be bad. Very bad.

Kaden pulled up the first target that Artie had locked in for him and started throwing lasers at it. He tried to focus his shots on the side of the fighter, hoping that he could throw the damaged TIE into the one flying next to it. He fired a few more times and a piece of shrapnel hit the adjacent TIE.

"Blast."

The second eyeball only wavered a bit, no major damage. But his other target was already heading back, too damaged to stay and fight. Kaden focused all his lasers on the other TIE.

[Princess 35]

Nima took a quick scan of the fight. "E4, get me firing solutions as fast as you can. And see what kind of damage I can do from aftershocks too. There's a lot of targets out there and we've got a limited number of torps." She switched over to Jya's channel while snaprolling away from a TIE. "Seven, let's do some damage." At that second, Nima's sensor board lit up as 4 more squadrons of TIE's blasted out of the Star Destroyers. "E chu ta!"

[Drake 53]

Takeshi took in all going on around him. He watched TIE fighters explode and shields flare. He saw a wave of enemy fighters approaching. He saw the Revenant's doom. He watched at the two Star Destroyers hung back like scavengers, waiting to pick off their prey if they ran. He saw the interdictor above them, the shield over its main hangar glowing blue in the black of space...

He got it.

"This is Rev Thirteen. Lead, I have an idea."

Captain Tunon's voice came over the comm system. "Let's hear it, Thirteen."

"Sir, this is classified but I don't care at the moment.... At the Battle of Coruscant, I led a dozen special ops commandos..."

He paused as a pair of TIE fighters teamed up on him. He evaded, swung around and destroyed one of them.

"...we took a shuttle, during the space battle, boarded one of the Imperial Victory-class Star Destroyers and captured it. I think we can do the same with the interdictor. It's an Immobilizer 418 cruiser. We would stand a slightly better chance of surviving in there than out here, sir."

Sixxa displayed the exact odds of taking over such a vessel. Tak ignored it.

It was a moment before Aeric spoke. "Alright, Thirteen. It's our best shot. How do you suggest we get in?"

"We'll need to take down the shield protecting their main hangar. There is a weakness on the hull next to it that is near the hangar shield generator." He typed in commands to Sixxa. "My astromech is transmitting the coordinates. We need to throw everything we've got at that point. This ship has a dozen shield generators so we'll need to punch through with our missiles to take out the one protecting the hangar. Once it's down, an emergency breach door will slam into place. We'll need to be ready to fly in fast before it closes."

"Copy that" said the Captain. "Revenants, form up on me! Watch your backs, those new TIE groups are almost on us."

[Ender 8]

Jaim dispatched his third TIE just as he heard Tak's idea.

"That's insane enough for me to really, really like it!"

[Rogue 4]

Layla had lived on Corellia long enough to not want to know the odds, so she was distressed when she looked down at her droid's translation to find them displayed.

-.0047, if we retain the current number of Revenants and taking into account the average number of crew of an Immobilizer 418 cruiser, which approximates 2,087 people, not counting the extra 900 or so crew if it doubles as a flagship...

Layla groaned. "Kriff it Sexy! It's hard enough piloting without you telling me the odds! Do I look like I care?!" he tootled something about how he was unable to see her from his current position behind her cockpit. She took the time he took to explain, to send a volley of lasers into one of the approaching eyeballs. "Well...oh nevermind."

Nat opened a private channel to the Captain. "Lead, Five. I just ran the odds on the new strategy. They're decidedly not in our favor." His lekku twitched in their warmers as he said it, his hands working deftly over the controls.

"I know, Five, but it's our best option right now." he paused in thought. And there's probably a better use for your astromech right now.

Riamor didn't like this. It was a crazy tactic, thirteen people against the crew of an Interdictor cruiser. And with two Impstars abound, those numbers could change dramatically with a few shuttle launches.

Edited July 21, 2007 by Rogue

[Drake 53]

The surviving TIE fighters pulled away from the Revenants to regroup with the four new squadrons that had just entered firing range. A wave of enemy laser fire assaulted the X-wings as they formed up and made their way near the hull of the interdictor. The capital ship began firing at them with its limited arsenal. It was not too difficult to dodge the slower turbolaser batteries.

They had almost reached the attack coordinates supplied by Takeshi when Atzena's shakey voice came over the comm.

"I've been hit!"

***

Atzena's fighter was a mess. A turbolaser blast had found its mark and knocked out her shields, scorched her hull to black, and fried her navigational system and life support. Even her poor astromech was destroyed. She herself was lucky to be in one piece. Something sparked beside her and Atzena cringed from it as her fur singed.

"I'm sorry, guys" she said over the comm, "but I'm just not going to make it into the hangar." She realized her hands were shaking and she was now openly crying.

"Yes you will, Atzena, just hold it together!" came Takeshi's voice. She could sense his frustration and care over the comm but it was too late. She worked the controls of her damaged fighter until she was facing the target area on the hull. It was little more than a junction of armour hull plates on the outside.

"Tell my family...that I love them. And...thank you all for being my friends. You might want to back away now...."

She armed her full compliment of torpedos for detonation on impact and began to speed up as fast as she could go.

Aeric's voice crackled over Atzena's failing comm system. "Atze...don't do thi...s suicide!"

"It's my sacrifice..." she said as the hull of the interdictor rapidly filled her cockpit window.

Everything seemed to freeze at the last minute. Atzena's memory flashed back over her life. At one moment, she was a child playing on Cantros. The next she was a teenager with her family. A moment later, she was in a fighter. The next, she was destroying Kriegra Tot. Next, she saw herself a broken and depressed soul. A moment later, she was cheerful and carefree. In the next moment, Atzena was joining the New Republic Defense Force. The next, she was on her way to her next mission. Her last was of her with her new friends, sharing a laugh in the pilot's lounge.

As Atzena's world sped back up to the speeds she so loved, her last thought was, I forgive you, Atzena.

A smile came to her face as her damaged fighter slammed into the hull of the interdictor and exploded with the force of a half dozen torpedos and a tank full of fighter fuel.

[Rogue 4]

"Atzena, don't--" Layla felt something shatter in the pit of her gut as the explosion blossomed against the Interdictor's hull. "Atzena..."

She knew in her head that now was not the time to mourn, but in the few days she'd been with the squadron, the feline woman had kind of grown on her. She possessed a kind of innocence that Layla couldn't remember ever having, and her jovial manner and almost comical fanged grin was one that could raise anybody's spirits.

Now is not the time to mourn, She reminded herself, as she had to everytime someone close to her died. Now's the time for vengence.

Nat felt a pang at the loss of the Cantrossian pilot. He hadn't known her too well, but she was one of them. She was one of them. His lekku slackened as the fireball died down, Atzena's life turning into ashes before it.

He remembered something his father had told him. A pilot's destiny is to become space dust, his ship to become shrapnel. Not the most pleasant thought, but it's what hit him now. He spoke into the comm, his voice somehow calm despite everything. "We need to go now." Their window of opportunity was a short one, and he wasn't about to waste one bought in blood.

[Drake 53]

Despite the loss of Atzena, the entire squadron did a good job at keeping their heads in the game.

As one, the Revenants shot up and into the hangar as soon as the shield dropped. Almost instantly, a large durasteel armour door began to slam into place to prevent too much atmosphere from escaping. It was tight but the last X-wing made it through right before the door slammed shut. It was a little tricky because they had to fly at full speed into the hangar but then slow to a stop immediately before crashing into the ceiling. That all of the Revenants pulled it off, either showed incredible luck or skill...or both.

Great...out of the frying pan and into the fire thought Takeshi. Already, a defensive turret was firing at them and Stormtroopers were picking themselves off the floor after the sudden changes in pressure. Soon they would be firing at the intruders as well. One of the X-wings, Tak wasn't sure who, fired on the turret and it exploded, raining shrapnel to the deck. Others opened fire on the Stormtroopers, killing and scattering them into hiding.

"Let's go, Revenants!" ordered Aeric. "Now that we're in, let's secure the hangar."

Takeshi landed his fighter on the deck with everyone else following suit. He had already unstrapped himself from his crash webbing and pulled out his Thunderer superheavy blaster by the time his landing struts hit the floor. Tak popped the hatch, aimed at the nearest bucket heads and opened fire.

[Princess 35]

Nima shut down her fighter and grabbed her blaster rifle out of her storage compartment. "E4, keep this thing ready for a hot start just in case. It's gonna be ugly in here." She jumped out of her fighter and ran towards the rest of the squadron when an idea hit her. "Lead, I've got an idea. Why don't we have Two hack into the computer and see who's in charge of this fight group. We send orders to the other ships to stand down and infiltrate the bridge. It may be the cleanest way to do this."

[Rogue 4]

Privately, Nat grinned as his laser-fire finally reverted that turret into shrapnel. Stormtroopers were troublesome, sure, but turrets would certainly eat away at the unshielded hull of the now parked X-wings. Landing, Riamor unstrapped his crash webbing and reached under his seat for his blaster. He popped the canopy and using his X-wing as cover, immediately started shooting at the launch bay's occupants. He knew well the weaknesses in Stormtrooper armor, the neck and behind the joints, and began to exploit them. When it was all clear he climbed down the nose of his X-wing and jumped the lesser distance to the ground. Already he saw a distressed looking Layla Nasrin moving forward to work the controls towards the door.

"Don't let those close, Three." he told her. She nodded her understanding. If the bridge commander got the sudden urge to vent them all into space, he'd have to shut the bay doors first.

He heard Nima's suggestion and thought about it a moment. "The idea has merit, Eight, but there's some problems with it."

Layla nodded her agreement. "If they were using normal communications it would be as simple as you say, but these are Imperials. The Bridge commander probably communicates to the other Star Destroyers by holographic display. Imperial showoffism and all that. We'd need a record of his holo-communications, and we'd have to spend time breaking the Imperial codes placed on them, not to mention guessing at the protocol of this particular group."

Nat nodded his agreement. It seemed their insertion specialists at least knew what they were talking about. "And we're not even sure which Warlord we're about to offend."

[Drake 53]

Tak jumped down from his X-wing and called over to Atuarre. "Hey Four! I think this is a good opportunity to stretch those sniper legs of yours! Up high!" He pointed to a half dozen Stormtroopers and a pair of officers firing at them from an upper level walkway.

Atuarre nodded with a feral grin and pulled out her sniper rifle.

Tak moved over next to Layla and began firing at Stormtroopers, down the hall, with extreme prejudice.

Aeric ran up, firing his blaster, and ducked behind the bulkhead next to Tak. "This was a good idea, Thirteen. Now tell me, how are we going to take this slag heap again?"

"Well sir, I would recommend our first stop be the armoury. We'll need as many power cells that we can get our hands on." He picked up a nearby fallen Stormtrooper's E-11, swapped it's power cell with his own depleted one and continued firing. "It's two levels up."

Aeric nodded. "Right. Revenants! Let's move! Six, we're going to be relying heavily on your slicing skills up ahead, think you're up to the challenge?"

[Andy 60]

(( re-winding a bit, you jumped too far ahead while I was at work ))

Aston felt a pang of sorrow at Atzena's sacrifice, but he had grown regrettably accustomed to losses like this and brushed the pain aside for later, "now is not the time," he reminded himself.

Pushing his X-wing to it's operational limits, he just made it inside the hangar as the doors shut. A little close for comfort though, as he clipped the arm of a loading crane. As he shut the power down on his fighter, warning lights flashed at him. By the time he had let off a burst of laser cannon fire at a group of stormtroopers, the hangar was relatively clear, so he set the ship down and popped open the canopy. The ship's astromech twittered impatiently as it tried to out out a small fire that had started in the circuitry.

Aston jumped to the hangar floor and looked back at the smoke rising from his fighter, and winced. Captain Tunon would not be impressed.

Jareth Daragon jumped out of his cockpit beside him, "Trouble?"

Aston shrugged and checked his blaster was ready to fire.

"Ah well, never mind I'm sure the little droid up there can sort it." Jareth turned and reached for his weapons, picking up a DT-57 "Annihilator" heavy blaster, and a A280 blaster rifle, then crouched down behind some storage crates with his rifle, aiming for the main doorway, with an unpleasant surprise for the first stormtrooper who tried to come through it.

Aston heard his callsign, and replied to the Captain, "of course. I like a challenge, sir."

[Drake 53]

"Good" said the Captain. "Start by getting this hangar sealed off. I don't want those bucket heads messing with our new fighters. On second thought...these ships have two hangars. See if you can lock that one up as well. We don't want the Imps calling for reinforcements."

Aeric took a quick scan of the hangar. "Anybody left?"

Atuarre gave a closer scan through the scope of her sniper rifle then shook her head.

"Alright then" said Aeric. "Three, go secure us that turbolift at the end of the hall. Three Flight, go watch her back. Four, you stay here with me and Six while he works. The rest of you, go with Five and secure the rest of the halls. Move, people!"

Takeshi nodded and pulled out his DL-44, holding it in one hand and his T-6 in the other. Three Flight formed up in a box formation with Jareth and Tak in the lead, with the heavy firepower, Layla in the middle and Kaden and Jaim taking up the rear. They moved quickly down the hall with the rest of the squadron following closely behind. As soon as they made it to the turbolift, Three Flight hunkered down on either side of the lift, firing down both hallways as Imperials appeared.

[Rogue 4]

Layla leaned back against the turbollift, using the small protruding wall to cover herself as much as possible.

"It's a damn good thing these bucket-heads can't shoot!" She remarked over the noise, sending red bolts of laserfire in the direction of the Stormtroopers. She hit one in the neck and watched him recoil, hand clutching his throat as he fell backwards, motionless.

The next stormtrooper in line stepped over him as if he was nothing but a puddle of Imperial white on the floor, a true display of Imperial expendability.

They would never feel the loss of that stormtrooper as the Revenants felt the loss of Atzena.

She stuck her blaster into the holster on her right thigh. Still using the small wall for cover, she slipped open the control panel on the turbolift, and got a good look at the wires. "This is going to take a minute guys!"

***

Nat led Two flight down the hall, taking the lead. He stopped to pick up a rifle from one of the downed Stormtroopers, sticking his blaster back in it's holster. He could use the added range and firepower. He stopped, peeking around a corner to find a group of stormtroopers conversing, obviously none-too caring about thier posts. Luckily for them they were turned the other way. "Five Stormtroopers." he told them, turning the safety off his rifle.

Edited July 21, 2007 by Rogue

[Drake 53]

Takeshi was beginning to have a little fun in the face of overwhelming odds. Layla was right, the boys in white sure weren't being trained like they used to be. He had seen holovids of Clonetroopers in battle and they were a hundred times better than these bucket-heads. A smile crept across his face.

Nothing like a little old fashioned Mando efficiency. He thought as he filled the hallway with another volley of blaster fire. "Take your time, babe" he said to Layla, sarcastically, "we've got all the time in the galaxy!"

***

When the fighting started, Teroch had slipped out of Takeshi's fighter and made his way across the floor of the hangar, up one of the walls, and through a door on an upper level.

Now he was making his way through a maintenance shaft to find a computer access terminal to see what damage he could do.

Edited July 21, 2007 by Drake

[Rogue 4]

Everyone's a critic...Layla smirked to herself as she ran her fingers through the wires, trying to run one to the source. She took out a small cutter, and set to work on one until the wires were exposed. "In that case would you mind taking care of the source of that laserfire already? The noise is starting to give me a headache."

This one, and then this one... She crossed the two wires, taped them up, and rigged a small datapad into the system. She flipped the panel down and typed in a basic code to override the controls. The doors opened, and Layla beamed, jumping in her excitement. "Ha! Success!"

[Princess 35]

Nima ducked behind a fallen Stormtrooper and snapped off a set of shots at the five incoming stormies. Two of them fell and Nima felt a twinge of regret, since she was a doctor and here she was taking a lives. But then, they wouldn't show any remorse over killing her. She kept her medkit pressed close to her and fired off some more shots, providing cover for the rest of her flight as they checked the downed stormies. Nat gave the all clear signal and they advanced further down the hall.

[Drake 53]

"Good job!" said Tak as Layla opened the turbolift.

Jareth opened up the comm to Captain Tunon. "Lead, this is Nine. Door's open."

***

Aeric was standing next to a crouched Aston. Atuarre was next to the hangar doors, constantly scanning with her sniper rifle for any more movement. When there was none, she moved over next to the Captain.

When Jareth's voice came over his comm, Aeric replied, "Good work. Three Flight, take the lift up to the armoury level and secure the area. Three, I want you to stay down here and make sure the lift comes back down. Everyone else, fall back to Three's position. Four, Six and I will be there shortly."

He looked down at Aston. "Shortly, right?"

Aston didn't look up from his datapad as he nodded absently and continued working. A minute later, the hangar doors slammed shut. The slicer stood up with a grin.

"Great, let's move!"

***

The four remaining members of Three Flight moved into the turbolift. Tak flashed Layla with a broad grin and said, "Thanks for the ride, Legs." He winked as the doors closed and the lift rose two floors.

Jareth waved them back to the walls and away from the door as he pulled a concussion grenade from his pack. As soon as the turbolift doors swung open, a flurry of blaster bolts came through, scorching the back of the lift. A moment later, they stopped as the Stormtroopers no doubt hesitated at the lack of lift occupants. It was then that Jareth armed and lobbed the grenade. A shout was cut off by the distinctive 'pang' as the grenade detonated in a sonic explosion. One unlucky Stormtrooper flew headlong into the turbolift, dead.

Three Flight exited the lift. The half dozen Imperials that were waiting for them now lay dead or unconsious due to the concussion grenade. More troopers were running toward them from one end of the hall.

"Think we should leave some for the rest of the squad, sir?" asked Takeshi with a grin.

Jareth smiled and tossed him a frag grenade while he grabbed one for himself. "No chance in hell."

Two frag grenades went bouncing down the hall toward the oncoming Stormtroopers.

[Rogue 4]

"Anytime..." The Zeltron flashed him a sly grin as the door closed, turning with her blaster as they rode the turbolift up. She reached a finger up to her headset."Covering the lift Captain."

Well this will be interesting. She thought to herself as she settled in to cover the turboliift.

***

"Copy that, Lead." Nat responded as he sent another burst from his rifle at the Stormtroopers with more accuracy than any of them could have in those ridiculous helmets. "Fall back." He told Nima Arlan and Jya, continuing to send cover fire as they started down the hall.

Nobody had expected them all to be suicidal to land, and he supposed that gave them an element of surprise, but he knew that surprise wasn't going to last forever. The first stormtrooper that got in a call to his commander would bring the entire Interdictor down on their location.

Edited July 22, 2007 by Rogue

[Drake 53]

Aeric, Atuarre and Aston arrived at the turbolift just as Nat and his group did.

"Is the area secure, Lieutenant?" Aeric asked.

Nat nodded. "As much as we could make it, Captain."

"Good. Two Flight, head up the lift and rendezvous with Three Flight. We'll be right up behind you."

***

Meanwhile, the four members of Three Flight had fought back the Imperials to a closed hallway leading to the armoury. They pressed up against the walls on either side of the doorway and could hear the enemy on the other side.

"Door's locked" said Jareth.

"Anybody have the explosives or the slicing skills to open that door?" asked Tak.

"Not me" said the Lieutenant. "We should wait until Seven gets here to blow open the door."

[Ender 8]

Jaim slapped a new power pack into his KX-60 and examined the door controls.

"Let me give it a shot. Can't be that different from a speeder."

[Drake 53]

"Alright, Eleven" said Jareth. "But don't open the door until we have at least one more group for backup. I don't want to run head first into a krayt dragon's lair undergunned."