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When You Give a Man Power
Chapter 47
“Watch those droids!” I yelled out to Bane and Spice. A swarm of droids was coming from the side hoping to wipe most of us out before we could get to the Lucrehulk.
Despite most of their fighter complement now gone they still had a lot of droids left over. Our ships' multibarreled ion cannons whirred before spitting out blue bolts that crippled and fried the droids coming for us.
It was like watching a weed-eater eat away at a swarm of ants coming out of a kicked-over ant hill. The blue bolts, upon contact, sparked along their surface for a moment before fading, and the droids twitched before falling, still drifting past us, floating in the void harmlessly. Or about as harmless as random debris can be in an active battle.
Our rotary cannons kept the tide of droids back with the other ships staying behind us as we acted like the blade to a snow truck breaking and shoving the snow out of everyone’s way.
“Keep it up, we are almost there. Tired Nexu, Rancor's wrath, keep those Republic pilots off of our vanguard.”
The two ships despite looking like they should have been scrapped some time ago with how old they both were moved to intercept the starfighters opening fire on them forcing them to break away unless they wanted to die.
It didn’t stop since they just turned around and opened fire when they were no longer in their crosshairs. Despite the chaos around me I was enjoying this and being in the thick of it again. My blood sang, my heart beat happily in my chest.
Yet a colder part of me was expecting the other shoe to drop. One Republic ship got far closer than the others with our squadmates forcing them to retreat. Except this time one of ours got pinged by a few emerald green cannon blasts.
Glancing off to the side to see five arrowhead-shaped ships coming right for us. “Damn Jedi. We can’t let them get the vanguard. You three on me, Bongwater, One Nut, Spice, keep pushing towards the Lucrehulks.”
Jango with the three others broke off to go and engage the Jedi. Now it might be the time to start getting worried. At least the numerous scrapped bodies of the droids around us acted as a shield against the turbolasers coming from the Lucrehulks.
The lasers impacted the numerous droids ripping through them turning every one of them into molten scraps that glowed in the darkness of space forming an eerie sight.
The Jedi for their part fired a few shots at the three of us tearing through the dwindling droid starfighters before what was left of the droids was mostly taken care of.
Jango and his group held the Jedi off. The Jedi were like wolves moving about honing in on openings or weak points and mercilessly exploiting them. While Jango and the others were a herd of Buffalo acting as shields keeping the predators at bay. Or they tried to.
Sensing an opening two Aethersprites zipped out moving in zigzags when one of our own was out of position getting tunnel visioned with one Jedi in front of them once they realized what was coming it was too late.
The two Jedi mid-spin evaded a shot from Jango along with a missile from another squad mate that nearly had them were it not for a last-minute sharp turn that had the missile sail past them before detonating.
Both Jedi fired at the same time in an impressive display of timing and teamwork taking his shields down then killing him immediately after without the poor soul even having a chance to do or say anything.
“Get to the control cores and destroy them,” Jango ordered us as we moved on as he and the last two remained behind keeping the Jedi occupied. Jango even managed to take out one of the fighters with a salvo of lock-on missiles. It took far too many to kill a single one but at least the Jedi were down a member.
With the number of Jedi against them Jango and the two others couldn’t keep them all busy. Two fly past them diving under the cannon fire in hot pursuit of us.
Our ships loomed closer and closer dodging laser fire weaving through the void. “You have company and we can’t back you up,” Jango told the rest of us.
“We have to disengage and retreat. We can’t take the control sphere and the Jedi at the same time.” I said ready to turn and flee.
“You do that then the battle is a loss. One that the Hutts can’t afford with the target being here.” Bane chimed in not once turning around when it would be in his best interest.
“This entire mission is cursed. We walked through a trap and this screams that it’s an even bigger trap. Why didn’t they have more droids lying in wait around their ships? You guys said their ships have had their number of fighters heavily increased. Well, where are they?”
I waved my hand around my cockpit for added emphasis with Bane's grudging silence told me he was well aware of this. If he had thought of it then so did Jango.
“Corvo we can make it. Just stick together.” Bane tried to reason with me and it wasn’t the reasoning that was getting me to stay with them. It was the fact that I didn’t want them to die here. Not in this.
I cared enough to put my neck on the chopping block. I just hoped the axeman wasn’t going to take the swing. We pushed on with the Jedi in hot pursuit, forced to evade some of the turbo laser fire with the Lucrehulks uncaring that they had allies behind us.
Just when I thought the mission couldn’t get any worse reality just had to show me how wrong I was. Several ships dropped out of hyperspace. None of whom were Hutt ships.
Republic forces…
“Damn!” I cursed dodging laser fire that zipped by my canopy as my ship vibrated at the speeds I made it fly at just to stay alive. “You wanna stay for this?!” I asked sarcastically with an acerbic tone.
Bane for his part couldn’t respond right away trying to evade the Jedi who was on his tail firing away while forced to avoid any of the many turbo lasers flying around this madhouse we called a space battle.
Having the angle I adjust my trajectory aiming for the Jedi taking a few pot shots giving Bane some breathing room.
“We’re leaving.” Bane grumbled unhappily. He couldn’t say anything further with the Jedi soon returning.
“How many of us are left? You know what--” I stopped short, taking a sharp nose dive cutting my throttle to immediately corkscrew timing the spin to avoid two lasers that would have hit with the Jedi and Republic forces flying past me before I went full speed.
A quick usage of bullet time had me taking out four of the Republic dogs with the Jedi preternaturally evading my shots, their ship moving in real time with everything else slowed down. A spur of the moment had me make a quick decision turning my ship away from the Jedi.
A pull of the trigger had my red lasers impact a stray cannon shot. The instant the shots met at that angle, mine bounced off it and sent it flying into another Republic ship, blowing it up with the turbo laser round now at an awkward angle that impacted and rocked the Jedi's ship.
Their shield nearly fell before they could think to do anything they were scrambling after being caught completely off guard by me using a laser like that before I started firing as numerous different green and red beams lanced around the battlefield. Just like in the asteroid field there was no plan.
The Jedi couldn’t predict it all like they could before until the rounds took their shield down with them swiftly engulfed in flames smacking into a droid starfighter ahead of them briefly lighting up the cold darkness of space.
Turning around to help what was left of our squadron while pressing a button on the side of my cockpit. A distress call sent out followed by a few button presses had me locked on showing numerous Republic ships harassing the few people left alive from our squad.
“Everyone get to this rally point I've got an evac coming. Now don’t freak out.” I told them pulling the trigger and send the entirety of my missiles out.
They flew forth like an army of pissed off hornets ready to let whoever the poor unfortunate soul had angered them have all of their stingers.
The Republic fighters were swiftly destroyed with dozens of them turned to scrap metal. A few noticed the missile locks and tried to shake them but joined their brothers in the grave. The few who managed to get out alive were the Jedi in their Delta-6s.
And not all of them had made it. “Bane, Spice, everyone get to that point.” I sent the coordinates to them with what was left of our squad quickly fled the newly entered fleet of ships with several frigates having moved in changing the tide of the battle. Several of the smaller Republic ships moved in to cut off escape for the Hutt ships.
They were trying to trap us.
Looking over to see Jango was on his own with the last two members that had backed him up nowhere to be found amongst the numerous broken metal shells that were at one point ships.
Putting my ship through its paces the metal rattling from the sheer speed it was moving at with me weaving through turbolaser fire, debris, and enemy ships before several red lances shot out destroying several starfighters harassing Jango before I left him in my dust.
“You can’t keep up, that's on you.”
“I had it handled.” That was all Jango said. Not that he sounded relieved or unhappy. Just like the others he was putting all his effort into not getting shot and killed.
“Sure you did. Now let’s get the hell outta here!” Jango showed he agreed when his ship lurched forward not far behind mine.
What had to be hundreds of starfighters gave chase doing their best not to let us escape. We spun, weaving through countless cannon and turbo laser salvos, all witnessed by the stars and darkness of space.
“Jango, have you got any more seismic chargers?” I asked him, noting that it would be a bit difficult to extract when we have that many starfighters not far behind us.
“Two more. Say no more. What’s our extraction?”
“A large nondescript cargo ship. It should be large enough to fit our ships in the cargo bay.”
The line goes silent before the sound of a hatch opening on the back of Jango's ship followed by a round egg-shaped device the size of my torso falling out of it tumbling with our enemies closing in.
A flash of blue behind us had me laughing from both joy and jubilation at being alive yet nervous since we weren’t out of the worst of it just yet. I idly watched the asteroids finally rolling out into the active warzone like tumbleweeds.
Like a switch had been flipped, all sound disappeared. I was nervously laughing yet there was no sound. The cannons and lasers became muted, explosions that were born had their cries smothered across the expanse all without a single sound.
The hum of my ship with it rattling all muted like this became one of those old-timey movies that had no sound. Then came the part I dreaded. All the sound that had been missing came rushing back out all at once.
The blare like a siren intermixed with the sounds of multiple explosions, the crackle of fire, and turbo laser batteries firing away. A blue shrieking wave rushed out slamming into dozens upon dozens of Republic ships destroying them outright on the spot. Only metal fragments were left of their ships. Droid fighters were ripped apart mid-flight. The Republic's advance line staggered from the devastation the seismic charge had wrought.
I pump my fist in satisfaction. “Fuck yeah! That’s what I’m talking about Jango!”
I simply get a hearty laugh from Jango in return. A ship leaves hyperspace entering the space battle. It was a big box-shaped cargo ship. An uninspired design that belied how fast and capable it was.
Several of the Trade Federation's droids tried to attack it with the shield absorbing the laser fire before returning fire with quad turbo lasers that had rotary cannons firing with wild abandon taking the fighters out in droves turning them to slagged shreds.
“Move! Move!”
The surviving ships punched through forward into the yawning cargo bay. Jango's ship skidded hard into the mag-deck, its metal plates shrieking as sparks spat up. Bane's headhunter limped in behind, one wing dragging, engines coughing smoke. The freighter's doors slammed shut with the few survivors rushing their ships in with blaster fire hammering the shields and the outer hull.
I all but kicked the canopy off of me leaping out of my ship pulling a commlink up to my mouth. “Get the ship into hyperspace now!”
A series of beeps and warbles was the only response. Everyone started getting out of their ships once the maglocks kept their ships held in place.
Bane stalked up looking less than pleased by how this all turned out. “Fett, we got played. We're boxed an bleedin’.”
“Not yet.” Jango turned to look at Bane, his helmet hiding whatever expression he had under it. “We break, we run. We will get them back for this.”
Jango turned to me following me along with the others who were eyeing the numerous blasters and explosives along with all the equipment inside the ship.
A door slid open as I swiftly headed for the cockpit. “Corvo, we need to get out of here now,” Jango told me.
I don’t even bother to look back at him. “Already on it. Scrappy is currently getting the ship ready for hyperspace. Any moment now the ship will enter it and we will be home free.” I say with the utmost seriousness. The situation had turned into a complete and utter disaster.
As the group followed me the ship rocked, making me and the others stumble for a brief moment before the ship shook like it was on a stormy ocean. “That can’t be good.”
I swiftly made my way to the pilot's cabin with Scrappy’s upper torso attached to the ship warbling code to me. “What do you mean they took out our hyperdrive?! The shields should have been enough to handle what they could throw at us right now!”
Scrappy gestured at a screen that pulled up to the side showing a Delta-6 getting close to our ship and managing to sneak in under the shield and shoot key points of my ship.
“So we can’t escape?” Bane said arms crossed looking more pissed than usual.
“Corvo, how long would it take to repair the hyperdrive?” Jango asks me.
I moved over to a wall with the others entering the pilot's cabin with Spice herself eyeing up the ship like she was in love. A good kick rattled and vibrated the durasteel wall before it slid open with a hiss revealing a modified Frankenstein looking astromech.
It chirped at me before I leaned down to the little guy hand rubbing the top of his head. “I need you to repair our hyperdrive and we need it done or that,” I point out the window showing a Hutt battleship falling to pieces after numerous fighters doing strafing runs with the Republic ships bartering away at it before it blew up, “Is going to happen to us. Alright?”
The astromech gave a cry before quickly turning and running off with its four octopus-like legs as it carried itself towards where the hyperdrive was. Nothing quite like imminent death to give you some motivation.
The group moved out of the way of the modified droid watching it leave for a moment longer than necessary.
“Scrappy get the ship out of here. Even if we can’t fly the hyperdrive we can still get some distance. Get the guns to prioritize that annoying bastard.”
The droid shook its fist angrily in the air. “You can’t?” I turn to look at Jango, “The Jedi is using the blind spots of the turrets across my ship. We need to go manual.”
I rushed out of the room, the group of survivors following me. “Bane and Jango,” A series of taps along wall panels unveiling several narrow corridors, “These lead up to guns that are hidden on the ship. Get that Jedi and his little buddies off my ship. You two! Were either of you by chance a smuggler before you took this job?”
I pointed at the yellow Twi’lek and a Weequay.
The Twi’lek that we referred to as Spice of Life had a rather nasty scar running the length along her temple to her cheek and along her lekku. If it wasn’t for that and the wrinkles forming around her eyes and cheeks denoting her age she would have been attractive.
The Weequay was just a typical member of his species with tough leathery skin and spikes sticking out of his head like a bearded dragon. He had enough experience to be accepted as part of the squadron taking into account that he was alive where the rest were dead said plenty about him.
“No.” The Weequay said.
“Yeah. You got something for me?” The older Twi’lek asked me.
“Yeah, I need you to copilot with Scrappy. I am going to be manning a gun alongside Many Suns here to fend off the starfighters.”
“Works for me!” She rushed back down the hallway.
Another tap and another two walls slid open. “Head up that way I’m taking this one.”
He does as told with the two of us quickly moving into the corridors. The room was small and cramped, the seat in it taking up most of what little room was available. With a twist and impressive display of flexibility, I managed to squeeze into the seat.
Pressing a series of buttons has the blank screen turn on showing the conflict outside. A HUD pops up showing some crosshairs along with other information.
Immediately seeing the Jedi that had been harassing and damaging my ship my gun swiveled in their direction. The Jedi pulled some evasive maneuvers weaving around my shots with each round leaving the massive cannon.
The Jedi struggled under the onslaught until a few other shots from the others’ guns whizzed by them before one hit their shield outright taking the barrier down before engulfing the ship in a bright fiery explosion.
Another Jedi backed off with several other ships catching up to my cargo hauler. Despite being modified and given some good enchantments there was only so much someone could do to make a big slow ship go any faster. It was already impressive that I had managed to get it to be so fast to begin with.
Seeing an over-eager Republic starfighter coming in fast I lit him up with the gun obliterating his starfighter. Changing targets with the Republic ships charging at us.
Each gun took out a ship if not multiple with Jango and Bane doing amazing work on their ends. “Corvo, why didn’t you bring this with you?” Bane asked me through the voice channel.
“This isn’t meant for frontline combat. It’s supposed to be a moving resupply depot for me or when I need to escape.”
“Blaster cannons have some power to them. The only downside is they don’t shoot fast enough.” Jango chimed in.
“Everyone’s a critic. Well, newsflash to both of you but these guns aren’t meant for starfighters. These are supposed to be used on bigger ships. Surprise them with firepower a ship this size shouldn’t have and make them back off long enough for me to escape.”
The other rotary flak blasters were the ones I had to deal with smaller ships like the starfighters strafing us. The ship groaned and rattled when a few of the Republic cruisers shot at us the shield held strong but if that kept up it wouldn’t last long.
We whooped and hollared when we managed to take out several ships, even making it a competition on who could get the most kills. Scrappy and Spice were doing fine piloting the ship.
There wasn't much they could do when the turbolasers were focused on us with the Hutt forces or what was left of them were routed. Some ships went into hyperspace where others were like us and couldn’t. Whether that was the hyperdrive or another crucial part necessary for it was damaged.
“Jango, sending you over system control of my comms. As far as I am concerned you're now in charge of what’s left of the Hutt forces.”
He went silent on his end before a sigh escaped him. It didn’t stop him from shooting his cannon with a lot of his shots aimed towards Jedi starfighters in the distance.
“To all ships, this is Jango Fett. Commander of Hutt special forces. With no clear commander left I am taking charge. If you can’t go into hyperspace then form up around the cargo hauler.”
Jango started relaying orders to those left who followed them without complaint. Probably saw Jango as their last lifeline to survive this.
There was a lot of chatter but I let Jango do his thing with several ships heading towards us. Many more get shot down or destroyed with only a handful actually surrendering. The ships got more and more brazen not wanting to let us go with several Aethersprite ships zipping in and out harassing my ship.
My gun focused on one particularly annoying Jedi using bullet time to aim ahead forcing them to dip out of the shot while the rotary cannons shredded their shield but they managed to slip out before the weapons could do any real harm.
Annoying but at the same time I am thankful no more Jedi are dying right now. They were trying to kill me but I wasn’t exactly one of the good guys right now. Especially when working for the Hutts…
I check the HUD using my login information only to have my eyes widen with the ship rocking more violently. “Shit!”
I got out of the seat and scrambled over the chair contacting R-Oct0. “How are the repairs on the hyperdrive motivator?”
A series of beeps and chirps made me freeze. “An hour?! We don’t have an hour! Forget it, forward all power to our shields and speed. We need to get out of here.”
Not giving the droid a chance to respond I patch myself to Jango. “Jango, we got a problem.”
“The hyperdrive will remain nonfunctioning?" He said more than he asked despite how it sounded like a question.
“… yeah. We are going to have to run away manually until it can be fixed. My droid is working on diverting power to both shields and our speed. We need an hour to get the motivator back in working condition.”
The sound of a trigger being pulled with buttons being pressed before he responded, “Corvo we don’t have an hour. The net is closing in around us and we need to leave now.”
A vein bulged on my neck before I slammed my fist into the wall crushing and piercing through the metal. Pulling my hand out quickly healing it with a soft golden glow with the only sign I had been cut was the red around the hole in the metal wall.
“It’s what we got Jango. What about the planet in the system? We could land and try to make repairs there.”
“That planet doesn’t have much on it beyond a few colony cities that the Trade Federation uses. We would be vulnerable while making repairs down there.”
“If there are civilians do you think the Jedi would be willing to risk them getting harmed?”
Jango went dead quiet on the other end with whatever was on the tip of his tongue silenced. It was a long moment until Jango spoke, his voice was gravely serious.
He sounded more serious than he ever had and that was saying something when he was usually serious to begin with. The few times he knew how to have fun were when we were playing Uno.
“That could work. We would need to stay near one of the bigger cities and quickly take out whatever defenses they have.” Jango said quietly, sounding like he was thinking about every detail.
“I don’t like it Jango, but we don’t have much of a choice. My ship's shields are low as is--”
An explosion nearly knocked me off my feet catching myself on the wall before pulling up the damage on a wall terminal. Most of my engines just got scrapped…
“Jango, we need to get to that planet now. The engines are done. Spice head for the planet.”
I don’t even waste any time with Spice quickly responding, “You can’t be serious?! With the engines mostly down besides one barely functioning thruster, we are going to crash!”
“Do it,” Jango said over the voice channel.
Spice grumbled under her breath as I made my way back to the cockpit, seeing her and Scrappy working like a well-oiled machine.
The two pressed a multitude of buttons simultaneously keeping an eye on readouts for the ship's current state, what works and what doesn’t, all in preparation for the incoming planet that was getting bigger and bigger with the remnants of the Hutt fleet surrounding us like survivors trying to stay as close to the life raft as possible when the ship just sank on them.
The sound of heavy steps had me look back to see Jango entering the cockpit. I glanced behind him seeing that Bane and the Weequay weren’t here. “Spice can you land it?”
Spice briefly turned to look at Jango before she nodded slowly, “Yeah I can but it won’t be pretty. Unless you want to do the honors?” She looked towards me.
“You’ve done a fine job so far, it may be my ship but I wasn’t exactly attached to it,” I said not liking the idea of losing an investment like this one but if it meant us living then I would do it.
She snorted at that, rolling her eyes at me. “Then you're a kriffing idiot One Nut. The amount of modifications you put into this baby would have me drooling at the chance to get one for myself. Scrappy you got the stabilizers?”
I ignored the insult, not bothered by it since she wasn’t wrong and I could get another one. Scrappy spoke his robot people's tongue listing off readings while the ship's flaps and other mechanisms designed for emergency landings were deployed.
The ship rocked more and more with our enemies not letting us get away without some scars to show for it.
“All ships listen up. We are going to head for the local planet. We are aiming for the capital city of Ozaris. We will use the colony city as a means to buy time against the Republic and Trade Federation with the Jedi and Republic not likely to risk civilians.”
The comms lit up with a series of agreements from all those in command of their ships whether they were starfighters or frigates that had the misfortune to survive and witness the most desperate battle plan one could imagine. But not one of them complained as they followed Jango's orders.
Our ship dipped low pushing its sole remaining engine to its limits and then some. Even with the enchantments helping with heat it could only do so much when it’s a critical system that doesn’t take much to harm and destroy it.
It’s like having a defense enchantment for your head when you get pinged by a fifty caliber bullet. You're dead because the enchantment can only do so much when it doesn’t take much to turn your brain to mush when it comes to bullets. Hence why the ships' means of moving were taken out so easily.
Numerous Hutt ships moved around us all heading towards the planet's capital city. The planet had a decent population on it but nothing compared to a core world. A couple of billion people in those cities but outside of them not too many considering how inhospitable the planet was.
The edges of the ship began to glow as Spice guided the ship down. Orange and yellow with red creeping in showed atmospheric entry was kicking in.
The ship's shield had more power diverted to it, held until another series of emerald cannon fire lanced out from a few Jedi doing enough damage to the shield that it went down along with several more Hutt ships destroyed or damaged enough that they would be forced to crash instead of land.
The ship rocked back and forth making it a struggle to stand with Bane and the Weequay falling into the room scrambling to get up.
Elbow bumping into a panel on the wall making the section fall down revealing seats with harnesses on them.
“Everyone not in a seat get strapped in. This is not going to be gentle.” I told the group already getting myself strapped down with the rest following suit.
“You can say that again. I’m more impressed that your ship is still holding up under all of this. If this were a standard cargo hauler it would have long since fallen apart before we even got to this point.” Spice said while staring down at the oncoming planet.
“I modified her, sure. But it was mostly stuff to test on it. Not a big investment on my end. How bad of a crash should we expect?”
Spice mulled it over her head tilting back and forth. “Real bad. The kind I don’t know if we are going to survive.”
With that, she went dead silent with the ship rattling and groaning ominously as it made its own protests known with the harsh savannah down below getting closer and closer with the flames of the atmosphere licking away at my ship.
“Brace yourselves, it's going to get bumpy.”
The ship's rattling intensified as turbulence overtook the ship. I even saw a few other ships ahead of ours before we started to spin.
“Stabilize damnit! Scrappy, help me.”
The ship spun with us in it while I could only watch in horror. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion knowing what’s coming but you just couldn’t look away.
The ground got closer and closer before the ship's spinning came to a stop and leveled out and the ship's angle adjusted just enough with Spice gritting her teeth pulling back on the controls.
The ship tipped up just enough that we wouldn’t slam straight into the ground. The ground grew closer by dozens of miles in a matter of seconds. My teeth grit together while my hands were like vices gripping the harness restraining me in my seat as did everyone else.
The ship vibrated from the force it was being subjected to as I broke out in a cold sweat. Spice and Scrappy did all they could with the ship at an angle it finally slammed into the ground. It was like my soul got forcefully shoved out of my body before the harness acted like a tether pulling it back in.
The ship hit the dirt sending it flying before plowing through it all leaving a trench behind us. Scrappy was slammed forward into the control console before getting flung back now no longer attached to the ship. Spice was mostly fine in her seat securing her enough to not get slammed face-first like Scrappy.
I groaned and gritted my teeth as the ship slowed down with the sound of dirt and rock scraping against metal like the jaws of an ancient and powerful beast chewing through a mountain. Slowly it came to an end. I sat there with my arms and legs feeling like jello.
My body groaned and ached after getting tossed around like a rat trapped in a can. Everyone else shifted and moved, groaning.
“Good. Sounds like you're all alive.” I grit out looking towards the city. The transparisteel held strong without even a crack in it. Most people-- myself included just thought they used regular or slightly better than normal glass for these ships. Nope.
It was in fact called transparisteel and was significantly stronger and durable than regular glass. If the stuff was deemed good enough to be used on ships across space and for use in galactic wars then it must be quite useful.
The city was alien. The buildings looked like something I would see out of one of those gimmick buildings Japan and Las Vegas like to make to draw attention. Curvy, smooth light stone material with walls around the city's edges with a dust cloud around what was left of my ship.
Forcing the metal harness around my torso that was not unlike that of a roller coaster harness off of me. Loud booms and bursts of air like a fighter jet flying overhead had me look up to be greeted with the sight of several more ships slamming down near us or around the other sides of the city.
Only a few ships were still in the air flying above the city. Getting out of my seat looking around at the others. Spice was out cold in the pilot's seat head hung above the console and flight controls, Jango was getting his harness off of him while Bane was snapping out of it with the Weequay getting his bearings back.
Walking over gently pulling Spice back up and I could hear her heartbeat. It was difficult at first since I just got through the mother of all crashes but it was there. I even went so far as to feel around her neck and indeed her heart was beating.
“She alive?” Jango asked me, helmet on and sounding all business.
“Yeah, she’s alive. Looks like we made it.” I said a small smile but I felt no happiness or excitement at being alive knowing that we are not out of the thick of it by a mile.
“Not just yet,” Jango said, turning and walking stiffly down the hallway.
