Chapter 32
I’ll be back
“Try it again Mykala.” Haven said. They had been hiding in the gully for hours. Mykala had them wait until dark to call for her ship. She had been trying for an hour but it had not showed up.
“I think maybe they got it.” Mykala said. “I think those Imperial shits blew it up with the house.”
“No. look.” Haven pointed at a dark shape flying low over the ground headed in their direction.
“That’s it. It’s the Stella One alright.” Mykala smiled. She had hoped that because the Stella One was so beat up and ugly the Imperial troops would think it was a wreck and leave it alone. It seemed to have worked. All the stuff that made the ship so special was on the inside. No fancy paint or trim, only speed and fighting ability went into this ship.
Mykala spoke into her wrist communicator to the astrodroid flying the ship. The ship carefully dipped down into the river bed and touched down. The door in the rear opened automatically once the ship had settled.
“Hurry, they still may have spotted the ship.” Mykala said.
Mykala, Haven, and Timtam all made a run for the ship. Any second they could be shot by a bounty hunter that had gotten close in the dark. Their luck was holding because they all made it safely inside. Haven closed the door looking at the smoldering ruins that had been her home. The thought then crossed her mind. “That was the place Mykala would always return to if she was killed. If the prophecy hadn’t been fulfilled then were would she return now?”
Adda stood at the front of the room. Matt, Bronski, and Ragg were all waiting to hear what she had come up with.
“There is a listening post at this spot here.” she pointed to one of the red dots glowing on the holographic map. “It is at the edge of the Imperial borders and lightly guarded. If we attack the station we can grab some of the technicians and officers. It shouldn’t be too difficult to heavily damage a station this small to a point that they believe the prisoners have been lost in the explosion.
Buck I have given you an estimated strength report of the stations defenses. Work with Ragg and see how many of his men you will need.
Matt I want you to figure out a diversion to lure the patrol ships away from the station so we can land our forces. You’ll also be in charge of selecting the ships we’ll be using for the assault.” Adda stood looking at the three men. They just sat there looking back.
“What’s wrong/” asked Adda.
“Nothing, you’ve done a great job with these assignments Adda.” Matt said.
“Yeah, nice job…for a girl.”Bronski joked.
“Thank you Buck.” Adda crossed her arms and smiled. Buck had actually just given her a compliment.
“ I’m going to run down to the hangar bay and see what ships we have at our disposal.” Matt said as he stood.
“I’d like to come too, I’m not familiar with the ships and I’d like to get a look at them.” Ragg said looking at Bronski.
“Yeah, go ahead. I need some time to go over these reports anyway.” Buck said.
The two men walked down the hall and to the elevator. They got in and Matt set the controls to take them too the hangar level. About half way down Matt stopped the elevator.
“What did Buck mean when he said you were “sniffing around Pep”. You see, me and her are together and your sniffing could become a problem to me.” Matt said calmly.
Ragg leaned back against the wall of the elevator. “ It’s true, I was feeling her out. After all Matt, she’s damned hot to say the least. You should thank me, I got nowhere with her. I can honestly say I think that girl loves you. You can trust that one buddy.” Ragg grinned.
“Just so we understand each other, I love her too.” Matt said.
“Hey great, I’m glad for both of you, really. Don’t worry about me Matt, plenty of stars in the sky to chase.” Ragg added.
Matt looked at Ragg and saw he was being honest. “Okay then.”
“The lock up is in this warehouse loading yard. The Imperial presence is new here so they only have a small force and no permanent facilities yet. There are forty prefabs, my crew is in the last one at the far end. I figure me and you will be on the ground Tarin. We can leave the cover fire to Baltis, he’s better than me anyway.” Kllair said.
The rain was still coming down hard. Kllair had drawn a quick map of the area on the table so Baltis and Tarin had a better idea of what they were going to have to deal with.
“ I guess we go over the wall here. Baltis can take care of any guards. They don’t have any storm troopers stationed here only regular troops from what I can guess.” Tarin said.
“Yeah, just regular grunts. They got lucky capturing my crew. Some jerk hit the speeder we were in and when the authorities showed up they spotted our weapons and got the drop on us. Just dump luck. The only reason I got away was because I was on the other side of the speeder and I had time to activate my stealth cloak and slip away.
“Just so we’re all on the same page here Kllair, we go in and get them out nice and quiet, right? I just want to hear you say it.” Tarin said.
“Oh yeah, nice and quiet. The quieter the better.” Kllair smiled.
Mykala adjusted the thrust of the engines. She was employing and old smugglers trick. She was flying the Stella One a few feet above the ground at a slow speed so the ship would appear as a speeder on any scanning device they might use to spot them.
Haven was watching their own scanners for any one chasing them. Suddenly she saw a blip on the scope, then another and another. “We have nine boogies on our tail Mykala, better do something fast.” Haven called to Mykala.
“No problem.” Mykala pulled back on the controls and hit the excellerator. The ship rocketed skyward gaining speed the whole time.
“Those Imperial fighters can’t keep up now.” Mykala said.
“Mykala, they seem to be gaining on us.” Haven said.
“Impossible. They don’t have anything as fast as this ship.” Mykala said.
The ship was hit by several blasts from two of the fighters that screamed past them with ease. They were something new. They had two large ion collectors on each side connected by a shaft between them. In the center of the shaft was a round cockpit and engine assembly. These were something new. They were very fast. They must have come from the large ship they saw in the sky at the fair earlier.
Mykala yanked the controls side to side trying to avoid their fire but these new ships were just as
fast as the Stella One. Haven and Timtam hung on for dear life as the ship looped and cork screwed through the sky. Laser blasts kept hitting the ship. The extra armor plates were the only thing saving them now. The automatic setting on the upper turret that was Jaycee’s station were too slow to compensate for these new ships speed.
“Disengage the auto fire on the turret!” yelled Haven.
Mykala looked over her shoulder and saw Timtam trying to climb into the gunners seat. Mykala knew that Timtam had been the turret gunner on the Blood claw for years so she turned the controls over to her. Timtam took a second to get familiar with the controls and pressed her eye up against the sight. The turret sprang to life as Timtam, with her Feloid reflexes, tracked the Imperial fighters.
She pressed the trigger and the four oversized guns opened fire. The whole ship shook violently as the guns pounded the first ship to atoms.
Timtam pulled her eye away from the sight and looked at Haven.”Wow! These are some big guns.” she looked back into the sight and began to fire at the fighters again grinning.
Matt and Ragg stepped out of the elevator. They walked down the hall and into the main hangar bay. Pep ran up and jumped on Matt wrapping her legs around him. They kissed for a minute and then she let go.
“Major Tempess, I want you to meet some one, Ceecee come here.” Pep said smiling. Ceecee was on all fours under the closest ship. She had been working on the landing gear assembly and was covered in grease and sweat. She crawled out backwards and stood up. When she turned she saw Ragg standing in front of her.
“This is Ceecee, one of our chief engineers, she knows how to fix anything she can get her hands on.” Pep said.
Ceecee wiped her hands on her coveralls and tried to fix her hair. She was embarrassed to be seen this way but Pep knew better. Ceecee had her coveralls open and tied at the waist. She was wearing a dirty tank top shirt that was wet from her sweat and was clinging a little too tightly to her large breasts.
Ragg was surprised to see such a voluptuous woman working on these ships. She had an incredible body and was displaying it in a very sexy way although she didn’t know it.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Ceecee.” Ragg said. He took her dirty hand and pressed it to his lips.
“Well we just came down here so the Major could see what kind of ships we have at our disposal for missions.” Matt said interrupting.
“I’m glad you did, I need your help in the tool room Matt, how about letting Ceecee show the Major around while you come with me.” Pep said as she dragged Matt towards the tool room.
“I guess you two are on your own for a while.” Matt said smiling. Pep and Matt went into the tool room and closed the door.
“Well I must say this is awkward.” Ragg said smiling.
“They do that all the time, it’s kind of embarrassing at first but after a while you stop noticing.” Ceecee said.
“I guess it’s up to you now, so show me what you got.” Ragg said.
“Excuse me?” Ceecee said angrily. She wasn’t really angry but she wanted to see how he handled himself.
“Oh, I mean the ships and equipment.” Ragg said.
“Okay then. Follow me Major.” she said.
“To the ends of the galaxy my dear.” He said joking.
Ceecee looked back over her shoulder and smiled. “I think I’m going to like you Major, you have a sense of humor, I like that.” Ceecee said as she lead the way.
“So how did a lovely lady like yourself get involved with the Rebellion?” Ragg asked.
“Me and my twin sister were recruited by a Jedi called Stella Star. She found all of us for the most part. She was a remarkable woman.” Ceecee said.
“Was? I take it she is no longer alive.” Ragg asked.
“It’s a sad story, she was captured and tortured till she was driven mad before she died. She even killed my sister, her best friend.” Ceecee sounded sad.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.” Ragg said.
Ceecee perked up. “What’s done is done, all we can do is move forward and make sure they didn’t die for nothing.”
“We’ve all lost some one. I guess that’s why we do it.” Ragg said.
Tarin and Kllair had reached the far side of the warehouse loading yard. The Empire had erected a powered fence to keep prisoners inside. Kllair opened a small panel on her rifle stock and pulled out a small silver bar. It had five lights on it. She pushed a switch on the bottom and pointed it at each prefab building. When she got to the last one four of the lights came on.
“We’re in luck, all of them are in that building.” Kllair put the bar back into the rifle stock.
“Tracking chips?” Tarin asked.
“Yep.”
“Who’s the fifth one then?” Tarin asked.
“Me.” Kllair smiled.
Tarin pointed her wrist guard at the fence and pushed a button. A beam of light came out and hit the force field. She made a few adjustments and a circle appeared. As she continued to adjust the settings the circle became larger and larger. The beam was forcing a hole in the fence but not setting off the alarm.
“Neat.” Kllair said.
Tarin nodded and gestured Kllair to go through. Tarin followed quickly before the temporary field decayed. They were inside. Tarin and Kllair made their way from building to building until they reached the last one. So far so good. The door was locked magnetically so once again Tarin pushed a button on the wrist guard until the door unlocked.
“Were did you get those wrist guards?” Kllair asked quietly.
“I had them made special just for me, you see Kllair…I’m rich.” Tarin smiled.
Kllair reached up and opened the door. The two women quickly went inside and shut the door. There were four women sitting in the room. They all had on the same style one piece catsuit that Kllair was wearing. One was a Zeltron, it was easy to tell by her black hair and pink skin. Two of them were identical twins both with blood red hair. They looked up and grinned a sinister smile, they weren’t nervous at all. The last one stood up. She was a cyborg, part human part mechanical. Her right arm was made of a strange looking metal as were her legs. A portion of her face had been replaced by a form fitting cover made from the same metal. Her eye switched and changed it’s appearance several times. It was multifunctional and could do several different things it appeared.
“What took you so long?” the cyborg said to Kllair.
“I had stuff to do Novuh. You guys coming or what?” Kllair said smiling.
“We would have left already but we couldn’t get past the fence, they took all our stuff.” the Zeltron said.
“It’s okay Elith.” Kllair reassured the girl.
The twins sprung to the door. “Everybody ready?” they said in unison.
“No, wait you two.” Kllair protested but it was too late. The twins ran out into the yard and split up. They ran down the center of complex one on each side.
“Where are they going?” Tarin grabbed Kllair’s arm.
“They went to finish the mission we came here for I guess.” Kllair said looking calmly at Tarin.
“What’s going on Tarin?” Baltis asked. He had been watching from a crane two blocks away. From this place he could see down into the whole yard.
“Change of plans.” Tarin said angrily. She was angry but she knew she had to go along with what was going down. If she protested too much she could be seen as a danger to their mission and would have to be dealt with by them.
A guard stepped out from behind one of the prefabs between the twins. The girls stopped dead in their tracks.
“Halt, what are you two doing out here?” he said as he put his hand on his blaster.
The twins looked at each other with that sinister grin. They slowly began to skip around the guard in a large circle. “La..La..LaLa…La..they sang quietly.
“I said halt.” he pulled his blaster and swung it from one to the other as they slowly tightened the circle each time around.
“Stop them.” Tarin said to Kllair.
Kllair looked at Tarin and put her finger to her lips. “Shhh” she then pointed at the twins as if she was telling Tarin to watch.
Tarin knew what would happen. She watched as the first twin had gotten close enough and kicked the guard in the back of the head. He went down hard dropping his gun. The second twin kicked him in his face smashing his jaw. Each one took turns kicking and stomping the guard until he was dead. They smiled back at the rest and motioned for the others to follow as they ran around a corner.
“What the hell just happened?” Baltis asked Tarin.
“You tell me, they’re your friends.” Tarin replied.
Timtam was incredible she was shooting these new fighters to pieces. It all made sense why this quiet little pink head was the mighty Lionette Ty’s gunner. It was because she was very very good. Of the nine fighters attacking them she had taken out six. However the Stella One had taken about as much as it would take. One of the engines was on fire and the star drive had been too badly damaged for the ship to leave the atmosphere. Mykala looked at Haven. Haven knew it was over. Timtam kept firing away at the Imperial fighters holding them off.
Suddenly a voice came over the comm unit. “What are you doing to my ship?”
Mykala knew the voice but she couldn’t believe it.
Timtam saw a new ship come out of nowhere and line itself up behind the fighters. It was icy
black in color. The fuselage was long and thin with two huge engines mounted at the rear. There were two short wings that stuck out from the engines that had a laser cannon on each tip. The lasers opened fire on the fighters. The first volley hit the two in the rear of the formation destroying one and crippling the other so badly it just tumbled down helplessly to the ground. The last fighter suddenly took off to the left and using some sort of booster it made it’s escape.
Haven looked at Mykala. She wasn’t trying to fly evasively any more. She was noticeably stunned and shaken.
“Did you see that?” Timtam yelled at Mykala and Haven.
Haven moved to Mykala’s side. “Who was that on the comm unit?”
“It…it…was Stella, it was Stella Star.” Mykala said not sure weather to believe her own words or not.
Haven saw the black ship pull up along side their own. The front of the ship was mostly windshield so it was easy to see into the cockpit. The pilot was wearing a white cloak that covered her almost completely. She turned her head to reveal a beautiful woman with long black hair that reflected light like a blackbirds wing giving it dark purple highlights when the sunlight hit it. She had a patch covering one eye with a long scar running under it.
Mykala turned slowly still in disbelief. “Stella?”
The woman nodded and motioned for them to follow her. Mykala smiled and began to cry. She wasn’t even sure why. Stella was the first person to treat her with respect and show her that she was more than just an ex ganger girl with a gun. She pulled her up and made her want to be more than a street thug. She was the mother, the friend, she always wanted and now she had returned from the dead to save her.
Timtam had climbed down and went the cockpit to see what was going on. She saw Mykala was still shaken by whatever it was.
“What happened ?” she asked Haven.
“It was Stella Timtam. It was Stella in that ship.” Mykala turned and said.
Timtam covered her mouth and stepped back in surprise. Mykala sounded happy. Timtam leapt up and they both hugged,it was a miracle.
Ceecee had been showing Ragg around. She showed him the odd assortment of ships they had collected over time. Although they were well maintained he felt now was a good time for them to be sold. They should try and to concentrate on using one or two of the same type. This would make it easier and cheaper to buy parts and train people to work on them.
“That’s what I’ve been saying.” Ceecee said.
“Then you agree, we should start to look into building a more standardized fleet.” Ragg said.
“Yes ! At last someone agrees with me. They all want to have their own ships but that is way to much work for what we’re doing.” Ceecee said.
“Who pays for all this stuff anyway?” Ragg asked looking around.
“Lionette and her clan for now. The Feloids are sworn to help the Jedi when they need it. I’ve never seen such wealth myself. You know she has her own army? She even has a fleet of ships, can you imagine that kind of money?” Ceecee looked around too.
“We’d be in bad shape if the Feloids changed sides.” he said.
“These are bad times we live in Major. I’ve lost a sister and a good friend since this all started. These people are all I have left.” she said looking down.
“Well I’ll do whatever I can to make sure you don’t loose any more Ceecee.” he smiled.
“Do you drink Major?” Ceecee asked suddenly.
“Uh, I will have a drink on occasion yes.”
“ Do you want to have a drink with me later? We can talk more about what kind of ships we need.” Ceecee asked.
“I think that I would enjoy that. If I’m going to be working with you we should get to know each other better.” he smiled.
“Great, meet me down here after dinner. We can talk about stuff.” she smiled back.
Tarin ran along side of Kllair. They were followed by Elith and Novuh. An explosion erupted from around the corner.
“This was supposed to be a quiet operation.” Tarin said to Kllair.
Kllair looked at Tarin and grinned. “Oops.” was all she said.
The twins walked calmly out from the corner. They had their arms full of weapons and started handing them out.
“We just wanted our stuff back.” Novuh the cyborg said as she walked past Tarin towards the twins.
“Did you get him?” Kllair asked.
The twins each pulled a severed hand from behind them. They were dripping from fresh blood.
“What about his head? We were supposed to get his head.” Novuh said.
“There wasn’t one left, these will have to do.” one of the twins said.
“You two are out of control. You need to tighten it up before you get us all killed.” Novuh said angrily.
“Girls, girls, we’ve taken up enough of Miss Tarin’s time so if she’ll just open a hole back up in the fence we can all go.” Kllair said looking at Tarin.
“You lying bitch, you wanted your crew inside the whole time for a hit didn’t you? You just needed us to open the fence because something went wrong. What happened did they change a code, one of your inside guys get cold feet?” Tarin asked.
“Yes, yes it’s all true, my crew got stuck inside and I am a lying bitch, so would you please open a hole in the fence so we can all leave.” Kllair said calmly.
“ You probably lied about the book as well.” Tarin said.
“No, no that part is true…the rest was all lies. Everything I said about the book was true.” Kllair smiled.
Mykala flew the Stella One as close as she could behind the sleek black ship. The black ship lead Mykala down into a canyon that twisted and turned from side to side going from from large open spaces to tight ones that dipped down low into near total darkness away from the twin suns. They finally came to a huge circular area that was several hundred feet deep and two miles across. The black ship circled around the inside of the area followed by the Stella One.
“What is she doing now?” Haven asked.
“Look !” Mykala said pointing.
On the third pass they saw a cave mouth about half way up the wall. The black ship gracefully slipped inside and disappeared.
“Well here we go.” Mykala smiled.
The Stella One glided through the opening of the cave mouth just barely missing the side. The one engine was still smoking and the controls were shot up pretty bad. Mykala put the ship down on the floor of the cave. The floor was covered in old flagstone tiles that had been laid there countless centuries ago by people long forgotten by time. It had been an important place some time ago in the past.
Mykala jumped up and ran to the rear hatch of the Stella One. She opened the door and jumped down. Haven and Timtam quickly followed after her. Mykala saw the black ship sitting on the far side of the massive room with the pilot still in it. She ran as fast as she could and stopped when she got to the cockpit glass. The woman inside turned to her and smiled. Mykala put her hand on the glass to make sure it was all real. The woman inside opened one of the panels and put her hand out to Mykala.
“You still can’t fly worth a damn.” the woman said smiling. It was Stella. She had lost an eye and had several scars on her once flawless face but it was her without a doubt.
Mykala grabbed her hand. “You never finished teaching me.” she said with tears in her eyes from happiness. Her friend had come back from the dead. Everything would be alright now.
“I’m glad to see you Mykala. There is so much I need to tell you but I can’t stay.”Stella smiled.
“What? No … you can’t go now !” Mykala squeezed harder on Stella’s hand.
“I have no choice, lives are at stake elsewhere. They’re depending on me.” she looked into Mykala’s eyes.
Mykala slowly released her grip.
“I’ll be seeing all of you very soon but I have to go. I promise I’ll be back.” Stella pulled her hand back in the window. “Everything you need to fix your ship is here. Go back to Lionette’s palace, they’re going to need you very soon. Tell them I’m coming back and we will begin fighting the Empire together very soon.” Stella closed the window and throttled up the engines.
“Where is she going?” Haven asked as Timtam and her finally reached Mykala.
“She’s going but we’ll see her again, she promised.” Mykala said wiping her eyes.
“What are we going to do now?” Timtam asked.
“We’re going to fix this ship and go to the palace to wait for Stella.” Mykala said.
“What will I do ? I can’t go back. I’ll be killed.” Timtam said.
Mykala took hold of Timtam’s arms and looked her in the face. “You’re a part of our team now Timtam. If Lionette wants to challenge that then she’ll have to go through me.”
If you have enjoyed these stories please check out my first all original book series at Amazon.com. The title is Beyond the Crystal Heaven.
Once again thank you for your support.
Last Updated (Tuesday, 10 September 2013 01:59)