climatic battle
The Naboo pilots fought the hardest battle they had ever participated in, yet as hard as they fought, they were like insects trying to take down a rancor. The shields of the mighty trade Federation vessel shrugged off their weapons, the only thing that seemed to do anything were pinpoint torpedo strikes against the turrets and communications dishes and spires that jutted out from the heavily armored hull. The first wave of droids were a slight surprise, but were able to be taken care of, though they did manage to damage a couple of fighters that had to fire off their ordinance and retreat. Ric Olie felt a pit in his stomach as he radioed that the shields were too strong, their only hope now was to somehow find a weak spot and try and take it out, but from what he could see the ship was designed well and no obvious spots could be seen. Olie looked over the ship again and saw the next wave of droid fighters launching from the massive hangers.
"More incoming fighters, look alive people." Olie looked again and saw a single two of the yellow and chrome fighters actually flying into the hanger bay, narrowly missing the droids flying out. "Someone just flew into their hangers, hopefully that will stop the fighters coming out, lets mop up the ones that managed to get out, give those pilots a chance."
The other pilots, who had seemed to loose hope, perked up and got a second wind, their skills seeming to take a boost as they now had a hope of a win. Inside the hangers the two ships flew though the busy mass of droids, impacts inevitable, the glancing blows bouncing them around and somehow keeping them roughly on course. In the lead they deft handling of the fighter by the pod racer reflexes of Anikin Skywalker barely made enough of a hole though the traffic of droids for Flynn Landers. The last section especially harrowing as the breaking thrusters barely seemed to slow the headlong pace until the last minute, the two fighters screeching and throwing up sparks from the deck as they tried to used the hangar deck to brake. Anikin manage to control his craft to a sideways stop, while Flynn spun his fighter around sliding around the deck, coming to a stop by the long tail of the craft ramming into the hangars back wall. The damage to the first craft was mostly scuffs and scratches, with the shields needing to come back online, the second craft crumpled the tail almost to the astromechs position, the loss of the power systems in that section forcing the pilot to choose between shield recharge and weapons energy.
Daultay jumped out of the captains chair as he heard the report of two fighters landing in the hanger bay, flashbacks of when the Jedi tried to cut their way though the ship went though his mind, as you would ether need to be a jedi or have all the luck in the galaxy to make it though like that.
"The Jedi have returned, quick, all power to the internal defenses, send out all on board droidikas, I want them taken out NOW! And close the blast doors, immediately!" Daultay nervously glanced at the repaired blast door, the thick metal had only slowed down the Jedi last time.
"But the power levels..." Tey How tried to inform the captain of how close to the danger line they were running the systems, the activation of all internal defenses would put them far past the safe operating levels.
"I said NOW!" Daultay skin was starting to look clammy, as he was not going to be blindsided by the Jedi like what almost happened at the begging of the blockade. With no choice, the operators did as commanded, the whine of the generators rising as the load increased to overload levels, the core temperatures hovering right at the edge of operational limits, the processing barely managing to keep up, though the first of data spikes causing it to slow random cycles down here and there to try and compensate, the slight delay hiccups would be almost undetectable under normal duty, but for combat, a few milliseconds here and there delaying the orders dropped reaction times and accuracy measurably.
With the Gungans, the addition of the more expensive droids was also having an impact on the battle, the raised platform of the walking fighters let them target the ends of the catapult after they were fired, and each of the siege engines taken out, meant that it was harder to take out group of the smaller droids, or one shot kills on the larger walkers. The addition of what few droidekas that managed to get into distance to set up meant that once their shields were up, it needed a hit from the big boomas to take them out, the hand held versions of the weapons needing multiple hits to take down the powerful shields. As each catapult was taken out, more and more the the droids started to get though, soon sections of the defensive line ran out of shielding, and the solid parts of the barrier started to take hits, slowly eroding the protection the Gungans needed. Jar Jar was one of the last of the Gungans that charges on the Kaadu, but with the droids managing to take his mount out from under him, he was soon reduced to running, and with what boomas he could carry, the supply was running out as he flung the orbs as fast as he could with his flinger stick, it was a good try he thought, as he went over one last time what he needed to do next reset as he flung the last booma he had, taking out a droid that was lining up a shot at another of the Gungans from the charge.
Padme and her group managed to outflank the droids and catch the Viceroy, the Neimoidian was calm and collected though as he managed to get a recall signal out for the droid forces in the Palace, soon he tohught the queen would be under his control and a treaty signed to give him a victory here this day. The first droids were gunned down of course, but as the royal guard used up their munitions they would have no choice but to bow down to his rule.
Obi-Wan hoped the gammorian knew what he was doing, because each time he was attacked he was rebuffed with hardly any effort from the warrior that had taken out his master. If the captain had any plan, he should use it quick, as the Warrior had disarmed him of a lockers worth of different weapons at this point. As he had not seen what the captain had meant by a distraction, he took a moment to catch his breath as the warrior shut off his light saber and placed it on his belt so he could use both hands to grab the Gammorian and lift him in the air.
Maul snarled as he got his hands on the Gammorian that had caused his so much trouble, the force telling him that the other jedi was not a threat at this point, letting him narrow his focus on the oaf that had caused him to look bad to his master. "You, I should kill you right now and be done with you, but you have caused me too much pain for you to get off that easy, no, instead I will make your demise slow and painful, for each pain my master inflicted on me for the interference you caused, I will smite upon thee pain tenfold and more, the only 'words' you will have to say to me will be whimpers for mercy, cries for help, and wails of anguish. And those cries from help and mercy and help with rise sweetly to my ears, and I will look down on your wretched form begging for release and the comforting arms of death... and I will say no, leaving you alive until every bit of pain is paid back, with, interest."
Captain Aphab felt the warriors hands lifting him up, the feeling of nothing under his feet not a familiar one, as he tried to keep himself grounded. he had hoped that the warrior would try coming close to him, but to come right up and grab him like this, well, that was more then he planned for. But in this case it was a good thing for the Captain. "Oh really now, and here I thought you would want to hear what I had to say first before starting off on your big plan."
"What?" Maul looked confused, every time he tried something like this before, the person he held up would have broken down into tears by now, what made this one different, what made this one special? He tried to feel if it was something in the force that made this one special, but even this close he barely felt anything in the force, he had plants in his living area that had more of a force impact then this Gammorian... so why did he seem so calm, even though the anger and rage, curiosity spiked... he needed to know. "And what," Maul sneered "Would you say to me that would sway me from my task?" Maul tried to keep up his mask of loathing, but something about the face of the Gammorian as it seemed to smile started to set off a feeling of danger as the hands moved catching his eye, something was clenched in them.
"Oh, just that you fell for mine plan." The Captain grinned as he pressed down on the button to activate one of his off the wall plans as the explosive directional mines sewn into his vest in such a way that they pointed outwards activated.
Flynn knew that with the damage to his craft he did not have enough power for a shot, and the shields needed to fly out of the ship, so he told Anikin to take the shot. The young pilot aimed his ship and fired off the missile weapons that the ship had on board and put the pedal to the metal as he lead the damaged fighter out of the hangar, the flying explosives heading off down range to their targets, narrowly missing the generators, but instead hitting the power governing systems that made sure the power was distributed evenly. The explosions ripped the safety mechanisms apart and the generators yowled in protest as the controls holding them back went offline, meaning the hard coded emergency SCRAM was too late to prevent damage to the ships power systems as a pulse was sent out knocking anything not shielded offline. Anikin and Flynn raced as emergency systems started to shut down blast doors, the lumbering massive slabs of metal catching droids and dragging them under their crushing mass, the last doors the fighters had to spin to take as they narrowly made it though.
Tey How looked up from her display and turned to the captain. "Sir, the power levels... There seems to be a problem with the main reactor..."
"Impossible!! Nothing can get through our shield." Daultay stated half in complete confidence in the ship, and half in horror that the two boarders could have done something. This was followed by a flickering of lights before a surge came and blasted every working bit of electronics on the bridge offline.
"Now THIS is pod racing." Anikin yelled over the comms as the adrenaline rush forced a wide grin on the young face.
"Whats happening, it looks like its systems are going offline." Ric Olie watched in awe as the lights on the massive ship seemed to brighten then go dark in a rippling wave across the ship. As each section went dark the shields would visibly drop, as the turrets just stop in their tracks.
"Whoo, hoo!" The yell over the comm matched two fighters exiting the hanger bay of the ship just before the blast doors closed and the hanger shield went dark.
"Look, two of ours, out of the main hold." One of the other pilots must have said that as Ric grinned as the wave approached the main comm dish of the Trade Federation ship, and with long arks of power blew out several important looking bits. This caused the chasing droid fighters to stop and coast as their controlling signals stopped. This caused the surviving pilots to burst out in cheers and laughter, they did it, they had won.
Binks looked up at the aimed blasters surrounding him and noticed that they droids had stopped still. Curious and the stillness triggering a memory he walked up and pushed one of the droids. The cheaply made droid tipped over and broke apart into sections, the signal cut and the once menacing force now a large display of fancy gun racks. Jar jar turned to the other Gungans as the entire battle field seemed to hold its breath. "Dey all broken." Cheers erupted and the celebrations of a battle won immediately began as other Gungans started tipping over droids and laughing at the result.
Padme and her guards were barely holding back, out of grenades, and weapons starting to run dry of ammo, the smirking face of the Viceroy lending them resolve to wipe that smug look off one way or the other, when all of a sudden the droid waves stopped coming. The shocked look on the face of the Viceroy was worth it as one of the guards went to check and brought back a droid and dropped it on the ground, the machine not reacting or moving. "Now Viceroy, what was that about signing a treaty?" The saccharine tone on the Queens voice caused the Viceroy to give an audible gulp.
Maul was confused momentarily at what the Gammorian said, but a dual spike in the force one after the other, one from right in front of him, the other from orbit distracted him long enough that the explosives went off and flung him backwards towards the center of the room. Obi-Wan, tense from waiting for whatever distraction the Gammorian was trying to give ignored the spike from orbit and whipped his light saber around and managed to tag the warrior as he flew by, striking across the stomach, and cutting the belt, the dual bladed light saber falling to the ground beside the Jedi as the Sith apprentice flew into the hole leading far down into the bowels of the palace. Obi-Wan ran to the Gammorian, smoke rising from the massive barrel chested Captain, the vest studded with smoldering and blackened holed ruining the garment.
"Are you okay?" Obi-wan asked in concern.
"Nope, busted ribs, bacta patches, side pockets, pants." The words came out painfully from the Captain. Obi-Wan quickly found and applied some of the patches from the container he found, the emergency med kit more then enough to look after the rapidly bruising wounds. "Better, check, you, Old Man. I, stay, rest." The Gammorian managed to get out before closing his eyes, the pain enough that he needed to concentrate and just breath, letting the tingling sensation of the bacta patches get to work, in his mind though it was not tha pain that the Captain focused on, but that they owed him a LOT of salvage for going though with the hair brained scheme in the first place.
"Master." Obi-Wan ran to his teacher, med kit still in hand. Wen he got there he saw that the older Jedi was still breathing, a light saber wound making a cauterized hole in the older mans gut. Obi-Wan quickly applied what bacta was left in the wound, the healing materiel getting to work right away, easing the pain and making the injured Jedi look far less pale then a moment ago.
"Obi-Wan?" Qui-Gon asked in surprise, for a moment there he though he was a goner, but the healing power of the bacta quickly accelerated the Jedi's own efforts at force healing that he had automatically attempted after being hit. "What happened to the warrior?" Qui-Gon needed to know if there was more danger.
"I managed a hot, then he fell down that hole there, ether way, with his light saber here, and the wound I inflicted, and that long drop, I doubt we will see him anytime soon if he managed to survive at all." Obi-Wan smiled knowing that his master was not dead.
"Dibs" The quiet word come from the Gammorian, drawing the attention of the two Jedi.