LOTF: Collision/Chapter 9

Quickly walking through the base, Taran looked over his shoulder as he, Ganner, and Linora turned another quiet corner. The trip to the communications center had been thankfully without incident, but, that only made Taran more tense. He was important; his presence alone should've triggered several alarms, but it seemed Brotherhood security had become more lax since he was exiled. Not to mention... He thought, looking at Ganner. Truthfully, Taran had no idea how he was alive or here, but he was a weapon and an advantage that Taran couldn't afford not to have. If anything, Ganner's survival might have been ominous, a sign that the fall of the Brotherhood was imminent.

"We're almost there, " Taran told them. "Get ready."

He put his hand on his pistol, holstered on his side, as they entered the white hallway, a slimmer of light pouring in through windows on either side. The walls and floor were all stainless, shiny, almost too clean, though Taran had spent time in these hallways and knew that they were always this way. On the other side was another sliding door, this one opaque and armored unlike the others. It was unguarded, though there was a camera over the door, which Taran tried his best not to look directly at.

He approached the door, and made his way over to the console on the side. "We'll have to be as fast as we can be when we enter, to prevent any alarms from being sounded." He warned them. He typed in the password, and just before entering, looked back to the others who both nodded to assure him they were prepared. Taran entered it as Ganner activated his lightsaber.

The door slid up to reveal a bright room, illuminated with rows of terminals with members of the Brotherhood sitting at each one. There were windows on the opposite end, revealing that the storm was continuing as strong as ever. There was an alarm placed on the right side of the room, so Taran drew his weapon and quickly began firing, killing as many on that side as he could. Between him, Linora, and Ganner engaging the others, they had taken out the entire room in a matter of moments, with only a few of the monitors in the room damaged.

As quickly as he could, Taran took to one of the terminals and opened a communications line on the Imperial emergency channel. "Mayday! Mayday!" He yelled. "This is Rear Admiral Taran Ragnan hailing any and all Imperial forces! Is anyone there?" After a moment, he was answered by a much younger man, almost certainly in his early twenties.

"This is Lieutenant Arvos Sumad hailing from the Regent. What's the situation?"

"Lieutenant, I'm being held hostage by criminals known as the Brotherhood. Intelligence needs to know about this immediately, and I'm sending you the coordinates now. Stand by."

"Contacting Intelligence. Do you—"

Suddenly, the transmission was cut off, leaving the group with static for a moment. Then, all the terminals began to activate, sounding alerts and jumbled emergency transmissions.

"Picking up a dozen ships—"

"HQ is under attack! I repeat—"

"Ships look like Nebula—"

The calls kept coming in, but even they were drowned out as a high-pitched alarm began to blare across the base. Red lights began to flash, quickly darkening the room. Determined to get his message out still, Taran turned and shot the door controls, forcefully locking it.

"What's happening?!" Linora asked.

"Make sure no one gets in!" Taran answered, ignoring the question.

...

"Ready?" Hans asked, taking to the pilot's seat of the Fortune Destroyer as he prepared it for takeoff.

"Ready!" Asura responded.

"Ready!" Cade answered.

"Ready." DX-245 stated.

"Let's take them out." Ranulph finished as he sat next to Hans. The rest of the crew moved about behind them, preparing their gear as the Destroyer began to raise itself from Nova's hangar and launch out into the Anarto system. In front of them was a familiar sight: the Brotherhood HQ. The large station had certainly been upgraded and polished since the last time Antimatter Squadron had seen it in person, now lined with turrets and hangars, and the superlaser which was once the station's greatest surprise was now much more visible, lightly glowing purple. Out of the station, Hans could see several small dots began to emerge: fighters launching to counter the Nebula Corporation's own offensive. As the Destroyer continued to approach, more friendly ships jumped in from hyperspace around him, a conglomeration of gangsters' frigates and smaller fighters, all being coordinated by Nova.

...

Praxon stood on the bridge of Nova's flagship alongside the Hutt herself and Esvald as they observed the forces massing with battle imminent. He was watching Antimatter Squadron's progress through DX as well, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. "Where do we hit first?" Esvald asked, turning back to him.

"The thrusters." Praxon answered. "The whole station needs to move in order to aim the superlaser, and if we take them out of commission as early as we can, the station will only be able to aim at the planet below."

"Smart." Esvald answered approvingly. He looked to Nova, who nodded, then turned back around and quickly activated a terminal, sending out his message to the fleet. "Okay, we need bombers attacking the thrusters. I'm sending you locations now. Everyone else, cover them."

...

As Antimatter Squadron flew closer to the satellite, the first shots began to flare out, streaks of red and green flying from ships to ships. The specks had grown now to full-size ships, which could now be seen to be vulture droids from the days of the Clone Wars, repainted with the Brotherhood colors and insignia,

"Analysis concludes that the opposing forces are the handiwork of Lospeg." DX-245 informed the team.

"Makes sense; we haven't seen him since Hoth," Ranulph thought aloud, "But then where are all the other members of the Brotherhood?"

Hans considered it for a second, parsing down the list of names he needed to kill once more. Moras Hedinin, Taran Ragnan, Cyana—

At the thought of Cyana, Hans found himself in the cell of Facility 406-P once more, and this time he could see the man's face as he stepped into the light. He was tall, pale, with scruffy brown hair, just a bit on his chin, and the weary blue eyes of a man who had maybe been fighting for too long. Hans knew those eyes; some days he saw them in his fellow members of Antimatter Squadron after the years they had spent with nearly no leads. He was scared that one day he would find them in himself.

"Ready for mission assignment." Hans said involuntarily.

"Good." The man — Barak, Hans suddenly recalled — answered. "Firstly, you need to find Cyana Bastra and learn what her mission is. If her goals do not conflict with yours, work with her as necessary."

Suddenly, Hans found himself piloting the Fortune Destroyer in the present once more, beginning to drift off course. "Hans?" Ranulph asked worriedly to get his attention. Hans quickly returned his focus to piloting the ship, returning it to the straight path it had veered from towards the station.

"What was that?" Ranulph asked. Hans tried to remember, but the details were quickly fading, like waking up from a dream. He was in a cell, talking to.... Who was he talking to? What were they talking about? What cell?

"I don't know," Hans answered honestly and unusually apologetically. "It won't happen again."

"Antimatter Squadron, I'm assigning five squads to board the station with you. We'll do our best not to destroy the station without your permission, but understand that you will not be safe while onboard." Esvald informed them over the holocommunicator.

"Understood, thanks." Hans answered, with a hint of cynicism. "DX! Take over the piloting until we land."

He and Ranulph left their seats to collect their gear and prepare for the battle ahead. They met with Asura and Cade by the holoprojector in the center of the ship, a decently sized room that traded decor for utility, lined with weapons and medical supplies. Each member of Antimatter Squadron was dressed in a mostly black combat uniform, and decked out with weapons meant for close-quarters combat and the specialized equipment each needed.

Asura was carrying her trusty EE-4, several ion grenades and a wrist-mounted flamethrower. She had moved on from her old role of "mission control" and was now more than capable of holding her own in the heat of battle.

Cade had his old DC-17 pistols holstered, as well as a number of thermal detonators and a set of flash and stun grenades. Hans noted that he seemed more calm and focused, likely a result of his time spent with his father and Qorbin.

Ranulph held a TL-50 and had come equipped with a personal shield generator, smoke grenades and a variety of slicing tools. Ranulph had been generally more distant since his return after the time he spent with Yula, and Hans knew that her death had affected him greatly. However, Ranulph was more motivated than ever, and Hans knew he could count on Ranulph just as he always had.

In the other room, DX-245 was equipped with his usual assorted weaponry: a blaster cannon/missile launcher hybrid on one arm, a sniper rifle on the other, a jetpack on his back, and a new, unseen addition— his vocoder had been modified to allow for a high-pitched screech to emit that would stun and injure most unprotected species. The others had already implanted discreet supersonic dampeners in order to protect themselves from this weapon. DX had been well maintained over the years, and though the B2 model was becoming more obsolete now, his modifications by Lospeg had always kept him far ahead of any competition, droid or organic.

Hans himself wielded a CR-2 rifle, carrying sonic grenades, a wrist-mounted rocket launcher, and holstered on his back, a ML-925 Cenvatech scattergun. The scattergun was not just any weapon, it was the exact one that his father, Berloc Cerrano, had used to kill his mother. Hans knew he wouldn't be facing Berloc in this battle — he was still on Coruscant but impossible to reach — but its utility along with the satisfaction of using the weapon against the Brotherhood made bringing the weapon an easy choice.

Arriving just in time for the briefing, Galen and Qorbin entered the room wearing their robes. The two didn't have any special gear, just their lightsabers. The two seemed more grave than usual, but Hans never really knew if that was simply how Jedi were before battle; it surely was in Ganner's case, but Ganner was far from a typical Jedi.

"Okay, good. Everyone's here." Hans started. "Quick review of the mission before we head out. We're splitting up into two teams heading towards the top and bottom of the station. Cade, Asura, Galen, you're with me heading to the top. We're going to take control of the space station, eliminating Dylan or whoever is running it, and fire the superlaser on the base below before sending the station on a collision course with the planet and escaping."

The ship rocked as DX engaged some of the vulture droids, the sounds of blasters shrieking around the ship. "Approaching Brotherhood HQ. Four-fifths of escorts remain intact." He stated.

"Good." Hans acknowledged before continuing with the briefing. "Ranulph, DX, Qorbin, you three will move towards the data center of the HQ and slice into it, getting as much data as you can out of it before we have to evacuate. Everyone will rendezvous here at the Destroyer, and we'll get back to Nova and figure out what to do from there. Understood?"

"Understood!" The group replied.

"It's time to finish what we started." Ranulph declared.

"We didn't start it," Hans corrected him. "They did, and now they'll pay for it."

The Fortune Destroyer dove and spun between more of the hostile ships as it approached the mid-station hangar of the Brotherhood HQ, racing through a volley of red bolts, flanked by the blues and greens of friendly ships. At last, they entered the large hangar, lined with B1 battle droids and organic Brotherhood members of varying species who had prepared for a boarding action. Not to be bested, DX quickly fired a series of blaster shots and missiles that decimated the opposition, clearing a landing zone for the Destroyer and the Nebula forces as they touched down and began to deploy their troops, already being met by more Brotherhood forces entering the hangar.

"Let's take it to 'em!" Hans yelled as the crew debarked the ship, finding themselves immediately surrounded by the action, as the Nebula forces attempted to to push back Brotherhood forces from the hangar. As the others pushed forward, DX activated both of his arms, sniping enemies with precision and mowing them down with his rotary cannon at the same time. The Jedi chose this opening to reveal themselves, activating their respective green and blue lightsabers and charging the Brotherhood forces, who had no hope of defense. This created a quick advantage for the Nebula forces who made their way across the hangar in little time, led by Antimatter Squadron and the Jedi. As they grouped up around a door exiting the hangar, Cade tossed in a flash grenade, then entered. The room, a long, narrow hallway leading to the elevators the troops had come in, was filled with troops who had been blinded, dropping their weapons, grasping at their eyes or taking over. Asura followed Cade in, leading with her flamethrower and dispatching the majority of the hall before they could react. Anyone who might've had a chance against her was shot by DX through the smoke. At last, the room was clear, and Asura and Ranulph made short work of slicing into the elevator systems to allow them to take full control. As DX caught up to the rest, Hans began to give out more orders to the combined forces.

"Good job, but we're not done yet. I need half of the Nebula forces here to keep this hangar locked down so we have an escape route, and the other half to follow Ranulph, DX, and Qorbin here down to the data center of the station to give them cover. The rest of us are going to the control room. Move out!" He ordered. Before he could leave, however, Ranulph grabbed his arm.

"This is it, brother." Ranulph whispered. "I'll see you on the other side."

"Ha. You'd better." Hans confidently replied. The two shared a short embrace, then went their seperate ways towards the elevators, their respective teams following them as they made their ways farther into the depths of the space station.