LOTF: Resurgence/Chapter 1

"Data transfer complete in three minutes."

Asura cursed the robotic voice. She didn't have three minutes. Crouched down behind a small gray crate, she watched as red bolt streaked over her into the white walls behind her. Some of the shots also hit the small, black terminal she was guarding, and the screen suddenly turned black, now making visible the reflection of her panicked face looking back at her (a brown-skinned Zabrak, with three small horns on either side of her head, a lot of currently messy brown hair covering them, and hazel eyes) as well as Cade (human, tan, black-haired, dark blue eyes,) also pressed up against the cover; they were both wearing dark grey uniforms fitted with holsters, pockets, and a belt for ammunition and grenades. She looked at her data spike plugged into the side of the terminal to make sure it was still functioning; it was, and a small timer on the rectangular device showed the seconds counting down one by one. A red light blinked, showing that the transfer was still underway. The smell of smoke filled her longs as she took a deep breath, trying to keep her cool on the situation.

She looked around the large gray room in the reflection of the terminal. This room functioned as the server room for the Brotherhood's Manaan base, and was currently lined with computers upon computers burning or destroyed or moved aside to make cover. The terminal she was guarding contained information Antimatter Squadron had been seeking for more than five years, ever since the Brotherhood disappeared. Not long after she, Praxon, and DX-245 had joined the group, their entire operation had vanished almost overnight (aside, they suspected, from most of the Brotherhood's moles in the newly formed Empire, but even Taran Ragnan and Cyana Bastra were nowhere to be found.) Following the death of Ganner Slarwalker, the group had become mercenaries both out of necessity and as a way to get underworld contacts easily, but information was still scarce. Their mission was only further hampered by the abrupt exit of Ranulph Darkhitch, who had left quickly without explanation two years after reading the message left to him by Ganner.

Hans also had one of these messages, but hadn't even touched it since he had been given it on Dantooine six years ago. Asura didn't know why he hadn't, but she suspected that Hans believed the message had to do with his troubled past he preferred to forget. In her six years of partnership with him, the only time that she knew he had ever talked about it had been during the failed Operation Supernova, when Taran had taunted him about it in front of the others and forced him to reveal his past.

Tightly gripping her blaster, an pitch-black EE-4, Asura quickly stood up. Rapidly approaching her were several BX-series droid commandos, left hidden in the base by Lospeg. She opened fire, taking down two of them, and then hid under her cover again. The base, located in the ocean of Manaan, hadn't shown any signs of life as the team had approached it. "Asura, we don't have three minutes!" Cade yelled.

"You know what they say," Asura grimly responded. "Make time for what you love."

"I knew this mission was a bad idea," Cade muttered.

Cade quickly stood up, fired off a volley of shots from his two DC-17s, then suddenly sidestepped as a warm red shot streaked past his face. He quickly ducked down under cover again. "Asura," he said as he met his deep ocean blue eyes with hers, "It's been an honor working with you."

"Team 2, do you read me?" Hans' voice suddenly brought Asura's comlink to life. Over the comlink Asura could tell that things weren't going very smoothly for him either; blaster shots and explosions erupted in the background. "Yes, we do!" she responded. "They're getting too close. Fire on my mark," Cade whispered. Asura clenched her blaster again in preparation. "3...2...1...Now!"

She and Cade both stood up, quickly facing down the horde of droids yet again. They emerged two-by-two through a small doorway across the room, however, they approached quickly and were firing without any sign of stopping. A good dozen or so droids were now lying on the ground, but the rest merely walked over their fallen bodies and this number still paled in comparison to the horde that approached. The two quickly let loose a rapid volley of shots, then ducked down again before Asura could even see what had landed and what hadn't. "Data transfer complete in 30 seconds."

Cade and Asura glanced at each other again, each trying to confirm through the other that what they had just heard was what had really just been said. "The data terminals are wiping themselves-- another security measure," Hans informed them over the comlink. "Get as much as you can of what's left and bail."

"Preparing for extraction," DX-245's voice chimed in.

"Preparing for extraction," Cade announced. The light on the data spike suddenly turned green, and Asura grabbed it before it could even announce the transfer had finished. "Ready?" Cade asked. She nodded. He unclipped a cylindrical device-- a shock grenade-- before pushing the button and lobbing it over their cover. As soon as it detonated, sparks of lightning illuminated the room. Asura stood up, as did Cade, raising their weapons. Cade's aim had been true, and almost every droid was now shaking spasmodically. They quickly shot down the few droids that had escaped the shock and then quickly began to run. As they exited, Asura unclipped a thermal detonator, activated it, and dropped it in the middle of the group of droids as they ran.

They sprinted down the brightly lit hallways, shooting down more droids that turned the corner up ahead before they could attack. As she ran, Asura could see out the windows on either side of the hallway. They were very deep underwater, with only a few bright spotlights beaming from the base providing any illumination. In those lights, a few small fish swam quickly, unaware of the combat taking place inside. Further down to her left, she saw Hans fighting his way down a hallway perpendicular to theirs. Hans' prowess in combat had always awed Asura. Asura had improved over the years, but she didn't believe she would ever reach his level. Neither, it seemed, would Cade, and while Praxon and DX-245 were nigh unstoppable when paired together, only DX gave Hans any real competition.

Cade and Asura finally reached the end of the hallway, which gave way to a door leading into the next area. The two kept their weapons steady as it opened to reveal Hans entering through another door on the left in the same manner. They instinctively aimed at each other for the briefest of moments before realizing just who they were aiming at, and lowered their weapons. "I have a really, really bad feeling about this." Cade commented.

"Thank you, Cade," Hans scarcastically replied. "I'll bear that in mind."

DX-245 and Praxon quickly enetered through another door on the right, meeting the rest of the group. "Status report: Data acquired; hostiles eliminated." DX spoke. Praxon and DX were still mentally linked, and as time had gone on they had become closer. Praxon now barely spoke, allowing the droid to instead. "Good work," Hans responded. "Let's get out-"

Hans' voice was cut short by the shriek of a siren that screamed and echoed all down the base. All the lights in the base began to flash and turn red, leaving the team in a significantly darker room. "Data safeguards triggered. Self destruction sequence initializing in 60 seconds." A calm, female voice gave the condemning announcement over the intercom of the base. Without another word, the entire group took off towards the exit, going through another door opposite the one Asura and Cade had entered from.

The computer began counting down the seconds as the group frantically dashed to escape, with DX utilizing his thrusters to boost ahead of the others and eliminate as much droid resistance ahead as possible. They sprinted in the suddenly-heating base, stepping over fallen enemies and dodging blaster shots fired by the stragglers. Asura was running on pure adrenaline now; her heart pounded like it was going to burst at any moment. At last, the group reached their final destination: a large elevator. The elevator lead up to the hangar on top of the base, where the submarine the team had stolen to reach the base was waiting for them. "Twenty seconds remaining."

As the group all stood on the platform, Hans pushed the button on a terminal linked to the side of the elevator to begin their ascent. As he pressed it, the screen turned red. , it read,. "Get on!" Praxon suddenly yelled, grabbing on to DX-245. The others immediately followed suit, and he took off using his thrusters. Asura clung on near the main thruster on the droid's back, and looked back as they took off. As they neared the top, a single droid entered the room, spotted the group, and fired. Asura saw the bolt headed directly for her head, and with a speed only attainable in moments of pure instinct, quickly leaned out of the way. The shot flew directly into the main thruster, which began to sputter and fail as the group fell back to the ground.

They laid there, stunned from the shock of the fall as the countdown continued and the single droid walked up towards Asura to finish her off. With the breath knocked out of her and her weapon out of reach, Asura watched as Hans suddenly rose behind the droid. "Ten. Nine." He pulled a vibroblade from off his belt, and decapitated the droid. "Eight. Seven. Six." Asura now saw more droids entering the room, another horde even larger than the one Asura had faced before. She began dragging herself to her feet, but she knew this was the end. "Five. Four. Three." The droids raised their weapons, then, to Asura, time and space seemed to freeze.

"Paradus override accepted. Self destruct sequence aborted. Security measures deactivated."

The lights stopped flashing and returned to normal as the group rose to their feet as the droids stood watching them, unwavering. "The enemy units have been deactivated," DX reported. "No kidding," Cade replied, still taken aback by what had just occurred. Hans moved back towards the elevator controls. "Deactivated or not, I'm not taking any more chances. We're leaving."

"Just like that?" A new voice spoke over the intercom. It had been audibly modified to speak in a deep pitch, and without any of her technical equipment on her, Asura couldn't identify just whose voice it was. "You get your life saved, and you don't even to know why or by whom?"

Hans sighed, pausing with his hand just over the button. "I thought maybe we could avoid the conversation where you tell us what we owe you."

"Whoever it is did just save our lives, you know." Cade interjected. "I'm not saying we accept, but we should listen to this." Asura and Praxon nodded in agreement. Hans grimaced. "What?" He asked.

"It's simple. I need something recovered and brought to me. It has information that will be useful to the both of us."

A very vague answer. Did this contact want the details to remain secret, or was it unknown even to them? "And that information is?" Hans inquired.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Analysis of vocal patterns indicate no signs of deception," DX said.

"Team?" Hans asked.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but let's do it." Asura answered.

"I'm in." Cade said.

"Analysis concludes that there is only a 10% chance of betrayal," DX-245 answered.

"Good. I will contact you at your ship with the details. Move quickly."

Just as suddenly as the voice had manifested, it disappeared, leaving the team to begin their new mission. They looked around for a second, then Hans pressed the button again and the team began to rise, leaving the base to begin their next mission.