A Bringing Of Forces

Chapter 6

Obi-Wan was glad to be on his ship again. Even if he had only piloted it once, it was nice to have his own freedom away from Hondo. Hondo was good in short bursts, but after too long, he was near impossible to be around.

It had only taken several days for Hondo to locate the spice runners, Ellix and Errix, and three more after to plan and ready for their mission to freedom.

The clones had already boarded, as had Ahsoka, taking the co-pilot's seat. It had only been two years since his last battle, but secretly he had hoped it would be a long time before he had to join in another.

Sliding in next to Ahsoka, he did a quick check over of the ship's controls. Ahsoka had already readied the ship, now all that was left was to plug in the coordinates and disengage from the frigate.

"Ready?" He looked to Ahsoka.

She nodded.

"Are the clones in position?"

She nodded. "Flare took the gun controls with Scorch and Hardline's waiting for our signal."

"Good. Ready to disembark in three. . . two. . . one." The ship gave a small jolt as the ships lost connection, leaving their vessel free to roam. Before leaving, he called in to Hondo, "We'll be back shortly, don't move your position."

"No problem there. We'll stay right where we are."

Obi-Wan flipped off the radio control, prepping the ship for hyperspace. In moments all that was left of the view was a blue blur of star streaks. It was only seconds before they came to, appearing right in front of a heavily armored ship. "Well, this is starting off lovely," Obi-Wan muttered to himself, banking the ship a hard right avoiding the oncoming fire from the five alien ships circling above. Nearly no time had passed after exiting hyperspace and the turrets of the opposing ships were already balking with movement.

Almost as if the runners had known they were coming.

"Flare! Hardline! Where are those guns?" Obi-Wan shouted into his mic piece.

"Coming right up, General." Scorch's voice broke through and in moments streaks of energy broke from their ship, heading right for the opposing vessels. Two were caught in the crossfire, blowing them to nothing but chunks of metal and flame.

"Nice shot, you two," Ahsoka broke her silence, flipping the ship's controls preparing it for the magnetic grab. "Hardline. There's ten boxes sealed to the underside of the middle ship. Do you think you can dislodge them?"

"No problem, Commander."

"Okay, it'll only be a few more seconds now. We just need to get into range," she called into the mic.

Obi-Wan brought them in as close as he dared before swinging the ship around so the hangar doors stood facing their target.

"Hardline, now!" Ahsoka shouted.

The faint hiss of the air lock was audible even in the cockpit, reminding Obi-Wan just how small their ship really was. They would be able to fit four of the ten shipping boxes, each filled with one-hundred crates of spice into their hanger, but the rest would need to be locked onto the underside of the ship. It would be tedious work to guide the boxes full of spice into the correct position, but he trusted Hardline enough to get the job done.

The faint roar as the small shuttle zipped away was all Obi-Wan needed to know their plan was being set into action. Flare and Scorch had taken out all but one opposing fighter who was retreating back to the main ship. Both ships were firing on Hardline now, but he managed to evade their shots and get near the target ship. Right before he could blow the charges that would scramble the magnetic lock, the ship containing the spice flipped around, it's guns blazing down on Hardline with extraordinary speed and precision.