Guarded (#2 Post-Order 66 Series)

Guarded - Part 35

"We have to get to them." Gregar was frantic. "What are our options?"

Hunter's heart ached for the captain. He too felt a sense of urgency to find them, but he was just slightly better at hiding it. Gotta try to be the clear head here. Gregar may be too afraid for Kestia to be objective. They'd gathered back by the speeders to regroup. Whatever they decided, it needed to happen quickly as the other factions around the planet were awaiting their signal to evacuate. Hunter took a deep steadying breath.

"We need to figure out where they've been taken first. I'd imagine either back to Theed or on one of the star destroyers. Echo, can we use the trackers Tech embedded in our armor?"

Crosshair raised an eyebrow, and Echo shrugged sheepishly. "After you captured Hunter, Tech took the liberty of embedding trackers in our boots. So we wouldn't be dependent on the person that caught us leaving our comm frequency on to ping. You have one in your boot as well."

The sniper shrugged. "A good call. Not all captors are as courteous as I was." He smirked at his own joke, and some of the tension dissipated.

Senna stepped forward. "If you all have the frequency of the tracker, I can nail down their location. I should be able to amplify the scan on my datapad."

Echo reached out, taking her datapad from her to enter in the frequency band. Senna nodded, walking away quietly as she punched away at the keys and began scanning.

Hunter watched her go, taking another deep breath. "No matter where they are, we still need to take the airbase. The fighters there will prove invaluable no matter where we're staging an assault. Let's at least keep that part of the plan in place. Now, assuming they're on a star destroyer-"

"That's a safe assumption," Senna interrupted, walking back towards them. "They're in space, and it looks like it's a destroyer parked almost directly above us, hovering over Theed." Hunter looked up, squinting to see if he could make out the silhouette of the destroyer, but he was unable to find the telltale triangular shape.

"They're at a high orbit," Senna said, "but the good news is they're fairly isolated. I'd recommend we switch to make this destroyer the one we target. If I'm not overstepping." She bowed her head, stepping back quickly, but Hunter gripped her arm.

"We're taking all suggestions right now. I agree that we should target this destroyer." He thought for a moment. "Alright, here's what I'm thinking. We capture the airbase, that's unchanged. Then, before the full assault, we take the Marauder and one of the Imperial attack shuttles and head up to the destroyer. We can act as if it's an escort for the Marauder being moved. Senna, do you think you can convince a few of the Imperial pilots we capture to go along with it?"

Senna nodded. "Shouldn't be an issue. Just make sure you leave at least two alive."

Hunter continued. "We'll need to capture the airbase before a distress signal can go out. Echo, you'll have to find a control panel and disable it as soon as we get near the control towers. After we take the airbase, we'll take two teams. Gregar, Wrecker, and I will ride in the Marauder. Rather than waiting for our ships to blow the tractor beam signal, we'll head to the engine room and rig the reactor to blow. One less star destroyer to contend with won't be a bad thing. While we're doing that, Senna, Echo, and Crosshair will ride along in the shuttle, and you three will go find Tech and Kes. Echo's slicer abilities should come in handy with tracking down where they're being held. We stay in contact, and we get out of there as quickly and quietly as possible. Iden, you'll stay behind and coordinate things on the ground with Saré and Inez." The final two handmaidens had travelled to other evacuation points to help coordinate communications, and Hunter hoped that having them in place would be beneficial now. "Once we're all clear," he continued, "we'll blow the ship, and that should give us the hole we need to get out of here." He turned to Typho. "Does that sound alright to you, Captain?"