FORSAKEN II - Eternal Dawn

CHAPTER FIFTY

"Captain, we have visual confirmation of the Outcast," the second officer said.

"Very well," Haibak said. "May the Force be with us. Fire when ready."

The Outcast zoomed out of Christophsis ready to fight. Addia sat behind the controls of the new gunner station on the common deck, wearing an advanced agent interface to connect with the dual HSG-67 side-mounted laser cannons' sensors. Jarriss and Ilum manned the dorsal and ventral turrets respectively. With the help of Quinlan, Gorin carried one of the Dymek concussion missiles from his workshop in the cargo deck.

"You couldn't load this thing in the launcher before we entered a massive starship fight?" Quinlan had to lean against the wall to catch his balance when the Outcast swerved.

"Not with all the repairs and modifications I've been doing lately." Gorin steadied himself with one hand. "I even haven't had the time to work on improving the hyperdrive. We're lucky I finished this before we landed on Christophsis. Anyway, you have nothing to worry about; this is not explosive. I fitted the electro-proton bomb from Rodia inside. If it detonates, it'll only wipe out all the electronics aboard, but it won't kill us."

"No. It will only leave us a sitting target for all those TIEs."

They stumbled to the cockpit's hallway and opened the loading hatch on the ceiling where the other three missiles were housed.

"It's a kriffing gnasp's nest out here," said Theleema, firing proton torpedoes at the swarm of TIE fighters in front of them.

"Just be thankful you can't see the radar," said Virra, watching the screen dotted with targets. "The mudscuffers set out an outer perimeter with the Star Destroyers and the starfighters to prevent us from jumping into hyperspace. We're in the middle of the kill zone."

"And they're trapped in it with us." Syrran rolled the Outcast and her cannons began to engage the Imperial starfighters.

"I'm trying to disrupt their communications," said Elynn busy on her console.

TIE fighters kept to the fringes, firing at the Outcast when she came close, leaving the Star Destroyers to engage the elusive light freighter inside the perimeter they created.

"We're lock and loaded in launcher two, missile one," said Gorin, holding on to the cockpit's doorframe to keep himself from falling. "I suggest you fire at the bridge of one of the Star Destroyers to be effective. That should put one of them out of commission."

"How close do we need to get?" Theleema said.

"Well, the Dymeks have a range of 750 meters and the EMP is effective up to 40 meters. The length of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer is sixteen hundred meters—"

"We have to get right in their face," said Elynn, beating him in the calculation.

"Pretty much. Anyway, make sure you don't stick around when it goes off. Otherwise, we'll be nothing but a beautiful hunk of junk, floating aimlessly in space."

"Any ideas?" Theleema said.

Syrran broke right to evade a couple of proton torpedoes. "How much firepower we got?"

Theleema checked her monitors. "Three proton torpedoes, one Arakyd ST2 concussion missiles, two Dymek—watch out for those fighters."

"I got them." Syrran gunned down one of them as they headed straight towards the Outcast. "We can punch a hole through starfighters' perimeter and make a run at one of the capital ships. We stick to the hull like a magnet, taking out the turbo lasers, and make them choke with the proton bomb as soon as we get in range."