Freelancers

Vengeance

The elevator descended quickly to the ground level. The polished hangar floor, characteristic of an obsessive warden cut from Imperial cloth, was completely vacant. The emergency klaxons still blared and continued to give Jag a headache.

"At least we know the alarms still work," said Jag sarcastically as he followed Veriss quickly across the hangar floor.

He winced from the pain in his ferrocast arm, as the adrenaline from their last encounter in the ventilation duct was wearing off. They had barely crossed the hangar when the huge bulkhead doors behind them began to open with a contingent of garrison soldiers on the other side.

Surprised, and eager for protection, Veriss and Jag sprinted for the nearest cover. They found it in the form of a dismantled loader droid, and took shelter behind one of its giant arms.

"Impossible they found us that quickly!" shouted Veriss to Jag over the roar of blaster fire coming from across the hangar.

Jag cast a hasty look towards the engineering room, and a single humanoid figure stood at the window.

"Looks like someone is playing hero," replied Jag as he gestured upwards to the room formerly full of cowardly engineers.

Veriss ducked down after returning blaster fire, and shouted something that Jag couldn't quite hear. Before her lips stopped moving, a large fireball threw them to the floor and rocked the loader droid dangerously to the side, nearly flattening them. Jag painfully gathered himself to his knees and looked across the hangar for the source of the explosion. He saw a towering soldier encased in a solid black metal exosuit, which glistened under the light in a similar manner as the hangar floor. The oversized cannon glowed an orange hue as the trooper prepared another blast. A fireball shot out of the metal arm towards them.

"Move!" screamed Jag as he hurled his body away from the loader droid while Veriss scrambled behind cargo.

The fireball flew above their heads and slammed against the transport freighter. Molten slag and pieces of the freighter's hull fell around them.

"We need to get out of here! Hurry, to the ship!" said Veriss, eyes wide and voice shrill with urgency.

They scrambled to their feet and sprinted towards the aft of the freighter while laser bolts pocketed the floor and freighter behind them. They weaved in and out of shipping crates, doing their best to position themselves away from the Helix exosuit that their new assailant was wearing.

Fireballs roared ahead of them, knocking crates to the floor in a molten mess. Jag and Veriss' armor afforded them some protection from the scalding heat, but a direct hit would spell certain death for either of them. Laser bolts continued to dazzle the freighter's shields as they ran between the ship's landing gear.
Another volley of fireballs struck the bulkhead above the freighter as more molten durasteel fell and sizzled against the freighter's shields.

Jag shouted, "They're going to bring down the bulkheads on us! Get that ship started!"

Veriss, too focused on returning fire to answer back, simply flicked her wrist and the holo-display flared to life. The Vengeance's cloaking system dropped offline and its thrusters roared to life after she issued it a command from her suit's onboard interface. It detached its maglocks from the freighter's hull, and the autopilot oriented the ship towards the bounty hunters. Laser bolts pelted the shields of the Vengeance and it glistened a marvelous red as each laser was absorbed by the ship's enhanced grav shields. Jag primed his grapple while in mid sprint towards the ship while Veriss instructed the Vengeance to open its bay door. She hunkered down against the transport freighter's landing gear and returned fire with her blaster pistol. She grimaced at how ineffective she was and longed for a disruptor cannon.

"Veriss! I'm on!" shouted Jag. "Keep it hovering a little bit longer, I'll send down the supply hook!"

Jag's grapple pulled him up onto the landing deck, and he sprinted towards a control panel inside. Veriss lowered her head as the advancing soldiers fired another suppressive volley in her direction. The Helix soldier turned his attention towards the Vengeance and released a fireball. The projectile hit the grav shields with a deafening snap, and vanished as it was absorbed entirely. Veriss' commlink sparked to life as Jag's frantic voice came across.

"Hook is coming down! Get up here fast, we can't take many hits from that!"

Veriss looked up and saw a metal spike resembling a weather vane descend from the hull of the ship. She turned from the landing gear and sprinted towards the hook as the freighter buckled under the onslaught of blaster fire and fireballs. She threw her body towards the hook with such force that her grip almost failed her as momentum carried her body forward.

"I'm here!" shouted Veriss into her commlink.

The ship bucked as its thrusters activated to avoid a volley of fireballs. Veriss clung tightly to the hook as it ascended into the hull of the ship; its shields glowing a deep red where soldiers were concentrating their blaster fire. Her hair flew wildly as lasers left trails of ozone all around her; jaw clenched tightly and eyes closed, she expected the smell of burning flesh and searing pain from a laser strike. Instead, she opened her eyes in the tiny, oil-stained cargo hold of the Vengeance.

Jag's gravelly voice boomed over the intercom, "Get on the gun, we're losing shields!"

Veriss sprinted to the ventral gun turret and strapped herself in. She could see the soldiers amassing beneath her from the viewport. The shields began glowing a bright yellow, indicating imminent failure. Her gun's targeting system finally came to life, and she squeezed the trigger just as Jag screamed something about their lack of shields. She shouted with fear-tinged anger and delivered a prolonged barrage of crimson laser fire from the gun turret. Explosions launched metal in the air above the hangar as Veriss targeted the soldiers, Helix equipped and standard alike. While smoke and debris floated in the air, she surveyed the hangar carnage. She let out a sigh of relief as Jag steered the Vengeance towards open space. The ship shuddered as Jag accelerated it out of the station's hangar. Veriss slumped back into the seat of the gun turret, exhausted. Whatever Jag was saying over the intercom, she wasn't listening. Instead, she closed her eyes while the stars turned into white lines, as they escaped into the safety of hyperspace.

She sighed.

I'm going to kill him.