Episode X Dark Hunter

Escape from Nar Shaddaa

It did not take long and Videsse, with Cam close behind, found her way to the landing pad behind Felga's palace. The crowd on the streets was actively gaining strength, but that was on the other side, and only a few of Felga's goons had ventured to the landing pad.

Soon, the riot would encompass the entire moon, throwing it into anarchy. Some fleeing looters would even make it to neighboring systems and cause not-so-slight disturbances there as well. News of it would reach the Galactic Senate, and councils would be made to come up with a solution, to no avail. With the unrest in the galaxy, this would be another splash of Rhydonium fuel thrown on the fire. More systems, as a consequence, would find an excuse to secede. Our heroine had a part in that, but again, that is a story for galactic historians, and only briefly concerns us as an intriguing connection between this story to other historical accounts. However, as with my many narrative faults you have no doubt discovered, I must again return from my digression, back to Videsse.

And we see she is already trading blaster bolts with goons that were trying to slip away with her ship. Two were on the ground. Two more pinned Videsse and Cam behind a Mini-Trident-class assault ship, a devilsquid-shaped starship. Do not let the name fool you, the Mini-class designation did not mean that it was small. It was just under half the height of the full-sized, eighty-meter Trident-class ship. Thus, compared to that, I suppose it was miniature. Its sleeping tentacle-like sublight drives were folded up onto the upright body of the conical ship.

The goon's blaster fire did not rest, keeping Videsse and Cam crouched behind the fuselage. Videsse figured rightly that another of the men would be making his way around to get to them from behind. Time was short. She looked above her at the pointed top of the ship thirty-five meters above. Getting up would not be a problem. It was getting down that she was assessing as she calculated the boost time it would take to reach the tip.

"Well, here goes nothin'" she said aloud and ignited her boot rockets with a leap. She rushed upward, gaining speed as she ascended in a sharp line. Her boot rockets heated up and flared in red-orange bladed flames. Videsse counted the seconds in her head as she approached the top, and killed the boot rockets just shy of the peak so that she arced a little short of the pointed apex. Her hands reached out and grasped the cap, pulling her body in and hugging it. She struggled to find a toehold for her feet on the steep angle and high-stepped a few strides trying to get a grip.

There was a moment that she reconsidered this idea but soon found a centimeter ledge at an armored joint of the ship. She shook her head and took a deep breath, collecting herself. Once she felt some semblance of confidence in her position, she carefully let go of the pointed apex with her right arm, still firmly hugging it with her left and found her pistol. The two goons near her ship still fired on the base of the ship not noticing that she had flown to the top, and she could see another rounding to her left. If she missed the two near the ship, she would be a sitting quadduck, and the one on the left would be a challenge being an awkward shot with her right hand. Added to that, she was not completely sure she had enough boot rocket fuel to pull off a landing without--well, she was sure a landing would be possible, just not survivable.

At this point, a question may tickle the recesses of your mind and I am aware of it.  If perhaps it does not show itself in your conscious thought, I will aid it in raising it from your subconscious by giving words to the question; you may wonder, why Videsse did not activate the droid brain on Slave-1 and have it defend itself. Certainly, Raider would have easily quenched the attack. I will remind you, though, Raider was an addition to the ship by her mother who, though she felt she needed to be on her own, still betrayed her inner desire to have Boba Fett by her side. So Raider spoke like Boba, sounded like Boba, and sometimes acted like Boba. Videsse simply could not stand it at this time. She did not need him, and she could not deal with what the droid brain conjured within her. Like she said earlier at the gravesite, she was going to do this by herself.

So that brought her to the pinnacle of a ship, thirty-five meters above the landing pad, her finger rapidly trilling a rain of red blaster fire down on the two goons, who knows what race they were from this distance. They were not injured in the fire, but not expecting an attack from above, their confidence already shaken by the earlier developments, they simply turned-tail and retreated to find another, easier opportunity.

The assailant on the left, though, was not dissuaded and began firing on the Trident's peak. This goon was a droid, black and humanoid, with a rifle aimed at Videsse. Videsse leapt back from the peak with enough force to clear the conical base of the ship. She descended rapidly, and just as rapidly retrieved her left pistol, raised it, and fired with its pair three dozen shots flying through the air like red needles as she dropped from thirty-five to ten meters in less than two seconds. She then ignited her boot rockets to slow her descent, and it did bring her to almost a complete stop about two meters above the ground before the boot rockets extinguished their cartridges. It was a hard drop from that height. She collapsed, her knees buckling under her, and her hands pounding the ground. She rolled to her side but was not injured.

Cam's blue face looked on, his eyes wide in excitement at Videsse's feat. Videsse, of course, acted as if it was effortless and dusted off her knees. Inside, though, we may safely assume our heroine had a different thought. The droid, ten meters away, had been damaged, and apoplectically seized on the ground with two dismembered limbs lying next to it.

Videsse, not saying anything, ran for the Slave-1,and activated the caudal ramp with a button on her left wrist controls. Cam followed close behind, his own gaze darting around every corner to the other ships as he tailed her.

They entered the ship, as the ramp began closing under them.

"What are you going to do with that kid?" Boba's voice came.

"Shut up, Raider, and turn yourself off," Videsse snapped. The lights of the ship's console were already dark.

"Who are you talking to?" Cam commented as he looked around the cramped cargo bay.

"Nobody, you shut up, too, and strap yourself in. We're getting out of here."