Lucky Strike (A Star Wars SI)

Chapter 40

The Chiss made sure that we couldn't record the coordinates, journey, or destination of any of the hyperspace jumps we made while slaved to their systems. By the end of the weeklong trip, I was certain that we'd dropped out of hyperspace once or twice just to throw us off of any possible leads we had.

After one last jump, we seemingly arrived at our destination, because the Chiss Heavy Cruisers released their hold on our computer systems and our sensors began to fill in the details we'd been blinded to.

This was obviously not their primary homeworld. I'd even put money on the fact that it was probably a military owned repair and refit outpost. Still, it was a good location. There may only be one habitable world orbiting the lone brown gas giant, but there were plenty of other rocks the Chiss could extract resources from.

A decent-sized latticwork of shipyards surrounded the gas giant. It wasn't the size of Rendili or Kuat, any of the core worlds with shipyards really. But it was clear from the sheer amount of traffic that if we decided to act stupidly here that they'd be able to take us out.

"Captain Hull, you will soon be sent a transmission from the system controller. Please follow the directions to the letter. Any deviations will be met with the destruction of your vessels," Captain Khosia briefed us. "We will see to it that your ships are repaired and that you possess ample supplies to continue on your way."

I didn't respond for a few moments, instead looking out at the ships that moved through and around the system. For the most part, they looked like a mixture between the organic and bulbous ships the Mon Calamari made mixed with the circular heavy cruisers that Rendili had manufactured for hundreds of years. The major difference was that we were fairly sure they didn't use shields.

"Understood, Captain," I finally replied to Khosia. "We'll await further instructions."

The Chiss that we'd taken onboard were… Interesting to say the least. They were generally intelligent and had folded into our existing command structure and operations fairly well over the short trip. They adapted to our systems with ease, only seemingly shocked by the shields and armor combination that we used.

Strangely, they hadn't attempted to broach the gap between our cultures at all. Instead preferring silence to any questions about their society as a whole. They'd answer personal questions or talk about their immediate families, but they wouldn't divest anything that might hint at locations or politics.

While I was still contemplating the last week or so, the instructions for our berth came in, and the helmsman began to take us ever closer to one of the shipyard bays.

We weren't going to be able to disembark the Horizon or Triumphant (At least not en masse), but we were going to be able to rest a bit while the Chiss repaired the damage we couldn't after the dragon and fight with the Vong.

After a few hours of navigating the crowded system, we were guided into two different berths that were just big enough to fit our two triangular vessels.

The Horizon shuddered beneath us as docking clamps came to arrest the last of our momentum. The main engines powered off for the first time since we'd left Lianna and I was finally able to breath a sigh of relief.

"Sir, Captain Khosia is waiting for you in the port Hangar bay," the comms officer reported. "She has a shuttle waiting."

I figured that it was probably for me to meet and discuss what the specifics of our agreement was going to be with her leaders. The problem was, while I knew of the Chiss, I didn't have a detailed memory of the outside of the one or two scenes on their icy homeworld that Jacen Solo had been involved in.

Knowing a little bit about something, and now being immersed in it are two very different things after all. Hell, I knew more about the Vong than I did about the Chiss. For all I knew, after they fixed our ships up, they were going to show us out the door and send us plodding out towards their nearest enemy in the hopes that we killed each other off.

Swallowing, I steeled my nerves and turned to Lieutenant Vane.
"Vane, you have the ship," I said. "I'll see what I can do to talk them into hopefully upgrading some of our systems."

"Good luck, sir," he patted me on the shoulder.

With that, I turned smartly on my heel and headed for the hangar bay. I was going to have to trust that Captain Khosia wouldn't do anything to put my crew in danger. For all that I liked the Horizon, she was just a ship. If necessary, I could replace her. It would hurt, but I'd find a way to do it. The crew on the other hand, they couldn't be replaced.

Regardless, I only had a few minutes of silence before the turbolift spat me out into the brightly colored hangar. The Chiss that we'd taken aboard were lined up and slowly shuttling out. Among them, there was the one uniform that stood out.

Khosia was a darker shade of blue than the others around her, even if her uniform were the same outside of the markers that signaled her rank.

"You're here," her face was as blank and seemingly unemotional as ever. "Good, we mave much to discuss before you meet with Admiral Mitt'tri'omi."

–
–

"It is not often that outsiders are invited into our borders," Admiral Ttrio said, gesturing for me to take a seat. "That said, you have done us a service by assisting Captain Khosia with eliminating the Far Outsiders and she has promised the repair of your vessels in return. However, we are faced with a problem."

"And what might that be, sir?" I asked.

"The majority of the crew that was on the Aggressor were a part of the Xodlak family," Ttrio said as a means of explanation as if that meant something to me before continuing. "While we as a people are intermixed and only belong to one family or another out of generalized organization. The Xodlak family holds a few customs from our time before. Among them is the repayment of a life saved."

"All I ask is that our ships are repaired," I replied.

"We are repairing and rearmoring your ship as we speak," the admiral interrupted me before I could conitnue further. "This is a debt that cannot be paid in monetary means. While it pains me to say this, tradition dictates they pay the debt with service. As such, I am entrusting Captain Khosia with the responsibility of folding them into your crews and ensuring that all proper security measures are followed. She was adopted out of the family, but still holds to many of their ways. She'll also ensure that you are escorted out of our borders before transfering to your ship."

"Admiral, we're not just a random pair of ships wandering around this region of space. We were in the middle of a war when we left. I doubt it'll be concluded before we return. Your people are going to be fighting on the battlefield with us," I sighed. "We're not peaceful explorers. We're sailors, marines, and soldiers who are trying to get back to a war that we found ourselves far from. I can't guarantee that if your people come with us that they'll return."

"Such is always the potential price for following our traditions," Khosia said, for once showing something other than stoicism. "But if we do not follow them when they are hard, then they are not worth keeping or following."

"It should take a week or two to rehull your ships," Trio offered. "My dockworkers have informed me that they found your armor an offense to ships everywhere and will be rectifying that issue. That will also provide us with ample time to ensure that those traveling with you are prepared and have said their goodbyes."

"If possible, can I get a breakdown of how many people that is going to be," I sighed internally, knowing that this was going to lead to a host of paperwork and now the trouble of figuring out where the Chiss crew should be distributed between the Triumphant and Horizon. "As well as where their skillsets are?"

"I believe we can provide something like that without compromising our security," Admiral Ttrio nodded. "Now, I have many questions, and I hope you are able to answer them…"

Chapter 41

Location: Eriadu

It was the blaring of alarms that forced Teskit to rise from the bedroll that he'd been sleeping in. The battle had been going on for weeks now, the Separatists managing to rally behind what Commander Durald said was a Dark Side Acolyte.

Pulling himself up, he tapped the control on the holotable, bringing it back to life and displaying the blue triangles pushing in towards the planetary shields once again. Like clockwork, every eighteen hours another massive wave of starfighters moving through the planetary shields to try and strike at the ships taking cover behind them. It would be an hour before the fighters arrived, but that just made it worse.

Soon enough, they would be low on Tibanna and other resources, just like they already were low on energy. It was only a matter of time…

The initial attack had been blunted and forced away by Teskit's Battlegroup, the ORSF, and the other Republic forces that had been willing to listen to his orders. The rest had been scattered into small fleet sections or had fled, leaving the defenders of Eriadu outnumbered three to one.

If he wanted to, Teskit was certain that his Battlegroup could move in and eliminate the enemy. He had better ships, better crews, and better men and women under his command. It was the fighters and bombers that had made the difference.

At first, they had ignored the C-9979 craft that had lingered in the back of the system. Foolishly thinking that it was the infantry and tank troops that were going to be making landfall after the Separatists thought they had won the battle in the void.

Instead, the Confederacy had jumped hundreds, if not close to a thousand of what they thought were landing craft. The amount of starfighters and bombers had been staggering. The Defender's advanced sensor suite and Comand and Control center hadn't been able to keep up, and had nearly given up entirely. His own fighter wings and those of the ORSF had only survived because they'd been kept back, safely under the umbrella of the point defenses of the larger vessels.

The rest of the smaller craft had been wiped out by the hordes. The corpses of large Venators, Acclamators, and other ships littered the system. Glittering debris from destroyed droid fighters occasionally crossed the path of the local stars light and gleamed like frost when the first wave of snow covered the ground on many worlds.

Teskit's own battlegroup had not been without its losses, either. The Shards of Elysium had been one of the first casualties, it had moved in front of a mass of fighers and used its bulk to intercept them when they had managed to eliminate one of the droid control ships that had been managing the Separatists fighters.

They might still be able to repair her, but the destroyer was crippled, massive holes had been ripped in her armor, and she only had half of her thrusters in any condition to move.

But some of her point defenses still worked, so her captain had limped her into a position to cover some of the weaker ships and had parked her there. Shutting off the reactor except for that which was needed to fire the guns.

"We ceded the initiative," Teskit mutterd to himself, frowning at the bitter taste of a days old half-empty cup of caff before swallowing the rest of the swill down and continuing to consider their situation. "If we do not take it back, then we will all die here."

On the edge of his exhausted brain, a half-formed plan began to take shape. It was something desperate, and not something he'd usually consider, but there was little to no chance of there being reinforcements sent to Eriadu.

Tapping a few controls, Teskit opened a comms line between the Jedi-Commander, Maarisa Zsinj, and Commodore Jabari. The latter two were the last surviving officers who would need to weigh in on any plans.

"Commander Durald, here," the Jedi was the first to respond. Her hologram looked more exhausted than the other two did when they appeared. Durald had been one of the main reasons they'd been able to hold out for as long as they had. Whatever mystical force powers the enemy 'dark side' acolytes posessed, she'd been able to counteract it by managing to outmaneuver and eliminate the force that had possessed several of the so-called 'dark-siders' that had been present in the initial strike force.

"Did you manage to get some rest, Commander?" Teskit asked.

"A little," Durald replied. "I was hoping to grab a few extra moments before the next wave arrives."

"Teskit, you better have a damned good reason for this," Jabari growled. The other man might have been a political officer in the old Judicial Forces, but he'd actually been competent at his job. Unlike other officers Teskit didn't want to name.

"Let him speak, Commodore," Maarisa chastised. "Anything is better than sitting here and letting the Separatists piecemeal us to death."

"Thank you," Teskit nodded at the ORSF Officer. So far, they'd been able to keep the less professional side of their relationship hidden away.

"As we know modern droids used by the Confederacy no longer rely completely on a central brain for functionality," Teskit began, bringing up one of the massive controle spheres that formed the center of a Trade Federation Lucrehulk on the holographic table. "However, we also know that said brains improve and enhance their droids ability to work together. We've recorded multiple instances over the last few years in which removing a Battleship's core disrupted the fighter formations. Their base programming is simple, as we've established through many battles. If we can remove the advanced thinking and signal from these three ships," Teskit highlighted the Lucrehulks that were in the back of what was left of the Separatist Capital ships that had enterd the system. "Then we have a chance to slow down and cripple their capability."

"That's a gamble," Jabari sighed. "But it's better than anything I have."

"If I may," Commander Durald rubbed at the deep bags under her eyes. "If we can identify the flagship. I would be willing to take a party of Commandos and Arc Troopers to board and locate the Command codes. If we can shut down even a fraction of the droids, it would be worth the risk."

"I don't like it," Maarisa glanced at the other officers. "Yet I see no other choice. We should work on contingencies and ensure that this isn't going to end in the complete destruction of our fleets and Eriadu."

---

"We're only taking volunteers on this one," Is what had been said to Theta Squad when this mission briefing had begun. So, of course. All of the Commandos had volunteered. This is what they were bred for. Missions like this? Inserting into an enemy ship and grabbing command codes? That's exactly the kind of mission they'd originally been intended to go on.

"This is it," Bruiser looked around at the rest of his team. Crack was bouncing his leg up and down, anyone else might take it as nerves, but bruiser knew the sniper was probably excited. Hulk, the CQB expert was simply waiting silently, while Trick fiddled with a datapad he'd grabbed a few planets ago. B, the last member of their squad lurked menacingly, his photoreceptors were currently green, but they'd shift color depending on whether they were in combat or not. "Jedi-Commander Durald has lead on this one. Follow her instructions, get what we came for, and get off the ship. We're here for the command codes. Sabotage is a secondary objective."

"Understood," the trio of clones chorused in tune with B's deeper. "Affirmitive."

"You guys are clear to jump in thirty seconds!" The pilot of their LAAT/I said, and the Jedi in the troop bay finally seemed to shift from her meditative stance to one of readiness.

Theta squad had only served with the Commander once before, but she'd handled herself fairly well with regards to that derelict. While Bruiser still wasn't certain that the Jedi were actually good at their job (He'd heard too many rumors to believe that all of them were competent). He figured Durald might be one of the good ones.

The thirty seconds flew by and the pilot depressurized the bay and opened it to the elements. Their jetpacks had already been secured, and the Defender was hammering the Lucrehulk. The shields flickering and then failing right in front of the hanger bay.

"Go, go, go!" The pilot shouted, shifting his momentum to launch the Commandos and Jedi out of his bay before peeling off and attracting the attention of the handful of droid fighters in the area.

Bruiser ignited his jetpack and used his HUD to keep an eye on the rest of his squad. Once they'd built up speed, he and the others shut their packs off. There was no need to waste fuel when they were going to need it for slowing down and the eventual landing inside of the hangar.

Minutes flashed by and the mission timer on Bruiser's HUD ticked down. In the distance, the lances of green, blue, and red turbolaser fire speared through the void between the Defender and the Lucrehulk. A handful of Venators and Acclamators held off the other ships in the area, the wedges forming a defensive perimeter around the large battleship.

Eventually though, Bruiser had to turn his attention away from the massive brawl so far away in the void in favor of paying attention to his trajectory. All of the other Commandos and Arc Troopers who had volunteered had preferred to stay in the 'safety' of the gunships. Bruiser and Theta, well. They didn't believe in safety. So, they'd opted for the riskier option.

That the Jedi had been so willing to join in had been a surprise, but it had been a welcome one for sure.

Finally, the hangar bay was close. So, Bruiser and the rest of Theta Squad plus one angled themselves facing 'away' from the deck and boosted, counteracting their inertia enough to prevent them from landing with broken bones.

Most of their fuel was spent when they arrived, but one last jet allowed them to climb into the hangar and enjoy the artificial gravity that lay within.

Unfortunately, there was no time to rest, and it seemed Theta and the Jedi had been the first to make it onto the ship. Better, they'd done it quietly enough that the droids didn't know they were there…

Bruiser grinned. This was going to be fun!

Chapter 42

The disgust the Chiss had for our ships armor had seemingly gotten worse over the last few weeks since they'd started working on reskinning the Triumphant and Horizon. It was bad enough that our ships armor was inferior to theirs. It was worse that it was as old and damaged as it was.

Or so they had complained to me about over the course of the repairs. But what little I remembered of the Chiss said that they never did anything for only one reason. I was pretty sure that they hadn't lied about the life debt part, and that Captain Khosia would be joining our crew when we left.

So, I was left with a dilemma. We technically had enough people and droids to crew our ships and fighters. However, that was only running skeleton crews for each shift, and would require us to work ourselves to the bone before we managed to return to Republic space. The Chiss were probably going to be spying on us. Gathering whatever information they could before eventually returning to the Unknown Regions.

Unless they didn't plan on returning home at all. In which case, I had no friggin clue what their overall plan was. Either way, I was going to have to answer some uncomfortable questions upon my return.

"What do you think, Lieutenant?" I asked Vane.

"About what, sir?" He asked.

"All of it," I gestured towards the shipyards we could see outside the viewport, along with the Chiss that were reskinning the Triumphant within view of us.

"Speaking freely?" He continued.

I nodded.

"I don't see what other options we have," He shrugged. "We have no clue where we are, no routes we can point to that will return us to Republic Space. These Chiss feel like they owe us and they're repaying that."

"I'm pretty sure they're spying on us as well," I offered.

"We're going to have thousands of them on our ships," Vane chuckled. "Unless their operational security fries their brain when they talk about things. Eventually, we're going to learn just as much about them as they do about us. I don't see a problem with that. To be blunt, Hull. I think you made the right call here. Instead of one ship with a handful of fighters, we've now got two, and a good fighter screen. We'll also have crew enough to be properly staffed."

"Thanks," I accepted the praise, knowing that shrugging it off wouldn't do me any good despite the fact it didn't feel like I'd really done anything. "Now, as far as plans go. I'm transferring you to the Triumphant. You'll be acting captain over there while Khosia fills in your spot once we reach the edge of Chiss Space."

Vane swallowed a bit.

"That's a big ship, sir," he replied. "You sure you don't want to transfer your command to her?"

"Negative," I shook my head, a bit of guilty laughter bubbling up inside. "I'm sticking with the Horizon. I worked too hard to keep her intact to leave her now. Besides," I clapped him on the back. "You're competent enough for a command of your own. I just hope that when we return, that we get to keep both ships."

After that, we continued working on some of the personnel transfers when Aliya burst into the command room.

"Good, they told me I could find the two of you in here!" She slammed the door open. "Captain Hull, you need to inform me of when my ship is undergoing upgrades."

"Upgrades?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," She slammed her palms on the holotable, causing the figures we had on it to flicker. "They're not wrong that the Triumphant's reactor needs the overhaul. But they're adding some sort of extra converter. Making claims that it'll 'improve efficiency by forty percent"."

"So, your complaint is, what exactly?" Vane asked.

"That they started work without talking to me first!" She said. "I'm the chief engineer. They should have said something."

"That one's on me," I sighed tiredly, holding out a datapad. "They asked me for approval for a bunch of repairs and upgrades they'd noticed, and I signed off on it without talking to you. I must have missed that they were messing with the reactor."

"It's fine," Aliya sighed. "It's just that with how old the equipment is on both the Horizon and the Triumphant, I'm concerned that we'll mess something up that I won't be able to fix, and I don't understand their systems yet."

"Well, ask them for documentation on everything they're doing," I offered. "Then you at least have details we can refer to later if things go wrong. Anything else you need to report about the repairs?"

"Well, Republic Seinar made a big show of 'modernizing the Horizon when we first brought it in," She began, pulling a datapad out of her satchel. "And they did. With regards to the Gravity well generators, power conduits, shields, and reactors. Problem is, they didn't even look at the structural integrity and armor plating. According to what the Chiss have showed me, we were extremely close to a critical hull breach."

"Any idea what their rehulling will do?" Lieutenan Vane asked.

"If their armor is as good as they claim it is, then I expect we'll be able to tank a lot more than we could if the Horizon were fresh out of the shipyards. At this point, I'd be happy with just having armor that's comparable to what we throw on the Acclamators."

"And the Triumphant?" I asked.

"Well, the Triumphant is in both better shape than the Horizon and worse at the same time. Its armor is in much better shape, (not that the Chiss care, they're reskinning her anyway). Problem is, just like when we found the Horizon, the power couplings and linkages are worn out. Due to overloads, disues, what have you. They'll need to be gutted and replaced if we want the full capabilities of the ship."

"Do we need it to be fully capable?" I asked.

"If we want to be able to go toe to toe with the Unknown Regions and make it back, alive," Aliya shrugged. "Then I'd say we definitely need the firepower she's got. Now, we're not going to have a full load of proton torpedoes or concussion missiles. But a reskin and upgraded power capabilities means we'll be able to handle anything we need to. Not to mention if we run into any other strays, we might need the space."

"You think we're going to have more of this?" I gestured towards the shipyards.

"Given our luck so far," Lieutenant Vane snorted. "I'd be surprised if we didn't run into something else…"

"In that case, let's start making contingency plans for the return. Figure out what we need to do in the even more shit happens," I tapped a control on the holotable, granting both of them partial access. "Now that we have the full crews, we've got more we can task the droids to do. I'd like to incorporate them into ground forces and repair crews."

"I'd say use them in conjunction with the starfighters from the Triumphant," Aliya said. "A quick repogram would allow us to use them to screen for our ships."

"How long would that take?" Vane asked.

"We can complete it while they're working on our ships in the yards," Vane stated. "There's not a lot the rest of us can do while repairs are being made. Might as well put them to use. Bored sailors and soldiers is recipe for disaster…"

---

It was shockling easy to sneak around the Lucrehulk in the middle of the chaos. The B-1s were too busy working to launch fighters, move munitions around, and acting like fools to notice Theta and the Jedi moving through and then slipping into a side corridor.

"We need to go this way," Kalyna Durald pointed towards the center of the ship. "The dark jedi who is enhancing them is further in."

"Scuttle, or capture, ma'am," Bruiser said after a moment.

"Scuttle," Durald said after a moment.

"Trick, Crack, I want you to take B and take out the engine room," Bruiser ordered. "If you see any targets of opportunity, you have authorization to engage en route."

"Yes, sir/Roger that," Crack and Trick replied.

"I will bathe in the oil of the lesser droids," if B could smile, Bruiser was sure there would be a sinister grin on the super's face.

Maybe letting Trick and Hulk reprogram B was a bad idea. But Bruiser didn't have the heart to ask for a wipe. Not when B was more combat capable than any other droid he'd encountered.

"Commander, Hulk and I are with you. Tell us what you want us to do," Bruiser turned to the Jedi Knight.

"We stay quiet," Durald said. "And keep those flamethrowers ready. We'll need them before this is all over."

Bruiser and Hulk exchanged a glance. They hadn't told anyone that they'd acquired flamethrowers from the last mission on the ground….

"Yes, ma'am," Hulk said after a moment. "We'll be ready."

Chapter 43

It was strange just how many droids were lying around deactivated. Bruiser noted, doing his best to keep an eye on the Jedi and the rest of his squad. He'd have thought a Lucrehulk would want to keep all of them as active as possible in the event of an infiltration.

Apparently the Separatists didn't think the same. Now, given the overlap between everyone's skillset in his squad, Bruiser could make a halfway-decent guess as to the power requirements and the computational data that would be required to keep all of the droids operational, but he'd be fairly far off unless he got Trick to help figure things out.

Regardless of the reasons for it, it ended up leaving the Lucrehulk feeling eerily quiet. The whirring of machinery and hum of power conduits were the only sounds made through the corridors until they reached the corridors that surrounded the control core.

Those hallways were filled with patrols. Mostly just B-1s walking back and forth to do various administration tasks, but also a handful of them carrying weapons and a pair of B-2 super battle droids an two Magnaguards securing the entrance to the bridge.

"The enemy commander is on the Bridge," Knight Durald informed the commando squad.

"I figured as much, ma'am," Bruiser replied, peeking around the corner one more time. "But that's a lot of metal between us and them."

"The inferior machines will be put into their place," B stated, the super battle droid holding out his hand and showing that he still had wrist rockets.

"He's got a good point, boss," Hulk commented. "HIt the Magnas and B-2s with rockets and grenades at the same time. Thin out this group and open a path."

"Crack, get ready with your sniper, if we don't take out the super or magna with this, you're going to need to put them down," Bruiser ordered. "Trick, Hulk, time those grenades with B. I'm going to be on standby to move in."

"Give me your sidearm," Durald glanced at Bruiser. "Moving in to take on a pair of Magnaguards on my own would be madness."

Bruiser simply handed the pistol to the Jedi and focused down the sights of his carbine while his squad move into position. Then the signal was given, and two thermal detonators and a pair of wrist rockets screamed down the hallway to the bridge.

The Super battle droids and one of the magnaguards did not survive, and their wreckage turned into shrapnel that pinged off the handful of B-1 battle droids that were intact after the explosion.

At the same time, Crack and Bruiser leaned out of cover and began to open fire, Crack's DC-17m had already been converted to the sniper variant, and the accurate blaster bolt struck the remaining magnaguard in the chest, scorching the armor plating and causing sparks to emanate from the left shoulder.

Bruiser had focused on the B-1s, his short controlled bursts shredding a handul of the B-1s even as the Magnaguard began to move towards his squad with some of the last remaining droids.

Knight Durald and the rest of Theta Squad hadn't been idle, though. Instead, Crack and Trick had held the rear while Durald picked off a handful of damaged droids with precise shots from her borrowed blaster pistol, and B had moved in, the borrowed Super Battle Droid's lower half became coated in the 'oil' of his inferiors as he would likely have put it. His wrist blaster shredded any B-1s that attempted to return fire or reatreat.

Drawing her lightsaber with her left hand, the Jedi-Commander stepped out and began to engage with the magnaguard, taking advantage of the damaged arm to weave a defensive barrier while attacking choice blaster bolts when openings presented themselves.

Meanwhile, Bruiser diverted his attetion and that of his squad into clearing out the corridors around this section, turning to stack up on the door even as Durald finished off the Magnaguard.

"We're ready to breach on your command, ma'am."

Durald just nodded and got into position.

"Here," She handed the blaster pistol back to Bruiser. "I'll have to find one of my own, later."

"Yes, ma'am," Bruiser nodded. "We'll acquire one for you and make sure it's to your liking."

"Charges are set," Hulk moved to the other side of the door, the remote detonator for the explosives he'd planted in his hand. "We're ready when you are."

Durald closed her eyes for a second, holding up her hand in a 'wait' gesture then counted down from five. Hulk hit the detonator, just as the power flickered and went out.

The bulkhead doors sheered off from the explosion, breaking off and turning into projectiles headed into the bridge, striking consoles and smashing them to pieces.

Into this chaos, and darkness, a lone red lightsaber illuminated the blue skin of the Dark Acolyte that was in charge, sasting a red pall over the place before the emegency lights turned on and allowed the droids to see that Theta Squad had moved in and were preparing to fire.

"I had wondered when someone would arrive to attempt to stop my efforts and ending this war," the Pantoran smirked.

"Sev'rance Tann," Durald frowned. "I had heard you were dead."

"Rumors of my death were allowed to abound. After all, one cannot supervise the winning side if they are dead."

Durald simply shifted into a hybrid Soresu and Makashi stance, her blue blade sitting comfortable in her hand while the ancient Jedi's lightsaber remained a comforting reminder that she had a backup on her belt.

"Theta squad," Durald said. "Flamethrowers, please."

Bruiser and Hulk shrugged and pointed their hands at the Acolyte, streams of liquid flame arced towards Sev'rance, catching part of her cloak ablaze and scattering across her limbs.

Crack and Trick were finishing up the droids on the bridge, but B simply raised his hand and began to fire on the Pantoran, causing he to shed her cloak and rip burning clothes off her torso, leaving her nearly naked aside from her blade.

"You are not like the other Jedi I have faced," Tann glared. "How practical of you to allow the clones to assist. Unfortunately, it will not end well for you, reinforcements are already on their way."

"You talk too much," Durald stepped forward and began engaging the acolyte, gesturing with her off hand for Theta to open fire as they saw openings.

The blue and red blades clashed through the bridge, Bruiser, Hulk, and B taking shots when openings presented themselves.

"Boss, we got droids coming in!" Crack called out, his sniper hitting two B-1s at once and removing their heads.

"B, stay with the Jedi, Hulk, we'll keep the bridge secured."

Chaos once again reigned in the bridge, the nearly naked pantoran was kept on the backfoot despite her greater skill with the blade due to the burns inflicted on her and the help from Theta's pet droid.

Durald, meanwhile, was immersed in the force, allowing it to ease her exhaustion and drive her blows, her blade and the energy savings of her Soresu were the only things keeping her in the fight.

That is, until B decided he'd had enough of the dancing around. Stepping forward, the Super Battle Droid triggered his own wrist-mounted flamethrower, the device mounted on the opposite arm of his wrist blaster and rockets.

The liquid flame coated the Acolyte and she screamed, writhing in agony until Durald cut off her head.

"Commander," Bruiser called out. "I hate to interrupt, but I hope you have an escape plan!"

B responded before the Jedi could say anything, the bloodthirsty droid would have a bloody smile on his face if her could.

"The oil on me is almost dry," B stated. "I must have more."

The B-2 stepped out of the bridge and began killing 'lesser' droids with shock, awe, and the sheer surprise the Separatists seemed to have when their own droids started killing them.

"Kill him!" A B-1 yelled.

"But he's one of us!"

"He's shooting at us! He's not one of-" the other droid's head disappeared under a group of red blaster bolts.

"I guess B's got the exit plan," Bruiser shrugged. "B, you can have all the oil you want, just get us to the hangar!"

"Affirmative," the droid replied, heading back the way they'd come in. "They will fear me."

"What did you do to that droid?" Durald asked as they trailed behind.

"I have no idea," Trick admitted. "There was a lingering protocol when we reprogrammed him. I'm guessing it was some sort of latent hatred for other droids. But now I'm scared to try and mess with it."

"He's effective," Hulk agreed. "Besides, he's a part of Theta Squad. Bloodthirsty or not, we protect our own. He's one of us…"