15 Through Passion I gain Strength (1/2)

Republic cruiser Tranquility

Rodia

Outer Rim

I fell on my hands and knees panting. My sight was covered by black spots which were slowly dissipating. I took a deep breath as the darkness that enveloped me when the Consular frigate slammed in the Munificent bled away. I could see a distorted image of the deck plating which was few centimeters from my forehead. I groaned. While pulling off such a stunt wasn't exactly trivial, yet it had never left me so exhausted before. Controlling a ship through the Force and guiding it to kamikaze an enemy frigate was an unexpectedly draining experience. Yeah, doing the same tricks as in this era took much more power than back in the day. For a moment I wondered what was wrong with the Force, but shrugged those thoughts away. Perhaps I would have the time to ponder that question once the war was over.

I willed my trembling body to move and stood up with a gasp. All my muscles ached as if I had tried to physically move the kriffing frigate!

I was stumbling as I made my way to the only remaining fighter on the deck. The way the Tranquility was shuddering as it was bombarded or boarding ships slammed into its hull did not make my life any easier.

=RK=

The Torrent's power-plant roared to life while I was busy strapping myself in its seat. My mind was using the Force to manipulate its controls while I made myself ready for more combat. I checked the seals of my armor and its oxygen supply before plugging in the line to the fighter's air-tank. The familiar sound of the star-fighter's engines coming to life was reassuring.

The borrowed machine rose up and glided over the deck as I guided it to the hangar exit. I forced the engines to full military trust and the Torrent darted into the void. I emerged into a storm of turbo-laser fire as the two operational CIS frigates pounded the failing shields of the Tranquility. The secondary fusion reactors could do only so much with the primary power source out.

My fighter banked over the superstructure of the Venator and I got my first good look of the battle. If you could call it that. There were only seven Republic star-fighters trying to hold a full wings of vultures. The only good news was that the first group of reinforcements were couple of minutes away. A full wing of twelve bombers with their escorts.

I plunged straight into the chaos. My Torrent swung in a reckless maneuver as I pushed it to the limits of its maneuverability. I flew left pulling a turn that would have squashed me if it was not for the inertial dampeners and flew behind a pair of vultures which were strafing the armored bulk of the cruiser. The droid fighters flew closer to the hull of the Republic capital ship in an effort to escape destruction.

The laser cannons of my Torrent came to life and discharged lines of green death. Pulses of coherent light racked over the engines of the right vulture and it went up in a short conflagration of vaporizing metal and burning fuel. Its buddy headed for the command towers of the cruiser in attempt to either ram the bridge or evade my fire by flying around the pylons supporting the command deck. The vulture did not get far because its right wing pod was shaved off by a long stream of fire. I released the trigger and watched in satisfaction as the enemy exploded.

=RK=

Ranger Three, the ranking surviving Clone pilot was cursing quietly. He did not know whose idea was to send Tranquility for this mission. Not with understrength and green crew. The first boarding attempt was bad enough with two force users cutting a swath through Green Company who had come aboard as additional security. He and his mates had cheered when one of those kriffing hut spawn were shot and cut to pieces by that mysterious Jedi and few of his clone brethren.

That however had been a short lived joy. Soon three Munificents and a whole bunch of fighters and boarding ships rained all over the cruiser that was home for Ranger squadron.

On the bright side, thanks to the crazy idea of Veil, the Jedi, one of the Sep frigates was mission killed and it looked like that the Tranquility might last until the backup arrived. However that would have been academic for him and his men. Or so he thought. Another Torrent had flew from the bow hangar and was tearing apart the clankers.

A minute ago Ranger Two thought that he was a goner. He had four of the vultures on his tail and despite his best efforts the droids were coming closer and closer to rendering him in squishy space debris. He could not do much. Not when the remains of his squadron were fighting for their own lives.

However it was not his time to die. Two of the pursuing vultures were blown out of his space by a pair of concussion missiles. Then a third was shredded by a short burst of devilishly accurate laser fire. The last machine tried to nail Ranger Two before it was destroyed but the droid fighter was shattered before being able to kill the clone pilot.

”This is Delkatar Veil. We need to keep distracting them for few more minutes and then the bombers will be all over them. Don't get yourselves killed boys! ”

With those words the Jedi had darted away in pursuit of another clanker.

=RK=