hk47fan's fics (Current fic of focus: CJ V)

[hk47fan]

Well, here is my fic thread, I have written tons, but the one of focus right now is Comrade Jedi V, I have finished the first two chapter, and Force Flow is Co authorting the fic. As soon as I get around to emailing her about chapter 3 that one should be up soon after.

Comrade Jedi V: Legacy of the Force

Chapter 1- Discovery on Adumar

Luke lay on his bed asleep at his quarters on Coruscant, tossing and turning. He was having a dream, a night mare, vision or somethng and it threatened his family. No! Rylee, Ben, Jaden! Luke shouted in the dream a he saw complete darkness, a Sith was going to rise and it was going to be more deadly then Palpatine, Vader or Malrr.

Luke shot up in bed. The bed covers rustled with him, their Coruscanti silk rubbing against his body. Just a dream, he told himself. Of course it wasn’t a dream. It was real. A vision. But what kind of vision? He felt… darkness, loneliness… All of that radiated off the person he had felt. Luke tensely reached out, trying to find the source of his nightmares. But, like every time, he found nothing. The Man Who Doesn’t Exist.

He looked down next to him. His wife, his precious wife, lay next to him, her red auburn hair falling over his hand. Lila. His Lila. Lila wore her hair short this season. Her face was smooth and beautiful to him. But Lila was a light sleeper.

She sat up with him, feeling her husband’s pain through the Force. She put a hand on his shoulder. Her hand was luscious and warm against his skin. Her moss-green eyes looked into his. “What’s wrong?” she asked quietly.

“I had a vision,” said Luke, using a Jedi calming technique. “Rylee, Ben, and Jaden… We’re all going to be in danger, Lila, but…”

“But?” asked Lila, waiting for him to continue.

“They’ll be in critical danger.” Luke looked at his wife with intense eyes. Lila swallowed.

“Your little phantom again?” she asked him. For a moment, he thought she was toying him. No. Lila wouldn’t do that in this situation. Shalin might’ve, but neither of them wanted to bed with each other, anyway. Luke pushed away the thought of their dead friend. “The man who doesn’t exist?”

“Yes…. But I have a feeling he will exist soon, this isn’t the first vision I have had but this one seemed more powerful in a way… almost like the man who doesn’t exist is nearby, just waiting to be created.” Luke told Lila as he looked across the room, in deep thought about the vision.

“Luke, we’ve been through this before,” said Lila softly, squeezing his shoulder. “Not even Shalin knows what you’re talking about. Have you ever considered that it might be… memories of the past?”

“But it doesn’t feel anything like Malrr,” said Luke. He thought about the feeling that had swept over him. He had glimpsed at a face. “It felt like… Anakin,” he said.

“Your father?”

Luke nodded. “Before he was Vader. I could see him… he had blue eyes, like mine… but his face turned pale, and his eyes turned to the color of molten gold.”

Lila rested her head against his shoulder, deep in thought. “What did he feel like?”

“He felt like he had a good clean heart at first but then all of a sudden it turned stone cold and evil… like he was trying to warn me that that will happen to someone soon, someone we know very well.” Luke replied as he looked to Lila.

“I’m sure it was only a dream,” said Lila gently, slipping her arms around his back. “Come on, stranger. Let’s get some sleep.”

Luke smiled and said “Right.” And then he kissed her and laid his head back down on the bed. As he fell asleep, he sensed Lila still awake, reaching out with the Force to find the source of her husband’s discomfort. Then, finding nothing, she, too, fell asleep.

* * *

ADUMAR

Jaden watched the doors of the turbolift open. Rylee and Ben stood beside her. Jaden wore her lair long, now, with many beads woven in. She held her breath as the smell of the factory eased up into her nostrils.

Their guide, Testan ke Harren, was nervous. Jaden could feel it radiating off of him. Jaden wanted to find out why. She walked quickly to the observation platform, giving off an aura of importance and intimidation.

“Master Jedi, would you care to tell me why you are here?” Testan asked, Jaden could tell he didn’t really want them here.

“Inspection,” said Rylee crisply. Jaden gave her an approving nod.

“Your factory meets the exact minimum of the GA Defense Procurement,” said Ben, “and the Galaxy Department.”

“Forgive me for sounding nosey but why would the Galactic Alliance send Jedi, none the less a very important Jedi Master to inspect this factory?” Testan said looking at the three Jedi, this was angering Ben, Rylee and Jaden a lot that Testan just kept asking questions that were none of his business.

“Don’t try to flatter us,” said Jaden, speaking her first words to him.

Jaden pushed Ben’s cloak aside slightly with the Force, allowing his lightsaber to show. Testan’s face went pale. “You carry such a weapon?”

“Don’t worry,” said Jaden. “It’s a practice saber.”

It was like a game where children are told ‘For the next hour, do not think about Banthas.’ Try as they would, the children would think about banthas.

That’s exactly was Testan was doing. But it wasn’t about banthas. Something… a missile. Jaden delved deeper into his mind as he gave her a tour around the factory.

“Stop,” said Jaden crisply. She motioned to a door with a jerk of her head. The door was closed, opened by passcode. “What’s in there?”

A nervous expression grew on Testan’s face “Um nothing important.” he quickly replied and started to walk forward.

Jaden caught something. She motioned to Ben. He ignited his lightsaber, and plunged it into the door.

“You told us it was a practice saber,” hissed Testan.

“It is,” said Jaden. “He does practice with it.”

“You liar…” Testan muttered and then said to Jaden “Deactivate your weapon or my guards will throw you out of this factory.”

“Not in this millennium,” said Jaden, calling upon the Force to push Testan onto another worker. Ben finished cutting, and kicked down the hole he had made in the door.

This was amazing. There was weapons everywhere… missiles, rifles… “We hit the jackpot,” muttered Jaden. The weapons were not requested from the Galactic Alliance. Something big was at work, here.

“Should we contact Dad?” Ben asked Jaden as he looked around at all of the weapons.

“We’re recording, ad’ike,” said Jaden. “Remember? Get out the holo cam.”

Jaden could hear Testan muttering behind her. Calling the guards. Well, that was just another distraction they’d have to deal with. Beside her, Rylee sighed dramatically as guards stepped into view. Rylee took out her blue lightsaber, and twirled it slowly, making it give off a humming sound.

Ben took out the holo cam and handed it to Jaden as guards came in so Ben quickly ignited his lightsaber and turned to fight them with Rylee. Jaden handed it back to him. “Uh, you record, we fight,” she said. “Girls protecting men. You get the picture.”

Ben groaned.

Jaden turned to face her attackers. “I suggest you put your di’kutla blasters down before somebody gets hurt. I didn’t come all the way here just to fight.”

“I-” began Rylee, but Jaden silenced her with a glare.

“What is going on in there?! The ship is under attack!” Robert Poppelwell’s voice rang through the comm. Jaden had ordered her apprentice to guard the ship with Tian.

“No time to explain.” Ben said as he recorded all of the weapons.

“Robert,” said Jaden into her bead comlink quietly so the guards would hear. “Get into the turrets. Have Tian help.”

“I almost have all of them recorded…got it!” Ben said.

“Good,” said Jaden, deflecting blaster bolts. “Now give the commentary!”

** *

“Tian get on the turrets and stay there, for a sec I am going to pose as someone else and see what the guards reaction is and then while they have their guard down we attack.” Robert told Jaden’s ten year old daughter and then,walked down to the ramp to where the guards were

“Prepare to die Jedi!” the captian yelled, holding his sword in a fighting postion

“I am Dal, Sith apprentice!” Robert yelled to them, using the identity of his alternate personality, he had a feeling the Sith were involved in this and this would see if they were or not

“Sith apprentice? Are you under the service of-“ the captain said but suddenly another guard stopped him

“Attack!” Robert yelled and ignited his saber and attacked the guards while Tian got into the turrerts.

The blind girl pounded round after round into the guards, feeling where they were through the Force. “Say hi to Shalin for me!” she yelled, even though the guards couldn’t hear her.

“Wimps,” Rober muttered and grinned as he cut down several more guards by spinning with his lightsaber

“They’re not wimps, Robert,” said Tian. “They stood up to us, man. That takes guts.”

“Too true.” Robert said as he struck down another one and then jumped at the reinforcements that arrived.

He felt Tian leave the turrets and grab her lightsaber, joing him. She had black hair with red highlites, and her customary blind fold wasn’t on her eyes. Her eyes were open, thogh. They were a neon blue. Robert felt Tian had achieved something that he could never do: she could feel the vibrations in the ground just by touching it, one reason she never wore boots. And it was also powered by her skill with the Force.

Tian’s pearl-grey blade flashed in all directions. Robert grabbed his comlink and told Jaden “Well we almost have them all taken down but more are probably coming.”

”Then get out!” yelled Jaden. Robert could hear her blocking blasterfire. “Get into space. I’ll call you to come pick us up. And hurry, will you?”

***

Jaden blocked blasterfire whiel Ben started recording. “Um, this is Ben Skywalker. Jedi Knights Rylee and Jaden and I are in a, I don’t know, secret part of the Dammant Killers plant under the city of Cartann on the planet of Adumar. You’re looking at a missile manufactoring line. It’s making missiles that aren’t being reported to the GA. They’re selling to planets who aren’t supposed to get them. Dammant is breaking the rules. Oh, and that noise you’re hearing? It’s their guys trying to kill us.”

Ben swung the recorder around to focus on Rylee and Jaden. Rylee raised a hand and waved before blocking a bolt.

Testan grabbed a sword and rushed into battle and managed to tackle Rylee but she quickly decapacitated him. She made a tsk-tsk sund and said, “Some people have no brains…”

“Do you think I have enough?” asked Ben.

“Yeah,” yelled Jaden.

The guards were rethinking their valiant attempts to try and kill them, and were backing up slowly. Jaden, Rylee, and Ben jumped down to the assembly line, and let the conveyor belt ride them towards an emergency fire exit.

“Glad we got out of that.” Ben said panting and wiped some sweat from his forhead.

“So sure?” asked Jaden, raising an eyebrow. She used the Force to bring down the stairs leading to the fire exit. She and the others started climbimg. Jaden brought the comlink to her lips. “Bring the ship over here!” she yelled into it. “Hurry! Pick us up at the Hanger!”

“The Hanger?” asked Rylle. “We’re on top of a building!”

Yes, they were.

“Watch this,” she said, starting at a run towards the ledge. She jumped, somersaulting in the air, landing on the top of a security patrol car looking to arrest them.

As Jaden killed the guards in the security patrol car Robert flew the ship over and went into the hanger. Ben and Rylee jumped on the security car, and Jaden steered. They came to a skidding halt in the Hanger. Jaden and the others rushed out and into their evac ship. Jaden collapsed on the floor, exhausted. She laughed. “That was good. Oh, that was good…”

“Back to Ossus I presume?” Robert asked Jaden as the shuttle took off and soared into space.

“Coruscant, please,” she said, exhausted.

Tian kneeled down next to her, grinning. Jaden hugged her daughter. “Can I get you guys a drink?” she asked. “I still can’t believe you thought I’d be better off here on the ship…”

“Water, please,” said Rylee, who had also collapsed on the floor, her face red with exhaustion.

“Diddo over here,” said Jaden.

“Me, too,” said Ben.

Tian got the water bottles and threw them to Jaden, Rylee and Ben as the ship jumped to hyperspace and headed to Coruscant and all five of the Jedi knew that things were just going to get worse from here on out....

[hk47fan]

Chapter 2

On the EDSS Vulcan Space Station, orbiting the planet Earth, John Caplin and his wife Mara Jade Caplin walked down the thick metal halls to Admiral of the Fleet Lord Douglas Grant’s office.

Mara wondered why they were there, she knew that this was some kind of assignment, when Lord Grant contacted her she knew from the tone of his voice when he told them to come down to his officer, that he had something for them to do, but it was not like normal assignments from Grant, this was a special assignment . What kind of name is Lord Grant anyway? she thought. Mara may have been living right next door to the EDF Command for twenty years, since the Vong war, but she never got all of the names of the ranks they had, never had and she never will.

“Well it is the army, my love. Not all armies are the same.” John said, looking back at her, even though he was a Human Replica Droid and they almost destroyed their bond when John’s mind was severed from Mara’s, the bond was still there and they both knew that no matter what happened it would always be there, so he could feel her thoughts at times, and at others she could feel his.

“I know, and I am not criticizing them for it, but I just gotta state my opinion somewhere.” Mara said to John, however even though that was part of the reason, it was not all of it

John could feel Mara’s uneasiness about this, she could mask it easily from others like Jacen, Jaina or Anakin, but she could never mask it from John. I will just ask her what is wrong, I don’t need to invade her privacy by searching through her mind like a hound dog trying to find a criminal. John thought, however Mara may have heard that, but it would be no problem if she did. “What is wrong darling?” John asked and stepped back to her side, he was ahead of her, he often moved faster than her because HRD’s usually were more enegerized and faster than normal human beings

Mara wasn’t even going to try to fib to John about it, no sense in doing it and he knew she was uneasy, they both knew that. “It is why Lord Grant called us here…. I sense that there is something more to this than Grant contacting us just to have a nice little talk.” Mara replied

“Perhaps something about the restoration project down on Earth?” John asked

“No…. if it was that I would not be so uneasy… this is something else, an assignment maybe.” Mara said as T3M4 buzzed her on the comlink that sat on her utility belt telling her that their shuttle was all fueled up and ready to go when they were through here

Mara sighed, If only Tarihi were here, she would know more than either Mara or John would about this situation. They missed their adopted daughter so much and neither of them had gotten to see her face to face in nearly a year. Sure they had gotten to talk to her through a hologram plenty of times, but that did not make up for seeing her for really and not virtually, she was all grown up now, twenty five. It seemed to Mara it was only yesterday she and John adopted her as a seven year old.

She’ll always be our baby girl. John seemed to say to her telepathically, she looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he smiled, then Mara just turned back and looked straight ahead.

They both came to a stop at the door to Grant’s office, Mara was about to touch the panel that would let them enter but John intervened and said “Allow me, my darling.”

“John Caplin and wife Mara Jade Caplin here to see Admiral of the fleet Lord Douglas Grant.“ John said through the microphhone on the panel, then he stepped back next to Mara and waited for a reaction

“Access granted, please enter now.” a mechanical voice said from the panel, then the doors to Grant’s office swung open, so Mara and John stepped through the door and once both of them were completely inside, the door swung shut again

Mara observed the room, it was a pretty nice small, cozy and dimmed light place, there were three file cabinets in the corner, a small galley and fresher to the right, a big map of Earth on the left wall, it had some marks on it, the green marks indicated which parts of the world were still toxic, and the red marks indicated which parts were no longer poisoned, this just reminded Mara of how much restoration work was left to go. There was a small little and partially hidden escape pod entrance on the left side of the room, under the Earth map, it was for emergencies and such, there was also a hologram projector in another corner, for Grant to communicate with people and then finally there was a big desk in the center of the room, that was where a lamp was on and Grant was sitting, reading something.

Grant then all of a sudden looked up to see John and Mara standing in front of his desk, so he immediately stood up “John, Mara, nice to see you again!” he said, and shook both of their hands.

“Same to you, my lord.” John said and then sat down in one of the two chairs in front of Grant’s desk, Grant signaled for Mara to sit down as well, so she did

“Please, call me Doug, I do not like being called Lord by friends or anything, it just seems, well, odd being called ‘Lord’.” Grant told John and Mara, that relieved both of them, especially Mara because once she almost called him “My Lord” and that reminded her of when she was Emperor Palpatine’s assassin, which was something she never wanted to be reminded of

Before John could get in a word, Mara interrupted. “So Doug, why did you want us to meet with you? Anything about the restoration project?” Mara asked, she was taking this casually, acting to Grant like nothing was wrong and she suspected this was just some kind of ordinary thing, she did not want Grant knowing anything about her senses about this little meeting. As for John, even though he was going to do it another way, and not cut right to the chase so fast, he decided to let Mara take the lead this time.

“Well, actually, no Mara. Why I called you here had to do with the Galactic Alliance.” Doug answered, he then paused and waited for Mara and John’s reaction to this.

Galactic Alliance? I suspected something was up with this but I never thought that the Alliance would have anything to do with it. Mara thought to John. She was a little confused on this one, but kept a calm face nonetheless, as did John

Neither did I…. this seems strange, and what would the Galactic Alliance possibly want with us? John thought back and then looked to Mara

They haven’t even mentioned us in eight years, since the Swarm War, why now? And if this is an assignment……. Mara thought

John turned back to Doug and asked “Lord…erm I mean Doug, what does any of this has to do with the Galactic Alliance?”

“Well, I have an assignment for you both of you, but it was not issued from me, the Alliance issued it, they want you two to find and capture Thracken Sal Solo.” Doug said calmly to Mara and John

“Thracken Sal Solo?!” Mara almost yelled, gob smacked “I don’t get it, why us? Why now? Don’t they know we have better things to do than hunt criminals?!”

John sat silent, he was pondering this, and took all of this info in cooly. I know that name…. he thought to himself, Mara heard that, but was too focused on this whole assignment that she didn’t pay any attention.

“Some recent developments have come up, along with some murmurings and rumours about the Corellians defecting from the Alliance, or disagreeing with them on certain things and pondering a decision.” Doug said, he looked to John and Mara, then he continued “Yesterday a factory on Adumar was being toured by some Jedi, they were sent there to inspect it, because some shady things were going on there, it turned out to be much more of a discovery than they imagined, illegal weaponry was found there and the factory was almost destroyed, the Jedi took the tour guide that showed them the factory hostage and he is currently in Alliance Custody, they also were able to get a holo recording of all the illegal weaponry, some members of the Alliance think this could be related to the Corellian problem.”

“So they think this Sal-Solo has a hand in this all?” John asked calmly, he sent Mara calming waves through the Force, soothing her

“Well, it is a possibility, but they are hoping he does not, and he is still a fugutive, a very dangerous one and they are hoping you can catch him before he gets a hand in this, because if he doesn’t already, they seem to think he will.” Doug explained “They chose you because of that powerful aid you provided during the Swarm War.”

“But there are tons of others who can go after him, John and I can have a duty down here, restoring Earth.” Mara said, she was calmer now thanks to John and her own calmness, but she was still a bit peeved, at the Alliance and them being, well just so selfish, they were taking away a lot of time that could be used to help restore Earth, they never thought about the EDF for some reason, they were just getting more and more selfish as time went on.

“True, but they say they need smart, strong and skilled people for this, what better than one of the most successful HRD’s and one of the top famed JedI Knights? As for your work down here, it can be put on hold until you catch Thracken.” Doug said

Doug Grant was one of the few people John or Mara had ever seen that was so giving and kind, he just lengthened the time that restoring his planet would take all for catching a whole other Galaxy’s criminal.

I know you do not want to leave Earth at a time like this and neither do I, but I have thought about this as Doug explained it, and this could be a true threat forming, as much as we both hate it, we have to leave Earth and do this, for it’s safety and our children’s safety. John told Mara telepathically and layed a hand on Mara’s hand, then he smiled

Mara had never thought of it that way, even though she was still very angry about how the Alliance took advantage of the EDF like this, John was right. If Thracken could not be caught… not only the Alliance’s safety, but our children’s safety, and Earth’s safety.

Mara finally sighed, then I told Doug “We will do it, inform Chief of State Cal Omas that we are leaving in a few hours and beginning our hunt for Thracken.” Mara felt a smile come on, it felt good to say hunt like that, because that was a word she had not been able to use like that in a very long time.

“Very well then, and remember the EDF will understand.” Doug said and smiled as he opened the door for us with a control panel on his desk.

“Thanks Doug.” John said and then shook hands with him, then he stood and walked out the door to the hallway, where Mara already was.

“You did the right thing Mara.” John assured her, putting his hands on hers again.

“I know… well to be honest I hope…. But anyway, any ideas where we should start this hunt for Sal-Solo? He has been on the run for quite some time now and could be anywhere.” Mara asked.

“As we were speaking with Doug I thought about this Thracken for a minute and I vaguely remember his part in the Correlian Crisis two decades back, I think there was some powerful super weapon involved in it… maybe that would be the first place to llook, don't remember it's name but it is a very small place, but we have to start somewhere and it sounds like this man would likely run there if he found out about all of this factory and rumour hubbub.” John said, as he put his hand on his chin and thought for a moment “Ah, I remember the name of the station now….”

Then as he was about to say the name of the station, Mara interrupted with narrow eyes and they both said at the same time “Centerpoint Station.”

[Force_Flow]

Cool! ;D

[tallboydave]

Champion. A few spelling errors and some missing puctuation here and there, but nothing that detracts too seriously from the story.

[tallboydave]

How's the story coming along?

[hk47fan]

(Thanks to tallboy dave for co-authoring!)

Chapter 3

In the far depths of space...a lone ship just slowly flew through space...very slowly. Almost like it had no life inside. Just a lost ship trying to continue on....

As the ship drifted along the spacial currents, the light of a star played across her hull, revealing the Dark Green and Navy Blue livery of the Earth Defence Force, and the name and registery number; CL-866, NEW DRESDEN.

On the worn out and old Bridge of the ship, slowly the doors opened. Commander David Hanson, a man from Canada that was quite burly, walked onto the Bridge, or what was left of the Bridge.

The large room was old and extremely dirty. The computers blinked, going in and out of life. The viewport had cracks yet sustained it's stability. At the front of the Bridge the Captain stood silent and still.

Captain Davidson turned to face Commander Hanson, her lekku twisting around the collar of her uniform tunic. "The old girls seen better days, hasn't she?"

The Commander frowned and sighed. What the Captain has said was true. "Yes....I am afraid what small technicians are on board have done all they can with the engines. Things are no different then they were a day ago. All we have now is a small power boost in the engines we can use at will." Hanson reported to the Twi'lek

The Captain nodded sadly. "This old bird's seen so much action over the years. It doesn't seem right for her to go out like this..."

"Too true, m'am. If there was anything else I could do, I would, but for now all we can use is the small engine power we have and float." the Commander said to Davidson, the ship's last days were coming, everyone knew this

"What about comms? Are there any ships in range?"

The Commander shook his head and started pacing a bit. "Currently, no. Our comms were damaged in the storm, we cannot make long distance contacts. Only short. And we are the only ones out here. I am afraid it could stay that way because of where we are."

"Damn... And we can't access the Odin net because of the storm.." Davidson muttered.

"Captain!" A voice called from the comms terminal. Lt. Jameson appeared out from behind a piece of wreckage. "We're recieving a signal. It's very weak, but it seems to be approaching us...."

Captain Davidson and Commander Hanson immediately turned. Davidson walked towards Jameson "Report." she told him

"There's a lot of interference, but the signal seems to say it's a small cargo ship, about 55 meters long."

"A cargo ship in this area?" Davidson asks with a raised eyebrow, she looks back to Hanson for a brief moment "What kind?"

"It's.... a Corellian. YT-1300 class, according to sensors."

"Aye-Aye, Ma'am." Jameson said, turning to the set.

"This is the Earth Defence Force Cruiser New Dresden calling Correlian Freighter. We are in a Mayday situation. Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. We have been crippled by a meteor shower and require assistance urgently."

On the freighter.…

"Sir, we are getting an emergency call from that large Earth Defence Force ship ahead. They need assistance." one of the crew members called

The Captain of the freighter thought for a moment...no. No one could find out what was stored on this ship. "Ignore it. Fly around the ship." he ordered

"Ma'am, the Correlian ship is ignoring our hails." Jameson said, the disbelief in his voice obvious.

Davidson's suspicions were raised at this news. She looked back to the viewport....the freighter was going to try to fly around us. "Is the tractor beam functional?" she asked Hanson

"Just barely, ma'am. Even then, we'd need to take weapons off-line for the power."

Davidson thought for a moment. It would be a risk to take the weapon system offline, but something in her gut told her that freighter...something was not right.

"Do it. Tractor that freighter in. And hurry." Davidson said

"Aye, Ma'am." Hanson waved at Kendall, who disengaged the Weapons systems and re-routed the power into the tractor beams.

Davidson waited patiently. The tractor beams suddenly came to life, and the freighter was brought into the hanger.

"Lets go..." Davidson said as she walked off of the Bridge

"Yes, ma'am." Hanson said, waving for Kendall to follow, and drawing a handgun from his waist holster.

Davidson, Hanson, and Kendall all trudged to the hanger. As they approached the door that led into it Davidson said "Be on your guard, this could get lethal quick."

Kendall grunted, and muttered under his breath about 'Rebel Scum' as he pulled a blaster pistol from his holster.


As they walked into the hanger, out of no where several Corellians darted out in front of the freighter and started shooting at the EDF Command Staff.

"Take Cover!" Davidson shouted calmly, ducking behind a crate of parts and returning fire. As usual, according to EDF regs, she aimed to disable her opponents.

For some reason suddenly the Corellians retreated back into the freighter.

"Lets go in..." Davidson said

"Aye, Ma'am!" Hanson aknowledged, as he and Kendall both dashed onto the boarding ramp. Two EDF Marines armed with sub-machine guns followed them.

But, suddenly at they ran up the boarding ramp and into the freighter, something exploded.


Kendall and Hanson were blown out of the freighter and painfully rolled to a stop in a heap on the far side of the hanger. The two Marines were simply blown to bits.

"Quickly, call the medical crew down here!" Davidson yelled to one of the extra Marines "I'll go into the freighter myself...."

"Aye, Ma'am!" the Marine, whose nametag read Frazer, agreed, and ran for the door.

Davidson slowly walked up the ramp of the ship, being on her guard as she ventured inside....

Onboard the cargo ship, one of the Correlians stepped in front of her, aiming a blaster rifle at her chest. "That's far enough." he growled.

"There is no use fighting. You all are trapped here. I will not kill, but I can stun and imprison you. Tell me, why did you ignore our distress call?" Davidson asked

"We ain't sayin' nuthin'." The man replied, his accent blurring between Correlian and Italian-American, as if to spite her.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Either you tell us now or be interrogated later. You must know we can easily defeat you." Davidson told the Corellian man

The man leered, "You Earthers think you're so upright, don't ya?" he said, then spat on the deckplates. "You're just as bad as those schuttas in the Alliance."

Davidson knew more talk would get them no where. She pulled out her blaster and immediately fired at the man several times. He went to the ground, not dead but unconsicious.

Davidson continued to sneak through the freighter. She saw a box that looked like it could hold military material. She edged towards it....

Frazer doubled back into the hanger with the CMO and a trauma tem at his heels.

Captain Davidson stared in mute shock at the seal on the crate lid. It bore the coat of arms of the UNE, and the stenciled number showed it had been part of a consignment that had vanished in transit to EDSS Devonport six months earlier.

Davidson's eyes widened. "How did this get into the hangs of Corellians?" she asked herself out loud, she carefully leaned down to the seal and opened the crate

Inside the crate was a dozen brand-new assault rifles packed in straw, and six boxes of hand grenades. Davidson picked up a rifle, and unclipped the magazine. It was loaded.

A small gasp escaped her mouth as she examined the weapon. Now she knew why the vessel did not want to assist them....this weaponary was illegal! Not only in the Galactic Alliance, but the EDF did not allow production of this either. These weapons seemed very powerful and dangerous....

"Frazer!" she yelled to the Marine, hoping he would hear her calls

Frazer ran into the cargo ship at the sound of his Captains' voice, arriving just as a couple of burly Correlians did

Davidson looked at the two Correllians with her blaster drawn. "You two and the rest of this crew are under arrest for transporting and possibly manufacturing illegal weaponary in both the Galactic Alliance and the Earth Defense Force." Davidson told the two

"Who's gonna find out? Your ship's adrift in deep space, with no way of getting to any star system. In fact, as I see it, we could kill your entire crew and no one would be any the wiser." One of the men reasoned.

"Our crew out numbers yours. We may be just floaing helplessly, but we still have a detention area. Whether we die here I will not let this illegal activity pass." Davidson told the two as a few more EDF Marines boarded the ship

One of the smugglers moved to attack, but Frazer grabbed him and crashed the mans' face into his knee, dropping him like a hot brick.

The other man rolled forward and fired at Frazer and Davidson. Davidson took cover behind several of the boxes of the illegal weapons, and she threw a smoke grenade down. "Frazer, now!" she yelled, signalling for him to get the other Corellian

Ducking and dodging, Frazer grabbed the smuggler from behind, kneed him in the spine, then karate-chopped one of his pressure-points, sending the smuggler to the ground.

Davidson heard more blaster shots. She ran back into the halls to see that the other Marines had encountered more Corellians. She blasted one while it was not looking and the man fell down unconsicious.

Frazer slapped a set of stun-cuffs on the pair of smugglers he had jumped, then followed his C/O.

The other EDF Marines took down the loose crew members. Davidson looked around the ship. "Frazer, are any one of these prisoners the captain of the ship? He is the main one we need to speak to..." she said

Frazer waved his hands uncertainly. "No sign of any skipper. Mind you, they're a surly bunch, so I doubt they'd tell us."

"Looking for me?" a voice said in a low tone, as a man with a scar across his face and a huge sword in his hand stepped out of the shadows.

"Ah. That explains a lot of things." Frazer said, somewhat unnecessarily

"So, Captain....Davidson, is it from what I have overheard? What business would you and your men have capturing my freighter and it's crew?" the man asked in a dark voice that had no tone of sarcasm or seriousness but a 'I know why but I'm asking' tone

"For a start you disobeyed the ancient codes of the starfarer, the ones that say that you should never leave another ship in distress if you are able to assist. But then, of course, a gunrunner like you doesn't believe in that, do you?"

"Not really, Captain. But it's not my duty to save a ship that has gotten itself into a mess. I've got a job to do, which is not rescuing lost battleships." the freighter Captain said as he ran his fingers across the smooth metal blade

"I also find it odd that a Corellian smuggler was able to lay hands on EDF small arms without being found out." Davidson remarked, as a Marine had not yet noticed began to circle around.

The Captian let out a small laugh "Oh, it was quite simple. Besides, we got alot of help. But I shouldn't say anything more. Listen, Captain, I will cut you a deal. I will transport you and your crew off this dead old ship, if you keep quiet about what you found today."

A beping sound suddenly filled the corridor as Captain Davidsons' commlink activated.

"Captain, the reactor's packed in. We'll lose all power in 43.6 minutes." The Chief Engineer reported.

"Oh no...." Davidson muttered, she looked to the Captain

"Well, that would mean the tractor beam would deactivate, wouldn't it? Then I could easily take the freighter and leave you all to die." the Captain told Davidson with a grin

Captain Davidson sighed bitterly. "It seems you have us at a disadvantage, Captain. Very well, we agree to your terms."

"Good choice. But, I have bad news. Depending on the size of your crew, not all of them might be able to join us." the Captain said to Davidson

"We only had a skeleton crew onboard. The New Dresden was being transferred to one of our bases to be onsold at auction."

"Fine then. Assemble them, and quick. Because I can't spend anymore time on this dead thing." the Captain said, and walked off to prepare for take off

About five minutes later, what staff were on board the old cruiser had decamped onto the gunrunner.

The Corellian pilots sat in the cockpit. The Captain and Davidson stood behind them. The Captain looked to Davidson "Are the tractor beams deactivated?"

There was a sound utside, and the lights of the cruiser flickered out. "Does that answer your question?"

The Captain nodded "Take off." he said to the pilots

"Yes sir." one on the left responded, and within a minute the freighter flew out of the hanger, leaving the old EDF cruiser behind....

[Force_Flow]

Me like. Keep it coming!