EPISODE I - TWENTY-EIGHT: Target reached

Trickster Squadron kept up the assault from the sky, knocking out shields and shield generators around the facility. In doing so, they also managed to take out some of the systems Dex and Adria needed in order to take down the harvester. Unfortunately, there was no way for them to communicate with each other, so both teams were operating blindly.

Back inside the control room, Dex frantically assessed the damage and weighed the options they might have left available to them while trying to keep an eye on the hallway. It was looking a bit dire. Five of the eleven necessary access panels inexplicably had the power cut to them. If those five went down, why didn't everything else go down? He did a second check on the systems just to make certain they were actually screwed. Which in his opinion, they were.

"Etler is this something you can do?" Dex requested.

Etler Anson started to approach the main wall of interfaces but then paused. He looked at Dex and Adria and confessed, "I'm better at taking things apart than putting them back together."

Balagon screwed up his mouth out of frustration. He turned to Adria for a solution. "Ideas? Anyone?"

Adria leaped over the maintenance bags and started to examine the interfaces. She read the identifiers on the ones that were still working: flow regulator, exhaust monitor, secondary systems back up, loader location shut-off, dampening field modulator, mineral identifier. Adria pushed back a lock of her hair that found its way into the corner of her mouth and intensely scrutinized three of the six functioning systems.

"I think I found something!" she shouted with excitement. "I should be able to bypass some of the stops in the exhaust monitor, which might leave the flow regulator, the dampening field modulator at risk of an overload. By shutting off all of the loader locations, a back up in the dispersal of the 'product' should result and the works will collapse. Probably"

Dex smiled. "That's good, right?"

"Yes, but..."

"But...?"

Adria Almeida twisted her mouth to the side of her face and responded, "there's a strong possibility that instead of collapse, the channel of energy could blow through the roof of the collection chamber and that would be extremely bad." She paused. "For, like, the whole planet."

The Ansons sank to the floor and looked defeated. Dex grimaced.

"What needs to be done in order to make this happen? Can we set this to happen on a delay and have enough time to bust out of here?" he queried.

Adria knew that her displeased expression would be an immediate tell to everyone in the room but she decided to voice their dilemma. "Okay, so I could rig the system and there's a possibility none of this will happen or..." The statement just hung in the air, waiting for someone to pick it up.

Irie took the lead. "Or what?"

Sadness and defeat crossed Almeida's face. She shook her head an completed her thought. "Or one of us has to stay behind to trigger each of the interfaces at the right time."

Wasting no time, Balagon interjected, "All right, there are three ways this could happen..."

Irie placed her hand on Dex's forearm. She looked back at Etler, who nodded his head as if the two of them were exchanging telepathic messages to each other. The old woman's tender gaze connected with the Resistance commander's eyes and she smiled. Dex silently gasped in dread and anticipation of the words Irie Anson was about to speak.

"Not today, Dex. There there is only one way we will be able to stop all of this. All of us know that Etler nor I are fast enough to escape this place--we'd only hold you back."

Dex refused to hear this and visibly protested this idea.

Etler joined Irie and grasped Balagon's hand. "She's right, Dex. You might have the experience to finish this job, but my wife and I have much more to lose than you. We have this planet that's been our home for many, many years."

A few stray blaster bolts made it into the control room. Adria took over covering the entrance and fired back at the stormtroopers positioned farther down the hallway. "Come on, Dex," she growled. "We need to make a decision here. I can't hold them off forever!"

Dex's eyes darted back and forth--looking at Etler and then Irie. He knew they made a rational point about slowing down their escape, but it didn't seem right for them to be left behind to die. "Uhn-uh... nope. I'm not letting that happen. I'll stay behind! The two of you and Adria get the hell outta here."

Irie squeezed Dex's forearm, hoping to make him understand. "Remember how we said we didn't have a family--that we had no children? If we can successfully shut down this wicked machine, the whole of this  world may see life again and those who were born, and will be born on Aporoth will, in some way, be like our children because we gave them all a chance at life."

Balagon's eyes began to fill with tears. Images of his parents and grandparents flooded his brain and he wasn't sure if he would be able to bear another loss--not one like this. These sweet, brave people reminded him so much of the family he'd lost a lifetime ago.

An energy bolt from one of the trooper's blasters hit a pipe and the room began to fill with smoke, which caused Dex to start coughing. He lowered himself to the floor and began digging through the maintenance bags until he located filter masks. He stood up and tossed the masks to the Ansons. Dex tried to protect his mouth from the thickening haze by burying it in the crook of his arm, but it was no use.

Etler reached out to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. The old man looked at the Resistance fighter with gratitude. "Dex, thank you for coming to Aporoth and stopping the First Order from completely decimating our home. We owe you and Adria our lives and I believe that debt will be paid soon enough. You must live to fight another day. The Republic needs people like you to give them hope."

Dex felt something familiar, but terribly distant. He shuddered, trying to shake it off so he could focus, but it kept digging its claws into him.

Grinning through the face mask, Etler slapped Dex's shoulders with reassurance. "It's time for you to go."

For a moment, Dex thought he heard the voice of his grandfather, Affret. He had to hold it together. He nodded and turned to Adria. "We've gotta seal the door behind us." Dex spun around for one last look at the Ansons and uttered, "Thank you. Good luck and may the Force be with you."

After the door slid closed, Adria blasted the box that controlled it. She and Dex exchanged determined looks and began to move toward their hopeful exit point. Another squad of stormtroopers appeared at the far end of the corridor with their rifles ready. Adria took aim and felled the red pauldroned leader. It was his own fault for standing out in the bunch, she thought. There were too many troopers occupying that small space, which made it difficult to aim or shoot past one another. For Adria and Dex, it was like shooting scalefish in a barrel. 

Balagon kept looking back in the direction of the control room door as if he expected to see something other than the closed door. He tried to shake off any lingering feelings of guilt about leaving the Ansons locked in that room so he could focus on their makeshift escape plan. That "plan" being the corridor that lay four meters ahead and to the left, which he hoped would be clear of enemy units. 

Two more stormtroopers fell victim to laser blasts, giving Dex time to direct Adria to advance to the hallway. He gestured with two fingers toward the opening and she nodded in acknowledgment. Adria crouched low. Blaster pointed to the end of the main corridor, her body hugged the wall in order to avoid taking any hits. She slipped around the corner and shook the end of her blaster to indicate the coast was clear. 

Dex took a deep breath and rushed to the hallway. He blindly fired ahead of him as he ran in order to take out additional troops and to further confuse them by this move. One of the stormtroopers took a shot which hit the floor near Dex's right foot. He felt the heat from the blast inside his boot. It made him jump and lose his footing. Balagon crashed to the floor--body inside the access hallway and legs exposed in the main one. He flailed his legs wildly to push himself to cover as more energy beams from the First Order's F-11D rifles struck the ground close to his feet. Adria leaned down and cupped her hands beneath Dex's armpit and pulled him out of their sights. 

Clambering up to a standing position, Dex quickly took inventory of himself. "Thanks," he rasped once he had his bearings. "We need to get out of here. They're gonna be on top of us in no time."

Almeida fired a few random shots through the opening into the main corridor for good measure. The two Resistance pilots exchanged glances and burst into a full-speed dash out of the area. 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Bardet Tanga was unfazed by the tremors that rocked the building housing the late Benemer Strim's office. He made his way to the 'fresher and washed his hands after wiping the blood and spit off of his boot. Even though he'd just murdered the First Order's primary funder, the act of cleaning his hands made him feel a little less dirty about having done the deed. 

He strolled over to Strim's bar and poured himself a shot of daranu and raised it in the air like he was celebrating a victory of sorts. He downed the soothing libation and poured another. He knew the effects of the daranu would hit him shortly, so he decided it was time for him to end his business here. 

Tanga walked out of the office and into the reception area and hailed the turbolift. The structure trembled as its deflector shields continued taking fire from the snub fighters that buzzed around it as if they were flies returning to a decaying carcass. Strim's assistant ran down the hallway toward the captain, obviously panicked by the onslaught. 

"Is Director Strim preparing to evacuate?"

His gaze fixed on the door of the lift, he responded, "no, your administrator isn't likely to leave anytime soon."

Confused, the young aide snapped to face the door to Strim's office and then back to the First Order captain. "Is--is he still in his office? I should probably tell him to evacuate."

Tanga pulled his gloves over his hands and entered the lift upon its arrival. Turning to press the button, he shrugged at the assistant as the doors closed and the car began its journey downward.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Poe Dameron whooped after taking down another TIE fighter. He glanced to his left to see Trickster Squadron making easy work of the landing field and the structures adjacent to it. Off in the distance, more explosions heralded the demise of the First Order's operation on Aporoth. He wanted to make sure there was little left behind to make Trickster Squadron's departure a difficult one. 

"How're ya holdin' up back there, buddy?" he shouted to BB-8. 

The determined little droid chirped back a staccato stream of beeps and hoots, indicating that his circuits were harried from all the little repairs he'd been making to Poe's X-Wing during the conflict. BB-8 let out an electronic splat of noise in response to yet another component that managed to overload from the pilot's last evasive maneuver. 

Dameron acknowledged his droid's displeasure. "Yeah, I hear you, but just be thankful we haven't taken a hit!" Poe rebutted with pride as he jinked to the right in order to avoid a blast from a pursuing TIE's cannons. "Just like that. Hang on, BB-8!"

Poe briefly jammed on his reverse thrusters and practically put his ship into a dead stop. The TIE fighter and his wingman zipped past, which resulted in a mid-air collision.

"That got 'em!" he exclaimed. "Now let's see what else needs to be cleaned up before we head outta here."