EPISODE I - THIRTY-ONE: ENDINGS, HAPPY OR OTHERWISE
Adria clambered up to the Kaadu's cockpit. The atmospheric turbulence buffeted the craft on its rapid climb into orbit. Dex searched the ship's scope for any signs of Pal and Dom, but the energy pulses from the planet, though weakened by the First Order harvester, were still playing havoc with the radar and comms.
"Tricks Three and Four, do you copy? Come in Tricks Three and Four. This is the Blue Kaadu, we're preparing to make the jump to hyperspace." Dex attempted to squelch some of the radio interference. "Are you nerf herders out there? Where are you guys?"
Adria popped on her headset and adjusted the co-pilot's seat to accommodate her long legs. She bounced a look at Balagon, shrugged and attempted to help him locate transponder signals from Paloame's and Domhar's X-Wings. She felt they would have a better shot picking something up upon leaving the planet's exosphere and getting into space, provided the pilots and their starfighters were also in space. Adria checked the ship's altimeter. The upper layer of the atmosphere wasn't too much farther up, so she widened the search area.
In under a minute, two faint blips appeared on the ship's radar. Adria laughed out loud and pointed at the screen. Dex felt a wave of relief wash over him. He began to transmit again, hoping that the transmission would connect either. "Tricks Three and Four, do you copy? This is the Blue Kaadu--preparing to make the jump to hyperspace," he repeated.
Though the squeal of feedback obscured most of the response, Dex and Adria could hear Dom's and Pal's voices competing on the channel. Whatever the words may have been, the gist was that they were safe and heading back home.
"Get home safely, Tricks," Balagon saluted. "We'll be right behind you."
The two fighters sped into hyperspace and disappeared off the Kaadu's screen. Anticipating a quick retreat behind the two birds, the occupants aboard the freighter were taken by surprise as their shuttle was pelted by the acid green energy blasts emanating from a rogue TIE fighter that must've been tracking the Blue Kaadu's escorts while they made orbit.
Adria unbuckled herself and jumped into the gunner's position. She situated herself at the controls, forced a quick warm-up on the cannon and pointed the weapon to the aft of the shuttle. Zip, having remained plugged into the scomp, assisted Dex by calculating their jump into hyperspace. Due to sudden course corrections, a direct jump to D'qar was going to be impossible. Zip plotted numerous destinations, trying to assess which ones would be the best.
The shields were beginning to fail and decisions had to be made, and quickly! Dex and Adria worked at their respective posts in complete silence, save for the occasional grunt or frustrated growl brought on by the ship, its cannon or the pursuing TIE.
"Are you going to hit anything," barked Dex.
"Are you going to jump to hyperspace," Adria sniped in retaliation.
ZP-QA belched a few choice comments at both of the pilots. They were a bit rude, but also relevant, so no reprimand appeared to be forthcoming.
"Well, yeah, I get that, Zip. I'd help you with those calculations, but I'm a little busy trying to keep our shields running." Another blast caused the shuttle to jerk forward. Dex turned to his companions, wide-eyed and mouth agape. "Forget that comment about the shields. We don't have any."
Adria and ZP-QA exchanged looks and if the droid had the mechanical parts to do so, he would've made a few obscene gestures at the ship's shield generator.
"It doesn't appear that the turret on the underside of the cockpit is working or the pilot doesn't have a gunner. I guess that's good news for us!"
"Great! Keep firing at that fighter and I'll try to stay well ahead of it. Zip..." Dex turned to his droid again and gave him a thumbs up and a nod of confidence.
The TIE fighter fired its thrusters and came up over top of the Blue Kaadu. Performing a displacement roll, it put the cargo shuttle directly in its line of fire after completing its turn. The craft unloaded a rapid series of energy bolts at the approaching craft, but the pilot pulled up and out of harm's way.
"We just about there, Zip?" asked Dex.
An indicator frantically began to flash on a display rendering the ship's schematics. Something on the vessel was registering trouble. The warning was never a good sign and it was an especially a bad sign after a long campaign with unexpected losses.
"What's going on up there, Dex?"
"Oh," Dex drew the word out for several seconds, trying to reconcile the thing he was reading off the monitor. "The systems are mostly fine, but it looks like we have a little leak on one of the compressor units. It won't stop us from achieving lightspeed, but we'll definitely need to repair it!"
ZP-QA buzzed and chirped when his scomplink made one final turn--the turn which sent the stars into an oncoming cascade of light streaks. The Kaadu escaped intact and hurtled away from Aporoth and the pursuit of the First Order. Their destination was presently unknown except to ZP-QA, and they didn't really care. For the moment, Adria and Dex could exhale, shut their eyes and hope for the future of the planet and for the children of Aporoth as they escaped the clutches of the First Order.
