The Suicide Run

“Master, what do we do?!” asked a very frightened 2V-T9. The frantic droid looked over at the Sith while he was deep in thought of the best way to deal with their current situation. For what seemed like an eternity to a droid but a mere few seconds for everyone else, Wes finally spoke.

“Reinforce all secondary power to forward shields and engines! We’re going to fly right through their fleet and continue on with the original plan!” Wes commanded as he started to fly the ship towards the small Republic fleet that was stationed over Giju.

“Brilliant idea, master!” the droid said as it’s shaking hands began to flip switches to reroute all secondary power to the forward shields and engines. The droid could feel the ship increase its speed past normal as its Sith master piloted the ship in an erratic way. “Ah, yes, flying the ship erratically to dodge the capital ships fire! You truly are the best master a droid could hope for!” 2V said in hopes that it’s encouragement would ensure it’s master would succeed.

Wes stared out the viewing window of his ship at the fleet of hammerhead cruisers with thranta corvettes for fighter and destroyer protection. The ships had clearly noticed the sole Sith interceptor and had already launched squadrons of fighters to intercept Wes as the corvettes and cruisers turned to better fire on them.

The fighters closed in fast on the fury interceptor which opened fire as soon as they were within range. Wes returned fire as he attempted to dodge the waves of fighters that kept coming at them. The average Republic fighter pilot was no match for a Sith at the helm. The Republic fighters learned this the hard way as the skillful Sith was able to shoot down over half of their numbers as they came at the ship.

“You are doing excellent, master! You are destroying the fighters as they come at us with a 72.85% accuracy!” 2V happily exclaimed. “I suspect it will take approximately-”

“Stop talking unless it’s relative to the battle,” growled Wes as he flew to the side of one fighter to destroy another with precision laser fire all the while he dodged fire from the rear. Wes even managed to get some of the fighters behind him to destroy the fighters in front of him with some quick precision turns. As Wes continued onward toward the planet, the larger vessels began to fire their laser cannons at his ship.

“Forward shields are holding against the laser cannon fire, master,” the droid told Wes as he continued his way towards the planet. “However, we may have a problem,” the droid said just before the ship rocked from repeated laser cannon hits.

“What was that?!” asked Wes as he began frantic movements to shake off any fighters or ships that had locks on them.

“That’s what I was attempting to tell you, master. Nearly all enemy fighters are now circling around us and hitting us from behind!” cried 2V.

“Dammit!” Wes said as he thought of a way to fix this situation the two had found themselves in. With all secondary power to forward shields and engines, I can’t divert any to the rear shields without sacrificing speed or forward protection. Wes’ mind raced as he continued his line of thinking. But what if I start turning off subsystems that aren’t needed? Yes...yes that could work! A small smile spread across his face as he figured out what to do. “Droid, listen closely. Magnetize yourself and shut off artificial gravity. Reroute that power to the remaining shields, which should give us enough protection to get to the planet.

“Of course, master!” 2V said as he magnetized his feet to the ship’s hall with a loud clank sound. The droid heard two more clanks as Wes also magnetized himself to the hull as well. With a few more switch flips and button pushes, the droid had rerouted power from the gravity generator to the shields. The droid watched the shield status as incoming fire no longer harmed the shields in any great degree.

“Your plan worked, master! The shields are holding against-” the droid was cut off again as a powerful blast hit the ships shields.

“What was that, droid?” Wes replied as the ship took four more blasts to the rear shields. “What is going on?!” he growled as his normal maneuvers were no longer working.

“We are being hit by missiles, master. I do not believe those are common ordinance for Republic fighters,” the droid said as it checked its databanks.

“No, they’re not. But they are for Jedi ships!” Wes said as he realized why his flying was no longer working nearly as well as it used to. “Of course there were Jedi on those ships, and now they are matching my flying because only a Force user could!” exclaimed the angry Sith as his ship was rocked by more missiles from the Jedi ship that was behind them.

“What should we do, master?” asked 2V, not sure what it could do to help fix the situation.

“There’s nothing you can do. Look, more squadrons of fighters with Jedi leading them. We cannot win. We must fall back,” Wes said, not sure how to tell his master he had failed her yet again. Wes knew the price of failure multiple times for a Sith was almost certainly death. That was the best case scenario, as the alternative was a lifetime of torture.

“The Mistress will not be pleased...” 2V said in an almost whisper since it did not want the Sith right next to him to hear him. He knew he was in a prime position to be destroyed in the Sith’s anger and desperately did not want that to happen. “Wait, what’s that?!” the droid asked as it looked out the viewing window of the ship. The two looked on as a small Sith fleet came out of hyperspace and opened fire on the Republic ships that was chasing them. A beeping noise on the holocommunicator told them someone was attempting to contact them. Wes accepted the call to see a hologram of his master appear before him and the droid.

“Ah, apprentice! You’re still alive! I feared we were too late!” she said with a smile on her face. “It seems I sent you away without a crucial piece of information. It seems our prisoner only mentioned that there was a Republic fleet guarding the planet after you had left. By the time she told us it was too late to tell you to stop. So instead I contacted my master who was more than happy to attack a Republic industrial world. The space battle and invasion of the planet will provide you with the cover you will need to complete your mission. Fall back to the ship and wait until the invasion happens in full to go to the planet. We’ll also get you a new ship since that one seems to have been badly damaged,” explained Lady Mutaria as the Valtricous made it’s way towards the damaged interceptor.