Main Hangar Bay
The Remembrance of Seher
Retreating from the Collective
The light emanating from the wall mounted console reflected off the tinted eye of R2-B9 as its interfacing arm spun back and forth. The little jet black droid beeped as he went about his normal maintenance upon the Endor’s Triumph.
The owner and captain of this jet black GX1 Short Hauler was always away from the helm. While the ship was in hyperspace he spent most of his time in meditation in his captain’s quarters, which Talis had converted into his own little meditation chamber. Its walls were covered in vines he bought from a florist on Florrum. He had ferns in the corner and he had various flowers throughout. He even had a small fountain that recirculated water.
The space was tranquil, you could even say it was serene, but all good things must come to an end.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The reverberations from the continual onslaught shook the shuttle and snapped the Jedi knight from his meditation. He jumped to his feet and grabbed his phase II clone trooper pilot helmet and popped it on his head. The Gray Jedi stepped up to the door and smacked the control panel, with a hiss of air the door rushed open. Talis stepped out and immediately went to his left. He heard Beenine behind him as the energetic little droid loudly protested the shaking of the ship.
“Beenine,” Talis barked back to the R-series astromech, “Get comms up and tell me what is going on!”
“BREEEEP WOOOOOOO!” Beenine replied back.
“What do you mean the Remembrance of Seher has been critically damaged?” The blind Miralukan took a deep breath and reached out, searching for emotions that emanate from all living things.
Like a tidal wave of feelings: fear, sorrow, anger and rage flooded back to the young Odanite. A somber look came over his face as he felt power start to surge from elsewhere on the ship. He knew that feeling from his past, from New Tython. He knew what must be done, The Remembrance of Seher was dead and the only thing to do now was get as many souls off the ship as possible.
“Beenine, hail the bridge.”
“BREEP BROOP BROOP!”
“What do you mean the bridge isn't answering?” Talis thought for a second before speaking again. “Beenine, hail all nearby vessels and all communications bandwidths. Hack into the intercoms or the emergency announcement system, I need you to give an evacuation order to all personnel, the reactor is beginning to go.”
Talis ran to the rear of his ship and pushed a button on the panel that opened his entryway hatch. The smell of death was almost overwhelming as the tainted atmosphere washed over him. A flashback of New Tython tried to fight its way back up but the astute Knight pushed it back down and gathered his wits. Suddenly the normal “to battlestations” alarm cut out and a woman's voice came over the ship wide intercom.
“This is a ship wide emergency evacuation order for all personnel. Reactor one has begun to meltdown. I repeat, this is a ship wide emergency evacuation order for all personnel. Reactor one has begun to meltdown, abandon ship.”
The monotone voice continued on a loop as yells and screams could be heard from the other side of the hangar, in between the intercom systems announcement. A small group had congregated around the door and seemed to be struggling getting the bulkhead open. It appeared to be jammed.
Talis did not even register that he was running until he was almost right on top of the group of mechanics working furiously to get the door to open. It was no use. It looked like some debris had wedged itself on the other side and it was not getting opened the conventional way.
Talis reached down to his hip where his lightsaber was and brought it forth, igniting the blade. He slowly pushed the amethyst beam into the giant durasteel door and began twisting it back and forth.
A yelp on the other side followed by some curses told the Marauder that his plan was working. He felt a little give but made sure to keep himself steady so that he didn’t impale anyone on the other side of the door.
Talis reached deep within himself and then began pulling in power from the world around him. He felt a surge of energy enter his body and give him a familiar feeling of unmatched strength. He began to push the blade in an oval shape to cut a doorway through the bulkhead.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“I wonder if they realize they have won, the ship is dead.” One the mechanics was looking up at the ceiling of the docking bay as he spoke.
“They won’t stop until we detonate like a grenade,” Talis snapped. “We already have one reactor melting down, pray we don’t have two.”
As if on cue the emergency evacuation order paused.
“This is a ship wide emergency evacuation order for all personnel. Reactors one and two have begun to meltdown, I repeat, this is a ship wide emergency evacuation order for all personnel. Reactors one and two have begun to melt down, abandon ship.”
“And now we need to cut faster.” Talis took a deep breath and pushed the blade as fast and as forcibly around to make a large enough doorway to get people through. After a few more tense moments and a lot of exertion and pushing himself to the limit, the durasteel chunk dropped. A void appeared where there was once hardened metal. The Odanite lifted his hand and felt as if an extension of his body grasped the large chunk of steel. He pulled hard but it barely moved.
Talis bent over and took some deep breaths before he attempted again and failed. He had tired himself out by relying on the Force so much to cut the door that he forgot to save the energy required to get the lump of steel out of the way.
The reinforced bulkheads were multiple layers thick to avoid someone boarding through the cargo bay and assaulting the ship. They could seal the boarding party in the cargo bay and it was the perfect prison. Now those doors that were supposed to give the crew some safety were becoming the doors to their death sentence.
“Hey Master Jedi.” A younger mechanic stepped forward and pointed at his belt. “Is that a Denton charge?”
Talis smacked himself on the forehead of his helmet before grabbing the charge off his belt and placing it properly as to eject the large hunk of steel out of the way. The exhausted Jedi Knight yelled his instructions to the people on the other side of the bulkhead to move back a safe distance.
He felt them breath a big sigh of relief as everyone retreated from the door. Hope had refilled their minds. It made the Miralukan gain a step back from his fatigue as he set the timer. He took cover and counted down to himself before the denton charge detonated.
The blast that reverberated the entire area ejected the hunk of steel some 50 meters down the hallway and into a pillar where it lodged itself for the rest of the life of the ship. Some of the mechanics began yelling down the newly opened doorway to freedom and droves of people came through that three foot wide four foot tall oval in the bulkhead. Shuttles were packed to the brim and all the life pods were loaded and jettisoned. Anyone with fighter experience took what fighters they could get in the air and got underway.
All except one ship that was crammed with all manner of folk waiting for its drained captain to return to it. Talis was just barely able to squeeze onto his ship and shut the door. He reached over and pushed the button on the doors console and hailed the bridge.
“BOOP BREEP BRAAAP WHIRRRRRR!”
“I know Beenine, we are cutting it a little close for comfort but I promise I will pay you back little buddy. Just get us off this dying behemoth!”
The comm cut out and the engines could be heard spooling up. The ship lurched into the air and spun around before it made a hasty exit from the rear of the Remembrance of Seher and plotted a course for home. They had all had a horrible day. To this day, Talis had never seen any spaceship detonate but he did feel it when the two reactors finally went critical mass. A multitude of dazzling waves of energy bombarded him and the ship.
This was the second time in recent history that their enemies had sunk one of their naval vessels.