Measuring Up

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

He couldn't help but think of the hangar on the space station. It had been so we'll defended that they had turned away from it and tried to find another way. Whilst Kurt was now armed to the teeth and in heavy armour he could barely stand. Were they going to play the same hostage trick?

Trextan managed a few reasonably confident steps before again finding the comfort of a wall to lean against. He drew the trooper's carbine to his hand with the Force. It was a small test as much as giving him something else to fight back with. If he could do that then he could probably do something more effective with the Force when the time came.

"How far..." He felt himself become more heavy as the lift decelerated to a stop. The carbine was held in his prosthetic hand, lifted towards the doors. That hand didn't tremble at all.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

They had three floors to go down, something that was pretty easy for a turbo lift. Kurt pressed the button, putting in his code cylinder one more time as he pushed the bodies of the two men to the side of the Elevator and checked his own weapon. He switched it back to standard bolts, knowing that it would likely be more useful. "Not far, just down the hall."

He told the kid quietly.

"You should hang back." This time Kurt's voice changed slightly. There was no friendly suggestion, it was more like an order. Trextan could barely move at this point, even he could see that. Kurt had no idea what would be waiting for them in that Hangar Bay. As far as he knew it could be entirely empty or filled to the brim with Special Forces. If it was the former they would be golden, the latter? Well that was just another part of the plan he would have to figure out.

Shifting slightly Kurt moved just to the side of the doors, waiting for them to open.

There was a slight pause, and then the doors slid open to reveal another empty hallway.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

It was a bit late for and deep wounds to his pride now. There was just survival. The possibility of getting to a medical centre and seeing friends and family again. Something inside him was broken. That pain was growing by the second.

"Uh huh."

As Kurt headed down the corridor, Trextan started to follow. At an insistent warning from the Force he leaned into a doorway to the left. Two crewmen emerged further down the corridor but immediately turned their backs on Kurt and Trextan and entered the hangar.

Not far now. Not far at all.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

Kurt didn't miss a step when the two men walked into the hangar bay, his HUD immediately highlighting them as friendlies due to their uniforms. He mumbled something to himself about needing to change that, but continued to walk towards the same door that the men had entered.

Behind his back he motioned for Trextan to stay behind for just a moment, stepping towards the Hangar. The door fell open, just as it had for the other two men, and immediately Kurt was greeted with the sight of about a dozen or so TIE Pilot's and half as many mechanics. His eyes darted through the room, immediately drawn towards the odd ships placed in the very center of the hangar itself. The former courier recognized the vessel, TIE Defenders, though their weapons and shape weren't exactly the same as the ones he'd seen in the past.

A frown settled on his lips, and then he slowly reached towards his belt.

No one seemed to approach him yet, apparently not thinking Venom Guard was out of place here.

Kurt pulled three silvery orbs from his belt, balancing them in his palm for just a moment before he slid his thumb over the activators. There was a muted beep followed quickly by two more, and then Kurt threw the devices onto the floor. They rolled for just a moment, and then exploded into three massive clouds of smoke.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

There was an almost singular focus that could be sensed around Kurt. The Force moved around violent killers like a maelstrom. Kurt was a ship cutting through calm waters towards his goal. Trextan felt almost guilty to recall his doubt that Kurt would even make it to his cell.

The three pops of smoke grenades carried down the corridors. Rather than risking being caught out he pushed himself off the bulkhead.

His legs seemed to have enough stability to carry him on. Trextan slowly at the doorway and leaned his real shoulder into the frame. Again he relied on his prosthetic arm to lift the blaster carbine. He couldn't see through the billowing clouds of smoke but let his senses stretch out to try and find any threats. He tried to keep his breathing shallow, putting less pressure on the worst of his wounds.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

Kurt moved fast through the smoke, knowing that he didn't have much time. As soon as the grenades exploded the men inside of the hangar began to panic, one of them screamed, another barked orders, and just a few seconds later an alarm klaxon began to blare.

It didn't matter though.

His finger squeezed the trigger, firing quick shots in the general direction of anyone that he could spot through the smoke. The former Courier didn't linger his sights on any one spot for too long, instead quickly shifting and taking a new target. Kurt wasn't so much trying to kill them all as he was attempting to make them think there was more than just one of him. Before long the hangar bay filled completely with blaster fire, not just his own but responsive fire from the TIE pilots.

It was chaos. "Kid!"

Kurt called out to Trextan as he ran to a nearby set of crates, falling to one knee and motioning to the young man.

"Get to that ship!" He pointed to the closest TIE Defender. "I'll cover you."

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

The young Jedi was an obvious target crossing the deck, even with the cover of smoke. There had been no time to redress in uniform. The Force was still with him though. A stumble had a bolt lance over his head and he slowed for another to splash against the deck ahead of him.

He was rushing towards a TIE. He wasn't well versed in all the different models but running for a one man craft without a hyperdrive didn't seem a good idea.

Rather than go for the ladder he gathered the Force around him. His jog broke into a sprint, the pain of every step galvanising his resolve. With a growl he leapt. The Force gathered him up and carried him to the hatch on the fighter.

He landed awkwardly. His prosthetic hand found purchase and gripped on tight. Something inside had broken even more. He was hit by waves of nausua and emptied his stomach over the hull. He couldn't help but notice the streaks of blood.

Another bolt flashed by and he fired back on instinct. He cut down two navy crewmen with sidearms and then opened the hatch. It was definitely a single seat, but he could see the hyperdrive controls.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

Kurt squeezed the trigger of the blaster rifle again and again. After a certain point he didn't even aim. All he needed to do was suppress the troopers long enough to keep them down, all he needed to do was make sure that Trextan could get to that ship.

The troopers fired back, cutting through the smoke and doing their best to catch Kurt or Trextan.

Once, he felt a sudden break on his side. One of the TIE pilots caught his armor on the side, bright red clashing against the black and green duraplas plates. Kurt did his best to ignore it, instead whirling around and sending two shot towards the man that had shot at him. Then he heard Trextan spew. His head twisted slightly, lips pulling into a scowl.

At least he'd made it to the ship.

With a whirl Kurt turned, letting off another few shots before he began to Sprint towards the TIE defender. ”Turn On the deflector!”

He screamed at the Kid, hoping to hell that this model had them.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Trextan pulled himself around the pilot's chair and sat himself down. It was going to take some effort to get back out of it and curl up in the floor well when Kurt got in.

The consoles looked more complex than a typical shuttle. The control sticks had switches and buttons all over them. He brought up power and activated the navcomp.

"Shields..." He muttered. He flicked the wrong switch.

The repulsors kicked in and the TIE released itself from the rack. Now weightless it bobbed slowly across the hangar floor. The ladder screeched as it was dragged across the deck.

"Kark."

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

"WHAT THE KARK ARE YOU DOING?!" Kurt screamed as he chased after the vessel, a heavy breath pulling into his chest as he broke out into a sprint.

How the feth does anyone breath in these things. The former courier thought to himself as he rushed as fast as he could. Half a dozen blaster shots still soared over his head, but at that point he didn't care anymore. Reaching up Kurt pulled the helmet off of his head and threw it onto the ground. A rush of fresh air filled his lungs, and then finally he threw the blaster away to the side as well. The damned thing was out of powerpack anyway.

With another two steps Kurt jumped and grabbed onto the ladder of the TIE.

He let out a grunt as he crashed against the metal, his rib pressed in as the armor impacted against the hull of the ship. "Kark kark kark."

Kurt cursed again and again as he pulled himself up the ladder. The pilots and mechanics in the hangar bay were now less focused on hitting Kurt and more so on bringing down the ship. Their fire was concentrated on the wings of the vessel, attempting to break the sensitive panels.

"SHIELDS!" He shouted. "TURN ON THE DAMN SHIELDS!"

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Tap. Tap, tap.

Well, that was not a touch screen. Just a screen with the outline of the ship and the ghost of a line that would probably light up when the shields were on.

The Defender continued to drift across the deck. Then the base of the ladder struck a heavy crate. The ship turned and twisted until it righted itself and drifted straight.

The Jedi ignored the search for the shields for the moment. Giving a gentle tug on the controls he reversed their drift. On the other side of the barrier was hard vacuum and death for them both. Shields or not.

"What...switch?"

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

A blaster shot scorched the surface of the TIE-Defenders hull just as he was about to speak, causing another string of curses to echo out from the former Courier. The ladder beneath him shifted as they struck the crate, his fingers twitching slightly. Alarms were still blaring and he could barely hear Trextan over the sound of all of the other commotion. The Pilot's were getting more daring now, some of the smoke from the grenades beginning to fade as the hangar bays air purifiers kicked into gear.

Kurt let out another quick curse and then climbed the ladder, his ribs screaming in pain. "MOVE OVER!"

There was not even a little bit of patience in his voice. Trextan might not have been a pilot but he should at least have known where the shields were. Any moment now an entire contingent of Stormtroopers would likely come pouring through the door, and they wouldn't just have light arms. A well placed blaster shot would see this thing fall back onto the hangar floor, and without deflector shields Kurt doubted they would survive even much more of this light blaster fire.

Reaching the top of the central Orb Kurt peered down into the cockpit.

"GO!" He shouted at the Kid, a blaster shot flying over his head as he did so.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Again he was relying on the cybernetic arm to move his weight out of the chair. Trextan paused. Not because of the nausea that threatened to topple him, but because he spotted something.

"Oh."

He slapped the level in frustration. A low whine accompanied the shields coming online. Not too soon either. One of the crewmen had rushed out ahead of them. Several bolts splashed across the shields right in front of the view screens.

Trextan collapsed into the space beside the chair. There wasn't much room, but he wasn't much for moving around either.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

Kurt fell down into the chair with a slight thud.

Pain shot up through his ribs again, his fingers curling into a tight fist as he grabbed the hatch door in one motion and slammed it shut. He let out a breath, giving himself just a few seconds of reprieve before he looked over at Trextan. "Have you ever even been in a starfighter before?"

His tone was stuck between disdain and an odd sort of amusement.

The man in front of the craft froze as Kurt looked at him, his hands wrapping around the controls. For a moment he could almost see through the TIE Pilot's helmet, the look of frozen fear as the former Courier flicked his thumbs on top of the controls and squeezed the two buttons there. Three consecutive green blasts flew from the front of the Defender, laser cannons screaming and peeling the bulkhead away from the floor of the hangar bay. The pilot was instantly gone, vaporized in a second.

"Hang on." He told Trextan. "This is going to get bumpy."

Then he threw the fighter out through the barrier and into space.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

"No," he grunted. The closest thing he had been inside to a Starfighter was a U-Wing. Admittedly he had spent some time in the cockpit but his attention had been almost entirely on [member="Choli Vyn"] and not where the different controls were.

Without really having anything to hold onto he just tensed some muscles to wedge himself into the space. The ship definitely hadn't been made with two in mind.

At least if they were blown out of the sky he wouldn't see it coming. He wanted to sleep. To let the pain and sickness fade away and be on leave for a time. But he couldn't let go. Not quite yet.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

As soon as they left the hangar bay Kurt ducked the ship down and shot them towards the bottom of the Star Destroyer. The Inertial dampeners immediately kicked into gear and helped somewhat, but Kurt knew that before long they wouldn't really help much, especially if they ended up in a dogfight. "Remind me to teach you the basics sometime."

Kurt said as he half spun them and pulled them beneath the Destroyer.

From the small edge of the hangar bay in his sight he could already catch a glimpse of half a dozen TIE's leaving their docking arms. The move was about as predictable as could be, and typical Imperial. The alarms had been sounded, by now the Pilots had reported in, and those TIE's would be coming straight for them. His face turned stern for a moment, grip tightening on the controls as they swooped directly towards the hangar bays. Then he squeezed his thumbs down.

Laser fire erupted from the front of the Defender, instantly cutting an explosive swathe through the deploying TIE's.

Kurt and Trextan screamed through the subsequent explosions, shooting through the other side and coming out from underneath the destroyer. In an instant the pilot refocused himself, reaching over and beginning to log something into the nav-computer the Kid had earlier activated.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

His prosthetic hand gripped the frame of Kurt's seat. His feet were wedged into spaces to try and keep him still. If Kurt pulled a tight maneuver and ended up with a Jedi sprawled across his console then they were both going to die.

The staple next to his navel had come loose and a constant tricky of blood was running down his side. He finally paid serious attention to the canvas of his chest and arms. There were bright red patches from the electrical shocks. Red and white flakey patches and blackened marks where Kivik had burned him. The thin beads of dried burgundy across his chest and then that final wound where the blade had been plunged hilt deep.

It was that last one that was a genuine threat. He tried in vain to turn his focus inwards to try and assess the damage with the Force.

The skin was swelling around the area and the pain was becoming excruciating. The acrid taste of blood wasn't a good sign either.

"Kurt, you don't want to do this," came a familiar voice. Perhaps this was where she would bargain to get Trextan back.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

The void carried through the cockpit for a moment, Kurt not having bothered with the headset.

He frowned for the briefest moment, glancing at the comm signal and away from the code he was punching into the nav computer. The TIE’s that Kurt had blasted through were now pushed away, new fighter screaming out of the hangar bay and scrambling to keep him with the Defender. It wouldn't be long before they caught up, but that didn't matter.

He glanced at Trextan briefly. ”Yes I do.”

Kurt said as he refocused himself and grabbed the controls. He had punched in the address of a nearby Alliance controlled system. There wasn't a grand armada or anything stationed there, but he figured at least one ship would pass through. Besides, Trextan needed a hospital more than he needed an Alliance ship right now.

”But don't worry Sul.” She always hated that name. ”This isn't the last time we'll see each other.”

He’d make sure if that.

The radio crackled for a second and for a brief second it appeared that Sularin was about to say more, before she could however Kurt flicked the switch on the comm unit, shifting and pulling the Defender to the right before he looked back at Trextan one last time. ”Hang on.”

He said, turning the Defender and pushing down to levers to jump them into hyperspace.