//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: The Heist // Story: Sunset Shimmer's Saga: Call of the Force // by Kenobiiii //------------------------------// The Core Worlds Corellia Imperial Naval Engineering Facility, Coronet City Corellia, a world infamous throughout the galaxy for its massive shipyards more commonly known as the Corellian Shipyards, whereby ships of all sizes and shapes are built from scratch. The world is also infamous as the birthplace for galaxys best pilots and aviators, not surprising considering that Corellians were well known for their wanderlust and desire to travel beyond, a characteristic which led to creation of the shipyards in the first place. For generations, Corellia has been a prime destination for migration as beings from all over the galaxy migrated to seek the countless job opportunities offered by the Shipyards. Its fortunes soon changed when the new Galactic Empire which rose from the ashes of the Clone Wars and succeeded the Republic as the dominant government of the galaxy, arrived and nationalized its shipyards, utilizing them to build their massive fleet of star destroyers and their TIE fighter line. The use of forced labor by the new oppressive regime and low pay turned the once ancient and historical Core World into a faded and overpopulated industrial world, a shadow of its former self, where crime and poverty run rampant on its streets with many of the locals now seeking to leave their polluted home world for a better life. Near the fringes of the Imperial shipyards in Coronet City, the planet’s capital and largest city, was a large dull structure devoid of any life. The size of the structure was meant to be large as a portrayal of the superior military strength of the Empire to the locals and instill fear and obedience in them. The structure housed the Imperial Naval Engineering Facility, where core internal systems, ranging from basic life support systems to Tractor Beams and hyperdrive generators are built for use in the Imperial Navy. To enter the facility, workers must pass through a security checkpoint, designed to weed out any potential saboteurs or unauthorized personnel which are managed by stormtroopers. Imperial stormtroopers, cladded with imposing white armor covering most of their torso and their legs and on their heads a similar coloured helmet meant to cover the wearer’s face and to portray an emotionless but yet effective soldier. By wielding a standard blaser accorded to them, they patrolled the numerous lines of workers who were waiting to pass through security, inspecting them for any suspicious behavior while at the same time, intimidating them with their mere appearance. The workers on the other hand, mostly kept their heads down,not wanting to attract any unwanted attention as Imperial Propaganda was being played through a large viewscreen attached to the Facility’s outer walls. “Serve your Purpose, Serve the Empire. Enlist in the Corellian Engineering Corporation. Build Imperial Star Destroyers in the name of maintaining order throughout the galaxy,” .[1] The propaganda kept informing the workers of the ‘importance’ of being a patriotic Imperial citizen fulfilling his duty to the Empire to maintain order in the galaxy, no matter the cost . Just then, the routine propaganda was disrupted by the sound of a loud deafening siren coming from the facility. “ Alert ! There has been a Security Breach in Sector K-1,” an authoritative male voice could be heard from the facility’s speakers before it was interrupted by a large explosion that came from the left side of the facility. The disoriented stormtroopers, still reeling from the shockwaves of the blast, got up and pointed their blasters towards the source of the explosion which was now covered with smoke rising from the fire, anticipating whoever it is who caused the blast to reveal themselves. The other workers, scared and frightened for their lives, quickly took cover, using the nearby barricades to shield themselves from the crossfire as they anticipated a fierce shooting match to occur between the stormtroopers and the intruders. Appearing from the smoke, was no insurgent group or pirates like the stormtroopers and workers had expected but a woman cladded with what appeared to be a simple smuggler attire suited for easy and flexible movement with a blaster holster belt attached to her left leg. She appeared to be carrying a small silver box which bore the Imperial Insignia on it with her left hand and placed it on her right jacket pocket, anticipating a not-so-easy path out from her current predicament. “Blast Her !” Shouted one of the Stormtroopers with the rest following suit and fired their blasters at her. It has been more than 15 years since Kara Antra survived the events of Order 66 and has ever since become a fugitive in a rapidly changing galaxy where the Jedi have no place in and had been forgotten by the galaxy at large[2]. A fully grown woman now, she had undertaken a daring break into one of the most secure facilities on Corellia to obtain crucial Military Technology. In what was supposed to be a stealth and quick in and out mission quickly turned south when she was discovered and had to make a not -so -quiet escape from the facility by using small detonators to blast open the blast doors that were closing right in front of her as she attempted to make a run for it through the Officer Priority Entrance Point. The blast helped destroy the blast doors and the surrounding structures as she made her way out, only to be greeted by more stormtroopers with their blasters pointed towards her. She was carrying precious cargo and it was vital that she escape this facility, even if it means having to push through more than dozen stormtroopers to get to the gate, she took out her her blaster pistol and starts firing at the stormtroopers while taking cover from returning fire by using the barricades that were used to separate the industrial workers. She was vastly outnumbered, and she knew it. The stormtroopers, knowing full well they possessed the advantage in terms of numbers and strength, moved closer towards her in an attempt to surround the intruder by sheer numbers. They were closing in on her and there wasn't much time left for Kara. She had to act fast. “ Where’s Karl when you need him ?” she muttered to herself in reference to her get out ride which till now, was nowhere in sight. She had to improvise and quickly come up with a plan to get out of her current predicament. She took a quick glance through the barricades to see what she was against and it wasn’t looking good for her. She looked for a weak point amongst the closing-in stormtroopers to strike at. She finds one, left side in which the number of stormtroopers approaching were much lesser when compared to the other sides. Stormtroopers only make up for strength in numbers and are especially vulnerable in lesser numbers. Sensing an opportunity to break through their catchment, Kara lunged herself forwards the troopers, using her torso to push through some of the stormtroopers towards the ground while utilizing some self-defense skills she had learnt during her time at the Jedi Temple to knock them out, though not showing off any Force skills. Stormtroopers were exceptionally terrible when it came to hand to hand combat and this gives Kara a huge advantage in knocking them out. At the same time, she also used her blaster to some good use to taking out some troopers who were not in close range. She had managed to push herself through at least six to eight stormtroopers to make it to the Front Gate. The remaining troopers, still vastly outnumbering Kara, finally got their act together and surrounded her, cutting her off from the gate to prevent her escape with their blasters trained towards her. She was back to square one, she thought. The only way out of this mess would be to ignite her lightsaber, a choice she would have to think more than twice before even considering . “Surrender Pirate Scum !” The stormtrooper Sergeant shouted. Just then when all hope seemed lost, she heard a beeping noise coming from her left pocket, where she kept her comm-link. The beep was immediately followed by a male voice, coming from the comm-link who said “On your left,” .Upon hearing this, a smirk appeared on Kara’s face. “Well my ride’s here. But better luck getting me next time,” She shot back to the stormtrooper Sergeant, her tone iced with a sense of sarcasm and perhaps even confidence as a M-68 speeder[3] barged itself into the facility from the outside and hit four troopers standing by the gate, pushing them off and took the others by surprise. On the driver’s seat of the speeder is a human male, with brown messy hair like it has not been properly tended to for a while and brown iris color who is dressed similarly to Kara and is around the same age as her, give or take. “GET IN !” Karl shouted to her as it would not be long before the troopers started firing back at them. Kara did as she is told without thinking twice. She hopped on to the speeder as the troopers began to fire at the both of them, indiscriminately. Once on board the speeder, Karl hit the pedals hard as hard as he could, giving the speeder the boost it needed to shoot out of the facility and onto the Industrial streets of Coronet City. He did not lift his feet off the pedal till he was certain there was some distance between the facility. “So I take it that things did not go according to plan ?” Karl asked in a manner that he already knew the answer to. “Since when has that ever happened ? '' Kara answered Karl's rhetorical question in a similar rhetorical manner. “ You got what you came for ?” Kara placed her hand into her right pockets and dug out the small silver box that she had placed inside her pocket earlier. “Here it is, ” She said, revealing the silver small square shaped box to Karl, who seemed indifferent to it. “ All of that, just for this ? It must be of great value,” He said. “It is, for us.” Kara shot back. She also knew that the Imperials will be after them with full force and It won’t be long before they caught up to them.They needed to get airborne as soon as possible. “ Hail Zeko and tell him we’re approaching the pick up location,” Kara said to Karl who replied in the affirmative with “ I’m on it.” Just then, Kara noticed that they were being tailed from behind. Three Imperial Urban Patrol Troopers riding aboard their specialized C-PH Patrol Speeder bikes[4] with its siren turned on to clear any workers obstructing their way were in pursuit of them. Thanks to their state of the art and more durable speeder bikes, the patrol troopers were quickly closing in on them. The Imperials have caught up to them faster than expected, Kara thought. “ Looks like we got company,” Kara intoned to Karl who turned his head behind to find the patrol troopers behind them with their siren getting louder and louder. “ Thought we’ll have a little bit of a head start,” Karl said in a frustrated tone as he hit the pedal to put some more distance between them. “ You keep your eyes on the road. I’ll handle them.” Kara said to Karl as she took out her blaster to fire on them. Kara took out her blaster to shoot at the Imperial speeders pursuing them. None of this was going according to plan. The plan was a simple break in and out mission, not a high-speed chase scene through the streets of Corellia. Despite her continuous firing at them, the rides evaded every single shot of hers. The riders utilized their inbuilt blaster cannons to fire back at Kara, who ducked to evade the incoming fire. Unfortunately, the blaster shots grazed the propulsion thrusters, almost severely damaging the engines . Karl nearly also lost steering control of their speeder as a result of the shot to which he struggles to maintain control of. “ What happened to you handling this ?” Karl shouted in frustration. “Little busy at the moment here,” Kara remarked about her current situation as she continued to take cover from the cover fire. Karl noticed a right turn coming up ahead and although it would mean a longer route to the pick up point, he had to shake off their pursuit. “ Hold On,” He said as Karl made a sudden sharp turn to the right, entering a street cutting through the core of the city which was surrounded by larger factories built above the water. The last minute sharp turn also took the Urban troopers by surprise who also made an abrupt right turn to maintain their pursuit. In doing so however, they inadvertently exposed their armor cladded bodies for a clear shot, one in which Kara did not let it pass. She managed to shoot one of the pursuers, sending both him and his speeder crashing into a nearby pole and exploding. It was a short victory however as there were still two more pursuing them, and they were in open space to make matters worse. “We need a new pick up point,” Kara said to Karl as she got up and started firing back at the Imperials. “ Oh, we definitely do alright,” Karl replied in a rather sarcastic or a frustrated tone. This high stakes chase scene is something neither of them wanted, but yet got dragged into. It was entirely possible that the entire Imperial garrison would be on the full lookout for them, which definitely won’t end well for them. This appeared more likely as Karl notices at a distance, a blockade set up to stop them. The blockade consisted of a standard Imperial K79-S80 Troop Transport[5] positioned in a way that cuts off at least half of the street. The other half consisted of a few set up barricades at a number of stormtroopers situated behind the barricades while another trooper manned an E Web heavy repeating blaster cannon guns trained at them, waiting for them to come within firing range. Stormtroopers were notorious for their horrible aiming skills, and there was a chance that their shots would completely miss them. But Karl wasn't going to take that risk. Time was running out and he had to quickly think of another way to maneuver through this road blockade or face the prospect of crashing into it. Fortunately, fate has presented another opportunity in the form of a T junction right turn just before the blockade. The only catch was its close proximity to the blockade, meaning that they would have to risk getting close enough to the blockade, exposing themselves to blaster fire. It was a gamble Karl had no choice but to undertake, pressing the pedal as hard as his foot could, driving the speeder as fast as possible towards the blockade head on. Kara, on the other hand, was completely in the dark on Karl’s plan. They were heading in full speed towards the blockade and for a brief second, she thought that Karl was in some kind of suicidal offensive. “ What are you doing !?” She shouted to him as she placed her hand on the speeder’s dashboard and pulled herself slightly down, anticipating them to crash head on. “Take Cover !” That was the answer she got from Karl before he made an instantaneous right turn without changing his speed at the very last second, causing the speeder to drift leftwards for a moment before Karl steered it back right. Some of the troopers in the blockade, had ran into the transport for cover, having anticipated them to crash onto the barricades had a sense of relief, though it was short lived as one of the patrol troopers manning the speeder bikes had little time to break or avoid the blockade altogether, crashed into the transport, leading to a spectacular explosion that took out both the transport, causing it to overturn and burst into flames and the nearby trooper manning the E-Web Cannon, while sending nearby stormtroopers being thrown off a couple yards thanks the explosion. In other words, the blockade was destroyed. The explosion was witnessed by Kara, who just realized this was part of his plan all along. She had to give it to him. Karl can be impulsive at times, but in their line of job, impulsiveness was a good thing. When she first met him, she found this to be his most glaring weakness, often getting him into trouble with ruthless Crime Syndicates. But in time, she learnt to accept his impulsive behavior as it can be useful in times like this. “ Most Impressive,” She acknowledged that his dangerous and reckless move worked, for now. “ Two down, one more to go, How hard can it be ?” He intoned with a fairly cocky expression on his face. After all, he had just destroyed an Imperial road blockade and reduced their pursuers to none. One can say he deserved to hold himself in high regard. However, while the two of them are giving themselves a small hurrah for the stunt they had just pulled off, they failed to notice the last remaining speeder bike closing up on them. While his colleague had crashed into the transport earlier, he had managed to slow down enough to turn right, narrowly avoiding the fate that befell on his pursuing partner. Despite being alone, he still continued his pursuit, coming closer and closer to the speeder without them noticing. This was also partly due to Karl slightly releasing his foot of the pedal, thinking that the sole speeder bike would have either stopped pursuing or was too far behind. He, of course, was wrong. The lone Urban Patrol Trooper soon caught up and pulled by the side of the speeder, finally catching the attention of both Karl and Kara but it was too late. By then, he already had his scout pistol out and pointing at them, with the speeder bike on auto pilot. “ Pull Over Now !” He ordered in a slightly muffled voice. Kara raises both of her hands up and seemingly surrenders to the trooper. “ Okay, I surrender.” She says, stunning both Karl and the trooper more evidently the latter who was taken aback, seen by his head jolting backwards slightly. He had not expected this. For Kara, this was a simple diversion, to confuse him. She mustered up the Force within her and thrusted her hands forward. The Force answered her call and pushed the lone patrol trooper and the speeder bike off the street and into the water below. In a galaxy where any remaining Jedi survivors are actively being hunted by the Empire which had labeled them as traitors, Kara had learnt not to overtly show her Force sensitivity in the open to avoid drawing unwanted attention from the Empire. This however does not mean she never uses her abilities in times of need . She had learnt to tap into the Force in a way that is as subtle as possible to avoid prying eyes. Karl however, is flabbergasted as to how Kara Force-pushed the trooper when she had been trying to be as quiet as possible with her powers. Using it on an Imperial trooper was not exactly keeping a low profile. “Did you just..” “I had no choice,” Kara cut off his remark before he could even say it. She knew what was in his mind. She doesn't need to be a Jedi to know what he was thinking. Karl decided to put his head on the current situation now. They were not being pursued for now but the both of them knew well the Empire will not easily give up its search for them. Kara then noticed a small industrial entry gate in which they were about to pass through. As they passed through the gate, Kara used her blaster to shoot the control panels of the gate, causing it to close off the street behind them, potentially cutting off any pursuers. They were in the clear for now, and this was the moment for them to hail their permanent ride out of here. “ Zeko, trace my signal. We’re here,” Kara said to her comm link, which was replied to by a male voice coming from the comm link’s speakers. “ I have you in scopes. Coming in now,” It said. “There’s our ride out of here,” Karl pointed his finger to a Green coloured S-61 Stinger XL ship[6] appearing from the cloudy Corellian skies and flew down towards the streets they’re on. The Gauntlet, the name given to the ship, their way out of here, comes close enough to the ground for which it extends its ramp down. Its asymmetrical wings, one much larger than the other, rotates in a way to keep the ship in its current position by having both wings in direct opposite of each other. Karl slowed the speeder down till it came to a complete stop for a change of ride. They both quickly got off the speeder and made it towards the Gauntlet and boarded it using the extended ramps. Once onboard the ship, Karl and Kara made their way towards the ship’s cockpit. Over at the cockpit, an older looking astromech droid with its color slightly decolourised and faded due to prolonged exposure to various natural elements and rust stood by the Co-pilot’s seat with his port stick used to access computer networks inserted into the ship’s Central computer port. The droid was no other than R5-D7 itself, who had stuck by with Kara after all these years in the run, embodying a droid’s unwavering loyalty to its master, a common trait amongst other astromech droids despite their occasional attitudes. Over at the pilot’s seat was the green skinned humanoid being named Zeko.A member of the Ardennian species[7] which known for having six dexterous legs, to which two of the lower ones were used as legs, allowing for extremely agile movements , evident in Zeko’s skills as a capable pilot. R5 beeped and booped about there being a lot of chatter in the Imperial Comms which he was monitoring about two Pirates who broke into an Imperial Facility and issued an alert for all Imperial personnel to be on the lookout for these pirates who are carrying valuable information. “ You’re right buddy. There is a lot of chatter going around for two ordinary humans today who were supposed to blend in,” Zeko intoned in a satirical manner in response to R5’s assertion. Zeko can have a sarcastic and cynical attitude often doubting stealth missions cooked up by Kara in occasions such as this. “ We had to improvise,” Kara defended herself and Karl as she got to her Co-Pilot seat next to him. “Since when you didn't have to ? ” Zeko shot back. She had to give it to him, he can never be at a loss for words. “ Just get us out of here, will you ?” Karl said in a clearly annoyed manner. He too shared a similar disdain for Zeko’s cocky attitude, although he too could be cocky at times. “ As you wish,” the Ardennian said in an amused manner as he used his four arms to press a few buttons and pull a few levers to pilot the Gauntlet off the ground and shoot off into the cloudy skies. But they were not alone. Coming from the Imperial Airfield over at the horizon were a squad of TIE Fighters, their pilots piloting their fighters to intercept the Gauntlet before it had a chance to leave the system. Their orders were not to destroy the ship, but instead to severely damage their engines which would in turn force them to the ground where the ground boarding party would detain them. The incoming TIE’s were quickly detected by the Gauntlet’s sensors to which Kara noticed thanks to a beeping red light. “ Heads up, We got TIE Fighters incoming from Bearing point 02.” She said in reference to the angle of which the Tie’s were coming from. “ I’ll go man the cannons.” Karl declared as he ran out of the cockpit to man the ship’s cannons to fire at the incoming Ties. For Zeko, he was instead more focused on outrunning the pursuers. The TIE fighters targeted the Gauntlet’s thrusters and fired at it. The green turbo lasers hit the engines, but the shots were fortunately deflected by the ship’s shields which protected all of the crucial external parts of the ship. The shields deflecting the turbo lasers caused the interior of the ship to rumble and caused a loud explosion noise. Every hit on the shields reduced its overall strength, meaning it can’t be relied on to absorb every shot thrown at them forever. After suffering multiple hits on the ship’s thrusters by the Tie fighters, R5 informed Zeko that the shield strength had been greatly reduced to less than 50% after obtaining it from the ship’s computer systems, distressing the Ardennian pilot. Karl was supposed to be firing back at them, not having this ship become target practice for Imperial pilots to practice their shots on. “Deflector Shields are less than 50%. Are you ever gonna fire back?!” He called out to him. “ I’m working on it.” Karl’s voice could be heard coming from the back of the ship where the back cannons are. Karl finally got his luck when he shot down one of the TIE pursuers with a single shot right at one of its hexagonal wings which sent it down with a trail of smoke coming from the destroyed wing. Tie fighters were built to be fast and easily maneuverable. As such, the fighter had to be light in weight, thus it lacked common systems found in other conventional starfighters such as a hyperdrive and of a deflector shield, the latter perhaps its greatest weakness yet, which allowed Karl to easily shoot it down. Still their considerably durable speed was something no pilot could take for granted. They were still more on their back with possibly reinforcements on their way. Zeko tried to outrun them by flying straight up into the atmosphere hoping that the drag might slow them down. As the Gauntlet exited the Corellian upper atmosphere, the cloudy polluted skies were replaced by the endless amounts of stars filling up the emptiness of space. The drag had managed to slow the TIE’s but not enough for them to lose their pursuit. But there was another problem for Kara and Zeko to worry about now. A number of Massive Star Destroyers flanked by a couple of smaller Light Cruisers had obstructed their jump point to hyperspace. “ Well things just got a lot more..” “Interesting. The word you’re looking for is interesting,” Kara cut off Zeko’s sentence before he could finish it. Their problems had just doubled when even more Tie fighters were deployed from the star destroyers hangars, all of them heading towards them. “ I’ll just stick with more. Whatever it is you stole must really be valuable for destroyers to be after us.” Zeko intoned at the manner the Empire is doing everything they could to prevent them from leaving the system, going as far as cutting off their jump point with a fleet of Star Destroyers. Zeko certainly had not planned to go down in Corellia, of all the places in the galaxy. Kara then came up with a plan which was too risky and perhaps crazy that it might just work. “ Head to Point 7-6, that’s where we’ll make the jump into hyperspace” Kara told both Zeko and R5 while pointing to a construction sphere[8] located near the Orbital Construction site, where dozens of star destroyers were being outfitted with their final parts. In a world like Corellia, it was a common sight to find construction spheres that were used to outfit larger starships in orbit due to the limited space on the surface for more shipyards to be built. R5 was at the very least hesitant at her suggestion if not strongly against. Jumping into hyperspace from a construction module was extremely risky, one miscalculation and it would be a spectacular way to end, quite literally. “ Calculate the jump into hyperspace.” Zeko said to R5, reluctantly going with Kara’s plan although he was well aware of the risks buthe is more than willing to take it considering the limited options that are on the table. Zeko piloted the ship towards the construction module's hangar bay where he would make the jump as soon as the droid finished with his calculations. R5 then informed Zeko that the jump calculations were complete, to which Zeko without thinking twice, made the jump into hyperspace. The surroundings quickly turned to blurry blue lines as the ship shot off through the hangar bay, sending everything inside in flames through the sheer force of its passage when jumping lightspeed sent debris out of the hangar in a straight line similar to the hyperspace jump made by the Gauntlet.