Chapter 9
"With Friends Like These..." (Part I)
General Summary
Jova Haqzey went to see his old friends from Corulag Academy, Xhugg Ohmos and Solia Dahlo. When his scouts reported that they had found Last Hope he contacted Kirana Whitesun and Axelmos Honors, ordering them to turn themselves in or he would blow up their friends with the Thermal Detonator he was carrying.
The debate that ensued was not about whether the two would turn themselves in, but rather what method would be used to rescue their old friends.
Eventually it was settled, using The Cur, Axelmos and Kirana would travel to Corulag Academy and turn themselves in to get close to their old friends Solia and Xhugg.
Meanwhile, using The Freighter Zimex Tuzuto and Zel Chiyo will disguise themselves as aging Clone Troopers and drive to the Academy on orders for a "Prisoner Transfer". More on that in Friends Like These, Part II.
Axelmos and Kirana take a slow approach, and pass every security check, flying into and landing in the TIE Hangar. From there the two are escorted by a squad of Storm Troopers in high quality armor into the Academy. The two were taken to the core cafeteria that served all dormitories and offices, and sat at a table with their two friends and Captain Jova Haqzey.
The conversation that followed is not particularly friendly or nice, and ended with Axelmos punching Jova, and Jova using a collapsible stun baton to attack Axelmos. While Axelmos and Jova struck each other a second time, Kirana struck Jova with a lunchtray. At this point, after three strikes, Jova twitched, and the image of him flickered and failed. "Jova" was actually a droid projecting a hologram over a ballistic-gel mask. Fake Jova was experiencing serious malfunctions as the second part of the real Jova's plan kicked in.
Knockout gas streamed from the ceiling of the cafeteria and quickly began to fill the room. The Storm Troopers that escorted Axelmos and Kirana in were just behind a set of locked doors out of the Cafeteria, and every other exit was also locked. Axelmos dragged the droid and threw it and its "thermal detonator" down a trash chute in the adjacent central kitchen area. Meanwhile, Xhug was overpowering the doors on the opposite side of the cafeteria to force them open, but when he did, it set off the chemical-alert lockdown. Blast doors slid into place, trapping everyone in the cafeteria and its hallways and gardens. As the group used the two filter masks they had to the best of their ability, they came face to face with the door the troopers were behind. That was when Jova, the real Jova, took off his helmet. Axelmos responded with a rude gesture and the group went on trying to escape.
The group pried the door to the left of the troopers open and scrambled through it. Then they snuck through the side-passage into the garden between the cafeteria access halls. Just as Axelmos was about to sneak into the corridor that Jova was in, a thunderous whoosh sounded from the center of the kitchen and a wall of compressed gases slammed into the walls and doors, and through the gap of the stuck-open door. Then came the flames. That thermal detonator had been real, and it had been active, and it had incinerated everything in the trash compactors and followed the gas up the vent and into the cafeteria. That whoosh had been the displaced air from the explosion and the knockout gas that had flooded the cafeteria compressed enough to turn the explosion into white-hot plasma and melt the walls, doors, and interior furniture into slag. The open corridor that the Traitors came through funneled the plasma burst to fuse the blastdoor shut, making any kind of release of them impossible. A burst of fire followed through the garden and nearly flambeed the Traitors, who barely made it into the nearby corridor in time. Unfortunately for them, that was where the Troopers were last seen.
Fortunately for them, the Troopers weren't there any longer. Instead they looked in horror as the melted door finally gave up the ghost and fell inward. The only structural support the domed roof of the cafeteria had was the permacrete pillars that had one supported the doors. Suddenly, after a bit of planning their escape, without warning the pillars crumbled, as if crushed. Not looking to question their good fortune, Kirana ordered the troop to climb onto the dome. As they scrambled, the roof of the nearby garden sagged and crumbled. Maneuvering over the rubble and the wall as fast as possible, the four fled through the Academy lobbies and out into the courtyard to find a scene of intense and strange carnage.
A female Mirialan with a double-sided red lightsaber was trying to kill several young people with white lightsabers. Meanwhile The Freighter has been painted an audacious shade of pink, and is flying low over the battlefield as its gunner seems content to destroy as much as possible while roaring. S-1r, Vraxak, and Ailorr are fighting stormtroopers, and the padawans are fleeing toward the ship, with two already onboard. Kirana, being Kirana, begins ordering a retreat to the ship. The bad Mirialan with the lightsaber seems intent on killing these padawans, and somehow flies through the air at the ship. Kirana orders all guns to open fire at her, and chaos ensues. Kirana fired until her pistol exploded, and as everyone opens fire at the same time, the Mirialan is hurt and knocked off course. She flies below the ship, damaging it with her lightsaber and lands in the mud. Cademe, being Cademe, lowers the ship over her body to load the passengers and squishes her into the mud. Once safely aboard, the lot of them fly back to the The Dreadnought.
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