Venar Moonrunner awoke with a start as a powerful explosion rocked the hull of the Endar Spire, sending him falling to the floor of his sleep quarters. He was alone in the room as the ship's alarms began wailing and the sound of soldiers' footsteps sounded on the other side of the room's mechanized door.
He picked himself up off the floor and started pulling his clothes on which he had left lying on top of his small locker which contained his weapons and personal effects. Not that he had any.
Just then, the door to the quarters opened with a hydraulic hiss and a man, dressed in the red and yellow garb of a Galactic Republic soldier, walked in. He looked to be about in his late thirties, and his blonde hair was neatly combed atop his head, while a scar across his right cheek showed he had seen plenty of battle.
"Get your self in gear soldier!" the man barked. "Sith troops have boarded the ship!"
"I'm on it! I'm on it!" Venar shouted back. He never was a fan of the soldier drone-like mentality.
"You're not a soldier are you?" asked the man," you one of the new recruits?"
"Kind of," Venar replied as he strapped on his holster and retrieved his blaster from his small personal locker under the bunk. "I used to be a smuggler actually. I was recruited by the Republic as a scout."
"I see. The name's Trask Ulgo," the man said, "Everyone is regrouping at the bridge. We have to make sure Bastila makes it off this ship!"
Venar strapped a small vibro-sword to his back as he followed Trask out of the crew quarters. Another explosion shook the ship as they almost lost their footing. "Right, right. I'm with you, but who the heck is Bastila?"
Trask gave him a quizzical look as they ran through the hallways of the Republic cruiser. "You must be really new if you don't know who she is."
"Why don't you enlighten me Trusk-"
"It's Trask"
"That's what I said."
"...anyways Bastila is the Jedi Commander of this-"
"Watch out!" Venar shouted as he pushed Trask to the side as a blaster bolt came whizzing down the corridor. "Sith troopers up ahead!"
Four soldiers armored head to toe in shiny metallic plating, brandishing blaster rifles flanked each side of the hallway up ahead where two hallways intersected.
"I see them!" Trask shouted as he began firing his blaster pistol as he took cover behind one of the supporting archways of the corridor. Venar did a quick roll taking cover behind an astromech droid that was doing maintenance at a panel on the wall. The droid beeped in alarm as several blaster bolts struck its metallic frame and the droid screamed as sparks flew in every direction, it's circuits frying and small flames rising from the holes where the blaster bolts had hit.
Venar popped up from behind the now useless astromech droid and returned fire, using the scope on his blaster pistol to quickly take down two of the Sith troopers with clean shots to the head. The other two Sith troopers returned fire, forcing Venar to duck back behind the astromech droid.
"We don't have time for this!" Trask called as he readied a frag grenade from his belt.
Venar peeked up from behind the droid. The troopers had stopped firing. "Wait!" he called to Trask.
Just as the Sith troopers were about to deliver another onslaught of blaster fire, a brilliant blue light blurred through the hallway's intersection. A faint hum sounded as the Sith troopers screamed in pain as one was stabbed through the chest with a bright beam of blue energy. A woman dressed in plain brown robes deactivated her blade of blue light and with a seemingly effortless gesture of her hand sent the other trooper flying backwards down the hallway. The blaster he had been holding clattered to the floor.
"That's one of the Jedi serving under Bastila!" Trask called, "We need her help to get to the bridge! Move out!"
Venar and Trask began running down the corridor towards the Jedi woman. Before they could reach her, a red glowing blade came whirling through the air from down the intersecting hallway aiming straight for the Jedi. In one fluid move the Jedi woman ignited her lightsaber and blocked the red blade right before it struck its mark. The red lightsaber retreated into the hand of a man dressed in dark robes as he landed in front of the Jedi.
"Hold up!" Trask said to Venar, "it's a Dark Jedi. Stay back this fight is too much for us!"
The two Jedi dueled blocking their path to the bridge. The Sith had the Jedi woman on the defensive, delivering a flurry of quick and deadly strikes with his lightsaber. Both of their lightsabers locked as sparks flew from their weapons. Suddenly, a turbo-laser bolt tore through the hull where the two Jedi had been standing. The hallway began to depressurize, sucking the two Jedi out into the void of space.
"Grab onto something!" Trask shouted. It was too late. They both began sliding across the floor of the ship towards the opening in the hull.
"Oh Sithspit!" Venar shouted as they quickly neared the opening. A huge wave of relief swept through them as the blast door closed off the hallway sealing off that section of the ship. Venar lay sprawled out on the floor laughing in relief for a moment. Trask took a minute to catch his breath as well, though seemed much more composed.
"Well that was fun," Venar said as he got to his feet.
"You have a strange definition of fun..."
"C'mon Trust ol' buddy, let's go save us a Jedi," Venar said clasping Trask on the shoulder with a smirk, "What was his name? Basty? Bastor? Bastar-"
"It's Trask!" the soldier grumbled back. " And her name is Bastila!"
"Right, right," he chuckled back, "that's what I meant. Let's go what are we waiting for?" Venar rushed off down the hallway as Trask just shook his head, before running after him.
They came to a large sealed blast door that was locked from the inside. Trask signaled Venar to take position opposite him on the other end of the door.
"Alright, listen up," Trask said in a hushed tone, "we're at the bridge. I don't see any of the other soldiers that were supposed to rendezvous with us here. They're either dead, or they can't get to us which means we're on our own. I can slice through this door but be ready for anything once its open."
"And what if there's another Dark Jedi inside?" Venar asked.
"Well then it was nice knowing you Venar."
"Aw, see I knew you liked me!" He smirked. Trask just rolled his eyes and got to work punching in codes into the door panel.
"Alright here goes nothing," Trask said as he readied his hand over the panel, signaling the door was ready to be open. Venar pulled the vibro-sword from behind his back and grasped it in his left hand as he tightened his grip on his blaster in his right hand. He nodded to Trask, and the soldier hit his hand onto a button below the panel and the door hissed open. They rushed in, firing their blasters mowing down several Sith troopers that were completely caught by surprise. Several troopers rushed forward with vibroblades and swords.
Venar ducked under the swing of one of the troopers, firing a quick shot into the trooper's thigh. The impact sent the trooper falling to one knee as Venar quickly spun a kick into the troopers helmet sending him flying backwards in a heap of shiny metallic armor. He brought his left hand up to block a strike from a second trooper rushing towards him. Both blades struck together as Venar parried the blow pushing the trooper back and then firing several shots into the trooper's face plate.
Meanwhile, Trask took down several troopers further across the room with his blaster pistol. All the while, they could see the battle raging outside the viewport above the planet. Starfighters whizzed past the windows of the bridge, streaking bright beams of blaster fire across the atmosphere of the planet-wide metropolis. Several Sith dreadnaughts slowly closed the gap between them and the Endar Spire.
Only three troopers were left on the bridge as Trask shot one several times in the chest. Venar ran up to the other two and with a quick spin sliced the first trooper with a clean hard swipe across the faceplate, leaving a nasty gash in his armor. As that trooper fell backwards, Venar blocked a blow from the second trooper's vibroblade. Venar pushed forward backing the trooper up several steps as their swords remained locked in place, and proceeded to fire several shots with his blaster into the abdomen of the last trooper. The trooper was pushed backward and flipped over a console and landed with a thud on the floor.
"Where in the blazes did you learn to fight like that?!" Trask asked quite obviously impressed.
"Eh, you know, just videos on the holonet."
"Seriously?!"
"No of course not!" Venar laughed," hold up, there's a transmission coming through from another section of the ship." He hit a button on the communications console.
"This is Carth Onasi of the Republic Navy, come in! Can anyone read me?!" The voice came through over the slightly static comm.
"We can read you!" Venar replied, "we've taken back the bridge!"
"Abandon ship soldier!" the voice responded, "Bastila's escape pod is away! We're the only friendlies left on the ship! Get to the escape pods now! I'll wait for you as long as I can! Carth out!"
"Alright soldier," Venar said somewhat sarcastically to Trask, "on the double! Let's get off this blasted ship!"
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Trask replied as another tremor shook the hull. They left the bridge headed down a secondary corridor that lead from the bridge towards the escape pods. Automatic doors were placed strategically along the corridors in case of a hull breach, they could lock down that section of the ship and prevent the rest of the ship from being depressurized. They opened automatically as they ran through the hallway.
"Almost there!" Trask shouted as they could audibly hear the hull of the Endar Spire groan under the stress of the battle outside. The alarms still sounded throughout the ship. They halted as one of the automatic doors hissed open in front of them, immediately followed by the distinct hiss and crackle of a lightsaber igniting. In front of them, stood a bald man with a jet black beard and dark yellow eyes, adorned in a long black robe overlaid with a silver chest plate and gauntlets. Probably most striking, however, was his crimson glowing double-bladed lightsaber.
"Blast it! Run! Get to the escape pods I'll hold him off!" Trask shouted.
"You can't hold him by yourself!"
"There's no time! Go! Now!"
"Blasted Sith!" Venar tossed Trask his vibrosword and took off down an adjacent hallway. He could hear the sounds of the lightsaber and vibrosword clashing a couple times behind him as he ran. Then, only the sounds of Trask's screams that briefly echoed through the hallway only to be drowned out by the alarms of the ship.
He ran as fast as he could. He knew Trask had only bought him only several seconds of a head start, the Sith wouldn't be far behind. He could feel the coldness the Sith radiated. He had never felt anything like it before. He could feel it within his very bones.
He reached the escape pods to see a man maybe only a little older than himself standing there waiting next to the last escape pod. The man waved him on as he ran towards him.
"Get inside!!! Now!!!" Venar shouted as he heard the footsteps of the Sith behind him. The man's eyes widened in fear as he saw the glow of the red lightsaber on the walls of the hallway behind Venar. They both rushed inside in total panic and fear as they both knew they were seconds from certain death. The other man, with lightning reflexes, hit the launch switch and the last escape pod rocketed off into space.