[fic] An Easy Escape

[Astor]

Got bored this morning and knocked something together to kill time.

 

AN EASY ESCAPE Part 1

 

The banging on the door grew louder and more frequent with each passing second. It wouldn’t be long until they planted some charges, and then the blast door would be well, blasted. Shouts from the other side grew in intensity.

 

Sithspit. Vynn frantically bypassed the last code sequences on the damned computer. He wasn’t a slicer, or at least not a very good one, so he had no idea how long it would take, but he knew that it would take longer than the precious few seconds he’d have before a squad of Stormtroopers burst through the door.

 

It went quiet. The shouting stopped. Then he heard the loud magnetic clunk sounds of charges being fitted to the door frame. It really wouldn’t be long now. It never is easy, is it? Cursing, he drew his blaster, and overturned a nearby workstation. It looked like it was made of plasteel, but he didn’t think it would last very long under sustained fire.

 

The shouting started again, this time more frantic. Vynn knew what was next. He covered his ears, but it he knew it wouldn't help. The next five seconds seemed to pass in slow motion. For a moment, the door held, groaning, and bending inwards with the force of the explosion. Then, with extreme force, it flew from the doorframe and into the computer terminal he’d been trying to slice. A dozen white armoured figures burst in, checking the area for their target.

 

This was Vynn’s moment, his best, only chance at getting out alive. He pulled out a small object, and tossed it over the desk. It sailed through the smoke and debris, landing in the center of his attackers. They must not have seen or heard it, as a few seconds later the room was filled with another explosion, this one designed to blind and confuse enemies.

 

The visors on their helmets couldn’t tint fast enough, causing them to scream in pain. That would give him another two minutes to make his escape. But two minutes wasn’t enough to reach his Headhunter…

[Astor]

Part 2

 

Vynn rounded a corner, only to double back as he saw the sentry droid level its blaster cannon in his direction. The droid fired almost instantly, and hundreds of needle like bolts of red energy streamed down the corridor. Within seconds the droid had melted away the durasteel covering the walls of the corridor, revealing the mountainous rock that the base had been carved from.

 

Blast. The droid was blocking the only access to the hangar bay, and he wasn’t carrying anywhere near enough firepower to punch through its duranium armour. He needed to disable it, and fast, before those Stormtroopers he’d blinded regained their senses and followed him. If he had the time, he could have waited for the droid’s blaster to overheat. But he didn’t have that much time.

 

Cautiously, he leaned round the corner to see the droid’s position. Then he saw it. Directly above the droid was a fire suppression system, an old style model that sprayed foam to put out blazes. There was a power line running along the wall. He was confident that if he hit it with a blaster shot, he could set the power line on fire.

 

He carefully pointed his blaster round the corner, and fired. It didn’t catch fire, and now his shot had alerted the droid to his position, which responded by directing the blistering torrent of fire at the corner of the corridor.

 

He had to try another shot. If he failed, he was dead. If he succeeded, he might still be dead… but his chances would be better. He fired again. This time some sparks flew, which then set the power line on fire. A few seconds later, the fire suppression system activated, and amidst the shrill warning siren, started spraying foam in every direction. The foam covered the droid’s photoreceptors, and foam gathering at its feet caused it to lose traction with the floor.

 

Vynn didn’t take any chances. He made his run, streaming down the corridor, despite the foam now covering the floor, and made straight for the large blast doors at the end of the corridor. Escape was closer now, but he still needed to open the bay doors.

 

He pulled out his comlink and messaged his R2 unit. “Whiner, warm up the engines, will you? I’ll be with you in a minute”

[Rev7]

Cool. I like it so far!

[Ferc Kast]

This is very interesting so far; Keep up the good work.

[HIGH ON PIE 14]

Agreed. I like the Vynn's thought process. This is intense, especially for its short length. Keep it up!

 

~HOP

[Astor]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I figure it's about time we had an update.

 

Part 3

 

Whiner tootled in acknowledgement as Vynn blasted at the guard that was controlling the computer terminal to the side of the hangar. It would only be a few minutes now before he could burn through the atmosphere of this gods forsaken rock.

 

Ordinarily, he wouldn’t have gotten out of the hangar, as he’d need to be in two places at once. He couldn’t pilot his ship and lower the bay shielding. But he wouldn’t be a very good spy if he didn’t bring the right equipment. He whipped out a small datacard, which would create a remote link from the terminal to his datapad. All he needed to do was press the right button.

 

Whiner began shrieking warnings at Vynn as he sprinted across the hangar, back to his ship. At least one of them had seen a foam-soaked droid hulk into the hangar. It wouldn’t matter soon, anyway. Soon, he’d be headed straight for the nearest New Republic outpost, with intelligence on Remnant activities in the sector.

 

He launched himself at his ship, his feet just managing to catch the footholds of the ladder as he smacked his head on the canopy. Whiner tootled quietly, concerned for his master’s safety. He tumbled into his cockpit, head first, his face jammed against the center console. He didn’t care about that right now. He reached about for his datapad, and thankfully found it in his jacket pocket.

 

With a press of a button, the shimmering blue field before his ship dissipated, to display the starfield just outside the asteroid. Vynn felt the sudden loss of gravity and atmosphere pull on his small ship. If it could pull that, then…

 

Sure enough, he saw the droid that had moments ago been ready to atomise him float away harmlessly, spitting blaster fire and foam in all directions but his. It would probably keep on doing that until its batteries got low.

 

Don’t get complacent, Vynn. He still needed to actually fly the ship out. By now, he had corrected his awkward position, and was in a much better position to leave. After drifting out of the bay, he increased his speed. He’d need to clear the asteroids before he could make the jump to hyperspace, or he’d end up inside one.

 

It was lucky he’d already disabled the turbo laser defences, then, otherwise he’d have been blasted to pieces as soon as he’d departed. He took his time leaving, just to make the outpost’s commander stew. They both knew that stopping him was impossible. This far from Bastion, it would take the Remnant hours to even make sense of the message.

 

Finally, when he’d decided that he’d had enough, he hit the button. Stars turned blue and started to streak across his viewport. Now all he needed to do was wait the three hours to Coruscant, and his debriefing…

[Astor]

A fourth part (i'm working pretty fast today). This is ostensibly the last part of the 'Escape' story, but I doubt this is the last you'll hear of Vynn, or Whiner .

 

 

Part 4

 

Escapes, of course, in practice, were never that easy. So Vynn spent those following three hours constantly alert, expecting his engines to blow up as a result of sabotage, or something else. It happened. He knew what it was before it had finished.

 

Interdictor Cruiser. It was then that he realised that he should have checked his hull for homing devices, but he was in such a hurry to escape it hadn’t crossed his mind. As his ship was pulled out of hyperspace like a fish from a river, he had Whiner check his position and distance from Coruscant.

 

An hour away. He was deep into The Core now. Republic listening posts must have picked up the Imperial’s presence, so where were they? That didn’t matter. For now, he was alone, with an Interdictor ship and a squadron of T.I.E fighters bearing down on him.

 

“Whiner, activate the shields, and power up the lasers. You know what to do, right?” A message flickered on his viewscreen, detailing the droid’s acknowledgment of his order. He banked hard to port, avoiding two of the oncoming fighters, and their laser fire grazed his starboard shields.

 

His fighter looped round, so that it was headed directly for another two of the fighters. His thumb hit his fire control, and the lasers responded immediately, streaming fire straight into the two fighters. It only hit one fighter, but the hit caused the pilot to spin into his wingmate, resulting in a fireball that consumed both craft.

 

He didn’t see that the three he’d dodged earlier were now in the perfect position to stream fire into his aft shields and engines. He couldn’t dodge them, but he didn’t plan to. Whiner would be just about ready for the next part of the plan. He just hoped those techies at New Republic Intel had done their jobs.

 

“Now, Whiner!” He shouted, as the incoming laser fire began striking the droid’s housing. A small hatch at the back of his fighter opened, and a small yield explosive, filled with debris, yet too small for scanners to register, drifted out. A few meters away, it detonated, concealing the fighter from its pursuers. At that exact moment, Whiner activated the small cloaking device on board. Hopefully, the Imperials would think he’d been destroyed.

 

Sure enough, the T.I.E. fighters arced round once, to double check the scene, and then made for the Interdictor. Half an hour later, it jumped away. Ten minutes later, a Republic scout group jumped in. Vac-heads, he thought. You can never trust them to turn up on time.

 

He deactivated the cloaking device, and opened a channel to the lead ship, an aging Nebulon-B that looked like it had seen better days.

 

“This is ZH-Niner to Republic Fleet” He waited a short while, and his link clicked in response. “Reading you, Niner, this is Guardian control. Are you in need of assistance?”

 

“Well, I was enjoying the view, but I’ve got a coolant leak and a frustrated astro unit here” Whiner shrieked sharply in a retort. “But,” he continued, “I guess I could do with a spell in the ‘fresher”…

[bally3000]

This was amazing =] your very good at writing stories =] hhhmmmmmm...... i wonder what he stole from the empire. lol but great story

[Burnseyy]

read the first part. i like it so far - captured the imagary for me.

 

(Y)

[Astor]

I'm a fan of making each part short, but not too short. The length of these parts is pretty good, I think. It allows the reader to get the story and information quickly - but it think the brevity of each part also reflects the sense of urgency that Vynn feels during his escape.

 

But it's pretty much focused on one thing - escape, which is as expected for a character in that situation. With my new fic, i'm trying to add a broader narrative, and going in for longer chapters. I think it's working pretty well so far.

[Burnseyy]

Indeed, it's very enjoyable. 2nd part read - I loved the idea you had with the fire supression system - and you made it realistic in the fact it didn't work the first time.

 

Bravo.

[Astor]

Well, I figured it would be a good idea to actually use the environment - there's now way he could have charged that droid and survive (well, there was, but it wouldn't be realistic), so I came up with another way of him getting past it.