The anger and ferocity, combined with the unexpectedness of Vikon's voice nearly shook the brothers out of their trance. Trychon was the first to recover.
"Lord Vikon, we have had to alter our plans. We have pressing concerns at our current base of operations," Trychon told him.
"That is of no concern to me. Do I have to remind you that you are Sith, and as such, the concerns of those not of our Order matter little. You will stop and set a course for the Bermatrix system immediately," Vikon demanded.
"No. We won't," Raezyr stated flatly.
"WHAT?" Vikon stated incredulously.
"Do I have to remind you that you are not our master? Lord Eiron instructed us to complete the missions on our own time frame, and we have now altered that time frame to suit our concerns," Raezyr informed him with resolve in his voice.
Vikon's eyes filled with fire and his voice became as icy as death. "You forget your place, young Acolyte. I am a Sith Lord. Defy me, and you risk my wrath." Vikon's voice softened a bit, but the cold undertones remained, "The seeds have been sown, and time is now ripe for the fall of the Taxl monks. I have prepared them for your arrival, and we are waiting."
"You'll have to wait a while longer, then, Lord Vikon. We will be there as soon as possible. Right now, our comrades are in peril and that requires our immediate attention," Raezyr stated.
"You may be able to help them, but your destinies lie along a different path. Heed me when I tell you that aiding them does nothing to aid yourselves." Vikon sighed, realizing he wasn't going to change Raezyr's mind. "Fine, I await your arrival, but do not think for a moment that this insubordination will go unpunished!" Vikon said and his image vanished.
Trychon looked over at Raezyr as they came out of their trance. "Maybe he's right, Raez. Di's tough. She can probably handle whatever it is that's going on."
Raezyr shook his head. "Maybe. I don't know, but if we don't go now, will there be anything to go back to later?"
"You've got a good point, but I don't think it's really in accordance with our training to be concerned with helping others. At least not according to Lord Var. He'd be pretty irate if we told him what we're about to do," Trychon said.
"Maybe it's misplaced for a Sith, but all I know is that Dianna's in trouble, and I'll be damned if I let her face it alone."
The upgraded power coupling that Delki had installed added a ten percent increase in speed and lasted nearly the entire trip before burning out. The time it did operate bought them a couple of extra hours. Instead of two days, they broke Hoth's atmosphere in just under 44 hours.
As Raezyr cut the sublight drives and kicked in the repulsor lifts, Trychon radioed the King's Lair to inform them of their arrival, but all that came back across the comm was static.
"They're not answering us, Raez," Trychon informed him.
"Just keep trying, someone has to be there. Delki, Bleetz, Dek, someone..." Raezyr said.
Finally after several more attempts, Zanz's voice came across the speakers, "Negative, Jet Razor, you are not clear to land. You've already done enough around here, go find a new place to infest, Sith," he said, snarling the last word.
Trychon growled right back at him. "Cut it out and open the doors, bantha breath," Trychon said, but once again, only static replied.
"Just use the emergency remote code, Trych," Raezyr suggested.
"I tried that actually, but our codes have been locked out."
"Do you still have remote access to their central computers?"
"Yeah, why?"
"See if you can slice in and override their command codes," Raezyr suggested.
"I should have thought of that. I programmed in a back door while Dek wasn't looking," Trychon grinned.
Raezyr circled above the entrance a few times before Trychon spoke again, still furiously working at the terminal. "Okay, we have to time this right. I can open the doors, but they'll be able to close them again the instant they fully open, so we need to be right at the doors."
Trychon did some quick calculations and Raezyr swung wide, then came around, lining up for a landing. The Jet Razor passed through the hangar doors, just as they began to close again.
The scene inside was one of complete chaos. They looked through the transparisteel cockpit windows in complete disbelief. Three of Dianna's ten ships were missing, and those that were there were in various states of wreckage. Everyone of them were covered in laser score marks, some were still smoking, and two of the fighters didn't even look to be space worthy. Bleetz and Delki were hard at work on the ships, but what concerned them most was Zanz marching across the hangar bay toward them, anger burning in his eyes.
Raezyr shut the ship down and he and Trychon made their way off the ship. As they reached the bottom of the ramp they looked over at Zanz. He looked to be in pretty bad shape, with kolto patches on his side and leg.
Raezyr stepped forward spreading his arms wide as Zanz came close. "What's the big idea..."
His statement was cut short as Zanz' fist connected solidly with his jaw.
No comments:
Post a Comment