Orbit

Here, you can deal with your business off-world if you prefer. Unfortunatley, the planet of Naboo is often blockaded, letting noone in or out, or even to hang around in orbit for very long. Sometimes you'll see it unblocked, but most of the time you'll be dogding lazer-fire from some greedy company trying to take over the planet's trade if you want to get anywhere near the surface of the planet.

The shuttle came out of lightspeed at the orbit of Naboo alone. The army following Xeht, Xeno, Lenora, Samus, Bloodshot, and Zaras had been ordered to stay at a nearby moon until called for.

The place was heavily blockaded. "Some time for a Blockade to happen," said Xeht. "Xeno, you and I will use the turrets on our shuttle. You take the bottom gun, I'll take the one on top. Samus, you take the main guns and rockets. Lenora, your'e driving."

Xeht climbed into the high turret of the shuttle and Xeno jumped down into the lower turret. Samus was already blasting away at enemy starfighters. He opened fire with the quad-cannon, blasting away incoming fighters. He shot down 5 in 5 seconds. Xeno, however, had shot down 10 in that time.

"Show off," Xeht said as Xeno laughed. Then again, the more he thought about it, the more it made since. The ships would obviously be concentrated more on the bottom part of the ship than the top, because it was more likely to be less armed. They were wrong....

Xeht fired at any ship he could see, then, saw an opportunity for a good trick. He shot at the lower-wing of a TIE Interceptor, sending it carreening into another starfighter that must have been from before the Clone Wars. This older ship contained more flamable fuels, and the following explosion engulfed another 10 ships.

"Alright, Xeht, your'e almost home," Kane said.

"I know, I know! Don't you think I can recognize my own planet?"

"Do you really have to go so soon?" Xeno asked.

"Yeah, Lenora will get worried about me and the remnants of the Trade Federation Blockade still need to be fought off," Xeht replied. "But your'e welcome to stay a while if you like."

"Awesome!!" Xeno was gone in a flash, and then he flashed back with sunglasses, a camera, and a tacky hawaiian shirt.

Kane supressed a laugh. Then, his comm beeped. He switched it on, and spoke into it. "Yes?"

"Did you get Winters?" Omas asked.

"He's dead. Someone else killed him while we were busy fighting his guards. You don't have to pay me."

"Very well. But here's a tip for effort."

Kane's datapad chirped, and he found 500 credits had been sent. "Thanks," he said. He hesitated. "I'm going to need some time off. The something happened during the mission that really shook me up, and I need some time to myself to think. I'll let you know when I'm available again. Most of the bounties I get come from people in the senate, so just let them know."

"Understood. Take some time off, and good luck."

"Thank you, Chief of State Omas." He closed the comlink, and turned to the group. "I'll drop you guys off here. I need to think over that whole thing with Darth Phobos. I'll come back soon."

"And I need to get back to the Jedi Temple," said Yurisue. "You'll be returning to Coruscant, right?"

"Yeah, for a brief few minutes."

"Sweet! BloodShot, when was the last time we had a good time?" BloodSHot shrugged. "Well, we'd better get started! Any beaches on this planet? I bet Samus could use a vacation too, and she looks killer in her 2 piece!"

Just as Kane's shuttle was leaving orbit, a Trade Federation cruiser detected it. It sent a few Vulture Droids after the shuttle, and they opened fire.

"AAAAAAGGGGHHHH! I've lost control of this thing!" Kane shouted. As the lasers burned through the sheilds and wiped out all the steering controls. "Hurry! Get to the escape pod!"

"Not without you!" Yurisue shouted.

"You don't have a choice! GO!!!" He used and uncontrolled Force Push to send her careening into the back of the ship, into the open escape pod. He crused under his breath that he hadn't installed an auto-launch. He needed to stay behind and lauch the pod himself. The pod launched and floated back to Naboo. Kane, wasting no effort in trying in vain to bring the ship under control, pulled on an evac suit and headed for the cargo-hold, which would survive any possible explosion. He was suprised then, to find three people in it already, wearing the evac suits.

"No time for questions, I guess," Kane said. "We're in this together for now, so let's avoid the 'who are yous.'"

He sealed the hatch and fell off the latter and to the ground as the cargo hold rocked very violently, which probably meant that the rest of the shuttle was destroyed. All he could do now was hope that the cargo-hold's life-mask systems were still functional. The Trade Federation would be unable to detect any signs of life, which was what Kane needed for this kind of emergency.

The explosion sent them way out of the planet's orbit, and Kane could only hope that whereever they ended up, they would be alive and well.