The smoke from the crash began to sting Garon's eyes. As he waved away some soot, he heard coughing from nearby. The 4-armed behemoth wasted no time in freeing a pair of surviving saboteurs from the wreckage. He had only just managed to pull them out when Tok pushed Garon behind some debris. Only a cycle later, a small contingent of Imperials marched through where they had just stood.

Tok could clearly see the anticipation of battle in the eye of the Besalisk.

Xaramis pilots his craft towards the mouth of the debris field. "Alright T5, what does this one do?" Warble-warble-beeple-BEEP! "Ok, pilot ejection, I'll give that one a miss for now I think. And this?" Warble-whirr-wheeeeee! "There's no need to be like that! I've never been in one of these, how should I know what the scanner analysis systems look li-what's that?" he looks up in time to see the debris cloud forming ahead of him - and he's aimed straight for the upper edge of its mouth.

Acting on instinct alone, he throws on the craft's retrothrusters to decelerate the craft and tighten his turn, and swings himself out of formation, cutting down and to the left under the transport, desperate to avoid hitting the debris or any other craft. Whaooooooooooooooooooo! shrieks the droid as he cuts under the transport, the sheer velocity of the turn throwing him wildly in his grav-controlled cockpit, his body straining against the harness. He makes it out of the formation in time, and sees Kellen's craft following a similar trajectory - towards the squadron of Sith starfighters cutting in on a flat trajectory. "Contacts, contacts, point three-sixty. Get the transport through ASAP, we'll get them on the other side."

Lightening the retrothrusters, he guides his craft in a lazy arc back into the mouth of the channel. He opens an open comm link to the rest of the flight. "When we hit the other side they could be all over us. Keep your eyes open," he settles into the cockpit, hands subconsciously - intuitively, even - settling into the controls. Without needing prompting he flips the trigger switch from 'safe' to 'live'. "Alright T5, let's show them what we can do."

Ren-Do is grateful when his wingman manages to find a way to hopefully hide the convoy as long as possible, and follows Rin in. Let the Force be your guide, he thinks to himself to calm him down. "T2, please track the debris and adjust course to compensate for anything too big for our shields," the Cerean tells his droid.

Suddenly the droid bleeps and the on-board computer bellows "Evasive maneuvers, impact imminent. Evasive maneuvers." Fumbling at the controls, Ren-Do barely manages to evade a large piece of metal, possibly the bridge of a cruiser, spinning past his fighter at high velocity. "Oh, that was close. Yes, T2, I should have seen that coming. It was huge. I know you sent a warning. Thank you for that. No. I'm not feeling very good today. No, no, not the stomach again. No, I don't have a headache, and even if I did it would not be that funny. It would hurt. I'm just a little off my game. No, I don't want to talk about it. Hey, no, don't take it like that. It's just that it's a long story. Oh, don't be like that. I'll tell you all about it when we are safe. Yes, I promise. What? Yes, well, I know there is a good chance I'll not make it the way I'm flying, but until now I wasn't sure just how bad my odds were. Thanks for pointing that out and taking the time out of your busy schedule to do the math on that one. Huh? Yes, I know droids can survive in vacuum, but may I point out that that won't happen if we get squashed on one of the big pieces or shredded by a Sith Fighter."

Ren-Do's debate with his droid is cut short when Xaramis broadcasts to the rest of the fighters. ++"Are you sure that's not just more debris? I'm not reading any fighters this way, they seem to be concentrating on the cruisers. We just have to hide from the Sith Cruisers, they are clearly scanning for incoming ships."++

Kellen fell into formation at the rear of the convoy easing up on his thrusters to give himself a little distance behind the last cruiser.

"Yes, B2, any Sith fighters will have to go through us. And now that you mention it, yes, see what you can do to boost the targeting scanners. I want to hit them first."

Kellen divided his attention between the convoy and swarm of Sith interceptors in the distance.

"What's that B2? No, we didn't change squadron names. I just thought I'd personalize the ship a bit and paint a Krayt Dragon on there. I'm a practitioner of the Krayt Dragon form. I didn't now you were programmed to be an art critic. But if you feel that way you're welcome to repaint it, if we survive. Yes, B2 I see them too."

"++We've got incoming. I'll try to run interference.++" Kellen's voice crackled over the comms.

Kellen swung to one side of the channel to get a little closer to a group of Sith infiltrators - doing his best to place his ship between them and the rest of the convoy.

While the maintenance crew works to help the over-laboring fire control systems put out the flames in the hangar and attempt to patch the jagged edges around the hangar door, the squad of Imperial soldiers begins to search the small transport craft. As Tok sneaks closer back towards the ship, he can hear that one of them must be standing away from the rest, reporting the craft and situation to a superior, presumably in the bridge. "Commander Ifram," the soldier says into a handheld communications device, "It appears one of the Je'daii pilots was foolish enough to attempt an attack run on our hangar in a small unarmed transport."

"Foolish indeed," comes the reply soon after. "Anything else to report, sergeant?"

The sergeant pauses a moment. "Well, Commander, there is no sign of the Je'daii on the craft. No bodies, I mean. Requesting further instructions."

There is a long moment before Ifram responds to the sergeant, though he can be heard conversing with someone on the other end of the comms. "Do you require backup, soldier?" a different voice speaks through the comms, in obvious disdain. "Do you and your men fear one or two weakling Je'daii younglings?"

The four soldiers in the sergeant's squad stop what they are doing to listen. They all sound terrified of this new voice. "N-no sir," the sergeant responds after a moment of hesitation. "We have trained long for this day and will succeed in repelling the boarders."

The newer voice chuckles darkly. "No need to be so boastful, sergeant. Our intelligence suggests the Je'daii trainees to be comparable in skill to the weakest of Sith apprentices. You would be right to request reinforcements. I will dispatch three more squads to back you up. Do your best to defend the hangar in the meantime and guard the exits."

The sergeant puffs out a sigh of relief. "Th-thank you, Milord."

"And sergeant?"

"Y-yes sir?"

"If you fail, make sure you die. Else I will do worse things to you and your men."

Before the sergeant can make his horrified acknowledgement of the threat, the commander can be heard from the other end of the comm. "What's that, ensign? signatures at the far end of the debris field? Relay the data to the Rancor Talon. Have her dispatch a squadron or two of fighters to check it out. Be quick about it. The Admiralty doesn't want any ships to escape. Sergeant, you have your orders. Carry on."

"That voice, it sounds just like, but, no, it can't be," Tok thinks. "Besides, this is just barely more than a long-dead Jedi's fantasy, isn't it?"

The Gotal shakes his head, trying to clear his thoughts. It doesn't matter. Regardless of anything else, the danger here feels very real and he, Garon and the other two in the landing craft have an advantage here, one they have to exploit. Tok slinks back to the group and explains the situation. They have to hit fast and hard and get out before reinforcements come. The predatory grin spreading across Garon's face tells Tok all he needs to know. He slips back toward the apparent commander, points Janna and Morra at the Sith, takes a deep breath — in, then out — and fires.

Just after Tok had fired off his shots, Garon had charged into the group of naval troopers. He was quick; quicker than a being of his size should be. For just a brief moment, he was a mass fists and elbows. Though he did not land any serious blows, he managed to knock the weapons out of two of the group's clutches.

Don't just stand there he bellowed to the saboteurs, Shoot something.

The two hastened to get their weapons ready. Through the smoke and dust, it was difficult to tell where the enemies were. A bolt of blaster fire sizzled through the air. One of the saboteurs fired upon its point of origin. To his chagrin, he hit his mark, his fellow saboteur.

Garon heard a yelp from one of his squadmates and must have guessed what had happened.

Not each other, you morons.

Nexu Squadron finally delivers its charges safely to the waiting Jedi cruiser in orbit over Ossus's moon Nerit. As the slow transports dock in the open hangar, the squadron takes formation around the cruiser until the hangar is ready for them to land. A professional, yet moderately cheerful voice calls across the collective communications headset of Nexu. "Welcome home, Nexu Squadron. This is Captain Din Millster. Thank you for delivering the transports safely. If you could, please, continue your formation around us while my men get the transports squared away. We're having a little trouble with our hyperdrive engines at the moment: whatever the Sith Navy did out at the nebula is playing Merry Hob with our navigational array and it's not accepting our coordinate inputs. Please standby."

Shortly after Captain Millster's communication ends, T2 warbles in alarm loudly in Ren-Do's ears. The computer monitors in his X-1's cockpit light up with multiple incoming signals. There are six incoming squadrons of Sith starfighters...

++"They have spotted us. We have incoming, bearing 240-080-310. At least three incoming fighter squadrons in the first wave,"++ Ren-Do reports to his allies.

As he tries to analyze the data further he is interrupted by a rude warble from his astromech droid. "What, oh, you're right T2, he is accelerating. Yes. I am planning to keep up with my wingman, thanks for asking. Accelerate to attack speed. We will need to head out to keep them off the cruiser soon. What? Yes, I know there is a huge amount of debris everywhere. Oh, is that what the manual says about flying in sub-optimal terrain? Well, how about you try to make yourself useful and help me find a safe trajectory to accelerate and prepare to head out and meet them? Yes. I know droids can track multiple objects better than organics. This is why I'm asking you for help. What? Yes, I need you, of course I do. I just said so, what more do you want? Yes, over there will be fine. Now where is Rin? Yes. I know keeping up with my wingman is my job." Ren-Do argues with his droid, wondering how it is he hasn't wiped the little bastard recently.

Rin's flying faster around the ship, looking for an unexpected attack vector on the Sith.

(I'll bulk this out in a little while... Kids being difficult tonight)

"Roger that Ren-Do, coming around now," Xaramis viffs the craft's retrothrusters into a hard, fast turn, slamming forwards over the top of the cruiser, looping around its far side and cutting back in under it, twisting as he does so, to face the approach vector of the oncoming Sith fighters. "All Nexu pilots, we've got six flights of Sith fighters coming in hot, two full squadrons in depth. I could really use some support out here, so here's what we're going to do. I'll spearhead the attack with the second flight; first flight, you hang back to monitor the fighting: if you could link me your targeting data it would make my life - and your lives by extension - a whole lot easier. Nexu Seven, if you could form up on my wing I'd appreciate the flank cover," his brief instructions issued, he switches to an open channel.

"Alright people, I won't pretend this will be easy, but we've got the weight of responsibility on us now. There are thousands of lives resting on the wings of our fighters, so lets fight our hardest to protect them. We each have a personal stake in this battle, but more than that we have our duty - our duty to these people, our duty to the Republic, our duty as Jedi Knights," he smiles, a personal smile within the isolated, impersonal bubble of his canopy. "Nexu Squadron, turn and burn."

"Sound like fighter pilots, they do. Baffling, this jargon is. Fie, think in the new grammar, I must.

There should be some relatively safe path through that mess of moving, spinning detritus. The hologram had difficulty with a library but now it has a space combat, including the trajectories of myriad obstacles for us to fly through. This must be a really nice crystal we are purifying. I wonder if it is a Krayt Dragon pearl. Those are very nice, I have heard. Or maybe Sapith, it is. Fie, the grammar! I will just have to avoid things when I get there."

Giving up on finding a safe path for the moment, Sonya turns to the astromech.

"Bleepity bleep, let's get this thing flying a bit faster. We will keep guarding the cruiser. Do you have any idea where Xaramis is going?

What? Oh, yes, ask him, I could."

After fumbling a bit for the coms, "Is this on? Xaramis, why are you going that way? Everyone else seems to be trying to circle the cruiser at greater speeds."

If you've never seen a Besalisk wade into hand-to-hand combat, it can be very distracting. Just trying to keep up with the roiling sea of arms alone - flying this way and that, knocking weapons from previously steady grips - can be almost hypnotic.

Commander Ifram had never seen one before.

Tok spots the commander's defenses slacken just a bit and uses it to his advantage, squeezing Janna and Morra's triggers again at just the right moment. This time both his shots sail true, one hitting Ifraim squarely in the left shoulder, causing the commander to turn and leave the entire right side of his face open to take the scorching hit from the second shot.

What flesh is left on the side of Ifram's head melts and pops as the former commander's lifeless body drops to the ground. The four soldiers that accompanied him to the hangar see the man fall but don't realize he's dead and move toward the body to check on him.

Unfortunately for them, their lack of discipline leads them directly into Garon's waiting arms - one for each soldier.

The sergeant, seeing blaster bolts firing from the smoke and a hellbeast emerge through the flames with a demonic roar, is about to issue an order to his men and the maintenance crew when a pair of finely aimed blaster bolts take off most of his face. With a choked gurgle, he slumps and is dead before he hits the deck plates. The Maintencance crew swears loudly and dives for cover as fast as they can. The naval troopers are disoriented by their sudden loss of command and don not even fully realize he is dead right away. They retrieve their weapons in a panic and fire at the beast, still missing from point blank range.

~ ~ ~

Micc'm, seeing the incoming bogeys, orders the rest of the squadron to form up in their respective wings. "This is it, Jedi. The Force is with us, but do not be a hero. Heroes get themselves and other people killed."

Rin circles the Carrier, watching the approaching Sith on his scanner screen. They appear to be coming in hot, slicing their way through the debris left over by this disrupted system. Rin keys his mic to talk to his wingman.

"Ren buddy, we better bloody speed up, those fighters are coming in hot and if we want to get you through this we better get you moving faster than they can aim. Some escorts wouldn't hurt either, any chance you can talk some into helping us?"

He releases the button and dodges large chunk pushing forward on the stick and pushing the engines to maximum output [bloody hope this works]

Ren-Do is busy trying to figure out how to operate the targeting computer when he hears Rin's voice over a private channel. He is about to respond by admonishing his friend for using only the first part of his name, but decides that they can have that conversation later. Assuming they survive.

++"Are you sure that's a good idea Rin? We'll be pulverized if we hit debris."++ He looks at his instruments as he speaks. ++"Oh, somehow I thought we were going faster."++ The Cerean manipulates the controls, increasing the velocity to match Rin's.

Ren-Do checks his screens to see how their forces are arrayed. He then opens a channel to the rest of the fighters. ++"Nexu 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29, form up on me, I've calculated a good attack vector through the debris. Stay close and follow my lead when we attack."++

"Roger that, Jedi Knight Uvara," comes the voice of Nexu 27. The five pilots in Nexu Wing Four increase their speeds to match Ren-Do and form up around him.

"Nexu Wing One forming up around Knight Bahh," comes the voice of Nexu 3 over the comms.

"Nexu Command Wing," Micc'm orders. "Form up around Knight Damascene. I can handle my own against these scum."

"Roger, Commander."

"As you wish, master."

"Yes, sir."

"*sonorous Wookiee acknowledgement*"

The nine DeltaX-1s in the two wings form up around Rin and Sonya's craft.

"Xaramis you look a little exposed out tnere, I'll form up on your wing"

Kellen turned his fighter towards Xaramis and the whine of his engines filled the cockpit.

"Yes, B2, it looks like things are about to get serious"

Garon bellowed a feral growl as he began another volley of strikes and jabs. This time he was true to his mark. He managed to land a number of crippling blows upon the Naval troopers. So effortless were his strikes that the other Imperial combatants couldn't help but stop and marvel at the savage Jedi that had rushed so recklessly into battle.

Again surveying the debris for a path of least difficulty, Sonya noticed Ren Do following what seemed a likely possibility but its continuously changing twists still eluded her.

"Some will use their intellect, others must use their other strengths."

She veers her ship towards a different area to give the others room steadily increasing her velocity.

"Nexu command wing, we need to increase our speed. If we don't those Sith will be swooping at us like a Hawkbat on a Lothcat."

"Copy, Knight Damascene," comes the voice of the temporary wing leader. The four ships accelerate to match Sonya's speed.

"This is Nexu Wing Three," comes the voice of a young woman. "Commander Altonis, we'll move in to link up with the newcomer, master. Hope he doesn't mind." When Wing Three moves in around Xaramis's ship, he can just barely make out a lovely Togruta female who winks at him when she forms up to his right.

"Copy, Padawan," Micc'm says. "Nexu Squadron, don't move too far ahead. Remember, we are here to protect the cruiser, not defeat the Sith Navy. Your lesson is this. What may be viewed as cowardice by some is heroism in the eyes of those whose lives you will save now and in the future."

Tok can hear the slight echo of Micc'm's voice in his head. "Well...this is certainly an unexpected development..."

~ ~ ~

The Sith starfighters are continuing on their course towards the Jedi cruiser and Nexu Squadron, The squadrons that have moved into range of vision appear to be dark red in color.

Tok hears Micc'm's voice and replies, "You really have no idea what you're doing, do you?"

No one thinks he's crazy, however, thanks to the bumbling saboteurs that have somehow managed to trip over each other right before the words leave his lips.

He immediately refocuses on the squad of troopers with which Garon is entangled. Taking an extra moment to aim carefully and avoid the raging Besalisk, he drops two more of the troops with surgical precision.

Seeing the final trooper back away in fear, Tok glances around, hoping to see more than one exit or another potential way out of the hangar. He knows more troops are coming and this time he, Garon and the wonder twins won't have the element of surprise on their side.

"No, not you, Veltok. Something to do with the members of the group who are piloting the DeltaX-1s. The flow of the Force has been altered in the kyber crystal, possibly related to..." his voice trails off.

The maintenance crew flees towards a bulkhead at the fore end of the hangar. The remaining Sith Naval trooper flees a few feet and dives behind cover. "This is trooper Behn! Requesting reinforcements in the starboard hangar bay! The Je'daii are still alive! They killed Sergeant Ifraim and the other troopers in my squad!"