Project Boussh: Softly Softly
by Majick

"Slicer Team two, head for one of the computer rooms on this level. My team
and I will make for a nerve centre."
Mike felt the Red Home shake around him as the transport's shields absorbed
a continuous barrage of turbolaser blasts.   Spared the luxury of windows,
he and the rest of his fellow passengers had to imagine how close they were
to the Admonitor.
Still, if Sci was issuing orders, chances were good that they were close,
right?
The ship shook again, as the Admonitor fired on it at point blank range.

Elassar grimaced as a section of the Red Home's control panel went dark.
That was never a good sign, whatever Cubber might be translating it as. Up
ahead, he could see past the Gaia, and into the docking bay they were headed
for. There seemed to be a motherload of TIE Interceptors in there.
Then the docking bay exploded.

Down in the belly of the Home, Mike and Kirney glanced at one another. Even
above the blasting as the turbolasers fired on the ship, they'd felt the
turbulence.
"Distraction," Kirney murmured. At least, it sounded like a murmur. He
could tell she was shouting, but the noise was so loud in this uninsulated
part of the transport, it was difficult to hear anything else.
A pipe burst above their heads, venting coolant down onto the captive
passengers. Mike batted at the cycle lock holding his seat straps in place,
but couldn't muster the co-ordination to turn the dial, and release the
restraints.
Blackness began to creep in, around the edges of his vision.

Cubber had tried everything short of hitting the panel with his
hydrospanner, but the news wasn't getting any better. The Home was
overloading, its shields draining energy from the power grid that almost
didn't exist. Coolant was flowing through he ship's pipes at a dangerous
rate. He looked around, but he was as blind as Mike was to how close they
were to their target.
He hoped it was very.
Then a warning light flashed on, warning of a coolant leak in the passenger
area.
Cubber stared at it blankly for a second in disbelief.

Elassar's heightened senses didn't need the warning klaxon. He'd noticed
the increase in pitch as the power grid became more and more taxed. He
rolled the Home again, desperately trying to absorb the turbolaser blasts on
shields that had the most energy to spare.
He was very aware that the difference in shield rates around the ship was
marginal.
He was even more aware that the shield rates were marginal, too.

The Noghri had sprung into action as soon as the pipe burst. Working
silently, conserving energy, some had freed Mike and the others from their
straps, while others had formed a small pyramid so one could reach the
coolant valve and turn it off.  With the clouds of white mist fading, Mike
spluttered and looked around.
Alison and Morwen had been sitting furthest from the pipe, and seemed fine.
Kirney had been directly underneath it, and looked, well...
"Say it, Mike," she spluttered.
"You look awful," he yelled. "Myn is going to kill me!"
"Let's hope he gets a chance," she said, then doubled over as she was
racked with a coughing fit. A Noghri stood over her, effortlessly balancing
on the bucking floor. He held an oxygen mask to her face, and helped her
recover her breath.
Mike looked off to the far corner where Josh sat with his complement of
Ewoks. The Aussie looked as bad as any of them, but had his furry retinue to
look after him. Mike had to worry about his team, and try to forget about
the rest of his friends.
To that end, he looked around at the Noghri he'd been assigned, but sighed
at the pointlessness of it. They were double tough, with tough to spare, and
he knew that the only time he'd hear them complain about an injury was if it
stopped them being lethal to someone.
"You are the weakest link," he whispered to himself. The comment, lost to
his ears, at least raised a half smile on his lips.

Cubber had managed to re-route the coolant, but still stared worriedly at
the readouts of the power grid. The shields were glowing a bright red that
he knew wasn't good. He ignored the numbers the readout was giving him, and
instead listened to the pitch of the shield generators.
They didn't sound good.
He activated his comlink. "Elassar, this is Cubber."
"We're really, really busy here Cub," Elassar's voice hissed.
"Listen, boy, I know we're busy. That's why you have to listen to me,"
Cubber replied. His tone made it clear that captains come and go, but chief
engineers are a hardy breed.
"Go ahead," Elassar said, his voice strained.
"Drop the shields," Cubber said.

"Are you insane?" Elassar half screamed.
"The generators will blow if they have to take this much power for too much
longer. Drop the shields, shift the power to the engines, and we can run
into the docking bay like a nek with its tail on fire."
Elassar actually paused briefly to consider the plan. Only a frightened
squeal from Kirney's astromech made him jerk the pilot's yoke hard to one
side, rolling the ship.
"It's insane," he thought.
"Unexpected," he thought. "With the virtue of it being a plan the likes of
which would grace the Wraiths at the height of their powers."
The short internal debate concluded, he nodded to Dia in the co-pilots
seat. She grasped the shield lever as he snaked his grip around the
throttle.
"Three... Two... One... Yub yub!" they yelled in unison, yanking on their
respective controls.
The Red Home leapt forward, its speed building to 25% over rated levels.
But no-one in the testing team would have run unshielded against an
Imperator-class Star Destroyer.

The passengers had returned to their seats as the coolant finally
disappeared. Mike tried to shunt the long term affects from his mind, when
he felt the ship surge forward. He gripped the edges of his seat, his
knuckles whitening as the ship shook.
Then he heard a new sound, a rhythmic pulsing, reverberating through the
ship. He sat still for a second, reaching out to try and identify the sound,
then he grinned as he recognised it.
The Red Home's own laser turrets were beginning to fire repeated blasts.
That meant their target was in sight.
As though as to confirm the theory, the shaking of the ship began to
lessen, eventually dying completely as the Home moved inside the Admonitor's
docking bay.

Elassar brought the Home to a none-too-gentle stop, actually dropping the
last half metre as the repulsorlifts lost power.  Immediately he contacted
Cubber.
"Don't worry," the veteran mechanic replied. "It's on the to do list. By
the time we get out of here, you'll think you're flying a new ship."
Elassar graciously forbore to comment, instead switching channels to address
the Mayhem groups.
"This is your pilot speaking," he said, wiping he sweat from his brow.
"Thank you for flying Targon Spaceways, we hope you enjoyed your flight, and
will choose us for your ship to shore abandonment in the near future."
He switched the channel over again, this time to communicate with the Gaia.

The Noghri slipped silently down the ramp, vanishing into the darkened
docking bay's shadows. Mike followed them, less confidently, but fully
alert. He heard a noise in the direction of the Gaia, and moved to
investigate.
He sighed in relief when he realised it was the last of the Boussh team
dismounting. He gave a thumbs up to Becki as his wingmate moved off into the
shadows. Looking around, he headed for the burnt out husk of a nearby
Interceptor.
He grimaced as he stepped over the corpse of a pilot, half burnt away, but
still wearing the distinctive helmet. He felt glad he'd taken the precaution
of wearing a breath mask, at least while in the docking bay.
His coat swirling around him, he darted from shelter to shelter,
encountering no resistance. It didn't surprise him. From the explosion that
had preceded their entrance, and the effects of the Red Home's lasers, he'd
be surprised if anyone had been left alive.

Elassar sat slumped in his chair, listening with half an ear as Cubber and
Koyi Komad kept up the mechanics litany while repairing the damaged systems.
His sharp eyes picked out the tiny hints of movement as his comrades moved
through the wrecked docking bay.
They also picked up the side door opening in the bay, and a squad of
stormies rushing in, setting up an E-Web blaster cannon on its tripod.
"Sharon, action," he murmured into his comlink.
"I have them," the Terran replied cooly. He remembered that she'd served as
a sniper in her teams assault mission. He hoped she could still shoot.

Sharon sat in the port gunner chair, sighting down the gun toward the
stormies.
Her finger hovered over the trigger.
She thought of how Emily had screamed when a wayward shot from Sharon's
rife had caught her in the leg.
Her finger hovered over the trigger.
She caught a flicker of movement in the shadows near the E-Web.
Her finger hovered over the trigger.
The gun was nearly complete.
Her finger hovered over the trigger.
She remembered how bad she'd felt.
Her finger hovered over the trigger.
She dreaded that feeling returning.
Her finger hovered over the trigger.
The stormies saluted as an officer walked into the docking bay.
Her finger hovered over the trigger.
The faint movement resolved itself into the familiar lines of a Noghri.
Her finger hovered over the trigger.
The officer swivelled the gun, and seemed to see the Noghri.
Her finger tightened on the trigger.

Mike jumped as the laser blast slammed into something off to his left. A
couple of cries were swiftly silenced. He spotted the door he was heading
for.
"Impossible," he thought, half stunned. All the Noghri seemed to be there
already. He marvelled at their speed and silent grace.
As he crossed the space between the last burnt out Interceptor and the
waiting Noghri, he was joined by the last of the warriors. He was slipping a
knife into its sheath, but Mike saw that the blade was bloodied.
"Ahkrak?" Mike asked as they joined the group.
"Lieutenant," one of the Noghri said, his voice low. Mike blinked, but
assumed the title was temporary, as he led this mission.
"Well..." he began, then stopped. Standing up straight, he activated the
door control, revealing a poorly lit corridor beyond. Drawing his pistol, he
pointed along the corridor.
"Cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of war!" he declaimed.
Silently, the group moved into the corridor, and the hangar door shut
behind them.