Jaina Solo Fel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
solo_sword) wrote2009-05-06 05:00 pm
solo_sword) wrote2009-05-06 05:00 pm
Ylesia, Wednesday Fandom time
Jaina always expected plans to go wrong on some level, which was why she hardly blinked an eye when the Vong sent reinforcements to help the Peace Brigade. It just seemed like something she should have known would happen anyway. She and Lowie were in the landspeeder with a bickering Thrackan and Pwoe, and while she wanted to bang their heads together a little, there was nowhere for them to go. The larger military speeders had been picking up slaves and refugees from the streets as they made their way away from the Senate building, leaving them packed to a standing room only crowd.
The explosions started when they reached the outskirts of the city, nearing the landing zone. They were theirs, too, destroying the Brigaders' building and the evacuated buildings that would send a message, but what followed was all Vong.
When Jaina looked up, she saw a quednak ahead, a huge six-legged riding beast with Vong sitting atop it in a basket. The first speeder in the convoy couldn't stop in time before hitting it. While everyone inside would be fine, it didn't make the animal happy, especially when a second speeder slammed into it. The beast roared up onto its hind legs, enraged, and as the speeders' cannons began firing on it, Jaina realized she herself had nothing that was going to kill the thing. Perfect.
As her speeders' commander ordered them to take another way, the shadow of another quednak fell over them from behind, essentially blocking the line of speeders in the street. At that point Jaina decided she might as well try, and grabbed her lightsaber, running to the back of the speeder and launching herself in the air onto the creature's back with a Force assist from Lowie. She'd thank him for that later.
This was not the ideal surface on which to fight, but that didn't stop one of the Vong inside the basket to come out to take care of her, leaving the other to direct the quednak. The thing was lurching around, nearly trampling landspeeders, being shot at, but when the Vong warrior tried striking at Jaina with his amphistaff, the playing field was the least of her problems. However, her initial thrust with her lightsaber towards the warrior's face was met with a circular parry with the amphistaff that almost knocked her weapon from her hand. Even in the middle of everything she made a mental note to work on that, as this was nearly the second time that had happened.
She knew what he was doing. No matter what she did, he was able to block her. It was the same thing she usually did, staying on the defensive, probably to keep her busy. Doubly frustrated now, she attacked harder, right up until that little tingling of danger sense in the back of her mind had her suddenly dropping flat onto the quednak's back seconds before cannon fire streaked over her where she'd just been standing. The Vong warrior, disoriented, was easy now, and Jaina pushed herself up on one hand, sweeping one leg to knock his legs out from under him, and sent him tumbling off the quednak and onto the ground below. Ha.
She didn't even get the chance to take out the one directing the animal from the basket; blaster fire did that for her, which she would have appreciated more had she not been heading towards it at the time. She also would have appreciated the volley of blasts slamming into the thing, causing it to rear up and send her tumbling off its back.
The landing was still hard, even with the Force to cushion her, and she barely had time to survey the scene around her before she heard the roars of the quednak again and looked up in time to see a few blaster bolts to the head take it down, which meant she was scrambling back quickly to get out of its way before it fell on her. She decided she didn't like the way this was going.
When Jaina got to her feet, she saw that it was worse than she'd thought. Though both quednaks had been taken out, they'd caused a lot of damage, and now were blocking the convoy in the street. A lot of the civilians and slaves were wounded, and being piled onto the already-overcrowded surviving landspeeders, and there were ships flying overhead now, firing down into the street below. Analyzing the situation, Jaina knew there wasn't much she could do at the moment, and made her way to Lowie's side to begin trying to free civilians of some of the rubble they'd been buried under in all the fighting.
It shouldn't have come as a surprise when an army of Vong came piling over one of the dead quednaks with a battle cry, razor bugs hurtling through the air as a first wave of offense. She pulled her lightsaber free again, slicing the bugs down away from those around her when she could, but with things as they were with the overcrowding, the New Republic soldiers could only do so much and they were taking a lot of innocent casualties. After one warrior ran a woman through with his amphistaff just to try and get to Jaina, it became time to suck it up and admit that they were going to have to do this another way.
"We've got to get these people into the buildings where we can protect them!" she shouted to anyone who could hear. "Get them moving!"
When some of the civilians had been herded back into the buildings, it became easier for those who were supposed to be doing the fighting to do their jobs. By the time General Jamiro and his team were ushered in, all wounded, Jaina and Lowbacca gave up on the fight outside and headed into the restaurant where they'd been holding the civilians. With the soldiers outside taking out the Vong, the Jedi stayed inside to guard the viewport windows, cutting off attacks to protect those inside. Additional help came with Colonel Tosh and the second half of the convoy, which had been cut off from the first half in the attack, were finally able to make their way through in order to add to the defense until the enemy finally retreated.
Now that everyone was finally able to take a breath, General Jamiro got on his comm, holding himself up against the wall. "What's behind us?" he asked. "Can we pull back to the north, then rendezvous with the landspeeders?"
"It's uncleared forest, sir," one of the soldiers replied. "The landspeeders couldn't get through it, but we could move through on foot."
"Negative. We'd lose all cohesion in the woods and the Vong would hunt us to death." He turned to look out the shattered front viewport. "We've got to get back to the landspeeders somehow, then take another route around the roadblock. Tell Colonel Tosh he's got to give us covering fire as we break out. But we're still going to lose a lot of people once everyone gets into the street."
Of course they were. Luckily Jaina's comlink went off before she could dwell too long on that thought. "This is Solo."
"This is Colonel Fel. Are you in difficulty? The other Jedi seemed to think so."
It was a relief to know they were all still up there, it really was. "The column's run into an ambush and has been pinned down," she said. "What's your location?"
"I'm with Twin Suns Squadron in orbit. We're on standby, waiting for you and Lowbacca to rejoin us. An enemy fleet has appeared and the situation has grown urgent. It's imperative that the landing force return to orbit as soon as possible."
"You don't say," Jaina said dryly. And while she honestly didn't mind if Jag was taking on her squadron while she was down here, she was really hoping John was following orders if Jag was taking that tone with her.
"Stand by," Jag told her. "I'll lead the squadrons on a bombing and strafing run and blast you out of there."
"Negative," Jaina said. "The Vong are right across the street, too close. You'd hit us, and we've got civilians here."
"I still may be able to help. Stand by."
Knowing she wasn't going to get much of an answer besides that, Jaina turned to the general. "Did you hear that, sir?"
Jamiro nodded. "Even if he can't do a strafing run, starfighters might keep the Vong's heads down. We'll wait."
His next transmission came through at the end of yet another power struggle between Thrackan and Pwoe, a moment after the familiar sound of a claw fighter passed over the area. That would be Jag, all right. "Our forces are on the north side?" he commed, sounding thoughtful.
"Yes, but-"
"The Yuuzhan Vong are regrouping. They'll be launching another assault in a few minutes. I'll commence a bomb run with our two squadrons to break up the attack. Tell your people to stay under cover, and be ready to run."
"No!" Jaina said. "I know my pilots! I haven't been able to train them all for this! They don't have the experience!"
"Stand by, Twin Leader. And tell those soldiers standing on the dead animal to take cover."
When this was over, she was hitting him. Just because he was frustrating. She quelled any little fit she really wanted to have right now, noticing Jamiro watching her and listening before comming Jag's instructions back to Colonel Tosh. And then people, beginning with the general, began taking cover under the tables and behind furniture to prepare for what ws going to come next.
Jaina stayed on her feet, heading towards the broken viewport to watch what was happening. Jag's Vanguard Squadron was in the lead, and she knew Twin Suns would be by in a minute, acting as second wave once the more experienced Chiss squadron had drawn the initial fire. When the firing began, Jaina quickly moved away from the window, diving under the table beside Lowie. "You know," she said, "sometimes Jag is really-"
She'd been around a lot of explosives in her time, but this was different. She could feel the concussions of Vanguard's first wave, bright lights from the blasts still visible behind her closed eyelids, debris and transparisteel from what was left of the windows blowing inwards into the building. There were twenty-one detonations, and then silence. Not that Jaina could hear the silence, with all the ringing in her ears suddenly. She almost couldn't hear Jag comm to her that Twin Suns was following up, and Jaina called a warning to the others, and then it was the same thing all over again.
More silence for a long moment, either waiting for something to happen, or waiting for things to settle down and stop happening. Finally Jamiro got up from under the table, looking pained from his own injury, and pulled out his comlink.
"Soldiers, take up positions to cover the civilians! All noncombatants to the speeders, and then the rest of us follow!"
As people began piling out from under their cover, knowing they were finally getting out of here, Jaina decided that all right, maybe she wouldn't hit Jag for this.
[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Dialogue taken from Ylesia by Walter Jon Williams. I hate, hate, hate, HATE paraphrasing action scenes.]
The explosions started when they reached the outskirts of the city, nearing the landing zone. They were theirs, too, destroying the Brigaders' building and the evacuated buildings that would send a message, but what followed was all Vong.
When Jaina looked up, she saw a quednak ahead, a huge six-legged riding beast with Vong sitting atop it in a basket. The first speeder in the convoy couldn't stop in time before hitting it. While everyone inside would be fine, it didn't make the animal happy, especially when a second speeder slammed into it. The beast roared up onto its hind legs, enraged, and as the speeders' cannons began firing on it, Jaina realized she herself had nothing that was going to kill the thing. Perfect.
As her speeders' commander ordered them to take another way, the shadow of another quednak fell over them from behind, essentially blocking the line of speeders in the street. At that point Jaina decided she might as well try, and grabbed her lightsaber, running to the back of the speeder and launching herself in the air onto the creature's back with a Force assist from Lowie. She'd thank him for that later.
This was not the ideal surface on which to fight, but that didn't stop one of the Vong inside the basket to come out to take care of her, leaving the other to direct the quednak. The thing was lurching around, nearly trampling landspeeders, being shot at, but when the Vong warrior tried striking at Jaina with his amphistaff, the playing field was the least of her problems. However, her initial thrust with her lightsaber towards the warrior's face was met with a circular parry with the amphistaff that almost knocked her weapon from her hand. Even in the middle of everything she made a mental note to work on that, as this was nearly the second time that had happened.
She knew what he was doing. No matter what she did, he was able to block her. It was the same thing she usually did, staying on the defensive, probably to keep her busy. Doubly frustrated now, she attacked harder, right up until that little tingling of danger sense in the back of her mind had her suddenly dropping flat onto the quednak's back seconds before cannon fire streaked over her where she'd just been standing. The Vong warrior, disoriented, was easy now, and Jaina pushed herself up on one hand, sweeping one leg to knock his legs out from under him, and sent him tumbling off the quednak and onto the ground below. Ha.
She didn't even get the chance to take out the one directing the animal from the basket; blaster fire did that for her, which she would have appreciated more had she not been heading towards it at the time. She also would have appreciated the volley of blasts slamming into the thing, causing it to rear up and send her tumbling off its back.
The landing was still hard, even with the Force to cushion her, and she barely had time to survey the scene around her before she heard the roars of the quednak again and looked up in time to see a few blaster bolts to the head take it down, which meant she was scrambling back quickly to get out of its way before it fell on her. She decided she didn't like the way this was going.
When Jaina got to her feet, she saw that it was worse than she'd thought. Though both quednaks had been taken out, they'd caused a lot of damage, and now were blocking the convoy in the street. A lot of the civilians and slaves were wounded, and being piled onto the already-overcrowded surviving landspeeders, and there were ships flying overhead now, firing down into the street below. Analyzing the situation, Jaina knew there wasn't much she could do at the moment, and made her way to Lowie's side to begin trying to free civilians of some of the rubble they'd been buried under in all the fighting.
It shouldn't have come as a surprise when an army of Vong came piling over one of the dead quednaks with a battle cry, razor bugs hurtling through the air as a first wave of offense. She pulled her lightsaber free again, slicing the bugs down away from those around her when she could, but with things as they were with the overcrowding, the New Republic soldiers could only do so much and they were taking a lot of innocent casualties. After one warrior ran a woman through with his amphistaff just to try and get to Jaina, it became time to suck it up and admit that they were going to have to do this another way.
"We've got to get these people into the buildings where we can protect them!" she shouted to anyone who could hear. "Get them moving!"
When some of the civilians had been herded back into the buildings, it became easier for those who were supposed to be doing the fighting to do their jobs. By the time General Jamiro and his team were ushered in, all wounded, Jaina and Lowbacca gave up on the fight outside and headed into the restaurant where they'd been holding the civilians. With the soldiers outside taking out the Vong, the Jedi stayed inside to guard the viewport windows, cutting off attacks to protect those inside. Additional help came with Colonel Tosh and the second half of the convoy, which had been cut off from the first half in the attack, were finally able to make their way through in order to add to the defense until the enemy finally retreated.
Now that everyone was finally able to take a breath, General Jamiro got on his comm, holding himself up against the wall. "What's behind us?" he asked. "Can we pull back to the north, then rendezvous with the landspeeders?"
"It's uncleared forest, sir," one of the soldiers replied. "The landspeeders couldn't get through it, but we could move through on foot."
"Negative. We'd lose all cohesion in the woods and the Vong would hunt us to death." He turned to look out the shattered front viewport. "We've got to get back to the landspeeders somehow, then take another route around the roadblock. Tell Colonel Tosh he's got to give us covering fire as we break out. But we're still going to lose a lot of people once everyone gets into the street."
Of course they were. Luckily Jaina's comlink went off before she could dwell too long on that thought. "This is Solo."
"This is Colonel Fel. Are you in difficulty? The other Jedi seemed to think so."
It was a relief to know they were all still up there, it really was. "The column's run into an ambush and has been pinned down," she said. "What's your location?"
"I'm with Twin Suns Squadron in orbit. We're on standby, waiting for you and Lowbacca to rejoin us. An enemy fleet has appeared and the situation has grown urgent. It's imperative that the landing force return to orbit as soon as possible."
"You don't say," Jaina said dryly. And while she honestly didn't mind if Jag was taking on her squadron while she was down here, she was really hoping John was following orders if Jag was taking that tone with her.
"Stand by," Jag told her. "I'll lead the squadrons on a bombing and strafing run and blast you out of there."
"Negative," Jaina said. "The Vong are right across the street, too close. You'd hit us, and we've got civilians here."
"I still may be able to help. Stand by."
Knowing she wasn't going to get much of an answer besides that, Jaina turned to the general. "Did you hear that, sir?"
Jamiro nodded. "Even if he can't do a strafing run, starfighters might keep the Vong's heads down. We'll wait."
His next transmission came through at the end of yet another power struggle between Thrackan and Pwoe, a moment after the familiar sound of a claw fighter passed over the area. That would be Jag, all right. "Our forces are on the north side?" he commed, sounding thoughtful.
"Yes, but-"
"The Yuuzhan Vong are regrouping. They'll be launching another assault in a few minutes. I'll commence a bomb run with our two squadrons to break up the attack. Tell your people to stay under cover, and be ready to run."
"No!" Jaina said. "I know my pilots! I haven't been able to train them all for this! They don't have the experience!"
"Stand by, Twin Leader. And tell those soldiers standing on the dead animal to take cover."
When this was over, she was hitting him. Just because he was frustrating. She quelled any little fit she really wanted to have right now, noticing Jamiro watching her and listening before comming Jag's instructions back to Colonel Tosh. And then people, beginning with the general, began taking cover under the tables and behind furniture to prepare for what ws going to come next.
Jaina stayed on her feet, heading towards the broken viewport to watch what was happening. Jag's Vanguard Squadron was in the lead, and she knew Twin Suns would be by in a minute, acting as second wave once the more experienced Chiss squadron had drawn the initial fire. When the firing began, Jaina quickly moved away from the window, diving under the table beside Lowie. "You know," she said, "sometimes Jag is really-"
She'd been around a lot of explosives in her time, but this was different. She could feel the concussions of Vanguard's first wave, bright lights from the blasts still visible behind her closed eyelids, debris and transparisteel from what was left of the windows blowing inwards into the building. There were twenty-one detonations, and then silence. Not that Jaina could hear the silence, with all the ringing in her ears suddenly. She almost couldn't hear Jag comm to her that Twin Suns was following up, and Jaina called a warning to the others, and then it was the same thing all over again.
More silence for a long moment, either waiting for something to happen, or waiting for things to settle down and stop happening. Finally Jamiro got up from under the table, looking pained from his own injury, and pulled out his comlink.
"Soldiers, take up positions to cover the civilians! All noncombatants to the speeders, and then the rest of us follow!"
As people began piling out from under their cover, knowing they were finally getting out of here, Jaina decided that all right, maybe she wouldn't hit Jag for this.
[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Dialogue taken from Ylesia by Walter Jon Williams. I hate, hate, hate, HATE paraphrasing action scenes.]