SonicxStarWars P2 Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Ambush!

The Freedom Fighters exited hyperspace where they were shocked to find nothing but empty space. They opened their S-Foils and raised Shields, expecting a fight. “That’s weird, I thought there was a little ol’ convoy here needin’ help.” pondered Bunnie.
“You’re right Bunnie! It’s too quiet here.” said Sally.

“Something really stinks here, Sally.” said Rotor.

“I am not liking zis place too much…” groaned Antoine.

Tails then scanned the area, and then reported: “Sally, I’m detecting a small object 1.5 km away, looks like a small ship or satellite.”

“He’s right Sally. I’m also picking up a signal from that Satellite. I wonder….” pondered Kaylor. But then, he realized something. “I think we just made a big mistake.”

“Whaddya mean Kaylor? Are you sayin’…..” but Sonic was interrupted by the sound of his sensors going off. “Wait, I picked up a flight group at 6-7-2-Mark 9. Configuration ain’t anything I’ve seen before.”

“Copy that.” replied Kaylor. “I confirm 2, 4…at least 7 TIE Defender Fighters. This is gonna get rough!”

“TIE Defenders?” asked Bunnie.

“The TIE Defender is a next generation TIE Fighter that was recently developed by the Empire.” explained NICOLE. “The craft is an improvement over the TIE Advanced, and also is equipped with deflector shields and a hyperdrive system. It also contains warhead launchers. Extreme Caution is advised.”

“TIE Defenders, huh? Sounds mondo-ugly!” said Sonic.

“And guess who’s come back for round 3. It’s the Suppression Squad.” said Rotor.

“Aw, great! Scourge and his phonies are back…” groaned Sonic.

And Kaylor was right, for as quick as Sonic, the Suppression Squad exited the nearby Nebula and came from behind, in hopes of catching the Freedom Fighters off guard. But due to the Freedom Fighters modified sensors, they managed to avoid the initial attack, but they scatter and a dogfight began.

“Surprise, Freedom Fighters! Now let’s see how well you fight in space!” said Scourge over the communicator. “Say Sonic, do you like my toy?”

“Yeah.” replied Sonic sarcastically. “Great.”

The dogfight did not go well for the Freedom Fighters, for their X-Wings were heavily outmatched by the Suppression Squad’s TIE Defenders. Both sides exchanged blaster and missile fire, and the Suppression Squad had the upper hand in the fight. Sally, Bunnie and Antoine’s X-Wings take heavy damage from Fiona, Alicia, and Miles, and Rotor’s X-wing is crippled by Boomer and Patch, and then Scourge catches Sonic’s X-wing in his Tractor Beam Weapon, rendering Sonic unable to turn. Scourge then began locking onto Sonic’s X-Wing with a missile, and prepared to fire the kill shot when suddenly, an alerter in Scourge’s cockpit went off, meaning that a missile had been fired at him. He was forced to break off his attack to avoid, but the missile hit him in the rear of his ship. “Hey! Who did that?! Who’s out there?!” shouted Scourge. But his question was soon answered as a flight group of A-Wings and more X-Wings arrived to do battle.

“It’s Stryker Team!” shouted Sally.

“And Rogue Squadron too!” said Antoine.

“Yous just can’t seemin’ to keep you’sa selves outta trouble, now?” said Guts.

“C’mon Stryker and Rogue Groups, let’s get these guys!” said Hoax as he piloted his A-Wing and attacked the Suppression Squad’s TIE Defenders. The Suppression Squad still fought on, confident of victory.

“We have the ultimate fighter in our hands!” screamed Scourge over the communicator. “You will never beat us! No matter how many fighters you have! We’ll wipe you all out!!”

But he was wrong. Despite the TIE Defenders’ advantages, the skill and cunning of the Rebels and Freedom Fighters started to do damage. Patch and Miles’ TIE Defenders were shot up by Tycho Celchu, Hobbie Klivian, and Wes Janson. Alicia, Boomer, and Derok were heavily damaged by Kaylor, Wedge, Cross, Guts, and Hoax. The engines on Fiona’s TIE Defender were damaged by a combined attack by Sally, Soar, and Bunnie. Scourge held out the longest, but he ended up taking the worst damage, he flew until his ship began falling apart due to damage caused by Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Antoine, Root, Hack, and Cipher.

“Scourge, we won’t last much longer against them, we need to retreat!” shouted Derok.

Scourge just snarled, but by now he realized he had no chance of outmatching the Freedom Fighters and their Rebel Allies, so he gave the order to fall back and get reinforcements. The Rebels, seeing their chance to retreat back to base, jumped to hyperspace just before two flight groups of TIE Advanced fighters came to the rescue of the Suppression Squad. The Suppression Squad limped their damaged TIE Defenders back to Robotnik’s Star Destroyer, and Robotnik was enraged at this loss, and was ready to blame the Suppression Squad for this failiure.

“Grrraagggh! Because of your incompetence, the Freedom Fighters are still alive!! Let’s see you get out of this mess now!!”

But Fiona rebutted the statement and said: “No! It was your fault Robotnik! Did you not warn us about Stryker and Rogue Squadron? Why didn’t you detect them sooner? Why couldn’t you contact us?”

Robotnik’s mood soon changed upon that statement. “Well, Snivley?” he snarled.

“Well, we didn’t detect them due to sensor malfunctions until they, well….” said Snivley nervously.

“So you couldn’t pick them up? That was quite incompetent of you both. You’ll take more blame for endangering the lives of some of the Emperor’s top agents.” said Scourge as he and the Suppression Squad turned away. But Scourge wasn’t the least bit worried about Robotnik, for he then whispered to Goran: “Good work Goran. The plan worked.”

“My pleasure sir.” replied Goran.

“Now we move onto the next phase of my plan…” grinned Scourge.

Meanwhile, back aboard the Home One, the Freedom Fighter’s X-Wings were being repaired by their Astromech Droids and repair crews, and while they were at it, Kaylor arrived with a disturbed look on his face. “Kaylor, what’s wrong?” asked Rotor.

“Well guys, as if the Doomsday Project was the least of our concern, I just learned something worse is out there.” said Kaylor.

“Why? What’s worse than the Doomsday Project?” asked Sonic.

“Well, you know that supercomputer that Luke and Dash found aboard the freighter Suprosa?”

“Yeah, what about it?” asked Bunnie.

Kaylor was silent for a moment, but said: “It contained plans for a new Death Star.”

The Freedom Fighters gasped in surprise. “A Death Star? Like the one Luke destroyed at Yavin?” asked Tails.

“Yep, except this one is a new and more powerful version. It’s in orbit above the Forest Moon of Endor.” replied Kaylor.

The Freedom Fighters now had concern on their faces. First the Doomsday Project, and now the Death Star II. “So what are we going to do?” asked Knuckles.

“First, I’m going to bring an old acquaintance of yours in here.” said Kaylor, as he stepped into the hallway, and then came back in, and with him was a purple echidna who Knuckles knew all too well.

“Julie-Su?” he asked.

“Hey Knuckles.” said Julie-Su.

“Before you ask, Stryker team found her on a mission to Kessel, and she was among a group of prisoners that they rescued.” said Kaylor as Julie-Su gave her handshakes and hellos to the other Freedom Fighters. “And now you’re going to come with me to meet with General Madine.” Kaylor then led the other Freedom Fighters to a briefing room where General Madine, Luke, Leia, and Chewie were waiting.

“Greetings Freedom Fighters.” said Madine.

“Hello General. What’cha got for us?” asked Sonic.

“We’ve completed our analysis of the schematics for the Doomsday Project. We’ve found a weakness.” said the General. “The Roboticizer Beam takes energy directly from the ship’s main reactor, and it seems that the device is still very unstable. If we could overload the reactor, it should cause the device to be destroyed.”

“Sounds easy!” said Sonic.

“But what’s the plan?” asked Sally.

“We intend to launch an assault on Robotnik’s forces, which are located in an asteroid belt near Byss. We’ve taken the liberty of modifying the Freedom Star’s jamming devices to be able to render Robotnik’s Droid TIE Fighters and SWAT Bots useless, based on our study of them. That should buy us some time to take that device down. You guys, along with Commander Skywalker, and Stryker Team, are to take a team of Rebel Infiltrators aboard the vessel and sabotage the energy regulators aboard the device.” said Madine.

“Sounds like a plan to me.” said Sally.

“Good.” said Madine. “You will leave immediately with a fleet of Rebel Ships led by the Mon Calamari Cruiser Liberator. Good luck to you all.”

Within minutes, The Freedom Fighters, with Julie-Su in tow, were aboard the Star Tornado, while Luke and his friends were aboard the Millennium Falcon, and Stryker Team, aboard their JV-7 Escort Shuttle, the Mobius Stryker, and were soon accompanying the Rebel Fleet that was going to do battle with Dr. Robotnik and his fleet.