Chapter 16-Pain

Chapter 16 of Burning Shadows

Thomas quickly threw on his robe and was running straight towards the hangars.  He saw his fighter about to be loaded onto the departing Star Destroyer, then just grabbed it himself with the force and lifted it into the ship, never once breaking his stride.  He jumped on, grabbed a holo-chart with the information.  The Sith Lords had just launched a huge offensive against several different planets.  Many of them were middle-ring planets, but there was only one planet that Thomas was concerned about.  Earth had been attacked.  And he knew, Earth didn't have the capability to hold off the Sith Lords for very long.  As the Star Destroyer took off, he made sure that there were enough troops to hold off this giant invasion of Sith.  Thomas started getting things prepped just as the ship made the jump into hyperspace.  He was frantic.  One of the Jedi Knights came up to him and tried to calm him down, but to no avail.  He finished his preparations, then went up to the deck to check how much further they had until they arrived.  He kept asking every five minutes or so, and when he heard they were almost there, he immediately ran off towards his fighter.  As he reached the hanger, he was stopped by a trooper with a hologram plate.

"I don't have time for this trooper.  Out of my way!"

"Patient, you must be."  Thomas was a bit surprised, looking around expecting to see his master standing somewhere nearby, but saw no one.  Then he realized that he hadn't materialized on the hologram plate just yet.  As Master Elzan came into focus, Thomas became more and more impatient.

"Fear, for your homeworld, you have.  Anger, you feel.  Patience, you must have.  Here to help, the Jedi are."

"Look, we've almost dropped out of hyperspace, so can you just wait until later?"

"Later?  Dead you might be later.  Will kill you, this mindset will.  Focus you must on what is truly important."

"I am focusing on what's important!  Saving my planet from those who seek to destroy it!  Just get off my back!"  Thomas deactivated the hologram, and made his way to his ship.  He hopped in, listened for the command from the deck, then was the first out the hanger doors.  As he flew out, he saw that the enemy only had about two Star Destroyers in orbit.

"Great."  he thought to himself.  "That means there won't be a large number of troops on the ground when we break through the lines."  As enemy fighters came to greet them, Thomas was doing masterful work doing whatever he could.  Within seconds, he was within range of the enemy's shield generator, and blasted it to smithereens, giving the Star Destroyers a clean shot at the bridge.  As a fresh set of fighters came in to take down the second enemy Star Destroyer, Thomas and a squad of fighters helped escort troops down to the surface and to a nearby battlefield where Earth's forces were struggling to hold off the enemy.  As troops landed, Earth's soldiers gave out a cheer.  Thomas got off the ship and immediately ran over to the commanding officer.

"Thank the stars you've come!"

"Skip it bub.  What's the report?"

"Most of the major cities around the globe are being targeted.  We've already lost cities like Moscow, London, even New York.  We've done our best at holding off the enemy here, but we don't know how much longer we can hold out.  Unless you've got a lot of troops up there that can help us."

"We'll do what we can.  Just point me, and we'll start cleaning up this mess."

After about three hours of fighting, the Sith retreated to the cities they had already captured and gave the Republic a much needed rest, as well as gave the Earth troops medical attention.  Thomas was looking over a map with one of the generals and what their next plan was going to be when he noticed something.

"The Sith have taken over Ohio?"

"Yeah.  Oddly enough, it was one of the first locations they took over.  They started around Columbus, then worked their way out from there.  They managed to get just about all the midwest region of the United States, but we held them up around St. Louis.  Seems like they're stopping for now.  Our next offensive is going to take back the United States starting with a launch from Kansas City, and hopefully touching down in New York, where we think we'll find the leader of this band of Sith Lords."

"Don't bother.  I know exactly where their leader is hiding."

A large fleet of fighters and troop transports made their way through heavy fire across several plains and small towns.  All of them headed for the big cities.  But as they passed over a small suburb of Columbus, Thomas activated his smokescreen to make it look like he had been shot down, and landed in a forested area.  He got out, made sure he had everything, and activated his ships cloaking device.

"All right, if I was Jackson bent on getting revenge on his home planet for some stupid reason, where would I hide?"

"Darth Almur, the fighters have passed, and we only managed to shoot down a few of them.  They will be over New York in a few hours."

"Let them pass.  Our troops in the city will deal with them.  Give me descriptions of the ships we shot down."

"Well, we got two clone fighters, a troop transport, and a Jedi fighter."

"A Jedi fighter?  How was it destroyed?"

"It wasn't destroyed in the air sir.  Just hit in the wing, and crashed not far from here sir.  Our scouts are searching for it now."

"Call them back.  They're wasting their time.  The Jedi is still alive, and he's coming for me."

"Sir, how can you be sure?  I mean, it seems like you don't trust us to..." he never finished his sentence, as Jackson lifted him up with his hand and started choking him.

"I don't trust you fools because you always underestimate the Jedi.  Why Darth Miyata thinks his plan will work is beyond me, but this is my plan.  Send out a search party through the city."  He dropped his victim before he could kill him completely.

"At...once...my lord."  the trooper said in gasps.  As he ran out the door, Jackson chuckled evilly a little bit.

"Come to play the hero, have you now Watson?"

Author's Note

another chapter for you to enjoy!
Tell me what you think with a review!

Reviews

[New Theory]

I enjoy this very much, you really are going awesome with this one. The characters and their interaction is noteworthy. Keep going Miles you are doing great. Now the only thing I want to do is know what happens next.

[Miles W.]

All in good time sir. I'm glad you are enjoying it so much though!

[New Theory]

The story is good with action and drama and good dialogues, Keep them coming . :)

[Miles W.]

Thanks! Glad to hear it! Will defiantly keep writing!