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"Blasted!" Davro stated, as the gravity decreased, and the wounds split open that he had just spent time sewing up. "They should really announce these things on loudspeaker before shifting this down." He gritted his teeth, before pulling the field cauterizer from his belt. "You're just going to have to grin and bear this scar, bud. I've wasted too much time on you," he remarked, as the singed flesh closed back up. One of the med techs came running in beside the short man, as he washed his hands in the sterilizing compound.

"We're low on room for yellow cards," he announced, "Any suggestions?"

"Yes," Davro snipped, as he moved to the next patient. "I do. Take some Anticeptin D."

"Uh, what for, sir?"

"For that head sickness you have. I'm guessing you have mental gonnorhea, because every time you talk, you spread it to me. And right now, every time i think, it burns. Either that our you're plain stupid. Which i hope isn't the case because I haven't found the cure yet."

"So the patients?"

"This ship's a kilometer long. Shove the greens down to the end of the hall and fill back up. If that doesn't work, commandere the deck below us for stables. Get back to work and quit bothering me. Why do the rebels get all the good nurses and we're stuck with all the retards..."

~~~~~~~~~~~

At the front of the med bays, the newest batches of injured came through. The first aid stations were filled up, working on the simplest cases and shoving them down to the green rooms as fast as humanly or inhumanly possible. Among the newest groups was a still young girl who had been carried in on a stretcher. The nurse in charge of organization took a glance, and handed a yellow pulse sticker with a three on it. One of the patients sitting on the floor recognized the outfit.

"This is going to need a higher priority. This is a TIE pilot."

"No sir, this is the correct priority. She is actually already been given higher priority over her current status." The nurse rebuked, sending the two to carry the girl off to the first aid station to at least stop the bleeding.

"The ship needs fighter pilots. As your superior officer, I am ordering immediate care be given to that woman."

The nurse stared at the man with a glare that could freeze a rampaging rancor in its tracks. "Your orders mean nothing here. The head himself has ordered that we follow triage prototcol. More importantly, one TIE pilot is not going to save us when we are fixing the ship. The more of the engineering crew there is kept alive, the more we can fix. That was part of the captain's orders."

The officer stared back. "This is insubordination. I am giving you one last chance..."

"Sir, I'm going to tell you that we've already filed a report for over six thousand wounded. We've already counted 3 thousand as dying, and we're desperately tryign to keep them alive. We will probably lose 70% of that number come the night cycle. And, if you think we can magically patch up a girl, you're wrong. Since you poitned out she is a TIE pilot, we can't even begin to perform normal first aid on her. If we fixed her up like we are most of these people, she would be off flight duty for six weeks. If she didn't manage to crash into the hangar bay thinking it was a cute hutt baby, she'd probably tear out the glue and stitching needed for her side pulling the gees. So if you want a dead pilot so quickly, keep your orders coming. Otherwise, shut up, and sit down."

Another two bombers. Or were those two left from the squadron? Xaver wasn't sure, nor did he really care; they were hostiles, and he had to go evasive.

Throwing power into the engines so that he could shake the torpedos off, the Falleen had to swing wide, while his wingman performed a similar maneuver. Luckily they weren't homers, so they didn't have much effort to put into.

"Yeah Furball, this is Mynock. Just do what you can to stay alive, and keep all hostiles off the Resolve. We're kinda stalling here, until Command's ready to ball out of here. Unless you have other orders, our primary concern are those bombers."

Finished with the swing, Mynocks 1 and 3 ran back in pursuit of the bombers, as the Raptors and Delights flew past. They didn't have any shots yet, so they decided to just put pressure on the bombers by letting fly the lasers.

And the good news? The enemy fighters were temporarily out of the theater, though they were still around. Oh, and they had a kill.

A panel near one of the techs exploded in a burst of sparks.
"Chief! They pierced the Port Tower Dome!" He shouted. "Dorsal Shields Falling Fast!!"
"Palpantine's Black anes!" He cursed. From his command console, Hal began tapping power from the pursuit tractor beams as well as dropping gravity by another 5% of its usual power and pumped it into the bridge shields.
"Aye, 'at aught tae stabilize 'em." He muttered. "Gie me a report oan th' hyperdrife situation! Pump water intae th' damn hin' if ye hae tae! Ah want 'at piece ay slag stoat enaw fur a jump noo!"
"Sir!" His Ex-O said, "We've found a route for the Tibanna leak. We can pipe it directly through vent channels into our Ion Cannon batteries."
"Dae it 'en!"

Monitoring the heat index of the Hyperdrive engine, Hal shot off a reply to the bridge.
"Lay in a coorse an' engage! She'll be stoat enaw fur a jump!"

Captain Pala felt the tension melt away as the Resolve slipped past the disabled Scutarii. "Flight control give Mynock squadron our jump coordinates. Comms, relay the coordinates to all our ships. We're jumping in ten seconds."

"Sir Assault Shuttle Bludgeon reports that it can't make the jump in ten seconds. They're recovering Mynock Two."

"Well tell them to hurry up, damn it!"

* * *

"Ranlee, we're jumping pretty damn soon. You got him, now get back here!" The Lieutenant's voice filled her ears as she headed toward the assault shuttle.

"Keep your head screwed on Jan, I'll be there in five seconds." Fuming she reached out and grabbed hold of the hatch as the Assault Shuttle sped up to her. She pulled herself and the pilot inside and sealed it behind her.

* * *

"All ships, jump!"

As the Assault Shuttle Bludgeon began to spin up its hyperdrive Ranlee felt her mouth drop in shock as she watched the aft sensors come alive with contact after contact dropping out of hyperspace, 2,000 vessels or more, headed by a Titan-class Star Cruiser and including 24 Imperial-class Star Destroyers it was a terrifying sight for someone now on the other side of the fence.

But it was too late for the reinforcements as the shuttle leapt into hyperspace and a blue tunnel of light enveloped the ship. A fifteen minutes later the ship dropped out of hyperspace alongside the Resolve and slid beside the charred form of the Carrack Cruiser Mantell Delight. Alongside the Resolve the ship's lights flickered and failed.

* * *

As Captain Pala turned toward the viewport a shrill voice echoed in the bridge. "Captain! Holocomm transmission again, triangulating... damn. All I got is a general region. Bow section decks... hell that includes all decks in bow. Sections one through four."

"Frag! Tell the ship's militia to start a compartment by compartment search of the bow!"

"Sir, the Mantell Delight reports that their hyperdrive has failed. The Assault Shuttle reports that a full sector group dropped in just as she was leaving. This is bad."

"Keep your cool. Tell the Assault Shuttle to drop her stormtroopers off in the hangar. They're to help in the search. The shuttle is to assist in evacuating the Mantell Delight I want her crew with us, all of them."

After the order was given, Harper's squad looked dubious. "Find a transmitter? In a ship this large?" One of them said.

"I know it's extremely vague," Harper told them, "and I use 'extremely' in the most literal way possible. But someone's gotta do it." The squad merely nodded their confirmations. "All right. Now let's stop standing around like a bunch of nerf herders and search this ship with enough precision to make a Verpine weaponsmith jealous!" None of them cheered, which was fine for Harper. Even he had to admit it was a strange moment for a morale speech.