Balto: Star Wars Tale (III)

All things related to Star Wars is the property of George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd.

Balto, Jenna, Boris, Muk, and Luk are the property of Amblin Entertainment and Universal Studios.

A long, long time ago...

In a Galaxy far, far away...

(1 year after Balto: Star Wars Tale 2)

“Watch your back Rogue Leader! You have a coralskipper on your tail!”

“I copy you Rogue 4!”

Wedge Antilles was at his wit's end. No matter how hard the New Republic fought against the Yuuzahn Vong, they kept losing. Sure they had won a few skirmishes, but in the long run, it didn't matter how many coralskippers they destroyed if they kept losing Star Cruisers.

Wedge was brought back to reality as a flaming hunk of rock flew by his X-Wings viewscreen. The Yuuzahn Vong didn't use technology. In fact, they hated it. So instead of using lasers as their primary weapon, they fired burning hunks of rock. A.K.A Lava. Butunfortunately, this hunk of rock could burn thru the metal plating of starfighters.

They hardly ever missed.

Wedge spun his X-Wing into a tight turn and hit his thrusters. He watched with satisfaction as the coralskipper flew by. He quickly pulled up behind it and opened fire. X-Wings have two settings on their laser cannons. The first, is full power. It fires a powerful, but fairly slow, blast of plasma. The second setting fires many lasers at once. You are guaranteed to hit your target but it doesn't do a lot of damage. Wedge didn't really care about that right now.

The coralskipper had a unique shield generator. It created artificial,miniature black holes that capture and destroy anything small enough, and close enough. Lasers were small enough and they tried to get too close. But, it isn't a machine that generates the black holes. It is a living thing called a 'dovin basel'. And, as any living thing, it can get confused or wore out. Which is exactly what Wedge was hoping for.

The dovin basels could absorb only so much energy. The number of lasers was too much for it. It's defenses went down. As soon as Wedge saw some of the shots hit the ship, he switched the cannons to 'full power'. The coralskipper exploded.

“Yyyyeeehaaaa!”

'Yes!' thought Wedge to himself, 'One down...' He looked out his viewscreen glumly '8,400 more to go.'

Balto was sitting in the co-pilots seat on the Imperial 'Sentinel'Class Transport ship. He was leading his group of soldiers on a special mission to a Vong held world. He looked out the window at the other transport right alongside his own. Jenna was in command of that group of soldiers and they would merge into one force after arriving on the planets surface.

Intelligencehad discovered that on this planet, the Vong were growing materials vital to the construction of their ships. It would be harder too destroy the supplies because everything was organic instead of metal.

The vessels landed without interference for which Balto was grateful.He had a quick little chat with Jenna and then walked up in front of the stormtroopers. With his and Jenna's group put together, they had a small army consisting of 108 troops, 24 E-Web heavy repeating blasters, and 12 speeder bikes.

“Attention! Before we begin this operation, I want to tell you something. This is not going to be easy. The Vong are extremelydangerous fighters. They have no mercy or compassion.If they capture you, it will not be pleasant. Let's move!”

By nightfall they had arrived at their destination. Balto took out a pair of range finders (binoculars) and scanned the area. There were several structures that looked like plants all over the place.

One of the troopers leaned over to Balto and whispered “What are those thing?”

Balto looked back at the things and said “There pods. Inside each of those things is a growing coralskipper.”

“You mean they grow their starfighters?”

“Yeah. They hate technology. Every single weapon, ship, even the armor they wear, is alive.”

“Creepy.”

Balto turned to the rest of the men and said “Alright. Listen up. About forty men are going down there to plant explosive devices around those pods. The rest of you are to provide back up in case there's trouble. Let's go.”

Balto didn't go with the men planting the explosives. He stayed on the hill to provide back up. He held his breathe as the men started placing their explosives. Around 20 minutes later they had just about finished. He blew a sigh of relief as they started back. But he had done it too soon. The instant the sigh left his mouth, almost thirty Vong attacked the soldiers. “Open fire!” he shouted to the rest of the troops. They instantly let loose a volley. Balto saw with dismay another group of Vong, almost a hundred strong, join the fray. He was so focused on this attack that he forgot to look around.

He was pushed over suddenly and started to yell at the soldier who had knocked him over. But then he saw that the soldier wouldn't be hearing anything else for a very long time. Then a shadow went over him. He looked up and found himself face to face with a large Yuuzahn Vong warrior.

Balto quickly kicked the thing in the stomach but it hurt his foot more than it did the warrior. It looked at him and laughed. He reached down to grab Balto but he managed another kick that sent the Vong straight on his back. It gave Balto enough time to get up and run.

He managed to run about 30 feet when he felt something slam into his left shoulder. He looked down and saw with horror and disgust, that he had just been hit by a razor bug. A razor bug is exactly what it sounds like. A bug with razor sharp claws and teeth. Yuuzahn Vong warriors throw the bugs at enemy's and when the bug hits them it begins to bite and slash at the victim.

And Balto just found out how much it hurt to have a nasty bug cut up the majority of his left shoulder to the bone. He gritted his teeth and managed to pull the bug out of him. He promptly smashed it against a rock. He looked at his shoulder again. “This is going to leave a scar.”

Then he was hurled backward as something struck him across the face. He put his paw to his cheek. It came away red. “That'll leave one too.” Then he saw what had hit him. The Yuuzahn Vong stood right in front of him.

“Oh. This isn't good.”

He squeezed his eyes shut as the Vong raised his staff.

“YAAAHHH!” shouted a voice.

'Jenna?' Balto thought.

She slammed herself into the warrior, knocking him over as well. He pushed Jenna off of him and was about to attack her when a blaster bolt knocked him over for good.

She turned to help Balto up. “We have to get out of here! There's another group of soldiers coming!”

Jenna looked at Balto's shoulder and whistled. “That looks like it feels good.”

As they ran, Balto told Jenna “I hate it how they figure out our every move! This was just another trap they set up! I wonder who's leaking this information to them?”

As they ran past the growing pods, a sudden idea came to Balto.

Jenna said “Don't even think about it.”

“Too late”. As he ran toward the pods he called to Jenna “Wish me luck!”

“Luck!? I don't wish you luck, I wish you SENCE!!”

Balto ignored her.

He ran up to the control box that one of the troops had left. 'Good. It's still here and armed.' He finished arming it and then took off running as fast as he could.

Jenna saw him coming and ran alongside him. “Did you do it?”

“Wow you're good. What do you think I'm running from? A Mosquito?”

After they ran for what they thought was far enough, they turned around to see the pods go up in flame and a big BOOM! They weren't far enough though. The force of the blast threw both of them to the ground. It didn't help Balto's shoulder any.

An hour and a half later they found the surviving troops. There were 18. Out of 108.

“We have to get off this planet somehow.”

“And how do you suggest we do that Balto? We have no shuttle, and no ship to dock with even if we did have one!”

“I don't know. I guess we'll have to wait and see if one of our ships comes back to pick us up.”

Balto and Jenna sat in silence for a moment. Jenna spoke up and said “Do we have that communicator?”

“What communicator?”

“The one we installed on the 'Anchorage' where we can actually call the ship to us.”

“I see where you're heading. We call the ship to come get us. Yeah, I still have it. I don't know if it will work out here or not. Even if it did, the 'Anchorage' is several systems away. It would take several days to get here.”

“Big deal. Try it.”

Balto took out the little device and said “I never actually thought we were ever going to use this thing.” As he keyed in their coordinates he laughed and said “Boy, what I wouldn't give to see the look on Boris's face as the ship suddenly takes off on it's own.”

The next day, Balto got the soldiers moving. “We need to get as far away from the Vong as we can. We also, Ouch!” He paused for a second. “We also need to find out if there is a doctor in the house.”

One of the soldiers walked up. “I have a little training with medicine sir.”

“I have some too” said Jenna.

“Good. Because my shoulder really, really, hurts.”

Balto learned the soldiers name was Vorin.

Vorin and Jenna got a med pack and started working on Balto's shoulder.

Vorin poked a probe in the shoulder. Balto didn't think it felt very good.

He pulled the probe back out and took a reading of the wound. “Um, I have some bad news. That bug had venom. Very bad venom.”

This statement made Balto and Jenna look up. “How bad is it?” asked Balto slowly.

“It's interfering with your body's ability to heal. Meaning that this wound will become infected very soon. It could be infected right now. The venom is also acting like any other venom. It's poisoningyou. If we don't get you to a real medic soon, it could become fatal.”

Balto didn't like this at all.

They marched for a week. Along the way they lost 8 more men and Balto's shoulder had started to bleed again and he was getting weaker. He got so bad that Jenna took over command of the soldiers. Finally after marching for 9 days, Jenna got something on her transmitter. The 'Anchorage' had arrived. She quickly got it to come down thru the atmosphere and it landed right in front of their little party. Everyone got on board as quickly as they could, in fear that the Vong would detect, and come after them. Everyone except Jenna blew a sigh of relief. She still had Balto to worry about.

One of the soldiers had managed to pick up the Holonet news and hear what had happened in the galaxy. Mon Calamari, Ryloth, Rodia, and several other planets had fallen to the Yuuzahn Vong. There were even rumors of them advancing on Coruscant. Yuuzahn Vong: 230. New Republic: 4. That was the score in the number of battles won.

Within a few hours of leaving the planet, Jenna got Balto to a real doctor. He was in the hospital for almost a month. Finally the doctor, a Saint Bernard named Doc, contacted her and told her the news.

“He will be okay but, I had to remove his left arm from the shoulder down. I replaced it with a robotic one. I also managed to stop the venom.”

“When will he be able to get up and move around?”

“I would say about two months.”

“You mean he has to stay inside for two whole months!?”

Doc was amused by this. “Miss, people generally say that about children, not their husbands.”

“Yeah, well, YOU aren't married to him.”

Doc laughed and started to walk away when Jenna said “Hey Doc. I have something I want to talk to you about.”

Doc turned to her and said “The bill will be around 300 credits. Thanks for reminding me.”

Balto learned he didn't like hospitals, medicine, doctors, and most importantly, laying in a hospital bed for two straight weeks.

“This is crazy” he complained to Jenna. “I have to get out of here.”

“I don't think that would be a good idea. Doc said that if you get out before your healed enough, you could spend another month in here.”

Balto sighed and changed the subject. “How are the rest of the men doing?”

“See for yourself”. She gestured behind her. The ten soldiers were sitting playing a game.

Balto nodded and turned to Jenna. “What about you?”

“Oh I'm fine. I got a few bruises and a scratch or two. I'm pregnant...”

Balto just about jumped out of the bed. “You are!?”

She smiled and said “I admit that being pregnant during a war isn't the best of ideas but, oh well.”

Balto didn't really know what to say. “This... this is wonderful. How far along are you?”

“If I remember correctly, Doc said I have around 7 months.”

Two months later, Balto was up and moving around. He had just been contacted by a superior officer and had been ordered to return to duty.

Jenna didn't like this idea. “Their ordering you back? Now? You just got out of the hospital!”

Balto lowered his head and said “I am really mad at authority right now. I want to help beat the Vong but, being a Lieutenant in the New Republic and a Major in the Empire presents a unique challenge.”

Jenna looked at him and said “Can we just, kind of disappear from the Republic and Empire. Go solo?”

Balto smiled. “That is one of the best ideas I have ever heard.”

He and Jenna rounded up the ten soldiers who deserted with them, as well as Boris, Muk, and Luk. Boris was ecstaticat hearing that Jenna was pregnant. “Now I really will be an Uncle!” he had said.

“So, what exactly are you planing on doing?” Balto asked Jenna.

“I was thinking on fighting this war guerrillastyle. Hit and run attacks. Like the Rebel Alliance did.”

“There is only one problem with that.”

“Whats that?”

“The rebels had an army. We have, including us, 15 people. We have no real command. And how are we going to stop the Yuuzahn Vong? I'm starting to think that they Can't be stopped.”

Jenna sighed and walked in a little circle. “Where are the Jedi when you need them? I mean, sure we have Luke Skywalker and his Academy and without them we would be in an even bigger mess but, we need more.”

That got Balto thinking. “Yeah, a Jedi. C'mon Jenna. Let's go see an old friend.”

The Dorin System. One of the few places untouched by the Yuuzahn Vong. Sure they had tried to attack Dorin, but the two black holes on either side of the planet had claimed more than one fleet. Plus, even if they had managed to land on the planet, the atmosphere is breathable only to the native Kel Dors. So, black holes and all, it wasn't a place many species visited.

'And yet, here I am. Dumb enough to come back' Balto thought to himself. He hadn't been to Dorin since he had dropped off Jedi Master Plo Koon 3 years ago. He had helped Plo out. Balto hoped he would return the favor.

Jenna was speaking to the flight control manager, “This is the New Republic frieghtor 'Anchorage'. Request permission to land.”

There was a second of silence. Then the operator said “Permission Granted. You are cleared for landing pad 12. Here are the coordinates.”

Jenna quickly put the ship down. “Okay. Now that we're here let's get out the masks. (meaning, they wear them so they could breathe.)

Luk walked out of the cargo hold and mumbled something. Muk translated saying “We don't have any.”

“What?”

Muk shuffled his feet nervously and said “Luk found out that we don't have any air masks. Sorry.”

Balto quickly got out of the cockpit. He had never seen Jenna so angry. “You mean we flew all this way, and we forgot the stuff we need to SURVIVE on this planet!?”

“Um, yes.”

Jenna's face was almost purple. Her baby kicked. “Knock it off!” she shouted at it. “I'm trying to keep myself from killing him with my bare paws. You kicking doesn't help very much!”

While Jenna was ranting, Balto got out his comlink and called the dock manager.

“How may I be of assistance?”

“Um, we forgot our air masks so I was wondering if you could contact a certain Kel Dor for me.”

“I suppose I could. What is his/her name?”

“Plo Koon.”

“And do you have a message for Mr. Koon?”

“Just tell him an old friend is here who needs his help.”

Plo Koon grumbled to himself as he walked toward the docking area. Who would want to talk to him right now? As he approached the dock herecognized the 'Anchorage'. “Well, well. I wonder what their doing here..” He reached out with the force and sensed the presenceof everyone on the ship. 'Okay. There's Balto, Boris, crap I was hoping he would not be there, Muk, Luk, Jenna and...” Plo smiled. “The little one on the way.”

As he approached, he saw that the people in charge had connected an airlock to the ship so he could board safely.'I can't believe Balto was dumb enough to come here without a breath mask.' As he got ready to go aboard he wondered what he was needed for.

Balto was walking thru the ship when someone grabbed his shoulder from behind.

“YYEEEOUCH!!” 'Man!' thought Balto. 'That's worse than a sunburn.' He turned to see who had grabbed him.

“Hello 3PO. Got a little injury I see.”

“Plo! Boy am I glad to see you.”

Plo sat down on a nearby couch. “Sorry about grabbing your shoulder like that. Didn't know you had got a razor bug in it. Now, what can I do for you?”

“I'll get straight to the point. We were hoping you could join our little band here.”

“And what exactly is your little band going to be doing?”

“Umm... Fighting the Yuuzahn Vong?”

Plo stared at him for a moment. “Fighting the Vong. What's the punchline?”

“There is no punchline. I mean this seriously.”

“Balto, do you have any idea what you are getting yourself mixed up in?”

“Yes. Me and Jenna are the first two to see them in action. Then we were appointed as Majors in the Imperial Army and put in command of 108 troops specifically trained to battle the Vong.”

“I see. And how many of those fights did you win?”

“Um, maybe 3 or 4.”

“Uh, hu. And how many of these soldiers are left?”

Balto hung his head. “Ten.”

Plo sighed. “You my friend, need more help than I thought. I'm in.”

Over the next few days, Plo got several Kel Dors together to show Balto something. (They got their air masks) Balto

Jenna, and the others all walked into a nearby building that Plo had told them to go to. As they walked in, they were surprised to find almost fifteen Kel Dors in there.

“Hey Plo, what's going on?”

Plo turned to the Kel Dors and nodded. Fifteen lightsabers came to life.

“Balto, I want you to meet, my apprentices. Actually their Knights now.” He turned back to Balto and said “You needed help beating the Vong. Will sixteen Jedi work?”

With that Plo ignited his own blade.

Balto nodded and said “Yeah. I think this might help.”

Jenna spoke up and said “I don't think there's going to be enough room on the 'Anchorage' for everyone.”

Plo laughed and said “It's okay Jenna. We have our own ship. I heard that the Vong hate droids so I thought 'What better way to beat them'. So I decided to purchase an old Trade Federation Lucrehulkbattleship. You now have an army of several thousand battle droids.”

“I have done well for myself since you brought me back. In fact, I managed to pull off what most of the galaxy would have thoughtimpossible.”

“And what would that be?”

“Before I reveal it, I want to say one last thing. Hutts have mucusfor brains. The one I bought this off of must never have realized howvaluable of a thing it was. I mentioned earlier how the Vong hate droids. I wanted there main opponentto be something they despised.” Plo looked behind him and said “You can come out now.”

Balto turned to Jenna and whispered “And you thoughtI talked.”

He looked up quickly when he heard a loud Clang! Clang! Clang!

When he saw what it was, he didn't believe it. “Wha.. how... how did you do this?”

Plo said, “Like I said. Hutts have mucus for brains. This one hutt was going to sell this for scrap. But, I bought it for around 100,000 credits. May I introduce to you General Grievous.”

No matter how hard Balto tried not to believe it, he could not deny what stood in front of him.

“But, Grievous is dead. I saw a video of him bursting into flames on Utapau.”

“He did burst into flames and yes, his body died. But, there was a single computer chip that survived the blast. I don't know how, but it did. This is a different body in the armor. It's a Kel Dor I found who would have died.”

“So, you're saying that it's a different body, but with Grievous's mind?”

“Yes that's right. The chip was a memory chip. As such, Grievous is alive. He is standing right in front of you.”

“But if it's Grievous why isn't he killing all of us right now? Especially the Jedi?”

“I um, took the liberty of altering his memory a little.”

“Oh. Ok. Well, let's go kick some Vong butt.”

“Man. I never realized how big those things were” Jenna said gesturing to the Lucrehulk ship that Plo Koon had christened 'The Pride of Kel Dor'.

“I know, I looked up some statistics about them. They are more than 3,000 meters in diameter and have 42 quad laser emplacements. Plo purchased it with it's original complement of 6,250 ATT tanks, 550 MTT transports and 50 landing ships. Finally it has a defense of 1,500 droid starfighters.”

“How many battle droids does it have?”

Balto scowled. “I hate math. Do we have a caculator around here anywhere?”

Jenna reached into a box and pulled one out. “Here you go dear.”

The comm link beeped and she tried as hard as she could to quit laughing. “Hello this is the 'Anchorage'.”

Boris spoke on the other end. “Have you seen our new passenger!?”

Balto was grumbling in the background. “Stupid, lousy,worthless piece of crap...”

Jenna ignored him and said “You mean General Grievous?”

Boris replied. “If that is the name of that walking monstrositythan yes.”

Balto kept grumbling. “No! That's not right, I wantmultiplicationnot addition!”

“Get used to him Boris. He's going to be with us for a while.”

“I don't care! I don't like him.”

“Arrgh!”

“I don't like him either Boris. Here's a tip though. Be nice, don't call him a droid, and he might let you live.”

She could hear Boris gulp over the line. “Um, thanks for the tip.”

“I HATE calculators! Hate, Hate, Hate!!”

“No problem. Now, I have to go. My dear husband is Han Soloing the caculator. He needs some help.”

Balto yelled “I got it!”

Jenna turned to him. “You did?”

“Yep. The number of battle droids on board are... 500,000!”

“No, that's not right. Here let me see it.” She grabbed it out of his hands and started adding. “I believe the correct answer is 61,600.”

“You mean I just wasted 5 minutes of my time on that thing!?! Oh, I HATE MATH! May it all get eaten by a Sarlacc and digest for a thousand years!”

Jenna just chuckled and took the 'Anchorage' into the hangar bay of the 'Pride of Kel Dor'.

It looked to be an interesting adventure.

Balto and Jenna walked onto the bridge of the massive ship. Waiting for them were Plo Koon, a few pilot droids, and dominating the room, General Grievous. Balto still couldn't get over how the General was still alive, a bit nicer, and even how big he was.

Jenna was the first to talk. “So, what are we doing?”

Plo said “We are going to be doing hit and run missions.”

“In this thing? Isn't it a little big for hit and run?”

“Kind of. The Vong aren't the speediest species.”

Balto spoke up and said “Where are we going first?”

“We are going to be hitting them in the Kasyyyk system.”

Balto jumped at the loud distorted speech of Grievous.The General continued “The Wookies would make fine allies. Also, if we are successful, we will have liberated a very important Hyperspace route.”

Jenna nodded. “Kasyyyk it is then.”

On the way there, Balto looked up as much information as he could on the current status of the system. It didn't look good. From videos taken by the New Republic, the Vong had dug in pretty good. The Wookies were resisting but there were too many Vong warriors.

After he had gotten all the info he needed, he made his way to the bridge. As he walked down the corridor, a voice made him jump almost three feet in the air.

“Going somewhere?”

Balto spun around, and found himself face to face with the Generals yellow eyes.

Balto tried to get himself under control but it wasn't easy. “I'm going to the bridge. Duh. Would you care to come with me?”

Grievous didn't say anything. He just started walking alongside Balto. Clang! Clang! Clang!

Grievous looked at what Balto had in his paws. “What are those?”

“Oh it's some info I looked up regarding the current statistics about Kasyyyk.”

“May I look at them?”

“Uh, sure.”

Grievous brought them up to his eyes and stared at them for a minute. “This is very helpful. I don't usually compliment people but I'll make an exception for this.”

Balto was confused. “Exactly how is this helpful?”

Grievous turned his eyes toward Balto. “You have never been in the army. I have been a soldier as long as I can remember. In this report, it shows the location of all the Vong vessels. Now I have an idea as to where to hit them.”

Without another word, Grievous turned and walked down the torrider.Still holding Balto's data cards.

Balto sighed and walked in the bridge. He saw Plo sitting in one of the chairs and walked up to him.

“What can I do for you Balto?”

Balto sat down beside Plo and said “I'm just wondering it this is a good idea. I mean, sure we have 60,000 or so battle droids but, can we beat the Vong?”

Plo was silent for a moment. “To be perfectly honest, I don't know. The Vong are unlike any species I have seen before.”

Balto chuckled. “I know what you mean. They hate technology and everything they have and use is biological.”

“There's something else. You are not a Jedi and will have no real idea what it is I'm going to tell you. When I use the force, I can sense everything around me. I can sense you, that chair, the droids and so on. But the Vong, they aren't there. It's just a large black spot in the force. I can't explain it.”

“Sooo, do you think we can beat them?”

“You know, I really hate it when someone changes the subject like that. I remember this one time...”

“Plo!”

“There see? You just did it again.”

Balto was really starting to get annoyed. “Will...you...please...answer...the...question?”

“Humph. Fine. I think that, eventually, we will be able to beat them. When you combine the might of the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant, you get a large powerful force. And then, when you throw in the military genius of Grievous, our chances rocket.”

“How good of a commander is he?”

“One of the best. When the Republic was fighting him in the Clone Wars he almost won. He outwitted us in almost every battle. Even when he lost it wasn't serious.”

Balto thought back to his history lessons on the Clone Wars.

This is what he remembered.

Wow! That girl is HOT!

He hadn't been the best student.

Balto stood up. “Thanks for talking Plo. Sometimes you need a little bit of encouragement.”

“No problem my friend. I enjoy talking.”

Balto turned and started heading back towards his room. When he walked in, he realized Jenna wasn't there. He looked around for a second and then noticed someone had left a note that had the word 'Balto' written on it. He picked it up and read it. He was running out the door before he had finished the second sentence.

Balto, the note said the pups are on the way.

Balto was waiting for Jenna to come out of the medical bay. He was more excited now than he had been in is entire life. He was going to be a dad! He heard the door open and looked up to see one of the medical droids come out. He quickly walked over to it. “How is she?”

The droid swiveled it's head toward him and said “She is fine as are the pups. There are two. A boy and a girl. You may go in if you wish.”

Balto didn't need to be asked twice.

He sat down beside Jenna and asked “You doing okay?”

Jenna smiled and said “Yeah I'm okay. What are we going to name them?”

Balto looked at the little pups. He almost started to cry. “How about Luke and Leia?”

Jenna shot him a look that could have made durasteel buckle.

“Okay maybe not.”

He looked at the pups again. One was red and white like Jenna and the other one was a grayish brown like Balto.

“How about Kodi for the boy and Alue for the girl?”

This time Jenna smiled. “Sounds good to me. I need to apologizeto you though.”

“What for?”

“I just realized that the middle of a war is not the best time to raise pups.”

“I think we can manage.” Balto had never been happier in his life.

Two days later, Balto, Jenna, Plo Koon, General Grievous and others were standing on the bridge. Grievous turned to one of the pilot droids and said “Prepare to take us into hyperspace. The Kasyyyk system.”

The droid nodded. “Roger, Roger.”

Balto still got chills when he heard the General talk. “Um, how long is it going to take us to reach Kasyyyk?”

Grievous turned to him and said “About 5 hours.”

Ulp. “That's it?”

Grievous started walking closer to him. “Is that a problem?”

“Oh, um, of course not. It's just a little sooner than I had expected. What exactly is our goal when we arrive?”

For the first time that Balto had heard, Grievous laughed. It was the most terrifying thing he ever heard.

“We do as much damage as we can, and when we take more damage than we care to have, we leave.”

“Sounds good to me.”

5. hours later)

One of the droids spoke up. “General we are coming out of hyperspace.”

Balto watched as the stars changed back into dots of light instead of streaks.

Grievous immediately began giving orders. “Raise shields, charge all weapon batteries. Heading 446.3”

“Heading 446.3. Roger,Roger.”

Balto looked out the viewport and saw the green planet of Kasyyyk floating peacefully in space. What floated around it was hideous.Nearly a dozen Vong warships were in orbit around the planet.

“Hmm. This was not expected.”

Balto wondered what Grievous meant. As if reading Balto's mind, Grievous pointed at something. Balto saw what he was pointing at, and his heart stopped beating. There was a massive Vong vessel sitting there.

Plo Koon grumbled. “Worldship. Those things are almost the size of a Super Star Destroyer.”

Balto was beginning to have second thoughts about this. He now had two pups and he didn't really want to die. “Um, should we just turn around and do this another day?”

Grievous looked at Balto. But he spoke to one of the battle droids. “Engage the enemy fleet. Now.”

Balto really didn't like Grievous right now. The ship accelerated toward the Vong. Balto watched sadly as the Vong ships started turning towards them.

Grievous was still giving orders. “Fire low power, rapid shot lasers. When they get thru the dovin basels fire full blast.”

All at once, hundreds of red laser bolts shot at the nearest Vong battleship. And the Vong, fired back.

The battle was joined.

“Look over there!” Balto shouted.

Grievous looked at what Balto was pointing at. A nearby battleship had launched several coralskippers. And several more squadrons were on their way.

“I may not have been in the army for very long, but I know that fighters can wreak havoc on a battleship. We can't target them!”

Grievous turned to Balto and said “You think I don't know that?” He turned to one of the battle droids and said “Launch fighters.”

“Are you crazy!? Those fighters won't last 30 seconds out there!”

Grievous gave what Balto thought to be a sigh. “Don't worry. We have programed these fighters for fighting the Vong in particular. They sort of know what their doing.”

Plo Koon spoke up and said “Do you think that maybe you and Jenna could take the 'Anchorage' and give some support fire?”

It took Balto a moment to realize what Plo had just said.

“You want me and Jenna to go out there? In case you've been to busy to notice, Jenna just had pups. And you want her to go out there?”

“I'll do it.”

Balto turned around and stared at Jenna. “You want to go out there?”

“I don't want to but I will.”

“Wh... what about the pups?”

“I guess I'll have Boris take care of them.”

Plo groaned. “For the love of your kids, stay here.”

The 'Anchorage' blasted out of the hangar bay.

Jenna switched on the shield generator just in time for a flaming hunk of rock to hit it.

“That was close.”

Balto took a quick survey of the battle field. And wondered why he had ever agreed to this. They were outnumbered almost 20 to one. Vong battleships where everywhere. And themassive Worldship didn't help much.

He was brought back to the present when the ship shook suddenly. “What was that?”

Jenna looked as if nothing had happened. “Nothing.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, I'm sure.”

Jenna glanced at her control panel and said “First target acquired.”

“What are we attacking?”

Jenna didn't even bother to look up from the control panel. “That” she said, pointing.

Balto looked. “Oh,maaaaan.”

He was looking at a battleship. “Us against that!?”

“Yeah.” Something beeped on the controls. “Cover your eyes.”

“Huh? AHHH!”

Just then, dozens of laser bolts flashed by the viewscreen blinding Balto. He regained his sight in just enough time to see some of the bolts punching thru the dovin basel shields.

“Fire in the hole!” Jenna yelled.

She pressed the trigger on something and Balto felt the whole ship lurch. Three proton torpedoes flew toward the Vong vessel. Balto shielded his eyes in advance this time. The torpedoesdetonated in a blinding flash of light. The 'Anchorage' lurched again and three more torpedoes flew towards their mark. And again, they hit dead on.

Jenna turned on the communicator and said “Okay Grievous, let'er rip!”

“Acknowledged.”

“What's going on?”

“Watch.”

Jenna angled the 'Anchorage' so they could see what the 'Pride of Kel Dor' was doing.

Balto watched in surprise as several hidden doors on the ship opened up. Then, all in all, seven torpedoes and four sustained laser bolts hit the Vong ship. The lasers hit first and started boring their way thru the Vong ship's armor. They shut off just as the torpedoes closed in.

Ka-Boom!

At first, it didn't appear as if the attack had done a lot of damage. But then, a jet of flame shot out of the hull.

And another.

And another.

Then, the entire ship exploded.

“Yeeeehhhaaa!” Jenna whooped.

Plo Koon came over the communicator just then. “Anchorage' head back. We're jumping to hyperspace.”

“Alright, be there in a second.”

The Vong were still attacking as all of the droid starfighters and the 'Anchorage' came in to dock so they had to be quick.

“Docking complete, Plo.”

“Jumping to hyperspace now.”

Balto and Jenna walked up to the bridge after the ship was safely going the speed of light. Balto smiled as he looked around the bridge.

“Where are we going next?”

Thanks for reading and watch for 'Star Wars Episode IV' .

Coming soon as a fanfic near you!

(Sorry, no popcorn or drinks available. You'll have to get your own.)