Cormac hesitates for a second before he nods, "Yes Captain." Tel'te looks upon me eyes bulging in shock.
"But, they are right there! We can pick them up! Damn it, Captain! Why are we leaving!? We can still get them!"
I open my eyes and quickly took control of the three turrets able to fire aft. I let loose a stream of fire across the rooftop at the Jedi attackers. As we move out of range I switch targets and walk a line of fire across the west wall.
The range was rather extreme but I see at least one of the AG turrets explode, seconds later the fighters are on our tail. All five turrets spitfire and none of them are able to get close enough to actually box us in for a kill.
As we brake atmosphere they turn back to the surface as Clear Skies accelerates towards the hyperlimit.
Having run out of targets to throw hot laser death at I shut down the holographic screens and turn my attention to the bridge. Only to find Tel'te still bitching in my direction.
"Miss Visa, if you are finished behaving like a hatchling denied her sugar stick, you may retake the helm and calculate a hyperjump to the closest confirmed friendly port." I say before nodding at the main pilot who gave me a dirty look but carried out his orders nevertheless. Cormac stood and surrendered the seat to Visa, "Mr. Cormac. Please, get some food and rest. I need you back on duty again in..." I glanced at Tel'te, "Miss Visa?"
Visa looked upon with me with sadness, "We are five hours of hyperspace travel from a Mon Calamari mining colony. It's small, but it's unlikely to be hostile." I nod in reply.
"Take us there."
I turned my attention back to Cormac, "11 hours. Get some rest."
I uncoiled from the pillar to make my way out of the bridge. On the way out activating my communicator, "Engineers to cargo bay." Glancing back into the bridge I say "Commander Swan. Walk with me."
She nods, "Jack, you have the bridge." Swan directed at the Coms officer and he nods back before she leaves the bridge.
She sighs as we start to move along the corridor "I don't like it, Captain...but for what it's worth, I think you made the right call. Trying to pick them up would have gotten us intercepted before we could accelerate again."
I burr my feathers up a bit and growls "I know. If it was just a pickup or even just a single one of the threats, I would have done it. But that many threats at once... no, I would not risk over a hundred innocents for two lives. Not even Jedi."
We enter the empty cargo bay to find the Honor sisters already waiting for us. Sarah walks up and looks up at me "Ok, Captain, what is it you need?" I look down at her for a moment.
"You know the forward dorsal quad laser?" I ask and she nods "Yeah? Did it break? It shouldn't have, I checked it last week!" She starts pulling out her PAD and I snort and shake my head
"No. I want that installed in those." and point at HCD (Heavy Cargo Droid) One and Two.
She looks between the droids and me as her sister speaks up "Uh...sir. I'm pretty sure that's impossible." and I nod
"I need it finished in 11 hours. Pull all personnel you need but Mr Corvac."
Padme look at me with wide eyes "I'm trying to tell you it can't be do..." when her sister interrupts her
"Give me an hour to come up with something." making Padme look at her like she is crazy.
I give them a nod "And try to get them armored if possible. Use hull plating if you need to." and turn to walk out, having Commander Swan follow me with a slightly confused look on her face before Sarah calls out after me "Captain! Even if we manage this, their programming is not able to adapt to weapons."
"Let me worry about that!" I answer before we exit the hold and I give Commander Swan a look "We are kicking the passengers off at the mining colony and then we are heading back to see if there is anything we can do. Make sure all accounts are ready to provide everyone that don't wish to get into an extremely dangerous situation able to get their next month's payment for severance pay."
She looks up at me and swallows "Sir... going back to that compound is close to suicide. Even with what little fire support we were able to give them, their chance to survive where nonexistent against those odds."
I nod, "I am well aware of that Commander, but I owe the Jedi my life and my ship. It is time to repay that debt, but I will not bring anyone but volunteers into it." and then I look down at the dustling female that's my second in command "Get everything ready, Commander. I got work to do." before I start making my way to my cabin.
I have 7 hours to create a combat grade VI from a basic level VI code seed without borking it up so much it starts killing everything.
(Hit the construction theme music!)