[color=steelblue][h2]Bocri Sauburc[/h2][/color]
[hr]

Bocri shot across the hanger floor, a blur to the clones, as he used the force to accelerate his speed. It was just in time as hundreds of blaster bolts split the air where had been, and where he would have been if he were an average human. The wall where he had stood turned nearly black in an instant as the energy of the bolts singed the plate and, in a couple of spots, buckled them slightly. 

Helmeted heads were just starting to turn, tracking the blur of his movement, the ugly bulk of the blasters only a split second behind, as he reached the ladder that led to the control booth. He pushed down with the force and shot into the air, even as he slid his blaster back into its holster. 

The catwalk shuddered as he landed with a [i]thud[/i]. The clones below were moving more quickly now, some of them likely could figure out his next move. At this range a moving target would be hard to hit and the marksmen among them were already taking a knee. The hanger was fifty yards wide and the catwalk went the entire distance. Another force sprint was liable to tax him too much  and make what was coming next nearly impossible. 

He began to run, light sabre flashing as he batted away the bolts that were increasingly getting closer. The smell of ozone was so thick it overpowered the usual smell of maintenance chemicals and fuel cells. His whole vision was tinged red from the volume of energy that was coming his way. 

One concussion grenade, then a second, he sent them spinning out into the hanger bay and watched as clones dove for cover before they exploded, sowing more chaos into the space. Angry shout - commands to fire - were faint below. The catwalk was absorbing some of the bolts and the heat was beginning to buckle, as the plates of the hanger bay wall had done. 

He was dimly aware of Hirani trying to reach out to him through the force but he had no time to spare for her. This was no time for distraction. He was going to die here if he didn't put maximum effort into it. Once he was safe he would check on her. 

Ahead of him the control booth door had shot open and in that instant he accelerated again, using the force to pull himself toward trooper who had stepped out, his blaster aimed at Bocris chest.

Bocri slammed into the clone and the two of them tumbled into the control room, bouncing off the wall and onto the floor. Bocri recovered first and his light sabre flashed, cleaving the clone from waist to shoulder as he tried to rise from the ground. There was pain in Bocris own shoulder and he spared a glance to see his flight suit was cut and blood was seeping through the material. 

[i]No time.[/i]

He lunged to his feet just in time to see several troopers below hurling concussion grenades upward at the open door. He tripped the switch door with a twitch of his hand and then yanked down the lever that controlled the magnetic shield protecting the hanger bay from the vacuum of space. 

The grenades seemed to hang in the air for a brief moment before they, and everything else in the bay not attached to something, were sucked into space. One was lodged against a transport and the explosion blew a wing off the vessel. He could hear the screams of the clones, feel their terror - especially those he had known well - and the realization that they were going to die. Most had a brief moment of regret and that caught him off guard. A select few were angry, perhaps at their failure, be he would never know. 

The Jedi star fighters were hurled into space, and the two large transports, one now burning, skittered across the floor after them before finally toppling into space. A rack of Republic fighters jerked violently at their mountings but held firm. Any number of other items went as well, all of it vanishing into the darkness beyond. 

He slumped down on the only chair in the space and rested his head on the console for the moment. The better part of three hundred clones had been in the bay when he first started his run and now not a single one remained. 

[i]Why?[/i]

What had he missed? There was nothing logical about what had just happened. The Clones were a fundamental part of the Republic, as much as the Jedi, it made no sense. 

[i]"Bocri?"[/i] The tug at his mind snapped him back to the reality of his situation.

[i]"Hirani. The clones turned on me," What else could he say. "I have vented the hanger bay. The landing party is all gone. Are you okay?"[/i]