The fall of House Dredd 7

In the palace hangar the defenders were fighting a pitched battle against the republic soldiers storming the hangar bay.

The three uninjured warriors of house Dredd were guarding the hangars main door while the two droid squads were guarding a side door to the hangar from republic soldiers who were trying to flank them.

Everyone else apart from Cliff was onboard the ship and waiting for it to take off while the injured man was sitting at the base of the boarding ramp and shooting at the onrushing republic soldiers with his sidearm.

Sabine and Xaz were moving from cover to cover killing multiple republic soldiers every time they popped up into the open. Ash was lying on a catwalk above the hangar floor and raining down heavy blaster bolts from his sniper rifle on the republic soldiers from above.

Alpha and Primes droid squads were set up on both sides of the side door and tearing through the republic soldiers attacking from that entrance in a brutal crossfire.

"Everyone fall back to the ship, we need to leave now!" Lilk's voice called out over the comm.

"Ash fall back to the boarding ramp. Once he's there Alpha, you and your droids fall back to meet him. You'll all then cover the rest of us as we fall back to the ship." Sabine ordered the others over the comm and got their short acknowledgements back.

Ash leapt from the catwalk in a single bound, rolling as he landed before sprinting for the open boarding ramp to the ship. He slid to a stop next to the still seated Cliff and the two of them then began covering the retreat of Alpha and his squad of droids.

"In position. Start your retreat." Ash spoke simply over the comm once Alpha and his droids reached him to let the others know to retreat.

Sabine turned to disengage from the fighting and ran back towards the ship. Xaz ripped two thermal detonators from the webbing over his armour and tossed them towards the republic soldiers before breaking off and running after Sabine, twin explosions detonating behind him sending debris and body parts flying in all directions.

As the two warriors past them Prime and his droids also prepared to retreat. Prime looked to his left at the two Hk-50 assassin droids in his squad that were furthest from the doors and was about to order them to retreat when a blur of motion to his right made him turn.

Prime turned to late to stop the jedi, enhanced to travelling at break neck speed by the force, from blitzing out of the side door they had been guarding and slashing at Tank, the AR-34 enforcer droid in Prime's squad, with his lightsabre.

The lightsabre bisected tank clean in half and he collapsed to the ground with a screech of rage.

"TANK!" Gadget, the Hk-50 droid next to Tank in the defensive line, screamed as he charged towards the jedi.

Gadget resisted a strong force push sent his way by the jedi, but the blow staggered him enough that he wasn't able to avid the volley of blaster fire sent his way by a squad of republic soldiers wielding heavy blaster cannons. Reducing the droid to a pile of smoking scrap metal.

Prime fired his blaster at the jedi forcing the man to retreat but heard a clattering sound from behind him. He turned to see another of his droids ,Hammer, sent flying after being struck by a rocket launched by republic troops charging into the hangar from the main doors.

They had rapidly become cut off from the rest of Lilk's forces and were now trapped in the centre of the hangar bay attacked from two sides.

"Prime! Hang on we're coming back to get you" Alpha's voice called out over the comm in worry.

"NO! its too late for us. Retreat now!" Prime shouted back. He and his droids would be unable to make it to the ship and he was unwilling to risk the lives of anyone else to try and save them, droid or otherwise.

"You don't have to do this Prime, Alpha's right we can come and get you." The voice of a ten-year-old girl sounded over the comm and if Prime was capable of smiling he would have.

"While I appreciate your concern lady Lilk, like I said it's too late for us. You need to leave now before one of those biologics figures out that shooting the ship with one of those rockets would do more damage than trying to hit some droids.

You need to think about the others you are now in charge of protecting. Me, Wire and Jet will hold these biologics off while you escape." Prime said with finality as he unloaded his blaster into the onrushing republic soldiers, ignoring the ones firing on him and instead aiming at the ones carrying any heavy weapons that might harm the ship.

Prime looked over his shoulder to see two Hk-50 droids that he recognised as Scythe and Crow dragging a resisting Alpha up the ship's boarding ramp. The three droids the last to entre the ship. He saw a young girl standing at the top of the ramp looking at him while looking pained about the droids being left behind before the ramp closed and the ship began to take off.

Prime turned back to the republic soldiers and began fighting more ferociously than he had ever done before in his entire mechanical life. He was sacrificing his life for the droid he considered a brother and a young girl you cared enough about them to risk coming back for them, for Prime that was a good a reason as any.

"Come on rust-buckets, lets make the end memorable" he said with a macabre laugh as he charged at the republic troops, Wire and Jet right behind him.

The three droids stood back to back in the centre of the hangar bay firing at the republic soldiers all around them and soon were surrounded by a ring of dead white armoured bodies. The sub light drives washed over the fight as the ship accelerated out of the hangar but the droids ignored it and just kept killing republic soldiers.

Jet was the first of the trio to fall followed closely by Wire. The droids armour was formidable but was eventually overwhelmed by the sheer amount of blaster fire coming their way. Prime now alone staggered towards the jedi hiding behind the front line of republic troops while letting out a mechanical roar as a battle cry.

His blaster overheated and he threw it straight at a republic soldiers head, the man was knocked to the ground and Prime jumped past him firing the weapons built into his body in all directions.

The jedi wasn't expecting the sudden overwhelming violence Prime was delivering and so didn't react in time when Primes hand shot out to grab him roughly by the face. Prime unceremoniously slammed the jedi headfirst into the ground, bursting his head open like a piece of overly ripe fruit.

Blaster bolts struck Prime in the back and he collapsed to the floor. He looked to the side and noticed the sparking remains of Tank and crawled slowly towards the fallen AR-34 droid.

"Sorry buddy" he said as he reached into the droids remains towards its power core and triggered it to overload.

"Stop that droid!" A republic officer yelled to late to stop Tank's power core form exploding causing a chain reaction as all the unused grenades and missiles stored within Tank's body joined the power core in exploding.

The fuel stored in great vats under the hangar bay, for refuelling star ships, was ignited by the explosion and soon added to it collapsing the entire section of the palace the hangar had been located in.

Wiping out almost the entire battalion of republic soldiers attacking the palace as it collapsed while the ship that Lilk was on flew safely away from the destruction, before a squadron of republic fighters raced after it.

-

Nic coughed, pain racking his body as light returned to his world.

Warnings filled the HUD displayed on his cracked visor. But his head swam too much for him to properly focus on them.

WARNING!! USERS BLOOD PRESSURE CRITICAL!!

WARNING!! USERS HEARTRATE CRITICAL!!

WARNING!! MULTIPLE BROKEN BONES DETECTED!!

WARNING!! BLOODLOSS CRITICAL!!

WARNING!! USER IS CONCUSSED!!

Nic ignored the warnings on his HUD. His head hurt too much for him to focus on information he already knew, he was dying.

Nic had been part of a group of warriors of house Dredd operating an anti-air gun within the confines of Aria city during the battle. He had watched as the sky had filled with starfighters and bombers and he and the others had began firing rapidly at them.

They shot down the enemy bombers one after the other but were unable to stop the bombing run from devastating the city. They had been desperately trying to stop the bombers from reaching the spaceport when a pair of starfighters raced towards their AA tower and launched missiles directly into it.

Nic looked around and realised he was the only survivor of the AA crew, and even then, it was barley.

He staggered to his feet and tried not to look at the scraps of armour and body parts that used to belong to his friends.

A loud explosion sounded from far off and he turned to look as flames exploded out of the hangar of the royal palace and an entire section of the palace collapsed. A ship bearing the markings of house Dredd raced away from the explosion and Nic grimaced as he noticed five republic starfighters begin chasing the craft.

"Oh no you don't" Nic growled as he limped towards his AA gun, he had a job to do and while he was still breathing he was damn sure he was going to do it.

Nic hoisted himself into the seat of the AA gun and swung it round to aim at the starfighters.

He fired and the lead fighter in the formation exploded as a hyper sonic projectile was launched from the AA gun and impacted the craft dead centre.

The other four starfighters began taking evasive action, letting the house Dredd ship extended its lead in its race to escape. Nic launched a second hyper sonic projectile impacted another fighter, clipping its engine and sending it spinning out of control into the ground.

Two of the remaining fighters broke off from their chase and started racing towards Nic while the final fighter stayed chasing the escaping ship.

Nic ignored the fighters baring down on him as he lined up his sights on the last remaining fighter chasing the ship belonging to his clan. He fired just as the other two starfighters began strafing his position.

He dived to the grounded a second after he confirmed the third the third fighter's destruction, heavy blaster bolts impacting the AA gun and rendering it useless.

WARNING!! USERS BIO-READINGS ARE CRITICAL!! SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION IMMEDIATELY!!

Nic ignored his armour's A.I. as he grabbed a heavy repeating blaster from the severed arm of a destroyed HK-50 assassin droid assigned to help defend the AA gun from attack. He steadied the blaster against the wall surrounding the top of the tower the gun was atop and began firing at the fighters.

The starfighters had been moving back to resume chasing the escaping ship after they thought that the AA gun was finally delt with. Heavy blaster fire unexpectedly ripped through one of the fighters causing it to crash into the street bellow, carving a great trench into the ground as it slid down the road.

The final starfighter, enraged by the deaths of his squadron, abandoned his chase of the house Dredd ship and flew straight towards Nic.

Nic stood his ground, as best he could as his vision dimmed and his body began feeling heavier as the strength left it. He fired a steady stream of blaster bolts towards the fighter as it flew straight towards him.

He never saw which of his blaster bolts shattered the cockpit glass and killed the starfighter's pilot, he barley even noticed the fighter slamming into the base of the AA tower sending fire and parts of destroyed space craft in all directions.

Nic's dimming vision was focused solely on the shrinking house Dredd ship as it made its way towards orbit. The blaster fell from his limp hands as he sank to his knees, a small smile on his face as saw clear skies.

He did his job. He kept that friendly ship safe.

Nic collapsed, re-joining his teammates one final time as he shuffled of his mortal coil.