Author's Note: This is my first fan fict so enjoy and review
Rebel Rendezvous location
After the Battle of Hoth
The young black Corellian, Commander Daren Hellwod, yawned as he lined up his X-Wing Starfighter, which was covered with scorch marks from lasers, for a final approach on the rebel cruiser, Blue Hope. The three other surviving members of his squadron had already landed there fighters. His black and blue R-2 unit Dee-Nine let out a short low moan. "Yeah I'm ok." Daren said softly.
So far the shock of losing two thirds of his squadron, while they were covering the mass exodus from what use to be there base on the ice planet Hoth had not fully hit him. That or he was finally getting use to the bloody cost of this war. "Blue Command this is Grey One." He said into his helmet's commlink. "Requesting permission to land."
"Roger Grey one, you are cleared to land port side. Welcome aboard." A female voice replied over the comm channel.
Yeah right. He thought. "Dee-Nine lets go." He said to his R-2 Astromech, as he increased the throttle a little and slowly maneuvered his fighter into the hanger bay of the ship and sat it down in a free space. He let out a sigh of relief as he leaned back and closed his eyes, letting events of the last several hours flood back into his brain.
Echo Base Main Hanger
Hoth
"Red Alert! Red Alert! All pilots to their fighters. This is not a drill." A voice over Echo Base's intercom system yelled as the young human rebel starfighter pilot, Commander Daren Hellwod, leader of Grey squadron and his wing mate Captain Stacie Reasner quickly jumped off the tram and ran towards there X-Wing Starfighters, like the dozens of other rebel pilots were doing. "Sithspit! Intel said that the nearest Imperial Star Destroyer was five days away! How did they get here so fast?" She yelled as she quickly went under the wing of her starfighter.
Daren smiled at his long time friend. "You know how Intel is. They are wrong like 99% of the time." He said as he caught his helmet that was tossed to him by one of the techs. "That's why we prepped out fighters when they took out that probe droid."
"True."She said as she laughed and climbed up to the cockpit of his X-Wing, then put on his helmet.
He looked over at his best friend and gave a thumb up as his cockpit began to close. He activated his commlink and started to go through his pre-flight check list. "Grey One, to Grey Squadron. Comm check."
"Grey Two here. All systems showing green." The voice of his wing mate came over the link, bringing a smile to his face.
One by one, the other ten members of his squadron checked in. "Alright, boys and girls. Our mission is simple keep the Imp fighters off of the transports while they make a run for it."
Daren waited till everyone responded before switching the comm channel over to Echo Base's control tower. "Echo Control this is Grey One. Grey Squadron ready for take-off."
"Grey One this is Echo Control. Roger. Bantha 11 and 12 reports they are ready for take off. Good luck."
"Thanks Control Grey One out." Daren replied. We're going to need it. He thought to himself as he switched the channel back over to his squadron's channel. "Here we go boys and girls." He said as he began to throttle up. "Second flight, you cover Bantha One. Third, you got Bantha two. First flight on me."
Each flight leader acknowledged him, as the squadron fallowed him out of the hanger along with the first two rebel transports trying to make their escape. Daren looked down to one of the small display screens and saw a count down to when the Planetary Ion Cannon, that the rebels had built to defend the base would fire to make a path for the escaping rebels as his squadron and the two transports left the hanger.
As they neared the edge of the planetary shield that protected the base from orbital bombardment, Daren looked at the counter again. 3…. 2…. 1…. Suddenly a blue bolt of energy shot up from the planet, hitting one of the Star Destroyers in orbit, causing energy to dance across its hull. He couldn't help to smile at the sight of this. But seconds later the words he heard wiped the smile off of his face. "We got TIE's inbound!!!" A voice crackled over the commlink. "I count at least a wing of em."
"Roger. I see them" Daren said as he began to flip switches in rapid secession. "Lock S-Foils in attack position. Remember the plan; those transports have to make it out safely."
"Roger lead." The sound of his best friend replied over the commlink. "Good hunting."
"You too." Daren replied. "And be careful. I do anything I wouldn't do."
Rebel rendezvous location
Rebel Cruiser 'Blue Hope'
Daren climbed out of his X-Wing and pulled off his helmet. He felt stiff from sitting in the cockpit of his fighter so long. "Damn, it feels good to be out of there." He said to himself. His R-2 beeped cheerfully as a couple of techs lifted him from his spot on the fighter and sat the small droid on the hanger floor. "Who asked you?" Daren said grumpily, as he plopped down on the ground and leaned against the front landing strut of his fighter and closed his eyes for a few minutes as a wave of exhaustion finally washed over him.
He opened his eyes open when he heard the droid roll itself over towards him and whistle mournfully at him. "Sorry I'm not mad at you…" Daren replied as he patted Dee-Nine on its domed head. "I'm just tired. Can you go get the status of the other ships for me please?" The droid let out a single chirp and rolled away, leaving Daren to his thoughts.