Mercenaries-Chapter2
Chapter 2
Patrick
Strapping himself into the A-wing, Patrick Coleman felt that kind of excitement that only came when going into space combat. He wouldn't get distracted by it, but the adrenaline would improve his reflexes. Throwing on his helmet, Patrick tuned the comm to the frequency Gent had given him. "Blaze 3 checking in," he said to the squadron of A-wings preparing to lift off.
"Roger, Blaze 3. Lift in 10 seconds."
The transponder said that came from Blaze Leader, but it was a woman's voice. Interesting. There weren't many woman mercenaries. Patrick shook the thought off as his R2 unit beeped the end of the ten second countdown.
"Blaze Squadron, lift. Form in wingman pairs two klicks from the Gent's Revenge," called Blaze Leader. "After that, choose your targets at will."
Patrick lifted his A-wing from the deck and gave it a little throttle coming out of the hanger. His fighter shot out of the hanger like a bullet. "Sithspawn!" he exclaimed. "Even standard A-wings aren't this fast!"
"Less chatter, Blaze 3," Blaze Leader quickly admonished with what seemed like a trace of amusement.
Patrick quickly got control of the fighter and joined up with his wingman, an absolutely huge man with a grip of iron. They joined the battle. It appeared that an Imperial task force had found the fleet and was making an all-out attempt to destroy it. TIE Fighters, Bombers, and Intercepters swarmed everywhere in a seemingly unlimited number.
It quickly became apparent that while Blaze Squadron had a lot of natural talent, very few of them had had any formal training. Patrick's wingman caught an unlucky break, colliding with a TIE Bomber early into the fight. After about ten minutes, the only fighters left of Blaze Squadron were Patrick and Blaze Leader. Things just kept getting worse and worse, Patrick thought.
Gent
Another explosion rocked the ship. "Status?" Gent asked.
"Shields down to 38 percent," the sensor officer replied.
Gent thought quickly. "What about the rest of the fleet?"
"The FireBlade is reporting shield holding steady. The rest of the fleet is dead in space."
The FireBlade was Inrisa's Corellian Corvette. The three Imperial Star Destroyers plus the Interdictor that was holding them here were minimally damaged, and most fighters on both sides had been destroyed. It was starting to look totally hopeless when a flash of inspiration hit Gent. He reached for the comm. "Inrisa, how's your tractor beam?"
Sounding puzzled, she replied, "100 percent, why?"
"All right," he responded. "I want you to grab the largest piece of debris you can see and hurl it toward the Interdictor."
Inrisa smiled. "Ah, I see."
The two ships each grabbed one of the dead ships and accelerated them towards the Interdictor Cruiser. The Cruiser, perhaps off guard, couldn't get it's own tractor beam in line quickly enough, and the pieces slammed into it.
Inrisa
Inrisa saw the Interdictor Cruiser explode, and heard the cheers of her crew. "All right," she said, stopping the celebration. "Now let's get out of..."
Her word were cut off by an explosion on the bridge. A rogue hunk of metal had slammed into the ship. Everything went black.
Patrick
Blaze Leader and Patrick were going on a strafing run on the Interdictor Cruiser when it blew up.
"Whoa! Look out!" Patrick exclaimed as he dodged debris from the explosion.
Off to his right somewhere, he saw a second smaller explosion. "I've been hit! Engines going critical! Ejecting now! Blaze 3, get out of here!"
Patrick watched as Blaze Leader's A-wing exploded, and saw an ejection seat rise out of it. The figure in the seat was slumped down & looked unconscious. "Gent's Revenge, Blaze Leader is EV," Patrick responded.
"Sorry, Coleman, can't get there."
Patrick swore to himself. Odds were that Blaze Leader would get hit by a piece of something, unless he did something. He thought hard.
Wait a second. This A-wing had already been modified a little. Maybe, just maybe....Yes! There was a control panel for a small tractor beam. Patrick homed in on Blaze Leader. When she got near enough to the cockpit, Patrick opened the canopy.
A rush of air exited the cockpit, trying to bring Patrick with it. A personal magcon field quickly started up, providing Patrick with a few more minutes of air. He reached to the controls, activated the tractor, and brought Blaze Leader inside. When he was sure she was totally inside, he pressed the canopy close button. Nothing happened.