Character Tournament
Anakin Skywalker vs. Prince Thrakhath
by Stoff
This story is part of Stoff's Character Tournament. To see how you can participate, go to the Character Tournament forum on under Misc/X-over/Character Tournament
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Anakin Skywalker piloted his Eta-2 starfighter at full speed towards the red scar on the black skin of space that was the Mutara Nebula. His orders from the Jedi Council were simple: temporarily leave the front, where fighting was raging up and down the galaxy, and neutralize an unknown pilot who was causing trouble in this sector.
"Let's take a look at that nebula, R2," the Jedi said to the astromech droid tucked into the hull beside his cockpit. The droid responded with a series of beeps, which were translated on one of Anakin's display screens. He half-smiled at R2's misgivings about entering the cloud of gas. The systems he would lose he usually didn't need anyway. "We should be alright. Let's get this over with." R2 whistled quietly to himself as the small fighter continued on its course without slowing.
Orange and red gas quickly enveloped the cockpit as the craft entered the nebula. As R2 had predicted, the fighters sensors began to cloud up. However, Anakin's view through his canopy was unobstructed. He pushed a few buttons on his console, changing displays. His targeting computer also was not functioning. Again, Anakin rarely used it.
R2 had also reported that if their enemy was equipped with shields, they would not work inside the nebula: A problem that they did not have. The Eta-2 had been specifically designed for Jedi pilots. Incorporating several of Anakin's own design innovations, it made the maximum use of space, sacrificing systems like shields, extensive sensors, and overpowering weaponry in favor of speed and maneuverability. The Eta-2 was the smallest fighter in Republic records because it had shed those things which Jedi would in theory not need.
Holding his yoke steady, Anakin concentrated on his perceptions. Through the Force, he could feel another life form. As he had suspected, it was almost directly on the other side of the nebula.
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Prince Thrakhath of the Empire of Kilrah piloted his personal craft, the Bloodfang fighter, towards the other side of the Mutara Nebula. At the moment he was separated from his mighty fleet, but this did not trouble him. His only desire was to kill another pilot, who was at this moment approaching from the other side of this gaseous anomaly.
The Prince had fought for years against the Terran hairless apes. Had personally slain many pilots such as this. He knew in his warrior heart that killing another of these humans would advance the cause of his great empire.
Reaching forward with his right paw, he grasped his fighter's control stick, making small course corrections in preparation for combat. His feline nose sniffed the air as he visually searched the nebula around him for his prey. Sniffing was a reflex action, of course. There was no way a smell could travel through space and into his cockpit, but one could not supress the instinct of thousands of generations of Kilrathi who had hunted in the jungles of his homeworld with their bare claws, Thrakhath included.
The Prince looked momentarily down at his displays. It appeared as if his shields and targeting computers would not function within the nebula. This would present an additional challenge, but nothing he could not overcome. The first task of a hunter was to locate his quarry, and he would have to do this with his sharp warrior's eyes. He continued to scan space for the hairless ape who would soon be a vacuum-defiled corpse.
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Anakin knew exactly where he was looking, and in a matter of minutes, he could make out the speck of an approaching starfighter. "There he is, R2," he said. R2 beeped enthusiastically in response. Anakin wondered for a moment how the nebula affected R2's visual sensors; if his small companion was blind inside the nebula, or if he could see their enemy as well.
Anakin continued to guide his fighter towards their enemy at full speed, finger tightening slightly on his triggers, waiting for the other ship to get within range.
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Thrakhath suddenly snarled. He had caught sight of his victim. He quickly corrected his fighter's course, pointing himself directly at the other fighter: a very small craft. Scant seconds later the other ship opened fire, sending two streams of laser bolts streaking towards him. Thrakhath returned fire an instant later. Four energy bolts left his fighter's tachyon cannons and plasma cannons as the two craft sped towards one another.
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Anakin saw the incoming fire. Reacting before any conscious thought, he threw his fighter into a series of evasive rolls and banks, evading the enemy's fire while still pointing towards his enemy.
As his enemy came closer, Anakin split his attention between evading fire, hitting the enemy with his own, and examining the enemy craft. It was a fighter unlike any he has even seen before. It was a flying wing design, with a strangely asymmetrical fuselage barely longer than the foils on either side. It was also fairly large for a fighter. Anakin was familiar with the starship design of many, many systems, and this was different from any of them. One thing was for sure: it was not a Confederate fighter.
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Some of the enemy's laser blasts hit Thrakhath's armor, causing small explosions, but causing no worry. The Kilrathi varied his craft's path in an attempt to throw off some of the fire, but his main concern was hitting his enemy. By the size of the enemy, Thrakhath judges that without shields one hit would destroy the ape, but so far he had been unable to hit him, which was beginning to cause some frustration.
After only a few seconds of trading fire, the fighters flashed past one another, and in a long honored tradition of fighter combat, both pilots turned toward the other. Anakin's Eta-2 was also the most maneuverable fighter in Republic databanks. He put his fighter in a turn so tight that the G-forces would be fatal to any living thing not strong in the force.
Thrakhath's opponent made the tightest turn he had ever seen. Their was no way the Bloodfang fighter could outturn it, even if the Prince's rugged form was able to withstand the maneuver. The tiny, bulbous fighter slid behind him.
The Kilrathi opened up comm channels to vent his frustration. "I will clean my claws on your corpse, Terran ape!"
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Anakin frowned. Terran? What was that? He pushed it from his mind. R2 voiced a few beeps. "Yes, I'm going to let him get away with that, R2" he said. There was no need to trade insults with a starfighter opponent.
Using instincts which he had possessed from a young age, Anakin anticipated each of Thrakhath's moves perfectly. This pilot was one of the best he had ever flown against, Anakin reflected, but the Jedi simply possessed several advantages which his opponent didn't. The larger fighter was unable to shake him. Anakin fired his lasers, striking his enemy several times.
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One of Thrakhath's panels exploded in a shower of sparks. He snarled again. How could these weak humans produce such fine pilots? This was the second pilot he had encountered who was simply too good for belief.
The Kilrathi could think of but one chance for survival. Pushing a few switches, he selected his IFF missiles, and set them to fire a salvo of four. Without delay he pressed the missile fire button with his thumb, launching four death-dealing rockets. These weapons would home in on any signal not transmitting a Kilrathi transponder code.
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R2 screamed several warning beeps as Anakin saw the four missiles leave the other fighter. Two of these apparently could not sense through the fog of the nebula. One of these began to fly in circles, the other simply flew straight ahead. The remaining two missiles made U-turns, coming back towards Anakin.
Leaving his opponent's rear, Anakin went into a wildly unpredictable evasive course. The missiles followed doggedly behind, overshooting several times, but never getting close enough to detonate.
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Thrakhath turned the Bloodfang around until he again had the human in sight. The ape was still avoiding his missiles, and would be very difficult to hit. Thrakhath fired at long range, trying in vain to strike his enemy with the energy weapons.
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Anakin yanked the yoke back, avoiding the missiles a final time before they ran out of fuel and went dead in space. He saw the missiles fail to turn back towards him and immediately turned back towards Thrakhath, whose position he had kept track of during his evasion.
The enemy was now at medium range, firing at him. Anakin settled on a course oblique to his enemy and pushed his throttle forward to the stop. He surmised that his enemy was probably out of missiles, allowing Anakin to stay behind the alien until he was victorious.
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Thrakhath saw what his enemy was planning, and once again banked and turned in a vain attempt to outturn him. The cat-like warrior grunted, keeping his Kilrathi blood from pooling in his lower extremities, but he could not keep the human fighter in his sights.
After several minutes, Thrakhath was once again fighting for his life to evade laser blasts from the enemy on his six o'clock. Once again damage became evident as his ship absorbed more and more fire from the human. With sudden calm, Thrakhath knew that he did not have long to live. "Long live Kilrah!" he yelled.
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Anakin's final laser blast punctured the cockpit punctures the Bloodfang's cockpit. The resulting explosive decompression severed dozens of lines, including a coolant line for the fighter's massive engines. Deprived of coolant, the two engines gained temperature until they melted through their firewalls, and pushed through into the fighter's fuel tank.
Thrakhath's fighter exploded in a fireball which encompassed the entire craft, leaving nothing left after the explosion had faded. R2 whistled in victory, and Anakin allowed himself the barest of smiles. "Let's get back," he told the droid. He turned his fighter, heading for the hyperspace ring he had left on the edge of the nebula.