STAR WARS
TALES OF A REBEL
Imperials victorious! The Galactic Empire, despite having suffered a massive loss of manpower and their weapon of terror, the DEATH STAR, at the hands of the Rebel Alliance, has after a long and bloody siege, driven the Rebels off their hidden base on Yavin 4. Retreating Rebel forces are under heavy attack as they search for a new home.
Meanwhile, Cody Jackson, having just turned 14, begins running small freight operations to raise money for himself. As the Nebulon-B frigate Kuat carrying vital supplies for the Alliance retreats from an Imperial Star Destroyer, badly damaged, Cody arrives at Cemtex Station to finish a trade run…
"Docking complete." The comm squawked. Cody locked off the ship controls and shut down the cockpit. He sighed. No one was hiring him to take cargo, and his plan to raise money was going nowhere. "Welcome aboard, Night Rider." came the response from Cemtex. Cody looked longingly at the comm. "And coming to backward stations like these isn't helping either." He scolded after the comm clicked off for the final time. Then again, your ship and your age aren't exactly key advertising points for you, are they? Being 14, many people though him too young to be in space. Perhaps they're right. His ship, the Night Rider, was a prototype YG-4210, with many systems outdated and some even stripped out to be replaced with older systems. She had no weapons and shields that could not repel a small meteor, and a class 15 hyperdrive to boot. These made her one of the most inferior cargo vessels in the galaxy. Illegal cargo traders did not want to use it as it would be intercepted by Imperial forces, larger scale companies thought the Rider too small to carry their stock, and independent people thought he was too young to be able to deliver the supplies. He climbed down from the ramp of the cockpit and set out to find his employer.
He arrived at Jason Farlot's quarters. He was paying him 900 credits for this run, and Cody had gone to a lot of trouble to ensure his cargo of wine was in the best possible condition. He hit the buzzer. No reply. Cody frowned and hit it again. No reply. "Mr Farlot? It's Cody Jackson, sir. I've got your order. Nothing. Cody hit the door. Suddenly, he saw a TC droid walk past. "Oi, you! Where is Mr Farlot?" The droid turned to look at him. "Sir, Mr Farlot was arrested this morning by Station Security and transferred to the Imperial cruiser Malot for questioning." Cody sighed. The problem with these desperate business deals was that in many cases, the traders claimed to be legit but were in fact illegal. While the Malot was a refurbished Venator-class warship and now only a match for the light cruisers and frigates in the galaxy, the Rider fell below that category. "On what charge?" "Illegal smuggling of arms, sir."
Cody ran to the Rider and opened one of the containers. Damn! The container was filled with not wines, but E-11 rifles. Cody now had to find a way to dispose of the arms before he was found and arrested with them. Leaving was a good idea too, as if Farlot broke under torture, he would give Cody's name. He started to drag the weapons out t the nearest airlock, a sense of panic filling him up. After this, back to home for me. No more danger runs to get money you don't need. He reached the airlock after an eternity, opening the door…
To find the airlock of a ship on the other side. He ducked for cover as he heard two people approach:
"Why come to us though?"
We had no choice. That Star Destroyer pursued us for 20 minutes before we could get out of its weapons range. They beat us up so badly. The hyperdirve burned out after we arrived, the reactor is totalled and our lasers have been shot right off. It was either here or nowhere.
But the Malot is suspicious already as it is. If they find out the Kuat is here, we're dead.
Just get the weapons and shields working again and we'll deal with the Malot…
Cody ran for it, jogging to the Rider, where an astromech and a tech were working on it.
"Damn, that's not good… What is he, a nerfherder?" Cody did not appreciate being insulted, so he decide to grab the tech's attention. "No, I am not. What's the problem?" "Oh, er, sorry sir. The Incom ion engine you are using is older than anything I've ever seen, and it's been placed under a lot of stress. It's blown, and unless I refit the ship to take a newer model, you're going nowhere.
Cody sighed. This was not good news. If an Imperial boarding party were to stumble across the arms with a Rebel ship here, he'd be dead before he could say "uh-oh". Hopefully it won't take too long...
"How long before I can get out of here?"
"At least two weeks."
"WHAT?"
"Well, the ship won't take any of our parts, and we'll have to specially requisition the parts. It's going to cost you a lot, sir."
The tech's commlink buzzed.
"All technicians to Docking Bay Two immediately. Repeat, all on duty techs to Docking Bay Two."
The tech sighed as he left to go to the lift.
Two weeks. There was no way to get out of the station, a caseload of weapons in his cargo, and a Rebel warship docked. However, Cody reasoned, there was no real reason to panic. The Malot hd no reason to board the station, and even if they didi, they would likely just search ththe Rebel ship.
Cody turned to find all of his theories proven dead wrong.
The Malot was unloading shuttles and moving to a docking port. Stormtroopers were disembarking from the transports. All were armed. An Imperial officer was the last to leave. The intercom buzzed . "Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Joe Collins of the Imperial Illegal Search force. This facility is being searched for illegal arms. We would ask that you please co-operate fully. You have my assurances that you will not be harmed.
Unfortunately for Cody , his ship was the first in line for inspection. A stormtrooper moved to the Rider and opened the crates. Cody prepared himself for the worst...
And was pleasantly surprised as the first stormtrooper went down, a laser blast throwing him off his feet. He swiveled to find an entire platoon of Rebel troops storming into the hangar, guns blazing. Another Imperial went down before any of them knew what was happening, and another three before they could reach their E-11s.
By this time the remnants of the squad had their weapons up and firing,but the rebels had anticipated this and had taken cover. One Rebel was just a second too slow, and fell behind one of the arms crates. Three more were running to the Rider, under heavy fire as the Imperial force desperately tried to equalize the now seriously uneven numbers.
"This ship the Rider? Are you Cody Jackson?" One of them asked. He was almost twice the size of Cody. He nodded, about a second away from wetting himself.
"Come on then. We need help shifting these weapons." He motioned for Cody to lift a crate and follow him.
By this time, the station had turned into a shooting parlour. Weapons were discharged everywhere as Rebels and Imperials did battle. They somehow reached the Kuat in one piece.
"Now kid, lift these into the cargo hold. It's the big place on the left, OK?". It was clear the ship had been under attack recently. The white walls were blackened everywhere. Debris hung dangerously overhead and teams could be seen desperately working to repair the ship.
He dumped the E-11s in the hold, which looked about one hit away from the ceiling caving in. He ran out and came face to face with the barrel of a gun.
"Duck, kid!" He did so instinctively as the officer was thrown back two meters from the blast. He then saw the trooper. " Get back to your ship and take off. We don't have time to get the rest of the guns. He raced through the brown corridors, past the bar and the docking port and reached the hangar.
By this time , another transport had arrived and was reinforcing the Imperials on the station already. The Rebel contingent was retreating. Cody dived into his freighter and started the engines. He almost forgot to close the rear doors in his hurry. He took off., climbing high into the sky . The Kuat was leaving, and the Malot was moving to intercept. All of a sudden, the ship turned and closed on him. He felt the ship began to vibrate . He tried to change course, but the ship wouldn't respond. The comm burst into life.
"Attention, unidentified freighter scum. surrender or be destroyed."
A second voice came through.
"White Six to Night Rider. You've been snagged by a tractor beam. Hang on. The Malot was growing ever nearer, when, suddenly, two blue bursts hit the destroyer. The ship was freed and Cody quickly moved away. He turned to see a Y-wing flying alongside. "Now, kid, set course for Avid's third moon. We'll escort you, and the Kuat will hold off the Malot while we go to hyperspace.
The Kuat's laser batteries were going full pelt towards the Imperial warship. But she was still no match in her damaged state.
"Come on, kid, we're waiting for you to go so we can get outta here. We can't last much longer." Cody didn't need telling twice. He hit his hyperdrive and accelerated into the corridor that had formed.