AN: This is my first attempt at writing a Star Wars fan fiction, so any comments, concerns, or questions would be greatly appreciated.
A small rebel squadron sailed out of hyperspace a parsec from the watery planet of Kamino, which had been an uncivilized ball of water ever since the Kaminoan's foolish clone rebellion less than a month ago. The ships in the squadron all differed greatly, showing the most diverse styles of construction the Galaxy had to offer. The rightmost ship had two long, clear thrusters and one unifying cockpit while the fighter opposite it in the three-snub squadron was shaped remarkably smaller to a pizza slice with a glass bubble atop it, and had two stubby wings vertically placed on each side of the bubble. The pilot at the head of the formation, however, controlled the most diverse bird of all. An impressive, metallic grey body with a blood red accent paintjob, along with four separate wings attached to the large beak-like center frame, instantly made the X-wing the center of attention. Scope squadron, a rebel fighter detachment specifically created for "discovering" Alliance meeting locations, had arrived. Splitting up, the small team of special operation ships began combing through the system, systematically searching for any foreign presence. After about an hour of scanning the nebula packed region, Kenneth, the commander of the party, announced, "This looks like a good spot to set up camp for a while. Stephen, you and I will get back to Alliance command with a sample of this nebula gas, since a long range transmission may be detected. AJ, stay behind and hold position in that nebula. We'll be back in a second."
AJ, who knew better than to question his orders, merely replied, "Yes sir." and turned his Y-wing back towards the thin nebula that supposedly offered protection against technical scanners. AJ, who was quite tired and rather inexperienced at "holding positions", merely deactivated the ships engines, and began to sleep.
Zane Trance walked groggily to his TIE Fighter. He had slept in accidentally, and missed breakfast by two minutes. The Stormtroopers guarding the mess hall, to Zane's extreme displeasure, refused to let anyone pass into the room if they were late, even by seconds. Grudgingly, the young pilot head back to his room, suited up for today's mission, and began the long trek to the TIE Fighter. "Why does this always happen to me?" He wondered aloud as he pressed in the code for launch bay 42 on the turbolift side panel.
From behind Zane, a voice sarcastically replied, "Because Vader thinks it's funny."
"Good morning to you to, Nathan." Zane retorted, recognizing the voice, "You seem satisfied for someone who missed breakfast."
Nathan grinned, "I didn't miss breakfast, I just ate on the way here."
"What?!" Zane cried as the turbolift hissed opened on the catwalk-loading floor of launch bay 42, "How did you get food past the guards?"
With a chuckle, Nathan replied, "Just bring some plastic bags in you helmet, and put the foodstuffs in. Then, you have to act full when you leave, and cram the food into your cryobox at your quarters so it will stay fresh."
"I can't get the food if I don't get up early enough for breakfast though." Zane sighed, as the two walked across the catwalk hanging over the cavernous hangar.
"Here," Nathan whispered, while handing Zane a small silver package. I figured you missed breakfast, and brought you one of those "the Force" energy bars."
Zane grabbed the package, tore it open, and hungrily wolfed it down, "Not the best meal in the Galaxy," Zane admitted, "But a damn fine substitute. Thanks, Nate."
Shrugging, he replied, "No problem. Hey, did you catch the briefing? In my thieving acts, I didn't get the pleasure of listening to the mission holo."
"Oh, it's simple, really." Zane recited from the holo, "Command caught whiff of a few hyperspace jumps in the Kamino System, which has been banned from civilian travel since the clone rebellion way back when. They think they were Rebels or mercenaries in a scouting party looking for a place to hide, because the three ships in the region weren't registered, and only one of them should still be there since only two jumped back out after their entry three standard hours ago."
Nathan thought for a moment, and then replied, "So if we find one ship there, we'll know that there was a scouting party, and that we'll have to ambush a larger fleet later?"
"Yep." Zane answered back merrily as he checked his helmet's seal. "And we're at Kamino now, so I guess I'll see you in the field."
Nathan nodded a reply as he climbed down the ladder leading to his TIE fighter. The standard-issue fighters were the second most widely recognized symbols of the Empire's rule, next to the feared Stormtroopers.
"Morning Zane." Kardon greeted from a nearby TIE fighter's cockpit.
"Hey Kardon." Zane replied as he walked by. Kardon was another member of the 687th squadron. Besides him and Nathan, there were two other members named Zai-Tyll and Quinn. Quinn, the squad leader, was located on the center of the loading catwalk to the right of Kardon and to the left of Zai-Tyll, and wasn't very talkative. Zane sauntered further past Zai-Tyll's TIE to one of his own, and began the descent down the metal loading ladder into the cockpit of the small craft.
As he nestled himself into the flight seat of the vehicle, he ran over the pre-flight diagnostics and entered in his identification tag, which was SP-15624. Activating his comlink, he spoke into the small built in communicator in his headgear, "This is SP-15624, I'm read to head out."
There was a short pause, some static, and finally an officer replied, "Copy, SP-15624, I read you. I'm disengaging the magnetic lock on your vessel. Prepare for launch in ten seconds." Zane began the mental count down as he flipped various switches, and positioned his finger a centimeter above the activation switch for the repulsorlift. It was a bit of an inside joke among the pilots of the Empire to activate their lifts in mid drop. This was because a while back a cocky Imperial pilot tried to make a name for himself by doing the aforementioned and being credited as the first to do the trick. Although it normally should have worked, his ego was so large he didn't notice that the TIE he was going to do it in had irresponsive controls. As a result, when the magnetic claw allowed his ship to drop he was not able to activate the repulsorlift, causing his TIE to fall haplessly to the hangar floor. Ironically, the bottom of the fighter's left wing landed on a fuel pod, ending his career as a pilot and his life in one dazzling blast of durasteel, flesh, and fire.
A sudden lurch told Zane he was already heading towards the ground, and he immediately snapped his finger down on the blue button that kept his ship from shattering on the hangar floor. For three seconds, his TIE hovered in place, as though it didn't know what to do. With a flip of a switch, Zane's TIE sped out of the hangar and into space with Nathan, Zai-Tyll, Kardon, and Quinn at his sides. The interesting and disturbingly efficient design of the Imperial Star Destroyer Hailstorm forced the Zane and the other pilots to turn down to avoid crashing into a hangar across from theirs', and then circle back up to scale the underbelly of the immense cruiser. Then, the fighters would be deposited at the wide horizontal trench that housed multiple proton torpedo launchers, turbolasers, and ion cannons to defend the mammoth vessel.
The voice of the squad leader, Quinn, crackled through the communicator. "All right men, fan out. You all know what to do if you find that Rebel scum." Obeying his orders, Zane turned to his right towards the rear end of the Hailstorm to investigate a cloud of nebula gasses, where though he could see the gleam of something metallic.
AJ awoke to mechanical beeping, and found that it was the Y-wing's hyperspace proximity alarm. Visually scanning the area, for fear that his electronic scanners would draw unnecessary attention, he found what could only be considered a Rebel Pilot's worst nightmare; an Imperial Star Destroyer less than ten kilometers away, with no friendly forces in sight.
Since that it had not detected him yet, he figured he might have a chance at escaping from the gargantuan ship. He began priming the Y-wing's primary systems, and grabbed the controls as the fighter buzzed to life. As AJ prepared to turn, however, he saw a lone TIE fighter speeding toward him. He cursed, and turned the Y-wing away from the TIE, praying he would be able to make it to hyperspace before the Imperial Pilot caught up.
Zane was about four kilometers from what he assumed was wreckage, when his sensors detected a power reading from the ship. He grinned as he moved his index finger over the blaster control button and sped foreword. "This is SP-15624, I have discovered a Rebel fighter. Moving to engage." Zane said into his comlink. The Y-wing pilot had apparently just noticed him, and began to turn away from him. Coward, Zane though to himself. To punish the Rebel scum, Zane fired a volley of blaster bolts at the Y-Wing pilot. Out of the six shots fired, only two hit. The enemy craft's shield's flickered, but did not die.
The Y-wing barely cleared the nebula when Zane entered it, putting sixty meters between the two small fighters. Zane prepared to fire again when the fighter's Ion cannon turned towards him. Zane turned hard to the left, evading the blue energy bold by a meter. Unfortunately, this small distraction provided the Rebel with enough time to prepare for a hyperspace jump. As he cleared the nebula, Zane fired at the Rebel ship one last time, and was thrilled to see the fighter detonate violently.
Although Zane was victorious, he had little time to celebrate the kill. "SP-15725 to SP-15624, we need you to get back here. We've got a slight bug problem." Nathan's voice informed Zane. Turning his TIE back towards the Hailstorm, he saw a Rebel Assault Frigate and two Corellian Corvettes had appeared from Hyperspace. Zane sped towards the combat zone as both the Hailstorm and the Assault Frigate began launching their fighters. The Battle of Kamino had begun.