Hello, all me asylum breakies out there! I really, really hope you like this story. I am always open to any suggestions or ideas you may want to offer, but please, no harsh flames. Please.
Chapter 1: Suspended
Her heart raced, her reflexes stretched to the max. Laser blasts flashed constantly outside the cockpit of her X-Wing fighter. Her hands were sweating inside inside her heavy pilot gloves ad she gripped the controls in a vice-like grip. Her eyes constantly darted around, observing everything around her before she made her next move. Her heart skipped a beat as she dodged to the right, narrowly avoiding a laser blast.
"Commander Korr, you all right?"a voice said over the com-link in her helmet.
She took a deep breath to steady herself before answering.
"Y-yeah, I think so." she replied.
A sudden brighter-than-usual flash of light caught her eye to the left. She looked up and saw a small group of her fellow Rebels locked in battle with a large number of other ships. They were hopelessly out-numbered.
"Battalion 4 is in trouble; I'm going to help them." she said into her com-link.
"No! They are doing their job, so do yours." the voice said.
She couldn't help but stare at the battle to her left, seeing her fellow soldiers in trouble like that was more than she could bare. She couldn't just sit there and do nothing. She flipped on her turbo-engines and sped off towards them. Stars flew by in white streaks as she neared the battle. She noticed two enemy ships attacking the X-Wing of one of her closest friends and anger flared inside her. She aimed her blasters towards one of the ships and fired with maximum fire-power. The fighter exploded in a bright flash of fire and debris.
"Thanks, Commander. I thought I was done for." the voice of her friend said over the com-link, "Go help the others; I think I can deal with this other fighter."
"Copy. I'm on my way." she said, flipping her X-Wing backward in a fancy maneuver and speeding off towards the other fighters.
The next several minutes flew by in an adrenalin-fueled blur. She let her instincts take over and she performed several more complicated flight maneuvers, taking down at least ten enemy fighters. She didn't know how long she'd fought until she heard the voice of her commanding officer come over the com-link once more.
"All right, soldiers, that's it. They're retreating. Come on back to base."
She switched off her turbo-engines, flying at a steady pace with the other fighters. She relaxed slightly, breathing heavily as she re-played the events of the battle in her mind. A few minutes later, they landed safely at their base on Yavin 4. Her X-Wing touched down inside the flight hangar with a slight jolt as the engines slowly died down and began cooling. The top of her cockpit slowly opened with a mechanical hiss and she unfastened her restraints. She stood up and removed her helmet as she did. A tall, yellow ladder had been wheeled over to the side of her X-Wing to assist her in climbing down. By the time she reached the bottom of the ladder, she was surrounded by her fellow soldiers, who were cheering and clapping.
"You did it! You saved us all!" Jason, one of her friends, cheered, giving her a big hug.
"Well, I can't take all the credit; you helped me." she said, grinning from ear to ear.
"COMMANDER KORR!" a loud voice echoed over the cheers of the pilots.
An eerie silence descended upon the bunker as Alexandra Korr looked upwards towards the source of the voice: her Commanding Officer, Ethan Riker.
"Y-Yes, sir?" Alex asked, feeling Riker's cold stare penetrate her mind.
"See me in my office right away." Riker said, turning and walking down the balcony and disappearing into the the adjoining hallway. Alex mentally groaned as she made her way through the silent crowd of her fellow soldiers. She ascended the metal stairs leading up to the balcony and followed a maze of white-metal hallways, finally coming to the doorway she always dreaded going through: the doorway into Officer Riker's office. She pressed the switch beside the door and it slid open with a mechanical hiss. She stepped into the spacious, very organized office. Riker stood across the room on the other side of the white-chrome desk in the center of the room, looking through a file. Alex cleared her throat to announce her presence.
"You wanted to see me, sir?" she said.
Riker looked up from the file, anger flaring in his stern eyes.
"Yes, I did." he said, slamming the file down on the smooth surface of his desk, "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"Sir?" Alex asked, confused as to what Riker meant.
"You were not authorized to make that attack out there!" Riker almost-yelled.
"If I didn't, that entire faction would have been killed." Alex defended.
"That's beside the point. Ever since you joined the Alliance, you have repeatedly disobeyed orders and the rules of conduct." Riker said, leaning on his hands against his desk, "I refuse to condone this behavior any longer."
"What are you going to do?" Alex asked, a sense of fear in her voice as Riker turned away from her and retrieved his large datapad from the cabinet behind his desk.
"I am re-assigning you from this base." Riker said, turning his datapad on.
"What do you mean?" Alex asked, he heart pounding.
"I am suspending your clearance pass until further notice." Riker said, programming it into his datapad.
Alex almost dropped her helmet as she heard those words. She felt her mouth go dry and her throat tightened, and she felt a terrible 'sinking feeling' in the pit of her stomach.
"You are, until further notice, suspended from entering this or any other Rebel base in the galaxy." Riker said.
"But, sir, you can't do that! I saved them out there!" Alex yelled.
"You're lucky I'm not suspending your piloting licence, too." Riker said, "You have forty-eight hours to vacate the premises or you will be escorted out."
Alex simply stared at him, speechless and wide-eyed, unable to wrap her head around what was happening.
"And I do not wish to hear any excuses." Riker said, narrowing his gaze, "Go pack your things. You are dismissed."
"Yes, sir." Alex whispered, her mouth still dry.
She turned and silently walked out of the room. She followed the seemingly-endless maze of hallways to an across the balcony over the main hangar, and down another series of hallways to one of the many bunk-rooms. The room, like all the others, was made completely of white chrome. Black squares dotted the walls here and there so the room didn't seem so monotonous. The walls to her left and right and in front of her were adorned by two bunks each, which were built into the walls. At the head and foot of each bunk were three small shelves built into the wall. Under each of the lower bunks were drawers for storage.
Alex walked over to the lower bunk to her left, shaking, trying to contain her anger. Unable to contain her anger any longer, she threw her helmet down onto the mattress of her bunk. It landed with a dull thud and rolled to the side. Alex leaned on her hands on the edge of the upper bunk, groaning loudly to keep from screaming. She lay her forehead on her hands, which were by now balled into fists. She could not believe the nerve of Officer Riker! How could he do this to her after ten years of service in the Rebel Alliance?! Sure, she'd stepped out of line a couple of times, but only to save someone close to her. She gave a heavy sigh as she sunk down to sit on her bunk. She roughly yanked her flight gloves off and threw them down on her pillow. Sighing loudly, she ran her fingers through her thick, brown hair.
"Well, there's no sense in worring about it now." she reasoned, "There's nothing I can do about it."
She slid off her bed and turned so she knelt in front of it and she pulled out one of the drawers, retrieving her large duffel bag with the Rebel Alliance logo on the side. She rummaged through the drawers underneath her bunk and found a few of her favorite clothes and her most prized possessions, which included her blaster. As she stuffed her clothes in her bag, she heard someone walk into the room. She paused briefly and looked around. She saw Jason standing in the doorway holding his flight helmet.
"I heard what happened." he said in a sympathetic voice.
Alex sighed and went back to stuffing her clothes in her bag. Jason walked over and sat on her bunk beside where she knelt on the floor.
"You wanna talk about it?" he asked after a long pause.
"Not really." Alex said.
"Well, maybe it's not all bad; you've been needing a break lately." Jason said, brushing his black hair out of his face.
"I know I've been needing a break, but not under these particular circumstances." Alex said, zipping her bag, just barely getting it closed.
She sighed heavily and sat down on her bunk beside Jason.
"What are you going to do?" Jason asked.
"I don't know. Maybe go visit Coruscant or something. I've been wanting to go back there for a while." Alex answered.
"Well, where ever you go, don't forget to call every once in a while." Jason said.
"I won't." Alex said, chuckling a little.
They sat there in silence a few more seconds before Alex spoke again.
"Well, I guess I better get going." she said, standing up.
"All ready?" Jason asked.
"Riker said I have forty-eight hours to leave." Alex said, picking up her bag and slinging it over her shoulder.
"May I walk you to your ship?" Jason asked, standing.
"Sure." Alex answered.
The two of them exited the bunk room and walked down the maze of hallways to the balcony that over-looked the main hangar. They descended the metal stairs and crossed the huge hangar filled with X-Wings and other ships. mechanics and pilots bustled here and there, going about their daily business and making repairs to the damaged ships. They entered a separate hangar almost identical to the main one. This hangar housed Alex's own ship the Corellian Warrior. It was a quite impressive ship, almost identical to the Millennium Falcon owned by Han Solo. In fact, Alex had won the Warrior from Solo in a card game.
"Well, here we are." Alex said, looking proudly at her ship, "Thanks for walking me over here."
"You're welcome." Jason said, "You take care of yourself, okay?"
"I will." Alex said, giving Jason a good-bye hug.
They parted the hug and Alex walked over to her ship. She typed in a combination on the key pad on one of the 'legs' jutting out from the bottom of the ship's hull. The boarding ramp slowly opened with a loud hiss. She walked up the ramp and found herself in a curved hallway. She entered another combination on the keypad beside the door and the ramp slowly closed. She turned and walked down the hallway to the engineering bay in the back of the ship. She turned to the left and came to a door. She pressed the switch beside the door and it slid open with a soft hiss. She stepped inside and found herself in the spacious captain's cabin. The cabin was quite large with a double-sized bed built into the wall to her left. Above the bed was a storage compartment. Directly in front of her were two sliding doors which opened to reveal a large closet. On the wall to her right was a large desk with a computer and several gadgets she was currently tinkering with. She walked over to her bed and dropped her bag onto it before exiting the room and making her way to the cockpit. She sat down in the pilot's chair and turned on the ship's power systems. The ship roared to life and the control panel in front of her illuminated with a different-colored lights. The ship gave a slight jolt as it lifted off the ground. She gripped the controls and maneuvered the ship around to exit through the open blast doors. In seconds, she was soaring through the atmosphere of Yavin 4, reaching outer space in less than two minutes. Once she was well into outer space, she charged up the hyper-drive and made the jump into light-speed. She was finally on her way to Coruscant......
A/N: Well, there's the first chapter! Really hope you like it.