THE FOLLOWING EVENTS ARE A "WHAT IF?" SCENARIO BASED ON THE MUCH LOVED "X-WING" SERIES OF BOOKS WRITTEN BY MICHAEL A STACKPOLE AND AARON ALLSTON. NOT HAVING READ THE COMICS AND NOT KNOWING THE FATE OF WRAITH SQUAD, I HAVE UNDERTAKEN THIS EFFORT TO FORGE MY OWN STORY OF THE LOVEABLE 12, OR MORE RIGHTLY, KELL TAINER. No similarity to any fanfic is intended and all characters, locations, vehicles, PLANETS!(geez I can't believe I'm saying this) are copyright of their respective, authors, publishers, companies and organizations. If I need any more permission after saying I'm a nobody and you all(the aforementioned owners) rule, well then boo on you. If not, well then may the Gods (and/or, more rightly, God) shine upon your houses!
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"Dive Wraith Six! DIVE NOW!!" Kell shouted over the comm, dropping his X Wing down, rolling down to where Runt was being tailed by an interceptor, moving to and fro between the quad laser bursts of the enemy fighter. He leveled right behind the interceptor which, seeing his maneuver, banked hard to the right, making a giant loop too fast for Kell to make out. Runt vectored away, one of his laser cannons smoking, hit. Good, he was safe, Kell thought. But the interceptor was on the starboard side of Kell's X Wing in an instant. Kell himself dropped to the left, going down and backwards, barrel rolling to avoid the laser bursts trailing him, eating away at his already depleted shields. He jinked his yoke left and right, avoiding the blasts, and then he found his opportunity; an orbiting asteroid around the barren giant planet, right above him. He kept on dodging for just enough time as it took for his pursuer to develop a consistency, and then he looped straight up, rolling the ship to avoid being an easy target, the interceptor already matching the maneuver and hot on his tale. Kell knew it was one of those asteroids that would eventually fall to the planet, and it had little meteorites issuing from its breaking surface. Perfect. He zoomed in, putting the energy from two of his blasters into his shields, the rest going into his engines, giving him just enough of a boost to get well ahead of the Interceptor. The humongous asteroid looked so insignificant from a distance, in relation to the barren giant of a planet below them. But now that it filled his whole viewscreen, it seemed a planet in itself, with fighter-craft size chunks falling off of its deteriorating surface.
As soon as he entered the outer debris rim, he saw the Interceptor veer away on his sensor array, not wanting to expose his unshielded hull to the chunks of rock. Kell tried to look back through his limited canopy, smiling to himself, seeing a speck of light turning away in the distance. He turned back to look ahead, staring straight into a house size chunk of rock hurtling towards him, small pieces of it already bouncing off his shield. He watched it for a while, thunderstruck, wide eyed, not knowing what to do.
"WRAITH FIVE!! INVERT!! INVERT!!" Janson's voice brought Kell back to reality. He turned his thrusters to minimal capacity, pulling up on the flight yoke, coming in parallel to the approaching colossus, his repulsors facing the rock. As soon as the surface of the rock came into max repulsor distance, he cranked up the power on the repulsors, propelling the craft five hundred feet away from the hazard out of the outer debris rim of the asteroid. He let out a long held breath, sweating profusely under his helmet. "Thanks Wraith Lead! I owe you!"
"Good job Kell! Bad news though." Janson's dark voiced remark made Kell's heart drop. Who'd died this time? "Not one kill hotshot, you lose the bet! Now you owe me more!" several laughing voices filled the distorted comm unit, making Kell himself smile. He should have known Major Janson would make a remark like that.
"I'll get you next time Major! Count on it!" Kell spoke, shaking his head.
"Sure kid! Ok Wraith Squad, good job, no casualties. Retreat to base. Our mission's over here." Kell fell into position as the team prepared for a jump to their base on the Planet M-912bX, an unmarked uninhabitable water world with only one island as land. It was a two hour journey from where they were, two hours he would spend in thinking out what he did wrong on the mission.
Or at least he thought. A voice shook him from his musings "Hey Handsome!" he smiled. It was Tyria.
"Hey gorgeous! How's it going?" Kell put his head back, wiping his eyes under his visor, switching to direct comm frequency with Wraith Four, who spoke up just then;
"I thought I lost you there for a while you oaf. You could be a little more aware of your surroundings!"
"Hey! Hey! I'm no Force sensitive ok! I'm leaving the Jedi stuff to you!"
"Hmm well let's hope the children aren't like you at all! Or this family's going no where!"
Kell laughed out loud. She had been bothering him indirectly about this issue for months now. He shook his head, turning towards a topic other than children "So how many squints did you get?" he asked, looking past the comm unit to see the expression on Tyria's face. He was thanking the stars for this Hypercomm upgrade two days ago. Now he wasn't too sure.
"Don't try to change the subject stud!" he heard in a cool voice. "Anyways I got two. More than can be said for you loser!" her laughter played on his pride a little, but he realized who was talking to him. His equal in wills. He sighed and listened to all her talk about the different people she knew who had kids, "…and you know Hikdesh and Joroma from tech crew…"
"AHA!! TECH CREW! Ground units who have nothing to do with dangerous combat! Thank you for proving my previous point dearest!" he sent a kiss over the comm, "I Love you!"
"I won't win this will I?"
"Not until we sustain an incapacitating injury or retire or get bored of this, which isn't likely to happen very soon."
"Ugh! You fighter jocks!"
Kell laughed at this remark, knowing her to be more of a fighter than him. "You seriously do not think I'll buy that do you?"
"I'm never one to give up hope Tainer, as you know well enough."
"I won't deny that, pretty. Hey hang on." Switching to a different direct frequency, Kell heard Major Janson speaking as merrily as ever into his ear;
"Hey there airhead! I called to settle my final price! And on a lighter note I need to send in you and three others of your choosing from the squad to a special mission down to the Rim." Kell let out an exasperated breath, but Janson spoke up again "I know it's kind of hard, right after this mission. But it's a break-in, retrieve and retreat thing. A quick-in, quick-out, no blowing stuff up affair. Plus it's not scheduled for three more days."
"Oh like that'll make me go!" his annoyance was growing by the second "What do we have to do major?"
"Details when we get back to base. Janson out."
This was getting to be too much for Kell. In the past two months alone they had bombed three bases, sabotaged another 3 hangars, stolen a whole planet's worth of supply goods and the Imperials were still coming in thick! Maybe there was some good in thinking about Tyria's suggestion. Maybe he could just start a family and get out of this hectic life. He thought about it for a while, counting down the time to exit vector with his eyes at the same time. No way in the whole universe Kell Tainer. You love this too much to give it up. The soft voice, quite like his own, spoke up inside his head like it had for some time now. Yes but I love Tyria too. I have some obligations to her as well! He heard himself say, which was followed by soft laughing; not his own, not on the comm. Ah ah ah! Not until you get married my friend! Dwell on that notion for a while. You're trip's about to end! No sooner had he heard these words that the silvery white space around him jerked into elongated streaks of white, immediately settling into stationary white specks in the distant cosmos. The water giant loomed ahead of them, a black dot dead in its centre signifying their sheltered base.
"Drop by wings Wraiths." Janson's voice came over the comm, sounding tired. Kell formed up with his wing, Tyria on his right and Runt taking the left. Janson was acting as head for the a few months. Garik Loran was on Coruscant identifying some things he was privy to in the past with the Imperials. He was due to return around this time, Kell wondered when he would get back.
As the initial jerks and breaks of entering the atmosphere went away, the Wraiths dropped right over the surface of the water, led in by Janson, who apparently was mesmerized by watery terrains in general.
"Beautiful view isn't it people?" the Major said, referring, Kell assumed, to the gargantuan creature breaking the surface of the water a few kliks away to their port. The rest of the five minute run went without anyone saying anything, too tired of sitting in the cockpit for hours on end. As the black speck in the horizon increased in size to be recognizable, the company formed a straight line, vectoring in towards the hangar facing them, which had opened in the large mountain on the island in front of them. One by one and number by number, the twelve fighters zoomed into the large crevice in the side of the beast of rock, kicking in their repulsors and pulling back on their throttles to make maneuvering easier. They all settled down in two rows of six fighters, facing each other in a perfect slanted line, in the middle of the large hanger bay.
As Kell got down, he saw Tyria from under the snubnose of his fighter, walking as though about to faint, towards him. Alarmed, he rushed towards her, picking up in her arms just as she fell down between their fighters. There was no life in her body, just a limp form of flesh in his hands. His breathing increased, his heart racing faster every second as his emotions gained control over his mind. What should he do! What?!
And then;
"Hold me tighter Tainer!" Tyria had suddenly put her arms around his neck, holding her there, a kind of wearied satisfied expression on her face, eyes opened ever so slightly, with a little smile.
"YOU!!" Kell dropped her on the ground, gently, and then sprang on top of her, holding her hands to her chest, pinning her down "YOU HAD ME SO WORRIED THERE YOU.. YOU…YOU! ARGH!!"
Her laughter was ringing throughout the hangar, causing everyone to look at them, most of them smiling and laughing themselves too. "OK! OK! Let go! I'm sorry! I won't ever do that again! Promise!"
"NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" Kell roared, smiling and feeling foolish, not paying any attention to that aspect of his personality just then.
"OK you two, playtime's over. Now get up, clean yourselves and go to sleep before I ground you for the rest of your lives!" the voice was Janson's, but sounded very forced, tired and strained, as though the young mind was growing old. "Tainer, I need to talk to you though. Follow me please."
"Uh, right away major." Kell got up, kissing Tyria as they parted, regretting that parting at once after sensing her physically. He walked slowly behind Janson, whose face was hung down, hands in his pockets and feet dragging themselves along. They walked along the corridor, meeting other people stationed on base along the way, Janson saluting back half heartedly, his hand barely reaching his chin.