TIE-Fighter 2: BattleLines

Chapter 2

With a frown on his forehead Kolt Ceavers calibrated the scanners of his fighter. The additional equipment had turned the TIE/ln (TIE/ln = TIE/line, ordinary fighter) into a TIE/fc (TIE/firecontrol), what meant that the sensors of the small vessel had a wider reach and were much more sensitive than those used by the normal fighters although at the cost of one laser-cannon. At the moment he and his three comrades from Red-Flock were moving through the upper atmosphere of the fourth planet of an as yet unnamed system in search for the remains of a missing probe-droid.

It wasn't that the Lieutenant didn't understood the necessity for this mission. Far from it. Imperial sensors were capable of discovering traces of technology from outside a planets star system. Many of the newer worlds within the GalacticEmpire had been discovered this way and observed from afar before contact had been initiated. For those activities no automated surveillance was needed. It were the groups hostile to the Imperial Government and with access to the same or comparable equipment to the Imperial Forces, that caused the use of probe-droids. Pirates, smugglers, mutinous elements from within the military and the countless tiny groups of terrorists and insurgents, that wished to hide from the ever watchful eyes and ears of the Empire. ECR-countermeasures, emission-dampening, sensor-camouflage, innumerable designs and approachs to cloaking-technology and so on made closer inspections of the billions of uninhabited systems of the galaxy necessary and for that purpose the Imperial Starfleet lacked the ships. Instead they sent probe-droids and only if those went missing did they sent a ship to investigate.

Something that happened in nine out of thousand cases.

Most times there was a completely harmless reason for the loss of a probe-droid. They were hit by an asteroid while on their flight in-system. They got incinerated by sudden solar-flares. Predators too large to be easily killed by the onboard weaponary of the probes confused them with dinner. Or the Arkayad-plant, where the probe had been built had messed up and the energy-supply had failed or the transmitting-equipment malfunctioned.

"Hey Kolt, what do you think? Are we looking at a damaged transmitter or a large carnivore?" Tser Shintsky, who currently acted as wing-man for Ceavers asked.

"If you hadn't slept through the briefing you would know, that this planet has no large carnivores. Not even small ones." "Farmgirl" Hella Jalpa and the only female of the quartett said. "With our luck it will be a larger bunch of pirates than at Durinol."

"With my luck we'll disturb the new son-in-law of the local Moff and his bride on their honeymoon." Tser Shintsky remarked. "You guys remember Holegg Gars?"

"How could we forget Holegg Gars?" Hella asked back. "The poor fellow was just doing his job when he and his flock thought they had discovered a bunch of smugglers in their sleep. Deciding to wake them a little roughly they used their TIEs for a number of sonic booms, before the stormtroopers landed. Image their surprise, when the supposed smugglers turned out to be a group of CoreWorld-VIPs on a hunting trip. It took them hours to sort the mess out, because the sonic shockwaves of Gars and his morons had destroyed the communication-equipment, all their ear-drums and the three-thousand year old porcellain-service of one of the wives of the hunters."

"Small miracle Holegg wasn't kicked out of the military considering the preferential treatmeant CoreWorlders recieve these days." Karamu mused.

"He would have been, if the hunting-trip hadn't been illegal. Most of the animals found killed by the hunting-party were on one of the many protected species lists. So Holegg got only demoted and was coordinating the traffic in orbit of Brentaal for two years, before he was shipped of to Carida as future flight-instructor. However his career as an active TIE-jockey was still over." Hella finished.

"A fate we won't met for years, if we're lucky." Tser muttered into his helmet.

"If we live that long." Kolt pointed out.

"Why shouldn't we? We're TIE-pilots. We're the best. Everybody knows that." Karamu argued.

It was true, Kolt thought. Pilots were the mainstay of the Imperial Navy. Every officer and NonCom of the fleet had at least rudimentary training as a pilot and the best of the best made it into the academies of the starfighter-corps and of those only ten percent made it into the cockpit at the end of their training. They were the best. They had to be, because a lesser pilot wouldn't be able to fly a TIE.

"With MY luck, it will be a bunch of slave-traders from Ryloth and their goods." Karamu Stafar added.

"Poor Karamu. He thinks that if we rescue some poor Twilek-girls from their fathers and uncles they'll show some gratitude and he'll finally get laid. Dream on."

"Hella, you misjudge me! You know I love only you." Karamu sounded hurt.

"Doesn't prevent you from "making" love to every halfway attractice female you meet." Hella shot back. "Shows how much of a priority I am to you."

"Again you misjudge him." Tser came to the defense of his friend. "He is just trying to stay in practice for when you two finally get together.

"Tser is right. I don't want to let you down." Karamu purred.

"If you get me a piece of that cute Zeltron you are dating on ORD Brunis I might change my mind. Hell, I might even let you watch when I show the poor girl what she has been missing with you." there was a hint of a challenge in "Farmgirls" voice.

"Hella, you scare me. I never expected you to swing this way." Tser explained. The surprise was evident in his voice.

Kolt, who had been silently listening was also wondering about this until now unknown side of their wing-woman. "Yeah, Hella, we never suspected anything."

"Don't act surpirsed. This is all your fault. I know it. Hanging around with testosterone-bombs like the three of you has corrupted me. I'm already thinking of myself as one of you guys."

"Hella, you are one of us guys." Kolt explained. "Even if your reproductive organs are on the inside of your body you're part of the team. You're our friend."

"Best friend." Karamu added.

"Thank you Scanner." Hella said softly after a moment. "You don't know how much that means to me."

"I think we know." Tser answered in an equally soft voice. Then getting back to the tone of friendly banter. "Of course now you have to allow all of us to watch, when you give Karamu's Zeltron on ORD Brunis the time of her life."

Karamu and Kolt chuckled at that.

"GAMORREANS. YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF PRIMITIVE, CHAUVINISTIC GAMORREANS." Hella thundered in mock-rage.

"Alright kids, that was enough fun for one hemisphere." Kolt explained. "No sign of our missing droid and we are almost at the equator. Time to take a look at the other side of the planet."

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