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Time in Lozaar System – 4 Days
Time After Declaration of the Empire – 5 Years 42 Days
"I hate this thing!" Zanna spat, fighting the controls in front of her.
"What's the matter Lieutenant?" a muffled voice asked her through the com.
"Everything in these fighters are completely off." She smacked a lever. "The pitch controls don't respond at all, and then they kick in too hard. The acceleration ratios are all over the place, and of course, the targeting controls so cheap that I don't know how I'm supposed to shoot down anything.
"I like them, Lieutenant, I don't know why you hate them so much." A different voice called back.
"That's because you've never flown in anything other then a TIE Fighter, Semmis, you don't know any better."
Zanna continued to fight the controls that were around her in the brand new TIE/LN Starfighter that she was assigned to. They had taken away the V-Wing which had been flying for year, decommissioning it as being "Too Old to maintain." But from where she was sitting, the TIE fighter felt like the Empire Equivalent of a B1 Battledroid, mass produced quickly and virtually good for nothing.
It had one single advantage from what she could tell, and that was its speed. But she had such a hard time with the controls that it was wasted as she was just as likely to speed passed her target as she was to come to a dead stop.
The V-Wing was a perfect craft as far as she was concerned. Light, nimble, agile, and carrying a solid payload. This TIE fighter could hardly qualify as functional by Republic standards.
But Standards had completely fallen off since the Empire came in.
Though Zanna was no great supporter of the Empire, she had re-upped her contract in order to stay behind the sticks. Though being anything that wasn't human put some degree of bias against her, she was able to cope with it better then her old friend Jorvis had.
The poor Ithorian had not been able to handle the abuse that their new officers gave them, and as their contracts ended just months after the end of the Clone Wars, he was more then happy to leave to avoid it.
She still kept up with him, though he was getting harder to keep in contact with as he became a bit of a drifting spacer. Coupled with the communication lock downs of the Empire, it was hard to keep up with friends.
But Zanna did keep her nose clean in the Empire, doing little more then she was told, she was just happy they let her keep flying, even if it was in the trash ball that was a TIE Fighter.
"I just miss my old ship." Zanna said rolling her eyes.
"Careful, Lieutenant. Your age is showing." One of the other pilots said.
"What was that pilot!?" Zanna threatened.
"Nothing, sir." The pilot responded quickly.
The pilots were in a group of four, all in TIE fighters flying in a beautiful formation in the recent smuggling hub that was the Lozaar system. Their fleet had dropped in to get a handle on the situation and their flight was sent to patrol the area.
"Flight 51 to Exactor control. Flight 51 to Exactor control, this is Lieutenant Gashon. Nothing on our scopes out here. This sector is secure."
Zanna was usually happy to be flying, but the new fighter was leaving her agitated, and until she had gotten time to recalibrate its controls she wanted very little to do with it.
"Roger that Flight 51," a technicians voice came back. "Proceed to Sector 29-Alpha. We received reports of a distress signal there."
"Affirmative, Exactor Control. En Route." Zanna cut the com off.
She directed the flight to change course immediately.
"Who's sending a distress signal out here?" The pilot named Semmis asked.
"Probably someone who ran out of gas." Another pilot responded.
"Bad neighborhood to do that in." Zanna replied.
"You're telling me." The third pilot replied he said with a scratchy cough. "I grew up on the border of Hutt Space. Everyone knows if you're taking off, you keep a full tank and be ready for quick repairs. Otherwise, you're as good as scrapped."
"If pirates want to scrap this fighter, that's fine by me." Zanna replied rolling her eyes.
"You know, Lieutenant." Answered Semmis. "You could always try to look at this with some optimism. At least they let keep flying. I thought that they moved most a the GARs off to desks or officers handle."
"I think a desk would fly a frell of a lot better then this thing." Zanna commented bitterly.
The four TIE Fighters flew in relative silence through the darkness of space. They passed by another small patrol cruiser for a moment on their way to the new sector. All around them there were stars and small clusters of space dust. Some random asteroids that floated through a fairly thin belt which passed through the heart of the system.
The Asteroids themselves tended be good shields for smugglers to hide behind. This was the story for most of the galaxy. No one was dumb enough to take the Empire on in a stand up fight, so they'd retreated to hiding and running to make their easy credits.
Zanna did not care about any of that though. To her, maintaining the Empire was really just her side job. In her mind, her only real life mission was to keep flying through the stars.
The silence between the pilots was fairly consistent for most of an hour as they made it to their destination. The new group was not quite as social as some had been in the past, but they got along well enough. Zanna found herself missing the old days off and on, but contented herself with the ability to just keep flying.
After an hour of traveling, the group came to designated sector, and all began to receive the distress signal.
"The signal's pretty feint." Said on of the pilots. "Not far though."
"No com calls on it either." Added another.
"Let's find it, and see what's happening." Zanna ordered.
The flight moved off towards the signal, and she called to their home cruiser, the Exactor.
"Flight 51 to Exactor Control. We've isolated the distress signal and are making our way to it now."
"Acknowledged Flight 51." The technician spoke again. "Report any and all findings."
The TIE fighters moved swiftly towards the location of the distress call, but there were no scans picking up any vessels in the area. As they moved through nothing came from the region, Only the feint distress signal, other then their own signal.
"Something seems off about this." Zanna said aloud.
"Maybe we're getting interference?" Semmis suggested.
"Enough for all of us and the Cruiser? I don't know about that." Zanna replied.
"Should we call it in?" A pilot asked.
"We're nearly on top of it. Just keep your eyes open." Ordered and they made their way there.
They soared through the darkness, nearing a small cluster of sizable space rocks.
"It's coming from right over there." The third pilot stated.
The TIE Fighters flew passed the large rocks and looked around, but visual scans turned up nothing.
"I'm not seeing anything." Semmis said.
Zanna knew something was wrong, so she gave a new order. "Widen scans, look for any electrical pulses."
They all did so, and their scans all identified the same signal. "Lieutenant, pulse beacon on one of the rocks."
"What's it doing out here?" Semmis asked.
Zanna was confused for only a moment, until she determined exactly what it had to be.
"All fighters, open scans too…" She was cut off by an incessant beeping on her console.
The others opened up their coms and she could hear the same echoing beeping from them all.
"Incoming contacts!" Semmis yelled.
"Evasive maneuvers!" Zanna ordered.
The TIE Fighters immediately broke off from each other, just in time to avoid a volley of laser fire.
FWWAAAAA FWAAAAAAAA FWAAAAAA
The sound of the lasers missing them was too close for comfort. But the reduced visibility made it hard for Zanna to see what had done it until she turned the whole craft to face them.
A set of older looking starfighters with three forward shifted wings came zooming towards them. They were outnumbered by at least three fighters, and they were already on the defensive.
"Orders Lieutenant!?" The Second pilot asked.
"Engage!" Zanna yelled, turning to attack them herself.
EHHHHRRRRR EHHHHRRRRR EHHHHRRR
The sound of her own laser blasts responding echoed in her cockpit, the green laser blasts zipping towards the fighters. She seemed to hit one, but did was still flying.
She opened up her com channel.
"Exactor Control! We are taking fire! I repeat! Flight 51 is taking fire!"
The Technician responded, as calm as he was before. "Roger that Flight 51. What's your situation?"
Zanna rolled the fighter in an attempt to dodge another volley of laser blasts.
"Distress signal was an ambush. We are taking fire from seven Star fighters."
The technician answered just as coolly. "What is their intention?"
Zanna could not believe she was having to answer that question.
"They're trying to kill us control! Request support immediately!"
There was a slight pause, and she continued to twist and roll, still having trouble with the fighter. A few laser blasts raced over her cockpit, but as it did, she lined up another fighter in her sights and fired.
Once again she struck the craft, but it was still flying.
"They're all over me!" Cried out Semmis.
"Negative, Flight 51." The technician replied. "All support is indisposed at the moment."
Zanna tried to get the TIE Fighter to do what she wanted, but it refused to cooperate. Every slight move did nothing, and every exertion beyond that did too much. She was not sure how they were going to handle that situation and needed a clear answer on their options.
"Got one!" yelled one of her pilots, just after she watched one of the enemy fighters obliterate.
"Request permission to retreat, Control!" Zanna asked, knowing that their luck would run out very soon.
There was another pause before the answer finally came back. "Command has denied your request, Flight 51. You are to continue to engage the enemy."
"What!?" Zanna spat. "This is insane. We can't stay here."
"Your orders are to remain, Lieutenant. Is that clear?"
Zanna stammered for a moment, watching one of her fighters get chased around.
"Acknowledged, Control."
She looked down at her controls, and determined that if the fighter had one advantage she was going to use it.
"Frell it." She said, and slammed the accelerator down to full speed.
The TIE Fighter launched like a missile, and proceeded to zoom around the rocks. She brought it behind the fighter that was being chased, and she opened up on the two pursing craft.
VWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAA
The first exploded, and the other broke away.
"Thanks for clearing em off…BAHHHHHHHH!"
The pilot thanking her was cut off mid sentence as a different fighter swooped around and obliterated him.
Without shields the TIE Fighters were vulnerable, extremely vulnerable. A pair of fighters came up behind Zanna, but she quickly outran them in the TIE Fighter.
The hair ball continued for several minutes. Each side getting close to taking down some of the others. Zanna wanted so badly to retreat, but she couldn't since the others were so tied up. She damaged yet another fighter, and one of their fighters damaged one of hers.
They managed to get another, but not before Semmis called out for help once more.
"Increase speed, Semmis!" Zanna ordered. "I'm coming"
"I can't… the controls are… everythings cracking up." Another laser blast struck across Semmis's fighter. "Hull breech!"
"Hold on, Semmis!" Zanna ordered clearing a fighter that was chasing him.
"I can't I'm…. Naaaaaaaaaaa!"
With a bright flash, the young Semmis was obliterated. This left only Zanna and the Third pilot to take on three more after the third pilot had snapped up another fighter.
Both Zanna and the third pilot had a laser blast on their ships. It was not looking good. They swerved and turned, and Zanna managed to get one more of the fighters.
They had managed to get the odds down to an honest two on two, but that did not help her. She still thought they should turn away, but she knew this brigands would attempt to shoot them in the back. No doubt the brigands had the same idea, so it now was a simple duel to the death, and the two TIE fighters were injured.
The fighters danced around each other. Second after second, minute after minute, each trying to get a clear advantage over the other. But there was none to be had. They chased and pursued and parried and countered as much as they could, but without any decisive shot.
Finally Zanna saw an opening, one where she could gain on one of the fighters. She closed in on it, and waited until she was right on top of it before she began to fire.
Thwaaaaaa Thwaaa Thwaaaaaa Thwaaaaaa
The shots poured from her fighter. The enemy tried to avoid it, but finally one connected and it spun into the large floating rock and exploded.
"Form up on my wing!" Zanna ordered, and the third pilot came beside her.
They were starting to chase after the final fighter together. The two should be more then enough to take down the aged ship which was fleeing to get away from them. It raced away as much as it could, but the pilot must have realized there was no escape.
So the fighter turned around and came at them for a final charge.
Zanna and her companion immediately opened fire on it, as the fighter made its final charge.
"Got it!" Zanna yelled.
"Me too!" the third pilot yelled.
The enemy fighter exploded into a fiery wreck and spun out.
The emergency lights screamed with a proximity alert however. The fighter was spinning right at them.
"Evade!" Zanna yelled, pealing left.
The Third Pilot broke off as well, but his fighter went right into the direction of the last of the enemy. The two fighters collided and both exploded in a spectacular ball of fire.
The battle was over, and Zanna was the only one still standing. This was terrifying to her. Though the ejector seats on TIE fighters did work, the nature of space combat left very little time to actually activate them, and her entire Flight was left as casualty of the fray.
She gave a report and returned back to the Exactor, feeling the losses of her flight.
When she arrived in the hanger the crews were already engaging in celebration and glorifying her victory… but she couldn't celebrate. All she could think about was the fact that she and her Flight were abandoned to fight to the death.
