Title: Touch and Go
Chapter: Part Nine: "Kalarba"
Author: bactaqueen
Author's e-mail:
Category: New Jedi Order, EU
Keywords: Jaina Solo, Jag Fel, NJO
Rating: PG
Spoilers: New Jedi Order up to Balance Point
Summary: Space battles, pilot banter, and pre-romance interaction. After Ithor, Rogue Squadron was deployed to the warfront in the company of Spike Squadron. What happened between Jaina Solo and Jag Fel?
Disclaimer: "Star Wars" is copyright George Lucas and Lucasfilm, LTD. Jagged Fel is copyright Michael A. Stackpole. No profit is being made from this writing. It is purely for entertainment. As his own people put it, the sandbox belongs to Mr. Lucas. I'm just playing in it. An additional disclaimer must be issued for this chapter. The Kalarban battle as it is related appeared in Balance Point by Kathy Tyers. Again, no money is being made, and no infringement is intended.
Part Nine: "Kalarba"
It was three days after the engagement at Tynna, and once again Jaina was strapped into the confines of her X-wing cockpit. The snubfighter was powered up, and Sparky was running a one-minute-to-realspace countdown on the text screen mounted into the main panel just past her flightstick.
She and the rest of the fighters in Group One were oriented toward the bay doors. Around the ships, the docking bay was alive with commotion, as mechanics hurried to complete last-minute maintenance jobs. Jaina could feel apprehension bleeding from the personnel on the Roost. Apprehension that stemmed not only from this jump-some people just didn't do well in space travel-but from the mission.
She didn't feel the lurch as Admiral Kre'fey's flagship dropped out of hyperspace into an empty sector of space very near the Kalarba system. Sparky's text update confirmed that the other ships in the fleet had also jumped successfully. Jaina allowed only slight relief at that.
The magnetic containment field was activated and the belly bay doors opened up. Before the Ralroost's doors had even finished opening, the calm, mechanically-altered voice sounded in Jaina's ear.
"Group One, launch."
Some fighters had already begun moving toward the magcon as it glittered with the tiny impacts of space dust. But as the order came, four squadrons of starfighters and two armored shuttles kicked to life, and fifty ships spilled out of the docking bay. Weapons and shields went green immediately, although the X-wings didn't lock S-foils in attack position.
Unchallenged but wary, Group One put distance between themselves and Admiral Kre'fey's fleet. Two of the frigate analogs peeled away from their escort duties to follow the first insertion teams. They would provide cover and support for the starfighters, who would provide cover and armed escort for the two, five-person search-and-destroy teams.
This time the atmospheric flying wouldn't be in just a sim. The first leg of the mission plan called for Rogue and Ace squadrons to escort the search teams all the way to the planet. After that, the battle plan was as it comes. Intel was sketchy, so there was no definite set of orders from brass. It was the worst kind of situation Jaina could imagine.
Tynna had been more than an effort to reduce the numbers of the New Republic forces. It had been a deliberate diversionary tactic, a distraction. And it had worked.
The layover between jump points hadn't been a mistake on the part of the Yuuzhan Vong commander. Shedao Shai had sent his less experienced captains and pilots to follow Admiral Kre'fey and his refugees to Tynna and had taken his more experienced officers and warriors straight to Kalarba. They'd then deposited the dovin basal on the planet, and proceeded to bombard Hosk from orbit.
Calls for help from refugees being pursued in the system had reached Admiral Kre'fey, and the Bothan officer had instantly mobilized his forces. He sent his refugees toward Duro and the SELCORE settlements there, with a small but heavily armed escort detail.
They hadn't even had time to collect all of the remains of their own people. Jaina knew that there was nothing left of Xada or her ship to salvage; she'd seen the explosion. That hadn't been able to keep her from hoping.
Sparky's blat startled Jaina, and the pilot looked at the screen to find that she had a message being routed through the astromech onto a private frequency. She frowned, and wondered why Colonel Darklighter or Captain ke Dissae wouldn't just use a squadron frequency.
She got her answer as soon as she thumbed the indicated channel open.
"Lieutenant," he said.
Jaina's frown didn't disappear as she glanced up and to her right, focusing in the distance on the Chiss clawcraft there. She accused mildly, "You sliced into Sparky's comm program."
"It isn't a capital offense," Colonel Fel defended, and added with a hint of wry amusement, "Are you going to tell?"
"And who would I tell?" she countered, still puzzled.
"I expected so. Jaina-" Jag hesitated, uncertain, it seemed, and Jaina felt her spine stiffen. After a burst of static, he finished, "I wanted to tell you to be careful out there today."
The colonel was concerned. Jaina's lips twisted in a devious half-grin. Maybe he was anticipating her again. "I'm always careful," she said.
Jag then did something that reminded Jaina a great deal of her father. In a gruff tone, he reiterated, "Just watch your back, Lieutenant," and abruptly cut the connection.
Sparky beeped a curious question.
"I'm not sure," Jaina answered, and switched back to squadron frequency. "But he can be fun, can't he?"
Colonel Darklighter was speaking, and considering the information displaying on her HUD, Jaina assumed he'd only just begun. Which was another reason Jag may have cut their little chat short.
"... Should come out fairly close to the planet. Cover the shuttles and your wingmate. When the shuttles reach the ground, we're coming back up, and we're going to cover the refugees fleeing the system. We're also going to direct them toward Duro. Your droids have the coordinates from the jump points if the evacuating ships don't have them. Remember, stay with your wing. It's going to be a mess, people, so keep your heads straight and don't go looking for trouble."
A flurry of comm clicks acknowledged the colonel's orders.
He continued. "We won't have time for this later, so choose your targets, fire at will, and may the Force be with us all."
The jump tone sounded then, and Jaina pulled back on the lever to engage the hyperdrive. The stars elongated, spun, and coalesced into a tunnel of white light. And a growing feeling of dread had time to settle into her stomach.
Jaina didn't make the reversion to realspace manually; her hyperdrive's sensors pulled her out close to the planet, and nearly through an armed freighter apparently carrying a load of refugees. The rest of Group One didn't stray much further. One of the Chiss clawcraft reverted right in the path of the freighter's guns, and since the IF/F hadn't had time to tag the freighter on Jaina's heads-up, she knew that Shawnkyr's fighter certainly didn't register with the freighter captain.
The freighter opened fire even as Gavin broadcasted a "Don't shoot!" message on an open channel.
Shawnkyr Nuruodo's ship sideslipped, easily avoiding the blast of laserfire.
"Rogue Squadron?" came the query from the freighter captain. Jaina heard a slightly muffled "Cease fire!" as he called back to his gunners.
"In the flesh, Captain Frevin."
What Jaina expected to hear, as she nudged her ship around the freighter and toward the shuttle she was supposed to be protecting, was some gasped exclamation of surprise or delight or relief.
"Are you all completely out of your minds?" the captain demanded.
Gavin Darklighter laughed. "We're the Rogues, not the Wraiths, Captain. Now, if you'll let me, I'll send a flight of my X-wings to escort you to the jump point you're looking for. How does that sound?"
"Thanks, Rogue Leader."
"Anytime."
Gavin gave the order, and Two Flight moved off in a formation they'd learned from Colonel Fel and his squadron. The four Rogue X-wings curved around the refugee ship, keeping clear of its turret blaster cannons, and swept off in the direction of the outbound jump point. Their path was a dangerous one, crisscrossed with the ships fleeing Kalarba and Hosk.
Jaina hoped Two Flight would be enough to keep the refugees safe. And she hoped that the eight fighters remaining would be enough to protect the shuttle they were assigned.
As short-range fighters flowed from the the docking bays of the big warships of Kre'fey's group and the first shots between mismatched foes were fired through vacuum, Lieutenant Jaina Solo knew that this was going to be one hell of a slugfest.
Jaina rolled her X-wing up on its port S-foil and throttled forward. A seed-shaped Vong fighter had been harassing Rogue Ten. As Jaina got it in her sights, it went evasive, and a miniscule black hole appeared just behind it. The void accepted every shot Jaina fired into it.
She matched her speed to the skip's and pursued. This battle had been raging for nine hours, non stop, and the fatigue was starting to get to Jaina. As she stuttered her fire, squeezing her right middle finger on the secondary trigger, she had to reflect. There was just too much death. That was her decision, and it had more to do than just with Anni and Xada. They were losing pilots left and right, and there didn't seem to be any way to stop it.
'When I told Jag I wasn't sure it'd be worth it, I wasn't just venting.'
The skip she was chasing swooped toward the Champion, as it flew cover for yet another refugee convoy. In the hours since the battle had begun, someone on one of the New Republic's big ships had managed to coordinate the evacuation effort. It made Jaina's job a lot easier.
Hosk already wobbled in its orbit. The search teams on Kalarba that Jaina had helped to escort had found nothing, and had therefore destroyed nothing. They were going to lose this system, too. It was all hauntingly similar to the descriptions Anakin had given of Sernpidal's last hours. To the Kalarbans and the rest of the New Republic, there would be even greater losses here than at Sernpidal.
But on a more personal note, Jaina wasn't sure the devastation caused by Chewie's death would ever be matched. Not by the deaths of her wingmates, not by the deaths of these innocents, even though she did feel something powerful for them all.
She knew fighting the enemy wouldn't bring Chewbacca back. Nor would it bring back Anni, or Xada, or Elegos. But it made her feel better; it eased some of the bitterness inside to know that someone, somewhere, wouldn't have to suffer like she did, if she could just stop one more Yuuzhan Vong.
Her forward sensor screen suddenly showed the little back hole projected by the dovin basal draw back a little closer to the ship it protected. And on her primary screen, a clawcraft swooped in from behind.
"Covering you, Rogue Eleven," Jag said. Jaina merely nodded her thanks. She trusted Jag to have her back, and didn't waste any time wondering where Dizzy was.
She tightened her index finger on the main trigger, loosing a solid burst from all four of her lasers. The skip's gravity well bent her laser blast, but she'd shot high to compensate. The tactics were nothing new; the same ones they'd been using since the beginning, the same ones they practiced in the sims. The only effective ones.
The other two shots hit exactly where she'd been aiming. Crystal shards that were the skip's cockpit canopy and hot gravel that had been the cockpit's hull blasted off, sending the fighter into a slow spiral out of the firefight.
"You're clean, Ten," Jaina exclaimed.
"Thanks, Sticks."
"Anytime."
Jaina hauled her stick to the right and felt her heart sink. "Rogues, more skips coming in at three-four-nine mark one-eight. They're headed for Champ's drive nacelles."
"Copy that. Time to make coral dust. Eleven, Twelve. On me." Jaina heard the edge in Major Varth's voice.
She double-clicked her comm to acknowledge the order, then pushed her throttle forward. She inverted the X-wing and followed Rogue Nine over Champion's ventral surface. She was flying so close that she could make out the details on the ships hull; she even had to sideslip to avoid a sensor dish.
The commander of the Champion was only a Brevet Admiral. Glie-oleg Kru was a Twi'lek, and newly promoted. Since the war had begun and the New Republic was losing ships and officers to the enemy at an unnerving pace, she'd heard of a freshly promoted captain or admiral at nearly every engagement.
Sparky displayed the message from the fleet that said another convoy of Kalarban refugee ships had jumped. Many of the ships contained fleeing inhabitants of Hosk station. Kalarba's moon was losing altitude with each orbit. Its defense fighters hadn't survived the first hour of battle, and since, all ten of its turbolasers had been disabled. In a cruel and fatal game of tag, enemy vessels pursued the industrialized moon. The living ships the Vong employed seemed to gobble up any ships that lagged behind the convoy. In the hours since they'd been in system, the New Republic fighters had watched Hosk's polar cluster of towers skew more than thirty degrees from its normal orientation. Soon Kalarba would be just another dead world.
Jaina rounded Champion's starboard fighter docking bays into a blazing free-for-all. Three coralskippers jumped her, and she found herself the target of brilliantly flashing plasma bolts. Adrenaline surged through her as she began evasive maneuvers, jinking and juking in all directions without thinking, merely feeling. When one of the skips passed before her, Jaina let loose a stream of mostly ineffective terror of her own.
"Sparky, I need one hundred percent shields at thirteen meters!"
Letters flashed on her heads-up-display as the R5 unit announced his compliance. White noise filled her headset for a moment, and the dovin basal of one skip grabbed for her shields.
She became aware of a new enemy, vectoring in low and to port. Jaina shoved her stick over and feathered her rudder, chasing after it.
As her torp brackets went red with a lock, she allowed herself a triumphant grin. Jaina thumbed off a proton torpedo. She watched the blue ion tail streak toward its target as she kept up a steady stream of weak fire. 'You aren't the only ones who know how to distract-"
Jaina heard Dizzy's voice in her ear. "Eleven! Break starboard!"
Swearing mentally, Jaina broke, goosing her engines and straining against her flight harness. Her X-wing shuddered, and Jaina felt a moment of icy fear.
"I'm hit!" she cried, and gripped the stick too hard. Forcing herself to relax, she studied her primary diagnostics board, and then Sparky's readout. "Still got shields, though." She feathered stick and rudder, bringing the X-wing about. "And maneuvering."
But now she was mad. Ahead, enemy skips swarmed Champion and the starfighters defending it. She spotted the fighter that had to be the one that had just scored her S-foils.
With a growl, she rammed her throttle forward.
Now she saw the big ship astern of Champion, and she recognized it for what it was. The same kind of ship from Gyndine, just smaller than a Star Destroyer and bristling with weapons and spindly-looking arms. It reminded Jaina of some bizarre water animal from a marine world. From the ventral arms, blinding plasma was already pouring out at Champion.
Eight E-wings from the Yellow Suns Squadron off the Ralroost swung in to harass the new arrival. No longer distracted by the oversized enemy, Jaina squeezed her stutter trigger and poured fire into the void off her quarry's tail.
"Rogues!" Colonel Darklighter's cry caught Jaina off guard. "Somebody just sucked Champ's shields! Get clear!"
'What'd they do, bring in another one?' Jaina abandoned her skip and wrenched her stick to the side. As she looped around, she punched for full speed away from the cruiser.
She was passing the Champ's port nacelle when light broke through from deep inside. Slowly, with an eerie beauty, a seam opened on the ship's glossy side.
Dizzy's voice rang too loudly. "Sticks!" Then, "Eleven, get clear!"
With a realization that soured her mouth, Jaina started to call an instruction to her droid. "Full power, Sparky! Go-"
She wasn't fast enough. With the blast, she was flung like a rag doll against the instrument panel. The flightstick dug deep into her sternum, and rudder pedals seemed to blossom like metal plants up through her legs. The sides of her cockpit buckled, and then were no more, disintegrated in the heat. The siren she was familiar with from simulations blared rhythmically, and a synthesized voice kept repeating what she had time to wish things were simple enough for.
"Ejection. Ejection."
Desperate, Jaina flailed into the Force, reaching for something, anything, to keep her from drowning in all the pain...