Disclaimer: All characters in here, with the exception of Maara Jade, are the sole property of Lucasfilm. I'm just playing with them, and only for fun. I'm not making a single red cent. Maara Jade created 1996 by Sithspit.
PART FOUR
The Tale of the Why-Wings
It started innocently enough.
The reports began to trickle in rather slowly at first. They came in by ones and by twos, never more than that. It wasn't until it was over and the dust had settled did everything become clear.
This is how it happened...
Green Squadron was on a patrol training mission in the Mantooine system. The squadron was just completing their in-system swing when they picked up some unusual scanner readings. The sensors indicated several small ships were coming in from hyperspace and seemed to be on a direct course for the planet.
Following standard procedure, two ships peeled away from the formation to challenge the new arrivals. As they closed to what should have been visual range the pilots noticed that there didn't seem to be anything there.
Immediately, the squadron went to Red Alert. Green One, the leader, clicked his comm system over to an open hailing frequency and called out what was to eventually become one of the most infamous phrases of all time. Ironically enough, this phrase was the standard hailing call from the New Republic Naval Manual.
"Unidentified ships, identify yourselves or we will open fire."
The words were no sooner out of Green Leader's mouth when catastrophe struck. The auto pilot navcomps of all twelve ships immediately came on line and slaved themselves one to another. Each ship's navcomp ran quick computations for the center of the system's sun, then disabled all safety cutoffs. With tragic swiftness all twelve ships made immediate jumps to light speed and plowed into the blazing furnace of Mantooine's Primary. There were no survivors.
Over the next few days, similar events became commonplace occurrences in every corner of the New Republic. Story after story after story poured in, totally inundating New Republic HQ with reports of pilots dying in their Y-wings. The usually imperturbable Admiral Ackbar, in an uncharacteristic fit of frustration, ordered every Y-wing in the military to the ground. Inspections commenced of the ship's onboard systems. Tragically, they discovered a computer version of a hive-virus that someone had sliced into the CPUs. When found, the program tripped and activated a critical overload in the ship's reactor, causing a massive explosion. Hundreds of technicians and support personnel died across the galaxy before the desperate order to cease all investigations was received.
Admiral Ackbar called an emergency session of the military High Council in order to reach a decision regarding the bizarre crisis. After several days of heated deliberations, the consensus of the body was to scrap all remaining Y-wings and start anew with an improved model of the ship. The prevailing opinion was that they had already lost so many ships, scrapping the remainder was more cost effective than losing more lives and equipment in trying to debug them.
The "prevailing opinion" quickly changed to horror when the military High Council discovered that every single known copy of the Y-wing blueprint no longer existed, mysteriously deleted from the New Republic and Koensayer computer systems. Pictures existed in abundance, but all of the detailed drawings necessary for re-creation of the craft simply vanished. Frantically, they made a move to find some computer system in the united Republic of planets that still had a copy. After a long and fruitless search, the government put out a call to outlaw groups on the Fringe, hoping beyond hope to find a pirated copy.
This was the point where they discovered that all of the Y-wing blueprints in private possession had suffered the same fate at the same time as the governments. A computer hive virus very similar to the one in the ships had infected the mainframes, replicating itself and searching out the files in every system in the galaxy, quietly deleting the originals and replacing them with a like named file that wiped out the system when executed.
The military was very nearly at its breaking point when Lady Winter stepped forward and stated that she had reviewed the blueprints at a previous date.
Now, everyone knew of her much vaunted holographic memory. Why, they asked, did you wait until now to come forward?
She replied by saying that her security clearance was granted in an intelligentsia role, and that technically her knowledge of them was against New Republic law.
Understandably, the Council practically fell all over themselves in their haste to make an exception for her.
Around this time, the final blow was struck. Without fail, as the blueprints reached 25% completion, the computer system would crash and erase the data from the hard drive. Virtually everything ceased to exist in the computers.
The last thing that would come up on the screen as the system gasped its final breath was the phrase, "DON'T EVER MAKE ANOTHER FLYING ABOMINATION LIKE THAT AGAIN!"
Wisely, the government listened.
PART FOUR
The Tale of the Why-Wings
It started innocently enough.
The reports began to trickle in rather slowly at first. They came in by ones and by twos, never more than that. It wasn't until it was over and the dust had settled did everything become clear.
This is how it happened...
Green Squadron was on a patrol training mission in the Mantooine system. The squadron was just completing their in-system swing when they picked up some unusual scanner readings. The sensors indicated several small ships were coming in from hyperspace and seemed to be on a direct course for the planet.
Following standard procedure, two ships peeled away from the formation to challenge the new arrivals. As they closed to what should have been visual range the pilots noticed that there didn't seem to be anything there.
Immediately, the squadron went to Red Alert. Green One, the leader, clicked his comm system over to an open hailing frequency and called out what was to eventually become one of the most infamous phrases of all time. Ironically enough, this phrase was the standard hailing call from the New Republic Naval Manual.
"Unidentified ships, identify yourselves or we will open fire."
The words were no sooner out of Green Leader's mouth when catastrophe struck. The auto pilot navcomps of all twelve ships immediately came on line and slaved themselves one to another. Each ship's navcomp ran quick computations for the center of the system's sun, then disabled all safety cutoffs. With tragic swiftness all twelve ships made immediate jumps to light speed and plowed into the blazing furnace of Mantooine's Primary. There were no survivors.
Over the next few days, similar events became commonplace occurrences in every corner of the New Republic. Story after story after story poured in, totally inundating New Republic HQ with reports of pilots dying in their Y-wings. The usually imperturbable Admiral Ackbar, in an uncharacteristic fit of frustration, ordered every Y-wing in the military to the ground. Inspections commenced of the ship's onboard systems. Tragically, they discovered a computer version of a hive-virus that someone had sliced into the CPUs. When found, the program tripped and activated a critical overload in the ship's reactor, causing a massive explosion. Hundreds of technicians and support personnel died across the galaxy before the desperate order to cease all investigations was received.
Admiral Ackbar called an emergency session of the military High Council in order to reach a decision regarding the bizarre crisis. After several days of heated deliberations, the consensus of the body was to scrap all remaining Y-wings and start anew with an improved model of the ship. The prevailing opinion was that they had already lost so many ships, scrapping the remainder was more cost effective than losing more lives and equipment in trying to debug them.
The "prevailing opinion" quickly changed to horror when the military High Council discovered that every single known copy of the Y-wing blueprint no longer existed, mysteriously deleted from the New Republic and Koensayer computer systems. Pictures existed in abundance, but all of the detailed drawings necessary for re-creation of the craft simply vanished. Frantically, they made a move to find some computer system in the united Republic of planets that still had a copy. After a long and fruitless search, the government put out a call to outlaw groups on the Fringe, hoping beyond hope to find a pirated copy.
This was the point where they discovered that all of the Y-wing blueprints in private possession had suffered the same fate at the same time as the governments. A computer hive virus very similar to the one in the ships had infected the mainframes, replicating itself and searching out the files in every system in the galaxy, quietly deleting the originals and replacing them with a like named file that wiped out the system when executed.
The military was very nearly at its breaking point when Lady Winter stepped forward and stated that she had reviewed the blueprints at a previous date.
Now, everyone knew of her much vaunted holographic memory. Why, they asked, did you wait until now to come forward?
She replied by saying that her security clearance was granted in an intelligentsia role, and that technically her knowledge of them was against New Republic law.
Understandably, the Council practically fell all over themselves in their haste to make an exception for her.
Around this time, the final blow was struck. Without fail, as the blueprints reached 25% completion, the computer system would crash and erase the data from the hard drive. Virtually everything ceased to exist in the computers.
The last thing that would come up on the screen as the system gasped its final breath was the phrase, "DON'T EVER MAKE ANOTHER FLYING ABOMINATION LIKE THAT AGAIN!"
Wisely, the government listened.