Star Wars
RI 2000-2004
Disclaimer: Characters are © to their respective people and ultimately, George Lucas. I own nothing and there is no profit involved.
Notes: Ignore errors.
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" All pilots to ships, all pilots to ships…"
Kyp Durron clambered into his cockpit and yanked his helmet on. The astromech snugged in the socket behind him whistled a short greeting. "Hi," Kyp replied. He tugged on his gloves and ran down his checklist mentally, frowning down at his controls as he did so. Once situated and strapped in Kyp started on his preflight. Briefly his gaze lifted to the two ships sitting idle amidst the orderly confusion: the pristine white X-wing and the irregular black Clawcraft. Because Jaina and Jag couldn't be located or reached, Kyp had been given temporary command of the squad…perhaps permanently, if they didn't show up in a hurry.
Flight control signaled Kyp in the middle of his prep. "Twin Suns Leader, hold for launch code."
"Copy, Control." He flipped to the squadron's private channel. "No time for full checks today, people. Bring them on-line and call it off by the numbers."
"Twin Suns Four, ready."
"Twin Suns Five is green."
"Twins Six--four green and ready to go."
The pilots continued in order. Kyp frowned slightly at the sound of Twin Suns Eight's flat tones. While he didn't fully agree with Jaina's conviction that the tall human was up to something, he couldn't ignore the nagging feeling of wrongness he got from the pilot. It fluttered unpleasantly in his stomach when Eight was near. There was little he could do from his cockpit seconds before launching into battle, however, so Kyp resolved to keep an eye on him and then pushed his concerns aside. As long as Eight did his job as a pilot and wingman, Kyp would be satisfied.
Just as Twin Suns Twelve was making a quip about the normal flux in his starboard engine, Jaina and Jag entered the hangar at a dead run. More than a few looks were shot their way by the ground crews working to get the X-wings ready. The Rogues had been moved in with Twin Suns earlier, more than doubling the number of deck personnel. Now curiosity rose like heat waves off tarmac under a blistering sun. Through the Force, Kyp felt a rise of questions from Rogue Nine, Corran Horn, an empathic equivalent to raising a brow inquiringly. Kyp had known, of course, that Jag and Jaina were together in their absence.
The pair separated and headed for their respective ships. Kyp directed his astromech to route a private message through Jaina's R2 unit as soon as she was seated in her cockpit. "So nice of you to join us, Goddess."
"You're welcome," Jaina retorted, but without much heat and the quick glance she spared him lacked venom.
Very interesting, Kyp mused. He looked over at the black Clawcraft. Purpose and the anonymous TIE pilot helmet masked Jagged Fel's features. Kyp was beginning to believe the young man possessed a bit of magic as well as superior piloting skills. Whatever Jag had planned for Jaina that evening had apparently been successful. The tension eating at her was gone, and Jaina was calm and alert. Even as Kyp was looking wonderingly at Jag's ship, she was coolly finishing her quick-start up and informing control of her presence. Then she and the rest of the squadron sat back and waited.
The hanger echoed with dull blasts as the shields were impacted upon. One impact struck hard enough to shake loose some of the ceiling struts. They fell, some striking the group of X-wings. "Topside shields up," Jaina ordered as the lights flickered and surged. The last thing Jaina wanted was a piece of the falling roof taking out a shield generator or a laser cannon. "And turn your running lights on." A haze of blue appeared over the grouped fighters as the pilots obeyed.
As chaos swelled a crust of ice began in Jaina's stomach and spread through her body. Her mind became still and orderly, all stray thoughts and emotions coldly thrust away so all that remained was calculation and reflex . Even the phantom warmth of Jag's touch was forgotten.
From his cockpit Kyp felt the change in Jaina, sensed her mind becoming focused. It was almost frightening how quickly the lively energy dropped away, leaving a chilled shell and deadly calm. Kyp wondered if Jaina was truly fully aware of this change in herself.
Minutes passed and it was clear that the Mon Mothma was taking a heavy beating as a result of being caught off-guard. Through the magcon bubble Kyp could see a slice of another Star Destroyer in the fleet. It, too, was being barraged. Kyp saw the first coralskipper flash past his small window of spaceview and thought That's it. Any second now.
"Twin Suns squadron--Launch."
Jaina roared out of the hanger with Kyp and Jag tucked in close and the rest of the squadron in formation behind her. Immediately she climbed; she pulled her nose hard into a flip-over and rotated so that she was right side up as she flashed over top of the Mon Mothma. Jaina pulled her X-wing around in a wide loop that gave her a broad view of the battle, her eyes quickly taking in the scene. A Yuuzhan Vong fleet consisting of six capital ships, eight lighter warcraft and dozen of smaller ships, each half the size of an ImpStar Deuce, was mercilessly pounding on non-organic ships. With the squadrons of coral skippers now flaking off their carrier ships like scabs, the partial Republic fleet in orbit over Poluga II would be completely overwhelmed.
And destroyed. In an instant Jaina knew the only chance was to use the starfighters as a defensive screen while the larger ships attempted to flee into hyperspace. The orders she received an instant later over the comm confirmed it. "All right Twins. This is going to be ugly. Break by trios and make bombing runs on the larger ships, then engage the skips at will. "
A flurry of voices acknowledged her. Her squadron suddenly separated like a meteor blown to shards and scattered as wing trios broke off and vectored in at the gigantic ships. Jaina chose the largest for herself; a vaguely oblong ship colored in unattractive browns and yellows. Jag sped out in front, firing his lasers at maximum range and juking unpredictably. Voids opened to swallow his shots, tracking ahead to catch his future shots.
Jaina and Kyp hurled a pair of shadow bombs in his wake. With Jag's ship shielding the bombs from detection and his efforts to keep the defenses tied up, the warheads slipped through, impacting spectacularly against the roughhewn hull. The ship itself wasn't destroyed, but a great portion of her upper portside was now gone. Bodies and bits of debris that weren't instantly vaporized by the blast were blown out of the gaping hole by the venting atmosphere. Another sudden explosion toward the stern of the ship opened another deep gash that did cause her to falter. In the confusion Jag had changed vectors as only a TIE fighter could, zipped back on a course roughly one hundred and twenty degrees to his original course and dropped two of his missiles on the stern. It was a calculated gamble that the ship wouldn't have recovered quickly enough from the shock to intercept his shots. He was right, as always. Jaina had to suppress as smile as Jag swung in behind her. Reminding herself quickly that she couldn't show him too much favoritism, she made a mental note to congratulate him later--privately.
An idea occurred to Jaina--a way she could use her role as the Vong's most hated enemy to her advantage. She opened the private channel she shared with Kyp and Jag and quickly outlined her idea. "If they want me so much," she said, "Let's show them I'm here. Maybe it will distract them enough to buy the others some breathing room." Jag double clicked his comm in agreement. Jaina had hoped for a word from him. Despite the confidence in her voice, she felt a knot of tension in her gut. Get over it. Romance has made you a sap. Still, it would have been nice to hear his voice, even a clinical tone.
They staged at the dead center of the battle. Working nearly as three parts of a single mind she, Jag and Kyp eliminated five skips and turned around to engage and destroy four more. Once it was realized the infidel Trickster Goddess was taking part in the battle with only the guard of two wingmen the number of coral skippers in Jaina's immediate vicinity suddenly doubled. It was alarming despite the fact that she was expecting it. The pressure on Jag and Kyp increased as well; Jag's icy focus was overlaid with tension that practically hummed to Jaina across her tentative link with him. In direct contrast, her link with Kyp fairly burned with determination.
As focused as she was on her task of staying visible and staying alive, she was still highly attuned to her surroundings. Her hand tightened convulsively around her flight stick as one of the old dreadnaughts disappeared in an expanding debris cloud. Jaina set her jaw against the stabbing anguish of thousands of lives suddenly snuffed out and yanked her stick hard to port as a skip settled on her tail and opened fire. On her screens she saw the blip representing Jag flashing past her and coming around in a long loop. Kyp had fallen in on tail of the skip chasing her, pouring stutterfire into his rear.
Jaina simply knew what the plan was without conscious thought or consideration. She jinked and juked to avoid the skip's fire, all the while keeping herself between it and Jag, who was now heading straight at her. Kyp continued to fire, varying his shots to make it look like he really did want to shoot the skip down, not just keep it busy.
Three things happened in succession so rapid they seemed to have occurred in a single, planned moment.
Kyp switched from ineffectual stutterfire to dual-link fire and hammered the skip's stern. Jaina, running head to head with Jag, abruptly snapped up on her portside S-foil and rolled out of the way. Jag opened fire, punching through the nose and stitching the canopy. The skip dropped away suddenly and began to spiral without the guidance of a pilot.
The sound of a human voice in Jaina's ear startled her out of the deep void of battle concentration. "Squadron leaders, the last of the fleet will enter hyperspace in fifteen seconds; cover their exit and then make yours any way you can. Instructions have been sent to your astromechs."
"They're leaving us?"An astonished pilot cried. His answer was a harsh shut up from his commanding officer.
Jaina queried Cappie, who confirmed that he had received a transmission from the Mon Mothma, then checked her sensor board, more than a little astonished to find only two Twin Suns blips missing. They might get out of this yet.
Twenty seconds later she mentally banging her head against a wall. After the fleet jumped it quickly became clear that escape vectors were limited; in her squad's case, there was only one viable option. And the path was blocked by the dying bulk of a partially gutted cruiser. Their jump coordinates lay directly on the far side of it; going around would put them off course. None of her squad had any missiles left.
"Jaina," Jag said, "Didn't Corran Horn discover that class of ship had a pressurized chamber?"
"Yeah, below midline, to the aft, portside."
"I see what you're getting at," Kyp said quickly. "If we can hit the chamber with enough concentrated fire, she'll blow herself apart, and out of our way."
Jaina replied, "It's reinforced. We'd have to break through."
One of her pilots broke in tightly, "Enemy squadron coming in fast!"
Jag responded to Jaina on a private channel. "Do you remember the tactic we were talking about this evening before you fell asleep?"
Jaina did. It was incredibly risky. She didn't think anything like it had been done before, at least not in the New Republic. Jag called it column fire. One fighter flew with dropped shields as he fired while a second lined up precisely with their nose practically in the front ship's exhaust--and fired past the sides of the forward ship. It would only work with ships of a variable profile--such as two X-wings, or a Clawcraft and an X-wing. Jaina would have to be the rear ship because her wingspan would allow her to shoot around him. It would require incredible precision on her part.
"Let's do it," she decided.
Jag moved in front of her and dropped his shields. Jaina expertly guided her fighter into his wake and steadily moved up until the nose of her ship was practically bumping Jag. But they were rushing toward the hulk at an alarming rate, with coralskippers pressing them from behind.
Jag remained steady. "Open fire," he commanded coolly.
For Jaina, the few seconds she was divided between flying blind (because the clawcraft blocked her forward view), holding course with Jag, firing her lasers and watching both the hulk and the coralskip squadron on her sensors seemed like an eternity. She felt unbelievably weary when Jag declared, "Yuuzhan Vong cruiser breaking up." He and Jaina instantly reversed their positions with Jag tucked in close behind her so her shields could protect him from the expanding debris field of the destroyed ship. The rest of the squad emerged from it with little trouble and a few seconds later the assortment of X-wings, E-wings, and the one irregular Clawcraft flashed out of existence.
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As requested! Action for our heroes.
Next chapter coming soon.
A/N: this chapter was slow in coming for two reasons: A) I haven't felt like writing. The weather has been cold and cloudy and rainy for three weeks straight. I haven't seen the sun since early October, and B) I lost the last week to a bad spell and painkillers. Thank the Lord for those little white pills…and the Jacuzzi tub in my mother's bath.