X-wing: Return Of The Empire
Ch. 1: Into The Storm
Disclaimer: As Always, I own nothing
A/N: Thank you for the reviews- Good to hear from a fellow service-member. I'm going to continue in double space, hope it's easier to read.
"Seven, You've got one on your tail! Break right!" Rogue Leader Col. Gavin Darklighter screamed. "I don't see him lead. I..." Rogue Seven's voice was cut short as her ship was blown apart by the interceptor on her tail. Gavin grit his teeth and tried to continue on. His squadron was getting ripped apart. There were just too many of the Imps, and not enough of them. He smirked in satisfaction as he got the interceptor that had killed Seven. On his Comm, he heard the frantic yells of the New Republic Forces in the battle. The battle was horribly mismatched. When they had received word of an Imperial Battle fleet, they had expected the usual; a couple of Victory Star Destroyers, or maybe an Imp Star, so they sent a Mon Cal Cruiser, 2 Corellian Blockade Runners, and the Rogues. That would have been more than enough, had their estimates been correct. What they found was that there were Two Imp Star Deuces, and four Lancer class frigates, which were murder on their snub fighters. The Rogues had taken down two of the lancers, and the Blockade-runners had neutralized one of the Imp Stars, but that wasn't the problem. It was the fighters. They had never seen pilots like these before. It was if they had no fear of dying. They attacked head on, not bothering to fly defensively. Normally, this would have made them easy targets, but there were so many of them, that the Republic fighters seemed to be smothered. They thought they might have a chance, when suddenly; Gavin's R2 unit started screeching. "What!?!, that's impossible!" Gavin exclaimed. He turned his X-Wing to see the Mon Cal Cruiser blowing apart. At that, he knew all was lost. He tuned his comm. Unit to the Rogue's frequency. "Rogue Squadron, this I Rogue Leader. All fighters break off and jump out of system. Rendezvous at... Beta coordinates", "But lead..." one of his pilots started. "Now! That's an order", his R2 chirped that he was clear for lightspeed. With a heavy heart, he pulled the lever, leaving behind the worst defeat he had ever had.
"Hey Guys! Take a look at this!". The flight candidates all gathered around the Holonet screen. "It says that one of our Mon Cals was destroyed out I the Outer Rim, by an Imperial fleet", he was silent for a moment. Quietly, he added, "It also says that the Rogues lost half their men". Slowly, the gathered students turned to one of their number. Valin, 'Hal' Horn stood silently, staring at the screen, his face unreadable, except for his eyes. They seemed to be burning. He looked at the man who had spoken earlier. "Did they name names?" he asked, with a quiet intensity. "No, sorry Stalker. I'm sure your Dad wasn't" Hal cut him off; "My Dad retired years ago. It's the others I'm worried about", with that, he left the room, toward his room. Hal's father, Corran, had been one of the Rogue's best pilots, and had been instrumental in the liberation of Coruscant, as well as starting the Bacta War that deposed Yssane Issard from control of the galaxy's Bacta supply. He had retired from the Republic Navy to become a Jedi Knight, and as of last year, a Jedi Master. Hal unconsciously fingered the Coin in his pocket, with his father's face on it. Traditionally, when Corellian Jedi became Masters, coins were made in their likeness, and were given to friends, and family. He grew up on his father's stories of how he and his squadron mates had escaped death time after time. "Impossible is what the Rogues do best", rang in his mind as he sat down in his barrack's room. His parents had supported his decision to join Fighter Command, although they had hoped he would go to the Jedi Academy on Yavin Four first. Hal had no intention of becoming a Jedi. He had a lot of respect for them, and had studied under his father for a couple of years (even constructing a lightsaber, which no one knew about), but he didn't want to have to base everything he did based on good or bad. He leaned back, thinking about what the future would bring. A few minutes later, his room mate Rob 'Grunt' McFirsen came in. "Stalker, lets go, we've got a training mission to do!" Hal jumped out of his chair, and followed grunt to the hanger.
As Hal entered the student's Hanger Bay, he jogged over to the Briefing Room. Their Class Commander, Maj. Myn Donos, was about to start the Brief. "Alright, class, this is just going to be a simple system patrol, nothing fancy. We're splitting you up into pairs to scan the system. Now..." As Maj. Donos went on with the details, Hal noticed that Myn had the same distracted attitude that he himself had. That would be expected, though, since Myn himself was a Rogue. Soon enough they were sent to their ships. Hal got to his fighter, and took his time checking it over, marveling at his ship. The Incom T-70 X-Wing-v.2, an improved version of the famed T-65, was improved in almost everyway. Faster, stronger shields, more powerful blaster cannons, and added weapons. He nodded to the Crew Chief, appreciative for his care in the maintenance of his craft. As Hal climbed in, strapped himself in, enjoying the smell of the new leather seat, the clean hum of the instruments coming online. "How are we set, Topper", he asked his R2. Even before the translation of Topper's electronic chirping was displayed on his monitor, he knew what was said. Growing up with Whistler, his Dad's R2, he had slowly picked it up. "Alright, full repulsors, engines to idle", Hal ordered. He felt his fighter gently lift up off the deck, and felt the soft throb of his engines. It was when he was in a cockpit that Hal felt truly alive, and complete. He keyed his comm., "Control, the is rookie five, I've got four greens, and an itchy trigger finger, request permission to leave bay" "Rookie Five, Control, permission granted. Oh, and get something for that itch, huh?" Laughing, Hal set his repulsors to forward, and glided his X-Wing towards the giant opening at the end of the Hanger. Right before he went through, he kicked off his repulsors, and turned his engine to max. The sudden burst of speed threw him back into his seat, propelling his fighter skyward. Executing a quick barrel roll before hitting the atmosphere, he angled his ship up, and flew skywards.
Once in space, the students were given their assignments. "Five, you and Six have sector 12" "Rodger, Lead", Hal answered, as he and his wingman pulled away from the formation. "So I'm curious, where did the name 'Grunt' come from?" Hal asked en route to their area. "Oh, I used to be infantry, so when my basic school classmates found out, they named me grunt", Rob replied easily. Unlike all the others in the class, Rob hadn't come from their basic flight school class, as he was originally slated to fly the B-Wing. "How 'bout you? How'd you get the names 'Stalker'?" "Well," Hal began, "during basic, our instructor thought I had bit of an ego, so he had us do a little one on one, to 'humble' me. Anyway, long story short, I get on his rear, and he's completely clueless. So to be funny, I follow him around for a few minutes before announcing missile lock. The other students started calling me stalker to get at our instructor, and the name stuck. Course, I thought the whole exercise was unnecessary. I don't have an ego", Hal ended lightly. "Right, a Corellian without an ego, I believe you".
"I bet..." "Contact, bearing 278", Hal interrupted. "Let's check it out," "Rodger, Five," Rob replied, suddenly seriousness. Hal smiled at his wingman's ability to be joking around one moment, and then be dead serious the next. "Rookie Lead, Rookie Five, have acquired a contact in the asteroid field, proceeding to check it out". Meanwhile, Myn was checking his map for the coordinates sent by Rookie Five. "Control, Rookie lead, do we have any signal buoys in the asteroid field?" "Rookie lead, Control, that's a negative, there's nothing out there", Myn looked out towards the asteroid field. "Then what are they- suddenly green and red laser bolts started flying "Sithspawn!"