Summary: Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.
Disclaimer: Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.
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Chapter 17: Setting Out
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"Well?" Wedge asked expectantly. "What's the verdict?"
She grinned. "If you want me, you've got me." She was practically bouncing in place. Tycho shook his head, smiling.
Wedge laughed and gave her a hug. "Congratulations. And just in time. There was no way I was letting you come with us if you were back to civilian status."
"And just how would you have proposed to stop me?" she asked, falling into step between the two as they left the briefing room.
Tycho nudged Wedge and laughed. "She's got a point. You always were wrapped around her little finger."
"I was?" Wedge retorted, eyebrow raised. "Might want to look in a mirror, there, Tych."
"Aw, be quiet. You both know you could never say no to me," she said with a smile. "Besides, I can fly just as well as you two, and I have my own transportation. You wouldn't have been able to stop me even if you had told me no."
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Wes approached Wedge. "You weren't really serious about KP, were you?"
"Wes," Wedge replied tiredly, "I walk into the briefing room to be greeted by Lieutenant Kettch. I'm still worried about Hobbie, and there's definitely something going on with him and Inyri that I don't know about. He wouldn't look at any of us, in case you hadn't noticed."
"I noticed. But I figured it was just that he was still mad at us."
Wedge shook his head. "I don't think so. He wouldn't look at her, either, but she kept looking at him. Something's up. But that's not all. I have Cracken breathing down my neck, which is probably just going to get worse because Jesina's left Intel to come work for me. And then I walk into the briefing room to be greeted by Lieutenant Kettch," he repeated. "Tell me why I shouldn't be serious."
"Because it wasn't me," Wes said. "I didn't even bring Kettch with me." He paused. "Not that I don't wish I'd thought of it, but I didn't."
His CO sighed. Wes actually, for probably the first time ever, did look innocent. And not that put-on innocence he usually developed when he was in trouble. "All right, Wes. You find out who it really was – with proof – and I'll let you off. Now go get ready. We leave in," he glanced at his chrono, "an hour and a half."
He watched Wes leave, images of Janson interrogating the rest of the squadron dancing through his head. Was he going to regret this? Probably, he decided, continuing on to his office.
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Walking into the hangar, he looked around at the minor chaos. All his pilots were there, packing the gear Jesina had told them to bring into the fighters' storage compartments. Iella was directing her team as they loaded all the equipment they needed into the Nightwind. Jesina would be going up with them in the freighter, since Rogue was currently at full strength. Wedge hoped that she'd be a surplus pilot for a while, but he wouldn't bet on it. Rogue didn't have that kind of luck.
He headed over to where the Rogues were. "All right, everyone, listen up. The following are flying escort for Nightwind and landing on the asteroid. Two, Five, Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten." He wanted either himself or Tycho on the ground, and Tycho had offered, so Wedge had taken him up on it. Janson and Donos had been easy choices – their blaster skills would be of more use on the asteroid than in their fighters. Teril had been in the commandos before joining Starfighter Command. He'd chosen Corran to go down because he had significant experience with intrusion, and he'd selected Ooryl because his biology – the fact that he didn't need to breathe, for one – might make him useful, because they knew nothing about the conditions they were heading into.
The rest of us are air support. We'll be patrolling the vicinity unless we get word that we're needed. In case we do have to go to ground, we're all going to be wearing vacuum suits."
He shook his head at the chorus of groans. "I know it's not exactly going to be comfortable. But we don't have a choice. It'll be that much harder to try to put it on inside the cockpit. Now, three and four will fly together, as will eleven and twelve. Hobbie, you're with me." There were several reasons for that. And from the look on Hobbie's face, he knew it.
"Those of you on the ground, you follow orders from Iella and Jesina just as from Tycho." He doubted any of them would disobey either of the women, but he wanted to cover everything. "And, on that note, we have thirty minutes to launch and I want you to meet with Iella and Jesina first." Even though Jesina was technically a Rogue, now, she was acting the Intelligence part. Iella was still in charge, but she was more than willing to defer to Jesina right now.
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"All right. Once we're on the ground, no comlinks," Jesina said. It was standard practice for her and all the more important now, since there was every chance they'd be jammed from the moment they hit the asteroid, if not sooner. "No one goes off alone. In pairs, yes, but not alone. We have absolutely no idea what we're getting ourselves into, so I don't want anyone on their own."
"If we get jammed, how will we communicate with Wedge to let them know if we get into trouble?" Corran asked.
Iella held up a small black box. "When activated, this sends out energy waves that are picked up by a different type of receiver. Basically, it's the same thing as the deep scanning you people did."
"What will happen if we are separated – in pairs, of course – and are caught?" Ooryl asked.
"You do what you need to. We can't count on being able to communicate. You do what you can to stay alive until we can get to you," Jesina said softly. "We will not leave anyone behind. You'll just need to sit tight until we find out where you are."
Iella looked over them. "Anything else?"
"Yeah, if you and Tycho tell us to do different things, who do we listen to?" Wes asked.
She gave him a sinister smile. "Me. Because I'm marrying your boss. And if I tell him to make your lives miserable, he will."
"But Tycho can make our lives miserable on his own," Donos pointed out. "He makes up duty rosters."
Tycho laughed. "But remember, women are so much more vindictive than men."
Iella glowered. "I can tell him to make your life miserable, too."
He held up a hand. "I take it back."
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Iella spoke into her comm unit. "All right, Rogue Flight," she said. That was how they'd designated the air support team. "Hopefully, we won't see you again until we're back on Hoth."
"Good luck down there," Wedge's voice came back.
She heard him order the pilots who were staying with him to form up on him and watched as they put more distance between themselves and the Intel team. They weren't yet within the bounds of the asteroid belt, but they'd all agreed that the sooner they separated, the safer it would be.
The air support team would be following the patrol route they'd been using for the last few days, though in x-wings. They'd given up on any attempt to conceal the fact that they were New Republic personnel. Chances were that whoever they were about to go up against knew who they were anyway. And if they didn't yet, they likely would as soon as the Nightwind and her escorts landed on the rock.
"Night Flight," she said, referring to their escorts, "form up behind us. And when we land, come down around us." She looked out and saw the nearest asteroids coming into view. "Are we crazy?" she asked Jesina.
"Let's see. We're flying into an asteroid belt, only to land on one of them. Going inside said asteroid to find a dark Jedi – or whatever this guy is." She paused. "And you're marrying Wedge. I'd say yes."
Iella smirked. "Could be worse. I could be interested in Janson. Then I'd know I was crazy."