Disclaimer: Characters are not the property of the author but of George Lucas.
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Chapter 15: Enter Rogue Squadron
Obi-wan Kenobi was waiting patiently in the cockpit of his shuttle. To keep the young Jedi trainees safe Yoda and he were moving their train location whenever there was an inkling of danger, which seemed to happen more frequently. Some of the children didn't seem to mind, but a few of the older ones wanted to stay and fight. They were not going to argue with Obi-wan or Yoda though and they quickly agreed when told what would happen if they did.
Obi-wan watched as twelve Incom T-65 X-wing starfighters emerged from hyperspace nearby. This was their escort for the journey. It was expected to be uneventful, but there was always the possibility of running into an Imperial reconnaissance ship or even smugglers that wouldn't take too kindly to their presence being discovered. This squadron was supposedly made up of some of the best pilots in the entire Rebel Alliance. They were also said to have a rather roguish attitude about them and were definitely not "by the book" pilots. Thus the squadron was aptly named Rogue Squadron.
"This is Master Kenobi to Rogue Leader, we're ready to depart when ever you are." Obi-wan said over the com channel.
"Copy that Kenobi," a familiar voice, "It'll be good to fly with you again."
"Anakin?" Obi-wan asked, "Is that you?"
"The one and only," Anakin said, "You know I could stay away from all the Jedi stuff but ever since I always wanted to fly a ship."
"Well I can't say I'm disappointed with you. You're becoming legendary as a Squadron." Obi-wan said.
"It's not all my doing," Anakin replied, "They're all half-decent pilots."
The comment drew laughter from most of the other pilots in Rogue squadron.
"Anyway, I guess we'd better get going. I made a slight alteration to the flight plan; I'll send you the revised co-ordinates." Anakin said.
Obi-wan checked his computer, "Co-ordinates received," he said.
"Alright then," Anakin said. "Rogues two to six, you're with me. Seven to twelve, you're together with Garven taking lead. I'll take in the vanguard, Garven you've got the rear guard."
"Roger Rogue Leader," came a series of eleven replies.
The X-wings split into two groups, one in front of the shuttle and one behind. As soon as Anakin's group had disappeared into hyperspace, Obi-wan followed.
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Obi-wan was rudely awakened as his computer began to blare at him. He had been trying to catch a bit of sleep over the hyperspace trip. He looked at the screen.
"Incoming contacts…" he muttered.
Suddenly the ship shook as the shields were hit with blaster fire.
"Sith spawn," Obi-wan hissed as he diverted power to the shields and engines.
"Rogue three you've got one coming in on your six," the com said.
"Don't worry I've got ya covered," Came Anakin's voice.
As Obi-wan watched an X-wing darted in front of the shuttle. An Imperial Sienar Fleet Systems Twin Ion Engine Fighter, also know as a TIE Fighter was chasing another X-wing. Anakin's X-wing opened up with it's quad laser cannons and the TIE fighter was soon a burning ball of debris.
"What happened?" Obi-wan asked.
"There's a Victory SD three clicks behind you," Anakin replied, "They weren't supposed to be here."
Obi-wan looked down at his sensors to confirm what Anakin had just said.
"How are we supposed to take that out?" Obi-wan asked.
"We don't," Anakin said, "That'd be suicide. Unless you've got some secret weapon I don't know about."
"I knew I forgot something," Obi-wan joked.
Anakin chuckled, "You'd better get moving. I'll send you a set of co-ordinates to rendezvous at."
Obi-wan put the new co-ordinates into the navicomputer, "See you there then," Obi-wan said.
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With his son safely out of danger, Anakin turned his full attention to the space battle at hand. Most VSDs had a full complement of TIE Fighters. That meant this one probably had seventy two of the fast pesky ships. On the bright side, TIE Fighters had no hyperdrive and no shields, so they could be out manoeuvred with a micro-hyperspace jump and they were fairly easy to destroy.
"Come on Rogue Leader," Rogue Five said, "You're falling behind Garven, he's got five kills already."
"Well, we'll see about that," Anakin said.
He snap rolled to the starboard and an unfortunate TIE pilot was in his sites. He snapped off a linked blast from his quad laser cannons and the ship exploded. He then dove to avoid the debris cloud and found himself on a collision course with another TIE Fighter. He quickly turned that one into a debris cloud as well, rolled aside and levelled out.
"That brings me up to six," Anakin said.
"That's good sir," Garven said, "But I'm at eight."
"You're making this one tough on me aren't you?" Anakin sighed jokingly.
"It isn't fun if you have no competition sir," Garven said in his dry wit tone.
"Fair enough," Anakin agreed.
Behind him his astromech, R5-A5, who Anakin called Dewie, bleeped something. Anakin read the display and then looked directly up. Two TIE Fighters were diving towards him, lasers firing. Anakin rolled aside taking only grazing shots which were stopped by his shields.
"Dewie, see if you can do run a diagnostic on cannon three's power cables. Something doesn't seem right when it fires." Anakin ordered.
The two TIE Fighters were now trailing Anakin who was juking and avoiding their infrequent laser fire.
"Let's see if you can keep up with this." Anakin muttered.
He pulled back hard on the flight stick, putting his X-wing into a tight climb. The two TIE Fighters followed but suddenly they're foe was nowhere to be seen. Laser fire blasted the two TIE into fireballs.
"Nice try guys," Anakin chuckled as he brought his X-wing back up to speed, "Engines alright back there Dewie?"
The astromech droid whistled an affirmative.
"Rogue Nine roll right you've got one coming in on your eight." Rogue Twelve called.
Ahead of Anakin an X-wing rolled to its right. Laser fire from a TIE fighter passed by where it had been mere milliseconds later.
"I've got him, Rogue Nine," Anakin said.
He lined up the TIE Fighter, who was focusing on Rogue Nine, in his sites and opened fire. It was quickly turned into a debris cloud. Anakin did a half-loop and flew at a large group of TIE fighters and X-wings engaged in a tight battle. "All power to the front deflectors Dewie," Anakin said.
Anakin jammed the throttle to full and flew headlong at the group. He made sure of a target and fired, destroyed one; dove slightly, fired again, destroyed another and he was through the intense fight.
"Any followers?" Anakin asked Dewie.
The droid beeped a negative. Anakin smiled as he wheeled his ship around for another pass. Two TIE fighters noticed him and broke off to attack him. Anakin traded shots with one which exploded, while its shots just bounced off Anakin's deflector shields. He then focused on the other one which had rolled off to try and get behind Anakin. Anakin however whirled around direction putting him in a head to head face off with the TIE fighter. Once again the lack of shields led to the TIE Fighter's demise.
"Well that's twelve," Anakin said, "Help me find another target Dewie."
But the only target left was the VSD, which began opening fire with its Turbolaser turrets now that it didn't have to worry about hitting its own fighters. The X-wings quickly broke off and jumped to hyperspace.
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I really wanted to bring in Rogue Squadron, since the space battles are my favourite part. Sorry if anyone was looking for drama or romance, but I'm trying to appease the action fans too. Little bit of everything for everyone I say. Doesn't mean Anakin's gonna stay a pilot though. Fame may catch up with him once again. But if people want an update on the twins or Padme, I'll do that too. It'd be a fairly short chapter though.