The fighters shot out of the peak of the Spire, racing skyward. As they breeched the atmosphere the BlueDiver came into view, it's bow listing outwards away from the planet, ready to make the jump if necessary. Lindmon's fighter soared ahead of the others.
"This is King, radio check."
"Joker standing by!" Lugo's voiced chirped quickly followed by Salya with a calm "Queen standing by."
A single click from Seger confirmed his existence.
"Ten. Standing by." Maila responded with only a hint of a sour tone.
"Maintain holding pattern. Going jump and get stealthed. Wait for my call to jump, when you clear hyperspace stay out of short range scanners. Will need to confirm jamming." Lindmon said, as his comms went silent. A moment later the sleek fighter rocketed into hyperspace and vanished from view.
As the blue lines of light condensed once more in his view port, the floating citadel of the imperial communications tower came into view. The asteroid floated harmlessly in space, surrounded by other large pieces of rock and many other smaller ones. Lindmon flipped a switch on his dash board, initiating the ships jamming function and activated the Stygium array, causing the craft to ripple and disappear from view. After a moment with no sign of reaction from the base he reopened his comm channels.
"Spades, your path is clear and chatter is dead. See you soon."
Maila thrust the hyperspace controls forward and her X-Wing accelerated into the churning blue tunnel of stars. The Imperial comm station was close and it wasn't long before her nav computer chimed, signaling that the destination was coming up. The four X-Wings popped into existence and the large Imperial outpost came into view. The listing asteroids had moved their positions slightly as they drifted through space. A thick nebula covered their view screens as it churned behind the installation. It's roiling orange and green gasses superheated, causing magnetic disturbances so powerful it could pull ships that tried to cross it out of hyperspace. The nebula was a natural defense as it left only one approach to the station.Maila gripped the control stick nervously. Her first true combat mission, not just a flight patrol or tussling with the Palatine wildlife. She pushed the X-Wing forward, cruising into formation with Salya and Lugo, with Seger following several fighter lengths behind. Maila checked her sensors for Lindmon but all that showed up were the four X-Wing signals. She glanced around hoping to be able to spot that same shimmer she noticed it gave off right after it cloaked, but to no avail. They may be able to get comm signals through but while the phantom was cloaked it was essentially invisible.
Lindmon pulled his fighter above the others. "Right with you all. Ten and Jack, take left, sweep around and get a lay of the land. Joker, Queen take right. Stay frosty. Something doesn't feel right." Lindmon hovered in place, watching the sets of fighters sweep off to their regions.
Seger was normally very cautious, prone to taking wide arcs of approach than others and even forgoing certain kill shots if he knew it would put him in an unfavorable cross fire. The Lieutenant's worry put him even more on edge, after he displayed his Jedi abilities he had more insight and clairvoyance to the situation than Seger could comprehend. As he controlled his X-Wing behind his wing mate, who flew with a little more caution for once, he added the locations of the asteroids and their base positions to his nav computer. Uploading them to the others in the flight, in the midst of a battle it would be beneficial to have their most recent locations already logged so they didn't have to spend too much time searching. The Lieutenant made it clear that if they were engaged they would not be able to leave until the entire base was scrubbed, he couldn't risk them missing one in their escape. He increased his nav computer's draw distance so that he had the entire comm station in the screen. It wouldn't help him track enemy fighters, but it made it easier to see the big picture. Seger typed into the one handed control board on his right, focused on identifying each outlier and labeling their positions as they flew. Every few moments he would glance up to check his wing mate's position, adjusting his course to keep along her projected path. He didn't feel the need to follow directly behind her, a general course was all he needed. Besides he would find it tiresome if he tried to stay on her wing the entire time, she twisted and juked her star-fighter erratically most likely to shake off the nerves of her first mission.
Lugo and Salya flew wing to wing around the outskirts of the base, every so often a small ping would show up on their scanners, a new target sent by Seger and Maila. They did the same, mapping out the region as best they could. The base was eerily quiet. It was nice not having a squadron of TIEs to deal with as soon as they left the exit doors of the Blue Diver on the few occasions the squadrons were scrambled during their trips.
"Hey Queeny, watch that big boy to your left." He said, the response was a quiet huff.
"Keep it down out there. They may be jammed but if they're scanning signal paths then-Joker at your six! Recon droid!" Lindmon slammed his shuttle right, sweeping in behind the two X-wings as the recon droid lept from the inside of the nearby asteroid. It's repulsors fired as it made its way back towards the base. In an instant Salya flipped her fighter, red flashes darting out from the wing mounted cannons. The shots slammed into the asteroid, narrowly missing the tiny target. A moment later the King rematerialized, green flashes shooting from it's own canons, smashing into the recon droid and sending its parts floating into the void before the fighter vanished from view. The squadron fell silent, each of them floating quietly on their own paths, watching their surroundings.
In an instant several more recon droids lept from their own hiding places and raced towards the base, chirping away.
"Bogeys! Take em out! Shit. Blue Diver, Blue Diver this is King start mission, the clock is ticking!"
Lindmon's Phantom slammed back into full speed, green lances arching across space, his fighter flashing into existence and out again with each shot. Lugo and Salya scrambled, Lugo flipping his craft back around to come alongside his sister's.
"Fun's starting guys and we're the life of the party!" He shouted into the comms.
Maila wrenched her control stick hard to the right, banking her X-Wing sharply towards the fray. It was still a great distance between the groups, Ten and Jack were dozens of kilometers away from Queen and Joker. If she pushed her fighter hard she could be there quickly. Her engines flared to life as she primed her thrusters, not wanting to be left out of the kills. A double click over her comms jerked her out of those previous thoughts and she tumbled her fighter to see Seger already moving to engage the closest asteroid relay. Since they had been spotted he was already moving on to the contingency plan. Destroy the entire base within the allotted time. He was in position strangely fast, Maila was sure that he was so far behind that he wasn't even licking her ion trails. There was no way he could have reacted from the comm chatter in time to get so close to the relay. That would be true if that were the case, but Seger was able to throw his proton torpedos down the throat of the relay so quickly because he reacted much sooner than Lugo's announcement. The moment Lindmon and the others engaged the recon droids they appeared on his scanners. The super wide zoom that his computer was set to allowed him to see the information instantly. He didn't have to wait for an order, the briefing was clear and his torpedos struck true, decimating the structure of the relay. He swung the star-fighter away and pulled the lever inside his cockpit to activate the servomotors of his S-foils, locking them in attack position.
Lugo and Salya flipped around each other, laser fire arching across space. One after another the droids were blasted to scrap only for another to seemingly take it's place.
"Fall back Queen, Joker, follow Jack and Ten's lead get on those orbitals, Jack, Ten, take out your six and prep for dog fight. I'm going on for primary dish and to get in behind them when their TIEs scramble."
Lugo and Salya's X-wing's S foils separated, swinging in close around a nearby asteroid before moving in to begin their assault. Salya was the first on their side to launch her torpedo, the missile slamming hard into the orbiting scan station. Bits of debris careened into space, bouncing off the shields surrounding their fighters.
Lindmon shrieked straight towards the center of the massive cloud of rocks, the large dish on the top of the base shimmered blue momentarily.
"Primary target has a shield, we're going to need to get inside and get that down along with the data. Bogeys incoming, Jack, Ten on me."
To the rest of the squadron Lindmon's voice was eerily calm. His orders coming through rapid fire as if he was watching from above the battle. What they couldn't see under his helmet were the beads of sweat on his brow and the numerous dots appearing on his dash, prep signals from the TIEs stationed inside the facility.
As he swept his fighter back around in a crisp arch the first TIE fighters screamed from a hangar on the underside of the base. Swarming out.
"King I've got twelve targets coming in on Joker and I and twelve more headed out towards Jack and Ten." Salya's voice broke through, the strain evident.
"Hellova first mission King!" Lugo shouted, as another torpedo met it's target, shattering the rock and metal.
The twelve TIE fighters roared towards Maila and Seger's position. As the second orbital relay exploded they crashed into their position, shelling the asteroid with a hail of laser fire. They swarmed around Maila like agitated hook-bats,pivoting quickly and screamed past as only the agile TIE fighters could.
"I've got a whole squad of TIE's on me!" Maila shouted over the comm. She watched as two of the swarm exploded in quick succession. Her wing mate firing at range was picking them off as they swarmed around her. The shields surrounding her fighter bursting from the storm of laser fire raining upon her, internal control alarms screamed inside the cockpit.
She whipped her head around trying to get a hold of the situation, each time she got her fire control system lined up on one TIE it juked away. Another swarming towards her and filling her vision with green blaster fire. She wanted to shut her eyes, turn away from the overwhelming number of fighters trying to tear her apart. She pulled the trigger on her control stick and four blasts of laser fire burst from her cannons. The shots grazed the side panel of one of the ten remaining TIE fighters, it warbled slightly before righting itself and juking the remaining shots. Maila grit her teeth, the panic and frustration sending her thoughts into a spiral. She just couldn't focus, was she going to die here? Maila had never been shot at before, her cockpit screens were filled with blaring red exclamations and raucous alarms. Over all that noise she heard something that focused all of her emotions. Three clicks.
Her heart thundered through her body, she could feel the sweat beading across her skin with each pulse. It wasn't even something she said seriously, so she didn't expect him to remember, just a joke about his comm habits. Maila felt her mouth moving, she had no idea what was even said, but she knew what needed to be done now. She sent her fighter into a tumble and unconsciously ripped the S-foil latch back, closing the wings as the profile of her fighter thinned out like a blade. She didn't even notice as the cockpit onboard computers switched off, her alarms cutting out as the power drained from the systems leaving her cockpit quiet and dark. Maila was glad he remembered, she didn't think that he would ever use that signal, it was simple. It just meant.
Go fast.
The burst of ion efflux from her engines blasted a white-pink scar against the black of space. A long streak trailed behind the X-Wing as it hurtled around the asteroid and screamed away from the cloud of TIE fighters that had previously been entangled with it.
It took a moment before the TIEs whipped around to pursue the X-Wing as it moved towards the next orbital relay. The faster TIEs howled in hot pursuit and took long range pot shots as they attempted to destroy the invader.
Inside the X-Wing cockpit was quiet, Maila could only hear her excited breaths and the mechanisms creaking from her ship. The whine of the engines was loud and vibrated across the entire craft. Her speed brought the orbital relay closer by the second, and without power to her targeting computer she would have a split second to fire the torpedos and pull up.
Her wide eyes glanced up and spotted a group of the TIEs moving to block her escape. If she went up she would run headlong into a storm of fire. Maila would have to continue forward then. The torpedos launched from their pods and Maila barrel rolled upwards. The X-Wing twisted into a vertical position and slid through the pronged gap at the top of the relay like a credchip in a vend machine. She passed through in the same moment the torpedos exploded against the relay station. The TIEs pursuing her scrambled around the explosion, the two groups moved separately to try and entrap her.
Maila heard a quick confirmation click over her comm system followed by a double click, it seemed that still had power. She threw the star fighter into a long banking loop, trying to get a sense of her position without a sensor screen was difficult and she had no idea where the TIEs were now. Halfway through the maneuver another click snapped into her ears. Maila straightened out the fighter and boosted forward in the direction designated, she saw the next relay station come across her view screen and understood. Seger was able to guide her position at a distance.
Four brilliant red flashes erupted from the flank, exploding one of the four TIEs currently pursuing Maila. Her wing mate was far away and passed behind a cluster of smaller rocks before the enemy could retaliate. Seger adjusted his navigational computer, as he created pathing vectors for himself and Maila. A quick double click, click sent her on his projected path, and Seger moved to his own intercept course. After a moment Maila's X-Wing hurtled past his view and he opened fire. The laser blasts connecting with the trail of TIEs, another destroyed. Seger wondered if he should work a few steps ahead, Maila was going incredibly fast, and that speed kept the TIEs from gaining position on her.
Seger wondered where the other group of TIEs went, he called to his droid to adjust the shields to double rear. Just as the shields power increased Seger's star-fighter was slammed with a barrage of fire. He cursed and slammed his craft forward. Seger hated being caught out of position, he may have blasted a few of these fighters with his intercept strategy but he wasn't sure they would leave him alone long enough for it now.
He juked and swerved his X-Wing, trying to get the leader to misread his direction. The shields warbled a warning as the cockpit rattled from another blast of laser fire. Seger wondered how much longer they would have before the Imperial reinforcements arrived, they were doing bad enough as it was.
As Seger continued to weave through asteroids a voice cut through the comms. "At your twelve Jack, K-turn" a moment later two green beams flashed, the shape of the Phantom consolidating as the shots slammed into one of the pursuing TIEs, the second volley made contact with another and the fighter dematerialized once more. Seger pumped his controls, his fighter flipping around as red fired from his wings. The dwindling TIE swarm disengaged and swept off to the sides as the X-wing soared past them. "Regroup with Ten, finish secondary and prep to land in the hangar." Two more green flashes followed one of the TIEs as it spiraled into an asteroid and collided. The swarm regrouped, flipping around towards the X-wings. As they flew another erupted in a cloud of debris, causing the other TIEs to break off and loop around, searching for the invisible attacker.
On the other side of the base, the swarm of TIE met with Lugo and Salya, the fighters spinning around each other as lasers twirled past where they had just been. The pair split, sweeping away from each other in a long arch. The Swarm followed left, twelve cannons pointed directly at Salya. The blast ricocheted off her rear deflectors.
"Don't you impish bastards shoot at my sister!" Lugo shouted, flipping his X-wing end over end and soaring directly towards the swarm. Blaster Cannons fired in sequence as the TIEs split, prepping to chase down the new target careening towards them. As they swerved, a cannon shot landed hard against the outer wing of one, blasting it off and sending the fighter into a spiral.
"Joker let's dance, Tango." Salya said with a smirk. The pair had invented several different maneuvers, each named for a different dance style. Their parents had been heavily invested in old dance styles, passing on that knowledge to the twins.
"Following your lead Queeny." Lugo laughed as his fighter spun into a talon roll, the internal sensors flashing red. As the swarm recollected itself it screeched towards the pair, the sibling's fighters spinning around each other in tight barrel rolls. Their cannons fired off in rapid succession, the gatling hail of laser fire crashed through a pair of TIEs as the rest of the group split off. The X-wings passed by their opponents, still locked in their twirl.
"One, two, three, four, Flip! Two, three, four" Salya counted them off as the pair K-turned hard.
The TIEs swept back around, the tell tale howl of their engines following close behind them. The dance of the twins continued, both fighters flying wing to wing.
"Three, Four, Up! Two, three four!" Salya continued her count, their fighters pointing their noses above the approaching TIEs. As the two ships sailed over their heads the pair made their way towards another orbital relay.
Salya launched a torpedo, it sailed out ahead of them.
"Pirouette! Two, three, four." The fighters talon rolled away from each other in opposite directions, turning back towards their opponents.
"Two left feet on these Imps!" Lugo laughed, firing another volley into the approaching fighter. The blasts sailed just past them and slammed into a nearby asteroid.
Lindmon continued his assault on the squadron as they scrambled around attempting to pin him down. His shuttle rematerialized directly in front of one, green flashes slamming into the fighter as the debris bounced off of his shields and his fighter flashed out of existence again. "Trust in the force." He said to himself. The sound of his helmet's vents whirring in his ear as it pushed the moisture out. The familiar tingle crept down his spine. "Ten on me, Jack continue secondary. I'm coming out of cloak to pull some fire off you." He said as his ship spun back around, reappearing and firing off another volley, finding its mark with another cloud of debris.
Lindmon received a confirmation click over the comms from Seger. He jerked his control stick hard to the right and cruised into an intercept vector with another orbital relay. Seger checked his nav computer, they had destroyed six of the targets so far, with only about ten minutes on the timer. The group of TIEs that had been chewing his tail had broken off, they screeched towards the main station to protect it and wait for assistance. It wasn't long before another pair of torpedos smashed into the seventh relay. The brilliant flash of the explosion left heavy debris careening in space, the metal components sparked and crackled as the remaining power surged out of them."Seger, I don't know where to go." Maila's voice was quiet and distant, her body focused entirely on the controls of the X-Wing. The cockpit computer screens inside were dark, and her control board showed only two or three systems functioning. Her jumpsuit clung to her sweaty skin, all heat controls and cooling mechanisms were shut down. The engines ran white hot and flowed their heat into the chassis of the X-Wing. Bright green laser bolts flashed past her star fighter, narrowly missing. It seemed like the remaining TIEs made it around the asteroid she used for cover, it only gave her a moments reprieve but it was enough. She was getting tired, the rattling of the internal components made her hands feel numb and the inertial dampeners were another component that had been shut down. It was used to artificially reduce the strain a pilot feels during more difficult maneuvers, with it off though she now felt the enormous forces from her fast turns and agile flips. Dosed by her adrenaline during the initial engagement she barely noticed the dampener's absence, but now she wished it was one of the systems that was left on. She had heard the Lieutenant's command to join him but Maila honestly had no idea where she was, or how to find his ship in this dog fight. A quick roll in front of a stray asteroid saved her from another hail of lasers, not as overwhelming as before, but still deadly. Seger's double click rang in her helmet, indicating she was going the wrong direction. "Oh, no that's okay Maila I'll help you, it's just forty five to your left and down a bit." Maila grumbled to herself quietly, mocking Seger's lack of communication. She pulled on her yoke and groaned as the tight bank pushed her uncomfortably into the leather of the pilot seat. The distance of the TIEs made it easy to dodge their incoming fire, and she boosted towards the correct path when the single click came across her comm.
Lindmon looked down at his displays, the radar ping of Maila's X-wing flashing green. Two red dots flashed behind her. "Coming at your six Ten. Breath, and get your systems back up." He said, his fighter coming back into view as several more volleys of green flew from his wings. The TIEs split off, roaring away from each other. "Left is all yours ten take it out." Lindmon swung his fighter hard right, chasing down the escaping TIE.
Across the asteroid field, Lugo and Salia continued their macabre duet of laser fire. The TIEs were having a difficult time pinning them down, the defensive failures of one fighter covered by the other. "Close S-foils Joke, first one to the next relay is Bantha pooodoo!" Salya laughed, adrenaline coursing through her. In tandem the wings of the pairs closed, their thrusters flaring to life as they shot foreword. The TIEs fell behind them, gaining slowely as they forced their fighters to pursue.
"The relay is all yours queeny, gonna show these imps a trick or two." Lugo laughed, his wings opening once more and his thrusters cutting out entirely. Foreword repulsors fired as he slowed himself down rapidly, the inertia of the maneuver slamming him into his seat restraints. The TIEs sailed past him, three breaking off to spin back around. Lugo reignited his thrusters just as they passed, falling in behind them. He barrel rolled left, firing red flares, catching one TIE by surprise as it burst into flames and fell apart.
Salia raced foreword, the relay coming into view. Another pair of torpedoes flared to life and crashed into it. Just as the torpedoes left her craft a series of lasers slammed into her rear shields, one getting through and crashing into her left wing. Her displays flashes red. "I'm hit! Wing two damaged, lost my torpedoes in that side, breaking off!" She shouted into the comms, spinning her fighter hard as she sailed around an asteroid.
Maila tracked the trail of the second TIE as it split from its demolished ally. She pulled the control lever back and the servos whined as the s-foils snapped open, increasing the spread rate of its blaster cannons. The targeting computer was still powered off, useless, and at this distance it would be hard to hit the TIE without it. The quad blaster cannons fired off several volleys of red hot laser fire, each bolt passing by the fighter without contact. With all power to the engines Maila's X-Wing was just able to keep up with the more agile Imperial TIE fighter, and without the speed to get closer her shot wasn't going to be any easier.
Of the four pronged cannons, only three were firing. The top right wing had a smoking hole blasted into it, severing the components that ran through the wing to the cockpit trigger. Maila ripped off her flight helmet, finally able to wipe the sweat pooling across her brow and clinging to her bangs. There wouldn't be time for her to react if she needed to go EVA, anyway. She needed to get this kill, since the mission started she hadn't done anything but run away. The Lieutenant left this one for her, the first kill of her career.
Now that she was thinking about it, it dawned on her that she had never killed anyone before. Once the Rebellion accepted her, the war was practically over and she spent the rest of her time trying to get in an X-Wing. She could feel the panic of the Imperial pilot as she chased it, unable to move fast enough to get closer. It juked and swerved desperately, stressed and confused at the speed of the pursuing star fighter. If only she had the targeting computer online it would help with her aim, but if she returned power to the systems she would lose speed and the TIE would scramble out of range. Maila pulled the trigger again, spurting our several more volleys of fire. A laser blast clipped the solar panel of the fleeing TIE and it spiraled into the rest of the volley. The craft was barraged by blaster cannon fire and erupted in a gout of fire momentarily before the cold of space reduced it to simmering smoke.
Maila sighed heavily and slumped back into her pilot's seat. She did it, got her first kill. It always seemed like there would be a strange ethereal feeling afterwards, people seemed to think it changed you after but Maila found she didn't feel much at all. There was a close similarity to practice targets and simulations, line up the shot and then 'pop' target destroyed. She felt more good than anything along with the relief of not being constantly pursued by other pilots that wanted to kill her.
"R4 reset power to all the control systems." Maila commanded to her astromech passenger. "I'd like to have shields at least...R4?" She looked back to where the astromech slot on the X-Wing was and instead found a scorched and tangled mass of wires. It must have taken a near direct hit. The astromech's dome had long since snapped off after dangling on by a thread helplessly for several of Maila's maneuvers. She hadn't noticed when it happened, it could have been right after it diverted power to the engines. In fact she didn't notice either of the times her star fighter got damaged, Maila was too focused on not dying.
Now she would have to manually reboot the X-Wing's systems internally, it wouldn't take more than a few minutes but during that time she'd be dead in space. Having systems rerouted or repaired was much easier with an astromech, doing it by hand in the cockpit made it impossible to do anything else. "My astro is out, I need to reboot manually." Maila said over the comm. She drifted her star fighter out of the way of the asteroids tumbling around the base and pulled the master control switch. The last of her remaining systems shut down, the darkness inside the cockpit illuminated only by the swirling orange and green nebula in the distance. Having burnt white hot for such a long period, the engine flares died down and allowed the X-Wing to drift helplessly. Finally her comms blinked off, removing her from radar and she vanished into the void of space.
Lindmon's own target tumbled and spun, the pilot desperately trying to outmaneuver the phantom hot on his tail. Green fire erupted from Lindmon's wings and into the rear of the TIE, blowing it to rubble. His fighter blinked out of existence as he twisted his way back towards the point where Maila's shuttle had winked off the radar.
The twins were having an increasingly difficult time with their own swarm. Salya had boosted her rear shields as high as she could, spinning her fighter to dodge the hail of green bolts. Lugo fired several volleys into the three TIEs that had split to chase him down. Two of the fighters twisted away as the red blasts flew past them, one jucked left, clipping its solar panel on a laser before twisting down and into a nearby asteroid, colliding with a quick burst of fire. "Queen make your way over to the others, if those imps follow you I can take these last two out and focus on relays." Lugo said into the comms. A moment later Salya's S-foils closed and she banked hard right, forcing her fighter to run as fast as she could to the other three. The TIEs followed, their fighters gaining slowely onSalya as she rocketed through the asteroid field, flipping over space rocks to block incoming fire.
The powered down X-Wing drifted slowly in space, the dark inside of the cockpit illuminated by the massive churning nebula in the distance. Maila pulled the power control nodule off the third primer port and pushed it into the next connector on her emergency restart checklist. Going through a systems restart took only a few seconds with an astromech, doing it manually however took a few minutes to go through the needed checklist and give reset signals to each system. The advanced processors of even the oldest droid could accomplish this in a snap, and it's that reason that Maila was kicking herself for allowing her droid to get blasted into oblivion. Even if she got out alive there was probably no way the droid could be salvaged. The next control node wasn't responding, damn. She flicked up on the trigger switch several times hoping it would jolt the system to life, still nothing. "Alright, if control auxiliary is unresponsive..." Maila mumbled as she scrolled through the datapad floating weightlessly inside the cockpit.
She noticed brilliant flashes bursting from some of the orbiting asteroids. Most likely Maila's wing mate Seger as he continued to torpedo the remaining relays. Anxiety started to creep into her mind as she realized just how little she had been able to contribute during the mission. One relay and a single TIE were all she had managed to destroy, and only with the help of her squad was she able to do that much. Maila's composure shattered once the TIEs attacked her like a swarm of blitz-bugs. All she could do was run, Maila was starting to think that was all she was good at. Just to survive she fell back on her risky play, gambling on what worked for her before, and now because of that she was useless. She wanted to contribute more but her lack of real combat experience was holding her back. If only the war lasted a bit longer she could have had at least a few combat missions under her belt by now.
She turned her attention back to the checklist and found the work around for control auxiliary. "Open the control board and remove 'J' one and four." Maila spoke aloud as she lifted the panel on her left. Her fingers slipped in through the bundle of wires and plucked each of the connector pins out. The control auxiliary light then illuminated at the top of the control board. Maila slapped the lid back into place and tried to hurry through the rest of the list, she could feel the time burning away as her allies still fought around the orbital base. If one of them died while she was wasting time here...
It was his fault, Lindmon thought to himself. They had tried to be careful but he pushed them into this. He had wanted to get the data sooner than later, he had wanted to get the recon done so they could make their assuault, but now two of his flight were damaged, one fairly severely. He had to fix this. There had to be a way.
You will fail them and in so doing fail yourself.
The voice of the hooded figure echoed in his head. No. He would fix this. "Jack, keep an eye on ten until she gets her bird flying again, Joker, Queen, converge on us, bring those fighters this way, we can tackle them together." He said, turning his fighter away from the floating hunk of Maila's X-wing. The repulsors on his phantom flared to life once more, rocketing forward towards Salya's location. Eight TIEs. A cake walk.
Salya slipped around the floating rocks, green blasts slamming into them as she ducked behind them to dodge the hail. The TIEs behind her screamed around the asteroids as they pursued the X-wing. "Almost there." Salya said to herself. As she passed another asteroid, the King of Spades materialized in front of her, firing into the swarm on her tail. Two TIEs erupted from the sneak attack as the fighter vanished once more. The final six TIEs broke formation, sweeping away from the last location of the Phantom.
Lugo tumbled his fighter around an asteroid, chasing down the final TIE that had broken off to attack him. The TIE juked and swerved around the rocks, red lasers lancing past him into space. Lugo's S-foils closed, his X-wing pushing to pursue the quicker fighter.
Maila was near the end of the system reset when another X-Wing flew towards her's. It slowed and pitched into a roll, moving above the stalled X-Wing so that the cockpits faced each other. It was easy for her to recognize Seger at such a close distance, he was able to fly directly to her position without needing to search. He must have annotated Maila's signal before she powered off.
He waved to her and for a moment Maila thought it was quite friendly of him to do so. Just as she was raising her hand to return the gesture Seger began to point at his own emergency checklist, holding it up to display the datapad for Maila. Yes I know. I'm doing it right now. She gave a thumbs up and flashed an annoyed smile to her ally sitting in the cockpit above her. Did he think she was an idiot or something?
Maila was about to return to the last few steps just as she noticed more signaling from Seger. "What?" She snapped, it was surprising how he could still find other ways to annoy her when the comms were off. He was mouthing something and tapping on his head with one finger.
"Hel? Hel what?"
Her face flushed for a moment, he really must have thought she was an idiot. Maila grabbed her helmet off the floor of the cockpit and slid it back over her head quietly. She put the last few systems in check, skipping over the astromech portion. There was no amount of resetting that would give her a confirmation light for that system. Maila primed the throttle and the engines roared, the white pink ion efflux shimmered from the rear, she was back to life.
The friendly X-Wing rolled to the side, removing itself from the hanging position above Maila. Seger turned his craft sharply away, a single click over the comm system was all he gave to signal their allies.
"It'll take more than that to keep me down! You all still alive out there?" Maila shouted into her newly restored communications, her voice was mixed with exuberance and a bit of fear. She shifted her control stick and pushed the throttle forward, the X-Wing lurched headlong towards the orbital base, taking position next to her wing mate.
"Nice to have you back Ten! We got some unfriendliness swarming around Queeny and looks like King's helping out there, feel free to get some shooting in!" Lugo laughed, still chasing the last TIE left to him.
"Belay that, Ten, Jack I want you on those last orbitals. We need those out ASAP, doesn't seem like many are left so make it quick." Lindmon said over the headset. He sighed, relieved that she had been able to get herself back up and running. He pulled in behind a pair of TIEs that had broken from the six remaining, his shuttle shimmering as it came out of stealth. The pair of TIEs split from each other as soon as he appeared, screeching away from one another. "I think they figured out my tricks." He said as he pushed to pursue one of them.
Seger and Maila flew towards the remaining orbitals. The last asteroid relays were the furthest from their current position, if the twins hadn't run into so much trouble they would have been closer. "So, what's the plan after the orbitals?" Maila asked the Lieutenant. "Should we bomb the comm station and cut out of here?"
"We're not out of here yet Ten, the primary target is the bases main radar dish, which as of now has a shield. We will need to land in the base, take out the shield generator so it can be destroyed and we still need to download whatever data is down there. Once the orbitals are out and the TIEs dealt with, you and Jack will be joining me in landing and assaulting the main base. Queen and Joker will maintain patrol here to give us forewarning if more ships jump into system and to destroy the radar when that shield comes down." Lindmon said, spinning his TIE around and firing another set of volleys into the fighter he was chasing.
Lugo finally landed his shots on his own target, looping around to come back to his sister's side. Salya had flipped her fighter back over and was beginning to chase down the TIEs that Lindmon had scattered. Her S-foils extended once more to aid in her assault.
Maila had taken point on destroying the remaining relays, with Seger having run out of proton torpedoes. The last two erupted in quick succession once the pair got to that side of the asteroid field, hot flashes of destruction shining out in space. "Assault?" Maila said incredulously "What if they have like...guns and stuff?" She was confident in her flying ability, especially after this mission seemed to be back on the upswing. Once on the ground though, she wasn't confident she could hit the broadside of a gundark. Wait. Did I bring my blaster? She patted down her flight suit quickly, searching for the aforementioned pistol. With a disparaging sigh, Maila found the small blaster stashed underneath her seat.
"I'm certain they will. But we have guns too, and I'm not anticipating that the base is all that defensible. That's what they had the Star Destroyer for. It's highly likely that the twenty four fighters was the majority of their defense, meant to hold off an assault long enough for the Havoc to get here. The inside probably has a couple squads worth of stom troopers. Nothing we can't handle." Lindmon said calmly. He knew how the Empire worked, at least for the most part. The last of the TIEs were proving easy to clean up, each one crashing or exploding as laser fire slammed into their sides. With the majority of the dog fight complete they turned their attention on the hangar.