Chapter 13
"You what?" Avramova screamed at her brother. He cowered away as she continued ranting. "That is the most retarded thing you have ever done! Are you usually this stupid, or are you trying especially hard today?"
Andover looked up weakly. She kept yelling. "You basically told the Rebels to attack this planet! People are going to die because of you! There is probably a reason they didn't sweep the system!"
"Bureaucracy?" he remarked. "Procrastination? Fear?"
Avramova glared daggers at him.
Andover defended himself. "All I'm saying is that if nobody was going to give the incentive, why shouldn't I? You want this planet freed as much as I do." She ran a hand through her hair as he continued. "This is the Bormea Sector. If you control it, not only have you freed a major agriworld and strategic extension into the Core, but you have Brentaal IV. It sits on both the Hydian Way and the Perlemian Trade Route. This is going to be the most significant thing the Alliance has ever done; this is going to be more significant than YAVIN."
She looked at him dubiously. "You better know what you're doing."
He frowned, offended. "You seriously think I would try to destroy my own planet?"
"Do you remember sixth grade?"
His eyes narrowed. "You were stupid then too!" Avramova was about to slap him. He continued, "I'm going to fly with the Rouges again. If you doubt my plan, why don't you come along? We could take the Belvedere and the Astris."
Andover could sense her annoyed bemusement even without the help of the Force. "I have been telling you since we were fourteen; I am NOT going to fly in one of your fatuous spacecraft. You haven't even tested those two yet! And the tests don't help. In the Nicomedia's first four flights, you shot down three Imperials, destroyed a beach house, and nearly got killed on a Star Destroyer. Come to think of it, you wrecked that too!"
"What? Luke took the ship. He wouldn't wreck it."
"I meant the Star Destroyer."
"Oh yeah!" He announced brightly. "Come to think of it, I did!"
Andover glanced at a nearby grandfather clock with a cracked screen. It still held time, though. He and his sister shared glances, realizing that within twenty hours their planet would be engulfed in war.
"Listen, Avvie. I have to do my part. You had your go at smuggling arms. I'm having my go as a fighter pilot. It's very clear that my driving force is upstaging you; this is no different. Either fight beside me, or don't. If you're this hesitant, I honestly couldn't care less."
These twins seemed more different than ever before.
Avramova rolled her eyes. "Then dibs on the Belvedere."
Luke flipped through the manual as he held the Nicomedia steady in hyperspace. He flipped the page and looked at an example set of coding that had been placed in the book. It described settings for the holoreceiver and its adjoined memory pack.
Sub Reading Computer Journal
(_str_)
-Dim qinfo As New MSMQQueueInfo
-Dim q As MSMQQueue
-Dim msg As MSMQMessage
-Dim strMachineId As String
' Obtain the computer GUID for the format name.
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler
strMachineId = MachineIdOfMachineName(strComputerName)
' Set the format name of computer journal.
= "MACHINE=" & strMachineId & ";JOURNAL"
' Open the computer journal.
Set q = (Access:=MQ_RECEIVE_ACCESS, _
ShareMode:=MQ_DENY_NONE)
Set msg = (ReceiveTimeout:=1000)
Do While Not msg Is Nothing
If MsgBox = "A message was removed from the computer journal.":
Set msg = (ReceiveTimeout:=1000)
Loop:
MsgBox "There are no more messages. The computer journal will be closed."
Exit Sub
ErrorHandler:
MsgBox "Error " + Hex( ) + " was returned." _
+ Chr(13) +
[Close loop]
Putting away the book, he shifted in his seat and sat back.
Meanwhile, Mara fiddled with the holographic display of Chandrila coming out of the backseat's side bulkhead. The targets displayed themselves on the globe.
"It says here that we are supposed to attack the city of Buran. Why Buran? It's not strategically significant." she stated to no one in particular.
"It's a hotbed of skirmishes, and it's near his home. Not a surprising choice," Luke said from the front. "We hit it about a year and a half ago." Suddenly, the holo replaced the globe with said mission's debriefing file.
"The onboard computer has a lot of knowledge on the subject," Mara demurred. "Andover must have spliced the main cyber gridlines to transfer all of the hard drive data."
"He did what?!" Leia called over the com. Unbeknownst to her, Mara had accidentally set her elbow on the communicator button. She promptly cut the connection.
"Are you still angry at him for the slave outfit incident?" Luke prodded. She snorted in indignation.
"Who wouldn't be?"
Luke smirked. "You get used to him after a while. And as much as everyone hates to admit it, he was a great asset to the Alliance."
"I would've labeled him more of a liability," she joked.
"He would have, too."
The attack fleet continued toward their destination. They were only a few hundred light years away.
Darth Vader kneeled on the floor in front of a hologram. The Emperor's shimmering figure appeared.
"What is thy bidding, my master?" Vader inquired.
"The future I have foreseen has… changed." Sidious announced.
"What of the plans on Chandrila?" Darth Vader asked.
Palpatine was hesitant to answer. "They have changed," he repeated. "I am concerned by the pesky Casimir twins. It seems they will affect the outcome of this war in… a negative way."
"Shira Brie is headed there now. Shall we change her orders?"
"…No," Sidious hissed. He changed his tone slightly. "Lord Vader, ready thirty Star Destroyers from the Imperial Center Defense Fleet. They shall be moved to Alsakan if necessary."
"Yes, milord. And what of the other recent disturbances in the Force? I am concerned these might be significant."
Palpatine had sensed Luke's magnifying skills. He was learning, progressing in the Jedi way that had been decimated two decades ago. He had also sensed Mara's switch. But for the time being, he felt that his apprentice did not need to know.
"They are irrelevant at this present time."
Aboard the Executor, the holo shut down, and Darth Vader returned to his post.
(Chandrila)
"I can't believe you goaded me into this," Avramova complained, as her fighter's ladder folded out of the fuselage.
"Goaded?" Her brother laughed from inside his own plane, strapping on his psychedelic crash helmet. "I'd say I used the guilt trip, if anything." He turned around in his seat and stared at her with puppy-dog eyes.
"Keep holding that expression, twinsie," she muttered. "Maybe your face will get stuck."
Andover shook his head in indignation, but he was still smiling. In an odd way, he was exited. He could feel an urging (presumably the Force) that pushed him to authorize the invasion. He was as excited as when it was first announced he would fly his ship into battle.
"By then, maybe yours will go back to normal," he joked.
What did I do to get stuck with him for a brother? Avramova thought to herself. She climbed into her fighter.
You don't know? I think mom and dad had sex, he sent.
She froze in the cockpit. "You read my thoughts," she eventually spoke. "How?"
Andover, realizing his mistake, held his head (or rather, helmet) in his hands.
"It's a little… trick… I picked up somewhere…" he slowly began. "I… uh… I'll tell you later."
I'm trying to write the Casimir twins' relationship as a little bit rocky. Their parents and family are dead (we will get to that later), and therefore this creates natural tension. Plus, they both have strong personalities and this can be used to spin plots.
Yes, Mara caved a bit easily. Her quest for revenge against Palpatine was her main reason for trying to join the Rebellion, not an ideological U-turn. It will all tie together, I assure you.
Thank you to all my reviewers. I have a lot of things on my schedule and the fact that you care enough to leave your comments or opinions really means a lot. It is for you I continue this story.
(Also, because I got bit by a plot bunny and I need to post some chapters soon, or else I might get "rabies.")
Heh.
-ClaptonJr.
P.S.: Gee, the Casimirs have a lot of spacecraft! If you're wondering what their fighters (the Astris and the Belvedere) look like, search Eielson Air Force Base on Wikipedia. The fighters are identical to the one in the picture of a black and white F-16 flying over some buildings.