Aboard the MC80 Star Cruiser Home One

Luke and Wedge sat silently over a game of holo chess. "She still isn't talking to you?" asked Wedge.

Luke shook his head. "No. I think- I'm afraid- I don't know, Wedge;" and they were both silent before Luke leaned back. "I don't blame Kasan. I could have left a message or something but everything was happening so fast and I didn't expect-"

Wedge just grunted. "I get what you're saying, Luke but she isn't going to buy it."

"I know, but I-"

Just then, Kasan came in and walked right up to them. "I need to talk to you, Luke;" she said calmly.

Luke met Wedge's eyes and slowly stood. His friend gave him a sympathetic look and deactivated the holo chess table. Luke followed Kasan into one of the side storage rooms. As she turned to him, Luke expected another tirade and a break up but, instead, got a huge kiss. Kasan was moving against him hard, moaning into the kiss. Finally, they separated, and she began to work at his clothing. "Woah!" said Luke, "Woah, Kasan, what's wrong?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked breathlessly.

"Because I've been back for days and have continually been unloading more and more bad news, like not rejoining Rogue Squadron and having to be gone a whole lot more and you haven't wanted to talk to me. I was sure that when you did, it would be to tell me that we were done. Then suddenly, you come into the lounge, pull me to the side and start trying to rip my clothes off. I just want to be sure we're actually okay."

Kasan smiled seductively and said, "I thought I was making that evident;" but there was something there. Her eyes were still sad and there was something in her presence that made Luke weary. "Are you sure?" he asked slowly, "I get the feeling you aren't telling me something."

Kasan was frozen for a long moment before slumping. "Look, Luke, I'm still angry and I'm still hurting but right now, I really need you. It's been so long and I've missed you so much. Please..." she begged him.

Luke nodded but lifted his hands when she was about to jump him. "Your quarters, Kasan, not a greasy custodians closet."

Wedge had a big cup of fresh caf in his hands as he headed towards the lounge when his comlink chimed. "This is Commander Antilles."

"Commander, grab five of your pilots and come to the briefing room. We may have a line on where the Escort Carriers are;" said General Rieeken.

Wedge acknowledged and began contacting his people. He was about to contact Kasan but, since it wasn't going to be the whole squadron, he thought that perhaps grabbing someone who was more focused and less emotionally messed up would probably be better. Instead, he elected for one of the newer pilots.

When they were all gathered, Rieeken hurried through the briefing. "We just received word via intelligence that the Escort Carrier group has been sending transmissions from orbit over Geonosis. Apparently, they are awaiting a rendezvous there. If we can get there and cut them off before the prison barge or transport arrives, we can rescue the prisoners."

Wedge frowned. "How are we going to do that? The Escort Carriers tend to be assigned to the Imperial Storm Commando units. We'll need more than a half a dozen fighters."

"The escort frigate Redemption will be there as well a medium transport. The transport will carry a strike team of Paige's commandos who will board the escort carrier and rescue the captives. Rogue Squadron will destroy the escort carrier that doesn't have prisoners and will disable the weapons on the prison ship. They will also provide cover from any TIE's and the like. Any questions?"

"Yeah, I have one;" said Wes Jansen and all of the members of Rogue Squadron glared at him but he ignored them.

General Rieeken nodded to him indulgently. Clearing his throat, Wes asked, "I would like to know why it is that we are constantly rescuing scientists and what not and never attractive female beings;" everyone groaned as he continued, trying to sound as serious as possible. "I'm sure that somewhere, maybe Nul Hutta or Nar Shadda, there are groups of gorgeous female beings just waiting to be rescued by dashing and handsome starfighter pilots."

Karie Neth flung a crumpled wad of flimsy at him. With a soft smack, it bounced off the side of his head. General Rieeken seemed to be hiding a smile as he gathered his data discs. "If intelligence finds a large group of attractive females in need of rescuing, Rogue Squadron will be the first to know. However, if they are expecting dashing and handsome fighter pilots, the ones who see you will most likely be disappointed."

There was a short length of stunned silence as the general and Winter left. The white haired intelligence agent shot a tiny grin at the Rogues as she exited. Snorts and snickers were heard until Wes asked, "Did General Rieeken just burn me?"

"Yes;" laughed Wedge, slapping the younger pilot on the back of the head, "yes he did and he did it with styles. Come on, Rogues, let's gear up, load up and get out there."

Geonosis - The Asteroid Belt

Six X-wings, a Nebulan-B Escort Frigate and a GR-75 Medium Transport dropped out of hyperspace and ducked into the asteroid belt. They went slowly and carefully, deflectors on full power and their best gunners occasionally blasting any asteroids too big or that were moving too fast. Even the medium transports were using their highly limited weapons and were close enough to the Nebulan-B to overlap their shields. The X-wings buzzed around, occasionally blasting some of the larger asteroids and such as they searched the area for the Imperial ships.

Wedge had just managed to shatter one of the drifting rocks when his comlinks chimed. "Rogue Leader, this is the Redemption - we have just picked up Imperial ships on our scopes. As expected, two Imperial escort carriers and two squadrons of TIE fighters."

"Acknowledged, Redemption;" said Wedge and he switched to Rogue Squadron's comms frequency. "Alright Rogues, I want Hobbie with me; we'll go after the carriers, using our torpedoes to drop their shields and our laser cannons to disable their weapons. The one that doesn't have prisoners, we'll destroy. The rest of you, break into pairs and engage those fighters. Stay close to the Redemption so that their guns can cover you and you can cover their blind spots."

As he spoke, the TIE's split up, some making for the transport, some making for the frigate. It was one of the escort carriers that tried to go after the fighters, their swiveling turbolaser batteries firing at the X-wings with nerve racking accuracy.

Wedge and Hobbie had used several large asteroids for cover, swooping around them for their torpedo runs. The fighters' torpedoes managed to overload the shield generator and cause it to shut down. The X-wing's laser cannons eliminated the turbo lasers. It had been a quick thing and now, the Redemption was pounding away at the defenseless carrier with one of its turbo laser batteries but in the end, it would most likely be the asteroids that would be its destruction as it tried to maneuver. Wedge and Hobbie turned towards the carrier that had stayed out of the fight. It's turbo lasers tracked them and it was all that the two fighter aces could do to avoid being shredded by either the asteroids or the turbo lasers. Again, the asteroids made great cover but the carrier blasted them, trying to destroy them so that the two Rogues couldn't use them. However, all that did was open up the weapons to destruction. As the carrier's shields fell, Wedge's comlink pinged, "Rogue Leader, this is the Redemption; the ship you are attacking right now is not the prison ship. You may destroy it at your leisure."

"Copy that;" replied Wedge before switching to the Rogues' frequency. "Hobbie, just received confirmation. We're going to finish this one off. Empty your torpedoes into it."

"Copy that, Rogue Leader."

They went on one more run, firing their last torpedoes. The explosion was spectacular but just a little too energetic. A large chunk of super heated metal embedded itself into the fuselage of Wedge's X-wing, taking out the stabilizer and making steering extremely problematic. Wedge did the best he could to make it to empty space between the asteroid belt and the orange-red planet below. Ejecting while still in the asteroid field would be too dangerous. If he found himself in the path of an asteroid, the minimal maneuvering thrusters wouldn't be able to get him out of the way. "Rogues, I'm hit!" he said into his comms as he gripped the stick like it was a lifeline. "I'm making for open space between the belt and the planet. Finish your mission and pick me up."

As soon as he was safely out of the belt, Wedge yanked the ejection lever - and found himself stuck in the cockpit of the X-wing and heading fast towards the planet. "Blast;" he said, "blast! Rogues, my seat is jammed. I'm heading to the planet below and I get steer away from it. My repulsers are working but my stabilizers and thrusters are shot."

"What about your shields?" asked Tycho anxiously.

"They'll hold just enough, Rogue Four. I'll try to land near a big land mark, that way, when this is all over, you'll have a point of origin to work from."

They acknowledged and Wedge threw all of his focus into maintaining a modicum of control over his crippled craft. The shields were beginning to flicker against the air friction but they held. Wedge could feel his cheek muscles spasm painfully but ignored it as he managed to bring the nose of the X-wing to almost horizontal. The repulsers were managing to slow the fall and control it but the stabilizers made it difficult to keep it that way. Seeing a derelict ship, an ancient Trade Federation core ship, he tried to angle towards it and just barely managing to. "Rogues, I'm heading towards the wreck of an old Lukrhulk-class core ship. You can begin your search from there and I'll tray to make it easier to find me."

"Rogue Leader, we picked up four escape pods from the escort carrier you destroyed. They all landed in your area. Be very careful and find a safe place to hole up."

Wedge didn't have the chance to respond as he tried to extend his landing gear. The struts extended but all that succeeded in doing was to have the ripped off. He slid along the red sand and stone until he slid to a stop amidst a cluster of rocks.

Wedge breathed a sigh of relief and disconnected his crash webbing harness. "Are you doing okay, R5?"

To his surprise, the droid whistled, though it sounded morose.

"Glad to hear it;" groaned Wedge as he forced open the cockpit canopy.

He stood and hopped out. To his surprise, getting to the cargo compartment wasn't too bad and his astro droid rolled down a pile of dirt to join him. "Well, let's find a place to hole up, Are-five. "

He filled his pockets with ration bars, hydration bladders and spare blaster powerpacks. The last thing he grabbed was a DH-17 Blaster Rifle. Sliding a power pack into place, Wedge grunted. "Alright, we should be ready to go. Let's find a cave or something. Can you still transmit the distress signal?"

The droid whistled an affirmative and they headed out. As they traveled, the silence seemed eerie. Wedge knew that there weren't likely any natives to worry about. A vast percentage of the Geonosians were enslaved and taken to various projects of the Empire. Suddenly his droid whistled. Wedge glanced at the droid. Are-five had whistled that he had picked up what was likely an Imperial escape pod. "You sure about that, buddy?"

Another affirmative whistle. "Well then we should probably-"

Rapid fire blaster fire cut off his comment. Frowning, Wedge looked down at Are-five. "You picking anything up from that?"

Whistles.

"Battle droids? As in Imperial droids like those Dark Troopers we were warned about or-" but his droid cut him off with more, very anxious tweets and beeps.

"You're kidding! I gotta see this."

He hustled up a rise, his droid quietly protesting. At the top of the rise, Wedge saw that his unit had been right. Three Imperial Storm commandos were kneeling and unloading their blaster rifles on at least two dozen old Trade Federation B1 battle droids. By sheer wait of numbers there was no way that the commandos were surviving but they managed to reduce the old B1's numbers to less than ten. "Wow!" murmured Wedge. "Those things must be over twenty years old."

The droid moaned. The droids seemed to be examining the battle zone. Four Imperial Storm commandos in black armor and armed with advanced weapons lay dead on the ground. Suddenly, one of the droids spotted Wedge. "Intruder detected!" said the officer droid, "engage and destroy."

Wedge aimed and fired, dropping three of the droids before they could even get a shot off. Their programming must have seriously eroded because they were slow moving. The sheer number of destroyed droids in the area of the escape pod showed how badly they were corroded. When they were close enough that their accuracy was improving, Wedge shimmied backwards down the hill and propped himself on a rock, waiting. As the last droids appeared, he blasted them. "Well that was actually a little fun;" he murmured. "Let's go, Are-five."

That was the first of several meet ups with TF battle droids and they were all initiated with the droids attacking survivors at escape pods. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no caves or overhangs to hide in but his Are-five unit seemed to be drawn towards something. "What are you doing, Are-five? What are we heading towards?"

The droid whistled and beeped as it hurried towards some point. "Wait, slow down, you rusty waste bin;" said Wedge, getting quite exasperated. "Are you saying there's a ship nearby?"

More whistles as the droid rolled up another rise of red dirt and stones. Near the apex of the hill, the droids stopped and shuffled forward on its two struts. Noticing his droid's cautiously advance, Wedge dropped to his belly and crawled up the hill. There were at least six Storm commandos holding off a small army of droids. Wedge watched in fascination as the six Imperials managed to destroy at least forty droids and only lose half their numbers. Behind them, Wedge could see something nestled under the cliff, an arrowhead shaped object about the size of an A-wing starfighter, perhaps just a little smaller. "Well it's three highly trained Imperial commandos against you and me, Are-five. What do you think?"

The droid whistled and beep and Wedge didn't like the answer to say the least. "I didn't actually want to know the statistical odds, Are-five! Stars above, can you be any more depressing?"

Suddenly, there was a low whirring noise and from another direction came an old and outdated LAAT gunship. Wedge watched for a long moment before it landed and the three remaining storm commandos loaded up. Wedge couldn't hear what they said but it was clear that they were glad to be getting off the planet. As soon as they had taken off, Wedge slung his blaster rifle and ran over to the tiny ship. "Wow..." he murmured. He knew what the ship was. "A Delta-7 Aethersprite Light interceptor! This is a Jedi starfighter. Hey, do you think we can get it working again?"

The droid was somehow able to crawl into the ships droid socket and fiddle with some part of it or another, beeping, whistling and tweeting the whole time. Wedge was good at binary but it was complicated, even for him. "Slow down what are you- Ah! Nice work, Are-five!"

The ship's lights began to glow and then, with a rough purr, it came to life. The droid seemed to fiddle with it a little more and the rough purr smoothed and evened out until it sounded more or less in good condition. The repulsers lifted it gently off the ground and onto its landing struts and Wedge jumped in. "Woah!" he murmured, "this is so retro! Alright, Are-five, let's see if you can walk me through how to- oh Blast!"

The LAAT gunship was on its way back. "Forget walking me through, buddy! Let's get up and get out!"

The droid whistled frantically and Wedge fellowed each direction as the droid said it. Within moments, they had taken off. "Okay so the good news is that these controls are really similar to an A-wing. Alright, tell me about this thing's weapons."

The droid whistled and beeped and Wedge nodded, "Alright, power up the laser cannons and shields."

More whistles and Wedge blanched. "No shields! The old Jedi were crazy! Alright well, we still don't have a choice. Put a little more juice to the repulsers and thrusters."

A little more juice was almost too much! The Jedi starfighter could put out more speed than an A-wing. "Those old wizards had to have flown with the force. Okay Are-five, reduce the power to the engines and put all excess to the guns. I'm going to turn us about."

Wedge turned towards the oncoming LAAT, spinning and avoiding the oncoming laser cannons and even the seeker missiles. Squeezing the trigger, he sent a flurry of blasts across the dorsal haul of the gunship. Smoke began to pour from it and it began to sink groundward. "That got 'em!" said Wedge. "Alright, up to the sky. We'll see how the battle is going."

When they got up there, Wedge was chagrined to see that another pair of escort carriers had dropped out of lightspeed and one of them apparently had brought TIE Bomber squadrons. The bombers were on a bombing run approach to the escort frigate. "Alright, Are-five;" said Wedge, "what else does this thing have?"

The droid suddenly began to beep excitedly. "It has what?" he gasped. "Those are highly illegal and were back then. Man! War must have really changed the Jedi. Alright, we're going to fire one, just one, right between the two carriers. On my mark, release the seismic charge. Ready?"

The droid waited as Wedge blazed between the two carriers, their turbolasers unable to even track him. "NOW!"

Almost fifty meters behind them, the charge was released and went off, sending a massive energy shock wave. It blew through the enemy carriers' shields and hauls, ripping them in half completely. The Redemption seemed to be attempting to get clear of the field so that it and its escort and the transport could escape but the bombers were still baring down on it - that is until the shockwave of the seismic charge caught the rear of the bomber formation and managed to shred a full half of a squadron.

Seeing the sheer destructive power of the weapons, Wedge felt just a little sick to his stomach. Whipping around, he reduced his speed and opened on the rear of the TIE bombers' formation, blasting one after another out of the sky. The rest broke off and tried to flee and Wedge didn't pursue them. "Rogue Leader, what the hells are you flying?"

That was Karie Neth, obviously. Wedge grinned and replied, "This is a Delta-7 Aethersprite Jedi Starfighter, Rogue Eight. Maybe when we get back, I'll let you fly it. Now this thing doesn't have an onboard hyperdrive- wait- what was that, Are-five?"

The droid whistled and something showed up on his scope. "Oh, I got you!" said Wedge. "Hey Rogues, I'll rendezvous with you all back at the fleet. Apparently, this old thing uses an external hyperdrive unit of some kind."

The others chuckled but Wedge would bet money that they were all secretly jealous of him. Laughing to himself, he found the odd looking ring and hooked up to it. "Alright, Are-five, make the calculations and take us home."

With a couple whistles and beeps, the stars turned to star lines and the star lines, to the blue tunnel of hyperspace. As he leaned back in the seat, Wedge sighed. It had been a mission well done and now, they had rescued a large number of the Alliance's best scientists and fighters. It was only a matter of time before they would be able to take the fight to the Empire again like they had at the first Death Star or with Moff Seerdon. Wedge only hoped that it would be soon.