Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter. This will be jumping back in time a bit to the middle of Ben and Rey's journey, and going back to the war.
Let's get to it.
Jedi Kyle Katarn: Maybe, but they've known each other almost 2 years and been journeying together alone for 2 months. Not terribly crazy.
Chapter 60- Shipyard Strike
(February 1, 2051)
As the sun is rising over Naboo, Daniel finishes strapping into the cockpit of his Mustang. Looking outside the cockpit, he watches as the chief of the ground crew gives him the thumbs up to show that all the checks are done and the fighter is ready to fly.
For the last few months, things have been pretty busy for the Hammer Squadron and their air superiority compatriots in the Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney. They've been flying many missions deep inside First Order territory throughout the Great Stalemate, trying to destablize First Order logistics lines. With their smaller numbers, they can make their way through the First Order's defenses with less of a chance of being detected, and can operate in such small numbers and remain effective.
Now, the Squadron, along with the Blue Nosers, are launching on another mission deep into First Order territory. Their target is Kuat. Having captured the Kuat Drive Yards early in their offensive, the First Order has been constructing ships at the shipyards as fast as they can to replace the ships they've lost in battles against the Terran Starfleet. Reports suggest several hundred ships are currently under construction.
The mission is simple. Cause as much damage as possible to the ships under construction and destroy critical equipment in the drive yards to slow down further construction operations.
Daniel flips the switch to close his canopy. Slowly, with a soft whirring noise, the Mustang's canopy closes and locks in place. Daniel straps his oxygen mask on and flips his visor down before he starts up the engines. On the ground next to the fighter, the scream of the Mustang's engines has some of the ground crews putting their heads over their ears, even with their hearing protection. All around him, other Mustangs of the Squadron are beginning to lift off
"This is Hammer 5. Rotating," Daniel calls out over the radio. The Mustang begins to rise off the tarmac, the repulsorlift pushing the fighter into the air as its engines start to take over. Within seconds, the Mustang begins moving forward as it picks up speed. Daniel noses the fighter up a bit, and the Mustang begins to climb as it continues to accelerate.
All around the tarmac, the other Mustangs of the Squadron, and the Zeros of the 352nd, are lifting into the air and starting their climbs up to orbit. The pilots are calling out to each other, keeping track of everybody and ensuring the squadrons stay together and on time.
Already in orbit, Captain Parker watches from his cockpit as the other Mustangs and the Zeros climb into orbit and settle into their patrol patterns, waiting for the rest of the squadrons to get into position. As he does, his astro droid beeps a few times at him. Parker chuckles a bit and says, "Come on, TR8. This isn't the craziest thing we've done. We'll get through it like we always do." He gets a few beeps and trills in response.
Within a few minutes, the rest of the squadrons are all in orbit and flying in formation. After doing one last visual check, Parker calls out, "All wings, check in."
Each pilot of the Hammer Squadron calls out one by one to check in, while the Blue Nosers all check in with Captain Jeffrey Washington, the American pilot who serves as the commander of the 352nd. Once all the pilots have checked in, Captain Parker calls out to the battlecruiser serving as the traffic control center, "This is Hammer 1. Hammer Squadron and the 352nd are ready for hyperspace jump."
"Hammer 1, this is Starbase. You are cleared for hyperspace jump. Godspeed and good hunting, captain," a controller on the battlecruiser calls in response.
Switching over to calling to his squadron, Captain Parker calls out, "Hammer Squadron, prepare for hyperspace jump on my mark."
In his cockpit, Daniel grins as he rests his hands on the hyperspace throttles. "Let's do this, TR6!" Daniel calls to his astro droid. The trusty droid that he's known for years trills back to him.
"Make hyperspace jump on my mark. Three, two, one, mark!" Parker calls out over the radio.
In sync with the rest of his squadron, Daniel pushes the throttle forward. And altogether, the Hammer Squadron and the Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney make their jump to hyperspace.
(1 day later)
"Three, two, one, mark!"
Hearing Parker's call, Daniel pulls back on the hyperspace throttles, and the Mustang drops out of hyperspace. Up ahead, the planet of Kuat comes into view, along with the massive forms of the Kuat Drive Yards around the planet.
"Target in sight! Weapons free! Start your runs and give 'em hell!" Parker calls out over the radio.
"Let's get 'em!" Daniel cheers to himself in the cockpit as she pushes the throttles into full power, and his Mustang follows the others as they streak towards the drive yards.
As the two units approach the shipyards, lookouts within observation towers spot the incoming fighters. Lookouts quickly flip switches to sound alarms throughout the shipyards, and one gets on the PA, "Hammer Squadron inbound!"
The commander of the defensive garrison of the Drive Yards quickly gets on the PA himself. "All starfighters, scramble! All gunners, man your weapons!"
Pilots start racing towards hangars while gunners try to rush towards their weapons mounts. However, the Terran fighters are moving too fast, and reach the station before the First Order can marshall their defenses against them.
"Let's give 'em hell, TR6!" Daniel says to his trusty droid before he squeezes the trigger. His four laser cannons spring to life, spraying laser fire down onto several anti-aircraft laser cannons on the face of the rings. The cannons explode one after the other under the punishing fire of the Mustang's laser cannons.
All across the rings, the rest of the Hammer Squadron commences their attack, joined by the Blue Nosers at this point, all focused on the point defense cannons. Cannon after cannon explodes under punishing laser fire.
Inside the rings, personnel are thrown off their feet by the explosions. Pilots try to hurry towards the hangars and their waiting fighters. However, several of the Hammers fire missiles into several hangars, and several dozen TIE fighters are blown apart or damaged beyond flight capability.
Daniel streaks low over the ring of the shipyards, weaving between the first bolts of laser fire and firing his laser cannons at the batteries shooting him. As he streaks past a battery he's just destroyed, Daniel sees a missile launcher rise out of the ring up ahead of him. The launcher swivels towards him and fires three missiles at him.
"Nice try," Daniel says in a cocky tone to himself as he barrel rolls up, hitting a button and deploying countermeasures. The missiles lock onto the decoys and go sailing under Daniel's Mustang, one of the missiles passing just a few feet from his canopy. Daniel rolls right-side up, centers his gunsight on the missile launcher, and squeezes the trigger. Laser bolts pummel the launcher, and it explodes after a few hits.
Daniel streaks past the destroyed launcher before banking towards the outer part of the ring as a Resurgent class battlecruiser currently under construction comes into view up ahead.
"This is Hammer 5, making a run on a battlecruiser," Daniel calls out on the radio as he powers up his missiles.
"Hammer 5, nix that! You've got TIEs on your tail!" one of his squadronmates calls out on the radio.
Daniel swivels his head around and looks behind him. Sure enough, there are 4 TIE fighters on his tail. "S***!" Daniel curses before abandoning his attack run and pulling the Mustang into a steep climb.
Laser fire flies all around him for a second before he pulls up out of their firing range. The TIEs pull up into a climb after him, but Daniel is already pulling ahead. That is, until he suddenly snaps the stick hard into his gut as he pulls one of his engines back almost to idle. The Mustang moves its nose around so fast it's as if it's just rotating in place. In a second, the nose is around and pointing down towards the TIEs. Daniel smirks a bit before he squeezes the trigger, and his laser cannons spring to life again. In only a second, all four TIEs are blown by the volley of laser fire.
"Ha-ha!" Daniel cheers as he streaks through the fireballs, pulling up hard to avoid slamming into the ring. He then banks hard left and scans the space around him.
Everywhere he looks, Daniel can see laser bolts and fighters everywhere. Most of the Hammers are focusing on their attacks on the Drive Yards, while the Zeros of the 352nd are engaging the hordes of TIE fighters now launching from the rings.
Daniel spots another TIE coming straight at him. Seeing they're closing too fast for missiles, Daniel moves his nose slightly to the left and squeezes the trigger, firing his laser cannons. One laser bolt goes right through the cockpit viewport, and the pilot sees his entire vision go bright red before he is vaporized by the bolt as his TIE explodes.
Daniel streaks past the fireball and immediately flips his fighter over into a Split S, pulling out of the manuever on the underside of the rings. Scanning the surface of the rings, he can see the large remote arms used for fixing hull plates and weapons emplacements to the undersides of Star Destroyers and battlecruisers. "Good a target as any," he mutters to himself.
Point defense cannons on the underside of the rings start firing at Daniel. Daniel snaps the stick from side to side, weaving his through the bolts as he streaks towards his targets. As he weaves his way between the flying laser bolts, he squeezes off small bursts of laser fire to hit the cannons. One by one, fireballs erupt on the underside of the rings as one cannon after another explodes.
It takes only a few seconds for Daniel to get in range of the first dock, and the remote arms lining it. Realizing his laser cannons may not be quite enough, Daniel switches his armament controls over to his Maverick missiles. His fingers move quickly around his weapons displays and locks his missiles onto the arms. He then squeezes the trigger and launches four of his missiles. The missiles hit the arms around the dock, and a series of explosions tear apart the arms, the debris falling away from the rings.
Daniel streaks past the dock and continues along the ring. Missiles streak out from his fighter, destroying more remote arms. In a few minutes, he's crippled four construction docks. As he's about to go after a fifth, without warning, several TIE silencers suddenly dive down under the ring up ahead of him.
Daniel immediately snaps his fighter hard to the right as the Silencers come right at him. The First Order had recently begun producing more TIE Silencers to help give them a better fighting chance against the Alliance's advanced starfighters. And he knows they're flown by the most experienced pilots. This will be a bit more of a challenge.
The three Silencers start to turn after him, but Daniel snaps the stick backwards and banks back towards them. As he pulls his nose around, he squeezes the trigger and sprays fire from his laser cannons at them. However, all three Silencers avoid the fire and streak past him untouched.
Daniel holds the stick in his gut, straining to pull his nose around back towards the Silencers as they try to turn back towards him. Although the Silencers are very agile fighters, the Mustang has a very slight edge in manueverability. Slowly, Daniel begins to gain ground on the Silencers. After two full turns around each other, Daniel is behind them, with the closest Silencer 40 degrees off his nose. Close enough for a missile lock.
Daniel switches his armament controls to his Sidewinders. After a few seconds of searching, the seeker head on one of his Sidewinders manages to gain a lock, and Daniel squeezes the trigger. The missile streaks off its launch rail and quickly closes the distance with its target. The Silencer tries to put on a burst of speed and turn tighter, but it's not enough. The missile tracks true to its target, and just a few feet from the right win, the warhead detonates, shredding the wing and destroying one of the engines. The Silencer goes spinning out of control, exploding several seconds later.
Seeing their comrade go down, one of the Silencer pilots panics and tries a manuever similar to a Split S. However, Daniel is on his tail in seconds. Centering the Silencer in his gunsight, he squeezes the trigger, and the Silencer is vaporized by punishing laser fire.
Daniel pulls out of his dive as soon as the Silencer explodes and turns hard right, scanning for the last Silencer. To his concern, in the time he took to destroy the second, the third Silencer has come around and slid in on his tail.
"This is Hammer 5! I've got a Silencer on my tail!" Daniel says over the radio as he sends his fighter into several aileron rolls to avoid a few bolts of laser fire from the Silencer.
"I got ya."
Daniel looks behind him against he's turning his Mustang to avoid getting shot, and smiles as he sees another Mustang sliding in behind the Silencer, the Rising Sun of Japan visible on the back, confirming it is his trusty wingman. A second later, the Mustang's laser cannons spring to life and blow the last Silencer to pieces.
"Glad to His Dogfighting Majesty still needs me to save his ass," Kenzo says as he pulls up alongside Daniel.
"Oh, shut up," Daniel snaps back, to which Kenzo just laughs.
"Alright. Teasing time's over. Let's keep fighting," Daniel says shortly, and he pulls up into a climb, Kenzo following behind him. The two fly up to the topside of the ring, where Zeros from the 352nd are still fighting off hordes of TIE fighters to keep them off the Hammers.
Daniel and Kenzo focus their attention on a heavy cruiser resting in one of the construction docks. As they dive on the cruiser and jettison their bombs, laser fire comes up at them in return, but the two pilots easily evade the incoming fire. Bombs impact along the stern of the cruiser, blasting craters in the hull and damaging the engines that are still being installed on the ship.
Daniel laughs a bit as he flies low over the hull of the cruiser, explosions in his wake. "They can't even touch us," he says over the radio to Kenzo.
"If they wanted to give us a challenge, they'd send their elite squadrons and better gunners," Kenzo responds.
They pull up into a climb and loop over to make a bombing run on a battlecruiser in the next dock over. As they do, Daniel glances around and can sees the explosions all along the rings from the Hammers' attacks, and explosions in space as TIE fighters fall victim to the Blue Nosers. Another grin crosses his face. Although not yet over, he knows this will be another successful raid. Another signal to the First Order that no target is safe from the Hammer Squadron.
And, I'll end the chapter there.
I'll periodically come back to Daniel throughout the story a few more times, and we will get to really see his skills as a pilot put to the ultimate test in future chapter.
Next chapter will take us to another group we haven't seen in a while, but has been of you guys' favorites. It should be up soon. Until it's up, please leave a review, and stay tuned!