Re: Cadet (Star Wars story)
Part 2 of 3
“ETA 2minutes till the ambush is set sir. targeting computer calls them as X, Y and B wings. I wasn’t expecting B-wings at a training center, those will be trouble sir. ” Jep announced as more data came in
“It’s only dangerous if we lose our balance when we toss those gnorts into the pit Jep. ”
The commander replied after a pause, he patted Jep on the shoulder “Good job Jep, it’s out of our hands now. Let’s just watch the show”
The last four defending TIE fighters boosted to intercept the closing threat.
Hanes blood was beating its rhythm into his head as his squad leader called out over the comm. “Lock S-foils in attack position”
Checking his panel for the hundredth time, he locked his S-foils and followed the squad onward toward the small speck that was the target.
“Blue Top to all units, TIE fighters are coming, only four escort fighters are here. Diamond will intercept, Copper cover the Y-wings, Blue will work on the mark, and may the force be with you” the wing commander announced
Diamond and Blue wings boosted towards the target as Copper slowed to let the bomber group catch up, the void started to light up with heavy blaster fire. The battle was now joined.
The transports hull rang like a bell as the heavy turret mounts fired at the incoming fighters, a constant drumming as they tracked the agile fighters. The TIE/In fighters dove into the swarm of X-wings a fury of light marked their passing. Very briefly a ball of fire marked the collision of two craft. The groups instantly started circling each other, X-Wing and TIE/In fighters trying to out maneuver the other and kill. Out from that ball of fury came the hard charging B-wings.
The Turrets started to take their toll as one of the heavy fighter bombers took multiple hits in a span of seconds, shield turned to vapor and the ship was torn in half by the barrage. Now they were in range of the transport, and now they could fight back.
Voices filled the comms like a waterfall fills a lake. Cadet Hanes could do no more than sit back, with his squad and listen as his friends started to die…
“Diamond 4 look out…Lead my port engines are out an…Blue lead we just lost three…I can’t shake him, someone get that TIE off my*explosion*AHh…Blue Top we just lost Diamond leader and diamond four and five. Two is now lead…Blue four, I just took a hit in the engines, she not responding…*static*”
Hanes watched in silence as the battle unfolded. Blue 3 just melted under the barrage of fire from the enemy transport. Diamond 5 collided with one of the attacking TIE’s, a flash and cloud of debris was all that marked their end. Two TIE’s got the jump on Diamond leader and quickly dispatched him, they would soon meet the same fate as the last few diamond fighters turned the tables and won their first small battle. The B-wings of blue group continued to advance on the transport, straight into the withering fire it was putting out. Suddenly Blue 4 took a quick barrage of shots, and one to the engine. Dropping out of formation, the ship was soon also ravaged by fire…
In less than 40 seconds the two lead squads had taken massive casualties, but for Diamonds efforts the four remaining TIE fighters were now just a collection of flotsam. The remaining Blue fighters started their attack run on the transport, the wounded Diamond fighters close behind, and eager for blood.
“, ETA is, 10sec’s sir! ” Jep said as he watched the approaching B-wings
Cadet Hanes was watching the battle, waiting for his turn to avenge his fallen class mates when a flash lit his cockpit. Out of nowhere far above his fighter a cloud of Imperial fighters suddenly appeared. They slashed straight down thru the Y-wing formation and completely took them all by surprise.
“Crimson Order flight, this is Top. Take them all! For Crimson Order! For the Empire! ” a battle cry came from all the ships in the mixed company of fighters as they came out of hyper space above the targets.
It was a gnort hunt, the bombers, lazy with such heavy loads could not maneuver and none survived the barrage from the Orders elite squadron. As the formation split up the Oppressors boosted to help take on the B-wings a few Avengers also tagged along. The Crimson Interceptors turned on the X-wings, at once they pounced and destroyed one. The X-wings maneuvered slowly as they were almost all piloted by new and painfully green pilots. The flight ignored the rest and went after the only fighter to put up a real fight, Copper lead was a marked man.
“Blue Top” Came the frantic voice of Copper leader “it’s a trap, they were waiting for us, Y-wings are gone, save what you can. I got 3 fighters on my tail, I can’t shake them, I Bzzz*static*”
A silently expanding ball of gas was all that marked the passing of Copper lead. His squadron was now flying for their lives.
Jep flinched as the remaining three B-wings fired on the ship, the turrets answering in return. The screens flickered as the ship took a glancing blow from an Ion cannon. “Emperors mercy I hate those damn ships! ” He said as they raced over head.
The X-wings came next, one was damaged and started to waver when one of the heavy guns hit it right across the front of the cockpit. The nose of the ship was blown off and they both watched as the pilot was thrown out the gaping hole. His flailing body hit the port hull, a crystallized crimson smear was all that marked his passing into the void and the long sleep.
Two remaining fighters punished the forward shields with blaster fire. Passing over the hull the fighters left themselves open to attack as they tried to boost away from the turrets. The trailing fighter took a barrel load up its starboard exhaust and basically blew off the whole of the rear of that craft. The S-foils collapsing in on the void that used to hold the engines, the pilot of Diamond six was screaming as his nose section spun wildly off into deep space. With the power gone, no one heard him…
“Systems 85%, front shields 65%, side and rear 85%” the computer coldly spat out the facts as the bridge added its own break down “Turret two is starting to over heat, it took a secondary hit, boosting front shields” the speaker said.
As they prepared for another attack the familiar sight of TIE Oppressors and Avengers raced off passed the transport.
Hanes was ready to cry, this is not what he signed up for! As he pulled desperately on his control stick, and boosted to try and escape his attackers. They were all dead! In a matter of seconds his friends were gone. The Vids had always said how weak this Empire was, and how victorious the Rebels were, it was a lie. How could anyone want to fight these devils, Banking around at the last minute, his upper port S-foil took a hit, the blaster now disable, threaten to break into his other wing. Hanes could hear the screams and deathly quiet static of the dead comm-link. Now all he wanted to do was go home and forget about the stupid rebels, he did not want to die in the black void of space.
“Copper lead, four and five are gone, this is Copper two assuming comman….Static…” as another link blinked off his screen, Copper three was now singled out by the swarm of Crimson Interceptors. Hanes took his chance and tried to Boost away from the carnage that had enveloped his whole squadron.
Meanwhile…
Blue Top and the surviving Blue and remaining Diamond fighter turned to press the attack only to find heavy fighters closing in fast. A fury of shots filled the gap between the two attacking craft. One of the blue took a shot straight through his cockpit canopy, he never had a chance. As they raced closer, the now pilot less ship of the blue top started to veer off course and collided violently with his wingman. Suddenly, the two B-wings exploded sheading parts as they slid across each other. The once tight formation of rebel craft started to break up at that moment.
Fragmenting as they crossed paths, the Imperial fighters did not escape unscathed in this exchange, one of the avengers took direct hits from the B-wings Ion cannon and drifted off with all his systems dead. His wingman followed close to recover the pilot. One of the oppressors lost a radiator panel but was still in the fight. The hulls of the agile Imperial fighters recived a few more burn spots on their hulls. It was a optimal trade. They flipped and boosted to chase down the remaining rebel craft.
Two Rebel fighters remained as they overloaded their engines to increase the gap between them and the new imperial fighters. Suddenly, the space around them erupted in blazing death as the transport once again rained down a withering storm of fire. The shots raked what was left of the formation probing for weakness and finding them as the last X-wing from Diamond squad exploded, the last battered B-wing pressed his attack on the transport.
Cadet Hanes watched in horror as the last X-wing blossomed into death. He was now the last remaining X-wing fighter, that didn’t escaped the notice of the red Interceptors as they started to turn on his ship. Now drenched in a cold sweat, he started to fly eraticly to avoid death as the blows started landing around him. He watched with dread as his damaged S-foil fell off his ship, and the shields were almost critical in a span of seconds. As he continued the gyrating motion, his Astro Droid took a direct hit. His dash started to spit sparks at him. Hanes watched in slow motion as systems one by one started to over heat and shutdown or were more simply blown off his ship. Port #1 engine destroyed, weapon systems down to 25%, his #2 engine was badly over heating and the other two were close to collapse as well. A primal scream came out of his speakers as a smoking A-wing slashed through the chasing Interceptors and scattered its chasers.
Part 2 of 3
Re: Cadet (Star Wars story)
Part 3 of 3
How long had that thing been boosting for? Hanes wondered, as little bits of its maxed out engines started plinking off his battered X-wing. The A-wing had his engines in overload as he came screaming across space and directly towards the transport.
“Corf, not to panic or anything but that thing is coming right at us! ” Jep shouted. Shoving Corf out of his seat, he took over the data console. Jep pulled wires out from under his data pad and quickly pried off an access panel and plugged in. Not sure what the crafter was up to, Corf knew him well enough that he ran over and locked the blast door to the command deck. Satisfied that what ever that sly merchant was doing, it was for there own good health.
The screen changed from green to red as a new screen popped up. Jep smashed the new override button. Ships stats and navigation controls popped up on the screen. He quickly sent them to the edges of the screen and pulled up master gunnery control. A holographic sight appeared on his view screen, punching even more buttons, he shouted into the ships intercom.
“ Turret gunners evacuate the guns. ” they might not survive this trick he muttered under his breath” You have ten seconds! Lock down the blast doors to the guns too. ” As the yellow bars below each gun position changed to orange, and then an angry red. Jep carefully kept a steady hand over the targeting pip, centering it over the fast approaching speck of the A-wing.
Corf was quickly transferring all avalible power into the front shields from the rear data control. The Admiral now was pounding on the locked hatch, most likely wondering why he suddenly lost control of his ship.
Jep watched the speck grow in his sites he was about to fire when the transport took some direct hits to its starboard shields. They held for a few seconds and promptly failed as the last B-wing crossed overhead, unharassed.
The sight jumped about wildly as the ships heavy hull took the hits. Jep knowing that he only had one chance at it, stayed calm. Trying to control his breathing he waited for the right time. The A-wing finally dropped into the dot in the center of his sights as Jep let out a breath and triggered the guns. The heavy mounts were overcharged to ensure that it stopped the terminal charge of the fighter, unloaded its fury on the lone A-wing. Gun two couldn’t keep up the high energy rate and failed, it exploded causing some minor secondary damage. Nothing worth mention, but it would require some dock time to fix. The remaining turret also stopped working, the barrels now melted slag the safety systems locked it out of the power grid.
The front few meters of the speeding ship simply vanished under that terrible power, the explostion after the fact went almost unnoticed. The engine cores tumbled on toward the transport. Much slower than when they were on, the motors harmlessly bounced off the boosted shields.
The last B-wing, was in full retreat as the crimson swarm chased him to ground.
Hanes heart sank as the last hope for revenge was immolated by that Imperial transport, his crippled X-wing was never going to make it back to base. What was left of Blue squad was running away into deep space, a gaggle of TIE fighters in tow. He finally decided to try and copy the A-wings last stand and ram the transport with his failing ship, turning slowly he boosted his remaining engines.
“ Mission accomplished admiral” Corf said with a slight glee, as he unlocked the door and pushing past the admiral he walked to the ships main comm console. Picking up the mic he started shooting out orders to the ships.
Everything that could blink red was blinking a furious red at him as more systems started to overload under the strain and fail. He was closing in on the transport, eyes locked trance like onto the prize that proved so elusive that he did not see the Interceptors forming up behind his ship. Red devils came calling, but not with unrelenting fire but low powered knifes. They were targeting his engines and there was nothing he could do. Screaming in frustration of his complete failure he now waited to die. A hard impact knocked him hard into his cockpit canopy and blackness was all he knew…
Cadet Hanes awoke slowly, his eyes blinking under the harsh glow of ceiling lights, he wasn’t in his X-wing anymore…more over, he wasn’t dead. Still blinded by the light he found that he was strapped down to a chair. Rather painfully strapped down, he was finally able to see his surrounding as the fog lifted. It was a grey metal room, single door, and no other furniture or equipment for that matter. He wondered where he was when the door beeped open.
A small round hovering black droid entered the room, and then he heard it. A constant breathing, like a machine would sound like in the medicos back on his planet, a Black caped figure followed. It was him. Darth Vader! As the imposing figure entered the room, chills ran through Hanes body as the Sith lord finally spoke.
Hanes, he was Cadet Hanes number A6-52100B, rebel training facility Silar IV from Copper squad…that’s all he knew...he was just a Cadet…but that wasn’t enough, it would never be enough. The door closed in the security ward on the nearly completed Death Star. All Hanes knew how to do after that, was how to scream…
The End
Part 3 of 3
Re: Cadet (Star Wars story)
I like it! Do more! You can't end it! I WANT MORE! Or do another story, the sequal or something! Mew mew NYA! Heh, sorry about my freak out . . . . I'm a little hyper . . . .
