Wedge Antilles stood on the bridge of the
Taking solid, measured calm steps Wedge advanced down that walkway. Casting occasional glances down into the crew pits on either side of him; visually checking to ensure that everyone was performing their assigned duties. Finally he arrived at the end, and resumed his sentinel like stance, staring out the forward viewports, calmly watching hyperspace.
To the untrained eye Wedge would appear to be a bastion of calm. Utterly unperturbed by the events of the day, by the loss of Coruscant and the subsequent scattering of the fleets. He stood at ease on the deck, his hands behind him, one grasping the wrist of the other.
But upon closer inspection there were the little tell-tale signs that stated otherwise. Little signs that said that Wedge Antilles was not having a good day. The whiteness in the knuckles, the small crescents where his fingernails were cutting into the flesh of his wrist. The tightening of the jaw, occasionally accompanied by the sound of grinding teeth. All these and more were sure signs that he was not a happy man.
"Sir."
Wedge slowly turned to the young lieutenant that stood at near attention beside him. A datapad clasped in his hand, almost like a protective ward. He grasped for a name, and for the first time in many years his mind failed to provide one. Giving an inner shrug, he replied. "Yes Lieutenant?"
"We’re coming up on Borelias in a few minutes."
Wedge nodded his head once, a small twitch appearing at the corner of his mouth, from the pressure which he was exerting against through his jaws. "Very good Lieutenant. As soon as we revert to real space, I want all starfighters launched, and a sitrep."
"Yes sir!"
The young man spun on his heel and rushed back to his duty station. Wedge watched him in the slight reflection from the forward viewports, wondering how he could be so cheerful, so exuberant for his duty on this day.
Then the swirling vortex of hyperspace fell away revealing the complex navigation hazard that is Borelias and the Pryias System. In the distance he could make out the small blue bauble which is Borelias itself. His eyes narrowed slightly as he remembered the last time he visited this planet. Slightly closer to their position was the giant moon, a huge round ball of black volcanic rock gleaming dully in the star shine.
"Well, hello there. Miss me?"
He grinned slightly and then turned from the viewport and headed aft, towards the lighted board where the lieutenant was standing. He arrived, and glanced down at the dizzying display of lights which indicated all the moving objects in the system.
"What’s the sitrep, Lieutenant?"
"All Forces are accounted for, and our starfighters are leaving the bay and forming up now. We have about three dozen skips lifting from the planet, and a cruiser analog coming at us from the night-side of the planet."
"Have the X-Wings and E-Wings take care of those skips. Send the B-Wings on down to destroy any Vong installations on the surface. Everything else, I want that cruiser destroyed."
The Lieutenant nodded his head, and then began talking into the comlink attached to his ear. Wedge watched the lights and the board, as their forces slowly and surely destroyed the Vong presence in the system.
"Begin landing our troops"
"Yes sir!"
Wedge pressed his own comlink, getting in touch with the man leading the ground forces. "You’re running out there Lando. Make me proud."
Lando’s smooth, cultured voice sounded in his ear. "It’s my pleasure to do so General. Just don’t reactivate my commission. Calrissian out."
Wedge chuckled slightly, glad for the moment of levity to take his mind off the fact that he abandoned Coruscant.
The Coruscant where his family lives.
Where his wife and kids are.
Where he abandoned them.
He clenched his fists, feeling his nails cut into his flesh once again. He used the pain as a focus, an attempt to get his mind off of his wife and his little girls and back to where it belonged.
The deck of the Republic’s Glory shuddered as the plasma from the coral skippers and the cruiser analog reached and slashed through the shields; the force of the impact nearly knocked Wedge’s feet out from beneath him. He growled slightly, and was finally able to yank his thoughts fully off of Iella and the kids and back to the battle at hand. Warning claxons rang throughout the bridge and technicians started yelling damage reports towards Wedge.
Wedge ignored them, and walked towards the helm. "Roll us port. Don’t let that cruiser broadside us on that bow again."
He heard the positive replies from the navigation crew, and shunted them from his mind, already thinking about the damage reports.
Lando turned towards the squad which he was in immediate command of. Even though he was in charge of the entire ground operation, he knew that the officers underneath him were more than up to the task of carrying out their respective orders.
He plucked the front his shirt between two fingers and fluttered it, allowing the slight breeze to fan away some of the nervous sweat he had begun to exude. He frowned wondering when that started to happen. There was a time during the Rebellion when such an operation as this would have been something he just did before breakfast.
Now he felt the cold knot of fear and worry sitting in the pit of his stomach.
He looked up into the eyes of his second in command, noting the passiveness which sat easily on the angular face, and gave a winning smile.
"Is something amiss General?"
Lando heard the voice, recognizing it as his own, but also noting the fact that it was deeper and more masculine. Then he grimaced slightly at being called a general again. "Nothing at all 1-AA1. Is everyone ready?"
The large droid nodded its head. "All are reporting green for go General."
"Good, good."
A large explosion rocked the transport, and Lando quickly grabbed one of the loops dangling from the ceiling which kept him on his feet. He grimaced again, wondering just how he managed to let Wedge talk him into doing this.
He quickly glanced around his troops again, seeing the thirty metallic faces, all designed to look similar to a Yuuzhan Vong, stare back at him. He smiled, happy at this particular creation. The YV Hunters were the most advanced combat droid in the galaxy, and here was where they got to prove it. There was just that little part of him that wished he wasn’t with them when they did.
The transport shook slightly, as she broke atmosphere, and Lando could feel himself beginning to actually get excited about seeing the YV Hunters in action. The transport rattled slightly, and Lando could suddenly feel the press of the breaking thrusters as the low growl of the engines shifted suddenly into a high pitched squeal.
With a loud explosion, the ship lurched to the side, and Lando could feel the wind whip through his clothes. Lando glanced back and noticed a large gash in the side of the far wall behind some of the Hunters.
The ringing in his ears slowly faded, and he was left with the roar of the wind. He glanced towards 1-AA1 noticing that the damage to the ship had left the large droid unfazed.
"At least we were in atmosphere."
The droid nodded its head slightly, an acceptance of Lando’s statement.
The breaking thrusters fired again, the roar sounding even louder now that the side of the troop area was exposed to atmosphere. With a jarring thud, the transports stopped moving, and the rear egress hatch began opening.
Lando dropped the loop, and starts waving his hand, pointing down the ramp. "Go! Go! Go!"
He felt a rush of adrenaline as his troops rushed down the ramp, their heavy footfalls thudding loudly against the metal.
As soon as they reached the bottom of the ramp, they begin screaming a message in the Vong’s language. Lando grinned at it, knowing it was just one more tidbit of psychological warfare being used against the Vong.
He mentally translated the message, which he had composed himself. "We are machines, and we are greater than the Yuuzhan Vong."
Lando slowly walked down the ramp, 1-AA1 right there beside him.
He watched as one of the hunters, stopped and turned towards an oncoming Yuuzhan Vong warrior. A dark blur flashed and struck the droid in the chest, but the droid ignored it, just raised an arm and fired a series of high-powered blaster bolts. The bolts stuck the warrior who flew back crashing to the ground, unmoving. The droid turned back and continued on its mission.
"Perimeter secured, General."
"Good. Proceed to phase two. How’re the other teams doing?"
"Team Besh is in position; Team Cresh is facing significant resistance. Team Dorn has began phase two of their operation. Team Esk failed to land on planet. Team Forn is coming up behind us with the engineers."
"Very good. Thank you, 1-AA1. Have Team Besh begin phase two, and send a 1-AA6 and 1-AA7 to assist Team Cresh."
He resumed walking, following the trail of dead Yuuzhan Vong left behind by his Hunters.
He nodded his head to himself. Yes, these Hunters will sell quite nicely.
He ducked to the squeal of incoming artillery, which landed and exploded to the left of him, showering Lando and 1-AA1 with clods of dirt.
--------------------------------Gavin Darklighter sat in the cockpit of his X-Wing, watching the swirls of hyperspace through the magcon field of the hanger. His mind wandered from the task at hand to his wife and kids, hoping, praying that wherever they were they were safe. He slammed his fist against his leg, knowing that he should have hunted them down on that last shore leave he had. Now he wondered if he’ll ever get the chance to tell them that he does love them. He exhaled sharply, blowing out his frustrations and concerns with a deep breath as the swirls of hyperspace collapsed once more into tiny pinpoints of light.
"Rogue Squadron you are green for launch."
"Copy that Control." He flipped a switch to activate the squadron frequency. "All right Rogues, we are green for go. Let’s vape ourselves some skips."
Six com clicks returned to him, and he lifted his craft up on repulsors, slipping gently out through the magfield and into the expansive darkness of space. As soon as he was free of the deflector shields of the Republic’s Glory, he pushed the throttle down and let out a short yelp of joy as the X-Wing jumped forward accelerating towards the enemy.
He immediately cursed himself and checked to ensure that his mic was off. It would not do for the commander of Rogue Squadron to be letting out com chatter like that. He grinned slightly, remembering all the times when Wedge’s gruff voice would bark back at him to "cut the chatter."
A tootle from his R6 unit took his attention from his memory to the fight which he was about to enter as the first wave of skips was just now entering range of his proton torpedoes. He twisted the X-Wing getting a target lock, and when he heard that solid pitched tone he pushed down on the thumb button launching two of his torpedoes.
He banked and pushed his stick down, dodging away from the balls of molten plasma which flickered past where he had just been.
He gave his monitor a quick glance, noting that his wingman was still tucked in beside him, and that all of the Rogues had made it through this initial salvo.
Then he doesn’t have any more time to think, as he twisted and turned, flipping around and through the Vong formation.
He fell behind a skip, peppering its aft with stutter-shots, watching as the void absorbed them, and as soon as they start getting through, he pumped the full powered shots into the skip, smiling in triumph as it evaporated into a mass of melted rock and frozen ichor.
He came out the far side of the furball, and inverted his X-Wing towards the battle, throttling back to slow his craft. He took a second to watch the dark rocks of the skips and the shining metal of the starfighters as they danced and weaved around each other.
"Gavin."
He flicked a switch. "Go ahead, Wedge."
"I need you to get to Borelias and supply air support for Lando."
"Copy that."
He turned a switch on the comunit. "Rogue Nine."
"Go ahead, Lead."
"I’m going planet-side, you’re in command. Over."
"Copy that Lead."
Grinning once more, Gavin twisted his fighter around, and pushed the throttle back all the way down allowing his fighter to jump forward as he resets his com to receive. A quick glance showed that his wing was still right there, and he nodded his head in acceptance before opening a channel.
"You all right Rogue Two?"
The young girl’s voice that came back still startled him, just from how young and innocent she sounded.
"You got that Lead."
I wonder how long that innocence will last. "Good, we’ve been assigned to provide aerial cover for the boys on the ground. Anything flying around down there, or any rakamats, go ahead and destroy."
He received a click in response, and smiled, happy that she was fitting in so well with the way the squadron did things.
I really got to take the time to learn the names of these new recruits. And to apologize to Jaina for not getting her back sooner. I owe that to her.
A red flicker formed around the shields told him that he had reached the edge of the atmosphere, and he pulled back on the throttle, dropping it into a safer atmospheric speed. He flicked a few screens on his console. Flight Officer Eliza Theatra, Rogue Two. I got that now.
The scanners picked up a couple of skips harrying something on the ground, and he banked that way, coming from above and behind them as they were focused on the
He fired at the lead skip, grinning as it exploded. A glance at the secondary monitor showed that Eliza had taken out hers.
He pulled up from the dive, and leveled out skimming right above the trees, searching for more targets. He glanced behind him and noticed that Eliza was still hanging off his starboard wing, flying less than a meter higher than him.
He grinned slightly, and flashed past the far edge of the engagement zone. He banked the X-Wing back around, scanning for any more air units or large artillery units. He grinned slightly as he spied a rakamat lumbering in the distance heading towards the
"Two, we’re going for the rakamat. I’ll fire two torps, and send you my telemetry. I want your two to come in on a slightly divergent course. Take .5 off mine."
He got a click in reply, and once more smiled, lifting his craft up on his port s-foils as the targeting reticule fell perfectly around the rakamat, quickly shifting from red to yellow to green.
He pressed down on the thumb trigger, and watched as the two bright flashes shot out from the torpedo launcher. A second later, he saw two more torpedoes flash past his canopy from Eliza’s craft.
His torpedoes detonated early, having detected a void. The wash of explosive power vaporized dozens of the chazrach foot soldiers. Moments later, Eliza’s torpedoes hit, one of them detonated early caught by the dovin basil’s voids, the other slammed into the rakamat’s hind quarters.
Laughing, Gavin twisted his fighter craft, allowing the thruster exhaust to flash over the exposed back of the rakamat. When he reached the center of the beast, he pushed the throttle all the way down, and was pressed back against his seat as the X-wing rocketed upwards.
His com clicked, and Eliza’s innocent voice came over his speakers, chiming with her own laughter. "You got him Lead. The rakamat is dead."
Gavin grinned. "Copy that Two."
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