Where
there’s Smoke... By TealKeeper
Commander
Cal9098 sat in the XO chair on the bridge of the UPA
Peacemaker. Having just returned from the great galactic
engagement that could only be described as WoW VIII, Cal had
fought valiantly and bravely, in the process earning one of the
top positions overall. For his efforts he received his promotion
to Commander and was given command of UPA Green squadron. He was
also slated to receive a Nebulon-B Frigate to house his fighters.
As of yet, even though he had no other pilots, he was still
slightly annoyed. Due to a snafu in the schedule at the
shipyards, he and the other UPA pilots scheduled to receive their
ships to command were not to get them for at least another two
months. Having a feeling the other UPA pilots who were scheduled
to get ships would want them sooner also, he decided to contact
them about what they could do. Checking the transmission he
received from the shipyards, he saw that three Corellian
Gunships, to be given to Robbie, yoda, and WhiteRider, and that
four Corellian Corvettes, to be given to TealKeeper, Arcon,
Crusher, and Smitten, were to be constructed but delayed, in
addition to his Frigate. With so many other pending
constructions, he knew these other pilots would also be willing
to try to get their ships earlier than scheduled. Fortunately he
wouldn’t have to go too far, the UPA fleet was all at
headquarters, planning for something (although Cal didn’t
know what, it was highly classified.) He talked to each of the
other pilots individually and met them in the lounge on the UPA
One.It took about an hour for all of the pilots to finish up
what they were doing and shuttle over to where he wanted to meet
them. Robbie, Smitten, and WhiteRider were already there when he
arrived, and the others arrived within the next ten minutes. He
really had no idea what he was going to say. He had no briefing
screen, no plan, and just his desire to get everyone their ships
quicker. As everyone had arrived and sat down, Cal addressed them
with his common problem. "Greetings, pilots. You are
probably wondering why I have had you come here. You’re also
probably wondering why you came and not others. The answer is
because we all have one thing in common. That is, we are all
scheduled to receive new ships. However, I’ve just heard
that the shipyards are delayed about two months. Which means that
we’ll be waiting an additional two months to receive our
ships." Everyone in the room echoed a groan. Cal’s
suspicions had been confirmed—that the other pilots were
anxious to get their ships too, and were not happy about a delay.
Of course, he still didn’t know what to do about it.
"Anyone have any ideas of what we can do?" For a few
seconds the other pilots just stared at him blankly, until
WhiteRider, the longest-standing UPA member among them, got an
idea. "Well, we could try finding and capturing
Imperial…" In the middle of his sentence, a hidden door
flew open and out walked Drewhead, WedgeantR2, and GoldLeader,
apparently whom were holding a Supreme Council meeting. They
stared at the pilots stupidly, and WhiteRider finished his
sentence "…ships…?" The pilots stood up and
saluted their council members, not realizing what they were about
to hear. Drewhead addressed them. "It seems you guys have
just volunteered yourselves for a reconnaissance
mission…"
* * *
Having then
moved into the no longer secret Supreme Council meeting/briefing
room to find out what they had inadvertantly gotten themselves
into, the pilots sat and watched the holoprojector. They watched
it, and saw what Drewhead meant. An Imperial fleet, rather large,
was due to be moving through the neighboring sector within the
next couple of days. By seeing the Supreme Council, the pilots
got themselves into it. Cal and the others did notice that there
were several of the ships they were waiting for themselves were
supposed to be in the fleet. This meant that with a little extra
work, the idea WhiteRider had come up with might just work. Of
course the Supreme Council did not yet know about it, but they
couldn’t worry about that until after their reconnaissance
mission had been completed. Drewhead commented on it when it was
done. "Now, since there are eight of you and three of us, we
are one pilot short for a full squadron. Any nominations on who
to bring in?" Nobody was sure whom, but it was quickly
decided that since Blue Squadron had the most representatives
that Hacker would be the one to be brought in to fill the twelfth
ship. "I realize your normal wings aren’t here, so
among the eight of you just find wings for this mission. Hacker
will wing with one of us." Teal and Cal paired up, Smitten
and WhiteRider paired up, Arcon and Crusher paired up, and then
Robbie and yoda were paired. So the wings were set. "You can
fly under your normal designations, just stick with your wings
and you should be fine. We are expecting this Imperial fleet to
have at least thirty capital ships, including at least six Star
Destroyers. Our mission will to be to identify all Imperial
capital ships, and take out as many fighters as possible.
We’ll all be in A-wings so we can have extra speed. If you
feel the necessity to take warheads, do so. I can see you guys
must have had a hidden agenda, so you all follow that and explain
it to me afterwards. Go get ready. We’ll be launching in two
hours. Your astromechs are being sent over, we’ll be
launching from the UPA One in her fighters."
TealKeeper and Cal both stood up. "And, kills we get will be
transferred onto our ships, right?" Drewhead smiled, as did
the other pilots. It was good to see everyone had a positive
attitude about it. He answered. "Of course they will.
Dismissed." The pilots filed out, and each of the wingmen
began to discuss their warhead options. Teal and Cal, who were
known for their desire to get more paint used on their hulls,
decided to take heavy rockets in hopes of getting a capital ship
kill or two. The others opted for advanced missiles to try to get
the first shots on any incoming enemy fighters. The two hours
quickly dwindled to one, then 30 minutes, then 5 minutes. The
pilots assembled and prepared to launch. The ships having been
armed, each pilot went where the hangar crew directed him, and
strapped himself in to launch. Drewhead’s voice crackled in
their helmets. "Alright, this is Tiger Command, four green
and standing by. Everyone else clear?" The chorus of assents
brought a sigh of relief to the Supreme Council members. It had
been a good while since they had flown out in a squadron with the
lower-ranking UPA pilots. They were looking forward to it.
"Ok everyone. Good luck and may the force be with us. Launch
on my mark.
Five…Four…Three…Two…One…Mark!"
Directed out by the hangar crew, the pilots launched out and
prepared to enter hyperspace. "All wings report in."
requested Drewhead. "Falcon Command, standing by."
"Eagle Command, standing by." "Blue Leader,
standing by." "Rogue Six, standing by."
"Green Leader, standing by." The rest of the pilots
reported in, and all was clear. They started to enter hyperspace.
The jump was to last about 45 minutes. The stars turned to
starlines, and twelve A-Wing fighters leapt into hyperspace.
* * *
The jump
lasted the predicted amount of time, and when the UPA pilots
arrived, they were in an empty system and saw on their sensors
that they would be finding company in about 10 minutes. They had
that much time to discuss who would do what. GoldLeader addressed
the other pilots. "OK, let’s have Crusher, Arcon, yoda,
and Robbie work on identifying all of it. Cal, you and Teal can
take some of the lighter ships out with those rockets you are
packing. Everyone else, draw the fighters off of them so they can
do their jobs! Let’s wax the floor with these guys!"
The other UPA pilots echoed assents. It was good to see everyone
psyched up. Hopefully they wouldn’t get careless. "OK
everyone, T-minus 3 minutes to arrival. Everyone on inspection,
drain lasers into engines. If you are able to, use a couple
missiles to pick some TIEs off. All the rest, keep shields normal
charged and lasers increased charge." Another two minutes
passed, and Drewhead started. "Here they come…may the
Force…" He was cut off in mid-sentence as the Imperial
fleet arrived. To the surprise (and delight to some) of the
pilots, it was also escorting a convoy that was right in their
strike range. WedgeantR2 issued new orders. "OK, change of
plans! We’re going to take this convoy out! Identifying
guys, inspect the convoy! Everyone else, once it’s
inspected, light it up! We’ll worry about the Imp fleet when
we’re done with this!" Crusher and the pilots with him,
utilizing the extra speed they had from having no laser power,
darted around inspecting the various convoy ships. They found
freighters, conveyers, some tugs pulling containers, cargo
ferries, and a few troop transports. No valuable supplies were in
the ships in the convoy, but the astromechs logged what they
contained so they could review over it later. The cargo ferries
were targeted first, as they had actual lasers to defend
themselves. They quickly fell to laser fire, with each pilot
scoring a kill. They targeted the transports next. However, they
were only able to damage one transport before they entered
hyperspace. It seemed as if the other ships were throwing
themselves in the way, almost as if protecting the transports.
All of the freighters and conveyers were destroyed, but the
transports did make it away. They would have to discuss that
during the debriefing also. With the convoy out of the way, and
relatively little damage to their own ships, they started over
secure channels discussing what to do about the fleet. From the
looks of it, there were seven Star Destroyers (four Victories and
three Imperials) three Escort Carriers, about five Frigates, six
Carrack Cruisers, four antiquated Dreadnaughts, and nine
Corellian Corvettes. At least there was plenty for capture later,
thought Cal. Seeing what they were up against, Cal sent a
communication to Teal on a private channel. "Hey Teal, what
do you think we should take out?" Teal responded.
"I’d say those Escort Carriers…they can have six
TIE squads each…we each have six rockets, right?" Cal
checked his inventory. "Yeah, what’s the plan?"
Teal outlined his plan. He explained that they could take all of
them out. Four rockets would be sufficient to destroy each, he
said. So they could each destroy one and split for the last one
to destroy it and eighteen squads of TIEs as well. The rockets
launched at the perfect time, right as three squadrons of
fighters were launching, and the ensuing explosions destroyed not
only the three ships but also nine squadrons of TIE kills for Cal
and Teal to get painted on their hulls between them! Already the
mission had more success than anyone had hoped for! While they
had been knocking out the carriers and fighters, the Identifying
team of Arcon and those with him was busy discovering the names
of the ships. They opted to leave the Star Destroyers for last,
probably a smart choice. They darted around turbolaser fire from
the Corvettes and Dreadnaughts, having them inspected within
about ten minutes. Fortunately for the UPA pilots, the Imperials
hadn’t been expecting trouble and were not in their usual
formation, only arranged in formation by ship. Once the first
ships had been inspected, five squadrons of TIEs were launched
from the Frigates to try and harass or kill the UPA pilots. The
escorting fighters (now bolstered by Teal and Cal) were able to
take out two full squadrons of TIEs with missiles before they
even got in laser range. Keeping the fighters occupied they gave
the inspecting team a chance to identify the Carrack Cruisers,
leaving only the Frigates and Star Destroyers. However, the
escorts were outnumbered about four to one. "This is Blue
Leader, I’ve got a pair on my tail! I can’t shake
him!" Came a desperate cry for help from Hacker. "Eagle
Command is occupied with two of his own, can someone else handle
it?" WedgeantR2 replied, and cut his words short so not to
take long. "Blues Four and Nine incoming, we can help you
out sirs." Smitten and WhiteRider came in from the TIEs
blind-side, virtually out of nowhere and opened fire on the
chasing TIEs. All that remained were four clouds of debris when
they were finished. "Wraith Two and wings, think you can
give the rest of us a hand for now? We won’t be much good
escorts if we’re not alive!" Drewhead requested of the
escorts. "This is Defiant Three, Wraith Two’s comm gear
is down for the temporary. We’re on our way. Lasers will be
charged." Came back the reply from Crusher. Four additional
A-Wings entered the fray. But they were still outnumbered about
three to one. "Blue Ten here guys. I’m picking up new
incoming signals. It looks like friendlies…? But nobody else
knew we were coming…" Six A-Wings from the UPA Gold
Squadron exited hyperspace, right on top of an unlucky two
squadrons of TIEs. They were wiped out before they knew what hit
them. "Gold Leader here, could you guys use a hand?"
asked BigMike. "Sure thing, Gold Leader, but how did you
find us?" "Let’s worry about that when we’re
back safely, shall we, Falcon Command?" "Agreed.
Let’s get them guys!" Almost as if waiting for such a
thing to happen, one of the Star Destroyers’s disgorged
it’s three fighter squadrons from the hangar bays, but at
least the odds were down to about two to one now. "This is
Vortex Two…we’re starting to drift near those
Frigates…I’ve got an idea…" yoda outlined his
plan. It involved a famous maneuver invented and perfected at the
Battle of Endor. They’d be able to identify the Frigates as
they passed and maybe get a little added bonus. Drewhead gave his
stamp of approval. "So it is then! Ackbar Slash, starfighter
style! Let’s stick it to ‘em pilots!" Their
A-Wings flew directly in between the Frigate lines, firing lasers
at the TIEs and nailing eight of them before they knew what was
going on. They continued to circle, flying only through the
center of the Frigates.
* * *
Captain
Julo Maerik of the Imperial Frigate Stormbringer sat in
his command chair. He was analyzing what the Rebel ships were
doing, and to him, it appeared they were trying to cause the
Frigates to hit each other as they missed the Rebels. He started
to contact the other Captains when his ship was jerked severely.
"Lieutenant!" He barked. "What was that?" His
Lieutenant’s reply was nervous. "Sir, we, uh, just took
a hit from one of the other Frigates." "THE IDIOTS!
They missed the Rebels and hit us!" "Sir, they’re
uh…" his sentence was cut off as the bridge jerked
again. "They’re uh…still doing it. We can’t
tell them to stop because communications are down! They’re
going to destroy us!" Maerik had no choice but to do what he
swore he never would do. "Minions of Xendor, they’ll
pay for this. Abandon ship…no sense losing our own lives.
Save the logs to each pod, at least one of those morons will get
reprimanded." Maerik and crew ran to the escape pods, and
ejected out into space.
* * *
"Vortex
Two, it’s working! One Imperial Frigate dispatched!
Let’s get some more of these fighters then work on those
Star Destroyers!" By now, there were only about one squadron
worth of various TIEs left, and in no order at all. They
didn’t last long to the quick, maneuverable, A-Wings. It was
down to the twelve UPA pilots in their A-Wings against the Star
Destroyers. It did, fortunately for the UPA, seem that the Star
Destroyers were refraining to deploy their remaining TIEs, and
for good reason. Twenty-six Squadrons of TIEs had been destroyed
so far, most by luck, the rest by sheer skill. Hapless to harm
the fast starfighters flying around them, they just sat and were
identified. "Good work everyone, it’s time we head back
to base. We’ve done far more than we hoped here. Let’s
prepare for the next phase. Tiger Command, out." With that,
sixteen A-Wings leapt into hyperspace to return to the UPA base.
The Imperials were left to sit and wait to recover their escape
pods, and plan what to do in the light of this apparent breach in
security. But one thing was sure. Captain Maerik would make
someone pay.
TUNE IN
NEXT TIME FOR THE END (or maybe only middle) of this story!
Please
e-mail your comments in the mean time to: Keeper of the Teal
Those
not in this part will certainly be in the next part so don’t
complain!