Jedi Council Forums - Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, completed 3/30

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Author	Topic: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, completed 3/30
LumiKuningatar Registered: Nov '03	Date Posted: 1/28/04 4:44am Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, updated 1/28
	no oh no sobs I liked her... how could you kill her? hopeless crying it was wonderfully writtten , it truly was I feel very sorry for both Darin and Quiver for having to witness one of their best friends cruel and bloody death.... sobs cries -----signature----- Tell a man there are 400 billion stars and he'll believe you, tell a man that a bench is wet and he'll have to touch it... Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam. It's a bird, no wait a plane.. damn.. it IS a b
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Wedgeatbarkura Registered: Aug '03	Date Posted: 1/28/04 5:18am Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, updated 1/28
	noooooo...... how could you kill C.C.!!!???!!!! yeah excellent writing, I was worried about what would happen to C.C..... and I had no idea that the Imperial would actually shoot her to death like that... really unecpected.... -----signature----- My Fanfiction, "With Fire and Sword" http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=14944666&start=14954366
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Thumper09 Registered: Dec '01	Date Posted: 1/28/04 1:09pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, updated 1/28
	Wow...didn't expect to get responses so soon this morning. I hope I didn't scare anyone off with that last post. As for why...well, it's too involved to go into here in depth (PM me if you want the whole spiel ). The Imperials had reasons that will be revealed in the future. It doesn't make it right, but they had them. I also had my reasons (several, actually). While I've never been in the military, I do know that war is ugly, and horrible things happen. For me, CC is one of my favorite characters. I love writing "Trio" scenes. But I also think it adds a whole other dimension to the story this way. That's my opinion anyway, one that no one is obliged to share. Update next Tuesday for anyone still left. -Katie -----signature----- "Like anything worth writing, it came inexplicably and without method." -Karen Eiffel, _Stranger Than Fiction_ "Adamantine"--Rebel OC vig http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/30390799
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LordGoldenArrow Title: Retired Chapter Rep Melbourn e, FL USA Registered: Jan '02	Date Posted: 1/28/04 3:37pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, updated 1/28 - Date Edited: 1/28/04 3:38pm (2 edits total) Edited By: LordGoldenArrow
	Horrible! Horrible! It's such a shame....a real tragedy. CC went way before her time. sniff sniff The other horrible thing is that without CC to ground them (snicker), Darin and Quiver's ego's will soar out of control. <g> Excellent Writing, Thumper! :-P -LordGoldenArrow
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-Z- Registered: Dec '03	Date Posted: 1/29/04 8:22am Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, updated 1/28
	Lordy, I wasn't expecting THAT! That's...terrible! That's, that's...so very, very Imperial. When the scout trooper was shaking his head, I thought he was saying CC was already gone. Then, zang! Blurry blaster bolts. Got me. This is getting gripping--they're in a tight spot. Can't wait to see how they'll get out of it. Now you've got me worrying for all the other characters' safety and well-being. -----signature----- "...Who said anything about slicing you up, man? I just wanted to carve a little Z on your forehead..." Check profile for stories.
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LumiKuningatar Registered: Nov '03	Date Posted: 1/30/04 8:36am Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, updated 1/28
	more? -----signature----- Tell a man there are 400 billion stars and he'll believe you, tell a man that a bench is wet and he'll have to touch it... Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam. It's a bird, no wait a plane.. damn.. it IS a b
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Thumper09 Registered: Dec '01	Date Posted: 2/1/04 9:23am Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, updated 1/28
	LGA, you can't fool me. I know you just want CC around so there's someone to pick on Quiver and Darin. Z, the rest of the Coronas thank you for your concern. That's one of the things I like about OCs as opposed to canon characters who, in the back of my mind, I always (or almost always) know will come out okay. Aaron Allston taught me that. And I saw your interview in the newsletter. Very cool. Lumi, watch for the next post on Tuesday. Hail Columbia. -Katie -----signature----- "Like anything worth writing, it came inexplicably and without method." -Karen Eiffel, _Stranger Than Fiction_ "Adamantine"--Rebel OC vig http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/30390799
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LumiKuningatar Registered: Nov '03	Date Posted: 2/1/04 9:32am Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, updated 1/28
	-----signature----- Tell a man there are 400 billion stars and he'll believe you, tell a man that a bench is wet and he'll have to touch it... Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam. It's a bird, no wait a plane.. damn.. it IS a b
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Wedgeatbarkura Registered: Aug '03	Date Posted: 2/2/04 8:01pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, updated 1/28
	More...... UPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COME ON THUMPER!!!!!!!!!!! -----signature----- My Fanfiction, "With Fire and Sword" http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=14944666&start=14954366
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R2D1000 Registered: Jun '03	Date Posted: 2/2/04 8:13pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, updated 1/28 - Date Edited: 2/2/04 8:17pm (1 edits total) Edited By: R2D1000
	fantastic! beyond believable! this is history in the making.
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LumiKuningatar Registered: Nov '03	Date Posted: 2/3/04 8:24am Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, updated 1/28
	levitates thread -----signature----- Tell a man there are 400 billion stars and he'll believe you, tell a man that a bench is wet and he'll have to touch it... Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam. It's a bird, no wait a plane.. damn.. it IS a b
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LordGoldenArrow Title: Retired Chapter Rep Melbourn e, FL USA Registered: Jan '02	Date Posted: 2/3/04 11:28am Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, updated 1/28
	That's true, Thumper. :-P Can't wait for the next post! Keep up the great work.
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Thumper09 Registered: Dec '01	Date Posted: 2/3/04 5:00pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, updated 2/3
	Welcome, R2D1000! Thank you, that's very high praise. I sure hope this story lives up to everything... Time for the next installment. One note: since I first wrote this story, this particular section has been revised in some significant way, shape or form about...counts on fingers five times. The latest of these was this past Sunday, so it hasn't gotten the insane amounts of editing that I always put all of my stuff through. But hopefully it'll be all right. does the Happy Page Two Dance Oh, yeah, this post and next week's post will be a page or two longer than the others just because of the location of good stopping points. Just a warning. ****** As the biker scouts and their two prisoners crested a small hill a short time later, they came upon the place where Chopper had presumably landed after bailing out. Weas's X-wing was sitting serenely off to the side, under Imperial guard. Chopper and Weas were also under guard with their hands likewise bound in front of them. The two Rebels and the group of Imperial biker scouts all looked up as Darin's and Quiver's group approached. The Rebels scrutinized each other in concern while they came closer together. Weas didn't look injured. He and Chopper were sitting on the ground, but Chopper's left leg was awkwardly sticking straight out in front of him, and he looked like he was trying to keep every bit of weight off of it. There was also blood all over half of his windburned face; he apparently had had a rough time landing after ejecting. The parts of Darin's face and neck that hadn't been covered by his helmet or visor were littered with cuts from the shards of his canopy window, and his right arm had some larger cuts from the same source. Aside from Chopper, Quiver probably looked the worst: he had a large burn on his right arm and blood on his hands and the top of his flightsuit from when he was trying to bandage CC. Quiver and Darin were shoved down next to Chopper and Weas while some biker scouts conferred and others guarded the Rebels. Contemptuous remarks were muttered in the Rebels' direction, and it looked to Darin like the guards were just waiting for the prisoners to slip up or make a move, anything to give the guards the excuse they needed to lay into them. Or maybe Darin was just paranoid now. Weas ignored the Imperials' comments and continued studying Quiver. "You okay, Ten?" he quietly asked. His first answer was a sharp kick from the guard nearest him. "No talking!" the Imperial commanded. The other three pilots stiffened, tense, but that one blow was all that came, and Weas looked to be all right. Once Weas collected himself again, he silently looked at Quiver, still wanting some sort of answer. After glancing at Quiver, seeing the blood and figuring that was why Weas thought he was badly injured, Darin turned pale once more and briefly looked at the ground, trying to mercifully blank his mind and also biting his bottom lip hard so he wouldn't break down in front of the others. When he chanced a look back up, he saw Quiver staring at the blood on his hands and clothing. The lanky pilot was shaking again, and he looked like he was going to be sick. Finally Quiver started blinking hard, then he furiously wiped at his eyes, turned away from the others, brought his knees up to his chest, and awkwardly buried his head in his arms. Confused, Weas and Chopper turned to Darin for clarification, some explanation as to what was wrong with his wingman. Darin wouldn't meet their eyes, and he guessed that Quiver's behavior combined with Darin's averted, disconsolate gaze and colorless face tipped Weas off because in his peripheral vision Darin saw the horrified understanding, or at least the suspicion, dawn on the lieutenant. Weas knew they had gone to help CC, and he obviously didn't see her there with them; from Darin's and Quiver's reactions he had to figure she was likely dead. Chopper still looked puzzled. Quiver didn't move from his position and Darin wouldn't look the others in the eye for the entire time they sat there, which ended up not being too long. Soon, activity began to pick up around them. The biker scout leader announced that he called for a transport from the colony to come pick them all up and take them back, then he pointed out a relatively flat field about a klick away and said the transport would have to land there because the terrain around them was too hilly for it. In response, most of the Imperials mounted speeder bikes, and the ones on foot who were guarding the Rebels roughly pulled them to their feet and started herding them toward the field. The scouts on the bikes took up positions on the outer perimeter around the group of prisoners and their guards. The going was slow because Chopper was only hobbling along, needing to lean heavily on Weas for balance since he'd broken his left leg. Because of the handcuffs, it was hard for Chopper to hold onto the other pilot and it made them a strange sight to look at: Chopper was essentially resting a lot of his weight on Weas by draping his left arm over Weas's right shoulder. Weas seemed to be helping him remain steady by holding onto Chopper's left wrist near the binders as well as he could with one hand. Once Darin thought he heard a muffled beep coming from their direction, and when he glanced at them he saw both Weas and Chopper looking a little guilty, like they were expecting to be caught. Their eyes darted around for a moment, but none of the guards had seemed to hear the small sound through their helmets. Darin couldn't figure out what was happening until he saw Weas's finger tapping almost imperceptibly on the combadge on Chopper's sleeve, at his left wrist. That's what the beep had been, and Darin felt a surge of hope. Either that TIE had held the jammer, or the Imperials had decided they didn't need it anymore and turned it off. They also must have forgotten about Weas's and Chopper's combadges or figured they couldn't reach them while handcuffed. Weas was covering most of Chopper's combadge with his hand to hide it from view, and somehow he or Chopper had shifted Weas's sleeve enough so that his own combadge was on the underside of his arm instead of on top. They were about halfway to the field and still in the hills when a considerably louder beep sounded. Weas flinched just a little, hurriedly shut off the combadge and moved his hand away from it, but this time the guard next to Chopper heard the electronic sound. "What was that?" the Imperial demanded. He called for everyone to stop and immediately moved in front of Weas and Chopper. Weas looked so calm and unruffled that he could have been filling out a maintenance log for all Darin knew, but he'd always had trouble reading the XO. Snubber simply replied, "My elbow hit a button on my chestbox. That's all." Darin tried not to fidget. He wondered if the scout troopers would believe Weas's lie, or if they knew that the buttons on Rebel pilots' emergency life support systems did not make noise. The scout regarded Weas and said in a cool voice, "Do it again." Weas obligingly moved his arm and hit it against his chestbox. When he did so, Darin heard him make a noise in the back of his throat, something approximating the beep from earlier. The biker scout wasn't fooled. He abruptly pulled Weas away from Chopper, who almost lost his balance and had to hop backwards to hold onto Darin for support instead. Then the Imperial patted Weas down and stopped when he came to the pilot's arm. "They still have their combadges!" he yelled over his external speaker. "What idiot didn't take them off?!" He quickly relieved Weas and Chopper of their combadges and inspected them with a cursory glance. No one admitted the mistake, but it didn't matter because the guard didn't press that issue. Instead, he angrily turned to the group's leader and said, "Sarge, this isn't worth it. They're not worth it." He jabbed a finger at the Rebels. "We're damn lucky that warm-up beep sounded and we caught this before they managed to turn their combadges on and call for help." That conclusion surprised Darin, but he tried not to let it show since it worked in their favor. He knew the combadge had probably sounded as the result of receiving or transmitting a signal, and they didn't beep when being turned on or off like this Imperial thought. Maybe Weas's earlier comment about the chestboxes making noise had stuck in the scout trooper's mind, and he just applied it to the combadges without realizing it. The Imperials, or at least this one, might not be thinking that Weas had transmitted anything. Darin hoped Weas had actually gotten a signal through before he'd needed to shut it off. However, Darin's relief was very short-lived as the Imperial continued, "It proves we're just asking for trouble by keeping so many prisoners. At best, they're a drain on resources and at worst, they'll have something else up their sleeves that could injure or kill us. Does Command really need four? Can't we minimize the trouble?" The biker scout sergeant held up a hand and silence followed, likely due to another internal comm conversation with either the other biker scouts or with Command. Weas obviously hadn't expected this turn of events. "Wait, you can't–-" "Shut up, scum. We'll do what we want," the guard said. A minute or two later, the leader turned back to the group. "Command wants them all for various purposes," he said. "Listen up. We'll choose one to take back for questioning, and we'll keep another to get that first one to cooperate and talk. The third will also be brought back with us, and tomorrow he will be used to set an example for the colony, showing them exactly what happens to Rebels and their sympathizers. That will be done live and in public, and to warm everyone up for it we'll be executing the fourth one now, broadcasting it in the colony and recording it for rebroadcast when they need a reminder. It'll be beneficial for the colonists to see their supposed saviors powerless and helpless. Dead or alive, all of them can be bait for any others on-planet. We'll use the stun settings on the Rebels' blasters to knock out the first three. If they resist, we are authorized to shoot to kill. Although Command wants them, they won't put us in undue danger, especially since these Rebels won't be alive much longer anyway. They're only useful for so long." Darin hadn't thought that things could get any worse that morning, but he'd just been proven wrong. He went white at hearing the news regarding their fates and reflexively took a fearful step back, only to be grabbed by his guard. He simultaneously tried to fight both his panic and the Imperial, and in turn he was held in place much more securely. Chopper was pulled away from him, and the other pilots were also being held more tightly from behind. Weas's desperate protests of the Imperials' decision were falling on deaf ears. The sergeant turned to study the group of prisoners, and then another biker scout came up and checked each pilot's rank insignia plate under his flak vest. Darin and Quiver, the two flight officers, were quickly dismissed, but Lt. Forsgren and Lt. Weas were both pointed out. The sergeant seemed to look at Chopper's injuries, and then he shook his head and pointed briefly to Lt. Weas. "You're the lucky one who'll get to meet our interrogator." Weas was pulled a few steps away from his squadmates. Completely ignoring the brown-haired pilot's struggles and loud protests, the sergeant said, "TB-793, unpack the recording and transmitting equipment from your bike and set it up for the big event. Now," he continued casually, turning back to the remaining three Coronas, "two of you will accompany your friend back with us to the colony, and the last will get to smile pretty for the transmitter. So which of you wants to be our holo star? How about..." He waved in Quiver's direction. "You." Darin inhaled sharply and his blood ran cold. "No!" he nearly screamed. "Don't!" He had to stop them. He couldn't watch another best friend be shot right in front of him. A surge of panic and adrenaline made him redouble his efforts to get away from his guard, and the part of Darin's brain that was paying attention to that noticed that his guard was now having a hard time holding onto him. Darin actually seemed more upset than Quiver did. In a shaky voice, Quiver yelled at him, "Damn it, Darin, stop!" He barely heard Quiver and never heard Weas's and Chopper's urgent calls of "Nine! Ten!" Darin was too focused on getting to his wingman. Half an instant later, he was snapped out of it when his legs were kicked out from under him and he landed heavily on his knees. Darin didn't even have time to recover before he was shoved face-first to the ground. He still fought for another second or two until his guard knelt on his back to keep him pinned down and Darin felt a blaster put to his head. Then he instinctively froze. "You have a problem with our choice, little Rebel?" the sergeant said mockingly. "Fine, we can change it. If you're that concerned, you can take his place." Now Quiver was the one starting to frantically yell and resist, at least until the sergeant turned up the volume on his external speakers and said to Darin's guard, "If he or any of the others so much as blinks before the transmitter is set up, shoot him." Darin would have swallowed hard if his mouth hadn't gone completely dry. He squeezed his eyes shut, and the back of his mind wished the biker scout would get off of him so he wasn't lying on his chestbox. His ribs didn't appreciate it. He could tell there were considerably fewer sounds of scuffling from the other pilots due to the threat. "That's better," the sergeant said. "TB-855, bring one of the Rebels' blasters here. Looks like we'll have to stun the other three. It's getting too dangerous." He directed his voice at Darin. "As for you, if you believe in an afterlife, you'd best make amends for your despicable life now." Some blades of grass, still damp from dew or the early morning rain and also completely oblivious to Darin's situation, were tickling his nose like they were trying to get him to giggle or sneeze. Irrationally upset at the grass and just plain overwhelmed, the pilot started silently cursing this planet, the planet where CC had died and where he and the others were going to. Darin's heart was pounding, and his breaths were coming in gasps. His thoughts tripped over themselves in their haste to be articulated. How much longer was he going to be alive? Darin had had some close calls in his career as a fighter pilot, and while he had previously believed that he'd come to terms with his mortality as a result of that career, he discovered now that he'd been wrong. It was one thing to look back and realize that he could have died in a particularly tough part of a dogfight, and it was quite another to look ahead and realize that he was going to die and couldn't prevent it. The fresh memory of CC's death also coldly and bluntly reminded him that none of them were invincible, and none of them were blaster-proof. Thumper squeezed his eyes shut harder, afraid that he'd lose it if he opened them and looked at his squadmates. His whole life was going to be wasted just so he could be a propaganda tool for the Imperials. His one and only consolation was that at least it wouldn't be Quiver or any of the others just yet. But what if they didn't–- A sonic boom sounded, startling him. If that grass wasn't still tickling his nose in a most annoying fashion, he would have thought the boom was the sound of him getting shot and that he was now dead. Suddenly there were nearby thuds of impacts against something hard, and the air was filled with the sounds of shouts and running and chaos. Darin opened his eyes just in time to see a huge red laser blast hitting the ground about twenty meters away and sending dirt flying everywhere. It was an eerie recreation of the TIE's initial attacks at CC's crash site. The welcome yet deafening engine noise of an X-wing sounded overhead with a tremendous gust of wind following in its wake as it passed. It was out of Darin's field of view, but it sounded like it turned to come back around. Handheld laser bolts shrieked through the air right above Darin. The blaster was taken away from his head and more shots sounded, but he couldn't see what was happening since the scout was still holding him down at the base of his neck and he effectively couldn't move. All at once he heard one blaster bolt hit something, and then the weight on his back was suddenly gone as the scout fell off of him. Sparing only one glance at his dead guard, Darin frantically scrambled on his stomach toward his squadmates a couple meters away. The three Coronas' guards were on the ground around them, either dead or unconscious. Chopper was awkwardly holding a biker scout's blaster pistol at the ready, and the pilots were lying flat on the ground for protection from the firefight around them. Darin joined them. Chopper couldn't run with his broken leg, so they had to wait it out for now and trust their squadmate in the air. The four captives watched for any Imperials trying to sneak up on them, but it looked like the scouts were fully occupied with the wobbly snubfighter flying overhead. The Imperials were scattering to escape the X-wing and find whatever cover they could, and a few brave or foolhardy souls were trying to fire at the X-wing with their speeder bikes and getting fired at in return. Some Imperial casualties littered the hillside. The Rebels started trying to crawl away, but they stopped and flattened themselves again when one of those brave or foolhardy scout troopers sped by on a bike, not much more than five meters away. The X-wing fired once at it; the laser missed the vehicle and rider but hit the ground almost directly beneath it. The speeder bike was launched into the air along with a geyser of dirt. The scout trooper was thrown off, and he landed, unmoving, on his back a short distance away. The speeder bike fell, and its repulsor field caught it before it impacted the ground. Its engine coughed and sputtered but did not cut out, and without input, the bike floated there, stationary and pacified. What started off as an angry mutter from Weas about their squadmate firing so close to them became an amazed whisper at their potential luck, and his mouth quirked into a small smile. He briefly scoped out the firefight around them, and then he turned to the others with a gleam in his eye that seemed out of place for the strict officer. "Let's go! Hurry!" Darin and Quiver obeyed and helped pull Chopper up as fast as they could. There didn't seem to be any Imperials in the immediate vicinity who noticed them; the X-wing still held their undivided attention. Weas reached the liberated speeder bike before the others, and he jumped on and quickly checked it over and prepped it while Chopper hurriedly hopped over with Quiver and Darin assisting. Weas didn't waste time. "Listen up! Because of these damn handcuffs we need everyone. I'll take the right steering lever and the accelerator. Nine, sit behind me, you've got the left steering lever. Ten, behind him, brake pedals. Three, in back, you cover us with the blaster. Ten, hold onto him. Let's go!" In any other situation, Darin would have stared at his XO incredulously. If he was feeling exceptionally brave, he might have even asked how something that crazy was supposed to work. But in this situation, he never hesitated. In the midst of Weas's urgent demands for haste, Darin and Quiver lifted Chopper onto the back of the speeder bike, and then those two climbed on with difficulty between the two lieutenants. They were squeezed together and even then they barely all fit, and Darin could feel the speeder bike sink considerably under their weight. Darin reached forward around Weas and grabbed the left steering lever in a manacled hand. To put it mildly, this was going to be hard. Luckily, they got going before Darin had a chance to think about it too much. "Hold on!" Weas called. "Release brakes!" Weas turned the acceleration handgrip, and the speeder bike jumped forward with a labored jolt. The four orange-clad pilots on the speeder bike now weren't hard to miss, and they could tell they had attracted the attention of more than one Imperial as multiple blaster bolts came in at them. Weas brought the bike around in a clumsy right turn and began heading away from the engagement. The bike had obviously been damaged by the X-wing; between that and the weight overload they weren't going faster than two-thirds maximum speed even at full throttle, but it was still much faster than if they were running on foot. And it was still more than fast enough to send waves of terror rippling through the Coronas as they tried to steer it out of the firefight. "Left, left! Straighten out! No, too much! Brake! Okay, let go! To the right now! Now left! No brakes, no brakes! Wait, brake!" Weas frantically acted as the control coordinator, and the speeder bike jerked around the Imperials and obstacles in their way, jostling the pilots onboard. Even their straightaways weren't exactly "straight:" the speeder bike weaved and wobbled like all four of its operators were drunk. There was nothing smooth or graceful about the bike's flight by any stretch of the imagination, and they could hear and feel the bike's protests when they accidentally gave it conflicting commands, but they were getting away. No one said it had to be pretty. By the time they crested the first hill and left the scouts on foot behind, the Coronas were beginning to get the hang of the controls and were better anticipating each other's actions. The turns to avoid the occasional tree were more coordinated, and the straight stretches had a smaller amplitude of oscillation about the centerline. However, two urgent sentences from Chopper interrupted their concentration and almost made their tenuous control disappear. "Another speeder bike coming up fast from behind! He's starting to fire!" There was no way they could outrun the biker scout. "Hard right!" Weas jerked the bike to the right as he said it, Darin released all leftward steering pressure as quickly and as smoothly as he could, and Quiver applied differential braking to help them turn even more sharply. Chopper fired some shots behind them. The X-wing appeared in the sky, looping around from the side. When it was ahead of them it turned toward them, positioning itself for a head-to-head run with the underclassed biker scout after the Coronas would pass by underneath. But the Coronas' bike was still in front of the X-wing and dangerously close to the starfighter's line of fire, and the X-wing couldn't afford to shoot just yet. In the middle of an evasive "hard left," a laser blast from the Imperial bike hit the back of the Coronas' bike directly in its repulsor drive. Quiver must have instinctively hit the brakes, because the speeder bike slowed abruptly right before the back half of the repulsors cut out, sending the aft of the bike plummeting like an old-fashioned puppet whose string had been cut. The rear of the bike hit the ground with a bone-jarring impact, bounced, hit again and finally started digging a trench while the nose of the bike remained suspended in the air over a partially-functioning repulsorlift field and dragged the out-of-control bike forward. There was no way for the Coronas to hold onto anything, and Darin had never wished for restraint straps so fervently in his life. In one final act of defiance, the bike bucked once, sharply, bouncing the nose higher into the air and sending the pilots tumbling off backwards with startled cries. Getting his bearings after the spill, Darin heard two sounds converging on them: the X-wing from ahead and the biker scout from behind. He looked over at the biker scout and saw him suddenly peel off, going back the way he had come as fast as he could. The X-wing fired a warning shot well behind the Imperial to discourage any thoughts he had about turning around, and then the X-wing circled back to the Coronas lying on the ground. The snubfighter locked its S-foils into cruise configuration and landed right next to the escapees. As they painfully pushed themselves to their feet and helped Chopper up, they saw Ikoa urgently waving them forward from her cockpit. They hurried forward, desperate to get away once and for all, but when they reached the X-wing they stopped, unsure how to escape with her. Suddenly Weas jerked his head and pulled Chopper over to the snubfighter's front landing strut. He quickly made Chopper sit on the skid and hold onto the strut. Weas himself ducked below the X-wing's nose above him and stood precariously on the other half of the skid, wrapped a leg and his bound arms around it as best as he could for balance, and grabbed onto Chopper to help keep him put. Quiver and Darin each ran to a main landing gear strut and sat on the skids. Even while sitting, Darin and especially Quiver had to duck down a bit as there was very little room between the skid on the bottom of the strut and the engine housing right above their heads. They also held onto the struts as well as their handcuffed wrists would allow. As soon as it seemed like they were all set, Darin yelled above the wind caused by the idling repulsorlifts and engines up to the astromech, "Rudder, go! And keep the gear down!" * Rudder, Ikoa's R2 unit, beeped in acknowledgment and quickly relayed the message to his pilot. Ikoa gritted her teeth when she read the message and realized what her squadmates were doing. She lifted up as gingerly as she could and moved forward slowly at first, then gradually picked up some speed as she became more comfortable with trying to fly low to the hilly ground while babying a nose-heavy snubfighter with a broken stabilizer. *** -Katie -----signature----- "Like anything worth writing, it came inexplicably and without method." -Karen Eiffel, _Stranger Than Fiction_ "Adamantine"--Rebel OC vig http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/30390799
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Mjsullivan Registered: Dec '03	Date Posted: 2/3/04 5:32pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, updated 2/3 - Date Edited: 2/3/04 7:27pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Mjsullivan
	Thumper.... I'll admit that, at the moment, i have only read the first chapter of this story, but so far...WHOA! Hands down, this story is everything i love about fan fiction. A good story, VERY well written AND absolutely wonderfully crafted OC's! Hurrah, an X-wing story that DOESN'T have Wedge as the leader. I love the original Trillogy and thereabouts. I am a big fan of the X-wing series, and my mantra is "You DON'T need Jedi and Sith to make your story exciting". Combine all these things with a passion for good OC's, and it leads me to your X-wing fic I am printing the remainder of the chapters now, and i'll be back to comment on them properly later. Until then, PLEASE keep this up! -----signature----- Working in Darkness - On Hiatus :::::: http://boards.theforce.net/The_Saga/b10476/15283754/p1
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Mjsullivan Registered: Dec '03	Date Posted: 2/3/04 7:27pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, updated 2/3
	Oh my dear sweet lord, what a wonderful start to this story. The first four chapters are so engaging, i dont even know where to start telling you how good this is. How about here: This story captures the style and ambience of the X-wing series incredibly well. You have progressed from the initial humourous and easygoing "squadmates" setting to the frantic and dramatic action very very well - which is something I really liked X-wing for. Chapter one Funny, Endearing, Purposeful. The defining moment of this chapter would have to be Quiver's briefing - and Mack's excellent entrance into the story: "What if the restaurant runs out of Savor Sauce before you get there? You're not planning on going during lunchtime and fighting the crowds, are you? And have you fully explored the option of delivery instead of take-out?" Gold The real briefing gets the job done well: it desribes what the Carona's need to do without being too in-depth and boring. Your characters are also immediately likeable (most of them, anyway ), especially the initial "trio" of Quiver, Darin and CC. I find that, by the end of this chapter i am starting to care about these characters. Chapter Two Oh the characterisation! Do you know what? Darin came to life in this chapter. This quote is what (for me) completely sold him as the protagonist in this story: "That's the Corporate Sector. My planet's in there somewhere. Redu–-" Darin cut himself off again and absently chewed on his bottom lip a little. Just as abruptly, he changed the subject slightly. "And you know what? We're so far away that I wasn't even born yet when the light we're seeing now left our sun and reflected off my homeworld to merge with and join the starlight out here, if that makes sense. There's no reflection of me in it, just as there's no reflection of the Empire's occupation in it quite yet. I wish it had stayed that way...the occupation part..." Wow - that really was original and so utterly utterly cool. At this point, Darin is the one who i'm sticking with for the whole story Your characterisation of the other characters was excellent too, again the "trio" in particular. I also got to like Weas alot more here, when he empathised with Darin's homesickness. Chapter Three The "lighter/action" chapter. Of course, when i say that, i'm comparing it to Chapter four. Which i wont go into just yet. There is no one part of this chapter that i liked - i liked it all. A good dogfight is always a great way to fire things up in a story. And yes, i was genuinely worried when CC went down! Now what i can't wait to see: More of Mackin. He's one of those dark horse characters that has that wonderful quality of command - like Wedge, i suppose, except with a more seasoned, fatherly quality. Looking forward to seeing him again Chapter Four Dark, Dramatic, Bittersweet. I had the absolute highest hopes that CC was still alive, just like Quiver and Darin most likely did. So imagine my sincere pain when CC was put down by those SITHSPAWN biker troops. There was a real feeling of helplessness that you portrayed greatly throughout the whole chapter. It's an area that hasn't really been explored in the X-wing series: X-wing pilots taken out of their comfortable environment, not in control, facing certain death at the hands of their captors. It was highly dramatic and depressing, well done Probably my favourite part was when you had Darin staring down the barrel of death for a while there. This comment from the trooper was great: "As for you, if you believe in an afterlife, you'd best make amends for your despicable life now." And then, the part that i called bittersweet: The speeder bike chase. Never have i heard of such a thing! Four people on one speeder - brilliance! No one said it had to be pretty Indeed! that was the best part of the speeder chase: it deteriorated so quickly as the Speeder bike fell to pieces, adding to the drama and action - as well as providing a good sense of realism. Finally, escaping on the landing struts was a good idea too Just to clarify: i love this story Thumper More soon, please! i have very little doubt that we will one day see this fic in the official archives of TFN. Thanks for the entertainment -----signature----- Working in Darkness - On Hiatus :::::: http://boards.theforce.net/The_Saga/b10476/15283754/p1
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