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Author	Topic: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, completed 3/30
LumiKuningatar Registered: Nov '03	Date Posted: 3/3/04 6:01am Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT-era, updated 3/2
	"This is not yet the worst day of my life, but it's getting very close very quickly," Darin mumbled weakly. -----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: 3/6/04 1:40pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, updated 3/6
	Thanks, Lumi. Okay, here's Tuesday's post, four days in advance. I won't have Internet access next week, but then everything should be back to normal the following Tuesday. ***** Chapter Nine Mackin and Weas were still having a quiet discussion beyond the nose of Mackin's X-wing when the cavern started to slowly lighten an hour later. Another hour after that, Slurry and Darin woke up Ikoa and Chopper to relieve them on watch. Darin was just about ready to fall blissfully into unconsciousness when Weas's silhouette approached him in the dim light. "Flight Officer Stanic," Weas said in a subdued voice. Darin looked up in mild surprise at the formality. "Sir?" "Come with me, please." Darin wearily pushed himself to his feet again and followed the XO over to where he and Mackin had been talking in the soft light of a glowrod. Mackin looked up as they approached and managed a small smile. "Have a seat, Thumper. Just be careful of our rocks." Darin looked down and barely made out some small rocks placed seemingly randomly in a small area on the ground, connected and surrounded by lines in the dirt. Guessing they were meant as some sort of planning map, he made sure to avoid hitting them as he sat down across from the other two pilots. When he looked up again, for the first time he noticed Mackin's and Weas's bloodshot eyes, and he wondered how long they had been awake since all this began. "Any reports over the comm?" Mackin asked. "Yes, sir," Darin answered. "They know they lost us in this area, so they're starting to do tight-beam scans of the entire canyon and valley while biker scouts patrol the surrounding woods. A tight-beam scan aimed in here will find us, sir." Weas and Mackin exchanged a look that suggested the news had just sealed their fates by forcing them into action. Mackin tiredly ran a hand through his black hair and then met Darin's gaze. "Lieutenant Weas and I have been discussing our situation at length, and we believe we have a plan to escape. However, we need a third person, and we believe you are our best candidate." Darin was a bit surprised, but he answered, "Anything, sir. Just tell me what to do." Mackin looked like he'd rather be doing anything but talking to Darin right then. "Hear the plan first, Flight Officer. Then decide." A red flag went up in Darin's brain, eclipsing the small glimmer of hope he had begun to feel at the prospect of escape. "Yes, sir," he said more carefully. Mackin nodded. "You know our situation: too many injuries and too few fighters to fly everyone out of here. We're essentially out of food, too, and we won't find any in this cave. So, unless we want to wait around for a rescue that may never show, we need to get some sort of ship that will allow us to get all our people out–-in other words, a small shuttle or transport. "We figure if one of us can get into the colony, that person will be able to steal a suitable transport and bring it back here, load it up, and escape. We might even get lucky and find an Imperial transport on the way to take instead. Regardless of where or how we find it, finding it is going to be my task. I'll need one of the X-wings to get to the colony. Lt. Weas is going to stay here with the remaining X-wing to guard the others in case something goes wrong." Mackin paused for such a long moment that Darin thought he was done and wondered if his tired brain had just missed something obvious. "Uh, sir? Then what do you need me for?" His commander seemed to snap out of his thoughts and looked again at the younger pilot. "The third person would be coming with me partway. With all the Imperials here looking for us, there's no way that I could survive getting into the colony on my own to look for a transport. Plus, they know we have two X-wings, so we're going to show them two X-wings." He took a deep breath and began to explain further. "I will drop off the third pilot at Quiver's X-wing, since from the reports I have, that one is damaged the least, and it's also close to being on the way. That pilot and I will head toward the colony, avoiding detection as long as possible. If we avoid it altogether that would be wonderful, but realistically I don't expect that to be the case. In any event, the closer we get to the colony before they spot us, the better off we'll be. "Once the inevitable dogfight starts, I'll fake a bad hit to my X-wing and go down as near to the colony as I can while out of their direct line of sight in the hills, probably using my last torpedo to trigger an explosion on the ground to give the impression of a crash while I actually land, since we can't have them picking up an ejection. Now, that would all be well and good except that if I was alone, the Imperials would come to investigate, find an intact X-wing and hunt me down within minutes, maybe less. There's no way that I could obtain a transport in that amount of time, so I need a distraction to pull their attention away from my ‘crash' and make them forget about me, writing me off as dead at least in the short-term in order to focus more on something else. That's where the third pilot comes in." Mackin took a second deep breath. "When I go down, the third pilot will need to draw them away from that area. The Imperials are undoubtedly monitoring different frequencies by now, so the pilot will put out a distress call that the Imperials will hear, calling any Rebel ships within range, which won't be any if that solar storm is still active and disrupts the signal beyond the magnetosphere, and saying that he's the last survivor and has important information to bring to the Alliance, something like that. Something to make the Imps believe that he's the last remaining target and they had better focus on him. Something to make as many of the Imperial ships currently engaged as possible go after him. Once he leads them far enough away, he does whatever he can to escape the system on his own. Meanwhile, by that time I should be in the colony securing a transport, which I'll fly back to get everyone else out. Then the rest of us will head out, escorted by Lt. Weas." Mackin stopped and studied Darin a bit, who had an unreadable, blank expression on his face. "That's the best plan we've been able to come up with, and with the Imperials breathing down our necks we don't have time to come up with another unless someone else has a good idea. "I will not order you to fly this mission, Darin. You can say no, and no one will hold it against you. But after seeing the way you handle your ship and how well you evade TIEs when you and Quiver play that bait game of yours, not to mention that because of that, you're somewhat more accustomed to having TIEs on you so you won't have as much tendency to panic when it happens...I hate to ask you to do this, but you're by far our best candidate. Think it over for a minute." Darin stared at the ground while that all sank in. His first reaction was to say no. He was scared and not at all ready to die yet, especially on a suicide mission like this; however, a few heartbeats later Darin felt guilty and selfish, and he tried to think things through a little more rationally. He knew he got impulsive when he got emotional, and now was not the time to be impulsive. He'd been hoping that his bleak assessment of their situation had just been pessimistic or unfounded, but as he realized that his leaders seemed to think the same way he began to get more nervous. They were all going to die here unless they could escape, and to escape, it sounded like they'd have to pull this off. What were the odds? Not good, he thought. Not good at all. He was going to die here. They were all going to die here. The Imperials would find them and kill them. He looked over his shoulder at the other pilots, their silhouettes barely visible in the muted light coming in from the cave's opening. All of them were injured. All of them were scared, though none would admit it. All of them were like family to him, the only family he had left. And all of them were going to die. ...Unless they pulled this off. The more Darin thought about it, the more he realized that Mackin was right–-he was the best choice for this ominous "third pilot" role, as much as he wished he wasn't. He often allowed TIEs to sit on his tail while Quiver snuck up behind them and picked them off, almost always without Darin getting hit by the TIEs himself, at least if Quiver was prompt. Whether he liked it or not, he was one of the best pilots in the squadron when it came to not getting hit if that's what he was solely focusing on, like he would be in this situation. Besides, if he didn't do it then someone else would have to, and he didn't want to push this off on someone else because he was too afraid to do it himself. Thumper honestly doubted that he'd be able to live with himself if his "replacement" was killed. Plus, there weren't that many left who were healthy enough to fly a fighter to the extent required by this plan, which narrowed the other choices considerably. Still unsure, Darin looked back at the ground in front of him and studied the rocks to distract himself a bit and give his mind a chance to breathe and sort things out. Now that he got a good look at it, he realized it was a map of the area, showing things like the canyon, the valley, the colony and each intact X-wing or crash site. There was a particular group of three rocks that he knew must be representing his X-wing and Quiver's, and where CC's had crashed. There were more rocks indicating the relative locations of Pellicer's and Snubber's snubfighters as well as Slurry's and Kalre's crash sites. His gaze found its way back to the rock he knew represented CC's fighter, or what was left of it. Darin blinked hard a few times and unconsciously fiddled with his wrist binders while he stared at the rock, knowing they'd suffer a fate similar to CC's if they were captured. They'd escaped that fate once already, and he didn't think they'd be lucky enough to do it again if the Imperials caught up to them. Darin's thoughts drifted back to CC's crash site, and in his mind's eye he saw the TIE fighter flying closely overhead and that long stretch of nothingness between him and his X-wing. All he would have had to do was get to his fighter, and things would have been a lot different. As much as he'd wanted to, he hadn't taken that big risk to help CC. To some degree he still intellectually knew it would have been suicidal, but then again, so was this. The others needed him to take that big risk for them now, and he wouldn't make the same mistake again when so much was at stake. So much was at stake..."I don't take orders from someone who makes such bad puns!" CC's teasing voice cut through his memory, putting Darin back in the briefing room just a mere couple of days before when his good friend had still been so alive. Now she was dead, and Quiver, his best friend, was almost as lifeless. That whole fake briefing by Quiver had been a farce, just a silly way to have some fun, but now Darin recalled some of his own words there and felt uneasy at how eerily similar they were to what he now faced. "That's a suicide mission! We'll never make it!" And Quiver's response to that, though Darin knew it had only been made jokingly, had stuck with him nonetheless: "We have to try, though, Thumper." They had to try. He had to try. Too much was at stake for him not to. Even if he ultimately wouldn't make it out alive, which he recognized as a distinct possibility, he had to do his best to make sure the others got the chance to avoid CC's fate or something worse...and that meant agreeing. Darin jerked his head up. "I'll do it, sir." Mackin nodded sadly. "All right, then. We'll brief the others on what we're planning, then the three of us will get some sleep. I don't want to commit to this just to discover too late that my sleep-deprived brain forgot something important. We'll go over it again just before we head out to ensure that and also to go over details. Okay?" "Yes, sir," Darin and Weas answered. "I'll get the others up," offered Weas as he rose and walked back to them. Darin and Mackin stood up stiffly. "I truly wish we had another way, but this is the most feasible one we could come up with," Mackin said quietly. "Just so I'm clear, Flight Officer, you do understand the full extent of the danger in that third pilot role, correct?" Darin nodded absently, looking back again at the other pilots as Snubber woke them. "Yes, sir," he said with considerably more courage than he felt. "I do." ***** "So that's the plan," Mackin said to the pilots as they stood at the nose of his fighter by the map of rocks. "Comments?" There was an uncomfortable silence until Kalre shook his head and said, "It'll never work, sir. You're betting too much on being able to find and steal a suitable transport without getting caught. Alone, no less. Plus, if you don't pull it off successfully, the Imps will have a much better chance of finding us, and we'll be much worse off." Pellicer nodded. "You're risking everything on this, sir. We could lose you and Nine and also be down to one fighter. Then what?" "Then Lt. Weas gets the promotion he's always wanted." Mackin smiled a bit and tried to make his words a joke, but the humor fell flat. "You should have more of us going," Ikoa added in agreement with the others. "Two X-wings is too few. Besides, what if the Imperials took them or something?" "We have to hope that the fighters are still where we left them–-yes, it is a risk. Anything more than two will be picked up by their more concentrated sensors around the colony while we're still too far away. Two is pushing it as it is." Chopper spoke up. "They have to have guards at the fighters. Once they see you coming, all they have to do is report that an X-wing's coming, and the Imps will know that if they see a second fighter after that, it'll have come from that site and there's another one still out there somewhere." Mackin nodded. "Good point, but it's covered. Rudder has assured me that jamming them won't be too difficult. As a backup, we can always transmit something on the Imperial tactical frequency to throw a little confusion into the mix." He paused, but was met with only silence. "If anyone has a better idea for a way to get off, now's the time. I'll be more than happy to listen." Mackin looked around, but no one offered anything. Quiver had been unusually quiet during the discussion, just standing next to Darin with his arms awkwardly crossed and looking more unhappy every minute. Suddenly he whirled around and grabbed Darin's arm, yanking him over toward the waterfall at the other end of the cavern. "Come 'ere," he grumbled. "Hey!" Darin said in surprise before letting Quiver tow him across the cavern. Quiver took him to the far side of Ikoa's snubfighter where he stopped and pinned an angry look on Darin. "Are you crazy?!" Darin was caught completely off-guard by his best friend's hostility. "What?" "Your role in this mission is suicide, Thumper. Suicide! What the hell were you thinking when you agreed to this?!" Quiver's anger started to become infectious as Darin hotly answered through his ragged emotions, "I know full well what I'm getting into. And you know what? Out of all the pilots able and available to fly now, I'm the one most likely to make it out of that alive. I know how to evade, Quiver. The others don't have the bait experience that I do. You of all people should know that." "And you of all people should recognize the difference here!" Quiver retorted, the roar from the waterfall behind him giving him the impression of being even more upset than he already was. "We're not talking about one or two TIEs on your tail with your wingman there actively trying to take them out. We're talking about five, six, seven, even potentially an entire squadron after you. And you'll be alone, which means the Imps will have no reason to stop chasing you. They will keep after you until they shoot you down." Quiver emphasized each of his last words. Darin narrowed his green eyes. "We'll all be dead soon anyway if we don't get off this rock. The Imps get closer to finding us every single second we're here, and I have no desire to be captured and executed. I'll take my chances in the air, thank you very much. And if doing it this way means you all have a better chance of getting out, that's really the only reason I need." Quiver was clearly getting fed up. "Didn't your near-death experience with the biker scouts teach you that that damn loyalty of yours is going to get you killed?! Why can't you learn that before you learn it the hard way?" "This is different!" Darin argued. Quiver lost the remainder of his patience and raised his voice considerably. "No it's not! It's not different, you're no different from anyone else, and your fate shouldn't be different! There isn't a person here who doesn't want to escape, since so many of us are hurt and especially after what happened to CC and what almost happened when we were caught! But there has to be a way to get all of us out safely! A suicide mission on your part isn't the answer!" Darin immediately matched Quiver's volume. "This is hard enough already, Quiver! Don't make it harder!" He spun and stalked back to the rest of the pilots, leaving Quiver there fuming and glaring angrily after him. There was dead silence when Darin returned to the group, and the majority of the pilots studiously avoided looking in his direction. When Darin parked himself in the spot where he had previously been standing and crossed his arms tightly, Mackin simply looked at him and asked, "Everything all right, Nine?" "Yes, sir," Darin answered through anger he was having trouble controlling. "Everything's fine." "Then I want everyone to get some rest and do what you can to get ready, okay?" Mackin said with an inaudible sigh. "Make sure the watches are covered. We'll aim to head out at sunset so we'll have the cover of darkness, unless we're forced out before then." As the pilots walked away to tend to their duties, Mackin motioned for Darin to stay. When everyone else was out of earshot, he came up to Thumper and quietly asked, "What's going on?" A small sigh of frustration escaped from Darin, who never met his commander's gaze. "Nothing, sir. Really." "You need better acting lessons." Mackin paused a moment, then said a bit more gently, "He's just worried about you, you know." "Yeah. Doesn't help, though." "I know." Mackin tried to smile at him. "Go get some rest, okay? Try to sleep if you can. A lot's going to happen soon." "Yes, sir." Darin slowly walked toward his sleeping area, then he lay down and buried his face in his arms and flak vest pillow. He tried to fall asleep, but the same person who could doze off on an X-wing's stiff, hard S-foil was having problems doing the same thing there on the cave floor. He could never get comfortable...either inside or out. ***** -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: 3/6/04 2:47pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, updated 3/6
	I love this story so much. I just really hope you aren't going to kill anyone, for a while at least. Otherwise I might lose my faith in the New Republic tacticians..; eagerly waiting for 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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_JM_ Registered: Jun '01	Date Posted: 3/6/04 6:37pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, updated 3/6
	Enjoyed the briefing, both real and humourous, and the stargazing was touching, a nice interlude that helped us get to know the characters better. Sad when CC died though I thought I understood the reasoning, better to kill someone quick than let them slowly die, but the Imperials were more ruthless than I was thinking. I wouldn't like to ride an X-Wing landing gear. I did like the fact that the Imperial Major wasn't completely stupid, he recognised the possibility that his comms were being tapped and used that against them. Quivers reaction was great, you can understand him desperately not wanting to lose another friend so soon and trying to convince Darin out of it. One reason why I think I like this story so much is because the Rebels are being hunted rather than, as in the (final) Rogue Squadron comic story arc Mandatory Retirement, being able to launch a series of attacks without being found. -----signature----- Seeming unable to just say "Nice post, I enjoyed it" Sometimes amazed at how "I'll reply tomorrow" becomes "I should have replied last week" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Return of a Jedi. http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/23421597
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Thumper09 Registered: Dec '01	Date Posted: 3/6/04 9:46pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, updated 3/6
	Thanks again, Lumi. Me? Kill another character? innocent expression Nothing to worry about. No one's even going to be put in harm's way...except Darin...and Mackin...and...um... And my curiosity is getting the better of me...what does that line in your signature mean? (The one starting with "Velvollisuus.") Welcome, _JM_! Thanks for all your comments. Sad when CC died though I thought I understood the reasoning, better to kill someone quick than let them slowly die, but the Imperials were more ruthless than I was thinking. I'm sure I haven't scored any points with people who like the Imperials with this story. This is more brutal than I usually write the Imperials, but I needed it emphasized in this. The Coronas just happened to run into an Imperial group who was taking the Rebel hunting between ANH and ESB very seriously. Quivers reaction was great, you can understand him desperately not wanting to lose another friend so soon and trying to convince Darin out of it. Yup, that's it exactly. I'm glad that came through. Hmm, it's been a while (too long, actually) since I read Mandatory Retirement. Maybe once class is done I can go through and read the X-wing comics again. Thanks again, everyone, and I'll see you all next week. -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: 3/7/04 5:20am Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, updated 3/6
	Velvollisuus on vuorta raskaampi, kuolema höyhentä kevyempi it's finnish and means that Responsibility is heavier than a mountain, but death is lighter than a feather... It's from one of Robert Jordan's books, I don't remember which one though... -----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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LumiKuningatar Registered: Nov '03	Date Posted: 3/15/04 12:35pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, updated 3/6
	where did you go all of a sudden? looks under her carpet you here... ? -----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: 3/15/04 5:56pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, updated 3/6
	Yeah, still here, just couldn't get online last week and Darth Real Life has been rather mean lately. Update's coming tomorrow. And I like that quote. Very thought-provoking. Thanks for the translation. -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: 3/16/04 8:02am Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, updated 3/6
	welcome.... -----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: 3/16/04 3:38pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, updated 3/16 - Date Edited: 3/16/04 3:54pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Thumper09
	Wahoo, Page Three. Without further ado... *** Chapter Ten There was still some dim light left in the cavern when Darin awoke from a fitful sleep. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, tried to ignore his growling stomach and went over to get a drink of water from the available consumables on the X-wings. Mackin was there, doing the same thing. "Get some sleep, Thumper?" he asked. Darin nodded. "A little, sir. How long until we go?" "Another two hours. Thirty minutes from now, suit up and we'll go over everything again." "Yes, sir." Mackin walked away. Darin finished his water and then ducked down to open the cargo hold in the belly of Mackin's fighter. All the strut-riders had stowed their bulky chestboxes in there when this all started, and Darin started looking for his; after a thorough search of the hold, however, it was apparent that his equipment wasn't there, even though the others were. Certain he had stashed it in the hold, he frowned in puzzlement and widened his search area to include the bare cavern floor in the immediate area, but he still couldn't find it. Darin was completely baffled. The next logical course of action was to ask someone about it. He looked up to do just that but hesitated. Most of the other pilots were sitting together beside Ikoa's X-wing, and it looked like they were trying very hard to have a normal conversation together. Thumper couldn't hear the topic of the talk over the waterfall's echoing noise, but he knew the specific topic wasn't necessarily important next to the act of having the conversation. Some of the Coronas were chuckling at something Slurry had said, and the Bilgana looked confused about why they were laughing so Pellicer started explaining something to him. Probably just a cultural difference. From that small amount of laughter and from the looks on some of the pilots' faces, Darin figured a few had been able to put their current situation out of their minds for at least a short time, and he had no desire to remind them of it again. Mackin and Weas were deep in their own conversation, so that left one person he could ask: Quiver. His wingman was sitting by himself against the cave wall a short distance down, working on something. Normally Quiver would have been talking with the others and enjoying their company, but he'd been unusually withdrawn ever since CC was killed. Darin briefly considered not going over there, wanting to avoid Quiver a bit more because of their fight, but he really needed to find his chestbox to see if he could patch up the hose somehow before he left. He hesitantly walked up to Quiver and tried to sound casual. "Hey, Quiver, have you seen my..." He trailed off as he looked down and saw Quiver with his missing chestbox plus another one. "–-Chestbox." Quiver glanced up. "Yeah, just a minute." He punched a few more buttons on one chestbox, hit a couple others on the second, then flipped the same switch on each. "There." He stood up and offered one to Darin. "Here you go." Darin looked at it in puzzlement. That was Quiver's chestbox, if he wasn't mistaken, and Darin's, the one with the cut hose, was still sitting on the ground. He turned his confused look to Quiver. "That's yours." "Don't worry, I adjusted it for you. I was going to just switch hoses, but we don't have the correct tools with us so it was easier to change box settings. Here, you're going to need it." When Darin realized that his wingmate was trading boxes and that Quiver would be keeping Darin's useless emergency life support system, he shook his head and didn't take the equipment. "Quiver, I–-" "If you protest," Quiver interrupted in a deliberate voice, "I will hurt you so much that no life support system in the galaxy could help you." He cocked his head a bit and shifted his tone of voice to a more reasonable one. "Think about it. If this all goes as planned, I'll be on the transport and I won't even need it. You will." He casually stepped beside Darin. "And you know you can use my X-wing if you want, but this will allow you to use yours if you so choose and have Botch there to help. You'll fly better in your own X-wing with him, and you'll need all the help you can get. Besides, we don't know how damaged my engine is after that wreckage fell on it. I don't know if I ever remembered to tell Mack about that. You can't use an X-wing that only has three good engines for something like this, especially when going up against TIEs, which are faster to begin with." Darin nodded slowly, still somewhat bewildered at the situation; because of that, he wasn't sure if he was joking or not when he heard himself saying, "Well, I can't reach your rudder pedals anyway, and I know how bent out of shape you get when someone adjusts your seat." "That's right–-I'd forgotten about that," Quiver said thoughtfully. He calmly reached over and put Darin in a headlock with his left arm. "Take the good chestbox, you crazy Cracian. My seat is perfect. Don't you touch it." "Okay, okay!" Darin surrendered, feeling a little better now that Quiver was reverting a bit to his old antics. "You know, when I get there I should move it just to annoy you." Quiver sighed, barely seeming to notice Darin's half-hearted struggles to get free. "When you stop to think about it, it's really a shame that we're all about to die. I mean, we can't let Slurry go to his grave without knowing about that time you–-" "Okay, okay, okay!" Darin interrupted loudly. He softly elbowed Quiver in the side, and Quiver released him. "I'll get you for that," Darin said, trying to smile in spite of his sore back's protests as he straightened up. Quiver sobered as he looked Darin straight in the eye. "I certainly hope so." He thrust the working chestbox at Darin, then leaned down to pick up the damaged one. Quiver started to walk away toward Mackin's X-wing, but stopped and looked over his shoulder at Darin just long enough to say, "Chopper won't be flying anytime soon–-I'll go steal his chestbox and set up that one for you too. Then you can have a backup, and it'll double the time you can spend in space between escaping and reaching safety. If you want any more, just let me know. We've got a bunch." * "You know, I think I'm more scared of the upcoming strut-ride than I am of anything else," Darin said to Quiver with a nervous half-grin. He absentmindedly itched a cut on his face, then when he lowered his arm he brushed his hand against a hip pocket. Earlier, Darin had decided to take along the rock that had been representing CC's fighter on Mackin's tactical map, and he was reassured to still feel it in his pocket. He wasn't sure why he kept it, except maybe for some sentimental reasons, but he hoped it would give him a little bit of good luck in this escape attempt. The Coronas were all gathered around Ikoa's snubfighter next to the cavern opening, about to see off Mackin and Darin. Most of the pilots were subdued and not saying much. Quiver looked down at his wingman and quietly said, "You'll be fine as long as you hang on. Then all you have to do is hang on until you can get away from here." "And you'd better be hot on my six," Darin told him as he saw Mackin indicate that it was time to go. He patted Quiver's uninjured shoulder before he stepped away and sat on the nose skid, getting his customary death grip on the strut after fastening his belt around it. Chopper's auxiliary life support system was strapped to Darin's back for use after his first one was depleted. Mackin hadn't been happy about it, but he was allowing Darin to fly his own X-wing with Botch as long as he had the working chestboxes. Darin couldn't help but wonder if he agreed in order to fulfill the condemned pilot's last request or something like that. Thumper hadn't taken any more chestboxes since he figured with two of them, he'd now run out of fuel before he ran out of air so bringing additional ones wouldn't necessarily help him. Once he was settled on the skid, Darin looked back at the Coronas. Quiver, barely visible except for the light of a glowrod Slurry was holding, was watching him with an odd expression that Darin had never seen before and didn't know how to read. The other pilots were looking between Darin and Mackin. Some strange combination of hope that the plan would actually work and sad resignation that it probably wouldn't was evident on most of their faces, though he also saw appreciation and a few gazes that seemed to be seeing the "rookie" in a whole new light. Thumper wasn't sure what his own expression was telling those he was leaving behind, but he sure knew what was on his mind. He wanted nothing more than to see all the Coronas again and would have given anything to ensure that happened. He hoped they lifted off before he changed his mind and stayed. Then Kalre shook his head and stepped up to the X-wing just as Mackin climbed into the cockpit. "Commander, there has to be a better way. Don't do this. It'll never work." "I figured the Battle of Yavin would have taught you at least one thing," said Mackin while he readied the fighter. "And what's that?" Mackin stopped and looked down at the Rodian. "You say something's impossible, but the impossible has happened. Never underestimate it." He looked back out at the rest of the pilots. "Be back before you know it. Snubber will take good care of things in the meantime." He made sure Darin was secure, then he closed the canopy and fired up the repulsorlifts as the Coronas backed away to give him room. He backed out of the cavern, the water impacting the snubfighter with a loud noise and also jostling it hard as the craft passed through, and with that they were gone. *** The light was quickly fading from the sky and some stars were beginning to appear as the X-wing skimmed above the ground on its way to pick up Darin's fighter. Darin's dark-adapted eyes were able to pick out the silhouettes of his and Quiver's X-wings as they approached. Then he saw two white figures taking up positions behind the craft. Clinging to the strut with one arm and trying to keep it between himself and the Imperials, he pulled out his blaster and aimed as well as he could, squinting against the wind. The instant they were in range, he fired. Due more to luck than anything else, he somehow managed to hit one in the arm as the other got to an E-web and opened fire on the approaching snubfighter. The laser bolts splashed harmlessly against Mackin's shields. Searing heat flashed past Darin as a laser from Mackin's X-wing took out two more who were hurriedly setting up a missile launcher beside the grounded fighter, and Darin's shots killed the remaining two, including the one he'd injured previously. Doing his best to avoid looking at CC's crash site, Darin jumped down onto the top of his X-wing's S-foil once Mackin brought his strut next to it. A quickly-offered grin to Botch faded when Darin saw a restraining bolt on his droid. He paused just long enough to aim carefully and shoot it off before he holstered his blaster once more. He turned to walk to his cockpit, but before he could take a step, a blaster bolt flying right through his path made Darin jump. When he looked up, he saw Mackin's canopy open and the commander now bringing his handheld blaster back inside while he landed. A quick glance at the ground on the other side of Darin's fighter where Mackin had been aiming showed a biker scout dead on the ground that Darin had not seen initially. Thumper mentally scolded himself to pay more attention to his surroundings, and he was very grateful that Mack had been looking out for him and had seen the danger in time. He started toward the cockpit again, walking over the canopy and onto the nose. Darin reached down to open the canopy but paused when Botch shrieked at him. "Not now, Botch! We're lifting!" Botch shrieked again. Darin sighed in exasperation and hurried back to him. "What?!" As Darin read Botch's small text display, his mood changed abruptly, and he went completely pale. "The canopy's booby-trapped?" he practically squeaked out. "Where? How do I disarm it?" Port side, at the seal, Botch replied. I believe you just need to cut the wires. It's not sophisticated. Darin looked around helplessly. "But I don't have anything to cut–-" He stopped when something on the ground caught his eye, and he jumped down to get it, trying to avoid the dead biker scout. It turned out to be a small piece of warped grey metal, blackened on the edges, and was probably part of CC's fighter at one time. He tested the edge and figured it was sharp enough to work. Darin's mind was whirling so much that he just then realized he could also use a piece of his broken canopy window to cut the wires. He stopped again as he stared at the metal in his hand. His canopy window...He spun around, looking for larger pieces of wreckage nearby. Darin felt extremely morbid, but he quickly gathered a few pieces that together would cover most of his window. If he could "board it up" from the inside with those, it wouldn't be completely airtight, but it would certainly help. "Nine, what are you doing?" Mackin called. "We have to go!" "Coming, sir!" Darin ran back to his fighter with his finds and hurriedly cut through the booby-trap's wires. The device was small, and he never would have seen it without Botch telling him about it. Also, Darin had never even considered the possibility of a trap like that. As he worked, he raised his voice to be heard above Mackin's idling repulsors and told him about the trap. Then Darin climbed up onto his own X-wing with his large scraps of metal, walked down to the X-wing's nose again, bit his lower lip, held his breath and pulled the canopy up. The hydraulics opened it quite serenely. Nothing exploded. Darin exhaled in relief and stepped onto his seat. He stashed the backup chestbox under his seat and the wreckage behind. He'd wait until later to board up his window so he'd still have visibility; besides, if he did it in orbit while trying to pressurize his cockpit, the pressure difference between inside and outside would help the pieces stay in place. Mackin called to him, "We have to hurry." "Be right there, sir." Botch had already started powering up the fighter, and Darin shoved on his helmet and finished as fast as he could, happy to be on the inside of the starfighter again. The two pilots simultaneously closed their canopies, lifted up, retracted their gears and sped as fast as they could in terrain-following flight toward the colony. *** The remaining Corona Squadron pilots waited anxiously in the cavern. All of their heads jerked up when they finally heard traffic on the squadron frequency, which Mackin and Darin would now be using in wide-beam after discovery so the others could hear what was happening. "Nine, we have fighters approaching." "Copy, Lead. I see them." Quiver smiled grimly for a brief moment as he heard Darin yelling into his mic over the wind noise in his cockpit. At least that meant that he was partnered with Botch. Darin's odds just got a little better: he worked better with Botch than with any other astromech, and that could potentially mean the difference between life and death in a dogfight, especially one where the odds were so skewed. "They've seen us, Nine. Turn on your IFF: I need to be able to see you. I'll do the same. S-foils to attack formation." "Yes, sir." The grounded pilots listened as Mackin and Darin entered the dogfight. In no time at all, it seemed, they began using the code phrases to indicate they were starting their plan. "Nine, I just lost three of my engines! I can't hold it!" "Three engines" meant Mackin had found a suitable place to "crash." "Not being able to hold it" meant he was about to stage the impact. "Lead, no! Eject! Eject!" Following the script, the double command to eject indicated that Darin knew Mackin was okay and was not really in trouble. "I can't, I–-" Mackin's voice was cut off. The Corona pilots looked at each other uneasily. Even though they knew it was fake, it was still eerie to listen to. A second later they heard Darin call out in distress, "Lead, no! Not you too! Why didn't you eject?! Why?!" The rhetorical question about ejecting meant that Darin had seen the explosion from Mackin's torpedo on the ground and they each were on their own, which was further evidenced when the next transmission that came through the Coronas' comm system was on the emergency channel. "Mayday, mayday! To any Alliance ships in range! This is Corona Nine. I'm–-" He broke off for a moment, then resumed. "I'm on the planet Lokinha. My fighter is damaged, everyone in my squadron is dead, and–-" Another pause. "And I have six TIEs after me. I have vital information that I must bring back! Any Alliance ships, please respond!" Ikoa glanced at Quiver, and she must have seen his pained expression because she quietly came over and squeezed his left shoulder. She tried to smile up at him. "He'll be okay." Quiver worriedly looked down at the small woman, his eyes dull. "I'm going to lose them both, Ikoa. First CC, now him." "Don't say that." "I wish I could convince myself that the fear in his voice was just from him being a good actor, giving the Imps a good performance to make it sound realistic, but I know it's not." He looked back at the comm system. "He must honestly mean it because he's a horrible actor, especially when he's nervous." "Maybe you can give him some lessons when we get back," Ikoa suggested gently. Quiver nodded absently, barely hearing her. His attention was once again focused on the comm traffic. *** -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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_JM_ Registered: Jun '01	Date Posted: 3/17/04 2:21am Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, updated 3/16
	Small side note, in Isards Revenge Corran Horn lost a canopy pane and he was able to reach under his seat for a repair kit (consisting of a duraplast panel and a tube of sealant). Could be something introduced after the Coronas get home and make a report, could have been something that CorSec (or CorranSec ) added. I only remembered because I had a pilot crash and use the tube of sealant to repair a crack in his survival kit canteen. Still make me feel sorry for Darin though having to board his canopy up with little chunks of stuff. Poor guy can't catch a break. When I read that his chestbox was missing I though for a moment that Quiver had taken it so that Darin couldn't go, this seemed a little unlikely as it would be rather childish (like a small kid hiding his parents shoes so they can't go out) but I'd forgotten that Darins chestbox had been damaged. Glad that although Quiver doesn't want to lose another friend that he is reacting to this by working to maximise Darins chances rather than retreating from the reality and trying not to think about it. Thought occurs that if the Imperials had some black camouflage cloaks to cover their white armour (in the same way that Arctic troops have white cloaks to blend in with snow) then the plan would have rather foundered right there as blaster bolts came out of the darkness. I like hearing the dogfight via the comm traffic and hearing the reactions of the other Corona Squadron pilots. Very effective, especially with the doubts over how much is acting and how much is genuine fear and tension. Looking forward a lot to the next installment. -----signature----- Seeming unable to just say "Nice post, I enjoyed it" Sometimes amazed at how "I'll reply tomorrow" becomes "I should have replied last week" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Return of a Jedi. http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/23421597
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LumiKuningatar Registered: Nov '03	Date Posted: 3/17/04 5:13am Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, updated 3/16
	I really loved Darin and Quiver's interaction. And I mean really loved it -----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: 3/19/04 8:38pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, updated 3/16
	slips in, deciding to procrastinate from homework for a while JM, Could be something introduced after the Coronas get home and make a report, could have been something that CorSec (or CorranSec ) added. Heh heh, cool! There's certainly enough time between the stories for that to happen... I really need to reread the Rogue books--it's been too long. Maybe after this evil class is over... <insert assorted grumblings here> I have so many stories (online and books) I want to read and catch up on... Glad that although Quiver doesn't want to lose another friend that he is reacting to this by working to maximise Darins chances rather than retreating from the reality and trying not to think about it. Great, I'm glad that came through. Thought occurs that if the Imperials had some black camouflage cloaks to cover their white armour (in the same way that Arctic troops have white cloaks to blend in with snow) then the plan would have rather foundered right there as blaster bolts came out of the darkness. Y'know, I never thought of that. That's a very good point. I'll have to remember it for the next time a situation like this comes up. Plus, when I wrote those scenes, I kept having to remind myself that they were taking place at night. I kept picturing it as daytime in my head, so that certainly didn't help. Thanks for all your comments. Lumi, I really loved Darin and Quiver's interaction. Thanks. Those two are so much fun to write. Glad you liked it. Update coming on Tuesday. -Katie looks at pile of homework and wishes she could make all her characters do it for her pictures this strange scene with the Coronas doing her class project follows the scene along for a bit, up until the point when the Coronas get bored doing this "kid's stuff" and decide to have a food fight instead yells at them to clean up the mess decides she's been just a little too stressed out lately -----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: 3/21/04 2:37am Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, updated 3/16
	I'll be waiting, more or less patiently. I have to just remember that patience is a virtue, isn't it? Damn, it's going to be hard to sit still.. -----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: 3/23/04 2:38pm Subject: RE: Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, updated 3/23 - Date Edited: 3/23/04 3:29pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Thumper09
	Next installment. ***** Chapter Eleven It was the first thing that had gone right on the mission since they'd landed three days ago. It hadn't started out that way, though. While he and Darin were dogfighting, Commander Mackin had gotten his first good visual look of the colony and surrounding terrain, or at least as good as it could be in the darkening evening. At first he had thought the plan was over before it even started: while the colony was in the hills, he hadn't seen a suitable out-of-sight landing spot near enough to it to get him and Rudder inside the colony in any short amount of time. In this plan, time was his enemy, and it had had him surrounded and at blasterpoint. Then finally, their luck changed. Mack spotted a processing plant on the far outskirts of the colony, one that used hazardous materials so there was a safety buffer of building-free land around it. He could get there quickly since it was so isolated and buried deep in the hills. He smiled a small, grateful smile and began setting up to "crash." Now, just a short time later, Mack was crouched beside Rudder and trying to stay out of sight. He felt much too obvious in his bright orange flight gear. "Come on, Rudder," he hissed impatiently. The R2 unit swivelled its domed head to flash a few lights at the pilot in annoyance while it continued trying to override the lock on the side door to the plant's shipping and receiving bay. Finally the little droid beeped softly in triumph, and the door opened. Mackin slipped inside, ducked behind a cargo container and looked around. There was a row of small landspeeders, likely the workers' personal vehicles. Against the wall nearest the bay doors were what Mackin was looking for: a few transports with cargo containers stacked beside them, awaiting loading. There was something else in the bay as well: a group of workers all standing at a window and talking amongst themselves about the huge explosion they'd seen, heard and felt nearby. They were making guesses at what it was and telling those who hadn't seen it how it had lit up the night when a supervisor came over and ordered them all back to work. Mackin could tell that some of them were uneasy at how close the "fireball" had come to hitting them, and he decided to use that to his advantage. He crept as quickly as he could to the nearest alarm station on the wall. He needed the dock emptied fast so he wouldn't be seen, and nothing was faster than an emergency evacuation of a hazardous materials handling plant whose workers were already skittish about their surroundings. The dock was vacated a very short time later, and the alarms covered up the sound of Mackin's footfalls as he ran to the nearest transport that he recognized as having a hyperdrive. Rudder was just rolling up the loading ramp when Mackin finished powering the transport and bringing its systems online. The pilot sealed the doors and doublechecked the fuel quantity gauges while the droid queried the ship's computer to learn how to open the bay doors. A minute after that, the transport disappeared into the night. *** The commander of Corona Squadron flew as fast as he could back toward the valley. He met no immediate resistance and figured Darin had done a good job of leading most of the Imperial air forces away. While they might have been able to sneak out of the valley before while the Imperials were occupied with their tight-beam searches, he doubted he could sneak back in with the Imperials certainly on the alert for something now after the dogfight with him and Darin. He turned to the Rebellion's scrambled tactical frequency so he could call Lt. Weas and tell him to be ready to provide cover as he came in, and he told Rudder to plug into the console and decrypt it. Mackin was surprised to hear traffic already coming over the channel. As he tried to make out the static-filled words, he saw on his scope the blinking dots of TIE fighters moving toward him from around the river valley. Someone must have detected him peeling out of the colony without clearance, or more likely, one of the evacuated workers had seen the ship leave (it would have been hard to miss) and reported it. He wondered if he could bluff his way through whatever he might be asked by the Imperials about his intentions, or if they would just skip that and go straight to forcing him down. Given the circumstances, it wouldn't be hard for them to assume he was a Rebel, and they would take precautions. Mack quickly started running through even halfway-plausible excuses for the transport's unauthorized flight while Rudder cleared up the tactical frequency's signal. "–-peat, th–-...-–ke Lea–-...Coro–-...–-nel, plea–-" The pilot's brow furrowed as he began to make out pieces of the words. "Rudder, can you clean that up any more?" The droid beeped, and an instant later Mackin heard the voice again, still distorted but much more clear this time. "Quake Leader to any Corona Squadron personnel, respond." Mackin hesitated a brief moment, but then hit the transmit button. He knew there was a chance it was a fake transmission, a lure, but the voice sounded enough like Major Unirt, the Quake Squadron commander, for Mackin to decide to take the risk and respond. He felt his hopes rising–-if this was legitimate, they just might get out of this yet. "This is Corona One. We could sure use some help down here." "That's what we're here for, One. We're coming in right above a transport heading to the north side of the valley. What's your situation?" "I'm in the transport. If you can clear those incoming TIEs for me and any other hostiles in the valley, I'd be most appreciative. And I have another pilot, Corona Nine, out alone beyond the colony somewhere or possibly in orbit by now. Can you spare some help for him if you can find him?" "Affirmative, One, we'll do what we can." The lights on the Y-wings were now visible off Mackin's starboard side, and as they angled in to intercept the Imperial fighters two Rebels peeled away, going back in the direction Mackin was coming from. Quake Lead's voice came through again. "We were at the edge of the system trying to get intel before coming in when we picked up parts of a distress call saying the whole squadron was dead. Are you two the only survivors?" "Negative, I'm going in for my pilots now, Quake Lead. I'll explain later." "Copy, Corona One." "Corona Eight to Corona Lead, what's going on?" Weas asked over the comm. "Do we have a rescue outside?" "Affirmative, Eight, we've got help." Mackin glanced around as he entered the valley, but as far as he could tell the Quake Squadron pilots had engaged all of the Imperial forces. "Is everyone ready? I'll be there in a second." "We're waiting hot for you, Lead." * Weas, in Mackin's fighter, was floating on repulsorlifts outside next to the transport and was keeping a sharp lookout for any enemies. Another laser cannon had been broken off by the waterfall on the fighter's way out of the cave. Meanwhile, Mackin struggled to keep the small transport in place as he hovered against the cavern opening, with the waterfall pounding down mercilessly on the ship from above. After an initial amazed hesitation at seeing the ship, the rest of the Coronas started cautiously jumping into the open hatch as the deployed loading ramp banged up and down against the ground. It was a challenge getting Chopper aboard with his broken leg, but they managed it. Slurry poked his head into the transport's cockpit a minute later. "I was the one last. We're clear." Mackin nodded. "Hold on, everyone," he called. He pulled away from the waterfall and flew off, followed by Weas in the X-wing a moment later. "Quake Leader, I have my pilots and we're on our way out." "Copy, Corona Lead. We're picking up some fighters coming down from orbit; give us a few minutes to deal with them and the mines." "Copy, we'll wait." Mackin began using the time to try contacting Darin on first the squadron frequency and then the Rebellion's tactical frequency, but he got no response. He stopped when Quiver and Ikoa made their way up front to join Mackin. Quiver looked at the transport's scope briefly. "Are we clear?" "There's another batch coming in from orbit, but the Quakes seem to be holding them off rather well so far," Mackin answered. "They want us to hang back while they clear a path for us." "I want my X-wing, sir," Quiver said suddenly. Stunned, Mackin looked up at him. "What?" "I want to go back for my X-wing. We have a bit of time now. Just drop me off there, and I'll fly out in it." "Ten, are you out of your mind?" "Sir, this squadron now has one, maybe two X-wings. There's no way we can operate with that few, and it will take forever to get that many replacements. We have a couple good fighters down there, and the Quakes are buying us some time. You said they don't even want us to follow yet. At full throttle, our fighters aren't far." "Commander," Ikoa said, "he's making a good point. I'll fly Snubber's. Scoop's hyperdrive can be replaced or repaired later if he can jump out on another ship. It would more than double what we have now and give us added protection on the way out. Plus the Imperials wouldn't get them after we leave." Mackin thought hard for a long moment, weighing the risks and wondering if that was honestly why Quiver wanted his fighter. He couldn't deny that the reasoning was sound, though, and after another glance at the scope he punched in a frequency to call Weas, adjusted his course and applied full throttle. He hoped he wouldn't regret this. "Eight, follow me. We're making a slight detour." *** Darin had never flown so recklessly in his life...but then again, he'd never been trying to escape from four TIEs before, either. It had been six to begin with, but he'd managed to down two of them somewhere along the way. He spun and twisted and dove so much that there were times he thought he'd make himself sick even with the inertial compensators. He'd actually lasted longer than he had expected to, but another hit from behind, which brought his shields down to a mere 14%, reminded him that he wasn't out of the proverbial asteroid field yet. He pulled into a steep climb to put more distance between his fighter and the darkness-hidden ground. As he leveled out, a laser blast hit his lower port S-foil from beneath, rocking his fighter violently. More diagnostics went from green or yellow to red. Darin mentally added the lower port laser cannon to the list of things damaged into nonoperation including his communications, sensors, IFF, repulsors and landing gear deployment. He was also out of torpedoes. "Botch, we need those shields!" His R5 blatted at him as if to say, "You do your job, I'll do mine." Darin didn't bother to read the display of Botch's words and instead dove over into the bottom half of an inverted loop, which caused the ground to fill his forward windows. He snapped a few shots at one of the TIEs that ended up in his sights as a result. Rolling out of the loop and leveling off, Darin spotted one of the raised aqueducts going from the west side of the colony into the distance where the terrain was more hilly. He hadn't realized he'd gone so far from the colony, but he had more pressing issues to worry about. He chewed on his lip as he throttled up toward the aqueduct. The TIEs stayed on his tail. Darin slowed as much as he dared, judged the distance between the aqueduct's support pillars and started to randomly slalom between them, praying he wouldn't miss seeing one in the darkness. The first Imperial fighter tried to follow, but its wing clipped a pillar and sent the TIE out of control. Finally it exploded on impact with the ground, and the light from that fireball momentarily illuminated the other TIE fighter that successfully began to follow the Rebel. The last two TIEs, which had been farther back to begin with, evidently weren't going to be pulled in as easily. Instead of following in the slalom, they flew directly above the aqueduct. One began firing at the aqueduct immediately in front of and above Darin. "Blast it, I can't get away!" Darin said, fighting the urge to panic. He'd been out there a long time, and his nerves were wearing thin from the pressure. He pulled sharply out from under the crumbling structure before it could rain down on him and shot off, trying to outrun the TIEs overhead that had now turned to come after him. The other TIE came out of the slalom and followed as well. Darin was managing to evade the majority of the shots, but every ten successes seemed worthless next to a single failure. Another hit brought his shields down to next-to-nothing, and he knew he couldn't hold out any longer: sticking around would mean certain death. Hoping he had bought Mackin enough time, he transferred all the laser power to his engines and corkscrewed full-throttle toward orbit. Thumper prayed he could outrun the Imperials long enough to jump to hyperspace, but it wasn't more than five seconds later when two more shots punched through his faltering shields, taking out his targeting computer, another laser cannon and most of his weapons controls as well as causing him to lose power to one of his engines. "No! Come on, don't die on me!" he begged his fighter as it involuntarily slowed. Cockpit alarms were blaring loudly. Darin shut them off and put all his effort into randomly jinking and juking while trying to look in all directions at once to spot the TIEs. Without his sensors or targeting scope, he was blind, and visually finding dark-colored fighters against a night sky was practically impossible unless they were firing. Botch patched through his own sensor readings to the X-wing's computer, and while the droid's sketchy, somewhat-delayed readings weren't nearly as good as the snubfighter's, they were at least something. Darin felt a little better. However, that heartened feeling only lasted another second until he looked at his engine diagnostics. Then, his racing heart and a sinking feeling in his stomach accompanied the realization that he now could not outrun or outfly the Imperials, so he put some power back to his lasers and hoped he still had enough weapons systems to fire, though he wasn't sure how much good that could ultimately do him. He couldn't run and he couldn't effectively fight so he tried thinking of something else to do, but the same four unbidden, unhelpful options kept coming to mind: he could eject and be captured, surrender and be captured, be blown up and die, or crash and either be captured or die. A laser bolt narrowly missed his cockpit. He desperately tried to think of a fifth option. Suddenly Botch beeped excitedly at him and patched through a transmission that the droid's own very-short-range comm was picking up. "Quake Six to Corona Nine, come in. You read?" Darin's breath caught in his throat as he heard the unexpected Option Five. He responded without a second thought. "This is Corona Nine. I need help!" He had a feeling he would have yelled that even if he didn't need to shout above the wind noise in his cockpit. "Hold on, we'll be right there." "Where are you?" Darin asked as he jerked aside to avoid another salvo of laser bolts. "A lot of my systems are down–-I have no readouts!" "We're straight ahead of you, coming your way. Be there in four seconds." Three seconds later, Darin saw the two Y-wings heading right for him, turning slightly to pass him on either side. Their red lasers flew past, impacting the TIE fighters that had been trailing him and had broken off to meet this new threat. After a few more passes, Quake Six contacted him again. "You're all clear, Corona Nine. Sorry for the delay, but it took us a while to find you. Lucky we did, though–-we had already stayed longer than we were allowed to, so you saved us from getting in trouble when we get back. We'll escort you up and clear a path through those mines for you." Feeling overwhelmed with the suddenness at which he went from being about to die to having a solid prospect of escape, Darin said, "Thanks, Quake Six. You two and your gunners can have as many drinks as you want on me." He opened his mouth to ask about the other Coronas, but then he stopped. What if the wrong people were listening in on the frequency and overheard? After all this, he couldn't risk compromising the Coronas. But these were the Quakes, their shipmates–-even if an Imperial overheard, the Quakes would help them all get out, assuming they knew the other Coronas were still here. Besides, it was killing Darin to not know if they were okay, especially now that help had arrived. He couldn't just leave without them...like he was supposed to...The conflict grew in him again as he began wondering what the repercussions would be if he deviated from his part of the plan, the "lone survivor" role. Would he end up hurting something he wasn't aware of, something Mackin was counting on to get them all out alive? That all ran through his mind in a split second, and he still didn't know what to do when he heard Quake Six chuckle and say, "Hey, Five, maybe we should save the Coronas more often if we get drinks out of the deal." "Careful, Nine, if the other Quakes catch wind of that offer you'll have them following you around like lovesick mynocks," said Quake Five. "Let's go. Your squadmates are probably wondering where you are." That caught Darin's attention, and the desperation to confirm what he had just heard made him forget his caution. He responded without thinking. "My squadmates? You mean...they're okay?" "As far as I know. They've already jumped out of the system with Star and the other Quakes." Darin hadn't thought it was possible to feel more relieved than he had after the Quakes saved him, but he did. He actually laughed out loud in pure joy and almost missed Quake Five's next words of, "You're pretty shot up. Can you make it out?" Thumper gave an elated, shaky sigh to bring his voice under control. "I think so, Five. I'll be going just on emergency life support up there, so I can't stay very long. I've got two chestboxes though. But–-" Darin suddenly remembered the pieces of wreckage he had stashed behind his seat. "Wait, that's right, I might be able to cover my window enough to partially pressurize my cockpit. Mind keeping an eye out for me while I land and patch it up?" "No problem." A screen in front of Darin lit up with a text message from Botch reminding him he couldn't land without repulsors and a landing gear. Darin's smile disappeared, and he cursed to himself. Why wasn't anything ever easy? Out loud he said, "Blast it, I forgot I can't land. Botch, take the controls and just fly us in circles for now. I'll have to try attaching the pieces up here." "Copy, Corona Nine," Quake Six replied. "We'll fly cover while you do that. Just don't take too long." "Don't worry, I have no desire to stick around any longer than I absolutely have to." "How long have you been alone out here?" Darin exhaled as he awkwardly pulled the pieces out. He could actually feel the tension dissipating. "Way too long, Five. Way too long." ***** (Wait, we're not done yet! Another post is coming next week.) -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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