Saga A Question Of Honor -- (OCs, Red Squadron cameos, pre-ANH) COMPLETE

Enjoyed "Why? I haven't seen a single security guard since we came onboard," Thix said. versus "There, there, over by that Toydarian's stall, there, over there, and back over by the turbolift,"

Also enjoyed the snap-together blaster.

From the sounds of the yacht they?d be better off taking the ore hauler and leaving the hauler crew on the yacht (having disabled communications), but that might be too blatant for the Reds to accept.

 

JM: You've actually touched on something with that thought--leaving the crew in the yacht--that I'm going to be coming back to in the last post of the story. Glad you're liking it! I'll be back to this computer within a few days to post the next bit.

 

Glad to see you're back, Z, even if it's only sporadically. Congrats on the job.

Great post. I really liked Grant's "pointy wit" comment and the part where he "really wanted to be a pirate again."

If they could come away with both the torpedoes and the hauler, that would really clinch the win for them.

Lookin' forward to more!

-Thumper

 

Aha - I re-found you. I enjoyed your other story and thought I'd see if you had written more - and whammo I found this. This is marvellous, especially the banter. I agree - it does have that same fell to it as early MASH did.

Kesa is my favourite at the moment, and I laughed at the guys' reaction to her illegal weapons. Actually I've done a lot of laughing reading this - so thanks. Great idea for a story.

 

I've just reviewed this story on the review thread at the Writers' Resource Forum here.

 

I went through three different drafts to the ending. One was really long and detailed them stealing the torpedoes and the trip back, etc., one was just a long but slow scene of them conversing with the Reds, and this third one is the shortest of the three and leaves a lot to the imagination, but I think it works best for the episodical feel of the stories. Here's the wrap-up:

-----

Apparently, the landing struts on the yacht had either seen too many landings or simply refused to tolerate the weight of the cargo onboard. When the ship touched down on the landing field on Yavin IV, they settled nicely into the earth. A moment later, the sound of rending metal rang out across the field, and the ship crunched to the earth in an undignified heap.

"Oh, that's nice. That's just so nice of you. Thank you so much for destroying my yacht," accused Sergeant Cap Dryden as the three Nothing Squadron pilots strode down the off-kilter boarding ramp. Thix stopped and turned, surveying the flattened landing struts. He sighed heavily and flung an arm around Cap's shoulder, speaking with a philosophical tone.

"It was just her time to go, Cap. Birth, death, manufacture, landing strut malfunction--it's all part of the great circle of stuff."

"Tell that to my boss," Cap said, frowning and rubbing his chin.

"On a more interesting note, we've gotten what we went for," Thix continued. "So you can look forward to some imminent liquor sales coming your way from Red Squadron."

"Speaking of the Reds," Cap said, suddenly serious. "They're all up in a tiff over something. Came to me to try and get a ship, same as you, after they couldn't check out their X-Wings without a good reason. But they didn't give me a good one, either, so I couldn't help them. Besides, you took the only ship I had available--and now look at it."

"They probably got wind of our leads and wanted to toss a spanner in the drive motivator," Kesa said. She was busy disassembling her snap-together blaster into its component parts. "Thanks for the blaster, by the way, Cap. It saved the day."

"Anytime, Sunrunner."

"So about the Reds--why don't we just ask them what the little problem is?" Grant said, peering across the landing field at two figures walking quickly towards them.

"Uh-oh."

"Barkon, tell me you didn't do what I think you've done!" shouted one of them.

"Maybe, Darklighter, maybe!" Thix shouted back.

"You underhanded, thieving, deceitful--"

"Winners?" offered Kesa.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Darklighter, did we steal your wager?" Grant asked innocently. "It was the only shipment of proton torpedoes in the quadrant."

"We had to make do," Thix finished.

"This isn't very sporting of you," Wedge Antilles said, frowning. Biggs Darklighter nodded in agreement.

"Sporting? Who cares about being sporting? All's fair in love and war, Red," Kesa said.

"You've caused the resignation of two hired hands and a letter of reproachment from Sorosuub Incorporated. They'll never do business with me again!" Biggs said. "They contacted my alias account on the holonet right after you hijacked their hauler!"

"Ah, so Trev was right. You did trade for those torpedoes!" said Thix in an accusatory tone.

"Well, yes. So?"

"So where'd you get the merchandise, eh? Doing a little under the table trading? A little wartime profiteering?"

"You know us better than that, Thix," Wedge said. "We traded fair and square, one beat-up ore hauler for one load of proton torpedoes."

"Ore hauler?" Grant asked, furrowing his brow. "The same one we just pilfered the torps from?"

"Yes. We caught a few lanejackers trying to raid one of our supply convoys and managed to disable her. We figured it was a good trade-off," Wedge said, shrugging.

"And the only thing I want to know, Barkon," Biggs said, "is this: you've managed to get an entire shipment of proton torpedoes to the Rebel Alliance in less than a day, with no pre-planning, no concrete intelligence, no proper equipment, and you did it without taking a single casualty. So why, i

 

Thumper: I'll be back steadily soon, as soon as Adelphia gets in gear and puts cable internet in my little neighborhood--I can't console myself to the idea of having to go back to 56k.

Tahi: Thanks for the review! Went over and read it--awesome. Glad you're liking it--I've got a new one that'll be posted most likely tomorrow, when I have a couple minutes to actually sit and post.

 

I enjoyed the style of this wrap-up.

Hopefully Biggs hadn?t been planning on using the alias account for further trades. Hopefully also Sorosuub Incorporated would still be willing to do similar deals.

Could be effective, trade something to a company and then steal the goods and the thing you traded back.

Very enjoyable story.

 

Great story, Z. Very enjoyable. I liked the ending, as it still leaves a little "mystery" to the Nothings and how they work.

If they had taken the ore hauler, what would they have done with the crew? Put them on the yacht as JM mentioned earlier, or taken them to the station? (Sorry if I'm missing something obvious--my brain is kind of out-of-it right now.) It was amusing that none of the Nothings had thought of taking it, though.

And the "circle of stuff"--that was classic.

I'll be over to check out your new story as soon as I can. For now, though, my lunch break is over.

Keep up the great work!

-Thumper

 

"It was just her time to go, Cap. Birth, death, manufacture, landing strut malfunction--it's all part of the great circle of stuff." LOL - that was hilarious. Actually the whole post was. Brilliant wrap up.

I like the way you describe the characters - they're so real.

Poor Biggs - so much for that account! Daddy won't be pleased.

You're welcome for the review, Z. This is a cool story. I'm also nominating for a couple of awards in the SFFA: Best Humour and also Best Humorous Character for Kesa Sunrunner. I love her.

 

Thanks for reading, everyone. I'm glad you all thought the ending worked well. I wasn't all that confident about it. Now that it's been a few weeks and I'm rereading it, I guess it really isn't as bad as I thought it was originally. Now I just have to pick up "Thix" where I left off and get back into the groove.

Oh, yeah, I guess I didn't mention--Adelphia finally rolled cable out my dirt road and I got online this morning, this time with a sense of semi-permanence. I'll be able to update regularly again now that I've got my very own cable connection. (And, true to my word, I didn't even CONSIDER getting 56k)

Thanks for the nominations, Tahi! Although, now that I'm browsing posts, it looks like I didn't win the big money. We'll get 'em next year, right? Right?

 

This was hilarious, Z! You had me laughing the whole way through! There were just so many great moments! Keep up the great work!

~LtJS

 

Well i came to late to cheer you on or whatever, but i figure i'll write something anyway.

Awesome story. Military humor revolves around weird, difficult situations, and this was absolutely sucessful in that respect. In general, it's good to see some dry humored stuff around here every once in a while, instead of all these love story 'pairings' that appear to fill up the place. Not my cup of tea.

Plus i love your characters. I've got this soft spot for the morally challenged, the violent, the mentally deranged, the twisted, and mercs - who tend to fit all of those categories.

In other words, you haven't read that last of me.