Saga - OT Black Squadron

Finally caught up! Great action scenes, and nice to see the slow evolution of Jaya. I liked the glimpse of her Imperial life, showing the family pressures that pushed her towards that, and how it was, in fact, her dream, to contrast with her realization that the Rebellion has their own dreams and motivations. Her thoughts that the Empire would never have memorialized fallen comrades in such a personal way and her slow desire to make friends and connections show that she's evolving. I think Roy is shaping up to be a bit more than a...'friend.'

I liked her speech on Crait, too... I have expected to hear her saying "We shall fight them on the beaches and the landing grounds!" Come on, Rebels, the best forged ID docs won't be good enough to last the rest of your life! At some point, someone is going to realize what you've been up to these last few years. Better to stay and slug it out then to die by an Imperial firing squad... in fact, you'll be lucky if it's that quick!

You're bringing it, @Flyboy240! Great action scenes, and I can't wait to meet more of the Squadron. Having an Imperial background, I imagine they are struggling with many of the same issues as Jaya...

 

Thank you

 

Just a short little interlude.




Nearly everyone who had spent any amount of time on Crait shared the opinion that it was a terrible place to be. Blazing hot during the day, and ice cold at night. Not to mention the actual zero percent humidity. The accommodations in the base didn't help all that much either, being purely utilitarian. Metal-framed bunks with half-centimeter thick pads barely counted as beds. Three weeks on Crait was three weeks too many.

Jaya stood and watched as Easy did maintenance on her Starfighter. She had a vague idea what the droid was doing but she didn't really know enough to be helpful. She'd always left repairs and maintenance to the technicians and droids.

"De-carbonizing the cannons?" Slathe asked.

"I think so, I just let him do his thing though." Jaya said.

"Ah, well Falae wants us all to meet in the mess at 1100."

"I'll be there." Jaya handed a tool to her astromech, who beeped appreciatively before going back to work.

The six survivors of Black Squadron, Falae, Jaya, Slathe, Hath, Ciara, and Harajj met in the utilitarian mess hall. Five of them sat on a long bench while Falae stood. There were a couple of crates by her. The room was dim and oddly humid.

"Alright, I know you all have a lot of questions, and I have a few answers. Apparently a few compromised astromechs ended up aboard our cruiser. The communications guys are going to check our droids to be sure." She said before she set one of the crates on the table.

"What's in the crates?" Harajj asked. He had black, curly hair.

"Uniforms, blasters, other personal equipment. Replacements for things that got left on the cruiser, and a few of us got promotions." Falae opened the crate and pulled out a half dozen parcels.

"Command trusts us with blasters now?" Ciara asked as she brushed her short electric-blue hair away from her eyes.

"They're pretty sure none of us are sleeper agents at this point. Anyways, congratulations Jaya and Harajj, you've both been promoted to Lieutenant, and I've been promoted to Captain." Falae handed out the parcels.

Jaya's had a new rank plaque, and a sleek A-180 blaster pistol, a holster, and a few spare power cells. The blaster was mostly a symbol of her status as a commissioned officer. It could also function as a survival tool, or to help repel boarding parties if that would ever be necessary. Jaya examined it for a moment before holstering it and attaching the holster to her belt. She also replaced her rank plaque. It felt good to be moving up again.

"So are we permanently stationed here, or will we be transferred to a better base?" Slathe asked.

"No word on that yet, but they won't tell us until the day of the transfer I'm assuming, for security purposes." Falae opened the other crate and handed out the spare uniforms.

"It'd better be soon or I'm just grabbing a ship and transferring myself." Harajj said, and a few others laughed.

Suddenly one of the communications technicians rushed into the room, and took a moment to catch his breath.

"What is it now corporal?" Falae crossed her arms.

"Sorry to interrupt ma'am, but we've discovered malicious programming in one of the astromechs. Commander Dakku has ordered an evacuation." The corporal left the chamber.

"Well, looks like we are getting transferred after all. Shift it to the main hangar." Falae sighed.

The main hangar was a symphony of chaos as people and droids rushed around packing up all the supplies and equipment. Some of the communications equipment and other supplies were set aside, just in case the base ever needed to be used again. Even if the infected astromech droid had contacted the Empire, there was no guarantee the Imperials would send troops to try and take the base, but nobody wanted to stick around and find out for sure.

Jaya hurriedly packed her belongings and various tools and spare parts into her X-Wing's small cargo hold. Even considering the circumstances, she was glad to be leaving Crait. Deserts were her least favorite environment. Easy scrambled to reassemble the parts of the ship that he had been doing maintenance on. Nobody had outright said whose astromech had been infected, but there was a Y-Wing being left behind and one of the Aurek squadron pilots had been electrocuffed and locked in a U-Wing.

After the supplies were loaded onto the transports, the shield door lifted, revealing the usual blazing white salt-crusted flatlands. As the ships sped out of the hangar they kicked up plumes of dark crimson dust. A few of the pilots flew low longer than they needed to since the effect was so fascinating. It was the most entertainment they'd had in weeks.

 

~1BBY, Lothal​

“Commander, we can’t retreat. We don’t have orders…” Jaya said as she walked behind Commander Trupp, aboard the Arquitens-class light cruiser Carbine.

“Valion, I don’t need bloody orders. Feel free to get in your fighter and try to do something… but I’m keeping my crew alive.” Commander Trupp put his hand on the hyperdrive activation lever.

“Sir…” Jaya started to speak but Trupp interrupted.

“Does this make any sense to you?” He yelled as he pointed out the bridge’s viewport.

It was pure chaos around Lothal. A massive swarm of some sort of whale-like spacedwelling creatures had inexplicably appeared from hyperspace and had rammed ships, and wrapped others up in their tentacles before disappearing. A large one was headed straight for the Carbine, and its guns were having no effect on the creature. Lothal had been a hub for all sorts of strangeness, but this was new.

“Sir, calculations are complete.” An ensign navigator said before Commander Trupp pulled the lever and the ship escaped Lothal.

Jaya took a deep breath and sighed before leaving the bridge. At least she would be on record as objecting to the retreat during the inevitable ISB investigation.

2ABY, Orto Plutonia System​

For a time the 588th Fighter/Bomber Wing existed in limbo, being constantly shuffled between bases and carriers throughout the Outer Rim. Eventually they were settled aboard Thunderstorm, a Commerce Guild Destroyer that had been saved from the scrapyards of Ibraxus by an early Rebel cell not very long after the end of the Clone Wars. It was nearly four decades old, and it showed. The outer hull was pitted and carbon-scored, and the old Separatist markings had been sloppily painted over. The long, skeletal ship slightly resembled some of the newer products of the Mon Calamari shipyards that were beginning to form more and more of the Alliance’s fleet.

The pilots that had been lost were also replaced with new recruits. In the case of Black Squadron, those recruits had been spirited away from various Imperial flight schools. The six newcomers were all eighteen or nineteen years old, and none of them were combat veterans. They had all defected before their graduation days. They’d all just finished nine weeks of training in Rebel Alliance tactics and procedures, as well as training on the T-65 X-Wing fighter.

The veterans of Black Squadron eyed the replacements for their fallen comrades as the new pilots filed into the briefing room, having been led there by a protocol droid with mismatched limbs. The new pilots had standard orange flight suits, instead of black. Unlike the spacious, well-lit rooms aboard the large Mon Calamari ships the briefing rooms aboard the Thunderstorm had low ceilings covered in exposed wiring, ductwork, and other conduits. It had not been built for the comfort of organic beings. Though the temperature and humidity were lower than on the Mon Calamari crewed ships, which was appreciated by the humans.

Falae stood at a hexagonal holotable, and waited for everyone to be seated before she spoke.

“Welcome to Black Squadron. We’re going through a full reorganization, so everyone will be receiving new call signs. Flight one is myself as Black Leader, Black Two, Gol Naru, Black Three Slathe Boro, Black Four Ahna Harken, Black Five Jaya Valion, Black Six Redd Jorrev. Flight Two will be led by Back Seven, Hath Krev’Bar, Black Eight Ramikrez Korst, Black Nine Ciara Satursus, Black Ten Shen Qualat, Black Eleven Harajj Dal-Lumar, and Black Twelve Karrac Vulx. Odd numbers are leaders, evens are wingmen, got it?” After Falae finished Redd Jorrev raised his hand. “Yes?” Falae acknowledged him and sighed.

“I’m sorry ma’am, what’s my call sign again?” His cheeks turned red as he slowly brought his hand down.

“You are Black Six, and Lieutenant Valion is your lead, any other questions?”

Redd shook his head no. Jaya sighed. Of course I get stuck with the slow one, then again Falae might think I’m the only one that can whip him into shape. Falae let everyone get up and meet their new partners. Redd was a full 30cm taller than Jaya and heavily built, but she still found a way to look down on him. All the new recruits looked so young to her. Redd’s jawline wasn’t quite as defined as an older man’s and the dark brown stubble on his face was patchy.

“So which academy did you get put through?” Jaya narrowed her steely blue eyes.

“I was enrolled in the Vax Academy, ma’am.”

Jaya tried to recall hearing anything about the Vax Academy, but she couldn’t remember anything special about it. She assumed it was one of the many mid-tier academies scattered in the core and mid-rim that produced run-of-the-mill pilots.

“I admire your ability to resist or break out of the indoctrination, Ensign. I spent a few years deployed in the Imperial Starfleet before I found my way here. Have they put you through the simulators yet?”

“Yeah, we all got checked out on the T-65. I decided to defect during the Alderaan demonstration, I just stayed the last two years to finish my flight training.”

“Alderaan was my breaking point too. It took me a couple months afterwards before I was able to leave, and about another year to make the decision to join the Alliance. “

“So you’ve only been here a few months?” Redd was a bit shocked.

“Yeah, only two combat missions too. Lots of long patrols.”

“Great.” Redd sighed. He had been hoping to see some action.

“We don’t have expendable fighters like the Empire, Command has been good at picking their battles so far. The fleet we were stationed in didn’t do any commerce raiding.”

“As long as I get to go out there and blow up a few TIEs every now and then.”

“Yeah, just remember glory-hounding gets you killed, and if you get killed that leaves me without a wingman.” Jaya said before she turned and made her way over to Falae.

“So, think the new kids will do fine?” Jaya surprised herself a bit by referring to eighteen and nineteen year olds as “kids”.

“They have to, we’ve got a mission.”

“Today?” Jaya raised her eyebrows.

“Affirmative,” Falae put her hands behind her back and turned towards they rest of the pilots, “Take your seats.”

A silence fell over the room as the pilots sat down. Jaya found a seat in the front row, between Redd and Hath. She wasn’t expecting a mission so soon, especially not with new pilots being added to the squadron. She expected it to at least be an easy mission for that reason. Most likely raiding a lightly guarded supply convoy in the Mid-Rim.

“Black Squadron, in thirty minutes we’ll be engaging Operation Starbright. The 588th fighter wing, and two others wings, will be deployed to the Nia-Ren system, in the Outer Rim. Our target is an ISB communications monitoring station located on Nia Seven. The outpost is defended by two squadrons of TIEs, six turbolaser towers, and a deflector shield. There are also several small support ships in orbit, but by the time they get to our target we’ll be gone.” Falae paused after she activated the holotable and brought up the image of an Imperial base.

“Captain, isn’t three full wings a little overkill? Three squadrons could get this done.” Ciara said.

“Overkill is the point, it’s to send a message. This outpost has been intercepting our communications for months, and we believe it to be the origin of the sliced astromech droids that led them to several fleets we had scattered in deep space.” Falae nodded to her R2 droid and it switched the hologram to show a power generator located under a rock outcropping. “This power generator is not our target. We’ll be flying cover for Rogue Squadron, yes that Rogue squadron, as they make the run down the canyon to destroy the generator.”

Jaya raised one of her eyebrows as the pilots around her began to chatter quietly. Rogue Squadron had become legends among the Rebellion. They were the best of the best, being led by Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles, who were practically worshipped for their roles in destroying the Death Star and showing the Galaxy the Rebellion was capable of winning.

“I can’t believe that I’m going to be flying cover for Luke Skywalker!” Redd tried to contain himself, but he couldn’t. Jaya jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow and glared at him for a moment. His face turned red and he stopped talking.

“After Rogue Squadron knocks out the generator and the shield goes offline the A-Wings will bait the base’s guns and deal with the fighters, the other X-Wings will knock out the guns with signal-trace torpedoes, the bombers will level it, and the U-wings will drop off commandos to pull any intel they can from the rubble. Should be a nice, tidy operation. Any questions?” Falae looked around the room. Nobody spoke up or raised their hands. “Good, let’s get to our fighters.”

Should be a nice, tidy operation… famous last words. Jaya thought as she got on the turbolift that would take her and a few other pilots down to the hangar. There were still plenty of reasons to be optimistic however. Ciara was right when she called it overkill. She hadn’t gone on a ground attack mission since she was still serving the Empire, and she was grateful there would be no chance of civilian casualties this time.

When they arrived in the hangar technicians and droids were bustling around, fueling the starfighters and giving them a final check. Engines whined as they started, and people shouted over each other as the loudspeakers blared. Jaya saw Roy, walking at the rear of a group of Y-Wing pilots. She stepped out into the aisle between her fighter’s landing pad and a pile of spare parts, and Roy stopped right in front of her.

This could have been the last time they saw each other and Jaya wanted to say something, but words escaped her, she felt as if she had forgotten the ability to speak altogether. So she reached out, grabbed the shoulder strap of his life-support vest, and pulled him down. Their eyes met for a moment before Jaya leaned in and kissed him lightly.

“For luck,” She said as she smiled and put her helmet on.

 

Enjoyed the conversation between Jaya and Redd -- they seem to be establishing a rapport.
Great mission, and sound tactical strategy
The Rogues -- How wonderful they'll be involved.
I'm relieved they seem to have pinpointed the source of the leak.
Sweet with Jaya and Roy at the end.

 

Good stuff here. And somehow Jaya giving Roy a kiss "for luck" (or so she says), it's completely not a surprise to me.

 

Yeah I envision Redd and Jaya developing a sibling-like relationship. As for the Rogues, Black Squadron is gonna have to work hard to keep up

Of all the OT lines that get referenced constantly, I'm surprised "For luck" isn't one of them. Plus I felt it really did fit her character.