Beyond - Legends The Academy: A Pilot fic. OCs, Wedge (post NJO) Author's comments up 9/9+more

Uh oh, just right after their victory...something happens...*sigh* Ah well, great flying Brosh! Or, should I say...'Wook Dancer'? Ha! Lol, just kidding dude, don't kill me.

Great post, Peri! Thanks for the pm and all the updates!

 

Well, I'm glad I found this. Put me on the PM list!

Raptor517

 

Oh dear... what's happening? Enemy action?

 

Ruh-roh![/Scooby]

Anything that gets that kind of reaction from Wedge can't be good, and it definitely doesn't sound like a game or a drill. I wonder if all the cadets are about to be thrown into the deep end for real?

But on a happier note, the championship showdown was great, and congrats to the Greens for winning! They sounded like a pretty even match-up if both sides managed to "kill" all but one of the opposition, and they definitely were pushing each other to the limits of their skills. And kudos to both Brosh and the last surviving X-wing pilot for being good sports about the outcome. I think the relationship between those two squadrons started off on a better foot than it did with the Y-wing squadron.

Great post!

-Thumper

 

A little Force-sensitivity there?

Glad to see they won their championship, but it looks like they're in for some real action now.

 

Whimpers from suspense.
Boy, don't you just know the tricks of keeping readers.
What the crap happened?

tapping fish

 

Heh, I won't kill ya, I promise. Just don't make too many more cracks like that, or I'm siccing my kath hound on you! Thanks very much for your constant readership!

I am too! Welcome, and thanks for reading!

Fraid so! Play time is over!

LOL yeah that poor Y-wing squad really got picked on, didn't they? Oh well, there's nothing like a good rivalry to force improvement on one's skill! But you're right, Brosh and company's real challenges start in about 3 minutes. Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it! [Face_hugs]

Indeed. I wasn't intending to imply Force sensitivity. It was more like a 'perfect moment in time'. If you play sports, sometimes once you're totally focused on the task at hand, you really CAN get impressions of what's going on around you without actually seeing it. Or when you hit 'the zone' you can't do anything wrong, even if you try. That was more what I had in mind. I'll re-ponder the language, maybe I can make that more apparent. Thanks for reading!

You'll just have to keep reading and find out! Thanks...uhh....Fish!

_______________________________________________

Okay everybody, here we go! It's getting even tenserer, now!

_______________________________________________________

?Twenty minutes ago,? Albanas began, once everybody was seated, ?we received a distress call from the Purple Sunrise, a Dantooine vessel carrying a few VIPs headed for Coruscant. That?s not unusual in itself, but they told us that they were under attack and were forced to come here. They?re severely damaged with a barely functioning hyperdrive, and an unknown enemy at their backs. Station Command won?t tell me how they knew about this teaching facility, but I was told that the squadron commander of their escort probably trained here.

?As you know, almost all of the ships stationed here are unarmed. Hopefully, the ground crews are installing weapons on the most space-worthy ships as we speak, but it?s not as easy of a task as you?d think. I?d like all of you to go help the ground crews by doing whatever tasks they ask you to. If you have mechanical experience, by all means please let them know when you get down there. Any questions??

?Yes sir,? Shyndrah said. ?Is there going to be any possibility of being boarded, and if so, do we have trained ground combatants??

The colonel looked at her with consideration ?There are only a handfull of security personnel on board who are qualified to handle a blaster, to say nothing of a raid. Do yo

 

Aw, poor Brosh, I would be sad too if I was leaving that behind.

Great post, Peri, and thanks for the pm, looks like Brosh has some mechanic skills, awesome, that means, when the time comes, he'd be able to get most of it done himself. Excellent, what every pilot needs.

 

If your life rest in your ship, you'd better be darn sure to figure out how to fix the ship. Loved this post, wondering who's coming back alive...

Raptor517

 

Er, well, I'm in a cold sweat, they BETTER live!
Yeah, or I'll... I'll... al... adunno.
O my tippy toes 'ere!
MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE!
And worries about them. And, Brosh is mechan(ic).
Gyles...
You go Peri!

tapping fish
yes a fish, whatever so else

 

Hopefully for all their sakes it won't get to the point where people in the base would have to fend off a boarding party. Shyndrah's got a good head on her shoulders, and I like that she was thinking of all the different needed aspects of defense like that. It was sad seeing her and Brosh together before they had to leave, though.

Brosh is going to be a mechanical expert on A-wing blasters in no time with all this practice. I'm glad Gyles was able to cheer him up a bit. Those two make a good team on the ground.

Great post, and I'm looking forward to more!

-Thumper

 

EEK! So far behind. ** Vadey keeps reading **

 

He's developing mechanic skills, that's for sure. Thanks for reading!

Yeah, cuz it's a fact that not everybody will come back. And some people will never be the same... [/spoiler]

Then fish it is. More you'll get, and soon! Thanks for reading!

Thanks Thumps, I appreciate your comments! The relationship between Gyles and Brosh is one I'll have to look into expanding on, later. Shyndra's past will be surprising, when it comes out. I say that because a)She might not have been what you thought, and b) Shyndra's been really stingy on giving me her past herself, so even *I* don't know what she was up to. I hope she'll let me expand upon her story soon!

I did a lot while you were gone to keep you entertained for a while, Vadey! I greatly look forward to your comments!

 

Here we go, all! The battle is on its way.

________________________

Minutes later, Brosh was crammed in the mess hall along with everybody else.

?Near as we can tell from the information we downloaded from the Sunrise, our bogeys are equipped with a Star Destroyer, a few support vessels and an indeterminate number of starfighters.?

?A Star Destroyer?? Vlad exclaimed, surprised. ?Who has access to Star Destroyers these days??

Since the room was packed with almost four hundred pilots, all muttering about the same thing, nobody heard his question.

?We still don?t know who these aggressors are or who they?re working for. We?ll have to sift through the wreckage and find out once we?ve cleaned them out.? Wedge?s optimism was appreciated by all.

He shifted his focus back to the holoboard. ?We plot the Sunrise?s course to spit them out of hyperspace here.? Wedge made a little circle with a bright red beam about ten minutes of sub-light travel away from the station. ?So we?re going to situate out fighters just over here, out of the way enough that we won?t get crunched when they arrive, but close enough to hit the enemy before they get any fighters launched. From the intel they sent before entering hyperspace, the Purple Sunrise will be launching a shuttle full of all their civilians. What?s left of her original escort will shadow the transport until it reaches the station, then they?ll join our ranks.?

?What are we looking at in fighter numbers for us?? another colonel asked from on stage.

?We?ve been able to equip six squadrons of X-wings, four E-wings and two full A-wing groups. We?re stripping the B-wings of anything useful and hope to have all six advanced Y-wing groups out there. It?s not that the B-wings are useless, far from it. We just need as many craft up there as possible and with the four individual blaster hardpoints that need filling on the B-wing, they just take up too many resources.

?I wish we had more supplies, but there aren?t even enough missiles to accommodate all the fighters we?re sending out.? Antilles waved his arm at a very tall, dark-skinned human, muscles covered with many tattoos and a facial expression born from chewing rocks. ?This is Captain Vurth. He?ll brief you on our contingency plans in case they breach the station shields.?

?I?m drafting anybody who?s not crewing a starship to defend the reactor room. If you?re flying a ship and you?ve got a blaster in your belongings, give it to someone that can use it. I?m very short on blasters, and short on trained personnel to use them. Some folks will only have kitchen knives to use as weapons. I?ll take someone?s pet monkey lizard if they can hold a weapon and use it on the enemy.? The joke sounded odd coming from the man?s gruff voice and drew an unexpected chuckle from the gathered pilots.

?I?ve got about a hundred civilians who will be locked down in that reactor room. I have some chemical experts cobbling mines or grenades or whatever else they can think of for other assault weapons. Food is already being transferred, enough to last for a few days. General Antilles promises me we?ll get reinforcements by then.

?Now, what trained personnel I have will be waiting here, near the center of the station. If an enemy breaches the perimeter, we?ll head wherever seems easiest to defend and try to pin them down. We won?t be able to hold them forever though, so if you see any troop transports, take ?em out.?

Another voice interrupted Captain Vurth. ?Does this station have defensive
batteries? If so, would you please, please, please make sure they?re firing at all times??

The burly human looked very annoyed at what he would have considered a childish request.

Colonel Albanas stood up with a chuckle. ?That?s one of my students, Captain. I assure you, to his mind the question is very valid. We?ll just say ?most definitely? and leave it at that. Now please sit down and shut up, Greigh.?

The Rodian nodded and followed orders.

?You bet your antennae they?ll be

 

Close one, I'd say, I almost twitched myself to death in the suspense. Great post, Peri! Keepin' us on our toes! (I swear, I can hear those A-Wing engines...find myself lookin' behind me for no reason, check your six!)

 

Great update...no wonder that civie stayed behind!

Raptor517

 

A couple of great posts! You've built the anticipation for the real battle very well.

I'm glad somebody remembered to ask about the turrets

 

Gosh, I'm speechless.
It was pure writing skill, man.
I am hanging on one finger on the cliff.
Wow. [looks down and searches for the next post, hopefully one I can jump on for my poor finger's sake]

tapping fish
curious stir

 

Oops! I missed a few again.

The face-down between Brosh and the X-wing pilot was thrilling, and I loved that he basically flew her ship to pieces.

Now the cadets are going to get thrown into real combat? Mature decision for Shyndrah to make to stay behind where she could be of help even though she'd probably rather be flying. Brosh is really having a hard time with it though. Glad that Gyles was able to help him think rationally that if he did his job she'd be safe.

Well he obviously wasn?t nervous, Antilles had done this a thousand times.

I wonder if he's really not nervous or if he just doesn't show it.

The rest are a bunch of kids who think they can do anything.?

I hope the transition to real combat isn't too rough on them. I liked that it was Griegh asking the newbie question about whether the ground batteries would be firing.

Yea! Colonel Pascal is there! That'll probably help boost Brosh's confidence and morale.

I'm just sure you're going to kill someone off or injure them seriously, but I hope it isn't one of the main characters. See, I live by the theory that worrying works--the things I worry about never happen. So I'm also going to worry that the bad guy you've been hinting at is going to be the person I'm hoping it isn't. Now I've confused even myself!

Great story!

 

Awww, Greigh actually tried to say something nice to Brosh about Shyndrah.

I really liked Vlad's morale conversation with Brosh. It was the right thing for Vlad to do both as Brosh's friend and as one of the leaders in the squadron, and judging from Brosh's reaction to it, I think everyone benefitted. Brosh now understands that other people are looking to him for an example, consciously or unconsciously, and he has to keep that in mind just like Wedge does.

It's cool to see Col. Pascal again!


?Do you people have the qualification to fly those things?? asked an eerily familiar voice.

LOL!

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for all those cadets who are about to get their first taste of combat.

Keep up the great work!

-Thumper

 

Hehehe well I'm glad you're still enjoying! More suspense coming soon!

Yep. I would have too, if I was him. Thanks for reading!

heheh I am too. I bet they never thought they'd get the chance to be in the position where they had to check on the turrets. Glad you're still with me, Stroja! Thanks!

Thanks Fish! Really appreciate it! More cliff-clinging action will be headed your way soon.

Thank you very much! I'm glad you're enjoying it so much. I might really worry in this case, though. Things aren't going to be easy. But while you're confusing yourself, you confused me too. But I bet my bad guy isn't the bad guy you're thinking of.

Yeah it's great to see Pascal. I always felt like Brosh's life wasn't complete without the Mrlssi hanging around. The peptalk with Brosh and Vlad was super important for everybody. It's always good to go into a stressful situation as relaxed as possible. Nothing relaxing about this situation though! Prepare for some FUN!

I love your input Thumps! I appreciate your regular posts.

 

Silence filled the comm as Green Squadron?s four A-wings were positioned to lightly tap the back of the shuttle with their noses and get into position. With great precision, the ten A-wings helped the transport accelerate, greatly decreasing the amount of time it would take to reach the station.

Brosh had so many questions but couldn?t ask them since the ten A-wings were working so closely together. One misstep could be catastrophic.

He had wanted to talk to the Mrlssi colonel for a long time. He had become inconspicuous in his absence, and the young human just didn?t have time or concentration to spare to wonder what Pascal was doing or where he was. Well, now he knew, and it was heartening to know that his first mentor would be with him during his first life and death challenge.

?They are droid-piloted fighters,? Pascal said in answer to a question Brosh hadn?t heard. ?And in amazing quantity. Not sure where they came from. What skill they lack, they make up for in sheer numbers.?

?You mean like the Clone Wars, those kind of droids?? Albanas asked.

?As near as we can tell, yes.?

There was a tense moment as Greens Eleven and Twelve bumped hulls. Fortunately it didn?t seem like they did any damage to each other, but it only serviced to show how dangerous of a task they were undertaking.

?We?re about half way,? one of Pascal?s pilots said.

?Looks like there are some incoming. Kri?ifi, Midget, stay with the shuttle. Everybody else, follow me. We?ve got to take out some garbage.?

?Good luck, Albanas. You too, Brosh. We?ll be back with you in a few more minutes.?

The colonel turned his craft around, leading the six A-wings into their first dangerous fray.

?Bubbles, are you still with me?? Brosh asked.

?So far. Try not to lose me.?

?I?ve got two dozen signals baring dead ahead. Watch for missiles,? Albanas warned.

At extreme range, Brosh opened fire in honor of Shyndrah. Where she would have gotten three or four, he only destroyed one before they got into optimal range. Here he was more in his element.

?Scatter!? the colonel ordered, juking his ship hard with his assigned wingmate, Green Four.

Brosh slid out of formation, but just enough so that he could fire on the enemies that were firing at other squadmates. Three fighters fizzled out under his guns attention and he zipped through their formation, dangerously close to colliding with one of the ?U? shaped ships.

He decided it was very odd. While half the ships were destroyed on their pass, none of the enemy turned around to defend themselves from the A-wing pilots who were now slaughtering them wholesale from behind.

?This is almost too easy,? Brosh commented, finishing the last Vulture fighter off.

?I suspect the waves we?ll face will be more focused on getting to the shuttle than worrying about us. Fortunately we?re smart enough to use that to our advantage. Here comes another group. This one?s a bit bigger. Wonder what Wedge is doing to let so many slip by him??

Yes, a bit bigger. Where the last wave had only been twenty-four ships, this one had to be near sixty. ?Where are they getting all these things? I thought they had been deactivated decades ago,? Brosh complained. Fear was growing in his stomach. Surely among the sixty fighters, there would be some programmed for self defense?

?Me too,? the colonel replied. ?Don?t fly through this group, let them pass, there?s too many guns. We?ll see if we can?t take them all from behind again.?

Albanas took two of their units, leaving Brosh with the other two to turn wide and zip around to the enemy?s aft. A dozen fighters broke formation to engage the A-wings.

?Don?t worry about those, my group will get them. Just take out the others!?

?C Group, stay with me. Don?t let them get a bead on you, fly erratically.? Brosh was glad these were fighters rather than bombers and that their shields weren?t that much more powerful than the A-wings?.

Brosh picked another target, sporadically twitching in different directi

 

Okay, only ONE post behind now!

Loving this!

 

Aw, that was a bit of foreshadowing on Bubbles earlier, wasn't it? On their training mission...*sigh* That sucks. Keep at it Brosh, nearly there. All those pilots, still in training, lost to space.

Great post, nice feel of the action, brilliant as ever!

 

But... but... I loved Bubbles!!!!!!!!
In fact, my friends call me Bubbles, coincedencially.
And Shyndrah...
And Brosh...
This is so intense!!!!!
Why must you torture me this way?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
[whimpers odnoxiously until an apple flew up from the bottom bunk folks]

tapping fish
I don't live on suspense! my finger is bleeding (really, there's a physical band-aid)