Saga 'Traitors' - OC, pre-RotJ pilot/action-adventure fic (posted 8/17/03)

Title: Traitors
Author: Syntax
Timeframe: a few months pre-RotJ
Characters: 9-LOM (original character)
Genre: Action-adventure, OT, original-character fic,
Rating: PG
Summary: 9-LOM crash-lands on a jungle planet and ends up crossing paths with a downed Imperial pilot, whom he has to work together with in order to survive.
Notes:This takes place well after 'Take it or Leave it' and 'Acceptable Losses', and is when 9-LOM (callsign "Syntax") is in Rogue Squadron (no, it's not an AU, but it'd take some explaining )

Traitors

The mission had been botched from the start. That is, if one could even call it a ?mission?. Pilots rarely referred to a random scramble announced 7 minutes prior as a ?mission?, but rather a ?reaction?, or a ?screw-up?. And now the crew and pilots of the Liberty were involved in one.

The Liberty had hypered into the uninhabited system of Denton by mistake. En route to a cargo transfer in the Corulag system, the Liberty and the 12 freighters had been pulled out of hyperspace when they had been passing by the Denton system at the exact moment when an Imperial convoy headed by the Imperial Star Destroyer Scythe had also been passing through. Their passing at the same time caused them both to be pulled from hyperspace, and one of the Rebel convoy carriers had even plowed one of the Imperial transports at the speed of light, destroying both. It was one for the record books ? and one that had tossed both Imperials and Rebels into the fray with little to no preparation. It was a fairly even match, despite the fact that the Liberty?s Buccaneer Squadron was drastically understaffed, especially after having its former commanding officer, Chris ?Animal? Stephen, recently retire. Regardless of this, the Renegade Wing had thrown all members of Rogue and Buccaneer squadrons into the fray, and the slugging match had ensued.

?Flight one, you?re on the Bombers. Two, take the Interceptors,? Col. Vince ?Stryker? Rambo said to the fellow members of Rogue Squadron. ?Flight three, cover our bomber buddies.?

The four Buccaneer pilots banked to the left, targeting the Scythe and switching over to their proton torpedoes.

?Fire link, boys,? Prowler said. ?Fire on my mark.? The pilots were still two klicks out of range. Darklighter, Mighty, and Hellcat pulled in just above and behind the Y-wings.

?Status report, four bombers inbound, 3 klicks,? Darklighter said to the Buccaneer pilots, saving them the trouble of switching targets on their HUDs to the incoming fighters.

?Roger,? Prowler said, ?All pilots, clear HUDs and prepare for dummy-fire run.? The three other Y-wing pilots complied, clearing out their targeting displays, preventing the Scythe from acquiring missile locks on them. Abruptly, the incoming Bombers started acquiring locks on the Y-wings, just as the X-wings acquired locks on them. However, the Bombers didn?t have the luxury of shields, or countermeasure systems.

?Missiles away!? Mighty called out as he and the two other Rogues flying alongside him let three advanced concussion missiles fly, the projectiles closing the gap between the incoming ships in a matter of seconds. The Y-wing pilots calmly tapped their countermeasure control buttons, four flares streaking away and neutralizing the enemy warheads.

?Ahh, it?s just too easy sometimes,? Paladin said as three of the enemy Bombers blew apart, the fourth one getting destroyed as Darklighter fired off a pair of laser blasts that sheared off its bomb pod and detonated it.

~~~~~~~

?One Flight, we?re handling the Dupes,? Stryker said to his current wingmen, 9-LOM ?Syntax? and Gabriel ?Wolfman? Leventhal. ?We need to deal with them before they destroy too much of the convoy.?
?Affirmative. Bombers outbound at 4 kilometers and closing,? Syntax replied. ?Proton torpedoes have been launched.?

?Roger that,? Stryker said. ?Syntax, intercept the warheads.?

?I copy,? the droid replied, throttling up and breaking away from