Saga Solid Ground - X-wing squad fic, OCs, OT, completed 3/30

Hi, everyone. I decided to take the plunge again and post a story.

Title: Solid Ground
Who: All original characters (roster follows)
Timeframe: One year after the Battle of Yavin
Summary: The Imperials set a trap for the Rebels on an isolated colony world, causing the X-wing pilots on the mission to get much more than they bargained for.
Disclaimer: All characters are mine, but the universe and all its toys belong to George Lucas.

Many thanks to LordGoldenArrow, who never complains about hearing me go on and on about story stuff and who also gave me the idea for this story in the first place.

All but one of the main characters are introduced in a fic I posted here a couple of years ago, Commencement (a more recent and somewhat smoother version of the fic can be found offsite here). However, I've done my best to make this into a stand-alone story, so if I did my job right then you won't need to have read "Commencement" to understand this one.

This is a completed story that I'll be posting in sections. The first post will be up in a few minutes, and it will probably be a page or two longer than other posts because I want to get the background and introduction done up front and without breaking it up.

Constructive comments are welcome. Thanks for reading.

-Katie


Dramatis Personae

Corona Squadron

Corona One / Lead - Commander Quentell "Mack" Mackin, human male from Treminal III
Corona Two - Lieutenant Ikoa Fyndcap, human female from Rin
Corona Three - Lieutenant Jayke "Chopper" Forsgren, human male from Brentaal
Corona Four - Flight Officer Kalre Unatel, Rodian male from Druckenwell
Corona Five - Lieutenant Shaun "Scoop" Pellicer, human male from Commenor
Corona Six - Flight Officer Chryse "CC" Cerac, human female from Avalar
Corona Seven - Lieutenant Tictintco "Slurry" Tnis, Bilgana male from Bilgan
Corona Eight / XO - Lieutenant Steen "Snubber" Weas, human male from Plonia V
Corona Nine - Flight Officer Darin "Thumper" Stanic, human male from Craci IV
Corona Ten - Flight Officer Hentil "Quiver" Yanilr, human male from Druzien
Corona Eleven - xxxx
Corona Twelve - xxxx


Rebellion Special Forces

Lieutenant Colonel Trainneer, human male from Coruscant

 

Solid Ground
by Thumper09

Prologue

The voice coming over the communication system's speakers sounded concerned, troubled, anxious to help, matching the expression of the Rebel officer on the screen who was speaking. "We'll do what we can."

"Thank you," Tayer Fohl'zic said before closing the transmission. As his screen went blank he sighed bleakly and looked up at the Imperial officer standing out of sight of the transmitter and flanked by two stormtroopers.

The officer, a major, offered Fohl'zic a cold, ruthless smile. "Excellent performance. I almost believed it myself. Now you'd just better hope that your Rebel friends do."

*****

A few days later and light-years away aboard the Rebel Dauntless-class cruiser Crescent Star, Commander Quentell Mackin frowned at the computer console as the recorded conversation ended. "And who is this person again?"

"His name is Tayer Fohl'zic," said Lieutenant Colonel Trainneer, a rather tall but scrawny redhead wearing the uniform of Rebellion Special Forces. "He's the leader of a small industrial colony nearby that has secretly helped the Rebellion in the past by providing us with trilithide. That's expensive and hard to come by, as you know, and also very useful in several different applications. It's no wonder that the Imperials are interested in it enough to send in some troops."

When Mackin and the other officers present nodded thoughtfully, taking everything in, Trainneer continued, "We've been authorized to go assist, and I've already worked out a preliminary plan. My Special Forces teams can handle the beginning phases but we'll need involvement from both the army and Starfighter Command, which is why you're here. What I need from all of you is input on your aspects of the mission so we can make this work. If there are no questions up front, we can get started."


Chapter One

The pilot briefing room on Crescent Star was a small, simple room. Its chairs, numbering just enough for two squadrons plus change, were arranged theater-style facing the far side of the room, away from the single doorway. The chairs themselves were hard, uncomfortable things made from scrap metal and discarded coolant pipes, no two exactly alike, and it was rumored that they were made that way without any padding because one too many pilots had fallen asleep during briefings. The small open area that the chairs faced contained a table with a holoprojector atop it. It sometimes contained a lectern as well, but that was usually pushed off into a corner where it was out of the way, as it was now. Few events in that room were formal enough to require its use or even benefit from it.

The room's walls, bland except for a prominent painting of the emblems of both fighter squadrons stationed on Crescent Star, had seen a lot. They had been witness to the plannings of many missions, both wonderful victories and heartbreaking defeats, not to mention promotions and award ceremonies as well as preparations for the next memorial service. They had heard countless jokes, countless taunts, ringing laughter and somber silence.

The scene the walls beheld now was not a new one: in fact, it happened every day at 1400 hours with some variations and exceptions. The fighter pilots of Corona Squadron were scattered across the room in their usual seating arrangement, having noisy yet private discussions amongst themselves with an occasional shout to get someone else's attention. Normally the discussions wouldn't have lasted this long, but for some reason both their commander and executive officer had not yet arrived to brief them so there was no reason to stop.

Though some of the pilots were getting impatient, the atmosphere was relaxed overall. One large contributor to this was their clothing: most were suited up in their baggy, comfortable general duty uniforms. The remaining handful that had just come back from patrol were still in their bright orange flightsuits, which were just as relaxing to wear but much less easy on the eyes. The pilots

 

A great start, Thumper! I loved the ominousness of the prologue, and the way it cut back to the Rebels who, presumeably, are in quite a good deal of danger. We're in suspense, and it's only a few paragraphs into the story!

The description of the conference room was authentic and made it easy to visualize the pilots lounging around talking to each other, exchanging gossip and just conversing about the day's events. I especially liked the observation about the orange flight suits - that they were comfortable for the wearer but less so for the other occupants of the nearby space.

The next part was hilarious, with Quiver's imitation of Mackin and the rest of the squadron playing along. Pellicer's, "I'm fluent in over ten million forms of Imperial dialects. I'll get you through. Lesson one: all Imperial transmissions must contain the phrases 'Rebel scum' or 'for the glory of the Empire.'" and then the argument about who would be the "bad guys" made me laugh out loud. Of course, the whole time, I was just waiting for Mackin to show up with some sort of perfectly timed phrase. And show up he did! His, And have you fully explored the option of delivery instead of take-out? had me laughing again. (Which is bad, because it's late and I shouldn't be waking my sister up... )

This mission sounds intriguing and slightly dangerous. Of course, if it all went according to plan then there wouldn't be anything to write about, so I'm going to make a wild prediction here and say that something will go wrong. I can't wait to read what happens.

The last section of dialogue was wonderful as well. I'm beginning to like the squadron - you've managed to create complete impressions of them within a short space. I'm looking forward to reading more. Keep up the great work!

 

I'm likin' it. I always liked the diversity of characters in squad fics; each person has a unique history with strengths and weaknesses. You developed the characters very well. I feel like I know them a little. Definitely want to read more!

 

Thanks for the responses and comments, Xaara and -Z-!

Xaara, the briefing room scene was a lot of fun to write. I'm glad it came across as showing the pilots just having a good time. And doesn't Murphy's Law imply that the teacher will come back into the room just when the kids start goofing around?

Wow, did you actually wake your sister up? I hope she got back to sleep!

...so I'm going to make a wild prediction here and say that something will go wrong.
Nah...it's gonna be a walk in the park. Nothing to worry about.

Z, I agree, squad fics are great places to play with a wide range of characters. The problem then becomes letting each character develop and not get pushed to the background because of the number of others vying for screen time. That gets hard, especially when all the characters are brand-new to the reader. (Kinda like the challenge of watching Firefly without having the pilot episode shown first. *g*)

I'm planning on updating at least every Tuesday. Hopefully it'll be up earlier than the last one (browser died in the middle of posting).

Thanks again!

-Katie

 

Next installment. This is more of what I expect a "normal" post length to be.
*****

Chapter Two

"I swear, Thumper, only you could fall asleep on an S-foil."

Darin woke up when he heard Quiver's remark, and it took him a moment to get his bearings. Corona Squadron and the two Special Forces shuttles had reached the canyon on Lokinha without incident, and after throwing camouflage netting over the ships as a precaution there was nothing for them to do but wait for the scout party to report back the next morning. Darin was stretched out on his X-wing's port S-foil on top of the netting, with his feet pointing toward the laser cannon and his hands cushioning his head. When he opened his eyes, he looked up past the top of his head to see Quiver sitting on that S-foil's engine and grinning in amusement in the darkness. Darin stretched his stiff muscles but made no move to get up. "Sorry, I was stargazing a little. I guess I drifted off."

"Don't be sorry," Quiver replied. "Take all the sleep you can get. Though how you can sleep with no blanket when it's this chilly out is beyond me."

Darin smiled. "It's nice out."

"It's cold."

"It's nice out."

Quiver shook his head hopelessly at his wingman and pulled his jacket closer around himself before looking up at the sky. "Nice night for stargazing, at least. Hopefully those clouds to the west will hold off."

"Yeah." Darin looked at the twinkling stars and then said a little more quietly, "My friends back home and I used to stargaze for hours. We'd single out a distant star and then argue about what system it was, though none of us honestly knew. And whenever a ship would go by overhead at night, we'd try to figure out what kind it was based on the lights alone, or the sound too if we could hear it. We were better at identifying ships than identifying stars." The smaller pilot paused, and as he gazed up into the limitless universe he seemed to get even smaller. "Doesn't it ever make you feel?-I don't know, homesick?"

Quiver raised an eyebrow curiously though Darin couldn't see it. "What do you mean?"

Darin shrugged a bit. "Being on a planet somewhere and looking up at the stars, but not seeing one familiar constellation. Not one. I mean, I?-" He abruptly cut himself off. No reason to bother his friend with his neverending homesickness again.

His squadmate looked back at the sky. "I don't know. I never really thought about it."

Still on his back, Darin picked up a datapad laying beside him and held it up to show Quiver under the light of the two moons. "I had Botch give me the starmaps as seen from this system." He pointed to a group of dim stars not far above the northeastern canyon ridge. "You see that group of stars that's kind of clustered together but spread out at the same time? Well, I guess it's more of a small band, a little denser than the surrounding area. Just above the ridge?"

"Yeah."

"That's the Corporate Sector. My planet's in there somewhere. Redu?-" Darin cut himself off again and absently chewed on his bottom lip a little. Just as abruptly, he changed the subject slightly. "And you know what? We're so far away that I wasn't even born yet when the light we're seeing now left our sun and reflected off my homeworld to merge with and join the starlight out here, if that makes sense. There's no reflection of me in it, just as there's no reflection of the Empire's occupation in it quite yet. I wish it had stayed that way...the occupation part, not the ?me' part. Given the distance, I doubt my parents are even part of that reflected light. Maybe I'm seeing my grandparents or great-grandparents as children right now. Makes you think."

While Quiver enjoyed philosophical discussions, there were times, such as this one if the look on his face was any indication, when he felt that Darin gave that kind of stuff much more thought than any nineteen-year-old had a right to. Quiver looked at the group of stars Darin had pointed out and squinted, but apparently couldn't see what Darin was seeing in the pinpoints of light. Darin's h

 

Great stuff! You've created an entire squadron's worth of original and entertaining characters.

The character development is nicely paced, and I really liked the scene between Darin and Quiver talking about stargazing. There was a lot of "heavy" dialogue that shows the characters aren't all bluster. But the banter was my favorite part:

Darin sat up and slowly spun around to face Quiver, hanging his head. "Yes, master. I'm sorry, master. It won't happen again, master. I go now."

"And stop groveling. I hate it when you grovel."

"Yes, master. I'm sorry, master. It won't happen again, master."

That had me laughing.

Can't wait for more!

 

Thanks, Z. One of my biggest concerns is always whether the characters are distinct enough so that someone who isn't as familiar with them as I am can tell them apart. From your post, it doesn't sound like that's a problem now. Let me know if it ever becomes one.

And banter is always fun. Gotta have fun with the characters.

*****

The eight remaining Corona Squadron pilots all sat under the S-foils of Mackin's X-wing to get out of the rain as they listened for reports over the comm. All of their X-wings had been prepped as far as they could go on the checklists without starting the engines and all of their equipment was packed, so the pilots had nothing to do now but wait and listen for more news from their squadmates or either of the Special Forces teams.

The first minutes passed uneventfully; however, all of their ears perked up when they heard Kalre say over the squadron frequency before they had reached the drop-off point, "Three, you see that?"

"I see something, Four, but what?" Chopper stopped abruptly and paused, then his words rushed out. "No, that's not possible! They said they only had a small amount of troops here! Lead, this is Three, come in!"

The pilots on the ground all looked worriedly at each other while Mackin answered, "What's going on, Three?"

"We have a squadron of TIEs coming right for us, repeat, a squadron. We need help, now!"

The other Coronas didn't even wait for Mackin's orders before they jumped up and ran to their snubfighters. Each pilot climbed into his or her cockpit and finished the remaining items on the checklist in a hurry. When they patched their headsets into the communications system, they heard the tail end of Chopper's conversation with Mackin.

"They just entered firing range, Lead. Tell Special Forces to get a faster shuttle next time!"

"Hold on, Three, we're lifting now. Help is on the way."

The eight pilots fired up their repulsorlifts and engines and climbed out of the canyon, flying full-throttle toward the fight. At the same time, Mackin coordinated some last-minute details with Lt. Col. Trainneer, who was aboard the remaining Special Forces shuttle back in the canyon.

It seemed to take forever for the Coronas to cover the distance, and during that time the situation did not improve. "We can't hold them! There's just too many! The shuttle's getting hit hard, and so are we!" Kalre reported.

"Four, my shields are gone, I lo?-" Chopper's urgent voice was cut off.

"Three, punch out!" There was a pause before Kalre continued, "Lead, we just lost the shuttle and Three ejected right before his X-wing was destroyed. I think."

"Get out of there, Four," Mackin ordered. "We just entered visual range. We'll cover you. Mark Three's location."

The Rebel reinforcements soon left the rain behind, though the sky remained thick with clouds. They could now make out the TIEs' green lasers ahead and two black clouds of smoke sticking out against the dark grey clouds. Debris was leaving trails in the sky as it rained down from the dissipating black puffs like it was trying to mimic the storm clouds behind the X-wings. The clouds and haze blurred the reference line of the horizon, making the ground seem closer than it really was. In addition to that, the cloud ceiling above them seemed oppressive and solid, and the Rebel fighter pilots who were more accustomed to dogfights in outer space than anywhere else felt a couple uneasy flutters of claustrophobia momentarily in their stomachs.

Each affected pilot shook it off to the best of his or her ability and focused instead on the fight ahead that was rapidly approaching. At their maximum targeting range Mackin ordered the Coronas to set up for a simultaneous proton torpedo launch, and it was evident his pilots were doing as they were told when multiple TIEs broke off their attack runs on Kalre and started dancing around to break the targeting locks the Coronas had on them. With one word from Mackin, eight proton torpedoes streaked out from the X-wings, blazing a blue trail in the sky fo

 

Awesome. Great combat imagery. It's a good sign when a Corona gets hit and I'm actually worried about whether they're OK or not.

It came over the radio waves. "For the last time, Commander, we are not flying into that firefight and we are not coming back that way, especially with more Imperials coming. Get out of there now!" A few surprised, protesting voices were heard in the background inside Starsmoke before Trainneer closed the transmission.

Hey, what's HIS problem?! Sounds like he should be behind a desk and not out in the field. I never liked officers like that.

 

*stunned silence*

I'm loving this

You managed to create a whole X-wing squadron full of new characters and you managed to give them all a personality and deapth... I loved it
This is beautifully written and I was caught in the very first lines I read.. I am a very big fan of languages and you wove the words together really nicely...
I absolutely, most definately will want more of this...
I'm already addicted...

 

It's amazing how you could create an entire starfighter squardron, just like that....

I also find the flight scenes extremely realistic, as in they were really good and uhh, didn't seem extraordinary....

Wedge

 

Z, yeah, Trainneer isn't too "field"-savvy (is that a word? probably not. oh well). A little more explanation should be coming down the road. The Coronas aren't too happy with him right now, either.

Welcome, LumiKuningatar and Wedge!

LumiKuningatar (is that what you prefer to be called?), wow, thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Wedge, thanks to you too. I'm glad it seemed realistic--I always worry about that since dogfights are a pain for me to write.

Update coming Tuesday. Thanks again for reading!

-Katie

 

No, thank you for writing it..

I prefer Lumi, since LumiKuningatar is finnish and means snow queen and Lumi means snow...

 

I also compliment you on the pretty long posts... I find it really hard to concentrate on something that long.... and to type it all out at one time.

 

Thanks Wedge, but actually it doesn't take that long for me to post because I have the whole story written out in a WordPerfect file already. I just take the next section and find a stopping point after about four or five pages, copy, paste, and then correct the formatting and make last-minute adjustments.

Here's the next installment. The boards were down yesterday evening when I tried to get on so you get a Wednesday morning post instead.

*****

Chapter Four

Quiver and Darin landed near CC's smoldering wreck. They yanked off their helmets and flight gloves, unbuckled their seat restraints and jumped out of their cockpits, landing hard on the ground from the height. Each shouted an order back to his astromech to secure the X-wing for them, and then they ran the rest of the way across the field to CC's fighter. Quiver silently prayed they weren't too late.

Slurry flew by overhead, but when he was a few klicks away something suddenly flashed brightly, and abruptly his X-wing headed down, out-of-control and trailing smoke. The initial airborne explosion was heard a second or two later. By that time, and before the X-wing's ground impact was heard, Darin had hit the combadge on his sleeve and told the squadron, "Seven is down, unknown cause!" There was nothing those two could immediately do for Slurry at that point, so they focused their attention on helping CC.

The scene right in front of them was horrible. CC's X-wing was basically nothing but a long line of wreckage strewn about from the first place the snubfighter hit the ground a short distance away. The largest piece, and the piece they were most focused on, consisted of one S-foil, one engine and a large part of the fuselage, including the cockpit. It was almost completely upside-down and the nose had dug itself partway into the ground, leaving a short furrow in its wake. Ruby, CC's R2 unit, wasn't even visible and with the X-wing positioned that way, the droid was most likely crushed underneath beyond any hope of repair. CC hadn't ejected and they could still see her inside the buckled and crumpled cockpit, strapped to her upside-down seat and not moving.

The bent and twisted metal of the fighter's canopy that had been driven partially into the solid ground refused to cooperate as the two wingmates tried desperately to pry it apart. After a couple frantic minutes of pulling and pushing and digging away at the dirt underneath, they finally cracked it open a little bit. Quiver got down on his back, and with difficulty the lanky pilot squeezed partway inside to look up at CC and check for a pulse.

"Darin, she's in really bad shape!" he called, nearly in a panic. "Alive, but unconscious and bleeding. Bad head wound and barely a pulse. We've got to get her out!"

"Let me run back to my X-wing and see if I can find anything to cut the canopy with. Hold?-" Darin's combadge beeped, cutting him off, and then a series of urgent-sounding beeps and whistles from Botch sounded over it. As Darin stood and moved away, he hit his combadge and asked, "Botch, what?-"

Quiver couldn't hear any more of the conversation, and he put it out of his mind. Let Darin handle it. He was too worried about CC.

Part of Quiver's right sleeve became a casualty as he tore it off and with shaking hands tried to make it into a bandage for the nasty wound on her temple. He had no medical training, but even he could tell CC was in serious trouble. "CC?" he asked in a low, frightened voice despite his attempts to remain calm. "Can you hear me?" Quiver's voice started wavering, and he only partially succeeded at forcing it under control as he pleaded, "You need to stay with me! We have to play that prank on Darin we were planning, remember? We'll get you out of here. You have to be?-"

He was cut off as Darin suddenly shouted fearfully, "Quiver! Get out! Hurry!" Darin grabbed one of Quiver's legs and pulled hard, but Quiver was wedged in the small space pretty well.

"Ow!" Quiver yelled. He didn't have time for this. "Darin, I'm trying to bandage this! Just go?-"

 

no oh no *sobs* I liked her... how could you kill her? *hopeless crying*
it was wonderfully writtten , it truly was
I feel very sorry for both Darin and Quiver for having to witness one of their best friends cruel and bloody death.... *sobs*

*cries*

 

noooooo...... how could you kill C.C.!!!???!!!! yeah excellent writing, I was worried about what would happen to C.C..... and I had no idea that the Imperial would actually shoot her to death like that... really unecpected....

 

Wow...didn't expect to get responses so soon this morning. I hope I didn't scare anyone off with that last post.

As for why...well, it's too involved to go into here in depth (PM me if you want the whole spiel ). The Imperials had reasons that will be revealed in the future. It doesn't make it right, but they had them. I also had my reasons (several, actually). While I've never been in the military, I do know that war is ugly, and horrible things happen.

For me, CC is one of my favorite characters. I love writing "Trio" scenes. But I also think it adds a whole other dimension to the story this way. That's my opinion anyway, one that no one is obliged to share.

Update next Tuesday for anyone still left.

-Katie

 

Horrible! Horrible! It's such a shame....a real tragedy. CC went way before her time. *sniff sniff*

The other horrible thing is that without CC to ground them (snicker), Darin and Quiver's ego's will soar out of control. <g>

Excellent Writing, Thumper!

-LordGoldenArrow

 

Lordy, I wasn't expecting THAT!

That's...terrible! That's, that's...so very, very Imperial.

When the scout trooper was shaking his head, I thought he was saying CC was already gone. Then, zang! Blurry blaster bolts. Got me.

This is getting gripping--they're in a tight spot. Can't wait to see how they'll get out of it. Now you've got me worrying for all the other characters' safety and well-being.

 

more?

 

LGA, you can't fool me. I know you just want CC around so there's someone to pick on Quiver and Darin.

Z, the rest of the Coronas thank you for your concern. That's one of the things I like about OCs as opposed to canon characters who, in the back of my mind, I always (or almost always) know will come out okay. Aaron Allston taught me that.
And I saw your interview in the newsletter. Very cool.

Lumi, watch for the next post on Tuesday.

Hail Columbia.

-Katie

 

More...... UPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

COME ON THUMPER!!!!!!!!!!!