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

fantastic! beyond believable! this is history in the making.

 

*levitates thread*

 

That's true, Thumper.

Can't wait for the next post! Keep up the great work.

 

Welcome, R2D1000! Thank you, that's very high praise.

I sure hope this story lives up to everything...

Time for the next installment. One note: since I first wrote this story, this particular section has been revised in some significant way, shape or form about...*counts on fingers* five times. The latest of these was this past Sunday, so it hasn't gotten the insane amounts of editing that I always put all of my stuff through. But hopefully it'll be all right.

*does the Happy Page Two Dance*

Oh, yeah, this post and next week's post will be a page or two longer than the others just because of the location of good stopping points. Just a warning.

******

As the biker scouts and their two prisoners crested a small hill a short time later, they came upon the place where Chopper had presumably landed after bailing out. Weas's X-wing was sitting serenely off to the side, under Imperial guard. Chopper and Weas were also under guard with their hands likewise bound in front of them. The two Rebels and the group of Imperial biker scouts all looked up as Darin's and Quiver's group approached.

The Rebels scrutinized each other in concern while they came closer together. Weas didn't look injured. He and Chopper were sitting on the ground, but Chopper's left leg was awkwardly sticking straight out in front of him, and he looked like he was trying to keep every bit of weight off of it. There was also blood all over half of his windburned face; he apparently had had a rough time landing after ejecting. The parts of Darin's face and neck that hadn't been covered by his helmet or visor were littered with cuts from the shards of his canopy window, and his right arm had some larger cuts from the same source. Aside from Chopper, Quiver probably looked the worst: he had a large burn on his right arm and blood on his hands and the top of his flightsuit from when he was trying to bandage CC.

Quiver and Darin were shoved down next to Chopper and Weas while some biker scouts conferred and others guarded the Rebels. Contemptuous remarks were muttered in the Rebels' direction, and it looked to Darin like the guards were just waiting for the prisoners to slip up or make a move, anything to give the guards the excuse they needed to lay into them. Or maybe Darin was just paranoid now.

Weas ignored the Imperials' comments and continued studying Quiver. "You okay, Ten?" he quietly asked.

His first answer was a sharp kick from the guard nearest him. "No talking!" the Imperial commanded.

The other three pilots stiffened, tense, but that one blow was all that came, and Weas looked to be all right. Once Weas collected himself again, he silently looked at Quiver, still wanting some sort of answer.

After glancing at Quiver, seeing the blood and figuring that was why Weas thought he was badly injured, Darin turned pale once more and briefly looked at the ground, trying to mercifully blank his mind and also biting his bottom lip hard so he wouldn't break down in front of the others. When he chanced a look back up, he saw Quiver staring at the blood on his hands and clothing. The lanky pilot was shaking again, and he looked like he was going to be sick. Finally Quiver started blinking hard, then he furiously wiped at his eyes, turned away from the others, brought his knees up to his chest, and awkwardly buried his head in his arms.

Confused, Weas and Chopper turned to Darin for clarification, some explanation as to what was wrong with his wingman. Darin wouldn't meet their eyes, and he guessed that Quiver's behavior combined with Darin's averted, disconsolate gaze and colorless face tipped Weas off because in his peripheral vision Darin saw the horrified understanding, or at least the suspicion, dawn on the lieutenant. Weas knew they had gone to help CC, and he obviously didn't see her there with them; from Darin's and Quiver's reactions he had to figure she was likely dead. Chopper still looked puzzled.

Quiver didn't move from his position and Darin wouldn't look the others in the eye for the entire time they sat the

 

Thumper....

I'll admit that, at the moment, i have only read the first chapter of this story, but so far...WHOA! Hands down, this story is everything i love about fan fiction. A good story, VERY well written AND absolutely wonderfully crafted OC's! Hurrah, an X-wing story that DOESN'T have Wedge as the leader.

I love the original Trillogy and thereabouts. I am a big fan of the X-wing series, and my mantra is "You DON'T need Jedi and Sith to make your story exciting". Combine all these things with a passion for good OC's, and it leads me to your X-wing fic

I am printing the remainder of the chapters now, and i'll be back to comment on them properly later. Until then, PLEASE keep this up!

 

Oh my dear sweet lord, what a wonderful start to this story. The first four chapters are so engaging, i dont even know where to start telling you how good this is.

How about here: This story captures the style and ambience of the X-wing series incredibly well. You have progressed from the initial humourous and easygoing "squadmates" setting to the frantic and dramatic action very very well - which is something I really liked X-wing for.

Chapter one

Funny, Endearing, Purposeful.

The defining moment of this chapter would have to be Quiver's briefing - and Mack's excellent entrance into the story:

"What if the restaurant runs out of Savor Sauce before you get there? You're not planning on going during lunchtime and fighting the crowds, are you? And have you fully explored the option of delivery instead of take-out?"

Gold

The real briefing gets the job done well: it desribes what the Carona's need to do without being too in-depth and boring.

Your characters are also immediately likeable (most of them, anyway ), especially the initial "trio" of Quiver, Darin and CC. I find that, by the end of this chapter i am starting to care about these characters.

Chapter Two

Oh the characterisation!

Do you know what? Darin came to life in this chapter. This quote is what (for me) completely sold him as the protagonist in this story:

"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..."

Wow - that really was original and so utterly utterly cool. At this point, Darin is the one who i'm sticking with for the whole story

Your characterisation of the other characters was excellent too, again the "trio" in particular. I also got to like Weas alot more here, when he empathised with Darin's homesickness.

Chapter Three

The "lighter/action" chapter. Of course, when i say that, i'm comparing it to Chapter four. Which i wont go into just yet.

There is no one part of this chapter that i liked - i liked it all. A good dogfight is always a great way to fire things up in a story. And yes, i was genuinely worried when CC went down!

Now what i can't wait to see: More of Mackin. He's one of those dark horse characters that has that wonderful quality of command - like Wedge, i suppose, except with a more seasoned, fatherly quality. Looking forward to seeing him again

Chapter Four

Dark, Dramatic, Bittersweet.

I had the absolute highest hopes that CC was still alive, just like Quiver and Darin most likely did. So imagine my sincere pain when CC was put down by those SITHSPAWN biker troops.

There was a real feeling of helplessness that you portrayed greatly throughout the whole chapter. It's an area that hasn't really been explored in the X-wing series: X-wing pilots taken out of their comfortable environment, not in control, facing certain death at the hands of their captors. It was highly dramatic and depressing, well done

Probably my favourite part was when you had Darin staring down the barrel of death for a while there. This comment from the trooper was great:

"As for you, if you believe in an afterlife, you'd best make amends for your despicable life now."

And then, the part that i called bittersweet: The speeder bike chase. Never have i heard of such a thing! Four people on one speeder - brilliance!

No one said it had to be pretty

Indeed! that was the best part of the speeder chase: it deteriorated so quickly as the Speeder bike fell to pieces, adding to the

 

Welcome, Mjsullivan!

Wow. I honestly never expected to get a review like that. I don't really know what to say, except thank you!

I agree completely that Jedi and/or Sith are not required for a good SW story. They certainly have their own niche and are important to the SW universe in their own right, but it's simply hard for me to relate to them. Plus, I love the OT era the most, and there aren't exactly too many Jedi running around during that time so... Nah, give me a Rebel grunt any day.

I'm glad you liked that stargazing part. Astronomy is really a window to the past, and Darin thinks about the past so much that those seem like very natural thoughts for him to be thinking while looking at the night sky. I love astronomy, in case you couldn't tell. One of the funniest things I ever heard was that since Star Wars takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, the light from that galaxy should just be reaching Earth now, so if you can find the correct galaxy in a telescope, you can watch the events of Episode III before it hits theaters. I wish I could remember where I first heard that.

Probably my favourite part was when you had Darin staring down the barrel of death for a while there.
When I read this, Darin made sure to remind me that that wasn't his favorite part.

I'm also glad you enjoyed the speeder bike chase. That was a fun section to write. It's one of those scenes where I would pay a lot of money to see it in a theater or on TV. *sigh* Yeah, I can dream...

Again, thanks for all your comments. Next post is coming on Tuesday.

-Katie
Thumper

Edit: Annoying formatting.

 

looking forward to it, Thumper

And i've just found Corona Squadron's website.

 

loved the post... you really can write beautifully...

I like how the characters are ordinary (well, almost ordinary) men and women who fight, not because they have super powers, but because they believe in what they fight. Usually in the books the characters are super-human and all-powerful people and they seem to be immortal.. I love your fanfic since you make the characters real, they can die and they don't have super powers..
And I don't hate you for killing CC because you did it tastefully, I usually don't like people who kill my favorite characters..;
I still hop eyou aren't going to kill any more people at least for a while since I'm already quite attached to the lot of them...

 

YEAH, OUr dear heroes escape Imperial hands, into a wild enviro, Great Writing.... Keep it Up... UP

 

Thanks, all. Glad you're enjoying it, Wedge.

Lumi:
I love your fanfic since you make the characters real, they can die and they don't have super powers..
Thanks. But that also means I have to listen to Quiver constantly complain about his lack of super powers...

I still hop eyou aren't going to kill any more people at least for a while since I'm already quite attached to the lot of them...
That's what the Coronas are hoping, too.

On with the show... (Another relatively long post)

*****

Chapter Five

Darin couldn't remember ever getting motion-sick before, but the wavy, unsteady motions of the X-wing to which he was much too tenuously secured seemed determined to change that. The wobbling, coupled with such things as the sight of the ground speeding by mere meters below him, the stinging cuts on his arm and face, the headache he was getting from the engine noise and the acidic residue in his stomach from the intensity and turmoil of the morning left him feeling pretty rotten.

The noise from the engine above his head effectively consumed every other sound, and he decided that he didn't like the view very much either. He couldn't do anything about the noise, but it wasn't long until he just shut his eyes to block out the wind and the rest of the world while he tried to hold on more tightly.

What seemed like a very long time later, Ikoa began to slow down. Darin pried his eyes open and saw that they were flying low over some treetops. The X-wing suddenly and unexpectedly sideslipped a few more times like it had been doing, causing Darin to close his eyes again and bite his bottom lip. He swore his heart would explode since it seemed like it hadn't stopped hammering since he'd first lifted off from the canyon that morning.

Finally the X-wing hovered over a very small clearing in a forest, and Ikoa began putting them down very cautiously beside two X-wings covered with their camouflage netting. At long last, the pilots felt solid ground beneath them again, and the strut-riders shakily exhaled in relief as Ikoa powered down her fighter and popped her canopy open. She called over to Mackin, Slurry, Kalre and Pellicer, who were approaching. Kalre was cradling his right wrist, and Pellicer looked sunburned and a little woozy.

Carefully unwinding his legs from around the strut, Darin lay back onto the ground and slowly rolled out from under the X-wing. As soon as there was murky sky above him again, he stopped rolling, tiredly shut his eyes and simply lay on his back on the wet ground, relishing its stability and firmness. A cold drizzle was falling, but at the moment he didn't care; it actually felt good on his face. Darin's ears were ringing from the nearly constant wind noise since his canopy had been blown open, and it was made worse by the wind and engine noise of the hitchhike after that, so he didn't hear Quiver approach; rather, he sensed someone watching him so he opened his eyes.

Quiver was there beside him, looking down at him worriedly. "You okay?" he asked more loudly than normal.

"Yeah," Darin responded just as loudly as he awkwardly sat up. "Just never realized how comforting solid ground can be at times."

Quiver nodded. "So how'd you like the flight over the canyon?"

Darin shrugged. "I wasn't watching. We're on the other side of it now?"

Quiver nodded again and pulled Darin to his feet, then they walked over to join the other Coronas underneath some tree cover. Slurry and Ikoa finished putting the camouflage netting on her fighter, then they joined the rest at the same time as Darin and Quiver.

"Interesting method of transportation," Commander Mackin was saying as the stragglers approached the group. "Seemed to work better than ours did. We kind of shoved Kalre into my cockpit with me, and Slurry decided to sit on top of Lt. Pellicer's X-wing and hold onto his astromech. But with four arms, he can hold on to anything, or so he claims."

"What happened to you?" Weas asked Slurry. "Why'd you go down?"

The Bilgana crossed his upper

 

Mackin suddenly looked puzzled, and then looked around at all his pilots like he was searching for something. "Where's Six?" Mackin asked.

The world stopped again for Quiver and Darin as the question brought back the burned-in memory all too clearly. Quiver flinched, and Darin felt hot anger and painful grief moving in to fill the void in his stomach. Neither of them spoke.


I still had tears in my eyes at that part...

 

Lumi:

I know it's only Monday, but since I won't have Internet access from tomorrow until Friday night, I'm posting the next section now. wa hoo.

*****

Chapter Six

"We need to get out of here. Someone please tell me they've found a suitable hiding spot."

Pellicer looked up at Mackin from where he was working with Darin, Chopper and Ikoa, going over sensor logs. Scoop had thankfully seemed less angry with everyone since Ikoa had talked to him a while ago. "We think we might have a place, sir," Pellicer said. "Lots of plant and animal life readings, and it's not too far away. We're not sure of the exact terrain or the coverage, though."

"Is it our best option?"

"So far, yes."

"What direction?"

"Southeast."

Mackin nodded. "The Imperials are coming from the west. It'll do. Let's go. Nine, go get Eight and Ten. They're out on patrol."

"Yes, sir." Darin pocketed his datapad and jogged off to find them.

The Corona Squadron commander looked at the other three pilots. "The strut-riding, for better or for worse, seems to be the safest option we've come up with so far, if you can believe it. Eight will be flying your fighter until you feel better, Five. Two, figure out the strut-riding assignments, preferably putting a relatively healthy person on the same X-wing as someone who's injured. Balance things out as best you can." Ikoa nodded in reply.

She had the assignments figured out by the time Darin returned with Weas and Quiver a few minutes later. Pellicer gave the new location's coordinates to each person who would be flying, and soon they were ready to go. Weas, flying Pellicer's fighter, was carrying Kalre and Slurry each on a main strut, and Darin and Pellicer each had a main strut on Ikoa's ship.

Quiver shared the nose strut of Mackin's fighter with Chopper, and as he grabbed onto Chopper's flightsuit like Weas had done before, he remarked absently, "It should be easier without handcuffs." Chopper nodded in agreement.

The X-wings slowly lifted up and headed off to their new location, skimming the treetops. They mainly used repulsorlifts this time with minimal engine throttle to try to avoid letting the Imperials pick up any engine emissions. The noise caused by the wind was still loud, but nothing like it had been with an engine running with substantial throttle right above the strut-riders.

They traveled for a while and the ground below them began to change. The forest thinned out, but each individual tree got bigger. More and more ground was replaced with murky standing water that had a vast amount of small green plants floating on it rather unattractively.

The three X-wings eventually came to a floating stop above a place where a small area of ground showed and a whole lot of stagnant swamp water surrounded it. "You have got to be kidding," Kalre muttered to himself as he surveyed where the X-wings were obviously going to put down.

Mackin, Weas and Ikoa likewise assessed the area. They all opened their canopies, and Ikoa called to the other two, "There's not enough room to get all three of the X-wings completely on dry land."

"The important thing is to keep the engines out of the water," Weas called back. "Can we put our sixes to each other, land on the dry part with the main gear and let the noses sit in the water?"

"Probably. Let's give it a try," Mackin said. "Let me drop off Ten and Three first so I don't drown them." He settled to the ground and called down to them. They moved off the skid and out of the way, then Mackin lifted up again.

Ikoa, being the wobbliest and therefore needing the largest margin for error, set down first, keeping her main gear on the exposed ground almost at the edge of the water to leave room for the other snubfighters. Snubber headed down next and mimicked her positioning, and finally Mackin landed beside them the same way. It was a landing that would have impressed any precision flying group: the X-wings were packed so closely together that someone could step from one to the other easily. The fighters were powered

 

up, Up, UP!

Not that i really need to know what happens next Love your work Thumper!

Come on guys, where have you all disappeared to? more posts, i say!

 

Thumper's whole speech about not being able to do anything for CC really sounded good in his ears but had only been created and given for Quiver's benefit. Darin wished he could have convinced himself of those same points and lessened some of the survivor guilt in the pit of his stomach that honestly and silently agreed with Quiver. Why do you always make me cry and feel sad for the poor guys? Not that it's a bad thing or anything but I don't want to be sad all the time... I really like your story... Will we have some more soon?

 

Thats the spirit, LumiKuningatar

The X-wing stories are always going to make people feel more attached to characters than any others, mainly because the characters are so REAL as opposed to supernatural warriors who are practically invincible (as with most Jedi fics *sigh*). Its one of the many reasons i love them the other is good OC's!

 

I know... When I grow up I want to be a pilot... I don't think it's possible since I have a slight fear of hights... but being a pilot and being able to fly in the starry sky with no strings attached... that would be so cool... that's one reason why I love to read about pilots and these guys are already very dear to me and... well, y'know...

 

Sorry, Lumi, I didn't mean to make you sad! The end of the last post was the end of the day when everything happened, so Darin and Quiver are still really upset. It's hard to not get all angsty with something like this, though compared to what I could do, this is really toned down. But if it helps, there won't be any more introspective stuff until Chapter 10.

And I wouldn't let a slight fear of heights deter you from being a pilot, or at least looking into it. I know someone who is afraid of heights, yet he was a helicopter test pilot with Special Operations. I'm not sure how it works in other countries, but in the USA most flight schools will offer a one-time "introductory flight" where you go up with an instructor for an hour or so, and they're pretty inexpensive. That might be a good way to gauge how comfortable you'd be in a plane. (And nighttime flying is awesome.)

Thanks for the up, MJSullivan. I love the characters in the X-wing books. I haven't read a lot of other EU (Zahn Trilogy and a handful of others), but the X-wing characters were a lot more interesting and "real" to me. Like Myn Donos...but don't get me started on how much I love that character, because I'll never stop.

Update tomorrow.

-Katie
Thumper

 

Oh maybe I'll try, still every time I get on a plane, even a jumbo jet, I feel like the plane is going to fall and I'll be one of the unfortunate ones who dies. Stupid really... But I'll try, it would be a dream come true, really...

And thank you for not making me cry like the Niagara... It's actually scary to think that if this is toned down, what you're capable of writing... I'm imagining quite something...

[Oliver] Can we have some more? [/Oliver]

 

Lumi, I'm not sure if this would help what you described in your last post, but how familiar are you with basic aerodynamics and what keeps a plane in the air? That could help put your mind at ease. *shrug* Just a suggestion. I dunno. And I wouldn't say it's stupid...it's a valid feeling that many people share. It took me a long time to be comfortable on commercial airliners, though I think that was more of a feeling of lack of control on my part than anything else. But don't give up if it's something you're interested in.

I think I'll get off my soapbox now and post the next section...


*****

Kalre caught Quiver's yawn as they sat out on watch. The airwaves had been fairly quiet, matching the stillness of the night.

Suddenly a transmission broke through. The pilots' hearts sank as they listened to it: there was a group of Imperials heading right for them. The two squadmates looked bleakly at each other before quickly going to rouse the others.

*****

"Major Wendessin, we're closing on them," TB-045 reported not long afterward on a private channel. "We estimate they left this area not more than ten minutes ago."

Major Wendessin rubbed his eyes sleepily as he listened over the comlink to his subordinate's report in his quarters. He'd been asleep, but he wanted to know everything as it happened and was glad his troops were following his orders to report major findings the moment they had them.

These Rebels were getting frustrating. Even in the middle of the night, they managed to just barely escape from under the Imperials' noses. "Do you have any indication of the direction they went?"

"Not yet, sir, but we should have some leads soon."

Another frequency came in over the major's comlink, overriding the first. A different voice spoke up. "Major, we may have something."

*****

Commander Quentell Mackin listened intently to the Imperial's transmission on the tactical channel as they flew: "Major, we may have something."

"What is it?"

"We're picking up a slight trail of carbade ions, used in hyperdrives. It's not coming from any of our ships. It's possible that if one of the Rebel X-wings has a damaged hyperdrive, it could be leaking. We can follow it right to them and be on them very soon."

"Excellent work. Do so immediately."

Mackin sighed inaudibly. Losing one of their available fighters would cost them dearly, but they'd lose even more if the Imperials tracked them with it. From what it sounded like, they wouldn't have time to try to fix the leak, and Pellicer's hyperdrive had been written off earlier as a complete loss so no one had even thought to try to patch it up. They'd have to be more careful and better anticipate the risks those decisions brought.

He looked around for a place where Weas could land the X-wing. They'd been flying northwest and were now on the southwest side of the north/south elongated canyon, which was about fifteen klicks to the east. The forest was becoming thinner, and the terrain was opening up into hilly fields. A minute later he spotted a clearing, slowed and caught Weas's attention. They only had a limited number of hand signals for use during comm silence, but Weas understood the message and set the X-wing down.

Mack and Ikoa gently landed beside the leaking fighter while Weas quickly powered it down and secured it. The commander opened his canopy and called to Weas's strut-riders, "They're tracking the leaking hyperdrive on that fighter so we need to ditch it. You'll all have to strut-ride with me and Two. Come on, time's short."

Weas grabbed the survival kit from that fighter and followed Slurry and Kalre to the other two X-wings. Weas jumped onto Ikoa's nose gear where Darin and Pellicer held onto a main strut each, and Kalre and Slurry each took a main strut of Mackin's, joining Quiver and Chopper who remained on Mackin's nose gear. Once they were secure, the fighters moved up and quickly continued on their way, going north-northwest this time.


Chapter Eight

"Sir, we've found the X-wing with the leak. It's on t

 

Hi, all. A couple notes to start off with.

First, this is a fairly short section.

Second, look for another update this Saturday. The reason for this is that I won't have Internet access next week, so Saturday's post will take the place of next Tuesday's post. Also, Lumi, I renumbered my chapters slightly so Saturday's post is the Chapter Ten introspective stuff I warned you about, even though it'll only be Chapter Nine.

Finally, one of the things I paid the most attention to when rewriting this story to post here on the boards was keeping a consistent point-of-view; however, due to the current POV discussion in the WR, I discovered that I needed to do a better job with this scene in that respect. So I fixed it...about an hour ago. Hopefully it's a little smoother now.

Anyway, on with the show...

*****

Mackin and Ikoa cleared the jamming region. All secrecy abandoned, Mack turned on his active sensors and got a good picture of the surrounding area, though it was barely visible in the dark. It looked to be mostly hilly fields, with a deep river valley far to the north that flowed south and eventually formed the canyon where they had originally landed. Right now, they were heading roughly northeast, back toward the canyon.

The Coronas' CO knew they wouldn't stay ahead of the Imperials forever. He decided to head to the valley in the hopes it would give them a place to hide and maybe even slow down the ground forces pursuing them. Mackin kept his fighter low to the ground and turned a bit to enter the river valley from the south where it opened into the north part of the canyon so the Imperials wouldn't have a straight line to follow to them. He saw Ikoa tucked in right on his wing.

The X-wings skimmed the planet's surface until the ground dropped out from under them to form one of the valley's walls at its narrow southern end. The fighters went into a shallow dive to bring them closer to the river and then gently turned north to go deeper into the valley. Shortly afterward, Mack noticed a huge waterfall ahead at the far end of the valley.

Mackin looked more closely at his sensor readouts. If he was reading them right, there was a cavern in the rock behind the middle of the waterfall that would be big enough for both of the fighters. It would be a perfect place if the sensors were correct: the rock would shield them from the Imperial scanners, and with both X-wings inside taking up so much space, it shouldn't scan like a big empty cavern to the Imperials, so they might not even notice it.

He motioned Ikoa abeam of him again. They didn't have hand signals that could communicate everything Mackin wanted to ask, but he tried to pantomime the rest to fill in the gaps.

Mackin saw Ikoa look at her sensors, then up at the waterfall. She said something to her droid and then bent her arm so that it stuck straight up from her elbow to her fingertips. She pointed to the middle of the vertical part of her arm, moved her hand behind and past it as if sending it through her arm, then stopped and made a fist with her pointer hand. She ended it all with a signal asking for Mackin's confirmation.

The commander sighed. They needed a larger hand signal vocabulary. He hoped they were on the same page, but they couldn't risk a transmission now that they were out of the Imperials' sight again. It seemed like his wingman understood his intentions and that her sensor readout was the same, so he confirmed. She nodded in reply and moved back to her standard position off Mackin's wing.

A moment later, the X-wings were aimed directly at the middle of the waterfall.

*****

The Corona pilots riding on the struts peered through the darkness as the X-wings leveled out of their shallow dive and then turned slightly. Ikoa's fighter moved forward for a few minutes, then moved back. They started climbing again.

Darin shook his head hard a minute later to clear away the ringing from the wind and engine noise. He had mostly calmed down now. "That sounds like a waterfall."

Pellicer listened intently, then no

 

"This is not yet the worst day of my life, but it's getting very close very quickly," Darin mumbled weakly.

 

Thanks, Lumi.

Okay, here's Tuesday's post, four days in advance. I won't have Internet access next week, but then everything should be back to normal the following Tuesday.

*****

Chapter Nine

Mackin and Weas were still having a quiet discussion beyond the nose of Mackin's X-wing when the cavern started to slowly lighten an hour later. Another hour after that, Slurry and Darin woke up Ikoa and Chopper to relieve them on watch. Darin was just about ready to fall blissfully into unconsciousness when Weas's silhouette approached him in the dim light.

"Flight Officer Stanic," Weas said in a subdued voice.

Darin looked up in mild surprise at the formality. "Sir?"

"Come with me, please."

Darin wearily pushed himself to his feet again and followed the XO over to where he and Mackin had been talking in the soft light of a glowrod.

Mackin looked up as they approached and managed a small smile. "Have a seat, Thumper. Just be careful of our rocks."

Darin looked down and barely made out some small rocks placed seemingly randomly in a small area on the ground, connected and surrounded by lines in the dirt. Guessing they were meant as some sort of planning map, he made sure to avoid hitting them as he sat down across from the other two pilots. When he looked up again, for the first time he noticed Mackin's and Weas's bloodshot eyes, and he wondered how long they had been awake since all this began.

"Any reports over the comm?" Mackin asked.

"Yes, sir," Darin answered. "They know they lost us in this area, so they're starting to do tight-beam scans of the entire canyon and valley while biker scouts patrol the surrounding woods. A tight-beam scan aimed in here will find us, sir."

Weas and Mackin exchanged a look that suggested the news had just sealed their fates by forcing them into action. Mackin tiredly ran a hand through his black hair and then met Darin's gaze. "Lieutenant Weas and I have been discussing our situation at length, and we believe we have a plan to escape. However, we need a third person, and we believe you are our best candidate."

Darin was a bit surprised, but he answered, "Anything, sir. Just tell me what to do."

Mackin looked like he'd rather be doing anything but talking to Darin right then. "Hear the plan first, Flight Officer. Then decide."

A red flag went up in Darin's brain, eclipsing the small glimmer of hope he had begun to feel at the prospect of escape. "Yes, sir," he said more carefully.

Mackin nodded. "You know our situation: too many injuries and too few fighters to fly everyone out of here. We're essentially out of food, too, and we won't find any in this cave. So, unless we want to wait around for a rescue that may never show, we need to get some sort of ship that will allow us to get all our people out?-in other words, a small shuttle or transport.

"We figure if one of us can get into the colony, that person will be able to steal a suitable transport and bring it back here, load it up, and escape. We might even get lucky and find an Imperial transport on the way to take instead. Regardless of where or how we find it, finding it is going to be my task. I'll need one of the X-wings to get to the colony. Lt. Weas is going to stay here with the remaining X-wing to guard the others in case something goes wrong."

Mackin paused for such a long moment that Darin thought he was done and wondered if his tired brain had just missed something obvious. "Uh, sir? Then what do you need me for?"

His commander seemed to snap out of his thoughts and looked again at the younger pilot. "The third person would be coming with me partway. With all the Imperials here looking for us, there's no way that I could survive getting into the colony on my own to look for a transport. Plus, they know we have two X-wings, so we're going to show them two X-wings."

He took a deep breath and began to explain further. "I will drop off the third pilot at Quiver's X-wing, since from the reports I have, that one is damaged the least, and it's also close to being on the

 

I love this story so much.

I just really hope you aren't going to kill anyone, for a while at least. Otherwise I might lose my faith in the New Republic tacticians..;

*eagerly waiting for more*

 

Enjoyed the briefing, both real and humourous, and the stargazing was touching, a nice interlude that helped us get to know the characters better.

Sad when CC died though I thought I understood the reasoning, better to kill someone quick than let them slowly die, but the Imperials were more ruthless than I was thinking.

I wouldn't like to ride an X-Wing landing gear.

I did like the fact that the Imperial Major wasn't completely stupid, he recognised the possibility that his comms were being tapped and used that against them.

Quivers reaction was great, you can understand him desperately not wanting to lose another friend so soon and trying to convince Darin out of it.

One reason why I think I like this story so much is because the Rebels are being hunted rather than, as in the (final) Rogue Squadron comic story arc Mandatory Retirement, being able to launch a series of attacks without being found.