Beyond - Legends X-Wing: Rise of a Rogue - Revised Edition - Complete 2/22 (Rogues, Wraiths, OCs)

Just how did military administrative types put up with wearing these all day?

The real reason Wedge Antilles was so reluctant to take the general's commission!

First and foremost, I regret to inform all of you that Ooryl Qyrrg will be leaving us to return to his homeworld. Ooryl, we wish you the best of luck in your travelings. May our paths cross again.?

Aww, I always liked him.

Tycho entered a few commands into the holoprojector, displaying the image of a backwater world that, chances are, most of the Rogue?s wouldn?t recognize. Except for one. Darvix felt a cold pit forming in his stomach. This couldn?t be happening, he refused to believe this was happening to him.

?This, in the heart of Imperial space,? Tycho said, ?is Nar Shaddaa.?

BUM BUM BUM!!!!

 

That is so not good for Dap.

 

Nar Shaddaa? Should be interesting.

I'm glad that Dap made it out of the awards ceremony...he and Wedge are a lot alike in that regard. Sad to see Ooryl leaving the story, though.

 

Excellent post and leading to more action

 

Nanci

The real reason Wedge Antilles was so reluctant to take the general's commission!

Absolutely. Those dress uniforms made his butt look big

Aww, I always liked him.

Ooryl is a fascinating character to me. Unfortunately while I was busy writing this years back I realized that at some point during this stretch, Ooryl left and Pash returned. I needed to get that worked in somehow.



Hazel

Forced trip back home. Don't really envy him right now

DMC

Definitely interesting. The entire planet is a noted hive of scum and villainy

earlybird

Thanks! Hopefully I can get more action dialed up soon.


~*~

Chapter Five - Self Medicating

The Rogues and their X-Wings had been transferred to a heavily modified Corellian blockade runner that would serve as their temporary mobile base of operations . It was a tight squeeze, but all twelve of the X-Wings had been placed into a makeshift landing mounts situated behind custom armor plating that had been haphazardly welded to the hull. Darvix had been told that the former Wraith Squadron had pulled a similar stunt in their efforts against the Imperial warlord Zsinj. The Rogues would fly aboard the blockade runner until it was about three-quarters of the way to Nar Shadaa. At that point, The Rogues would assume command of their X-Wings for the last leg of the trip.

Unfortunately, Darvix said to himself, this flight is over in only four days.[/]

To say that Darvix didn?t want to return to his homeworld of Nar Shadaa was an understatement. He'd love nothing more than to have it wiped off the star maps. He had fought so hard to leave that backwater moon, and now the New Republic was sending him back. Darvix idly wondered when fate would give him a hand of Sabaac cards that he could do something with. It seemed as if the universe had drawn a stellar sabacc hand and he was about to lose his shirt with a score of eight.

He tossed down the rest of his drink and glanced around the empty mess hall before pouring another mugful. Darvix knew in the back of his mind that he would end up paying for what he had already downed. Normally, the young pilot wasn?t much of a drinker, but the last thing he wanted to do now was think about the backwater moon he was returning to. Solution, bludgeon those unwelcome thoughts out of his mind with excessive amounts of alcohol.

?I think you?ve had too much to drink,? came a soothing voice from beside him.

Cheriss ke Hanadi took a sit beside Darvix, leaning in to him a bit. The two of them had been virtually inseparable since his return from the Redemption. From what Darvix had gathered, Cheriss had been distraught when the initial report had come from the salvation. He had lost so much blood, his entire circulatory had been compromised. After a certain point, the doctors had kept him in the Bacta tank only to ease the death that certainly awaited him.

?I beg to differ,? he replied. ?I don?t think I?ve had enough.?

Cheriss shook her head, ?Come on, Darvix. There?s no honor in running away from fear, and there?s nothing more childish than running away from home.?

? ?Riss,? he said, addressing her by her pet name. ?My entire life is filled with dishonor. Growing up as a brainwashed Imperial servant has a tendency to do that to a person ?besides, wanting to avoid conflict isn?t dishonorable, it?s a smart survival tactic.?

Cheriss let out a silent sigh. ?You?ve faced so much worse, Dap,? she said softly as she leaned into him, softly nuzzling his shoulder. ?We?ll be in and out of there in no time.?

Darvix smiled slightly, turning his head to look at her. It all seemed so cliché, something that should have been ripped from a third-rate action holo. Boy and girl meet. Boy and girl argue, constantly. Boy and girl get into a dangerous scuffle. Boy saves girl, girl saves boy. Girl then saves boy again. Boy falls for girl. He shook his head. Despite the fact that he was a stuck up, overconfident know-it-all, she seemed to actually care for him, and in a way that

 

?Two agents,? Iella replied. ?Tyria Sarkin and Kell Tainer.?

Yeeeeeeees!!!!!


Wedge could trust both of them to assist the Rogues find the Imp technician. Provided, of course, they weren?t too busy playing suck-face.

Oh please, like he doesn't want to suck face with Iella every spare second he gets.


Nar Shaadaa sounds like quite the place.


Dap and Cheriss are just way too cute. I feel like I've just eaten an entire bowl of sugar.


BTW, if you do something awful to them.........

 

If there was anything he had learned over the years, it wasn?t wise to defy a woman.

Very smart boy!

 

Very nice work, Lane! I'm excited to see Kell and Tyria!

 

Nanci

Oh please, like he doesn't want to suck face with Iella every spare second he gets

You know he does

Nar Shaadaa sounds like quite the place.

Oh it was voted a top vacation destination in Hutt Weekly. Sounds like a fabulous place to visit

Dap and Cheriss are just way too cute. I feel like I've just eaten an entire bowl of sugar.

A bowl of sugar and then some. Not only are they in love, but they're young and in love.

The whole Rise of a Rogue storyarc covers about three years of time from start to finish. They were both around nineteen when they met, twenty now.

BTW, if you do something awful to them.........



Hazel - He's at least learned one way to prevent injury

DMC - They should be showing up pretty soon

 

Chapter Six
Ghosts

Lieutenant Arlin Peratos nervously glanced at his sensor readouts. All of these rumors about these ?Phantom Fighters? had been taking its toll on his nerves. The thought of an undetectable force that might be tailing his squadron was frightening. How could they fend off an attack from an invisible assailant?

Peratos looked at his forward and aft sensors again, still only seeing the green blips of friendly New Republic contacts. Only a few more hours until his shift ended, and he could return to the Nebulon B-Frigate he was stationed on. The sooner he was out of the cockpit of his B-Wing, the better. His starfighter wasn?t even an ideal choice to use in a dogfight, leave that to the sleek A-Wing or the multipurpose X-Wing. The B-Wing may have been a relatively fast assault snub, but even a standard TIE Fighter could out fly and outmaneuver him.

?Three here,? a voice over his radio said. ?Nothing out here but the ghost ships.?

Peratos shook his head. ?There?s no such thing as ghosts, Three.?

?Tell that to the crew of Omega Outpost and Grey Flight,? he replied.

A few months earlier, Command had lost contact with a sensor platform and her flight of Y-Wing escorts. After the sensor logs were recovered, it was discovered that they had been fired upon by unknown contacts. Still, the logs couldn?t pin down who the attackers where, or where they came from.

The first incident with the Phantoms had only fueled the legends this area had. It was long believed that Omega post was placed in a starship graveyard. Thousands of years ago, an epic battle between Old Republic forces and the Sith fleet occurred over a nearby star. Legend says that the Sith had discovered an awe-inspiring factory that manufactured a nearly limitless amount of starships. It was said to have been a facility of incomprehensible proportions, harvesting energy from the sun it orbited. It was aptly named the Star Forge, and had it not been destroyed, the Galaxy would likely be under Sith control this very moment. In the end, a great and terrible skirmish took place over the Star Forge and countless Sith and Old Republic ships had been destroyed over that star, killing thousands in the process.

Of course, the story was just an old Jedi legend. When Emperor Palpatine had taken command of the galaxy, he had destroyed a great number of records that may have detailed its existence. If there was any truth behind the tale, it was long gone. Still, Peratos couldn?t deny the disasters that seemed to happen in this area. Before Omega Outpost, a convoy of Bacta hauling freighters had disappeared in this sector. Over a decade ago, a fleet of Rebellion Corvettes had been destroyed, though no official explanation had ever been given as to the cause.

?I?ve got an anomaly on the sensors,? his wingman said. ?Trying to lock it-?

The sound of laser fire filled Peratos? communications unit, followed quickly by the hissing of static.

?Two?s gone!? three shouted. ?Hell, it?s the Phantoms!?

Decision time. Lock into attack mode and wish for a miracle, or get the hell out of there. Peratos was no fool, he knew they had no chance fending off an attack from their invisible assailants.

?Lock in your NAV computers to the quickest route out, go evasive and get out of here!? Peratos shouted.

As he began to juke and jink the flightstick at random, he looked to his port side and saw the frigate he was stationed on begin to move towards its escape vector. The starship was helpless. There was nothing Peratos or the rest of his flight could do to help her. Without any sort of visual or sensor readout on the attackers, they couldn't move in for a defense pattern.

Shunting laser cannon power to his engines, he flew away from the frigate and locked into the quickest escape vector he could calculate. It pained him to be leaving the crew members of the Frigate behind, to what he knew were their deaths. Unfortunately, he was considerably more useful to the Republic alive. The sensor data on his starfighter would no doubt prove to be valua

 

?Do what we do best, kiddies,? Ace replied. ?Lock S-Foils in attack position.?

LOL! Loved that line.

 

It was going to be a long day, Darvix mused.

A very, very long day.

 

great action and a long day indeed

 

Cool stuff. I like the KOTOR reference, and you can't really go wrong with dogfights! Nice work!

 

Nanci - Blowing up stuff, a signature trademark of a Wedge Antilles commanded unit

Hazel - Long day, long week, long month, long year for those poor guys.

earlybird Thanks!

DMC - The KOTOR stuff actually plays heavily into the Dap mythos. Becomes much more prevalent in the sequel fic.

Thanks for reading all!

~*~

Chapter Seven
Behind Enemy Lines

Wedge stepped off the Lambda class shuttle, thankful to have made it to the ground safely. Getting ambushed out there was not his idea of fun, and all it had accomplished was to put the Rogues on edge. Surprise aside, he was pleased with how his escort pilots had performed. They had given the enemy civilian combatants every opportunity to stand down, but when it was clear that was not going to happen they acted swiftly and decisively.

It was, upon reflection, the best outcome for a bad situation.

With the long flight behind them, they could get to the task at hand. Unfortunately, tracking down a single technician in the sea of sentient beings was a daunting task. Wedge was beginning to believe that taking down an entire planetary government would be an easier task. He shook his head in frustration. The Rogues were fighter pilots, not covert operatives. Yes, his men and women possessed gifted military minds, but they belonged behind the flightstick.

If Command insisted on sending pilots on these insane runs, why had they disbanded the Wraiths?

Starfighter Command would hear about this when he got home. No more pushing General Wedge Antilles around. He had to draw the line somewhere.

?Relax, Wedge,? said Janson. ?You look like you?re going to give yourself an ulcer.?

?I?m not old enough to get an ulcer,? Wedge replied.

Wes grinned, walking past him, ?Keep telling yourself that, gramps.?

?Oh, I?ll get you for that,? Wedge said. ?A Corellian never forgets, and often collects interest on revenge.?

Wedge watched as the four Rogues who had been flying escort stepped out of the shuttle, having changed into civilian attire. Darvix was the last out, and Wedge couldn?t help but notice that the young pilot appeared to be extraordinarily uncomfortable. Everything from the way he stood to the way his eyes quickly darted around to scan his surroundings betrayed a sense of nervousness. Wedge hoped, that for Darvix?s own benefit, he would be able to recompose himself in a hurry.

As Wedge walked off the landing pad, he spotted a Duros male walking towards them at a brisk pace. Wedge could feel the frustration bubbling within him. Not two minutes on the ground, and already they were being confronted. He just wanted to lay low and not attract attention to the Rogues. What in the name of the Force could the Duros want with them?

?I?m afraid it?s going to cost you dearly to park here,? the Duros said, his basic heavily accented.

?We?ve already paid your rates,? Wedge replied calmly, ?All in Imperial currency.?

?Yes,? the Duros said in turn, ?But you vaped two of my best customers out there. That will cost you.?

He could almost feel frustration bubble to the surface, but he quickly collected himself. Wedge was not in the mood to be dealing with a credit grubbing scumbag, but he was in less of a mood to attract the attention of local authorities. Before Wedge could say another word, Darvix stepped in front of him, pushing him away from the Duros. In a flash the uncertainty Wedge had seen in the pilot vanished, replaced by an almost frightening sense of resolve and anger.

?You should tell your favorite customers to stop harassing us,? Darvix said. ?Otherwise you won?t have many more customers to work with. Understood??

The Duros took a step back, anger showing on the alien?s face. ?Who do you think you are, talking to me like that??

What happened next surprised and, to an extent, shocked Wedge. Darvix drew his blaster, arming it and placing it under the Duros? chin. He leaned in, allowing the Duros to have a good look at his neon blue cybernetic eye implants. He held it in place for a long, uncomfortable mome

 

Starfighter Command would hear about this when he got home. No more pushing General Wedge Antilles around. He had to draw the line somewhere.

Oh my. Badass Wedge is very...um...intriguing. And this coming from someone who is not a Wedge fangirl...well, not THAT way.

(It's funny that I love all the pilots but never really had crushes on any of them except for Face, and Corran to an extent (it depends on what picture of him I'm looking at!), and I have a weird sort-of crush on Wes just because he makes me laugh so hard and I tend to fall for comedians sometimes (i.e. Face). Anyway. I digress.)


Menacing Dap, and his musings about the Jedi = very, very interesting. I have some theories about him.


Wait a minute, Luke Skywalker has a weird, vague request?! That is SO out of character! I never played KOTOR II so I only have a vague knowledge of the Jedi Exile story, so I'm interested to see where you go with this.

 

Nice to see KoTOR pieces appearing in the story. And Nar Shaddaa is always exciting with the dirty feeling it has playing the games.

 

Darvix disarmed the safety. ?You know better than to extract credits from a man pointing an illegal hand blaster at your skull. Here?s what?s going to happen. You get out of here and go back to work. We leave.?

Ladies and Gentlebeings, meet Badass Dap!




And this story just entered into a whole new level of interesting with Luke's request.

 

Very cool update! I wonder what trouble Corran will find.

 

Nanci

Oh my. Badass Wedge is very...um...intriguing. And this coming from someone who is not a Wedge fangirl...well, not THAT way.

Every now and then Wedge has the ability to turn the Badass up to 11

Menacing Dap, and his musings about the Jedi = very, very interesting. I have some theories about him.

I would be quite interested in hearing these theories!

Wait a minute, Luke Skywalker has a weird, vague request?! That is SO out of character!

Oh I know, right? Luke's -always- a straight shooter and never speaks in riddles and is never vague

I never played KOTOR II so I only have a vague knowledge of the Jedi Exile story, so I'm interested to see where you go with this.

I think I managed to write this in a way that you can understand the Exiles subplot without having played in KotOR II.

earlybird - Nar Shaddaa was one of my favorite places in the games. You could almost feel the grime through the screen!

Hazel

Ladies and Gentlebeings, meet Badass Dap!

Not to be confused with Psychotic Dap

And this story just entered into a whole new level of interesting with Luke's request.

Things tend to get entertaining when Luke shows up to throw vague requests around.

DMC

Trouble? Corran? Perish the thought!

 

Chapter Eight - Scum and Villainy

Tyria Sarkin pored over the terminal in front of her, cursing repeatedly as the system locked her out of the network. Data slicing wasn't her specialty, nor was it anywhere close to something she was competent in. NRI had promised her a trained slicer months ago to get some sort of read on the ImpNet transmissions she and her partner had been intercepting. Of course, promises were one thing. Actually getting what was promised was another matter entirely.

It was amusing, really. NRI had placed disbanded the Wraiths, splitting up the unit and placing members into other task forces spread across the Galaxy in an effort to keep them out of trouble. They were, after all, a group of rejects and washouts that had a tendency to get into a bit more trouble than they probably should. In the eyes of NRI administration, it was probably best to split them up. Pay no attention to the massive successes they had as a cohesive unit during the Zsinj campaigns.

And now, here they were, turning to two former Wraiths to track down an Imperial technician. Reluctant acknowledgment of their skills perhaps, but acknowledgment nonetheless. The mission she was on now was one that was absolutely vital to putting an end to an unseen, deadly threat to the military and the New Republic itself. If only she could see the look on old Cracken's face now.

Tyria shook her head and looked back to the console, timidly letting her fingers return to the key interface. Letting out a sigh, she hit the execute button to run the subroutine she had clumsily programmed. Moments later, the terminal began to spit out error message after error message, causing Tyria to shout obscenity afet obscenity.

Damn these terminals!

***

Darvix sat in the booth of the smoky cantina, reading over the mission parameters on his datapad. He had been so sure that getting a hold of the Phantom would have been the end of this, but here he was, on the planet he had run away from years ago to try and track down a single Imperial technician. He suspected that even if they succeeded here, it wasn't a guarantee that their problems would be solved either. It was a tricky thing, chasing Phantoms one couldn't see.

He had told him that the High Command had put the best techs to work on the Phantom Cheriss had piloted into friendly space. Unfortunately, they couldn't begin to scratch the surface of what made the cloaking device so effective, nor could they even begin to find a way to tune their sensors to detect their presence. Everything was self-contained in the hardware. Tampering with it could result in frying some sensitive circuitry or wiring, rendering the whole device useless.

As a trained slicer, Darvix knew exactly the problem they were facing. When slicing into a terminal, he would first attack the programs within the device. If he were to mess up, there were ways to cover his tracks and start again. When dealing with the hardware itself, one slip-up could spell disaster. One crossed cable, one blown conduit, and it was all over. The technicians couldn't afford for that to happen to the stolen Phantom, even with the immediate threat they were facing.

Which brought the Rogues here, to the armpit of the galaxy. Nar Shaddaa made Mos Eisley look tame in relative comparison. It was a wasteland of criminals and thugs. There were so many beings here, it would be next to impossible to track down a single person. Which, upon reflection, is probably why the Imps had sent their precious snubfighter tech here. It was easy to get lost here. Easy to disappear.

So much for getting out of here quickly, Darvix thought to himself as he pushed the dark sunshades up the bridge of his nose to conceal the neon blue of his cybernetic eyes. We could be at this for a long time.

Just as Darvix began to look the mission data over again, he felt a strong blow to his arm that caused him to jump both in surprise and a bit of pain.

"Kriffin' Sith!" he swore aloud, glaring at the young woman next to him. "What in Vader's name was that fo

 

Love those lovely interactions between the pilots. More coming? and couples forming?

 

You gotta love the banter. Good update, once again, Lane. Very interesting stuff.

 

The two of them were polar opposites.

It's a basic law of Physics that the opposites attract.


She turned around and smiled at Kell, pressing her lips softly to his and?

And then, of course, the door behind them slid open.

Oh, Blasters!

 

LOLOL at Tyria and Kell.