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Chapter 1
Eight X-Wings and
two Y-Wings, each proudly bearing the
colours of Firebird Squadron, exited Hyperspace at the coordinates the
attack
on the Retribution and Audacity had
taken place; the two ships
were still adrift, the ships assigned to salvage them and tow them to
repair
bases still several days away. Even from hundreds of kilometres away,
the
damage looked extensive; the Retribution’s
Bridge appeared to be open to vacuum, and several large breaches were
visible
in the superstructure of her dorsal hull – whatever had hit her had hit
her hard, like a volley of Proton Torpedoes
from an assailant she had been unprepared for. The Audacity
was similarly damaged, her engine bays blasted into
wreckage and her weakly-armoured hangar bay blown out from inside by
secondary
explosions. Stryker was no engineer, but even his limited knowledge
told him
that the ships would be in drydock for months before they would be
spaceworthy
again.
[I have sensor
contacts ahead, over two dozen.]
The crackling
voice of the recently-promoted Commander Travis
Cook echoed in his headset, and Stryker shifted uncomfortably in his
ejection
seat; the presence of interlopers would make their investigation more
difficult, especially if they were scavengers out looking for an easy
score.
The Victory-class design might be fifty years old, but the technology
carried
within was still military-grade and would make your average pirate or
smuggler
a hundred times more deadly if it were to fall into the wrong hands.
[Unidentified
vessels, you are in restricted space. Power
down your vessels and prepare to be boarded.]
The voice was
unknown to Stryker but it was clipped,
Imperial, and conveyed an implicit threat that not immediately
complying was to
mean death. In a way, this was both better and worse than pirates –
better
because the situation might be able to be defused by declaring his
identity and
orders, worse because if it wasn’t, they would be fighting pilots with
training
and experience on a par with their own and, more than likely, in
superior
craft- his pilots were some of the finest in the fleet but he didn’t
rate
three-against-one odds in X-Wings and Y-Wings against Defenders…
[I’m reading Kawolski
IFF signatures on the inbounds; look like Gunboats and Avengers.]
That made it
Stelek and Zlatan squadrons, neither of which
Stryker had any experience with or personal knowledge of. Still, firing
upon
fellow Imperial pilots was not how Stryker wanted to start his
investigation.
“Incoming
fighters, this is Colonel Stryker of the Star
Destroyer Challenge. Stand down. We
are here under orders from the Security Office.”
The response was
Sparky shrilling warning that multiple
ships were painting him with missile locks, and would be in firing
range in
less than ten seconds. Even with the upgraded engines of the Firebird
craft,
they wouldn’t outrun the incoming Avengers or the missiles they were
about to
fire. With a sigh, Stryker switched frequency back to the squadron.
“Lock S-Foils in
attack position; they aren’t our enemies,
so fire to disable.”
As the formation
broke into combat formation, with four
X-Wings and a Y-Wing per flight, Stryker diverted power to his front
shields
and targeted the nearest ship; aiming for a classic disabling shot by
severing
one of the incoming Avenger’s wings from the main body. As the range
decreased,
his finger hovered over the trigger, waiting to see who would flinch
first…
The lead TIEs
fired first, a dozen Concussions Missiles
lancing out ahead of the agile craft as they closed, screaming in on
the less
agile X-Wings and Y-Wings. Fortunately this was something the Firebird
pilots
had become very experienced with in recent months; Stryker, Ricaud and
Travis
opened fire almost as one, the
others a fraction of a second later, laser and Ion Cannon fire
scything through the
blackness to intercept and destroy the incoming warheads – those that
were not
destroyed by direct hits were immolated by the explosions of their
brethren.
Stray blasts grazed the shields of the incoming Avengers, who,
disturbed by the
unflinching advance of their targets, scattered and left the slower
Gunboats in
the line of fire. The Gunboats unleashed a powerful but brief barrage
of
missiles and cannon-fire before their formation also scattered, tagging
the craft of the less-experienced pilots SkyHigh
and Bowman; leaving their X-Wings adrift and without power. NiksaVel
and Travis
in the bulky Y-Wings formed a protective shield for the disabled craft,
blasting away at whatever came close with their lasers and Ion Cannon
turrets.
In the cockpit of
his X-Wing, Stryker grunted with effort as
he tried to keep pace with the fleeing Avenger, marked by its
transponder as
belonging to the squadron’s commander. The range was good but the
Avenger pilot
was just slippery enough to evade presenting a good solution, right up
until he
snap-rolled to avoid colliding with a Gunboat that had just been
disabled by
one of the Y-Wings. Four scarlet bolts of energy pierced the Avenger’s
engine
assembly one after the other, and the Avenger began to tumble
uncontrolled
through space. Elsewhere, similar events were occurring and the number
of
damaged or disabled craft began to climb in Firebird’s favour until
broadcasts
of surrender began to crackle through the speakers in his headset –
with both
squadron leaders out of the fight, the remaining pilots weren’t about
to throw
their lives away against pilots who had much more recent combat
experience.
With hostilities
ended, Firebird’s support U-Wings arrived;
loaded with technicians, they would analyse any surviving sensor data
on both
derelicts to determine whether Shadow Squadron had been responsible for
the
attack, and where they had gone afterwards. Even if Shadow Squadron had
been
innocent, they’d gone dark and were not responding to orders to return,
and the
TIE Corps could not afford the Shadow-class Y-Wing falling into the
wrong hands
– Stryker’s orders were very clear when it came to preserving the
secrecy of
the design...
With the data
downloaded, the U-Wings took the disabled
X-Wings under tow and dropped distress beacons as the squadron hypered
out of the
system; forces from the Kawolski would
respond to the call and retrieve their disabled craft, and hopefully
would be smart enough to stay out of Firebird’s way in
the future…
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FIREBIRD
SQUADRON WSR #18 (6-FEB-29 ABY)
