The characters that have appeared in previous Star Wars novels are property of Lucasfilm, Ltd. Captain Amaryl Assay, Admiral Tesh Dorass, First Officer Azzeh, and the name of Tycho's droid belong to the author. Any other characters presented here that have never been seen in a Star Wars novel are property of Iris Bailey. Do not repost anywhere without the permission of the author!
Tycho fell in directly behind an Interceptor, his HUD wavering as it searched for a lock. He got a steady tone from Marca, so he squeezed the trigger, letting go twin torpedoes.
The missiles shot through the space between Tycho and the TIE in the blink of an eye, hulling the smaller craft. There was no explosion to mark the passing of the other pilot, but Tycho knew he was dead.
As he swung around and headed back towards the dogfight, he took a moment to check his tactical board, just in time to see Rogue Eleven disappear from the screen. But even before he could register the fact that Hobbie had ceased to exist, he heard Wes screaming over the comm, his panic audible through the heavy static.
"Eleven is hit! Eleven is hit!"
"How bad is it, Twelve?" Tycho tried to be calm and reassuring, hoping that maybe Hobbie was still in one piece.
There was a pause before Wes responded. Tycho glanced at his tactical screen to locate Wes, and then looked in the direction he knew him to be. He could see his fighter in the distance, out beyond the main area of fighting. Even before Tycho could contact him, he saw Nawara in the Stardust head out toward Wes at top speed.
"His canopy is gone, Lead, as well as both port S-foils and a fair piece of his rear fuselage. What’s left of his ship is disintegrating as we speak. I can’t see if Hobbie’s still in there or not. I’m going to try and get a closer look."
"Negative, Twelve! There are only a couple of fighters in your vicinity and Rogue Control is on his way. He’ll tractor Eleven’s ship and try to get him into the shuttle if he can. Form up with Nine and Ten."
"But I have to know if..."
"That’s an order, Twelve. Return to your Flight."
As Tycho streaked out towards the area where Wes was, he could see Hobbie’s X-wing, or what was left of it, hurtling like a missile out towards the Star Destroyer. He heard Wes calling out to his friend, and the pain in his voice caused a lump to form in Tycho’s throat, despite his mounting anger towards him.
"Hobbie, come in. Can you hear me? Hobbie, please answer me!" There was a crackle and Tycho thought he heard a very distant voice. Wes must have heard it as well. "Hobbie, if you can hear me, Nawara’s on his way with the shuttle. Just hold on."
As Tycho caught up with Wes, he switched to Three Flight's comm frequency. "Twelve, I ordered you back to your flight. Move it!!" Tycho was somewhat surprised at the anger in his own voice. But Wes had been insubordinate since they had started on the mission to find Wedge, and Tycho was quickly becoming fed up with him.
"I have to find out if he’s still in there, Lead, or else there’s no point in Control risking his neck to tractor him."
There was a moment of silence between them before Tycho could answer calmly. Finally the anger faded and he resigned himself to the fact that Wes never seemed to follow his orders anymore. "Make it fast, Twelve."
Wes increased his speed until he was going a fraction faster than Hobbie’s fighter. He crept forward, avoiding the cloud of debris that surrounded it, and came up beside and just below the cockpit. Tycho imitated his move, coming up on the far side, keeping an eye out for any enemy fighters that might decide to prey on the crippled ship. When it became clear that they were out on their own, Tycho glanced over at Hobbie’s fighter. He could see Hobbie was still in his ship, his helmeted head slumped forward. He wasn’t moving.
The Stardust approached from the rear of the X-wing, and what was left of the snubfighter slowed as the tractor beam caught it.
"Control, he’s still in the cockpit," Wes announced to Nawara.
"I’ve got him, Twelve. Follow your orders and rejoin Three Flight."
"Thanks, Control."
"Get going, Twelve!" Tycho repeated.
Tycho made a mental note to talk to Wes about this, if and when he was calm enough to do it in a civilized manner. He turned his ship away from Hobbie’s fighter and headed back towards the fight. He looked at his sensors and saw that there were still over twenty TIEs buzzing around, with various Rogue’s hot on their tails.
En route, he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. To his left, the Thyferran Aerospace Defense Corps star cruisers reverted to real space side by side. The ships, the Paladin and the Provider according to his IFF transponder, couldn’t have been expecting the Star Destroyer to be there, but they came about promptly in an attempt to avoid the range of her guns.
Tycho spoke to his R-5. "Marca, get me the frequency that the Thyferrans are using." The droid tooted once and a button on his comm unit lit up. He punched it. "Rogue Leader to the TADC ships."
"This is Captain Assay of the Paladin. We weren’t expecting you to have company, Rogue Leader."
"Neither were we. Do you have orders concerning this kind of situation?"
As he asked, he saw the arrow shape of the Star Destroyer plunge towards them at flank speed. Marca scrolled their weapons range on his board. They would come to bear on his group in less than two minutes. At that time, the Star Destroyer would open up its turbolasers and ion cannons on them.
"Our orders are pretty vague concerning taking on Star Destroyers, Rogue Leader."
"I don’t think you should take them on either, Captain, but that Destroyer and her TIEs will be on you before you can make your jump. I don’t think you have a choice but to take the offensive. If you get caught running, we’re all in serious trouble."
"I’m forced to agree, Colonel. We’ll take the Querulous if you can handle her TIEs."
"Understood. May the Force be with you."
"And you."
* * * * * * *
One of the Mon Calamari ships charged in towards the Star Destroyer from above, her forward guns blazing, while the other came up and over from below, trying to help collapse the bow shield. Green and red energy crossed the distance between the three ships in sheets.
Admiral Turpa watched in disbelief as the two smaller and more maneuverable cruisers converged on the front of his ship. He knew that they shouldn’t be able to do him serious damage, but the X-wings had regrouped and were keeping what was left of his TIEs busy. To make matters worse, a good deal of his guns weren’t able to depress far enough to where the ships came at his bow.
"Where did they get those two ships from? They aren’t supposed to have any capital support," he mused out loud.
Commander Cright looked up from the damage control station in the crew pit. "Admiral Turpa, we’ve just lost our bow shield. Atmosphere on decks ten and twelve is venting in the forward compartments. At least twenty-six TIEs have been heavily damaged or destroyed."
Turpa swore and jumped out of his command chair. He paced up and down the walkway a couple of times, trying to order his thoughts. If the battle continued like this, he would lose the Querulous, his only ship. After Rogue Squadron destroyed his TIEs, they would come after him with their missiles, tearing his ship apart.
But if he broke off and retreated, Moff Tchlinda would probably kill him for his cowardice. Although the thought of facing her wrath caused icy tendrils of fear to crawl down his spine, he preferred that option to losing his ship. He could probably convince Tchlinda to spare his life, but without the Querulous he was nothing.
Better the Hutt you know...
The deck plates beneath his feet trembled as the bow of his ship took a pounding from the two star cruisers. "That’s it, we’re getting out of here. Navigation, plot us a course, any heading. Communications, recall our remaining fighters immediately. Those who aren’t in the hanger in five minutes will be left behind."
He paced again on the walkway above the crew, knotting and unknotting his fists.
Tchlinda was not going to like this. Not one bit.
* * * * * * *
On the bridge of the Paladin, Captain Assay smiled as he saw the bow shield of the bigger ship flare pink and green, then implode. A cheer went up throughout the crew stations. Even though the Thyferran ships were much smaller than the Querulous, they were managing to cause enough damage to make the Star Destroyer's commander think twice about hanging around.
But the Paladin had suffered some damage as well. If not for the element of surprise, Captain Assay was certain that they would have been in serious trouble. He coughed as smoke from what used to be the main sensor terminal drifted past him.
"Fire control, target the unprotected section of the Star Destroyer’s bow. Relay that order to the Provider. And get a damage control party up here to put out that fire."
"Yes, Captain."
A Lieutenant in the blue uniform of the Thyferran Aerospace Defense Force appeared at his side. "She’s running, sir."
As he spoke, the mighty ship began to pivot, bringing her undamaged shields around to face the two cruisers. The last of her TIE fighters were frantically trying to reach her hangers from several directions.
"She’s going to jump as soon as all of the fighters are aboard." Captain Assay turned and began issuing orders. "Pour on all the fire you can. Try to keep her here."
But before the bridge crew could comply, the Star Destroyer was gone, entering the safety of lightspeed.
* * * * * * *
"Alright, people. Check in."
As the Rogues checked in one by one, Tycho was amazed and relieved to find that the only person missing was Hobbie.
"Ok, I want everyone on board the Mon Cals right now. Three Flight and I will head for the Paladin. Skate, you’ll dock with her top-side. One and Two Flights, you head for the Provider. Gavin, you’re in charge. See if you can get a shuttle from the Captain and report to me on the Paladin as soon as we enter orbit around Thyferra."
As everyone came around to meet with the cruisers, Tycho switched over to Wes’ private frequency. "Wes, care to explain to me why you wouldn’t follow my order?" He tried to keep his tone reasonable, but he was finding it harder and harder to deal with Wes and his recent string of insubordination in a calm manner. He wondered how Wedge had done it for so many years. His respect for Wedge’s leadership skills rose another notch.
There was a pause before Wes replied. "I’m sorry, Tycho. I just couldn’t leave him out there on his own." There was another pause. "Have you heard if he’s okay?"
"Not yet. I know that he was taken to the Paladin, so we should know soon." Tycho took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, stalling for time as he composed himself. "Wes, I want you to understand something. You asked to be transferred to this unit, a unit which for the time being is under my command. The next time I give you an order, I expect you to follow it. Is that clear?"
"Clear, Rogue Leader."
"Good. Now follow your flight back to the Paladin."
"Yes, sir."
* * * * * * *
Wes and Tycho were the last of the Rogues to land in the small, crowded hanger of the Paladin. As they set their ships down carefully among the other X-wings already there, Tycho noticed Nawara making his way towards them with a man who could only be Captain Assay. The Captain was tall, at least two meters, and at least a couple of dozen years older than Tycho. There may have been gray in his hair, but he was so blond it was hard to tell. His blue uniform was spotless despite the recent battle.
Tycho pulled off his helmet, leaving it in his cockpit. He jumped down the rungs of the ladder two at a time. Even so, by the time his boots hit the deck, the squadrons XO and the Paladin’s Captain were there to meet him.
He opened his mouth to congratulate Captain Assay at driving off the Querulous, but before he could say anything, Wes Janson came around the nose of his fighter at a run. "Is Hobbie okay?" he asked Nawara rather breathlessly.
Nawara managed to stop Wes before his momentum carried him straight into Tycho. "Yes, amazingly enough he’s alright. His emergency magcon field held in his oxygen, but he lost consciousness and got pretty cold. He’s most likely got a concussion and a touch of hypothermia, so they’re dunking him in bacta as we speak. Because of the purity of the bacta the Thyferrans are carrying on board, he should be out in a couple of hours at most. He’ll be up and complaining again by morning."
Wes seemed to deflate and he leaned against the front landing strut of Tycho’s ship, breathing hard. Tycho laid a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Wes, why don’t you head for the medical bay and make sure you’re there when they pull him from the tank. I’ll contact you if we need you."
He looked at Tycho and smiled. "Thanks, Colonel."
Wes gave a salute that was more a wave and took off at a trot. Once he was gone, Tycho returned his attention to the Thyferran Captain. "I must admit that I am impressed that you were able to drive the Querulous off, Captain. My compliments to your crew and that of the Provider."
"I would actually have preferred to keep her here." At Tycho’s surprised look, the Captain attempted to explain. "We had a chance at doing her some real damage." He shook his head, then looked over at Tycho. "And I would like to thank you and your pilots for keeping those TIEs off our backs while we did it. You managed to destroy twenty-eight of the forty-eight you faced with only damage to one ship. Those are impressive numbers."
"I’m sure your appearance had a lot to do with our success. That, and their pilots just aren’t that good."
"Still, now I understand why Major Jace speaks so well of you."
Tycho smiled. "I had no idea that Bror thought that highly of us."
"You’d probably be surprised."
An Ensign appeared beside the Captain and she cleared her throat to interrupt. "Sir, we have an incoming message for Colonel Celchu. It is coded Priority One and has been routed through Coruscant, then Thyferra, and finally out to us."
"Ensign, show Colonel Celchu to the main briefing room and have the bridge pipe the message down there."
"Yessir." She saluted and turned to lead Tycho away.
On his way out of the hanger bay, Tycho passed Corran and Mirax.
"I have an incoming message from Coruscant, coded Priority One. I would like for both of you to sit in on it with me."
Mirax smiled. "Of course. I love all of this top secret stuff." She grabbed Corran’s hand and dragged him along in her wake.
They followed the Ensign down a corridor that led to a turbolift. She punched a button and they headed down several levels at a stomach lurching speed. When the doors opened, they all piled out and across a hallway into a brightly lit conference room. All along one side of the room were transparisteel viewports which offered a spectacular view of the space around the Paladin. At the center of the room was a large table with a holo unit in the middle and several chairs around it. The rest of the room was empty.
The Ensign called to the bridge, and Tycho’s message was redirected to the holo unit in the table. The blue uniformed officer then turned and left. Tycho readied himself, not sure who or what he was about to see.
"Hey, Tycho!" Elscol Loro’s voice blared from the comm unit. A one meter tall hologram of her stood at the center of the table, looking at a point just over Tycho’s head. "Have you guys managed to misplace a General? Well, if you have, I may have found him."
Tycho was beginning to wonder if everyone but him knew where Wedge was.
"He’s in someone else’s possession at the moment, a nasty piece of work called Moff Lathel Tchlinda. We were thinking about taking him back from her. You know anybody who’d be interested in helping? Maybe overthrow an Imperial Moff at the same time? Oh, and I was wondering if you had any Star Destroyers hanging around? It would come in real handy for what I have in mind."
Tycho paused the playback and turned to Mirax. "How does she do that?" Tycho had known Elscol for many years, and he had never ceased to be amazed by her. She always seemed to be two steps ahead of everyone else.
"I don’t know." Mirax replied. "There is no way that she could know that my father’s got the Errant Venture en route to Thyferra, is there?"
Tycho threw his hands into the air, exasperated. "She seems to know everything else." He reached for his earlobe again, but managed to stop himself. "Maybe she assumed that Booster would be in on this by now. She knew how close Wedge was to your family. And she seems to think we’ll be able to get one from somewhere. We’ll just have to trust her on this, I guess." He hit a button and the message resumed.
"Your General is being held on the third planet of the Arramsetti System. I need you to meet us at the fifth planet twenty-four hours from the time stamp on this message. Maybe that will put enough distance between the Imperials and your force to prevent discovery. We’ll finalize my plan there."
Her image paused, and she glanced to one side of the holocam. "You’ll be wondering about your General and how he is doing. I haven’t seen him myself, but from the details I have, it doesn’t sound good. The Moff that’s got him has a very serious case of revenge. They’ve been pretty rough on him so far, but she wants to use him in some kind of ceremony in two days from the date of this message. So they’ll keep him alive until then."
"That explains it," Corran murmured.
Tycho paused the message again. There was a gloom in Corran's voice that formed an icy lump in his stomach. "What do you mean by that?"
Corran hesitated, looking out the viewport to his left. In the reflection, Tycho could see a number of emotions cross Corran’s face. He eventually sighed in resignation and turned to face Tycho and Mirax again.
"Last night, when I finally did get to sleep, I had this dream. I don’t usually remember my dreams, but this one stayed with me when I woke up, and I couldn’t shake the feeling of dread it left behind. I dreamt of Wedge. I couldn’t see anything clearly, but he was suffering. I had hoped that it was just my imagination working overtime, but I think it was something more. I think that somehow, over the thousands of light years separating us, I could feel the pain they were inflicting on him."
His voice was raspy with emotion, and the lump of ice in Tycho’s gut turned into a full sized glacier. He knew that Corran was not someone who overdramatized things. If he said that he felt something, Tycho had no choice but to believe him. "We’re not going to let him continue to suffer, Corran." He tapped the resume key and Elscol began to speak again.
"You are probably curious how I know where he is and how you will be able to meet me with a big enough force to take a planet." Even through the static of the transmission, Elscol’s eyes sparkled with mischief. "To find that out, you’ll have to come and meet me. I’ll do everything I can on this end to prepare. See you in twenty-four hours."
The transmission ended with a pop, and Tycho closed down the holo unit. He thought for a moment, then turned to look at Mirax. "How far out is the Venture?"
"We’re supposed to rendezvous with her in five hours at Thyferra. From the time of the message, it looks like Elscol sent it over nine hours ago. It’ll be tight, but we can be at Arramsetti V just inside her time frame."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get moving," Corran said.
Tycho headed for the door just ahead of Corran. "I’ll go and speak with the Thyferrans. We’ll be under way to Thyferra as soon as possible. I just hope I can convince Captain Assay that he wants to come with us to Arramsetti III."
Copyright June 13, 2001 by Susan Hill.
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