Quick disclaimer: Star Wars etc copyright Lucasfilm no infringement intended. I am making no profit from this and so please don't sue me.
 
 

Blackhawks.

They came just after dusk, their non-reflective paint shielding them from the vigilant eyes of the sentry. The two X-wings in the lead came shooting along the canyon at high speeds, S-foils in attack position. When the sentry finally saw them, lit by the glow of their ion engines, they where too close, too fast, to stop. At the last moment they broke off, looping up to right and left. Following the X-wings, two Y-wings preceded a battered Guardian customs ship, another two pairs flew just above and behind the ship. They slipped into the cave mouth and came to rest in the empty hanger bay. Four more black painted X-wings followed, before the pair that had done the original flyby returned and came to rest at the ready one position in the hanger.
The canopy of the lead ship cracked open and an attractive human woman jumped out as the base's duty officer rushed up to meet her. Blackhawk squadron had arrived, Alliance starfighter base 237-R, Fierol system, was active.
Crys' Starlight, commander of Blackhawk squadron, sat attentively as the base commander gave the pilots their briefing. Beside him the young officer of the day operated the display monitor. Crys' smiled at him and he blushed. She couldn't think why, certainly his performance the previous night had been nothing to be embarrassed about. However the typical Blackhawk response to the end of a long journey through hyperspace hadn't impressed the base commander, several of the pilots appeared to have pushed the drinks limit the night before and where nursing headaches. Thank heavens there was time to sober them before the opp. Maybe having her and K'ruchk Jhim throw them into a cold fresher will convince them not to lumguzzle the evening before a mission. Glancing at the big Srrors'tok she guessed her XO agreed with her.
"Your target," The base commander was saying, "Is an Imperial base and training ground. The base has a planetary shield, however it is an older model and it will be relatively simple for you to slip under it at the edges. The shield will then protect you from the other main defence, the Imperial Stardestroyer in orbit. The base has two squadrons of TIEs and the Stardestroyer a further six."
"What's the breakdown on the TIEs?" Hal Antilles, one of Blackhawk's X-wing pilots asked.
The base commander checked his datapad, "All fighters at the base, the Stardestroyer carries four fighter squadrons, one recon and one ground attack squadron. They don't get flashy new bombers out here."
"OK, we'll put the simulator package together and start doing runs." Crys' grinned, "Hal, you're with me, K'ruchk, make sure everyone's sober and in the Eyrie in an hour."
"The computer's running the TIEs and we've set the difficulty level to Ace." Crys' smiled at her pilots, "They probably won't be that good but I don't want you getting soft now." A couple of the pilots groaned. "'Course if you can't hack Aces there's an opening for a couple of courier pilots to run messages for HQ, any takers? Didn't think so."
Hal Antilles stepped up, "We're counting on Imperial dogma to help us out here. They keep the shield up like good Imperials the TIE's from the ISD won't be a problem. They drop the shields we get another 48 TIEs and a Stardestroyer right on top of us. We're going to do a couple of simulator runs with conservative Imperials and another dropping the shield when we get under it. Could get interesting..."
The dark fighters flew through hyperspace in close formation, and sometimes Crys' could just imagine that she could see a shadowy shape of one of her wingmates through the mottling of hyperspace. A beep distracted her from her imaginings, the thirty second warning. She kept a closer eye on the proximity alert, coming out of hyperspace and hitting the Stardestroyer would be embarrassing. Blackhawk squadron dropped out of hyperspace just over the horizon from the Imperial base, quickly diving into the atmosphere. The fighters started to buck as the thickening air roared around them, and Crys' tightened her grip on the controls. The altitude readout span downwards, the numbers flicking by almost to fast to see. An alarm sounded and Crys' activated the repulsors and levelled her fighter out, it bounced slightly then skimmed over the tree tops towards the imperial base, the rest of the squadron following tightly behind.
Crys' astromech droid beeped a warning, and she flipped on the squadron frequency, "Heads up people, half a dozen eyeballs, coming in 9 o'clock high, Hawk 3, Hawk 4, take them."
"Copy lead," Hal replied. "Lara, cover me."
"Don't I always." The Alderaanian woman said. The two fighters dropped back and pulled up, their S-foils moving to the distinctive X that gave the ships their name.
The TIEs, concentrating on the main group of fighters, followed a shallow downward path. Lacking repulsors to help them manoeuvre in the atmosphere the steep dive of the rebel fighters would be suicide for them. Hal targeted the first three TIEs, fire linked his cannons, and hit the throttle. The first TIE was vapour before its pilot even saw the ship that killed him. The TIEs broke formation but Hal still got a glancing hit on his second target, its port solar panel shattered and it tumbled out of the sky. He switched to single fire and manoeuvred after the third fighter. The pilot rolled his TIE onto its side to help him turn in the dense atmosphere, then jinked back into a spiral. As Hal twisted his fighter after it the TIE's wingman pulled in behind him. Its first shot burned at Hal's shields, the second never came. Lara came flying upward from below and destroyed the TIE with two shots. She looped round Hal catching the first fighter as he came out of his spiral. The two remaining TIEs headed for the deck, and the X-wings followed, lasers blazing. One TIE never made it, Lara clipped him and he failed to pull up, mushrooming into the ground. The sole survivor rushed towards the cover of a canyon, diving between its narrow walls. It was a mistake. The TIE could not manoeuvre well enough at the speeds it needed to stay in the air. It didn't make the first turn.
"Three to Lead, TIEs are gone, rejoining the run."
The Blackhawks quickly closed on the base. "We're approaching the shield." Crys' said, "Stay low, we don't have any room for mistakes." Skimming less than a metre above the ground the fighters passed the shield perimeter, with only a couple of metres clearance. "Lock S-foils in attack position. Xs take those TIEs, Ys deal with the towers." The X-wings rose up to meet the two TIE squadrons already in the air over the base. The Y-wings stayed low, racing towards the boxy turbolaser turrets surrounding the base.
The X-wings soared into the sky, blasters blazing. Several TIEs died in those first confused moments. Below the turbolasers fired repeatedly into the sky, ineffectively. Outnumbered almost four to one the Blackhawks chose their targets freely, and covered each other closely. The TIEs had to be more careful, a stray shot would kill another TIE, but only scorch a X-wing's shields.
Trenesk, a reptilian Trandoshan, piloted his Y-wing at treetop level towards the base, "Fingers, targeting computer." He growled. The artoo unit complied with a cheery beep, and the display unfolded in front of Trenesk. The towers, illuminated red, dominated the display. Trenesk selected his torpedoes, single shot, and slipped his Y-wing into a gap in the trees caused by a narrow service road. The voice of his wing, the Hereglic, Moku Vasp, came over the comm, "It's a little tight."
"Can you handle it?"
"I'd bet on it."
The road twisted at the end of the trees, and the two Y-wings took the turn tightly. The turbolasers, identifying the new threat, started to twist round. Trenesk squeezed off a torpedo. The tower fired, and missed. The torpedo punched through the outer armour of the tower then exploded. Moku hit another, and the two fighters went into a steep climb. The remaining turbolasers started to track upwards, as the four remaining Y-wings came over the far ridge.
Above the base the X-wings had destroyed half the TIEs already when all of a sudden Crys' artoo unit squealed with alarm. Crys' glanced at the translation and swore, "The shield is down, three eyeball squadrons, incoming."
"Three to Lead," Hal said, "We can't cope with that many."
Crys' swore again, "OK, lets do our job and get out of here. Y's get set up for your run, we'll cover."
The TIE squadrons swept in from the hills as Turbolaser blasts from the Stardestroyer started pounding the area around the base. "Lead, things just got very nasty."
Below the main complex exploded under torpedo fire. "OK. I think we'll be leaving now." Crys' said, "Don't anyone forget anything."
The Sullustan astrogator, Brie Riun, came on, "The Impstar's on our exit vector."
"K'ruchk , with me, the rest of you slow those TIEs down." Crys' pulled back on the stick and headed towards the Stardestroyer.
"Crrrrryyss' what arrre we doing?" The Srrors'tok asked.
"Trying that thermal exhaust port trick Skywalker used."
"Let's buy them some time people," Dassa Chald aimed her Y-Wing towards a flight of TIEs, and snapped off a pair of shots. Two TIEs died. The rest of the squadron picked their targets and engaged. The Stardestroyer ceased fire, unable to target into the brawl.
Crys' fighter closed on the Stardestroyer, "Activating targeting computer. Marking port, port is locked in." The targeting screen unfolded in front of her, the small port on the Stardestroyer's underside centred on it.
"Crrrrryyss', fighterrrs." K'ruchk growled. His fighter dropped back into the midst of the three fighters trailing them. The fighters promptly scattered trying to get back behind him. K'ruchk selected single shot and fired rapidly at the group, one was destroyed, the others fled towards the rest of their squadron, luring K'ruchk after them. The TIEs manoeuvred for a killing zone, concentrating on K'ruchk's lone X-wing. Suddenly the rest of Blackhawk Squadron was upon them, rushing up from the planet's surface.
Crys' squeezed off a pair of torpedoes, which leapt towards the Stardestroyer. Crys' dived away from the larger ship as it exploded behind her. "We're clear! Move out." She thumbed her comm to the Imperial frequency, "TIE fighters, this is Alliance Commander, drop back to the planet and ditch. You can cope until help comes," The TIEs fell back, leaving the twelve Blackhawks alone in an expanding shell of wreckage above the planet.
"Congratulations Lead," Hal said, "I wasn't sure that could be done,"
"Let you in to a secret, Hal, neither was I," Crys' laughed.
"Pity we can't stop for a souvenir."
Crys' smiled slowly, and reached for her suit seals, "Who's stopping?" She lined up her fighter with a large piece of wreckage, and depressurised the cabin. Clipping a safety line to her flight suit she popped the canopy and pushed herself out. Swinging on an arc at the end of the line she grabbed the twisted hull fragment. The impact killed most of her momentum, leaving her floating in space at the end of the cord. A life lived in space meant she was comfortable in the zero gravity and she started pulling back to the fighter. A small piece of shrapnel, a rivet or cabin fitting, caught her in the arm, and the suit tightened down around the puncture. Securing her prize in the X-wing's cargo hold she lowered herself into the cockpit and started the pressurisation sequence.
Crys' lost consciousness soon after making the jump to hyperspace and her R2 unit piloted the approach to the fighter base, she didn't remember being lifted from the cockpit or lowered into the bacta tank. She woke up next in a bed in the base's medical bay with Hal and K'ruchk sitting over her. "Remind me again, why do I do these things." She said weakly.
"Damned if I know, Crys'" Hal smiled, "Still you did get your souvenir." He indicated the twisted hull plating resting on a medical scanner.
"So I copy Skywalker's Trench Run Disease trick on a Stardestroyer. I'm a big hero."
"There are going to be an awful lot of very frightened Impstar captains out there when this gets out."
A medical droid approached, "The patient needs rest. You must leave." K'ruchk glowered at it.
"Forget that. I am not staying here," Crys' started to rise, but K'ruchk's heavy arm restrained her.
"Rrr-est." The large feline growled.
"Get me to the Eyrie, I'll rest in flight. We're a nomad team, we don't sit around waiting on medics. That's why we've got Lara, she can sit on me, our artoo units can manage a simple hop through hyperspace."
The ships of Blackhawk squadron flew silently through hyperspace. Always moving on.

 

 

*** Finis ***
 

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