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Star Wars: The Adventures of Wedge Antilles - Gray
The Adventures of Wedge Antilles: Gray Squadron - © Copyright 1995
Matt Hilliard
This story may be freely distributed, with the inclusion of this
notice and and notification of the author. Based on characters and
situations created by George Lucas.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This was originally posted to alt.fan.wedge and
rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc in ten parts. I would still be interested
in hearing comments...please mail [email protected] with your
opinion.
--
A long time ago,
in a galaxy far, far away...
_.-----------------------------------------------------------------._
/ .---------------------------------------------------------------. \
| | ______ ____________ ___ ________ | |
| | / _____|____ ____| / \ | ____ \ | |
| | ( (___ | | / \ | |____) ) | |
| | \____ \ | | / ^ \ | __ / | |
| |_______________) ) | | / /~~~\ \ | | \ \ ___________| |
| _________________/ |__|__/__/ \__\|__| \______________ |
| ____________ ______ _________ _______________ |
| __________ \ / / \ | ____ \ / _____________ |
| | \ \ __ / / \ | |____) ) ( (___ | |
| | \ \ / \ / / ^ \ | __ / \____ \ | |
| | \ ` /\ ' / /~~~\ \ | | \ \ _______) ) | |
| | \__/ \__/__/ \__\|__| \____________/ | |
| | | |
\ '---------------------------------------------------------------' /
-------------------------------------------------------------------
THE ADVENTURES OF WEDGE ANTILLES
The Corellian Corvette slowly approached the station. Turning
gracefully, it extended a tube. In turn, the station extended a
tube. The two tubes met and sealed.
The station was small, and was quite old. A closer look found
four hangars extending from the center like arms. Abandoned several
years ago, the station had been found and taken by the Rebel Alliance.
Most importantly, it served as a base for the operations of Gray
Squadron.
Wedge Antilles felt a twinge of nervousness as he walked through
the tube and into the station. He had finally lost the triumphant
feeling he had since the destruction of the Death Star, only two weeks
ago. Despite this great victory, the Alliance had been forced to
abandon its Yavin base. Being one of the two remaining pilots from
Red Squadron, Wedge had been transferred to Gray Squadron. Last he
had heard, Luke Skywalker had been sent to the Nezit Sector to serve
with a squadron there.
He now entered the station. The hallways were narrow, and the
ceilings were low. This was no surprise, of course: Wedge had been in
small stations before.
"Whoa..." Wedge glanced at the source of the voice, a young
pilot, almost as young as Wedge, who had evidently never been on a
small station. Like Wedge, he was joining Gray Squadron to fill some
of its open slots. Also accompanying them was another replacement
pilot and an officer.
"This way," the officer said, pointing at a hallway. A moment
later they emerged into an assembly hall of sorts. It had, Wedge
guessed, about ten chairs, though the room could hold twice that many,
in it facing a small platform and podium. According to the
information he had received on the ride over, this room, the largest
in the station, served as a lounge, cafeteria, and the aforementioned
mentioned assembly hall. It had exits to the control room and
hangars. Most of the chairs were currently occupied, as was the
platform. The man standing at the podium's face matched that of the
Wing Commander.
Tyle Renerel was known as "Commander" to his pilots rather than
his callsign, Gray Leader. According to the short bio Wedge had read,
Reneral had been a pilot in the Old Republic's navy when Palpatine
took over. He, along with a friend who was now Gray Two, defected to
the newly formed Alliance and quickly ascended to his current role.
"Well, it looks like they're here. This is..." Gray Leader
paused as he glanced at the datapad in front of him. "Hoinn, Shestek,
and Antilles." A murmur rippled through the assembled pilots. "They
will be Gray Ten, Eleven, and Twelve, respectively."
Dead last. Unlike most Alliance squadrons, your number was your
"rank". Gray Two was second only to Gray Leader. Gray Three was, in
turn, under Gray Leader and Gray Two but above the rest. Wedge and
the other two pilots filled the void created by an Imperial raid on
the squadron's previous base. Gray Seven had disappeared in the raid,
but his position had been reserved in hopes of his safe return,
however unlikely it was. Pilots who disappeared in such circumstances
rarely came back, and even more rarely on the same side.
After another pause, Gray Leader resumed. "Since we are currently
down a pilot, the usual three ship elements will be different. Gray
Two and I will form an element, while the rest are made up of three
pilots. For obvious reasons, each of the rookies will be paired with
two veteran pilots. Gray Eleven with Gray Three and Four, Gray Twelve
with Gray Five and Six, and Gray Ten with Gray Eight and Nine. Any
questions?
"Then I suggest you welcome your new comrades and get to know
them," Gray Leader said after no one spoke up. "I'd like the new
pilots to meet me in my office in five minutes, however, so they can
be briefed on our current mission. Dismissed."
The pilots rose from their seats and walked over to welcome the
new pilots. Wedge prepared himself; this was the hard part.
"Antilles!"
Wedge scanned the room for the source of the voice, but couldn't
due to the somewhat noisy talking that had ensued once Gray Leader had
finished. A pilot leaning against one of the chairs in the back waved
to get Wedge's attention and motioned for him to come over.
"Hiya," the pilot said when Wedge had walked over. The pilot
looked like he was only a few years older than Wedge and a little bit
taller. Like Wedge, he was Corellian. "I'm Donner, Gray Five. This
is Gray Six," Donner pointed at an Alderaanian pilot standing next to
him, who nodded in greeting.
"Call me Chan," Gray Six said. Wedge couldn't help noticing
Chan's voice was a bit distant, especially considering Chan was
greeting him.
"Hi. You can call me Wedge. Antilles just makes people
confused," Wedge said, trying not to sound like an idiot.
"Yeah, I've known three Antilles," Donner nodded
sympathetically. "From what I've heard, you aren't exactly the rookie
the Commander said you were."
"Yeah...flew in three battles," Wedge said, still trying to sound
casual. He still felt a bit awkward.
"Yavin, right?" Chan said. Wedge suspected that Chan knew very
well where he had flown.
"Yeah...we lost a lot of good pilots there," Wedge answered.
Chan began to say something, but was cut off by Donner. "Well,
you don't want to be late for the Commander's briefing. Head into the
control room, then turn left. Can't miss it."
Wedge nodded and left. In a perfect world, he thought, everyone
would be friendly and open. Of course, in a perfect world, he
wouldn't be fighting this war in the first place. As he entered the
control room, he glanced back to see the two pilots arguing about
something. Donner stopped speaking when he saw Wedge looking at him,
but Chan didn't seem to care. The other two "rookies" saw Wedge
entering the office and followed.
The Wing Commander's office was small, but that was to be
expected on such a small station. Besides the usual desk and chair,
it had three chairs hastily arranged in front of it. Gray Leader was
working at his terminal when the three entered. He stopped and
addressed them.
"Okay, I'll make this quick so that you can get back to the
others.
"We are currently working on capturing a shipment of Tie
Interceptors in the Justini system. All the preliminary work has been
completed. In two days we are going to try to disable and board the
freighter with the help of two Y-wings from Blue Squadron and a
transport.
"If the mission fails, then we will use our backup plan: to plant
a sleeper bomb on the freighter, which will go off will it is in
hyperspace, leaving it crippled.
"Also, whether the mission is successful or not, we will be
moving to a different base. It seems that the Empire has gotten wind
of this station, and we have a better facility awaiting us anyway.
"That's all for now. We have data files available to provide a
more detailed history. "Dismissed."
As they reentered the hall, a pilot approached Wedge, identifying
himself as Gray Eight. "You fought at Yavin, right?"
"Yeah, why?" Wedge answered cautiously.
"Well, I know almost all the pilots died, but the reports
neglected to mention the Y-wing pilot who survived the assault...you
know who Dutch is, right?"
"He was Gold Leader, I think."
"Yeah, that's him. Did he...did he make it?"
"Sorry..." Wedge said sadly. "The TIE Prototype caught him in the
trench. The other pilot was Keyan Farlander."
"Oh," Gray Eight's face fell.
"And what about you?" Wedge turned to see Chan standing beside
him. "He didn't get you, did he?"
"Almost. My X-wing nearly fell apart before I could get back to
Yavin."
"Yet you left the trench. You left a kid, Luke Skywalker, who
had never flown an X-wing before, in the trench with the prototype.
You put the Alliance's only hope for survival in the hands of a farm
boy from the Rim with no combat experience."
"I was given a direct order to leave," Wedge protested.
"You would have left, orders or no. 'I can't stay with you'"
Chan imitated Wedge's voice. "Some orders aren't meant to be followed.
The war would have been lost if it wasn't for the freighter."
"Hey, get off his case!" Gray Eight interrupted. "What do you
want him to do? Destroy the Fleet?"
"If he had stayed there, Skywalker would have been able to make
the shot while covered," Gray Six answered hotly.
"It would have been suicide!" Gray Eight wasn't giving up easily.
Wedge uncomfortably noted the crowd forming.
"Oh? Was it suicide for the others? What about Dutch? Was he
suicidal because he didn't take the easy way out? Because he gave his
life for his cause?"
Gray Eight grabbed the bigger man's collar. "Leave Dutch out of
this. What's your problem, anyway?"
Enraged, Chan knocked Gray Eight's hands away. "I don't like
cowards!" he growled and, despite Donner's attempts to restrain him,
pushed Gray Eight away from him.
Wedge grabbed the man's arm. "You don't need to-" And elbow to
the face curtesy of Chan cut him off. He began to fall backwards into
the crowd. Before he could regain his balance, Chan shoved him into
some chairs.
After a painful landing Wedge jumped to his feet, fists clenched,
but found Chan and Gray Eight grappling on the ground. There was a
flash as a blaster bolt hit the deck a foot from the two combatants
heads. They stopped fighting to see Gray Leader standing five feet
away with a smoking blaster pistol.
"We've got enough problems with the Empire without you guys
fighting," Gray Leader said. "Get up! If I see any more of this, I'll
have everyone involved court martialed." Before he could follow up
with another threat, an ear splitting alarm filled the air. After a
moment it was shut off as everyone turned to see what it was.
"Look!" someone shouted. Outside the viewport was the all too
familiar triangular form of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer.
(Part Two)
"Get to your ships!" Gray Leader ordered. As the pilots rushed
toward the exits, Wedge suddenly wondered which hangar his X-wing was
in.
"Follow me!" It was Donner. Without waiting for a response, the
pilot ran into one of the station's four hangars. As they entered,
the bay doors slid open, revealing the vastness of space...and the
Star Destroyer. Force fields, of course, kept the air inside the
hangar.
"That one's yours." Donner pointed at the X-wing farthest from
the center of the station. Wedge nodded. Jumping over a tube and
ducking under a group of wires, he dashed past the techs servicing the
other two X-wings in the hangar.
Climbing into the cockpit, he put on a helmet and made a quick
systems check. He glanced over at the other two X-wings. Both Donner
and Chan were all set. The techs left the hangar and the force fields
were deactivated.
The three X-wings rose in tandem and throttled up. In the
X-wing's cockpit, Wedge made a few last minute adjustments as his
craft gained speed.
"Gray Leader to Gray Squadron, skip the check in. Lock s-foils
in attack positions and accelerate to attack speed. The station's
crew are leaving in the transport. It'll be a few minutes before they
can make the hyperspace jump, so we'll have to cover for them."
"Commander! I'm picking up six marks bearing four seven!" Gray
Three reported. "We're moving to intercept."
"They'll have more...divide into your elements and pick a group.
They've probably split an attack force of several squadrons of TIE
Fighters, just like we do except with more in the elements," Gray Two
noted.
"I don't see any others," Gray Nine said.
"Another six, coming in fast to the starboard!" Gray Eight said,
his voice betraying his excitement, then gave an exclamation of
surprise. "Wait! I just spotted a third batch. They're trying to
sneak around us!"
"Who's closest?" Gray Leader asked.
"That'd be us, Gray Leader. Chan, Wedge, follow me." Donner
changed course and was followed by his two wingmen.
"They're almost in visual range," Chan said.
"Gray Twelve, cut speed and pick off any that get by us," Donner
ordered.
"Right." Wedge complied and watched the other two X-wings speed
off ahead of him. A moment later red and green beams were visible,
followed by two explosions as the two Rebels hit their targets. One
of the TIE Fighters zoomed past them, hoping to heroically destroy the
transport himself. He didn't see Wedge's X-wing trailing behind the
first two until it was too late.
Wedge smiled grimly as he accelerated. There was a warning beep
from his R2 unit. "I see them," Wedge told the droid. The remaining
two TIE Fighters were approaching, one above him and one below him,
making it a classic no win scenario for Wedge. He had to choose one
to destroy, and as soon as he veered up or down the other TIE would
kill him. He could vector away from them to the right or left, but
then he wouldn't have any chance of reaching the two Imperial
starfighters. Luckily for Wedge a third option was open to him in
this situation: go in between them. Because they had to get to the
transport, they would be forced to pass him by.
Sure enough, neither of them wanted to take the time to hit
Wedge. They had slowed down to wait for Wedge to make his move, and
when he didn't they sped up and headed for the transport.
"Don't worry, Wedge. We'll get them," Chan said as he and Donner
zoomed by in hot pursuit. Had the TIE Fighters not slowed down, they
would have made it to the transport ahead of the X-wings because of
their speed advantage, but now Donner and Chan would be able to catch
up. Wedge pulled his X-wing through a one eighty turn and went to
help
"I'm hit!" Gray Ten said as a stray blast hit him.
"Hyper out," Gray Three told him.
"It isn't too bad, I might be able to make it," Gray Ten
protested.
"Get out of here! That's an order!" Gray Leader said. "Your
craft, not to mention your lives, are too valuable to waste with
useless heroics."
"Watch it Gray Four, you've got a tail," Gray Eleven said.
"I can't shake him! Can I have some help here?" Gray Four said
in controlled panic.
"I'm on my way," Gray Three said.
"Heads up! Two of them have broken through!" Gray Eight said in
alarm.
"I'm on it," Wedge said, angling towards Gray Eight's position.
Sure enough, a few seconds later two TIE Fighters became visible,
racing at full speed towards the transport. Wedge got a lock and
fired before they saw him. His first shot hit, destroying its target,
but the other TIE dove steeply and dodged the second one.
The TIE doubled back, flying away from Wedge. Slightly puzzled,
Wedge followed. Suddenly the TIE spun and climbed rapidly, trying to
put his craft's speed and maneuverability advantages to good use.
Wedge, however, wasn't fooled. Cutting speed, he ignored the
strain he was putting not only on his engines but himself and spun his
starfighter. Then he opened up his engine all the way. "R2? Check on
the acceleration compensator...it didn't do too well on that last
maneuver."
As the astromech droid followed its orders, Wedge took careful
aim. His plan had worked, but not perfectly. "No..." he growled
through gritted teeth as the distance between his X-wing and the TIE
widened. At the last possible moment, even though the TIE was too far
away to aim very well, he opened fire.
He let out a sigh of relief as the TIE exploded brilliantly. A
second later more red beams passed through the explosion.
"You beat me to him, Wedge," Chan said with a laugh. In battle,
he forgot about his differences with the young pilot.
"Nice shot, Gray Twelve." Gray Leader sounded proud of his pilot,
whom he had called a rookie only a half hour ago.
"Gray Three's been hit...his comm's out!" Gray Four reported.
"Cover him, his hyperdrive might still be working," Gray Two
responded.
"Looks like the Star Destroyer wants to come and play," Gray
Eight said grimly. "It's heading towards the transport."
"Oh great! How are we supposed to keep an Imperial-class Star
Destroyer from getting it," Gray Four said.
"I've got an idea." Donner's voice was thoughtful.
"It had better be good. The Destroyer will be in range of the
transport in a minute or two," Gray Four answered.
"Watch it, Gray Twelve! You've got a tail!" Gray Eight warned.
Wedge threw his X-wing into a downward spiral which the TIE
duplicated easily.
"Gray Three just made the jump to lightspeed." Gray Four's relief
was evident in his voice.
"Gray Twelve, break to your right on my mark," Chan said calmly.
Wedge nodded even though Chan couldn't see him. The TIE Fighter
slowly closed the distance despite Wedge's attempts to shake him off.
"Now!"
Wedge made a sharp turn to his right. The TIE followed and was
destroyed by a well aimed shot by Chan. "Thanks Gray Six."
There was a short shriek from the comm. Fighting the urge to
cover his ears, Wedge saw that, in approaching the transport, had
caught the tail end of Donner's data burst, which evidently held
instructions which he didn't want the TIE Fighter pilots to overhear.
"Don't decode it, R2...keep working on that compensator. I think
it'll have to be calibrated again." The R2 unit beeped its
acknowledgement.
Wedge swung his X-wing around, looking for a target and finding
none. Most of the TIE Fighters were busy dogfighting others in Gray
Squadron. As he did this, his view swung past the station. "That's
funny," Wedge said to himself. "I wonder why it hasn't self destructed
yet."
There was a string of incomprehensible beeps and whistles from
the R2 unit, which had evidently overheard Wedge's musing. "It
probably has something to do with Gray Five's plan," was the
translation, curtesy of the X-wing's computer.
"Good point. Speaking of which, it looks like the transport is
changing course." Sure enough, the transport was flying around the
station, putting it in between the Destroyer and the
transport. "Though I don't know what they hope to accomplish by
that...it won't delay the Destroyer more than a minute or two, and the
transport will have to recalculate its hyperspace jump.
The droid's silence indicated that it was baffled as well.
"Stay clear of the Destroyer." Gray Leader's voice pulled him
from his thoughts.
"The Destroyer will reach the transport in just over a minute,"
Gray Two said.
"I don't know what we can do," Donner sighed. Wedge frowned at
that: was Donner bluffing for the sake of the Imperials, which could
probably overhear them from the Star Destroyer, or was he telling the
truth? Time would tell, Wedge decided. He looked over the situation.
Only a few TIE Fighters remained, which were understandably
heading back to the Destroyer, which didn't seem to care about the
X-wings. Whatever the case, it didn't look like it would be launching
any more TIE Fighters.
The Star Destroyer was quite close to the station now, as it was
taking the quickest course possible to the transport. The Gray
Squadron pilots watched helplessly as the massive Imperial starship
finished going around the space station.
Then, without any previous warning, the station exploded.
It was a huge explosion, with burning fragments flying in every
direction. It was the largest Wedge had seen since the Death Star had
died its fiery death.
It made for a nice show for the pilots, but it scorched the Star
Destroyer. One of the three massive engines lost its brilliant glow,
along with two of the four secondaries. There were exclamations of
joy and triumph over the comm band as the Destroyer brought all of its
engines offline to keep from completely losing control. Even so, its
inertia sent it spinning downward and away from the transport.
"Good work, Gray Five," Gray Leader praised the resourceful pilot
as the transport entered hyperspace. "Let's go. All craft prepare to
make the jump to lightspeed on my mark..."
A moment later the nine X-wings disappeared after a flicker of
pseudomotion into hyperspace, leaving only junk and wreckage of TIE
Fighters and the space station behind.
(Part Three)
"Geez...this station's even smaller than the last one," Donner
muttered.
"It's better than nothing." Chan forced a laugh. He was sitting
with Donner and Wedge, sipping their drinks.
"Ack...what is this stuff?" Wedge gagged on his drink.
"It was Luim Juice, but I don't know what it is now..." Donner
frowned into his cup.
"Luim is orange, not green," Chan noted.
"Well..." Donner shrugged.
Grey Squadron's new base of operations was another space station,
a bit smaller than the last one. The food and drink available was
some of the worst many of them had ever had, but there wasn't anything
they could do about it. Although it had the same set up, it didn't
have force fields for its hangar bays, so once the doors were open it
would be explosed to a vacuum.
"I heard that a large outpost is being built a few sectors away,"
Grey Nine said from his spot five feet away.
"Yeah...that'll be for Blue Squadron," Grey Four sighed.
"Could I have your attention?" Grey Leader called from his spot
twenty feet away. "I need two volunteers."
Grey Eight stood up. "I'll go."
Wedge decided he could use a change from the crowded interior of
the space station, where he had been for the last week, and stood as
well. "Me too."
"Good. Let's go, I'll brief you on the way."
"Okay, this is the deal," Grey Leader said when they entered the
hallway. "Your two X-wings will be put in the cargo bay of a modified
transport. It'll be dropping some sensors in the outer reaches of the
system. There's a small group of asteroids and planetoids that to
extend our range. If it runs into any trouble, you guys will cover
its retreat."
A half hour later Grey Eight and Wedge were sitting in the cargo
bay as the transport flew away from the station.
"Nice to be out of the station," Wedge said, stretching his legs
and enjoying the space.
"Yeah..." Grey Eight was looking at something on his comlink. "A
letter to me, from Dutch, a few days before the Yavin battle," he
explained when he caught Wedge looking at him.
Wedge nodded. "Hey, I don't think I caught your name..."
"Tirnar. Everyone calls me Tirn." For a moment there was
silence. "What's on your mind? It isn't Chan, is it?"
"Well, yes," Wedge admitted.
"Don't let him get to ya."
"I know, but...it's like he's two different people: he hates me
now, and he shot the TIE off of my tail the other day."
"Don't worry about it...Chan has had it rough. His family, and I
mean all of it, was on Alderaan when the Death Star destroyed it. He
has no one left."
"It must have been hard for you, though...with Dutch and all."
"He was my brother...eldest of three, I was the youngest." Tirn
sighed. "We were pretty close."
"What about the Commander? He seemed like he hated me on that
first day..."
"Naw, he's just uptight. He doesn't want his squadron to fail
due to incompetence. He and Grey Two go way back. They served
together in the Old Republic. No one knows quite how far...maybe even
to the Clone Wars."
"Wow. Pretty far," Wedge agreed.
"Hmm...the scanners are picking up something..."
The voice came from the intercom, which had been purposely left
on so that Wedge and Tirn could know what was going on. The two men
piloting the transport began to discuss it.
"Maybe it's a fluke or something," one of the pilots said. "Where
did you say it was?"
"On that planetoid over there...thought I saw some energy
readings."
"Probably nothing."
"Maybe you're right...wait, we've got incoming!"
"Looks like...two freighters and half a dozen Z-95's."
"They aren't Imperial...must be pirates. You listening, Grey
guys?"
"Right here," Tirn said.
"Prepare to deploy, this looks like trouble."
"Right. C'mon Wedge." The two pilots ran to their starfighters.
Outside the freighter, the small fleet approached their
apparently defenseless target. Suddenly, the transport's bay doors
opened, and two X-wings dropped out.
"Alright Wedge, let's get 'em!" Tirn said as they
accelerated. "Get the Headhunters first, or they'll chop up the
transport."
"Right." Wedge made a minor adjustment and checked the computer.
The Z-95 group was almost in range.
A moment later, the opening volley was exchanged between the two
groups of starfighters. Wedge destroyed his target, while Tirn's was
damaged and forced to limp away. Tirn proceeded to drop on another
one's tail, while Wedge, who paused to take a shot at the nearest
freighter, suddenly had three Z-95 Headhunters firing at him.
Wedge flew the X-wing in a downward loop, weaving through fire
not only coming from the Headhunters but now from the freighters as
well. He went into a sharp climb and put two freighters in between
his X-wing and the pirate starfighters. He flew to a safe distance
and picked them off at long range when they duplicated his maneuver.
Meanwhile, the freighters directed their fire on the transport,
which was taking evasive action. Tirn and Wedge strafed the shields
of the two starships, searching for a weak point.
"We've lost our shields," said one of the transport pilots. "Try
to take out the freighter with the two turbolasers."
"I'm on it," Tirn said as he pounded the freighter from behind.
"Watch out, the other freighter is trying to sneak behind you,"
Wedge warned.
"Wedge! The freighter's shields have collapsed! Hurry, we don't
have much time before they get them back online." Tirn positioned his
fighter for an attack run on the freighter's bridge, while Wedge fired
at the turbolasers.
"Got it!" Wedge said triumphantly as the turbolasers stopped
firing.
"My turn." Tirn flew in at full speed, took a careful aim, and
fired his four cannons simultaneously. "I don't think we'll have any
more trouble with this one."
"Now for the other one..." Wedge opened fire, raking the
remaining freighter's shields.
"Try to hit its exposed shield generator near the back," one of
the transport pilots offered helpfully.
"Almost got it..." Tirn said. "Its shields are failing."
"We're hit! We're hit!" one of the transport pilots said
frantically.
"We're losing control of the engines," the other said a bit more
calmly. "Looks like we're going to crash into the planetoid, whether
we want to or not."
"Oh great. They've probably got a base there," Tirn said. "We'd
better check it out. Is there any chance of regaining control?"
"Not without EVA, and we'd never finish in time," the first pilot
answered.
"Come on, Grey Eight, we don't have much time," Wedge said as he
throttled up.
"Right."
As they neared the planetoid, Wedge's R2 unit whistled an
exclamation. "Atmosphere, but how..." Wedge muttered when he looked at
the translation.
"Hey Wedge, check out your sensor readings," Tirn told him over
the comm.
"I see it. Must be something here if someone went through the
trouble of putting an atmosphere on this thing."
They began orbit just above the atmosphere, which reached a
height of five hundred meters and stopped.
"They must have some sort of atmospheric generator," Tirn
observed.
"Yeah...wait, there it is! The base!" Wedge said as a blip
appeared on his sensors.
"Looks like the radiation around here does more than just disrupt
communications," Tirn said.
"Watch out! They're firing!" Wedge and Tirn both swerved, and
turbolaser bolts flew past. "Oh great...turbolaser towers. Now what?"
"I don't like our chances of taking it out in the soup," Tirn
said slowly. "Soup" was pilot slang for atmosphere because of what it
was like to fly through in starfighters.
"Grey guys, we'll crash into the planetoid in two minutes. It's
gonna take around ten minutes to fix the engines," the second
transport pilot said grimly.
"How close to the base will you land?" Wedge asked.
"From what you said, pretty darn close. Any brilliant ideas?"
the first one asked hopefully.
"Hope they don't shoot you out of the sky." We'll see about
backing you up, but no promises." Tirn sighed.
"Great. Just great." the first pilot didn't sound too happy with
the situation.
"We're entering the atmosphere...stand by..." the second one
reported.
"I've got the base on my scopes...we're going to land about one
hundred feet away from it. Stand by..."
The two X-wing pilots waited tensley for the next report.
"Impact in five seconds..." The second pilot's voice was cut off
by static.
"Well, looks like the pirates aren't going to blow them up,
anyway," Tirn said.
"They want to capture the transport, I bet," Wedge decided.
"Unfortunetly, I think you're right."
"X-wing pilots." The voice was definately not from the transport
pilots. "You will land your craft near our base. If you make any
attempt to fire on us we will blow you out of the sky. Is that
clear?"
(Part Four)
The man looked across the barren landscape in search of life,
but, as usual, found none. He and his partner had been sitting at the
sentry post for twenty minutes, ever since the X-wings had
disappeared. Despite the threat he had made over the captured
transport's comm, the X-wings had disappeared. The boss had decided
to spare the lives of the transport pilots, since they would be useful
now that the Alliance knew where they were.
Suddenly a human jumped out from behind a cluster of rocks a
hundred yards away. "Don't shoot!" The human had his hands up as he
ran towards them to show that he wasn't attacking.
"Who are you," one of the guards asked when he reached them.
"Wedge Antilles...I was one of the X-wing pilots. We got your
message. My wingman left to tell the Alliance. They're going to
destroy this place whether the captured pilots are still here or not.
I'm tired of working for those losers in the Alliance, though. I want
to defect to you guys!"
The guards were stunned. "Uhh...I suppose I'll call the boss,"
the first guard said, shrugging to the other guard.
"No, you wont," Wedge said calmly. The guard turned to look into
the business end of Wedge's blaster pistol which he had drawn from a
holster twisted out of sight behind him. "Drop the rifles. Both of
you."
No one ever accused pirates of being fiercely loyal and, true to
form, they dropped their weapons and put up their hands. There were
two cracks as Tirn, who had just come from the rocks, hit both of them
in the head with the butt of his blaster.
"Good work. Let's get going," Tirn said. "We don't have much
time."
A few minutes later Wedge and Tirn, now dressed in the
unconscious guards' suits, entered the complex.
The interior was spacious, with people working at consoles set
into the walls and others relaxing in the center. According to a map
on the wall said the prison was underground. They decided, after a
moment of hurried argument, to wait there for the two transport pilots
to be brought down.
The two pilots walked over to the door and entered. Behind the
door was a long ramp, in the middle of which stood a bored looking
guard.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"We've come to prepare the cell of the two captured pilots,"
Wedge said, thinking quickly.
"Sure you have," the guard answered with a knowing grin. I hear
Lohrig's renting out his holo-vids." With a wink, the guard stood
aside.
"Thanks," Tirn returned the smile, and in one smooth motion
jammed the barrel of his blaster rifle into the guard's stomach. As
the guard doubled over Tirn slammed the butt of the rifle upside the
guard's head, then smiled as the pirate crumpled.
"Nice," Wedge said. "Good thinking...a blaster shot would
probably be heard." They walked down the ramp and entered the prison
complex.
The two guards were watching a holo-vid on a small projector and
didn't even look up. Wedge glanced at a nearby display and found that
one of the cells was occupied. "Let's see who's in there," he told
Tirn. When they reached the door, Wedge studied the keypad. From
what he could see, there was no open button, only close, and other
controls used for torture.
"Hey...open this one for us!" Tirn yelled to the two guards. One
of them hit a button on the control panel without even looking. The
door slid open. "Renin!"
Wedge glanced over at the two guards to see if they had noticed
the shout, but if they did they apparently didn't care. Turning his
gaze back towards the cell, he saw a thin prisoner a few years older
than Wedge. "Who is he?"
"I can't believe it...it's Renin! Or, what's left of him," Tirn
said, amazed. "He's Gray Seven," he added, remembering that Wedge was
new to the squadron. "We've got to get him out of here."
"Who...Tirn?" Renin said weakly.
"Yeah...c'mon, we're getting you out of here," Tirn said with
determination.
"I thought I didn't recognize you guys," the pilots spun to see
the two guards standing behind them, with their rifles aimed right at
them.
"Allow me to introduce myself," Tirn said, shoving the rifle
barrels forward, so that the guards were now aiming at themselves.
Before they could correct, Tirn jabbed the first guard in the face
with his rifle. Then he swung downward, knocking the second guard's
rifle out of the way. Wedge hit the second guard in the head.
"Good work, but we better get out of here," Tirn said. "Now."
"Of course. Can you make it..." Wedge had to think for a
second. "...Renin?"
"If it means getting out of here, you bet," Renin said, putting
as much energy into his voice as he could manage.
The two transport pilots had been taken to the entrance of the
pirate base. Surrounded by four guards, the situation seemed
hopeless. As the pirate leader, a cyborg, reached for the button on
his belt that would open the door, he was stopped by a shout.
"Wait," Tirn shouted. He and Wedge ran up, carrying the limp
body of Renin.
"What is this?" the cyborg demanded.
"We found him over there." Tirn gestured to the east. "He must
have escaped, but then collapsed.
"I see." The pirate nodded to two of the guards. The two flanked
the pilots and pointed their rifles at them. "Drop your rifles."
"Hey, what are you..." Wedge began.
The pirate laughed. "Oh shut up. Did you really think you were
getting away with this? Did it ever enter your foolish minds that the
whole base is monitored by both cameras and recording devices? Your
one man commando unit put on quite a show, I understand. Are you sure
that he is a pilot?"
"Quite," Wedge said, desperately trying to come up with a way out
of their predicament.
"Anyhow, it worked out for the best. Now we have five prisoners
instead of just one. Now let's take a trip back to the prison, hmm?"
"Never!" Renin shouted, throwing himself off of Tirn into the
surprised pirate. As he was thrown off, Renin's hand brushed the belt
control, and the door slid open, revealing fifteen pirates with
blaster rifles pointed at them. Wedge and Tirn dived out of the line
of fire, narrowly escaping blaster bolts. However, the pirates didn't
stop firing, and the pirate leader and his four bodyguards were
killed.
"Oh great," Wedge muttered. "We're just in time for a takeover."
Diving forward, he reached for the deceased leader's corpse and hit
the belt control.
The door swished shut, leaving two pirates on the outside and the
rest inside. One of transport pilots had grabbed a rifle in the chaos
and now shot the two pirates.
"Head for the ship! Tirn! Onnis!" the other transport pilot
shouted, pointing at an Imperial shuttle sitting on a landing pad a
hundred meters away.
All of Renin's energy had been used for his lunge at the pirate
leader, so Tirn tossed his rifle to the second transport pilot and
picked Renin up.
They were about half way there when the pirates got the door
open. With blaster bolts flying all around them, Wedge motioned the
two transport pilots to stop. Ducking behind a rock cluster, he
returned fire with his rifle, trying to buy time for Tirn and Renin.
Onnis let out a shout of surprise and pain as a blaster bolt hit
him in the shoulder. Wedge gritted his teeth and sized up the
situation. After losing three men the pirates were falling back, but
Wedge doubted they were ready to give up.
"Can you walk?" Wedge asked the wounded pilot. "Then let's get
out of here," he said after getting a nod in reply. They jumped to
their feet and ran towards the landing pad.
It only took a few moments to catch up to Tirn, who was tired and
slowed by carrying Renin. As they reached the shuttlet, Tirn dashed
up the ramp, carefully set Renin down, and returned.
"Wedge, get the transport going, I'll cover. Toss me your
rifle." Wedge complied, and followed Onnis up the ramp after giving
his rifle to Tirn.
"What's that noise?" the remaining pilot asked.
"Sounds like landspeeders," Tirn mused. Sure enough, a quick
look over the rocks revealed two landspeeders heading towards them.
The two Rebels opened fire as soon as the speeders were in range.
Although the speeders weren't military models and had no weapons, the
pirates inside them did. With a few well placed shots, they forced
their prey away from their cover. As he dived away, Tirn fired
without aiming and got lucky, hitting the pilot of one of the
speeders. The speeder slammed into the ground and exploded.
As the other speeder swung around for another pass, Tirn took
careful aim. Drawing a bead on the pilot, he pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
"Stang!" Tirn swore. "Out of ammo." The rifle's energy clip had
been depleted.
"Mine too. What do we do now?" Tirn's comrade asked, glancing at
the fifteen feet in between them and the shuttle ramp.
"Drop your weapons!" The speeder had landed and its occupants
were getting out.
"Any ideas would be greatly appreciated," Tirn muttered. Before
the pilot could answer, there was a bright red flash as the
transport's cannons fired. As the spots in his eyes cleared, Tirn saw
a large new crater three feet away from the pirates.
"That," Wedge said over the transport's external speaker, "was a
warning shot. Drop your weapons." Tirn noticed that the pirate's
weapons had been knocked from their hands by the force of the blast,
so the pirates couldn't drop them, but decided not to press the point.
Fifteen minutes later, the Imperial shuttle cleared the
asteroids. Wedge had given control to the remaining transport pilot,
who introduced himself as Apsho, and was now helping Tirn apply first
aid to Onnis.
"Well, that was an adventure," Tirn said when they had finished.
"Right...probably couldn't have pulled it out without you,
though," Wedge said. "That guy had a point in saying that you were a
one man commando squad."
"Well, I had some training to that effect on my home planet,"
Tirn reflected. "Wasn't good enough for em." He laughed. "On a more
serious note, perhaps we should keep this quiet until talking it over
with the Commander."
"Okay...sounds like a safe plan of action. I'll go tell Onnis."
(Part Five)
"I had lost main power, and most of auxiliary. I barely had life
support. Then, a frigate hypers in right in front of me! I thought
the stanging thing was gonna hit me!" The medic's order to rest wasn't
preventing Renin from talking with his hands. All of Gray Squadron
except the Commander and Gray Two were sitting or standing around
Renin's bed, along with a few techs. Renin himself had regained
enough strength to sit up.
"It didn't...at first, but it was about to, and they wouldn't
have enough time to turn. I ejected just before it hit. I was hoping
they wouldn't see me, but they had me in a tractor beam before I could
get my bearings.
"They hauled me in, and a squad of stormtroopers came up to the
pod. I jumped behind the pod and opened fire with my pistol. I took
out two of 'em before they stunned me.
"I came to in a transport in hyperspace. A medic put me under
again before I could do anything. I feel like a blink, and find
myself in a cell. I stand up and try the door, but of course it was
locked. Man, don't go to Imperial holding cells...the toilets are
awful." His last comment drew a laugh from all assembled.
"Then this droid with blasters instead of arms comes in and
orders me to come with him. They sit me down with fifty other
prisoners, half human half alien, I'd say, and tell us that unless we
talk, they will preform various experiments on us to extract the
truth. There were only a few other Alliance guys there, most of them
were political enemies, I think." Wedge noticed Renin looked a bit
more tired now and wasn't making so many hand motions.
"A few guys stand up and say they'll talk. They were taken away,
and the guy talkin' to us said they'd be freed. We sit there for
almost an hour, then they paired us up and stuck us in cells again.
"We stayed there for about a week, never leaving the cell. The
guy with me wouldn't talk to me, he thought I was planted by the
Impierals! He refused to eat, and after a day they would take him
away, put him under, then feed him through injections.
"Then they tell us that they'd be doing some experiments in a
day. My cellmate ate as much as he could. They took the two of us
out of the cell and were marching us down the hall, two in front, two
behind us. Suddenly my cellmate throws up all over the guys in front
of him. When they start to wipe it off he slugs them and takes off
down a side hall. Man, those guys were out cold.
"One of the guys behind me runs past me and heads down the
corridor. I turn and see the other talking into his comm. I tackle
him, grab his rifle, and shoot him dead.
"I take care of the other two, then run down the hall. An alarm
is blaring, and I hear footsteps. I duck through a doorway to avoid
what sounded like a stormtrooper squad. In the room I found two
guards, and several corpses. I shot the guards, and took a closer
look at the bodies. They were the corpses of the guys who agreed to
talk!
"A few minutes later I left and followed directions given on a
wall map to a docking bay. I was able to sneak most of the way over
to a transport. I shot a few techs around it, boarded it, and took
off.
"I had hardly left the atmosphere before a Star Destroyer was
comin' after me."
"What class?" Chan asked.
"Imperial, sorry. Anyway, I programmed the first set of Alliance
coordinates that I thought of, here. Just before I made the jump to
lightspeed, the Destroyer broke through the shields. While traveling
in hyperspace I altered the transponder to the Alliance frequency.
After two days of hyperspace travel, the hyperdrive gave out. It had
been damaged when the Destroyer hit me. I was almost a month away
from here via sublight, but I had no other option.
"After twenty five days life support began to fail, and I ran out
of oxygen two days later. Luckily, just as I blacked out the
transport found me, I think."
"Yeah," Tirn spoke up. We saw his life support was down but he
was alive and rushed over to him. The fastest way to get to him was
to scrape against a large asteroid. We took some hull damage, and
lost our shield generators. We all transferred over to Renin's
transport in pressure suits just before ours lost hull integrity from
several asteroid collisions."
"We got a pressure suit on Renin and then checked the transport's
systems," Wedge said. "Turned out that the life support had simply run
out of power, and wasn't damaged. We charged it with power from our
transport and came back here."
Wedge knew, of course, that the last part wasn't true.
Everything after the hyperdrive giving out had been composed by Blue
Leader, Tirn, Renin, and Wedge after they had returned. Blue Leader
had agreed to the precautions taken until they could communicate with
High Command as to what to do, and since High Command was difficult to
contact for obvious reasons, they would have to keep it a secret for
awhile.
"The pirates found me, sort of. I pretty much drifted right into
their lair," Renin had told them in private beforehand. "They wanted
the Empire to pardon them for their crimes in exchange for me and
information on this base. They fed me only enough to keep me alive,
seeing no reason to waste money on keeping me strong. The transaction
with the Empire was to take place in two days...you guys came just in
time."
"Blue Four to Blue Five, you there?"
"Right behind you, Blue Four."
"Base to Blue Four, stand by. We're engaging the tractor beam."
The controller reached across his console and hit a button. "You're
locked, just take it nice and smooth."
"Great. Just what we need: two Bluies. As if it wasn't cramped
enough in here," Gray Eleven muttered.
"Shut up, Shestek," Gray Three, Gray Eleven's wingman, said
irritably. Renin was temporarily winged with the Commander and Gray
Two.
"Look!" Gray Ten pointed out a nearby viewport. Everyone turned
to watch Blue Four's Y-wing gracefully set down in between two
X-wings.
"All right...your turn, Blue Five. Okay, I'm pullin' ya in."
The controller sounded like he was bored out of his mind, and had been
in that state for the last few months.
A few minutes later the two newcomers entered. Wedge did a
double take. For whatever reasons, everyone currently assigned to the
station were male humans, and he hadn't seen anything else since his
trip on the Blockade Runner. Another surprise was the R2 unit
trailing behind Blue Five. The pilots had been told not to bring the
driods out of the X-wings to conserve space.
Blue Five was a Sullustan, but although Wedge had seen a fair
Nunber of them, he still wasn't able to tell their genders apart, much
less the individuals. Blue Four was something more familiar...she was
a tall, brown haired human. This surprised Wedge slightly because her
voice sounded male over the comm, but then again, Alliance comm units
were not known for their clarity.
"You can call me Sevlin," Blue Four said.
The Sullustan said something incomprehensible.
"He says: I am Nien Nunb," the R2 unit said smoothly. Wedge,
like everyone else in the room except Sevlin and Nien Nunb, looked at
the droid with a new interest. Sevlin laughed, and Nien Nunb made
sort of a sputtering noise (Wedge had been told was the way Sullustans
laughed, though he had never heard it before). Sevlin and Nien Nunb
were probably used to the reaction.
"That's R2-D9." Sevlin smiled.
"I was modified by a Sullustan friend of ours a few years ago,"
the R2 unit explained. Meanwhile, Sevlin, who had begun looking over
the crowd, noticed Tirn standing next to Wedge. She walked up to
them.
"Well, I'll be fragged," she muttered.
"Hi...Ransia," Tirn said with a weird expression on his face.
For a moment they stared at each other. Then Sevlin threw a punch at
Tirn's face, her arm moving in a blur, an impressive action when
preformed from a casual position. Tirn ducked and, while shoving
Wedge to the side (and into Gray Three and Eleven) with one hand,
launched a lightning fast spin kick. Sevlin crossed her right arm to
her left side to block it, then spun and sent her fist into his
stomach.
At least, the air space which his stomach vacated a split second
before impact. Tirn grabbed her arm before she could recover and
threw her into the wall.
Wedge blinked, his eyes still catching up with the action.
Sevlin grabbed his arm with her free hand, so that when he let go she
didn't go flying. She hadn't even landed before she lashed out with
her foot. Tirn, however, against all odds, saw it coming and grabbed
her leg. She did a back flip, and Tirn leaned back just in time to
avoid getting clipped in the chin while she did so.
The two pilots attacked each other again, Tirn with a jump kick
and Sevlin with an action to fast for Wedge to understand. All he
knew was the end result was Tirn landing on his back and Sevlin
slamming into him.
Wedge let Sevlin regain her balance while resisting the
temptation to do something that would get him court martialed. He
looked at Tirn getting up, then at the Commander, standing in between
Sevlin and Tirn.
"If you have something to settle, do it on shore leave," he
growled, rubbing the leg he had used to trip the two combatants.
Wedge could barely resist asking Chan if he felt like fighting Tirn
again.
(Part Six)
"You didn't have to do that, you know. We were just sparring,"
Tirn told the Commander. "We're old friends."
"That doesn't mean you can do it," Gray Leader said. "There's a
briefing at 0900 hours, guys. Don't be late."
When those assembled saw that there wouldn't be any more
fighting, they left, headed for their quarters. Wedge walked up to
Tirn as they left. "What was that all about?"
"I said, we're old friends. She just wanted to see if I'd lost
my edge."
"Yeah, right," Wedge grinned. "What was it really about?"
"Look, Wedge, it was just sparring," Tirn said, starting to get
annoyed.
"Okay, okay. Whatever you say," Wedge held up his hands in mock
surrender as he left the room.
"This is it. We probably won't get another chance at this, so
let's do it right," Gray Leader said. "We will be hitting the
freighter just after it leaves a refueling station. unfortunately, a
supply shortage in the Attol sector has left us without the transport
and sleeper bombs we had originally planned on using." A murmur of
surprise rippled through the room.
"These circumstances have made this mission absolutely essential,
but I think we can pull it off. We aren't sure as to what sort of
escort the freighter will have, but you can expect trouble. This is
what we will be doing: my group, Gray Two and Seven, will engage the
escorts right away, along with Gray Three's group, Gray Four and
Eleven. The other two groups will cover the Y-wings on their approach
and attack runs.
"Any questions?"
Gray Four stood up. "What if we don't succeed?"
"Then we will have failed. Any other questions? Good. Okay,
move out. Oh, Antilles? I'd like to have a quick word with you..."
Gray Squadron emerged from hyperspace in a V formation, with the
Y-wings trailing them. "Lock S-foils in attack position," Gray Leader
ordered. "Accelerate to attack speed."
"I'm reading three TIE squadrons, Commander," Renin
reported. "All of them staying put...they're ignoring us."
"Not for long," Gray Three said. "Let's do it!" Gray Leader and
Gray Three pulled their groups ahead, while the other two groups hung
back on either side of the Y-wings.
"Gray Five to Three Group, report in," Donner said.
"Gray Six, standing by," Chan said.
"Gray Twelve, standing by," Wedge said.
"Uh, Donner, since when do elements report in?" Chan asked.
"I always wanted to say that," Donner admitted. Wedge could
almost see Donner's grin in the voice. "All right, split up. I'll
take sector four, Chan, you've got sector five, Wedge, you're in six.
If you see anything, hollar and we'll frag 'em."
As the pilots went to their assigned positions, the attack group
was reaching the escorts. Green and red beams flashed between the two
sides, but neither earned the first blood. A moment later, however,
Gray Eleven got a kill.
"Nice shot Shestek," Gray Three said as he locked onto a
different TIE and fired. He missed, but got it on the second try.
For a moment the comm was silent. All Wedge could see was a light
show of red and greens flickering in front of him.
After a few minutes, the radio silence was broken by Tirn. "Gray
Eight to Gray Squadron, I'm engaging the Imperials." Wedge looked to
the left and, sure enough, there was a somewhat smaller conflict.
"How many?" Chan asked.
"Only half a squadron. Anything over your way?" Gray Nine asked,
a bit puzzled.
"Nothing over here," Wedge mused, a bit bored.
The feeling rapidly faded when Chan spoke. "Wedge! Two squadrons
of TIE Fighters just crossed through your sector!" Wedge looked at his
scanner fast enough to see them emerge from the heart of Chan's
sector. "What! That's your territory!"
"Shut up and take 'em!" Donner ordered. Wedge flew towards them,
trying to get between them and the Y-wings, but they were too fast.
He would have to settle for dropping behind them.
"How could there be two squadrons? We're still tangling with two
here," Gray Leader asked, puzzled.
"I don't know where they came from," Donner said. "Gray Five to
Gray Eight, can you give us a hand?"
"Sorry Donner, but we've got our hands full. Gray Nine was hit
and hypered out without saying anything, so we've got a two on six
here," Tirn sounded unhappy.
He was almost in range when his R2 unit beeped for his
attention. "Not now, R2," Wedge said, not daring to look away from the
targeting computer. The little droid continued to bleep.
Nearby, the Y-wings were just getting in range of the freighter,
but were also coming into the range of the TIE Fighters. Sevlin and
Nien Nunb only got off a few shots before being forced to break off.
"Nice shot, Gray Ten!" Tirn praised Gray Ten for some shooting
feat Wedge didn't have time to look at.
"Does it threaten the mission?" Wedge said, getting quite
annoyed. The R2 droid beeped a negative as Wedge fired. "Then save
it," he said as he took aim again. He was getting quite close, since
the TIE Fighters were slowing down to shoot at the Y-wings.
As he fired, the droid beeped loudly, almost jarring him enough
to miss his shot. "R2, I said-" He wasn't able to finish due to the
X-wing shaking and a panel exploding, sending sparks onto his helmet
and flightsuit. Wedge dived, and the three TIE Fighters that had
snuck up behind him adjusted their flight plans to compensate.
"Help! I'm hit!" Wedge yelled. "Three tails!"
"Sorry, Wedge, I'm too busy cleaning up your mess," Chan said.
"I'm telling you-"
"Cool it, both of you," Donner snapped. "Wedge, I can't get to
you. You're on your own for a few minutes." Ordinarily this wouldn't
be so bad, but after the hit the controls on Wedge's X-wing weren't
responding very well. It felt like trying to fly in atmosphere.
As he glanced back at his pursuers, two of them abruptly exploded
and the other broke off. Something whipped by his canopy. "Are you
okay, Gray Twelve?" Nien Nunb's R2-D9 unit asked him.
"Yeah, thanks, Blue Five," Wedge said as he veered upward. He
still had one more fighter to deal with...or did he? A quick glance
backward failed to find the fighter. Not wanting to fall into a trap,
Wedge spun downward and looked at his scanners for a moment before
figuring it out.
The TIE had dropped behind Nien Nunb's Y-wing and was now
firing. "We seem to be in some trouble," the Sullustan's droid said
blandly. "Ions out, lost left engine, damage to the starboard torpedo
launcher. We have to leave." Had it not been a Sullustan at the
controls, the Y-wing would have most likely been easily destroyed by
its pursuer, but Nien Nunb lived up to his race's reputation, making
the fastest course calculation Wedge had ever seen. The TIE pilot
fired a split second too late, and the Y-wing escaped into hyperspace.
Overall, the battle was going terribly for the Rebels. Despite
having no starfighter losses, the objective, capturing the freighter,
seemed impossible with only one Y-wing remaining. Wedge slammed his
fist against his seat in frustration. Chan's mistake had cost them
the mission, and for whatever reason he was blaming Wedge!
Wedge grimly spun his X-wing around. Sevlin was in the middle of
a swarm of a half dozen TIE Fighters, too busy avoiding their fire to
attack the freighter. Wedge contemplated the scene for a moment before
coming to a decision. "Okay, R2, we're going in full throttle!" The
droid beeped in disagreement. "I don't care about the damage, I need
all the speed you can give me." The R2 unit paused and tried a
different tactic. "Gray Leader can take his homing beacons to Kessel,
now let's go!" The R2 unit complied, working as fast as he could.
"I need some help here!" Sevlin said, but got no reply. All of
the other pilots were busy staying alive. That is, except Wedge. He
felt the familiar thrill rising up in him as his craft picked up more
and more speed.
"Good work R2, I knew you could do it." Never taking his eyes off
of the scanners, he fought back the urge to tell Sevlin he was coming,
but there was a chance the Imperials would hear it. For a moment he
looked to the side. Tirn and Sevlin were good friends, according to
Tirn, but why hadn't he showed up? A glance to his right showed him
why: three frigates had arrived on the scene at some point earlier and
was firing at Tirn and his wingman with all of its weapons.
The frigate's design was completely foreign to Wedge. Although
he may not be able to remember them by name, he had seen pictures of
all Imperial starships. The frigate must be new, or he would have
remembered something like it. It was between 200 and 300 meters...it
was hard to tell at this range. Whatever it was armed with, it packed
quite a punch, from the looks of it, and was giving Tirn a run for his
money.
Absorbing this in a few seconds, Wedge turned back to Sevlin and
her attackers, only a fifteen seconds away at this speed. He heard a
string of bleeps from behind him. "No, I'm not slowing down," Wedge
answered after looking at the translation.
Inside one of the TIE Fighters, the Imperial pilot was smiling
under his mask. Carefully aiming downward, he got a lock on the Rebel
Y-wing. He was about to fire when an alarm went off. Thanks to the
grueling training he had undergone before even getting in the cockpit
of a TIE Fighter, he immediately recognized it to mean a ship was
approaching at high velocity. He had only heard it once before, when
a Rebel Star Cruiser had come out of hyperspace close to him. Too
close, in fact. He had barely heard the alarm when the Cruiser, still
deaccelerating from lightspeed, hit his craft. The Cruiser lost less
then five percent of its shield power, while he and his craft were
destroyed in an instant.
It had only been a simulation, however, so he was here to here
the alarm again. He sent his craft into a deep climb, desperately
hoping to avoid destruction on the forward shields of whatever was
emerging from hyperspace.
The cause of the alarm, however, was not a ship coming out of
hyperspace, but instead Wedge's starfighter, flying faster then the
engineers had told him it could go when he had become an X-wing pilot.
But the TIE Fighter pilot would never know this, because he met the
same fate he had in the simulation, except it was his wingman he
collided with instead of a Star Cruiser.
A similar result occurred with the other TIE Fighters. One of
them fired at Wedge's starfighter, but missed and hit another TIE. A
moment later his craft was destroyed by a collision TIE Fighter
spinning out of control.
Wedge, however, had not finished the maneuver unscathed. His
shields had scraped the solar panel of one of the TIE Fighters,
sending it out of control. Wedge didn't realize that he had
eliminated all six of Sevlin's attackers since he was too busy helping
R2 regain control of his X-wing.
Sevlin looked at the rapidly shrinking dot of Wedge's X-wing as
it spun away from her, stunned. Realizing she was clear, she stopped
making her hyperdrive calculations she was forced to make due to
damage to her astromech droid. She had grabbed the controls and begun
to turn towards the freighter before the R2 unit (what was left of it)
warned her that the new Imperial starship heading towards her.
Sevlin took one look at the frigate and resumed her calculations.
She sighed with relief when she finished ten seconds later and ordered
R2 to engage the hyperdrive. There was a cross between a cough and a
gurgle from behind her, so she gave up on that and did it manually.
As she pulled the proper lever she looked back at the frigate.
Noticing some writing on the side, she managed to read it and identify
the ship as the I.N.S. Lancer before the starfield became starlines.
A moment after she was gone, Gray Leader gave the withdrawal
order. Wedge, who had gotten control of his battered starfighter,
formed up behind Donner and Chan, who had arrived just after he had
dispersed the fighters, and prepared to enter hyperspace.
Chan's R2 unit was having some problems with the navigational
sensors, and they ended up being the last element to enter hyperspace.
"Uh-oh..." Wedge said, "I've got to abort!" Donner and Chan
heard, of course, but they vanished into hyperspace before either
could react. Taking a deep breath, Wedge turned his X-wing around and
headed back towards the Imperial forces.
(Part Seven)
The gun crews on the Lancer thought that they could finally relax
as the Rebel fighters vanished into the mostly unknown realm of
hyperspace. Instead, however, one of the X-wings turned and headed
towards them. They overheard his message to his fellow pilots, of
course, but it didn't make all that much sense. Most of them had
already powered down, and it would be a few minutes before they would
get them back on line.
Inside the cockpit, Wedge was frantically making the last minute
adjustments that inevitably spring up when someone is attacking a
frigate with a starfighter. Well, not attacking it, but getting close
to it. Wedge had gone up against frigates before, but none like the
Lancer and its sister ships. Unfortunately, two of the three frigates
were in between his X-wing and his objective.
The R2 unit gave a worried warble, then what sounded like a
surprised series of bleeps. "No power to their cannons?" After getting
an affirmative beep, Wedge thought quickly. "R2? Activate flight
recorder. Tune it to the frigate."
The recorder, a digital camera in the nose of the starfighter,
would be able to reconstruct a small section of his flight. Using
sensors on various places in the starfighter, it would produce five
minutes of three dimensional holo-vid with surprising detail,
especially on what the pilot centered the scans on. Of course, his
was somewhat crude compared to the ones mounted on recon vessels, but
it still could provide valuable information.
As soon as the droid reported the recorder was on, Wedge slowed
down somewhat and began to spiral around the Lancer in an attempt to
get every square inch of it on record. His only worry for the next
few minutes were the TIE Fighters, but most of them had been damaged,
destroyed, or called back to a Victory-class Star Destroyer which had
entered a few minutes ago, too far away to get involved in the battle.
Finished with his scanning, Wedge accelerated. He still had a
minute of record space left, so he did a fly-by of the second frigate.
He was almost done when a three TIE Fighters appeared from a hiding
place on the other side of the frigate, cannons blazing. Wedge wished
he could introduce the Imperial pilots to the afterlife, but he had no
time. His X-wing was damaged, and he had about five seconds to get
away from the frigate before its cannons would scatter his particles
across the void of space.
Of course, he would have to get the Imperial fighters off of his
tail before they achieved a similar result. Searing green beams
flashed by his canopy, the only thing keeping him alive was his
evasive maneuvers and the TIE pilots' bad aim. It would take more
than that to stay alive as soon as the pilots got patient and used
targeting lock.
The X-wing bucked, nearly knocking Wedge's teeth out. This was
followed by several more jolts of equal intensity. "There go the
stabilizers," Wedge said grimly, opening a compartment and stuffing
the hunk of curved plastic inside into his mouth. He hated mouth
guards, but he liked his teeth, so he would have to put up with it.
He was coming up on the freighter...fast. If his plan didn't
work, he was going to be in deep trouble. The freighter was fairly
large, as was necessary for its cargo. He spiraled downward, then
leveled off, putting the freighter in between his starfighter and the
Imperial TIE Fighters.
Cutting his speed, he made a sharp turn and soon was above the
freighter. The TIE Fighters found themselves under the freighter, but
their prey was no where to be seen. Wedge made another turn, sliding
behind the freighter's engines. He carefully took aim between the two
massive engines.
"Now, R2!" he shouted, pulling the guard from his mouth to give
the order. He flew back under the freighter, just as a TIE Fighter
swooped downward from above. Apparently the three ship group had
split up.
After making sure the TIE Fighter had followed him under, Wedge
narrowed the distance between his starfighter and the freighter's hull
to a few feet. This was a tricky move to say the least, even more so
with his stabilizers out. The TIE Fighter remained a safe distance,
seeing no reason to duplicate the dangerous maneuver. Gritting his
teeth to keep them from cracking together as the craft rocked and
shuddered, Wedge waited.
"Launch!" he ordered.
A few hundred yards behind and below him, the TIE Fighter got
target lock. As he fired, the X-wing pulled away from the freighter
spun to face the TIE, firing before the pilot could dodge.
"Are the two beacons secure?" he asked quickly. R2 gave an
affirmative, then bleeped an alarm as the other two TIE Fighters
approached. "Then let's go!"
There was a tense moment of waiting as R2 made the necessary
calculations and course changes. "Hurry, R2!" Wedge said, wondering
why it was taking longer then usual. The R2 unit bleeped something
about navigational sensor problems. Wedge sighed with relief and
leaned back a few moments later as the familiar starlines appeared as
the starfighter accelerated to lightspeed, then vanished into the
shadow dimension known as hyperspace.
Wedge's battered X-wing slowly lowered onto the landing pad. A
few techs ran over to service the damaged starfighter while the large
doors slid into place above them. Wedge opened the canopy and climbed
down the ladder someone had shoved against the side of his fighter.
"Wedge! You made it!" Wedge turned to see Donner approaching.
"Yeah...had some problems with the hyperdrive, but R2 fixed it.
I got some great footage of those new frigates."
"We're about to start a...friendly...game of Sabacc. We still
have room for another player." Donner gestured back towards the blast
doors.
"Sabacc?" Wedge asked, surprised.
"Yeah...Sevlin has a holo Sabacc unit."
"Okay. One thing, though...where's the Commander?"
Donner's smile faded. "He hasn't gotten back yet."
"Hey Antilles!" Gray Two walked up. "Could I have a word with
you. In private?"
"We'll be waiting," Donner told Wedge as he nodded to Gray Two to
indicate no offense taken.
"Mission accomplished," Wedge said in a low voice as soon as
Donner was out of earshot.
"Good. Sorry about the secrecy, but Gray Leader's been concerned
about a possible Imperial informant. Probably nothing, but we're
taking precautions anyway."
Wedge nodded. "What about the Commander?"
"No, he isn't on a secret mission. He must be having some
trouble." Gray Two looked worried. "Anyway, I've got to get going."
"Right. Oh, by the way, just call me Wedge. Makes things
easier." Wedge was well aware of how many Antilles' there were in the
galaxy.
The two pilots left the bay area. With all the noise of techs
servicing the stored craft, neither of them heard Wedge's R2 unit's
beeps for attention.
"Beat that!" Tirn smiled as he showed the cards he had put in the
interference field two rounds ago. A Mistress of Flasks, a two of
Flasks, a two of Coins, and a five of Staves.
Wedge couldn't help but smile as he turned over his cards. An
idiot, a two of Sabers, an Ace of Sabers, and a three Flasks. "Idiots
Array." Wedge's grin got wider as he watched Tirn's face fall. Of
course, Wedge could have showed his cards at any point in the last
three rounds since he had put them in the interference field, but he
had let the stakes get higher, gambling that no one had pure Sabacc.
Shestek sighed as Wedge collected his winnings. "I'm outta here."
"Me too," Donner frowned at Wedge's stack of chips, most of which
had been his only a half hour ago.
The game broke up, and although Wedge did well, Tirn had gotten
even more. Sevlin was the only other player who got ahead. Wedge
cashed in and sat down for a drink with Tirn. Chan had left the game
early and retired to his quarters, so it was just the two of them.
"Pretty good," Donner said after taking a long drink from his
glass. "Well, relatively." Wedge nodded. It was non alcoholic, of
course. Getting drunk wasn't a good idea when the Imperials could
show up at any time.
"Excuse me," Wedge turned at Nien Nunb's voice, but only found
his droid. Remembering belatedly that the droid spoke for the
Sullustan but was also capable of independent thought, Wedge wiped the
look of surprise off of his face.
"Uhh...Hi Deenine. What's up?"
"R2-D3-271159 has been attempting to communicate with you for the
last three hours, sir."
Wedge blinked, then realized that "R2-D3-271159" must be his R2
unit. Because many droids were made from the same specs but had
different personalities, further identification was needed besides the
letter-Nunber classification, but no one ever used it for anything
besides formal matters. "What does he want?"
"He would like to talk to you in private."
"Private?" Donner asked from beside Wedge.
"Yes. You know, sir, I think you might want to have your droid's
Behavioral Circuitry Matrix checked. He seems to have developed a
paranoia complex. Perhaps his Cogitative Theory Unit was damaged, or
his Logic and Processing Unit contaminated. Or maybe-"
"Um, right." Wedge cut off the lecture on Neutronic Subsystem
Engineering. "Sorry, Donner, but he said private."
"I believe he was more worried about me." Deenine butted into the
conversation again.
"Okay. C'mon Donner." The two pilots entered the hangar where
R2-D3 waited in Wedge's X-wing to see what the little droid was so
exited about.
(Part Eight)
"What is it, R2?" Wedge asked when they reached the X-wing. The
droid responded with a stream of unintelligible gibberish. A small
panel slid open, revealing a small compartment with what looked like a
data chip inside. Wedge took the chip from the storage space and the
panel slid shut. Obviously the astromech had put what he wanted Wedge
to see on the chip.
"Let's go to your quarters," Donner suggested. "He obviously
wants us to view it in private."
"Okay. Let's go," Wedge said, already jumping off the
starfighter's wing.
A few minutes later they were sitting in Wedge's cramped room.
Wedge had been surprised to get a room to himself and had done some
checking when they had arrived on the station. It turned out the room
was a converted closet. This had surprised Wedge: he didn't think
that it was big enough for a closet.
"By the way, Wedge," Donner said as they entered. "You were right
in the battle. I don't know what got into Chan, lying like that."
"Neither do I, but we'll worry about that later."
Wedge activated the terminal and plugged in a data adapter he had
borrowed from a tech. Then he slipped the chip into the adapter.
Instantly a large column of information appeared on the screen.
"It's a transmission log. Part of one, anyway. Not only from
your X-wing, but from all craft in the area," Donner observed.
"Nothing about the content, just a list. Hmm...let's see what R2
was so anxious for us to see," Wedge said.
Transmission from Gray Six.
Transmission from Gray Twelve
Transmission from Gray Five.
Transmission from Gray Leader.
Transmission from TIE Fighter A-9
Transmission from Gray Five.
Transmission from Gray Nine.
Transmission from TIE Fighter F-3.
Transmission from TIE Fighter F-7.
Transmission from TIE Fighter E-12.
Data Transmission from Area 7 to Area 552.
Transmission from Gray Eight.
Transmission from TIE Fighter A-11.
Transmission from Gray Twelve.
Transmission from Gray Six
Transmission from Gray Five
Transmission from Blue Five
"Data Transmission?" Wedge said in surprise. "That must be what
R2 wanted us to see."
"Whoever sent it didn't want to be identified," Donner
said. "That's why you see only Area numbers."
"Let's see what's in Area 7," Wedge said, hitting a
button. "Rats...the entire battle was inside of it, except for a few
TIE Fighters. What about Area 552?"
"Only thing there is an Imperial Navy comm relay," Donner
said. "But why would a TIE send data like that?"
"I dunno," Wedge frowned. "Could it have been the freighter?
No," he answered his own question. "It was just a drone."
"Looks like your droid was thinking along the same lines," Donner
said after looking at the screen for a moment. "See right here? He
ran a trace. Pretty smart, for a droid."
Wedge brought up the results of the trace. "He found that the
source was transmitting a Rebel identification signal." He
paused. "Maybe the Imperials have cracked our system."
"If they cracked our identification system, there are a lot of
better ways to take advantage of it." Donner shook his head.
"Then the only other possibility is that...one of us sent it."
For a moment there was silence as the implications of this sank
in. "We gotta tell the Commander!"
"The Commander isn't back yet," Donner reminded him. "Gray Two
will have to do."
"Maybe we shouldn't jump to conclusions," Wedge frowned. "There's
been a lot of secret stuff going on recently. When I had trouble when
you guys hypered out, I planted homing beacons on the freighter under
orders from the Commander. Maybe this is something along the same
lines."
"Only one way to find out," Donner said.
"This," Gray Two said in his office ten minutes later, "only
confirms our suspicions. Sending any sort of data to the Imperials
was not on the plan. The Imperial mole must be stopped, and soon.
This will be our secret. Only you two, the Commander if and when he
gets back, and me. We have a backup method of getting to that
freighter, but it must be done. If we don't succeed, it could set the
Alliance back six months."
"Wow, this is more serious then I thought," Wedge said in
surprise. Donner had a similar reaction. For a moment, the three sat
in silence, thinking over the sobering fact Gray Two had mentioned.
"Who could it be?" Donner thought out loud.
"Well..." Wedge hesitated. "There is Chan. After all, he was the
one who let those TIE Fighters get past us."
Donner slowly turned towards Wedge. "Look, Wedge, Chan and I have
been friends for longer than you've been alive. We grew up together,
on Alderaan, we joined the Alliance at the same time and made sure we
were stationed together, and I'm telling you there's no way that he
could possibly betray the us to the Empire." Wedge was taken aback,
surprised by Donner's sudden display of emotion.
"It isn't Chan," Donner said a moment later, his voice more
subdued. "It might have been Renin."
"Renin?" Gray Two said. "He's got a clean record. His father is
an Admiral in the Alliance."
"Yeah? But he was captured by the Empire. They could have used
mental conditioning and torture to turn him, willingly or no, to their
side," Donner answered. "Rumors persist of people coming back from
Imperial conditioning nothing more than brainwashed slaves."
"I don't know about that," Gray Two said with a frown. "It's
never been proven."
"We've been wrong about this sort of thing in the past," Wedge
said.
"I've got an idea," Gray Two said suddenly. "Your droid wasn't
able to trace the transmission before it was terminated, but maybe we
can do it here."
"How?" Wedge asked.
"Using sensory data from your droid, we can pinpoint the origin
of the transmission within a few hundred meters using our equipment
here. That will probably be enough to narrow it down to the X-wing-"
"Or Y-wing," Donner interrupted thoughtfully.
"Hmm, yes, or Y-wing that produced the signal," Gray Two
finished.
"Who's gonna do it?" Wedge asked.
"I'll have a tech get on it," Gray Two said. "You two had better
get back out there before the others notice."
Wedge couldn't even get close to sleeping that night. He knew,
of course, that Renin couldn't be the spy. It was pure luck that they
found him, and it seemed unlikely that the Imperials had thought up
some vast plot when they could just blast the base to pieces.
Getting up, he left his quarters and walked down the hallway
outside his room, he walked over to the rec area and got a drink from
the drink dispenser after making sure he had enough credit left. He
did...barely. If he kept at the rate he was going, he would have to
use some of his pay. He knew several other pilots had already gotten
to that point.
He wishing he could use sleeping pills, but they were another
no-no. Another luxury given up for the Alliance. He laughed silently
at himself for thinking his life was difficult, when many others in
the Rebel Alliance were putting up with so much more.
He finished the drink and stood up. The rec area was empty.
Apparently everyone was tired out after the battle. There was usually
someone in the room all night, if only pilots who had just finished
flying the night patrol.
He took the long way back to his room. On his way back, he
passed one of the two empty rooms, used for guests. The one he was
standing in front of had been assigned to Sevlin. He was tempted to
knock and see if she was there to see if the rumors of her spending
time in Tirn's quarters was true.
He was about to turn away when he heard a beeping sound. He
listened carefully and decided it wasn't coming from Sevlin's room,
but from the cargo bay, the door to which was across the hall. He
opened the door and stepped inside.
The cargo bay was almost empty, except for a few crates in the
corner. For whatever reasons all of the lights were off except that
of the door panel. He belatedly realized he wasn't armed. He was
considering going back to his room to get it when he saw a round red
light of an R2 unit out of the corner of his eye. A human figure,
just visible in the light from the droid, stepped back into the
shadows before Wedge could discern any features.
He was debating what to do when he realized that the R2 unit was
coming closer. "R2? What's going on?" The droid didn't answer, but
instead came even closer.
He heard what sounded like footsteps. He strained to see into
the darkness, but couldn't make out anything. Suddenly the door
opened behind him, the light from the outside hallway half blinded
him, as his eyes had just finished adjusting to the darkness. He
managed to see the foot of a running man just before whoever it was
turned the corner. The door slammed shut before Wedge could follow,
plunging him into darkness again.
His eyes struggled again to cope with the light change. The R2
unit was quite close now. Wedge hit the door panel, but nothing
happened. He was locked in.
(Part Nine)
The R2 unit stopped about two feet in front of Wedge. Wedge was
wondering why when he heard the sound of something being extended.
Wedge decided to put some distance in between himself and the droid on
a hunch.
He was ten feet away when bright blue streaks of lightning
flashed from the droid's shocking extension, illuminating the room and
flash blinding Wedge. Although the droid was ten feet away, the shock
still reached him, and he was thrown to the ground. If he had been
closer to the droid, there might not be much left of him.
There was a spinning noise as the R2 unit accelerated. Wedge
managed to roll out of the way and get to his feet, but just barely.
He grabbed the comlink from his belt and flicked it on.
"Help! Help!" he shouted into it, but got no response. A quick
check of the display told him that the R2 unit was jamming him.
Before he could do anything else, the droid slammed into his legs,
knocking him over.
He got to his feet, hardly noticing the crunch of the comlink
when he accidentally stepped on it, and threw himself to the side. As
he hit the floor, the droid emitted another shock, but it missed him.
Wedge sent the strongest kick he could manage, but only succeeded in
knocking the astromech back a few feet and bruising his foot.
He peered through the darkness and spotted the door panel. Using
that to determine direction, he ran towards the crates, dodging at
random. The R2 unit sped by him, just missing him. How the little
droid could move so quickly, he didn't know, but he could worry about
that later.
He reached, or more specifically stumbled over, the first stack
of crates. Grabbing one, he lifted it and looked for the droid. It
only took him a few seconds to find the red light heading towards
him. That was a good thing, since the crate was very heavy. He hurled
the crate at the droid, but his efforts were in vain. The droid
dodged and kept on coming.
Wedge jumped over the crates, and heard the astromech skid to a
stop. Wedge knocked over the crates, hoping they would land on the
droid. He waited, listening. He had heard the stories of wild droids
who killed their masters, but in this case it wasn't an accident.
Someone, most likely the spy, had changed the droid's programming.
Well, he told himself, it could be worse. At least it didn't seem to
have a program trap.
To his left he heard a whirring and caught sight of the droid's
red light. Desperate now, Wedge grabbed the survival kit he always
kept on his belt. To his left, the droid slowly moved closer to him,
accompanied by the sound of a saw. Wedge reached through the kit,
looking for the miniature glow stick. His fingers closed on
something. Not the stick, but the flare gun. Wedge smiled into the
darkness.
He lowered the kit behind one of the crates, so the R2 unit
couldn't see him. Carefully he loaded the flare gun and stuck it into
his pocket. Behind him, he heard the R2 unit coming closer. Grabbing
a handful of various survival tools, he stuck them into his other
pocket. He hoped he had gotten some more flares, but he didn't have
time to check.
He ran as far as he could from the R2 unit and took aim. He
fired the flare gun at a point just below the red light. Flare guns,
however, aren't known for their accuracy. The flare missed the droid
by about a foot and exploded against the far wall. At such close
range, the flare would have blinded Wedge, but he turned away and
closed his eyes. The flare's trail was easily seen, so he saw that he
had missed the droid.
Before the light from the flare died away, Wedge looked at the
crates. The nearest one had water in it, according to the label on
the side. He looked up just in time to see a dark barrel shaped form
speeding towards him. The last of the flare's light had faded away as
Wedge jumped aside. The droid slammed into the wall and sat there for
a moment, getting it's bearings.
Wedge ran to the crate he had seen earlier. He broke the seal,
and lifted one of the containers he found inside. Reaching into his
pocket, he searched for something to cut the container open with. His
hand soon found a small but sharp knife. Thankfully the designers of
the kit had the foresight to keep knife in a sheath. He also found
another flare.
The R2 unit was getting its bearings when Wedge finished loading
the flare gun. He looked towards the R2 droid, but saw no light.
Realizing that the light must be on the other side, he looked away and
fired where he had last seen the droid. This time his shot hit its
target.
The flare disrupted the droid's sensors for a few moments, long
enough for Wedge to drop the flare gun and grab the container. He ran
towards the droid, squinting through the flare's brilliance. He cut a
large hole in the container and dumped the water out on the droid.
The droid make a shrill series of beeps, sparks flying. Wedge stepped
backwards as the droid fell over.
Two hours later, the entrance to the cargo bay slid open and Chan
entered. The door slid shut behind him, plunging the bay into
darkness. Frowning, Chan turned and hit the controls. Nothing
happened. Cursing under his breath, Chan activated his comlink and
called for help.
"And so I see the thing's light in the darkness, and hear it
coming towards me," Wedge said, relating his story to his fellow
pilots over a drink.
When he had been found asleep in the cargo bay with a wrecked R2
unit nearby him, the Commander, who had arrived at some point in the
ordeal, and Gray Two had quickly gotten the story from him in private.
They decided that Wedge should say he just saw the droid and not the
person. The door opening and closing would be explained away as the
R2 droid tapping into the controls and making a mistake while locking
it.
It had turned out it was Chan's R2-D2 astromech droid who has
attacked him. The wheels had been removed in favor of treads from a
maintenance droid, which allowed the R2 unit to move quickly. Its
programming had been replaced with an assassin program. The program
hadn't been implemented correctly, according to their tech (the same
one working on pinpointing the correct X-wing), which was why Wedge
had lived through the experience.
Donner had been called in, and a heated argument had ensued when
Gray Two suggested that Chan's entrance indicated he was the spy.
"I'm telling you, he would never betray us!" Donner had yelled.
"Keep it down, someone might hear," Gray Leader had cautioned.
"You heard what Chan said," Donner had said in a lower voice. "He
was getting some supplies to return a favor to a tech. And the tech
backed him up! Besides, Chan wasn't armed when we found him, what
could he have done?"
"True, but he's the only real suspect we have," Gray Two returned.
"What about Renin?" Donner asked.
The Commander and Gray Two had exchanged glances. They, like
Wedge, knew that Renin was not a suspect. "Well, yes, there is him, I
suppose," Gray Two had admitted.
"Let's face it, we aren't going to find out who it is until the
transmission is traced," Wedge said.
"Well, do we have any other possibilities?" the Commander asked.
"Hmm...there's Shestek and Hoinn. They were fresh out of
training," Gray Two said after a moment of thought. No one else spoke
up, so the Commander dismissed them.
Wedge had just finished telling his story when the Commander told
them that there would be a mission briefing in five minutes. Wedge
was surprised like the rest of the pilots, but for a different reason.
He hadn't thought that the Alliance could mobilize this fast and track
the beacons he had planted.
Putting down his drink, he got to his feet and left for the
hangar where his X-wing was stored.
"Hey," Wedge said as he walked up to the only tech in sight. "I
signed up for an update targeting computer. Is it ready yet?"
"Yeah, just finished," the tech said.
It was as he left the hangar that he had an idea.
"So, one of the techs rigged an R2 unit to send the message, then
messed with mine!" Wedge said triumphantly in the Commander's office a
few minutes later after getting the other three.
"Oh great, that narrows it down," Donner sighed. "But you're
right. It could have been one of the techs."
"It wouldn't be hard to erase any evidence of tampering, so we
may not be able to find the spy at all," Gray Leader frowned. "But
let's not get ahead of ourselves. We've got a mission to do."
"As you know, we failed to capture the freighter in our last
mission. Thanks to Gray Twelve we have another chance at it. Gray
Twelve managed to plant two homing beacons on the freighter. We,
along with Blue Squadron, will jump in and either disable it or
destroy it. If we work quickly, we can get to it before its escorts
arrive. If they do arrive and we haven't made progress disabling it,
then destroy it and get out of there.
"Any questions? Then get to your ships." The Commander stepped
down and the pilots all headed off to their ships, painfully aware
that this was their last chance at completing their mission. And even
if it was successful, they had a spy awaiting them when they returned.
(Part Ten)
"Well, this is it, guys. Our last chance. Do or die," Gray
Three said as they started their approach on the freighter.
"Thanks. Now I don't feel any pressure, Gray Three," Shestek
answered sarcastically. The remark drew a few nervous laughs from the
rest of the squadron.
"Gray Leader to Gray Squad. Lock s-foils in attack position and
accelerate to attack speed." The X-wings complied. In front of Gray
Squadron, Blue Squadron, which was made up of nine Y-wings and three
X-wings, were already getting close to the freighter.
The tension among the squadron was so thick that Wedge could
almost feel it. Sure, if they failed, the Rebellion wouldn't be
doomed, but it wouldn't help it either.
In front of him, Wedge could see blue ion beams hitting the
freighter as the Y-wings made their initial run. That was good, he
decided. If there was a trap it would have sprung by now. But if
there was one thing he had learned from the Alliance, it was that
nothing ever goes without problems.
"Blue Leader to Blue Squad, the freighter is disabled. Begin the
docking operation." Six of the Y-wings swooped downward to dock with
the freighter. The plan was to use the Y-wing's hyperdrives to get
the freighter away from the Imperials.
It felt strange to actually be bored on such a critical mission,
but Wedge was. He watched as the first Y-wing clamped to the
freighter. Then the second. Then the third.
As the fourth one docked, he yawned. A bright explosion made him
cut the yawn off. The region of space occupied by the freighter
seconds ago was an ever expanding ball of fiery gas. Wedge caught
sight of what looked like the burning hull of a Y-wing, or what was
left of it, spinning in front of the explosion.
A scream came from Nien Nunb's R2-D9 droid. As Wedge spun his
starfighter towards the gruesome scene he saw the Sullustan's Y-wing
of flying by. Although by some miracle nothing caught on fire, the
Deenine was literally melting in its place behind the pilot, cooked by
the superheated gases.
As Wedge watched the freighter's explosion begin to die away, he
was shocked to see TIE Fighters come flying out of the inferno,
cannons blazing.
"What the..." someone said loud enough to be picked up by their
comm.
"How is this possible?" Shestek asked, clearly amazed.
Wedge saw an X-wing out of the corner of his eye swoop in towards
the explosion. A quick check told him it was Tirn, probably seeing if
Sevlin had made it.
"The must have had bombs set to explode outward," Gray Three
observed.
"I'm hit!" Blue Eight's dying scream interrupted the discussion
as two TIE Fighters both hit him.
"Star Destroyer! And two Lancer-class frigates, coming in point
seven!" Tirn reported. "Trying to sneak up on us from behind the
explosion."
"There's too many fighters!" Roinn shouted. "I'm getting out of
here!"
"No, Hoinn! Wait!" Gray Three said in alarm, for while Hoinn's
idea was a good one, as soon as he paused to enter hyperspace the TIE
Fighters would pick him off with ease.
Wedge sent his starfighter into a dive towards Hoinn. It sounded
like the kid was going into shock and was going to try to escape no
matter what others said. Hoinn was too far away, however. Wedge
watched helplessly as Hoinn's X-wing was blown apart by several TIE
Fighters.
"Well," he muttered grimly, "scratch one suspect."
"I've got a tail!" Blue Eleven said in alarm.
"I'm coming...just hold-" Blue Twelve's calm voice was cut off by
a screech of static as a turbolaser bolt hit his canopy, killing him
instantly. Blue Twelve had made the mistake of forgetting about the
Star Destroyer and getting too close.
"Watch that Destroyer!" Sevlin warned. Wedge looked and saw her
Y-wing zooming through the melee with Tirn covering her tail. The
both opened fire as they flew by Blue Eleven and destroyed the TIE
chasing him.
"Thanks guys," Blue Eleven said gratefully.
"We've got to figure out how to draw the TIE Fighters away so we
can make the jump to lightspeed!" Chan said in frustration.
"What we need is a diversion," Gray Three said. "Who's with me?"
"I'll help," Tirn volunteered.
"Me too," Sevlin said.
"I'm with you," Wedge said, flying on Gray Three's flank.
"Okay," Gray Three said before anyone else could speak up. "Stand
by."
After Gray Three transmitted his instructions to them, Wedge
accelerated and flew past the first Star Destroyer, giving it only
enough attention to dodge its fire. When Wedge had reached the space
between the two frigates, Gray Three spoke up.
"Arm proton torpedoes. We're going to hit the Star Destroyer as
hard as we can," he ordered, ignoring the fact that the Imperials were
almost certainly listening in. "Form up."
He had hardly said this before several TIE Fighters, following
orders given to them from the Destroyer, turned from the battle and
headed towards them. They didn't get there, however, as Gray Leader
and Gray Two came up behind them and picked them off.
With three X-wings preparing to make an attack run and two more
covering them, the Destroyer was forced to launch its reserve
squadron. The first two had barely emerged from the hangar bay when
they were destroyed. The next two also fell victim to Wedge's deadly
aim. He had come up behind the Star Destroyer and was shooting the
TIE Fighters as they were launched.
Four destroyed fighters later, there was a pause in the sequence,
then four TIE Fighters came out at the same time. One of them was
backwards, and immediately fired on Wedge. Wedge was forced to evade
while the other three headed for Gray Three's group.
The remaining TIE overshot Wedge's starfighter and was forced to
turn around. He finished the turn and found the X-wing had
disappeared. He flew across the hull of the Star Destroyer and then
flew upwards, hugging the surface of the starship. It was a good
idea, but it didn't help him much as Wedge, who had circled the
Imperial warship from the other direction, destroyed him.
Meanwhile, the three TIE Fighters raced towards Gray Three's
group. They weren't even in range of the Destroyer when Gray Three
yelled, "Break!"
Tirn and Sevlin dropped downward, managing to destroy two of the
TIE Fighters. The other fired on Gray Three's X-wing for a few
moments before he was destroyed by a long range shot from Wedge.
"Okay, let's do it. Shoot for the bridge," Gray Three ordered.
Back in the battle, six TIE Fighters broke off to come to the defense
of the starship, but their numbers were cut in half by some quick
shooting by Chan. Gray Four attacked the other three, picking off one
in his initial run. The other two went in opposite directions, then
flew towards the Star Destroyer. Although they had to help the
Imperial ship as soon as possible, the two fighters that came up
behind Gray Four didn't.
They opened fire, and a few seconds later Gray Four's X-wing
broke apart. He ejected, but one of the TIE pilots took careful aim
and shot him. The two starfighters flew off to help their comrades at
the Star Destroyer without staying to admire their handiwork.
The first two defense fighters were destroyed by Wedge and Chan,
but the next two ignored them and went straight for Gray Three's
attack group. Since the proton torpedo was just a bluff, Gray
Three. Tirn, and Sevlin had to settle for strafing the bridge
deflector shields with their cannons until the two TIE Fighters
reached them.
While the three X-wings faced off against the two TIE Fighters,
Wedge and Chan returned to the battle, were the Rebels now faced
better odds. After a few minutes of teamwork between Wedge, Chan, and
Donner, the Rebels were clear to make the jump to lightspeed.
"We received a tip that the pirates you discovered in the outer
reaches of the system are about to make their move on our base," Gray
Leader told Wedge. "I need two pilots to go on a recon mission, and
the only ones available who know about the base are you and me. The
others will be told that we are inspecting reports of a derelict
freighter on the tenth planet. We'll lift off in ten minutes."
"Yes, sir," Wedge nodded and left to make preparations.
A few minutes after the two had lifted off, Gray Two, who had not
been able to go due to damage on his X-wing, called Donner. "The tech
we assigned should be finished by now, but he hasn't reported."
"Right," Donner nodded. Unfortunately, the tech had disappeared.
After twenty minutes of searching, the two pilots finally checked the
emergency command area, which was restricted to all unless there was
an emergency.
The tech was there all right, lying unmoving on the ground. Gray
Two quickly grabbed an emergency medkit, and retrieved a med
scanner. "If I'm reading this correctly, he received an electric shock
which killed him about two hours ago. The terminal here must have
been rigged to shock any users."
"He might have found the spy, but the spy found him before he
could report," Donner suggested.
"Right...I'm going to check his personal files. You go to the
lounge and make sure everyone's there and no one leaves," Gray Two
said. "We have to work fast."
"Right," Donner nodded, and the two pilots ran off down the hallway.
Donner entered the lounge and made a quick count. All the pilots
and many of the techs were there. He grimly drew his blaster. "No one
move!"
"Donner, what are you doing?" Chan asked as everyone froze.
"Gray Two and I have reason to believe that someone in this room
is an Imperial spy. If anyone tries to pull something funny, I'll
assume that you're the spy and shoot, and my gun is not set on stun.
That includes you, Tirn," Donner said, noticing that Tirn was eying a
blaster on a nearby shelf. "Gray Two is finding out the identity as I
speak."
For a moment there was a tense silence. "Donner..." Chan said
slowly, giving him an odd look. "You obviously want to capture the
spy, but doing this will only make the spy try to take out as many of
us as he can before getting killed. It doesn't make sense...unless
you are the spy."
"That's ridiculous!" Donner said. "Really, Chan..."
"I think he's right," Tirn said. "You are the spy, aren't you?"
Donner didn't answer for thirty seconds. "Well, Chan, I must
admit you've surprised me this time. I didn't think you'd figure it
out so quickly."
"You're an Imperial?" Renin asked, unbelieving.
"No, I'm not Imperial or Rebel. I'm just in it for the money the
Empire will give me for doing this," Donner said cooly.
"But...after all we've been through, after all we've fought for,"
Chan said, looking sick.
"Acceptable losses for the Empire. As for your pitiful cause, I
can't believe you bought into it. Freedom? Who cares who's in
charge? The Empire isn't all that bad, as long as you don't cross
them," Donner said mockingly. "When we first joined, I thought that
you were here for the same reason I was, Chan. But then I realized
that you actually believed the junk they told us. If I didn't know
better I'd have thought you'd been brainwashed." He paused and raised
his comlink. "R2? Code Seven."
"Look, Donner," Chan said, taking a slow step towards
Donner. "Put down the blaster. We'll give you a free trip to a nearby
system. You can sell our position to the Empire if you want, but it
will be easier on all of us." He took another step, and was now within
arm's length of the blaster. "Give me the gun, and I'll make sure that
you can leave safely." He now reached for the blaster, which Donner
had lowered slightly.
There was a tense moment as Donner thought carefully. Then,
taking a deep breath, he raised the blaster again and fired. "Sorry,
Chan, but I want all the money." The blaster bolt struck Chan in the
chest, flashburning his heart. He flew backwards, dead before he hit
the ground.
Tirn quickly lunged for the blaster on the shelf, but Donner was
faster. Tirn's hand was a few inches short of the blaster when he was
hit twice in the upper shoulder. A third shot singed his neck as he
went down. Donner shifted his aim and fired three shots at the
comm/computer console. Two hit, setting it on fire, and the third
tore a gaping hole in Gray Nine's stomach.
Shestek charged the traitor, but Donner hit him over the head
with the blaster, then kicked him onto the burning console. Ignoring
the young pilot's screams, Donner hit the keypad behind him. The door
slid open and Donner stepped out. He remained calm, despite several
near misses to his head from Gray Three, who had gotten the blaster
Tirn had been trying to get.
Gray Three took careful aim at Donner's head and fired. The bolt
hit the door as it slid shut, and locked. Renin punched the door in
frustration.
Donner ran down the hall, blaster ready for any more Rebels.
Seeing the rack of pressure suits up ahead, he fired several shots
into it as he passed it. "Donner, what the-" Donner spun and fired,
pumping several shots into Gray Two and into the terminal he had been
using.
He entered the hangar just as a tech was leaving. "Your X-wing is
all set," he told Donner. "What does Gray Leader want you to do with
four proton torpedoes, anyway?"
"Sorry, that's classified," Donner answered and locked the door
behind the tech. Climbing into the cockpit, he checked out everything
to make sure the techs hadn't suspected something and set him up.
Finding nothing, he turned to the R2 unit. "Give a thirty second
warning to open all four hangar doors, then do it after thirty seconds
and lock it."
The R2 unit beeped acknowledgement, using a virus Donner had
planted in the station's computers to give commands. He sat in the
cockpit and waited for the doors to slide open, then monitored all
frequencies to make sure the station's comm system was properly
sabotaged by the virus.
After a few minutes, he hit his repulsors and carefully lifted
off the landing pad. He looked at the station, wishing he could
destroy it, but the Imperials wanted it complete. Suddenly he caught
sight of a small figure on the roof, wearing a pressure suit. Must
have gotten one of the emergency ones. Whoever it was must have cut
through the hatch to get out, but to what end?
"Hi, Donner," Renin said over the pressure suit's comm.
Donner was considering what to tell him when an explosion rocked
his X-wing. "What the-" he muttered. The R2 unit behind him told him
that a thermal detonator had gone off in close proximity to the
fighter. "Damage?" The droid assured him that only the hyperdrive had
sustained damage. "The hyperdrive! Can you fix it?" The droid beeped
a negative.
Cursing, he turned towards the small figure, which was hurrying
back towards the hatchway. "Nice try, Renin. Good-bye." He fired,
just as Renin dove through the hatchway. He wasn't sure if Renin had
made it, but it was of no consequence. "Arm torpedoes, R2."
The droid did so, then told him that there was an incoming
starfighter. Gray Leader was coming back early. A quick scan told
showed damage to the hull. "Strange. Must have taken a hit from a
meteorite or something," he muttered as he turned his craft towards
the approaching X-wing.
"Gray Leader to Gray Five, what are you doing here?"
"We got some strange readings on the scanners and I'm checking it
out." Gray Leader was almost in range. The fool hadn't even scanned
Donner's craft, but why should he? "Oh, Commander?" Donner said as the
Rebel came within visual range. "Just thought you should know...I'm
working for the Imperials." He fired a pair of proton torpedoes as he
said the last sentence. Gray Leader didn't even have a chance to
dodge.
Only a few minutes later Wedge's X-wing appeared on his
screens. "Hey Wedge...Gray Leader told me to maintain a patrol here,"
he answered the Corellian's unasked question.
"Ah," Wedge said. "Any...progress?" It was clear what he meant.
Donner had to mute his comm for a moment while he laughed, then
said, "Not on this channel...talk to Gray Two about it." Thirty
seconds later, Donner's smile faded. He wasn't going to like doing
this. "Wedge?"
"Yeah?" Wedge asked as he came within visual range.
"I'm sorry." Donner fired his last two torpedoes. Wedge,
however, was farther out than Gray Leader had been. While he still
didn't have time to dodge, he fired his cannons. One of the proton
torpedoes was caught in his fire, more by luck than aim, but the
second went on and hit.
Wedge's X-wing went flying out of the fireball, terribly
damaged. "Nice reflexes, Wedge. I doubt I would have pulled that off.
Or Gray Leader." Donner laughed.
Inside Wedge's cockpit, the pilot was stunned. Donner had fired
on him! "What's the damage, R2?" he asked after he hit the mute. The
droid told him that their future was not looking particularly
bright. "Well, can you fix it?" The droid managed to emulate a laugh
with a cascade of beeps. The droid itself hadn't taken any damage,
thankfully.
According to the translation, weapons were gone, as were their
scanners. One engine remained online, and the other might be started
after some work. "Then get to it, I want as much engine power as you
can give me." For the first time Wedge looked out the side of the
canopy, then the other. He only had two wings left, one on each
side. "Recalibrate the maneuvering system to work with only two wings.
As the R2 unit got to it, Wedge turned back on the comm. "What is
wrong with you, Donner?"
"Hmm? Nothing wrong, I'm in perfect health. Most of your Rebel
friends, however, aren't."
"What did you do to them?"
"Let's see," Donner said, "I shot Chan, Tirn, Gray Nine, and Gray
Two. Hit Renin with my cannons, the Commander with two proton
torpedoes. Threw Shestek onto a burning console...that's pretty much
everyone, except Gray Three."
"But...but..." Wedge was at a loss for words.
"How could I do this? I will be living the easy life now, with
all the money the Empire will give me. I didn't buy into the Rebel
propaganda like you all did. I was in it for the money the whole
time, and I tell you, it was worth it."
"How's it coming?" Wedge asked the astromech droid. Two more
minutes for the engines, the droid replied in its binary
language. "You won't get away with this," Wedge said lamely into the
comm, trying to keep Donner talking.
"Whatever you say, Wedge. I may have lost my hyperdrive, but the
Empire will be here in a half hour to get me, you, and what's left of
your friends."
"They were your friends, too, Donner."
Donner was silent for a moment. "Chan, maybe, but no one else.
You're pretty good, Wedge, it's a shame to see such piloting talent
wasted with the Rebel losers."
The droid signalled Wedge that they were ready to go. Wedge was
about to start the engines when he realized he didn't even know which
direction Donner was. "R2," he said after muting the comm, "use your
scanner to find Donner."
The droid extended his scanner and used it for a moment. His
report was translated as: "to your left."
"Then let's go!" Wedge said. "Throttle up!" The X-wing
accelerated as Wedge made a left turn. "You'd better be right about
this, R2." Sure enough, though, after a moment he saw the glint of
starlight off of Donner's starfighter.
"Why hello Wedge! My complements to your R2 droid," Donner said
cheerfully. "But it's still useless. Your weapons are damaged beyond
repair. If you hurry, you might get far enough away to avoid being
found by the Imperials. I won't tell 'em. I'll even have a friend of
mine pick you up and get you to a planet."
Wedge remained silent.
"C'mon, Wedge. I don't want to shoot you, but I'm going to have
to if you don't get out of here."
More silence from Wedge's end as the two starfighters squared
off, circling each.
"Sorry, Wedge, but you leave me with no choice." Donner fired,
but Wedge dodged. Donner's first three tailing attempts were in vain,
but on his fourth he got a lock. "Sorry Wedge, but I win and you
lose." He fired, but Wedge corkscrewed out of the way and held
position above Donner.
"No, Donner," Wedge said angrily, breaking his self imposed radio
silence as he sent his craft into a sharp dive. "You..." Donner's
X-wing was getting very close now. "...lose." Wedge said the last word
less then a second before the impact. Had anyone had a working comm
in the area, they would have heard twin squawks of static as the two
starfighters slammed into each other.
Wedge awoke, but his eyes were still closed. Everything came
rushing back to him...the destruction of almost all of Blue Squadron,
Donner's treacherous murder of most of Gray Squadron, and finally
Wedge hitting Donner in a suicidal attempt to get revenge.
But he was alive, not dead.
He took a deep breath and opened his eyes, hoping to see the wall
of his tiny room. Instead he found himself in some sort of medical
room.
"He's awake!" It was Renin's voice...but Donner had killed Renin,
so it all had been a dream.
"Renin?" Wedge tried to say the name, but only managed a croak before lapsing back into unconscousness.
His eyes opened again, and again he heard Renin reporting his
status. This time he didn't have time to speak before he went back
under.
He awoke for a third time, and once more heard Renin tell someone
that he was awake. This was getting annoying. "Renin!" he nearly
shouted.
"Wedge!" Renin came into his field of vision. "You gonna stay
with us this time?"
"I hope so," Wedge answered sincerely. "Was...was it a dream?"
"If it had anything to do with Donner betraying us, and you
intentionally hitting him with your X-wing, then no."
Wedge cursed. "Where is he?"
"Dead, I'm happy to say."
"How could you be here? Donner said he killed you."
"Well, he got close. I was caught in a vacuum for a few moments,
but I'm still here." Renin managed to smile.
"And the others?"
"Well, not so good, I'm afraid. They all bought it, except Gray
Three and Shestek, Shestek got badly burned, but he'll be okay."
"Tirn? Dead?" Wedge wanted to pinch himself, but he was tied
down.
"Oh, no. He's at the Liberty. He was out of it for a few days,
came to just long enough to curse Donner in five different languages,
then went into a coma. They say things aren't looking good for him,
but they're giving him the best treatment they can."
"What happened?"
"We used a distress signal, which independent from the main comm
system so it didn't get Donner's virus, to call in the Liberty. Gray
Three, two techs with some medical training, and I used the transport
to get to you. Your life support had just given out, and it wouldn't
have functioned as long if your droid hadn't used its own power to
keep life support going.
"We got you out, and found Donner's X-wing. One of your wings
went through the canopy and killed him. It was too good a fate for
that scum, but you take what you can get. We flew to the pirate base,
shot up the guys we found there, and got you to their medical
facilities. The Liberty arrived just in time to hold off the
Imperials and evacuate the station."
"So Gray Three, Shestek, you, and me are all that's left of Gray
Squadron?" Wedge asked wearily.
"Yeah, if you count out Donner." Renin sighed.
"What about Blue Squadron?"
"Nunb, Sevlin, and Blue Ten."
"Nunb? Nien Nunb? I saw him getting literally roasted!" Wedge
protested.
"My reaction as well. Turns out that Sullustans are from a
volcanic planet, and he felt a little warm, but could take it. His
life support hung on just long enough to be picked up by the Liberty
before it came here."
"Ah." Wedge frowned. "Things aren't exactly looking up."
"Nope," Renin agreed. "On the other hand, you'll have to remain
strapped in here for a few days, but you'll live. All of the station
crew was rescued. Oh yeah...you got a message from High Command." He
started to hand it to Wedge, then stopped himself and held it up so
Wedge could read it.
Wedge skimmed it. "It says they have given me a medal for heroism
and offer to transfer me to another branch."
"You gonna take it?" Renin asked, although he already knew what
Wedge would say.
"Of course not," Wedge said in his best hurt tone.
"Gee, your life will probably seem boring now compared to this,"
Renin suggested.
Wedge had a feeling that Renin was wrong.
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