TIE Fighter: Prime Wing
Chapter Six
Disclaimers are in chapter one. As if you needed to be told.
Thelea sat with her back rigid, braced against the wall of the pilot ready room. Rurik, across from her, was doing his best to seem casual. If Giriad or L'Grath thought something was wrong, they didn't show it, but she couldn't help the feeling that something wasn't right. No one had said anything about their absence and Thelea and Rurik had agreed that they would remain silent on the matter. Whoever the spy was would certainly not bring it up. But whichever one the traitor was, he had to have realized by now that something had gone wrong. Either he'd missed the transmitter on his own craft, or he'd realized no one had found the transmitter where he'd planted it.
As for promise of investigation. . . .Thelea had to fight to keep the disgust from showing. If Thrawn had kept his promise, he was being very surreptitious about it. So far, Thelea hadn't noticed anyone new looking around. Then again, if the agent looked out of place, the spy would be able to spot him. So far there had been no mention by anyone of Rurik and Thelea's unauthorized side trip, either, but the Admiral had arranged for their return trip, complete with passes. Even so, Rurik had been more than a little surprised at the ease with which everyone aborad the Valiant had accepted their story. Thelea had pointed out that it was very unlikely anyone was going to argue with a Vice-Admiral. As to how they'd left the Valiant...they'd both thought it wisest not to explain. There'd been more than a little grumbling by Commander Varkris, but he had seen the Vice-Admiral's signature and said nothing aloud.
"How much longer, you think?" L'Grath was sitting with his back to the wall, eyes closed--the portrait of an old, tired man.
"Whenever we're falling asleep and least prepared," Rurik said.
"Or maybe they will just cancel the flight," Thelea suggested. "I could live with that."
"We should be so lucky," Giriad said. "Hey," he added, sitting up from where he lay on one of the benches. "Did anyone hear about those new fighters? Think we'll get them?"
"What, the ones they're calling the TIE Advanced?" Rurik asked. "Yeah, I've heard about those. Supposedly they're going to replace some of the Interceptor squadrons with Advanceds. How much you want to bet we're not going to be one of them?"
"We have a good record," Giriad protested, a little less whiny than he'd been in the past. Rurik wondered whether that whining and juvenile behavior were a cover for a darker nature.
"Since when does record mean anything?" L'Grath said. "When I was on the Eradicator, my wing had an 86% mission sucess rate. That didn't get us anywhere."
"You were on the Eradicator?" Thelea sat up a little straighter. "I thought they were destroyed with no survivors."
"A few of us were fortunate enough to escape," L'Grath said. "I was able to use the confusion of the battle as a shield from the Rebel attackers."
"Strange that you never mentioned this before," Thelea said, almost too casually.
L'Grath replied, "I never felt it was relevant before."
"You'd be amazed at what I consider relevant," she said, still sounding deceptively at ease. "There are many things I find relevant that most people would ignore."
L'Grath's reply, whatever it might have been, was lost when the door to the ready room opened and Commander Varkris entered. Looking at the four pilots, each of whom remained seated when the first officer entered. "I'm glad we've adopted such a casual treatment of superiors," he said. "On your feet!"
Rurik and Giriad were the first up, having not only youth on their side but a somewhat healthy respect, if not for the
officer, than for what he could do to them. L'Grath was a little slower, and Thelea last of all, making it clear through her
expression that she rose because she chose to do so, not because of an order.
"You'll be launching in approximately fifteen standard minutes," Varkris announced. "The mission parameters have been kept secret, as you know. Now, we can reveal only that you will be dropped into a system and your target will be a deep space research station, protected by approximately seventy mines." The groans were automatic and audible. Varkris simply glared until they were silent. "Your task is to clear the mine field and then assist Beta bomber group in disabling the platform. This mission is highly secret, and so you are not allowed to speak to anyone now, or after the mission is complete. Do you understand?"
They nodded agreement, but the glances that passed between the wingmates said enough about their doubts. "Good hunting, Alpha Wing," Varkris said, and there was no mistaking the sardonic twist on his words. "Success. Report to your fighters in ten minutes."
Thelea waited until the door had closed behind him before saying, "All right, who thought something was wrong with that?"
"Safe to say we all did," L'Grath said. "Not telling us is standard procedure, but not telling us about an ordinary run on a deep space platform, even when it's mined....something's up."
"Well, I certainly haven't heard anything from official sources," Rurik said. "What about you, Commander Thelea?"
She narrowed her eyes. "Absolutely nothing, Lieutenant Caelin. Why do you ask?"
"No reason," he said casually, but his eyes were troubled.
Thelea didn't show it, but her answer concerned her as much as it did Rurik. The Inner Circle had been noticeably quiet of late. Being blindsided by this assignment was nerve-wracking, to say the least. She wasn't even sure they knew about the spy. Probably; they seemed to know everything. But a better question was whether they knew the spy's identity. If they did, why hadn't they told her? They undoubtedly had plans of their own. She had no right to demand information, and didn't know how to contact them anyway.
Rurik stood up and retrieved his helmet from the hook above the bench. Thelea was fiddling with the mouthpiece of her modified helmet, which supplied her with air in the depressurized environment of the TIE and also contained her communications equipment. Casually, she stood up and stepped beside Rurik. Lowering her voice, she murmured, "Be sure to check your air supply. If they can sabotage the hatch, they can get to something more important." He nodded tightly. Emptying the air and tampering with the gauge so it gave a false reading would be fairly simple for a saboteur, and a very easy way to dispose of him or Thelea permanently. Fortunately, when he checked his suit, the oxygen canisters were full, and when he tested the valve, a jet of air escaped.
Thelea started for the door of the ready room. "Time to go, gentlemen. Wouldn't want to keep Commander Varkris waiting." The others followed her, not out of obedience but acknowledgment that she was right. Annoy Varkris and they all just might end up in the brig or worse.
When Thelea slipped into the cockpit of her fighter, the sense of dread that had been at the back of her mind increased, gnawing at the pit of her stomach. She rechecked her suit, her instruments, the weapons, her air, everything she could think of, and yet still her senses told her that something was wrong. All systems nominal, and yet a sense of impending doom hung over her. She tried to brush the feeling aside. The mission was unusual, yes, but nothing truly unusual. Clearing a minefield was a hazardous duty and she hadn't done that in a while, so it was rational and logical to be a bit anxious. Then again, she'd never had quite this feeling of dread about a mission before, either. Normally, she'd learned from experience, bad feelings usually proved very justified.
She blinked behind the dark faceplate, years of training limiting her visual surprise to that tiny gesture, even here where no one could see. The message light hadn't been on before, had it? She could have sworn that the console was dark. Intrigued, she activated the screen.
There was no holo, only text. The message was brief and to the point. "The Valiant is being lead into a trap. If you are overwhelmed and the ship cannot defend herself, send the encrypted data burst attached to this message. Reinforcements will arrive as quickly as possible. Beware." It was unsigned, of course, but who else but the Inner Circle would know such things? For a moment, Thrawn sprang to mind, but she pushed the thought away. He would have no reason to resort to subterfuge. She noted the attached data burst to the message without attempting to access it. Tampering with it might trigger a self-destruct, and then where would they be? She'd simply have to trust that the message was genuine.
She felt the barely perceptible shift as the Star Destroyer came out of hyperspace. The warning light on the TIE's control panel flashed, and she flexed her fingers before resting them on the control yoke. The tractor beam would guide the little fighter out of the Valiant's bay with no help from her. They'd have only a few klicks to prepare before they entered the mine field, and in the shield-less Interceptors they would have to be at full throttle with weapons charged or the mines would cut them to pieces. The little fighter launched with a jerk and she punched the speed to full. Swinging in a tight arc, she pulled abreast of L'Grath's fighter, with Rurik and Giriad close behind.
"Stay in formation," L'Grath ordered. "At ten klicks, break off for your assigned quadrant." Thelea acknowledged the order, all the while keeping her eyes on the targeting display. The tiny dots representing the mines clustered around the larger image that was the space station. She checked her distance from them and her jaw tightened. Almost there....
"Ten klicks," L'Grath announced, "Break off on three...two...one!" The four fighters broke away in perfect synchrony, and Thelea braced herself, swinging into an evasive pattern. The distance was running out. The mines would go active when she passed within two klicks, and the Interceptor would only handle a few shots, even indirect hits.
A laser bolt burned past the cockpit and she hit the targeting computer's lock. Almost at the same instant she opened fire.
The first mine, the one that had fired, disintegrated in a cloud of gas. She didn't notice, she was already spinning the little
fighter at her second target. Her heart, which beat much slower than a human's, was pounding at an unnaturally high rate of
speed. She had the oddest sense of double vision, of a strange double anxiety, as though she were feeling her own battle
nerves plus someone else's. She shook off the feeling, focusing, and splintering two more mines into dust. Another burst
made her little craft shudder and for the first time her respiration sped up.
"There's more than seventy mines out here!" She thought it was Giriad's panicked exclamation, but she couldn't be sure.
Her headset crackled with battle interference, and then a taut voice said, "Alpha Two, this is Alpha Three. I think I've got a problem."
Rurik . . . . "Alpha Three, what's the problem?"
"My targeting computer's out," he said tersely. "I can't see to shoot."
Thelea felt the panic rising in her, and she realized that it wasn't her own fear but Rurik's. Even as she swung around and shattered another mine, she began scanning the computer, looking for Rurik's fighter. "Rurik, watch it, there are two behind you!" Rurik spun the fighter and blasted the two mines, but not before one came perilously close to striking the TIE. Without the targeting computer he could attempt to shoot by eyeballing the targets, but in a mine field he would eventually lose out to the mine's numbers. With the computer out, there was no way she could even send him targeting data. But she couldn't break off to cover him. All protocol said she was to ignore her wingman's trouble and complete her mission objectives.
And she knew she couldn't do that.
Her own fighter shuddered from yet another near miss. A few more like that and she'd be done for. But she couldn't abandon Rurik. "Is your computer repairing the damage?"
"It's going to talk another five minutes," he said, and she could hear the rising panic. She could see from here that he was shooting wild, swinging and firing at anything that shot back. That would work for a while, but he couldn't possibly keep it up much longer. She looked at her own targets. She was doomed, too. There was no possible way for her to take out this many.
Her finger hovered over the transmission key.
And stopped. Keying for the Valiant's channel, she said, "Home One, this is Alpha Two. We are badly outgunned by the mines. Request reinforcements."
There was a momentary pause, and then the communications officer said, "Unable to comply, Alpha Two."
"Why in the worlds--" She broke off. There was no time to argue. The secret order's reinforcements might not arrive in time, but at least they'd have a chance. She sent the coded transmission and turned her attention back to the mines and to Rurik's predicament. "Stay calm, Alpha Three," she said, trying to keep her own voice level as she stared into the blackness. "Just stay calm." As she spoke, she slowed her own breathing and allowed instinct to take over.
Rurik, meanwhile, was struggling with his own panic. He knew he was going to die, this mission was hopeless, there were four pilots to deal with far more mines than anyone had anticipated, and he was effectively blind. Swinging around and around, he fired aimlessly, hoping he hit a few more of them. Stars, there had to be more than seventy here. Thank all the Powers that the station wasn't in range.
The voice that cut onto their comm channel shook all four of the pilots. "Alpha Two, what was that transmission?"
Varkris.
"Frankly, sir, it's none of your business." Thelea couldn't help it. Protocol be damned, if she was going to be killed then she wasn't going into the void cowering before Varkris. "We're in trouble out here and I've sent for help."
"Really? Or for the rebels, traitor?"
The flash of white-hot anger blinded her for a moment. "I am no traitor, Varkris. If we're slaughtered out here, it's because this mission's real objective was killing us. If you want this station taken, send out reinforcements!"
"I'll do no such thing, traitor--" She cut off the transmission with a jab of a finger. "Rurik, listen to me." Protocol be damned. "Stay calm." Even as she spoke, her own battle nerves receded. "Listen to me. Breathe. Focus on the targets. Your computer will be on-line soon. You can shoot without it. Just relax. Let your training take over. You don't need to think to shoot." As she continued the steady stream of even words, she allowed her own piloting to slip into the instinctive. This was how she flew best, without concentrating, becoming a part of her fighter. She was no longer even aware of exactly what she was saying.
Neither was Rurik, but it was working. He could feel the terror abating as she spoke, his fear receding as her cool, even voice soothed him. No longer did he spin the Interceptor in random arcs. Instead he swung purposefully at each of the mines around him. They disintegrated into clouds of gas and shrapnel. His breathing evened out, matching the sound of Thelea's that he could hear over the comm channel.
In her own quadrant Thelea was now back under control. She'd vaporized most of the mines near her, and more importantly, she was no longer in a panic. She scanned the area. L'Grath and Giriad, remarkably, were both still alive, much to her surprise. Rurik had himself back under control, and a moment later he said, "My computer's back. Thanks, Alpha Two."
"Don't mention it, Three." Thelea turned her attention to the station. All four of them were damaged. She had no idea how they were going to take on the well-armed platform. Right now they were out of range, but in a matter of minutes that would change. "Leader, this is Two. What is our procedure for the platform attack?"
"We haven't finished with the mines, Two," L'Grath said. "Four and I are in need of assistance."
Thelea frowned behind her mask. Neither she nor Rurik were in any condition to take on the mines, much less the platform. Flying in to aide the other two made much less sense than their all withdrawing and regrouping. All her systems were up, but far from peak efficiency. Some of those bursts had been closer than she liked to think about. "Sir, with all due respect, none of us are in any condition either to attack--"
"Alpha Two, this is an order. You and Alpha Three will engage the platform or continue to engage the mines," L'Grath said. "Obey those orders or I'll have you court-marshaled."
The bad feeling she'd had all day resolved itself into grim certainty. "Sir, we are not in any condition. Ordering us to attack is tantamount to murder." There was only a silence. "Three, Four, did you hear that?"
"She's right, sir," and to her amazement, that was not Rurik speaking but Giriad. "We can't possibly take on firepower of that magnitude. I can barely turn my fighter."
L'Grath still didn't respond and it was Rurik's turn to speak up. "Sir, we can't. Varkris isn't listening. He won't send reinforcements. Sir, what's wrong?"
L'Grath didn't reply, and Thelea watched in amazement as he turned his fighter and came around towards them. The remaining mines were too far apart to give him serious trouble, but he was flying as though he didn't care. She tried again. "Commander, what is the matter with you?"
"It doesn't matter," and she couldn't believe that was his voice she was hearing. "You're all traitors for disobeying. It doesn't matter, the rebels will be here any minute. Attack the platform or die where you sit, it doesn't really matter!" Throwing the little fighter into a dive, he came at them, not firing but fast enough that all did their best to evade.
"Commander!" Thelea couldn't say more. All her attention was occupied suddenly by evading the station's lasers and by the warning shriek from her computer that a new ship had arrived in-system. It was a Calamari cruiser, and while it was not yet within range, she knew it wouldn't take long. "Enemy ships in system!"
"Is that who you sent for?" Varkris's voice on the comm again. "Was that what the transmission was?" Angrily she switched it off. L'Grath was swinging around again, and she pushed her damaged ship to its best speed.
"Three, Four, evade!" Her order almost came to late when a burst of laser fire from L'Grath's fighter nearly splintered Giriad's Interceptor. Fortunately neither had to be ordered to get out of his way. Any closer to the station and they were dead. If that Calamari cruiser launched a fighter contingent they were finished. Trapped between the two, the injured TIE fighters would be crippled and destroyed. It was sheer numbers. "Valiant, if you're not going to send reinforcements, we're coming back," she said, for the first time raising her voice. "Something's wrong with Alpha Leader and I'm taking command of the squadron."
"Alphas Three and Four, you are ordered by the First Officer to disregard Commander Thelea's orders," said the controller, uneasily.
"With all due respect to Commander L'Grath," Rurik said, glad to finally be able to say what was on his mind, "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." What the blazes, they would all be court-marshaled anyway. "I'm right at your elbow, Thelea."
"Alpha Four, coming about."
Thelea couldn't help the faint, genuine smile that crossed her features. "Thank you," she said into the pickup, so quietly she wasn't sure he could have heard. Aloud, she ordered, "Three, Four, form up on me. We're getting out of here, one way or another. And watch out for L'Grath," she added, scanning for the other TIE. He was headed away from them for now, at least, in the direction of the incoming rebels. "He may come around for another pass."
Thelea saw the other TIEs drop into formation behind her. She only hoped she wasn't making it easier for the Valiant's gunners. She was glad they were following but had no idea where she was leading them. There was no guarantee, with Varkris in this move and Merdrian apparently going along with it, that they could return to the destroyer. But in Interceptors, unequipped for long-distance travel, there was no place else to go. The chances of getting to a civilized system were practically nil. They could try, but there was very little chance they'd succeed.
She was about to admit their dilemma to Rurik and Giriad, who undoubtedly knew already, when an unfortunately well-aimed laser burst streaked past her cockpit, and an instant after than an Interceptor shot by. "He's back!" Rurik warned, almost too late.
"Yes, I can see that," she muttered. What in space was the old man trying to do, kill himself? There was no question but he was trying to engage her, and going about it in a reckless way. "Commander L'Grath," she said, keying for his comm frequency, "What's going on? What have you done?"
"It doesn't matter now," he said, and she was astounded at the deadness of his voice. "One way or another."
"Commander, whatever it is, it can be worked out--" A burst of laser fire cut off her futile words. She knew equally well what was waiting for him if he came back with his mission a failure.
"I come back and they disintegrate me as a traitor, is that what you want?" L'Grath didn't sound angry or desperate. Just morose.
Thelea studied his fighter's readout on her computer. He was wounded, as was she, but they were fairly even in terms of damage. She could take him on if it came to that. "Sir, what did you do?"
"Betrayed my oath as an officer of the Empire," he said, "and then betrayed them as well."
"The rebels?" That was Rurik, sounding stunned.
L'Grath laughed tonelessly. "If it only were that simple. That's not important. What matters is the point of this mission was to get rid of you. The two of you were just causing problems. You could have just left well enough alone, but you had to go beyond your orders. Now it's too late for all of us. You might as well fight the Rebels. At lest it gives you an easy way out."
"Commander, if you betrayed us to the rebellion, well, then you don't deserve better than execution," Thelea said. "If you're working with someone on the Valiant--"
Her question was cut off by a burst of laser fire as he came around at her again. Automatically she dove beneath him, her evasive maneuver so late and so clumsy that any normal pilot would have cut her to bits. She swung up into a pursuit pattern, just as she heard Giriad's shouted warning:
"Rebels! Coming in, point six three!"
"Three, Four, can you handle them?" Thelea asked, even as she targeted L'Grath's fighter and fired a warning at him.
"Not this many, Lead," Rurik reported. "We won't last five minutes."
"Then run for it," she ordered. "I'll bring L'Grath back."
"Copy that, Lead," Giriad replied, and Rurik echoed him automatically. Thelea realized for the first time that they'd called her Leader. She wasn't exactly sure, but she thought she like the sound of it.
"Evade the best you can and head for the Valiant. If those Rebs follow you they'll have to shoot. I'll catch up as soon as I can." She opened the throttle and went after L'Grath. The little fighter shuddered in protest at the acceleration as the engine speed picked up. Unlike the rebels who, she noticed, were closing awfully fast, she didn't have an astromech to effect repairs and was limited by what the computer could accomplish. She winced, but didn't ease back. L'Grath was in as bad a shape as she was.
"Commander L'Grath," she said, on a comm channel she knew he could hear, "You are ordered to stand down and return to the Valiant. Your actions warrant investigation for treason."
His fighter dived so quickly out of her sights that for an instant she was uncertain of where he'd gone. The targeting computer flashed a warning as he reappeared in her rear sensors. Throwing her fighter into an inverted loop, she complicated the evasion with a twisting maneuver that, while it did not put her back in a pursuit spot, did get L'Grath out from behind her.
Red lasers streaking in close proximity made her check her computer. There was a squadron of X-wings bearing down on them. She looked at her diagnostics again. Engines at 79% of full capacity, lasers at 68%...she might be able to take on one TIE as injured as she was, but the Xs were something else. "Let him get cut to pieces, then," she muttered, bringing her fighter around to follow Rurik and Giriad. Where were reinforcements when she needed them?
The blip on her computer appeared so rapidly that she at first didn't notice. Only when the new ship began closing on them did she read her computer's screen. A Star Destroyer--a Victory-class Star Destroyer!
"TIE wing Alpha," said an unfamiliar but still welcome voice, "this is Victorious. You've done a good job here. Let us clean up for you. Head for our hangar bay and we'll bring you aboard."
Thelea allowed herself a real smile behind the mask. "Copy that, Victorious. It's good to see you."
She was brining her fighter about when suddenly the little ship jolted like a stung mynock and the computer shrieked one warning before the screen went dark. A quick glance overhead confirmed her suspicion--L'Grath was back, and now she was without any sort of targeting computer. Behind the faceplate, a smile curved her features.
"You want to end it? Let's end it now." Asking the Interceptor for more speed, she spiraled into a dive and his fighter shot
past overhead. Hoping to whatever greater powers might be out there that she didn't have a burnout in the lasers, she
brought her fighter's nose up and fired. The first shot was wide, a testament to her lack of a computer.
"Thelea, those Xs are closing," Rurik warned on the com. "There's no time."
"Get aboard the Victorious, Three," Thelea said. "I'm busy right now."
"Thelea, you're disabled--" Irritated, she flipped her comm off. There was no time to argue. She tracked L'Grath with her eyes only. He would come around for another pass. She would have only one shot at this.
"Come on, come on," she murmured under her breath. L'Grath's fighter swung into her sights.
She fired two blasts that missed. Cleanly. L'Grath swerved and dove again to avoid them--
And suddenly the other fighter was gone, vanished in a swirl of ion trails. Thelea grinned behind her mask as she saw the Victorious's tractor beam capture the little fighter and draw it away into the hangar bay. Slumping back in the seat, Thelea gauged her proximity to the approaching Star Destroyer and settled down to wait for a pickup.