Aces and Allies (Attack on Hive Station)

“All squadrons report in, we launch in T minus seventy seconds,” Wing Commander Grymm’s voice filtered through my helmet’s comm system. I was sitting in the cockpit of my TIE/Ad starfighter, about to join the battle unfolding over the desolate wasteland known as Ra’un.

“This is Vengeance Leader, all Strike Fighters are ready,” the squadron leaders began responding; mine would be next to last. Within only a few seconds nearly every squadron had checked in. I performed one last examination of my status board; all lights were green. Finally, it was my turn.

“This is Lucent Leader, shields charged and engines hot,” I said.

“Lambent Squadron, let’s do this,” came the final reply.

“All craft prepare for launch.” Grymn announced, “Deploy in T minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, launch.”

There was a growing roar as scores of fighters ascended from the Citadel’s main hangar. I shot forward, immediately angling away from the main force and diving past the starboard edge of the Citadel. The rest of Lucent Squadron followed, with Lambent close behind us. As I cleared the venator, my view was suddenly filled with a chaotic mess of bombers and interceptors, frigates and cruisers, and no semblance of strategy or order. It was a lot, but I couldn’t be overwhelmed, too much depended on this battle.

“Beta flight, Gamma flight, break off and engage at your discretion; everyone else form up on me,” I addressed my squadron. There were almost too many targets to choose from, from capital ships to the hundreds of fighters deployed by the Scoath.

“Acknowledged sir,” Lucent Two, my second in command, replied. Lucent Three said nothing, but broke off with the rest of Gamma flight to assist an allied corvette. Lucents Four, Seven, and Ten were with me, making up Alpha Flight. We were about to fly cover for a mass attack on the Hive Station, which would be led by XG-1s from the Pentastar Alignment. Before that could happen, however, a gap would need to be made in the swarm of intercepts guarding the station. This seemingly impossible task fell to the fighters of the New Republic and Followers of the Force. As we waited for the vanguard to arrive I watched in amazement as New Republic craft tore through the Scoath. Newer models, such as e-wings and T-65Js, made short work of scrapped together Scoath defenders.

“It’s taking all of my effort not to chase after these guys,” Lucent Four whispered.

“Stow it Four, you’ll get your chance soon enough,” Ten snapped back.

“I meant the rebels,” Four replied.

“My point stands,” Ten stated. The battle around the station was in full swing now, the vanguard was supposed to arrive soon. At this point Beta and Gamma were on their way back to our position, along with Lambent and Seeker Squadrons.

Suddenly, a voice cut into our comm channel, “Anyone know when we’re going to land?”

“For the last time, Jon, stay off the pilots’ comm channels!” another voice replied.

“Any idea what that was about?” Four asked.

“No idea.” I checked my scanners, noticing a handful of nearby transports. “It was probably the grunts in that cluster of sentinels. Just ignore them,” I ordered.

“Copy that, One,” Lucent Seven acknowledged.

Checking my scanner again I picked up a large number of ships approaching, all Starwings. I addressed all three waiting escort squadrons, “Look alive, the vanguard is on approach. Switch to channel forty-nine.”

Following an affirmative from each of the flight and squadron leaders I switched my comm channel, being immediately greeted by the wing commander.

“This is Commander Hurst of the 297th Assault Wing; ready to blow something up?”

“This is Captain Rath, I’ll be leading your escort group today; we’re always ready to blow something up,” I replied, a smile on my face. Even in the midst of battle, pilots couldn’t help but have fun.

“Alright boys, let’s do this,” said Hurst, beginning to accelerate. The rest of the XG-1s were right behind him, with missiles and laser cannons at the ready. The escorting squadrons, two of TIE Avengers and one of TIE Hunters, used their superior speed to overtake the Starwings and form a screen in front of the group.

I hung close to the main group, the rest of Alpha Flight to either side. Ahead, in a gradually thinning cloud of fighters, the orbital stingfly nest that was Hive Station bristled with weapons. Realizing that an attacking force approached, the remaining Scoath fighters moved to intercept the strike fighters of the 297th. Unfortunately for the Scoath, they were going to have to get through us.

Without waiting for orders, the escorting TIEs sprung into action; we engaged the lead ships, destroying them without losses. The next few reduced speed, waiting for allies to catch up. We did not wait; the TIE hunters from Seeker Squadron fired ion missiles to disable, and followed through with their lasers to destroy. After that it was chaos, with the vanguard and its escorts clashing with the last group of Scoath, numbering around one hundred. The comms were flooded with orders, exclamations, and curses.

“Chaos Five, you’ve got one on your tail.”

“They’re all over!”

“Six hostiles inbound.”

“Lambent, cover the left flank.”

“Reinforcements are on the way.”

“I’ve lost engine power!”

“Shields are down!”

“I can’t shake them!”

“Lucent Four, where are you?” I asked. Hopefully I would be heard over the turmoil; using the same comm channel for more than one wing may not have been the best idea.

After a brief moment, Four answered, “About forty degrees north of your position.”

“Form up on me,” I ordered; I had already scored two kills, but it would be good to have my wingman with me. “Lucents Seven, Ten, make your way towards us.”

Once we had reunited, I brought Alpha Flight towards a squadron of Stawings that hadn’t made their attack run yet. Together we approached the station, with Alpha flight taking out nearby turrets along the surface of the massive hunk of metal. The XG-1s released their payload of missiles, tearing through a chunk of the armor. Suddenly, we found ourselves in the middle of a hail of laserfire from above; reinforcements from a nearby Scoath cruiser had arrived.

“Scatter!” I yelled. I rolled out of the way, my shields absorbing a few shots before I cleared the barrage. Not everyone was so lucky, Four and Seven appeared to have taken damage. Scanning the space above us I selected a target and accelerated to attack speeds. The fighter, an elliptical craft with what appeared to be TIE bomber wings, tried desperately to escape. However, its maneuvers got it nowhere and it was destroyed.

“Ten, stick close to Four; I’m gone,” Lucent Seven said calmly, followed by a burst of static. I checked my status board, her indicator was no longer lit. Four and Ten picked apart another enemy ship, saying nothing. I had known this mission would be dangerous, but losing a squadron member still hurt. I wondered whether this would all be worth it, if the rest of the force would succeed.

“This is Havok Eight, I’ve picked up a hostile!” The frantic cries of a pilot from the Pentastar Alignment jolted me back into reality. “He’s still on me–can’t lose this guy!” I saw the two fighters ahead, an XG-1 Starwing had been isolated from its squadron and was trying desperately to avoid laser fire from a pursuing Scoath starfighter. The Starwing rolled, and was now heading almost directly towards me. Checking my weapons board, I had an idea.

“Havok Eight, prepare to break right on my mark,” I commanded.

“Understood,” the pilot replied, continuing to close the gap between us.

I waited until they were only a few hundred meters away, and gave the order, “mark.”

As I said this I fired a pair of my TIE Avenger’s concussion missiles, straight towards the incoming XG-1. The Pentastar craft banked sharply to starboard, out of the path of the missiles; the Scoath, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly as fortunate. As a large fireball erupted in front of me, I rolled to dodge the debris.

“Thanks for the assistance,” Havok Five said, flying beside me now.

“Any time; I’m always happy to help a fellow imperial,” I replied. We may not serve the same leader, but the Imperial Consortium and Pentastar Alignment were both once part of the same empire.

“You’re a great pilot, I’m sure the Pentastar Alignment would be happy to have you,” Havok Five said suddenly. I almost laughed; was this pilot really trying to recruit me in the middle of a battle?

“No thanks, I don’t plan on leaving the Consortium any time soon,” I responded.

“Oh well, it was worth a shot,” Havok Five said, dejectedly. “Take care,” the pilot added, breaking off to engage another fighter.

There was a ping from my long range comm unit, which I quickly silenced. I had it set to only notify me for important messages, but there could be no distractions right now; whatever it was would have to wait.

“Lucent Squadron, Lambent Squadron, does anyone have sights on the main force?” I asked. The vanguard had done its job, knocking out the shields and most of the weapons on Hive Station, now it was time for the heavier force to finish the job.

“This is Lambent six, I have a visual. It doesn’t look like they’re meeting any resistance on the way over.”

“Copy that; I see them now,” I acknowledged. The main force consisted of heavy bombers: K-wings, TIE Punishers, and a handful of modified freighters. Seeing as we had already dealt with most of the defenders, they wouldn’t have much issue destroying the station. I still had enough fuel to stay in the fight a little longer, so I gave new orders to my squadron. “Lucent Squadron, switch to a private channel.” I adjusted my own channel, wondering why I hadn’t done this sooner. “Flight leaders, what’s your current status?”

“Two here, Eleven and Five have lost shields, otherwise we’re fine.”

“Lucent Three, I’ve suffered damage to my port wing; I have shields back though and everyone else is practically unscathed.”

“Good. Form up, we’re going after the last cannon bank,” I informed them. I figured we may as well make the heavy group's job as easy as possible before we retired back to the safety of Citadel.

“This will be interesting,” Twelve remarked.

“Prep missiles,” Two ordered. This would be a simple task, make one approach each and launch concussion missiles to destroy the cannons. They were mostly anti-ship, so they would have a hard time hitting us. I locked on to the first of them.

“Beginning attack run,” I said. At first, the cannons of Hive Station were too busy firing at nearby capital ships. However, after I released my salvo, a few of them swiveled to fire in my direction. I quickly made a series of evasive maneuvers, escaping unharmed. The rest of Alpha followed, scoring direct hits and destroying their targets. Beta Flight began their run, which went well until Lucent Eleven took a glancing shot to the body of his Avenger. Trailing smoke, Elven began to slowly spiral towards the station.

“Sithspit!” he exclaimed. “Stabilizers are down, port engine is losing power,” he announced; Eleven’s fighter was now dangerously close to the surface of the station. “Guess that’s it then–” he was abruptly cut off by static as his ship crashed into the very thing we were trying to destroy.

The rest of the mission was a blur: finishing off the station’s weapons, returning to the Citadel, watching on the scanners as Hive Station was bombed into oblivion, debriefing; there was little time to grieve. In the end it was a success, but a costly one at that. The vanguard took the worst losses, with Lambent Squadron losing nearly half its pilots and Seeker Squadron disappearing altogether. A ceremony was held in the main hangar to honor those lost in the battle; afterwards we were notified that new squadron members would be brought onboard the Citadel as soon as the battle for Ra’un was over. We cared about the lives of our fellow pilots, but it was clear high command only saw us as assets.

This was certainly an interesting build, seeing as I didn't have the most experience building starfighters prior to this. After a few prototypes I think the XG-1 is exactly where I wanted it to be, and the same can be said of the Scoath starfighter. Early versions of both ships, while better than anything I had built previously, simply weren't as good as they could be or didn't look quite right. I also learned the basics of photoshop to create these images, which was pretty fun. (I will try to improve upon this skill, but it isn't really part of building, and therefore won't be a huge focus.)

Additionally, this build marks the start of an eight build series in which my character Captain Rath, whose point of view this story is told from, will embark on something of an adventure. The basics of this story have been in the works since I started this build, and I can't wait to share more. One minor detail in this build will be the focus of the next, so keep an eye out for that.

Also I feel I should mention that while this was not posted before the deadline, it would have been had I not lost power due to tornadoes.

Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed this; I look forward to checking out all of your builds as well!