(( The following was written by Derek, and he has my eternal gratitude for helping me bypass my writer's block to get this done. ))
“I’m
telling you, another minute and I would have had at least ten
more.” Selus grumbled into the com system of the
Wanderer. He and his lover had just finished a patrol in
the Archenar asteroid field, and he could picture Aittera grinning at
him from the cockpit of the Devious Hope. Her modified freighter was
flying next to his as they came about in an exit trajectory. They’d
been in a pretty severe dogfight against one of the Imperial attack
wings, and she’d managed to outscore him before their enemy bugged
out.
“Of
course you would have, just like Alderaan right?” He could hear the
baiting tone of her voice and the grin. He knew she was just trying
to get his blood going for when they made it back to dock and got
into each other arms, and, as always, he rose to it.
“Hey,
if it wasn’t for me, Alderaan would have turned out a lot
different. And before you mention it, yes, sometimes I do
still feel the sting from that sniper on Belsavis.” Selus
was grinning as wide as he knew she was now.
Suddenly,
the alarm klaxon went off. “Missiles incoming, I thought we were
done with these…” He was rocked as they impacted his aft
shields. He put The Wanderer into a Z axis spin, hitting
his thrusters as he rolled it into a loop. From the corner
of his eye he saw Aittera do the same, following his lead as they
both swept around to face their attackers head on. It
appeared that the fighters they fought before were an advanced
scouting party, because now there was another attack wing coming at
them with a Terminus Class destroyer starting to move into the
field. “We’re going to have to do a fighting
withdrawal, there’s no way we’re going to take that Destroyer,
even with as much firepower as the Hope and Wanderer have.”
She
didn’t respond, already in battle mode as the first laser strikes
lanced out from the Hope toward the closest incoming fighter, scoring
a direct hit and putting her up by another confirmed kill. Not
wanting to be outdone he started firing the moment he got a lock on
one of the enemy fighters, scoring a hit of his own and continuing to
fire as they both shot through the swarm of fighters before doing
another Z-Axis roll to put the enemy squad back in front of them.
With
what seemed to be a practiced precision, they moved in tandem as they
locked onto another two fighters and loosed missiles. Then
the warning klaxon sounded again as the Destroyer joined the fight,
loosing a turbolaser barrage at them. Selus felt the Wanderer
shake from the impact, but worst of all, he saw the explosion out of
the corner of his eye. The Hope had taken a direct
hit to her shield generator.
“Aittera
get out of here, you just lost aft shields. Another shot by that
Destroyer and you’re done!” Selus yelled over his
com. Launching a new barrage of missiles at the last of
the enemy squadron, he watched the final fighter explode and he
punched his thrusters, taking him right through the debris field. He
turned and saw Aittera in the Hope following as they climbed out of
the asteroid field.
As
they both prepared to jump to hyperspace his com came alive with
Aittera’s voice, “I hope you know if we’d stayed, I still would
have ended up ahead by-” The com cut out mid sentence as she teased
him, and the energy that washed over her ship was unmistakable. The
Hope began to drift; the Destroyer had hit her with an Ion blast, and
without her shields it had left her dead in space.
Trying
to give her time to get to her escape pod so he could pick her up,
Selus put the Wanderer into another spin, bringing him to bear on the
Destroyer as he switched all weapon power to shields. He wasn’t
going to do much to it, but he hoped the improved shielding would let
him distract it. He began to roll and spin, not giving the
gunners on the capital ship a chance to lock into him as he kept an
eye on his sensors, watching the Hope for signs that Aittera had
launched her escape pod.
Just
as he was starting to worry, he saw the indicator flash for the
escape pod to launch right before the Hope impacted with a large
asteroid. Smart girl, he thought to himself. She
was using the explosion to cover her escape.
“Bug
out already would you, I need you to come back and pick me up
planetside.” Aittera’s voice came over his com, and he
wasn’t going to argue or push his luck. He brought the
ship around, transferring shield power aft as he made his
preparations for the short hyperspace jump.
“Be
careful; don’t take risks. Find a spot to hide on the planet and
send me coordinates over the secure channel.” He took
one last second to tell her something that she already knew, then
quickly added, “I love you.” Before the stars around
him went solid and he entered hyperspace.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On
the bridge of the Destroyer, the large Darth in Sith armor watched
the freighter enter hyperspace before he gave orders to his attaché
without even looking at her. “Launch
the recovery shuttles, I want the escape pod from that second ship
brought on board. ”
“Yes,
Lord Ragious, at once.” She saluted him with a hand
across her chest before she scurried off to carry out his orders,
leaving him to reach out with the force to find his target, so that
he could direct the recovery shuttles once he did.
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