Adrenaline
wasted
It was hot and stuffy in the small simulator Cal occupied at present. No doubt every single pilot on the Challenge was secretly complaining about the uncomfortable seats and the lack of fresh air. Their only comfort was that soon, they would forget all this in the heat of battle, pure adrenaline pumping through their veins and arteries.
Red
Team under the lead of Vice Admiral Jarak had changed its tactics. In spite of
the great risk to lose all their battleships, the Battlegroups had split up to
take Blue Team’s territory while it was most likely insubstantially guarded.
The danger was not to be neglected. Judging from the bit of information on Blue
Team’s tactics Red Team had gathered, they were jumping from one planetary
system to the next, keeping their forces in one big bulk, hoping to find Red
Team at some point and to annihilate them in a short fight. Red Team didn’t
fool itself by thinking it could beat Blue Team the usual way. They had the
Sovereign Class Super Star Destroyer Sovereign with 6 Wings of squadrons on it,
and the Super Star Destroyer Avenger including its starfighter defenses, whereas
Red Team had comparably tiny Star Destroyers the Sovereign would have for
breakfast. But Red Team’s tacticians were clever – they knew they could only
win Exercise Imperial Storm by points for taking over Blue Territory, and such
was the tactic at present. No one dared to think of the fate the poor battle
ships meeting the Blue Team first would encounter. The Battlegroups had a
reputation to lose, even if all this was only a big simulation and nobody was
killed anyway.
The
ISDs Challenge and Relentless were assigned the probably most difficult task at
this point of the operation – they would jump into the Aurora system and
capture the homeplanet of the Emperor’s Hammer. While Blue Team’s movements
had shown that the Sovereign and Avenger were currently not in orbit around
Aurora, nobody assumed they had left the planet defenseless. So now each and
every pilot on board the Challenge and the Relentless was in his or her TIE
Fighter, waiting for the fall of the two Star Destroyers into real space. They
would launch without further delay, clearing what planetary defenses might have
been left by Blue Force. No one knew exactly what was awaiting them, but common
opinion ranged from at least one modified frigate to the whole of the Blue fleet
that had laid an ambush for Red Team, luring them to Aurora.
‘Pilots,
get ready to leave the hangar as quickly as you can as soon as Tempest is out!
We don’t want them to get the best bits, do we?!’ Commander COL Callista
shouted into the intercom on Typhoon’s channel.
Her
pilots all let out a battlecry in perfect unison, ready to fight and kick some
Blue Force ass.
Cal
could have sworn she felt the tension around her in the other cockpits as the
countdown for the fall into real space approached the big zero. Her heart
pounded faster, impatient to be thrown into a good fight over life and death. If
the Sovereign was here, the Exercise would be over for them.
Cal
felt her hands grip the lever harder than usual.
A
computer generated voice sounded through the pilots’ headcoms:
‘Fall
into real space in .. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...’
A
split-second later, the atmosphere in the hangar disappeared, and Tempest
Squadron’s flights speeded out into space.
‘LAUNCH!’
Cal shouted through the intercom, and Typhoon squadron followed suit.
Behind
them, Inferno got ready to take off.
‘Break
out of formation and pick the nearest target! Remember we’re not here to take
prisoners!’
Flight
I’s Defenders broke off to the left, the Missile Boats headed towards the
planet and the Advanceds turned back to the Challenge to check for bombers with
the capital ship as target.
‘Break
off operation! All squadrons break off operation!’ Wing Commander Darklord’s
voice sounded through the comlink on the main target. Inferno Squadron stopped
their launch.
‘What?!’
Commander Dark Talon shouted. ‘We haven’t even started yet!’ Confusion and
anger was voiced by all pilots through the comlinks. After all this exertion
they were called back into the hangar without a fight?
A
short look on her radar showed Calli why Lee was calling them back.
Disappointment replaced her excitement.
‘Affirmative,
Major, breaking off operation. Typhoon, let’s go home.’
‘Calli?
What’s wrong?’ Vexie asked.
‘Have
a look at your radar, everyone. Anything striking on there?’
‘No
green dots.’ Vader said.
‘Exactly.
They’re not here. Back into the hangar bay, pilots.’
‘I
can’t believe I put on my flight suit for nothing.’ Vexie complained,
sipping at her third rootbeer.
The
Typhoon pilots and most of the other squadrons were in the Challenge’s
cantina, all a drink in front of them. This hadn’t been a good day.
‘I
was so much looking forward to a fight with those braggards from the Sov, and
now this. It’s not fair.’ Talon said.
‘Now
we’re sitting here, and the Exercise is most likely over for us without a
single confrontation. Now the others will have all the fun.’ Ahkliat added.
‘Well
pilots,’ Calli started, ‘you’ve got to see it the other way round. We’ve
taken the Emperor’s Hammer’s homeworld without any resistance. Our
excitement may have been for nothing, but we’re taking home a decisive
victory, don’t you think? And after all, we got away without any casualties.
Imagine we’d have encountered the whole of Blue Force there, we wouldn’t
have gotten away with our lives.’
Her
intention to cheer her pilots up wasn’t very successful. She herself knew that
life wasn’t worth anything anyway if you didn’t have a good fight every now
and then.
LT
Flechette, Typhoon’s newest pilot, came into the cantina. He was still a bit
inexperienced with the flightsuits and helmets, but wouldn’t allow anyone to
help him put them off, so he was late. Seeing the general disappointment with
the mission, he said:
‘Hey
guys, I heard we arrived at Aurora only a couple of minutes after Blue Force had
hypered out! They must’ve gotten word of our plan and fled from us!’
After
a moment of disbelief, everyone broke out into laughter.
CMDR/COL
Callista/Typhoon/Wing X/ISD Challenge