Easy They Said
CMDR/CPT Michael Emrys/Theta 1-1/Wing II/SSSD Sovereign
(swinter@iinet.net.au)

I'm CPT Emrys.

My office contains all the standard gear that every other squadron leader's office has, scandoc transmitter/receiver, desk, comfy chair, etc, etc.

But on my desk, in pride of place is an object, or rather, a small bag, made out of tough clear plastic, with a simple presseal opening.

In the bag are a few objects. A old pocket-knife, a roll of string, some elastic bands, a pack of chewing gum and a few medi-patches (self sticking).

Quite often I have had new pilots, fresh off of PLT Daedalus, ask what it's there for.

This is what I tell them.

The day started out like they normally do for a pilot. Roll out of your 'bed', give your clothes a good shake and drag them on, then check your boots for scorps and wander down to the hanger to check on your ship.

My ship in this case was the modified Missile Boat, "Hand of Fate". Yeah, I know it's the same as my G/B. I like the name.

This day however, I didn't go to the hanger to check on my ride, because I knew it was in for a 'service', which was odd because it had just had one a week ago. Good job my tame mechanic had removed some small additions we made to the survival gear shortly before they took it.

Maybe they will be able to fix the firing problem that my ship has. I know that I will always come home with at least 2 warheads, because the final two launchers never fire. To my knowledge they have never fired at all.

I spent part of the day doing what every pilot worth his or her salt does. I found a couple of friends, something to drink and then we found someplace out of the way to sit, drink and tell each other tall stories about how well we can fly.

Note I said part of the day?

With the time rapidly moving towards evening, my tame mechanic managed to track me down and pulling me to one side said, "Your ship is back. You need to see what they've done to it."

I made my excuses and we went down to the hanger to check out the 'Hand'.

The hanger was dim, almost dark and I went to turn on more lights, but the mechanic stopped me, saying, "not too many, they've done something to her."
I turned on a few more, enough so I could see the floor at my feet. I looked across at the 'Hand'.

They had certainly done something to her. She looked different, bulkier in general and they had added another warhead launcher, between the landing gear, increasing her capacity by half.
The 'Hand' seemed to glisten in the darkened hanger, something it had never done before.

I walked toward her, seeing that the extra bulk was armor that had been added. The surface of the 'Hand' had been polished to a mirror like finish or that's how it seemed.

A voice from the back of the hanger said, "Well, what do you think?"

I turned around to look for the person the voice belonged to and the Head Science Officer stepped out of the shadows.

"I don't know", I said. "It looks nice, but what is it and why the extra armor and weapons?"

"I don't know why the extra's, but I assume they are needed for some upcoming mission. As for the funny glow your ship has, it's a new development we've been working on. It makes your ship 'invisible' to the Rebels radar, but only as long as you don't have your radar working."

"So it's sort of like a 'stealth' shield?", I said.

"Yes, you could call it that", said the SCO.

As the SCO walked out of the hanger, he said," As for your next question, all will be explained during your briefing which you should be at, in 15 minutes from now."

I looked at my timepiece and figured that if I got moving, I would be able to get my flying gear ready and get to the briefing with a few minutes to spare.

I shot a look at my tame mechanic, which I saw he understood by giving me a quick nod of his head. Hopefully by the time launch time came, he would have the little 'extra' bits re-installed in my ship.

I stepped into the briefing room and discovered that there was only one person in the room, by the look of his flight suit a Defender pilot and an officer at that too. He didn't look happy. I wondered why. I was about to find out.

The briefing officer entered the room and stepped up to the podium.

"Welcome gentlemen. In case you are wondering, you are the only two pilots flying this mission.", he said.

"You have both noticed that certain modifications have been made to your individual craft", he said, pointing at the monitor which lit up with a display of both a Defender and a Missile Boat.

"Both craft have been fitted with the new 'stealth shield', which renders your craft 'invisible' to the Rebel scanners. Additionally, the M/B has had extra weaponry and armor added and the T/D has had it's Radar and Scanners enhanced to give them extra range as well as having it's shields boosted. Unfortunately this means that we have had to remove all weapons from the T/D except for 2 laser cannons, due to the space needed for the extra equipment. Luckily, it still retains its speed and hyperspace capability. The M/B will be carrying a mix of Advanced Proton Torpedoes and Heavy Rockets."

Now I knew why the Defender pilot looked unhappy.

The briefing officer continued. "The M/B, with its S.L.A.M. engines also has high speed capabilities, which it may need toward the end of the mission."

"As you know, the 'stealth shield' only works if you do not use your radar or scanners, this means that you will become 'visible' to the Rebels radar and scanners if you activate them. This is why we have modified the T/D with long range scanners and radar."

"The T/D will stand off from the target ship, activate it's radar and scanners and feed the information to the M/B, allowing the M/B to remain 'invisible' while targeting it's weapons."

I wondered when the briefing officer was going to get down to the details of the mission. I didn't have long to wait.

The briefing officer said, "Your target is this Calamari Cruiser, which we suspect is being used as a base for testing captured Empire technology."

"Your task is to destroy the target, completely. We can't have them modifying our technology to use against us. It is defended by a small minefield and several outdated fighters as they believe this facility is unknown to us.", he said with a tight smile.

The briefing officer said, "Your call-sign will be 'Striker' with the T/D being 'Striker 1'. You have your orders; co-ordinates will be downloaded to your ships guidance systems after you launch. Dismissed"

We stood and left the briefing room, headed for our fighters, which had been moved to the same hanger bay, to protect them from prying eyes.

"Sure hope this new gear works", I said, to which the other pilot replied, "Of course it will. The best minds in the Empire designed and built it.", in a tone of voice that told me it wasn't going to be worth arguing about.

I watched him climb into the cockpit of his T/D and then climbed into my own. I checked around my own cockpit to see if the 'extra' bits had been put back in.

Yes, there they were, the extra 'oxygen' bottle, which in reality carried a couple of liters of alcohol, Theta Beer of course and the cooling booster for the main engines, which lets me keep the S.L.A.M. system active for that little bit longer and had saved my hide often enough to keep it hooked up, despite the amount of room it took up.

"I must give my mechanic a little something for getting this stuff hooked up so fast", I thought, as I closed and locked down the canopy of my ships cockpit and proceeded to strap myself in.

I waited for the T/D to launch and followed him out of the bay, watching the guidance system lock in the co-ordinates for the jump to the target.
As I normally do in the few minutes before a jump into hyperspace, I transferred the power from the laser cannon to my shields and powered up the recharge on the shields. You can do this with a M/B, because it doesn't leave you weaponless and actually gives you a better chance of survival by boosting your shields.

Now all I had to do was wait for the jump point to be reached. Making the jump is easy these days. The guidance computer does it all, all you have to do is sit there and let it happen.

I watched the T/D make its jump, moments before I made mine. It seemed to slow, growing large in my vision and then it shot off into the distance and vanished in a small flash of light, the only thing you ever see of hyperspace from realspace. Then it was my turn.

The hyperspace indicator flashed and I felt the miniscule jerk that they say you can't feel and watched as space collapsed into a writhing tunnel of color and streaks of light. Then the indicator flashed again and I watched as the tunnel exploded away from me at a speed somewhere above the speed of light and I dropped back into realspace, a few hundred meters from the T/D.

My short-range combat radio crackled and the T/D pilot said, "The target is that way about 20 klicks. We've come out of hyperspace just outside of its scanner range, but not outside mine.", he said sounding a little surprised.

"Turn off your radar and switch over to the feed from me", he said. I did so and my scanner monitor lit up with a wealth of information, that you would normally only see in the main control room of a Star Destroyer.

I said, "Well that works and works well. Let's see if the 'stealth shield' works". I flipped the switch, which some joker had marked 'ghost mode' and asked if he could 'see' me. He said that I had vanished from his scanner screen, but that the glow from the shield made it easy for him to see me visually, from this range at least.

I wasn't too worried by his comment, all I needed was to be able to get inside the firing range of my weapons and get out again.

I made a final check of the various combat systems, radar (just in case), shields (fully charged), laser (fully charged), engines (temperature: low medium), SLAMS (primed) and then I did a final check on the 'stealth shield'.
"Still 'invisible'?" I said. He said yes.

"Off I go then. When you see it go up don't hang around, I'll be right behind you." I said.

"Don't worry, when I see it go, I won't be staying.", he said.

I pointed the nose of my M/B at the Calamari Cruiser, checking the radar feed from the T/D and chuckled to myself. They were using the old 'type one' mines, the sort that fired when something got close to them and couldn't identify friend from foe.

Unfortunately, I would have to fly close to them as they were right on the maximum range of my weapons, but my shields would be able to handle a few hits without too much trouble, if I kept my speed up.

I pushed the throttles up to full speed and settled back into my seat for the run into the target, checking the firing systems as I headed for the small mine field.

Everything seemed to be in order, laser fully charged, warhead launchers active and the SLAM's primed and ready to fire at my command.

I checked the missile lock indicator and the radar feed. Still too far away, another 4 klicks until the guidance system could lock on. Suddenly, the guidance system beeped at me. "A lock? THIS far out?", I thought.

I checked the radar. 9 klicks. Hmmm, much better than 6 klicks. Maybe I wouldn't have to get close to that minefield after all. I selected the heavy rockets and waited until I had closed to 8 klicks before I fired. The M/B pulsed and kicked with each launch.

I turned the M/B and kicked the SLAM's into action for a few seconds, then turned again to watch the H/rockets cruise toward the Calamari Cruiser.

A network of red laser fire sprang into life, punctured with bright flashes as the H/rockets were destroyed one by one.

I thought to myself, "That minefield must be more dense than I thought". I checked the radar feed and saw that a few Z-95's had been launched to investigate, so I flew to the other end of the minefield, trusting my 'stealth shield' to hide my movements.

Using the on-board computer and the radar, I looked for a gap in the defenses, something I should have done in the first place. There were 'holes' all over the place in their minefield, it was just dumb luck that I fired right through the middle of a heavily mined area.

I activated the guidance system again and it immediately lit up with a good strong lock. I selected the H/rockets, 'twin fire' mode and launched the remaining warheads. The M/B kicked with each launch and then I got a set of red 'fail' lights. They hadn't managed to fix those launchers. Oh well.

I selected then Advanced Proton Torpedoes, 'twin fire' mode and launched them.
With the difference in speeds between the 2 types of warheads, the torpedoes should overtake the rockets and hit the Cruiser first.

A lattice of red sprang into life in front of me. "Pay attention to where you are going", I thought as I turned the M/B away from the mines I had been about to run through. The M/B bucked and shuddered as a couple of the mines scored hits on my ship.

I checked the shields. "Not bad, yellow on green, plenty of shields left", I thought. Then I smelt something burning, not a good thing to smell when you are in space in the middle of a mission. I reached for the fire extinguisher and squirted the offending area with it. It fizzled and sparked for a few seconds and the fire went out.

At about that point, my headset crackled into life, "Striker, you have a problem, I can see you!"

"Great", I thought, "if he can see me, THEY can see me. Time to leave."

I pushed the throttles to full speed and took a quick look over my shoulder in time to see the first signs that the mission had been a success.

Turning my ship so I could see better, I saw blasts and flashes of light blossom along the side of the Cruiser.

"Nothing like a good clean mission", I thought. My headset crackled. "Better get out of there. They had time to launch a few ships"

"What type?", I asked.

"I don't know", he said. "They scan a bit like an X-Wing, but longer, with shorter wings and their energy readings are bigger than any fighter I've seen."

I thought to myself, "lots of energy in a small ship means either heavy weapons or high speed. Definitely not good. Time to go."

I activated the "Jump" computer for a few seconds, waited until my ship pointed itself toward the place where it would make the "Jump" and then turned it off again.

Pushing the throttles as far forward as they could go, I shifted my shields so they were at full strength at the rear of my M/B, checked that the lasers were at full power, adjusted the power settings to sustain charge and hit the button to activate the SLAMS.

I felt a healthy kick as the SLAMs activated and the speed started to climb rapidly. Checking the radar, I thought, as I looked down, "Well that's over, they'll never catch me now."

When I actually checked the readings, not only weren't they being left behind, they were actually gaining on me, but slowly.

I hit the button to activate the "Jump" computer, the ship twitched a little, bringing itself on course for the "Jump" and actually seemed to accelerate a fraction.

The distance to jump read out said 6 klicks. I checked the Laser's power gauge. I wasn't going to have enough power to get to the jump point at SLAM speed. I shunted some of the shield energy to the laser's, adjusting the shields so they were still at full strength at the rear of the ship.
Too bad if I hit anything at this speed.

I checked the radar again. It told me that they would be in missile range half a click before I got to the "Jump" point.

I wasn't worried. The Rebel's didn't have any missile weapons that could catch me at this speed.

The red missile lock warning started flashing at me and I checked the distance to jump read out. 1 klick. They must be moving quicker than I thought.

The hyperspace indicator flashed and I waited for the "jerk" but it didn't come. What did come felt like something had grabbed my M/B and slammed it into a SSD.

The last thing I saw was the shimmering colors of hyperspace before I passed out.

Pain.

I was alive.

I moved all my limbs carefully. They all seemed to be working. Eyesight was a bit fuzzy at first, but I was happy I could see anything at all.

I looked around the cockpit.

Almost nothing. A few lights here and there and the main screen on. I focused my eyes and pushed a few buttons. Nothing happened. I needed to know what sort of condition my ship was in.

I looked out of the cockpit at what I could see of my ship.

The front end looked all right, then I looked out the side at the wings. Not good. Pretty mangled. In fact they seemed to get more mangled the further towards the back I looked.

I thought back to my early training and followed all the procedures I could think of. Push this, pull that. Open this panel, twist this knob.

Nothing.

The only information I got about my ship was that I was as good as dead.
No radio. No Engines. Even life support was starting to struggle.

Once that gave out, all they would find (IF they found me) would be a frozen corpse with a blood alcohol level waaaaay above the lethal level.

Until then, I decided I would make myself comfortable and had a good look around at what I had.

After emptying my pockets and ransacking the cockpit, I had my pocket knife, a pack of chewing gum, the first aid kit that they insist all space craft have and various lengths of wire that I could strip out of the various dead and fried electronics, if I wasn't so scared that I might cause something to conk out.

After packing everything away, I looked around the cockpit again and noticed that several small bits of fluff had gathered at one point on the lip of the cockpit. I thought, "must be a leak there" and wiped away the fluff.

Shoving a stick of gum into my mouth, I reached for the first aid kit and took out a large self sticking medi-patch.

After chewing the gum for a minute or so, I bit a piece off of it and pressed it into the area where the fluff was and waited. As I watched, the gum started to extrude itself out into space, freezing into a little blob as I watched.

After a few seconds it stopped and I peeled the backing off the medi-patch and stuck it over the gum inside the cockpit.

"No need to be gumming up my flight suit" I thought.

For the first time I actually decided to have a look at where I had ended up.
I'd heard stories of ships that had lost their "Jump" computers in the middle of a jump ending up in some strange places.

As I looked out at the stars, I saw a familiar shape in the distance.

I thought, "It can't be", rubbed my eyes and looked again.

It was. The SSSD Sovereign. I had actually come out of hyperspace 'close' to where I was headed.

"So close", I thought and then the Sov spun out of view.

Right there and then, I decided to try and get back to the Sov. I pulled out the manual for my ship. My mechanic insists that it be stored under the seat, because of the various modifications on it.

I thumbed through the book, looking for something, anything that would help me to get home. I grabbed the extra 'oxygen' bottle and opened the valve for a drink.

SPLURT! A shot of Theta Beer in the face. It formed little balls of fluid in the air, which I sucked towards my mouth and swallowed. With a feeling of contentment spreading over me (beer does have that effect on me), I continued to look through the manual.

Towards the back, we started to get into "new" territory, or in other words the additions that my mechanic had made to my ship. Wiring diagrams, pipe layouts and so on.

Looking at the pipe layouts, I had an idea. After studying the manual for a while and fiddling with the wiring for a bit, I discovered that most of the piping for the cooling system had survived. Maybe I could get out of here after all.

Looking at the piping diagram for the cooling system, I traced it around my ship until I found where it came into the cockpit, right near the throttle, under the 'arm' of the pilots seat.

Right on this joint was a one-way connector for recharging the cooling system.

I looked at the connector on the cooling system and the connector on the 'beer' bottle. Close but would it fit? Only one way to find out.

I shoved the connector of the 'beer' bottle in the cooling system. It fit, sort of. It also leaked. A lot. I could hear the air leaking out into space, through the piping, making the ship move in ever widening circles.

I had to stop the air leak. I had precious little air left as it was. I grabbed for the first aid kit and rummaged through it, looking for the plasti-skin spray that they use for minor wounds.

It was there, but it sounded almost empty when I shook it. I grabbed a bandage and wrapped it around the joint, tying it with some wire I had taken out when I was checking the cooling system, then sprayed it with the plasti-skin, spreading it over the entire join.

Crouching down (a darn hard thing to do in a cockpit) I listened carefully. A small hissing sound. Not perfect, but it would have to do.

I pressed the button on my jury-rigged controls and waited.

The Sov swung into view. A light went on. The bottle hissed. The light went off. The sound stopped. The Sov swung out of view. I waited.
The Sov swung into view, a little closer this time. The light went on. The bottle hissed. The light went off. The Sov vanished. The sound stopped.......

It continued. Sov. Light on. Hiss. Light off. Longer between each time.
The air grew thick. I slept.

Bright Lights.

That's the first thing I saw when I woke up. Lights. On the ceiling. I looked around. I saw the white walls, beds and Nurses uniforms of the Medical Center.

A nurse looked in my direction and said "So you're awake. There are some people who want to speak to you" and walked off.

"I'm alive, I made it", I thought and looked at the table next to me.

On it was a plastic bag, with my pocketknife, a pack of gum and some pieces of wire.

So that's why the bag is on my desk. I've added a few things over the years, stuff that might be useful in an emergency.

A ball of string, some elastic bands, a pack of chewing gum, a pocketknife and some medi-patches.

You just never know when they might come in handy.

News and events of things happening in the Emperor's Hammer