“I was supposed to do that but since you two have such a perfect timing, I have elected to give you this mission. Consider this as an initiation.” Lindy rubbed his palms as the server droid arrive with their order.
“How are we going to pull this off?” Hobbie inquired after the server droid left.
“There is another small rebel group who left word that they wanted to join the Alliance, the contact goes by the name Starfire but we’ve never seen his face yet. He said he’s been infiltrating Rand Ecliptic for quite some time now.” Lindy answered.
“We have a spy among us?” Biggs looked at Hobbie.
“He must be really good. I was personally supervising the weekly sweep for infiltrators of our flagship and of the Bestine base itself since day one.” Hobbie muttered.
“How can we confirm who Starfire is?” Biggs asked.
“Starfire’s words were; you’ll know when you know.” Lindy shrugged.
“That’s very helpful.” Biggs crossed his arms.
“Look Biggs, I know why you trust Trent. I know about you and Tamis and I am truly sorry at what happened to her but Hobbie here knows me way back in Ralltiir, we practically grew up together and I know you know exactly how that feels. I’ve done my homework, I know about your life on Tatooine, I know about your friend Janek Sunber and how he and Tycho Celchu feels about your thoughts of joining us. Either you trust me or not but please, you can at least be professional enough to know when not to let your personal issues get the best of you.” Lindy poured a glass of ale and handed it over to Biggs.
“Fine. So what’s the plan?” Biggs sighed and took the glass.
“Find Starfire, commandeer the flagship, take it to Dac and meet with Trent. Now remember; don’t blow your cover, never crack on interrogations and keep everything low profile as much as possible. And before I forget, you must do this within two days; it’s our only window of opportunity.” Lindy said.
“What will happen in the third day?” Biggs asked.
“Word is that Lord Vader will arrive for an inspection.” Lindy replied.
“Swell.” Hobbie slumped on his chair.
“Tomorrow I’ll be meeting with the other recruits of Trent; those batch mates of yours,” Lindy said, “But for now, let’s enjoy the food.”
The New Captain
Everything happened so fast.
That second meeting between the other defectors and Lindy ended in a disaster as they have been caught and taken away by the 88th Strike Force of the Bestine Imperial Base.
That same day, the Rand Ecliptic had left Bestine and jumped to Daemen. There they participated on intercept missions on several suspected rebel transports.
One particular incident was when the Rand Ecliptic cut off a transport ship named Lark from Eedoq who stated they were carrying students to the Clarion Scholars Academy in Daemen.
Captain Heliesk demanded for a code clearance and when they failed to give one, he ordered the Twilight Squadron led by Biggs himself, to secure Lark while he prepares to board the ship for questioning.
Tars Nandy, one of Biggs’ pilots got too excited in disabling the hyperdrive and the engines have instead destroyed the transport ship despite Biggs shouting for him to stand down.
It was the single most horrifying sight Biggs Darklighter has ever experienced in his entire life. Right before his eyes as the Lark ruptured from the explosion he saw dozens of young students were thrown in the weightlessness and vacuum of space.
Although there were no sounds at all, it hardly mattered, he saw them screaming as their eyes popped and their flesh crystallizes. Biggs and also Hobbie got even more disappointed when Captain Heliesk did not reprimanded Nandy.
“Never mind, at least Nandy spared us from days of pointless interrogations. Let’s pack up and leave, we need to get back to Bestine for the inspection of Lord Vader.” Captain Heliesk had remarked.
* * *
Before leaving, Captain Heliesk has received orders to proceed to Dac to aid the Accuser for a disciplinary action against the citizens of the ocean world.
When the captain informed his officers about it, Biggs and Hobbie looked at each other with mixed feelings.
Tycho Celchu will be there.
Biggs and Hobbie had gone to the racks to clean their TIEs. The hangar entrance looked hypnotic as the streaks of hyperspace flowed outside flowed like a steady sea filled of glowing life forms.
Ironically, they were headed for an ocean planet and for Biggs Darklighter it was a thing that he has never seen before. Having to grow up on a desert world, the concept of an ocean alone was too much for him.
When he started at the Academy and began learning about the various types of inhabited worlds within and outside the Galactic Empire, he became obsessed in researching about ocean worlds. He even made a list of them that he wanted to visit someday.
Dac was at the top of his list, and they are heading towards it right now.
“Do you think we’ll see Tycho there?” Hobbie asked.
“We might get to fly with him since we’re going on a disciplinary action.” Biggs emphasized his last to words.
“I don’t get it, why would the Empire bomb a planet just because they weren’t always agreeing with their policies? I mean, isn’t that overkill? The Mon Calamarians were peaceful people and they don’t even have their own fleet and army, at least not since the Clone Wars.” Hobbie mused.
“The longer we spend time with the Empire the more we see what we’ve come to believe and admire about it disappears.” Biggs grunted.
“I’m not sure if I can have the stomach to go on with this charade anymore.” Hobbie stopped cleaning his canopy.
“What do you mean?” Biggs stopped too and sat atop his cockpit, their feet resting on the transparisteel viewport. Beneath their eyeballs, pilot’s slang for their TIEs, was a thirty-meter drop to the hangar pavement.
“We’re supposed to take Rand Ecliptic to Dac anyways right? Trent would be there and if there are orders to bomb the planet, that means Trent and his rebel friends are in grave danger; not to mention the Mon Cals themselves. Biggs, we have to do it now before we reach Dac.” Hobbie explained.
“Good point.” Biggs rubbed his moustache thinking hard how to commandeer the ship.
“First we need to find Starfire. So far I haven’t gotten any lead at all.” Hobbie shook his head in frustration.
“We still have an hour before we get there.” Biggs checked his chrono.
“Let’s get started then.” Hobbie grinned.
* * *
Separately, the two have already gathered a small group who shares their resentment against the empire. The plan was to keep each group unknown to the other just in case one of their recruits backs out and expose them.
The trick was taking over the bridge since none of them managed to get someone assigned from there.
Biggs decided to take his group on taking over the armory and disabling the hyperdrive but not to the point of irreparability.
Hobbie’s group on the other hand saw it best to secure the all hangars first so that the rest of the crew and security forces would have zero access to ships and vehicles, they also agreed to lock down the escape pods and take over the security control room.
When the two finally got their respective groups into action, the Rand Ecliptic was already beginning to emerge from hyperspace. So when the shooting and explosions began, they gained precious couple of minutes before Captain Heliesk found out about the mutiny.
In the course of the chaos, Biggs encountered Peate Kurin, his squadron mate that turns out to be one of the survivors of the second meeting with Lindy.
He and his own team of mutineers made a move the moment Biggs and Hobbie’s groups began with their own hostile takeover. Glad that they have gotten more people on their side, Biggs felt more confident about their success now.
Hobbie’s team got through the command bridge and apprehended Captain Heliesk but before he was taken to the brig, he whispered to Hobbie that
he was in fact the one they call Starfire.
Hobbie excused himself to his men and dragged the captain to one of the cabin and locked it behind him.
“What is this nonsense?” Hobbie growled pointing his blaster at Heliesk.
Heliesk raised his hands and showed him he was holding a comlink, “I’m going to call Trent, you speak to him.”
Hobbie tried not to react, Trent’s cover in Bestine might have been compromised the same way Lindy and the others were discovered, “Keep talking.”
“Trent? Can you patch me up on holo?” Captain Heliesk said on the comlink, his eyes never leaving Hobbie’s.
Hobbie nodded as Heliesk cocked his head on the holocomm to his left. The captain patched his comlink and the unmistakable life-size image of Trent appeared facing Hobbie.
“Hello Hobbie, I see you’ve finally found Starfire. He cannot blow his cover yet, he still have much to do for us from the inside so please keep up with the appearance that he’s still your prisoner. How’s the mutiny going on?” Trent said.
“We’re receiving a lot of resistance but I’m sure we’ll get them all eventually.” Hobbie replied.
“Very well, finish off your end of the bargain and get the Rand Ecliptic moving at once. The Accuser is already giving much damage and deaths to our Mon Calamari allies; we greatly require any reinforcements from you.” Trent clicked off.
Biggs wasn’t surprised at all when they still met heavy resistance despite having taken over the command bridge.
Hobbie took command and ignored the hailing of Captain Piett from the Accuser while focusing his crew to reorient the Rand Ecliptic to join the fray in the orbit of Dac wherein the small ragtag fleet of Trent was trying to fight off the Imperial flotilla.
“Rand Ecliptic if you do not comply with our orders we will be forced to disable and board your ship. This is your final warning! Rand Ecliptic, do you copy?” Captain Piett growled.
“This is Rand Ecliptic of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Dac has already declared their allegiance to us, the Empire no longer has jurisdiction to this sector. Leave now or suffer the consequences of your actions.” Hobbie barked at the open comm then closed it from his end.
The sensors showed a swarm of TIE fighters being deployed from the belly of the Accuser and headed towards them. Hobbie grinned and shouted back at Biggs from behind, “Incoming eyeballs!”
“I’m on it!” Biggs acknowledged and beckoned his units to follow him to the main hangar. After Biggs left, Hobbie handed the command back to Captain Heliesk while he rejoined his rebel friends in engaging the persistent imperial agents on a blaster fight.
Face Off
The Accuser have moved to engage Rand Ecliptic while the smaller Imperial frigates and corvettes maneuvered into position to take care of the Rebel fleet over Dac.
The Twilight Squadron screamed across the blackness of space and went to collide with the incoming swarm from the Accuser.
Biggs under the call sign of Twilight Lead was finally in his element. This is what he was trained for, to fly and fight in space against overwhelming foes.
Mastering the main features of the TIE fighter and overcoming its lack of shielding, Biggs dodged crisscrossing turbolasers and blew one enemy fighter after another.
The rest of his squad was doing really well following his lead and by the time they arched back for the second pass they have already taken out one fourth of their assailants.
Peate Kurin came as his wingman in place of Hobbie while the four other vacant slots was filled in by Kurin’s mutineer recruits who were former TIE fighter pilots of the recently dissolved Karbos Squadron of Bestine IV.
“Twilight Lead, I’ve spotted the enemy squadron leader!” Twilight Two called out.
“Which one?” Biggs strained for a visual but with all the movements he could only stand to rely on his HUD which doesn’t help at all in identifying individual eyeballs.
“It’s painted with blue and green swirls at the side of the cockpit, I’ll laser mark it for you!” Twilight Two said.
“I see him…” Biggs exclaimed then gasped. It was the logo of Celchu Merchandising, the family business of Tycho’s parents.
“Twilight Squadron, stay clear of enemy lead, he’s mine.” Biggs ordered.
“Copy that Twilight Lead,” the squadron pilots acknowledged in unison.
Biggs began to tail Tycho and the other seemed to sense him and flew farther and farther from the center of the battle.
Biggs scanned the frequency until he heard the comm chatter of the enemy fighters, “Pace Two take the lead, draw that rebel scum to the line of fire of the Accuser. I’ll take care of their leader, this should be easy.” Biggs heard Tycho’s voice.
“Hello, there Cracked Teeth. Still nursing your swollen gum?” Biggs taunted and knew Tycho will not be able to resist reacting.
“Well what do you know, if it isn’t Sand Dork finally away from dung shoveling duties,” Tycho chuckled, the Alderaanian made an abrupt reverse causing to his fighter to strain and spin erratically like a pinball with no direction.
“Oh come on Tycho, still bitter for beating me in the simulation?” Biggs grinned.
“Let me guess, it was Hobbie who gave that nasty speech to our captain earlier.” Tycho swung around and fired but Biggs have anticipated the ploy and was two seconds ahead of him, the shot went way off target.
“Seriously? I invented that trick.” Biggs laughed and made a spin sending his own lasers lancing outward like a shower sprinkler boxing Tycho to the center.
Tycho suddenly killed his engine and his momentum sent him on a slow spin, right before his eyeball swings to face Biggs’ he powered up and discharged an ion blast.
Biggs rolled to the side and winced as he felt his eyeball shook from the glancing blow of the ion discharge. “How can I take you seriously if you can’t even keep your oath?”
“The Oath to the Empire is nothing but a subtle way to make everyone blindly follow the Emperor,” Biggs retorted and dove under an Imperial Corvette that has exploded from the middle.
“I swore fealty to the Emperor and the New Order,” Biggs mocked as he swung around and fired at exactly the moment Tycho’s ship appeared through the rupturing corvette, but Tycho being the exceptional pilot that he is have somehow expected the trick and have swerved just in time to avoid the deadly turbolasers.
“To uphold the will of the Empire and renounce everything that go against it,” Biggs rolled as Tycho retaliates with a barrage of laser fire.
“To obey my Commanding Officers and respect the Chain of Command,” Biggs strained in his controls as Tycho relentlessly trailed him with his laser cannons.
“To render judgment and implement punishment to those who defy the word of law,” Biggs gritted his teeth as he executed a complex evasive maneuver. He was beginning to wonder how this duel would end for he’s already beginning to run out of tricks.
“I am an Imperial. My heart, mind and soul belong to the Empire. All Hail the Empire! All Hail the New Order! All Hail the Emperor!” Biggs saw something ahead and grinned, he flew straight into it and sure enough, Tycho was in hot pursuit behind him.
At the last moment Biggs pulled the stick and shot upward at the exact moment Tycho came in and the Ion blast from the Accuser lanced directly to the Alderaanian’s TIE fighter.
Biggs swung around and made a close pass to where Tycho’s ship floated dead in space. Their eyes met and Biggs gave a salute then went to regroup with the others.
Moments later, the Accuser and its remaining forces retreated. Twilight Squadron has lost three pilots and two more injured. Captain Heliesk brought the Rand Ecliptic into the atmosphere of Dac where they rendezvoused with Trent’s forces.
Hobbie came rushing to Biggs once he was back aboard their flagship. Biggs was shocked to see Hobbie’s left arm gone, but his friend shrugged it off saying it was alright.
“What happened out there? Did you…” Hobbie inquired.
“He’s
alive. He’s still our friend Hobbie and I can’t kill in cold blood. He’s up there with a dead ship and a wounded pride, he’ll live.” Biggs assured his friend.
Rebel
“Ecliptic Evaders, I like the sound of that!” Hobbie chuckled as he and Biggs with Trent sat on an open air dinner in Barons Head, the capital city of Sulon; the only habitable of the two moons of Sullust.
“Yeah it sounded cool but what they don’t know is that we really got that name by dodging the Accuser and its small flotilla long enough for the reinforcements to arrive.” Biggs nodded.
Trent laughed with them but Biggs could see that he was anxious and kept glancing at his chrono.
“Hey Trent, relax. He just arrived at the Keff Base right? Give him a few more minutes, he’ll be here.” Biggs assured him.
“I just wanted to get out of this place as soon as we can, don’t forget that this city is still under the Empire. Not to mention I still get the chills every time I remember what that Miralukan Dark Jedi Inquisitor did to the severed head of poor old Morgan Katarn.” Trent explained.
“I heard about that incident from one of your agents, I’m sorry for the guy. I heard his son has already joined us eventually, right?” Biggs nodded in sympathy.
“Kyle, yes, he’s an ace pilot too and a very effective field agent.” Trent said.
“I’d like to meet him someday.” Hobbie muttered.
“Me too,” Biggs agreed.
“Meet who?” a handsome young man in dark gray coverall came to them with a wide grin.
“Wedge Antilles, these are Derek ‘Hobbie’ Klivian and Biggs Darklighter…” Trent said at once and offered the newcomer a seat.
Wedge reversed the chair before seating on it, resting his arms on the back of the chair facing them, “The famous Ecliptic Evaders, I’m honored to meet you. You’re Hobbie, right? How’s your arm?”
“The artificial arm needs a little getting used to, I think I need more sim time to get the hang of it before finally getting back to a real starfighter,” Hobbie flexed his robotic fingers.
“You’re a natural, you’ll get it going before you can say the word alanethema’tic’knhn.” Wedge winked.
“Ouch, I can’t even pronounce and remember what you just said.” Hobbie groaned.
“And you sir, I am most honored to finally meet,” he offered his hand to Biggs.