Chapter Eight: The Hammer Falling

[SL Alex]

5 ~ Jansen
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Aboard the VSD Warhammer, Ensign Cody “Apollo” Alex began his preflight walk around of his TIE Advanced. Not his exactly. The name on the side of the ball cockpit read EN Ekard Snogard, with multiple kill markers below. Zeta Squadron's starfighters were on loan to Iota Squadron’s pilots. Their mission was to destroy a small Rebel scout force while Zeta took the captured Assault Gunboats and captured a Rebel manufacturing facility with the Warhammer. With all the work that Commander Muscat's been putting us through in the Gunboat simulator, he thought, you'd think we'd be assigned the capture op instead of getting handed another squadron's birds – especially one that we have so little experience in. He sighed. He didn’t know if it had been Captain Vortgah’s idea or had come all the way from Rear Admiral Calder back at Yaga Minor, but it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to him to give Iota the T/As for one mission with a full squadron of unassigned GUNs that they had been training so hard available. Probably was the Captain’s. It seems that Iota is destined to be assigned to commanders who just loved to push the envelope. He shook off the thoughts, and went back to checking over the fighter. Focusing lens for the deflector shields, laser cannon mountings, twin ion engines, the works. Everything seemed like it was in working order, so Alex climbed into the cockpit of the T/A.

* * * *

Iota Squadron emerged from hyperspace several hours later. “There they are, all alone. Move in for the kill, Iota!” came the order from Brevet Commander Muscat. A flight group of six Rebel X-Wing fighters flew in formation a couple of klicks ahead of the TIE Advanced, a gap that was quickly closed by the faster Imperial fighters. Alex set his laser cannons to quad fire mode. While that would give him a slower rate of fire, it meant four laser blasts on target, and used on a tightly grouped formation like that, it was deadly. Even shots that missed the targeted X-Wing struck other snubfighters in the flight. The first X-Wing died to Apollo’s guns before the Rebels could even maneuver to avoid Iota’s deadly fire. The rest broke formation slowly as they were engaged. Three more fell in rapid succession. As the fifth X-Wing fell, Alex’s sensor screen filled with Rebel IFF signals as a capital ship and fighter escorts came out of hyperspace on top of them. A ship from a group of T-Wings slammed headlong into his borrowed TIE Advanced, dropping his bow shields and sending him for a short spin. He leveled off, evened out and reinforced his shields, and maneuvered to get a better look and what he saw made his stomach turn. What had been a single recon flight of X-Wings was now an Escort Carrier and four squadrons of Rebel starfighters. Since they had only been expecting a small fighter scout force, Iota’s T/As had not had their warhead launchers loaded for the mission. Cody’s missile lock warning system sounded, indicating that the Rebel’s had not been as foolish. We walked into a trap! The Rebel’s dangled the bait and Captain Vortagh jumped right for it. This is not going to be an easy one… With that, he dove at the nearest Z-95 Headhunter….

[Calder]

Nice work, Ensign.

[SL Alex]

Thank you, sir. I figured I'd try to breathe some life back into this section.

[Mike Mar]

Very good ,Ensign!


I hope we will have the chance to read more.

[SL Alex]

I'll do my best not to disappoint you. If more doesn't come this chapter, it definitely will the next.

[CM Jamie]

*grumble grumble* *Jamie kicks his TIE* "Grounded to ship for misuse of weaponry" *grumble grumble*

[SSG Kevin Hennings]

Good Work! I look forward to reading more.