Page 46 - Star Wars Insider #175

FICTION

These few had taken to space and anyone else in her squadron. Iden liked “Attention, pilots,” came the voice of
were presently mounting a humorously that everything was compact and her commander, Kela Neerik, in Iden’s
feeble attack on the gigantic space immediately to hand—fl ight ear, and for a brief, beautiful instant
station. The thirty Y- and X-wing controls, viewscreen, targeting Iden thought her squad commander

fighters the rebels had mustered were systems, equipment for tracking and was going to explain what was going
small enough to dodge the station’s being tracked. on. But all Neerik said was, “Death Star
defensive turbolaser turrets, zipping Iden listened to the familiar beeps of is now six minutes out from target.”

about like flies. And, like fl ies, this the tracking equipment as it targeted Iden bit her lip, wondering if she
nominal, futile defense would be and locked onto one of the X-wings. should speak up. Don’t. Don’t, she
casually swatted down by Iden and the She swung her vessel back and forth told herself, but the words had a life
other pilots in ship-to-ship combat, as with easy familiarity as the enemy of their own. Before she realized it, out
per orders from Lord Vader. ship frantically jigged and jagged in a they had come.
Within the span of seven minutes, commendable, but ultimately useless, “Respectfully, Commander, with only
Yavin’s moon and all the rebels it effort to evade her. six minutes until the entire moon’s
had succored would be nothing more She pressed her thumbs down. Green destruction, why are we out here? Surely
than floating debris. On this day, the lasers sliced through the X-wing, and thirty one-person ships won’t be able to

Rebellion would be no more. then only pieces and a flaring sheet of do anything resembling damage to the

Iden’s heartbeat thudded in her ears fl ame remained. Death Star in that amount of time.”
as she all but jumped down the ladder A quick count on her screen told “Lieutenant Versio”—Neerik’s voice
into her fighter, sealing her fl ight suit Iden that her fellow pilots were also was as cold as space—“don’t assume

and pulling on her helmet. Slender efficiently culling the herd of rebels. your father’s position gives you special
but strong gloved fi ngers flew over the She frowned slightly at the tiny, ship- privileges. We are here because Lord

consoles, her gaze fl itting over shaped blips on her screen. Some of Vader ordered us to be here. Perhaps
the stats as she went through the them were veering off from the group, you’d like to put your question to

preflight checklist. The hatch lowered, going deeper in toward the Death Star, him personally when we return to the
hummed shut, and she was encased while others seemed to be trying to station? I’m sure he’d be delighted to
“THE TRICK WAS TO KILL THE ENEMY FIRST
—SOMETHING IDEN WAS BETTER AT THAN
ANYONE ELSE IN HER SQUADRON.”

in its black metal belly. A few seconds draw the TIE fighters away from the explain his military strategy to you.”

later she was swirling in cold, airless station. Iden’s gaze flickered to another Iden felt a cold knot in her stomach

darkness, where the distinctive scream ship, a Y-wing—one of those enemy at the thought of a “personal”
of her vessel was silent. vessels that always looked to her like a conversation with Lord Vader. She’d
Here they came, now, mostly the skeletal bird of prey—and she went in never met him, thankfully, but she had
X-wings—the Rebellion’s answer to pursuit, rolling smoothly and coming heard too many chilling rumors.

TIE fighters. They were impressive up on its side. More streaks of green in “No, Commander, that won’t
little single-occupant vessels, and they the star-spattered blackness, and then be necessary.”
skimmed along close to the surface of it, too, was gone. “I thought not. Do your duty,
the station, a few of them misjudging Her gaze now lingered on the Lieutenant Versio.”
the distance and slamming into more suicidal of the enemy fi ghters, Iden frowned, then let it go. She did
the walls around the trenches that watching as they dropped into the not need to understand the rebels; she
crisscrossed the Death Star’s surface. trenches. As far as Iden knew, no one needed only to destroy them.
Suicide, Iden thought, even as she in her six-pilot squadron had been As if they sensed her renewed resolve,
knew the term was just as often applied told why the rebels had adopted this the rebel pilots suddenly upped their
to those who flew TIE fi ghters. You peculiar tactic of flying through the game. There was a brief flash at the

either loved the small starfi ghters or trenches. Iden had grown up with corner of Iden’s vision, and when she
you hated them. A TIE fi ghter was nearly everything—from what it was turned to look, she realized with sick
fast and distinctive, with its laser her father actually did for the Empire surprise that the debris hurtling off in
cannons quite deadly, but it was more to what her mother was designing that all directions was black.
vulnerable to attack than other vessels day, even what was for dinner that Iden didn’t know who had just died.

as it wasn’t equipped with defl ector night—being on a need-to-know basis. TIE fighters were so uniform as to be
shields. The trick was to kill the enemy She had grown accustomed to the practically indistinguishable from one

first—something Iden was better at than situation, but she would never like it. another. Their pilots weren’t supposed

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