The Runners
A Rogue Squadron Adventure

The Runners -- copyright (c) 1996 by Christian Schock, Jim Lee, and Lewis Gregory.  This is a fictional story taking place a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.  Any resemblance to people living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.  You may not distribute, sell, modify or otherwise use this work except for you own personal reading without the express written consent of the authors.

Part 1

The Regulean Queen was anything but.  A long, squat, ugly ship, she hauled cargo and passengers along the tortured space lanes of the Borellian Breaks.  The Breaks were a difficult place to navigate, even in the best of times, but since the rebellion had pulled away much of the Navy, piracy had become a serious concern as well.  And with the many planetoids, asteroid fields, and uninhabited backwater worlds there were many places to hide from the law, what little law there was.  Three days out from Schipperhee the Queen went about her business of carrying passengers, laborers, and a load of supplies to a small mining outpost in the outer reaches of the Breaks.

Lee Lo sat in what passed for the passenger lounge on the Regulean Queen.  She was dressed much like the other passengers, in grubby overalls over a patched singlesuit.  Her heavy boots were steel tipped and she wore a disreputable cap which covered her mid length sand colored hair, now pinned up.  Lee's diminutive stature and elfin face made her look younger than her 33 standard years but the ice cold look in her eyes made her seem much older.  The other passengers, all rough mining hands, gave her as much room as possible in the cramped lounge.  They'd all tried to start something, in their simple way, but had been uniformly rejected, one painfully so as the sling binding his arm stood witness to.  She hadn't been in the mood for company and it had sent the desired message to the others.

"Trouble," Lee thought.  One of the crew had come into the room.  He looked at her, trying to place the face.  Suddenly his eyes went wide in recognition and he began to turn to leave.

With cat like quickness and infinite grace, Lee stood and pulled a small energy weapon from a bulky pocket of her overalls.  She deftly thumbed the safety and fired a single shot into the back of the crewman.  He went down hard in front of the door.  The room erupted in shouts and noise, as the others realized what had happened.

"She shot him!"

"Hey!"

Everyone was getting out of their seats now.  Lee looked at the man with the sling as he removed it and pulled a weapon from its hiding place.  "Rico, cover this lot."

"Don't nobody try anythin' funny, or you get what the last one did."  Rico was a big man, broad shouldered, and now it was clear that the sling had been only a ruse.  "Just sit down nice an' easy."

Covered by the armed brute, the other three miners sat slowly.  "Keep yer han's on the table friends, an' no one gets hurt," he nodded as Lee walked past him and left the room.  He locked the door behind her.

Lee pulled a small commlink from yet another large pocket on her coveralls as she walked briskly down the corridor toward the turbo lift and moved it close to her mouth.  "Low Ball to Overdrive.  Scramble code Beta. Go go go."

"So much for a neatly planned operation," she thought darkly to herself.  She poked the turbo lift summons button and waited, outwardly calm, her mind working feverishly within.

Elsewhere

"... code Beta. Go go go."

"What?!  Simon, get the transport off pronto, we've got the emergency code."  The white haired man pivoted in his chair and brought up a second comm screen.  "Runner base to Runner 2.  Runner base to Runner 2.  Come in."

"Runner 2 here.  Go ahead."

"Scramble beta.  Target is D-minus 100 mark 30 mark 88 attack position."

"Hell and damnation! Roger Runner base, moving to intercept.  Runner 2 out."

Part 2

I sat in my quarters, thinking.  Once again, I was merely a pilot.  A pilot in the most legendary squadron in the Alliance to be sure, but still merely a pilot.  The thought was both comforting and troubling.  My skills were at best rusty from my accidental leave of absence and I spent the days in training learning the skills I had once known by instinct.

My new squadron mates were both familiar and strange to me.  I'd met Commander Simmons and Lieutenant Commander Morrison on a few occasions prior to joining the squadron and I'd met Lieutenant Schenk and Lieutenant Lee during the Super X-Wing training.  They had been members of Gold Squadron then.  Lieutenant Siorek was an old squadron mate in Gray, but the others I had only recently met.

Everything about this place was strange.  Stranger in many ways than the planet I had been stranded on.  There I had been at peace, with no responsibilities but to myself.  And Kerbe.  The Liberty was so different, both from that place and from the Destiny.  I'd spent 18 months flying fighters for Gray Squadron from the decks of captured Imperial ships.  The sharp edges and severe environment contrasted sharply with the organic shapes and flowing lines of the converted Calamari Luxury Liner.

My chronometer chimed, alerting me to the fact that I was due to attend another simulator session in a few minutes.  I pulled myself out of the chair and called Kerbe to follow me.  She was a sweet thing, always willing to go on any little adventure.  And as I grew to know her better, she seemed smarter too.  The xenobiologists had been interested in her, they'd never seen anything like a Life Partner before, but I'd told them to keep their distance.  She wasn't a pet really, she was more like a part of me.  Integrated into my life.  She had adjusted to the Liberty faster than I had, seemingly quite pleased with her new surroundings though they were nothing like anything she had experienced before.

I left my cabin and headed to the simulators.  It was one place I knew how to find.  Force only knew how you found anything else on the ship.  The layout was twisted, organic, with no symmetry to decks or corridors that I could see.  And it was dark, too dark by half for me.  The light amplification goggles were the only thing that saved me from complete confusion.  Kerbe didn't seem to mind, her low light vision was far superior to mine.  She trotted along, curious about everything and everyone, stopping frequently to investigate some corner or some member of the crew.  She was pestering a Calamari technician working at an access panel, he was trying to keep her away from what he was working on.

"Kerbe, leave him alone.  Come."  She looked at me, made her little happy face and came racing towards, and then past me to her next adventure.

In this way I made my way to the simulator room.  I'd rigged a little bed for Kerbe and knowing what I was up to she curled up upon it and began to doze.  "Good afternoon Belvert.  What's on the agenda for today?"

"A little something different Captain Schock.  You've gotten most of your fighting reflexes back so we'll be introducing live piloted opponents from now on.  You won't know which ones of course."

"Sounds like fun.  OK, let's fire her up if everyone is ready to go."

"Just a few moments sir, we have one other pilot who is still settling in.  I'll run the mission briefing for you now.  This is a historical battle rather than a purely theoretical mission today, so you may recognize the mission parameters."

I pulled down the flight helmet and keyed on the holosimulator.  The briefing text flashed on the screen.  Swell, an assault mission.  I'd be executing a strike and fade attack on a small Imperial platform with a flight of X-Wings.  I didn't recognize the mission, something called "Mareta IX-A3."

The simulator cockpit hummed to life and I ran through a routine systems check.  Everything was in order.  The simulator was counting down a timer to enter real space.  I prepared for real-space entry.  And then, suddenly the ship was ripped from hyperspace.

"Rogue 13 to all pilots.  Report."

"Red 6.  I have an Imperial Interdictor on scanners at extreme range."

"Blue 51.  We're too far from the target sir and I'm picking up enemy fighters."

I analyzed the scanner data quickly.  "I see a few squints but nothing else.  Lock S-Foils in attack position and tighten up formation.  We'll make a torpedo attack on the platform from maximum range and then disengage.  Tangle with the fighters only if required.  Red 6, send a squirt on coded channel alerting command of our situation."

"Copy Rogue 13."

The simulated encounter was intended to be as realistic as possible. The pilots each sat in authentic cockpits, and saw and felt what they would see and feel in real combat. An Imperial Interdictor Cruiser sat 30 klicks away from the four X-Wings. Closer, but still out of range of the proton torpedoes each X-Wing carried, was the target of their attack, an Imperial training platform. And between the platform and the rebel fighters were eight TIE Interceptors, known as squints to the rebel pilots. 

Despite the realism, Electro was not edgy as he would be in combat. Years of experience fighting and later designing fighters left him with a visceral sense of unreality that his younger, less jaded, wingmen would not have. "Rogue 13 to all fighters, targeting computer estimates we will be within attack range of Imperial fighters before we come within range of objective. Red 6 you will stay with me to cover the others in their attack run. Stick to my wing and we'll try to break up the TIE formation." 

"Roger Captain." 

Electro selected the lead squint in his command computer and set his energy configuration to maximize laser recharge rates. It was not standard doctrine to fly without shield recharge rates at nominal, but Electro fought under the opinion that speed was life. The squints were nearly in range. "Break on two." 

Electro and his wingmen broke from the formation and began to fire in a head-on rush with the eight TIEs. The other X-Wings continued toward their target. Red and Green bolts of energy struck out from the groups. The superior fire power of the mass of TIEs against the shielded X-Wings. Electro's X-Wing shook under the impact to his shields but he was gratified to see two squints explode as his shots went home. "Right full and reform." 

The two groups turned about, the X-Wings attempting to get on the tail of the TIEs and the Imperial pilots trying to do the same. Torpedoes from the second pair of X-Wings began their journey toward the unmoving target. 

"New contacts bearing 120 mark 16. Three whizzers and six dupes, range nine klicks." 

"I copy, it's time to blow this joint. Blue 51 and Red 19, reform and withdraw." 

"Sir, the whizzers are awfully close, I don't think we can outrun them." There was an edge on the voice of the trainee that Electro didn't like hearing. 

He turned hard and with a snap shot clipped the solar panel of another TIE Interceptor. There were only four left now and they were disorganized. "Get to us and we can handle them together." 

"I'm hit!" 

"Steady Red 6, transfer energy from your weapons systems to shields, I'm on my way to help out." One of the squints was dogging Electro, getting in hits as he maneuvered to rescue his wingman. His R2 unit was jibbering its unhappiness at the state of Electro's systems because of it. "Plenty of shields left," Electro
thought, "this R2 unit is a nattering old woman." 

Electro depressed the firing stud and his quad lasers barked their red death at his target. Not a clean kill, but the TIE was forced to disengage from Red 6. "You're clear, break to engage the TIE on my tail." 

"Roger." 

He cut in the ethereal skid fin to yank the X-Wing around in as tight a turn as he could manage, the effort causing the simulator to shift to throw him against the four way seat restraint. The TIE behind him kept up its tracking fire but now Electro had another TIE in his sites. His lasers spoke again and this squint was not as lucky, it's right solar panel disintegrated and it spun out of control. "Three left." 

The two X-Wings were now within range of the dogfight and four X-Wings against three TIE Interceptors wasn't really a fair fight. But with the TIE Advanced on the way, things could get ugly quickly, they had missiles and were better dogfighters than the X-Wings. 

"Got him!" Red 6 was exultant as he announced his kill. Electro silently thanked him for relieving his shields from their burden. 

"Watch your lock indicators boys," Electro announced as his began to beep. One of the whizzers had come within range and had locked onto him. He pulled his craft out of its turn and headed straight for the oncoming TIEs. He wanted to be in close where the missiles wouldn't have a chance to lock onto him over the ECM systems on his X-Wing. He saw three missiles launch and the lock indicator screamed at him. He pulled into a tight loop seconds before the missile would have hit him and got on its tail. His quad lasers fired and he hit the missile, destroying it. 

A quick glance at this sensors showed that his wingman hadn't been so lucky, his X-Wing had been destroyed and another X-Wing was attempting to avoid a missile as the remaining squints pursued him. "Break hard, Blue 51, break hard." The pilot turned too slowly and the missile caught up with him just as the laser fire from the squints did. Electro didn't even pause to reflect on the fact that the pilot had not ejected. The odds were getting rapidly worse even though Red 16 had destroyed one of the pursuing TIE Interceptors, he was too busy for philosophical rumination. 

Electro was now in a turning battle with two of the TIE Advanced. They were faster and more maneuverable than he was, but with his power systems set up correctly he could sacrifice shield recharge for speed, which he did. The two TIEs were flying predictably, making high speed runs in and then looping out to gain range. Electro stayed on the attack, trusting that his speed and maneuvering would save him from too much fire from the second whizzer. He had hit it a few times and it had slowed now to increase it's shield recharge rate. Standard practice, and instant death. 

He sent all power to the engines, bled energy from his weapons to the shields and selected his torpedoes to dual fire. With the extra speed he maneuvered right in behind the whizzer which was now jinxing and weaving to avoid him. He dumb fired two torpedoes, one of which hit the whizzer directly amidships. It exploded and Electro sped through the expanding ball of debris. 

A quick check on the sensors showed the last squint running for home, his last flight member gone and two whizzers still to worry about. His missile lock indicator began to complain again, and he rolled and turned to try to break the lock. He succeeded but now one of the whizzers was on his six, peppering him with fire. This time he changed his shields and lasers to maximum recharge and the ship slowed quickly. Electro had intended for the Imperial pilot to overshoot him so that he could get in behind, but it hadn't worked. He was still back there and only a snap roll and a hard left turn saved him from a dumb fired missile.

"This guy is very good." 

Part 3

Lee Lo moved briskly down the passageway towards the bridge of the Regulean Queen.  She pressed the entry stud, but the door didn't move.  Locked.  She pressed the comm panel switch.  "Help!  Help!  Somebody, quick, a gunman in the lounge!"

Stepping aside she drew her weapon and waited.  Moments later the door opened and a young officer rushed past, drawing his own blaster.  She let him go and ducked neatly between the closing doors.  "Hands above your heads where I can see them!"

There were two officers on the bridge.  One was facing her and instantly put his hands in the air.  The other, seated at a bridge station turned to see what the fuss was about.  Lee shot him immediately and then turned to cover the other officer whose face had gone sickly pale at the sight.

"Just be sensible now, and nothing bad is going to happen to you.  You can be sensible can't you?"  The man nodded his head frantically.  

"Good boy.  Now then, just slip these binders on one of your wrists for me."  She flipped a set of light binders towards the man and they dropped to floor in front of him.  Slowly he picked them up and put them on one wrist.  "Very nice."

She moved towards him and taking the other binder clasp attached it to a wall bracket attached to a maintenance hatch.. "You stay right here for me, won't you?"

One little problem taken care of, she locked the bridge door once again and then sat at the control station.  She quickly scanned the status board and then pressing a sequence of buttons, disengaged the main drives.

Two Y-Wings dropped from hyperspace a few kilometers from the Regulean Queen.  "Runner 2 to Regulean Queen.  You are to stand down or be destroyed."

"What took you guys so long?  Lo here, I have control of the bridge, where's the transport?"

"One its way boss, be with you shortly."

A few minutes later...

The Runner transport had docked at the cargo air lock.  Inside, eight armed pirates in partial body armor prepared to storm the ship.  Popping the lock they dropped into the cargo bay two at a time.

"Nothing here Teeves."  A small pirate with a hand held scanner commented.

"Secure the doors."  Two more pirates ran to the wide doors leading to the rest of the ship and took up guard.

"OK, let's start moving the cargo.  The heavy equipment is what we came for, just that, and whatever else will fit."  The remainder of the band hurried to comply and take what they had come for.  The Regulean Queen would be well and truly plundered in a few minutes time.

The loading process went smoothly, with only one interruption when someone had tried to enter the cargo hold.  He'd run back from whence he came when met with blaster fire.  "Teeves to Lo.  Let's bug."

"Lo here.  I may need an escort."

"On our way."  Teeves motioned for the others to follow him.  "You three stay here and make sure no one gets into the bay."

They opened the doors leading to the rest of the ship and one at a time entered the corridor, staying snugly to one side or another as they made their way towards the bridge.  Everything was quiet, and in only a short time they had reached their objective.  "Lo, we're outside the bridge."

The bridge door snapped open.  "Let's move."

They began to retrace their steps, stopping to pick up Rico in the lounge.  As they moved around the final corner towards the hold a flurry of blaster fire erupted from down the corridor.  "Hit the floor!"

Two of the pirates had fallen in the initial barrage and now the others began to lay down fire from around the protection of the bulkhead.  Lee ducked out and grabbed the leg of one of her comrades and then dragged him behind cover.  "Teeves, Slephen, lay down fire.  The rest of you follow me.  Fire low, they are on the floor beyond the cargo lock."

The others nodded and she darted out into the oncoming fire once again and began to fire.  The others spilled out behind her and with concentrated fire began to push forward.  One pirate fell, but the return fire was slackening as the corridor filled with smoke and the reek of ozone.  "Slephen, Teeves, move out."

The two that had stayed behind now hurried forward, each carrying a fallen comrade.  The cargo doors opened and the pirates dove to safety.  "Everybody out now.  Teeves, you and I cover the boarding.  Move!"

The battered band moved as quickly as they could to comply with her orders.  An occasional blaster bolt splattered within the hold, ricocheting off the magnetic seal of the main hold doors.  But the fight seemed to have gone out of the Queen's crew and the pirates disengaged without further incident.

The transport broke the air lock connection and moved ponderously away from the Queen.  And then, after a few short seconds it vanished into hyperspace.  The Y-Wings followed it immediately.

Part 4

The sweat was heavy on Electro's brow as he concentrated on avoiding the fire of his pursuer. He knew with certainty that this whizzer wasn't piloted by an artificial intelligence. It anticipated his every move, and only with completely random maneuvers had he avoided being utterly destroyed. The second TIE Advanced was so lost in the fray as to be but a mere occasional annoyance, Electro's only worry there was accidentally running into the novice pilot. 

His mind ran wild trying to figure a way out of his predicament. The TIE Bombers were inching closer, a few more seconds and they'd be within range to fire missiles, and that would probably be the end for his X-Wing. He could think of only one chance. 

"R2, you still there?" The warble of his astromech droid confirmed that it was indeed still with him. "On my signal cut thrust to zero, full braking thrusters." 

Electro switched to dual torpedoes. "Now." As the ship slowed rapidly Electro slewed his craft in a flat spin, its nose whipping around towards his foe. And as the nose came back to point straight at the whizzer he fired his weapons. 

"Simulation Terminated. X-Wing Rogue 13 destroyed." The simulator board went suddenly dark and the voice of Brevart seemed to echo in the silence. 

"Damn. I'm dead." He popped the canopy and it glided smoothly open. Disengaging the restraints he climbed stiffly out of the simulator and checking his chrono was surprised to see that the mission had lasted just over eight minutes. 

Brevart's voice came over the intercom. "All pilots to the debriefing room." 

Kerbe looked up at him, sensing his mood and then quickly followed after him as he walked down the corridor to the briefing room. As he entered he saw four other pilots already chatting quietly. The Blue trainee, here for a week of intensive training before his final pilot exams looked up as he walked in. "Sorry about that Captain." 

"Not your fault, I should have taken us out of there from the beginning." Electro took a seat at the conference table near the end furthest from the briefing screen. As he did, Brevart and Storm walked into the room. 

Storm was carrying a flight helmet and Electro immediately surmised he had been in the TIE Advanced that had so dogged him. Electro nodded to his squadron mate and turned his attention to the Mission Summary that Brevart was about to make. 

"Gentlemen. The mission was a failure. Target platform was hit by 12 torpedoes, causing minimal damage. Enemy losses of 5 TIE Interceptors and one TIE Advanced. Our losses were four X-Wings, two pilots captured, two killed." The briefing screen showed what each pilot had accomplished. Electro skipped down to his entry, he'd bagged four of the squints and the whizzer. He paused. He'd also been killed. Altogether not a good performance. 

"Any comments?" One of the rookies raised his hand. "Yes?" 

"Well sir, it didn't seem like a fair exercise. I mean, we didn't really have much of a chance did we?" 

Brevart stared at the young man for a full minute before he spoke. "Since when is life fair? This mission is designed to show you that there are some situations that cannot be prepared for. As I mentioned this is a historically accurate mission. You did slightly better than the pilots did on that occasion, largely thanks to Captain Schock's dogfighting skills, but that is nothing to be proud about." 

Electro spoke up, "I take it this mission is designed to be impossible to beat?" 

"Yes. Had you run, the TIE Advanced would have caught you prior to jump and a flight of Gunboats would have come in right at the same time. This is historically what actually happened." Brevart turned to the briefing screen and pointed at the specs of the TIE Advanced. "Remember, the TIE Advanced is faster, more heavily armed and armored than the X-Wing. In the hands of a capable pilot such as Lieutenant Schenk it is a devastating weapon. He accounted for three of the four X-Wing kills in the simulation." 

Electro sat back in his seat and considered. "What happened after I bought it?" 

Storm smiled broadly. "I was wondering if you'd ask that. One of the torpedoes hit me and beat me up pretty badly, but I was able to limp back to the platform. Nice maneuver, we'll have to talk about that one later." 

"Thanks, not good enough though. Been deskbound and dirtbound too long it seems." 

Laughing darkly Storm replied, "Could have fooled me." 

As the briefing moved on, Electro thought over the mission again and again. "It must be winnable," he thought to himself.

Part 5

Rogue Leader's office was its usual controlled chaos.  Datacards and flimsies littered the desk around his dedicated computer access station.  Rogue Leader himself sat in his chair, feet up on the desk, deep in thought, a flimsy held in his hand when the access chime sounded.  Distracted from his reverie, he kicked back from the desk and moved aside some of the mess to locate the door lock controls.  He pressed the appropriate stud and the door swished open.

Bill "Jedi" Morrison, Rogue Squadron Executive Officer sauntered into the office.  Glancing at the pile of materials on the chair in front of his commanding officer's desk he deftly swept them onto the floor and sat down.  "Hey Pete!"

Rogue Leader eyed the addition to the entropy level of his office with little concern and returned the greeting.  "I see you are prompt as ever Bill.  I think our appointment was scheduled for 20 minutes ago."

All innocence, Jedi responded, "I'll have to get after Baureis about that scheduling thing.  So, what's on the agenda this morning?"

"The usual, save the galaxy from evil minded villains and other mundane tasks.  I wanted to go over the duty roster, we've got a new request from Starfighter Command and the Buccaneer situation to discuss."

Now all business Jedi pulled out his datacard and keyed to retrieve a file.  "I have the roster here.  Good news on that front, Captain Schock has been cleared for active duty.  He seems to think his flying isn't up to par, but you could have fooled me from watching the holo recordings from the last few days."

"Excellent.  Command has requested a detachment from Rogue Squadron to track down some pirates in the Borellian Breaks.  Seems they've gotten more than the usual trouble of late.  Rogue was assigned as a political token gesture.  The diplomatic branch feels showing the flag, as it were, could help convince some of the outlying systems to support the Alliance actively.  I think a single flight should be sufficient for our purposes."

"Right.  I'd suggest Captain Schock, and Lieutenants Lee, Schenk and Siorek then."

"Good.  Raven knows the Breaks as we've seen before, he'll be valuable on this mission.  I'll make the appropriate arrangements for a briefing tomorrow morning.  Can you see to requisitioning these supplies and equipment for the mission?"  Rogue Leader handed Jedi one of the many cards from his desk.

"Right boss, no problem there."  Jedi read the list and silently shook his head.  "Well, mostly no problem.  We'll see what we can do."

"I'm sure you'll do fine.  Now, what is the status of the personnel transfer requests for Buccaneer?"

"Not so good.  Only Lt. Gregory has reported.  Some sort of snafu at HQ and at least one of the pilots is missing presumed dead at last report."

"What a logistical nightmare.  We're running down a squadron on the Liberty and no status on when we get our new pilots.  I see the Y-Wings have arrived, too bad we haven't got anyone to fly them.  What is Lt. Gregory doing all by himself?"

Jedi considered that for a moment.  "Nothing really.  You know, why not send him on this latest mission?  A Y-Wing could come in handy against pirates, and he might pick up some things from the Rogue pilots."

"Done."

The next morning

The small briefing room was dimly lit, as was every part of the Liberty, at least for human comfort.  The table itself was irregularly shaped, sort of like a noodle.  Quicksilver and Moose sat along one side, having arrived early, and chatted in muted tones as Raven and Storm entered the room together.  Raven catalogued those present.  "Must be some sort of rule about lowest ranking officers having to arrive first," he quipped in his usual irreverent manner.

Storm found a seat opposite the other two pilots.  Raven marched to the far end of the table and sat down.  "I'm sure you are all wondering why I asked you here this morning?"  Storm couldn't help but laugh at that, Raven had sounded exactly like Jedi in the recent murder investigation on the Liberty.

The door opened once more and this time it was their XO.  "Speak of the devil," Storm thought to himself with a little chuckle.

"Hi guys!   Hey, I'm not the last one here, I thought I'd be late.  Wasn't the briefing supposed to start fifteen minutes ago?"

The room erupted in laughter.  Quicksilver, hardly able to control his guffaws managed to speak at last.  "No, it starts in a minute or so."

Raven couldn't help but take another shot, "I think Carol has figure out how to keep you on schedule at last Jedi!"

Jedi snorted and took his usual seat next to the head of the table as Electro, Kerbe and Rogue Leader all came into the room.  Electro sat opposite Jedi and Kerbe neatly jumped into the chair at the head of the table and put her front two feat on the table itself.

Rogue Leader glanced at the little scene and in his driest voice commented., "It seems someone has been promoted."

Electro picked Kerbe up and placed her back onto the floor.  "Sorry Commander."

"Gentlemen, shall we begin?"  Rogue Leader sat at the head of the briefing table, in the seat so recently vacated by Kerbe and activated the briefing projector.   "The five of you under the command of Captain Schock will be sent on a detached mission to the Borellian Breaks.  The Breaks have had a rash of successful pirate attacks in the last two months, attributed to a group called 'The Runners.'  Your mission is to track this pirate band down and to eliminate the threat to commerce."

"Pardon me sir, why Rogue?" asked Moose.

"Good question.  High Command believes that the presence of Rogue would suitably impress systems in the Breaks and could help to persuade several systems to openly begin supporting the Alliance.  If we can show that we can protect them, we may be able to convince them to join us."

There were nods around the table.

"So, you can see that this is an important mission.  The natural resources of the Breaks are substantial and it is far from any strong Imperial base.  It is thus an excellent potential supply source for us."  Rogue Leader changed the display to show a map of the Breaks.  Several areas had been marked by a blue star. 

"This graphic shows the locations of attacks attributed to the Runners in the last two months.  As you can see there have been a large number, far larger than is typical.  It seems the Empire has almost completely withdrawn from the sector recently and the Runners are taking advantage."

"Most of the attacks have been small, ships stopped and cargo taken.  Only a few fatalities, but a number of injuries.  No pirates have been captured.  It's our job to see that they are.  You'll be setting up a temporary base on the second moon of Revia.  It is uninhabited, and Revia has only a small population.  From there you'll begin your search."

"Pardon me Commander," Raven interjected, "but I think we may have a better option for our base location."

"Let's hear it."

Part 6

As far as the eye could see, rocks.  Large, small, some the size of cities and continents, some the size of grapes and grains of sand.  The asteroid belt was thick with junk.  And deep in the garbage lay a sizable chunk of rock.  Long ago in the days before the Empire it had been hollowed out as a mining base to serve the rock hounds that brought ores from the belt.  Smelters and other equipment had been installed to crush and refine the raw ores for shipment from the system to the growing worlds of the Breaks.  Now it was forgotten, a relic of an era long gone.  Forgotten that is by all but a few who put it to a different use, more sinister, more clandestine.  The rocky field of dreams had long been abandoned when the Runners moved in to call the former mining base home.  Now it served as their den of refuge where they stored their ill gotten gains until they could be transferred for sale to the brokers of the black market, both near and far.

The base was large enough to hide a considerable band, but the Runners used only a fraction of the space.  The group consisted of only 31 members.  The landing platform and its associated bay housed only a small complement of ships.  A YT-1300, a Muurian transport, two Y-Wings and six "Uglies", hacked together fighters of mixed pedigree.  But what the Runners lacked in brawn, they more than made up for with brains and careful planning under the leadership of Lee Lo.

Lee sat at a computer terminal, poring over shipping data, looking for their next target of opportunity.  It was getting harder and harder to pull off a clean raid, as their last encounter had shown.  She'd been recognized and they'd had to strike far earlier than she'd wanted.  And they'd suffered casualties... something Lee didn't like at all.

"What's this?"  Her elfin face was lit by the phosphorescence of the ancient terminal, casting her otherwise attractive features in an alien green glow as she studied the data carefully.  The slightest hint of a smile crossed her face.  "Welcome to the Breaks my pretty!"

Later

The conference room atop the base was filled with nearly the entire complement of the Runners.  Lee Lo motioned for silence and the subdued conversation that had been going on came quickly to a stop.  She scanned the expectant faces arrayed before her.  "A good crew," she mused.  "The best I've had."

"It's time for the big one my friends!" she began.  If her followers had been listening before, they now gave her their complete attention.  "Behold our next target, the Opulent Moon Serenade."

The display screen lit up with the image of a large ship.  It was long and sleek, obviously a passenger liner of some sort, its decks pocked with windows, viewing bays and even tiny portholes.  Lee let the band study her for a moment and then continued.  "Crew of 49, 137 passengers, minimal cargo capacity.  She's a luxury liner."

A big man with bright red hair cleared his throat. "Sorry Lee, but why hit her if she hasn't got any cargo?"  There were a few nods around the room.

"This won't be exactly like our previous jobs.  This time we're after small valuables, jewelry, and so forth.  On a liner of this size you'd normally expect a reasonable number of valuables.  But on this trip the crown prince of Quee'tor is a passenger."

A long low whistle pierced the silence of Lee's pregnant pause.  She smiled a most predatory smile.  "I see at least one of you have heard of Quee'tor."

"Quee'tor is a core world, rich in precious gems and minerals.  The royal family has ruled for many generations and when Palpatine came to power they quickly endorsed his rule.  The planet has retained its position of wealth and influence and now the crown prince has been named as a regional governor in payment for the loyalty, wealth, and continued support that flows from Quee'tor to Coruscant.  He is traveling to his new post in splendor aboard the Opulent Moon Serenade."

"The traditional gown of state of the crown prince is studded with the rarest gems in the galaxy, a fortune in stones in a single garment.  The stuff that dreams are made of to be sure."  Or at least the dreams of one Lee Lo.

Lee continued with her briefing.  "Our methods will be similar to our other attacks, only on a larger scale.  It's an inside job as usual.  We'll take over the ship, drop out of hyperspace and leave before help can arrive.  To disguise our intelligence source we'll take all the small valuable on the ship, but if time is short, all we're really after is the crown prince's gown."

There were nods of agreement from around the room.

"Slephen, here's what I want your team to do..."

Part 7

"Rogue 13 to Rogue 3, we're coming up on the last jump point. This will put us in the heart of the Breaks. Raven and I will drop out of hyperspace ahead of you and your wings and will set up interdiction. On exiting home in on Rogue 11's beacon, maintain comm silence. With luck we'll be deep in the target asteroid field before any ships in the area can pick us up."

"Rogue 3, roger that Rogue 13. Not likely that anyone will be around our exit point. The Nomads were the only ones to ever travel that area according to Foxfire and they pulled out of Sector Q just before the Pandora's Box operation. We should have the sky to ourselves Captain." Storm watched as the two X-Wings ahead of him disappeared off his forward scope as they made the jump to hyperspace.

He looked out the port side of this canopy at the X and Y-Wing ships flying abreast of his ship. Normally he'd have Raven flying on his wing but as Raven had extensive experience out in the Borellian Breaks Captain Schock wanted him to vanguard the flight into their temporary base. As Electro pointed out - experience counts. Storm also had spent some time in the Breaks and was nominally in charge of the remainder of their force.

"Rogue 3 to Rogue 8, Si we've got about six minutes until we reach our jump point. Want to play some acey-ducey to pass the time?" Storm looked over at the recent addition to Rogue Squadron. 

He heard Quicksilver laugh over the commlink and saw him shake his head. "No, no, I think not Storm. Maybe a game of chess with Rory though. More challenging."

It was Eddie's turn to laugh, "Sure, kick a man when he's down on his luck, why don't cha? Hey, Buccaneer 2, wake up over there! You hear the abuse I'm taking from my own squadmate?"

Moose glanced over at the two Rogue ships and flipped on his commlink. "Sounds like a family matter Rogue 3. I think I'll sit on the sidelines." He was glad to be included in the chatter as it was a bit spooky to be the first and only member of a newly activated squadron. Buccaneer was Rogue's new "sister" squadron stationed aboard the Mon Cal Star Cruiser, Liberty. He was still feeling very new despite the Rogue pilots efforts to make him welcome.

"Rogue 8 to Buccaneer 2," Si cut in. "You got a dry place to sit it out in?" Quicksilver broke up in gales of laughter and Moose felt his face flush crimson. Shortly after his arrival on board the Liberty he had spilled a drink all over the Rogue Squadron talisman, Rory, in the Lounge when he'd tripped over a barstool. Later that night he'd returned to his cabin only to find it flooded from deck to overhead with water. Of course his first indication of this came when he'd opened the door only to be hit with just over 100 cubic meters of water as it came pouring out of his quarters. While a damp cabin would not bother many of the beings stationed on the Liberty it took a week for Moose to get his gear thoroughly dried out.

"Storm to Moose, don't let it get you down. Rory only plays practical jokes on people he likes. Okay, coming up on the jump point. This is a short jump so stay alert. Link your astromech units to mine." There were two echoes of "roger". 

"Sending coordinates now. On my mark, three, two, one, jump!" The starlines elongated as the three fighters winked out of normal space.

A short hop through hyperspace and the starlines became pin prick points of light and the ships made a perfect reversion. "Nice flying in a Y-Wing", thought Quicksilver as Moose kept perfect pace with the more maneuverable X-Wings. They saw the short range beacon on Raven's ship and headed directly for it.

They negotiated the outlying debris field with little problem and came up on the target asteroid that Raven had picked out for this mission. 

Seeing that all the ships in the small strike force were accounted for Raven cut his main engines and his X-Wing slid towards the rock. He hit his transmitter and sent a weak coded signal. This particular rock was an old Nomad base and he and another pilot had holed up here during the early stages of Operation Anvil. The code was accepted and the side of the asteroid in front of his X-Wing seemed to split as the docking bay door was retracted. No lights came on inside, but this was to be expected. The Nomads were very careful not to attract unwanted attention. Raven was too far away for his repulsors to be effective so he fired his starboard engines and moved his ship into the blackness of the base.

Once inside the faint landing lights came on and he set his X-Wing down on the second level. It'd be a tight fit to get all five fighters packed in the space available.

Electro watched as Raven's fighter entered the base. By the numbers the other ships followed him in. Electro circled watching both his front and rear screens. "So far so good," he thought. "No ships, no transmissions, looks like we are completely undetected." Watching his screens he followed the rest of the strike force and just managed to set his fighter down on the first level platform. He popped the canopy of his ship and slid down the side.

Up on a catwalk between the two levels Storm called down, "Up here Chris. A bit of a tight fit, no? The rest of the crew is inside. Raven knows his way around this joint and is getting the screens up and powering the various systems."

"Very good, let's join the others."

The base was small but very adequate for the needs of the Rogue team. A couple of small storage areas still holding some long term space rations, a galley, crew quarters with four bunks, a larger room off the galley, and a command center. They had sensors that would let them know if any ship entered the system and easy access to the surface via three small maintenance tubes.

The team assembled in the room off the galley and Raven and Si were dragging in chairs from one of the storage areas. Moose studied a wall control plate and managed to activate a table that folded down from the back wall. "All the comforts of a smuggler's outpost," he grinned.

"Just about," returned Raven. "You should find some tuva coffee in a stasis canister in the galley, first cupboard on the left. If you don't mind rustling up some java I'll start up the sensor warning system." Raven flipped up a circular hatch cover in the corner and disappeared through the floor.

"He's certainly at home here, isn't he?" Moose said to Quicksilver.

Si grinned, "You bet. Raven has run missions here in the Breaks before. A friend of his used to run with the Nomads in this sector and somehow Raven found out about several of their old outposts. We got very lucky that this place is right in the middle of the search area. At lease we don't have to try to set up a shelter on an airless moon." Si set down the chair he was carrying and ducked down a side passage to see what else might be better used in their new impromptu "ready room". 

Shortly thereafter Electro and Storm entered the room and Electro tossed his flight helmet onto the table as Moose came in from the galley with a container of coffee. "Very good," said Electro taking the offered cup of java. "Let's take a first cut at duty assignments and get things happening. The Alliance isn't paying us by the hour."

Storm glanced around the room and Moose gestured at the open hatch in the floor. Walking to the accessway Stormed hollered down to the level below, "Raven! Look alive and get your butt up here buddy. Times a-wasting!"

Joining his comrades Raven slid onto a stool at the table and Electro assigned duties. "Raven, you and Moose run equipment checks on all the station systems. Undock the R2 unit from Moose's ship to help you. I want to be sure we are secure here before we go much further. Eddie, you and I will unload our supplies from the ships. Raven, what's the situation with the water?"

"The reclaimator and purification system show green on diagnostics," Raven reported. "And the tanks are three-quarters full. With the extra tank in Moose's Y-Wing we'll be set indefinitely if we go easy on it."

"Okay," Electro made an entry in his datapad. " Si you can help with moving the electronic equipment after we set up house but first I want you to set up the hanger so we can launch all ships in a hurry if we need too. I don't want to be bottled up in here if something goes wrong. That hanger is crowded and the ships can be positioned better. You know what I want, so see to it."

"Moose, once you and Raven have blessed the station systems, get started on your survey and let us know how you plan on setting up your sensor arrays and eavesdroppers. If a ship or transmission even thinks of passing through this system I want to know about it. There you have it. Let's move like we had a purpose."

Part 8

The Opulent Moon Serenade moved her massive bulk through hyperspace towards her exit point in the Outer Rim. A luxury space cruiser of the first class, it was finally enjoying a profitable run on a new route from the Core Worlds to some little traveled areas in the far Outer Rim. Definitely off the beaten path.

Bo'Botop, the ship's purser nodded with satisfaction as he scanned the passenger list for the umpteenth time. "Most profitable indeed," he thought to himself. And it was none too soon for the cruise line of Macworty, Snarsss, & Cofluent. Despite the lack of competition from the famous Calamarian White Star cruise line, as their entire fleet had been converted to warships when the Mon Cals threw in with the Alliance, the remaining luxury lines still had quite a time staying profitable. The civil war made many of the most popular routes exceeding dangerous as the Rebels fought with the Empire at every turn. And the less central routes had problems with smugglers and the odd pirate since the Empire had dedicated so many of its resources to tracking down and engaging the Rebels. Still, it looked like this trip at least would turn a handsome credit. 

They were three weeks out from Coruscant and had just picked up several passengers on Bestine. Bo'Botop had several new requests for seatings at the Captain's Table and he left his small office and made his way to the bridge to speak with the Captain about accommodating the wealthier passengers.

On the bridge there was little activity as the next reversion to normal space was not scheduled for 36 hours or so. Two crewmen were on deck but there was no sign of the Captain. Bo'Botop cleared his throat, "You there, crewman!" he said.

A slight figure looked up from his nav scope. "Me, sir? Third Mate Teeves, sir!" he snapped to attention.

"Ah, yes," the Purser was pleased that he was finally getting the respect that he always felt was his due. "Ah, Teeves, is it? I'm looking for the Captain."

"Right, sir! The Captain is inspecting the snipe-overflow baffles for kryptonite contamination. He should be back in just over an hour, sir."

Bo'Botop nodded knowledgeably and flicked some imaginary dust from his sleeve. "Very well, I'll come back. Ah, carry on." The Third Mate snapped off a salute and returned his attention to his scope. The Purser left the bridge and made his way towards the dining salon.

On the bridge the two crewmen exchanged a glance and one of them snickered, "What a bloody toad." They returned to their duties.

In the main salon the second dinner seating had been cleared and most of the ships passengers were watching an acrobatic troupe performing on the stage. A slight girl was balanced on one foot at the top of a pole held aloft by two burly men as she juggled several sharp looking knives and bodkins. The crowd seemed quite enthralled with the show. Bo'Botop made a mental note to extend the contract for the performers. Deciding he'd speak with the Captain in the morning he headed for his own cabin, anxious to turn in for the night.

He took a short cut through the maintenance level above the engineering deck. As he climbed up the accessway ladder he heard someone moving down the corridor he'd just came through. Looking down from the top of the hatchway he saw two men in ship's crew uniforms carrying a third person wrapped up in a blanket between them. Bo'Botop assumed that they must be taking some passenger who had over indulged a bit to sick bay. He started to call to the two crewmen but it occurred to him that this would be the wrong direction for them to go to take a passenger to medical.

As they passed directly underneath the ladderway, the arm of the person being carried flopped out from the blanket. The sleeve was a ship's uniform covered in gold braid. They were carrying the Captain. "We've got to stash this joker and get to the communications room fast. Slephen and Teeves will have made the course changes by now and we've..." the voice trailed off as they stepped through the bulkhead hatch into the next section of the ship.

Bo'Botop was slow but given enough clues he could eventually come up with the right answer. The ship was falling into the hands of mutineers! Up through the hatchway he shot and began sprinting down the corridor towards the Comm Center. The outer office was empty as the ship normally did not handle passenger traffic while in hyperspace and he clumsily climbed over the counter and pulled open the hatch to the comm room itself. The duty officer was laying on the floor, a dark red stripe across the side of his forehead indicating where he'd been struck as he sat at his station. As the Purser studied the comm panel the ship lurched as it came out of hyperspace. There was no reversion warning, the ship just suddenly made the exit from hyperspace. Sweat beaded on Bo'Botop's brow now as the realization of what was happening hit him. They were being hijacked.

He found what he was looking for, the emergency distress signal. He broke the cover on the keyswitch and flipped up the three toggles. He then grasped the pull lever and yanked it with all his might just as a massive arm slipped around his neck and he was hauled up and backwards. The lever engaged and a small klaxon sound was heard as the wide spectrum distress signal was sent. "Don't kill him, Rico," said a voice and the pressure on the Purser's neck abated only the slightest degree. "We'll need the passenger list. Get that distress signal shut down at once and bring him to the bridge."

In the main salon the performance was reaching a crescendo as the juggler added more and more silver glowing spheres to those already flying around her high over the deck. Then as the liner shifted out of normal space she began flinging the orbs around the salon. They began to hiss as they emitted a neural paralysis field and the patrons of the salon began to collapse into unconsciousness.  Lee Lo jumped lightly down from her perch on the pole and ordered her companions to seal the bulkheads in this section of the ship.

Running towards the crew quarters she paused only to pull a pair of crew coveralls on over her leotard. The off duty watch would be wondering why the ship had dropped out of hyperspace. Her men on the bridge would give them a story about a temporary malfunction but that would not stand up for long. She rounded the last corner and entered the crew quarters. "Up, up! Everyone up!" she called. Several crewmen came running into the common room asking questions.

"Something's wrong," Lee began. "The ship has dropped out of hyperspace early."

A yawning crewman hesitated, "Yeah, I checked with the bridge, the watch says that they had a failure warning on the secondary drive shield. Should have it fixed in an hour or so." He did not look fully awake.

Lee Lo suppressed a smile and pushed on, "I'll bet you didn't get that from the Captain. I can't raise anyone in the Comm Center and the armored doors to the bridge have been lowered." This caused the crew to become quite agitated and several asked what should be done.

"We've got to get to engineering and gain control of the ship's defenses. If we cut across to the port side gangway we can slip in on anyone in that area of the ship. But we've got to move now!" Lee could sense she had their full attention. Before anyone could question her about anything she led the way down the corridor to the accessway that Bo'Botop had been coming up earlier. The dozen or so off duty crewmen made their way down the ladder. Lee Lo watched them descend. The last to go down stopped half way and then climbed back up, standing half way out of the deck hatchway.

"There's a problem. They say the port bulkhead is locked tight. We can't get to engineering this way."

Lee Lo smiled at him. "I know," she said sweetly as she struck him with the flat of her hand, knocking him off the rungs of the ladder and down on top of the milling crewmen below. "The starboard and forward hatches are locked as well. In fact there's no way out of that passage." She slammed down the hatch cover and spun the handle. Then she pulled a small disk from off her wrist bracelet and set it on the locking mechanism. It began to heat and within seconds had melted the lock. The hatch was completely sealed. Most of the Opulent Moon Serenade's crew was now completely locked up and could trouble her no further.

She made her way to the main docking port and was met by one of her pirate crew. "All clear on the bridge. Slephen is up there with Marf, and Rico's manning the Comm Center. Ships lasers and defensive systems are shut down and everything in the ship's weapons locker is accounted for. A distress signal was activated but we got it shut down almost immediately. There are three of the duty crew unaccounted for. How did it go with the off duty personnel?"

"All locked up, Teeves," the leader of the group known as the Runners replied. "Signal Runner 2 to commence docking operations. Get an armed team to track down those other crewmen. This is a big ship and we'll need some time to loot it properly. Most of the passengers, including the Prince, are knocked out in the main salon. But I want the rest rounded up from their quarters. I want this ship stripped clean!"

Meanwhile...

Moose had had his deep space listening gear hooked up and was still running system checks when an amber light lit up. He slipped a commlink earphone into his right ear and listened as the signal was boosted and decoded. Before the transmission ended he reached out and hit the panic button on the console in front of him. The all hands circuit clicked in and he called out, "Scramble! I just picked up a ship's wide-spectrum distress signal. It was faint and shut down almost immediately. I have their coordinates."

Sliding down the maintenance chute Electro came bounding into the Ops-Center. He flicked on the replay and checked the signal himself . "Hmm, a luxury liner. Sounds like we hit the jackpot." Speaking into the comm mike he confirmed, "Scramble all Rogues! Get to your ships!" He turned to Moose, "You too Buccaneer. We may have gotten lucky here, but that signal is almost at the edge of our detection sphere. I want to throw everything we have into this, maybe clean up the whole situation in one action."

The pilots were all combat veterans and the five fighters were soon launched from the hidden listening post. "Full acceleration," called Electro. "Course 155 delta, form up on me. It'll take us almost 90 minutes to reach the transmission point of the distress signal and we can't assume that the liner is still at that location. Raven you fly wing for Si. Storm you'll be my wingman for this trip. Moose you go right up the middle. Let's use the flight time productively. Get your secondaries charged up. Moose call up any nav charts we have on the target area and work up a search sweep based on the transmission signature of the distress signal."

Moose was busy in the roomy cockpit of his Y-Wing. He checked the speeds of the X-Wings flying to either side of him and adjusted his ELS to match speeds and still spill some charge to his secondary shields. With the help of his R2 unit he finessed the settings so he'd make the craft's best speed and still have his secondary shields fully charged by the time they reached the target. His ship actually began to pull out in front of the X-Wings and they sped up to keep pace with him. "Roger Rogue 13", he replied. The charts were rudimentary to say the least but he checked what they had and signaled Electro. "Buccaneer 2 to Rogue 13, from the last known position I'd guess a star cone sweep would be the optimal search pattern."

"Roger Buccaneer 2. Make the pattern assignments in case we have to go hunting." Electro grinned. Moose was anxious to please and a good pilot to boot. He was beginning to think that this assignment might go better than he'd hoped. He settled in for the flight.

An hour later...

"Approaching target coords," Storm broke the silence. "Nothing on my scope... wait, got it! One blip. A big one too. Must be the liner Chris."

"Rogue 13 to all pilots, cut speed and recharge your lasers." He checked his Combat Multiview Display. "That ship is dead in space. I show zero velocity. Si you and Raven break on 270 relative and sweep across her stern and cover the far side. Storm you go for the bow and cover us. Moose you and I will go straight in. We may have caught the Runners right in the act. That liner sports port and starboard fixed gun mounts and a rear quad turret so watch yourselves in case the pirates have manned her defenses. Let's go."

The Rogue ships barreled in on the Opulent Moon Serenade, weapons systems primed and loaded. Electro flipped open the merchant channel on his commlink. "Moon Serenade, this is Captain Chris Schock of the Rebel Alliance. We are here to offer you the assistance of Rogue Squadron. Stand to and do not attempt to maneuver."

A tired and strained voice replied almost immediately, "Rogue pilot, this is Ensign Devon Clive of the Opulent Moon Serenade, flying under neutral registry. We have been hijacked by pirates. Most of the crew is trapped. Only two of us managed to elude the pirates."

"Roger, Ensign Clive," replied Electro. "How many pirates are aboard your ship? What is your status?"

"Aboard? Rogue Squadron, you are too late. They've looted the Opulent Moon Serenade and left.  We've got a dozen or more injured crew and some passengers are suffering from paralysis shock. I need help getting to the trapped crewmen and medical assistance for our casualties. Can you help, Rogue?"

"Damn," thought Electro. The Runners pull a major space jacking almost under his nose and get clean away. "Eddie you have anything on your scope?"

"Rogue 3 to Rogue 13, that's negative. Nothing out there."

"Rogue 8 to Rogue 13, the port side lock is extended. The bad guys must have docked another ship to the liner. The engines on this side have been gutted with laser fire. Looks real recent. This ship is not going anywhere anytime soon."

Electro opened his mike again, "Opulent Moon, we will provide what assistance we can. Moose, break out the medi tapes and let's hope their sickbay has a decent med-droid. Si, you and Raven stay up as cover in case things are not as they seem. I want a perimeter sweep with overlapping coverage. Moose, Storm, and I are going to go aboard."

Part 9

After leaving the looted luxury liner limping towards the nearest inhabited planet in search of major repairs, Electro decided to split his forces in an effort to pick up the trail of the elusive gang of space-jackers known only as the Runners. Since Raven and Storm were the only members of his team who had traveled the Breaks to any extent, he sent the two undercover to see what they could find out among the smugglers and traders of Sector Q.

Having made planet fall on Cignus 7 near the outskirts of a small colony; Raven and Storm made their way to a small tavern near the spaceport. The infamous 'Felix's Place'. "You think we might run into Zach or another of the Nomads?" asked Rogue 3. "They'd know what was what out here if anyone does."

"Probably not. From what I've heard they've all pulled out of the Sector. I thought we might have a chat with Felix or maybe that Krang fellow. They seem to be tied into anything illegal going down within the Breaks. And it'll be good to see Felix's again."

The two pilots reached the bar and grill and made their way through the thin crowd to the bar. Raven exchanged words with the bar droid and shortly a short black furred alien came out and greeted them. Soon the three were sitting in a private room in the back and sampling some of Felix's best fare. Storm cut right to the chase, "Felix, we're looking for information on the Runners."

The usually jolly inn-keeper became very serious and studied the two men carefully. "So, bounty-hunters now is it. I knew you two would come to no good."

Raven looked up from his bantha burger. "What makes you think we've turned pro?" he asked.

Shrugging, Felix replied, "Well, you're looking for a bunch that doesn't much like being found and I don't think you're looking to join up with them as you don't strike me as the pirate type. With Andreth putting a death mark on the Runners at large I figure you're after the bounty."

"Wait a minute," said Storm. "You mean Tiren Andreth? The mega-buck crime lord? What's he got against some space-jackers?"

Felix looked surprised. "You guys just fall off a star or something? The Runners are a major poindexter in Andreth's side. He runs all the major action in this Sector and collects tribute from anyone running anything remotely illegal that he feels is beneath his direct efforts. Except for the Runners. They operate only for themselves. Andreth ordered them to split their booty with them or leave the Breaks. They sent the envoy back in a box. A very small box if you get my drift. Tiren has no sense of humor in some matters, business being one of them. So he's stuck a bounty on them. But it don't seem to have slowed them down much. They're the slickest thing to hit space since Jim diGriz."

"The Stainless Steel Rat?" asked Raven. "I thought that guy was a myth."

"Myth or not they show up, take what they want and disappear. Precision, planning, and always one step ahead of everyone. Imperials, Andreth's boys, no one's even gotten close. Which brings us back to you two jokers. What's got you looking to find the Runners?"

Storm grinned at their host. "Did you really want to know?" he asked locking eyes with the alien.

"Well, now that you mention it, no. Not that I can help you in any event. I know zip about that group. But they've got the whole of the Breaks stirred up. I've been keeping less cash in the till because you never know when the Runners are subject to show up. They like to work from the inside so I've been real leery of hiring new help around here, if that's any use to you."

Finishing their drinks, Storm and Raven rose to leave. "Well, thanks old sport," said Storm. "We'll just be on our way then."

They made their way to the exit. "Felix, keep it under your hat that we were asking around. If we do find the party we're looking for we'd very much like to have it be a surprise." Felix assured his friends that it was strictly their funeral and of no concern of his. 

At the spaceport they studied the ships in port and discussed their next step. "Maybe we should check out this Tiren Andreth. See what he has on the Runners. Know where we might find him?" Storm asked his squadmate.

"He has a supply depot on an old space platform not far from here. I was there while you were vacationing with Jedi on Coruscant during Operation Anvil. If he's not there we can always slice his computer net and see what we can find out. The trick will be catching a lift out there."

Storm was studying the jobs board. He pulled his slicer kit out of his flight bag. "Let's have a word with the field service computer and see if we can find out what ships are likely smugglers and we'll just get signed on as extra hands. If we can back-tap into the various ships' computers we should find out who's heading out with a load of contraband."

"Sounds fine with me dude." Raven grinned, it was good to be back in action again.

After a little judicious hacking into the spaceport main computer Storm was able to scan the data in the shipboard computers of several of the freighters on the field. "Looks like this is our best bet," Storm said as Raven watched the door of the empty office they had commandeered near the port administrative offices. "I'd guess they're carrying space ship parts, quite a lot of them. That sound like something Tiren would be stocking?"

"You bet. He sells a lot of ships through that station of his. How can we tag along on his run?" asked Raven.

Storm studied the screen for few minutes. "Hmm, they're not looking for any hands, or at least they've not posted any requests with the local union hall. They've got a crew of four but that's pretty light for a ship that size. Maybe they'll suddenly want to hire some new hands." The grin that Storm gave his squadmate made it clear he had something nefarious in mind.

Later...

Squatting down by the rear hydraulic pad on the Snark-class freighter Storm pointed at a small pool of orange fluid. "Doesn't look bad but it indicates a hair line fracture in the cylinder sleeve," he said to the man standing behind him.

Coming down the loading gangway the captain of the ship saw the two grubby figures standing in the shadow of his ship. "Hey, you two! You have business here? I'm Mopar Knuther, captain of the Fast Shuffle and I don't like space hounds eyeing my ship!"

Storm straightened up. "My mate and I are looking for work. Our hyper-drive gave out and we're stuck here till we can earn enough for an overhaul. We can do the work ourselves but our modavator is shot and we don't have the scratch for a rebuilt. Speaking of which, you need a refit on this landing jig."

The captain stomped over to the extended landing leg and examined it. Storm and Raven stood nearby and watched. "Don't look bad to me," Mopar said. "Just a sweat leak, nothing serious."

Raven caught the sly wink Storm gave him. Raven walked over to the landing strut. "Sure, to someone who don't know ships maybe it'd look that way. But the fluid is bright orange, no red tinge to it at all." Raven dabbed some of the fluid on his finger and sniffed it, "And it has no burnt smell as it would if had just sweated past the seal." 

Mopar grinned at Raven. "Well, you're not as dumb as you look, son. You and your friend are right. This is a problem we'll have to get fixed before we lift. You and your pal up to fixing this leg while she sits on the pad?"

"You bet we can fix it. Field rates plus 15% for rush service," Storm responded. "We can jury rig a strut to take the pressure off and field strip the hydraulics right here. You got a replacement sleeve?"

"You bet I have a replacement," Mopar shot back. "You think I wouldn't? Field rates flat or I'll take it over to the field repair dock."

"I guess a spare sleeve or two would be necessary on an overloaded Snark like this. Field rates plus 10%, the repair dock has a full overhaul in it now and a thruster re-calibration waiting."

"The Fast Shuffle could haul a third more cargo than she's carrying now if I could get it strapped on, sonny. Field rates plus 5%, and that's only because I'm a crewman short. He took off drinking last night and hasn't shown up since."

Storm looked at Raven and replied, "Done." He dropped his flight bag to the tarmac and began to unhook the plate covers on the landing gear.

Mopar hooked his thumb over his shoulder, "You'll find a tool kit in the maintenance tube. Stay out of the cargo areas." Raven trotted off to get the tools they'd need to overhaul the landing strut.

While Mopar stood at the end of the gangway from the ship, Raven and Storm bent their backs replacing the broken part on the ships landing leg. The freighter captain was fairly impressed with the job they did and in a little over two hours they had finished the job. "Not bad", remarked the captain of the Fast Shuffle. "Not bad at all. You boys say you need a rebuilt modavator? Maybe we can do some business. I have to lift come first light and I'm a bit short of hands for this run. It's just a freight haul, there and back, with no questions asked. You two seem to know your way around a ship and I'm pressed for time. What do you say?"

Storm picked up his flight bag and smiled.  The mickey they'd slipped the Fast Shuffle's deck hand last night would keep him out for another twelve hours easily. "Crew wages plus 15% for short notice..."
 
Part 10

The Fast Shuffle made a slow approach to the space station, which hung like a giant ornament near a pair of binary suns. An ancient Golan I battle platform, it had been added onto and modified so many times over so many years it resembled nothing so much as a small floating city. A small tug came out and nudged the freighter into a docking port near the station's central axis. There were five other ships docked and a dozen more floating just off the station. A busy place to be sure.

Storm and Raven had spent the trip doing odd jobs and repairs and had worked out a deal with Mopar for a slightly used hyperspace modavator in lieu of wages for the trip in keeping with their cover of a couple of space bums trying to get their own ship repaired. Mopar worked them hard and was glad to have such able bodied hands aboard. After docking, the entire crew along with one ancient droid, lent a hand and hauled cargo from the freighter into the loading bays of the station. 

Once most of the heavy cargo was offloaded and everyone cleaned up, Mopar dismissed the crew with some passes for the recreation areas on the station. Raven speculated that no doubt there was some special contraband that the captain did not want even his own crew to see change hands. He and Storm made their way into the station proper.

"Since you've been here before, where do you suggest we try to slice into the network?" Storm asked quietly, raising his eyebrows as several very tall, dark haired women passed them in the main corridor.

"Last time I was here there were some offices not far from the bar that were under construction. I think we try there first". But as they neared the junction of the corridors they could see that whatever construction had been going on was finished some time ago and the offices were all staffed. It was a veritable bee hive of activity. "Damn," muttered Raven. "We'll have to find somewhere else. We have time, the Fast Shuffle doesn't lift for another six hours."

But Storm did not slow down. "See what you can find out in the bar," he said and leaving Raven staring slack-jawed he entered through the corridor's sliding doors. He stopped at the first occupied desk and rapped his knuckles loudly on the desk.

"All right, mate. I haven't got all day... which bloody terminal is giving you trouble this time?" Storm demanded.

The person at the desk covered the comm link she was talking into with one hand and called to a man nearby. "Kerns! Central finally sent someone up to fix the transceiver problem."

The apparent office manager, Kerns, came over and gesturing for Storm to follow him began to thread his way between the desks and offices. Storm smiled to himself.  "Computers, you have to love them for their consistency if nothing else," he said under his breath.

He was shown to an unoccupied  workstation. Kerns started going on about how important their work was and just why did it take so long to get someone down from Central when they had a problem anyway. Storm just smiled and let the man rant on until he realized that his repairman was not making any repairs. Getting the drift he told Storm to get on with the repairs and stomped off. Storm found a coffee dispenser and poured himself a steaming cup and settled at the desk to fix the computer. And more.

Meanwhile back in the bar...

Raven was not having much luck striking up a conversation with the human bartender who seemed intent on answering any question with a single grunt.

"Not a bad place, not bad at all," Raven ventured looking around the seedy bar. "Beats that tin can I've been cooped up in for the last three months," he lied glibly. "I could get used to this." He turned to the barkeep once more, "Hey, your boss looking to take on any help? I'm a fair hand behind the bar and can run the tri-faro table too." He pointed the group of humans and aliens gambling nearby.

The bartender finally seemed to find his tongue. "Maybe. Always looking for good help. I'm told it's hard to find." Raven did not see the man press a small plate under the bar.

"Well, I'm your man. What kind of action you get out in these parts, anyway?" he asked. "I hear this Andreth guy has everything sewed up except for a few independents. Is that how it is?" Raven asked.

The bartender smiled and grunted. Raven felt a heavy hand fall on his shoulder. Turning around he saw two security men with drawn blasters. The barkeep looked at one of the two. "Dis guy been asking questions. Says he might be looking for work as well. Says he just came in on a freighter." He went back to wiping the bar.

Raven started to protest when the second security cop jammed the business end of his blaster into his sternum. "Just come with us spacer. Our employment center is not far from here." Raven left the bar between the pointed guns of the local security forces. "And I left my Banshee in my other suit," he muttered as he was led to the station's detention area.

The questions were very straight forward. The inquisition centered on what ship had he come in on and how long had he worked for the Runners. Raven ignored the first and repeatedly denied the second. 

"Not too bad," thought Raven as he tried to catch his breath. They had been at it for a little over an hour and he'd lost very little blood and only three of his teeth on the left side were what he'd consider "real" loose. One of the station heavies was about to start another round when someone new entered the room. Raven could not see him from where he was tied to his chair but he heard him enter and everyone in the room seemed to come to attention.

A man entered his field of vision. His complexion was so pale as to be almost white, slim and he had the weathered "spacer" look about him. He carried himself with a self-assured air that indicated he was definitely in command of the present situation. "What's his name?" he asked the senior security officer present.

"He hasn't told us. He's denies being involved with the Runners but that's about all we can get out of him."

"You've had this man for an hour and you can't even get his name?" With that the man looked at Raven and addressed him directly. "Impressive. I'm Tiren Andreth and I strongly suspect you are an agent of the group known as the Runners. And I mean to find out one way or the other."

He turned back to the security chief. "Run his picture through the computer and see if he's ever been on the station before."

The man picked up a file from a nearby table. "Already have Mr. Andreth. He was aboard this station about four months ago. He was flying escort for a YT-1300 class freighter. Here's the cargo ship registry. That ship is not currently in station."

Andreth reviewed the file. "Nothing unusual except for that brawl we had in the tavern. What did he have on him when you picked him up?"

Before the Security chief could reply the door opened and an officer reported, "Sir, we're running a sweep on the ships that are docked, trying to determine which one this guy is from. The Lazy Sister is not scheduled to depart for another 12 hours but our instruments show she has just started her pre-flight warm up and is requesting immediate clearance. She came in yesterday and is at docking tube 19 out on the station circumference."

The Security Chief grinned at Raven, "We have your friends now!" He started for the door and began issuing orders. "Get every man armed and to docking tube 19. I want that ship boarded. And get a couple of ships over  to that side of the station in case she makes a run for it."

Giving Raven a last appraising look, Tiren Andreth followed the Chief out and told the guard to toss the prisoner into a cell for the time being. Raven was untied and pulled to his feet. As he staggered down the hallway he saw that the place had really emptied out. But just as his guard reached the cell door an alarm sounded. A man rounded the corner, "There's a fire reported in the comm center," he yelled as he disappeared down a side tunnel.  

He'd never get a better chance than this so as the guard opened the cell door Raven sagged against the wall. The man reached for him to toss him into the cell and Raven caught the guards wrist and managed to pull him off balance. He swung with all his might and slammed the guard into the door jam of the cell. He dragged the unconscious guard into the cell and then began to backtrack along the passage towards what he hoped was the way out.

As he reached the Security Center proper he could hear the techs calling out as reports came in: 

"The Lazy Sister has just fired her main engines. What's the ETA on the perimeter ship?" 

Another tech called out, "The fire in the Comm center seems to be spreading. I'm getting warnings from the remotes in sections D and F. Should we close all air tight doors?"

"I'm trying to get confirmation, can anyone get through to the Comm Center?"

Raven decided that his only hope was to just walk out and hope to not be noticed in the confusion. He was almost to the entry port when a hand grabbed him and nearly pulled him off his feet. Raven swung at the man holding him but his punch was easily blocked. "Now, now, can't have any of that mate." Raven looked up and saw Storm holding him up and pulling him down the corridor.

They raced along the passage and made only one stop in a public wash room where they managed to clean Raven up and get most of the blood off him. His coveralls were black and did not show the stains too badly. "Good to see you buddy," Raven finally managed as he struggled to keep pace with Storm.

"Yeah, first thing I did when I sliced into the system was flag any traffic on their security channel. When they nabbed you I figured we'd worn out our welcome and I'd best come along and collect you." Storm saw his squadmate was having trouble keeping up and slowed a bit. Fortunately, they were approaching the central axis and the loading bays. The tube where the Fast Shuffle was docked appeared and Mopar was again standing at the gangway apparently waiting for them.

"Good timing!" he called. "They need the bay for another ship and our launch has been moved up. Everyone else is back on board and we've been ordered to clear this port immediately. Jeez," said Mopar looking closely at Raven, "you look like you've been on shore leave for a week instead of just a few hours." He laughed and slapped Raven on the back not noticing the wince that he got from the injured pilot.

The three of them entered the ship and the docking port was withdrawn. Raven and Storm strapped into crash couches in the maintenance bay of the ship. The thrusters were fired and the ship moved out.  Raven looked at Storm. "This was all a bit too convenient to be coincidence," he said. "Something tells me that the Lazy Susan did not request early clearance and that the station central control did not request the Fast Shuffle vacate that berth. Am I right?"

Storm laughed. "Right you are. I'd love to see the look on the Station Chief's face when they board the Lazy Susan and find that the ship is just sitting there with her engines cold. I knew we'd need a major diversion and since I was already tied into their systems I filed some ship requests, a few fire alarms, and I issued a few ship movement orders. There are four ships all leaving right now, except the Lazy Susan. And the station is suffering a bit of a comm blackout right about now too I'm afraid. I figured we should cover for Mopar as best we can. He seems like an honest bloke for a smuggler."

Rubbing his tender jaw Raven asked, "Thanks for saving my neck. Did you find out anything about the Runners while you were in the computer?"

"Not what we were looking for. But I did find out how the Runners have been evading Andreth for so long. Someone has a hyperspace relay cut into the main network terminal. I'd bet anything on it and give you very favorable odds that I know who is responsible."

"The Runners," said Raven nodding his head. "That would explain a lot. They'd know everything that went through Tiren's comm-net. They'd know what he was planning, ship movements, everything. And Tiren doesn't even suspect the Runners have already infiltrated his organization. He thought I was the Runner's first attempt to get someone inside his station."

"These Runners are smart. I hope Moose's detection station comes up with something because it is not going to be easy to catch this group unawares." Storm fell silent as he could see that Raven had nodded off. Not surprising considering the beating he'd taken. He looked at his chronometer; they'd be making the first jump to hyperspace in a few minutes. Then back to the spaceport where he could contact Electro and arrange for a rendezvous. He wondered how the others were doing on this mission.

Part 11

The chronometer's buzz cut through the Spartan little room that served as the pilot's quarters in Rogue's temporary basis.  From underneath the covers on one of the small cots, a hand lashed out and swatted the chronometer off the adjoining table, sending it crashing to the floor and stopping the annoying buzz.

From underneath the covers emerged the rest of Electro.  He sat up and looked around, somewhat bleary from being awakened so soon after the start of the short nap.  For three standard days he and Quicksilver had been on a brutal schedule of patrolling, sometimes as long as eight hours per flight with only a few hours rest in between, and always turning up empty.  The fatigue and frustration were beginning to mount.

Electro sat up and shrugged off the covers to reveal his flightsuit, which he'd been too tired to take off when he hit the bunk four hours earlier.  "C'mon, Si," he croaked to the prone covered form on the adjacent cot, "we've got another shift.  Let's go."

From under the covers Quicksilver moaned, "Great.  Eight more hours in the cockpit staring at stars, nothing to even shoot at.  My backside hurts just thinking about it."

"I know," Electro replied as he got up and stretched.  "I sure hope Raven and Storm come up with something soon or I'm going to go space-happy.  It's like trying to find a needle in the Dune Sea out here.  Go on and prep the X-Wings, I'll see if Moose has anything for us."

Quicksilver was righting himself in the cot as Electro headed out of the small bunk room and into the main hangar area.  Parked off in one corner was Moose, sitting in front of a frighteningly cobbled-together jumble of various electronic equipment.  Cables and components hung freely off the sides of the console, which was aglow with various screens and lights that made no sense to Electro.  And in the midst of the wreckage was Moose, head down on his arms, obviously asleep.

"Good morning, Moose," Electro said as he walked over.  "What's good?"

The question snapped Moose out of his catnap at the console; he started, looked around, and tried to get his eyes to focus on Electro.  "Morning, sir.  Nothing much but the tuva coffee, I'm afraid; I made a pot over there."  Like the two Rogue pilots, Moose too was haggard and underslept, but his time had been spent assembling, testing, and running the monstrosity of jury-rigged communications equipment that they had brought to the base.

Electro poured two cups of the bitter, hot liquid and walked back to the console, setting one in front of Moose as he took a seat beside him.  "You've got nothing?"

Moose grasped the cup and sipped.  The tuva coffee was a particularly strong blend sometimes known to starfighter pilots as "reactor coolant", but he felt so tired that he wasn't sure even tuva could wake him up.  "Oh, I've got lots of stuff, sir, but none of it's good.  And none of it's from our 'friends' the pirates."

Electro cocked an eyebrow.  "Oh?"

Moose nodded solemnly and took another sip.  "One thing that this junk will do is pick up commercial comm broadcasts very well.  I was tuning around trying to pick up Foxfire on REBL, and I tripped over a broadcast on EMPR 94.1.  It seems that an that Imperial FRG jumped in right after we left the Opulent Moon Serenade hijacking, and they did some conclusion-jumping.  According to the broadcast, the Empire now claims that the Alliance-Rogue Squadron, actually-is to blame for the piracy of the Opulent Moon Serenade and the loss of life therein, and they're rattling on about what criminals we are, what bounties they're going to put on your heads, what an outrage it is, blah blah blah."

"Oh great," Electro rolled his eyes.  "Bounties.  All we need right now is to have every lame bounty hunter in the Breaks get delusions of grandeur and come after us."

Moose handed a datapad to Electro.  "It gets worse.  I started picking up a huge increase in traffic between the Imperial fleet bases here"-he punched up a flat-screen display of the surrounding sectors-"and here, and the fleet staging areas here, here, and here.  I can't do all that much sophisticated codebreaking or analysis from here, but from what I can pick up, there's major fleet movements headed from the Core Worlds out toward these staging areas, and then almost certainly out toward the Breaks."

Electro intently studied the datapad.  "'Major'?  That's all you can get?"

"Yep," Moose replied.  "I squirted the traffic back to the Liberty for more analysis, but it seems pretty clear that we're going to be up to our armpits in Impstars before too long.  It looks like the Empire's using the opinion drummed up by an attack on an innocent liner to try and kill two womprats with one stone-they clean out the Breaks, and they maybe get Rogue Squadron.  I'm no strategic thinker, but my gut feeling is that they're going to throw enough at us to force both us and the pirates to hide for quite a while, or at least to flee the Breaks.  This much traffic isn't going to happen just to assemble a VSD and a couple of frigates.  This is big."

Electro let out a disheartened sigh.  "How long?"

Moose shrugged.  "I'll keep listening and see if I can pick up any more clues, hopefully the Intel guys on the Liberty can crack some of the tougher stuff and get us some more solid info.  But I'd say that it won't be too long.  The patterns seem to indicate that the fleets are already massing, they might be using ships that were already assembled for this whole Zaarin business.  My guess is days, maybe a week tops, then it's going to be too hot out here to even think about popping our heads up."

Quicksilver, who had walked up on the tail end of the discussion, interjected, "Oh just wonderful.  Got any more good news?"

Electro got up, a slight smile creasing his face.  "Easy, Si.  You were the one complaining about being bored, remember?"  He turned back to Moose.  "Keep listening, compile anything on the fleet movements that you can.  But remember, we're out here to find that band of pirates.  Keep me informed."  Electro and Quicksilver then walked off to their waiting X-Wings, powered and ready to fly courtesy of the R2 units socketed therein.

Moose got up, stretched, and walked over to his own Y-Wing, tucked at the back of the bay, with his R2 unit, R2-L8, sitting beside it.  He watched as the two Rogue pilots floated out of the bay and out to their patrol.  "Like they've got room to gripe," he muttered to the R2.  "At least they're flying.  I'm stuck down here with that bunch of poodoo," and he gestured to the communications post.  R2-L8 whistled a suitably sympathetic noise-the comm equipment seemed to disturb his sense of mechanical aesthetics.  "There's no chance we're going to find those pirates before half the Outer Rim Armada's dancing on our doorstep, not out here in this forsaken wasteland."

Moose sat down on the ferrocrete floor and placed his back against the nosegear strut, staring up blankly at the bottom of the fighter, whose torpedo magazine doors were open where he had been doing some repairs earlier.  He closed his eyes...and suddenly snapped them back open, staring at the magazine doors.  He looked at the comm equipment...back to the torpedo launchers...to the comm equipment...to the launchers...and then smacked himself on the head and leapt to his feet, suddenly wide awake.

"Space, I'm slow!", he yelled.  "Why didn't I think of this before?  Come on, R2, we've got some work to do!"

A few hours later, on patrol, Electro got a call from Moose back at the base.  "Rogue 13, this is Buccaneer 2."

"Go ahead, Buccaneer 2.  Moose, I hope you have something good."

"Well, I've got good news, bad news, and worse news.  What would you like to hear first, sir?"

Electro rolled his eyes.  "Let's go with bad, then worse.  I don't think I can handle any more good news after five hours on patrol with Rogue's Personality Officer here on my wing."

"Funny, Electro, real funny," Quicksilver cut in, chuckling.  "Remind me to tell Rogue Leader about the fact that your life partner makes better conversation than you do."

"Well," Moose came back, "the bad news is that I still don't have any information on the pirates.  The worse news is that the Intel boys on the Liberty cracked some of the Imperial codes, and we've got seventy-two hours or so before at least four fully-stocked ISDs, all their support ships, and all their troops enter the Breaks loaded for Bantha.  Judging from intercepts in the past four hours, we can start expecting increased scout activity from gunboat and corvette squadrons in no more than thirty hours, probably less if they can move some escort carriers up quickly.  They're not kidding around on this one."

"Wonderful," Electro sighed.  "Well, Buccaneer 2, what do you possibly have that can be good news after that?"

"I think I might have a way for us to find our quarry before time runs out," Moose replied.  "I'll tell you guys about it at the end of your shift, I still need to do some more work on it.  Buccaneer 2 out."

Part 12

The Fast Shuffle landed at the spaceport near "Felix's Place" and Mopar paid off Raven and Storm as he'd promised. He tried to get them to sign on as permanent hands on his ship as he'd become rather fond of them. But they said they had to get their own ship repaired and they all parted on good terms.

Raven had pretty much recovered over the last two days from his interrogation at the hands of the space station's security guards and Storm had managed to contact Electro and inform him that they'd returned.

As Electro's ship neared the end of his patrol sweep he picked up Storm's transmission and as he was near their location he decided he and Si would join up with them and they'd return to their base together. Electro maneuvered his X-Wing on it's repulsors and touched down in a clearing in a heavily forested area of Cignus 7. This is where Raven and Storm had hidden their fighters while they hitched a ride out to the space station of the crime lord, Tiren Andreth.

Electro jumped down from the cockpit of his ship and shook hands with his two cohorts as Quicksilver's ship came down behind them. "Raven, you look like hell," he said as he got a good look at Raven's face in the lights of his ship. "Looks like you two have had an interesting time."

Raven gave his team commander a run down on their mission and the interesting facts that Storm had learned from Andreth's computer system. Electro asked several questions and talked to Storm about the indications that someone had a permanent, high-speed tap into Andreth's computer. "Eddie, any chance that this tap could be Imperial?"

Storm thought a bit and then replied, "I don't think so, Chris. Sure, Imp Intelligence could do it but why bother? If they wanted to be rid of Andreth they could just move in on him in force. As big as his operation is he presents a fair sized target. No, this was more subtle. Although, with the ripping and tearing I did in their system covering our escape it would not surprise me if they catch it when they sweep their systems trying to figure just what happened when we left. Why do you ask?"

"We may have an Imperial presence to deal with soon, according to Moose. That will run our quarry and ourselves to ground so we are under the gun to get this mission wrapped up." He looked around at the ships. "Well, lets get moving. Everyone back to the base" He started back to his ship.

Raven called out to Si, "Hey Quicksilver, give me a hand with his." He was tugging a heavy crate over to his X-Wing and preparing to load it in the supply bay.

Quicksilver grabbed a handle on the other side and helped him lift it into the opening in the side of Raven's ship. "What the hell is this?" he asked.

Grinning, Raven replied, "A rebuilt hyperspace modavator." 

Part 13

The four Rogue pilots gathered around Moose's homemade listening post as Moose, hydrospanner in hand, climbed out from behind it.  "All right, Lieutenant," Electro said.  "What's this great solution you have to finding the pirates?"

"Well," Moose replied, grinning, "thank my R2 unit, it's smarter than I am."  He wiped off his hands and walked around to the front of the monstrosity of hardware.  "We went back over the sensor logs from the Opulent Moon Serenade hijacking and we found that the last pirate craft jumped out seventeen seconds after we arrived.  During that time, a couple of our fighters picked up some transmissions between the pirate transport and one of the escorts.  It wasn't much and wasn't intelligible, but it lets us know what spectrum to listen in, anyway.  So, to boost our range, I figured we could whip up some emissions sensors and install them on a couple of the X's.  We've got enough spares and parts here to build two sets, put them in the torp tubes, and install re-transmitters in the torp bays to squirt the signal back here every few seconds for analysis.  When our patrol craft pick up these signals, we can vector them to the source immediately, and maybe catch these guys in the act."

Raven, who was also expert in communications equipment, nodded.  "That ought to work.  It's the best chance we have, anyway.  How soon can we have them ready?"

"I've already half-finished one set," Moose replied.  "With a little help, I can probably have both sets installed in two fighters and working in a couple of hours."
 
"Well, then there's no need to stand around here talking," Electro said emphatically.  "Raven, give Moose whatever help he needs in completing the sensors.  The rest of us will prep two X-Wings by removing the torpedoes."  He smiled.  "Raven, Storm, since you guys have been out carousing while Si and I have been flying our tails off, you get the patrol duty."

The next day

Two Rogue Squadron X-Wings picked their way around a sparse asteroid field.  "Rogue 3 to Rogue 11, you picking up anything?" Storm called to Raven.

"Negative, scopes are blank," Raven replied.  "Rogue 11 to Buccaneer 2, Moose, I think these wonderful contraptions of yours sent us on another wild hoska chase.  That's three so far.  Don't you think you should've calibrated these things a little better?"

Back at the listening post, Moose seethed a little.  "Buccaneer 2 to Rogue 11, well, if you'd like to come back, go back to the Liberty, get me the tools to do it right, bring them back here, and give me about a day to do it, you can go use the equipment on all the Imperials that'll be swarming around here then.  They're the best I could do with no tools, no sleep, and no time."

Before Raven could reply, Electro leaned over Moose's shoulder.  "Stow it, gentlemen.  Concentrate on your work."  He clicked off the comm and said, "Let me know if we get a solid contact, Quicksilver and I will be waiting in our X-Wings."  He headed off, shaking his head, before he could hear Moose's sheepish "Yes, sir" reply.

A couple more minutes passed before Moose perked up again.  An insistent beeping from one of the consoles caught his attention.  He stared intently at one particular screen, punched a few buttons, then shouted triumphantly, "Gotcha!"  Flipping the commlink, he practically yelled, "Rogues 3 and 11 from Buccaneer 2, confirmed contact, stand by for location!"  After a few more seconds, he added, "OK, definite communications contact, bearing is one six four mark minus three eight, range seven eight double zero.  Charts show there's a thicker asteroid field near that area, but there's also a nav buoy labeled XC-Z71 on a commercial jump route."

"Roger," Storm replied.  "We'll do a quick jump over that way, ETA five minutes."

Precisely on time five minutes later, the two X-Wings exited at the periphery of a thicker asteroid field, lying between Raven and Storm and the contact point.  Cautiously, the snub fighters entered the field and began weaving their way through it.  Maintaining visual contact with each other at all times, Raven and Storm eased closer to the possible contact.

"Contacts," Raven called, using extremely low power on communications to avoid detection.  "Thirty degrees starboard level, sixteen klicks.  Looks like a Y-Wing and a YT-1300 Corellian transport, IFF neutral, sitting near the nav buoy.  I guess the big guy was right this time."

"Works for me, buddy," Storm replied.  "Let's hold here and call in the cavalry."  He switched on his direct comm back to the base.  "Rogue 3 to Rogue 13.  We've hit the jackpot."

"Roger, Rogue 3," Electro replied from his fighter, inside the hidden base.  "ETA eight minutes."  He turned around and saw Quicksilver buttoning up his X-Wing's canopy.  "Moose!", he shouted, and gestured back to the Y-Wing.  "Let's go!"


As Electro, Quicksilver, and Moose hypered in and began heading for Raven and Storm, another set of ships dropped in right on top of the nav buoy.  "New contacts," Storm called.  "One bulk freighter, a  Y-Wing and some kind of chop job.  The IFFs are all neutral, but different.  The fighters match the Y-Wing and YT-1300, the freighter's another code.  I'd guess that's the victim."

Electro cut in.  "All ships from Rogue 13, in position.  Time to take out some frustrations, gentlemen.  Raven, Storm, with me, line abreast.  Quicksilver, you run close escort on Moose behind us, tactical setup Delta.  I want that transport and freighter both disabled and as many pirates taken alive as possible, but don't endanger yourselves doing it.  Lock S-foils out, full throttle, let's hit it!"

From the periphery of the asteroid field, the five Rogue fighters leapt forward toward the surprised pirate ships.  Electro, Raven, and Storm headed toward the YT-1300,  while Quicksilver and Moose peeled off toward the newcomers.  The pirate fighters hesitated for a couple of vital seconds, and that was all it took.  One Y-Wing quickly became a fireball as Electro, Raven, and Storm concentrated twelve powerful lasers on it.  Quicksilver loosed a torpedo on the second Y-Wing as it lumbered around in a turn toward the onrushing Rogues; the big Koensayr fighter was moving too slowly to dodge it.  The torpedo slammed dead center into the R5 unit socket, snapping the pirate craft in two as the pilot auto-ejected.

"Rogue 8, I'm going in on the freighter," Moose called.  Targeting the freighter, he rolled in as it began to turn left to get clear space for a jump.  Grinning, Moose noticed its shields were down; a few seconds of concentrated ion fire later, and it wasn't going anywhere.  The rest of the pirates, recovering quickly, jumped immediately from the area.  

As quickly as the battle began it was over.  "Not bad, guys, outstanding job," Electro said with a smile as he surveyed the tableau.  "How many beacons we got?"

"I read one, Rogue 13," Raven replied.  "One ejection beacon.  Now what do we do?"

"I called the Liberty before we jumped from the base," Electro replied.  An assault transport will be out here in about ten minutes, with a few of our best Marines on board.  I don't think those pirates will be giving us too much trouble--if they do, Rogue 11, perhaps your scaley friend could help with the boarding?"

Raven laughed.  "Well, if not that, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to help with the interrogation.  Pirate's his second favorite food behind stormtrooper."  That gave all the weary fighter pilots a good laugh.

Part 14

The tiny nomad base was cramped even at the best of times.  With 20 alliance commandos, the Rogue team and the two pirate prisoners they managed to capture after the fire fight aboard the pirated freighter, it was more than a little uncomfortable.  The prisoners had been uncooperative, revealing virtually nothing in the last six hours.

Moose walked up slowly to Electro.  "Sir, can I talk to you for a moment?"

Electro stared at the pirate for a long time before finally turning away and following Moose into the small, crowded landing bay.  "Yes Lieutenant?"

"Imperial task forces have just entered four systems in the Breaks.  Things are heating up all over the place.  We're running out of time."

"Jolly good!  Thanks Moose.  Keep monitoring the comm."  Electro turned and went into the small room that housed six sleeping commandos and an exhausted Raven and Storm.

Prodding the prone figure of his squadron mate, Electro spoke in quiet tones.  "Eddie.  Wake up.  We've got to break these guys and I think I know how."

Wiping the sleep from his eyes Storm sat up.  "What's the plan?"

An hour later

The two pirates sat in adjacent rooms.  They couldn't see each other, but could hear everything that transpired.  Electro had purposely left the door ajar.  He paced back and forth in front of the pirate prisoner.  "O.K. let's try this one more time.   Where is the Runner base?"

The pirate simply looked at Electro, saying nothing as he had since the interrogation began.

"You don't want to talk huh?  You sure?"

The man said simply, "I'm sure."

"Fine then."  Electro drew his blaster and fired a single shot.  Turning he stalked out of the room and into the adjacent one which contained the second prisoner.

Electro stood in front of the pirate, his blaster still in his hand.  "Well then, what about you?"

Storm rushed into the room.  "You killed him!  Commander Simmons will skin you alive!"

"I don't care.  I'm sick of this base and these pirate scum.  He wouldn't talk, fine with me, he'll never talk again."  Electro brandished his weapon and then turned back to the pirate.

"So, live or die.  Your choice.  Where's your base?"

The man's eyes were wide as he stared at the weapon in front of him.  The conflict was plain on his face.  Finally he spoke.  "Glacine.  The base is on Glacine."

Instantly Electro put the blaster to his head and with his face right up against the captives spoke in a hiss, "If that doesn't check out I will take great pleasure in seeing you die very painfully."

Sweat beaded up on the pirate's forehead as Electro looked into his eyes.

"I don't want to die," he looked at Storm.  "Please, it's in the asteroid field near Merkus III."

Electro turned instantly to Storm.  "Sound the alert, I want everyone launched in five minutes."


Storm adjusted his laser recharge rate to fully charge his weapons systems in anticipation of the upcoming battle.  Moose was just launching, the last of the ships to do so.  He keyed his comm system.  "Rogue 3 to Rogue 13."

"What do you want Storm?"

"You're one bad dude, Chris."

"Tell me that if they really are near Merkus III.  I hope our friend has a good sleep, I shot the coffee machine by mistake!"  Electro grinned savagely in his X-Wing cockpit.

"Oh, he'll sleep alright.  The knockout drops would have put Rory under."

"Rogue 13 to all craft.  Prepare to enter hyperspace on my mark." Electro adjusted his controls and confirmed the coordinates from his navicomputer.  "Three, two, one, engage!"

The five rebel fighters and a single assault transport leapt from normal space and began their journey.


The asteroid field was seemingly devoid of intelligent life.  But hidden in an ancient base the Runners worked feverishly.  Proximity alarms warned them of ships in the system, too close for comfort.  They prepared to evacuate.

"This is Lee.  All fighters are to launch and cover the evacuation of the freighters.  We have to protect our cargo.   Reform at Delta Gamma Epsilon."


Raven continued his scans of the asteroid field.  Suddenly he picked up a reading.  "Contacts!  I have one, two... wait, five contacts, range 12 klicks.  Four fighters and a Corellian transport."

"Rogue 13 to all elements, concentrate on the fighters and try to stay close to that big 'roid, it looks like their base."  The battle was begun.

Quicksilver tightened formation behind and to the right of Electro as he targeted the closest fighter, a oddball collection of parts that once might have started as a T-Wing.  "I've got a missile warning indicator Rogue 13."

"Evade and reform, I'll draw him away."

Quicksilver went into a tight loop to break the lock of the Runner fighter and as he did he saw that another of the Runners had maneuvered behind the slower Y-Wing of Buccaneer 2.

"Buccaneer 2, one on you, break left NOW!", Quicksilver yelled.  Moose didn't ask and didn't hesitate, he slammed his Y-Wing into as tight a turn as it would manage as laser fire connected with his rear shields and two dumb-fired torpedoes sailed over his right nacelle.

"That's one I owe you, Rogue 8," Moose called, somewhat shaken, as he saw the pursuing ugly break too slowly and explode.

"Not a problem," Quicksilver replied, laughing.  "I can always use a little target practice!"

Nearby, the other pirates were putting up a good fight.  Electro noticed that the pirate ships were flying skillfully, but moving somewhat slowly as the pilots sought to charge up their systems.  He reconfigured his ELS power system to 100/0, charging his lasers at the expense of his shields and pushing his X-Wing forward at 100 MGLT.  Raven and Storm followed suit almost automatically; both men, veteran A-Wing pilots, always wanted as much speed as they could manage at their disposal.  

"I'm blowing through, guys, crossweave behind me," Electro said.  Pushing his laser recharge rate even lower, Electro slashed through the pirate formation at 112 MGLT, holding himself steady as one of the chopped fighters turned and swiveled toward his tail.  Before it could fire, it was caught in a lethal crossfire by Raven and Storm, who had swung wide and then come back down on the pirate at 45-degree angles.  Sure that that particular pirate was no longer a problem, Electro bumped his laser recharge back up again and looped around on the last two fighters, who were trying to line up on Raven.  He raked the lead pursuer along the entire twelve-meter length of the X-Wing's fuselage, and couldn't suppress a satisfied grin as he saw it violently spin out of control, the droid and two engines trailing fire and sparks.  The last pirate, a modified Z-95 Headhunter, turned quickly away to avoid colliding with his wingman and somehow escape the box he now found himself in.  The direction he chose to turn was the wrong one, for it placed Storm directly at his six, a fatal mistake.

"New contacts," Raven commented.  "Two fighters and a Muurian transport, range three klicks.  They are on an escape vector."

"Hey, the more the merrier!", Storm cheerily replied.  Checking his scanners, he then continued, "Buccaneer 2, that Corellian transport's getting clear to jump, can you catch it?  We'll cover you against these bogies!"

"Will try, Rogue 3," Moose replied.  A big grin flickered across his face as he lined up on the Corellian transport.  It was already over 3 km away and running full speed to make a jump.  He diverted all power to the engines, and the Y-Wing accelerated forward to its design maximum speed of 100 MGLT.  Even so, he was gaining very slowly--too slowly--on the pirate YT-1300.  He was still gaining too slowly when he reached 2.5 km, so he took a risk, arming, locking, and firing a torpedo.

Onboard the pirate transport, the copilot yelled, "Torpedo inbound!  We need to evade!"

The pilot shouted back, "Angle the shields to the rear, we can take a hit and we're only 45 seconds from jump!  See if you guys can shoot the thing!"

The gunners in the YT-1300's two turrets opened fire, but too late.  The torpedo struck the rear of the light freighter, removing most of the shields.  The freighter didn't slow or turn, but instead kept running straight.   "Damn," Moose muttered.  He didn't want to fire a second torpedo because he wasn't sure if it would blow the whole ship away or not, but it was perilously close to getting away.  He held his breath and fired.

"Second torpedo coming, we've got to evade now!", the copilot on the pirate freighter fairly shrieked.  "Relax, we're 15 seconds from jump, gunners open fire!", the pilot replied.

"1200 meters...1000 meters...800 meters..."  The copilot counted down the distance between the ship and the torpedo.  He finally lost his nerve and hauled the controls back as hard as he could, with the transport only 5 seconds from a jump.  The transport did a sharp loop back toward Moose, the torpedo overshooting it.

"Thank you for having a self-preservation instinct," Moose thought as he charged his ion cannons back up again.  The gunners on the transport opened fire, but it only took a few seconds of fire to disable the ship and silence them.

Meanwhile, the outnumbered Runner fighters attacked the Rogue X-Wings with surprising ferocity.  The maneuverable little fighters were tough to hit, but the Rogue pilots' teamwork proved the edge.  The Rogue X-Wings grappled at close range where the uglies couldn't lock on missiles, and then carefully covered each others' vulnerable blind spots against attack.  Within one minute, all Runners had joined their fellows as wreckage in space.

"YEEEEHAW!", Raven shouted as he exploded the last of the pirates.  His enthusiasm dampened somewhat when he checked his sensors again.  "Damn, that Muurian transport is jumping out, Moose, can you catch it?"

"Negative, Rogue 11," Moose replied as he saw the big, angular ship cross his field of vision as it entered hyperspace.  "Looks like we lost that one, but I guess two out of three isn't too bad."

"Rogue 13 here.  The coast is clear boys, go see what's in that hole."  The alliance assault transport moved into position and slowly glided into the landing bay.  As it touched down Electro just got a glimpse of the commandos storming down the entry ramp as he flew past.

Part 15

Corporal Emilyn Sandors crept forward along the side of the corridor to the corner ahead.  She stopped and kneeling looked around the corner and pulled back immediately.  "Nothing there," she thought.  Without looking behind her she waved for the rest of the column to make their way to this junction.  So far the base had been empty, eerily quiet.

She clicked her teeth twice to activate her combat comm gear.  "Corporal Sandors to Captain Schock."

A tiny, barely understandable voice came through the lower power comm system.  "Go ahead Corporal."  The new combat comm system used such low power area communications technology that within its effective range of about 10 kilometers it was completely secure.

"Still nothing.  We investigated two levels and are moving up again.  You can bring your fighters in if needed.  When we locate the command center we'll contact you immediately."

"Roger, Schock out."

"Em?"

"Yeah."

"Locked door on the next level."

"I'm coming."  She moved to the access ladder and with one hand holding her blaster rifle and one to pull herself up she climbed to the next level.  A gray clad trooper motioned her over.

"This level is tiny, only door locked was this one."

"Blow it open.  Set the mine for 20 second delay and position the squad around that corner and back there."

"O.K. grunts, you heard the lady.  Klempers, lay the boomer, the rest of you split up and cover."  The well trained men and women moved quickly to do their duties.  In moments the mine was set and triggered.  Klempers ducked around the corner and an ear shattering blast rocked the base.

"Move it!"

Commandos rushed through the smoking entrance in twos, the first flattening on the floor to lay covering fire if needed.  But it was not.  This room like all the others was empty.  But, unlike the others it contained a lot of computer equipment and sensor screens.  Many of them had been damaged in the blast.

Corporal Sandors surveyed the scene and once again activated her comm.  "We found the nerve center.  You might want to send in the slicer.  Level 3, take the lift off of the right side of the landing bay and look for the mess, can't miss it."

Electro took that in for a moment.  "Storm, you read that?"

"Right with you Electro.  I'm on approach as we speak."

"Raven, Si, I want a standard recon sweep of the area.  You guys are freshest.  We'll let you know what the status is in a few.  Stay sharp, anyone could show up now and probably will.  Moose, follow me in."


The room was a mess.  Rubble from the mine that opened the door littered the area and the havoc it had wreaked with the instruments was readily apparent.  Moose sat at one console messing with the comm systems while Storm made the computer systems acquaintance.

He experimented with a few commands, but he wasn't getting much from the system.  "Electro, this thing is locked up pretty tight.  It's going to take a while I'm afraid."

"I don't want to hear it.  You've got 20 minutes."  Electro walked outof the room, a serious headache forming.


Corporal Sandors was making a systematic search of the quarters area.  It had obviously been evacuated in a hurry.  There were clothes, personal effects, and small items of value scattered throughout.  She checked every closet, storage compartment and fresher for anything that might give them a clue about the Runners.  So far it had been a fruitless search.  But she intended to continue with it.  There wasn't anything else to do anyhow.

She entered the fifth cabin.  This one was neat and tidy in contrast to the others.  "Interesting," she thought.  The contents of the cabin were similar to the others.  A bed, a storage bay with door, vanity area and a fresher.  A few chairs and a small writing desk completed the suite.  Everything was old but functional.  And clean.  Far cleaner than in the other cabins.

The storage unit contained clothing suitable for a smallish human woman.  It was neatly hung and organized.  Undergarments and other items were stored in the pull out compartments.

The fresher contained the standard equipment and a few personal items.  A bottle of perfume, a particularly expensive one Emilyn noted, a hair brush with a few dirty blond hairs, and some other small items.  "We'll dust these for prints and see what we an see if time permits."

She walked out of the fresher and noticed a trash container next to the desk.  "I wonder," she thought as she moved to investigate.  It held a few scraps of flimsy and a broken data card.  She arranged the scraps on the table.  They seemed to have been torn up from the same source.  She deftly reassembled the picture.  It was a travel itinerary for someone called Lilith Lollie.


Electro awoke suddenly and looked around him.  "Must have dozed off."  He checked his chrono.  "I was out for nearly an hour."  He got up from his chair and walked over to Storm "It hasn't been a good week," Electro thought quietly to himself.  "One problem after another."

"How's it going buddy?"

"I've managed to get in part way, Electro.  But it is slow going, multiple layered protection schemes.  The designer of this was one paranoid individual."

Corporal Sandors walked into the room.  "Sir, I may have something interesting."

Electro, Storm and Moose all looked expectantly at the commando non-comm.  "Yes Corporal?"

"One of the cabins contained a torn up travel itinerary.  If you check the dates they must have left a day ago to make it.  Planned to board a ship called the Little Dancer out of Cignus 7."

Storm shook his head, "we were just there!  Wait, the Little Dancer?  There was a file with that name somewhere here."  He quickly began to work at the computer console again.  "Yes, here it is, not even encrypted."  He scanned the file.  "Looks like their leader is off to sell the loot from the liner-jacking.  We've got her!"

"What's the first port of call Corporal?"

"Kweedoor, sir. Tomorrow morning."

Moose interrupted, "That's one of the systems where an Imperial Star Destroyer arrived a bit ago Electro."

"Well then, we'll just have to do it real quiet like.  Let's all get some sleep and play a short visit to scenic Kweedoor."


Once again the assault transport was loaded for bear, flanked by four X-Wings, Moose temporarily driving Electro's X-Wing as he hitched a ride with the commandos aboard the transport.  They had just dropped out of hyperspace and were on a high speed intercept vector with the Little Dancer which was carrying the leader of the Runners, one Lilith Lollie.

"Buccaneer 2 to Rogue 13, I've got a lot of Imperial activity in system.  A Star Destroyer on the far side of the planet and picket fighters all over.  Groups are moving to interecept us.  We've got less than 15 minutes to finish this operation or things are going to be uncomfortable."

"Roger that." Electro worked his instrument panel and spoke again.  "Little Dancer, this is Captain Christian Schock of the Alliance.  You are hereby ordered to stand down and prepare to be boarded."

There was a short pause.  "This is Captain Flint Kerstyn of the Little Dancer.  We will not stand down for pirates.  Look around you Captain, we have powerful friends coming to greet you."

"Captain Kerstyn, my apologies for the irregular request, but you are carrying a criminal on board your vessel and I have orders to apprehend her."

"What criminal?"

"She likely boarded your vessel under the name Lilith Lollie.  She is in point of fact the leader of a notorious band of pirates.  I have orders to take her into custody."

"We do not recognize your authority in this matter."

"Let's be reasonable Captain.  We can do this the easy way or the hard way.  I have an assault transport full of commandos.  We can cripple your ship and take what we want or you can allow us to board and we will capture the pirate and be on our way.  In either case, you have thirty seconds to comply," Electro swtiched to a dual channel comm band so that the liner Captain could hear his next transmission. "Rogue Squadron, arm torpedoes and target the drive systems of the Little Dancer."

On board the liner the Captain looked at his sensor officer.  "We're being locked all right.  Imperial fighters on intercept, ETA 12 minutes.  God Flint, let 'em board us!"

"If you feel that way N'Brilkin, you can meet our friends and escort them on their search."  The young officer gulped but nodded and left the bridge.

"Very well Captain Schock, you have permission to dock at the ventral lock.  One of my officers will meet you.  You may board with exactly three of your men.  Any more and I will consider you pirates and will open fire."

Electro smiled to himself at the bravado of the merchant captain, "You would make a fine military officer Captain.  We will board with a minimal complement."

The transport lumbered into position and began its docking maneuever.  "Rogue Squadron, try to keep those fighters off of us for a few minutes.  This may take longer than the eight minutes we'll have left when we board.  It isn't a tiny ship."


Lo-plink N'Brilkin fidgeted at the airlock door.   The Sullustan was more than nervous at meeting what might be pirates, mercenaries, or even the legendary Rogue Squadron.  He imagined a thousand ways of this ending, all of them bad.  Then, startling him out of his reverie, the air lock began to cycle.  The lock opened and a single human in black fatigues stepped through the door.

"Permission to come aboard?"  He asked.

Lo-plink was momentarily stunned by this turn of events.  "Uh, ye-ye-yes, please come aboard," he finally managed to stammer out.

Three others stepped through the air lock door.  Unlike the first they wore combat armor and visored helmets and carried menacing looking blaster rifles.  The human spoke again, "We'd appreciate your assistance Mr. N'Brilkin.  We're trying to find one of your passengers, a Miss Lilith Lollie.  Can you show us to her stateroom and provide us with the security scan taken when she boarded?"

Recovering a bit from his earlier funk as it appeared clear he wouldn't be killed out of hand, Lo-plink handed the man a data card.

Electro took hold of the card, turned it around and looked at the picture.  "She looks familiar," he thought to himself.  "OK, pass this around and remember the face.  She's who we're looking for.  You two check all the common areas, keep damage to a minimum and be careful not to get into a hostage situation.  You, come with me and Mr. N'Brilkin, we'll investigate Lollie's stateroom."

The two commandos trotted briskly down the corridor aft and Electro gestured to the nervous Sullustan.  "After you, sir!"


"Always bring the fight to enemy I say," Raven commented as the four X-Wings moved rapidly towards the oncoming TIEs.

"Always," Quicksilver agreed.

"OK guys, let's rock and roll.  Raven and Quicksilver, break left.  Moose, cover me right.... Break."

The three Rogue pilots and one Buccaneer peeled away and began firing at the onrushing Imperial fighters whose wall of green laser energy leapt at them.  Storm pulled his X-Wing into a steep climb, barrel rolled and then dove again to get behind the first wave.  He selected torpedoes, fired one directly into a TIE Interceptor, and flying through the wreckage began to fire his quad lasers in rapid single fire mode at the other fighters of the formation.  Each scrambled to escape, but now Moose also began firing and in a short time the wing of three TIEs was no more than a quickly expanding cloud of debris.

Lasers shots spanged off of Raven's shields as he and Quicksilver took the next wave head on.  The quad lasers spat out red death in staccato rythm as the two X-Wings fired repeatedly.  "Certainly a target rich environment Raven commented as he adjusted his speed to give faster laser recharge rates."  Glancing at his sensors he muttered to himself.  "Target rich isn't the half of it."

"Buccaneer 2 here, a new formation is coming up on the Little Dancer.  Target vector for our transport."

"Once more unto the breach good friends!"


They stood in front of Lollie's stateroom.  It was in the first class area of the ship.  "Mr. N'Brilkin, would you please unlock the door?"

The Sullustan keyed in the security access override code on the door lock and it slid open silently on well maintained mechanisms.  Electro drew his sidearm for the first time and together with the Alliance trooper cautiously entered the room.  They found themselves in a compact but elegantly furnished living room.  There was one door off to the left and a large window, now transparent since the ship travelled in normal space.

Electro noticed the Sullustan peeking into the room and waved him back.  His head instantly withdrew.

Electro moved to the other door, to the bedroom presumably, and it opened for him automatically.  The bed was neatly made with a bottle on the pillows.  He ignored that and began to investigate the rest of the area.  The fresher was empty and had not been recently used.  The closets were empty.  "Well, either she never was here or she's gone."

"Sir, look at this."  The commando, Robert "Git" Krisp, held out the bottle to him.  Electro took it and immediately saw that it was a bottle of Venken Meritage.

"Lee Lo!  I thought the face was familiar."  He opened the card which had his name on it he now saw.

Christian,

Once again you are on the side of what is right and I am not.  Rogue Squadron, very impressive.  We really must stop meeting like this.

Lee

His comm buzzed.  "Schock here."

"Sandors here.  We haven't found her, but two of the passengers say they haven't seen her since the last scheduled stop.  They did remember her though."

"She's flown the coop, she knew we were after her.  Meet me at the lock right away.  It's time for us to leave."


Raven's X-Wing was in trouble.  His R2 unit had been hit and he'd lost the lateral controls when three TIE Interceptors had caught him on the blind side as he finished a TIE Fighter making a strafing run of the transport.  He moved his hands smoothly over the controls and as the sea of red indicators on his board was joined by a single green light he engaged the hyperspace modivator. Raven's badly damaged X-Wing shot away from the battle just before the lead TIE Interceptor began to fire to finish him off.

"Raven just bugged," Moose informed the others on the Rogue battle frequency.

"We're taking off now.  We just need cover for about two more minutes.  Once we navigate clear of the liner we'll be able to use our laser cannons.  Keep yourselves intact and let's get out of here."  Electro had taken the controls of the assault transport and was making an emergency power launch.  The transport lurched as it pulled violently free from the docking sleave and Electro fed full power to the engines immediately. 

As he did so a glance at the scanners showed a mass of TIEs all around the area.  It was a miracle that the Rogue pilots hadn't been destroyed earlier.  It was a testament to their skill and the fragility of the Imperial fighters.

Storm transferred laser energy to shields, noticing that even with that the primary shields were only one third charged.  He was running on energy debt as his X-Wing took far more hits than the generator's could compensate for.  He was on the tail of a particularly crafty TIE pilot, Moose covering for him.  He finally got inside the other pilot on the turn and fired off a quad laser burst, hitting the T/F squarely with two blasts.  One of its solar panels fractured and the TIE cartwheeled away, out of the battle.

"This is Rogue 8, it's time to leave this town.  Sorry I can't stay with you."  Quicksilver too engaged his hyperdrive and jumped away.

"This is Rogue 13, all Alliance fighters are ordered to make an immediate withdrawl."

"Just when it was getting interesting at thirty to one odds," Storm mused and then punched his hyperdrive immediately after he noticed Moose make a hasty exit.

The assault transport was spurting green laser bolts from its turrets at the swarm of TIEs still in the area.  It was being hit repeatedly, but the shields, though low still held.  The TIEs had to be careful when approaching the assault transport, it had high powered turbo lasers and a tough hide too.  His navicomputer churned out the jump coordinates and as the shield warning alarms starting hooting he made an unnannounced jump.

The passengers were thrown from their seats and the dorsal gunner fell down the access shaft from the force of the jump.  "Sorry back there!  Time was short."

"Go chasing pirates, get a good bottle of wine," Electro thought darkly.  "We'll meet again Lee.  We'll meet again..."

The End
