“We've got radar contact! Three Bogeys dead ahead.” The call came over the comm link, snapping the pilot of the TIE interceptor back to reality. He had been drifting through a patrol of a far off grid on the edge of the empire, looking for rebel raiders. He had pulled enough of these routine patrols that he didn’t need to focus on piloting the ship; it was just second nature now, avoiding minor debris and running scans. He could easily let his mind wander to thoughts of life after this tour of duty, back to the core worlds and a nice retirement to spend with all his back pay from the empire.
He couldn’t afford that now though, any moment of distraction could easily cause him to end up as a ball of flame.
He called back to his command, “Confirmed visual.” The scanner profile let him know that they held the upper hand in this fight; his squad lacked firepower with himself and the three TIEs in comparison to the B-Wing, Ywing and Z95 that they were moving towards them. However, his group was far more agile, and all of his squadrons’ fighter had been new issue at the start of this tour, straight from the Imperial ship yards.
“Form up and get around them. Focus fire on the Headhunter, we can easily get behind the others. I'll move to flank them and catch them in a cross fire.”
They all began accelerating to engagement speed, closing the distance between themselves and their slower quarry.
‘This should be a quick day’, the interceptor pilot thought. Just then, as he began to line up a shot on the BWing, a flash to his left caught his eye. He strained to see past his solar panel, trying to verify that he was just seeing things. He wasn’t.
“Bogey at 4 o’clock” he warned his squad, “I'll deal with it. Continue forward and engage.” The pilot veered off to engage the A-Wing that was trying to pull it's own flanking maneuver.
The interceptor pilot knew this changed the battle calculus. The Awing was the only fighter that the Rebellion had that could match his own ship in terms of speed and agility. But if he could quickly take out the attempted flanker, the fight still favored them.
He was first to get off a shot, coming mere inches from scoring a hit. Both pilots turned towards one another, trying to gain an upper hand in positioning. Neither could do it though, each slipping and dipping just enough to keep from harm’s way.
The Interceptor pilot heard the alarm go off in his cockpit, alerting him that another ship had broken through the jamming equipment to get a target lock on him. Damn it all he thought, why hadn’t his squad mates kept this bastard off him. At that moment, his squadmate called over the radio that he’d be coming around the asteroid to engage the Y, to just lure him on in.
The interceptor pilot knew it was risky, but he had little other choice as the Y-Wing started opening up with an Ion cannon in his direction. He accelerated towards the A-Wing again, in a head on maneuver that would have been suicidal for a lesser pilot, but it worked for him. The two fighters whipped past each other by mere inches as the interceptor accelerated around the asteroid.
Over the comm. he heard one of the TIE pilots exclaim “Got Him!!” as the Z95 disappeared from the scanner. Perfect, thought the interceptor pilot, as he zipped past his squad mate who was heading at the Y. The Y would be out of position and the B was struggling to get back into a firing vector after the initial pass. He’d come around the asteroid and keep the A-Wing off his squad mates who could easily dispatch the B then. The fight would be over quickly, with him heading back to his bunk.
As he came around the asteroid those thoughts disappeared, just like the TIE fighter that the A Wing put a full broadside into. He tried firing as he came around again, but again couldn’t find his mark. The TIE that he had thought was coming to his rescue reported he’d been hit, and his weapons had gone offline. He wouldn’t be bringing down that Y Wing that was trailing behind, taking potshots at him.
Adding to trouble, the B-wing had gone ahead and pulled a Koiogran turn, lining itself up behind his fellow TIE. More shots from the interceptor couldn’t dissuade the B Wing from its path, the heavy shielding shrugging off the occasional glancing blows he could put out from distance. The TIE exploded, as the BWing started to turn its guns on the interceptor.
The interceptor pilot lost his focus for a moment. How’d this all happen? What had just a few minutes ago looked like a turkey shoot was quickly turning into a rout. He tried getting his last squad member on the comm., but all he heard was static, and the radar was only full of red dots. He figured he could still get away, the A Wing the only ship that could potentially give chase. He could let the Raider he had come from know the area where they could find the rebels. He rolled hard to his left, leaving the BWing pilot overshooting his position. The gap was open; all he had to do was punch it.
In that moment though, the Y that had trailed him finally connected with the Ion cannon. The controls locked up, and he knew it was over. He hurtled towards one of the asteroids he had passed earlier when he had thought about a life past the Imperial Navy. He allowed himself to think of that life again, now that the battle was over.
Just a small more narrative write up of a game the girlfriend and I played. She wanted to try out an Imperial list for once, so I tossed together some rebel fighters. Hope you enjoyed
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