Pilot Archive
Thread: X-Wing: The Nalera Conflict
The X-wing's hotengine nacelles hissed in the light rain as water was superheated into steam. Halyn pulled the cloak over his head and slid off the nose of the fighter, landing lightly on the cobblestones below. The cloak laid heavily over his shoulders in the consistent Rori moisture and, as was typical on the swampy moon, cloying, chokingly still air. The pilot checked to ensure the old Power 5 pistol was still secure at his hip, then briskly walked towards the hanger's only portal.
He was still a bit shaken from his flight in. The Naboo system was heavily occupied by Imperial forces, and he had narrowly avoided a Star Destroyer and two separate flights of TIE fighters on patrol. While his forged ID and transponder codes held up when he had commed Narmle for landing clearances, he was not at all confident that they would've fooled roving TIE commanders or a Star Destroyer's powerful sensor suite.
The Zabrak stepped into a surprisingly stiff, but slightly relieving, gust of wind as he stepped out of the starport's cavernous entrance. The cloak's hood pulled slightly at his horns, but he ignored the pressure as he took stock of his surroundings, trying to get his bearings.
Even under the cloak, he could tell he stood out from the natives of the planet. His flight boots gave him away easily--the civilians seemed to prefer a soft wrapped boot, instead of Halyn's solid, if worn, footwear. His flightsuit was dark blue, instead of the standard orange X-wing pilots generally preferred, but it was still a far cry from the dark, soft tunics and trousers of the Narmle citizens. A young woman walking past the entrance to the starport gave him an odd look, further destroying any trace of confidence in his ability to blend in. I might as well put on my dress uniform and parade down the street, he thought wryly. Any trace of a smile on his lips was quickly killed by the all-too-familiar sight of stormtrooper armor patrolling the streets.
Hugging the cloak more tightly around himself, and finally oriented, he made his way quickly, without incident, to the cantina where he was supposed to meet his contact.
Studying the sign over the door, Halyn read the barely-legible words: "The Blue Tusk Cat." He shook his head. This place looks seedier than a bar on Nar Shaddaa.
The door opened at his touch, however, and he shrugged the water off his cloak in the entryway. Descending further into the bar, he looked around. Pretty empty. Good. The only denziens in the cantina, for that matter, were a pair of drunken Sullustans in an alcove booth, huffing in some weird sound the Zabrak assumed to be the Sullustan equivalen to laughter. With one further glance around to check for anything out of place, Halyn descended the last few steps to the floor of the cantina and crossed the open space to the bar. Pulling up a stool, he waited patiently for the bartender, listening to an old jukebox play the recent hit "Smoky Dreams."
Halyn looked around the cantina, fingers drumming a steady beat on the countertop. Used to spend a lot of time in places like this. Hell, I shot up a few places like this, way back when. Whatever happened to those days of chasing fame and glory? Heh...well, I guess I know what happened to that. Never would've guessed that I'd wind up sitting in an empty bar waiting for some Alliance datapusher to give me some operation that apparently only I can accomplish.
Whatever this is, it can't be good. I mean...what's so urgent, anyways? I heard about the Death Star at Yavin getting vaped by Alliance pilots. There shouldn't be any...
His line of thought was interrupted by the bartender's arrival. An Ithorian, the bartender spoke no Basic. Instead, he gestured to the protocol droid following him.
"I'd like a Jawa juice," Halyn said carefully.
"You have offworld tastes? How fitting, seeing as you're an outlander," the protocol droid responded.
Halyn tried not to smile--the protocol droid was obviously malfunctioning a bit from its slightly snippy tone. "I've always had a preference for Tatooine drink."
"This way," the Ithorian grunted in passable Basic, gesturing towards the back of the bar.
The Rebel pilot rose and followed the bartender into a small room behind the bar lined with bottles from a thousand different worlds. The room was cool, helping maintain a better environment for the alcohol, and the lights were dim. A worn computer terminal stood in one corner, apparently used to keep inventory of the bartender's stock. But all this was taken in secondary, in peripheral vision, for Halyn was focused completely on the third occupant of the room.
Don't worry about breaking the story up.
Message Edited by Halyn on 09-15-2005 11:18 PM
If nothing else, the rebuilt Z-95 Headhunter surpassed the Zabrak's expectations by a wide margin. He surveyed the ship from nose to stern, amazed at the work done on the vessel. He studied it with an experienced eye, dumbfounded by the amount of work Alliance intel had done on the snubfighter.
The Z-95 had clearly been rebuilt from the frame up. The sensor suite had been augmented with the newest array of equipment. The engines had been reconstructed using a combination of the old Subpro stock drives with the new Incom fusial thrust engines mounted on the X-wing, boosting the old fighter's maneuverability and speed by ten percent. The triple-blasters had been replaced by the Taim & Bak IX-4 laser cannons that gave an X-wing its punch. The shield generators had been reconditioned. The hyperdrive purred sweetly. The armor plating on the hull had even been replaced with the newest, strongest stock available.
Most surprising, though, was the astromech slot. Though the X-wing and the older Y-wing both were designed around the use of an R-series astromech droid, the old Z-95 Headhunter followed a more common philosophy of a fighter only needing the pilot. This Z-95, though, had been apparently been rebuilt with the intention of bringing it inline with the Rebel ideal of having a backup in combat. The astromech slot was covered by a heavy armor plate, giving it a more standard Z-95 appearance--allowing it to pass for "stock."
Hal grinned at his red-and-white R2 astromech droid. "Waddya think, Deuce?" he asked.
The droid whistled and rolled forward, stopping near the fighter. The Zabrak grunted with the effort, but managed to wrestle the astromech up onto the wing of the Headhunter. From there, the droid managed to settle itself in the slot, plugging in. Halyn grinned and closed the armor cover, then slid into the cockpit.
The instrument array had been modernized, too. The pilot smiled as he studied the displays, beginning the fighter's preflight sequence. The fighter hummed to life quietly, smooth as Nubian silk. Amazing, the pilot thought. I never would have thought a Z-95 could be rebuilt like this. Hell, from spec, she'll perform better than any other Z-95 in the galaxy--almost to an X-wing's standards.
The repulsorlifts whined as the pilot gently eased the ship out of the docking bay. When he was clear of Narmle airspace, he kicked in the sublight drives, thrilling in the powerful surge of acceleration as the snubfighter gracefully ascended into vaccuum. The last pilot liked his g's a bit more than me, though, the Zabrak noted. He dialed the inertial compensator from .95 up to .97. The higher setting was still low enough to give the pilot a good feel for space, but at .95 Halyn had run into problems before in combat where pulling high-g maneuvers pushed him around in the cockpit more than he'd liked.
Still, this Z-95 was a sweet ride for a Headhunter, he decided. Throwing the craft into an easy helix, he smiled as the craft responded ably to his commands. "Waddya think, Deuce? Will she do?"
PERFORMANCE ACCEPTABLE, the astromech's tooted reply scrolled across the pilot's HUD. Halyn shook his head at the droid's typically truncuated reply.
Already loaded with the data for the jump, Deuce whistled that the Z-95 was ready for the hyperspace jump. A moment later, the snubfighter vanished into the vast nothingness known as hyperspace.
Quite enjoyable.
JUst have to say you got a lot of free time lol
very cool tho
Halyn wrote:
Er...if anyone's reading this, feel free to post comments.
Please? Someone? So I know I'm not writing to myself?
Message Edited by Halyn on 09-15-2005 11:18 PM
wow. That is a coincidence and a half. My T5 Ghrag movie's storyboard as it stands right now has a scene where you and Leaph are going over the Station's starfighter manifest. While doing so, Leaph points out the two A-wings the station had for long range patrols are complete write offsand your next line actually describes the high maintenance aspects of the A-wing.
Kind of fits in nicely that now I know where Halyn obtained that info 
Message Edited by LeaphChausew on 09-18-2005 04:02 PM
Extremely cool and well written story! You've got a great narrative style, much better than those hacks Lucas hires for writing the EU novels...
Keep it coming!