Everyone loved the dogfights in Star Wars, being directly inspired by the ones from WW2, but in space! Who didn't love those daring space jockeys duking it out and saving the day with their impressive flying abilities and can-do attitude? And who the heck didn't want to be them in some shape, way, or form?
Well, right now I most certainly didn't!
"Launchpad, break off from the Nu and engage in evasive maneuvers! Now!" I ordered as I opened fire on the much more dangerous targets chasing us down, joined in shortly by Thing 2 firing from the bottom.
Sadly, unlike the Nu shuttle, the V-Wings were made for dogfighting and were frighteningly fast.
Every shot sent their way they dodged and rolled out of the way of, all the while firing at us in turn with the rapid-fire laser cannons. While the distance between us made most of the shots miss, a few did hit, shaking the ship as the shields absorbed the impacts, and that number was increasing the closer they got. And they were getting close very fast.
"Hunter! We got a flight V-Wings on our tail!" I yelled into the comm as I kept blasting as best I could. "You have to get to your ship fast and get out of here before they can stop you from taking off! We'll keep them distracted as long as possible before we need to pull out, so hurry!"
"Blast, we're nearly there!" Hunter told me. "Don't wait for us though, get out as soon as you can!"
"We'll certainly try!" I ended the comm before calling up Launchpad. "Change of plan! We need to get out of here!"
"Got it! Heading for the for atmosphere no-"
"No! Head down and into the scrapyard! We need to lose them in there!" I ordered.
"The scrapyard! But why?! That's crazy!"
"The V-Wings are way faster than us, so if we go into open space they will quickly chase and blast us to bits!" I explained. "We need to keep them on the backfoot! Fly through the scrapyard and don't crash!"
"I'm not programmed for this madness!" Launchpad cried in fear, but nevertheless the ship started to pitch downwards back to the surface.
"None of us are!" I said back as I kept on firing, even as the ship suddenly pulled upwards, pulling on me, and we started making a number of rapid turns as Launchpad zipped through the scrapyard like a football player from a defensive formation.
If nothing else, Launchpad was trying very hard not to crash into anything as every moment we were doing some sharp turn or juke up and down to avoid some huge pile of rusty metal or old ship. So much so that even with the inertial damper active one could still feel the motions like they were on a ship in the middle of a storm, not helped by the fact that despite Launchpad's fancy flying the V-Wings were still keeping up and blasting at us, adding to the motion with every hit to our shields. Meanwhile, Thing 2 and I kept on blasting at them as best we could, but just as the pilots were good at keeping up with us in the scrapfield they could also still dodge decently enough even in the relatively confined space.
The only bright side was that two of the fighters had broken off from a direct pursuit, but only because they were flying above us and likely planned to dive on us the second we cleared cover.
"Nick! Our rear shields are at 56%! We won't last much longer like this!" Launchpad nervously informed me.
"We're trying back here!" I yelled back, groaning in anger as what few hits I was getting were being absorbed by the fighters' shields. Dammit! Why couldn't they have no shields like TIEs! "I'd be able to shoot straighter if we weren't jumping around so much, and our targets weren't quick as heck!
"Well I'm trying not to get us shot down or violently crashing into some centuries old pile of scrap metal!" Launchpad sent back indignantly, diving under a wreck at that moment so closely that it scraped the top of the ship, sending sparks flying near where I was sitting in the turret.
"And you are doing a very good job, thank you!" I yelled back a little nervously.
Launchpad's incredibly impressive evasive flying aside, we couldn't keep this up forever, especially if we or the Bad Batch wanted to get off world in a hurry. We needed to think out of the box…
"This isn't working! We need to switch up tactics! Thing 2, think you can kite one of them into my arch of fire?!"
"Indeed, Sir! Watch as I lead them into the slaughter!" Thing 2 said eagerly as he changed up how he was shooting, focusing less on direct hits and more trying to force his quarry to dodge a certain way as I half-assed shooting his wingmate to not give the game away.
Since we were shooting in a relatively tight space, that meant that there were only so many places to dodge, so as one of the V-Wings quickly moved to dodge fire from Thing 2…
"There!" I yelled and quickly moved the turret to where the V-Wing was dodging into and let it have it. After being hit a bit already by Thing 2 its shields were weak, so as it flew into my firing arc and before the pilot could react my quad-laser ate up what was left and chewed through its left wings!
I watched as that side of the starfighter caught fire and was on the verge of losing control until its pilot ejected out of the fighter, after which it quickly spun and crashed into a wrecked Pelta-class frigate with a fiery explosion.
"Yeah! Got one!" I cheered.
"Excellent shooting, Sir!" Thing 2 stated, only for the second fighter to tag their ship a bit and interrupt the moment. "Excuse me, you ruffian, we were celebrating your comrade's destruction!"
"Less yapping, more blasting!" I said as Thing 2 and I refocused our fire on the second fighter, but with his wingmate down he had an easier time dodging us cause he had more room to move around as he chased us and wasn't falling for the kiting trick again. That, and at this point the V-Wing had gotten close enough that most of its shots were hitting now, no doubt showing its anger due to our actions in shooting down their buddy.
"Rear shields are at 12% and failing, Nick!" Launchpad 'helpfully' informed us.
"I could guess that!" I said as I stared out at the carbon scoring littering the back of the ship at this point.
It wasn't too bad so far, but more and more blaster fire was getting through the shields with every hit as they got weaker and weaker, the pale blue energy field sparking with every hit. Once the shields finally ran out, the ship's armor would be its last line of defense, and it wasn't exactly military grade. And even if it was, few things in this universe lasted long under sustained heavy blaster fire.
"Okay, we need another new plan!" I groaned as I tried to think fast. "Ah, ah, the scrapyard! Any dangerously precarious and large pieces of old starships around we can shoot at and dislodge?"
"All around us, Sir!" Thing 2 pointed out.
"Fair point!" I admitted. "Thing 2, start blasting all of it right in this tailgater's path! I'll try to keep him from getting any closer!"
"Will do, Sir!" Thing 2 stated as he gave up firing at the V-Wing and started instead firing at the large chunks of scrap all around us.
It went without saying that doing so destabilized whatever precarious balance these things had, leading to a great deal of scrap metal and debris falling like an avalanche all around us as who knew how many tons of rusted metal started falling like rain or ocean waves. Old engines, huge chunks of discarded plating, pieces of superstructure, and so many parts I didn't recognize started falling all around us and into the V-Wing's path, which, combined with my own shooting, forced it to dodge more than it shot. Still though, it was still chasing us.
"Thing 2, take over!" I ordered as I spun the turret forward. "I need to find something that he can't barrel roll through!"
"On it, Sir!" Thing 2 stated as he focused fire on the V-Wing again.
"Come on, come on, give me something to work with…" I said under my breath as I looked around for anything that might bring down their pursuer, all the while that ship was still getting hammered.
"Shields at 4%!" Launchpad 'calmly' informed us.
Dammit! We were in a freaking planet-sized landfill! How could there not be-there!
"Head for that downed Arquitens!" I ordered, which despite his panic Launchpad did just that.
Said ship was parked on a large pile of debris, pointed downwards at an angle and looking like all it needed was a good push to get it to go sliding down. And well, I had plenty of push to give.
"No matter what, don't stop flying forward!" I yelled as I opened fire at the base of the debris pile underneath the ship, blasting chunks of it away at a time. "Tik was right! Speed is life! And we are gonna live!"
At those words, and my continued shooting, the debris pile finally lost its battle with gravity and collapsed, taking the Arquitens with it as it crashed and scraped down the pile to the ground. This left a rapidly closing gap between us and the other side, one which I was starting to doubt we'd make it through.
"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, OH DEAR!" Launchpad screamed as we flew through the gap right before the nose of the cruiser could hit us and close off our path behind us.
The V-Wing pilot was not nearly as lucky, as I turned out and watched as the ship was crushed under millions of tons of metal and exploded in the process. And as the Arquitens completed its sliding fall and leaned on its nose, all I was thinking was one thing…
"One more for the Galactic Republic!" I cheered and whooped at the fact my crazy idea actually worked.
After all, I was no protagonist, guys like me shouldn't be able to pull off stuff like that! But by the Force, I wasn't complaining!
"Oh thank the stars…" Launchpad said with noticeable relief. "I think I might have leaked a little back there."
"I think I might need to invest in some brown pants, myself," I admitted. "I think we've done our part, so how about we-"
My words were violently interrupted by several laser cannon blasts from above striking the Sleipnir, overwhelming what little shields she had left and putting several holes in the outer armor.
"Shit! Evade! Evade!" I screamed as the two other V-Wings that had been tailing us from above dived down and took the place their buddies once did. "Fuck! We can't do this again! We won't last!"
"Warning!" Launchpad shouted out suddenly. "Massive organic creature dead ahead!"
Despite the situation, I couldn't help but come up short at those words and turned to see what the heck Launchpad was talking about… only to see three massive tentacles rise up from a huge pit. Only it wasn't a pit, but a huge sarlacc-like being's mouth as a nearby Scrapper barge dumped a large amount of metal into it, staying far outside the reach of its enormous tentacles. Horrifying… but it gave me one last crazy idea.
"Launchpad! Dive into that creature's mouth!" I ordered.
"WHAT?!"
"Not totally into it, only a little bit! Trust me!"
Credit where credit was due, Launchpad did just that and dived into the giant being's mouth, the V-Wings still right behind us.
"Now rise! Through the falling debris!" I ordered, and Launchpad seemed to follow that order even faster somehow, pulling me back into my seat as he quickly pulled up into the falling trash. "Thing 2! All guns forward!"
At that we turned both our guns forward and blasted the trash, clearing us a ways a bit, but still taking hits from large pieces and blasts from the V-Wing's to our back! The ship took more and more damage as alerts went off throughout the ship.
Thankfully, the much lighter starships were also being peppered and slowed down by the debris raining down on them, and-
I could only yelp as Launchpad juked the ship to the side, barely dodging a massive tentacle that took a swing at us. Unfortunately for our tagalongs, they didn't have a droid's reaction time to do the same.
I turned and saw as the tentacle smashed into and wrapped around the two V-Wings, crushing them into scrap before tossing them down into the being's mouth below while we flew past so close to the barge I swear I could see the Scrappers on it shitting themselves.
"All starfighters destroyed!" Launchpad announced as he flew the ship straight up and away from Bracca's surface! "And we're still alive!"
"A fine victory, comrades!" Thing 2 declared. "May the spirits of our enemies feel not by shame and fiery death at their defeats!"
"Yeah! Wooo! Who's bad?!" I screamed into the air before slumping back into my seat. "Okay, I think we did our part. Let's message the Bad Batch and-"
"Oh no! Incoming attack shuttle!" Launchpad informed me, making me jump up and look at our scanners, which surely enough showed an incoming Nu coming our way and firing at us. "Nick! The ship's on her last legs! We won't last through another fight!"
"Dammit! I know!" I said as I activated my comms. "Hunter, come in! We took out the V-Wings, but my ship is barely hanging together and we got a Nu trying to take us down! I'm sorry, but we are bugging out! Are you guys doing the same?!"
"We're in the air and being chased too, but Omega… Omega was taken by a bounty hunter," Hunter said in a pained voice.
Dammit… yet another thing I wasn't able to change, but I couldn't dwell on that right now!
"Shit!" I cursed. "Then that means you need to go now! You can't find her if you're dead. I'm gonna need to land somewhere to make repairs, but I promise to contact you again the second I'm airborne again so I can help out. Now, get out of her and find Omega. Go!"
"Right, we'll contact and rendezvous with you later, Nick. Now you get out of here too!"
"See ya later, trooper," I said before ending the call. "Launchpad! We've worn out our welcome, get us out of here!"
"The navicomputer was damaged during the chase, but I'm compensating as best I can!" Launchpad informed me as he did his best to dodge the Nu as he climbed through Bracca's atmosphere and into space to get clear of its gravity well. "With all the hits we took I don't think we have many jumps in us!"
"Anywhere is currently better than here!" I told him as Thing 2 and I kept blasting at the Nu, whose return fire was more accurate, due to the ship's damage slowing her down–making us an easy target. "Just punch it!"
"Punching it now!" Launchpad said as we cleared the planet's gravity well and he engaged lightspeed, shooting us forward and instantly losing the Nu on our tail. "We have entered hyperspace! Oh goodness, I will need a long oilbath after this."
"You've earned it, bud," I told him with a smile as I finally relaxed and just watched hyperspace go by all around me in my seat. "Seriously, you went above and beyond today. You're officially a dogfighter now, and just need another downed ship to be considered an ace."
"Oh, well, ah, I mean, technically speaking all I did was fly the ship while you and Thing 2 were doing all the shooting…" Launchpad stuttered at the praise. "All you could say was that I was good at running away."
"I respectfully disagree, comrade Launchpad," Thing 2 stated. "You flew just as well if not better than most fighter droid models I am aware of, be proud of that fact."
"And that is the battle droid talking, so take his word for it, who himself did a great job shooting by the way," I laughed as Launchpad kept on trying to minimize and deflect his actions. "I for one feel veryproud about my unorthodox shooting abilities. Who needs to know how to aim properly?"
"Most sentients, Sir," Thing 2 stated, betraying me. "I do believe the ship would have taken less damage overall had Thing 1 had been shooting instead of you, due to his much more advanced targeting modules."
"Yeah, well… I'm gonna check out the damage to the ship," I grumbled as I couldn't refute that point and started making my way down the ladder back into the ship. "Launchpad, tell the triplets to get to work and take care of the critical systems first. Anything else will have to wait until we are out of hyperspace and landed somewhere relatively safe, but we should be good, right?"
"Hyperdrive is holding steady so far," Launchpad informed me as I got off the ladder, with Thing 2 following after. "I will let you know when we reach our destination."
"Which is…?" I asked curiously.
"Unclear, the data was damaged during the fight and until the navicomputer is repaired I won't know exactly where we are going," Launchpad explained. "I can ensure it's a planet and not a star or anything else we don't want to be flying towards."
"Yeah, don't wanna have that happen," I sighed as I rubbed my face while Sir Gonkington waddled over.
"(Need power?)" he gonked out.
"Yeah, but sadly it's not the kind you can provide and I can't sleep yet till we are landed safely," I explained to him as I patted his head. "I'll take off my suit and you can charge that, though."
"(Power ready)," he stated.
"While I'm not programmed for true repair work, I do have battlefield maintenance routines I can contribute to our headquarter's upkeep," Thing 2 stated. "Merely point me to where I am most needed, Sir."
"Heh, all you are just great," I sighed with a smile as I finally let myself relax for a moment before getting serious again. "Okay, time to put those starship repair lessons to good use."
Several hours passed since then, with nearly the whole crew, myself included, taking time to contribute to repairing various systems and damage that we could reach on the inside of the ship at this time.
Shield generator had many melted pieces throughout it that needed to be replaced, engines had taken more than a few hits that would need proper time to repair once landed or at least turned off, lots of pockmarks all over the outer hull that would need love and attention, the long range comms array was barely functioning, more than a few things there thrown around in the ship while it was getting hit or doing daring maneuvers that needed to be cleaned up, and tons of little things on top of all that. Doc himself was quietly pissed that his well-organized med bay would need another go over, and that was just the things we noticed so far.
As I was doing repair work it made me realize just how undergunned my ship was, and while she would always be a light freighter nothing said I couldn't work on trying to make her the deadliest one that I could. All the good smugglers did it, after all.
I would have to look into better shields, armor, more weapons like missile and torpedo launchers, some more countermeasures against scanners and such, upgrade the hyperdrive to class 1, add a tractor beam just since those are always useful, the works. It would be costly and take time to do, especially myself, but nothing says I can't put in more money for help and expertise if I wanted to, just a matter of willingness. Goodness knows there are plenty of good repair droids on SFO that I could use, or purchase the services of Tech or some other skilled starship modder.
Either way, with what I had in the cargo hold, reselling it all for good money shouldn't be a problem so long as I could get it back to Ord Mantell.
I was a little worried about Omega, but I tried to assure myself that she would be fine since she was a very resourceful kid and I knew in canon she was able to escape her captors and make it back to her family nearly all on her own. Besides, I sadly wasn't in a position to help locate her due to the state of my ship and the fact that I don't recall where it was she ended up being taken other than the fact it was an abandoned kaminoan facility on a random planet. I just had to trust and believe in her and the Bad Batch to carry on without me, which given their skills was more than likely.
Still though… it was hard to know a kid was suffering all on her own and not being able to help out at all.
After this, I was gonna ask Hunter about the potential of getting her a beacon or something to always carry on her person so she could always be tracked down if lost… unless that was too much. Was that too much?
Ugh, I would leave it up to her dad to answer that question.
"Nick, we are nearing our destination and are about to exit hyperspace," Launchpad informed me. "Want to join me up at the bridge?"
"On my way," I stated as I grabbed a rag and used it to clean my greasy hands due to the fact it was inside some power regulators a moment ago as I made my way to the bridge. I made it there quickly and sat in the co-pilot seat. "Now, let's see where we ended up."
"Exiting hyperspace now," Launchpad said as he pushed up the levers, only for the ship to shudder violently and nearly all the power to go out as we exited hyperspace way closer than the planet than we should have. "Oh no! Power failure all throughout the ship!"
"What happened?! I didn't see anything that could have caused this during repairs!" I yelled out as I tried to get the ship back online as the blue and green planet in front of us pulled the ship much faster than I would have liked.
"The hyperdrive must have been damaged in the fight, but the self-diagnostic failed to pick it up!" Launchpad explained as his three arms hurried tried to get the systems back up as we started entering the upper atmosphere and reentry flames appeared over the cockpit's windows. "Our automatic hyperspace exit safeties weren't functioning properly and brought us much closer to the planet's mass shadow than it should have, which caused a system overload once we actually left it. I'm doing a hard reboot, but I'm worried that we won't get the engines online in time before we crash!"
"Well better to die trying!" I responded as I worked alongside him as the ship tumbled through the atmosphere and was coming closer and closer to the surface of the planet proper. Thankfully the ship wouldn't burn up on reentry, but the sudden stop was still very much a problem if we couldn't get the engines working again.
As Launchpad and I desperately worked to get the engines working again, I couldn't help but notice that whatever planet we were heading towards, or at least this part of it, was full of grassy plains, dense forests, and rolling hills, which in any other situation would be quite pretty to look at if we weren't currently falling to our collective deaths. Granted, it wasn't the worst planet to die in a violent crash on, but still!
Anyway, we were well into the atmosphere at this point and I was really starting to worry that-
"Got it! Systems are rebooting!" Launchpad started as the ship's power returned and the systems started turning back on. "We just need to wait a few moments-"
"Ground is coming up pretty fast, LP!" I pointed out as I started being able to pick out details more and more. "We need those engines on, now!"
"Alllllllmost got it, there!" LP started as he pulled on the controls and the ship started to level out, but was still falling at a less than pleasant speed. "Oh dear, it seems like the overload has further damaged the engines! I can't stop her from going down!"
"Then at least take her down someplace open, like over there!" I said while pointing to a large grassy savannah. "And try to bring her down as gently as possible!"
"I'll try, but you're gonna want to strap in!" Launchpad warned as I heard his bottom half audibly magnetize to the floor.
"Everyone! Magnetize and prepare for impact!" I yelled over the ship's PA system as I strapped myself into my seat and the ground approached faster and faster as Laundphad did his best to keep us level. Meanwhile, all I could do was stare at the ship's altimeter as it ticked downwards.
500 meters, 400, 300, 200…
"Brace! Brace! Bra-!" I yelled as we neared the ground.
I'm not sure what happened next… hard to see how spectacular a crash is when you get knocked unconscious during it.
AN: Lots of first! First dogfight, first damaged hyperspace escape, first splitting up with allies, and of course first crash on unknown alien planet! I think that is a fun way to end this arc and start break. Feel free to guess where Nick and crew have ended up in meantime.