SHORT STORY: TALES OF THE FRONTIER

[Helayna Bray]

This is a short story detailing the results of what happened after the mission 'Devastation over Drakuyze'. Please do enjoy, it was a lot of fun to write and hopefully inspires others to attempt short form writing.

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::461.31//Tales of the Frontier: Aftermath of the Devastation over Draukyze::

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Helayna’s starfighter growled as it juked from side to side, its aft hull sparking near the upper right thruster as she attempted to make the jump to hyperspace, the already familiar screech of laser fire from the Stenax fighters cannons as green jets throttled past until one caught the very back, staggering the vessel as the thrusters decreased in power-level, the hyperdrive wasn’t an option, not any more. Helayna narrowed her eyes from the seat of her cockpit, a tight grip on the flight control stick as she shifted it from side to side, performing roll after roll with her feet alternating pedals, bringing the nose of the T-155 X-wing into a set of corkscrew rolls to maintain course. There was still the matter of the destroyer amongst the main group and if it remained at full power, she didn’t even want to think of the chaos it’d bring to the system, let alone force Gallidran into joining the Third Estate, she closed her eyes, breathed deep and let the Force be her guide.
“Talk to me Evera..”
She heard the sound of the nearing starfighters, now was her chance to break out and do something, anything, slamming her foot on one of the pedals, she angled the control stick and swerved at an angle, rolling the fighter as she shifted direction the opposite way, cutting underneath the wave of fighters that’d given chase, S-foils closed, she diverted all power to thrusters. The destroyer looked like an open ticket prize, only one with a gaping more and its jaws wide open with sharp teeth as turbolasers and surface cannons prepared to engage the closer she neared, able to see the shimmer of the exterior shielding covering like a layer of protective gossamer film. Her upper right thruster sparking, an alarm system flared but she shut it off, the minute she hit the shield, she opened up the S-foils again, breaking speed to gain maneuverability as power diverted back to shields and the weapons systems as she began to target some of the cannons along her way, the squadron chasing her had pulled back, scrambling to catch back up though a certainly shorter distance that Helayna had expected. Each cannon boomed with bright green blasts of plasma that whipped past the X-Wing as one cork-screw after another and a few bursts of her own plasma dented and damaged the turrets enough to expose their cores and cause an explosion of fire and durasteel to break off from the much larger vessel.

It wasn't long before the fire spewed back from behind, the starfighters reengaging combat with her and tailing hot as she dipped the X-Wing across the outer hull of the destroyer and whipped around to the side, changing her shield rotation along the way to match the direction the destroyer was facing her. She only had two torpedo’s left and they needed to be made to count as she swerved outwards and curved around, lining her shot, hands tightening around the stick before her thumbs clicked to fire the torpedo’s with the guided lock on flaring with success as they shot forwards towards the ships engines. Fire and smoke behind her as the X-wing flew through the explosion running scorched lines along the paintwork and dusting part of the cockpit's view port. Helayna felt a shudder as the ship took another hit.
“Spast! You wanna play that way, fine with me… I’ll be the one still standing.” she grumbled, hearing them over a comms broadcast that crackled through her onboard audio systems. “You’re alone, Republic dog! Your resistance is futile against the Stenax empire!” breaking away from the starship, she dove low, narrowly having to avoid the extra fire as two more fighters piled on. She could feel the intensity of their emotions; the wrath and anger, power hungry and driven by greed, such emotions almost always were accompanied with battle and war and she recalled her earliest memories during the war with the Wyld Empire flying with her closest friend and mentor figure Daegon, the lecture on such feelings had been quite a harsh one and here, again, she was reminded of that nagging itch in the back of her mind like a devilish whisper attempting to coach her into a demonstration of power with a stubborn temptation. It took almost all of her willpower to deny herself these feelings, sensing them in the enemy had been the reminder enough that she was stronger than that mentally and keeping her head cool will allow her to prevail in whatever form that was presented as. All she knew is that she couldn’t keep running, she’d have to take this fight on her own terms and she’d spotted just the place to do so…

The barren ball of ice of Draukyze IV came more into view, her damaged x-wing breaking through into its atmosphere as the hull of the starfighter broke into scorching flames as it pushed through and alarms began to flare once again, her stabilizers had been pushed to a limit and the fighter was hanging on at least for now. The deeper she pushed into the clouds, the thicker the fog of cloud and ice that’d formed and dropped, chunks bounced off from the s-foils and the transparisteel glass shook as she moved to get out of the storm. An explosion sounded, bringing forth an element of brief hope within her already dire situation of being out matched four to one as she told herself it were just like the practice simulations back on Duneeden with the students doing her best not to picture their faces as she broke through cloud into clearer skies, the sun shining on the planet as the heat radiated through the cockpit and the sound of familiar screeching lines of laser fire passing by her continued. A different alarm flared, a missile lock and little she could do to avoid it currently as a Stenax fighter shot forth a torpedo careening through the open air of Draukyze IV’s cold air, ice trying to form along the outer edge of the chassis of the payload as it propelled forth, its green light flickering as it neared the X-wing pulling each and every maneuver to try and break that connective heat signal. Her nose tilted upwards sharply rolling off the top as the missile was unrelenting in its pursuit and lucky enough the shooting had stopped, a sign perhaps in their over-confidence of victory and one that she would use to her advantage.
“Not on my watch, rookie mistake…”
Her hand keyed in on the terminal for her onboard countermeasures, as the screen flickered, it took time for the connection of her carbani sensor inverter to be established with the missile, the light above it sparked and flashed red before the missile to the surprise of the Stenax, diverted off from Helayna and turned back, the two wingmen instantly broke formation, rolling off as they abandoned their ally to receive its punishment as the starfighter burst into flames, exploding from the impact of its own armament. They began to re-group, Helayna swerving her X-wing through the clouds for cover but little helped, her shields were already near depleted and went off line as she felt bolts impact against her s-foils and burning holds through them, forcing the ship to shudder, clinging for dear life before she gained some distance, slammed back the throttle of her thrusters and pressed the pedal to the floor as her x-wing drifted across in an arc, whipping around to make a return pass at them with her own lasers, still able to sense that feeling of targeted wrath giving off their location as the Force guided her shots, cyan lasers howled with repeated bursts, rolling from position to position through the clouds, her vision returning as she broke through, one had been hit and span off losing control due to the disappearance of its wings, the second caught a shot to the top of its thrusters, causing them to ignite and explode leaving a singular fighter to attack back, the bolts peppered her wings further and she could feel the wind-resistance trying to tear them off from the main body as she turned the ship away, passing over head of the enemy vessel, her last remaining challenger as both ships chased and swerved around each other spiralling downwards towards the valley of ice, pockets of water still remained as the Helayna moved closer to ground in an attempt at disrupting the targeting sensors of her enemy to little avail, he remained close, more bolts screamed across before one hammered against her cockpit, tearing the glass frame off and disabled her terminals, she had no info to go off off and felt the sudden rush of oxygen as her cockpit had been exposed, her hair whipping behind her as her ponytail flapped, pulling off her helmet as it landed in her lap, the seats harness keeping her pinned into her chair as the frozen cliffs framed their position and revealed a narrow diverted path. closing her s-foils she took the risk, shots whizzed past loud and violently, hammering against the walls of the canyon, breaking fragments and dropping ice towards the water below whilst she corkscrewed into the narrow pathway as it separated her from the enemy and soon felt his gaze land upon her, hearing him bark at her over her barely functioning audio system.
“It’s over for you Republic dog!”
She turned her head, offering the Stenax a final glare as she stared death in the face but for whom. Raising a hand upwards from her controls, she flipped the bird and committed forwards, hovering her ship above the water as the enemy starfighter came in from behind, trying to land a final shot as water splashed up and collided against her body as she neared an island. She tilted the ship enough that she nearly touched the water with the edge of her wings before sharply dragging the vessel with a hard right, the sheer force of the maneuver causing the water to cascade up like a barrier as the fighter pushed through it, his eyes trying to find her but too late to miss the jagged edge of the the island’s cliff, colliding with it in a heavy slam, wedging itself into the formation before slowly falling.

Only now could she breathe, her fighter screaming at her with alarms as the ship finally took its last breath and went dark, gliding over the water towards an icy field, her thoughts turned to her padawans as she clicked at her restraints, unbuckling herself and grabbing her helmet. The x-wing began to lower, gravity gripped it now as it slowly descended, she grasped the edge of the cockpit and raised upwards, waiting until it were low enough to jump before pushing off and landing against the ice, she gasped but no air came, the wind knocked out of her as she rolled and rolled, feeling the bruises as she scraped along the ice, coming to a halt just in time to watch her starfighter collide with the ground and roll into an explosion, bursting into flames as she could feel the heat even at this distance and she laid there for a while, wincing and coughing as air came to her lungs..


“Mom?... Mom!” the sound of S’ana’s voice shook her from her dream as reality came back to her, the sky had turned towards dusk and her ship still inflames as she slowly hauled herself up, as much as she hoped she would get to see her daughter again some day, the ever looming presence of the Stenax battlecruiser above told her it would not be any time soon as tiny dark spots hinted that more were coming and escape was now impossible. Her thoughts turned towards ‘Eo and Nil, Amani. She activated her transponder beacon in her helmet and hid it as she sat and waited for her new captors to collect her…

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