The Desert Suite
A Ranma Wars Side Story
By J. Austin Wilde
Fission Park Press
and P-P-P-Chan Productions
J. Austin Wilde, K.B.C.S.
Minister of Propaganda and
Herald of the Temple of the Island King
Fission Park Press
wildeman@flash.net
Ranma Wars is the creation of Lucas Muzzatti. It may also be a parody
of George Lucas' epic, Star Wars, although no one told _me_ about it.
Ranma 1/2 is of course the creation of Rumiko Takahashi. I'm sure we
understand who owns the rights and privileges of the various characters
and situations, hmmm?
______________________________________________________________________
Not so long ago in a galaxy of our own devising...
The K-Wing limped over the dunes of Tatooine trailing smoke.
Kasumi sighed tiredly as another red light flicked on at her damage
display. The starfighter was trying to sound cheery as it slowly failed.
She decided that its attempts were failing too.
Her own reminder to her friend Nabiki of Jabba's formidable air
defenses came back in her face. After shooting down the three T-95
Tsubasas, she attacked the two turbolaser batteries. Make that _three_
turbolasers.
The third had been quite a surprise. A surprise that nearly got them
vaporized. The first blast had flattened her deflector shields and blazed
streams of coherent death into her K-Wing. She didn't give the gun crew
a second chance at her, loosing a concussion missile into the thing at
point blank range. She hated it when the intel reports overlooked such
trivial details as a third anti-aircraft laser cannon.
Now her K-Wing's power generation systems were overheating. The
main cooling system had been holed by molten metal spalling of her
armor belt. The redundancy system had a history of poor performance,
really the only flaw with the starfighter's design.
It all came down to one thing: she didn't have enough power
available to make orbit. Soon her energizers would fail and she wouldn't
have any power whatsoever. With luck she could reach the city of
Anchorhead and secure assistance before then.
An alarm began to warble in her headset. Without looking at her
panel she knew what it was. The energizers were overheated. She
could feel the sluggish response of the controls, the change in pitch
from the turbofans that fed tons of air per second over the reactor
system for thrust in an atmosphere.
Her slim fingers flew across the panel, directing her remaining
power reserves to the gravity drive and flight controls. Airspeed bled
away as the turbofans stalled. She could feel the last of her forward
thrust ebbing with each second.
**If I can just reach that hard packed ground,** she thought as
she bit down on her lip. She didn't have any illusions about setting
down without power in sand. The idea that the sand would absorb the
shock of crash landing didn't enter her mind. She wasn't going to crash,
and that was that.
With one hand on the yoke and the other hand-pumping her landing
gear down, she deftly dropped the K-Wing on a patch of hard earth little
larger than her starfighter. The engines finished winding down as she
opened the canopy and set her helmet on the console. She pulled her
pink 'snoopy cap' hood from her head and mopped away the sweat
soaked bangs from her eyes.
Kasumi Antilles stood up in the cockpit and stretched out. Her fall
of golden brown hair worked its way out of her flightsuit and fell over
her shoulder. The starfighter shuddered just once as it settled on its
landing gear.
"Well you are alive and whole," she said to herself.
Upon inspecting the starfighter she confirmed what the damage
control system had already informed her. The main coolant system had
vented its entire charge of exotic gas to the hot and dry Tatooine air.
Even if she could patch the holes with her repair kit, she still didn't
have the fifty-seven kilos of coolant gas to fill the system.
"Oh dear..."
She sat down atop the reactor complex and thought.
**I could always patch the holes and transfer the coolant from the
redundant to the main system. I just hope I have enough repair material.**
She looked again at the damage. Several runs of tubing were split. One
manifold was cracked wide open. This was a little out of her league. **It
would also help if I knew what I was doing...**
She decided the best she could hope for would be to clean away some
of the carbon scoring. Unfortunately that wouldn't help her to get the
K-Wing operational. Also as she had undertaken her mission for Nabiki
without any official sanction from the Alliance, she didn't expect much
help from that quarter.
Kasumi hopped down onto the dusty ground and looked to the east.
Anchorhead was somewhere over that far ridge of red-brown sandstone.
It was a good hundred kilometers away as the snarkas flew. Part of the
Dune Sea stood between her and her destination as well. The twin suns
G1 and G2 hung high in the sky blazing down upon her, and she
decided to wait until later when it wasn't so hot before setting out.
She settled down in the shade of her starfighter's wings and leaned
against the landing gear strut for support. It was _soooo_ hot, and the
heat drained away her strength until she dozed off in exhaustion. As she
drifted away she thought of her dear friend Nabiki. She hoped her
scoundrelous companion was faring better than she was.
* * *
"All squadron leaders report in," the tac-net crackled.
"Indigo Leader here, Indigo Squadron ready!"
"Cocktail Leader here, Cocktail Group standing by!"
"Bronze Squadron ready!"
"The Wrecking Crew's ready for action!"
Kasumi Antilles was next in the queue. She keyed her commo system
as she looked over her shoulder. K-Wings and their counterparts the
Kawaii-Wings slid into an echelon-left formation on her own K-Wing.
"Darling Leader here," she said sweetly into the tac net. "Darling
Squadron standing by!"
In all there were eight squadrons of starfighters filling space
with the light of their HEPLAR drives. It was the largest formation
the Alliance had ever mustered in one place against the Hentpire. If
this mission succeeded, it would be the first real victory over the
Hentpire since the civil war had begun.
The Command channel crackled in her earphones. In order to
preserve the mission's secrecy, the location of the target and the commo
frequencies to be used wouldn't be given until the ships were spaceborne.
"Lock navigational data into your computers; set Channel 1G to
receive. Tactical-net shift to Channel 6F will occur prior to hyperspace
jump, command channel is unchanged. Set IFF to 3A95."
The Squadron Leaders acknowledged and set their commo systems
accordingly. Mission Data scrolled across the displays as it was
transmitted up to them. Kasumi wished they had more time to review it.
They were playing this one by ear, counting more on the element of
surprise and the skills of the pilots to overcome the lack of familiarity
than on a well planned and practiced attack.
She called up her Darlings on the squadron channel and passed them
the data. Each fighter's primary and secondary assignments were detailed
in the instructions. From the look of things, the Darlings would be
providing fighter cover for the Cocktail Group and their heavy bombers.
Kasumi preferred intercept missions over this sort of thing. With her
eleven Darlings to worry about she just didn't need a whole
Bombardment Group thrown in for company.
They were good girls, her Darlings. Well all of them except for
Dowling, who was a man. Darling Six was ceaseless in his bellyaching
about being stuck in a squadron of females, but the truth of it was that
he had a heart of gold and was a cool hand behind the stick. She had
turned down his every request for a transfer on this last point.
"All Squadrons stand by for the jump to hyperspace."
Kasumi scanned her navigational unit. The coordinates for the jump
were loaded and the hyperdrive status lights shifted to standby. She
could feel the reactor behind her start to ramp up the power, charging
the hyperdrive's accumulators.
Her Darlings flashed their collision lights twice to show they were
ready. Kasumi smiled in spite of the butterflies that spun circles in her
stomach. She loved them all, and she hoped they would all come home
safe tonight.
"Execute hyperspace jump on my mark..." The Mission Commander
intoned. "Five, four, three, two, one, Mark!"
The eight squadrons suddenly leaped into a phenomenally higher
energy state, disappearing into flashing streaks of white light and
lambent flame. The attack was on.
* * *
Kasumi stirred as the rising wind sent scouring clouds of dust and
sand into her face. The rivulets of sweat that tracked down her cheeks
and matted her luxuriant mane of hair now caked with gritty mud. Braving
a look with her hands shielding her face, she saw that the larger of the
two suns was setting over the horizon. Its sister wasn't far behind.
"No time like the present," she said to herself. She collected her
helmet from the cockpit console and set it on her head. With the visor
down it would keep the sand out of her eyes. She opened a storage locker
in the fuselage and pulled out her survival kit. The kit had a large
cloak that would keep the sand and grit from fouling her flightsuit. She
donned the cloak and slipped the soft frame pack over her shoulder and
started east.
The way was slow through the sand, and she was grateful for sealed
boots. With her cloak and helmet the winds didn't seem as bad, though
she was sweating as fast as she could drink her dwindling supply of
survival water. Her flightsuit could reclaim a little of the moisture,
but not enough to account for losses through breathing. It seemed
Tatooine's atmosphere leeched the moisture out of her.
At last the second sun set in the southwest. It was that time in
the northern hemisphere of the planet where both suns actually set in
the sky. G2's eccentric companion orbit around G1 made for entire
months of continuing daylight, Tatooine's 'summer'.
Kasumi watched the huge orange ball of fire descend over the dunes
in shimmering waves of heat that made the air seem liquid. The sky was
an angry blaze of colors until finally the darkness overcame the last
vengeful rays of daylight. Stars began to appear in the sky, little
points of eternal light against the sable firmament.
Night comes swiftly to the desert. With no vegetation the burning
sands soon gave up their heat to the air. Kasumi pulled her cloak
tightly about herself as she went from furnace to freezer. She could
use her flightsuit's heaters if need be, but without a source of power
available the batteries would only last a few hours.
She looked up longingly to the stars. They had always been her
friends, her home. She wanted to get back to them.
* * *
The Darlings dropped out of hyperspace in formation, a display of
the vigorous training regimen the original founder of Kasumi's squadron
insisted upon. She was just a young girl when she joined Leticia Darling's
unit. That was two years ago, and she had grown up quickly in that time.
Leticia had died during the Hentperor's ascension to power, killed by
none other than Kuno Vader himself. The surviving pilots of the
squadron named themselves in honor of her, and Kasumi Antilles had
become their leader.
She checked her instruments, then looked over her shoulder to
confirm that all of her Darlings had come through intact. They flashed
their collision lights again for her. Darling Two, her second in command,
took half of the squadron into an echelon-right formation and dropped
back. The other half stayed echelon-left with Kasumi's K-Wing.
Their ribbon-bow shaped EMS suites detected the Hentperials'
probing sensory arrays a good distance away. A capital ship came over
the pole of their target planet Gallus Prime. It was one of the newer
Hentperial cruisers, not one of the old Republic ships. That meant it
was armed to the teeth and had the kind of sensors that could tell what
color your panties were through a deflector shield and three centimeters
of titungstenel armor. (At least that was the way the joke went.)
They weren't after the panty-shaped cruiser. They needed to hit the
orbital construction yards. Those would be producing the new Hen-TIE
fighters and more of those perverted cruisers to enslave the galaxy to
the whim of the twisted little Hentperor. Cocktail Group would take out
the yards, Kasumi's Darlings would keep them covered against the fighters.
"Cocktail Leader to all Cocktail Sections, sound off."
"Whiskey Leader standing by!" Twelve aging Thunderbolts formed
up by element pairs.
"Martini Leader standing by!" Nine Kawaii-Wings armed with heavy
missiles and torpedoes waggled and flashed their lights.
"Screwdriver and Brandywine Sections ready!" A mixed bag of
Thunderbolts, T-95 Tsubasas, K and Kawaii-Wings formed up to attack.
"Rummy Leader here, Rummies are ready to roll!" Ten more
Thunderbolts fell in behind the Screwdrivers.
They were closing with the target. Sensors continued to indicate the
Hentperials' ignorance to their presence.
The Mission Commander's voice issued across the tac-net. "Cocktail
Group get set up for your run. Watch that cruiser coming in. Darlings
cover against that cruiser while Indigo and Bronze Squadrons work it in
close. Wrecking Crew draws Triple-A suppression against the yards.
Everyone got it?"
There were various replies by the squadron leaders over the command
channel.
Kasumi called out to her pilots.
"Lock S-Foils in attack position, please."
The Darlings complied as one. The K-Wings' airfoils split apart into
the characteristic 'K' shape tipped on its side. The Kawaii-Wings' long
engine pods split apart and formed into the classic 'Y' shape in relation
to the fuselage, making them look like big bunny rabbit heads when
viewed from above. (Several of the Darlings' Kawaii-Wings were in
fact painted to look like bunnies.) Deflector shields energized and pilots
set them double front to attack. Weapons charged up and missiles
primed themselves for launch. They were keeping their EMS arrays
passive for the moment to capitalize on the element of surprise.
Kasumi awaited her pilots' status reports.
"Darling Two standing by," Irene Tal declared. Kasumi could almost
see her green eyes shining through her helmet visor.
"Darling Three is standing by," Beli Seff sang. She had the
prettiest voice, and was rumored to be a big opera diva on her homeworld.
She was Kasumi's wingmate.
"Darling Four standing by," Jantica Kolustan announced. Jan was the
Darlings' hustler. She could get a hold of whatever the squadron needed
despite the vagaries and shortages of the Alliance supply system. She
also had a running betting pool going on just about any wager you could
think of.
"Darling Five standing by," Karen Rago called. Karen was the best
shot in the squadron. She once picked off Hentperial Stormtroopers in
a strafing run through a crowd of hostages with her K-Wing's laser
cannons. A few of the hostages received impromptu sunburns, but
they fared far better than the Hentperials.
"Darling Six ready," Rik Dowling growled. His rumbling bass voice
was a little out of place on a tac-net filled with altos and sopranos.
Kasumi grinned as he mumbled something else unintelligibly over the
net.
"Darling Seven standing by," Lathloral Kess said evenly. Lath was a
veteran of the first battles against the Hentpire. She'd seen too much,
and had since withdrawn into herself. More was the pity, for she was
so beautiful to look at that it made your heart ache.
"Darling Eight standing by!" Darcie Allucronin replied in a cheery
voice. Next to Kasumi, Darcie had the sunniest disposition of the
squadron. Which is why she was Darling Six's wingmate.
"Darling Nine ready!" Arika Mil cried. She was the first of the four
new replacements for the Darlings to get the squadron up to strength.
This was her first combat action, and Kasumi was a little worried for
all of them. She was full of enthusiasm, Kasumi just hoped it would be
enough to get her through.
"Darling Ten standing by!" Denri Hakash piped up as soon as Arika
cleared the net. The two had been friendly rivals throughout their hasty
starfighter pilot training.
"Darling Eleven standing by," Mona Shantipall said with a little
less enthusiasm. She was the daughter of a scandalously wealthy shipping
magnate, and it was rumored that she joined the Alliance just to get
back at him for something. Now that she had front-row pressbox seats
to the middle of the war she seemed to be having second thoughts
about her decision. Her biggest problem was that she wasn't a quitter
at anything, and was determined to see this war through to the end.
"Darling Twelve ready to go!" Tiko Glissando chirped. Tiko was
for lack of a better term the squadron's mascot. She was barely fifteen
years old, about four and half feet tall, and needed special modifications
to her acceleration chair to see over her starfighter's instrument panel.
Her prowess in the simulators is what put her in the cockpit of a K-Wing.
"All fighters commence attack!" The Mission Commander ordered.
Cocktail Group surged ahead on full HEPLAR burns.
The Hentperials finally detected the Alliance starfighters and began
to sortie their Rapid Alert fighters. A full squadron of Hen-TIEs
screamed from the cruiser's launch bay and closed on intercept with
Cocktail Group. EMS suites detected weapon radars and deflector shields
springing to life about the shipyards.
"Twelve marks at two points left, azimuth four!" Rummy Leader cried.
"They must think we wouldn’t see ‘em," Rummy Five said in a laconic
voice.
"Well I didn’t see ‘em, did you see ‘em?" Rummy Nine barked.
"I see ‘em now," Five replied casually.
"Let 'em have it Darlings!" Cocktail Leader called out.
Kasumi keyed her commo on the squadron channel as her starfighter's
tracking systems acquired and locked the lead Hen-TIE on her Heads Up
Display. She felt elated now that the wait was over.
"Let's go girls!" She called out cheerfully.
Ten voices sang happily in reply.
Darling Six grumbled something not worth repeating here.
The twelve starfighters formed up into their element pairs and hit
their boosters. They climbed in relationship to the ecliptic plane to
intercept the Hen-TIEs. The Hentperials saw them coming and decided to
change targets.
Once she had given the necessary orders, Kasumi switched on the
cockpit music. Biohazard began grinding out the big metal sounds as
her K-Wing took the lead. Her pulse quickened as her fusion reactor
screamed with vengeful fury. The roar of helium plasma was a deep
vibration in the pit of her stomach as she closed the range with the
Hentperials. She loved every millisecond of it.
* * *
Kasumi had walked all night across the dunes. By the time she
reached the hard age-worn sandstone ridgeline she was exhausted. She
searched around for suitable shelter from the quickening dawn with the
last of her energy.
Finding a spot that would keep her out of the sun for awhile, she
spread her cloak over the rocks and tried to get comfortable. The grey
sky of Tatooine's sunrise began to brighten. Soon it would go from
evening chill to blast furnace heat.
She took a sip of her dwindling reserve of fresh water, realizing
that by sunset she would have to start using her flightsuit's recycled
supply. She didn't look forward to that at all. Instead she chose happier
thoughts, such as a nice hot soak in a bath tub to wash away the dirt
and grime that clung to her.
Kasumi wasn't aware of drifting off to sleep, nor was she aware
how long she had been out when the huge smelly hand collared her and
lifted her off the ground.
"Oh my!" she cried in sleepy surprise.
The Tusken Raider who held her off the ground raised a gaffe stick
and prepared to bring it down on her pretty head with the intention
of splitting it open. Kasumi would have no truck with that. As an
alternative she lashed out with her foot and planted it in his mid-
section. The foul smelling beast made an appropriately painful sound
as all his breath left his lungs.
She dropped to her feet as the Raider let her go. Danger can do
wonders for one's concentration, and she had gone from fast asleep to
wide awake in the time it took her to say 'oh my!'. The other Sand
People weren't expecting much of a fight from her, and they backed
away a few steps.
Kasumi did as well. Unfortunately for her, she had a sheer wall
of sandstone at her back, which didn't give her many options for
escape. The Sand People gathered their wits quickly and dropped their
gaffe sticks level with their chests to stab at her.
She drew her blaster from her hip holster and pointed it at the lead
Raider.
"I don't want to have to shoot you," she said trying to maintain a
smile on her face.
The Sand Man had seen blasters before, but decided his prey didn't
have the nerve to use it.
Kasumi promptly shot him in the foot, which not only blasted a
silver dollar sized hole through it, but also had the collateral effect
of setting his ragged clothes on fire from the knees down.
The Tusken Raider started whooping in a horrible voice, his cries
echoing painfully across the sandstone rocks. He hopped around on
one foot beating at the flames as the others wisely stepped back
another few paces.
"So sorry about that," she apologized. "But I did warn you."
He howled something in reply and the others charged at her.
She squeezed off two shots into them before they knocked away her
pistol and pinned her arms at her sides. She chose this moment to
scream, but it wasn't likely to draw any attention if the beginning of
this ruckus hadn't. The maimed Sand Man hopped over to her,
grunting something reasonably obscene as he prepared to club her to
death like a baby seal. His smoldering legs added to his terrible stench.
Kasumi thrashed uselessly in their grips as the Sand Man raised his
stick high over his head. Despite his obvious agony he seemed to be
savoring the moment. She hoped it would be quick, but had the feeling
he was going to take his time in killing her.
You can imagine her surprise when the Sand Man began cudgeling
_himself_ instead.
The other Sand People were of a similarly confused state of mind.
Then the crazed Sand Man began pummeling them as well, and they
decided to run for it. Kasumi was a tasty morsel, but was proving to be
too much trouble for the effort.
The maimed Sand Man hopped after them in pursuit, howling and
cursing and waving his gaffe stick around. When he couldn't reach any
of them he hit himself instead. Kasumi watched them go, pausing only
to collect her blaster and her other things.
"How very odd," she remarked.
A figure in a dark robe popped out from behind a rock outcropping.
Kasumi saw the movement out of the corner of her eye, and she
wheeled about with her blaster ready. As her finger tensed on the
trigger ready to fry the interloper, he threw off his hood.
"Why hello there!" The figure called in a friendly voice.
It was a man. A rather handsome man to boot! She lowered her
blaster.
"Are you hurt?" He asked.
Kasumi looked herself over.
"Nothing serious, just a little shaken up," she replied.
The man got a closer look at her. He was a little nearsighted, and
affected eyeglasses that were charmingly quaint in an era that corrected
poor vision with simple surgery.
"You're a girl?" He asked in surprise.
Kasumi was taken aback by his question, but laughed anyway.
"Of course I am, silly!"
At the sound of her melodious laughter and as he got a better look
at her in that flightsuit that clung lovingly to her marvelous curves, he
began to blush furiously and his glasses steamed up. His reaction only
made her laugh some more.
"Forgive me!" He stammered.
Kasumi put her hand to her mouth to hide her smile. "It's nothing
really." She quickly decided that she liked him.
"Are you hurt?" He stammered again.
"I'm fine." She was having a hard time hiding her smile from him.
"That's good," he said, regaining his composure somewhat. His
glasses were still opaque. He fidgeted about for a few minutes.
Kasumi decided that if she was going to get anything useful from him,
she would have to do the talking.
"You wouldn't happen to have a vehicle around would you? I need
to get to Anchorhead."
The man looked around as if he was hearing angelic voices in his
head. (Which he was depending on your point of view.)
"Excuse me sir?" Kasumi said in the hopes of regaining his attention.
"Hmmm? Oh I'm terribly sorry," the man replied as if waking from
a dream. "By the way, you aren't hurt are you?"
If she hadn't immediately sensed his distraction with her, she might
have gotten angry at this point. But Kasumi Antilles was also a woman
of enormous patience, and so she took him by the hand and led him
back the way he came. He followed along a little confused, but
otherwise blissfully happy.
"I'm sorry, where are we going?" He managed.
"You were going to show me to your vehicle," Kasumi informed him
with a radiant smile.
"Oh yes," the man replied. He thought about it for a minute as she
led him by the hand through the rocks. "Um, I don't know how to say
this, but I don't have a vehicle."
Kasumi stopped in her tracks.
"Oh dear..." she said softly.
"I'm terribly sorry, it's just that I live out here and don't need
to get around much. I could take you to my home if you like." As he
realized what he'd said he began to blush furiously again.
"That would be wonderful!" She enthused. It wasn't as good as a
vehicle, but it would be a chance to freshen up and restock her water
supply.
"Um, yeah." He decided to lead for awhile. Kasumi smiled to herself.
As it turned out, he didn’t live very far away. His home was a cave
set into the side of the sandstone cliffs. It didn’t look like much on
the outside, but once Kasumi was inside she found it was rather cozy.
"Sorry about the mess," the man replied. "I wasn’t expecting
company."
"It’s okay," Kasumi grinned. From the clutter she guessed that he
lived alone.
The man fumbled with several odd bits of clothing lying around.
"Um, ah, can I ah, get you something?"
"Well, I don’t want to impose more than I already have."
"It’s no trouble!" He replied. "I’ll get you something to drink."
He bumbled his way into a little alcove in the side of the room.
Kasumi heard the clatter and crash of a great pile of unwashed dishes.
"Are you all right?" She asked him.
"I’m fine! I’m fine!" He stammered amidst the clamor of glass and
crockery.
She put her gloved hand to her lips in a smile.
"If it’s no trouble, I’d really like to freshen up a bit."
Something sounding like a cast iron skillet bounced off his head.
There was a sharp intake of breath. A hand appeared out of the darkness
of the alcove, pointing down a short hall.
"Just down and to the left," he hissed in obvious discomfort, but
trying his best to keep his composure.
"I’ll find it!" She laughed.
The bathroom was rather small, but it would suit her needs well
enough. It seemed like imposing, but she needed to clean herself up.
The sink was a little shallow, and had that standard Tatooine vacuum
fitting that drew air across it to conserve the moisture that might
otherwise evaporate away.
She turned the faucet valve to fill the sink. The conserver fitting
whined to life as a thin stream of clear tepid water spilled into the
basin. She touched her fingertips to the water and frowned. That was as
cold as it was going to get.
She sighed and cupped a little of the water into her hands and
splashed it on her face. Tatooine’s stubborn grime stayed put. A little
scrubbing only seemed to scour.
She shut the faucet valve. Over her shoulder was the shower.
**Surely he wouldn’t mind?**
The sound of that delightfully clumsy man down the hall told her
that he wouldn’t even notice, let alone mind. Her long delicate fingers
played at the flightsuit seals, which hissed softly as she undid them.
It felt good to get out of the confining suit. It was her shelter and
her protection, but it was also a smothering affection sometimes.
The shower had another of those obnoxious conservers above it.
Kasumi flicked her hand across the sensor and the fine pulses of hot
water strobed across her body. Ultrasonics helped work loose the grit
and the grime with a minimum of water usage. It felt wonderful, and
the low whine of the conserver carried her thoughts away.
* * *
"Break left girls!" She called out.
Her half of the Darlings rolled and pulled hard left yaw against
the Hen-TIEs. The range was long, but stinging tongues of brilliant
light reached out across the darkness between them. Out of the corner
of her eye she saw Darling Seven’s Kawaii-Wing bathed in incandescent
fire. A harsh blast of static erupted over the tac-net.
"Lath!" Karen Rago cried in terror.
"I’m all right!" Lathloral replied in a shaky voice. "Just cut
across my shields!"
Somewhere in the back of Kasumi’s mind there registered the
heart-skip of relief. But not in her conscious mind. Time slowed to a
crawl in the rat race; and she was lining up that lead Hen-TIE in her
sights by the millisecond.
There was no conscious decision to squeeze the firing stud. At
least none that Kasumi Antilles would recognize. There was only that
actualization; caught in the moment and willing her weapons to release.
That a vast string of computations and probabilities acted in concert
with precision photonics and several million joules of energy to turn
a bra-shaped starfighter a thousand kilometers away into an expanding
cloud of boiling plasma was meaningless to her.
That was however, the end result.
Half a second later she was pitching her nose into a climb against
the ecliptic. As the Hen-TIE’s glowing remains succumbed to entropy and
cooled away to dying embers, Kasumi’s K-Wing grappled with Gallus
Prime’s gravity well. As one part of her awareness registered the blip
on her EMS suite fade, another was watching her girls.
Her Darlings were all there, and they were doing her proud.
The Hen-TIEs closed the range with the Darlings. Four more
Hentperial starfighters fell to concussion missile strikes. The deaths
went unanswered as the small fighters carried no missiles of their own.
Kasumi ordered her K-Wings into a dogfight with the Hen-TIEs
while keeping her Kawaii-Wings at the fringes to deal with the
stragglers by using their impressive missile load-out. Darlings Seven,
Nine, and Eleven broke off and made a wide circle in formation. She
trusted Lathloral to keep Arika and Mona out of trouble. The middle
of the rat race was no place to be hurling missiles indiscriminately.
Irene Tal and the even-numbered Darlings were covering Whiskey
Section’s run on the shipyards. The Wrecking Crew’s Thunderbolts
and Kawaii-Wings had blown the hell out of a pair of parked corvettes
with proton torpedo strikes, leaving only a smattering of point defense
turbolasers and the threat of Hen-TIEs to worry about. Starfighters
were too fast and agile to have any trouble against the turbolasers,
and Irene and her half of the Darlings were covering them from above
and below against fighters.
Kasumi registered their voices over the tac-net as they commenced
their runs. They were several thousand kilometers away, only little
glowing lights against the darkness. This close to Gallus Prime’s
reflected glare overwhelmed the light of the distant stars, making
space empty and black.
"Watch that cross fire!" Martini Leader advised. Martini Section
had just completed their run. On the far side of the yards several
airdocks burned brilliantly as their voided atmospheres rushed out
in glowing streams of fire.
Kasumi had other problems. Returning her awareness to the dogfight
she found that three Hen-TIEs had come up on her from behind. Dozens
more streamed from the launch bays of the Hentperial cruiser far ‘above’
them.
With the loud angry music blaring over her cockpit speakers she
grinned in anticipation. She shoved the throttles to the stops and goosed
the burn studs as she pushed over into a dive. The triplex HEPLAR
drives belched forth million degree helium plasma. A spray of laser
fire rippled into the space her fighter had just occupied.
Pushing the nose down into Gallus Prime’s gravity well gave her
additional velocity, or energy. In a dogfight, energy was life. Squander
it and you squandered your life. Kasumi held on to her dive for as
long as she thought she could before the Hen-TIEs got back on her tail.
Then she grit her teeth and clenched her stomach and leg muscles as
tight as she could.
It was the first maneuver she had ever learned as a pilot, the M-1
maneuver. Even with inertial dampeners, pulling high-g accelerations
continued to put stress on pilots’ bodies. The flightsuit would contract
around her to assist, but she would still need to put her own squeeze
on her body to keep the blood in her heart and brain. And like most
pilots she kept the dampeners set as low as practical to conserve power.
The K-Wing’s nose jerked up perpendicular with the ecliptic with
such swiftness that the Hen-TIEs had no time to react. Standing her
fighter on its tail, she gunned the boosters and decelerated against her
fall towards the planet. The Hen-TIEs couldn’t slow down fast enough,
and risked an overshoot. They decided to scatter and break for it.
Kasumi was ready for that. She tipped the K-Wing over on its side
and redirected her velocity parallel to the ecliptic in a kind of vacuum
version of the Immelman turn, shooting ‘sideways’ across space. A
Hen-TIE swam in her sights. He was out of energy trying to break his
fall, and out of luck.
A short volley of red laser light severed his cup shaped solar
panels where they joined the central body of the fighter. The solar
panels burst into shards of glowing metal. The small cockpit/engine
section spiraled away into the void out of control.
Other Hen-TIEs were meeting similar fates. Space was filled with
their brief deathlights. The rest of Cocktail Group unloaded their
proton torpedoes and fusion bombs into the shipyards. The Hentpire
wouldn’t be building much of anything here for a long time to come.
Her command channel commo bleeped twice to inform her of an
incoming message. It was the Mission Commander. "All starfighters
disengage. Authentication is Rio Canto Rio. Repeat; all starfighters
disengage. Rio Canto Rio. Form up by squadrons and jump out at
your discretion. Let’s go people!"
That was all she needed to hear. She keyed her squadron commo.
"All Darlings disengage at once. Form up by element pairs and jump
home as soon as you’re clear."
They acknowledged her cheerfully and swooped away. Rik and
Darcie pulled rearguard with their Kawaii-Wings, loosing a storm of
missiles into the Hen-TIEs to discourage pursuit. Irene and her even-
numbered Darlings were clear of the dogfight Kasumi and her odd-
numbered Darlings were still fighting. They began to jump out
immediately, becoming bright flashes of light and winking out of
existence.
All but Denri Hakash. Her Kawaii-Wing caught a stray bolt of laser
fire even as she began the jump. The shields drop to commit power to
the hyperdrive as the jump sequence begins. Her life ended in an instant
as the green bolt of light crashed through her cockpit canopy. With the
computers destroyed in that same instant, the hyperdrive failed, and
Darling Ten tumbled away into the darkness.
There wasn’t time to mourn. That would come later. At the
moment Kasumi’s only concern was getting the rest of her girls out
of there. The Hentperial cruiser’s supply of starfighters seemed endless,
and they were scrambling as fast as they could.
She ordered the rest of them to jump clear and turned her own
fighter back into the fray. She would have been outnumbered twenty
to one, but Beli stuck close to her wing. Just to let Kasumi know she
was there, she launched her last missile dead on into a Hen-TIE.
"Get out with the rest of them!" Kasumi ordered.
"I’m your wingmate," Beli replied evenly.
"I can handle this myself!"
"I won’t let you."
Kasumi bit her lip in frustration but decided this was not the time
to argue with her. She double-fronted her shields and clamped down
on the firing stud. Her K-Wing hosed streams of laser fire into the
ranks of the advancing Hen-TIEs. It wasn’t enough firepower at any
one of them to destroy them, but it looked damn intimidating to fly
through. They began to scatter.
Beli followed her lead and began cycling her lasers at maximum pulse
rate. With the amount of hostile fire incoming now doubled, the Hen-TIEs
decided that they should try another approach vector. That would take
time. Darlings were jumping out in the interim.
Kasumi pulled a split-s in formation with Beli. Darlings One and
Three half-looped around a pack of Hen-TIEs, leaving a burst of red
laser light for them. The Hen-TIEs accepted their parting gift and
exploded appreciatively.
Bronze Squadron was just jumping away as they boosted clear. The
Hen-TIEs were trying to get back around for another attack, but in the
three seconds it would take to activate the hyperdrives, it was far too
late. Kasumi waited until Darling Three leaped into the higher
dimensional plane known as hyperspace before she activated her own
drive.
Her starfighter leaped into hyperspace. A major turning point in
the galactic civil war had just gone in the Alliance’s favor with their
victory over the Hentpire at Gallus Prime. Casualties had been light,
(or so the analysts said.) Every time Kasumi looked to the empty chair
in the briefing room where Denri had sat, it seemed like far too dear
a price for that day of triumph. Many questions would be raised about
the aftermath of the battle. One thing was clear however:
Darling Leader was the last Alliance starfighter to leave the
Battle of Gallus Prime.
* * *
Having come to his senses a little bit, the man realized he could
help his guest reach Anchorhead after all. He was so excited that he
decided to tell her at once. The trouble was he couldn’t remember where
she went.
His home wasn’t very big, so she couldn’t have gone very far. He
decided to just check everywhere, starting from the pantry and
working his way down the hall. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t quite
altogether yet. It was a little puzzling to him as he realized how
stupid he’d been acting. Considering who and what he was.
He opened the first door. Closet.
He opened the next door. Food storage.
He opened the third door. Water reclaimer.
He opened the fourth door. Bathroom. Kasumi was just stepping out
of the shower.
Without the benefits of modesty.
It could be argued that the steam from the shower was what clouded
up his glasses to the point where they were utterly opaque, but this was
Tatooine, and showers have conservers which collect the steam. Steam
wouldn’t go far to explain the sudden hemorrhaging that erupted from
his nose, either.
Kasumi gasped in surprise. When the man collapsed to the floor in
a faint she rushed over to him. He was out cold, but he had the most
blissful smile on his face.
She reached for the towel and covered herself before trying to
rouse him.
He came out of his faint and looked groggily at her, still wearing
a goofy smile. His glasses were steamed so badly she couldn’t see his
eyes. Blood trickled down his nose.
She reached for a washcloth and dabbled at his nose. This seemed
to bring him around a bit further.
"Oh, ah, what am I doing on the floor?" He asked.
"You must have slipped on something," she replied. She wanted to
laugh, but kept it in.
"You must have landed badly. Your nose is bleeding."
His eyes, barely visible through the foggy glasses, looked down to
the washcloth she held against his face.
"So it is," he said sagely.
"Are you okay?"
**There was such concern in her voice!** He thought suddenly. Then
he remembered why he was trying to find her.
"I have some good news!" He cried.
"Oh?"
"Yes! I have this droid friend who doesn’t live very far from
here. She could give you a ride to Anchorhead. I’m sure her speeder
still works. At least, it did the last time I talked to her."
Kasumi sensed that something might be amiss.
"Um, how long ago was that?"
"About two years ago," he replied deadpan. "Don’t worry, Miss,
ah...?"
"Antilles," Kasumi replied. "Kasumi Antilles."
"Kasumi?"
**What a lovely name!**
"Yes. Kasumi Antilles. I’m a pilot for the Alliance."
The man got to his feet. Kasumi rose with him, still pressing the
washcloth to his nose.
"I have to go," he said, taking her hand away from his face gently.
The bleeding had stopped. "I’ll be right back!"
He turned and walked out.
Kasumi watched him go.
"And you are...?" She called after him. He was already gone.
Kasumi had a change of clothes in her pack. She put them on,
regretting that she didn’t have anything better to wear than a pair of
lavender coveralls. At least they complimented her figure.
She looked around the comfy house set inside the cliff face. It was
a real mess.
"This place could use a woman’s touch," she said idly. There was
no telling when her host would return. She enjoyed housework, and she
really had nothing better to do.
She was just drying the last plate in the kitchen when he returned.
He looked around with the kind of surprise and alarm usually reserved
for people who return home to discover they’ve been robbed. It took
him a few moments to figure out that the reason he couldn’t find
anything was because everything had been put away.
Kasumi poked her head out of the kitchen.
"Oh, you’re back! Welcome home!" She smiled extra-sweetly for
him, which was quite a bit of sunshine, even for Tatooine.
"Did you do all this?" He asked softly, reverently. It seemed like
he was in the presence of a miracle.
"Oh, I just tidied up a bit. I hope you don’t mind."
"Uh, ah, not at all! Good news, that droid friend of mine named
Bet-E has a speeder, and will be along shortly to take you to
Anchorhead."
"Wonderful! Dinner will be ready soon."
"Huh?"
"Well you’ve been gone for almost three hours, and I wanted to
show a little appreciation for everything you’ve done for me," she
said with another arctic melting smile. "And I like to cook," she added.
She brought out dinner on a tray. It smelled wonderful.
He looked at the tray as she set it on the table for them. He
certainly didn’t remember having any food like this around!
"Where did you get all of this?" He asked her in awe.
"Oh, just whatever was at hand. I’m afraid I just threw this
together at the last minute. If only I had a little more time to prepare."
He sat down in awe and stared. She took a seat next to him at the
table and prepared a plate for him when it looked like he was going to
remain immobilized.
"I never did get your name," she said to get things moving.
"Oh! Ah, forgive me! It’s Kenobi. Oni Wan Kenobi. I am, was, a Jedi
Knight."
It was Kasumi’s turn to be surprised. "Not _the_ Oni Wan Kenobi?"
He blushed. "Yes, that was me."
"What happened to you? I thought you were against the Hentpire?"
"I was. But it’s my fault that the Hentperor came to power."
Kasumi looked at him in further surprise. He continued.
"I was the one who once trained Kuno Vader. Then he betrayed me...
I have failed the galaxy when it needed me most."
His eyes lowered in shame.
Kasumi’s heart was about to break as she beheld him thus.
"We still need you Oni Wan," she said softly. "Join the Alliance!"
"I cannot."
She felt sympathy for him, but she wouldn’t tolerate self pity.
"You must! Without you our cause is lost!" She looked away. "If
you stay here, than you will surely have failed the galaxy."
He was silent.
"Well?" Kasumi asked.
He closed his eyes.
"I’ll do it."
"Wonderful!" She cried. Without thinking she leaned over and kissed
his cheek. He turned crimson in response.
She laughed and lifted a fork to his mouth.
"Now eat, and I’ll fill you in on the galaxy while we wait." She
told him.
He took the offered bite. It was absolutely delicious. He decided
that as long as Kasumi Antilles was in the Alliance, there was a place
for him as well.
THE END
Author’s Notes.
First of all, I just want it known that I haven’t read any of the Star
Wars novels, and just about anything I know about the Star Wars universe
I gleaned from watching the movies. Anyone have a problem with this?
(Sorry, there are some out there who are purists to the core. This kind
of fanaticism has never appealed to me.)
The names of Tatooine’s suns I got from a Star Wars Storybook when I
was six years old. (Yes I was six years old when Star Wars came out. Do
the math.) I also made up the eccentric orbit of G2. Work with me here.
The Thunderbolt starfighter, mentioned several times but never
described, is an old Republic fighter that I made up for the story. The
Alliance is a rag-tag fighting force that cobbles together whatever they
can to resist the Hentpire, and so its fitting that they use a wide
variety of fighters in their missions.
Free The Nukes!
