Chapter 7

 

          The next morning MixMaster got up early to go running.  He loved running when he was living back home on Corellia, but lately he had not had time to.  It felt good to be running out in the fresh air after being cooped up inside the ship the last few days.  When he got back to the Night Stalker, where he had slept because the warehouse did not have any quarters, he found Gadget compiling a list of all the items they had collected off the corvette.  He downloaded it to his data pad to review later and then headed for the comm station on the bridge.

          “Gadget, come with me, I need you to make a secure connection for me.”

          On the bridge Gadget plugged into the data station, and waited for further instructions.

          “I need to contact Kirney.  Make it heavy encryption tau, she should have the key to decode it.  I’m still wanted on Corellia, I don’t want to get her into trouble.”

          Gadget whistled a note letting MixMaster know the connection was made.  MixMaster sat down in front of the console and waited for her to answer.

          “David!” Kirney exclaimed with surprise when she saw him.  “Where are you?  How have you been?”

          “Hi Kirney.  It’s Dicky, remember?” He said with a smile.

“Right, sorry.” She said with a smile.

“Its good to see you again.  Things have been pretty good for me considering.  I haven’t gotten into too much trouble yet.  A few bounty hunters have been after me, but they haven’t caught me yet.”

          “That’s good to hear.  So what can I do for you?  I am assuming this is not just a call to say hello.”

          “I can’t run anything by you now, can I?” he joked, “I wanted to know if you have heard from Gerard.  We split up a while ago, and I want to get in touch with him again.”

          “I haven’t heard a thing, sorry.  If I do, I’ll let him know you are looking for him.”

          “Great, thanks.  I’ll contact you again in a few weeks to see if you have heard from him.  Sorry to keep this short, but I can’t risk it, and do not want you to get in trouble either.  Take care.”

          “You too.  Stay out of trouble.”

          “I will.”  He said with a smile and cut off the link.  “Well Gadget, looks like no luck there.  Was there anything interesting on the list of junk we got before I go searching through it?”

          The little droid beeped and affirmative and brought up an answer to his question on the monitor.

          BATTLE DROIDS

“Battle Droids?  Those things haven’t been used in years.  Since before I was born probably.  Lets go check them out.  Where are they?”

THE MAIN HOLD

          “Good, they haven’t been unloaded yet.”  Down in the cargo hold, it took MixMaster a while to find the crate the droids were in.  “This place is a mess, we have really got to clean it up.”

          “You’re telling me.” Came a voice from the doorway.

          MixMaster looked up to see Mort standing there sleepy eyed.

          “Just getting up?”

          “Yeah, what have you been up to?”

          “Come check it out for yourself.”

          When the two of them opened the old beat up crate they could not believe what they saw.  “Wow, these things are archaic.”  Mort said.

          “Yeah, I wonder what they were doing in the hands of those pirates.  Gadget, when you get a chance, try to sort through their files and find out where they picked them up.”  He looked up at Mort, “Want to try one out?”

          “Think they still work?”

          “I guess we’ll find out.” He said lifting one of the droids out of the crate.  “Geese these things are heavy.”  The droid was folded up in a fetal position with its knees in its chest and arms wrapped around.  It had a blaster rifle mounted on its back with a pack and an antenna also.  “Looks like they are controlled by remote.  We’ll have to build a control station for them.”

          “How many of these things are there?”

          “I don’t know.”  MixMaster looked at his pad and counted.  “Four crates, assuming they all have two each like this one, that makes eight.  Not much of an attack force, but they might make good security guards for the Night Stalker or the warehouse.”

          “Think we can get them working?”

          “With your computer smarts, and my mechanical knowledge, sure, no problem.”

 

          The next few days MixMaster, Wendy, Mort, and Gadget spent fixing up the droid guards.  Once they had put together a control station things had been pretty simple.  Three of the droids turned out to be damaged or broken beyond repair and were scrapped for spare parts.  They ended up with five functional droids when they were through. 

          MixMaster was now out alone with Wendy searching for leads on Michelle and Kyle.  He had convinced Mort to stay back at the ship and work on some new independent control programs for the Battle Droids so that he might get the afternoon alone with Wendy.  Now he just had to work up the nerve to confront her.  It had been a while since his last relationship, which had ended badly, back on Corellia.  The girl he had been dating all through school had gone off to the University, and left him for some other guy she had met while there.  He had not taken it well, and since then he had put up a bunch of mental barriers and been afraid to get close to anyone else.  But now, with Wendy things felt different.  He was at ease when he was with her, and felt something he had not felt in a long time.

          As they walked through the sparsely populated streets at the outskirts of the spaceport, it was Wendy who broke the ice on the subject, “So, Dicky, it has been a few months since we met, is there something, or someone perhaps, I should know about?”
          MixMaster felt the blood rush to his face being put on the spot unexpectedly.  “No.  Why do you ask?” he responded nervously.

          “No reason.  I thought maybe it was obvious, but apparently not.” She grabbed his hand as they walked and changed the subject.  “So how do you think we are going to find a lead on my sister here?” she asked.  “Haven’t we already exhausted all the possibilities on this planet?”

          MixMaster grabbed hold of her hand a bit tighter letting her know he felt the same way.  “Well, yeah.  I just wanted to get you alone for the afternoon.”  He smiled at her and she returned it.  They walked on and disappeared into the crowd.

         

As expected, they had not found any new information on Michelle or Kyle.  When they returned Mort was out testing the droids in the canyon.  The others returned from their pirating soon afterwards.  Everyone was impressed with the droids when they saw them in action.

          “You’re not the only ones who’ve been working hard y’know.”  DaSquatter said after the demo was done.  “We collected well over hundred thousand credits on our trip.”

          “Sweet!” Mort exclaimed.  “I think its time to go out and party.”

          “Hell yeah!”  DaSquatter said.

          “Let’s go then.” MixMaster marched the battle droids back to the Night Stalker.  “We’re shipping out in a few days.  While you guys were off pirating, we were busy with other things here too.  Wendy and I found out that there is a shipment of A-Wings coming from Bimmisaari to Coruscant.  Chances are, they are shipping along the Perlemian Trade Route, the primary travel route in the sector.  We should plan to intercept as they leave Corulag on their last leg to Coruscant.  I want to plan and train hard before we do this.  New Republic pilots are going to be a lot tougher than those pirate lackeys you have been up against so far.”

          “Lighten up.”  Fast-Choker put his arm over MixMaster’s shoulder.  “We’ve got plenty of time for that tomorrow.  We’re here to have fun right now and celebrate.”

          “You’re right, we will go over the plans tomorrow.  Who is buying first round?”  They headed for the bars, and that was the last thing any of them remembered.

 

          MixMaster woke up the next day in his bed aboard the Night Stalker with a pounding headache.  Man, what a hangover.  He rolled over in his bed and suddenly realized Wendy was in bed next to him.  Oh boy!  What the heck happened last night?  He slowly got up and realized they both still had their clothes on.  I guess not much.

“Good morning,” she said looking up at him with a sleepy eyed smile.

“Good morning.” He replied.  “I’m going to hit the ‘fresher.  I’ve got some things to take care of this morning.  Feel free to sleep in unless you would like to join me?”

“No thanks.  I’m not leaving this bed until my head stops throbbing.”

“Alright, I’ll catch up with you later then.”  He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and went to the refresher station.

He took a quick shower in the refresher station, got dressed, and headed for the galley.  He grabbed a glass of juice and a nutribar and headed outside.  He found Mort outside on his hands and knees puking his guts out.  “Rough night for all of us I guess.”

          “Yeah, at least you puked it all out last night.”

          “Well that is good to know, because I don’t remember a thing.  The whole night is kind of a blur.”

          Mort got up off the ground and wiped his mouth.  “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

          “Where are the others?”

          “Not sure.  I think Kthulhu, Vlad, and Worsel went back to the warehouse early to work on their fighters.”

          “Good.  We need to run drills and train for this mission.  It is not going to be easy.  We’ve got to leave in three days in order to intercept the shipment at Corulag.”

          “Right.  I’m gonna go clean up now.” Mort said heading back into the ship.

          “Good idea.”  In the distance MixMaster saw a dust cloud making its way over to the Night Stalker.  When it got a bit closer he recognized it as Fast-Choker in one of their speeders.  He walked over to greet him.

          “Hey man, where ya been?”

          “In town picking up a new toy.”

          “Yeah?  Like what?”

          “It’s called a hyperspace transmitter.  It lets you send transmissions through hyperspace direct without the use of the holonet.”

          “Yeah?  I’ve heard of them.  Pretty fancy stuff.  Should come in handy on our next mission.”

          “Exactly, and then once we have those A-Wings, I am going to refit one for recon missions and install the transmitter, that way we can have a fast scout ship run ahead of the pack so we will be ready for whatever surprises we may not be expecting.”

          “Excellent.  You want to help me plan this next mission?  We have got to start running drills this afternoon.”

          “Yeah sure.  Do you know what kind of escort the freighter will have?”

          “Should be only four X-Wings, according to our source.  But we should be ready for anything.”

 

          Later that afternoon they were in hyperspace on their way to the ambush point.  They had unloaded most of the non-useful cargo from the Night Stalker, and Kamikaze and the other four starfighters were in the cargo-hanger.  MixMaster sat with Suicide13, DaSquatter, Mort, and Igor aboard the Kamikaze waiting to reach their target.  Hitting a New Republic convoy would be a big risk, but if they pulled it off and got the six A-Wings they were hoping for, it would be worth it.

          “Ten seconds until reversion.”  Came Wendy’s voice from the bridge of the Night Stalker.

          “Roger that Night Stalker.”  Suicide13 started the preflight sequence.  “We’re in the green for launch.”

          The plan was for Kamikaze to scout out the target and relay the information to the Jolly Tonnage, Night Stalker, and the four fighters using the new hyperspace transmitter Fast-Choker bought.  The others would then do a micro jump in on the target and catch them by surprise.  Normally a jump so precise would be almost impossible, but with the attack force receiving data on the target’s position, they would be able to jump right in and cut off their escape.

          “Kamikaze, you are clear for launch.” came Cheshire’s voice over the comm.  Cheshire was commanding the Night Stalker since everyone besides Wendy would be occupied with other tasks.

          Suicide13 dropped the freighter down through the hanger bay and set on a vector in towards the system.  “Kamikaze activating hyperspace transmitter.”

          “We’re receiving you Kamikaze.  Good hunting.” Cheshire replied a few moments later.

          “Roger that.  Preparing micro jump in system.”  Suicide13 pulled back slightly on the hyperdrive controls and the computer quickly dropped the freighter back into normal space.

          MixMaster looked out the view port.  “Lets go find some new toys.”

          Igor looked down at the sensor station.  “Sensors are picking up multiple freighters in the area, we are going to have to run flybys to identify and scan them.”

          “Lets get to it.” Suicide13 hit the throttle to full.

          The first few freighters they scanned were just hauling typical cargo to Coruscant.

“Bacta, food, spare parts.”  Igor said from the sensor station.  “Wow, torpedoes.”

“No time.  Mark it for some other time.  Maybe we can track it later.”  MixMaster said from the copilot’s seat.

“Oh boy!  Is that our target?”  Mort said pointing out the view port to a large convoy of ships.

“Whoa!  That has got to be it.”  MixMaster answered.  The convoy was lead by a Corellian Corvette with an escort of four X-Wings trailed by three freighters.  “We’re going to have to fly in close to get a scan and see which freighter is carrying the A-Wings.  That should also draw off the X-Wing escort.”

“Lets do it!”  DaSquatter cheered.

“Accelerating to attack speed.”  Suicide13 pushed the throttle full forward and flew in at the convoy.

“Unidentified freighter, turn away now or we shall be forced to open fire on you.” Came a call from the corvette.

“X-Wings moving to intercept.” Igor warned.

“I see them.  Hold on.”  Suicide13 spun the freighter in a barrel roll to make a harder target.  He then flew the small freighter a few meters off the hull of the New Republic freighters so Igor could get a clear scan.  Drifting a little too close the shields of the two ships hit, bouncing the small freighter away from the New Republic cargo hauler.  “Oops.”  Suicide13 commented as everyone looked at him.

Laser blasts from the X-Wings shook the small freighter.  “Unidentified freighter.  That was your only warning.  Break off now.”

“Got them!  The A-Wings are in the second freighter, the one we just passed.” Igor said.

Suicide13 sent Kamikaze into evasive maneuvers to avoid the X-Wings attack.  Just then the rest of the nWo fleet dropped out of hyperspace cutting off the convoy’s escape vector.

“Fast-Choker, use your torpedoes and take out that corvette’s weapons.  Stalker, our target is in freighter number two.  Disable it now.”

“We received your transmission and are already on it.” Cheshire replied.

“Good.  The rest of you have the escorts.  Kthulhu, disable for capture if possible.”

Acknowledgements came in over the comm.

More shots rocked the freighter.  “We could use a hand here.” Suicide13 asked as he tried to lose the X-Wings on his tail.

“Lead, I got your wing, break port on my mark.” Worsel ordered as he dropped his X-Wing in behind their pursuers.  “Mark!”

Suicide13 broke hard to port as ordered.  Red laser energy laced the trailing X-Wing’s rear shields and the pilot was forced to break off pursuit.  Left alone, his wingman followed suit.

“Thanks Worsel.”  Suicide13 said.

“No problem.”

 

Fast-Choker switched missile control over to dual fire mode and dropped the targeting bracket over the corvette.  When the crosshairs went red he let two volleys go.  Overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught the corvette’s port shields buckled.  He then switched to single fire mode and targeted the ship’s reactor core while the shields were still down.  He fired and the torpedo ripped through the ship’s hull and caused a huge explosion as the ship’s main reactor went down.  He watched as the escape pods flew off the ship as the dead ship drifted in space.

 

MixMaster looked out the view port to see explosions rock the corvette.

“Corvette’s out of action.” Came Fast-Choker’s voice from the Missile Boat.

“Good work Fast-Choker.”  MixMaster replied.  “Kthulhu report status.”

“One X-Wing disabled.  One damaged and knocked out of the battle.  The other two are mixing it up with Vlad and Worsel.  Stalker reports freighter is disabled.”

“Excellent.  Suicide13, bring us in to dock with the freighter.  Everyone else, to the airlock.”

They all got up and headed aft to meet Craco and Nightraven who were also in the boarding party to fly the remaining two A-Wings.  Craco was a fair pilot, and had taken well to his new employers, but MixMaster had had reservations about letting Nightraven, a member of Ton’s crew aboard the Jolly Tonnage, join the boarding party.  His piloting skills were below the others, even Mort, who was new to piloting starfighters.  Kthulhu and Ton had persuaded MixMaster to bring him along.  They were short staffed, but the chance of grabbing a sixth A-Wing was too good, so MixMaster had let him join the team.

They felt a thud as Suicide13 docked with the freighter and the boarding hatch sealed the connection.  When the warning light turned from red to green MixMaster hit the hatch control and the iris slid open.  “Go!” he ordered.

On command, Igor chucked a flash grenade through the hole in the hull that the docking collar had cut, down the corridor of the freighter.  The six of them charged through the hatch and onto the freighter.

“There!” MixMaster pointed.  The door to the main hold was just down the corridor.  Bulk freighters were designed for optimum cargo space, so the main hold was just on the other side of the exterior corridor that ran the length of the ship.

“So far so good,” Mort commented.

They charged through the door and into the hold.  “Beautiful!” Craco commented at the sight of the six new gleaming A-Wings lined up in classic wedge formation.

“Lookout!” Igor yelled as he dropped to the ground as a blaster bolt just missed his head.

MixMaster looked to see three Republic troopers on the other side of the hold taking up a defensive posture to try and prevent them from getting to the A-Wings.  Mort and Craco were returning fire from behind a nearby stack of crates they dove behind.  “Someone toss me a concussion grenade.”

“Are you crazy?  You’ll kill us all!” Igor exclaimed.

“Relax, just trust me on this.”  MixMaster grabbed the grenade that Igor reluctantly handed him and dialed down the power to fifty percent.  A full force explosion would surely blow a hole in the bulkheads and get them all killed.  MixMaster wanted just enough to take care of the defenders and not damage any of the A-Wings or bulkheads.  “Set for stun, everyone down!” he tossed the grenade over the crates the troopers were hiding behind.  The troopers dove out from cover just as the grenade went off and were propelled through the air landing on the deck hard.  MixMaster and the others quickly stunned the troopers before they could get their bearings.  “To the ships,” MixMaster ordered as he ran over to the controls to open the overhead cargo bay doors.  “Quick preflight and we’re out of here.”  He ran over to the lead A-Wing and powered up.  He then flipped on the comm system and punched in the nWo tactical frequency.

“Mort, two in the green.”

“Craco, good to go.”

“Igor standing by.”

“Nightraven here, all systems go.”

“DaSquatter here, lemme at ‘em.”

“Okay boys, lets go home.”  MixMaster kicked in the repulsor coils and the small fighter raised off the deck.  He then angled up and out through the cargo bay door’s magnetic field and out into the dark of space.  “Gadget relay jump data to A-Wing group.”  On the monitor he saw the jump data coming in.  To port MixMaster saw the Night Stalker bringing in an X-Wing in it’s tractor beam.   “Night Stalker, how many did you pick up?”

“Sorry boss, we only got one so far.  You want us to grab the other two before we jump?”

“Negative, I’m sure a distress call has already been made, no need to push our luck.  All ships, head for the jump point and lets get out of here.”  MixMaster targeted in on the jump coordinates and set the throttle to full.

 

          Derek sat in the cockpit of his disabled X-Wing as he watched the pirates make their escape with the new shipment of A-Wings that they had been escorting to Coruscant.  “Screech, you still functioning back there?”

          Even though the translator on the starfighter’s comm unit was dead he recognized the affirmative reply from his R5 astromech seated behind him.

          “I’m going to try and restart the computer system.  Get as many systems back online as you can.”  Derek flipped all the power systems off and then waited five seconds.  “Here goes nothing.”

 

          Nightraven sat in the cockpit of his A-Wing following the others on their escape vector.  All of the sudden he heard a loud beeping sound.  He looked down at the display as a rush of fear ran through him.  MISSILE LOCK, the display read.

          “Nightraven, go evasive!” came a call over the comm.

          He tried juking right and left but it was no good.  Then, the warning changed from a beeping to a solid tone.  INCOMMING MISSILE.  He looked over to the shield display, only half power.  The shields had not had enough time to reach full charge.  “A little help guys!” he cried as the missile closed in on his tiny starfighter.

 

          MixMaster pulled up hard on the control stick sending his A-Wing into a 180 degree turnaround.  He transferred all available power to the engines and started firing on the torpedo that was closing quickly on Nightraven.  “Nightraven, Eject!” he shouted over the comm., but it was too late.  He was too far out of range to hit the torpedo and watched helplessly as it smashed through the small starfighter.  “No!  Gadget, where did that shot come from?”

          MixMaster looked down at the display.  Apparently one of the disabled X-Wings had done a cold reboot and powered up the weapons systems and fired off a shot.  Time to make them pay.

 

          Derek watched as the torpedo he fired destroyed one of the stolen A-Wings.  “Yes!” he shouted, but his excitement was short lived.  One of the A-Wings was heading straight for him, laser cannons blazing.  “Screech, the ejection sys---“.  Before he could even finish he was rocketed out into space as the X-Wing was blown to shreds.  “Screech!”  he exclaimed in disbelief at the loss of his friend.

 

          “MixMaster!  We don’t have time for this, lets go!”  Came an order from Fast-Choker.

          “You guys go, this’ll just take a minute.”  He replied as he closed in on the X-Wing and let loose with another barrage of laser fire.  He watched as the defenseless fighter was ripped to shreds.  The pilot had escaped though.  MixMaster had seen the bright flash of and ejection seat right before the fighter exploded.  He pulled up and around for another pass on the pilot but before he could line up Gadget screamed a warning.  He looked down at his display and saw twelve new targets closing in on him.  “Aw crap.…”

“MixMaster, get out of there on a double!  We’re leaving now!”  Came Ton’s order.

His targeting computer identified the twelve new signals as Rogue Squadron, the New Republic’s elite starfighter unit.  “Oh shivit!  What the hell are they doing here?” MixMaster poured every ounce of speed he could muster into the poor engines of his A-Wing.  Lucky for him and the others, Rogue Squadron had come in on the far side of the conflict, and the freighters sat between them.  With the speed of the A-Wing, he made it safely to the jump point right behind the others.  He pulled back the lever on the hyperdrive and he was safely away in hyperspace.