STORY OF A SOLDIER. CHAPTER 21
-The Fall-
“The reality of what happened didn’t immediately hit me. As I cruised through space, I looked at the debris littering the orbit. Chunks of metal from the Death Star spiraling past me. Then… I saw the bodies.
Hundreds of them- stormtroopers and civilian contractors… floating among what used to be their home. My grip tightened around my flight-stick as I brought my interceptor around, searching for any survivors while dodging Alliance patrols. As I saw more and more bodies- the more my anger grew. Seeing too many Storm troopers with Blue markings…. was… was I the only 501st clone left alive?…
How could this have happened again?! Everything we worked for… taken from us from these terrorist that thrive on Chaos…..
I shook my head and brought my ship to face the Alliance fleet. I look amongst the stars I noticed several Imperial Star Destroyers either being boarded, destroyed or fleeing-though they didn’t get far. It was then I knew what I had to do.
I reached for the throttle, pushing it forward to full speed and headed directly towards what I assumed was the capital ship- a Mon Calamari Dreadnought. If this is where the Empire ends… then I’m going to go down fighting. As the dreadnought drew near, I could hear the dust hitting the window of the cockpit, then I saw a squadron of X-Wings hone in on my location.
I spiraled my TIE while maintaining my direction of travel, going through the squadron’s formation. They broke to let me through and attempted to turn as fast as possible to pursue me- but I was too fast for them. That was until an A-wing brought itself on my tail. We danced through the air, him firing at me and myself getting behind him and returning fire but alas, I couldn’t hit him.
Then I realized he was distracting me. I looked off my right wing to see the squadron of X-Wings closing in fast on my position. I looked down at the throttle and knew I only had one option. To push my engines to their limit with max power- at a risk of shorting out my power-grid. But if I couldn’t get away, it wouldn’t matter.
So I threw my throttle down as far as I could and attempted to flee the area-but the A-wing had landed a critical shot hitting my fuel line which slowed me down quite a bit. As I closed my eyes inside of my helmet awaiting my fate- a warriors death. It was then I saw a green flash whiz past my TIE and collide into the A-wing that was pursuing me. Another burst of green, resulting in several explosions behind my TIE. What was going on?
Upon asking that question, a TIE Interceptor that I had never seen before shot past me. My comms bursts alive with static- then a distorted voice telling me if I was still alive to limp my TIE to the nearest Destroyer. I looked at my power-grid to see I only had eleven percent power remaining. I shut down my laser cannons, lights, and everything I could to redirect to the engines.
The strange interceptor guided me in to the hangar. When my TIE landed, I only had one-point-three percent power remaining. I was lucky to be alive. When the airtight seal opened from atop of my Interceptor, I was relieved to be in friendly territory.
When I hopped out, heard a familiar distorted breathing followed by a familiar distorted voice.
Old Man Dex, I presume?”
