Star Wars - X-Wing - The Bacta War

  "Doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?"

  Iella shook her head. "No, not really."

  Elscol smiled and seated herself on the foot of lella's bed. "Well, doesn't

  matter. Armed with vibroblades, force pikes, or blasters, we can get enough

  Vratix that we can overwhelm humans in Xucphra City. Some of the Ashern indicate

  their training cadres are swelling in our wake. We come through, they get more

  volunteers. Sixtus has specified benchmarks for training, and it looks like

  we'll have our force in a couple of months."

  "I'd feel better about them if we ever got to see their warriors in action."

  Elscol nodded. "Agreed. From what Sixtus has said, though, because bacta and

  healing is so much a part of Vratix society, for a Vratix to become a warrior

  and cause harm is a very solemn decision. The Ashern, as you know, sharpen their

  forearm claws and paint themselves black. The former is for fighting, but they

  paint themselves black so they can remain in the shadows, hidden away to

  protect the other Vratix from what they can and will do to win freedom."

  "Well, their reluctance to be violent explains why they haven't just risen up

  and slaughtered all the humans on the planet." Iella sighed. "It's too bad they

  have to resort to war to win the freedom they never should have lost in the

  first place. I hope we can remain free long enough for the Ashern to be ready to

  fight. How long do you figure we have until Isard storms us?"

  "Good question. Me, I'd have done it in a heartbeat before we embarrassed

  General Dlarit, but she's trying to keep the populace happy. If the Xucphra

  folks see white armor in bulk on their world, they're going to figure she's got

  no more use for them, and I suspect they can cause a fair amount of trouble for

  her." Elscol sat back, leaning against the wall.

  "Of course, Isard has more trouble than just us. That's what I came to tell you.

  News from the front."

  "Yeah?"

  "Yeah. And good news, too."

  Iella dropped to the circular chamber's floor and sat cross-legged. Twisting her

  blaster belt around so she was more comfortable, she smiled up at Elscol. "What

  did you hear?"

  "The Corrupter is no more."

  lella's jaw dropped. "What? How?"

  "Isard tried to ambush Wedge and the others. Apparently, Wedge had a surprise

  waiting for them. A steady diet of proton torpedoes put the Corrupter down. No

  word of squadron lossesat least none that are reliable. Data came from a tap on

  Xucphra corp news, so it all has an Imp spin."

  "Still, if they're saying the Corrupter was destroyed, that means its loss was

  the least of the problems Isard has." Iella clapped her hands. "Maybe this

  mission isn't going to be suicidal."

  Elscol's face closed down. "We're a long way from getting out, Iella, but

  getting shot up isn't going to get you and your husband reunited."

  "What?" Iella tried to cover her surprise at Elscol's comment because when she

  heard the words she knew part of her had been considering the mission in exactly

  that light. "I never . . ."

  Elscol leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. "Hey, do I look like

  some Xucphra clerk who's going to believe everything you say? No. I've been

  where you are. I lost my husband to the Imps back on Cilpar, and part of me

  wanted to die with him there. I took off after the Imps for revenge, but always

  in the back of my mind was the feeling that when I died we'd be together again.

  Wedge saw that in me and saw the urge for self-destruction grow in me. When he

  kicked me out of Rogue Squadron, well, that wo ke me up; and I began to see a lot

  of things."

  lella's head came up. "Are you saying there's no life after death?"

  "I'm saying it doesn't matter." Elscol held her two hands

  out, palms toward the ceiling. "On one hand, if there isn't an afterlife, you'll

  be remembered for the things you did while you were alive. On the other, if

  there is an afterlife, you'll be able to share all you did with those who died

  before you. Either way, living as long as possible and doing the most you can is

  the only way to go. I decided I didn't want to be known here or in the afterlife

  for having quit. I don't think you do, either."

  Iella frowned. "You're right, but sometimes the pain . . ." She clutched her

  hands against her breastbone. "Sometimes it hurts too much to live."

  "Nonsense." Elscol's dark eyes sharpened. "Pain's the only way we know we're

  alive."

  "What?"

  "If the afterlife is supposed to be special and wonderful and blissfuland there

  aren't many theologies that suggest otherwisethen it follows that pain's the

  only way you know you're alive. Not letting the pain get to you, not

  surrendering to it, that's the way you continue living." Elscol brought her

  hands together, then glanced down at the floor. "It still hurts me, too, at

  certain times of the year, but I don't let it overwhelm me."

  "I haven't let it overwhelm me, either."

  "No, you haven't. You're strong, Iella, real strong." Elscol gave her a

  half-grin. "It's just that as things get going tougher, in the moments when

  stress is off, you'll start to feel the pain. Fight it."

  Iella slowly nodded. What Elscol had said made perfect sense to her. While

  involved in an operation, the stresses of the operation would push everything

  else into the background. When the stress slackened, she tried to recover a

  sense of well-being, and would invariably harken back to her time with Diric.

  The joy would melt into melancholy, then that would congeal into sorrow and

  pain. I'd come to a point where surrendering to the pain would be more simple

  than fighting the Imps and everything else.

  She realized that she'd not faced this problem before because when Diric had

  been taken by the Imps there was always a chance that he would be released and

  they would be

  able to continue their lives together. Hope had shielded her against despair and

  the pain of her loss. Circumstances are different now, but I'm also a different

  person than I was. I will survive and fight the pain.

  She looked up and was about to tell Elscol the same thing, when a howling shriek

  filled the air and sent a tremor through her tower room. No mistaking that for

  anything elseTIE fighters are coming in. She dove for the doorhole and lying

  there on her belly stared out at the Vratix village. Other brown-gray towers

  were all but invisible in the thick foliage of the rain forest until green laser

  bolts illuminated them and began setting trees on fire. The bolts hissed through

  the air, igniting a rain of flaming branches and leaves falling on buildings and

  the forest floor.

  Elscol hunkered down beside her with blaster in hand as the TIEs made another

  pass. Trees split as if they had been struck by lightning. Their boles exploded,

  spraying the rain forest with fiery hardwood splinters. Impaled Vratix and

  kny-tix twitched on the ground or limped along, black blood streaming from their

  wounds. In other spots, heavy bits of tree fell, crushing Vratix and pulverizing

  the walls of houses.

  "Sithspawn!" Elscol bounced a fist off the floor. "We've got nothing that can


  stop them. They're just slaughtering Vratix for the fun of it."

  "It's not fun for the Vratix." Iella watched as the Vratix began to flee. The

  whole tableau took on an unreal air. Part of it came from the Vratix leaping

  high into the branches of trees surrounding the village to escape. If Iella had

  allowed herself to forget how sophisticated the Vratix could be and just see

  them as insects, then she was watching a whole swarm of Corellian gluttonbugs

  clear-chew a forest. They moved in a mass, leaping away as bolts rained down on

  them, exploding and pitching body parts in every direction.

  The most surreal element in the whole scene was the lack of wailing from the

  victims. The Vratix vocalized no sounds as they fled. They grasped each 'other

  and remained close, clearly taking security in the sense they trusted the most.

  But that's what's getting them killed. Massed together like this makes them

  terribly vulnerable to the strafing runs.

  "Elscol, we have to do something."

  "What? These blasters aren't going to bring down a starfighter, even if they

  don't have shields." Elscol coughed as the breeze wafted smoke toward them. "The

  only thing we can do is try to get out of here."

  "Agreed." Iella looked out again, bracing to duck away from more aerial fire,

  but as the echoes of the last TIE's shriek died, no new one rose to take its

  place. Instead the whine of blaster fire started at the north end of the

  village. She looked in that direction and saw figures in white moving into the

  burning village. "Stormies."

  Elscol laughed and checked the power pack on her pistol. "Not hardly. Look at

  the armor and how they wear it. Most of them are too small for it. They're Home

  Defense troops all dressed up for this operation."

  "How can you be sure?"

  "You think real stormies would raid a jungle village wearing white?"

  Iella hesitated. "But on Endor, in the forest there, reports I heard . . ."

  "Trust me, Iella, they learned from that mistake. Getting drubbed by a Wookiee

  and a bunch of Ewoks convinced them to institute some reforms." Elscol pulled

  herself into the door-hole and leaped out. "C'mon."

  Iella followed, making the three-meter drop without injury. Running forward,

  she caught up with Elscol at the wall that edged the rooftop where they stood.

  As Elscol swung her legs over the top of the wall, Iella raised her blaster

  pistol and sighted in on one of the advancing troopers.

  Elscol gently slapped her thigh. "Save it, you'll never hit from here. Too far."

  Iella glanced down and grimly closed one eye. "Too far for you, maybe." Her head

  came up and she sighted in on a group of three troopers. She centered the gun on

  the middle one, fired, then snapped a shot off at the other two. The first shot

  hit the target square on the left breast, then glanced up off the armor and

  burned through his throat. The second shot pierced the left eyepiece on the

  second trooper, spinning him around like a top before he went down. The last

  shot missed

  its intended target, passing over the trooper's head by a couple of

  centimeters, but only did so because the first trooper's body had knocked him

  off balance and he was falling.

  Elscol looked up with wide-eyed amazement at her. "A head shot at this range?"

  Iella shrugged, then tapped the rear sight. "Shoots high." She sat on the edge

  of the wall, then leaped down to the next level and remained crouched at the

  foot of the wall. Elscol landed beside her. A few red blaster bolts bloodied the

  smoke in their direction, but none came even close to getting them. "They don't

  know where we are or where those shots came from."

  "And because they aren't Vratix, they'll have a hard time jumping up here to

  find us." Elscol smiled and crept forward toward the edge of the terrace wall.

  "I can hit from this range."

  Iella came forward carefully, ducking as a fleeing Vratix leaped past. At the

  edge of the terrace, she saw the troopers moving into the village, shooting into

  the doorholes on the ground level. Scarlet backlighting sometimes silhouetted a

  Vratix form. More often than not it seemed as if the blasterfire started the

  tower's lower rooms burning. There is no searching, this is just a mission to

  destroy this place.

  Angered beyond the point of caring about anything, Iella rose from her crouch

  and began shooting at targets. Elscol rose up beside her, laying down a pattern

  of fire that sent the troopers scurrying for cover. Iella looked over at her,

  and they both knew seasoned troopsreal stormtroopersnever would have shied

  from blaster pistol fire. A few of the troopers were down and still, and yet

  more thrashed in pain on the ground. Iella wanted to feel compassion for them,

  but their cries for help were her greatest ally. If the wounded infect the rest

  with a desire to avoid death, they'll break and run. At the same time she

  acknowledged that the troopers' running was her only chance at survival.

  Iella ducked down as scattered return fire headed in her direction. She popped a

  fresh power pack into her blaster pistol and pressed her back against the wall.

  Though the wall itself was smooth, Iella felt anything but placid at the mo-

  ment. "Well, we've gotten their attention so the Vratix can flee."

  Elscol ducked back beneath the edge of the wall. "You realize it's just a matter

  of time before they call for one of the starfighters to come back, don't you?"

  Iella slid further along the wall, then nodded. "I guess we finish them quickly,

  then."

  Elscol raised an eyebrow. "Your suggestion for Dlarit made me think you might

  not have the stomach for this kind of fight. I'm glad to be wrong."

  Iella came up and triggered off two more shots before the troopers shifted their

  aim to shoot back at her. She dropped back down, uncertain if she'd hit anything

  and disturbed by what she saw. "Bad news. They've got a squad moving to flank

  us."

  The smaller woman shrugged as if Iella had reported she felt a light drizzle

  starting to fall. Elscol checked her power pack and smiled in the near silence

  that reigned in the village. "We can give up, or we can fight our way through

  them."

  "I don't see surrender as an option."

  "Nor me." Elscol tucked a lock of brown hair behind her left ear. "On three

  we're over the wall to the last terrace. We go forward, ta ke some shots, then

  over again and at them."

  "Frontal assault?" Iella shook her head. "I may be dead and not know it, but I'm

  not crazy."

  "They're scared. We sprint to their line of cover, then we start vaping them

  close in. CorSec had to train you for that sort of fight and I've gotten used to

  it, too."

  Iella thought for a moment. From the base of the wall to the trees and rubble

  the troopers were using was only twenty-five meters. Shooting like mad to make

  them keep their heads down, it might just work. "I'm game."

  "Let's do it." Elscol rose into a crouch. "One, two, three!"

  With her left hand on top of the terrace wall, Iella came up and over, then

  dropped the eight feet to the next terrace. She hit, rolled, and sprinted to the

  next edge. She vaulted it in tandem with Elscol and la
nded solidly. She shoved

  off the wall with her right hand, then brought the blaster around to

  spray shots at the troopers crouching twenty-five meters away. Her hastily

  snapped shots didn't hit any of them, but they dove for the ground as if she

  were a Star Destroyer commencing a planetary bombardment.

  As she raced forward, cutting right and left, she waited for a target to show

  himself so she could drop him with a clean shot to the head or belly. Belly

  would be better. He'll scream. She waited for the screams, waited to hear the

  troopers she was approaching start to scream in terror. She started to scream

  herself, hoping to spark her foes into panic.

  Suddenly one of the troopers did stand. She brought her pistol around, but he

  leveled his blaster carbine at her and triggered a burst before she could shoot

  him. She saw a trio of sizzling scarlet energy darts fly at her and for a second

  considered it nothing short of miraculous that they had missed. Then she felt

  the tug on her left thigh. Her world whirled, and her chin dug into the moist

  loam at the base of a gloan tree. She snorted dirt from her nostrils and

  wondered what had happened, then the first wave of pain hit her.

  Iella rolled onto her back and glanced down at her left thigh. Crusted black

  flesh surrounded a hole oozing blood. Biting back a scream, she unbuckled her

  blaster belt and pulled it off. She pressed the holster against the wound, then

  wrapped the belt around her leg and refastened it. Pulling it tight almost made

  her faint, but she struggled against the darkness nibbling at the edges of her

  sight.

  She didn't think she'd blacked out, but as the world lightened again she found

  herself looking up at a trooper standing over her. He was saying something, but

  she couldn't focus on the words. All she could notice was that the armor seemed

  over-large on him, with the breastplate covering half his stomach and the helmet

  resting firmly on the armor's collar.

  The trooper gestured with his blaster carbine, but Iella still wasn't able to

  understand him. She tried, but an odd whirring sound eclipsed his words. An

  angular shadow dropped down behind him. Iella heard a horrid snapping and

  crunching as the trooper began to telescope down toward the ground. He twisted

  around, his legs going limp, allowing Iella

  to see the ragged parallel wounds slashed down through the back of his armor.