Tie Pilot 165558
Obelisk Control: "Clear comms clear comms, report Miasma team"
Miasma 1: "Miasma 1 standing by"
Tie pilot: "Miasma 3 stand by launch"
He sat quietly in his Light Duty TIE awaiting further instructions, panels glimmered with readouts as the Ion drives quietly hummed in idle wait. He was nervous but thankful for his space suit making him look confident, well trained like he spent the last 5 years waiting for this moment. This was his third patrol, but his first non drill sortie, a real combat situation.
Obelisk Control: " Obelisk 558 is aligning for hyper jump in 30, We will be jumping into orbit around the planet Lanthrym where we received a distress beacon for Imperial freighter 453 operation call sign 'Sigma'. 453 has been MIA for 2 cycles from the shipping lanes departing from Coyn, treat approach with caution."
Miasma 1: "Stay sharp rookie and remember your training, your tie should be able to handle an ugly"
Tie Pilot: "Copy Miasma 1"
He kept a cool response trying to sort out his pre flight jitters. 'It's just like the simulators right?' With a heavy shutter the ship began moving faster then light, it was a short jump as they were the closest responder to the signal. As soon as the ship dropped from light speed the hanger gates opened clearing him for launch, with a clunk of the hanger arm detaching from his fighter he jammed the throttle hard and began his flight. He breathed in deeply taking in the sights of space, and as quickly as he launched his anxiety melted away.
Miasma 1: "I got eyes on Sigma and no reds, Miasma 3 form up and begin approach."
In space the
Gozanti-class cruiser was floating, engines offline and no apparent sign of activity.
Tie Pilot: "I got a bad feel-"
Obelisk Control:
"Clear lines clear lines, No response from Sigma, deflectors are down and no signs of life on board"
Miasma 1: "Miasma 3 fly by bearing 453x65, keep your speed up rookie"
Tie Pilot: "Copy Miasma 3"
He aligned his Tie off the forward bow of the freighter and accelerated at peak thrust, diverting a couple ticks of power from the weapons he scavenged what he could from the little light duty. His partner dropped back but began accelerating after a set gap had been made. Sure enough as soon as he buzzed past the freighter three uglies that were mag locked to the hull detached and began to pursue him. His partner was in the best position to cover him as he lined up and quickly tagged and destroyed one of the pirates before his weapons could come online.
Miasma 1: "Good work rookie now don't get shot"
He began to turn and roll as the two remaining pirates had begin firing upon him.
Miasma 1: "One of the uglies is disengaging, I'll go after him, it's 1 on 1 rookie"
The tie screamed as he threw it into sharp turns and banks, pulling power back into his weapons he decided to make his move. Pulling hard on the stick the g forces started to weight him down into the seat, outside his canopy he saw the stray shots dip further away. His scope confirmed that he was out turning his opponent, soon the Light Duty TIE was circling hard to gain a position behind the ugly. He waited patiently checking his targeting computer for a clean shot, a humm of the buzzer and a squeeze of the triggers was followed by the flashing of an exploding ugly. He felt his heart rise, his first tag in live combat.
Tie Pilot: "target eliminated"
He could barely hld his excitement as it bled across the com channel
Miasma 1: "good job rookie tha-"
Obelisk Control: " Miasma 1, 3 Incoming unknown hyper jump signatures"
As soon as Control gave the two pilots their warning a large unknown vessel and a dozen more fighters joined the battle. The ship appeared so quickly he was fighting to pull his fighter out of its path of travel before hitting the hull of the unknown enemy vessel.
Miasma 1: "I've been hi*static*"
From the corner of his canopy he saw a flash of light as the static of Miasma 1's last message was cut short. He didn't have a moment to react in shock as the dark void populated itself with enemy fire.
Tie Pilot: "Alpha we need to go"
Static was all that greeted him, it seemed jamming was now in effect. He ducked and weaved when a stray bolt clipped the arm of his left panel, with a quick jerk the arm failed and the panel collided with the top of his cockpit sending the fighter spiraling out of control. Alarms and buzzers screamed as he fought the controls to right himself. After a couple minutes without proper orientation or instrumentation he knew his heading. The hull of his fighter began to ping with the deadly sound of atmosphere.
He was falling to the planet and fast, the remaining panel acted as a drag and culled his random spinning enough for him to make some calculated thrusts to slow his descent. Smoke and fire bellowed from his cockpit as he knew he had only one chance to make it out, with all the power he could muster from the broken fighter he thrust laterally to flatten his trajectory. With the sound of twisting metal the other panel ripped from the fuselage and the ball rolled and bounced across the ice.
He woke up strapped to his seat, the internal visors to his helm no longer displaying information. he began to unstrap himself from the seat as he peered out the glass now covered half way in snow. Visibility was impossible as a blizzard raged on outside the wreck, He gathered his survival kit and placed a couple silvery suit patches over tears in his outfit. Per standard procedure he also stowed the on-board black box it in his survival sack before he exited the crumpled starfighter.
It was hard to stand, much less walk as icy winds pummeled his armored flightsuit making it feel very thin indeed. Suddenly a very large furry arm holding dagger-length claws emerged from the whiteout and slashed at him! His head snapped back with the force of the swipe against his helmet sending stars into his vision. A sharp pain quickly followed by another slash at his gut. He stumbled back with the survival sack batted a few meters off into the storm. He drew his KK-5 sidearm blaster pistol and began firing. A loud howl was heard as the monster perished in a hail of desperate blaster fire.
Gingerly he checked his wound and recovered the survival sack and checked its contents.
~First things first, must establish a bearing towards civlization with the comlink. I won't survive long in this blizzard!~
Powering on his comlink he was happy to hear there was a signal, but before he could home in on its source his comlink died. A claw like gash across the battery unit had incapacitated any means for him to call for help. The edge of hopelessness set in as he returned to his starfighter, using the cockpit as a shelter.
~There's no point moving on yet, not until the storm has passed~.
To occupy himself he skinned the fur off the wretched snow beast with his vibro-dagger... flash-burning the skin on the underside with his blaster set on a low-setting. It wasn't pretty, but it was better than nothing and helped keep him warm during the cold night to follow.
Once dawn arrived he moved on, huddled in the fur which actually helped keep other predators at bay. Progress was painfully slow slugging along through fresh snow-pack. To make matters worse another storm arrived several hours later. Caught out in the open it did not take long for the chilling cold to overwhelm his life support system. Unable to continue he dug himself into a snowdrift and waited for days, chilled to the bone. He was unaware exactly how much time passed. A week? Perhaps longer, all he knew for sure was his emergency ration was down to its last morsel.
When the storm finally passed he hardly had any strength left.
~ Must keep moving!~ Another day passed until true exhaustion set in. Death was surely catching up him, he wanted to lie down and let the cold take him.
"I don't want to die..."
The words were hardly a whisper through his chapped lips but he heard them nonetheless. They kept him moving forward, always in the same direction. He concentrated on the landmarks in front of him, one by one, blinding out thoughts of walking in circles.
~Is that something ahead? A beacon?!~ He asked himself in a daze, imagining a sensor pylon of some sort in the near distance. Ten meters, five meters... three meters... and then he collapsed. He crawled ahead, pulling the white landscape towards him like a cloth until he felt something metallic through his glove.
"I made it..." His final words prefaced silence as the darkness washed over him one last time.