NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3985148" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 548: HerdingAfter over two decades of service, the X-Wing Starfighter was still one of the best ships flying in the galaxy. After so many years, it still was one of the only starships in the service anywhere in the galaxy with a perfect mix of armament, speed, maneuverability, shield power, and, of course, a strong enough hyperdrive to take it anywhere in it needed to be without the need for a carrier...well, the pilot not be comfortable, but the ship could do it. Attempts to replace the ship with newer designs always failed, partly due to the X-Wing’s actual merits but also largely due to the legendary status the starfighter had achieved over the years. And so, eventually, the X-Wing itself was redesigned, keeping the frame and most everything that made the X-Wing an X-Wing, but adding in newer technology to make the ship, once again, state of the art.    But none of that mattered anymore.    What good were four laser cannons against the dovin basal singularities that simply ate the energy up? What use was a larger capactity for proton torpedoes if they couldn’t detonate? What were speed and maneuverability when the enemy could simply swarm with unimaginable numbers? What was the point of even having shields if those same dovin basals could be used offensively to simply rip the shield away if the X-Wing got too close? And what good was a hyperdrive when the starfighter was stuck in a gravity well surrounded by enemies and with no real support from carrier?    And that was just compared to the Vong’s Coralskippers, those tiny, teardrop shaped, asteroid-like ships that were causing many in the New Republic to scramble for new ways to fight now that all of their advantages seemed to be completely gone. But there were so many more problems now. The Vong cruisers and capital ships presented similar difficulties, but simply multiplied them. So many other weapons that the Vong used presented even more problems, but there was one thing that truly made the X-Wing completely useless against the Vong: it was the Yuuzhan Vong warriors’ complete disregard for their own lives.    There was no real way to defend against an opponent who had no problem with death and would send his ship right through another. And yet someone had to try...thousands had to. If they didn’t try, if they just threw their hands into the air and gave up, then...well, Rulae wasn’t sure how that thought ended, because he’d never taken it that far. It just wasn’t an option.    Maybe that was why he had was now taking his X-Wing back into a hopeless fight, where two thirds of his squadron were currently surrounded by a literal swarm of Vong skips. His sensor board could see the 6 remaining starfighters clearly, but when he looked through the canopy in front of him, all that Rulae’s large, red eyes could see was a mass of moving black and grey against the backdrop of one of Rodia’s dark green moons. Here and there, red lances darted around but always disappeared. What was terrifying to Rulae was that he didn’t see the distinct, red-orange glow that would signal the Vong firing back    Why weren’t they shooting?    One of Rulae’s long fingered, black gloved hands hit his comm switch, “Zephyrs, form up together and punch your way out of that formation now! I can’t do you any good if you keep flying in circles!”    On his sensor screen, Rulae couldn’t see much change...well, not beyond a few of the skips beginning to come his way as he approached the swarm. So he wasn’t very surprised to hear the Coruscanti accent of Adria Harken reply through the comm, “Its not that blasted simple, sir!”    “They’re herding us!” that was a different voice, somewhat gravely even through the usual static of the comm channel. It was Zephyr Eleven, an older human from the Core who’s name currently escaped Rulae as he tried to figure out what exactly that sentence meant.    A shrill noise cut in on his personal channel as Rulae’s astromech screamed at him. There was no need to look at the translation for that in front of him, as Rulae knew exactly what the alarm was. Immediately, he pulled his X-Wing into a tight snap-roll firing off a barrage of laser fire as the wave of at least twenty Coralskippers flew right through his previous path. He didn’t actually hit any of them, but it felt good to shoot.    Glancing over his shoulder, Rulae caught a glimpse of the skips whipping around in a maneuver that would have torn his ship to pieces. They spread out in mid-turn, forming a sort of net of Coralskippers behind his X-Wing and approaching quickly.    So that was what Eleven meant by ‘herding’. This was something new, and somehow extremely worrying. This didn’t fit into the Vong’s profile...    Rulae’s mind was working overtime now. He had to figure out a new plan and very quickly or they were all going to end up in a very bad situation...worse than it currently was. Looking around him, at the speed the skips were approaching, he was going to be good and surrounded by them in a matter of seconds. Obviously, they didn’t want him leaving the system. Three of the Zephyrs had escaped, at least, but they rest were being prevented escape.    So where were they being herded to?    “Plate,” Rulae practically yelled at his astromech despite the volume of his voice being completely unnecessary for it to hear him, “Have the Vong been moving the rest of the squadron anywhere?”    This time, as the astromech answered in its beeps and whistles, Rulae did read the translation: THE CURRENT LOCATION OF FLIGHTS TWO AND THREE IS FOUR HUNDRED KILOMETERS CLOSER TO RODIA THAN THEY WERE IMMEDIATELY PRIOR TO THE AMBUSH.    Rodia.    They were moving them towards Rodia.    The skips were around him now, not firing but flying so close that to avoid a collision Rulae had to change his course just slightly. Then again. Then again. They were turning him, obviously not afraid of an impact themselves but relying on his own fear of that very thing. The Vong were manipulating them all perfectly. But why? And why towards Rodia? And why had they all come from the moon?    Two sudden thoughts jumped into Rulae’s mind at the same moment. The first was that there was one very simple way out of this trap, which it definitely was. And the second was that they hadn’t detected anything of worth on the surface of Rodia during a brief scan. Then maybe they weren’t being taken to Rodia, but rather, away from something important on that moon. It didn’t explain why they weren’t simply dead, but it did tell him something at least. That, and caused him to make a decision after a quick glance at his sensors again.    “Zephyrs, change of plans,” he spoke into the comm quickly, not knowing how much time they really had and so delivering the orders at lightning speed, “On my mark, make a break for the moon. Don’t let them get in the way either, just ram right through them if you have to. There’s something down there the Vong don’t want us near.”    “Sir, we can’t—“    ”This is not the time, Twelve,” Rulae snapped angrily, shutting up the rest of Harken’s complaint, “We’ll regroup on the surface of the moon but right now we need to get there alive. Does everyone understand?”    A series of double clicking sounds through the comm confirmed it.    Rulae’s eyes darted around him, identifying a spot in the formation around him that only contained two skips. A section he might be able to break through. Then, one last time, he checked his sensors. It was still a good distance to the moon for him, but the rest of the squadron was still closer...it was crazy, but it could work. It was the only thing he could think of, though...surprise. It would, hopefully, surprise the Vong. For once, they’d turn the tables and have it to use against the Vong, only to run down to an alien moon in the enemy’s hands...    Oh well. His gut told him there was something on that moon the important to the Yuuzhan Vong. Getting close to something like that was a rare opportunity, and not something that could be passed up with how badly the war was going. Besides, Rulae didn’t like the idea of what might be on Rodia waiting for them.    “Mark!”    Before he’d finished the word, Rulae diverted as much power as he could from his weapons to the shields, then yanked his X-Wing hard to starboard. Immediately, both starboard S-Foils collided with the nearest of the skips, causing a bright explosion and sending his starfighter into a violent spin...which sent the nose into another skip. With that impact, the nose cone of the X-Wing with its sensor equipment ruptured, causing another explosion much closer to the cockpit. Despite the crash webbing holding most of him into his seat, the pair of violent impacts caused Rulae’s head to slam into the canopy, then snap back into the headrest behind him.    His X-Wing burning and in an uncontrollable spin, moving towards Rodia’s moon only due to momentum and its gravitational pull, Rulae lost consciousness.Aaaaand, I'm back again and mostly alive. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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