Jaina Solo Fel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
solo_sword) wrote2008-03-21 07:10 am
solo_sword) wrote2008-03-21 07:10 am
Sernpidal and the Ralroost, Friday morning Fandom time
Maybe Jaina's assertion that she was fine in an X-wing in battle again was a little premature. Yavin had hardly been a fight for her, the skirmish at Coruscant didn't even count, and it took a while at the battle of Sernpidal to get used to flashes around her without wincing. She took more hits from the Vong coralskippers than she should have, and one hit in particular had sent her right back to Kalarba, just waiting for her X-wing to go up with her in it. She was remarkably surprised when it didn't.
The really surprising thing was she was doing pretty well in comparison. Having lost three members of Rogue Squadron just approaching the Vong weapon, Jaina didn't feel the deaths, or at least it didn't register. When she saw their ships destroyed, it just pissed her off.
"Seven," she heard Colonel Darklighter say over the comm channel, "break off and take lead with Eleven and Twelve."
And as Rogue Twelve, she was taking the lead. Her earlier freakouts didn't even register with her now. There was a job to do, so it was time to stick through it.
"Mind if I cut in?" a new voice asked.
It was Gavin who answered. "Wedge? You're sure you want to do this, what with your arthritis and all? How'd you slip your nurse?"
"Told her I was going to take a steam bath," Wedge replied easily. "What've you got for me?"
"Good to have you, General. Gives us two full flights. Take Seven, Eleven and Twelve. Guys, you are now designated Two-flight."
"I copy, One Leader," Jaina answered. All right, so she'd known Wedge her entire life. She'd never flown with him before. That meant she was allowed a little bit of fangirl glee, which she was very careful to keep off the comm channel, thanks.
They lost Seven, too, and a moment later Jaina found herself facing the same thing he had. It was Kyp's lucky rescue with what remained of his Dozen joining the battle that saved her, which she was sure she would have to deal with later if the mission was successful.
The Ralroost and its escorts had taken a lot of hits in the first wave of suicides, but once the tactic was understood, the remaining starfighters fanned out and picked off the determined skips far in advance. The Yuuzhan Vong that made it through their runs intact ended up behind them, where collision was much less effective. They still had their weapons, of course, and it made Jaina more than a little nervous to have so many live enemies at her back, but target prime was just ahead, and she had a job to do.
The Ralroost opened up on the galaxy-shaped ship. Red streamers of plasma lanced out from the curved tips of the Yuuzhan Vong weapon, but the destroyer's shields handled the fire easily.
"I don't get it," Jaina said. "Why use conventional weapons? Why aren't they using the gravity weapon?"
"It's our lucky day," Kyp said. "It must be off-line."
Multiple proton concussions blossomed at the side of the Vong weapon, rendering it a dull-red glowing mass.
"Jaina, behind you!"
Kyp's warning came too late. Twin bursts of plasma sheared through her shields and into her ion engines. A quick babble from her astromech told her that if she didn't shut down in fifteen seconds, the whole mess was going supercritical. She'd lost a stabilizer, too, and the ship was spinning crazily.
And she still had a tail. Kyp got one of them, but the other just kept coming.
This is it.
The Yuuzhan Vong superweapon filled most of her gyrating vision now. Grimly, she did her best to aim for it, then shut down. Maybe she could skip off with repulsors. If not, at least she would put another ding in the thing.
But then something in the huge craft made a very big bang, and all she saw was inferno. Well, they got it.
And if still spinning in space watching a Vong superweapon with the possibility of still being attacked wasn't enough, it was about then that she felt a sharp stab of pain that completely took her focus for she didn't know how long: not physical, and not hers. She knew it was Mara, but she didn't know what was going on, besides the fact that whatever it was wasn't good. It didn't feel like a death, but she knew it was bad, and there was nothing she could do about it till she got out of here.
When she'd gotten control of herself, Jaina and her droid managed to get control of the ship enough to stop the spin. While she let the astromech work at getting them back online, she looked out the canopy window and began to piece together with no small amount of horror what it was that they'd actually just destroyed.
*****
Pilots always celebrated a victory immediately after getting out of their cockpits. Battles were always a form of hell, wherein you spent your time terrified, lost friends and comrades, but when you won, at least it hadn't been for no reason, and you were alive to know that.
Jaina sort of ruined that post-battle celebration by slapping Kyp as soon as he got close enough.
"You knew," she accused. "You knew, and you lied, and you made me a part of it."
"What are you talking about?" asked Lensi, one of the Duro pilots. Unsurprisingly, Jaina had gotten everyone's attention.
"Tell him, Kyp," she said. "Tell him what his friends died for. Tell them that thing we just paid so dearly to blow up wasn't a superweapon. That it wasn't a weapon at all."
Kyp folded his arms, and clearly wasn't going to admit any wrongdoing in this matter. "Everything the Vong possess is a weapon."
"But the footage we saw in briefing," Lensi stammered. "I saw what it did. It pulled fire out of Sernpidal's sun."
"No," Jaina said, still watching Kyp and hating him kind of a lot. "That's what it looked like, but not what happened. The Yuuzhan Vong set up a relay system of hundreds of dovin basals, hung in a long corridor all the way to the sun. It was just a big, unwieldy linear accelerator, a way to get hydrogen and helium to use in their shipbuilding, or something. But a giant gravitic weapon? No. Kyp made that up, to get us here. What was it, Kyp? What did we just blow up? Or do you even know?"
"I know," Kyp admitted. "It was a worldship, a new one. If it's any comfort, it wasn't finished, and there probably weren't many Vong aboard."
Oh, just a worldship. So she'd just helped blow up who knew how many innocent Vong civilians, but at least it wasn't a full planetary transport full.
"Then why did you want it blown up?" Lensi wondered. "Why did you lie?"
"The Yuuzhan Vong have destroyed, conquered, and raped our planets. They enslave civilian populations, and they sacrifice our citizens by the thousands. But until today, the only Vong we've hurt are those who come against us- the warriors," Kyp said, sounding every bit like he did when he delivered speeches against Luke, talking about how his way was the right one. "I wanted to hit them where they live, to let them know their civilians aren't sacrosanct if ours aren't."
"Then why an empty worldship?" Jaina asked. "Why not just pick a full one and blow it up, Kyp? You can't tell me you would be squeamish about that."
"You're wrong about that, Jaina, an I think you know it," said Kyp. "But sure, from what I've managed to find out, we probably could have blasted one of their older ships. But that wouldn't have really hurt them. This does. Their worldships are dying, and a lot of them aren't in good enough shape to make it anywhere they can let people off. This one would have been hyperdrive capable, and it could have housed the populations of many of their smaller worldships. Now they have to choose between letting their children die in space or expending military resources to move them to conquered planets. Either way, it only helps us fight them- and it sends a message."
"Yeah, right. It sends the message that we're not any better than they are," Jaina seethed.
"We were here first. It's our galaxy. If they have come peacefully, we would have given them the space they needed." He spoke louder to address the others, all watching the scene before them with interest. It wouldn't have been a surprise that he used the opportunity to grandstand. "You should all be proud of what you did today. You fought against terrible odds and you won. You struck a blow against the Vong, and a good one. This was for Sernpidal, for Ithor, for Duro, for Dubrillion, for Garqi, for every planet the Vong have despoiled."
She hated that he got cheers for that. Looking over at Wedge and Gavin, they seemed to be right there with her, but mostly everyone else, everyone who hadn't been manipulated into arranging to get pilots killed in order to murder innocents, seemed to be on Kyp's side.
Kyp turned back to her. "Ask them, Jaina. You don't really have a homeworld. You were raised all over the galaxy. Most of these people know what it's like to have a home, and too many of them know what it's like to lose one, thanks to the Yuuzhan Vong. You think they mind evening the score a little?"
No, they had all been manipulated. Most of the hangar just hadn't realized it. "I think you owed us the truth," Jaina bit out. "Maybe we would have decided to help you if you'd been straight with us."
"And maybe you wouldn't have. As long as you thought it was a superweapon, you were ready to go. But we've set them back more than the destruction of any weapon. By the time they grow another one-"
"-their children will start dying. Right. I get that. Bravo, Kyp. Well done. Except you used me. You made me tell your lie, and now the blood of every Yuuzhan Vong child who suffocates in space is on my hands, too."
"There's more to this universe than Jaina Solo, believe it or not," Kyp said, dropping his voice. "I'm sorry you feel used, and I wish I hadn't had to lie to you. But I didn't have to. You wouldn't have helped me otherwise."
"And I'll never help you again. You can count on it. If you were dying of thirst on Tatooine, I wouldn't even spit on you."
And with nothing more to say to him that wouldn't leave her screaming, she spun on her heel and left him behind.
*****
After her show with Kyp, Jaina'd gone back to her quarters. She felt sick at having been tricked into this, she felt more sick at having done it, she was worried for Mara and she knew that this meant bad things for her when she'd just gotten back into the Rogues. Her options were to lash out or cry herself silly, and the reaction to her lashing out had only made her feel worse.
She was sort of toeing the line between those options when she heard the knock at the metal door, and she winced as she recognized the presence behind it. Wedge was one of those people like Han or John, where even without the Force she never had any problem recognizing them. He couldn't come at a time when she was better in control of herself?
"I didn't know what he was planning," she said immediately upon opening the door. "I swear that I believed every word that I said."
"I know," Wedge said, stepping inside when Jaina gave him room to do so. "I'm just sorry you didn't let me get to Kyp first."
"No offense, but that one was mine," she told him.
He nodded, as if reluctantly admitting that was fair. Not that he would say that. "Look, Jaina, no one's blaming you for this. It happens to the best of us. I trusted him, too."
"No, you didn't," she argued. He'd trusted her, not Kyp.
"I went along with his plan, didn't I?"
And now it was her turn to reluctantly accept that. "I'm still out, though, aren't I?" Jaina asked. "Gavin didn't want me back because I looked like a liability, and now thanks to Kyp, I am one."
He offered her a tight, humorless smile, confirmation of her fear. "Welcome to being a political pawn." Noting the half-packed bag on her bed, he said, "Not that I'm telling you anything you didn't already know."
She shook her head. "It's not like that. Something happened to Aunt Mara in the middle of the battle. I'm going to find her and Uncle Luke, if I won't be needed here."
Wedge frowned. "Is she okay?"
"No idea. I don't know what it is I felt, but I have to see what's happening."
"Completely understandable," he said. "And you know this isn't permanent. Gavin just needs things to settle down before allowing you back in. And if Kyp's stupidity actually looks good to the public, it could be sooner."
Jaina held in a groan at that. "I really wish I could leave all the politics to the people who choose it, and stick to flying."
"It would be nice," Wedge said dryly. "I'll leave you to it."
"I'm still so sorry for this, Wedge."
"Stop that. You said that already. Let it be Durron's turn."
That did sort of make her feel better. "It was an honor flying with you, General," she said with a tiny smile, and while her tone was a but lighter, she meant it.
"You too, Lieutenant," he said, and hit the door controls to let himself out.
[NFB yadda yadda. Half the dialogue and a good portion of the space battle taken straight from Edge of Victory II: Rebirth by Greg Keyes, cuz I dun write dat good.
I also can't stop singing the Slapsgiving song.]
The really surprising thing was she was doing pretty well in comparison. Having lost three members of Rogue Squadron just approaching the Vong weapon, Jaina didn't feel the deaths, or at least it didn't register. When she saw their ships destroyed, it just pissed her off.
"Seven," she heard Colonel Darklighter say over the comm channel, "break off and take lead with Eleven and Twelve."
And as Rogue Twelve, she was taking the lead. Her earlier freakouts didn't even register with her now. There was a job to do, so it was time to stick through it.
"Mind if I cut in?" a new voice asked.
It was Gavin who answered. "Wedge? You're sure you want to do this, what with your arthritis and all? How'd you slip your nurse?"
"Told her I was going to take a steam bath," Wedge replied easily. "What've you got for me?"
"Good to have you, General. Gives us two full flights. Take Seven, Eleven and Twelve. Guys, you are now designated Two-flight."
"I copy, One Leader," Jaina answered. All right, so she'd known Wedge her entire life. She'd never flown with him before. That meant she was allowed a little bit of fangirl glee, which she was very careful to keep off the comm channel, thanks.
They lost Seven, too, and a moment later Jaina found herself facing the same thing he had. It was Kyp's lucky rescue with what remained of his Dozen joining the battle that saved her, which she was sure she would have to deal with later if the mission was successful.
The Ralroost and its escorts had taken a lot of hits in the first wave of suicides, but once the tactic was understood, the remaining starfighters fanned out and picked off the determined skips far in advance. The Yuuzhan Vong that made it through their runs intact ended up behind them, where collision was much less effective. They still had their weapons, of course, and it made Jaina more than a little nervous to have so many live enemies at her back, but target prime was just ahead, and she had a job to do.
The Ralroost opened up on the galaxy-shaped ship. Red streamers of plasma lanced out from the curved tips of the Yuuzhan Vong weapon, but the destroyer's shields handled the fire easily.
"I don't get it," Jaina said. "Why use conventional weapons? Why aren't they using the gravity weapon?"
"It's our lucky day," Kyp said. "It must be off-line."
Multiple proton concussions blossomed at the side of the Vong weapon, rendering it a dull-red glowing mass.
"Jaina, behind you!"
Kyp's warning came too late. Twin bursts of plasma sheared through her shields and into her ion engines. A quick babble from her astromech told her that if she didn't shut down in fifteen seconds, the whole mess was going supercritical. She'd lost a stabilizer, too, and the ship was spinning crazily.
And she still had a tail. Kyp got one of them, but the other just kept coming.
This is it.
The Yuuzhan Vong superweapon filled most of her gyrating vision now. Grimly, she did her best to aim for it, then shut down. Maybe she could skip off with repulsors. If not, at least she would put another ding in the thing.
But then something in the huge craft made a very big bang, and all she saw was inferno. Well, they got it.
And if still spinning in space watching a Vong superweapon with the possibility of still being attacked wasn't enough, it was about then that she felt a sharp stab of pain that completely took her focus for she didn't know how long: not physical, and not hers. She knew it was Mara, but she didn't know what was going on, besides the fact that whatever it was wasn't good. It didn't feel like a death, but she knew it was bad, and there was nothing she could do about it till she got out of here.
When she'd gotten control of herself, Jaina and her droid managed to get control of the ship enough to stop the spin. While she let the astromech work at getting them back online, she looked out the canopy window and began to piece together with no small amount of horror what it was that they'd actually just destroyed.
*****
Pilots always celebrated a victory immediately after getting out of their cockpits. Battles were always a form of hell, wherein you spent your time terrified, lost friends and comrades, but when you won, at least it hadn't been for no reason, and you were alive to know that.
Jaina sort of ruined that post-battle celebration by slapping Kyp as soon as he got close enough.
"You knew," she accused. "You knew, and you lied, and you made me a part of it."
"What are you talking about?" asked Lensi, one of the Duro pilots. Unsurprisingly, Jaina had gotten everyone's attention.
"Tell him, Kyp," she said. "Tell him what his friends died for. Tell them that thing we just paid so dearly to blow up wasn't a superweapon. That it wasn't a weapon at all."
Kyp folded his arms, and clearly wasn't going to admit any wrongdoing in this matter. "Everything the Vong possess is a weapon."
"But the footage we saw in briefing," Lensi stammered. "I saw what it did. It pulled fire out of Sernpidal's sun."
"No," Jaina said, still watching Kyp and hating him kind of a lot. "That's what it looked like, but not what happened. The Yuuzhan Vong set up a relay system of hundreds of dovin basals, hung in a long corridor all the way to the sun. It was just a big, unwieldy linear accelerator, a way to get hydrogen and helium to use in their shipbuilding, or something. But a giant gravitic weapon? No. Kyp made that up, to get us here. What was it, Kyp? What did we just blow up? Or do you even know?"
"I know," Kyp admitted. "It was a worldship, a new one. If it's any comfort, it wasn't finished, and there probably weren't many Vong aboard."
Oh, just a worldship. So she'd just helped blow up who knew how many innocent Vong civilians, but at least it wasn't a full planetary transport full.
"Then why did you want it blown up?" Lensi wondered. "Why did you lie?"
"The Yuuzhan Vong have destroyed, conquered, and raped our planets. They enslave civilian populations, and they sacrifice our citizens by the thousands. But until today, the only Vong we've hurt are those who come against us- the warriors," Kyp said, sounding every bit like he did when he delivered speeches against Luke, talking about how his way was the right one. "I wanted to hit them where they live, to let them know their civilians aren't sacrosanct if ours aren't."
"Then why an empty worldship?" Jaina asked. "Why not just pick a full one and blow it up, Kyp? You can't tell me you would be squeamish about that."
"You're wrong about that, Jaina, an I think you know it," said Kyp. "But sure, from what I've managed to find out, we probably could have blasted one of their older ships. But that wouldn't have really hurt them. This does. Their worldships are dying, and a lot of them aren't in good enough shape to make it anywhere they can let people off. This one would have been hyperdrive capable, and it could have housed the populations of many of their smaller worldships. Now they have to choose between letting their children die in space or expending military resources to move them to conquered planets. Either way, it only helps us fight them- and it sends a message."
"Yeah, right. It sends the message that we're not any better than they are," Jaina seethed.
"We were here first. It's our galaxy. If they have come peacefully, we would have given them the space they needed." He spoke louder to address the others, all watching the scene before them with interest. It wouldn't have been a surprise that he used the opportunity to grandstand. "You should all be proud of what you did today. You fought against terrible odds and you won. You struck a blow against the Vong, and a good one. This was for Sernpidal, for Ithor, for Duro, for Dubrillion, for Garqi, for every planet the Vong have despoiled."
She hated that he got cheers for that. Looking over at Wedge and Gavin, they seemed to be right there with her, but mostly everyone else, everyone who hadn't been manipulated into arranging to get pilots killed in order to murder innocents, seemed to be on Kyp's side.
Kyp turned back to her. "Ask them, Jaina. You don't really have a homeworld. You were raised all over the galaxy. Most of these people know what it's like to have a home, and too many of them know what it's like to lose one, thanks to the Yuuzhan Vong. You think they mind evening the score a little?"
No, they had all been manipulated. Most of the hangar just hadn't realized it. "I think you owed us the truth," Jaina bit out. "Maybe we would have decided to help you if you'd been straight with us."
"And maybe you wouldn't have. As long as you thought it was a superweapon, you were ready to go. But we've set them back more than the destruction of any weapon. By the time they grow another one-"
"-their children will start dying. Right. I get that. Bravo, Kyp. Well done. Except you used me. You made me tell your lie, and now the blood of every Yuuzhan Vong child who suffocates in space is on my hands, too."
"There's more to this universe than Jaina Solo, believe it or not," Kyp said, dropping his voice. "I'm sorry you feel used, and I wish I hadn't had to lie to you. But I didn't have to. You wouldn't have helped me otherwise."
"And I'll never help you again. You can count on it. If you were dying of thirst on Tatooine, I wouldn't even spit on you."
And with nothing more to say to him that wouldn't leave her screaming, she spun on her heel and left him behind.
*****
After her show with Kyp, Jaina'd gone back to her quarters. She felt sick at having been tricked into this, she felt more sick at having done it, she was worried for Mara and she knew that this meant bad things for her when she'd just gotten back into the Rogues. Her options were to lash out or cry herself silly, and the reaction to her lashing out had only made her feel worse.
She was sort of toeing the line between those options when she heard the knock at the metal door, and she winced as she recognized the presence behind it. Wedge was one of those people like Han or John, where even without the Force she never had any problem recognizing them. He couldn't come at a time when she was better in control of herself?
"I didn't know what he was planning," she said immediately upon opening the door. "I swear that I believed every word that I said."
"I know," Wedge said, stepping inside when Jaina gave him room to do so. "I'm just sorry you didn't let me get to Kyp first."
"No offense, but that one was mine," she told him.
He nodded, as if reluctantly admitting that was fair. Not that he would say that. "Look, Jaina, no one's blaming you for this. It happens to the best of us. I trusted him, too."
"No, you didn't," she argued. He'd trusted her, not Kyp.
"I went along with his plan, didn't I?"
And now it was her turn to reluctantly accept that. "I'm still out, though, aren't I?" Jaina asked. "Gavin didn't want me back because I looked like a liability, and now thanks to Kyp, I am one."
He offered her a tight, humorless smile, confirmation of her fear. "Welcome to being a political pawn." Noting the half-packed bag on her bed, he said, "Not that I'm telling you anything you didn't already know."
She shook her head. "It's not like that. Something happened to Aunt Mara in the middle of the battle. I'm going to find her and Uncle Luke, if I won't be needed here."
Wedge frowned. "Is she okay?"
"No idea. I don't know what it is I felt, but I have to see what's happening."
"Completely understandable," he said. "And you know this isn't permanent. Gavin just needs things to settle down before allowing you back in. And if Kyp's stupidity actually looks good to the public, it could be sooner."
Jaina held in a groan at that. "I really wish I could leave all the politics to the people who choose it, and stick to flying."
"It would be nice," Wedge said dryly. "I'll leave you to it."
"I'm still so sorry for this, Wedge."
"Stop that. You said that already. Let it be Durron's turn."
That did sort of make her feel better. "It was an honor flying with you, General," she said with a tiny smile, and while her tone was a but lighter, she meant it.
"You too, Lieutenant," he said, and hit the door controls to let himself out.
[NFB yadda yadda. Half the dialogue and a good portion of the space battle taken straight from Edge of Victory II: Rebirth by Greg Keyes, cuz I dun write dat good.
I also can't stop singing the Slapsgiving song.]
no subject
And you just got slaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaapped across the faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace....
In my head too now, thanks.]