WTF Comics

knightwalkr

TIE Heart
Willie Pierce
The X-Wing Pilot thought he could out fly me. X-wings are like bricks compared to the TIE Interceptor. TIE Interceptors are strong and fast with no shields. This forced the pilots for the empire to fly by skill and not by luck. Rebel Pilots preferred to put faith in technology. Any day I'd much rather put my skill on the line that rely on machines that could break down at any moment.
I pull slightly on the stick so that it looks like I make a mistake. I can almost see the pleasure on the face of the rebel pilot as he believes I have made a mistake. He took the bait and attempted a snap roll to put himself behind me.
The empire generally frowns on modifications to its ships but for a couple hundred credits I convinced a tech to give me 2 switches, one on either side. When it is flipped it will kill the power feed to the engine for a micro second. It allows me to spin my TIE on a dime. One hand on the stick and the other on my switch; I fire as I flip the switch and get a couple lucky shots. One makes it through his shields and ruptures his fuel pod. The tank caught fire. Few things will burn in a vacuum, the fuel for a space fighter just happens to be one of them. The fire quickly found atmosphere and turned from flame to explosion. Score one for me.
As I turned my attention back to the battle; I found that the few remaining rebel ships were fleeing. A light on my panel came on; it was Green, the control channel. "All TIEs return to Mother Hen. I say again. All TIEs return to Mother Hen." It was code for return to the Star Destroyer. One of the most discerning feelings about returning to the ship was allowing the Droids to pilot us in. They could do it more effectively that we ever could, but that does not mean we have to be comfortable with it.
I hate droids, but they are a necessary evil. Good thing they are programmed to obey. As usual it took a while for them to lock on and bring my squadron into the bay. It wasn't any slight on us by the droids though. We were on rotation as the first out of the bay. First ones out; last ones in. First out of the bay gets you kill, last one into the chow hall gets you cold meals.
Blue light, the squad channel, "Dagger squadron, form up after your checks." Tonight I probably wouldn't even get a cold meal.
A couple flicks of switches and I began my post flight system checks. Droids would run diagnostics as well. I'd get 2 reports in the morning and read them over. Both should confirm the results of the other. With any luck any repairs needed would be completed before the next time the rebels hit us. All green on my board. Time for me to go stand in formation and have the commander blew smoke up my ass.
We stood in rigid, perfect formation; well not perfect, we aren't storm troopers. Our commander did what any good commander does. He kept us waiting while he walked around attempting to look like he knew what he was looking at. It took him a few minutes to grace us with his presence. He had probably already eaten… a hot meal.
"Men, this is a grand day. The Emperor has ordered us to take part in the crushing of the rebellion. The integrity has already jumped to hyperspace. In just 2 days we fulfill our destiny. Our mission is simple but it is vital. We are augmenting the fighter screen for the Indictor cruiser, Anaconda. Be at the Sims at 0400 with your gear. We have 2 days to prep. We will not make any mistakes in front of the emperor." His boots snapped together as he saluted. We returned the salute, automatically in near perfect precision.
That night the squadron did what any squadron does when they have just been told that they are about to go into a tide of war turning battle. We went out and got drunk; really drunk. I woke and knew it had been a mistake. I fumbled over the refresher controls; simulation was going to be horribly hung over. As I stepped out of the refresher, I noticed a light blinking on my data pad. Ugh maintenance reports. I skimmed it as I put on my Empire issue mat black flight suit; my TIE only needed general maintenance. Thank the force for Small favors. I clicked accepted and the report went to maintenance and Dagger One.
The trip to the simulators was horrible; I still had enough alcohol in my system and to little water. My world swam; the lift on a normal day was a smooth ride. Today it felt as if it had no inertial dampeners, every movement of the tube sent my head reeling again. Stepping into the prep room, I took perverse pride in that I was not the only one hurting. From the look of everyone in a few hours we might be up to feeling bad. Right now, between the flashing and spinning lights I was hoping the pod waste management systems where up to the task.
Commander Cobb looked us over with disgust. I knew at this moment that the day would not be good. "Sims are scheduled from 0430-0800. During that time we will settle for nothing less than perfection. Then since the squadron has all this excess energy we will take a few laps around the hangar bay. You will learn from this indiscretion and you will not fail me or the Empire. Now get your gear on and get in the Sims."
I got into my trash as fast as possible. I hate how rebreathers fit, but you got to have them. The sim pod I had been assigned was identical to all the rest. In fact the same sim pod could be used for any standard configuration of the TIE fighters. From the basic model to the Bomber; the only difference was the bomber stick which was easily changed between simulations. Another advancement the Empire had over the rebellion that used any ship they could get their hands on.
I made sure to go through my pre-flight checks. It wouldn't be the first time the programmed an issue to arise that could have been solved with the preflight diagnostic. It wouldn't and couldn't solve all issues, but it was a good start.
My pod screens showed a mock hangar deck, technicians were walking taking care of last minute details, a droid was plugged into the socket on the Interceptor in front of mine running a check. Possibly that pilot had found a minor issue in his pre-flight. I'll never get over the detail that these simulators have.
The green light, "Gentlemen my board shows green." A pause, if anyone had problems at this point they would say them now. No one was admitting to issues on their boards. "Dagger Squadron is clear for launch."
My board light up showing I was under droid command as we lifted out of our racks and where slowly moved out of the hangar. Even in simulation I didn't like being under droid control. I closed my eyes as the TIE rotated to exit the force field. The experience was dizzying on a good day today I had a feeling the flight suit waste purging system would be working overtime.
I stared out at the inky blackness of space. There where stars but they where the neutral backdrop for all missions in space where location was secret.
"Gentlemen, your HUD will display your patrol sectors. Flight one release and move to position. Flight two releases and move to position. Flight 3 release and move to position. Flight four releases and move to position." I began to move as Flight four was called. My designation is Dagger 12.
I adjusted my power to match Dagger 10, Flight 4 lead. Our area of Responsibility was portside bow close hull protection. Dagger squadron was providing Bow protection, from the look as we moved into position.
We flew in non repeating patterns around our AOR keeping an eye out for possible incoming attacks even though we shouldn't be the first to get hit by attack vigilance is its own reward.
We had done the simulators enough to know that these scenarios where mostly speculation of worst case events. None of the scenarios would be impossible to win but the first was generally a morale booster with a decent level of difficulty. Working our way to a final battle that we would most likely loose unless everyone did everything perfectly.
In the distance I could see the ships starting to drop out of hyperspace. It was a massive fleet. From behind a black orb, that was most likely a planet, I saw our fleet move in around behind the rebel fleet. I could imagine the TIEs pouring out of the bays as fast as the droids could maneuver them out. Their battle was not going to be one where they were limited on their sectors. No they where there in full squadrons going after the rebel fighters.
The Blue light glowed as Dagger one began to speak, "We have Incoming X. They are already getting long range locks on the cruiser and we expect them to fire as soon as they get in range."
First thing then was we needed to attempt to shoot the concussion missiles out of the air as they came into range. Easier said than done I know but they wanted us to train hard on these missions. We were expected to time our shots. Command expected us to be valiant and always be ready to jump in front of that missile. When they put this part in the sim that was one of the things that was expected; TIE fighters were the elite fighter pilots. But on the same token we had enough numbers that it was expected for us to suicide if we could not complete the mission any other way.
I would prefer to not die in that fashion. I might be a loyal member of the Empire, but I did not want to become one of the nameless dead fighter pilots. I much preferred to be a member of the living elite. Portside bow ranged screen was going to be intercepting the missiles first. They had already started putting down a suppressive layer of laser blasts.
They were able to destroy the group of missiles that came in. Behind them stern side ranged screen pulled up and opened fire. The pilots of the X-wings had moved full power to their forward shields. Lasers from the TIE fighters ate through the minimal shielding of the first few. They were dead before they knew what had happened. The rest quickly fired another volley at the cruiser before turning to engage the TIEs. Portside ranged where didn't have enough time to lay down the suppressive fire and any fire we laid out would have a good chance of hitting our squadron mates. We did what we were trained, our ties intercepted the missiles before they could damage our primary responsibility. What worried me the most was that I did it without even thanking? It was a natural reaction. IN combat I would be one of the unremembered tie fighters who no longer existed; just another number.
We were allowed small breaks between the Missions so I climbed out of my pod. My commanders were pleased at my having jumped in front of a missile. I would say they were as pleased as I was upset about it. By now my hang over was all but forgotten.
"Good Work you did exactly as you where trained, Lieutenant Lane," Cobb said smiling.
I couldn't come up with a valid reply so I saluted and yelled, "hoha." It was something I'd heard others use for everything from Yes sir, to kiss my rear thrusters I'm leaving. It leaves it up to the person being spoken to for interpretation. He was smiling still as I walked off.
I grabbed a bottle of enhanced water, or E-water for short, from the cooler. E-water, enhanced with every vitamin and mineral a good soldier needs to complete the mission. Because it was liquid, vitamins would quickly get where they were needed with little waste. I had been first vaped so it took a while for everyone else to get finished.
My sacrifice had put the Commander in a much better mood. Even the staff was pleased with me. Some complemented my reaction, some my flight skill to be able to have gotten in front of the missile; one even thanked me for my service to the Empire. Everyone naturally assumed that if I was willing to do it in sim, combat would have the same result.
Our break completed, the Commander ordered us all back into our pods.
The second attack consisted of 2 wings of A-Wings jumping well ahead of the Y-Wings they were supposed to be protecting. A-Wings were no match for us. They might have been faster than the X-Wing, but they traded that speed for weapons power. TIEs traded speed and weapons strength for shields. The shields on an A-Wing Couldn't sustain enough shots to save them from the faster, more maneuverable, and stronger Lasers of the TIE Interceptor. We had mopped up the A-Wings the before Y-Wings even got in range for a lock. I will give the Y's this they vaped more TIEs than the A's. In the end though no matter how you looked at it there was a reason why both sides of this war called the Y-wing the wallowing pig. They night have good shields but they were slow and had very limited fire power.
Again we got a break. I could see that the rest of the squadron was in better shape now than this morning. I think it was a combination of the e water from the cooler and being able to suck down some water from drinking tube. More than likely more than one of the pilots had tested the flushing capabilities of the flight suits waste flushing system. The second wave had lasted longer than was expected and our break was cut short.
Dismounting and climbing back into the pods a few times had given us a little more experience on the day and we were able to get back into our seats and get out of the hangar quicker this time than the previous two missions.
It didn't take long this time for the Rebel fleet to drop out of Hyperspace. I think they were pushing the sim a little faster because of time but it really wasn't a big issue with me. The faster we finished this, the quicker we got released for the day.
As soon as their fleet dropped out of hyperspace in front of us, alarms started going of signaling that the rear had been hit. I checked the readings on a panel and it showed a wing of A-wings and a wing of X-wings had dropped out of hyperspace behind the cruiser. Most likely they got pulled out prematurely. We knew we didn't need to assist them but we all watched our scopes keeping an eye on the dangers they were facing. We all knew we played a game called back seat Piloting by watching them like this but they had done the same as we were getting hit. A second group fell out on top of them colliding with a few ships. Some of the destroyed were alliance so we knew it was not a battle strategy.
They didn't have too much problems mopping up the remaining ships. Then came what I knew was originally meant to have been the final battle. A full squadron of X-Wings and A-Wings was bearing down on us. It almost looked as if they were racing to see which could kill us first. Generally X-Wings were the slower of the 2 but these appeared to be in top notch maintenance. They were holding their own in speed with the A-Wings.
I knew this was going to be a slaughter. Before long Dagger 10 was requesting assistance from all available fighters. Nothing we could have done would have protected us or the cruiser. X-wings fired their missiles as fast as they could get a cycle lock then joined the A wings in destroying our squadron. I think we might have vaped 4-5 of them, but then it was 24 of them Verses 6 of us until we got the remaining 4 from the aft of the ship. We just didn't have the numbers to hold our own against them.
We all stepped out of our pods, disappointed at the outcome. In the debriefing room the commander looked us over quietly.
Then he began to speak, "Men, that was not a failure. If the alliance decides to run our direction we will most likely die in that battle. Tomorrow make sure you have all diagnostics reran." He paused a moment, "Then write a letter home." with that he walked out of the room.
That afternoon I ran 3 sets of checks. I even had my TIE checked by the droids for everything from thrust inefficiency, all the way to stress lines in the hull. The next morning they where ran again.
We dropped out of hyperspace on Endor. In the distance I saw that the Empire was constructing a spacestation the size of an artificial moon. Later that day The rebel fleet fell on us. We TIE fighters faced our destony as good servants of the Empire.