STAR WARS: Flight of Phoenix

Chapter 2

The TIE Fighter rolled to a side, avoiding the flurry of bolts.

Its green lasers sparkled when returning fire, and Skaan had to lower the toe of the A-wing to not get hit; he maintained the route, seeing enemy shots following his trail.

He knew that the TIE Pilot would have queued him as soon as possible. For this reason he pushed the cloche at the limit, whizzing far away from Gozanti-class and Phoenix 2 with his targets. Some green bolts brushed the left reactor, obliging Skaan to use a countermeasure to not change route.

His plan was to make the starfighter follow him at high speed; then he would have slowed all at once, causing the enemy to surpass him and to end up in his fire.

Everything went by the book: when the TIE Fighter saw Phoenix 1 stopping, it couldn't reduce the speed in few time and slipped past the A-wing. With a great satisfaction, Teri pushed the triggers and the enemy ship exploded in a fireball.

"One down" he claimed in private channel.

"Same here" Phoenix 2 replied.

Skaan looked at tactical map and saw the second TIE near him; he had to regain speed soon, just while the fighter was starting to shoot. He managed to remain unharmed, although he was wearing for the risk he took.

"Focus on battle" he told himself in a whisper.

He performed a loop the loop and in a while he was in front of his enemy. Cannons of both starships fired, and a green and red light show took place between them. On the virtual representation of the A-wing some orange areas appeared: the shield were loosing power. The TIE Fighter had lost a bit of integrity too; its lack of shielding was surely a disadvantage.

Imperial pilots were cannon fodder: inside tight hulls, with only few centimeters of metal between them and the space, defended only by a pair of laser cannons, they risked to die just when hit a first time. It wasn't surprising that mortality rate among them was extremely high, and just due to the choice of using low resistant ships rebel squadrons could achieve easy wins.

The TIE changed direction abruptly, and Phoenix 1 suspected that he had stricken an important starship part. However, this happening gave respite to the A-wing, that could recharge the shields while adjusting route to follow the Imperial fighter.

TIE representation entered in the virtual sight. Teri felt the adrenalin giving him energy and with a liberating scream he shot down the twin ion engines. Not even a fighter was flying in the tactical map. Imperial cruiser had lost his support.

Just in that moment a show appeared at his eyes: the Phoenix Home reached the right point to open fire and, with a sparkle of red lights, started shooting. All the turrets were firing at the same time, creating a lethal barrage that only a Star Destroyer could escape; but there was none.

Imperial starship responded within its limits, due to distraction of Phoenix 3 and 4. Those pilots were doing their work well, without being hit and without leaving the gunners a second to breath. Fires flowed out of the hull accompanied by explosions, lighting Skaan's eyes. He felt like a kid, when he watched the greatest battles of the Clone Wars on HoloNet. At that time, he was too young to understand the brutality of war; and still now that the war was being fought by him, his mind couldn't catch all the evil of it.

To continue fighting the Empire, he necessarily had to see it as a game. A flying simulator in which if you die, you get another chance. But in the darkest moments, he was aware that there was no more lives, that a shot to the cockpit meant death.

"All right, Phoenix 1?"

The question of Phoenix 2 remained unanswered for few time; then Teri roused himself from melancholic thoughts and spoke: "All fine mate".

"The ship is on?"

"Yeah, it is". Only then he noticed he was traveling at very low speed. Pushing the cloche he reached again maximum acceleration, reducing the distance from Phoenix 2.

"I was going slow just to recharge shields faster" he told as excuse, and on the other side his companion remained silent. Did he believe it? Phoenix 1 couldn't know it.

Meanwhile Gozanti-class was becoming a whole impetuous flame, from which the freighter released itself just before being burnt. Then the cruiser exploded, causing screams of satisfaction in the general channel.

"Also this battle has ended" Commander Sato said.

Teri Skaan smiled proud of teamwork done by Phoenix cell and pointed back to Phoenix Home.