“Is everyone ready to go?” Petty Officer Echelon asked.

He was turned in his chair, looking back to his passengers, aboard a Lamda class Shuttle. It was the standard shuttle of the day. Three wings. Decent hyperdrive. Plenty of space. Behind him were several officers, all of which were high ranked, who quietly sat themselves down in the provided chair.

“I believe so, Petty Officer,” one of them said in a dull tone, emphasizing on the word “petty”.

Echelon’s natural grin faded away. “Alright then. I’ll take us down.” Turning back around, he buckled up and wriggled around to get himself comfortable.

Flipping a switch, he turned on the comsystem and turned a dial to select the Space Traffic Control frequency.

“Steelium Shuttle Alpha-5 to Atrus bridge,” he plainly spoke into the microphone.

After a bit of static a voice replied, “Atrus bridge to Steelium Shuttle Alpha-5. Request?”

“Requesting takeoff clearance from Hangar 5h.”

“Clearance granted, Steelium Shuttle Alpha-5. Confirmation?”

“Confirmed Atrus bridge. Beginning my approach. Over and out.” The radio transmition ended, and he started up the ship’s engines. Two SFS-204 ion engines. Slow in acceleration, but steady and powerful none the less.

He pushed in the throttle slighty and pulled back the yoke a tad to raise the ship. The ship slowly moved out of the dockingbay. Once outside the hangar, and under the ship, he pushed the throttle in more. The ship reacted slowly at first but it moved forward.

He was doing all of this for the officers in the back. The Atrus was above Tadath and earlier, the officer had come up from the planet to conference with Admiral Stormz. Echelon’s task was to bring them back down. Unharmed. Bringing them down would be easy. Just get within the planets gravity field and let physics do all the rest. But he couldn’t imagine being praised for killing several high ranking officers.

Out the viewport, the green prosperous planet of Tadath loomed ahead. Echelon engaged the throttle a little bit more and the ship (slowly) accelerated. He checked his displays, and noticed that there were several dots comings towards his on the map. Quickly, he scanned them, and suddenly, a blast flew right by his viewport, almost hitting the craft.

A-Wings! Pirates? Rebels? There were only three of them? Coming into one of the most fortified Imperial systems was a death sentence...unless it meant killing the officers on board!

“Men! We’re going to have company!” he yelled back to the officers. He fumbled with the radio and hastely tapped into one of the Atrus’s frequencies.

“Atrus bridge! This is Steelium Shuttle Alpha-5! We’re being attacked by 3 A-Wings. Probably Rebel! I need a squad of TIEs over here fast!” he yelled into the microphone.

“Atrus bridge to Steelium shuttle, the closest TIE squad is on the other side of the planet. You’ll have to hold on for a little bit before they arrive.”

Damn it! Let’s hope my TIE flying skills come back to me!

The Lambda shuttles did have some armament. Several laser cannons were mounted in various locations, but Echelon did have to admit, flying and shooting at the same time could be hard. He checked his NaviComputer (also doubled as a map), and saw the craft closing in.

He quickly pushed in on the yoke, and the Shuttle dropped, just barely dodging the blaster bolts coming in its direction. The A-Wings regrouped, and came in for another attack run.

The A-Wings were right behind the shuttle now. Echelon turned, and pulled, but he couldn’t shake them. Suddenly, the cabin shook violently as a well targetted blasterbolt smashed into one of the wings.

“I don’t know if we can withstand another blast of that magnitude!” he called out, fear in every syllable.

The A-Wings are fast...I’ll have to test their deceleration!

He quickly dropped the throttle completely and the shuttle began to slow down. However, the A-Wings sped right past it, and they were now in range of Echelon’s limited arsenal.

“Taste a little of this, rebel scum!”

Pressing the infamous red trigger, several red colored bolts shot forward and slammed directly into the back of an A-Wing. The ship hung there for a moment, but then exploded into a multicolored array of fire.

Suddenly a voice sounded over the radio “,Nice hit, Steelium shuttle. We’ll take it from here.”

Gazing at the NaviComputer, he saw several dots heading toward his direction, and the fear was instantly relieved from his body.

The TIE squadron!

“Thank the Universe you’re here! I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to hold them off!” he joyfully spouted into his headset.

“Yep. You can thank us later. Just continue on your way.”

Echelon engaged the throttle now 75% and the ship sped back on course. After a few moments of peaceful silence, and relief, they began to enter the atmosphere of the planet.

He pressed a button, transfering energy to the repulsorlifts, and continued downward. He checked his NaviComputer, just to make sure he was going the right way, and to his pleasure he was.

Tapping into the planetary defense frequency he said into the mic, “Steelium Shuttle Alpha-5, approaching shields. Requesting clearance into the atmosphere.”

“Do you have a confirmation code?” said the reply at the other end.

“Yes. Transmitting it now.”

After a short pause, the man replied, “Confirmed. Raising shields in your sector.”

After passing through the shields, Echelon lowered the throttle. They were beginning to approach the landing site, and he didn’t want to have to decellerate to fast, in front of the officials at the bottom. It would make him look incompetent. Which he hoped he really wasn’t.

After confirming his landing with the base operator he slowed his decent completely and hovered above the landing pad. Then he slowly lowered the vessel, and opened the landing gear. The ship sat softly on the pad, and he felt relief.

“Alright gentlemen, I’ll open the ramp and you’ll be on your way,” he said happily.

The men were pale from the unexpected danger they faced a brief moment ago, but one came up to Echelon and said, “Thank you sir, for keeping us safe during that...moment. You have my gratitude.” Echelon smiled and nodded.

He had done well today. Pretty well...

OOC:

Word Count:1,065. For my shuttle piloting skill. I hope it is good.