The Lone Fighter

DK-368's black figure filled the doorway. He had just finished suiting up in a bulky and uncomfortable TIE suit. As he walked down the stainless steel corridor of the Death Star, he pulled his black gloves over his hands, and flexed his fingers.

He arrived in the main hanger bay. He heaved a sigh. As often as he had come to this hanger, he never tired of the view: engineers and pilots scurrying in a seemingly random path, the beautiful TIEs nestled in their racks, and even the occasional mouse droid that squeaked as it rolled by.

But the greatest view of all was that of space. As he gazed out of the huge docking bay entrance, he could see the twinkling of millions of white stars. He fancied he could even pick out a constellation or two, even though they should be vastly different here than on his homeworld of Naboo.

As he maneuvered his way along the catwalk to his fighter, he gave a brief "Hello" to some of his wingmates. This was to be his first solo mission. It was easy enough- simply go to a few patrol points, and make his way back to the Death Star. He had no idea what he was supposed to be looking for, but High Command had stated he was searching for "suspicious activity." He got to his fighter, and paused to operate the controls for opening the hatch.

After the hatch had been opened, DK-368 climbed down a small ladder into his TIE's cockpit. He adjusted the control yoke to a more comfortable position, and fastened his harnesses. There was always the uncomfortable bit of fumbling with the buckles in his gloved hands.  Still, he was grateful for all of the safety features his fighter was accompanied with. He fastened the last harness and activated his fighter. He could feel the pressure welling up in the cabin, yet another defense against jostling.

With a grim look of determination, he declared to the control booth his designation code and fighter serial number. Once he had the go ahead, he carefully maneuvered his fighter off of the rack, and slowly crossed the containment field. Once free of the hanger, he gunned his engines to maximum speed and headed for the coordinates of his fist stop.

Upon arrival, he glanced around. He could see nothing but deep space. He mentally shrugged, and headed to another point. At the second point, he again drew a blank.

DK-386 checked his navicomputer. According to the readout, the next point was nearly fifteen minutes away. He gave a mental shrug and accelerated towards the point.

Now here was something interesting. He was unable to approach the exact point, because he would have ended up in the middle of a huge area which appeared to be filled with asteroids and small rocks. He quickly realized that this must be the planet his space station destroyed- Alderaan, was it?

He lingered a few minutes, watching the devastation from a safe distance. Due to his lack of shielding, one small rock could easily kill him. He gave another mental shrug, and punched in the coordinates for the Death Star into his navicomputer.

He gazed around him one last time, and saw a tiny streak of light heading into the middle of the destroyed planet. He paused to wonder what it was, but soon forgot it as he navigated his way back to the Death Star.

He cast a careless glance behind him, and was shocked to see a ship. It was an extremely old looking Corellian YT-2000 transport. He attempted to contact his base, and finally an operator crackled over the line. He reported the ship, and was ordered that he come immediately back to base- if the shipped followed, it would be dealt with.

Minutes later, he felt a wash of relief come over him as the tractor beam gently guided him into the docking bay, and as he navigated himself into his rack. He deactivated his ship, unbuckled the harness, and proceeded to climb out of the cockpit and onto the catwalk. He gazed down and saw the old freighter land on the hanger floor.

He smiled inside his helmet. He had gone on a solo mission, and come back alive. He felt he had accomplished much during that patrol, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it....

((MANY thanks to Shazam! I'm not good at ships and such.))

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Our Number Is Legion, Our Name Is Death!

LK-486/3SQD/1PLT/1COMP/BAT/1RGT/TADATH/VEA/VE