BOOK 1- Rebel spaceships striking from a hidden base have won their first victories against the evil Galactic Empire. The Empire's military might is far from defeated however and it will take all the skill of the Rebellion's newly-minted X-Wing figh...
Commander Jake Farrell was the most difficult instructor I ever had. He'd been hardened by his experiences; first in the ruthless battles of the Clone Wars, then by what he'd seen the Empire do. He'd joined up with the Alliance first chance he got. Despite his gruffness, he cared about the pilots under his command. In his mind, he knew exactly what needed to be done for a pilot to survive the enemy and he wanted us to know it verbatim. Key word there: survive, not win. In those early days, only the naïve rookies like me dared to dream that we'd actually beat the Empire...
-Kaedan Macleod
A beat up Z-95-AF4 Headhunter rocketed towards the the asteroid field that ringed the planet Kolaador. Millions of years ago it could have ended up as Kolaador's moon, but it hadn't quite made it, leaving just a ring of rocks, dust, congealed metals and ice chunks. It also made for an excellent space obstacle course.
In his Z-95, Kaedan glanced nervously at the controls. There was a persistent rumble from the rear of the starfighter and it was bothering him. These old Headhunters might just fall apart at any moment, he thought, and it was preventing him from keeping his mind on the upcoming course.
A tone from his sensors caused Kaedan to look up at a glimmer of light that was arcing towards him from the direction of the asteroids. Gradually it resolved into another Headhunter, one which seemed to be newer or at least with a cleaner paint job.
"Rookie One, this is Commander Farrell, report in!" snapped a gruff voice.
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"Rookie One, standing by," replied Aidan smartly.
"Good. Get into formation with me. We'll be running through your space navigation course and then going through the asteroid field course. But let's get one thing straight right now: I don't like hotshots. You want to impress me? Show me control and discipline. Without those, you'll never stand a chance against the Empire. Do I make myself clear?"
"Uh, yessir!" replied Aidan.
Farrell then proceeded to run him through the space navigation course, which involved basic spaceflight and orbital mechanics and sublight gravity well navigation, like a drill sergeant from basic training. Kaedan ruefully reflected that Commander Farrell hadn't gotten any more lenient. Then it was time for the asteroids.
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"Be careful in here. Unlike Widow's Canyon, the obstacles here are moving. Always dodge the rocky ones but feel free to shoot ice asteroids out of your way," ordered Farrell. And with that, the rookie pilot dove into the twisting shifting maze of tumbling chunks as Farrell flew over the field's plane to observe him.
Kaedan found himself sweating slightly and gripping his controls more tightly. The Z-95 Headhunter's shields would be able to protect him from moderate impacts with asteroids, but if he screwed up badly enough he could end up becoming orbiting debris himself!
His finger twitched on the trigger as some dirty white ice asteroids tumbled towards him. The twin laser cannons on each wing tip spat out hot red light and the ice chunks burst into a thousand million tiny shards that hissed against his shields.
"Hah, I got some!" he crowed.
"Good for you, kid, don't get cocky," replied Commander Farrell.
Kaedan grumbled to himself but supposed that the Commander was right that it wasn't too much to boast about.
A moment later Kaedan dived and rolled around a cluster of asteroids, blew two more ice asteroids out of the way and he was out. To his slight dismay, one small asteroid impacted his shields, shattering into rocky shrapnel and reducing his forward arc right into the red.
"There you are. I was beginning to think that I'd lost you," Commander Farrell said, slightly sarcastically.
Kaedan was about to snap back a retort when he remembered that he'd be talking back to a superior officer.
"Now that you've completed this stage of the exercises, proceed back to Kolaador and The Gauntlet for the final leg. Good luck."
"Um, how did I do on this part of the test, sir?" asked Kaedan uncertainly. That final asteroid smacking into him just when he'd gotten out of the field still had him rattled.
"You'll find out at the debriefing, Rookie One," replied Farrell with what Kaedan could have sworn was a very grim tone to his voice. Maybe that was just because he was being the consummate hard-nosed instructor? Right?
A/N: In this revised chapter I have Rookie One flying a Z-95 instead of an A-Wing. I hold to the idea that A-Wings wouldn't have been available to the Alliance until after Yavin. It seems like it would fill the role of interceptor well enough until the RZ-1 came along, seeing as how the Headhunter is also armed with concussion missiles. Plus I like the idea of lesser-known/older starfighters getting some love.
Also, 'Don't get cocky,' one of the signature maxims of Star Wars along with stuff like 'Here's where the fun begins' and 'I've got a bad feeling about this...'
