The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Ten

Chapter Thirty: Phoenix Four

JANIRA BONTERI

The stars churned and spiraled around Janira in a myriad of long white and blue lines as she finished her last diagnostic check on her A-wing fighter. With what lay ahead, she had to be sure all her systems were one hundred percent operational.

It had been nearly a week since she, Lux, Ahsoka and Kaya Ti had returned from their mission to Aargonar. While she missed her sister-in-law and her brother already, at least she had Kaya Ti, who was representing her Master back on the Liberator while Ahsoka herself attended to matters elsewhere, to keep her company.

"All right. Everyone, check in," came the voice of Captain Hera Syndulla over the comm. Personally, Jani was surprised Hera was doing the mission. She had gotten back from her last mission – something to do with a princess on Lothal – mere hours before, but the woman was tireless. "Phoenix Leader, standing by."

"Phoenix One, standing by."

"Phoenix Two, standing by."

"Phoenix Three, standing by."

Janira finished turning the dial to recalibrate her shields and flipped the switch to open her comm channel. "Phoenix Four, standing by."

As the others reported in, Janira allowed her thoughts to drift back to the ever-shifting blue starlines. They were one of the reasons why she loved being in a ship. Although people said space was dead and cold, Jani had always found it thrummed with an almost mystical energy.

Some called it Saint Murphy; others called it the Force. But to Janira it was just one of the invariable facts of being a deep space pilot.

"Okay, everyone – you know the plan," Hera said. "Thanks to Fulcrum–" here Janira smiled, thinking of her sister-in-law, "–we know that Imperial forces are stopping to rendezvous with a fuel shipment to a nearby outpost. It won't be unguarded, but it's a risk we'll have to take. Prepare to exit hyperspace."

Janira nodded to herself. Without a base on the ground, fuel runs like these were getting more and more frequent – something had to keep the ships running.

Then the starlines compressed themselves back into individual points against a black backdrop and the battle began.

Janira's starfighter zipped and swerved easily around incoming enemy fire. Although it didn't fly quite the same as her old X-wing, it was nothing she couldn't handle, and before long, three TIE fighters had been blown to bits by her hands. She jerked back on the controls and sent the ship soaring up into a flip, and, as two more TIE fighters flew back underneath her, she smashed down on the gun controls and sent them both into oblivion.

Then, not bothering to call for backup or radio the others of her plan – Phoenix Squadron's jobs were just to draw out the TIE fighters and distract them so Hera and her crew could make a dash for the fuel without any real set guidelines, anyways – Janira hit the gas, sending the ship shooting towards the pair of troop carriers guarding the fuel frigate. She tipped one wing or the other and corkscrewed on herself to stay clear of incoming fire, but she never strayed from her forward trajectory.

"Phoenix Four, what are you doing? You'll never get close enough to–"

Janira smiled. "Oh, hush up and let me fly, Phoenix Five."

Sure enough, her brash charge had caught the attention of an incoming squadron of TIE fighters. Still she continued forward, and had reduced half of them to space dust before their squadron leader could even call for assistance.