Hotshot - A Star Wars Story

Epilogue

Several Months Later...

"Jaycob, you reading me?"

Poe asked over comms.

"Loud and clear."

Jaycob replied.

"Alright, now I know this means a lot to you. But when you get back, there's plenty of work to be done."

"Copy, I won't take long."

Jaycob terminated the transmission and disengaged his hyperspace engines. Fortunately, the new Resistance was generous enough to lend Jaycob a new RZ-2 A-Wing for his "personal trip". The destination was Pippip 3, to fulfill his promise to Tallie. As he entered the atmosphere he punched in Lintra Farm in his NavComputer planet points-of-interest. He followed the coordinates until he arrived at a small farm consisting of a small-ish two-story house, a barn, and a large field that lay barren with colorful flowers and crops. It made sense that the farm was in such bad condition, Tallie told him that she had left her father to tend to it when she left for the Resistance. Unfortunately, her father died while she was away and the farm was left unoccupied.

Jaycob landed his interceptor and hopped onto the dirt. The air smelled of flowers and rain, probably from the storm clouds above, which were still sprinkling droplets onto Jaycob's head. He approached the house first, inspecting how his late-wife spent her childhood. The front door was cracked open already and inside was the kitchen floor littered with leaves. Pots and pans lay rusting on their racks and the various electronic appliances were eroded. Jaycob tread carefully through the Lintra household until he reached a door with a paper sign taped to it saying, Tallie's Room, Knock first! Jaycob snickered at the sight of this and ran his fingers from the sign to the doorknob, twisting ever so slightly.

The first thing that stuck out from the room, was a tall Resistance propaganda poster plastered to her wall, a nameless pilot looking up into the skies while X-Wings flew overhead. Next to it, was a walk-in closet that housed a variety of pants and shirts and shoes, all of which have collected a great amount of dust over time. On her bed lay a notebook with a pen holstered in the spiral. Jaycob investigated this too and flipped through some of the pages, revealing miscellaneous sketches and notes. But what really stood out to him was a surprisingly-detailed drawing of an A-Wing, flying through what looked like some type of field, and into the sunset. It looked like paradise. It also reminded him to take a look at the converted crop-dusting A-Wing that Tallie frequently practiced with. So, he stepped out of the house and toward the barn, keeping the notebook with him.

Opening the main gates, inside the barn was a beat-up RZ-1 A-Wing tucked underneath a tarp sheet. Jaycob pulled off the cover and patted the former-interceptor's hull. Everything about the starfighter was the same, except that the laser cannons were stripped from the body. The A-Wing, like many of Tallie's other belongings, was covered in grime and dust. But inside the cockpit, Jaycob spotted something ever so valuable to him. A physical picture of Tallie in her Resistance recruitment fatigues, smiling back at him. The backside of the photo was marked with handwriting, assumed to be her fathers, which read, 31 ABY/My little comet. Jaycob smiled affectionately at both the note and the picture. This was definitely going with him. Unstrapping his wrist-mounted computer, he slid the picture on the cover flap so he would see it every time he opened the device.

The last stop was the field. Seemingly the most beautiful part of the tour, Jaycob looked forward to this the most. Walking past the plant life, Jaycob took off his gloves and ran his bare hands through the crops and flowers, a practice that Tallie did often when she was smaller.