[Star Wars: Fiction] "Rogue Leaders" [G]
Title: Rogue Leaders
Prompt: wraithsquadron Rogues & Wraiths Fic-A-Thon, for katanasundancer (prompts: last request, leaving fingerprints & “either the Force just really likes you, or even it doesn’t know what you’re going to do next”)
Word Count: 1,081
Rating: G
Fandom: Star Wars (Expanded Universe)
Pairing(s): implied Wedge Antilles/Iella Wessiri Antilles
Character(s): Wedge Antilles, Syal Antilles (& Tycho Celchu)
Summary: Wedge and Syal run into a bit of a snag on their training flight.
Rogue Leaders
“I’m really sorry about this, Dad,” said Syal.
Wedge bit back a hiss of pain as he stumbled over a loose rock and jarred his bad leg. “And how is this in any way your fault?”
She snorted and pulled his arm more firmly over her shoulders. “I asked you to come along on this little joy ride, remember?”
He did remember. Wedge hadn’t gotten to see his daughter as much as he’d like recently, even though both of them were living on the same planet again. Her new duties as the leader of Rogue Squadron kept her busy. And as proud as he was that she’d been given command of the squadron he’d helped form, he still missed regular dinners with his oldest daughter.
So, when Syal commed to ask if he wouldn’t mind coming along on a training exercise, he’d said ‘yes’ immediately. An excuse not just to spend time with Syal but to fly with her, too, was much too good to pass up. Iella had laughed and all but pushed him out the door, telling him not to come back until he’d grown up again.
And, really, if anyone was to blame for their current mess, it was him. He’d been a pilot in a warzone with scrounged equipment- he shouldn’t have let a little peace addle him so much he forgot to do complete pre-flight checks on his own fighter. But he had forgotten, and he’d been showing off, so he hadn’t noticed that anything was wrong until his X-Wing had entered the moon’s atmosphere. Something had broken off- something apparently important- and his fighter had dropped like a rock. Syal, of course, had followed, using her own X-Wing to nudge him toward the wide lake rather than the rocky plateau, so that when he punched out, he’d have an easier landing.
Except for the part where Wedge had twisted his ankle in the muddle shallows climbing out of the lake, and the fact that their too-rapid descent had damaged Syal’s fighter, too, leaving both X-Wings unspaceworthy without better tools… it had been a pretty good plan.
“Because I asked you to come, Dad,” said Syal, with every bit of self-appointed responsibility that Wedge remembered from his own days as Rogue Leader. “If it wasn’t for me, you’d be home safe with Mom, and-”
Wedge stopped abruptly, accidentally throwing himself off-balance. He would have fallen if Syal hadn’t tightened her grip- the straps of his flight harness dug in hard enough to bruise, but he hardly noticed.
“You don’t think I’m not fully capable of getting myself in trouble?” he demanded. “Didn’t you listen to any of Uncle Wes’s stories?”
“Yes, but…” Syal let out a snort of laughter. “It’s just… You’re Wedge Antilles, Hero of the New Republic. It’s hard to imagine you were ever a kid who only had dumb luck on his side.”
“And a bit of skill,” Wedge protested, but he was smiling. “Although, Luke did try and test me for the Force, once.”
“Really?” Syal asked. “But you’re not a Jedi. Wouldn’t you have known?”
“The Jedi were pretty much wiped out back then, kiddo. Luke had found this gizmo that read a person’s Force energy, or something like that. Didn’t even blip for me.”
“Huh,” said Syal. “And now that thing Jaina said makes much more sense.”
“What did Jaina say?”
“We were out doing advanced maneuver demonstrations-”
“You were showing off,” Wedge said, grinning, and she ignored him.
“-and one of my maneuvers took me just a little closer to the asteroid we were navigating, so I had to pull a clever trick with my thrusters, but… Jaina said, You’re just like your dad, Syal. Either the Force just really likes you, or even it doesn’t even know what you’re going to do next.”
Wedge laughed. “Sounds about right.”
“Yeah,” Syal agreed, as they reached the bit of solid dry land where she’d landed her X-Wing. “Okay, Dad, up you go.”
He snorted and leaned against a landing strut. “With this ankle.”
Syal scrambled up the port side S-foils to pop open her cockpit. “C’mon, Dad. My astromech’s plug-in port got damaged when we came down, so we’ll have to set up the emergency beacon manually if we want anyone to actually pick it up.”
“And you want me to climb up there?” Wedge asked, with a snort, and plopped down onto a soft-looking patch of vegetation, experimentally flexing his ankle. “I’ll just stay here.”
“Dad, this will be much easier with two of us.”
“No, no, I think my injury is far more severe than I first thought. Does this look gangrenous to you?”
“Dad, you’ve still got your boot on.”
“It feels gangrenous,” Wedge continued. “Syal, my darling, you’ll have to go on without me. Tell your mother that I love her. Tell your sister that she was always my favorite.”
“Dad…” protested Syal.
“And one more thing, a last request for your old man? Play a prank on your Uncle Wes. A good one, kid, I know you have it in you.”
“Dad,” laughed Syal, and hopped down from the S-foil. “Seriously, how much does it hurt?”
Wedge smiled. “I’ve had much worse, believe me. I’ll be okay. Give me a boost.”
With both of them working together, it was easy to boost the signal on the emergency beacon, but no sooner had Syal connected the last wire than a dark shape appeared in the sky. It quickly resolved into a Lambda-class shuttle, which landed in perfect formation beside Syal’s X-Wing.
“Hi, Uncle Tycho!” she called, to the shuttle’s pilot. “That was fast.”
Tycho clambered up the S-foils to join them. “I was already in orbit. Your training class made it back to base, and I headed right out. I knew you were in trouble when you hadn’t beaten them back.”
Wedge snorted. “You could have sent someone.”
“And miss all this fun?” Tycho asked, grinning. “How bad did you manage to hurt yourself, old man?”
“I’m nine months younger than you!” Wedge protested, as Syal said, “Dad twisted his ankle.”
“Then I won’t need a med-team standing by,” said Tycho. “I’ll take you both back on the shuttle. There’s a team coming to retrieve your X-Wings.”
Wedge chose to ignore that first part as he let Tycho and Syal haul him back out of the cockpit. “Just remind me to run all my own pre-flights next time.”
Syal grinned. “Sure thing, Dad.”
THE END
Current Mood:
mellow
Prompt: wraithsquadron Rogues & Wraiths Fic-A-Thon, for katanasundancer (prompts: last request, leaving fingerprints & “either the Force just really likes you, or even it doesn’t know what you’re going to do next”)
Word Count: 1,081
Rating: G
Fandom: Star Wars (Expanded Universe)
Pairing(s): implied Wedge Antilles/Iella Wessiri Antilles
Character(s): Wedge Antilles, Syal Antilles (& Tycho Celchu)
Summary: Wedge and Syal run into a bit of a snag on their training flight.
Rogue Leaders
“I’m really sorry about this, Dad,” said Syal.
Wedge bit back a hiss of pain as he stumbled over a loose rock and jarred his bad leg. “And how is this in any way your fault?”
She snorted and pulled his arm more firmly over her shoulders. “I asked you to come along on this little joy ride, remember?”
He did remember. Wedge hadn’t gotten to see his daughter as much as he’d like recently, even though both of them were living on the same planet again. Her new duties as the leader of Rogue Squadron kept her busy. And as proud as he was that she’d been given command of the squadron he’d helped form, he still missed regular dinners with his oldest daughter.
So, when Syal commed to ask if he wouldn’t mind coming along on a training exercise, he’d said ‘yes’ immediately. An excuse not just to spend time with Syal but to fly with her, too, was much too good to pass up. Iella had laughed and all but pushed him out the door, telling him not to come back until he’d grown up again.
And, really, if anyone was to blame for their current mess, it was him. He’d been a pilot in a warzone with scrounged equipment- he shouldn’t have let a little peace addle him so much he forgot to do complete pre-flight checks on his own fighter. But he had forgotten, and he’d been showing off, so he hadn’t noticed that anything was wrong until his X-Wing had entered the moon’s atmosphere. Something had broken off- something apparently important- and his fighter had dropped like a rock. Syal, of course, had followed, using her own X-Wing to nudge him toward the wide lake rather than the rocky plateau, so that when he punched out, he’d have an easier landing.
Except for the part where Wedge had twisted his ankle in the muddle shallows climbing out of the lake, and the fact that their too-rapid descent had damaged Syal’s fighter, too, leaving both X-Wings unspaceworthy without better tools… it had been a pretty good plan.
“Because I asked you to come, Dad,” said Syal, with every bit of self-appointed responsibility that Wedge remembered from his own days as Rogue Leader. “If it wasn’t for me, you’d be home safe with Mom, and-”
Wedge stopped abruptly, accidentally throwing himself off-balance. He would have fallen if Syal hadn’t tightened her grip- the straps of his flight harness dug in hard enough to bruise, but he hardly noticed.
“You don’t think I’m not fully capable of getting myself in trouble?” he demanded. “Didn’t you listen to any of Uncle Wes’s stories?”
“Yes, but…” Syal let out a snort of laughter. “It’s just… You’re Wedge Antilles, Hero of the New Republic. It’s hard to imagine you were ever a kid who only had dumb luck on his side.”
“And a bit of skill,” Wedge protested, but he was smiling. “Although, Luke did try and test me for the Force, once.”
“Really?” Syal asked. “But you’re not a Jedi. Wouldn’t you have known?”
“The Jedi were pretty much wiped out back then, kiddo. Luke had found this gizmo that read a person’s Force energy, or something like that. Didn’t even blip for me.”
“Huh,” said Syal. “And now that thing Jaina said makes much more sense.”
“What did Jaina say?”
“We were out doing advanced maneuver demonstrations-”
“You were showing off,” Wedge said, grinning, and she ignored him.
“-and one of my maneuvers took me just a little closer to the asteroid we were navigating, so I had to pull a clever trick with my thrusters, but… Jaina said, You’re just like your dad, Syal. Either the Force just really likes you, or even it doesn’t even know what you’re going to do next.”
Wedge laughed. “Sounds about right.”
“Yeah,” Syal agreed, as they reached the bit of solid dry land where she’d landed her X-Wing. “Okay, Dad, up you go.”
He snorted and leaned against a landing strut. “With this ankle.”
Syal scrambled up the port side S-foils to pop open her cockpit. “C’mon, Dad. My astromech’s plug-in port got damaged when we came down, so we’ll have to set up the emergency beacon manually if we want anyone to actually pick it up.”
“And you want me to climb up there?” Wedge asked, with a snort, and plopped down onto a soft-looking patch of vegetation, experimentally flexing his ankle. “I’ll just stay here.”
“Dad, this will be much easier with two of us.”
“No, no, I think my injury is far more severe than I first thought. Does this look gangrenous to you?”
“Dad, you’ve still got your boot on.”
“It feels gangrenous,” Wedge continued. “Syal, my darling, you’ll have to go on without me. Tell your mother that I love her. Tell your sister that she was always my favorite.”
“Dad…” protested Syal.
“And one more thing, a last request for your old man? Play a prank on your Uncle Wes. A good one, kid, I know you have it in you.”
“Dad,” laughed Syal, and hopped down from the S-foil. “Seriously, how much does it hurt?”
Wedge smiled. “I’ve had much worse, believe me. I’ll be okay. Give me a boost.”
With both of them working together, it was easy to boost the signal on the emergency beacon, but no sooner had Syal connected the last wire than a dark shape appeared in the sky. It quickly resolved into a Lambda-class shuttle, which landed in perfect formation beside Syal’s X-Wing.
“Hi, Uncle Tycho!” she called, to the shuttle’s pilot. “That was fast.”
Tycho clambered up the S-foils to join them. “I was already in orbit. Your training class made it back to base, and I headed right out. I knew you were in trouble when you hadn’t beaten them back.”
Wedge snorted. “You could have sent someone.”
“And miss all this fun?” Tycho asked, grinning. “How bad did you manage to hurt yourself, old man?”
“I’m nine months younger than you!” Wedge protested, as Syal said, “Dad twisted his ankle.”
“Then I won’t need a med-team standing by,” said Tycho. “I’ll take you both back on the shuttle. There’s a team coming to retrieve your X-Wings.”
Wedge chose to ignore that first part as he let Tycho and Syal haul him back out of the cockpit. “Just remind me to run all my own pre-flights next time.”
Syal grinned. “Sure thing, Dad.”
THE END
Current Mood:
mellow