"Talon Adventures" by Cooper Brain

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Date: 50:1 (15 years after the Battle of Yavin)

Cooper heard a voice, "Help me, Cooper, help me," but no matter where he looked he couldn't find where the voice was coming from. He called out, "Where are you?" and in response only got more cries for help. The voice was uniquely feminine. Cooper could feel the fear of the voice down into his soul. Cooper only wanted to find the voice, to help it. Cooper thought he saw something in the darkness, a hint of light. Cooper walked toward it hoping it would be able to help him.

As Cooper approached the light he saw something, a shape he couldn't recognize from far away. As he got closer the shape took on a human appearance, and it began to scream, "Cooper, you must help me please! I don't want to die, please help me!"

Cooper ran towards the body as fast as he could. Then the light shone and he recognized the face. Cooper mumbled to himself, "Lieutenant Kivac." He reached for her and got hold of her arm and tried to pull her from the depths of darkness that surrounded her, but the more he pulled the more the darkness pulled.

The tug of war continued as Cooper refused to give up, Cooper pulled until he was too tired to move. He still did not give in. When all of his strength had left him Cooper saw death. It came up out of the darkness and enveloped him. He felt cold all over. His body began to tingle—it started at his toes and fingertips and moved, slowly, all over until he felt completely numb. Then death grabbed hold of Lieutenant Kristina Kivac and swept her away towards the darkness.

Cooper couldn't do anything to help.


Part One

Cooper's eyes slowly opened and were filled by complete darkness. Darkness so dark it made one's soul feel like it was made out of empty space. Made one's pores flood with darkness. Cooper was sweating. He had been troubled by the death of Lieutenant Kivac and he felt somehow responsible. That was the eighth straight night Cooper had some type of nightmare involving death and Lieutenant Kivac.

Cooper let his eyes adjust to the darkness, for he dared not turn on the lights. Slowly the images of the items in his quarters returned to his sight. He could barely make out the outline of his wife, or at least his picture of her, as that's all he has of her right now. He thought of her on Earth going about her daily chores and every night looking up to the sky and thinking about him.

After the few seconds it took for his eyes to adjust, Cooper prepared himself for the onrush of blinding light that was about to be unleashed on his eyes. He shut his eyes tight and blindly reached for the light switch, knocking over his day old coffee in the process.

Cooper silently began to get ready for his day. He showered, dressed, brushed his teeth and hair and looked at himself in the mirror. He judged whether or not his uniform was perfect, buttons polished, seams aligned etc. He passed his own visual inspection and left his quarters headed for the commissary.

Cooper walked towards the lift. There were a lot of military personnel about the ship, some just getting off-duty having been relieved and others just getting on duty. Cooper was scheduled to be on duty in about thirty-five minutes, but before he got on duty, he wanted some breakfast.

The lift was empty when Cooper got onboard, which was a rarity nowadays, and he entered his destination into the control panel on the wall. With a hiss the doors closed and Cooper was on his way to breakfast. The brief ride in the lift gave Cooper time to think about his day ahead. He had an inspection and scheduled maintenance on his E-wing fighter, standard maintenance on his droid Vlad, followed by a meeting with the rest of the fighter squadrons before a combat simulation drill. Cooper also planned to meet with his own squadron leader Piquo Starr before the meeting. Then, after all the meetings, Talon Squadron was scheduled for a long-range escort of three transport ships from an outpost in the Glareth system. Today was shaping up to be a very busy day.
Cooper entered the commissary, which he had dubbed the "Junkyard". He had given it this name for a couple of reasons. One was that he was from Earth and most of the food was alien to him. Things he had never even heard of and probably didn't want to know what they were made of. Second, being that this was a military "restaurant", Cooper had doubts that this alien food was even good quality alien food. Thus the Junkyard was born.

Cooper had an "appears to be sausage but probably isn't from an animal I have heard of" sandwich and some eggs probably not from a chicken. Cooper had learned to not ask what he was eating. It was better to not know. As he sat down to eat he saw Piquo in line. Cooper called out for Piquo to join him and Piquo came over.

"Busy schedule for today," Piquo stated in a very casual manner.

"You bet, but it'll be nice to get out in the wide open spaces of space, it's been at least two weeks since something bad has happened," replied Cooper.

"Yeah I know, something is bound to happen soon, we don't usually get more than a week or two to relax," Piquo said. "Well I never get to relax, but you know what I meant."

"Yes, sir, I know how you feel. I swear that paper work will be the end of us. One day they will find our bodies, swollen and stiff from death buried under a pile or maintenance reports and sim charts," Cooper answered.

Cooper and Piquo talked for a while, and once both of their trays were empty, they both left to attend to different duties before the meetings that were planned. Cooper headed off towards the hangar and Piquo, it seemed, was heading toward the bridge of the ship. More then likely he had another meeting to attend.


Part Two

The maintenance and inspection of Cooper's E-wing hadn't taken very long, an hour to an hour and a half at the most. It was in tip-top shape just as Cooper had expected. All he had the maintenance worker do was replace the starboard power coupling, which was an easy repair. Vlad, Cooper's droid, also was in tip-top shape. He was still feisty as ever. With that boring stuff over and more boring stuff on the way, Cooper went to the simulation room and got ready for the mission briefing.

Usually the fighter squadrons briefed before a drill in the same place as they would for real action, but for some reason there were maintenance crews all over the room looking for some malfunctioning computer interfaces. As a result, the pilots of Talon, Wraith and Nova Squadrons were briefing in the sim room.

As Cooper entered the room he recognized all of the faces. There was Andy, who had joined up about the same time Cooper had. They had immediately hit it off and were instant friends. For a while they were both in Wraith Squadron, and even though Cooper had been reassigned to Talon Squadron a few months earlier they were still good friends. Cooper pulled up a chair next to Andy's.

"Hey, laser brain, how's it going?" Cooper asked.

Andy replied with, "Watch it, pilot. You do know I outrank you?"

"Well of course I know, I remember all your promotions, because they remind me that even an intelligent military organization like the one we are a part of can make mistakes," Cooper bantered.

Andy quipped, "Well those mistakes must come in twos, you overgrown piece of bantha fodder."

The three squadron leaders on the platform interrupted Cooper and Andy's wordplay.

"Ladies and gentlemen, today we have a fine piece of simulated combat for you. A new one thought up by our own Sergeant Brain. We have a Goa'uld mother ship with six squads of fighters. They are attacking Farpoint station. The catch is that the fighters they are equipped with are X-wings, E-wings A-wings and some TIE Interceptor and Bomber squadrons. Our ships are not better; theirs are not better. Everything is exactly equal except that they have numbers on us. That's it—their attack was a surprise attack so we won't tell you anything else. Talon Squadron, you are on patrol when the attack happens, the rest of you just launched. Good luck, folks, it should be fun."

* * * * *

Ten minutes later Cooper and the rest of his squadmates were in simulated space. "Ah, yes, I love the smell of napalm in the morning," Cooper said jokingly

"What's napalm?" came the response from most of the squadron, which caused Cooper to groan. He kept forgetting that he was a rarity, a Tau'ri from Earth. Not lots of those in Rogue Squadron.

"Talon One to group, concentrate your firepower on the cruisers let's try the Tandino-Harbonne manoeuvre," came the call from the squadron leader.

"What's that?" asked most of Talon Squadron.

"You mean you don't know?" came the reply from Piquo. "Okay, fine. Talons Two to Four, swing left and try to get that flight of TIEs to follow you. Talons Five through Nine, go down the middle and attack their cruiser. The rest of you go right and try to do as much damage as you can. Let's see if we can clear the way for the bombers to take out that cruiser."

"Aye, sir," came the reply. The squad split off and the attack began.

Cooper's first attack run netted him a destroyed X-wing and two TIEs. By the time his second attack run had begun the fighters had already taken a large hit numbers. Talon Squadron had lost three members—Two, Eight and Twelve. Twelve had been destroyed by friendly fire by a new member of Wraith Squadron.

Cooper could see the problem. The enemy was jamming the friend or foe system. The only way to tell the difference between them and the enemy was the markings on the ships themselves. But to see them you had to get close. Very close. So close that you could see them die when you blasted them into space debris. Even though they were simulated it still made someone uneasy. Death is not a pretty sight.

After a while Rogue Squadron triumphed, as they always did. The stats for the battle sim weren't too bad—twelve damaged fighters, with all but two being able to eject. What the simulation had taught them was to beware of what they were firing at. Overall, it was informative.

Cooper was glad that the sim hadn't lasted to long, his squadron was scheduled for a long-range escort and he didn't want to get cockpit weary to soon. The E-wing was a nice fighter but twelve hours of flying it would wear anyone down. Of course, there was nothing expected to happen. The escort was an easy job that was more tedious than anything else. But Cooper knew better then to take any chances. After all, this was the most active military group he had ever been a part of.

There was still about two hours until Talon was scheduled for the escort. Cooper had some time to kill so he decided to get back to his quarters and finish the book he was reading. On his way back to his room he decided to stop and see if there were any messages or mail for him.

Cooper had been married for almost two years. He had recently been back home for two weeks for leave and had quite enjoyed his time. The bad thing about being in Rogue Squadron was that he couldn't tell anyone from home what he did. As far as they all knew he worked as a test pilot at an Air Force base in Colorado. The only way anyone from Earth had of getting in contact with him was to send a letter to the SGC. From there it would be forwarded to him at Farpoint, and from there it got to his hands, eventually. There were times that he didn't get a letter until a month after it had been written, so to see a letter from his wife was something special.

Cooper had been lucky today as he received a letter from his wife. Cooper could hardly wait to read it and rushed to his room at a heightened pace. Once he got there he opened the envelope carefully—his wife had been known to put confetti in letters. Upon opening the letter and safely depositing the confetti in a dish he opened and began to read the letter.

My Dearest Cooper:

My dear, it has been so long since I saw you. I miss you so much. I look forward to your return home. I hope this letter finds you well and that it is not too delayed because I have some very important news. I am pregnant. I just found out this morning. I went to see my Doctor because I was sick. To think I thought I had pneumonia! Isn't this wonderful? We will finally be able to start our family. I am very excited. The doctor told me that I am twelve weeks in. Too early to tell the sex of the baby although I hope it's a boy. Which means that it is probably a girl. But that is okay, because whatever it is it will be ours. It will be adorable and it will be spoiled rotten. But that is okay. I can't wait until I see you again.

With all my heart,
Brenna


Cooper was ecstatic. This was the best news that he could have received. He had to tell everyone. The first person he saw was a nameless crewman, who looked scared and confused at the yelling Cooper and only smiled and walked away briskly after a breathless congratulation.

Cooper went to fighter ops. The Junkyard was full when Cooper shouted at the top of his lungs the good news. At the end of half hour long tirade through the ship Cooper had been congratulated by at least five hundred people. All wishing him the best. With his heart fluttering from beat to beat and Cooper himself on cloud nine, he decided to try to catch a quick nap before the mission.


Part Three

Cooper hadn't been able to sleep. He was so excited he couldn't help himself. All kinds of thoughts were racing through his head. He was thinking of boys' names, girls' names and everything else. Since his naptime had failed, he went to the Junkyard and grabbed a bite to eat before the mission briefing. This time he had what appeared to be a hamburger patty. Cooper was shocked, however, when his hamburger patty actually tasted like chicken. Then he followed that up with some type of purple-green-red mixed fruit that tasted very sweet. It was actually quite good.

After chow Cooper went to the briefing room. Whatever repairs had been going on earlier in the day seemed to be finished. Cooper walked in and Piquo approached him. "So I hear congratulations are in order."

"Yes sir, they are," Cooper answered.

"Well congratulations then," came Piquo's reply.

"Thank you, sir," Cooper said as he sat down. The briefing was about to begin.

Piquo started. "We are scheduled to transport three Lambda-class shuttles from the Glareth system to Farpoint. The reason for the escort is that the flight path planned takes the shuttles close to some hostile space. The shuttles will be carrying medical supplies and other items that might be of interest to pirates, raiders or the like. We…" Piquo was interrupted by a comm signal for him. He excused himself to take the call—meaning that it was probably from someone important. A few minutes later he returned. "Lieutenant Hysan will be lead for the escort, I have been called to a meeting with Admiral Fel."

"Aye, sir, you can trust me," Hysan responded.

"That's all folks, just a nice easy little escort. Shouldn't be a big problem, just beware of fatigue and try to relax. It is long range after all." With that Piquo left, presumably to attend the meeting with Admiral Fel.

"Alright people, saddle up and let's get a move on it. We launch in fifteen minutes," Hysan ordered. "Time is wasting away."

Lieutenant Hysan was still a mystery to Cooper, he was newly assigned to the squad and most people didn't know his first name. He seemed to be a good leader, if a little reserved at times. Cooper felt confident in his abilities though.

As Cooper walked to the flight deck he couldn't get the thought of his pregnant wife at home out of his head. He could just imagine her with her belly protruding and her looking radiant. He hadn't seen her in two months and he thought he would have to ask for some time off in the next few weeks.

A few minutes later Cooper was in his E-wing doing the pre-flight check. So far everything had checked out. Of course, that was normally the case—Rogue Squadron was very efficient like that. After checking out the last group of systems Cooper strapped in and prepared to launch.

"Talon Seven to fighter command, requesting permission to launch."

"Talon Seven, you are clear to launch. May the Force be with you."

Cooper replied, "Thank you, command," and headed out of the hangar bay to the dark void outside of the ship.

Cooper loved space. As a child he had dreamed of being an astronaut. Looking down on the Earth from orbit or even setting foot on Mars or another alien body. Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined doing what he did now. He was in space all the time. He had looked down on hundreds of planets from orbit and set foot on most of them. He had seen countless alien creatures and had even been friends with them. He had also been forced to kill some, and had them try to kill him. The dream was real for Cooper every time he launched.

This time was no different. He launched from the hangar of Hunter into the darkness of space and smiled. After waiting for the rest of the squadron to launch, Hysan called them to order. "Talon Squadron, prepare to make the jump for Glareth system. We should be there in four hours. Everyone take it easy and try to relax. On my order jump to hyperspeed… jump!"

At the Lieutenant's order, ten ships jumped to hyperspeed, aiming for the Glareth system.

Talon Squadron was a little short on numbers. Ordinarily they would be twelve ships strong but today they only had ten. Piquo had dropped at the last minute to attend his meeting and Lieutenant Kivac was out of action. That left ten. For a mission like this they probably wouldn't need the extra two ships, but Cooper had to be aware of everything in case something happened.

The flight in hyperspace is a strange feeling. At least for Cooper. Nearly everyone around him had been doing this their entire lives. For Cooper it had been something he had first done only recently.

Although he was travelling faster, the flight was actually a lot better. The technology allowed for inertia to be displaced so there were no g forces or your weight being pushed back against you. Although the flight was easier on the body it was still a challenge for the mind. In hyperspace there is no sensor telemetry, no communications, nothing until you revert back to real space—which always left Cooper with a slight uneasy feeling. Not knowing what you are heading into or what is going on is very hard to deal with when you are in the military.

Cooper kept his mind occupied with thoughts of this nature for awhile. He let his astromech droid Vlad handle the ship and he tried to relax. Making sure to rub his legs, knees, arms and move his back as much as possible to prevent the blood from pooling and to make sure that his body was in tip-top shape when he dropped out of hyperspace.

The Glareth system was on the outer fringe of what is the known galaxy. It was a hidden away system between two red giants. The system had only one barely hospitable planet. The average temperature on the surface varied between fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit all the way up to 140 degrees. Cooper was used to the warmer temperatures. Back on Earth he hailed from Phoenix, Arizona, which got up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit at times in the summer.

The people from the planet were called Glarans. They were very skinny and averaged about seven feet tall. They had very dark skin and very small features on their face. They almost looked beady-eyed. Of course, they had developed this way to defend themselves against the sun. It also made them very odd looking. They were very intelligent and friendly.

Cooper had never been there. He found out all this information from his ship's computer. Cooper added this to his list of planets he had seen from above, but he would never set foot on her, at least right now. Perhaps he would some time in the future.

The cargo ships were awaiting Talon Squadron in orbit. They were docked at an orbital station. The Lieutenant commed the facility, "Talon Nine to orbital facility. We are ready to receive the transport ships."

"They are now yours, good luck." Within seconds of that transmission the ships were launched. Hysan divided three E-wings per transport ship and Cooper flying point. After a few minutes of jabbering back and forth, the coordinates were set and all thirteen ships, the transports and fighters alike, were in hyperspace screaming their way back towards Farpoint.

About three hours into the flight home, all of the ships suddenly reverted to real space. "What's going on, we shouldn't even be back to Farpoint for a while?" called out Talon Eleven.

"Everyone check your scanners, see where we are and try to find out why we reverted to normal space," Hysan ordered. Cooper checked his proximity scanners and checked the computer. He could detect no sign as to why they had dropped from hyperspace.

Talon Two commed the squadron: "I am picking up an unknown amount of ships approaching our position. They are too far out for me to find out who or what they are, or to find out their numbers. They appear to be generating some type of subspace field perhaps that is what caused us to drop out of hyperspace.

"This smells like a trap to me. All fighters, lets get in a tight defensive formation around the transports. I bet whoever that is their after what's in their cargo holds," Hysan ordered.

After checking the sensors, Cooper calculated that there was no way they would be able to outrun them—they were approaching at too fast a speed. Cooper then started to check the space around their current position, checking for anything that might be used to his tactical advantage.

Two commed them again. "I am picking up at least two capital ships of unknown classification and about forty fighter escort ships. I can't get any more information than that—they appear to be jamming our sensors and all communications. Obviously ship to ship communications are still available."

Cooper launched a communications buoy in the general direction of Farpoint, in hopes that it would be able to get a message past the communications block. At best it would take at least four hours for any type of reinforcements to arrive. Cooper had to buy time and do it soon. Talon was a very good squadron but to try to take on two capital ships and forty or more fighters was suicide, and Cooper had two very good reasons at home why he did not want to die today.

Cooper began to visually scan the surrounding area. He remembered a planetoid on his earlier scan before they were jammed. He remembered that the planet had a thick atmosphere with lots of metals in the upper crust and also in the outer ionosphere. The planet was severely pockmarked with large canyons. This was due to the numerous heavenly bodies that had impacted the surface over the last millennia. The planet had very little life on it. It would make a great place to hide. Cooper had formulated a plan.

"Talon Squadron, let's head for that planet at these coordinates. With all those metals in the atmosphere and the crust those ships should have a hard time picking us up on scanners. We can try to hide out. Eventually they will try to send the fighters in to visually acquire us. When that happens we will take them out one by one."

"Let's go!" Hysan gave the order and Talon Squadron and the three transport ships were on their way to the metallic planetoid.

* * * * *

The planet where Cooper and Talon Squadron would spend the next hour in a life or death struggle was about the size of Mars. The planet's ionosphere being made up of large amounts of iron, nickel and other various metals made the planet have a reddish hue to it. Although to Cooper, it seemed less vibrant in colour than Mars. Once Cooper and Talon Squadron had penetrated the ionosphere they could see a rocky surface terrain made up of the same compounds that were prevalent in the atmosphere.

Cooper thought that the rocky surface would provide good cover. Hopefully it would be so good as to allow them hit and run type raids on the fighters who would hopefully be sent down to look for the transport ships. Once the fighters were taken out that evened up the odds a little. Cooper would still have liked to have some more backup, but you don't get everything you ask for.

"I suggest we stick together for now," Cooper commed, "and let's try to stay as low to the surface as possible. Keep up the visual scanning, it appears the makeup of the planet interferes with our sensors as well. Hopefully they won't be able to see us because of sensor reflection from the surface and we will be able to see them."

"According to my last calculations, the unknown ships should be entering orbit in about one minute," commed Eight.

Hysan said, "Alright boys and girls, the game is on and we will be on the winning side. Hold steady. All we can do now is wait."

Cooper thought to himself, That's all we can do, wait and hope.


Part Four

Talon Squadron didn't have to wait long. Exactly when Talon Eight said the ships would be in orbit, Cooper started getting minute sensor shadows that appeared to be the enemy fighters breaking through the ionosphere. It looked as though they had separated into two groups. Cooper said to himself, "Ten versus twenty is better then ten versus forty."

Cooper then sent a coded message to the rest of Talon Squadron advising them to wait until the two groups of fighters were on separate sides of the planet, then their attack would come.
As the two groups of enemy fighters got more and more separated, Cooper moved into position to spring the trap. They quietly made their way to the group of fighters that had been searching the northern side of the planet. They were making a standard search grid. Cooper knew that the enemy ships were still bundled up. He figured they were aware of the possibility of a surprise attack and therefore did not want to lose their numbers advantage. That was why there were only two groups of fighters.

"Okay," Hysan sent in a coded transmission, "on me, attack…Wait for it…Wait for it… Pounce!" At the order, Talon Squadron quickly pulled up and fired into the group of fighters. Cooper counted two explosions. He had hoped for more fighters to be damaged in the initial volley, but he would have to deal with only knocking out two fighters.

Quickly the scene turned to utter chaos. There were dogfights all over the sky as the members of Talon Squadron engaged the enemy. Cooper had Talon Nine on his wing. They were tailing a group of three fighters as they travelled up towards the atmosphere, apparently trying to make a break for it. Cooper fired his blasters and blew one into oblivion. The other two broke off and went in different directions.

"Stay with me," Hysan ordered. Together they pursued the fighter that had broken off and headed west catching it about thirteen seconds after it had separated from its wing mate. Cooper took a second to check his scanners and saw that they still weren't functioning.

He put out a call to Talon Squadron, "I need a check off, everyone okay?" Hysan counted in his head as all ten of the Talon Squadron ships called in, ending with, "Talon Twelve alive and kicking."

Good, Cooper thought, so far no casualties.

At that minute, a fighter that Cooper had not seen snuck in and fired a shot at Talon Nine, and as it turns out it was a very lucky shot, Cooper could see the ship shake violently.

Cooper quickly commed, "Lieutenant, are you going to be okay..." Coopers response was to see the ship burst into a fiery ball of light. Cooper heard silence on the radio and knew that the Lieutenant had not managed to eject. He was now in charge.

Cooper and Talon Squadron had taken out about twelve of the fighters from the best estimate of the squad. After the first initial attacks, a lot of the fighters broke off and headed for the atmosphere. They ran away in fear of their lives.

Cooper tried to let the death of Lieutenant Hysan effect him.

"Well, that evens it out a little more, approximately three-to-one now, not counting the two cap ships. Let's see if we can hide out a little longer, I saw some canyons a little while ago, those should do nicely," Cooper ordered. He and the rest of Talon Squadron took refuge in the canyons, flying so low that they were getting bug pieces on their cockpits. Cooper thought, Bugs, man those things are everywhere.

Sensors were chaotic. Sometimes they didn't work at all and other times you could see sensor shadows. If the sensor ghosts were to be believed there was now one large group of fighters. They appeared to be scanning the other side of the planet at the moment and they were making very slow progress. But even then it seemed that Cooper still had to buy more time. They would reach Talon's position in less then an hour.

Cooper thought over many strategies in his head and settled on making use of more surprise tactics. Hit and run type raids would keep the enemy off balance and if done correctly would wear down the morale of any pilot. Cooper had thought of something else that would help. "Vlad, see if you can send out a REMI signal. If we set our array at the correct frequency it should make them think they see us, and if we do it right, they will see more of us then there actually is. Hopefully they will divide their forces to chase the sensor ghosts. Don't send the signal until I tell you too." Vlad beeped his acknowledgement.

"Okay," Coop told himself. "Here comes Plan B."

Plan B took all of two minutes to set up. Cooper and Talon Squadron would split up. Cooper and Talon Three would go to a position just north of the enemy ships and start emitting the REMI pulse. Once the correct frequency was in, this would trigger the sensors of the enemy ships to think that fifteen E-wings had suddenly appeared. At the same time Talon Squadron would surface and head towards their position, also emitting the signals, making it look like there were fourteen of them instead of eight. Hopefully the enemy would split up and once they began to chase Cooper and Talon Three, it would be a game of cat and mouse while the rest of Talon knocked out the enemy fighters. It all seemed okay, Cooper could only hope that nothing went wrong.

Cooper and Talon Three took up their position and began transmitting the signal. The remainder of Talon squad had also stealthily taken up their position. The plan went into action. Coopers REMI signal locked onto the appropriate frequency and began broadcasting its hidden signal. Immediately the enemy forces broke off. It appeared that they split half-and-half exactly as the other half of Talon Squadron began their sneak attack.

Cooper and Talon Three took of at max speed in hopes that the enemy would think the mystical E-wings had all broken off and began to run. It worked marvellously. Cooper and Talon Three, it seemed, were only being actually pursued by two enemy ships. Cooper allowed them to get in close and then suddenly pulled up towards the sky and then back towards the ground in an excellent rolling loop. On the way down, Cooper hit one of the fighters and watched the ship erupt into flames and make a beeline towards the surface. Cooper also noticed he saw no sign of ejection.

The second fighter had apparently been taken out by Talon Three. Cooper commed him, "Good work, Talon Three."

The reply came, "No problem, like shooting flies off a bantha."

Cooper and the rest of Talon Squadron noticed that the rest of the enemy fighters retreated. Cooper also noticed that their numbers were such that they no longer had much numbers superiority. Maybe eighteen-to-ten. So far no Talon Squadron member had been shot down or even hit. Cooper commed the squad, "These guys aren't very good pilots, has anyone recognized any of those ships?" The response from the group was a resounding no. "They must be pirates. Well, now we know why an escort was needed for this trip."

Cooper decided to check in on the transports. He had made them land in a cavern and stay on low power. Unless someone knew where they were they would not be easy to find with all the sensor distortion in the area. All three of the transports reported that they were okay and unharmed. They were also sure that their position had not been discovered.

That was when Cooper heard a noise. It was like a large thumping sound. It reminded Cooper of the sound a B-52 from back on Earth made when it was dropping its payload of bombs on the surface. Then Cooper's face turned white. He said aloud, "Oh no, they're bombarding the surface."


Part Five

"What is on those ships that is so valuable they are willing to destroy a planet over?" asked one of the pilots.

Cooper answered, "Maybe it's just that they hate losing and see that is the direction they are heading. We can't stay here, we have to do something. We stay here and those bombs will get us or destroy the surface of the planet. Talon Two and Three, you try to stay with those transports and get them out of range of whatever it is that is blocking our hyperdrives. The rest of us will stay back and try to take out those capships. Maybe it will give you time to get away."

Cooper ordered the transports to get ready for launch and prepared himself mentally for the battle that lay ahead. In total, he had been in the cockpit for more then eight hours, he was starting to get tired. He wouldn't let it show though, for the people under his command needed him to be fresh and in control.

They were all ready. The moment had come. Cooper and the attacking fighters left the atmosphere first and heading directly towards the closest capital ship. Cooper called out, "Attack pattern Theta," and Talon Squadron knowingly assumed their positions. "Attack," Cooper yelled out over the comm. Cooper and Talon Squadron then engaged the first capital ship.

Cooper could see the writing on the hull of the ship, it was named Mollari. The strange design of the ship led Cooper to believe that it was a pirate ship of some kind. He hadn't ever seen anything like it. The same thing was true with the fighters. Even though he had only been in this space for a year, he felt he knew enough about ships to identify it if it were Imperial or Goa'uld. The fact that the rest of Talon didn't recognize the ships led fuel to Cooper's idea that he was fighting pirates. For some reason the word swashbuckler wouldn't get out of his head.

Cooper had made at least two attack runs on the Mollari when he ordered the transports to leave the area at the highest possible speed. They took off from the surface and were in space in almost instantaneous fashion. The ships evaded intense laser blasts from both ships but they managed to make it past the blockade. Five fighters attempted to follow them but the squadron quickly disabled them.

Cooper allowed time to rejoice the transport ships had made it out and would most likely make it all the way to Farpoint safely. Cooper stopped rejoicing Talon Twelve was hit.

"Vlad, were they hit by an ion cannon?" The droid chirped an affirmative response. "Cooper to all Talon Squadron, be careful, they are going to try to take you out with ion cannons in an attempt to capture our ships. I guess they feel they should get something worthwhile out of this fight."

Cooper looked up and saw that Talon Eleven and Twelve had been hit by ion cannons and were disabled. "Talon Seven to group, try to defend the disabled ships as much as possible. Don't let these pirates capture our ships, if it comes to that hit the self destruct and eject."

Cooper couldn't outrun the capital ships. Especially since their hyperdrive was being blocked. He was fast running out of options. He pressed his attack even harder. The Mollari had taken a lot of damage but still seemed to be operating at full capacity. Cooper didn't think that things could get any worse. Then they did.

"Talon Eight to Talon Seven, I am picking up a sensor ghost. It appears to be two more ships approaching our position."

Cooper thought to himself, What else can go wrong? Suddenly he felt very downtrodden. He had nowhere left to turn. Then he saw the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. He saw Wraith and Pulsar Squadrons quickly approaching his position. They immediately attacked the Mollari and her sister ship. Then he saw an even better sight. Hunter and Finch were also approaching on an attack vector. Cooper felt rejoiced—he would survive another day. Or at least he now had more hope for survival.

Apparently that would remain to be seen, because the pirate ships did not turn and run as Cooper thought they would. Instead they turned to face the approaching ships. It appeared as though this battle was not over. Rescue and salvage ships snuck between the two ships and snared the disabled members of Talon Squadron and their ships, all the while being escorted by members from Wraith Squadron. Cooper took the remaining elements of Talon Squadron and continued the attack on the Mollari.

Both enemy ships had sustained heavy damage. They were manoeuvring too much and still too combative to be boarded. They both refused to give up. Finch and Hunter pressed the attack; Cooper also continued his assault.

Cooper had destroyed one enemy ship when another two got behind him. Cooper noticed that they were blasting at him with the intent to kill him. Cooper spun his ship in an attempt to avoid the laser blasts. The tactic worked, for the most part. He had taken damage to his aft shields.

"Vlad, see if you can fix the shields, I am going to try to take care of these guysc" Cooper called out to his droid as he sharply turned his E-wing in its tightest possible turn, only to be followed by the enemy fighters. "Those are pretty good fighters." Cooper was talking to himself. Cooper then set up for a manoeuvre that he had seen in a movie back on Earth. "I'll hit the brakes and they'll fly right by."

Cooper hoped it worked. If he planned it wrong or did it at the wrong moment the enemy fighters would collide into his ship and all that would be left would be a fireball. Cooper continued to juke and jive until he saw the perfect opportunity. He slammed down the brakes and watched as both enemy fighters suddenly appeared in front of him, right in his sights. He squeezed the trigger and watched as their ships, almost in slow motion, burst into flames. Cooper tried not to look at the pilots, he tried not to see them meeting their fate, but at this distance it was unavoidable.

Then, Cooper heard over the comm system, "This is the Mollari. Stop firing, we surrender. I repeat, we surrender."

Finch and Hunter cut the Mollari off from its sister ship and isolated it. Talon Squadron, or at least what was left of it, encircled the enemy ship along with various other fighters from the other squadrons. To ensure that there was no treachery they took up positions close to vital points on the ship. From his position, Cooper could see the landing craft start to make their way towards the Mollari from Hunter. The ship would be captured, hopefully with no loss of life on either side.

The second enemy ship was still putting up a resistance. They had refused to surrender. Their ship was heavily damaged; it was on fire from bow to stern and was drifting. Still, they refused. They would die with honour and not be captured. Cooper could see signs of power failures all over the ship. He knew they had mere seconds before everyone on that ship would meet their maker.

Then it happened, the explosion looked like the formation of a new star. It lit up space as if it were daylight back in Cooper's hometown of Phoenix, if only for a second. It was almost breathtakingly beautiful. Then Cooper realized that the beauty he saw in that instant also equalled a large loss of life. Sometimes nature could be very cruel. The ship was lost, more than likely with all hands.

Cooper didn't feel sad for them. He couldn't. Battle was battle and they had lost. He was a soldier and that's what soldiers did. They destroyed the enemy. Cooper knew it sounded heartless and agreed that it did. To make himself feel better he tried to remind himself that they had been trying to kill him mere seconds earlier. Then he thought that if they had surrendered we would have been merciful. Their lives would have been spared. But it was too late for that kind of talk. Cooper knew that they had decided their own fate.

Then Cooper received a comm. "This is Hunter to Talon Squadron. You have permission to land. And Cooper, meet up with starfighter ops for a debriefing."

"Oh, great," Cooper muttered, "a debriefing is never as fun as it sounds."

"Well then I will try to make it as interesting as possible," Cooper heard from a familiar voice.

"Aye, aye, Piquo!" Cooper said with exaggerated exuberance. "I can't wait, I am sure."

Cooper docked his ship and went to his quarters to clean up and rest a little bit before his debriefing. He was tired. Very tired, in fact. He was looking forward to being able to rest. He planned on sleeping in tomorrow. Facing death always made Cooper a little tired. Once Coop's head hit the pillow he was asleep, in his flight suit and everything.

That night the nightmares came to him again. No matter how hard he tried he could not save Lieutenant Kivac and now Lieutenant Hysan, their screams filled his head and his thoughts. He saw their faces, wrenched in fear as they were slowly dragged down into the bottomless pit of death. Death had won once again.

Cooper awoke with a start. "Cooper, you there, are you awake?" It was Piquo.

"Sorry sir," Cooper said, "Guess I was more tired then I thought I was."

"That's okay, it's understandable, you have debriefing in one hour, be there or I'll send goons in to get you."

"You bet sir, I wouldn't miss this for the world," was Cooper's smart reply. With that the comm flicked off and Cooper was left alone with his inner thoughts and demons. He had a glass of water and started on yet another day. He dressed and then headed off for the Junkyard.