Kit's Tale

[Oscar the Grouch]

Chapter One
CREEEAAAAAK

No, the cockpit hatch of the old X-wing fighter didn't need oiling. The maintenance crews at the Yavin Four Base kept everything in perfect working condition. These days minor malfunctions could mean the difference between being pulverized out in space or living to fight another day.

CREEEAAAAAK

It wasn't the ladder either. Kit's slight frame was hardly a load for the ladder which was designed to accomodate even the weight of the largest Wookie. The ladder hardly moved as Kit slowly descended from the fighter.

When he reached the bottom he unbuckled his flight helmet and pulled it off. The cool breeze that drafted through the old Massassi Temple was a relief as it blew through his sweaty hair. His squadron was gathering in the briefing room for the final reports before they would be dismissed for the day. He started off in that direction.

CREEEAAAAAK

CREEEAAAAAK

It was his knees. They had been getting worse especially since they had taken up residence on Yavin Four. He slept with special heating pads on them at night but that only slightly alleviated the stiffness.

"I'm getting too old for this," Kit thought. He didn't allow himself to limp, he didn't want to appear weak. Not that it would have made any difference. Once apon a time the Rebel leaders would have retired those who were getting too old and worn down to fly. Pilots used to all be the finest physical specimens. But these were different times. "They are desperate for bodies to fill the cockpits," he thought, "heck, they even let Porkins fly!"

He continued across the hangar taking great care to walk normally even though it caused him a great deal of discomfort.

Kit was old even beyond his age. As a child he had grown up in the harshest of environments. The dry unforgiving climate on Tatooine made everyone who lived there age quicker. But it also made a person become more resourceful. You had to be if you wanted to survive. Kit felt that the poor living conditions had built character. It had made him into just the type of person that the Rebellion needed if they were to stand a chance.

In fact, several of the top Rebel pilots had come from that character building planet. Kit was by far the oldest of them but there were some good youngsters as well. Biggs Darklighter for example, had a cheerful disposition that rubbed off on others. It was good for morale. Kit suspected the kid was just happy to get out of Tattoine. What kid from Tattooine wouldn't be? Here they were in the middle of the forest, a word that didn't even exhist on his home planet.

Kit entered the briefing room and creaked his way to his seat. He let out a relieved sigh as he settled in. He hoped no one noticed. "Old bag of bones," he called himself. When he had been a little boy, there was an old woman who could tell when a storm was coming in just by the way her bones felt.

Kit had been suffering joint pain for the past year. "Must be the mother of all storms coming!" he thought wryly. In a way he knew he was right. The Rebellion had just received the news that a superweapon built by the Empire had obliterated the entire planet of Alderaan and was now headed this way.

The briefing was short and to the point, basically the pilots were told to get some rest because they were going to need it. The commanders and tactictal crews would be spending the night going over the information that Princess Leia and her rescuers had arrived with today.

It had been lucky that she arrived at all. Kit had heard rumors that she had been Darth Vader's prisoner. That was an experience that most people didn't live to tell about. In fact, Kit wondered if anyone had ever lived to tell about it. It was highly unlikely.

Despite knowing that the Empire now had a weapon that could destroy entire planets and that, in all likelihood, Yavin Four was the next potential target, in an ironic way things seemed to be going the Rebels way. The princess had escaped from Vader, delivered plans and schematics of the Death Star, and on top of that had brought along a couple of new pilots who were willing to help.

Kit had just settled down onto his bunk when his room mate, Jatal Botson came through the door. Jatal was approaching middle age for a human and was quieter than most. Kit liked that, quiet often meant peace. Tonight though, Jatal wanted to talk.

"How do you feel about our chances tomorrow?" Jatal asked Kit.

"Depends on what weaknesses they can find in those schematics, I guess. I don't know why for sure but I've got a good feeling about this."

"Yeah, I guess. Either we'll pull this out or we'll be dead. Either way, our worries will be over after tomorrow."

Kit didn't like to hear talk like that. He knew that thousands of systems were secretly hoping that the rebels would someday be strong enough to stand up to the Empire. If they failed tomorrow, there would still be plenty to worry about in the galaxy.

"Our worries, maybe," Kit replied maybe a little more intensely than was nescessary, "but don't forget there are many other people that suffer because of the Empire. Little kids, old people...they can't be here to fight. There are plenty of others that would join us too if they knew how. It's not like we can go around advertising and recruiting out in the open, you know."

Jatal could sense that he had said something to set Kit off, but he wasn't sure what exactly. "Who old timer...I'm on your side, remember?" he said raising his hands in the air as if to surrender. He laughed quietly and lay down on his bunk with his hands behind his head.

Kit realized he should ease up. Now was not the time to lecture the young folk about the underlying purpose of the rebellion. Everyone knew why they were here anyway. They should be resting now.

Kit attached his knee pads to his legs and smiled a little from the relief. "I'm sorry if I was a little gruff just then. I think I might be a little homesick."

Jatal laughed. It was a private joke. Everyone knew how much Kit hated his home world. He would say things every now and then to try to make it sound like a wonderful place. Kits humor, if nothing else was sarcastic.

But there was a little bit of truth to his crack tonight though. It wasn't like him to be homesick for Tattooine and he never would have admitted it. The dry climate was easier on his arthritis but he knew that wasn't the reason. The feeling had been inundating him starting around the time Princess Leia had arrived on Yavin Four, not necessarily a yearning for home, but a stirring of memories from his childhood...his old friends...his father's cantina...watching the pod races...his memories came flooding into his dreams as he sank into a deep sleep.

Chapter Two

Lord Vader was restless. Until a couple of days ago his life had been getting routine. Finding new ways to motivate and terrorize the minions was growing old. But yesterday he had come alive.

It was unexpected, his meeting with Obi Wan after all these years. It had been years since the last time he had locked sabers with a worthy opponent. But it had all come back to him quickly...the strategy, the footwork, the Force...

Vader admitted to himself that he was getting out of practice and vowed to spend extra time devoted to sharpening up his dueling skills. Obi-Wan had been an old man and at first had put up a better fight than Vader had expected. But Kenobi had soon tired and Vader found himself toying with him, not wanting the moment to be over too quickly.

The Sith lord felt a flash of anger. "It wasn't fair for him to give himself up that way!", he thought tightening his hand into a fist. Kenobi had never been fair. Vader was sure he had given up out of spite, maybe he sensed that Vader was enjoying crossing sabers with him.

Vader slammed his fist down on the console he was standing near startling the young officer who was sitting at it. The officer's face paled as he wondered what he had done to anger his Lord. He was about to plead for his life when Vader spun on his heel and headed off towards the turbo lifts. The officer's heart raced and he vowed to himself to ask for a transfer once this mission to Yavin Four was finished.

--------------------

Kit opened his eyes. He felt at peace. For a second he wondered if he was dead. Then he felt the ache in his knees.

No, he was not dead. He remembered what was to happen today and sat up with a start. He thought positive thoughts. The Rebellion had fought many battles against the Empire but had never managed a clear victory. "We'll do it this time!", he thought. He knew he was right.

As Kit removed the heating pads from his knees, Jatal stirred in his bunk. "Rise and shine, boy." Kit called. "We have a date with the Empire today."

Jatal hopped up out of his bed and quickly moved about the room, preparing for the day. Kit felt envious of the way the younger man seemed to bounce around as if he were made of elastic. "Someday," Kit thought, "he will know what it is like to wake up and feel stiff and old." If they were lucky.

Breakfast was being served as they made their way into the ancient Jedi training room that had been converted into a mess hall. There was a nervous silence as the pilots ate, everyone understandably had excited jitters. This wasn't going to be like any battle any of them had experienced so far.

Kit didn't have much of an appetite but he forced himself to eat something. There was nothing that made him as cranky as sitting in a stuffy X-wing cockpit with a grumbling stomach.

When breakfast was finished the pilots were called to the War Room to go over their attack plans for the Death Star. In the middle of the room there was a holographic image of the technical readout of the Imperial Space Station. It didn't look that threatening to Kit. Just a big ball with a crater.

That was when he noticed the image of the Star Destroyer set next to it that gave an idea of the scale. Kit whistled. He had seen moons that were smaller. General Dodonna was going over parts of the battle plan that didn't apply to Kit but he listened intently anyway.

When Dodonna addressed his squadron, Kit realized that his job would be very crucial in limiting the amount of enemy TIE fighters that would be scrambled to confront the Rebel forces. They were to locate the Death Star's hangar bays and eliminate as many TIE fighters as they could as they emerged from their hangars. It would be difficult, most of the bays were guarded by turbo lasers but as long as the X-wings kept moving, they would make a hard target.

The general was now addressing the squadrons that would be making the main part of the attack. He said,"The approach will not be easy. You are required to maneuver straight down this trench and skim the surface to this point. The target area is only two meters wide. It's a small thermal exhaust port, right below the main port. The shaft leads directly to the reactor system. A precise hit will start a chain reaction which should destroy the station."

The pilots murmurred in disbelief. It would be difficult Kit thought but it could work. He wished his friends and peers would be a little more optimistic. Kit was about to say something encouraging but a young boy beat him to it.

"It's not impossible. I used to bull's-eye womp rats in my T-sixteen back home. They're not much bigger than two meters." the boy said.

Kit smiled. That was more like it. A little youthful optimism was just what they needed before heading out against such a formidable situation. He nodded in agreement at the boy.

He had noticed him earlier, just briefly when Princess Leia had arrived. There was something oddly familiar about his face but Kit couldn't place it. He had spoken of womp rats, so he must have been from Tatooine. Kit had left that place long before the boy would have been born so he was sure he had never met the kid, but still...

There was no time to think about it, the General had dismissed the meeting and it was time to begin. "Man your ships! And may the Force be with you."

[Oscar the Grouch]

Chapter 3

Lord Vader was looking for Tarkin. Vader's plan had paid off. They had let Princess Leia escape and now she had led them straight to the heart of the Rebellion. Tarkin had been against it at first, he did not want to give up his prisoner they had fought so hard to capture. He had finally relented to Vader's insistence.

Vader did not want to gloat so much as instill in Tarkin a respect for his insight and his ability to see things through the Force. He sometimes felt as if Tarkin was holding him back. Vader knew in his heart that was the cumbersome chain of command that had permeated itself in the Emperor's military that was slowing him down, he would have crushed the Rebellion already by now.

He found Tarkin leaving the meeting room on the Command Deck. His advisors had been briefing him on what the possible Rebel responses could be to seeing the Death Star approaching. Tarkin spoke before Vader could begin. "You were right, Lord Vader, she did do exactly as you said she would."

The Sith Lord found a little satisfaction in Tarkin's admission. "The Force can be a powerful ally when trying to anticipate the moves of your enemy," Vader replied.

Tarkin was not a believer in the Force. He would chalk up the success of Vader's strategy to plain good intuition. He was about to say something along those lines when they were interrupted by the buzz of the comlink.

"Yes?" Tarkin answered.

"We are approaching the planet Yavin. The Rebel base is on a moon on the far side. We are preparing to orbit the planet."

Vader decided he would bring this topic up again later. For now there were other things to do. He became excited at the thought of crushing his enemies. His only regret was that because of his high status, he was stuck on this space station and wouldn't see any of the action except what he could see from the large plastisteel observation window. He relished the thought of flying through the heart of the action and blasting the rebel snub fighters to pieces. He made a mental note to find any excuse he could to leave the control deck and join the dogfighting in his custom TIE fighter.

He followed Tarkin to the hologram chart where they would monitor the Death Star's progress around Yavin and began to think of an excuse.

-------------------------

Kit remembered the first time he had seen an astro mech droid. He had been a kid, about nine years old. His eyes had almost popped out of his head. He had seen holograms and pictures of an R2 unit before but never in real life. Astro mech droids were not all that impressive themselves, but for a kid who had never left the surface of his homeworld it had represented the thrills of space travel.

Now many years later he was working side by side with one almost every day. He still had a special affinity for the little swivel-headed contraptions. He glanced over his shoulder at the chirpy unit that was being placed in his X-wing. "Ready to go, little guy?" he asked. The droid gave an affirmative beep and a whistle.

Kit's engines roared to life and within minutes he and the rest of the Rebel fighters were making their way through Yavin Four's atmosphere. The pilots took up their position behind Red Leader and set off to confront the approaching menace.

"All wings report in," came Red Leader's voice over the comlink. After it was Kit's turn to say "Blue Three standing by" they were ordered to lock their S-foils into position.

The Death Star grew larger and larger. Kit had known it would be big but he wondered how much bigger it would look by the time they were close enough to attack. He found out soon enough. As soon as they had passed through the Death Star's magnetic field they quickened to attack speed. There were a few comments of the comlink regarding the size of the Death Star but they were told to cut the chatter.

Gold Leader announced that his squadron would begin their attack run. Kit still had not seen any enemy fighters. "That is good", he thought. Perhaps the Imperials thought that that would be able to hold them off with their clumsy turbo lasers. The turbo lasers packed a powerful punch but in an up close fight they were pretty useless. Every second that the Imperials procrastinated launching their TIE fighters were more valuable than gold.

Blue Squadron broke off in the opposite direction as Gold Squadron. The TIE hangars were located almost 180 degrees latitude from the ventilation shaft. There still were no TIE fighters to be seen. Everthing was going along with the best case scenario of the Rebel's plan. No TIEs meant that Blue Squadron was free to improvise and attack the Death Star battlements at will. Their secondary function was to confuse the Imperials as to what the Rebel strategy was. Any attention that Blue Squadron could attract was attention that the Imperials weren't paying to Gold Squadron and the real threat.

The Death Star's turbo lasers fired in vain at the small sleek fighters. "Eat this!" Kit said out loud as he fired his cannons at the surface, not really caring what he hit. Blue Squadron was causing a lot of cosmetic damage to the exterior of the space station but Kit doubted they were causing any real damage more than a few headaches to the Imperial forces inside. But still it was almost fun.

He almost didn't notice the TIE fighters that were beginning to emerge from their docking bay.

"Look sharp" came Blue Leader's voice on the comlink. "We have company, boys!"

"About time!" replied Kit.

Chapter Four

Lord Vader watched with a touch of admiration at the courage that the little band of rebels displayed in attacking the Death Star with so small of a force. He recalled many situations he had been hopelessly outnumbered and had still prevailed. That had been another life. It seemed as if the odds had always been against him, until the Emperor took control. Now things were so decidedly in his favor it had almost become dull.

The Emperor had always been on his side, from the time he had met him. There had been others who seemed to have full confidence in him, his mother, Kitster, Qui-Gon...but the Emperor made Vader feel so powerful..."he truly understood how powerful I could become" Vader reflected as he stared out his window.

An Imperial officer approached him to give an update on the battle.

"We count thirty Rebel ships, Lord Vader. But they're so small they're evading our turbo-lasers!"

"We'll have to destroy them ship to ship. Get the crews to their fighters."

------------------

The battle so far had been going very well for the Rebels. Kit had a "feeling" that this battle was destined to be won by the Rebellion. He had premonitions sometimes where he became absolutely certain of something. He was always right. He remembered the first time he had such a feeling, many years ago.

His best friend, Anakin Skywalker was entered to race a pod in the Boonta Eve Classic. Some travellers that Anakin had befriended were betting on Anakin to win so that they could buy a hyperdrive to repair their ship. Although Anakin had never finished a race before, Kit somehow "knew" that this time would be different. Others had not been so confident in Anakin. An older girl, Padme, seemed almost angry that her travelling companions had placed so much of their fates in the hands of a young pod driver that had never even finished a race before.

Anakin tried to reassure her that he would finish, "Kitster's right, I will this time." Kit had been right. And he had been right many times since then. He knew he would be right again.

----------------------------

Vader studied the flight patterns of a particular group of X-wings that were flying seperate from the main Rebel attack. His feelings told him that this was the main threat of the Rebel's plan, the other fighters were providing distraction or cover for the group that skimmed close to the Death Star's surface.

"I will deal with this myself," he thought. He found two pilots. "Several fighters have broken off from the main group. Come with me!"

---------------------------

Blue Squadron had been able to destroy a few of the TIE fighters emerging from the Death Star. However, the majority had slipped through and were on their way to meet the main part of the Rebel attack. Kit grew frustrated as more and more TIEs escaped them.

Blue Squadron had lost two ships already and were now down to Blue Leader, Jatal Botson, and himself. Kit knew from the reports over the comlink that the other squadrons had suffered heavy damage as well. Kit began to doubt his prediction. It was starting to look bad.

Gold squadron was about to make their run at the target area. If they failed, Blue Squadron would be the next to take a run at it. The Imperials were launching less fighters now. The Blue team would only stay near the hangar doors a little while longer.

"Here comes another group", Jatal reported on the comlink. "Fighters at two o'clock"

Kit noticed that the middle TIE fighter was different than all of the others he'd seen. Instead of the tall and wide flat solar panels on either side there were shorter curved ones. "A shorter TIE makes a harder target" thought Kit. Before he had a chance to advise his squadron mates that they should take care of the center TIE fighter before it reached the battle, twin red beams shot from it and cracked his hull and blew his upper starboard engine.

"But I had that feeling!" thought Kit in disbelief. "This can't be happening!"
That was the last thought he had before his starfighter crashed into the Death Star surface and disinigrated.

------------------------------------

Vader felt a sudden pang, as if he had just lost his best friend. It was a strange thought and made no sense whatsoever. A little bewildered, he forced the thought out of his mind. There would be time to meditate on that later. For now, there was a battle to attend to.

The group of three TIE fighters banked right and sped off to put an end to the Rebel attack.


THE END

[Jedi Master Harrison]

Great idea, I really enjoyed reading that. :welcome: "We will watch your career with great interest!"

[Oscar the Grouch]

Thank you very much. I like your description...beer and SW...great minds think alike. :D

[Zedekk]

Sweet story dude! :welcome: and keep the good stories coming.

[Oscar the Grouch]

Thank you kind sir! I have one that's just kind of silly that I'll try to post later. I may have to edit it a little for a PG rating.

[Jedi Master 2k5]

Great story by the way WELCOME TO THE SENATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Machievelli]

Posted 15 June 2007 on StarwarsKnights under The Critic returns and LucasForums under the Critic’s Two Cents

Battle of Yavin: An old friend of Anakin Skywalker faces off against Darth Vader

The style is good if a bit abrupt. Having two old friend dueling in fighters is excellent, and having them not know they faced each other makes the story poignant. Very well done.