Skye Legacy Ep. 2 | "Deserter"
An even longer time ago, in a galaxy just as far away...
Cecilia slowly climbs out of the cockpit of her TIE Avenger onto the walkway connecting the other TIEs, as she stands up on the walkway, she quickly stretches her legs from sitting in the cockpit before she removes her helmet while the other pilots are doing the same. She lightly shakes her head while she takes her helmet off, her hair falling down to the nape of her neck before she looks over at her wing partner, Alexis Jager, across from her with a small grin. The two of them start walking together falling in with the group of Shadow Squadron pilots moving to their locker rooms to get out of their flight suits as the Malachor enters hyperspace. Alexis lightly bumps her elbow against Cecilia while they walk with a grin.
"Another successful mission for Shadow Squadron and her fancy flying commander."
Cecilia laughs softly at Alexis's comment.
"Yeah it was quite a successful mission, but I still think we could have done better...we didn't lose anyone, but still could have been better regarding how quickly we killed the rebels."
Alexis groans slightly at Cecilia before she laughs slightly.
"You always see ways for us to improve, but that is one of the reasons why we are the best squadron in the best fighters in the fleet if not the whole sector."
"Aye I do cause we never stop learning, and that we are, that we are."
Cecilia grins at Alexis before she turns to offer a nod to the other pilots as they enter the squadrons locker room and unlock their lockers placing their helmets inside before pulling their flight suits off before they head to the shower cubicles to rinse themselves off. Cecilia lets the water run over her with her head down, while the pilots of her squadron are talking and laughing between them a rather cheerful atmosphere following another successful mission against the rebels. Cecilia exits the shower cubicle after having a quick shower before she heads to her locker pulling out her black officers uniform, holding it up in front of her just staring at it for a bit when Alexis suddenly comes up behind her.
"It still doesn't feel real, does it? With us out of the academy and you a squadron leader."
Cecilia shakes her head slightly with a small grin on her face as she looks at Alexis out of the corner of her eye while the two of them get changed into their uniforms.
"No, no it doesn't...I still feel like we are back in the final years of the academy sometimes."
"Ahh, you still mean when you shot down the deserter don't you."
Alexis looks over at Cecilia as the two of them start to leave the locker room.
"Aye I do...let's go get some food."
Alexis nods, she knows Cecilia enough by now to know when she wants to be left to her thoughts and memories.
Cecilia is stood leaning against a wall with her forehead against it for a moment before she turns around slowly, her eyes moving over the few bits and pieces in the locker room before her eyes fall onto her sister leaning against the opposite wall both of them in their late teens in Imperial pilot cadet uniforms.
"You know you can't do this...I can't let you do this to your self and to us..."
Nicole shakes her head at Cecilia's words.
"You know I have to, you have seen what I have seen! You have seen how the Empire treats people it deems as lesser than itself! I can't stay here, I need to go..."
"I have seen how the Empire treats people, but I have also seen the acts of the terrorist group you would want to flee to! You would trade the Empire for a bunch of terrorists, I can not let you do this."
Nicole shakes her head slightly.
"They are not terrorists, they are trying to restore the republic and democracy things our mum stood up for her entire life and died for, and you are just throwing all that away!"
Cecilia stands up straight as she stares Nicole down.
"Don't you dare you even try to imply that! I am doing this for her, she would not want you to throw your life away and join a terrorist group!"
Nicole returns Cecilia's stare as a tear starts to come to her eye.
“I’m doing this to honour her memory and sacrifice! Please, Ceci, don’t do this…please don’t make us go down this path…”
“Nici you set us down on this path when you decided you were going to join a terrorist group…you know if you continue this path I will be the one to come after you…”
Nicole nods slightly before she turns to exit the small storage room they were in.
“I know…and we both know how that will end don’t we…”
Nicole quickly leaves before Cecilia can see that she had started crying at the thought of what is coming on the path the two of them have been set on.
Cecilia stays standing in the room while Nicole hurries out, not trying to stop her while she thinks about what Nicole had said about the ending of the path they were now on, wiping a small tear out of the corner of her eye as she does so. Cecilia takes a deep breath to steady herself before she exits the room and makes an immediate beeline for the locker room that her flight suit is in since she knows that Nicole will be doing the same. The closer she gets to her locker the quicker she starts to move, with her about sliding through the doorway in her final mad dash before she starts to throw on her flight suit, moments before Alexis walks in with a raised eyebrow at Cecilia.
“What’s the rush? Something going on?”
Cecilia throws her helmet to Alexis while she continues to pull her flight suit on.
“Can’t say much bar I think Nici is about to do something stupid, do me a favour and quickly run to the hanger bay and get an Interceptor ready for launch, there should be a few in hanger 4b. I will meet you there.”
Alexis snaps off a salute before she turns to run for the hanger bay, she stops in the doorway turning to look back at Cecilia.
“You know what this means if what I think is going on is going on. You will have to shoot her down.”
Cecilia nods while she starts on the final bits of her flight suit.
“Yes, I do…I know what I need to do for the Empire and for my family.”
With that said Alexis sets off for the hangar bays at a run, with Cecilia just finishing up getting into her flight suit before she sets off for hanger bay she pulls out the locket that she always wore around her neck as a good luck charm. She pops the locket open looking at the picture of her and Nicole on Alderaan, both of them smiling with an arm around each other, Cecilia frowns slightly as she looks down at the image before popping the locket closed and tucking it back within her flight suit just as she sets off at a run for the hangar bay that she had sent Alexis to a moment ago.
Moments before she skids in the hangar on the heels of her feet, the alarms start to go off.
“Attention, Attention, Unauthorised launch detected in hanger 4b. Repeat, unauthorised launch detected in hanger 4b.”
The alarm repeats as Cecilia catches a TIE interceptor blasting out of the hanger, just as she starts to sprint over to the TIE Interceptor that Alexis is standing at the boarding ramp to with her helmet. Cecilia seems to fly up the ladder with surprising speed as Alexis throws her the helmet. Cecilia puts on her helmet as she jumps into the waiting cockpit of the Interceptor with Alexis pulling away the ladder the moment Cecilia was no longer on it.
“You are all good to go! All fuelled and armed, you are combat ready!”
Cecilia just gives Alexis a thumbs up split seconds before she guns her interceptors engine and blasts off into space out of the hanger and after her sister, with her doing this the traffic controller radios her.
“Attention Interceptor Bravo six, please state callsign and reason for unauthorised launch, or you will be considered hostile, and we will launch craft to intercept.”
“This is Cadet Cecilia Skye, Callsign Hawk. My reason for my launch is to stop the person in the other Interceptor who is currently trying to flee to the terrorists known as the rebel alliance.”
“Copy that Hawk, your pursuit has been authorised. Reinforcements have been launched, be advised Hawk just detected a number of unidentified ships dropping out hyperspace on the far side of that Nebula that your course has you flying through.”
“Copy that control, they will be attempting to reach the rebels, I will not let that happen over.”
As Cecilia ends the communication, she guns the engines of her interceptor, chasing her sister into the nebula to stop her from reaching the rebels. Cecilia uses the inter-ship comm channel in an attempt to contact her sister.
“Unauthorised craft that is pursuit craft Hawk, you are hereby ordered to return to the hanger or power down your craft and surrender.”
“You know that is never going to happen don’t you…we have set each other on this path and we have to follow it through to the end…though know this I never wanted this and don’t want to hurt you.”
“I take that as your refusal then, and yes we do the end where the Empire is victorious. I don’t want to hurt you either, but I have orders, and I know what it is to follow orders. This is your final chance to surrender your self, don’t try to draw this out more than we have to, even if you eject the rebels will never find you in time.”
With those final words Cecilia cuts the channel just before she opens fire with her cannons, the first shots striking off the port wing of Nicole’s interceptor just as they both enter the Nebula where the case continues with Cecilia trying to get a good shot on Nicole while she just is trying to flee to the Rebel ships as they launch a flight of A-wings to support her. The dogfight between the two of them is intense with them being an equal match in almost every way with Cecilia being unable to get a shot on Nicole while Nicole is unable to get away from Cecilia. The further into the Nebula fly the more interference there is with the communications to the Imperial base and Rebel fleet, the Imperial base being only able to track the ship signals and broken video footage from Cecilia's TIE.
The few shots that Cecilia had managed to score against Nicole begin to take their toll on her TIE with her engines starting to fail. Cecilia then uses this to line up her cannons but pauses with her finger just above the trigger for a moment before she squeezes it right as their two ties pass through a thick cloud in the nebula. The lasers from her TIE race forward and crash into the back of the TIE in front of her causing it to detonate just as it clears the Nebula, on the edge of the weapons range of the approaching A-wings.
"This is Hawk, target destroyed. Got eyes on a flight of Rebels with fleet behind them, I am going to RTB as I am outnumbered."
"This is Central, Afirm Hawk. We will let them go, and the fleet nearby will get them."
Cecilia nods slightly, as she starts to bank her TIE away from the oncoming rebels and fly back to the hanger at full speed, the A-wings pursue for a moment before breaking off to return back to the rebel fleet moments before it jumps to hyperspace.
Cecilia quickly arrives back at the hanger, where she is greated by a group of Stormtroopers, and Imperial officers, one of them appears to be in charge due to the pad they were holding, looks up at Cecilia just as she gets out of her TIE, taking off her helmet when her feet hit the deck.
"Cadet Skye?"
Cecilia snaps off a salute and a quick attention stance.
"Yes sir, Cadet Cecilia Skye, Callsign Hawk reporting."
"Good good...come with me cadet."
The officer starts to nod slightly when the turn to escort Cecilia to the head instructors office.
"Wait here. Cadet Skye to see you sir, yes sir right away. Cadet now."
Cecilia enters the room, still in her flight suit with her helmet under her arm, before she stands at attention.
"Ahh, cadet...I have heard that you commandeered a TIE Interceptor in an unauthorised launch, is that true?"
"Yes sir, but I would say for the record that it was approved post-launch by the flight controller as I was in pursuit of a deserter."
"Hmm, yes I saw that...and Cadet Jager has already told me that the deserter was your own sister, what do you have to say about that?"
Cecilia frowns slightly at this before she responds.
"I can only say that my sister died whenever she first thought about betraying the Empire and our family and I am glad that I killed the vile traitor that pretended to be her."
The commander nods slightly with a slight grin.
"That is all cadet, you are dismissed. You will face no disciplinary action for this, but know that I will be watching you closely cadet."
Cecilia snaps a salute before she turns and marches out of the room to head to her locker to get out of her flight suit.
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