It had been an interesting couple of days for Malvar Sabre. Following his successful completion of his first simulated mission for the rebellion, his good spirits had got the better of him, and he had found himself in the Bar and Grill buying drinks for everyone. To the best of his knowledge, that night was best forgotten; except for the unfortunately vivid flashbacks he had of copious amounts of Lomin ale, Whyren's reserve, and also a particularly steamy holovid starring a morally loose Twi-lek dancer. Malvar could remember, with a great deal of regret, several female pilots getting up and leaving as the dancer started to do odd things with her 'lekku', or brain tails. He made a note to apologise to them at the first opportunity.
Still, Malvar had recovered from that night, and had since been logging a great deal of hours in the simulators themselves, but also in the star fighter tactical library that was hidden away, deep within the bowels of the Odin. Figuring that reading up on strategies, and explanations of past combat situations was a good way to be able to evaluate current combat encounters, Malvar valued the time he spent both there and in the simulators. Also, Malvar's feelings of displacement, of being friendless in enemy territory were dissipating. The IBG's warm welcome had almost made the corridors of the Odin seem like home, and Malvar was quickly warming to the old MC-90 Calamari Cruiser. Malvar sometimes thought that the ship was almost alive; with the telltale throb of power conduits sounding strangely like a heartbeat.
It was late one night when Malvar was awakened by a buzzing at his door. Climbing sleepily out of bed, Malvar answered to find an extremely young looking cadet standing there. Malvar appraised the cadet with a somewhat critical eye. He remembered this boy; he had come in with the latest batch of cadets, "fresh meat" some of the more experienced pilots called them. Struggling to remember the pilot's name, Malvar remembered he had only actually been in the academy for two weeks himself. Suddenly Malvar recalled. "How can I help you Kal?" The new recruit shifted perceptibly under Malvar's gaze, before replying, "I was wanting to go to the mess, to get some food. But err�" Embarrassment showed in Kal's eyes as he continued, "I kinda got lost. I just knocked on the nearest door. I'm sorry to wake you, it's all my fault�." Malvar smiled as he leaned against the doorframe. "I'll tell you what Kal. You stand out here for a minute and I'll put on some clothes. Then, I'll take you down to the mess. I could do with some of the slop they serve down there myself. Ok?" Kal smiled back at Malvar as he nodded "ok".
The next morning Malvar was up bright and early. He had planned to log in some sim time flying against Kal, who, after getting some food, had turned out to be as cocky as Malvar expected a young pilot to be. However, upon arriving at the sim chambers, Malvar discovered that Kal was not there. Instead, Major Savage stood. "You're early. You're not due to fly for another 30 minutes". Malvar's heart jumped into his throat at exactly the time his brain clicked on. He had indeed been scheduled to fly his second recorded simulator exercise today, in fact had arranged it personally, apart from the other cadets, with no announcements given as before, and in all the commotion the previous night had forgotten. Getting over his initial panic, Malvar regained his composure. He was an IBG member, expected to face all obstacles without a flinch. Smiling wildly, Malvar exclaimed "Really? How about we just start now?"
Immediately regretting his brash words, Malvar slowly lowered himself into the restricting sim cockpit. He couldn't go back now. Hammering at the buttons with frustration, Malvar wondered if he would ever fly a simulated exercise that he was really prepared for. Immediately, the screen in front of him changed to a simulated hanger bay.
As in his first recorded simulator exercise, Malvar was surprised to find himself in the cockpit of an X-Wing belonging to another of the famous squadrons of the IBG; Phalcun Squadron. Malvar remembered reading about their history, about the fact that they were once an independent group of pilots, and had joined the IBG as a squadron, a rare thing to happen. As interesting as this was to Malvar, he had little time to consider it as he quickly piloted the ship out of the hanger bay and out toward the designated Nav Buoy, to his first target area.
Sliding the nimble spacecraft into hyperspace, Malvar again wondered who was piloting the assisting ship. Someone good, he hoped, their support here could work well for his mission scores. With a bang, Malvar reverted back into real space, feeling a slight disorientation before quickly gathering his senses, and projecting them to take stock of the situation. Before he could finish, however, the situation lit up Malvar's shields. Directly in front of him, bearing forward ominously, was a multi-turreted system patrol craft, designated TK-609. Remembering his experiences with proton torpedoes in the first simulation, Malvar pushed all of his power into his engines, avoiding the incoming fire, and rocketed over the hull of the large craft, inspecting it as he went. Dropping behind the laser-spewing foe, Malvar flicked to torpedoes, and fired a linked pair, and then two individual warheads at the engines of the weaving enemy. A rear laser turret, which was also hammering Malvar's X-Wing, picked off the first pair but the second pair slipped through the gap, exploding with a blooming cloud of red flame. Bringing back his lasers, Malvar flicked to single fire, and barraged the rear of the weakening craft. Malvar gasped. His shield readouts were getting dangerously low. Thirty-four per cent, twenty-two per cent, six per cent� and then suddenly the system patrol craft was gone, it's remnants a collection of gases and dust. Malvar had little time to consider this small victory, as a swarm of assault gunboats, designated Rho, squadron, swooped lazily about, firing at him. Turning quickly, Malvar snap-rolled in behind a Gunboat, matched speed and bombarded the considerably less manoeuvrable craft with his now dual-firing lasers. Finishing off the one opponent, Malvar recited his litany as he duelled with the rest of the craft - "Full speed, get behind them, match speed, stay with them, destroy them, Full speed�". Soon, the Gunboats were all just a memory as Malvar found himself heading for the next hyper buoy.
The journey through hyperspace was uneventful, as one hopes it always will be, thought Malvar. He had heard from many a soul the stories about people who had hit hyperspace with no exit vector. About how they had disappeared, and about the foul places that everybody supposed they must have ended up in. Still, Malvar thought, this was just a simulation, what could hitting a random hyperspace vector do to an advanced simulation computer? He didn't want to find out, pay in the IBG wasn't exactly great - i.e. it didn't exist. If he ruined any equipment, he had no way of paying for it. It would be a one-way ticket out of the IBG. It was odd the way the mind wandered during hyperspace, Malvar thought.
Abruptly, at least for Malvar, his X-Wing rushed back into the cold expanses of reality, a fact made all the more clear by the Corvette Trafalgar, and three gunboats designated Defender that were shown on Malvar's targeting computer, along with a bulk freighter called Hobart and a storm trooper transport identifying itself as JM-342. Pulling up speedily, Malvar ignored the fighters for the moment, leaving his wingman to deal with them, and pushed his fighter toward the closest inspection target, the freighter. Skimming over the freighter's hull, Malvar poured laser fire into it, taking it down to roughly fifty per cent shields before he was forced to loop over and take on a Gunboat that was diving toward him. Closing the distance, Malvar watched the Gunboat's shields flicker as his wingman lit it up with fire from his own lasers. Finally coming into range, Malvar finished off the wounded Gunboat with a quick burst from his itchy trigger finger. Instantly, gliding through the wreckage of the gunboat, Malvar's damage sensors glowed eerily. It was the corvette, firing wildly at the two dodging X-Wings. Ignoring this danger, Malvar spiralled closer to the corvette, inspected it then ran for his life as a fresh wave of three gunboats appeared from nowhere. Looping, spiralling and weaving like there was no tomorrow, Malvar engaged the gunboats as he was still under the corvette's fire, using his speed as a deadly advantage. Soon, one gunboat was down, and then two. Suddenly, Malvar was clear of the corvette's firepower, with one gunboat left. A sadistic glow on his face, he settled in behind the now panicking gunboat. Switching his lasers over to quad fire, Malvar smote the gunboat with his linked lasers, eating the "workhorse of the imperial navy" alive with his clinical precision. Clearing the debris from the doomed-since-it-went-into-space ship, Malvar was presented with yet another opportunity. He had arrived behind the storm trooper transport. Praising the gods of luck, Malvar inspected it and subsequently picked it off with grim satisfaction. Remembering the now defenceless and severely weakened freighter, Malvar turned back toward the freighter. Mere minutes later, it also was now the term that Malvar had heard so many space jockeys refer to their prey as: "Space dust". High on a rush of adrenaline and success, Malvar decided quickly that going up against the corvette was not worth the effort, better to get the mission over with. This thought echoing in his head, Malvar reached the third and final hyper buoy, and raced into hyperspace.
Traversing the depths of hyperspace, Malvar reflected on the clarity that these moments of rest gave him between combat. Here was sure that he would encounter more resistance in the next area, without the assistance of his limited powers. But while he was waiting for that to arrive, he contemplate in a state of almost total relaxation. Without warning, a question entered Malvar's head. Why was the hyperspace tunnel always blue and white? He was sure there was some scientific explanation, but he had no-one near to present it to him. In different universes, were there different coloured hyperspace tunnels? Did the people in those universes know about hyperspace? As usual, Malvar had no answers, and precious little to consider even the questions, as real space arrived around him.
As predicted, the Imps were out in force in this third and final patrol area. Malvar was highly amused to find himself wedged between a Corvette entitled Romer, and it's partner, the Carrack Cruiser Judicator. And in between them, patrolling the narrow gap, were three gunboats designated Defender, and looking slightly out of place, an escort shuttle named QS-877. Sizing up his options, Malvar decided it would be best to deal with the identification of the larger ships first, and then engage the fighters. Hurtling toward the Corvette, Malvar span loosely, always ready to break and roll if the turbo-laser fire looked like it was getting too close to him. Entering identification range, Malvar cast a hasty eye over the results before flicking his craft up and over into a course that took him back toward the imposing shape of the Carrack. Crossing the expanse, Malvar realised that he was not going to get across without engaging the Gunboats that had closed up on him and were determined to stop him going about his business. His aim to surprise the pilots of the Gunboats, Malvar swung about and headed toward them, as they closed to 0.5 clicks. Switching his lasers over to the cycling single-fire, he fired randomly at the approaching star fighters. As expected, they broke off, giving Malvar more than ample time to pick a gunboat, drop behind it and finish it off. Leaving the other two for the moment, Malvar punched the engines and headed straight for Carrack, which was now enveloping the view ahead with stripes of green death. Reaching inspection range, Malvar totally ignored the results. He had more important things to worry about.
Heading toward the edge of the overlapping turbo-laser fire, Malvar felt his ship rock as it was attacked by a plethora of foreign laser blasts. Checking his surroundings, he found that the escort shuttle was perilously close, and trying to get closer. Evading the hot spray whistling around his ship, Malvar turned to face the shuttle, and knifed his ship forward, single-firing lasers gnawing away at the problem that was resolving itself before his eyes. Arcing over the escort shuttle, Malvar had time to register that he had identified the craft before he was behind it, and firing lethal bolts into the unprotected engines on the vessel. Then, in the glimpse of an eye, the ship deconstructed, reducing itself to its component parts as yet more gunboats whined past the recovering X-Wing. However, Malvar was more than prepared for this, and dodged professionally as his litany came back into play. "Full speed, get behind them, match speed, stay with them, destroy them, Full speed�". Being out of range of the two remaining capital ships, this sequence was fairly easy to complete, especially with the help of his wingman. Tired, but joyful at what he considered a good performance, Malvar decided now would be a good time to retire from the field of battle. Gently swinging the craft, he cruised across the distance toward the hyper buoy, and one uneventful hyperspace journey later, arrived at the dark and gloomy IBG fleet.
Flicking a succession of switches, Malvar ended the simulation program, stretching to return some feeling to his tired muscles. Though he had only been in the simulator roughly fifteen minutes, to Malvar it seemed like a lifetime. Opening his tightly closed eyes, Malvar took in the now presented mission statistics that the computer had presented on the shiny view screen.
Completed Simulation Readout: Patrol 2
Simulation Settings:
Difficulty: Medium
Collisions: On
Invulnerability: Off
Unlimited Weapons: Off
Simulation Statistics:
Craft Flown: X Wing: Phalcun 1
Mission Status: Completed Successfully
Mission Time: 15: 39 m : s
Score: 1612 Points
Bonus: 0
Kills:
Fairly decent scores, Malvar considered. They were not the best that he had ever seen recorded, but adequate. Downloading the information into his datapad, Malvar opened the sim cockpit's hatch and stepped wearily out. As usual, Major Savage was standing there, an unreadable expression on his face. Smiling somewhat smugly, Malvar handed his datapad over. "There you go sir". Savage replied with an equally curt "Thankyou Cadet". Turning to the exit, his thoughts on the bed that awaited him in his quarters, Malvar stopped short as Kal sauntered in. "Hey Malvar, ready to take me on?" Inwardly sighing, Malvar replied. "Yeah, anytime you're ready to get beaten�"
A Word document compilation featuring these mission reports and my bio is available on the Downloads page, zipped for convenience.
