X-WING

　"Farlander! Jan-lo here." The comm link hissed a little, and I could hear many voices in the background. I sat in the darkness of the simulator pod, reviewing some of the most recent missions. "You copy, Keyan!"
　"I'm here," I answered. "What's up!"
　"Problems. I'm working in Operational Section today, and a message just came over that I thought you would want to know about."
　Not liking the urgency in her voice, I said, "Go on. What's the problem!"
　"I think that you should get up here. Your friend Captain Blastwell is in some trouble."
　I was already headed out of the simulator. "I'm on my way," I replied.
　I ran full speed down the hallways, dodging other crew members and receiving a few unpleasant stares, especially from the Quarren crew, who seemed disturbed by humans moving quickly in air. I suspected that I would feel the same way if I were in water with them, but I had no time to worry about such things.
　I ran into Ops and found Jan-lo behind one of the holo readouts. She was already pointing to three ships on the display.
　"See? That's Blastwell's X-wing," she told me. "Those other two are his wingmen. Something's gone wrong with the R2 units, and the ships are out of control."
　"What could be going on!"
　"We think sabotage. Remember the R2s we recently recovered!"
　"Sure. I was on that mission."
　"Well, they may have been tampered with. The engineers are checking out the others right now. In the meantime, you might want to get in a ship and help out your friend."
　"I'm on my way," I called as I sprinted for the door.

　OP 7: Recover Stolen X-Wings

　File Name: max10
　Mission Briefing
　Some R2 units stolen from the Empire had hidden programming that allowed them to take over X-wings. You must track down the X-wings and recapture them. You will drop out of hyperspace less than 1.5 clicks from the three stolen ships. An Imperial Star Destroyer is waiting about 45 clicks further on, and will immediately begin launching pairs of TIE Interceptors. You and two other Y-wing pilots are each responsible for one of the X-wings. Yours is Blue 2.
　Farlander's After-Action Report
　As soon as I hypered in, I quickly checked out my Y-wing's systems as usual, but I kept my recharge rates at normal. I saw immediately that the nearest threat was still far away, and more than anything else, I needed speed to catch up with the rogue X-wings. Fortunately, the X-wings were not traveling at full speed, so I kept my ship at full throttle; a speed of 80.
　I tried to reach Hamo or one of the other pilots on the comm, but got no answer, so I cycled through the target list until I saw X-wing Blue 2 in the CMD. As I came into range, I used my lasers to drop his shields. I fired slowly and carefully untie I saw his shields begin to fail, and then I switched to ion cannons to disable him. After X-wing Blue 2 was disabled, I reset recharge rates to maximum.
　Quickly I cycled forward through the target list until the nearest TIE Interceptor, Alpha 1, was displayed in the CMD. I saw that it was about 33 clicks away. I assigned it to a memory location, then cycled forward to Beta 1, which was also about 33 clicks away. I assigned Beta 1 to the next memory location, and then did the same with Gamma 1 and Delta 1.
　As soon as my shields and cannons were fully charged, I reset the recharge rates to normal and headed directly for Alpha 1. The other Y-wings were busy disabling their target X-wings, and when they finished, they hypered home. That left me alone to stop the TIE Interceptors!
　With Alpha 1 in the CMD, I switched to torpedoes. I fired a head-on torpedo shot at T/I Alpha 1, and then switched to lasers to blast Alpha 2 before he got by me. Next, I increased the recharge rate one step for my cannons.
　I realized that I had to shoot these TIE Interceptors before they got passed me. If even one got by, the helpless X-wings would be destroyed. I still had my torpedoes, however. I knew that if I could get a lock on one of the T/Is before it got more than 1.5 clicks away, I could still shoot it down, but I didn't want to have to do that. I kept checking my Inflight Map screen to be sure that no one slipped by.
　A engaged the Beta group, dogfighting and also using torpedoes if I had a clean lock, and after that the Gamma group. Delta came directly for me, and I had to dogfight their superior fighters; by this time, however, the X-wings had been refitted with new R2s and were headed for the cruiser Maximus, which had jumped in nearby.
　I kept the T/Is busy to be sure that the operation was successful. Then, when I received the Mission Complete message, I hypered home.
　C.O.'s Analysis
　"What was going on out there!" I asked angrily. "Why did the other Y-wings leave the scene with that Star Destroyer nearby!"
　Commander Lagrane held out his hand to quiet me. "We're investigating the incident, lieutenant. I think that it was a communication failure. Fortunately, you were able to take up the slack. Good job."
　"That's not supposed to happen, is it!" I asked, still not appeased.
　"Look, Farlander, you know it's not supposed to happen. We hope that it won't ever happen again. But it did happen, and we're glad that you were there to do the job. Leave it to us. We'll get to the bottom of it."
　Debriefing (Win Conditions)
　The shuttles each must dock with their assigned X-wing. X-wing Blue must be recovered.
　Mission Note: If you'd Iike a little extra dogfighting, try sticking around and shooting TIEs from the Star Destroyer. There are 52 in all. Also note that, as Farlander learned, Y-wings Red 1 and Red 3 are in separate flight groups, and cannot receive wingman commands.