X-WING

　My promotion to captain had changed my life very little. Maybe I noticed a bit more deference on the part of junior officers, and perhaps a look of jealousy from some of the pilots, but all in all, I was just the same Keyan Farlander I had been before. The one big exception was the meetings.
　Now, I'm not fond of meetings, preferring to spend my time resting, socializing with the other pilots, or practicing in the simulators. But now I was required to attend more planning meetings. That's how I learned of the plan to blow up the Invincible, one of the Emperor's premier Star Destroyers.
　"We've discovered a massive explosive device the Empire has created. We don't know what they want to do with it, but we think that it would be effective against a Star Destroyer."
　We stood around a large war map in one of the planning rooms. Commanders S'man and Lagrane were there, in addition to a few other commanders and captains. Hamo was there as well. I even spotted old Halley Kadorto, sitting in a corner of the room. He waved cheerily, and I waved back quickly.
　"How do you think we should go about securing it!" asked Lagrane.
　"We've intercepted some transmissions, and decoded parts of them. The device is scheduled to be loaded onto a freighter at the Celanon space port."
　"But we'd never get away with a raid there," interjected Marskan, who usually flew with Blue Squadron.
　"That's correct. Celanon is too busy and too well defended," agreed S'man. "However, the freighter appears to be bound for one of the deep-space transfer zones the Empire has been using for the past couple of weeks. The zone is heavily mined, but otherwise lightly defended most of the time. We think that we can get in and capture the freighter before the Imperials can respond.
　"We'll assemble a small team. The first phase is to destroy the minefield. Then we'll send in a boarding party and capture the weapon."
　He turned on the field map and began entering data from the computer. Soon, a large minefield took shape.
　"Let's look at how we'll approach the minefield and where the hyperspace jump points should be," he continued. It was my first taste of mission planning. I began to find it interesting, after all.

　OP 12: Recover Explosive Warhead

　File Name: max20
　Mission Briefing
　Capture a massive explosive device from the Empire. It will be used in a modified shuttle to blow up a Star Destroyer. You will lead this effort. There are 18 mines in the minefield surrounding the target freighter, and they must be cleared so that the shuttle Herald may safely board the freighter and capture the device.
　Farlander's After-Action Report
　During my start-of-mission systems check, I turned away from the minefield and charged the secondary shields on my Y-wing to maximum. Then I headed for the mines, my throttle at one-third and my recharge rates on full. I decided to leave my lasers on single-fire, because a mine would explode with one hit, and I could shoot faster in single-fire mode.
　I came in carefully, bringing up a mine and shooting almost in one quick series of motions. I watched my shield levels carefully, transferring energy from lasers to shields to keep them charged, and redirecting the shield power to keep the coverage even, fore and aft. I had to break off the attack once to reset and recharge.
　As soon as I had cleared all the mines, I switched to ion cannons in dual-fire mode, and proceeded to disable the freighter Gafra. I throttled up to full power, and began to patrol the area white the Herald came in for the capture. We figured that it would take about one minute to complete the capture after docking had been accomplished.
　As soon as the Gafra was captured, the Herald hypered out. At the same time, Imperial reinforcements arrived - two shuttles and two transports. Quickly I determined that the shuttles were going after me, but the transports were after the Gafra. I took evasive maneuvers to avoid fire from the shuttles, but I kept my computer locked on the transports. I switched to torpedoes and set them up in dual-fire mode.
　The transports weren't going to make it easy, and I had to fire my torpedoes at practically point-blank range, keeping one eye on my shields because the shuttles were still after me. I knew that I could not afford to miss, but it was hard to get a solid lock. I concentrated on getting rid of the transports as quickly as possible, and then went after the shuttles. While I was hunting them down, the freighter escaped into hyperspace.
　Debriefing (Win Conditions)
　The FRT Gafra must be recovered.

　When I finished debriefing, I headed back to my cabin, and found a message flashing on the comm. I accessed the message idly, one hand unbuttoning my shirt, when I stopped dead still. The message was from my aunt and uncle on Oorn Tchis!

　　Dear Keyan,

　　We hope that this message finds you well. We thought that you would want to know that your sister is being cared for around the clock. Although she is not responding yet to treatments, the doctors say that she has a strong will, and that we should not give up hope.

　　Rest assured, Keyan, that everything is being done for her. We are truly sorry for all that has happened.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　May the Force be with you,

　The message was signed "Aunt Mimya and Uncle Trinn." It was dated almost a month earlier.