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Archivist's note: Written for Moments of Rapture's fifth anniversary.
Shooting Fish in a Barrel
The first thing Heero heard when they came out of hyperspace was the static-shrouded sound of Duo's voice, swearing softly in his helmet speaker. His targeting computer started beeping rapidly, blinking red-to-green and back again. In the space in front of them the Eliminator lay, fat as a pregnant bantha, squints and eyeballs spewing out of her belly. Three TIES were swooping towards him and Heero veered left in a long arc, away from the rest of the squad. The eyeballs lined up behind him and he let himself smile a grim little smile, pulled back on the throttle and shot backwards, through their formation. And then he pulled the trigger. Explosions shuddered the space around him, and Heero murmured, "Like shooting fish in a barrel." In his helmet speaker, Heero heard Trowa ask, "What's a fish?" "It's an animal that lives on planets that have an actual climate," Duo replied for him. "Desert is a climate," Trowa replied evenly. "Now, a Corellian pub crawl -- that's not a climate. Perhaps if you indulged in those less often, you'd know the difference." "Corellian pub crawls are a way of life, my friend. Besides, how anyone can stand to live on a rock like Tatooine without being constantly drunk is beyond me." "Can you ladies finish your home world pissing match some other time?" Even over the tinny speaker, Wufei sounded irritated. A glance in his direction and Heero saw a squint with it's engine spitting flames, tumbling ass-over-teakettle out of the battle zone. "Like maybe when we're not trying to get our asses shot out of the sky?" "Wufei's right -- cut the chatter. Rogue One, Rogue Two -- take out the deflector shield generators. Rogue Three, Rogue Five -- you're with me." Heero smiled again. "Copy that, Rogue Four." He watched as Quatre's X-Wing veered off from the group, Trowa and Wufei lining up in a tight formation behind him. "Ready?" Duo's voice again, crackling in his ear. "Ready." Heero pulled the stick to the right, speeding towards the top of the Star Destroyer. "I've got the aft." "I've got the port," Duo replied. In a loose tandem, they flew. A shot from an ion cannon skated just past Heero's wing, made his Astromech shriek a shrill, mechanical noise. "Easy, there, Jaybee -- we're okay." A series of beeps informed him that the droid rather thought otherwise, and for good measure, insulted Heero's flying skills, his upbringing, and his family line. "Don't talk about my mother like that, or next time I'll make sure you're directly in the line of fire." Another series of beeps, followed by a flat, spitting sound, and Heero grinned a bit and took the X-Wing into a barrel roll, which only made the droid complain some more. Duo's voice cut in over the helmet speaker, short and clipped. "Rogue One, you've picked up a couple of squints -- on your tail at three and six o'clock!" Heero turned to look over each shoulder. "I can't see them -- three and six?" "Bank right -- I'm on my way." Heero dipped and spun, and the Astromech began to screech again -- warnings this time. Heero grit his teeth and throttled hard to the right, just as Duo sped by him, flying directly towards the two Interceptors on his tail, laser cannons lighting the sky. Two loud explosions went off behind him, and as he turned his ship back on course he saw Duo lining up at his wing. "Nice shooting, Rogue Two," Trowa said. "Yes, well done," Quatre added. "We're getting into position now, ETA sixty seconds." "Copy that, Rogue Four. We'll have those shields down in a sec." Heero glanced out his cockpit window and saw Duo looking back at him as he spoke. Duo grinned, and Heero couldn't help but smile back. "Back on course, Rogue One?" "Copy that, Rogue Two." Heero lined his ship up with the Eliminator's aft deflector shield generator, watched his targeting computer go to green, and fired. The grey metal ball exploded into flames -- a second later, the other one did as well -- and he could hear Duo whoop in victory. "Got it! Go get 'em, Rogue Four!" "Copy that!" Heero imagined he could hear the other three's ships, engines screaming across space, towards the open and now unshielded docking bay for the Eliminator's fleet of TIES. Each ship strafed the wide opening of the bay -- Quatre and Trowa moving in a modified X-formation across the front while Wufei lined up his shot. He heard Wufei's whisper -- "For Alderaan" -- and then the missiles were on their way, screaming into the hanger. When they exploded, the hanger almost looked like a mouth closing, collapsing in upon itself. The Eliminator was bubbling like flowing lava -- popping, burning -- and then Quatre was saying, "Rogue group -- we're clear! Make your jumps now!" One by one, the X-Wings became streaks across the sky, leaving a ball of fire behind.
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