Vader's Calling

Vader, along with his flight group comprised of Tank, Icy, Vapor and Foxhound moved out of the RBL hangers quickly and efficiently. "Hold a tight group as we hyper into the inspection area," Vader informs them.

Azis comes over the RBL Comlink to the pilots. "Good luck, good hunting. May the force be with you!"

With that the group was gone, into the vastness of Hyperspace. Coming out of hyperspace at the drop off point, Vader once again feels the great disturbance in the force that has been nagging at his soul ever since he was informed of this mission from Admiral Mac and Azis.

"Blue leader checking in", Icy sends.

"Red leader, four in the green, hot to trot", reports Tank.

Vader smirks slightly, and then says, "Hold tight to your wings and lets start checking this sector out." The area was spotted with numerous asteroids, some large and others quiet small. Other than that the area seemed void of anything that would cause much attention.

Vader allowed himself to become one with the Force and attempted to locate the area that was causing him the great feeling of unease, pulling at his very soul. From within he was drawn to the farthest most area of asteroids within this sector.

"Red group form up on my right," Vader orders.

"I copy, forming on your right. Out."

"This is Fox, Roger that."

He hears Tank and Foxhound respond, falling neatly into position.

"Blue group form up on my left," Vader orders.

"Roger that," twin replies from Icy and Vapor. Vader then observes them slide into position just as neatly.

"Group I feel a great disturbance in the Force ahead of us, beware and be on your toes."

"Love to Lead, but I can't seem to stand up in this thing." Clangs and bangs are heard as Tank attempts to, literally, be on his toes. Tanks joke loosened up the tension a bit, even as Vader replies, smiling, "Cut the chatter you treadhead."

Vader punches at his console for a moment, and then sends the coordinates to the pilots. As the group navigates through the asteroids they begin to clear the worst of it. Ahead of them an asteroid the size of a small moon grew in their viewscreens.

"Ok group lets break left and low on this one," Vader orders.

The group moves down low on the asteroid, skimming the surface.

Leaving the light side of the asteroid they cross into darkness, the group moving through the area with ease, navigating the area with perfection.

As the group moves out from the darkness into the light the warning alarms begin to chime in all the ships. Vapor looks up into the distant sun, seeing silhouetted by its aurora something that sends chills throughout his body.

"Vader, bogies, 12 o'clock high!!" Vapor yells. Vader looks up to see his destiny.

Chapter 2

Vader, along with the other pilots of the flight group, observed a Super Star Destroyer along with several other Star Destroyers grouped in a loose box formation. Vader, feeling the force pulling him towards the SSD, proceeds to inform the flight group of his plans, what little he had.

"Keep it tight and be prepared to hyper out quick! Tank send the S.A.L.T. report to home base. Fox get us some snap shots of this for the gallery; I gotta feeling this is going to be something to remember."

"Roger, sending SALT report, Time Now!" Tank replied quickly and tightly. He proceeded to send the Size, Activity, Location, and Time to RBL HQ.

"Copy Lead," replied Fox, already snapping pics. Vader then sees a cloud of TIE fighters rushing towards them.

"Lock S-foils to attack positions! Break into your separate flights, cover each other, otherwise we?re finished!" Vader orders and they engage the onrushing TIE fighters with quads blazing.

Icy punctures the lead ship with one deadeye burst to the center cylinder of the nearest TIE. Vapor clips and finishes his wingman with a shot that was just as deadly. Then they fell into a heated discussion with 6 more TIEs as to who were the better pilots, Imps, or Rebs.

Tank and Fox broke apart in what looked like apparent panic and suicide as 4 TIE Interceptors closed in on them. With 2 TIE Interceptors apiece, they rolled, juked, and dove in seemingly desperate maneuvers. Suddenly, they both broke hard right, blasted maneuvering thrusters hard down, forcing them both to pull a half Immelman and sideslip. Their opponents didn't see it, and one of each of their pursuers was scrapped. They flew hard at each other now, Fox and Tank in a chicken run with each other. The 2 TIEs remaining blasted away with quads, when, about .3 Kilometers apart from each other, they both sidslipped and took out the TIEs with quad blasts.

Vader attempted to engage the enemy, but no matter where he went, or whom he aimed at, all of his targets worked hard to avoid him. None even attempted to engage him. Nonetheless, Vader managed to scratch Fox's back of a couple of Squints that had slipped in behind him. Then Vader dove into the thickest fighting, with Tank and Fox on his wings. The three of them blasted, dove, juked, and pulled all the stops as they worked towards Icy and Vapor, who were still having the discussion. Vader fired 3 quad bursts, 3 TIEs vaporized. He took a quick glance; saw that Tank and Fox had destroyed 2 more each. Icy and Vapor pulled out into the clear after finishing up their discussion with the last survivors of the Imperial squadron that the ReBeLs had just demolished.

"Whew, good work guys," Vader said, sweating slightly, smiling.

"Don't break out the champagne yet Lead," Icy called, "Incoming, directly from the SSD. I read...6...18..27...32...My god!!" Her transmission ended, as they all watched in horror as nearly a whole wing of craft were deployed.

"Ok, well, chit," Vader stammered a sec, then said, "We'll plow thru them. One pass, straight through. Once we're clear, we'll hyper to these coordinates?" He punched his console. "Once there, we jump back to base. Go to attack pattern Delta Mark Vega and lets blaze a trail!"

Tank looked at Vader from his Xwing, face grim, but with a glint in his eye.

"Ok, that's it, time to break out the music." With that, Mortal Kombat started to play across the "Secret Squirrel" Comm channel.

All five ships, in wedge formation, engaged the lead TIEs quads flaring, engines hot with exhaust. They flew straight thru the first wave, leaving half a squadron behind, and then into the second as if there was no tomorrow. The music pounded, working much like the Force in coordinating, and speeding their reaction times. They broke thru the second leaving even less than the first, and prepared to meet the final third wave. The two waves the passed were working on coming around, but tangled with each other just as the second wave was turning. Some TIEs crashed, but the majority of the survivors managed to clear the jam. Still, once past the final wave, they wouldn?t catch them.

It at this moment that Vader notices a lone Tie Avenger among the third wave bearing down on his location, the dread growing with in him becomes almost unbearable as his connection to the Force confirms his fear of whom the occupant is within.

Then, a voice from his past comes over the comlink. It was a voice he would never forget, nor can many others who have heard it. It was familier to all, much like Vader's own, yet carried with it a menace and dark power that he never had. It rasped, and metallically spoke clearly and directly to Vader, yet heard by all...

"So, Rebel Vader, you have come to challenge me. As you wish, it will be your last." Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, leered.

Chapter 3

Vader slams his X wing to full throttle, checking the laser recharge rate at the same time, and moves in to destroy the evil sith lord.

"Cover me with the flight group Tank"Vader is mine!" Vader barks. Vader closes in, and is about to fire when he hears "NO! PULL OUT!!PULL OUT!! It's a Trap!!"

Vader lets loose a full quad blast which directly hits the Tie Avenger of the Sith Lord, yet, to Vader s amazement they passed harmless through the ship!

Vader quickly checks his combat control to find no target on his display and an evil voice laughing fills his comlink.

"Muhahahahahhahahaha I have you now you weak pathetic fool!!" Vader instantly recognizes the voice as OBIWAN, the vile person who helped Darth Vader destroy and decimate his home world of Kuul Frijoles .

In horror, Vader realized then that Obi had used a holographic image of the Sith Lord's ship to move him into the line of fire. He snapped the ship in a quick bank to the right, but it was too late, a quad burst slammed into the upper right laser cannon disintegrating it. Shrapnel flew about with several pieces piercing the cockpit one of which hit and penetrated his environmental suit, causing great damage to his right shoulder, and logging itself there.

Vader feels a dark rage starting to come over him, but before the rage could take over he heard a voice call to him.

"Be one with yourself, don't give into hate, for that leads to the Dark side." It was Reprah, the Jedi Master from ReBeL.

Vader then remembered all the training from so many of his fellow pilots whom had helped him become who he was today. Azis, Wildslash, Mac, Zarathos, Dogtooth. He delved deeply into the calm center within him, and he lost his anger to waves of the true Force, guiding him.

"You want to change me?" Vader yells to Obi, "I am a Jedi of the light side, and I will never turn to your evil ways."

"Then you will DIE!" Obi replies in an angry yell.

"That's what you think Obi," Tank flew by, taking a quick quad burst towards the High Admiral. Obi managed to avoid it, but Tank hit his true target, Obiwan's wingman, giving Vader the chance he needed. With Obi's location locked down in his combat computer and his minds eye, Vader moves his X in a quick combination barrel snap roll and moves in and lets loose with a quad burst of his own.

The shot hits the lower left panel of Obi's Tie Interceptor sending it into a spiral. Vader adjusts his X preparing to make the coup de grace when Foxhound comes over the comlink.

"We have to move out of here, we?re getting too caught up in this!"

Vader, knowing that this would put his pilots in jeopardy and make for a failed mission if he didn't, breaks from his attack.

"Tank, are we clear to jump?" Vader asks.

"Roger, clear to go!"

"Then let's move it out of here."

Obi's voice could be heard over the comlink, "Come back and DIE VADER!"

Vader hearing this responds to Obi, "The circle will be complete for when we met I was but the learner now I am the master now.'

"Only a weak master of the light side!" Obi quakes back to Vader.

As the flight group moves into hyperspace they hear Obi in an infuriated voice yell to them, "Bring forth your puny ReBeL Squadron and it will be destroyed as so many before."

Upon exiting out of hyperspace and docking within the hanger of the command ship Freedom the flight group is met by the entire ReBel Squadron. Vader moves from his ship and is greeted by VaderCat whom jumped onto Vader s arms to his delightful surprise.

"You big lug you are going to get yourself killed out there if your not careful," VaderCat tells Vader. Vader feeling the warmth of the blood filling his right glove gently sets VaderCat down and tells her, "Not to fret. I will not die and leave you to kill all that Imperial scum alone." He then joins his flight group and congratulates them on a mission well done.

"Tank, Razor I need to speak with you. Icy, Vapor, Fox go about telling the other pilots of the mission and what had transpired. Tank, Raze, follow me." With that, Vader turns towards the hatchway, Tank and Razor in tow. Icy, Vapor and Fox start to tell the tale of their brush with annihilation, much to the awe of the rest of the squadron.

As Vader leaves the hanger he feels his strength fail. Tank, a combat lifesaver from his homeworld, had picked up on the injury earlier, had already informed Razor to be set, and both were ready. Tank and Razor caught Vader as his body failed him. They managed to keep him from hitting the deck, and placed his weight on their shoulders.

Vader lifted his heavy helmeted head, and said somewhat jokingly, "Get me to the medical bay...and a bacta tank. I...I think I'm in need...need of...some repairs..."

Once the shrapnel had been removed and Vader was recuperating in the bacta tank he hears a tapping on the tank. Opening his eyes he sees Azis staring at him.

"Hmm, Vader under glass." Azis joked, causing Vader to squint at Az. "You ok in there?" Azis asks. Vader gives a nod and a wink to his little brother, seeing a smile and a ton of worry lift from Azis.

After the repairs to his environmental suit and his time out in the bacta tank were complete, he, along with the flight group report to the Admirals office and the flight debriefing commenced.

"We got your report," Mac started, "but, from these numbers, there are far more Imperials than Intel warned us about."

Tank spoke up, "There was plenty of them, that's for certain. They had also improved their training. This war will be just as hard as the last, I feel" The rest of the flight nodded their heads somberly.

"What bothers me, YUB!" Aslan spoke up, "is how did OBS manage to trick you into going there" The holographic image is easy, but how could they tempt you into a trap through the Force?"

Vader sat silently, then said, "He was there."

All eyes turned to him. "Say that again V?" Zara said incredulously.

"He was there." Vader spoke with conviction. "I felt him. He is more powerful than I realized. He was able to project his presence inside the hologram from the Super Star Destroyer. I should have realized it sooner, I felt him there first, but when I saw the Avenger, and felt what I believed to be his presence within, I became convinced that he was in that ship."

Heavy silence descended. "Darth Vader, alongside OBS" where did Intel go wrong??" Vapor asked. "I thought they had him pinned as being at Coruscant with Palpatine??"

Tank snorted, "Murphy's Rules of Combat, number 10; that can go wrong, will go wrong."

Fox turned towards him, saying, "I thought Number 10 was Try to look unimportant because the bad guys may be low on ammo?"

"Oh yea, hmm," Tank bends his head thoughtfully, "Maybe it was Number 20.."

"No, that's the one that states that If the enemy is in range, SO ARE YOU!!" Fox corrected.

"That's right. Well, anyways, you need to take Intel with a grain of salt, Vape. There is no such thing as Military Intelligence." He said grimly, dark memories coming to his mind from his personal experience with poor intel.

Mac, Azis, Crys, Aslan, and Zara looked at each other, with Mac sighing, "Well, we best break the news to the rest of the squad. But I'm certain we will prevail. Dismissed"

"Ahhh, before we go could you tell me one thing," Vape asked.

"Sure, what is it?" They all turn towards him.

"Who is Murphy?" He asked, seriously.

Everyone started to smile. Icy contained a chuckle.

Tank spoke up, deadpanned, "Murphy was a grunt [i.e. a ground pounder]."

Everyone broke out in laughter, minus Vapor, who was as dumbfounded as before.

The call went out for the squadron to assemble in the Hanger. Once ReBeL was assembled in the hanger Vader ducks as he enters through the doorway.

"ReBeL.Atteeeen-hue!"

The Squadron snaps to attention. Vader moves to the podium and looks over the squadron.

"ReBeL we have a war of wars to be fought and the freedom of the galaxy depends on us."

The hanger explodes in the great ReBeL call, which rattled the durasteel plating of the hanger. Vader waits till the Squadron quiets and continues. "This evil which has invaded our galaxy and will destroy all of the home worlds here if not stopped we must prevail and remove this Imperial scum. And this evil is known as OBS."

Chants and battle cries fill the hanger from the squadrons of ReBeL.

"There is one of them out there flying a Tie Interceptor with skulls and crossbones on its panels" leave him to me," Vader says in his metallic voice, "I have to finish what was started a long time ago. Prepare your ships for battle and May The Force Be With You!"