Chapter 2

Arabella squinted as she stepped outside of her father’s workshop, the sun already a harsh glare reflecting off of the plasteel walls of the surrounding buildings, signaling the beginning of another long day of sorting through crates of scrap for her dad. Someone had recently brought in an old airspeeder that needed a lot of work done before being considered air worthy again, and her dad was more than happy to take on the job since longer jobs meant more money. It was some sort of cargo hauler, a T-47, maybe? Whatever it was, the ion drive was shot and the repulsor lift was only operating at 33% capacity, reducing it to nothing more than a highly stylized repulsorcart. However, today was going to be different. Two weeks ago, Arabella took her final test for the open starfighter pilot position in the Obatala Defense Force, and today was the day they would be making their decisions on who made the cut and who didn’t. She felt she had out performed the other pilots in her class, but that was not her decision to make. Instead, her fate was in the hands of the legendary starfighter pilot and war veteran Captain Daryl Davis.

“Bella!” Her father called out from behind her. “Has Gruff come by yet? He promised he’d be sure to get me some coolant lines with the next batch of scrap.”

She looked as far down either side of the street as she could and frowned. The traffic was lighter than usual, so it was unlikely Gruff had been delayed by that, but still, there was no sign of the blue skinned twi'lek nor his orange repulsor truck anywhere. For as long as Arabella could remember, Gruff had been bringing her dad “premium scrap” three times a week at the crack of dawn. The scrap mostly consisted of broken components of various machines and vehicles, but occasionally they’d get entire engines or other interesting parts. Of course, the engines were always broken, but still, they were engines none the less, and her father was great at breathing life into them. She turned back inside.

“No, not yet.” She called back into the living space of the shop.

Her father rounded the corner from the kitchen and stooped through the doorway leading into the entryway. A thin layer of gray hair covered the top of his head, and a well groomed mustache crawled across his upper lip. The brand new knee-high boots he had bought just last week already looked well loved, and the fresh stains on his jumpsuit indicated that he had already been working hard this morning. He had mentioned the night before that the repulsor lift on the T-47 was likely overheating and that he was going to completely overhaul the cooling system in the morning.

“That’s a shame,” he started, “the lines on that speeder I brought in are completely corroded. Likely because the previous mechanic used the wrong type of coolant, but you can’t blame them. They probably didn’t have much of a choice. You see, the coolant that was in there was ammonia based and was actually designed for use in starships, but the coolant lines found in Karydee repulsorlifts are made of rubber, which tends to dry up and crack when exposed to ammonia.”

Arabella cracked a smile and laughed. Her dad was the biggest nerd she knew. “Only you would care to investigate something as dull as that, dad.”

Arabella heard the sound of a repulsor truck behind her, signaling that Gruff had finally arrived. Her and her dad came out to greet him, expecting the usual warm greeting he would give them. Instead, Gruff looked… troubled. Or worried, maybe? Arabella had always struggled with reading human faces, let alone alien faces.

“Gruff! I was just starting to get worried.” Her dad exclaimed, clasping Gruff’s forearm. “Did the gate guards give you trouble on your way back from your latest scrap run?”

Gruff patted him on the back. “I apologize for my tardiness, Howzer. I received some… troubling… news from my family on Ryloth. I won’t bore you with the details, but it isn’t looking good.

The two men broke their embrace and moved towards the rear of the truck. “I’m sorry to hear that, friend. If you’d like to talk more about it later, you’re welcome over any time.”

Arabella followed them to the rear of the truck, where Gruff was pulling the first of two repulsor carts, each loaded with four medium sized crates, down from the truck and onto the ground. She took the first cart and began pushing it out of the way.

“Thanks, Howzer. I might take you up on that tonight.” Gruff responded, his face looking slightly more at ease, but still clearly pained.

Her father took hold of the second cart and began pushing it towards the garage, and Arabella followed. Together, they unloaded the 8 crates into the back corner of the garage and returned the carts to the back of Gruff’s truck. Gruff and her father exchanged a few more words before going their separate ways. However, before Gruff could leave, an airspeeder came down from the skylane above and landed right in front of his truck, effectively blocking him in. Gruff looked like he was going to complain, but then he, Arabella, and Howzer noticed the ODF insignia on the sides of the speeder. Moments later, the rear gullwing door opened, and out stepped a man in an ODF officer’s uniform. He cleared his throat as he walked down the ramp, scrolling lazily through his datapad.

“Ahem, is Miss Arabella Eagan present?” He started in a nasally voice.

Arabella stepped forward and met the man’s gaze. “Yes, sir. Right here.”

“Good. You have been selected to join the Obatala Defense Force as one of just 36 starfighter pilots. Congratulations. This is an exceedingly rare position to hold and one you should be proud of.” He then directed his attention to her father. “I hope you shouldn’t be needing her anytime soon, Mr. Eagen. I must take her away immediately for fitting and further training. She starts immediately.”

“Not at all, sir.” He responded before turning to Arabella, and wrapping her up in a warm hug. “I am so proud of you, Belle. It looks like all of those joyrides I let you take in other people’s speeders paid off after all!” He said, letting out a hearty chuckle as he released her from the embrace.

A tear fell from her eye, and she smiled up at him. “Thank you, dad. I couldn’t have done it without you.” She looked over to the officer who was reading through some memos on his datapad. “I better go, I’ll see you later!”

She didn’t exactly know when later would be, but she still wanted to reassure him that she would be back sometime soon. She had heard that the ODF kept new pilots on base for a few weeks for training, and once that training was complete, they would be assigned week long shifts to stay on base and ready for action.

“I know, sweetie. Take care.” He replied, waving her goodbye.

She made her way to the air speeder and the officer who was now waiting rather impatiently. Before ascending up the ramp and into the speeder, she waved one last goodbye to her father. She followed the officer up and into the speeder, and sat directly in front of him. She felt… excited, but terrified at the same time. She had always wanted to be a pilot, but she always figured she’d be flying some freighter, not a starfighter! Her mind raced. Would she be flying one of the new N-1s they just recently got from the Naboo? Or maybe one of the surplus V-wings the Empire let them buy? She thought about it for a minute, and decided maybe she didn’t want to fly a V-wing. They had to be at least 15 years old by now since they were relics of the Clone Wars, but on the other hand, they were good enough that they still saw use in the Imperial Navy even after the mass adoption of the TIE fighter. But still, who in their right mind would pick a V-wing over an N-1? After a few more minutes of deliberation, she decided she probably wouldn’t have a choice.

Either would be good. I just want to fly. She thought to herself.

As the door closed, and the air speeder took off, the officer introduced himself. “I suppose introductions are in order. I am Lieutenant Gren, and a member of starfighter command. I was once an officer aboard one of our once-great fleet’s Dreadnought heavy cruisers, but now, I assist Captain Davis with organizing our two wings of starfighters, as well as our pilots.”

“Pleased to meet you, Lieutenant.” She replied. “I am Arabella Eagan.”

He shot her a glare. “I know. You scored one of the highest scores we’ve ever seen on the Koromoah Run simulation. The only people who have scored higher are seasoned vets of the Clone Wars. It was… impressive. Most impressive.”

She humbly nodded her head and thought back to her final test– a simulation of a real battle that was fought over Obatala between the Republic-backed ODF fleet and a Separatist fleet. It was called the Koromoah Run. In the simulation, she was tasked with aiding the Koromoah, the old ODF fleet’s flagship, in assaulting a Separatist Lucrehulk battleship. Specifically, she had to escort a trio of Y-wing bombers to the monstrous ship’s shield generators so the Koromoah could shred it to pieces with its turbolaser batteries. In the real battle, it was a young Captain Davis running escort duty. Of course, the simulation was doomed from the start. There was no way any lone pilot could safely escort a trio of slow Y-wings through swarms of Vulture droids and Tri-fighters, and when the Y-wings were predictably shredded to pieces, Arabella took matters into her own hands and flew into the main hangar bay of the Lucrehulk, destroyed the reactor from the inside, and almost escaped with her life. Almost, being the key word. This was exactly how it played out for Captain Davis back then, except he actually made it out alive.

After a short and awkward ride, Arabella stepped out of the air speeder, and was greeted by Captain Davis himself. She was completely star struck. She spent her whole life reading stories about Davis and his exploits; he was easily the best pilot in the entire Mid Rim, maybe even this side of the galaxy. She stood in front of him and saluted.

“At ease, cadet.” He said with a light chuckle. He then extended his hand to her. “I’m Captain Davis, but something tells me you already knew that.”

She couldn’t hold back her excitement as she shook his hand, perhaps a little too eagerly. “Yes, I’ve read all about you! I’m Arabella Eagen.”

“Glad to meet you, at last. Ever since I saw your final score in that simulation, I knew I just had to have you join us. I’ve seen plenty of people attempt to follow my footsteps by flying into the heart of a Lucrehulk, but I’ve never seen anyone else actually make it to the reactor. Of course, you didn’t survive the explosion, but that was just bad luck.”

She blushed at the compliment from her childhood hero. “Thank you sir, I didn’t think it was that special.”

“Don’t get all bashful on me now, let me show you around. The dorms are just over-” Captain Davis was cut off by the blaring alarms coming from the hangar behind them. He reached for his commlink and shouted into it. “What’s going on? More pirates?”

The man on the other side of the commlink responded, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying.

“What? A Star Destroyer? Here?” He responded. “They say they’re here to help? Ok then. It isn’t like we could stop them anyways. Shut off the alarms.”

A few moments later, the alarms stopped blaring. Arabella looked to the sky. She didn’t know what she was expecting to see, it was evident that the Star Destroyer only just entered the system and she had no hope of seeing it from down here. “I guess the Governor got his wish, huh?” She said to Captain Davis.

“Yeah, and we’ve just been ordered to roll out the red carpet. You don’t have a uniform yet so you’re going to be watching from afar. Follow me. Lieutenant, ready the rest of the pilots. Tell them to wear their formals. We have less than an hour.”