Star Wars: Heir to the Sith (Part 1) (#Wattys2018 shortlist)

Chapter 29: By the time she landed, she was beyond any conscious feeling.

When Ella opened her eyes, she saw Arnaud's armoured speeder, now a burning wreck. Something that had once been human hung limply over the side, skinless, eyeless, a body burned by such temperature as to carbonise it in an instant. As she watched, its torso slipped forward and fell to the blackened grass in a heap of featureless ash.

"Ella! Get out of here!" Arnaud yelled. "Princess, go with her. Keep her safe!"

The shrill shriek of a space craft flew low overhead and the unmistakable sight of a TIE fighter raced toward them for second pass.

But this time the security team were already moving. Their speeder gained height and turned as the TIE rained a barrage of fire toward it. Its armoured side took a hit and the vehicle spun, crashing into the ground upturned. Inside, the three crew members scrambled to get out.

Ella saw that the TIE was preparing for another pass, and this time there was no chance for the men still inside.

She leapt onto her speeder and started it up, pulling up hard to gain altitude. She saw Tayre do the same, but her start was slower and her speeder rumbled to an uneasy lift off, slow and ungainly and barely controlled. Then she noticed it: Tayre's speeder had been seared by the TIE's first pass. Sparks cascaded from the melted starboard flank.

The princess's speeder turned in a wide circle, unresponsive to her commands.

Ella grit her teeth. The Empire had done this to her friends. First it had been Valsum and now it was Arnaud's security team, men who she had known for years and had delighted in out witting, but friends nonetheless.

The Empire. And here they were. A single TIE.

This would be her first, she swore.

She activated her herd cannon, well aware of the weapon's grotesque inadequacy of facing off against the TIE, but also aware that she didn't have any other option.

She set it to full power and turned to prick the TIE's attention away from the men struggling to free themselves.

***

Neerada was vaguely amused by the speeder that turned to intercept her. She knew its intention at once: to distract her from finishing the damaged security speeder and the men inside.

As it loosened a blast on its insignificant cannon, she decided to accept the pilot's foolhardy challenge. She had another idea for dealing with the men on the ground, one that would provide her with a suitable test.

Neerada flicked the stick to the left and the right in quick succession. The TIE wobbled ever so slightly, avoiding the speeder's desperate shot by an easy yard.

But now it was her turn. The small agile speeder was not an easy target, but then she was no ordinary pilot.

She gave three quick blasts of her dual cannons. The first she knew the speeder pilot would alter course to avoid. Only to fly into the second or third bolts and find themselves disintegrated.

As soon as she fired she turned away, once more heading back to the men now exiting the overturned craft.

But a second later the TIE's console gave an impatient beep.

She had been hit. By a shot from the herder cannon!

Anger welled inside her. The fact that her quarry had avoided her sortie impressed her, but the fact that she had been hit sent her into a rage. It was a matter of pride to her that no one save Lord Vader himself had been able to tag her in all her engagements, either in training or in real combat.

And now a wayward princess with no understanding of the galaxy had managed to deliver a hit!

Neerada took evasive action. She knew she didn't have to, not from the puny cannon on the speeder, but it was to test herself and her foe, to see who had the better skill.

But before she would focus entirely on her duel with the speeder, she did have one important enemy to neutralise.

Neerada turned her attention back to the clearing, and the spinning speeder at its centre.

***

Tayre clung on for dear life. There was nothing more she could do. The speeder spun in a quick circle, angled downward, oblivious to the world around it. She had to duck to avoid having her skull crushed by a low branch.

"Cut the power!" Arnaud screamed from below her.

Tayre pressed the button, pulled the stick back and forward, angled her weight into the pedals. Nothing.

The speeder spiralled at a ninety-degree angle to the ground, slowing suddenly, killing her momentum with an unusually jarring shock that told her the dampening fields were failing.

"This is getting uncomfortable . . ." she muttered through gritted teeth. She clipped her seat belt free and made ready to jump now it had slowed.

As she tensed her legs to do so, the ominous sound of the TIE fell over the dimly lit clearing. She had time to glance up as the twin cannons unleashed a single blast straight at the ground below her.

By the time she landed, she was beyond any conscious feeling.

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I have to admit to enjoying the opening paragraph of this chapter - the way the TIE has turned one of the men to ash is a jarring and horrifying visualisation of war. It provides Ella with the anger to make the dangerous choice of engaging an enemy far superior to her rather than carrying out the more experienced Arnaud's command to flee. Impetuous youth! But having a character make a (possible) mistake is a key part of character growth, and it works best when readers would imagine themselves making the same choice in the same circumstance - run, or help people you've known for years and who you count as friends. It's not an easy choice to make, especially in the heat of battle. What would you have done?