Project Boussh: You Can't Go Home Again
by Brad Corletti

Brad returned fire against the nimble TIE fighters as best he could.
He had no illusions of his chances of winning a dogfight against a
craft as maneuverable as a TIE. He fired his full spread of weapons at
the TIEs, hoping for a lucky hit that never came.

The first TIE screamed past his B-wing. Then it exploded.

Brad's B-wing was one of the popular two-seat models. The TIE, not
anticipating that some of the B-wing's weaponry was capable of being
pointed to the rear, was shot down by a spray of deadly-accurate
blaster cannon fire.

Brad smiled. B-wings aren't designed to dogfight. They're designed to
survive attack runs against capital ships, which precludes stopping to
play with their escorts. They're designed so that you don't have to
dogfight.

The other two TIEs screamed past his B-wing on the other side. His
weapons failed to score, this time; The TIEs were now well aware of
his craft's unusual capabilities.

However, they had failed to notice the small A-wing hiding in the
B-wing's sensor shadow. As the two TIEs overshot the B-wing, the
A-wing executed a tight turn and followed them. A few short bursts of
blaster fire and the battle was over, small pieces of TIE armour
raining down from the sky to the uncaring ground below.

"Thanks a bunch, Dorset," Brad transmitted over a tightbeam.

"No problem," she replied, waggling her wings and then leaning over
into a gentle arc, heading for their secret South Australian base.

He turned back towards the farm, his impromptu mission complete. He
parked his B-wing next to the still-smoking hulks of the two X-wings,
and exited his B-wing. He walked into the farm, past Piggy and Nick,
staring at him suspiciously.

He approached the comm consule, with the message "CONSIDER THIS A
WARNING" still displayed.

He smiled smugly, hit reply, and typed "Turn off Caps Lock you
goddamned fools."

He turned, still smiling, and saw Piggy and Nick. Pointing blasters at
him.

He stopped. "What?" he asked, annoyed.

"Where have you been?" asked Nick.

"What does it matter?" Brad shot back.

"It matters because this is a military operation," Piggy cut in.

"I'm not in the military."

"You're part of this mission. If the enemy captured you, they'd have
us all."

"Capture, me?" Brad snorted. "They'd need a helluva lot of firepower
to do that. I fly a B-wing."

"There is an Imperator-class Star Destroyer out there. Is that enough
firepower for you?" Nick asked.

Brad shook his head. "An ISD wouldn't be able to sneak up on me.
Otherwise, I could just escape it. And in case you care, I shot down
two of its compliment."

"You took one B-wing against an unknown number of TIEs without a
wingman."

"Of course not!" Brad replied. Then he winced as if hit. "I mean, hell
yes!" I've always been a lousy liar, he thought to himself.