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Seijoutai Priire was whistling, with the cheery sound filling the cockpit and driving the other Sailor Senshi up the wall. The normally tolerant Zyta looked like she was contemplating homicide. Priire’s whistling trailed off into silence as she noticed all the other girls glaring at her. “You know, as nice as my Black Fire Dreamer is, I think she might be a little small. She only holds about 12 or so. We’ve all getting a case of cabin fever,” Priire said, looking around at the multitude of people.
“I believe so,” the Jedi agreed. He had been keeping quietly to himself the past few days. “You, however seem to be having fun.”
The tall blonde shrugged. “I’m used to breathing down my co-worker’s necks. Not literally!” She grinned at the interested looks some Sailors gave her. “Close quarters are par for miners and pilots.”
Mori Hoshi agreed. “Kashyyyk had big wide spaces. I miss them.”
A green haired girl peeked through the door. “Alleviate this we must. How?”
Priire flipped a few switches and corrected the course a little. “Easy. I’ll call Coru.” Priire rolled the R, giving the nickname a pretty undertone.
“Who?” Kyoko asked. She was tying knots in a piece of string, looking bored.
“Her name is actually Fuukoo Ippin. She has her own ship called The Crystal Prism. I’ll call her up and we’ll make ourselves a little convoy.” Priire laughed. “I figure we’d need someone trustworthy. Coru and I go back a long ways.” The blonde got a speculative look in her eye as she remembered…
Her fiery red hair stood out among all the miners. Another girl, about her age, dressed in a black flight suit, walked over to her. “Hi!” the blonde said. “I’m Priire.”
“Hi Priire,” the redhead said. “I’m Ippin.”
“Ippin. That’s pretty,” Priire said conversationally. She had dusty black gloves on, and dust on her black boots.
“It means Article of Rare Beauty or Gem. Your name is nice too.”
“Mine means dangerous. Full name means Dangerous Asteroid.” Her eyes flashed mischievously. “Gem. I like coursca gems best.”
Ippin grinned, matching the blonde’s smile. The two walked along towards the supply bay as they talked. “That’s my favorite one too!”
“I think I’ll call you Coru.”
Her statement caught the other girl off guard. “Why?”
Priire shrugged. “I think it fits you.” Her easy, outgoing manner made the redhead grin wider.
“Then,” Ippin replied, “I’ll call you Aster!”
The girls’ laughter danced up and down the halls. A big man poked his head out of a doorway. “Found you a friend, have you little one?”
“Sure have, Cook!” Priire told him. He liked calling her little one, even though it didn’t really fit. She may have been the youngest member of the team, but she stood almost as tall as all the men did. The blonde shouldered her share of the work, too. Right now she was working as the supply manager as well as her normal duties.
“Anyway, Coru, what was it exactly you needed?” Priire asked. She listened carefully making a mental list as Ippin detailed all the things The Crystal Prism needed.
Frowning, Priire opened the supply bay door. “I’m not sure we have all of those things, but most of them we can get you. Jansan!” she called.
A young man walked over to the two girls, balancing a crate of supplies. “Yeah, Priire?”
Ippin looked around as Priire argued with Jansan over supplies and the availability of different items. The young captain took stock of her surroundings. She figured she’d have to stay here a few days to get all the things she needed. Ippin was sure she’d have all the things she need soon. After all, who could pass up her cargo: fresh nerf and bantha steaks!
A few more minutes of negotiations secured all the things Ippin needed. It would, as she’d guessed, take a three days to get all the things.
“You can stay with me if you’d like,” Priire offered. She explained that the quarters were made of two rooms, each with two beds. The company rules stated that female workers couldn’t be quartered with the males. “The front room of the two in my quarters is used for a meeting place type thing. I sleep in the other.” She grinned. “It’s small, but it’s home!”
Ippin agreed. “Sounds nice, Aster. It’ll be great to get on relatively solid ground!”
“How about later I show you around my ship?” suggest Priire as they walked to Ippin’s ship.
Ippin smiled. “You have a ship too?”
“Yuppers. I have a Correlian freighter named Black Fire Dreamer and another. Her name is the Black Fire Talon.” Priire licked her lips. “She’s a Delta Two Starfighter, a Duce. I don’t tell many people I have her, but…” she let her words trail off. Coru understood Aster’s unspoken words. The two seemed like sisters even though they’d just met.
The quiet moment paused around them. The two let it trail on until Ippin spoke. “You’re not Force-sensitive, are you?”
A shake of her head scattered Priire’s braids around her head. “Not that I know of. Why?”
“I am. I was at the Jedi Temple for a while, but I wasn’t the best student.” She seemed a little ashamed of the fact.
Priire lightened the mood instinctively. “I like the Jedi. I re-wired one of their training probes once.”
“You what??”
Priire repeated her words slowly. “I re-wired one of their training probes once. I had it programmed to send a shower of light beams at the instructor, harmless ones, but someone apparently found it out.” She gave a theatrical shrug. “I never got in trouble though.”
After she stopped giggling, Ippin continued. “It’s weird. It was almost like I felt a connection to you through the Force.”
Priire, never one to doubt, looked speculative. “What if,” proposed, “What if we’re really long lost sisters?” Her hand rested on her right upper arm, covering it. Ippin looked at her, frowning.
“Cold?” the redhead asked.
The blonde shook her head. “Nah. Just wondering.” Priire took a rag off a shelf in her room and wiped it over her arm. Rubbing the makeup off, she revealed a flower design. She pointed to it and explained that it was the only link to her past. The blonde told her friend that she usually covered it, because it made some of the other miners nervous. Shrugging, Priire grinned at Ippin’s ship. “She’s beautiful!”
The two girls traded statistics and cheerful banter as they off loaded some of Ippin’s things. After putting them in Priire’s room, they walked over to a small, out-of-the-way hanger. The blonde’s eyes darted around making sure no one saw, and typed in a rapid code. The door slid open and there she was. A small ship made of blue-black fire lay glinting in the muted lights. Her side was marked with kills numbering at least a dozen, maybe more. Ippin was quiet as she watched Priire move to the hull and rest her hand there. “This is my Talon. She’s a…I’m a…” The girl paused, unusually reluctant to speak her mind.
“Just say it. Hey, we’re sisters remember?” Ippin smiled.
Priire grinned. “Ok, but don’t think worse of me for it.”
“How could I?” Ippin gave her a lop-sided grin, remembering her stunt with the Jedi’s training probes.
“Have you ever heard of the Hawkbat?”
The redhead froze. “You’re not.”
“I am,” Priire confessed. “No one knows….”
Ippin finished the other girl’s thought with a quote. “The hawkbat with talent….”
“Hides her talons,” Priire finished with her. The two laughed, even though there was little funny about the semi-leader of the Red Haze.
To lighten the atmosphere, Priire told another story. “One time, we were short on funds. A raid hadn’t panned out like we wanted, so we needed some cash. This was a while ago, and I wanted to impress them.
“My plan involved only five people. The five of us booked passage on the StarPrincess, you know—that huge inter-system yacht. All the rich used to ride her. What happened was,” Priire’s grin was from ear to ear. “Me and one of the guys—practically my brother—pretended that we were married. Then, when we got in the room, we checked for bugs. I found two. We only pulled out one. Then, in a very obvious way, we made it CLEAR that we absolutely HATED each other!”
Coru laughed. “Let me guess, you and he gave away the time of your attack and the captain caught you?”
“Yuppers! But, you see, he thought there were only two of us. When the others were in position, I yelled out my code phrase.”
“The hawkbat with talent hides her talons?” Coru guessed.
Priire’s face lit up again. “Exactly! One of the others tossed us weapons, one shut down the engines, and the last man held the ‘security officers’ at bay. When we got back, everyone was stunned. No one had ever pulled off such a big job with so few people. That’s when I became almost full-time strategist.”
“Wow, Aster.” There was a quite pause, the kind only friends could enjoy. “Well, you promised to take me up,” the redhead grinned.
Priire almost laughed as she thought about her friend. Their first trip in her starfighter had been a time and half! Moving over to the comm system, the pretty blonde activated it. A few quick taps opened her HoloNet connection, and dialed up the other girl.
“This is neat!” the blond from Kashyyyk said.
“Wait until Priire starts practicing her maneuvers,” Megami Hisui, the redheaded, jade-eyed actress warned. The rest laughed, remembering Priire’s wild stories.
“Coru? Aster,” the aforementioned daredevil pilot said, speaking to the blank screen in front of her.
A picture faded in, showing a fiery redhead with brandy brown eyes. “Aster? I haven’t seen you in forever!”
“I know, Coru,” Priire grinned.
“Still have your Talon?”
Priire’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t really want the other Sailors and the Jedi to know about her starfighter. “The Hawkbat with talent hides her talons,” she answered cryptically.
“Still the Hawkbat?”
“In a way.” Priire noticed the looks she was getting from the other Senshi were looking a bit too interested. “I have a favor to ask, Coru.”
“If it has anything to do with a ‘no-fail’ venture….”
They laughed. “No, nothing like that. A lot of weird things have happened to me lately, not the least of which is hooking up with a dozen or so people. You know my Dreamer isn’t that big…”
“Where are you?” Ippin asked. “I’ll bring The Crystal Prism and we can make ourselves a little convoy!”
Numa-chan looked surprised. The redheaded girl used the exact same phrasing as her blonde friend. Odd it was.
While the two pilots conversed over a meeting place, the other Sailors listened. When they were finished, Priire stood up and stretched. She was moving to the hatch when Kirin stopped her. “Well?”
“It’s all set up. We’ll meet her tomorrow.”
“Coru!”
“Aster!”
The two girls hugged happily. Priire introduced her friend to all the other Senshi.
“Everyone, this is Ippin. Coru, these are Zyta, Kumo-chan, Numa-chan, Kyoko, Mori Hoshi, Megami Hisui,” Priire said, pointing to the girls as she said their names. “And this is our resident Jedi.”
He looked at the redhead and smiled. “Ippin, it seems like I've seen you before.”
“I was at the Jedi Temple for a while,” Ippin told him.
“I must have seen you there.”
Priire opened her mouth to say something else, but it was lost as the two ships shuddered. “Hey!”
Ippin looked offended as well. “I thought you said this was a safe place!”
“It was!” Priire turned to the Jedi. “Can you pilot her in a fight?”
“I would rather not.”
“Fine. Take the Dreamer down into the atmosphere of this planet and keep her away from the fighting. If you do need to fight back, tell the computer and she’ll release the controls to you. Ask her for help, and she’ll help you. I designed her to be pretty much user-friendly.” The blonde rolled with the ship as another blast scored a hit. “Everyone else, strap in!”
Ippin had disconnected the two ships by now, and no one had time to wonder where Priire was heading. The girl was glad no one was watching as she flew down the corridors to a back hanger. “Hawkbat One Override,” she told the computer as it let her in. “Talon, start up.”
Another shudder flowed through the ship as she leapt into the cockpit and fired the engines. She paused a moment, relishing the sense of power that came with the Black Fire Talon’s activation. Then, with grim purpose, she danced out of the hanger bay.
“Look!” Kumo-chan gasped. “Who is that?” Her gesture pointed out the small blue-black starfighter, drawing it to everyone’s attention. The small fighter skimmed in close to the larger ships, making it impossible for them to get a lock on it but letting the fighter jock take out turbo laser cannons left and right. The ship broke off its attack with a sudden jerk. Lazily flipping on its side, the pilot presented a larger target than it had been before. One of the two attacking ships broke formation to dive after it. One of the Sailors yelped as it exploded. The larger ship’s movement presented a target to Ippin. As the redhead appeared, the blue-black fighter dove behind her, using the large ship for protection. The Crystal Prism came into the fray with fervor, her turbolasers blazing. It was almost like a carefully planned dance. Through the Prism’s firing, the little fighter dove, making erratic course corrections and always avoiding the deadly beams.
The fighter made a last pass at the broken ship, and opened a channel. “Surrender,” the pilot said harshly, “Or I’ll blow a hole through your bridge and fly through it just for fun.”
“Priire??” the five original Sailors gasped at once, amazed at their fun-loving friend.
“On whose authority?” came the defiant answer from the only surrvivng attacker.
“One you dare not defy,” the girl in the fighter replied, calmly. “I am the Hawkbat.”
There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end. “You are the Hawkbat?”
“Yes.” The reply from the fighter was calm, cool, and tinged with amusement. Apparently, the reaction she got was funny. The Jedi could almost see the blonde’s green eye’s as they laughed. It was truly uncanny.
“Well, Hawkbat, I do you the honor of adding a kill to your score. May our paths cross in the afterlife!” the other ship sauluted the fighter pilot.
They could almost feel the searing heat form the explosion through the viewports. The Jedi winced as the shock rippled through the Force. So many gone, so pointless.
“Would someone please explain what just happened?” Kyoko asked, confused.
As if in answer to her question, the comm lit up with activity. A quick glance saw that it was from the dark starfighter hovering a few klicks off the larger ship’s bow, between the Dreamer and the Prism. “Black Fire Dreamer, this is Black Fire Talon.”
“Talon, this is Dreamer, go ahead,” the Jedi replied.
“Dreamer, this is going to take some explaining. Open main hanger bay,” the girl commanded.
“I would prefer not to until you explain, Priire.”
“Open the hanger,” Priire told the Jedi, unmovable as a black hole, and almost as unfathamable.
“Priire, what is this all about?” Zyta asked, worried. The Jedi seemed to be trying to protect them from their friend. It didn’t make much sense.
“No,” the Jedi said with finality, responding to Priire’s demand.
“Sithspit. You didn’t have to be hard about it. Hawkbat One Override Hijack,” she said, her last four words calm and cool as an afternoon shower. And about as expected a rain on Tatoonie.
He was afraid that this would happen. This mercenary had programmed the ship to respond only to her. The controls died in his hands, taking orders from their mistress only.
Having no choice, the Jedi had a suggesttion for the stunned girls, “Let’s go to the hanger.” They followed him without a word.
Priire had her helmet off and resting in her hands as she watched the others enter. She sat on one of her starfighter’s wings saying nothing.
His hand rested on his lightsaber as the Jedi spoke. “Explanation,” he requested, his Jedi training serving him in good stead. This girl could possibly endanger them all, yet he was calm.
“Why didn’t I tell you about my Talon? Because,” she laughed quietly, “The Hawkbat with talent hides her Talon.”
Coru slipped in silently; she’d docked earlier. The girl moved over next to her friend.
“You see, I was really trying to protect you. I mentioned I was a mercenary? I wasn’t your average run-of-the-mill merc. My alter ego—Hawkbat— was the closest thing to second-in-command that the Red Haze had. I led and they followed. I wanted to protect you from the tarnish that seems to follow me around. Knowing that I am what I am could get you in trouble in shady areas. It’s just one of those things. Mercenaries aren’t exactly polite company, and I’m not going to pretend they are. So…” she trailed off for a second, then gathered herself together. “So, if you want me to leave, Coru can ferry you all around.”
The girl was quiet, her doe-like eyes downcast, fiddling with the straps on her helmet.
“If,” Coru spoke up quietly, “you don’t want Aster, then I’m afraid I can’t be here either.”
Her quiet voice was seconded by another. “I haven’t known any of you very long, but Priire seems to be just the kind of Sailor we need. She’s good in a scrap, and willing to endanger herself for us. I mean, she did fight off those big ships with Coru’s help. And now, she could have very well kept her identity hidden longer and not subjected herself to this, except that she felt she needed to protect us.” The Kashyyyk Sailor finished talking softly, always loyal to her friends.
“A Sailor Senshi she is,” Numa-chan reminded them. “A team we must be. Divide us this must not. Vote we shall.”
Kyoko looked at the sad Sailor and spoke with authority. “I think we should just keep her as part of our team. Like Numa-chan said, ‘A team we are.’”
The others agreed. Priire looked up with a smile. “Thank you.”
She leapt down from her perch and landed lightly. Her hand brush across her eyes as she said, “I’m sorry I cause so much trouble sometimes.”
Coru broke the silence with a question. “What’s this Sailor stuff?”
Excited, Priire launched into an energetic explanation of the Sailor Senshi. At the end, Coru asked the same question Priire herself had asked. “What is the transformation thing?”
With a grin, Priire showed her, transforming into Sailor Asteroid. Suddenly, the other girl got a funny look in her eye.
“Ippin?” the other redheaded Sailor asked, waving her hand in front of the girl’s face. “Are you in there?”
“Yavin,” she responded, dreamlike.
“Yavin?” Priire questioned.
“Yavin?” the Jedi puzzled. “Wasn’t a moon of Yavin 4 one of our stops?”
Priire shrugged. “Worth a shot. Hey Coru. Try saying something like”
“Yavin Power Make Up,” the two said together. Coru transformed into a pretty redheaded Sailor, fitted nicely with a suit of white and dark red.
Numa-chan looked worried. “When just the five of them doing that, funny it was. Out of hand this is getting!”
Kyoko shook her head. “This is crazy. Every where we go it’s an attack by the Sailor Sith or a new Sailor Jedi!”
“Or both,” Zyta chimed in.
“Or both,” Kyoko agreed. “And it seems to revolve around Priire, recently. Anything else you haven’t told us?”
Straight faced, Kirin responded. “She’s being followed around by a little old lady named Eda, offering samples of Fershetta Pizza.”
It was apparently incredibly funny to the five girls because they broke out laughing. Aster, Numa-chan, Hoshi, Coru, and the Jedi were all in the dark.
“What’s pizza?”
Despite cultural differences, the Sailors were all friends again, and ready to take on the galaxy! Or at least their portion of it.
The Hawkbat Cycle continues in the crashing finale, Guilty As Charged!
About the Senshi in this story:
Priire/Aster (Sailor Asteroid)
Zyta (Sailor Tatooine)
Mori (Sailor Kashyyyk)
Ippin/Coru (Sailor Yavin)
Numa-chan (Sailor Dagobah)
Kumo-chan (Sailor Bespin)
Kyoko (Sailor Naboo)
Kirin (Sailor Hoth)
