Darker the Night (A Star Wars Rebels AU)

Chapter Seven

Hera sat in the cockpit of her ship with the glittering surface of Coruscant far below and the vastness of space above, and watched the rest of the squadron getting into formation. The other Delta-7 piloted by the Jedi Padawan Caleb Dume brought up the rear. He'd been all business in the pre-flight briefing, which had lasted all of two minutes- and he'd made no mention of combat training. She waited impatiently, hoping he hadn't changed his mind.

"Ready to go, Syndulla? " Keran's ship was on her starboard wing, and she gave a little wave when Hera glanced over.

"Of course I'm ready," she said.

Whup! Whup! Whup! Chopper chortled from the astromech socket.

"I heard that, Chopper, " Keran grumbled. "Just wait until we get back to the hangar, you little- "

"All right, cadets," Caleb's voice cut in. "We can threaten our droids later. Today we're going to do some combat training. Activate your in-flight training simulators and make sure they're switched to combat mode. I want you to pair up and work on combat maneuvers, specifically pursuit curves- the geometry and speed of pursuit and attack needs to become second nature so that you're not wasting precious seconds thinking about it when you have the advantage. The cadet who isn't attacking will work on evasive maneuvers. You'll all have five minutes in each position. Since there are seventeen of you...Syndulla, you'll fly with me. "

Hera could see Keran's head swivel out of the corner of her eye, but she ignored it. She was thrilled. Flying against a Jedi- that was a real challenge.

A message from Chopper scrolled down the screen on her console: "We're toast."

"Yeah, thanks for the input, Chop. Be quiet and check the stabilizers."

She tried not to let her excitement distract her, focusing instead on watching her classmates with a critical eye. She knew they would come to her later with questions and requests for flying tips that they were too afraid to ask their Jedi instructor.

Some were better than others- she was pleased to see that Keran was quite good with combat maneuvers- she had natural talent.

At last, it was her turn. Caleb's ship had disappeared. He was more likely to attack her from above or below- it was the smartest way to quickly get the upper hand, and it would be harder for her to get the advantage once he had it. On the other hand, he would know she was expecting it. She fired up her engine and left her squadron behind, pushing to attack speed.

No pings on the scanner. Hera was more excited than nervous. There was no way to really anticipate what she was up against, but she wasn't unduly concerned. The stakes were low and if nothing else, it would be an incredible learning experience.

Out of nowhere, he was on her.

She had no idea where he'd come from- above, most likely- but he must have been flying at top speed in a steep descent for Hera to miss him closing in on her. She'd heard talk of Jedi reflexes and reaction time, but it was an incredibly reckless maneuver. She grinned, and then her console lit up red with target lock warnings, and the cockpit alarms sounded. The onboard training sim did not involve the use of real weaponry. The Delta-7's twin cannons were disabled, but the starfighters were linked and their computers were capable of creating a decent facsimile of how it felt to fire and take hits from the dual cannons, had they been functional. Caleb fired and missed. Hera knew the miss was deliberate. He was feeling cocky, and that was to her advantage.

She faked right and then broke left, but he stayed right on her tail and opened fire. She'd have to do better than that. Weaving and dodging might buy her a little time to think about how to gain the upper hand, but it wouldn't buy much. Her heart pounded. She'd flown against some excellent pilots, both back home on Ryloth and at the Academy, but they were nothing compared to Caleb Dume.