by Rob "Stony" Huberty

Along a narrow corridor, Rob walked briskly. Two crewmembers, one a Calamari, brushed past. Up ahead a junction, a door on the right. He slowed as he approached the doorway. Pushing a button on the wall the door split in half and receded on either side of the doorframe. He walked quickly in and the doors closed behind him with a hiss.

"Stony!" Shadow’s smiled as he sat on a barstool. Rob walked into a room full of friendly faces. The back wall was one big curved view port, giving a beautiful view of hyperspace.

To his left was a half circle bar; an attractive female bartender was behind the bar. The dim room was filled with round tables and half circle booths. Half the tables were occupied, most of them by pilots of Red and Blue Squadrons.

"Hey wing mates!" Rob responded casually as he made his way the table that Wire his wingman was sitting.

"So Stony, how did you manage to get out of patrol this past week?" Biggs asked lightly as he sipped ale.

Stony was about to answer when Ranger, Red XO took the honors. "He had furlough for a family visit."

Biggs’s eyebrows rose slightly. "Family? Wow that must have been nice."

Shadow straightened up a little on his stool. "You have family? But I thought, well, that they died."

Rob’s smile faded and his eyes moved toward the floor. His gaze focused deep through the floor as if he could see what was below it. "They did. They’re Radiconians. Some men and women that fought with me in the battle, the battle for our home."

All the Reds fell silent.

"Stony, I thought you were the last, your file said that you were the last." Wire said, gently probing.

"Did I ever say that?" Rob’s gaze shifted from the floor to his wingman.

Schmitty, a Blue and former Red, said, "I don’t recall you ever saying much on what happened."

Rob flatly replied, "Would you?"

Wire leaned forward, resting his folded arms on the table. "We’ve all lost dear friends in the battle to overthrow the Empire. Few of us match up to what you lost, I know. Shadow perhaps. But the bottom line is that we can understand and keeping it in may be bravery but letting it haunt you and doing nothing about it is just foolishness."

"Wire, you have no idea."

Zoom, who had been sitting at the bar silently listening to the conversation interrupted. "What he is saying is that you ought to get it off your chest. Let us bear some of the load. We are your friends, we risk our lives for each other daily."

Rob’s eyes went back down to the floor, his gaze once again focused on something no one could see. "They were beautiful."

"What was?" Vape had just entered the room and had sat down at Rob and Wire’s table. "What was beautiful?"

"Radicon's sunsets. Radicon was a series of island continents. I grew up on the largest one, Freehoes. As the sun rose and set across the ocean asteroids that were positioned just right relative to the planet and the sun shined like a hundred Suns. I grew up in a continental climate, at my grandfathers house."

Rob smiled. "Grandpa. Grandpa Ranhu Bucol. He had devoted his life to uniting all the islands into one government for mutual benefit. His head was slightly misshaped, from a birth defect. It kinda looked like a rock. That’s how he got the name Stony.

When I turned 10 he had given me a Pontoon fighter and taught me to fly it. These were fighters that had evolved from Cloakshape fighters that we had traded for many years before the Empire came to be.

I remember seeing him on his deathbed. He nominated me to be his successor just before he passed on. It took the council twenty minutes to name me Zar. I was fifteen then.

It was only a month after my coming to office that a Rebel scout entered the system. We received contact, a request for reply. They couldn’t believe that an entire civilization of humans was thriving so far from the known systems. Only days later, after much debate, we signed a treaty with the Rebel Alliance.

Boy was that a shock! The galaxy had really changed after four millennia. We were all apalled with the horrors that the Empire brought. We had decided that it would be against the people's honor to not support the Alliance whatever way we could. Months past an ambassador from the alliance made frequent trips to Radicon.

It was on one of these trips, the ambassador enroute Radicon, was pulled out of hyperspace by the interdictor cruiser of a random Imperial custom’s patrol. I was told there was a struggle but the ambassador was captured alive. Who knows what they did to him, but he finally talked.

I remember the day after the battle of Endor, when another Rebel emissary arrived in our system and told us, along with the death of the Emperor, that an Imperial task force that hadn't been assigned to protecting the Death Star was on its way to bring the system under Imperial rule.

I didn’t know what to think, the navy we had designed since we learned of the Civil War was not complete. Nor were the evacuation transports. The emissary assured me that Rebel forces would be there soon to cover our escape; until they arrived we had to fight.

I remember the day, so perfect a day that I stood at the podium and told my entire world that we had to leave. It was very difficult, thankfully vice chancellor Stedi, was there...

I told my people that we would all get out safely, that we would not surrender, and that I would be the last to leave. As I turned to head to my transport that would take me to my command ship, a republic defender class vessel bout the size of a light cruiser, the crowd cheered, they were strong, and I prayed that they survived this. I pondered and prayed on this as I viewed out the viewport of the shuttle taking me to my command ship.

Once aboard I shared a meal with the crewmembers. Then I stood at the bridge and prayed.

It was evening when the first Imperials arrived in system. There was only one safe passage out of the asteroid field and that was safely hidden. This bought us time to evacuate as the Star Destroyers had to blast their way through the vast field.

I headed to my Pontoon fighter, a two-man version. It was heavily armed, with two lasers in the front and two turrets controlled by the gunner on top and one on bottom. This allowed us to even the odds with the now four hundred TIE fighters that were making their way through the floating rocks.

Despite our craft the battle was entirely one sided. They picked us off like blood flies. Still we held our ground. Many people deliberately gave their lives... a full twelve hours passed; the losses on both sides were about equal, yet still the fighters came.

It dawned on us that we would soon all be dead, and the people of Radicon, our people would be butchered. We rallied one last time, in a death charge, in time for the transports to be unloaded and the people packed into underground shelters that we prayed would hold up against turbolaser fire. We did everything we could, over the radio pilots stated that their shields and laser batteries were dead; they thanked their wing mates and rammed their fighters into Imperial craft with a final battle cry. Soon there were only three dozen fighters left, forty out of two hundred.

The Imperial capital ships had now breached the asteroid field and were bombarding the planet surface. I didn't have time to look, but I could hear the radio chatter..."

Stony took a deep breath, wiped away a single tear, and continued.

It was now, with all hope lost, that several Rebel light cruisers and a couple dozen transports of all makes and sizes arrived in system. X-wings quickly filled the vacant ranks. With the TIE fighter screen almost eliminated, the fighters attacked the Star Destroyers, hitting them hard enough to distract the other Star Destroyers from the planet, long enough to evacuate almost all of 6 million people. During the attack on one Star Destroyer, my fighter was severely damaged. The remaining TIEs focused on me... my, my wingman rammed the tight flight group allowing me to escape. I dazed, flew my limping craft toward the transports. I crash-landed in a Radiconian command ship. When all the transports and cruisers were away, the fighters withdrew, and the 9 Pontoon fighters left escorted the two remaining command ships to hyperspace.

I kept my promise: my ship was the last to leave system. But before I did, I took one last look that the planet that had always been my home. I hardly recognized it, and the sight broke my heart.

And that is the story of the battle of Radicon."

The entire room was silent. Finally Shadow spoke. "Wow. So the civilians made it out? I thought..," Rob interrupted, " You will find that my file is very inaccurate. We were all in shock and I doubt that our story made little sence to the people who wrote the final report."

"Wait a minute," Biggs said, "Rebel forces got involved? Why then did we not know about this?"

"Radicon and the asteroid field surrounding the system are all secret, there are a few mining operations that provide the NR with valuable riches, my people are spread across the free galaxy, their identiTIEs secret." Rob replied.

"Why was your population so small?" Yale asked

"Being that our people that settled the planet only four thousand years ago were of small numbers. About seven hundred thousand. There was a lot of inbreeding and a birth defect evolved that made a woman's reproductive organs cease to function after she gave birth the first time. There was nothing that our scientists could do about it." Rob answered. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to change the subject. Something more pleasant."

"Sure," Zoom said. "But first, let's have a toast: to the people of Radicon."

The pilots of the New Republic raised their glasses and drank. Leo turned on some jizz music and casual talk resumed. Rob stared silent out into the stars of the huge viewport.