His cannons wouldn’t do any real damage to the freighter in the time he had left. The A-wing sang a high-pitched metallic melody. His gloved hand played across the console as he switched power from his shields to his thrusters. The asteroids were getting smaller - he was reaching the limit of the field - and he could see the freighter and its escorts in the distance, adjusting their course for a lightspeed jump. Wyl didn’t know where the U-wing was and didn’t dare check. “They’re not responding to demands for surrender. “They’re getting ready to jump.” It was Syndulla’s voice, almost growling from the comm. The TIE had a clear path back to its freighter now, but Wyl was closer and the Deliverance had accelerated to frightening speed, plowing through the asteroid field and ignoring the rocks that dashed against its deflectors. Wild Nine and Twelve had lost control evading the asteroids they both went spiraling through the squadron, forcing the other fighters to scatter. Had that been intentional? He couldn’t tell. He prepared to turn back but saw with alarm that he’d outdistanced his comrades - the A-wing had pulled away when the first cloud of shrapnel had separated him from the slower fighters. It flickered in and out of scanner visibility as it activated jammers, and Wyl listened to the alarmed cries of his pilots interspersed with static. “Keep on course for the freighter and don’t engage unless necessary!”īut the TIE never moved to engage. Wraive was still alive - still on the scanner, at least - but the TIE had moved on beneath and past him, slipping between rocks for cover as New Republic fighters returned fire. “Watch out!” he cried, leaning over the console as he gave his thrusters a burst, then pulled up to avoid smashing into another asteroid. Wyl could see fragments, shrapnel, exploding toward him, exploding toward Wraive . . . Instead the bolts impacted the closest asteroid and shattered it. Wyl called out a warning to Denish Wraive, but the TIE’s next cannon burst wasn’t aimed at the elderly man’s fighter. Wyl could see it ahead of him, its central eye occluded by a passing asteroid. Flare and Hail’s TIEs turned to retreat after firing, but the last TIE stayed on course. One TIE swept toward each of the New Republic squadrons, releasing a swift cannon volley that spattered against rocks or fizzled with distance. In an exclusive excerpt from the forthcoming book, climb into the cockpit with Wyl Lark for a heart-pounding dogfight among the stars.įlare Squadron and Hail Squadron were in flight now, breaking to either side of Wyl and Wild Squadron. In the third and final installment in the Alphabet Squadron trilogy, Star Wars: Victory's Price, the new novel by Alexander Freed coming March 2, the aces of the New Republic take their last shot at defeating Shadow Wing and grapple with the aftermath of Quell's decision to defect once more.Īlphabet Squadron’s ships are as damaged as their spirits, but they’ve always had each other's backs. Hear the gradual change in pitch upwards of the long, drawn out notes from the lower brass as the song progresses? Each one is a key change.Yrica Quell is back at the controls of a TIE fighter, and this time she's trained her weapons on her old comrades from the New Republic. That piece is an excellent example of key changes. Also, the vocals are boy voices, where the vocals in ROTJ are deep male voices, another very interesting comparison.Īlso interesting is that the Pod Race introduction music was not merely transcribed into a new key and time signature, but was an homage to the chariot race scene in Ben Hur, I believe it was. It's often trained in Music Theory classes in high school, or if not that, in MIDI music classes (Do they even teach MIDI anymore? That tech is like two decades old). Simply transcribing it from one key to another and changing the time signature, which is extremely simple for anyone trained in classical music, is all that he did, and it made a completely different sound. Major keys, like this is in, create a happy or excited sound. Minor keys, such as the ones used in ROTJ, create a sinister, angry, or sad sound. It's not only sped up, it's also in a completely different key.
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