A long time ago in a galaxy
far,
far away...
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It is a
period of civil war. We know
the main
characters, the heroes, the villains.
But a war
never involves just a handful of
important
people. There are always countless others on each side providing
support
for their leaders: technicians, mechanics, ground troops, intelligence
officers, pilots, logisticians, procurement officials, medics, mess
hall
workers, instructors. Though often kept in the background in the Star
Wars universe, without them there would be no Empire or Rebellion.
This page is dedicated to one such group of no-names doing their own
small
part to restore freedom to the galaxy...
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Corona Squadron is an X-wing squadron I created as part of my Star
Wars
RPG character's background. At first that was all it was--just a quick
phrase scribbled on a character sheet; however, through a strange set
of
circumstances that phrase started becoming more, and more, and more.
These
pesky pilots now take up a lot of my time, demanding to be given
attention
in stories and such. I don't complain, though, or when I do I don't
mean
it: I've found that writing fanfics about them is a wonderful release
for
me, even if I never finish half of my stories due to evil writer's
block. (This Garfield
comic helps to illustrate my attitude toward these characters.)
Even though I've created a whole squadron of fighter pilots with
almost
three years' worth of history behind it, I still focus primarily on my
RPG character in the stories and his wingman to a slightly lesser
extent.
In most of my online Star Wars interactions, I generally have
user
id's relating to either my character's nickname of Thumper (see Cracian
Thumper, not Bambi-Thumper) or his squadron designation, Corona
Nine.
These stories are posted for the enjoyment (hopefully) of those who
stumble across them and take the time to read them. The Star Wars
universe belongs to Lucasfilm, and I'm not making any profit off of
this
(quite the opposite, really). I'll leave the big characters alone and
just
play in the corner of this amazing galaxy by myself, okay?
Corona Squadron
co ro na. n., pl.
-nas or
-nae. 1. The highest-temperature region of the Sun's outer
atmosphere.
2. The only part of the Sun visible
during
a total eclipse. see HALO.
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The Coronas are an X-wing fighter squadron active in the time
roughly
between the Battle of Yavin and the Battle of Hoth. There are no canon
movie characters in the squadron, no relatives of canon characters,
nothing
like that--it's just a group of ordinary pilots working together to
help
the Rebellion. They have their own quirks, their own qualities and
their
own adventures, which I've been trying to chronicle for several years
now.
Some of those stories are listed below.
Quick Navigation Links
Stories
Most of these stories build on previous ones. While my hope is that
they could be read independently of each other, there are some where
something
significant could be lost if the reader doesn't have the assumed
background
knowledge from another story. For that reason, I'm including a
"Recommended
Reading" field for those stories. I consider all of these stories to be
rated a strong PG under the American movie rating system
guidelines.
Constructive feedback on stories is most welcome, or even a note to
say you read any of them. If you e-mail me,
please put an appropriate subject line on the e-mail so I won't
accidentally
delete it as spam.
Word
document
HTML
Revision E (12-17-04) 40 pages
While not a Corona Squadron story per se, it can be considered a
prequel.
"Storm" explains why Darin (my primary character) joined the
Rebellion.
Word
document
HTML
(offsite)
Revision G.1 (1-29-09) 38 pages
Chronologically, this is the first Corona story so far. Think of it as
a television show's pilot episode (no pun intended): it introduces
all the pilots as it follows Darin in his first days with the Coronas
and
on his very first combat mission. It takes place about two months after
the
Battle
of Yavin when the Rebels are facing a fighter pilot shortage.
I consider this to be a fairly stand-alone fic, and therefore it has
been circulated to a few other places. An earlier revision can be found
in the fanfic
section of EchoStation's Downtime. (There's an even
earlier version than that on another website, but it's one of my
earliest writings and is kinda embarrassing for me to look at now.)
Word document
HTML
Revision B (7-1-07) 5 pages
This is not a complete story. It's a small scene taken out of its
overall context whose sole purpose is to describe the various ships
in Crescent Star's fleet. It
was meant to be incorporated into the story "Outside
Looking In", but I decided it would be best if I only
summarized
this scene
in there and left this extended version as a separate document. This
information is needed for a couple other later stories that I'm also
working
on, and I wanted to make it easily available for people. It
takes place two days after "Commencement",
or four days after Darin joined the Coronas.
Word
document
HTML
Revision A (7-21-08) 38 pages
OLI starts two days after "Commencement"
ends. It finishes most of the introductory information started in
"Commencement" (in other words,
it's
meant to be the last big info dump). Darin has to learn how to adjust
to his new
lifestyle with the Coronas onboard Crescent
Star while the events from his first combat mission are still
fresh in his mind.
"Other Worlds". OLI sequel, in-work.
See "Projects" section.
Word document
HTML
Revision C (5-29-04) 9 pages
This is
meant to be a lighter piece. A couple of weeks after he joins the
squadron, Darin at last gets his callsign.
Word
document
HTML
Revision A (4-11-05) 44 pages
Recommended Reading: How to Handle Yourself
This takes place a week after "Handle." A series of computer glitches,
worsened by the aftermath of a rookie mistake, lead Darin into a
situation he didn't expect.
HTML
(offsite link)
Revision A (6-30-08) 6 pages
This was an Essential OC challenge entry (more info on the Essential OC
thread
in the "Additional Stories" section below). The challenge was, "You
can't bring me down! Let your character be happy and satisfied for a
change. Then, make the worst happen, but, as the challenge states, for
whichever reasons it does not bring him down. He's still happy after
all is said and done. We can't bring them down, but it won't be for
lack of trying." This takes place about two months after Darin joins
the Coronas, and while this doesn't compare to the bad stuff I put him
through before he joined the Rebellion, Darin is still the
victim in this story.
Word
document
HTML
Revision A (5-10-03) 6 pages
Recommended Reading: How to Handle Yourself
Another light piece (in spite of the serious-sounding title) that takes
place when Darin is still pretty new to the squadron. Quiver and CC
decide
to have a little fun with him while they're on R&R.
"Untitled". Story taking place six
months after "Commencement". In-work. See "Projects" section.
Word
document
HTML
Revision A (8-5-03) 38 pages
Admittedly an experiment in writing on my part, but one I had fun with
nonetheless. This takes place about eight months after "Commencement".
On a Rebel world, the Coronas help look for an Imperial pilot who was
shot
down. This story is told in nothing but first-person point-of-view,
which
may either make it horribly confusing to readers or somewhat more
interesting.
If you read it, let me know which it is.
Word
Document
HTML
Revision A (8-12-04) 64 pages
Recommended Reading: The Storm After the Calm, Searching and Finding
This story takes place a month after "Searching and Finding".
I had a hard time thinking of a summary that didn't give everything
away,
and I finally decided on saying this: this story could have easily been
titled "Blood and Water" due to the dominant theme (character
relationships
with family members and friends or squadmates), but I kept it as "No
Going Back" for various reasons. In addition, it's a very
character-driven story. The Coronas spend some time on a Rebel
safeworld.
Word
Document
Revision B (2-22-06) 100 pages
This takes place about a year after "Commencement". The Imperials
set a trap for the Rebels on an isolated colony world, which strands
the
Coronas on the planet while the Imperials hunt for them. I posted Revision A
(9/04, 71 pages) on the JC Forums as a stand-alone story, where it
was also reviewed
in the Fan
Fiction Newsletter in March 2004. Revision B is my attempt at
fixing the worst of the plot holes in Revision A without creating too
many new ones. Ground is the beginning of a plot arc during
that particular stretch of time and is my favorite story. If a person
was to only read one story of mine ever, this is the one I would ask
him or her to read.
Word
Document
Revision
A (3-26-07) 67 pages
Recommended Reading: Solid Ground
Waters is the sequel to "Solid Ground",
and its Prologue begins on the night of the Epilogue in Ground (Rev.
B). The Coronas must deal with the
aftermath and consequences of the events on Lokinha, both at a personal
level and at
higher, more official levels.
"Going to Pieces", sequel to
"Muddy Waters" and story arc continuation. In-work. See "Projects"
section.
Additional
Stories
Word
Document
HTML
(offsite link)
Revision A (6-17-08) 73 pages
This is not a Corona story or even a Rebel story, but it will tie in
with them on a tangent down the road. It's a story about an Imperial
TIE Pilot stationed on Craci IV after the Imperial occupation and the
life-changing event he experiences. This is part of the "OC Project" in
the Essential
Guide to OCs thread on the TF.N boards. Special Features (including
the aim of the OC Project, the creation of this story, outtakes and
more) can be found on the last page of the offsite HTML link. While it
didn't win, this story was nominated for Best Drama and Best Male
Original Character (Chase Barton) in the Summer
2008 Saga Era Fanfic Awards on the TF.N boards.
Word
Document
HTML
Revision A (4-8-04) 3 pages
This was my entry
in response to the JC
Fan Fiction Boards Valentine's Day Love Letter Challenge. No one
from
Corona Squadron is in it, but one of the Quakes is. The challenge was
as follows: "Write a love letter written to
someone
or a story about a love letter. The word limit is 2000 words and your
story
must be one-post." This particular entry takes place sometime before
"Solid
Ground".
HTML
(offsite link)
Revision A (3-6-07) 3 pages
This was another challenge entry on the JC
Fan Fiction Boards. This particular one is for the Essential
OC
(Original Character) thread, and the challenge reads, "Between a
Rock
and a Hard Place. Create a scenario that puts one or more of your OCs
into a situation in which a choice must be made between two options.
The options are mutually exclusive, and either choice would produce an
undesirable outcome for the OC(s)." This entry also takes place
sometime before "Solid
Ground", probably before "Metal
Coils" too, and Botch
gets some of the limelight this time. It may
eventually be reworked and put into a full-length story, but that's a
ways off.
HTML
(offsite link)
Revision A (2-10-07) 5 pages
Yet another challenge entry (though it was written before "In All
Probability") on the JC Fan Fiction
Boards for the Essential OC (Original Character) thread. The
challenge: "'Everyone has a price.' Does the old saying hold true for
your OC? Offer them a bribe to do something that they would otherwise
find reprehensible, and let us all find out! And remember, often a
person's 'price' has nothing to do with money..." The summary for my
entry is simply that not every Rebel is a good guy. Pellicer is the
main character. I wrote and posted this story within 24 hours because I
was quickly approaching the challenge deadline, which is much too fast
for me, and as such there are lots of rough spots and hiccups that I'd
love to fix now that I've had some time to distance
myself and look back at it. This is another vignette that may someday
get a nice revamping and get put into a full-length story. At the very
least I want to give it a good edit hack job one of these days. It
takes place before "Solid Ground".
Word
document
HTML
(offsite link)
Revision A (8-5-07) 5 pages
And another challenge entry on the JC
Fan Fiction Boards Essential OC
(Original Character) thread. The challenge reads, "More Than Meets The
Eye... Your OC is about to make a shocking discovery. The
object/person/droid they have seen everyday for years is going to turn
out to be something very different from first impressions. Is their
fiance actually an underworld hitman? Is their hairy, burly partner in
crime really a ballet dancer? Is their airspeeder really a 40-foot
robot? Whatever the case may be, will your OC like this sudden
change...or will they hate it?" My oh-so-detailed summary for my entry
is, "A scientist learns a secret about something he cares about." No
Coronas were harmed in the writing of this story, but I did have fun
playing around on Treminal III, Mackin's homeworld. The Word document
is the same as the HTML link except for a few minor corrections to make
the story clearer. And hey, it won the challenge that month, which was
surprising but cool. The main character, Milin Ba'hon, was nominated
for Best Non-Human in the 2008 Saga Era Fanfic Awards on the TF.N
boards.
HTML
(offsite link)
Revision A (10-15-07) 4 pages
Yup, you guessed it, another challenge entry on the JC
Fan Fiction Boards Essential OC thread. The challenge: "When you’re
a child anything can make you happy: ice cream, a trip to the grocery
store, running with scissors. For adults it’s a bit more complicated.
With stress and worries beating down on you, it takes something really
exciting to cause that happy, giddy, lighter-than-air, run around and
break stuff happiness. So lock up the good china, and give your adult
OC something to smile about." Yeah, I actually had to be nice to my characters. The summary
for my entry is, "A Rebel pilot tries to cope with job burnout," and
said Rebel pilot is Darin.
HTML
(offsite link)
Revision A (12-21-07) 6 pages
Hello, what's this? Another challenge entry on the JC
Fan Fiction Boards Essential OC thread, you say? The challenge
reads, "Hero Worship! Everyone looks up to someone, and your OC gets
the chance to take a closer look at his/her hero. Does the hero measure
up? Does your OC notice if s/he doesn't? Does your OC turn into a
creepy stalker? Inquiring minds want to know." I didn't stick very
closely to the challenge's intent, but the basics are still there. My
summary for this story featuring the Mackins is, "A military family
deals with a member's secret deployment in different ways.
Introspective piece."
HTML
(offsite link)
Revision A (2-23-09) 6 pages
I could very well be the only person weird enough to write a character
study story about a tauntaun. This is my weird little entry to the
Winter Challenge for the JC FanFic Boards Essential Guide to OCs thread. The challenge:
"SNOW WARS: The Bitter Cold of Battle; Inspired by Thorny’s love for
The Empire Strikes Back. Have an OC participate in the Battle of Hoth,
or some other similar snowy battlefield, it can be canon or one of your
own creations. FYI: Thorn didn't specify if your OC had to be a
combatant, or that they belonged to either side; so let's leave that
one open to interpretation." Summary: A tauntaun’s life is changed by
the Battle of Hoth.
Word
document
HTML
Revision A (5-10-03) 22 pages
Recommended Reading: The Storm After the Calm
I'm temporarily removing this story from the site. It needs a complete
overhaul to get rid of the vast amounts of plot holes, and I honestly
don't know how I'm going to do that yet. It'll be back up once it's
properly reworked.
HTML
Revision A (1-7-07) 2 pages
This isn't exactly a fanfic: it's a song rewrite. Usually my song
rewrites come out much too forced, like I'm trying to fit the
proverbial square peg in the round hole, but this one I thought came
out fairly well (otherwise I wouldn't be posting it here). It's now
about a Rebel starfighter pilot immediately (i.e. hours at most) after
the Battle of Endor. The assumption I'm going on is that the happy
celebration at the end of RotJ did not happen minutes after the Second
Death Star blew up: there was still a very long, very ugly battle
ongoing in space that had to be resolved, and even after the battle the
Rebel forces needed to stay alert for any more Imperial ships coming
in. Based on that, in my mind the Battle of Endor would have been the
worst event of all the Star Wars events shown in the movies in which to
be a starfighter pilot, and that's what this rewrite is about.
Pilots
Information on each of the Corona Squadron pilots can be found on these
pages. Includes portraits (if available), biographical information, and
a bit more. (Note: the theme songs are not Star Wars galaxy
(in-character) theme songs. They're contemporary songs that I
myself associate with each pilot.)
Craci IV
Craci Four is Darin's homeworld and makes its largest appearance in
"The
Storm After the Calm" (and another large appearance in "The Way"). The Rebel
Alliance
Sourcebook for
West
End Games has a listing for Cracian
Thumpers, and for me that was the origin of the Craci System. I
made
up a brief history and culture for the world of Craci Four, and if I
ever
get it written up in a legible format then I'll post it here. But until
then, "Storm", "The Way" and the following planetary stats will have to
do.
Yes,
the planetary scientist in me actually sat down one day and calculated
these planetary properties. Blame my professors. (Note: these are not
"canon"
stats)
Word document
HTML
Revision A (1-15-02)
Donri is one of the most popular sports on Craci IV. A small
information page can be found here. I have big
plans for that little page and intend to give as comprehensive an
account of the game and its rules as I can, but all that is in the
ever-elusive future. Right now the only thing on the page is a picture
of a 4" model I customized into Darin in his donri gear.
More history and info on other major planets I work with should be
coming eventually. For two small stories set on Treminal III (an
original
planet serving as Mackin's homeworld), jump up to "Root and Weed" and
"In-Dependence" in
the "Additional Stories" section.
Pictures
I'm a visual person, and because of that, pictures help me get
things straight in my head before I try to write them out. Sometimes I
even convince myself that I can draw, which just leads to chaos.
Anyway, here are some pictures associated with the Coronas. My goal is
to one day have individual portrait sketches of every squadron member,
and maybe when I get done with all of them I'll be good enough where I
can go back and redo these early ones to make them better. (Note:
Individual portrait sketches are now on that pilot's bio page, found above.)
Darin's helmet design. And mine.
Current
and Future "Front Burner"
Projects
* "Going to Pieces", a "Muddy Waters" sequel and continuation of the
Ground/Waters
story arc. This was my (winning) project for NaNoWriMo (username chrononaut67). 65%
complete as of 1/4/09. On partial hold.
* "Other Worlds", the next sequential story after "Outside
Looking In" 15% complete. On partial hold.
* Story set six months after "Commencement" 45%
complete. On partial hold.
* Challenge entry, "Turnaround" Complete and linked
7/21/08.
* New and improved revision of "Commencement",
streamlined and smoother and totally different in some areas Complete
and uploaded 8/3/08, even better revision complete and uploaded 5/8/09.
* "The Way", a new
full-length story about an Imperial TIE Pilot. Complete and
uploaded 7/21/08.
* "Outside Looking In", sequel to "Commencement"
Complete
and uploaded 7/1/07. Fixed some parts 7/21/08.
Latest Updates to
this Site
5/8/09. Finally uploaded the Word
document of the G.1 Revision of "Commencement". Now the story in the
HTML link matches the one in the Word doc. Yay. I finished the
below-mentioned sketch of Mackin, but I still need to upload it. Just
when I think I'm making good progress on "Going to Pieces", something
else goes wrong with it. pfft.
4/14/09. Added an offsite link to my
newest vignette, "Rendezvous Point." No Coronas were harmed in the
making of that story. I need to upload the G.1 Revision Word doc of
"Commencement" so the Word doc matches the HTML linked version. My new
goal is to get a photograph of the road sign for Quiver Lane I
discovered on the northwest side of Houston. I've almost finished a
scene sketch of Mackin (different from the Feb. 8 portrait), but I
still have to think about the best way to add it here.
2/8/09. Added a sketch of Mackin to
his bio page. It still has lots of room for improvement (I think his
eyes might be too small), but it's much, much better than the one that
had been up there a while ago. I'll try again when I find a better
reference picture.
1/29/09. Added an offsite HTML link for
Rev. G of Commencement. Updated a couple minor details on the Author
page.
1/4/09. Added TIS banner. Did some general page tidying-up.
10/31/08. Updated the Current Projects
section. Figured it would be a good idea to include a mention of the
story ratings, so I put that in the overall Story header. I also intend
to write a basic timeline showing when stories take place in relation
to each other and maybe some other events, but I'm not sure how to do
that yet. That will be a project for December, after I'm done with NaNo.
8/24/08. I completed and posted two more
sketches. One is CC's portrait, found on her bio page (which also has
some updated text). The other is a sketch of the Trio together. I'm
extremely happy with the Trio sketch. A small
version and a link to a bigger version can be found above. I'm still
experimenting with the best way to scan or otherwise electronically
capture the sketches, so some tweaks may be coming on that front in the
future.
8/5/08. I finished a portrait sketch of
Quiver I'm really happy with. That can be found on his bio page, and I
smoothed out the text there too. The new final version of
"Commencement" is also uploaded as a Word file. I added a new archive
page showing earlier site updates below. I split up the "Solid Ground"
and "Muddy Waters"
HTML files into smaller groups of chapters. I'm planning on doing the
same for "No Going Back" as well.
Earlier Site
Updates
About the Author
"So we've been outnumbered / raided and now cornered. / It's hard to
fight when the fight ain't fair. / We're getting stronger now / find
things they never found. / They might be bigger / but we're faster and
never scared. / You can walk away, say we don't need this / but there's
something in your eyes says we can beat this. / Because these things
will change. / Can you feel it now? / These walls that they put up to
hold us back will fall down. / This revolution, the time will come /
for us to finally win. / We sing hallelujah, we sing hallelujah. /
Tonight we'll stand, get off our knees / fight for what we've worked
for all these years. / And the battle was long, it's the fight of our
lives..." - Taylor Swift, "Change"
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This page last updated May 8, 2009.
