"Count to Three" (A Star Wars: Squadrons Short Story) by Joanna Berry

 "Count to Three" - A Star Wars: Squadrons Short Story by Joanna Berry

The link above will take you directly to the short story itself!!

While "The Light You Bring" was a story from the New Republic's pov, this story is from the Empire's pov. I love that they gave us something from both sides! "Count to Three" is an existential thrill ride into the dark secrets of the Empire post-Endor. What is really going on?? How many people actually know the truth?? Will those who discover the secret still remain loyal to the cause??

Our main character is Shen, a cyborg TIE pilot, member of Titan Squadron who has survived many crashes and has a routine of counting to 3 to breathe in, then counting to 3 to breathe out to keep his body functioning properly--hence the name of the short story. Apparently, it's the only way he survives. His wingmate is  a woman named Havina Vonreg...interesting, seeing as the only Vonreg I know is the red TIE pilot from the "Resistance" TV show...of course, I'm sure multiple unrelated people have the same last names lol--just not something we typically see in Star Wars except for with "Antilles."

Shen is on the Quasar Fire-class ship the Exigent in the Nuvar system when a missile strikes the carrier. Shen and Havina work together to escape in a large TIE-reaper, leaving everyone else behind to fend for themselves. Turns out the missile strikes are coming from a recently captured Imperial orbiting defense station! They head out on a mission to land on the station and discover just what exactly is happening.

Havina recalls how her brothers were killed by a surprise Rebel missile strike and she likens that situation to the one they're in now. She gets deep when discussing how she feels...or rather...does not feel, “If you’re the sensitive type—if—you can only take so much before you overload. And when that happens, if you want to keep going, you find something—even if it’s just a target. Whatever gets you moving forward. Everything else has to be noise. To survive.” Goodness that's intense and incredibly sad.

So we discover that Imperial cadets man the orbital defense station, but never recalibrated the weapons to fire at Rebels...they're still calibrated for Imperial ships...yikes! Vonreg is spitting mad at these cadets for being dumb enough to not realize such a gigantic miscalculation--many died on the Exigent because of this breach in common sense. Shen has to talk her down from killing all the cadets as a lesson. As Vonreg and Shen are contemplating the truths of the Empire post-Endor, the narrative states, "It summed up the unspoken paradox of Imperial loyalty after Endor: that while their Empire was, of course, infallible, sometimes it was less infallible than they would like." Both pilots are realizing that things may not be as in-control as they have been led to believe.

Eventually, the rest of Titan Squadron appears to aid them and Shen is taken to the medbay to deal with the giant metal shard sticking out from his chest from the first missile strike. The medic speaks in veiled hints about the current state of the Empire and "Shen sat on the edge of the bed, absorbing this. Not just ships, then. Those rookie cadets from the station--and other Imperial cadets across the galaxy--were being called to defend an Empire whose cupboards were increasingly bare." 

If this video game really does explore the death of the Empire in such a way as this, I think I might have to for real give in and purchase it. Both of these short stories were exceptional for entirely different reasons and they have absolutely gotten me pumped for a game that I will probably be terrible at.

Trivia:

-Var-Shaa was apparently a rough defeat for the Empire.

-The Star Destroyer Overseer appears to be Titan Squadrons flagship.

-Titan Squadron's leader is Grey!! That must be the Grey from the short film!

As a person who has yet to pick up a controller to actually play Squadrons, I highly recommend reading both of these short stories. They won't take much of your time and they give you a very real sense of what's going on for both sides soon after Endor, a period of time that deeply fascinates me!