The crumpled remains of Wedge's X-Wing tumbled through the upper atmosphere of Andriss, blazing like a meteor. Thankfully, the damage had mostly affected the wings, engines and nosecone, leaving the cockpit relatively untouched. Dak stabbed at the communication panel of his fighter, in a futile attempt to reach his wingman. His droid warbled hurriedly in his ear.
"Thanks R3." he replied, breathing a small sigh of relief. R3 had managed to connect to the X-Wing's telemetry, and found that while Wedge was unconscious, his flight suit was reporting a steady pulse. Not that it would matter for long if they couldn't get the broken shell of a starfighter under control.
"Buddy, any chance you can remotely access his engines?" Dak asked while consulting the altimeter. R3 gave a negative chirp in response.
"How about repulsorlifts?" Another negative bleep. Dak cursed under his breath.
"Okay, think. Think." he said, urging himself.
"Ready the tractor beam, R3." It was a long shot, and Dak knew it. Tractor beams were almost utterly useless when fitted on small, one-man craft, useful only for deflecting slow-moving space debris too big to bounce off a deflector shield. Missiles moved too fast for the generators to get a lock-on, and also only works on objects significantly smaller than the operating craft. A tractor beam operates on a principle of equal and opposite reaction, thus, attempting to use it on anything larger than a droid would only pull a fighter towards its target. But it was the only thing Dak could think to try. With careful speed modulation, he intended to repeatedly grab and release Wedge, hoping to act as a brake by slowly leeching the falling fighter's velocity.
With a calming sigh, he activated the beam, to no effect. He had missed! Dak grunted, then tried again, also failing. Wedge was simply falling to rapidly to latch onto. R3 echoed a mournful melody.
"Less of that buddy." said Dak, determined. "Trust me."
With that, Dak increased his throttle and soared forwards until he was directly beneath the X-Wing. R3 began to screech in alarm, but Dak shushed the droid, saying, "Relax, I've got this." He almost believed himself. Almost. Then he began to fly upwards. With a sudden deafening thud and a wail of colliding metal, he made contact with Wedge's fighter. As long as he maintained his speed and trajectory, they we both fine, but one slip, one errant twitch could send either spiralling out of control. Dak tried not to think about that eventuality.
He risked a brief glance upwards, towards the jagged stump of the X-Wing's nose. Mentally, he followed the shape of the ship back, working out how the two ships were connected. Thanks to the particular shape of the Y-Wing, it's parallel engine cores acted like rails, holding the other ship by its wing structure, while the bulk of it nestled in the hollow area behind Dak's cockpit. The Y-Wing was a sturdy hunk of a ship, dating back to the early Clone Wars, where it had been the backbone of many successful campaigns. Here, it was serving the same purpose, in a far more literal sense. With the practised deftness of an ace pilot, Dak began to decrease his throttle, while banking the front of his craft slightly. He winced at the shuddering, shifting mound of mangled metal above him, as he slowly robbed it of its momentum. With each movement, the weight distribution upon the Y-Wing fluctuated, requiring Dak to constantly react just to maintain control. It was like trying to juggle while skiing down an icy peak, during an avalanche, an event which Dak had surprising experience of.
Slowly, both ships began to slow to a more measured pace. Below them, the craggy outcrops of Andriss still zoomed past, but we're no longer the chaotic blur they had appeared to be. Though Dak couldn't help but note that they were much closer to said ground, and he still had to work out a way to land safely.
"Not now!" growled Dak as several warning lights lit up simultaneously. R3 summarized the faults in a rapid flurry of beeps.
"Multiple structural weaknesses, aft fuel compressors offline, failing motivators..." he muttered, repeating the droid. As good as his ship was, it couldn't withstand much more punishment.
"We've got to set down, now!" he exclaimed. "Let's try the tractor beam again." Once again, Dak attempted to activate the tractor beam. Unsurprisingly, he managed to lock on this time.
"Now for the fun part." he said, as he drifted away from under Wedge. His entire ship began to shudder under the tractor's strain. Both ships struggled as they began to balance around a point midway between them, like two balls connected by a rope, each mass pulling the other. Sweat glistened on Dak's brow as he struggled to maintain event a semblance of control over the system. In a testament to his talent, he discovered a series of subtle inputs which helped to control both ships, but it was still a terrifyingly complex and chaotic system. More alarms and warning signalled the imminent failure of this own ship's critical system. He was losing control, and both ships began to circle each other, drifting in gyroscopic synchronicity like a pair of bolas. He checked his velocity one final time, with a short exhalation of breath. He wasn't going to be able to slow them down much more, and the ground was skimming past very close now. All he could do from here was trust in the Force and hope.
"Good luck Wedge." he said to his friend, as he braced for impact. "And may the Force be with....". His final words were cut off by the impact of both fighters with the Rocky terrain below.
