Chapter 1: Baptism By Fire

[Rogue 4]

Layla nodded, tossing him a wink. "See you there."

She then walked off to the room she shared with Atuarre, retrieving the necessary equipment and prepping herself for flight. She brought the equipment down to the hanger. Grinning, she walked up to the X-wing reserved for her, fresh out of the factory.

She whistled. Whoa baby, now that beats a man any day of the week... She approached it, running a hand over the hull before she hijacked a moveable ladder and began stowing her gear in the small cargo compartment---and nearly fell over as something bumped the metal beneath her. "Hey, watch it!" She grabbed the edge of the canopy for support, her gaze falling down.

A small droid began tootling at her insistantly, seeming utterly annoyed. "Oh it's just you Sexy." she sighed, rolling her eyes. "You all set for our training mission?"

The droid blew a raspberry at her and tootled some more, angrilly.

"Whoa, slow down baby. Look, I don't know droidspeak okay? So I can't understand a kriffing thing you're saying."

[Princess 35]

Nima left the room and headed back to her quarters. She checked the contents of her medkit and noticed that the only thing that she needed to replace was the stimulant that she used to wake up Aeric yesterday. After swinging by the medlab she grabbed another stimulant pack and stuffed it into her kit. E4 toodled over and followed her out of the medlab and into the hangar. Nima's jaw dropped when she saw her fighter waiting for her. "Wow. I haven't had something factory fresh before. Not even a scratch on it."

She started her pre-flight check. "E4, please make sure that the biometrics are turned on in the Captain's fighter and that you're recording data at all times. I want to know what's going on and if he's showing signs of passing out again." She stowed her medkit in the storage department and wandered off to see who else was around.

[Mara 29]

After being dismissed, Kaden stood up and picked his sack up off the floor from under his chair. He slung it over his shoulder and headed out of the briefing home. Having listened on the meeting from outside the room, Artie turned and followed Kaden into the hangar.

The little droid whistled to himself as they walked. He was excited to fly again.

Upon entering the hangar, Kaden closed himself off in the way he usually did for flight preparation. He wouldn't let himself be distracted at all. His fighter would be the focus as well as his mission and the rest of his flight and squad. There would be no room for extras.

He found an unoccupied X-wing and immediately walked a 360 around it, making sure everything was up to spec, even though it was obvious a fresh model and never been flown in battle before. Everything checked out. Kaden moved a ladder over and put his small sack under the seat. Then he went looking for some help to get Artie all jacked up in the seat behind him. Artie was pretty talented, but he couldn't jump up that high.

A few moments later Artie was all settled in and running pre-lim checks on the fighter. Kaden took the time then to get all suited up in the gear he needed.

[Drake 53]

Tak returned to his room and opened his lockbox. It was on the other side of the bed and hidden from the door so no one else could see into it unless facing the door. He strapped on his utility belt, holstered his DL-44, slipped the palm blaster into one of his pockets and placed the Thunderer superheavy blaster on the bed, for now. Strapped to the lid of the case were a pair of sheathed vibro-katanas, a couple exotic daggers and some standard vibroblades. He strapped on one of the daggers then eyed the katanas. Blue milk run...probably won't need them. He thought.

Finally, Takeshi unpacked one of his most prized possessions, after his armour. It was an antique energy-propelled slugthrower pistol that was passed down through his clan. His father, Falco, gave it to him before the Imperials murdered him. It was a Mandalorian Ripper; a highly versatile and upgradeable weapon that used to be carried by Mando'ade officers during the Great Sith War and Mandalorian War nearly four thousand years prior. This one wasn't nearly that old, around three hundred years, but it was an exact replica. He had to get the ammunition shipped, directly from a manufacturer on Mandalore, through a series of third-party traders to avoid suspicion. Due to the price of the ammo, he only used the Ripper as a last resort. He opened up one box and loaded the clip with explosive-tipped bullets. Most of the enemies they would be facing were likely to be Imperial Remnant and the explosive rounds were effective at punching through Stormtrooper armour. As a bonus, slug rounds ignored personal shielding, giving him an edge in battle.

After slipping the Ripper into a concealed holster across his chest and under his flightsuit, he double checked his gear then grabbed the Thunderer on the bed and made his way to the hanger

Once there, Takeshi found his X-wing and a red astromech waiting patiently next to it.

"Are you for me?" Tak asked it.

The droid tweedled an affirmative.

"An R6 model, eh? What happened to the R4 model I was assigned before?"

The droid blurted out an explaination.

"It was malfunctioning? I thought as much" Tak said with a nod.

The R6 whistled a query.

"Oh, nothing. I just gathered that something was wrong with it during the simulation run." Tak climbed up the ladder to his fighter and stowed his gun and gear. "What is your full designation?" he asked while climbing back down to the hanger deck.

The astromech beeped a reply.

"A pleasure to meet you, R6-A1. Would it be cool if I called you Sixxa?"

R6 tweedled another question.

"Yes, it's a name. Actually, it's a name of someone I know. He's a friend of mine."

The droid made an excited whistle.

"Good! I hearby christen you Sixxa. Now, let's get you loaded into this fighter."

As Tak set about installing Sixxa into his X-wing, he looked around at the others in the hanger. He spotted Layla across the way and sent her a wave.

Edited July 19, 2007 by Drake

[Rogue 4]

Layla returned the wave, nearly falling off-balance as Sexy knocked into the ladder once more. She sent another glance of annoyance at the droid before climbing down the ladder. "Let's get you into your socket, okay?"

Blowing another raspberry at her, the droid wheeled over beneath the droid socket behind the cockpit. Layla placed the magnetic device over his dome, and activated the controls to lift him up. Then she climbed back up the ladder and into the cockpit to start her preflight check.

----

Nat Riamor walked once around the X-wing Starfighter that was his, running a midnight hand over the smooth hull. Thirteen new X-wings fresh from the Incom Corporation, the most gracious gift that Admiral Besav had given them so far. A new X-wing on average cost about sixty thousand credits more than the used ones at One hundred and fifty thousand credits, well worth it for the unblemished Titanium alloy hull, never before used G-Bk-585 hyperdrive unit and powerful Chempat "Defender" deflector shield generator.

He had always felt at ease in the cockpit of a T-65, felt fully in control and a part of something important. Not that he didn't feel important when he was with the ground troops of course, but there it felt more like you were a number, a statistic. More could be accomplished in the air with these snubfighters than could be done by a few men with blasters.

[Mara 29]

Kaden clamped his helmet over his head, finishing out the ensemble before climbing into his cockpit to see how Artie was doing and to run some checks on the fighter himself. He kept his canopy open, just in case there were any final instructions that didn't come over intersquadron comm.

Artie tootled to Kaden.

"Yes, it does feel good, doesn't it?" He ran a gloved hand gently over the console. "Feels real good."

[Drake 53]

Tak slid the ladder over to the rear of the X-wing and climbed up. He took a small disc from his pocket and inserted it into Sixxa. The droid warbled and beeped then queried him on the contents.

"Just keep that stored in your memory core. The file won't interfere with your systems. In fact, you won't need it for anything. It's just a security file to ward off any outside tampering."

Sixxa agreed then copied over the file and spat out the disc. Tak pocketed it then climbed back down, moved the ladder over, and climbed into the cockpit to get prepped for launch.

***

Teroch scurried across the floor of the hanger, avoiding the people and droids that were milling about. He made it over to Takeshi's fighter and climbed up the back to the astromech droid socket. He snuck up behind the droid and jacked himself into it. He was suddenly greeted by an unfamiliar security file that, no matter how hard he tried, blocked any attempt at hyjacking the astromech.

Frustrated, Teroch climbed over the droid, much to its distress, and onto the cockpit hatch. He tapped a clawed leg on the glass, getting Takeshi's attention.

Without looking up, Tak popped the hatch. Teroch dropped down to the side of the fighter.

"I figured you would try to jack my new droid so I gave him a little countermeasure" Tak said.

[Not fair, Takeshi - I thought you trusted me]

Tak smirked. "I do, Teroch. But your little stunt during the sim got me thinking that I should try it the old fashioned way. If you want, you can stow away in the glove box."

[Very funny - Where did you get that file?]

"Got it from the droid programmer on the team, Arlan Vaar. He's smarter than you, you know."

[Meh]

Teroch ended the conversation by climbing in behind Tak's seat and making himself comfortable.

[Mara 29]

Kaden snapped himself out of his reverie. "Artie, did all the checks come out all right?"

The droid tootled an assent.

"Good." He activated the controls and started to run through his preflight checklist.

Artie beeped something else at him. He glanced over at the display.

"I know it's a new ship. But things can go wrong."

He made a beep that sounded close to a human snort, but he went back to his business of acquainting himself with the ship also.

Kaden shook his head. Artie was always relying on things to work a little too much. He had to keep reminding him that things could go wrong, very wrong. Machines didn't always behave as they should. That was the problem with machines. They were mostly beingmade, and sentient beings didn't always behave as required either. They were alive, after all.

Finishing his check and programming in all his comm frequencies, Kaden had checked and double checked everything on his X-wing. And, satisfied with the way things were going, he reached under his seat for his small bag. He pulled out a holo and stared at it a while.

With a wistful smile he put it back.

This is the only way we can fly together, Tash. I'll always carry you with me... Kaden subconsciously put his hand over his heart, thinking about the woman in the holo he had just stashed back away.

[Bad furday 57]

Arlan stood staring at the gleaming X-wing sitting before him.

Every inch of the fighter was in pristine Imperial White (the cheapest paint available in large quantities), which made the whole thing seem even more like a dream sequence.

He was about to turn around and ask someone to pinch him, to make sure he wasn't dreaming, when the next best thing happened.

Jya came over and whispered some words of encouragement to him, her lips just brushing his ear.

"Remember what you've learned in the sims! This is an easy mission; I know you'll do fine!"

Nodding, Arlan climbed the access ladder, a feeling of giddy elation surging though him. He didn't know if it was from Jya or the fact that here he was, actually part of an X-wing fighter squadron.

Settling into the pilot's couch, he paused to stare after Jya running towards her fighter.

A beep from the astromech droid interface brought him back to reality.

[i think she likes u man!]

Arlan felt his face warm, as he put on his helmet.

"Where'd you get that idea, Hal?"

[i saw the way she looked at u...and stuck her tongue in ur ear. and my name's not hal.]

"She did not!" replied Arlan indignantly. "Well, I'll try to think up a new name for you during the flight, but for now, you're Hal!"

[Rogue 4]

Aeric Tunon's voice came over the Squadron frequency, sounding anxious. "How's everybody liking the new X-wings?"

The squadron answered back, excited responses flooding the channel. "Awesome. Status?" Status reports came over the channell, brisk but joyful. Everyone was anxious to get started, a few of the pilots having never actually left the simulators before. As expected, everyone was in the green and ready to go.

"Everyone's ready to launch, Captain." Nat's accented Twi'lek voice came over the channel.

"Begin launch on my mark. Three, two one...Mark." On his mark, the X-wings closest to the Hanger doors lifted up on their repulsorlifts, turned, and flew out the bay doors, making room for the ones behind them to do the same. Before long thirteen X-wings were streaking up off the jungle moon, looking every-bit the patriotic symbol of a New Republic Starfighter Command recruitment poster.

Once they were out of atmosphere, Aeric began leading them away from the dual gravitational wells of the moon and it's planet. "Okay, here's how this is going to work. The purpose of this flight is going to be to practice hyperspace navigation. Five is about to transmit the coordinates of our first jump to your astromech droids. Program it into your navicomputer and calculate a jump. Then send your calculations back over to Five's astromech and we'll see who's plotted the safest and fastest course. That of course will be the one we take. Five?"

"Sending the coordinates to your astromechs now."

Edited August 6, 2007 by Rogue

[Drake 53]

Takeshi received the coordinates and looked them over. "Did you get those, Sixxa?"

His astromech beeped an affirmative.

"Good. Store it."

Tak punched the coordinates into the navicomputer and waited patiently for it to give him the possible jumps.

[Bad furday 57]

Jya settled into her X wings's couch, as she waited for the coordinates to arrive.

This new fighter was impressive, but sterile. Being factory fresh, it had no personality to it. Everything was expected to work properly, and be just so.

"Perhaps we can paint the ships later?" thought Jya to herself.

Receiving the coordinates, she sent them on to the astromech droid behind her.

[Rogue 4]

A moment later, with eleven sets of calculations in his possession, Nat declared the winner. "Alright, we're going to go with Two's calculations. Very good job Arlan, you managed to calculate a safe route, while shaving a good half hour off the trip. I guess all that work with binary code helps out in other areas."

"Good job Two." The Captain congratulated him.

"A whole half hour, stang." Layla's voice came jovially over the channel. "Way to make the rest of us look bad."

"I'm transmitting the calculations to your droids now. "

Edited July 20, 2007 by Rogue

[Drake 53]

"Get ready to jump, Sixxa" said Tak.

Teroch spoke up from behind him, [i could have plotted a better course than that guy...]

"Shut up back there."

[Rogue 4]

Layla watched the jump counter count down to zero, and her ship launched itself into hyperspace.

Hyperspace. Now that was the hard part of flying for her. It meant alone time, with minimal entertainment. She was sure this part was hard for everyone...except maybe Kaden, who was usually a loner anyway. But for a fun loving, often anxious Zeltron woman it often bordered on torture.

And in these quiet moments it was too easy to reflect on things, linger on memories. Travelling the galaxy in her youth, attending parties on Zeltros. Fighting in the Nagai-Tof invasion only a short two weeks after she'd left the hospital.

She smiled, taking a small 2-D photograph out of the bag beneath her seat, and sticking it to a bare spot on the console with some adhesive. The memory the picture invoked brought a smile to her face. She remembered her mother surprising her her first day home, snapping the picture when she wasn't paying attention. They had been happy to see their daughters back on Zeltros, and happier to welcome the small pink bundle in her arms into the greater galaxy.

She was Lay's little miracle.

She broke out of her reverie as her astromech indicated that they were about to reach their destination.

Another round of beat the squadron's calculations, ending with Kaden Staal as the victor. Another half-hour jump through hyperspace.

Which is why Layla didn't expect the sudden lurch that came a full eight minutes early.

[Drake 53]

Takeshi sat back in the glow of hyperspace and blasted some heavy Mando rock over a portable audio player he brought with him. He put his hands behind his head and bobbed it to the music. He had been through plenty of hyperspace jumps in his time and a good many were much longer than this one. He knew how to pass the time. He also had a couple novelpads stowed away.

He had the music player set to automatically turn down as soon as he was out of hyperspace so he was somewhat surprised when it quieted as they fell out early. He wasn't shocked completely. It wasn't the first time he had been pulled forcefully out of hyperspace. The drop in speed was preceded by a shudder and a lurch that was usually associated with an...

"Interdictor to starboard!" he shouted over the comm.

***

Atzena felt a slight rush of excitement and a large rush of fear wash over her as she was pulled out of hyperspace, along with the rest of the Revenants, by the interdictor in the distance.

"Is it one of ours?" she asked, nervously.

The interdictor answered her question for her as it emptied two squadrons of TIE fighters from its hangers.

She began to shake. "Guess not..." Pull it together, girl.

[Rogue 4]

"Fierfek!" Aeric Tunon cursed their luck. There weren't supposed to be any Imperial outposts along this route, which lay within New Republic space. Some Imperial Warlord testing his luck?

"Revenants, break to port!" Aeric ordered, turning his own ship away from the Interdictor.

"Captain---" he heard Layla Nasrin's voice come over the channel. "There's two other Star Destroyers here."

"I noticed, Three."

This definatly wasn't in the mission plan. Nat thought to himself. "We have Eyeballs incoming!"

[Princess 35]

Nima was quick to respond. She broke hard to port with the rest of the Revenants and stayed directly on Jya's wing. "Lead, Eight, I'm counting 3 squadrons of TIE's attacking. One of the flights must be from on of the Imp Stars. We've got 36 eyeballs inbound. They'll be in torpedo range in 30 seconds."

[Mara 29]

After launching from the hangar, Kaden glanced over the coordinates but didn't pay them much attention. He let Artie do most of that work. It's what he was there for. The droid was always better at computer relations than he was. When the results all came back, they jumped. Kaden sat back for the trip, knowing it wouldn't be too long, as this was just going to be a training run. He focused his mind on what he was doing, running through scenarios in his head.

Reermerging into real space again, they received a new set of coordinates. Once again, he just set them over to Artie. But this time it was Artie, not Arlan, who found the fastest route. The little droid tootled happily to himself, Kaden thought a little arrogantly, as the new coordinates were relayed back to everyone. With the jump so quick after, he just took the congrats without mentioning Artie. He didn't deserve praise right now. So he settled in for another run through hyperspace, trying to tune out his boasting droid.

Suddenly, Artie screamed and a half second later the starlines disappeared.

"Blast! Artie, I need data."

A moment later, he saw all he needed to know. Interdictor. And Star Destroyers. Kaden merged quickly into the fighting mode he was so used to being in for the past few years during battles. He quickly scanned his display for placement of all the ships, looking for fighters.

Another moment later he jerked his X-wing hard into a spiral following the captain's orders. They needed to get out of the interdictor's pull.

Which would be hard with at least two squads of TIEs coming right on their tails.

"What's the plan, three flight?"

[Ender 8]

Hilts immediately blew a warning as the squadron burst out of hyperspace into the Imperial ambush. Jaim pulled the fighter into a hard roll to port, right along with the rest of the squadron.

Hilts went on to inform Jaim of the two squadrons of incoming TIEs and the two Impstar Deuces coming to cut them off, now dispatching their own fighters.

"Don't worry, Ten. There's only three of them."

[Mara 29]

"I'm not worrying, Eleven."

As he flew with his flight and squadron, Kaden's mind was working overtime, taking in all the information and trying to formulate a plan that would work the best. For now, he just stayed in formation behind Nine, his wingman, and waiting to see if the captain already had a plan.

Edited July 20, 2007 by Mara

[Andy 60]

Aston's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the Star Destroyers up ahead. He acted quickly to stay in formation with the rest of the squadron.

"Just a blue milk run, they said," he muttered to himself, "fantastic."

[Drake 53]

Aeric spoke over the squadron comm channel. "Stay calm, Revenants. Lock S-foils in attack position. Raise shields and arm all weapons. Remember your training. TIEs are easier to kill than X-wings so we'll be alright against them."

He tried to hide the doubt from his voice. There are too many. We're going to lose people and even if we get past those fighters, there will be more...and then there's the Star Destroyers...

"No heroics, people" he said. "Stick with your flights and work with your wingmates. Remember the chain of command."

***

Jareth Daragon moved to the head of Flight Three and opened the comm. "Three Flight, form up with me. Conserve your torpedos. We'll need them if we want to take those Star Destroyers."

***

Takeshi opened his S-foils, raised shields and armed weapons. By then, the TIE fighters were in range. As they began to fire, the Revenants broke apart into their flights. Three Flight followed Lieutenant Daragon in a maneuver that brought them into a flanking position next to one of the enemy squadrons.

Takeshi let out a whoop and said over the comm, "Revenants, bring the noise!"

The squadron fired back.

[Mara 29]

Kaden clicked his comm acknowledging Lt. Daragon's orders. And, having already locked his S-foils for attack, he began arming torpedoes. He also turned down the squadron frequency to make sure he could hear those in his flight more clearly, but he didn't turn it completely off. He still needed to be able to contact the captain or anyone else just in case.

He rolled his eyes at Tak's whoop, but quickly ignored it and opened his lasers up on the TIEs in front of three flight. He agreed with the lieutenant; no use wasting torps on the TIEs. They had bigger things to worry about.

Kaden couldn't help thinking that this was surprisingly similar to the one sim run he had been doing, the crazy one the computer programmed for him. He tried to push those thoughts away.

That was a sim. This is real.

He kept up the laserfire and one TIE exploded in front of him. He spun, following Daragon and quickly looking for another target.

[Princess 35]

Nima tucked in on Jya's wing and fired lasers at the closest TIEs. She boxed in the fighter with shots and finally shot off a wing. The TIE spiraled away and out of the fight. She looped around looking for another target