Chapter 1: Baptism By Fire

[Rogue 4]

Layla's jaw dropped, and she found herself drifting for a moment before she realized it and tightened with the formation. "You're a-a-re-replacement?!"

Surprise and disbelief made it's way through her pheromones, her jovial mood once again replaced.

They're replacing me...? Blaster bolts! How did those records even make it into the database anyway? I've been flying two years without them...and now...

[Mara 29]

Kaden had taken out three of the four TIEs in the second incoming flight with ease, but the fourth was being a bit troublesome. It had fired, but he took his X-wing in a sudden dive to evade. He swayed his fighter back and forth for a bit to clear his mind and focus on the task ahead and to keep the TIE from getting a lock on him.

"Artie, full power to stern shields."

He took his X-wing in a corkscrew to port, knowing that the more agile TIE would follow his every move. He just need to figure out how well he would do so, thus, finding out how smart it was. He already realized it was much smarter than the previous seven, but how much more?

The TIE was still on his tail, so he dove upwards almost vertical, feigning to spin around behind the TIE, but instead going off to the starboard.

[Bad furday 57]

Arlan had just enough time to fling his ship left in order to miss Layla's drifting Xwing.

"Wait..." he said, after regaining his breath, " who's being replaced?"

Arlan was sure it was him. His flying record wasn't exactly stellar, and the Captain hadn't been observing his improvements in the sims.

** **

"You do that in a fight and you'll get vaped!" warned Jya. She cricled back around towards the others.

"What's all this about a replacement?"

[Rogue 4]

"S-sorry." Nasrin stammered at Jya's exclamation. Luckily these ties were a little far off, but she knew that had they been in a real battle she would have been vaped. And she probably would have taken Arlan with her.

If I'm being replaced, then that means they're getting rid of me...if they get rid of me, I probably won't be able to get another job in the New Republic military, let alone as a fighter pilot!

[Drake 53]

Takeshi laughed, "Nothing so harsh as a replacement. As I said, I was called in to cover for the pilot until they get their past sorted out. Don't ask me who it is but I'm sure they will be logging a lot of sim time."

Tak pulled his X-Wing into a tight turn and opened fire on a cluster of TIE fighters coming up on their tail. With flying as precise as a med droid in surgery, he blasted two of the sim fighters apart, wove through the other fighters and the debris, then turned back to blast the rest from behind.

Learn it once and it all comes back to you. He thought. Just like riding a Basilisk...

[Rogue 4]

Layla's indignant snort came over the channel as she switched to dual-fire. She could feel Tahashi's smugness. He was in a sim close to hers, she knew. And he knew exactly who it was he was filling in for.

The TIE fighter's came upon them. She got a lock on the leader, and pressed down on the trigger. The shot passed straight through the cockpit, causing an explosion. The other two passed by overhead, and she inverted, flying after them, turbolaser's blazing. Sure she didn't posess that same speed, but her manuever had an element of surprise they weren't suspecting. One of her shots caught the TIE on it's wing-pylon, sheering the right wing straight off.

She watched as it careened into it's wingmate, the two causing them to explode brilliantly.

She saw the new pilot fly by overhead. "Tak, you've got one on your tail!"

[Drake 53]

"Thank you."

Takeshi suddenly dropped speed, let the TIE fly past then blasted it to pieces.

"These sim pilots never learn, do they." He sped back up into formation as the last of their attackers broke off. "Looks like they're scrambling more fighters to intercept us. We need to bomb their landing strip and flight bay before taking out the base or they'll just keep coming at us."

[Rogue 4]

"If the computer could think we'd never win. I'm your wing." Layla said, biting her tongue. "Arlan, Jya, you guys alright up here?"

She waited until they clicked an affirmative before falling into formation with Officer Beskar.

"Alright, let's blow that base to shrapnel."

[Drake 53]

Tak made a dive directly towards the landing strip and the enemy hanger beyond. He began weaving through anti-air turret fire while strafing ground targets on the strip. Then he noticed something.

"Nasrin, it looks like there's a stockpile of fuel just inside the hanger doors. If we can hit it with a proton torpedo, we can take out the entire bay and weaken the structural support of the base. Arlan...Jya, keep those eyeballs off our backs. Layla, I'm going to draw fire from those turrets while you bomb the fuel. Good luck!"

Takeshi took the lead and started randomly firing at the turrets, drawing their fire in return.

He took his fighter into a complex series of twists and dives.

[Rogue 4]

Layla switched to proton torpedoes as she looped around for another pass. The targetting computer wasn't going to be able to target those fuel canisters, so this was going to be entirely up to her.

Provided he kept the surface to air turrets off of her long enough to pull this trick.

It was times like this she wished Captain Pre'jark hadn't kept her R2 copilot.

Focus. Relax, Don't stress out girl, it's unbecoming. she thought as she juked to evade turret-fire. She flew low and fast, keeping her ship, and it's proton torpedo launch pods paralell to the ground. "Hold on guys, because this is going to be one hell of a trick!" She exclaimed as she took aim...and fired.

The twin torpedoes went forward, blasting through the open bay doors and through the stack of fuel canisters. It exploded, fire blooming up to kiss her shields as she angled her X-wing up over the facility, and accelerated.

[Chickenman 9]

Atzena switched to proton torpedoes, which had a longer range than the standard lasers. She aimed at the lead TIE, and her targeting box went gold, humming. A moment later, it went red, indicating a lock, and she squeezed the trigger. The torp tore towards the TIE, which nimbly dodged, but the flight did scatter, and the lead would still have to worry about the torp making a turn and coming back for him. Satisfied, Atzena switched to lasers, quad linked them, and accelerated.

***

Curiously, rather than follow Kaden, the TIE broke hard, spinning itself around, and dove straight to the ground.

[Bad furday 57]

"You got it!" yelled Arlan as he saw the explosion blossoming off towards his right. He couldn't afford to look long though. A pair of TIE fighters were coming towards him at an angle. By the time they reached him, they'd have an easy shot to the rear of his ship.

Above him, Jya vaporised another enemy ship with efficiency.

"Jya, cover me. I'm going to have two on my tail very soon!" he radioed.

Jya responded by flipping her fighter up and around to fall behind the two attackers

Seeing this, the sim pilots split up, one following Arlan, the other attempting to lead Jya away from his wingmate.

Jya smiled. The computer had made a mistake.

She fired at the turning TIE fighter, punching through its engines and causing it to erupt in a fireball.

* * *

Arlan's instruments told him that the TIEs had split up. With only one to worry about, he sent his Xwing into a steep dive.

"I've never tried this before" he thought to himself, " but a sim is the best place to try it out!"

As the ground rushed closer, he pulled up sharply, and stood his ship on its tail, noise pointing skyward. This drastically slowed his airspeed, causing the TIE fighter to blast past underneath him.

Pointing the ship downwards again, Arlan took off in pursuit of the TIE.

As the landing field was relatively flat, there was no place for the pilot to use the terrain to trip up the pursuing Xwing.

Arlan blasted him at the far end of the field.

"It worked!" he exclaimed over the com.

[Rogue 4]

Layla laughed excitedly into the comm. "Good job!"

She brought the nose of her X-wing up as the facility burned beneath her, heading back for the dogfight. She felt thoroughly exhilarated. "Coming on up to give you two a hand!"

[Mara 29]

Coming out of his evasive maneuver, Kaden noticed on his display that the lone TIE was no longer shadowing him, but was instead going back down to the moon.

He followed slowly in his fighter, trying to see if it would go into the atmosphere and back to the base, or if it might suddenly turn back on him.

"Artie... switch power equally to all shields.

Let's see what this guy is up to..."

Kaden pulled back on his stick and accelerated after the TIE, following it at a distance down to the moon. His fighter bucked slightly as it hit the atmosphere, then steadied once again. He found the TIE on his display because the cloud cover he was flying in was too thick for a manual check.

He checked his torpedoes. Still four left. He had used mostly lasers earlier on all the previous TIEs.

Breaking atmosphere, he could finally see the ground of the planet, with the weapons facility off to his left. There wasn't much else built up and he was glad. It meant that there was a slim chance of civilian casualities.

Now to take out the TIE, the facility and get out without getting himself vaped.

He spiralled down, keeping himself a hard target, while closing in on the TIE.

Edited June 19, 2007 by Mara

[Bad furday 57]

"Negative, negative. Uh...we have a reactor leak up here..very large leak, very dangerous...give us time to shut it down!" joked Arlan. He was suddenly in a jovial mood, no doubt from defeating the sim.

[Princess 35]

Nima picked off a TIE with a proton torpedo and tucked back in behind Atzena. "Sithspit! There's only supposed to be Uglies here. The intelligence was bad." Nima glanced at her sensor board. Only 10 TIEs remaining. Good. She followed Atzena through a barrel roll and heard an alarm on her sensor board. She looked at it again and saw another squadron of TIEs launching from a hidden base. "We've got problems Atzena."

[Rogue 4]

Layla laughed, a moment before the simulation ended. She unfastened the crash webbing, and popped the cockpit canopy open. She climbed out, taking a look around.

A lot of the sims looked occupied, although more than half looked empty. The other squadron must have decided to settle in before begining training.

Interviews must have been over too because she saw Lieutenant Riamor standing at a nearby console, monitoring one of the sims, a half-smirk on his face. She briefly wondered what was so amusing that it would make even him crack a smile.

She felt exhilarated. It may have been a simulation, but she just blew an Imperial hanger to smithereens with two proton torpedoes, and that was the kind of thing that sent a thrill through you.

[Chickenman 9]

The TIE hurtled towards the ground, faster, faster. Suddenly, it flipped around, heading right for Kaden. It blasted upwards, firing rapidly as it rose and as Kaden's X-Wing rushed down to meet it. The TIE raked fire across the X-Wing's shields, momentarily collapsing them and scoring two hits on the hull before flashing past the New Republic craft. As the X-wing continued to plummet downwards, the TIE broke hard to starboard, making a 180 degree turn and getting on the X-Wing's tail again.

***

Atzena bared her fangs in frustration. Ignoring the incoming squadron for the moment, she lined up a TIE in her reticule, squeezed the trigger, and blasted it out of the sky. She was searching for her next target when another TIE was on her tail, firing at her. Her shields absorbed the hits, but she was forced to break away into evasive maneuvers.

"Nima, I think we're in a little trouble!"

[Drake 53]

Takeshi climbed out of his own simulator and hopped down next to Layla. He took his time giving her a look-over then smirked.

"As talented at flying as you are easy on the eyes, I see. And...don't worry. Those weren't the pheremones talking. I can sniff out a Zeltron from a parsec away." He winked and laughed.

[Rogue 4]

"I suppose I'll take that remark in the spirit it was intended, and thank you for that obviously high compliment.."

Layla shook her head at him, her red-brown hair framing her face as she pulled it from it's tie and smiled, despite the awkward situation. "Although, I have to wonder if you don't sniff us out because you like the way we smell, Officer Beskar."

Edited June 19, 2007 by Rogue

[Drake 53]

Tak grinned, "Maybe I do."

He took a moment to look around the room, nodding to Nat Riamor, then turned his attention back to his comrades.

"Anyone up for some exploration around the base?"

[Rogue 4]

Nat returned the nod with an approving one. Their group had done very well in the simulation.

Layla stretched. "Sure, why not? Couldn't hurt to stretch my legs, and it might keep me from losing my way in a critical moment."

Edited June 19, 2007 by Rogue

[Drake 53]

"Well then it's settled."

They left the simulator room and off into the base. Takeshi took note of every passage and turn and landmark along the way, storing it to memory. They made some small talk along the way but it wasn't until they were away from the majority of the crew that Tak turned to Layla, speaking in a lower voice.

"You know, Layla, I have heard much about you even before I read the roster upon getting this assignment..."

[Rogue 4]

"Is that so?" Layla looked amused, giving him a humoring smile as they walked down the corridors. Her warm gray eyes looked up at him curiously.

"Amazing, I didn't know I was the high topic in Starfighter Command. You'd think they'd have more interesting things to talk about in the galleys and cafeterias than one Zeltron Flight Officer. When I go through they're always talking about Luke Skywalker, Corran Horn or Commander Antilles. "

Edited June 19, 2007 by Rogue

[Drake 53]

Takeshi stifled a laugh, "You give yourself far too much credit, my dear. No. I was a fighter pilot during the Rebellion and for a short time after. Once the New Republic took over the balance of power in the galaxy, I switched to a different profession. See, I was in the black ops."

He gave her a moment to let it sink in then continued, "During the course of my highly classified and 'If-I-Told-You-I'd-Have-To-Kill-You' missions, I made some interesting aquaintences. A good number of them were of the less-than reputable variety and a few of those spoke of a bounty placed upon the red-tressed head of a young Zeltron girl."