Flight Officer Aaron stared at his alarm clock like it was pure Sithspit. His wingman, Flight Officer Bub, grinned at him. "If looks could kill, that clock would be molten slag right now."
Aaron shook his head. "If only. Someone want to explain to me why my alarm is going off at three AM today?"
Lieutenant Kettch walked by his bunk. Three Flight shared the same quarters, due to space issues at the Coruscant base where the squad was assembling. "The Commander called an early morning sim, to judge our ability to fly after waking up. We're to report as soon as you're dressed. Giselle's down there already.
"Aaron grimaced. "Great. I suppose showering is not an option?"
Kettch just stared at him.
Bub grinned. "Come on, Aaron. We can still beat up on this overstuffed teddy bear and his lovely assistant."
Aaron shook his head. "I hate morning people."
* * *
They reported to the simulator bay five minutes later. Commander Knight stared at them. "You're late. We'll have to work on response time. In five minutes, we could all be dead."
Aaron mimed typing on a datapad. "No dying. I think I can remember that."
Giselle sighed. "Did we have to take someone recommeneded by Wes Janson the Second?"
Aaron looked at her in shock. "I'm hurt. I really am."
Kettch glowered at her. "Don't forget, Flight Officer, that I'm in charge of your assignments."
"Ooh, now I'm scared."
Knight waved down the banter. "Enough. This will be a standard dogfight against computer simulated opponents. There will be eight of them, and four of you, so you'll have to shoot sharp. Also, they're in TIE Defenders."
Aaron cursed under his breath. "We'll have to be just that much better than them."
Knight offered him a grin. "I suppose so. One Flight ran the same sim. Vaped it; no casualties, five minutes. See if you can do better."
"We'll try not to get vaped."
"That'll work."
* * *
A minute later, Three Flight was angling in on an interception course of the eight Defenders. Aaron adjusted his scopes. He armed his torpedos, and set them to dual fire. Bracketing the fourth TIE on the screen, as was standard squadron protocol for the fourth member of the flight, he waited for the light to go red. Ahead, Kettch had already engaged the leading edge of the Imperial flight. Behind him, Giselle ran support, catching one Defender by surprise as he dodged Kettch's blasts.
The light went red. Aaron fired. Twin streaks shot toward the Defender. It easily juked out of their way, but the Defender didn't count on the fact that his wingman was following in precise formation behind him. Both torpedoes engulfed the unlucky target in a firey explosion.
Aaron grinned as he watched Bub's fire stitch his original target's engines, penetrating the shield and lighting one engine on fire. Without an astromech to control the problem, it quickly spread throughout the fighter's engines. The pilot ejected as the fighter was sent into a spiral toward the nearest star.
Aaron's joy was short lived as his astromech shrilled; warning of an enemy's targeting lock. He juked to starboard, momentarily blocking Bub from the enemies sensors. He ripped around him, lasers blasting. The Defender looped out of his sights, but Aaron cut in front of him, lacing it with fire. It's shattered hulk impacted with his fighter, sending him out of control.
"You okay, Twelve?" Bub's voice sounded over the comm.
"Shields are down. Uh, lasers are out, ion cannons are out." His XJ fighter had undergone special modifications to allow it to fire ion cannons, at the expense of some of it's lasers.
"Get clear, Twelve." That was Kettch. The three of us can mop up here." It was true; only three fighters of the original eight remained. A detonation. Make that two.
"I copy, Nine. Getting clear." Frustration leaked out of his voice.
The remaining Defenders fell in the next thirty seconds.
* * *
"Very good. 4:38. One Flight will have to tighten it up." Knight smiled at them.
"I'm sure Kyp will vape it in three," muttered Aaron.
"Ah, Kyp will be having his own little simulation. I've worked with Jaina, and he should be learning his own lesson, one that he needs desperately. I'm getting him as soon as you leave."
"I copy, Commander." They saluted and left.
* * *
"Rise and shine Knights," said Knight as he entered Kyp and Master's quarters.
"It's too early," whined Master.
"No it's not. Jaina and Acky have been up for hours."
"I'm up, I'm up," said Kyp, rising from the bed, clearly irritated. A young handsome man of 24, Kyp clearly hadent shaven in the last few days, for his goatee was now looking like a full beard.
"Gettin' kinda roguish there, Kypie" teased Master.
"Don't start already, Master," warned Kyp.
"Enough. You two, meet me down at battle sims in twenty minutes," said Knight as he left.
"Ugh. More simulation? When is he going to realize nobody can take me down?" Kyp sighed.
"It's that kind of attitude that keeps him trying" laughed Master.
"If you say so."
The door slammed. "Lets go Master. We only have five minutes left."
Master came running out, a young boyish man of eighteen still trying to look perfect to impress any lady who might be on hand. Kyp thought to himself ihe reminds me of myself not too long ago. Kids./i
* * *
"Now remember, this simulation is designed to be exactly like the real thing, with of course one exception. It's not real and you are in VR training ships," Knight instructed Jaina and Acky, as Kyp and Master came running onto the sim deck.
"Hmm. Two minutes late. Forget where the deck was again, Kyp?"
"As a matter of fact I wasn't the one running late today." Kyp glared at Master.
"Well the sim briefing is over. You and Master will just have to make due without the instructions, Kyp."
"No problem," said Kyp grinning.
"Okay then, get in your cockpits and set up. Your ship simulation starts in three minutes. The scale is going on a thirty point scale. The first duo to it wins."
* * *
"Simulation Commencing," came a voice over the loud speaker.
Kyp and Master swooped in an X-motion, quickly cutting five points on Acky as they narrowly evaded the opposing fire. Acky swooped back in a parallel back spin, catching Kyp off guard and slamming fire into Kyp's exaust port, getting ten points. Acky stayed on Kyp's tail until Master cut through, side spinning over top of Acky, throwing him off course and into a tail spin.
Kyp tried to take advantage and cut some points out of Acky but Jaina came in and poured laser fire into Master and Kyp, bringing her team's points to twenty. Kyp and Vong cut to port side and evaded the two attacking ships, then came back in a U-formation, before cutting across each other and slamming shots into Acky and Jaina, bringing them up to twenty points.
Jaina back spun into a twist before circling up behind Master, pouring lasers into him until his shields gave out and his sim was ejected. Acky closed in on Kyp and blasted, but Kyp pulled the throttle back catching Acky off guard. As Acky flew past Kyp, and Kyp blasted his shields down.
"Score now tweny-five/twenty-five." came the voice over the loud speaker.
Kyp punched the throttle and started closing in on Jaina as her lasers were still re-powering from the bombardment she let on Master.
"I know her moves, Master" said Kyp over their private frequency, "she always goes to half power and circles high"
"Do it, then, Kypie boy" replied Master, who was sitting in the cockpit of the simulator, his comm unit still tapped in to Kyp's channel.
Kyp, still chasing Jaina, fired to keep the threat alive. He waited for her to do her move. He saw it; the ship's slowing and twisting up, and he instinctively slammed back on the throttle and pulled back on his stick, expecting Jaina to be right in his sights.
He was wrong. Jaina had tricked him and revved the throttle to full and done a low backwards spin. She came up behind Kyp and put a full string of lasers into him, crippling his ship.
"Sithspit!" cried Kyp as Jaina's voice came over the intercom.
"Night, sweety." She finished off his ship with another string of quad lasers, diminishing Kyp's shields and kicking him out of sim.
The lights come on in the simulation room and Knight came walking in, clapping. "Well done, Jaina. Someone finally put the 'one' on Kypie's record."
Jaina laughed. "Well, I knew Kyp watched every sim and looked for moves or weaknesses, and I noticed him take up on my one on one move, so I figured he'd bite if I threw the fake. And he did," said Jaina, with a smile.
Kyp and Master came over and saluted Knight. "Wow that was some awesome flying, Jaina" said Master.
"Yeah, it was pretty good. You and Kyp were great yourselves."
"Yeah, you're getting better" said Acky to Master.
"Commander, I need to study this." Kyp murmured distantly. "Permission to leave, sir?"
"Permission granted. And nice flying, Kyp."
"Thank you," Kyp said sadly. Kyp began walking to the recording deck, when he heard someone running up to him.
Kyp turned to see Jaina. "Hey!"
"Yes, Jaina?"
"Are you alright, Kyp?"
Kyp gazed into her beautiful eyes, and said "It was only a matter of time before I went down. It's just a pleasure it was to someone as beautiful as you."
Jaina blushed and looked back at him. "Thank you, Captain. Perhaps we can study the video together and find our flaws so next time the fight is even better."
"I agree," Kyp said taking her hand and kissing it as they walked to the video room to review the tapes.
* * *
"Attention, all pilots currently in Knight Squadron will now report to Briefing Room Three. I repeat..."
Bub stared sadly at his full glass of ale, as he listened to the announcement. "Of all the lousy-"
"Maybe it's good news, Sir. I'll save it for you." The barkeep smiled as she put the glass away.
"I'm gonna be back for that. It better still be there." Bub pointed as he backed out of the room.
* * *
"So, what do you think of the Squadron, Kettch?" Commander Knight asked, as pilots filed into the spacious briefing room.
"They are superior pilots. A good mix of veterans and young blood. I do not know how well they will work together, though," Captain Kettch answered worriedly in high-pitched basic.
"Don't worry about that, they'll adapt in no time. At least Kyp is the only one with a major ego."
"All pilots have an ego, sir," Kettch corrected with a smile.
"Except for me, you mean."
"Yub yub, Commander," Kettch yipped.
* * *
Aaron, Giselle and Nom were sitting at the rear of the room as Bub rushed in.
"Hey Bub, you're late, as usual," Aaron called gruffly, waving him over.
"Did you pass too many female technicians in the hallway?" Giselle joked as he sat down.
Bub looked annoyed as he answered, "Hey, it's not my fault some Cadet took the last turbolift!"
Aaron finished laughing and turned back to the others, "So, did anyone see who finished at the top?"
"I don't know. Kyp and Rogue were pretty close, up to that last sim against the cruiser," Giselle answered, thinking back.
Nom spoke up, "Actually, Kettch jumped over both of them on that last mission. Two torps into the bridge."
Suddenly the lights dimmed in the briefing room and the New Republic symbol came up on the viewscreen.
"Ahem," Knight cleared his throat, ending the conversations throughout the room. "As many of you know, we've recently brought a large portion of the Navy back into active service."
Grumbles could be heard in response to that statement, as many of the pilots had been enjoying peace time.
Knight continued, "Well, we had a very good reason for that, as you'll see in a moment." He motioned to Kettch, who brought up an image on the viewscreen.
A map of the galaxy popped up and zoomed into a red area near Wild Space. "This is the enemy territory, as far as we know. Intelligence has been sketchy lately, so this is our best estimate," The picture changed again, "And I recommend you memorize this picture, because this is going to be your target for the next few months." Knight paused for a moment to let the murmurs die down. "He is a Yuuzhan Vong, who has seriously disrupted our shippping along the Corellian Run," He glanced back at the mutilated face and sinister smile. "The target's self-proclaimed name is the Warlord Coopra."
* * *
Giselle walked back to the quarters she shared with the other members of Three Flight.
So, they were going to have to fight for real now. She had never experienced any kind of war and the thought she would now come close to something like it made her a little nervous. She pushed the feeling away. She had been trained for this kind of situation, to protect the innocent, or traders in this case.
She reached her destination and entered her quarters. She still had some work to do before she could relax and enjoy her last day on leave.
She took some machinery and tools from a hidden spot and put it all on a small table, the only table in their quarters, she thought, annoyed. Because of limited space one of the three flights had had to bunk together. They had drawn straws and her flight had lost.
She sat down at the table and let out a sigh. She would finally finish this stupid task today. It was actually more of a punishment for an accident she had caused. She shook her head and for the millionth time thanked the Force only Commander Knight had been there to witness it, well, he and that stupid droid of course but that had been taken care of.
* * *
It had happened almost two weeks ago. Jaina and Tage had taken Giselle someplace to show her what 'ice cream' was. Giselle had never heard of it and overheard the other two talking about it. They had invited her to come along to a new place that had only just opened and only served all kinds of sweet treats to find out what it was and tasted like.
She had loved it, and ignoring the other two's warnings she had eaten to much of it. It didn't take long for the effects of that mistake to appear and finally she had excused herself, and trying not to let Jaina and Tage see something was wrong, left the place.
She had just slipped into an ally to take a shortcut back to the base when it had happened. First the Commander appeared at the other mouth of the ally, apparently also on his way to the Sweety as it was called.
"Good evening, Flight Officer Giselle," he said. She had just wanted to point out she was off duty and not in uniform when another voice behind her spoke up.
"Mistress! Mistress, wait!"
She turned around and saw a pink colored droid running, though what stiffly, after her, waving something in his hand at her.
Her eyes flew open when she reconginized what it was and her hand flew to her belt. Nothing. She had left her lightsaber at the Sweety! And the droid had it in his hand!
Quickly she counted the seconds she had been outside. Knight had stopped walking now, realizing something was wrong.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
Giselle looked back at the droid and yelled, "Drop it! Now!" while ignoring the lump now not only in her stomach from the ice cream but also in her throat.
But it was too late, before she could even take a step towards the droid the lightsaber in his hand seemed to explode. She shielded her face with her hands and saw the Commander to the same thing, since there was no place to hide in the ally.
When they both looked back at the droid they saw a part of one of his arms was missing, the one that had held the weapon. The droid just stood there.
"What the hell just happened?" Knight yelled a little too loudly.
She was suddenly glad there was music in the Sweety, the people in there probably hadn't heard anything. Then she noticed the demanding glare on the Commander's face and swallowed.
"Uh, that was my lightsaber, sir," she said.
"I noticed that, Officer. But lightsabers do not normally explode."
"It didn't explode, sir," she said as she walked to the parts that belonged to the droids arm now scattered all over the ally. She pushed some of it away with a hand and did something the Commander couldn't see and picked her lightsaber from between it. She held it up for the Commander to see and smiled sheepishly.
He looked at it and then back at her, "Alright, then I repeat; what the hell just happened?"
She took a deep breath and walked towards him. She held the weapon in front of her so he could see, and did something with the handle he couldn't see. She put it on the floor between them and watched it.
Knight looked at the weapon wondering what would happen. He glanced back at he droid who as still standing in the exact same spot, obviously at a loss for words, but he wondered how long that would last.
Suddenly the lightsaber in front of him made a loud click and the thing jumped into the air while spinning wildly. Knight actually jumped back. He'd been looking at the droid, not the lightsaber. It fell to the ground again and now he saw what had made it do that. Five long spikes, the length of the handle itself, stood out from the base in an angle. He looked close and saw the edges of the spikes were as sharp as a knife. If you held the thing while that happened.he looked back at the droid. That would happen.
* * *
Giselle looked back at the pink colored hand in front of her on the desk. That's when it had gotten ugly. She had had to explain why she had built her lightsaber that way; it was the way all ceremonial weapons - and non-ceremonial, but she hadn't mentioned that to him- were built back on Gurac, to make sure no one but the owner could pick it up.
He hadn't liked it, and finally she had agreed to shut the security system off - for now, but she hadn't mentioned that, either - but only because she was feeling her stomach again and wanted to get back to the base. He had also told her to collect all the parts scattered around that belonged to the droid, and put it all back together. She also had had to pay the Sweety back the losses it would make while their serving droid was incomplete. She had agreed again just to get away. Then he'd left, dragging the droid behind him who suddenly started jabbering about being taken apart and being doomed, usual droid-talk.
She didn't know much about droids, that's why it had taken her almost two weeks to finish this. That and some of the parts had had to be replaced and others were hard to put back together. She would have asked one of her fellow pilots to help her, but then they would have asked her why she was doing it. But she felt to guilty to talk about it.
Besides, she would have had to include the tradition from back home and then she would be in real trouble, because no Guran noble, which she was, would talk about that willingly. Thankfully she had mentioned that to the Commander, and he had promised not to talk about it.
"What are you doing there?"
Giselle let out a yell, jumped up, and looked behind her. Then she looked down. Kettch was standing there, wondering if she was going to attack him.
"Oh, it's you."
"Yes, why are you here?"
"Oh, uhhh." She quickly tried to think of a way to hide what she'd been doing, but couldn't.
"I'm building a droid's arm."
"Why?"
Her mind raced, ".You know that droid at Sweety's? The one with a pincer instead of an arm?" Kettch nodded. "Well, it's for him."
She grabbed the arm from the table. It was completed now, she only had to test it, but she could do that while it was attached to the droid itself. "I have to go now and give it to him before we leave tomorrow," she said while backing towards the door, smiling at the ewok for all she was worth. "Bye now!" She turned and ran through the opening before he could ask any more.
Aaron shook his head. "If only. Someone want to explain to me why my alarm is going off at three AM today?"
Lieutenant Kettch walked by his bunk. Three Flight shared the same quarters, due to space issues at the Coruscant base where the squad was assembling. "The Commander called an early morning sim, to judge our ability to fly after waking up. We're to report as soon as you're dressed. Giselle's down there already.
"Aaron grimaced. "Great. I suppose showering is not an option?"
Kettch just stared at him.
Bub grinned. "Come on, Aaron. We can still beat up on this overstuffed teddy bear and his lovely assistant."
Aaron shook his head. "I hate morning people."
* * *
They reported to the simulator bay five minutes later. Commander Knight stared at them. "You're late. We'll have to work on response time. In five minutes, we could all be dead."
Aaron mimed typing on a datapad. "No dying. I think I can remember that."
Giselle sighed. "Did we have to take someone recommeneded by Wes Janson the Second?"
Aaron looked at her in shock. "I'm hurt. I really am."
Kettch glowered at her. "Don't forget, Flight Officer, that I'm in charge of your assignments."
"Ooh, now I'm scared."
Knight waved down the banter. "Enough. This will be a standard dogfight against computer simulated opponents. There will be eight of them, and four of you, so you'll have to shoot sharp. Also, they're in TIE Defenders."
Aaron cursed under his breath. "We'll have to be just that much better than them."
Knight offered him a grin. "I suppose so. One Flight ran the same sim. Vaped it; no casualties, five minutes. See if you can do better."
"We'll try not to get vaped."
"That'll work."
* * *
A minute later, Three Flight was angling in on an interception course of the eight Defenders. Aaron adjusted his scopes. He armed his torpedos, and set them to dual fire. Bracketing the fourth TIE on the screen, as was standard squadron protocol for the fourth member of the flight, he waited for the light to go red. Ahead, Kettch had already engaged the leading edge of the Imperial flight. Behind him, Giselle ran support, catching one Defender by surprise as he dodged Kettch's blasts.
The light went red. Aaron fired. Twin streaks shot toward the Defender. It easily juked out of their way, but the Defender didn't count on the fact that his wingman was following in precise formation behind him. Both torpedoes engulfed the unlucky target in a firey explosion.
Aaron grinned as he watched Bub's fire stitch his original target's engines, penetrating the shield and lighting one engine on fire. Without an astromech to control the problem, it quickly spread throughout the fighter's engines. The pilot ejected as the fighter was sent into a spiral toward the nearest star.
Aaron's joy was short lived as his astromech shrilled; warning of an enemy's targeting lock. He juked to starboard, momentarily blocking Bub from the enemies sensors. He ripped around him, lasers blasting. The Defender looped out of his sights, but Aaron cut in front of him, lacing it with fire. It's shattered hulk impacted with his fighter, sending him out of control.
"You okay, Twelve?" Bub's voice sounded over the comm.
"Shields are down. Uh, lasers are out, ion cannons are out." His XJ fighter had undergone special modifications to allow it to fire ion cannons, at the expense of some of it's lasers.
"Get clear, Twelve." That was Kettch. The three of us can mop up here." It was true; only three fighters of the original eight remained. A detonation. Make that two.
"I copy, Nine. Getting clear." Frustration leaked out of his voice.
The remaining Defenders fell in the next thirty seconds.
* * *
"Very good. 4:38. One Flight will have to tighten it up." Knight smiled at them.
"I'm sure Kyp will vape it in three," muttered Aaron.
"Ah, Kyp will be having his own little simulation. I've worked with Jaina, and he should be learning his own lesson, one that he needs desperately. I'm getting him as soon as you leave."
"I copy, Commander." They saluted and left.
* * *
"Rise and shine Knights," said Knight as he entered Kyp and Master's quarters.
"It's too early," whined Master.
"No it's not. Jaina and Acky have been up for hours."
"I'm up, I'm up," said Kyp, rising from the bed, clearly irritated. A young handsome man of 24, Kyp clearly hadent shaven in the last few days, for his goatee was now looking like a full beard.
"Gettin' kinda roguish there, Kypie" teased Master.
"Don't start already, Master," warned Kyp.
"Enough. You two, meet me down at battle sims in twenty minutes," said Knight as he left.
"Ugh. More simulation? When is he going to realize nobody can take me down?" Kyp sighed.
"It's that kind of attitude that keeps him trying" laughed Master.
"If you say so."
The door slammed. "Lets go Master. We only have five minutes left."
Master came running out, a young boyish man of eighteen still trying to look perfect to impress any lady who might be on hand. Kyp thought to himself ihe reminds me of myself not too long ago. Kids./i
* * *
"Now remember, this simulation is designed to be exactly like the real thing, with of course one exception. It's not real and you are in VR training ships," Knight instructed Jaina and Acky, as Kyp and Master came running onto the sim deck.
"Hmm. Two minutes late. Forget where the deck was again, Kyp?"
"As a matter of fact I wasn't the one running late today." Kyp glared at Master.
"Well the sim briefing is over. You and Master will just have to make due without the instructions, Kyp."
"No problem," said Kyp grinning.
"Okay then, get in your cockpits and set up. Your ship simulation starts in three minutes. The scale is going on a thirty point scale. The first duo to it wins."
* * *
"Simulation Commencing," came a voice over the loud speaker.
Kyp and Master swooped in an X-motion, quickly cutting five points on Acky as they narrowly evaded the opposing fire. Acky swooped back in a parallel back spin, catching Kyp off guard and slamming fire into Kyp's exaust port, getting ten points. Acky stayed on Kyp's tail until Master cut through, side spinning over top of Acky, throwing him off course and into a tail spin.
Kyp tried to take advantage and cut some points out of Acky but Jaina came in and poured laser fire into Master and Kyp, bringing her team's points to twenty. Kyp and Vong cut to port side and evaded the two attacking ships, then came back in a U-formation, before cutting across each other and slamming shots into Acky and Jaina, bringing them up to twenty points.
Jaina back spun into a twist before circling up behind Master, pouring lasers into him until his shields gave out and his sim was ejected. Acky closed in on Kyp and blasted, but Kyp pulled the throttle back catching Acky off guard. As Acky flew past Kyp, and Kyp blasted his shields down.
"Score now tweny-five/twenty-five." came the voice over the loud speaker.
Kyp punched the throttle and started closing in on Jaina as her lasers were still re-powering from the bombardment she let on Master.
"I know her moves, Master" said Kyp over their private frequency, "she always goes to half power and circles high"
"Do it, then, Kypie boy" replied Master, who was sitting in the cockpit of the simulator, his comm unit still tapped in to Kyp's channel.
Kyp, still chasing Jaina, fired to keep the threat alive. He waited for her to do her move. He saw it; the ship's slowing and twisting up, and he instinctively slammed back on the throttle and pulled back on his stick, expecting Jaina to be right in his sights.
He was wrong. Jaina had tricked him and revved the throttle to full and done a low backwards spin. She came up behind Kyp and put a full string of lasers into him, crippling his ship.
"Sithspit!" cried Kyp as Jaina's voice came over the intercom.
"Night, sweety." She finished off his ship with another string of quad lasers, diminishing Kyp's shields and kicking him out of sim.
The lights come on in the simulation room and Knight came walking in, clapping. "Well done, Jaina. Someone finally put the 'one' on Kypie's record."
Jaina laughed. "Well, I knew Kyp watched every sim and looked for moves or weaknesses, and I noticed him take up on my one on one move, so I figured he'd bite if I threw the fake. And he did," said Jaina, with a smile.
Kyp and Master came over and saluted Knight. "Wow that was some awesome flying, Jaina" said Master.
"Yeah, it was pretty good. You and Kyp were great yourselves."
"Yeah, you're getting better" said Acky to Master.
"Commander, I need to study this." Kyp murmured distantly. "Permission to leave, sir?"
"Permission granted. And nice flying, Kyp."
"Thank you," Kyp said sadly. Kyp began walking to the recording deck, when he heard someone running up to him.
Kyp turned to see Jaina. "Hey!"
"Yes, Jaina?"
"Are you alright, Kyp?"
Kyp gazed into her beautiful eyes, and said "It was only a matter of time before I went down. It's just a pleasure it was to someone as beautiful as you."
Jaina blushed and looked back at him. "Thank you, Captain. Perhaps we can study the video together and find our flaws so next time the fight is even better."
"I agree," Kyp said taking her hand and kissing it as they walked to the video room to review the tapes.
* * *
"Attention, all pilots currently in Knight Squadron will now report to Briefing Room Three. I repeat..."
Bub stared sadly at his full glass of ale, as he listened to the announcement. "Of all the lousy-"
"Maybe it's good news, Sir. I'll save it for you." The barkeep smiled as she put the glass away.
"I'm gonna be back for that. It better still be there." Bub pointed as he backed out of the room.
* * *
"So, what do you think of the Squadron, Kettch?" Commander Knight asked, as pilots filed into the spacious briefing room.
"They are superior pilots. A good mix of veterans and young blood. I do not know how well they will work together, though," Captain Kettch answered worriedly in high-pitched basic.
"Don't worry about that, they'll adapt in no time. At least Kyp is the only one with a major ego."
"All pilots have an ego, sir," Kettch corrected with a smile.
"Except for me, you mean."
"Yub yub, Commander," Kettch yipped.
* * *
Aaron, Giselle and Nom were sitting at the rear of the room as Bub rushed in.
"Hey Bub, you're late, as usual," Aaron called gruffly, waving him over.
"Did you pass too many female technicians in the hallway?" Giselle joked as he sat down.
Bub looked annoyed as he answered, "Hey, it's not my fault some Cadet took the last turbolift!"
Aaron finished laughing and turned back to the others, "So, did anyone see who finished at the top?"
"I don't know. Kyp and Rogue were pretty close, up to that last sim against the cruiser," Giselle answered, thinking back.
Nom spoke up, "Actually, Kettch jumped over both of them on that last mission. Two torps into the bridge."
Suddenly the lights dimmed in the briefing room and the New Republic symbol came up on the viewscreen.
"Ahem," Knight cleared his throat, ending the conversations throughout the room. "As many of you know, we've recently brought a large portion of the Navy back into active service."
Grumbles could be heard in response to that statement, as many of the pilots had been enjoying peace time.
Knight continued, "Well, we had a very good reason for that, as you'll see in a moment." He motioned to Kettch, who brought up an image on the viewscreen.
A map of the galaxy popped up and zoomed into a red area near Wild Space. "This is the enemy territory, as far as we know. Intelligence has been sketchy lately, so this is our best estimate," The picture changed again, "And I recommend you memorize this picture, because this is going to be your target for the next few months." Knight paused for a moment to let the murmurs die down. "He is a Yuuzhan Vong, who has seriously disrupted our shippping along the Corellian Run," He glanced back at the mutilated face and sinister smile. "The target's self-proclaimed name is the Warlord Coopra."
* * *
Giselle walked back to the quarters she shared with the other members of Three Flight.
So, they were going to have to fight for real now. She had never experienced any kind of war and the thought she would now come close to something like it made her a little nervous. She pushed the feeling away. She had been trained for this kind of situation, to protect the innocent, or traders in this case.
She reached her destination and entered her quarters. She still had some work to do before she could relax and enjoy her last day on leave.
She took some machinery and tools from a hidden spot and put it all on a small table, the only table in their quarters, she thought, annoyed. Because of limited space one of the three flights had had to bunk together. They had drawn straws and her flight had lost.
She sat down at the table and let out a sigh. She would finally finish this stupid task today. It was actually more of a punishment for an accident she had caused. She shook her head and for the millionth time thanked the Force only Commander Knight had been there to witness it, well, he and that stupid droid of course but that had been taken care of.
* * *
It had happened almost two weeks ago. Jaina and Tage had taken Giselle someplace to show her what 'ice cream' was. Giselle had never heard of it and overheard the other two talking about it. They had invited her to come along to a new place that had only just opened and only served all kinds of sweet treats to find out what it was and tasted like.
She had loved it, and ignoring the other two's warnings she had eaten to much of it. It didn't take long for the effects of that mistake to appear and finally she had excused herself, and trying not to let Jaina and Tage see something was wrong, left the place.
She had just slipped into an ally to take a shortcut back to the base when it had happened. First the Commander appeared at the other mouth of the ally, apparently also on his way to the Sweety as it was called.
"Good evening, Flight Officer Giselle," he said. She had just wanted to point out she was off duty and not in uniform when another voice behind her spoke up.
"Mistress! Mistress, wait!"
She turned around and saw a pink colored droid running, though what stiffly, after her, waving something in his hand at her.
Her eyes flew open when she reconginized what it was and her hand flew to her belt. Nothing. She had left her lightsaber at the Sweety! And the droid had it in his hand!
Quickly she counted the seconds she had been outside. Knight had stopped walking now, realizing something was wrong.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
Giselle looked back at the droid and yelled, "Drop it! Now!" while ignoring the lump now not only in her stomach from the ice cream but also in her throat.
But it was too late, before she could even take a step towards the droid the lightsaber in his hand seemed to explode. She shielded her face with her hands and saw the Commander to the same thing, since there was no place to hide in the ally.
When they both looked back at the droid they saw a part of one of his arms was missing, the one that had held the weapon. The droid just stood there.
"What the hell just happened?" Knight yelled a little too loudly.
She was suddenly glad there was music in the Sweety, the people in there probably hadn't heard anything. Then she noticed the demanding glare on the Commander's face and swallowed.
"Uh, that was my lightsaber, sir," she said.
"I noticed that, Officer. But lightsabers do not normally explode."
"It didn't explode, sir," she said as she walked to the parts that belonged to the droids arm now scattered all over the ally. She pushed some of it away with a hand and did something the Commander couldn't see and picked her lightsaber from between it. She held it up for the Commander to see and smiled sheepishly.
He looked at it and then back at her, "Alright, then I repeat; what the hell just happened?"
She took a deep breath and walked towards him. She held the weapon in front of her so he could see, and did something with the handle he couldn't see. She put it on the floor between them and watched it.
Knight looked at the weapon wondering what would happen. He glanced back at he droid who as still standing in the exact same spot, obviously at a loss for words, but he wondered how long that would last.
Suddenly the lightsaber in front of him made a loud click and the thing jumped into the air while spinning wildly. Knight actually jumped back. He'd been looking at the droid, not the lightsaber. It fell to the ground again and now he saw what had made it do that. Five long spikes, the length of the handle itself, stood out from the base in an angle. He looked close and saw the edges of the spikes were as sharp as a knife. If you held the thing while that happened.he looked back at the droid. That would happen.
* * *
Giselle looked back at the pink colored hand in front of her on the desk. That's when it had gotten ugly. She had had to explain why she had built her lightsaber that way; it was the way all ceremonial weapons - and non-ceremonial, but she hadn't mentioned that to him- were built back on Gurac, to make sure no one but the owner could pick it up.
He hadn't liked it, and finally she had agreed to shut the security system off - for now, but she hadn't mentioned that, either - but only because she was feeling her stomach again and wanted to get back to the base. He had also told her to collect all the parts scattered around that belonged to the droid, and put it all back together. She also had had to pay the Sweety back the losses it would make while their serving droid was incomplete. She had agreed again just to get away. Then he'd left, dragging the droid behind him who suddenly started jabbering about being taken apart and being doomed, usual droid-talk.
She didn't know much about droids, that's why it had taken her almost two weeks to finish this. That and some of the parts had had to be replaced and others were hard to put back together. She would have asked one of her fellow pilots to help her, but then they would have asked her why she was doing it. But she felt to guilty to talk about it.
Besides, she would have had to include the tradition from back home and then she would be in real trouble, because no Guran noble, which she was, would talk about that willingly. Thankfully she had mentioned that to the Commander, and he had promised not to talk about it.
"What are you doing there?"
Giselle let out a yell, jumped up, and looked behind her. Then she looked down. Kettch was standing there, wondering if she was going to attack him.
"Oh, it's you."
"Yes, why are you here?"
"Oh, uhhh." She quickly tried to think of a way to hide what she'd been doing, but couldn't.
"I'm building a droid's arm."
"Why?"
Her mind raced, ".You know that droid at Sweety's? The one with a pincer instead of an arm?" Kettch nodded. "Well, it's for him."
She grabbed the arm from the table. It was completed now, she only had to test it, but she could do that while it was attached to the droid itself. "I have to go now and give it to him before we leave tomorrow," she said while backing towards the door, smiling at the ewok for all she was worth. "Bye now!" She turned and ran through the opening before he could ask any more.