Title: Junior Wraith Squadron NRI Missions:  Bastion City
Author: AdraLoran, NicolaAfyon
Keywords: Junior Wraith Squadron, Wraith Squadron
Dramatis Personal:
NRI Head Iella Wessiri Antilles (female human)
Liselle Afyon (female human)
Melidere Afyon (female human)
Inyri Loran (female human)

Chapter One – The Mission

"Come on, please Aunt Iella?"  Liselle Afyon asked her holdmother, a pleading look on the 14-year-old girl's face.

"I can't, Liselle, your parents would kill me," Iella replied yet again, not letting a bit of exasperation into her voice.

"But Aunt Jaina said you're the only one that Mom listens to!"

"Lis, you're fourteen.  I can't give you a field assignment yet, even if I wanted to."

"Mommy was fourteen when she joined the Empire and fifteen when she came over to our side."

"Fifteen and a half, actually," Iella corrected her.

Liselle shook her head slightly, getting strands of her long blonde hair out of her face.  Leaning back in her chair, she shrugged.  "Yeah, close enough.  I already know the whole story, it's what I've grown up on.  Mom was a kid smuggler from Ord Mantell for eight years or so, than an Imp, and then Targeter, before Jori sent out too many bounty hunters and Mom ended up in a gutter in a Corellian street."

Iella watched the girl as she recited her mother's career.  Pretty darn accurate.

"Now we come to all the romance.  Daddy finds her there, he whisks her off to Coruscant and the Jedi Temple, blah blah blah.  Insert all the soppy romantic stuff I'm not suppose to know about, Mom passes the trials, marries Daddy.  Then along come Meli and me, and two years later come Koyi and Ty.  In the process, Mom gets decorated with rank insignia, medals for bravery, and makes several heroic rescues."

Iella held up a hand, silencing the girl.  Well, she defiantly had the recitation part down pat.

"Listen to me dead.  True, your mother did do all those things at a rather young age, and she still does them.  But Nicola was already inside the Imperial system and things were pretty darn bad back them-"

"Things are pretty darn bad right now."

Inwardly, Iella cringed.  Her holddaughter knew more than any 14-year-old needed to.  "It was different then, Liselle, really different."

"So now you'll say 'Not this year, Liselle.  But keep trying next year and the year after that!'"

"Right."  Iella stood up and gave her holddaughter a hug, pulling the shorter girl towards her.  Liselle returned the hug and then pulled away.

"Well, I've got to go then.  Uncle Face wanted me to go give the new simulation data to Uncle Wedge, Aunt Jaina, Aunt Mara, and all the other squad leaders."

Iella nodded sagely.  "The Bastion City stuff?"

"Right.  And then Ehlana wants me and Inyri to meet her at Wild Knights to go over more tactics and stuff with us.  Mom and Uncle Face won't tell us, but I think that 'Lana's teaching us all this stuff for when she goes back to the Knights."  She raised a questioning eyebrow at Iella, as if asking for confirmation.

"Well, I obviously can't tell you, but you're going in the right direction.  Now, scout, you've got to go deliver that stuff."

Liselle grinned and disappeared from the office.

"Oh, and Liselle?"  Iella called, in afterthought.

Her blonde head reappeared around the corner.  "Yeah, Aunt Iella?"

"It's going to be an Afyon/Loran leadership when Ehlana leaves."

Her smile broadened.  "So I was right!"  And then she disappeared again. 

* * * * *

A little over a standard year later, Liselle was back in Iella's officer, only this time, Inyri Loran was with her.  Iella buried her face in her hands as the two "triplets" present grinned at her.

"Well, you did say try next year," Liselle said, laughter evident in her voice.

"Caught by my own tongue, I suppose.  Alright, let's hear your new argument."

The two blonde teens glanced at each other, blue eyes looking into silver, before nodding and turning back to face Iella.  If she hadn't known that they weren't, and they had had the same color eyes, she would've though that they were twins.  Of course, listening and watching Liselle with her actual twin was scarier, as the two were prone to talking and moving in unison or switching off as they spoke.

"Well," Inyri started, "According to what Dad told me, speaking several languages is a plus, which we both do.  Basic, Huttese, Corellian; did I forget any?"

"Ewokese.  And for me, old Alderaanian," Liselle supplied.

"Yeah, but who speaks old Alderaanian, nowadays?"

"My family and the other survivors of Alderaan."

"How many Alderaanian do you expect-"

Iella coughed and the girls' heads shot around to face her once more.  Both grinned evenly, and then Inyri started up again.

"Anyways," Liselle continued for Inyri.  "I'm also almost fully Targeter trained and Inyri's partially trained.  We both know how to handle blasters, lightsabers, and explosives.  On top of that, we're Jedi.  Well Jedi Padawans, but it's close enough.

The two looked expectantly at their "Aunt," hopes high.  Iella sighed and shook her head.  The adolescents sighed and slumped in their chairs.

"Not yet girls.  I hate to say it, but you're not old enough yet."

"But Aunt Nicola was fifteen when she became a NRI agent!" Inyri objected.

"But things were different back then, much different," Liselle said in a decent impression of Iella's voice, rolling her eyes.

Iella nodded.  "Right.  Nice voice impression by the way, Liselle."

The silver-eyed girl grinned.  "I've been working on it."

The older woman laughed.  "Alright, now I say 'Come back next year' and you say 'Don't worry we will.'"

Liselle wrinkled her nose.  "This is starting to get to be a drill."

Inyri nodded.  "We'll have to break that drill next year."

Iella rolled her eyes.  "Alright you two, go torture your squadron or something."

The two exchanged glances and began to grin wickedly.  "Ooo, good idea!"  Inyri started.

"We can make them to the Reniquim scenario!"  Liselle finished for her friend.

"You two have been around Wes Janson for far too long.  Next thing we know, Lieutenant Kettch will be making the rounds again."

Liselle and Inyri grinned and rose to leave.  As they disappeared around the corner, Liselle poked her head back in briefly.

"Yub yub, Aunt Iella!"

* * * * *

Iella buried her head in her arms.  "This is not happening to me."  She lifted her head up to look at the four girls in front of her.

Liselle, Inyri, and Meli grinned broadly back at her.  "We've been recruiting," Inyri said.

"Well I can see that.  But you do know that bringing a ten-year-old along severely decreased your chances of success?"

Little Cerise Ritril, daughter of Tyria and Cloud Ritril and the baby of the Wraiths looked up.  "Oh, I'm not with them Aunt Iella.  I just got a ride over with them."

Iella's brow furrowed as she looked at her holddaughter.  "If you were looking for Alana, 'Rise, she's over at Rogue HQ."

Cerise nodded.  "I know, she commed me from there.  I'm supposed to get that new software for the nav computer data from you.  We're installing the Rogues' today."

Iella nodded in return and turned to get the datacards.  Cerise had inherited the best of the Ritril and Tainer traits, which thankfully had not included a love for explosives, but rather a love for ships.  She was actually much like a younger, blonde Alana Ynrer.  Tyria often had to drag her daughter out of the hanger bay at night.  If she didn't, the girl was likely to stay there for days on end.

She tossed the datacards over and the girl easily caught them.  Cerise flashed her a smile.  "Thanks Aunt Iella!"  And then she disappeared out the door without a backward glance.

Iella turned back to the triplets.  "We have a new argument this year?"

"We have a new argument this year," Inyri confirmed.

"Let's here it then."

Inyri looked over at Meli who looked over at Liselle and Liselle looked right back at Meli.

Meli shook her head.  "Nope, my elder twin will."

Liselle rolled her eyes and then started.  "Alright, we're sixteen now, the age when you're supposed to start flying in combat even though that rule is constantly broken.  So, we figure if that rule can be broken for over twenty people, why can't it be broken for three?  And we're older than Mom was when she first was Targeter."

"And," Inyri added in quickly, "from what Dad's said, being able to change appearance and identities is a plus.  We've all graduated with honors from 'Garik the Face Loran's Private Acting Academy'.  And Mom mentioned lip reading and being able to plant bugs, but we've been doing that for a long while now."

Iella raised an eyebrow at the three of them, expecting further explanation to the 'bugs' bit.  This time Liselle answered, saying, "What?" quite innocently. "How else do you think we Junior Wraiths keep on top of the Intelligence field?  Koyi and Kai have been supplying us with microphones and such to slip into our parents' pockets since they could use the proper tools!"

Though she should've told them that that was very wrong and they shouldn't be doing that and just for the fact they did it, the 'triplets' wouldn't get a mission, Iella couldn't.  She was impressed, really, at the ability with which the Afyon and Loran kids had improvised to learn information that was being kept secret from them.  With a sigh, Iella rose from her chair and walked around the desk to where the teenage girls stood.  Her sharp gaze remained on them, searching for anything that might slip.

Leaning back on her desk, she raised an eyebrow, not jumping to conclusions.  "And I suppose I should take it that because Face Loran trained the three of you in the ways of putting on a show, I should believe you can infiltrate Imperial territory."  Even without the Force, she could sense that all three girls were a bit shocked that such a thing would be a first mission, but ready and willing nonetheless.  When Iella got no answer- to which she attested to 'affirmative'- she sighed again.  "Unfortunately, what you told me two years ago is right again, Liselle.  Things are pretty bad right now."

The girls exchanged another look, then quickly returned their gaze frontward.  Iella felt a brief smile flick across her lips before she reached around a stack of papers to a datacard that was lying on the desk.  Holding it up as if it were nothing more than a piece of plasteel, she waved it slightly.

"This disk holds information on your mission.  If you hadn't come in today, I was going to request to your parents you go on this mission, in spite of the fact that it's against my better judgment."  Expressions of delight formed on the teenagers' faces, quickly halted when Iella's became thin and drawn.  "I expect a report in every three days.  You'll be there for six months at the most.  If absolutely anything goes wrong, you report in and head back to Coruscant, understand?"

All three of the girls nodded quickly.  After a moment, Inyri's voice came to her again.  "Um, Aunt Iella, where exactly is 'there'?"

Iella stared at them, hoping she wasn't sending them into anything they wouldn't be able to handle.

"Bastion."