Origins of a Pilot

by Rogue One

Story of a pilot in the New Republic...told in 5 parts...please excuse the HTML codes... [i]writing[/i] is italics, FYI

[b]Origins of a Pilot[/b] 1st Person POV

[b]Part 1: Independent Command[/b] "Halley and I are going to the seaside dock to make a few repairs on the [I]Liannian Queen[/I]," said my dad, Rylin Kadorto, to my mother. He was a very tall man, much taller than I, with rich brown hair that he kept slicked back and tapered. My mother was of about average height with long, dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. We were in the main living room of the middle class house we lived in. It was the planet Lianna. My home, and a place I hoped I would never leave. The [I]Liannian Queen[/I] was my dad's spice freighter. I loved seeing it and helping dad fix it. I wasn't much of a mechanic, but spending time with him always turned out to be really fun. "Only if you're back by six," responded my mother, Jahles. She looked at me and smiled. I was only twelve standard years old. Eagerly, I shot out a question. "Can Kem come? He's old enough." My mom's gaze narrowed, she being ready to give me a lecture. My smile melted away, apprehensive that she might yell at me for asking to bring my little brother along on the trip. "A freighter docking yard is hardly place for a twelve year old like you, much less a seven year old. Kem is just too young. You can bring Aztro." "But I can never understand what Aztro is saying," I winced pitifully. My mom didn't buy it. "Take Aztro or take no one." She readjusted her position in the chair she was occupying and crossed her legs. I sighed and looked down, defeated. My dad patted me on the shoulder. I looked back up at his friendly face and brightened a bit. "Yes, mother," I said a little more energetically. She nodded in approval at me. I then proceeded to charge down the hall toward my room. Kem peeked his head out the door of his room as he heard me approach. "Let's go, Aztro. Time to go to the wharf!" I called as I reached the opening to my door. From within I could hear the little arthree unit chitter happily, although I had absolutely no idea what he was saying. I smiled anyway when I saw him approach, as if I understood every last beep and whir. "Where ya goin' broder?" I felt a tap to my shoulder. Whipping around, I saw Kem standing there, looking very curious. [I]If I tell him, he'll want to go.[/I] "Big brother stuff," I tried to deepen my tiny voice and look superior. My brown haired and brown eyed sibling persisted. "Where do big broder's go when they do big broder stuff?" "To the wharf," I said, hoping he'd stop inquiring. "To the spade dock?" "No, not to the [I]space[/I] dock, Kem," I corrected him. I groaned. He looked puzzled at me, but I tried to keep from laughing and telling him the truth. He loved dad's freighter. Sometimes I felt he was too attached to it. Once he even held on to one of the landing gears when dad was about to leave on a trip to Corellia. The little guy just didn't want to see it leave. It took almost ten minutes of reasoning and negotiations before we got him off. Now I tried to walk away from Kem. He tugged my shirt. "Can you bring me back some Akela?" he asked eagerly. I didn't bother to turn around. He was more curious than an Ewok. "Yes, Kem, I'll bring you back some [I]Aquela[/I]." "[I]Would he just let me go? Please?[/I] Kem began jumping up and down in excitement and ran straight back into his room whooping and hollering the whole way there. I giggled a little and joined back up with my dad at the front door. "Bye, mom!" I called. "Bye, Halley sweety!" I made a rotten face at her words. She could be so embarrassing sometimes. I looked up at my dad as he chuckled lightly. I frowned. "What's so funny?" I nearly interrogated. My dad looked down at me and smiled. "You, and that face you made. I used to do the same thing." "You did?" I asked in wonder. He nodded as the front door opened and we stepped outside to get into the family speeder. "I sure did. You're just like your old man." With that he took another few steps and tripped on a slight groove that was on the walkway. He was on the floor within milliseconds. That groove had been there as long as I could remember, and he almost always managed to trip on it. He could be quite clumsy at times. [I]I hope I never become that clumsy![/I] I ran to his aid and helped him up. He dusted himself off and I assisted by flapping my hands all about across his back. A small dust cloud whisked away from the material causing me to cough. I took in a deep breath when the dust had settled, the freshness of the air around me clearing the pain in my chest from coughing. "Remind me to fix that crack some time," my dad said with a smile. I snapped a look at Aztro who was just now out the door. "Put it in your memory banks to remind dad to fix that groove in the walkway. He fell again," I said to the little robot I had owned since I was five. It was a birthday present from my parents. Kem got one when he turned five too, which he affectionately named Vercheska, after the delicious tasting Liannian delicacy. He could be quite cute when he wasn't annoying. Aztro bleeped in response at me. Confused and lost, I looked up at my dad. "He says he'll remind me tomorrow morning," my father answered, knowing what I was asking just by the expression on my face. I nodded and smiled. I didn't know how my dad was able to understand arthree lingo, I just knew he knew. We finally got to the speeder and helped Aztro in to the back seat. Then my dad and I hopped in the front and we were off for the coast, to where the [I]Liannian Queen[/I] slept. "Will you ever let me fly the freighter, dad?" I asked as we neared the docking ports. We had been through the discussion before, and my dad gave me an irritated look from behind the wheel. "What have I told you before?" he inquired, expecting me to answer correctly. I lowered my head, "I know, I know. Not 'til I'm at least fourteen." "Right," Rylin nodded, "so stop asking." He didn't say that in a angry or harsh tone. He was actually trying to be as understanding as possible. I knew he didn't want to see me get hurt if I tried to fly, whether he was in the cockpit with me or not. I gave a meager smile and we continued on our way. I thought it was best not to persist. I knew how to fly the ship. I had seen my dad work the controls millions of times, but I would just have to wait a little longer to finally get a crack at it. [I]Two standard years isn't that long.is it?[/I] My dad parked at the speeder lot just at the opening to the wharf. We were at the coast. To the right, along the beach was the dock where freighters were kept. To the left was a wharf, with shops and restaurants of all types scattered along the man made peninsula. We would go there later. For now we had to check on dad's spice freighter. "Hi Halley!" I heard a voice call. I knew who it was. "Tela!" I cried as I turned to my left to see my best friend and her mother walking towards us, shopping bags in hand. They had most obviously just come from the wharf after a long morning shopping spree. When they got close enough, my dad proceeded to start up a conversation with Tela's mom, Dows. Tela and I broke off into our own little conversation. "You goin' to see the [I]Queen[/I]? my black haired and green eyed friend asked with a pretty smile. I shrugged, "yeah, but dad's not gonna let me fly it." "I wouldn't let you fly it either," Tela teased. I simply gave a sarcastic smile to her comment. "Just you wait, Tela Loris," I tried to act grown up again, "one day I'll fly it and then you'll be sorry you ever teased me." My friend crossed her arms in front of her chest in skepticism, her long and flowing black hair whisping in the comfortable breeze being brought in from the awe-inspiring shore just a mere fifty meters away. "If you ever do get to fly, you gotta take me out on a date," Tela teased again. I gave a sickened look and stuck my tongue out at her. "No way," I shook my head, "go out with a girl? That's yicky." She and I were just friends, nothing more. And girls [I]were[/I] yicky when they got mushy like she just had, but she was easy to tolerate when she wasn't like that. We both giggled and conversed for a little while longer before parting ways for the day. She was on her way home to try on all the new clothes she had picked out at a boutique on the nearby wharf. I gladly let her go on her way; I had better things to do.

"So when I'm fourteen, will you let me fly the [I]Queen[/I] by myself?" I decided to try the conversation with my dad from another angle. "Maybe not the first time, but soon after," he tried to reason. I again thought it best not to pursue the terms further. We were in the maze of hallways that made up the docking port, Aztro trailing not too far behind. I was amazed how my dad never got lost in them, never once having to stop and verify just where we were in the cavern-like corridors. Our footsteps would echo down and around, inspiring me to yelp and holler just to hear my voice bounce back to me. "That'll be enough of that," my dad said scruffing up my hair with his gentle fingers. I grabbed his hand and stuffed it in his pant pocket before trying to fix my hair back to how it was. My attempts were fairly unsuccessful. Then we began nearing the bay where my dad's ship lay dormant. Painted along the wall was our docking bay number, 45. That number in early Liannian culture was considered very bad luck, but my dad was anything but superstitious. However, my mom was, and I seemed to take after her in that trait a bit. I didn't strongly believe something bad would happen if the number 45 was seen, but it always seemed to make me feel uneasy. I tried to shrug it off this time. Suddenly my dad stopped. From beyond the door that lead to the [I]Queen's[/I] bay I could hear faint voices. My dad grabbed my shoulder to let me know to stay behind as he proceeded. I obeyed. He got to the door and tried to peek it open to see inside, but he pushed a little too hard and the door swung open completely. There, in somewhat ragged clothing stood two men. One was very chubby and very bald with bits of hanging black hair. The other was much skinnier with brown hair, but also had rather ragged clothing. Their sights immediately fell upon me, my dad and Aztro. Suddenly I became very frightened. "You three get in here!" the fat one said to us in an angry voice. He had a facial expression to match. My dad turned and motioned for me to come in, looking even more scared than I was. I took a shaky step forward, followed by another. Soon I had a fairly good stride going and we entered the room, my dad's arm around my shoulder tightly. Aztro beeped once uneasily. "Close the door," Skinny said in an even deeper voice than Chubby. My dad took a step back and swung the door shut. Now we were trapped. I looked up to see the [I]Queen[/I] in all her glory parked just a few meters away, boarding plank down. She was a Corellian YT-2400 spice freighter in pristine condition. My dad treated her just as well as he treated me and Kem. Although it was pretty irregular for a simple spice freighter navigator like Rylin to use a YT-2400 to deliver spice, he used it anyway, saying he refused to fly any other type of ship. He liked the way it handled in atmosphere and space, and Kem and I always commented on how cool a design the sturdy ship had. Just then I panicked at the realization of why the two intruders were here. [I]They're trying to steal her![/I] "Stay here until an hour after we take off, and you won't get hurt," Chubby barked as Skinny began to go up the plank, probably to get the ship up in the air. My eyes scanned both of them. They didn't appear to be armed. My dad didn't seem to notice my observations and held me close. I was beginning to get a bit more confidence over the situation. "Who are you?" I ordered in my scrawny voice, my gaze honing in on Chubby. He looked at me in amusement. "Nice boy ya have here," he looked up at Rylin. He then took a few steps toward us and looked me straight in the eye, his cold expression returned. "I'm Darth Vader, and my friend over there is Emperor Palpatine. We're stealing your ship." Not knowing at the time he was messing with me, and having no idea who the real Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine actually were, I frowned. "Well, Darth, you better not 'cause this is my dad's ship!" Vader simply chuckled and waved a hand at me before turning around to board the transport. I then verified again that the chubby man had no blaster or vibroblade on him. Anger began to swell inside of me. I tried to take a step forward, but my dad held me back, still frightened. I didn't struggle to break free. As he got closer, the ship began to power up. I watched in near shock. They just couldn't take her away from us. Just as Vader put his foot on the boarding plank, I made my move. I darted forward, breaking my dad's lock on me, and I ran faster than I ever knew I could run. I was just too fast for my dad's grip, and he watched in horror, unable to speak, as I ran after the thieves. Right before I went to tackle down Chubby, he turned. I panicked somewhat, but kept going. He looked at me in sheer surprise, unable to stop me. I came in full force, holding my hands out in small fists and socked him right in the gut. He keeled over from the excruciating pain and fell to the base of the boarding platform. I was now on it too. "Take off, Jax!" he called between pained pants. My attention went from the downed culprit to the man in the cockpit. As I proceeded up the plank, the ship rocked. He was lifting off! [I]I gotta stop him before he gets too far away![/I] Just as I reached the top to board the ship completely, Vader grabbed me by the collar. Somewhat expecting it, I reached for a long durasteal rod that was on the cold floor nearby. Swinging it around with all my might, I plowed him right in the ribs. He let go and fell backwards. Not checking to see if he fell out of the ship all the way, I turned and ran down the small corridor to the cockpit. The door was closed, but I knew how to get around the inconvenience. Rod in hand, I punched in the code on the panel next to the door that would open it. The code was easy to remember, because it was mom's birthday. The door flew upwards. There sat the skinny one in dad's seat. He didn't look at me, but spoke. "You get rid of 'em Till?" he called above the engine noise. I looked out the viewport in wonder. We were pretty high up now, well clear of the docking bay. He seemed to be heading straight, parallel over the ocean. It was only a matter of time before he would attempt to go out to space. Not wanting to spoil my cover, from him thinking I was his companion in crime, I sneaked up behind him as silently as I could. "Till?" he asked again. "Surprise, Emperor Palpajax!" I got his name crossed. I swung the rod with all my might over my head, clonking him over his. He was out. I smiled in satisfaction. My happiness was short lived however, when the [I]Queen[/I] began a sudden lurch downward toward the calm water below. [I]Gee, that was smart of me.[/I] Dropping the rod, and thinking quickly, I jumped into the co-pilot seat. Then, trying not to panic, I began to flick switches on the com- panel to replace control of the ship to my seat. When I was pretty sure I had it, I yanked the control stick in front of me hard, toward my chest. It hit my sternum, causing me to puff out a bit of air. The ship didn't level off. That's when panic began to set in. Had I not set the controls correctly? Did I really have control over the ship? I began to seriously doubt that I did. Still, I held the yoke firm, hoping it would level, a sinking feeling swirling round and round in my gut. It seemed like I was in the air, falling, for millennia, but it was only just a few seconds. I shut my eyes in terror just as I was about to hit. The ship began to shake and rumble nearly uncontrollably, but then, for some odd reason, it stopped. Feeling my sense of balance change, I realized I was going up. I peeked an eye open. Out the viewport, I saw blue, but not blue of the ocean. It was blue of the sky. I gave a silent cheer. I was alive! [I]I'm alive! And I'm flying![/I] Then I felt another surge of uneasiness. [I]I'm flying.Dad's gonna kill me![/I] Now it was just a matter of turning around and landing. I leveled off again and nudged the stick to turn back. It turned with a very sudden jolt, the stick being much more sensitive than I had always thought. This was going to take some practice. After a few more tries, I got the ship around the way I wanted, and headed back for the distant coastline. Off passed the light fog that was silently sneaking in, I could make out the wharf. I smiled in great relief. [I]I can do this.I can do this.[/I] I repeated the line over and over again in my mind. It seemed to keep me calm. The coast got closer and closer, and pretty soon I could make out the space port. As I got even closer still, I could see the specific docking hole I would hopefully be parking in. I swung over it at a low speed and flicked the engines off. Nearly forgetting to turn on the repulsor lifts, the ship began to free fall until I turned on the switch for that too. Next to me, Palpatine was breathing heavily, still unconscious. [I]This is a lot harder than I thought![/I] Then I remembered to retract the landing gear. I didn't remember soon enough however, because the ship hit the ground hard. "Whoops." I said aloud, somewhat embarrassed. I repulsor lifted back up again and hovered there until the landing gear could extend fully, and touched down a little more gently the second time. As if a great burden had been lifted from me, I fell back in the chair, sweating heavily and breathed out an extreme sigh of relief. [I]Dad's right, I'm too young for this.[/I] I quickly got out of the co-pilot seat and walked back toward the boarding plank, which I had left open. As I turned the corner, I stopped, fright settling in again. "You little womprat!" the man in front of me shouted. It was Chubby Vader. He began to walk towards me. Just before he could reach out and grab me, I heard a strange noise. I looked back up at Vader's face. His eyes were closed, and he began to fall forward. I scurried back just before he hit the ground with a loud thump to the metallic floor. I stared in awe and puzzlement at his downed body. Then I heard footsteps. "We'll take it from here, kid," a man called. I looked up to see nearly half a dozen Liannian Security Commandos storm in, blasters in hand. Their outstanding presence relieved me, but also frightened me again at the same time. They were here to help me, but they seemed so ruthless and made me feel like what I had done was relatively unimportant. I ran off the ship into my dad's arms. He was there, waiting for me, with the most extreme look of relief on his face I had ever seen, and probably ever would see. We held each other tightly and cried. When the tears finally stopped, I looked up at him, a question in my mind. "What is it, Hail?" he asked, smiling. "Can I fly the [I]Queen[/I] now?"

After a few hours of talking with the LSC, and taking the time to get calmed down, my dad and I went home, Aztro in the back seat once again. It was nearing sunset, the light breeze from the shore now beginning to pick up. The speeder seemed to go so slow compared to the [I]Queen[/I] but that was fine with me. I was done with fast things for a while. I was surprised to see my mom and Kem waiting for me at the doorstep, tears streaming down mom's face. [I]How did they find out what happened?[/I] I immediately asked myself. I got out of the speeder just as my dad parked, and mom hugged me tightly in her arms. I almost couldn't breathe. She kept saying how happy and proud she was of me and how she was worried sick about me and the whole lot. She had given me the same speech when I had gotten lost in the Shill forest a few years back and had managed to find my way back to camp after three hours of searching. Of course this incident was much more spectacular than that. I was just so glad to be home and safe. Then she threatened over tears. "But if you ever try to fly the [I]Queen[/I] again before you're fourteen, you'll be grounded!" She wasn't mad, just being a mom. I nodded and she held my even tighter. When mom finally put me down, Kem walked on over. I panted for breath from being released from mom's killer grip. "Where's my Akela?" he asked, unable to understand what had happened to me earlier in the day. He was simply too young to comprehend. I managed a light smile. "Dad says he'll get you some tomorrow," I said. Kem seemed satisfied and ran off happily. I simply shook my head. [I]Ah the wonders of being seven.[/I]

Later that evening, came a knock to the door. I ran down the hall and opened it. There stood Tela, wearing a brand new blue sweatshirt and skirt. She took me in her arms and trapped me. I think I felt less trapped when dad had closed the door to the docking bay earlier in the day. "You're alive!" she cried. I was too surprised at her greeting to say anything. She broke her grip and looked at me straight in the eye, expecting an answer. "Yeah," I finally squeaked, "I fought off some bad guys." She nodded, "I know, I saw it on the newscast on the holovid." She seemed to want to say something else, but held it back. "Yeah, dad said it would be on the holos for the next few days. I'm gonna be famous!" I boasted. Her gaze narrowed. "You gotta take me on a date now ya know!" she nearly exclaimed. I fell over backwards onto the floor of the house. She looked down and laughed. "W-why?" I stuttered in near horror. "Because you got to fly the [I]Queen[/I], silly! Remember our deal?" That's when I did remember. I scrambled back up to my feet and looked her back in the eye. "No, because girls are yicky!" She crossed her arms in front of her chest, just waiting for me to give in. I didn't plan to any time soon. "That's just like you, Halley, not to be nice to your best friend. I'm gonna tell!" I held my hands up in protest. "No, Tela, no need for that." Gazing up slightly, I grinned. [I]Friends forever.[/I] I thought.



[b]Part 2: Reluctant Departure[/b] "Good job today, Halley. You're showing some real promise out there," said my squadron leader, Captain Haben. I had joined a New Republic training squadron not too far away from the wharf area on the planet Lianna. Ever since I had learned to fly my dad's spice freighter prematurely nearly a decade before, I found I had a love and a talent for the art. My parents had no problem with me joining the New Republic training program; in fact they proposed the whole idea. I somewhat reluctantly joined, but found myself enjoying it quite well. I easily soared to the top of my class. We had just gotten done with some first hand experience in the air. We were given T-47 airspeeders with low powered lasers, making the run more of a "paint the enemy" rather than search and destroy. I had been hit with enough fire to be considered shot down near the end of the run, but had the highest score. Haben was congratulating me. I grinned at his beaming face. "Thank you, sir, but I did get shot down you know." "Well, you've only been here a few weeks at best. The more experience you have in the air, the longer you'll survive each run, until you won't be shot down at all hardly." I raised an eyebrow. "That's very reassuring, sir." I turned to leave, but swung around just a tad too quickly and fell over on my side. "Just think," Haben said between laughs, "we'll make sure you get so much experience up there, you'll be more likely to lose your balance and fall down than you will be to be shot down." I simply got up, rolled my eyes at him sarcastically, and left to change out of my pilot suit. I wanted to go home.

On the way back to my apartment, I made an extended detour. I had a sudden hankering to go and see the family. I hadn't seen mom, dad, or Kem in nearly three weeks because of intense training exercises leaving me too exhausted to go anywhere but my apartment each night. In that time, Kem had celebrated his seventeenth birthday. I had a platter of Aquela made specially for him in the back seat of my speeder. I parked in the driveway and hopped out, remembering to bring the platter with me. Just as I was going up the walk, I tripped on a groove in the turf. I was down, but miraculously, the Aquela landed undamaged on the lawn. I sighed heavily. [I]After all these years, dad still hasn't fixed that groove.[/I] I finally got up and proceeded to the door, platter in hand once again. I rang the buzzer and waited patiently. From within I could hear the clatter of footsteps rushing to see who was ringing. The door opened in a flash. There stood Jahles, my mother, graying but still quite young looking, a deepening smile showing on her features. "Hi, mom," I said in a calm tone, trying not to smile from my excitement at seeing her again. She wrapped her arms around me faster than she opened the door, almost making me drop the Aquela again. "Mom," I said after a few seconds, gasping for breath, "Can I come in please?" She broke her lock on me, somewhat surprised she had held me so long. "Of course you can, Halley sweety." She let me step inside. I peeked my head around the corner of the hall to see Kem and my dad, Rylin, in the living area, watching the holovid. The both jumped up at my presence. "Aquela for me?" Kem asked licking his lips. I didn't even nod and handed him the platter. "Happy birthday, Kem." Dad approached and hugged me gently. "You're only twenty one standard years old, and already arriving to parties fashionably late," he said with a wink. "I was worried three weeks wouldn't be late enough." We all sat around the living area, on the two gigantic leather couches that consumed much of the floor space within, and began talking endlessly. "I haven't been able to keep up with current events," I started a topic, "how is the Liannian Senate Board holding up?" Mom and dad exchanged worried glances. "They're fighting again. Verran is the only one willing to try to keep the peace within the Provinces." I nodded solemnly. The Liannian government was complicated. There were ten continents on the planet, each one being designated as a Province. My family and I lived in Province Verran, near the west coast. Each Province elects one delegate which goes to the Liannian Senate Board to vote on laws. So as not to play favorites with individual Provinces, the Senate House is located on a politically neutral island in the south. The Provinces hardly ever agreed on anything, making it nearly impossible to pass laws beneficial to the entire planet. They disagreed so much in fact, the Liannian government was sometimes nicknamed "Mini Coruscant" by outsiders. I always found the name very fitting, from what I always heard about the metropolis deep in the core of the galaxy. I decided not to worry about the subject any longer and we all convened to eat the Aquela I had brought for Kem. "This Aquela is fantastic!" Kem exclaimed between hearty bites. I chuckled a bit and continued talking with dad. "So how's the [I]Queen[/I] doing?" I asked him. "Well, it hasn't been stolen if that's what you're asking." I rolled my eyes at him. "Dad, that was almost ten years ago it was stolen. Those escaped convicts thought it was the [I]Outlander[/I] or something, didn't they? They were friends with the mercenary that owned it, and thought they could escape." "[I]Outrider[/I]," dad corrected, "and you're right. It was almost ten years ago. You did a very good thing that day. Look how it's paying off for you." Mom and Kem both gave in grunts of agreement to dad's comment, still stuffing themselves with Aquela. I put my fork down. [I]It's not [/I]that [I]good. I've had better.[/I] That evening, Kem showed me all his birthday presents he received from friends and family, including a Corellian cookbook, and keys to mom and dad's family speeder. He couldn't afford his own, and mom and dad weren't about to spend half his cooking school tuition on such a vehicle. He loved eating, but he wasn't much of a cook, so far ranking second to last in his class. "I like taste testing better anyway," he always said. Before sunset that day, I parted, hugging and kissing everyone in the house profusely. It was time to see someone else.

"Honey, I'm home!" I shouted as I opened the door to my apartment. It was located near the wharf, not too far away from the training academy, in a nice neighborhood. The person I was shouting to wasn't my wife or girlfriend, just my roommate. She emerged from beyond the opening to the small kitchen, wearing a cooking apron. She wasn't cooking though. That much I knew, because I knew her all too well. "Halley, you're home a bit late tonight. Working too hard at the office?" the black haired and green eyed woman asked. I smiled. "Yes, Tela. Haben kept me overtime." Tela walked over to me and pretended to kiss me on the cheek affectionately. That's when she abruptly broke into normal behavior. "So when are you gonna take me out on that date, Hail?" she asked. I stuck my tongue out at her, like I had been doing since I was twelve. "I started flying the [I]Queen[/I] ten years ago. Won't you ever forget I owe you a date?" I asked hopefully. She shook her head. "A woman never forgets such things," she replied raising an eyebrow, thinking she had me. "Tauntauns never forget their way, much less anything else either, but you don't see men taking them out on dates." Tela scoffed and walked to her room. I didn't follow. She and I had very strict living arrangements. We were not allowed to go in each other's rooms, especially when we were in our respective rooms, unless told otherwise. This prevented such things as walking in on one another while changing and so forth. She and I were pretty good friends, but not [I]that[/I] good of friends. I always dreaded the thought of ruining our ever-growing friendship over a stupid thing like opening a door. We had been friends long enough to be comfortable with each other though, and enjoyed the idea of living together. Nothing more ever developed between us in terms of a relationship. It didn't bother me much at first, but now I was having doubts. I was beginning to think I may actually like her as more than just my best friend. I dared not tell her my thoughts though, once again unsure of how it would affect the friendship we've had so long. I breathed in to calm my nerves and jumped into the closest chair in the room. Picking up the remote, I flicked on the holo to the news. A commercial was showing. A commercial I had seen countless times before. It was an ad to join the New Republic as a ground troop or a fighter pilot. [I]I'd love to get my hands on one of those X-wing fighters one day,[/I] I thought. I quickly shrugged the idea off. I didn't really plan to join the New Republic, or the Empire. I was in the training program purely to fly. I didn't know really what I wanted to do with my life, but I didn't truly feel flying was it. Still, the thought of being completely independent and isolated from home was quite enticing. "Did you already eat?" Tela startled me. I turned to see her, only her head peaking out the door to her room. "Yeah, I went home and had some Aquela with Kem." Her mouth gaped open in disappointment. "Why didn't you invite me? I love Aquela!" "That's why I didn't invite you. It was Kem's Aquela, I didn't want you eating his birthday present." She frowned. "That's not funny." I held up my hands innocently and shrugged. She wasn't amused and the rest of her body swept back into her room, the door slamming shut immediately after. [I]Oh yes, friends forever.[/I] I laughed quietly, so as not to upset her further.

I swooped around in a tight arc, the g-forces squishing me into my seat. I broke the turn and fired a quick burst, decorating an "enemy" T- 47. "You're out, Pilot Nine!" Haben shouted over the comlink channel. I paid no attention, barely registering his words. Someone was behind me. I jerked the pilot yoke of my own T-47 away from me. The craft lurched downward toward the ground, slowly gaining speed as it fell. [I]Now to do the unexpected.[/I] Knowing my opponent would expect me to make another sudden change to go back up, I continued my descent. Another few meters from the ground, I jerked the stick even harder away from my chest, going down at an even steeper angle. I had it timed perfectly. My small craft made a complete loop, the canopy scraping the ground as I started going back up upside down. The pilot on my tail knew he couldn't repeat the maneuver and cut off the chase. Now was my chance. After getting right side up again, I jerked left even tighter than I had before. I could see his craft above my own. Simply nudging my flight stick up, I had a lock, and I fired. "Out, Pilot Five. Kadorto, land. I want to talk to you." I gave a cocky grin to Haben's request, something I almost never did. I was quite the timid man unless I was around people I really knew. I complied with orders.

"Kadorto, that was the most gut-wrenching stunt I've ever seen!" Haben shouted. I was in his office, just outside the landing platform. Was he angry? I couldn't tell. "Yes sir," I somewhat reluctantly started, "it only works in atmosphere though. I doubt an X-wing could pull it off." My commanding officer looked me straight in the eye. "Kadorto, it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. I've already told Wedge Antilles himself about this stunt. He's quite impressed." My jaw dropped in utter disbelief. "D-did you say W-wedge Antil-les?" Captain Haben simply nodded. "He wants you to join the academy on Coruscant." I began to shake, and I just couldn't figure out why. This was the most amazing thing to happen in my life besides first flying the [I]Queen[/I] all those years ago. Maybe flying was my calling. Maybe I should make a career out of it. [I]What do I do? What do I decide?[/I] I sat staring wide-eyed at Haben. This could fulfill my dream to be independent. To prove to myself once and for all that I could really do things on my own. For my whole life I had always done things with help or consent. I strove to get my chance to prove myself. I just needed to know, was this my chance? And if it was, was this the only chance I would get? "What do ya say, Hail?" asked Haben, quite hopeful. My mouth closed. "How long do I have to think?" "As long as you need. Just remember, if Wedge is this impressed, you should go for it. I highly recommend it." I could do nothing more than nod and walk away, unable to think clearly. I didn't even change out of my pilot uniform. I had to talk to Tela.

"Wedge Antilles!?" Tela cried ecstatically, gripping my shoulders to hold herself up. I simply nodded again. "Well, what did you tell Haben?" she asked. I hesitated. She didn't like it too much. "Tell me tell me tell me!" she shouted. I heard a vase on a nearby table vibrate from the noise. She tried to shake the answer out of me. "I told him I'd have to think about it," I finally said after she realized shaking me wouldn't help. Her arms returned to her lap and she stared at me in wonder. Her eyes sparkled brilliantly. "Why?" she asked. "Because I need to think about it," I gave the obvious response. She leaned in closer. "You just performed the most memorable flight maneuver in New Republic history, got a personal invitation from [I]Wedge Antilles[/I], your idol of all people, and you need to think about leaving? You're crazy!" I looked down. She tilted my head back up with her finger and gave me an affectionate look. "Halley, I think it's for the best. I'm sure Jahles and Rylin would agree with me." I felt then and there like telling her how I felt about her, but I thought against it. "I need to talk to mom and dad," I said. Tela nodded and let me leave.

Mom and dad had pretty much the same reaction. Kem too, who, when I got there was eating Aquela leftovers from the night before. He ate a lot, but managed to stay skinny. I'd give any thing to find his secret. I wasn't fat, but that was only because I didn't eat much. Mom spoke. "What do you want to do, Halley?" she simply asked. "I want to go," I replied, "I want to be independent." Mom, dad, and even Kem nodded in unison. "You've always been so determined to prove to us you can be that way," dad said, "but you don't need to prove any thing to us. If this is what you want, we can't and won't stop you. It's not our place to." For probably the twenty seventh time that day, I once again nodded. My parents left me to think. Kem stayed until he was done eating, and then departed for his room to study. I tried to think, but no clear or logical thoughts could get through. I thought I really was crazy like Tela had suggested. After a few more minutes of pseudo-thinking, I left, to aimlessly wander the streets. I walked for kilometers, until I reached the training academy. Coming in slowly, I strolled down the narrow halls until I got to the landing pads. There, in all its glory, was my T-47. Other ships dotted the pad, all of which had been streaked with weak laser blasts, leaving nothing more than a number of bright red clouds dotting their outer hulls. I approached my fighter and took a good hard stare. The top of the canopy was scratched and a bit dented, all from the outrageous maneuver I had performed earlier that day. I stared for a bit longer, and left, to return to my apartment. I needed to sleep.

I shouted her name as I walked in, but Tela didn't answer back. She wasn't home. She had gone back to her house to see her parents. I was somewhat glad she wasn't around. I wanted to be alone. I walked into my room and kicked the door shut behind me. In the back corner of the tiny living space slept Aztro. I only turned him on when I really needed him, so he could save power, and now was a time when I needed him. I flicked him on with a single push of a button, and talked to him for over an hour about my predicament. [I]Talking to a droid.will this make people think I'm insane?[/I] Aztro didn't prove to be much help for me, considering I couldn't understand his advice, but considering everyone else's opinions, I figured he wanted me to go too. I turned Aztro off and walked back in to the main room to watch the holo. I sat down in the same chair I always did and turned on the projector with a tap of a button on the remote. Then I became inspired. There, playing on the holo, was the same commercial I had seen the day before, asking me to join the New Republic. It didn't matter to me then, but it did now. I looked, staring at the holo, at the ad, at the New Republic's message. I became confused again. [I]Is this really what I want to do? Do I want to be independent?[/I] I went to sleep early that day to clear my thoughts. I was out and dead asleep in seconds.

"I'm going to Coruscant," I said to mom and dad. Kem was standing at the base of the door. That morning I woke up early and left before Tela could wake. I wanted to let her know afterwards. "Are you sure this is what you want to do?" my dad asked, just to verify. "As sure as I'll ever be," I shrugged. I stood up and hugged everyone in the room, including Aztro, who I had brought with me. "When do you leave?" my mom asked after we were done hugging. "Haben says a transport can take me as early as tomorrow." "You better get packed then." I nodded. This would be the last time I would see the house. I walked through every room once just to soak it all in. I also left Aztro their, in my parent's care. I knew if I needed him I would send for him. [I]I don't want to go.[/I]

That afternoon, after driving around aimlessly, I went back to the apartment to tell Tela. I didn't know just how I was going to say it, and debated over and over in my mind whether or not to tell her about how I felt. I decided to just go right out with the news. "I've decided to take up Haben's offer and go to Coruscant to become a New Republic pilot." Now she nodded. "I understand," she said between light sniffles. I leaned in and hugged her tightly, and she cried. I wanted to cry too, but I held it back. I let her cry as long as she needed to, losing all track of time. I thought then and there I could tell her once and for all about how I felt, but I didn't. I decided it best not to tell her, not to confuse or upset her any more than she already was. I would tell her when I was good and ready, even if it was too late. "I guess this is good bye," she said, having stopped crying and trying her best to look me in the eye. I ran a hand gently down her soft cheek. "Tell you what," I said, trying to cheer her up, "how about if you calm down, I'll take you out on a date tonight." She meekly smiled. "It only took you ten years," she responded somewhat triumphantly. She rested her head back down on my shoulder and began to cry softly again. I rested my chin on the top of her head and reflected on what I had been through in my life, and what was to come. [I]I'm independent now. But I can't help but feel like I don't want to be.[/I]



[b]Part 3: A Fyrey Meeting[/b] "Hey, Hail! Race you to the simulator!" a familiar voice reached my ears. I was Ensign Halley Kadorto. One of the New Republics newest pilots. I swung around to my right just in time to see Jaren, a black-haired and brown eyed pilot whip passed me. "You know I'll win, slow poke!" I returned, quickly realizing I had been challenged, and I met Jaren's run with my own quick stumble to the floor followed by a clumsy recovery and finished it off with a sharp sprint. We were on the planet Coruscant, in the nearly brand new New Republic training plaza somewhere on the planet's extensive surface. More directly, we were at the entrance of the training facility's Downtime lounge which was a fair distance from the flight simulators we were both now racing toward. I had only been part of the New Republic for about two months. The same applied to Ensign Jaren Hailfyre. The two of us had met the day we had arrived on Coruscant to train as New Republic fighter pilots. We had totally different backgrounds but were now nearly the best of friends. After dodging a few squad-mates and a variety of chittery protocol droids and astromechs, I finally caught up to Jaren. We continued down the winding, poorly lit corridor, now neck-and-neck. I knew if I could stay this close by the time we reached the courtyard, I could win. Jaren was notorious for tripping people that passed him. If I were dumb enough to try passing the Ensign in the tight corridor we were in, he would surely try to trip me, but in a courtyard, I would have more space and could distance myself from the rival pilot, and have no trouble taking the lead. [I]This will only work if that blasted droid doesn't get in my way.[/I] I thought to myself as I huffed down the corridor. As if on cue, a small and perky green tinted arthree unit revealed itself as the two of us rounded a sharp corner in the hall, just mere meters from the glass door that led to the courtyard. I immediately panicked. I knew I would never be able to stop in time. "Lazer! Look out!" I cried just seconds before the inevitable impact. Of course I knew it wouldn't help. Lazer, my droid, had purposely gotten in the way. I sometimes felt the little droid's primary function was to humiliate and torment me. I even sometimes went as far as suspecting Lazer and Jaren were working in cohorts to bring me down, but I would later shrug this ridiculous idea off completely. I tried desperately to stop myself as best I could, but my great momentum kept me going, and my right leg smashed into the little droids outer casing, which was made of a very hard metal. The impact immediately swung me directly forward into the air. Without much thought, I tried to turn the swing into some kind of flip, but since I was quite the clumsy pilot and had no sense of balance, I went belly-flopping style to the floor. The impact brought immense pain to my stomach and the left side of my face, the side that had hit the floor. A sudden flash from the past caught my mind as I lay sprawled on the floor. It was the day Jaren and I had first met. Our friendship was not always this strong, in fact, it was almost not even to be.

[I]This is it.[/I] I thought to myself. I was now on the planet Coruscant, practically the center of the galaxy. I had just disembarked off of a small Corellian corvette that's primary function was to deliver fresh flying hotshots to the New Republic training facility down somewhere on the planet's surface. I missed home already. My family especially. Dad, mom, Kem, even Tela. I had to shrug the feelings off. I was on my own now, by my own choice. I had set up a life for myself, that I planned to follow. I was independent. I tried to scan the cityscape as best I could with my drowsy and heavy eyes. It was a beautiful but somewhat muggy mid-afternoon on the planet. After a few seconds of scanning, I realized I wasn't getting much of a view. The supposedly beautiful sunsets on Coruscant were being totally blocked by the planet's infamous skyscrapers that loomed overhead more prominently than the forest trees of Endor. Immediately after I realized this, I snapped back into consciousness to realize what was going on around me. I was now off the boarding plank of the corvette, along with about twenty other young trainees. I sighed in near disbelief at the journey I was embarking on. I had grown up on the planet Lianna, a planet completely different from the busy metropolis I was now in. Lianna was a peaceful planet, with it's neighbors anyway, much like Corellia in that and other respects. Within itself however, there was much turmoil, and threats of Civil War were common. Still, it was home. After I sighed, I tried to breathe in the scents of the wildlife that grew on my own beautiful planet, as if to reminisce about my life before now, but only speeder exhaust reached my nostrils. I coughed violently. "Not used to the air, are ya?" I heard a voice as someone slapped my back, forcing me to belt out one more watery cough. I spun quickly to my right nearly giving myself a mild case of whiplash to see a young brown-haired and brown-eyed pilot of nearly the same height. He had a very nonchalant smirk on his face, as if amused with my coughing spell. I looked at the fellow trainee and quickly raised my eyebrows. Before replying, I wiped my lips clean with the back of my left hand. "You're right, I'm not used to it," I eventually answered, clearing my throat soon after. I wiped my hand off on my light brown short sleeve shirt. The young brash pilot smiled slightly and held out his right hand. "Name's Jaren Hailfyre," he replied with his hand still outstretched. I glanced down a little and held out my hand.only it was my left hand, making it quite impossible to shake. "I'm Halley Kadorto." I said, not quite being able to figure out why we weren't shaking hands. I bit my bottom lip as I glanced down again to see my left hand meeting Jaren's right. I quickly tried to reverse my mistake by throwing my right hand out forward. It took me another second to realize I had to put my left hand back down. I looked back up finally, a little red around the cheeks and shook Jaren's hand. To my surprise, he had a very firm grip. "Nice to meet you Kadorto!" Hailfyre said between hidden chuckles. I began to turn a little redder. Hailfyre again tried to hide a few chuckles as we continued to shake hands. I finally broke the handshake and stuffed my right hand in my pocket. Jaren grinned. "Nervous?" he asked. "Very," I cleared my throat, "I'm not used to being in such a large and busy place." "Yeah, me neither. I'm from Corellia myself. Sometimes I feel that planet it too tranquil for it's own good. It's a wonder it hasn't been taken over yet." I looked to my left and nodded slightly. A small breeze blew my flowing hair back and out of my eyes. "I'm from Lianna. It's a small out-of-the-way planet in the Outer Rim. I doubt many people know about it. If the Empire ever went there, no one would ever know." I didn't quite catch himself in time. My last statement was utterly untrue. The New Republic actually had a small base there, for the local hotshots that had a chance of making it into fighter squadrons, like myself. It was pretty small, but they would notice if the Empire ever tried to take over the planet. I turned red again and brought my hand up to smack my forehead. Instead I wiped my hand down across my face and turned back to look back at Jaren, who was now laughing hysterically, holding his sides as he bounced up and down from laughing so hard. "I take it you know a few things about Lianna?" I asked him shyly. I waited a few seconds to let Jaren catch his breath before becoming slightly impatient. "Yeah, I know about Lianna. I took a vacation there a little while back. Very nice planet.a lot of rich hags live there. I'll bet you were pretty spoiled." Jaren grinned again. I clenched my fist in my pocket. My shy appearance became that of near rage. "Rich hags? Spoiled? You better get your priorities straight, buddy, because Lianna is a very peaceful planet with very few "rich hags," and I was [I]not[/I] spoiled!" I huffed in a near violent manner. Jaren didn't even flinch, not impressed with my performance. "Well, I'm just speaking from first hand experience," Jaren responded in a very calm tone. For me, it was a little too calm a tone. [I]I hate this guy already.[/I]

The thought flashed through my mind very vividly and quickly. I brought my head up off the floor, and watched as Jaren nearly shattered the glass doors that lead to the courtyard because he jolted them open. Now I had a new burst of energy, and I stumbled my way back up to my feet and began a wobbly sprint out the still open doors. "Just you wait, Lazer!" I turned my head quickly, trying to hide a slight smile, to take a look at my hysterically laughing droid, "I'll come back for you!" My little droid's so-called laughter suddenly ceased just as I turned my head back. I thought about giving Lazer one last look before I poured on the running talent, but I thought better of it, knowing how delirious I already was from hitting the floor. I could very well trip and run right in to a wall, even though I was now in a very spacious courtyard. Ensign Hailfyre was nowhere in my immediate sight, quite to my surprise. Although slightly discouraged, I continued the pointless pursuit, narrowly missing bumping into officers and droids alike. The building that housed the simulators wasn't too far away now, but it seemed like a light-year. [I]Hailfyre's sure to beat me.stupid droid.[/I] As I ran, another brief thought flashed through my mind from the past. "You will each be issued a temporary droid to help you in simulator runs and other basic functions you may need help with while you complete your training," said my and Jaren's flight skills teacher, Commander Koepode. A joke had been coursing throughout the base that his nickname was Mr. Stiff, because the Bothan never gave any kind of facial expression and his tone of voice never changed. No one dared call him the nickname to his face, except for Jaren, and another insubordinate trainee named Rykoff Cakton. All the pilots in the room, which included myself, nodded in acknowledgment at Koepode's last remark. He quickly began reading off which droid would be assigned to each pilot in the room. The little robots scooted in on their third tripod legs as they were each called and the pilot was supposed to come down to meet them and take them back to their quarters. "Astromech number artoo efnine!" the commander shouted. A small white with brown border R2 unit came into the room chirping shyly. The Bothan looked up for a second to make eye contact with the pilot it belonged to before reading off his name. "Flight Cadet Cakton gets this one," he remarked with a grin. Cakton rolled his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his chest impatiently as he waiting for the little robot to stop next to him. When it halted about half a meter away from him, he gave it a cold hard stare. I smirked, slightly curious and confused about what the trainee was trying to accomplish by staring at the little artoo unit. Before I could find out, Mr. Stiff began to speak again. I quickly turned my head back to look at him. "Arthree elseven!" he called, his face even more cold and emotionless than Darth Vader's mask. I raised my chin slightly when the commander looked in my direction. "Is it mine, sir?" asked Jaren in a high-pitched falsetto tone. His remark was met by a few scattered chuckles and smiles from the other cadets around us. I rolled my eyes in utter disgust at the pilot. I found him to be the most annoying person I had ever met. His antics would surely get him booted from the New Republic. At least I hoped they one day would. Commander Koepode turned his head slightly to meet Jaren's mocking gaze. "No, it is not assigned to [I]you[/I], Mister Hailfyre," he gave a minimal sigh, "Arthree elseven is being assigned to Trainee Kadorto." I gave a slight nod of acknowledgment to the Commander when he gave a quick look in my direction again. I turned my head to see a transparent-headed, green and orange droid scoot out from behind the same door Rykoff's droid emerged from. I knew this little one had to be mine. I waiting very patiently for the little thing to scoot my way, and it stopped about the same distance from me as Rykoff's did from him. I bent down in front of it to look into it's one, oblong eyepiece. "Hi arthree, I'm Halley, " I said in a friendly tone. I heard Jaren give out a quick laugh. I looked up to see Commander Koepode look back in his direction and I continued to watch as Hailfyre's smile melted away. I smiled, quite satisfied with his defeat and my sights went back to my new companion. He chirped at me and his eyepiece swirled around. I laughed and stood back at attention to let the commander continue with the list. The commander pursed his lips together and turned his attention back to the datapad he had in front of his long snout. I pretended to pay attention to what Koepode was saying, because I didn't find much point in paying attention since I had already been assigned an astromech. I could feel a small tingling in my right leg, but shrugged it off. [I]Probably from standing for so long. It should pass once I get moving again.[/I] Suddenly a huge and abrupt pain shot up through my leg. I clenched my fist and yelped in pain and horror about what was going on. Before clenching my eyes shut from near agony, I turned my eyes down in time to see my little droid, with what looked like a small pulse laser stunner sticking out from one of its many compartments. I found my hands wrapped around my right leg, holding it up away from the floor, as I clumsily tried to hop and keep balance on my left. I managed to hop a good three or four meters away from my arthree before I fell over on my left side. A few seconds later the pain in my leg had subsided, and I became aware of what was going on around me once again. [I]People are crying from the fact I'm hurt?[/I] I asked myself. I listened for another split second before it occurred to me, [I]They're not crying.they're laughing.[/I] I began to turn red around the cheeks, and slowly lifted my eyelids open. My sights immediately fell on Jaren, who was holding his sides and hunched over laughing hysterically. In my peripheral vision I could make out other pilots in the room, but they weren't laughing. I turned my head slightly toward the human female, Dordan Zeec. My assumptions were then proven correct. She wasn't laughing, but she did have a definite smirk on her face, trying to hold back a laugh. Jaren was the only one laughing, but it was quite evident everyone else wanted to. I attempted to scramble to my feet. "Thank you for that pleasant demonstration, Mister Kadorto," Commander Koepode quietly remarked, not looking at me directly, as I began brushing myself off and stand back at attention. Jaren's laughter lessened as he tried to stand back at attention as well. I turned quickly, gave him a quick hard stare, and turned back to look at our commanding officer. As I had hoped, Hailfyre's laughter halted. I gave a small grin out of the corner of my lip. "Everyone is dismissed," Koepode sighed and motioned to me, "be more careful with your droid." His remark caught me off guard. "But sir, I in no way did anything to make the droid atta-" he cut me off. "I don't care," he raised his voice a little, causing the exiting pilots in the room to stop dead in their tracks, "just don't let it happen again in my presence." I decided not to talk back and nodded. Jaren gave out a small chuckle. "And [I]you,[/I] Mister Hailfyre," Commander Koepode said with the same tone of voice, but his gaze was quite frightening. He was obviously quite irritated with the events that had been taking place. "Y-yes sir?" Jaren asked pitifully. I detected a small hint of sarcasm in his tone. I rolled my eyes. "If you don't learn to keep your sudden outbursts to yourself, I'll be forced to assign you to 'fresher cleaning duty for the next month." Jaren didn't look at all frightened by the threat, and he nodded. I decided then to turn my attention to my trouble-making droid. I would try to be understanding and reason with the little thing. I also decided to keep my distance. I supposed it was best since its laser stunner was still outstretched, and still sparking. [I]This should be easy. With my luck he once belonged to Jaren.[/I] "Okay little guy." I started off, not knowing exactly what to say to make amends for whatever I had done to make him stun me. "That's a nice looking laser stunner ya have there," I remarked, as if trying to break the ice. I was getting no where. "How about I name you Lazer?" I asked. His eyepiece swiveled, and he chirped in what I thought was an agreement. I sighed in relief as his stunner returned to it's tiny compartment. I then proceeded to walk back toward him. I had gotten within half a meter of him when I heard him emit a very strange sound. It sounded almost like a strained laugh, or cackle. My head darted down to look at him. "Oh no." I muttered. His stunner was outstretched again. [I]Here's a friendship I'll cherish forever.[/I] I thought.

I was now approaching the building that housed the flight simulators. I held my hand out to get ready to push the door open, when it began to open toward me. I made the quick decision to stop, but my momentum kept my going until my toe banged into the base of the door. I groaned and snapped my eyes shut for a brief few moments. I slowly opened them again to see the most beautiful and glorious sight. "Whoa, hi Chalaine," I managed to squeak out from being nervous, and still in slight pain. Chalaine Spiraei, probably the New Republic's most beautiful pilot, stood right before me, a slight look of surprise on her face. Probably from me nearly crashing into her. Her look persisted for another few seconds before I realized she wasn't going to say anything unless I did. "Sorry about almost bumping in to you," I started. She blinked. "I'm trying to catch up to Jaren. Have you seen him?" "He just ran passed me," she said in a light and soothing tone. Her facial expression was somewhat dead-looking, but still quite striking. I thought I was in heaven. "Th-thanks Shally. Hey, I was wondering. Would you like maybe to have din- " "Just get out of my way, I'm busy," she immediately interrupted. I took a step back in surprise. She was quite anti-socialite. I could never quite figure out why.

[I]No.this [/I]can't[I]be happening.[/I] I was in the mess hall, eating what tasted like stale Corellian endwa, but I didn't want to ask and find out. I had a small datapad clutched in my right hand, and I was about ready to drop it. Orders had just come in on what squadrons we had been accepted into, and who our wingmates would be. The good news was I had been inducted into Galaxian Squadron, which was commanded by Captain Koepode. I considered him an excellent teacher, despite his cold and stiff nature, and I was now looking forward to continue learning from him. The bad news, and oh what horrible news it was, was that Jaren Hailfyre was my wingmate. My heart sank then and there. It had been sucked into Yavin's gravitational pull, and there was no pulling it back out. I downright hated Jaren, and now I had to work with him and protect him. [I]Great, I have a droid that hates me, and a wingmate that hates me too. Life doesn't get much better than this.[/I] I reluctantly swallowed the last bite of the endwa facsimile I had been trying to keep away from my tongue, and even more reluctantly began heading toward the simulation deck. We were to start training immediately, using the snubfighter training simulators. With every step I took, I felt like I was walking toward an execution chamber on the dreaded Lusankya prison. This would definitely not be a great day. "Greetings partner!" I received a painful smack on my backside. I swung around to have Jaren's gaze meet mine. I felt like exploding with rage, but I gave a deep sigh to let the anger subside. "Just stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours. I'm only going to put up with you because I have to, but I intend to put in a wingmate transfer as soon as I possibly can," I said dryly. He frowned, but a smirk remained. "Fair enough. It's your call." He held up his hands innocently. I heaved an even heavier sigh and proceeded toward the simulators. Jaren tagged along like a lost nurf. "Kadorto, Hailfyre, you're late." Koepode tried to say as calmly as possible. I stood at attention. "My apologies, sir," I boomed. Jaren giggled. "Don't apologize, just get into a sim and let's get started. It's going to be Galaxian's one through six versus seven through twelve." I nodded, as did Jaren, and we both ran for our simulators. As I was running, something caught my eye. It was Chalaine, in all her beautiful glory. I slowed my pace to get the chance to look at her longer. I got a nudge on my left side. "Quite a looker, ain't she?" Jaren asked. I gave him the stink eye and turned back to running toward my simulator. It was easy to spot, because Lazer was already tucked in where he should be, right behind the cockpit window. "Pre-flight check, little guy," I said to him as I got settled inside the cockpit. [This is a simulator, dummy. We don't need to do a pre-flight check.] "A thorough droid is a happy droid," I tried to argue. I knew that remark would get me a good shock later. Chalaine flashed through my mind once again, as did Jaren's remark from when he caught me staring at her. I shrugged it all off and tried to concentrate on the mission ahead. Finally we were "in the air" in a fake three dimensional world. My snubfighter soared over a lush green landscape that reminded me of one of the endless roaming plains back home on Lianna. We were a good ten kilometers from our opponents, but it wouldn't be too long before we got close enough to engage them. "Let's get ready to paint some ships on our fuselage, eh Hail?" Jaren asked. "Just cut the chatter, okay, Jaren?" I sighed. "You're not the boss of me!" he shouted in a kid-like tone. I was trying to think of a witty comeback to shut him up when another voice interrupted. "Would both of you shut up?" a third voice shouted. The voice was most decidedly female. My heart fluttered. [I]Chalaine![/I] This didn't make any sense. Chalaine was Galaxian eight, which meant she was on the opposing team. Koepode must have set the comlinks so that both sides could hear each other. "Why don't you make us shut up?" Jaren shouted sarcastically. I could hear Chalaine growl through the com. I couldn't help but smile at Jaren's antics. [I]Wait, I hate Jaren.why am I smiling at his joke?[/I] I tapped my finger against my forehead repeatedly in total disgust. "Hey, Hail, what do ya say we have some fun and blow Chalaine out of the sky?" Jaren asked, sounding somewhat eager. The offer sounded quite tempting. Despite Chalaine's stunning and awe-inspiring beauty, she could be quite annoying at times. It would also be a pretty easy kill, because her flight skills were well under par. No one could figure out how she made it into the squadron, or the New Republic for that matter. "I'm right with ya, Hailfyre." I choked on my words. What was I saying? [I]Now I'm agreeing with Jaren? Weird.[/I] I shook off my confused feelings once again and turned my attention to my targeting system. I now had Chalaine's X-wing set as my primary target. Within seconds I would be in firing range. "Jaren, I'm about to get a missile lock on her. Let's get her now!" I shouted. "No, let's have some fun with her, take her out a little at a time." I felt like arguing, but the inclination subsided. That was a good and fun idea. A smile crept up my face. "All right, Jaren, follow my lead." I yanked my pilot yoke and made an immediate sweep to my right. All around me the scenery swirled and tumbled as I made the drastic turn. Next I made another sudden turn and went hurtling down toward the lush, agrarian landscape below. I wanted to come in at a low angle, where she'd least be expecting us. Knowing her, she probably didn't consider our threats real, and most likely wasn't targeting us, making this a nice surprise, in theory anyway. I straightened out my craft just a mere ten meters from ground level. She'd never expect us this low to the ground, assuming she was expecting us at all. "You still with me, Jaren?" I received no response. A slight feeling of worry hit me. "Jaren respond! Jaren!" Still no answer. I was on my own now. "I'm on fire!" a voice shouted. I looked up to see the silhouette of an X- wing right above me, blocking out the simulated sun. The starfighter flew in front of me at a very fast speed, taking me by surprise. I couldn't see any signs of a fire on the speeding ship, but that's when it hit me. "Jaren!" I screamed angrily. "Hehe, sorry, just wanted to get your attention." "Just stay out of my way, and maybe I'll buy you a drink when we're done," I choked on what I was saying again. "I'll take that deal!" he shouted confidently. I tried not to smile again. [I]I suppose he's not all that bad.[/I] "Pick up your visual scanning, Jaren. I think I see her," I said as I noticed a small speck out on the digitized horizon. "Roger roger I copy I copy," Jaren called. I rolled my eyes, but oddly, not in a disgusted manner. "You guys better not shoot me down!" Chalaine called, sounded a bit worried. Jaren gave out an evil cackle. "This is Darth Havoc Wreaker!" he said in a deep and grouchy voice, "surrender or I shall have to shoot you down with my Dark Force activated lightning! Do you want to take the chance of becoming a fried womprat?" I began laughing uncontrollably, which made me oblivious to the fact that three more blips had popped up on my targeting computer. My ship rocked violently and made a deep swoop for the ground. I had been hit by heavy and well aimed laser fire. I jerked my pilot yoke towards my chest, and banged the tip of it hard against my sternum, causing me to puff out a hint of breath. A drip of sweat trickled down my cheek as a small feeling of worry sank in my gut. I quickly scanned my systems to find a damage report, but the monitor to my immediate right was off, simulating the fact that it had been blown out by the laser blasts. I cursed. "Sithspawn! I should have seen that!" I said as my craft began to level out. "Lazer, damage report!" My little friend wouldn't respond. "You still with me, Hail?" Jaren called. I made a rise for the sky and noticed his craft dogfighting to my left; I turned to meet him and help. "Right with ya, but my craft is nearly dead. Lost my droid too." "Just take care of Chalaine while I hold off these nurf herders!" he shouted. I grinned. [I]He certainly has courage. But what good will it do me if he gets himself killed.[/I] I flicked a few switches on my dash and locked on to Chalaine's fighter. Luckily, my targeting system was still in working order, and so were all four of my laser cannons. I was about to make a quick turn to look for her, when I noticed two more fighters coming from either direction, each about a klick away. I looked over quickly again to see Jaren still evading the other two fighters he currently had on him. "Jaren! Watch out! They're trying to get you trapped in their crossfire!" It was too late. The other two fighters began to fire, making a wall of the firey laser blasts. Mixed in along with the fire from the two fighters tailing him, Jaren didn't stand a chance. The crossfire from the four ships tore his to bits, one little piece of debris at a time. They were practically dissecting him. I'd never let Jaren live this down. "Yaahooooo!" he shouted as he went down. I rolled my eyes trying not to laugh. I then turned my attention back to the mission ahead, and veered my craft in the general direction my targeting system told me Chalaine's X-wing was in. I had to get her now, before her squadronmates decided to pick on me. I spotted her craft about a klick and a half away. I couldn't tell for sure, however, because my meter telling my relative distances had gone out during the attack to my craft. I didn't wait for my crosshair to flash green, I just fired away. I set my lasers to quad fire, giving me a better chance of hitting her. "Halley! Stop!" she called. I laughed a little. "This is for Crossfire!" I called. I hoped Jaren could hear me. I was going to have this nickname stick. Finally, a laser clipped one of her left s-foils, causing her ship to make a sudden lurch downward. I kept my current altitude, making a slight movement downward, to keep my relative lock, and continued to pummel her with laser fire. Finally I got a direct hit to one of her engines. That was it, I knew as I watched her fighter hurtle toward the ground in a smoky ball of metal and durasteel. I smirked at my new kill. "One kill for the Halley!" I called out triumphantly. I moved my yoke to turn my attention back to the ships pursuing me. When I had finished the one hundred eighty degree turn, nothing fell into my line of sight except the horizon. Were they planning some kind of sneak attack? "Nice job, Galaxian three!" a voice startled me. It was Commander Koepode. "Sir, there are still five more of them out there!" I huffed. Sweat dripped down my face. I swallowed hard trying to relax. "Not anymore. While you were taking care of Chalaine, the rest of us managed to take down the others. Our only loss was Jaren." "Crossfire, sir," I unconsciously corrected him. He said nothing. I decided to keep my mouth shut until the end of the simulation. A few minutes later I climbed out of the steamy cockpit and hopped down the step ladder. Jaren was there to meet me. I got to the bottom and walked over to him, with a cold, dark stare in my eyes. He looked a bit scared. "Don't you [I]ever[/I] get shot down when we're going after Chalaine again," I said in as cold a tone as I could muster. He seemed to sink down, and he nodded pitifully. "Do you understand me, buddy?" I tried to hold back a smile, but it finally leaked through and consumed my face. Jaren's face brightened slightly and we both began to laugh. He held out his hand. "Friends, Hail?" he asked, looking somewhat sympathetic. I raised my eyebrows and took his hand firmly in my own; the right hand this time too, unlike in our first meeting nearly five months before. "Friends.Crossfire." As we shook hands Chalaine passed by and gave us both a dirty scowl from a distance. Jaren and I looked at her and shrugged nonchalantly. She rubbed her hand across her forehead and continued to walk on. [I]Let's see where this friendship gets me.[/I]

"I said get out of my way!" Chalaine shouted. I blinked as she shoved me out of the way. I didn't wait to watch her puff down the corridor and I continued running down towards the simulators. I finally got there and saw Jaren popping his head out of one of the simulators close by. "Ha! Beat ya! Guess that means you buy drinks tonight!" he called. "You may have beaten me here!" I cupped my hands over my mouth, "but you're gonna be wishing you were captured by Vader instead of getting whooped by me in the simulator, 'cause I'm gonna give you quite a beating!" I wasn't normally cocky, but in Jaren's case I'd make an exception. "You're on, Hail!" he called, crossing his arms across his chest. "All right then, Crossfire!" I called as I hopped up a ladder into the cockpit of a nearby simulator, "here we go!"



[b]Part 4: Friendships and Choices[/b] "Is a transport en route to pick up Jaren?" I asked my squadron commander through the tactical frequency of our comlink. We were flying through space in our X-wing fighters, having just gotten finished hoarding off a squadron of pirates attempting to overtake a small spaceport orbiting the nearby planet of Gall. We had been in the system, having just helped solve a border dispute in the Bespin system. Both resulted in small skirmishes, and in both instances, Crossfire, my best friend and wingmate, had been shot down. I couldn't help but grin at that fact. He and I were the best pilots in our squadron. He had gotten an Ace just before being shot down too. Just then a voice crackled through the comlink, startling me slightly. "Affirmative, Galaxian Three. New Republic transport '[I]Sore Loser[/I]' will pick up Galaxian Four." It was the squadron leader, Commander Koepode. He was a rather lanky Bothan with a passive attitude. His facial expression was more difficult to read than trying to see a Mon Calamari smile while standing fifty feet away, with a thick fog looming at ground level. Luckily, we were in two separate fighters, and looking at his expression wasn't needed at the moment. I sighed in relief at his news. [I]Jaren will sure be a [/I]Sore Loser[I]when he gets back too.[/I] I gave a quick and silent snort at my internal comment and replied back to our commander. "Thanks for the good news, sir," I said. I heard Koepode grunt. "Tell Jaren when you get back that if he loses too many more X-wings, he'll be doing janitor duty for the rest of his days in the New Republic," he boomed. I couldn't help but laugh. "Will do, sir. But I think he'd like that too much." Our commanding officer gave another grunt, and with that I flicked off the com with a simple press of a button on my tactical display. We were now in hyperspace, heading back to Coruscant for a long deserved and needed rest. Jaren would probably arrive a few hours after the rest of us, however, and would even more likely barge into my quarters unannounced and make up some excuse about why he had been shot down. "My nose itched, and when I went to scratch it, next thing I know, I'm in deep space watching my fighter go down in ruins with my finger up my nose!" I remembered him saying after he'd been shot down during our Bespin mission. We both knew his accounts of being shot down were utterly false, but they were quite entertaining to listen to. I couldn't wait to hear his excuse this time around. [I]Maybe he'll say he realized he's not as funny as he thought he was, and blame his own thoughts on being shot down,[/I] I commented to myself as I began to drift off within the confines of my cockpit. Soon I'd be home.

My eyelids peeked open slightly as I became aware of a warning klaxon sounding off in the distance. After a few brief moments I came to the haunting realization that the sound was genuine, and was much closer than I had first thought. It was coming from my cockpit. Trouble was near. Instinctively my eyes grew wide and I found my left hand gripping my pilot yoke firmly. I wasn't normally this sharp. [I]My short rest must have done me some good.[/I] My eyes scanned over my systems, primarily the targeting computer. Oddly enough, nothing was there. I shot my head left and right, looking out my cockpit windows, only to find we were still in hyperspace, the sound of the alarm still echoing in the distance. "Galaxian Three here, Commander. What's the emergency?" I flicked my com back on, worriedly asking Commander Koepode. His voice came through, nearly inaudibly, a mere few seconds later. "Emergency?" he asked, quite calm sounding, but groggily. He must have been asleep just as I had been. I raised my eyebrow, a feeling of confusion and worry swirling in my gut. "Yes, sir. An alarm is sounding in my cockpit," I responded, trying to sound as calm and direct as I could. "Probably a malfunction, Galaxian Three. Ask your droid to fix it." That's when it hit me. [I]Lazer![/I] I tried to regain my composure, since I was now fuming. "Affirmative, sir. Galaxian Three out." I flicked off my com, not wanting to bother the commander any further, and took in a deep breath before exploding. "Lazer!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. My cockpit rattled. The annoying alarm within ceased immediately after, leaving a slight ringing in my ears; I ignored it. [Yes sir?] My droid translator read. I was almost too angry to read it. "Don't give me that!" I shouted again. "I've had it up to my hair line with you!" I went off on a long rant. "I've been pretty tolerant up until now," I began. My droid remained silent. "I've put up with you tripping me, spiking my drinks, sending me fake love letters from Chalaine," my anger gave away slightly at the thought of the beautiful pilot. I managed to shake my feelings for her off temporarily and continued. "And I've put up with you tripping me some more, and telling all the cooks in downtime I like Corellian Endwa, so they always make a plate specially for me, even though I absolutely hate that sickening delicacy!" I remembered to breathe and went on. "But this is the last straw! I refuse to put up with your antics any more. As soon as we're back on Coruscant, I'm getting a new droid!" I was shocked at my own words, but I had to do it. Lazer had been driving me crazy, and his antics had increased heavily within the last two weeks or so. I had been meaning for quite a while anyway, to call my home planet of Lianna and send for my personal Arthree unit, Aztro, a droid I had owned since I had been five years old. My anger subsided slightly once again as I reflected on all the good times I had had with my first true friend, and how sad and melancholy I felt once I had to leave him to begin my training on Coruscant. I would get to talk to my family again too. The thought of that helped my relax a little more. Despite my lessened anger, I was still huffing profusely, my eyes fixed on my droid translator screen, expecting a reply. After what seemed like years of waiting, Lazer answered. [Are you quite done?] it asked. Tranzo was probably setting himself up to talk me out of my threats, but I refused to give him the chance. My breathing stopped and my mouth gaped open in pure surprise at his answer. Anger flooded back through me, but I refused to let it consume me again. I simply just turned my droid translator off and rested my head back down to attempt to sleep again, letting a small groan hiss through my clenched teeth. "If you try anything else while I'm asleep, I'll sell you part by part to a droid wrecking yard," I said just before I closed my eyes. From my back, tucked in neatly behind my cockpit canopy, I could hear Lazer give a frightened shudder. I gave a brief smile of satisfaction, but it quickly faded as a small sense of sadness wiggled its way into me. [I]Oddly enough, I think I'm gonna miss the little guy.[/I] I soon after drifted off into a deep and heavy slumber.

"You did [I]what?[/I]" exclaimed Jaren, nearly wide-eyed and frantic. I sat up in my uncomfortable bed and rubbed some sleep from my eye. My earlier theory was correct. As soon as Jaren had returned, having just been delivered from the [I]Sore Loser[/I] transport, he barged in to my quarters. Before he could tell me just how he had gotten shot down for the second time in almost three days, he noticed Lazer wasn't charging in the back corner of my quarters, where he usually resides when not tormenting me. Upon arriving back at the academy, I had Lazer temporarily shut off and placed in storage until further notice. I was looking forward to the best sleep I'd have had in months, but Jaren's coming in and questioning me ruined the temporary utopia I had set up for myself. An telling him what I had done with the droid in question ruined it even further, because his shout of astonishment let me know I wasn't going to get back to sleep any time soon. "I'm gone for five hours and all this happens! Halley, I'm ashamed." My friend crossed his arms in front of his chest and gave me a cold frown. "I had to do it!" I went on the defensive, throwiung my hands up in the air," He's been driving me crazy!" Jaren tilted his head to one side. "Name one thing he's done that's driven you crazy," Jaren said, his gaze narrowing. [I]He's got to be kidding.[/I] "You're kidding." my mouth fell open slightly. "Name one," he persisted. I turned my head away for a few moments to gather my thoughts and turned my head back to meet his gaze. "Well," I began, "he sent me fake love letters from Chalaine that one time." Jaren's eyes turned away from me. "Oh yeah. That was a good one," a smile crept up his face as he recalled the incident. I shook my head and stood up to leave the conversation. Just as I got to the door, Jaren placed his hand on my shoulder and whipped me around. I turned to see a look of apology on his face which surprised me. I took a step back to keep my balance from the sudden turn. "Sorry, Hail, but I think you should reconsider." I shook my head even before he could finish. "I did it because I had to," I replied right away. Crossfire gave a minimal sigh and a nod. I rubbed my shoulder just as he released it. It wasn't sore or in pain, but I wanted to be sure. Silence fell upon the room as, as Jaren began pacing around, probably reflecting on all that had occurred recently. Not wanting to aggravate Jaren or myself further, I wisely decided to change the subject. I crossed my hands in front of my chest, thinking of something to say to cheer him up. "Well, uh, nice Ace you got out there," I finally said. Jaren stopped dead in his tracks and turned to look at me, a smile shining on his face. I smiled back deceptively and spoke again before he could say anything. "It's a pity you got shot down. I got ten kills." I wasn't normally so cocky. In fact, I was known to be incredibly shy at times, but whenever I was with Jaren, I constantly expected myself to make an exception. Crossfire kept his smile, and went on the defensive. I secretly waited in anticipation for his excise that I knew was coming, but I tried to keep those feelings hidden and not readable on my face. "I only got shot down because you gave me a faulty order!" he accused. "What?" I cried taking a step back. I was unable to keep my balance and fell backwards. Luckily, the bed was there to break my fall, and my bottom hit it with a massive thump. I couldn't decide which was more uncomfortable, my stale and brick-like bed, or the floor. I remained staring at Jaren, puzzled, confused, and bordering angry. "That's right," Jaren nodded to confirm what I thought I had heard him say, "It's your fault I got shot down." I pointed at myself, mouth gaped open, unable to speak. Jaren nodded again. "W-what did [I]I[/I] do?" I managed to squeak out. I heard Jaren mumble something to himself and then he spoke more audibly to my face. "Right before I got hit, you shouted 'Cross, break to starboard.' I complied and suddenly had three pirates behind me chewing me to pieces." My mind strained to recall all the events of the battle, but that particular order didn't ring a bell. I eyed him suspiciously. "I didn't say that." I said, most of my composure returned. Jaren smiled. "Ya," he gave in, " you're right. I was just seeing how you'd react." I laughed. "I think you're just trying to hide the real reason you were shot down." And I suppose you know what that reason might be." Jaren looked at me with mock skepticism. My mind went blank. [I]Think of something, Hail, and quick![/I] I stuttered, "I think you g-got shot down be-because you were t-too busy think about Chalaine.yeah that's it." I tried to speak confidently, but I knew it never got through. This time, Jaren took a step back. "Whoa, I don't dwell over her as much as you do," he said almost immediately. I rolled my eyes. "I don't like her [I]that[/I] much." I trailed off, becoming uncomfortable with the subject. Jaren could sense my insecurity. "Do too!" he shouted in a child-like tone. I didn't much feel like playing along in that sort of character. "D-do not." I said lightly, and in my normal voice. Jaren cocked an eyebrow. "Then why are you stuttering?" he interrogated in the same child tone, "you only stutter at the topic of girls you have crushes on." I tried not to let his cocky grin get to me. "I do not, now go away!" I raised my voice, becoming agitated. "I will [I]not[/I]." Jaren sounded hurt, but I knew he had to be joking. I could tell without even looking at him. Despite his downed tone, I knew he was still smiling as well. "You will too!" I shouted, finally playing his game by speaking in a child voice. I looked at him and we both smiled, all being forgiven then and there. "Will not!" "Will too!" "Will not!" "Will too!"

I walked down the corridor in a proud and brisk fashion. Aztro wasn't too far behind. He had just arrived, nearly two weeks after I had issued the droid transfer officially. In that time, Galaxian Squadron had been called to duty yet again, to do some routine sensor checks in the Pyria system along with the help of Rogue Squadron. I hoped someday I would get my chance to be part of the eminent squadron, upon hearing they would be accompanying us. All was going well with the inspections until a group of renegade TIE Fighters entered the system looking for a fight, probably hearing that Rogue Squadron was nearby. Of course, with the help of the Rogues, we managed to hold them off and drive them away, but once again, Jaren was shot down. I was amazed how he had yet again survived another crash, relatively unscathed. "You have more lives than a Hawk-bat!" I told him after we had gotten back. He simply shrugged it off as complete luck. Of course, I was even more amazed at his excuse at being shot down this time around. "My boot got stuck to the floor of my cockpit, and when I looked down to see why it was stuck, I got a TIE on my back and he shot me," was Jaren's explnation. He claimed one of the mechanics must have dropped a peanut butter sandwich on the floor of his fighter cockpit, causing his boot to stick to the surface. I didn't believe him for a second. I, too, was nearly hit down for good when a TIE Interceptor somehow got on my tail and knocked out my shields with a few quick stutter shots. It was especially dangerous because I didn't have a droid to accompany me and repair my craft, with Lazer in storage on Coruscant, and Aztro on a transport destined for Coruscant. Oddly enough, the only reason I survived the confrontation with the enemy fighter was because Jaren shot at the annoying little TIE right before his boot incident, driving the enemy away. [I]Despite how annoying he can be, I'm glad Jaren is my friend,[/I] I thought to myself as I neared his quarters, eager to show Aztro off to him. I turned and smiled at the perky little droid. He bleeped. [I]It kind of amazes me how I could have a droid for so long, and still not be able to understand what he's saying.[/I] Then I recalled the conversation I had with my family when I sent for Aztro. It was a direct holo-feed, meaning I could actually see who I was talking to. Kem answered it. He and I talked for a few seconds about the weather and how dangerously close Lianna was to Civil War. They had been about that close for a few months now, and no one expected a war to break out any time soon. Then I asked him to put mom and dad on the line. We all had a few good laughs about recent happenings in the news and what had been happening around the house. Kem had allegedly been home alone one night and managed to burn his shirt while cooking. "No wonder he didn't tell me about that himself, it's quite embarrassing," I told my dad. We both chuckled. After I was done talking with my parents, and got them to send Aztro, I contacted Tela. She was still living in the same apartment we had both shared up until my departure. She was just as beautiful as ever, even over the holo-feed. "Having trouble finding a new place?" I asked her right when she answered the holo. She laughed. "Any place that you lived in should be considered a galactic landmark. I'm just staying here until all the Provinces agree," was her response. Sarcasm filled the tone. This time I laughed. "With the way the Liannian government works? You'll be living there for a while." We continued for a while longer until Tela brought up an old conversation. "I'll have to come to Coruscant some time and you can take me out on a date." I made my famous rotten face at her like I always did when she said stuff like that. "Girls are yicky, Tela." We continued our conversation a bit longer, before my allotted time to use the holo-feed was up. Every pilot was given a certain amount of time per month. I talked a lot longer than I had planned. [I]I miss home.I especially miss Tela.[/I] Now I was still in the hallway on my way to Jaren's room. I turned back at the sound of light footsteps from up ahead in the corridor. My eyes focused down to see a shadow emerging from beyond a curve in the hall a little ways away. As quickly as the shadow appeared a figure stepped out from beyond. She had shoulder length brown hair kept in a single loose pony tail which swung lightly to each side with each light step she took. Her eyes were a perfect shade of green that sent my heart soaring. It was Chalaine, and she had the slightest hint of a smile on her face. "Aww!" she cried in her light and beautiful voice as her dazzling eyes grew wide. I thought she was staring at me. "H-h-hi," I began to get out after a brief pause. I took a step forward, as did Chalaine. My heart raced at the thought of her actually walking towards me, happy. We continued pacing towards one another, a smile creeping up my face. I almost began to open my arms out to hug her, as if it were like one of those classic dreams where the two lovers run into each others arms and live happily ever after. I prepped myself for the best. She walked right passed me. I didn't notice right away and turned my head to watch her walk passed me and stop just in front of my droid. The next I knew, I was crunched against a wall, not seeing it with my head turned. I slowly turned away from the wall, ignoring the slight pain in the side of my face and chest, and rested my back against the wall, somewhat hurt physically and emotionally. Chalaine was now bent down next to Aztro, beaming. My mouth fell open. [I]She wasn't happy to see me.she wanted to see Aztro.[/I] "You're such a cute little droid!" she said. She continued gawking and obsessing over my little friend. My head fell and I sulked. "Hi Chalaine," I said, my head hung low. "Hi Halley," she said, not even turning her head an inch to look at me. It was what I expected. "H-his name is Aztro." She nodded slightly and continued fawning over him. It was almost too depressing for me to watch. I decided I had to pull the two apart to prevent any more heart ache for myself. "Okay, Aztro. Time to go." My head went back up. Chalaine finally turned her head to look at me and frowned. "Does he [I]have[/I] to go with you?" she begged. I caved in, not at all wanting to make her mad. "Uh.uh.no. Just return him at dinner tonight." Chalaine smiled lightly. "Ya know, Hail, even though you're a tad on the annoying side, you can be real sweet sometimes too." I blushed heavily at her words. Now my nervousness kicked into overdrive. I thought I thanked her and said good-bye, but it turned out more like a garbled heap of syllables and indistinguishable fragments of words. She gave me quite the confused look, and I felt it best to simply walk off. And I did. [I]Th-that w-went well.[/I] I was so nervous, I was even stuttering in my own mind.

I knocked on the door of Jaren's quarters. From within I heard a loud crash followed by a groan. I waited patiently outside until Jaren opened the door, holding the top of his head. "Slip in the refresher again?" I asked, trying not to smile. "No, the bowling alley," he responded sarcastically. Obviously he didn't have a bowling alley in his quarters. The rooms were barely big enough for the beds, being just over three and a half meters in length. Jaren looked at me oddly. "Did you come for a reason other than to have me slip in the 'fresher?" "Oh, yes I did," I said, suddenly remembering why I had come. I stood to one side. "May I present, my new droid, Aztro." Jaren began to laugh. Confused, I turned my head to look outside the doorway. There was nothing there. I began to turn red around the cheeks. [I]I forgot.he's still with Chalaine.[/I] "I guess he wondered off." I looked back at Jaren, embarrassed. His laughing gradually died down. "You'd better find him quick, because we have to get to the simulators." "Why?" I asked. "Two new pilots came in this morning. Koepode wants to do a few simulator runs with them to break them in. The whole squadron needs to be present." I nodded, suddenly remembering the announcement had been made at breakfast that morning. The two new pilots had come in quickly. They were needed, though, since two of our own pilots had transferred out to go to other squadrons recently. "I'm sure he'll turn up," I said. "Any word on who the two new pilots are?" "I heard one of them was a Wookie." I didn't believe Crossfire for a second. "A Wookie? Get real, Cross." "I'm serious!" he threw his hands up in the air, "Dordan told me." "Since when do you listen to Dordan?" I raised an eyebrow. "Since I just happened to be sitting next to Dordan's table at lunch today when she was gossiping with Xolan and Tay like she always does. Did you know Luke Skywalker used to date Leia Solo?" I crossed my hands in front of my chest. "No I didn't know that, but if you heard it from Dordan, it can't be true." "Yeah, I didn't believe her either, but the Wookie part is true," Crossfire smiled. I gave him a disgusted look and walked off. He came running behind me and stopped right next to me. I didn't look at him. We continued to bicker and argue about the whole Wookie issue until we got to the simulators. The door to the large room opened with a hiss and we stepped in. My mouth fell open. Standing a few meters away, dressed in a standard orange New Republic pilot's uniform stood a six foot tall Wookie. Jaren gave me a nudge and my mouth closed. "That'll teach you to never not trust me again," he said, quite proud of himself. I rolled my eyes, still refusing to look at him. Standing next to the hairy beast was a human male with short blond hair. He was staring dreamily at something to his right. I looked over to see Chalaine in his line of sight. Aztro was at her side. [I]Well, if he likes her, let's see if he has any better luck with her than I do.[/I] "Attention everyone," Koepode started. The mumbles and murmurs of the other pilots in the room died down. "Meet our two newest pilots. Konlabba Jod and Meff Duke." The rest of us all moved in to shake hands with the new arrivals. At closer inspection, I found that Konlabba, the Wookie, had a translator which he held up to his mouth any time he talked. It would change his growls and roars into Basic with a rough mechanical voice. [I]I should get one of those for Aztro.[/I] Just then Meff tapped me on the shoulder. "What's that female pilot's name?" he asked urgently, not even waiting for me to turn around completely. I saw him pointing at Chalaine. "Hi, my name is Halley," I said, somewhat disgusted with his lack of manners. Duke sighed and hastily walked over to Jaren who was standing a few feet away. [I]This should be good,[/I] I thought. As I expected, the pilot did the same to Crossfire as he did to me, by pointing at Chalaine asking for her name, not even saying hello. Jaren gave one of his deceptive smiles that only I could read. "Oh her?" he asked casually. Meff nodded quickly. " Oh that's just my girlfriend, Chalaine." I was about ready to die with laughter. Meff looked quite hurt now, and much less hyper. "Would you like to meet her?" Jaren continued the joke. Just how far was he going to take it? Before Meff could say no, which I knew he was going to say, Jaren swung him around and walked him in Chalaine's direction. "Oh sweetie cakes!" Jaren called to Chalaine. She didn't respond right away, probably not thinking he was talking to her. The two finally stopped in front of her. She looked at Jaren with a blank look on her face. "Honey, I'd like you to meet Meff Duke," he said. He grabbed Meff's arm and brought it up for Chalaine to shake. She took his hand in hers, but remained staring at Jaren, with a look of puzzlement creeping in on her beautiful features. "N-nice to meet you Meff," she said, still not looking at the new pilot. Jaren went right on smiling and keeping his cool, not wanting to spoil the horribly funny joke he was getting away with. Meff had a very dreamy look on his face. "Honey dearest, would you get Meff and me some punch?" Jaren asked in a cute little voice. She dropped Meff's hand. "Why you low down no good." she started saying. Aztro, not wanting to be around when she exploded began to waddle towards me as fast as his little legs would take him. I didn't blame him for wanting to get away. Chalaine could be quite strange, especially when she was angry. The murmurs and chatter within the room died down as we all listened to Chalaine's eruption of anger. Jaren still kept a smile on his face as Chalaine continued. She began shouting and screaming a few unmentionable words, throwing her hands up in the air dramatically. Meff began to look quite frightened and took a step back, followed by another. "I hope you never speak to me again! Either of you!" she cried and stomped out of the room. I finally let out a giggle but managed to keep the rest of my urges to laugh contained. By this time, Aztro had reached my side. I patted him on the dome, and awaited Jaren's reaction to the whole mess he had just caused. "Isn't she just the best?" Jaren exclaimed happily. Meff looked at him confused and heartbroken. I smiled, not wanting to laugh, but it finally got the best of me. I was on the floor seconds later. In the distance, I could hear Jaren laughing too. It was eventually covered by the chatter of everyone else in the room, eagerly discussing what had just happened. Jaren had pulled that off in style. My laughing finally died away, but a smile remained on my face for the rest of the evening. [I]With Jaren around, there's never a dull moment, and that you can count on.[/I]



[b]Part 5: Galaxian Squadron[/b] "Galaxian One!" I called through the comlink frequency. Sweat was dripping down my face, on my hands, everywhere. I was afraid it may cause me to drop the control stick of my X-wing, and not be able to recover in time if a spin-out occurred. The leader of the squadron responded. "Galaxian One here, go ahead Galaxian Three!" I swallowed, and slowly spoke the words, "I read another squadron of Eyeballs coming in about five klicks away, sir! What are your orders?" There was a brief pause. I knew Major Koepode was trying to decide on our next course of action. So far we had gone up against three squadrons. One of Eyeballs, another of Squints, and before this next batch of eyeballs, a fairly easy squadron of Uglies. Only five of us remained in Galaxian Squadron. We were dropping like ill-stricken mynocks! "Have Twelve and Nine provide cover for the transports, you, I, and Four will attack head-on!" the Major broke the eerie silence. I wiped my brow. "Understood!" Major Koepode, I, and Galaxian Four, who was also my best friend, Jaren "Crossfire" Hailfyre, swept around in a tight angle to intercept the TIE Fighters. I could make out their basic shapes even from the distance we had between us. "Hey, Halley?" a voice called through the frequency. Again I made a clean sweep of my brow. "Ya, Crossfire?" I grinned, trying to keep my tone of voice as serious as I could. "Good luck! You better come back too, because it's your turn to buy drinks!" he shouted. I chuckled. "Keep it serious! That's an order!" Koepode interjected. I straightened out best I could in the cockpit of my sleek X-wing fighter. [TIE Fighters, now exactly two klicks away] my droid translator read. "Thanks for the statistics, Aztro," I gave a small smile. [You're quite welcome, sir] "Halley! I said keep it serious!" Koepode interrupted again. "Yessir." "They're firing! Evasive maneuvers!" shouted Crossfire at the top of his lungs. I watched as his X-wing swerved to the right, violently, to get out of the way of the oncoming green streaks of light. To my surprise, his sudden loss of control didn't stop, and his fighter continued to tumble and swerve out into deep space. A few TIEs broke off from the main group to go after him. "I'm gonna help him!" I called, not expecting anyone to comply. "Galaxian Three! Stay in formation! We have to protect these transports!" The Major called. I sighed, and discontinued my sudden turn to join him again in the interception of the attackers. The Imperial ships continued to fire at us, but we both managed to keep our cool and avoid getting hit. "Permission to fire back," I asked, getting quite bored with just dodging.

"Permission granted, just be careful, Lieutenant!" I shot off a few quick blasts and replied, "Thank you sir!" The few shots I managed to get out missed the remaining TIEs completely, but my next batch of four took two of the shieldless ships down in a fiery inferno hurtling through empty space. "HA! That's two more to paint on my fuselage!" Major Koepode met my success by knocking down two fighters as well, using minimal shots. "Touché, Major!" "Go help Crossfire now, I can take the last six with no trouble!" the Major was obviously trying to get rid of me. I smiled. "Yes sir!" I reluctantly said, turning my ship away slowly. "Aztro, give me a location on Galaxian Four." Behind me, I could hear the little Artoo unit chitter away, trying to pinpoint Crossfire's location. [Galaxian Four no longer appears on the radar. Location search impossible] My mouth gaped open. [I]Crossfire is gone? Impossible.we're the two best hotshots in the squadron![/I] "Major," I started, my tone down and soft, "Crossfire is gone, it's up to the four of us to stop the rest of the Imperial resistance." "Don't bother, Halley!" Galaxian Twelve, also known as Nevlan Dansor, shouted through the weak frequency, "the mission is over! The transports got out safely and the Major stopped the last of the TIE Squadron!" I breathed the biggest sigh I could muster with the energy I had left. "Galaxian Three understood! Computer, end simulation!" On command, the scene outside my cockpit vanished, and in it's place was the famous New Republic emblem. I was glad to come to the realization again that the whole mission was a simulation. I waited patiently as the cockpit canopy finally agreed to open. I climbed out and took a breath of nice fresh air, instead of the now musty and filthy air I was breathing in the simulator cockpit just a few seconds before. To my left was Crossfire's simulator. His was open, and empty. I looked a little further to the left, and quickly caught him trying to jimmy open a snack machine on the far wall. [I]That's why they call him Crossfire! Cause he's always caught in it! The Major should catch him in about three.two.one.[/I] As if on cue, Major Koepode emerged from behind his simulator, and tapped the preoccupied pilot on the shoulder. I tried to hold back a laugh. I didn't wait around to hear how long the Major would sentence Crossfire to janitor duties for, and I left for my quarters. All down the halls, pilots from my squadron would pass by me and congratulate me on surviving the toughest simulator run Major Koepode had thrown out at us yet. I shrugged it off as mere luck. My quarters were on the third floor of a training academy on the renowned planet, Coruscant. I had long since been promoted from being a trainee, but the New Republic didn't seem to have any use for our relatively new squadron. Galaxian Squadron was formed on the basis of being the runners- up for new Rogue Squadron members. I was thrilled by the chance of making it to Rogue Squadron someday, and fly alongside the best pilots the New Republic had to offer. All of the pilots in Galaxian were really good, in my opinion. Every one of them, including me, had the best chance of making it there some day. At least, I hope we all would some day. "Lieutenant Kadorto!" I heard a voice call. I swung around, a little apprehensively. There stood Lieutenant Chalaine Spiraei. I nearly fell over, stunned at her beauty. She had shoulder-length brown hair, which flowed in the most elegant manner. Her eyes were the perfect shade of green and always glistened, even in the dark. It seemed like everything about her was perfect, except her piloting skills.in that department, she was a dunce, I had [I]no[/I] idea how she made it into Galaxian Squadron, or the New Republic for that matter. "H-hi Shally," I bit my lip. "Nice work in the sim today, Hail," she said in a smooth tone also giving a faint yet cute smile. I nearly lost my balance again. "Thanks.you too." I slicked my right hand through my soft, but currently sweaty brown hair. "Me? Hardly! I was the first one to go! Stupid TIEs." she remarked. I tried to give a comforting smile. "Hey, if you're not busy, do you want to have a cup of caf, or even lunch together some time later today? I mean if you're not busy." She squinted at me strangely. "You're asking me out on a date?" I choked, "Uh.no?" She sighed, turned around, and puffed off in the other direction. I stood there for a few seconds, very confused. [I]Strange woman she is.[/I] I set myself to turn around to once again head for my quarters, but another voice called my name. I knew who it was even before they called. "Hey Crossfire? How long ya gonna be doing janitor duty this time?" The human, black haired, brown eyed pilot stopped running and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You know me all too well, Hail!" he attempted to hide a smile, but my attempting to hide one too caused us both to burst out in light chuckles. "Come on, I'll buy ya some Twi'lek brandy down in Downtime!" he said after we had both finally calmed down. I nodded and followed him down the long and dimly lit corridor. I also decided not to remind him it was [I]my[/I] turn to buy drinks. We reached the rusted doors of Downtime sooner than I had estimated. Of course, I was a terrible estimator so it didn't really make a difference. We both stood in front of the massive doors and watched as they slowly creaked open, alerted to our presence. Within I could see all the members of our squadron. In the very back, sitting alone, was Chalaine. She tended to always be by herself, and most members of the squadron respected that. In the table just opposite hers, was Nevlan Dansor. He was a heavy set Rodian, with a strangely peaceful attitude. He was chatting with a Twi'lek female named Kana Mor. Directly to my right, sipping some strong Corellian whiskey, was Meff Duke, a human from Corellia. He was madly in love with Chalaine, but always seemed to keep his distance. Standing up near the bar table, was the troublemaker of the squadron, Rykoff Cakton. He, like Crossfire, was always in trouble, and the two always tended to have janitor duty at the same time. Also standing at the bar, but far away from Rykoff, was probably our most unique member. Konlabba Jod. Konlabba was, oddly enough, a Wookie. Standing well over six feet tall, he carried a translator which he almost never forgot to keep handy, because no one in the squadron could understand his strange growls and roars. He was an excellent pilot, and most pilots in the squadron suspected he was somehow related to the famous Chewbacca. He was talking with Major Koepode. Koepode was a Bothan male. He was of average height, for Bothans, and always kept a stern and passive personality. Most of the squadron, including me, admired his sense of leadership, and the fact that he always kept his cool in battle. All huddled together in the left corner of the small bar, were Tay "Ace" Bokoe; a Thakwaash female, Xolan Lep; a Gand female, and Dordan Zeec; a human female. They were always huddled together, spreading gossip among themselves. Both Crossfire and I saw them talking, and mimicked their chatter by pretending to talk by moving our lips as fast as we possible could, and bobbing our heads up and down in an odd manner. Luckily, the three didn't notice our antics. Crossfire began to proceed to the bar, and I quickly followed. He took a seat on the closest bar stool, which also happened to be fairly close to where Rykoff was standing, and I obliged by sitting to Crossfire's immediate left. "Just give me and my friend here two Corellian Whiskeys," my friend said, leaning over to tap the closest bartender on the shoulder. The bartender let out a grunt and went to off fulfill Crossfire's request. I smiled, "the bartenders love ya, huh?" "Well." Crossfire shrugged, not giving me direct eye contact, "they seem happy with the way I scrub the restroom floors." I snickered. Just then, I felt something brush up against my orange colored flight suit pant leg. Slowly turning around, I looked down to see Aztro. He was a cute little Arthree unit with blue and green splotches scattered about, with the rest of his outer covering being white, like most standard Arthrees. "Hey, little guy!" I raised my voice. He bleeped. "After all this time, you still have that little thing?" asked Crossfire, sounding slightly disgusted. I turned and gave him a long hard stare, somewhat perplexed but trying not to show it. "Ya, I still have that 'little thing.' Why? What's it to ya?" "Aw, I've gone through nearly half a dozen droids since I've been in the New Republic, and you've had the same one since you were five!" he remarked quickly. I grinned. "You've gone through five X-wings too, haven't you? The New Republic might decide to deny you another one if you keep it up! It's a wonder you've survived so many crashes." he smiled deceptively. "I was right, you know me all too well, Hail! That's worth two drinks easy!" I turned back to Aztro, who hadn't moved a centimeter since I noticed his arrival. Without warning, however, one of his compartments sprang open. Frightened by the movement, I lost my balance on the barstool and fell backwards, hitting my back against the bar table. I slammed my hands on the side of the counter, hoping I wouldn't fall again, but it didn't work, and I fell back further to the floor, with my legs between the bar stool pole, and my hands stuck under my bottom side. I winced in slight pain. Rykoff and Crossfire were first to arrive to help me up. I smiled pitifully. "Man! Your droid was just trying to give you a datapad. You're jumpy!" Rykoff said, trying to hold back a laugh, and grabbing my arm to help me up. I gave him a sarcastic smile. Around me, I could hear the other pilots of the squadron chatting away, almost as if nothing had happened. It didn't bother me any. I was soon back on my feet, and I rubbed my left hand which was burning slightly. Looking back at Aztro, I saw the same compartment, still open, with a datapad sticking out of it. I stopped rubbing my hand and bent down to retrieve the outstretched device. Aztro gladly handed it over to me, and once again beeped. Flipping the small gray tinted piece of electronics on, a notice immediately popped up on the view screen. I skimmed the message quickly:

[b]Lieutenant Kadorto,

New Republic Intelligence has informed me to tell you, that you are to meet with General Wedge Antilles tomorrow at exactly 12:00 hours in the New Republic Training Plaza, building 44, room 7E on the 15th floor. The General would like to speak with you about maybe earning a spot in Rogue Squadron. I wish you luck, and hope you are fortunate enough to make it.

Sincerely,

Major Banbote Koepode[/b]

I stared at the message for the longest time. It wasn't until Crossfire smacked my on the back, to make sure I was still breathing, that I snapped back to attention. "Hail, you're freaking me out! What's going on?" he asked, acting very apprehensive. All I could do was hand over the datapad to him, I couldn't even speak. He took it from me and read it over in a flash. "So?" he asked, tossing the datapad on the countertop, and taking a swig of his drink, which had just been set down on the counter a few moments before. His reply shocked me back into talking. "What do you mean 'so'?! I could make it into Rogue Squadron! This has been my dream for so long!" "You're not going to be accepted," he said between sips. I was astonished at what he was saying. "What makes you say I won't make it?" I was becoming a little irritated. "It's just a courtesy letter. You got one, I got one, everyone in the squadron got one." "Oh yeah? Then where's yours?" He obviously knew I would ask that sooner or later, and he quickly brought out a datapad from his back pocket and tossed it to me. As he had said, it was the same message, just with his name at the top. I gave another pitiful smile, and blushed slightly. He snickered and took another sip of his refreshment. Still very embarrassed, I hunched myself over the bar, and took a sip of the strong alcohol. "It's ok, Hail. It happens to the best of us." My friend patted me on the shoulder reassuringly. I rolled my eyes, and continued to finish my beverage.

[b]The next day[/b]

[I]Oh no! I'm late![/I] The meeting with General Antilles was set to start in about two minutes, and it would take me at least five to make it to the designated meeting spot. I ran to building 44 faster then I had ever run before. I reached the automatic doors, and didn't wait for them to open completely. The result was my banging my shoulder against it, but I tried not to let the pain bother me. [I]The lifts will take too long to get down here, I better take the stairs![/I] I rushed to the stair corridor, and began the long trek up to the fifteenth floor. Each step seemed easy at first, but once I had gotten to the fifth floor, I was beat. I switched between a light jog, and a slow walk the rest of the way, forgetting that the meeting had started nearly two minutes before. I had finally reached the fifteenth floor. The meeting had started ten minutes before. I figured it was too late, and began to turn around to go back. "Halley, wait!" a voice shouted. It was a voice I didn't recognize, so I decided to turn around and try my luck. I turned to see a tall man, with brown hair, wearing a general's uniform. I stood at immediate attention. "General, my apologies." I boomed out the sentence. "At ease, Lieutenant," said the General, giving a faint smile which I almost didn't catch. I did as he ordered. He continued, "You realize you're late for our appointment." My mouth gaped open again. It was becoming a bad habit. "Y-you're General Antilles?" my voice quivered violently. He chuckled. "Who did you think I was, Admiral Ackbar?" I gave a smile out of the corner of my lip. "Come on inside," he continued, "we can start the meeting now." I could feel my smile broaden as he opened the door to room 7E, and waved me inside. The room was quite small, with an oversized desk to the left, with a nice big comfortable-looking leather chair behind it. To the right, was a small plastic chair, that looked like it would collapse if anything over ten pounds was put on it. I went over and sat in it anyway, moving down slowly, and not setting all my weight down on it. I didn't plan to make a fool out of myself in front of General Antilles! The eminent man sat down in the large leather chair, and rested his elbows on the brown Ithorian wood desk, interlacing his fingers once he had achieved a comfortable position. For some reason, I gulped. "Well, Lieutenant," Wedge started, "I've been looking over your files, and you have an outstanding record." I tried not to smile, "Thank you sir." "Rogue Squadron could definitely use a pilot of your talents." He continued. I got so excited, I pushed all me weight onto the chair. It gave a giant crack, and crumbled beneath me. I went tumbling to the floor. "Don't bother worrying about the chair," General Antilles said, while I was stumbling back up, "I was hoping someone would break it anyway." "Um.yes sir," I said, once I had finally gotten back upright and was once again standing at attention. He motioned for me to go back to a more informal stance. "At this time, Rogue Squadron could use you, but if you were to join now, it would take nearly a month for the transfer to take effect." "I understand sir," I saluted, "I wish to join, I don't care if I'd have to wait a year and survive a battle with a rancor, I'd be willing to do it all." "Lieutenant." Wedge said, shrugging his shoulders back. "Yessir?" "Stop sucking up, you're in the squadron." I cleared my throat, "Yessir." He then stood up. "Welcome to Rogue Squadron, Lieutenant Kadorto, I'll see you again in a month." "Thank you sir," I again saluted. He smiled, and motioned for me to leave. I began to turn around, but a question arose that I knew I had to ask. "General Antilles?" I asked, trying to get his attention back to me. He was reading a datapad. "Yes, Lieutenant?" he asked, not bothering to look up at me. "One of my squadron mates, Lieutenant Jaren Hailfyre, told me that he had received a notice from you too, about joining Rogue Squadron, and it was at the same time as mine. Did you talk to him already?" "Lieutenant Hailfyre?" Wedge now looked up at me, squinting, "no, I sent out no such message to him. I know who you're referring to however. An excellent pilot, but my pilots waste enough X-wings as it is, I don't think New Republic Intelligence would permit me to put in another 'Immolator of X- wings' as the New Republic likes to say." I nodded, "Thank you sir, that's all I needed to know." He smiled and went back to looking at his datapad, I didn't wait for him to motion me off a second time. [I]The sooner I get Crossfire another week of janitor duty for lying, the better.[/I]

[b]2 days later, early morning[/b]

"Attention! Attention! All pilots to their X-wings. Repeat! All pilots to their X-wings!" I shot up quickly, banging my head on the backboard of my small bed. I don't know quite how I managed to do that either. Aztro was in the center of the room, beeping wildly. I tried to avoid him on the way to my dresser, but on the way, he turned, causing me to trip over his right tripod leg. I groaned once I had hit the ground, but quickly got up again alerted to the warning klaxons. Snagging a clean flightsuit, I put it on quickly, and threw my shiny black boots on too. "Come on, Aztro! Let's get moving!" he obliged, and followed me out the door. We reached the hangar within seconds. I caught Chalaine out of the corner of my eye, and rushed over to her. "What's going on?" I panted. She gave me a disgusted look. "Don't you know anything? A few Corellian Corvettes above the planet are under attack by some mercenaries flying TIE Defenders! We're being sent out to stop them!" She climbed up her boarding ladder before I could question her further. I knew I didn't have time to ask anything else anyway, and shot off for my own X-wing. [I]TIE Defenders.this is going to be rough![/I] I quickly climbed aboard and began to do a quick skim of my systems. They all appeared to be functioning at adequate levels . At the same time, I could hear Aztro being placed in his compartment directly behind me. "Galaxian Four to Galaxian Three!" my comlink sprang to life, startling me enough to throw my helmet in the air. It landed back on my lap with a thump. "Galaxian Three here, what's up Crossfire?" "Good luck!" Jaren responded. I smiled, while shoving my helmet on over my head. "Same to you!" My engines hummed to life at the touch of a button on my control panel. Major Koepode spoke. "This is Galaxian One, all other wings report in!" "Galaxian Two, standing by!" shouted Chalaine. "Galaxian Three, ready!" I said, as seriously as I could. I heard Crossfire chuckle through the com though. I grinned. "Galaxian Four, in the green!" Crossfire remembered to shout. "Galaxian Five, standing by!" exclaimed Konlabba through his mechanical translating device. "Gal six! Here!" said Rykoff, very informally. "Galaxian Seven, standing by!" replied Tay. "Galaxian Eight, ready as I'll ever be!" said Dordan quickly. "Galaxian Nine, ready and waiting!" called Meff, sounding a little apprehensive. "Galaxian Ten, standing by!" said Xolan, also a little apprehensively. "Galaxian Eleven, standing by!" answered Kana. "Galaxian Twelve, here and ready!" shouted the Rodian, Nevlan Dansor. The Major barked out some more orders, "Take off as soon as you're ready. We don't have much time before those marauders take down our transports. Just get out there, team up with your wingmate and hoard them off!" We all shouted in unison, except Rykoff, who deliberately said it immediately after we were finished, "Yessir!" Of course, Major Koepode was the first one out of the bay, immediately followed by Nevlan. A few others hovered out a few seconds later. Crossfire and I left next, leaving about three other squadron mates behind, but they followed shortly. I felt a great sensation of freedom as I soared off into the bright sky. But trouble was brewing just about the atmosphere, I tried to maintain a serious attitude. When my fighter reached deep space, I could make out three Corellian Corvettes slowly zigzagging all about, with tiny green streaks flying all about. I was too far away to see my quarry, but I knew they were there. "Hey buddy!" shouted Crossfire over the comlink, "don't forget to lock your S-foils!" "Oh, right."I shook my head, "I don't know what I'd do without you, Crossfire!" I flicked a switch on my tactical dashboard. The four S-foils sprang to life, opening at a mediocre speed. When they were done opening, my laser crosshair appeared on my Combat Multiview Display. My lasers were powered up and ready. We slowly edged closer to the raging marauder raid. At closer inspection of the battle ahead, it looked like a lot more than just TIE Defenders out there. In fact, I couldn't see the outlines of any Defenders at all. They had a very distinctive shape, much different than other types of TIEs. "I don't see any Defenders," I said on the squadron-wide frequency. "Looks to me like Eyeballs and Squints. Possibly some Uglies." It was Koepode who answered. I nodded to myself as the twelve of us inched ever closer to the inevitable battle. "Well, Crossfire, let's get started," I called confidently through the com to my friend. "Right with ya, Hail!"

[b]Minutes later[/b] So far we had gone up against three squadrons. One of Eyeballs, another of Squints, and before another batch of eyeballs that was up ahead, a fairly easy squadron of Uglies. We had yet to see Defenders. Something just wasn't right about this battle. It seemed so familiar and yet so different than anything I had experienced before all at the same time. [I]I've got a bad feeling about this.[/I] Everyone in the squadron was still alive, including Chalaine, which was quite a feat considering her piloting skills. Despite all this however, there seemed to be no relief in sight from the onslaught of enemies. "Three, Four, Twelve, on me. We'll intercept them before they can reach the transports. The rest of you, stay with the transports and attack any TIEs that get passed us," Koepode barked a few orders through the comlink. Nevlan, I, and Jaren all banked around to meet up behind Major Koepode, who was headed directly for a complete squadron of TIE Fighters just up ahead. I gulped once, but kept my cool. "How ya doing over there, Hail?" asked Jaren. A sense of relief and tranquillity was present in me for a brief moment. "Just fine, Cross. How about you?" "Let's just say I don't think I'll have to come up with an excuse on why I was shot down this battle," he answered. I laughed. "Keep it serious you two, we're not out of this yet!" called Major Koepode. I went back to attention. "The TIEs are firing on us!" shouted Nevlan, sounding a bit frightened. "They won't hit us, stay in formation," I said reassuringly. We continued onward toward them. Soon I had a missile lock on one of the unshielded ships. I fired. The missile streaked along ahead of my craft. It traveled until it slammed into one of the oncoming TIEs, turning it into nothing more than a harmless fireball of durasteel and broken electronics. "That's ten kills today!" I cried triumphantly. My victory was short lived, as the remaining TIEs once again began firing on us, being a bit more accurate about it this time. A few of their shots grazed my shields, but I managed to stay in control. I flicked a switch on my tactical display and transferred all my back shields to the front. I could easily survive their assaults now, at least until they got behind me, if I would give them the chance to. Nevlan, however, wasn't so lucky. I jerked my head over to see his fighter get pummeled with green streaks of superheated light. I panicked. "Nev! Break to port! Now!" Koepode shouted before I did. It was no use. Another well placed shot warped and melted the nose of Nevlan's sturdy fighter. It spiraled out of control and exploded. A large sense of sadness rushed through me. I began to fire back. Shot after shot at any and all targets that were ahead. I was angry. Jaren soon joined in as well with firing at random. Even Koepode, who was usually strict about going by the book, joined in with us. Most of our shots missed, but a few did hit the TIEs. Three or four of them exploded nearly right away. A few others got clipped by our shots and hurtled out of control. Now there were about three TIEs left. I regained my composure and stopped firing. "Good shooting, Three and Four," said Koepode. He sounded quite down, which was understandable. I was sure the loss of Nevlan had hit everyone pretty hard. The remaining three TIEs whisked passed us, and we banked around to get behind them. As we did, my fighter rocked with a sudden jolt. "What was that?" I cried, a bit panicked. [Squadron of Defenders directly behind us, sir] said Aztro. [I]Oh no.[/I] "Sir, I suggest we retreat! We can't take on a squadron of Defenders!" "We have to, Three. It's our job," Koepode said somewhat reluctantly. It wasn't like him to use so much emotion. I breathed in slowly, while at the same time juking and jerking all about to escape from being hit by the much faster and superior craft behind us. "You're right, sir. Come on, Cross, let's paint some more TIEs on our fuselage!" "Now you're talking, Hail!" Crossfire shouted happily. I let out a smile. My friend and I turned around to meet the Defenders head on. They were still quite a ways away, but I could still make out their basic and haunting shapes. For some reason, Koepode didn't turn with us. "What's wrong, sir?" I called, worriedly. "Their laser hits damaged my flight controls. I'm stuck." "Hold on, sir. I'm coming to help." "Don't, they have a missile lock on me! It's too dangerous!" A recurrence of sadness swept through me at his words. I wasn't about to lose my commanding officer. He had been through too much to simply be killed by a lousy missile just because he couldn't get away. I wanted to turn and help, but I knew I had to obey his orders. It was the painful truth. And even if I went to assist right then, I would never make it in time. I looked down briefly, to sulk. I didn't need to look up again to know he was gone a few seconds later. Not a very glorifying death for such an eminent man. "Hail, we can't just sit here! They killed our commander!" Jaren shouted, very frightened. For once he wasn't joking. I thought I was going to cry. "We keep going, head on," I tried to say with confidence, but I was frightened. I was more frightened than I had ever been in my entire life. This wasn't going to end well. "Fire now!" I shouted a few seconds later. Jaren and I both fired in unison. A simple wave of shots, like we had done with the regular TIE Fighters. Unfortunately, Defenders had shields, so it was going to be much harder to take them down. They fired back, but Jaren and I had little trouble avoiding their fire. We were really only in trouble if one of them got behind us. They streaked passed us and we once again banked to get behind them. "Seven, status report with the TIEs we left you!" I called to Tay, who was with the transports about a klick away. "We stopped them, but we lost Dordan." she sounded very out of focus. I felt a tear drip down my cheek. "Understood." "Hail, can we fire on them yet? We are behind them!" Jaren was very impatient waiting for my orders. I finally smiled again. It was such a mix of emotions. "Go ahead, Jaren. Let's whoop these losers!" We both fired on the same target. It didn't stand a chance and we watched it explode even before it could veer away. I didn't think the other eleven would be so easy. They weren't, and they scattered in all directions. Some continued forward to engage the rest of our squadron, but a majority of them swooped around to get on my and Crossfire's tails. "Keep going straight, Cross," I called, "we need to help the others at the transports." "Help them?" he cried, "who's gonna help us?" This time I knew he was joking. "Just stay calm, Cross, we'll get through this." "[I]Me[/I] stay calm. Hail, calm is my middle name!" With that he screamed triumphantly and boosted out ahead of me and fired on another Defender. This one managed to avoid him for a little while, but Jaren finally got the upper hand and finished it off. Now there were only ten. We were still outnumbered by one. After a few more long seconds of dodging and juking, we met up with the rest of the squadron. They went headlong against the enemy TIEs just as Jaren and I had minutes before. Suddenly I heard a blood curdling scream. "Aztro, what happened?" [Galaxian Ten has been shot down] [I]Why can't this just be a simulator mission?[/I] The Defenders were gradually gaining the upper hand, being in superior ships and probably containing superior pilots. "This is Gal six, I need some assistance!" I was shaken back into consciousness by Rykoff's pleas. I instinctively checked my targeting computer for his location and made a sweep to the left. I could see his fighter, with a Defender neatly tucked in behind him. I fired to scare it off, but it stayed on him, not afraid of my attacks. I fired a missile next, not getting a complete lock. Luckily, it struck the enemy fighter and it blew up into millions of pieces of newly formed space debris. I smiled at my newest kill. "Thanks, Hail!" Rykoff said. "No problem, just watch yourself next time." "Will do." I proceeded back to the main part of the battle that was taking place near the transports. Fortunately, we still had all of them. I looked off in the distance to see Konlabba's X-wing weaving back and forth to avoid being shot at by Defender. He obviously wasn't looking at where he was going. "Konlabba! You're gonna hit that transport! Look out!" My shouts were to no avail. I heard him roar just before he slammed into one of the Corvettes. I shuddered. [I]How could they.[/I] The damage Konlabba's X-wing inflicted on the corvette took it's toll. My targeting computer now read it as a dead craft. It's helm control must have been taken out. I again wanted to cry and release all my anger and fury on the remaining enemies, but I managed to keep it subdued. "Galaxians," I reluctantly said to my six remaining companions, "we have to retreat." I heard a few gasps. They knew I was right, though, and I watched as they turned to meet me. Soon we'd be out of this nightmare. We were headed back to the planet when my fighter rocked again. Smoke began to billow in my cockpit and a few sparks flew. "Aztro, what happened!" [Remaining Defenders have doubled back and have proceeded to follow us.] I groaned, "Oh is that all." "Hail, we got trouble!" Jaren called, sounding eager to start the battle again. "I noticed. Maintain course and retreat!" I insisted. "Oh, come on, Hail. You're no fun." As much as it hurt me, I smiled. Jaren was right. My depression was effecting my judgment. I breathed in again, feeling renewed almost. "Team, we have to protect those transports, it's our du-" I was cut short. Another shot from the Defenders rocked my fighter. Before I could even ask, Aztro answered. [Defenders have fired missiles on all remaining Galaxians. Heavy damage sustained to all ships. None are capable of retreat through Coruscant atmosphere.] I sighed, "Anything else?" My energy was gone. We had lost, and I didn't want to lose any one else, but it looked inevitable now. "Hail!" I heard Jaren shout. I froze. "Hail! I'm hit too badly. My eject won't work! And I'm unable to steer!" [I]No.I can't do anything to save him. My best friend.[/I] I broke down, unable to do anything. Most of my systems were gone as well. "This is Shally! I have the same problem!" "Rykoff, they got me too! Eject and maneuvering impossible!" I heard similar shouts from everyone else as well. Suddenly a klaxon went off in my cockpit. [Defenders have fired a second wave of missiles] In one last daring attempt so save my friends, I swerved around to meet the Defenders. "This is for everyone you've killed today!" I shouted menacingly at the Defenders, even though they couldn't hear me. I suddenly looked in horror as a missile came screeching my way. I tapped the pilot yoke, confident I could shoot it down, but my lasers neglected to fire. They were damaged and inoperative. I panicked. It was all over. "Halley! No!" I heard both Chalaine and Jaren shout at the same time. Each of us had a missile with our name on it. Mine was just simply going to hit sooner. It did, and everything in my cockpit flashed and sparked and blew out. All within a mind boggling second. I thought I was dead. But then, a miracle happened. I had forgotten to check whether or not my eject was still functional. Amazingly, it was. Once the missile had hit, I was exited free from my seat, my survival shield kicked in. I breathed in a sigh of relief, but it was short lived. [I]Jaren, Chalaine.they won't survive.[/I] I tried to turn myself around to keep from watching their fiery deaths, but I was too tired. I heard Jaren shout his last words through my personal comlink that was on my belt. "Whoop their sorry butts, Hail!" I again broke down as the missiles hit the remaining Galaxians. All of them shattered and exploded in orange and red flames. I knew none of them could have survived. Suddenly I looked up in horror to see a piece of debris hurtling toward me. I would surely never be able to avoid it. [I]Here comes my own end,[/I] I thought. And it all went dark.

[b]Later, exact time unsure[/b]

I woke up, my vision blurred, and my head throbbing. All I knew was that I was lying down, on some kind of stiff table. My senses were too warped to make out anything else. I was alive. I felt happy that I was alive. The strange part was, I couldn't remember why I was happy I was alive. I couldn't remember who I was. Images of some kind of battle began to swarm back into my head, but I was unable to place any of them. I heard shouts and explosions in my mind. I closed my eyes in fear. Then I remembered my name. I was Halley Kadorto, New Republic pilot. It was all I could get out of it. The only other thing I could remember were a few words I had heard someone say. I had no idea who said them, but I knew the words. [I]Whoop their sorry butts, Hail![/I] I contemplated the words for a long time. I was in a hospital, on Coruscant, I later found out. [I]Then whoop their butts is exactly what I'll do,[/I] I thought to myself, in the stillness of the night. [I]I'll avenge my friend's deaths. All of them.[/I]