A pirate raid goes right, for once.

MC80a Windstorm, 7 days beforeraid on pirate base

"Brigadier General, the brass rejected the plan." The ensign assigned to convey the message was concerned, to say the least. Though the espionage division of the Rebel Squadrons fleet wasn't as skilled as it could be, there was little reason why they couldn't pull off a sting operation on pirates.

Huffing a sigh, Brigadier General Ginovef turned, bringing the ensign back to reality. "Then we improvise. Tell the squad leaders that I want to meet with them in an hour."

3 days later

"Kriffing Mandalorian-wannabe and his kriffing flying…" Windstorm Deck Chief Hendar Lorkan muttered, working to remove a warped hull plate from the nose of a damaged A-Wing fighter. The chief mechanic jumped as a voice rang out from behind him.

"Look, Lorkan, I know you're pissed at me, so we can skip that part. What the hell did I do this time?" 1st Lieutenant Yaihi'l Beskar (better known by the Basic translation of his name, Fulliron) knew he came off as a reckless pilot sometimes. Certain maneuvers (like ramming an enemy fighter) were liable to damage the ship, but they had their place. Considering that he would have taken even more damage had he attempted to wait for his cannons to recharge, he felt that his actions were warranted. Doesn't change the fact that I crumpled the front of my fighter, he thought wryly.

"Well, it could be worse. It definitely could be worse," Lorkan said. "Rather than scrapping the entire airframe, your crumpling managed to stop at the first weld point, so I only have to patch the part you trashed. But, that being said, you did crumple part of the airframe, and I don't have enough time before the assault to fix it and have you flying."

"Dammit. I'm supposed to be A-Wing 2 on that!" Yaihi'l cursed at length in Huttese before taking a moment to calm down. "Alright. Do we have anything comparable in reserve?"

Lorkan grimaced. "We might have a Z-95 somewhere, but I have a feeling you wouldn't want something like that." Yaihi'l scoffed, and Hendar smiled ruefully. "Sorry sir, you're not flying this one."

Yaihi'l sighed. "At least Major Gaas will be able to take my spot." He took a breath. "All right, chief." Another sigh. "You can put off repairing my bird until after the assault. I'd rather have my bird grounded and the escorts being in tip-top shape than have them get blown out of the sky because you were fixing the aftermath of my idiocy."

Turning, the lieutenant walked back to his quarters. Grabbing his droid datapad ("No, D4, I actually need a datapad right now. Put your program into standby,"), he called his CO, Brigadier General Ta'Re "Ray" Djo.

"Hello? Oh, hey Yaihi'l!" Ray had never stood on ceremony with her squadron outside of formal events (A few privately wondered if that was just so that she could get away with brutalizing them when her Dathomiri mores clashed with Galactic standard). "What's up?"

"Hi Ray," Yaihi'l said, thankful that she was in a good mood. Must have just brutalized someone idiotic enough to start a pointless argument with her. "So, you know that patrol I went on? Where I was forced to ram that pirate?"

"…You can't fly, can you? Dammit, kid-"

"Ma'am, according to the dossiers, I'm only three years younger than you."

"They haven't updated the dossiers on the network in a while. And don't change the subject! What I was going to say was, I refuse to have you sitting on your ass while the raid is going on!"

"That's what I was calling you about. I need a transfer to General Zalyn'cya's command for the mission." General Daryus Zalyn'cya had been tapped to lead the actual boarding operation on the pirate station.

"Zalyn'cya's command? Yaihi'l, how has it been since you even stepped into the combat simulator?"

"A week!"

Ray fixed him with a look that was unreadable to the street urchin-turned-fighter pilot. "Lieutenant…"

Yaihi'l hung his head. "… Alright, I wasn't in my armor, but I was skirmishing with-"

Ray held up a hand to stop him. "Stop babbling. I wasn't going to berate you…much. I was, however, going to tell you to get your ass over to Zalyn'cya for-" Anything else she said was cut off as Yaihi'l shut off his datapad and dashed out the door.

Day of the raid, 2 hours to launch

You all know the objective of the mission. This base is the source of the pirates who've been harassing us for the past month. For those of you not involved in the planning, the mission is as follows:

X-wing Red and A-wing Green will escort the YT-2400 Arrow to the pirate base. The Arrow will be conveying strike groups Raptor and Viper to the base. When you arrive at the base, the Arrow will dock with the base. Strike group Raptor will attempt to take control of the reactor room of the base, while group Viper will attempt to take the control room, pacifying all pirates along the way. X-wing Red, you must destroy or disable the defenses of the station so that Arrow can dock. A-wing Green, you are tasked with destroying all enemy fighters and defending the Arrow. This will be complicated by the fact that the Arrow was defanged before our acquisition of the ship and has yet to be rearmed. To compensate, we have put additional armor and shielding units on the ship.

Fighters will be under command of BGN Djo, who will be flying A-wing 1. GEN Zalyn'cya will be in command of the strike teams, with 1LT Beskar leading strike team Viper.

-BGN Nicolai Ginovef

Yaihi'l snapped his datapad closed as he entered the marine ready room. All of the men had already been briefed and were murmuring softly to each other. As he stepped into the room, the sergeant who would be acting as his second in command shouted, "Commander on deck!", causing all of the marines to snap to attention. Yaihi'l nodded and said, "As you were," before turning to the sergeant. "Thank you, Sergeant…?" He trailed off. Of all the people in the galaxy, him?

"Ulgo, sir. Sergeant Dorian Ulgo. I've been a marine since before the Battle of Endor."

Yaihi'l smiled, even as he began to feel heat building in his ears. "It's good to meet you, Sergeant. I, er…"

Sgt. Ulgo, spotting Yaihi'l's discomfort, spoke. "If you're feeling awkward, don't. I don't have a grudge against new officers any more than I do against the rest of the galaxy. I've never needed rank to feel like I'm doing good."

Yaihi'l interrupted him. "No, no, it's not that. Is that a Telosian accent you have?"

Dorian was confused. "Yeah, sure. I grew up there. Actually only got off of the streets because of a Rebel recruiter. Why, what's it to you?"

By now, Yaihi'l's face was in his hands. "When you were about 17, do you remember a little kid, about 5 years old? Didn't really have a name?"

Ulgo was now very suspicious of his new CO. "I've told no one about my past. How the-"

"Parshaara, Dorian," Yaihi'l said, calming the sergeant with an old street password. "Think back to what the little kid looked like, if you can remember a little kid from 16 years ago."

Dorian tried to remember, squinting at his CO. Come to think of it… "No kriffing way. You're that little chuba-face we took in. How'd you pick up a Mandalorian name?"

Yaihi'l laughed. "That was a real trick. Maybe after the mission I'll tell you. For now, let's just say it involved a lot of luck and a piece of iron rebar. Now help me with my armor."

Day of the raid, hypering to pirate station.

Yaihi'l's hand clenched on the stock of his rifle. "Pilot, how close are we to coming out of hyper?"

"I was just about to bring us out. Everyone, brace for deceleration."

Yaihi'l grabbed a support handle as the freighter-turned-troop transport came out of hyperspace. He was standing just as the freighter jinked left. Hard. Picking himself up off the floor (and the hilt of his vibroblade) with everyone else, Yaihi'l yelled up to the cockpit. "What in the void was that?"

"Sorry, little busy dodging TIE/INs. A-wings are engaging, but we gotta burn space!"

Yaihi'l cursed. "Sith's blood! All right, Viper, seal hardsuits and be ready for zee-gee maneuvering, just in case! General, has anything substantive changed?"

The bothan shook his head. "As far as I can tell, BGN Djo has it under control out there. Wait, are you not patched in to the command circuit?"

Yaihi'l blinked. "There's a command circuit?"

Zalyn'cya nodded. "I'll patch you in." He winced and manipulated a control on his helmet comm. "Yes, Djo, I'm patching him in now. No, I can't do anything. No guns, remember?"

Yaihi'l accepted the cypher from the general and tuned his third comm channel to the frequency.

"…and no, I don't need to calm down! I was expecting to be fighting aging Z-95s, not kriffing TIE Interceptors and TIE X1s!" Ray's voice rang through the comm.

Yaihi'l boggled. "What the kriff are the Imps doing here?"

"No kriffing clue, chuba face. Now let me – YES! First kill, Jaran! Take THAT! Kid, I know I was hard on you for not flying, but it's probably a good thing you're not. You've never even simulated fighting these things. You just worry about taking the station. We'll cover you out here."

"Copy, Green Leader. Raptor/Viper leader out." The two men on the channel said.

Though it got a little hairy at times, the transport managed to make it to the station in one piece. Yaihi'l was able to interface with the station's computers and slice open the inner airlock door. "Sir, Viper team moving to objective," he spoke into his comm. "Acknowledged, Viper team. Proceed along route Aurek-1. Pacify all resistance along the path,"came the reply. Yaihi'l acknowledged the orders and motioned for his team to follow him along a route that would take them through the heart of the station along the way to the control room. Coming to a locked door, Yaihi'l again took out his slicing tools and set to work. The rest of Viper team moved to cover the door as he finished slicing and the door groaned open. From within, the team heard voices yelling at each other. "Oi! Hutt-spawn! Shut the dammed door!" "It wasn't me! Stupa, what are you doing over there?" "Fixing the power relay you shot out last week, schutta! Now –"

The pirate's tirade was cut off by the frag grenade Yaihi'l tossed into the room. Blooming out with the force of an old slug thrower cannon, the grenade forced the bodies of the pirates into any and all open space. Needless to say, the room was a mess of body parts and dying pirates. Yaihi'l turned to his team. "This is happening in every room we pass, right?" he said, with a tone indicating that, yes, frag grenades were going to be used. The team moved through the station, throwing grenades into every room they passed into and occasionally falling over because of the rumbling of the station. "Green leader, what's hitting the station?"

"Sith's blood! I didn't tell you?!" Ray yelled into her comm. "Strike teams, we have a Decimator! Damn thing's been firing for the past five minutes."

"Copy, Green leader. Thanks for the information," Yaihi'l said before turning to his team. "Map says we're a room away from the control center. There are a lot of fragile consoles in there, so no grenades on this one. Who has a sword or a knife here?" 3 out of the seven other men raised their hands, Dorian included. "All right. You three, you'll breach with me. Those of you without melee weapons, stay back and suppress whoever's in there. If they engage you at melee range, use a fusion torch to give yourself enough room to pull your sidearm on them." With his planning done, Yaihi'l moved into position to slice into the final door, with his three other melee fighter moving into position on either side of the door. Unsurprisingly, the firewalls on this door were tougher than the doors to the living area, and Yaihi'l was sure that the pirates had been alerted to the presence of the squad. Finally, the indicator on the door toggled and the door slid open. Yaihi'l rolled around the corner of the doorframe, vibroblade at the ready, just in time to catch an overcharged blaster bolt right in the chest. He staggered a bit, taking a few seconds to recover from the concussive force. Damn am I glad that I have Mandalorian iron between my body and the galaxy, he thought to himself as a barrage of shots flew toward him. Tucking into a roll, Yaihi'l was able to dodge most of the bolts in that barrage, though a few splashed harmlessly against his armor. Just as he was coming up for a slash on one of the pirates, the station rocked, causing his blade to slice through the man's arm rather than his neck as he had intended. Taking a few seconds to finish off the now weeping man, Yaihi'l turned to see the other melee fighters finishing off their own targets. When the last of the pirates in the control center had been dispatched, Yaihi'l spoke into the comm. "Viper leader to Raptor leader, control center is ours. What's the status on the reactor core?"

"Still contested. How'd you get through to the control room so quickly?" the general replied.

"Swords, slicing, and a lot of grenades. Peragian fuel cores in frag grenades really work wonders."

There was a pause. "And you couldn't have told me about these sooner, Lieutenant?"

"Sorry, sir. The grenades came from my personal stock. I have to do the modifications by hand, and I used every single one I have on this mission."

"Oh well. I might ask you to make a few and pass them on after the mission."

All of a sudden, maniacal laughter filled the comm. "Green leader, what's happened?"

"The Decimator just over corrected and hit a proximity mine! That was just BEAUTIFUL!"

Smiling, Yaihi'l turned to his men. "Viper team, let's head home."

Night after the raid, MC80a Windstorm, Fighter pilot's quarters

Yaihi'l groaned and popped his back. After a long debriefing and an only slightly shorter shower, he finally had some time to tinker with his armor. Sure, the armor had protected him from everything on the station, but the mechanized exoskeleton was in serious need of upgrading. Might even need to just gut the whole thing and mount the plates on a new skeleton, he mentally sighed. He was about to look up exactly how much that would cost when he spied a message indicator.

In recognition of his contribution to the recent neutralization of the pirate base, above and beyond his normal duties, I hereby promote 1st Lieutenant Yaihi'l Beskar to the rank of Captain.

Brigadier General Ray Djo

Notes from the CO: Congrats, kid. Drinks on you tonight!

Yaihi'l smiled. As long as I don't have to cover Jaran's excess, we're all good, he thought as he walked to the shuttle that would take him to wherever his wing mates were drinking tonight, his armor work lying forgotten on his bunk.

A/N: This is based on the January Session of the Rebel Squadrons Star Wars Fan Group. The prompt was to raid a pirate base with Imperial involvement. My interpretation is significantly different from other interpretations, which can be found at http [colon] [slash] [slash] [slash]forums[slash] [question mark]f[equals]149 (Goddamn FFN hyperlink gymnastics)