Entry 002: It's been a week...

When I first arrived, I knew that I didn't fit in. I stood a little straighter than the other crew. I walked a little faster than the other crew. I stood at attention when speaking to officers and kept my Imperial bearing while in uniform. Everyone knows that I'm a former Imperial, and that makes it even worse when trying to fit in. The only reason I was in at all was because of what happened during my first time at the stick, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

I'm stationed aboard the Phoenix Home, an old Republic-era Kuat Drive Yards Pelta-class Medical Frigate that was refitted by the Rebels into a command ship and light carrier. It's not really that bad of a ship, but definitely isn't a Star Destroyer. The one saving grace is that the Rebels kept one of the twelve medical bays fully active, making it equal to a Star Destroyer in that respect.

Commander Jun Sato is a good man. He gave me my in-brief when I first came on board. What I got was more of a job interview, though. He was very calm, but had to tell me to relax about five times. He only brought up my Imperial service once when he asked which Academy I attended. He seemed genuinely impressed when I told him it was the Corellian Academy.

Phoenix Leader didn't trust me, and told me as much when Commander Sato handed me off to him. He took me down to the launch bay and showed me the fighter I was assigned. He was almost relieved to hand me off to my fighter's mechanic when he saw her. What he did tell me was that my assigned callsign was Phoenix Twelve and I was assigned to Cresh Group.

My tech's name was Serim. The first impression was pretty good, all things considered: a nice shapely butt because she was bending over into the cockpit of the fighter. The upper part of her was cute, too. She was a Mirialan with olive skin and the brightest blue eyes I have ever seen. She even had a set of very interesting tattoos along her cheeks.

She introduced me to the fighter. It was a Kuat Engineering Systems RZ-1 A-Wing starfighter. It was 2.4 meters longer than a TIE, but the cockpit was claustrophobic and barely had enough room for me. It had an extra 100 km/h on the TIE and sported a pair of concussion missile launchers. It also sported shields and a hyperdrive. The downside was the compact frame meant it couldn't take as much damage as other ships.

I ended up helping Serim put the laser cannon back together and then she showed me how to tune up the hyperdrive. She was taught how to fix ships by her mom who was a separatist fighter technician during the war. She also got my life story out of me. She wasn't even taken aback when I told her that I defected from the Imperial military. She said that I knew mechanics, so I was good in her book. That's when she took me to meet the rest of my group.

Cresh group, the third element of Phoenix Squadron, all shared a berth. Four bunks, four lockers, a holonet terminal, a refresher, and it's all located midway between the flight deck, the mess, and right across from the simulator bay. I got the bottom right bunk and the furthest locker from the door.

Phoenix Nine was the lead element in our group. She was a human named Cari and was a former Imperial like me. She ended up jumping ship about a year ago for some of the same reasons I did, but it involved being lead in a Bomber group that took out a hospital ship. She told me that she expected me to follow her orders immediately, which I didn't have a problem with. Then again, it wasn't difficult for me to do because of her clipped Coruscani accent.

Ten was really quiet when I walked in, until I opened my locker. I wasn't even aware that self-inflating dolls came in Wookiee. He had the bunk over mine. I know this because he rolled out of it from laughing so hard. I laughed along with the rest of them as I popped it and tossed it in the trash. He had an unruly mess of blond hair that seemed to be perpetually covering his eyes. He said his name was Ricket.

Eleven was quiet, never even moving from his bunk and not even chuckling at the Wookiee doll. He was staring at me like a tophcat at a chorta. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the fact that he was spinning an obviously active vibroblade between his fingers. He had a fair bit of ion scarring on the side of his face and his left eye was cybernetic. Ricket said that his name was Gret.

We spent the rest of the day in the simulators where I was learning the intricacies of the A-Wing starfighter. The most difficult thing was learning how to use the shield controls. The hyperdrive was much easier; literally select a destination and pull a lever, pushing it back when the indicator light came on. The rest of the systems were handled by the droid brain.

In the end, I had Ricket almost gushing over how well I flew. Cari actually smiled at his antics and I heard Gret grumble something approvingly. We went to the mess afterwards and I got more than my fair share of sidelong glances. I'm not sure if it was because I was the new guy or because I was a former Imp.

The next morning, I had my first patrol. I'd call it uneventful, but that would be giving it credit. The third day was the same. Unfortunately, the fourth day ended up being a little more active. Cresh was on alert 5 while Besh was on patrol. When the alert sounded, I was helping Serim recalibrate the starboard pivot mount for the laser.

I was last out the gate. The moment I hit vacuum, I saw that the alert wasn't just a drill. The fleet was three Alderaan Cruisers and the Command Cruiser. However, they were all under attack by a group of four Imperial Light Cruisers. Space was full of the eight A-Wings and eleven of the twelve TIE Fighters they carried.

I pulled in beside Eleven as we went for one of the TIE flights. I zeroed in on the fighter to the left and he took the right. Both went up before they could even react to their threat indicators. However, that also drew the attention of one of the cruisers. We both had to break to avoid shots from one of the quad laser turrets.

I heard Commander Sato over the comms informing the fighters that the fleet was preparing to jump. He wanted us to keep the TIEs busy until the fleet was away. Well, that wasn't much of a problem. The TIEs were pretty much ignoring the capital ships now.

I nosed over and let a series of shots fly toward the bridge of the cruiser that fired on me. I knew it would only make pretty lights across the bridge deflectors, but it would also… Then I got a quick idea. An idea that I knew the Imperials would fall for because of their standard protocols.

I switched over to an open frequency and acknowledged to "Commander Ricket" the order to focus concussion missile fire on the bridges of the cruisers. Commander Sato was pissed for my making an unsecure broadcast, but changed his tune when the cruisers pulled in rather than angled for shots at the fleet.

I turned and let my targeting computer lock onto the bridge of another cruiser and began an attack run. I knew that none of the fighters had missiles, due to the expenses, but the Imperials didn't. The cruiser began a roll of its own to pull the bridge out of my target, but also lost turbolaser lock on one of the blockade runners.

I pulled around and caught a TIE in my crosshairs momentarily, releasing lasers that punched through the rear viewport. I saw a brief flash of light on the wings from the front and the TIE just kept drifting forward through space, the cockpit gutted from my blast.

That's when I heard another pilot yelling for help. I looked around and saw that it was one of the green fighters from Besh. She didn't have a wingman, but Eleven turned toward her. I kept on his wing even as the TIE vaporized the A-Wing with a series of shots that ate through the shields and engines. Eleven blasted its right wing strut off and it cartwheeled straight into one of the cruisers. I took care of his wingman.

That's when my display flashed. The capital ships jumped to lightspeed. Nine ordered us to form up and I did. Rather than make our own escape, I got a request to slave my target lock to Nine. The lock-on tone rang through the helmet speakers the moment I acknowledged the request. At the same time, the cruiser rolled and banked to avoid a shot to the bridge. In its haste, it collided with another ship.

I let out a bark of laughter as the red hyperspace indicator lit in the cockpit. I pulled the lever and saw the stars fade into the azure kaleidoscope of lightspeed. I knew it wouldn't be more than superficial damage, but it would be enough to get that commander a major demotion.

I got a pretty severe dressing down by Lieutenant Cari when I landed. That was followed up by an even worse dressing down by Phoenix One when he finally got aboard. I was then marched to the bridge where I got a level three dressing down by Commander Sato.

It was then that Commander Sato nodded to the XO, who pulled out a datapad and began reading off what at first sounded like a courts martial, until I realized the wording was a commendation. Yup, not only was I given a triple-dressing down, but I was also promoted to Flight Officer from just Pilot.

When I finally got back to pilot country, I got a number of slaps on the back for my quick thinking. This included an offered drink from a couple different flasks. It was a bit of a party, both congratulatory and memorial for the pilots we lost. I was able to sneak out early and went back to the flight bay.

I needed to finish the calibration on my laser's hardware and was soon joined by Serim. She didn't say anything as she took apart one of the shield projector plates on the other side of the fighter. Though, I did have a flask on the wing when I came up from under the cannon assembly.

This was definitely one hell of a week.