The briefing room was barely half full. Nine pilots sitting behind rows of desks, idly chatting. Some of them were dressed in their orange flight suits, others were dressed in their tan dress uniforms. Various forms of heavily caffeinated drinks littered the tops of the desks. General Sienna, Demon, And Carrisima followed him into the room and took their places at the front of the room.
The last couple days had revolved around Hapon and Carrisima going over the background and test scores of every recent recruit to Alliance Starfighter Command. General Sienna had been so taken by the plan that he had given them the pick of the liter when it came to choosing recruits. The interviews had helped, but that had truthfully only helped him put a face to the names he saw on the flight rosters.
The idea of piracy had originally made Hapon uncomfortable, but as he went through the files, it started to dawn on Hapon that this was the best way for the Alliance to use him. It seemed only inevitable that the Empire would not be able to catch him and would end up forcing themselves into an overblown waste of resources trying to fight him on the outer rim.
"Men," General Sienna began his deep baritone instantly making everyone of the pilots turn towards the front of the room, "first allow me to congratulate you all on being selected to an X-Wing fighter Squadron. Take pride none of you will be shuttling latrines between bases for the rest of the war."
The pilots let off an easy chuckle.
"But you'll have plenty of time to celebrate this fact after you've been deployed, because we already have a special assignment for your newly minted squadron. Allow me to introduce your squadron leader, someone some of you might be familiar with. Famed Imperial pirate hunter, Hapon Dustwalker."
Hapon looked over the squadron he had helped choose, some of them had the look of wide eyed idealists in their eyes others had the darker look of those hell bent for retribution in their eyes, and a few others had the unknowing stare of the lost in their eyes.
"Welcome to my squadron," Hapon started, "as General Sienna stated I am Captain Hapon Dustwalker, Alliance Starfighter Command, formerly with the Imperial Starfighter Corps. I served ten years in the Imperial Military, mostly as a pirate hunter. I recently defected, due to the Empire's actions around Alderaan.
"That being said, here I am with ten years of top Imperial training and combat experience ready to apply that to helping the Republic. My special set of training and skills mostly revolved around pirates and how to catch them. That prompted Lieutenant Dodge here," he gestured towards Carrisima, "To find a unique way to apply these skills.
"She came up with the idea, to have me do my old job in reverse. Let me wage a one squadron piracy war against the Empire."
Almost in uniform all the pilots smiled and turned to each other, clearly overjoyed.
Waiting a beat for the whispering to die down, Hapon continued, "It will be just the twelve of us, our support crew, and a shuttle going up against an Empire that draws its military strength from hundreds of millions of planets. Anyone who doesn't feel up to it, feel free to leave."
No one left. He continued.
"The four of us," He said gesturing towards Carrisima, Demon, and General Sienna, "Have looked over all of the most recent recruits to the Alliance Starfighter Corps and selected you nine based on not just your skills as pilots, but what we imagine your skills as pirates would be.
"We're to be stationed on a backwater moon, called Cyprus VII. From there we'll pose as a group of pirates and carry out hit and run attacks on Imperial Supply ships and bases. From there a group of you will use a civilian freighter to smuggle what goods can be re-used back to the Alliance Fleet and what can't will be fenced for funding."
Hapon paused and looked at his group of pilots
"Flight Officer Tharen." Hapon said, and the Alderanian looked up, "You will be in charge of this aspect of the operation due to your smuggling experience."
"With all due respect sir," Tharen said, "I don't think I'm cut out to be a Flight Leader."
Hapon smiled, "I couldn't agree anymore Mister Tharen, which is why I've named Flight Officers Varik and Matal Flight leaders."
You wont be able to shirk responsibility that easily in my squadron.
The two women beamed in the audience, and Hapon smiled as Tharen gave a shrug.
Kea Varik and Shyal Matal had easily scored the easiest on the sims out of any of the pilots. Both of them nearly averaging ace scores against even the most difficult computer settings.
Although the two women shared an uncanny ability for flight, they couldn't have looked any different. Kea Varik was a tall, rangy woman, with cascading blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Even in her drab military uniform, she looked effeminate with a large pink flower sitting in her hair.
She smiled lightly at him, and Hapon quickly turned his eyes to his feet and pretended that it never happened. He didn't like flirting, let alone with someone in his command.
"Meet here at 0630 for further briefing. We are currently designated Blue Squadron until a name has been decided upon. Now rest up, get your affairs in order, and try not to get killed…"
"Don't get killed?" Renn said, interrupting Hapon, "Okay, thanks for clarifying because I had originally written down DO get killed and it would have been just plain awkward to get those mixed up."
"Dismissed."
Tedros Novar leaned against a bulkhead on the bridge of the Justicar and watched the battle rage. Explosions glisten like fireworks as snub fighters burst into little balls of wreckage. But from the bridge of the Justicar the chaos was somehow soothing to Tedros.
It could just be that two months into his command his TIE Interceptor squadron leader and top pilot, a blonde haired bastard named Hapon Dustwalker, had disappeared without a trace and was rumored to have joined the Rebellion. When something like that happens in a military that treats failure like the Empire does, how could one not find carnage soothing?
"Everything going as planned, Captain?"
That was the other headache in Tedros' life. Flylighter. Blasted Flylighter.
Flylighter was a chubby, pale, weak, read haired man but was apparently one of the top Intelligence Officers in the Imperial Intelligence Agency. He didn't have any sort of name or designation other than Flylighter and refused to wear a military uniform, instead opting for long, loose fitting, flowing white robes. He had shown up right after Dustwalker disappeared, and it didn't take a genius to realize that two were connected.
"Everything's going fine. The pirates fighters are folding, and we're preparing to launch our bomber squadron to finish their base."
Flylighter nodded his head and said nothing.
Tedros shifted his weight uncomfortably and for once hoped for one of the bridge crew would come and bother him with some minor legislative task or other sort of busy work that Tedros. He normally found that sort of work mind numbing and pointless, but anything was standing next to Flylighter.
Chubby bastard gives me the creeps.
"Do you know why I'm here, Captain?" Flylighter asked.
"No." Yes
"I'm here to investigate the disappearance of one of the Empires most gifted pilots. What do you think happened to him?"
Tedros hesitated. Ever since they were in the same dorm at the Imperial Academy on Carida (were they barely knew each other) Dustwalker had always carried on about honor, and doing the right thing. That same quirk had come out in spades again after Alderaan was destroyed. It became an all too frequent topic of conversation around the officers lounge.
They had been friends while Dustwalker led the squadron onboard the Justicar. Often relaxing together in the officer's lounge and discussing their plans for the rest of their naval careers.
"I have a hunch he might have defected to the Rebellion." Tedros was willing to do anything to make this clown go away, and give him free reign over the deep rim again.
"We have confirmed as much. We worry the Alliance might deploy him to lead a small fleet to drum up support in the deep rim. If he came out here, would you be willing to put him down?"
"Without a doubt."