Disclaimer: Hmm... I don't own Lucas Arts, but Disney does... Who else is terrified and excited for Episode 7?

Authors Note: Don't you hate it when someone drops a cliff hanger, and the next chapter has nothing to do with it? Yeah...

Barco raised his E-11. He breathed in slowly, and let it go, equally slow. He pulled his finger back, careful not to jerk it. The trigger followed his finger, and Barco's hand's jerked back slightly with the recoil. The target in front of him dropped down to the cold floor, and he smiled slightly inside of his helmet. Beside him, Riy yawned.

"If it didn't take you 20 minutes to take a single shot, we could get out of here and enjoy some of our free time."

Barco frowed, the joy of his 'kill' gone as soon as his squad-mate opened his mouth.

"I didn't think you Chiss were too keen on free time. Aren't you all duty, all the time?" He asked as he sighted in for the next target.

"Nah, that's just the Admiral. The rest of us like it enough."

Barco smiled and fired again. When Riy first got to the Admonitor, Barco invited him drinking. His response was as clear to him as it was the day he said it:

"Why?"

Barco had never met anyone who needed a reason to go drinking. He just walked away, shaking his head. That had been a while ago, though, and Riy was coming along quite nicely. He was one of the few Chiss that Barco knew that both respected humans and enjoyed being with them. And that was enough for Barco.

"Alright, can we go now?" He asked again.

Barco swung his E-11 around, and fired from the hip, hitting two more targets. He dropped the blaster, rolled over on his shoulder, and snapped it up again, downing another target.

"Okay, we all know you can shoot. Now can we go?"

Barco glared through his helmet, and dropped his energy pack on the ground.

"Yeah, let me get washed up." Barco said as he removed his helmet.

"C'mon man, it takes you longer to take off your armor than it does to shoot!"

"Shut up and save me a seat."

"Whatever."

On second thought, Barco thought to himself, why couldn't the Chiss have remained all duty, all the time?

Despite Riy's admonishment, it didn't take long for Barco to clean up. He stripped the gleaming white armor, hung it up next to the rest, and stripped off his jumpsuit, and climbed into the cold shower. He let the cool water pour over his body, washing off any sweat from his workout. He rolled his shoulders, allowing the water to massage and dull the ache. He stepped out, dried off and put on his uniform. He hated wearing it; it was stiff, it smelt weird, and its color just didn't work with him. He opted against the hat, and began to walk out towards the cantina. At the last moment, he decided to grab his sidearm and bring it, since they didn't like him bringing in his E-11. It was only a moment or two before he was in the turbo-lift and heading down towards the cantina.

The simulator banked and rolled with Jakon's movements. The cockpit around him felt real, and the enemy's around him equally real.

"Alright Gray Five, there's another one of those fighter-bombers up ahead. Take 'em out."

Jakon could hear his commander's voice through his headset, and turned his eyes towards the display, scanning the blackness of space for his target.

"2 o'clock, three wings. Don't let them reach the Destroyer."

Jakon adjusted his eyes towards the enemy, and brought his TIE over when he saw them. There were three of them alright; the strange fighter-bombers that the Admonitor had encountered at Alpha. Between the pilots and the guys in Imperial Intelligence, a believable facsimile of the fighters had been created and programed with the tactics they were observed using. Gray Squadron had been in the flight sim's training against them for hours against them, with great results. Gray had experienced few casualties, and each time destroyed the attacking force. Jakon sized up the targets in his view finder in his helmet. He saw they were slightly out of range, and increased TIE power to compensate. They banked right, away for the Admonitor, and seemed to prepare for the jump to hyperspace. Jakon pushed his engines as hard as they would go, but the fighters jumped before they were ever in range.

"What the-"Jakon broke off.

"Guys, what happened?" He asked the sim crew.

He heard no response, and silently swore. If they left me in here after they left, He thought. A warning beacon went off, and Jakon moved to turn it off when a massive warship exited hyperspace. Its hanger bays opened, and fleets of fighter swarmed out, lasers streaming past him. He turned his TIE around for the cover of the Admonitor when he felt a jolt, and saw a green arc of energy surround him. His TIE ceased to move, then slowly began crawling backwards through space towards the warship. Jakon gave his TIE full power, but that did nothing to negate the tractor beam. Another green laser beam flew past him, and he saw an enemy fighter bank off his port side when-

Everything went black, symbolizing he was dead. Jakon hit the control stick in front of him and swore. The hatch to the sim was removed, and one of his wing members faces appeared.

"How's your flight, newbie?" Roan said grinning.

"What happened?" Jakon asked as Roan helped him out of the simulator.

"You got dead." Roan informed him.

"You were supposed to keep the fighter-bombers from the Admonitor, but no one said for you to follow them to kingdom come, rookie." Walsh said.

"But, sir-"

"Were you or were you not killed?"

"Yes sir, I was. But I didn't know that there was an enemy capital ship."

"Of course you didn't, Jakon! Why would you? You are supposed to follow orders to the letter, not to interpret meaning in them. Understood?"

"Yes sir." Jakon said, hanging his head.

"Listen kid, with the Admiral in command, the slightest merging from his orders could mean life and death, and not just for you. The sooner you learn that, the better." Walsh turned to face the rest of the pilots as a whole. "We get sim time again tomorrow at 1300, so eat up now. Dismissed."

Jakon follow as the rest of Gray Squadron exited the sim room and split up towards their bunk rooms.

The ship's cantina was already full by the time Barco entered it. He looked around, and Riy waved him over.

"Look who's finally here!" He shouted, motioning an empty seat for Barco, who sat down.

"Place is pretty full, isn't it?"

Riy looked around.

"More than usual." Barco commented.

"You think so? Doesn't seem like it."

Barco scanned the room again.

"Look who's here, though. They're all troopers."

"So?"

"Look what units they're from, though; Aurek's Three, Five and Seven; Dorn Two, Grek's Five and Six-"

"So?" Riy asked, looking around.

"So? These are all units assigned as the Admirals personal units. All of them."

Riy shook his head, and pushed a bottle in front of Barco.

"Barc, you sound loaded and you haven't had a single drink. Come on, enjoy yourself, man! Maybe someone slipped up with assigning leaves. So what? We're in the middle of who knows where in hyperspace. No one's going to try anything, okay?"

Barco slowly nodded and took a swig of the bottle. Then the room lights flickered, and the Admonitor dropped out of hyperspace.