Chapter Seven
Reunion

Face was beginning to wonder why he was upset the Wraiths were broken up in the first place. As he looked at his former squadmates, he began to feel the insanity creep out of the dark recesses of his brain and return to the forefront of his very being. He remained standing still as a glider, constructed out of a sheet of flimsy, flew into the side of his face. Face wondered idly if Cracken had the right idea, breaking this group of misfits up.

The briefing room was filled with the roars of conversation, old friends catching up after years of separation. Eight former Wraiths and one new member of the family acted completely oblivious to their situation. They had been recalled and reformed because of crisis, but it didn't mean a thing. Together, they had survived some of the worst the Empire could have thrown at them, and they would be damned if the enemy's latest scheme planned to get in the way of their friendship.

Face admired that about the group, but they had other matters to attend to.

"If I could command your attention for just a few moments," Face said, raising a hand.

"Depends," Kell Tainer, perhaps the tallest man ever to don a flightsuit. "Are you going to tell us that we have to do something painful or otherwise would constitute being classified as work?"

"Yes, and yes."

"Then, no, you can't have our attention."

Laughter filled the briefing room, bringing back memories of days gone by. Even if the Empire brought the Wraiths to a flaming, painful, explosive end, they would have all sorts of fun in the process. This beats the hell out of NRI work, Face mused.

"Shove it, Demo Boy," Face replied with a wide grin. "I don't even have to explain why we're all here, but suffice to say, we're here. I know most of you have just completed some very long flights to get here, but we have no time for relaxation. As soon as we're finished here, we report to the simulator bay."

The laughter was quickly replaced with groans of disapproval. That disapproval would become flat out disdain in a few minutes, when they saw how difficult the simulations Darvix had designed were.

"As you can see," Face continued, "We have a new Wraith with us. Captain Tavria, if you could stand…"

From the back of the room, a human female stood. She was about average height, considering she was a female pilot. Her sandy-blonde hair was a perfect match for her slightly tanned skin.

"I'm Ru-Murleen Tavria," she said. "You can call me Ru…or the Darling One, or Supreme Goddess of Beauty, or-"

"Thank you, Captain," Face said, motioning for her to sit. Well so much for hoping she would be the sane one of the bunch.

"Your executive officer is preparing the simulations as we speak," Face said. "You can beat him into submission after you're finished."

"Captain Loran understands that we will no doubt hold him responsible when we do pummel the honorable XO," Runt replied.

"Which one of your minds is speaking?" Kell, Runt's former wingman, asked.

The large Thakwaash pilot gave a rough approximation of a human grin, "That would be our terminally lazy mind, who happens to be very angered that we are forced to work."

***


"Two flight, report in," Kell's voice said over the static-filled communicator.

"Wraith Four, all green lights," Runt replied. "We are ready to fly."

"Three here," Captain Tavria keyed in. "Does this X-Wing make my butt look big?"

Shalla Nelprin shook her head and reported her status to her wing leader. Fifteen minutes into the simulator run, it was still quiet. Probably a stunt to lull her into a false sense of security. As she glanced at her forward sensor readouts, she noticed they were moving closer towards an asteroid field.

"Unusual readings on the advanced aft sensors," Kell said. "Two flight, circle around and take a look. Stay in Diamond-V formation."

Shalla pulled back gently on her flightstick, applying slight pressure to one of her etheric rudder pedals. She looked back at her sensor boards once more, trying to decipher what readings they were picking up.

"Visual confirmation," Runt said. "We see two ImpStar Deuces emerging from hyperspace at a vector of five degrees."

"Fighter screen deploying," Ru-Murleen followed up. "Only one full regiment. The other Destroyer looks like its trying to box us in."

"Four against twelve," Kell mused aloud. "I'm not a big fan of those odds. What do we do when we're outnumbered?"

"Turn tail and flee like the little cowards we are?" Runt suggested.

Shalla could almost hear the grin on Kell's face, "I knew you were a smart one. Two flight, make an about-face and set your laser batteries to drain into engine power. Keep shields at constant maintenance."

"You want us to fly [i]into[/] that asteroid field?" Shalla asked, stunned.

"They'd be crazy to follow us."

"We'd be crazy to go in there!"

"You're not frightened, are you Shalla?" Kell asked, his voice teasing.

Shalla grinned and spun her X-Wing away from the Star Destroyer and the oncoming flight of TIE Interceptors. With her laser batteries redirected to her sublight engines, her X-Wing had picked up enough speed to stay slightly ahead of the quick enemy snubs, which Republic pilots typically called Squints due to their slim profiles. She felt the knot in her stomach ease as the distance between her and the enemy increased, but it would only return tenfold as the asteroids began to fill her viewport.

She flexed her fingers over the flightstick as she began her flight into the asteroid field. The Interceptors were still a fair distance behind her, but she would have to throttle back to safely navigate through the field. As she set the thrusters to seventy-five percent speed, she settled in behind Captain Tavria's snubfighter, following her flight path carefully. Shalla winced as smaller rock fragments smashed into her forward shields.

A bright flash from beside her illuminated her cockpit. Casting a quick glance at her sensor readouts, she saw that Runt had vanished. She assumed he had collided with an asteroid, and if she wasn't careful, she would share his fate. Shalla looked forward just in time to see a rock, approximately the size of her astromech, infront of her. Throwing her stick to the left, she veered out of the flightpath of the asteroid, only to have to duck under another one.

Before she could breathe a sigh of relief, green laser fire shot past her viewport. Seconds later, Captain Tavria's X-Wing took a dual-linked shot and burst into a ball of flame and durasteel. Shalla rode through the explosion, spotting another asteroid just in time to fly over it. Her pursuer wasn't so lucky. Moments later, her astromech unit reported that the Interceptor had smashed into the asteroid.

As she looked above her, she spotted Kell Tainer spin away from oncoming fire, only to have his port-side S-Foils slam into an asteroid. His X-Wing spun out of control, the fuselage slamming into another asteroid moments later. A loud trill from her astromech told her that she was nearing the outer edge of the asteroid field. If she could hold off her pursuers just a little longer, she could make a quick blind-jump into hyperspace.

Ahead of her, Shalla caught sight of a hollowed-out asteroid. The ring-shaped rock slowly was spinning so the opening faced her. Gritting her teeth, she threw her throttle to full, aiming the nose of her X-Wing at the opening. As she rode through it, she felt the vibration of an explosion, no doubt one of her pursuers. Moments later, her viewport gave way to clear space. Without hesitation, she threw the hyperdrive lever forward, and the screen in front of her streaked white, and then faded to black.

***



Shalla Nelprin exited the simulator pod moments later, wiping the sweat off her brow. She hadn't sat behind the flightstick of a snubfighter or a simulator in years, yet that didn't stop this unnamed executive officer from putting her through one of the toughest simulations she had ever seen. With a sigh, she pulled off the chin snap on her helmet and set it on the floor. Looking around, she saw the rest of Two Flight standing in the middle of the simulation bay, beckoning her to join them.

"Well, at least one of us lived," Kell grumbled aloud.

Before Shalla could reply, the intercom in the simulator bay hissed to life, "Well done, Miss Nelprin. I didn't expect you to get out of that in one piece."

"Must be our XO," Ru-Murleen said.

"Two flight," the voice said, "you're finished with simulations for the day. You're orders are to proceed to the pilot's lounge, and drink yourselves silly."

"You know," Shalla mused, "instead of wanting to kill him, I think I want to give our XO a hug, and buy him a drink."

***


Not long after their simulator runs had finished, Wraith Squadron had assembled in the pilot's lounge to enjoy some well-deserved downtime. Each flight had been subjected to three grueling simulations their executive officer had dreamed up. Scores had reflected that most of them hadn't touched a starfighter flightstick in ages.

Face Loran and another pilot slipped in to the lounge not long after the rest of the Wraiths had assembled there. After several failed attempts, he finally managed to quiet down his squadron.

"Wraiths, I'd like to introduce you to Darvix Zorvan," he said. "He'll be serving as our slicer, and is designated Wraith Ten."

"Isn't he a little young to be playing with the big boy's toys?" a Devaronian from the back of the room asked with a snicker.

"Agreed," Shalla said, raising a brow at the young pilot. "I don't think he's even old enough to grow facial hair."

"I wouldn't laugh if I were you," Face said. "Lieutenant Commander Zorvan designed the simulations you were put through today, and will be serving as your Executive Officer until further notice. Do try and play nice with him, he's on loan to us from General Antilles."

"Did something to vape your career already?" the Devaronian asked. "What a shame, so young."

"Excuse me?" Darvix asked.

From one of the back tables, the figure of a large Gammorean chuckled. In a mechanical tone, he said, "We're a squadron of screwups and rejects. If you haven't obliterated your career, we'll have to do it for you."

Darvix only blinked, turning to glance at Face, "Maybe Wedge was on to something when he said this was a squadron filled with Ewoks..."

"No," Face said, "a squadron full of Ewoks would have a much higher mental capacity than this collection of misfits."

As Face left to converse with his fellow pilots, Darvix could only stare at the Wraiths. What have I gotten myself into? Darvix asked himself.