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For Disclaimer, Synopsis, and Historical note, check Chapter 1 of "A New War." Exception: the character of Arikka Tyane belongs to me. For list of Rogue designations, again check Chapter 1. There are 2 new additions in this chapter, though.

Author: Asyr Sei'lar

A New War Chapter 2: Integration

The conference room was packed as Mon Karren's senior officers, consisting of Admiral Ackbar, General Han Solo, Captain Jhemiti, and all of Rogue Squadron settled down at the table. Sam Redbay was also present, sitting next to Rogue Squadron pilot Inyri Forge. She squeezed his hand to reassure him as the admiral cleared his throat.

"Mr. Redbay," Ackbar began, "perhaps you'd like to begin by telling us about where you come from."

Sam took a deep breath, coughing a little as he did. He still looked extremely worse for the wear from the torture he had suffered at the hands of the Furies, but this "bacta" the New Republic used for medical treatments worked miracles. "I am from a government known as the United Federation of Planets, or Federation, for short," he began. "We are peaceful, having had no major conflicts for a number of years. The organization I work for, Starfleet, is the . . . military part of the Federation, in a sense, although it's a bit more complicated than that. We are trained not only as military officers, for defensive purposes only, but also as explorers, primarily, and diplomats, secondarily, as well as for going after criminals, if need be."

Solo nodded. "A kind of all-purpose soldier."

"With all due respect," Sam said emphatically, despite the headache he had, "we are *not* soldiers! We are explorers, seeking out new life-forms, new civilizations, new scientific phenomena."

"Well, looks like you found one," Solo commented wryly. He regarded Sam appraisingly. "Do you know anything about that . . . anomaly that brought that unknown planet to our space?"

Sam nodded. "We call it a 'wormhole,'" he explained. "Basically, it's a shortcut through space and time to another location. All natural wormholes encountered, except the Bajoran wormhole, are highly unstable. Known attempts to construct artificial ones have failed, with the exception of the Furies, the species that tortured me." There was a note of pain in his voice, which he quickly covered up.

"And these Furies?" Captain Jhemiti spoke up. "What about them?"

Sam bit his lip in obvious hesitation. "They are an ancient race," he said at last, in a low voice, "which once enslaved the entire area that the Federation covers nowadays. Something kicked them out—we don't who—and they spent millennia plotting their revenge and takeover of our space, believing it was *our* ancestors who kicked them out."

"I take it it wasn't," said Ackbar.

"No," Sam agreed. "We were too primitive at the time to do anything." He choked back a sob. "They came back, starting a war. They used their terror projectors on us, paralyzing us." He stared into space, sorting through painful memories. "They came through in a wormhole. Someone had to go in to destroy the wormhole device, to head off an invasion. It was a suicide mission. I made it through. They caught me just after I destroyed it. Tortured me." He began crying, the memory too much for him. Inyri led him away, leaning his weight on hers so it would be less painful for him to walk. Everybody stared at the door which the broken man had gone through.

"Meeting adjourned," concluded Ackbar in a strangely strangled voice.

Inyri made sure Sam was back in bed before leaving. She hesitated at the door, General Solo's comment about all-purpose soldiers coming back to her. "Sam," she asked carefully, "what was your job in Starfleet?"

He smiled painfully. "I was a pilot, testing new types of shuttles and runabouts," he told her. "Why?"

She cocked her head. "Well," she pointed out, "there's no way to get you back to your 'Federation.' You're going to need to do *something* in this galaxy. Maybe I can convince Commander Antilles to include you in Rogue Squadron. As it turns out, we're two pilots shy of a full squadron. We've got one pilot replacement, but we're waiting to get her a wingman. You could be it."

"Sure. Why not?" His smile increased. "If only to be near you. You *are* in this squadron, right?"

"Yes," she answered. She looked at him. "How are you feeling?" she asked softly.

"A lot better than I should under the circumstances," he replied. "The doctors are convinced I should make a complete recovery in a couple of days." He paused. "Much of my recovery I can attribute to you," he said quietly. "You've helped me a lot, Inyri."

"Oh, really," she said neutrally.

"Yes, really," he said patiently. He looked up at her, the movement for once causing him no pain. He smiled. "So, when do I get tested as a potential member for this 'Rogue Squadron?'"

She smiled back. "I have to talk to Commander Antilles first," she reprimanded him gently. She turned and headed out the door with a "good-bye" thrown over her shoulder.

Wedge had approved the test, and Sam had performed admirably, despite his disabilities. The Rogues' other new pilot was being shuttled over from her previous assignment. In general, life seemed to move smoothly for Sam Redbay. He made friends with all the pilots, and shared a special relationship with Inyri Forge, though neither admitted to any feelings other than friendship. He was one of the best pilots in the squadron. There had been no battles as of late, but that didn't bother the Rogues.

He met his new wingmate, a serious, dark-haired woman named Arikka Tyane. She seemed to have no sense of humor, though she seemed to derive amusement from her wingmate's more dry humor. She had a combative attitude, and was sometimes rather belligerent. The Rogues were all the mess hall when the alert klaxons went off. The pilots all immediately dropped their food and sprinted for their X-wings.

"What's going on?" Sam shouted at Inyri as they entered the hangar.

"The Empire," she said grimly, entering her X-wing as her astromech droid was lowered into the droid interface socket. "They're attacking."

An idea of what was going on suddenly occurred to Sam. "Are we are war?" he asked cautiously.

"Yes," she answered. She stared at him. "You didn't know?"

"No one told me." Sheepishly, he added, "I didn't bother to study up on the New Republic." He jumped out of his X-wing.

"What are you doing?" Inyri demanded, alarm is her voice.

Sam shook his head. "I'm a Starfleet officer," he pointed out. "I'm forbidden, by law, to participate in a war that's not mine, that's not something other than strictly defense."

"You're a long way from Starfleet," she noted, "and you joined Rogue Squadron, so that makes you part of the New Republic. Therefore, you're at war."

"I guess you're right," he said reluctantly. He climbed back into his X-wing, and joined the other Rogues outside the ship. *When I get back,* he promised himself, *I'm going to find out everything I can about this New Republic and its fight with this Empire.* He saw a large wedge-shaped ship, hanging a couple of thousand kilometers away. "Holy mackerel!" he swore. "Look at the size of that thing. It's bigger than three Galaxy-class starships put together!"

"Cut the chatter, Eleven," Lead told him. "Rogues, split into wing pairs and engage TIEs at will."

Sam knew that the "TIEs" were the enemy starfighters they were facing. The Twin Ion Engine fighters were the Empire's starfighter of choice. They were more maneuverable than the X-wings, and considerably faster, though, unlike the X-wing, they had no shields. Sam and Arikka engaged several TIEs at once, helping each other make kills, earning the rank of "ace" in one battle, which came with having five kills.

Arikka was looping back around from one such battle when she saw one TIE zooming in on Sam. "Eleven, you have a tail," she called out.

"Can't shake him," Sam called back as he performed evasive maneuvers. Arikka caught a flash of red stripes on the TIE's wing.

"He's from the 181st Fighter group," she muttered. "No wonder he's so good." Arikka watched as the TIE shot up Sam's engines in range of the Star Destroyer, which latched onto the damaged starfighter with a tractor beam and hauled it into an open hangar bay. An unexpected sob of grief rose up in Arikka. "Sam," she moaned. She recovered enough to tell Lead Eleven was gone. Suppressing her emotions, she continued on fighting, hoping against hope that her wingmate was still alive.

Sam found himself in a monstrous hangar bay, surrounded by dozens of TIEs. Something hit the side of his X-wing. He looked down. A squad of troopers clad in white armor surrounded his X-wing. He opened his canopy and jumped out. Before he could rise out of the crouch he had landed in, one of the troopers hit him on the side of the head. Dazed, he went down on his knees, fighting to stay conscious. The troopers hit him once more in the small of his back, then hauled him up.

They made him stagger out of the hangar bay, moving deeper into the ship towards a detention center. Throwing him into a cell, they shut the door behind themselves. He promptly crawled over to the refresher station and threw up. Nausea still swirled around inside, making him want to throw up everything including his internal organs. Still dizzy, he crawled over to the bunk and lay down, the world turning around him.

"No!" A datapad went flying into the wall. "No! No! No!" A boot and a holopad soon joined it. "Nooooo!" Inyri dropped to her knees, sobs shaking her slender frame. "He can't be dead! He can't!" she wailed.

Corran and the others watched uncomfortably as Inyri continued crying. "I didn't say he was dead," Arikka reminded the other woman gently. "Just that he had been captured by the Chimaera."

"He might as well be dead," Inyri said between sobs. "We can't exactly find the Chimaera, you know. If we could, Grand Admiral Thrawn would be long dead."

"True," Corran Horn said. He walked over and crouched beside her. "Don't worry, Inyri," he said gently. "We'll find him, bring him back."

She shook her head. "It's impossible."

"Impossible is what we do best." Corran glanced at the others for agreement. "Right?"

"Right," Wes Janson confirmed as he crouched beside Inyri on the other side. "He'll be back before I pull another trick on Wedge, guaranteed."

Corran shook his head in amusement as Janson's comment, but it failed to cheer Inyri up. She held her face in her hands, silver tears streaming down her fingers, dropping onto her knees. Corran hadn't known the depth that Sam and Inyri's "relationship" had been, seeing now had close the two had been. Corran gathered her in a comforting embrace. "It's all right," he said softly. "It's all right."

Inyri cried on his shoulder, mourning the loss of Sam. She knew there was—had been— something between them, a special feeling, a closeness that could not be matched by friendship. She knew that, given the chance, their feelings could have evolved into love. Now that chance was gone before it could have even flourished. *Good-bye, my love,* she thought, as the stars outside of the viewport in her quarters shone in all their unearthly, cold beauty.

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