Standard Disclaimer Stuff: George Lucas owns all of this and everybody except Abiona, who is mine. Please ask for permission to use her. Please don't sue me. I'm poor and I need every cent to pay for my upcoming 6 years of college.
A/N: Right now, there are only my original characters, but I plan on at least having Piett show up later. I'm also looking for beta readers! At the beginning of this project, I expect updates to be quite erratic what with scholarships and school. E-mail me if you're interested.
Chapter 1: Just a Lieutenant
The insistent beeping of the alarm clock pulled Abiona out of a wonderful dream. She slammed her hand down on the clock and dragged herself off to the 'fresher. The shower managed to wake her up, but it did little for her mood. Abiona looked herself over in the mirror before going on duty. Her eyes hesitated on her rank badge.
"Twenty-six and I'm still just a lieutenant. Maybe I should've listened to my parents. They did tell me I wouldn't get anywhere in the Navy," she thought.
She sighed and headed down to the officers' mess to grab a quick breakfast before her patrol. A glance at her chrono confirmed that she had overslept and would be late if she finished breakfast. Abiona hurried down to the hangar and got into her gear. The patrols were mind numbingly boring. She climbed into the cockpit of her Interceptor and waited to be launched. The patrol was going routinely, but suddenly three blips showed up on her sensors.
"Lead, Five. I've got three points about 11 klicks out"
"Copy Five. Two Flight and Three Flight, go and investigate."
Abiona and her wingman flew toward the three X-Wings. She saw Two Flight coming up on her left side.
"Rebel fighters, you have entered Imperial space. Surrender at once or be destroyed."
Dead silence was the reply over the comm. She gave the order to attack the fighters. Strangely enough, the Rebels did not put up a tough fight. Somehow Abiona could not imagine that the Rebellion would send such rookies into the field, but they were short on personnel.
"Five here. Did anyone else find that strange?"
"Six. They didn't put up much of a fight. It seems suspicious, if you ask me."
She heard a muttered curse just as her commander's voice broke in over the comm. "Lead here. We've got an alphabet soup of fighters coming in mark 3.68. Looks like there're three or four cap ships, too. Break off into flights and engage the bombers. Watch your six, we've got 3 minutes until reinforcements can launch."
Abiona and her wingman broke off and targeted two of the Y-Wings. She wished that she had a half-load of missiles. The Y-Wings were easy enough to destroy, but the A-Wings and X-Wings were within targeting range of the fighters now.
"Lead, Five. We've knocked out the wishbones but the sharps are getting hard to shake. I've got one on my six and I can't shake him!"
"Just try to hang on for a few more seconds, Five."
She jinked around in the X-Wing's sights until she saw it explode in her HUD. She let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Lead." The Rebel fighters seemed endless, even with the help of a few gunboats. "Well, I can paint a quite a few more kills on my fighter," she thought. She vaped an A-Wing on her wingman's tail, when she saw the two X-Wings on her commander's six. She broke off and targeted one of the X-Wings. It was an easy kill.
"One sharp down, one to go."
She shot at the X-Wing to get the pilots attention and draw him away from her CO. Unfortunately, she had underestimated the pilot. Abiona jinked and weaved to no avail. The missile lock alarm was blaring in her cockpit and she wished she could do something about it. The alarm became a long tone and her HUD targeted the missile launched at her. She gritted her teeth and turned to face the missile. Abiona forced herself to focus and fired her lasers at the missile. It exploded in a brilliant red-orange cloud. She let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding.
"Nice shooting, Five."
"Thank you, sir."
Suddenly, a missile slammed into her wingman's fighter. She watched in horror, as it became a ball of ionized gas. For a split second she was stunned. Then she yelled a battle cry and threw herself into the thick of the dogfights.
*****
Abiona pulled herself out of the Interceptor's cockpit. She took off her helmet and ran a hand back through her hair. She walked dejectedly to the locker room. She showered and changed into her uniform. She leaned against the lockers and thought out-loud.
"Why am I so torn up about this. Cian and I were never close friends. We were just wingmen."
She left the locker room and her commander came up to her.
"Lieutenant Reed."
"Sir?"
"I don't hold you responsible for what happened out there. There were too many fighters to keep track of."
"That's reassuring, sir."
"I wish I didn't have to tell you this." He glanced at the deck, then looked directly into her eyes. "Because of this incident and your past record, the admiral wants to see you. Personally."
