Love and Hate

Chapter 1:

The Briefing

A few days later Cheriss found herself aboard the Allegiance, the same Imperial-class star destroyer on which she had left Adumar to join the New Republic. The ships Captain, Captain Salaban, had welcomed her like an old friend and there was a very strong since of having been in this moment before. Cheriss did her best to push those thoughts from her mind as she entered the small briefing room assigned to Gundark Squadron. She looked among the pilots milling about until she spotted a man just about two years older than her, his blinding bright blonde hair gave him away as Cilbuper Wen. Cil, as the squadron called him, was Cheriss' new wing mate. He was about average height for a human with a lean build and an irritating since of humor that was at times sadistic. Cheriss had learned this quickly, as she had found a stuffed Gundark holding a headless Dinko toy when she had first opened her flight locker. A small note was attached to it: Welcome to the Gundarks! Cil.

Cheriss shook her head as she took a seat next to Cil and started to look over the notes on her datapad. She could feel Cil watching her but chose to ignore him for the moment. He shifted in his seat, leaning forward and resting his arms on the back of the next chair.

"Ah, nothing like a good briefing." Cil said in a joking tone. "So… You're form this planet aren't you? Adumar, right Cheriss?" He watched her but she only nodded mutely as she continued to reread the information in front of her. Cil was in far to good a mood to be put off so easily. He leaned back in his chair, rolled his eyes to look up at the cline and was silent for a moment. "Why'd you leave anyway?" Again no answer came so Cil sat up and got a very excited look in his eyes. "No, wait! Let me guess. It was because of a guy right?"

"I don't feel like talking, Wen." Cheriss said politely, flashing her wing mate a small smile.

"Call me Cil." He said, he than pronounced it very clearly as if telling a young child. "Cil… C I L." he grinned impishly at her. " And I bet it was a guy… Or two."

"Two!" Cheriss exclaimed in surprise as she finally look over at him. His disturbingly, unnaturally black eyes stared at her with amusement as his grin turned evil.

"Sure." Cil said, turning away and leaning back in his chair again. "With your looks, I bet you had tons of men just falling at your feet."

"Not the way you mean." Cheriss whispered under her breath. She had to fight a small smile as Cil eyed her again.

"What? Sorry but I didn't catch that." He said, cupping one hand around his ear and leaning toward her.

"Nothing." Cheriss answered as a genuine smile broke across her face. Donivan entered the room at that moment and signaled for them all to sit down. All conversation in the room died and the gundarks gave their commander full attention as he fired up a holo projector and killed the lights.

"Thank you." Donivan waved toward the image of a planet, which had popped up over the projector. The planet was covered in a fair amount of water with many small islands and a few larger cotenants across its surface. "This is Adumar. Tomorrow we will arrive in system and will land on the surface for leave. Or at least that is what we will want people to believe. We will actually be there to look into the possible existence of an Imperial insertion team. The planet, a nation known as Cartann in specific, has been having some trouble with a group of terrorist. Any questions so far?"

"Oh, me! Pick me! Over HERE boss!" Cil was waving and yelling excitedly, it was reminding Cheriss of when a very young school child really had to use the refresher. He franticly waved his hand in the air as Donivan sighed.

"Lieutenant Wen…" He said somewhat reluctantly. Cil stood and shot to attention so fast that Cheriss was left blinking up at him. The man was suddenly, incredibly serious… At least in appearance.

"Sir!" He exclaimed. "I would like to know why they have sent a squadron of x-wing pilots instead of an intelligence unit, sir!"

"Because, Wen, due to the culture of this planet pilots will be the most likely to have access to most areas." He sighed. "Their culture accords a great amount of respect to pilots."

"Oh." Cil paused for a moment than asked another question. "So our flight suits are like all-access passes?"

"Not exactly but that is about as close to the truth as you can get." Donivan waited until Cil had once again taken his seat next to Cheriss than picked up the briefing again. "We will go to the surface in our x-wings and land at one of the local bases. We will be representing the New Republic during our time on planet so I want all of you on your best behavior. I do not want you to ruin the impression made by those already on planet or the one left by General Antilles three years ago." He waved at Cheriss, indicating she should come to the front of the room. "Lieutenant Hanadi, who is from Adumar, has agreed to enlighten all of you about the planet."

"Well." Cheriss smiled out at her new squadron mates as she tried to calm her nerves. She had never been asked to give any part of a briefing before and the experience was strange. "Adumar is still very new to the Republic. In fact the planetary government was only established about three years ago. Cartann, one of the largest nations on this planet and our destination…"

AN. I'm sorry this is so short but I have been having trouble with my wrist. I'll try to have the next chapter up on Thursday December 19th. After that I wont be able to post until about the second week of January. Please let me know what you think. Also I wanted to thank Narya's Bane for reviewing the prologue. To be honest I wasn't expecting to get any reviews for at least a few chapters and it encouraged me to continue this story. Thanks again. And as always… I do not own Star Wars.