Ratnena Bora, 23-year-old slicer, fighter pilot and generally all around skilled mechanic, was bored out of her mind while sitting in the bright and hot afternoon sun on Borleias. I wish I could at least get a tan since I am stuck here. She had to admit it was a nice day but she would rather be at the beach. She was enrolled in a sniper-training course along with her partner, Captain Tahiri. Commander Loran had sent them here to hone some needed skills while he was supervising the training the new group of replacements, since they were still in limbo.

Poster Boy had stated that they were too well known after their actions at Ossus that they could not effectively hide their identity from the recruits, so they couldn't help in the training. Mostly due to the security problems they had suffered from the last time they had trained replacement and he didn't want to take a chance on washouts finding out that the Wraiths still existed. The older Wraiths, Kell, Elassar, and Piggy were all retired in the past ten months since their last stand at Ossus. Poster Boy, Squeaky, Little Brother and hers files had all been shuffled and lost in the giant maze of military computers. She was effectively lost having been transferred and retransferred 100 times since then. Also their profiles had been slightly changed during each transfer so that by now they won't even recognized themselves. Their new boss, so classified that Poster Boy wasn't allowed to even hint at his or her identity, wanted it possible for no one to find them or the base that they will be working from. Tahiri solution was the most extreme, since she was still considered by many to be a Jedi Knight and a Yuuzhan Vong Warrior; she had to 'resign' from the military all together. She was last reported working the space lanes as an independent spacer.

The new group of Wraiths had no idea what they were trying out for really. All they had been told was that they were training to start a new intelligent/commando team. Face and Tahiri, with Little Brother, Squeaky and her help, screened each applicant inside and out, slicing and dicing their way to the truth. After that they began the interview and elimination process with both of them wearing disguises to sit down and interviewed each potential candidates. In all it took about two months before Face gave the go ahead to train the team of about 30 candidates.

They, as well as the new Wraiths, should be done with their training about the same time, maybe. They have had no contact with Face since they started the sniping training. He was stationed on a different part of the planet and they were working undercover, she was now Corporal Sunkiss and Tahiri was, Private Sara Sandblaster.

The sniper training had been good for Ratnena, her skills away from the computers and ships were not very good. Lets be honest with ourselves, Ratnena old girl, you stunk, she thought with some humor. While she wasn't at the bottom of the list, she had improved drastically compared to where she used to be. She did well enough to graduate; she hit three targets before she was 'killed'. She was pleased with herself all right. She was also very pleased with Tahiri right now too.

"Did you spot her yet, sergeant!"

"Not yet sir," the lady with high power field glasses said as she scanned the field in front of her.

"Sithspawn! She has to be out there somewhere," the fowl mouth kane a bar who wore captain insignia on his shoulders said as he paced back and forth on the platform that the sergeant and he could observe the field. The trick to passing this exercise was to use natural foliage and slowly work your way across a field and shoot, with an enhanced rifle, at as many targets as you are able to before the spotter could find you. If the spotter saw you or your flash it would direct a droid to fly over your spot. If the spotter was correct the droid would 'tag' you and you were out. The shooters also could get tagged if they went outside the operating area. Some of the shooters got one or three like her, some got as many as four or five. One student got eight and Tahiri has gotten fifteen. Much to the captain's disgust and they still haven't spotted her yet.

Tahiri and this captain had not gotten along real well. Early in the training period one of the recruits had made a remark about the Jedi. Even though Tahiri no longer considered herself a Jedi anymore after everything that happened from the time she was 'born' till Jaina shot her on Ossus, she still would defend them and speak only kind words. The captain over heard her defend the Jedi and decided that a 'spoon bender lover' was not the kind of person he would want around. It probably would have ended there if he hadn't made disparaging remarks about her, as a 'Vong loving freak with not enough brain cells to blow her nose'.

It would have been safer taking on the Yuuzhan Vong bare handed then be around those two after that, Tahiri was never disrespectful just … being annoying. Helping him show the rest of the recruits how big of a windbag he really was, pulling some simple pranks and never getting caught. He knew what she was doing, she knew that he knew but she never pushed it hard enough to give him anything to hang on her. The captain had informed her last night that if she had one point less then anyone else in the squad, which included his old score a record ten hits, then she would have to start all over again to graduate.

PING!

"Did you see it?"

"No, sir," the sergeant said and then had to listen to several minutes of ranting and raving from the moron in officer clothing. Several of the non-comm around her laughed quietly at his behavior. None of them really like this guy, respected him because he was an officer, but didn't like him. They had been laying down bets before they headed out on the objective as to how far Private Sandblaster would get before she was spotted and how long it would take for the captain to lose his temper. Ratnena didn't get in with any of it; she figured it was an unfair advantage since she knew Tahiri so well.

"How many was that sir?" Ratnena asked innocently.

"Corporal be quiet!" There was a low rumble of laugher that was immediately silence as the captain swung around and began dressing them all down. As the pompous jerk was ranting and raving about discipline that they would all receive if he heard one more word, Ratnena noticed some movement right in front of the stand. She slowly looked away so as not to attract attention to herself or Tahiri as she crawled under the stand. Oh girl, you are too good, Ratnena though as she tried kept her face straight. Once the captain turned back around and started yelling at the sergeant for being blind, Ratnena quickly looked over at the others around her and placed her finger over her lips. Many of them nodded silently, they must have seen her too, and smiling at her.

Tahiri, after crawling under the stand, gave Ratnena a grin and took off her gear. She then quietly climbed up on the stand and stood behind the captain. She turned one more time and gave everyone the thumbs up.

"Sir!" Tahiri screamed excitedly, " I saw her, she over there!" She pointed off to the left.

"Where!"

"There sir about 59 meters near that bush! She's there I saw her!"

"All bots to that position!" He screamed excitedly as he moved closer to the railing. The sergeant turn to talk to Tahiri, supposedly Ratnena thought to get better directions, and she saw who was standing there; she went wide eye and started to grin then hurriedly turn back and faced front again. After a few minutes he turn back, looking disgusted, "Blaster! She not there either."

"Sorry sir," Tahiri responded in a sweet but disappointed voice, "I could have sworn that was her."

"Sandblaster, get back down with the others and keep your opinions to yourself!" The captain screamed at her, Tahiri saluted and hurried back down to the others. The captain was ranting and raving at the sergeant as Tahiri sat cross-legged next to Ratnena and assumed a bored expression. The look on the captain's face as he suddenly swung around and stared at Tahiri was priceless, too bad Little Brother wasn't here to get a shot of that. His mouth worked several times, looking like a fish out of water, before he turn red and screamed out, "Sandblaster!"

Tahiri looked up, gave him a small wave and a big smile. Ratnena has never seen anyone besides Tahiri turn purple from embarrassment, till now.


Face really had to maintain an interested look on his face as he listen to Captain Long, the head instructor of the sniper training department here on Borleias, explain why Private Sara Sandblaster should remain in the brig if not be discharged out right for her 'outrages' conduct at his school. Ratnena, after successfully finishing the training, had contacted Squeaky and then Face about Tahiri being in the brig. Which amazed Face, he figured she would bust Tahiri out and then rigged his bunk to explode or something in that vein.

At first Face hadn't believe that Captain Long was as bad as Ratnena was making him out to be, but now after listening to him for 10 minutes, Face knew that she had underestimated how badly of a pompous jerk he was. He kept going on about she cheated on her exam by shorting out her tag and how she made a fool out him in front of his troops.

"I thought the tag was reported as being operational," General Sinclair said from behind his desk after listening to him complaints about Tahiri.

"She must have fixed it before my people got it sir."

Face almost laughed at that assertion, Tahiri breaking something he could believe but to fix it? No, she couldn't preprogram a food processor without shutting down the entire electrical system for the building.

"Really," the general of Borleias said as he worked his pad, obviously looking for something, "it says here she received 15 demerits for damaging a scope after she failed to get it working again. The report says that she was to take it apart and reassemble it after field cleaning it. Instead it shorted out and caught on fire, is that correct?" Now that sounded like Tahiri, Face thought with amusement.

"Yes sir, but …"

"It also says she damaged three data pads while doing simple field repairs and all three had to be scraped since they were so horribly destroyed."

"Yes sir, but …"

"And here is a report that somehow she caused the barrack she was in to lose all power after using the food processor to make 'hot chocolate'," the General looked up at Face and then Captain Long with a expression of amazement. "Is that one actually true?"

"Well yes sir but …"

"Sandblaster, how did you do that one?"

"General I don't know, I never been very good at electronics or machines," Tahiri said from behind Face. He didn't turn and look at her, he knew that she was standing at attention and keeping her face blank, but probably was blushing.

"Now Captain, do you expect me to believe she couldn't work a simple food processor but could fix a field tag?"

"I don't know how she did it, but only that she did, sir!"

General Sinclair gave the captain a look that just screamed 'give me a break' and read the pad again.

"Captain, I would like you to drop the charges. The commander here will make sure she behaves and never bothers you again."

"Yes sir, but she won't receive any recognition for her bogus score and she does not graduate," the captain said after a few minutes.

"Sounds fair to me General," Face said, he knew what she did and so did Ratnena, no one else really needed to know. After the captain left the officer, Face could hear Tahiri swear under her breath at him.

"That will be enough, Captain," Sinclair said to Tahiri while making some notes on his pad.

"Yes General, sorry General."

"Well Face," the general said putting down the pad, "she is free and clear."

"Thank you, General," Face said honestly. In two days Tahiri, Ratnena and the new Wraiths would leave for Hawk-bat Base to begin working together and he really didn't want to have to deal with any unnecessary complication or Ratnena deciding to help out her friend from the brig.

"My pleasure, I think he is a kane a bar too, Tahiri but that is just between the three of us and these walls. You have to admit Tahiri, he is good instructor."

"Yes sir," Tahiri said sounding a lot more relaxed, "and he would be better if he would just get over the fact that he was stuck behind the lines during the war. I have seen that beast he didn't miss much. By the way sir, when did you learn Yuuzhan Vong sir?"

"Right after Face told me that you three would be hiding here for a few months," the general said with a grin, "also had my house security beefed up."

"Well sir, I am happy to announce that you made it through another tour with the Wraiths. We are leaving day after tomorrow for our new base." Face said with a grin.

"Praise the Force," the General said with exaggerated relief and staring at the ceiling, "I can finally get a good night sleep again." He got up to shake both of their hands and wished them luck in the future.

On the way back to the small complex that Squeaky had somehow secured for their use when they first arrived from Denon, Tahiri went into more details about Captain Long.

"It wouldn't have bother me as much I guess if he wouldn't had said all those things just because he was never transferred out of the training command. Why would anyone be disappointed about missing the war?" She said as she steered the air car to their home.

"He looks too young to have served during the Rebellion, probably missed the Warlord wars too. He grew up hearing about all the glory and excitement that fighting against all odds to win the day. Figured that he missed his only chance to be a hero." Face said as he watched the growing base fly by him.

Tahiri muttered a curse, at least he assumed it was a curse the Shapers had their own languages, and shook her head, and said, "there is no glory that is fas that someone who never seen war makes up."

"Depends on what he thinks is glory. Look at what we did here with Wedge? The holo documentary is still on the top selling list and that was very accurate as to what it was like here. Yet people look at that and say it was glorious. I'm sure he watched that holo documentary and wished he had been here. He never stops to think about the cost of the glory."

"TV thought the same thing but she was only 15 at time and have a excuse," Tahiri said, referring to the old 'Tahiri Veila' as TV to avoid anyone understanding what she was talking about. Tahiri had a nature ability to know how to be spy, he rarely had to tell her anything twice, let alone once. "But he is older and should know better."

"Some thing can only be learned with experience," Face said with a shrug.

"Maybe, sir," she said then let a smile cross her face, "although I guess I can't complain too much. All his taunting did give me the extra push to do better then even I thought I could do."

"Sixteen is impressive," Face said slapping her in the shoulder.

"Thank you sir, but Ratnena should be praised instead of me. She did get three which is more impressive then my score."

She wasn't being condescending or making fun of Ratnena lack of skills, she would never do that to anyone she truly meant that statement. Tahiri is a Jedi, whether or not she answers to Ossus, and knew she had a huge advantage over everyone else. Instead of being arrogant or looking down as other as being inferior or handicapped for not having the same advantage, she helped other to do the best that they can be. It was one of the things that make her easier to get along with and went along way to make people feel relaxed in her presence then most Jedi would be. Oh sure, Luke, Corran, Mara, Tyria and her son Doran, and Leia were also easy to get along with but many of the other Jedi were too stiff and arrogant for his taste. Of course, all of them had not be raised Jedi and started their training late so that probably went along way as to explain why they were more relaxed about their abilities. Doran and Tahiri, while grew up learning the Jedi ways, had enough real world experiences that helped them deal with people on a their level not on a Jedi level.

"Maybe we should let her cook to celebrate," Face said casually.

"What did we do to be punished like that," Tahiri said making a face. Like Tahiri's misadventures with anything electronic or mechanical, Ratnena's cooking skills was the running joke of the Wraiths.

"Don't worry to much about it in the future, I think Squeaky was able to acquire some cooking droids for our base."

"Do we want to know how he got them?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm sure it was mostly legal."

"Before or after Little Brother fixed the paperwork," she said with a smile.

"He also got us an Aegis-class Shuttle from somewhere as well as a stealth upgrade, he got the planet's ship repair shops to install it. Little Brother and Ratnena had it flown over to our temporary base and are checking it out now. Tomorrow, Little Brother and I are going to fly out to the base, our support droids are already out there, and Squeaky, Ratnena and you will get the finial supplies loaded aboard the shuttle. The next day, the three of you and the new kids will fly out and we will get started."

"As much as I am happy to be released sir, but I have to ask a question. Ratnena still hasn't got to go home yet. I don't …"

"Don't worry, it is a surprise." Face said with a grin. "She is going to fly out from there. I was hoping that Little Brother could go along with her to keep her out of trouble."

"Talk about the blind leading the blind," she said with a snort but was nodding her head. "I don't see why Little Brother wouldn't go with her, he likes working with Rat."

"That what I figured, I secured her three month pass. It has been a long time since she has had a vacation." Face gave Tahiri a look out of the corner of his eye, "You know you could take some time off and go home."

"Not yet sir, besides they would ask too many questions. You know how 'mom' 'dad' and my 'uncle' are about knowing what I am up too." She said evenly. She was also correct, Luke has not been informed as to her location nor have Han and Leia. One reason was she didn't think she should receive special treatment from the other Wraiths. Once they 'go under' they could not allow their families to have much information as to where or what they were up to for security reasons. Tahiri felt that if she contacted the Solos they would, without meaning too; get involved in their affairs. That was probably unfair to them, but at the same time, probably true. The second reason she didn't want to contact them was what happened to her on Ossus. She had mostly gotten pass the anger but the hurt was still there.

"You could always tag along with Ratnena and Little Brother?"

"No sir, Ratnena needs to sped time with her family, to let them see what she has become and besides sir, I am your second and I really should spend time with the Wraiths to get to know them."

"Ok Tahiri but if you change your mind just let me know."

When they arrived at the small hanger with attached barrack that the Wraiths lived in, they found Little Brother and Ratnena busy looking over the shuttle. Face had hoped to get more X-wings before they left but so far only one had arrived, with no droid. Face had already assign that fighter to Little Brother and Tahiri, but Face and Little Brother would take it back to Hawk-bat base to make sure everything was ready for the rest.

"Prankster, how does she look?" He asked as he walked up to the shuttle.

"Well sir, she old, unreliable, cranky and just out dated," she said crawling out from the engine access, looking greasy and grimy, "but there nothing we can do with Peacekeeper. The shuttle is go shape though."

Tahiri gave her a strained look of patience while Ratnena beamed back at her innocently.

"Good," Face then told her the plan for the next few days.

"Does this mean I will finally be able to hit the bar for a few hours sir?" Ratnena asked in a voice that suggested that she had guessed wrong.

"Well, I guess that would be alright," Face said as if the idea never crossed his mind till now. The girls hadn't had much down time to blow of steam since they started training; even during the limbo period they were restricted to quarters on Denon and went into sniper training right after they screened the new recruits. He had planned in some time for the girls to have one free night. "If you guys really want to, I thought we could have Squeaky run some training films or something." By the looks on their faces, he might as well have them go to Denon and talk to the Senate again.

"There will be plenty of time on the way to … where we are going." Ratnena said, correcting her self before she accidentally said where they were going. Even though chances where no one was listening in to their conversation it paid to assume the worst.

"Also the others would be with us sir, and I am sure they would find it instructive as we would."

"The Vong …"

"Yuuzhan Vong."

"Has a point sir, why we would hate to cheat them out of such a golden opportunity as to listen to one of Squeak's lectures."

"They are always so informative …"

"And exciting …"

"It would be a crime for them to miss it and we would hate to have him repeat it just for them."

"Well if you really want to," he said with his face and tone suggesting that they were passing up a great time with Squeaky and couldn't understand why they would rather go out. The both stared back innocently at him, but he could tell how badly Ratnena wanted to go out, even Tahiri seemed excited about the prospect of bar hopping with Ratnena. "But," he said putting in his 'commander's' voice. "No trouble from either of you. Oh don't give me that 'who me' look, you know what I mean. No pulling pranks, no 'borrowing' anything, no dropping off half naked men in the general's quarters, I don't want to receive a call from Squeaky and have to come bail you out of the brig, understand?"

"Yes, sir!" Both said coming to attention and saluting.

"Very well, have fun."

"I don't know sir, it might take a day just to get the Vong something decent to wear."

"What is that supposed to mean, I have some nice clothes?"

"You have the fashion sense of a Hutt," Ratnena said as she crawled back under the engine. Face just walk away shaking his head and smiling. He just let them argue, they do it so often he doesn't even pay attention to it anymore.