3:30 P.M.. Sovereign Cruiser.

Bryan Rawling took a seat on a row of the white benches that circled the room, unending. He was early as usual to these briefings, always the first there, or usually the first one there. As he thought about it, he realized that there were a few occasions when he was the second or third person. He hunched over on the bench, stretching out his arms and revitalizing them to get ready for the long sit ahead of him.

As he re-straightened his back and came up again, his eyes casually shifted over at Emilie Rodenski and Admiral Dean Harrison who were sitting in a row of only single sitting chairs. They sat in quiet conversation, going over, again, their battle plan and tactics. Bryan took a moment to, again, revel in his old friend Emilie's beauty before looking above her at the loosely person-ed command bridge on the chamber's second level. After taking a minimal interest in that site, Bryan sat back completely, resting his head all the way back onto the next row of white benches and look at the ceiling, tongue swishing around the inside of his mouth in boredom.

The ceiling was as white as any other part of this room, but with a pattern of black, gray, and white diamond-like shapes criss-crossing the ceiling. After a while though, Bryan's neck started to hurt from looking up, and it also got boring looking at the same repeating pattern. He hunched forward again, quietly rubbing the back of his neck, massaging the muscles.

Now some new people finally walked into the quiet room. They were dressed in orange pilot jumpsuits, like Bryan's. One man and one woman, the woman shorter than the man, slightly. She was a blonde with a thin body and small hands covered by the standard black gloves that came with every jumpsuit. The guy with her–he didn't recognize them at all–was only slightly taller with black hair and a smile on his face. The two looked like they were having a good time together, so Bryan looked away from them, not wanting to disturb them with his rather rude gaze.

Then, another person walked in from the alcove to Bryan's direct left. He was taller, from what Bryan could tell, than the other guy across the room. His hair was cut low to his scalp, something that Bryan had thought looked stupid compared to his last hair style. Also wearing the same jumpsuit–the pilot's tended to be at these meetings a lot earlier than the command staff–the man was holding his flight helmet under one arm as he took the sights of the chamber.

Bryan looked up at him out of the corner of his eye. "Well if it isn't Mr. Ferdan."

Commander Kenny Ferdan turned and looked down at him. He smiled widely. "Hey man." Bryan smiled back and stood up to greet his old friend with a back-clapping hug. "How ya been?"

"Good," Bryan responded. "How 'bout you?"

"Nice." He nodded.

"Good," Bryan repeated. He sighed. "So this is it. The final attack."

"Yeah, I know," Kenny responded. "Can't wait for it to get started. I'm anxious to kick some Imperial ass."

"Yeah, same here. I can't wait 'til this is over. Empire's goin' down today."

"Hell yeah."

Bryan gave a toothy grin. "It's funny. I still have that tape where you said the Empire kicks ass."

Bryan didn't get what he expected with that remark. Kenny only slightly expanded his smile and actually looked down at the floor. "Yeah, I remember that." An awkward pause. Bryan instantly regretting what he said. "And that pirate shirt I had, the one with the Stormtrooper head."

Bryan grinned nervously. "Yeah," he mumbled. He quickly tried to recover. "I bet you can't wait to take on the Gatekeeper again."

Kenny finally looked up after a moment, smirking and nodding. "Yeah, man. It's payback time. Vader's goin' down today."

Bryan kept smiling. "Yes. Sure thing. You and me'll knock 'im outta the sky."

"Mmmhmm," Kenny simply sounded.

Bryan sighed again, casually glancing around the room. "Yeah, I actually didn't wanna do this," he admitted.

Kenny frowned. "What?"

"Well, I mean, yes I did wanna do this, I just didn't want to lead it."

"Oh. Why not?"

"I've lead enough of these damn attacks. It's very stressful, and I just want these guys to give someone else a chance but me all the time. Like Molly Raoin. She'd make a great Field General. Give her some good leadership experience, too."

"Yeah, she'd be pretty good. I saw her at the Valiance Tours this year," he chuckled happily. "She beat me in under three minutes in the head-to-head."

Bryan chuckled. "Ouch. That's bad, and that's Molly" He grimaced at the thought. "What did you end up finishing?"

"Eighth overall," he answered.

Bryan raised both his eyebrows in amazement. "Well that's not bad at all. Good job, man," He clapped him on the shoulder. "Your moving up the ranks. You'll be an Admiral in no time."

"Aw jeez, no way," Kenny laughed. "I can barely handle being a commander. I'd have a heart attack if I got promoted any farther."

Bryan grinned. "Yeah, I'm takin' a break from this job after this attack is over. God help me if they wanna promote me."

Kenny chuckled. "To promote me," he went down on one knee as if he was going to pray, and Bryan instantly knew what he was going to say next, causing him to laugh. "'God shield us, to an Admiral? It is a most dreadful thing.'" Kenny laughed.

Bryan chuckled. "'For there is no more feared wildfowl than your Admiral liking, and we ought to run from it.'" They both laughed. "Yes...." Bryan let his voice trail off. Nick Bottom the weaver, Shakespeare's most exaggerated character. "Wow, I can't believe I still remember those lines. That's very weird."

"Yeah, I can't remember any of Oberon's at all," Kenny said. "Except for," he snickered, "my evil laugh."

Bryan beamed. "Yeah, the 'AHAhahahahahahahahahaha.' Remember that too. The audience always thought it was funny. So did we."

Kenny gave two short "ha's." "So why weren't you at the Valiance Tours this year?" Kenny asked.

Bryan shrugged. "I don't know. I just didn't feel like going this year. That and the fact that the Courage was trapped in the Assolist for the first two days of the ah...the competition."

Kenny nodded. "Oh."

"I heard it was quite a...an event."

"Aw yeah, it was," Kenny responded. "The head-to-head competition was intense as hell. People were practically frozen in time when Molly and Commander Deravin faced off. They're were like times when people barely even moved 'cause they were so tense from watching the battle."

Bryan craned his head in amusement. "Yeah, that definitely sounds like Molly. She's like me. Doesn't do anything small."

Kenny chuckled.

"Excuse me," a clear voice said from behind the two. They both looked in that direction, and suddenly realized that they were kind of blocking the alcove into the room.

"Oh, sorry–"

"Sorry–"

They both quickly moved out of the way, letting a stout brunette girl through, followed by another woman in a tan starship duty uniform. They continued to talk and gossip as soon as they were past the boys.

Bryan followed them with his eyes, then turned to Kenny. "If you'll excuse me..." he said in a playful voice. He acted like he was about to walk away, then stopped and hissed a laugh. "Naw jus' kiddin.'" they both chuckled. Bryan then gestured to a the benches. "Come on, I think we better get outta the way here."

"Oh, yeah," Kenny agreed, and the two shuffled over to the bench Bryan had been sitting in when Kenny had walked in. Once seated, Bryan stared down at his small watch on his right wrist. "Still got twenty minutes to go." A few moments passed. "So whatcha been up to in the last...six..years," Bryan giggled.

Kenny grinned slightly. "Not too much to tell you the truth. There really hasn't been that much fighting in the last few years, save the battles at Piir Sedar and De'radut, ya know?"

"Haha. You make it sound like a bad thing."

"Well no, man, but–I was just saying there wasn't much going on for me to talk about."

Bryan nodded sarcastically. "Yeah, Kenny, wha-whatever you say, buddy."

"Shut up," Kenny snickered.

"Afternoon General!," someone called softly from the other side of the chamber. Bryan looked up to see that the voice belonged to Lieutenant Paul Darbles, who waved to the Commander before he sat down, his girlfriend, Sergeant Diana Hayes, hanging on his left arm. "Hey, General!" she called, smiling.

"Hey guys!" he answered. "You guys get enough sleep last night I hope?"

They nodded together.

"Yes–"

"Yeah–"

Bryan smiled wryly. "Good." He turned his head to Kenny. "Oh, I'm sure they got plenty of sleep last night," he whispered sarcastically to him. "If that guy could keep a girlfriend for more than a month, he'd probably have sex every night of his life." He snickered at this. "He still probably does, steady girlfriend or no steady girlfriend."

Kenny laughed. "Eww," he remarked. "What is he, like a Fedrellon or something?"

Bryan craned his head to the ground. "Yes, actually, he is," he said through the corner of his mouth.

He looked at Bryan in amazement. "Are you serious? He's Fedrellon?"

Bryan nodded. "Yup. I know he looks human, but he isn't."

"Damn."

"Yeah." A pause. "He's a good pilot though. If not a sleezy one."

It was then that he spotted his best friend of nearly a decade walk into the chamber. A thick net of blonde hair on a round head was all Bryan saw at first, but that's all he needed to see to know who it was. She was tall for a woman,–Bryan knew full well that she was taller than the six foot-tall Darbles– with a slender figure thick arm and leg muscles; the result of training and fitness drills for nearly six whole months that had never worn off.

Commander Maxie Linwood of the Cruiser Liberty was still as beautiful as he remembered her. She walked, shoulders back gracefully, and her green eyes scanned the chamber momentarily, but it wasn't a curious look at all. She had served with Bryan, had bunked in the same room with him and two other people, for five years. And so she knew that he would already be here, even though there was still fifteen-to-twenty minutes before the meeting actually began. In an instant, she heard his voice and spotted him and was on the move.

Bryan sat up and smiled slightly. "Good afternoon Maxie. How ya doin'?"

"I'm good. Slept three hours."

"So you're ready then?"

Maxie scowled sardonically. "Boy, I've been ready to end this war since we were still working at Alberts. You know that."

The man put his hands up in surrender. "Just checkin.'" He gestured to Kenny. "I'm sure you two met at the Valiance Tours, right?"

"Yeah," Kenny answered, smiling up at Maxie standing directly in front of him.

"Hey Kenny Ferdan, " Maxie smiled brightly at him. She raised her hand, and they fived. "What's up?"

"I'm good, Maxie. How 'bout you?"

"I'm good," she responded sweetly. She turned to Bryan. "We were flight 'buddys' at the Tours this year. But you wouldn't know that, would you?" she said to him in a fake snobbish voice.

Throwing his arms up in the air, Bryan rolled his eyes. "How many times do I have to keep telling you people? I couldn't come! Remember, the Courage was trapped for two days in the Assolist–those two days being the first two days of the–of the Tours."

"Yeah, yeah," Maxie pressed. Upon seeing the irritated reaction on Bryan's face, she broke into a laugh.

Bryan shook his head. "Your so nice Maxie."

She rolled her eyes. "It's a joke Bryan."

"Oh, yeah," he said doubtfully. His clicked his tongue and gave her a sarcastic thumbs up. "I'm sure."

Maxie smiled understandably. Swallowing, she sat down on the bench in between Kenny and Bryan, then she slid her butt so that her back was to Bryan and she was looking at Kenny. And, with a sigh, she laid back, kicking her feet out and setting them down gently on Kenny's lap, her head landing in Bryan's.

And Bryan just stared blankly at her. "I thought you said you got some sleep?"

"I'm not going to sleep. I already put in three hours doing that."

"My point–my point exactly."

"What?" she said ignorantly.

"Ah, Nuttin'."

Maxie shrugged. "Ok."

A long time passed before anyone spoke. Kenny and Bryan continued to scan the chamber every now and then, and more people were starting to walk in, though Bryan rarely knew a few of them. Maxie rested on Bryan's lap,–like she had said she didn't need–eyes closed, breathing slow and easy.

Then, at one point, she opened her eyes. "You look tired," she commented to Bryan. "How many hours of sleep did you get last night, sir?"

"Enough to get me through today," Bryan simply responded. "Don't worry, I'm just a little bored right now."

"You sure?" she asked in concern.

"I'm fine Maxie," he assured. "Thanks though."

Something he said must have reminded her of an occurrence. "Oh, wait, I forgot to ask you something," she sat up, eyes looking towards the ceiling in thought. "Yeah; I forgot to ask you if you saw Jefferies at the Berge Conference last month? I think it was during the...thir..d session he was there. Was it the third?–no, wait...yeah it was the third." She looked him straight in the eyes. "Did you see him?"

Bryan nearly laughed. "Jefferies at a political conference? Dan Jefferies-your kidding right?"

"No, he was there. More to watch it than anything, but he was there."

This time Bryan chuckled. "Jefferies watching a political conference?"

"He was there."

"Well I didn't see him, so no."

"Ok," Maxie finished, nodding then laying her head back down on his lap.

"Hey, Bryan?" Kenny said. "You at a political conference?"

Bryan shrugged. "Hey, they're actually kind of interesting sometimes."

Maxie snorted. "Yeah, right. You were prolly off daydreaming half the time. Barely paid attention at the Crny Conference."

"Oh shut up," Bryan attacked. "At least I do it quietly. Let's think, here; I believe it was you who fell asleep during the first session of Crny Conference, and I believe it was you who let out that wonderful snore." He grinned. "That–that one-of-a-kind–I think we call it the Manly-Maxie–snore that everyone in the entire conference chamber heard?"

Bryan's lap began to vibrate as Maxie laughed silently. Anyway, he still attempted to impersonate the famous snore by scrunching up his mouth muscles and sucking his breath hard up his nose. The snore came as more of a snarl sound, but as Bryan remembered the Manly-Maxie snore, his sound was pretty close. Maxie laughed harder, turning her face to the side. She raised a hand and slapped him on his left knee. "Stop it!" she half-screamed through her giggles.

Bryan and Kenny exchanged amused glances while Maxie slapped Bryan on the left knee again. She did it repeatedly three times until Bryan tried to move his knee to get her to stop. "Stop it!" she said again.

"Ok, ok!" He turned and smiled at Kenny. "You wouldn't believe the memories I have of her acting like this. Does it all the time."

"Shut up."

"The drunken nights are the best part. You wouldn't believe the kind of things she does when she's wasted."

"Stop it! Shut up!" Maxie commanded through he laughs.

But Bryan continued. "'Bryan, help me outta the garbage pit. Bryan, I wanna go out in space. No I don't want a helmet. Its gets too hot. Bryan, which way is left on the joystick–?'"

Maxie sat up, laughing furiously. "Stop it you bastard," she said, slapping him on the side of his shoulder multiple times.

"And of course, the classic question–"

"Shut up!"

"–the classic: 'Bryan, are red and blue the same color?'"

Kenny burst out into laughing as Maxie started to literally attack Bryan. She sat up on her knees and shoved him one way on the bench, trying to playfully knock him off over the side. But just before she could, Bryan grabbed her wrists and used them to keep at bay while all the while, Kenny laughed at the amusing wrestling match. "Are red and blue the same color?" he asked.

In between a bunch of flailing arms, Bryan answered. "Yeah, man, I know."

"Shut up!" Maxie repeated again. She went for his head again, but now he had a firm grasp on her wrists, and easily managed to keep them away from his face. He then proceeded to lock her wrists together near her stomach, a grip Maxie tried helplessly to break but couldn't.

Bryan, not securely keeping her at bay, looked amusingly over at Kenny. He sighed sarcastically. "And I remember the days when I used to be able to not do this."

He and Kenny exchanged laughs.

"Let go! Fine!" Maxie said snootily. Bryan followed where she was looking and spotted Hannah Renkins standing at the edge of the far alcove, grinning and laughing at the scene across the room.

"Oh no. No, no, no, no, no," Bryan responded.

"I'm gonna go talk to Hannah. Hannah help!"

"Alright fine," Bryan said, releasing her wrists. She got in one tiny slap onto Bryan's shoulder before running away from him to Hannah, sticking her tongue out at him. So he flicked her off in good fun. Putting his finger down, he side-glanced at Kenny. "Isn't she great?"

"Oh, yeah," Kenny commented. "'Are red and blue the same color?'"

Bryan grinned. "Yeah. She was 'comparing' her blood with that of Trisalkans one night when she was drunk."

"Oh," Kenny said, chuckling.

By now, now ten minutes until the briefing was to start, the chamber was flooding with incoming pilots and command personnel. Many of the pilots–Twins Kevin and Evan Silliger, Harry Carr, Pamela Donahue, Wesley Fuller, Jason Gerreret, Bryan's rival Calvin Deravin newcomers Zeverian Dez'vil Saadra, Bernard Kerry, Trisalkan Hyi Lop'ds'r, and Pyfrellin Keswist Pantessa, his old friends Commander Molly Raoin, Isaac Berkley, his high school friend Jordan Zilger's little brother Chris, two members of his family, his cousin, Captain Kate Rawling(he couldn't remember her husband's last name), captain of the cruiser Dove, and Kate's sister's son, Lieutenant Daniel Madden–he knew. He knew a majority of the others too. It was the command personnel his memory didn't know too well. He knew Emilie Rodenski, of course, and Dean Harrison. But he only knew two of the remaining eight Admirals: Admiral Sigmund Colvon, and High Admiral Poff, a Mon Calamari that had been brought over during the Crossing. He'd only just heard of only one of the Generals, General Slimious Battrred. The Captains he knew fairly well though. Derlian Captain's Vorck Ulder, Walder Tyssa, Bryan's former Captain, human Vanessa Hiller. Human Captain's Gary Polister, Thomas Dewy, Jonathon Ross-Thomas, Copper's Feerderop Marcksly and Hel'scd Jewsh, and many, many others.

As Bryan finished his long sweep of all the people in the chamber, he spotted another old friend of his walk into the far left alcove. It was another girl–surprise, surprise–in a gray jumpsuit. She had her stringy black hair pulled back into a bun behind her head, letting her face glow like it had always done in the past–at least to Bryan's eyes. She looked very tall from this distance, especially since she was standing upright like an angel would. Her face was covered in tiny brown freckles that aided it's glowing. Her pretty eyes scanned the room quickly. Upon spotting someone she knew, Colonel Max Forrester, she hurried over to him and gave him a hug, the both of them exchanging joyous words.

Not looking at Kenny, Bryan excused himself and started over for the newcomer woman, smiling the entire way over. She was nodding her head at Max when he spoke. "Well hello my dear, how are you?"

Clara Chestor turned and, upon looking up at his face, smiled brightly at him. "Hey," she said happily. She stepped closer to him and hugged him loosely. "How are you?"

"I'm great," Bryan responded, his energy now back at its peak. "It's so good to see you. So I thought the Harvester wasn't taking part in this attack?"

"It wasn't before," she said, hiccuping once. "But the mission we were doing got scrubbed. We couldn't find the fleet we were hunting, so we voted to come here, and here we are."

"Oh, really? What do you–what do you think happened to the–to the fleet?"

"Oh, we don't know. Pat won't tell us anything, so we just assume"–she lowered her voice–"that Commander Deravin's flatulence scared them away."

Bryan grinned widely. "Oh, yeah, that guy....he can create some nasty ones sometimes."

"Yeah, he gave a big one this one time during a briefing, and Pat had to stop it so that everyone could go outside and get some air."

Bryan breathed. "Yikes." he patted her on the shoulder. "I'm sorry for ya."

"Its alright. We learn to deal with it."

"Good." A momentary pause. "Well, I'll let you go here, say hi to some people, and I'll see you later."

"Ok, bye–"

"–see ya."

Bryan said his goodbye and started back over for Kenny again. And found that he had found new company. Sitting next to him was a man that Bryan had met during his senior year of high school. And he was still wearing his glasses.

"Hey Justin," Bryan half-called to him. The thin hair that he had been staring at a moment look up to reveal a grinning face–wearing glasses–with big eyes and white teeth.

Justin Berislo held out his hand. "What's up Bryan?" They clapped wrists. His blue and tan tactician's uniform's three medals glimmered in Bryan's eyes as they reflected off the lighting. He gestured to someplace behind Bryan. "Who was that you were talkin' to?"

Bryan jutted his thumb towards where Clara had been standing, then turned to make sure she was still where he was pointing. She was. "Who, Clara? Yeah, that's Clara. Former high school classmate and old friend."

"Oh. She's pretty, man. Are you guys good friends?"

Bryan smiled wryly, immediately understanding where he was going with this. "Yes, and nothing more. Her husband died nearly five years ago."

Justin smiled and snickered. "That's alright man, I was just asking."

"Yeah, I know. I'm just kiddin.' Besides, Justin, if you remember correctly, I already tried to ask her out back when–well actually I never tried to but I wanted to. Could never bring myself around to doing it." He sat down on Kenny's left side.

"Oh. That's that Clara?"

Bryan inhaled. "Yyup."

"Sweet. I can see why you like her."

"Si." Bryan sighed. "So anything new and exciting happen over here while I was gone?"

"Nah not really," Kenny responded.

"Umm hello?" Justin asked cynically, pointing both fingers at himself.

Bryan paused for a while. "So like I said, anything new and exciting happen over here?" he asked again, chuckling when Justin flicked him off.

"How much time we have left?" Justin asked.

Bryan checked his watch. "About seven minutes."

"Good," he said, bobbing his shoulders. "I'm anxious to start."

"Yeah I know. We all are." He paused. "By the way, what are wesupposed to be anxious about? What are we doing exactly?"

Justin chuckled. "Man I knew you were gonna ask me about that. I shouldn't have come over here."

"That's nice. So what are we doing?"

"Dude, I can't tell you. It's a top secret kind of thing."

"But is it really top secret?" Bryan asked.

"I can't tell you. Man, just wait, you'll find out in like five minutes anyway."

"Yeah," Bryan exchanged glances with Kenny. "After about an hour of speeches." They both snickered.

"Just wait; I'm not telling you."

"Alright, fine. I'm just anxious, that's all."

"It's alright, I understand. I'm exited though. It's a good plan."

"Then stop bragging about it and tell us."

"No!"

"Just relax Bryan," Kenny said. "We'll know soon enough."

"Yeah," Justin agreed. "Calm down."

"Alright, alright, I'm just kiddin. Jeez...'"

Justin snickered.