Approximately seven years earlier, Imperial Center, the Imperial Palace

The red head led the way down an eerily silent corridor; the only sound was the clicking of her heels and five pairs of boots. Garin could imagine less frightening things to be doing, flying suicide missions was one of them. Toth, Matrin, and Kalan were all equally silent and he was pretty sure that they shared his preference to being shot at. Harth was, well he was Harth and seemed completely unphased by their unexpected summons. They made a turn and came face to face with four Imperial Guardsmen, the five pilots froze in their tracks, but the red head kept going right past the cordon and paused at the double doors beyond waiting expectantly. Garin swallowed, eying the faceless guards for a moment before moving forwards, Harth followed immediately in his wake, the other three a moment later. The doors opened without being touched, adding to the creepy factor of the entire experience.

As they entered the room beyond, Garin felt a wave of relieve wash over him as he spied Admiral Thrawn, there at least was a familiar face and one he trusted. The other two in the room were less welcome, the Lord Darth Vader was present, ominous and silent accepting his labored breathing, and then there was the Emperor, whose withered features smiled benignly at the late comers, his yellow eyed gaze seemingly piercing everything and everyone it fell upon. Garin felt very, very naked.

The Emperor waved a hand in their direction. "Thank you my child, go enjoy the remainder of the party. I'm sure you'll learn quite a bit from our distinguished guests."

The red head bowed and left the room quietly, the doors closing behind her, locking Garin in the room with the three imposing figures.

The Emperor smiled the gesture anything but comforting. "You five have distinguished yourselves, indeed you have survived an experience that would, and did, kill lesser men."

Garin hardly felt that the men who had died were lesser men, perhaps less skilled, but they had been valuable assets, and with their deaths the Empire was weaker, but he was not about to say that. Along with the others he murmured his thanks for the Emperor's gracious words.

"Admiral Thrawn has expressed a personal interest in you and your men. He has an interesting proposal that I think you should hear."

Thrawn bowed, smiling coolly at them. "I am going to form a special unit, a unit that will operate separately from the main force of the Imperial Fleet and strike in the shadows at the Empire's enemies. I would like you five to be the core of that unit."

Out of the corner of his eye Garin saw Lord Vader cross his arms as if in annoyance, he swallowed nervously. A new unit that operated independently, this was more than a little frightening, though he had to admit, going at the Rebels directly was much more satisfying than sitting around and waiting for them to come to him, which was what the Fleet was doing.

He cast a glance over his shoulder at his companions; there were no objections from any of them that he could see in their eyes.

"Who would we report to?"

The Emperor chuckled. "Why, to Admiral Thrawn of course. I'm sure he will keep you busy."

Garin felt his heart jump, he'd been worried that they would have to report to Lord Vader, or even to the Emperor himself, he'd heard of the Emperor's pet agents and imagined a fighter unit would just as easily fit into his palm as a single agent.

He knelt, and heard the others mimic his gesture. "We gladly accept this opportunity to serve the Empire and our Emperor."

"Good, good," Palpatine croaked pleasurably, despite his pleasant tone, Garin could still feel ice clutching at his heart.

Present, interrogation room aboard the Mon Cal cruiser Home One, Bilbringi Shipyards

"And that was the founding moment of your unit?"

I nodded quietly. "Shortly after that we were introduced to our new home, a heavy cruiser called the Black Knight, she and her crew had been hand picked by Thrawn to support the wing he was forming."

She considered quietly while I licked my lips, my throat was getting dry from all the talking. I cleared my throat pointedly; she looked up at me blankly.

"Water," I said simply.

She scowled, I smirked. "You don't seriously expect me to continue without a drink do you?"

She stood and went to the door to the room, it slid open and an orderly stood there with a pitcher and a glass. He placed it on the table and poured the water into the glass before leaving. I waited for the door to close and my interrogator to be seated again before reaching forwards and clasping the glass with my cuffed hands and bringing it to my lips. I savored the cool taste as it washed over my tongue and down my throat, Toth would have demanded something harder had he been here.

"Your unit Commander," my interrogator prompted.

I smiled, leaning back again in my chair, shifting to a more comfortable position, did they seriously think I was that dangerous to warrant these restraints? After all, it was like she'd said; I was on a Republic cruiser in the midst of dozens of other warships. How could I escape?

"I reported to Thrawn shortly after that to review the personnel he had selected for the unit, they were a pretty impressive group, though I admit that one or two of them were a little unusual…."

Approximately seven years earlier, aboard the Victory Star Destroyer Avenger orbiting Imperial Center

Garin glanced over the datapad, checking the names of each of his new pilots and their records. He'd already gone over the flight crews, special ops team, and crew of the Knight; he'd saved the pilots for last as a kind of personal treat. After all these were the men he'd be flying with. He paused at the bottom of the list, he'd thought the female twi'lek mechanic had been unusual but he was willing to trust Thrawn's judgment there; this however was a bit much.

He looked up to find Thrawn smiling at him enigmatically. "I take it Vic'que Sajuuk does not meet with your approval."

"She's a pilot."

"Indeed, but that's not what you're thinking." Thrawn steepled his fingers and continued smiling. "You're thinking that she's a woman. I believe there are several women in the rest of your forces are there not? Including I believe a twi'lek female."

"I won't be trusting my life to any of them in combat." Garin said simply, women were not allowed into the Fleet or Army for a reason after all.

Thrawn merely shrugged. "I've scheduled a simulator run in ten minutes. I expect you to be there, make sure you join the aggressor squadron."

"She's going to be on the Imperial side isn't she." Garin said he couldn't help the smile that ghosted across his features.

"Perhaps, I suggest you hurry and suite up Captain, before the sim starts without you."

Garin saluted and clicked his heels, "sir!"

Vic went over the briefing again, the mission was a raid on a known Rebel outpost. It was a hit and run to establish base defenses before a larger strike force was brought to bear on the target. Of course if resistance was less than expected, the TIE advanced were encouraged to expend their munitions stores and destroy any targets of opportunity that presented themselves. She didn't expect this to be anymore challenging than the previous simulations that she'd been put through in the last few weeks. It was getting a bit redundant really, and none of the other pilots appreciated being beaten by a woman. Let them think what they liked, she might be the fifth daughter in her family and nearly useless in Kuat society by that token, but she'd be damned if she didn't make them regret the assumption that women were inferior.

The simulator lights dimmed and the screen switched a projected view of hyperspace and she took a moment to relax and think about the situation ahead of her. Rebel bases like this tended to have a motley assortment of fighters, though intel warned that there had been reports by scouts of some high end Rebel fighter models in the area, the newer A-wings, though there was no way to know if they'd be in system or elsewhere entirely. She hoped they would be there, she'd like to test the advanced against the A-wing, she knew it was fast, faster than the interceptor but it wasn't nearly as maneuverable as either the interceptor or the advanced; and from intel reports its shielding, unlike most Rebel craft, was lackluster.

The tunnel of light became a series of white lines and then the lines developed into individual points of light and then she was dropped back to normal space. She immediately checked her squadmates' positions, they were where they were supposed to be, and she formed up with her flight leader and began active scanning for targets. They were there sure enough, so far she only saw X-wings.

"Alright squadron; Rebel Xs are inbound; take them out and move onto the supply base."

Vic didn't need to be told, she was more concerned with the sensors than the oncoming X-wings, there was something off about the readings that didn't sit right with her.

"Four this is Three, do you have any strange readings in front of the X-wings?"

"There seems to be some kind of magnetic ripple like some kind of wave, no steady reading though."

Vic nodded, so it wasn't just her. "One this is Three, I think we have Rebel jammers in front of those Xs."

"You mean that ripple?" The squad leader's voice came calmly.

"Yes."

"It's nothing, just radiation, continue to engage."

"Sir I think we need to—"

"I'm in command ensign, you will follow my orders."

"Sir," Vic said tersely, she had to follow his orders yes, but that didn't mean committing suicide.

"Four this is Three, hang back I think those A-wings are in front of the Xs and about to jump us."

There was a pause and she wondered if her wingman would be as stupid as her commander, but then she got an affirmative two clicks and saw Four's TIE fall back with hers. No one else in the squadron followed them but no one stopped them either, they probably just assumed that she was being cowardly and that meant more glory for them. She kept her eyes glued to the sensors watching the ripple moving in front of the X-wings. There had to be enemy fighters right there, keeping pace with the X-wings so they wouldn't attract too much attention, this was going to be bad if she was right.

"Missiles missiles, oh stang!"

There was a flash in front of her and three of her squadron erupted into orange fireballs. It might have been a sim but she still felt her heart jump as adrenaline surged through her. She banked, Four following with her and rolled under the confusion to come up beneath the volley of concussion missiles. She was close enough now to get a visual and sure enough there were five A-wings in front of the eight X-wings and the former had just kicked their engines into full gear. Before she could get a bead on them they'd accelerated well past her and she knew what would happen next. The squadron would have to choose whether to turn and engage the As and have the Xs behind them, or deal with the Xs and hope the As weren't turning quickly enough to come back and fire another salvo.

She chose to engage the X-wings, switching to missiles, she didn't have nearly as many as her opponents, the X-wings could carry six proton torpedoes, or eight concussion missiles, while the A-wings carried eight concussion missiles. She just carried four, which meant she had to make them count. She locked onto the nearest X and waited for the tone to go solid before firing, the missile lanced out from her portside and zeroed in on the Rebel fighter which began juking and rolling in every direction, dropping flares and chaff as it went. The missile was true though and it slammed into the fighter sending it spinning as its shields buckled, a second missile from Four finished it off. Vic smiled, Four at least had some brains and wasn't above flying with a woman.

"Thank you Arliss."

"We've got friends behind us Three."

She spun her TIE around and rolled just in time as two A-wings rocketed past her, they'd come back faster than expected. She heard several more yells and curses as other members of her squadron were destroyed. So far they'd lost seven of their number for five Rebels this wasn't going well at all, whoever was commanding the aggressor squadron knew his stuff. She snapped off a laser burst as another A-wing went head to head with her, and had the satisfaction of watching its shields buckle as the fighter broke apart. Their shields really weren't up to the task that was something to remember.

"Spit! I've got one on me, I'v—"

Four's voice cut out and she dove to avoid yet another A-wing hoping that it would overshoot her. It didn't though; the pilot cut the engines and rolled with her dive, rotating the A-wing's blasters in an arc to keep peppering her shields. She swung her nose around and fired a dual shot of missiles point blank with no lock. It was a long shot but it worked, the A-wing rolled out of the way of the oncoming missiles which gave her the time to fire her lasers, the Rebel fighter accelerated past her, her shots glancing off his shields. Who the hell was this she wondered, none of her shipmates were this good, she'd have known.

She checked her sensors again, the battle had shifted, five of the X-wings were down and two of the A-wings with them. The remaining three X-wings were engaging what remained of her squadron with two of the A-wings. Her A-wing was coming back for another go at her. She punched her throttle to full, if she could get clear of the moon's gravity well she could escape and report back to command, which was the whole point of the mission anyways.

Her coms crackled as she fled; "an Imperial running and leaving her squadron to die, now that's a new one, and you expect to make something of yourself as a pilot."

It wasn't a voice she recognized, and his amused tone set her fuse. "You want to go pilot? I'll take you down!"

"Good luck Imperial, I'm right on your tail, let's see what you can do about it."

Red laser bolts shot around her and she felt her ship buck from the impacts, if she slowed down and turned to fight then she was certain she'd be eliminated, whoever this pilot was, he wasn't some trainee. She put her shields double rear, and though desperately, then it came to her, she punched her flare dispenser, the mini-missile fired out from her ship and rammed into the pursuing A-wing, it wasn't enough to kill it, but the fighter was knocked off course and the electromagnetic charge the flare carried would keep him offline for the rest of the fight. She smiled, turning around and arming her last missile.

"Die you bastard, this is for Arliss."

The missile lanced out and slammed into the disabled A-wing, it burst in an orange fireball that quickly burned itself out in the vacuum, Vic smiled triumphantly, then proximity alerts went off and she watched as something jetted from the debris and slammed into her cockpit, the simulator screen went dark as she was killed, leaving her in the dark, swearing and slamming her fists into the simulator controls. The scum bag had gotten her with his own escape pod!

The simulator hissed open and Garin took off his helmet, climbing out of the pseudo-cockpit, a smile on his face. That had been entertaining, he'd never have done that in a real fight, but then again none of the TIE models had escape pods so he supposed that it didn't matter. Though if he was lucky Thrawn would let him keep the missile and gun boats they'd been using. A few of those TIE Avengers, or Advanced as they were typically called, would be a nice addition.

"You," he looked up to see someone storming towards him. "Yes you, in pod seventeen!"

"Uh, good luck sir." The pilot besides him murmured. "You nailed her right?"

Garin nodded, the pilot winced. "Remember to duck."

He looked back towards the raging pilot, she'd taken off her helmet, the first thing he noticed was her piercing green eyes surrounded by long blonde hair, the second thing he noticed was her right hook and he forgot to duck.