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

Thrawn scrutinized Garin's bruised cheek for a moment before looking at Vic'que with an upward tilt to his mouth that might have signified mirth.

"This is the first time I've heard of an officer striking their superior on their first day of duty. Normally I would have you locked up and court-martialed at the very least. However you're still needed as I don't have a suitable replacement in the Captain's unit for you."

Vic'que looked like she had swallowed bile. "I am not serving with this man sir."

Thrawn paused by his chair, placing a gloved finger on the armrest slowly. "Oh?"

"I refuse to serve with a man who cheats to win sir."

"Cheats?" Thrawn said curiously, eyeing Garin, his expression indulgent as if he were dealing with a petulant child.

"He didn't kill me Admiral, he cheated."

"Oh, and if that had been a real engagement then you could of course say it wasn't fair and the Rebel pilot of course would take it back and allow you to strike him."

"I—" Thrawn's gaze quieted any further embarrassing statements.

"Lieutenant Sajuuk, you have no chance of advancing in the traditional Fleet hierarchy, for better or worse the Imperial system allows very few opportunities for women. So if you do not take this appointment your chances of advancement will vanish and you will remain in obscurity for the remainder of your career." Thrawn's eyes narrowed. "Don't forget who it was that saved you from a life as little more than a trinket in your family's living room."

Vic'que stiffened and she saluted. "Where do I report sir?"

Thrawn blinked quietly and took his seat. "You are asking the wrong officer."

She looked like she was about to vomit as she turned to face Garin. "Where do I report sir?"

"The heavy cruiser Black Knight, the rest of our crew will be leaving the Avenger this evening at 1800 GST. Welcome aboard Lieutenant."

She saluted, and turned to leave without a backwards glance, her displeasure was almost tangible as she stomped from the room.

He turned back to Thrawn and saluted with a smile. "She'll do fine sir."

Thrawn nodded approvingly. "I thought she might, though I recommend you speak with your commando commander about self-defense."

Garin watched as the shuttle's wings swung upwards and the vessel touched down on the hangar deck.

"So after this we go out on our first cruise."

He nodded, not even turning as Toth joined him. "Wait until you see our latest pilot."

"Is he something special?" Toth asked, stretching. "These pilots we've already got are good; I've had a hard time nailing them in simulator runs."

"What about the others?"

"Well Kal and Matrin are almost unbeatable together though they've been tagged once or twice that I've seen. Harth is something else though, it's like watching a machine, he's flawless; took me and four other guys to finally get him."

Garin chuckled, yes Harth was good, and he was probably the best pilot he had in all honesty. "He and the new pilot are not going to get along well. She'll probably keep going until she falls asleep at the controls."

"Yeah well Ha—wait, she?" Toth asked in bewilderment. "First we have a woman captain for our ship, then we get a woman commanding our commando attachment and now we have a woman pilot?"

"You're forgetting our chief, she's a woman too."

"And a tail-head, but at least she looks good." Toth smiled at Garin. "Does this lady pilot look good too?"

"See for yourself." Garin said, nodding towards the lowering ramp on the shuttle.

Toth turned and stared, his eyes lighting up eagerly. "Oh, hold me, I think I'm in love."

Garin snorted. "You want her?" Toth nodded, "go right ahead, just remember to duck."

Toth wasn't listening anymore, he'd already strode off to greet Vic'que and was trying to take her bag from her, Garin wondered what would happen and considering her expression he had a feeling it wouldn't be conducive to Toth's health.

There was a knock on Garin's door; he looked up from his datapad quizzically.

"Enter."

Toth came in, scowling and holding a bruised cheek. "Remember that new pilot?" Garin snorted as Toth continued to scowl. "Well you can keep her sir, and that damned hook."

Garin turned to his desk and reached down to his cooled drawer and produced a tankard of Corellian Brandy.

"Don't tell anyone, but you look like you could use it."

He poured a glass, and handed it to Toth who took it gratefully, though he didn't drink it immediately, instead putting it against his bruised cheek. After a moment he finally did drink, sighing as he looked at Garin appreciatively.

"You are a lifesaver, and the secret stash is safe in my keeping. So what's the plan?"

"Thrawn gave us orders to start raiding Rebel depots and the like, we have a special hololink directly to him so I imagine that we'll get occasional requests to deal with specific incidents or even participate in fleet actions. For the most part though, we have free reign."

Toth raised his glass, "well here's to the Empire's first raiders."

Garin raised his own glass. "And here's to Lieutenant Sajuuk's right hook."

His friend glowered for a moment, before both men burst out laughing and poured another round of drinks.

Present interrogation room aboard the Mon Cal Cruiser Home One, Bilgringi Shipyards

"So that was your first cruise, and it lasted for how long?"

I shrugged easily, or as easily as I could in my restraints, "the remainder of that year and into the beginning of the next."

She nodded and went over her notes. "Your force composition was originally three squadrons, one assault gunboat unit, one missile boat unit, and a squadron of Avengers correct?"

I nodded, "yes."

"What kind of missions did you embark upon?"

"Commerce raiding, hit and runs, and deep strike missions against Rebel outposts. We stayed away from large scale conflicts and went after undefended targets, taking our cues from the Rebellion's own handbook actually. I think your side had a rather cute nickname for us."

She looked up at me, "cute?"

"Yes, the Black Bandits or something."

"The Blackened Rebels," she corrected. "You used our tactics so well and operated so differently from other Imperial units that it was originally assumed that you were a Rebel unit that had gone rogue or joined the Empire."

"Rogue Rebels that used Imperial hardware; that might actually make sense if it didn't sound utterly ridiculous. No Rebels could have been that well equipped at that time."

My tone must have struck something because she winced. "Well you made sure that your attacks were thorough. I believe two out of three attacks had no survivors."

I nodded, "secrecy was our best weapon, that and the uncertainty that came with it. We forced you to deal with an enemy that used your own tactics against you."

She ignored the barb and cleared her throat. "You said you started off using assault gun boats, missile boats and Avenger mark ones, but the first confirmed sighting of your unit shows a completely different composition in two of those squadrons."

"You mean the Defenders and Avenger mark twos we got after our first cruise."

"How did you come by the upgrade?"

"Simple, when our first cruise was over, we headed to our rendezvous to resupply and rearm. When we met with the convoy they informed us that they had orders to repossess our current fighters and give us new ones, the end result was the ship configuration you stated…."

Approximately six years earlier, deep space, aboard the cruiser Black Knight

Garin opened the door to the observation deck above the hangar to find Harth, Toth, Vic'que, Kalan, and Matrin already there.

"Admiring the new toys?" He asked no one in particular.

"You should see Daru," Matrin said with a smile.

"Yeah," Kalan continued, "she's practically falling over herself out there."

Garin looked out through the transparasteel down to the hangar below, and sure enough, Daru was darting this way and that pointing and waving as the new fighters were offloaded from their barge and the old fighters were loaded in their place. She did indeed seem to be having a good time. She was in her element, in the few months they'd been serving together, he'd learned that she was the best chief mechanic he could have asked for even if she wasn't human. How Thrawn had gotten her assigned to him was anyone's guess, but he was glad that she had been nonetheless.

"There's a command meeting in one hour, I expect all of you to be there."

There was a mixture of reactions, Harth nodded absently, his eyes never leaving the new Skipray Blastboats below, Toth smirked and threw a lopsided salute. Kalan and Matrin merely kept grinning like they always did, while Vic'que didn't even bat an eyelash. Despite serving with them all this time, she was still aloof and removed from the rest of the unit. She kept to herself, even with her own squadron, so far it hadn't been a problem so Garin hadn't pressed the subject, however sooner or later she'd have to come into the fold. He knew that her pilots thought that she was cold and didn't care about them, a few had complained to him or the other ranking officers. Even Harth, who was so laconic as to be painfully quiet, had his misgivings over her detached nature.

"I'm not letting some tail-head sign off on this equipment, I don't care who you say you are."

Daru glared at the loadmaster, her fists clenching as she breathed deeply, she had to remember that the Captain had asked her expressly not to start any fights today; but it was so hard when most Imperial junk heads thought she was worth less than axle grease, and it pissed her off.

"Is there a problem Deck Officer?"

Daru's temper immediately softened and she smiled as the loadmaster fell over himself. "No sir, nothing wrong sir."

Garin nodded as he strode past Daru, he was only average height, but he knew how to make that height count and Daru's smile broadened as she watched Garin stare down the offending officer and his companions.

"Good, now let's make sure we understand one another, this is a member of my crew, and you are being very disrespectful to her. Now you are going to finish offloading your cargo and taking on our cargo and then you are going to thank my chief for her assistance and get your hide off my ship before I decide to space you."

"Y-yes sir," Daru had to control her laughter as the man tripped over himself and his fellows in his hurry to get away from the Captain.

"Thank you sir, but you didn't have to do that."

Garin shrugged easily, "I remember what happened to the last man who decided to insult you."

Daru's blue skin darkened in a blush, yes, the last person who had brought up her species and gender and not let it go had ended up in the infirmary with three cracked ribs and a broken arm.

"I wasn't going to do anything sir, I remembered your request."

"What do you think of the new fighters?"

Daru's temperament switched instantly. "The new Avenger is amazing, I don't know when they built her exactly but she's going to fly rings around the older model. She has two more laser cannons and room for even more ordnance. I can't wait to get to work on them," she smiled at Garin mischievously. "I know you have a soft spot for your Star Wing but the Defender makes it look like a junker, it doesn't have the same missile payload but it's much faster has two more lasers and still retains the ion cannons. I guarantee you'll love them sir."

Garin nodded; looking over at the transport as it offloaded the third fighter type they'd been given.

"What about the blastboat?"

Daru frowned. "I'm not sure why the Admiral sent us that sir. It's a much more capable fighting platform than the missile boats yes, but it doesn't have anywhere near the warhead capacity. Plus it requires a crew of five instead of just one, not sure how he intends us to use it effectively since we'll be losing a squadron of twelve boats for a flight of three."

Garin smiled, "the Admiral sent us three more crew members, and I'm letting Harth organize the squadron how he sees fit. I'm sure we'll be able to work something out, they certainly give us a bit more firepower than the missile boat, even if we do lose the ordnance and numbers."

She nodded skeptically, "the lieutenant isn't going to be happy about the change sir."

Garin snorted, no, Harth wouldn't be happy about the change at all but they had to deal with what the Admiral gave them after all, it wasn't like they could object. If Thrawn ordered them to use a different ship type, they didn't have much choice in the matter.

"I've got to go get ready for the command meeting, will you be alright here?"

She smiled, looking over at the cheeky loadmaster. "I'll be fine; I don't think he wants to be thrown out the airlock."

Garin stepped into the meeting room and took a quick glance around, eyeing the group he'd come to consider family in the past months: the Knight's commanding officer, Captain Irianna Chapela, and her second, Commander Orlis Kindran, the commander of their assault team, Major Sissir Yvonne, and then there were his officers of course. He took his seat at the head of the table and leaned forwards, considering everyone around the table for a moment, in all reality it was a bizarre situation. Normally Fighter Command, which he was part of, was subservient to Fleet Command instead of the other way around. In this case though Thrawn had given him command priority. And certainly for an Imperial Army major to be under the command of a Fighter Command captain was nothing short of extraordinary.

"How are we doing?"

Irianna touched her console and a holo display came to life in the center of the table, allowing everyone to see the information that was displaying on her private console.

"We're nearly fully stocked with the necessary supplies, once that is completed we will be able to get underway for our next cruise. Given that the Rebellion still has little, if any, idea of who or what we are I expect that we will have similar success on our second deployment."

Sissir leaned forwards quietly, "did you acquire the new gear for my men?"

Garin liked Sissir, she was to the point and efficient, the fact that she had made major in a commando outfit in a male dominated military spoke volumes about her abilities.

"Yes, the new weapons and armor will be in your barracks by the time we're ready to depart."

She nodded her thanks, Garin turned to his pilots. "Now, we need to address something that I neglected on our first cruise." Everyone looked a little confused, he smirked. "Squadron names, we've yet to choose anything and I think it's time we do that."

"Diamond," Harth said.

Garin frowned, "that was quick."

Kalan and Matrin burst out laughing, "that's because we've been calling him Diamond One since Russani."

"So our bombers are now Diamond squad," he looked over at Vic'que. "What are your boys going to call themselves?"

"Call sign Wyvern."

Garin nodded approval, a slight smile. "My squad will be Shadow from now on."

"Sir there is one more thing," Harth said quietly. "These new blastboats and the three new squad members, how does the Admiral expect us to operate effectively with such a limited force?"

Garin shrugged apologetically, his face reflecting his own misgivings. "I honestly have no answers for you Harth, it is completely up to you how you want to operate the Skiprays, they're still capable strike and attack craft from what I've read on the designs. They're practically capital ships in their own right and they've got the best atmospheric performance of all our types."

Harth didn't seem placated, "I cannot guarantee that our bombing attacks will be nearly as effective as was previously the case."

Garin considered for a moment, sighing slightly as he reached a decision, Thrawn was not going to be happy. "Irianna, contact the hangar deck, tell them we'll be keeping our twelve missile boats and three of the gunboats. They can take back the Skiprays. Harth those gunboats are now under your command."

Harth nodded, a rare smile coming across his face, "thank you sir."

Kalan smiled, "uh oh, if he keeps this up, we'll have to stop calling him the diamond man."