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

Garin continued looking over the outcome of the last engagement, the spooks in the Cave, the nickname given to the Knight's CIC, had gotten info on a Rebel supply depot that was expecting a convoy. So of course Garin had ordered a strike, the initial attack had gone off like a charm, they'd disabled the facility's defenses and then the commandos had landed and commandeered the command systems. Garin had ordered the three squadrons under his command to hide on the far side of the moon and wait for the signal to attack. They'd waited for over an hour before the signal had come and they'd sprung the trap. The Rebels hadn't stood a chance, in less than five minutes the entire convoy was so much floating scrap, and three minutes after the supply base was leveled with charges placed by the commando team.

Remarkably in Garin's mind, they had yet to lose a single pilot; it was a welcome change from his first deployment. The nightmares of Russani still came back to him from time to time. His com board flashed and twittered; he reached over and hit the pick up.

"This is Durives."

"Kindran here sir, we've just received a distress call from a civilian convoy. They claim to under attack by unknown Imperial assailants."

Garin frowned, unknown Imperial assailants was a strange way to put it.

"Do a check Commander; are there any other units in this sector?"

"Negative, I had CIC check and re-check our databanks. If they are friendly then they've got deeper black status than we do."

He was silent, considering his options; he didn't have any orders about protecting civilians and risking his people over non-objective hostiles.

"Sir, they're attacking civilians." Kindran said pointedly, interjecting into Garin's thought process.

Garin nodded, smiling at Kindran's boldness, it was a quality he liked in Knight's XO.

"Battle alert, Wyvern and Shadow squadrons will scramble. Contact Admiral Thrawn as soon as possible, see if he knows anything about this."

"Yes sir, I'll wake the Captain."

"Thank you Commander."

The blue and white light collapsed into thousands of points of light as Garin dropped out of hyperspace. He hadn't known what to expect given the situation, but it wasn't what was in front of him. The convoy had taken a pounding and several of the ships were already destroyed; there were small, unidentified craft darting back and forth amongst the remaining freighters.

His com crackled, "attention incoming craft, we are under attack, please he—oh god, more Imperials."

Garin scowled, "civilian craft, we are here to assist. Do not; I repeat do not fire on our craft." He switched over to the wing frequency. "Alright, Wyverns, Shadows, targets are the fighters attacking the convoy. Engage."

He accelerated, the Defender's raw power outstripping the slower Avengers, though the Avengers were not far behind and they quickly joined the furball that developed seconds later as the hostile fighters moved to engage Hades. He swore as one of the fighters rocketed past him, and spun as target alerts blared, these were some impressive pilots. Who in the galaxy was he up against?

"Did you see that? Looked like a TIE fighter with a booster on its back, what are we fighting here?"

"I have no idea Toth, just shoot them before they shoot you."

"No objections sir." Toth said brightly.

"Shadow One, this is Wyvern One. I have several large shuttles on the outskirts of the engagement zone. They don't appear to be part of the convoy, permission to engage?"

"Negative Sajuuk, the fighters are our priority."

"But si—"

"You are not to engage any other targets until the fighters are dealt with, we do not know what we are dealing with here and I will not have us splitting our forces."

Garin spun, firing a linked burst of his ion and laser cannons into the target he'd been pursuing. The lasers went wide, but the ion cannons hit, blue lighting coursed over the hull and the fighter just stopped dead in space, Garin's own craft slammed into the frozen fighter and he temporarily lost control as his Defender careened through space.

"Lead, are you okay?" One of his wing mates called out.

"I'm fine, did anyone else see that?" Garin growled as he regained control, thanking the stars for his shields.

"Yes sir, it just stopped dead. No idea what caused it, you didn't hit it hard enough for the ion cannons to do that."

Garin rolled and opened fire on his latest pursuer, this time just with his lasers to avoid a repeat performance of the strange stall from the last fighter. This time he got a satisfying explosion, at least they blew up easily. The fighters seemed to be bizarre ad hoc TIE variants with various add-ons and modifications. What in space was going on?

"Captain, the transports are bugging out, so are the fighters; looks like they don't want to play anymore."

"Alright, flight leaders check your elements and account for everyone. Wyvern One, signal the Black Knight tell them to jump in, these civilians will need aid and repair crews. Wyvern will take up patrol duties on the perimeter; Shadow will remain in close and protect the Knight."

A chorus of affirmatives greeted him, he watched his scanners as the last of the unknown fighters jumped into hyperspace; his mind ill at ease. Who had access to enough TIE parts to produce such weird fighters, and why were they attacking civilians?

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

"And that was your first encounter with the unknown TIE variants?"

I nodded, taking another gulp of water and finishing up the glass, I held it up curiously, and she scowled. She took the glass from me and went to the door; another orderly was standing there with another full glass. What was this, a luxury liner?

"At the time we were unable to raise Thrawn, I'm still not sure what he was doing, but in the week it took us to contact him we engaged the unknown fighters three more times in that sector. By that point it was pretty obvious that we were either dealing with a deep black operation that had orders to kill anyone they encountered, or a rogue that had access to TIE manufacturing facilities."

She nodded, "what happened once Thrawn did contact you?"

I smiled, "what usually happened when someone crossed Thrawn….."

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

"And they never once tried to hail you." Thrawn said his expression grim.

"No sir, the first encounter we did not hail them either, I thought that it was obvious who we should be helping; but on all subsequent engagements we hailed them before hailing the ships under attack and never received any response."

Thrawn nodded thoughtfully. "And of course you searched all the ships in the convoy thoroughly."

"Yes sir, Major Yvonne went over each ship personally and I had her conduct the same search on all other ships that were attacked. We never found anything that would warrant an Imperial attack."

Again Thrawn's image nodded, Garin could just imagine the rest of the Admiral's body, reclining slightly in his chair, his fingers steepled in front of him as he considered the facts. Thrawn's gaze flicked off to the side for a moment, no doubt consulting a screen before he looked back at Garin.

"I have down thorough checks of the Imperial database and even approached the Emperor on this matter. As far as I can find, there are no records of your mystery fighters. We have been tasked with finding out more about our new foes and if possible destroying them before they become more than a nuisance."

Garin nodded agreement, "another thing sir, I assume you've seen the reports about how the fighters behaved when struck by an ion cannon, any ideas?"

Thrawn smiled indulgently. "Come now Captain, I'm sure you can figure that out for yourself."

Garin remained silent, feeling a bit foolish as Thrawn sighed and shook his head. "To think that I have such hopes for you; very well, they're remote controlled, and if I had to guess I would say that the shuttles Lieutenant Sajuuk first spotted are the controllers. The ion blasts, while not enough to outright disable them, are enough to disrupt communications between the fighters and their controllers. I imagine they have an emergency stop that activates when they lose signal between the controller and the fighter, hence why they simply drift once hit with an ion blast."

"So all this time I should have been going after the shuttles instead of the fighters." Garin said, feeling like a true idiot, Vic'que was not going to let him live this one down.

"Indeed, do not trouble yourself with it;" Thrawn's gaze flicked over Garin's shoulder and a smile appeared on his features, "this is a new tactic that I doubt many people have seen. You cannot be expected to foresee the unknown. I am transmitting your new orders, Thrawn out."

The hologram died and the room was dark for a moment before the lights flicked on again, Garin stood and unplugged his datapad from the terminal eyeing the new orders curiously. They were to stop all anti-Rebel activity until this new threat was assessed, he had no problems with that, he could do with a little vacation from Rebel raiding. He turned to find Vic'que leaning against the doorjamb, smiling smugly.

"You should have listened to me."

Garin eyed her for a moment before shrugging. "How long were you standing there?"

"Long enough to know Thrawn is disappointed in you, Captain."

He really didn't want to have this discussion with her right now; he had other things to take care of.

"If you're done gloating, I need to speak with Captain Chapela." He tried to move past her but she didn't move. "Excuse me Lieutenant."

"I don't think you're fit to command this unit. Your tactics in these past few engagements haven't helped us at all. If you'd have listened to me then the enemy would have been defeated that much sooner."

"Everyone makes their share of mistakes."

"I don't." She said her voice holier than thou.

Garin sighed, looking down at her coolly. "Do you really want to have this discussion Lieutenant Sajuuk?"

"I don't think there is anything to discuss, sir. I have already submitted my opinion to the Admiral."

Garin felt his stomach clench and he squeezed his fist quietly, was she really trying to get him removed? Fine, then he had no reason to be kind any longer just because she was Thrawn's pet project.

"You are a disgrace to your uniform Lieutenant," his voice now sounded formal, no longer the easy going tone that he normally spoke with. "You tell me that I am a failure as a commander when you yourself can't seem to fathom your own flaws."

"I told you, I have no flaws," she said, her smugness almost palpable.

"Yes you do, you belittle and ignore your subordinates to the point where they feel that their lives mean nothing to you."

He tapped a key on his datapad and handed it to her, smiling coolly. She looked down at it and her face began turning red, though whether from anger or embarrassment he couldn't tell.

"Who has been telling you this?" She asked acidly.

Anger, Garin thought to himself, a smug smile of his own coming to his face. "Your pilots, I've kept their complaints anonymous for obvious reasons, but they've been making these statements to myself and other officers since our first engagements. I was going to leave it alone and trust that you would simply fall into the fold. However since you've seen fit to submit your displeasure with my command to Thrawn, well I feel it only fair to do the same, and as you can see, I have more than my own misgivings to go own."

She stiffened visibly as Garin continued. "Furthermore Lieutenant, as you seem to have forgotten, the men under your command trust you with their lives and you have been treating them like servants and they are very resentful of that fact. The only reason I haven't transferred you to Diamond or Shadow squadron and assigned a new commander to Wyvern is because you're a damned good pilot and combat leader even if your people skills leave much to be desired." He took the datapad back from her stiff fingers. "Now get out of my way, I am going to submit these complaints into the ships log."

Vic'que bit her lip and took a deep breath, still blocking his path. "You cannot speak to me like this male. You are not even of the same caste as I am."

She stood only three inches shorter than him, but at that moment he seemed to tower over her as he smiled darkly. "Your caste does not apply here Lieutenant. You are no better than any other man under my command. Right now, Chief Sequin is more valuable to me than you are, and much more reliable."

That remark hit where he expected, "you dare compare me to that blue skinned trash! I wo—"

"You will shut up, and get out of my way Lieutenant before I call Major Yvonne and ask that she assign a pair of commandos to your quarters."

This time he was ready for her punch and moved out of the way, he'd taken Thrawn's jest to heart and taken part in several of the commando unit's training sessions. He twisted her arm and rammed his foot against her knee, dropping her to the floor with a sickening crunch. She groaned as he held her arm, pinning her to the deck, with his free hand he pulled out his comlink.

"Sissir?"

"Here sir," came the Major's crisp voice.

"Send two of your men to my quarters and escort Lieutenant Sajuuk to the infirmary. Once the medics have cleared her for duty, she is confined to quarters until I say otherwise."

There was a brief pause, and then Sissir's voice came back to him. Garin swore that he heard mirth in her tone.

"I'm coming up personally sir; we'll take care of her."

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

"You ordered one of your command staff confined to quarters after breaking her leg?" My interrogator asked in a stunned voice.

I chuckled fondly at the memory, "yes, in hindsight it wasn't the best way to resolve the situation but I wasn't exactly going to let her punch me again. Though in all honesty, had I felt so inclined I had grounds to have her shot, so confining her to quarters and giving her command to her second was the mildest I could have done wouldn't you agree?"

She frowned at me and I smiled at her, she'd never been in combat in the kind of situations we had been in. We had our own way of doing things developed and we operated outside the normal chain of command, we even had a code that enabled me to order Fleet Captains, who would have normally outranked me, to assist Hades Wing in its missions.

"So why did you?"

I blinked, coming back from my memories, "pardon?"

"Why didn't you have her shot since you obviously could have."

I shrugged, these restraints were really getting old, I had considered asking that they be removed but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon I knew.

"Because despite her arrogance, she was a fine combat officer and a damned good pilot; I couldn't afford to lose those skills when we had no way to replace them until our next cruise."

"So when did you begin to hunt down these experimental fighters?"

"Immediately….."