Approximately five years earlier, Endor orbit, approaching the atmosphere of the Sanctuary Moon

"Lieutenant-Commander Durives, you will withdraw now,"

"Negative Commander, I am not leaving Lieutenant Sajuuk out here to burn."

"That is an order Durives, I will not repeat myself."

"Get spaced sir."

Garin killed the link and blocked Stele's line on his comms board as he continued racing towards Vic'que's plummeting Avenger, he shifted all his power to shields and engines.

"Vic'que, can you hear me?"

"I don't want to die," came the whimpered response, Garin scowled.

"Would you calm down, I need you to have a clear head otherwise you will die."

There was no response for a moment, but then her voice came back clearly, "you'll save me sir?"

"If you'll work with me, now tell me the status of your ship."

"My engines are gone so are my thrusters, severe damage to the aft of my ship."

Her voice was quivering but at least she'd calmed down enough to talk coherently Garin thought to himself as he maneuvered behind her damaged fighter, he was impressed it was still in one piece, the entire rear third of the fuselage and part of the solar paneled wings had been blown away.

"Alright, I need you to put everything you've got into shields, copy that? Otherwise you're going to burn up."

"Yes sir," she responded shakily, Garin watched his scanner as her shields integrity climbed to maximum levels.

"Alright goo—"

Laserfire splashed against his aft shields and he rolled and ducked out of the way, though he kept Vic'que in front of him, shielding her from whatever maniac was taking potshots at them.

"The Commander ordered you to withdraw Durives, now withdraw."

"Get off my tail Talen; I don't have time for you."

Another laser blast rocked the Defender and Garin swore, "Talen, this is your last warning."

Talen laughed coldly, "not likely traitor."

Garin sighed, "your master is dead and you're still following his orders, what a waste, Harth?"

"He's mine."

A moment later, Talen's Avenger erupted as combined laserfire and two concussion missiles tore into his fighter.

"You're clear sir," Harth commented stoically.

"Hey leader," Matrin called, "Stele is ordering the Shrikes to intercept, what do you want to do?"

Garin's mouth set in annoyance, why were people so stupid? All he wanted to do was save one life in the midst of all this killing. "Harth I am giving command to you, Hades is yours until I get back, wipe the floor with them."

Harth's voice was viciously cold, "with pleasure, Hades, engage the Shrikes, ignore those that run, kill the rest."

"Oh about time, I've wanted to do this all day!" Kalan said gleefully.

Garin felt a cold pit form in his stomach, he'd just ordered his people to attack another Imperial unit, he shook his head to clear it; there was no time to worry about that now.

"Vic'que are you still there?"

"Garin…I'm scared."

"Good, that means you're still alive, hang on, this is going to jerk you around a bit."

He targeted her ship, locking on and firing his beam weapon, the tractor latched onto her ship and both fighters jerked and lurched violently as his tractor beam tried to arrest Vic'que's descent.

Her voice came over the comms dejectedly, "it's no good sir, you can't pull me clear of a planet's gravity with that thing, just go….I-I'll be alright."

Garin scowled, "Vic'que, if you do not start acting like an officer in Hades I will kill you myself, do you understand?"

"But sir—"

"Shut up, I'm not trying to pull you clear; I'm trying to slow you down."

He saw the entry alerts going off as they entered the atmosphere, the buffeting increasingly violent as his shields became visible from the heat they were dealing with. Then, as quickly as they'd entered it, they were clear of the worst of the atmosphere and in the planet's sky, he pulled his yoke to the side, trying to aim for a portion of the ground that wasn't as heavily forested, of course since the entire surface as far as he could see was forested, this was a relative term.

"Sir, he abandoned me, I never thought he'd do it…he told me so much, about himself, his doubts, his fears; and he left me to die."

Garin gritted his teeth, struggling with the controls, "we can have this discussion once we are on the ground, for now just concentrate on monitoring your shields."

There was a pause, "yes sir."

The first of the massive trees rose up to meet them, and Garin watched Vic'que's shields shredded through the canopy, without engines or lasers to worry about powering, she was able to put all her power into her shields and that saved her from being crushed by the massive trees. Garin's Defender followed in her wake, plowing through whatever trees weren't already disintegrated. A moment later, they hit the ground, both fighters bounced and rolled and Garin thanked Zaarin for having the sense to install crash netting in the Defender, it was an ironic thought that he owed his life to a man he'd help kill. His Defender finally rolled to a stop and he was able to catch his breath, granted he was upside down, but he was not going to be choosy, he was alive. He hit the release on his harness and dropped to the ceiling of his cockpit, kicking the door open, his fighter was wedged between two trees and that enabled him to scramble out, but not before grabbing the survival kit under the crash couch.

He surveyed the wreckage with a wince, it wasn't going to be flying anytime soon that was certain, looking around he found Vic'que's fighter, equally battered about two hundred meters behind his. He crossed the distance, the short trek made easier by the path carved out by the crashing Defender, when he reached the Avenger he banged on the plasteel cockpit with the butt of his carbine. At first Vic'que didn't move, but when he banged again, she shifted, lifting her helmeted head up to look at him. He couldn't tell what expression she wore, whether elated at being alive, or depressed that she'd been abandoned by a man she'd called her lover.

He pried her cockpit hatch off and reached a hand down for her. "Come on Lieutenant; let's get you out of here."

She took the offered hand and he pulled her up out of the cockpit, she'd had enough clarity of mind to grab her own kit at least, that meant he didn't have to go dig it out himself.

They sat on her fighter's hull for a moment before she spoke, "thank you sir…I'm sorry I panicked."

Garin didn't respond he'd taken his helmet off and was staring blankly at their surroundings, everything seemed so blurry, slowly, his eyes closed and he felt himself falling, the last thing he remembered hearing was Vic'que shouting his name.

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

"That was Hades?" Deanna asked in surprise.

"What was us?" I responded with a raised brow.

"Immediately following the disabling of the Eleemosynary there were readings on a small skirmish between what appeared to be two groups of Imperial fighters, Intelligence never could figure out what it was."

I chuckled, "that would have been Stele being a stubborn fool and getting his men shot to pieces."

"Yes, we did notice that the fight seemed one sided once the two sides actually squared off."

"The Shrikes never trained as vigorously as the rest of Hades, and as much as our pilots griped and groaned, all the training paid off and we all knew it. We were just flat out better than the Shrikes with a few exceptions and I'm happy to say that was proven that day."

She nodded, "it was a brave thing you did, going down after Lieutenant Sajuuk, can I ask, why did you try so hard to save her?"

"That has to be," I said eyeing her pointedly, "one of the dumbest questions you have asked me this entire time."

She scowled at me, as if I'd severely insulted her intelligence or something, "you were willing to risk Stele shooting you down over one of your pilots, and it was one that you didn't even particularly get along with."

I stared at her in silence for a long while, feeling the seconds tick by as we looked across the table at one another, finally I sighed and shook my head. "Don't ever take a command position."

She bristled, "what is that supposed to mean?"

"With that attitude, anyone who serves under you will never feel like they mean anything to you; and without that respect you'll never garner their loyalty."

She glowered at me for a moment more, it didn't really matter to me, and it was honest advice. You could be as stringent and disciplined as you pleased, but if you didn't give your people the sense that you would die for them, there was very little you could accomplish.

"What exactly happened to you after you got her out of her fighter?" She finally said.

I smiled and shrugged, "combat fatigue, I'd been fighting for over three hours in a sealed flightsuit, and had just crash landed two fighters simultaneously after going through what was basically an uncontrolled atmospheric entry. Adrenaline had kept me from realizing how tired I was until I finally stopped moving. When I did that, my body caught up with me…."

Approximately five years earlier, Endor, the Sanctuary Moon

Garin woke to a chorus of chirps and calls that echoed through the trees, it was almost pitch black, nighttime he realized. He did a quick jog through his memory; he'd been out for at least five hours. His flightsuit had been dismantled; his life support gear removed leaving him far more freedom of movement. Propping himself up he looked around, he was sheltered under the hull of the Avenger, besides its bulbous cockpit, Vic'que sat with her knees tucked under her chin by the small heater that doubled as a light source. The heater gave off a soft warm glow, casting their surroundings in a strange orange twilight, beyond the circle of light cast by the equipment everything was dark. He lifted himself to his feet, careful not to bang his head on the hull above him and walked bent at the waist over to Vic'que.

"Welcome back sir," she said miserably, "I thought you might die and leave me alone here."

He snorted, considering what they'd both just survived he imagined that it would take more than a crash landing to kill either of them at this point.

"Have there been any communications?"

She shook her head, "I was monitoring the comms earlier, but there's nothing but Alliance chatter, mopping up stragglers, salvaging what they can from the wrecks," she shrugged, "burying the dead."

Garin sat down besides her, reaching over and picking up an MRE* tearing the wrapper off and biting into the tasteless bar of nutrients. It tasted quite literally like nothing—which was disturbing in its own right—but he wouldn't need to eat again for the next twenty hours or so, longer if he remained inactive, and that was the part he cared about, he was hungry.

Vic'que was watching him with a half-hearted scowl, "how can you eat at a time like this?"

He looked at her and shrugged, "do you want to starve to death?" He responded, offering her part of the bar, she took it and nibbled on it half-heartedly.

Garin leaned back against the solar paneling on the wing, looking out at the forest beyond the light of the heater. It really was quite beautiful if you discounted that they were stranded here and that there were probably some respectably sized carnivores living in the forest somewhere. His eyes tracked scatterings of movement in the trees as the minutes wore on, nothing came near their position, but there was plenty of movement beyond the safety of the light. Whatever was out there, dangerous or not, didn't want to approach the glow and that was fine by him; he reached over and pulled one of the carbines besides him, flipping the safety off just in case.

"What do you think will happen first, the animals kill us, or the environment?"

Garin blinked and chuckled as he responded to the question, "or we could kill each other."

"How are you still joking about this?"

Vic'que turned to face him, her long gold blonde hair flowing over her shoulders as her piercing green eyes glowered at him.

"Vic'que, if you were this weak willed all along, why on earth did you ever accept Thrawn's patronage in the first place?"

The remark had the desired effect and she seemed almost to shrivel away from him, "because I didn't have any other options except to breed the next generation, my two older sisters were the ones that the family fortune and business would go to, so I joined the Fleet to escape, Thrawn noticed my scores and took an interest in my advancement."

Garin snorted, "yet another pawn."

"What do you mean?" She asked, her tone threatening. "I am no ones pawn."

"You, me, Hades; Thrawn is building something here, something he intends to use. We've all been his tools from the moment he conceived of this unit, some of us, like you and Daru, have been under his eye longer I imagine; but we've all ended up in the same place."

"Don't compare me with her, I concede that she's a brilliant mechanic, but I do not want to be placed in the same light as a tail head."

"That's probably one of the kindest things you've ever said of her." Garin said mildly, "your xenophobia doesn't suite you I hope you realize."

She looked at him like he was stupid, "how do you reason that argument?"

"Simple, you're a woman in a male dominated navy where women are looked down upon as inferior; you despise that so you work harder than anyone around you to prove them wrong. Daru is the same."

"No, I'm human, she isn't." Vic'que said pointedly.

"Does it really matter what form the persecution takes? She's persecuted because she isn't human; you're persecuted because you aren't male. There's little difference in the end result."

She was silent then, Garin didn't feel smug about pointing out the flaw in her logic, it was just a simple fact. He turned his attention back to the forest and its sounds. He listened as animals called to each other and the night, the snap of a branch, the rustling of a bush, and the whistle of the wind drifting between the gargantuan trees. He couldn't think of being anywhere that ever felt so alive.

"Do you think we could have won?"

He looked back to Vic'que, she was staring up at the hull of the fighter, but she wasn't looking at it, she was looking beyond it, up beyond the atmosphere to where no doubt the Rebel Fleet still orbited in the wreckage of the battle.

"At which point," he asked, following her gaze.

"After Vader and the Emperor died," she sounded like she couldn't believe her own words; it was a hard pill to swallow. No one could have imagined that the battle would end as it had. He still wasn't sure how it had happened.

"If the fleet had rallied instead of run, yes, we could have won." He said finally.

She winced, "that makes me feel even worse, knowing that we lost because of cowardice."

Garin considered all the outcomes of the battle, to him, the Empire's victory would have been a double edged sword, more so if the Emperor or Vader had survived, because that would have meant that the Shrikes would have had more than stupidity backing up their aggression.

"All I know right now is that if I ever meet Pellaeon I'm going to have a hard time not spitting on his boots."

Vic'que actually smiled, an improvement over her consistently dour expression until now; "you're too soft sir."

He shrugged, "if you'd rather punch him, be my guest."

*MRE: Meal-Ready-to-Eat