Approximately 18 months earlier, deep space, aboard the Black Knight
"Disband? Are you out of your mind?"
Garin held up his hand before anyone could complain further, "we're running out of targets and more importantly places to hide and resupply. Isard is gone, Zsinj is either dead or hiding*, the Remnant is in shambles, and the Republic controls most major systems. The only ones that remain are warlords like Krennel who we cannot take on, the random criminal conglomerate and unaffiliated systems just trying to stay unnoticed until things settle down. I don't trust the Remnant or the Republic, and none of us want to repeat our performance of a few months ago with another Zsinj."
There was quiet for a long time, the entire unit was assembled in the hangar, all of the officers were already aware of Garin's intent, he was just breaking it to the rest of the crew. As he looked at his people he met Daru's gaze, she'd recovered remarkably well; he wasn't sure if it was the trauma from the yank he'd given her lekku, or if her distress had simply run its course. In any case, she was back to her old self, accepting their relationship. They'd both been avoiding each other since leaving Zsinj's employment, what he saw in her gaze now was a quiet sorrow. For her, and others, Hades had been a home, not away from home, but home. Garin himself certainly didn't have any home other than the Knight, though once the unit disbanded he'd return to Coruscant and find his sister and cousins again provided they hadn't moved. He had no idea what the others were going to do though, especially those like Daru who truly had no where to go.
"Sir, if you don't mind I have something to say as well."
Iriana took the stand as Garin stepped aside with a nod, watching her quietly and bracing for what was coming.
"The Lieutenant-Commander is disbanding the unit; however I will not relinquish this ship to that fate. I intend to maintain the Black Knight and her equipment until we find a new role to play. Those that wish to stand down will be given passage to the nearest neutral station or planet you all have access to your pay, you are free to do as you choose. For those that stay aboard, I will be eternally grateful for your assistance in maintaining the Knight she's been good to us, she deserves better than scuttling."
Iriana stood back and let Garin take over once again as the murmuring that had begun when Iriana first spoke built further, he wanted to end this quickly.
"Those of you that might consider rejoining will be issued an email** address which you may use to contact the Knight should you desire to return to service. Those issued will in turn be contacted if the unit reforms in totality." He found Daru looking at him again and quickly looked back across the rest of the crew. "This is the end of our fight ladies and gentlemen; I wish you the best of luck in your new lives."
"So what are you going to do when you leave," Matrin asked quietly, nursing his drink in an unusually quiet manner.
Toth leaned back and smiled wistfully, "I think I'm going home to Chandrilla, start a vineyard or brewery; something like that, why pay for it when I can grow it and make it myself."
Kalan snorted, "you're a drunk to the bitter end."
Toth's smile turned cheery, "and your jokes are terrible, no one's perfect."
"Hey, my jokes aren't terrible; they're just in bad taste."
Sissir leaned over Toth's shoulder, kissing him softly and touching her glass to his, "don't think you're losing me that easily. You'll need someone to make sure everything runs smoothly."
Toth smirked and threw up his hands, "no faith, no faith at all."
Everyone chuckled, Vic'que leaned forwards, a thin smile on her features, "I'm joining the Remnant." Their mirth melted away as she continued, "the 181st could use a few female pilots."
Garin and the others all exchanged quiet glances; none of them said anything about Vic'que's motivations for going to the Remnant, there was an awkward silence that floated in the air for several moments before Harth spoke up.
"I'm staying on, there's no life I'd rather live than this."
Kalan and Matrin exchanged glances before piling atop of the larger man with liquor induced levity.
"Then," Kalan began.
"We're staying too," Matrin finished, "after all."
"Diamond One needs someone," Kalan supplied.
"To lighten the mood," Matrin concluded, both of them grinning.
"They're finishing each other's thoughts now, can we shoot them yet," Sissir asked, mock terror written over her face.
The expression on Harth's face was one of annoyance and even despair, but Garin caught the glint behind his eye and smiled privately. Harth would have gotten lonely without the two idiots in tow. He still wasn't sure who would be staying aboard the Knight and who would be going home or wherever they were headed. He looked around at his friends, noting the absence of Daru, she had declined Toth's invitation rather abruptly when it had been given. Iriana had more important matters to attend to, like preparing the Knight for operations with a skeleton crew. He still wasn't sure how many would remain behind when they had the option of leaving. The unit was close knit, but when there was nothing left to fight for what was the point of fighting?
"What about you Commander," Sissir asked, breaking into his thoughts.
He sighed and shrugged, "I'm going back to Coruscant. So long as I keep a low profile there shouldn't be a problem. Besides, who is going to look for a Imperial Fleet officer in the heart of the Republic?"
"You still have family there," Toth asked.
"If they haven't moved, and if they haven't the first thing I'm doing is finding a reason for them to move."
Matrin smirked, "one of those neighborhoods huh? Obroa-Skai had those too; but they're just so quaint that no one wants to get rid of them. What with the mugging, gangs, and murders, who wouldn't want it?"
Kalan snorted and nodded, "yeah, and if you were feeling really bored you could always start a riot, get in some looting while you were at it."
"If I need that kind of entertainment I'll be sure to find you two," Garin said with a snort. "I'm thinking go play flight instructor for a while, there are enough small spaceports. There's bound to be a few flight schools that can use a good instructor."
Harth smiled; as usual the expression looked strangely dangerous on him "Instructing them to do what, shoot at other trainees?"
Kalan leapt to the challenge, "class today we are fitting your ships with live weapons, have fun and try not to die."
"Then I hope the two of you attend one of those lessons," Vic'que said, eyeing Kalan and Matrin with a vicious smile of her own, "I'll go through the humiliation of flight school to shoot you down."
"Have to catch us first," Matrin said with an easy grin, "and you'll have all the spacies flying around trying not to run into one another to contend with."
"I'll just shoot anyone that gets in my way, I'm sure the 181st won't mind a little raid on Coruscant," she responded with a benign smile.
Matrin's expression was rather uninspired as he feigned a shiver of terror; Garin chuckled and shook his head, taking another sip of his drink.
"Can we refrain from shooting my students? I'd like to earn a living you know."
"Excuse me, do you mind if I join you?"
They all looked up from their conversation to find Daru standing in the doorway of Toth's cabin; she looked more than a little nervous.
Sissir stood up and guided the younger woman into the room, "come on, any of the guys try anything I'll kick their rears into space."
She nodded and took the offered seat and drink that Toth handed her, "sorry I couldn't come earlier; the hangar is still a bit of a mess after the last attack."
No one mentioned the deaths that had come with the 'mess' as Daru took her first tentative sips of her liquor, her lekku trembling as the liquid passed her lips.
"So Blue," Vic'que finally said, leaning forwards with a predatory smile, "what are you going to do?"
Daru shook her head, "I haven't decided yet," her gaze passed briefly over Garin before moving away just as quickly as it had come. "I really don't know what I can do. I don't have a home to go back to, there are something's I'd like to do but really they're just dreams…I may just stay if Captain Chapela will let me. I assume she'll still need someone to maintain the fighters and transports."
"Most of my commandos are going home," Sissir said quietly, "especially after that last fiasco with Rapier*** Two. All of them though, are taking the address to contact the Knight again. Who knows, we might see them again."
"I hope we all get to see each other again, regardless of what happens," Daru said, holding her glass gingerly in her hands and looking at the deck.
"Oh don't worry, if you choose to stick around you won't be alone," Matrin said cheerily.
"Yep," Kalan said as Daru looked up at the pair, "we're staying behind to keep Harth company; we should be able to spare some time for you too right Mat?"
Matrin nodded, "well we can't let her work on the ship by herself, she'll need a few extra hands and we might as well be useful at least once in our lives."
"Hey I'm very useful," Kalan objected fitfully.
"Yes," Harth murmured darkly, "you provide Vic'que and myself an excellent target during training."
More jokes were traded, but Garin wasn't paying attention, his gaze was on Daru and hers was on him. He didn't like what he saw there, questions, and a distance that he hadn't seen before even when he'd botched things so badly before. Even if she was back to normal, things between them would never be the same.
Present, interrogation room aboard the Mon Cal Cruiser Home One, Bilbringi Shipyards
"What did she ultimately decide?"
"Hmm," I looked up, yawning and shaking my head. "Sorry."
Deana scowled, "Chief Kerrila."
"She decided to stay aboard the Knight; everyone else went off to live their own lives for the most part. Only a handful of our unit chose to stay with Iriana and Orlis; the rest went back to the galaxy, some had family like me that they hadn't seen in a very long time. Others were just tired of fighting; almost everyone took the email address that was handed out."
"What was that address?"
I snorted, "you don't seriously expect me to let you track down the rest of my people do you?"
"You have been awfully cooperative, I thought you might want to go a little further," she said simply.
"I'm tired, of this war, of people like you, and of the fact that everyone thinks that I can be used as they see fit. I'm giving you this information because it is no longer relevant and won't endanger anyone who served with me. Anything that will endanger them," I smiled grimly, "well lets just say you'll have to get more creative than asking me nicely."
"How many times do I have to repeat myself, we don't torture our prisoners of war."
"Well then I suppose you'll just have to cope with the fact that I'm not going to answer some of your questions."
Her eyes narrowed and she sighed heavily, turning to her notes as she composed herself and regained her thoughts.
"Alright, let's skip ahead, when exactly did you reenter Imperial service, since you obviously did."
I snorted, it hadn't exactly been an invitation I could refuse, not when you considered who had sent the invitation.
Approximately 14 months earlier, Coruscant
"Alright that's enough for today; bring them in nice and easy."
Garin watched as his students in the simulators brought their ships in and landed them, his eyes narrowing.
"Three, trim up or you're going to pitch over, Two you're coming in too hard, you aren't trying to plant the thing. Four do not make me repeat myself again, this is the third time."
He sighed and leaned against the control console with a scowl, at least one of his students was showing some promise. The others were clumsy at best, but at least none of them had gotten killed this time. The last simulator run Three and Two had both tried to land in the same spot, it hadn't exactly been pretty. One and Four had aborted their runs in time to attempt the landing again when both keyed their repulsorlifts to get clear of the wreck. Four though, had the annoying tendency to land without her gear deployed or rather, not allowing it enough time to deploy. At this rate, if she kept it up, he'd flunk her. Two and Three were in danger as well. This wasn't his first group of washouts, but so far he'd been able to pass at least one of his students in each class, usually two but he couldn't win them all.
"You're pretty hard on them," observed the tech who monitored the simroom.
He looked at her and shrugged, "if they're getting themselves killed in the sims, then they sure as space aren't going to make it to the real thing."
She chuckled and looked at him with a conspirator's smile. Garin hated when she did that, he was pretty sure he knew why she did it and he wasn't biting; didn't stop her from trying it though.
"You've been the talk of the port since signing on as an instructor, no one buys that you're an ex-merc though. Ex-military is more likely I think, but which side were you on I wonder."
"I've told you at least a dozen times by now, I was with Zsinj until the Republic took an interest in him, I decided it was too hot and made my way here to find my sister. That's all there is to it."
She smiled and leaned forwards, "you know girls love the mysterious ones."
"I'll start carrying a letter detailing my exploits," Garin growled as he turned and left the control room and strode to the locker room where they were putting their flight suits away. They all stopped what they were doing, but only One looked at him, the others didn't want to meet his gaze. It was an interesting bunch, One was a Falleen, Two was a Zabrak, Three was a Devaronian, and Four was Quarren. It was quite an interesting bunch indeed.
"One, you're dismissed, you three aren't going anywhere."
There was a collection of what amounted to groans, but One didn't go anywhere, Garin looked at her for a moment before sighing and shaking his head.
"If you want to stay be my guest, but I don't have anything important to say to you."
"Sir, can I have a word with you?"
Garin turned to find One standing by the exit to the spaceport's training facility, he turned back and continued walking without saying anything. A moment later, One followed after him.
"I wanted to ask you something."
"Go ahead."
"Do you ever remember any of our names?"
Garin blinked and stopped to look at her, considering for a moment before shrugging.
"No."
"Why not, it would certainly help if you called us something other than numbers.'
"Does it really matter," he replied, "you're passing, that's all you need to know."
"Bu—"
"Lieutenant-Commander Durives, might I have a word?"
Garin turned, along with One to find a short, broad shouldered figure gathered in a cloak standing in the shadows of an alley.
"Perhaps," Garin finally replied after a brief securitization of this newcomer.
"This isn't open to debate, I might have made it sound like a request, but believe me, it wasn't."
Garin looked at One briefly and sighed, "Ziaara, you should do home now."
One froze and looked at him in confusion, "bu—"
"Just go," Garin said resignedly. "This isn't something you need to worry about."
She paused, and then nodded, turning to leave, the figure smiled, Garin could tell because the dim light gleamed off a predator's set of teeth.
"A wise choice, she would have been killed otherwise."
"Someone I pissed off the last few years wants me dead I take it."
"Hardly," the figure growled, "Thrawn summons you."
Author's Note: I seem to be getting back into the swing of things, I'm going to try and finish this story before my navy recruitment gets much further developed and I lose that ability, sorry its taken all this time. Hope I haven't lost too many of my readers in the process. Hades Wing is back in action and you'll finally get to see how everything turns out.
*Zsinj's whereabouts were unknown after the converted hull of the Razor's Kiss, Zsinj's second Super Star Destroyer, (it was destroyed but the Warlord salvaged the ship and rechristened this rebuilt vessel the Second Death) was used to fake the destruction of the Iron Fist. He was later found by Han Solo, Lea Organa, and Luke Skywalker and ultimately killed when Solo destroyed the Iron Fist's bridge with a missile salvo from the Millennium Falcon.
**While I don't know if it operates in the same manner as our email, there is definitely a form of electronic person-to-person mailing system in place around the galaxy as evidenced in several books and games.
***I don't think I explained this when it first happened, but originally the assault shuttles were designated Raptor, however since Zsinj's watchdogs were part of the Warlord's elite Raptor forces the shuttle group was re-designated Rapier to avoid callsign confusion during the unit's service to Zsinj.