Once again, I am back my loyal readers! I'd wanted to get a chapter posted by now (and one or two more written), but I haven't been able to fully shake this illness. I've had vertigo something awful, and my head's been out of sorts for days now. I'm just now getting back to writing on this story, and posting this chapter. I hope you all like this one. Enjoy!

The next day started off under the most unassuming of circumstances. Then again, Drakken should have known that those days were the ones that have a habit of sneaking up on one unawares. Tharcourt and Thorne awoke, got dressed, and performed a routine inspection on the unit. Then the two of them ate breakfast together in the mess hall and returned to the team's office where they finished up the monthly reports. Finally finished with one of his least favorite bugbears of command, Tharcourt turned to his ensign with a relived exhale.

"Done. Finally. Can you take these two data disks up to the bridge?" Drakken asked, handing the two small boxes off to Freya. "Give them to Admiral Ozzel with my compliments, or see if Piett is there. You see him…well, you'll probably want to deal with him instead." Thorne giggled and held up the disks.

"I'll be back in an hour…" She paused. "Two if I get lost." Drakken let out a laugh.

"You know the way."

Thorne hurried down the hall and boarded yet another turbolift. If she remembered correctly, this one would take her to the deck just below the bridge. Two more officers got aboard with her, a lieutenant and a young female captain. The lift stopped at her deck, and she got off and looked around. A small feeling of relief came over Thorne when she saw someone she thought was familiar. Freya didn't know Captain Piett personally. Drakken had pointed him out to her once, and she had seen him on a holocall with the commander twice. She approached the officer, who was walking in the same direction she intended to go.

"Captain?" She called, picking up her pace to catch up with him. He turned back. "You're Captain Piett, right, sir?"

"Yes, I'm Piett, ensign." He answered, looking at her rank plaque. "Oh…aren't you Commander Tharcourt's friend, Ensign Thorne?" She smiled. He looked her up and down...then up at her face. "Stars girl, you're much taller than I imagined." Freya giggled.

"Aye sir. I'm Thorne. The C'mander wanted these disks delivered to either you or Admiral Ozzel at th' bridge, sir." She stated, holding up the devices. "They're th' last month's operational and financial reports, requisitions, and personnel reports. All encrypted as per operatin' procedure, sir."

"Oh good. Thank you, Thorne." Piett said, taking the disks. "I'll make sure they get to their proper destination. No sense in bothering the Admiral while he's being brilliant, eh?" He said the last part with a hint of sarcasm, and Freya stifled a giggle.

"No sir, we wouldnae want that." She replied, and Piett smiled a bit.

"I was just on my way up. Would you care to walk with me, Ensign?"

"Nae, not at all, Captain sir." He nodded, and she fell into stride beside him. Piett was about four inches shorter than her and Drakken, so it felt a bit odd when she would look over then have to look slightly down as he spoke.

"We haven't been formally introduced. I'm Firmus Piett. Your commander and I go back a long time. He was my ensign once upon a year, you know?"

"Aye, he mentioned that once, sir." Freya said.

"He's quite fond of you. Speaks very highly of you." Piett stated with a smile.

"Dr…C'mander Tharcourt's a good man, and a great officer." Thorne said. She caught the slightest bit of quiet, chuckling breaths coming from his nose.

"It's alright. We address each other by our given names when we're in private too, Thorne. Friendship with a superior officer is allowed, believe me." He patted her on the back. "And you may do the same with me as well. A friend of Drakken's in a friend of mine."

"Thank you, Captain." Thorne said warmly.

"The poor man needs all the friends he can get too. Between us, I think he's more comfortable with people hating him than he is with camaraderie." Thorne sighed.

"Yeah, I get that feelin' too." She muttered.

"Hm. He needed someone like you. Trustworthy. A real fighter. Not some delicate little flower."

"Beg yer pardon, sir?" She asked. Piett stopped, and she halted next to him. He took a deep breath.

"I'm no fool, just a standoffish prude." He said with a smirk. "If it hasn't happened yet, it will. Gods know the man needs someone in his life…" The captain fell silent as his eyes followed a small knot of junior officers passing them. When they were out of earshot, he continued. "Now that I've met you, I can see it happening. Just…be careful, alright? Transfer to another command or quit the Navy if you want to make it official. If not…" He sighed. "I don't want to see it, hear about it, or receive complaints. If it happens."

"I…" She stammered, and felt her cheeks growing warm. He raised his eyebrows. "I understand…sir. If on th' wild chance somethin' happens…ye won't be hearin' bout it." Piett closed his eyes with a look of superiority and turned back toward his destination. "Good." They resumed their walk. "Now is it true you beat a Devaronian in unarmed combat, Thorne?"

They reached the bridge, and Piett had no sooner opened the door than Admiral Ozzel strode quickly up to him.

"Captain Piett!" The admiral exclaimed, looking for all the galaxy to Freya like a fish gulping for air. "Where have you been, man? I needed you here two minutes ago!" Firmus raised an eyebrow.

"Sir, I am ten minutes early." Piett stated. Ozzel looked on the verge of panic.

"You're still twelve minutes late!" He gushed. "You have that team on board. Vader's secret death squad or whatever it is, right?" He looked at Freya. "Yes, the one this Mandalorian woman is in."

"Delta Seven. Yes, they're on board." Piett answered, shooting Thorne a curious look, no doubt about the Mandalorian remark. She gave a small shrug.

"We need them. Now." Ozzel commanded. He looked at Thorne. "Send these orders to your commander, girl; A top priority rescue mission is needed…immediately. Here's the file!" He shoved a data disk in her hands. "We're heading to the system now. Tell the commander to plan and execute this rescue, and don't foul it up. Liiiiives are at stake. Understand, Ensign?"

"Yes sir!" Thorne barked with a salute. Piett gave her a nod and Freya left the bridge, running for the turbolift.

"Drakken!" Thorne exclaimed as she entered the office, waving the disk in front of her. Tharcourt quickly stood.

"Freya, what's wrong?" He asked.

"Nothin's wrong…I dunno…here!" She handed the datadisk over to him. "It's from the admiral. He said it's top priority! A rescue mission!"

"Rescue?!" He remarked, and shoved the disk into the rarely-used terminal built into his desk. Immediately, a holographic image of several people popped up over his desk, along with scrolling lines of text. He used his finger to manipulate the data, switching to a map, a picture of a ship, and several buildings. "Well kriff." He muttered.

"What's wrong, Drakken Darlin'? She asked, looking over the images.

"Imperial governor and his staff have been taken." Tharcourt said. He looked at Freya. "And we're to go rescue them ASAP. Go call the children home. We gotta do a quick briefing."

"On it." She said.

The members of Delta-7 stood in the commons room, waiting on their commander to appear. Thorne hadn't told them much, just that they could expect a briefing on a possible mission very soon. Thorne figured that it had been about ten minutes since she had left the office to round everyone up, and Drakken still hadn't emerged from his office. She was getting ready to go check on him when the room's hatch opened, and he stepped out.

"Alright troopers, we have a genuine, time-sensitive, life-or-death situation here, and for once, it's not just our lives on the line." He popped the disk into the room's terminal, and brought up the images of three people in Imperial uniforms. There were two men and a woman, and their rank plaques made it clear they were important.

"Yes, that is an Imperial Moff." Tharcourt stated. "Governor Hirith Bex of the Attahox System. The other man is Major Trent, his military attaché. The woman is Alania Duvolka, Moff Bex's Advisor. From what intel I have, the people on that world have been revolting for some time. Now it looks like they're rebelling." Gallen let out a chuckle and Felian raised an eyebrow. "Anyway, either the Rebels came in to assist the dissidents on-world, or the seditionist group there finally grew some dingleberries and as of twenty-two-hundred last night, they attacked the Governor's compound, overpowered forces there, and absconded with these three subjects...possibly more. Any questions so far?"

"Do we know where they took them?" Felian asked.

"Good question, sergeant. You won't believe it, but the kidnappers were actually brazen enough to let us know that one."

"What?" Ekks exclaimed. "Kriffin' idiots!"

"Not quite." Tharcourt stated. "They holed up in an old office building of some kind with the three hostages, as well as a few stormtroopers, officers and an Imperial pilot they captured. They have stated that unless the Empire leaves the sector in forty-eight hours, they're going to start blasting one hostage every day until we do. Aerial surveillance says they have about thirty armed subjects around the building, and worst of all, they've made an alliance of some kind with the Torgaigne syndicate. There's about thirty of them there as well. It is believed the indignous population is loyal to their cause." Ekks whistled.

"The Torgaignes. Those guys are bad news, Commander." The Corellian said. "They have ties with weapons-smugglers, so they're gonna have some major hardware." Commander Tharcourt huffed.

"To include two Imperial AT-STs they commandeered." He said blandly. "Oh, and two AA batteries on the ground."

"And they want us to…walk in off the street and free the hostages." Gallen commented. "Lemme guess…and take out the bad guys while we're at it."

"Precisely." Drakken said.

"How are we going to get past the outer perimeter?" Daraay asked. She walked over to the interface and used her fingers to view aerial photographs of the building and its defenses. "If we mount any kind of attack, they will likely kill the hostages."

"I thought about that." Tharcourt said. "We'll have to come up with some way to get inside the target building without them even knowing."

"How, sir?" Mets asked. "Looks like they got that place wrapped up tighter than a Hutt's fist on credits."

"Colorful euphemism, and you're right." The commander returned. He rubbed his chin. "Any ideas on that one?" Nobody said anything. "We have to brainstorm something." Ideas were thrown about for the next few minutes, and all were discarded. Lago had the thought of dressing up like they had done on Tatooine. Coleth mentioned digging a tunnel. Dall stated that he felt like he was going to need more medical equipment for this mission, no matter what they decided.

"Well we're not goin' in through the bloody front door, that's fer sure." Freya remarked. As they discussed ideas, she went to the caf dispenser and poured a cup of the beverage. She drew a paper napkin from the stack next to the cups, and paying attention to the conversation, she dropped the small napkin. Drakken watched as it slowly and gently wafted to the floor.

"The whole idea of a ground approach is out, man." Gallen said. Tharcourt stared at the napkin for a moment more.

"Wait!" He exclaimed. "Freya, you're a genius! They are expecting either an attack from the ground or an air strike. What they may not be expecting is a small group of soldiers to insert from the roof of the building. By the time they figure out we're inside, we've already nabbed the hostages, and if we can get a convoy of armor to come up at the right time, we can make our exfil under covering fire."

"Wot did I say?" Thorne asked, looking about the room in confusion.

"How do we get on the roof without them knowing?" Felian queried.

"Parachutes." Tharcourt explained. "Your napkin gave me an idea, Freya. We drop in silently using parachutes. That building's roof in huge. We can have it painted with IR lasers and insert in the middle of the night, and start from the top down. We have an armored column drop in several klicks away, and move on our position when we get the captives. The hostages are their bargaining chip. By the time the attack is apparent, we'll have them in our care, and they'll be in between a rock and a hard place." He jabbed a finger into the palm of his hand. "We have to practice this now and up until go time. Landing precisely on that rooftop is the key. What do you all think?"

"Sir…I doubt a single one of us has ever used a parachute." Ekks stated.

"Um…" Mets sounded. All eyes turned to the scout trooper. "Actually, we have."

"Do tell." Tharcourt pressed.

"Well, me and Coleth were stationed on this backwater world. There were the biggest mountains you ever saw. We had weekend leave, and the supply department was rotating out all of the old parachutes from some small ships, getting new ones and discarding the out-of-date chutes, you know? We scooped up a dozen of the things, and took them up onto one of the cliffs on our bikes." Coleth nodded proudly.

"It was too extreme to pass up on, sir. Thought we were gonna splat the first time, and almost did. By the third, we kinda had the hang of it. Nothin' to it. You play the updrafts and wind currents. Tug the guide lines to steer. Once you get it, you could land on a roof like that, yeah…no prob." The commander smiled.

"Congratulations. You two are gonna to be our instructors." He said.

"We are?" Mets shot back.

"Yep. You two have twenty-four hours to train all of us on how to use a parachutes and land safely. You will drill us until we can all land together on a one-hundred-meter by four-hundred-meter LZ. When you're done with us, we will be the finest parachute assault force in the Empire. And gentlemen? I…hate…heights. So you'd better be good at teaching me." He grinned.

Mets and Coleth proved to be good if not quirky instructors. Commander Tharcourt had given them carte blanche in training the unit in the unusual skill of parachuting, and the two scout troopers immediately set about trying to get their teammates ready for the experience. The first thing they did was have the entire unit meet in the training hall. There, Mets and Coleth proceeded to make everyone jump off of a five-foot platform to practice landing correctly, pitching forward and rolling to absorb the shock of their impact with the ground.

Next, they acquired two old parachutes, and cut the canopies off. Everyone had to put on the harnesses, along with all of their gear, then be suspended from the catwalk around the massive training hall. Dangling thirty feet from the deck, they were subject to being violently jerked and slung about by Mets, while Coleth shouted down at them how to untangle their lines and keep themselves calm and steady. During this part of the training, a group of stormtroopers came in to train, took one look at a group of soldiers slinging a commander and an ensign around on strings, and left.

The next morning, the two instructors had everyone form up in the training hall again. Now, they had somehow acquired eight crates of parachutes, and were dead-set on making sure the rest of their squadmates knew how to use them. Coleth held up a training chute, and demonstrated how to pull the cord that opened the canopy. He made certain to hammer it home that after leaving a ship in atmosphere, they needed to count to ten before they pulled the rip-cord, unless they were to be going off of altimeters. Coleth had everyone put on the training chute, and practice pulling the cord. He then showed them a smaller handle by the shoulder, and advised them that should anyone's chute fail to open, they could pull this cord, and an emergency reserve chute would deploy.

"Now guys…" Mets stated. "That's about enough classroom. Let's go jump out of something.

That something was the team's shuttle, positioned at a safe three-thousand-meters over a nearby hospitable world. Glitch held the ship at a steady hover, and the ramp lowered, showing the members of Delta-7 a view of the landscape below in miniature. They were all wearing brand new parachutes, and all wore faces of nervousness. Except Daraay of course. She acted as if this were an everyday occurrence. Freya looked at Mets wide-eyed.

"Wot if the chute doesn't deploy?!" She demanded.

"Cha…easy, ma'am. Hit the reserve." He answered. She shook her head.

"But…wot if that don't work either?!" He shrugged.

"Sorry, but you'll have about…" He looked off the ramp at the ground below, then turned back to her. "…forty-five seconds to be pissed about it. Heh." She gulped, and then felt a hand on her shoulder. Tharcourt leaned in close.

"Something happens, I promise…I will cut my own lines and go after you. I can grab you and pop my reserve, okay?" He said.

"Oh. Y…you been plannin' it out…have ye?" She returned. He leaned forward and peered out of the opening in the craft.

"Just…do the same for me, okay? I really…REALLY don't like heights." She smiled a little through her fear.

"Alright, it's go time!" Mets called. "In the order we practiced…go, go, go!" Coleth ran up, grabbed Mets by the shoulders and headbutted his helmet.

"Extreme!" He cried out before diving out of the shuttle. Felian took a few steps forward, sighed, shook his head and jumped. Gallen eased forward to the edge of the ramp.

"Can't I just…"

"Nope." Mets said, and shoved him out. Ekks dove out, screaming obscenities. Freya stepped forward and looked down. "Go, ma'am."

"I'll be alright?" She asked meekly.

"Live life to the extreme, ensign!" The scout trooper cheered, and gently nudged her out of the ship. Seeing Freya already freefalling, Drakken steeled his resolve and took a running leap from the ramp, followed by Daraay, always right behind her commander.

"Ugh, dammit." Dall grumbled, and let himself fall from the shuttle. Lago knew he had no choice, and decided to fall backwards so he wouldn't have to see the ground at first. Now alone in the shuttle, Mets stepped to the edge of the ramp and looked down. Slightly below The Huntsman, nine canopies were opened, drifting toward the ground. He nodded, and tugged his harness to ensure everything was secure.

"Wooohooo!" He exclaimed, leaping from the ship.

Freya was almost in shock at first. The sensation of falling, the ground so far away, the wind rushing past her, it was all so new and terrifying. She mentally counted slowly to ten, and pulled the rip-cord, a burst of relief washing over her as she heard the flapping of the canopy deploying, then a sharp, upwards tug. She looked around to see Drakken twenty meters away, dangling from his own canopy as they gently drifted down.

"Drakken…I cannae believe it." She said over her mic. "I'm flyin'. I'm really bloody flyin'!" She heard static for a moment over her headset, followed by Drakkens voice, singing.

"…and it's up she goes…up she goes.

Balance yourself like a bird on a beam

In the air she goes! There she goes!

Up, up, a little bit higher

Oh, my…The moon is on fire

"I'm up in the air…about you, so fair." Thorne sang back. "An…oh bloody hell. I don't remember any more o' the words."

"That's alright. We'll be landing soon." Tharcourt said. She saw him point down. She gazed down past her feet and saw the flat terrain coming closer. She bent her legs slightly, and prepared to hit. The jolt wasn't that bad, and she rolled as she had trained to.

Mets touched down expertly, and detached the shroud lines from his harness before the canopy of his chute had time to settle about him. He joined Coleth, and the two waded through the parachutes to their commander, who was looking around with face of a man coming down from an adrenaline burst. He lit a cigarra and sucked half of it down in one go. Tharcourt saw the two scouts, and gave a respectful nod of his head.

"We made it." Tharcourt said. "You two did good."

"Thank you, sir." Coleth replied. "But we ain't done yet." Drakken heaved a sigh. They were right. They had to do this until it felt natural. "Now, we can all try to hit the same spot, and we got seven and a half more cases of chutes." Both of the scouts took off their helmets, and the commander saw that they were both grinning from ear-to-ear. Thorne finally picked her way over.

"You two are loving this, aren't you?" Drakken asked wryly.

"Yep." Mets answered. Tharcourt took a final drag of his cigarra, then crushed it out with his boot. "Alright, Ekks? Call Glitch. Time for round two." He looked at Freya. "Jumping out of a perfectly good ship…"

Another arc, and another mission begins, and this one involves something you don't see too much of in Star Wars; parachutes. Kind of odd when you think about it, right? The mission sounds simple enough, right? Parachute in, land on a building in the middle of the night unobserved...rescue an Imperial Moff and his retinue from a band of armed terrorists, and escape a city in revolt. Can't possibly go badly, can it? Spoiler alert: The next couple of chapters are loosely based on the events of "Black Hawk Down". So...yeah, you know it's gonna be a ride.

I'll try to have the next chapter up in a coupe of days. Now that I'm feeling a little better, I'm trying to write again, while getting ready for Sithmas, and trying to get my rig up and running. (Rig means big truck or lorry to my brothers and sisters of different tongues). So don't be too cross with me if there's delays in my posting over the next week or so.

In the meantime, leave me some PMs and comments, guys. I'd love to hear from all of you. I'd really like to get an idea of which characters you like the best. Well, until the next installment, my loyal readers, Cheerio!