1
The pilots of the Saber Squadron, the newly commissioned snub fighter squadron, lounged in their ready room in one of the skyhooks orbiting Coruscant. Most of the men and women were engaged in small talk with one another until the Saber founder and leader, Ashta-Mei Rlgah, called the group to attention.
"Sabers, we finally have a commission." Ashta-Mei held up a hand to silence the resulting cheers. "With the Adamantine."
Some of the pilots kept on murmuring excitedly. Some of the more knowledgeable members just stared at Ashta-Mei.
"The Adamantine?" Kysal Naydys asked incredulously. "How in the galaxy can we be assigned to a ship that is stuck in hyperspace? No one even knows where it is."
"Not true." Ashta-Mei smiled at the now silent pilots. "The nearly finished Star Destroyer Adamantine is still on its construction cradle in the shipyard above Ord Mantell. We will be leaving in two months to escort it on its maiden flight."
A new round of cheering erupted from the pilots. One woman with bronze-brown hair raised her hand. She went unnoticed in all the commotion. She cleared her throat, and the Saber lead finally noticed her.
"You have a question, Zana?"
Jedi-Knight Zana Dal'Kun nodded to her sister. "Yes. We haven't been assigned room-mates yet. Will we do that now or later?"
Ashta-Mei looked thoughtfully around. "Let's let everyone celebrate for a while before they find out they may not be bunking with their preferred choices."
"The wise leader has spoken." Zana mock bowed, raising a few laughs.
Ashta-Mei clapped her hands for attention. "This meeting is now officially closed."
"Good. I'm gonna' go get a drink." Kysal said loudly. "In celebration of our new commission." She left the ready room, followed closely by most of the other pilots.
When all of the Saber Squadron had straggled into the mess hall about thirty minutes later, Ashta-Mei called the group to attention. "The results of the flight sim test have arrived. Based on how you scored on it, you will be assigned positions in the Squadron."
All talk silenced, and a tense eagerness fell over the Sabers. They had taken the flight simulator test a week ago, and had been waiting for the results.
"I, of course, will be Saber Lead." Ashta-Mei glanced down at the data pad she held. "Saber Two is Anakin Solo."
"Saber Three is Jaysaan Aarymer." The blonde man stepped forward and shook Ashta-Mei�s hand. He had been in CorSec right before its breakup. He had been partnered with Kysal Naydys, who was also in the squadron. The smile on his face was huge. Apparently he had not been expecting such a high position.
"Saber Four is Zana Dal'Kun. Saber Five is Kale Messin. Saber Six is Kysal Naydys." Ashta-Mei ignored the sour look on Kysal's face. "Saber Seven is Valin Horn. Saber Eight is Miah Kassin. Saber Nine is Dera Donos. Saber Ten is Jarred Fain. Saber Eleven is Alex Vanner. And last but not least, Saber Twelve is Ayen Seltar."
Talking erupted immediately. People congratulating each other, others shaking their heads in disappointment. Kysal and Jaysaan were both arguing over something Ashta-Mei couldn't hear. Anakin and Valin both wore smiles, as did Zana. She went over to talk to her fellow Jedi.
"Quiet please!" Ashta-Mei called. When the pilots were silent, she continued. "We have two months to get adjusted to our new positions. Training time will be doubled as of tomorrow. We need to make a good reputation for ourselves on our first commission. You will be observed throughout the week to see who each of you get along with and don't get along with. You will be assigned room-mates accordingly. Dismissed."
Many of the pilots immediately filed up to the bar to get drinks. One tall young man with red hair and sharp brown eyes looked around the room, spotted Ashta-Mei, and quickly pushed her way over to her.
"I think you've made a mistake Commander Rlgah. I heard you say that I would be Saber Ten. Shouldn't it be more like Two or Three?" Jarred Fain asked. If there was a more self-assured snub fighter pilot, Ashta hadn't met the person. "I mean, with my superior skills and leadership abilities, I should be up at the top."
"If you had the superior skills you mentioned, you wouldn't be Ten. Be happy you made it into the squadron at all. After all, there were quite a few others who petitioned to join." Ashta's tone was firm.
"Hey, hey." He held up his hands defensively. "I didn't mean it seriously. If I really wasn't satisfied, I would quit."
"I'm glad you're happy. Now go get a drink and get used to your wingman. You'll be hearing a lot from her for quite a while."
"Hey, that's a good idea. Where is Dera anyways?" Jarred went off in search of the short, blonde woman.
Ashta shook her head and looked around for her sister. She spotted Zana talking to Valin, Anakin, and Alex Vanner. Valin looked thrilled about something. Ashta made her way over to the trio of Jedi and the young Corellian. She arrived just in time to heard the tail end of the conversation.
"...and you'll never guess when dad will be getting here. In three days! Isn't that great?" Valin sounded very excited. "I haven't see dad in several months. He's gonna' fly his X-Wing in so we can get some practice flying together!"
"I haven't seen Corran in a long time. It'll be nice to talk to him again." Zana sounded much calmer than the young son of Corran Horn. "I wonder if he'll practice with the whole squadron or just you."
"Oh, if you asked, he probably wouldn't mind flying with the squadron for a while," Valin answered.
"A real Rogue Squadron pilot," Alex said in awe. "Wow. I'm really gonna' get to meet a real Rogue Squadron pilot."
Ashta-Mei decided it was time to see what was going on, even though she already had a good idea. "What's this I hear about Corran Horn coming to the skyhook?" Her voice was rather stern, so she softened the effect with a smile for her friends. "You all know you're supposed to come to me before you invite people here."
"Well, I didn't exactly invite dad here." Valin answered sheepishly. "He was sorta' assigned by Admiral Ackbar to observe the squadron for a while, to give the him an opinion on our abilities. Especially yours, Commander, as a leader."
Ashta had to fight to keep her jaw from dropping, but her pulse quickened despite her best efforts. "Why didn't I know about this sooner?"
"Well, you weren't really supposed to know about it at all." Valin squirmed. "It was supposed to be a surprise inspection, but since I know you overheard most of the conversation anyways, I just thought I'd go ahead and tell you. I hope you're not angry with me."
"No, no. In fact I'm glad you told me," Ashta-Mei said, thinking furiously. "There's a lot we need to get done." Ashta left without saying anything more, too absorbed in her own thoughts to remember what she wanted to talk to Zana about.
"Is the Commander angry at me?" Valin asked. He was apparently concerned that he'd done something wrong.
"Valin," Alex rebuked his friend. "I really think you need to not talk about confidential things in the middle of a squadron meeting."
"Don't worry about it, Valin. The Commander would have found out sooner or later. At least now she'll be prepared for Corran's visit," Zana reassured Valin. "Besides, if you hadn't said anything at this meeting, Alex wouldn't have found out about it until Corran gets here."
"Oh. I hadn't thought about that." Alex couldn't keep a smile off his face. "I can't wait to meet him!"
Seventeen year old Alex Vanner flounced off to the bar to order his customary Lomin ale. Valin trailed close behind. Alex ordered an ale for Valin, who tasted it, then pushed it away. Zana smiled when he ordered a glass of water.
"Ashta!" Zana called after her sister. "Ashta-Mei Rlgah! Wait for me!" She pushed her way through the other pilots to catch up with here sister. "Will you wait up, Commander?"
Ashta paused long enough for Zana to catch up, the continued walking. She left the mess hall and headed towards her temporary office. "Great, just great," she was saying. "I just pull this squadron together and we get a surprise visit by Corran Horn. Corran Horn of all people."
"What's wrong with Corran? I thought you liked him."
"I do, I do. It's just that, well you know how much of a discipline and order freak he is!" Ashta turned imploringly to her sister. "And this squadron is anything but disciplined. What are we gonna' do?" A dark look crossed the Commander's face. "I know what we'll do. We'll just get a bad report. That'll do us a lot of good won't it."
Zana shoved Ashta backwards with the Force. "Snap out of it Commander Rlgah! What's gotten into you? Where's my calm, cool, in control sister?" Zana's disapproving voice made Ashta look down, ashamed. "We'll do what we were planning on doing. We are a new squadron, and Corran isn't going to expect a Rogue Squadron from us."
"I'm sorry." Ashta said. "I don't know what came over me. I guess this whole commander of a snub fighter squadron is all a little new to me."
"That's alright." Zana threw an arm around Ashta's shoulders. "Just don't do it again."
Ashta laughed. "You don't have to worry about that. Not with you here anyways."
Six of the twelve Sabers were seated in the X-Wing flight simulators the next morning. Each of them had been randomly chosen, so none of the pilots could complain about not getting a fair chance to prove their skills. The other six where in TIE simulators.
Dera Donos checked in with the Saber lead for the simulation. The voice that answered her was definitely male, but she only tentatively identified the leader as Anakin Solo. She wasn't acquainted well enough with all of the Sabers to be sure. Twelve X-Wings sat in a battle cruiser's fighter hangar. Through the atmosphere shield, Dera saw the looming bulk of a Star Destroyer. It had just launched a cloud of TIE fighters and interceptors. Dera waited tensely for the take-off command.
"Saber Squadron," the male voice called. "Prepare to launch on my mark." A short pause, then, "Mark!"
The X-Wings launched by pairs, starting with the Lead and his wingman. When it was finally Dera's turn, she lifted off and maneuvered her X-Wing flawlessly out of the hangar. She and her wingman fell into formation with the rest of the squadron. The last two X-Wings exited the cruiser and pulled up behind Dera and her wingman. The Saber squadron was immediately underway. They plunged toward the incoming TIEs.
"Break by pairs and engage."
Dera switched to she and her wingman�s private frequency. She wouldn't know if she was talking with Jarred or not until the exercise was over. "Follow me. We're going to fight through the initial pass, then go for the stragglers."
"Sounds good to me." Ten answered.
Dera pulled her X-Wing into a sharp dive as the first wave of TIEs arrived. Ten followed her lead, but straightened out several seconds after Dera did. She glanced at her sensors and noticed four red blips trailing her and her wingman. Dera spiraled up while Ten pulled the same maneuver, except in the opposite direction. One TIE followed Dera, one followed Ten, and the other two kept on flying straight ahead. Dera forgot about the other three for a moment, trying to shake the TIE on her tail. She rolled to one side, the other, then dove sharply. The TIE followed her steadily. Dera continued her dive, rolled, then dove again. As soon as the TIE had dove after her, she reversed her dive, heading straight up. She pulled the yoke back, inverting her X-Wing until she was behind the TIE that had been following her. She fired without hesitation, holing the cockpit ball and venting what little bit of atmosphere that was in the TIE.
Dera suddenly remembered her wingman. But it turned out that he was handling things well on his own. She saw a de-winged TIE floating of into the distance and her wingman pulling around to join her.
"Nice job. Let's go rack up out kill rate." Dera said enthusiastically. Then she noticed the other two TIEs had come back. "Scrap that plan. We've got our tails back!"
"Acknowledged."
Dera corkscrewed wildly away from the following TIE. This time Ten stayed near her. As one TIE followed Dera's maneuver, it ran straight into Ten's fire. She herd a faint "Yes!" come across the comm, but ignored it. She turned her X-Wing around to take out the TIE following Ten. Just as she came around, the faster TIE got the better of Ten's less maneuverable X-Wing. The X-Wing's shields gave way to the trailing TIEs sustained laser fire. It took out the X-Wing's port stabilizer. The X-Wing would have started a flat spin if Ten had not cut power immediately. The TIE plowed into the X-Wing, and both exploded into a fiey cloud of shrapnel.
Dera felt a crushing sense of loss, even though she knew it was just a simm. "Shavit," she whispered at the X-Wing's debris. She turned her X-Wing to the main battle and switched to the squadron frequency.
"Anyone need help?"
She was answered immediately by a lone X-Wing in the midst of a three way fire fight. "If you could spare the time, I'd appreciate it," came the tight voice of a young man.
Dera didn't waste any time. She charge in firing, careful not to hit the defending Saber. One TIE exploded under the laser fire. The other zipped off with out any harm done to engage a less formidable pair of opponents.
"Thanks for the save. I don't have a wingman and neither do you, so you can be mine." Youthfulness undermined the authority in the voice. Her sensors identified the X-Wing as Saber Five.
"Sure." Dera answered without hesitation. She was eager to be on the receiving end of the orders for a change. It was easier. "Where to?"
"Let's ask Lead."
A moment later, the Leader's voice came through strongly over the comm. "All right. We have a job to do. We've taken care of most of the TIEs and lost three of our own."
Dera took a moment to review their mission. They were to preserve as many of their proton torpedoes as possible. Then the Saber Squadron was to take down the Star Destroyer's shields before reinforcements arrived. That was all. Yeah, like it was that simple.
"Sabers, slave your proton torpedoes to my X-Wing's targeting and launch display. That means you are free to defend yourselves until seconds from the launch time when you must switch from lasers to torpedoes. Let's go."
Dera quickly did as told, staying with Saber Five. They ran into another wave of TIEs. They struggled to keep up with the main X-Wing group and battle their way through the TIEs at the same time. When they had finally broken through, Dera switched over to proton torpedoes.
"Come around to zero-three-seventy five on my mark," Lead said tensely. The Destroyer loomed ahead larger than ever. Suddenly it started firing in a defensive pattern. Dera strove to twist her way safely through. "Mark."
Dera pulled around to the designated point. She watched as twin blue streaks shot away from her X-Wing and the others. Then her simm cockpit went dark. Dera took a deep breath, then popped the simm's hatch. She unbuckled the cockpit's safety belts and pulled herself out. Jarred was there to meet her. He flashed her a smile, then grabbed her arm.
"C'mon. The rest of the Sabers who've been knocked off are in the simm observation room."
"Okay. Sorry about not taking out that last TIE on time."
"Don't apologize to me, talk to the simm program. I was one of the TIEs you took care of so quickly. You know, I'm happy I'm not the first one that was taken out." Jarred didn't sound upset that she had taken him out, so she smiled and clapped him on the shoulder.
When they arrived, Dera saw that the battle was still going on, but the battle cruiser they were with had several holes punched in its side that were spouting fire. The Star Destroyer had moved into position to make the kill. The remaining X-Wings were strafing the now shieldless Destroyer with their lasers. Apparently all their proton torpedoes had been used to bring the shields down. There were only several more moments until the Destroyer was in firing range of the cruiser. Dera crossed the room to find a seat with seven of the other Sabers.
As soon as she was seated, Dera immediately saw two X-Wings quickly approaching the Star Destroyer's command tower with a single TIE closing fast from behind. The second X-Wing slowed and engaged in a dogfight with the TIE. Unfortunately the latter was intent on stopping the first X-Wing rather than fighting the other. It fired on the X-Wing, which evaded the shots with practiced ease. Seconds before it reached the tower, though, the TIE caught up with it. It smashed into the X-Wing's rear from an angle, pushing the X-Wing and itself away from the command tower. The wreckage exploded just past the X-Wing's intended target.
Dera then noticed the Star Destroyer's turbolasers coming to bear on the nearly defeated cruiser. Then she realized that the second X-Wing had taken up the first's mission. The Star Destroyer had just started firing when the X-Wing plunged into the command tower. The resulting explosion rocked the mammoth ship, and secondary explosions followed. Half of the turbolasers stopped firing, but the others were suddenly fighting a losing battle. The five remaining X-Wings attacked with renewed vigor, taking out turbolasers batteries and TIE fighters. Soon the Star Destroyer was backing off and most of the TIEs were returning to the ship. Several more minutes and the battle was over. A crippled battle cruiser recalled its X-Wings and limped off the screen.
A cheer went up in the room. Dera realized she was shouting triumphantly also, and quickly stopped. She took a moment to see who was with her. She was surprised to see Anakin Solo. He was Saber Two, and supposed to be better than the rest. Along with herself, Jarred, and Solo were Ayen Seltar, Alex Vanner, and Kysal Naydys, who had just arrived.
Suddenly, Miah Kassin skidded around the corner and into the observation room. "Did we win?" His voice was tight with excitement. When he saw the smiles on most of the Saber's faces, he let out a yell of victory. "Yes! I knew it!"
Then Commander Rlgah stepped into the room and ruined the Saber's fun. "Calm down. It's just a simm." Her eyes narrowed. "And a not very well executed exercise at that. We will meet in one hour in the ready room for debriefing." She turned on her heel and left.
"What'd we do wrong?" Ayen Seltar asked in confusion. "We won didn't we?"
"Yes we won. But we didn't do a very good job of it." Kysal's disdainful voice answered. "Look at our stats. Only four X-Wings were left, the battle cruiser was severely damaged, maybe even fatally. We didn't come close to killing the Star Destroyer. If you think abut it, the mission was a complete failure."
"We might have failed the mission, but we saved the lives of the cruiser's crew. I'd call that a success." Anakin said. "But from the Commander's point of view, we didn't do so well. I mean, would you call four out of twelve X-Wings living good results?"
"I see what you mean. No wonder Commander Rlgah is upset," Miah answered meekly. "Well, if whoever was my wing for that last run was around, I'd apologize for making them finish my run for me. But I don't even know who it was."
"It was the Commander." Zana's strong voice answered from the doorway. Three Saber's stood there, looking rather proud. "She had to save what was left of her squadron. If she knew she was dying for the computer, I think she might have reconsidered and let you see how losing feels."
"What do you mean? Were you all TIE pilots?" Dera shook her head. "I took out two TIEs. Were they both computer piloted, or did I take out a Saber?"
"You got me, I think. The other was a CP." Dera was surprised to hear Anakin answer her. "You fought good, and shot better. It was a shame the Destroyer got you so early. Anyways, I think we need to be prepared for any type of reaction from the Commander. I don't think she'll flip out on us, but she won't be easy on us." Anakin stood up and stretched. "I'm gonna' get a few minutes of sleep before we get griped out, or," he paused dramatically, "get a lecture." Smiling at the his inside joke that only a few, Zana and Anakin, would understand.
Zana, Jaysaan, and Kale, the survivors of the sim, followed Anakin out of the room. They left a group of defeated victors in their wake.
Chapter 2