It had been a short few weeks for Malvar Sabre in the academy. Almost as soon as he had arrived, he had found he was within a day of his final test. His scores had all been good, mostly due to a newly found drive, spurred on by his need to beat his fellow Cadet, Kal Tamorr, in the sims. Tomorrow was his final test; another simulated mission, entitled Strike 2. A few days earlier, Malvar had flown against his instructor, Major C.J. Savage, and was pleasantly surprised to have emerged the victor, though no small part of this conquest could have been attributed to a routine overhaul of the simulators that had been running as they duelled. Still, a win was win anyway you took it, Malvar thought.
Sitting quietly against a secluded corner of the bar onboard the CRS Odin, Malvar sipped slowly at his Whyren's reserve. There was more than a good chance that tomorrow he could graduate, and would have to leave all his newfound friends behind. "Want to tell me your troubles friend?" Malvar turned to match a face with the voice that had spoken. The face was that of the barkeep on board the Odin, a character that Malvar had never had had the time, nor the inclination, to get to know. "What?" Malvar replied. "Sorry," continued the barkeep, "It's just that I heard that line in a holovid once and I've wanted to say it ever since. I've never had the opportunity until now." Malvar quickly looked over the barkeep. He was 6"2, a Devronian, oddly imposing even with the bar between them. "Well, I'm glad to make your day" Malvar quipped sarcastically. The Devronian inclined his head toward Malvar, his protruding horns glistening in the dull light. "You know son, you really surprise me. You're just like every other pilot who wanders in here." Head creasing in annoyance, Malvar fixed a dark gaze on the barkeep. "Why is that surprising?" "Because, when you first walked in here, you seemed different. You were new, making friends, a bit scared. Now, your just another hot-shot pilot." "I think I'll be leaving now." Malvar rose, angry at the Devronian's remarks. "Now, you're cold. You're trying to pretend that you have no emotions. That you can leave your friends, your past�" Malvar didn't hear the rest. He was too far away from the Devronian, no his way back to his quarters. Stood at the bar, the barkeep smiled. It had been his intention to get Malvar to think about his emotions, a task made easier when you swept up in them. For example, anger�
Malvar lay in quarters, trying to reach unconsciousness. However, sleep would just not come. He had a deep feeling of dread, similar to the ones he had felt warning him of danger in the sims, only much more sever. Rolling onto his side, Malvar decided that no matter how much he tried, rest was impossibility. And so, sitting up, Malvar switched on the console next to his bed. Loaded into the console was a holovid recording made roughly a week earlier, that had arrived with the courier from the bulk of the main Rebel fleet. That was however, not where it had originated. The message's place of birth was Yavin 4 - from the Jedi Academy. It had been sent by one Cilghal, a Mon Calamari who was currently in charge of inviting new recruits to the academy. Malvar wondered why this message had come for him. His abilities were less than impressive, a little precognition and nothing more. What could be possibly learn at the academy? Though he had heard great stories about the other Jedi there, in particular one Luke Skywalker, Malvar felt he was not even slightly tempted. His current place was here, with the IBG. Maybe, during peacetime (if it ever came, Malvar sighed) he could take a trip there. But with the situation as it was, to desert the IBG was a course of action he was not prepared to undertake.
Staring at the powered, but blank, monitor, Malvar wondered why he had switched it on in the first place. Hitting the button to turn off the screen, Malvar stopped. There was a horrific whining coming from all around him, what had he done to the monitor? Hitting the button worriedly, Malvar suddenly stopped. The sound was not coming from in the room. But rather from outside the Odin.
Jumping up, Malvar was immediately dropped to the floor, as a massive shockwave seemed to sweep him off his feet. Instantaneously, a whole cavalcade of alarms began to chime, bleep and scream all over the ship. Quickly zipping into his flight suit, Malvar smuggled against the pain of his suddenly fall to the door, and stepped through it to scenes of total chaos.
In every direction Malvar looked, people were running. Some toward the bridge, some to the flight decks, and some out toward the armaments that were part of the Odin's self-defence mechanisms. Like it was being shaken by a small child, the Odin suddenly rippled again, and those who weren't either holding onto something, or were conveniently close to a wall were smashed into the ships walls and floors. Luckily, Malvar had been holding onto a corridor's corner, and managed to keep himself upright. As the majority of people in Malvar's view attempted to regain their footing, Kal came running down the corridor, heading in the direction of the flight deck. Seeing Malvar, he stopped, and quipped "Hey Malvar. Wouldn't expect an Imperial attack to have woken you up." "Imperial Attack?" Questioned Malvar. "Yep, the imps are hitting the entire battle group. There's two VSD's and more TIE's than you've had hot lunches. Not to mention some of those nice 'n' slow gunboats. What are you waiting for? We've gotta get to the flight deck." "Flight deck?" Things were happening too fast for Malvar to follow. "Yep, all cadets are hereby activated and ordered to take all available ships and kick the asses of those imps! There giving away empty squad positions to those nearest graduation, quick way to get a promotion, wish I'd thought of it sooner! Anyway, those less near promotion are taking the old Z-95 test ships, under Savage's command. Deltan's taking another group. Poor guys. They have to risk their lives in Z-95's while we get Squad positions with proper ships!" Malvar tried to get his head together. While Kal had been chattering away, they had been sprinting toward the flight deck, and then, with a final burst of speed, they arrived.
The flight deck looked like a small ant hive, Malvar thought, with technicians fussing over the Z-95's the academy held for test flights for the pilots. Savage was stood near these ships, directing the majority of the academies recruits into their ships. On the other side of the hangar, stood a small selection of B-Wings, A-Wings and X-Wings. Next to them was man that Malvar did not recognise, who was directing yet more academy members into those ships. In his hand he was holding a data pad, from which he was shouting out squad assignments. "Guys, you'll be joining your squads out there. Just get to your groups, and stick with your assigned wingmen. Do that, and you'll survive." Malvar motioned to Kal, and the pair advanced toward the man who was handing out assignments like they were gifts on Alderaan remembrance day. Turning intuitively, Malvar looked back to see Savage looking at him with a smile on his face. Though the distance between them was great, Malvar could just make out what he was mouthing: "good luck". Turning back to the flustered man with the datapad, Malvar braced himself for the danger of space combat, as the man announced "Malvar Sabre, Kal Tamorr, you have been assigned to�."
A Word document compilation featuring these mission reports and my bio is available on the Downloads page, zipped for convenience.
