“After I showed you how to get his attention back there? Sure,” Jada said with a wink, her freckles suddenly looking even more fetching in the dim light.

Dav smiled. Perhaps, just perhaps, when they returned Jada might be time at the Adeptus for something other than P.T., sims, drills and the like. Medea had faded fairly quickly in her attentions to Dav after his fight with Freddik, but that was likely as much to do with duties being increased after they’d returned as anything else.

Back at the launch deck, Hublin and Solo were already in place, standing at ease in front of the ships where the other cadets were expected to form up.

Hublin and Solo, hearing them coming while cracking jokes and sauntering towards the ten fighters and the shuttle parked on the tarmac, suddenly snapped to attention and turned on their heels in perfect tandem to face them.

“Aurek wing! Besh Wing! Fall in and steady up!” Hublin yelled in clipped, perfectly projected speech.

Dav and the rest of them got the message and executed the fall-in move perfectly. The shuttle’s gangplank was up, which meant The VIP was on board the shuttle already. They were likely all under observation right now. At the very least, they didn’t want to seem shoddy in any way.

No worries, Dav realized. That short hour of rest made things better than he could have imagined. His head buzzed only a little from the taste of bludrink, and the rest of him felt rough and ready, energized enough that he felt he could take on a whole squad of rebel space pirates himself!

In three seconds, everyone was in their two neat rows, with Dav as the right marker and Porkins directly behind him. Boots stamped, hands snapped to sides or gripping black helmets, stomachs pulled in, chests pushed out and chins raised up.

“Second Lieutenant Solo!” said Hublin in a loud, clear voice.

“Sir,” said Solo in a quieter, more relaxed tone. Still, he marched with proper etiquette for a second-in-command, arms swinging properly and boots making the soft rubber taps as the heels contacted the metal lading floor.

Solo stopped and turned on his heel to face them all. “All wings: upon dismissal, report to your fighters. You will have the requisite time for your pre-flight check. While you’ve been out drinking and carousing, the base staff have ensured you’re fueled up and ready to go. Besh wing, dismissed! Aurek wing, dismissed!”

They turned on their own heels and walked off, the second rank a few steps ahead of the first.

Norrin saw Bondo turn and look at the shuttle. The big pilot suddenly looked uncomfortable in his flight suit.

“You okay, Bondo?” Norrin asked.

“Something’s there…” Bondo said, still looking at the shuttle. Norrin couldn’t shake the notion that it looked like a predator, one that could strike but didn’t, and more out of boredom than any sense of mercy.

“It makes me feel a little like…like when we’d gather around the glowglobes some nights when we were younglings, and one of the Uncles would tell scary stories.”

Norrin shrugged. “Nothing in there gonna jump out and eat ya,” he said as he mounted the scaffolding. “See you back at school.”

Bondo nodded to himself as he pulled himself up and set himself inside his fighter. He couldn’t shake it all the way, but he knew he had to focus. Any machine was only as strong as its weakest part, and he had to make sure he wasn’t that part!

The pre flight check went off without a problem, and when called on, Aurek wing rose in a decent formation, hovering in a line in the air, waiting for the shuttle. It growled to life, a blue glow intensifying beneath it

They broke atmosphere inside of a half hour, with even less chatter on the comms than before. Dav felt himself break out in a sweat more than once; were they, indeed, being observed?

Probably not, he thought. Sure, any mistakes would get noticed. But more than likely anyone important enough to have a ten-fighter escort would have bigger things on his mind than watching a bunch of cadets escorting them from the surface of a…

He was still in the middle of the thought when the X-Wings jumped out of hyperspace and started shooting.

#

“Wha- All wings! All Wings!” Hublin’s voice was suddenly on the comm, trying to sound calm even as the red blasts of the X-Wing’s weapons began flying around them, and a note of panic crept into his voice, “Go weapons hot, I repeat, Go weapons hot! We are under attack! Repeat, we are under attack! Adeptus, request backup- I count six X-Wing class fighters just dropped out of hyperspace and are attack-“

“I’m hit!” yelled a voice on the open channel.

It was Porkins.

“Porkins, you’re going to be fine,” said Solo. “Just get behind me while I clear the way and…”

“Cabin pressure decreasing- Lieutenant, can I ejec-“

Dav and everyone else heard his voice stop, cut off by static. On the screen, the small wireframe drawing of the TIE fighter with his name and callsign on it faded and disappeared.

They all knew from the sims what that meant.

“Aurek wing,” said Hublin, his voice suddenly colder than before, “sweep pattern, Cresh. Besh wing, remain with the shuttle. We’re going to get payback for Porkins!”

“They’re coming back around,” Jada’s voice now.

“Then you punch a hole in them, Black Two!” Hublin said.

“Yes sir!” Jada barked, her engines roaring loud enough that Dav could hear them over the comms. She lunged forward from the line of six fighters, ahead of even Hublin’s ship as the X-Wings swung about, ready to fire their deadly blasts of red death at them again.

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“Jada, get back!” Dav yelled, “He’s going to…”

They fired.

Jada managed to swoop to the right just in time, drawing the fire of a number of the fighters as they focused on her, looking for an easy target.

“Aurek wing, this is Black Leader. I’m on the lead fighter. Black One, head your team against the X-Wings. You’ve got ten seconds to hit them before they can reorient themselves, make the most of it!”

“Yes sir!” Dav said. “You heard him, everyone! Fire at will!”

“Which one’s Will…” Norrin mumbled. No one laughed or chastised him. They all felt stressed, and knew that this wasn’t the place for arguing.

Dav’s targeting computer suddenly chirped and whistled at him- he had a lock on an enemy fighter! He breathed once, then squeezed the buttons on the U-shaped steering column.

He felt and heard his guns hum and blast as they discharged, green bolts of death singing out in the black night as they found their mark, a bloom of red and flame instantly extinguished along with the life of the rebel pilot.

“I got him!” Dav yelled! “I got him!”

“That was for Porkins!” Jada yelled, as the red X-Wing disappeared from the battle screen.

#

Solo moved at the shuttle’s speed, fairly grinding his teeth in an effort to keep from joining the fray. Technically, they were safer here watching the shuttle, and their mission was to watch over it and whatever buttoned-up official was inside. But he knew that he could be a better leader than Hublin in that firefight. He’d seen firsthand how quickly a battle in space could turn, seemingly at random. A whole wing could be lost in a matter of seconds, stranding a lone pilot in the icy vacuum with nigh impossible odds.

And he didn’t want that to happen to any more of their cadets. Though he wouldn’t likely shed a tear over Hublin, if he bought it this trip.

He thought he heard a soft whimper on the comm; someone was crying softly over Porkins.

This wouldn’t do.

“Steady up, boys,” he barked, “cry later. We’ve got a job to do, and anything else’ll only get in the way. Understand?”

“Yes, sir,” said four voices. They were shaken, but resolved as another ship exploded in the fight.

#

“Nice going, Black Two,” said Hublin as Jada’s blasts found their mark. “That’s a bludrink for you on me when we get back.”

“Do I get one too, Black Leader?” Dav asked as he fired and missed. It was more of a tension releaser than an actual question.

“Hells, no,” Hublin said. “She’s prettier than you are, Black One. Now get back to killing Rebels! Aurek wing, regroup! I want to wipe them out before they jump back into hyperspace.”

They made the maneuver they’d completed so many times before in the sims, finding Hublin’s location and darting towards it.

But even something simple as that had its dangers.

“Nor- Black Five, look out!” said Bondo’s voice, suddenly very clear and without any of it’s usual pauses. “You’ve got one on your tail!”

“I can’t see him- he’s off my scanner!”

“Use your visuals, Black Five,” Hublin said. “Black Three, you’re closest. Swat that fly that’s dogging him and get back in formation on me.”

“Oh, yeah…” Slak said, clearly happy. He gunned his engine so loud that they heard it over the comm as he thundered to Norrin’s rescue.

“I can take care of myself, Black Leader,” Norrin said.

“Famous Last words, Black Five. Keep doing your evasives while Black One, Two and Four group on me, heading Mark Four-Six-Three! Keep the pressure on, people! They’re scattered and can’t face us if we keep throwing green! Keep your angle of attack at forty-five. You don’t want these little fools to start shooting at you head-on, or it’ll be a coin flip rather than a game of skill.”

Hublin and the three fighters from their wing formed a deadly, four-pointed arrowhead as they roared into the void. The three X-Wings, now turning tail and running, had no time to face their pursuers and instead dodged and swooped in an effort to keep scanners from locking onto them.

“That’s it, people!” Hublin said as they keep firing. “pour it on! We don’t want them thinking. Because then I can creep up, and…”

Green light erupted from Hublin’s guns, hitting the rear engines of an X-Wing and causing it to explode in a bright ball of flame.

“Yeah!” Dav yelled, “That’s three!”

“Quiet, Black One. We’ve still got three fighters in the field. Black Three, you managed to scrape off that fly yet?”

“Not quite, sir,” Slak said, the strain and annoyance seeping through his attempts to sound efficient. “It’s off Black Five’s tail, but we’re having a hard time…blast, hold still! We’re having a hard time nailing it down, sir!” Slak was getting angrier and angrier at his quarry. This was ‘way harder than tagging something in the sims!

#

Solo monitored the conversation on his comm while they neared the Adeptus. The rebels were no dummies, apparently. They’d waited until the wings had broken atmo, and then waited more until their straight line to the Star Destroyer was broken by the passage of one of the planet’s moons. Not an unusual occurrence during a flight, but somehow the would-be-assassins of their charge had known their flight plan, and had figured out that it would give them a few-minute window of opportunity during which they’d only have a few cadets to deal with, and no interference by a Star Destroyer’s gun batteries.

Another minute or so, and they’d be open to help from the Adeptus. Though out of date by modern Imperial standards, the aging Star Destroyer would wipe the skies with the X-Wings’ mechanical innards.

“Hold steady, Besh wing,” Solo said when he saw one fight move a little more forward than the rest towards the battle. “You’ll have enough chances to wipe out rebels on your own.” He surprised even himself with how tired his voice had become.

“Serves ‘em right,” said a voice on the comm. It was S’vip, the green eyed cadet from Alderaan. Seemed he always had something to say.

“Shut it, Besh 3, and keep moving forward. Keep your eyes on those scanners, too. If the fight breaks this way, we’ve got to be ready.”

“We’ll wipe ‘em out!” said S’Vip. “Just before we came out here, we were in the Cantina, and we saw what happened to some outpost town. Boom! Splattered all over the…”

Solo was just about to give a consequence to S’Vip when a scream sounded over the comms.

Solo couldn’t identify it at first, but on his screen a fighter suddenly broke from its position beside him and made for the rear, directly towards S’Vip’s ship.

“Gaab, what’re do-“ Solo said, his fear rising. Gaab’s blasters cut him off as they flashed across the sky.

“Gaab! No!” yelled Solo, wheeling his own ship around and pointing it at Gaab’s. S’Vip was already turning tail and running, pleading for Gaab to stop shooting.

“Gaab, you need to pull back! Stand down and pull ba-“

S’Vip’s ship flared in space as Gaab’s blasters found their mark. S’Vip had tried shooting back, but the blasters had been miles off.

“Long live the Rebellion!” Gaab shouted into his comlink.

#

TO BE CONTINUED...