Chapter 1

They had followed them into the cave, making sure that none would escape. Unfortunately, for Paul and his team, it had been a trap. They had been pinned down as soon as they had come through the cave's entrance. A laser bolt slammed into the rock that Paul was taking cover behind, causing a small shower of rock fragments, glowing as they went up in the air, and then, as they began to fall back to ground, cooled and bounced off the floor. More fire was coming in towards Paul's position. He gave orders to the people with him and then returned fire with his own blaster carbine. Spotting a figure trying to find better cover, Paul aimed his rifle and squeezed the trigger. Two bolts hit the figure in the torso. He watched as the person, who had once been a living being, crumple to the floor. He heard more screams coming from the enemy's position; his group was getting the upper hand in this battle. Even though the shooting had stopped, Paul got another energy cartridge and replaced the empty one in his weapon. The enemy had been eliminated.

Paul got up from behind his cover and moved forward with the rest of his group, blaster still at the ready in case they hadn't gotten them all. Paul went over to the body of the person he had shot. The man had landed face down so he used his foot to flip the person over. The dead man's eyes starred back at Paul. He knew this man. It was Schmitty! Horrified, he looked quickly around the cave at the bodies and saw them all: Dobber, Leo...all of his Squad mates were dead, and he'd help to kill them.

"We got them all, Sir."

Paul looked over to who had spoken. It was an Imperial stormtrooper! The cavern was full of them, and Paul knew that this was his group, his unit! He looked down again and saw for the first time that he himself was dressed in stormtrooper armour. Paul looked at the stormtrooper that had spoken to him. Suddenly, the troopers head started to grow to twice its normal size. The Trooper looked at him and started making a loud blaring noise. When the noise stopped, the trooper said, "General quarters, general quarters, all personnel to battle stations!"

Paul shot up in his bed with sweat soaked covers clinging to him. It had been a dream, a real bad one, but nothing more than a dream. As Paul quickly came to, he heard the alarm again announcing general quarters. He jumped up and grabbed his flight gear, which was on the foot of his bed. He was still dressing as he ran down the corridor to the turbo lift that would take him to the flight deck. He punched the lift call button and the doors swished open. Then he hit the button that would take him down to the flight deck. As the lift descended, he finished dressing himself. The doors opened to the flight deck revealing maintenance people rushing about getting starfighters ready to launch. Paul sprinted towards his Y-Wing and noticed that his astromech droid, Shade, was already in the droid slot and ready to go. He bounded up the ladder and jumped into the cockpit. One of the ground crew threw Paul's helmet to him, which he quickly put on. He did a quick pre flight systems check then gave a thumbs up to the ground crew, who disconnected his fighter from the power couplings.

Lt. Col. Andrew 'Dobber' Dobson, the Blue's C.O., was speaking on the squadron's frequency, "Blue Squadron, report in."

Blue 2, Maj. Sean 'Leo' Healey, reported in saying that all systems were in the green. Then it was Paul's turn, "Blue 3, has two in the green and ready to fly."

The rest of the squadron reported in. All were now ready to launch. All this had taken place in just under four minutes.

The Morning Star's Communications Officer, Lt. Commander Jack Uoart, broadcasted simultaneously to both squadrons, "We have multiple targets on an attack vector heading right for us. Both squadrons are clear to launch and intercept."

Red Squadron was the first to exit the Morning Star. Their six X-Wing's opened their S-Foils into attack position as soon as they cleared the mag-con force field and then, together with the six A-Wings, sped off towards the enemy ships. Blue Squadron's turn came to exit the Morning Star. Paul kicked in the repulsors and steered his Y-Wing towards the force field. He flicked his landing gear switch and noted that all three green lights turned to red indicating that his landing gear was now stored away. As soon as he was through the mag-con field, he set his throttle to full power and vectored himself towards the incoming enemy ships. The four Blue Squadron X-Wing's and two B-Wing's opened their S-Foils into attack position as the squadron formed up into its two attack wings. Paul pressed the top left button on his control stick and instantly the closest enemy fighter appeared in his CMD. The enemy starfighter had the characteristic TIE ball cockpit, with wings similar to a TIE Interceptor, and Paul realised he was looking at a bright! He had seen schematics on the TIE Advanced before, but had never been in combat with one. These TIE's were the next generation of TIE fighters. They came with shields and hyperdrives, making them even more deadly than their predecessors.

Dobber activated his comms, "Ok people we've got an enemy cruiser to deal with before we mix it up with those fighters and gunboats!"

Paul scrolled through his CMD until he found the gunboats. The Imperials had been using these fighter-bombers, which also boasted shields and a hyperdrive, more and more, gradually replacing the older TIE Bomber. Finally, his CMD showed the cruiser that Dobber had mentioned. It was a Carrack-class light cruiser. The cruiser itself could not carry fighters; it was more likely here in a Command/Observation role. Paul linked up his lasers and ion cannons to fire at the same time then switched over to his proton torpedoes and set them to dual fire mode.

"This is Captain Ru'Kaart to Red Squadron. Target the squadron of brights and protect Blue Squadron while they make their attack run. The Morning Star and the Regis are positioning themselves to deal with the gunboat squadron."

"Copy that," replied Red's C.O., Lt. Col. Kelly 'Zoom' St.Clair. "Ok people you heard the Captain, break and attack!"

"Dobber to Blue, fire two sets of torpedoes when we're five klicks from the target."

Paul looked down at his CMD, they were nine Kicks away and closing fast.

"Missiles away!" The call had come from Lt. Chelsey 'Vape' Maxfield. Her missiles were tracking a fleeing bright that had been closing in on Blue's position. The red blip that represented the TIE on Paul's holo display vanished as the missiles found their target.

Green laser fire started coming towards the Blue flight groups. A few of the pilots had to juke a few times to avoid being hit, but then they were past the Imperials with nothing between them and the Carrack. Paul looked down at his CMD, they were just over six Klicks from their target. Then two things happened. Two of the threat indicators lit up on Paul's HUD. The first one told him that the cruiser had a lock on him and the second one told him that someone was going for a missile lock. While all this was happening, Paul heard his own targeting system locking on to the cruiser. The tone went from a steady beep to a solid tone. His torpedoes were now locked on to the cruiser. Turbo laser fire started to reach out towards him and the others from the cruiser. The blinking threat light suddenly became a solid red light, indicating that whoever was targeting him had gotten a lock. Hearing Dobber give the order to fire, Paul squeezed his trigger and felt two torpedoes leave his Y-Wing. A warning tone went off in the cockpit indicating that missiles had been fired at him. He squeezed his trigger again, sending the second set of Torpedoes on their way.

"Shade," Paul shouted, "Chaff now!"

The Droid beeped once, indicating that he had complied with the order. The missiles homed in on Paul's Y-Wing, but, when they reached the tail end of the chaff cloud, both missiles warheads registered that they had hit their target and detonated. The shockwave from the exploding concussion missiles sent Paul's Y-Wing into a spiral, throwing the pilot about in his cockpit. Regaining control of his ship, Paul centred his sights on the cruiser. He noted that the ship's shields were at 7% and almost down.

He saw two X-Wings begin a strafing run on the enemy ship. By the time the two fighters had finished, the cruiser's shields were down and the ship's hull had taken some damage. 1st Lt. Steve 'Schmitty' Michadick's B-Wing joined Paul's Y-Wing for an attack run. At one klick out they both opened fire. The pair of them fired linked lasers and ion cannons causing blue electricity to dance over the ship when the ion bolts struck the ship.

Paul and Schmitty pulled up and flew away from the cruiser as Paul keyed his comms; "We've got us a sleeping Carrack here. Looks like we've gotten us some prisoners!"

"Copy that, Rogue." Dobber replied. "Ok everyone, break, and attack those brights and gunboats."

Over the Comm system, Paul heard Zoom ordering half of his squad to go and assist the Morning Star and Regis deal with the gunboats while the rest of the squad, now with Blue Squadron's help, would finish off the brights. Pressing the button that would bring up the nearest enemy craft, Paul shunted some more power to his laser and ion cannons. The nearest TIE was one klick away and heading in his direction. An X-Wing from Red Squadron was giving chase with dual lasers reaching out towards the enemy fighter. At half a klick, Paul opened fire too. All four bolts hit the TIE's shields, illuminating the invisible protective energy barrier that protected the craft. The TIE veered away sharply trying to get away from his new attacker. Looking down at his CMD, Paul noted that the TIE's shields would probably take another two or three shots before collapsing. He followed the fleeing TIE through a tight series of manoeuvres while getting off a few more shots as he managed to stay on the TIE's tail. The last shot had proven too much for the bright's shields to handle. Noticing that the shield counter was at 0%, Paul pressed home his attack. The first shot hit above the main starboard wing root, superheating the metal. The second hit the rear of the ball cockpit, burning straight through the armour vaporising the pilot inside before the laser bolts blasted through the view screen. A second later the TIE exploded, engulfing the craft and leaving nothing behind.

A few moments later Paul heard over the comms that Schmitty had disabled a bright. Two more calls came from other pilots having done the same. The tide of the battle was going against the Imperials more and more. The six fighters that had gone to assist the Morning Star and Regis had engaged and all ready downed four of the gunboats. With the Regis shooting down two and the Morning Star getting one, the remaining five gunboats were on the defensive.

Paul found another target and headed towards it, but Shade alerted him to the Carrack cruiser. He looked over his left shoulder at the cruiser and noted that gouts of flame had erupted from several points along the cruiser's body.

"What the hell?" Shouted Rob 'Biggs' Baden.

The cruiser was consumed by flame and in the final stages of blowing up.

"Self destruct?" asked Kristofer 'Target' Chester.

"Negative on that, Mr Chester!" replied Rob. "New enemy contact!"

"By the Emperor's black bones!" exclaimed Sean 'Leo' Healey. "A TIE Defender!"

The TIE Defender was the Empire's most deadly fighter. It was equipped with shields, hyperdrive, four lasers, and two ion cannons. It could also carry twelve concussion missiles. They were also extremely rare. Only the Empire's elite got to fly them.

The sight of the new enemy fighter held Paul's attention for a few seconds, it looked like today was shaping up to be a day of firsts for him.

"Shade, activate the data recorder, make sure you get footage of that Defender!"

The Droid tootled in confirmation as he carried out the task. Selecting the Defender as his new target, Paul headed towards it. It seemed that a few other people had the same thought and were going to engage the new Imperial fighter. Paul noticed Rob's A-Wing surge forward, heading towards the Defender. Two red projectiles shot out from the front of Rob's A-Wing. The missiles started tracking the Defender straight away and the Defender gave no indication that it knew missiles were on their way to destroy the craft. It just flew straight on. The missiles looked as if they were going to reach their target until a small purple missile shot out from the rear of the TIE. It detonated in front of the two oncoming missiles, destroying them in the blast. Over the comms, Paul could hear Rob swearing and cursing about the inventors of flares. The TIE Defender fired two of its own concussion missiles; however its target wasn't an Alliance fighter, but one of the disabled TIEs. The targeted TIE blew apart as the missiles found their target and detonated.

"Sithspawn! He's making sure we don't have any prisoners to interrogate!" Neil 'Ranger' Magill exclaimed.

"This is the Morning Star; the other enemy fighters are withdrawing. Let them go. I repeat; let them go. Concentrate on keeping those two remaining TIEs alive!"

Although he had never seen this sort of thing before, Paul had heard of the Imperials using this tactic. Rob's A-Wing had gotten within firing range and was now concentrating fire towards the weaving TIE. With manoeuvres that Paul didn't think a star fighter was possible of making, he watched in horror as the Defender got onto Rob's tail and opened fire. The A-Wings shields absorbed the first shot. The second burned right through them into the ship itself! With the A-Wing clearly finished, Rob ejected from his doomed fighter. It spiralled away from the ejected pilot for a few seconds before another shot from the Defender reduced Rob's ship to atoms.

Paul got on his Comm system, "We've got a pilot EVA! Shade, send the Morning Star the coordinates."

"Coordinates received and rescue shuttle despatched, ETA is two minutes."

Paul hoped that Rob was ok and that he was able to last the two minutes it would take for the rescue shuttle to pick him up. He put his Y-Wing on a vector that would take him towards one of the disabled brights, the one that was closet to him but furthest away from the Defender. Several missiles were fired at the Defender as he closed in on his next target, but they were destroyed by flares or by the TIE pilot shooting them down. Then the second disabled bright went the same way as the first as the Defender turned towards the surviving TIE.

This put it on a direct intercept course with Paul's Y-Wing. Paul put his shield recharge rate up to full power and headed towards the attacking TIE. When his CMD showed that the TIE was two klicks out, Paul opened fire. He was either going to hit the TIE or make it juke out of the way, giving the others a chance to come and help. The TIE did juke but not in the way that Paul expected. The pilot of the Defender put his craft into a corkscrew manoeuvre, meaning that Paul's laser and ion blast missed completely. The Defender's return fire, however, did not. The first two shots hit his shields before he had a chance to react. While he was pulling away from his attacker, another shot hit him, overpowering his shield unit, leaving his ship without any shield protection. As Paul attempted to get clear, the Defender pilot fired again, hitting his Y-Wing's port engine. His cockpit was suddenly filled with sparks, smoke, alarms, and flashing warning lights.

Shade was screeching, but Paul didn't look to see what the little droid was saying. He was too busy thinking that he was about to die, since most Y-Wings, when hit like this, had a nasty habit of blowing up. He closed his eyes and waited for the end to come. After what seemed to him like an eternity, he opened his eyes and found that he was still among the living. Then his training took over and he closed down the affected engine and redirected fuel and power to the one remaining engine.

"This is Blue 3 declaring an emergency!" Paul coughed as he took in a lungful of smoke before he continued. "Port engine destroyed, I'm making my way back to base, have crash teams standing by!"

"We copy you Blue 3. Crash teams will be ready for your arrival."

Paul got his ship on a course to the Morning Star, and headed straight for it. For the first time he looked at the damaged engine, most of it wasn't there anymore. The smoke was starting to get worse inside the cockpit and his eyes began to water from its effects. Setting his laser and ion energy to zero, Paul managed to get a bit more speed out of his crippled Y-Wing. The Morning Star was steadily getting bigger as he flew towards it, bringing Paul that much closer to safety. Not even bothering to lower the landing gear, due to the fact that the port strut was no longer there, Paul kicked in the repulsors and set the Y-Wing down on its belly. As soon as he had killed the engines, Paul flung open his canopy, almost smacking one of the crash team members in the face.

Unclipping from his safety harness, half climbing, and half being dragged out, Paul took his first lungful of fresh air. He started coughing immediately and it felt like he was going to cough his lungs up. He staggered away from the Y-Wing to let the crash team members dealt with it. A medic rushed over to him and put an oxygen mask on his face. It helped him stop coughing almost immediately. Paul was taking another deep breath of oxygen when Shade came over to him.

"Hey little fella, I see you got yourself some more dents and scratches!"

Shade responded with a series of beeps and whistles. It sounded like the droid was scolding him as well as seeing how he was doing. Paul smiled at the droid, then, waving the medic away from him, called one of the ground crew over.

"Get one of the squad's spare X-Wings ready to fly. I'm heading back out there."

The crewman simply blinked at Paul as if he had grown another head. It probably had something to do with the fact that Paul's face was almost completely black apart from where tears had been streaming down his face due to the affects of the smoke.

"Sir, there's no point, it's all over, both squadrons are coming back in."

The strength seemed to flow out of Paul, as his legs suddenly gave way. The medic caught him under his arms, stopping him from hitting the floor.

"The only place you're going, Captain, is sickbay!"

Paul was too weak to argue and simply nodded his head. Leaning on the medic for support, he let the medic guide him to the turbo lift that would take him to sickbay. Shade followed him and got into the lift with them. As the doors were closing, Paul saw the first of his squad mates' fighters passing through the mag-con force field.

Chapter 2

[One hour later, the sickbay aboard the Morning Star.]

"You're probably going to have a cough for the next few days or so, but, apart from that, you're going to be fine, Captain." The medical droid pushed a button and an image of Paul's mid section appeared. "As you can see from the display, your lungs, although slightly irritated by the smoke, will not have lasting damage."

"Cheers, Doc. Does this mean I'm free to go?"

"Yes, but if you have any problems at all, come back here at once."

"You got it. How's Rob doing?"

The medical droid turned his head to look at the figure that was floating in the bacta tank. "The Lieutenant is ok. He is in the bacta tank as a precaution after going EV. He should be ready to come out in another thirty minutes. However, Flight Officer Ciprian is another matter. His injuries were quite severe and we are not sure if he will come out of his coma and make a full recovery!"

Paul had only learned that Ionescu 'Zoz' Ciprian was shot down when he was brought into the sickbay with Biggs. Zoz had been responsible for saving Paul's life. The TIE Defender was lining itself up to finish off Paul's Y-Wing when Zoz scored two direct hits. The TIE pilot went after this new threat straight away, ignoring Paul which had allowed him to get away. However, Zoz's X-Wing was destroyed. He had managed to eject just in time, but was not far enough away from the exploding X-Wing not to get hurt. With Zoz out of the way, the TIE pilot killed the final bright with another set of concussion missiles and then went into hyperspace before anyone else could attack him.

Paul got off the examination table and walked over to the bacta tank with Zoz floating in it. He looked into the pink liquid at his squadmate. "Come on kid, you've got to pull through. I owe you, and I don't like having unpaid debts. Now get better. That's an order!" Paul gently patted the tank before turning to leave. As he passed Rob's tank, he gave the pilot a thumbs up gesture. Seeing him through the bacta, Rob replied with the same gesture.

[Aboard the Imperial Frigate, Deceiver]

"Damnit Major, why did you have to kill them?"

"Because, Lieutenant, they screwed up. I couldn't allow those Rebels to take them alive and question them. And, Lieutenant, I would suggest that you think very carefully before questioning me like that again. Do I make myself clear?"

The lieutenant's resolve seemed to leave him as he came to attention in front of the major and simply said, "Yes, sir."

The major watched the lieutenant walk off before he turned on his heel and went into his office. After the door was closed, he pressed a button on his control panel, locking the door, which made sure that no one could enter. He tapped in a series of letters and number on his keypad, and then waited for about twenty seconds before the connection that he wanted was made. An image of a woman appeared in his terminal. She looked at him and then said, "Report."

"The mission was a success, although the cost was high. We lost the cruiser and twelve pilots. The cruiser and three of the pilots I had to kill myself!" The Major controlled his breathing. It wouldn't do for him to appear angry in front of her. "I just hope she's worth it, your operative!"

"She is, Major. All that and more."

With that, the connection was broken and her image disappeared from his terminal. The major sighed. He disliked killing his own people, but he knew better than to disobey orders. He reached into his desk drawer and withdrew a bottle and a small glass; poured some of the contents into the glass and sniffed it. Then he swallowed the golden liquid down in one gulp. He refilled his glass, and this time before drinking, raised the glass in the air to the empty room and said, "Here's to you guys. Cheers!"

[The Morning Star. Three days later.]

Paul pushed the call button for the turbo lift. The doors opened, but the lift car wasn't empty. He nodded to Dobber, his C.O., then stepped inside the lift. Seeing that Dobber's destination was the same as his, Paul just waited for the lift doors to slide shut.

"Have you been visiting Zoz again?" Dobber asked.

"Yeah, chief, I go see him at least once a day. The MDs aren't sure if, or when, he'll recover. They say that his wounds are healed. All that needs to happen now is for Zoz to wake up."

"So I hear. Listen, it's not your fault that Zoz is injured, you know."

"I know Chief, and I'm not blaming myself at all. I blame the bastard that shot him down." Paul clenched both of his fists as he thought about going up against the TIE pilot again, but with the outcome being very different. The lift came to a stop and the doors opened from them to exit at the hanger deck.

Paul was going to look at the reserve fighter he had been assigned. His Y-Wing would be in maintenance for quite a while due to a parts shortage. Y-Wings weren't exactly cutting edge anymore. In fact, they hadn't been for a number of years and were steadily being replaced by the newer B-Wings. However, Paul had always liked the Y-Wing. It was the best gun platform in the Alliance and it had decent shields. The only thing that really held it back was its speed. Speed wasn't everything, but try telling that to the A-Wing jocks in Red. They'd argue for hours about how it was essential for keeping one-step ahead of the Imperials during a fight. Laughing to himself as he walked over to his new fighter, he saw that Pappy, the Chief Mechanic, was working on one of the stabilisers and was whistling to himself as he worked.

"Hey Pappy, this thing space worthy yet?"

"Good morning, Captain. Yes. Just finishing up some minor adjustments and then you'll be set to take her out on a quick test flight."

"Thanks, Pappy. I appreciate it."

The mechanic nodded and then got back to work on the stabiliser.

A few hours later, after Paul had put the X-Wing through a good work out, he was relaxing in his quarters. Being a Captain, Paul had quarters to himself, making the living space a little bigger than those of the quarters where crew had to share. He was reading the intelligence report that Captain Sooli Kitz, the Morning Star's Intelligence Officer, had written about last week's engagement. In it, she raised several points about the attack and why it had taken place. The attacking force, although strong, wasn't nearly large enough to tackle the group effectively. How did the Imperials know their location? Why had they used TIE Advanceds when they were in demand in more important parts of the galaxy? Where had they come from and who was in command of them? Paul scrolled past all of this until he came to the part that concerned the TIE Defender. There were no unit markings of any type on the craft. Therefore trying to I.D. the fighter was going to be very difficult, if not impossible. Paul put the data pad down and sat up on his bed.

"Shade, display the image of the Defender."

Shade was in the corner of Paul's room jacked into the droid socket and carrying out various tasks. His dome rotated towards Paul and the holo projector in his head snapped to life showing the image of the TIE Defender in the centre of the room. The fighter rotated slowly, allowing a full view of the ship. Paul stared at the fighter as it hung there. Shade let off a series of whistles and beeps and the translation appeared on the terminal close to where Shade was working.

"No Shade, I just think that if I look, I'll find something that will help us track this Imp down!" After ten minutes of studying the image, Paul sighed in frustration. He waved his hand at Shade and the image of the fighter wavered and then vanished. Paul slumped back down on his bed. He had been lying there for about a minute when his commlink started to beep.

"Yes?"

"Captain Sweet? You have a call coming through for you, sir."

Sitting up on his bed again, Paul responded to the Communications Officer. "Ok. Patch it through to my quarters please."

Paul went over to his terminal and accepted the call. The image of an attractive, smiling woman appeared on his screen. "Veela? Is that you?"

"Last time I checked, flyboy! How are you?"

Completely taken aback by the appearance of his friend, Paul was lost for words for a few seconds. When he finely managed to find his voice, he spoke to Veela. "I'm fine, what's wrong? Why are you calling?"

"Charmed, I'm sure! You mean I can't even call you without something being wrong? Oh, and I'm fine by the way. Thanks for asking."

Seeing that he wasn't going to win anything in this battle, Paul smiled at Veela, "Ok, how are you, Veela?"

"Fine. I see that scar is still as vivid as the last time I saw it!" Veela was referring to the scar on Paul's face. It ran down from the right of his temple, over his right eye, and finished about the middle of his cheek. Paul got it the last time they had been on a mission together; that was almost a year and a half ago.

Veela continued talking, "No, the reason I'm calling is this: my unit is going on R&R soon and we'll be having shore leave near where you are. Bey is joining me and asked if you would like to meet up and spend some time with us?"

Bey was Veela's husband. Paul hadn't known him for as long as he had known Veela, but both Bey and Paul had become firm friends when they were introduced a few years ago. Bey was an Instructor at one of the Alliance training camps. His specialty was unarmed combat.

Paul thought about it for a while before responding, "I'd feel like an unwanted bantha at a dinner party, Veela. You two haven't seen each other in a while!"

"I know, but we want you here anyway. Besides, Gunny Ras'Kaart and a few of the others will also be here, so you can spend time with them when Bey and I want to be alone!" Veela flashed Paul a wicked grin.

"Ok Veela, I'll see what I can do. I should be able to get some time off. Let me know the dates that you'll be there and, with a bit of luck, I'll be able to manage it."

"Make sure you do flyboy. See you soon."

With that, the connection was broken, leaving Paul with a smile on his face. Looking at his watch, he decided he was going to head to the bar to see who was there and to have a drink.

[Elsewhere on the Morning Star]

Corporal Dorland was going about his duties, which included the repair and replacement of defective lighting as well as many other such tasks. This was not how he imagined himself serving the fight for freedom, as a maintenance tech on one of the Alliance's front line starships. Dorland didn't mind the work, but he didn't like the idea of putting himself in direct danger by flying a fighter or being a soldier either. He knew he was contributing his small part by carrying out his work. It helped that he liked to tinker and fix things. This job gave him the opportunity to do so, while keeping him relatively safe.

As he turned down the corridor to where his data pad told him his next repair was located, he saw that someone else was already there working. He looked down at his datapad to make sure that he had read it correctly. He had. So, he walked over to her and asked, "Hi, I thought that this section was on my work order?"

The woman stopped what she doing and looked up at him. She was quite attractive. Even the dirty cover alls that she wore couldn't spoil her looks. She stood up and Dorland noticed that she was slightly smaller than he was. Then she pulled out her own datapad from her coveralls and scrolled through it for a second. He looked at the name tab on her coveralls. Denin, it read. He had never seen her before, but this didn't worry him to much. He put it down to the size of the ship.

"Here it is." she said handing it over to Dorland.

He took the pad from her and started looking at it. "Are you sure?" he asked. "I can't see it."

She came up beside him, pressing herself into him as she reached over and manipulated the pads controls. "I just had it," she mumbled.

As Dorland returned his attention to her pad, he felt her arm rising up his back. The sensation felt utterly fantastic to him as her fingers played lightly up his back. Then in a sudden movement, she grabbed his head with both hands and twisted it until his neck snapped. Dorland's body went limp, but it never hit the floor. The woman had hold of it in one arm as she looked about making sure she had not been seen. Satisfied, she dragged the body out of sight before returning to the access panel she had been working on before being discovered.

[One hour later]

Rob Baden was taking a walk on the lower decks. He liked coming down here because there was never many people on these lower levels. It gave him space and time to think and to be alone. Recently, Rob had been doing a lot of thinking about a certain bartender, Trixel Narmi. They recently took their relationship to the next level; and, for Rob, this was a major step. His past relationships had ended in tragedy and Rob was not sure if he could take another loss like that again. Therefore, he had been reluctant to engage in a new one. However, Trixel had managed to get past the shields that Rob put up to stop himself from being hurt again. She had a talent for being able to make people open up and was always there with helpful advice for those that needed it.

Rob was looking through one of the view ports, but was not seeing any of the stars that were out there though. He was picturing Trixel's face and listening to her voice in his head. If anyone else had seen Rob at that moment in time, they would have been surprised to see him smiling. Rob found that he had been doing this quite often lately since Trixel and he had gotten together.

Bringing his attention back to the hear and now, Rob headed off. He noticed a data pad lying on the floor when he turned down the next corridor. He stopped and started looking around for the owner. Before realising what he was doing, he had his communicator in his hand. "This is Lieutenant Baden; we have a medical emergency, level 27, corridor Alpha Alpha 9!"

The body of Corporal Dorland was put in a body bag, lifted onto the repulsorsled, and then taken off to the Morgue.

"That's where you found him, was it, Lieutenant?" Lieutenant Alecia Vinie was taking down Rob's statement on her data pad.

"Yes. As soon as I saw him I got on the comms and got a medical team down here."

"Did you touch Corporal Dorland at all, Lieutenant?"

"Yes. I checked to see if he had a pulse. When I found none, I left him alone and waited for the medical team to arrive."

"Can I ask what you were doing down here, Lieutenant Baden?"

"Of course. I was walking. I often come down here to be alone."

"Ok Lieutenant Baden, I think that's everything. If I need you for anything else, I'll be in touch with you." Alecia smiled at Rob and told him that he was free to go and that the questions that she had just asked were formality and nothing personal. Alecia was the Morning Star's Chief of Security and it was her job to investigate what had happened.

Rob simply nodded his head and then headed off towards the nearest turbo lift. Commander Abodar, the Morning Star's First Officer, waited until Alecia had finished questioning Rob before he came over to her. "What have you got for me, Chief?"

"Well, sir, from the looks of it, Dorland was working up there;" Alecia pointed up to a gantry with her finger, "carrying out his maintenance orders, slipped, fell, and broke his neck. I'll have a better idea once the MD's complete an autopsy."

Commander Abodar looked at Alecia and asked in a lowered voice, "Do you suspect foul play?"

"At this moment in time, sir, I'm not ruling anything out until I know more. As soon as I do, I'll let you know."

Satisfied with that, Commander Abodar thanked Alecia for her information then headed back to the bridge to inform the Captain of what was going on.

Paul learned of what had happened to Corporal Dorland when he went into the bar thirty minutes later. He overheard the conversation Rob was having with Chelsey 'Vape' Maxfield. He leaned over and asked Rob to repeat his story. As Rob did, Paul joined the two pilots at their table to listen to the account. After Chelsey and Paul asked Rob a few questions, they changed their conversation to other matters. Paul noted to himself that this was turning into one of the longest conversations that Rob and he had ever had. Even when they had been on strike missions together, Rob hadn't said as much. Paul wouldn't class their friendship along the lines of best buddies, but he did class Rob as a good friend.

The three of them were talking tactics and, once again, the two Red Squadron pilots were telling Paul about the advantages the speed of the A-Wing. They groaned and laughed at Paul as he explained the benefits that that his Y-Wing had over the A-Wing.

While they were talking, Sazril 'Yale' Murshid entered the room and walked over to the bar where he ordered himself a drink. Seeing the other pilot and knowing that he would more than likely want to sit with his fellow squad mates, Paul made his excuses and got up. Chelsey started asking Paul to stay, but a look from Rob told her not to pursue the matter. Slightly puzzled, but not questioning Rob, Chelsey said goodbye to Paul, as did Rob. As he was leaving, Paul passed Sazril on the way out. The two pilots looked at each other and Sazril clenched his jaw as Paul walked by him. Paul was also tense because he didn't fancy being attacked by the other man again.

Although they had come to terms with what happened several years ago, Paul was not taking any chances. If the other pilot attacked him this time, he would do more than defend himself. Thankfully, it didn't come to that, and Paul walked out of the bar.

Letting out a sigh of relief as he headed towards the turbo lift, Paul reflected on the set of circumstances that linked Sazril and himself. He got in the lift and hit one of the buttons that would take him deep into the ship. He knew that it would take time before he and Sazril would be on proper speaking terms and Paul doubted that the two of them would ever be firm friends. However, he did hope that they could at least be civil to one another and be on speaking terms eventually.

The doors opened and Paul walked out. He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and started walking, lost in thought. His mind drifted back to a time when he was in the service of the Empire, when he thought that his life was destined to enforcing the Emperor's authority, bringing law and order to the galaxy. Thinking about his past reminded him of his parents. His parents were still Imperial citizens and living in the vast remnants of the Empire. His father was a commander in the Imperial Navy and his mother was in charge at one of the starship manufacturing plants. They both thought that he had died several years ago while on a mission. It was necessary for their protection. Families with traitors in them often disappeared, never to be seen again, regardless if the other family members were loyal or not.

Paul had been walking without consciously thinking where he was going and found himself in one of the many storerooms aboard the big ship. His thoughts back to the present, Paul looked about the massive storeroom. Everything was neatly arranged so that it could be quickly accessed. He was about to turn and leave when a noise from within the storeroom stopped him. He turned back around and headed to where he heard the sound come. There was a stack of crates ahead and the sound was coming from behind them. Paul peered around the crates and saw a female maintenance tech sitting down on a smaller crate. She looked like she was having a snack of some sort, as she was mid way through eating some kind of food ration that the Morning Star dished out to the crew. His sudden appearance seemed to startle the woman and she jumped when he came into full view. Her eyes zeroed in on his Captain's rank on his shoulders causing her to immediately jump to her feet and go straight to attention.

"At ease Sergeant….." Paul looked at the woman's name tab, "Denin."

"Yes, Captain. Thank you, sir." Denin visibly relaxed, but not that much.

There was something about the way the woman was standing that made Paul feel slightly uneasy. If he didn't know better, it looked like she was either ready for Paul to attack her, or the other way around. It was a kind of sixth sense feeling that he always had when a fight was about to break out. It had developed more during his time as an Imperial Commando, and, since then, he learned always to trust it. "I'm sorry, Sergeant. I never meant to disturb your meal."

Denin looked down at the ration bar she was eating and snorted, "Meal? Sir, you give this ration bar way to much credit!"

Paul smiled at the comment. It was true. Alliance food rations were infamously known and feared throughout the galaxy! "What does this one pretend to be?"

Denin looked at the ration bar again, at what the wrapper stated it was, "Well, sir, they claim its delicious steak along with vegetables and gravy. My own personal opinion is that it tastes like a mouldy old bantha!"

It was as Denin was speaking, that the thought occurred to Paul. He had heard this woman's voice before, but not only that, the more he thought about it, he was certain that he had seen her before too. Paul kept his face normal as he desperately tried to remember where he'd seen her before.

"Is there something that I can help you with, sir?"

"What? No thank you, Sergeant. I was just taking a walk to clear my head; a few things on my mind, that's all."

"Very well, sir. Will there be anything else?"

Her identity came to him as Denin finished her sentence. He had seen her at the Imperial Special Forces training school. She had given a talk about unarmed combat and then a demonstration. He had to be certain it was her, but how? How could he get her to confirm her identity? Then it came to him. It was a long shot, but it was all he had at this moment.

"Yes Sergeant. Sorry to have disturbed you. Oh, one last thing; I've had this saying going around in my head for ages and I can't for the life of me remember how it ends. I wonder if you might?"

"I'll try, sir." Denin looked suspiciously at Paul.

"Ok. It goes something like this, 'I am the Emperors eyes and ears'…"

Denin looked at Paul and a tight smile came to her face, "I am the Emperors vengeance!"

Denin had responded to the challenge with the correct reply. It was a phrase that was used by operatives in the Imperial Special Forces. It was used to identify operatives to each other if the occasion should ever warrant it.

"So tell me, Captain. Why did you reveal yourself to me?"

Denin's personality changed, just like that. Gone was the respectful Sergeant. In its place was the cool and efficient killer, the real person. "Because I have a feeling that if I hadn't, I might have had a nasty 'accident' like Dorland, isn't that correct, Major Brie!"

Chapter 3

Major Shira Elan Colla Brie. She was a member of the Imperial Special Forces; graduated with top honours from the Imperial Academy and her records were still unbeaten when Paul attended. Her mission was to infiltrate the Rebel Alliance and then see to the elimination, either actual or effectual, of Commander Skywalker. She almost succeeded. It was while Commander Skywalker lead a hit-and-fade strike against an Imperial Armada to destroy a creature know as 'The Teezl', a creature that would have given the Empire a decided advantage in instant communication to any of it's out posts across the galaxy, that Shira Brie, made her move against Commander Skywalker. Commander Skywalker managed to defeat Shira, but then had to clear his name. The Rebel Command had accused him of treason and the murder of Shira Brie. To clear his name, he had to infiltrate the Empire's data storage facility on Krakes to get the information that would exonerate him. Commander Skywalker was successful; thanks to the help of the Wookie, Chewbacca.

That had been several years ago. Shira Brie was presumed dead and the whole affair forgotten by most people.

"So you know who I am and knew a challenge. That doesn't mean anything." Shira looked as if she was ready to strike out at Paul. "Give me one good reason why I should let you live?"

"I'll give you two. You gave a lecture about unarmed combat and then a demonstration to my class and me at the Academy. You beat the hell out of one of the other instructors who was almost twice your size. Also, you kill me; you'll be getting rid of someone that the Empire put a lot of time and effort to get into this position." Paul knew that his last statement was pretty weak, but it was all he had under the circumstances. All he was trying to do now was buy himself enough time so that he could alert the security forces and detain Shira...without getting himself killed in the process.

Shira looked at Paul for what seemed like an eternity. She didn't blink at all. "I'm sorry, Captain, but your cover doesn't make any sense."

Staring straight back at the Imperial Major, Paul responded, "Listen, Major. I don't have to tell you squat. I'm not at liberty to disclose anything, not even to someone like you. All you need to know is that my operative name is Rogue and that we're on the same side." She paused for a second to consider this. Paul had been waiting for the opportunity. He thrust both of his hands into his jacket pockets. What he needed was in his left pocket: his comlink. He thumbed it to transmit.

"I'm sorry, Captain, but I wasn't told you'd be aboard this ship. So forgive me if I'm just this little bit cautious."

"They obviously didn't want to blow my cover, by me becoming your contact, so they've used someone else haven't they?" Paul hoped that if he made the question sound like a statement, that he would be able to get some information out of her, maybe even a name.

"Indeed."

It was not the response that Paul was hoping for. "I heard that you were killed during the raid on the Teezl. You look pretty healthy for a corpse!"

"I was wounded severely, but Imperial medics managed to keep me alive and heal me. But that took time. And by the time I was ready to return to active duty, the Emperor and Lord Vader were dead; killed by Skywalker!" As Shira said Luke's name, she clenched her fist and her whole appearance changed. It was obvious that there was barely controlled rage bellow the surface that was dying to be released. But, as quickly as it came, the rage in Shira disappeared, and, once more, she was in control of herself.

[On the Bridge of the Morning Star]

"Commander Uoart? Can you come and listen to this for a minute please sir."

"What is it, Lieutenant?"

The young Lieutenant handed his Commander a second headset. "I'm not sure, sir. This comm channel just opened up a minute ago and, well, I'm hearing some rather strange things."

Commander Uoart listened to the muffled words, straining to hear what was being said. "Do we know who the Commlink belongs to and where it's transmitting from?"

"Yes sir. It's Captain Sweet's. The signal is coming from level 26 Storeroom Delta."

"Lieutenant, send a security detail to that location. Do it quickly, but quietly. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

[Storeroom Delta]

Paul was about to try another question to see if he could learn anything else from Shira when a beeping sound came from her lift hip pocket. Shira reached in, pulled out a datapad, and then read the information that was scrolling down the pad's screen.

"Security Forces have been mobilised!" Shira continued to read something else and then suddenly looked up at him. Her face was twisting in anger. She spat out her next words like they were venom, "Traitor!"

He didn't need any kind of sixth sense to tell him that he was in big trouble.

He reached down for his DL-44 blaster and did the fastest draw he'd ever done. It wasn't fast enough. A high kick from Shira got him in the face and sent him sprawling backwards. He hit the floor hard and his gun clattered away across the floor. Flipping him self over, Paul lunged for his blaster. He managed to get his fingertips to the gun's handle and was about to close his hand around it when his hand no longer moved. A knife hilt was starring at him as he tried to understand what had just happened. It had gone straight through his wrist and pinned it to the deck floor.

Shira moved towards Paul like some dangerous predator looking to make a kill on a helpless victim. Sweeping with his left foot, Paul managed to catch Shira off guard and sweep her legs from under her. As she landed, Paul lashed out with his other foot, kicking Shira solidly in the stomach, winding her. With his left hand he pulled the dagger from his wrist. The pain was agonising, but he couldn't give in to it.

Keeping the dagger in his left hand, Paul got to his feet at the same time as Shira. He was impressed with how quickly she had recovered from the blow. The pair of them stared at each other again, weighing their opponents up, looking for weaknesses that could be exploited. Paul lunged towards Shira with the dagger. She stepped back and, with another kick, kicked the dagger from his grasp. Shira followed up with a punch that hit Paul in the mouth, splitting his lips and letting blood flow freely from the cut. She followed with another punch to the face, this time to upper left, and another cut appeared near his left eye.

"Don't tell me you're giving up already?" Shira asked as she grabbed handful of Paul's uniform, ready to deliver another set of punches.

"Hardly!" Paul smashed down on Shira's right foot with his left heel and heard the crunching of bones as he drove down with all his weight. Not giving her any time to recover, he grabbed hold of Shira's cover alls and pulled her in close to him. Then head butted her. There was another cracking sound. Paul pushed her back and Shira bounced off one of the crates that was stacked nearby. "I'm just getting started!"

Shira wiped her hand across her face, leaving a bloody streak across her face. She looked down at her hand and then back at Paul. "Well, Captain, let me see if I can finish it for you!"

Shira resumed her attack. She came at Paul with another high kick, which he managed to block, along with the few that followed. The pair of them traded blows, looking for an opening in the other's defences. Paul was very aware that he could hardly use his right hand anymore due to the damage that the knife had done to him. Shira was well aware of this and used it to her advantage.

Paul suffered several more blows to the face and some hits to the stomach. It was a pretty one sided fight. Shira was the better of the two of them at unarmed combat, but Paul wasn't letting her have it all her own way. He managed to get in a backhanded punch with his left fist. The punch landed solidly with Shira's jaw and he felt the impact travel up the length of his arm. Blood came from inside Shira's mouth and she spat out a bloody gob that made an unusual sound when it hit the deck.

Paul saw that he had managed to knock out one of Shira's teeth. Now Shira really poured it on, putting him into a defensive fighting style. Shira's attacks were relentless and he knew it was only a matter of time before Shira would overpower him.

It happened with a kick.

She got a mid level kick through Paul's blocks. Her foot hit with such force that he heard, as well as felt, the ribs on the left side of his chest brake. The impact threw him to the floor, winding him and he let out an agonised groan as he tried to move again. Then he saw that he had landed near to his blaster and, using his left hand, dragged himself painfully towards it.

"Good, Captain, good." Shira said as she watched Paul struggling to reach his blaster. "I like the ones that don't give up. It makes it that much more satisfying in the end!" Shira went over to where the dagger had landed and picked it up then started walking towards where Paul was dragging himself on the floor. "Time to die, Captain!"

"FREEZE!" The warning came from the entrance of the storeroom. The security team had arrived. The first security officer had a blaster rifle aimed at Shira as the rest of the team came into the room.

Almost faster than the eye could follow, Shira threw the dagger at the security officer. Before he had time to react, the dagger was sticking in his forehead. His dying body fell back into his teammates, throwing their aims off.

Shira spun on her heal and set off at a run, away from the security officers as blaster bolts went wildly by her.

As all this was happening, Paul managed to reach his blaster pick it up with his left hand. Before he even took aim he was squeezing the trigger, sending bolt after bolt towards the fleeing Shira. He got lucky as one bolt hit her squarely in the left shoulder. She didn't even brake pace. She just kept on running as if she felt nothing hit her. Paul managed to get off a few more shots before Shira ran through a doorway and turned down the corridor. He heard a female voice shouting halt, then a second later a series of blaster shots rang out, and then nothing.

The same voice that called for Shira to halt came again and few seconds later. "Clear."

The security team that had saved Paul came into the room. One of the officers responded, "We've got two men down! We need MDs down here now!"

Captain Sooli Kitz, and her security team came through the doorway that Shira had fled through with her blaster still in hand. She headed towards where Paul lay on the floor, bleeding, battered, and bruised. "You get her?" Paul asked.

"We got her." Captain Kitz replied.

"Good. If you don't mind, I think I'll pass out now!"

Epilogue

"You look like you were run over by a heard of banthas, Rogue!"

"Cheers, Schmitty. That's just what I need to hear!"

Paul was in the medical wing of the Morning Star once again, though this time he wouldn't be leaving as quickly as he did the last time he was here. His injuries consisted of the stabbed wrist, three broken ribs, numerous lacerations and bruises, and, finally, a black eye, which was swollen quite badly. The upper half of Paul's body was covered in bandages and dressings.

"So how are you doing, Paul?" This question came from Andrew Dobson, who was also visiting Paul.

"I've been better, Chief. The MDs say that I should be back on the flight roster by the end of the week."

"That's good news, Paul. I'm sure the others will stop by and see you later. In the mean time, Captain Kitz is waiting to see you." Dobber signalled to Steve that it was time to go, and the pair got up and left.

The Intelligence Officer came over to Paul's bed, and sat down in one of the recently vacated chairs. "She was a clone!"

"A what?" Paul almost sat upright until the pain in his ribs made him settle back down in bed.

"The autopsy on her body revealed it. The real Shira Brie was exposed to the vacuum of space when Luke Skywalker shot her down. This body had no evidence of any such trauma. We also know that the real Shira Brie was terribly wounded and severely scarred. Again, no such evidence on this body was found. Finally, the last reported sighting of Shira Brie was on Kinooine and she's now going by the name of Lumiya, the Dark Lady." Sooli stopped reading from her data pad and looked up at Paul.

"Let me ask you something, Captain. This information that you've had on Shira, you've had it for a while now, haven't you? So how come this is not general knowledge to everyone?"

"Intelligence didn't feel it was warranted."

Paul glared at Sooli before he answered, "You spooks are all the damn same! If that information had been out there, then perhaps Corporal Dorland and Officer Vee might still be alive right now!" There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment, until Paul spoke again with less emotion. "Did you find out what she was up to, what she had done?"

"Yes, she managed to hack into the main system with some pretty sophisticated slicing software. This allowed her to monitor the entire ship's function and download logs, classified communications, everything! It seems the raid was just a diversion so that Shira could be slipped aboard without being noticed. It almost worked. We're inputting new command codes and changing all passwords."

Paul just nodded. He was feeling tired again. "Listen, Captain. Thanks for letting me know. Can you excuse me now? I'm feeling pretty tired; so if you don't mind I'm going to get some sleep."

"Of course not, Captain. Thank you once again for your help." With that, Sooli got up and left the medical wing.

Paul watched the Zeltron officer leave before he allowed himself to relax. He looked over to where Zoz was still floating in a bBacta tank. There had still been no change in his condition and the MDs said that this might be how Zoz was going to be from now on. Paul sighed and closed his eyes. Although they managed to stop the Imperials this time, people on his side had paid the ultimate price. One that Paul had almost paid as well. You might not feel lucky at the moment, he thought to himself, but let me tell you - you are. This could have turned out very differently. Paul drifted off to sleep with these thoughts going through his mind.