Flight Officer Hans "Lobo" Allen, New Republic fighter-pilot and Marine, was flying back home. Back to the Morning Star, back the same way he had left, in a non-descript passenger liner with the rest of the 3rd Marine Battalion.

Lobo turned to one of the many friends he made while he was at Boot Camp, "Hopefully the ride back will be as uneventful as the ride there, huh, Suarez?"

"Yeah," Suarez began, but was interrupted by the blaring of a siren and an announcement by Captain Moore, the veteran officer in charge of the fair-sized passenger liner, "Battle stations, battle stations, we are under attack by an unknown pirate group. Lt. Col. Armstead please deploy your Marines so that we can get this fight over with and get you back to the Morning Star."

Lt. Col. Moye immediately responded over the loudspeaker, "Aye, aye Captain. You heard the man, Company Commanders, secure your section of the vessel and prepare to repel boarders."

Captain Buttz, Kilo Company commander quickly informed the platoon leaders of their assignments and sounded off with a motivated, "Let's get ‘em, Devil Dogs!"

Pvt. Marin looked at Lobo, "What does Devil Dog mean again?"

"Marin, you were supposed to pay attention in the history classes, not fall asleep!" Lobo shouted as he ran to his pre-assigned area with the rest of the platoon he was currently assigned with.

"I know, I know, but what does it mean?"

"Well, I don't know how they dug this up, but way back in history, before humans really explored this galaxy, unh...," Lobo paused as he bumped into another platoon member of his as they both tried to pass through the same hatch. "There was a group of soldiers called Marines, and these guys fought so fiercely that their enemies called them Devil Dogs."

"Oh, that's wizard, thanks."

Looking at the burning outer hatch, Lobo gave one last reply, "Now how about paying attention, we've got incoming in about 10 seconds."

Ten seconds later, the hatch blew inward and all hell broke loose. Before the smoke had even cleared, the Marines had opened up with a deadly counter-attack and held the pirates at bay while some assault men maneuvered into position to launch low-yield RPGs through the hatch.

As soon as the last RPG was launched, Lobo's platoon leader was up and yelling, "Through the hatch Marines! Let's take these bastards!"

Running along with the surge of his fellow Marines, Lobo was through the hatch blasting away at any pirate that came into view. Running down a side corridor followed by a couple of his fellow Devil Dogs, Lobo heard his blaster rifle click empty and began reaching for another charge when a pirate came barreling down the corridor. The pirate came on so quickly that Lobo had no chance to reload and was so close that neither of Lobo's fellow Marines dared take a shot for fear of hitting him. The pirate finished his rushed with an overhead lash with an ornately engraved vibro-scimitar. Lobo took a step back and thrust his rifle up in a high block. Being rebuffed, the left-handed pirate came around in a mid-body slash the Lobo managed to block with a right-vertical block that he immediately turned into a horizontal butt-stroke to the pirates face, followed immediately by a straight butt-smash that caught the pirate's already turned and torn head in the temple. The pirate fell to the deck, his face smashed in and well on his way to oblivion. Lobo didn't wait around to admire his handy-work; he slapped in a new charge and fixed the bayonet he should have before the fight had even begun. Roaring with battle-lust, Lobo and his fellow Marines charged down the corridor searching for more enemies to destroy.

Half an hour later, the battle was over, all the pirates having either died or surrendered. The captain being one of the former held out in his bridge until he was taken out by a frag grenade and the spray of fire from one squad's SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon). The pirates that had surrendered were escorted and locked up in the passenger liner and the marines were on their way after they had gutted the pirate ship of all its treasure and scuttled it.

The rest of the trip back to the Morning Star was uneventful. Before Lobo knew it he had report back in and was back sitting where his journey had begun, in the "Fishtank." His back to the bar, Lobo looked around the "Fishtank" as he nursed his cooled Starburster. He caught sight of Schmitty walking toward him and motioned him over to the bar.

Nodding to the bartender, Schmitty ordered his usual. "So," Schmitty said as he took a sip of his drink, "you made it."

"Yeah," a reserved Lobo said.

"So, what's it like?"

Lobo gave a long pause before he answered, "It's hard to say, but I'll try to explain. You prolly won't understand, I don't think anyone can really understand what it's like unless they are one of us, one of the Devil Dogs…"