The three X-wings kicked extra power to their engines to get them to the Imperial Star Destroyer as fast as possible. Corran's CMD identified the huge ship as the ISD Wisp. A group of six blips appeared on his scope, followed almost immediately by 3 more. The group of six was identified as T/F group Alpha, and the group of three was identified as T/B group Beta.

"This is the Frigate Regis," came a voice from the Comm, "we are making for our hyperspace point. Hold off those ships. This is a priority 1 order."

"Priority 1 is from Alliance High Command!" said Corran, "This is serious."

"Switching to combat frequency delta," came Redjed's voice.

"Looks like we got half a squadron of TIE Fighters and some Bombers on an approach vector with the Regis," crackled Rainman's voice after all three pilots had changed comm frequency.

"Roger that Red 7," said Redjed, "what's the plan of attack?"

"Corran," said Rainman, "Redjed and I will take the Bombers, you take care of the TIE Fighter escorts."

"Copy, 7," replied Corran, "six against one, my kind of odds."

"We'll take your wing for the first pass, but after that, my main concern is the Bombers," noted Rainman.

"Let's do it," said Corran.

The TIE Fighters were nearly in range now. Rainman felt sweat beading up on his hands. He didn't mind combat, but he had no idea what this battle was even about.

The fighters came together with lasers blazing. Corran got the first kill when his first two shots lanced through the cockpit of a TIE Fighter. The fuel ignited, there was no way the pilot survived. Lasers splashed on the Red Squadron pilots' shields. Rainman's outer shield dropped, but the inner ones held. Three more Eyeballs dropped on the first pass. Rainman and Redjed got one each, and Corran got his second.

"The rest are yours Corran," said Rainman, "Let's go get those Dupes Redjed."

Redjed and Rainman's X-wings broke away from Corran's. The three bombers didn't know what hit them. A torpedo from Rainman scored the first hit. Redjed took out the second with lasers. The third bomber got off three torpedoes before he was taken out by a blast from Rainman's guns. They scored a direct hit on the trailing Corvette. In the confusion of battle, the two pilots didn't notice the 4th bomber sneaking up from behind.

"The Bombers are ignoring the Regis," said Redjed.

"I don't know what those Corvettes are carrying," yelled Rainman, "but it must be important."

"We better make sure they survive," shot Redjed.

Just then the fourth bomber struck. A missile hit Rainman from close range. His shields totally dropped.

"Shields are out guys," shouted Rainman.

"Head to the Regis, we'll take care of this mess," replied Redjed.

Rainman turned towards Red Squadron's mother ship and Redjed took out the Bomber that had hit Rainman. He then turned to face the next wave of Bombers that launched from the Wisp.

Meanwhile, Corran had finished off the last two Eyeballs and was working on a second wave that had worked its way through to the convoy. He had polished off one, and was working on a second when it made a 180-degree turn and flew by him. This fighter had noticed Rainman's ship limping toward the Regis. He fired only two shots before Corran shot him down, but this was enough to cause Rainman's ship to explode. Corran detected faint life readings from the area, and surmised that Rainman must have had time to eject. He only hoped he would live long enough for rescue to pick him up. He called for the rescue shuttle, and turned back to the task at hand. Another ship exploded after being hit with Corran's guns.

Redjed fired a laser blast at one of the Bombers and scored a direct hit. The cockpit separated from the warhead launcher and the two halves shot off in different directions. The cockpit half ran into the trailing Bomber. Two for the price of one, thought Redjed.

Suddenly, Redjed lost control of his ship. A missile from the third Bomber had hit him. He spun around wildly and crashed into the Bomber that had hit him. Auto-eject saved his life. The Bomber flew past him, and fired three missiles at a Corvette, the same one that had taken three torpedoes from the earlier Bomber. The Corvette exploded in a ball of brilliant orange gas.

Finally the Regis and the two remaining Corvettes made it to their hyperspace point.

"Red 9," came the Comm officer's voice again, "the rescue shuttles have picked up Red 7 and Red 11. We are entering hyperspace. Proceed to the rendezvous point immediately."

"Copy that Regis," replied Corran. He waited until the Frigate, Corvettes, and Rescue shuttle had entered hyperspace. Then he shot down another TIE Fighter and pulled his own hyperspace lever.

Jeff "Spectre" Mitchell, Red's Commanding Officer looked at Rainman floating unconscious in a bacta bath. He had been submersed for the better part of three days, only coming out for the surgery to his left shoulder and arm, which had been crushed by the shock wave created by the explosion of his ship.

"Please let him pull out of this," thought Spectre, "I don't need to lose a pilot today."

Red Squadron's XO, Robert "Kyp" Cashman walked into the medical center and joined Jeff.

"How is he doing sir?" asked Kyp.

"He's looking better," replied Jeff, "but they don't know how long he is going to be out of commission."

"Hopefully not too long," said Kyp, "I just finished with Corran and Redjed's final debriefing. It appears from their recordings that the Imperials went directly for the Corvettes. They had a battle plan sir. They knew exactly what they wanted, and they knew exactly where to find us." He paused briefly and asked a question that had been bugging him all day, "What were those Corvettes carrying?"

"I don't know," said Spectre, "when I asked, I was told it was a priority 1 order and not to question it. But I feel responsible for my pilots. Before any more get shot down, I'm going to find out."

Neill "Ranger" Mcgill sat at the bar drinking some concoction that the bar droid had recommended to him, saying that it was a favorite among humans of the Adrandda System. He didn't find it very good. Michael "Wildcat" Baker, Red Squadron's newest pilot walked up and sat next to him.

"I'll have a Full Throttle," said Wildcat, nodding to Ranger.

"Hi Wildcat," said Ranger, "what's up?"

"Not much," replied Wildcat, "just killing some time before I go run some more tests on the ESIM."

The E-wing Simulator, or ESIM for short, was Michael's current project. He was pushing for the Alliance to start training it's pilots in the E-wing, and figured that Red Squadron was the best place to start, since it was a training squadron.

"Ah, still fleshing it out eh?" asked Ranger.

"Sure am," answered Wildcat, "something is wrong with the throttle, I can't get it to work like it should."

"Attention Red Squadron pilots," came a voice from the intercom over the bar, "please report to briefing room C."

Ranger and Wildcat looked at each other. Ranger shrugged and both pilots made their way out the door.

All Red Squadron's pilots that were not currently assigned were gathered into the briefing room. The pilots in the room were Steve "Rapier" Naylor, Ali "Corran" Winston and Mark "Redjed" Hagues, fresh from debriefing, Wildcat and Ranger, Kelly "Zoom" St. Clair and Red Squadron's command staff, Kyp and Spectre. Spectre began briefing them as soon as the pilots were all seated.

"Well boys," he began, "looks like we're going out on a mission. The recent attack on the Corvettes we were escorting was apparently not just a random attack. Alliance High Command has sent word that the Corvettes were carrying a VIP. According to them, the man they were carrying was Bodo Plath. You probably haven't heard of him, but he is a ship designer from Teegra VII. Apparently he is working on a top-secret design for the rebel alliance. So far all I could do was get the name of the ship, the K-wing. I have no idea what class of ship it is, but apparently it is going to be a great addition to the alliance forces. It is in pre production right now, so it won't go online for another two to three years. It seems to be important to the Empire that this project does not reach completion," Jeff paused to let this sink in, "Plath survived the attack, as he wasn't on the Corvette that was destroyed. We don't want Plath to be scared off thinking that we can't protect him. We will be launching a retaliatory strike within the hour. Rob, the floor is yours."

Kyp stepped forward and motioned to the holo-screen behind him. "This is Imperial Outpost A-56. This is a staging area for the Empires activities near in the Teegra system. We have received information from the Bothans informing us that four Corellian Corvettes and a number of Imperial Gunboats guard it. The Corvettes are being fitted with laser cannons before they are distributed to various sectors. Therefore, we don't expect them to be much trouble. We have a limited time for this strike. The outposts' Star Destroyer is going to hyper out, and a replacement will hyper in. We have seven minutes to get in and destroy the outpost. I don't mean disable or injure, I mean completely destroy. We must take out all the Corvettes and the communications satellites. The gunboats are a secondary target. We will split up into three groups for this mission. Flight group A will consist of Spectre with Wildcat and Zoom. Group B will consist of Myself flying with Redjed and Corran, and Group C will consist of Rapier with Ranger. Groups A and B will be flying X-wings, Group C will fly A-wings, and will provide escort for Groups A and B. Are there any questions?"

No one had any questions, they all knew what they were being asked to do. They would fly a deep strike mission deep in Imperial territory.

"No questions?" asked Kyp, "then do what you must to get ready and meet on the flight deck in thirty minutes. May the Force be With You."

The last pilot had just strapped into their ship when the order came from Spectre for the pilots to launch. Six X-wings and a pair of A-wings entered space and got into escort position around the Regis. When all pilots had fully charged shields and lasers, they entered the coordinates of the Imperial Outpost and entered hyperspace. Four hours later, they exited hyperspace and prepaired to engage the Imperials...