[Deep Space...]

Kyp tried to stretch in the cramped cockpit of his X-Wing. "Wire, the Sharp has made its jump to hyperspace, we'd better follow."

"Roger that, lead," Wire responded tiredly. "I thought the X-Wing was comfortable until today."

"Just be glad you're not in an A-Wing," Kyp responded, "now that is hell after 6 hours in the cockpit.... Jump in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.. now."

As the star lines elongated into the swirl of hyperspace Kyp relaxed preparing for the next drop off point in three hours.

"This is the Sharp," Lt. Commander Davis reported. "We have dropped this probe off. We are heading to our next jump point, it'll take us about 6 minutes."

"Thanks," Kyp responded and then added jokingly, "I thought dropping that probe was going to take all day!"

"Just a small problem with the launch mechanism, it's always been unreliable," Davis replied.

The corvette turned and started moving again, its engines glowing brightly as the crew tried to get back on schedule. The two escorting X-Wings easily managed to keep up, lazily circling the corvette.

Iddo 'Wire' Geva was bored. So far this mission had been a milk run. They had not even seen a neutral IFF signature, but at least that meant that the mission would be over more quickly. The seat of the X-Wing was uncomfortable even in zero-gravity. He could not find any way to sit more comfortably, as the seat seemed to find new ways to torture him every time he moved.

Abruptly, an alarm in Wire's cockpit began to wail. He looked quickly at his R2's report.

"Sir, I have 2 Imperial corvettes exiting hyperspace," Wire reported.

"You had better add 4 freighters to that," Kyp replied. "We will not engage those ships, we must protect the Sharp. I expect an Imperial gunboat patrol to arrive soon."

Kyp glanced through his CMD and noticed that 6 TIE Fighters had been launched. "I see eyeballs coming for us, we will engage them."

"Roger, Kyp," Wire said, his discomfort forgotten.

"Don't worry," Kyp encouraged. "The odds are only 3 to 1 against us. And they are just some convoy escort pilots, probably only here because they are too useless to even be cannon fodder on a frigate."

The two X-Wings locked their S-foils and sped towards the six TIE Fighters. The distance closed rapidly. Wire looked as the distance ticked down. He was waiting for the command to break. Waiting, for the burst of adrenaline. Waiting to pull back on his control stick. 3 km... 2.5 km.. 2km. 1.6 km.

"Break DOWN!" Kyp shouted over the comm as he pushed his control stick to the bottom left. His X-Wing veered down and away. He pulled up again to get off a quad shot at one of the eyeballs. It exploded as its fragile hull was hit by three blasts, its solar panels spinning spectacularly.

Wire pushed hard down on his stick and saw a wave of laser fire pass over his cockpit. The Imperial formation had broken up, caught off guard by the downward break. He pulled up and tried to get one of the confused TIEs in his sights. It dodged to one side quickly, the laser blasts just missing. Wire tried to follow but the Imperial craft was too fast.

Kyp was about to pull the trigger when suddenly he felt and heard impacts to his rear shields. He went evasive to shake his tail. Laser fire sailed past his cockpit as he dove this way and that. Suddenly a TIE shot across his forward view. His finger pressed his trigger in reflex. The TIE exploded and spun around, one solar panel flying off.

Another TIE closed on Wire's tail. Wire pulled on his stick but the more manoeuvrable TIE stayed tight on his six. Desperately he pulled his throttle to 0. The over-confident TIE pilot overshot right into Wire's sights. He let off two shots. The TIE exploded spectacularly as its oxygen tanks ruptured. Wire pushed his throttle back to full, narrowly missing being hit by a hail of laser fire.

Kyp noticed that the fight had changed from a desperate situation to a one the two Alliance pilots could easily handle. Kyp covered Wire for a while; his shields were a good way down, but he had done well. Together they managed to dispatch another TIE quickly. The other two tried to disengage.

"This is the Sharp, we register 2 gunboats exiting hyperspace," Davis reported.

"Wire, do you think you could handle these TIEs while I go and sort out those gunboats?" Kyp said as he turned his X-Wing towards the gunboats. "When you've finished the TIEs, come and give me a hand. We don't want them to have time to think about the Sharp."

Wire did not reply as he rolled to keep on the TIE's six. He let off another quad blast. The TIE disintegrated. He turned his attention, and guns, to the final TIE. The TIE pilot fought a desperate battle to stay alive.

Kyp sped off towards the gunboats. He put all power he could into his engines in the hope that he could get into gun range before they fired their missiles. The warning tone started as the gunboats tried to lock onto him. As soon as he could he started to fire quad shots at the Imperial, who broke off as his shields got eaten away.

Wire winced as the last TIE fired another couple of shots into his rear shields. Suddenly the TIE flew in front of him. He fired. A solar panel ripped off under the stress and the TIE spun away out of control. Its pilot ejected a moment before it exploded.

Kyp fired again at the lead gunboat's strong shields. He broke again seconds before the fire from its wingman passed through the space he had left. He looked at his shield indicator: outer shields gone, primary shields orange. Abruptly a wave of orange laser bolts shot past him impacting on his target. Its shields failed.

Wire pulled up seconds before he hit the lead gunboat. "These things are real tough!" he shouted into his comm.

The lead GUN came into Kyp's sights and he fired. The gunboat's engines sparked. Again. The debris shot by Kyp's cockpit. He sat immobilised for a second, as he realised that if he had been a meter closer his flight would have ended.

Wire looped onto the six of the gunboat following Kyp and slowed to pummel it. It started to move desperately. Its shields started to fail. Soon after it exploded spectacularly into hundreds of pieces as Wire hit a critical component. Its missile bays then exploded, scorching Wire's shields.

Kyp and Wire started charging their depleted shields as quickly as they could, sure that more Imperials would be coming soon. They were not wrong. 20 seconds after the first two GUNs had been destroyed, another pair came in looking for revenge.

"Those GUNs are lookin' at us dirty," Kyp joked. "Let's take 'em out!"

"Roger, lead."

The two X-Wings turned and powered their way towards the Gunboats.

"We'll be out of here in 1 minute," Davis reported. "Follow us as soon as you can get a clear jump."

"Wilco," Kyp responded. All his concentration then focused on the closing gunboat.

Lt. Finnis looked at the closing X-Wings. He targeted the lead X-Wing with missiles. As the lock turned red, he launched a volley of missiles. Seconds later, his wingman did the same. Both of the X-Wings started to fire. Finnis saw four explosions in front of him. He quickly flicked to lasers and started to fire, seeing that the X-Wings' shields were low. He flew straight firing. Abruptly the X-Wing broke left and most of the laser shots missed him. At the same time the shields of the gunboat dropped 75% as the X-Wing's lasers ate into them. Finnis turned his GUN to follow the X-Wing, angry that he had been so overconfident.

A alarm went off in the cockpit and Finnis looked to see that the Corvette had just entered hyperspace. Finnis looked up and saw that he had overshot the X-Wing that was now flying in a straight line away from him. "I've got you now," he thought to himself. Suddenly the X-Wing broke upwards, a hail of orange laser fire shot through the space where the X-Wing had been. Finnis tried desperately to turn out of the hail of fire, realising his wingman must have been destroyed. Suddenly another set of lasers started to impact on his shields. He looked down and gasped. His hand reached for the ejection lever. The gunboat exploded around him. Agony ran through his body as an exploding canister ripped him into pieces.

"OK, time to bug out of here," Kyp said. "Link to my navicomp."

The two X-Wings moved towards the jump point, then they moved forwards at an ever increasing speed until they entered hyperspace.

The two X-Wings touched down in the Regis's main hanger. The ground crew ran up to the fighters, pulling the ladders. The canopies of both fighters started to open. The crews helped the haggard pilots out. They tried to stand, but their legs kept giving out from under them. A medical team helped the pilots onto a stretcher.

Zoom walked up to Kyp. "How'd it go?"

"Fine. Just don't let me see another X-Wing for a month," he joked.

"Don't worry," Zoom replied. "You won't be out of the medbay for a while, I should imagine."

[A week later...]

Zoom walked towards the main simulator room where Red Squadron's new Training Officer was putting several of the new pilots through their paces on the Star Destroyer destruction missions. As Zoom walked into the sim room, the sim officer snapped to attention.

"At ease," Zoom said crisply. "How's Ranger treating them?"

"Well, he's had them in their for 2 hours now," the officer reported. "This mission is nearly over, by the looks of things."

"OK, I'll wait."

A few minutes later Ranger walked out of the sims, with Yale, Kiki and Phoenix following behind him. They were all blinking in the harsh light of the room.

"...that's how you take out a Star Destroyer. At this rate, you may just be ready to help take out the ISD Wisp." Ranger suddenly noticed Zoom. "Dismissed."

The pilots filed tiredly out of the sim room, with its intermittent background pings and beeps. "How are they doing, Neill?"

"Great. They are all showing good scores in the sims, and they are all improving. They could probably take out an ISD now, but we can't let them get cocky now, can we? Overconfidence can so often lead to your death, or so my basic training instructor always said." Ranger grinned.

"The Regis needs re-supplying before we can take on a Star Destroyer. I was just wondering if you would lead the escort force. You won't need to leave for another 5 hours. The briefing will be in three and a half. And you can pick your wingmen for this one."

"OK. I think I will take Kiki, Phoenix and Yale. They should get in a bit of actual flight time before our future engagements, which look as though they could get a bit hairy."

An R2 unit let out a high pitched squeal, as the two pilots walked out of the sim room.

On the bridge of the ISD Wisp, Captain Damerra was looking over the status reports from his ship's section heads. His XO was standing rigidly by his side. The tension on the bridge was stifling as the crew expected the Captain to be upset by the bad reports.

"Three squadrons of our TIEs destroyed, another six TIEs out of commission."

"We do not have enough spares to get them operational again," the XO stammered.

"And now the hyperdrive is unreliable," the Captain grumbled.

"We will receive a re-supply convoy in two weeks, though. We should have a replacement then."

"Very good. We will be able to continue our campaign against that infernal squadron when we have been re-supplied."

The XO looked slightly relieved. He had been expecting his captain to go into a rage, especially after he had shot his former XO for insubordination after his failed ambush of Red Squadron. The crew all knew that the captain was on his last chance in the eyes of Moff Gerom.

"Lt. Commander Nievel, in a week and a half I will be leaving the ship for several days to give a status report to Moff Gerom. You will have command of the ship during this time. Do not fail me," Damerra growled softly to his new XO.

"Yes, sir."

Kiki, Phoenix and Yale were waiting in Red Squadron's private briefing room. They had all been called there half an hour before. No explanation had been given, but they had been told to get into flight suits. They were talking to each other about why they may have been called there. They rose to attention as Ranger and Zoom walked in.

"At ease, gentlemen," Ranger said. "We will be escorting the Regis's re-supply convoy here. Zoom will now brief you on the mission."

Ranger and Zoom sat down at the front of the small room as the three pilots also sat down. The three pilots looked a lot happier than they had after their sim session. Their faces were filled with questions.

Zoom leaned forward in his chair. "You will be escorting a vital convoy. It contains the warheads we will need for our upcoming engagement, as well as spares for the Regis and our fighters. The convoy will consist of 2 corvettes and 4 freighters. You must ensure that all of the corvettes and as many of the freighters as possible get here. If we do not receive these supplies our mission against the Wisp will be held back, or it may even have to be aborted."

"Sir, what risks is the convoy likely to face?" Kiki asked.

"This sector is often patrolled by an Imperial gunboat squadron. That's your most likely threat," Zoom said. "Also, one of our squadrons killed the leader of a local pirate group when a convoy was attacked, and they've announced their intent to avenge him. But as they are currently being hunted by the Imps as well, we don't expect them to be too much of a problem."

Ranger and Zoom looked around the room to see if there would be any more questions. As there were none, Ranger continued.

"We will be flying X-wings for this mission. We will not exit the area until the convoy has completely left the area. Again, at least one of those freighters has to make it through. I'll see you down in the hangar in 5 minutes."

Zoom stood, and the other pilots did likewise. "All right, gentlemen, mount up."

"Aye, sir."