"Flight Officer Hart, please report to Lt. Colonel Baden's office immediately."

Fist woke with a start, sitting up violently and banging his head on the low roof above him. Cursing in Old Contruumian, he fumbled for his Comlink, hit the SEND button, and said, "On my way, sir."

Immediately he knew he had done something wrong, as five different people buzzed his comlink, including an angry Pip: "Good to know. Next time, use a private channel, Fist."

Swearing extensively, Fist got up and changed into his uniform.

Flight Officer Chris "Fist" Hart entered the room, snapping a salute when he saw Lt. Colonel Rob "Biggs" Baden at his desk. Biggs looked up.

"At ease, Mr. Hart. I'm sorry to have woken you so early in the morning. Mind you, you should be sorry that you woke up everyone else so early too--I hear Pip is dying to slaughter you in the simulator after what you did."

"I'm sorry, sir. I… had some problems getting onto the right frequency." Fist looked at his feet.

"Well, never mind. Anyway, back to why I called you. You've been with the squadron for a couple of weeks now, and you've seen how we operate. Your simulator scores are pretty good, and I believe it's time for your first mission."

Fist smiled, but hid the burning enthusiasm that he felt.

Biggs continued, "However, I need you to understand this. The pilots of Red Squadron are currently somewhat demoralised after the losses we took over Esseles, despite the fortunate return of Shadow; and although I can sense how excited you are, I need you not to appear too happy. Keep your emotions under control. You've experienced loss before--your father, the disappearance of your roommate Target--and so I need you to remember how you were then, as this is how everyone is feeling right now. Don't be as morbid as them, but don't be a clown."

Fist nodded, suddenly sombre. "Yes sir."

"Very well. I need to address the pilots now. Dismissed." Biggs turned around and went to the comm unit broadcaster on his wall. Fist was in the doorway when he saw Biggs reaching for the 'Announcement' button. Before he could say anything, Pip interrupted over the comm, "Fist, you're on the wrong channel again--and I seriously will kill the next person who broadcasts on a general frequency."

"All pilots, report to the briefing room by 0800 hours. Pip, I want you in my office now--I believe you've just issued me a death threat, which is insubordination," announced Biggs.

Pip, too lazy to switch to a private frequency, replied, "Death threat withdrawn, sir. I'll be at the briefing."

Another voice blared over the comm, "Some of us are trying to get some sleep here! Damn pilot jockeys…" Fist recognised the voice of the bartender Dargon, and grinned.

Biggs sighed, then looked round. "Get yourself ready, Fist- it's going to be a long day." Fist saluted once more, and then left.

Fist entered the briefing room slightly later than everyone else, but there was no one at the podium, so he assumed he was early. He surveyed the pilots before him. Biggs wasn't present yet, but he could see the ranking officer, Vape, talking with Angel in hushed tones near the front. Fist knew Vape quite well, having nearly got into trouble with her once but talking his way out of it, and had met Angel. Pip was telling Ewok jokes to Kulgon, Freqi, Wild Cat and Dargon, who was serving caf to everyone. As his wingmate, Fist probably knew Pip best among the regular pilots, although he had never talked much to Kulgon or Freqi before, and had only talked with Wild Cat once or twice. And everybody knew Dargon. Shadow and Wire could also be seen near the front, too--Fist had got to know Shadow quite well, but he knew nothing whatsoever about Wire, other than that he was somewhat secretive about his past.

As he was about to join Pip, Biggs walked onto the stage and called, "Attention!"

Everyone snapped to attention, saluting him--except for Dargon, who took a cup of caf and ran off.

"Thank you, pilots. I know you're all tired after being woken up so early by our newest pilot-" Pip glared at him with a shade of amusement in his face, whilst others merely chuckled.

Biggs continued, "But we have to come back to business. Despite being two pilots short, we have received orders from High Command to join an important escort mission. A foreign dignitary will be passing through this region to discuss terms to join the New Republic, and we need to ensure that they do not get attacked. Red Squadron will be providing cover for a small convoy of personnel and cargo ships from the Derspen system to Sullust. We are on the last leg of the escort, and we'll be taking over from Crusader squadron."

Pip raised a hand. "Sir, what data do we have on the region we're passing through?"

"The area we are passing through, the Kreetana Nebula, is filled with gravity wells, making a straight hyperspace jump impossible. It is actually an area favoured by pirates to attack ships- although these pirates rarely use anything more powerful than R-41s or Cloakshapes. Imperial patrols comb the area occasionally, although it is normally just a few Gunboats or a Corvette with four TIEs. I trust we can all tackle Corvettes?"

Pip grinned. "Well, I dunno- the new guy here will probably end up broadcasting our attack plan to them."

After the laughter died down, Fist looked Pip dead in the eyes. "You want a challenge? You vs. me, X-Wings, in the simulator."

Pip blinked, possibly surprised, before replying, "Sure."

Biggs cleared his throat. "Settle down, pilots. Any more questions?"

Kulgon raised a hand. "What ships are we protecting?"

"The convoy consists of two Shuttles, a freighter, and two Z-95s as a personal escort. I've received the sim scores for these guys--they're ok, but I reckon our pilots are better than them. For the upcoming mission, they will fill out Three Flight, and have designations Red Alpha and Beta." Fist could understand the looks of worry on some of the pilots' faces- Hulk and Phantom, the two trainee pilots, had been given similar designations and ships in the last mission. Now Hulk was confirmed KIA, whilst Phantom was MIA, Presumed Lost. If they were jumped, these guys may hold their own and protect the convoy well enough, but the Z-95 was too weak to take any more than a slight beating.

"Now for individual assignments. One Flight will be piloting A-Wings, and be jumping throughout the system to ensure that any pockets of resistance are identified, and avoided; as well as to make so many hyperspace trails that anyone tailing us won't know which to follow. Two Flight will be providing loose escort in X-Wings, flying out to identify any sensor spots and such. Three Flight, with Alpha and Beta, will be providing close escort in X-Wings. Any more questions? No? OK, High Command has sent us a sim for the mission, so we'll be going through that after I increase the difficulty level and create a worst-case scenario version. We leave in our starfighters for the Derspen system in two days. Get plenty of rest and sim time before then- we'll be leaving at 0600 hours. Dismissed."

Fist barrel-rolled as a squint came up behind him, cannons blazing. His shields took minor damage, although he was down to 75% now. He sapped power from the lasers and then evened his shields out, before targeting the squint. Looping round, he saw the squint bypass him as it headed towards the first shuttle. Blast! It was out of range of his lasers. He diverted all his laser power to engines and brought up his torpedos. The TIE jinked and juked to try and get out of the lock, which was enough of a distraction to allow the shuttle to avoid a hail of laser bolts, before Beta came round and shot at the squint. The Interceptor's left wing partially melted as the bolt impacted, bending round the fuselage and blocking the cockpit view. It span out of control, left to the mercy of space for two seconds before Fist hit it with a quad burst and exploded it.

Five more squints came towards the convoy at close range, whilst the Frigate deploying them came closer to the shuttles and freighter. The squadron had taken two casualties- Kulgon's starfighter had been hit by a Gunboat missile and destroyed his left wings whilst on patrol with One Flight, prompting him to eject, whilst Wire had managed to knock out three Gunboats before their missiles hit his ship.

Fist commed Pip. "How much longer do we have to hold them off?"

Pip shouted over the blare of laser fire he was encountering three klicks away, "Lead's flight is supposed to be back in two minutes- and the shuttles and freighter are another five away from being able to hyper out."

Fist grimaced; the Frigate would be in range of the convoy in one minute, and there were at least fifteen TIEs swarming them. He saw Alpha under fire from an eyeball, and swooped in for the kill on it. His quad burst impacted against the TIE, destroying it to pieces instantly. The explosion hit Alpha, but did little damage until the wreckage of a solar panel hit him. "My shields are down!" he cried.

Beta was on the other side of the engagement, and couldn't help him. He veered away from Pip and commed Alpha, "Don't worry, I'm your wing."

Alpha double-clicked his comm in acknowledgement. A wave of TIE Bombers left the Frigate, and launched salvo after salvo of missiles at every target. Beta and Wild Cat were hit with dual-linked missiles and were instantly destroyed. Fist watched the missiles heading toward the shuttles and freighter, and gunned his engines.

There were four linked missiles–no, torps--heading towards each of the three craft, two of them at the freighter. Fist reckoned that it could take the damage without being destroyed, but it would lose its shields and probably lose critical systems, becoming an easy target for the most inexperienced of pilots. He targeted the first pair aiming at the freighter, and fired with single shot lasers. Eventually, he ignited one, and it blew the other one up with it.

He moved onto the second pair, aimed at the primary shuttle, and destroyed that too. The third pair was behind him now, going for the freighter- he could do nothing for them without risking on firing at the freighter. The fourth pair was heading for the primary shuttle though. He knew they were travelling too fast to be destroyed, but he had a different plan. He ordered his astromech to disable the explosive charge of one of his torpedos, and targeted the shuttle. Without bothering to get a lock, he fired the disabled torp at the shuttle.

The shuttle span over and over, pushed to the side out of the trajectory of the two torpedos heading at it. He saw them attempt to loop round, but run out of engine power and explode before aiming for the shuttle again. The third pair however impacted with the freighter, bringing its shields down to 20%.

Pip had made short work of the bombers and rejoined him, but Alpha was not on the sensor board. Dammit, I got him killed.

Vape commed everyone. "One Flight was due back a minute ago. Something must have happened to them." She paused for a moment. "I'm taking direct control of the squadron until One Flight returns. We are down to four pilots now. Lieutenant Valis is heading out to pick up the survivors, but we need to deal with the Frigate. I need torp loadout statuses from you all."

Pip answered, "Four left--I used the other two on that Corvette."

Freqi commed, "Down to three now."

Fist clicked on the comm. "I still have five torps."

Vape's starfighter looped round to destroy an eyeball that had been pursuing her, then continued. "I still have all six left- that makes eighteen. Is that enough to do some serious damage and force it to retreat, Six?"

Fist could tell Pip was shrugging as he evaded a missile. "Probably--although I'm not TacO anymore, so I'm not really qualified to answer that question."

"I see. OK, let's dumbfire our torps. Fourteen, you're first. Guys, we'll give him cover."

Vape stayed close to Freqi whilst Pip looped around. Three squints were headed their way. "Two, take the lower one. I've got the other two."

Instead of retorting to say that he could take out two any day, Fist targeted the third TIE. Repeated single bursts from range forced it to manoeuvre away, and he followed up with a quad burst to destroy it. Pip scattered his fire between the two TIEs, making the leftmost pilot break off–In panic, Fist thought--before quadding up and destroying the lead at the cost of his forward shields. Pip levelled his shields back out and recharged them as he took Freqi's place. Pip fired off his torps without incident as Vape provided close protection for the Shuttles. He noticed that she had fired her torps off whilst doing this. He manoeuvred into position too and let loose with all his torps.

The Frigate took salvo after salvo of unguided torps, until its shields were down. However, it pressed on, firing at maximum range at the freighter.

Fist commed Pip. "I have a plan, but you're not gonna like it."

Pip snarled as Freqi was hit and ejected. "Anything sounds good right now."

"OK. I'll do it, then." He turned off his comms as Pip tried to contact him, and hurtled toward the Frigate head-on. He barrel-rolled and twisted round the axle of the Frigate, but took enough hits for his shields to drop to 20%. When he reached the back of it, he looped over backwards, switched to single shot, and fired again and again at its engines. His shields went down, his hull buckled, and he lost crucial systems before manoeuvring out of the way to avoid destruction. Meanwhile, the Frigate came to a full stop, and no longer moved at all.

Fist took stock of his situation. Shields were down, lasers out of charge, no torps left. He still had flight and engine systems online, but his hyperdrive, communications and life-support systems had been damaged beyond repair. He felt the cold rushing in…

The simulator top lifted open to reveal the grim face of Biggs. Fist rubbed his eyes as he got out, and waited for Biggs to speak.

"Flight Officer Hart, let's see… Four kills, excellent tactics in saving the shuttles and freighter from destruction through… unorthodox methods, despite letting down your fellow pilots at times--although the last stunt you pulled was very reckless. I think you need to work on your teamwork skills, as well as your ability to evade attack. Talk to your fellow pilots in the Fishtank; get to know them all better, even the Blues. Otherwise, well done."

Fist nodded. "Did we save the convoy?"

Biggs replied, "After you virtually 'died', Pip and Vape were able to hold off the bombers to let the shuttles get away, but the Freighter took too much damage, it didn't make it. Only Pip made it away--Vape's astronavigation systems were damaged, and so she had to stay. Be thankful this was only a sim--we had five pilots KIA out there, including Wire, Wild Cat, Alpha, Beta, and yourself. We doubt that Vape would have survived in space long enough to be picked up, either."

Fist frowned, then stood to attention. "I'll keep your advice in mind, sir."

Biggs nodded. "Good. Dismissed."

As he was about to leave, Pip caught him. "Hey kid!"

Fist turned around. "Don't call me kid."

Pip was taken aback by the sternness of his words. "OK… my bad. How about that challenge?"

Fist's stony expression dissolved into a grin. "Sure."

Fist entered the Fishtank two hours later, exhausted. The sim had lasted for at least half an hour, and his duel with Pip had physically tired him. He forced himself to relax however as he entered the bar area. Blue Squadron was away on assignment, so his friend Wildstar was not around to talk to. However, he could see Vape and Kulgon at the bar. He joined them.

"Good to see you Fist," said Vape as he walked in.

Dargon looked up as he sat down at the bar. "What'll it be, son?"

"Something strong, I'm exhausted," replied Fist.

"One fizzy…" Dargon trailed off, as Kulgon looked him dead in the eyes. "I mean, one Lomin-ale coming up."

Fist gave a weary chuckle, and then turned to face Vape and Kulgon again.

"You did well in the simulator mission Fist, although I think you need some more teamwork exercises. I'm aware that you flew round half the galaxy relying on just one fighter, but you've got to join the group mentality. You do work well with Pip though," Vape told him, as Dargon hastily cleaned a glass after having gotten out a plastic cup from behind him, but having Kulgon stare at him again had seemingly changed his mind.

"Yeah, I know. If that had been a real-life scenario, I would have gotten that Alpha pilot killed."

Dargon got out a Lomin-ale bottle, only to slip over and drop it. It crashed to the floor, sending glass and alcohol everywhere. Some of the officers who were off-duty looked up and laughed. Vape continued, "Yes, you would have- but if you hadn't pulled that stunt, there would have been more casualties. You made a tough decision call out there, and that sort of thing is vital for a pilot."

Dargon shouted over a droid to clean up the mess, got out another bottle, and filled the glass. Kulgon stared at him as he did so, and so Dargon reluctantly poured more when the head fizzed away.

Fist glanced at his chronometer. "It's 2200 hours. I'd better hit the sack- we've got another sim tomorrow, and I may be on patrol."

Vape nodded. "Yeah, I know. Let's head off. Chad?"

Kulgon glanced away from Dargon as he was walking towards them, mug in hand. "Yes, sir," he said, deadpan.

The three pilots walked off as Dargon finally reached the spot where Fist was sitting.

"Damn pilot jockeys," he muttered, taking a swig of the glass.

Fist entered the CRS Morning Star's hangar bay, where the Red Squadron pilots were assembling by flight groups. He joined Pip, Wire and Wild Cat. The last of the pilots entered the hangar, and then Biggs stood facing them.

"Good morning pilots- I hope you're all rested, because it's time to go to work. You've all been briefed on the mission; we've all simmed it in expected and worst-case scenarios. We're to meet with the convoy, Crusader Squadron and Reds Alpha and Beta at the rendezvous point in the Derspen system. After that, Flight One will go ahead and scout out the area, whilst Flights Two and Three will provide direct escort for the convoy. Questions? No? Then let's head out."

The pilots scrambled for their fighters at a seemingly leisurely pace. Biggs called Fist over.

"Since you don't have an astromech assigned yet, you can borrow one from the Morning Star--we'll look into getting you one for yourself after the mission. You know which fighter you're using too, I trust? OK. Good luck out there."

Fist went to his fighter and activated his controls. He waited for Red Leader's signal.

"Numbers from hereon out. I need reports by element."

"Red Four, standing by." That was Shadow, Biggs's wingman; he was a skilled pilot and friend.

"Red Three, all lit up." He could tell Angel was ready to go.

"Red Eleven, ready to roll." Kulgon's words contrasted with the seriousness of his tone.

"Red Six, lasers charged. Oh yeah, my engines work too." Fist chuckled, and then grinned.

"Red Two, in the green."

"Red Seventeen, all wired up correctly here." He knew little about Wire, other than that he was technically fourth in command of the squadron, and was a good mechanic--especially with a certain type of electrical conductor in circuits.

"Red Eight, raring to go." That was Wild Cat, whom he knew better than most of the Reds.

"Red Twelve, four lit and in the green." He recognised Vape's voice.

"Red Fourteen, standing by." Freqi's voice filled the comm one last time, before it faded to Biggs's voice.

"Pilots, launch; group up by element. Head for your nav coordinates and hyper out."

"Last one at Derspen buys a round of drinks!" shouted Pip.

Six X-Wings and four A-Wings shot out of the side of the Mon Cal cruiser, looped under the FRG Regis, and hypered out of the Anaxes system.

The X-Wings arrived at Derspen Station three hours later. Biggs hailed them.

"This is Lt. Colonel Rob Baden, CO of Red Squadron. We're here to escort a convoy to Sullust."

"Roger that, Red Leader." The gravely voice on the other end of the comm certainly wasn't hostile. "Please stand by; they're due to arrive in thirty seconds."

"Looks like we're on time for once," commented Shadow.

Sure enough, within the minute, twelve X-Wings and two Z-95 Headhunters came out of hyperspace. Fist squinted at the X-Wings, before targeting the second one. Its left S-foils had laser scoring. He targeted the third, and saw that its shield systems were damaged. He heard another voice over the comm. "This is Crusader Lead. We came under attack twice on our way here. Our guess is that the convoy is being pursued by Imps specifically."

That's bad, thought Fist. He checked his systems and charged his shields up to 200%, recharging his lasers as he shunted the power. He could see Pip doing the same.

"Roger that, Crusader Lead. We'll keep the convoy under guard from here. Z-95s, your designations are now Reds Alpha and Beta-"

"Negative, Red Lead," interrupted the first Z-95. "We'd prefer to keep our designations of Guard One and Two."

Biggs sighed over the comm before realising that it was still on a general frequency. He recomposed himself quickly, however. "Very well, Guards One and Two. Take the place of Element Two in our Flight Group Three."

He then switched to a squadron channel, including the Guards. "Twelve, you're in command. We'll hyper on ahead and cause some interference. We'll meet you near the Serparis Nebula Cloud."

Vape double-clicked her comm to acknowledge.

The four A-Wings veered away and entered hyperspace. Vape's voice filled the comm. "Pilots, follow your standing orders; Six, your flight is on patrol."

"Sure thing. Two, tighten up. Seventeen, Eight, cover the convoy's flank. We'll clear a path at the front."

The comm was silent; Fist could tell Vape was talking with the convoy. He targeted the ships that made it up--SHU Valiant 1 and 2, and the FRG Viscous. He saved all three to his ship's memory, and then veered off to rejoin Pip.

After a short while, the convoy was in position for the jump. "Two Flight, hyper out first. Three Flight, we'll follow them afterwards," said Vape.

Pip double-clicked his comm, and then opened a channel to Two Flight. "Okay ladies, let's do this."

Fist reversed back into realspace two seconds before the rest of the squadron, and used the time to do a sensor sweep. It was lucky that he did.

"Six, there's a pirate's nest inside that asteroid field."

"You sure?" he replied.

"Yep, I just saw two R-41s leave the area into it. Recommend we clear them out."

"Roger. I agree. Let's clear them out."

Two Flight entered the asteroid field, and soon found a pirate base hidden there when a number of turbolaser batteries opened fire, and an age-old dreadnaught entered the area.

"Six to Twelve, we have a major nest here. I read six asteroid laser batteries, one base, and a dreadnaught. They're launching fighters too--four R-41s and four Y-Wings. Y-wings are heading for the freighter and shuttles."

"Roger that, Six. We'll take the Y-wings down. I've commed Lead, he'll be here in three minutes. You destroy the turbolasers and R-41s. Chances are there will be multiple waves--watch your backs."

"Okay." Pip switched to the Two Flight frequency. "Right people, let's destroy the R-41s. If you can, take shots at the turbolasers and Y-Wings too." Pip immediately destroyed one of the Y-Wings shields, forcing it to veer off course. "These guys aren't too tricky. Fly solo, but revert to wingmen if you take too much damage."

Fist rolled his X-Wing to port as the lead R-41 took a shot at him. He looped round and targeted it, putting it in his brackets. He let loose a hail of single-fire shots before following up with two quad shot. The R-41 couldn't take the damage; the hull melted and froze instantly, leaving it a floating crumpled mass. The pilot would be unable to eject without killing himself. I guess that's justice for all the people these guys have raided.

He targeted the nearest enemy attacking him--a turbolaser battery, under a klick away. Easy pickings. He kept his lasers on quad fire and skirted diagonally up and down, letting loose with the trigger every time he got a lock. He only took one hit, and the turbolaser was soon destroyed. Evening out and recharging his shields, he looped round to see the dreadnaught retreating.

Either these guys are easily intimidated, or… Fist checked his message log, and saw that he had completely missed the arrival of an ISD and two Corvettes, only 3 klicks from the convoy.

"Uh, Six…"

"I see it, I see it! Twelve, we could use some ord... Twelve?"

Fist targeted Vape whilst avoiding the laser fire from the retreating R-41s; a maelstrom of TIEs was attacking her. She quickly took out two of them, and then engaged her thrusters and sped toward the ISD. The TIEs followed her as she jinked and juked to avoid TIE assaults and ISD turbolaser fire. It was obvious she was in no position to communicate with the rest of the squadron.

Pip uncharacteristically barked out orders: "Three Flight, engage those T/Bs! Two Flight, we have to destroy those TIEs on Vape's back. If I'm right in thinking what she's doing, then she'll need all the help she can get. Seventeen, Eight, approach from the other side, we'll get them in a crossfire."

Fist sent his X-Wing towards the mass of TIEs. He switched his lasers to single fire and opened up from maximum range on the mass with Pip. Wire and Wild Cat also opened up on them. Solar panels flew everywhere; TIE ball cockpits were incinerated; and Vape… Vape was doing Trench Run Defence on the Star Destroyer, weaving between turbolaser turrets, which missed her and hit the TIEs following her. Within the minute, the ISD had lost over half its TIE complement, and Fist had racked up four kills--he was nearly an ace on his first mission!

Fist quelled the excitement in him as Vape activated her comm. "OK, people, we need to buy the convoy enough time to figure out a hyperspace route. One Flight should be back…" Her words trailed off as four A-Wings entered the system.

Biggs' voice filled the comm. "Okay, pilots. We've got the TIEs--destroy those shield generators on the ISD and start firing torpedoes."

Pip double-clicked his comm. "Two, you take the left generator. I've got the right. Seventeen, Eight, give us some cover from those TIEs."

Fist snap-rolled to the left as a heavy turbolaser blast went straight at him. He quadded up his lasers and fired burst after burst at the shield generator, whilst evading most of the Star Destroyer's fire. However, he realised far too late that he was about to collide with the generator, which would have been an unfortunate and abrupt end to his first mission.

Luckily, this did not happen. One of the ISD's gunners fired accurately enough to take down his frontal shields, propelling him upwards and out of the way of the generator. A second blast missed him, and impacted against the side of the generator. It exploded in a fiery ball. Pip looped over the right generator, letting loose a flare as he did. The flare, reprogrammed by his astromech, impacted with the generator and ignited it. It did not explode, but simply fell apart, half-melting where his flare hit it.

Biggs was too busy with a number of Interceptors to give the order to fire torpedoes, but it didn't matter. Soon, there were forty-eight torpedoes flying towards the Star Destroyer. It managed to destroy about half of them before the massive salvo impacted. Fist, recharging his shields whilst masked near the ISD's engines, saw at least one missile come out the other side before exploding. The Star Destroyer continued moving forwards with inertia, but also moved down too, and showed no signs of changing its course. It had been dealt with.

And from the looks of it, it looked like he was next, as three TIEs came at him. He turned to face the oncoming fighters, knowing that he was disadvantaged for numbers here. He targeted the lead fighter and destroyed it from maximum range with a well-placed shot. There was no thrill of excitement from making ace; there was no enjoyment in improving the odds. He targeted the next one and destroyed that, but not before it and its wingman smashed his X-Wing with repeated laser bursts, destroying his astromech and what was left of his shields. Lights blared at him to eject; he ignored them, mainly because he had lost his ejection systems. He then targeted the last one as it looped over him--and he fired a flare similar to Pip's. It impacted against the twin ion engines, destroying them. The concussive force loosened the solar panels on its sides, sending them floating away. The ball cockpit opened at the top, and the pilot scrambled out.

After shunting all power to refilling shields, Fist brought up his targeting scanner. He saw that there were only five X-Wings and three A-Wings on the board, and gulped.

"Casualty report: we have Three and Fourteen EVA--Fourteen has taken an injury to his left shoulder, but is otherwise unharmed; Three has only lost her ship. However, both the Z-95s were destroyed by the first wave of TIEs." Angel is EVA, Freqi is injured. Vape's voice was kept appropriately stern, but had a hint of a tremble in it. "I've signalled Derspen Station; they're dispatching a rescue shuttle."

Biggs joined the comm. "I want two pilots to stay here with Three and Fourteen. Eleven, Twelve, that's you two. For the rest of you--the lead shuttle is sending nav coordinates. Same escort plan as before, except One Flight will take the place of Three Flight." He paused for a moment; Fist guessed he was inhaling deeply, thinking about the mission. "Let's go."

Fist's X-Wing approached the Morning Star a day later; they had stayed at Sullust for the night. He had met with the people there that had sent him to the Alliance–New Republic now, Chris--and there had been a small party for his becoming an ace in addition to a ceremony for the two Z-95 pilots.

He landed in the hangar. In the aftermath of the battle, they had hypered to Sullust, where the convoy had landed and delivered its supplies. After the rest there, they went back to Derspen Station to rejoin Vape, Kulgon, Angel and Freqi, whose broken collarbone was healing well with bacta. They had returned in one of the shuttles kindly supplied by the diplomats.

Fist popped his cockpit hatch. He looked over at the shuttle to see Angel and Freqi depart. He gave them a thumbs-up; Angel returned the gesture, but Freqi simply smiled with his arm in a sling. The report from Derspen Station said he'd be ready for flight duty within two days.

The speakers in the hanger blasted out with Biggs' voice: "All pilots, report to the debriefing room. Good job out there."

Fist caught up with Wild Cat and Kulgon as he entered the briefing room. Biggs took the podium.

"Well done out there pilots--we took out a Star Destroyer and all of its TIE complement, as well as fulfilling our main objective of guarding the diplomats on their travels to Sullust, and we suffered no casualties, although I will have to get in touch with High Command to get new A-Wing and X-Wing ships. For now Angel, you'll be using your X-Wing; Freqi can fly an A-Wing for full squadron missions, or borrow an X-Wing for patrols and such. Any questions? No? Good. Take a rest, you all deserve it."

Fist entered the Fishtank to a resounding applause. He couldn't help but grin as Red and Blue pilots slapped him on the back and congratulated his high kill total.

"Thanks guys, it was a pleasure," he told them.

Rogue and Wildstar looked at each other, and shook their heads, almost in sorrow. Wildstar turned back to him. "You do know what this means, right?"

"…You buy me a drink?" he guessed.

Rogue chuckled. "Oh no, Fist, that's not how it works. I'm afraid you're paying for drinks today."

"Oh. Uh, Pip, I could use a…"

"Sorry mate."

"I see. I guess there's only one thing for it. Dargon, another round!"

The pilots cheered again as Dargon busied himself with glasses and various beverages. He saw Pip's brow furrow in puzzlement.

"What is it, Pip?" he asked.

"I'm just wondering how you got your callsign, that's all," he replied.

Dee chipped in. "Yeah, why are you known as Fist?"

Fist looked at them all deadpan. "Because I have a good right hook, of course."

For a second, he thought they were actually taking it seriously, until he couldn't keep a straight face and started laughing.

Looks like things won't be so bad here…

The End