[CRS Morning Star]

Flight Officer Chris "Pip" Layne straightened out his uniform before he entered Lt. Colonel Kelly "Zoom" St. Clair's office. He dusted off invisible specks of dust that had accumulated on his dress uniform.

He stepped forward and the doors slid open automatically and he saw Zoom, with bags over his eyes look up at him. Pip looked around the office and noticed the old couch and two ejection seats against the wall in the corner closer to the door. Zoom's desk was a city of stacked data cards; at least one was probably his, a review of his scores and his background.

Pip snapped to attention, "Flight Officer Christian Layne reporting as asked, sir!"

Zoom chuckled a bit, "Sit down, Pip."

Pip looked to the battered chair in front of Zoom's desk and he sat down. Pip rubbed his hands together and scratched the area behind his right ear- the same as when he was nervous. Which he was- damned nervous at that. "What did you want of me, sir?"

"Well, Pip. Nearly everyone in the squadron has met you by now. You've annoyed me, Ranger, Leo, Wildstar, and Rogue non stop since you found out how to get to us and I think that the other pilots might take after you- especially after that incident with the purple fizzy with Vape." Zoom paused and looked at Pip, "I've looked through your scores and have decided that you've met the reqs to enter. But...I want you to work as my and Ranger's aide."

Pip nodded, "What did I do to receive such grand, glorious, and magnificent assignment, sir?"

Zoom leaned forward, "Would you prefer to help clean the Morning Star with whoever's turn it is now? Ranger wants you at the sims at oh six hundred. That is if you can't get Ranger to have a hangover by tomorrow morning. It's also because I'm jealous about you getting your own quarters until we have a squad mate for ya."

Pip looked up, a mischievous smile played across his lips. "Yes, sir. When do you want me to help you do whatever, sir? "

"After the noon meal."

"Yes, sir."

And with that Pip saluted and turned on his heel and went out the door. Pip entered the turbo lift and his mind raced. He'd finally made it into the squadron! What if he hadn't made it?

It had been so close. Damn the sim! I don't ever want to go through that again! He thought. The turbo lift took him to the pilots quarters and he almost dashed out and went straight for his quarters. The door opened and he plopped himself down on the bean-bag like chair that he had added to his room.

The door slid open again and he saw Vape enter followed by Biggs. Vape and Biggs were the two pilots in Red Squadron he had talked extensively with- well, sort of (you'd have to exclude Zoom and Ranger). Behind followed the rest of the squadron.

"Lucky." Was the first thing that Vape said when she entered the room he didn't have to share- yet. "So Zoom told us that you'd be buying drinks tonight."

Pip smiled, "Of course, Vape." he looked around. "I came to see what credits I can scrounge up."

"Sure you did." Biggs sat down on his bed. "Why does everyone's bed always seem more comfy than mine?"

Pip stood up, as did the rest of the Reds, "I don't know Biggs, we can discuss it over the next few rounds- let's go."

[Simulators aboard the Morning Star]

Red's newest member juked right as four green laser bolts whizzed by the X-Wings' cockpit, he dived downwards and jiggled from right to left as the squint continued to fire- only once hitting him.

Pips' green eyes followed his primary target, a large freighter of whoknowswhat-class, carrying imperial spies with 'vital' rebel information. All he had to do was take down the shields, while his partner in the A-Wing covered him, and then escort two Pigs to the Freighter so they could choke their systems with ion cannons.

Again, one of the two squints following him fired, and a shot hit him dead on, but the shields saved him from the fatal blast to his engines. The shields had only dropped to 150%, which was pretty good, considering that two squints were on his six. Well, soon he'd be gone if his partner didn't come to help.

"A little help, eh buddy?" he said over the comm to the XO of the unit, who was flying the A-Wing while Zoom evaluated his performance. Pip rolled to the left, but the more nimble Interceptor followed closely, their wing right behind.

Rangers' A-Wing came up right behind him, firing on the two trailers, and taking both out easily. He came up so Pip could see Ranger turn his head to him, "Don't call me Buddy. My name's Ranger-Major Magill if you want to be formal-, Mr. Layne."

Pip smiled, "Copy, old Pal."

Ranger rolled his eyes and went back to his primary objective- take out the freighters' escort of squints. His A-Wing passed Pip up and had an Interceptor on his tail.

"Sir! You've got a squint on your six!" The A-Wing rolled right and tried to lose the squint, but the Interceptor stuck on. Pip rolled his X-Wing right behind the squint and link his lasers. He fired, "Got him."

"Thanks," the A-Wing continued covering Pip while he switched over to Advanced Torpedoes and linked them, he had three in each slot. He changed his target to the freighter, and the yellow 'locking' sound began. It turned red and he fired.

The missiles hit the freighter dead on, the freighter went down to 39%, and the reloaded missiles 'clunked' into place. He fired both, and the shields were wiped out, and left the hull at 50%. "Shields clear, Y-Wings are cleared to come in."

"Copy. Y-Wings entering, cover us, Reds." Said Rogue, two Y-Wings entered the battle, lumbering and slow. Pip moved into position above them, targeting incoming TIEs, seven in all.

"Pigfliers, keep going straight." Said Pip into the comm., "Ranger, I'll go for the eyeballs, can you stay with the Pigs and Squints?"

"Copy, Kid. Take care of those eyeballs." The A-Wing went off to chase the remaining three squints.

Pip veered off with his X-Wing, right after the eyeballs. He rolled quickly to avoid shot from the eyeballs and quickly targeted Alpha 1, shot and wiped it out in a clean kill.

The second was more difficult, dodging away from him. Pip came up behind the eyeball and fired once with linked cannons. The 'targeted' part of the HUD beeped and seconds later he was in a barrage of green laser fire. He put all shields aft and dropped his throttle to zero.

The TIE rammed into his aft side. The maneuver had dropped his shields down to 102%, but now the eyeballs were down to four. More firing on his back and he evened the shields and powered up the speed.

Two eyeballs were converging on his six, he juked right and rolled left, and suddenly dived downward and appear right behind. He fired in the middle of the two, two lasers hitting both dead in the cockpit, and taking both out. He turned his attention to the remaining two TIEs, coming at him from a southeast angle.

He rolled towards were Ranger was now coming from, he'd already finished off the squints. Pip wiggled the stick a bit, making the craft do the same, and he did a couple of bumps, trying to avoid being hit. Pip tore leftwards randomly and found himself behind the two eyeballs, he took the first one out, but the last one dived away quickly, far to quickly for him to follow with success.

Pip decided to go the other way around instead, and it proved a far better idea, since the eyeball came up right were it was, not being able to find the X-Wing, which by the time he realized it was behind him and it's lasers hitting the engines of the eyeball.

"Nice show, Pip." Said ranger over the comm., he slowed down to Pips' speed as they headed towards the disabled freighter. He saw a Corellian corvette docking with the freighter, onboard commandoes and troops for capture of the vessel. "Thanks, Ranger."

The latch opened and Pip crawled out, he was sweating from head to toe. "Good one, Ranger. Can I go now?"

The XO nodded and Pip dashed off. He showered and changed into his flight suit, which had the same picture on his chest that Vape had made for him on his helmet a couple of days ago. His flight suit wasn't the usual safety-orange, but a pale violet, almost lavender.

He combed his hair and headed out to the Fishtank, on the way there he ran into Stony and Wire. "Hey, Stony. Hey, Wire. How's life for ya?"

Wire looked at him and yawned. "Way too many patrols lately. It's like the New Republic is getting paranoid."

"I second that, Wire. So, Pip, why'd you join the New Republic anyhow?" Stoney looked over to him, as did Wire, awaiting an answer.

Pip looked over to the two. "Well, I'm Corporate Sector born, you see. I'm technically supposed to be neutral. My older brother, Big Byrd, was killed a training 'accident'. Actually, I found the official report in my Dad's office- Big Byrd had been shot down by TIEs for planning to leave and go to the Rebellion. My Dad went into a depression, but I was finally able to convince my parents to let me enlist. I was sent to the Regis and whizzed through the training program. And here I am." He finished as they reached the Fishtank.

Wire nodded, "Interesting. Just don't ask for mine." Over the next half hour, Stony told him his story and the story of the battle on his homeworld, he'd gotten not so shy about telling it.

More pilots had come to the Fishtank since they had, first to arrive after them were Angel and Vape, followed by Redjed and Sentinel, along with Biggs and Yale. Others followed, such as Zoom and Ranger, or Arc and Shadow(the last to arrive). They were all relaxing peacefully when the klaxon rang above them:

"All pilots to their fighters. We have a dreadnaught with an Imp IFF in the area. I repeat, we've got Imps in the area all pilots get to your fighters." Jack Uoart's voice ran over the pilots in the bar, and thrity seconds later the crash of a mug and glass shattering could be heard, along with the footsteps of pilots dashing away to their fighters.

[Pip's X-Wing]

They entered the hanger and lunged into their fighters, soon after they took off. "Pip, follow me." Said Zoom over the comm. "Partners by closest numbers. Ranger, Pip, follow me. This is your first shortie and want to keep an eye on you."

Pip double clicked his comm and came up behind Zoom and Ranger, both in A-Wings. Luckily, Pip had already had Feight in his fighter, since he was going to have a patrol in half an hour, though he didn't really think that there would be one now.

Most of the pilots had A-Ws, and they were all pair up by now, except for him, Zoom, and Ranger, which were in a trio. "Uh, sir. I still don't have a number yet."

Zoom nodded, "Well, you'll be Six for now."

"Copy, One."

They went through a cycle of reporting in and just in time, because a few seconds after Sentinel reported in twenty two blips slowly, one by one began to appear on screen. "One, I've got a dozen dupes, the rest are all squints. Orders?"

"Okay, Me, Two, Three, Four, Seven, and Six will take out the squints. Everyone else go for the dupes. Do not let the Morning Star nor the Regis get hit. The training Wing will secure the Regis at close range, but take out as many dupes and squints as possible, lets move it, Reds!"

Pip clicked twice and followed Zoom and Ranger. But, soon he couldn't keep up with the their A-Wings and decided that solo would be better. He broke off from them and hit his modified stick for the closest enemy. A squint came up on his screen, Ace Two.

He quickly linked his lasers and aimed at the target, still about two klicks away from him. After the one and a half mark, the HUD turned green and he fired. The first shit hit the squint directly in the cockpit, leaving the dead fighter in space. He fired again and the squint exploded. "Pip one, Empire Zero!!"

He aimed towards the next squint, Alpha One. He looked down and could see that the squint was going for him, and soon say the 'they're firing on you' light come up on his HUD. He swerved out of the way as four greenish bolts zoomed by him. He began evasive maneuvers.

This squint's good. Was what he was thinking after a few minutes. The squint had stuck on. But, then again he wouldn't be a squadron leader if he wasn't.

He slammed his stick to the right but slammed it quickly to the left he repeated these maneuvers until he thought that a couple more times he'd break the stick, though he knew he wouldn't. He had successfully evaded the blast from Alpha One for that short period, and the squint was breaking off, and Pip followed him.

He aligned himself behind the squint and fired. The TIE pilot mustn't have guessed that he would follow, Pip had been eager to get away while the squint chased him. The ball of the squint and one of the wings on the side separated, leaving the TIE helpless. Well, almost. The TIE pilot swerved hit ball around and Pip heard the familiar sound of someone trying to lock on. A quick burst from his lasers and he got the Tie before the missile was sent off after Pip.

Pip left the wreckage and went back to the fight. He wove through the debris f two more squints and three bombers on the way. The fight was getting dangerously close to the Morning Star and the Regis, but the fight was in favor of the Reds. Blue squadron hadn't returned from a mission that they were to bomb a platform. They were to arrive within minutes, and the Reds couldn't take down a cruiser and twenty-two TIEs all at once.

He toggled for the closest enemy, which was coming at him with a buddy, a squint and a dupe. He turned to let them follow, so he could try and get around them. The squint shot pass him and turned and latched onto his six, and Pip wnt on to take out the dupe. He didn't even realize that the interceptor was on him until the shields began to drop. He switched the HUD to him and read Alpha Eight.

"I've got a squint on me, help anyone?" he called over the commlink.

An X-Wing dropped behind him and he heard Angel's familiar voice: "I've go him." She fired once and the squint behind him exploded. "You owe me."

"Copy, Three." He said, "I promise if I survive long enough I'll buy you a drink. Then maybe on the next leave we can go somewhere? On a date maybe?"

Angel rolled her X-Wing next to Pip's. "How about we talk about that later?"

"Copy, wanna be my wing for now?"

"I copy, Shadow's in an A-wing just like Arc, Ranger and Zoom. And you and me are the only ones in X-Wings. Might as well cover each other."

He clicked his commlink twice and followed her as she went forward. Most of the dupes and squints were gone by now, only nine or so left. No Reds had been killed or forced EV, but Vape had taken a missile and suffered minor injury and was forced back, which was reported as a minor concussion.

"Three, follow me." He said over the link and went forward, into the thick of the fight. He vaped a squint right off the bat, and got a half when he tore the wing off of one and Angel finished it off.

He got a dupe with a missile a little later. The ambush that had accidentally happened had worked. When Angel and Pip jumped into the fight, the remaining squints and dupes dashed off in all directions, leaving two dupes and three squints running.

Zoom's voice came over the comm., "Report, Reds."

They ran through the list, and only Vape didn't report in, she was in the med bay at the moment getting bandaged.

Biggs came up over the radio, "Hey, the new kid got the most- and he's an ace! Ha! Drinks on him!"

[The Fishtank]

Pip was with the pilots of Red Squadron once again, this time, he was buying drinks again. Before from being the newest pilot, second from the most kills, and double for being an ace. It was a joyous time, and Blue Squadron had only just arrived and heard about the assault on the Morning Star.

The questioners had discovered that the captain of the DREAD Syanclro had met them on a change meeting. The captain had decided to gain points in the eyes of his superiors and had acted.

But, right now, the Reds had nothing to worry about, all was going good and Vape's head was bandaged more than a mummy's would be. They all had a good laugh about her accident, he A-Wing had shot right past the dupe so she slowed down. Too much infact and the dupes had hit her underbelly. Vape leapt up only to find out how hard the canopy of a fighter was.

The chatting finally got to the point when they asked how he could get five of the eighteen fighters destroyed. And he had gotten half a kill. What was his response?

"I could say that this was all due to my amazing skills as a pilot, or just that those Imp jockeys saw my sexy body and were too stunned to shoot. It could have been the force, or just that I'm good. But in this case, it's called Beginners luck. The New Guy I am!"

The End