One

CRS Morning Star, Hangar Two, 23:49 hours

David "Wild Cat" Fate sat in the pilot seat of the WildFire II, his small YT-3000 modified transport; he'd been sleeping in it for almost a week now since joining the Reds, waiting for a placement in one of the sleeping quarters. R2-B2 clicked quietly by the doorway, his searchlight probing dark corners and a few crumbs on the control deck.

Puffing on a pipe of fine Corellian bacca Wild Cat pondered his position in Red squadron. He was finding it hard to get to know these pilots; they were different from those he'd flown with in Blood squadron. These were headstrong and young, some of them younger than himself.

Most evenings he'd spent drinking alone with Artoo Beetoo for company, unless one of his wing mates decided to put another drink on his tab. His happy go lucky R2 Astromech droid had dragged him out of the Fishtank half cut a few times already, and tonight he was still nursing his hangover from the night before.

Taking out a holo pad from the satchel slung over the back of his chair he looked sorrowfully at the beaming faces of his deceased parents. It was a good picture; his great, bearded father had grabbed his wife and was kissing her on the cheek while she laughed heartily. Behind them the Wildfire-the ship that had spelled doom for his brothers-gleamed in the sunlight.

Beetoo piped and whistled something and Wild Cat looked over at the translator display. He smiled and looked over at the little droid "Not tonight Beetoo, my head's a bit too sore to play holo chess, maybe in the morning ok?" Beetoo warbled sadly and muttered something about how in deep space there wasn't any morning.

Wild Cat chuckled "Ok, little one," he said "if you're bored, let's go for a walk."

Artoo Beetoo whistled happily and slowly started to turn round, in his familiar, bumpy style.

CRS Morning Star, 00:36 hours

The Morning Star was the first Mon Calamari cruiser David had ever been onboard, his previous residence had been an old Nebulon-B-class Frigate, which had since been decommissioned and scrapped to build a new modified frigate. The thought of his old home in pieces made him feel dejected, especially with all those fond memories.

As Wild Cat walked uneasily down the brightly-lit corridors, he looked around enviously at the names on the cabin doors and heard the sounds of the crewmembers sleeping within. Personally, he had always had trouble sleeping–before joining the rebellion he'd had many a sleepless night pondering his future and since joining, he'd been haunted by the loss of his family and his seemingly pointless existence. Flying X-wings and vaping TIE Fighters was his job yes, but what difference could one man make? He was no Luke Skywalker after all.

Beetoo trundled along softly behind him, recognising the sorrow in his master's demeanour. It had been four years since Wild Cat had found him floating in space all alone, his battery worn out, and his memory systems damaged. It had taken the young man nearly six months to acquire the parts and fix him up completely, but the effort had been worth it and Wild Cat considered the droid to be his most treasured friend and the only family he had left. Artoo Beetoo followed him everywhere like a loyal pup and looked up to him as a child would to its father.

Every night during this first brief week since joining Red Squadron, Wild Cat had scolded himself for leaving the Bloods, but had quickly reminded himself of the reason for doing so. The death of his wingman at the hands of his family's killers, coupled with a number of disastrous missions had left a sour taste in his mouth, which he believed only a change of scenery could digest.

It was while he was in this pitiful state of mind that he bumped into Chris "Pip" Lane, a pilot both his senior in rank and–to his embarrassment–his junior in age. Fortunately, Pip was the one pilot he had got properly acquainted with and had even shared a chat with him briefly in the mess hall the day before yesterday. Wild Cat guessed it was something to do with Pip being the previous newbie, until he had arrived onboard. The youngster was wearing his trademark purple flightsuit and looked like he'd just been sleeping in it.

"Good evening, Lieutenant." Wild Cat said, formally.

"Evening Kitty," Pip reported with a smirk and slapped Wild Cat's shoulder "and what have I said about this lieutenant business?"

"Sorry… "Pip"." Wild Cat replied with a smile, secretly glad he didn't have to call someone seven years his junior "lieutenant".

"Up late, newbie?" Pip asked him, eyeing the flight officer suspiciously.

"Yeah I couldn't sleep," Wild Cat replied, scratching his unshaven chin, "thought I'd take the ‘dog' for a walk."

Pip looked past him at the little droid and gave him a nod "Hi Beetoo, how are you doing?"

Beetoo whistled joyfully, appreciating the attention from the relative stranger.

"Glad to hear it." Pip said and gave a "thumbs up".

"No offense Pip," Wild Cat said cautiously, "but you look like you just rolled out of bed."

"Heh, none taken." Pip replied with a grin "Zoom stuck me on a 10 hour simulated training exercise. I kinda left him a "present" in his helmet the other day." He gave Wild Cat a sly wink.

"Don't tell me." Wild Cat said quickly and hoped his superior wouldn't do the same thing to him anytime soon-whatever it was.

"Coming to the Fishtank for a night cap?" Pip asked him suddenly.

Wild Cat frowned and rubbed his head, remembering the previous night's calamities "Err… I should probably…" he began but changed his mind "Sure, ok, lead the way." What the heck, he thought. Didn't someone say something about it being the best remedy?

Artoo Beetoo made an "uh oh" noise and would've rolled his eye if it had been possible to.

Two

The next day, 05:00 Hours

The call woke Wild Cat with a start and he leapt from his bunk aboard the WildFire II to turn it off (momentarily thinking it was an alarm) before realising that his legs were not working properly. He slapped onto the metal floor like a fish and lay there for a few seconds in a daze. The communicator blared relentlessly until he had reached up from his position and brought it down to his ear. He coughed a couple of times and straightened his hair before activating it.

"Yes?" he managed weakly.

"Red 8 this is Red Leader," a confident voice said "I would like to see you in my office as soon as you are decent."

"Aye." Was all Wild Cat could reply with and ended the call, wondering just how long it would be before he was "decent".

He lay still for a few minutes longer before venturing to open one sore, blood shot eye. Wild Cat groaned, his tongue felt (and tasted) like he had just licked the hair off of a wookie's back. He looked around the dim room and saw Artoo Beetoo watching him from the corner of the room, although he knew he must be seeing things, he could have sworn the droid was frowning at him despairingly.

About a half-hour later, Wild Cat had staggered to the office of Red Squadron's Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Kelly "Zoom" St. Clair. He had managed, with some difficulty, to wash the stink of smoke and Mon Calamarian rum from his hair and put on some fresh clothes–a pair of khakis and a black long sleeve T-shirt. Zoom had said, "when you are decent" not "immediately", so Wild Cat had presumed it was an informal meeting, so he was surprised to find upon entering, both St. Clair and his Executive Officer Major Neill "Ranger" Magill both in uniform.

His superiors threw him a brief look of cold disdain. Wild Cat coughed.

"Err, good morning Lieutenant Colonel, Major." Wild Cat said awkwardly, standing to attention as straight as possible, so that his commanders would perhaps overlook the khakis and T-shirt. They did not.

"Good morning Flight Officer." Zoom said evidently wanting to outline the difference in rank between them.

"Nice of you to be so prompt and in the proper attire." Ranger added.

Wild Cat's stance faltered and he scratched his head despondently. Zoom and Ranger held their faces for a few moments longer, then burst out laughing. Wild Cat flushed, embarrassed.

"Have you ever seen anything like it?" Ranger said between chuckles.

"Never." Zoom replied his face straining under a wide grin.

Wild Cat had joined in with his rough chortle and looked down at his clothes ashamedly. He really needed to cut down on the alcohol. What was I thinking?

After the laughter had subsided sufficiently, Kelly said, "Now David Fate, I wanted to ask you how you've been getting along in your new squadron."

"Very well," Wild Cat lied convincingly "though everything's very different around here to what I was used to back on the Adamant."

"How are you finding the new digs?" Ranger asked. Zoom threw him a glance.

"Oh, it's a great ship," Wild Cat said genuinely "they all are, don't you think? Each one different than the others."

"We're working on the sleeping quarters situation, Wild Cat," Zoom said "sorry for the inconvenience."

"Thank you sir, I'm looking forward to hanging my hat."

"I hope you'll find somewhere to hang your uniform too so that you'll remember to wear it next time." Ranger said with a smirk.

[Red Squadron Briefing Room, Morning Star, Anaxes System, 1030 Hours]

After the meeting with his superiors, Wild Cat made his way over to Pip's quarters and hammered on the door with his fist. Zoom and Ranger had advised him to get some more practice in the flight simulators as his scores were down a little on yesterday's assessment. He decided to bring the "Pipster" along with him as the young lieutenant had challenged him to a one on one after being drunk under the table by his elder squaddie. In answer to his hammering, Wild Cat heard a loud crash on the other side of the door, followed by a muffled groan.

Eventually, the door was opened to reveal a dishevelled looking teenager with bags under his eyes big enough to put apples in. As Pip stood there, a strong waft of Cognac and sweat assaulted Wild Cat's nostrils and he winced slightly.

"Mornin' Pip," he said cheerfully "don't you look well this morning?"

Pip muttered something that wasn't cheerful and said, "What are you here for?"

Wild Cat snapped to attention and said "I'm here to answer your challenge, sir!"

"What, at this time in the morning?" Pip exclaimed.

"Is there a better time? Besides, it serves you right for coaxing me into the Fishtank last night after I'd sworn never to drink again."

"Heh," Pip snorted "you wouldn't have lasted tee total a week!"

"Well you never gave me the opportunity to find out, did you?" Wild Cat countered "Come on, are you coming, or are you gonna be a scruffy nerf herder all your life?"

"Scruffy nerf herder sounds better than sitting in a simulator after an all night binge in the Fishtank but ok. Just let me take my Sunnies and I'll be right with you." Pip went over to a small cabinet in his rest room and popped a couple of his Vitamin D supplements.

When Pip returned and they were on their way to the simulators Wild Cat said to him "I've not taken mine in a few days, I guess I'm not used to deep space postings."

"I've noticed you've been looking a bit pasty" Pip said looking his face "and you better watch out you don't get rickets, though it might improve your flying."

"Hey!" Wild Cat was offended "you want to put your money where your mouth is?"

"Well you already owe me ten credits from last night for betting I couldn't down that pitcher of Altanidium Sortha while standing on my head." Pip said, putting his hands on his hips and grinning in victory.

Wild Cat frowned, unimpressed and said "Yeah, but when I said "down" I didn't mean spill it all over the floor. It cost me five just to buy the damn thing. Man, Dargon was pissed."

"Cool it man, he calmed down."

"Only because I dropped him that consignment of Sandoroth from my ship."

"Like I said," Pip said with a wink "he calmed down."

Wild Cat scowled at him.

"Well, here we are," Pip said as they reached the door to the simulators "shall we say double or quits?"

"You're on," Wild Cat replied and they shook hands "the guy with the most kills wins."

The two men climbed into their separate simulators, strapped themselves down and started up the program.

"Let's rock and roll." Wild Cat said as he pulled down the hatch.

The TIE fighter spiralled ahead of Wild Cat's X-wing, dodging his red laser fire with all the grace of a Bronze Mynock; Pip had programmed the AI at ace level so that it was tricky enough to get behind them let alone acquire a lock with their canons. The simulator seat rattled as a computer generated asteroid bumped against the underside of his fighter. Wild Cat made a sucking noise with his mouth. That was too close . Personally he hated flying in asteroid fields, but it was Pip's call and he was a crazy man.

The eyeball ducked and rolled under a hail a red light, taunting Wild Cat like a man might taunt a dog with a nice bone. Wild Cat gave a low growl as he continued to fire, hoping his target would make a mistake and stray into his line of fire. At that moment, an asteroid whipped across in front of the TIE fighter so suddenly that it had to snap to the left sharply to avoid being obliterated. Unfortunately, the manoeuvre brought it into the path of Wild Cat's laser fire and it was ripped apart in a fantastic explosion.

"All right!" Wild Cat yelled triumphantly and shook his fist.

Looked down at his displays, he saw that he had thirty-two kills; Pip had set the game for a standard dogfight–ten flight groups of TIE fighters with ten wings to each against six flight groups of X-wings. It was a good set up (apart from the asteroids) and a good way to rack up kills. Wild Cat locked twin proton torpedoes onto the leader of an incoming flight group and let them fly. The resulting explosion destroyed the target and three of the eyeballs around it.

"Woohoo!"

As his X-wing shuddered through the debris, Wild Cat's wingmen cut through the remaining fighters and entered hyperspace. Shortly afterwards the lights came on and Wild Cat popped the canopy of his simulator. Outside, Pip was already waiting for him.

"Well?" Pip said.

"Thirty-six…" Wild Cat said cautiously. "You?"

Pip grinned smugly and answered "Thirty-seven."

"No way!"

Pip nodded.

"Damn!" Wild Cat sighed and searched his pockets "Err… I don't have anything on me right now, but…" he thought for a moment then grinned "how about flask of Black Ara instead?"

"Black what?" Pip asked.

"er…"

The End