Shazam rolled off the bed and awoke suddenly- what an excellent dream...  He was still for a few moments, caught in the ecstasy of his latest subcontious endeaver, basking in the glory that was cold, hard floor.  I think I'll get floors like this some day...  Then, without any real warning, he felt a sharp kick in his ribs that brought him reeling, a small ball of fury clumped on the ground in the fetal position.

"GET UP!"  Jaden?  Perhaps this was the person that had initiated the preponderance of profanity; seemingly unpleasent when awake but wonderal background noise when one did whatever it was that Shazam had been dreaming out...  What a great dream...

"You know, usually I'm the one who's trying to get you up- I wasn't aware of any change in status..."  Shazam was imagining the look on his freind's face as he said this, figuing the various facial expressions and stages of relief, then rage, then relief as he tried to awaken Shazam.  Lately the commander had been engaging in this activity where he spoke with his eyes closed, so nothing really phased him, like it was apart of his latest dream and it held no real importance.  For instance, when Jaden had said- "Make sure to stop by and pay those parking tickets- they're strict around here..."  Though he nodded dultifully, his eyes never bothering to flitter open, there's no way he could have somehow known that there was a warrant out for his arrest, or that five armed men would beat down the doors, charge in, beat him with billy sticks and throw him into a cellar detainment center with a derranged rodian named 'Rick.'  Well...  Jaden hadn't been happy, but he'd bailed him out.

"Open those damned eyes and I'll be satisfied- look me in the eye Shaz!"  Jaden had grapped the commander's face and began to word "yes, sir..."  Had the roles of these two been switched so powerfully in the last couple of weeks?  If there was anything worse than downtime, Shazam hadn't known about it, but perhaps it was being so incredibly bored that you had to get yourself into trouble in order to entertain one's self, not that it wasn't fun- just unhealthy.

"Alright, alright- I'm up...  Did you make breakfast?"  Shazam sat up, his arms between his blanketed legs as he shook himself off the groginess, sniffing deftly for the wisp of acrid smoke or reasurring mseto yams...  Nothin like home cookin...

"Since when did I become your, Mom?"  Jaden was back at a frying pan, tossing something- the commander's one weakness: how was Jaden so good at cooking?  It was ridiculous.  He could remember various occasions where there hadn't been a single thing to eat and Jaden had stole into someone elses garden, or simply walked outside and pulled out some weeds, and suddenly there were in the middle of a feast. 

"What time do they need us at the base?"  Shazam grabbed the remote in front of him and flicked on the holo, the image of dancing female twilecks illuminating the room in nude splendor.  "What did we do last night?"

"I was working back-up duty for someone- I believe you sat here and..."  Shazam waved his hand for silence, flipping to the next channel.  "By the way- did you know that I could have gotten my own place on base?  No room mates, all priveledges, no need to clean up after animals..."

"I never brought in any animals..."  Shazam snapped his fingers toward Jaden, the other man putting down the pallet of delictables to give his commander a straight look-

"As far as I'm concerned you're a bit of an animal..."  Shazam sighed, stood up and went to his good friend, gave him a pat on the back, Jaden a little suspicious, and said-

"You're right- I've been a dirty mongral and I need to clean up- I promise I'll shape up..."  He sniffed the air, scratched the back of his head and said- "smells good...  What is it?"

"I tell you what- you and I can go somewhere tonight- the dude from last night owes me a nights work, so he can take over and we'll head downtown: how bout it?"  He put the skillet on a hard metal surface and waited for it to cool, watching Shazam with expectant eyes- the commander was a little trapped: say no and get kicked out, or say yes and be forced to enter some strange alien stripper bars.  Watching Twileks was one thing...  "Yes- that sounds great..." 

***

"Sure you should be driving?"  Jaden sat sipping his java while Shazam peered through the bright morning light of two suns, one orange and the other a bright yellow.

"Just cause I'm stupid doesn't mean I can't drive..."  The landspeeder was pretty nice, though a bit dinged up from various accidents that had happened on hazier mornings- perhaps he shouldn't have been driving. 

"Speaking of which- incoming!"  Jaden giggled like a ittle girl for a moment, then the two went stone silent as they played dead, Shazam slapping his face against the window, his eyes closed and mouth agap while Jaden reclined his seat, dropped his head backward and looked as if he'd been closelined.  The passing speeder's pilot must have been looking because his face turned to horror as he swerved off the road way and buffered into a ditch of dust, back up and into a white wooden fence.

***

Since the insurgency of the VE forces to the core, squadron's had begun finding thier way planetward, protecting them for short amounts of time before they were dispatched to another location- they'd been on Cursat for the last three and a half weeks, thier capitol city of Morchem wasn't much to speak about- there weren't all that inhabited, but Morchem sure did have a lot of sleezy figures.  Never the less, they'd found a way to enjoy themselves, whether it be on the base or in Morchem, causing mayhem, which usually consisted of one too many drinks and an all bad opportunity.

Nazgul Squadron had barelly flown in the last couple of weeks, doing patrols if they were lucky, and no-one usually wanted to do that so...  One would assume this wasn't that pleasent of a place at all.  When walking into the mess hall, instead of seeing a staunch skeleton crew hanging aroud, clusters of hodgepodge and hobbies lined the walls, many spanning the hallways for more space as they fought for things to do.  The real problem was the lack of action; Shazam had been in far more crowded areas without inquiry as to 'what to do...'  Usually the hire-ups found something, however menial, and put the men to work- Shazam had yet to see a single base sweep, construction job announced or freindly competition.  In short- the fellows around here were a bit lame, so it was the job of the bimbo waitresses in downtown bars to keep base personel entertained, which was unfortunate for the next day, having to get up and go back to work.  Never the less- if they couldn't give them something to fight for, then they would at least find something to do.

"How's it goin, boys?"  So there hadn't been any construction going on above ground- that didn't meaen tools couldn't be passed around in the basement.

"The form is definetly filling out- glad to see our electrics didn't bust along the line somewhere; I wouldn't want to cut this beut open..."  Terrance Wisp- a name Shazam liked to saw allowed just because; great mechanic, great guy, and...  Another great chef, actually.  Though he was a local, he seemed worldy, like he'd been travelling for the most part of his life and just decded to take a break on some over-populated Imperial defense platform.  Certain things he said made Shazam wonder if he was even enlisted, but that wouldn't stop him from employing him- not for this masterpiece.

"Good, good- how about the engines and support systems- I trust none of the tubes have holes in them or freeze easilly?"  Shazam Finished his stroll down the stairs so that he was in full view of the machine, a work of art and industrial necessity- a little something he liked to call a 'dingy...'  Inspired mainly by boredom, the dingy was also a last ditch effort to enter less sovereign areas of the planet, areas where snow and ice were not only prevelent, but threatening, ever-watchful tormenters.  So why did anyone want to go up there?

"No problems to speak of, though we did get a diagnostic warning when we started it up about a half hour ago- it ran smoothly but our machine kept talking problems in fuel cylinder algrorithyms."  Terrance was standing, leaning toward the desk before grabbing the datapad and tossing it to Shazam, a pair of green eyes below his wild, mangy red hair.

"Try changing the fuse; restarting the computer won't hurt either.  I don't want this thing feeling like the last time I got a little too much to drink- her name was Sandy but I'd have called speed bump..."  Terrance chuckled and caught the diagnostic, mid-air in his right hand, lifting up some loose panneling on the fuselage with his left.  Shazam skipped on past the trinket and found his way a little farther, meeting his good man Jess.

"How's it goin, boss?"  Shazam waved the name away and retorted-

"That's how officer's get killed by the way- much less the higher ups discovering that we aren't working on fighters..."  Jess had a bit of a larger build, had black dots under his eyes, no eyebrows and only whisp of where hair had once been; Shazam wasn't sure, but Jess may not have been human.

"You're melters should work alright once I get 'em attached- I hope that single Ion engine will be able breathe though- no need to drain it the middle of arctic winter."  Shazam nodded and said-

"We'll make sure to test it- you wanna be the pilot?"  Jess waved him off and said-

"Only if you give me the fifty credits you owe me...."  Shazam turned the other cheek and began to head out, saying over his shoulder-

"No bank on this planet will take me- you'll get your money someone around here trust me..." 

(I'll talk to Jaden about this in a bit and/or edit.)

-----------------------
*Flash Was Here...*

SC/CMD Shazam/Nazgul 1-1/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF/VEN (=A=) (=*SA*=) (=*MA*=) (=*FOCE*=) [LoM] [LSM] [VC:S] [DSM]

NazgulSquadron

Commander of Nazgul Squadron, Phoenix Wing and Training