Raigen hit the thrust as two y-wings materialized themselves from behind an asteroid. The pilot slammed the throttle foreword with his left hand, engaging the afterburners and leaving the two y-wings to be engaged by Hunter and Darius. He placed his left hand back on the flight stick and rolled himself into a right turn. "Chak, you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here. Took a shot to the shields but no damage. Should we go after Darius?" Chak asked as he caught up with Raigen.

"He'll be fine. Hold up, floating tie at our six, with a Y coming in for the kill. Break right, I'll break left. come in on the Y head on and then run while I'll tail him. Make sure you don't get locked!" Raigen said as he cut the throttle and turned his fighter around. The floating tie wasn't even trying to adjust or regain control as it tumbled through the field. "The power's cut to that tie, he's gonna get himself killed pulling a feint in an asteroid field. Chak, do you have visual on the Y?"

"I see `em. He's closing in to get a shot on the tie. When should I engage?" Chak asked.

"Wait for it, wait for it..." Raigen followed behind Chak at a distance, being sure not to acquire a tail. "Now, push the throttle and lay some fire on `em!" Raigen pushed the afterburners once more as Chak showered the bomber with blaster fire. Chak knew what to do, coming in on the Y at an angle at full speed and finally pulling away to draw his attention. Chak went off at a distance before pulling around to make the Y think he was going to try another pass. As the Y maneuvered his ship to face Chak, Raigen closed in to a distance he could trail the fighter at.

"He's comin' after me now. Hurry up and get within missile range before this guy takes me!" Chak yelled as the two fighters exchanged fire.

"Break and run Chak. Give this guy a wild kath chase!" Raigen yelled as he pulled in behind the tie and began to lay on fire. Chak was going top speed to outrun the Y, but the pirate's maneuvers made up for his lack of speed. Raigen had to match the Y's maneuvers to keep up as he laid on another barrage of blaster fire.

"I can't shake `em Raigen. He's on me. He's gonna lock on!" Chak called. Raigen tried to lock onto the bomber but it did no good. The Y-pilot was too good and maneuvered too fast. "Raigen, there's a dense part of the asteroid field ahead."

"Go in but be careful. Those rocks are moving fast." Raigen replied. The asteroids in this part of the field were crossing and colliding like crazy, making it a pilot's death maze. Raigen cut off some of his throttle so that he could maneuver better. Two asteroids collided just behind the Y-wing. Raigen shut off his thrust after giving a sharp pull on the flight stick. This sent the tie facing upward before Raigen kicked the throttle back in and shoved the fighter up and over the two asteroids. "Chak, where are you?"

"I put some distance between us and lost the lock. Coming into a less dense area now and..."

"Raigen you've got two on your tail!" called MCPO Zhars, one of the new nazgul members. Raigen sped out of the dense area followed by two Y wings closing in close behind. Zhars came in fast behind the two as Raigen immelmanned to avoid the Ys' cannon fire. Zhars began to lay fire to the two as one broke to engage him. Raigen was heading strait for the second Y who opened fire with all of his weapons. "You're taking fire, Eight!"

"So are you. Zhars, get outa there. Chak, where the hell are you?" Raigen screamed as he and the Y pounded each other's foreword shields. The two fighters launched their missiles at the same time, Raigen launched two, the Y launched one.

Zhars had launched his own missile but his opposing Y maneuvered, sending the explosive into a nearby asteroid. Zhars passed the explosion at its peak, sending him tumbling for a few seconds before he regained control. "Zhars, get control, your opponent just let off a slew of mines." MCPO Zhars regained control and found the Y on his tail.

"He's on me now. What's your status, Raigen?" Zhars said, seeming to be more worried about Raigen than himself. Raigen pushed his throttles to full and barrel rolled out of the way of the missile, which then turned to follow Raigen. The Y dodged the first of Raigen's missile's passes. Raigen one eightied to face the Y wing. "Zhars, I got a missile on me. And this Y is pounding at my shields!"

Zhars sped toward Raigen's opponent with a Y hot on his tail. The combination of fire from Zhars and Raigen sent the Y wing ablaze. Raigen rolled out of the way of the explosion as the three missiles collided into the fiery ship, sending Raigen's ship tumbling past a mine that, fortunately enough, did not explode. Once Raigen regained control, he set a direction toward Chak and called to Zhars "Zhars, One Y down....Zhars....Zhars!" There was a akward silence, "Jaden, Zhars is gone. I'm en route to help Chak!"

"Raigen, my shields are almost down but I'm alive!" called Chak over the com, "There is something wrong with the com, I can't get in touch with Jaden or anyone else."

"I see, I'm coming to you to help out. One Y is down but there's another Y unaccounted for." Raigen closed in behind the Y following Chak and laid a round of fire on its shields. "These shields are too strong, You need two ties to take one of these guys down!"

"This is Azure flight one leader, I'm coming in on two ties playing follow the leader with a Y. Need any help?" Came a voice over the com.

"Hell yeah, we'll take some help. Azure lead, do you have a wingman?" Raigen asked as he put on some more fire.

"Negative pilot," there was a long pause, "C'mon. Let's show these saucy bastards what real pilots fly like!"



-----------------------
[-=Nazgul Squadron=-]
FM/SCRW Raigen DarkBlayde Tei-Yehn/Nazgul Squadron 2-8/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF DEF/VEN/VE(=*A*=)[VC:B][BWC]

Azure 1 pulled up to Raigen's left as Chak led the Y wing into an hard break. The two trailing pilots did matching high speed yo-yo's to come up right behind the Y and hammer his shields out with their lasers. "We've almost got him Chak....almost." Raigen said as he held onto the fire button.

"Raigen, Chak. Three Y-wings coming up on your six!" Called a familiar voice. It was Tomas, who had his whole flight behind him.

"That you Nine? Zhars is out and we can't hear Jaden through the comm!" replied Chak who was leading the Y into a downward spiral.

"It's not three, it's four! The one that took out Zhars. Tomas, we need a plan." Raigen said as he missed with his cannons.

"They're coming after you and Raigen, Azure lead. Break and get out of there!" Cried Tomas. Tomas and the twins were closing in on the flight of Y's but not fast enough.

"Azure, stay with the target, get a missile lock for luck's sake. I'm breaking to draw attention. We need to get this guy of Chak!" Raigen pulled a high G left turn to face the Y's head on. He launched two missiles into the center of the formation before rolling away to his right. The flight split to avoid the missiles and an element of them went strait after Raigen while the other half went after Azure lead and Chak.

"Missile locked, hes too weak to avoid it....launched and disengaging!" Azure lead called as two missiles from his interceptor fired out and trailed the Y. Chak rolled away to avoid an asteroid as the Y pummeled into the rock, followed by the explosion from the missile.

"Thanks Azure. Raigen, I'm coming to help. Tomas, what's your status?" Chak said as he closed in on Raigen's assailants. Tomas and the twins were chasing after the stray flight going after Azure.

"Negative Chak, you've got no one on your tail. Go with Tomas and lay on some cover fire!" Raigen said as he went into a spiral dive. As he dived, he just nearly missed setting off a mine. "Azure...the mines!"

"Yeah I know, I'm watching them!"

"No, lead the Y's into there own mines!" Raigen explained as he yo-yo'd around to fire on the Y's, only slowing them down a bit before he broke left and they were on his tail again. Raigen pulled up hard on the flight stick as his fighter screamed through the asteroid field. A quick right turn threw the Y's off and sent one into his own mine. The Y tumbled away as as an interceptor(followed by two Y's and four ties) scraped his unshielded hull. The Y regained control and shot off to recharge his shields.

"All right, Chak, leave those two to flight three and help me out. Go after that lone Y!"

-----------------------
[-=Nazgul Squadron=-]
FM/SCRW Raigen DarkBlayde Tei-Yehn/Nazgul Squadron 2-8/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF DEF/VEN/VE(=*A*=)[VC:B][BWC]

"They have just launched two flights of Interceptors, Nazgul One. Looks like we've got some unexpected help"

Chatter about a thirteenth pilot ensued as Nazgul formed up around the transports. It wasn't even a minute after they had straightened it out that the Y-Wings transmitted their demands:

"Imperial Transports. Prepare to be immobilized and be ready to hand over your cargo. If you co-operate, no one will be harmed. We are members of the pirate group Tachurus Squadron, and are not afraid to open fire."

"What's the call, Nazgul One?" one of the captains said over the comm, a slight sense of fear creeping into his tone. There were brief moment of silence before Tomas heard Jaden reply:

"Prepare whatever weaponry you have aboard. We're not going to stand down to pirates. Nazgul Squadron and Azure flights one and two, get ready to engage incoming Y-wings." With that, Tomas noticed flight one accelerate slightly in order to put itself between the Y-Wings and the transports. As if on cue, flights two and three followed suit.

"900 meters...800 meters...650 meters...400 meters...300..."

The lead Y-Wing opened fire and almost instantly the space separating the two sides vanished, flashes of red flashes filling the rapidly decreasing space. The dogfight had begun, as various fighters matched up and began their tactical dance trying to get a shot in on their opponent.

Tomas had managed to keep his whole flight together as Nazgul broke apart to engage. Picking out a pair of Y-Wings Flight Three throttled up to close what little distance remained.

Acknowledging they were outnumbered for the time being, the two Y-Wings took a few warning shots at the approaching Interceptors before banking towards a denser section of the asteroid field.

"Keep on your toes guys and girls, these asteroids can make us prime targets for being jumped if we aren't careful," Tomas instructed his flight over the comm. He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, "but that also means we can have the same advantages at our disposal should we choose." It had been only a couple minutes into his first real combat situation, yet Tomas felt completely calm about what was going on. Perhaps it was due to the amount of varied training he had experienced: first from his father; the Bastion Academy; and most recently training with Vast Empire Tomas felt he had been prepared for anything that could be thrown at him.

Sweeping around one of the larger asteroids in pursuit of the Y-Wings, Tomas kept one eye on his scanners. Although unreliable if the Y-Wings dropped off the sensors, he wanted to know when, and which they had been headed at the time. Plus, he didn't want his flight being ambushed by other fighters joining the chase.

Suddenly, one of the dots went dark on the scanner and instantaneously a new dot appeared to Flight Three's left. The scanners are even more messed up than I thought Tomas thought to himself rolling at the last moment to avoid the new fighter's burst of laser fire. Being in the lead of the flight, the others had plenty of time to get of the way. The Y-Wing ducked behind another asteroid and simultaneously its dot on the sensor went dark again. This is going to be tough.

"Let's pursue that fighter...Nazgul 10, you and I will try and converge for a shot...11; 12, keep yours peeled for those other two Y-Wings...don't want them getting a drop on us."

Tomas dipped under an asteroid, before pulling up the nose and with a quick roll came up over the top of the next one. Carly was right there on his wing following suit. The three fighters dodged and weaved through the asteroids trying to get off a shot, while the twins kept their distance trying to track down the pair of Y-Wings from earlier.

They had been going at it for a couple minutes before Tomas a chance to get off a decent shot. Firing, he watched the lasers harmlessly absorb into the Y-Wing's shield before it disappeared behind another asteroid. Tomas throttled up slightly, determined not to let it get away but emerged on the other side with the bogey nowhere in sight.

"Nine, this is Ten...he's on your tail. 2 seconds till I get a lock." How the- Tomas began to dance, barely avoiding the now oncoming laser fire. The odd shot running into his shields. Hurry up, Carly As if on cue, Carly shouted triumphantly as she got a lock.

"Got 'em, firing...now!" Tomas watched the Y-Wing begin to move evasively. He must've found a hole in sensors as the sensor lost him. At the same moment the missile slammed into an asteroid, as it lost its prey. No....way....

"Nine, there's no sign of those fighters," one of the twins announced over the comm. "Or the one you guys were just tangling with." Those guys are good...and sneaky-

"Alright guys let's form up and get back to the rest of the action... see how they others are holding up."

"Raigen, Chak. Three flight coming up on your six!" Tomas announced as they approached...

-----------------------
Petty Officer 2nd Class 'Tomas' Dagoram
FL/PO2 Tomas/Nazgul 3-1/mSSS Atrus/VEN/VE (=*A*=) [MC1]

"Fight on and fly on to the last drop of blood, the last drop of fuel, to the last beat of the heart."

  "This is Six, we're coming back in," Ridley stated as he followed Darius closely. If you flew in loose formation through an asteroid field, you were likely to be forced to split up. It had taken Darius a few minutes to recover from the pervious engagement, and Hunter had been forced to cover him during that time. Soaring back into the field, Hunter checked his radar a second before he remembered the futility in it. With all the debris floating around, it was almost impossible to see an enemy ship with the radar before you with your own eyes. At least I have that advantage. Ridley smirked to himself. As soon as he heard they would be entering the field, he had switched his ocular vision to a dual mode between heat and regular. This would allow him to also see heat signatures through less dense asteroids.

  "Keep those eyes peeled Six," Darius said on their wingman channel. "We can't take another ambush in here."

  "Roger lead." Ridley swung out to the right a bit to circle around an asteroid.

  "This is Azure 3, I'm in trouble. Anyone close by?" A voice said over the com.

  Without having to glance at his panels, Hunter said, "He's to our three, Five."

  "I see it." Switching channels, Darius said, "Change heading to Zeta-38, Azure 3."

  "Why? I don't see you." Azure's voice audibly held frustration in fear. He wasn't ready to die. Even though he had asked the question, Azure complied, barrel-rolling through two asteroids. Two Y-wings were actually closing in on him.

  Suddenly, Hunter came up with a crazy idea. "Azure three, increase your speed to full. Darius let's do the same. Taking these Y-wings power for power is never going to work, especially since were a bit out classed. It's time to use our ships to their full advantage." It was commonly known that Y-wings were considered slow pigs on an open battlefield. If it hadn't been for the asteroid field, the Imperial fighters should have been able to fly circles around them, but flying full speed through an asteroid field was commonly considered the quickest way to commit suicide.

  "Alright Six, we'll go with it. We lived last time we tried." Hunter could feel the word "barely" was meant to go at the end of that statement. "Be careful of the mines though."

  Pushing his throttle controls to their full, Hunter started to pass Darius a bit, until Darius also pushed his fighter to its limits. Going full speed automatically changed the feel of the asteroid belt. Tiny particles almost constantly fizzled against the shields, and the asteroids that had seemed fast earlier now became even more dangerous. Looking ahead, Hunter saw that Azure three had lurched forward, pulling away from the Y-wings. Suddenly, Hunter's computers started to whine, informing him that he was beginning to be target locked. "Time to go evasive. The Y-wings are after us now, Darius."

  "Break!" Darius ordered. Before he complied, Hunter launched one of his missiles straight ahead at the incoming Y-wings and Azure 3, since they were coming directly toward them. Veering off in different directions, Hunter looped around to keep Darius whereabouts in his mind's eye. As his missile detonated against an ateroid, Azure 3 used the distraction to arc around and form back up with Azure 4. The Y-wings had disappeared though. Damn, their hiding. Forming back up with Darius, Hunter checked to make sure Azure 3 was safe.

  "I'm clear, thanks for the odd assist." Azure 3 stated.

  Ignoring the distraction, Hunter scanned the field for some sign of the fighters. "We need to figure out a way to flush them out Darius."

  "Alright, keep going, I'm going to drop back." Darius ordered.

  "What, you're using me as bait?" Ridley exclaimed.

  "You're going fast enough that once they come out of hiding you should be able to elude them long enough for me to catch up. Try to bring them back in this direction." Darius stated. A moment later, Darius ship seemed to disappear.

  "Great." Ridley spat. Pushing through the field, he was forced to use his lasers to blast a few asteroids out of his way going as fast as he was. Suddenly, his computer rang with a target lock. "Damn it," Pulling a tight loop and to port, Hunter started to throw all the evasive movements he knew into use. "Any time Darius." Ridley said as his computer informed him of a missile launch. "PERFECT," he said as he threw his fighter into a dense portion of the asteroid field.

  Rocks were careening into each other here, making it an insane move. Relaxing into his craft, Hunter ignored the sirens blazing at him and moved as close to the asteroids as he could. Suddenly his terminal quieted down as the missile impacted with the asteroids. Unfortunately, this sent a large amount of shrapnel into Hunter's rear shields, dropping them to sixty percent and jarring his fighter into a spin. Clutching his controls, Hunter pulled around in the direction of Darius. Laser fire began to pummel his aft shields. Even with all his maneuvering, the Y-wing had somehow managed to come up behind him without him knowing.

  A bead of sweat rolled down his face. Diverting half of his forward shields to the back to reinforce them, Hunter careened around another floating asteroid to find Darius waiting for him ahead. "Pull up!" Darius commanded, firing a missile straight at him. Reflexively complying, Hunter narrowly missed a direct impact with the shooting missile. The Y-wing had no warning. Zooming around the asteroid, he came into full contact with the missile, instantly dropping his forward shields and sending him rolling through the asteroid field. Maintaining his pull up, Hunter turned into a loop and brought the Y-wing into his sights. The amazing pilot had already recovered, and had began to move into the field again to hide. Realizing he had only a moment shot, Hunter employed full use of his eyes and aimed for the Y-wing. Firing off a dual shot, it impacted the fighter but didn't destroy it.

  "Did you miss Six?" Darius asked.

  A moment later, an explosion erupted from inside the asteroid field. "No, I let the asteroid field take care of him. I just targeted his engines, and made him a sitting target for the field. I've taken a beating though. My shields are down to forty percent, so next time, you be the bait."

  Another explosion ripped through a section of the asteroid field, ruining the rush of adrenaline Hunter and Darius had just received from their kill. The second Y-wing that had been chasing Azure 3 had claimed its kill. "Sith spit." Hunter cursed. Can't we kill even one without taking a hit ourselves?

  "Let's get back to the transports Hunter," Darius ordered.


-----------------------
NazgulSquadron
Senior Chief Petty Officer Hunter

FM/SCPO Hunter/Nazgul 6/Pheonix Wing/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE (=*A*=) (=*SA*=) (VC:B)

Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will be victorious in ten thousand battles.
You may forget the past, but it always has a way of haunting your future.
Men can die, but a symbol is eternal.

Trevor swung his fight around as Flight One of Nazgul Squadron cruised low over the surface of an asteroid. Azure 12 had been separated from her flight and joined up with them. So far they had avoided fire pretty well, and they had gotten reports of three confirmed kills on the enemy. The losses to their own side had be slightly higher, considering the fact that they were up against a pair of gun ships as well as some opponents who although outnumbered at least 2 to 1, were still alive and fighting back. They were down to 12 Y-wings, making them even to Nazgul squadron, but Trevor still had a feeling in the back of his mind that Nazgul might not win this one.

"Anyone have a visual on anything?" Jaden asked, peering through the transperisteel of the cockpit. They had spotted nothing in the last 45 seconds, and although no one was willing to admit it, it had them slightly nervous and on edge.

"Nothing but giant rocks and distant explosions. The radar is totally useless in here." Trevor replied, tapping his radar screen fruitlessly. The machine would either show absolutely nothing, or the whole screen would light up with one big bright pulse because of the distortion caused by the deposits in the asteroids.

Chip and Azure 12 were remaining silent, cautiously watching in front and behind them for any sign of the enemy. Finally Chip flicked his comm. on and spoke.

"I've got a pair of Y-wings coming in on course zero-one-five. If we've learned anything from these other pilots and what they're reporting&" Chip trailed off, seeing if anyone would finish his sentence. Azure 12 decided to.

"Then they work best in a two man element. Probably pre-decided and arranged so that best friends work together. Surprising, considering pirates normally aren't organized like that." She said methodically, choosing her words carefully and talking calming, ignoring the impending danger.

"These aren't normal pirates..." Trevor replied, but didn't get to say anything else. An alarm went off in his cockpit and he let out an involuntary yelp as the siren made him jump. "They painted me, breaking formation." He said, jamming the left pedal to the floor and twisting the yoke in the same direction while pulling back. The maneuver shot him upwards while rolling to the left, and he had to react fast to avoid crashing into an asteroid that had floated into position above him.

A moment later the alarm went off and Trevor let out a heavy sigh. He checked behind him once again to make sure that the missile was gone before the rest of the flight formed up with him again.

"Did it hit an asteroid?" Trevor asked, referring to the missile.

"Nope, Chip performed a masterful shot and took it out." Jaden replied before Chip could.

"I owe you a drink if we make it out of this." Trevor laughed before another thought crossed his mind. "Shouldn't you have decided to take on the Ys?"

"They turned and high-tailed it. Azure 12 started to make chase but lost sight of them." Jaden informed him.

As Jaden finished speaking a pair of gray fighters appeared in front of them, having used the curvature of a larger asteroid to hide their approach. Flight One didn't have time to react as brilliant flashes of red energy shot across the emptiness of space. Trevor's shields momentarily flashed brightly, mimicking the other Interceptors'. Although a TIE's cockpit glass should auto-darken when exposed to bright light, Trevor's did not this time due to an electrical malfunction he overlooked during pre-flight checks. Partially unseeing, he blindly opened fire as he waited for the fireworks behind his eyes to stop flashing, and managed a lucky shot. Jaden had concentrated on the same Y-wing and the two quickly punched through the front shields. The pilot wasn't stupid though and pulled up, righting his fighter as he leveled out and beginning to flee.

"You two take the other one, Trevor and I have this one!" Jaden ordered as he pushed his throttle to its stops, Trevor doing the same. Full throttle through asteroids was dangerous, but apparently Flight 2 had been trying it and they weren't dead&yet. The two other members of Flight One made a one eighty and headed off after a Y-wing that was fleeing now that he had been split up from his wing mate.

Jaden and Trevor caught up to the Y-wing quickly and chased it, letting off the occasional cannon blast. With all the twisting and turning it would be suicide to try and get a missile lock on the Y-wing. Turning the knobs on the targeting box while trying to fly with the other hand wouldn't mix while in an asteroid field. Trevor was about to comment on the insanity of the pilot but didn't start, his words escaping him.

They had chased the Y-wing into a hollow 'pocket' in the asteroid cloud. It was only two kilometers long and seemed to be almost perfectly spherical, but Jaden and Trevor both realized this was their opportunity. The Y-wing - if given 25 seconds - would easily be able to make it to the other side of the pocket and once again be able to evade them, but if Jaden and Trevor could do enough damage within that small window of time the Y-wing would be at their mercy.

"Quick, on my count fire a missile at him. He'll be able to do nothing but bend over and take it, and I'll light up his read end after his shields drop." Jaden said, and Trevor nodded even though Jaden couldn't see it. Jaden gave Trevor a second to get a lock before beginning his count. "Three&Two&Now!" Jaden exclaimed.

Trevor hit the little button on his control yoke that would launch the missile. As it was depressed it allowed an electrical current to flow through the wiring system of the TIE and make its way to the ignition center of the missile. With lightning quick speed the fuel of the missile ignited and it thrust forward just as its holding claws released it. The small thrust plate behind the missile was burnt black and the missile left its launch tube.

Trevor watched the blue fire from the exhaust streak away from him and collide with the shield of the Y-wing, which blinked bright red and went out. Jaden didn't waste half a second opening fire on the rear section of the Y-wing, and as soon as Trevor switched back to main cannons he opened up as well. Due to the nature of space combat there wouldn't be any smoke from any burnt pieces of fighter, but the flashes as the bolts buried themselves into the armor of the fighter were visible. It only took five seconds before the superstructure of the fighter was weakened enough in the back section that one of the engine supports weakened to the point of fracturing under the huge engine's incredible thrust.

The engine disconnected itself from the body of the fighter and lurched forward under the sudden loss of what it had been pushing, but quickly ran out of fuel and burnt out. It crashed lifelessly into one of the asteroids farther "down" and crumpled into a pile of useless junk.

The Y-wing did something similar, beginning to slowly spin because of the uneven thrust and then crashing into a different asteroid, sending shrapnel and fire up in a large explosion before the lack of fuel snuffed it out.

"Good work Two." Jaden told Trevor who replied with a "You too." The pair turned and headed back on the course the came in on. "How are you doing Three, Azure 12?" Jaden asked, hoping he'd hear back from both the pilots.

"I'm fine, but Azure 12&" Chip replied, trailing off. Jaden and Trevor both remained silent for a moment in a quick bout of respect for their fallen comrade, but the silence didn't last to long.

"Are you alright?" Trevor asked Chip.

"Yeah, I'm fine. She lost control during a head on attack and the pilot didn't react quickly enough. Head on collision." Chip summarized, just as he appeared in view of Jaden and Trevor. "I'll form up, Let's go help out the transports."

"Good idea." Jaden replied as Chip formed up on his left, Trevor on his right. The trio made their way back to the transports to find the new pilot shooting down torpedoes while trying to guard the transports with just a few other pilots. Most of the remaining Y-wings had massed near the transports and were preparing to begin runs on them. Trevor could almost hear the sounds of their ion cannons building up a charge. He also knew from experience that it would take more then three fully charged shots to take out the style of transports they were escorting, so they still had time.

Suddenly a loud crackling buzzed over the comm. units and Trevor instinctively slammed a hand up to where his ear would be, but his hand was met by his helmet.

"This is the Red Cloud. We're going to need to make a jump to hyperspace. We've taken heavy losses and this gunship won't let up, although they're almost as bad off as we are&Wait a moment, three more Corvettes have pulled out of hyperspace." The commander of the Bulk Cruiser told Trevor and Jaden. For a moment both men tensed in their seats, but quickly it came to them that these were the VE Corvettes they were supposed to meet up with.

"Those are VE friendly Corvettes!" Jaden exclaimed to the bulk cruiser in an attempt to end any panic that their appearance had brought to those in command of the Red Cloud.

Finally, backup. They couldn't have taken any longer. Trevor thought to himself as he pummeled the shields of a diving Y-wing, merely pestering it like a fly bothers a Jawa. The superbly modified bomber continued on its course and fired a few blue energy blasts onto the transport it had been aiming at, shorting out the shielding systems and one of the wing-tip blaster cannons. Although I have a good bet that if they had taken longer, there might not be much left of us anymore. Or of the transports.

*** Aboard the Darkness ***

Captain Jerome Baand of the Corvette Darkness stood at his post on the bridge of his ship as it reverted into real space. He and his crew were not met with a pretty sight. A gun ship was attacking a limping cruiser, and in the distance of an asteroid field he could see a spectacular battle going on between a diminishing amount of TIE fighters and a large group of talented Y-wings.

"What's going on?" Baand demanded from his communications officer.

"Nearest I can tell from the intercepted messages of the VEN TIEs and this cruiser is that we've shown up in the middle of a pirate raid. They haven't cont-" The man paused, pressing on of his headphones tightly to his ear. "Scratch that captain, the cruiser just messaged us requesting to know if we are friend or foe and if we will offer a hand."

"Tell them we are friend and will assist immediately. Send our VE ID codes if they need them." The Captain told the officer hurriedly before turning to his weapons officer. "Bring all of our port side guns online, as well as any on the bow and stern that can be aimed at that gunship while we present broadside to it." He ordered, and then spun on his heel to talk to the helmsman.

"Bring us around at heading zero-eight-two and keep our port side to that gunship." He told the helmsman who merely nodded before beginning adjusting their course. Once more the Captain turned to his communications officer. "If you are done with your previous orders, tell the Night Sky and Iceberg to follow our course and open fire on the gun ship."

The officer snapped off a textbook salute and began rapidly sending out messages to the other two Corvettes that had come with them. The Captain turned his attention back to the large front view port of his ship and stood rigidly with his hands clasped behind his back. He wished he could send fighters out to help with the battle in the asteroids, but fate had been against him. He and the other Corvettes had been told to keep their hangers empty to accommodate Nazgul Squadron as well as the transport shuttles. The captain frowned and mentally kicked himself for not being able to offer any additional help.

*** Aboard the Night Sky ***

Captain James Vivitar was just as busy aboard his ship after receiving orders from Baand. He had also prepared his port side armament and was moving into firing position when he noticed something odd about the gunship. It was beginning to angle away from the bulk cruiser.

It only took the Captain a few moments to realize what was going on. With one liquid smooth motion he snatched the headset away from his communications officer and jammed it onto his own head, adjusting the microphone to his own mouth level as he did so.

"This is the Night Sky. The gunship is angling away from the cruiser and appears to be preparing to make a jump to hyperspace. Should we ready ourselves to follow it?" Vivitar queried, beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead. Unlike the other two captains, Vivitar had just recently taken command of the Night Sky and was still green to being a captain.

"Negative Night Sky. We'll let her go but keep a close eye on her ion trail. Make sure to take a reading of it so we can pursue those worthless scum at a later time." Baand's communications officer replied calmly.

"What's to say they jump to somewhere aside from their home port and then make a second jump. By the time we get there the trail would be gone." Vivitar countered, balling his hands into fists by his side. He was sure that they would lose the gun ship if they let it go, but on the other hand he could plainly see that it was more important that the transports were safe.

"It's a risk we'll have to take." Was the only reply.

Vivitar ripped the headset from his skull and thrust it back into the hands of his communications officer. He had a feeling he'd meet up with that gunship again, but why he felt that he didn't know. He turned his eyes back to the view port just in time to see the gun ship accelerate rapidly and appear to diminish in size as it made the jump to hyperspace.

*** Back with Nazgul ***

Flight One of Nazgul was re-joined by the other two flights. He noticed that only Carly was missing from Flight Three and that Flight Two was also only missing a single pilot. Not bad at all, and I didn't even know those two. Trevor thought to himself, shaking his head at his lacking feeling of loss. If it had been someone he knew, perhaps Darius or Jaden, he would have felt like he had been slugged in the chest repeatedly. Even though the men often joked around and seemed to show little regard for the preservation of each others lives, they had developed a bond from flying together for such a long amount of time. But because he hardly knew the pilots, this feeling was not there. He did regret not getting to know them, but knew that fate had its own way of making sure things happened they way they were supposed to.

Suddenly another burst came over the comm., this time from the ship Darkness.

"Nazgul, Azure and Crimson Squadrons, Red Cloud, and transports Fisher, Gatherer, Farmer, Miner, and Woodcutter . This is Darkness and we are pleased to report that the gun ship has fled into hyperspace."

Small amount of cheers came from the pilots but it was short lived. They remembered that they had a job to be doing and very quickly reverted back to reality and the fact that 9 Y-wings still remained. The groups of pilots were concentrating so much on keeping the transports from being disabled that they did not have time to fight back against the Y-wings.

"This is Nazgul Leader. Can you send us a squadron of TIEs? We're up against talented pilots and haven't killed more than six of them." Jaden replied over his comm. as he pelted the shields of a passing Y-wing. The enemy fighters had taken power from their engines and primary weapons systems giving them shields of about 200% strength, making it supremely difficult for Nazgul, Azure and Crimson to penetrate the shields.

"Negative Nazgul Leader. Our hanger bays are empty to help hold yourselves and the transports. The Bulk Cruiser also appears to be out of available reinforcements, so you'll have to make due. We've helped all we can. The rest is up to you." Came a reassuring voice from the Darkness. The Captain had taken over the communications, and although he was often rock-hard and a man who commanded the fear and respect of his officers, he had a strange way of influencing and inspiring those around him.

"Copy that Darkness. We're nearing the edge of the field now." Trevor replied for Jaden, who was in the middle of trying to get a missile lock on a Y-wing he had managed to single out. No such luck, the Y-wing managed to turn and duck between a pair of colliding asteroids, cutting Jaden off.

"Sith spit!" Jaden exclaimed as he pulled left sharply to avoid the pair of death rocks ahead of him. It wasn't a complicated maneuver, but it defiantly got him out of harms way in a reliable and fast way. He made his way back to the transports, knowing that he had bought them a little more time by temporarily taking a Y-wing out of the picture.
Trevor watched with a fascinated awe as a pair of the Tachurus Squadron Y-wings made ion runs opposite of each other, both ion cannons blazing away at their intended targets. The synchronized move didn't get pulled off perfectly flawlessly though, with one of the Y-wings pulling up a little two soon. He was still firing his ion cannon and was unlucky enough to hit his wingman. The first shot dissipated the shields while the second, third and forth shots shorted out all the primary systems of the Y-wing, which slowed slightly and lazily drifted under the transports. The pilot still had life support and primary control, but with no engines or weapons he was a sitting duck. The poor pilot couldn't even eject from his dead-in-the-water fighter, because the canopy's rocket jet detachment had been replaced with a weight saving and slightly faster electronic variant. This had been shut down as well due to the ion blasts.

"We should tag him for capture rather than give him a quick end." Chip suggested quickly, having seen the whole thing just as Trevor did. "It'll easily be another four of five hours before his systems come back online, that should be time enough to have him towed to one of the Corvettes." Chip continued as he dodged a cannon blast from one of the Y-wings. The majority of the TIE fighters had stopped firing, realizing now that it was a waste of time to try and break through the shields of the Y-wings.

"Good idea." Jaden replied, and began to broadcast the order to the rest of the squadrons. "This is Nazgul leader to Nazgul, Azure, and Crimson. Do not destroy freshly tagged drifting Y-wing. He has been tagged for capture and destroying him will result in a reprimand." Jaden told the group with the authority of a battle-hardened commander, which he technically was.

A slew of 'Yes sir's and 'I copy's came through the comm. and Jaden smiled, enjoying the fact that no one questioned the order or made any attempt to take an easy kill for themselves.

"Nazgul 1, this is Tomas. I just noticed that one of the enemy Y-wings decided to jump into hyperspace, probably following his gun ship friend." Tomas said excitedly, being glad not only for being the person to pick this out, but also the fact that it was possible that the Y-wings were going to retreat.

Although the battle had lasted hardly that long at all, Jaden and plenty of the other pilots were already feeling the strain of being in a cockpit for well over 30 of the past 36 hours. The added physical stress of maneuvers being performed inside an asteroid field was not helping them out all that much either. "Thanks Tomas. We'll keep an eye on them for now, we're not out of this." Jaden replied happily to Tomas, his spirits obviously lifting at the fact that they might not have to put up with fighting a group of unbeatable pilots for all too much longer.

"Not yet anyways&" Trevor said, silently wishing for three things. One was to be able to wipe the sweat from his forehead to prevent it from dripping in his eyes. The second was to get home to his nice, warm, soft bunk. And I'd be willing to sacrifice that second one& He thought to himself as he contemplated his third wish. If I knew Toki was at home waiting for me.

OOC: Alright, I know, that's a terribly long and scary post. Enjoy reading it, it took my quite a while to write, i was up till 25 after midnight finishing it. Anyways, don't be intimidated by it, I just needed to straighten a bunch of things out and get the story back on track. Here's what I want to see happen over the next few posts. I want someone to kill off one more Y-wing before someone else has them all flee and jump to hyperspace. After that someone can post us bringing the transports within range of the Corvettes and letting them dock while we run cover to kill the time while we wait for our turn. Heck, if someone wants to even get us to the point of docking with the Darkness, by all means go ahead and do that.

-----------------------
SC/WO2/Trevor Evenson/Nazgul 1(1-1)/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=*A*=)(=*SA*=)[VC:B][LSM][BRC][SWC][GWC]

The VEN`s #1 writer as of ESC `06

Raigen was still shaken up from the last maneuver; the split-s had all but killed him, but it put him right behind his next target. The Y-wing that took out Azure 1 was now in Raigen's front view port and running. The Y was a lot more agile than the others, most likely a stripped down version holding less payload in favor of speed. Raigen was only just fast enough to keep up with the Y-wing's movements. "This high flier is going DOWN!" Raigen yelled as he plugged in on the Y and engaged his afterburners. I may not be able to kill you just yet, but I'm not losing your ion trail!
***
Chak was trailing his own target at a little less than full speed, following each of his target's maneuver on the pinch. Raigen had never seen Chak fly like this, like...a Tie Pilot. Chak closed in on the Y as the two sped heavily through the dense area of the asteroid field. The Y broke hard right as the two flew neck and neck through the suck of the rock field. The Y-wing immelmanned to come up head-to-head on Chak, but by the time he came to bear his cross hairs on Chak, a pair of missiles were coming strait for his front view port. Chak rolled away from a impending mine-collision as the Y-wing went into a spiral dive, scraping his shields on an asteroid, overloading them before the the two missiles exploded into the asteroid, knocking the Y out of control. The Y was able to regain course but was lost in the field, heading for the edge of it.
***
"Raigen, One of the Y's just fled. Yep, he jumped to hyperspace. Tomas and them are fine, what's your status." Chak announced as he maneuvered his way through the field, and caught up with Raigen.
***
"Great flying Chak, I'ma put a good word in for you before this is over, eh? Tight formation. We outnumber them now so let's fly by the book." Raigen said as he came close on the tail of the Y. "Let's chase this guy over to Jade and them." Chak formed up tight on Raigen's wing before coming out of the dense suck and back to the bulk cruisers.
***
"Raigen, Chak. Where were you?...We lost Carly." Darius pushed as flight two formed up together in two columns. Raigen heard We lost Carly and a chill went down his spine. "We've got some help, the corvettes showed up and some of the Y's are retreating."
***
"With there tails between their legs, I might add" Hunter said. Raigen was still in shock over the amount of dead pilots.
***
"I still can't believe it. Zhars was lost as well. I...as well as Azure 1." Raigen said as he and Chak flew tight on each other's wing through a hard break following their Y target.
***
"How many have to DIE until these Y's are happy? What the HELL is in these cruisers that they want so bad?" Chak said.
***
"Trevor, are we gonna get some reinforcements from the corvettes or what?" Raigen asked. He was still close on the Y-wing's tail, sweating hard as he used the speed of the interceptor to keep up with the raw skill of the pilot. Chak was behind Raigen, close, but out of missile range. Raigen knew better than to waste a missile now. Chak continued to keep up with his textbook flying and was able to shorten the distance between him and the Y. Raigen fired off a round of blaster fire that absorbed into the Y's shields just rear of the twin ion engines.
***
"Negative, their hangers are empty, waiting for us and the other two squadrons." Trevor replied. Raigen began to get frustrated. Yeah, and those hangers won't be filled now, either. Raigen rolled over and pulled up on the flight stick as the Y wing went into a sharp dive. Chak followed the Y's maneuver, coming out of the dive just behind Raigen.
***
"I've got a lock Raigen, but can't fire. You're between me and the bomber!" Chak said as he followed his wingman and his target. Raigen suddenly got an idea.
***
"Chak, when I tell you launch, launch the missiles. Okay?" Raigen said before hearing the aye from Chak. Raigen engaged the after burners and shot foreword after the Y. "NOW" he screamed as he came up on the bomber's ion trail. He launched one of his own missiles before rolling sideways with the Y. The missile had charred the side of an asteroid, but Raigen had already pulled away, giving Chak's missile just enough space to impale the Y's engines and set the craft ablaze.
***
-----------------------
[-=Phoenix Wing=-]
[-=Nazgul Squadron=-]
FM/PO2 Raigen DarkBlayde Tei-Yehn/Nazgul Squadron 2-8/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF DEF/VEN/VE(=*A*=)[VC:B][BWC]

  After Raigen and Chak had dispatched another of the Y-wings, flight two met back up again and rendezvoused with the transports, which were still flying comparatively slowly to everything else. "Let's get back into escort position guys while these transports get inside the hanger," Darius ordered. Following closely behind Darius, Hunter throttled back with him to match the transports speed.

  Time to baby-sit again. Just like looking after a drooling child. It was no secret that Hunter had no love for escorting. All it meant to him was extra work when it came to a fight. Being out in space alone scouting was normally harder for most pilots to handle. The solitude and bleakness usually got to them. Hunter preferred it. It was quiet, and no one was there to annoy him. Even when in your personal quarters aboard a ship, you are never really alone, especially when the walls are thin.

  "Hey Dar, how long do you think this is going to take?" Hunter asked, already getting impatient.

  "Probably like three to five minutes Hunter. Would you rather be fighting more Y-wings while we wait?" Darius asked sarcastically.

  "Yes," Hunter whispered.

  "I heard that," Darius stated.

  Shutting off his outward comunit, he left the input running so he could still hear anything anyone had to say. I'd prefer a little excitement to this. Three minutes is an eternity. Ridley knew he was just running on the left over adrenaline running through his system. As soon as that subsided, his body would begin screaming at him from the trauma all the flying had done to it.

  Looking out his viewport for something to entertain him, he looked back at the asteroid field. Following random rocks as they floated through it, he was forced to switch every few seconds as they collided with other larger asteroids. "How did we live through that, again?" Ridley asked himself. This had been the second time he had flown in and asteroid field with a TIE-fighter. Hopefully it would be the last. Suddenly his eyes caught sight of a gleaming mass of metal floating through the rock debris. It was impossible to tell if it was a Y-wing or a friendly fighter. Either way, there was no helping them. One of these days that will be me.

  Ridley turned to look out his right viewport. Thousands of pinpoints of light stared back at him. Who knew what was going on at this exact moment at each of those stars? Was another pilot looking out at them, looking for answers to questions they didn't know they had? A star started to twinkle in and out of existence, beginning its process of going supernova-the end of its existence. "If even the most powerful force in the galaxy dies, what chance do we have? How long do we have?"

  The words seemed to hang in the air for a few moments. Shaking himself, Hunter looked for something to take his mind away from the thought of death. He wasn't afraid of it. If it came for him, he would just ask it to wait until he was finished with what he was doing. Death had lost its mask of fear a long time ago for Hunter. Maybe if he died, he'd finally see his parents again or find the answers to his questions. Or maybe not.

  Before he knew it, the final transport was finishing its landing sequence and the only thing left was Nazgul squadron. "Alright, we finally made it here. Let's finally get out of these ships for awhile," Jaden said.

  "Where did the Y-wing we captured get taken to?" Hunter heard Trevor ask.

  "It's aboard the Darkness, which is where we are going ironically." Jaden answered.

  "You heard him Flight 2, let's begin out landing," Darius ordered.

  "It's about time," Hunter stated. With the adrenaline gone, he was beginning to feel every maneuver he had pulled in the asteroid field impact his body. The squadron began their approach toward the Darkness.

 
-----------------------
NazgulSquadron
Senior Chief Petty Officer Hunter

FM/SCPO Hunter/Nazgul 6/Pheonix Wing/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE (=*A*=) (=*SA*=) (VC:B)

Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will be victorious in ten thousand battles.
You may forget the past, but it always has a way of haunting your future.
Men can die, but a symbol is eternal.

She finally received clearance to land aboard the Darkness, Delia piloting her Interceptor into the corvette's hangar bay, the wings touching gently down on the deck.

The pistons lifted the top hatch open with a loud hissing sound, Delia unbelting, stretching, then climbing out and over her cockpit, taking off her helmet only after her feet had touched deck.

Her knees buckled, and her body trembled, and Delia had to use the right sleeve of her flight suit to mop up the sweat matting her hair and running in torrents down her face.

It was so kriffing cold in here, the cold mixing in with the sweat to make her shiver even more, and it took every bit of effort she could muster to looked composed, as she sized up her new squadron mates.
 
-----------------------
[-=Nazgul Squadron=-]

[-=Phoenix Wing=-]

FM/SCRW Delia "Evil Clown" Cael/Nazgul 3-4/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF/VEN/VE/(=*A*=)[SoA]

"So tell the judge I'm ready for the vases.
I'll dance in their faces when the guitar sounds.
Won't be long, I won't be gone.
Been leaning towards the shadows all along.

All four of the pilots had the look of exhaustion beyond any physical fatigue.

A look she knew too well.

Nodding her head, Delia turned towards the hatchway leading into the rest of the ship, asking the first crewman she bumped into where the galley was, thanking him , before heading towards the nearest turbolift.

Her legs were still jelly, barely holding her up, as she walked past more crewers and droids, Delia shaking and sweating, the fact that she'd just survived her first combat mission in a starfighter registering somewhere in her head, but only at the very edge of consciousness.

She practically collapsed into the lift car when it opened up for her, Delia forcing her fingers to press the button which would take her up to the ship's galley, before sagging against the car's rear wall, closing her eyes....

...she screamed, diving on the swoop which had killed Lelondi, blasting it into burning junk, knowing it wouldn't do any good, Lelondi's screaming....

...in her head even now, Delia focussing on controlling her breathing, the lift doors opening onto the deck leading to the ship's galley, her legs steadier underneath her than they had been, as she stepped out of the lift, walking past the ship's airlocks, watching naval troopers from the Red Cloud manhandle a wiry, oily looking Human male, dark hair plastered to the scalp of his pale, thin, rodus-faced head, battered Rebel flight suit hanging off of him, binders barely fitting around his wrists.

He stared her up and down, licking his thin lips, smiling....

"...she will do," the purple Twi'lek said to Father, snatching her up to her feet by the leash around her neck, before laying the bag of coins in Father's hand, "she will do, quite well."

"Quite...."

"...a package there," the miserable kriff dared say to her, his watery eyes stopping below her belt, licking his lips again. "Perhaps--"

She fired a ridge hand straight into his throat, following that with a kick to his chest which knocked him flat onto the deck, Delia stomping him down for good measure, spitting in his face.

"Perhaps not," she whispered, voice choked with too many memories.

Delia stomping him again before turning and walking away.         
 
-----------------------
[-=Nazgul Squadron=-]

[-=Phoenix Wing=-]

FM/SCRW Delia "Evil Clown" Cael/Nazgul 3-4/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF/VEN/VE/(=*A*=)[SoA]

"So tell the judge I'm ready for the vases.
I'll dance in their faces when the guitar sounds.
Won't be long, I won't be gone.
Been leaning towards the shadows all along.

The galley was serving up some sort of pasta dish with ground nerf meat in a heavy brown sauce, Delia taking a generous platefull of that, along with several rolls slathered with bantha butter, and a mug of hot, strong, black caf.

Now, to find a place to sit down...nearly every table in the room had at least one being seated at it, most of them watching a holoprojector showing reruns of some HoloNet drama she'd never heard of, and didn't care for.

"Attention!" a masculine voice boomed over the speaker,"attention, all personnel! Secure all stations for the jump to lightspeed, I say again, secure all stations for the jump to lightspeed."

She didn't feel anything, even though the voice announced, a few moments later, that the ship was now in hyperspace.

There...an empty table in a dark corner of the room, Delia taking her tray over there, sitting down, tentatively poking at her meal with her fork, wrapping some of the pasta around it, taking her first bite of food....

"...enough!" Father screamed, backhanding her to the floor, her stomach still growling.

"I told you no more food!" he shouted at her, shaking his head, adding,"any fatter, and you could pass for a kriffing Hutt...."

...not bad, needed seasoning, Delia taking the pepper shaker, burying her meal in pepper, taking her second bite...now, it was perfect, Delia chasing it down with a swallow of caf.

She then took the datapad strapped to the thigh of her flight suit, calling up the chapters on "Advanced Fighter Tactics," "Tactical Training," and  "Ship Engagement," reading all of them simoultaneously while eating...she had entirely too much to learn, and she wasn't going to be able to learn it all, not nearly well enough to improve on her abysmal performance out there, definitely not well enough to....

...Lelondi's Talon exploded, falling out of the sky....

...she swallowed another gulp of caf, another forkful of food, as the words on the datapad swam in front of her, and Lelondi's screams echoed off the blood pounding in her ears.

She tried forcing herself to concentrate, not at all succeeding, Delia then looking up at the ceiling, gulping down air like she was starved for it instead of the dinner in front of her.

After a subjective eternity, the screaming ebbed away, and she turned her attention back to her datapad.

A lot to learn.   



-----------------------
[-=Nazgul Squadron=-]

[-=Phoenix Wing=-]

FM/SCRW Delia "Evil Clown" Cael/Nazgul 3-4/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF/VEN/VE/(=*A*=)[SoA]

"So tell the judge I'm ready for the vases.
I'll dance in their faces when the guitar sounds.
Won't be long, I won't be gone.
Been leaning towards the shadows all along.

Trevor had invited Tomas to come have a drink with some of the other pilots but had been turned down. I guess I don't blame him though, sometimes socializing after the first battle can be a bit weird. Oh well, I'd like to get to know the guy, I hope he sticks around. We could use a pilot like that. Trevor thought to himself as he made his way towards the cantina. How he knew where it was he wasn't totally sure, but he found it no problem just like the rest of the guys who had decided to make their way to it. Jaden waved him over and Trevor took a seat in the corner booth they had selected, a pitcher of Corillian Ale already set on the table.

"Fancy flying Trevor, fancy flyin'." Jaden said to him as he sat down, patting him on the back.

"Yeah, got half a kill though, lower than average," Trevor replied with a mock hurt in his voice, then laughed. He knew that the fact that other pilots had gotten 2 kills or more was a total fluke in a fight like that.

"Meh, you avoided becoming blaster food more than once." Darius commented, a rare grin on his face. I suppose a fight against some real tough pilots has brought up the spirits...somehow... Trevor thought to himself as he unzipped the top of his flight suit and poured himself a glass of ale. The other pilots started chatting about the battle and Trevor quickly lost interest in the stories; something that was rare for him. Normally he liked to brag just as much as the next guy about an amazing escape or a near miss, but not this time. His mind was on a ship he had never been on, occupied by a member of the female gender. He reached into the inside pocket of his flight suit and pulled out a data pad.

With a quick push of a button he had it on and checked for any messages, happy to find one from Tokijin. He read through it quickly and was pleased to see that her first day had gone well. He checked the time and realized the message had been sent only a few minutes after they got in the air on Dastoria. He quickly started a reply message of his own.

You'll have to tell me how everything's been going since you sent that last message. You'd kill me if you knew that we just finished a battle with a bunch of pirates. Obviously I'm still fine though so there isn't a lot for you to worry about yet. We're on the way back to the Atrus. I'll let you know how things are going when we get back, since once we jump I won't be able to send any messages.

                    Lots of Love,
                    Trevor Evenson.

He re-read the message and satisfied he hit 'send'. Not a moment too soon either, because as soon as he did so and the message began its travels a voice came over the intercom telling them they would be entering hyperspace in a few moments.

"On the way home boys!" Jaden said loudly, enjoying himself now that they had time to relax. He slapped Trevor on the arm again. "You almost ready for the briefing?"

"Yeah, when is that?" Trevor asked, taking a large swallow of his drink and enjoying the rich flavor.

"Well, if you wanted to I could go talk to the communications people and have them page all the Nazgul pilots and we could have it now. The sooner we have it the sooner we can get it off our backs and enjoy the ride." Jaden pointed out, making a move to stand up.

"Nah, I'll go do it." Trevor said, pushing Jaden back into his seat. Jaden merely shrugged, indifferent to Trevor's decision. A quick movement brought his glass to his lips and Trevor finished it off, slamming the glass back on the table and making his way towards the exit.

After he hit the hallways it didn't take him 15 minutes to find the communications deck. He quickly got the attention of one of the officers and made his request. The officer nodded politely and sat down at the nearest terminal. A moment later a deep voice boomed across the ship, asking all the pilots to meet in briefing room SF as soon as possible. Trevor nodded to the clerk and turned briskly on his heel towards the door.

Briefing room SF was harder to find then the communications room, and he was surprised to find he was one of the latest people to show up. He also noticed a few people he had not seen before. One was a woman wearing a pilot's uniform that Trevor guessed to be the one who had been given the callsign Nazgul 13. The other was a man in his mid-30s wearing a captain's uniform. Trevor didn't need to guess that this was the captain of the ship, but as for names he was lost. Jaden said something inaudible to the captain and motioned for Trevor to come up onto the stage.

"This is my XO, Trevor Evenson. Trevor, this is Captain Baand." Jaden said as the captain stuck out a hand. Trevor shook it, noticing that the captain did not have the rough, hard hands of a working man, leading him to want to believe that the captain was of the kind who could buy his rank or use leverage from a father or relative to leap into position. The only thing that kept him from thinking this was that he had heard of Captain Baand before and knew that everyone in the VE earned their place.

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Evenson, I've heard good things about you." The captain said, giving Trevor a firm shake and then releasing his hand.

"I've probably heard just as much good about you Captain. Are you the man that single handedly took on a pair of gunships twice your size and won?" Trevor asked, half out of awe at meeting someone with such talent, half to make sure he was thinking of the right man.

"Yes, that would be me. I hear you're one of the VEN's more up and coming pilots. I've also heard that a squadron command position is not to far off for you." The captain replied, a grin on his face that made Trevor feel slightly nervous, feeling that the captain may know more then he was letting on.

"Well, I dunno about that. Anyways, shall we get on with the debriefing? I was looking forward to a nice long rest." Trevor explained with a shrug.

"Right away, go find yourself a seat."

***

Trevor sat down near the front of the auditorium and watched quietly as Jaden stepped in front of the podium. Like the rest of the pilots he still wore his flight suit, as they had not been supplied with a change of clothes aboard the Darkness. He took a look around the room and eyed each pilot before issuing his first words.

"Well done." Was all he said for a moment, letting the words come to him. "We've managed to fend off a horde of pirates with minimal losses to ourselves. Not only that, but we safely completed our mission. We delivered the transports to their rendezvous point and got the safely aboard the corvettes.

"Not only this, but we managed to capture one of the pirates and bring him aboard. He will be interrogated soon; hopefully he will reveal a lead as to who hired them and why. Now, along with this information, I have a few announcements. First off I'd like to welcome Delia Cael to the squadron. She's been transferred here from the academy and will hopefully be sticking with Nazgul for a while." Jaden explained, motioning to Delia. She nodded and that was all.

"While I'm at it, I regret to inform you that the twins, Ninad and Daniel Granite will be being transferred out of the squadron." He said, gesturing in the direction of the twins. They sat looking indifferent, as if being squadron hopped was a normal thing for them. Indeed, it was, but they never bothered to worry about it. With that, Jaden gave one last look around the room and turned to the captain. "I believe you wanted to say something?"

"Yes, I did. Thank you commander." Captain Baand said as Jaden stepped out of the way and he stepped up to the podium. His eyes fell towards Trevor and lingered for a moment, but after that he looked towards the back of the room as if he was addressing a huge amount of people and didn't want to watch one in particular.

"I received today a message from Naval Command that I was supposed to relay as soon as possible. It concerns your commander Jaden, as well as the XO, Trevor." The captain said with a pause, taking time to look over at Jaden. Jaden seemed as clueless as the rest of the squadron as to what was going on, and it seemed that he had no idea about what was about to happen either.

"Jaden has been removed as Squadron commander. It has been decided that he will be able to serve the navy better by playing a role with the newly re-thought-out academy. In his place, Trevor Evenson has been selected to fill his position. Although he may be inexperienced, command believes he has what it takes to assume full control of this squadron. He can select his XO when he is ready." Baand told them. Trevor looked from the captain to Jaden and back again. Jaden merely shrugged, as if he felt something like this was going to happen soon. "That is all, you are dismissed."

With that the other squadron members stood up and began filing out. Darius walked passed and slapped Trevor on the back as congratulations, and the rest of the squadron was indifferent to what had just happened. They were all too new or didn't realize what all had just happened. I need to talk to Jaden, but first I'll talk to the captain. I'm sure he can tell me a few things about what is going on. Trevor thought to himself as he stood up from his chair and made his way towards where the captain was standing. He took the three steps in one leap and saluted the captain.

"I was wondering if I could ask you a quick question." Trevor asked Baand after his salute was returned.

"Go ahead. Jaden may be able to help out more with questions about squadron command." Baand replied, adjusting his cap before returning his hands to his pockets.

"Well, I was wondering just what exactly it was that we were transporting that pirates would want so bad. Not only that, but what was important enough to have pilots die for?" Trevor asked, sounding more frustrated than angry. Normally they'd be told what they were escorting, but this time was different and everything was overly secret.

"I'm afraid I'm not allowed to reveal that to you. What I can tell you though is that soon enough you'll be helping to test them." The captain answered, before nodding towards Jaden. "I suggest you go get things sorted out, I need to get back to the bridge."

"Yes sir." Trevor replied and turned towards Jaden, his question only partially answered. He assumed that if they needed a squadron to help test whatever these new weapons were, they would be some sort of new star fighter. With a final salute he turned on his heel and made his way over to Jaden.

"Congrats." Jaden said as Trevor approached, sticking out his hand. "You've earned it, and I hope you do a really good job." Jaden continued as Trevor shook his hand.

"I've learned from the best, so I only can hope I'll do half as good." Trevor told Jaden as he released his grip. Jaden nodded thanks. Just as Jaden was about to speak a communications officer burst into the room, breathing hard as if he had just ran half the way there. He jogged up to Jaden and Trevor. Between breaths he managed to get his message out to the two of them.

"We received a message before we jumped into hyperspace and I was ordered to come up here and deliver the message to you two. I'm also supposed to find a Darius but I dunno where he is." The officer gasped, doing his best to catch his breath quickly.

"We'll relay the message to him. C'mon, spit it out." Jaden ordered, waving his hand in front of him as if waving for a toddler to hand over a toy.

"Well, I was given the message that Jen Knight was soon to be released from hospital and that it was urgent, that's why I ran." The officer explained, finally having caught his breath.

"What?!" Trevor asked before Jaden could, surprised at what he had heard. "What did you say?"

"I said that I was told it was urgent and th-" He started but was cut off by Jaden.

"No, no, before that!" Jaden said excitedly, hardly believing what he had heard.

"Oh, that Jen Knight is almost ready to be released from hospital. She gave a list of names of people she'd like to see as she got out, and you two were on the list, as well as Darius. We've also managed to get a hold of Arturus and Tokijin and Shazam. Jack Nebulax was un-reachable." The officer explained, in detail this time. Trevor and Jaden both had looks of shock and happiness on their faces, and could hardly believe what they were hearing.

"So Jen is going to be back&" Trevor said to himself more than anyone, but Jaden overheard.

"Apparently. Let's celebrate this with a couple of drinks, eh? My last little gift to the squadron before I'm shipped off to work with greens all day." Jaden suggested, slapping Trevor on the back. It was the third or fourth time it had happened to him today and his shoulder was beginning to get a little sore.

"Yeah, sounds good to me. Maybe we can page Darius as we go and have him meet us at the cantina. Hell, let's get the whole squadron for it, they could use to get to know each other a little better." Trevor said with a grin, and Jaden nodded. The two brushed past the confused communications officer and made their way towards the cantina, both sending out messages to the squadron members to meet them at the cantina.

********** MISSION SUCCESS **********

OOC: All right, I've wrapped up the story. You can continue to post here with them being at the cantina and all of that good stuff, but realize that none of it will count towards the competition scores. Take some time and get some Character Development in. Everyone will be in the cantina, so start making friends and stuff. Good work everyone.

 
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SC/WO2/Trevor Evenson/Nazgul 1(1-1)/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=*A*=)(=*SA*=)[VC:B][LSM][BRC][SWC][GWC]

The VEN`s #1 writer as of ESC `06

***
    It had been minutes after Raigen had left before the nurse would notice his disappearance. Raigen was still appalled by the attack. Attacking the fighters was one thing, but doing that much damage, that much injury to the sentinels and their crews, was unheard of. Raigen had been around pirates long enough to know that you don't put more than a few warning shots into the shields of transports. Especially ones that were caught up in an asteroid field. He scratched the side of his head before turning toward the briefing room.

The events of the battle were still going through his mind. Zhars had died because he tried to save Raigen's life. It wasn't the first time someone had died because of him. Gemini's face flashed before his eyes. He looked down at his left hand, broken, dismembered, a permanent reminder of his mistake. I deserve worse! he thought before entering the briefing room.
***
    Raigen's flight suit was covered in blood when he entered the briefing room. The entire room went silent as they saw Raigen. "The...um...med bay is....yeah." Raigen took a seat and wiped the blood from his cheek. He had left the relaxers in the med bay. I guess I don't need them... he lied to himself before wiping some of the blood from his hands onto the legs of his flight suit and grabbing his data pad of mission information. There was still a bit of blood and it smeared on the data pad as he grabbed it.

    Captain Baand gave him a confused look before continuing with the debriefing. "Jaden has been removed as Squadron commander. It has been decided that he will be able to serve the Navy better by playing a role with the newly re-thought-out academy. In his place, Trevor Evenson has been selected to fill his position. Although he may be inexperienced, command believes he has what it takes to assume full control of this squadron. He can select his XO when he is ready." Raigen rolled his eyes. Not that he didn't respect Trevor, he did. He had just been through too many command changes. He also noticed that all but one of his previous commanders were sitting in the room with him now. It didn't matter. He would be leaving soon anyway.

    "That is all, you are dismissed." Raigen sighed. He had all but missed the debriefing entirely. Raigen sighed again before filing out of the auditorium with the rest of the squadron. He would have followed them to the cantina on any other day, but he had to get his discharge request filled.
***
    Raigen headed away from the crew quarters/hanger area and toward the front of the ship. It took a few minutes to reach the head of the corvette. Raigen walked into a small room where two warrant officers were working. "I need the HON-DC-MED request papers."

    "Aye, I'm still finishing up this report. Some Thrawnist jacked the Corvette he was assigned to and called into us for assistance. We got the signal but gave the mission to a few Carrack Cruisers in the vicinity. We still have to report it though," the warrant officer said as he rustled through a stack of papers. He pulled out a sheet and handed it to the other WO, "Here's the request request form. Get that validated and then you can give it to him....Sorry, some of our crewman have been requesting discharge if their coworkers and so now we have to limit who we give these out to. Sign your Galactic Identification Code here and then your VE Military ID here."

    Raigen signed his two id codes: 9BCET1T1-0872 and VTI-752. The first changed constantly and the first part was forged. He was actually born in 8 Before Common Era(Before Battle of Yavin). The rest designated his System Planet and number of birth in that year. Raigen gave the warrant officer the numbers and waited for his request forms. After a few minutes, the second officer came back with a datastick for Raigen. "Fill this out and give it to the information officer on whatever ship you are on at the time. He'll run it through and verify it.

Raigen nodded and took the chip, turning to return to the barracks supplied to Nazgul Squadron while they were on board the Darkness.
***

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[-=Phoenix Wing=-]
[-=Nazgul Squadron=-]
FM/PO2 Raigen DarkBlayde Tei-Yehn/Nazgul Squadron 2-8/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF DEF/VEN/VE(=*A*=)[VC:B][BWC]

Tally.
 
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SCAP, WADJ/1LT Corran "Arturus" Hargraves/STCR Doashim/VE/VEN/(=A=)(=SA=)(=*MA*=)(=JCPA=)(=SCPA=)[MC:1](x2)[SV][BRC][VC:B][CBV][LSM][LoC][BWC][SWC][GWC]