-Onboard the Forerunner-

“What the hell happened to you out there?” a voice called out to him from below. He looked down to see a pilot standing below on the decking of the bustling docking bays deck. He only guessed that it was his Wingmate, Phineus Gage.

Anden grinned and tucked his helmet under his right arm and put his left hand on the ladder with his feet on the outside of it slid down the length of the ladder, applying pressure so that he slowed just before he hit the floor, then stood to face his wingmate.

“Sorry about that Gage, nearly got vaped by some hunters and had to do....” then he remembered the feeling and perfect precision he had experienced out there and realized he still couldn’t quite explain it. Really explain it.

“…some quick maneuvers. My comm, along with a few of my other systems and didn’t come back online until just before getting back to the Forerunner.” He finished as R7 rolled up and gave a few beeps and blurps.

Anden nodded and asked, “What about Viper 12, were they able to get him?”

To which R7 gave a quick affirmative. Anden nodded to the droid and nodded his head to his Tie Fighter. “You wanna make sure that the techs and mechs don’t mess up the new mods we added to the scanners?”

A quick succession of bleeps came by and R7 had already connected to the computer that read into Anden’s Tie Fighter. Anden began walking around with Sicario helping where they could with various tasks and trying not to get in the way of everything.

“That could have gone a lot better….or a lot worse.” Anden said to himself. He didn’t know Sicario had heard him but he saw him nod in solemn agreement.

Anden took off his flight gloves and tucked them inside one of his suit pockets, and thought of all the people they had lost. He didn’t have any medic skills, but he would be able to help out if the mechanics and techs had a need for an extra pair of hand. He looked down at R7 who was already plugged into the computer systems and busy running diagnostics of Anden’s TIE.

“Come on, let’s go see if anyone can use some help.” He said to Sicario and began to walk off, with Phineus close behind him, “By the way, I’m Anden.” He said with a smile and reaching back to shake his hand.

“Right,” Gage said giving his hand a solid shake, “First names’ Phineus.” He replied back to him. Anden nodded and they began to make their way through to where the mechanics were making repairs to the ship. They would only be able to make the repairs ship that were fixable while the ship was engaged in hyperspace. Anden was actually quite surprised to see that the escort carrier still had the capability. Unfortunately, the mechanics turned away the offer for help, but did take the link up signal to his datapad just in case they really did need the extra hands.

“Well, I guess that is our queue to get back to quarters.” Phineus said turning to head out of the hangar, “That is unless you had any other skills you were thinking of offering up for service?”

Anden shook his head and followed after his new wingmate, “Just walking.”

-Arriving back on the Atrus-

The Viper squadron’s three flights flew in tight formation away from the still highly damaged Forerunner. Anden glanced through his main viewport at the Atrus, with brief glimpses of the escort carrier behind him. He was glad to be moving on from the last mission. Albeit there were a lot of things that just couldn’t have been predicted, it was still a little bit of a let down and you could feel a decrease in the moral of the squadron members.

Anden heard Tomas contact the Atrus and soon they had they had there confirmation to dock, “Welcome back Vipers.” The communications officer said after the confirmation was given.

Once their TIE’s were all docked and they were all on deck in the Hangar, Tomas called the Vipers in together. “All right, we have a few days before we have our next Mission. It is going to be an important one- so I want everyone to take it easy.” He said.

Anden didn’t know if it was just from him being tired, but Tomas sounded tired and even a little down. It was understandable with the loss of the lives on the Forerunner and damage the carrier had taken. Not to mention the mission turning out to be a complete failure and having to recover a few of the pilot in the squadron.

“…Dismissed.” Tomas said, with a wave of his hand. Anden turned away with the rest of the Squadron, and felt a clap on his back. “Well, we can’t win ‘em all.” Phineus said to him. Anden just nodded his head and gave a small ‘hmm’

Anden knew that was the truth, and he looked forward to proving his piloting skills as one of the newer members of the squadron on the next mission, “Yeah, you’re right.” Anden said back to his wingmate, not wanting to just leave his retort at a grunt, “We’ll get them next time.”

“Now that is what I like to hear.” Gage said enthusiastically, giving Anden a solid punch to the shoulder. The punch had been soft but there was still a pain in his body, but that was just his stomach. He had hardly had the time to eat since the he had actually been on active duty with the Squadron, and ration packs only went so far.

“What do you say to getting something to eat?” Anden said, thinking of Tomas’s suggestion to take it easy.

“Love it.” Anden said with just as much sarcasm in his voice, then taking a huge bit of meat.

It had seemed an eternity that he had had real food, and he figured this would become a regular feeling that he should get used to. The two of them talked a little as they eagerly ate their meals, and Anden learned that there great deal, and Anden learned that his and Phin’s past were as different as Coruscant and Kashyykk. Anden had always had his parents in his life. They had taught him and raised him to be much of the person he was.

Phineus had a much different story. Phin didn’t get into the deep specifics of his background, but he did tell of loosing his mother and others who were close to him. An Aunt and Uncle of sorts. Anden cold easily see that although they were both strong in their natures, that strength had come from walking along two different paths.

“And my Father…” Phineus began to say, “…I don’t want to talk about him.” He said softly, almost as if to himself. It didn’t take a genius to figure that now wasn’t the time to push for more details that what had been given. Anden nodded once, respectfully, in response to the near last words spoken leaving them to finish what little was left of their food.

While finishing up he decided that now wasn’t the best of times to share his own past. It was filled with strong, good memories of his loving Father and Mother, as well as other close friends. He wanted to make sure that Phineus knew that he did care about where he had come from and the experiences he had gone through in his life.

“You’ve been though a lot ma…” he started to get out but not before being interrupted.

“So what do we have here?” said a guy walking over to them with three others in his wake. The four of each of them where individually much bigger than both Phineus and himself and didn’t look like they were there to make friends. I was more like there were looking at a new set of punching bags.

“A couple of Vipers…” the apparent spokes person for the quartet said, “Ya know, all your little foul ups at Mjolnir cost us even getting a chance at our mission.” He remarked coolly as he pulled up a chair at their table. Anden took the last bite on his dinner looking rather unbothered by the menacing atmosphere. It was then he saw the insignia’s on the man uniform. VE marine special forces.

“Oh, this is rich…” Anden thought to himself.

Sicario on the other hand was evenly sizing the four guys up. Anden for one hoped that his new found friend did try jeering or goading the ‘thugs’ into any kind of fight. He didn’t mind defending himself, but he avoiding having to fight when it wasn’t necessary. He glanced momentarily at Phineus and then, taking a drink, looked back at the man sitting at their table.

“And this is a… problem?” Anden asked folding his arms non-threateningly across his chest. He looked the guy straight in the eyes even as they narrowed.

“Yes! This IS a problem!!” The man said as he practically jumped out of his chair, causing it to be hurtled back and crack around the tree trunks that were the legs of his companions. Anden leaned to the side to raise an eyebrow at the condition of what used to be a chair, then looked back at the man.

“I am sorry you have a problem.” Anden said quite calmly despite the circumstances. He didn’t know if it was just because he was tired, or if he knew that there was really nothing that they could have done extra to ensure the mission had not been a failure.

“You can either accept my apology and move on to the next assignment, or you can continue to glower and mope on and on about happened. Your choice.” Anden said smoothly.

The man smiled, “…There is another choice.”

The three men chuckled behind him in a very stereotypical side-kick or henchmen like manner. If he had wanted to throw the man a bone to begin what was almost inevitably going to be happen any, Anden would have rolled his eyes at the site and sound of the four men who were now chuckling at their spokesman’s snide remark.

As the four men chuckled Anden shot a glance at Phineus as he took the final sip of his drink. He didn’t know what his wingmate had concocting in his mind. But he hoped that it wasn’t what he THOUGHT it was. He had smelt this concoction before and usually when it was mixed with the ingredients they had been handed it usually didn’t go over too well for the cooks.

”Alright Phineus, let's hope you do know what you're doing.” He thought to himself.

Both Anden and Phineus caught each others glances, and Phineus gave him a slight wink. Anden's face grew confused for a moment, and he could tell just barely that Phineus had fiddled with something underneath the table. As the other three marines began to step up to the table, he saw Phin place his hidden data-pad on the seat and motioned with his head to him.

As Phineus jumped up from the table Anden thought to himself, “Not exactly what I had in mind…”and as he brought his arms up in a somewhat defensive stance a sound that could only be described as somthing on wheels and moving fast followed up with some chirps and beeps, electronical noises.

Anden threw Phin a well-what-now look as the goons set themselves up to give the two pilots a solid beating. He saw Phineus take the first step and drew his right arm back...

“Emperors bones,…he can’t be serious.” was the thought that popped into Andens mind. He actually was PLANNING on taking these guys on.

He saw Phineus’s T3 droid positioned behind the four men, and watched as the dwarfed droid began to shock them, and occasionally let out the smallest of flames from his Flamethrower mechanism on his right side. Small enough to not set a large fire, but big enough to slighty burn the mens backsides. The leader was now distracted and some what off balance, Phineus followed through on his punch, connecting with the surprised marine. Anden would have been very surprised if the guy had fallen, but as expected he didn’t and recovered quickly.

There were now two choices. Fight along side his wing mate and possibly make it out of this without too many injuries, or at least last until some higher ranking officials came in to break up the fight. The second choice was to try and negotiate things out civically…

It was an easy decision.

After all he had given them the option to walk away. And they had declined. In his mind- they had asked and asked for what they were about to get. Anden aimed a kick at the gut of the Marine closest to him and the marine double over in pain, as did Anden. He didn’t know what they fed them in the Marines or the work out program they implemented, but aside from the pain that had shot up his leg after kicking the guy, all he wanted to know was how they were both going to make it out of this one in one piece.

Out of corner of his somewhat bluried vision he saw Phineus get taken down hard by the lead Marine and one of his pals. The noises from T3 could be heard almost as laughter. Phineus however began to feel the opposite, as two of the marines threw him to the ground. Anden shirked a bit from thinking of the pain Phin, thinking, “oooo…” which turned quickly to “Gaaahh!!!” as he was first nearly rocketed off his feet from a solid punch to his face and lifted off the floor by the guy he had attempted to take out with his semi-effective kick. He was sure he was about to be thrown like a raggedy doll across the room when he heard…

"Enough!!!" that a strong authoritative voice yell out. As if in perfect unison the three Marines attacking Anden and Phineus stood at attention, which resulted in Anden being dropped to the floor from the Marines head level. Pain coursed through his body and through the stars he saw in his vision he saw the Marine officers who had just entered what remained of the eating establishment .

Just when he thought they had been saved and was just above the point of blacking out he heard another familiar voice yell out, "You too Vipers!" Tomas, their squadron leader yelled out, causing Phin and him to jump up, albeit somewhat more awkwardly and painfully than the Marines had.

The Marines looked like they would have liked nothing more than to have continued on with the ‘pleasantries’ as their Commander marched them off. With the Marines now gone Tomas glowered at the two battered pilots, "In my office... now." then turned his back to them.

Obviously, and unfortunately for them, it seemed they were not done with being punished for the day. Anden winced as he held his rib cage and was sure that there was a good chance he now had a broken rib or two. Phineus reached down quickly, taking in a sharp breath as he leaned over and then called off T3, who wasted little time in scurrying back to Phineus' room, whistling the whole time.

For some reason his collaborator in the brawl looked relieved and clapped Anden on the back, sending renewed jolts of pain through the mid-sections of his body.

"That could've been worse." Phineus said, checking his datapad.

Anden looked at Phin, trying to get a read on his new wingman. Thinking back to what he had thought earlier that maybe all the events that had happened to Phineus in his life Anden was sure they had not only given him strength in character. They had made the guy a little crazy.

"Those guys were huge..." Anden replied back to Phin, followed up with another what-the-frak-were-you-thinking look. They spoke in softer tones now as they were following Tomas back to his office.

Phin only smiled even though Anden could tell he was still in pain, “Heh,…yeah they were. What a story that’ll be to tell.”

Anden stared at Phin for a moment, trying to pinpoint the guys thought processes. “Phin…you are one odd quack. You do know that right.”

Phineus only replied with a soft chortle as they had now reached the office of what Anden was sure to be the birthing place of hours of menial tasks to be performed in recompense for getting into the brawl. Unless, that was, if Anden couldn’t talk his way out of it like he had originally planned. He had learned a valuable lesson from Phineus. To face confrontations with courage and with everything you had. Now it was Anden’s turn to see if he could teach something to Phineus.

The entered Tomas’s office to see that Tomas had already seated himself behind his desk, looking very stern and very ready to deal out consequences. Both of them stood firmly at attention and waited for their leading officer to speak.

“Now then,” Tomas began, “Either of you care to tell me what that was about?”

There was a moment when Anden was sure he could hear the wheels turning in Phin’s head, then he could hear what he needed to be said. Almost as if he had been given them from a script while watching a hologram.

“Loyalty, Honor,  and Courage, Sir!” Anden said firmly. From the corner of his eyes he could see Phineus close his own slightly as if wincing.

Tomas stood up from his chair and walked around to the front of his desk, “Do you mean to make a mockery of the Motto of the Navy Beliam?” he asked softly, yet still able to hold the fierceness which could only be found in an officer of the VE.

“Sir, No, Sir” Anden stated.

“Then what?!...” Tomas said, throwing his hands and arms into the air, “How as pilots were you upholding a specter of what the members of this Navy should be?!”

Tomas folded his arms and waited for either of them to attempt to answer his question.

“Sir, the marines had first approached us as Leading Crewman Gage and I were finishing our meal. They apparently were put out at not being able to even attempt their mission because of our failure to do ours.” Anden said, the words rolling off his tongue respectfully.

He further explained, “Being Loyal to our squadron and Honoring the deeds they did perform on the mission we told them that we had done all we could and that it was best to move on with all best intentions at doing their and our best for the next assignment we would be given. Sir”

Tomas took a few steps forward, “And so you are implying that you were showing Courage by causing the ruckus and destruction in one of the main galleys aboard this Ship?”

“Sir, Yes, Sir…I do.” Anden said sincerely. “They apparently did not agree with what was said about ‘moving on with all best intentions’. We,” nodding to Phineus beside him, “Defended ourselves. The best and courageously we could, Sir.”

Tomas looked over at Phineus who gave a nod in agreement to what Anden had said. Taking a few steps back and walking back around his desk to his chair he sat down and began to let out a sigh.

As he did so Anden added softly, “I thought we gave them a run for their money,…Sir.” He said allowing a partial, sarcastic smile to come to his face as it was very apparent that they had been incredibly out powered and out matched. Ironically, very similiar to how the mission had ended up.

At that Tomas gave out a short chuckle and then there was silence as Tomas took his time to add everything up and decide what to do with his two new trouble pilots. Finally he let them in on what he was thinking.

“Well gentleman….if that was indeed how this event played out, it seems your good intentions have shifted you more towards the middle of my good and bad list…For now.”

Anden knew they were not out of it yet and so he held his tongue and waited for the rest to come out. After all…just because he had showed a little empathy towards his plight didn’t mean they wouldn’t end up with a cleaning duty detail.

“….I am writing this one off as a warning.” He said pointing a finger assuredly at them. “Don’t prove me wrong in doing so. Is that understood?”

“Sir, yes sir!!” they both said heartily.

“Good….you are dismissed. Just because I am letting you off, doesn’t mean I am off in writing up MY reports of the incident. Now get out of here.” He said somewhat comically.

They stepped out of the office and Anden let out a deep breath he had been holding, after all….for all he knew he could have been given the script to the wrong hologram. He smiled though as he saw the triumphant look on Phin’s face and was rewarded once again with a solid clap on his back.

“Gizkas!!, I thought we were goners for sure in there…” He said in an unbelieving tone.

As they walked away from the office Anden laughed, “Words can have more power than a kick to the stomach….” He said, then grinned, “…when used correctly.”

Phineus laughed at that. “I am sure….maybe we should avoid at all costs doing that again in the near future.”

Wincing as he moved his fingers gingerly across his bruised rib cage, he nodded and added emphatically, “Please, let’s do.”

Phineus laughed even harder.

Phineus and Anden went their separate ways and Anden figured he would see Phin again at the meeting for their next mission. He made his way easily back to his own crew quarters where R7 was there waiting for him. The short droids head turning around as it spotted Anden and let out a welcoming beep.

“Hey R7…” he said as he took off his flight suit and put on his mechanic pants with only his under shirt on, “Did you get the files?” Anden asked somewhat excitedly.

R7 gave a string of affirmative sounds dwoos and beeps

“Good.” Anden said with a smile as he sat in his chair sliding up to his personal desk.

R7 rolled up to the desk as well and plugged into the computer and in less than a second the schematics and blue prints of a shuttle came up on the view screen. Anden flipped through the different files and was happy to see that there would be more than enough for him to get the work done He looked over at R7 and smiled. He had only owned the astromech droid for a short amount of time and yet there was already a certain bond between them. He had heard of pilots forming bonds with their droids before, and he had known a number of droids working at the ship repair yard he had worked in on Lotaith, but this was different.

He reached over for his datapad and tapped the touch screen to get to the services on board the Atrus. Soon enough a voice rang out of the speaker.

“Droid services” the voice said, “Are you looking to schedule an appointment.

“Yes…” he said looking back at R7, “…do you have any openings for oil baths?” he asked.

R7’s head spun so that it’s triangular optical was staring at Anden as it gave two soft yet excited beeps.

“We can schedule one at any time for your droid, Sir. When would you like to set it for?” the person asked politely waiting to schedule the appointment.

“Will twenty minutes work?” Anden asked, trying not to smile as R7 already extracted his third leg and started rolling for the door as the voice confirmed the appointment.

“Thank you, I am sending my account signature now for the cost of the service. Also, if there is anything else he requests, please attend to what he needs.” Anden said as he sent his authorization to pay.

“Yes sir, we will.” The voice said sincerely giving the assurance.

As Anden turned back to get to work on schematics to begin making his plans he could hear R7’s tootling fading happily down the corridor. He looked at the Shuttle displayed on the screen. It was a MU-2 class scout shuttle. Anden had always liked the Lambda class shuttles which this one was derived from. He had a few changes that he wanted to make to this model and so he eagerly got to work. However, he only got to work on this new project for about an hour then he got an announcement on his datapad directed at Gage and him.

"Senior Crewman Anden Beliam, Leading Crewman Phineus Gage, please report to the flying simulators for simulation five-zero-six."

He finished up a few more touches and then saved and locked his work up, then got dressed in his flight suit. Anden met up with Phin at the simulators and he could help but smile inwardly at how outwardly excited Phineus looked. Although Anden had been wanting to get more time to work on his “project” he was always ready to put in time flying. Whether that was in the sims or in actual flight time. He acknowledged Phineus with a simple head nod before strapping in. As the simulators began to boot, their mission was read by C-3PX2.

"Alright Viper Three & Four, welcome to the simulators. Today your job is to fly into a highly hostile area, destroy the shield generators on the Republic ship. Get in, destroy and get out. You know the drill gentlemen and good luck."

Phineus gave a look to Anden, one more serious than his normal sarcastic expression.

"Hang tight and stay in contact." Phineus said to him as he put on his communication headset.

Anden let out a smile, "Yes, sir." He replied giving a small salute, then looked at his instruments as they came to life.

Phineus chuckled slightly, and said just as the simulation cockpit began to close, "I'm not the senior crewman here."

Anden rolled his eyes as the cockpit close and locked in place, even the hiss of the hatch making a similar sound as the top hatch on a TIE.

The simulator opened up, turning a blank screen into a vivid view of a star-filled sky from the opening of the hangar aboard the Atrus. The pair of pilots where flying standard VE TIE fighters, and were in the process of taking off still be attached to the docking arms holding the TIE’s firmly in place by the pylons.

The fighter were released from the docking arms and Anden got that all-too-familiar feeling of free falling for a spilt second just before he fired the repulsors and throttled up to fall into place on Phineus’s starboard side and slightly aft of him. They flew in formation for a good forty-five seconds before entering the combat zone were there was a full flight of X-wings and a NebulonB Class Frigate. The four X-Wings were already cruising at attack speed towards them with their S-foils open and waiting to engage them. One of the elements broke off to their port side and began to arc around to come at them from their side.

Anden checked their speed and calculated the point at which they would meet the X-wings that were coming in at them head on. If they decreased their speed by 5 mglt’s they would meet the X-wings coming at them head on and they would be able to use them as shields from the X-wings coming at them from their port side.

"This is where the fun begins." Anden heard Phin say over the comm and he smiled as well.

He glanced once more at his in flight map to see the X-wings register as Blue 1-4, “Viper 4 to Viper 3, Phin decrease your speed by 5 and get your target on Blue 2. On this pass let’s roll off to their port side and see if we can use them as blockers. Do you copy Phin?”

“Copy that Senior Crewman.” Phin came back to him, causing Anden to smile as he redirected a greater portion of his shields to their forward position.

He focused on the different areas of his Fighter in secession, first out his view port then targeting screen and his instruments. He made sure to also keep tabs on the flightmap to make sure he picked up any new incoming ships. The last thing he wanted was to be caught blind to any extra activity. There would come a time when he would need to focus more on the ship front of him and his targeting screen, and that time was fast approaching.

At just before reaching optimal firing range Anden let loose a volley of maximum power shots direct in line with Blue-2. At the same time burst shot out from Phineus’s Tie and Anden could see red blasts coming from both the oncoming x-wings. They had apparently chosen to target both of them and Anden hoped that would work out to their benefit. Anden received a few blast but his shields held at forty-five percent.

No problem Anden thought calmly. Without looking he redirected some of the power from his lasers to his shield boosting them up ten percent. The enemy had apparently chosen to target both of them individually and Anden hoped that would work out to their benefit.

It did.

Number two’s shields blipped out as a majority of their blasts struck out over and over again on the single starfighter. Phin let out a last second blast of four shots just before they broke off and rolled to their attacker’s port side. Anden caught brief sight of the joints on the fighter s-foils break off and heard a triumphant exclamation from Phin.

“Great shot kid!” Anden yelled back to him.

Just before they had rolled off to the side of the x-wings Anden had seen shots beginning to come from the element attacking from the side. Just as he had planned they had stopped as the oncoming X-wings passed between them. Anden cycled through his targeting system to bring up blue-4 but and was surprised to see it’s shields blink and then disappear. He turned to look out his smaller rear view port to see that blue four’s flight path had taken ring into the blasted s-foils that had apparently not agreed with it shields system.

Now we are on a more level playing field.

“Let’s bring it around and have another go at them….we still got to take care of the Frigate shields and I’d rather not have any x-wings on my six while make our run at it. You with me?” Phin said over the comm.

Anden smiled, “High and tight.” Anden said as he had ended up being a little higher and behind Phin after coming out of their roll, “And they are coming around.” Anden said as he targeting screen indicated the three remaining X-wings joining together and bring their formation about.

“I got them.” Phin replied back in confirmation.

The three X-Wings trailed behind the TIE Fighters and began opening fire. In unison Anden and Phineus pulled into some barrel rolls and to avoid the fire power dealt out by the x-wings. When compared to the fire power of the x-wings, the headhunters Anden had faced in the Mjolnir Operation were kids play. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Phin’s ship take a hit.

"You alright?" Anden asked quickly, checking his own read out screen cycling directly to Phin’s ship with a saved switch to see the condition of Phin’s shields and hull

Phineus speedily replied, "All systems check. Minor damage."

Anden breathed out as he heard Phineus confirm that he and his fighter were all right. The last thing he wanted was for Phineus not to finish the mission with him.

“All right Anden, I am going to pull a double immelman and get those fraking X-wings.” Phin said after a few seconds. His voice was hurried but completely full of focus on the mission.

He nodded as he double clicked over the comm to Phin and continued taking evasive maneuvers then watched as Phineus decrease his speed and increase his altitude, flipping behind the X-Wings..

The pilots in the X-wing seemed content to let Phin out of their sight and even happier at the notion of blowing Anden into an oblivion. He spun his fighter on it’s axis and spiraled his ship around still keeping his course to help keep the X-wings in line and set them up for Phin.

He could see from his very brief glimpses at his flight map that Phin was now behind the enemy. But he wasn’t firing.

“What in the world is he playing at?” Anden thought to himself.

The X-wings were relentless and he didn’t know how much longer he could keep on with the maneuvers leading the engagers on with out having his flight being cancelled.

"C'mon Phineus, take some heat off me!" He said, trying to give every advantage to Phin on the X-Wings. Then he heard Phin yell over the comm.

"Anden, make your move now!"

Trusting his instinct, he did one of the craziest things he had ever done. Throwing his thrusters in full reverse and puling back sharp, he waited a second before slamming his engines to full throttle loving the feel of the force of the G’s on his body. He smiled but shook his head to clear his vision and make sure he remained conscience, and charging full ahead.

Phin’s “shoving” of blue one brought it into close proximity of blue four whose shields were barely beginning to come back to life. It was a moment like Anden had never experienced before. He had his plan and only hoped that it worked as well as his first one had.

He prepared to fire a missile at blue one and yelled into his comm, “Phin, Break away NOW!” as he punched the fire controls and watched as the missile shot out from his ship with a red tail on course directly at blue one. Anden broke hard and barrel rolled away to get avoid the shock waves that would come from the blast, if his missile hit his target.

It did.

Anden smiled as he watched through one of his rear view ports as blue one was obliterated, the pieces of the broken fighter slamming into blue four right after he saw the pilot eject.

“Whew…” Anden breathed out and then called out for Phin, “Phin, are you good?” he asked watching as the remaining X-wing tried to compensate for loosing his two wing men and started pulling into a hard break to try and engage Anden.

“If I am an odd quack,…then you are fraking nuts.” Phin commented back to him, causing Anden to chuckle to himself, but not disagreeing with his wingman. At least it had worked, “Let’s take this loner out and finish this mission.”

“I got him coming around on my tail…” Anden said then checked to see where phin was to help sandwich the pilot between them, “Turning to point 325…that is assuming you will fire this time.”

There was a brief pause, “Ah…yes there we might have a problem”

“All right then, what’s the plan?” He asked, very ready for Phin to let him know what the problem was.

OOC:

Sorry for making you wait so long and then it being so short. Been pretty busy.

The silence coming from Phin was not comforting. He was checking his systems trying to devise a course of action for the two of them to take out the last of the defending X-wings while he easily evaded a few burst shots from the enemy. He also watched as the Frigate drew closer and closer to them constantly changing it’s course to try and get a solid shot on the smaller tie fighters with it’s turbo lasers.


”Come on, Come on…” Anden thought to himself hurriedly.


He was just on to something and was just about to work out a pattern for Phin to take to help move the x-wing solidly into his sights. If they could take out this guy out then he knew they would be able to take out the Frigates shields. He was just about to open the com to tell Phin which point to turn to and that was when Phin’s resigned voice came over the com unit.


"Anden, I'm useless. My lasers are down, and my wing's really slowing me down. You'll have to take the ship out, I'll take this last X-Wing out." Phineus stated.


"And how do you plan on doing that?" Anden asked, somewhat disbelieving that his wingmate could actually accomplish it and still stay in the mission. Unless, he planned on….


No…Anden thought. He had been so engrossed that he had truly begun to believe and treat this almost as if it were a real mission.


He noted that Phineus began to slowly break away and start to come about to put himself in a position to do What Anden had feared he was going to do. No….no there has to be another way- just give me a little more time.


"Break left and head for the ship," Phineus commanded, Anden began to hesitate and apparently Phin knew it., "Do it now!"


Anden gritted his teeth and did as Phin had told him. Phineus began to fly full speed back near the X-Wing. He wasn't stopping. In mere seconds Phineus flew into the unsuspecting X-Wing, causing an explosion that rippled throughout space.


Leading Crewman Gage has been removed from the mission simulation


Anden saw the indication flash twice across his computer screen even as he yelled a word that he wouldn’t have normally said. He took a deep breath and gunned his fighter away from the debris of pieces made up of Phin’s Tie fighter and the last X-wing.


The Frigate was on now coming about and began to shoot string after string of Turbo laser fire at Anden’s speeding oncoming fighter. The scream of his twin ion engines, although dimmed by the insulation of his sphere cockpit, roared through out all of Anden’s body. He pulled back on his flight controls and spun in a tight barrel roll beginning to open fire on the Frigates shields as soon as he hit point five clicks away. He rained fire out across the whole length of the ship and then he was done with his first, very ineffective pass.


“Not much more than I expected.” He said to himself, as he checked the condition of the Frigates shields.


He brought his ship around to make another pass and try to continue and chisel away the much larger ships shield. He wished that Phineus was still with him. He knew that Gage had done what he thought to be the best course of action. And it also told him that Phineus had put his trust in him to complete the sims mission primary objective.


With only one missile left he knew he would have to come up with a plan… and fast. That is if he hoped to have a decent score on this mission. He was sure he could hold out long enough against the slower ships turbo’s, but then there was the time thing again.


He opened fire uselessly at the Frigate and watched as his shots were swallowed up by the ships shields. Then he felt a slight and short tremor and he passed through the ships slightly larger energy field and shields. It went calm as he passed exactly where the shield generator was. The tremor came back and disappeared as he passed back through the energy and that gave Anden an idea. He broke off his pass and set his throttle to full as he barrel rolled and spun on his axis to avoid he blasts from the enemy starship.


This was one of the moments he knew R7 would come in handy. He gained access to his remaining missiles software and disengaged its propulsion systems and attempted to link it to his com unit clicked signals. He struggled to keep the Frigate from blasting him from the sky and also trying to do a quick bit of very amateur hacking work. He only could hope that his limited skill in a ships interface with separate workings would be enough to make his plan work.


After he was sure that he had done all he had done all he could he directed his ship and sped directly at the thin middle section of the Frigate spinning ands avoiding fire but all the while keeping his sights on the shield generator. Clenching his jaw in concentration, he knew he would have to time this perfectly. He held the flight controls in a loose firm grip and readied himself to release the missile. The slight rumble came and he waited for less than half a second right as it faded and then released his missile.


The inertia of his speed carried the missile on a direct collision course with the generator, even though Anden had already broken off his flight path and dumped all of his energy into his engines and gunned it back to the capitol ship where they had originally come from. The and missile, now firmly embedded in the soon to be obliterated shield generator. Anden sent the double click though his com-link and held his breath as he watched through tone of his small triangular view port.


Nothing happened.


“Frak…” he said, and that was when the missile blew the generator to smithereens.


Anden turned in his seat to look back out of his main view port, wearing a large smile. Oh man Phineus….I wish you could have been here with me.


He was glad that this was only a simulation. But Anden also realized that what happened in the simulation could very well happen for real. He vowed to himself then and there to do all he could to not let that happen again.


A message display across his computer screen, Primary Mission objectives complete- ending mission sequence.


Anden closed his eyes as the simulation pod cockpit opened, “Whew….” He breathed out softly as he took of his communications headset. The training droid was waiting for Anden at his station. But Anden saw a note on his sim pod’s cockpit which had closed again. He took the note and read: “Gone to get some caf. I know you pulled it off mate so come and celebrate with me when you are done.”


He looked at the training droid who was looking like he was a little irritated, a very difficult thing for a droid to do in Anden’s opinion. He folded the note and walked over to the droid to have the mission results uploaded to his datapad. The note, although full of good intentions, gave Anden a feeling that Phin may have viewed this simulation exercise of something that could be taken lightly. He hoped that wasn’t so. If it was it may prove to be even harder than he initially calculated to keep his vow he had made to himself.


“Well done Senior Crewman Beliam” The droid said as it handed him back his datapad and turned on the rotating disc to go back to his work. Anden nodded as he took his pad and then made his to join with Phin.


====================================================


“So, how did it go?” Phin asked as Anden pulled a chair up to the smaller table where Phin was sitting. The knowing smile on his wing mates face brought out his own smile.


Anden began to tell all from the time Phin had taken himself out of action. All about realizing he could get past the shields and his quick work to get the missile jimmy rigged to have a delayed signaled detonation and also how he has used his fighters speed to give the missile just enough power to embed itself in the generator.


“…..at first there was nothing and I was sure that I would be spending the next hour trying to the shields low enough to get at the generator. Then….Boom!” Anden said throwing his forearms apart in mock representation of the exploding source of the ships fields.


Phin listened intently and then laughed a little, “You know,…”

"Sorry Zane, I'll make sure it doesn't happen again." Anden said sincerely apologetic.


Zane eyed Anden and then finally nodded, and peered over at Phineus. Anden knew that Phin's face would be anything but penitent.


"Uh, yeah," Phin began, "never again."


Anden closed his eyes momentarily at the supreme sound of sarcasm in his wingmate’s voice. He looked back at Zane to see him staring down at Phin’s astromech.


Zane gazed at T3, "You know, shouldn't he have a memory wipe?" T3 squealed and wheeled behind Phin, "Those T3 models can get pretty nasty. I even heard stories of them creating gangs!"


Anden watched Phineus rubbed T3's cheese head and reassure it, "I'm sure he won't be doing that."


"Well I best be on my way fellas, we'll be going planet side soon." Zane said to them after giving Phin a short, sharp look. Anden and Phin exchanged curious looks


"Yeah just a quick thing," Believe they said a half day drop, re-supply and whatnot. Well, see you guys down there."


---------------------------------------------------------------------------


Anden walked a little ways in front of Phin and T3, with R7 rolling along beside him. He looked down at his trustful little droid. He had never seen him act so rashly, not that he had owned him for long. He had only had him since he had been assigned to the squadron.


“So what was all that about back there?” Anden asked.


R7 swiveled his head towards Anden and let out an apologetic ‘dwoo’ followed by a worried questioning sound. He smiled and let gave the droid a pat on the head.


“No, no I am not going to give you a memory wipe.” Anden said still smiling, “Do you think I want to have to put all of those Hyperdrive routes on your memory bank?” he finished giving the droid a wink.


There was much more to it than just the routes that the droid was capable of holding, R7 seven had very much come to take on many of the attributes that Anden had come to adore in the little droid. He was quick to act, as that was obviously apparent from the bruise he had given Zane, but those actions he had come to notice were done after the droid had processed through to best course of action.


Anden key in to their room and the door opened with a snap-hiss it slid open and R7 rolled in followed closely by Anden, Phin and T3. Anden went to his desk as usual and sat down to on some test systems for the improvements he had made on a ship. R7 beeped contentedly as he plugged into his Computer and ran a diagnosis on the running system.


“Its looking good so far.” He thought to himself. The system would run much faster and more efficiently on the ships more advanced computer, but it was good to run them as a test before he loaded them.

“So when do you think they will have us go down?” Phineus asked referring to Zane’s implication from earlier.


“I’ve got no idea.” glancing up from his work after giving a sigh and spinning in his chair to look at Phin, “Zane made it sound like we would be heading out any….”


An announcement ping rang out in the room, “…time now.” Anden said getting up from his chair and going to his equipment box as the ping was followed by the voice of their Squadron Commander.


“All Viper Squadron, report to launch bay 3 at 1400 hours.”


Anden checked the time and saw that they had two hours. He wasn’t sure all that he would need. He had already made a few stops by the ICS unit onboard. But it would hurt to make use of the time on a planet and get a little R & R.


He looked up and saw Phin shaking his head and grinning.


“What?” Anden asked shrugging his shoulders. His mind started going through some of the simulations he could get more time in. He felt he could have done a bit better in the two against one scenario.


“Please tell me you aren’t thinking about staying behind and working on that damned shuttle of yours…” Phin said as his smirk grew bigger, “…or getting more sim time in??”


Anden turned and was about to defend himself but saw Phin just chuckling softly to himself because he knew he had nailed it. Anden started chuckling along with him and just shrugged his shoulders. Heh, I hope I am not that predictable when I am flying.


“Mate, you gotta give your self some time to unwind. Have some fun.” He said as he came and gave Anden a punch in the shoulder, “You do remember what that is, right?”


Anden laughed a little at that, “I have fun.” He said with only a small hint of defensiveness.

It was Phineus’ turn to laugh now, and he did, “Running through one of the simulation scenarios is not most peoples idea of fun”


That comment earned him a harmless punch aimed at him from Anden, which Phin dodged easily, “Ya know, I thought I would never meet someone who enjoyed the simulators more than I did. Boy, was I sadly mistaken.”


“Yeah, but good against a machine is only part of it…” Anden said with a sly grin.


“That’s right!,” Phineus replied, then noticed Anden was taking a different kind of shot at him.


Anden laughed at the look on his face and grabbed some of the things he thought he might need, “Come on man, let’s get going. I wanna get some things loaded onto the MU’s system before we meet up with the Squadron. You gonna come?”


Phineus scratched his chin and said, “Did you miss the whole FUN lecture?”


He just shook his head and replied as R7 rolled out the door after him, “Alright then, see you later.” And then the door slip shut and Anden made his way to the Hangar where his Shuttle waited for him.