Arthur and Anden were both on their way to draw fire off the Anaconda but on their way pulling every move they knew to keep from getting hit by the Strike Cruisers heavy turbo lasers they saw the Anacondas power back up and head right for the near by Strike Cruiser as a last ditch effort.  They got them and took them selves out in the process by ramming right into the "pirates" as Arthur came to call them for he was not completely convinced that this wasn't a ploy.

Commodore Bryant came over the com. "All right ladies, quit staring. Stupid heroics aside, Jones has helped even the odds a bit, so we've got work to do! The Estonia and the Hyperion are now moving to engage the last remaining Strike Cruiser, and the Escort Carrier. All fighter squadrons are to move out and start clearing out the shipping lanes, there's still pirates wreaking havoc over there, and we already have several reports of boarding actions taking place. You know the drill. Bryant out."

Afterward both Arthur and Anden turned their ships around to head toward the shipping lanes which was like traveling threw an asteroid field.  They kept up their efforts to keep from getting completely obliterated when Ibram came over the com and told everyone in Viper squad we had to fly with the Cobra Squad.

"But, Sir there is no way they can keep up with us in those ties.  They weren't meant to travel at our speed and are not as agile either, Sir."

"Well then you need to do your best to keep them from getting them and us killed out here." Ibram replied.

"Well Anden I guess I'll see you in the hanger unless you want to ditch our Cobra friends and fly as a true Viper should."

"You heard him he wants us to fly with them and teach them what it is like to be a Viper." Anden said to Arthur.

For some reason Arthur felt it would be better to die with a Viper at his wing then a Cobra and he knew a Viper would to what ever it took too take out the members killer as long as he could do it with out dieing themselves.

Inside the shipping lanes

Arthur was paired with what seemed to be a raw recruit fresh out of the Academy but he had know idea how long they were flying before that.  he told his new wing mate to stick to his left for he was not accustom to having someone flying behind him.  They were in the field for what seemed to be an hour searching for any living ship but it was only ten minutes for they were going slower then what Arthur was accustom to when they saw movement above them.

The ship must have been sitting in wait for a ship to pass for as soon as they saw him he saw them a kicked his ship to full power and his buddies did the same and while Arthur had these ships beat for speed his wing mate didn't so They had to fight on their terms and Arthur hated to do that.

So he opened a channel with the Cobra and told him to take off as fast as he could without hitting any debris as a feint to pull them into a trap that Arthur was planning as they were flying passed parts of the large ships that were holding some important supplies or transporting passengers across the Empire.

While they were leading them along Arthur opened a private link to Anden telling them what was going on and they were heading that direction if they weren't busy with their own pirates.

"We are all clear here and we were getting bored of flying with nothing to do."  Anden replied to Arthur

"Good lets see how good these guys are and if they are up to Viper standards."

Anden and his Cobra wing mate lay in wait for Arthur to pass with the pirates so they could flank them.....

Phineus broke into a sweat as he power walked through the corridors, heading back into his dorm. The walls melted a blue-grey; the faces of pilots locked in their ever-heroic gazes as they darted left and right towards their respective hangars. Red alarms flashed and havoc had certainly ensued; albeit peaceful it was, indeed. The beads of sweat ran down his cheek like molasses on pavement, collecting in his beard, which now began to smell rather badly. Phineus came to his dorm, entered within, and closed shut the door behind him. His mind was a daze, cloudy and confused, chaotic and evolutionary. However, he was drenched in ultimate perplexity. The dorm itself was dimly lit a burnt orange glow, really showing just how much the pilots of the Imperial Navy are valued. Phineus rummaged through his pack like a wild beast on the brink of starvation and hell bent on finding a meal. In this case, Phineus had become the beast. His meal, in coincidence, was a pill bottle. He was done. He was pushed to the mental brink. Once, some short time ago, Phineus was always the Navy’s action packed, over confident, heroic young element; these days he can barely maintain his sanity. Slaughtering innocents like that? That was what pushed him over the edge. Poor kid never stood a chance.

What, to Phineus, felt like hours later; he lie on the floor, sweating no longer, very fatigued. His eyes flash open, a beautiful gaze, to which he found his mother kneeling above him, stroking his cheek. She bore the sign of an angel in hiding; possessing utmost beauty and yet dressed in dark silks to hide her shine.

“Mother,” Phineus weakly spoke as he slowly inched forward, clasping onto her, “I’ve missed you.”

His mother, Kaydee, was protective and soft, “Shh, Phineus, you let too much get to you. You bottle everything up and then snap all at once. You’re dangerous to yourself and those around you.”

A tear was squeezed out onto his skin, it proceeded down his chin and nose as if it was reluctant to leave the pool of tears in which it came from.

“Ibram,” Phineus begin, his mother then interjected.

“…Ibram just did what he felt was right, Phineus. And you stop picking on him behind his back, he’s a good boy, I like what he’s done with the likes of you. The entire Navy has drastically changed you and your beliefs, young man. You just haven’t realized it yet because you haven’t accepted it. Embrace your role in the Navy, embrace getting paid to do what you’ve always dreamed of doing.”

Phineus was standing, his mother in front of him. His beard was shaven down to a shadow, his hair was noticeably cleaner and neater, and he had a blaster at his side and a com unit in his hand.

“You love to fly with your squadron, to avenge the lives of innocents, to be the hero with your comrades. Your only family. I am no longer around for you, my angel, these people are your brothers and sisters now. Go, Phineus, they need you more than you know; and yet less than your arrogant head will be thinking when you save someone’s day,” she whispered, “a confused mind, wandering around, finds no place of comfort. Focus, Phineus, make me proud. Make Jeppo proud. Make T3 proud, you know that little droid looks up to you. I love you, kid, now go be you.”

She smiled, and for once in an unfathomable long time, Phineus smiled and even laughed under his breath. He leaned down and in to kiss his mother on her cheek, as she vanished from sight. 

Phineus was half way into his Phineus-signature power walk down the corridor, com unit to his lips.

“Give me a quick sit-rep of the Fortis and it’s crew, Jimm,” he rapidly spat out the syllables in his calm, mature manner to a member of his ship’s team.

“Aye,” Jimm Shinn, a regular guy with an irregular life, at it showed subtly in his ways, “she’s running like new sir, the crew is all happy and accounted for. We’re currently en route to Manaan to continue the current operation as per orders. T3 misses you and has now successfully hacked into the very same encryption security we created to keep him from doing it.”

Phin smirked, chuckled light-heartedly, and lovingly said, “Hi, TK.”

TK let out excited whistles and bloops, happy bleeps then depressed whoos, and onward a fluctuating range as he told his tales. Phineus smiled widely, shook his head and quietly sighed.

“That is exactly why you’re my favorite friend in the entire galaxy. Look, I’ll see you soon buddy, I have to go make sure Ibram doesn’t shoot anything other than an enemy fighter; good job on those repairs and remember; if you get lonely you can always hang out with HK.”

TK immediately let out an alerted whistle.

“Haha, I know, he’s not the most welcoming of hosts but he does mean well, he does. Alright, Jimm, send updated reports to my data pad every hour as usual and wish me luck.”

Jimm’s soft voice sounded over the com, “You know it, Captain. We all know you won’t but I’ll say it anyway; be careful, you need to be back aboard the Fortis once we get back home. Over and out.”

Phin closed the com channel and opened another one to Ibram, who did not sound too excited to hear from him.

“Gage?” Ibram exclaimed, “Stop playing with your hair and get your ass in this damn fight!”

“Yes, sir, I…”

“…No excuses, Gage, play like a champion.”

“Yes, sir, I…”

“…Are you taking off yet?”

Phineus sighed exuberantly as he tossed the com unit into the trash receptor and turned into the Viper hanger bay. Everything in the bay was running properly and normally, the only current problem that Phineus could see was that there weren’t anymore TIE fighters. This was going to be a big problem.

“Private Ruter,” Phineus called out, “Private-!”

Private Tippy Ruter stood only five feet and six inches, weighed less than a can opener, and had very many freckles to match his very red hair. In no doubt, a human. He popped right into Phin’s view.

“Right here, Sir,” Ruter said as he saluted.

“Where the hell is my Interceptor?” Phineus asked as if it were his child rather than his space craft.

Ruter was nervous, his hands began to moisten with perspiration, “Um, well, you never reported and we had a new recruit standing by so we let him take your designated space craft. Sir.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Phineus firmly pressed the palm of his hand onto his face, shook his head, and sighed.

“There are no more interceptors aboard, sir,” Ruter reluctantly admitted.

“Is there anything, anything flyable with some sort of weaponry?”

“Well, yes,” Ruter withdrew his data pad and thumbed threw some folders of information. “You’ve flown it before.”

Ruter lead Phineus out of the hangar bay, towards another. Phineus narrowed his brow in confusion as his eyes shifted onto Ruter, “Care to elaborate?”

“It’s registration claims that it’s first time in flight was during Operation: Mjolnir, flown by one Phineus Gage.”

Phineus’ eyes widened, “She’s still serviceable?”

“After that flight, it had flown only once more, got nicked up pretty badly, no one wanted to fly it. Took the Navy all this time before repairing it. Sorry it’s not an Interceptor.”

Phineus smiled, “You kidding? She’s better than an Interceptor,” Phineus said without a thought, as Ruter looked up at Phin as if he had three heads.

The two rounded a final turn and entered into another squadron’s hangar, where the TIE was being kept. Ruter had sent the requests for the fighter to by prepped and ready for launch, which it seemed to be. Phineus took a deep breath as a few techies began to equip him properly for his flight.

Phineus’ mind raced faster than a TIE fighter. He thought back to his first day in the Imperial Navy; the guidance that Tomas had lent him that entire mission. How green Phineus was, how out of control and raw his piloting was. How happy he was. He remembered back to first stepping foot aboard the Atrus, to catching up with Kayla, an old friend, prior to never seeing her again.

I should’ve called. I really should have.

Then there was his aspiring friendship with Anden; the two worked so well together some called them the Navy’s new element, destined to be the golden poster boys of the Vast Empire for years to come, when they would undoubtedly become wing commanders and never have to fly a TIE fighter again. Their potential far exceeded their accomplishments together. He began to feel a sincere longing for the glory days of himself, Anden, Tomas, C-3 and the like. He owed something to all of them, one way or another; it was time to pay them back.

Phineus climbed into the TIE fighter, having an extreme feeling of nostalgia. It felt like no other TIE before, a comfort that seemingly wrapped around his figure to perfection; It was tailored for him without anyone ever knowing. He ran a systems check, belted in his crash webbing, and began the process to take off.

During my first mission, I once thought to myself; What am I doing here? Sure I came here to find purpose, comradeship, and to serve the greater good. But why is there a nagging pain in my side about all this?

And now I know; I’m here because flying is all I know. I found a purpose in the Navy, and in the people within its craft. That nagging pain was my immaturity and extreme lack of confidence. That’s changing now.

He inhaled and held his breath as he lifted the TIE off of the hangar bay’s floor, then exhaled; “Here we go,” he pushed forward the accelerators and the old fighter took to the skies with such agility and speed it was as  though it was her first time out, back with the pilot who knew her best. Once pushed onward toward the battle scene, which was much more even than Phineus had predicted. It appeared as though Viper didn’t need any of his holo-drama heroics; with that knowledge, for the first time, Phineus was very pleased about that. He swung his fighter around toward the scene of lasers, explosions and death with such concentration as if his own death was never a possibility.

He opened a com channel, “Sicario here, sorry it took me so long.”

“I knew you wouldn’t miss this,” Anden replied proudly.

“You know me too well, old friend. Looks like you guys have been doing just fine without me.”

“Sure have,” Ibram replied, “but you couldn’t hurt our luck.”

Phineus smirked, as always, adjusted his spine to further sit up right, and narrowed his brow at the enemies. He was in this, he was ready. He was a Senior Chief Petty Officer and it was about damn time he acted, and flew, like one. He joined up with a few other pilots and glided his way easily into formation.

“I know my place,” Phineus said, “I’ll watch our six.”

“Sic?” asked Ibram, “Welcome back to Viper.”

“Thanks, good to be back.”

The broken formation of the Interceptors and Phin’s single standard TIE maneuvered into the practical asteroid field that was the space jam ahead. Lasers flew brilliantly across Phin’s view screen as his alarms slowly rang out. Merchant vessels were in a panic, many met their demise in head on collisions whilst navigating the field, others fired on the squadron themselves. It seemed fair, in a way. The squadron was forced apart, and any assistance from one pilot to another would be fairly difficult, if not impossible in these conditions. This is certainly not where the fun begins for anyone.

___________________________________________________

Words- 1,999

“I understand your situation sir, but as you can see, we're a little busy right now!”

No sooner had the words escaped Ibram's mouth then the fore section of a ruined freighter floated into his path, forcing him to dive suddenly. His pursuers didn't even hesitate as they followed him through what was fast becoming more a debris field then a traffic jam.

In between fighting for his life, Ibram had been having a very frustrating conversation with a Merchant Captain whose vessel was somewhere out amongst the other ships, hiding. The man had been trying to force Ibram's squadron to escort him to Badajoz station.

“Oh like I haven't heard that before Ensign! It's your job to protect us isn't it!? Us Civilians? Well I'm a civilian and I demand protection!”

Ibram was quickly losing what little patience he had left. Between Lt. Grey, the new missions, this...

He would probably have to finally cash in on all those free psychotherapy hours he had stacked up.

Before he could reply, the two uglies that were tailing him let loose a volley of shots which vapourised a helpless shuttle just off Ibram's port.

Frak, Ibram thought, there's not going to be anyone to escort that jackass if he keeps distracting us.

“One! This is Six! One of the freighters is firing on us with it's turret!”

Ibram frowned, “Has it been taken over by hostiles?” He queried.

“No! But it's owner has shat his pants and is just firing at everyone! He's already taken out two enemies and someone from Cobra squadron!”

By this point, Ibram had had enough. Cutting power to the engines, Ibram brought his interceptor to screeching halt. The two fighters trailing him tried to react, but not only did they not do it in time, they also screwed up and ended up cratering into a nearby passenger liner.

Switching to a local band, he addressed everyone that was holed up in the shipping lanes awaiting rescue.

“Alright everyone, listen up! We are trying our very best to weed out the enemies who are using you as human shields, but I swear if you guys don't stop whining, or taking pot shots at everything that moves, I'm going to personally blow you all to kingdom come. If you acknowledge this message, please indicate so by not replying.”

Ibram sighed and switched back to the squadron channel whilst surveying his sensor screen. It was hard to tell with all the ships floating about all over the place, but it looked like they were still winning. Thankfully, most of the ships had evacuated themselves as soon as the fighting broke out, with only a few die hard captains or people that lacked adequate escape pods remaining.

With any luck, Viper's counter assault had kept civilian casualties to a minimum, but considering the squadron's MO over the past couple of days, it really didn't make a difference.

“Viper's this is Viper One. Keep up the good work people, the tide is turning!”

It was refreshing being able to speak the truth for a change. Glancing over towards the moon, Ibram could see the Hyperion and the Estonia giving the enemy cruiser a pounding. Even the Escort Carrier was beginning to back away.

“Viper One, this Noble One, over.”

“This Viper, go.”

“We're in a cluster of assault shuttles, we're going to see if we can't retake some of the captured civilian vessels. How goes the hunt?”

Ibram couldn't help but snort. Those army guys were always so dramatic about everything.

“We've beaten back most of the enemy fuglies in the area. My guys are currently hunting down the stragglers. Everything east of point ... 274-1 is clear, so you might as well start there. Call us if you run into any trouble.”

“Will do Viper, Noble One out.”

Ibram informed the rest of the squadron of the approaching friendlies before he turned his engines back on, slowly accelerating  and climbing above the worst of the jumbled merchant shipping, scanning for enemies.

Just when he thought there were none left, he received a message from Cadie over the squadron channel.

“Sir, a trio of patrol boats just broke away from the debris, they're making a run for the Carrier.”

“I'll be there shortly,” he replied, before thinking:

No rest for the wicked.

OOC:

Just a small filler post to help you guys along. Don't take anything significant from this, and just continue dogfighting through the stranded ships.

I will be finishing off the story next weekend, so get your posts in whilst you can.

Arthur was on Anden six when they were hit by another small group of uglies but they were only shooting on the run and was easily taken out by a few shots of their lasers.  When another cobra went down.  Arthur was wondering why Ibram let them tag along for the fighting and not as escorts with their crappie Ties.

As he was thinking this as Cobra 6 came over the com "Viper, this is Cobra 6, my sensors are out and I’m blind”

Oh look there goes another one how many more are we going to lose before Ibram tells them to go back to base.

Then Arthur heard something that might have changed his mind about one cobra. “With all due respect, all other systems are operational and I can still do some work. Request permission to station by the closest cruiser and ward off any incoming fighters. If I keep my six to the cruiser, I can hit anything coming head on.”

But before he could do anything else one of the cruisers was calling for help.  Leave it to a group of inexperienced pilots to need help out here he was thinking as Anden and Arthur went to help them out of whatever jam they got themselves into.

When they got there they spotted 4 more uglies moving faster than the cruiser could get a lock on and fire at them.

Arthur then opened a link to Andens com. "You go high Ill go low and fire in between sound good?"

"Lets hope its is that easy."

They each took out a ship because they were paying more attention to the cruiser than us but soon changed and both were being chased by a ship.  Arthur was about to bank left when his tail was called to help out his wing mate which Anden had gotten in behind of and was about to take it out.

Arthur seeing this was taken aback by the way the pirates were helping out one another.  Arthur needed to help his new wing mate so he quickly turned around to help and fired his missiles at his target completely obliterating it.