Chapter 1: Baptism By Fire

[Chickenman 9]

"Which means the others were something completely different. And until we find out what, we can't trust her. We need to watch her, Lieutenant. And if she slips up, she's gone."

He sighed, collapsing further into his seat.

"Who do we have next?"

[Rogue 4]

"I believe Kaden Staal was next on our list." Nat responded. "I'll comm him, and have him come down here."

[Chickenman 9]

Aeric waved a hand, stopping him. "Hold on. Everyone, including himself, seems to think he's the best in this squadron. I wanna see for myself."

Edited June 16, 2007 by Chickenman

[Rogue 4]

Nat nodded, supressing a smirk as he clipped the comm back to his belt. "Shall we pay him a visit then?"

[Chickenman 9]

"We shall."

[Mara 29]

Kaden sat in his fighter, still puzzling over what a lone Star Destroyer was doing out here in the middle of nowhere. And those earlier, TIEs, too. Were they on recon or something? Maybe the Imperials had a lock on him or something.

He was going crazy, sitting there waiting. All sorts of scenarios popped into his head.

He was just considering flying up to that SD and seeing what damage he could before the inevitable turbolasers found him, when suddenly there were another couple flashes up behind and to the starboard side of the existing destroyer.

Artie whistled in alarm. Kaden swore.

"Now three destroyers! I'm so dead."

And he was right. Eventually.

Once the two extra SD's had arrived, all three emitted out 3 squadrons of TIEs each. And all of them headed for Kaden's X-wing. He didn't want to run, but he wasn't found of suicide either. So he just settled for lots of juking and evasive measures.

He got a couple lucky shots in and vaped a couple of TIEs, but there were too many of them, two quickly. And everywhere.

Artie beeped sharply.

"I see it. I see it!" Kaden aimed and fired at another TIE, but then two came in behind him, blasting apart his stern shields and then his ship and him in it.

The screen went black.

A sad note came from Artie, while Kaden sat back and relaxed with a sigh of relief.

"At least that's done."

Artie beebled.

"Yeah, I know we died. But at least now I've learned to stick with the regular missions, I suppose. For now."

He paused for a few minutes more before opening the menu again and selecting a new mission. A regular mission that the computer supplied. No more crazy kriffin' missions. Not today. He had enough going on.

Kaden opened up his comm to the entire squadron frequency, to see if he could gauge which programs were already being used. He didn't want to come in in the middle of a battle.

He selected a nice easy one out in the Mid Rim. Just a simple strafing run on a weapons facility. Hardly any Imperials in the area. Should be simple and not at all like the last mission he flew with the Golden Eagles.

The program started, and Kaden took his fighter out and in towards the small moon with the facility.

[Princess 35]

Nima acknowledged Atzena's coordinate. "Shall we do this the hard way or the easy way?" She looped around heading towards the launcher.

[Chickenman 9]

"Whatever you choose, I'm you're wing."

[Princess 35]

"Right. Easy way it is. R4, mark the launcher as alpha target. Atzena on my mark, launch two linked proton torpedoes." The launcher came into site and lasers started blsating at them. She shifted her shields forward. "Three. Two. One. Mark." She fired her torpedoes.

[Mara 29]

He kept heading towards the facility, but, like he expected, four TIEs came up from the moon right before he entered atmosphere. Kaden banked his fighter away to the starboard side, knowing that he was much better at maneuvering in space, than in a planet's atmosphere.

They formed up behind him, and he let them for a while, boosting up his stern shields, if they got close enough to take a few pot shots.

Then he took a sudden twisting dive downward, coming up behind two of the TIEs that weren't quick enough. He blasted apart the two before going after the other two. They took a few shots at him before he increased his speed, but his shields held with the extra power Artie was boosting them with.

Kaden realized he must be doing fine. Artie was being completely quiet and taking his orders in hand. He only usually got upset or made a lot of noise when he thought they were actually in trouble. Kaden smiled and kept the other two TIEs on a chase for a while.

He spun around and had quickly vaped the remaining two when another flight of TIEs came screaming out from the moon's base.

He shook his head and banked to meet the incoming flight.

[Rogue 4]

Layla walked into the Flight Simulator room and looked over at the board. Five kills. She had made five kills in her earlier simulation before she had been called down to interrogation---er, Captain Tunon's office. Five kills.

But in the time she had been there Kaden Staal had graced the board with thirty four kills.

Exactly how long had she been in the office?

Thirty four kills...

"Holy mother of meteorites..."

[Bad furday 57]

In the sim room, Jya was going over the finer points of flying an Xwing with Arlan. Not being as good a pilot as the others, Arlan had asked for some help. He wanted to be sure to set a good showing for Captain Tunon.

Both of them looked up as Lyla entered the room, Arlan in the simulator with canopy raised, Jya leaning over next to him.

"Ah, back from the Inquisition!" cried Arlan humorously. "Jya here's been giving me some pointers on flying."

He then winked.

[Rogue 4]

Layla looked over at him curiously, having been lost in her thoughts. When she realized what he'd said she smiled, shaking her head.

"More like interrogation, but you roll with the punches." She walked over to the two. "Arlan right?"

She turned to the woman assisting him. "Oh hey, sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to make you feel embarassed."

She extended a hand. "I'm Layla."

[Bad furday 57]

Jya stood up fully and took Layla's offered hand.

"Jya. Don't worry about what happened earlier...I just don't like drawing much attention to myself"

She smiled at the other woman, visually scanning her features. It would be interesting to see how she performed her job as an insertion specialist.

"How about we have a go in the sims?" asked Jya. "Arlan's not used to flying, so other than 'the pointy end goes up', do you have any tips that can help him?"

[Rogue 4]

"Hm..." Layla tapped a finger against her lips thoughtfully. "Yeah. Trust your sensors, but keep an eye out too. Watch where you're flying, and know where your squadron is relative to you."

She smiled halfheartedly, still recovering from her 'interrogation'. "And don't forget which is the throttle and which is the breaks." her granite eyes danced.

[Bad furday 57]

"I suppose that would be important, " replied Arlan. " Like when coming in for a landing and the bay is half full!"

[Radioactive Isotope 29]

Atuarre wedged herself into a sim cockpit away from the others. They seemed to be chatting more than practicing and she needed to concentrate. That interview had not gone as well as she'd hoped. Her lack of piloting skills seemed to have carried more weight than she had initially thought. Still, this was a starfighter squadron, and she needed to learn how to fly these things. The controls weren't completely alien, but they were different than the vessels she used to fly. For one thing, she was accustomed to a little more leg room. She was also used to having a copilot.

Ok, so where's the power button on this thing? Her ears flattened in annoyance when after a few moments she still couldn't find it. With an irritated growl at herself, she got out of the simulator and padded over to the others.

"Sorry to interrupt, guys, but I've never flown one of these things before and was wondering if anyone could give me a quick rundown of the controls."

[Rogue 4]

She nodded, her long red-brown hair moving with her.

"Yeah, I'd say so." she smiled. "But I think you should probably work on taking off first." she said with a wink.

She turned to the newcomer, the Trianii that seemed so uncomfortsble before. "Sure thing! We were just giving Arlan a few pointers actually."

Edited June 16, 2007 by Rogue

[Radioactive Isotope 29]

Atuarre glanced down and finally noticed the other in the cockpit. "Well, glad to know I'm not the only one. I'm Atuarre, by the way."

[Bad furday 57]

"I'm Arlan", said Arlan from the cockpit.

"Er, right, " he said, thinking back over what the other two had told him. " The power button is here on the left ledge where the cockpit seal is. You can see the actual controls to power up a real fighter here. However, the power button is only on the simulator. In the actual ship, it's just the control switches"

He looked at Jya and Layla, to make sure he hadn't missed anything.

Edited June 16, 2007 by Bad furday

[Rogue 4]

The Zeltron nodded. "Good job! See? We'll make a pilot out of you yet!"

She turned to Atuarre, extending a hand. "Layla Nasrin."

[Radioactive Isotope 29]

She tilted her head to study the controls. "So, the real ones have a power switch instead of a button, then?" Who's bright idea was that?

Then she noticed the Zeltron's hand and took it. "My pleasure, Layla."

[Bad furday 57]

"The power button readies the simulator to start recording data the moment it's turned on" explained Arlan. "Then, when the pilot turns on the power switches on the simulator, the instructors can tell if they are going about it the right way".

[Rogue 4]

Layla smiled at her sweetly. "Pleasure's mine. As for the difference...It's one of those strange things, I dunno. Whatever melon designed it wasn't yet ripe."

She listened to Arlan's assessment and turned to Jya. "Man, either you're an excellent teacher or he's a quick study."

Edited June 16, 2007 by Rogue

[Radioactive Isotope 29]

"I see. I've flown enough other kinds of ships to know how to steer, thankfully. The rest I think I can figure out. Again, thanks for helping me out."

sorry to sound so rude, but it's almost 1am here and JM's sleepy-tired. feel free to keep chatting with Atuarre if you want, but i'm goin to bed.