“Now hear this, now hear this clear hangar deck for launch on NRS Icestorm!” The public address system aboard the Victory Star Destroyer blared to life. The deep-throated roar of engines mixed with the steady hum of repulsor lift generators as the X Wings of Darkfire squadron prepared for departure.

“Darkfire lead you are cleared for exit vector 090 on a standard 6 alpha departure.” the female voice of the controller came over the circuit.

“Darkfire lead copies 090 for a standard 6 alpha” Captain Curat Tark, CO of Darkfire squadron replied, cool and calculating as always. Lysander knew that as he answered the Duros CO scrolled through the system charts for the departure track and as he did so programmed it into his navigation system. The small but very significant detail that made Tark different from other pilots was that he scrolled through those charts in his mind and pushed in all the data of the top of his head.

The Duros having lived amongst the stars for countless generations after their home system had been ravaged had developed unparalleled skills in astro navigation, which made them sought after navigators and scouts but very few of them served on military forces because smuggling and private scouting paid better.
Tark was one of those few Duros that served in the forces and with a passion for flying and piloting that made him a born leader for a fighter unit.

Lysander Wessiri cross checked the download circuit of his nav computer to make sure the set up was good and tried to find the standard six departure chart in his kneeboard checklist when the data started coming in over the squadron channel.

”How does he do that” the pilot muttered to himself, he had tried to match the Captain’s speed ever since he joined the squadron and had never succeeded, but that didn’t mean he would stop trying.
On the academy he had been amongst the best when it came to astro navigation but that was in a class of cadets and none of them Duros.

He put the charts away and got back to the task at hand, launching his fighter. Following the signals of the blue shirted crew chief he steered the X Wing in place behind the other X Wings that were lining up in the hangar bay. All Darkfire fighters had a black flame painted on their port top S foil and the port side of the main body of the fighter. The upgrades on these Incom T65 A2 X Wings featured a better sensor system and inflight refueling capabilities as well as a simulator package for space combat training. The gun system had already been upgraded on the A1 models.

A warbling sound announced that the nav download was complete.

“You got all the data, Rancor?” An affirmative beep came from behind him. ”Good.”
Rancor was Lysander’s R2 droid who had been with him ever since he had been assigned to  Starfighter Command. Rancor had belonged to his father and had been a gift to him by his parents when he graduated from pilot training but sometimes he had the impression that the main reason he had been given the little droid was not as a gift for him but as a guardian. Rancor had been with his father for a long time and had seen more frontline action then most of the pilots in Darkfire squadron. He had never undergone memory wipes, which was contrary to standard fleet practice but not forbidden. R2 and R5 droids that weren’t wiped on a regular basis were prone to problems some people believed but other people believed that using the droid as a second brain that kept learning constantly was better. His father belonged to the latter category. Rancor had a vast number of tactics and analysis programs stored as well as charts and data of countless combat engagements.

“Darkfire 6 stand by for IFF check,”the voice of the departure controller sounded calm and professional.

“Roger control,” two lights on his cockpit status board came on indicating the transmitter and receiver of his IFF system were operational and that the codes loaded were valid.

“Darkfire 6, control shows you green switch black for scrambler check.”

Lysander flipped a switch on his yoke and the radio switched into scrambler mode.

“Control, Darkfire 6 signal check.”

“Darkfire 6, control, loud and clear switch back white.”

The same procedure was done with every fighter as the squadron lined up for takes off.

The voice of Captain Tark came over the squadron channel.
“Squadron listen up we will launch in groups of four. I lead the first quartet 5 has the second, 9 has the last. 
The training for today is 2v2 space combat.”

Acknowledgements came back over the channel.

“Standard 6 alpha is loaded in your systems as an add on you will find training area C7 loaded on your systems we will rendezvous there for space combat training followed by refueling in the same area. Then we proceed to hyperspace entry point A5 for transfer to the Dominator.”

Lysander checked the time. Ten hours in the cockpit seven of those ten hours in hyperspace. It was going to be a long day.

“Darkfire this is Ice Control, all checks are complete you are cleared for departure. Have a good flight.”

“Darkfire lead copies all, have a fine Navy day, out.”

One by one the snubfighters shot into the cold space that surrounded the destroyer orbiting the planet Bakura.They formed up in groups of four and veered of toward the training area. Lysander looked down onto the planet Bakura, he had spent a few days shore leave down there and enjoyed it. It was his first assignment away from home, away from Coruscant. Darkfire squadron was his first space based squadron even though it was only a temporary assignment since Darkfire was part of the fleet reserve division that trained cadets before they went to the line units but as part of training each training unit spent time on the Outer Rim. Now it was Darkfire Squadrons turn. They had been assigned to the Golden Spur Wing stationed aboard the Star Destroyer Dominator. He was looking forward to this deployment in spite of the fact that it put them in harm’s way, the Dominator was assigned as pirate hunting task force.

“Funny”, he thought “a couple of years back this very sector was a combat zone and now it was assigned as a staging zone for New Republic forces. Times change indeed.” Lysander checked his systems and charts one more time. 

“B flight listen up. Six is my wing, seven you are winging eight.” That was Lieutenant Lydia Fenwick, callsign “Blue” due to her ice blue eyes. The Dellalt native was the squadron executive officer and had combat time to her record too.

“Oh man, I want to be flight lead…” That was Flight Cadet Cort Tyler, Darkfire seven, a Corellian born hotspur who, as far as Lysander was concerned should have voiced his opinion to the void of space instead of the XO, he winced as he braced for Blue’s answer.

“Cadet Tyler, I assume that you have pressed you push to talk switch by accident and as for the ‘I want’ part of your statement …this is the New Republic military and not the wish club on Coruscant planetary TV. If I want you to do something I will order you to do so and other then that I want to hear nothing out of you unless you have been addressed , understood?”

There was a five second silence on the net and then a subdued “Yes, mam.” 

Cort was a natural pilot, unfortunately his ego was bigger then the cargo hold of a bulk freighter and that was his biggest problem.
Darkfire eight was Flight Cadet Carmus, callsign “Claw”, a Selonian male that had thought there had to be more in life then being one of many fertile males in a Selonian clan. He used a voice translator module he carried around his neck to communicate since few Selonians spoke Basic.

Claw had been in the New Republic Army serving in the Infantry before transferring to pilot training .He was also the squadron unarmed combat instructor.

“Darkfire six through eight check weapons safe and report.”

“Six, checked and safe.”

“Seven, checked, safe. “

Switching the weapons to the safe position and locking them with a code activated the simulator package in the fighters. The package powered the lasers down until they were nothing but colored flashes of harmless light and engaged a suite of sensors in the fighter that registered those beams and passed the simulated damage to the main computer. The main system then computed the damage it would have received had those shots been real and shut down systems in the fighters accordingly.

When the new system had reached the fleet most people had not been that enthusiastic about it but the vastly increased amount of training time which build on the simulator time the pilots had already soon silenced most critics.

“Eight, checked, safe.”Claw’s artificial voice sounded like Darth Vader with a serious sore throat and usually prompted laughter when they were on the ground but after Blue’s thrashing for Cort Lysander decided to keep quiet.

Lydia’s voice came back over the circuit.
“Break by pairs with a 180 degree offset go to distance four point zero and engage.”

“As ordered, five”came Claw’s metallic voice back.

“Six switch to channel nine.”

“Roger, mam.”

They switched and Lysander checked back in. Blue outlined their plan.
“Shields full forward, stay behind me on one point five we break at a forty five degree angle, I go to port you go to starboard. We split horizontal on the first run and vertical on the second run. Questions?”

“No, mam.”

“Good.”

“Gun set up?”

“Your choice, I just set the tactics what you do to your craft is your decision.”

Lysander liked Blue’s approach to training some instructors tried to reinvent the way you flew but she let you do your thing and debriefed you afterwards. He checked his sensor and saw that Claw and Cort were attacking in azimuth formation. The distance meter scrolled down past two kilometers and he heard Blue opening fire with quad bursts as they closed with their opponents. Lysander switched his lasers to single fire and checked distance again. One point five kilometers came up and on Blue’s call they fanned out as briefed, and Lysander opened fire on the left of the two X Wings. The simulated hits he scored on the craft obliterated the forward shields and took out the port engines taking the fighter out of this engagement. Blue scored two direct hits on the other fighter before going into a vertical barrel roll dragging the other fighter with her. Lysander dove after the pair and brought up the second “enemy” in his crosshairs. “Blue break port now.”

He saw the lead fighter break off and fired. The hit simulated destroyed the opponent and send him tumbling into space.

“Reset.” Blue commanded and the fighters paired up again.

“Nice move, Wes!”

“Thanks, Cort.”

The fighters turned away from each other again and came around in long loops to hit the four-kilometer mark at top speed. Lysander tugged in behind Blue again when his radar warning system announced a torpedo lock on him.

“Stay in formation.” Came the commanding female voice of his lead, preemptively stalling his request for evasive maneuvering.

’Like she reads my mind’, Lysander thought.

The beeping tone of the warning system turned into a steady beep as the opposing fighters got a missile lock and simulated launched a proton torpedo.

“Stay in formation” Blue’s voice was drowned in the roar of her lasers thundering away in single fire mode.
The two simulated warheads fell prey to her gunfire and as the prebriefed range scrolled down to one point five they split vertically and attacked. This time Cort and Claw tried concentrating their fire on one target and concentrated on Blue. She dove under most of the gunfire but the simulated hits took her gun controls out and forced her to switch to torpedoes. Lysander switched to single fire and tried to drive the two X Wings apart but Claw pressed his attack home and Blue was simulated disabled before he fell under Lysander’s lasers. Cort peeled off to starboard with Lysander in hot pursuit. The Corellian went into evasive maneuvers and pulled into a tight loop to attempt to get into a good firing position. Lysander banked into a spiral roll and pumped gun energy into his engines to get more speed but Cort kept coming. Simulated laser hits started eating away at his rear shields even though he tried every move he knew.

“Rancor, how many more hits can we take before we kick the bucket?” the answer that scrolled across his screen was not good. Two more hits and they would start losing systems and be turned into simulated spacedust. Suddenly Rancor started beeping and tooting wildly and on his heads up display Lysander saw an escape vector pop up that drew him out of Cort’s field of fire for about five seconds. He had learned a long time ago that Rancor was a valuable help and his advice was to be taken serious. He forced the snubfighter into the direction indicated which was almost head on to Cort. Apparently that was the last move the Corellian had expected since Lysander streaked right by him and he wasn’t even able to score a stray hit. “Well at least five more seconds maybe we have some superb idea that can save us.”

“Sithspawn!!” That was Cort’s voice over the squadron channel.

“Reset”, Blue’s smooth voice cut in. “Form up on me for debrief and go to one third speed.”

As in one motion the fighters formed up and slowed down. Lysander switched to internal communiction.”Rancor, what happened?” An electronic snort and then the replay of the last maneuvers of the engagement scrolled across his HUD.Blue had not been destroyed, Claw had not been able to get a kill in before he was shot down. The vector that Rancor had given him had led him and Cort directly across Blue’s field of fire. She had been dead in space with comms shot out but her astromech had been operational, as was her missile system. When Lysander and Cort had crossed in front of her she had locked up the Corellian with a double torpedo shot and that had been the end of that. Lysander was dumbfounded.

“Never assume a foe is out of the fight unless you see him destroyed, eh?” The voice of his tactics instructor at the academy echoed through his mind. “The enemy you don’t see or expect is going to get you.”

Shot down by a piece of space junk, Cort would have a hard time explaining that. Lysander winced as he anticipated the comments of the other pilots that were going to rain down on his friend when they reached the Dominator. The debrief went quick and with good and bad comments for everybody. Blue was a harsh but also fair instructor. She had seen her share of combat and tried to teach what she had learned the hard way, losing friends. They remained in their sector of the training area at a slow pace and contacted the destroyer’s space control center to get information on the planned refueling.

“Darkfire 5 turn to heading 045 your tanker is at mark 5.0.”

“Darkfire 5 copies all.”

“Roger Darkfire 5 contact your tanker Anvil 1 on channel 7.”

“5 copies channel 7, switching.”

Lysander and the other two pilots had been following Blue’s conversation with the controller and switched to the new frequency as well. “Anvil 1, Darkfire 5 flight with you channel 7 how do you read?”

“Darkfire 5, Anvil 1 has you loud and clear. Line up signal on navigation channel 16.”

“Channel 16, roger Anvil 1.” 

The Y Wing tanker they had been tracking on their sensor screens was equipped with a beacon system that made it easier for the fighters to find their flying gas station. When the counterpart system aboard the 
X Wing fighters locked up the channel briefed by the tanker pilot the X Wing and the Y Wing  navigation systems brought the craft within one hundred meters of each other and then relinquished control to the pilots again. This system had been installed for use in quiet operation areas. In a combat zone the system was switches into a stand by mode before the fighter launched. The four fighters came up behind the Y Wing in a perfect formation. Lydia slipped into position behind the modified fighter, which had already deployed the tanking probe. The probe was attached to a ten-meter long -hose, which was reeled out behind the bomber. Inflight refueling had not been amongst standard New Republic tactics but long range fighter patrols into unknown sectors to track down pirate groups and renegade warlords had made a new standard necessary.  Too many large ships had to be used to stem local conflicts or were used as diplomatic envoy platforms. Hence the resulting shortage in carriers had made it inevitable to breach this new chapter in space warfare. After initial problems Starfighter Command had been able to perfect technology and procedures. Now this delicate maneuver was standard practice in the starfighter squadrons throughout the New Republic fleet.  “The drawback with this whole thing is that you extend the time in the cockpit by a huge factor.”  As much as he loved air combat training and flying, long range flying and refueling were not amongst Lysander’s favorites. 

“Darkfire 6 check your posit.” Blue’s voice was icecold and almost made Lysander jump out of his flight suit.

“Damn.” He chided himself. He had been drifting off into thoughts and had missed the point when the computer released control back to the pilot. He throttled back and slid back into formation. After Darkfire five had topped off her tanks it was his turn. He gently nudged the fighter forward. He extended the refueling probe, which had been installed on the port side of the X Wing about a meter aft of the port torpedo port. The probe extended without any problems and the fighter obeyed every order the pilot issued through stick, throttle and rudder. The connection was established the fighter started to take gas.

“Break off, break off !!!”

The Y Wing broke away to port, Lysander threw the snubfighter into a starboard roll that sent it spiraling down for about three hundred meters before he took a look at his sensor screen.  Darkfire five was still in formation, as were his other two wingmen.

“Very well flown, Six. Thanks for playing along Anvil.”

“Anytime, Blue.”

“Six, finish the refueling.”

“As ordered, lead.”

“Perfect emergency break away Six. Very good.”

“Thanks, Mam.”

The rest of the refueling went without incidents. Lysander was still mad at himself for having missed the line up but having mastered the surprise Blue had staged for him made him feel better.

“B flight, rendezvous with C flight at point sigma then proceed to the hyperspace jump point six as briefed. 
A flight is already holding at the hyperspace jump point”

‘Captain Tark, always in control of the situation’, Lysander thought. About fifteen minutes later Darkfire lined up for the entry into hyperspace.  Beyond that lay the Dominator and a future that Lysander was not really certain he was prepared to meet. “Well, kind of late to be worried about that now is it, Rancor?”
The droid tooted and the translation scrolled across the data screen. “Hey, what do you mean I could still ask for a transfer to the ground based defense batteries on Coruscant?”

“Darkfire, time hack, thirty seconds to hyperspace, acknowledge.”

 One by one they checked in and thirty seconds later the buoy that marked hyperspace jump point six was on its own again.