Wedge was waiting in the Rogues’ briefing room when Luke finally walked through the door. The XO glanced over, then looked again. “What is that?”

Luke’s grin was sheepish. “Wes’s idea. He insisted, actually.” He handed one of the two bowls to Wedge.

“Of course. Wes would treat it like it’s a feature holofilm, not gun camera footage.” Wedge snorted. “Popped grains.”

“Bang-corn,” Luke corrected.

“You’re such an Outer Rim farmer.”

“Don’t forget fighter pilot.” Luke flicked one of the kernels in his mouth. “Wes had been making a whole batch of it. I don’t know what he was going to do with the rest of it.”

Wedge shuddered. “One of the many unwritten rules of command: don’t ask a question you don’t want the answer to.”

“I figured that one out already,” Luke said dryly. “Well, I’m prepared for the entertainment.”

“I’m sure you are.” Wedge started loading up the combined telemetry data he’d spent the last several hours compiling from the X-wings, his astromech, and the Independence‘s sensor telemetry from the engagement. “How are the Rogues?”

“Wes and Puck were making the bang-corn and seemed completely unperturbed by what happened today. Karie is shook up; Hobbie said she did well, but she’s never been in an engagement even close to that big before. Tycho is about as emotional as an ingot of durasteel. Zev and Cesi found a bottle of something strong and were trading shots, but neither of them seemed overly out of sorts.”

Wedge waited.

“Mara didn’t want to talk,” Luke said at last. “Med droids cleared her. I’d say she’s really rattled, but she didn’t give me anything to go on.”

“About what I would’ve expected,” Wedge said. “Though we’ll need to keep an eye on Neth and Jade both. Neth is so green, and Jade came way too close to being vaped. It may take a day or two before it really comes out.”

“Well, I’d guess we won’t have any missions for a few days after that ambush,” Luke said thoughtfully. “Not until the Independence has moved far, far away from where we got jumped.”

Wedge grunted his assent and queued up the telemetry. “Got your datapad?”

“Yes.” Luke fumbled his bowl of bang-corn, finally managing to set it down without spilling kernels and producing a small datapad from his pocket. “Let’s get started.”

Wedge zoomed in the footage, marking Hobbie and Neth’s X-wings, the playback highlighting them in green to keep them easy to track. “Okay, we’ll start here. You intentionally deployed them to cover the Independence opposite of the Imperial task force.”

“Right. Hobbie’s solid, but Karie is green, so I put them in the zone I expected to see the least action.”

“I’m not asking you to justify it,” Wedge said dryly. “Especially since I agree with it. Let’s see how they did.”

The entire engagement had been perhaps six minutes long from the moment the Star Destroyer reverted from hyperspace until the Independence withdrew. It took them twenty minutes of watching holograms, moving the recording forward and back, the overwhelming radio chatter a steady background noise as they discussed the pair’s tactics, maneuvers, and aggression. As Luke had expected, action in the Independence‘s shadow was light, though a steady trickle of three-ship TIE elements had kept up pressure there, attempting to strafe the Mon Calamari warship. It was standard tactics for fighter elements in a large-scale engagement; even light pressure would force the Independence to commit resources to defending its shadow, weakening its defenses where the real pressure from the Star Destroyer and most of the fighters were pushing. But Wedge and Luke weren’t looking at the larger battle, they were looking at how Hobbie and Neth had flown.

At the end of the playback, Wedge leaned back in his chair. “Thoughts?”

“Karie was timid,” Luke said. “At least in this engagement. And Hobbie wasn’t aggressive enough to pull her out of it. They did an adequate job of keeping TIEs off the Independence, but if I’d dropped a different pair in there – say, Wes and Cesi – they would’ve done a better job and killed at least twice the number of TIEs.” He frowned. “Though clear comms would have helped a lot. Karie was having a hard time hearing Hobbie’s calls.”

“Agreed, but all of us were having that issue,” Wedge pointed out. “Right now, they’re not a good pairing. Timid paired with conservative flying meant they stayed alive, took little damage, but also didn’t do much.”

“Training will help with the timidity,” Luke commented.

“Maybe. Experience will probably do more.”

They continued on to Naeco and Senesca. The engagements around the Independence‘s engines were more intense than Wedge and Luke had understood during the battle, and reviewing the footage took more than thirty minutes, with slowdowns, repeated viewing, and both men taking notes quietly before Wedge finally asked for Luke’s conclusions.

“Better than I would have guessed,” Luke commented. “But neither of them was talking much.”

“No, Puck was damn near silent,” Wedge agreed. “The maneuvering was interesting.”

“Zev was flying mostly textbook. Puck was using him as an anchor and floating all over the place.” Luke shook his head. “I don’t think that’s what you had in mind for this wingpair doctrine, was it?”

“Not exactly. It’s sort of got the shape, but not the discipline.” Wedge frowned. “One pilot should be acting as lead, the other as cover, and they can switch positions as needed on the fly. But here, it was more like two pilots flying unattached. Except Puck kept coming back to support him.”

Luke nodded. “If the TIEs had been focused on them instead of trying to cripple the Independence‘s engines, I think they would have been in a lot of trouble. Neither was really in position to cover the other.”

“More things to work on in training,” Wedge muttered, making appropriate notes. “We can’t count on bad Imperial tactics to carry us through a fight.”

By unspoken agreement, they shifted the analysis to Eirriss and Janson next. Half an hour into review, Luke called for a five-minute break to use the refresher and get a cup of caf. Wedge was tempted to go looking for a tall mug of lum, but he needed a clear head until the review was finished. It took another fifteen minutes after they reconvened to finish the review.

This time, Wedge spoke first. “That was surprisingly good,” he admitted. “Eirriss stuck with him throughout the engagement. Janson called for bracket and cover, and she responded when she could hear him. The two of them did a lot more than any single three-ship element from the air wing or off the Battle Dog.”

Luke shook his head. “Cesi was hanging on by her fingernails,” he pointed out. “Wes took lead at the beginning of the engagement and never handed it back. Cesi stuck with him the whole time and covered him, but there were at least three times I caught that Cesi had shots that she didn’t take because she was in the wingman position and Wes wouldn’t yield.”

“It worked,” Wedge said simply.

Luke snorted. “Do you remember what you told me when we first started looking at available pilots to recruit for the squadron?” When Wedge shook his head, Luke filled it in. “You can’t build a squadron around one pilot. You were referring to me, personally. Wedge, we can’t build pairs around a single pilot, either. Cesi wasn’t contributing much, just covering. The difference in performance during the fight between Wes and Cesi, and Hobbie and Karie, is that Wes was more aggressive.”

Wedge leaned back in his chair and frowned. “You might be right.”

“So, what do we review next? Our footage? Or Tycho and Mara and that disaster?”

“I wouldn’t bother reviewing our footage,” Wedge said, a bit of irritation creeping into his voice in spite of his best effort.

“Why?” Luke was genuinely curious.

“Because I hate looking at your flight telemetry.”

“But…why?”

Wedge sighed, clearing the Independence telemetry and calling up a different file he’d compiled – the engagement at Ralltiir, where Luke had escorted the Bright Wake through swarms of TIEs while Jade had chased Sarkli. “It’s easier to show you here.”

“Ralltiir,” Luke said.

“Yeah. It’s really obvious here. I’m sure I’ll see it in the Independence engagement, but this one’s obvious.” Wedge searched for words that wouldn’t sound bitter. “Luke, you fly like a big holofilm star.”

Luke blinked several times. “I don’t follow.”

Wedge highlighted Luke’s X-wing in green and a trio of TIEs in red. “These TIEs are four klicks out from the Bright Wake,” Wedge said. “At that range, they’ve still got options on how they’re going to attack.  They could stay together and break port, starboard, climb, or dive, all to get a different angle on the corvette you’re escorting, right? Or they could break formation so they attack from multiple angles simultaneously.”

“I follow you so far,” Luke said, frowning.

Wedge advanced the telemetry a few seconds. “Here, you dip your nose and bank to starboard. You move from high cover to hanging off the Bright Wake‘s starboard side.”

“Right.”

A few more seconds advanced, and the TIEs broke formation – one climbing, one breaking port, one breaking starboard. Wedge allowed the playback to continue in slow motion. Luke’s X-wing fired, hitting the TIE directly in front of him, then swept into a broad barrel roll, picking off the climbing TIE, then finally the TIE attacking the Bright Wake from port, three kills in eight seconds, all in one smooth maneuver.

“Like that,” Wedge said, trying but failing to keep complaint from his tone. “That’s probably the worst offender I’ve ever seen looking at your telemetry.”

“Because…I picked up the kills so quickly?” Luke was genuinely confused.

“You had no reason to move to the starboard position on the Bright Wake. The TIEs hadn’t committed to a maneuver yet, and they were too far away for you to get any sensor or visual indication of what they were going to do. And when they did begin their attack, you were perfectly positioned to pick off all three of them in a row.” Wedge shook his head. “That sort of coincidence happens in holofilms, not in real starfighter combat.”

Luke was studying the footage. “I’m always doing that?”

“Not always, not even usually. But when things get bad, yes, you do. It’s not usually this blatant, but it’s like you sometimes can see how a TIE formation is going to attack before they actually commit to it.” Wedge stared at him. “You didn’t know you did this?”

The younger man shook his head wordlessly.

“I’ve been assuming it’s a Jedi thing,” Wedge admitted.

“I’m not a Jedi yet,” Luke protested. “I barely know anything.”

“Then a Force thing,” Wedge said impatiently. “I’ve been studying fighter combat telemetry since I was at Skystrike, and I’ve only ever seen it show up with you, and even then, it’s rare.”

“Just when things get bad.”

Wedge nodded. “Right. So let’s look at Celchu and Jade’s telemetry.” He queued up the Independence telemetry again and began the playback.

The first ninety seconds of the engagement were, as Wedge remembered, almost textbook smooth. Celchu took the lead as they hit the first element, then called for Jade to take lead as she had the better angle on the next three TIEs. Wedge ignored his own small unease with Celchu’s flying. It’s too stiff. Almost like a droid flying, except I’ve never seen a droid that could fly that well. Then additional fighters poured out of the Independence and the Battle Dog, and confusion began to interfere. On the perfect playback, Wedge could see where Celchu called for a lead change and Jade didn’t take it because she didn’t hear it, costing them seconds and angles, with a flight element of TIEs slipping past them. Only interception by a trio of the Battle Dog‘s A-wings kept the Imperial fighters from executing a strafing run on the Independence.

And then the critical moment played out in slow motion, with Jade flying as lead and Celchu on wing. Jade called for a diving break to angle on another cluster of TIEs rising toward the Independence, and Celchu missing the call this time in the comm chatter. Suddenly they were separated, too far apart for mutual protection, and neither Jade nor Celchu realized it for a few critical moments, until Celchu’s X-wing was hammered by attacking TIEs. Luke and Wedge responding, their X-wings diving down to drive the TIEs away. Celchu looping to the Independence‘s hangar, Luke’s bad order to Jade to maintain her position.

“They were good right up until the comms failure,” Wedge said, letting the battle continue to play in slow motion as he turned to Luke. “Smooth, almost as smooth as you and I and without several months of flying together.”

Luke was still watching the playback, tracking Jade’s X-wing as she was isolated by TIEs. “It feels brittle to me.”

“Feels?”

There was hesitation before he answered. “I thought that all the way back to the practice skirmishes right before the ambush hit us,” Luke said slowly. “I think it works right now, but it won’t work later.”

Wedge frowned. “How’s that?”

“Tycho’s flying like everything is preprogrammed,” Luke said, eyes tracing the slowly-moving battle hologram. “Wedge, I think he’s still so wrapped up in grief over Alderaan that everything he does in the cockpit is by rote and muscle memory. He’s good, but I don’t think he’s himself. And I don’t know what Tycho will look like when he’s himself.”

Wedge opened his mouth to respond, then stopped and shut it as movement on the telemetry caught his eye. Wait, that was…

Luke was already rewinding the playback.

The subject of Celchu on hold, Wedge turned his full attention to the telemetry. Luke set the hologram into motion again, and Wedge watched as Mara’s X-wing, damaged, aft shield gone, fired into empty space, hitting nothing but committing to her next maneuver. A gap appeared in the TIE formation in front of her, and her damaged fighter slipped through, taking hits but continuing on.

Luke reset the playback, and they watched it again.

She maneuvered before the gap appeared.

Luke reset the playback a third time, this time magnifying the TIE formation. There’s no gap, Wedge thought, not until after she’s already committed to it. The gap appears after she’s already flying for it.

Ice formed in his stomach, a hard pit. I really wish I’d gone for the mug of lum, he thought.

“Wedge,” Luke said quietly, “tell me what I’m looking at.”

“She should have died,” Wedge said, closing his eyes. “There was no reason that gap would appear. And she shouldn’t have known it would.”

“But she did know. She committed to it before it was there.”

“Yes. She was flying like you.” The implications of his own observation began slotting into place rapidly. She was part of the Ghost crew. They had a couple Jedi. General Syndulla was always so protective of Mara, even more so than the other survivors of her crew. I thought she was going to flay Hobbie and me alive when she found out we were training Mara as a fighter pilot, but I thought it was about putting her in danger.

Syndulla knew. Mara’s a Jedi, or something like it. He stole a glance at Luke. Like Skywalker. A Force-user. Oh, kriff me.

“The lightsaber,” Luke said aloud, breaking Wedge’s reverie.

“What?” Wedge managed.

“The lightsaber.” Luke rubbed his forehead with his hand. “When I met with Rieekan, during the security review. He made a comment about me using a BlasTech DL-18 as my service weapon. I told him I didn’t; I use that Merr-Sonn Model 57 that Han gave me a few days after the Death Star battle. He said someone must’ve made a mistake when they were inventorying the Rogues’ personal weapons.”

“And Mara carries a DL-18,” Wedge finished. “She has a lightsaber? I’ve never seen that.”

“Neither have I,” Luke said. “But if she’s a Jedi, she’s been keeping it a secret.”

Syndulla is going to throw us all out an airlock without pressure suits, Wedge thought. “We’re missing pieces here. We have to be.”

“What do you know about her, Wedge? About before you and Hobbie started training her?” Luke was curious now.

“Not a lot.” Wedge frowned. “What do you know about the Phoenix cell?”

“A little,” Luke said cautiously. “I know you and Hobbie were both part of the group after you deserted from Skystrike.”

“Commander Jun Sato ran the group,” Wedge said, tracing memories. “He’d built up quite a task force. They had some Corellian CR90 corvettes, some Sphyrna corvettes, an R-22 Spearhead squadron, and a stolen Quasar Fire carrier, plus the usual mix of freighters and transports. Nothing like a Mon Calamari cruiser, of course, but it was big enough that the Empire was actively hunting them. Us. Hobbie and I flew as part of the Spearhead group.”

Luke nodded, silently listening.

“The fighter group was officially led by Hera Syndulla. She was a captain, back then. But she spent a lot of her time flying the Ghost and running non-fighter ops with her crew.” Wedge shook his head. “I didn’t know any of them well except for Hera, but she had a Jedi on her crew, a human named Kanan Jarrus. He was probably ten years older than either of us and completely blind.”

“Blind?”

“Blind,” Wedge confirmed. “His face was scarred up from whatever did it, so he usually wore a mask of sorts over half his face. I think the scarring bothered Syndulla. It didn’t slow him down much, though. And he had an apprentice, a kid maybe your age.”

“What happened to them?”

“I wasn’t there for it,” Wedge admitted, “but I heard afterwards that Jarrus died when the Empire blew up its own fuel depot on Lothal to kill him. And then his apprentice died a few weeks after that fighting Grand Admiral Thrawn.”

Luke considered the information for a moment. “And Mara was part of the Ghost crew during all this?”

“She was part of the crew when Hobbie and I jumped ship. We’d see her occasionally on the hidden base on Atollon, but she wasn’t the social type. And I never got the impression Jarrus was training her like he did his apprentice. They both carried lightsabers openly. Mara didn’t.” He shuddered. “After Thrawn wiped out Atollon, Hobbie and I transferred to Massassi Group. It was shortly after that when we caught Mara moping around the hangars on Yavin 4 and decided to teach her how to fly. She looked so lost at the time.” He met Luke’s gaze. “I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have even guessed.”

“Does General Syndulla know?”

Wedge grimaced. “It would explain why Hera’s so protective of her.”

“Because Syndulla has been trying to keep Mara invisible,” Luke agreed. “Well, there’s one way to find out for sure.”

“Long-range comms are down,” Wedge reminded him. “So you’ll need to put together a message for the next courier ship.”

“No. I’m going to ask Mara.”

The training astromech’s warning shriek saved her life for the third time in thirty seconds.

Mara inverted her X-wing and jerked back on the stick, a crude, brutal maneuver that Wedge and Hobbie would’ve scolded her for in flight training. Green laserfire flashed through the space she’d just vacated, close enough she swore she could feel the heat of the blast even through vacuum, shields, and transparisteel.

She glimpsed her scopes, a frantic look, and then she juked the X-wing hard to port, reversed to starboard, fully defensive and with only a single objective in mind: stay alive.

Kilometers away, red laserfire met green, an exchange punctuated by an explosion. Skywalker and Wedge, trying to get to me.She spared a half-second to look at her scope, saw their signals vectoring, turning away, trying to find a seam to slip through the swarms of TIEs.

But the tactical situation was ugly, and Mara knew it. The TIEs were largely still focused on attacking the Independence and her support ships, waves of TIEs steadily eroding the Rebel starfighter screen, inflicting kills and forcing the air wing elements out of position. The Independence was preparing to escape, and the Empire’s fighter wings were responding with focused, concentrated attacks in overwhelming numbers. A-wings and X-wings that slipped too far out of position were swamped and destroyed; even if the Independence escaped, the air wing would feel the casualties of today’s desperate fight for months to come.

“…ay alive, Jade,” she heard Wedge’s voice in her ear.

It was no small miracle that Mara was still alive. And then she had no more time for thought, another element of TIEs diving on her, lasers flashing. She sent the X-wing into a looping spiral, throwing off their aim, but bleeding velocity as she did, the vicious maneuvering eating away at her speed. And when I’m too slow, I won’t be able to evade anymore.

Another warning shriek, and this time Mara responded by hauling the stick back. This time the lasers glanced her rear deflectors and the overstressed generator whined and died. No aft shields.

The temptation hung in her mind, the option she never chose. She spared one more glance at her scopes; two X-wings fighting brutally through a vermin’s nest of TIEs, the sort of impossible dogfight that should kill Skywalker and Wedge, too, but somehow wouldn’t.

“…almost there…” Skywalker’s voice, straining from the pressure of combat or g-forces or both.

Don’t reach out. Don’t flare. Don’t listen. Visibility is death, Mara.

Another blast kissed her X-wing’s tail, and the fighter shuddered with the hit. A pair of red lights flashed on her console, but she could spare no concentration to see what systems had failed. Fear bubbled up from her chest, but it couldn’t find purchase; she was too focused on trying to stay alive.

Yes, visibility is death. But visibility is death later. This is death now. I’ll deal with visibility later.

And for the first time in nearly four years, Mara cracked the dam in her mind and listened.

The Force whispered. Mara reacted. Her laser cannons fired as if of their own accord, and a TIE she hadn’t seen ran into the blasts and shattered. She hauled the X-wing’s stick back and to the right, a spiraling, climbing bank to starboard. Six TIEs off her nose, all firing, a glancing blow on her forward shields, but she didn’t hesitate. A TIE broke formation where it should have held, and she slipped through the gap. Another shot at her tail, but it didn’t catch the fuselage; it caught her upper port s-foil, and then her X-wing was tumbling, almost out of control as microthrusters misfired. The R5 trainer was screaming, but she couldn’t afford to break her focus.

She listened.

The X-wing stabilized, and she fired again; only three lasers now, the laser cannon on the tip of the damaged s-foil no longer responding. Another TIE she hadn’t seen, grazed, spiraling out of control, not dead but out of position.

Mara could feel the TIEs at her back, turning impossibly quickly, trying to line her up again. And there were TIEs in front of her as well. She stomped the etheric rudder pedal, swinging the X-wing’s nose hard to starboard, the fighter slewing viciously.

She felt the gap in the swarm of TIEs between her and Skywalker and Wedge, a crack she could slip the X-wing through. It didn’t exist, but in four seconds it was going to exist.

Laser cannons flashed as she wrenched the fighter’s nose back around to where it needed to be. The red fire hit nothing, plasma spent in vain into the void of space.

But in the swarm of TIEs, a pilot flinched, and the crack opened.

Mara hurled her X-wing into the crack; the TIEs at her back fired, green bolts clawing at her tail.

---

“Deflectors double forward,” Luke managed through gritted teeth. The Arfive whistled a protest, no doubt because of the tactical situation; Luke didn’t care. “Just do it. Full throttle. Wedge?”

“Right with you, boss,” was Wedge’s grim reply.

“We’re punching through. Don’t stop.” And then Luke was firing, sometimes when the targeting computer chimed – though it was cycling through lock indications so fast it was almost impossible to keep up as TIEs flashed in and out of his sights – and sometimes by instinct.

Luke, trust your feelings. Obi-Wan Kenobi’s voice, the way he’d heard his mentor during the Death Star battle. Luke didn’t know at this moment if it was memory or if Ben was trying to guide him right now, trying to keep his wayward student alive in a very ugly fighter engagement.

It didn’t matter.

A pair of TIEs exploded, one under Luke’s guns, the other to Wedge’s precise fire. The hole was big enough for them to slip through, and Luke led the charge, ignoring a pair of shots that ricocheted off his front deflectors.

“Independence to all fighters,” Colonel S’man’s voice called, strong and clear and drowning out the constant combat chatter, “forty-five seconds until jump. Nav data incoming in thirty seconds.”

Luke was in the flow of it, and he could feel the Force. He could feel Wedge on his wing, grim and focused and determined. He could feel the rest of the Rogues, still clustered around the Independence and growing more distant, alive and terrified and determined and focused and jubilant, all at once. And ahead of him, he could feel Mara, desperate and clinging to life and shining in his senses like a star.

Wedge whooped, a jubilant shout over the comm. “She’s through!”

He could see her X-wing, battered, smoking, half a dozen TIEs pursuing her. She was slipping through a gap in the formation facing her, and then the TIEs behind her and the TIEs around her dissolved into an undisciplined mess as the Imperial pilots were forced to evade, scattering to prevent collisions. Two TIEs smashed into each other, head-to-head, exploding in a spectacular fireball, and then Mara was racing toward them.

“Reverse,” Luke ordered. Wedge was on his starboard wing, and Luke banked to starboard. Wedge banked to port. They crossed vectors, splitting and reforming now pointed back at the Independence, settling in on either side of Mara’s X-wing.

“Jade, are you okay?” Wedge asked.

Two heartbeats passed. “Still alive.”

“Is your hyperdrive still functional?” Luke asked, glancing over at the smoke pouring out of the X-wing’s tail, noted the charring on her s-foil.

“Yes. Need nav data.”

As if on cue, Luke’s R5 whistled the receipt of nav data from the Independence. “There it is.”

The TIEs between the three Rogues and the Independence milled, their forward momentum blunted by Luke and Wedge’s attack a moment before. Now, some of them were turning back to face the trio of X-wings, but it wasn’t a unified attack. “Punch back through,” Luke said, “and as soon as we’re clear, we jump.”

I will never agree to a training mission without torpedoes again, he thought ruefully. Then he opened fire, twitching the X-wing’s stick left and right, spraying laserfire inaccurately into the cloud of TIEs.

Engines burned brightly all around the Independence. All three CR90 corvettes jumped together. The medical frigate jumped next, then the Quasar Fire carrier, then the combat frigate. One of the Sphyrna corvettes jumped immediately after; the other was burning wreckage, falling behind.

Too small to see at this distance, Rebel fighters began blinking out on the scope as they made their own jumps. “Boss?” Hobbie’s voice called.

“Don’t wait for us, just jump,” Luke ordered. “We’ll see you at the rendezvous.”

Then the three of them were punching through the cloud of TIEs one more time. By instinct he threw power to his aft shields and dropped throttle a fraction; Mara and Wedge both accelerated out in front of him, and a blast that would’ve hulled Mara’s tail instead hammered his rear deflectors. Another TIE exploded, though Luke couldn’t tell which of them had scored the kill. It didn’t matter. Survival mattered.

And then they were through. The Independence‘s powerful engines flared brightly, the massive Mon Calamari ship flickered with pseudomotion, and then vanished into hyperspace.

“Jump, jump, jump,” Luke ordered rhythmically, hesitating for an extra two seconds until Wedge and Mara both made the jump before engaging his own hyperdrive.

Stars stretched into lines, and then he was safe in the ethereal swirl of hyperspace.

---

The first hyperspace jump was only three minutes in duration; just far enough to carry the Independence and her task force out of immediate danger. Wedge knew the task force would only stay at the rendezvous point for a few minutes at most, just long enough to recover starfighters, before they’d execute a second jump of short duration, and then a third, longer jump to ensure no Imperial pursuit remained.

Nonetheless, the relief he felt was as warm as a blanket when his X-wing emerged back into realspace and he could see the task force for himself. He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. If something had gone wrong, we’d be stranded. I know why Luke agreed to these training astromechs, but that was a very bad decision in hindsight. At least he and I should have been flying with our regular droids.

“Rogue Squadron, report in,” Luke ordered calmly, shaking Wedge out of his internal monologue. “And keep flying while you do it. I want us all tucked in Aux Two before the Independence jumps again.”

“Senesca and Naeco here,” Zev reported in. “Minor damage, but we’re fine.”

“Janson and Eirriss,” Wes was next, “and may I say, we’re the best-looking element in the squadron.”

“Klivian here with Neth,” Hobbie reported, and Wedge couldn’t decide if his tone was annoyed or amused. “That was more exciting than training usually is.”

“Tell me about it,” Luke said dryly. “Wedge?”

“All green,” Wedge said, only bending the truth a bit. Several warning indicators were flickering yellow on his system status board, but they weren’t red.

“Mara?”

A heartbeat passed before she answered. “I can land it. The mechanics are going to hate me.”

“We’ll take it.” Luke’s voice was sober now. “Mara and Wedge in first, then Hobbie’s element, then Zev’s element, then Wes.”

“On my wing, Jade,” Wedge said briskly, slowly throttling up and wondering just how badly damaged Mara’s X-wing actually was.

Whatever the damage was, she still handled the T-65B with the quiet precision he normally expected of her. The rest of the squadron strung out in pairs behind them, Luke falling to the very back of the formation.

Independence flight control offered no protest or complaint at the Rogues’ approach, clearing them immediately for landing in Aux Two. Wedge led the way, Mara as steady on his wing as if she’d been welded there. Two by two, the Rogues breached the magcon field and set down in their assigned slots, some rougher than others. Everyone’s dealing with the adrenaline crash, Wedge thought as he powered down the X-wing’s engines and ran through an abbreviated post-flight checklist. Went for a training mission and survived one hell of a firefight.

Ground crews swarmed over the X-wings. Wedge noted, with something between amusement and alarm, several men and a droid were equipped with firefighting equipment, all clustered around Mara’s still-smoking X-wing. He waited until one of the support staff rolled a ladder to his fighter, offered a thanks, and climbed down.

Luke met him at the base of the ladder, hair matted and soaked with sweat, tired, but blue eyes still shining. “We all made it, Wedge.”

Wedge allowed himself a small smile. “We made a lot of mistakes,” he pointed out, but it didn’t kill his smile. “But yes, we all made it. All the Rogues, anyway. The air wing took losses.”

Luke’s smile faded. “They did. That was an ugly fight.” He looked away for a moment, then met Wedge’s gaze again. “The Empire knew exactly where we were. The Independence, I mean.”

“Noticed that, too, did you?”

“Yes. That Star Destroyer came in exactly on the Independence‘s heading. They forced us to redirect and calculate a new jump. If they’d come in almost any other way, the task force would’ve had a clean escape. But by blocking the vector, we had to calculate new jumps, execute new maneuvers, and actually fight a battle.”

“Exactly,” Wedge said with something approaching grim satisfaction. Luke is learning to look at the bigger picture, too.

“Okay, immediate needs. Tell me if I’m missing anything.” Luke started ticking off items by fingertip. “First, we run all the Rogues through medical and make sure no one’s picked up an injury they’re not aware of. Second, we make sure all the maintenance is covered on the X-wings. Third, we write up our after-action report to Rieekan.” He paused for a moment. “And somewhere in there, I suppose we need to make sure everyone eats and sleeps, too. That ambush took a lot out of us.”

“The after-action report can wait,” Wedge contradicted. “It needs to get written, yes, but it’s not urgent. Before we write our official reports, I want to pull all the telemetry from our X-wings. Gun camera holos, astromech recordings, maybe anything I can pull from the Independence‘s recording of the battle, too.”

Luke looked at him dubiously. “I suppose you can do that while I shepherd the Rogues through medical and mess hall. But why the telemetry?”

“Because you and I are going to look through every second of it,” Wedge said dryly. “Our training run today was meant to test and train our new two-ship element doctrine, right? We just fought our way out of an ambush using that with training loadouts. We should pull the data now and review it while it’s still fresh in our heads so we can figure out what works, what didn’t, what we need to change, and where the gaps are.” He grimaced. “There are going to be a lot of gaps. We were still thinking in three-ship elements.”

Luke’s face was stone. “You mean the part where I almost got Mara killed.”

“Not just you,” Wedge cautioned. “I heard you give the order and didn’t think the implications through. That’s on both of us.”

“Alright. Pilots first, then X-wings, then telemetry.” Luke rubbed his face wearily. “Is there a part in there where you and I sleep?”

“Not today.”

---

Luke was on his way back from medical when he saw a familiar silhouette in the corridor, heading away from him, toward a bank of turbolifts. He picked up his pace, bumping into several ship officers before he could reach her. “Leia!” he called.

The Princess of Alderaan paused at the sound of her name and turned. “Luke!”

He finally reached her. “I didn’t know you were on the Independence,” he said, a bit out of breath. “How long have you been here?”

“I arrived late last night on a courier ship,” she said with a smile. “I came from Mako-Ta.”

“Are you staying here long?”

Leia shook her head. “I came here to meet with Captain Verrack and General Rieekan, along with the courier packet.” Her lips twisted into a frown. “We’re going to be relying on couriers for longer than I’d hoped.”

Now it was Luke’s turn to frown. “Couriers?”

“We lost our long-range communications network during the evacuation of Yavin,” she explained. “It’s made coordination impossible. All data exchanges right now are being done by fast courier ships. The information we brought last night included new protocols for establishing secure long-range comms for our task forces by using the Empire’s own Holonet relays.” Leia shook her head. “Just over twelve hours after we brought the long-range comms online, a Star Destroyer task force appears knowing exactly where we were.”

“So the comms aren’t just down, they’re compromised,” Luke said grimly, the implications settling in.

Leia nodded. “We broke the link when the ambush hit. We had a channel open with the Defiance at the time. So now we’re scattering couriers to warn everyone off from using the new protocols.”

“This is why I’m a fighter pilot,” Luke said wryly. “Blowing things up is much simpler.”

“A fighter pilot and a walking complaint,” Leia added dryly.

Luke winced. “Colonel S’man’s reports?”

“Oh, yes,” the Princess said with a serious nod, though there was a sparkle in her eye. “Naming your unit Rogue Squadron really didn’t help his opinion of you.”

Luke tried unsuccessfully to keep the grin off his face. “Speaking of the Rogues, you should come meet them. They’re a great group of pilots.”

“I’ll try to make time, but I’m already late for a meeting with Rieekan and Dodonna.” She offered a smile. “I’m not promising, but I’ll try.”

“That’s all I can ask,” Luke said with an accepting nod. It’s not all I can ask, but it’s all I can expect, he corrected himself silently. “It’s good to see you.”

“You, too, Luke. Stay safe, alright?” Then she was in motion again, heading to the turbolift.

Luke watched her go, regret gnawing at him. There’s never enough time. She’s an Alderaanian princess and a figurehead of the Rebellion. You’re a farmboy-turned-fighter-pilot. She already gives you more time than she can afford.

She really would like the Rogues, though.

Wedge looked around the Aux Two hangar from the ladder of his X-wing. Sublight engines thrummed and shrieked in turn as pilots and ground crew conducted preflight tests. Fuel lines were being pulled back and rolled up. Astromechs whistled, with tones ranging from eager to spiteful. Support teams swarmed over ten of the twelve X-wings, preparing them for launch.

He slid down the ladder and caught Luke’s eye. Luke nodded and whistled sharply, the sound piercing through the din of a hangar in action. The Rogues responded, gathering around their commander. Wedge timed his arrival so the rest of the pilots beat him there by a few steps, closing the circle himself.

“This is a training exercise,” Luke said, his voice loud enough to carry to all the pilots but not much further. “Our X-wings are configured just for this. No proton torpedoes, limiters on the laser cannons, and R5 training astromechs.” He looked from pilot to pilot. “The astromechs have full command override capability and will take control of your fighter if your maneuver would carry you into a collision. They also have no hypernav capability.”

“Why the limitations?” Zev Senesca asked.

“Compromise,” Luke said dryly. “The last time Rogue X-wings were in space, one of our own tried to shoot up a friendly and escaped. You all ran simulations with the new wing pair doctrine yesterday; today, we’re going to do it in space. By accepting limited loadouts, the air wing commander dropped his objections to our live flight exercises. Questions?”

“We don’t have numbers yet,” Cesi Eirriss stated.

“Some of us do,” Puck said cheerfully.

Luke raised a hand to forestall further comment. “That wasn’t a question, but you’re right, we don’t have numbers yet. That’s because we’re trying a new doctrine and we’re not anywhere close to assigning permanent pairs yet. For this flight, we’ll be using last names as designation. Skywalker, Antilles, Eirriss, Neth, and so forth.”

“Who flies together?” Jade asked.

Luke looked over. “Captain?”

Wedge cleared his throat. “For this training exercise, Skywalker and I will be paired. Our normal protocol calls for command staff to be separated, but for this flight we’ll be flying together both as example and so we can break apart to observe and instruct as necessary. Like Commander Skywalker said, these aren’t permanent pairs. As for the rest of you,” he scanned the group, finding each pilot as he called their names, “Klivian and Neth. Celchu and Jade. Senesca and Naeco. Janson and Eirriss.”

“This is just a training exercise,” Luke repeated. “We’re launching, practicing basic maneuvers, and if things look good we’ll do some aggressor combat, two versus two.” He smiled. “I know all of you are missing real flight as much as I am.”

Damn straight, Wedge thought. I haven’t been back out into space since we left Yavin. Stars, I’ve missed it.

“Any more questions? Great. Mount up and prepare to launch. I’ll call pair order when we have clearance from Independence traffic control. Let’s go!”

The Rogues scattered to their X-wings. Wedge saw Janson say something to Eirriss, but over the growing cacophony of engines, he couldn’t make it out; Eirriss’s eye-roll was obvious, though. Wedge lingered long enough to have a moment to talk to Luke.

Wedge offered a smile. “It’ll be good to fly something other than a desk.”

Luke’s blue eyes sparkled. “Wedge, Wedge, you’re so good at flying the desk.”

“No one should be irreplaceable,” Wedge said dryly, “which means you need to learn it, too.”

“Maybe we should save the work for Janson and Naeco. It might inspire them to rein in their instincts,” Luke joked, then sobered. “Are you ready for this? First real flight with the new doctrine?”

Wedge nodded slowly. “It’s just a training flight, Luke. But it’s the first step toward something better.” He clapped the younger man on the shoulder. “Let’s get into space and show the newcomers that we both deserve our reputations.”

---

“Break port!” Luke called, albeit too slow; Wedge was already rolling out to the left, spoiling Tycho’s shot before the low-powered training lasers could connect. Got you now, Luke thought as he rolled in tandem with Wedge’s maneuver, anticipating Tycho’s own maneuver to latch back onto Wedge’s tail.

The training astromech socketed behind him where Artoo should have been warbled a warning. Luke spared a glance at his rear scope and the corner of his lips turned upward. Mara was sliding in behind him, going for the kill. The four of them were strung into a line that Wedge was even now dragging into a spiral: Wedge at the front, Tycho latched on his tail, Luke aiming at Tycho, and now Mara at the back trying to get a solid lock on Luke.

“Pincer!” Luke called, pulling back hard on the stick and swinging it back to the right. Wedge continued his port spiral, Luke now turning to starboard. Luke pulled back harder, cheating the turn, shedding speed but tightening the loop too hard for Mara to get a clean shot. And then, as he had intended, Wedge’s X-wing was two hundred meters out in front of his, facing him, leveling out of his turn. Luke squeezed, the laser cannons firing anemically toward his wingman; Wedge was firing as well, his own blasts slipping just past Luke in turn.

Tycho ran into Luke’s lasers and his shields lit up brightly. On targeting display, his X-wing changed to a kill marker, Tycho’s astromech having registered the fire as lethal damage. He glanced back and was rewarded with his own rear shields taking a hit before Mara broke off, taking hits from Wedge in return. Luke pulled back on the stick, his fighter’s nose coming up and over as he reversed to slide into position off Wedge’s wing.

Mara had her X-wing dancing, but deprived of her wingman and fully on the defensive against Wedge Antilles, the outcome wasn’t in doubt. She evaded for an extra handful of seconds before the glancing hits finally added up enough for her astromech to flag her as dead.

“You make that look easy,” Wes commented, his voice crackling over the comm.

“Janson, if you spent half the time training that you spend preening in front of a mirror, you’d be that good, too,” Cesi deadpanned.

“End of exercise,” Wedge said, all professional. “We have enough fuel for a few more engagements. Klivian and Neth, you’re up next. Senesca and Naeco, you’re aggressor. Pull out to four kilometers and prepare to engage.”

Acknowledgements echoed, and Luke watched as the pairs of X-wings maneuvered away to create enough distance. It’s working, he thought, as he mentally reviewed the paired engagements in his head. Though we need to rotate pairings and see who works together well. This is a really solid foundation.

Luke had known from the familiarization sims that Neth tended toward uncertainty in the cockpit. Some of it was honestly earned; she was still learning the timing and distance estimate differences between the Headhunter she’d trained on and a T-65B, but with veteran Hobbie as her wingman, she’d done well, anchoring off his combat instincts to guide her own. Puck was chaos in person but only a bit too aggressive in the cockpit; pairing him with Zev took a bit of edge off Puck’s flying but also pushed Zev into more aggressive flying than the older man would normally default to, making them both the better for it. Wes’s jokes and sloppy flying turned lethally efficient when hard light started flying, and it forced Cesi to focus to keep up with him, pushing her harder than she’d push herself.

Tycho and Mara were eerily smooth together, a pairing that looked machine-like in precision and had proven to be the best of the eight Rogues running through paired exercises. In private comms, Wedge had told him that they were the best example of the new doctrine, but to Luke it felt wrong – brittle in some way he couldn’t define. I’ll figure out why it looks wrong later, he told himself. This is just the first exercise.

The four Rogues had spread themselves out and were circling at four kilometers, waiting for Wedge to call the beginning of the engagement, when Luke’s comm board lit up with a signal from the Independence, twenty kilometers away.

“…Cronau radiation event,” a distant officer said tightly. “Signals emerging from hyperspace.”

“Hold exercise!” Luke snapped.

“It’s an Imperial Star Destroyer and support ships!” the comm officer called, an edge of panic in his voice. “Star Destroyer reverting from hyperspace on our vector! All ships, battle stations!”

“Wedge, did you hear that?” Luke asked tightly, turning the nose of his X-wing toward the distant Independence.

“I heard it. Rogues, form up by pairs.” Wedge was already sliding into the wingman position off Luke’s starboard wing.

Distant contacts blizzarded onto Luke’s tactical display. “Artoo, give me…” he paused for a moment, shook his head. “Arfive, give me a breakdown of the Imperial task force.”

The training R5 whistled, and a listing of ship classes scrolled over the display. Luke bit back annoyance, assembling the tactical picture in his head. Artoo would know exactly how I wanted to see this.

The biggest ship of the task force was an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer, designation unknown, and it had reverted from hyperspace precisely on the Independence‘s vector. Had it come in virtually any other way, the Independence could have executed a short hyperspace leap of a few lightyears on its current heading to escape, gather its forces, and change vectors for its next jump with relative impunity; but the Star Destroyer’s arrival had been precisely calculated to force them to re-vector and thus require calculating an entirely new jump.

They knew exactly where we were.

Smaller Imperial ships also were listed on the readout: a pair of Imperial Nebulon-B class frigates, heavily armed and armored and each carrying a squadron of TIEs; six Raider corvettes, likely with a three-fighter element of TIE fighters in their small internal hangar; an Arquitens-class light cruiser, fast and maneuverable but lightly armed; and worse yet, a pair of boxy Ton Falk-class carriers, each capable of carrying a full wing of TIE fighters.

The Independence wasn’t alone, of course; its own task force boasted a trio of Corellian CR90 corvettes, one of which was the battered Bright Wake that Luke and Mara had escorted back from Ralltiir; a pair of Sphyrna corvettes; two Rebel-refit Nebulon-B frigates, vessels that traded the armor and fighter complement of the Imperial originals for speed, maneuverability, and endurance, though one of the Rebel frigates was outfitted for medical support, not war; and finally, a single Quasar Fire-class light carrier, which could carry half the fighters of a single Ton Falk.

Luke ran the math in his head, and the answer was grim. The Independence could outfight any Star Destroyer in the Imperial navy, but the sheer number of TIEs the Imperial task force had brought to bear was staggering – over twenty squadrons’ worth, more than a single Star Destroyer task force could usually field. If Colonel S’man can get every single fighter in the air, we’re still looking at three-to-one odds at best.

And Rogue Squadron isn’t armed for this fight, he concluded, his heart sinking. With no torpedoes, we don’t have the punch to fight anything heavier than TIEs. And with these training droids, we can’t jump to hyperspace unless someone feeds us nav data or we dock with the Independence.

“Arfive,” he called, “disable the limiters. Full power to the guns. Override code Skywalker-One-Nine. Broadcast override to the squadron.”

The systems display blinked, the laser cannon icon changing from yellow to green.

“Luke, we’re not ready for this fight,” Wedge said tightly.

“I agree, but it came to us. We have to fight our way out.” Luke toggled his broadcast over to the Independence channel. “Independence control, this is Rogue Leader. I’ve got five X-wing elements, limited loadout, no long-range nav. Don’t leave us behind when you jump. Where do you need us?”

“Rogue Leader, I’m handing you over to fighter tactical,” the comms officer said. “We’re scrambling alert fighters, but it’ll take two or three minutes to get everyone else into space.”

Luke grimaced, but it was hardly unexpected. If S’man didn’t have standing orders to keep all fighters fueled and armed, it’d be worse, he told himself as he switched back to broadcast to the squadron. “Alright, Rogues, listen up. We don’t have the firepower to go after anything big, so we’re going to screen the Independence. No matter what happens, stay with your wingman. Call for help when you need it.” The X-wings were accelerating now, and distantly Luke could make out the flashes of distant turbolaser blasts exchanged between the Independence and the Star Destroyer. “Colonel S’man is scrambling his people. We keep the TIEs away, we don’t chase, and we support each other.” He considered for a moment. “Until we’re vectored somewhere else, we’ll protect the Independence in zones. Celchu and Jade cover the bow, Eirriss and Janson cover port, Klivian and Neth cover starboard, Senesca and Naeco cover the engines.”

Distantly, the Independence was vectoring to starboard. The hardest attacks would likely come against the cruiser’s bow and port side. “Wedge and I will stay dorsal and support wherever the TIEs come in thickest.” There were a hundred things he wanted to say. None of them would help. “May the Force be with us,” he said grimly.

Ahead, the task force’s alert fighters were already engaging the attacking TIEs. Imperial squadrons were bleeding into space from the Ton Falks and the Star Destroyer. Buy time, Luke told himself. Keep your people alive and buy time.

---

The pair doctrine stood up well for the first ninety seconds of the engagement.

Wedge had understood Luke’s tactical choices immediately. The strongest pairs from the training skirmishes – Celchu and Jade, Eirriss and Janson – were assigned to the zones of the Independence likely to come under the heaviest attack. Hobbie and Neth were skirmishing with stray TIEs, but nothing like the concentrated hammer of TIEs hitting the bow and port, both exposed to the Star Destroyer task force’s vector. Zev and Puck were fighting a steady-but-small flow of TIEs attempting to cripple the cruiser’s engines. Luke had kept the two of them dancing back and forth between the bow and starboard zones, supporting whichever pair was suffering more focused fire.

The comms stayed alive with chatter: Celchu, clipped and precise and trained; Jade, terse and controlled; Janson, his usual jolly demeanor replaced by ice and fury; Eirriss, brutal and fearless. Hobbie’s tones were unchanged, Neth was clearly nervous but keeping it under control, Senesca sounding nearly bored, and Naeco stressed in a way Wedge hadn’t expected. He didn’t have time to worry about it, though, because the Imperial onslaught was relentless. Luke kept his comms restrained, calling warnings when he saw danger and orders when an element drifted out of position, but he barely spoke at all to his own wingman, apparently unconcerned with Wedge’s ability to keep up.

TIEs attacked in waves, three-ship elements – three, six, a dozen at a time. Rogue pairs met them, forced them apart, claimed kills, denied them momentum. The Independence‘s alert fighters – three-ship elements of X-wings, A-wings, and old Z-95 Headhunters – fought ferociously, throwing themselves into the path of TIE units to force them to vector away, scoring few kills but taking no losses, either.

Then, just over a minute and a half of combat time later, the Independence and the task force’s carrier, the Battle Dog, began launching more fighters. A-wing interceptors rocketed into space and were quickly joined by new flight elements of X-wings, turning the odds the Rogues faced from impossible to merely horrific. The pressure eased as the waves of TIEs that had been crashing through and over the defending Rebels suddenly had twice as many enemies to fight. The comms crackled with new voices: cries of triumph, screams of loss, curt orders.

For all his planning, Wedge hadn’t reckoned on the sheer amount of comm traffic during an engagement involving more than Rogue Squadron.

“…ter vectoring toward…” Luke’s comm was clear for just a moment.

Then a sea of voices washed him out.

“…break port and you should…”

“…celerate to full throttle!”

“…all over me, give me cov…”

“…break, break, break!”

“…take the wingman, I’m on…”

Wedge bit back a curse. Comm discipline. We need a private channel for the squadron, and we need to filter our comms. The new doctrine requires more coordination, at least right now. But I can’t solve that now.

And then a voice, barely familiar but strained: “Celchu, Skywalker. I’m hit. Lower port engine is offline.”

Luke’s X-wing immediately rolled and cut down, diving from their position over the Independence‘s dorsal hull. Wedge accelerated, staying with him, barely.

“Celchu, withdraw to the Independence hangar,” Luke ordered. “Right now. Land in the main bay. They have emergency crews ready.” His X-wing was already firing at a throng of TIEs pursuing Celchu and Jade’s fighters; one TIE erupted in a burst of fire and light. Wedge opened up a heartbeat later, another TIE dissolving under his focused fire.

“Jade…ere…you want me?” Mara’s voice came next as the TIE formation lost cohesion, scattering out and letting Tycho’s crippled X-wing go.

“Stay…” Luke managed before his voice disappeared into the din of other pilots calling success and failure and maneuvers.

Luke and Wedge flashed through the engagement, guns firing continuously. Wedge glanced back and saw Tycho’s fighter, smoke and flame pouring from the damaged engine, vanish into the Independence‘s primary hangar. He’s safe at least. Or will be, as soon as the Independence jumps out.

Y-wing fighter-bombers finally emerged from the Independence, adding even more voices to the channel. “…pairing for attack run on…”

Wedge shook his head, following Luke in a climb back to their high position, looking for the next trouble spot. Janson and Eirriss were engaged and, to Wedge’s critical eye, separated wider than he’d like, but the Battle Dog‘s Headhunter squadron was in the midst of the furball with them, providing enough concentrated firepower to keep the two Rogues from being overwhelmed.

“All fighters,” Colonel S’man’s voice boomed over the comm, “Independence has revectored and is calculating jump. We need two minutes. If you’re damaged, fall back to a carrier. If you’re hyperspace-capable, prepare for nav data.”

Two minutes. We can do two minutes. “All pairs, report in,” Luke called, but the responses were almost impossible to hear in the mix of chatter from the air wing.

“…need help…” slipped into Wedge’s ear, and his heart stopped.

Pairs. Tycho’s aboard the Independence. Which means Mara is alone. Instantly, he saw his own blind spot, Luke’s blind spot: the new organization, the new strategy was two-ship elements. Wingpairs. Tycho had taken crippling damage, been ordered to withdraw, which was the only reasonable course of action.

But Luke and Wedge were both thinking in three-ship elements. Tycho’s withdrawal should have been a red flag, an immediate warning to pull Mara back, have her join up with another element, but neither one of the squadron’s leaders had registered a single fighter’s loss as leaving a pilot isolated, because in a three-ship element, she wouldn’t have been. Instead, Luke had ordered her to maintain position, unsupported, and neither he nor Wedge had registered the danger.

“Hang on, Mara,” Luke was already saying, voice tight, having apparently run the same calculations and come to the same conclusion. “We’re coming.” His X-wing was heeling over and accelerating, throttle wide open, and Wedge was a quarter-second behind.

Wedge stared at his scope for a moment. Mara’s X-wing had been forced out of position, at least one Imperial commander having seen the vulnerability and pounced. “Stay alive,” he muttered. “Stay alive.“

General Rieekan himself escorted Tycho Celchu to Rogue Squadron.

Remember, these are the people who pulled you off Dantooine, Tycho told himself as he followed the general through the corridors of the Mon Calamari cruiser. Make a good impression.

He didn’t find his own direction to be convincing, most likely because he didn’t really feel anything at all. Not anger, not rage, not despair, not sorrow – just an all-consuming numbness with a touch of unreality.

Tycho’s surreal feeling wasn’t helped by the flimsiplast sign posted at the end of a corridor with handwritten block letters: ROGUE TERRITORY, with a smaller add-on in a different set of handwriting underneath it scrawled Trespassers will be mocked.

He stopped for a moment and re-read the sign. What sort of unit am I signing up for? he wondered, then caught a hint of a smile on Rieekan’s face.

“At this point, the air wing commander is trying to keep Skywalker’s unit quarantined away from his pilots,” Rieekan said dryly.

“I can only imagine,” Tycho said, shaking his head. “If someone had put up a sign like this on the Accuser, he’d be on report before the day was over.”

“You’ll find we do things differently. Though how much of that is Commander Skywalker’s idea, and how much of it is Lieutenant Naeco and Lieutenant Janson, remains to be seen.” He gestured to Tycho. “Let’s meet your squadron.”

The corridor had four doors on either side of it, with handwritten nametags, a clear indication that the rooms beyond were quarters for members of the squadron. The doors nearest the flimsiplast sign showed Skywalker and Antilles. Next in line was a tag that had been blacked out; across the corridor from it was Klivian. Further down, Jade and Naeco, then Janson and Eirriss. Then the corridor ended in a much larger room with a jumble of furniture: an overstuffed sofa, mismatched chairs and tables, an entertainment holoprojector, and a caf maker clearly labeled Property of Independence Air Wing space-taped to the wall. Three more corridors branched away from the common room, running in different directions; one clearly terminated in a hangar, with the nose of a starfighter visible perhaps fifty meters away through an open hatch.

A handful of Rogue pilots were present in the common area: a Twi’lek woman glued to a datapad but engaged in a barbed exchange with a handsome, loudmouthed pilot whose dark hair was too shaggy for Imperial regulations; beyond them, sitting at a table with an unmistakable smirk, was a third dark-haired man watching the pair with clear interest. The dark-blond pilot from the U-wing – Hobbie, he wanted to be called Hobbie – sat on the sofa with a cup of caf in hand and an exasperated look on his face. Next to him, her expression focused as she reassembled a blaster currently lying in pieces on a side table, was a girl with red-gold hair and green eyes. No, not a girl. Young woman. She’s the one from Dantooine, he realized belatedly.

The shaggy-haired man and the Twi’lek were arguing. “No, I did not replace your political treatise with Fifty Shades of Ryloth. Yes, it’s funny, but I don’t have a copy!”

General Rieekan cleared his throat.

Pilots turned, jumped to their feet, snapped salutes.

Rieekan gravely returned the salute. “Where are Skywalker and Antilles?”

Hobbie spoke, his tone flat. “Hangar.”

Rieekan frowned and continued through the Rogues’ lounge, Tycho in tow.

Skywalker and Antilles were indeed in the hangar, standing over a green-and-white R5 astromech. A blue-and-white R2 unit was nearby, its whistling completely indecipherable to Tycho but carrying a tone that he’d swear was unhappy. Nearby were two more pilots Tycho didn’t recognize: a woman perhaps a year or two older than the young woman on Dantooine, and an older man with salt-and-pepper hair and the weight of at least a decade of flying on his shoulders.

All four of the pilots snapped to attention when they spotted Rieekan. 

“Commander. Captain.” Rieekan nodded at each in turn. “Lieutenant Tycho Celchu, formerly of the Imperial TIE corps.”

The younger of the two men, tanned, blond, slim, blue-eyed, but with the sort of muscular physique visible even under the loose uniform that spoke of hard manual labor, stepped forward and offered a handshake instead of a salute. “Luke Skywalker,” he identified himself. “I’m glad to finally meet you. I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself when we got you back to the Independence.”

Tycho took the offered handshake. “The pleasure is mine, Commander. I owe you for getting me off Dantooine.”

Skywalker shook his head. “The information you brought was more than enough payment for that.” He met Tycho’s gaze evenly. “TIE pilot? Have you flown anything Incom?”

“Not much,” Tycho admitted. “We trained and flew Z-95 Headhunters in the simulators on Prefsbelt IV, but that was part of a familiarization exercise so we understood how our opponents flew and maneuvered. I haven’t sat in a real Incom cockpit.”

“We’ll have some familiarization work to do, then,” the other young man said, his accent Corellian. Tycho studied him for a moment, and the Corellian caught him looking. “Do I look like the wanted holos?”

Tycho snorted. “I wouldn’t know. I heard your name, and Klivian’s, plenty of times after you jumped ship at Skystrike. I used to think you took the coward’s way out.” His expression hardened, but no ache surfaced, just the all-consuming numbness. “Then Alderaan happened.”

Antilles nodded. “Sometimes the truth is hard to swallow because you’re too invested in the lie,” he said quietly, no condemnation in his tone. “I had no real love for the Empire when I signed up, and the few people left in my life told me it was a bad idea. I get it.”

“You want to fly with Rogue Squadron?” Skywalker asked, a quietly hopeful note audible in the question.

“I’d like to fly,” Tycho said, “and General Rieekan thought I would fit here.”

“We’ll need to get you checked out on the sims and run you through an X-wing familiarization program,” Antilles noted, “but we could use you. We’re still building the squadron out to full strength, and a veteran pilot would be a great help.”

Tycho hesitated a moment. “My Imperial background isn’t going to be a problem, is it?”

Antilles snorted. “Hardly. Don’t misunderstand; most of the pilots in the squadron have personal reasons to dislike the Empire, but they’re not going to take it out on you.”

“You’re fighting for your own ideals now,” Skywalker added. “It will feel different. It will take time. But we’re glad to have you.”

Tycho nodded slowly. “I guess we’d better get me assigned quarters and introduce me to the rest of the squadron.”

Rieekan looked at the green-and-white astromech, then back at Skywalker. “This is a training droid, isn’t it?” he asked. “Are you having trouble getting proper astromechs requisitioned for your squadron?”

Skywalker shook his head. “The Rogues have been grounded for a week,” he said. “Yes, we’re short on droids, but Wedge and I were discussing a training flight. Live flight, not simulators,” he clarified. “Given the security review and what happened with Sarkli, Colonel S’man was unhappy with the first training plan we filed with the Independence traffic controllers. We were looking at restricting our X-wings to a training setup for our first exercise – laser cannons on low power, no torpedoes, and training astromechs without long-range nav capability.”

Rieekan grunted. “That would prevent just about anything short of a pilot trying to ram someone with their X-wing.”

“Simulators are all well and good, but the Rogues are climbing the bulkheads,” Skywalker said with a small smile.

Rieekan frowned. “You don’t answer to S’man, Commander.”

“No, but we’re operating off the ship where he’s responsible for ensuring traffic safety,” Skywalker pointed out. “A little compromise here won’t hurt us and maybe earn us some goodwill. Colonel S’man isn’t our enemy, General, not really.”

Tycho felt a small pang of confusion. I can’t imagine a squadron commander in the TIE corps making changes to his training plans to accommodate someone completely outside his own chain of command. How does the Rebellion fight like this?

“Proceed as you see fit, Commander Skywalker, but if you need me to push back to ensure your squadron can train, let me know,” Rieekan said at last. “The new tactics you and Antilles are suggesting look promising. I’m not convinced your squadron can actually fight this way, but I do think it’s worth the attempt.”

“Thank you, General,” Skywalker said. “Wedge, do you want to get Tycho set up with quarters? I’m going to take Zev and Karie over to the simulator bay.”

Antilles nodded. “Come with me, Lieutenant,” he said. “We’ll get you settled in and sweep your quarters for sabotage.”

Tycho raised an eyebrow. “Sabotage?”

“Naeco,” Antilles said dryly, as if the name explained everything. “I’ll catch you up on what you need to know about your new squadron before we run you through X-wing orientation tomorrow.”

---

The simulator pod was convincing enough that Karie Neth felt like she was really strapped into the cockpit of a T-65 X-wing.

“This is the last mission in your familiarization sequence,” Commander Skywalker’s voice said calmly in her ear as the displays lit, surrounding her with a simulacrum of hyperspace. “Zev, are you online?”

“Waiting, sir,” Zev drawled calmly.

“Your final mission for the familiarization run is the three-to-one odds dogfight against TIE fighters,” the commander’s voice continued. “But with Rogue Squadron modifications. You’ll be flying as a two-ship element instead of a three-ship. You’ll be engaged by six TIE fighters. Destroy both TIE elements and survive. You have command of your element.”

Karie swallowed. “Why not a three-ship element?”

Commander Skywalker sounded amused. “Life is change, Karie. You’ve got thirty seconds before reversion.” The channel clicked and the commander was gone.

I have command. She swallowed again. “Blue Leader, Blue Two, report status,” she said with only a bit of waver.

“Blue Two, Blue Leader. Fully armed and ready. Shields green. Weapons green. What’s our play?”

Karie watched the seconds tick down on her in-flight clock. “This sim throws the TIEs at us in waves, not all six at once. Proton torpedoes for the first wave,” she decided. “I break left, you break right. We target the TIE on our side of the formation. Whoever the middle TIE turns toward turns away. The unthreatened X-wing goes for the kill.”

“Copy, Blue Leader.” Zev’s tone was unflappable.

Karie closed her eyes and willed some of her wingmate’s steadiness into her own brain.

The timer hit zero, and hyperspace dissolved into star lines, then small, pinprick stars. Her astromech whistled a warning, painting TIEs on her HUD. “First wave, twenty seconds out,” Karie warned. “S-foils to attack position. Remember, break and bracket their formation.” Her actions followed her words, her X-wing cutting to port for several seconds even as Zev broke to starboard, putting hundreds of meters between them before they reoriented on the TIEs.

The TIE formation had shifted, all three of the fighters orienting on Zev. Karie shifted her weapons control over to proton torpedoes, the targeting computer flickering and beeping as it tried to lock onto her selected TIE. The reticle finally turned red and she fired, loosing one warhead toward the TIE formation.

A split-second later, Zev also fired a proton torpedo, then turned, his engines flaring brightly as he firewalled his throttle. The TIEs banked after him, their formation losing some of its cohesion through the maneuver.

Karie’s torpedo caught her target squarely in the middle of its right solar array, the panel shattering before the explosion consumed the fighter. Zev’s torpedo, unfortunately, overshot its target, banking around as it tried to maneuver back into a collision.

She glanced at her rangefinder and allowed herself a wince. Bracketed too wide. This shot is going to be long. With no better option available, she settled her target pipper on the lead TIE and squeezed the trigger. The X-wing’s guns fired in rapid staccato sequence, unleashing an intimidating hail of red laserfire. The lead TIE broke away, off of Zev’s tail; his wingman followed, still holding formation.

“Zev, reverse,” Karie called. “They’re coming around.”

“Twenty seconds to next wave,” Zev said tightly, his X-wing banking hard, shedding speed to bring the nose around more quickly.

The lead TIE settled in for a head-to-head with Karie. “Shields double-front,” she ordered her droid, nudging her sights onto the TIE. At maximum range, she started firing again, a steady-but-inaccurate rain of deadly plasma.

Return fire from the TIEs splashed against her shields, but the doubled-up protection deflected it away long enough for Zev’s tardy torpedo to finally catch up with the wingman. The TIE exploded in an argent ball of fire, and the third TIE, buffeted by the blast, tried to break away. Karie pounced, closing to nearly point-blank range as the TIE tried to slip past her but instead got a full burst from her X-wing’s guns at eighty meters away.

“Second element is on us!” Zev called, strain in his voice.

Karie banked after him, saw his X-wing dancing among an emerald firestorm as all three of the TIEs opened fire on him. Karie firewalled her throttle, X-wing leaping forward, closing fast.

Too fast.

She managed a snap shot on one of the TIEs, the blast shearing through a strut and sending the Imperial fighter spiraling away, out of control and out of the fight, but then she was past them. Both TIEs broke off of Zev and latched onto her tail. “Zev!” she called tightly, a cry for help in only one word, as she banked her X-wing port and starboard, trying to force the TIEs to overshoot.

A stray blast caught her X-wing, and a whine ran through the spaceframe, more felt than heard. “Shields double aft,” she bit out. Stupid, didn’t correct them before I engaged. A red light blinked on her board; the lower starboard laser cannon showed a fire control malfunction. No time for that.

One of the TIEs finally overshot, but it was in and out of her gunsights too fast for Karie to squeeze the trigger. The other exploded; Zev came up behind her, settling in on her wing.

The last TIE ran.

Karie stared at the retreating dot for a long moment. “Let it go,” she decided. “Arfive, give me our return hyperspace nav.” She brought the X-wing around, Zev on her wing, onto the appropriate course and engaged the hyperdrive. Instead of stars stretching into starlines, however, the canopy went black and, a moment later, rose to admit the harsh light of the sim bay.

“Sim complete,” Commander Skywalker said with a smile. “Good improvisation. And good instincts not to chase.”

“Did I pass?” Karie asked.

The commander laughed. “Yes, I’d say you passed. You did a great job adapting when I changed the parameters of the mission.” He offered her a sunny smile, and it occurred to Karie that he was no older than she was. “We’ll be going out in the real thing in a day or two. You’re ready for it.”

“Commander, why the change from a three-ship element to two-ship?” Zev asked from the next pod over.

“You saw the work Wedge was doing during lockdown,” Commander Skywalker said. “The X-wing versus TIE scenarios on the table? We’re going to train in two-ship elements, not three-ship.”

Karie frowned. “That’s not standard.”

“No, it’s not,” the commander admitted. “But Rogue Squadron isn’t a standard unit. We’re going to try new tactics and doctrine, figure out what works and what doesn’t, and hit the Empire with new strategy that they’re not ready for.” He smiled broadly. “Being able to think on your feet and adapt quickly will keep you and your squadron alive.”

---

Carlist Rieekan leaned back in his chair, fingers laced together, hands in his lap. “What do you think?”

The officers’ mess was nearly empty at the late hour, offering the two generals a modicum of privacy. Jan Dodonna was still studying the proposal intently. “Skywalker and Antilles continue to surprise,” he grunted, finally looking up. “After the battle of Yavin, I figured Skywalker could put together a decent squadron if he had Antilles to ground him in the procedure and paperwork that militaries run on. But I wasn’t expecting this.”

“The history portion of the proposal is definitely Antilles,” Carlist said. “That sort of military analysis looks more like Skystrike Academy than Tatooine farmer.”

“Agreed,” Jan said, “but some of the notes on this are definitely Skywalker. Antilles is a by-the-book pilot, even if that means he’s rewriting the book. This section on the trust requirements between pilots, and the importance of putting complementary pilots together is Skywalker. He’s got more of an eye for people than Antilles does.”

“Captain Antilles is learning that,” Carlist said.

“Oh, I’m aware. Antilles is under the impression that the only reason I assigned him as Skywalker’s executive officer is because Skywalker is inept at records and requisitions. But Skywalker inspires his people to do their best, and Antilles is learning that from Skywalker while Skywalker is learning structure and discipline from Antilles.” Jan offered him a smile. “I’m sure General Merrick wouldn’t be happy with this proposal.”

“I’m sure he wouldn’t. But Antilles is persuasive.”

“So, you’re going to let them proceed with this experiment?” Jan asked.

“With your approval, yes.”

“You hardly need my approval.”

“Technically, no. But you know both Skywalker and Antilles better than I do, and you were the one who authorized the creation of this Rogue Squadron.”

Jan laughed, finally setting the datapad down. “Is Colonel S’man still fuming?”

“He’s filed three separate complaints about the unit since his first encounter with them.” Carlist smirked. “Insubordination, threatening a superior officer, immediate harm to discipline and morale.”

“Is that all?” Jan asked with a twinkle in his eye.

“Oh, no, that was just the first complaint. The second was quite a bit meatier after the debacle with Lieutenant Sarkli and the disaster at Ralltiir.” Carlist rubbed his eyes wearily. “The security review cleared Skywalker’s unit without me having to put a thumb on the scale, though some of Skywalker’s command decisions have been unorthodox.”

“Unorthodox?” Jan asked.

“The oddest was during the evacuation of Massassi Base. When he landed to come back into the Great Temple to get you out, he took Flight Officer Jade with him instead of Lieutenant Sarkli.”

“After what happened on Ralltiir, that hardly seems odd.”

“But how did he know?” Carlist asked. “Sarkli’s record was as a Pathfinder. Skywalker had no reason not to take him – he was right on Skywalker’s wing opposite Jade. Hell, he could’ve taken both of them.”

Jan studied his glass, swirling the contents idly. “He’s a Skywalker, but he’s not a Jedi. At least not yet. But maybe…”

“The Force?” Carlist asked with raised eyebrow. “I’ve considered it. And maybe he did know at some level. But I don’t know how that works.”

Jan studied his glass longer, taking a drink before answering. “I knew some Jedi during the Clone Wars. They issued orders that didn’t make sense sometimes. But afterward, when the smoke cleared, we could see that the Jedi made the right call.”

“So what? We trust Skywalker’s judgement blindly?”

“No,” Jan said immediately. “It won’t come to that. Antilles will keep him in line.” He smiled again. “So yes, I’d say you authorize their experiment. Their arguments aren’t without merit, but we won’t know for sure until it’s tried in combat.”

Carlist nodded. “I’ll approve their training exercises, then.” He yawned. “Tomorrow they’ll be running Celchu through an X-wing familiarization course. The day after they’ll likely be running exercises in real space. Skywalker and Antilles are both eager to get back in the real cockpit.”

Jan snorted. “They’re pilots. That’s hardly surprising.”

“Skywalker signed off on the two pilots I recommended, so they’re en route now. They’ll be here in less than a week.”

“They’re going to need time to train,” Jan pointed out.

“I’ll give them what I can afford,” Carlist answered. “But the Alliance needed them active a week ago already.”

“They’re forging a new blade. If you don’t give them time to temper it properly, it’ll shatter when stressed.”

Carlist frowned. “A pretty metaphor, but we’re also fighting a war. I need them combat-ready.”

“Then give them time to become the weapon you need,” Jan urged.

“I’ll consider it.” He took the datapad back from Jan, affixed his signature, and transmitted the approval.

Luke and Wedge stood shoulder-to-shoulder just inside Auxiliary Two.

Two rows of six X-wings, a full twelve for a squadron. Gone were Luke and Wedge’s old Red Squadron markings, though the new red stripes were reminiscent of the Yavin group’s livery. The remains of other squadrons, of mismatched hull plates, all had been replaced by clean off-white paint with carefully applied red stripes up the fuselage and markings on the wings.

Luke sipped at the cup of caf, an unfortunate decision; it had cooled enough that now he could taste it. Still, the bitter taste did nothing to dispel the small but growing sense of admiration. We actually look like a squadron. Surprise warred with an unexpected pinprick of loss. My kill markings. He took another sip of the caf. I can always paint those back on.

“So when did it happen?” he asked conversationally.

“Last night, sometime after Hobbie left the hangar at 2200.” Wedge rubbed his jaw as he looked at the fighters.

“And you don’t know who did it?”

“Well, after I finally convinced S’man to check work orders for me to eliminate any of the maintenance crews, I narrowed it down to the squadron.” Wedge shook his head. “None of the astromechs had any knowledge of it. Or if they did, they’re keeping it to themselves.” He shot Luke a glance. “Your Artoo unit was not chatty.”

“I’m not sure if Artoo is trying to protect me or the X-wing,” Luke said dryly.

“Hobbie said he went to sleep, and I believe him. This is also far too much work for him to do on a whim; if he were going to paint the fighters, he’d recruit help.” Wedge’s recitation was clearly from memory. 

He already worked all this out, Luke thought. Let’s see if he drew the same conclusion I did.

“Puck and Janson are both out,” Wedge continued. “If they had done it, at least one, if not all, of the X-wings would’ve been painted something ridiculous. Pink and green candy striping, maybe. Or bright orange from nose to tail.”

“That makes sense to me,” Luke agreed.

“Also not Eirriss’s style. She could give us an impromptu twenty-minute lecture on the symbolism of the squadron and particular markings, but she’s not going to sacrifice a night of sleep to make it happen just because she thinks it’s a good idea. Neth is too new. She’d be worried about how you and I would react to it, even if she thought it was a great idea. And Senesca isn’t the sort who’s worried about appearances. If he thought paint would keep one of our pilots alive, he’d be first in line with a brush and masking tape, but he’s too seasoned for that.” Wedge glanced at him again. “It wasn’t me. And it wasn’t you.”

“You’re sure?” Luke asked, hiding his smile behind the caf.

“Luke, your concerns are the pilots and the missions and the people we’ve saved. I think you like the squadron’s new paint, but you weren’t the one who did it.”

His grin didn’t fade. “Sometimes, Wedge, I’d swear you’ve known me for years, not months.”

“You’re not much for subtle or symbolic, Luke,” Wedge said dryly. “So that leaves…”

“Mara,” Luke finished. “That was my immediate thought when you told me someone had done unauthorized maintenance on the X-wings.” He raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t put that on any report, did you?”

Wedge snorted. “Like I’d want to give Colonel S’man another concussion missile to fire at us.” He hesitated for a moment. “She painted over your kill markers. Including the Death Star marker.”

“I noticed.”

“And you’re okay with it?”

Luke hesitated before answering, marshalling his conflicted feelings and thoughts. “Every pilot who walked by my fighter saw that marker, Wedge, and knew exactly who and what it meant. The Hero of Yavin.” He made the epithet sound like a curse. “But Rogue Squadron doesn’t need the Hero of Yavin. We’re not trying to build a vanity project or a parade unit. And my X-wing doesn’t look like Red Five, the fighter that killed the Death Star; it’s Rogue Leader, and it belongs with the squadron. I’m a part of the squadron, not the whole thing.” He gestured broadly. “And these X-wings, including mine, all look the part now. We need the squadron, not the symbol.”

Several of the Rogues walked into the hangar, past Luke and Wedge – Hobbie, Mara, Cesi, and Wes.

“Mara,” Wedge said aloud. All four of them stopped. Wedge gestured with one finger, and Mara walked over while the other three continued further into the hangar, to the X-wings.

“Yes, Captain? Commander?” Mara said, tone both polite and questioning.

Wedge raised an eyebrow, looked at the X-wings, and back at Mara.

Mara looked at him guilelessly.

“You?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Why?”

“They looked unfinished.”

Luke tried to hide his smile.

“How many maintenance lockers did you raid for supplies for this little unauthorized art project?”

Mara’s expression was hard to read. “Two. First one didn’t have enough pigment.”

Wedge looked past her at the X-wings for long seconds, long enough for the silence to stretch into discomfort. Finally, his eyes came back to Mara. “They look good. Professional. Next time, requisition the supplies first.”

“The paint and tape were both already in the Aux Two maintenance lockers,” she had the gall to say.

Luke had to turn away and cough to keep from laughing. He could feel Wedge glaring at him while trying not to laugh himself.

“All right,” Wedge said after a moment. “One more thing, Flight Officer.” He leaned toward her, voice dropping. “You’ve still got a little red paint on your left hand. Clean up better after yourself. And next time, ask permission. Commander Skywalker would have given it to you.”

“Yes, sir,” Mara said, her tone uncertain. 

She’s not sure whether she’s being praised or disciplined, Luke thought, doing his best to keep his face unperturbed and knowing he was likely failing.

“Dismissed,” Wedge said. When Mara had moved out of earshot, he shook his head and a chuckle escaped.

“We deserve this, Wedge,” Luke said, his mouth finally curving up at the corners. “We did name the unit Rogue Squadron.”

---

Immediately after the security lockdown lifted, a runner had delivered a datacard to Mara in Rogue Territory. She’d slipped it in her pocket and it had sat there like a ten-kilo stone. She’d tried to ignore it while doing some basic work on her X-wing and astromech, just a systems check to make sure no new problems had arisen during the week the T-65Bs had been parked. In the cockpit, she was tempted to pull it out and examine the contents, but she resisted. I already know what’s on this.

She decided not to put it off any longer and, when Wes started in on a story about the Tierfon Yellow Aces, she slipped back to her quarters.

In the Rogues’ common area, the lockboxes they’d used for personal effects and weapons were stacked up on a table. Mara snagged the one she had sealed herself and retreated into her quarters. Inside, she locked the door before setting the lockbox on her bunk and opening it with her thumbprint.

Her DL-18 blaster came out first, holstered and wrapped in her belt. She checked to make sure the blaster would slide free, checked the charge, and finally tucked the bundle under her bunk within easy reach if she were lying down.

The only other item in the box was the lightsaber. I expected questions about this. What does General Rieekan know? she wondered uneasily. Or Skywalker?

She bit her lip. Sooner or later, someone is going to start asking questions. Or someone will come looking. She opened a drawer, pulled out her pilot duffel, found the oiled cloth, wrapped the hilt, and tucked it all away again. I don’t know why I keep this. It’s nothing but trouble.

Mara shook her head. You know exactly why you haven’t gotten rid of it, or even given it to Hera to hold onto. 

Her effects resecured, she finally pulled the datacard out of her pocket, slotted it into her datapad and found exactly what she’d expected: a holographic message, hidden behind an encryption code. It didn’t take long for Hera to find me. I’m surprised she hasn’t parked the Ghost in Aux Two.

Mara keyed in the decryption key shared by the Ghost crew and, a few moments later, the hologram hummed to life over her datapad.

Exactly as she expected, the image was of Twi’lek hero, Rebel general, resistance pilot, and self-appointed guardian, Hera Syndulla. “Mara,” the pre-recorded hologram greeted her warmly. “I’m sorry I lost track of you during the Yavin evacuation. I was even more surprised when I heard your voice on the fighter comms, flying with Wedge’s new squadron.” Her voice hardened. “I expect he and Hobbie are still holding to the terms we agreed on for training you.”

The Twi’lek hesitated for a long moment. “General Rieekan sent me a message asking for details about you and your service with the Rebellion and Phoenix. I gave him what he needed, and I personally vouched for you.” A smile touched her lips. “I doubt any of this surprises you.” The smile faded. “I understand you’re flying with Luke Skywalker. He’s a good man. Kanan would have liked him. But Mara, if the new squadron is too much, too…visible…” Hera’s voice trailed for a moment, “just say the word and I’ll accept your transfer to the Liberty‘s air wing. You can fly here, too, if you’d like. You can be closer to family.”

Visible, the word echoed in Mara’s mind. A memory, unbidden, floated up from the vaults she tried to keep locked. On Atollon, at Chopper Base, the Imperial blockade, the ground assault, and Grand Admiral Thrawn himself walking into the command center with a blaster trained on them as he’d looked at the gathered Rebels. “A pity Commander Sato did not survive for this moment. He was a worthy adversary.” His eyes flicked between them. “General Jan Dodonna. One of Commenor’s finest.” To Kanan. “The Jedi who has caused much consternation.” His eyes flickered past Mara, then back, with something like recognition in those alien red eyes. “The lost asset.” Finally, he looked to Hera herself. “And now, Captain Syndulla, I will accept your formal surrender. Or you will watch your friends perish, one by one, beginning with the Jedi.”

The lost asset.

Visibility is death, Mara.

“It’s your decision, Mara, but we’re here if you need us,” Hera finished. “I’ll be in touch when I can. I hope I hear from you soon.”

The image flickered and vanished.

Mara breathed, low and slow, eyes closed. “I’ll reply later,” she told herself quietly. “Not now.”

It was easier to tell herself later than maybe.

---

The afternoon was growing late when the four pilots gathered in the Rogues’ makeshift briefing room.

The chairs were uncomfortable, decoration was lacking entirely, but most importantly for Wedge’s purposes, the room featured a large holoprojector. Centered in the middle of a loose half-circle of chairs, the unit was likely older than any of the Rogues except Zev Senesca, but it was a high-resolution model suitable for detailed imaging.

The discussion was Wedge’s brainchild. He already knew the conclusions he had drawn, but this was about the squadron, not just himself.

Luke Skywalker was sitting closest to the holoprojector, unsurprisingly. He’s the unit commander and one of the best pilots I’ve ever met. He’s the most important person to convince, Wedge told himself. Skywalker is more instinctive than methodical. If I’m right, he’ll grasp this immediately and see the benefit.

Next to Luke was Derek Klivian. Hobbie’s been through the thick of it with me. He also trained at Skystrike with me. If there’s a weakness I’ve missed, he’ll see it.

And finally, next to Hobbie, was Mara Jade. And she’s here because of Ralltiir.

“What’s this about, Wedge?” Luke asked informally.

Wedge smiled. “Always good to have a shill in the audience.” He flicked the holoprojector on, the unit humming, image distorted as it warmed. “I’m pretty sure you can get credits for that in the civilian job market.”

“Not on my homeworld,” Luke deadpanned.

“We’re here to talk about fighter doctrine. Squadron doctrine. Engagement doctrine.” Wedge forced himself to focus and pace his words. Make the case. Don’t rush it. 

The hologram finally settled into coherence, almost laughably simple: three simple triangles, arranged as a three-ship element. Wedge glanced down, tapped a button on his datapad, and three more elements appeared, twelve triangles in all, arranged line abreast. “Standard starfighter combat doctrine,” Wedge said. “A standard squadron size for the Rebel Alliance and the Empire alike is twelve fighters. During the Clone Wars, it actually varied depending on the unit, anywhere from nine to twenty-one fighters. The Separatists liked larger squadron sizes.” He looked from the hologram to the pilots. “This is the basic doctrine all pilots train, Imperial and Rebel alike. Hobbie and I have gone through both.”

Hobbie grunted an assent.

Wedge zoomed in on a single three-ship element again. “The basics are simple. An element leader at the point, one wingman to port, one wingman to starboard. The leader picks a target, all three fighters fire on it. It’s proven, it’s standard, and it’s horrible for our purposes.” He didn’t give it time to sink in. “Ralltiir showed us how fragile it is.”

He looked straight at Mara, who had gone motionless.

The image shifted, a larger cylinder added with the triangles. “On Ralltiir, because of the limited number of fighters available, Commander Skywalker bent the doctrine a bit. Instead of a proper focused fire, he assigned both wingmen a zone to protect on the run out of atmosphere. It was a clever solution for the problems imposed by the limitations of only having a single element. But it broke because one of the wingmen turned traitor.”

He looked at Mara again. “The Bright Wake should’ve been hit and forced down. As a wingman in the element, what was your job?”

“To keep position and take targets as assigned,” Mara said flatly.

“Yes. That was Sarkli’s job, too. And Luke’s job was to position the entire element appropriately and issue orders.” Wedge shook his head. “And no one had the responsibility of keeping an eye on the wingmen. They should call for help as needed, but no one’s actively covering them.”

“I saw Sarkli’s nose turn in,” Mara commented. “It looked wrong, and I was already reacting when he fired the torpedoes.”

“Right,” Wedge agreed, “but that wasn’t your job. I’m grateful you caught it, and everyone on the Bright Wake owes you their lives because you saw it in time. But that was chance, and we can’t build a squadron out of chance.”

“If the three-ship element is so bad,” Hobbie said slowly, “why does everyone use it?”

Wedge snorted. “The fourth day of working on this was when I figured that out. From the history I learned at Skystrike, I had assumed it went back to the Clone Wars. Turns out, it was maybe fifteen years before that.” He looked down at his datapad but didn’t manipulate the hologram. “Back in the last few decades of the Old Republic, some of the biggest corporations and trade guilds and unions were running their own private militaries. Droid starfighters were extremely popular at the time because they didn’t require paying pilots. The whole system was designed around central computer control.”

Luke frowned. “So it was…what? Easier?”

“More efficient. I found a surviving manual on it in the Independence‘s databanks. Running three droid starfighters in a three-ship formation required something like fifty percent less processing power than running them as three separate fighters. Plus, a three-droid element was enough firepower to bring to bear on targets of the era to ensure a quick kill.” Wedge shook his head. “Corporate efficiency built the fighter doctrine everyone is still using.”

“And it survived the Clone Wars?” Luke asked, some interest bleeding into his voice.

Wedge couldn’t help his own smile. Get the farmer talking about fighter combat and he’s all-in. “The Separatists were relying on droid starfighters and never adjusted the programming. The Republic built its flight elements the same way. For almost all of the Clone Wars, fighters were used as force multipliers in fleet engagements. The focus was on warships and dreadnoughts, not fighter-scale engagements.”

“But that’s not how the Alliance fights,” Mara said slowly. “Rogue Squadron has been flying unsupported missions. The only time the Rebellion has brought capital ships to a brawl was at Scarif, and that was a disaster.”

“Right,” Wedge agreed. “We only have a handful of Mon Calamari cruisers, and they’re almost impossible to replace. We don’t bring them to an engagement unless we have no other choice.” He looked down at his datapad again. “Which means we’re still flying a doctrine for the last war, not the war we’re actually trying to fight.”

“What’s the alternative?” Luke said, more than a bit of eagerness in his voice.

Wedge smiled and tapped a button. The image shifted, all twelve triangles on display again. Another button press later, the twelve rearranged themselves; instead of four three-ship elements, they resolved into six two-ship elements. The elements themselves paired off; two elements, or four ships, at each point of a triangular formation.

“At Skystrike we studied fighter deployment theory,” Wedge continued. “Before the Clone Wars, starfighters were considered a dead-end for waging open warfare, but they were the best tool available for planetary militia and defense dealing with marauders and pirates and smugglers. The second-most common deployment for pre-war militia was the two-ship element. A leader and a wingman.” He tapped another button, and the image zoomed in on one of the four-ship groups. “The wingman is responsible for the leader, but the leader is also responsible for the wingman. The actual role of leader and wingman can shift in combat, based on positioning and situation.” He looked from the hologram to the pilots. “In a two-ship element, the wingman is far more active and looser than in a three-ship element. The wingman is unlikely to be shooting at the same target as the leader.”

“Which reduces firepower on target,” Hobbie commented.

“Right, but we’re focusing on fighter-to-fighter combat,” Luke said slowly. “We don’t need more than one X-wing’s worth of guns pointed at a TIE fighter. Even if the wingman isn’t shooting at all, a twelve-ship squadron flying three-ship elements means it has four tactical units on the board. A twelve-ship squadron flying two-ship elements has six.” 

“And the wingman is looser,” Wedge agreed, “which means, with practice, you can do a lot more combined maneuvers. We’ve practiced basic tactics like bracketing an enemy element with two of our own to force them to commit; under two-ship elements, a single element would do the same thing with just two fighters instead of six.”

Hobbie frowned. “What’s to stop an Imperial from splitting up his three-ship group to focus two fighters on one of ours and one on the other?”

“In theory, nothing.” Wedge acknowledged it with a nod. “The difference is that we’re actually training for this, not improvising it.”

Luke rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “And you put two flight elements together?”

“For mutual support, yes, and for combining fire when we need to hit bigger targets: freighters, corvettes, space stations.”

“And if leader and wingman are responsible for each other,” Mara said slowly, “someone attempting what Sarkli did at Ralltiir would be caught out without luck.”

“That’s the idea. I hope we never have to test that in practice.”

“Still twelve fighters. Just arranged differently.” Luke was clearly intrigued. “This is a big break from standard Alliance Starfighter Command doctrine.”

“General Merrick and Commander Dreis put the standard doctrine in place, but they were doing what almost everyone does. Preparing to fight the last war.” Wedge shrugged. “I won’t pretend this is straightforward or necessarily better. But I’m not asking Colonel S’man for permission.” He locked eyes with Luke. “Commander, I’m asking your permission.”

“You can train it?” Luke asked cautiously.

“I’ve been working through the basics of how I think it should work,” Wedge hedged, “but yes, I think we can train it.”

“If we do this, how long is it going to take? And how do we pair pilots?”

That question brought Hobbie and Mara’s attention squarely on Wedge. “I don’t know how long it will take,” he admitted. “The more time we can carve out, the better, but this is experimental. Weeks, minimum. Months, more likely, if we’re going to do it properly. And even then, we’re going to make mistakes and have to adjust.” He shrugged. “As far as pairing pilots, that’s what training is for. We’re going to need to cycle pilots together to see who flies well with whom. I don’t even have a tentative roster on that right now.”

Luke’s eyes were bright. “Then let’s experiment. How long will it take to finish familiarization with our newer pilots on the X-wings?”

Wedge shrugged. “Probably two days of intensive sims for everyone currently on the roster. I’ll have a better idea on Celchu once we’ve had time to run him through a sim tomorrow.”

“Not tomorrow. Tonight,” Luke corrected.

“What’s the rush?” Hobbie asked.

“Rieekan is desperate for pilots, and we’re racing against the clock to build something new.” A smile touched Luke’s lips. “And a week of being stuck on the Independence has been enough to make me want to volunteer to fly patrols for S’man. I want to get back in my X-wing, not just a simulator, but if we’re doing that we’ll want to take everyone on the roster.”

Wedge nodded. “Familiarization, then the real thing.”

“Exactly.”

Mara was studying the formation closely. “I like this,” she said at last. “Mutual support and accountability.”

No more missions like Ralltiir, Wedge interpreted.

“I’ll write something up for Rieekan,” Luke said. “It’ll tide him over until we have this built and tested.” His smile now was broad. “Great work, Wedge.”

“Thanks, Luke,” Wedge said with a dip of his head and relief unclenching his chest. This is the tool Rogue Squadron needs, he told himself. The tool for the war we’re fighting.

Wedge Antilles was seldom surprised by the antics of his pilots.

He had grown up on Corellia. His parents had owned a fueling depot on the Gus Treta station in the Corellian system. His family had maintained quiet business relationships with a number of smugglers, like Booster Terrik and his daughter Mirax, and his formative years were spent hearing stories of the ridiculous misadventures of miscreants operating outside the law.

Later, his brief stint in the Imperial academy had adequately demonstrated that, outside of a uniform, plenty of the Empire’s own pilots were no different; only fear of official recognition and punishment for misdeeds kept most of his fellow pilot cadets in line. And later still, after defecting to the nascent Rebel Alliance, Wedge had seen plenty of fellow Rebel pilots and soldiers get into trouble for ill-considered actions while on leave. Wes Janson, in particular, had twin reputations as a joker and a cantina brawler that would’ve gotten him drummed out of Imperial service, but the Rebellion needed good fighters more than they needed perfect discipline.

And yet, as Wedge sat in the Rogues’ common area with a bowl of mystery grain porridge, Puck Naeco’s question took him completely off guard.

“So, Captain, who snapped and painted the X-wings?”

Wedge blinked, reached for his caf, and took a swallow while he tried to assemble Naeco’s words into a question that made sense. He failed. “What?”

Puck grinned. “I need to know who won the betting pool.”

That statement made more sense. “What was the bet?”

“Who was going to snap first under the security lockdown.” Puck reached for Wedge’s caf, saw Wedge’s expression, and decided he was better off getting his own mug. “Hobbie’s running the ‘who gets cleared first?’ pool, but all the smart money is on Skywalker.”

Wedge shook his head. “Back up. What do you mean, painted the X-wings?”

“You know, X-wings. The starfighters we fly. Built by Incom.” Puck considered. “Well, not anymore, since the Empire nationalized Incom. Designed by Incom and built elsewhere.”

“Painted the X-wings,” Wedge repeated, enunciating slowly. “Painted. What are you talking about?”

“All of them,” Puck said, nodding. “Brand new, matching paint on all twelve. Even painted over the kill markers. I wanted to see Commander Skywalker’s reaction first, but I found you and not him.” Puck’s face was merry. “No more Death Star kill marker.”

Wedge took another drink of caf, trying to decide if he was still asleep. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure I’m awake. “What does it look like?” he asked, hoping irrationally that Puck was making some sort of joke that he didn’t understand.

“Professional. White base, red striping. Matching all the way down. They actually look like a squadron now.”

Wedge shook his head. “If they look that good, it had to be the ground crew. Any of you jokers would have either vandalized two or three of them, not done a professional job on all twelve. Maybe Rieekan ordered it.”

“You really think the ground crew would’ve painted over the kill markers?” Puck snorted.

He blearily rubbed his face with one hand and looked around at the present Rogues. As Puck had noted, Luke was absent, as were Janson and Karie Neth. The rest were scattered around, sitting in various poses with caf, breakfast bowls, or both. Given the security lockdown, the mess in Pilot Country had been delivering a cart with food three times a day, and this morning’s selection had been the porridge or a reconstituted protein bake that could probably double as crash padding. He looked past Cesi Eirriss, engrossed in her reading as usual, and Mara Jade, who looked half asleep, until he finally caught Hobbie’s attention. “Klivian!” he called. “Is Puck trying to pull something over on me?”

Hobbie offered a dour look. “My kill markers are gone, too. I have to repaint them all.”

“This time you can paint as many as you want and no one can argue with you about the tally!” Puck said cheerfully.

Wedge thought for a moment, drinking more caf. This caf is probably a war crime itself. He shook his head, turning it over. Would Luke have had the X-wings painted without telling me? Honestly, that sort of job seems like something he’d ask me to schedule with a maintenance crew. Though he’s probably going as stir-crazy as the rest of us and just hides it better.

“You know anything about it?” he directed at Hobbie.

The other man shook his head. “Happened during the night. I was in the hangar with my astromech before I turned in last night. Everything was normal at 2200 when I left.” He offered a sarcastic smile. “Maybe Colonel S’man had them painted as a gesture of goodwill.”

“Not unless he thinks we’re getting assigned to the air wing,” Wedge groused. He gave up on the porridge, pushing the bowl away.

Puck grinned. “You’d think if we’re in a security lockdown there’d be a lot less access to our hangar, wouldn’t you?”

Wedge shook his head. “This mystery can wait until I’m awake enough to deal with your nonsense.”

“But I need to know who won the pool!” Puck’s tone was far more amused than concerned.

“Keep it up, and the first pilot who snapped will be me.” Wedge crossed to the caf maker, shook his head at the Property of Independence Air Wing text that none of the Rogues had bothered to obscure, and refilled his mug. “I’m twenty-one,” he muttered, “and somehow I feel like I’m the father figure half these idiots should have had.”

---

Luke’s quarters in Rogue Territory were sparse. He had left Tatooine with two droids and the clothes on his back, and in the months since he had hardly accumulated much. The civilian clothes he’d worn back then were laundered and tucked away, and here on the Independence he’d acquired a few sets of shipboard greys that were uniforms in all but name. A flight jacket and his flightsuit hung from a hook in the corner. He had a pair of static holograms on top of the heavy, squat dresser: one featuring Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru on Tatooine, the other an image of Luke himself with Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca after the award ceremony on Yavin IV. The medal from the award ceremony was tucked away as well; Luke didn’t care to look at it. A mass-manufactured chair, lightweight and cheap, was tucked under the desk attached to the wall. The only other notable furniture in the room was a heavy shipboard bunk, hauled in while he was on a mission and magnetically clamped to the floor.

He’d fashioned a stand for his lightsaber, but his father’s weapon, along with his service blaster, were currently in the hands of Alliance Security. The training remote he’d been using to practice with the lightsaber and the Force had also been confiscated.

The security lockdown, now in its seventh day and hopefully ending soon, was the longest Luke had gone without trying to train. And without the lightsaber and training remote, his options were limited.

Which led to him now sitting cross-legged on the floor in his quarters, his back against the bunk.

Ben understood me even better than I realized at the time, Luke thought as he closed his eyes. He saw that the best way for me to connect to the Force was through action. That’s why he started me with a lightsaber on the Millennium Falcon. He told me about meditation, but he knew that wouldn’t be my first choice.

But now, I don’t have other options.

He calmed his breathing, counting seconds as he breathed in, held it, and breathed out his stresses. Slowly, the worries about the security review, the concerns for his pilots, the nagging worry that he wasn’t worthy of the trust the Alliance had invested in him with Rogue Squadron, calmed into background noise. Stretch out with your feelings, he heard Kenobi’s voice.

It felt, at first, like the faint tingle he remembered from a malfunctioning moisture vaporator with its plating removed. The hair on his arms stood up, but Luke didn’t open his eyes. Trust your feelings.

He tried, he pushed, trying to sense things beyond his quarters. It was an odd sensation, like he was squinting to see through the gloom on Tatooine after the twin suns set, but it felt…murky. Was there someone moving past his quarters in the corridor? Maybe? I’m not sure, he thought. Frustration threatened to overwhelm him, but he pushed it back down.

Luke thought back on Ben’s words to him on Tatooine. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together.

“The Force is everywhere,” he murmured, eyes never opening. It binds the galaxy together. Does that mean it connects us, then? 

He frowned as he considered that idea, the faint staticky hum of the Force in the back of his mind, a persistent tingle across his skin. It’s worth a try. 

Luke relaxed, breathing out the distractions again, and the tingle, the hum grew stronger. This time, instead of trying to just stretch out his senses, he focused in one particular direction. Wedge, he thought, focusing on the Force and on his friend.

It wasn’t like a flare lighting in the dark, but as he focused on his friend, and as the Force grew stronger around him, he realized he had a sense of where Wedge was. Not far, in all honesty, and if Luke had to put the sensation to words he’d have described Wedge as probably being in the small room he’d claimed as an office, perhaps forty meters away. Of even more interest, as Luke focused, he could feel that Wedge was concentrating on something, with a mix of uncertainty and determination. He’s…trying to figure something out? Something with the security review? But the sensation didn’t become any clearer, and the Force didn’t offer him any further insights.

Luke let the connection ebb. That was…something new. I bet if I practice, it’ll get stronger. Maybe.

Yet again he wished wholeheartedly that Ben had not died on the Death Star at Darth Vader’s blade.

Buoyed by the success, he tried stretching out again. Hobbie. He didn’t know the Ralltiir pilot as well as he knew Wedge, of course, but they’d flown together under intense conditions and Luke had no doubt that Hobbie considered him a friend – or as much of a friend as his commanding officer could be. He focused, and slowly, his sense of Hobbie clarified.

In the hangar again, Luke decided. He’s focused on…something. Something with his hands. Working on his X-wing again? Underneath Hobbie’s focus was a tangle of emotions Luke took a moment to sort through. Concern. Worry. Some of it is here, but some of it is far away.

Ralltiir. The name came not from the sensations in the Force but from Luke’s own head making the connection. Hobbie’s from Ralltiir. He asked me what the city looked like from the sky after we got back. I didn’t know why until Wedge told me later. He’s worried about the people at home.

Luke let the sensation fade, choosing to turn his focus elsewhere. Zev, he told himself, stretching out.

He found the older man, he was fairly certain, but the sensation was muted and muddied. Like a poor radio transmission. Or a poor connection. I barely know Zev, so it’s harder to connect to him. He tried to get a sense of what the man was doing, where he was, but the sense was so vague he could’ve been doing anything, anywhere within a hundred meters.

Abandoning the effort, a bit discouraged and vaguely aware he was tiring, he decided to try once more. Mara. He stretched out again, the tingle stronger this time as he poured more focus and strength into the effort.

For a long moment, Luke sensed nothing, not even the vague and indecipherable impressions he’d gotten from Zev Senesca. It wasn’t at all what he expected, given the missions they’d flown together – Yavin, Dantooine, Ralltiir. The nothing was concerning enough he had a brief, irrational pang of worry that Alliance Security had arrested Mara during the night and dragged her to a holding cell elsewhere. Mara? he wondered, still searching and pushing in the Force.

And then he finally found her, not far away; his impression was that she was less than thirty meters away, probably closer, most likely in her quarters. But where he had a bright sense of Wedge, a dimmer but still vivid sense of Hobbie, and a hazy sense of Zev, from Mara he got…

He fumbled for an adequate description, and finally settled on an eclipse. He almost couldn’t perceive her at all, but bits of light leaked around the proverbial moon between Mara and himself. From those bits he could sense weariness and fear and determination.

Luke finally let the Force connection go, the tingle fading from his skin and the hum from his mind. Did I do something wrong? Maybe I don’t know her well enough to connect.

I wish Ben were here to explain this to me. To teach me.

Darth Vader had many crimes to pay for.

---

It was early afternoon when Rieekan summoned Luke and Wedge for a meeting.

The summons were terse, but Wedge had no doubt the meeting was about the security review.

It was the first time he’d left Rogue Territory in a week, and being escorted by Alliance Security was somehow both comforting and ominous at the same time. I feel like we’re being walked to an execution, as ridiculous as that sounds.

Luke looked completely unbothered.

General Rieekan’s office was three decks up, with an antechamber as big as the Rogues’ common room. Three different desks crowded the room, all of them occupied by analysts in fleet uniforms. Two R3 astromech droids were plugged into computer terminals as well, no doubt providing extra analytic capability for Rieekan’s people. Wedge took in the details at a glance and then focused on keeping pace with Luke.

There was no delay at Rieekan’s office door; he was clearly waiting for them.

Luke and Wedge both came to a halt in front of his desk and offered salutes. Rieekan returned it. “Sit down,” he said, though his tone was more casual than strict.

When the Rogue pilots had settled in their chairs, Rieekan picked up his datapad and glanced at the content. No doubt he already knows everything on his pad, Wedge thought.

“Your security review is complete,” Rieekan said without preamble. “The short version is that everyone in your squadron has been cleared. You’ll be returned to active duty tomorrow.”

“The long version, sir?” Luke asked.

Rieekan grimaced. “Let’s start with Lieutenant Sarkli, Commander,” he said grimly. “Security swept his quarters, your squadron’s berthing, your hangar, his computer access, everything. Ultimately, we found nothing.”

Luke’s lips compressed into a tight line. “So he wasn’t an infiltrator.”

“We don’t actually know that,” Rieekan cautioned. “There’s reason to think he might have been. Did Sarkli disclose to either of you that his uncle is an Imperial fleet captain?”

Wedge’s eyes bulged. “No,” he and Luke said together. They exchanged glances, then back at Rieekan. “No,” Wedge said again, “Sarkli never mentioned any family connections at all.”

Rieekan’s smile was faint and humorless. “Captain Firmus Piett, commanding officer of the Imperial Star Destroyer Accuser.”

“The Star Destroyer over Ralltiir,” Luke said.

Rieekan nodded. “And the Star Destroyer that Celchu served on before his defection.”

“That’s circumstantial evidence,” Wedge felt the need to point out. “Sarkli might not have mentioned it because he knew what sort of attention it’d bring. He had every reason to believe the Rebellion wouldn’t trust him if we knew he had ranking Imperial fleet officers in his family.”

Rieekan nodded. “Though the alternative isn’t really a better look for him,” the general said. “Commander Skywalker, I’ve been over all the reports about your squadron from when you and Antilles were putting together a squadron. Some of your command decisions have been highly questionable.” He held up a hand to forestall comment. “That said, the proper response to concerns about a superior officer isn’t to try to sabotage a mission and defect to the Empire.” Rieekan’s expression hardened into stone. “Given the implication that Sarkli was highly unstable, I’m even more concerned about Alliance screening practices. I don’t blame you two for accepting him into your squadron, but if he wasn’t an infiltrator and really was that volatile, I would’ve expected someone to flag him before it exploded.”

“So you think he was an Imperial plant?” Wedge persisted.

“I would like to. I don’t have enough hard evidence to stamp it as such.” Rieekan looked tired. “Sarkli had been with the Rebellion long enough that he might never have been properly screened. I sent a message to General Cracken, to see if Alliance Intelligence can give me something more firm, but with long-range comms down the request went by courier and I’ve had no reply yet.”

“What about the rest of the squadron?” Wedge asked. “Anything concerning?”

“Most of your pilots are concerning,” Rieekan said dryly. “If you weren’t, you probably wouldn’t be flying starfighters for a rebel insurgency. Some of you have serious holes in your files that can’t really be accounted for, like Commander Skywalker.” He nodded at Luke. “But in your case, you blew up the Death Star. Senesca had a couple different officers in Supply vouch for him as a long-time smuggler before he joined the starfighter corps. General Syndulla vouched for Jade in spite of her file being almost completely empty and threatened me for even asking about her. Cesi Eirriss’s university files were purged by the Empire, but one of our officers talked to her doctoral advisor and a few of her university roommates.” He shook his head. “But we didn’t find any unexpected Imperial connections, nothing we didn’t already know about.”

Wedge settled back into his chair. “So what happens now?”

“Now, we tighten security around your unit,” Rieekan said. “We’re implementing improved screening practices. Celchu is being transferred to your unit tonight, though Intelligence isn’t happy that I’m turning him over to you this quickly. That should put your unit back at ten pilots, and I took the liberty of reviewing several more candidates for your unit.”

“You want us back in action,” Luke said.

“Yes,” Rieekan said simply. “Your squadron did three missions in three days that saved a number of lives.”

“It also broke us,” Luke pointed out. “We need time to train.”

“I know you need some time to run basics,” Rieekan said with a frown. “Celchu will need to be checked out in an X-wing, and you’ll need to complete familiarization with several of your later additions. But you’ve been getting trained pilots for your squadron, not rookies.”

Wedge leaned forward, shaking his head. “General, we need time to train because we’re going to try something experimental.”

“Experimental?” Rieekan’s eyebrows raised. “I don’t need experimental. I need a functioning squadron. What does this experiment look like?”

Wedge and Luke exchanged looks. “Give us a week, General,” Wedge said. “We’re still working out details. But give us a week to try it. We’ve been in lockdown with no access to simulators.”

“A week,” the Alderaanian repeated, clearly considering. “Alright. A week. It’ll take that long to finish filling your roster, even if you approve the candidates I’m suggesting for your squadron.” He offered a wry smile. “If I gave you any more of Colonel S’man’s pilots, he’d probably approve of Sarkli’s actions on Ralltiir.” He nodded at Luke and Wedge. “We’ll talk in a week. In the meantime, start using the mess hall in Pilot Country. They’re not a delivery service. And don’t antagonize S’man more than you have to.”

Luke and Wedge rose to their feet, recognizing the dismissal. A week, Wedge thought. A week to build a new doctrine that doesn’t break like the three-ship element broke on Ralltiir.

I wonder what tastes worse: the fuel we put in our X-wings, or this caf? Luke wondered. Serves the same purpose, I guess. He glanced at the caf maker, which still bore the handwritten text “Property of Independence Air Wing”. Good thing no one is allowed in here right now during the security review. Colonel S’man would be even more unhappy if he knew Hobbie and Sarkli had made off with their caf maker.

The thought soured his mood even more than the lack of sleep and the bad caf.

Resigned to the fact that he couldn’t put it off any longer, he headed to his makeshift office in Rogue Territory where Rieekan awaited.

The makeshift desk of crates had been replaced while he was on the Ralltiir mission with a basic premanufactured plastoid desk that, Luke suspected, predated the Clone Wars. Three mismatched chairs rounded out the furniture; one was a Headhunter ejection seat, the second a seat from a passenger shuttle, and the third (and most comfortable) was clearly a public seat from any one of a thousand starports, a ubiquitous dirty orange adjustable chair that somehow managed to be moderately comfortable.

Rieekan was sitting in the starport chair, behind the desk; Luke took the Headhunter ejection seat.

“General,” Luke said.

“Commander.” Rieekan quirked a smile. “Glad you could join me. I wanted to talk about the security review.” He held up a flimsiplast sheet.

Luke frowned. “It’s barely started, hasn’t it? It’s been, what, twelve whole hours since we called you in?”

“Not about the results. You’re right, we’re still in the early stages.” He grimaced. “It doesn’t help that secure long-range communications are still down. I sent couriers this morning to the Defiance and the Liberty and the Mako-Ta shipyards where Home One is undergoing refit, but it’ll take days to get data back. This sheet is the inventory of personal effects that your unit turned in.”

“So we’re stuck waiting,” Luke said.

“Essentially, yes. Some of your pilots have full records here in the Independence‘s computer systems, but some of them don’t. I was hoping Antilles’ records would help, and they do, but a few pilots are basically empty files.” Rieekan leaned back in his chair, his hands folded in his lap. “And after what happened with Lieutenant Sarkli, I can’t take any chances, even if I know what the results will look like.”

“Sir?”

Rieekan shook his head. “Never mind that for now. That’s a battle at my pay grade, not yours.” He shifted in his seat. “I need to know something, Commander. Are you still committed to this?”

“To Rogue Squadron?” Luke asked, eyebrows raised. “Of course I am.”

“There are members of High Command who think you would be more useful elsewhere. Destroying the Death Star has made you a symbol. Princess Leia trusts you.” He glanced at the flimsiplast sheet on the desk and offered a small smile. “And there aren’t many people running around with a lightsaber on one hip and a DL-18 blaster on the other.”

“General, I’m not a symbol,” Luke said, shaking his head. “I’m not a diplomat. I certainly don’t belong in High Command. And I’m not a Jedi, sir, or at least not yet. I’m a starfighter pilot, and a good one. It’s the one place I can do something that matters to the Rebellion.” He frowned. “DL-18? I carry a Merr-Sonn Model 57.”

Rieekan glanced at the flimsiplast and frowned. “One of the new security transfers must have made an inventory mistake. Do you remember the conversation we had after you retrieved Lieutenant Celchu, Commander?”

Now it was Luke’s turn to shift in his seat uncomfortably. “You proposed attaching Rogue Squadron to High Command.”

“Yes. And I’m telling you now that if you’re committed to this fighter squadron, it needs to happen.”

“Sir?”

“Skywalker, Colonel S’man is already calling for your unit to be disbanded.” Rieekan leaned forward, elbows resting on the desk. “If we attach Rogue Squadron to High Command directly, you are removed from the immediate political danger, though I have no doubt S’man will do his best to make you uncomfortable. I can also start feeding you the resources you are going to need to fight the war ahead.”

Luke’s eyes narrowed, but he said nothing.

“If you’re committed to it, I will back it,” Rieekan continued. “I can get you X-wings, supplies, pilots. And frankly, your unit flew three missions in three days with little time to rest and rebuild, completing all three missions. I want to help you succeed, Commander, but you have to let me.”

“And if I don’t agree?”

“Rogue Squadron continues to exist in limbo,” the general said bluntly. “Which lasts until Captain Verrack gets tired of Colonel S’man’s complaints and moves you over to the air wing. And then…”

“S’man picks us apart,” Luke finished. He shook his head. “Not much of a choice.”

“Not if you want to keep your squadron together.” Rieekan looked haggard for a moment. “And if you can continue to provide results like these, it’s worth keeping your squadron together.”

Luke nodded slowly. “Then I accept. Let’s attach Rogue Squadron to High Command.” He smiled faintly. “I guess that means we’re your personal fighter squadron now, General.”

“I’m not the only one who will want to use your unit,” Rieekan said wryly, “but I do have plans for you. Before we can worry about that, we need to get your squadron through this security review, get you properly outfitted, and finish filling out your roster.”

Luke rose, offering a salute. “If we’re done, sir, I need to check on my people.”

Rieekan returned the salute. “Take care of your squadron, Commander. I’ll take care of High Command.”

---

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you study a hydrospanner that hard. Well, not when you’re sober, anyway. Have you been holding out on us?”

Wedge glanced over his shoulder at Wes Janson and rolled his eyes, then turned back to the table in the Rogues’ common area. “Do you need something, Janson? Besides kitchen duty?”

“Entertainment,” Wes said cheerfully, flopping down on a stool nearby. “What is this?”

A number of objects rested on the table. An oversized hydrospanner was the largest, and a set of three empty shot glasses were off to the left. Across the table from Wedge sat Zev Senesca; in front of Zev were nine droid restraining bolts, arranged in three triangles of three bolts apiece. Karie Neth sat next to and a bit behind Zev, studying the table intently with wide eyes.

“Training,” Wedge said with a frown.

“I know everyone’s going a little crazy after two days of lockdown, but I’m not following,” Wes said, his tone turning curious.

“Ralltiir,” Zev grunted.

Wedge nodded. “We’ve been going over Skywalker and Jade’s reports from the mission.” He picked up the hydrospanner. “The Bright Wake. The goal is to get it out.” He pointed at the trio of shot glasses. “A standard three-ship element. Zev is running standard Imperial TIE doctrine on the other side, with the goal of shooting down the Bright Wake.”

“So you’re running a tactical simulation with a hydrospanner, shot glasses, and restraining bolts,” Wes said dubiously.

“Mostly our brains. These are just to make sure we both understand what’s happening.” Wedge’s frown deepened. “Okay, Wes, you tell me. How does a standard engagement play out?”

The Taanab native hesitated for a moment. “The Rebel flight leader picks a target. Wingmen focus on keeping flank position so they can cover him on the attack.” He gestured across the table. “The Imperials do the same.”

“Or the flight leader releases the wingmen to hit targets,” Wedge murmured. “And you have three pilots going after three targets.”

“But then they’re unsupported,” Wes said. “And if you’re focusing on a target, it’s easy to get fixated until someone is on your tail lighting up your shields.”

“Right.” Wedge slid all three shot glasses forward together. “So the formation stays together.”

Zev responded, sliding a trio of restraining bolts forward, but separating them well apart. “But the Imperial formation doesn’t. And now you’ve got three TIEs shooting at your formation. And they’re spread out far enough your formation can’t stay together and fire back at all three.”

“So my formation has to split, too,” Wedge murmured, spreading the shot glasses in turn. “And now instead of any element cohesion, it’s turned into three separate one-on-one dogfights.”

“Until one of the TIEs goes down,” Wes argued. “Then you’ve got a floating X-wing to help one of the other fighters in his element.”

Wedge reached out and flipped one of the shot glasses over. “Unless the TIEs score the first kill. Now it’s three TIEs against two X-wings, stuck in two different engagements and not mutually supporting each other.” He glanced at Wes, then across to Zev. “Why a three-ship element?”

“Because that’s the standard,” Zev said. “That was what the Republic found worked during the Clone Wars. General Merrick wrote it into our doctrine when he was made the head of Alliance Starfighter Command.”

Wedge’s lips compressed into a line. “We’re not fighting the Clone Wars.” He could feel Wes’s eyes on him. “Yes?”

“You don’t like it.”

“Because it breaks.” He reset his side of the table, moving the three glasses back together and setting the flipped one upright again. “Commander Skywalker, Sarkli, and Jade. Sarkli,” he said slowly, flipping a glass over again, “turns traitor and fires on the corvette. Skywalker doesn’t see it in time to do anything about it. Why not?”

“He doesn’t see it because it’s not his job,” Karie spoke up for the first time. “He’s supposed to be looking at the wider tactical situation. His wingmen were supposed to be covering him.”

“And the only reason Sarkli didn’t put the Bright Wake down was because Jade caught him turning in,” Wedge murmured. “She got a glance that looked wrong, and that wasn’t even her job.” He looked around. “Who’s supposed to be watching the wingmen?” His eyes darted from Karie to Zev and finally to Wes, but none of them answered. “Well?”

Zev finally answered. “No one. Wingmen are supposed to be communicating by comm. Calling out if something is wrong.”

“And that’s where it’s fragile,” Wedge said with grim satisfaction. “Sarkli stabbed us in the back, yes, but he damn near got away with it because there’s a blind spot in the flight.”

“Captain, if we can’t trust the other pilots in our element, we’re in all kinds of trouble,” Wes protested. “And besides…what’s the alternative?”

“I’m still figuring that out.”

---

Luke found Mara standing just inside the entrance of the Rogues’ hangar, studying the X-wings.

Nine days ago, six Massassi Red Group pilots had flown X-wings off Yavin IV and ended up in the Independence‘s Auxiliary Two hangar. Four pilots had joined, one pilot and his X-wing were gone. Rieekan had promised Luke that morning that Tycho Celchu would be added to the Rogue Squadron roster when the security review was completed. And now, under careful instruction from the Independence‘s ground support staff, seven more X-wings were ferried into the hangar.

“Security review will be over soon,” Luke said. “Then we can get back to building the squadron.”

Mara didn’t startle; she’d clearly been aware of his approach. “They look wrong,” she said.

Luke frowned and looked at the X-wings. “How so?”

The younger pilot shook her head. “You and Captain Antilles? You’re still flying with Red Squadron markings. My X-wing is striped for Blue Squadron. Hobbie and Naeco’s X-wings are painted for one of the Defiance‘s squadrons. These other X-wings? They look like they came off a bone pile somewhere and got patched back together.” She gestured at the nearest new addition, which had just been settled in place, the tug now moving back toward the magcon field and open space. “Take that one. There are at least three hull plates from three different fighters. I bet they pieced that together from four or five different wrecks.”

“That’s the Rebel Alliance,” Luke said ruefully, rubbing his neck. “Sort of how we’re building Rogue Squadron, too.”

“Are you going to put me on report?” Mara asked abruptly.

“For what?” Luke said, confused by the sudden change in subject.

“I disobeyed orders. Sarkli took the shot and I went after him. You ordered me back.” Her voice went monotone as she recalled the fight. “I ignored your order. I chased Sarkli and didn’t even kill him.”

Luke shrugged uneasily. “You did disobey orders,” he said slowly. “And maybe I should. But I’m not going to.”

“Why not?” Mara still stood with her back to him, watching the busy hangar. “Seems straightforward. I screwed up.”

“Because we were both thrust into a situation we weren’t prepared for and weren’t trained for. It was the third mission you and I had flown in three days, and then our third pilot betrayed us in the middle of the fight.” He shook his head. “Are you going to do it again?”

“No, because you’re going to put me on report and then I’ll be out of your squadron.”

He frowned. “I’m not following.”

She gestured at the hangar. “I don’t belong here. I proved it over Ralltiir.”

Luke snorted. “Hardly. You also helped me get Dodonna out of Massassi Base. You and Hobbie got Celchu off Dantooine. You survived that dogfight with Sarkli and made it back alive. I’m not going to drum you out of the squadron because you made a bad call.”

“I disobeyed orders,” she said, her tone reminding Luke of Aunt Beru explaining simple logic to him as a child.

“Look at me,” Luke said quietly, waiting until she finally turned to face him. He couldn’t read her expression at all, and her brilliant green eyes were full of…something. “Sarkli hit you with everything he could think of to make you react. Yes, you reacted. You also survived the fight, you came back, and we succeeded. I lost one pilot at Ralltiir. I’m not losing two.” He locked gazes with her. “I saw how you flew both at Yavin and at Ralltiir. You belong here.”

Mara broke the stare first, looking back into the hangar. “Hera’s going to come looking for me, after all this.”

“Good thing Rogue Squadron is attached to High Command, then,” Luke said dryly.

She spun back on him. “What?”

“Rogue Squadron is attached directly to High Command now,” he said. “We’re being tasked by General Rieekan, but we’re mostly outside of regular Alliance Starfighter Command now.” He smiled briefly, but it faded. “Mara, do you want to transfer out?”

She hesitated for a long moment, and Luke tried to read her face, but it was a complicated mix of hope and fear and determination and pain. “No,” she said at last. “No, I don’t want to transfer.”

“Then you’re a Rogue.” Luke looked out at the hangar. “And when this security review is done, we’re going to have a lot more work to do.”

---

By 2300 hours, Rogue Territory had gone nearly silent. Eight pilots had retreated into their quarters and were asleep or pretending to be.

Mara Jade was not.

There was something she needed to do.

The idea had been born after her discussion with Skywalker that morning. She’d done her best to discard it, but the idea had festered and grown.

Better to ask forgiveness than permission.

Twelve X-wings now filled Auxiliary Two. A mismatched collection of Incom T-65s, drawn from broken squadrons and refurbished from scrapped wrecks, pieced back together and now assigned to a squadron led by an Outer Rim farmboy and a Corellian who had entirely too much faith in paperwork.

Mara crossed the hangar briskly, heading to the maintenance lockers, knowing exactly what she was looking for and where it should be. She was not disappointed in the efficiency of the Independence‘s maintenance crews.

There was really only one place to start, and that thought intimidated her as she moved down the line of X-wings to the fighter nearest the magcon field protecting the hangar from vacuum. Any other choice would show something less than full commitment to the task she was about to undertake.

Sabine would have seen these X-wings as blank canvases. She’d have freehanded all of this with the aerosols she almost always carried. They’d have been twelve unique works of art, beautiful and horrifying with all sorts of meaning I don’t understand.

Mara started with a roll of painter’s tape. A meter and a half strip, the end torn off neatly, positioned on the fuselage of Luke’s X-wing. She stepped back, evaluated. Moved back in and adjusted it a centimeter downward, evaluated again. That will do. Then she shook the can of paint she’d taken from the maintenance locker and started to work, Alliance white as a base, and then proud red stripes up the fuselage.

She hesitated under the cockpit canopy. Skywalker’s kill markers were there, including the unmistakable rounded, grey-and-black Death Star. I can’t believe I’m doing this. And then she did it anyway, laying on fresh paint straight over the kill markers, obliterating them entirely.

She patterned the s-foils with a pair of red stripes parallel to the fuselage out near the laser cannons, a diagonal stripe running from the sublight engine intake to the end of the wingtip laser cannon, and a single stripe running alongside but not on the trailing edge of the wings, leaving room for numbered markings. There was little doubt that Luke’s X-wing would be marked with a single stripe as Rogue Leader or Rogue One, but for now, she left it blank. Strips of marking tape, carefully sprayed paint, tape removed, she worked a meter and a half at a time.

When Mara had finished, she stood back and studied the effect. A bit like Red Squadron, but it’s definitely not. Perfect.

She checked her chronometer. It had taken her an hour to set up and paint Skywalker’s fighter, but now she knew exactly how she was going to do the rest.

Her own X-wing was next. Then Captain Antilles’ fighter, then Naeco’s, then Hobbie’s. And then down the row she worked, moving quickly but precisely, positioning tape, painting confidently, and peeling the tape back when she was done.

At 0520, she was done.

The remaining paint went back to the maintenance lockers, as did the pitiful remains of the roll of masking tape. The used tape went in a waste disposal, and Mara found some solvent to get the splatter from her hands and forearms, though she suspected the shipboard tunic she wore would be a complete loss.

Her mind finally quiet, she stopped one last time at the hangar entrance to look back at the X-wings. Rogue Squadron. We’re Rogue Squadron, and those X-wings are ours.

And when Mara finally fell into her bunk, sleep came quick and dreamless.

Wedge sat in a folding chair in the Auxiliary Two hangar with a datapad in hand, reviewing his notes on the morning’s simulator scores. The work kept him focused. Because if I don’t keep working, I’m going to fantasize about hanging Luke by his ankles off the nose of his X-wing. Taking just Sarkli and Jade to crack an Imperial blockade was insane. Didn’t even talk to me before they launched. He tried to focus on the datapad again. Tatooine farmer blows up a Death Star with a lucky shot and thinks he’s invincible. Even if somehow he is, Sarkli and Jade aren’t.

A brief image played in Wedge’s head, a nightmare that he’d had twice now since leaving Yavin IV: General Syndulla, arriving on the Independence, then ordering him out an airlock.

Focus on the datapad.

An alert klaxon blared, then a voice on the loudspeaker. “Clear Auxiliary Two. Fighters incoming. Clear Auxiliary Two.”

Wedge ignored the command to clear the hangar, instead waiting and watching as two X-wings breached the magcon field, came down on the hangar deck with a jarring bounce on their landing struts, rougher than he would’ve expected from any of their pilots.

Two.

Wedge dropped the datapad on the chair and started running to the X-wings. Who didn’t come back?

Luke’s canopy was open and his helmet was off, and he was already dropping to the hangar deck before Wedge could reach him or the ground crew could bring a ladder.

“What happened?” Wedge asked.

“Call Rieekan. We need a full security lockdown immediately.” Luke’s jaw worked, teeth grinding. “Sarkli betrayed us at Ralltiir. We got to Derlin’s corvette, started punching our way out, and he tried to put a pair of torpedoes into its engines.”

Wedge stared, jaw slack.

“Wedge, focus,” Luke said. “Security lockdown, now.”

The Corellian snapped into motion, his hand fumbling in his pocket for his comlink. “What happened after?” he asked as he tried to find it.

“Mara shot down the torpedoes and went after him. I barely kept the TIEs off the Bright Wake. Sarkli got away, the Bright Wake took a pounding but got out, and Mara and I jumped after.” His shoulders were tense and raised, and Wedge saw real anger in his friend’s eyes. “We need to lock down now. There’s no way to know if he left us any unpleasant surprises.”

Wedge finally found his comlink, brought it up and adjusted the frequency to connect to Rieekan’s office. “That’ll be a full security sweep,” he warned Luke.

“I spent the whole flight back thinking about that,” Luke said impatiently. “Make the call, Wedge.”

Wedge looked over, saw Jade still sitting in her X-wing with helmet off and her red-gold hair a sweaty, matted mane. “General Rieekan, this is Captain Antilles,” he said. “We need a full security lockdown for Auxiliary Two and Rogue Squadron’s berthing immediately.”

---

Within fifteen minutes, the members of Rogue Squadron were gathered in their common area, and security personnel from the Independence were crawling all over their territory.

Wedge surveyed the Rogues as they arrived: Hobbie, dour as usual; Puck Naeco, his usual charm and good humor muted by confusion and concern; Wes Janson seemingly unaffected by Alliance Security as he joked with an unamused lieutenant about the required bribe to overlook a still that Wedge was pretty certain didn’t exist; Karie Neth, pressed into a corner while she seemingly tried to track everyone at once with her eyes; Zev Senesca, arms folded as he leaned against the wall next to Neth, expression unreadable; and Cesi Eirriss, sitting on the overstuffed couch, her lekku wrapped around her shoulders as she tapped through her datapad, apparently unconcerned. Mara arrived next-to-last, her face pale. Wedge suspected she was still shaken from the betrayal.

Luke arrived last with General Rieekan.

“Rogue Squadron, listen up,” Luke said, his voice tight. “We’re under lockdown while General Rieekan’s staff conducts a security review. In short, while we were on a mission to Ralltiir, Lieutenant Sarkli betrayed us to the Empire. Flight Officer Jade and I escaped, and we got the Alliance personnel we were sent to rescue out, too. But we don’t know if Sarkli left any surprises behind, and I’m not going to risk any of your lives on the assumption he didn’t.” He paused for a moment, his blue eyes sweeping the room to make contact with each of the Rogues in turn. “I’m sorry. I barely know some of you, and I’m going to fix that, but for now we’re confined to our territory here on the Independence. No flight operations, no leaving marked Rogue Territory, no outside communication, and unfortunately, no simulators since they’re several corridors away in Pilot Country.”

Wedge couldn’t help but grimace. So much for training. If we had access to the sim bay, we could at least put the downtime to good use.

Hobbie raised a hand. “What’s this security review going to look like?”

General Rieekan cleared his throat. “We’ll be reviewing your service records, communications records, and doing a full sweep of all of Rogue Squadron’s quarters, supply rooms, and the hangar. For your safety and the safety of Alliance Security, you’re required to turn over any and all personal weapons as well. I apologize in advance, but for the safety of you and your fellow pilots, you’ll have no real privacy for the duration of the review.”

Wedge caught a glimpse of Mara by chance; her expression was unreadable, but her skin was as pale as flimsiplast. He felt a pang of sympathy. She’s probably never been through one of these. He managed to keep his expression neutral as the next thought followed. Syndulla may be throwing me out an airlock sooner than I expected.

Senesca asked, “How long will the review take?”

“Depends on what we find,” Rieekan grunted, “but if I were you I’d assume at least a week.” The general looked around at the Rogue pilots. “You don’t have to be happy about it. I’m not happy about it. But before Rogue Squadron can resume operations, we need to make sure your unit is secure.”

Janson raised a hand, and Rieekan ignored it. The general has clearly met Janson before now, Wedge mused.

Luke stepped forward again. “If you have any questions, find me or Wedge.” He smiled, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “We’ll both be here, too, undergoing the same review. We won’t be hard to find.”

Rieekan gestured, and an Alliance security agent stepped in from the doorway, pulling a repulsorcart stacked with boxes. “Security lockboxes for your personal effects,” he said, “including any weapons. We’ll screen the contents and return the boxes to you when we’re done. Key it with your biometrics and only you and Alliance Security’s override code can open it.” He glanced around at the pilots. “We’ll make this as quick and secure as we can. The Alliance needs you.”

---

Wedge caught up with Luke in his quarters a few minutes later.

Luke had a security lockbox and was studying it intently.

“It’s unkeyed right now,” Wedge said without prompting. “Press the release button and hold it. After a couple seconds, it’ll beep at you, you press your thumb against the lock, and it keys to your biometrics a couple ways.” He frowned. “Thumbprint and genetic, I think. It might store more.”

Luke nodded and did as Wedge had directed. The box popped open and Luke glanced inside to ensure it was empty.

“So, do I get the full story?” Wedge asked.

Luke unholstered his blaster, a Merr-Sonn Model 57, and laid it gently in the lockbox. “Rieekan came to me with a mission. Tight window, because the Empire was already closing on Derlin’s corvette and the people he went to Ralltiir to retrieve. We only had three X-wings ready to fly, and the general said if we waited for the others, it’d be too late.”

“So you took Sarkli and Jade and left?”

“You already know that,” Luke pointed out. “But yes. And in hyperspace…” he hesitated for a long moment as he unhooked the lightsaber hanging from his belt, studying it for long moments before laying it in the lockbox. “In hyperspace I kept thinking that something was wrong. That someone was going to die.” He winced. “The thought I had was ‘Someone isn’t coming back.’ So I pulled diagnostics on all the X-wings, planned our tactics for the fight. Everything looked good.”

Wedge frowned. “Why did you think that?”

Luke shrugged uneasily, freeing a sheathed vibroblade from his belt and adding it to the lockbox. “Gut feeling, I guess. Maybe because we hadn’t had time to do a proper test flight of the X-wings right after a new ground crew had their hands in them.”

“The Force?” Wedge asked quietly.

“Wedge, I don’t know what I’m doing with that,” Luke said helplessly. “I’m not a Jedi. I want to be one. Ben Kenobi showed me how to start. But now he’s gone, and I don’t have anyone to teach me.” He smiled self-deprecatingly. “I thought about that already, too, you know. But I don’t know how it works. Maybe the Force was trying to warn me. But I don’t know enough to claim that, and if I start labeling every feeling as a premonition from the Force, I’m going to get everyone killed.” He raised an eyebrow at his XO. “One of the reasons Dodonna assigned you as my executive officer is to keep me honest.”

Wedge nodded slowly as Luke closed the box, latching it securely. “So nothing looked wrong on the run in to Ralltiir,” he prompted.

“Right. We came out of hyperspace, and the Imperial blockade was configured how we expected. I picked a target, a Raider corvette, and we hit it with torpedoes on the way in to punch a hole. I signaled Derlin, and he brought the Bright Wake out from under cover to start his escape run. I led Sarkli and Mara down, we set up a loose escort, and I was focused on the TIEs coming to attack our corvette. Artoo warned me about a torpedo launch, but I was positioned too far forward to see it.”

“Sarkli’s attack on the Bright Wake.“

“Right. Mara saw it in time and shot down the torpedoes and went after Sarkli.”

Wedge frowned. “You had a ship full of people depending on you to get them out and you sent Jade after Sarkli?”

Luke winced. “I didn’t send her. She went after him.” His voice quieted even further. “I ordered her back and she kept pursuing. I couldn’t do anything about it because I was trying to keep the Imp fighters off the Bright Wake.“

His stomach dropped. “She disobeyed orders?”

Luke shrugged, a slight motion. “Yes. She did break off and reform with me, just before the Bright Wake jumped out. But I covered Derlin for most of the extraction by myself. Barely got them out.”

Wedge rubbed his eyes wearily. “So Jade disobeyed orders during the fight.”

The Tatooine farmer offered a weary smile. “Depends. Is this going in your official report?”

“I don’t have an official report. I wasn’t there.” Wedge raised an eyebrow. “I’m trying to figure out if we need to scrub her from the roster.”

“I don’t want her off the roster,” Luke said immediately.

“You don’t?”

“No.”

Wedge waited for Luke to elaborate further, but he didn’t seem to be in any hurry. “Why?”

Luke had a distant look. “I’m not sure. Call it a gut feeling.”

“That’s not good enough,” Wedge disagreed. “If you want to keep her on the roster, we can. The entirety of the Rebellion is short on pilots…” his smile was faint and ironic, “…and we just lost another one. But I want more than your gut.”

Luke’s blue eyes turned icy. “My gut was to distrust Sarkli, too,” he said stiffly.

Wedge’s brown eyes narrowed in return. “We had no reason to distrust Sarkli.”

“Two proton torpedoes, an open-air transmission, and a missing X-wing say otherwise.” Luke’s lips compressed into a thin line. “Wedge, you were wrong about Sarkli.”

“I was operating on the best information I had,” Wedge protested, heat creeping into his tone. “I had no reason to think he wasn’t on the level.”

“Paperwork doesn’t tell the whole story, Wedge. You were relying on the service history paperwork and ignoring the man. You flagged me for my call on Yavin and ignored his response to it, and you never talked to him about it afterward, did you? I did, and I knew something wasn’t right. And I sat on my own instincts because you wanted him in the squadron.” Luke grimaced and seemed to deflate. “I’m sorry. That’s not fair. We made the decision together.”

Wedge tried to settle his own anger. I’m not angry at Luke. Not really, he realized, as he examined his own emotion. I’m feeling guilty, because Luke’s right. I did push for Sarkli to be on the roster.

“So, was he an Imperial plant from the beginning?”

Luke shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe he really felt that betrayed by my command decisions.” He hesitated. “I tried talking to him after Yavin, but it didn’t feel like I got through to him. And when he betrayed us on Ralltiir, he got personal. Implied I was a terrible commander. Mocked Mara on open comms. I think he was trying to get her to break off and chase him.”

“And succeeded.”

Nodding, Luke said, “With just me covering the Bright Wake, Derlin almost didn’t make it out. And Mara nearly lost her fight with Sarkli.” He offered another shrug. “We’ll see what Rieekan’s security review finds. Maybe he’ll have an answer for us.”

Wedge leaned against the wall of Luke’s quarters. “So what do we do with Jade?”

“She stays on the roster,” was Luke’s immediate response.

“Until General Syndulla shows up and drags her out of Rogue Territory,” Wedge grumbled.

“She’s a Rogue until she doesn’t want to be or until she proves herself unfit.” Luke shook his head. “Sarkli knew exactly how to manipulate her. Whatever he was at the beginning, he planned on betraying us at Ralltiir. I’m going to talk to her and make sure that she doesn’t repeat what happened there, but I’m not going to hold that engagement against her.”

Wedge blew out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “This is going to give Colonel S’man all kinds of new ammunition.”

“I have no doubt,” Luke said dryly. “But I called for the security lockdown. We’re working with Rieekan. This is survivable.” He hesitated. “Right?”

“I think so.” Wedge shrugged. “Rieekan seems interested in keeping us around. I don’t think we’re done yet.”

“Good.” Luke picked up the lockbox and nodded toward the door. “Let’s go patch up morale for the squadron, then.”

---

“Why me?” Wes complained. “Seriously, Wedge, why not Hobbie?”

“Because Hobbie is helping Skywalker make rounds,” Wedge said dryly. “And I need someone I can trust to help me pull files.”

Janson rolled his eyes. “I’m Wes Janson, ace pilot, not Wes Janson, clerk.”

“I’m seeing Wes Janson, sanitation in your future,” Wedge said dryly. “If you’d prefer, I’m sure S’man would accept your transfer.”

“Keep up this sort of flimsiplast nonsense and I might take him up on it,” Wes grumbled.

“Rieekan wanted me to pull all our roster files,” Wedge explained. “Everything Luke and I have on flimsi, to make the initial security review faster. I need help, and that means I pick someone who I’m pretty sure will pass the review. With our current roster, that means me, Skywalker, Hobbie, and unfortunately for both of us, you.”

“What about Naeco? Or Jade?”

“Jade’s a mess after Ralltiir, and I don’t know Naeco well enough to be sure there isn’t something to flag about the Denon cell.”

“Wonderful,” Wes muttered. “And why isn’t this all on the computer system already?”

Wedge dropped a stack of flimsiplast in front of Wes. “Because these were the notes Skywalker and I were using to screen for pilots. And then the evacuation happened a lot faster than we intended, and I’ve been busy trying to keep S’man from disassembling our squadron, and then recruiting pilots, and now preparing for a security review. So you get to help me key all of these into the system so we still have copies when Rieekan makes off with all my flimsiplast.”

For a few minutes, they worked in companionable silence, Wes taking half of the stack of paper while Wedge worked on the other.

“So what happens now?” Wes asked, his tone not quite casual. “We wait for Rieekan to finish the review, you recruit some more pilots, and we start flying more missions?”

Wedge paused and frowned. “Not exactly.”

“Meaning?”

The executive officer hesitated. “It’s too early to know for sure. But we need time to train. Luke flew three missions in three days. No one can manage that pace indefinitely, and if we try to do that with a whole squadron, pilots are going to die.”

“I’m not a fan of that part.”

“Me, neither. So I’m going to push hard to get a training window first. Three months would be ideal.”

Wes laughed aloud at that suggestion. “Three months? Wedge, I started with the Tierfon Yellow Aces. We were rookies and we had less than two months of training before we pulled our first mission against an actual Imperial target.”

“I never said we were going to get three months, but I’m going to push for as much as I can.”

“And how do we keep this from happening again?” Wes asked, the subject implied.

“I’m still trying to figure that out. Better security screening on new pilots would be helpful.”

“I’m sure it would.” Wes flashed one of the flimsiplast pages at Wedge. “Flight Officer Jade’s file. A whole lot of empty here. No homeworld, no next of kin, hell, not even a birthday. Hard to do proper security screening with no data, Wedge.”

Wedge frowned, lips compressed. Of course, General Syndulla vouched for Jade personally, and that carries her past the paperwork stage. But that doesn’t guarantee security. “I guess Luke and I are going to have to figure out something else,” he said at last. “Something that doesn’t just rely on Alliance Security to screen properly. I’m sure Sarkli was screened, too, and he made it through.”

Wes nodded. “Whatever you come up with, I’m sure Rogue Squadron won’t be the only unit that will want it,” he said. “And whatever it is, I’d prefer it doesn’t require more adventures from Wes Janson, clerk.”

Luke studied the X-wing’s tactical displays as the trio of fighters hurtled through hyperspace toward Ralltiir.

“A concentrated strike,” he said aloud, half to himself and half to his astromech. “Six proton torpedoes, fire synchronized. If the Raider doesn’t have time to turn, that much firepower in one spot should penetrate the shields and knock out the main sublight engine. If it does manage to turn, at least two proton torpedoes should still impact the hull. Probably not enough to destroy it, but it’ll be enough to cripple it.”

Artoo whistled approvingly from his slot behind the cockpit.

The sinking feeling refused to go away. Someone isn’t coming back. The thought was intrusive, his mind putting words to the feeling.

“Pull the diagnostics again,” Luke ordered. Artoo whistled a protest, but Luke shook his head. “I know you’ve pulled them twice already. Do it again. The ground crew just finished a major overhaul on all three X-wings. If they made a mistake, I don’t want us to find out by having an engine failure in the middle of a dogfight.”

The astromech’s tone was begrudging, but diagnostic data from all three X-wings began to scroll over a secondary monitor.

Nothing. Everything looks fine. We have a plan to open a hole for Derlin. Luke drummed his fingers on his leg. It’s just nerves, right? We’re going in hot with a small strike package against a blockade and almost no time to think or plan. But I have a solid team. Sarkli’s great. Mara won’t let me down. The X-wings are in great shape. We’re combat-ready, with a full load of fuel, Tibanna gas, and proton torpedoes.

So why do I feel like one of us isn’t coming back?

Luke turned back to the tactical display. “Run scenario four again,” he ordered.

Artoo’s tone was outright irritated, but Luke ignored it. “Worst case,” he murmured. “The Accuser shifted its orbit after Derlin’s last transmission, and it’s directly in front of us when we drop out of hyperspace. So we revector…” He continued on, half-mumbling, half-thinking, keying corrections into the battle plan, plotting six different attack vectors the three-ship Rogue flight element could use, depending on where and how the Accuser‘s support ships were positioned. He finally finished the contingencies, added the new set to the existing tactical scenarios he and Artoo had been building for the last hour, and sat back in his cockpit.

The sinking feeling remained.

He opened the comm. “Rogue Flight, we’re just a few minutes out. Report with combat readiness.”

“Rogue Two,” Sarkli reported, his voice as calm and flat as a pane of transparisteel. “All systems green. Deflectors online. Laser cannons charged and ready. Proton torpedoes configured to fire in pairs for the initial strike. Ready to cut to sublights.”

“Rogue Three,” Mara added after a short pause. “Green here, Commander. Shields, lasers, torpedoes all nominal. Ready on sublights.”

“My astromech is transmitting our battle plan and contingencies,” Luke said, trying to shake the gut feeling. Someone isn’t coming back. “Your astromechs should filter based on the Imperial blockade’s actual configuration and position when we come out of hyperspace. We hit a soft part of the formation with coordinated fire, punch through, link up with the Bright Wake, and keep the TIEs off her until we’re back through the blockade. We don’t slow down, we don’t turn back, and we don’t chase kills,” he continued, emphasizing the last part.

“Yes, Commander,” Sarkli said, his voice now with a trace of both eagerness and irritation.

“Here we go,” Luke said, watching the timer tick down. “Sixty seconds from realspace. Stay in attack formation and we’ll get through this.”

Someone isn’t coming back, the thought repeated, and Luke hated it. We’re fine, he reassured his own gut. We have a plan. We’ll execute it. It’s overwhelming odds, but we’re not staying to fight everyone. Just open a hole, help a blockade runner slip out, and jump back to the safety of hyperspace.

But someone isn’t coming back.

---

The hypnotic blue-white mottled swirl of hyperspace gave way to stars and darkness and a planet.

Mara was already hitting switches in the cockpit before Skywalker’s voice crackled in her ear. “S-foils to attack positions. No TIEs in immediate threat range. Shields double-front for our initial attack run, then even out coverage. We’re scenario two. Accelerate to attack speed, full throttle. Don’t give them time to think.”

Her systems panel was full of green lights as she jammed the throttle forward, a half-second behind Sarkli and a full second behind Skywalker. “Arfor,” she murmured, “give me the long-range tactical.”

A wireframe grid of the planet painted her main display, with a giant red triangle indicating the position of the Accuser and a scattering of red dots advertising smaller support ships. The Accuser was directly over the capital city, Cambrielle, with its support ships positioned in a far-ranging grid. Or a net, she corrected herself. To catch anyone attempting to flee.

“Broadcasting missile lock now,” Skywalker continued. “Use my data so we sync fire.”

The tactical data moved to a secondary display, and her primary monitor lit with Skywalker’s targeting. A Raider-class corvette filled the display, one hundred and fifty meters of Kuat Drive Yards engineering built specifically to screen Star Destroyers against snubfighter attack. It was the Empire’s response to the lessons of the Clone Wars, where swarms of cheap, fragile, and fast droid starfighters could overwhelm a capital ship’s point defenses at knife-fight ranges, duck inside deflector shields, and sting repeatedly with laser cannons.

X-wings weren’t cheap or fragile, the Rogues were not targeting the Accuser, and Luke Skywalker had no intention of a close-in attack.

“Fire, fire, fire,” Skywalker ordered.

Six torpedoes flashed out from the trio of fighters. Over five kilometers ahead, the Raider sat in orbit, nose pointed down at Cambrielle, its sensors no doubt focused forward as it waited for the Bright Wake. Mara watched, a cold smile on her face as she monitored the tactical plot. To the naked eye, it was tiny, but the subsequent explosions of multiple torpedo hits over the course of a full second were bright enough to catch her eye against the grey-brown planet below.

“Broadcasting escape vector to Derlin now,” Skywalker said. “Looks like a patrol group of TIEs vectoring in from ahead and to starboard. Follow me.”

Mara nudged her stick through the turn, keeping pace with his X-wing and peripherally aware of Sarkli doing the same far to starboard. Her monitor lit with a target, fed to her by Skywalker’s astromech.

She kicked her X-wing further out to port. No sense drawing any stray fire toward Skywalker.

The distance closed rapidly as the TIEs chose a head-to-head attack on the Rebel interlopers. In theory, we have the advantage with our deflectors. Doesn’t mean we automatically win.

The trio of TIEs ahead opened fire at maximum range. Mara jinked left, right, left, and threw in a bit of nose drift along with it. A couple of bursts caught the very edge of her deflectors, but at maximum range, they did little damage. She rode through the fire, closing with her target, waiting for the opportune moment.

The moment came two seconds later. Skywalker’s target, the Imperial element’s leader, exploded under a precise burst. Mara’s target flinched, his weapons suddenly tracking a hundred meters away from her X-wing as the pilot reflexively ducked away from the explosion. Mara pounced, her targeting reticule dropping directly on the TIE’s cockpit glass. She squeezed the trigger reflexively, a hail of red laserfire converging on the TIE. Fire and smoke erupted, and her target spun away into atmosphere, clearly out of control.

The third TIE, Sarkli’s target, aborted its run, accelerating away from the X-wings on a perpendicular course.

“Let him go,” Skywalker said. “Bright Wake is launching. We rendezvous with it, reverse our course, and climb back up the gravity well and get out.”

“Copy,” Sarkli said.

“Copy.” The X-wings roared down into atmosphere. Mara spared a glance at her tactical plot, finally remembering at the same time to even her shield coverage out to cover her tail. The Accuser had not changed position from the heart of the Imperial net, but the scattering of smaller capital ships was maneuvering, attempting to close the hole the Rogues had opened. Skywalker had anticipated that in the tactical planning he’d broadcast to Mara and Sarkli; by trying to plug the obvious hole, the Empire was opening more gaps. Her R4 beeped as it highlighted the most likely extraction route.

Down, down, down the X-wings dove. Mara could only stare in horror at the landscape below as it began to resolve into detail. Ralltiir had been under Imperial occupation for over a year. From orbit, she’d assumed the planet was naturally a mottled brown-grey. Now, closer to the surface, she could see that much of the color was from damage. Fires had clearly burned large swathes of land; fields that should have been growing crops lay fallow. How they’ve managed to resist at all is beyond me. 

Below and ahead, the glimmering shield dome over the battered city of Cambrielle flickered and vanished, and in the same heartbeat a CR90 Corellian corvette appeared, already picking up speed. “Form up,” Skywalker ordered. “We keep the Imperials off the Bright Wake and punch our way out.”

Skywalker led the Rogues in a high-speed pass, flashing by the Bright Wake before bringing them around in a fast, tight turn to position them above and behind the corvette. “Rebel fighters, this is Captain Derlin,” a voice crackled on an Alliance frequency. “Give us our exit track.”

“Transmitting now,” Skywalker said. “Rogues, loosen formation. We’ve already got TIEs starting to vector on us. Two, stay low-starboard, Three, low-port, and I’ll stay high-center. Call for help when you need it. Don’t chase kills.” Skywalker’s confidence buoyed Mara’s grim skepticism as Arfor painted Imperial fighter squadrons on her tactical plot.

She looked up from her tactical displays, visually orienting on Skywalker’s X-wing, on the Bright Wake, and out of the corner of her eye, saw the nose of Sarkli’s X-wing begin to bank to port, toward the corvette itself.

---

Luke glanced down at his tactical display as Artoo screeched an alarm. “Proton torpedoes?” was all he managed to say before the whole thing went straight to hell.

He caught the glimpse on his rear scope, two torpedoes closing fast on the Bright Wake‘s engines. He did not have time to comprehend they’d been fired by Sarkli before red laserfire from Mara’s X-wing intercepted the warheads, the shockwave from the detonation buffeting all four ships.

“Imperial forces, this is Lieutenant Sarkli of Rogue Squadron.” The voice was composed but cold on the open channel. “The fleeing Rebel corvette is carrying a military research team. Intercept and destroy. I am broadcasting my own IFF codes. Please do not fire on me.”

“Sarkli, what are you doing?” Luke managed.

“Choosing the winning side, Commander.” Sarkli’s laugh was mirthless. “If you’re the best the Rebellion has to offer, the war will be over in six months.”

“Go to hell,” Mara’s voice was low and full of cold fury.

Sarkli was already breaking off, his attack thwarted by Mara’s intervention. Luke barely had time to register what was happening; TIEs were already closing from above, ranging fire lancing down at the accelerating Bright Wake.

And then Luke realized, to his horror, that he was alone. Sarkli was diving away, and Mara was diving after him.

“Rogue Three, break off!” Luke called urgently as he began spraying fire at the first element of TIE fighters. “Rogue Three, do not pursue!” One of the TIEs caught an unlucky shot and exploded; a second, rocked by the detonation and unprepared for atmospheric interference, fell out of formation. Not dead but out of the fight for the moment. He tried to focus fire on the third fighter from the trio, and the Bright Wake‘s guns opened up as well, but two more TIE elements were two kilometers behind and closing fast.

“The squadron mascot thinks she has teeth,” Sarkli spat.

Luke could barely spare a glance backward. Already falling behind in the Bright Wake‘s desperate climb, he could see the other two X-wings tied in a twisting, rolling fight, with red laserfire exchanged but no hits. Then his attention was forward again, laser cannons cycling as more TIEs came into range, the deeper thundering booms of the corvette’s cannon audible even over the scream of his engines and the lighter report of his weapons. “Rogue Three, come back!” Luke said again, trying to keep despair from tinging his voice. “Rogue Three, Bright Wake needs cover!”

Mara did not answer.

---

Dimly, Mara registered Skywalker’s order to break off. It did not enter her tactical calculations as she pursued Sarkli, trying to get the target solution she needed to kill the traitor. Cold rage consumed her mind, and she was not inclined to take control back.

Sarkli was laughing. “Go home,” he taunted, his X-wing twisting around her sights and rolling into a banking dive.

Mara followed, aware that every second she continued the pursuit, more distance opened between her and Skywalker and Bright Wake. But it didn’t matter. She was going to kill Sarkli.

“Skywalker’s pet,” the traitor said. “You’re a child in a cockpit on the losing side, following a man who’s going to get you killed. Give up, Jade.”

She tightened the bank, shedding speed to try to get enough lead to take a shot. A moment later, she fired a quad-burst, all four cannons firing together. Only one bolt impacted, a glancing hit off Sarkli’s rear shield. He responded immediately, the roll turning into a split-S as he completely inverted and pulled back on the stick to send him rocketing over Cambrielle. He leveled off for a brief second. Mara pursued, her maneuver more ragged but not enough for Sarkli to shake her off. She came out of the dive firing, trying to split Sarkli’s X-wing with hard light.

Her weapons fire filled empty air, Sarkli breaking hard to port. “Fine, little mascot,” he said, the X-wing rolling and banking back to starboard as Mara followed, engines roaring as she tried to keep up. “Then we end this.” He cut back to port.

Mara followed, laser cannons firing in vain. Skywalker’s voice was in her ear, but she ignored him. Her astromech was warbling something at her, but she couldn’t take her eyes off Sarkli’s fighter long enough to read the translation scrolling across her display. Another cut to starboard, then back to port, and Mara registered she was losing ground.

It was only then, when she realized Sarkli was slipping away, that clarity entered. And in that half-second of clarity, three important, related thoughts blossomed together in her mind.

The first was that she was low in atmosphere over Ralltiir, isolated, with the only friendly ships in range moving away and climbing. If she stayed in this fight for another ten seconds, she was going to be trapped by the TIEs even now trying to paint her with target locks, too deep to escape back to Skywalker and the Bright Wake.

The second was that Sarkli had pulled her into the same flat scissors he had used to kill a TIE over Dantooine while she’d watched from the copilot chair of the U-wing transport. She was losing ground every reversal, and she was a few more turns away from being forced fully defensive.

The third, and the hardest thought to swallow, was that Sarkli was better than she was. She had started the fight with Sarkli fully on the defensive, and she was now on the verge of losing.

Cold rage demanded she finish the fight and kill him. Logic informed her that continuing the fight now was death.

“Arfor, next torpedo, detonate at one hundred and fifty meters,” she snapped, flipping weapons control from lasers to proton torpedoes. As her nose came back around, she fired blind.

A heartbeat later, the torpedo detonated; fire and smoke filled the sky, blinding her and buffeting the X-wing. Mara rolled inverted and pulled back hard on the stick, dropping two hundred meters of altitude but accelerating away from the fight. She risked a glance at her rear scope.

“Run, mascot,” Sarkli said coldly. His X-wing was banking away, not trying to pursue. “Follow after Skywalker like the good little pet you’ve been. The Empire will come for all of you.”

“Rogue Three,” Skywalker’s voice was in her ear again. “Mara, come back.“

“I’m coming,” she managed through gritted teeth. “I’m coming, Lead.”

Ahead, she could see the Bright Wake and Skywalker’s X-wing, both trailing smoke, still rising as fast as the corvette’s engines could push it. The task force, trying to close the hole the crippled Raider had opened, had inadvertently created a new gap in their net, and the Bright Wake was slipping through.

“Don’t wait for us,” Skywalker called. “When you can jump, Derlin, do it.”

“Roger that, Skywalker.”

Mara had barely slid into place on Skywalker’s port wing when the corvette’s engines flared and it vanished into hyperspace. More TIEs were accelerating along the edge of Ralltiir’s atmosphere, clawing too late for their prey.

“Together, Rogue Three,” Skywalker said, and Mara’s R4 chimed with the receipt of hyperspace navigation data.

Stars stretched into lines, and the X-wings vanished into hyperspace. And only in the safety of faster-than-light travel did Mara force her grip on the stick and throttle to loosen.

Her hands were shaking.

---

Luke slumped in his cockpit. Half a dozen red lights flashed on his status displays, warning of an overheated laser cannon, a cracked shield projector, hull damage, and several less critical failures.

One of us isn’t coming back. He closed his eyes, trying to marshal his thoughts. I knew something was wrong. Sarkli stabbed us in the back. Why?

That thought was a cold knife in the gut.

We got the Bright Wake out. Mara got out alive. Derlin and the people he went to get all made it out. We lost an X-wing and a pilot.

He keyed the comm open by touch. “Rogue Three,” he said without opening his eyes. 

“Here, Leader.” Mara’s voice was clipped, short.

“Are you okay?”

“My X-wing is fine.”

“That’s not what I asked,” Luke said.

Mara hesitated for a long moment. “Fit to fly.”

That’s as much answer as I’m getting right now. “Copy. Rest while you can.” He keyed his comm off.

One of us isn’t coming back. How in the hell am I going to explain this to Wedge?

Luke found Hobbie and Mara first.

The borrowed U-wing had already been ferried back to the Independence‘s main hangar, leaving Auxiliary Two feeling oversized for the half-dozen X-wings taking up space. We have ten pilots now, Luke noted, and six X-wings. I hope Rieekan comes through on the rest of the fighters we need. The idea of the squadron being filled to its paper-promised twelve pilots brought a smile to his face.

The two pilots were sitting on the port s-foil of Hobbie’s X-wing. An access panel on the upper laser cannon was open, and they were clearly in discussion about it.

“…know that Wedge has it installed backward. And I know he claims it works better that way,” Mara was saying, tone cross. “I also know that is not the Incom spec, and there is zero reason it’d work better reversed.”

“You’re going to argue that Wedge is wrong?” Hobbie asked doubtfully.

“No, I’m just taking Incom’s side in the argument.”

“Good evening,” Luke said mildly.

Both heads turned to look. “Commander,” Hobbie said.

“I’m checking in on everyone who flew today,” Luke said easily. “Nothing formal.” He frowned for a moment. “I thought we were finally getting a maintenance crew in tomorrow to work on the X-wings properly. Why are you two working on Hobbie’s fighter now?”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Mara said briskly. “I bet the air wing has an emergency tomorrow and needs them instead. Wouldn’t put it past S’man.”

Hobbie snorted.

“I wanted to ask you two, since you flew the transport: what did you think of Tycho Celchu?”

Hobbie shrugged. “Hard to get a read on him. Don’t doubt the defection is real. He’s hurting, real bad, from losing Alderaan. Told me he was talking to his family on the HoloNet when it happened. But I didn’t get any feel for what he’ll be like in a month when he’s had time to sit with everything.”

Luke nodded as he filed the observation away. “Mara?”

She looked uncomfortable for a moment. “He’s observant. Smart. And he definitely has no loyalty left for the Empire. Outside the pain I have no idea what drives him.”

“And you two? Anything I should know?”

They both shook their heads, and Hobbie added, “We’re all green here, Commander. I’d rather be in my X-wing the next time, though.”

Luke suspected there was something being left unsaid, but he decided to let it go for now. “No one has to do the scut work every mission,” he reassured him. “Any idea where Sarkli and Puck are?”

“They talked about hitting up the simulators with the newcomers,” Mara volunteered.

“I’ll start with the sim bay, then. Thanks.” Luke offered a casual nod, then headed out of Auxiliary Two and to the simulator bay.

The walk from Rogue Territory to the simulator bay wasn’t long, but it did mean entering Pilot Country proper. Luke passed a number of air wing pilots along the way, with mixed reactions. Some he clocked as admiration and surprise, but some expressions flashed irritation or even outright contempt. He chose to ignore it all. Celebrity doesn’t keep pilots alive, and while S’man may not like the Rogues, he does care about the air wing. I’d bet every credit I have that the air wing pilots are loyal to him. He frowned to himself as he neared the simulator bay. Wedge might not like it, but we’re going to need to figure out how to work with him. We have enough enemies shooting at us that we don’t need enemies inside the Alliance, too.

The simulator bay was a larger chamber than any the Rogues had claimed, save the Auxiliary Two hangar itself. At a glance, Luke estimated at least fifty simulator pods filled the room in paired rows, with the pods grouped by type. The X-wing simulators were easiest for him to pick out, both due to his own experience training in the T-65 simulators and the presence of a group of his Rogues, including Sarkli and Puck. He didn’t hesitate before heading over to his pilots.

Only two of the X-wing pods were active, and the master control panel showed the occupants were running through familiarization training. Luke had a twinge of recognition. Those were the first sims I flew, before the Death Star arrived. Only when Luke was within earshot of the Rogues watching the display could he make out the Aurebesh notation that the current pilots were Zev Senesca and Karie Neth.

“…is decorative,” Puck was saying cheerfully. “The scorch marks make it look faster.”

“Absolutely,” Wes Janson agreed. “When Hobbie’s fighter has them, it’s usually going really fast into the ground.”

Sarkli shook his head. “Naeco, I thought a man with eleven kills would be more aggressive. The whole mission to Dantooine and you only scored a single kill.”

“The kills weren’t the point,” Luke said mildly as he stepped into the circle of pilots, which also included Cesi Eirriss. Several of the Rogues stiffened at his unexpected arrival. “At ease,” he added.

“Commander, the kills are absolutely the point,” Sarkli said, still stiff. “We’re fighter pilots. The four TIE pilots I vaped over Dantooine are neutralized. They’ll never threaten Rebel forces again. The Empire has to spend credits and time to replace them and their ships.”

Luke smiled reprovingly. “The extraction was the point,” he corrected. “When we climbed out of the canyon, you were right to engage that element coming after the U-wing. You led with a proton torpedo, which was a great tactic. But if you’d aimed at the leader instead of the wingman, you’d have broken the element and you could have extracted cleanly. If they’d tried to pursue when you were on the climb, Puck could have covered you. Instead you took on all three by yourself.”

“I didn’t need Naeco,” Sarkli said. “I put all three of them down.”

“Yes, you did,” Luke agreed. “And your flying was phenomenal. But you left Naeco alone escorting the U-wing instead of operating as part of a team.” He lost his smile. “Red Squadron lost almost everyone at Yavin. Wedge and I want to build a squadron that does better than that. And that means relying on each other, even when you’re sure you can handle a fight yourself.”

“What about you, Commander?” Puck asked, oddly serious for once. “You jumped out in front and tangled up with the TIEs that were dropping on us from altitude.”

“I did, yes, because we were short on options and I knew you two were both climbing after me. If it turned bad, I was certain I could survive long enough for you two and the U-wing to reach me.” Luke shrugged. “I won’t pretend there’s always a clean answer, but we need to trust each other.”

Sarkli bristled, but closed his mouth firmly.

Luke nodded at the simulator pods. “Who’s been training?”

“I’ve been beating up on the newcomers,” Wes volunteered. “Senesca insisted on running Neth through the early training. Something about making it fair?”

“Wonderful,” Luke said dryly. “Wedge and I will put together a training schedule when we can stop and take a breath, which probably means tomorrow. Tonight, though, I’m just checking on the pilots who flew today.” His eyes landed on Puck. “How are you doing, Puck?”

“Well, I joined your squadron three days ago. I’ve flown two combat missions since. This is the most excitement I’ve had since I left Denon.” His smile came easily, though Luke could see a bit of fatigue in his eyes. “I’m sure the maintenance crew will complain about the beating my X-wing took the last few days, but I’m good, Commander.”

Luke nodded, then turned. “Sarkli?”

Sarkli’s expression was composed, now, a mask over the irritation Luke knew he had to be feeling. “I’m ready to fly whenever you need me, Commander.”

“I don’t doubt that.” Luke offered him a reassuring smile. “The next time the call comes, I’ll need you on my wing. You’re a great pilot, Sarkli.”

“Thank you, Commander,” he said, tone flat.

Luke decided not to press any further. “Don’t forget to get some sleep, Rogues,” he said lightly. “Maintenance crews will be going over our X-wings tomorrow, and we’ll be hitting the simulators hard. We’ve gotten lucky so far. Two missions with no casualties, but no training as a squadron. I don’t want luck to carry us any further.” He offered a casual nod instead of a salute as he turned to leave. “I’ll see you all in the morning at 0700 for breakfast in the mess in Pilot Country. And if you’re not there, I’m sure Wedge will get creative.”

---

A kilometers-long warship like the Independence did not truly sleep, but it did operate on a standard 24-hour Coruscant day. For eight hours of the day the ship’s lighting in non-critical sections was dimmed. Silence did not settle, but the ambient noise was usually quieter. Most of the ship’s occupants rested or slept.

Mara could not sleep. Celchu’s question still echoed when she tried to quiet her mind. You’re from Alderaan? And some part of her wanted to answer. No, I’m not. It’s complicated. But that was more than what she’d tell Wedge or Hobbie, let alone a defector she’d just met. So why did it bother her so much?

The mess in Pilot Country wasn’t staffed during ship’s night, but shelf-stable food was available and caf dispensers offered the dark liquid with a flavor only moderately worse than usual. Mara didn’t particularly care for the caf, but a warm mug in her hands felt more comfortable than the caf was palatable, so she sat at a table with her back to the bulkhead and mug held firmly.

A handful of ship crew came through the mess while Mara stewed over her mug: a few starfighter technicians, a pair of patrol pilots from the air wing, and a Mon Calamari in a fleet lieutenant’s uniform that Mara suspected was more smuggler than Rebel officer. It came as a surprise, then, when an older man with greying hair wearing a pilot’s jacket without a unit patch approached her table, his own mug of terrible caf in hand.

“May I?”

Mara looked around at the nearly-empty mess hall. “I suppose it would be impolite for me to say no, given how crowded it is.”

He laughed once, though it sounded genuinely amused as he sat himself down opposite her. “Usually it’s the squadron leaders in here this time of night,” he commented. “Not flight officers.”

“I aspire to leadership,” Mara said dryly.

“Interesting way to go about it,” he said agreeably. “I heard that a young combat pilot from Skywalker’s squadron pointed a blaster at Colonel S’man this morning. She didn’t even have the decency to wear a uniform while she was doing it.”

Mara’s lips quirked upward in spite of herself. “I was holding it, not pointing. And it was early.”

The older man laughed again, longer this time. “I can see why S’man was filing complaints,” he chuckled. “Mara Jade, right?”

“Yes,” she said. He clearly already knows who I am. “And you are…?”

“Hal,” he said.

Mara paused for a moment to study him. The hair wasn’t prematurely grey, she concluded, and even in the dim lighting she could see the age in his skin. The hazel eyes had some sparkle of energy, but not the vigor of youth. And a closer look at his flight jacket showed traces of old insignia that had been removed in the varying discoloration, barely visible in the darkened mess hall. He’s seen some battles, she concluded.

“And what do you want?” she asked, deciding on the direct approach.

Hal paused for a moment, taking a sip of his caf. He didn’t wince at the burnt flavor. “I like meeting interesting people. You strike me as interesting.”

“Interesting? How?”

“You’re the youngest combat pilot on the Independence,” he noted, then waved dismissively when he saw her expression. “I’ve known younger, though. And you’re part of the squadron Skywalker and Antilles are putting together. Rogue Squadron,” he said, barely smothering another chuckle. “S’man was furious when he saw the paperwork for the official name. But you, you don’t fit.”

“Don’t fit how?”

“The same way Skywalker doesn’t fit,” Hal said with a wave of his hand. “Too young. Not enough combat hours. But maybe that’s what the Alliance needs. Young pilots who come in without the baggage of us old veterans, officers who might see new things that we retirees can’t anymore.”

Mara lifted an eyebrow. “You’re retired?”

“Do you see a rank insignia?” he asked rhetorically.

“A three-kilometer-long Mon Calamari warship is a hell of a place to retire.”

“If I stay long enough, maybe it’ll turn back into the luxury starliner it used to be,” Hal answered cheerfully before taking a drink of his caf.

Mara took a drink from her own mug and only mostly managed to hide her grimace. This stuff is practically a solvent. I bet the maintenance crews use it to clean their tools.

“Rogue Squadron,” Hal mused aloud. “I’ve seen a few units like it before.” His eyes flicked up and met Mara’s, seeing the unasked question. “Sometimes a squadron like this is a vanity project. Skywalker’s a big hero after the Death Star, and sooner than later the Empire will know who he is because the political opportunities for Mon Mothma are too good. And honestly, it’s too big to keep secret forever, so using it makes sense. Now, most of the time, that sort of squadron becomes a parade unit. Flashy, but in real operations, average at best. But neither Skywalker nor Antilles strike me as the type that would be satisfied with that.” He smiled at her knowingly. “And you’re not the sort who gets picked for those units. Pointing a blaster at a colonel would be rather frowned on.”

“Holding, not pointing.” Mara shook her head. “Who are you? Really?”

“Told you. I’m Hal.” He rose to his feet, both knees cracking. “I’m sure I’ll see you around. Mess hall is quiet this time of night. Good place to clear my head.” He smiled. “And I really like the caf.”

“No one likes this caf.”

“It’s better than the water, not as good as the whiskey.” He grinned. “Good night, Mara.”

She shook her head. “Good night, Hal.”

Mara watched as the man vanished through the mess hall door before deciding she should make another attempt at sleeping. Morning would come all too soon.

---

It was nearly time for the midday meal when Luke’s plan for the day, such as it was, fell apart.

The ground crew from the main hangar had been smaller than expected, with Colonel S’man co-opting some of the assigned technicians to his own emergency maintenance. Mara hadn’t bothered with an “I told you so”, but her expression wore it nonetheless. Wedge had been exasperated, Luke had decided it wasn’t a battle worth fighting, and together over breakfast they’d sketched a quick new plan for the day. Wedge had taken the four Rogues still waiting on a spaceframe, along with Hobbie and Puck, to start running pilots through the simulators.

Luke, Sarkli, and Mara had returned to Auxiliary Two after breakfast to oversee the maintenance work on their fighters. The mechanics had grumbled, but Luke’s misspent youth in a T-16 Skyhopper with no credits to pay a mechanic left him with a distrust for flying a fighter he hadn’t touched himself. And what the ground crew lacked in enthusiasm for pilot oversight, they made up for in thoroughness. With their reduced complement of mechanics, they had opted to work on three X-wings at a time. Proton torpedo magazines were unloaded, Tibanna gas cartridges removed, fuel drained, power cells pulled, and then a full teardown of the major systems. The sublight engines were gutted, checked, and rebuilt; laser cannon components were pulled and scrubbed clean of corrosion before reassembly; even the proton torpedo alleys were polished clean.

Unhappy or not, the maintenance crew was thorough. The three Rogues found nothing to complain about; even Artoo-Detoo, who had a reputation for demanding standards for Luke’s X-wing, warbled approvingly.

With just rearming and refueling left, most of the maintenance crew descended on the remaining X-wings, starting with the engines. A handful of junior team members and a binary loadlifter droid restocked torpedo magazines and fueled the completed X-wings. On Yavin IV, fighters wouldn’t have been fueled and armed until a mission was imminent; the Independence, however, had standing orders to keep all fighters ready to fly at a moment’s notice. 

And then General Rieekan stalked into the hangar, a single aide trailing him.

Luke saw Sarkli’s gaze catch first, and followed his line of sight until he saw the general.

“Commander Skywalker,” Rieekan called, his voice gravelly. “We have an emergency.”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “General. I’ve got more pilots than fighters and we’re in the middle of a maintenance cycle.”

Rieekan approached him, showing him a hand-held holoprojector. When he’d closed the gap, he powered the device up. “I apologize, Commander. I know you’ve flown two sorties in two days, and this will be three. I already spoke with S’man, and the air wing is already committed to an emergency operation elsewhere, and he’s looking at a twelve-hour delay.”

The smile on Luke’s face was grim. “What’s the situation?”

The hologram finally shimmered into existence between them. “Ralltiir,” Rieekan said. “We’ve been debriefing Lieutenant Celchu. He’s an observant man and has a good head for prioritizing sensitive information. The Empire had an operation planned to seize a civilian research and engineering team on Ralltiir under the guise of nationalization. They’re a specialist group working on a new model of planetary defense shields.” Rieekan glanced around. “The Imperial military has been cracking down harder on anything with military implications every week. They’re trying to prevent the next Mon Calamari or Incom incident.”

Luke studied the hologram. A Star Destroyer was visible in orbit, along with a number of smaller symbols representing support ships: Gozanti freighters, Raider corvettes, Arquitens light cruisers, Nebulon-B frigates. “If that’s an orbital blockade, it’s configured wrong,” he said slowly.

“The pending seizure on Ralltiir was the first topic Celchu brought up,” Rieekan said. “That Star Destroyer is the Accuser. Captain Derlin volunteered to take a team to recover the specialists. The Corellian corvette Bright Wake left thirteen hours ago. Derlin made contact with the research team and they chose to come to the Alliance, but it took time to gather their research material and families. Before the Bright Wake could launch, the Accuser and its task force arrived.”

“That’s why it looks wrong,” Luke said, still studying the hologram. “A blockade usually is built to keep ships away from a planet so no supplies can reach it. Here, they’re trying to keep Derlin from escaping.”

“Correct.” Rieekan shook his head. “Ralltiir is about ninety minutes away for your X-wings. Derlin’s last transmission, before the Accuser started blanket jamming, reported the Bright Wake was safe for the moment under a city-wide shield generator prototype the development team was testing. Standard Imperial tactics in this situation will land ground teams with heavy armor to move in, penetrate the shield, and bring it down.”

“General, you can’t possibly think my squadron can defeat the blockade by ourselves,” Luke commented with a raised eyebrow.

“Not defeat, no. Derlin doesn’t need the blockade broken. He just needs a seam.” Rieekan tapped a button on the holoprojector, and the image magnified. “He had enough foresight to include the Bright Wake‘s sensor data of the orbital picture. If your X-wings can open a hole by pulling one or two of the Accuser‘s support ships out of position, and then provide some cover from TIEs, the Wake can punch through the orbital blockade and escape. CR90s are nicknamed ‘Blockade Runners’ for a reason, and the Wake‘s crew is very good.”

“How soon?”

“Thirty minutes ago.”

Luke shook his head. “The mechanics have three of our X-wings pulled apart. We need at least three hours to put them back together, then more time after that to fuel and arm.”

Rieekan folded his arms. “Three hours is too long. If we give the Empire that much time, the Bright Wake will be caught by ground forces or, if they take off, caught in the air by the Accuser‘s task force.”

Luke studied the hologram again. “How many?” he asked quietly.

“Commander?”

“How many people?”

Rieekan looked at him askance for a moment. “Forty-nine crew on the Bright Wake. The Ralltiir research team was twenty-two people, but I have no idea about their families. Fifty? Sixty?”

Luke chewed his lip. “I can have three X-wings in the air in less than twenty minutes. It’ll have to do.” He glanced at the general. “If we’re going to keep doing this, Rogue Squadron needs more ships. And we need time to train. I know lives are on the line, General Rieekan, but we’ll start losing pilots if we keep going like this.”

The Alderaanian officer had enough humility to look abashed. “If I had somewhere else I could go, Commander, I’d be there.”

“Sarkli, Mara,” Luke called loudly. “Start preflight on your X-wings. We’re skids-up in fifteen!” He dropped his voice. “Send over all the orbital data, raw, to my astromech. We’ll figure out our plan in hyperspace.”

“Thank you, Commander.”

“We’ll get our people out alive, General,” Luke said, wishing he felt nearly as confident as his tone sounded as he turned toward his own starfighter. Wedge is going to kill me if this mission doesn’t first.