05

Aiden learned the frustrations of being in charge the very next day. He gathered the eight rookie pilots together and split them into two flights. One Flight consisted of Hiro, Duke, Rowan, and Wulf. Two Flight consisted of Winn, Walker, Siku and Sovich. He thought that, after the performance evaluations yesterday, that One Flight would have the best run. He was wrong. It was a complete disaster.

The simulation began, a simple face off against an equal flight of Defender's. Within a minute Hiro had destroyed all four Defender's by himself. Thinking that Hiro had just gotten lucky, Aiden reset the sim so that Green flight faced off against a whole Defender squadron. Again, it was a disaster. Hiro flew off alone again, breaking with his wing-man Duke, and attacking the fighters. As Duke tried to catch up to Hiro, but picked up to Defender's on his tail. He called for his wing-man to come help him, but Hiro wasn't answering, off on his own mission. Rowan and Wulf moved to assist, but it was too late. The simulated Imperial blew Duke out of the stars.

When the mission was over, and the others had exited their sim cockpits, Duke shoved his face up to Hiro's. Words were exchanged and then Duke punched Hiro in the face. Shockingly, Hiro shrugged off the blow easily and then let fly with a punch the laid the poor braided pilot out on the floor. As if there hadn't been enough problems that day, Wulf came up to him and said that, although he didn't really mind flying with Rowan, he would like it if he was paired up with another wing-man. Later Aiden had Hiro and Duke in his office and TRIED to chew them out. Hiro barely said five words to his commanding officer and Duke flew off the handle when Aiden tried to chastise him about punching Hiro. In the end, he had both pilots confined to quarters and ordered them out of his office. A few minutes later, Ru came in to see him.

"You look like you just had a fight with a Drac, and lost," she said.

"Sort of. I suppose you heard about what happened between Hiro and Duke this morning?" She nodded.

"Well all I can say is 'welcome to the joys of command.'"

"You're not helping."

"I wasn't supposed to. You do know that this is how it's going to be for the rest of the time you command a fighter squadron?"

"I know, I know but Jacen wasn't much older than me when he took command of Condor Legion, so I'm relatively sure I can do it too. Besides it's not about me, it's about what the Reich needs."

"Well, just don't burn yourself out before the war is over... Rookie One."

"You're never going to stop calling me that, are you?" asked Aiden with a rueful grin.

"Do you want me to?" she asked, smiling back. Aiden felt something flutter within him when she did that.

"No, feel free. It sounds... er, right when you say it..." he trailed off when he realized how dumb that sounded. Ru didn't seem to mind though, and she gave him a cheerful salute and stepped out of the door.

Aiden sighed and banged his head on the desk. His squadron was a disaster, now Ru probably thought... well, he was never quite sure what she felt and after all this it was very unlikely that Admiral Raeder would let him fly bulk freighters for the Kriegsmarine. This madness had to stop. But how? He sat at his desk, which was really just a sheet of titanium on a stack of crates, for two more hours, listlessly passing of approval for the final member of Strike Wing Green, Hera Una, to transfer into the unit. She had her own Valkyrie, which was a blessing in itself. It was at times like this when Aiden really wished he could go get Weis and Lilana and get fantastically drunk in the mess. But Wolf Squadron was gone now that they had their new Valkyrie's. Wolf Squadron... the idea hit him like lightning. All of sudden a way to sort out this squad's problems was clear, or at the very least, show these pilots why being a pilot was the toughest job in the Luftwaffe. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

***

Into The Abyss...

Space was filled with explosions and pulse cannon blasts as a green and black-striped Valkyrie's dove over the hull of bulk freighter. Inside the cockpit, pilot Aiden Hunt grimaced as he watched the battle raging around the convoy that Knight Squadron and Warthog Strike Wing Dragon had been escorting to Sullus to rendezvous with the Kriegsmarine Fleet. To their annoyance, they had been jumped by an Khawarij Vindicator cruiser. Looking something akin to a Republic-class destroyer, Vindicators were smaller and were distinguished by the quartet of gravity well generators spaced along its spear-shaped hull. Thankfully, this particular cruiser only carried two squadrons of Defender fighters that were now harassing the fighters and convoy ships.

"This is bullshit! Knight Squadron, sound off and form up! Start flying like you had some training!" Aiden yelled over the comm.

"This is Knight Two off your starboard," answered a familiar voice. Aiden turned to the right and noticed the blue and red-striped Valkyrie of his executive officer Ru Laredo pulling up alongside.

"This is Knight Three flying toward you," answered Commander Becker.

"Knight Four off your port stern," answered Inx, a new pilot in the squadron.

"Knight Five standing by," said Hiro Yu.

"Knight Six above you," announced Rowan Barton.

"Knight Seven standing by," said Duke Max.

"Knight Eight standing by," said Wulf Jag.

"Knight Nine standing by," said Chang.

"Knight Ten, standing by," said Lara Petrol

"Knight Eleven, ssstanding by!" hissed Sovich from his cockpit.

"Knight Twelve standing by," said a sultry female voice that belonged to Xanthine, another new pilot.

Taking a moment to make sure that his squadron was all there, Aiden looked out across the convoy at the Defenders dog-fighting with the Warthogs.

"Hang on Strike Wing Dragon we're coming in!" he said. As one the Valkyrie's dove toward the Defenders. The Knights tore into the melee, cannons shredding the enemy. There was a cheer over the comm from the beleaguered Warthog pilots as the Knights scattered the remaining defenders like billiards.

"Knight Leader, this is Dragon Leader. If you can handle the remaining Defenders, we'll try and drive off the Vindicator Python." However, as soon as Dragon Leader said this, another squadron pilot broke in.

"Contact! Large contact coming out of gravity-drive! Bearing 227 mark six!"

Soaring over a blockade runner, Aiden and his flight looked towards the direction that the pilot had indicated as a vast, spear-shaped hull burst out of gravity-drive. As the shape resolved itself, the blood that had been roaring through Aiden's veins froze into ice.

"Oh, shit..." he whispered, "The Executioner."

All of 13,000 meters in length and possessing enough weaponry to annihilate an entire planet's surface by itself, the Executioner terrified planets beyond the capability for resistance. This also happened to include Reich combat units. The lead ship of the class, the Executioner turned Tarsus into black glass and slag on its first mission using it's 'stellar convertor' without having to launch its fighters. It then arrived at Dravin VIII to harass the evacuating Reich. Well did Aiden remember that as he had been there, flying with the surviving pilots of Dravin base. And now a Lucifer-class battleship had arrived here of all places. For a moment, Aiden just stared at the impossibly huge ship hanging 500 kilometers from the convoy. Then his brain went back into combat mode and he began to formulate a plan. If they didn't take out that Vindicator, the Lucifer could chew them up at its leisure.

"Lucifer-class battleship Executioner identified," announced a tremulous voice.

"Detecting fighter launch!" came the voice of another Dragon Squadron pilot, "Reading six Defender squadrons, two Kestrel squadrons, two Spyder squadrons, and two Hawk squadrons." Said another pilot.

One hundred forty-four fighters. More than enough to chew the convoy to pieces without the Executioner even firing a shot. Aiden swung his Valkyrie around to face the Vindicator.

"Dragon Leader, Hans Gruber, listen up! If we want to get out of here with our lives, we need to take out the Python. Knights, we'll torpedo the cruiser first and soften up the remaining fighters. Whites, you finish what we start with torpedoes and pulse cannons. All convoy ships, you can take some shots at the Python if you want, but other than that ignore it and head out! Everyone understand?" A chorus of acknowledgments flashed across his screen as Aiden led the twelve Valkyrie's of Knight Squadron on a run towards the Python. As they approached, the cruiser began firing its cannons at the fighters in an effort to destroy them before they could fire their quantum torpedoes.

"Shields double-front! Transfer auxiliary power to shields," said Aiden as he juked and jinked his fighter to dodge the cannon blasts. His Z3 mech-droid, chirped in protest.

"Hey if you didn't want to come, you could've stayed behind," he remonstrated.

The Knights drew closer to the Vindicator, its cannons, meant for capital ship battles, not able to accurately target the oncoming Valkyrie's.

"Tiny? Link the others targeting computers to mine," said Aiden.

Tiny chirped an acknowledgement and Aiden's targeting screen lit up, indicating the links with the eleven other fighters.

"Knights spread out and prepare to fire!"

The other star-fighters moved away from Aiden, making it even harder for the cruiser's gunners to target them. Centering his targeting sights on a spot between the four gravity well domes, Aiden waited as the targeting computer beeped, locking onto the target. As soon as it turned red and the tone became steady, he pushed the thumb trigger for his torpedoes. At the same time he said, "Fire!"

The comm. came alive with fire reports as 24 torpedoes streaked out across space and slammed into he Python's shields. The shields flared bright and then collapsed the reactor unable to stand up to the strain of powering the gravity wells and the impact of the torpedoes. The Knights skimmed over the surface of the Python peppering its guns with cannon blasts, however the real crushing blow was yet to come. The Python's gunners had been so busy aiming at the Knights, they had forgotten the Warthogs. The Warthogs may have been old and slow, but they could still pack a punch. Two-dozen more torpedoes flew out from Strike Wing Dragon and impacted on the domes, stitching them with bright explosions. Another advantage of being slower than the Knights was that the Dragons were able to launch a second salvo and follow it up with their pulse cannons. As if that weren't enough, some of the freighters, mostly the Z17 transports, launched concussion missiles at the Python.

Aiden rolled over at stared up through his canopy at the blackened top hull of the Python. Smirking he swung his fighter around and joined up with the other Knights.

"Gravity wells are down Captain. We can go to gravity-drive as soon as the convoy is clear," said Ru Laredo.

"Waiting on your orders Captain Takeshi," said Aiden to the captain of the freighter Hans Gruber, lead ship of the convoy. Taking a moment to gaze back at the imposing form of the Executioner, Aiden smiled to himself.

"Too little too late Executioner."

"All craft, prepare to jump into gravity-drive on my mark," came Captain Takeshi's voice, "3, 2, 1, jump!" Aiden pulled back on the lever on the top-left of his console and the stars lengthened into white hot lines and then the swirling tunnel of gravity-drive swallowed him, the Knights, the Warthogs, and the convoy just as the Defenders from the Executioner reached them.