Beyond - Legends X-Wing: Rise of a Rogue - Revised Edition - Complete 2/22 (Rogues, Wraiths, OCs)

Wedge saw Wes look back at Darvix. Why is it, Wedge thought to himself, that Wes gets that look of mischief at the most inappropriate times?

Because he's Wes Janson!


Ahhh...another love brought about from mutual dislike of each other...is there any other situation in Star Wars?

 

Love this story and please PM's when you continue

 

Darvix seemed to have returned to his usual, vocal self, thanks to a few cute lines from Wes Janson.

Gotta love that Wes.


Cheriss Dap - Saw that one coming a mile away.

 

Nanci - Of course not! The Slap-Slap-Kiss relationship is the best kind of relationship in Star Wars

earlybird - No need for a PM list! Updates will happen before 9AM Pacific Standard Time every weekday

Hazel - Sometimes the best relationships are the ones that are blindingly obvious!

Thanks for reading and reviewing. How does another chapter sound?

~*~

Chapter Thirteen - Pitfalls

"How's Iella, Wedge?" Hobbie asked.

Wedge grimaced a bit. To be perfectly honest, it was still a sore subject with him. About six months earlier Iella had received orders from Airen Cracken, the Director of Intelligence for the New Republic, that had taken her away from home and stationed her somewhere in the Outer Rim. Normally for two duty-bound servants of the New Republic, this would have been an order that was accepted. For a husband and wife that were trying to finally settle down and start a family, it was devastating. They had been given assurances from Cracken that Iella wouldn?t be sent so far off-world again.

?She?s somewhere on assignment,? Wedge admitted, a hint of sadness in his voice.

"I..uh..I'm sorry, Wedge," Hobbie said sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it."

There were a lot of things in life that Wedge regretted. He regretted losing his parents, he regretted dooming many of his friends to death by leading them in to war. He felt guilt pangs when he thought of the families of each TIE pilot he vaped. He regretted pulling out of the trench, helplessly watching Biggs offer himself as a target to buy Luke more time. Now, his biggest regret was not standing up to Cracken. They had been promised this wouldn?t happen again. Granted, in the backs of their minds they knew it was always a distinct possibility. That didn?t ease the sense of betrayal they had felt.

Antilles, he said to himself, You're an idiot.

***

Corran had remained behind on the Skate with the rest of the Rogues. He was still furious that Mirax had gotten messed up in this operation; invading an Imperial research facility was not his idea of a romantic getaway with his wife. Corran sighed softly. He never seemed to have enough time with her. Whenever they were together, it was during situations like these. As soon as they got back, he would take her on a nice trip to Mon Calamari. She always said she loved the beach.

Ooryl and Ace were behind him, checking over their weapons and munitions. They would be hauling the crates that stored them to the safehouse in a few hours, and the two of them were in the processes of concealing the contents in case the local authorities searched them. Blasters, Corran mused, rather clumsy weapons.

The back of his fingers brushed against the cool cylindrical shape of his lightsaber. The weapon had belonged to his great grandfather, a Jedi Knight from his own home world of Corellia. This was the weapon he had grown accustomed to wielding in a firefight.

The crates were being loaded into the speeder when Corran spotted a security guard moving towards them.

"There goes the neighborhood," Ace muttered from behind him

Corran frowned as the guard moved closer to the Skate. "I'll handle them."

"No you won't," Came a new voice from behind him. Mirax nudged Corran to the side, "Last time you tried your mind games you fell off a balcony and ended up in a bacta tank."

"Zing," Ace said with a grin.

Corran rolled his eyes and stepped back to one of the crates, carefully picking up a blaster and setting its power output to stun. He kept an eye on Mirax and signaled to Ooryl and Ace, telling them to step up the pace. He forced himself to take a deep, calming reath. The last thing he needed to do was say something foolish to earn the security officer's ire. Getting into a scuffle this early in this mission would land him in all sorts of hot water. For now, he would let Mirax attempt to diffuse the situation.

"Is something wrong?" Mirax asked the security guard, flashing that smile that never failed to melt Corran into a pile of goo.

The young guard looked at her, sl

 

Darvix is in love and what will that give

 

Whoops! Just realized I uploaded the wrong chapter this morning. Right one is in its place now.

 

"If all else fails," Corran said, walking up to his wife, "Use brute force."

I believe in the Jedi world, that is known as "aggressive negotiations."


Poor Wedge and Iella. No couples in Star Wars ever get a happy ending.

 

About six months earlier Iella had received orders from Airen Cracken, the Director of Intelligence for the New Republic, that had taken her away from home and stationed her somewhere in the Outer Rim.

Somebody should crack Craken's head for that.


The smile on Mirax's face was gone, replaced quickly by a scowl. "I don't think so." With that, her knee made contact with the guard's stomach, followed quickly by her right fist to his face.

You go girl!


"Lt. Kettch would have loved this place, Wes mused, "But Dap insisted that we leave him behind."

"He's a stuffed doll, Wes!" Darvix replied

"I don't think war heroes appreciate being called that."




"?Wedge," the woman said, "I should have known?"

"I?Iella," Wedge muttered.

Yay!

 

Earlybird - I accidentally posted the wrong chapter yesterday, so you might want to go back and re-read that post since it's fixed now. Today's update is what you saw yesterday. Whoops!

Nanci - They really don't get happy endings

Of course, that's what fic is for. To make sure that -someone- gets to be happy

Hazel - Ah Cracken, getting in the way of love and happiness. Tsk tsk!

Anyone want a new update? Sure you do!

~*~

Chapter Fourteen - Downtime

By sunset, every Rogue had arrived at the safehouse mostly without incident. Corran Horn?s group reportedly had gotten into a minor scuffle with a security detail on their way out, but Wedge didn?t feel like pressing for details. Given that they hadn?t been followed by local authorities, he assumed that things had been taken care of in a relatively discreet manner. He shook his head and looked over the Rogues, who had gathered in a makeshift briefing room and were about to hear the latest intelligence that Face had brought from the production facility.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Face said, raising a hand to silence the quiet conversations throughout the briefing room, "I'm afraid that I've got some very bad, bad news."

"Oh no," Wes said, "They've cancelled casual uniform day on the Mon Remonda."

"Every day was casual day to you, Wes," Inyri replied. "We're relieved any time you show up to a briefing in something resembling clothing."

"I resent that!" Wes said, standing up, "I've got a body any guy would kill for!" He lifted up his shirt, only to have blunt objects thrown at him by everyone else in the briefing room.

"Shut up and sit down, Wes," Face said. "I don't think Inyri appreciates you displaying yourself to the rest of the Rogues." He had to quickly duck under a thrown caf mug from Inyri.

"In any case," Face continued," Two days ago, we intercepted a transmission from Imperial Remnant Moff Jeris Celia directed to Captain Rayov Naolin, the man in charge of the Phantom Dee-Thirty-Four project. In short, the production time had been cut to two weeks. They must have caught wind of us, so they've decided to speed them through in hopes that we won't be able to stop them. In other words, we've got to act fast."

A portable holoprojector in the center of the briefing room came to life, displaying the layout of a large production facility.

"As you can guess," Face said, "This is the building in which the Phantom Fighters are being produced. The structure is embedded into a mountain about ninety kliks north-east of here."

One of the larger rooms was highlighted in red, "This is the production floor and hanger. The ship doors are at the far end of the mountain, and must be opened by a terminal at the back. Under no circumstances will we use explosives in this area. One wrong blast and the mountain is going to cave in around our ears."

It's a good thing Tainer isn't around to hear that, Wedge mused.

"It's time to come up with a plan," Face said.

Corran raised an eyebrow, "You don't have something already cooked up for us?"

"Seeing as how our timetable just got shortened to less than two weeks," Face replied, "no, we don't have a plan. We have conjecture and hearsay, though. Plenty of that."

"We could ask them real nice like if they'd give us the Phantoms," Wes added. Another volley of objects was thrown at him.

"Obviously," Myn said, "We can't barge in there with blasters blazing. Nor can we ask them. We need a distraction."

"Who's the slicer in this group?" Face asked.

Darvix, who was sitting in the back of the room, sheepishly raised a hand.

Face nodded towards the young pilot, "You're going to need to slice in to the facility's main system and set off an alarm of some sort. Since the area we're trying to get in to is the hanger, I suggest you try a coolant leak warning."

Gavin spoke up, "If a few of us were in the hanger at the time, disguised as technicians, we could help stir up the chaos when the alarm goes off."

"Good idea," Face said, "I'll see what I can do about getting some uniforms. As soon as the alarm goe

 

Things are heating up!

 

"Will you two stop smooching and come to dinner?" Wes said from behind them.

LOL. I love that word, smooching.


Inyri looked over at Wes, and promptly hit him upside the head.

"What was that for?" He asked.

"Mood-killer," Inyri replied.

Does there ever really need to be a reason to hit Janson?

 

Hazel - Just a bit! In a couple chapters the fic grows a bit of a beard

Nanci - Smooching. It really is a fun word, innit?

And no. There never needs to be a reason to hit Wes. Chances are he deserves it!


~*~

Chapter Fifteen - Denial of the Force

The Imperial Star Destroyer known as simply the Ender slowly lumbered into orbit around Telos. The Phantoms would be finished soon, and the moment they were ready to fly, the Ender would pick them up and quickly rejoin with the rest of the Imperial fleet. At that point, staging operations against the Rebels would commence. The Phantom Fighters would be a threat they would be utterly helpless against. With any luck, short work would be made of the outer rim defenses and a push coreward could begin.

Lieutenant Prevel sat in the commander?s seat on board the bridge of the Ender. Captain Naolin had left the Star Destroyer under his command while he was on Telos with Moff Celia, and Prevel was making the most of his time as commanding officer. He had already been contemplating changes in procedure that he knew Naolin would approve of. I?ll be commanding a Star Destroyer one day, Prevel said to himself, maybe even this one.

?Incoming communication, Lieutenant,? came the voice of one of the young ensigns below him.

Prevel nodded and stood up, ?Route it through the main display.?

The image of Captain Naolin flashed to life on the monitor in front of Prevel. The Captain looked exhausted, causing Prevel to wonder idly if things were still going smoothly on the Telosian surface. Moff Celia was probably running him into the ground with demands. He had heard rumors that the timetable to push out the Phantom starfighters had been accelerated. He wasn't yet privy to those operational details, but he knew that Naolin would fill him in before long.

?Lieutenant Prevel,? Naolin said, ?I appreciate you responding so quickly. I trust everything on board the Ender is running smoothly.?

?Yes, sir,? Prevel said, standing a bit straighter.

?You intercepted a Rebel task force two days ago at a Customs checkpoint,? Naolin said. ?Any details to add??

Prevel smiled proudly, ?The task force was on their way here. We boarded them and conducted the interrogations, discovering that they were on their way here to Telos, presumably to look into the Phantom program themseles. By the time the Rebels find out, it will be far too late to send another task unit in to stop us.?

?I would congratulate you,? Naolin said, ?but there?s the fact that you failed to stop an earlier group, which is somewhere on Telos right now.?

?An earlier task force?? Prevel asked. ?Impossible, the Ender was at that Customs checkpoint. If there was another Rebel unit, we would have found them.?

?You would have,? Naolin said, ?if you hadn?t been too busy attacking freighters smuggling aliens. I do not appreciate you ordering our forces to waste their resources on trivial matters such as that.?

Prevel could only stare at the monitor slackjawed. He was sure that Naolin would compliment him for stopping a group of aliens trying to smuggle themselves into Rebellion territory. It was a sound move. It showed initiative, something all Imperial officers should be able to demonstrate without their commander peering over their shoulder. Still, there was no way he could have missed a Rebel force.

?With all due respect,? Prevel said. ?There was nothing there to indicate a Rebel insurgency group was at that checkpoint while the Ender was there. No flags arrived on customs screening."

"From what I understand, Customs was forced to rush through security checks on several vessels because you pushed for an attack on those smuggling vessels," Naolin said. ?Had you not hurried Customs, they could have run a more careful check on the documents that a freighter and her Y-Wing escorts sent. One of the pilots is wanted for treason on one of Moff Celia?s worlds, and a quick image match would have confirmed it. To say you?ve been sloppy is an understatement.?

Lieutenant Prevel

 

Oooh. I really liked the last part. One thing I love about the EU is the apprehension towards the Jedi. It makes sense, considering the long years of Palpatine's reign and everyone's fear of Darth Vader.

It gets ridiculous come NJO, but early on it made perfect sense. I'm interested to read more about why Dap feels the way he does.


And Corran COULD have done one of his tricks...but he sucks at telekenesis.

 

These people were in a bad mood today, weren't they?

I wonder how will Corran change Dap's mind about Jedi?

 

Nanci

Oh definitely! That's one dynamic that's fascinating to explore is how people in the early days of the New Republic reacted to the Jedi. Yeah, things definitely could have been handled better in the Del Rey era, but the Bantam Spectra books did a good job illustrating that there was apprehension about them.

Ah poor Corran, unable to use telekenisis for parlor tricks.

Hazel

Seems like everyone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

As for how Corran will change Dap's mind? Weeellllll, you'll find out in episode 2!

New post!

Today, the fic grows a beard.

~*~

Chapter Sixteen - Break In

?Sithspit!? Face cursed loudly. ?This is bad, Iella, very bad. Tetran Cowell in The Emperor?s Secret Service bad.?

Iella Wessiri stepped away from her makeshift desk and moved towards Face, leaning over his shoulder and reading the information on his terminal. Her eyes scanned over the newly decrypted text, fresh from Airen Cracken?s Intelligence staff on Coruscaunt. Something was very wrong if he was contacting them in the middle of the mission. The message was brief, causing her stomach to sink. Code: Dathomiri Fire.

She swore aloud. Dathomiri Fire was an operational codeword they had memorized before arriving on Telos. They were two words that held a very dire meaning. The New Republic commando detachment wouldn?t be arriving. Iella guessed that their forged documents hadn?t held up. Someone with Intelligence had been doing very sloppy work, and now fifteen New Republic soldiers had likely been captured by the Imperial Remnant.

?Should we break camp?? Face asked.

Iella nodded. ?Security?s been compromised. We?ve got to get to the production facility as soon as possible.

Face?s terminal began to let out a soft, electronic chirpring. He quickly entered a few commands to bring up a security video feed. An image of two stormtroopers appeared on the display.

?Jam their comlinks!? Iella shouted. ?And get on the intercom and tell the Rogues to get the hell out of here!?

***

Darvix Zorvan felt a hand on his shoulder, roughly shaking him awake from a rather pleasant dream he had been having. Something about shore leave and being told he would be able to get a solid eight hours of sleep. He knew he was running on fumes if he was dreaming about sleeping.

?Whoever that is,? Darvix mumbled, ?you have five seconds to leave before I slice in to assignment roster and put you on kitchen duty.?

?Will you shut up and get up!?? A decidedly female voice asked.

Darvix sat up and shook his head, trying to unfog his sleep deprived mind. ?Cheriss, even if you wanted to get in to bed with me, I don?t know if now is really the appropriate time.?

She glared, looking as if she wanted to inflict a great deal of bodily harm upon him. ?Get changed and grab your blaster, we have to get out of here. Someone blew our cover, and we?ve got company.?

He was out of bed and scrambling into his clothes as soon as the words were out of her mouth. Darvix quickly opened the footlocker at the bottom of his bed and threw his flightsuit and helmet into a backpack. Clumsily he threw on his clothes and grabbed his holdout blaster and a sheathed blade, strapping it to his belt before looking back at Cheriss. How could this have happened? How in the world could the Rogues have been caught by surprise like this?

?Come on,? he said, grabbing her wrist and hurrying out of his quarters. The moment he stepped past the door, blaster fire raced past his head. He arched back, throwing his arm out to keep Cheriss behind him.

?Sithspit!? he cursed aloud. Darvix reached to the holster strapped to his left arm and pulled out his holdout blaster. Leaning around the door again, he fired a pair of quick shots. He knew that if he hit anyone, it was going to be sheer luck. Darvix was a lousy shot with a blaster even in ideal conditions.

Cheriss pushed past Darvix, a silver orb in her hand. She pushed down on a switch and threw it down the hall. She looked away just as a bright flash lit up the hallway. B

 

Great chapter!!!

?This is bad, Iella, very bad. Tetran Cowell in The Emperor?s Secret Service bad.?
LMAO!

 

He saw the outline of a man and a woman slowly truding up the hill towards them.

Ufff! What a relief.


?You were the last two. We don?t know why the intercom didn?t go off in your room, but when we got out here and you weren?t with us, Cheriss ran back to get you before we could stop her.?

Well, how interesting.


Excellent action scene!

 

Nanci

Thanks

Oh Face. He's so amusing to write.

Hazel

Something there between Cheriss and Dap? Most likely.

Thanks for the compliment on the action scene. That's always been one of my favorite things to do as a writer. Now if only I could do everything else

~*~

Chapter Seventeen - Roast

Cheriss ke Hanadi had fallen asleep in the back of the speeder?s flatbed. The painkillers Tycho had given her had been packed with a powerful sedative, knocking her out cold within a matter of minutes. Darvix could hardly bring himself to look at her. She had gone back in to get him and only had a blaster wound to show for it.

?You know,? Darvix said, ?she?s the last person who I thought would come get me.?

?Cheriss never lets her personal feelings get in the way of her duty,? Wedge said. ?She was the closest one to you and felt she had the best chance to get you out. Don?t sell her short, she?s a good girl.?

They continued in silence for a long while, the hum of the speeder?s repulsorlifts providing a touch of white noise in the background. The Rogues were quickly moving to a failover location that had been pre-selected in the case that their base of operations was compromised. For hours now, they had been on the move, taking an extraordinarily indirect path in order to reduce the risk of Imperial surveillance units tracking them deeper into Telos. Darvix sighed and rubbed his eyes, wishing that his shift watching the handheld sensors would end. For the briefest of moments, he tears his eyes away from the readouts, looking over his shoulder at the Adumar girl behind him.

?Forgive me for asking, sir,? Darvix said, ?but is she here purely for political reasons??

Wedge smiled for a moment. ?Initially, yes. Relations between the Republic and portions of Adumar weren?t very good. As a sort of peace offering, command decided that they would place an Adumari pilot into Rogue Squadron. Of course, they did all of this without consulting me.

?The first Adumari pilot to get through the Academy was Cheriss. Command thought she was the perfect person to place on the roster. She was a duelist champion on her homeworld and was viewed as a hero by helping to lead a rebellion against her own country. After Adumar was folded into the New Republic, she applied for entry into the Starfighter Academy. Always wanted to fly but became a duelist instead.?

?Why did she take up dueling instead of piloting?? Darvix asked, ?Initially, anyways.?

?Couldn?t deal with heights,? Wedge replied. ?For years, she had vertigo and didn?t know it, not that Adumari medicine could have helped her at the time. In any case, she was placed into Rogue Squadron shortly after graduating. Turned out to be one of the few green pilots that could make it with us, very gifted with the flightstick.?

It occurred to Darvix that he had never seen Cheriss fly. In the back of his mind he recognized that she was likely in the squadron as a political ploy, something that Wedge had confirmed. He had been writing off her skills behind the flightstick the entire time because of that. If anyone knew that the worth of a pilot shouldn?t be judged quickly, it was Darvix. He felt guilty for making such an assumption.

?She seems overly headstrong, though? Darvix said. ?Stubborn at times. That?s got to be an issue.?

Wedge nodded, ?It can be, but she?s working through those issues all the time. In fairness, what she says about you has some truth to it. You do tend to spend a lot of time thinking in the cockpit, trying to assess your situation. That?s fine and good, but you need to work quickly. There?s a fine balance point, but I?m sure you can find it. The same goes for Cheriss, as well. Food for thought, Dap.?

Darvix leaned back in to his seat. The young pilot greatly respected Wedge, and the advice the General give may as well have been divine revelation. Anyone who could survive two Death Star runs, overthrow numerous planetary governments, and who knows what other heroic deeds knew what they were talking about. Darvix

 

HA! You made me laugh so hard that my friend in the next cubicle e-mailed me to ask what was so funny.

 

Gotta love that Wes!

 

lovely and funny

 

Nanci - And that's why it's dangerous to read fic at work

Hazel - Comedic relief. Every squadron needs some!

earlybird Thank you

~*~

Chapter Eighteen - The Eyes of the Blind

Captain Naolin stood before Moff Celia, doing his best not to betray the sense of unease he was feeling. Naolin felt that he should be accustomed to the encounters as he had been through with the Moff, given how often they occurred. Yet, like every other time, Naolin felt pangs of fear running through him. So much hinged on Moff Celia?s approval. The continued funding of his research. The approval to press into the Bilbringi system. Most importantly, his career hinged on the continued approval of the old Moff. If the Phantom project were to fail, he would find himself on an aging dreadnaught dealing with trivial objectives and orders in a hurry.

Naolin took a deep breath to steady his nerves. ?A stormtrooper detachment encountered the Rebel task force in the Onasi forest area. Contact was lost, and a follow-up team was sent. We just received word that the initial detachment was killed by an explosion in the Rebel?s base of operations. We believe that the Rebel operatives did escape and are outside of our sensor network?s range.?

Moff Celia frowned. ?How could an outnumbered Rebel task force eliminate an entire stormtrooper detachment??

?The follow-up concluded that they were instantly killed by a stray laser blast into a conduit transporting highly volatile coolant.?

The aging Moff rested his elbows on the desk in front of him, his fingers interlocked and resting just below his lips. ?To say I?m disappointed would be an understatement, Captain. It was of extreme importance that you take out that task force, and now we don?t know where they are.?

?Sir, it gets worse? Naolin said with a sigh, ?It?s Rogue Squadron.?

Captain Naolin could see the anger rising to Moff Celia?s face. Not only was a Rebel task force loose on Telos, it was Rogue Squadron. They had been a thorn in the side of the Empire for two decades. They had been responsible for the fall of Coruscant and the death of Ysanne Isard. The Rogues had also been key in the downfall of Warlord Zsinj, as well as playing a pivotal role in the end of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who Naolin had served under. Every time the Empire was close to a key success, there were the Rogues, to put an end to it.

?I want those starfighters on board the Ender by week?s end,? Celia said, flatly.

?But, sir!? Naolin replied, ?Three of the starfighters aren?t even flight ready! We?ve just barely configured the cloaking devices and routed them into the power systems. Weapons and navigation are still offline.

?Then you had better step up your workforce.?

?Very well,? Naolin said. ?We?ll rig those three with self destruct devices, should the Rebels get a hold of them-?

?No!? Celia countered. ?I have poured a good deal of my resources into this little project of yours. The Rebels won?t get a hold of them, and you will not rig them to self destruct. Is that understood, Captain??

Captain Naolin nodded. ?Yes, sir.?

?Dismissed.?

Captain Naolin turned and walked out of Moff Celia?s chambers, rubbing the back of his neck as the full gravity of the situation began to crash around his ears.

***

Darvix Zorvan woke up with a start. He had that dream again, and once more, he had pulled the trigger. He rubbed his eyes with his right hand, as his left slowly clenched and unclenched. The flashbacks to his childhood on Nar Shadaa had become more frequent since the flight to Telos. The nightmares had become more frequent since he watched helplessly as the freighter full of alien refugees. He recognized that some sort of trigger had been tripped in his head, but he was powerless to do anything about it.

It scared him to think that he had done such a horrible thing all those years ago. He had ended a young girl?s life without a second thought, and he couldn?t remove that blood from his hands, no matter how hard he tried. What frightened him to no end was the fact

 

Darvix and Cheriss sitting in a tree

K-R-I-F-F-I-N-G


d

 

So cute! They're bonding.

 

Nanci - I'm not quite sure how they'd manage to do that in a tree, but I wouldn't put it past Cheriss. She's a pretty agile little minx

Hazel - That they are

In the midst of all the chaos, sometimes it's nice to see friendships formed like that.


Okay, the first episode of Rise of a Rogue will be wrapping up on Friday. Episode two's dramatis personae and first chapter will go up on Monday

~*~

Chapter Nineteen ? Final Preparations

Mirax Terrik-Horn grumbled to herself as she sat down at a dirty table. These small spaceports always seemed to have its share of shady figures, most of which found Mirax to be an appealing target. Perhaps they thought she was a woman of the night. Maybe they assumed she was merely a smuggler who was easy to negotiate with. Either way, a few bloodied faces later, she had finally cleared out a spot to sit down and enjoy a mug of ale. She took a sip and winced. Poorly synthesized ale.

A stranger sat down across from her, causing Mirax to groan inwardly. Another spacer to try and lure her into his room for the night, no doubt.

"Not interested," She said flatly.

The stranger smirked and shook his head. "Lovely day for roasting a Gungan, isn't it?"

Mirax rolled her eyes. "I think fried Gizka is more appropriate."

Whoever thought up these code phrases should be shot up on the spot, or reassigned to Starfighter command, she mused.

"Face, I presume?" Mirax asked.

The man beamed. "One and only."

"What happened?" Mirax asked sternly, cutting through the pleasantries. Face wouldn't have come to talk to her unless plans had changed. If plans were changing, that meant that something bad had likely happened to the Rogues. If that was the case, she knew that her job was about to become a great deal more difficult.

Face let out a breath as he looked up at Mirax. "We got ambushed at the safehouse."

Mirax felt her stomach sink.

"Stormtrooper detachment stumbled in to our camp two days ago," Face continued. "Save a blaster fleshwound, everyone's alright."

Face slid a datapad discreetly across the table and into Mirax's hand. "What's worse, is we've lost the commando team the Republic was sending us. The Rogues are going into the facility alone and we're going to need your help to make this work."

Mirax frowned. "What do you need me to do?"

"We need you to bail us out of the facility itself. On the datapad is the coded signal we'll use to hail you. As soon as you get it, we need you to fly the Skate to the given coordinates and allow us to board. Once we're on, it'll just be a matter of you cruising us to Coruscant. Simple as that."

"Wonderful," Mirax said. "All I have to do is fly my tub of a freighter into the facility, get everyone on board, and off the planet before getting vaped."

Face shook his head. "We're sending Gavin, Hobbie, and Myn back here. I've got a lead on a couple of R-41 Starchasers they'll be using to fly escort."

Mirax nodded. It wasn't as if she had much of a choice, the Skate was the Rogue's only way off world. Might as well pick them up as soon as possible. It was comforting that a few of Wedge's boys would be on her wing flying escort.

"Alright, Face," Mirax said. "I'll be waiting. Do try to keep them out of trouble, will you?"

"There's impossible," Face said. "And then there's truly impossible. You ask for a miracle, Mirax."

With a smile, Face stood and left the cantina.

***

Wedge scrolled through the mission parameters on his datapad one more time. He couldn?t help but feel the plan was too complex, especially for a group of men and women that were not trained as military commandos. This was the sort of thing he had built Wraith Squadron for, but where were they now? Disbanded, scattered throughout the ranks of New Republic Intelligence. And for what reason? Airen Cracken had decided that they were too cavalier, too unorthodox for their own good. In short, they were too much like the Rogues for Cracken?s taste.

?You?ve got that look on your face again, dear,? Iella said from behind him.

?What look??

?The ?I