Relative shipboard time: 1330
Small meeting room on the Windstorm

In this small room sits two generals in long drawn out war. A war which has lasted far too long, and now threatens to invade this quiet sanctuary. General Hawkins, still in uniform, while the other general is in civilian clothes for what seems to be the first time in 20 years. After a few moments the two generals sit down in a pair of chairs and start to talk about the current situation. "General Kinneer, let's get right down to it, shall we? Why are you defecting, and what information could you have that would be important enough to concern me about Derra IV?"

"You will notice an increase of imperial activity in the outer rim, and here in the Cluster itself. General I'm 42 years old, and I'm tired. I no longer wish to be a pilot or a bureaucrat. I wish to live my life out in peace, so I will tell you what I know about the local imperial forces."

Josh nods and leans back in his chair finally starting to relax a little, accepting that this man means no harm to anyone this day. "Alright General, I can accept that. I also sense you hold no alterior motives, and truly mean what you wish. This however, does not answer why the information you are giving me is important enough to concern my home."

"All I can tell you is the strength and amount of forces here in the Cluster. I do not know what is being planned, or who leads us. I was under the command of Admiral Rhyer Tavus, of the ISD Arcanus. I do not believe he is the one trying to band the Remnant together, but I think he's working for someone who is."

"No one has been able to band the Remnant together yet, people have been trying since Endor. I'm not worried about this latest attempt."

Artack Kinneer sighs and also leans back in his chair finally able to relax as well, "I became a general due to my piloting skills and the ability to not ask questions and follow orders. What I've pieced together are rumors and nothing more. The biggest rumor I keep hearing is, the hero of Derra IV is also planning our return to greatness. Most of which I do not believe, as do some of the other pilots that I've flown with."

"There were no reports from that battle, so the New Republic couldn't figure out exactly what went wrong. " Josh folds his hands over his chest and sighs drifting back into the memory of his home on that fateful day. A day which is etched in his mind forever, because it was the start of the invasion. "General Kinneer, I will invite my tactical officer and a recorder droid in here so you may tell him everything you know about the local forces."

"General Hawkins, I thank you. I do not want to remember the battles I was in, but I fear I will never forget them. One other thing, I was part of the 181st squadron, and I was at that battle. I give you my word, we were given orders to attack and that was it. We were told nothing about the mission, or who planned it, we merely followed orders. It's been 8 years since that battle, and for what it's worth, I'm sorry."

After a few moments Josh nods and stands up and slowly extends his hand to the general. "I will process the paperwork and inform my superiors of your cooperation, right now you will remain as a guest aboard the Windstorm. Soldiers like us may not want to be remembered, or remembered for what we did, but we don't wish to be forgotten either."

The generals shake hands and Josh walks slowly out of the room and comm's Lieutenant Veit to inform him that everything is all set for him. Slowly, Josh walks aimlessly through the halls of the Windstorm not entirely sure of his destination. Eventually though, he finds his way back to his office and proceeds to get a drink of Whyrren's out of the desk drawer. After pouring the drink and returning the stopper, he sits down and stares at a picture of an open field, on a planet far from where he was.

Josh was so lost in thought he never heard the door open or Eric walk in. "Hey, you ok? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Startled out of his trance, Josh jumps out of his chair and reaches for a weapon that's not on his hip. Suddenly realizing what's going on and where he was he relaxed and sat back down. "Sorry about that, yeah I'm fine, just a lot on my mind is all. As for seeing a ghost, I think I have. My past is catching up to me."

"Anything I should know about?" Eric asks, as he reaches for a glass and pours himself some Whyrren's.

"Nothing really, General Kinneer requests asylum and immunity. I'm going to do the paperwork shortly."

"The Impy? What's his story?" Eric relaxes in a chair and slowly drinks the alcohol he poured.

"Just an old pilot who wants to retire in peace and fade away. He was a pilot at the ambush on Derra IV." Josh finishes his glass in one swallow and pours himself another, even though he probably shouldn't.

"He's brave enough to show his face?" Eric notices the glass being refilled a little more than usual and raises an eyebrow, "So anything else you want to tell me? By the looks of things you're either drinking to remember, or to forget. So which is it and why?"

"I keep thinking about that day, of what I could have done differently, of who I should have told. Unfortunately I didn't know anyone in the rebellion at that time. It was before I followed my brother into the RS."

"Well, there was nothing you could do, don't worry about it."

"Yeah I know, still though, the empire hung around and searched for spies and dissidents like myself. They said it was for our protection. It was really an excuse to drag who ever they could into the spice mines of Kessel."

"So the mysterious CO opens up, it's about time too. Tell me more about back then."

Avoiding the subject Josh takes another drink almost emptying the glass, "Nothing to tell really, we fought however we could, with what we had. We were nothing more than a nuisance to them, though I'm quite sure the empire hated me when I left." Drifting back into the memory of how he left Derra IV in a stolen gunboat brings a smile to Josh's face, and allows him to empty the rest of the contents of the glass.

"There's a story there and you're not telling me. How can we follow you, if you won't tell us what's going on?" Eric also finishes his drink and sets the empty glass on the desk.

As if on queue, a communication comes in from the bridge. "Sir, we are receiving a distress call from a convoy near the planet Kerideph."

"Understood, plot us the fastest course possible and get FireClaw on standby. Also, send a message to Colonel Max Cal about our delay and destination.

"Roger that sir! Bridge out" and the comm line goes silent.

"Well Eric, now you know what's going on." Josh says with a smile, and makes sure his glass is empty finishing whatever little was left in his glass.

"You know I'll want the whole story when this is over."

"It's nothing much, just do a search for "Cheap Trick" you'll find the ship registry and the story behind it. It's not a grand tale at all, in fact it's not worth much reading."

"That's not what I meant, I meant about the Impy pilot and you."

"Oh that, well once Lieutenant Veit processes everything, you'll be able to read the report as soon as I do. Right now, we have a convoy to save."

Eric frowns and then shrugs his shoulders, "I'll get things ready on the bridge, see you there?"

Hearing a datapad beep on his desk Josh nods to Eric and looks for the datapad in the mess he calls a desk. "I'll be along shortly." Watching Eric leave he finally finds the offending datapad and reads the contents. He reads it again to make sure and types his response and hits the send button. He waits to make sure there is no other info and sets the pad back on his desk and walks out of the room towards the bridge.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ISD Prometheus
1357 Ship Time
End of the Battle

“Got him,” thought Max. He’d have a piece of that Lambda shuttle nailed to his wall. Max rolled his TIE Advanced back to the Prometheus. Rarely flying anymore, Max truly enjoyed vaping that man- his former CO, the guy who brought him into the RS to begin with. “Ah well, as the saying goes, ‘Paybacks are a…’”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1439 Ship Time
Bridge of the Prometheus

Toran Kask liked what he did. He was told where to go, he would direct the ship there, and off it went. From his spot in the crew pit, he looked up to see the CO walk in. Toran thought he looked at least 10 years younger- the Commander was a great guy, in his opinion, but he really loved to fly. He saw the Commander stroll over to the Communications Board, hit the “open to fleet” button, and heard him say over the comm channels,
“Congratulations to all. We wiped out the threat that our former CO posed to us. With these bases here, as well as our continued presence, we shouldn’t have to worry about a thing coming out of the Osiris Sector. The famous Hawaiian pig roast for our ‘End of a Tour’ will be sometime in the next few days. Your COs will have more specific news for you as the day approaches. Shore leave starts as of 1700 tonight and we hope to have it for a week. That is all.”
Cheers were heard from the crew pit. That pig last time was great, thought Toran. To his knowledge, none of the other COs did anything like this. “Nice guy,” thought Toran, “nice guy indeed.”

“Toran?”
“Sir?”
“Park her in the middle of stations and let her be.”
“Very good, sir.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One Week Later…
Shipboard on the Angelfire
0658 Ship Time

Cantor Jon rolled out of bed and drudged to the fresher to get cleaned up. “When the CO wants to throw a party, he really knows how to throw a party,” he thought. On the way to the fresher, he stubbed his foot on his desk, “Forgot that was there,” he muttered. He was new to these quarters, being new to the RS in general also. “Ah well,” he said, “I suppose I’ll get used to it.” He hit the water for the fresher and started to clean up when, all of a sudden, his soap bar floated up to his face. “Whoa, that’s really weird,” he thought. Soon, his soap bar wasn’t the only thing floating around. He drifted over to his comm board and complained about the failure in the zero-g unit to the bridge. Other crew members and fighter pilots were also calling to complain of the same problem. Bolts, the engineer, drifted over to the artificial grav unit, whacked it, and immediately hit the deck. Back in his cabin, Cantor Jon looked around at the mess that the water from his fresher caused. “Well, it looks like I’ll have some cleaning to do,” he muttered to himself as he walked back to the shower and smacked his foot on his desk again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Same Day
Shipboard on the Prometheus
0946 Ship Time

Corran Felds and Vason Senmic were tinkering around with one of the Prometheus’ TIE Fighters when Vason got a call from the CO about a new mission. Unfortunately, this was just as they were replacing lubricant for one of the engines for the Fighter- when Vason got up, he was drenched in green lubricant. “Sorry about that, Vason,” Corran hollered. “You better get headed to your briefing.” “Great,” Vason thought, “just what I need now after that punch spill right onto my dress uniform at the roast…”

Five minutes later…

Vason slipped into the back of the briefing room, trying to avoid being too noticeable. The CO, Max, was just about to start the briefing, saying this:
“Good morning all, I hope you all got some nice R&R after that pig roast. One more medal I forgot to hand out at that roast actually came in this morning. Vason, you got awarded the “He who wears his beverage well” award, will you come up here?”
Vason, face turning red to nicely contrast with his green lubricant, stood up.
“Sorry, Vason, I just had to. You can sit down now, Vason. Thanks. Anyway, we’ve received a ‘request for assistance’ call from the PBF folks. They are now sheltering our wing due to the loss of several of our ships and pilots over the course of the years. Anyway, suit up. Our ships will be there within the half hour.”
Vason saw the CO hit the general call button and the time-tried general call came out over the loudspeakers for the entire gathering of ships for this mission.
“All crews prepare to head out. Prepare for hyperspace in ten. All fighter pilots man your TIE Interceptors. That’s right boys and girls, no TIE Advanced for this mission, you all banged them up pretty good on the last one. All crews to the flight decks in five minutes. Good luck and may the Force be with you.”