The calm, serene starlight backdrop of space was suddenly shattered as a lone A-wing fighter reverted from hyperspace. The snubfighter bore gold colored markings with the designation 'Gold 3' and the name Captain Gavin “Seeks” Starseeker could be read on the front port side, just under the cockpit canopy seal.

Starseeker began to immediately began to punch in commands to calibrate for a long range sensor sweep. “B, lets get those scan... kriffing Sith whore!” In his surprise he yanked up hard on the flight yoke and nearly sent the fighter into a dizzying spin. There they were, a White Guard Frigate and Corvette, sitting static just off in the distance. Had his jump coordinates been plotted a hair further, there was a good chance that he might have jumped in right on top of them. He quickly regained his bearings and cracked a slight smile. This was his lucky day. While the rest of the squadron was off admiring the dark, deep recesses of the cluster, he was actually going to get a little hand's on action - and in an A-wing no less. Things are looking up today, he thought to himself.

“B, cams on ASAP. Focus sensors on the Frigate and Corvette. We're going for a little ride.”

Bullet, Gavin's trusty R2 Astromech, twirtled an affirmative as the A-wing's cameras and reconnaissance package came online.

The message panel lit up as R4 beeped with a hint of concern. “Unknown Frigate launching fighters. 8 T/F inbound.”

Seeks' eyes twinkled with the excitement of a still relatively young pilot. “B, shunting all power to engines. Give me as much of an extra boost as you can. Let's see those 'balls even try and keep up with us.”

The A-wing leapt forward as its standard engine power was supplemented by that of the laser cannon and shield systems. Doing this left the fighter extremely vulnerable; it would only take one or two shots from one of those incoming Tie Fighters or the capital ships and his day would be over in hurry. But that was assuming that the enemy could actually get a firing solution on his craft, and at the speed he was going, it would be nigh impossible. The A-wing's speed at these settings would normally max out at around 180 mglt, but Bullet was a crafty little bugger and had managed to get the small craft up to almost 192 mglt.

The Tie Fighters quickly broke the 2 click barrier and began to open fire even before they were within the 1.5 click range of their laser canons. Seeks kept a steady hand on the A-wings controls in case there was a need to juke or jink out of the way of the incoming fire. With a few precise movements he passed through the incoming laser fire unscathed and hurtled past the White Guard fighters. They turned to follow and snapped off a few more concentrated blasts in his direction, but by that time he was already safely out of range and coming up on the capital ships.

Bullet again spat a message up onto the screen. “Unknown vessel reverting from hyperspace... Frigate class at 10 o'clock.”

That smile found its way back onto Seeks' lips. “B, hotkey that Frigate as #3. Well take a look at these first two caps and then go have a look at our new friend.”

Turbolaser fire began to rain in on the A-wing as the fighter entered into the range of the initial Corvette and Frigate. His flight path brought him closest to the Corvette first, which was IDed as the Toxin, and then the Frigate, which came up as the Hammerhead. The capital ship gunners did the best they could to try and swat the small New Republic fighter out of space, but the ship was moving simply too fast. That, and the pilot had taken an approach vector that put him right between the two capital ships, meaning that any errant shots would more than likely connect with the other's counterpart.

Seeks whipped his A-wing around the far end of the Hammerhead and slingshotted off toward the second Frigate. “B, how're those scans coming? We getting some good footage on the cams?”

Bullet whistled a positive tone in response and splashed up some raw data that was coming in live from the cams and recon sensor package.

Starseeker nodded his head in approval. “Good, good stuff B. Keep it coming and I'll do the rest from up here... Sith, more company?”

Two additional Corvettes flashed into existence to either side of the 2nd Frigate. They immediately opened fire, as did the Frigate as soon as he entered into range. He juked and jinked his way through he deadly bolts of superheated energy and quickly pulled the identification for all three ships.

“FRG Bludgeon, CRV Grappler, and CRV Grapnel,” reported Bullet on the message screen. “2 TRN Ferry launching from FRG Hammerhead, 2 TRN B-Packer from Bludgeon... Bludgeon launching 3 T/B and 2 T/A.”

“Frak, dupes and brights eh B?” Gavin called back. “Things may start to get a little hairy here with missiles flying around.” And not to mention the shear speed the brights can muster... ”Let's take a quick look at those transports if we can.”

Bullet again chimed in as two more ships popped into the sector. “Two new contacts, 5 clicks out... Unknown craft... Corvette and Lambda-class Shuttle.”

“Cancel last B. The cap and shuttle are priority... frak...” Starseeker had to take evasive action as the first group of Tie Fighters from the Hammerhead let out another slavo in his direction as he doubled back on them and made his way towards the two newest ships. A few blasts come uncomfortably close, but he again was able to pass through with no apparent damage. “Come on now...” he muttered to himself. “'fore those brights get all up in my jock...”

“FRG Hammerhead launching SHU. Unknown SHU and W/G WHU vectoring for intercept/rendezvous.” Bullet paused for a split second and then, “CRV or SHUs?”

“We stick to the Corvette. We'll swing back around and pull both of the shuttle IDs at the same time... that and we are going to need a little more distance so that we have time to charge the shields and lasers...” Seeks responded. “I get the funny feeling the we are going to need them.”

Bullet beeped out a “Roger.”

By now, the combination of TIE fighters and Advanced TIEs had caught up with the nimble A-Wing. As they unleashed another barrage on the ship, Seeks decided enough was enough. He looped around and dodged around the blasts. He triggered his own guns and blasted several TIEs into scrap. He pulled up around the debris and looped after the Advanced TIEs, beginning the deadly dance of a dogfight. Every so often another group of eyeballs would join in, but they fell quickly as the nimbler A-Wing and Brights continued exhanged shots in their tight ballet.

"Damn..." Seeks muttered as he finally achieved a crippling hit on one of the Advanced TIEs. The Tie Bombers had gotten into range with their missiles. He cursed again as Bullet beeped a frantic warning: missiles incoming!

Caught between the two remaining Brights and the incoming missiles, Seeks could do only one thing. He looped at the missiles, flying straight towards them like two Nerfs at rutting season. At the last second, he dived downwards. Despite his stomach leaping into his throat, Seeks managed to peer behind himself. He looked on with glee as the missiles, unable to compensate in time, had smashed into the Brights, knocking both askew. Seeks pulled up and around to face the bobbing craft, despatching both as they tried to recover from the missile strike. The bombers swiftly followed as Seeks easily dodged their attack, blasting them into tiny slivers of metal.

Now that the threat from the WG fighters had been removed for the time being, Seeks turned his attention to the newly arrived corvette and shuttles. Ignoring Bullet's warnings about more incoming Brights and Dupes, he concentrating on avoiding the corvette's defensive fire and getting close enough to identify it. His targeting computer lit up; designation Spectre, normal crew complement....and some unidentifiable cargo and passengers?. That was odd, Seeks thought, as he turned towards the shuttles.

"Bullet, analyse the information from the Spectre. See if you can determine what's happening there. It's getting too crowded here; time we ID'd those transports and shuttles and got the hell out of here."

Bullet beeped an affirmative as Seeks zeroed in on the shuttles. The WG shuttle identified as Omega, standard officers, nothing apparently serious, but the neutral shuttle was another story. It held the usual pilot and copilot, and another person.

"Bullet, analyse."

The answer came back quickly. "The individual is a spy."

"Spy?! Well, that explains a few things back at home if he's a spy. Looks like the WG have a bit of outside assistance."

He dodged the newly arrived bombers and a second group of Brights as Seeks turned the ship towards the transports. It looked to him like they were carrying out a cargo transfer operation, but he needed to be sure. As it turned out, there was nothing serious; simple supplies and troops. Seeks destroyed two transports to annoy the WG before returning his attention to the fighters. A few minutes later, all that remained was small pieces of scrap metal. There was skill in the WG fighter corps, but it was not enough to take on a veteran of the Rebellion.

"Okay, B, scan for the Spectre and shuttles. See if we can determine where they're going."

There was a negative beep. "Negative, they have already left."

"Dang. Still, there's no fighters left at least."

He calibrated the hyperdrive for home, as the capital ships continued their barrage, in vain as the A-Wing flew away from the area. Despite his elation from the successful mission, he was still worried. It wasn't good news for the PBF if the WG were getting outside help...