Daren and the others came in bound, the squadron moving in perfect unison with each other, peering down at the civilian banquet hall. It was an awful devastation, with flames, rubble, and bodies discarded and sorted in an awful manner.

"That is an awful appearance there...Rogues spread out and begin searching for any signs of Chimeran craft and get ready for an ambush," Daren insisted, inverting his X-Wing and moving in for the docking bay. There were hundreds of transports now trying to flee Taloraan in fear of another Chimeran attack.

"Taly you ok over there?"

"Sure boss," she responded immediately. Daren simply nodded and pivoted his X-Wing in a downward spiral toward the docking bay.

"Ok Roguse, I'm gonna' check via ground, you guys give air cover," he ordered. Moments later, the X-Wing Rogue Leader, was docked.







Rogue Seven was taking a cocky lead to the front, trailing the Interceptors and Bomber not at all cautiously. He was trying to win over Rogue Three was the problem.

"Hey Taly, check this out," he gloated, doing a quickly barrel roll then a loop de loop.

"Shut up and maintain radio silence Rogue Seven," she scolded, trying to hover around the moon's ever growing shadow. There was a large asteroid that seemed to be moving at an ever increasing speed inbound for the planet.

Atalya mumbles to herself once more, this time cursing Rogue Seven's inept and uncautious naure as opposed to Daren's constant stream of orders. She looks to her left once more, making eye-contact with her fellow Rogue and shaking her head back and forth, trying to indicate that this was definitely not the time for such antics. Suddenly, her decript, bordering on obsolete R2 unit begins blaring into life, as if the apocalypse itself were at hand. Atalya's gaze shifts to her translator readout, but it hasn't the time to display the message before over two scores of TIEs flash into scanning range on her HUD. Atalya knows that radio silense is no linger going to aid in Rogue Squadron's mission.

"This is Rogue Three! It's an ambush! Lock S-Foils in attack position and accelerate to attack sp-"

Atalya is forced to cut her transmission short as a hail of laser blasts begins to descend upon her X-Wing. Her S-Foils are barely locking into firing position when the first of the TIE attacks is impacting on her shields, weakening them considerably. She begins to dodge to port and starboard, praying that her squadron will soon come to her aid and knowing that she will be dead or disabled within moments if they do not.

"R2! Do everything you can to keep the shields active! My weapons arn't going to matter against that many TIEs!"

Warmaster Zhin Dwamor had orchestrated everything perfectly, and now the Republic had sent one of their more elite squadrons of star fighters to investigate the issue, all was going nearly too well. According to the villip and radio messages, Rogues Seven and Three were being hit very hard by the TIE Interceptors the criminal Chimeran Syndicate had provided him. Did they reailze he was transmitting their own IFF codes?

However, his grinning was forced to be cut short as the horrendous roar of an X-Wing's quad engines as Rogue Leader - indicated by the lack of stripes on its s-foils - drooped into the snug chamber of the docking bay. <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> What is HE doing here?<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> Zhin hissed mentally, but trying to keep his face cool.

Zhin walked back to the bay, hand slung over his belt and holding the long vibro blade tentatively. "Who are you and what brings you here in that star fighter?" he demanded, trying to play dumb. Daren, now throwing his helmet into the hands of one of the eager crewmen trying to set up for his landing, looked up to see the Warmaster and quirked an eyebrow.

"The name's Cdr. Trevelan, can I help you?" Rogue Leader scoffed, throwing his hands up innocently.

"So......" Zhin began, slightly trailing off into thought. "You were sent by the Republic I'm assuming?" Daren merely nodded and began to turn.

"Is that a problem?" he requested, brushing himself off.

Zhin narrowed his eyes. "No....I just wnat to see to it that these terrorist bastards are caught."

"I see...do you have any information on the situation...or do you know who I can talk to to get more info?" Daren asked trying to make sure he got every aspect of the investigation under way.

"Of course...I am the new chancellor, I was there for the bombing!" Zhin exclaimed as if shocked and apalled, this rewarded him with a tragicly shocked face from the pilot. He knew he'd stepped over his boundaries now and the guilt was spread all over his face.

"I apologize, please, tell me all that you know Chancellor Zhin," he quickly said back trying to recouperate for his "emotional damage" he'd caused.

"Come with me, we shall drink on it," Zhin requested, positioning himself next to the pilota nd leading him inbound to the bar area, all the while the Yuuzhan Vong playing Chancellor explained the details of what had happened...with a few adjustments of course, like that a Chimeran soldier had been with an Imperial official in the banquet hall moments before the chancellor's choking. Daren was so absorbed in the entire conversation he did not realize what was happening.

Rogue Seven, also known as Swosn, nearly soiled his pants as he saw the fifty or so TIE Interceptors pull inbound directly at them. He immediately turned to gun fire, unrelenting in his attempt to knock down enemy fighters directly from existence, taking two down in his massive flurry of shots, but already the green lasers were beginning to tear into his fore shields, wiping them clear off the fighter's hull.

"@#%$, Taly pull back, get back to base," he yelled trying desperately to do so from the pain of shocks and bursts of slight flames in his @#%$ pit, cracking several of his consoles.

"I can't, we can't make it!" she screamed back, and yet Swosn was able to see her trying desperately to pull away from the several blasts, dodging most but taking hits from several more on her engines specifically. The TIE Interceptors were not very good shots, infact the whole TIE Interceptor get up was quite an insult, as at least Imperial fighter pilots had pride in their abilities, at lesat they showed <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> some<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> prestige. These pilots...were aiming way off and shot clumsily...some were even ramming into each other.

"Taly on the count of three turn on your hyperdrive and shut it off immediately," Rogue Seven screamed, trying the same manuever himself, but his hyperdrive blew out just as it he was about to do so. Atalya was soon off, disappearing hazily into the space past Taloraan and nearing toward the end of the planet. For some stupid reason, the TIEs all fell into "formation" and began chasing her in a swarming technique. Swosn was safe...for the moment.

Atalya breathes a shorth sigh of relief as the hail of laser fire surrounding her ceases for the moment. She closes her eyes and hopes that her heatbeat might soon return to normal. Atalya then switches on her comm link to her astromech droid and prepares for the bad news.

"R2. Give me the damage report."

Atalya groans in dismay as the redout prints onto her display. Every system on her X-Wing being either damaged or destroyed save for her sublight engines and her auto-ejection system.

"R2. How long will it take to repair the shields?"

With several beeps and clicks, the R2 unit reports it will take over a quarter of an hour to get the shields back online. With a glance at her RADAR, Atalya remembers that her sensors are destroyed, the panel itself even being blown out. She sighs and estimates that the TIEs will catch up to her long before her shields are back online. She slows her X-Wing down, trying to decide what to do next, knowing that she hasn't long to decide before the Interceptors overtake her.

Zhin and Daren were eating in the new temporary banquet hall when the news hit. Rogue Seven was stranded deep near hostile space in what was supposed to be a buffer zone, and Rogue Three was spinning rapidly toward Taloraan with nearly forty TIEs on her tail. Daren immediately stood and began running to his X-Wing, but the Warmaster stopped him...seeing how he could manipulate the infidel just a bit further.

"Commander listen to reason..your pilots will be all right, these terrorists are not well trained as it seems," he reasoned, walking at an easy pace with the now hesitant and highly annoyed commander.

"Two of my pilots are about to die up there, and you expect me to stand here and let it be while listening to you 'reason' Chancellor?!" Daren yelled, using all his will power nod to crash the man in the jaw. Zhin's smile remained serene however, and calm.

"Listen to me, we can't risk any casualties," Zhin explained, leading them to the comms room. Daren looked around at all the beeping nonsense, and felt his heart sink when he saw the radar with forty TIE Interceptors only six minutes away from Taly, and Rogue Seven steering with all his might trying to chase them.

"As you can see Commander, they have ill tactics, choosing not to finisho ff the wounded one, but chase the leader. That is fatal error number one, and probably their greatest error. Second, they have not identified any personification. They are simply attacking because they see someone to attack, here, transmit who you are, I have a Corvette out there, tell them it is sent by the Republic, they will quickly surrender or withdraw." Daren was hesitant, and worried that this was wasting time...but lifted the comm device.

"Attention all enemy TIE Interceptors, this is Cdr. Daren Trevelan of the Rogue Squadron and New Republic...we have a Corvette in the area if you do not turn back at once we WILL open fire on you, my reinforcements are merely a call away," he said...and now...they wait.

Atalya hits her console in frustration at her damaged craft and gives the photo of Daren a sorrowful glance. She reaches out and gently touches the picture, wondering if she will ever see her commander again.

"I'm sorry, Daren. I failed you."

Atalya then hears her comm system flar into life. However, all that omes out is static, the circuits far too damaged to transmit Daren's signal properly to her vessel. She hasn't time to wonder what has happened when she can hear the distinctive roar of the TIEs' engines bearing down on her.

However, the roar immediately becomes far less noticable, and Atalya turns her head to see almost all of the TIEs have turned and begun a retreat.

"What? Where are they going?"

Atalya's momentary celebration is cut short as she sees that a scarce few of the interceptors are sill closing in on her. She returns to facing forward and enters into some sluggish evasive manouvers, her engines far too damaged to operate at peak efficiency. Suddenly, Atalya can hear laser fire, and she winces, preparing for a jolt that never comes. Explosions are heard and Atalya hears the roar of several X-Wings coming alongside her vessel. A voice crackles over her commlink, barely audible and filled with static, only working as well as it is due to the proximity of the source.

"Rogue 3! This is Rogue 5! You okay over there?"

"Ye...yes. Thank you. I thought I was dome for."

Atalya sighs and places a hand over her heart, giving Daren's picture another look. She silently thanks whatever higher powers were watching over her and had the rest of Rogue Squadron come to her rescue.

Daren let out a sigh of relief as he watched the holovids, Rogue Squadron had worked beautifully in flanking and crushing the remaining lagging TIE Interceptors, and Taly was now safe. Rogue Squadron had managed to save two pilots from certain and imminent doom....interesting.

"Alright Rogues, fall in...I think we should get back to Corellia as soon as possible, Taly..you'll be landing on that Corvette...everyone else, get in your X-Wings and prepare to ship out, Cdr. Trevelan, out."

Daren then left the comms room, back to his X-Wing star fighter...he could not help but feel that Chancellor Zhin was grinning behind his back at all this.