11 months later....

It had know been 1 year since Elven arrived at the Academy and what was known officially as the Officer Aptitude Test was coming up. To Elven and the rest of the candidates it was the largest obstacol they had needed to overcome yet. Over the last 11 months Elven had steadily improved his average and know stood in the top 25% of his class. He had trained hard, marched hard, studied hard and worked harder than he had his whole life. As such he wasn't bothering to spend time worrying about what was going on in the outside world. He would be shocked when he did learn.

On Mon Calamari in the Regent's office...
Elian looked around his office filled with momentoes from his life. There were pictures of great starships and planets. SUddenly his chairs voxcoder spoke up.

"Your next appointment Prince Toritho is Mr. Torthein." said the chair

"Ah yes send him in."

Elto Torthein strode into Elians office splendid in a scarlet half cape and a black suit.

"Your majesty I am here to represent certain interests who feel you have shuned them." said Elto who appeared extremely nervous and kept putting his hand behind his cape

"Who are these interests?" asked Elian

"They'd prefer to remain unknown your majesty but they did tell me to give you a message." said Elto sliding his hand slowly behind his cape.

Something in what Elto had just said set off an alarm in Elian's head. Without concious though Elian threw his chair backwards bringing his hand about to draw his E-10 pistol. Behind him a smoking hole was blown in his wall from an illegal E-33 Slug Thrower. Bringing his pistol up Elian kept it aimed at the top of the desk where he expected Elto's head to appear. Slowly Elian crawled around the desk trying to surprise Elto.

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> "Where are my guards." he thought<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

Just then another alarm was set off in Elian's head as he dove forward a second before another shot impacted where he had been just moments before.

"You can run but you can't hide from the seperatists." cried Elto

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> "The seperatists" Elian thought "That's why he's trying to get me."<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

Just then Elian had a sudden idea. Crawling behind his desk to where his legs were earlier he hid in there waiting for Elto to come around. Within a second Elto did looking for Elian. Just as he passed Elian's hiding spot Elian brought up his pistol and leveled it at the shoulder of the arm the Elto was using to carry his slug thrower. He fired. A single shot of bright red light. But Elto had heard the shot also and waas diving towards the floor when the shot hit him in the head instead of the intended target of his shoulder.

Elian immeaditly stood up with his blaster levelled at Elto’s head but it was obvious that Elto was dead. Holstering his pistol he walked out of his office and saw his guards slumped at the ground sleeping, Elto had obviously stuck them with some kind of knock out drug. Just then he heard the clattering as a group of Mon Calamari Republic Shock Troopers came up running. Seeing Elian standing there they stopped and saluted.

“Sir you’re ok?” asked the captain of the guards

“Yes I am, get a cleanup crew into my office. And call a meeting of the Elvian Staff heads in Conference Room 3 immeaditly.” Said Elian

“Yes Sir.”

30 Minutes later….

Elian looked up as the last official entered the conference room and asked the question that was know becoming routine.

“Are you okay Sir?” asked the Intelligence Head

“Yes I am. Elton, know that you are here we may begin.” Said Elian

“Ladies and Gentelman as you know today there was an assassination attempt on me. The seperatists are starting to rise up again. I need intelligence information. Have our spies told us anything new lately?” asked Elian

“Just that they are getting ready for something. They’ve started purchasing equipment in large quantities. Also they’ve become more active on the black market. Finally we’re beginning to hear about a new operation called Operation Helix. It is intended to be strike that will diminish our military capabilities in the future. We have know information about where or when this strike will be.” Said Elton

“Can we cut off their money supply?” asked Elian

“No sir we don’t have enough information about it.” Said Elton

“Okay. We will activate all reserves to get ready for this Operation Helix. Also increased training on the group of cadets that are at their OAP tests or higher from know. Increase Border Patrols and also I want you to step up intelligence concerning this operation Helix.” Said Elian

“Yes Sir” said Elton

“Also we’re going to need a new Elian world soon. So we can start transferring our citizens away from where they can be hurt by terrorist Acts. So far the best we have is Alpha Centauri. I propose that we begin picking the most trustworthy candidates for colonization and begin the operation in 4 months. That means that all the increased training Cadets will be done with their training. 10 years ago we pretended that the civil war was over but it wasn’t. It hasn’t ever ended. We will need to keep up our guard. We’re still at war. Not only with the Seperatists but with the Rogue Imperials as well. They would do anything to stop us. But we won’t be stopped. The Seperatists were delusional fools. They blindly followed their leader and they thought that he would bring us to new heights. Really all he wanted was to be a dictator and destroy our democracy. That will not happen. They might be strong at the moment but they will die. They are steadily losing support. And soon they will have no support.” Said Elian “Know let’s get to work.”

4 Months Later....

Elven looked around the Great Hall from the doorway at the back. It was currently filled with instructors, friends and families of the Cadets who were graduating tonight. Elven had graduated 1st in his rushed training class and had been elected by the Cadets to be their Valedictorian. He know stood waiting for the signal to begin walking down the aisle to take his seat in the front row. The music started and Elven began to walk slendid in his dress uniform all pressed and neat, and with his boots all polished. With a quiet dignity he walked down the aisle and then he stopped at his seat and sat down.

1 Hour Later.....
"...The Academy would be honoured to confer upon our graduates with honours, the rank of Junior Lieutenant, Elven Ferten...."

Elven marched up on stage where he received his new rank insigna, his new award and shook hands with his instructors and the Provost General. Walking to the outerside of the stage he could barely keep a goofy grin off his face. That was when Operation Helix struck. Suddenly the music cut off in the middle of the ceremony and the air raid siren began ringing. Elven looked around wondering what to do when a voice came over the Public Address system.

"All Cadets to their stations. The Academy is under attack. This is not a drill. Repeat, all Cadets to their battle stations the Academy is under attack."

Elven looked around as the crowd began to disintegrate and screams and cries came began to emerge. Stopping he turned and ran out the nearest exit towards the pilots ready room. As he crossed the compound he could see the anti-starfighter batteries opening up as giant search light swept over the sky trying to find the attackers. Elven ran into the ready-room and began taking off his dress uniform and putting on a jumpsuit with flak vest and life support system. Then he grabbed his helmet from the rack and ran into the hangar where his squadron was getting ready. Quickly he ran over to the ladder that led up to the cockit of his E-32 Starfighter. As he strapped in a mechanic grabbed the ladder and he was cleared for take off. Looking around he saw his squadron leader an instructor lifting off. Elven was next as he quickly applied power to his engines and repulsorlifts screaming out of the hangar in a manner that was definetely not on par with Academy Regulations. Immeaditly following him his wingmate and the rest of his flight formed up on him. touching his comm he called out to them.

"Form up on me in Delta Wedge Pattern. Let's go blast some bandits." said Elven

Using his sensors he scanned the area looking for a group of enemy fighters. Then he saw them, a flight of E-30s the predecessor to the E-32 and definetely not as good. Steering towards them he reinforced his bow shields and brought up his targetting computer trying to get a torpedo lock on one of them. A box appeared around one with a star below it. He was in range. Without waiting he pulled his trigger twice as he saw torpedoes from his other wingmates streak out at other members of the enemy flight. His torpedoes hit blasting through the wedge shaped craft. A second later all the other torpedoes of his flight hit their targets. Then he was pulling his stick up looking for other targets. But it was all over.

2 Weeks later....

Elven sat in the pilots lounge looking around at the other newly graduated pilots. His squadron had been assigned to go aboard a El Totihino Battle Cruiser that was charged with landing a small garrison on an unknown Colony world and then to staff it for 6 months. Elven was excited hoping that there would be more enemys during the trip. The time en-route was 6 days and Elven spent all that time in the simulater or in the pilots lounge. All the vets didn't seem worried about anything happened and were extremely relaxed. But everyday he would make sure that his gear was ready just in case something happened. But nothing did, and when Elven arrived at Alpha Centauri he was disapointed to find that the sensors hadn't even picked up anything. There wasn't a ship for parsecs and he was supposed to stay here for 6 months! Elven was depressed he was barely going to do any flying at all. But Elven took it stoically knowing that someday he would be on the front line, the elite of the elites, fighting battles, winning wars and Being a Hero.

The End