Chapter 1

    "Rapier Squad, come left to two, one four, mark one five. Approach target from their underside, plow the street."
    "Saber lead, this is Rapier lead, I copy, turning left," the melodic voice of Miranda Losoda came over Dalsuna's comm unit calmly and confidently. Dalsuna looked out the side of his X-wing and watched as his sister's squadron broke off from his wing and turned left.
    "Lancer Squad, come right to oh three nine, keep our backs clear."
    "Saber lead, I copy, dropping back," The other A-wing squad of Knight Wing broke from Dalsuna's right side and dropped back behind Saber and the larger shapes of six B-wings. Dalsuna looked into the distance, there hung a Victory class Star Destroyer turning to engage his squadrons of fighters. He fingered a switch on his X-wing's dash.
    "Hammer Flight, commence your torpedo run," he chimed into his comm.
    "This is Hammer lead, with pleasure Sir," the voice buzzed with static, but was understandable. Dalsuna frowned, the B-wings had just arrived, and there had been no time for the Resistant's techs to modify some of the equipment. Alliance comm units were always plagued with static, but at times it was used to the squad's advantage. Dalsuna never liked the idea that if an important message were to be garbled, it could mean certain death for a pilot. He turned the switch again.
   "Resistant, this is Knight lead, we are heading in, you're welcome to join us," he said looking back at his ship.
   "Captain Dalsuna, may I remind you that you are not in command of this vessel at this time," his first officer replied. "It is my understanding that you are only in command when you are on board the ship."
   "But it's my ship!" Dalsuna protested, "I didn't see you steal anything from the imps when we blasted off Coruscant,"
   "Alliance High Command works in odd ways don't they?" Commander Selan smiled to himself as he covered the microphone and he nodded to the navigator, "Move us into firing posistion. Weapons, I want to take out their shield generators in one shot, can you do it?"
    "Yes Sir, but the fighters are closer to firing range than we are. We will arrive too late to support our fighters in the fight."
    "Navigation, engage the overdrive boosters and get us in range, let's show our commanding officer our newest toy."
    "Aye, Sir," the navigation officer nodded and pushed a button, "All hands, secure all loose articles and strap in, NST drive engagement in 25 seconds."

   Dalsuna smirked to himself, this time, Selan would have no part in this fight. For almost a year now, Dalsuna's ship and wing were hunting down rogue Imperial commanders out on the Rim before they could find allies in other Imperial factions. Two years after the Battle of Endor and the Empire had pretty much disintergrated out on the Rim. His crew was dedicated, his ship was more than capable. He had defected from the Empire, taking the ship and most of the crew with him. The Resistant had been a fighting labratory ship for the Empire. It's old looking style was to ward off attention to the technology within. The only thing that had remained of the original Maruader Corvette was the basic shape. Years of modifications and Imperial efforts at various shipyards in the Rim had changed it into a flying starfighter development platform capable of defending itself. His R2 unit wailed at him to get his attention. The Star Destroyer had come into firing range. He could see Rapier squadron engaging the three squadrons of TIE fighters of the VSD. He switched to torpedoes and brought up the element targeting to the VSD's shield generators. "Saber Flight 1, target starboard shield generator, flight 2, target the port side," he received a flurry of acknowledgements and waited for the locking tone. As his targeting recticle went red, his proximity warnings blared loudly in his ears. "Sabre squad, break low!" he pushed forward on his flight stick and looked around to see what had triggered his warnings. The massive shape of the Resistant blew overhead in a blur of gray hull and red markings.

    "Weapons, target the shield generators," Selan said. "with the CU Pulse,"
    "Targeted sir, I have a solution,"
    "Fire."

    A flat, wide beam of red energy ripped from the Resistant's nose and impaced the bridge tower of the VSD. The shield generators shattered in the initial explosion. When the transparisteel canopy of Dalsuna's X-wing cleared, the VSD's bridge tower was a twisted mass of black and burning hull plating. He blinked in astonishment and looked at his flight record. The Resistant had been 14 kilometers behind the wing, ten seconds later, it now hung in the space in front of him, no more than 3 kilometers ahead. He shook his head in stunned disbelief.
    "Impressive," he muttered to himself.