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[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter One: The Young Fight the Wars

The hangar was amazing. At least forty starfighters everywhere. X-Wings, Y-Wings, A-Wings, and B-Wings. Raan looked around with a feeling of awe and amazement. There were pilots and techs everywhere.

“Hey, kid! Keep up!” that was the voice of Commander Tsun. It was the deep and slightly scratchy voice of a human who’d flown a B-Wing at Endor and led countless starfighter assaults in the past years. Now, he was in charge of a nameless training squadron. The squadron that Raan had just arrived to join.

“Oh?” Raan turned away from staring across the hangar to look to the Commander. Smiling sheepishly, the young human nodded and started back after Tsun. Quietly, he said, “Sorry.”

“Sorry, sir,” Tsun corrected, but in a kind way, “You’ll get used to it.”

Raan gave the hangar one last glance as they entered a lift tube in the Mon Calamari cruiser, Intrepid. He wasn’t sure if the Commander was referring to using ‘sir’ or seeing the hangar. Probably both. They stood in the lift tube in relative silence for only a moment, then the Commander spoke up, “I didn’t know they let kids your age into Starfighter Command.”

Going slightly red and looking worried, Raan managed a shrug. He ran a hand through his unruly brown hair, which was slightly covering his face on the right side, and managed to find his voice, “I uh...I flew bulk transports into Borlieas and Balmorra...”

“I didn’t say that I didn’t think you had any experience,” Command Tsun said with a smile on his face, “I was barely older than you when I joined up anyhow. There’s a couple others in the squadron your age, but most are older still.”

Barely managing a nod, Raan simply did his best not to look as amazed and overwhelmed as he was. The lift tube stopped, and the Commander led Raan down the long and very populated corridors of the ship. It was strangely muggy and humid all through the ship, but Raan had been told of this before. Apparently, the Mon Calamari kept the ships at their own comfort level, especially since the command consoles were still built for them. This was merely something other species got used to, and never anything beyond an annoyance. Raan found it somewhat refreshing compared to the stark nothingness that most ships’ air filters produced.

They eventually arrived in a small, amphitheater-shaped briefing room. There were ten others dressed in civilian clothing seated there, and a blank nothing on the screen in behind the stage. All eyes fell on Raan as he entered, and he went red quickly. The others all smiled and a couple of them laughed, but even Raan could tell they’d all been through this at one point recently. As Commander Tsun walked down the steps to the stage in the front of the room, Raan continued to stand looking slightly lost.

“Oh, c’mon and sit down, will you?” a human female, about Raan’s age from what he could tell, said from not too far away. She had shoulder length brown hair, and wore a grey jacket with the sleeves rolled up. Even her trousers were rolled up. It took a moment before it clicked in Raan’s mind that this was because of the humidity.

As it dawned on him that he was still standing, Raan made an ‘oops’ noise and quickly took a seat next to her. She patted his shoulder some, a grin on her face and in her eyes, which Raan noticed were a bright green, “We were all terrified for those first few seconds. Can’t imagine what its like being the last of us though,” she moved the hand out in front of him, “Elizabeth Mare.”

Raan sat there looking amazed at how friendly she was. No one had ever really just started talking to him without accusing him of stealing or ordering him around before. Friends were never a priority. He’d never even thought that he’d meet people that could become friends in a starfighter squadron. Carefully, he took her hand and shook it, speaking in a bit more steady a voice than he had before, “Raan Maxwell.”

Before anything else could be said, the lights dimmed, the viewscreen came on, and Commander Tsun began the training course.