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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2915048" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 359“Right there,” Jyren paused the holorecording of the day’s earlier training exercise and then looked to the ten young pilots sitting in the formal looking briefing room, “Can you see what went wrong?”    All of the pilots remained silent. They’d only spoken up twice in the past ten minutes of the debriefing, but  even then it had only been to greet each other and then to ask what, exactly, they were doing up at such a late hour. It was well past midnight, Coruscant time, which was the standard for all of the fleet. Not that this was terribly late, but after being in the cockpit for hours on end, sleep became much more attractive. They were up this early for a reason, of course. It was Rulae’s idea, however, to wake them up and do this...though the Commodore was suspiciously absent.    “Alright,” Jyren broke the silence to rewind the holorecording and play the last few seconds gain, “All of your fire is converging on the same point. You won’t get through the Coralskipper’s defenses this way...in fact, you do that and you’ll be dead. This was your third pass and you mucked it up.”    “You can’t expect us to be perfect!”    Ahhh, finally. It had taken long enough.    The one to speak up was the young human male from Corellia, Tarn Soles. He also happened to be one of the two pilots in question at the current moment. Jyren turned to bring his gaze on the clean cut looking cadet, using a look that he’d learned long ago from Marix, “I do expect you to be perfect. If you’re not perfect, you’ll be dead. But that is why you’re training now, and not being thrown into the fight. If you’re going to make mistakes, you make them now, and then never again.”    If Rulae had been there, Jyren would have probably gotten a long talking to out of sight of the cadets. But Rulae wasn’t there, and he’d obviously trusted Jyren to do this...and so, Jyren was doing it. Even if it wasn’t the best way.    When no challenge came, thankfully, Jyren simply nodded and then hit a switch to change to another recording. This one was also from the nosecone of one of the X-Wings, and was similar in its pass over one of the targets. However, in this one, a series of stuttered laser fire quickly scattered across various points of the surface of the target. While the first few shots did nothing, a few moments later, the entire target lit up and was gone.    The recording stopped, and Jyren spoke up again, “That is how its done.”    “Excuse me, sah,” this one to speak up was another human...female, though. Jyren had made sure to go over the roster more carefully being this, and was able to easily identify the fiery-haired young woman as Adria Harken, who Jyren assumed to be from Coruscant from her very thick, almost hard to understand, accent. She also seemed to have had it out for him since the very beginning...    Jyren locked his gaze with her and fended off her attempt to stare him down, “What is, Cadet?”    She sighed and pointed at the screen, “You can’t expect us to fly as well as you right away.”    “That’s not me,” Jyren said simply, knowing exactly what she had been implying, “And since you brought it up, that was Cadets Odres and Nain,” he paused a moment to turn and nod to the remaining to humans in the squadron to give them an approving nod, then looked over the whole group, “Now we are not here to point fingers at anyone. All of us, including myself and the Commodore, are having to learn how to fight the Vong. This is not easy on anyone here, but that is why we aren’t working alone. We are a squadron, and we should start acting like one.”    When he trailed off, a few of them seemed to catch the grin present on his face. Jyren was able to pick out the worried looks on those who caught his expression, and then quickly shut off the holoprojector. He took a moment to reach out through the Force, then said in a more quiet voice, “The Commodore is going to be here in a few minutes. We have that long to set the trap.”    While motioning them to get up and come over to where he stood, Jyren reached down behind the podium where he had put his stash of supplies. To the first who’d approached, the Duros pilot, Cevik Stanla, and Jyren’s wingmate, Rea, Jyren immediately handed two plates of food, saying, “Find safe spots near the door.”    A grin suddenly appeared on their faces as the quickly understood. Both took their weapons and headed up the steps of the amphitheater style briefing room to the single entrance. Others seems to be getting the idea, and quiet laughter could be heard as other tools and weapons were given. Another pair, the two Mon Calamari, fittingly enough, got large buckets of water, while four others were handed a sticky, gel-like substance usually used for field repairs on starfighters. Two other pilots were handed boxes of some very delicate looking feathers. The last of the squadron, Jyren put with himself...and that happened to be the red-haired Adria Harken.    To her, he handed both his blaster pistol and then a small projectile gun that had once been used for training, but had gone out of service years ago. Interestingly enough, the armory aboard most ships still carried a few of them...and Jyren had made sure to load the cannister with the appropriate, red paint based dummy rounds. He showed her another of those guns, this time in his hand, then pointed to the blaster, “Make it look good, and don’t let him see the other.”    A very large grin occupied the face of every single pilot in the squadron by the time Jyren called out, “Lights!”    When the lights dimmed, and everyone figured out exactly what to do with only seeing what they’d been given, Jyren sat back against the wall and Adria pointed the blaster pistol at him. Jyren had, of course, removed the power pack...just in case. But in the dark, and at the distance there was from the door, it would look perfect.    “Here he comes!” Jyren called out, just as the unsuspecting commander hit the switch and opened the door.</blockquote>

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