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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3244274" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 424: An Extra Pair of EyesRulae Nok found himself, yet again, in a horrible situation. In fact, he had a great deal of trouble imagining anything worse. Currently, he sat at what was technically his desk looking over the information from the previous battle. The overall report was, sadly, not as depressing as the previous task of writing messages to the families of the pilots in Zephyr Squadron that had been killed in the engagement. Over half of them were dead, and it reminded Rulae why he didn’t get attached to them anymore.    The Duros let out a sigh and sat back in his chair. The fact that he had a desk job whenever there wasn’t a battle going on was bad enough...but he had never been good at telling families of the deaths that occurred. Of course, that was probably a good thing, and it wasn’t something he wanted to be good at, but sometimes he just wished he didn’t have to do it at all.    And, on top of everything, his good friend was dead. This wasn’t like before. The last time they had simply gone their separate ways after they were the only two left of the original Zephyrs. Rulae had chosen to stay in Starfighter Command and was moved to a new squadron, and Jyren...Raan simply moved on to other things. Truthfully, Raan had pretty much disappeared off the face of the galaxy, and had been reported dead when Rulae tried to track him down not long after...but it was still different.    This time, Jyren hadn’t just disappeared. During the battle, Rulae was, obviously, caught up in trying to keep himself and the other Zephyrs alive. Because of this, he had no idea what was going on behind the screen of starfighters other than vague orders passing through the main comm channel that he had done his best to ignore unless a direct order was sent his direction. But he did receive a direct message, though it wasn’t an order. It had come from one of the New Republic’s ships that had been left to defend the rear of the fleet, and that, alone, was enough to get his attention.    When Rulae switched his comm channel over to pick up the message, he was even more surprised when he heard Jyren’s voice. Now, many hours later, the words were still eerily clear in his mind and just made all the other tasks, including staying alive during the battle, that much more difficult.    “Rulae...I know this is going to distract you but I had to send you a quick message while there was still time. I’m sorry I couldn’t be out there with the rest of the Squadron, but I think you understand why I’m not. But now I know why. I’ve made a choice, Rulae, and its not one I can turn back from. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s the only way to protect my family that I can see. If there was a way out of this...I would have found it by now, but there’s no time. But before everything went even crazier, I wanted to ask you a favour. Take care of the kids in the squadron...keep them strong and keep them hard. And...if you can, keep an eye on my family and make sure they’re okay. It was good to fly with you again, old friend...you did a lot more for me than you know. Thank you.”    And then it had cut out, returning to the panicked sounds of the squadron’s channel. Several times, Rulae had attempted to cut in, but Jyren had ignored him and kept talking. It was for the better, though, as Rulae was able to keep himself alive by continuing to maneuver instead of also trying to fight back through the comm system. But it was...a terrifying thing to hear from his friend, as he knew nothing of what was going on. Nothing, at least, until the Stardust rammed into the single Vong ship that had gotten past the main lines, and then Rulae knew what had happened.    The Duros closed his eyes and rested a hand on his large forehead before a sigh escaped him. Over the years, he had become hardened to the deaths of squadron mates, as was necessary, especially being in a command position. But losing a close friend...and so soon after he had come back. There was no need to write the message to his family...his family was there. Perhaps that made it worse. He hadn’t even had to tell that Empress what had happened...as she knew better than he did.    “Sir...?”    Rulae opened his eyes. He hadn’t heard the door open, and the only people who knew it wasn’t sealed were the other Zephyrs. Because of that, he wasn’t surprised to see that it was the Twi’lek pilot, Rea, standing there as the door slid closed behind her. It did, however, annoy him a great deal that he had gotten so distracted as to not hear the door open.    “Yes, Lieutenant?” Rulae managed to keep his formal tone and was even back into his usual mode of thining enough to remember that the Twi’lek had received a promotion after the last engagement. Considering the numbers they had lost during the battle, the promotions that were given out to the survivors had been almost mandatory. Rulae hated that kind of thing, but understood why they always happened.    The young pilot looked as bad as Rulae felt, with her blue skin even seeming pale compared to the usual colour that it was. She took a few steps closer to his desk and tried to smooth our what was currently a mess of a uniform she was still wearing before shaking her head and mumbling, “Sir, I...I’m not all that sure, actually...I...I just can’t believe we’re running off like this after...”    After everything.    It was always hard to lose a wingmate, especially the first time it happened. And so, Rulae couldn’t blame Rea for focusing on the loss on Jyren while ignoring all of the tactical reasons for the fleet’s return to what most would call the real fight. Everyone always felt the same way when they lost their wingmate...    He was intelligent enough not to address what she had brought up, knowing that it would likely make the situation worse. The best thing now was to find a way to move on. However, there was something important that he felt he could do to help. Glancing down at his next, he picked up a small piece of datafilm that was on top of the piles of other useless junk that he tried to ignore most of the tmie and offered it to her, “The Captain sent me a transmission before the Stardust was lost. He asked me to keep an eye on his family...to do what I could for them.”    Not really following him, Rea took the datafilm without looking at it and simply gave Rulae a somewhat lost look, “But I thought the Empress and his son went back to their home through that Gate thing.”    “The Empress did,” Rulae answered before motioning with a long-fingered hand to the datafilm to try and get her to look at it...she didn’t, so he went on, “The boy...his son went with the Jedi to Yavin.”    At hearing that, Rea finally looked at what she was given, going over what was imprinted on the film and finally understanding what he’d given her. After a moment of studying it, she looked back up and asked, “Am I being transferred, sir?”    “No,” he corrected with a shake of his head, “We need all the pilots we can get, and you’ve got experience that I need out there.”    One of Rea’s lekku twitched very slightly, but it was something that Rulae took notice of, “I’m sorry, sir, but...I don’t understand why you’re showing me this if I’m not being transferred.”    “That comm frequency is specially encrypted,” he explained, “I was told that the comlink it responds to has been modified to pick up very long range transmissions...and its currently in the hands of the Jedi Master in charge of their Academy on Yavin.”    Now, things made sense to the Twi’lek pilot. A knowing look passed across her features and she nodded to herself before looking to him again and managing a polite smile, “Thank you, sir. I’ll...I’ll keep an eye on Tobias for you.”    “For Jyren,” Rulae corrected her carefully.</blockquote>

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