Approximately 0700 Xenen local

            Captain Cay Bel Iblis made his way along the concourse of Wayfarer at a brisk walk.  Not an unusual occurance, but not exactly something anyone really expected to see the morning after his wedding, and certainly not in his duty uniform.
            “Well, don’t you look chipper this morning.”  Commander Dorrin Drake fell into step beside him carrying two cups of caf, he passed one of them to his commanding officer.
            “Well, silly me.  I thought the Vong might actually let me have at least one breakfast with my wife before heating the war up again.”  Cay shook his head and took a long swig of caf, shedding the dark thoughts like a cloak.  “What do we know?”
            “Not much more than was in the original alert.  You’re briefing the captains and first officers of all the ships being reassigned to our pickett group.  Davil is on his way, he had to stop off at ops and pick up the final numbers from Jargunda.”
            Cay nodded.  “These officers have all been on leave while their ships were being refit?”  He took a sharp right, leading the way from the concourse to the upper hangar bays, the ones large enough to accomodate something as large as the Legacy.
            Dorrin pulled a pad from his pocket.  “Two-thirds.  The others are being re-assigned or promoted.”
            “And they’re all older than both of us, aren’t they?”
            Dorrin smirked.  “You know they are.  So, you ready for this?”
            Cay gave him the hereditary lop-sided grin of a Bel Iblis and replied with absolute confidence in his voice.  “Not a chance in hell.  Shall we?”  
            He pushed open the access door to the hangar bay, leading the way inside where a group of about two dozen men, women, and aliens were clustered around, chatting to each other in the shadow of the big wedge-shaped Acclamator.  “Excuse me!  May I have your attention please?”  He made his way right through the middle of the crowd to where someone had left an X-Wing fighter parked next to the bigger ship.  He jumped up and grabbed the edge of the closed s-foil, pulling himself up to stand on top of it.  First Auyn rule of assuming command of a situation: make an entrance and grab their attention.
            He paced back and forth on the s-foil as he talked to them, making them crane their necks up to look at him.  “Many of you may not know why you’re here, so I’m going to assume no one does, and tell you.  Let me begin by confirming the rumors I’ve been hearing.  24 hours ago, at 16:30 local time, General Kosura and four battlegroups of the AFFC met what is believed to be a primary force of the Yuuzhan Vong in battle.  Our best intelligence suggests that there are no New Republic survivors of this engagement.”  He paused a moment to let the news sink in.  As he expected, there weren’t even disturbed murmurs, just somber silence from those gathered.
            “Now to get to the matter of why you’re all here.  I’m Cay Bel Iblis, Captain of the Five-Star Legacy and the new commanding officer of the Sentinel Pickett Group.  You are the captains and first officers of the ships in my command.  With the Vong preying on the spaceways, our charge is to protect the transports and freighters as they travel between worlds in the Kartuiin Sector.  Not much different than what alot of us have done in the past, only now we won’t be defending against pirate ships held together with grey sealing tape but against the Vong.  You’ll be dispatched in pairs, two ships per convoy.”
            Someone spoke up from the back, Cay could tell by his stance that he didn’t like taking orders from a kid.  “I’ve got an aging Marauder Corvette.  How am I supposed to stand up to a Vong cruiser?”
            Cay grinned.  “That’s where the young man in the back with the clipboard comes in.  Modifications have been made to all of your ships, as you know.  Lieutenant Davil Bullian is my chief engineer, and responsible for the design of all the modifications made to your ships.  Over the next twenty-four hours, he’ll be meeting with each of your chief engineers, and filling them in on the changes to your ships.  I want one thing understood, when it comes to these modifications, his word is law.  Listening to him will save lives.”
            “That doesn’t mean that your ships are invincible, just alot tougher.  If it comes to the worst, the lives of civilians come before our own, but the minute that your escorts are safe, you hightail it out of there, too.  There aren’t going to be any heroes on my watch, are we clear?”  He waited a moment to make sure that there were no other arguments, then nodded.  “Good.  For now, you’re dismissed.  I’ll meet with all of you while Lieutenant Bullian is meeting with your engineers.  Commander Drake has a list of who I want to meet with when.  It’ll be posted on that wall over there.”
            As they all filed out, Cay sat down on the edge of the s-foil.  Dorrin walked over and posted the list, then dragged Davil out with him, discussing the schedule for the engineers.
            About twenty minutes later, Cay heard footsteps approaching and looked up.  Brown hair and the most beautiful blue-green eyes he knew smirked at him as Mary put her hand on her hip.  “You know, you Fleet boys are all the same.  A girl’s in a hurry to get to breakfast, and she finds you sitting on her X-Wing.”

~ Ed