Prologue

“Five to Leader. Thank you Sir. I live to serve the Emperor.” Mekita tried to make it sound as if plotting the course the squadron used to enter the system was easy. In truth this training mission had been sprung on the squadron and she was given little time to find a course through the system’s gravity shadows that would get them to their destination on time. Even now she could see the ships pulling out of the planet Volmar’s gravity shadow. Inching ever closer to being able to make the jump to hyperspace. Volmar itself stared back at her like a large blue green eye. Their training scenario was that the three freighters were escaping the tropical water world and Vanguard was to subdue them before they could leave the system.

Vanguard leader’s voice crackled over the com unit. “Change of plans Vanguards. Break into flights and destroy the freighters.”

The ships must have droids piloting them Mekita thought. She hit the throttle causing her ion engines to give her a burst of speed. She thumbed on her com unit. “Six, seven, eight; form on my wing. Let’s take em out.” Her flight’s acknowledgements echoed in her ear as she watched the blue blips on her sensors form behind her. The freighter was zooming into view. It was about as aerodynamic as box, with huge engines taking up the aft quarter of the large rectangle. It was painted a dingy white in the few places that weren’t covered in rust. Her comm unit caught the freighter’s beacon and identified the dummy ship as the Stellar Breeze. She was close enough to the ship that she saw two compartments open on the ship's hull. Quad laser cannons popped up to greet them. Evidently Eight had seen them too; he cursed loudly in her ear.

Mekita gritted her teeth and pushed all her shield power to the front of her ship. “Cut the chatter Eight. Put all shield power to the front and get ready for a strafing run. The target is hot. Seven and Eight, give us some cover.” The Advanced TIEs that Vanguard were testing had quite a few upgrades compared to the standard TIE. The hyperdrive that got them to their targets was one of them. So were the shields. And testing the shields was the reason Mekita guessed that their targets were armed. Her TIE streaked toward the other ship and her targeting bracket went green. With an icy calm she began a steady barrage of green laser fire streaking across the Stellar Breeze. She watched as the ship’s shields ate her and her wing’s laser fire. Her own view port became cloudy for a second as her shields deflected a shot that would have gutted a normal TIE fighter. The blast rattled her ship and she cursed herself for not paying attention. Once the Stellar Breeze was past her view port she slammed her foot down on the rudder, causing her ship to slide 180 degrees. The back end of the Advance, the housing for the shields and hyperdrive, put the majority of the ship’s weight in the rear and made the maneuver difficult since the ship wanted to continue spinning. Mekita looked out her view port and saw Six had successfully completed the turn too.

“Five it’s Seven, shields are weakened, and we’re starting our run.”

“Acknowledged Seven, we’re going in below to keep the shields legal.” Mekita hit her thrusters and plunged her TIE under the Stellar Breeze. She aimed her lasers up at the ship's belly and began firing. Six’s shots appeared right after hers and she allowed herself to smile. On the third shot the blue energy shield didn’t stop the flash of green. Instead it scorched the ship’s hull. She eased off on her throttle slowing her ship. The ship began to rattle from the combined firepower of the four TIEs. Seconds later they were awarded with a satisfying explosion. She veered her vehicle away from the destruction, but a piece of debris hit the sloped solar panel that acted as the TIE’s right wing. The impact threw her against her controls and mild panic filled her stomach. The seconds dragged on as she forced herself upright and fixed the flight yoke straight between her legs to kill the spiral the impact had sent her in. Through the view port she could see Three flight still chasing their prey.

She watched the four ships firing into the freighter’s engines. Her sensors identified it as the Star Hawk. There was a blast of static in her cockpit and she looked down to the com unit. She had fallen across it and switched the frequency out of Vanguard’s encrypted channel. As she lowered the volume there was another blast of static; this time punctuated with a scream. Mekita’s fingers froze on the controls. “I repeat, we surrender. Please stop your attack,” the voice was a male’s. In the background more screams were heard, although she didn’t just hear the message she felt it. “We are an unarmed freighter only,” an explosion caused him to pause, “carrying refugees. Please stop your attack.” The cold, uneasy feeling that the rumors of the Empire’s brutality had put in her stomach was rapidly growing with each second of the transmission. She watched the rear shields finally die. Three flight made another strafing run and the big ships engines began tearing away from it in a number of explosions. Three escape pods jettisoned into space as explosions continued to move up from the aft to the fore of the Star Hawk. The screams ceased as the ship turned into a giant fireball. The only sound in the cockpit was her own breathing echoing through her helmet. She saw Vanguard One and his wingman burst into action. The two fighters leaped upon the escape pods with their lasers, vaping them from existence. Slowly she raised her hand and switched back to the Vanguard’s private channel. Looking at her hand on the knob she realized it was shaking. Everything on her body was shaking. She could feel her face was wet from a mixture of sweat and tears and she let out a long scream that she knew space would kill before anyone else could hear it.

“Good job Vanguards. I’d say the Advance is a success. Form up for the jump home.” It was Vanguard One, Commander Skibo. Mekita moved her TIE in formation with the others and watched as the hyperspace coordinates came over the com channel. Screams still rang through her ears. Skibo had to have known. He had set up the training missions. Had ordered the attack on those fleeing the scene. She felt her teeth biting into her lower lip. None of the others knew did they? She flipped on her hyperdrive engines and took a deep breath. The stars stretched into long shafts of light. Just as the shafts were starting to merge into one, she flipped the switch again. As quickly as the stars had stretched they had shrunk back to individual points shining in her view port. The TIE rocked a little as it dropped out of hyperspace and then all was quiet. Mekita looked out in the depths of space and let everything set in.

She had never remembered not wanting to fly. When she was eight she had broken her leg jumping off the roof of her house. All through school she studied so she could join the Academy on Seisin. Many of the other girls her age had wondered why she was never interested in sports, or shopping. Mekita spent most of her off times in the cockpit of a simulator. She had never really given herself much of a social life; and there were few times she regretted it. She had worked herself into perfect physical condition and kept her marks in the upper ten percent of her class. The boys had noticed her. Her long brown hair, strong features, and lithe body garnered her plenty of their attention. To her though, they were a distraction. A hormone charged jock pawing at her was nowhere near the rush being in the cockpit of a ship gave her. She really didn’t mind being thought of as frigid. There were more important things to worry about then what people think. When she finally graduated, she rushed her application into the Academy that day. The task was made easier considering one of the Imperial Navy’s Academies was right on Seisin. She had been accepted within twenty-four hours. Joining the earliest class she had skipped what would have been her summer break and started the week after her graduation. No one had any doubt that she was the brightest student in her class. The same determination that had pushed her there was still burning just as bright. Unfortunately her sex was starting to slow her progress. Mekita was outraged over being treated as a lesser pilot because she wasn’t male. It was blatantly evident that pilots inferior to her were starting to get better marks. She had to fight what she felt was right if she wanted to keep flying. She was just about to bury her pride when Commander Skibo had found her.

Skibo was in charge of one of the Imperial Navy’s experimental squadrons. His pilots got their hands on every star fighter that came out of Seisin’s shipyards. It was dangerous of course, some experimentals tended to have fatal problems, but the Commander had told her of the units under his control. Units where pilots lived on their skills and not chromosomes. He painted a picture for how the Imperial Navy would be for her. How the Academy had treated her compared to how she would be treated in the Navy. Promotions would pass her by regardless of her kill record. Pilots that she knew were below her abilities would suddenly be commanding her. If she spoke out, it would only become worse. Joining the Vanguards was not a hard decision by that point. Under Skibo she did quickly earn the rank of Lieutenant. She and her squadron mates had been testing the TIE Advanced in simulators for a year and a half now. Skibo had given her more responsibility then any other member of the squadron. She didn’t hear the harsh whispers behind her back that haunted her in school and the Academy. She had raised Skibo to a father figure. A guardian. Almost to deity. Mekita really didn’t know what love was, but if asked she would say she loved him. He had made her complete. He had known those ships were filled with people. The people she had helped kill.

The thought of killing wasn’t necessarily the thing that had bothered her. She had prepared herself to kill Rebel pilots. The terrorists that blew up Imperial buildings in the night. Killing countless innocents as they waged their war. A Rebel she could kill. Vanguard squadron didn’t just kill Rebels. They had killed refugees. Two of the ships weren’t even armed. They had surrendered and they were killed for it. She had heard rumors of the Empire doing things like this, but the news had always made these tactics more like Rebel actions. She began to wonder if the Rebels were really the monsters the Holonets she had watched made them out to be. She knew she felt like the monster and it wasn’t a pleasant feeling. She took a moment to take a long breath and clear the tears from her eyes. She set her features back into her work face. The stoic visage she was famous for in her squadron. She made quick checks on her fuel and the power left in her flight suit’s life support. Then she started working on her navicomputer, plotting a course for somewhere that would take her in. That would let a monster try to turn her life around. To learn the truth about the Rebellion and the Empire. And possibly, to avenge those helpless refugees whose remains still floated outside of Volmar.