POV: Something is happening in Yavin IV

"I'll do it better the next time, I promise. " Dario said. He felt his heartbeats like his heart was about to abandon his body.

"Next time? Next time I'll pilot?" Edu said while putting his seat belt more tense. "I don't know what you have been doing in that simulator."

"Don't worry. From here everything will be under control." Dario replied with a confidence he was starting to lose.

But it was true. When the Y-Wing found itself flying towards the stars,it seemed like as if it had its own life, and reacted to Dario's orders with precision. Within minutes, the blue around the ship was being replaced by the black, and the vision of the stars helped the two men to breath a little easier.

Suddenly, two red dots appeared in the left display, and then one more. Dario used the computer to identify the ships, and he discovered two armored transports and a Star Destroyer.

"Transport Gamma 1 to Gray Wolf. We have a Rebel fighter leaving the planet surface."

"They were there?" Guindamonn questioned with a fierce smile. He took the microphone from the controller's console and gave his orders directly. "This is Commander Guindamonn. All TIE Fighters abandon the patrolling and engage the Rebels!"

Moose looked at his screen with amazement. The TIE fighters were leaving at last! The rest of the squadron must be arriving. Time to recover some heat! he thought to himself.

He tried to say that with his own voice, but he couldn't. Stretching his frozen fingers, he connected all the systems again. He pushed the throttle and the B-Wing started to follow the TIE Fighters. The B-Wing's sensors didn't detect the Imperial fighters for almost an entire minute, because the mass of Yavin was between them and Moose's ship. With the heatings at maximum, he was recovering slowly the mobility in his hands and feet, though he still felt himself moving slowly.

After all those hours of cold and waiting, he was eager to join the combat, but he didn't expect what he saw. When his fighter left Yavin the sensors detected the three TIE Fighters again, immediately after more signals appeared on his left display. A considerable amount of TIE Fighters, the Victory Class Star Destroyer that Blackjack had said they could find, two transports whose signals disappeared when they entered in the Yavin IV atmosphere... and a lonely Y-Wing flying directly towards the Star Destroyer.

"But who is that crazy guy?" Moose asked himself out loud. "Where is White Squadron? What do I do now?"

The three closest TIE fighters started to shoot against them. Five laser bolts made the forward shields almost collapse before Dario reacted and evaded the fire.

"Those are Imperial fighters, Edu!" Dario cried. "And we are flying a Rebel ship! Do you remember that?"

Two more impacts in the rear shields interrupted Edu. Dario began to use what he had learned in the simulator, and maneuvered to avoid the TIEs while recharging the shields with energy from the weapons. When one of the TIEs crossed in front of them, he tried to shoot it down without success.

"They are going to kill us anyways, so do something useful and use the ion cannons!"

In the older model of the Y-Wing, the weapons operator managed the ion cannons, mounted over the rear part of the canopy. The cannon was not fixed, unlike the last models, having a great mobility. The gunner had a display available that showed the image captured by a micro-camera installed in the same cannon, and the targeting system added all the needed indicators. Edu had not revised the weapons, because even in the case that he knew how to, he didn't think they would need it. But if the laser cannons worked...

Edu centered his display on one of the TIEs that was on their tail and shot repeatedly against it. The Imperial pilot didn't expect that the Y-Wing could shoot towards the back, so his slow reaction time was understandable. The fighter was covered with blue discharges and exploded violently.

Moose saw how the Y-Wing shot down the TIE fighter, and he was almost as surprised as the Imperial pilot. But the Y-Wing pilot wouldn't live that long if nobody helped him. Moose had the three TIEs he was chasing at range. He had needed to sacrifice part of the shields energy to obtain more speed and be able to reach them, but now his sight turned to green and he shot with his cannons linked. The TIEs had just detected him, and two of them started to evade, one to the left and one to the right, but the pilot in the center tried a loop, and Moose was far enough to keep him in his sight just with a slight pull of the stick. The TIE exploded.

"There are only two fighters, after all! What are those TIE pilot's doing?" Guindamonn questioned angrily.

Joker looked at the chronometer. Ten seconds to exit from hyperspace. During the jump the communications were broken, and the only thing you could do was wait and hope the computer did its job finely. She breathed deeply and saw how the stars became points of light again. Here we go she thought.

"Hey, the party has started without us?" Exclaimed Psycho. Two rebel fighters, a B-Wing and an Y-Wing were surrounded by a lot of TIE Fighters, and laser fire illuminated the space around them.

"It's Moose, that B-Wing is Moose's!" The voice of Iceman was full of excitement and joy.

"But who is in the Y-Wing?" Torpedo asked. "My computer identifies him as Gold 7."

"Gold Squadron no longer has any Y-Wings after the battle of Yavin." Foxfire said. "Besides, that is the older model, adapt for two crewmen..."

"Leave the questions for later and attack the objectives!" Shok'wave ordered. She understood what their minds were going through since she was asking herself the same questions. However, she couldn't allow them to be focusing on the wrong things and risk the entire mission.

The A-Wing group turned to the left following Foxfire's fighter, at maximum speed, and maneuvered to the right again when the left side of the Gray Wolf was more exposed in front of them. The slower B-Wings kept the route that was driving them to the rear part of the ship. Daolaris started to descend with relation to the main group, waiting to have the antenna that was near to the main bay at sight, while Zeppelin elevated his fighter to have a better position to attack the one that was in the bridge's structure, not far from the now visible shield generator's towers.

The six A-Wing's sent duo after duo of missiles against the Star Destroyer's weapons. Thirty six concussion missiles were flying towards the forward part of the Star Destroyer, where the warhead launchers were, and the remaining twelve missiles searched the laser towers over the bridge's structure, where the B-Wings were approaching.

Psycho counted twelve TIE fighters in the first wave that was trying to intercept the B-Wings. It was not a great challenge for the six A-Wing's, but they needed to be very fast if they wanted to make certain that none of the enemy fighters could disturb the B-Wings during their first pass. There will be more after that group, and then things would get more difficult.

Foxfire took a fast look towards the Star Destroyer while targeting the nearest TIE. She liked what she saw, the missiles had almost reached their targets, but she couldn't keep looking. Her sight was turning green.

"Move the ship, move the ship right now!" Guindamonn screamed as he watched on the screen at the signals indicating the concussion missiles that were getting closer and closer. If the Star Destroyer would have been moving, the Rebel pilots wouldn't have been able to hit the target with their missiles from such a far distance, but the giant ship started to move very slowly, too late to avoid the damage. Many of the missiles did fail the main target, but with the amount of warheads that were dispursed the launchers were doomed. The Imperial gunners tried to shoot them down, but the concussion missiles were far faster than the proton torpedoes and the majority of them had already reached the enemy ship. The two warhead launchers were destroyed, with at least three laser towers. By then, the B-Wings were almost in position to shoot without even being intercepted yet.

"Torpedo, you take the left tower, I'll take the right one!" Shok'wave exclaimed.

Torpedo maneuvered to evade the fire from the laser guns and watched as the shield tower got bigger in front of him as he got closer. He pushed the trigger and when the two torpedoes hit the tower he was already turning to the left, leaving a clean fire line for Joker.

Shok'wave had shot two torpedoes too against the right tower and like the mirror reflection of Torpedo's fighter she turned to the right, leaving the field clear for Marauder. Zeppelin passed over them searching the hyperspatial antenna, but now every laser tower was shooting against the incoming fighters. Joker and Marauder found an impressive wall of fire between them and the now damaged shield towers. Joker was forced to break her attack with her shields hardly resisting the laser bolts, but Marauder decided to try it even with the opposition. His B-Wing exploded before he could shoot a single torpedo.

Dario and Edu couldn't believe what was happening. They were just in the middle of the battle, and they had seen how the missiles impacted against the Star Destroyer. The TIE pilots had more work in store for them now, and most of them left them to engage the new threat. They saw that Moose's B-Wing had turned its direction to the Star Destroyer, shooting his torpedoes against the ship's bay.

A new squadron of TIE Interceptors was being launched and they found Moose's torpedoes without a chance to evade. A huge explosion trapped at least ten Interceptors in a hell of fire.

Dario recharged the shields all that he could and piloted the Y-Wing after some of the TIE's that had left to engage the incoming B-Wing's. The A-Wing's were already there.

Daolaris had the antenna in her sight. She was the only pilot who didn't have a callsign. To be called something different than the name received from the clan would have been unacceptable between the twi'leks. She ignored the laser bolts that were pounding away at her shields. In the opposite side of the ship, Zeppelin was firing two torpedoes against the upper antenna. Without stopping to look, he followed his way towards the arrow head of the ship shooting with his laser over every target he could see, while maneuvering to the left and right to evade the fire. When he thought he was far enough, he made a half loop spinning at the same time, changing his direction in an elegant move for a B-Wing. But the antenna was not there, his torpedoes had already blown it away.

"Our shield generators have suffered damages, sir." Informed an officer. "A few more torpedoes and we will be vulnerable!"

"Call for reinforcements!" Guindamonn ordered. "Contact the Punisher right now!"

The Imperials were recovering from the initial surprise. Although Moose's torpedoes had caused great casualties amongst the Imperial forces, they had not touched the bay, and more and more fighters were now joining the battle.

"Thanks Iceman, I didn't see that one!" Granite evaded the Interceptor before he could be hit by its lasers.

There were so many TIEs around that they couldn't avoid that many of them and they raced towards the B-Wings. Vyper knew very well that the TIE pilots had orders to ignore the A-Wings and attack the assault fighters instead. He had given orders like that some time ago.

"Psycho, Tempest," the intercom shouted, "try to catch some of those TIEs that are going after the B-Wings!"

"I'm on my way!" Psycho replied. At least three TIE Fighters and two Interceptors ran to attempt to reach Psycho and Tempest. Vyper chose the Interceptors as the main threat for his comrades and targeted the closest one. His pilot never knew what hit him. The other one saw the danger in time, and when his fighter was about to explode he was able to eject. Vyper remembered how he was tought in the Imperial Academy how to ram the pilots who ejected in combat. He felt a bad taste in his mouth when such a memory crossed his mind. Vyper closed his mind from that thought and turned to help Foxfire's group with the incoming fighters. Now Moose's B-Wing and that mysterious Y-Wing were joining with them.

Joker had seen in her display a cold message from the computer. White 12 had been destroyed. Marauder had been the last cadet abandoning the Training Wing to join the Squadron. She could remember him as he just earned his wings of Flight Officer and the band with his combat patches, the happiest man in the universe, saying to her that they will soon be flying together again. Moose always said "'It's better to hit the target in the second pass than never hit it all!" Marauder had not learned that lesson. But Moose was alive after all! She was now in position to try that second pass, and Shok'wave would soon have the right tower in in her sight again.

"Torpedo, leave the left tower for Joker and do all you can with the bay." Shok'wave ordered. "If you can avoid that more fighters are released..."

She didn't even finish her sentence, it wasn't necessary. There were already too many TIEs around them.

"All right, boss!" Torpedo replied while directing his B-Wing to the other side of the Gray Wolf.

This time Joker could evade the worst of the fire and shoot her torpedoes against the tower. One of them missed the target, but the other did the job.

"Well done, Joker!" Shok'wave said. But now she was the one with problems. It seemed that all the remaining laser towers were shooting at her. She aborted her attack and retreated to a position where she could recharge her shields. But that was not easy. Five TIE fighters were approaching her from different sides, making it impossible to evade all of them at the same time.

"I'm on it boss!" Psycho appeared with his A-Wing spitting laser fire. One of the TIEs exploded and one more was forced to interrupt his attack. Shok'wave shot against a third TIE and destroyed it. She breathed after several seconds of holding her breath.

The battle near the Star Destroyer's bay was getting more and more fierce. The Gray Wolf was now turning and spinning without warning, and it was more difficult to keep near the selected targets. The TIE Fighters and Interceptors seemed to be everywhere, and the Rebel pilots were being overcome by the force of numbers. Moose saw how two more Interceptors were about to be launched and directed his B-Wing towards them. He had no more torpedoes, but if he could cause some of those fighters to explode inside the bay... Daolaris had already destroyed one of the catapults, so the Star Destroyer couldn't launch new fighters as fast as it would like to. Torpedo saw how Moose was flying directly towards the bay.

The two Interceptors were launched just towards Moose's fighter. Moose shot against one of them, and tried to get out of the trajectory of the other one, but he had no time. The Interceptor collided violently against the rear side of the B-Wing, in front of the horrified eyes of Torpedo and Daolaris.

When the cloud of fire disappeared, they could see that Moose was still there. But his B-Wing was evidently badly damaged.

"I've lost my engines, I've lost my engines!" Moose screamed. He was no more than a few hundred meters from the bay. His desperate situation was seen on the monitors of the Gray Wolf's bridge.

"Sir, we have almost lost our shield generators. The remaining tower can't cover the entire ship." Captain Zelia warned.

"Forget that now." Guindamonn said, looking at the images sent by one of the bay's cameras. "I want that pilot captured!" he ordered.

"At once, sir." If there is something to know about what is happening in Yavin IV that pilot will tell us! Guindamonn thought. Oh, yes, of course he will do _just_ fine!

"Moose, don't eject!" Torpedo screamed. "You are too close to the Star Destroyer!" If Moose used the ejection system from that position, he would collide against the Star Destroyer's hull.

A shuttle had exited from the bay and was directing its path towards the crippled B-Wing. His intentions were painfully clear. More and more TIEs were joining there as well.

"Moose has serious difficulties, we need some help immediately!" Torpedo yelled as he tried to destroy some of the TIE Fighters that were around Moose's ship.

"All fighters, get to the bay!" Foxfire ordered. "We must do all we can to save Moose!"

"I'm on my way!" Zeppelin replied, who had caused a great headache to the Imperial gunners that had been trying to stop him from launching his torpedoes against their towers.

This is not my day! Moose thought. He was unable to move or rotate his ship, but he could shoot while there was remaining energy, so every time an enemy fighter crossed in front of him he saluted him in his own way. But if that shuttle behind him reached him before the others could get there to help, it would be all over for him. Moose knew that it wouldn't take that many ion shots to complete their task.

"Zeppelin, we are going to push Moose's fighter! " Torpedo cried through the intercom. "Everybody, cover us!"

An impressive cross of laser bolts were taking place in a very reduced amount of space. The Imperial fighters were trying to avoid that none of the Rebels could approximate neither to the Moose's B-Wing nor to the shuttle that was now using its ion cannons to disable him. Nobody could do anything. In a matter of seconds Moose would be a prisoner.

Relatively far from there, Shok'wave and Joker, with Psycho and Tempest as escorts, were the only pilots who were attacking the Star Destroyer now. The two women were the last ones who had torpedoes left in store.

"Tempest, cover me!" Shok'wave ordered. "I'm going to destroy that damned tower this time. Joker, take a position from where you can launch all your remaining torpedoes against the engines! Psycho, cover Joker!"

Every pilot obeyed without reply. Shok'wave directed her fighter one more time towards the right shield generator tower. At least six fighters were trying to shoot her down, and all the lasers towers of that part of the Star Destroyer were pointing at her too. She redirected all her shield energy to forward settings, hoping that Tempest was able to protect her back. While Joker was moving away from the Star Destroyer, she was getting closer every second. She couldn't evade all of the laser bolts from the Imperial ship, but her shields were resisting and Tempest had put his A-Wing on her tail, with all the energy from the cannons transferred to the rear shields, receiving most of the shots from the TIEs that were trying to kill Shok'wave.

"Shoot now, Shok'wave!" the desperate pilot cried. His shields were about to collapse, but he didn't abandone his position covering his flight leader.

"There it goes!" Shok'wave said while launching her last torpedo against the tower. She maneuvered to avoid the collision, and her fighter trembled by the expansive wave from two explosions. The tower and Tempest's fighter.

Poor courageous guy! Shok'wave thought. Thank you, Tempest. I'll never forget you!

[In the Star Destroyer's bridge, a frightened officer called Commander Guindamonn.]

"Order our TIE fighters to come back to the Gray Wolf just after the shuttle reports that they have taken that pilot as prisoner." Guindamonn ordered. "Make the calculations to jump towards the Punisher's position."

[Amongst the confusion of those moments, a battered fighter was racing towards the Imperial shuttle. His pilot was trying to control the trembling of his legs.]

"Or die in the attempt..." Edu whispered, but he made the cannon turn, forgot the TIEs and targeted the Imperial shuttle.

The combined fire from the laser and the ion cannons consumed all the weapons energy in just seconds, but when Dario maneuvered to pass under the shuttle, it was not shooting anymore. The two friends had managed to disable it. Neither of them saw the TIE Interceptor that had been about to shoot them down, but Iceman did. The Imperial fighter crashed against the Star Destroyer spinning without control.

Zeppelin had put his fighter touching what remained of the left wing of Moose's B-Wing. Torpedo had done the same with the right wing. The three fighters were stopped in space. The rest of the pilots were trying to keep the Imperial fighters busy.

"We need to do this at the same time, Zeppelin. " Torpedo said. "Push your throttle at my signals!"

"Don't let any of those fighters shoot them!" Foxfire cried. Her A-Wing had suffered serious damage, and her control panel was a mess of junk and smoke. The computer was inoperative and she was fighting with her eyes as the only sensor device. She didn't need more. A TIE fighter that had shot a laser bolt over Zeppelin's fighter couldn't shoot any more.

"Throttle at ten percent, NOW!" Torpedo said. The three B-Wings started to move like they were one ship.

"If you bring me out of this one..." Moose said although nobody could hear him, "I'll buy you all that you two can drink!"

Vyper hit an Interceptor, and the damaged fighter entered in the sight of Granite for just one second. It was enough.

The three fighters were moving away from the Star Destroyer as they increased speed. They couldn't turn, but all they needed was to put the most possible distance between them and the Capital ship.

Captain Zelia looked at his higher official with scorn, but he didn't say a word. He will reserve it for his report.

"Two... and two more!" Joker said. She shot her four remaining torpedoes against the Star Destroyer's engines. The TIEs that had been chasing her were now racing towards some of the auxiliary bays, and Psycho was having his revenge with them for Tempest's death. The four torpedoes hit the ship with a big detonation. One of the three main engines was stopped now.

But the Gray Wolf was increasing its speed, and soon it would be far from the reach of the Rebels.

Suddenly, just in front of the Star Destroyer a new Capital Ship exited from hyperspace. It was a Nebulon B Frigate, and it was almost exactly in the point where the Gray Wolf would jump to hyperspace.

"ABORT, ABORT!!!" Guindamonn cried desperately. "How did the Punisher find us?"

I love you. Shok'wave thought, while cheers from the rest of the squadron saturated the intercom. Oh, dear God how I love you!

The Gray Wolf was turning to avoid the collision against the Frigate, and that combined with the high speed that it had in that moment caused many of the torpedoes to fail its target, but the rest exploded against the now unprotected hull, and big sections of the ship erupted in flames that disappeared in the void of space. The Star Destroyer was deadly injured. It was only moving by inertia, and the force of the explosions made it start to turn and spin.

"Fire with all the ion cannons!" Blackjack ordered on the Joan d'Arc's bridge. Lines of blue filled the space between the two ships. In a matter of seconds the Star Destroyer was disabled, unable to shoot or even change its erratic movements. The Joan d'Arc's tractor beams managed to stop it from moving completely.

"Cease fire!" Blackjack ordered. "Shoot only against any Imperial fighters who try to continue fighting."

The lights on board the Gray Wolf blinked and then died. The emergency energy generators managed to turn on some of them again after some seconds, but most of the systems had stopped working. In the bridge, all the crewmen who weren't wounded were standing up, looking around and seeing the disaster. The entire room was filled with smoke and none of the devices and consoles had even a minimum sign of life.

"What is going on?" Guindamonn asked completely confused, his eyes widely opened, trying to contain the blood from an injury on his forehead with his hand.

"What are you saying? Boarded?" Guindamonn couldn't understand anything, not even the gun that was pointing at his chest. "What are you doing, Captain Zelia?"

"Taking satisfaction!" His eyes didn't show any emotion when he was shot. None of the officials who had seen the scene said anything.

The battle didn't proceed longer than a minute. The Imperial fighters that had been trying to reach the Gray Wolf were now trapped between the fire from the Joan d'Arc and White Squadron. Zeppelin and Torpedo didn't participate in those last moments of combat. They didn't want to leave Moose alone. Some Imperial pilots tried to run away, but most of them understood immediately that they had lost. With their mothership disabled and without possibility to make hyperspace jumps, their only chance of survival was resignation.

"Open a protected line with General Madine." Blackjack said to the nearest Communications Officer. "We do not have enough troops to take something so huge like a Star Destroyer." He pushed the button that opened the comm with the boarding teams. "Captain Tederis, this is Commander Krenzel."

"Go out there with our armored transports and make prisoners of all those fighter pilots."

"All gunners, keep your cannons pointing at that Star Destroyer. If any more Imperial Capital Ships appear before we have received reinforcements, destroy them without waiting for my orders." Affirmative answers came from the gunner officers.

One by one, the Imperial pilots stopped their fighters near the quiet Star Destroyer. The Rebel fighters started to fly in circles around the Imperial ships, waiting for the boarding transports.

Blackjack looked over the shoulders of the man who was using the ship's sensors to see how many fighters from White Squadron were still there and identified them. The man noted the presence of his Commander.

"She is fine, sir." he said with a smile, without even moving his eyes from the screen.

"Thank you, Lieutenant." Blackjack said. One more time, she is alive he thought with relief. "Thank you very much."

"White Leader to the Joan d'Arc." Shok'wave began, "We need a shuttle to pick up Captain Gregory. His fighter has been disabled." Blackjack felt even better when he heard that familiar voice.

"Thank you, Joan d'Arc. Torpedo, Zeppelin, stay there until that shuttle arrives and then provide escort to the Joan d'Arc."

The Y-Wing occupied by Dario and Edu was flying near the A-Wings that were watching the Imperial fighters and the transports docking with them. The two friends looked at both sides. They were flanked by an A-Wing and a B-Wing.

"Yes, White leader, we've been hearing you the entire time." Dario said at last. "Eeeer... Nice to meet you?"

"Would you mind telling us who you are and where you are coming from?" Shok'wave asked.

"Well, you are going to tell it more than one time when we arrive on the Joan d'Arc. Follow us now please." Vyper interrupted from the other side.

Two kilometers away, Zeppelin passed slowly close to Moose's B-Wing. His friend was trying to say something with gestures. He was holding himself with his arms.

"White 14 to rescue shuttle Anubis 1." Zeppelin said. "You better hurry or you will recover only a frozen pilot.

With his fighter disabled, Moose had lost the heat in his fighter again. The entire battle had not lasted more than fifteen minutes, and the cockpit's temperature was descending one more time. It's hot, very very hot! Moose thought. Very very very hot... Damn, suggestion doesn't work!

Half an hour later, the Calamari Cruiser Star of Dawn exited from hyperspace, with the company of two big troop transports and immediately started to launch its fighters. The tired White Squadron's pilots who were still escorting the Joan d'Arc and the Gray Wolf were relieved at last. Several transports docked with the Imperial ship, capturing its crew almost without resistence, while the troop transports descended to Yavin IV. Equipped with heavy weapons, they would be able to force the Imperial troops to give up that were sent to Yavin IV.

The Joan d'Arc's transports transferred the Imperial pilots to the Star of Dawn. Everyone of those men and women would be interrogated first on board the Rebel cruiser by some of their officers, and when they finished with them, then most of them would be delivered to the Intelligence Services' facilities, where the specialized teams commanded by General Crix Madine would interrogate them a lot harder and in more detail. From there, there was more than a possible destiny. It was a known fact that the Empireused to recruit a considerable part of his crews by force, so probably some of those prisoners recovered their freedom after some time. And amongst them, a few could even join the Rebels in the future. The Alliance was able to forgive, as Michael "Vyper" Stauber, ancient member of the Imperial elite squadron "Black Knights", knew very well.

Everybody in the Joan d'Arc's bay was watching the crippled Y-Wing that had just been softly parked by the tractor beam. Nice to have a tractor beam now Dario thought. He opened the canopy and the two men used the stairs that the bay's personnel had adjusted to the fighter. With their tourist clothes, they couldn't seem more out of place amongst the military uniforms and flight suits.

"Nice to meet you, gentlemen." One of the ladies began, "I'm Commander Sherry Krenzel, White Leader, and this is my Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Avery Schroeder.

"Nice to meet you too." Replied the two men at the same time, while shaking their hands.

"My name is Dario Pozo, and this is my friend Eduardo Yanes." Dario said. "We are from the planet Iberya and... "

"Wait a minute." Shok'wave interrupted. "We are not the only ones who wants to hear your story. So, please come with us for now."

"And what exactly would you have done if you had been forced to eject?" Foxfire asked. "Dario and Edu opened their eyes widely, looked at what Foxfire was looking at, looked at each other, and finally looked back at Foxfire again.

Foxfire smiled first. Then Shok'wave began to smile as well. Then Foxfire's smile became a grin. Shok'wave grinned too. And then the two women began to laugh, the people who were surrounding them did the same, Dario and Edu were the next, and soon, everybody, even those who had not heard the chat were all laughing out of control.

"If the rest of your story is like that," Foxfire said wiping the tears from her face, "I don't want to miss a single word."

Not all of the story was so funny. Blackjack, Shok'wave and the rest of her staff, with the exception of Moose who was receiving some medical treatment, listened as they told the story beginning with the events in Lorance City ten months ago, to the beginning of the battle, when the absent pilot had saved them in the first place. Blackjack interrupted them a moment to talk with the commandos sent to Yavin IV by the Star of Dawn. Shok'wave wrote something in her datapad, and showed it to Blackjack. "Tell them that they should try to find this too!" she whispered. When Edu and Dario ended their story, there was a brief moment of silence, broken at last by Blackjack.

"Well, gentlemen. I think this has been a hard day for you both. I've asked the troops that are now in Yavin IV to try and recover your ship," Edu's relief was evident. "and it will be repaired by our technicians immediately upon arrival at the Joan d'Arc."

"It will be nothing at all." Blackjack replied. "When that job is done, you two can leave at your discretion. But now, Lieutenant Harris will show you where you can rest while you will be our guest."

While that was happening on the Joan d'Arc, all the Imperial personnel were made prisoners, and the fighters, shuttles and transports that were in conditions to fly were captured as well. General Madine could surely find many uses for them. Too bad that all the AT-ATs that were in Yavin IV were destroyed in the fight against the Rebel troops before the Imperial soldiers decided to give up.

Finally, two hours after the arrival of the Star of Dawn, nothing interesting remained on the Gray Wolf, and the ship itself was damaged beyond any chance of repair. Looking through the main window on the Star of Dawn's bridge, General Madine opened the line with the Joan d'Arc.

"Of course I am!" Shok'wave said returning the smile before to reply to Madine. "Thank you, sir. All guns, fire!"

The Joan d'Arc shot laser after laser bolt against the tortured hull from a secure distance. The Gray Wolf exploded at last, and its rest merged with the great amount of spatial debris already floating in the Yavin system.

The Star of Dawn and the two big transports jumped to hyperspace, followed by the Joan d'Arc some minutes later. The first question that had been asked to the captured Imperial high officers was if they were expecting reinforcements. Those who had cooperated during the capture gave a negative answer, but it was better not to take any risk and trust them. The Rebel ships would be safer in some other place.

Three days later, an impatient Edu was closing a travel bag and exiting from the room they had been assigned on board the Joan d'Arc.

"Come on, Dario, hurry up, time to go home?" He stopped when he saw that his friend didn't move.

"When the troops recovered the Little Laura, they were suggested to recover something more. My pilot file."

"Your pilot file?" Edu questioned without understanding what Dario was talking about.

"Yes, the file generated by the simulator with the results of my training sessions. Shok'wave took a look at my file and she has asked me if I wanted to join White Squadron. To join the Alliance."

Edu stood in silence half a minute looking at his friend. He knew what Dario was feeling, his personnal tragedy and his not very well hidden desire to join the Rebels that had been growing inside him from the day he had been trying in vain to enter into his city, to find his wife. Edu walked the steps that separated them, and they embraced each other. Neither of them said a word till Edu was in Little Laura's cockpit as Dario was holding the door open.

"I'll miss you too." Dario replied. "You can be sure of that. But I need to stay here."

"Then try to explain it to Nuria. Tell her how I thank all three of you for what you have done for me, please."

"I'll do that, don't you worry. And if the blockade over Lorance is broken, I'll go there and I'll find Marife. I promise you that."

"Thank you, Edu. Thank you very much. And now you must go. If some of these guys see me crying like a baby I'll have a very low name around here!"

"You can bet on that." Dario said. He was about to close the door, but then he remembered something.

"One last thing, Edu. When we were in the middle of that battle, we had many possibilities of jumping to hyperspace and run away from there. Why didn't you propose it?"

"I don't know." Edu answered. "I've wondered about that same question myself these last days, and I just don't know why. When we were there, I couldn't think of anything else but targeting the next enemy fighter. I was terribly frightened, but if I would have had the hyperspace controls in my hands, I still wouldn't have used it. That pilot, Moose, had just saved us minutes before, and I suppose that we just couldn't run away and leave those people fighting behind us."

"It was the most incredible, craziest, frightening and funniest thing that I've ever done."

Dario laughed and closed the door. The Little Laura was driven out of the bay by the tractor beam, and then it was authorized to depart. Edu was thinking of his wife and their daughter, how worried they would be. He had not been allowed to contact them from the Joan d'Arc due to security reasons, and now he just couldn't wait to be with them again. He pushed the hyperspace motivator controls and the Little Laura disappeared into space.

Shok'wave was informed that the communication she had asked about was ready. It seemed that the code that Blackjack had given her before to go still worked. The hologram showed a familiar face.

"Nice to see you, Commander Krenzel." General Madine said. "I was about to call to congratulate you and White Squadron for your recent victory's consequences. It seems that the Gray Wolf never communicated its exact position to the Imperial High Command, so they are still very busy trying to find it. There has appeared some rumors that some guys in the Imperial Intelligence seriously believe that the ship had defected and joined us!" Madine laughed, "Of course, we have helped them out a little by allowing them to recapture one of their TIE fighters with our sign painted on it..." More laughs. "White Squadron did a great job, Commander."

The stormtrooper entered in a jumbled building, checking that nobody was looking. Some minutes later, a young man exited from that same building dressed in civilian clothes. He started to walk peacefully, and he directed his steps to a particular address. He pushed the call button at one side of the door, but it remained closed and nobody answered, so he waited, seeming very interested in the scarce traffic in that street. After a quarter of an hour, a beautiful woman approached walking, but she stopped when she was aware of his presence.

The woman put her right hand over the lock display and the door opened when the recognition routine identified her. They entered.

"I know that it must be difficult to believe in a stranger like me," he began, "but you must believe me. Your husband is alive, of course, and he has joined the Rebellion. I'm risking my own life to come here to tell you this."

Something in the man's voice made Marife believe him. A tear began to run down her face, but she didn't bother to wipe it dry.

"He doesn't know that we are trying to contact you. He is growing mad not knowing anything about you."

"I can do more than that." He took a little device from his pocket and pushed a small button. "This can take a holographic recording with nice quality. Say what you want. I promise that he will hear and see you."

"Oh, just a moment." she said smiling, "but first I must do something with my hair..."

When they were finished, the man prepared everything to leave. Marife said, "Before you leave...there is something that I need to ask you."

"No." the man replied. "With the exception of myself today, there has not been a single rebel in this town."

"Now there _is_ one." Marife said with a light smile. There was a new brightness in her eyes.

"Then you will have more news from us very soon." The man smiled and turned to go, but before he opened the door, he said one last thing.

This was something totally new to Marife. Her somber look was all that he needed to see. With that he turned and walked out the door."

Dario was walking towards his room, dressed in his flight suit and with the helmet under his arm, when he met Shok'wave in the door.

"I was wondering if you have chosen a callsign yet, you know, like Shok'wave for me?"

"Well, I believe that there is nobody else from Iberya in the Squadron...right?"

"All right, Ibero it is then." Shok'wave wrote it down in her datapad. "Oh, by the way, I've got something for you..."

"It's a little holographic recording that I think you will find very interesting."

"Ok, thank you." Dario said as he accepted the cylinder. "Do you want to come and view it with me?"

"No, I better not. I've still got some jobs on my list to complete. You can use your room's holoplayer and I'll see you later."

Five minutes later, the door opened again. Shok'wave had been standing there the entire time waiting for his response. Ibero's eyes still contained the glassiness of fresh tears, but his face held the mask of happiness.

"I know." Shok'wave interrupted with a smile. "You don't need to say anything. Blackjack has some friends here and there."

"There is one more thing." Shok'wave said. "The minute after ending that recording, your wife took on the position of the local leader and first member of the Rebel Alliance in Lorance City." Dario was annoyed at that piece of information. "From time to time, someone will give you news from her."

"Marife has joined the Rebellion?" Dario asked impressed after all. Shok'wave grinned. "Every time I think I know her, she does something else that surprises me!"

"We women always do. And now, I think there is a place in the ship you must know. And I hope you are carrying some money in those pockets."

"Money? Yes, I think so." Dario said introducing the hand in one of his pockets to make sure.

"Not exactly," Shok'wave said laughing, "but if you exceed with the Blue Stuff your head will think tomorrow that there _was_ an attack after all."

If you would like to have one or more of your own stories featured on the White Squadron webpage, please feel free to send your request or story to Foxfire and she would be honored to discuss the matter with you further.