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Lyngia grinned, almost crazily, and stepped from James's side, towards Han. "How're ya doing, you scruffy bantha herder?" she asked, laughing. "You've got some prototypes for me, huh?" Her eyes gleamed with mischief as she turned her gaze to Wedge. Unlike James, she did not extend her hand for handshakes; no, she went in for a hug. If she had been anyone else, they wouldn't have allowed it, but because Lyngia was Lyngia, they took it.

"How have things been, you old rascals?" she questioned, relaxing in the present company more than she ever had on board any Federation ship.

James turned to Bravo. "Good work. I bet that Star Runner will be able to top out at over 200,000 kilometers per hour once we are done with it." At the same time, Han, Wedge, and Lyngia were having a conversation of there own.

Han was the first to respond. "Things haven't changed much since your last visit. One day chasing down Imperial patrols, the next hiding from the wife and kids to keep my sanity."

"I heard that," came a voice from behind. It was Leia Organa Solo. Wedge laughed and continued to talk with Lyngia.

"The Rogues have been busy for the past several months. We managed to snag a Super Star Destroyer of our own, the Lusankya. All thanks to Corran Horn, of course. All we did was force the admiral onboard to retreat."

Leia addressed the whole group. "A few people need to speak with all of you. If you would follow me." she led the way, with everyone close behind.

Wedge turned to Han. "Do you think Ackbar will allow us to loan out the Stealth-Xs?"

Han shrugged. "I don't know. He probably will, seeing as the request is coming from you."

***

"Absolutely not!" Admiral Ackbar exclaimed as he listened to Wedge's proposal. "We can't just loan out our most advanced starfighters to people we hardly know!" Han tried to step in, but was instantly shut down by Ackbar."

"Not a word, General. This a serious matter. For all we know, they could be Imperial spies!"

"I highly doubt they are-" Han started.

"Silence!" Ackbar returned. By this time, James and Lyngia were at the breaking point. They both burst out into laughter, which caused everyone in the room to look at them.

"What's so funny?" Ackbar asked.

James grinned. "Us, Imperial Spies! The reason why we are here is to stop the Empire, not aid it. Maybe you aren't aware, but those Imperials have been crossing over into our universe as well. We have enough problems as it is. We don't need Star Destroyers going around slagging our worlds while we have a different Empire to face off against."

Ackbar considered James' words carefully. "Very well. You may use the prototypes. But, if anything happens that point to you being spies, Rogue Squadron is under orders to disable your fighters and arrest all of you."

James conceded to the terms. "Agreed." It was time to learn how to fly an X-Wing.

Dimitri, always the quiet type, was overwhelmed with the information. he had all but forgotten about bravo's upgrade project, and being reminded only helped a little with the data overload. clearly, this fish alien called Ackbar did not like them. he was also a little suspicious of what 'anything to the point of them being spies' might be interpreted as. this was another dimension, but the rules of military psychology were the same. from what it sounded to him, any overly zealous man in the squadron watching him could at any moment cull their engines, and this universe was sounding like a dangerous place. he didn't like the thought of being disabled out their, with unfamiliar engine physics and some imperials from another empire on his scent. he kept these concerns to himself though. through the time he'd spent with James, he'd learned to trust his judgement, and if Langley trusted these people, he would trust these people too.

Lyngia snickered, shaking her head at Admiral Ackbar. She had expected it, but it still made her laugh. "Oh, the thought of me being an Imperial spy," she said softly to Leia, who grinned. "They'd have killed me long ago. The Empire can't handle me."

"No one can," Han commented, and Lyngia rolled her eyes.

"It's in my blood, old man, to be crazy. You should know that better than anyone." The look she directed at Han was pointed, and he shook his head with a sigh. Leia smiled. Life was always interesting around here; but throw Lyngia into the mix, and things went crazy. "Now, let's go fly some X-wings!"

Bravo nodded "better to be crazy and get the job done the fun way rather then listen to orders and get it done the boring way" bravo said catching up behind Lyngia "and it helps to have a wing man or men with the same traits, or similar"

Wedge turned to James and the others. "Let's get something to eat, then get suited up. We are pressed on time, so the sooner we get all of you trained, the sooner we can be on our way to stopping this dimensional jumping."

James nodded in agreement. "Very well. Let's get a move on it."

***

Three hours later, everyone was suited up and standing in a hidden hangar deep beneath the Imperial Palace. In front of them sat twelve Stealth-X Starfighters. James adjusted the oxygen supply tubes on the front of his flight suit. It wasn't the most comfortable, but the Confederacy had the advantage of being able to afford to provide custom-made flight suits at no cost. The Republic, on the other hand, was a bit short-handed when it came to credits, so it couldn't afford to spend them on comforts.

"Okay, General. How do these things work?" James asked, walking up to the nearest matte-black starfighter.

"Normally, I would have you four spend a week in a simulator, but we don't have that luxury," Wedge stated. "I'm sure that all of you went through basic flight training at your Naval Academy, so it shouldn't be too hard for you to learn to fly these fighters." He climbed into the cockpit of the fighter nearest him and pulled out a helmet. "Each one of these helmets has a live video feed wired into them that is directly linked to my flight recorder. Everything I say and do will be right there for you. We will launch on an automated flight path, but once we are in orbit the controls will be turned over to you. The weapons are currently set to training mode, so if you accidentally pull the trigger, all you are doing is firing off harmless beams of light."

James closely noted everything Wedge was saying. He was relatively knowledgable with the X-Wing interface, but wasn't going to get ahead of himself. Especially since Lyngia was the only other one who had even seen the interior of an X-Wing cockpit, let alone flew one. As they were talking, several other members of Rogue Squadron arrived. First to arrive were Tycho Celchu and Wes Janson, followed by Corran Horn and Hobbie Klivian. Finally, two surprise visitors appeared. Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade stepped out from the entrance way, fully suited up and ready to fly.

"When do we get to go shoot up some Imps, General?" Wes asked, ready to fly.

Lyngia's grin was wide as she ran up to greet everyone. They smiled in return, because her crazy was infectious. "Luke, Mara, how are you!" she exclaimed, moving towards the Jedi. Her eyes were bright; these were her heroes.

The pair seemed happy to see her, and the magenta haired woman laughed as she held up her lightsaber. "Look what James finally gave me back! I haven't seen this thing in months!"

Luke laughed when he saw Lyngia. "I am doing fine." He gave her a hug, then looked down at the lightsaber. "I hope you won't have to use it." He then looked over at James, who was walking towards the ever-growing group. "James, it is good to see you again." He shook James' hand.

James finally cracked a wide grin. "Luke, Mara. It is good to see you both. I see that you will be flying with us."

Luke nodded. "You never know when you might need an extra Jedi or two incase something goes sour."

"Good idea," Wedge said, making sure his X-Wing was ready to fly. "It looks like it is time to fly. Everyone, let's get a move on it!"

Within minutes everyone was in their fighters and blasting out of the hangar. James noted how quiet the fighter was compared to the Confederate Chameleon Starfighters back on Enterprise. The Confederate fighters required specialized headgear to even be able to hear over the roar of their engines, let alone communicate with the rest of the squadron.

Wedge came over the comm. "Okay, everyone. Form up. Just follow our lead, and you will be fine. We are going to dock with that modified Corellian Carrier Corvette. It will get us to our destination. From there, it's up to us."

The group slowly slid into formation and headed to the carrier. As they prepared to dock, the carrier locked the fighters in tractor beams and one by one docked them on the external ports. Only moments after docking, the Millennium Falcon roared by.

"General Solo here. You mind if we tag along?" Han said.

"Not at all," Wedge replied. "Just like old times."

The X-Wing seemed perfect to Lyngia as she settled into her seat, reaching out with the Force to get an in-depth feel for the starfighter. She let out a sigh of contentment, completely in her element. Starfighters were her specialty.

"Hey, Mara, you flown one of these prototypes yet?" Lyngia asked, activating her comms unit. She heard the other woman's quiet snort of laughter.

"No; you know how Ackbar is. Apparently, as an ex-Imperial and a former smuggler, I'm not an acceptable choice for testing out prototypes." The woman's voice was wry, and Lyngia laughed.

"Can you belive he thought I was a spy? Me, of all people." She and Mara laughed as they finished prepping for flight.

As the Falcon came into sight, Lyngia stare at it with loving eyes; that ship, for all her problems, was beautiful. "Hey, Solo, when do I get to fly the Falcon?" she asked teasingly, prompting a round of laughter from everyone.

Dimitri stared at the fighter with pure hatred. He thought back to training, his first experience with a fighter at his examination...

He had almost weaseled his way out of the driving test in favor of a paper detailing flight physics. Unfortunately, the chancellor had called in sick just before getting to dimitri's request. And here he was, strapping in to the seat of a fighter. The cab closed around him, sealing him in. It was a clostrophobic space, with limited ventilation and controls and wires everywhere. He tried to focus on his training. Step one: place your hand on the thruster throttle. He searched the cab, more to delay the inevitable as he knew exactly where the throttle was. He grabbed it, and started to pull gently. The control didn't budge. He pulled harder, still no result. He then put his back into it and gave it a jerk. The throttle shot to full, and suddenly a ferocious noise made itself known, adding to his personal hell. He saw a pylon rushing towards him, and grabbed directional stick. He swerved to the right, only to see another trainee flying in front of him. He turned again, but before he could react, he hit a button with his elbow from being tugged everywhere from the g Force. This activated the emergency ejector seat. He was thrown from the ship, and was helpless as he watched his ride tumbling around in space. It suddenly rocketed itself at the station, and in the blink of an eye it slammed into the communications array, destroying both it and the rouge ship. He was recovered after a few moments. The chancellor returned later that day, however the higher ups in the navy had already begun to intervene. A week later, after a surprisingly small amount of reprimanding, he found that he had received an A+ on his examination. Apparently the navy thought his brains were worth his fighter inability, and all record of the failure was quietly swept under the rug. After all, when would he ever concevably absolutely need to pilot a fighter...

Returning to the present, dimitri grimaced, and crawled into the cockpit of the x-wing.

James chuckled at Lyngia's comment to Han. He laughed even more at Han's reply.

"Maybe if you show that you can properly operate the X-Wing, I might let you get some flying lessons in. But, you know I have very high standards when it comes to flying ability," Han stated, making it almost impossible to hear that he was joking. Luke caught on, but decided to play along.

"So, that's why Lando was allowed to fly the Falcon at Endor."

Han scrambled for a response. "Hey, he told me he wouldn't leave a scratch! You don't even want to know how much it cost to replace the sensor dish!"

Wedge finally stepped in. "Okay, everyone. We are about to make the jump to hyperspace. We will arrive at the drop off zone in a few minutes."

Starlines flashed, and the ships were in hyperspace.

James could tell from the heavy breathing over the comm that Dimitri wasn't too happy about flying. He had heard rumors from Admirals Pierson and Wolfe that he was the center of an accident way back, but there was not proof to support it. James just hoped that when the time came, Dimitri would do his job, just like he always had.

His thoughts stopped wandering after the ships exited hyperspace at the training grounds one star system away from Courscant. A maze of asteroids, destroyed starships, and defense satellites, the training ground was the where every new starship was pushed to its limits, and every pilot was given their first taste of combat outside of the simulator. The signal came through, and all the fighters undocked from the carrier. Wedge signaled for them to form up, and then began to give instructions on basic combat. The other veteran pilots each flew with one of the newcomers, guiding them along as they carried out each task Wedge gave them.

James noticed the prowess Lyngia showed while piloting the supposedly unfamiliar fighter. He signaled Lyngia. "You seem to be an expert on these fighters. Is there something that you aren't telling me?" He waited for her response, and made sure it was only him and Lyngia talking.

"You let Lando fly the Falcon, but not me?" she asked, mock hurt coloring her voice. "Well, I never." Exhaling haughtily, Lyngia edged her starfighter away from the Falcon and closer to Mara, who would be her partner for this exercise.

When they reached the training grounds, Mara and Lyngia began testing the limits of these new X-wings. While the others were covering the basics, they had decided to run this obstacle course at top speeds, racing and laughing.

After recieving a scolding tbat Wedge knew was pointless, Mara and Lyngia slowed, and that was when James asked the question she'd known was coming.

She bit her lip. "Umm...I don't know what you're talking about," she said with a nervous laugh, her voice piched higher than usual. Then she sighed, knowing she was not being convincing, and that he would find out eventually.

"You have some clues, why don't you guess? I'll tell you if you're right."

James knew it wasn't normal for Lyngia to be so secretive, and even more uncommon for her to play guessing games with him. He considered ordering her to explain everything, but all it would do is lead to a yelling match and their friendship being hurt. He decided to solve the puzzle.

"First of all, it isn't everyday that someone can hop into an unknown fighter cockpit and fly as good as you are doing. I will admit, there is about a fifty percent similarity between these fighters and our Chameleon Starfighters on Enterprise, but even I am trying to adapt to these controls. That brings me to my next point. I have almost double the hours than you logged for starfighter duty, so that should mean I would normally be flying circles around you. But, you are doing that to me.

"Thirdly, and something I should have picked up on after our first crossover, is your unusually strong connection to the Force. It's almost as you were a native of this dimension-" James trailed off right there. The pieces finally fit together.

"No wonder Sector 20 has been keeping close tabs on you. They know. But, how was this all covered up? Something as big as this doesn't just get swept under the rug. Someone in the high command really wanted the rest of the Confederacy from knowing you aren't from our universe." James checked the comm again to see that no one was listening in. To his relief, no one else was listening.

Lyngia sighed with relief. "You got it," she said, as she maneuvered her X-wing around some debris. She was surprised by the strength of her relief, now that she didn't have to hide her identity - even if it was only one person. It was like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"Only a very select few people know; as far as the majority of the Confederacy knows, I was born on Earth. My parents and I were going on a mission and were sucked through a wormhole or something, and ended up in the Confederacy, years ago. We were picked up by members of the military, and after a whole interrogation, they decided that it would be best if our origins were kept secret. To avoid upsetting the masses, or something."

She fell silent for a moment as she and Mara dove in and around the remains of a ship, using the Force to help guide their starfighters through. "When we made that jump and ended up here, you have no idea how happy I was. And then, to run into family friends; well, I thought about deserting and staying here."

Dimitri put up a facade of calm, as the experienced pilot was staring at him. He was incredibly careful with the controls, but inside he was panicing. He turned a little too sharp to the left, and overcorrected when he tried to pull back to the right. The other pilot raised an eyebrow, but let dimitri try to correct his flight path. Dimitri was quickly pendulinging out of control when the pilot expertly straightened the course. Dimitri was given back control and he tried to turn. He knew Langley needed him for a successful mission, and dang it dimitri would tame this beast of a machine to make that happen. He was breathing heavily at this point and he narrowly avoided an asteroid as he pulled a turn. He could tell the pilot behind him was judging not only him, but his whole universe as well. The tension of this certainly wasn't helping his situation. He just hoped he could stay alive until he got off this wretched thing.

James, although expecting as much, was still not prepared for the answer. He sat in silence for several very long moments, then finally spoke. "So, where exactly are you from?" he asked. But, before Lyngia could respond, Han came over the comm. "I hope you two are done with having your private conversation. Wedge ordered me to override your comms and tell you that we are ready to return to the carrier. It looks like all of you passed with flying colors. Well, except Dimitri... but, Wedge assures me that he feels Dimitri will do fine."

"Thanks for letting us know," James responded. He keyed in the flight pattern back to the carrier and set it to auto-pilot. He made some minor control adjustments before they docked, and then leaned back. He comm'd Wedge. "General, where do we head to next?"

"We are headed back to Courscant. We have a stolen Imperial carrier there that we will use to jump into Imperial space. Our best bet is the Bastion system," Wedge replied.

"Bastion, eh? Looks like we are in for trouble," Wes stated. "But, there was that one time when I-"

Tycho quickly cut him off. "We can hear the stories later, Wes. Right now we need to focus on the mission."

The ships jumped back to Courscant, where they found chaos. "This is New Republic Command. To all allied ships in the area, we are under attack by Imperial Forces. They have sent down large groups of troops and vehicles, and have our starfighters pinned down."

Wedge hit the disconnect and all the fighters floated free from the carrier. "Looks like this will be your first true combat scenario in these fighters. Good luck, pick your targets wisely, and may the Force be with us."

James swung the fighter around and flew straight at a large group of TIE Interceptors. But, before he could even get a shot off, a squadron of E-Wing Fighters flew in and attacked. James knew the squadron immediately. "Thanks, Garik!" Bandit Squadron, led by the famous Garik Loran, had arrived.

James got on the comm. "Lyngia, Dimitri, form up with me. We are going to use Attack Pattern Omega." He didn't need to see Dimitri's face to know his confusion. "You know, myself at the front, Lyn to the right, and you to the left." It was then that James noticed why the Republic forces were having trouble. "My god, the Empire brought in three super star destroyers! Hopefully the Lusankya can hold out until help arrives." James pulled up the holodisplay of the battle. "Okay, we need to make a turn fifty three degrees left and move forward seventy-five kilometers. That's where the landing craft are coming in. Everyone, roll out!"

"Super Star Destroyers? Geez, they're in a bad mood today, aren't they." Lyngia grimaced, flipping a few switches and gliding smoothly into position. She surveyed the area, studying the enemy forces, as well as the Republic's forces. "Han, you haven't told anyone to kiss your Wookie lately, have you?" she asked over the comm, a wry smile twisting her lips as she shot a few blasts off at a TIE fighter that dropped in front of her. The enemy fighter exploded, and the woman laughed.

"James, why did I ever give up piloting star fighters?" Lyngia asked, demolishing another TIE fighter and swerving to avoid debris. "I feel so alive! DIE, EMPIRICAL SCUM!"

Han laughed at Lyngia's comment. "No, not for a few months. The last time I did was when I last went up against Warlord Zsinj. Maybe it's about time I revived the tradition..." he said, trailing off.

At the same time, James was trying to avoid being hit by Dimitri's crazed, unfocused shots. "Careful Dimitri! I don't want to have to explain to New Republic Command how one of my men accidentally shot down one of his allies." He then switched his comm to Lyngia's fighter, after hearing her question. "The reason you don't fly anymore is that you were promoted. Command decided that you were the best choice to pilot a starship." He swung his fighter into a tight loop, blasting two TIE Interceptors.

As he neared the Imperial fleet, he watched several other starships arrive at the battle. "This is the Fifth Fleet. We are here to help." James relaxed when he realized that the battle was finally turning to the Republic's favor. He began firing upon the Imperial drop ships,shredding them to pieces. He came around for another pass, but realized that he had gotten the attention of one of the Imperial Victory Star Destroyers. Precision turbolaser shots blasted all around him, some passing only a few meters away. He flexed his hand, and pulled the Gatekeeper Gauntlet out from under his seat. "Time to try this thing out." He put it on, and reached out into the darkest depths of the Chaos Realm, summoning power of an unheard-of level. He then lashed out against the Imperial fleet, destroying several Star Destroyers and damaging Thrawn's Flagship, the Imperial Fist.

"Now I know why they only give these to starship captains..."

Dimitri was being thrown left and right around the cockpit. the x-wing was shifting violently out of control. he was being thrown left, and instinctively grabbed a control surface to stabilize himself. fortunately, he managed to stabilize himself and even was pointed at the enemy fleet. unfortunately, he grabbed the main propulsion overdrive. within seconds he was 10% of the speed of light and barreling through the enemy fleet. his guns became kinetic weapons as they plowed through tie fighters. debris from the ties was accelerated, and slammed into more tie fighters, after being heated to plasma by the impact these ties exploded, and even though the speed was significantly decreased after about 5 ties into the chain reaction, but it was still 0.1% c. by the end, he had destroyed 98 ties, and damaged an additional 104. however he didn't know this. all he knew was the sudden jolt backwards. if he hadn't been in an inertial dampener field, he would have been crushed by thousands of G's, the Cavalier had been monitoring his ship, however, and pulled him out with the transporter. the sudden lack of force, albeit dampened, shoving him into his seat. at this point his body had attained the maximum limits it could continue to sustain consciousness, and he fainted on the transporter.

Lyngia blinked, stunned by the damage caused by Langley's attack, as well as Dimitri's out of control fighter. For a moment she was silent, just taking in the destruction.

"..........Well, that works, I guess," she finally said, rolling her head and shoulders. "But you could have left more for me." Her tone was chiding, but there was a stunned smile on her face. "This isn't even a challenge anymore, now is it?" she mused as she began targeting the TIEs left damaged but still spaceworthy by Dimitri's flight of doom.

"James, when this is over, remind me to give Dimitri some flying lessons. With luck like that, he could cause some real damage out there....almost as much as he's already caused." She laughed as her X-wing rolled over a TIE at the last second, allowing the incoming fighter to ram into another enemy TIE. Flames lit up the view for a moment, and Lyngia grinned manically.