by Jingo Yatani

September 1999

Jingo Yatani slammed the stick forward and sent his TIE Defender into a dive, barely clearing the DarkStar's bridge section by a few meters, nearly scratching the huge metal beams and griders making up the scaffolding used to repair the IW's flagship.

"Yaaahoooo!" he yelled in delight and then grinned from ear to ear. This was simply too much of a good thing. He loved the speed. He loved the view. And he loved his ship. If life got any better than this, Jingo wouldn't know what to do.

"Sounds like you're having a little too much fun, Sir." Hugh Bipta chuckled over the Tacnet. He flew his A-Wing a safer distance from the DarkStar even though Jingo knew Bipta was an excellent pilot.

"You gotta find it where you can." Jingo responded and eased up on the throttle. The DarkStar drifted in a lazy orbit around Erebia, the IW's headquarters.

"That's for sure." Daishi chimed in. "I haven't been doing anything but training the squadron on tactical situations for the last month." Daishi had been assigned the position of Tactical Training Officer in Black Squadron. He was doing a wonderful job and the pilots were responding. Many of them were flying a few simulations from the recent Vonsum Conflict. The United Galactic Republic, or UGR, had tried to push into New Imperium territory and the Vast Empire, with the help of some New Imperium forces, had pushed the UGR out of the system. The border conflicts had continued. Lt Cmdr Daishi was one of few from the Intruder-Wing to participate in the conflict. The Intruder Wing as a whole never received orders to aid in the conflict. Jingo grimaced at that fact. He knew it wasn't the current FA's fault. Perhaps no one was to blame. Things had certainly changed in the last few months. When Dogger and Darklord resigned from the Intruder Wing, things were bad. Then FA Amason resigned, things went from bad to worse. Now FA Stan was trying his best to keep the IW together, but moral was slipping badly.

Jingo rolled his defender and pointed it towards Erebria's sun and flexed his gloved hands. He loved the feel of space all around him. He knew it would be different if he wasn't in his ship. But since he was, he decided to enjoy it. He swung the Defender around and headed at a lacsidaisical pace towards the DarkStar. The massive ship gleamed in the sunlight. She stood about 15 times larger than the standard Star Destroyer. "Isn't she a beauty?" Jingo asked in quiet reverence for the ship he'd grown to love. The DarkStar had been his home for most of his stay in the IW.

"Yup." Kyle Bair answered. "Although capital ships are better appreciated from a less intimate distance than their surface." The joking tone was unmistakeable. Ever since he awoke from his coma, Bair jokingly reprimanding others for buzzing the ship during patrols and training exercises. In a simulated training mission, Bair had bounced a Tie Fighter off the DarkStar's hull nearly six months ago; he had almost ended up a fatality.

"You've got a point." Jingo smiled. His smile turned to a sigh as he pondered his situation. Something needed to change. He had been Squadron Commander for over a year now. Commander of the best squadron in the Intruder-Wing Fleet but his pilots hadn't seen much combat of late, at least not the newest recruits. Running patrols around the DarkStar and making sure foodstuffs got to where they needed to be was all fine and good, but even pirate activity was hitting a low. Jingo was getting bored. These simulated exercises Daishi was dreaming up at his request were to help them prepare for the eventuality of combat. Since Daishi was the only one to participate in the Vonsum Conflict, Jingo put him to work helping Black Squadron evolve into an even more effective fighting force.

Jingo wondered when the IW would actually make a move. He stared into the purple majesty of the Galbagos nebula. This giant dust cloud, rumoured to span an entire quadrant in itself, made this system the perfect hideout for the IW. The Erebria system was only on the edge of the cloud. Deep enough to hide from their enemies for the time being. But they couldn't hide out forever. Jingo felt they shouldn't. It was time fora change. They were part of a larger organization, a larger conflict. But ever since the fateful Ambush at Olan a year ago, where the IW had taken 60% casualties, and momentarily the DarkStar herself, the current status quo seemed to hide. It wasn't that Jingo was against hiding. There was a time for that. But with the recent recovery of the DarkStar and the new recruits stirring the blood of the older veterens, Jingo knew that the time for hiding was over. He goosed his throttle up to full and shot up over the DarkStar climbing at a 90 degree angle, his squadron mates following in perfect formation behind them.

"So, Jingo, did you hear the latest about the Vast Empire?" Bipta asked as he exacted a beautiful roll with his A-Wing.

"Well, I heard they captured Volsum and that their next target was to attack Vol."

"Yup. The Vast Empire dispatched an entire Task force charged with capturing the system." Bipta paused and then continued. "But here's the latest."

"Ok. Shoot." Jingo was fairly abreast of the topic but was always curious for any other tid bits of information. He turned his defender through a complex turn involving a twisting loop that nearly swung his neck in a complete circle.

"The Vast Empire sent a special envoy two weeks ago to Fleet Admiral Stan asking for aid." Bipta went on.

"Really?" Jingo said. He hadn't heard that a specific envoy had contacted the Fleet Admiral.

"Yes sir." Bipta replied, pleased that he had some information that Jingo didn't.

"How'd you find that out."

"I was on Escort Duty for the shuttle carrying Field Marshall Majere when you were getting to know the new recruits."

"Do you think we'll be helping them, sir." Blair asked. "The Vast Empire, I mean. It seems like we haven't done anything but sit in this dust cloud for ages." Jingo knew his men were itching for a fight. But he didn't want to get their hopes up.

"I really don't know." He answered. "It'd be nice to see more of the sector and all. There are quite a few systems I haven't been to, but I don't know if High Command is willing to take the risk."

"The risk of what?" Bair asked.

"The risk of putting 60% of our green troops into combat without any training." Jingo answered. "I know Bipta was in the Olan Ambush. Wasp squadron, right? Well, he can testify to you that it was messy. We lost a lot of good cadets. And we were a veteren fleet then. Things are a lot different now. If they're going to help the New Imperium that's a risk for them to decide. Not me."

"But what if you could decide, what would you do?" Daishi asked.

"I would fight!" Jingo answered immediately with a fierceness that surprised himself. "I would aid our allies no matter the cost. I would send an entire battlegroup to Vol to assist the Vast Empire and the New Imperium. The New Imperium and her allies must survive, you must understand that!" Jingo paused for a minute, slighly dazzled at his own ferocity. Why did he feel that this government, this coallition of imperial factions must survive? To much of the galaxy they were probably considered rogue bandits. But that is why the New Imperium was around. Too much anarchy already claimed a myrdiad of systems. And if it wasn't anarchy then it was the other way: too many people scraping together a living under oppressive governments. Jingo felt a loyalty to the IW and to the NI that he hadn't felt two years previously. He only knew it was the right thing to do.

There was silence for a moment. "I wish you could decide." Hugh Bipta said quietly. Jingo was inclined to agree, but said nothing and merely grimaced. He shook his head to get it back to the moment at hand. Back to his training. The silence was interrupted by the Tacnet opening up.

"Black 1, this is is HQ. We've received orders that you return to Hanger 6 immediately."

"Aknowledged, any idea what's up?" Jingo asked.

"I don't know, sir. But Major General Scorpion received orders to call you." Jingo mulled that over in his mind. Scorpion? Scorpion was his Wing Commander. He received orders, huh? That mean it came from someone higher than Scorpion. Hmmm. Rear Admiral Smasher maybe? He was the Commodore of the DarkStar. Maybe something was happening.