Commander Gennad Rozhdenst crossed his arms in front of his chest, resting them on his protruding stomach as he stared out the viewport at the starfield beyond. He noticed that if he shifted slightly to the left he could see his reflection in the transparisteel. The commander frowned at the scarred face that looked disapprovingly back at him. A long diagonal scar ran from his right temple all the way down to the bottom of his left cheek, the results of a nasty injury he'd recieved during a dogfight in the early days of the rebellion. A lot had changed since then; he had changed, the galaxy had changed; and the once struggling rebellion found itself the dominant power in the galaxy after a crushing victory over the empire at Endor just a few months before. The once fresh faced, enthusiastic, hopeful and handsome enough young man had become a grotesque, greying, deflated and cynical version of his former self. He felt and looked like a shell of who he had been, what seemed like a whole lifetime ago. He shifted his footing to the right so his reflection faded from view and resumed staring out at the star in the distance, a wide asteroid belt floating leisurely around it.
"You know if you'd told me six months ago that we would be here now I never would've believed it. Not in a million years," he said, thinking out loud.
"Told you what?" the pilot across from him asked, not looking up from the small droid he tinkering with.
Gennad turned to the younger man, his second in command Lieutenant Trax Treycon. "Be here, in this situation. The rebellion having handed the empire such a massive defeat at Endor destroying not only the second Death Star and the Super Star Destroyer Executor, but killing Darth Vader and the Emperor in the process. It sounds like some idealistic fantasy completely removed from reality," Gennad explained.
"Ah...well I think we defied the odds and everyone's expectations with that one," the younger pilot replied, not looking up from his work. "...including some of our own," he added.
"Yeah," Gennad said, turning to look back out the viewport. "But on a more personal note, I never thought Scavenger Squadron would be where we are presently either. I mean we're the castoffs, the dregs of the rebel fighter core and here we are being given a special mission by Admiral Ackbar himself." The commander shook his head. "If only they knew the truth; that it's all based on a lie." He sighed and glanced over at the Lieutenant to judge his reaction.
Trax acted like he hadn't spoken at all as a silence fell over them and lingered for a few moments.
"We don't deserve this mission. Not considering what happened at Kaut and why they've given it to us," he added, to fill the silence before it became uncomfortable if nothing else. Rozhdenst knew he was prone to focusing on the negative and hence tried to avoid thinking or talking about such things, lest he get carried away and it consumed his thoughts.
"We performed extremelly well at Kaut," Trax replied, narrowing his eyes as he concentrated harder on his task, while devoting some of his attention to the conversation. "We captured four Lancer Class Frigates, two Nebulon Z Frigates and an Imperial Star Destroyer at the cost of two of our number. Despite the unfortunate losses they were very minimal considering the prize."
Gennad scoffed.
Trax frowned, although the commander wasn't sure if it was at what he said or some difficulty the droid was giving him. "Don't tell me you're still upset we weren't at the battle of Endor?" he asked, twisting the tool he held in one hand as he held the droid steady with another.
"No, no. I've got over that," Gennad assured him. He looked back out the viewport at the distant star. "Sure, it would've been nice to actually be there and be part of history, the consequences be damned. Even if we all went down at least it would've been in a blaze of glory."
Trax rolled his eyes but didn't look up.
Gennad felt irritation swell up in him as the lieutenant continued to focus his attention on that damn droid.
"A noble sacrifice to the cause, and it wouldn't have amounted to much.....aside from fulfilling some grandious fantasy you have of yourself as the unsung hero selflessly giving his life for the greater good," Trax said. "If that's what you want for yourself then go for it, but don't drag the rest of us into your deluded fantasies of noble sacrifice. I quite like being alive thanks, and would like to remain this way. As would the rest of the squadron. They're good pilots and we're fought hard and achieved some great results despite our disadvantages. I don't think it would be fair to throw their lives away for the chance to be a footnote in the histories. And that's all we would be; a mere footnote mentioning an entire Y-wing squadron getting vapped within the first couple of minutes of the battle."
Gennad bit back a retort, sighed and deflated visibly as his shoulders sagged. "You're right of course Trax," he admitted. "But you know that's not quite what I mean. I'd happily give my life for this squadron and want nothing more for them than to survive this war intact."
"I know," Trax said. "But I'm just reminding you of how it looks, and the foolishness of it all." He finally glanced up at his commanding officer. "Plus what would I do with myself if I couldn't bust your balls from time to time?" he asked with a grin.
Gennad turned back to the viewport to hide the smirk on his face. He banished the look with a frown of irritation at himself and sighed as he collected himself and straightened up. "All things aside, we're not the success story we're made out to be. We didn't capture that Star Destroyer, Boba Fett did, we just happened to be there and take all the credit for it when he and Kateel agreed to hand it over to the alliance," he reminded Trax.
Trax's head bobbed in agreement. "I know. I was there; remember?"
Commander Rozhdenst's thoughts returned to their last mission at Kaut; where they were sent by Mon Motha to guard the vital Kuat Drive Yards shipyards from the Empire and try to sway the neutral Kauti into joining the rebellion. They hadn't anticipated that the leader of Kaut, the aptly, and quite unoriginally named Kaut would rather destroy the gigantic ring of shipyards that floated in the planet's orbit than hand them over to the Empire or rebels.
"Kaut had gone completely insane," he commented. "Trying to destroy the shipyards like that and take everything down with him."
"Yeah, meglomania does that to people," Trax agreed.
Gennad shook his head as he recalled the mission at Kaut. "I still can't believe it. How Fett did it is beyond me, I would've thought it impossible if I hadn't seen it myself. But he did it, somehow the son of a bitch did it; piloted a Star Destroyer right out of the shipyard all by himself," he shook his head again. He had to give it to Boba Fett, bounty hunter scum that he was, he was a hell of a pilot.
"Really fortunate too," Trax piped up. "If Fett hadn't flown the ship out of the dock and severed the connection to the explosives the whole place would've gone up like a star going nova. Got pretty lucky if you ask me that it just happened the SD was a key component in the sequence of explosions and cutting it stopped the rest of the place from being vaporised."
"I dunno if I'd call it luck," Gennad replied, "But in any case Fett's the reason we captured the Star Destroyer, not Scavenger Squadron. Which is what makes this whole assignment feel like a sham. We're running off credit that's not ours," the commander said with a scowl as he clenched his fists.
"So, what can we do about that?" Trax asked. "We need to look at the big picture here and what we have and can achieve."
"I know that," Gennad snarled. "I'll tell you what we can do about that, we go out and we damn well earn this assignment, show them we are up to the task and that Scavenger Squadron can pull it off despite the odds thrown at us. Whatever it takes!"