I could be doing something useful now, thought Werdna as he stood in the main hanger of the SSSD Soverign next to his squad mates, the newly appointed CMDR of Beth Squadron CM Sequoh Marden, the also newly promoted Flight III Leader LCM Var Zoraan, and the relatively newly assigned pilot LT Neo Tarrick. With LT Mazen on leave, Werdna felt a bit strange as he was only pilot there who was in the same position in Beth Squadron as he was last month.

The past few weeks had been weird, with pilots leaving Beth Squadron left, right and centre. MAJ Raith Sienar had moved onto the Wing Commander job on the ISD Intrepid, CPT Hunter left to become a morale officer, and LT Roy Brown had left for the reserves just a few days ago. Now to fill the gaps in the squadron a tonne of new pilots were being sent from PLT Daedalus. Only The Emperor could know what these pilots we’re like, but all Werdna knew was that they were green.

At least there was a transferee joining as well, a LCM Nylad. Well, he must be pretty good if he had been promoted to LCM as a Flight Member. He seemed to be a decent pilot with quite a few missions under his belt. He was also going to fly a TIE Defender, so he must have been good enough to risk such an expensive ship.

A small shuttle flew into the hanger, hovered near the waiting pilots, and lowered in front of them. The group of pilots stood to attention in anticipation of the shuttles door opening to show the occupant. Slowly the door opened and inside the shuttle was just the one pilot. He walked out and the door shut behind him.

"You must be LCM Nylad, welcome to Beth Squadron," spoke up Sequoh, "I am the Commander of Beth Squadron, CM Sequoh Marden, my two Flight Leaders CM Werdna Elbee and LCM Var Zoraan, and Flight Member LT Neo Tarrick."

Nylad performed a smart salute towards Sequoh and span and done the same to the other pilots. "It’s a pleasure to be here, Sir. I can’t wait to fly alongside you all."

"At ease," ordered Sequoh, "Now that the formalities are over, you can go and rest up. I’m sure you need it after that long flight. Meet up with us at Briefing Room 5 at 16:00 hours, where we shall go over any questions that you and the other new pilots may have."

"Yes, sir"

**********

Four young imperial sub-lieutenants sat in the back of a shuttle waiting to arrive at their first posting in the TIE Corps. They were fresh out training and ready to go. They had already proved that they were good enough to be put into duty, but do they really have what it takes to be a pilot?

"Five minute until we dock at the SSSD Sovereign," informed a voice over the in-ship radio.

"Oh no, we’re nearly there," piped up one off the four. He was Cal Sinis, who rated himself as a pretty good pilot. He had always done well on the simulations, but he worried that it would be too different out in the real galaxy. "I’m sure that I’ll make some mistake as soon as I get out of the shuttle. The Squadron Commander had better not be too strict or I’ll be in for it."

"Calm down, Cal," reassured Cray Mikalen, "I’ve heard that as long as your sensible about it, the stupid little rules aren’t enforced too badly. As long as you follow your orders and be smart about it, the commander’s pretty cool."

"How do you know? He may be a little Vader in a commander position," worried Cal back, "I just know I’m going to choke…oh no, he doesn’t have the ability to do Darth Vader’s party piece too?"

"I don’t think he can choke you," answered Robert Static, "His ID line says that he’s just a Jedi Hunter. He just has the ability to get out of a bar brawl un-touched."

"Well, I can’t wait to get stuck into the Rebels me!" sparked up Lavos, "I just want to get into a ship and get going."

"There is such a thing as being too enthusiastic, you know," remarked Cal.

"I was told by my teachers at Daedalus that my attitude alone could get me through the Corps," Lavos spoke up for himself.

"…Or killed."

The shuttle went silent. Everyone stared down at the floor, with worried looks on their faces.

Cray looked up and said, "I’m sure that it’s going to be fine. Beth Squadron’s full of decent pilots, who are decent people. I’ve heard that one of the pilot’s joined up with Beth Squadron when it first re-opened and hasn’t left since. I bet he has no regrets about sticking with Beth."

**********

"I’m seriously thinking of transferring, Sequoh," moaned Werdna, "It’s bad enough that our squadrons going to be packed with green pilots, but we shouldn’t have to wait this long for them to turn up."

"The shuttle’s only five minutes late," said Sequoh, trying to calm him down, "There’ll be a good explain for it, there hyperdrive system may not be working very well."

"…Or one of our new pilots is flying it, and doesn’t know what the joystick thingy does."

"I’ve got a feeling that you don’t like green pilots, Werdna," joked Var, "we’ve all been green once."

"I didn’t mind it when we had the odd new pilot join, it’s when we have to take four of them at once that causes the problem," defended Werdna, "This means that we all have to play teacher full time to make sure that they don’t mess up any of our missions."

Neo thought to himself for a moment before asking, "Hey, I’ve fairly new and still getting taught, what about me?"

"You don’t count, you’ve been a great student, and we’ve just had to deal with the one of you," aanswered Werdna, "I just hope that they catch on as fast as you do. If they have half the potential you have, I’ll be slightly happier."

Just as Werdna was finishing what he was saying, another shuttle flew into the hanger. "I think this is it, ATTENTION!!!" ordered Sequoh.

The shuttle landed a few metres away from the Beth Squadron pilots. Four sub-lieutenants emerged from the landed craft and marched over to the welcoming party. They then lined up, side-by-side, and saluted.

"Welcome to Beth Squadron, pilots!" Sequoh told them, "You are here to serve the Empire alongside us. You will fight many battles, become heroes and maybe legends, and as sub-lieutenants, probably clean out the toilets and such and such."

The new pilots giggled, but Werdna whispered to Var, "Heh heh, they think he’s joking. Which one do you want as a slave?"

"The one on the far right looks like he’s a good little cleaner," replied Var, "My new missile boat is going to be sparkling before he can be promoted."

Sequoh shouted, "The two whispering here are CM Werdna Elbee and LCM Var Zoraan, Flight Leaders of Flight II and III respectively. The one next to them, who looks like he’s reliving recent memories of being a SL, is LT Neo Tarrick."

The three saluted to the new arrivals, and stood more to attention. "You are now free to unpack your stuff, but I expect to see you in the Briefing Room 2 in an hour," ordered Sequoh.

The sub-lieutenants walked out of the Hanger, but the other’s waited there as they left the room.

"Don’t you ever do that again," Sequoh shouted at Werdna and Var, "I get first pick of the sub-lieutenants, you know that!"

Commander Werdna Elbee
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FL/CM Werdna Elbee/Beth 2-1/Wing III/SSSD Sovereign [GREN]
ISMx4/LoCx7 {IWATS-IIC/1/2/3-M/1/2-SM/2} T/D-"Morning Glory"
GRD Werdna Elbee (Krath)/Ektrosis of Taldryan