It was, COL Domi admitted to himself, a brilliant strategy. It’s just a shame Blue didn’t go for it. The battle would have been glorious. As it was, however, the ISDs Challenge and Colossus had taken the EH home world Aurora Prime without ever firing a single laser.

The strategy, as everybody now knew, was to use the Challenge and Colossus as bait to draw the Blue fleet out into a trap where, hopefully, the Red fleet would catch them unprepared and destroy their ships. Sadly, Blue fleet did not take the bait and Red was reduced to winning the competition on points, rather than the decisive victory they yearned for.

“Still,” reflected Domi, “a win is a win. It matters not how or why.” So saying, the veteran pilot from Typhoon Squadron slowly made his way along the corridors of the massive ISD Challenge.

He had been down in the hanger ensuring his fighter, a T/D named Allie, was properly berthed, cleaned, and rearmed. Sure the techs did all that, but a pilot liked to be sure everything was in order before taking off. The heat of battle was no time to find out someone forgot to load the missile racks or something. Besides, with the competition over, he had some leave coming and he planned on taking his ship back to his home system. Considering this took him through Rebel space, it was a good idea to make sure the Allie was battle ready. The T/D had been with Domi for a while now, having been given to him by the Sovereign Commodore way back when Domi served there. That was many years ago and Domi sort of forgot why Kramer had given him the ship, perhaps in consolation when his Wing had been closed down.

The silence aboard the Challenge was almost deafening. The clanging red alert claxons had been silenced. There was the usual hum of activity but nothing out of the ordinary. The only sounds of celebration came from the Challenge cantina; but that was neither new nor surprising. Such sounds were normal as pilots either celebrated a safe return or saluted their comrades who failed to make the return trip after a sortie.

It was to the cantina that Domi was heading when he noticed his CMDR, Col Callista, striding purposefully down the hall toward him. Snapping quickly to attention as he had been trained to do so long ago, he saluted his commanding officer.

“Greetings, sir,” he addressed her. Inwardly Domi always found it somewhat amusing to refer to a female officer as ‘sir’ but hey, that’s what he was told to do, that’s what he did.

Callista returned the salute, a radiant smile on her face. It was immediately obvious that she hadn’t taken part in the celebrations yet.

“Hello, Domi,” the always friendly Callista said. “Are you heading off to the cantina?”

“Yes, I was just going there now. Would you care to join me? I’m reasonably sure the other squad members are already there, celebrating our phantom win.”

Calli laughed and grabbed the older pilot by the arm, “Sure, let’s go. Phantom win, eh? It wouldn’t have been so phantom had Blue showed up in force like we expected. I’m not sure we could have held them off.”

Domi chuckled a bit and replied that he had no doubt that if Blue had taken the bait, they would have won.

“Their superior starfighters would have proven too much for us, even though the Chal has TDs and Boats too. We took a big risk doing it this way, but getting those points is what won it for us.”

With that Domi and Callista made their way to the cantina to join their squadmates.

Entering the noisy cantina, Domi was struck by two things, the noticeable odor of stale booze, and a hug-tackle from a rather tipsy Brandon. Laughing, the elder pilot embraced his long-time friend.

“Darn it all, Brandon,” he laughed, “your aim is off again. Calli is beside me.”

Brandon gave his friend a lopsided grin, “Sorry about that mate. Didn’t want you to feel all left out. Come on, join us at our table.” With that Brandon escorted Calli and Domi over to where the remainder of Typhoon sat, steadily drinking the cantina dry yet again.

Before taking his seat, Domi silently thanked the Force that Blue hadn’t taken that bait. He had lost many a good friend in his career but this squad had achieved a level of closeness that he had never really encountered before. Losing any of them would be devastating, even to him.

Turning his attention back to comrades, Domi smiled and began ordering drinks for his friends. Prior to the taking of Aurora, these same pilots had sat in their cockpits, nervousness and anxiety putting a stop to their bravado. They had no way of knowing that Blue fleet wasn’t in the sector nor did they anticipate that Blue would allow the capture of their home planet without a massive and immediate counter attack. The Typhoon pilots, like those of all the other squads aboard the Challenge and Colossus had been prepared to fight and die, if necessary. Luckily, that wasn’t necessary-this time.

There would be other times. Times when squads would come home flying the missing man formation. Times when squads simply didn’t return at all.

Now, however, was the time for jubilation. The battle was won. Red had emerged victorious. The drink would flow and everybody would be happy. Now was the time to party for soon the claxons would sound again.

FM/COL Domi/Typhoon 1-2/Wing X/ISD Challenge