Star Wars: Heir to the Sith (Part 2)

Chapter 13: "Move to live fire. This is no longer an exercise."

Neerada moved the stick and felt the TIE respond immediately. She dived down, head on toward the vast metal structure that formed a key point of the pilot training ground in the Syreal station. Deep canyons and mock laser batteries grew nearer by the second, and dim blasts of green cannon fire raced up toward her, harmless but still visible.

"Sir, you're going in too steep!" one of her wingmen warned.

"Follow my lead, commander," she ordered, reaching into herself, searching for that instinct that comes before conscious decision.

She found it. It governed her movements, willed her muscles to act, worked on a time scale that pulled both the past and the immediate future together in a meld that was beyond normal perception. She pulled the stick to the left, slightly back to the right, and then hard left again. The TIE did a merry dance as the harmless cannon fire passed over and under her cockpit bubble.

Now it was her turn.

She squeezed the fire trigger and watched with satisfaction as her twin blasts hit the target area, forcing the turret to fall silent.

"That was incredible!" her second wingmen said, losing discipline.

"I'm picking up a signal!" the other warned. "Enemy fighters - three. They've found us!"

The signal on Neerada's own sensors lit up as the three incoming TIEs, taking the part of their enemies, begun their interception.

"Head for the canyon," Neerada said. "Draw them in and we'll lose them in the maze . . ."

She adjusted her trajectory and increased her speed, knowing full well that her pursuers wouldn't dare to match her, but she had the feel for the Interceptor now. She knew what it could and couldn't do in a way that only an experienced pilot could do in a ship they knew intimately.

It was one of her gifts.

Neerada felt for the presence of her enemies, of those who intended to destroy her. As it was a training exercise, their emotions weren't nearly as acute as if it was the real thing, and it made them harder to sense.

Still, that added more to the training experience. It wasn't just her piloting she was pushing to the limit. Her use of the Force, and being back behind her mask, in her traditional Assayer garb, was something she found comforting after walking around the Reaver as Nys.

She concentrated on the men above her, divining their movements before they knew it themselves, attempting to–

"Assayer Neerada? It is lieutenant Janus. There is an incident unfolding on Husran space port - three drop ships have been ordered there by commander Duscan, without involving our chain of command. Captain Pina has ordered me to arrest him and inform you of this. He and commander Bauhaus are heading there now, separately."

Husran space port? The words filled her mind with trepidation. There was something happening there. Something important. Her instinct demanded her investigation.

"I will attend to it at once, Janus," she said. "Proceed with Pina's orders, and inform him I will join him there."

She made a signal to her two wingmen, ordering them to follow her.

As they broke off from the exercise and raced to follow the drop ships, she made a final command to them.

"Move to live fire. This is no longer an exercise."

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