It was a peaceful evening at "The Midnight Prowler", a local pub on the downside of the capitol area on Coruscant. BenK was drunkenly dancing with invisible women on the stage and Sparkster and Ripper were sitting at a corner table in Dark Raven flight jackets, comparing victories over various challenges. Ripper seemed to have the low side here, having been married to a civilian for a few years now, but he graciously accepted Sparkster's tales of beautiful women from distant worlds, and their often times sensuous cultures. Sparkster sipped again on his fruity alcoholic mix.

In another corner, Aeropagitica, Elladan and Stryker were playing another hand of Blackjack. Boredom was on everyone's faces however, as Ell and Aero were simply losing their money again, and Stryker was finding it all to be rather redundant, if highly profitable.

The doors swung open to present a grizzled old Imperial. Smiles and scattered "hee-haw"s welcomed Dengar to the pub. He was, afte rall, a regular. He joined his elder imperial companions at the card table, and convinced them to play hearts by buying them a round of beer.

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Outside, a flight of X-Wings landed lightly on the lower landing deck. Six men clad in dark cloaks leaped lightly from their Incom star fighters and approached the entrance of the pub. The bouncer, a large black man awaited them.

"You can't come in here, fellas," the deep baritone man said, hands crossed over his chest before the front door.

A tall man stepped forward, shadowed in an unnatural darkness. His hand waved slightly, "We may enter the establishment," he said casually. The big black man simply stared back at him, eyeing him up and down. The cloaked man's fist balled in rage, as he spoke again, "We shall enter this place!" he practically screamed. To his surprise, the bouncer bowed and back away.

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Sparkster's eyes widened as the main doors to the bar were thrown open with unnatural force and a tough looking band of men draped in cloaks entered the room, their stance sure. The lead man's cloak hood flew back from his face to reveal the sharply chiseled face of a jedi. "I am Aquilus Riplan, Jedi Knight and leader of the Sexy Soldiers. We are the greater warriors, and sexier by far!".

Ripper was only shaking his head until he realized Sparkster had fallen out of his chair and rolled under the table, an unceasing roar of laughter giving away Sparkster's true thoughts. Apart however from Benk's drunken fantasy orgy, and Sparkster's outbreak in hilarity, the room seemed darken as a deadly veil of tension rolled through the room.

As General Eagle and his troops reached for their rainbow of lightsabres and blaster carbines, Stryker, Ell and Aero simply rolled their eyes at each other before inching their fingers toward their own weapons.

"So this escalating show-down is finally coming down to its bloody end, Eagle?" Stryker passed as his own lightsabre whispered into life. The dark anticipation of future blood shed was suffocating. One man, dressed inconspicuously, though the old timers recognized him as a Rebel agent, retreated further into the shadows. Red9 was not a man for jumping into fights between two large groups. Suicide really wasn't good business.

BenK finally noticed the visitors and stood gaping at them. "Who're you guys?" he asked sincerely. As Eagle's hand quickly flashed in the attack signal, a crash came from behind. The voice of Wongtam pierced the room.

"We're surrounded!"

Eagle's eyes narrowed as his crew quickly dropped and rolled to either side, in a vain attempt to evade the potential onslaught from the rear. It was too late for Eagle though, as a streak of midnight flew into the room between diving Soldiers and shackled Eagle behind the arms. A heavy Creole accent whispered into Eagle's ears as his arms were clamped behind his back, "I thought you were kinda cute anyway…" Eagle could only grimace as he was pulled down beneath the large black man.

The room exploded into action, as the previously stagnant room exploded into action. Bar stools, chairs, and tables flew this way and that as a mighty brawl ensued.

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It had been an interesting night, Aero recalled as he paced Evilgrin's command ship, a guest for the latest gathering of Sexy Pilots. The Imperial Pilots had managed to flee that devastating brawl in their favorite bar before anyone could be seriously injured. Aside from the Soldier's damaged ego at having Sparkster laugh at their somber appearance, all but Eagle had come out unscathed. Evilgrin was laughing. "As far as I know, Eagle did manage to escape Bubba's loving embrace. I also heard that as the Soldier's were leaving that night, the constables had arrived, led by the Dark Lord, ShadowKnight's newest apprentice, Nihonto, or something like that. From what I could tell, there was some fancy saber play before the Soldiers made their low-level escape in their X-Wings. Lucky for them of course, as we had been waiting at the nearest Golan Defense Platform for a flight of X-Wings to try to escape on OUR side of the planet. They show at least a little intelligence, in the end." Evilgrin, the sexy CO of the Republic Navy, led his counterpart to a double-wide blast door. "Alright…let's see what you have for us, my good Host."

While Mon-Cal cruisers never stood up to the size and bulk of an Imperial class Star-Destroyer, the luxury of this "hall" impressed Aero. "Excellent decorations!" Aero commented, as he noticed the thinly clad female servants offering drinks to his friends, early arrivals.

A large stage was set up with beautiful exotically dressed women dancing ..interesting dances. A bar rested on the right wall, and a dance floor front-center. Several gambling tables were set up for the participants enjoyment, and oddly enough, a simulator of 8 seats rested in the near right corner. His friends all sat around a large and lavishly decorated Round-Table. A massive buffet also sat aside parallel to the bar. "You have truly out done yourself, my friend!" Aero clapped Evilgrin on the back and headed to the table.

"You do realize, as did I, that there are eight of us now; just perfect for a little 4 v 4 action." Ell chimed in.

Gnawing on a massive chicken breast, Vapor added through a full mouth, "But which team gets stuck with you, chode?!" Ell's reply was a soaring glob of Jello exploding joyously on Vapor's forehead. A chorus of snickers and chuckles followed, though the food fight was short lived. Of course, everyone was in their best "pimpin" clothes, and no one really wanted to get soiled so early in the night. BenK whooped raucously toward the dancers.

Stryker turned a serious look to Aero. "You did not arrange for Bubba to be present this time, right?" Six other serious faces turned to here whether or not the gathering may actually be sexually straight for a change.

Aero shrugged in shocked disbelief. "I thought you guys liked him. I mean, he does seem to fancy YOU a lot!" Aero emphatically reminded Stryker. As he finished though, the alarm claxon went off. "Well, this is typical, don't you think?"

Evilgrin tossed an annoyed glance to the door, as a cadet in Alliance Squadron logos peeked through the door. "Are you still here? I thought I said NO. "

Phoenix grimaced at the sight, and then the thought, and then his own appearance, and resignedly spoke, "Admirals,…" He seemed to be addressing both Evilgrin and Aero at the same time, " A UPA fleet has just pulled us into an interdiction field. It doesn't look good out there. " Then he turned and left.

Ripper looked up from his speculation. " So this sort of interruption is common? I suppose I should feel popular." He gave with a wry grin.

"The chicken IS good," Vapor agreed, nodding. Everyone laughed.

Sparkster yawned and gave another forlorn look from the stage to the bar to the buffet and back to the dancing ladies on the stage. "I'll be at the bar" he said as he gets gripped on the jacket by Ell's fist.

"Not so fast buddy, I hear the tender is carding" he winked. Sparkster cussed.

And so the Sacred Order of Sexy Pilots again found themselves flying to engage a vastly (superior?..nah) larger force. Noone was overly thrilled about taking their TIEs into combat against the savage attacks of UPAs wild unaimed ion cannons. Of course, if they aimed, there would be no problems. The bastards just seem to get lucky with ion cannons though.

"We weren't expecting to be in the engagement zone for three more days, " Evilgrin explained as his own fleet had already engaged at tip-top performance. Rogue Squadron, Grey Wraith, and Alliance Squadrons were already in a ferocious melee with a large collection of pilots. "Well anyway, what do you want to kill first?" Evilgrin's X-Wing 's S-foils opened into attack formation. Seven TIEs screamed into battle behind him.

Aero and Ell broke into a staggered echelon right formation and dove their interceptors into the thick of the fray. Vapor and BenK flanked high in their Squints, and began picking off stray Gun-boats and Y-Wings that were attempting to sneak through Rogue Squadron's picket line.

Stryker, Ripper, Evilgrin and Sparkster broke toward the Modified Strike Cruiser that was supporting the anti-gravity interdiction field. Four Gunboats quickly turned toward them and charged with the savage fury typical of the reckless United Pilot Alliance. Behind them, four more UPA TIE Interceptors angle in formation to face the incoming threat.

"Couple of vets in the rear," Sparkster reasoned aloud.

Evilgrin took the cue, switching to quad fire, blinking the center GUN with a direct blast to his shielded view panel. Sparkster nailed the opposite center gun with Equal proficiency in his TIE fighter, a pair of quick bursts, followed by a corkscrew dive. Stryker and Ripper's T/Is dove between the blinded GUNs toward the veteran opponents.

Evilgrin quickly reversed his angle to splash the right outside wing, keeping the GUNs confidence down, while Sparkster mirrored his attack painting the far-left Gun's flank as it angled to clip Evil Grin from the rear. Evilgrin made a type loop and planted another precision shot on the GUN Sparkster had just splashed, effectively killing it's shields. It dove away from the fight and Sparkster had already realigned on the next closest GUN, painting it's tail green.

Stryker took point as he skewed his approach to the enemy TIEs. He targeted the nearest one, and made a quick slashing turn toward the enemies, firing a linked blast at the TIE right next to the one he had targeted. The targeted TIE dove away from the shot, while his wingman flew unexpectedly into cyan death. Sparkster quickly completed his turn into a roll as the other two TIEs rained death toward him. The original UPA TIE, seeing he had been fooled, realigned to engage, only to find Ripper's quad laser fire already waiting for him as he aligned for a shot. The UPA Tie melted silently and insignificantly. Ripper then moved to the rear of one the TIEs trailing Stryker, and as Stryker dipped low, Ripper placed a quad blast right under his target's bow. The TIE predictably dove into follow Stryker, and into his own death. The fourth interceptor, seeing his wings dispatched so easily, turned to engage Ripper as he was the threat now. He made a tight turn and blasted at Ripper.

Ripper dodged easily and flew in a light evasion circle as Stryker looped around himself and disposed of the veteran 'nuisance'. They returned to Sparkster and Evilgrin to find the GUNs disposed of. "Rookies" was the word that echoed between the laughter on the com-channels.

Elladan found himself bogged in the melee. An A-Wing and a pair of TIE Fighters had been chasing him for almost a minute now through a complex weave of evasion. Aero had been forced off his wing by a similar group of a Y-Wing spitting azure energy, and a trio of annoying Z-95 Headhunters. Aero had made his way to where Rogue was meleeing, and Rogue's Avenger had assisted in clearing his pursuers for him. Aero dropped his starboard solar panel in a thankful wave, and dove back to assist Ell.

Ell didn't have time, as he dipped into a desperate gambit. The A-Wing was nipping at his heels as he turned to see another X-Wing diving straight at him. The X-Wing fired at him head on, and Ell dipped a little lower, dangerously exposing his flank to the TIE fighters. He saw the A-Wing blip disappear then, and saw the personal logo on the X-wing favoring a mystical bird of legend, Born in Fire. He reminded himself to thank Phoenix when all was said and done.

The Phyrric losses UPA's fleet was taking was enough to convince the enemy commodore to withdraw. In truth, had he pressed, he may indeed have broken Rogue's picket line and loosed the dangerous Proton Torpedoes and Rockets at Evilgrin's capital ships. But the devastating casualties had convinced UPA's command that another day was better indeed, as one of his own capital ship's shields fell to a (sexy) Rogue-marked X-wing pilot. Scanners could identify the personal logo as a simple evil grin.

"Well, that was fun," BenK soberly replied, as the girls began dancing again.

"Yeah, but you did bitch work!" Ripper dutifully reminded him.

"Hey! Someone had to do it!" Vapor defended with a grin.

"Are you gonna eat that?" Stryker casually remarked to a buxom waitress who was licking a lollipop happily.

"Does she have any friends?" Ell nudged Stryker as he questioned him.

"I do!" Sparkster joyously responded, his arms wrapped around the two gorgeous models sitting in his lap.

"I need an ale…" Aero replied caustically.

"Make that two" Evilgrin agreed.

Epilogue-

Aquilus Riplan turned at the slight disturbance in the force. Something had just passed under his door. He took a cautious step toward the small envelope that now rested on his light carpet. He opened and found a note inside. It was hand written in flourishing script.

Meet me in the janitor's closet in 5 minutes, sexy!

Eagle thought for a moment who the lucky girl might be before he looked at his watch and strolled out of his quarters.