Aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer Challenge, Lieutenant Colonel Jagged Fell III was working on his terminal in his quarters. His living space was small as it was aboard a Star Destroyer, but it was private as befit a squadron commander and as someone near the top of the line rank structure. There were not many decorations on display in the room, only a simple potted plant and framed picture of his wife adorned the space. This is where he lived while on deployment with the Fleet, but his true home was back on Aurora with Shiri'ala.

He was working at the seemingly endless paperwork that accompanied his command role when his message terminal alerted him to an incoming message. Opening it he was in for a bit of a surprise.

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TO: CMDR Typhoon SQ

FROM: Fleet Command

SUBJECT: Orders

The following pilots are here by assigned to Temporary Duty with the Science Office:

LC Jagged Fell III

CPT Jkast

MAJ Anthony Starr

This TDY is expected to last no more than 90 standard days. The designated pilots are to report, with their flight gear, to HA Jerrar aboard the VSD Stalwart within 72 standard hours.

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This unexpected for multiple reasons. First, that Jagged had not heard even a single hint that these TDYs were coming, and that was very strange as he had regular conversations with the Tactical Officer in his role as his assistant and the Science Office was under the TAC. But the orders were to report to High Admiral Turtle Jerrar, and he wasn't the Science Officer, but come to think of it the SCO role was currently vacant so maybe that explained the abnormal reporting structure. The second reason that the TDY was strange was that Jagged knew they were about to deploy against this Imperial Remnant they had encountered in the Gasriese System a few months back, reassigning the Squadron Commander, Executive Officer, and Flight Leader just before the Challenge flew into combat was the height of madness to Jagged.

But it wasn't his place to question his orders, his life in the Empire of the Hand and now the Emperor's Hammer had instilled in him a reflexive belief in following orders, and he did so now. Jagged first messaged his Wing Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Elara, and his Battlegroup Commander, Admiral Setzer, to ensure they were aware of the orders and once that was completed, arranged with the Hanger Master that a Lambda-Class shuttle would be prepared for the Typhoon pilot's transit back to Aurora and the Stalwart.

With those tasks completed, he sent the orders on to the other two pilots and began to pack his gear and personal effects for the journey.

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Jagged and his pilots reported aboard the Stalwart at the appointed time and had been directed to the briefing chamber for their meeting with High Admiral Jerrar. Upon entering the room, Jagged was met with yet another surprise, it seemed he and his pilots were not the only ones who had been pulled from their normal flight duties to work with the Science Office. There were pilots from all over the Fleet, in fact as he took note of all who were there, he realized there was a representative from every active Wing within the TIE Corps.

Tony, JKast, and Jagged took seats on the right side of the room, near where their fellow Battlegroup III pilot, Commander Prot Azar of Scorpion squadron was seated. It seemed they had been the last to arrive, as shortly after they had taken their places, High Admiral stepped up onto the dais.

"Thank you all for joining me here today. I am sure you are all wondering what you are doing here and why I am seeming to lead the Science Office," Jerrar paused to give them a rueful smile as he then continued, "let me put any concerns to rest, I am not the new Science Officer. But I have been assigned by the Fleet Commander to head this current incitive."

With that the holo-projector came to life and began to display technical breakdown images of several craft.

"As I am sure you all remember, we captured a number of First Order ships and their accompanying fighter craft during our operations in the Gasriese System and the capture of the Fuel Depot there. The Science Office and I have been hard at work these last few months to discover the full capabilities of these new model craft for the dual purpose of better equipping our current forces to be able to capitalize on their weaknesses in any future conflicts with the First Order, and secondly to best determine how to integrate our battle prizes into our Fleet as a whole. Assisting in that latter goal has been Major "Baron" Vanguard who has been our chief test pilot of the captured new model TIE Fighters."

"From his testing, the Command Staff believe we now know the full capabilities of these fighters but now need to complete squadron level testing of the craft before full integration with the Fleet. We called you all here to serve as the test squadron for the fighters in a series of Combat Operations. We have placed the Barron in command of this unit and have also designated Colonel Brucmack, the previous holder of the title "Baron" before Major Vanguard came on the scene, as the Executive Officer of the squadron. The rest of you are the ten pilots within the TIE Corps who have flown the most sorties this year and therefore were considered the best candidates to test the effectiveness of these fighters for Fleet Operations. I will now turn the briefing over to your temporary Squadron Commander for a high level review of the fighter craft and today's first Combat Test."

Then he yielded the podium to the younger officer and took a seat in the audience. Apparently this operation was of such a high importance to the Emperor's Hammer it was worth the High Admiral's time, even when he was not the briefing officer.

"The captured First Order TIE Fighters, here after designated TIE/fo, for obvious reasons, are a significantly upgraded version of the original TIE/ln. The TIE/fo is thirty percent faster than the base model and comes with a deflector shield equipped as standard. It seems the First Order was able to learn some lessons from the Empire's war with the Rebels, but they still do not have a hyperdrive on any of but a select few of the fighters. We have rectified this on the units we captured, but we shouldn't need them for this first test."

The holo-projector began to display an image of the Sluis Van sector, just outside of Emperor's Hammer controlled territory.

"We will be deploying out of the captured Resurgent-Class Star Destroyer, that we have renamed Revenant, to the Agora System. There is a regularly scheduled New Republic supply convoy that uses the remote system to change hyperspace lanes. It was decided that this first combat operation should be against a relatively soft target, but one that we know the typical performance characteristics of so that we can make informed combat effectiveness comparisons back to our normal craft."

"Our mission is to destroy any escorting military forces and then inspect the convoy craft for any high value war materials and capture all that are present. We will then move the freighter crews into escape craft and destroy all the remaining freighters. We don't expect this to be a difficult mission, but it will be a low risk way to test these assets."

"As the High Admiral said, I am in command of this test squadron we have chosen to designate as Foxtrot and will be flying in the lead 1-1 position. Bruc is my XO and is flying as 2-1, and as the pilot with the most sorties under his belt this year, General Gytheran will be the Flight Leader of Flight Three and flying as 3-1. The rest of you are being assigned relative to the number of sorties you have flown this year and therefore Major Starr will be my wingman in the 1-2 slot, with Colonel "Stitches" and Lieutenant Colonel Fell rounding out Flight One. On Bruc's wing will be General Woody, and Colonel Davalorn and Lieutenant Commander Ardaan will also be in Flight Two. On Pops' wing will be Captain JKast, with Commander Azar and Major "Split" finishing off the squadron."

"If there are no questions, report to the hanger to board the shuttle that will take us over to the Revenant."

---

There had not been any view ports available in the passenger compartment of the shuttle for Jagged to look out at the Revenant as they approached it, but he could still see it well in his mind's eye from when they had fought against it in the battle for HydroStation 77. While it retained the classic Star Destroyer arrowhead shape and ziggurat like superstructure, but there the similarities ended. It was nearly twice as big as an Imperial Class Star Destroyer at nearly three kilometers long, while its engines pushed it to also twice the speed of the older Star Destroyer too. The dark grey hull of the Resurgent-Class Destroyer also gave it a more menacing look, if that was possible.

They landed in the port docking bay of the mammoth ship and made their way to the pilot's quarters to stow their gear before reporting to the TIE Fighter hangar to being their familiarization briefing for the TIE/fo. The new craft looked like the older TIE/ln, being of the same shape and design, with its dimensions also being within a meter in all directions of the original craft. But the coloring was vastly different between the models. Whereas the TIE/ln had the now classic black hexagonal wings to each side and dull grey durasteel hull plating visible, the TIE/fo sported white wings and all the hull material was a deep black in color. Being well familiar with shield and hyperdrive equipped TIE craft, none of the pilots had much trouble in getting comfortable with the fighter's controls and all seemed to be logically laid out per the standard Imperial design. With only three hours of instruction and demonstrations the Baron deemed them ready to deploy and they got suited up for the mission.

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They dropped out of hyperspace in the Agora System and began streaming from the ventral hangar. Each Flight formed up on their respective leads and began their attack on the X-Wing fighters that had vectored to intercept them. While few of them had previously flown in the same squadron, they were all highly experienced TIE Corps pilots and knew how to fly as a unit.

Jagged was impressed with the responsiveness and speed of the TIE/fo. True, it wasn't a match for the TIE Defender he normally flew, or even the older TIE Advanced also assigned to his squadron, but it was faster and more maneuverable than anything the New Republic was fielding. After the Baron had quickly dispatched the X-Wing that had tried to stop them, they had closed in on the convoy. They broke in pairs, with Jagged taking Stitches wing as they flew through the twenty or so freighters. A few more New Republic fighters tried to fight them, but they all quickly fell to the upgraded cannons of the First Order fighters. Jagged was particularly impressed with the fire rate from the high power weapons as he bore down on the lead Strike Cruiser that had been protecting the convoy. He saw the cruiser burst into flames behind him as he began a rolling dive away from the ship they had just doomed to oblivion.

It took only a few minutes for the twelve Emperor's Hammer pilots to subdue all resistance in the convoy. After that they turned on their cargo scanners and inspected the ships for what was worth their time to transport back to Aurora. Six of the freighters were deemed to be worth the time it would take for contingents of Hammer's Fist troopers to commandeer. For the rest, the TIE Corps pilots gave their crews five minutes to evacuate before they began their strafing runs.

All in all, the first combat operation of the captured TIE/fo fighters took less than a standard hour and had resulted in a total victory for the Emperor's Hammer forces. As Jagged flew back into the hangar of the Revenant he wondered to himself what the next operation they would be sent out on. He hoped it would be more challenging than today's mission.