Railla tried not to look like a wet-eared academy cadet at the sight of TIE Defenders set upon their prep racks in the flight deck. She'd logged a good amount of time in simulation with a Defender, but climbing into a sim pod was a pale shadow next to climbing into the real thing. The triple array of concave panel wings gave the ship a considerably wider profile than other TIE fighters she'd flown. But it didn't end there. The cockpit pod sat forward of the ion engines, shield generator, and the hyperdrive, giving the ship a robust fuselage for a TIE. She knew that even with that added room, the Defender sported an unprecedented amount of complex system miniaturization to enable everything it needed to fit in the chassis. And if she didn't know it before, she absolutely knew it when reviewing her assigned fighter's pre-flight checks.

Dropping down from the ingress catwalk on the deployment rack, Railla nimbly moved from strut to panel, inspecting systems to confirm they were in good working order. She confirmed the ion thrust gimbals had their full range of motion. She made certain the cluster missiles, ion cannons, and laser cannons were locked, loaded, and zeroed. Try as she might, Railla couldn't quite wipe the smile off her face. Any opportunity to fly was a good one, but this was an opportunity like she'd never had before. Even without the stakes in play, she was still about to take a Defender into the black.

It almost didn't occur to Railla to look to her left. If she did, she'd see Commander Davis doing the very same ritual with her own ship.