Outside Red Base, the battle was beginning to get serious. With the delay on the main launch pad, Red Squadron's Combat Wing pilots were taking too long to launch. The Red Squadron's trainees were good but outnumbered at nearly 4 to 1. Anyone would be hard pressed to stay alive for long in such a situation.

The T/Fs ganged up on one of the Y-wings separated from his wingman, boxing him in. Cool Head was trying to get a lock to fire the last of his two torpedoes at the Interdictor when he realized he'd been separated from Jaguar.

"Five to Seven, I am engaged by four eyeballs, request assistance!"

"I'm trying, Five, but these guys are pinning me down, I can't break through!" Jaguar answered, evading laser fire converging from several angles.

"Five, evasive manoeuvres. I'm enroute! Just hold on!" Ranger shouted into his comm.

Six TIE Bombers kept their distance and fired torpedoes whenever a chance presented itself. The Y-wings were hard pressed trying to drive away the Interdictor while dog-fighting the T/Fs and evading torpedoes fired from the T/Bs. Ranger had already taken two solid torpedo hits to his shields. His shields were down to a single layer and that was being eaten away, bit by bit, by the lasers fired by the T/Fs surrounding his fighter. He wished that he had taken the X-wings out on this exercise instead of the Y-wings.

So far two TIEs had fallen to his lasers and three more to the trainees. But whoever was in charge of this task force was good… good enough to see the best way to deploy his fighter screen against the Y-wings. By putting the bombers slightly outside of the battlefield, it gave the fighters heavy weapons support but kept the T/Bs safely out of reach of the Y-wings' lasers. And the Y-wings' torpedoes were too precious to waste on the bombers, even if they could fly straight long enough to get a lock.

Ranger had already expended his supply of torpedoes. Querying Cool Head's Y-wing showed him a grim situation. TW 5's shields were down in the red and no way Ranger could reach him before the shields failed.

Cool Head took out one more TIE before green lasers burnt through his shields and into his torpedo rack, igniting the two remaining torpedoes. The resulting explosion threw him out of the cockpit into space. His beacon, attached to a heart monitor, beeped weakly.

"Damn! TW Seven, report status!" With Cool Head out of the fight, Ranger's next concern was Jaguar.

"Engaged by four TIEs, make that three, I need help!"

"Roger that, TW Seven!"

Ranger kicked his thrusters to the max and headed towards Jaguar with two T/Fs in pursuit.

Meanwhile, Jackal and Falcon were not having an easy time either. But with the bulk of the Imperial fighters concentrating their attack on Ranger and Element Two, they had it a little better, going against only three eyeballs.

"Two, stop playing tag with that fighter and give me a hand with these two."

"I'm trying, Four, but this guy is good. Just hold on for a few seconds."

"Okay, but I'm not promising that I'll be here when you're finished."

"You'd better be, you still owe me a drink!" Jackal stood on his left rudder and slid the targeting reticule onto the fighter in front of him. The T/F blew up nicely, the mostly-intact solar panels blowing outwards as Jackal went through the debris. "Four, you have lead! I'm at your seven high!"

"Roger, Two. I have eyeballs in sight and going for the kill!"

"I have your wing, Four. Let's do it!"

This is not good.

Ranger took out another T/F on Jaguar's tail. His own shields were down to single again. He boosted them by transferring some of his laser energy, but the battering he was receiving from the TIEs was draining them faster than he could charge them up. At any moment he could be attacked by all of them in unison and… He just didn't want to think about that.

"Captain, I can't hold on anymore. Shields are out and lasers not charging."

"Eject! Jaguar, eject!"

Jaguar ejected as a TIE got him with a shot straight through the cockpit, missing him by inches. The heat and shrapnel from the laser bolt passed through his personal magcon field as if it wasn't there, burning him terribly. He screamed and passed out, floating limp.

With Jaguar out of the picture the TIEs now concentrated their fire on Ranger. Seven T/Fs suddenly converged on him from every possible angle. His shields were going down fast. A shot went through his shields and hit the torpedo rack. Luckily there were no torpedoes still in it, but the hit caused panels in his cockpit to burst. His ELS and shields indicators were total wrecks. He frantically transferred all available energy to the shields. And started to weave through the fighters. The T/Fs continued their battering.

Suddenly four orange-scarlet laser bolts came lancing through the cluster of starfighters, taking out one eyeball and causing another to flinch into his wingman. All three TIEs exploded.

Ranger thumbed his comm: "TW 2, TW 4 is that you?"

"Negative, this is Eggman… er, Cadet Miller."

Miller, we don't have anyone called Miller… Sithspawn, he's the new cadet arriving today!

"Cadet, switch to frequency Aurek 5."

"Acknowledge, sir!" Eggman complied.

"Cadet Miller, this is Captain Magill. Who authorized you to take out a combat-ready fighter?"

"Well, sir… " Eggman began.

"We'll discuss this later. Right now you're my wing and just try to stay alive, okay?"

"Roger that, sir."

While they were talking, three of the T/Fs lost interest and decided to go after Element One. Ranger noticed their departure and warned Jackal and Falcon. With three of the T/Fs gone, it left them with two Eyeballs to take care off not including the T/Bs. Eggman noticed new blips on his scope:

"Sir, my scope is registering two Gunboats exiting hyperspace three klicks from us."

As if we aren't in enough trouble. Just where the hell is the rest of Red?

"Sir, the Gunboats are here. But our shields are dangerously low."

"Hmmm… reroute all excess power to the shields. We'll stay on a bit longer. If any Rebel reinforcements arrive in system, we will withdraw."

"Yes, sir." The lieutenant moved away from his captain, who turned to another bridge officer.

"Lieutenant, how long before out reinforcement arrive in system?"

"I make it at twenty minutes, sir."

"If Red Squadron is able to launch, we might not last that long. Have navigation prepare a course away from here."

"Retreat, sir?" The lieutenant looked at his commanding officer. If they retreat because Rebel reinforcements arrived, he would understand. But to retreat just because a single squadron of X-wings launched was incomprehensible.

"Yes, Lieutenant, we retreat. It will take a full squadron of X-wings less than five minutes to cripple us. Do you intend to be their prisoner, Lieutenant?" Captain Chew asked mildly.

"No, sir. But… it smacks of desertion, sir," the Lieutenant answered.

Chew raised both eyebrows. "Hardly, lieutenant. Merely a prudent tactical move. Just get navigation to plot us an escape route for now. I'll think of how long we will be staying."

"Yes, sir."

"What are you guys doing? Get the conduit out of the way, now!" Zoom yelled at one of the techs from his open cockpit.

"The explosion knocked out our lifters, sir. We'll have to wait for another one to send in from pad 2," the tech answered.

"Damn!" Zoom punched the console and instantly regretted it. He held his bruised hand and thought about the trainees trying to hold the invasion force at bay.

Redjed and Vape came running into the launch pad. The 2-1B had cleared them for combat and they were eager to get on with it.

"Vape, Redjed!" Zoom yelled at the Red pilots, trying to get their attention. "Get over to Pad 3 and use the X-wings there."

Vape and Redjed quickly did an about-face and ran back out of the launch pad.

"Phoenix, go with them. Ranger's, Yale's and Leo's X-wings are on Pad 3 also."

Phoenix jumped out of his X-wing and followed the two pilots. As he was going out, one of the female techs looked around and banged the bulkhead suddenly as a plan came to her.

"You three, suit up!" Deela Arvis, the chief starfighter tech, shouted to the three techs nearest to her. Grabbing a vacuum maintenance suit herself, she raised her voice to be heard. "Commander St.Clair, get your pilots to finish their start up procedure."

"What are you going to do, Chief?"

"I'm going to deactivate the magcon field. That will decompress the hangar…"

"And suck the conduit right out. Good thinking."

"Close your canopies. I'm going to deactivate the artificial gravity too, so we can try to shift the conduit into position first."

"Okay. Reds, secure your canopies," Zoom told the rest of the Reds, doing the same with his own. Something kept nagging him about Arvis's plan. Then, he remembered: the explosion here had also knocked down the communication link to the main control terminal. To deactivate the field, Deela would have to do it here in the hangar instead of in the safety of the control room.

Zoom quickly switched to a suit radio frequency. "Chief, Deela, wait. What if you're sucked out too?"

"Never mind about me! I'll brace myself before I shut down the field. You just be ready!"

"But you could get killed!"

"Hell yes… but what's my life against everyone else on this platform? Arvis out!"

Zoom's eyes darkened. Another one for the Empire. His expression turned even grimmer. He flipped his comm switch to the frequency he shared with the rest of the Red Squadron.

"Okay, guys, listen up. Deela is going to deactivate the magcon field. The conduit and most probably us will be sucked out as well. So, get ready to activate your engines. As soon as we are away, let go with all of your torpedoes. Got it? Let show them what happen if the mess around in our home turf."

Rapier was in the X-wing next to Zoom's. He'd had to leave the trainees out there so that he could reach the base and retrieve his X-wing. He noticed the edge in Zoom's voice and realized what his squadron leader was thinking. He knew better than to mention to the whole squad.

"Private channel, Lead."

"Private channel, Three," Kelly gritted. "Go ahead."

"Zoom, relax. You're letting you anger cloud your judgement, and you can't afford that right now."

"You know what might happen when..."

"Yes, but being angry is not going to help her or you. Now, just relax and concentrate on what you are going to do out there. She has a job to do. Her job is to get us out there. And she's doing that. We also have a job to do. Let's get it done as quickly and economically as possible. Besides, she knows what she's doing. I don't think she wants to die, yet."

"Thanks, Steve."

"I've been in this business longer than you, Kelly."

Zoom switched back to the squadron tactical frequency.

"Belay the last order. Once you're away, pair up with your wingmen. Wing leaders are designated missile platform. Wingmen protect your respective wing leaders. The shields on the Interdictor should be at least partially down. We are going to finish the job the trainees started, if they haven't finished it themselves."

He stopped to let the acknowledgements come through, then continued.

"Primary objective is the Interdictor. We have to either destroy it or cripple it. Do not let it hyper away to recharge its shields and return to the fight. Secondary objective is to secure this area for safe evacuation. I'm going to get Control to launch a few reload crafts after the frigate and Interdictor are destroyed or driven away." Zoom took a deep breath, trying to flush tension from his body. "Just be careful out there. This is going to be an endurance battle and the Empire has time outs and substitutes – we don't."

Deela in the meantime was activating the tractor beam to hold the X-wings down. She already ordered the pad and hangar area to be vacated of all other personnel. Can't have people floating around and falling all over the place once the gravity's off.

She opened the secondary control panel and proceeded to disengage the safety for the magcon field, more by ripping out wires and components than anything else. Safety protocols normally ensured that the magcon field could not be deactivated if there were lifeforms inside. Once that was done she deactivated the gravity generator. Everything that was not bolted to the deck began to float.

"Quick, align the conduit as best you can so it'll fit through the bay opening," she ordered her three suited assistants. Bracing themselves against the floor and walls, they struggled to move the now weightless but still massive conduit without getting themselves crushed. In a minute or so, they had done all they could. "Okay. Now, clear out!"

"But… "

"No buts. You guys don't have the authorization codes to deactivate the magcon field. I do. Go, I know what I'm doing."

"Okay, just be careful, Chief."

The three techs jetted to the airlock on their small thruster packs. Deela flew back to the control panel.

Good thing they didn't know I had already disengaged the safety. And that there is no authorization code for this stunt. She smiled faintly as she watched the airlock close, then switched frequencies.

"Okay, pilots, listen up. Once I deactivate the field everything loose is going to get sucked out. The safety will cut back in after about five seconds. The deck tractors may be able to hold you in place that long, but don't bet on it. I've set the beams to disengage seven seconds after the field does. Good luck, pilots."

Deela found a pipe to hang onto and braced herself as best she could, stretching to reach the console. "Shutting down now. Field off in five… four… three… two… one…"

The glowing rectangle of the magcon field indicator went dark. The hangar was suddenly filled with shrieking wind as all the air in it attempted to flee through the opening into space. The conduit, still weightless, was caught by the gale-force winds and blown out almost immediately.

Deela struggled to hang on, but then the winds tore her free and slammed her against the wall. Her helmet's faceplate shattered. Her limp body skidded and rolled across the deck and finally flew out into the void, a dwindling speck.

The Red pilots were shocked at the scene. Caught unaware by the Chief's action, they were frozen. Seeing someone die in combat was one thing, but this... Even Zoom, who had been dreading the worst, found himself speechless.

The hangar fell silent as the magcon field snapped on again. There was only the faint throb of the air pumps and the slight creak of canopies as the pressure outside rose back toward normal. Two seconds later, just as the Chief had planned, the tractor beams cut off and the X-wings floated free.

Rapier reacted first, drawing on his past experience. "Red Squadron, launch. Let's get that Interdictor before any more Imperial reinforcement arrive."

First out was Rapier, followed by Zoom. The rest were moments behind them, each pairing up with his wingman as they emerged. Carcajou attached himself to Zoom and Rapier, since his wingman Redjed was not around. Kyp paired up with Wire. Dragon and Kiki brought up the rear. The seven X-wings went straight towards their primary target, the Interdictor cruiser Sinkhole.

"Sir, seven X-wings just launched from the platform."

"I see. How are our shields?"

"At fifty percent and rising, sir. But we can't stand a full torpedo barrage…"

Chew turned to the Interdictor's starfighter coordinator. "Are our Interceptor pilots ready?"

"They've been in their fighters since we arrived, sir."

"Good. They have clearance to launch."

"Yes, sir."

"Acknowledged, Tactical Control."

A squadron of TIE Interceptors burst out from underneath the Interdictor, launching two at a time and heading towards the incoming X-wings as ordered.

Chew looked on as the Interceptors hurtled themselves into battle, wishing he could join them. A former fighter pilot himself, he missed the exhilaration of close combat. Yet he also knew the importance of holding back part of your force in case anything went wrong. An Interdictor rarely carried more than one squadron, if any. His insistence of an extra squadron was now paying off. The Rebels were going to have problem in trying to get a lock on his ship.

"I know, Jo," Zoom said to his R2 unit. "Reds, heads up, a squadron of squints just launched from the Interdictor."

"I see them, Lead. Orders?" Rapier answered.

"Element Five, Element Six, engage the Interceptors. The rest of us will try to get a lock on the Interdictor."

"Yes, Commander," Kyp responded, directing his flight to follow him.

"Eighteen, do you need assistance?"

"Yes, Lead. You could do us a big favor by taking out those bombers," Ranger said.

"Roger that, Eighteen. Eleven, join Eighteen. Three, let's take out the dupes. Reds, remember the primary objective. Whenever you can, fire some torps at the Interdictor," Zoom said, as he manoeuvred his X-wing towards the bombers.

"Two Flight, head-on attack on the first pass. After that engage the Interceptors at will, but keep track of your wingmen," Kyp said to his flight.

"Roger that, Two."

The flight of X-wings broke into two smaller units. The odds were presently three to one; not very encouraging, but typical. And shields gave the X-wings an advantage over the Interceptors.

"Idiots!" Rusgry, a recent transfer to Sinkhole's fighter squadrons, could do nothing but watch as the eager pilots flew right into the concentrated fire of the X-wings and died. Then there was no time for such judgments, as the remaining Interceptors maneuvred for shots.

"I've got him targeted, Seven. Hold on."

Kyp did not wait for his targeting sensor to go to green. He squeezed the trigger, firing the lasers at where he thought the Interceptor would be, and was rewarded by an explosion. Then he thought of how the Interceptor formation had loosened up before contact.

"Seven, they have a good commander. He scattered most of the squadron before we could engage them."

"Oh, great. I wonder how he flies."

"Just stick close, Seven."

"Lead, three dupes down and the rest are running!"

"I see them, Three. You take Beta 2 and I'll go for Beta 5."

"Got it, Lead."

The TIE bombers were doomed. Up against older fighters like Y-wings and Z-95s, they might have had a chance, but against X-wings they were outclassed. Two dupes exploded nearly simultaneously.

"One more to go."

"Leave him to us, Lead," Phoenix said, shooting from just out of range.

The shot sheared one of the bomber's solar panels off and crippled its engines, causing it to tumble uncontrollably towards the long and twisted loop of gates that made up the pilot training course – the Maze. Without an ejection system, the pilot of the bomber could only hope that someone would take notice of his tumbling craft and tractor it out before he hit something.

"Good shot, Thirteen."

"Thanks, Lead."

"Thirteen, who's with you?" Zoom asked when he saw that only two X-wings were incoming.

"Red Twelve here, sir," Vape responded.

"Where's Ten?"

"Only two X-wings were on pad 3, Lead. Ranger's and Leo's. Ten had to go back and use his own X-wing," Phoenix explained.

A quick glance at the scanner showed Zoom the missing X-wing; it was Yale's.

"Leader to Eighteen, who's piloting Yale's fighter?"

"Cadet Miller, Lead," Ranger responded, dreading what the next question would be.

"Under whose authorization?"

"Can we discuss this later? I can vouch for his piloting skills for now."

"Very well, Eighteen. Lead out."

Zoom redirected his X-wing towards the Interdictor cruiser. Phoenix and Vape followed close behind their commander and his wingman, Rapier, in a combat spread formation.

"Sir, at the current closure rate the X-wings will be in torpedo range in three minutes," Lt. Argos informed his Captain.

"Contact the Heinous and tell them to retreat. If one of us can survive, we could return later to continue the fight."

The communications officer bent to his console. He looked up moments later. "Sir, the frigate is refusing to retreat."

"What? Let me talk to Captain Jashikar."

"Yes, sir."

Chew looked down at the arm of his command chair. A small grid began to glow, projecting a translucent hologram of another, younger officer.

"Do you have a problem with my orders, Captain?"

"Begging your pardon, sir, I don't think you would survive long enough to let us reach our hyperspace point. I suggest another course of action."

"Mm… proceed," Chew said, interested to hear Jashikar's proposal.

"Our shields are still at full. I will try to interpose ourselves between you and the Rebels while we both retreat. That way, they could not launch any torpedoes at you. Our own shields would be able to withstand the hits longer than you could, sir. Besides, your ship is more valuable than mine."

"Your plan has merits, Captain, but you could lose your ship."

"I'll manoeuvre into position now, sir."

"Jashikar, wait!"

"Heinous out." The small figure faded.

"Communications, get him back!"

After a long pause, the comm officer reported, "Heinous is not responding, sir."

Chew looked out his bridge windows at the frigate, which was currently turning and placing itself between the Interdictor and the incoming X-wings.

"Lead, the frigate is shielding the Interdictor. I can't get a lock!"

"Anyone have a clear lock on the Interdictor?"

A chorus of negative came through the comm link.

"Lead, Red Ten. I'm on a different approach vector. I have a lock."

"Thank you, Ten. Element Seven, break off and use Ten's targeting telemetry. Fire when you have clear sight of the Interdictor."

"Roger that, Commander. Ten, transmit your data."

"Here you go, Thirteen. Clear your sensors to 327.1," Redjed said, transmitting the necessary data to Vape and Phoenix.

The CMDs on the two X-wings of Element Seven flickered, then displayed the exact duplicate of Red Ten's.

"Go for the gravity well generators, repeat, go for the gravity well generators."

"Read you, Lead."

Two X-wings broke off from the main group and flew at a slight tangent in the hope of getting off a clear shot.

"Sir, two X-wings just broke off from the main group. They seem to be angling for a torpedo run on the Sinkhole," one of Jashikar's officers reported.

"Open a channel to the Sinkhole. Voice only."

"Yes, sir."

"Captain Chew, two X-wings have broken off from the main group and are making a run at you. We will try to keep ourselves in between the main group and the Sinkhole. Good luck, sir."

Jashikar made a cutting motion to his communications officer, and turned back to the battle.

"Damn that Jashikar! Lieutenant, keep trying to reestablish communications with the Heinous. Draw all available power to shields. We must not let the torpedoes penetrate the gravity well generators."

After the first transmission, the frigate maintained comm silence. Chew noticed that the frigate's speed had dropped and realised that the frigate would buy the time they needed by baiting the fighters to attack the nearest hostile target, the Heinous. He kept trying to raise the frigate's captain to talk him out of it but they were not answering the comm.

"How are our shields?"

"Shields are climbing, but slowly, sir."

"I have a solid lock!" Redjed shouted, squeezing the trigger. "Proton torpedoes, dual mode, firing!"

"Go for it, Ten!" Vape said. "Thirteen and me should be on a good angle of attack in five seconds."

Two torpedoes jumped out through the launch tubes at the side of the X-wing, heading straight for the Interdictor cruiser. Redjed kept his finger on the trigger, even though his R2 unit was bleeping a missile launch warning. As soon as he exhausted his supply of torpedoes, a torpedo from the cruiser hit him dead on, reducing his shields to single thickness.

He broke his lock on the Interdictor and manoeuvred away from the target to recover his shields. But by that time, Red Twelve and Thirteen had already fired two more volleys of torpedoes towards the Interdictor.

"Sir, we count ten torpedo launches. Heading for the gravity well generators."

"Helm, rotate starboard, quarter speed. Fire Control, give the torpedoes Priority One. All gunners fire at will!"

"Yes, sir!"

The cruiser's turbolasers began to fire at the volley of torpedoes coming towards them. The Interdictor's rotation exposed more batteries to the torpedoes and caused them to change course slightly, tracking its new profile. Two explosions flared amid the emerald web of point-defense fire.

"Fire Control, report!"

"Two torpedoes down but the rest are still coming! Impact in five seconds!"

"All hands, brace for impact!"