Alliance Units

A-wing - space superiority fighter.
B-wing - faster and a more heavily armed fighter-bomber than the older Y-wing.
Bantha-class Troop Carrier Assault Shuttle - used to transport groups of troops and small ground vehicles into or out of combat zones. Armed with two turreted quad lasers for point defensee and two main laser cannons.
Gallofree Medium Transport Ship - used by the Alliance to ferry equipment and personnel from space to planets.
MPTL-2A Artillery - fires long range torpedoes, must be deployed to fire.
T1-B Hover Tank - light lasers and anti-air missiles and a shield.
T2-B Hover Tank - light lasers and shield.
T4-B Tank - heavy lasers and rockets.
T-47 Air speeder - light air assault vehicle with two medium blasters with rear gunner and tow cable.
Vanguard units - heavily armed foot soldiers with rocket launchers that fire Air-to-Ground missiles.
T-wing Interceptor - this fighter was supposed to replace the A-wing but didn’t live up to the designer’s expectations, still a good fighter.
X-wing - space superiority fighter and the Alliance’s main starfighter.
Y-wing BTL-S3 - this type of Y-wing comes equipped with a gunner to operate the turreted lasers, this model is no longer in production but still found and used by certain Alliance units.
Y-wing BTL-A4 - standard Y-wing fighter-bomber.
Y-wing BTL-A4 (LP) - reconnaissance version of the Y-wing fighter-bomber, this model has had the Ion cannons removed and increased sensor packages put in.

Imperial Units

Assault Gunboat - a fairly new type of fighter-bomber used by the Empire, comes equipped lasers, Ion cannons, shields and a hyper drive.
AT-AA - All Terrain Anti-Aircraft unit comes in two versions; one is equipped with lasers one is equipped with flak/missiles.
AT-AT - All Terrain Armored Transport.
AT-ST - All Terrain Scout Transport.
Heavy Artillery Platform - needs to be deployed to fire long range shells.
Imperial Landing Craft - based on the design of the Lambda class shuttle, this shuttle’s mission is purely that of troop transport.
Landing Barge - used to bring down Imperial armor from Imperial Star Destroyers for ground assaults.
Mobile Artillery - a one-man light artillery unit, which must be deployed to fire.
Phase Three Dark Troopers - allows an Imperial trooper to wear and operate the heavily armored and heavily armed battle suit.
Shock Troopers - heavily armed Stormtroopers armed with rocket launchers that fire Air to Ground missiles.
TIE Advanced - a new Imperial space superiority fighter that is on par with the Alliance A-wing, comes equipped with shields and a hyper drive as standard.
TIE Bomber - Imperial fighter-bomber.
TIE Fighter - main Imperial fighter.
TIE Interceptor - Imperial space superiority fighter.
Troop Carrier - eight wheeled vehicle with anti-vehicle gun.

Alliance Forces

Rob “Biggs” Baden, Commander Red Squadron, Pilot (male Human)
Jeni “Angel” Courtner, Pilot (female Human)
David “Wild Cat” Fate, Pilot (male Human)
Leif Glaive, Commander of Alliance forces on Balfron (male Bothan)
Deanna “Dee” Hashi, Pilot (female Human)
Irena Hesh, Commander (female Human)
Zorn Jackson, Mechanised Infantry Commander (male Human)
Chris “Pip” Layne, Pilot (male Human)
Kyle “Gnoizic” Mandal, Pilot (male Human)
Chad “Kulgon” Maxfield, Pilot (male Eh’shu’lan)
Chelsey “Vape” Maxfield, Pilot (female Eh’shu’lan)
Steve “Thumper” Michadick, Pilot (male Human)
Kapp Nolan, Captain (male Zabrak)
Elise Nosnern, Lieutenant Colonel (female Human)
Sondra “Viper” Rhys, Pilot (female Human)
Paul “Stormie” South, Pilot (male Human)
Paul “Rogue” Sweet, Pilot (male Human)
Grohl “Trip” Strachan, Gunner (male Human)
Alex Trice, Sergeant (female Twi’lek)
Garth Twain, Infantry Commander (male Human)
Twill, Captain Air Speeder pilot (male Sullustan)
Fi Vayger, Captain of Alliance Assault Frigate Sheitan (female Bothan)
Richard “Wildstar” Vogel, Commander Blue Squadron, Pilot (male Human)
Jamie “Shadow” Wetherill, Pilot (male Human)

Imperial Forces

Kavil Beruss, Imperial Fleet Commander (male Human)
Jaxx Garner, Commander of Imperial forces on Balfron (male Human)
Bexley Herntil, Second Lieutenant, Pilot (male Human)
Gideon Kawl, Lieutenant (male Human)
Gade Lon, Captain (male Human)
Ashby Melaes, Executive Officer (male Human)
Ziff Odom, Lieutenant Colonel (male Human)
Cidran Petit, Lieutenant, Pilot (male Human)
Grice Sandoval, Colonel (male Human)
Leonia Sestina, Major (female Human)

Prologue

Major Leonia Sestina had been summoned to General Garner’s office. Leonia had only met the General a few times since being posted to this garrison, mostly during troop inspections. More intrigued than concerned as to why she had been summoned, Leonia walked up to the Generals office and reported her presence to Lieutenant seated at a desk in the front office. “Major Sestina reporting to General Garner as ordered.”

The Lieutenant looked up from the work he was doing and at Leonia. “The General is expecting you Major, go right in.”

Leonia pivoted on her heel and walked towards the Generals door, when she got within a foot of the door it detected her presence and automatically opened. Walking straight over to the Generals desk, Leonia came to attention and saluted. “Major Sestina reporting as ordered, sir.”

General Jaxx Garner was looking out of his window at the parade ground below at a squad of Stormtroopers marching. General Garner was in his late forties, it looked like he kept himself in shape, as his body was still trim and muscular. With features that could be called weathered but still quite handsome his black hair was just starting to grey at the sides as his age started to catch up with him. General Garner looked at the woman stood in front of him, to look at her he would have probably guessed that she was in her early thirties. Her uniform was in pristine condition; the creases were all in the right places and looked sharp enough to cut your fingers on them if you were to run them down them. Leonia’s brown hair was cut to a short military length and her features; Jaxx thought would be classed as attractive. General Garner sat down in his chair. “At ease Major.” Leonia stood at parade rest with both hands clasped behind her back. “I’ve been looking at your service record.” Jaxx spun his monitor around so that Leonia could see her file displayed on its screen. “It’s quite impressive, two Commendations for Bravery, a Commendation for Loyalty, the Imperial Security Medal and the Gold Star of the Empire and numerous campaign awards. Yet your record is mired, it seems that you have a tendency to speak your mind, regardless of the consequences and then there is this incident with Colonel Lore, who you assaulted and left him with a broken jaw, broken wrist and numerous other injuries. Care to explain?”

“It’s quite simple sir, Colonel Lore suggested to me that it would advance my career if I were to perform certain things for him that even slave girls would baulk at, when I refused and he persisted I persuaded him otherwise and then reported him. I was reprimanded and transferred here after the inquest, that’s all there is to it sir.”

“You do realise that you probably sacrificed any further promotions by your actions?”

“Permission to speak freely, sir?”

“By all means, Major.”

“I wouldn’t have changed my actions at all even if the person asking was senior to Colonel Lore, if I’m going to get promoted then I want it to be because I’ve earned it not because I’m willing to jump into the sack with a senior officer and earn it on my back. I’m a professional soldier and to be treated otherwise is an insult to me and the Empire and if my actions mean that I stay as a Major for the rest of my career, so be it.”

“Well you’ve just re-affirmed my thoughts on you Major and now I’m certain I’ve made the right choice.”

Leonia seemed slightly confused by what the General had just said. “Sir?”

“Affective immediately you’ve now been re-assigned to me as my aide, I want an Officer that’s not afraid to speak their mind, but within reason, is that understood Major?”

“Perfectly, sir.”

“Good, now do you recognize this planet?” The General pressed a button on his keyboard and the display of Leonia’s record was replaced with that of a planet. The planet seemed to have one main land mass surrounded by the ocean.

“It looks like Balfron sir.”

“That’s because it is indeed Balfron. Six months ago the Rebel Alliance and the local populace forced the Empire off Balfron. The planet itself is of no real importance it didn’t contribute much in the way of resources to the Empire, its strategic location however means that the Rebel Alliance is a step closer to Coruscant. Director Isard wants this changed; she wants the Rebels kicked off Balfron and the Empire to re-assert control once more. Over the last few weeks we’ve been sending Probe Droids on recon missions, most were intercepted before they could make planet fall but a few got through.” The General pressed another key on the keyboard and the image of Balfron changed to a tactical overview. In orbit above the planet Leonia noticed the Icon of a Golan III weapons platform and that of two starships, an Assault Frigate and a ship that Leonia didn’t recognise. According to the display the ship was over four kilometres in length.

“What is that ship?” Leonia asked.

“That is a Rebel Independence Cruiser. Made by Mon Calamari, it’s one of the Rebels new super battle cruisers. Fleet command believe that it’s capable of engaging two possibly three Imperator-class Star Destroyers simultaneously and winning. That’s also why we believe there are only two star ships in orbit.” The display shifted to the planets surface and numerous military installations were highlighted in red. “As you can see the Rebels have dug themselves in quite firmly, it’s our job to go in and dig them out.”

“Understood, sir, when do we leave?”

“An assault group is being put together now under the command of Admiral Kavil Beruss; we’ll be good to move out in two days. Pack your bags, Major, we’re going to war!”

“Yes, sir.” Leonia came to attention and saluted the General, pivoting on her feet Leonia marched from the office to get her gear ready. Leonia felt her adrenalin starting to course through her body at the thought of the upcoming conflict. She clenched her fists several times in an attempt to release some of the energy going through her as she walked down the corridor.

Chapter One

Richard was leaning back on a console whilst Rob stood at parade rest as they both listened to Commander Abodar as he was talking to both Squadron leaders. Commander Abodar was going through the Morning Star’s scheduled jump to the Balfron system in just over two weeks time. The three men continued talking for several more minutes until they were interrupted by Ensign Wraw. “Excuse me, sir. A new contact has just dropped out of hyper space.”

Abodar stopped talking to Richard and Rob; he turned to face the ensign. “Have you identified it?”

“Yes, sir, it’s a B-wing. It’s hailing us.”

“Open a channel, Ensign.”

Wraw flicked a switch and opened the channel for everyone to hear.

“This is Flight Officer Koror to Morning Star. Do you copy?”

Commander Abodar answered. “This is the Morning Star. What can we do for you, Flight Officer Koror?”

“Hello, Morning Star! I’m reporting for duty with Blue Squadron and I’m requesting permission to come onboard.”

“Standby, Flight Officer Koror.” Commander Abodar signalled for the comms to be cut. When he saw that Ensign Wraw had killed the comms he turned to Richard. “It looks like one of your replacements has turned up.” “Yes, sir.” Richard put his hand into his pocket and pulled out his comm. unit. “Thumper, are you there?”

After a few seconds, Steve responded. “Thumper here, go ahead, sir.”

“Steve, one of the replacements has turned up. Head down to the hanger and greet her; will you?”

“I’m on my way. Thumper out.” Steve got up from his chair and placed the data pad he had been working on down on his desk, he headed for the nearest turbo lift that would take him to the hanger. When he got there, he saw a B-wing passing through the Mag Con force field and setting down in an empty bay. The canopy on the B-wing opened as Steve headed towards the fighter. The pilot jumped down to the deck just as he arrived.

Coming quickly to attention, the pilot spoke. “Sir, Flight Officer Vies Koror reporting for duty, sir.”

Steve smiled to himself, thinking back to when he had been a rookie. “At ease Koror.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

“I’m Major Steve Michadick, call sign Thumper. I’m your X.O. You have any gear with you?”

“Yes, sir. In the hold,” she said as she pointed back towards the fighter.

“Ok. Get your gear and I’ll take you to your quarters. I’ll have Flight Officer Ayana to come see you in twenty minutes and give you the guided tour of the Morning Star.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

Steve led Koror towards the turbo lift that would take her to her quarters.

Several hours later, both Paul and Steve were in Richard’s office. Richard sat behind his desk and was looking through a data pad. Steve sat in the offices only other chair, while Paul leaned against the wall. Richard looked up from the data pad. “Ok, over the next several days, we’ll be getting our much needed replacements. Flight Officer Koror is the first one to show up. Steve, you’ve already met her, correct?”

“Affirmative, she’s been assigned to quarters and, at the moment, she’s the only occupant. However, as you know, that may change depending on our incoming newbie’s.”

Paul spoke up. “Any more info on the other nuggets we’re supposed to be getting?”

“Yes. Well, for two of them at least. No word from command on the final two yet, so, I guess we’ll know in the next few days. The first is Thantos Mont, call sign Hunter. He’s a Gran from the planet Hok, next is Paul South, call sign Stormie. He’s from Asmeru. The final two will fly in the next few days before we jump to Balfron, so it’ll give you both enough time to get ready for integrating them into the squadron before we leave. Paul, I want you to start training them and Flight Officer Koror as soon as possible, use the Sims at first, some old historical missions of Blue squadron and whatever else you can think of before you start taking them out for real.”

Paul thought about it for a moment before speaking. “I’ve got a few missions in mind that should be right for them; it’ll also give me a chance to try out some of the new missions I’ve created, nothing better than having willing volunteers to play with,” he said with a sneer.

Steve looked over to Paul. “Creepy! You sound too much like Ranger!”

“Well the slot for the ships sadist was open, so I thought I might as well give it a go!”

Richard shook his head while Steve chuckled quietly. When Steve had finished laughing, Richard carried on talking. “On a serious note, soon the squad will be up to full combat strength, something that it hasn’t been for too long. I’d like to keep it that way for as long as possible. So, I want the squadron pulling together to make it a real tight knit combat wing.”

Paul pushed off from the wall. “You better make sure you send a copy of that order to the Imps then, Chief, as they have a nasty habit of screwing with our plans!”

“I’ll send a copy to Director Isard first thing in the morning. I’m sure she’ll be more than accommodating for us!”

“On a slightly more serious note Chief, I’m going to be switching back to my Y-wing; I can’t stand the B-wing.”

Richard looked a little surprised. He had always been a big fan of the new fighter-bomber. “Are you sure? The B-wing out performs the Y-wing in almost every aspect.”

“Yeah, I know; but the damn thing is just too awkward and alien for me to fly. No, I’ll stick with my Y-wing. Like I said before, it’s the best gun platform we’ve got. And, besides, I like the thought of Shade being back there covering my six if systems go down.”

“Well, if you’re sure that’s what you want, Paul. I’ll make the changes.”

“Give my B-wing to one of the new replacements that will be arriving in the next few days. Might as well let someone who can fly the damn things have it.”

Richard smiled slightly to himself. Paul had always resisted changes in certain things, and it looked like his choice of fighters was going to be no different.

The three officers continued to talk about squadron operational policies and plans for the next forty minutes before Paul and Steve left Richard’s office and headed down the corridor. Steve spoke first. “So, what are you up to now?”

“Me? I’m meeting Irena for lunch.”

“Things are starting to get serious between you two then?”

“Yeah; they are, especially since she transferred over to the Morning Star under Colonel Nosnern’s command. Who’d have thought it, Steve? We didn’t exactly meet under the most romantic of circumstances.”

“Oh, I don’t know; a huge ship full of Zombies in a remote nebula…what could be more romantic?” Steve said, dripping with sarcasm.

“Ha, you should come along and invite Sooli. We could make it a double date.”

Steve stopped and gave Paul a questioning look. “I know where you’re going with this.”

Paul feigned a look of hurt. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Steve studied his face for a second and then turned to continue walking. “I’d love to, but I have some work to do. Another time maybe?”

Paul shook his head. “Steve, one day you’ll ask Sooli to be your wife and, you know what? She’ll say yes. It’s bloody obvious that you both want to get married!”

Steve’s cheeks seemed to take on a reddish colour as Paul mentioned marriage. “I know; but, at the moment, I think it would be easier taking on the 181st in a Z-95 than actually getting down on one knee!”

“You don’t want to leave it too late, mate. Life’s too short, especially in our line of work.”

“I know; and you’re right. I’ll do it soon. Enjoy your lunch and say hi to Irena for me.”

“No worries mate. Catch you later.”

The two men parted company, one heading off to lunch with a big smile on his face, the other lost in thought about how to make the woman he had been longing for, for what seemed an eternity, his wife.

Over the next few days the rest of the replacement pilots for Blue Squadron arrived. First to arrive on the Morning Star, was Thantos, who was met by Vies as he stepped off the shuttle.

“Hi. My name’s Vies, but most people call me Smiley. I got here the other day,” she said as she offered her hand in greeting.

Thantos hefted his kit bag up onto his left shoulder then looked down at the small Zabrak woman. “Flight Officer Thantos Mont, but, if you like, you can call me by my call sign, Hunter.” He then took Koror’s small hand and shook it with one of his large hands.

“I’ll show you to your quarters. You’re on your own at the moment, but you’ll be getting a roommate in the next few days.”

The two pilots headed away from the shuttle, with Thantos following Vies. She pointed things out to him as they headed towards the turbo lifts that would take them up to quarters. As the two waited for the lift to arrive Vies asked Thantos a question. “So, how did you get the call sign, Hunter?”

“I used to be a Bounty Hunter. Upon learning this, my class mates came up with the call sign straight away. What about your call sign?”

Vies seemed to blush a little before answering. “Well, I’ve got a bit of a temper. It has gotten me into trouble on a number of occasions. During my time at the academy I got on the wrong side of one of my instructors. He came up with the nickname Smiley for me because I never smiled when he was teaching me. The other pilots all thought this was really funny, so, the name stuck.”

The lift arrived and took the pair up to the living quarters’ deck. Vies walked out of the lift and stopped at the first door on the right. “This is your place. There’s a data pad on one of the bunks. It’s for you. It has a guide of where things are onboard. I’ll leave you to get settled in and see you again at lunch time in the Canteen.”

Thantos walked into his quarters. Before the door closed, he turned around back towards Vies. “Thanks for the welcome. I’ll see you later then.” Vies waved as she walked off. The door closed and Thantos was alone. He put his kit bag down and sat on the bed with the data pad on it. Picking up the data pad, he activated it and started scrolling through it.

The last three replacements for Blue Squadron all arrived the following morning. This time it was Paul that was waiting to welcome them onboard. The three new pilots lined up and stood at attention. “At ease,” Paul commanded. The new pilots all stood at parade rest. “Welcome aboard the Morning Star. This will be your new home for the foreseeable future. My name is Major Paul Sweet, I’m your training officer; and it is my job to make sure that you people are ready for what’s out there. I’ll take you to your quarters were you can stow your gear and settle in, but don’t get too comfy. I’ve scheduled a training flight four hours from now. Anyone have any questions?”

Erika raised her right hand up.

“Yes, Flight Officer Decker?” “Is it just going to be us out there practicing, or is it going to be the whole squadron?” “For this session, it’s just going to be the new members of the squadrons so that I can assess your abilities and assign you to your flight groups. Tomorrow will be everyone out training so we can practice squadron manoeuvres and tactics. Is there any more questions?”

There were none; so Paul led them to the turbo lifts and up to their quarters. The new pilots each went into their quarters and stowed their gear. On each of their empty beds was a data pad containing the information they would need about their new home.

A few hours later, Paul South was the last of the new pilots to arrive to Blue Squadron’s briefing room. He looked about the room and sat down in an empty seat away from the rest of the new pilots who had chosen to sit near one another. The fact that Paul had chosen to distance himself from the rest of the group had not escaped Erika’s attention. She was leaning over to talk to Vies when Major Sweet walked into the briefing room and all five of the new pilots jumped up and stood at attention.

“Sit back down people; you’re not at the academy now. In the future, I don’t expect, or want, you to get up when I enter the room, but that’s not to say you don’t when other officers enter, or the ‘old man’ comes in, ok?” The small group sat back down into their chairs. Everyone was dressed in their flight suites with their helmets stashed under their seats. As Paul took up position behind the lectern, he placed his helmet on it. “Ok. Today I’ll be evaluating how you handle your fighters; and, from your performances, I’ll be allocating your flight assignments. Today’s session will range from basic formation flying all the way through to combat drills. Anyone got any questions?”

“Yeah, I have one. How come we have to do this? We’ve already proved we can fly. That’s why we’re here. We should be out there going after the Empire, not doing some dumb training exercise!”

“Well, Mr. South, you may feel you’re ready to take on the Empire all by yourself, but we like to operate as a team out here. Some of you may already have combat experience in star fighters, but that doesn’t mean that you’re invincible or unable to learn new tactics. All your training at the academy has gotten you to this point. Now it’s for real; and you really start to learn, because there aren’t any second chances out here. The bad guy that’s trying to vape you doesn’t care if it’s your first mission or thousandth. All they are trying to do is frag you and make it back home themselves.” Paul looked around the room to see if anyone else wanted to speak, but no one did.

“Ok, last thing before we head out…side arms!” Paul drew his DL-44 from his holster and held it up so that everyone could see it. “The Alliance has no particular policy on this issue, so it’s up to you if you carry one or not. My own personal advice is always carry a weapon with you at ALL times. You’ll hear some pilots argue that there’s no point, as they’ll never get to use them, so therefore they never have one on them. That said and speaking from personal experience, having a blaster on me has saved my life several times. I’ll leave the choice up to you. Ok, let’s head out.” Paul holstered his blaster and left the briefing room. The pilots filed out behind him and followed Paul down to the hanger and their ships.

Chapter Two

The ten B-wings and two Y-wings all passed through the mag con force field and out into open space. Richard led the starfighters away from the Morning Star and the other support ships so that the Squadron could navigate freely. He tuned his comm. unit to the squadron’s frequency. “Okay, people, here’s what today is about; first off we’re going to be practicing formation flying in our new flight assignments, after we’re all comfortable with that, we’re going to be doing some combat practice. Then to round it all off we’re going to have a melee tournament to see who the best pilot is for the day. Right let’s get into our flight assignments.”

The starfighters broke off into their assigned flight groups with the flight leaders taking the lead. Richard had spoken to Steve and Paul earlier about what he wanted to do when the squadron was out training. Steve took his flight first and proceeded to put them through a series of tough manoeuvres. Richard was observing Steve’s flight and paying particular attention to the two new members Steve had in his group. Once Steve had finished his manoeuvres and the flight had rejoined the squadron, Richard passed on his comments. “Blue nine, Steel, you did well out there, you managed to stay in your assigned pattern at all times, good flying. Blue eight, Dragon, not bad but you still need to work at staying with your wing-man. During combat things can get very disorientating real quickly and you can end up getting separated from your wing-man leaving them wide open to attack. Ok Blue three, take your group out.”

Paul pushed his throttles forward and his Y-wing accelerated. The rest of this flight matched his speed and maintained their formation. “Shade, see if you can get any more speed out of this crate, at least up to a B-wings cruising speed if possible.” The droid tootled back a response which displayed on the central CMD. “Yes I know I could set my lasers to a lower setting and it would give me more power that way but I want to keep my laser levels stable.” Shade beeped and whistled back another response. The speed indicator on Paul’s display started to climb and a gap started to open between him and the other three starfighters.

Thantos, who was piloting the other Y-wing, noticed that his flight leader was starting to pull away from the rest of the group. Thantos spoke to his own droid. “Dodger, talk to the Majors droid and see what he’s doing to get his Y-wing to go faster.” Dodger warbled an affirmative, seconds later the droid was whistling and beeping away. Thantos read what the droid was saying. “Can you do the same for this ship?” Thantos almost missed the manoeuvre that Paul had started as he was too busy waiting to see Dodgers reply. Throwing his Y-wing into roll that mirrored the one that Paul was doing he noticed his speed increasing. “Nice one Dodger, let me know if the Major does anything else like that.” Dodger whistled an affirmative.

When Paul felt that he had done enough with his flight he rejoined the squadron. Once back in formation, Richard spoke to the two new members. “Blue seven, Smiley, you were quite hesitant in some of those manoeuvres back there, when we get back I think you should spend some time in the Sims practicing close escort flying. Blue ten, Hunter. That was some good flying back there. Well done for getting your R2 unit talking to your flight leader’s droid to find out what he was up to. Ok now it’s my turn, my flight, follow me.” Richard rolled his B-wing in a sharp turn which led him into a steep dive away from the group. Richard put his B-wing through the works trying all sorts of different turns, twists, jinks, jukes and other manoeuvres. By the time Richard was finished and had rejoined the squadron he felt sweat on his back due to his exertions. “Ok Blue three, how did we do?”

Paul reported. “Blue four, Stormie, pretty good but you seemed to be doing your own thing out there. You need to remember that you’re now part of a team that depends on you as much as much as you depend on them. I think some more sim time for you as well, concentrating on the team work scenarios.”

“Ok time for some combat practice. First up it’ll be flight one versus flight two, the winning flight takes on flight three. The winning flight will be the first one to seven victories. Power your lasers all the way down and have your computers set that after you take four hits you’re dead. Good luck and good hunting people.” Richard set his B-wing to practice mode then flicked the switch that opened the s-foils on his fighter.

The two flights started four klicks apart from each other, neither side having an advantage over the other. The six B-wings and two Y-wings flew at each other, when they got within weapons range most scattered but two carried on going head to head. Stormie was rewarded with a kill against Smiley. Stormie was celebrating his success by shouting and whooping over the comms so loudly that he didn’t hear Dee warning him. All of a sudden his systems went dead and a message flashed up on his CMD saying that he had been killed by Hunter.

With Red on his wing Paul closed in on Sonic and proceeded to kill Sonics B-wing with four hits. Sonics B-wing slowed to a stop; the small Sullustan folded her arms and let out a sigh then sat back in her seat to watch the rest of the combat.

Richard threw his B-wing into a series of manoeuvres designed to shake off enemy fighters. It was no use Paul and Red were still following, worse they would soon be in a position to start firing.

Paul yanked his flight stick hard as he kept Richard’s B-wing in sight. “Red, go high.”

“Copy, going high.” Reds B-wing went inverted to Paul’s Y-wing. “I got the shot!”

“Take it.”

Red squeezed her trigger and sent out a steady stream of lower powered laser bolts towards Richards B-wing. The B-wings computer Registered the laser bolts impacting on the fighters shields.

Dee had taken three hits already from Hunter, one more and it was game over. Pulling her throttle back to two thirds she pulled back on her flight stick trying to make Hunter over shoot and bring him into her firing line. The manoeuvre worked a treat, ramming her throttles fully open, Dee was firing at Hunters Y-wing scoring two hits.

Knowing it was only a matter of time before Dee got another two hits on his ship; Hunter yanked his throttles to idle and started a roll to starboard.

Not expecting this, Dee overshot Hunters fighter and was once more being pursued by him. Putting her B-wing through another set of tight turns that didn’t give Hunter a clear shot, Dee was surprised when her B-wings system went dead. Dee looked down at her CMD to see that she had been killed by Red. “Damn it!” Dee had been so concerned with getting Hunter she had forgotten about the other two fighters.

Richard spoke over the unit’s frequency. “Ok first round goes to flight two. Next round its flight two versus flight three. Good luck.”

Over the next hour the pilots of blue squadron pitted themselves against each other in the mock combat scenario. Flight two was currently first with six wins, Paul had found himself sole survivor on two occasions. Flights one and three were level with four wins each. The current match was flight two up against flight three. So far Dragon, Red and Smiley were out of the combat. Paul had managed to get onto the tail of Switch and was currently firing at the fleeing B-wing and was rewarded with a hit. Paul kept on checking his holo display to see were the other fighters of flight three where. Paul noticed Steve’s B-wing closing in on him, if Paul wasn’t careful Steve would get him as he was trying to get his brother. Paul turned in towards Steve therefore making it impossible for Steve to get onto his six. Thinking quickly what to do Paul spoke to Shade. “Shade open up a secure channel to Hunter.” Shade whistled when he had the connection. “Hunter I’m heading in your direction bringing two guests in tow. I suggest that you take a shot at mine and I’ll do the same for you, over.”

“Understood sir, on my way.”

Paul put Hunter’s Y-wing in the centre of his gun sights and headed as fast as his Y-wing could towards Hunter. Pulling his nose up slightly so that Hunters Y-wing dropped below his firing line, Paul squeezed his trigger. Steel’s B-wing started Registering the hits; she had been hit three times before she managed to pull away from the incoming fire.

At the same time Switch was also taking fire from Hunter. Before Switch could react, his systems shut down; Switch was out of the fight.

Steve managed to get two shots on target on Hunters fighter before he was whipping his B-wing around trying to get on Hunters six. There was no doubt about Hunters skill as a fighter pilot, he made Steve work to get into a firing position, but Steve stuck doggedly to the other pilot and soon was rewarded with two more hits, Hunter was gone. Looking in his holo display for Paul’s Y-wing Steve found it coming right at him, it was only then that he noticed that Steels icon was dark meaning that she had been killed, Steve reacted instantly and dove away. A stream of laser fire passed through the space where Steve’s B-wing had been moments before.

Paul licked his lips and tasted sweat as he threw his fighter into a sharp turn that brought him in sight of Steve fighter. As Steve began another series of turns Paul tried his luck with a high angled deflection shot and was rewarded with a hit. The B-wing changed direction and dove again. Paul knocked his throttle back to two thirds and followed the B-wings tight turn, when the fighter started to slide into his gun sights Paul once again pressed his trigger.

The hits came in and before Steve could do anything else his systems went dead and in his CMD was a message that he’d been killed by Paul. Letting out a long breath, Steve powered up his fighter once more and headed back towards Richards position. The other killed fighters were doing the same.

Richard spoke to his squadron. “Congratulations to flight two, well won. Ok finally before we head back to the Star, we have the melee round. Whoever wins this; gets drinks bought for them by the rest of the squad tonight, so there’s everything to play for. I’m going to send everyone a set of co-ordinates for them to go to, once you’re there, power down your engines and wait for the go code. Same kill rules as before, four hits and your dead. Good luck to everyone, oh and by the way; I like Corellian whisky so keep that in mind when you’re getting the drinks in for me!”

Three hours later in the Fish Tank. “I’ll have that whisky now if you don’t mind.”

Richard waved Dargon over. “Dargon, would you be kind enough to get the young lady a Corellian whisky please? Put it on my account as well.”

“Right you are Colonel.” Dargon went over to a bottle that was on sitting on the top shelf and picked it up; he poured a good sized measure into a glass and handed it over to Richard.

“Thank you.” Richard held his hand up to silence the rest of the squad that was present at the bar. “Ladies and gentlemen I would like you to raise you glasses to today’s winner, Miss Sara “Red” Ayana.” Richard handed over the glass to Red as the rest of the squad cheered their fellow pilot.

As the squad celebrated Reds win, Steve was looking around the bar. The expression on his face made Paul notice what he was doing so he went over to his friend. “What’s wrong mate?”

“I just noticed that Stormie isn’t here.”

Taking a quick look about the bar Paul noticed that Steve was right. “I wonder where he is.”

“I’ve no idea, hold on a sec.” Steve dug his hand into his flight jackets pocket and pulled out his comm. unit, activating it he spoke into it. “Major Michadick to Flight Officer South, report your location please.”

After a long pause Stormie finally got in touch with Steve. “Sir I’m currently in my quarters, I didn’t see the point of all this.”

Steve’s eyebrows rose up at the reply. “Well Mr. South for your information the whole point of today has been about team bonding and getting to know your fellow squad mates, so I’m telling you right now to get up here and mix, is that understood Flight Officer South?”

The reply that came back was almost one of a sullen teenager that had just been told off by his parents. “Very well, if I must sir.”

The link went dead, Steve and Paul were left shaking their heads, it was Paul that spoke first. “He’s going to need watching, especially with that attitude; he carries on like that he’s liable to get one of us killed!”

Chapter Three

Major Zorn Jackson scanned the horizon with his macro binoculars; he found what he was looking for just over two klicks away to the east. Zorn reached down into the turret of his T4-B Tank to pick up his comm. unit. Still focusing his attention on what he was looking at through his binoculars he thumbed on his comm. unit. “Enforcer to Sabre, I’ve located the target. It’s approximately two klicks east of my current location, over.”

“Copy that Enforcer, we’re heading over to take a look, E.T.A. one minute, out.”

Zorn turned the comm. unit off and placed it back in the turret. From behind him he heard the distinctive noise of T-47 Air Speeders closing in on his position. Three T-47’s flew over his tank towards the location he had told them about. Zorn used the zoom control on his binoculars, from the smoking crater he saw the unmistakable shape of an Imperial Probe Droid rising up. He saw the droids two antennae rise up as the droid moved forward. Before it could do anything else the droid noticed the three Air Speeders heading straight for it, the droid started to head away from them but it was too late. The ground around the Probe Droid erupted as laser bolts from the T-47’s impacted near the droid. One laser bolt slammed into the droids main body sending a shower of sparks and smoke into the air.

Sensing that it could no longer carry out its mission the Probe Droid initiated its self destruct program.

Seeing the fireball, Zorn lowered his macro binoculars onto the top of the turret and once again picked up his comm. unit. “This is Enforcer, to Command.”

“This is Command, go ahead Enforcer.”

“We’ve located and destroyed another Probe Droid Command; that makes three this week. Seems like the Imps are up to something.”

“The old man agrees with you, he’s asked for all department heads to come back to H.Q. for a briefing. Get your team back to base and then get a shuttle over here.”

“Will do, Enforcer out.” Zorn chucked his comm. unit back into the tank and then called down to his driver. “Smithy, back to base as fast as you can, signal the rest of the unit to form up and follow us back.”

“You got it Major.”

Zorn held on to the hatch as his tank came to life and moved off, the rest of the unit formed up and soon the column was heading back towards their base. The T-47’s flew over the tanks as they headed to their base, the lead speeder waggling its wings as it flew by.

The briefing room was packed with the unit commanders from all over Balfron, people were talking to each other and the noise level in the room was quite high with everyone talking. The door slid open and the room fell silent, the guard at the door called everyone to attention as General Leif Glaive entered the room. The General took up position behind the lectern and placed his data pad on top of it. “Please be seated everybody.” Everyone sat back down whilst the General pressed a button on his data pad. A holo of Balfron’s main land mass was displayed in the middle of the room for everyone to see. On the display all the military assists that were stationed on the planet were displayed in green. General Glaive cleared his throat before he carried on talking. “As I’m sure most of you will know, over the last few weeks the Empire has been sending a large number of Probe Droids our way, most have been intercepted before they could make planet fall but several have made it through. The ones that have gotten through have been hunted down and destroyed; the most recent incident was today. I can only assume that the Empire is planning to retake Balfron and that an invasion is imminent!” There were a few murmurs from the officers present; they were silenced by the General when he raised his hand. When the room was quiet once more General Glaive spoke on. “We all knew that this day would probably come, and that’s why there’s such a high military presence on the planet and in orbit. We’ve come a long way from the days of Hoth; we’ve learnt lessons from our defeat there and have new weapons, equipment and more importantly new tactics at our disposal. As of now all leave is cancelled, all troops are to be recalled to barracks and be ready for immediate deployment. At midnight tonight I want all forces set at condition two, as soon as the first Imperial vessel is detected in system we go to war settings of condition one. I’ll be meeting with the civilian government later to advise them of what’s going on and what measures they can take to protect the populace. I’d just like to take this opportunity to wish everyone good luck and may the force be with us all. Dismissed.”

The room of officers came to attention once more as the General picked up his data pad and left the room. People started to file out of the doors and head back to their respective commands to implement the Generals orders. Kapp Nolan spotted his friend Zorn Jackson and called out to him. “Zorn, over here.”

Upon hearing his name called out Zorn saw his friend waving at him and made his way over to him. The two men shook hands. “How you doing Kapp? I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“You know life in the search and rescue, never dull but always another twenty klicks march trying to find some lost pilot. What about you Zorn, being a Tank jockey agree with you?”

“Well it’s easier on the feet I’ll give you that.”

“So where’s you unit based then?”

“Just over a hundred klicks north of the Capital, Eidola. What about you?”

“I’m based in Bossivepolis, on the east coast, nice place, lots of sun and sea if that’s your thing, got one hell of a Casino there as well. You know when all this is over you should come over, you and I should hit the town like old times.”

“Sounds like a plan Kapp, you’re on. So where do you reckon they’re going to land then?”

“Hate to say it buddy but I think your sector is favourite. Two cities close by puts you top of the list in my books.”

“Yeah that’s what I was thinking, I was hoping that you’d say Emettin in the south but I guess I’m not that lucky.”

“Sorry.” Kapp shrugged his shoulders.

“Guess we’ll know soon enough one way or another. Listen I better head back to my shuttle and get my people organised. Stay safe Kapp, and remember the first round is on you.”

“You got it, stay low buddy.” The two men shook hands once more before heading off to their respective shuttles and back to their commands.

Zorn headed for the launch pad and located the shuttle he had come in; running up the boarding ramp, one of the shuttle crew shouted up to the shuttle pilot. “Last one’s aboard, we’re good to go.” The shuttle pilot pressed the button to raise the boarding ramp. Zorn took a seat next to another officer and strapped himself in. The pilot got permission to launch from the controller, pressing a button that activated the shuttles repulsors he lifted the Lambda shuttle up into the air, satisfied that he was high enough he deployed the shuttles wings and steadily fed power to the engines. The pilot pointed the shuttle northwards towards Eidola.

Chapter Four

“No Questions? Remember that we could be deployed at any time. You all have simulations planned for the next few days; make the time to use them.” Lieutenant Colonel Baden looked at the seven pilots sitting in front of him. “I recommend that if you’re going to celebrate Dargon’s birthday tonight that you don’t go over board.” He continued, getting a few laughs from the pilots. Rob turned to his Executive Officer, Major Layne. After Major Maxfield had stepped down Rob had decided to promote the young man on a temporary basis. Sometimes he was a loose cannon but all in all the man was a good executive officer and a damned good pilot. “Major? Do you have anything to add?”

“No… not really…. Except that I plan to see each of you in the Sims in an hour or face the consequences.” Chris said, a grin coming on his face. He couldn’t help smiling when giving out orders, it had only been short time since he had been promoted to his new position and he was still getting used to role himself.

“And what exactly are the consequences?” asked David.

“How do extra patrols sound?”

“Appetizing!” David responded with a grin. The other pilots laughed.

“Okay, calm down.” Chris said. “Today we’ll be focusing on our primary role of fighter suppression, in the mission tomorrow we’ll be flying co-op in the Sims with Blue, and we don’t want to look bad in front of those bomber jocks, do we?”

There was general laughter from the squad. Though the two squadrons got along well, there was still a hint of playful rivalry between the two. It was good for both of the squads because that way they didn’t loose their edge when performing Sims or in real combat when they were with the Blues.

“Anyways, that’s all for me.” Chris finished and took a step back, allowing Rob to take over from there.

“Okay, boys and girls. You all know the drill, report to Major Layne for Sims before you all head out to Dargon’s birthday bash and everything will be alright.” Rob looked around the room, making eye contact with each of his pilots.

With that all of the Reds stood up and started filing out of the briefing room in pretty high spirits. It’d been a long time since they’d even lost anyone in combat and their confidence in their skills was starting to show.

It was several hours later and the pilots from Red squadron were now all gathered in the Fishtank, celebrating Dargon’s birthday. Most pilots spent their days in the Fishtank when not on duty or sleeping or doing other personal things. Lieutenant Colonel Vogel sat in the corner of the bar that was furthest from the celebration, lost deep in thought and not paying much attention to the antics going on at the bar.

“Hey, Lead. What’s up?”

Richard was brought back to reality by the voice; he looked up to see who had spoken to him. “What? Oh nothing, sorry Steve I was light years away.”

“You don’t look too good.” Steve said as he sat down at the table.

“Me, no I’m ok, just thinking about things.” Richard leaned back into his chair. “Shouldn’t you be joining in the celebrations? Where’s Sooli?”

“She’s not off duty yet, so I might as well give you some company.” Steve replied, as he picked up Wildstar’s empty mug and whiffed it. “Lomin?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t drink that stuff… I prefer a hot chocolate.”

“At a party?”

“Well, once I tried Vape’s fizzy but that went bad. I stick to things I know I like… or at least now I do.” Steve said with a laugh. “I don’t even know if anyone but Vape likes those things.”

“Kulgon says he does, but I think that’s only because he’s backing up his sister. Never seen him drink a whole glass though.” Richard said. He leaned foreword. “You know, the only person I think that I’ve seen drink more than one full one in one sitting, apart from Vape, is Pip.”

“Oh! Yeah! I remember.” Steve laughed. “I think that I’ve never laughed so much since that day. Sugar-crazed Pip… he was a Flight Officer; too, I remember when that happened. He got a whole month of flight duty because he did that thing to Neil…”

“Hahahaha, yeah, it was pretty good!”

“What was good?” asked a voice from behind Steve. Both turned to look at one of the other long standing Blue Squadron pilots, Major Sweet. Paul moved around to a free chair near Steve and sat down at the table. “Evening, Chief, Steve.”

“Heya, Paul. We were just recalling old times.” Steve grinned. “Where’s Irena?”

“She’s still on duty for a while.” Paul replied easily, taking a sip from the orange liquid in the glass he’d brought along with him. Since it was his birthday, Dargon was serving all the drinks for free, and that made some of the pilots start making strange mixtures. Seemed that the orange one had stuck.

“How does she like the difference from Imperial to Rebel?” Richard asked.

“Pretty well, I think. Plus, I went through the same thing so I can help her wherever she needs it, or at least accepts it. But I think she’s handling it well enough for now.” Paul replied.

“I bet your liking the change, too, eh?” Steve laughed as he poked fun at Paul. “Bet your quarters are much cosier than they were before.”

Paul turned red but laughed anyways. He’d always gotten along well with Steve, so his poking fun was permit able. Plus, Paul could shoot back. “What about you and Sooli?”

“We’re great, thanks for asking.” Steve replied quickly changing the subject as he always did when questioned about Sooli. Steve was about to say something else when suddenly half of the bar broke out in song, singing happy birthday to Dargon. Soon enough, the whole bar was lost in the song wishing Dargon a happy birthday.

Chapter Five

[Golan Three Orbital Defense Platform above Balfron]

Gates was the tactical officer on board the Golan platform. Ever since General Glaive had put his forces on condition two, Gates felt he had been living in the command room on the platform; he was four hours into a seven hours shift when his console beeped at him. The beep meant that the scanners had picked something up. A section on his display screen was flashing, Gates touched a button and the screen zoomed into that quadrant. Knowing that the readings could only mean one thing, Gates called his captain over. “Captain Vakil, I think you need to see this.”

The Quarren officer came over to Gates station and looked at the display. Vakil called out to a nearby work station. “Display that quadrant on the holo projector.” Above the command console in the centre of the command the holo projector came to life and started displaying the selected quadrant.

“Ships emerging from hyperspace, Captain!” Gates reported. “They’re Imperial.”

Vakil looked at the holo projection; suddenly the display was filled with Imperial war ships.

Gates continued speaking. “I count five ISD’s, two Victory Destroyers, four Lancer Frigates, two Dreadnaughts, two Nebulon B-2 Frigates, two Loronar Strike Cruisers, two Enforcer Light Cruisers and one Modular Taskforce Cruiser.”

Vakil was stunned by the size of the Imperial fleet, shaking off his inaction, Vakil started to issue orders to the people in the command room. “Put the station on Red Alert. Get the shields up. Stand by to launch both A-wing squadrons. Open up a channel to General Glaive right now.”

The comms officer quickly did as he was told as the lights in the command room went from normal illumination to red to indicate the alert status. “Captain Vakil, I have General Glaive ready to speak to you.”

“General, a large Imperial task force has just dropped out of hyperspace, I’m relaying the feed from us to you now sir.” Vakil signalled for the comms officer to transmit the data.

“Captain, we’re receiving the data now. I’m sending the Eosian and Sheitan to your location for support. You’re cleared to engage all enemy ships. May the Force be with you. Glaive out.” General Glaive cut the communication to the platform and stared at the images of the Imperial ships. Looking around his command room he saw that most people were looking at him and waiting for his instructions. Leif took a deep breath before he spoke. “This is it people, we knew this day was coming. I want all of our forces set to condition one right now, Captain Vakil and the those ships won’t hold the Imperials off for long. Snap to it people.” As soon as the General had finished speaking everyone set about their tasks, Leif turned his attention back to the display of Imperial ships closing in on the Golan platform and the two Alliance war ships, the General went over to his comms officer. “Get in touch with Command; we’re going to need reinforcements right away.”

Onboard the Golan Three platform, Gates saw on his display the last A-wing leaving the hanger. “Captain Vakil, both A-wing squadrons have launched and are joining up with fighters from the Eosian.”

“Understood. Mister Gates, arm the torpedoes, launchers one through fifty, lasers and turbo lasers up to full power.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Captain, the ISDs and Vics are launching fighters, looks like TIE Fighters and TIE Interceptors. Our fighters are up against two to one odds.”

Another technician called out to Captain Vakil. “Captain, the Vics and several other ships are heading our way. Their fighters are giving us a wide berth and seem to heading for our fighters. No sign of enemy bombers.”

“Target the lead vessel, as soon as it’s in range fire all torpedoes. I want all our guns firing as soon as the enemy sips are in range.”

Gates targeted the lead Imperial ship; it was an Enforcer Light Cruiser. The display started counting down as the Cruiser drew closer. The lock went from red to green indicating that the Cruiser was now in range, Gates pressed the firing button. From both missile towers, twenty five proton torpedoes leapt out of their launch tubes. The vibration of the launching torpedoes was felt throughout the station. “Torpedoes away! Reloading all tubes.”

The torpedoes tracked towards the targeted Cruiser. The gunners onboard the Cruiser tried to destroy the incoming torpedoes before they could hit their ship. Some of the gunners got lucky and managed to destroy a few of the torpedoes but the sheer number of torpedoes meant that they couldn’t destroy all of them in time. The first torpedo struck the Cruisers shields and detonated, it was followed a second later by three more torpedoes which again detonated on the shields but this time the combined force seriously weakened the shields. When the next torpedo hit, it proved too much for the shields to handle. The next impact was to the Cruisers hull, the explosion tore through the outer hull. Before that explosion had even started to diminish, there were more hits. The Cruiser was consumed by explosions as the torpedoes blew the ship apart. By the time the last torpedo impacted on the Cruiser over four thousand Imperials had been killed in the ships destruction.

The crew of the Golan had little time to celebrate the death of the Cruiser they were already targeting the next enemy vessel. The Golan’s guns were firing on a Lancer Frigate, which was in turn returning fire at the station. The laser bolts from the Golan slammed into the Frigates shields; at first the shields were strong enough to absorb the punishment from the platform but after repeated hits the shields on the port side of the frigate began to weaken. Several laser bolts slammed into the frigates hull, turning the white hull black were they impacted. One of the laser bolts hit one of the many turreted lasers on the Lancer frigate and blew it up. Captain Vakil saw the explosion on the display. More laser bolts were now hitting the Lancer Frigate causing even more damage to the ship, suddenly Gates called out.

“Sir, Victory Destroyers in missile firing range!”

Captain Vakil felt his stomach muscles tighten as a wall of flame erupted from the wings of both Victory Destroyers.

Gates looked down at his console briefly before speaking. “We have one hundred and sixty concussion missiles inbound on our location!”

“Mister Gates, target the closest Vic and return the compliment. Have all lasers target the incoming missiles.”

“All ready done sir.”

The station vibrated again as fifty proton torpedoes shot out of the twin launchers and towards one of the Victory Destroyers. Laser bolts from the platform started to pick off the incoming concussion missiles but there were just too many. The shields around the platform became visible to the naked eye as the missiles started impacting on them. It wasn’t long before the shields failed and the missiles started impacting on the platform.

In the command room the lights dimmed as the missiles exploded on the Golan’s hull. “Sir we’ve just lost the starboard torpedo launcher, it’s been blown apart!”

Captain Vakil reached for the command console to steady himself as the station shook under the missile impacts. Captain Vakil’s activated the stations intercom so that everyone could hear him. “All hands this is the Captain; get to the escape pods and abandon the station, I repeat get to the esca……”

Captain Vakil never got to finish his order to abandon the station as several missiles hit the bridge. Everyone in the bridge was consumed in a huge fireball, killing them instantly. The platform was finished, only a handful of the crew managed to make it to the escape pods before the station was destroyed.

It had been a costly victory for the Imperials though. The torpedoes from the Golan had found their target of the closest Victory Destroyer. Most of the port side of the destroyer was damaged, with the port wing being completely destroyed; small explosions were still erupting from parts of the ship.

Onboard the Imperial flagship Gorgon, Admiral Beruss was directing his fleet. “Order all ships to engage the Rebel Independence Cruiser apart from the Lancer Frigates; I want them assisting our fighters.”

Down in the crew pit, one of the comm. officers called up to the Admiral. “Admiral the Captains of the Conqueror and the Trident are asking permission to dock with the Icarus so that they can commence repairs.”

Admiral Beruss thought for a moment before replying. “Tell the Trident to proceed to the Icarus but tell Conqueror to wait until their ground troops have departed before they head over to Icarus for repairs.”

“Yes sir.” The comm. officer relayed the Admirals orders to the two Captains.

General Garner walked onto the bridge, followed closely by Major Sestina. Admiral Beruss turned to face the two army officers. “General, have your troops standing by, we’ll be ready to start landing operations soon.”

“Yes sir.” General Garner and Major Sestina saluted the Admiral then both officers marched from the bridge to get ready for the ground assault.

“Sir, our fighters and the Lancers are engaging the Rebel fighters.” “Very well, now let’s see about those Rebel star ships. Launch all TIE Bombers.”

Onboard the Eosian, the tactical officer noticed the TIE Bombers launching from the Imperial Star Destroyers. “Admiral, the ISD’s are launching bombers, I’m counting ten squadrons heading our way.”

“Order Hawk squadron to disengage from the fighters and go after the bombers. Put me through to Captain Vayger on the Sheitan.”

“You’re through sir.”

“Fi, they’ve launched bombers. I’ve sent a squadron after them but I need the Sheitan to lay down covering fire for the Eosian whilst we target their capital ships.”

“We’ll do our best Admiral, Sheitan out. Helm, I want you to come hard about and present our starboard side to the Imps. Guns as soon as their bombers are in range, open fire.”

Several X-wings from Hawk squadron had managed to get through the Imperial fighters and past the Lancer Frigates and were now attacking the TIE Bombers. One X-wing managed to destroy five bombers before it was destroyed itself by a Lancer Frigate. Another X-wing pilot had managed to line up a kill shot on a bomber only to be frustrated when a laser bolt from the Sheitan blew the bomber to pieces. By the time the TIE Bombers had gotten to within firing range, over a whole squadron had been destroyed by Hawk squadron and the Sheitan.

The tactical officer onboard the Eosian called out to Admiral. “Admiral, we’re in weapon range of the lead ISD.”

“All guns commence firing.”

A wall of turbo laser bolts flew towards the lead Star Destroyer. The Star Destroyers shields were fully charged and absorbed the incoming weapons fire. Now in weapons range itself, the Star Destroyer returned fire with its own turbo lasers. It was soon joined by the four other Star Destroyers who added their own firepower to the battle.

“Admiral, I’m currently tracking over two hundred plus enemy torpedoes, all targeted on us!”

“Engage enemy torpedoes with the point defense lasers as soon as they’re in range.”

The point defense lasers on the Eosian had a maximum range of just less than two kilometres so the crew could only wait as the torpedoes sped towards them and came into range.

Watching the display on his console, the tactical officer saw one of the torpedoes wink out of existence as the point defense lasers destroyed it. “Defense lasers intercepting torpedoes, but it’s not going to be enough Admiral, we’re going to get some leaking through!”

“Understood, all hands brace for impact.”

Throughout the Eosian people braced themselves for the torpedoes impacting on the ship; they didn’t have to wait long. The first set of torpedoes made it past the point defense lasers and exploded against the Eosian’s shields. Combined with sustained enemy laser barrage and torpedo hits it wasn’t too long until parts of the Eosian’s shield failed.

One of the bridge officers called out to the Admiral. “Admiral, we’ve got multiple hits along the hull, shield strength is down to thirty eight percent and falling!”

“Admiral, TIE Bombers are breaking off and heading back to the ISDs.”

“Tell Hawk squadron and the Sheitan to carry on attacking the bombers, the more we kill now the less we’ll have to face when they’ve had a chance to rearm. What’s the status of those ISD’s we’re engaging?”

“ISD one and two shields are starting to fail; we’ve had several hit on their hulls Admiral.”

“Good, if this carries on we might be able to force them to withdraw.”

The laser duel between the warships continued. Another deadly stream of turbo laser fire from the Eosian was sent towards the Star Destroyers. With its shields already weak, the turbo laser bolts penetrated the Star Destroyers shields and seemed to walk up the hull towards one of the shield generators. Taking more hits than the armor could handle, the shield generator exploded. At the same time this was happening the other targeted Star Destroyer was also taking hits along its main body with small explosions that could be seen from the bridge of the Eosian.

Onboard the Gorgon, Admiral Beruss went over to the tactical officer’s station. “Report.”

“Admiral, the Magnus has just lost one of her shield generators and the Terrible is taking heavy damage.”

Admiral Beruss came to a decision quickly. “Place the Gorgon between the Magnus and the Rebel cruiser and tell the Death Hand to do the same, our shields are still at full power and can take the hits.” The two Star Destroyers began their manoeuvre that would place them both in the line of fire coming from the Eosian and help protect the two damaged warships.

The Captain of the Conqueror was receiving medical treatment for his wounds. The bridge was badly damaged and not all of the injured and dead crew had been removed making the medics treatment of the Captain more difficult as she had to keep on checking were she was stepping as she followed the Captain about the bridge.

“Captain you need to stay still, you’re making it very difficult for me to treat you and stop the bleeding.”

Captain Gray came to a stop and supported himself against a broken console. The medic began to tend to his wounds once more. “Lieutenant, give me a sit rep.”

The young Lieutenant came over to his Captain. “Sir the fires in the port side are still out of control, but the chief reckons that he’ll be able to get it under control soon. Our shields are holding at twenty two percent. All troops are ready for ground assault.”

Captain Gray coughed and was instantly in pain from his injuries. He felt something wet and sticky on his lips, using the back of his sleeve he wiped it across his mouth, the sleeve came away bloody. “Humph, that can’t be a good sign!”

Before he could speak again one of the other bridge officers shouted over to him. “Captain, the Magnus and the Terrible are taking heavy damage from the Rebel cruiser, Admiral Beruss has order the Gorgon and the Death Hand to be placed in the line of fire.”

On hearing this Captain Gray seemed to forget his injuries and pushed off from the console, once more frustrating the medic’s efforts to heal him. “This isn’t how the battle was supposed to be going. Lieutenant.”

“Yes sir?”

“This is what I want you to do. First I want you to order all ground forces to launch and hold station until the rest of the ground assault unit’s launch from the fleet. Second I want you get all the wounded that you can into the two spare shuttles and get them over to the Icarus for treatment and then I want the rest of the crew to get to their escape capsules and abandon ship. Finally I want you to get someone to tie into this console navigation and weapons control and I want all this done in five minutes. Is that understood?”

For a moment the Lieutenant paused as it dawned upon him what his Captain was asking of him, then coming to full attention the Lieutenant saluted Captain Gray. “Orders understood perfectly sir.” The Lieutenant went over to another console and started carrying out his Captains orders.

Turning to the medic that was once again trying to treat him. “Forget it, I’m past saving. I want you to get the wounded off the bridge and onto those shuttles, that’s an order.”

It went against the medic’s nature to abandon a casualty but seeing the look on the Captains face she knew it would be pointless to argue with him. Getting a large dressing from her med kit she pressed it firmly onto chest wound the Captain had suffered and then she took Captain Gray’s left hand and got him to hold the dressing in place. “Good luck sir.” The medic left the Captain and started to get the wounded together for evacuation.

Just before the five minutes was up, the Lieutenant came back over to Captain Gray. “Orders carried out sir; ground troops are off the Conqueror and holding station as per your orders.”

“Thank you. Now if you don’t mind getting the hell off of my ship, I’ve got work to do. You’ve got a minute and counting Lieutenant, better get moving.”

“Aye-aye Captain.” The Lieutenant saluted his Captain then left the bridge.

Easing himself into the chair behind the console that had been rigged to act as navigation and weapons, Captain Gray winced as his body protested at the movement. He accessed the navigation controls and brought the engines up to full power and set a heading for the Rebel cruiser. Selecting the weapons control he set them all too automatic. The console told him that the starboard side concussion missiles had all been reloaded and were ready to fire. The Conqueror started to gather momentum as the engines powered the ageing warship towards the Rebel cruiser. Picking up an abandon headset, Captain Gray accessed the ships communication system. “This is the Captain; anyone who is left onboard the ship had better get to an escape capsule now before its too late.” Captain Gray threw the headset to the floor. Seeing that the cruiser was now in range he opened fire with the ships guns, most of the guns on the port side were inoperable but that hardly mattered. Pressing another button, Captain Gray launched the concussion missiles at the Rebel warship. As the missiles sped towards their target, Captain Gray relaxed back into the chair as the cruiser got ever larger in the main window.

Onboard the Eosian the tactical officer suddenly became aware of the Conqueror when she launched her missiles. It wasn’t the missiles that were the biggest concern for the tactical officer. “Admiral, Victory Star Destroyer on collision course!”

The Admiral looked out of the view-port at the warship heading for him. “ALL GUNS FIRE ON THAT DESTROYER!”

The turbo lasers switched to the new threat and started firing straight away. The huge energy bolts easily getting through the weakened shields and destroying sections of the outer hull. There was an explosion from the centre of the destroyer as something vital was hit. Several more explosions erupted from the doomed destroyer as it sped towards the Eosian. It was at this point that the missiles that the Conqueror had fired started impacting on the Eosian; most had gotten past the defense lasers and several managed to penetrate the shield and explode against the hull. The bridge of the Eosian was rocked by an explosion, the Admiral was thrown from his feet and his head smacked against the command console with a sicken thud.

One of the bridge crew raced over to the Admirals limp body. The crewman rolled the Admiral over only to see a large bloody wound on the Admirals head and his lifeless eyes staring straight up. “The Admiral’s dead! What are we going to do?”

The bridge seemed to be stunned into silence as the news of the Admirals death was absorbed by everyone. It was the tactical officer that was brought back to the here and now when his console started beeping at him. Taking his gaze away from the Admiral and back to his console the tactical officer suddenly forgot about the Admiral. The Victory destroyer was still bearing down on them. Without even thinking the tactical officer opened the ships intercom and shouted into it. “ALL HANDS ABANDON SHIP!” The man quickly got up his station and ran towards the closest escape capsule. The rest of the bridge crew began to follow his lead and soon only the Admirals lifeless body was left on the bridge. The tactical officer reached an escape capsule and got in; as soon as the capsule was full he sealed the hatch and hit the launch button. The capsule blasted away from the Eosian and towards Balfron.

Admiral Beruss watched the escape capsules blast away from the huge Rebel cruiser as the Conqueror bore down on it. At first it seemed to happen in slow motion as Conquerors nose ploughed into the cruiser. The two warships seemed too engage in a lovers embrace, both yearning for each other. That illusion only lasted a couple of seconds, as the Conqueror smashed deeper into the Rebel ship. An explosion erupted from the Conqueror as the ship could no longer take any more damage. The explosion engulfed the Imperial warship completely. The Rebel Cruiser was itself being consumed by its own explosion. Admiral Beruss shielded his eyes as the Rebel ship was destroyed in one final giant explosion, which could be seen from the planet below. When the Admiral looked out again, all that was left was debris, some of which were still burning.

Chapter Six

Onboard the Alliance Assault frigate Sheitan, Captain Vayger was still staring at the remains of the Eosian. The rest of her bridge crew where silent, most in shock at what had just happened. It was the comm. officer that finally broke the silence. “Captain, General Glaive wants to speak to you.”

“Put him on.”

The Generals voice came over the ships speakers. “Captain Vayger, I want you to take the Sheitan and all the surviving fighters to point Omega, we’ve got reinforcements on the way and will be here soon.”

“Yes sir. What about the survivors from the Eosian? Shouldn’t we try and rescue them?”

“Captain if you stay in the area you’re only going to get yourself and your crew killed; the escape pods are all heading towards Balfron. Hopefully most of them will make it down.”

Realising that General Glaive was right in what he was saying, Fi got ready to carry out her new orders. “Proceeding to point Omega as ordered sir, Sheitan out.” The connection was broken and once more there was silence on the bridge. The bridge crew was looking to Fi for leadership, now that the Admirals flagship had been destroyed. Setting aside any doubts that she had, Fi spoke to her crew. “Helm; set a course for point Omega, combat speed. Weapons; target enemy fighters and ships as we withdraw and lay down covering fire for our fighters. Comms; get in touch with our fighters and tell them to get their asses to point Omega as fast as they can.” The bridge crew once more came to life carrying out their orders. Fi felt a vibration travel the length of the ship as the engines kicked in and the Sheitan headed towards its new combat point.

The order to withdraw was relayed to the fighters. Sondra ‘Viper’ Rhys heard it as she put her Y-wing into another roll. A second later, green laser bolts passed through the space where her fighter had just been. “C’mon ‘Trip’, I’m getting old up here, and that TIE has been making you look like a rookie!” Sondra’s Y-wing was a BTL-S3 model and there was a gunner to operate the turreted lasers. Right now Grohl was doing just that as a TIE Fighter pursued them.

“Doesn’t help, you flying like a lunatic you know!”

“Oh, you want me to fly in a straight line so we can get blown to hell?”

Grohl didn’t respond to Sondra, he was too busy trying to target the TIE fighter. The TIE slipped into the centre of Grohl’s cross hairs, it was the chance he had been waiting for. Grohl stabbed his thumb down on the trigger, laser bolts from the turreted laser canon smashed straight through the TIE’s cockpit, blowing the toughened glass apart. The laser bolts carried on and into the Imperial pilot, completely disintegrating the upper half of his body. The pilot’s body had not been solid enough to stop the pair of laser bolts which carried on through his chair and out the back of the cockpit into the TIE’s engine. The laser bolts caused a catastrophic failure and the engine blew apart, consuming the TIE fighter in the explosion. All of this had taken under a second to happen.

“Nice shooting ‘Trip’, took you long enough though.”

Grohl snorted. “You are more than welcome to come back here and take over if you think you can do better.”

“Sorry haven’t got the time right now, anyway we’ve been ordered to disengage and join up with the Sheitan and wait for reinforcements.”

“Did they say how we were expected to get out of this nightmare alive and make it to the R.V.?”

“No, they just said hurry!”

The tactical officer onboard the Gorgon noticed the Sheitan disengaging from the fight along with the Rebel starfighters. “Admiral, enemy star ship is disengaging and so are groups of enemy starfighters.”

Kavil walked over to the tactical officer’s station and looked down at the officer’s console. Now that the Rebels had lost their main firepower things could start operating according to plan. “Inform General Garner to start his ground assault operations immediately.”

“Yes Admiral.”

General Garner was stood in the cockpit of one of the many Landing shuttles aboard the Gorgon. The General was dressed in his normal army green uniform but he was wearing his chest armor and helmet and also had a blaster holstered to his side. The shuttle pilot reached his right hand up to his right ear and pressed it against his headphone. “General we’ve just been giving clearance.”

“Inform the others that we’re good to go. Take us down.”

“Yes sir.” The pilot relayed the Generals orders to the rest of the ground units. Activating the shuttles repulsors the pilot steered the shuttle over to hanger opening and guided it through the mag con force field. As soon as the shuttle was clear of the hanger, the pilot deployed the shuttles wings. All across the Imperial fleet the scene was repeated as dozens of shuttles exited the Imperial warships. After the shuttles had all left it was the turn of the landing barges. These ships were carrying the Imperial mechanized units down to the planets surface; again there were dozens of these ships exiting the Imperial warships.

Onboard the Gorgon, Admiral Beruss watched the invasion force head towards Balfron. The easy part of this battle was over; they had driven the Rebels off in space, now all they had to do was conquer the planet. While there was a lull in the fighting Kavil decided to find out how many casualties they had taken, he summoned his executive officer over to him. “X.O. how much damage did the Rebels inflict on the fleet?”

“The Stalker was lost with all hands, destroyed by the Golan platform. The Trident took severe damage to her port side by the Golan’s lasers, the Captain reports that forty three of the crew where killed during the attack, but now that they’re docked with the Icarus he reckons that the Trident will be combat ready again in a day. The Conqueror, before she was destroyed also took heavy damage from the Golan’s torpedoes; Captain Gray reported the loss of over a thousand crew. The survivors from the Conqueror are now being recovered by the Icarus, we’ll have a better idea how many casualties there actually were in a few hours. Captain Gray is among the dead though I’m afraid Admiral; he was the one who piloted the Conqueror into the Rebel war ship.”

“A brave man, I’m recommending that he’s put forward for the Imperial Medal of Honour for his actions.”

“Yes sir. The Magnus has taken some serious damage with the loss of a shield generator. Two hundred and fifty eight crew were killed in the engagement with the Rebel cruiser. The Terrible also took heavy damage as well with four hundred and eleven killed.”

The Admiral shook his head slowly; they knew that the fight would produce casualties but to have so many so soon. The executive officer wasn’t finished yet though. “There’s more?”

“I’m afraid so sir. The Death Hand has taken some casualties as well, twenty two dead with four more critical who might not make it. We’ve also had some casualties as well, five dead with one critical. I’ve also got the preliminary report on our fighter losses as well sir.”

“This can’t be good either, let’s hear it.”

“Yes sir, so far we’ve lost seventeen TIE Bombers, thirty one TIE Fighters and eighteen TIE Interceptors. That figure is ten minutes old so I expect the figures are no longer accurate.”

Admiral Beruss was shocked at the news of how many fighters had been lost, again they were expecting losses but to loose sixty six fighters already was just unthinkable. “Alright, get onto headquarters and tell them that we need reinforcement’s right now otherwise when the Rebels counter attack we’ll be overwhelmed and all of this will have been for nothing. We also need more fighters as well; I want TIE Avengers and Gun

Boats as well as replacement Bombers, Fighters and Interceptors.” The X.O. came to attention and saluted and went off to carry out the Admirals orders.

The Sheitan was making best possible speed to reach point Omega, the job of getting there was being made difficult by the two pursuing Imperial Dreadnaughts and several Imperial fighters. A TIE Interceptor made a run at the Sheitan, its lasers eating away at the Assault frigates shields. Dodging away from the frigates fire the enemy fighter made a turn to come in for another attack run. The Interceptor never got a chance to start its second attack as a concussion missile from an A-wing smashed into an engine of the fighter and blew the TIE apart.

Captain Vayger grabbed hold of her command chair as the Sheitan was rocked by the incoming fire from the two Dreadnaughts. Fi called out to her weapons officer. “Which one of those Dreadnaughts has the lowest shields?”

“The lead one Captain.”

“Comms, contact any of our fighter-bombers that are with us and see if they can discourage the lead Dreadnaught.”

“Aye Captain.” The comms officer broadcasted the Captains request, a few moments later he had an answer. “Captain I’ve got four B-wings from Fortress squadron able to attack the Dreadnaught.”

“Good. Weapons make sure you give them plenty of covering fire.”

The four B-wings looped back and headed towards the lead Imperial Dreadnaught. Most of the incoming fire was directed at the Sheitan until it became obvious to the Imperials what the bombers were up to. The B-wings were soon within torpedo range and as soon as a solid lock was indicated all four fired two torpedoes each. One of the B-wings took a lot of fire from the targeted Dreadnaught and had to break off. It was while the pilot was trying to dodge the laser fire from the Dreadnaught that a TIE Fighter was able to slip on the B-wings tail and kill it. Only three of the torpedoes got through the Dreadnaughts defense lasers and impacted on the war ships shields weaken them further but causing no real damage to this itself.

Onboard the Sheitan, Captain Vayger slammed her firs down on the arm rest of her command chair. “Damn.” Fi noticed that the shields on the Sheitan were getting dangerously low; a few shots from the Dreadnaughts had even made it through the shields and hit the ship itself.

The tactical officer noticed something new on his display, realising what the reading meant he shouted out straight away. “Captain I’m getting readings of ships about to emerge from hyperspace near point Omega!”

“Stand by for enemy action fore and aft, notify the fighters.”

Three ships emerged from hyperspace and opened fire immediately. The turbo laser bolts missed the Sheitan and began hitting the lead Dreadnaught.

“Captain, I’m picking up friendly I.F.F’S, those ships are ours!”

Fi was glad she was sitting down as she felt that her legs would have given way under relief. Fi looked out of the main view port and saw the newly arrived reinforcements, their turbo lasers heading past the Sheitan and to the enemy. “Who are they?”

The tactical officer studied his display for a moment before answering. “The MC-80 is the Reef, the Assault Frigate is the Pride of Yavin and the Heavy Gunship is the Defiant.”

“Comms put me through to the Captain of the Reef.” The comms officer gave a thumb up signal to Fi. “This is Captain Vayger to the Captain of the Reef, your timing couldn’t be better.”

“This is Captain Janna Danzer, my pleasure Captain Vayger, glad we got here in time.”

The Alliance ships pounded away at the Imperial Dreadnaught, its shields now failing. This allowed the surviving three B-wings to take another run at the ship and in turn their torpedoes had no shield to impact on and detonated on the ships hull. The exploding torpedoes and the sustained turbo laser fire was more than the Imperial war ship could handle. Several escape pods managed to get away before the Dreadnaught exploded.

Onboard the ISD Gorgon, the tactical officer brought the destruction of the Imperial Dreadnaught Darkening to the Admirals attention. Admiral Beruss ordered the surviving Dreadnaught, Vengeance and the surviving fighters back to the Imperial fleet. “We can’t afford to take anymore losses. Have all warships form up and take up a defensive station.”

“Admiral, what about those Rebels warships?” The X.O. asked.

“They won’t attack; they lack the fire power to take us on.”

The X.O. continued. “Then surely we should continue and destroy them if we have the fire power at our disposal.”

“Mister Melaes, two of my destroyers are severely damaged! I have two other destroyers that have also been damaged and a frigate that is no longer combat worthy, we are in no shape to press home any sort of an attack; that is now General Garner’s job on the surface, we need to wait for our reinforcements before we can do anything.” The

X.O. looked as though he was going to push the matter further but a look at the Admirals face suggested that it wouldn’t be wise to carry on the conversation.

While all this was going on, Sondra had managed to get her and ‘Trip’ safely away from the main fighting. They were now between the Imperial fleet and the retreating Dreadnaught and fighters. Her wing mate had also managed to join up with Sondra as well. “Baker, I don’t fancy flying through that lot trying to reach our guys.”

“What you got in mind then ‘Viper’?”

“We head down to Balfron and see if we can take out some of those landing craft.”

“Copy that, I’m on your wing.”

The two Y-wings changed course and headed towards the planet and after the Imperial landing craft. After several minutes the Y-wings had closed the distance on the Imperial landing craft, who where starting to enter Balfron’s atmosphere. “Ok Baker here’s the plan. We target a landing barge each, go in with lasers first then launch two torpedoes at it, then we go after a landing shuttle each, same routine as before then bug out whilst both our gunners shoot it up as we withdraw.”

“Sounds like a plan to me ‘Viper’.”

As the two Y-wings closed in on their targets, Sondra saw the northern coast of Balfron appear as they passed through a cloud layer. “It looks like they’re heading for Ewenib.” Sondra used her right thumb to press a button on her flight stick; her CMD instantly displayed the closest landing barge. “I got barge kappa nine targeted, ‘Viper’ rolling in.”

“Barge kappa seventeen locked in, attacking now.”

Both Y-wings opened fire with their lasers sending out bolt after bolt of laser fire towards their targets. Noticing the shields on her target barge drop to below fifty percent, Sondra switched over to her torpedoes and fired two at the barge. The torpedoes easily tracked the large target and had no problem hitting it. The exploding torpedoes ripped the back off the barge. For a brief moment it looked as if the barge might survive as it continued to fly, then trailing flames and black smoke the nose of the barge dipped all the way down and it plummeted towards the ground. The barge that Baker had targeted had blown up and now only bits of flaming debris were all that remained.

Trip was using the turreted lasers to fire at other barges as they flew past; while he was firing he noticed a new set of contacts on his holo display. “We got bandits coming after us.”

Sondra targeted a landing shuttle. “Do we still have time to go after a shuttle?”

“We should do but only one attack run.”

“You copy that Baker?”

“Yeah, loud and clear.”

“We do this then go down to tree top height and get the hell out of here. Shuttle gamma twenty targeted.”

“I’ve got shuttle gamma three. Attacking now.”

The two Y-wings repeated the same style of attack on the landing shuttles, both using their lasers to weaken the enemy ships shields before firing torpedoes. The shuttle that Baker had targeted blew apart in a huge fireball when the torpedoes hit it. The Stormtroopers that were inside were suddenly ripped out; Baker saw several bodies flailing wildly as they fell towards the ground. The shuttle that Sondra was attacking lost its right wing when the torpedoes hit it, which sent it spiralling into another shuttle. The two shuttles detonated in mid air, shrapnel from the explosion damaged another shuttle, it was left trailing smoke as the pilot tried to maintain his course and speed. “Ok Baker let’s hit the deck and do one before those TIE’s join the party.” Sondra pushed her flight stick forward making her dive steeper. Soon both Y-wings were flying along at tree top level as the ground flashed by underneath them. Sondra called back to her R-2 unit. “Rusty, get in touch with head quarters at Keibakia.” The R-2 unit did as it was ordered, it gave a whistle when the link was up and open. “Command this is Buzzard five, please respond, over.”

“Buzzard five this is command, go ahead over.”

“Command not sure if you’re tracking these inbounds but we just managed to drop two barges and three shuttles, looks like they’re heading for Ewenib, over.”

“Message received Buzzard five, wait one, over.” Sondra could hear the controller speaking with someone else before he came back on the line to her. “New orders for you Buzzard; proceed to main base at Keibakia for further orders, command out.”

“Roger, Buzzard flight proceeding.”

“We got three TIE’s closing in on our six!” Trip called out.

The three TIE Fighters were closing in fast on the two Y-wings. The TIE’s opened fire and the ground below the two Y-wings erupted as the laser bolt hit. The two gunners returned fire at the pursuing fighters. One TIE had its left wing sheered off by a laser bolt and went spinning into the ground and exploded. Another was hit on the underside of its cockpit, the fighter climbed straight up, trailing smoke as it went. The final TIE received attention from both gunners, before it could fire another volley at the fleeing bombers several lasers bolts hit the TIE. Burning TIE fragments rained down into the jungle below. With no other enemy fighters after them the two Y-wings made their way to Keibakia without any further problems.

[Ten kilometres north of Ewenib]

The shuttle that General Garner was aboard folded its wings and deployed its landing gear. On both sides the shuttle lowered its boarding ramps ready to let the Stormtroopers deploy. Jaxx took his blaster from its holster and thumbed the safety off before he replaced it. As Jaxx looked out the shuttles main window he noticed weapons fire coming up to meet the shuttles, it seemed that the Rebels had laid on a welcoming party for him. The shuttle touched down and Jaxx heard Major Sestina ordering the Stormtroopers off the shuttle. The Stormtroopers quickly formed a defensive perimeter at the front of the shuttle whilst their General exited it. Jaxx jogged over to were Leonia was knelt.

Leonia held her E-11 carbine ready for use and was scanning the area for enemy troops. “It looks like we’ve got enemy armor inbound from the south.” Leonia pointed in that direction, as she was pointing more weapons fire came from that direction aimed at the barges and shuttles still coming in for landing. The landing shuttle that had been damaged by the Y-wings attack was getting ready to make its landing. Black smoke was coming from its starboard engine, making the shuttle an easy target for the approaching Alliance defenders. Several laser bolts slammed into the damaged shuttle. A critical component was destroyed by the weapons fire and suddenly the shuttle fell from the sky and smashed into the ground. The crew and soldiers onboard the shuttle never stood a chance as the shuttle was consumed in a deafening explosion. After the fireball had subsided, a pall of black smoke rose up into the sky.

Nearby a landing barge had unloaded its cargo and had lifted off and was heading back up to the Imperial fleet. Its cargo had been two heavy artillery platforms, both of which were now deploying and sighting their cannons. The two artillery units fired in unison, each one firing two shells. General Garner watched the glowing artillery shells pass overhead and towards some unseen target. The shells impacted in the distance, the sound of the shells exploding was heard seconds later followed by a secondary explosion as the target the artillery units had been firing at exploded. Black smoke rose into the sky in the distance as the destroyed Rebel vehicle burned fiercely. The two artillery units were already firing on other targets that were closing in on the Imperial positions.

A group of four All Terrain Armored Transporters were moving towards the incoming Rebel forces, the ground shaking with each step that they took forward. One of the giant walkers spotted a target and pivoted its head in that direction, its chin lasers blasted away at the unseen target. After two more bursts there was the sound of an explosion and a fireball mushroomed up into the sky.

Flanked by his escort of Stormtroopers and followed closely by Major Sestina, General Garner made his way over to a command troop carrier. Instead of being fitted out for carrying combat personnel, this vehicle was fitted with comms, holo displays and other vital equipment that would allow the Imperial ground forces to be directed from. The people inside the vehicle didn’t seem to notice the General entering and carried on with their tasks. General Garner listened in as the officers directed the battle, picking up snippets of conversation. “Captain Lon, bring your units to these co-ordinates.” “Rebel armor advancing, grid reference as follows.” “Deploy anti air units to the following positions.” “Those are Colonel Sandoval’s orders.” “Commence bombing run on the following locations.” “Enemy air units inbound on our location, at least two squadrons in strength.” On hearing the last message, General Garner stepped out of the command vehicle. “We’ve got hostiles incoming on a bombing run, find cover!” Everyone outside of the command vehicle took what shelter they could.

From the south Leonia heard the approach of the Rebel bombers, scanning the horizon Leonia saw a line of dots heading in her direction. The dots rapidly grew in size and started to take on forms, it looked like the rebels were sending in a squadron of Y-wings backed up by a squadron of A-wings. One of the All Terrain Anti-Aircraft units seemed to come to life, its turret swivelled to the direction of the Rebels then a second later five missiles had been launched at the enemy ships. Before the missiles were even half way to their targets, the launcher was already reloading and getting ready for its next shot. The missiles tracked their target and slammed into the Y-wing. The first two missiles hit the bombers shields, but the other three hit the Y-wing itself completely destroying it.

As the Rebel bombers got within range it seemed that everyone who had a weapon was firing it at the enemy ships. The sky was filled with laser bolts and missiles all trying to pluck the incoming ships from the sky. An A-wing took a laser blast and started trailing flames and smoke from its left engine, the fighter veered off and headed back towards friendly lines. A Y-wing launched a pair of torpedoes at an AT-AT, the walker had just emerged from its landing barge and was coming up to its full height when the torpedoes hit it. The torpedoes penetrated the walkers armor and detonated inside it, the explosion vaporized the troops inside and on the command deck. Like a huge dying beast the walker toppled over and crushed a squad of Stormtroopers that had bad luck of being near to the AT-AT as it died.

Several more of the enemy ships were killed as they attacked the Imperial position, a Y-wing that had been hit by several laser blasts and was now burning fiercely as it crashed near Leonia’s location. The heat from the blast washed over Leonia as did the sound of the exploding bomber.

A landing shuttle that had been hit by one of the A-wings made an emergency landing as fire started to spread from the damage inflicted on it. The Stormtroopers and the crew of the shuttle got out as quickly as they could. The Stormtroopers were protected by their armor from the flames, but the crew was not so lucky. Leonia heard the scream of one of the crew as the man came running out of the shuttle, his clothing was on fire. The man was flailing his burning arms about as he ran, trying to get away from the fire that was consuming him. One of the Stormtroopers tackled the man to the ground and did his best to smother the flames as the man writhed in agony on the ground.

The driver of a troop carrier came running over with an extinguisher and covered the burning man with flame retardant foam. A Stormtrooper that was the units medic rushed over to the man and began administering treatment to the injured man who was no longer screaming but Leonia could still hear him whimpering with the pain he was in. The shuttle that they had escaped from was now burning fiercely, with black smoke going straight up into the sky.

The Rebel attack was over; most of the ships had been destroyed by the Imperials. General Garner surveyed the scene before him and knew that before they had taken Balfron back that he would be seeing many more scenes like this over the coming days. The walkers and troop transporters, covered by the anti-air walkers were moving out and heading towards their first objective, Ewenib. The General stepped down from the command carrier and with Major Leonia and his Stormtrooper escort headed over to his own command carrier. Once everyone was onboard the driver raised the boarding ramp. Gunning the engine the driver set off bringing his vehicle into line with the other troop carriers that were headed towards Ewenib.

Chapter Seven

Aboard the Morning Star, Captain Ru’kaart was in his ready room reading the orders that had just come through for the second time; it didn’t get any better this time either. Pressing the comm. button on his desk he heard the familiar tone that signalled he was addressing the whole ship. “This is the Captain. Would all department heads be in the main briefing room in ten minutes. That is all.” Still holding the data pad with the groups orders, Captain Ru’kaart made his way from his ready room to the main briefing room. As he stepped onto the bridge his first stop was with the comms officer. “I want the Captains of the Regis and Summer in on this meeting as well; make sure that holo projector is ready for when the meeting starts.” The comms officer went to work straight away and contacted the other Captains to let them both know about the upcoming meeting.

Commander Abodar was sat in the command chair, when Captain Ru’kaart came towards him, Abodar stood up and went over to Captain Ru’kaarts side.

Captain Ru’kaart looked over to his first officer. “I need you in on this briefing as well.”

“Yes sir.” Abodar looked at the bridge crew working at their assigned stations and spotted who he was looking for. “Ensign Wraw.”

Wraw sat bolt upright at the sound of his name. “Yes sir?”

“You have the Con whilst the Captain and I are away. Try and keep the ship in one piece Ensign.”

“Yes sir.” As the Captain and Commander got in a turbo lift and headed down to the briefing room, Wraw left his post and headed over to the command chair. He stood there for several moments looking at the chair as if it was going to bite him if he dare sat on it. Suddenly Wraw became aware that several members of the bridge crew were watching him, taking a deep breath he turned and lowered himself down into the chair. Wraw could feel his back begin to prickle with sweat as he sat in ‘THE CHAIR’, whatever the Captain and Commander were doing he hoped that they would return soon so that he could go back to his own work station.

When Captain Ru’kaart and Commander Abodar entered the briefing room they noticed that everyone was already assembled and waiting. As one everyone in the room stood to attention. Captain Ru’kaart spoke as he went around to his seat. “Please everyone take your seats.” After he had taken his seat Captain Ru’kaart pressed a button in front of him and the image of the Captains from the Regis and the Summer materialized in two of the vacant seats. “Ok I’ll come straight to the point; four hours ago a large Imperial fleet attacked the Alliance forces in orbit over Balfron. The Independence Cruiser Eosian and the Golan three platform have been destroyed!” There was some murmuring from around the table. The Eosian was supposed to be the Alliance’s new super battleship, capable of taking on large numbers of Imperial warships by itself. “Admiral Brunt was killed in the battle.” Again there were hushed discussions around the table. Captain Ru’kaart carried on. “From what I’ve been told the Imperials took heavy damage to some of their warships with three of them being destroyed, they have taken up a defensive position and are holding without making any further aggressive actions. Command of the space forces has fallen to Captain Janna Danzer of the Reef. The Reef and its support ships happened to be close enough to Balfron at the time to be able to come and help, but not before the Eosian had been destroyed. The four Alliance warships left over Balfron lack the firepower to challenge the Imperials so there is now in affect a stalemate between both forces. That’s not all. A large Imperial attack force has made it planet side and right now the north east city of Ewenib is under attack. Alliance forces are doing all that they can to repel the attack. The Morning Star, Regis and Summer have been ordered in to help back up the Reef and other Alliance ships and to provide cover for Alliance reinforcements heading for Balfron. We knew that an attack like this was more than likely going to happen; even so it doesn’t make it any easier. It’ll take us twenty hours to get to Balfron so make sure that all sections are ready for when we arrive, I want us ready to go in twenty minutes. That’s all, dismissed.”

The holograms of the other Captains vanished. The rest of the assembled people got up and left to make ready for the upcoming jump. Soon there was only Captain Ru’kaart and Commander Abodar left in the briefing room. Commander Abodar turned to his Captain. “Do you want me to make the jump preparations and take the first shift allowing you to rest up?”

“Yes. Run some combat drills for the first few hours to make sure everyone is ready. Then ensure that everyone gets at least four hours rest before we emerge from hyperspace, tell the Regis and Summer to do the same.

“Yes sir.”

Captain Ru’kaart was sat in the command chair, he was watching the blue and white swirls of hyperspace flash by the main view port and he felt like his mind was doing the same swirling away trying to anticipate what the Morning Star was heading in to. The helm officer called out, bringing Captain Ru’kaart back to the here and now.

“Sixty seconds until we revert back.”

Captain Ru’kaart pressed the button allowing him to address the ship. “All hands red alert, gunners stand by, Red and Blue squadrons be ready to launch on my command.” The lights dimmed on the bridge indicating that the ship was now at battle stations.

The Morning Star exited hyperspace followed by the Regis and Summer. Ensign Wraw was looking intently at his console trying to take in all the sensor readings that were flooding onto his screen. “We’ve got a large Imperial fleet approximately a hundred and twenty klicks directly ahead of us, they’re holding station though. I’ve got a fix on four friendlies twenty klicks dead ahead, also holding steady.”

“Helm, set course for the friendlies thrusters to battle speed.”

“Aye sir, course set thrusters to battle speed.”

“Commander Uoart, put me through to the Reef, use encryption channel delta.”

Commander Uoart’s hands danced over his console. “You’re on sir.”

“This is Captain Ru’kaart of the Morning Star to Captain Danzer.”

“Glad to see you Captain, we were starting to feel a bit lonely out here. If you would bring the Morning Star into position alongside the Reef and the other ships take up a high guard position to the rear it would be much appreciated.”

“Consider it done.” Captain Ru’kaart nodded at the helm officer to carry out Captain Danzer’s orders, whilst Commander Uoart relayed Captain Danzer’s request to the Regis and Summer. “Captain would you mind giving me a quick run down of the current situation while we get into position?”

“It’s pretty much as you see it now. After we arrived the Imperials retreated to their current location, we’ve noticed a few search and rescue shuttles early on but they stopped a long time ago. The main activity has been from their Modular Taskforce Cruiser doing repairs on the destroyers. Our own shuttles recovered nine of our E.V.A. pilots and one TIE pilot; they’re all in the Reef’s medical bay at the moment. We currently have all of the surviving fighters from the Eosian and the Golan platform onboard; now that you’re here I’d like to send two of the squadrons over to your ship as space is quite tight here.”

“That won’t be a problem Captain I’ll get my deck boss to make the necessary arrangements, I’ll have him contact you as soon as he’s ready.”

“Much appreciated Captain. Vice Admiral Ull with elements of the third fleet are on their way to reinforce us. The Admiral ordered us to take no direct action against the Imperials unless we’re attacked, but he did say that our fighters are to go after any reinforcements that the Imps try to bring in.”

The two Captains continued talking for a few more minutes. “Commander stand us down from red alert and go to yellow alert. Have half of Red squadron out on C.A.P. Get Blue Squadron set up for a possible strike mission against enemy reinforcements.”

“Yes sir.” Commander Abodar made himself busy carrying out his orders.

“Sir I’m getting a reading of ships dropping out of hyperspace.”

“Tell me what we’ve got Ensign.”

“Three Imperial Escort Carriers sir, they’re currently forty klicks away from the other Imperial ships.”

“Launch all fighters, I want those carriers destroyed or driven off, put the ship on red alert.”

In the hanger the alarm klaxon sounded for every pilot to scramble. The surviving B-wings and X-wings from Fortress Squadron and Hawk Squadron launched first. They were followed by Red Squadron and finally Blue Squadron. The Reef was launching its own fighters as well the others rescued earlier giving the Alliance a force of just under six squadrons of fighters to try and stop the Imperial carriers.

As the Alliance fighters sped off towards the enemy ships Commander Uoart relayed orders to the pilots. “Blue, Fortress and Legion Squadrons your primary targets are the Escort Carriers. All other fighters are to engage enemy fighters and keep them off the bombers backs whilst they make their attack runs on the carriers. Good luck people and may the force be with you.”

The Alliance fighters sped towards the Imperial carriers with the A-wings and X-wings taking the lead positions, whilst the bombers grouped up for their strike against the carriers. Richard targeted the lead carrier; the ship appeared in his central CMD, he activated his comms to speak to the rest of the squadron. “Blue squadron; target the carrier Quest as your primary target.” The squadron checked in to acknowledge the order. Over the comms Richard heard the C.O. of Legion Squadron issuing attack orders to his squadron and finally Fortress squadron doing the same thing.

Onboard the Morning Star, Ensign Wraw was watching the scene on his console when he noticed fighters launching from the Imperial warships. “Sir we have enemy fighters launching.”

Commander Uoart relayed the information to the Alliance fighters. “Be advised that we have enemy Interceptors and Fighters heading in your direction from the Imperial fleet, nine squadrons worth.”

Wraw watched as more contacts appeared on his screen, this time from the Escort Carriers. “We’ve got multiple launches from the carries; I’m reading Bombers, Fighters and Interceptors. They’re making a run for the Imperial fleet.”

Richard looked down at his CMD; the Quest was just over seven klicks away, keying his comms again. “Blue squadron, lock s-foils in attack position as soon as we’re in range fire two sets of dual torpedoes at the Quest.”

Steve flicked the switch to set his B-wing in combat mode, the body of the bomber moved as the wings extended whilst the cockpit stayed in the same position. Steve selected his torpedoes and set them to duel fire mode, at six klicks his targeting computer kicked in and his helmet was filled with familiar sound of the beeps as the computer locked on. Soon there was a single tone indicating that he was locked on to the target, Steve heard Richard give the order to fire and squeezed his trigger. Two blue projectiles leapt forward from his B-wing towards the Escort Carrier; squeezing his trigger again Steve sent another two torpedoes towards the carrier.

Forty-eight torpedoes were homing in on the Escort Carrier Quest; onboard her Captain could only watch as his gunners tried to destroy the incoming torpedoes. The Imperial gunners managed to shoot down some of the torpedoes but the majority of them got through. So far just over half the Interceptors had managed to launch from the Quest when the torpedoes started to hit. The Quest’s shields managed to absorb the first few strikes before they failed allowing torpedoes to impact on the carries hull. Two squadrons of TIE Interceptors were still docked on the starboard side; as the torpedoes exploded the Interceptors inside were also destroyed adding their own destructive force to the death of the Quest. As the Quest disappeared in a huge fireball, four TIE’s were consumed by the explosion as they tried to exit the carrier.

A similar scene was happening with the carrier that Legion squadron had targeted, not all of the TIE Fighters onboard had managed to launch before their carrier was destroyed.

Fortress squadron was down to seven B-wings, the carrier they had targeted had managed to shoot down enough torpedoes for it to only sustain minimal damage. It also meant that all of the TIE Bombers onboard managed to escape to the Imperial fleet, whilst the damaged carrier managed to make its escape into hyperspace.

It was at this time that Imperial fighters from the fleet came into missile range of the fighters launched from the Morning Star and the Reef. Rob pressed his trigger and a concussion missile flashed away from his A-wing towards a TIE Interceptor. From his cockpit Rob noticed what seemed like a wall of concussion missiles heading towards the enemy TIE’s. The TIE’s responded by opening fire on the incoming missiles, trying to shoot them down. Most of the Imperials managed to destroy the incoming missiles but a few of the enemy pilots aims weren’t good or quick enough and they ended up being destroyed. Putting his A-wing in a tight turn, Rob slipped in behind a TIE Interceptor and quickly opened fire. The Interceptor took four hits before it blew apart; Rob flew his A-wing straight through the fireball looking for another target.

Chris looped his X-wing onto the tail of a TIE Fighter and pressed his trigger sending bolt after bolt of laser fire after the TIE. One of the laser bolts blew the top of the TIE’s starboard wing off, sending the TIE into a spin. Sending another stream of laser bolts after the damaged TIE, Chris was rewarded with another hit on the TIE, this time the enemy fighter was completely destroyed. Fate, Chris’ R2 unit suddenly let out a trill whistle. Without even looking to see what the droid had said, Chris pulled his flight stick straight back to his chest. Four green lasers streaked under his X-wing as it climbed away from the Interceptor. Looking over his shoulder, Chris saw that the TIE was still with him following his manoeuvres. His shields hissed as they took a hit from the Interceptors lasers, his shields were down to almost one hundred percent, Chris couldn’t afford to take many more hits without taking serious damage. Chris threw his fighter into another series of evasive moves to try and shake the TIE on his tail. In his CMD Chris noticed the Interceptor taking hits from laser and ion bolts, the TIE’s port wing seemed to writhe with electricity until another set of laser and ion bolts slammed into the TIE, destroying it.

“Your tail’s clear Pip.”

Over the comms, Chris heard the familiar sound of Paul’s voice. “Nice shooting Rogue, that one really wanted me!”

With the bombers joining the fight the Imperials no longer had the advantage of numbers on their side, it also didn’t help that the Rebel fighters had shields and their fighters didn’t. Onboard the Gorgon Admiral Beruss ordered his fighters to disengage and retreat back to the fleet. “X.O. I need you to do something for me.”

The X.O. came over to the Admiral. “Yes Admiral?”

“I want you to get in touch with headquarters and find out who the hell decided to use ferry pilots for our fighters instead of combat pilots! Please inform whoever made that decision that they have managed to loose five squadrons worth of TIE’s. Also, and this is the important question that I want answered Mister Melaes, were the bloody hell were the TIE Avenger’s and Gunboats that I ordered. I want the name or names of the people who made those decisions because I’m going to have them arrested and shot!”

The X.O. took an involuntary step back away from the Admiral; to say that he was in a foul mood would have been the understatement of the century. “Yes Admiral, I’ll get on it right away.”

The Alliance fighters managed to destroy eighteen more TIE’s as they retreated back to their fleet before they were ordered to break off and return back to their ships. Five Alliance fighters had been destroyed in the fight, two of the pilots managed to eject and were currently being rescued by the SAR shuttle. Overall the mission was being called a success even though a large number of replacement TIEs managed to get through.

Richard and Rob were on the hanger deck watching the rest of the fighters land. “I think we got lucky on that one Rob, next time they’ll be better prepared when they send reinforcements.”

Rob thought for a while before he answered. “You can count on that Mister Vogel, but hopefully when they do try next time we’ll also have been reinforced by Admiral Ull and we’ll be able to meet whatever they throw at us.”

Chapter Eight

Ewenib fell to Imperial control after two days of continuous fighting. Much of the city had been reduced to rubble by the non stop bombardment by the Imperials. The once proud buildings that had seemed to reach high up into the clouds were now smashed beyond recognition. Some buildings were still standing but they were either burnt out shells or had large holes in them were they had been hit by weapons fire. The sight of Ewenib smouldering in ruins was not the worst sight however; it was that of the countless bodies lying where they had fell in the remains of the street. Most were civilians who never got out of the city before the Empire lay siege to it; the carnage seemed to stretch on for as far as the eye could see.

General Garner was stood in the command post, which had been set up on the outskirts of Ewenib to the east; he was looking over the losses that his forces had taken in securing the city. As the General scrolled through the reports on his data pad the other officers stood silently and waited for him to finish reading the report. General Garner placed the data pad down on a console. “So far we’ve lost just over thirty percent of our ground units, heaviest hit so far have been out AT-ST units. It seems that Rebel

Vanguard units are the AT-ST’s biggest threat; they are able to move in quickly fire off several rockets and then make good their escape. The times when we’ve had our air units in the area, they have also been destroyed by the same Rebel units. Colonel Sandoval I want you to make combating these Rebel units your priority.”

“Yes, sir. I have a few ideas on how to deal with this threat but it’ll require several of the Heavy Artillery Platforms to be taken off front line duties and being placed under my direct command.”

“You can have six.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“I’ve been informed by Admiral Beruss that Fleet Command is sending us reinforcements tomorrow to make up for our losses and to strengthen our position. We can probably expect the Rebels to mount an attack when landing operations commence so I want all available AT-AA’s in the landing zone backed up with Shock Troopers to deal with Rebel air units. Captain Lon that will be your responsibility, make sure that you get it right.”

“Yes sir.”

“As soon as we’ve been reinforced we will start our attack on Eidola, I want all commanders briefed and ready to start operations exactly two hours after the new units have arrived. Dismissed.”

The gathered officers came to attention, saluted and left the building leaving only General Garner and Major Sestina in the command post. Leonia was studying the tactical map of Eidola when General Garner spoke to her. “What do you think then?”

“Well sir, I think that the Rebels will put up a stiffer fight for Eidola than what happened here at Ewenib. They may have been reinforced; also the surviving units from Ewenib will be there. They’ve also seen how we operate and what our battle strategies are. With luck, whatever Colonel Sandoval has in mind for dealing with the Rebel Vanguard units will help us reduce our amour losses and that most of our reinforcements make it through. It’s going to tough but we’ll do it sir, of that I’m certain.”

“As am I, but it’s always nice to hear someone else say it as well.”

Sergeant Alex Trice was inspecting her vehicle; she was the commander/gunner of an MPTL-2A, the Alliance’s long range artillery tank. All of the Alliance personnel based in Eidola moved with a purpose, everyone knew that the Imperial attack would be coming in the next day or so. Alex wanted to make sure that when the attack came that her vehicle was ready to meet whatever the Imperials threw at her. Her driver was also checking the tank as well, he was making sure that all the tracks were secure and no debris were going to cause problems for when they finally started moving. Finishing her inspection Alex stood up and stretched, her Lekku straightened out as she did this. It was only after she had finished stretching that she realized how hungry she was. Alex went round to where her driver was working. “I’m famished, you want anything?” The driver just grunted and stuck his thumb up to indicate that he wanted something as well. Alex headed over to canteen to get some food for the both of them. As she waited in line to get her food she got talking to several other NCOs she knew. One of them was recounting the story he had been told by one of the surviving defenders from Ewenib and how brutal the fighting had been. “From what he told me, an Alliance unit tried to surrender to the Imps and all of them were shot, not a single one taken prisoner, he also said that the Imps weren’t discriminating between civilians and military and just blasting anything that moved!” Alex’s Lekku twitched involuntary at that, her blood seemed to run cold through her veins. Alex said her good byes and then headed back to her tank with food. Passing the driver his food Alex told him what she had learned.

“Guess we’ll know soon enough, Sarge.”

Back in Keibakia, General Glaive was looking at the display of Balfron. Up to the north on the display the city of Ewenib was now completely green, indicating that it was now under enemy control. The green extended upwards and away from the city indicating the area the Imperials were using as their supply zone. This information had been obtained at the cost of three Y-wing Longprobe reconnaissance fighters. One of the first things the Imperials had done when they landed on Balfron was to capture the Ion Cannon at Ewenib. It had meant that the Alliance was unable to use orbital bombardments against the Imperial positions, just as the Empire couldn’t do the same to the Alliance positions because of their Ion Cannons. No ships larger than a transport could risk landing or taking up an orbital position without the risk of being shot down by either sides Ion Cannons, a stalemate was now in affect in space between the capital ships, neither side able to help their ground forces directly. It was a situation that General Glaive did not enjoy finding himself in, but he quickly reminded himself that it could be a lot worse and he would be thankful for every bit of help he could use. The reports he had received from his commanders in Ewenib before it fell had not been good. Once again the Empire had shown its utter contempt for innocents by showing no restraints in their combat operations. So far tens of thousands of civilians had been killed in the conflict. The thought of the civilians turned the Generals attention to a long blue line that was streaming out of Eidola, passing through the town of Lyran, which lay, between Eidola and Keibakia before continuing on to Keibakia. The blue line represented the thousands of civilian refugees fleeing Eidola towards what they thought would be the sanctuary of the capital, Keibakia. Those that had air speeders and other forms of transport had already begun to arrive in Keibakia, the rest were walking. Aid stations had already been set up in preparation for their arrival, but Leif knew that it wouldn’t be nearly enough.

The Bantha-class Troop Carrier/Assault shuttle flew at tree top height heading towards Bossivepolis. As the craft got within visual range of the city, the pilot keyed in the frequency for the control tower. “This is Bantha Heavy two six to control, requesting approach vector.”

“Copy two six, make your approach vector number eight.” Since hostilities had started, all aircraft were using numbered approach routes to fly in and out of the cities. Any aircraft that didn’t fly down the correct route would be considered hostile and shot down without warning.

“Confirmed approach route eight control. Have the medics standing by when we touch down, as we have wounded onboard, Bantha two six out.”

“Will do, two six, control out.”

Several minutes later and the large shuttle was touching down at Bossivepolis space port. The pilot killed the engines and lowered the large boarding ramp. As soon as the ramp had finished lowering a group of soldiers started making their way down the ramp, four of them carrying a stretcher. On the stretcher was a Bothan pilot, his orange flight suit was torn over most of his torso and his left leg. The pilot was covered in field dressings, most of which were very bloody; patches of the Bothan’s fur had been burnt away exposing the burnt skin underneath. Two more injured pilots were helped down the ramp and guided towards the waiting medical speeder. As the pilot on the stretcher was being loaded on to the speeder he motioned to one of the soldiers to come over to him. The soldier leaned in towards the Bothan and listened carefully as the pilot spoke quietly to him. When the Bothan had finished speaking the soldier gently reached out and squeezed the pilot’s right shoulder and then gave him a thumb up gesture. The Bothan pilot was loaded into the medical speeder and then taken to the field hospital that had been set up in the star port.

“Captain Nolan.”

Kapp turned to look at the person that had just said his name; it was his commanding officer who was walking towards him. “Yes sir.”

“It looks like you’ve managed to bring us back some more pilots again. Give me a quick report and then get you and your troops fed and rested, no doubt you’ll be going out again soon enough!”

“Yes sir. We managed to get those three but only just. The ‘Zoomies’ are getting hit pretty hard out there with all of the anti air weapons the Imps brought with them. We were attacked by a squad of Stormtroopers just as we were leaving but the Bantha’s quads made short work of them.”

“Good work Kapp, you did well. Unfortunately it looks like you’ll be doing these sorts of missions for some time; we’ve just got word that the Imperials are sending reinforcements that’ll be arriving within the next day or so.”

The two men started walking towards the barracks. “Any word on our reinforcements yet sir?”

“Only that they are on the way and we’re to hold on until they get here.”

“Let’s hope it’s that simple.”

Chapter Nine

Admiral Ull had arrived along with elements of the third fleet. The ships had taken up position with the other Alliance vessels. The size of the Alliance force was now equal to that of the Imperial fleet. Onboard the Maria, Admiral Ull waited in his ready room. The speaker in his desk beeped once. “Yes?”

“Admiral, we’ve managed to get you a secure connection, Admiral Ackbar is waiting for you.”

“Thank you. Please put him through.” The connection with the comms officer was replaced with the holo image of Admiral Ackbar. “Sir, thank you for taking the time to see me.”

The Image of Admiral Ackbar flickered briefly. “What can I do for you Admiral?”

“Sir I’ll get straight to the point, I’m going to need more ships from the Third fleet and more ground units. The situation here could swing either way and I want it going in our direction.”

“I’m afraid Admiral, all I can send you are a handful of ships, the rest of your fleet is needed elsewhere. I should be able to get you some more ground units but again most are going to be needed elsewhere. Please understand that what you are doing here Admiral is vital to the Alliance.”

Admiral Ull could feel his frustration building up inside him. “Admiral, with all due respect, if what I’m doing here is that vital, give me the resources to do the job!”

The image of Admiral Ackbar stayed silent for several second, the Mon Calamari’s large eyes blinking twice before he spoke. “As I said, Admiral Ull, those resources are needed elsewhere; you must make do with what you have. I’ll dispatch what I can to you right away, which is the best I can give you. Ackbar out.” Admiral Ackbar killed the transmission at his end before Admiral could object further. Once he was sure that the connection was terminated he turned to the other person in the room. “I don’t like leaving one of my officers unsupported like that.”

General Airen Cracken, head of the N.R.I., walked over to Admiral Ackbar. “I know, and neither do I, but you and I both know that what is at stake is far more important than what is happening at Balfron. We are going to need the rest of the Third fleet when we assault Coruscant. We have to look at what’s happening on Balfron as an opportunity; with that many Imperial resources being redirected there it might give us the edge in the upcoming battle and ultimately save lives.”

Admiral Ackbar merely grunted. “What of Rogue Squadron?”

“They successfully inserted themselves into Coruscant yesterday, now all we can do is wait and see how this all plays out.”

After the conversation with Admiral Ackbar, Admiral Ull called for a briefing with the Captains of the other Alliance ships on the upcoming assault he was planning to launch on the Imperial ships. The briefing room was packed with the other Alliance captains. “The Maria, backed up by the Chrysalis, Redemption and Squallo will engage the Gorgon and the Harpy. The Reef along with the Oceanic and Sun Dancer will attack the Death Hand and the Terrible, leaving the Morning Star and the Defiant to tackle the Magnus. I want the Pride of Yavin, Sheitan along with the picket ships to go after rest; I’ve set the Victory destroyer, the Dead Lock as your first target, with the Dreadnaught and the Loronar Strike Cruisers being your next targets. I know that I seem to be asking a lot, but our troops on the ground are counting on us to break this blockade and stop Imperial reinforcements. Our fighters will be tasked with keeping theirs at bay while we close to combat range, this isn’t going to be easy but then what is these days! Any Questions?”

There was none, the other Captains knew that if they waited any longer there was a good chance that the Imperials would be reinforced and it would be the Alliance ships that could be facing an attack. With nothing else needing to be discussed, Admiral Ull brought the meeting to a close. Captain Ru’kaart along with the other Captains headed for the turbo lift that would take them to the Maria’s hanger. Captain Ru’kaart had to wait for a second lift as the first one was full; when the doors opened he stepped in and moved to the back of the lift car. Each Captain had shuttled over from their respective ships; the Maria’s hanger resembled a busy star port with the large numbers of Lambda shuttles that were now crammed on to the landing deck. As he looked for his shuttle, someone placed a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s been a while Dave.”

Captain Ru’kaart turned to see a familiar face. “Indeed it has Ghosin. How’ve you been keeping?”

The two men shook hands. “Pretty well, thanks. Empire is keeping me busy enough anyway.”

Dave gave a short laugh. “Yes they tend to do that, don’t they? So how long has it been this time?”

Ghosin thought for a while. “Hmmm, just less than six months if memory serves me right, when the Star was rigged with explosives and those Imp ships decided to come along and pay a visit as well.”

“Well at least everything worked out with that one.” The two men started walking again. “So tell me, what’s the new Captain of the Reef like?”

“Janna, she’s really good, after Captain Mir retired five months ago, Janna was his X.O. got promoted and has been running the show ever since.”

“It’s good to know that the Reef is in capable hands. Speaking of capable hands I’m glad it’s the Defiant that’s coming along for the ride when we go after the Magnus. I’d like the Defiant to act as a fighter screen, there’s a good chance that their bombers are going to get past our fighters and I don’t want to be worrying about them as we try and take down that ISD.”

“Not a problem, I figured that’s why the Admiral put us with you anyway. I’ll put the Defiant in a low guard position, that way it’ll help keep that ISD’s attention off as well.”

“I’m glad the Morning Star could act as an extra set of shields for you.” Dave said with a wry smile on his face.

“You know me Dave I’m not proud, I’ll take all the help I can get.”

“Don’t worry; I’d do the same if I was in your position as well. Right, that’s my shuttle over there I had better get back and get my ship ready.” The two men shook hands again before heading off to their shuttles.

To a casual observer it would look like the Maria was being abandoned with the amount of shuttles leaving the ship all at once, this fact was not lost on the Imperial sensor operators. “Admiral, a large number of Lambda-class shuttles are leaving Rebel flagship and are returning to their own ships.”

Admiral Beruss went over to the console and looked down at the display screen and watched all the contacts on the screen go off in different directions. “X.O., bring the fleet to battle stations, have all pilots standing by to launch on my command.”

The X.O. busied himself carrying out his orders. An alarm klaxon sounded throughout the ship as the lights on the bridge of the Gorgon dimmed indicating that the ship was at battle stations. After a few more seconds the X.O. came over to the Admiral. “Sir the fleet is now at battle stations and awaiting your orders.”

“Contact the Icarus and see if they’ve replaced the shield generator on the Magnus yet.”

The X.O. touched his headset and spoke to the captain of the Icarus. After a moment the X.O. reported what the captain had told him. “The Icarus needs at least another four hours to replace the shield generator.”

“Unfortunately we don’t have the time to give them. Tell the Icarus to halt repairs on the Magnus and fall back; the Magnus will have to make do with just the one generator.”

The X.O. came over to where the Admiral was stood. “Sir what’s our battle strategy?”

“We’re going to wait for the Rebels to make the first move; every moment they don’t attack gets our reinforcements closer to us so I am in no hurry to start this next engagement. Let them come to us.”

Admiral Beruss didn’t have long to wait, as thirty minutes later his sensor officer picked up fighters launching from the Rebel capital ships. The officer also reported that the enemy fleet was now heading towards them. “X.O., have our fighters launch and engage theirs, and have our bombers target the Rebel command ship, you never know, we might get lucky again and kill another of the Rebels commanders.”

Onboard the Maria the tactical officer noticed the new contacts leaving the Imperial warships. “Admiral we’ve got enemy fighters launching. Their warships are forming into a defensive pattern as well.”

Admiral Ull picked up a headset. “Put me through to the fleet and our fighters.” The comms officer quickly did as she was ordered. “I know the odds aren’t stacked in our favour but as our Corellian friends so often tell us, don’t tell me the odds, so all I will say is good luck and may the force be with us.”

Twelve squadrons of Alliance fighters sped towards the incoming TIEs. All of the fighters were equipped with concussion missiles to help deal with the enemy fighters. Despite the Imperials having the advantage of greater numbers the Alliance pilots felt sure that they would win this engagement.

David set his S-foils into attack position and pressed the top left button on his flight stick, a TIE Interceptor appeared in his CMD. David spoke to his R-2 unit. “Beetoo, keep an eye on our tail, it’s going to get hairy out here today.” The droid beeped off an affirmative. David switched over to his concussion missiles; he left the setting on single fire mode to conserve his ammo. Beetoo started beeping indicating that his missile was locking on to the incoming Interceptor, two seconds later Beetoo was whistling continuously indicating that the missile was locked on. David pressed his trigger. A bright red missile shot forth from the X-wings right launch tube and sped off towards the TIE Interceptor.

As the Sheitan headed towards the Imperial fleet, Captain Vayger could only watch as the space before her erupted. Dozens of red missiles could be seen hunting out unseen targets. Fi was watching one missile as it seemed to dance, constantly changing its direction. Suddenly it disappeared; it was replaced by a bright explosion. Fi wondered if the missile had run out of fuel and detonated or found and killed its target. Lines of green and red lasers zipped back and forth between the duelling fighters, some resulting in explosions, most just being swallowed up by the vastness of space.

Jamie cursed as his shields took another hit. The TIE Fighter was sticking to him like a hungry Mynock and so far had managed to get two good hits on the A-wings shields. Jamie risked a glance at his shield readings; it wasn’t good they were down to eighty four percent. Jamie put the A-wing into another series of aggressive manoeuvres to try and shake off the TIE, feeling his crash webbing dig into his flesh as the internal compensators strained against the A-wings wild manoeuvres. At last Jamie got the break he had been praying for as the TIE over compensated a turn. Pulling the throttle back to two thirds Jamie managed to pull a tight loop and end up behind the enemy fighter. His H.U.D. turned green as the TIE slipped into the centre of it. Pressing his finger on the trigger, Jamie watched as his laser bolts slammed into the TIE Fighter. After three direct hits the enemy ship blew apart. Jamie allowed himself to give a small victory yell before he shunted power from his lasers to his Shield system and started hunting for another target.

Dee’s targeting computer confirmed that her missile was locked on to the TIE Bomber, squeezing the trigger; the concussion missile was spat out of the left launch tube from the B-wing and headed towards its target. The enemy pilot tried to evade the incoming missile but his skills were not up to the task. The missile hit just under the bombers port wing, shearing the wing completely off. The TIE Bomber went spiralling off for a few seconds before it was consumed by an explosion. Flicking her firing setting back to lasers, Dee started firing at another bomber. Scoring several hits the bomber tried to shake its attacker, but the enemy pilot was in the slower ship so it wasn’t long before Dee snapped off another shot at the TIE. One of her laser bolts burned through the TIE’s armor and hit one of the rockets in the bomb bay. The TIE simply blew apart when the rocket detonated.

The battle was going well for the Alliance pilots, slowly the number of enemy TIE’s was being whittled down. There were now more Alliance fighters than Imperial. The tactical officer onboard the Maria reported this fact to Admiral Ull. “Admiral, our fighters seem to be gaining the upper hand, enemy fighters are now under ten squadrons in strength. We’ll be in weapons range of the Imperial fleet in five minutes.”

Admiral Ull let himself relax back into his command chair a little as he listened to his tactical officer report.

The tactical officer was watching the battle unfold on his screen, he was that focused on it that he almost missed the warning beep that was coming from his console. Pressing a button on the console, the display shifted from the battling fighters to an area of space that was currently unoccupied. The tactical officer felt the blood drain from his face. “Admiral we’ve got multiple contacts about to drop out of hyper space!”

Two Harrow Destroyers, followed by three Broadside missile cruisers dropped out of hyperspace. Before Admiral Ull could say anything, six Imperial Escort Carriers reverted back to real space along with four squadrons of Assault Gunboats and two squadrons of TIE Avengers. Finally; fifty Imperial Landing Craft and twenty Landing Barges emerged from hyperspace. The Imperial reinforcements had arrived.

Chapter Ten

The lead Harrow Destroyer opened fire on the nearest Alliance warship, the Corellian Corvette Anvil. Dozen of green turbo laser bolts slammed into the Anvil’s shield causing it to become visible to the naked eye. The Captain of the Anvil recovered quickly from the shock of the newly arrived Imperials, he ordered an immediate course change and for his gunners to return fire at the Harrow. It was the course change which ultimately saved the Anvil. The Corvette’s forward shields were becoming dangerously low, another volley by the Harrow would have easily penetrated them and more than likely the Anvils bridge would have been destroyed. The next barrage hit the Anvil on the starboard side, most of the turbo laser bolts were absorbed by the shields, but some managed to make it through the weakened shields. The sensor array on top of the Anvil was blown apart, leaving a large hole in the top of the Corvette. Several unfortunate crew members where sucked out into space before emergency blast doors could seal the affected area.

The Alliance Star Destroyer, Redemption, came to the aid of the Anvil. The Redemption was captured from the Imperials over six months ago when it and two other Imperial warships had attacked the Morning Star, back then it was known as the Predator. The Imperials had abandoned it when the bridge was destroyed and their Captain killed. After the battle, the ship was salvaged, repaired and renamed and put into service with the third fleet. The Redemptions six dual heavy turbo lasers fired at the Harrow destroyer, its opening salvo was quickly followed up by the other weapon emplacements on the warship. The gunners on the Harrow quickly switched their attention to the Redemption as another full volley of turbo laser fire hit their shields. The Redemption was backed up by the Squallo, a MC 40a light destroyer. Both ships were now pounding away at the Harrow destroyer while the Anvil limped out of range of the Harrows guns.

The Alliance fighters were suddenly overwhelmed by the newly arrived enemy fighters. Three of the Escort Carriers had launched all of the fighters they had been transporting, as soon as the last fighter had launched from the carriers the three ships reversed course and entered hyperspace back to their home base. The other three Carriers were heading towards the Imperial fleet as fast as their engines could take them; they were being escorted in by the other Harrow destroyer. This time the newly arrived TIE’s weren’t piloted by ferry pilots they all had fully trained TIE pilots flying them, and now they were engaging the Alliance fighters.

Onboard the Maria the tactical officer was trying to make sense of what was happening on his display. “Admiral, I’m reading twelve squadrons of Interceptors, six squadrons of Fighters, four squadrons of Gunboats and two squadrons of Avengers!”

The Imperial fighters had just been reinforced by twenty four squadrons of fresh fighters, Alliance fighters were now up against odds of three to one. Admiral Ull snatched up his headset and signalled for his comms officer to open up communications for the whole fleet to hear. “This is the Admiral, all ships abort attack on the Imperial fleet, I say again, abort! Priority is now on destroying Imperial reinforcements.” Admiral Ull waited for the connection to the fleet to be closed before he spoke again. “Helm I want you to lay in an intercept course for those shuttles and barges; get us there as fast ay you can.”

An X-wing pilot from Defender squadron was busy trying to evade a TIE Fighter that was trying to kill her. Suddenly her missile threat warning started flashing in her H.U.D. and her R-2 unit started to beep indicating that someone was targeting her fighter. The R-2’s tone went to a solid whistle indicating that her fighter was now locked up, the droid trilled out several high pitched whistles. Whoever had targeted her; had just fired their missiles at her. In the brief seconds that all this had taken place the TIE Fighter that was also trying to kill her reminded the pilot that it was still there by blasting laser fire into her shields. Yanking hard on her flight stick and sending the X-wing into a tight series on turns, the pilot briefly caught sight of two bright red projectiles heading for her canopy. The missiles detonated just behind the X-wings top left engine. The pilot never knew who had shot the missile at her; she never even got the chance to eject. The TIE Avenger pilot selected another enemy fighter; he was too close for missiles now so he switched his weapons over to lasers.

The three Broadside Missile Cruisers had joined in the battle; two of the cruisers were firing at Alliance warships whilst the other was targeting the Alliance fighters. A missile detonated next to an A-wing that had just killed a TIE Interceptor. The Alliance fighter was enveloped by the expanding fireball. When the explosion finally died down, there was no trace that the A-wing had ever been there, it simply ceased to exist. This scene was repeated several more times as the deadly missiles from the Broadside Cruiser claimed more Alliance fighters. It was the Reef that finally stopped the Cruiser. With only light shielding and light armor it only took several shots from the Reef until the Cruiser was destroyed in a spectacular explosion.

Rob was doggedly staying on the tail of a TIE Avenger, which was doing its best to try and lose him. Snapping off another quick burst of laser fire at the fleeing TIE, Rob was rewarded with a laser bolt hitting the fighter. With its shields already weak from Rob’s earlier attack on it, the laser bolt hit the TIE’s hull. A jet of flame erupted from upper engine, for a moment Rob held his breath hoping that the TIE would suffer a cataclysmic engine failure and explode. Two seconds later the flames had gone out, Rob let out his breath between clenched teeth as he once more tried to get the Avenger in the centre of his sights. With his lasers set on dual fire mode Rob pressed his trigger and sent a steady stream of laser fire after the TIE. Red laser bolts slammed into the TIE Avenger, this time nothing could save it and the enemy fighter blew apart. Banking his A-wing away from the diminishing fireball Rob blind fired at a TIE Fighter that flew across his sights and was rewarded with the TIE exploding from his lucky shots.

Captain Daly of the Regis gripped his command chair as another set of rockets slammed into his Frigate. The Regis was under attack from TIE Bombers and Assault Gunboats, the enemy bombers had managed to get several rockets on target and now two had made it through the Regis’s weak shields. “Damage report.”

One of the bridge officers went over to a console, pressing a key an image of the Regis appeared in the display, the hanger was flashing red. The officer quickly read the writing that appeared under the image of the Regis. “Sir we’ve got a fire in the main hanger! We’ve got reports coming in from over the ship of casualties and injuries.”

“Send a damage control team to the hanger and get that fire under control. I want medical teams treating the wounded.”

“Aye sir.” The officer relayed the Captains instructions to the relevant people.

“Sir, the Captain of the Sheitan is telling us to adjust our course so that they can lay down covering fire for us.”

“Send Captain Vayger my thanks. Helm adjust heading and bring us closer to the Sheitan.” The Regis shook again as another rocket hit the hull. A work station behind Captain Daly exploded and a wall of flame crawled up to the ceiling. The Mon Calamari who was at the station let out an agonized scream as he was hit by shrapnel from the station. “Get that fire under control! Medical team to the bridge, priority one!”

A member of the bridge crew grabbed an extinguisher and tackled the fire while another went over to try and help the fallen Mon Calamari until the medics arrived.

Captain Daly touched his comms unit in his command chair. “Guns, this is the Captain, priority targets are the TIE Bombers as they die quicker than those Gunboats, make your shots count.”

“Sir we’re venting atmosphere from decks nine and ten, damage control parties have been sent.”

Captain Daly grunted an acknowledgement to the officer; he was looking out the forward view screen at a TIE Bomber that was coming about for another run. One of the gunners on the Regis must have been watching it as well as a steady stream of weapons fire reached out towards it. Captain Daly’s knuckles went white as he gripped onto his arm rests as he willed the bomber to fly into the deadly laser beams. A laser bolt struck the bombers main weapon pod, the TIE was instantly reduced into bright fireball. The Regis limped into the protective range of the Sheitan’s guns who destroyed four TIEs and one Gunboat before the others veered off in search of other targets. The medics arrived on the bridge and went straight over to the Mon Calamari lying on the deck. After running a medical instrument over the Mon Calamari the medic looked over to Captain Daly and slowly shook his head.

Richard targeted one of the landing shuttles in his C.M.D.; so far no one had attacked the shuttles as they were too busy with the Imperial fighters. Richard keyed his comms. “Blue leader to all blue’s report in.” One by one the pilots of Blue squadron reported in, all were still alive and fighting. “Ok people listen up, we’re going to go after those landing shuttles and barges before they get out of range, form up on me and lets get to it.” The rest of the squad acknowledged the order and formed up on Richard’s B-wing. “Blue leader to Red leader, how copy over?”

Rob heard Richard calling him over the comms. “This is Red leader, go ahead Blue Leader.”

“Red leader we are starting our attack run on the shuttles and barges. I would appreciate some top cover as we go in.”

“Roger that Blue leader, we’ll do our best. Red leader to all Red’s we’re going to be providing cover for Blue as they attack the shuttles and barges, form up and lets give them some cover.” Rob listened as his pilots acknowledged his order.

Richard spoke to the blues as they manoeuvred their way towards the Imperial shuttles. “Form up into flight groups. Flight leaders select a target and the rest of the group attack it. We’re not going to have a lot of time in there so we need to make every shot count.”

The bombers split up into three groups of four with the flight leaders selecting a target to attack. Richard’s target was a landing shuttle identified as Lima thirty-four. As soon as his H.U.D. went green Richard squeezed his trigger, sending laser and Ion bolts towards the shuttle. The other three B-wings in his group were also firing. The shuttles shields held out for a few seconds before they overloaded and collapsed under the laser barrage. The shuttle was full with Stormtroopers to reinforce those on Balfron; the first they knew they were under attack was when a laser burnt through the shuttles armor and blew apart a Stormtrooper it hit. A second later they were all dead when the shuttle exploded under the sustained weapons fire. While this shuttle was still a fireball, Richard had selected another shuttle and was steering his flight towards it.

Jeni fired off a concussion missile at the approaching Interceptor. The TIE was trying to go after Blue squadron and stop them destroying the Imperial ground reinforcements. The TIE did a barrel roll in an attempt to avoid the missile, it almost worked, the concussion missile clipped the right solar wing of the Interceptor, this was more than enough for the warhead to detonate. The explosion ripped the right wing apart; fragments from the wing penetrated the cockpit and sliced the TIE pilot to pieces and destroying all the flight controls. The remains of the Interceptor spun off into the void.

Steve’s flight had also gone after the landing shuttles; the one that he had selected was suffering the same fate as the one that Richard’s group had just killed. Targeting another shuttle Steve led his group deeper into the group of shuttles.

Chris was pouring fire into an Assault Gunboat; the shields on the Gunboat were ready to fail. Chris sent another burst of quad fire at the fleeing Gunboat; the lasers cut into the ships top fin and destroyed the Ion cannons housed at the front. The top fin was left with a large hole in it where the Ion cannons had once been. The Gunboat took another direct hit from Chris’s X-wing; with no shields to protect it the Imperial fighter/bomber was destroyed.

Paul’s group was going after a landing barge, Gamma five. Paul made sure his lasers and Ion cannons were fire linked before he squeezed his trigger. The fire from the two Y-wings and two B-wings scythed into the large transporter and quickly destroyed it, remains of what appeared to be an AT-AT spiralled off in the debris. Turning hard Paul steered his group towards the lead barge and targeted it, attacking from the rear the group destroyed the barges engines. The resulting explosion ripped the rear of the barge off, sucking the two Heavy Artillery Platforms it was transporting out into the cold vacuum of space, Paul also saw what looked like people flailing wildly for a few seconds before they succumbed and mercifully died. The landing barge flipped end over end twice before the pilot’s compartment imploded leaving only a shell of what once used to be ship, tumbling through space.

Rob came onto the comms. “Heads up Blue’s you’ve got company coming, some Interceptors and Gunboats have managed to get by us!”

The shuttle that Richard was attacking disappeared in a bright explosion when Rob’s message came through. Richard keyed his comms. “Understood Red leader, Blue squadron form up and let’s go, bandits are on an intercept course.” Steve and Paul reported in acknowledging the order.

Paul turned his Y-wing towards Richard position and headed towards his squad leader. There was an Imperial landing barge between his flight group and where his squad leader was. “Ok people no sense in wasting an opportunity as we’re going, let’s take out barge Gamma thirteen.” The other three pilots in his flight acknowledge Paul’s order. Laser and Ion bolts blasted away the barges shields and quickly reduced the large transport vehicle to atoms.

Steve’s flight had just destroyed a landing shuttle and was making its way back towards Richard’s location. They had managed to get themselves furthest away from the other two flight groups whilst they had been attacking the shuttles. The TIEs had gone after Steve’s flight group for that reason alone as they were still a threat to the shuttles. Six Interceptors flew at the group with their laser blasting away. Steve rolled away followed by Erika, Both of their B-wings took hits but thanks to the B-wings heavy shielding their ships took no damage. Mike and Jag went in the opposite direction to Steve and Erika; their B-wings also took hits. The Interceptors broke in to two groups of three and went after the fleeing B-wings.

David was closest to Steve’s flight group and headed towards them, the three Interceptors were almost upon the B-wings. David targeted the lead TIE and fired. Four red laser bolts converged and hit the ball cockpit of the Interceptor and blew it apart. The other two TIE’s veered away with David in pursuit of them.

Mike and Jag weren’t as fortunate as no one was close enough to cover their retreat. The laser bolts from the Interceptors reached out for the fleeing B-wings and began to eat away at their shields. Mike threw his B-wing into an aggressive turn to try and shake off his attackers. Jag tried to keep up with Mike in his manoeuvre but couldn’t manage it and found he was alone with three Interceptors after him.

Rob noticed the lone B-wing being pursued by the TIE Interceptors. “Blue eight come to a heading of four oh point five and we’ll try and cover you.” Rob turned his A-wing towards Jag’s location.

Jag rasped out a response as he struggled to avoid the green laser bolts coming at him. “Trying to Red leader.”

Jamie was speeding towards Jag’s location as fast as his A-wing would go. “Hang on Dragon, I’m almost there.”

“Hurry, they’re almost…” The rest of the Trandoshan’s transmission was lost as Jag’s B-wing was destroyed. The B-wing transformed into a large fireball as the TIE’s lasers ate into the bomber’s armor.

“No!” The cry came from Mike; Jag had been Mike’s wingman.

Jamie fired off two missiles at the lead Interceptor. The TIE pilot turned in towards the missiles and managed to dodge past them, the Interceptor that had been following his flight leader wasn’t as lucky; the missiles hit his fighter destroying it.

Laser bolts came from behind and killed another TIE; the Maria had arrived on station. Admiral Ull was standing by his tactical officer. “Target those shuttles and barges, I want them off my scope”

“Yes sir.”

The Maria’s gunners opened fire on the nearest shuttle. The shuttle couldn’t withstand the devastating barrage from turbo lasers and was blown to pieces. The tactical officer designated the next shuttle and it received the same treatment as the first one. Before another shuttle could be targeted the Maria came under fire. The tactical officer checked his display to see who was firing at them. “Admiral Imperial warships bearing down on us.”

Three Star Destroyers were closing in on the Maria’s position, the lead one was the Gorgon. The three warships fired again at the Maria.

“Admiral our shields are down to sixty two percent!”

Admiral Ull swore. “Damn it! Disengage and head back to our own lines.” Admiral Ull went over to his command chair and sat down; he activated the comms unit in the chair. “This is the Admiral. Break off the attack and retreat back to our own lines, I say again break off the attack and retreat!” Closing down the comms, Admiral Ull turned to his tactical officer. “Target the lead I.S.D. and fire on it as we go, get the Chrysalis to provide covering fire for us as well.”

As the officer carried out his orders the Maria’s pilot turned away from the shuttles and landing barges and headed back towards friendly lines. As the large Mon Calamari warship was making its escape the Star Destroyers fired again, the incoming fire was mostly taken up by the shields but a few of the turbo laser bolts made it through and hit the Maria. The Maria took several more hits and took further damage until her back was facing the enemy warships and the shields there had more charge and could handle the Imperial weapons fire.

The Morning Star was going after the two remaining Broadside missile cruisers when the call to retreat came through from the Admiral. The Defiant was low and slightly behind the Morning Star but still within the larger warships shields. Captain Ru’kaart turned to his first officer. “What do you think commander; take out those two cruisers and then retreat?”

“Sir it would be a shame to come all this way for nothing!”

“Agreed, guns fire on the lead cruiser, get the Defiant to do the same.”

The first salvo of weapons fire from the two Alliance ships overloaded the shields on the cruiser; the next destroyed the cruiser completely. The other missile cruiser ceased firing at the warships and ran. The two engines were pushed to the limit as the cruiser tried to get out of weapons range. The Defiant had fired two missiles of its own at the fleeing cruiser, which were now steadily tracking the Imperial ship. The missiles detonated when they hit the Broadsides shields, weaken them enough to allow incoming fire to hit the engines. The damage to the engines was more than they could handle and both blew apart taking a large section of the ship with it. The Broadside suffered a catastrophic decompression with all of the air and crew being sucked out into space. With the ships main power gone, it drifted lifelessly towards the Imperial lines.

The Alliance fighters were trying to blast their way back to their own lines, a job made that much harder as the Imperial fighters still outnumbered them. With the Alliance warships also retreating, the fighters were starting to get some support fire from their capital ships allowing them to disengage and make a run for friendly lines. Paul was leading his flight towards the rally point when Shade alerted him to a threat. Pressing a button on his flight stick the image of an Assault Gunboat appeared on his screen. “Red, I’ve got a bandit on me, lead the others out of here while I see if I can shake him off.”

Sara responded immediately. “Sir, are you sure you don’t want any cover?”

“Negative, now get out of here, that’s an order.” Paul closed down his comms and looped back towards the Gunboat. The pilot in the Gunboat opened fire at Paul’s Y-wing and was rewarded with a hit on the bomber, luckily for Paul the Y-wings shields were still fully charged and were able to absorb the incoming fire. As the Y-wing shot past the Gunboat, Paul yanked his throttles back to two thirds and put his Y-wing into a sharp turn. The Imperial pilot also turned but didn’t manage to do it as fast as Paul had. The rear of the Gunboat was now in Paul’s crosshairs. Paul rammed the throttles to full power as he started firing at the fleeing Imperial. The shields on the Gunboat lit up when the lasers and Ion bolts hit, mixing the red and blue of the weapons together. Electricity crawled over the Gunboat as an Ion bolt hit the armor; the Imperial fighter/bomber seemed to be moving more sluggish as systems were shorted out by the Ion bolt. It was more than enough for Paul to finish the Imperial now that it wasn’t dancing about in his sights anymore. Two well placed shots were all it took; the Gunboat broke up before exploding.

An explosion erupted from the Squallo as turbo laser bolts ripped into her hull; the Harrows gunner had managed to penetrate a weak spot in the warships shields. The Harrows crew had little to celebrate though as their ship was being destroyed about them. Incoming fire from the Redemption and Squallo slammed into the Harrow causing more explosions to erupt from within. The last set of weapons fire had damaged the Harrows power core, now a chain reaction was building within the Imperial warship. Several escape pods jettisoned from the doomed destroyer before a huge explosion from within tore the ship apart completely.

The destruction of the Harrow destroyer seemed to bring an end to most of the fighting. Fighters managed to disengage themselves from the combat and started heading back to their own lines. Onboard the Gorgon, Admiral Beruss motioned his X.O. over to him. “Mister Melaes, order our fighters to disengage and return to base, have search and rescue shuttles dispatched immediately to find any survivors. If they manage to get any Rebels make sure they are kept alive for interrogation. We’ll hold our position here until recovery operations are complete, we’ll then move back to our original location.”

“At once Admiral.” The X.O. passed on his Admirals orders to the fighters and the search and rescue crews.

Admiral Beruss went over to the tactical station and had a look at the Gorgons shield status, it was currently at ninety three percent and slowly rising, Kavil let a small smile creep onto his face for a moment, before his features returned to their normal impassive state.

Chapter Eleven

Over eighty percent of the Imperial reinforcements had made it to Balfron. Along with the ground units there were twelve squadrons of TIE Bombers and six squadrons of TIE Fighters now planet side. The Imperials were all set for the next stage of their operations; their reinforcements had significantly strengthened the units already on Balfron. General Garner sent the authorization code to all battle units. The battle for Eidola, which would result in over a hundred thousand deaths, begun with a touch of a key on a command console.

The TIE Bombers and Fighters launched and headed for their targets, the power generators. When the TIE Bombers were two kilometres away from Eidola, the Imperial heavy artillery opened fire illuminating the early morning sky. Hundreds of glowing artillery shells impacted on the shield protecting Eidola. Instinctively people would cower and duck down as a shell impacted near to their location.

Whilst all this was happening, several Alliance units outside of the shield had been waiting for the Imperial attack to begin. Sergeant Alex Trice was sat in the gunner’s seat of her MPTL-2A. She was waiting for the order for her to commence her combat operations. There was a total of six MPTL-2A’s spread out and hidden along the east of Eidola’s city limits. Suddenly the command to fire came through on Alex’s H.U.D. Alex pressed the deploy button and the MPTl-2A came to life, deploying the launching tubes. Alex spoke to her driver. “As soon as I’ve fired, move to alternate one.” The driver simply nodded and gunned the engine. On her H.U.D. Alex saw the computer locking on to a target, as soon as the targeting piper went from red to green, Alex pressed the trigger. The tank shook as the torpedoes launched. As soon as the last torpedo had left, Alex was already re-housing the launch tubes. The indicator light went from red to green showing that everything was once again housed and the tank was ready to move. “Go.” The driver didn’t need telling twice, the tank moved forward out of its concealed place heading to its new firing position. The other five MPTL-2As were all doing the same thing; their mission was to counter the Imperial artillery units by firing on their location.

Suddenly the Imperial lines were thrown into chaos as six heavy artillery units exploded. It was only after another six units were destroyed a few minutes later that they realized that they had been targeted specifically. The order for the units to displace came rapidly through. Several units were now tasked with destroying the Rebel artillery units and a deadly game of hide and seek between both sides begun.

Two squadrons of Z-95s and a squadron of A-wings had been tasked with air cover over Eidola. The Imperial TIE Fighters had a two to one advantage over the Alliance fighters and were using their numbers to stop them from attacking the TIE Bombers. An A-wing and two Z-95s managed to slip through the Imperial fighters and engage the bombers, the three fighters managed to destroy seven bombers before they themselves were shot down. Free from any further air threats the TIE Bombers locked their rockets onto the power generators and fired. The shields protecting Eidola held out for several seconds before collapsing under the aerial onslaught. The first group of rockets hit the power generators and detonated. The force of the explosions blew out windows in buildings over two kilometres away. With the power generator destroyed, Eidola was plunged into darkness. That was the signal that General Garner had been waiting for, with the shield down he ordered his units to start their attack on the city. A battalion of AT-AT’s begun their march towards the city from their staging points; they were supported by eight companies of AT-ST’s four divisions of Stormtroopers. The size of the Imperial attack force was not lost on the Alliance personnel defending the city who were outnumbered by at least twenty to one odds.

Major Jackson ordered his platoon of T4-B tanks to their first firing position, enemy walkers had been spotted heading in his direction. As Zorn looked down at his display he saw that the readings on the enemy units was off the scale, more than his battle computer could track. He received a signal from the tanks under his command indicating that they were in position and ready. In the distance Zorn saw the horizon light up as the Imperial units opened fire on the city’s first line of defense, the turreted laser cannons. The laser cannons were well armored and withstood the first attack. They returned fire on their Imperial attackers. Zorn watched as the bright red laser bolts shot back and forth between cannons and the walkers. An AT-AT was the first to loose, its head exploding as several laser bolts hit it at the same time. The huge walker stumbled forward and came crashing to the ground, the AT-AT was destroyed before any of the surviving troops inside could get to safety, as several laser bolts slammed into the downed walker. Seventeen more AT-AT’s were destroyed in this fashion before they were able to destroy one of the city’s laser cannons. The fireball from the exploding weapons emplacement rose up into the night’s sky. Soon another of the laser cannons had been destroyed and the Imperials were starting to over power the remaining cannons. Major Jackson keyed his mike and spoke to his platoon. “The Imps are about to enter the city, stand by to engage on my command.” The walker that Zorn had targeted suddenly exploded as torpedoes from several MPTL-2As hit it. Zorn allowed himself a little sigh of relief, every Imperial that was killed before he engaged them meant that he got to live that little bit longer.

Part of the city wall was destroyed as Imperial artillery shells rained down upon it. Through the smouldering gap a unit of AT-STs came marching through, their lasers and concussion missiles blasting away at anything that moved. An MPTL-2A artillery tank that was too close to the scout walkers and couldn’t fire, it tried to move to a better firing position. The movements from the Rebel tank meant that it was quickly destroyed before it could become a threat. As the scout walkers continued their advance into the city, a column of Troop Carriers swarmed in through the ruined wall behind them, their large eight wheels meant that they went over the rubble with little difficulty. Several of the Troop Carriers boarding ramps slammed down to the ground and disgorged the Stormtroopers inside. The Stormtroopers quickly found cover before they started firing. As the first wave of Troop Carriers left the city and went back to Imperial lines to get more troops, another wave entered. Before the same process could be repeated laser fire came down from above, hitting the Troop Carriers. Two of the large vehicles exploded, killing everyone inside them instantly, another was hit several times, with the lasers punching holes through the armor. Inside the Troop Carrier several pieces of molten armor were ricocheting about shredding the Stormtroopers inside into unrecognizable lumps of flesh and charred armor.

The fire had come from a squadron of T-47 Air speeders that were now speeding towards the AT-ATs. Captain Twill keyed his mic. “Ok people, enemy walkers directly ahead. We go in and use our tow cables, bring them down and get out.”

“That simple, huh sir?” Asked Twill’s rear gunner.

“I hope so Nia. Hang on, here we go.” Twill banked steeply to the left and flew under an Imperial walker. As the speeder flew out from between the walker, Nia fired the tow cable at the back right leg. The harpoon hit just below the knee and held.

“We’re in business, harpoon secure.” Nia shouted.

Twill started another steep bank to the left this time circling the AT-AT. Enemy fire started to reach out for him and flashed across his screen. Ignoring it, Twill concentrated on the task at hand and trying not to collide with the ground or another walker. After two circuits Nia shouted that the cable had run out and she was detaching. Twill felt the cable detach from his speeder, he levelled out and headed away as the snared AT-AT started to topple over.

As the huge walker came crashing down to the ground, the head was the first to hit. The AT-AT’s commander, who wasn’t strapped in, had his neck broken as he was thrown violently forward into the viewing port. The two pilots only suffered minor injuries as their crash webbing saved them. The Stormtroopers inside the AT-AT’s troop compartment suffered various injuries, effectively taking them out of the fight.

Twill’s squadron of Air speeders had managed to bring down ten AT-ATs, with Twill’s squadron only suffering the loss of two speeders. Twill keyed his mic again. “Ok people, good work. Let’s head inside the city and see if we can cut up some more Imperial columns before we head back for some more tow cables.”

Major Jackson and his tank platoon had engaged the scout walkers. A scout walker came crashing down as one its legs was blown apart, fire came shooting out of the crew compartment. Zorn’s gunner searched for his next target, his cross hairs fell on a Troop Carrier that had two large aerials sticking up from the rear of the vehicle.

“Command vehicle identified. Firing!”

The tank shook as both guns fired. The laser bolts hit the driver’s compartment completely blowing it apart; the next shots hit the main body of the Troop Carrier resulting in an explosion that consumed it. Zorn was almost overwhelmed by the scene of destruction that was being played out in front of him; it was like a scene from one of the holo films he had watched when he was a teenager. Zorn was brought back to reality as his tank took several hits from blaster fire. Zorn scanned quickly through his H.U.D. to see were the weapons fire was coming from, spotting it he called out to his gunner. “Dismounted infantry at three o’clock, engage with rockets!”

The turret swivelled in the direction that Zorn had just said. “Infantry spotted. Firing rockets.”

Again the tank shuddered as a dozen rockets sped towards the Stormtroopers. The rockets ran true and impacted in the enemy location annihilating them completely. One of the tanks in Zorn’s platoon disappeared in a fireball as several concussion missiles hit it. Feeling a cold rage build up inside of him, Zorn grabbed the override for the turret and targeted the AT-ST that had killed one of his tanks. Zorn switched back over to lasers and pressed the trigger. Two laser bolts went towards the scout walker; one of the bolts was deflected by the lower armor into the ground while the other destroyed the vehicles chin lasers. There was an Imperial manning the turreted laser on the walker, he targeted Zorn’s tank and started firing. Most of the bolts were deflected by the tanks heavy armor, Zorn adjusted his aim and fired again. This time Zorn was rewarded with the cockpit of the AT-ST exploding into flames, the gunner was engulfed in flames and started to flail wildly as the searing heat burned him alive. After about thirty seconds the man finally laid still, the charred remains of his torso just visible as the flames licked about him. Zorn surrendered control back to his gunner and let him once more take over killing the Imperials.

Colonel Twain ducked down as a stream of bright red laser bolts flashed overhead. Return fire from his own troops allowed Garth to get up and sight his heavy blaster rifle at the Stormtroopers his units were fighting. Spotting an enemy trooper advancing towards better cover, Garth targeted the Stormtrooper and fired. The laser bolt hit the Imperial in the centre of his chest and threw him back several feet. The Stormtroopers lifeless body came to a stop with a large black hole in his chest armor. Garth didn’t see the end result of his action; he was already targeting a group of Stormtroopers sheltering near the wreck of their troop transporter. Once more Garth took aim at the enemy soldiers, this time his left hand went forward to the second trigger on his rifle. His left index finger tightened around the triggers, Garth pressed the butt of his rifle into his right shoulder and let out half a breath to steady his aim. He squeezed both triggers at once, firing both grenades. The grenades flew through the air and hit the wrecked troop transporters hull detonating them both immediately. The force of the exploding grenades killed the group of Stormtroopers sheltering by the wrecked APC. Ducking down once more, Garth pulled forward the grenade launchers firing tubes and two empty shell casings dropped to the floor making dull clanging sound. From his combat webbing, Garth got two live grenades and slotted them in the launching tubes under his rifle, sliding the tubes closed he made the grenades ready to fire.

A scout walker came towards their position, its chin lasers blasting away whilst the gunner in the turret was shooting at any of the Rebel soldiers that moved. Garth had five Vanguard soldiers in his unit; right now those five were all sighting their rocket launchers on the advancing walker. The head of the scout walker was completely destroyed by the missiles, leaving the legs moving briefly by themselves until they came crashing down to the ground. The rocket soldiers reloaded their weapons ready for the next Imperial armor attack.

Chapter Twelve

Colonel Grice Sandoval was watching the battle for Eidola through the viewing screen of his AT-AT. In the distance smoke, fire, explosions and laser fire seemed to be engulfing the eastern part of the city. Grice watched as something above the city exploded and fell to the ground in a fiery arc leaving a black streak as what once was a vehicle with a living being inside it plummeted to the ground. Looking to the holo display on his right Grice was able to see were Imperial units were advancing and making progress and were they weren’t. His attention was being drawn to one particular sector, a breach through the city wall had been made but the Imperial units had still to establish a secure foot hold inside. Not satisfied with the lack of progress, Grice activated his comms. “This is Colonel Sandoval for Captain Engles, report over.” There was no reply so Grice tried again, this time the annoyance in his voice was clearly heard to those that had heard it. “Captain Engles, respond immediately!” There was a brief pause before Grice heard the link being established at the other end.

“This is Lieutenant Kawl, Captain Engles is dead sir, he was killed ten minutes ago. I’m in command now.”

“Why am I only learning of this now Lieutenant?” The sound of an explosion came through the head set, and Grice wondered if he would be speaking to another junior officer.

“Sorry sir, that was a close one. The reason that you’ve only just learnt that Captain Engles is dead sir, is down to the fact that we’re under constant attack by the Rebels and over half the company has been killed or wounded and I’m doing every thing I can to stop our positions from being over run, sir!”

The distinctive sound of an E-11 Carbine being fired on full auto came through Grice’s headset. Grice half smiled to himself, it seemed he had found a junior officer that could handle himself under pressure and wasn’t intimidated by senior officers. If this Lieutenant Kawl survived this engagement, Grice would see to it that Lieutenant Kawl was promoted, but first he had to deal with this situation. “Listen carefully Lieutenant, I need you to give me a sit rep of what you’re up against, oh and be careful how you speak to a senior officer in future.”

There was silence from Kawl for a moment before he replied. “Yes, sir. We seem to be up against a company of Infantry made up of a large amount of rocket soldiers, also there seems to be some enemy artillery units nearby as we’ve been hit several times by artillery fire.”

“Understood, I’m sending reinforcements to your location, but I need you to report on any artillery and rocket locations as soon as you see them, understood?”

“Yes sir.”

Grice closed the channel to Kawl and opened up another one. “Major Blau, get your units ready for a fire support mission to the following coordinates.” Grice transmitted the following coordinates to the artillery commander. “Final target data will be given to you by ground units on this channel.”

“Coordinates received sir; we’re sighting our weapons now.” The six Heavy Artillery units came to life and turned their turrets towards the area the gunners have imputed into the vehicles targeting computers.

Meanwhile a dozen AT-ST’s that Grice had ordered to reinforce Lieutenant Kawl’s location were arriving. The Scout Walkers started blasting away at the rebel positions with every weapon they had. Several Rebel Vanguard soldiers fired their rockets at the lead AT-ST. The rockets homed in on their target and blew it to pieces. Kawl immediately reported were the enemy fire had come from. The gunners in the Artillery units made a few minor adjustments to their coordinates and then fired. A dozen artillery shells flew towards the Rebel units. Kawl watched as the shells arched over his position before they dropped right on target. The Rebel soldiers simply ceased to be as the shells consumed them completely. The building behind the Rebel position collapsed under the force of the explosions, Kawl swore that he heard screams coming from the place as it came down. As the dust started to settle two Rebel Artillery units became visible in the distance. With their line of sight also clear the two tanks targeted the advancing AT-ST’s and fired. Two of the walkers were destroyed by the torpedoes with another one being damaged and the turret gunner being killed by shrapnel. Before either vehicle had a chance to fire again or escape they were blown to pieces by Major Blau’s artillery units. Another AT-ST was destroyed by Vanguard soldiers before their position was dealt with. The support of the AT-STs and the Heavy Artillery units meant that Kawl was able to advance forward at last. The Stormtroopers surged forward through the disorganized Alliance positions, giving no quarter to any Rebel soldiers that tried to surrender.

Captain Gade Lon headed to the command bunker. Gade had just managed to get something to eat; it was his first meal in over eighteen hours. The whole assembly area had been on alert for over twenty hours in anticipation of a Rebel attack that would come when Imperial reinforcements were landing. The attack had not come but Gade had kept his forces at full combat alert throughout the landing operations. It was now six hours since the attack on Eidola had begun and still the Rebels had not attacked, it looked like they had other matters to deal with first before they turned their attention towards Gade and his people. Gade entered the operations room in the bunker. “Report.” Gade directed his question to Lieutenant Knoll who had been in charge whilst Gade went for some food.

“Our forces are making progress along all fronts along the East of Eidola, but they’re still encountering heavy resistance. General Garner has asked for us to send in reserve units Beta and Delta, I was just about order the barges and shuttles to start loading.”

The reserve units were AT-ST’s and Stormtroopers. “Very well, carry on with on with the Generals orders. While you’re at it have half the defense teams stand down and rest, same for one of the TIE squadrons on CAP.”

“Yes sir.” Lieutenant Knoll carried out his orders whilst Gade released some of the soldiers in the bunker to go and eat and rest.

Outside the barges and shuttles started loading up the reserve units to transport them to the front. After twenty minutes the first wave of reinforcements had left whilst the second was still loading troops and vehicles.

Gade was going through a checklist of supplies on a data pad when the operator at the radar station console suddenly spoke up. “That’s odd!”

Gade immediately went over to woman’s station. “What’s odd Corporal?”

“I thought I just had a contact on my scope, about eight klicks to our North East.”

Gade looked over to Lieutenant Knoll. “Are we expecting a supply drop or have any of our units out in that area?”

Lieutenant Knoll quickly scanned through an operations data pad. “No sir.”

Gade was looking at the screen when a contact suddenly appeared and disappeared on the screen. “Send the airborne TIE’s to investigate.”

“Yes sir.” The radar controller spoke into her headset and gave flight directions to the TIE pilots. The chatter in the bunker dropped down to a low level as the seconds ticked by.

The voice of the TIE’s squadron leader came over the speakers. “Contact! I have a Rebel Y-wing making a run for it, probably Longprobe class. Permission to engage and destroy?”

Gade nodded to the Corporal at the radar console. “Permission granted, good hunting.” The controller watched on her screen as the twelve green TIE signals gained on the fleeing red Rebel signal. Suddenly two of the TIE’s disappeared from her screen. “What the hell?”

The speakers were suddenly filled with the voice of the TIE squadron leader. “I’ve got two TIE’s down, contact with two enemy A-wings, engaging!”

Two more red signals appeared on the radar display to the rear of the TIE’s. Another TIE winked out from the display as the two Rebel contacts merged with TIE signals. The two A-wings disengaged and headed south, in the same direction as the Y-wing. As the Corporal watched the action on her display she noticed new contacts heading in their direction from the North West. “Sir multiple contacts heading towards us!”

An invisible hand seemed to be tightening its grip around Gade’s throat as it dawned upon him that he had been duped by a feint. “BATTLE STATIONS! INCOMING AIR RAID”

Lieutenant Knoll pressed the button to sound the alarm klaxon. Throughout the area people raced to their battle stations, but it took time as pilots and gunners had been asleep and were slow to react to the alarms.

Gade was now pacing back towards the command console, the holo display changed from the combat from Eidola to that of the staging area. “Guns to automatic, anything not putting out a friendly IFF gets shot down.”

“Yes sir, guns are up and ready.”

The radar controller spoke up as people started to rush into the command centre to take up their battle stations. “I have thirty six enemy contacts, I say again three six enemy contacts.”

Outside the first TIE Fighter was lifting off as the guns and AT-AA’s started to fire at the attacking fighters. Missiles, lasers and flack reached out towards the incoming Rebels ships. As one, the fighters ejected a chaff bundle to try and throw off the missiles that were homing in on them. The missiles warhead were suddenly overwhelmed by the increase in radar contacts and they had to reacquire their targets, most of the missiles were fooled into going after the chaff and detonated harmlessly in the chaff cloud, some however got lucky and managed to hit their intended targets, destroying four Rebel fighters.

A Y-wing targeted two Imperial Landing shuttles with a rocket each. The golden projectiles sped across the sky and slammed into the shuttles blowing them apart and showering the area in debris. The Y-wing flew out of the staging area as fast and as low as it could. A stream of laser fire from an AT-AA following the Y-wing as it tried to escape.

Two T-wings went vertical before starting a diving run on the base. The first T-wing was plucked from the air by flack before it could even start firing. The second T-wing’s lasers flashed from its nose, the lasers seemed to walk towards an AT-AA, when the lasers made contact, the vehicle was soon reduced to a burning hulk. The T-wing adjusted its aim and fired two rockets at a munitions pile. The resulting explosion blew out the windows in the command bunker killing two of people nearest to them, the glass literally shredding them to pieces. Several other people were injured by the glass debris, Gade being one of them. There was a deep cut to the left side of his fore head and now blood was flowing freely down his face.

The attack on the Imperial supply and staging area only lasted a minute, by the time it had finished; twenty nine enemy fighters had been destroyed with another four being badly damaged but still managing to escape. Gade staggered out of the command bunker clutching his head, trying to slow the bleeding down. As he walked outside he was confronted by the carnage that had been inflicted on his supply area. Everywhere there was smoke rising from destroyed vehicles and fighters. A TIE Fighter that had been trying to take off had crashed, its wings buckling under the force of the explosive pressure wave, the pilots body had been thrown through the cockpit window and was now hanging half out of the wrecked fighter. Gade’s attention was drawn to a macabre scene; a Y-wing that had been damaged had crashed itself into an AT-AA. Gade only knew it was a Y-wing as the right engine could still be made out from the wreckage. The sounds of the injured seemed to be coming from all over; medics from the nearby field hospital were doing their best to help the injured. Gade turned his back on the scene and went back inside the command centre, four medics ran past him into the operations room. When he entered most people were back at their posts trying to bring some semblance of order to the chaos the Rebel attack had brought, though some were receiving medical attention from the medics. He noticed that Lieutenant Knoll was holding his left arm and blood was oozing through his fingers, staining his green uniform.

It was Knoll that spoke first though. “Sir you’re injured.”

“So are you, you need to get that arm looked at.”

“I’ll be ok, you need to get that head wound seen to first sir.” Knoll motioned for one of the medics to come over and treat his commander’s wound.

As the medic started to treat the wound on his head, Gade moved towards the communications officer. “Put me through to General Garner.”

The comms officer did as he was ordered and the image of General Garner appeared on the holo display. The Generals eyes widened as he took in the image of the injured officer at his end. “Sir, we’ve just been attacked by a large Rebel bombing raid. We managed to destroy most of the enemy fighters, but we’ve taken casualties and some damage. We’re still operational here, but we’re running at about eighty percent, the second wave of reinforcements won’t be coming now as most of them were killed or injured in the attack.”

General Garner didn’t speak for a moment, he was absorbing the information he had just been given. “What happened, Captain Lon?”

“I had stood down half of my defense team and half the aerial units for rest as we had been on battle alert for over twenty hours. There was a radar contact to our North East and I sent our CAP to investigate. It turned out it was a Rebel feint and I fell for it sir. I ordered battle stations as soon as I realized what happening but they got the drop on me sir.”

Again the General paused before speaking. “I want a full report on the incident Captain as soon as you’ve gotten yourself and the mess at the staging area cleared up. Make sure there is a full list of all people and equipment that has been destroyed and damaged in the report. Dismissed.” The image of General Garner disappeared.

Gade looked about the command centre; most of the people were now looking at him. “You heard the General, this place needs to be fully operational as soon as possible, get to it.”

Chapter Thirteen

Admiral Ull was in his ready room; it was some two days since the Imperial reinforcements had arrived and spoiled his attack on the Imperial fleet. Both sides were back at their original positions, it seemed that the Imperial commander wasn’t overly confident that he could destroy or see off the Rebel fleet with what he had at his disposal. The door panel on the wall chimed. “Come in.”

The door opened and Admiral Ull’s first officer came into the room. “Sir I’ve got the updated damage and casualty reports from the fleet.”

“This can’t be good, let’s hear it then.”

“Yes sir. The Anvil lost twenty nine of her crew when the main sensor array was destroyed. Her Captain assures me that the Anvil is still combat ready and that the damage to the hull should be fixed in about seven hours. The Regis took quite a bit of damage in the fight; her hanger was severely damaged by fire with the loss of the trainee’s fighters and the Regis’s shuttle. They also took some hull damage on decks nine and ten.”

“What about casualties?”

The first officer looked down at his data pad. “They lost seventy one crew members. A large number of those were killed when a shuttle exploded in the hanger, killing a lot of the damage control teams. They also have twelve crew members seriously wounded.” Pressing a key on his data pad the first officer scrolled down to the next page. “The Squallo took several direct hits, no critical components were hit but the sections that have been damaged will probably have to stay sealed off until they can put in to space dock for repairs. They lost two hundred and eighteen crew, with another eighty four wounded.”

Admiral Ull didn’t speak he simply shook his head.

“Finally sir there’s us. The Maria took some hits as we were disengaging; we’ve got some minor hull damage to our starboard side, no critical components hit. We lost forty six people with ten wounded. That’s it for the fleet sir.”

“What about our fighter losses?”

“It’s not good Admiral we’ve lost thirty one fighters, with another twenty seven of them being badly damaged. The chief mechanic from the Redemption reckons one of the fighters is that badly damaged that she may have to scrap it.”

“Did we recover any pilots that ejected?”

“Only four sir; we recovered two bodies as well. We did however manage to get ourselves seven prisoners though sir. I’m just guessing at this Admiral but I think there’s a good chance more of our pilots survived but they have probably been picked up by the Imperials when they went looking for their own pilots.”

“You’re probably right, but we may never know for certain. Is there anything else?”

“No sir, nothing else to report. However I am wondering as to why the Imperials never launched a counter attack.”

“I had thought about that myself, I’ve come to the conclusion that my counterpart is a cautious commander and is probably waiting for more reinforcements to arrive before committing his fleet to battle. At the moment they have a slight upper hand but not by much, if he was to attack there’s a good chance that we could inflict enough damage to his fleet to drive him off, so I think he’s playing it safe and protecting the Imperials on the planet by holding back.” Admiral Ull’s desk beeped twice, pressing a button a monitor rose from the desk. Once the monitor had fully extended a message was displayed on the screen. Admiral Ull quickly read it and then pressing another button the monitor began to slide back into the desk. Looking at his first officer, Admiral Ull spoke as he stood up from his seat. “That was from Admiral Ackbar, reinforcements for our troops on Balfron will be arriving in two hours, it’ll be mostly armor that the transporters will be bringing.”

“What about troops?”

“We’ll be supplying those!”

“What? Why?”

“According to Admiral Ackbar, all resources are currently tied up elsewhere and can’t be released. Ten Bantha troop transporters will be coming up from Balfron; they will dock with our ships and our troops will board them and then go down to Balfron to reinforce the troop’s planet side. Also, I’ve been ordered to send down two of our bomber squadrons to replenish their losses. Which squadrons are at full strength?”

The first officer looked down at his data pad and pressed a few keys, after moment he looked up. “Only one sir, Legion Squadron, they are based aboard the Reef sir.”

“Who’s the next most intact squadron?”

“That’ll be Blue Squadron aboard the Morning Star; they’ve only had one loss so far Admiral.”

Admiral Ull walked towards his ready room door; it opened when the sensor detected him. Walking on to the bridge and over to his command chair, Admiral Ull was followed by his first officer. “Get in touch with the captains of those two ships, tell them why they are loosing their bomber squadrons, then get on to the rest of the fleets captains and tell them to have the troop’s ready to disembark in one hour. Tell them how many we’re going to need from each ship. Also I want four, no make it five squadrons of fighters out there ready to escort those Bantha transporters to us, they’ll be here in under an hour and I don’t want a single one being shot down.” “Aye-aye sir.” The first officer saluted Admiral Ull, turned and went away to carry out his orders.

Onboard the Gorgon, the newly arrived Imperial TIE Avenger pilots were getting themselves sorted out in their billets. The original TIE squadron that had been based there was down to just two surviving pilots. Cidran was looking through the previous occupant’s belongings as he placed them into a container to be shipped back to the pilot’s family. A holo became active as he placed it in the container; the picture was of the dead pilot and his family. Feeling slightly guilty for prying into the dead mans things, Cidran quickly deactivated the holo. Placing the last few things in the container he sealed it shut. Cidran lifted the container and took it over to the door, using his elbow to operate the door panel; Cidran lowered the container to the floor and left it outside in the corridor. The corridor was now starting to look extremely cluttered with all the other containers lining it. As Cidran was heading back into the small room he heard his name being shouted.

“Cidran!”

Cidran looked to who had called him; it was Bexley, running as fast as he could down the corridor towards him. Bexley hustled Cidran back into the small room and closed the door.

“She’s here!”

Cidran was puzzled by what Bexley meant. “What?”

“SHE’S HERE!” Bexley shouted.

“Bexley calm down, you’re not making any sense, who’s here?”

“Chelsey!” Bexley said the woman’s name as if it was poison.

Cidran now understood why his friend was acting the way he was. “Are you sure? How do you know?”

“The Rebel warship the Morning Star is here; and I know that she’s based on it. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for, our chance for revenge!”

“But how will we find her amongst all those other Rebel fighters?”

Bexley gave a smug grin. “I’ve been thinking about that myself and I’ve come up with this. Next time we’re out, we program our fighter’s computer to scan the Rebel fighter’s comms for key words such as her name or her call sign. The computers will see which fighter the message is being sent to and we’ll know which one is hers, and then we’ll have her!”

“Well Bexley, I’ve got to hand it to you, you’ve certainly though this one out. If we finish off in here then go to our fighters we’ll program our computers so we’re ready.”

Bexley had a large smile on his face as he started placing items into another container from another dead Imperial pilot. He had been given another chance to take revenge on the woman who had killed Cidran’s and his best friend, Krem all those years ago.

The Bantha Troop Transporters had made it to the Alliance fleet without being intercepted by Imperial fighters. The transporters had docked with the Alliance warships, to allow the troops to board them. Now all ten ships were holding steady to the rear of the fleet with Alliance soldiers crammed inside. They were waiting for the other transporters with the armor reinforcements to arrive before they made run to head back down to Balfron.

Onboard the Morning Star, Ensign Wraw was watching the Imperial fleet on his display; his main attention was focused on the Imperial fighters, their number had doubled in size since the Bantha’s had arrived. Wraw noticed that the Assault Gunboats and the TIE Avengers were now out and orbiting the Imperial fleet. He guessed that when the other transports arrived and the group made their run for Balfron the Imperial fighters would attack then. Wraw didn’t have long to wait, his console started beeping indicating that something was about to emerge from hyper space, Wraw called over to Captain Ru’kaart. “Captain, ships about to drop out of hyper space!”

“Thank you Ensign, Commander Uoart, contact Red and Blue Squadrons and have them standing by.”

As Commander Uoart spoke to the two squadrons, the ships exited hyperspace.

Wraw looked at his display to see if the ships were friendlies or hostiles, to his relief they were friendlies. “Captain we’ve got a Bulk Cruiser and a MC 40a along with twenty Gallofree Medium Transport ships, it’s our reinforcements!” Wraw watched as the blinking dots which represented the Imperial fighters began to move. “Captain, the Imperial fighters are heading towards the transporters sir.”

“Understood Ensign.” Captain Ru’kaart didn’t issue any further orders, none were necessary; the show was now in Admiral Ull’s hands.

Admiral Ull gave the order to engage, five squadrons of fighter and the two bomber squadrons heading down to Balfron headed towards the transporters as fast as they could. The Bantha transporters also got under way, heading directly towards Balfron.

The two Alliance warships that had arrived with the transporters had placed themselves between them and the approaching Imperial fighters. The Imperials would be in weapons range before the Alliance fighters could get to them, so it was up to the two warships to protect the Gallofree’s until they arrived. The gunners aboard the MC 40a Sea Sprite, opened fire as the Imperials came into the reach of their turbo lasers, they had a slim chance of hitting the Imperial fighters using weapons primarily used for other Capital ships but right now a slim chance was better than no chance.

A TIE Bomber was damaged as a turbo laser bolt exploded near the enemy bomber, the top of the port solar wing buckled inwards making the bomber difficult to control. The pilot was ordered back after reporting the damage to his bomber by the Imperial controller.

When the Imperial fighters where close enough, both Alliance star ships opened fire with their lasers. The Bulk Cruiser Endurance; was the first to score a kill when her gunners managed to shoot down a TIE Fighter.

The Imperials didn’t engage the Rebel warships; they tried to keep as much distance between them as possible as they headed for the Gallofree transports. An Assault gunboat had acquired a solid lock on one, the pilot pressed his trigger and two rockets shot out of the weapons pods both sides of the cockpit and sped towards the Rebel transporter. Another Gunboat and three TIE Bombers had also fired rockets at the same transporter. The rockets hit the Gallofree in the centre of the ship. The shields gave out after the second set of rockets hit leaving the ship vulnerable to the remaining six incoming warheads. The Gallofree disappeared in a large explosion, leaving only debris spinning away after the explosion had subsided.

More rockets were fired; another Gallofree transporter was destroyed before the Alliance fighters arrived on scene.

Jeni slipped her A-wing behind a TIE Bomber and opened fire. The laser bolts walked along the TIE’s main body burning through the armor, unable to take any further damage the TIE blew up. Jeni targeted the nearest enemy fighter and switched over to concussion missiles, her target was another TIE Bomber. As soon as she laid her sights on the bomber, the TIE pilot started making evasive turns, trying to throw off Jeni’s aim. The enemy pilot wasn’t good enough and his ship wasn’t agile enough. As soon as she had a solid lock on the TIE, Jeni fired her missile. The missile streaked after the bomber, tracking it as the pilot desperately did all he could to avoid the incoming missile. The concussion missile hit just under the cockpit, as the missile detonated, the pilot felt the heat of the explosion briefly as it consumed him and his bomber, it was the last sensation the pilot ever had.

With the Alliance fighters now joining the fray, the Imperials had to switch their attention to them; it was only the TIE Bombers that carried on attacking the transporters. Blue and Legion squadrons were ordered to deal with the enemy bombers.

Steve, Erika and Mike were closing in on a group of TIE Bombers that were looping back for another attack run on the Alliance transporters. The combined fire from the three B-wings destroyed two TIE’s before the Imperial pilots knew what was going on. The two surviving TIE’s aborted their attack runs and turned to engage the new threat. A laser duel between the bombers began, laser bolts zipped back and forth between them. The B-wings took a few hits to their shields whilst the TIE’s only had their ships armor to protect them, the duel was over quickly with both TIE’s being killed.

The TIE Fighter that Rob was chasing exploded as he sent a burst of laser fire into the ball cockpit. Selecting another target, Rob quickly had a look in his holo display; he noticed that one of his squad was in danger of being drawn into an ambush with some TIE Interceptors. “Flight Officer Maxfield, be careful you’re being lead into an ambush, change heading to seven eight point two.”

“As ordered Red leader.” Chad adjusted his course; his A-wing sped away from the Imperial Interceptors.

Bexley and Cidran were chasing after an X-wing when both of their fighters computer picked up one of the key words it had been programmed to listen out for. The words ‘Maxfield located’ appeared on their screens simultaneously, along with the location of the Rebel fighter that the comms burst had gone to. Bexley felt his rage build up inside him as he targeted the source of his anger and hatred. He forgot about the X-wing he had been pursuing and veered off towards his new target as fast as his TIE Avenger would go.

Cidran had been expecting something like this from his friend. When Bexley’s Avenger rolled away towards the new target, Cidran fired off a quick shot at the fleeing X-wing before he joined Bexley. The laser bolts hits the fighters top starboard engine and destroyed it, leaving the X-wing to try and limp back to its command ship.

Richard’s flight group was under attack by a flight of Assault Gunboats. Right now both groups were trying to out manoeuvre each other to get on the other groups tail and deliver the kill shot. The strange dance continued for several moments until Nuba managed to get her B-wing into a firing position. Nuba snapped off a quick shot and was rewarded with most of her laser and Ion bolts hitting the Gunboat, its shields easily absorbing the damage.

Dee formed up on Nuba’s tail to provide support, it should have been Dee leading but since it was Nuba taking the shots, Dee let the other pilot lead.

Richard saw that a Gunboat was about to open fire on his wingman. “Stormie, break pattern now!”

Paul South hauled his flight stick back as hard as he could. Enemy laser and Ion bolts filled the space where his B-wing had once been. Paul now had two Gunboats after him, both of which were doing their best to kill him.

It was lucky for Paul that the Imperial pilots forgot about Richard as this allowed him to get his B-wing onto the tail of the trailing Gunboat. With his lasers and Ion’s linked the incoming fire quickly burnt through the Gunboats shields and into the ship itself, blowing the enemy fighter apart. The other Assault Gunboat broke off immediately. Richard opened a channel to Paul. “Ok Stormie, form up and let’s go help out Sonic and Smiley.”

Paul’s hand was shaking as he steered his B-wing and followed Richard. Looking down at his shield display he saw that they were down to sixty six percent, he quickly shunted all of his weapons power into his shields while drops of sweat rolled down his face.

Nuba was still after the Gunboat she had hit earlier. She had managed to get another couple of hits on the manoeuvring ship. Her C.M.D. indicated that the Gunboats shields were now dangerously low. The Gunboat tried another move to try and shake his attackers, it didn’t work. The Assault Gunboat drifted into Nuba’s sights. She pressed her trigger and sent out a lethal stream of weapons fire which resulted in the Gunboat disappearing into a fireball, before it exploded.”

Dee felt herself smile as Nuba scored her fifth combat kill, making her an official Ace. “Nice shooting Sonic, form up on me and we’ll deal with the other one.”

Bexley looked down at his targeting computer, the A-wing was just over two klicks away, the numbers were dropping rapidly as he closed the distance between him and the Rebel fighter he believed Chelsey was flying. The reading was soon down to one point five klicks; the maximum range of the TIE Avengers lasers, it was all Bexley could do to stop himself from firing, he wanted to be up close so there was no chance that Chelsey would escape. When the figures finally got to point eight klicks, Bexley’s fingers tightened around the triggers.

Cidran was on Bexley’s right and was waiting for his friend to open fire.

“NOW!” Bexley shouted into his helmet. His fingers pulled back on the triggers sending fourth four bright green laser bolts. Time seemed to slow down for Bexley as he watched his laser bolts head towards the small A-wing, he noticed another set of green laser bolts pass his fighter on the right and head towards the A-wing, these coming from Cidran. The bolts hit the A-wings shields, turning the invisible shields a deathly shade of green as they absorbed the incoming fire.

Before Chad could even react his A-wing was being hit again, his shields were practically gone, another hit like that and his fighter would be destroyed. Chad put his A-wing into a spiralling turn to try and take him out of harms way. His shields took another hit but this time it was only one laser bolt that hit his fleeing A-wing. Chad took a quick glance at his shield display; they were down to nine percent which meant he basically had no shields.

Bexley followed the A-wing, he wasn’t about to let it slip from his sight when he was so close to getting his revenge. Inside his flight helmet Bexley had a manic smile on his face as the A-wing rose up into his sights.

Chad saw on his H.U.D. that he was being fired upon again. The first lot of weapons fire missed and went under his A-wing, the next salvo tore into the rear of his fighter. In the split second that Chad realized his A-wing was finished; his hands reached between his legs for his ejection cord. His fingers curled around the cord, Chad yanked the cord with all of his strength. The A-wings canopy blew off as his ejection seat began to fire. The A-wings engines exploded.

The exploding A-wing lit up Bexley’s cockpit. Bexley let out a yell of triumph as his Avenger sped by the diminishing fireball. Bexley leaned back into his pilots chair and spoke more to himself than Cidran. “We got her Krem, we got her for you.”

Dee and Nuba were still having difficulty in finishing off the other Gunboat; so far it had managed to evade their weapons fire. The Imperial pilot pulled off a manoeuvre that made Dee and Nuba’s B-wings over shoot. Suddenly it was the pair of them being chased. “Sonic, break off. Whoever he goes after the other swings round and blasts him!”

“Understood.” Nuba banked her B-wing away from Dee’s, leaving the Imperial pilot two choices on who he went after, he stayed on Dee’s B-wing.

Nuba put her B-wing into a tight loop and headed back towards Dee’s B-wing. “Hold on Dee, I’m on my way.”

Dee did everything she could to keep the Gunboat from getting a solid shot at her B-wing, but every now and then her shields registered incoming hits and lowered slightly.

Richard saw what was going on as he headed towards Dee and Nuba’s location. “Stormie, this is what I want you to do, go high and to my right. I’ll engage the Gunboat, if he manages to break off you’ll be there to finish him off, understood?”

Paul licked the sweat from his lips, his lasers hadn’t fully recharged after he had dumped their energy into his shields and would only fire at half their normal power. “Copy Blue leader.”

Richard’s H.U.D. went green; pressing his trigger he sent a stream of laser bolts towards the Assault Gunboat. His lasers hit the Gunboat’s shields, the enemy pilot not reacting straight away to the new threat. When it finally dawned on the Imperial pilot that he was under attack he immediately threw his Gunboat into a sharp series of jukes and turns, the rest of Richard’s laser barrage missed its target.

The Gunboat’s sharp series of turns though meant it fell straight into Paul’s sights. Paul pressed his trigger. The weak laser bolts found their target but didn’t do the damage they should have, it meant that the Imperial pilot had time to and shake his attackers once more.

Twisting his flight stick again and putting his Gunboat into yet another series of twists and turns, the pilot didn’t have any time to react as his Assault Gunboat collide straight into Nuba’s B-wing. The Sullustan pilot had been angling in for a shot at the squirming Gunboat when Paul’s weak lasers had hit it and allowed it to escape. Nuba never got a chance to cry out in shock or pain as the two ships became one and exploded.

Dee felt tears come to her eyes straight away as the mass of exploding debris that had been her friend was replaced with nothing but cold space.

The Alliance warships Endurance and Sea Sprite were now fully engaged with the Imperial fighters. Between the pair of them, they managed to destroy nine enemy fighters and bombers, but it wasn’t before the Imperials had managed to kill another two Gallofree Transporters.

The Bantha Troop Transporters were hardly troubled by the Imperials as only one TIE Bomber made it through the Alliance fighters to attack them. The Bantha’s had formed up into a defensive box, so when the TIE launched rockets at a transporter, the gunners onboard the Bantha’s turned their quad lasers firstly on the rockets destroying them and then on the TIE itself. With twenty quad cannons targeting it, the TIE Bomber never stood a chance.

The Imperial fighters broke off their attack when the Gallofree and Bantha transporters reached the outer edges of Balfron’s atmosphere. Blue and Legion squadrons formed up and followed the transporters down to Keibakia.

With the Imperial fighters retreating, the two Alliance warships and surviving fighters headed back to their own lines. Red Squadron headed back towards the Morning Star, it was on the way back that Rob was told by Captain Ru’kaart on a secure comm. connection what had happened to Chad. Rob saw the Morning Stars search and rescue shuttle launching as he approached the ship. As soon as his A-wing was through the Mag con force field and touched down Rob shut his fighter down. He left his helmet in his A-wing as he looked for Chelsey’s; he spotted it entering the hanger and walked towards it. There was a growing knot of dread growing in his stomach as he prepared to tell her about her brother.

Chelsey popped the canopy on her A-wing and looked about to see if she could see her brothers A-wing, it was as she was looking that she noticed Rob heading towards her. Chelsey quickly undid her crash webbing and got out of her fighter chucking her helmet back into the cockpit. “What’s happened? Where’s Chad?”

Rob steeled himself for what was about to happen when he told Chelsey what he knew. “We’ve lost contact with Chad’s A-wing during the battle; the shuttle is looking for him now.”

Chelsey snatched up her helmet. “I’m going to find him.” Chelsey started climbing into her fighter.

“I’m sorry Chelsey, but I can’t let you do that. The shuttle is searching for him right now.”

Chelsey turned towards Rob; tears were flowing freely down her cheeks. “Can’t let me? CAN’T!”

Rob felt for the woman but he couldn’t allow her to head out in this state, he put some edge into his voice. “No Miss Maxfield, you can’t and you won’t. I’ll tell you why as well. You’re in no fit state to go out there at the moment and even if you do find your brother, what help can you give him? I’ll tell you, none! Now I’m telling you to stand down.”

Chelsey’s lower limp started to tremble. “But he’s my brother.”

This time, Rob’s voice was soft and understanding. “I know, and that’s why you have to stay.”

Chelsey fell down to her knees, a loud cry of anguish escaping from her.

Jeni heard the noise coming from her friend and ran over to her, while Rob stood there wanting to help Chelsey but also not wanting to get caught up or intrude in the woman’s grief.

Chapter Fourteen

Garth loaded a fresh energy pack into his rifle; he had been in combat now for two days with the Imperials showing no sign of letting up with their attacks. So far Garth and his infantry unit had held their ground only retreating when absolutely necessary but making the Imperials pay for every step they took into the city. The Imperials were still trying to get a proper foot hold in Eidola, despite the massive amounts of men and equipment they had thrown at the city. A squad of Stormtroopers was advancing on Garth’s position; they got as far as the last group.

A blue bolt detonated on the armor of the leading Stormtrooper and ripped him apart. The force of the concussion wave swatted the other Stormtroopers away in all directions, their lifeless bodies falling to the floor. To say that Sergeant Prager was a big for a human would be a gross understatement, he was just less than two meters in height and had an extremely powerful build, this was why Prager was using a Stouker Concussion Rifle. Prager crouched behind the wall he was using as cover.

Garth looked over to Sergeant Prager. “Nice shooting Sergeant.”

“Thank you sir.” Prager looked at the energy reading on the side of the large rifle. “Better make the most of it sir, I’m good for only three more shots and then I’m out of ammo.”

Before Garth could say anything else, one of the soldiers under his command came running over to his location. The soldier dove to the ground and slid the remaining few feet on his stomach as blaster bolts flashed over his head. The man flipped himself onto his back so that he was looking towards Colonel Twain. “Sir, General Glaive has been trying to get in contact with you.” The soldier held out a comm. unit for his Colonel.

As Garth took the unit as he spoke to the soldier who had just handed him the comm. unit. “Why didn’t he try and contact me direct?”

“Sir he did!” The corporal pointed to the comm. unit in Garth’s right ear.

Garth removed his comm. unit from his ear only to see that most of it was destroyed by a near miss. “Damn that was close!” Garth said to himself as he placed the new comm. unit in his right ear. “This is Colonel Twain, for Actual, go ahead.”

“Glad to hear that you’re still in one piece their Colonel.”

“There’s been a few close calls sir.” Garth said as he looked at the remains of his old comm. unit. “What can I do for you General?”

“Colonel I want your team to disengage from the Imperials and withdraw to the main staging area in Eidola.”

Garth couldn’t understand what he was hearing; so far his unit was managing to keep the Imperials at bay. “Sir I don’t understand, we’re holding them. I’ve only taken a few casualties so far!”

“I know, and that’s why your unit is being withdrawn as it is the most intact infantry unit in Eidola at the moment. There are sealed orders waiting for you once you get there, I am sending two mechanized units to your location, as soon as they arrive I want you and your team to disengage and withdraw, is that understood?”

A thermal detonator exploded near by causing Garth to flinch. “Yes sir, loud and clear. Is there anything else?”

“No, that’s all Colonel, carry on and good luck, Actual out.” The connection went dead.

Garth couldn’t help but wonder to as why his unit was being pulled away from the front, whatever the reason he hoped that the General knew what he was doing. Garth called out to the soldier that had brought him the comm. unit. “Corporal.” The man didn’t respond as he was too busy shooting at a target. Garth shouted as loud as he could and slapped the man on the helmet twice. “CORPORAL!”

The soldier rolled away from the opening he had been firing through. “Sir?”

“I need you to get Major Nuen and Captain Rets over here and tell the rest of the unit be ready to move out on my command.”

“Yes sir.” The soldier got himself ready to go and gave a nod to Colonel Twain.

“GO!” Garth rose from his position and started laying down covering fire for the soldier as he ran off to carry out his orders. The corporal went round a corner and disappeared from sight as several laser bolts slammed into the wall after him. Captain Rets was the first to arrive, her left fore arm was bandaged and blood was still seeping through the gauze. She leaned back against the cover and got her breath back. Major Nuen came crashing down besides Garth several minutes later. “Nice entrance Jack!”

Major Nuen patted himself down to get rid of the dirt and dust on his BDU. “You know me sir, always like to make a dramatic entrance. What can we do for you sir?”

Garth outlined to them the conversation he had with General Glaive.

“So he never even hinted as to why we’re coming off the line then?” Captain Rets asked. A laser bolt ricocheted off the cover the three officers were hiding behind causing the three of them to duck involuntary.

“No, just to get back to the staging area once our position is relieved.”

Thirty minutes later the noise from the hover tanks engines was soon heard by everyone. A T1-B hover tank came into view; it was followed by another hover tank, a T2-B. Both tanks were firing their laser at the Imperial positions. Soon the area was filled with hover tanks of both models all of them delivering a deadly volley of fire at the Imperials. The commander’s hatch on the closest tank to Garths location opened and the tank commander stood up in it. He waved over to Garth who sprinted over to the tank. The hairs on Garths neck stood up as he passed through the tanks shield, Garth jumped up onto the tank. The tank commander held out his hand and Garth shook it. “I’m Captain Gala; I’m here to relieve you.”

“Colonel Twain; and I stand relieved.” Garth replied. “We’ve been hit mostly by dismounted infantry, but they’ve just started sending walkers against us again.”

The shield flared briefly as several laser blasts hit it. “Ok sir, we’ll try and hold the line, good luck.”

“Same to you Captain.” Garth got down from the tank and sprinted back to his people. The covering fire from the tanks and his own people meant that Garth got back without incident. “Jack, get our people together, we’re moving out to the staging area using a fighting retreat.”

“Yes sir.” Major Nuen went off to start the retreat.

Two minutes later Colonel Twain and the rest of his unit were making their way back to the staging area in Eidola.

Colonel Twain and his soldiers reached the staging area after a two hour march. Upon entering the staging area he sent his wounded soldiers off to the medical centre to get treatment, the rest of his unit were told to get some food, replenish their supplies and ammo. Two officers came over towards Garth; one a male Mon Calamari the other a female human, the woman wore the distinctive markings of the New Republic Intelligence. It was the Mon Cal officer who spoke first though. “Colonel Twain, I’m Major Falar, I’m in charge of this facility. If your people need anything else please let me know and I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”

“Thank you Major, I appreciate your hospitality.”

“You’re welcome sir, now if you’ll excuse me I have matters to attend to, I’ll leave you with Captain Wells.” Major Falar shook Garths hand before marching off to carry on organizing the staging area.

Once Falar was out of ear shot Captain Wells spoke up. “I’ll come straight to the point Colonel; we have need of you and your team, that’s why I convinced General Glaive to pull your unit off the line. The Imperials have established their main supply base ten kilometres to the North of Ewenib. Just under two hours ago the same base was attacked by three squadrons of Alliance bombers, only seven of them made it back and they only managed to inflict minimal damage.”

Garth began to feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up again, he didn’t like the way this Captain Wells was going with this topic.

“We feel that the Imperials have turned the area into a no fly zone for our fighters but we also feel that they are so focused on defending against air attacks that they have overlooked a land attack by a small unit such as yours.”

Garth felt his eyes go wide with surprise in what he was being asked to do. “So basically what you want me and my people to do is go in and destroy the Imps main supply base?”

“Yes Colonel that is exactly it. I feel that operation Round Hammer, will give us a much needed turning point if we are to win this conflict.”

“Ok Captain before you go any further, just how exactly do you expect my people and I to get anywhere near the place, in case it’s escaped your attention there’s Imperials from here to all the way up to their base, I can’t exactly march on up to the place!”

Captain Wells didn’t react to Garths sarcasm, she merely waited for him to finish before she spoke. “No you can’t, that’s why I’ve devised a plan to help you and your people get part of the way their. As you may or may not be aware, our pilots are having a hard time of it, the Empires anti air units are being particularly effective. However, a number of pilots are ejecting before their ship is destroyed and are being rescued by search and rescue teams. It is my plan to have you and your unit aboard a SAR ship which will allow your team to use gravity chutes to jump in behind enemy lines, therefore helping your team get towards your objective.”

Garth thought about what Captain Wells had told him for a moment. “Sounds doable to a point, but the Imps will get suspicious if they see a ‘Bantha’ just flying about without doing any pick ups.”

“That has already been taken care of Colonel and you need not concern yourself over that matter. Your troops will be inserted without being detected, I guarantee it!”

Garth didn’t like the way in which Captain was so sure of herself, it almost seemed to him border line arrogance, but without the Imperials supplies being cut off, there was no telling how long this conflict would go on and who would win. “Ok Captain, I’m in, what else have you got for me?”

The NRI agents face didn’t change; she merely took a data pad from her pocket and handed it to Garth. “There’s some more information in there Colonel; that will give you all the information you need. Good luck.” Captain Wells saluted Garth and then turned and left.

As Garth watched the woman walk off he couldn’t help feel like a junior officer the way that he had just been spoken to by Captain Wells. Suppressing a shudder, Garth went off to find Major Nuen and Captain Rets to let them know what they were in for now.

Chapter Fifteen

Nineteen B-wings and two Y-wings touched down at Keibakia spaceport, they were followed down by ten Bantha Troop Transporters. The fighter-bombers were from the Alliance starships in orbit above Balfron, whilst the Bantha’s were carrying troop reinforcements also from starships. The troops started to debark as soon as the boarding ramp had lowered; they were guided to a marshalling area. From there they would then begin the journey up to Eidola to help reinforce the Alliance units defending the city. The spaceport was a busy place, the sixteen Gallofree Medium Transports that had also managed to make it down to the surface, were transporting the replacement vehicles and tanks. Again these were sent to a marshalling area before they were ready to make the journey to the front lines.

The pilots from the fighter-bombers started to emerge from their ships; two of the ships had several scorch marks on their hulls, technicians were already swarming over these ships trying to repair the damage. Richard took off his helmet and left it in his cockpit, he walked over to the C.O. of Legion Squadron, the other man was leaning against his B-wing, his head hung low. As Richard approached, the other man looked up at him, it was obvious from the look in the man’s eyes that he was grieving. Richard came to a stop when he was next to him. “Who did you lose?”

“It was my X.O., we joined up together, been friends since we were kids. What about you?”

“Nuba Pek, she’d been with the Squadron for some time, quiet person really but you always knew she was there, if you know what I mean.” The other man just nodded. Not knowing what else to say on the matter, Richard changed the subject. “Can you remember who we’re supposed to report to once we’d got planet side?”

The C.O. of Legion Squadron let out a laugh. “No idea, but I’m sure we’ll find them somewhere in this mad house, let’s go look.”

Both officers set off towards the spaceports main building. As they were walking towards the large building they saw four pilots running towards four A-wings. The pilots jumped into the small fighter’s cockpit and quickly strapped themselves in. Before their cockpit had fully closed all of the A-wings were airborne. With their landing gear fully retracted and housed the four fighters sped away at a low level heading north.

Richard and Kal entered the spaceports main building, they were directed by a security officer to go up onto the first floor and they would find Colonel Simmons. Richard noticed that the spaceport didn’t have its usual hustle and bustle of civilians going about their business, instead it was replaced with a distinct military feel with soldiers and officers going about their duty in a quick but orderly fashion, the armed guards through out the building also reinforced this image. The guard at the entrance to flight operations stopped both of them and scrutinized their identities whilst another guard covered both men with his blaster rifle. The guard was satisfied with their identities and admitted them to the room; in the room there were four controllers around a central holo command table that was currently displaying an overhead view of Eidola showing different symbols and two colours, green and red. Richard quickly took in the scene before him, the reds were the attacking Imperials whilst the greens the defending Alliance units, it didn’t look good considering the amount of red on the map, most of the eastern side of Eidola was shaded in red.

From behind the pilots a question was asked. “Doesn’t look good, does it?”

Both turned around to see who had asked the question. The person turned out to be Colonel Simmons. The Colonel’s right arm was in a sling and he had a bacta dressing over his left eye, there were smaller cuts and bruising on his left check that were starting to heal. “Who are you two and what do you want?”

Slightly taken aback by the Colonels tone of voice, Richard answered for the both of them. “I’m Lieutenant Colonel Richard Vogel of Blue Squadron; this is Lieutenant Colonel Kal Byrne of Legion Squadron. We were told to report to you once we got planet side, sir.”

Colonel Simmons scratched his left ear before he spoke. “Ahhh, my reinforcements. What took you so long?”

Kal answered this time. “We just lost two of our people having to fight our way down here!”

“My sympathies on your losses Colonel but I don’t have time for pleasantries and small talk. Right now I need every fighter I can get my hands on, the fact that two of them were shot down trying to get here is tragic but I’m afraid I’ve been tasked with trying to maintain air cover for our forces. Did you see those A-wings take off as you arrived?”

Both men nodded.

“Those poor bastards have been up six times so far today and it’s still only morning! Right now they’re trying to shoot down a TIE Recon fighter that’s trying to see just how depleted our forces are. When this all kicked off I had fifteen squadrons under my command, I’m now down to just under four! I lead the first attack on the Imperial landing forces and got shot down near Ewenib, now I’m grounded until the medics say otherwise so here I am helping keeping the Imps at bay. What I want from your two squadrons is this, three ships from each squad up above the city providing C.A.P. with the rest of them on alert readiness so that I can stand down my other pilots and allow them to get some rest. Any questions?”

Neither of the pilots had any.

“Good, now get out of here and carry out my orders, oh and welcome to Balfron. Dismissed.”

The two squadron leaders saluted and left the room to carry out their orders. Once outside Richard spoke to Kal. “Haven’t been spoken to like that since I was a rookie, you?”

“No, he reminds me of one of my instructors.”

“I’ll take the first C.A.P., when it’s your turn you can have one of my Majors if you need them.”

“Thanks, I’ll let you know. You need anything doing while you’re up?”

“No I think we’re fine, if I think of something though I’ll let you know. Have your three pilots ready to go in five minutes, I’ll go and brief my lot and let them know what’s going on.”

“You got it.”

The two squadron leaders went over to their respective squadrons and outlined what was expected of them. Five minutes later Richard was taking off with five other B-wings following him, they were given coordinates for a patrol route they would stay on for four hours or until a combat mission was sent their way.

With both squadrons on alert readiness it meant that the pilots had to stay close to their ships in case they were scrambled. A couple of pilots had gone over to a mess tent to get food for everyone whilst the rest sat down in a group and talked. It was a chance for the pilots to go over what had happened on their journey down to Balfron and talk about their losses. The others drifted back with the food and rejoined the group; Paul took a food tray from Thantos. “There you go Major.”

“Cheers Hunter. What is it?” Paul asked eyeing the food suspiciously.

“No idea sir, but it’s all they had.”

Paul took an experimental taste of the food and was surprised at how good it tasted. “Hmm not bad at all, probably better I don’t know what it is anyway.”

A few minutes later Steve’s brother, Mike came over to where Paul was sat. “Excuse me sir, just thought I’d let you know, the mechanics have repaired the two damaged B-wings.”

“Thanks Mike. Oh whilst you’re here I might as well let you know that it’ll be you and Thantos going up with me later today on C.A.P.”

“Yes sir.” Mike replied.

Thantos merely grunted.

Paul noticed that there was someone missing from the group of pilots, there should have been fifteen of them here but Paul only counted fourteen. It was as he was looking around again it suddenly came to him who it was, Paul ‘Stormie’ South. Stormie had been like this back on the Morning Star, not mixing or socializing. Paul spotted him off in the distance, sat on the wing of his B-wing. Excusing himself from the group, Paul headed over to the young pilot. “You’re not joining the others?”

Stormie looked up at Paul and took his time before he answered. “There’s no point, I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to kill the bad guys.”

Paul wasn’t surprised by Stormie’s answer, the man had made it quite clear that he was a loner; still the squad was in this together and like it or not Stormie was part of the squad. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple pilot, those people over there that you’re so quick to dismiss are your squad mates and a time may come when one of them saves your selfish and pathetic life!” Stormie was taken by surprise by the tone of Paul’s voice. “What? Were you expecting me to speak all nice and polite to you? Well you can forget that. The way I see it you need to get your act together mister and become part of the team, especially while we’re involved in this conflict. If you survive this and you still want to be a loner then I will personally see to it that you’re transferred out to one of the long range recon squadrons and then you’ll be exactly were you wanted to, on your own.”

Stormie got off his ship and stood up, he was several inches taller than Paul, he tried to use his size to intimidate him as he walked towards him. “I don’t like the way you’re speaking to me.”

Not fazed by the other man, Paul stood his ground. “Tough. You act like a prize turd, then I’ll treat you like one, it’s that simple. Now the way that I see it you’ve got two choices. First is this, I’m ordering you to go over and join the others.”

When Paul didn’t carry on Stormie’s curiosity got the better of him. “What’s the other choice?”

Paul gave a sly smile. “The second choice is that I put you down and drag your sorry arse over to the group, either way though you’re going over there and joining the rest.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Try me.” Paul held the other mans gaze.

“Go to hell Major, you don’t scare me! Why don’t yooofff!”

That was as far as Stormie got, Paul punched the other man in the stomach, winding him. Before Stormie had a chance to recover, Paul kicked the man’s legs from under him. Stormie landed on his back winding himself further. Bending down, Paul grabbed Stormie’s collar and dragged him over to the other group of pilots, who were now watching what was happening. When Paul had dragged Stormie over to the others he released his hold on him. “There you go; now we’re all one big happy squadron, play nicely with the other kiddies now!”

Stormie lay on the floor groaning and clutching his stomach. Lieutenant Colonel Byrne motioned for Paul to come over to him. Kal kept his voice low so that the other pilots wouldn’t hear what they were both talking about. “Major I’m not happy with what I just witnessed.”

“I’m sorry for that sir but I’m afraid it’s not your concern.”

Kal was surprised at how he was being spoken to by a junior rank. “Major, you just assaulted one of your own people in front of me and tell me it has nothing to do with me, I beg to differ!”

“That’s your prerogative sir, but again I still see that it has nothing to do with you, but if you feel that aggrieved by what you saw then by all means please take it up with my C.O. when he gets back, you’ll probably want to do a report about the incident then?”

“Yes and your attitude.”

“Your choice sir, but you’ll only end up hurting numb nuts down there.” Paul jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Stormie who was still lying on the floor.

Kal’s cheeks went a nice shade of red as he began to loose his temper with Paul. “Are you threatening that pilot if I report you, is that what you’re saying Major?”

“Not at all sir, if you report the incident then I will have to fill in my report as to why I struck Flight Officer South, for disobeying an order and attempting to assault a senior officer. Normally this wouldn’t be too big a deal but during a conflict like this the repercussions are slightly harsher, he could end up court marshalled and in jail or even worse. I thought I would handle matters in house, so that we don’t have to involve Alliance security, though at the end of the day as the senior officer present, the choice is yours to make, sir.”

Kal was now unsure as to how to proceed in the matter, he looked at Paul then over to Stormie who had managed to get himself up off the ground and was gently rubbing his stomach. “Very well Major, we’ll do this your way. I’ll still be speaking to your C.O. about this, but off the record.”

“Sir that is your choice on the matter. Will there be anything else?”

“No, dismissed.” Paul saluted Kal, then pivoting on his heel walked off leaving Kal glowering at his back.

Paul headed back over to the Blue pilots. “Dee, look after the kids while I’m away for a few minutes please, make sure that Mr. South doesn’t get up to any more mischief and hurt himself again.”

“Yes sir.” Dee replied giving Stormie a cursory glance.

Looking at the groups of assembled troopers about the spaceport Paul located the group he was looking for and headed over towards them. The troopers were kitted out in Endor green battle gear with their back packs fully loaded. Paul approached the troop commander, Elise Nosnern and saluted. “Morning Ma’am, I was wondering if I could borrow your Commander for a few moments?”

Returning the salute Elise called over her shoulder. “Commander Hesh, there’s one of those hot shot zoomies here to see you.”

Irena made her way through the troops to the front, she saw Paul and a half smile crept on to her face. “I thought you said there was a hot shot fighter pilot to see me Ma’am, all I see is a lowly bomber puke!”

“My apologies Commander, I assumed with the way he swaggered over here that he was a fighter pilot.”

The troopers nearest the front were being entertained by their C.O. and Commander as they both took delight in embarrassing Paul. Before Irena could continue Paul spoke.

“Thank you for those kind words and I’m glad I could entertain you and your troops with my humiliation.”

“Any time Major, I guess that’ll teach you to beat me at Sabacc! Irena don’t go too far away, we’re moving out in five.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Irena fell in beside Paul as the pair walked away from the others for a more private conversation.

Paul marvelled that even though Irena was kitted out for war, with her laden back pack strapped to her back and her Blas Tech 265 rifle slung over her shoulder, she still looked very attractive. When they were far enough away Paul stopped and turned to face Irena. “I’m glad I got to see you before you headed north. Promise me you’ll stay safe, no taking stupid risks, that’s my department, ok.”

Irena smiled. “Aye that’ll be right. I’ll be fine; I’m not the one going up in a flying laser magnet.”

“Humph, just take care that’s all I’m saying. I love you Irena and the thought of losing you just doesn’t bear thinking about.”

Irena reached up with her right hand and gently put it on Paul’s left cheek. “Same here.” Irena gave Paul a smile that made him feel that everyone else was gone and it was just the two of them in the entire universe. Irena moved her hand back down to her side, breaking the moment. “Listen, we’re not going straight to the front. Our unit along with several others is going to a town fifty klicks from here, Lyran. We’ll either be used as a reserve or as defense for Lyran so we shouldn’t be thrown straight in at the deep end.”

“Well I suppose that’s something.” Paul reached into one of his flight suit pockets and handed Irena a small data pad.

“What’s this for?”

“This data pad has a direct link to Shade, you need me for whatever reason, you type in to the pad that you need me and where you are, and we’ll be there in a shot.”

Irena pocketed the data pad. “Thanks.” Irena’s unit started to move, it was time for her to go. “I’ll see you soon, I love you.” Irena leaned in and kissed Paul before moving off.

As Paul watched the troopers move out he called out to Irena. “Remember, you ever find yourself in a situation, you call me and I’ll be there all lasers blasting, I mean it.”

Irena waved to Paul as she marched off. “I know.”

Chapter Sixteen

The next set of B-wings lifted off. As soon as they started moving forward and their undercarriage had retracted the B-wings opened their s-foils into attack position, Lieutenant Colonel Kal Byrne was leading the third C.A.P. mission of the day, so far there had been no incidents, how long that lasted though was anyone’s guess.

Paul was shutting down his Y-wing, whilst the mechanics started refuelling the bomber and lowering Shade down to the ground, he noticed Richard walking towards him. Seeing the expression on his commanding officers face, Paul knew that the Squad leader of Legion Squadron had spoken to Richard. The Y-wing’s canopy gave a hiss as it opened; Paul undid his crash webbing and took off his helmet and gloves, leaving them inside bomber for the next time he flew. Paul slid down the boarding ladder, as soon as Paul turned to face Richard; the other man put his hand on Paul’s left shoulder and turned him the other way.

“Let’s take a little walk Major.”

Richard’s left hand was still on Paul’s left shoulder as he guided Paul away from his Y-wing. “Guess this is about me punching Stormie.”

“Got it in one Major; care to explain?”

“Well as it looks like Colonel Byrne has already spoken to you, I thought you’d already know what’s happened Chief.”

“Don’t be smart Major; you’re flying pretty close to the sun right now!”

Paul shrugged off Richard’s hand and turned to face the other man. “With all due respect, I couldn’t care how damn close I was flying to the sun, that little piece of Hutt drool has no idea on how to be part of a team. He’s been encouraged before all of this kicked off to mix and learn from the rest of the squad but he chooses to do his own thing, which is fine if you’re not part of a team, but he is and in my opinion that makes him dangerous. He has no respect for authority at all so in my opinion his actions and attitude left me with only one course of how to deal with him.”

“Well you’re certainly not going to win his friendship and respect that way.”

“To be honest Chief, I couldn’t care less if he liked me, hates me or screams out my name from the top of the Emperors palace!”

“Don’t you think that you’re being a bit hard on him?”

“Not one bit. Did you know the reason why he didn’t kill that Gunboat that got Nuba was because his lasers weren’t at full power because he dumped all their power into his shields?”

“What? How do you know that?”

“I got Shade to download all the flight data from the rookies to see how they were doing, his B-wings computer showed that after you vaped the Gunboat that was after him, he put all his laser power into his shields. I’ve told the rookie pilots to put only half the power in so that they have still got full power shots if they need them.”

Richard’s face went through a mixture of emotions before it settled back down again. “Let me ask you something Major; when you hit him, was it hard?”

Picking up on Richard’s sudden mood change, Paul felt a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. “Yes sir, quite hard, and to make sure that I got my point across I also swept his legs from under Flight Officer South too, further winding him.”

“Very well Major, as the senior member of our squadron at the time, I’m satisfied with your actions. Consider yourself spoken to on this matter. Carry on.”

“Yes Chief.” Paul threw up a salute to Richard who returned it. Pivoting on his right heel, Paul walked off towards hastily constructed billets that had been set up for the pilots.

Steve was inside the billets already, he was using the comm. unit to speak to Sooli up on the Morning Star. “I didn’t wake you did I?”

Sooli smiled. “No, I couldn’t sleep anyway; I’ve been feeling sick again.”

Steve’s face showed his concern as he spoke to Sooli. “Have you been to see the medical droids?”

“No not yet, I don’t want them to know at the moment just yet.”

“Have you told anybody?”

Sooli’s skin seemed to go even darker on Steve’s screen. “No, the time isn’t right yet, but I will once this crisis is over with. How about you, have you told anyone?”

“No.” Steve simply replied. “I haven’t even said about the other thing yet either, I just haven’t found the right moment to tell anyone.”

Sooli laughed. “Me too, what a pair we make.”

Steve smiled back at Sooli’s image for a moment until his face took on a look of longing. “I miss you so much.”

“I miss you too; promise me you’ll stay safe, it’s not just me you’ve got to look out for you know!”

Again Steve smiled. “I know, and I promise. I better go. I love you.”

Sooli kissed her hand and then blew a kiss to Steve. “Love you to.”

The image of Sooli disappeared from the screen as the connection was broke. Steve stood up and turned away from the terminal as he started to walk back to the main sleeping area he noticed Paul leaning against a supporting strut with his arms crossed. “How long have you been there?”

“Long enough to know that I’ve just been privy to a conversation that I shouldn’t have heard but also long enough to pick up a few things that I would like to know about. Such as, is Sooli ok?”

Steve let out a sigh; he hadn’t heard Paul come in to the billets as he’d been too focused on Sooli. “Yes, she’s fine, honest.”

“Strange how someone who is feeling sick and their other half wants them to go to the Medics says they’re fine.”

“Trust me Paul, Sooli’s fine, we both are. What about you, I heard that you and Stormie had a bit of a set too?”

Paul wasn’t put off by Steve’s attempt to change the subject. “Hmmm, now let me see, if I recall rightly, you’ve both got two things to tell people but the time’s not right for either of you at the moment. Hmmm.” Steve tried to talk but Paul held up his right hand to stop him. “You’ve not gone and won the Imperial lottery have you?”

“What? No.” Steve looked confused for a moment until he realized that Paul was having fun at his expense. “Oh very funny, Paul.”

Paul became serious. “Guess that only leaves a few things left it could be then doesn’t it mate?” Paul lowered his voice. “How many weeks gone is Sooli then?”

For a moment Steve contemplated denying it then decided against it. He moved closer to Paul and kept his voice low. “She’s just over six weeks pregnant!”

Paul grabbed Steve’s right hand and shook it enthusiastically. “Congratulations mate. I’m really happy for the pair of you.”

Steve’s face had a broad smile on it. “Thanks, I still can’t believe it myself some times. Listen you might as well know the other thing as well. Sooli and I got married eight weeks ago.”

Paul couldn’t think of anything to say, he just looked at Steve.

“Well say something then.” Steve demanded.

“Wow.”

“Wow, is that it, wow. You’ve just found out two of my biggest secrets and all you can say is, wow!”

Paul shook himself out of his dumbfounded ness “Well the pair of you didn’t hang around making a family did you! Congratulations again mate; damn you’ve kept that one close to your chest.” A look came over Paul’s face after he had said the words. “Hang on a minute, when I said you’d ask Sooli to marry you a few weeks ago on the Morning Star you two were already married!”

“I know we just wanted to have some time to ourselves before it became public knowledge, you understand don’t you?”

“Sure do, Irena is going to kill me for not telling her as soon as I found out though.”

“I’m sure you’ll live.”

Paul gave Steve a slap on the back to congratulate Steve again and was still shaking his hand when the door to the billets opened.

Dee walked in followed by several others from the squadron and several members of Legion squadron. Dee eyed her two squad mates suspiciously. “What’s going on?”

Before Steve could say anything, Paul spoke up. “Steve’s just had some wonderful news!”

Steve quickly looked towards Paul and growled at Paul in a low voice. “Paul!”

“Oh yes, what’s that?” Asked Dee.

“Steve’s just won the Imperial lottery, and said that when all this is all over, he’s going to clear everyone’s bar tab and get the next ten rounds in, sky’s the limit on the drinks, isn’t that great?”

Dee and the other pilots all cheered and came over to Steve to congratulate him as Paul made a sharp exit from the billets, as he left he pointed his right index finger at Steve with his thumb raised and made a shooting noise.

Steve let out a sigh as he saw Paul shooting him as he left the billets and the other pilots crowded in around him.

Chapter Seventeen

It had started raining during the early hours of the next morning. At first the rain was only a light drizzle, but after an hour or so of this the rain started to come down a lot harder. Soon the sky was being lit up by lightning as the rain hammered down with no sign of it letting up.

The troops that were being sent to Lyran were soaked as they marched towards the town. Irena felt the rain water running down the back of her neck and onto her back. It was at this moment in time that Irena missed her old Stormtrooper armor, at least in this type of weather it would keep her dry. Her left boot splashed into a deep puddle and the water went over the top of her boot and all the way down to the bottom until her foot was wet through. Cursing silently under her breath; Irena trudge forward, her left boot making a squelching noise every time she put her foot down on the ground.

The troops had made good time on their journey to Lyran despite the bad weather. There was only another twelve klicks left to go before they reached the town. Once they had reached their destination there would be time to dry off and get a hot meal before they would have to do anything else, or so they hoped.

The rain did provide some help though, in Eidola the heavy rain extinguished the fires that had been raging unchecked in the ruins of the buildings and the destroyed equipment. It also allowed the infantry to replenish their water bottles.

Major Jackson watched as the dirt and grime was washed away from his tank by the rain, only the laser burns remained. Zorn rubbed his chin, there was a rasping sound as his gloved hand went over three days worth of stubble. Zorn looked at the other two members of his crew, they were in a similar state as himself; he dreaded to think of how bad the three of them all smelt after being cooped up in the tank for all this time.

Alex Trice watched as the rain ran down the front screen of her MPTL-2A. The torpedo tank was housed; the weather conditions meant that the range of her weapons was reduced as much as fifty percent, this meant that if there was to be any fighting it had to be pretty up close and personal, the only good thing about this was the Imperials had the same conditions to deal with. Alex dug into one her pockets in her uniform until her fingers found what she was looking for; she pulled the tiny disc out and held it in front of her. Pressing the power button the small holo projector came to life. Alex scanned through the images until she found the one she was looking for, her daughter. The little girl in the image was smiling as her mother hugged her. Her daughter’s skin was pale blue, the same colour as her father, but her eyes were the same amber colour as Alex. It had been five months since Alex had last seen her daughter, at the moment she was living with Alex’s sister back on Ryloth. More than anything Alex wanted for all of this to be over with so she could go see her daughter once more. Letting out a sigh, Alex took a final look at her daughter before turning the holo projector off and putting it back in her pocket.

Colonel Twain and his troops jogged through the pouring rain towards the two waiting Bantha transports. When Garth neared the boarding ramp, he came to a stop and made sure that the rest of his troops boarded the transports. When the last trooper had gone up the ramp, Garth went into the ship. Making his way up to the cockpit, Garth stood behind the pilot’s seat. “We’re good to go.”

“You got it.” The pilot pressed a button and the boarding ramp started to rise. “This Bantha Heavy one four to Eidola control, requesting clearance for take off.”

“This is Eidola control to one four, you have clearance for departure, exit vector is route three.”

“Copy control, using exit vector three, Bantha Heavy one four out.” The transporters lifted off from the ground and headed out of Eidola along its assigned flight route. The pilot turned to look at Garth. “Colonel, we’ll be in Bossivepolis in about forty minutes.”

“Thank you Captain.” Garth turned and left the cockpit and headed back to his troops. His unit was being sent to Bossivepolis so they would be ready to commence operation Round Hammer. The reason they were heading to Bossivepolis to start the mission was because that was were the Bantha search and rescue units where based and their insertion plan called for them to be dropped in when the Bantha’s were out doing just that. Sitting down on one of the benches, Garth got himself as comfortable as he could, then closed his eyes; he was asleep in under a minute.

To the west of Eidola in a forest clearing, Captain Twill watched as the heavy rain drops seemed to dance in the large puddles that had formed since it started raining. Twill’s squad of T-47’s was based in the clearing a good twenty klicks away from the city. It had been decided when the Imperials attacked Balfron to base the air speeders out side of the city so that they weren’t destroyed by an air raid or artillery fire. Camouflage nets had been erected to provide cover from the air, so far it looked as if it had been successful as the base hadn’t been attacked or even had a recon TIE over fly the position.

Twill’s squad was down to nine flyable air speeders, his chief mechanic had promised him though, that he should have another one flyable in two hours and had been working his repair crew hard and himself twice as hard to keep his promise to Twill.

Twill turned to his gunner, Nia. “This weather is perfect for us, if it holds out for another few hours.”

Nia looked at the sky. “No sign of it letting up sir by the looks of it. It’ll have to be seat of the pants flying in this stuff though, with visibility being reduced as much as it is.”

“I know, but this weather will be reducing the targeting capabilities of the AT-AA’s and that’s something we can’t pass up on. Get everyone together, I’m going to start a briefing in ten minutes, we might as well go for optimum targets while the weather is on our side.”

“Yes sir.” Nia went off to get the other pilots and gunners assembled for the briefing.

Lieutenant Kawl watched as a squad of his Stormtroopers headed towards the ruined building. The rain was beating down on his helmet so hard that he had to increase the volume of his comm. unit to hear what the rest of his platoon was saying. One of the advancing Stormtroopers was suddenly struck by a laser bolt. The Stormtroopers lifeless body came crashing down to the ground, his body sending a splash outwards as it landed in a large pool of rainwater. The shot had come from a burned out room in the ruined building. Not using his comms, Kawl pointed to one of his Stormtroopers and then to the window were the shot had come from. The Stormtrooper shouldered his Merr Sonn portable missile launcher and aimed it at the windows opening. A second later a missile shot out of the launcher and flew forward and through the burned out window. The missile hit the ceiling and detonated, the explosion sent out debris as well as a large fireball. Kawl looked down as something bounced and rolled to a stop a few feet away from him. At first Kawl couldn’t recognize what the twisted and burnt thing was that had landed at his feet. Kawl stooped down and picked up the item, it was only as he turned the object in his hand that he realized it was the remains of a Rebel soldier’s helmet. Kawl chucked the helmet over his shoulder satisfied that the missile had taken care of the helmets owner. He looked towards the ruined building again, flames could be seen coming from the room were the missile had detonated.

Back in his command post General Garner was looking at a data pad, on it were the losses they had suffered so far. The first part was the vehicles. So far they had lost thirty seven AT-AT’s with another ten badly damaged. AT-ST losses were really high with eighty five being destroyed and seventeen needing repairs. General Garner scrolled down to the next page, AT-AA losses were very low and so far only four had been destroyed with none damaged. The Heavy Artillery Platforms had also taken some heavy losses, most of these coming from the assault on Eidola. Twenty two of the artillery units had been destroyed with three needing repairs. Finally for the vehicles there was the troop carriers, sixty one destroyed with another ten badly damaged. As General Garner finished reading the page his thumbed hovered over the button that would scroll down to the next page, the next page had the casualty figures for his troops. Sighing, he let his thumb fall down on the button, the new page appeared. The report was broken down into four parts, fatalities, casualties, fighting wounded and M.I.A. The fatalities figure was a lot higher than he had expected with nine thousand six hundred and ninety five troops listed as K.I.A. There were two thousand four hundred and twelve troops listed as casualties and off combat duties. Four thousand and eleven listed as fighting wounded and finally eight hundred and fourteen listed as M.I.A. This last group could be divided into three sub groups, captured, deserters and dead but no body found yet. The figures for his troops and the vehicles were higher than General Garner wanted but they were still within acceptable losses for an operation of this scale. Looking at the numbers again and seeing how high they were it took Jaxx back to when he was a young officer that had signed up to fight during the Clone Wars. Back then the republic seemed to have an unlimited supply of troops that could be fed into the war machine with high losses acceptable as the dead were mostly made up of Clone soldiers. Letting out another sigh, General Garner put the data pad down and headed towards the door of his command post. The two Stormtroopers on guard came to attention straight away as the General passed by them. General Garner watched the rain come down as he stood in the doorway. While he was stood there, he felt someone come up besides him. Jaxx turned to see who it was.

“Are you ok sir?”

“Yes Major Sestina, I’m fine thank you, I just needed some air.” In the distance, Jaxx heard the sounds of weapons fire and explosions as the battle for Eidola raged on. “Major Sestina, have my shuttle made ready, I need to see what’s going on at the front with my own eyes.”

“Yes sir.” Leonia saluted then pivoting on her left heal turned and went back in to the command centre to carry out the Generals orders. As she was arranging the request Leonia also made sure that the shuttle would have a TIE Fighter escort of six fighters.

The Lambda shuttle passed through the mag con force field with its wings already folded and gear extended for landing. As soon as the shuttle had touched down the boarding ramp begun to lower. Once the ramp had finally come to rest on the deck the young man at the top of the ramp began to walk down it. His kit bag was slung over his left shoulder while in his right hand he carried another large bag. He noticed a man waiting a few meters away from the foot of the ramp. Dropping both bags to the floor, the young man came to attention and saluted the other man. “Flight cadet Kyle Mandal reporting to the Morning Star for combat duty sir.”

Rob returned the salute. “At ease Cadet Mandal.”

Kyle came to parade rest.

“Where’s Cadet Wolff?”

The smile on Kyle’s face suddenly vanished. “Sorry sir didn’t you know? Aaron Wolff, Jackal is in the medical bay onboard the Regis; he was badly hurt during the attack.”

“I wasn’t informed of this when I requested both of you, I’m sorry to hear that Cadet Mandal. What happened?”

“We were both in the hanger helping the damage control teams when the shuttle exploded sir. Jackal was caught up in the explosion and was badly burnt as well as suffering serious injuries.”

Rob was quiet for a moment. “Ok Cadet; get your gear stowed away, as of this moment you’ve been assigned to Red squadron. You’ve been given the squads reserve X-wing, try and keep it in one piece.”

“Yes sir.” Kyle reached down for his bags and picked them up. He followed Rob as he led him towards the nearest turbo lift.

“What’s your Callsign Cadet?”

“It’s Gnoizic sir.”

“Gnoizic, that sounds Rodese.”

“It is sir, it means, one who makes noise.”

Rob gave Kyle a sidelong glance as they entered the lift. “We already have one of those, he’s called Pip!”

Kyle was slightly confused by his C.O. “Sir?”

“Don’t worry you’ll find out soon enough.” The lift came to a stop at the crew quarters level. “One more thing, if you survive this you’ll no longer be a Cadet; you’ll be a Flight Officer and an official member of this Squadron. Don’t let me down.”

“Yes sir. I won’t sir.”

Onboard the Gorgon, Admiral Beruss was in his ready room, he was in communication with Ysanne Isard back on Coruscant. “Those are the figures from myself and General Garner, however they are three hours old so will no longer be accurate.”

The life size holographic image of Ysanne Isard stood in the middle of the Admiral’s ready room; she was wearing her red High Admiral’s uniform. “I see that one of the Harrow destroyers I sent you was destroyed. I’m beginning to wonder if I was right to assign this operation to you Admiral.”

Kavil refused to be intimidated by Isard. “Madame Director, as you well know sacrifices must be made during wars and the Hellfire’s sacrifice made sure that the majority of Generals Garner’s reinforcements made it down to the surface of Balfron.”

Isard’s red eye seemed to go brighter. “Be careful Admiral, it’s not only ships that are sacrificed during wars, it’s sometimes their commanders.”

“That is your choice, but know this Madame Director, replace me now and I guarantee that you will loose this battle and ultimately the planet.”

“Really? Tell me why is that?”

“Because whoever you replace me with you’ll order them to attack the Rebel fleet, but with both fleets being fairly even in strength there’s a good chance your new commander will over estimate the rebels and end up loosing this fleet leaving our forces on Balfron without protection and therefore dooming this entire operation!”

“My, talk like that could get you a stay at Lusankya Admiral Beruss. Prove yourself worthy of the role I have given you Admiral and destroy that Rebel fleet and bring Balfron back into the Empire.”

Admiral Beruss stared directly at Isard. “Give me more ships and I will give you your victory, if I launch an attack with what I have all I can guarantee you is lots of casualties.”

“You’ve got all the ships I can spare Admiral; there are other matters that are taking place that require our forces, all I can give you is more ground troops and a few more armor units. Give me my victory and I will make you High Admiral, in charge of the Imperial Fleet, fail me and I will make your surviving days more painful than you could ever imagine.” The image of Ysanne Isard faded away as the connection was broken at her end.

Kavil suppressed the shudder that was trying to escape his body.

Chapter Eighteen

The rain had finally stopped in the early hours the next day. Before the sun had even begun to rise, the pilots from Blue and Legion Squadrons had gathered in a make shift briefing room in the main space port terminal. There weren’t enough chairs for all of the pilots so several were standing at the back of the room or leaning against the back wall. Colonel Simmons entered the room; everyone stood up and came to attention as he went to the front. “Sit down, we’ve got strike mission to plan and not a lot of time to do it.”

Those that had seats sat back down whilst the others relaxed their stances.

Colonel Simmons cleared his throat before he started his briefing by coughing once. “We’ve been presented with an opportunity to inflict a significant blow to the Imperials. New Republic Intelligence has learned of a large group of Imperial armor heading for the south of Eidola. It looks like the Imperials are going to try and take the city by attacking on two fronts. If the Empire manages to get this group to the south of the city then our forces there will have their main supply route cut off. It will also make retreating from Eidola to Lyran that much more difficult if the need arises.”

Colonel Simmons activated a holo projector at the front of the room, the display showed Eidola and Ewenib and some of the surrounding area. The areas under Imperial control were shown in red whilst areas under Alliance control were in green. The eastern part of Eidola was red; there was a slender red line that headed out from the main Imperial lines and seemed to be thrusting towards the heart of the city like a dagger. Using the projectors controls, Colonel Simmons zoomed away from Eidola and Ewenib and went east until a large flashing red icon appeared on the map. The red icon resolved into a blurry image that showed what looked like a large column of AT-AT’s and AT-ST’s heading west towards Eidola. From the image other Imperial armor and vehicles could be seen but the quality of the holo wasn’t good enough to make out what they actually were. “This scan was taken by a Longprobe Y-wing that was scouting out the area. The reason as to why the image is of such poor quality is because at the precise moment this image was taken, the Y-wing was being shot down!”

There was some murmuring from the pilots. A Rodian pilot from Legion squadron raised his hand.

Colonel Simmons looked at him. “Yes?”

“Do we know what brought the Y-wing down?”

“No. All we do know is that the pilot of the Longprobe stayed at his controls to transmit this data instead of ejecting and saving himself.” Colonel Simmons deactivated the holo projector. “As you may or may not be aware our munitions levels for our bombers are starting to run dangerously low. So far we’ve used more ordinance than was initially planned, but due to the high priority of this mission, I’ve been able to reacquisition rockets for all of your bombers. Make sure your shots count and are on target, one rocket per target, that’s how serious our shortages are.”

Some of the pilots started talking after Colonel Simmons had finished speaking.

Colonel Simmons raised his left hand to silence the room. “One more thing, Colonel Vogel, you’ll be getting two more bombers attached to your squadron. Captain Rhys and Lieutenant Baker’s squadron was aboard the Eosian. During the initial battle they became cut off from the rest of the fleet and instead of getting themselves vaped trying to rejoin the fleet, came planet side instead and in the process they managed to kill some of the Imperial landing forces. Does anyone have any Questions?”

“I have one sir.” Kal stood up as he spoke. “Are we going to have any fighter support for this op?”

“Yes you will Colonel Byrne, as this is such an important mission you’ve been allocated six T-wings for fighter escort.”

Kal stood opened mouthed for a moment before he spoke again. “Six! You call six T-wings support?”

Colonel Simmons looked at Kal with contempt. “Yes Lieutenant Colonel, six T-wings is all you’re going to have. You need to remember mister that you’re flying fighter-bombers, not some unarmed transporter. Now if you feel that you can’t complete these orders because you aren’t comfortable with them or good enough to carry them out, let me know right now so I can remove you and put someone else in charge that is capable!”

The room was silent as everyone waited to hear Kal’s response.

Kal’s face showed exactly how he felt being spoken to like that by Colonel Simmons. “No sir, I’m more than capable of carrying out your orders.”

“Good. If there’s nothing further?” Colonel Simmons looked about the room but no one spoke up. “Ok, get to your ships and get ready, you go in thirty minutes.” Everyone stood up and came to attention as Simmons walked out of the room.

The room stayed silent for several moments. Paul turned to Richard and Steve. “Nice guy, I like him. Comes across all warm and fuzzy.”

Richard stepped away from his chair. “Knock it off Major. Come on; let’s go meet our new pilots.” The three men went over to where Sondra, Baker and their gunners were stood.

Ten minutes later the pilots were getting ready to run pre flight checks on their ships. Sondra and Baker had been assigned to Paul’s flight group with Sara now with Richard’s flight and Vies with Steve’s flight group.

Paul was speaking to the two women before they went over to their B-wings to pre flight them. “It makes sense to have all the Y-wings together in one group so that’s why you’re both being assigned to the other flights. Vies, remember your sim training on group flying and staying with your wingman. Another thing, watch your altitude, we’re going to be flying at a really low level so you’ll run out of sky real quick.”

“Yes sir, I won’t let our flight down.”

“I know you won’t. Go check your B-wing; I need to speak to Red a minute.”

Vies threw up a quick salute to Paul before she headed off to her ship. Once Vies was out of ear shot Paul spoke to Sara. “Just a little heads up for you Red, do not rely on Flight Officer South at all. I know he’s not your wingman but in the upcoming battle you know how crazy these things can get.”

“Is there something I should know about Stormie sir?”

“Only that he’s a loner and doesn’t listen to advice, and that he can get you killed if you depend on him.”

“I’ll make sure that I’m not put in a position were I have to rely on him then sir. Is there anything else?”

“Yes, good hunting and watch your six Red.”

“Thank you sir, you too.” Red saluted Paul and then headed off to get her B-wing ready.

Paul headed over to the four Y-wings that grouped together. Thantos was already sat in his Y-wing going through his pre flight checks. Thantos saw Paul and gave a thumb up gesture; Paul returned the gesture as he headed towards his own Y-wing. Sondra was waiting for Paul at his Y-wing. “Can I help you captain Rhys?”

“I just wanted to say thanks for keeping Baker and me flying together sir.”

“I’d be stupid to break up a good team Captain, why try and fix something if it’s not broken. To be honest though captain I’m surprised to see an S-3 let alone two of them still in service.”

“They’re good ships sir and having a gunner sure helps out in situations.”

“I bet it does, especially with you guys having lasers instead of Ion’s. You better get your Y-wing prepped, we leave in ten.”

“Yes sir.” Sondra headed back to her Y-wing, Grohl was already sat in the gunner’s seat, he was moving the lasers control stick left and right and up down, making sure the speed settings were at the right levels. As Sondra reached her ship the ground crew started to hoist her R2 unit up to put it in the droid slot. “You good to go Rusty?”

The R2 unit gave a cheerful whistle to signal it was as it slid into the droid slot.

“Good, fire up the generators and let’s get this ship ready.”

Steve and Mike walked towards their B-wings. Mike looked at his older brother. “This is going to be a tough one isn’t it?”

“No tougher than anything else we’ve ever done, it’s just in a different environment that’s all.”

“I know that but with the losses the air units here have already taken; the odds seem stacked against us.”

“Mike, odds are something for Corellian’s to moan about. Listen, stay sharp and make sure you don’t get drawn in and focused on one target and you’ll be fine, oh if that isn’t enough to make you come back I’ve got some news for you as well.”

“What is it?”

“Sorry, not telling you until we’ve completed the mission and are back at base.”

“Awwww Steve, that’s not fair.”

“Tough, this is were being your flight leader and older brother has its perks. Take care.” Steve patted his brother on his right shoulder before heading off to his B-wing.

Ten minutes later the B-wings and Y-wings along with their six T-wing escort were heading towards their target. To try and remain undetected by the Imperial radars, all of the ships were flying at tree top height. Richard kept his concentration on his instruments less his concentration wondered and he ploughed his B-wing into the ground. Richard had been placed in overall command of both bomber squadrons for the mission’s duration. Colonel Simmons had chosen Richard on the simple fact that Richard had more combat time in than Kal. “Time to target is twenty minutes, no comm. chatter until we’re over the target or if you spot fighters coming in for us. Blue leader out.”

Chapter Nineteen

The journey to the target area was uneventful, when the bombers were one minute from target; Richard turned his running lights on and off three times. This signal was for the B-wing pilots to lock their S-foils in attack position. The B-wings rose fifty foot up into the air so that the bombers long slender body wouldn’t collide with the tops of the trees.

Paul led his flight of Y-wings away from the main body of the attack force, because the Y-wing had no S-foils to deploy for combat, the Y-wings could stay at their current altitude until they were in the target area. Paul would be bringing his flight in from the east while the main attack would be coming from the south west. It was hoped that this tactic would mean the Imperial gunners would be focused on the B-wings allowing Paul’s flight to take out the AT-AA’s.

Richard broke comm. Silence. “Ok people here we go, attack in flights and watch out for the ground fire.” Richard led his flight group on the first assault run against the Imperial units.

Dee gently nudged her flight stick until her cross hairs settled on an AT-AT. “I count ten heavy walkers all of them not moving, we must have caught them napping! Targeting the lead heavy.” Dee switched her weapons over to rockets and squeezed her trigger sending a rocket towards the grey AT-AT. The rocket slammed into the top of the walker and detonated straight away. The explosion ripped the main body of the walker apart, flames shot out of the command module before the neck support gave way and the head fell to the ground. As Dee’s B-wing sped by over head, what was left of the AT-AT toppled over and fell to the forest floor.

Another three AT-ATs met a similar fate by the other B-wings in Richard’s flight. All of this had taken place in a matter of seconds and so far there was no return fire from the Imperial gunners.

Kal Byrne lead in his flight group for the next attack run, his flight was targeting the ten troop carriers that were behind the main formation. As the rockets from the B-wings hit the carriers, the Imperial gunners started to return fire at the attack Alliance ships. Laser fire reached after the fleeing B-wings but none of the shots ever hit the bombers.

Steve aimed his B-wing towards the clearing were the Imperial armor was located; he opened comms to his flight. “Ok people we go in fast and get out just as fast, their gunners are going to be doing everything they can to kill us.” Dipping the nose of his B-wing, Steve targeted an AT-ST; he dumb fired the rocket at the immobile Scout walker. The resulting explosion ripped the AT-ST apart sending a shower of metal fragments everywhere. A Stormtrooper that was manning an E-web cannon was literally ripped apart by the debris. As the other rockets hit, the resulting explosions managed to destroy two more Scout walkers.

The four B-wings were making their escape when an AT-AA opened fire at them. The missile warning light blinked twice before going a solid red on Vies H.U.D. As the missiles launched, Vies heard the warning tone in her helmet go off. Vies hand instinctively went for the countermeasure release button; her finger had almost pressed it when the missiles hit her B-wings shields. As the first missile detonated, Vies was pitched violently forward, her finger missing the button that would have sent a cloud of chaff out to try and confuse the missiles. Vies didn’t have time to recover as three more missiles hit her shields in rapid succession, depleting them of their protective energy. The final missile slammed into the back of her B-Wind completely destroying the two lower engines and seriously damaging the S-foils. Flames and black smoke trailed after the stricken bomber.

Steve saw Vies’s doomed B-wing from his cockpit. “Blue seven, your B-wing’s had it, eject!”

Vies reached up and pulled her ejection cord, nothing happened. Vies pulled the cord again with all the strength she could muster, still nothing happened. “I can’t eject!”

The panic in Vies voice cut through Steve like a knife. Her B-wing was now heading towards the ground. “Vies, pull up!”

Vies yanked back on her flight stick but it was no use, her control system had been destroyed by the missile. Vies closed her eyes as the ground rushed towards her. The B-wing ploughed into the ground and exploded, sending a large fireball up into the sky.

The AT-AA’s warhead launcher swivelled into the reload position as fresh missile were automatically loaded into the launch tubes. The reloading process took exactly eight seconds from start to finish. The Imperial gunner was targeting the next approaching flight of B-wings from Legion squadron when his sights went from red to green indicating that the AT-AA was ready to fire again. At the same time the gunner fired his missiles at the B-wings, the bombers fired their rockets at the three Heavy Artillery platforms and what looked like a supply dump.

The B-wing that had been targeted didn’t take evasive manoeuvres until the rocket had left the ship. Despite putting the bomber through a series of tight turns the missiles still managed to keep their lock on the B-wing and hit it. The shields took most of the damage before failing, when the last missile hit, the resulting explosion tore of the port S-foil and destroyed the lower left engine. The B-wing managed to limp away back towards Keibakia trailing smoke.

The Imperials had recovered from their initial shock of the attack; the sky around the Imperials looked like a bizarre show as bolts of red and green lasers flashed up into the sky. A group of Shock troopers joined the fight with their rocket launchers.

The third flight from Legion squadron was making its attack run. All of the B-wings had been targeted, either by AT-AA’s, Shock troopers, E-webs or any Imperial that could get his hands on a blaster.

As Paul’s flight sped towards the attack from the east he saw one of the B-wings turn into a ball of flames as lasers and missiles slammed into it. Paul activated his comms. “Rogue thirty seconds from target. Going after ground defenses.” Activating his targeting computer, Paul scrolled through the ground targets until an AT-AA appeared in his C.M.D. “Shade make sure the others don’t target the same Imp.”

Shade beeped an acknowledgment.

With the AT-AA locked into his targeting computer, Paul pointed the Y-wings nose up towards the sky. The bomber shot upwards away from the forest below, Paul counted to three before pushing his flight stick forward. The AT-AA was slightly to the left, but it didn’t matter as the rockets warhead was already locked on. Pressing the trigger the rocket left the right launch tube and sped towards its target.

The pilot for the AT-AA noticed the incoming warhead and leapt out of the vehicle and tried to run for cover. The pilot managed to get just over ten meters away before the rocket hit the AT-AA and detonated. The AT-AA was completely destroyed; the blast wave hit the pilot half a second later and threw the man up into the air. The pilot’s body slammed into the ground over a hundred meters from where his vehicle had been. The Imperial had been killed before he had hit the ground; the force of the shock wave had crushed all his internal organs and broken most of the bones in his body.

Thantos had targeted an E-web emplacement with his rocket, whilst Sondra and Baker had targeted the remaining two AT-AAs.

The commander of the T-wing fighters looked at his holo radar and noticed two dozen red blips heading towards their location. “Blue leader I have thirty six, that’s three six enemy fighters heading in our direction. They’ll be here in just over a minute.”

“Copy that Shadow leader. All bombers this is blue leader, we have enemy fighters inbound, we have time for one more bombing run before we bug out back to Keibakia as fast as we can.” Richard led his flight back towards the Imperials. Large plumes of black smoke were rising up into the sky from the destroyed vehicles. “Pick up your targets, we leave nothing standing.”

With the destruction of the three AT-AAs the Imperials had lost most of their anti-aircraft fire power. There were still plenty of Shock troopers alive and E-webs emplacements.

Dee took several hits from the small rockets fired by the Shock troopers as she came in on her attack run, they didn’t do any damage to her B-wing but they did bring the shields dangerously low. The rocket she fired hit the main body of the AT-AT completely blowing it apart, the head of the giant walker also exploded. As the explosion rolled up into the sky, Dee saw an image that in most circumstance would be classed as strange, but in wartime became just another daily event. The AT-AT’s four legs remained upright and standing by themselves, the tops of them had the burning remains of the walker’s main body but after that nothing further.

The next two bombing runs destroyed the remaining AT-AT’s and troop carriers, leaving only twelve AT-ST’s left, which were quickly finished off by the last two flights of B-wings and Y-wings. With the destruction of the Imperial armor complete the bombers formed up and pointed their ships in the direction of Keibakia.

The few surviving Imperials tried desperately to shoot down the retreating bombers as they headed away, but there were too few of them left to pose any significant threat.

Overhead the T-wings had taken up escort positions and were keeping pace with the bombers. Then Ral glanced at his holo radar again, the enemy TIE’s were almost in weapons range and still gaining. “Blue leader, it’s no good, those TIE’s are going to be on us in moments. I suggest you get your people out of here while we try and buy you the time to get out of here.”

Richard knew that the T-wings would only delay the TIE’s for a brief moment, but their sacrifice might buy enough time for some of the bombers to make it back. “I copy Shadow leader. Thank you and good luck.”

“Anytime Blue leader. Ok Shadows let’s go and show these Imps why they shouldn’t attack ships under our care.”

Six concussion missiles shot out of the T-wings and headed towards the rapidly closing TIE Fighters. Two of the TIEs managed to evade the incoming missiles whilst the other four were swatted from the sky. The T-wings were closing too fast to take another missile shot so switched over to their lasers.

As the two groups of fighters clashed, green and red lasers laced the sky. A TIE Fighter lost its port wing and went spiralling down into the forest. Before the TIE crashed, the Imperial pilot managed to eject from his stricken fighter. The ejection seat rocketed away from the doomed TIE, after five seconds the rockets stopped firing and a parachute deployed from the rear of the seat. As the pilot floated down to the forest below, he took the time to watch the battle overhead.

A T-wing disappeared in an explosion as the lasers from three TIE Fighters burned through its shields and into the ship itself. The head of the R2 unit that had been in the droid slot was the only thing left from the ship as it went tumbling down towards the ground.

Another T-wing was badly hit; the starboard and upper engines were streaming fire and black smoke. The pilot still had some control over the damaged fighter and aimed his ship towards a clearing in the forest. The pilot deployed his landing gear and then braced himself for a rough landing as the T-wing approached the clearing. The front landing gear held out for a few seconds before buckling. The T-wings nose dug into the ground, flipping the fighter end over end. The top of the fighter slammed into the ground shattering the canopy, the pilot felt his face being cut from the shards. The wrecked T-wing came to a stop when the main body hit a solid tree and ended up lying on its left side. Wincing as he tried to move the pilot managed to unfasten his crash webbing. He dragged himself through the shattered canopy and out into the open. The pilot tried to stand but let out and agonized scream as he put weight onto his left leg and fell back to the ground. He looked down at his leg and saw that it was badly mangled and that there was no chance he would be able to walk away from the burning wreckage of his ship. Gritting his teeth, he crawled as far away from his ship as he could managing to crawl a good twenty meters from his ship before the pain became too much for him and he passed out.

The T-wings had managed to shoot down another three TIE Fighters, but now there were only two of the Alliance fighters left. Ral put his T-wing into a steep dive and pulled up just above the tree canopy, his wingman followed his manoeuvre as he stuck with his flight leader. A set of green lasers tore through the second T-wings weak shields and burned into the fighter sending it out of control as vital systems were destroyed. The T-wing crashed into the forest and exploded, the fireball setting the surrounding trees alight. Ral knew that he didn’t have long left himself before he was picked off; he hoped that his unit’s sacrifice had been enough to let the bombers escape. Ral redirected all of his laser and shield energy to his engines. The Alliance fighter leapt forward away from the pursuing TIE’s. Ral pulled back on his flight stick sending the T-wing straight up. He kept the stick pulled back until his fighter was inverted and then rolled his ship until it was the right way up. Ral ignored the incoming laser fire and aimed his T-wing at the nearest TIE Fighter. The Imperial pilot realized what Ral was trying to do and tried to take evasive action. Ral corrected his course and kept his fighter on target with the TIE. The TIE filled the whole of front canopy’s view as Ral sped towards it. At the last moment Ral yanked the ejection cord between his legs. The canopy flew off and his ejection seat rocketed straight up and away from the T-wing. A second later the two fighters slammed into each other and exploded. The blast wave hit Ral’s ejection seat and threw it around like it was attached to a crazed Rancor. The parachute in Ral’s ejection seat only half deployed as it had been damaged by the explosion so the speed with which the seat crashed down into the forest was a lot faster than it should have been. What saved Ral’s life was the fact that he was unconscious from the blast wave and his body was limp. The ejection seat automatically started to broadcast its location on an Alliance emergency frequency.

In the search and rescue control room in Bossivepolis, a controller called his supervisor over to his work station. “Sir, I’m getting another distress beacon going off, this one is still transmitting, it is just several klicks south of the first one we got.”

“Ok it looks like something is happening up there, get two rescue Bantha’s out to both locations. Did you manage to pin point the first location?”

“Not precisely sir, the signal only transmitted for five seconds before it stopped. Best I can do is gave a general area for the teams to search.”

“I guess that’ll have to do.”

While the controller organized the rescue teams, the supervisor went out of sight from everyone else. Making sure no one was looking he took out a communications device from his pocket and turned it on. “This is Shield to Skoshi Dragon, respond.”

A few seconds later there was a reply. “This is Skoshi Dragon, go ahead Shield.”

“Sir, operation Round Hammer is go.”

“Thank you Shield, message received.” Colonel Twain tapped the comm. unit in his ear twice to switch it off. “Ok people, we’ve just got the go code, everyone get ready to mount up.” As his troops got ready to move out, Garth went over to Captain Nolan. “We’ve just got our go word for the mission Captain. My group will be going on your Bantha whilst Major Nuen’s group will be on the second Bantha.”

Kapp picked up his helmet and placed it on his head leaving the chin straps dangling down unfastened. “Not a problem Colonel.”

The two men left the room and headed out towards the large rescue ships. Garth spoke quietly to Kapp as they walked. “I know I don’t need to remind you how important it is that if you’re captured that you don’t let the Imps know we were onboard with you guys.”

“Colonel, please, my people won’t talk, as far as they’re concerned you and your people were never here.”

Thanks Captain, I don’t doubt you and your people at all, just saying what the brass expects me to say!”

Two minutes later Kapp’s rescue teams and Garth’s troopers were loaded onto both of the rescue Bantha’s and heading away from Bossivepolis.

Paul looked at his holo radar, the red blips of the TIE Fighters were getting closer and it wouldn’t be long until they were within weapons range. There wasn’t a chance that the B-wings and Y-wings could out run the faster TIE Fighters. Paul called out to Shade. “Shade, open a secure channel to my flight group.”

Shade whistled once letting Paul know that the channel was open.

“Three flight, this is flight leader, those TIE’s are going to be on us any minute now! I’m thinking that if they had another distraction the others would make it back to base. What do you guys think?”

Thantos was the first to respond. “I’m with you Boss, lead the way.”

Sondra replied next. “Count me in Major.”

Baker replied right after Sondra. “If it’s good enough for ‘Viper’, it’s good enough for me.”

“Cheers guys, I hope we don’t regret it.” Paul closed down the private channel. “Shade open up the main channel again please.”

Shade did as he was asked.

“Blue leader this is Blue three.”

“Go ahead Blue three.”

“Chief my flight is heading back to discourage our friends back there.”

Richard saw in his holo radar four green blips break away from the main formation and started heading towards the enemy fighters. “Negative Blue three, that’s a negative, return to formation, do you copy?”

“Sorry Chief your message was garbled, you’re breaking up, couldn’t understand your last message.”

“Damn it Rogue get back here right now! That’s an order.”

“Copy your message Chief, we’re clear to proceed, make sure there’s some hot food left for us when we get back, Blue three out.” Paul killed the comms to Richard and got Shade to switch back over to his flights channel.

“Paul respond immediately. PAUL.” There was no reply. Richard looked at his holo radar and was shocked to see that another three blips had left the formation and were heading back towards the TIE’s.

“Blue leader this is Blue two. Heading back to cover and assist flight three.”

“Steve you and your flight fall back into formation, NOW!”

“Comms are buggy Blue leader but we copy your order to help flight three, Blue two out.”

Before Richard could say anything the link to Steve was turned off.

Dee opened a channel to Richard. “Sir, Blue six is requesting permission to go back and help.”

Letting out a long sigh, Richard opened a channel to the remaining bombers. “Listen up and listen well. Those idiots are heading back their, to engage those TIE’s to buy us time to get out of here and back to base. I don’t see why they should be the only ones to have all the fun. Form up on me and let’s go vape those TIE’s.” Richard pulled back on his flight stick until his B-wing was inverted then rolled to right until his B-wing was flying level. The other B-wings copied his manoeuvre and formed up behind him.

The four Y-wings where almost in weapons range. “Put your shields to double front for this pass, we’re going to take some hits going through this lot, then even them out once we’re through.”

Thantos watched as his H.U.D. went green indicating that he was in weapons range. He pulled back on the trigger sending out laser and Ion bolts. The TIE Fighter he targeted exploded as his shots hit the enemy fighter. Thantos started his Y-wing to weave up and down as he flew through the swarming TIE’s. His shields took several hits but managed to absorb the hits without his ship taking any damage.

As soon as Sondra and Baker’s Y-wings passed through the TIE’s their gunners opened fire on them. Trip managed to hit a TIE in its starboard engine. The engine exploded, shrapnel from the exploding engine tore through the ball cockpit and the Imperial pilot. With no one alive at the controls, the TIE Fighter spiralled down to the ground leaving a trail of black smoke as it went.

As the enemy fighters started to swing round to get onto the tails of the Y-wings, Steve’s flight of three B-wings arrived. Erika sent a burst of laser fire into a TIE. The ball cockpit exploded sending the TIE’s two solar wings spinning off in different directions.

Two of Mike’s Ion bolts hit a TIE, the TIE’s system completely shorted out leaving the TIE with no power at all. The Imperial pilot tried in vain to get control of his fighter, but it was no use. The TIE smashed down into the ground and exploded.

A huge dogfight erupted as the rest of the B-wings joined the fight. Laser and Ion bolts flashed all over the sky as pilots tried to kill one and other. A B-wing from Legion squadron was hit. The pilot managed to pull her ejection lever and the main cockpit blasted away from the B-wings main body. Two sets of parachutes deployed from the cockpit after the rockets had finished firing. The cockpit drifted down into the forest and was lost from sight as the trees seemed to swallow it up.

Noticing that the rest of the Squadron and Legion squadron had joined them, Paul got Shade to open communications once more so that he could hear everyone.

A light flashed on Richard’s panel indicating that Paul had opened up his comms once more. “Ahhh Major, good to have you back with us once more, did you get that comm. problem fixed?”

“Hopefully Chief, I’ll let you know how it goes.” Paul took a snap shot at a TIE that flew across his sights. His lasers burned through the upper part of the TIE’s cockpit. The heat from the lasers melted the pilot’s helmet and part of the pilot’s skull, killing him instantly. The TIE Fighter flew into the trees; the fighter didn’t explode but was instead ripped apart by the trees.

Mike and Erika formed back up, with Mike taking the lead. “Steel, I’ve got Alpha six, you take Alpha seven.”

“Acknowledged.” Erika scrolled through her CMD until the TIE Fighter Alpha seven was selected. The two B-wings headed after the TIE’s

The Squadron leader of the TIE Fighters closed in on the B-wing he had targeted; his wingman was also targeting the same bomber. The B-wing slipped into his cross hairs. Pressing his thumbs down on his triggers, a stream of green laser fire was sent towards the Alliance bomber.

The first thing Erika knew that she had been targeted was when her shields started taking hits from the laser bolts. “I’m taking hits!”

“Break to port and follow me.” Mike wrenched his flight stick left and away from the TIE he had been targeting.

Erika followed Mike’s B-wing through a series of sharp twists and turns designed to throw off pursuing enemy fighters. Erika’s shields started to fall dangerously low as more laser bolts hit her shields. “It’s no good I can’t shake him!” Her B-wing took several more hits, this time the ships shields weren’t strong enough to absorb the damage. Erika felt her B-wing take more hits. Warning lights started to flash as her ship took damage. A laser bolt hit the rear of the B-wings cockpit. A shower of sparks erupted from behind Erika only to for them to be replaced by flames that seemed to crawl over her like some sort of creature.

Mike heard Erika screaming for a second before it stopped suddenly. The blip that represented Erika’s B-wing vanished from his holo radar.

Steve saw the flaming remains of Erika’s B-wing plummeting down to the ground, he also saw the two TIE Fighters going after Mike’s B-wing. “Mike, you’ve got two bandits after you, break to starboard so that I can take a shot at them.”

“Copy, executing now.” Mike brought his B-wing on the heading that Steve had told him with the two pursuing TIE’s right on his tail.

Mike’s B-wing flashed passed Steve’s with green laser bolts following it. Steve’s cross hairs fell on the second TIE. Squeezing the trigger, Steve saw his red laser bolts bore through the cockpit and out the other side. A second later the TIE detonated. As Steve swung his B-wing round to get on the tail of the remaining TIE the Imperial pilot opened fire once more. Steve could only watch helplessly as his brother B-wing took hits that burned through the crafts shields and into the armor itself. Flicking his lasers over to single fire mode, Steve sent out a stream of weapons fire towards the TIE. Several of the laser bolts missed at first, the first bolt to hit burned a hole through the TIE’s starboard wing and the next shot hit the wings main connection, severing it completely, sending the TIE into an uncontrollable spin.

Mike wrestled with his controls as his B-wing became very sluggish. Red warning lights were flashing all over his display panel. Mike opened his comms. “Mayday, mayday, this is Blue eleven, I’m going down hard! Ejection system is offline!”

Steve watched as his brothers B-wing headed dangerously low. “Mike pull up!”

“Trying to!” Was all Mike managed to get out as he pulled back on his flight stick with all of his might, but his B-wing was just too badly damaged. The bottom Ion cannon clipped the top of a tree ripping the cannon off completely. The impact pitched the B-wing forward into another set of trees. The starboard wing was torn free as slammed into a tree trunk; this sent the B-wing into an uncontrollable spin. By the time Mike’s B-wing had come to a stop it had carved out a path down to the forest floor.

Steve called out to his brother. “MIKE! Mike, talk to me.”

Mike didn’t respond. There were several small fires burning in and around the B-wings crash site.

Steve opened a channel on his comms. “This is Major Michadick to Bossivepolis S.A.R.; we have a pilot down at these co-ordinates, request unit for pilot extraction.”

A man’s voice came back over the channel. “We copy you Major. S.A.R. team is already on route, we’ll pass on your location to the team. S.A.R. control out.” The link went dead.

Steve started to look for a place to set his B-wing down so that he could go and help Mike. It was while he was looking that several laser bolts hit his bombers shields. Steve put his ship into an evasive turn to shake off his attacker and reluctantly returned to the fight. While he was dodging the incoming weapons fire he opened up his comms to his brother’s ship. “Hang on Mike, we’re coming!”

Chapter Twenty

Onboard Bantha Heavy two six, Kapp made his way up to the cockpit. The pilot had just called him up there to speak to him. “What’s wrong?”

“Control has just been in touch, we’ve got two more pilots down. Seems there’s an ongoing air battle at the location, though.”

“Are these two near the first two?”

“Negative. The battle is taking place about ten klicks south west of the original distress calls.”

“Ok, get in touch with Bantha Heavy one four and have them proceed to the first two distress calls, we’ll take the newest ones. Tell one four that we’ll be with them as soon as we’ve got the pilots.”

“Yes sir.” The pilot got in touch with the transporter and told them the new plan.

Kapp headed back to the troop hold and went over to Colonel Twain. “Colonel, we’ve got a slight problem.”

“What’s the problem?”

“We’ve just had two more distress calls, thing is they’re fairly close to where we are right now and to make matters worse there’s an ongoing air battle at the new location. I’ve told the other Bantha to proceed to the first location while we go to this one.”

“I guess we go now then.” Garth pulled out a data pad from his breast pocket and activated it. A map with their current location was displayed on the screen. Garth activated his comm. unit. “Major Nuen, come in.”

“Nuen here sir, go ahead.”

“Major, slight change of plan, we’re jumping now. I’m sending you our new R.V. location.” Garth punched in the new meeting point, which was three klicks north east of their current position and sent it to Major Nuen.

“R.V. point received and confirmed Colonel. I’ll see you there.”

The connection went dead. Garth turned to his troops. “Ok people time to earn our pay, we jump in thirty seconds. We’ve got a new R.V., squad leaders make sure you keep your people together.” Garth pocketed the data pad.

The soldiers under Garth’s command all stood up, they checked and readied their weapons then got in two lines ready to jump out.

Garth and Kapp went to the rear of the Bantha. They pressed the switch that opened the two hatches. When they were open a red light came on above each opening. The light went from red to green. Garth patted the shoulder of the trooper that was first in line. “GO!”

The man walked forward and jumped out the back of the Bantha. He was quickly followed by the next soldier out of the Bantha. The same thing was happening in the other line.

Kapp leaned over and spoke to Garth. “Good luck with your mission sir.”

Garth shook Kapp’s hand. “Thanks, good luck with finding those pilots Captain, and thanks for the lift.” The last soldier from Garth’s line, jumped out of the Bantha, Garth quickly followed him out

With only his own troops left onboard, Kapp closed the two hatches. “Alright people, now that our guest have gone we can concentrate on finding those downed pilots. We’re going to be heading into a potentially hot L.Z. so check your weapons; our people might not be the only ones down on the ground.” Kapp un-slung his rifle from his shoulder and flicked off the safety.

Colonel Twain drifted down to the ground on his gravity chute. The drop had only taken a few moments due to the height at which the Bantha had been flying. Once on the ground, Garth unclipped the gravity chute from his back, he looked about until he found a suitable spot to hide the chute away. With his rifle in hand, Garth took out his data pad and turned it on again. He saw where he was on the map and the direction he needed to travel to the R.V. point. The last few soldiers to jump where near Garth’s location and came over to him, once everyone was ready they set off to meet up with the rest of the unit.

The pilot of Bantha Heavy two six looked ahead and saw laser bolts flashing across the sky. From the forest he noticed several plumes of black smoke rising lazily up into the sky. The pilot activated the ships comms and spoke to the two gunners in the quad turrets. “We’ve got hostile air activity over head. Do not engage unless we are fired upon, we don’t want the Imps to take any notice of us while we’re here if we can help it.”

The two gunners acknowledge the orders given to them.

The pilot found a clearing that was as close to the nearest plume of smoke that was big enough for the Bantha to touch down in. The boarding ramp went down and Kapp and his team went running down it taking up firing positions at the bottom just in case there were enemy troops near by. Two of the team stayed at the foot of the ramp whilst the rest went off in search of the downed pilots.

Kapp and his team entered the forest and made their way to the first smoke plume. As they were nearing the location the unmistakable sound of a TIE Fighter at full throttle drew closer. Kapp looked up towards the where the noise was coming from. A TIE was being chased by a B-wing, which was sending a steady stream of laser fire after the fleeing TIE Fighter. Just before the Imperial fighter flew overhead, a red laser bolt hit the TIE and exploded it. This close to the explosion, it was almost deafening to Kapp. A piece of the TIE fell near to Kapp’s tree that he was sheltering behind, it looked like the remains of one of the wings. With the TIE Fighter threat dealt with, Kapp and the others moved on.

One of Kapp’s troops found the remains of a B-wings Ion cannon, it looked like it had been ripped off the bomber. Above in the tree canopy the path that the crashing B-wing took wasn’t hard to follow; everyone went off in that direction.

The remains of a wing were found up ahead. The tree where it had come to rest was still burning from the fire the wing had started when it fell down to the ground. Up ahead the twisted and burnt remains of the B-wing were visible. Kapp lead his troops towards the wreckage. The cockpit had separated from the main body of the bomber and had come to rest at the foot of a large tree. Kapp raced over to the cockpit and looked inside. The pilot was still strapped into the chair by his crash webbing. Kapp tried to open the hatch but it refused to open. “Get the cutters set up, I want that cockpit open.”

Two of the team unclipped their back packs and got cutting gear from inside and got to work. After two minutes the two men put their tools down and lifted the battered cockpit away.

Kapp made his way gently into the ruined cockpit to see if the pilot was still alive. It looked bad, the pilot was slumped forward and there was a pool blood on the floor of the cockpit. The blood seemed to be coming from the pilot’s right leg, which was sitting at an odd angle. Kapp gently reached forward to see if he could find a pulse on the pilot’s neck. As Kapp pressed his fingers to the mans throat, the pilot let out a groan. Kapp turned to the medic. “Get in here, he’s alive!”

The medic scrambled over the nose of the ruined B-wing and lowered himself into the cockpit. From his medical kit the medic pulled out a hypo spray and injected the injured pilot, he then got to work setting up a drip to replace the pilot’s lost body fluids.

The two men that had cut open the cockpit started to unfold the stretcher they would use to transport the injured pilot back to the Bantha on.

The medic gently tilted the pilot’s head back and was shocked to see that there was a large gouge in the left side of the man’s face. It looked like the pilot had lost his left eye in the crash when his head had hit something. Removing the pilot’s helmet, the medic applied a bacta dressing to the pilot’s face.

Kapp was helping the medic secure the dressing. “How long do you reckon until he’s ready to move?”

“I think I can have him good to go in about five minutes.”

“Ok, nice work.”

The pilot back onboard Bantha two six was speaking to S.A.R. control back in Bossivepolis. “Ok, I’ll get in touch with the Captain and let him know, Bantha two six out. Captain Nolan, do you copy?”

“This is Nolan, go ahead.”

“Sir, Control have just been in touch, the other downed pilot has been in contact with them. And they’ve given her your location. She reckons she’ll be with you in a few minutes.”

“Messaged received, Nolan out.” Kapp killed the link to the Bantha pilot. He signalled the two men that had assembled the stretcher. “We’ve got a downed flier coming to our location; make sure she’s who she says she is ok.”

The two men nodded and headed away from the crash site to take up a covering position in case it was an Imperial trap.

The medic with the aid of Kapp; undid the crash webbing and gently eased the injured pilot out of the seat. The injured man let out another low moan as he was placed onto the stretcher and carefully secured to it. Once the stretcher was clear and away from the remains of the cockpit, it was lowered to the ground.

Kapp looked down at the injured flier. “What’s his name?”

“I’ve no idea, hold on I’ll see if I can find out.” The medic reached down and unzipped his flight suit at the neck. He reached in and gently felt for the I.D. tags that should be around the mans neck. “Got them!” He pulled out the I.D. tags and laid them on top of the pilot’s flight suit. The medic used his thumb to wipe away blood that had run down onto the tags. “The tags identify him as one Flight Officer M. Michadick of Blue Squadron.”

Kapp knelt down near Mike. “Don’t worry Flight Officer Michadick; we’re going to get you out of here and all fixed up.” Kapp wasn’t sure if the injured pilot heard him or not, but he always talked to the injured pilots he rescued, he hoped that his voice helped to reassure them a little. Kapp heard a twig snap, he turned to where the noise had come from and instantly went prone on his stomach with his rifle aimed towards the direction of the noise. Kapp caught a glimpse of something orange in colour moving towards his location.

A woman in an orange flight suit emerged from the tree line holding a blaster in her left hand.

“Don’t move!” The voice had come from behind the woman; it was one of the two men that had been waiting. “Name, rank and unit.”

The woman slowly holstered her blaster before answering. “Captain Nikkie Tempest, Legion Squadron. Search and rescue control told me to come to this location and find you.”

“Good timing Captain Tempest, you can help us get Officer Michadick back to the Bantha.”

Nikkie came over to where Mike was lying on the stretcher, as she drew closer she let out a gasp when she saw how bad his injuries were. “Oh no, Mike!”

The medic looked up at Nikkie. “You know him?”

“Not very well, but yes we both came down from our command ships yesterday. We’re both in bomber squadrons in the Third Fleet.”

The other two troopers had come back to the crash site and started making up their cutting gear. In no time at all they were both ready to move out.

Kapp turned to Nikkie. “Nikkie if you help carry the stretcher with the others I’ll take point and get us back to the Bantha.”

The medic counted to three and all four of them carefully lifted the stretcher with Mike on it. The journey back to the waiting Bantha took ten minutes, Mike was taken to a small treatment area and hooked up to the monitors that displayed his heart rate, blood pressure and other information to do with his condition.

Kapp made his way up to the cockpit and spoke to the pilot. “We’ve got all our charges and are good to go. What’s the situation overhead?”

“They shot down the last TIE Fighter two minutes ago, so we’re clear. Bantha Heavy one four messaged back just before you came onboard; they’ve got their two pilots. They’ve also captured an Imperial pilot who ejected nearby. They’re making their way back to us right now.”

“Ok, let’s meet up with them and get out of here.” Kapp turned to leave.

“One more thing, one of the B-wing pilots has been contacting us repeatedly about one of the downed pilots to see what condition he’s in.”

“Ok I’ll speak to them, what’s their name?”

“It’s a Major Michadick sir.” The pilot opened up the comm. channel to Steve.

“Major Michadick this is Captain Nolan, Search and Rescue.”

Steve responded right away. “Captain, do you have any information on a Flight Officer Michadick, he’s my brother.”

“Major, your brother is onboard, he’s been severely injured, but he’s alive. We’re meeting up with our other rescue ship, then heading back to Bossivepolis so he can be treated for his injuries.”

Steve didn’t speak for a moment he was taking in what this Captain Nolan had told him. “Captain Nolan, excuse me for one moment, I need to speak to my C.O.”

The link went dead before Kapp could respond. Kapp looked at the pilot. “Take her up and let’s meet up with one four.”

“You got it, securing all stations.” The pilot of the Bantha brought the ships repulsors online and lifted the ship up into the sky. In the distance he could see the other transporter heading in their direction. “Bantha Heavy one four I have you in sight, join on my port and let’s head for home.”

“I copy Bantha Heavy two six, joining on your port side.”

The two transporters headed off in a south east direction towards Bossivepolis, keeping their altitude just above tree top height.

Kapp had gone back to the hold, he was checking on Mike to see how he was doing when his comm. unit beeped. “This is Nolan, go ahead.”

“Captain Nolan, this is Major Michadick again. I’ve just spoken to my C.O. and he agrees with me that seeing as that both of your ships are carrying such precious cargo it’s only right that you should be escorted back to your base.”

Kapp looked out of the Bantha’s side windows and saw that B-wings and Y-wings had formed up with the two transporters. “We appreciate you keeping us safe on the journey back Major. Your brother is in safe hands now.”

“I know Captain. I’m just making sure you guys stay safe while you’re taking care of him.”

To Steve the flight to Bossivepolis seemed to go on forever. When the city finally came into view, Steve felt some of the tension drain out of his body.

The two transporters and their bomber escorts followed the flight controller’s direction and touched down inside the city’s main spaceport. Medical speeders were already waiting to take the injured pilots to hospital were they could undergo emergency Bacta treatment.

Steve landed his B-wing as close to the transporter with his brother in it as possible. He had unclipped his crash webbing and was exiting his B-wing before the bomber had finished shutting down. He ran towards the transporter as fast as he could. Steve came to a halt as Mike’s stretcher was brought down to the ramp, it was then that Steve saw what condition his brother was in. “MIKE!” Steve went forward again towards Mike but Kapp restrained him.

“Easy now Major, let’s get him loaded into the speeder so they can get him to the hospital right away.”

Kapp’s words seemed to drag Steve back to reality, he looked up at Kapp. “You’re right, I’m sorry Captain Nolan.”

“No need to apologize Major, it’s understandable under the circumstances.”

Mike was loaded into the back of the medical speeder. One of the medics pointed at Steve. “You want to come with him?”

Steve didn’t even hesitate. “Yes.” He quickly jogged over to the speeder, as he got on he turned back towards Kapp. “Thank you again Captain, I owe you big time for this.” The doors to the back of the speeder closed, and then it headed off towards the hospital.

Chapter Twenty-One

Rob was sat in his office; it had been almost forty hours since Chad Maxfield had been listed as M.I.A. The loss of Chelsey’s brother had been hard on everyone, especially Chelsey herself. The small woman had to be sedated by a medical droid when the search and rescue shuttle had returned without Chad. Jeni had tried to comfort her friend as best she could, when this didn’t work she tried suggesting that Chad had probably been picked up by the Imperials when they did their sweep for survivors and was now waiting for them to come to his rescue. This train of thought for Chelsey helped a little, but not much. With Chelsey now officially unfit for flight duty, Rob was down to half a squadron. It was only the addition of the Cadet Kyle Mandal that allowed his squadron to be at this strength. Captain Ru’kaart had spoken to Rob concerning the Red squadron; he said that unless there was a major engagement, Red Squadrons role in the fleet was one of Combat Air Patrol or C.A.P. Rob had wanted to argue against the decision but knew deep down that if the squad did go into combat again without being reinforced then the chance of more losses was too great a risk, so he had reluctantly agreed to the squadron’s new duties. Rob looked at the time on a data pad that he picked up from his desk; it was almost time for squad to head out on patrol. Letting out a frustrated sigh, Rob tossed the data pad back onto the desk and headed out of his office.

David was inspecting his X-wing; he’d notice that a new kill marking had been painted on the side of his fighter, for the TIE Interceptor he had killed a few days ago. David was pleased with the amount of enemy kills he had acquired. Beetoo whistled happily as he was lowered into the droid slot. “As soon as you’re in, start the main generator and do a diagnostic on the ship.”

The little droid beeped and whistled an affirmative and got to work with what David had asked him to do.

As David walked around the other side of his X-wing a low hum started to emit from the fighter as Beetoo started the generator. David climbed up the ladder to the cockpit and jumped into the seat. Taking his helmet from the top of the controls, he quickly put it on and secured it. As the deck crew unconnected fuel lines and removed the boarding ladder, David fastened his crash webbing and slipped on his flight gloves. He did a quick scan of the displays, all four engines were in the green, his shields and lasers were at maximum charge, he was ready to go. Flicking a switch on the left side of the cockpit, the canopy began to lower.

Kyle couldn’t help feel nervous as he waited for clearance to launch. This would be his first combat patrol with his new squadron. Kyle realized that it wasn’t just nerves he was feeling, he was also more excited than he could ever remember. All the months of sim time he had done aboard the Regis were about to be put to the test. “You all set back there Torniquet?”

The black astromech droid gave single beep as a reply.

Kyle looked at his central display for the translation, it simply said yes. “Not a big talker are you?”

Torniquet replied with another single beep.

Looking at the display, the word no appeared. “Oh well, maybe you’ll be more talkative once we’ve flown together a few more times.” Torniquet never replied this time.

Torniquet had been assigned to Kyle as he didn’t have an astromech droid of his own just yet. The droid used to partner Hans Allen, but when the former Blue Squadron pilot went to be with Marines on a permanent basis, he had left Torniquet behind on the Morning Star. Torniquet wanted to go with Hans but Hans refused saying that the Marines was no place for an astromech droid. Reluctantly Torniquet had agreed to stay behind in the hope that one day Hans would rejoin the Squadron and the two would be reunited and working together again.

Rob checked that his A-wing was ready to go and then activated his repulsors; the A-wing lifted up from the flight deck and hovered a few meters in the air. Rob pointed the fighter’s nose towards the mag con force field. “This is Red leader to Morning Star control, requesting launch clearance for a six fighter patrol.”

“Morning Star control to red leader, you and your flight are cleared to proceed; good luck. Morning Star control out.”

Rob nudged his throttle open to half and his A-wing sped out of the hanger and out into space. Jamie and Kyle formed up on Rob’s A-wing whilst David and Jeni formed up on Chris’s X-wing.

Defender squadron was docking with the Reef; they had been on patrol until Red squadron had relieved them. Red squadron was joined on patrol by the five surviving X-wings from Hawk squadron, who were now based on the Maria.

Rob pushed his throttle open until his speed reached one hundred. His A-wing could go a lot faster but Rob took into account that his two flights had X-wings in them and this was their maximum cruising speed. Pressing the top left button on his flight stick with his thumb, Rob’s C.M.D. displayed an image of the nearest enemy fighter. It was a TIE Fighter designated Delta six which was well over ninety klicks away. Rob scrolled through the enemy fighters to see how many where out patrolling. The Imperials had three squadrons out on patrol, all of them TIE Fighters; he activated his comms to speak to the squadron. “Be advised, the Imperials have three Squadrons of fighters deployed and patrolling at this time.” Rob closed the link to the squad. He took the squad on a full circuit of the Alliance fleet; several of the ships had crew in E.V.A. suits carrying out repair work to their ships hull, which had been damaged just under a week ago. The mismatch of colour showed how much damage some ships had taken as new panels were attached.

Onboard the Morning Star, Ensign Wraw watched on his display as red squadron swung away from the fleet and headed deeper into what had become known as no mans land. On Wraw’s display and thirty klicks out from the main Alliance fleet the area was shaded red until it was thirty klicks away from the Imperial fleet. Any Imperial ship that crossed into the shaded area was kept under constant supervision by Alliance tactical officers. If an Imperial ship came further than sixty klicks, the whole fleet was put from yellow alert to red alert. Since the last engagement the fleet had been to red alert twice so far.

Rob opened up his comms to the squadron again. “Check your displays and keep your eyes open, the Imps could have mined the area or could have left a probe. Make sure you report anything suspicious to me straight away.”

The fighters sped past the remains of the Harrow destroyer that had been killed by the Redemption and the Squallo. Jamie was looking at his display; he had his sensors turned up to their maximum gain. He thought he had briefly picked up a weak signal coming from the remains of the destroyer. Jamie opened up a channel to Rob. “Red Leader this is Red four.”

“Go ahead Red four.”

“Sir, I thought I just got a weak signal coming from the remains of the Harrow. It wasn’t there long; if I hadn’t been looking at my scope at the time I would have missed it.”

“I copy Red four. Ok people, let’s go take a look and see if there’s anything there.” Rob got in touch with the Morning Star and informed them of what they were investigating. The six fighters swung back towards the wreck of the destroyer.

Jamie was looking at his display again when the signal appeared again. “Red leader I just got another hit on that signal it’s approximately two klicks from Harrow’s port bow.”

“I copy Red four.” Rob led the fighters over the destroyed Harrow, towards the location Jamie had given them.

Jeni was the first to call out as they neared the location. “I see it! It looks like a navigation beacon.”

Rob was immediately in touch with Captain Ru’kaart onboard the Morning Star informing them of what they had just found. “It seems to be powered down and in stand by mode at the moment Captain. What do you want us to do?”

Before Captain Ru’kaart could reply, Jamie cut in. “Sir! That thing is powering up, it’s transmitting!”

The navigation beacon seemed to come alive; lights started to flash on and off as the beacon transmitted a signal.

Chris called out a warning. “We’ve got ships dropping out hyperspace, our location!”

Ten Imperial landing craft and a Lambda shuttle reverted back to real space; they were followed by eight Assault Gunboats.

Rob slammed his throttles wide open as he activated his comms. “Heads up people, we’ve got enemy contact dead ahead. Split up into flight groups and go after those Gunboats. Morning Star this is Red leader, requesting back up to our location, priority one. Am engaging hostile forces, Red leader out.” Rob closed his comms as he switched his weapon system over to missiles. Making sure that the missile system was set up to fire two missiles, Rob targeted the nearest Gunboat. As soon as he had a solid lock, Rob sent the two concussion missiles towards the Imperial.

The Imperial pilot had only just reverted to real space; the last thing he expected was for his missile warning system to be going off telling him that someone had just launched a missile at his ship. Pushing the Gunboats throttles up to the maximum settings, he guessed at where the attack might be coming from and banked his ship to starboard in an attempt to avoid the incoming war heads. It was as he came out of his roll that he noticed the two bright red projectiles speeding towards his ship. The missiles hit the Gunboats shields and exploded. The shockwave from the missiles threw the Gunboat into a spin which the pilot had to fight against to regain control. Warning lights were flashing on and off; the missiles had inflicted some damage to the Gunboat. The pilot wrestled with his flight stick and managed to get his ship back under control, he quickly did a quick visual scan to see what had attacked him. An A-wing was bearing down on him, its lasers already firing. Pulling his flight stick back with all his strength, the Imperial pilot tried to get his ship out of the way of the incoming laser fire. He wasn’t quick enough. The first set of laser bolts burned through the weakened shields and into the armor, the next two shots didn’t have any shields to slow them down and hit the Gunboat straight away. One of the laser bolts hit the main fuel cell storage area and blew the Gunboat to pieces.

Chris slipped his X-wing in behind a Gunboat and opened fire. Chris had his lasers in duel fire mode giving him a fairly high rate of fire. David and Jeni stayed in formation as Chris carried on hitting his target. The shields gave out and two laser bolts burned into the Gunboats right wings and destroyed them. With two of ships wings destroyed, the gunboat went into an out of control spin. Chris saw the Imperial pilot ejecting from the doomed craft. “This is Red six to control; we’ve got an Imp E.V.A.”

“Copy Red six, we’ll try and get him before the Imps get a chance to pick him up.”

The six remaining Gunboats recovered from the shock of being ambushed and had formed up into three groups of two and were now trying to organize a counter attack. Two Gunboats headed after Chris’s flight whilst the other four targeted Rob’s flight.

Kyle switched over to missiles and targeted one of the Imperial fighter/bombers. A second later his own threat indicator went off. The Gunboat he had targeted was also targeting him with a missile lock. As soon as Torniquet indicated that he had a solid missile lock, Kyle fired his missiles. Torniquet beeped to signal that a missile had been fired at them. Kyle switched back over to lasers and targeted the incoming warheads. His H.U.D. went green and Kyle squeezed his trigger. The quad burst of laser fire hit one of the missiles, detonating it. The shrapnel from the exploding missile hit the other concussion missile causing that one to detonate also. The Imperial pilot wasn’t as lucky as Kyle and missed the approaching concussion missiles, which impacted on the Gunboats shields. Kyle pressed his trigger once and sent a burst of quad laser bolts into the Gunboat. The ship seemed to fall apart at first and then it was consumed in a large explosion. Kyle let out a cheer; he’d made his first official combat kill.

Hawk squadron was closing rapidly on Red Squadrons location to help back them up, other fighters from the Alliance fleet were also being scrambled and being sent into the area along with the search and rescue shuttle to pick up the downed Imperial pilot and any Alliance pilots that had to eject.

The Imperial shuttles had taken advantage of the Alliance fighters having to engage the Gunboats and were now heading as fast as they could for the safety of the Imperial fleet.

Jeni managed to kill one of the Gunboats that had been going after her flight leaving only one left to deal with.

David noticed the shuttles running for safety and broke off to go after them. “This is Red eight, going after shuttles.”

Rob was dodging incoming weapons fire when David’s message came through. He glanced quickly at his holo radar before responding. “Acknowledged Red eight, be careful, and see if you can scan them and see what they’ve got onboard.”

“Understood Red leader.” David shunted some of his laser power into his engines to boost his speed in catching up with the shuttles.

Onboard the Morning Star, Ensign Wraw noticed that the patrolling TIE Fighters where heading out towards the shuttles. “Red eight, be advised you have thirty six, that’s three six TIE Fighters heading in your direction, they will be at you location in approximately two minutes.”

“I copy Morning Star; I’ll be on those shuttles in thirty seconds.” David targeted the Lambda shuttle with his missiles. As soon as he had a lock he fired his first missile at it, then a second later he fired another.

The rear gunner aboard the Lambda shuttle targeted the first missile and opened fire. At first his shots missed the missile as he tried to shoot it down. The gunner adjusted his aim and opened fire once more, this time he succeeded in destroying the missile. The second missile sped through the diminishing explosion that had been the first missile and continued on towards the shuttle. The gunner tried to shoot the second missile but wasn’t quick enough. The missile hit the shuttles shields and exploded. The gunner was pitched forward in his seat as the shockwave rolled over the shuttle. He quickly regained his composure and targeted David’s X-wing.

Green laser bolts flashed under David’s X-wing as he sped past the Lambda shuttle. “Beetoo, make sure you get a recording of the sensor readings of what’s in the shuttle.”

Beetoo gave a whistle as he started making recordings from the incoming sensor readings.

David closed in on the closest Landing shuttle so that his sensors could get a reading of that ship. David’s threat light lit up indicating that someone was firing at him. He put his X-wing into a roll and saw solid line of green laser bolts go through where his X-wing had just been. The Lambda shuttles pilot was attacking. Looping his X-wing in a high arc, David linked his missiles into duel fire mode and dumb fired them at the shuttle. The missiles shot towards the Imperial shuttle and hit the port wing; the explosion ripped the wing off.

Inside the shuttle, a wall of fire erupted from the left side of the shuttle and incinerated everyone onboard before they even had time to react. The fire reached the shuttles main reactor and caused it to overload. The explosion tore the shuttle apart from the inside. All of this took place in just over a second.

David checked his holo radar and saw that the TIE Fighters had moved into an escort pattern around the ten Landing craft, apart from the four TIE Fighters that were now heading after him. “Oh crap!” David opened his comms to the squadron frequency. “This is Red eight I’m inbound with four TIE Fighters on my tail, requesting urgent assistance.”

Rob’s voice replied. “We copy Red eight, come on a heading of seven nine point two and do not deviate from this heading.”

“I hear you Red leader.” David put his X-wing on the heading he had been instructed. Seconds later ten concussion missiles flew past his X-wing towards the approaching TIE Fighters. The four red blips in David’s holo radar disappeared as the missiles destroyed the Imperial fighters. “Nice shooting you guys.”

Rob replied. “You have Hawk squadron to thank as well mister Fate. Time to form up again, we’re going to provide cover for the search and rescue shuttle, we’ve got two Imperial pilots to pick up and I’m sure we’ll be interested in any information they have for us.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Steve had stayed in Bossivepolis, whilst Blue and Legion squadron, along with the two Y-wings from Buzzard squadron had flown back to Keibakia. Captain Tempest had flown Steve’s B-wing back when Steve had gotten permission to stay for an extra day with Mike. As the bombers where making their approach, the spaceport flight controller got them to hold the position as there was priority outgoing traffic. The traffic was the four A-wings; they shot out of the spaceport and headed west. Richard heard over the main comm. frequency the controller directing them towards a possible Imperial contact that had just appeared on their radars.

Upon their arrival, Richard and Kal had been summoned to speak with Colonel Simmons. Richard spoke to Kal as they walked away from their ships. “You know it’s a good job we got something to eat while we where in Bossivepolis, it doesn’t look like Simmons is going to give us any time at all.”

“I know. Personally I can’t stand the man. He’s got about as much tact as a Hutt.”

Richard let out a short laugh, it had been the first time he’d laughed since the mission. At the moment, his squadron was down to half strength. Four of his pilots were dead and Mike was badly injured. Steve looked like he was close to becoming combat ineffective, he’d been the flight leader for three of the dead pilots and also his own brother.

Nikkie Tempest came over to Kal before Richard and Kal entered the space port. “Sir, sorry to interrupt, just thought you’d like to know that the ground crew are servicing Gliff’s B-wing, they said they can repair the engine, but they’re going to have to wait for a supply ship to get through with B-wing spares before they can replace the port s-foil. Major Michadick’s B-wing is also being serviced and fuelled.”

“Thank you Captain Tempest. I’ll speak to Colonel Simmons about getting you a replacement, but in the mean time if there’s an alert use Major Michadick’s B-wing, if that’s ok with you Richard?” Kal looked at Richard.

“Fine by me Kal, Steve won’t be back until tomorrow, just take care of it that’s all.”

“Yes sirs.” Nikkie saluted and turned to leave.

Kal called after her. “Actually Captain, I think you should come along to this meeting that we’re about to have with the Colonel, you can ask him yourself for a replacement bomber.”

Nikkie suddenly became unsure of what was going on. “Sir?”

“I’m making you acting Executive Officer for the squadron, so you might as well be in on the meeting with the Colonel.”

“Thank you sir.”

“Your welcome. Shall we proceed?” Kal asked Richard.

“In a moment, I’m just going to get myself some back up as well.” Richard spotted Paul heading away from his Y-wing; his astromech was following close behind him. Richard put his thumb and index finger to his mouth and let out a loud whistle. Several people looked towards Richard, Paul being one of them, Richard waved him over.

Paul spoke briefly to Shade, then he jogged over to Richard and the others. “What’s up Chief?”

“We’re just heading in to debrief Colonel Simmons about the mission, as Steve is still Bossivepolis until tomorrow; I’m making you acting X.O. until he gets back. So that means you’re now coming to the meeting.”

“Thanks Chief, a nice meeting with Colonel cuddles! Just what I need.”

Kal spoke quietly to Richard as they carried on to the space ports terminal. “Is there not someone else you could use?”

“No. Listen if you’ve got issues with Paul that’s too bad, he’s an experienced officer and done the exec role before and even the C.O. role as well. As for the incident with Flight Officer South, I happen to agree with how Major Sweet dealt with the situation.”

“Fair enough, if you say so, but I find him rather insubordinate.”

“Yes he can be, and that’s why I’m taking him with me into this meeting, he’ll say the things that I can’t.”

The four pilots found Colonel Simmons in the main operations room. He was looking at holo display of Eidola, the top part of the city was now red like the eastern part, there was a small patch of green that had been surrounded in the north east of the city. Simmons turned around when he heard the pilots enter the operations room; the bacta dressing that had been covering his left eye was gone. The white of the eye was completely blood red, and the pupil seemed to be dilated constantly. “I’m glad you’ve found the time out of your busy schedules to come and see me.”

The Colonels remark had its desired affect on Kal and Nikkie who’s faces clearly showed shock at being spoken to like that. Richard didn’t react whilst Paul just shook his head briefly.

Simmons looked in Paul’s direction. “Something bothering you Major?”

Paul held Simmons stare as he answered back. “No. Should there be?”

Colonel Simmons continued starring at Paul for several seconds more before he turned back to the holo map of Eidola. “A short while after your mission, the Imperials launched an attack on the north of Eidola. The attack was spearheaded with a large armored assault backed up by heavy and medium artillery plus infantry. We’re also getting some unconfirmed reports of new Imperial units being deployed”

Richard looked at the map at the map then back at Simmons. “So what you’re telling me is that the target we attacked earlier wasn’t intended to be used by the Imps against Eidola. We attacked the wrong target!”

“It looks that way.”

“So what the hell did we attack then?” Kal burst out.

“Intelligence believes that you attacked a repair yard. They believe the Imperials had moved their damaged vehicles out of their staging area in case we attacked it again.”

“So you’re telling me we’ve just lost four pilots and five ships for nothing!” Kal’s voice started to get louder as he became angrier.

Simmons glared back at Kal, his own voice getting louder as he spoke. “No Colonel not for nothing, but because it was a designated target!”

Before things could escalate, Paul spoke up. “Well it looks like N.R.I. is up to its usual standards.”

Simmons turned quickly to face Paul. “What do you mean by that Major?”

“Exactly what I said, Colonel. The spooks, did a rush job on the data they got from the Longprobe and got it wrong.”

“They felt that if we didn’t act now, then we might loose the opportunity of attacking the Imperial Column.”

“Maybe so, but their botch job has cost us, big time, because they became focused on that group they missed the real build up towards the north. Their mistake could cost us the city.”

Before Colonel Simmons could respond, the air raid sirens started sounding. One of the controllers in the operations room shouted out. “We’ve got incoming hostiles from the north east, looks like four squadrons in strength!”

Richard was already heading out of the door. “Get to your ships, we need to get airborne otherwise we’re dead on the ground.”

As the pilots ran outside they heard the distinctive sound of turbo lasers firing at the incoming bombers. Nikkie risked a look towards the sound of the weapons fire. On the horizon she saw the distinctive shape of TIE Bombers heading towards them.

A group of Alliance Vanguard troopers were sprinting to their posts, ready to engage the enemy bombers. On the roof of the space terminal the two E-web guns where manned and aimed towards the Imperials.

An explosion mushroomed up into the sky as a TIE destroyed something with a rocket. More explosions could be heard and seen as the other TIE Bombers started shooting.

The E-Web gunners opened fire as a TIE Bomber came into range. Since the TIE Bomber didn’t have any shields, any hit it took could be a potentially fatal one. Imperial designers had reinforced the ships armor. Scorch marks appeared along the TIE’s main body as the laser bolts found their mark. Two Vanguard troopers that where also up on the roof with the E-web gunners fired at the bomber. The small missiles tracked the speeding TIE and hit it. One of the missiles blew a chunk out of the TIE’s lower left solar wing, the other hit the main weapons pod. The TIE pilot veered off from his attack run as his ship started trailing smoke from where it had been hit.

It was while the gunners on the E-web were targeting the damaged TIE they failed to notice another TIE Bomber making an attack run on their position. The rocket slammed into the roof of the terminal and exploded, the troops manning the weapons up there disappeared in the fireball.

Richard dived into his B-wings cockpit and hit the emergency start button. The B-wing came to life instantly. Richard activated the repulsors and lifted his ship off the ground.

A rocket hit one of the Gallofree transporters and blew the ship apart. People that had been near the transporter were killed when the shockwave from the explosion hit them. Another rocket exploded in the main part of the terminal, several people came running out of building ablaze.

Dee had managed to get herself into her B-wing and was just about to press the emergency start button. She noticed a TIE Bomber coming right at her. The bomber started firing its lasers. Time seemed to slow down for Dee, as she watched the lasers slowly track towards her ship. Just before the lasers would have hit her B-wing, they stopped. Tearing her eyes away from the ground, Dee saw several smoke trails that headed off in the direction of the TIE. Six Vanguard soldiers had fired at the approaching bomber and all of their missiles had hit it. Flames and black smoke were now coming from the bomber as it overshot the space port.

Richard had his S-foils deployed and his lasers linked but was using his repulsors to hold him steady in the air. Targeting an approaching bomber, Richard squeezed his trigger and sent three red laser bolts into the bombers cockpit. One of the laser bolts punched out the rear of the cockpit whilst the other two destroyed the cockpit and its contents. With noone alive left to control it the TIE Bomber dipped forward and flew into the wall of the space port and exploded.

Two Z-95s flashed by over head and went after the TIE Bombers. Two bombers were brought down by concussion missiles before the fighters engaged the bombers with their laser cannons.

With the immediate threat from the bombers taken care of, the B-wings and Y-wings were able to get airborne without any further problems. Richard spoke to everyone on the command channel. “Form up into attack groups and take those bombers down!”

Paul shoved his throttles fully open and sped away from the space port, as his Y-wing came up to full speed he noticed a TIE Bomber making a run on one of the military compounds. Two large explosions erupted from the compound as the bomber made its attack run. The TIE pilot pulled up and started searching for another target. Paul had linked all of his weapons to duel fire mode. As the bomber slipped into his H.U.D. Paul pressed his trigger. The Ion bolts missed but the two laser bolts didn’t, they burned through the top of the bombers right wing. Paul pressed down with his left foot on the rudder pedal and made his Y-wing veer to the left. The next shot had all four bolts on target and hitting the main body of the TIE, the bomber exploded.

Dee had gone after a trio of bombers flying in a V formation; they were going after Glaives head quarters in the centre of Keibakia. As she was closing in on them the middle bomber suddenly blew up as one Keibakia’s defensive guns hit it. The other two bombers pushed on, determined to inflict as much damage as possible. Dee noticed that Sara was on her wing. “Red, you take port I’ll take the other.”

“Copy, lining up for the shot.”

Dee got herself into a perfect firing position, right on the bombers tail. “In position and ready to fire.”

Sara was also ready. “Give the word.”

“FIRE!” As Dee gave the order, her finger curled around her trigger, sending a stream of laser bolts towards the bomber. The TIE Bomber that Dee had targeted had its port wing shot off at its main wing mount. Trailing a fine plume of black smoke, it crashed into a row of buildings and exploded.

The bomber Sara had fired on turned into a flaming mass and slammed into a fountain in the city centre and exploded, destroying the fountain completely.

Thantos levelled his Y-wing out and followed the fleeing TIE Bomber. The bomber was already trailing smoke from its starboard solar wing where it had been hit by a missile fired by a Vanguard trooper. Thantos guided his Y-wing until his H.U.D. was centred on the bombers weapons pod. The two laser bolts burned through the armor. One of the laser bolts hit a rocket; the heat from the laser detonated the warhead straight away. The exploding rocket destroyed the bomber, sending both of the TIE’s wings spinning off in different directions.

Satisfied that enough damage had been inflicted, the TIE Bombers headed out of Keibakia, shunting power from weapons to their engines. Two more bombers were brought down by the city’s air defense weapons as they tried to flee.

Richard decided against giving chase to the fleeing bombers, the chance that the Imperials might be leading them into an ambush was too great a risk to take. He ordered everyone back to the spaceport.

Dee brought her B-wing back to the spaceport, as she closed the S-foils on her bomber she looked out of her cockpit across the city. From every direction she could see black smoke rising up into the sky. The Imperials had caught them all napping and had managed to inflict a significant blow to the central city on Balfron.

Emergency teams were trying to bring the fires in the spaceport under control as medics tried to treat the wounded. The fire in the main terminal was still raging out of control; there was little hope for anyone still trapped inside of getting out alive.

Richard took in the scene as he exited his B-wing. The pilots formed up near him. “Ok, here’s what’s going to happen. Dee, you and anyone else with medical skills are going to go and help the medics out.”

Dee was a certified corpsman, trained by Alliance Marines. “Yes sir.” Dee headed off towards a group of medics to offer her services.

Paul and Thantos both stepped forward as well. “We’ll go over and help out as well, we’re both ok at first aid.”

“Ok, get gone.”

Paul and Thantos jogged over to where Dee had gone.

“Ok, Kal I want you to go up with five other pilots and patrol, just in case the Imps decide to send a follow up wave, I doubt they will but you never know.”

Kal pointed to Paul South and Sara and then to three pilots from his own squadron. They went back to the ships and got ready to take off.

Richard turned to the remaining pilots. “The rest of us will be helping out with the emergency teams as and where they need us. Let’s go.”

The pilots formed up and followed Richard as he went to speak to the commander of the emergency teams.

Four hours later most of the fires had been brought under control. General Glaive was visiting some of the wounded in the hospital, the moaning and crying from the wounded filled the large hospital ward. Every now and then he would stop by a person’s bed and talk with the occupant for a while. After he had finished speaking to several more people he sought out the chief medic. Leif saw the woman pull a blanket over a casualty she hadn’t been able to save. Leif gave the medic a brief chance to pass on some information to the man stood next to her before he went over. “Do you have a moment?”

The woman looked up at the General; she had dark rings under her eyes, and her uniform was covered in blood from the injured people she had been treating. “I do now; I wasn’t able to save this one.”

“I’m sure you did everything you could Doctor Tanith.”

“It wasn’t enough for this one. What can I do for you General?”

“How bad is it?”

“It’s bad, sir. Our bacta units are stretched to capacity. We have to choose people on the probability of survival and make comfortable those who would take up too many resources. I’m afraid it has come down to a numbers game.”

“I’m sure you’re doing the best you can Illela. Is there anything else you need?”

“Yes, make this damn war stop and that’ll do just fine!”

Leif looked down at the blanket that was now covering what used to be a living breathing person; blood was starting to soak through the sheet in several places. “I’m trying Illela, I’m trying.”

Illela looked across to the General; it had been the sadness in his voice that had caused her to look at him and instantly felt guilty for what she said. “I’m sorry sir I didn’t mean to imply that you’re to blame for this.”

“Good of you to say Doctor, still I do feel responsible in part.” Leif seemed to shake himself out of his grief, his fur rippled once. “How many dead are we looking at Doctor?”

Illela pointed towards a set of double doors and headed towards them with General following her. Illela went through in to the next room.

When Leif entered he let out a short gasp. The room was twice the size of the treatment room and already it was full with the dead. “How many?”

Illela took a data pad that was lying on a table next to the doors and activated it. “So far the count is at one thousand four hundred and thirty three, no that’s wrong it’s one thousand four hundred and thirty four, I forgot private Shire.”

Leif didn’t say anything; there was nothing that he could say about the scene that lay before him, Leif would take this image to his grave with him. His eyes where drawn to a blanket that had a small shape under it that was far too small to be anything else but that of a child’s body underneath it. General Glaive thanked Doctor Tanith for her time and let her get back to treating the wounded. His armored speeder sped back to his command bunker. On the way back he noticed that the fountain near his command centre had been destroyed, the mangled remains of a TIE Bomber could be seen in the rubble. By the time he entered the command centre, Leif was in a dark mood. He went straight to his private office. After a few minutes there was a knock on the door. “WHAT?” Leif shouted.

The door opened, stood there was Colonel Ibixm. “I can come back if it’s not a good time sir.”

“I don’t think there’s going to be a good time here until we kick those Imperial bastards off this planet once and for all, and even then I doubt it! What have you got for me Colonel?”

The Mon Calamari officer walked forward, he held a data pad in his left hand. “I’ve got reports, mostly bad news but a bit of good news as well.”

“Humph, let’s have the good news first then.”

“Yes sir. It looks the Imperials launched air raids on Bossivepolis and Emettin at exactly the same time as they attacked here.”

“And this is the good news you say you have for me?”

“No sir, the good news is that the attack on Bossivepolis was thwarted. The Imperials only sent a squadron of bombers. They tried to follow a rescue Bantha’s route in to the city. The controller had already assigned new approach vectors so when the TIE Bombers entered the city’s airspace they were shot down by the city’s defenses. Bossivepolis took no damage.”

“Well that’s something I suppose, make sure you send on my personal congratulations to that controller. Anything else?”

“Yes sir, Major Jackson along with other Alliance units has managed to break out of the pocket they had been trapped in Eidola. They’ve linked up with other Alliance units.”

“That is good news, thank you Ibixm. Ok let’s have the bad news now.”

“Yes sir. Emettin was hit pretty hard in their attack. The Imperials sent a single squadron on the attack, they managed to get by the city’s defenses and inflict significant damage.”

“I want a full list of the damages they’ve taken and casualties, military and civilian. Also I want this passed on to our defense teams as well the ones at Emettin. I want them operating the same procedures that they have in Bossivepolis, that’s priority one on that order as well.”

“Yes sir.”

“What else have you got then?”

“This report was sent down about thirty minutes ago by Admiral Ull. Do you recall me telling you about the ten Imperial shuttles that got through earlier?”

“Yes, what about them?”

“Well one of the fleets fighters managed to get a scan of one of them. You’re not going to like this at all I’m afraid sir; it seems that the Imperials are using Dark Troopers.”

”What! Are you sure?” Leif fur around his neck became raised slightly.

“Yes sir, the scan of the shuttle confirmed this, but I must mention that we believe the commander of the Dark Trooper unit has been killed already. The pilot that took the scans also destroyed a Lambda-class shuttle, onboard was a Colonel Ingram, who Intelligence believe was in charge of the Dark Trooper programme.”

“Let’s hope that you’re correct Ibixm.”

“We can but hope sir, but it would explain the reports of the new Imperial units that have been hitting our positions in the north of Eidola.”

Leif sat in silence for a moment. He suddenly got up out of his chair and marched through to the command room with Ibixm following closely behind him. “Put Eidola up on the holo display, and make sure it’s overlaid with Alliance and Imperial positions.”

Immediately an aerial view of Eidola appeared above the command table. The red of the Imperial locations was now wrapped around the northern and eastern parts of the city and not far away from the centre of the city.

“Colonel, at this moment in time, we’re loosing this war. The Imperials have got us jumping to their moves. Well I’m going to change that right now. I’m ordering a full scale fighting retreat of all Alliance forces from Eidola. They are to fall back to Lyran.”

Ibixm gave his General a wall eyed stare with his large eyes. “Sir?”

“We’re going to make them over extend their supply lines and force them to fight on our terms. Get in touch with the search and rescue group in Bossivepolis and get them to ferry the wounded from Eidola back to Bossivepolis. Then after they’ve done that I want them to transport the ground troops to Lyran. The mechanised units are to make their way under their own power. If we can make the Imperials think that we’re retreating because they’re too much for us to handle then they’re going to want to press on for Keibakia and the most direct route for them is straight down through Lyran, which is where we’ll have them!”

Chapter Twenty-Three

The order to retreat went out to the commander of the Alliance forces at Eidola. He was told not to start the retreat until the first batch of wounded troops had been evacuated. Other troopers were busy getting things ready for when they started their retreat, demolition experts were planting charges and setting booby traps in vital buildings and pieces of equipment. Taking a final look about his old office, the commander donned his combat jacket and helmet. He checked the power settings on his rifle and pistol; satisfied they were full he activated a trip mine and walked out of his office for the final time.

Zorn climbed out his tank and dropped wearily down to the ground in the main staging area in Eidola. He looked at his tank as the rest of his crew climbed out. The once pristine tank now showed its battle scars all over the armor. Zorn ran his hand across a particularly long gouge that had been cause by an AT-AT as they had broken out from their encircled position. He looked at the other surviving tanks from his regiment; they were all in a similar state as his own. His was just over half strength; the fact that any of them were still alive was a minor miracle. The Imperial attacks had been fierce and brutal, but his people had done him and the Alliance proud. Zorn noticed a Mon Calamari Major in full battle dress heading in his direction.

“Major Jackson?”

Zorn dragged his body up, using his tank as support. “That’s me.”

“I’m Major Falar; I’m in charge of this facility. I take it you’ve heard about the order to retreat to Lyran?”

“Yeah I’ve heard.”

“Then how come you’re not heading there?”

“Because Major, my people have been in constant combat since Imperial forces started their attack on Eidola and we’ve had no time to rest, eat or repair and if we don’t do that now, then we’ll never make Lyran, hell we won’t even make it out of the city!”

The Mon Calamari Major blinked twice. “I see your point Major, I’ll get my people to help yours and get you some food as well.”

“Thank you Major I appreciate it, also if you have any munitions left for our tanks we’ll gladly take those off your hands.”

“Well it will save me having to blow them up, I’ll see to that as well.” Major Falar headed off to organise Major Jackson’s requests.

“He seems a decent sort.” “Yes Smithy; that he does. Now let’s get started on giving this tank the fastest service its ever had so we can get out of here.”

Sergeant Trice watched the MPTL-2A in front of hers. They where on the road that lead to Lyran. As soon as the orders to retreat had come through her C.O. had informed them to disengage and withdraw. As soon as they reached Lyran, the artillery units where to dig in to new concealed firing positions in preparation for the expected Imperial attack. “Want me to take over?” Alex asked her driver.

“No, I’m fine thanks Sarge, we’ll be there in another two hours, I’ll get some rest then. Get some rest yourself if you want though, you look like you need it!”

“Cheers, I’ll just have a quick nap; wake me when we’re an hour away from Lyran.”

“No worries Sarge.”

In under a minute, Alex was snoring softly as the MPTL-2A headed towards Lyran.

Colonel Twain and his troopers moved as quickly and silently as they could through the forest. So far their journey had proceeded without any problems. Garth was well aware that could change at any moment though. It was mid afternoon and the sun was streaming through the trees. Insects buzzed about Garth and his people as they trekked onwards towards the Imperial staging area. At the speed the group was travelling at Garth reckoned it would take another day and a half to get in position to launch the attack on the Imperial base. After another hour, Garth called everyone to a halt and ordered a thirty minute rest.

People found cover and sat down, some took drinks from their canteens whilst others had something to eat.

Garth sat against a large tree, Major Nuen and Captain Rets came over to his position and joined him. Garth reached into his top pocket and pulled out his data pad. As he activated a map of the surrounding area was displayed. “From our current location and if we’re able to keep up the same speed, I reckon we’ll be there by the night tomorrow. That’ll give us plenty of time to observe their procedures and allow us to come up with a good assault plan.”

Major Nuen looked over at the map. “Yeah I reckon our groups stick together until tomorrow morning and then we split up and head out our separate ways. I wish you would let me take the west side for the assault.”

“Jack we’ve been over this already, you take the east, I’ve got west. I know you think the getting to the western assault point is the more dangerous of the two and maybe it is, but what’s the point of having rank if you’re not allowed to abuse it every now and then.”

“Yes sir, whatever you say sir, just make sure you don’t get yourself vaped, I wouldn’t like to do the report writing on that one!”

“Jack you’re all heart.”

The soldiers at Lyran had prepared the area as best they could. The town had been evacuated of all the civilians and now only military personnel remained. Buildings and homes had been fortified as best they could.

Elise was inspecting one of the firing positions in the sector of the town she was in command of, when Irena came over to her. “What is it Commander?”

“Command has just been in touch and say we should start expecting the units retreating from Eidola to arrive any time now. They told me that we’re to use them to bolster our positions as best we can. They’ve also confirmed that the Imperials are using Phase Three Dark Troopers, they were used in the attack when Imps took down the north of Eidola.”

“Great! Did command say anything else?”

“Only that we’re not to let the Imperials pass.”

Elise let out a sharp laugh. “Well if that’s what command has ordered I guess we better not let them down!” The two women walked away from the firing position and back to the command room that had been set up in an evacuated shop. “You have any knowledge on how to deal with these Dark Troopers Irena?”

“Only the obvious one, lots of fire power. I think that if we get lucky the artillery might take some of them out, but I wouldn’t count on that to happen, these guys will just fire up their jet packs and go above the barrage. Best bet in my opinion will be our tanks and Vanguard troopers.”

“Ok I’ll make sure that we’ve got at least five roving Vanguard squads tasked purely with taking down the Dark Troopers. Anything else?”

“Yeah they’re going to hit us with everything they have. They’ll want to flatten this place so that they can advance on Keibakia. In their thinking, if they take Keibakia then Balfron is as good as theirs.”

“They may very well be right!”

Captain Twill had gathered everyone together for the briefing. Pilots stood shoulder to shoulder with the ground crew, mechanics and everyone else stationed in the forest clearing. “The order to retreat from Eidola was passed a few hours ago. We’re pulling our forces back to Lyran in an attempt to make the Imperials over extend their supply lines and make them vulnerable at the front lines. We however are not going to retreat just yet!”

The gathered group of people started talking all at once.

Twill let them talk on for a few more moments before he called for everyone to listen again. “What we will be doing is this. Once the Imperials reach Lyran and engage our forces there we will then launch our offensive against their rear elements heading to Lyran, basically their supply vehicles. We take out enough of them and we will severely hamper their efforts at the front. After that little engagement we will then fly on to Lyran and engage the main Imperial assault force before flying to Keibakia for refuelling, rearming and repairs.”

One of the mechanics stuck up his hand. “What about us then sir?”

“You guys will be picked up by a Bantha once we start our attack on the Imperials. If we evacuated you sooner we run the risk of this location being detected and bringing a whole heap of trouble down on us. What I need from everyone now is to make sure that our speeders are in the best shape they can be and then everyone is ready to go as soon as we are. Any questions?”

There were none.

“Ok, let’s get to it people.”

General Garner was in his command bunker in the ruins of Ewenib. He was studying a holo display of Eidola; the display showed Imperial and Rebel forces and their current positions. “It would appear that the Rebels are retreating from Eidola. This morning a large number of transporters made several repeat journeys between Eidola and Bossivepolis. From what intelligence sources we have in place in Eidola I have been informed that the Rebels have evacuated their wounded from the city and started a withdrawal as well. Comments?”

Colonel Sandoval looked up from the holo. “I think you’re right sir, they’re retreating, but the question is why? Normally Rebels hold out until their positions become untenable but I don’t feel that we had reached that point so far in our assault on Eidola. If we think back to our assault on Ewenib they basically fought until the end. At the moment they still have control of about two thirds of the city.”

Captain Lon looked over towards Major Odom. “Sir did you ever think that the Major and his men might be the reason?”

Major Odom was still wearing his Dark Trooper battle suit, the only part of it he had removed was the helmet. He smiled at Captain Lon’s comment. “As much as I would like to take credit for turning the tide of the battle at Eidola, Colonel Sandoval is right; the Rebels are retreating for another reason.”

General Garner nodded his head. “Yes I thought as much, I just wanted to hear it out loud from someone else. I think the Rebels are shortening their supply lines and consolidating their forces. I think that the next battle will be make or break for them. If we can smash their forces at Keibakia then Balfron will be ours.” General Garner touched a control on the holo projector and the image shifted its view from Eidola to that of Keibakia. “Be under no illusions that this will be an easy battle. We were supposed to take Eidola in the same time as we took Ewenib but the Rebels became resourceful and have learned from their mistakes and changed their tactics. This will be an all out battle to the end and it is a battle that I intend us to win. Colonel Sandoval, as soon as Eidola falls I want you to get our forces ready for an immediate assault on Keibakia, use the reserves that are in the staging area to reinforce our front line units.”

“Yes sir.”

The meeting with the General continued for ten more minutes before it came to a close. As the officers filed out of the bunker, General Garner signalled Major Odom to stay behind. “I was sorry to hear about the death of Colonel Ingram, he was a fine commander.”

“Thank you sir, he will be missed.”

“How did you and your men fare in the attack on the north of Eidola?”

“We smashed through the Rebel positions easily enough; we had the element of surprise and shock with us.”

“Did you take any casualties?”

“Yes I lost five of my men, they were taken out by Rebel tanks, and so far they seem to be the only real threat to my men and me.”

“The addition of you and your people will be a great boost to our forces here.”

Sensing that the General had finished, Major Odom turned to leave.

“One more thing before you head off back to the front Major.”

“Yes sir?”

“As of this moment you are promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.”

Ziff came to attention and saluted General Garner. “Thank you sir, I won’t let you down.”

“I know, carry on Lieutenant Colonel Odom.” General Garner returned the salute.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Lieutenant Kawl blinked his eyes. Through his helmet he was looking up at the sky, he looked at large fluffy white cloud above him. Gideon couldn’t remember why he was looking at the sky; he was sure he was supposed to be doing something else but couldn’t remember what it was. Gideon felt as he had just woken up, which was strange as he hadn’t remembered going to sleep. Gideon tried to move and sit up, but found that he couldn’t. Gideon became aware of a weight that was on top of his body stopping him from moving. Suddenly it all came flashing back to him, he hadn’t been sleeping he had been caught up in an explosion. His unit had been moving through the streets of Eidola, checking out the buildings to make sure the Rebels had really retreated. Four Stormtroopers had entered a building to search the place whilst Gideon and the rest of his men stayed outside. That’s when the explosion had happened; part of the wall had smashed into Gideon and knocked him out. Looking about he noticed that two Stormtroopers where heading in his direction, the pair lifted remains of the wall that had trapped Gideon, he felt the wall crash down beside him. One of the Stormtroopers offered Gideon a hand to help him up. Gideon took the hand and gently raised himself up until he was standing. His armor was covered in dirt and dust and there were dents and scrapes all across it but it had saved Gideon’s life and remained intact. One of the Stormtroopers seemed to be talking to him but he couldn’t hear what the other trooper was saying so Gideon removed his helmet.

“Sir, are you alright?”

“Yes, it looks like my comms are dead though, what’s the damage?” Flames and smoke were coming out from the building where the explosion had happened.

“We’ve got three dead and two wounded outside sir, and I’m guessing that the four that went inside are also dead.”

“Has anyone checked for survivors?”

“Not yet, sir.”

“Get to it then, we might have injured people still alive in that building.”

“Yes sir.” The two Stormtroopers headed off to carry out Gideon’s orders.

“It looks like you’re having as much fun as everyone else!”

Gideon turned around to see who had spoken to him. The voice belonged to Colonel Sandoval; he was standing on some rubble flanked by two Stormtroopers. Colonel Sandoval had his combat armor and helmet on and was also armed with an E-11 Carbine which was currently holstered on his right leg. “Sir, I didn’t realise that you where here.”

“That is quite ok Lieutenant, I was just checking up on units in my area. Are you hurt?”

“No sir, my armor took the damage.”

“Good I would hate for you to be injured and taken off the line, I was coming to see you personally as it happens.”

Gideon was slightly confused. “Sir?”

“As of this moment you are promoted to the rank of Captain, congratulations Captain Kawl.” Grice saluted Gideon.

Gideon reacted immediately and returned the salute. “Thank you sir.”

“You’ve earned it Captain. Yours is not the only unit that has been running into these booby traps. It looks like the Rebels have left them throughout the city as they retreated.”

“Yes sir, this is going to take a while to clear the city.”

“Yes it is and that’s why I’m ordering all troops to stop searching as of now. General Garner wants our forces ready to attack Keibakia; we’ll leave the city to be searched by the engineers. Gather up your men Captain and proceed to staging position Gamma three.”

“Sir we’re still searching for survivors.”

“I know. I’ve organised for a rescue team to take over from your people.”

“Thank you sir.” Gideon saluted Colonel Sandoval once more and then turned and headed off to gather up his unit and proceed to the staging area.

In Keibakia the next morning, Steve stepped off the shuttles boarding ramp and onto the scorched ground of the space port. He looked around at all the destruction and damage the place had taken during the bombing raid. Steve noticed Paul walking over to him. “How bad was it?”

“Pretty bad, we lost a lot of people, lot of civilian casualties too.”

Steve fell into step besides Paul as they headed towards the squadrons billets. “Any of our guys?”

“No, none from the other squadrons either.”

“That’s a relief.”

Paul looked over to his friend, Steve’s eyes were bloodshot and he had dark rings under his eyes, mind you this seemed to be the look that most military types were sporting these days and Paul was no exceptions to this either. It was more something in Steve’s voice that Paul picked up on. “How’s Mike?”

“He’s lost his left eye and they’ve had to amputate his right leg above the knee. They’re keeping him in an induced comma so that his body can heal itself. They reckon that he’ll pull through though but the chances of him flying again are slim.”

The anguish in Steve’s voice was clear to hear. “Steve, he’s alive, that’s all that matters.”

“I know and I am thankful believe me. It’s just that I don’t know if I can do this anymore.”

Paul stopped walking and turned to face Steve. “What do you mean?”

“Seeing Mike like that has just brought it all home to me, I don’t know if I’ve got any fight left in me.”

“That’s understandable mate, you’ve been through a lot, and a family member has been seriously hurt, but know this, you’ve got to carry on. I’ll tell you why.” Paul pointed his right index finger straight up into the sky.

The look on Steve’s face told Paul that his friend had missed what he was trying to tell him. “I don’t understand.”

“You’re fighting for Sooli and your unborn child, if not for anything else; you’re doing it for them. Once this is all over, get out of Ops and go teach at the academy or retire if need be, but until this is done, get your head back into the game and focused on staying alive and stopping these Imperial bastards doing to anyone else what they’ve just done to you.” Paul hoped that his little speech would be enough to drag Steve out of his current state of mind and back to how he had been.

“You know I was going to tell Mike about Sooli and me once we got back. I hadn’t told my own brother that I was married and my wife was expecting.”

“So.”

Steve looked sharply at Paul. “What do you mean; so?”

“Steve, Mike is alive, he’s going to live, end of story. The matter is now whether you live or not to tell him about Sooli and you, isn’t it? If you stay in your current state of mind it’ll be your widow giving him the news.” The look on Steve’s face told Paul that he had struck home with his last comment. “I’ll cover you as best I can when we’re out there Steve, but in the end it’s up to you mate.”

Steve stood for a moment weighing up what Paul had just said to him. A smile slowly crept onto Steve’s face. “Thank you Paul, you’re a good friend.”

“Sithspit! I didn’t do anything apart from tell you what you already knew.”

Steve shook his head as his friend swore. “Paul come on, no swearing.” Steve said still smiling.”

“Steve, you want me to stop swearing, you’re going to have to take down that Imp fleet up in orbit, knock Isard off her thrown and then take down five Death Stars before you can get me to stop swearing and even then I doubt that’ll make me change.”

“I’ll do it!”

“Ain’t gonna bloody well happen buddy.”

The two men started walking towards the billets once more, carrying on the light hearted conversation.

An hour later and the pilots had all assembled in a make shift briefing room, the one in space port had been completely destroyed. Richard was stood at the front with Kal. Richard cleared his throat before speaking. “First off I’d like to thank you all for your efforts yesterday in the help you gave in seeing off those TIE’s and for the help you gave afterwards. Dee, you’ve been singled out for some praise by the medics, in fact their Captain says if you ever get tired of flying they’ll have you in a shot with them, good work.”

Dee blushed as the other pilots clapped and several of them patted her on the back.

“Secondly I’d like to welcome back Steve, I’m also glad to say that Mike is going to be fine and should make a speedy recovery.”

Several of the pilots who hadn’t had a chance to catch up with Steve welcomed him back and passed on their best wishes for Mike.

Richard carried on once the room had gone quiet. “For those of you that haven’t heard, Colonel Simmons was killed in the raid yesterday, he was still in the space port when it took the hit from the rocket. Command says a replacement commander will be appointed soon.”

“Any idea who it’ll be sir?” Asked Sara.

“No, I don’t think there’s any wounded pilots that are senior enough and I’m not sure they want to take an active squadron leader off the line for the job either, but as soon as I know, you lot will know. As of this moment there will be no further combat ops unless the Imperials attack us. Finally before I hand you over to Colonel Byrne, you’re all well aware that our forces are retreating from Eidola to Lyran, that’s where we’ll be making our stand. There’s a good chance that we’ll be moved from here to Lyran so everyone stay close by as we could leave without much notice.”

Kal moved forward to take over speaking from Richard. “Two notes of interest for my squadron. Gliff, the mechanics say that the spare parts for your B-wing have arrived and they will have it ready in a few hours. As soon as they’ve finished I want you to take your ship up and check it out.”

“Yes sir.”

“Captain Tempest, a ship has also been located for you as well.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Don’t be too quick to thank me Nikkie; the best we could get you is a T-wing.”

“It’s a ship sir, which means I still get to fly, the T-wing will be fine.”

General Glaive was in the command room, he was looking at the display of Eidola, it was now completely red. The Imperials were in control of the city. The display showed a column of retreating Alliance forces; it was made up with the remains of a regiment of T1-B Hover tanks and ten MPTL-2A Artillery tanks. This group had been providing cover for the retreating units leaving Eidola and now they themselves where retreating to Lyran. So far the Imperials had left the retreating units alone and Leif was hoping it would stay like that for their entire journey to Lyran. “Are our forces at Lyran ready?”

“Yes sir, as ready as they can be anyway. Forces from Eidola are still arriving there and are being assigned to sectors. The artillery that arrived at Lyran shortly after the retreat is in their firing positions and they’ve been given their orders. Captain Twill’s group is also ready, we’ve got a Bantha transporter at Bossivepolis standing by to go in and get the rest of his people from their base once it all kicks off. What’s left of the bomber and fighter wings are ready. Finally all the supplies we could manage to spare have been sent to Lyran.”

“Excellent, now all we can do is wait and see if the Imperials will play along with our plans!” Leif moved away from the command table and headed back into his private room, Ibixm followed his General into the room. Once the door was closed and Leif had sat down he continued talking to Ibixm. “What’s the status of Colonel Twain’s group?”

“From their last report they are expected to reach their destination by nightfall tonight. Once Colonel Twain and his people are in position I gather he’s going to observe the Imperials routine and then attack at the most opportune moment.”

“Good, we need the Imperials caught off balance and under pressure for a change. When he reports in next time make sure you pass on the message that he doesn’t launch his attack until the Imperials are attacking Lyran, we don’t want them reacting to an attack in their rear and not going for Lyran. Once the attack against Lyran has started the Imperials will have committed themselves and hopefully won’t be able to react when the Colonel’s group launches their assault.”

“I’ll make sure I get the message through to him sir.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Rob was in his office scrolling through a message that Trixel had sent him, when there was a knock on his door. Rob deactivated the message and put down the data pad. “Come in.”

The door opened and Chelsey walked into the office. The small Eh’shu’lan woman walked up to the edge of Rob’s desk. “Sir do you have a moment?”

“What can I do for you Miss Maxfield?”

“I’d like to be put back on the flight roster sir; I want to be back on active duty.”

Rob looked at the small woman standing before him; there was hardness in her eyes that he had never seen before and it concerned him. “I see.” Rob stood up and moved around to the same side of the desk as Chelsey. “You’ll understand my concerns about granting such a request. What’s to say that as soon as you get inside your fighter that you don’t just fly off on a revenge mission and get yourself and others killed in the process?”

“Sir all I can do is giving you my word. You are right though, I do want revenge but not at the cost of others. If you’re right and my brother was taken prisoner by the Imperials then what use to him am I staying on the ship feeling sorry for myself, when I should be out there doing my best trying to stop the Imperials.”

Rob stayed silent as he weighed up what Chelsey had just said to him. “Ok Miss Maxfield, I’m granting you active flight status, but let me make this perfectly clear to you, if for one moment I suspect that you’re off on some sort of suicidal Vengeance spree I’ll kill you myself before the Imperials even get a chance to, is that understood?”

“Yes sir, perfectly. I won’t let you down.”

“I hope for yours and mine sake that you don’t. Be in the briefing room in two hours. If there’s nothing further, you’re dismissed.”

“Thank you, sir.” Chelsey gave a smart salute. Pivoting on her right heel, she marched out of Rob’s office.

Three hours later the seven fighters from Red squadron were on combat patrol. They patrolled the same area as last time and had just finished doing their circuit of the Alliance fleet before heading out towards the hulk of the dead Harrow destroyer.

Rob noticed that Chelsey’s A-wing was slightly out of formation as they headed out towards the Harrow’s remains. “Red twelve, tighten up your position Miss Maxfield.”

Chelsey hadn’t realized that she was drifting slightly out of formation, her thoughts had been elsewhere, the mention of her flight number and name brought her back to reality. “Copy Red leader, rejoining formation.”

On the Imperial side of space, six TIE Avengers’ were also out on patrol. Piloting one of them was Bexley. All of a sudden his computer displayed the image of a Rebel A-wing with the words Maxfield underneath it. Bexley didn’t understand why the display was showing him the A-wing fighter and the words beneath it. It took him several moments to remember the software programme he had made to locate Chelsey Maxfield. Bexley gripped his flight stick with both hands as he started to squeeze it with all of his strength. Somehow Chelsey had survived his previous attack and now she was flying once more, taunting him with her presence. Without even thinking about it, Bexley steered his fighter towards the A-wing being displayed in his C.M.D.

Cidran noticed Bexley’s fighter breaking formation and heading towards the Rebel lines, Cidran was the flight leader for this group. He quickly opened up comms to Bexley’s fighter. “Bexley, what are you doing?” There was no reply. Cidran turned his TIE and started pursuing his friend; the other TIE Avengers’ followed their flight leader’s manoeuvre. Cidran tried to contact Bexley again. “Bexley what the hell are you playing at, fall back into formation.”

This time Bexley responded. “She’s alive Cidran, we didn’t kill her!” Cidran was confused, and didn’t know what Bexley was going on about. “What are you talking about? Get back in formation now before you get us busted.”

“Chelsey Maxfield is still alive, we didn’t kill her. I’ve got her fighter targeted and I’m going to make sure she dies right here and now.” The mention of Chelsey’s name suddenly made it clear to Cidran why Bexley had veered off and was heading towards the Rebel lines. Cidran was faced with a dilemma, did he abandon his friend or did he risk his career and rank to help Bexley.

Cidran tried to make Bexley listen to reason. “Bexley, think about it. We must have killed her brother, Chad. Surely that’s enough. Come on it’s time to move on with our lives, we’ve got a chance for a fresh start here.”

“As long as she’s still alive, we’ll never be able to move on with our lives after what she did to both of us!”

Cidran knew that he wouldn’t be able to change Bexley’s mind, he put his friend first and made his choice; Cidran opened the comms to the rest of his flight. “Charge your weapons; we’re going after those Rebel fighters. Second Lieutenant Herntil rejoin formation for attack.”

Hearing that the flight was going to attack, seemed to bring a bit of rationality back to Bexley, he looped his TIE back towards the others and then drew level on Cidran’s port wing. “This time we make certain that she’s dead!”

Onboard the Gorgon, the tactical officer noticed the six TIE’s heading towards the Rebel lines. She brought up the comm. channel for the flight leader and keyed it in and then spoke into her headset. “Theta flight what are you doing?”

Cidran responded to the tactical officer’s challenge. “We are engaging enemy fighters.”

The tactical officer’s eyebrows rose as Cidran’s reply came back. She called over the X.O. to her station.

“What’s wrong?”

“Sir, Theta flight has veered off their assigned patrol route to engage Rebel fighters without orders!”

The X.O. quickly opened a channel to Cidran. “Lieutenant Petit, turn your flight back and come back to the Gorgon right now.”

“Negative, sir, we are engaging the enemy.”

Color came to the cheeks of the X.O. “If you don’t bring your flight back this instant Mister, then I guarantee your flying days are over, do you hear me?” There was no response. “Lieutenant Petit, respond!”

The tactical officer looked at her display and then looked up to the X.O. “Sir communications have been terminated at their end.”

“Damn it!” The X.O. walked away from the tactical station to the centre of the bridge. “Bring the fleet to red alert; launch fighters to support Theta flight. Once those Rebel fighters are destroyed I want every one of those pilots back onboard this ship and in chains!” The lights dimmed on the bridge as the Gorgon went to red alert; officers started carrying out the orders from the X.O. Looking about the bridge the X.O. noticed a junior officer who wasn’t quick enough to avert his eyes and look busy as the X.O. looked around. “You!”

The startled officer simply pointed to himself.

“Yes you. Go and wake the Admiral and let him know what’s happening.”

The young officer hesitated for a moment; it was a moment too long.

“MOVE!” The X.O. screamed at the officer.

The officer literally jumped several feet backwards before he turned and fled into one of the turbo lifts and headed away to wake the Admiral.

Rob looked at his holo radar and noticed the six enemy blips heading in their direction. His thumb came down on the top left button of his flight stick. A TIE Avenger appeared in his C.M.D. Rob opened comms to the Morning Star. “Control this is Red leader, I am currently tracking six hostiles that appear to heading to attack my flight.”

“Copy Red leader, we are currently vectoring in Hawk squadron to assist you. Loop back and form up with them to attack incoming hostiles.”

“Acknowledged control.” Rob pulled his flight stick back and to the side until his A-wing was heading back towards the Alliance fleet and Hawk Squadron. When Hawk squadron was only one klick away Rob again pulled back on his flight stick, putting his A-wing into a gentle loop that allowed the other squadron to join up with Red Squadron. Rob opened up comms to both squadrons. “Pair up people, we’ve got a two to one advantage and I don’t want to waste it. Double up on your missiles and let’s see if we can finish this before the Imps get a chance to get in laser range.”

Chris flipped over to his missiles and set them to duel fire mode, he made sure that the TIE he was targeting was in the centre of his cross hairs.

Fate started to beep as the concussion missiles got a lock on the approaching fighter.

When Fate started to whistle continuously, Chris pressed his trigger sending two concussion missiles towards the TIE Avenger he had targeted. Chris watched as another twenty two missiles also headed towards the Imperials.

At maximum weapons range the Imperial fighters opened fire with their lasers in an attempt to destroy the incoming missiles. The skill of the Imperial pilots flying the TIE Avenger’s meant they were better than the standard TIE pilots. Most of the missiles were destroyed but a few managed to get past the defensive laser fire and to their targets. One TIE Avenger was destroyed, with another taking damage to its hull. Moments later the fighters were weaving in and out of each others cross hairs trying to get a kill shot. An X-wing belonging to Hawk squadron was the first to be hit. A TIE Avenger managed to hit the rear of the fighter with several well placed laser shots. The Alliance pilot reached for his ejection cord between his legs and pulled it with all his strength. The canopy of the X-wing lifted away as his seat rocketed away from the doomed fighter. For a brief second, the pilot felt the bitter cold of space on him before his personal survival shield kicked in and protected him from the exposure of space. The homing beacon in the ejection seat was already transmitting the pilot’s location so that he could be rescued by the search and rescue shuttle which was getting ready to launch from the Reef.

Chelsey put her A-wing into another series of tight turns, two TIE’s seemed particularly determined to kill her. Green lasers passed through the space where her A-wing had been only seconds ago. “This is Red twelve, I could do with some help here, I’ve got two of them all over me like a rash!”

David saw Chelsey’s A-wing being pursued by the two TIE’s. “I see you Red twelve, I’m on my way.” David pulled hard on his flight stick and put his X-wing on an intercept course. He targeted the trailing TIE and opened fire as soon as his H.U.D. went green. Four red laser bolts hit the TIE’s shields, making them briefly visible to the naked eye.

The hiss of static played over Bexley’s comms as his shields absorbed the damage from David’s attack. There was another hiss as his fighter was hit again. Bexley looked down at his shield display it was dangerously low, another hit like the last two would kill him. Bexley reluctantly threw his Avenger into a series of manoeuvres to try and shake off his attacker.

Cidran stuck doggedly on Chelsey’s tail and managed to score a couple of hits. Cidran was now focussed solely on killing Chelsey’s A-wing, it was due to this fact that he didn’t notice Kyle’s X-wing vectoring in on him. Cidran only became aware of Kyle shooting at him when several laser bolts slammed into his Avenger’s shields. Cidran was so close to killing Chelsey that he almost stayed on the A-wings tail to try and finish it off. Another hit from the X-wing that was pursuing him, made his mind up for him, he veered away from Chelsey’s A-wing and turned his attention to the threat that was attacking him. Cidran put his TIE through a series of sharp manoeuvres which got him on his attacker’s tail. Cidran quad linked his lasers and opened fire.

Four green bolts hit Kyle’s shields, another four quickly followed and burned into the shields bringing them dangerously low. Kyle felt the sweat break out on his face as he desperately tried to get out of his attackers sights.

Cidran lined up his Avenger for the shots that would kill this X-wing and allow him to return his attention back to killing Chelsey. The X-wing drifted into his sights. Cidran’s thumbs went down towards his triggers.

Chelsey had looped away from her attacker when Kyle had intervened and saved her. Now she had the TIE Avenger firmly in her gun sights, he finger curled around the trigger as she sent laser bolts towards the enemy fighter.

Cidran’s thumbs never reached the triggers. Laser bolts slammed into the TIE and turned the fighter into a fireball that burned for several seconds before the ship finally exploded.

Onboard the Morning Star, Captain Ru’kaart watched the battle unfold on the tactical display, Imperial reinforcements had entered the fray. Now it was the Alliance fighters that were out numbered. The odds didn’t remain uneven for long though, Alliance fighters had also been sent out to reinforce Red and Hawk squadrons. The fight seemed to have all the elegance of a bar brawl. An image that represented an Alliance fighter winked out of existence as it was destroyed by an Imperial fighter. Several more Imperial icons disappeared as they were destroyed. After five minutes the battle seemed to be going in the Alliance’s favour with the Imperials now being outnumbered and on the defensive. Captain Ru’kaart watched as the Imperial fighters broke contact with the Alliance fighters and started retreating back to their own lines. Two more enemy fighters were killed before Admiral Ull ordered the Alliance fighters to disengage and cover the search and rescue shuttle as it retrieved the ejected pilots. Captain Ru’kaart selected the frequency that the shuttle was on and listened in. Two Alliance pilots had been rescued alive while another was dead when his body was recovered, none of the pilots belonged to Red squadron, to which Captain Ru’kaart allowed himself to feel slightly relieved. The search and rescue team also managed to pick up three Imperial survivors as well; maybe they would be able to explain why this little engagement had taken place.

Two hours later, Bexley was dragged into the main hanger of the Gorgon. His hands were manacled together; he was supported under the arms by two Stormtroopers. Bexley was thrown down to the cold floor of the hanger. Bexley coughed and his body was racked with pain from were he had been beaten, some bloody spittle landed on the hanger floor.

“On your feet!” The voice demanded.

Bexley tried to stand up but couldn’t seem to be able to muster the strength to do so.

“I said get on your feet you worthless piece of Hutt slime!”

One of the Stormtroopers kicked Bexley in the stomach winding him, before the other Stormtrooper hauled Bexley upright. Bexley looked at Admiral Beruss through his left eye; his right eye was swollen shut from where he had been hit repeatedly, Bexley noticed that the Admiral had assembled all of the ships pilots in the hanger, there was also a large percentage of the Gorgons crew in attendance.

Admiral Beruss looked at the disgraced pilot before him. “So all of this was about some petty revenge thing you had against some Rebel woman!”

Bexley didn’t say anything, he merely stood there. He ran his tongue over his swollen lip and felt the spilt in it.

“Because of you, I’ve lost almost a squadron of fighters, for nothing. NOTHING!” Kavil roared at Bexley at the top of his lungs.

This time Bexley did speak. “What do you want me to say? Sorry? My best friend is dead and she’s still alive! Do your worst.”

“I intend to.” Admiral Beruss motioned with his right hand to the two Stormtroopers. They dragged Bexley towards the opening of the hanger. Once the Stormtroopers had Bexley in position, Admiral Beruss faced him. “Second Lieutenant Herntil, you have been found guilty of forcing an unauthorised engagement between your flight and enemy forces, endangering the lives of your fellow officers and causing the death of Imperial pilots you are herby sentenced to death, sentence is to carried out immediately.”

The two Stormtroopers marched away from Bexley and drew their blaster carbines and aimed them at Bexley.

Admiral Beruss took a breath before giving the order. “Fire!”

Two shots rang out. The laser bolts caught Bexley in his stomach and pitched him backwards. His limp body fell through the hanger opening and into space. The last image Bexley had before the void consumed him was that of Balfron which hung below like a bright shining jewel.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Ten Kilometres from Lyran the Imperial assault force took their first casualty of the day. An AT-ST, which was near the head of the column, when suddenly there was an explosion; the walkers left foot was ripped apart by a mine it had trod on. The AT-ST was unable to place its weight evenly and fell on its left side. The gunner in the turret was thrown clear as the machine crashed down to the ground, the two pilots didn’t have a chance to escape as the head of the AT-ST exploded, killing the two men inside. The Imperial column came to a halt immediately; the surviving gunner was moved away from the scene and treated for injuries by medics.

Imperial engineers were called for and scanned the area for any other concealed mines. Three more mines where found and dealt with by the engineers before they were confident that the immediate area was clear. Colonel Sandoval ordered AT-AT’s to be at the head of the attack column, if there where any more mines the AT-AT’s heavily armored feet should be able to absorb the damage without the walker itself being destroyed. Ten minutes later the Imperials were once more heading towards Lyran.

The explosion from the mine was heard in Lyran, the Alliance forces there made themselves ready for the upcoming attack.

Major Jackson had also heard the explosion. Zorn and the remains of his mechanised unit had been in Lyran for almost eighteen hours. In that time they had been able to rest, eat and more importantly clean themselves. Zorn ran a hand across his freshly shaved face, he knew that he could have done with at least another ten hours rest but he would make do with the rest he had managed to get. He headed over to the staging area where his tank was located and his crew were getting the tank ready. Survivors from other T4-B tank units had been assigned to Zorn to command, he now had a full regiment of tanks to help with the defense of Lyran. Zorn jumped up onto his tank. “Smithy, fire her up and let’s move to alternate one.”

“You got it, sir.”

The heavy tank moved out and headed to its first combat point. Fortifications had been hastily erected for use during the battle. They would provide additional cover for the tanks during the attack, when the Imperials got too close the Alliance tanks would fall back to the next alternate firing position. The rest of the tank regiment moved out to their own firing positions and waited for the Imperials to show, they didn’t have long to wait.

Thirty minutes later and the Imperials were just over two kilometres away from the town. The Imperial walkers were just outside their weapons range; however the six Alliance MPTL-2A artillery tanks, which had been concealed the day before, had been tracking the approaching walkers for some time. They had been waiting for the Imperials to go past a certain point before they opened fire.

Alex brought her systems out of stand by mode to active, she had targeted one of the lead AT-AT’s. She got a solid tone from her firing system indicating that her weapons were locked on. Alex pressed the trigger; the MPTL-2A shook as munitions left the tank. The warheads shot away from Alex’s tank towards the AT-AT.

One of the AT-AT’s pilots saw the incoming torpedo barrage. “Incoming artillery!”

The three large Imperial walkers at the front of the column disappeared in a cloud of fire, smoke and dirt the torpedoes made as they impacted the ground. As the smoke and dust began to shift it revealed that two of the AT-ATs had been destroyed, their bodies lying burning, smashed and bent on the floor. The third walker was still standing but it was badly damaged, parts of it were on fire. The rest of the Imperial assault force pressed on, bypassing their fallen comrades. Another wave of artillery fire came in towards the Imperials resulting in another AT-AT being destroyed and another badly damaged, this time though Imperial artillery had targeted the Alliance artillery tanks and opened fire on a counter battery operation.

Two MPTL-2As were destroyed in the first salvo the Imperials fired, the surviving four housed their firing tubes and retreated to another firing position. Alex felt the impact of the artillery that had just landed at her first position, the noise of the exploding munitions came right behind it.

The lead Imperial walkers where in weapons range of Lyran and opened fire on the Rebel positions.

Troops in the forward firing positions ducked and took cover as the incoming fire reached them. A mobile anti vehicle laser opened fire on the lead walker. Scorch marks were left on the walkers grey armor where the laser bolts hit. A wall of weapons fire seemed to reach out from the Alliance forces in Lyran to the advancing Imperials.

Zorn looked through his view port at the approaching enemy forces; he opened comms on the attack net for his forces. “All units target the lead walker and open fire!” The tank shook as it fired its two heavy lasers. The targeted AT-AT took repeated hits from Major Jackson’s tanks; the head of that AT-AT seemed to be the main target for most gunners. Fast drop lines appeared from the belly of the walker and Stormtroopers started to rope down to the ground, four Stormtroopers had made it to the ground when the AT-AT’s head exploded from the sustained weapons fire coming from the tanks. The shock of the explosion caused two Stormtroopers to loose their grips on the drop lines and they plummeted down to the ground. The other two managed to hang on as the walker fell forward onto its knees. They were flung from the drop lines when the AT-AT hit the ground.

In the Imperial command bunker in Ewenib, General Garner was watching the battle unfold on the holo display. So far he’d lost four AT-AT’s with two being seriously damaged and having to withdraw from the offensive. The Rebels were putting up a fierce resistance, taking Lyran and then Keibakia was not going to be an easy task. The image of an Imperial Heavy Artillery platform disappeared from the display as it was destroyed by some unseen enemy unit. An icon on the map that represented a platoon of Stormtroopers advancing behind an AT-ST vanished as area around them was hit by artillery fire. General Garner was becoming frustrated with watching the holo display, he wasn’t seeing the whole picture of combat. “This is no good!”

Major Sestina was stood beside General Garner. “What’s wrong sir?”

“I can’t conduct a battle like this, I need to see what’s going on myself, get my shuttle ready.”

“Sir I wouldn’t be doing my duty properly if I didn’t advise you that by going to the front you’ll be putting yourself in a potentially hazardous situation.”

“I’m well aware of that Major but this battle is too important for me stuck back here.”

“Yes sir.” Major Sestina went away to organise the Generals shuttle to the front.

Captain Twill received the order for his T-47 squadron to launch their attack on the Imperial supply units at the rear of the attack column. As Twill and his people ran to their speeders, the message went out to Bossivepolis for the Bantha to come and collect the people left behind at the base. The ground chief gave a salute to Captain Twill as his speeder lifted off.

Ysanne Isard was sat in her office, the lights in the room were on low, casting a dim light across the room. The main source of light came from the display of her work station. Isard was reading the data that had been sent to her by the spy she had in Rogue squadron. She transferred the access codes for Corran Horn’s Z-95 Headhunter onto a data pad, once the information had been transferred she pressed a button on her desk. “Send in Major Kahn.” There was a brief acknowledgment. The double doors to Isard’s office opened and Major Khan walked into the room, he stopped directly in front of Isard’s desk. Ysanne threw the data pad for the Major to catch.

Major Khan caught the data pad in his right hand and scrolled through the contents, after he had read the data he looked up and at Isard.

“Major, when the Rebels try and take this planet I want your team to be ready to capture Mister Horn, with those codes you’ll be able to take control of the craft and take Horn into custody. I want him brought to my facilities on the Lusankya alive, is that understood Major?”

“Yes Madame Director.” Major Khan pivoted on his left heel and left the office.

Isard relaxed back in her chair until her desk beeped indicating that there was an incoming communication for her. Ysanne pressed the button to open up the channel. “Yes?”

“Excuse the interruption Madame Director but you told me to inform you if we picked up anything on long range scans.”

“Go ahead.”

“We’ve picked up an Interdictor Cruiser, Corusca Rainbow. It’s just at the edge of the system and holding steady. What action would you like us to take Madame Director?”

“Take no action, just keep the cruiser under observation.”

“Yes Madame Director.” The connection went dead.

Ysanne Isard got up from her desk, she keyed in a code into her work station that would transfer all her files to her office onboard the Lusankya. After that action was complete she activated a virus programme that would corrupt and destroy all of the files that had been stored on her work station. With the programme running, Isard walked out of her office, the two guards that stood outside her office fell immediately into step behind her; Isard motioned for her aide to fall in behind the escorts. The four of them entered a turbo lift that would take them down to a secret underground monorail transporter that would take them to the Super Star Destroyer Lusankya.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The attack on Lyran had been going on for just over thirty minutes now. So far the Alliance forces had held back the Imperials who where still on the outskirts of town. The fighting was brutal with both side determined to be victorious at the end. Alliance air units were engaged in combat with Imperials TIEs. The sky was crossed with lasers and missiles seeking out the fighters and bombers. On more than one occasion Imperial AT-AA’s had shot down ships from their own side as the TIE pilot’s had flown in between a gunner and his target. Alliance artillery units had been told that Imperial AT-AA’s were priority targets and they should deal with them at all costs. This order had lead to three MPTL-2As being killed as they sought to destroy anti air artillery units.

Major Jackson looked out from his view port at the battle. Thick black smoke was rising from the Imperial positions from their destroyed vehicles; to Zorn it looked like a scene from Hell. Zorn spotted an eight wheeled vehicle making a sprint for the Alliance forward locations, the gunner in the turreted laser spraying fire at anything that moved. “Enemy troop carrier at ten o’clock.”

“I see it.” Lowe targeted the speeding troop carrier and fired. The tank rocked slightly as the two heavy lasers fired. The red bolts hit the main body of the carrier and penetrated the armor. The Stormtroopers inside the carrier were killed straight away by the lasers and the shrapnel from the armor, the gunner was blown out of the turret missing his legs. Although the vehicle was damaged the driver kept on going not knowing or caring that his passengers were all dead. Lowe pressed his trigger again sending another burst of weapons fire at the carrier hitting just behind the drivers compartment, this time the troop carrier exploded.

Captain Twill and his squadron spotted the tail end of the assault column as they followed the route south to Lyran. Twill opened his comms to the rest of his squadron. “Targets are directly ahead. Pair up and follow me in, we’ve got one pass so make sure it counts.” The ten T-47s paired up and selected their targets and swept in for their attack.

The first the Imperials knew about the incoming Rebel speeders was when the rear supply vehicle blew up. The supply vehicles had started off originally as troop carriers but had been converted to carry munitions and supplies. Not expecting an attack from the rear, the gunners in the supply column had been looking south in Lyran’s direction and had missed the approaching air speeders.

More vehicles exploded as the T-47’s carried on firing into the slow moving vehicles. The vehicles that weren’t hit on the initial pass were targeted by the air speeders rear gunners.

By the time the Imperials had recovered from their shock and started returning fire the air speeders where already gone and out of range. Out of the twenty supply vehicles only six were still able to carry on; most of the others were burning fiercely.

Colonel Twain and his group of troops had been watching the Imperials at the supply base now for over eight hours from their hiding places on the west side. Major Nuen and his group were also observing the depot from their hiding places from the east side. Garth heard two beeps from his ear piece comms, he gently pressed his index finger on the activation button to open the link.

“This is Actual for Skoshi Dragon, mission is go!”

Garth whispered his reply. “Message received Actual, Skoshi Dragon is clear for a go.” Garth taped his ear piece twice to cut the connection with General Glaive. He turned to Lieutenant Rets. “Mission is go.”

Lieutenant Rets crawled off to get herself in position for the upcoming attack; six other soldiers silently followed her.

Garth activated his comms and sent three clicks over the group’s frequency; this was the signal for everyone else that the mission was good to go. Garth inserted two grenades into the launch tubes of his heavy blaster rifle then flicked off the safety, he was ready. At the moment the depot wasn’t too busy. Twenty minutes earlier an Imperial landing shuttle and six TIE Fighters had taken off and headed away in a westerly direction. There were only six TIE Fighters remaining, which suited Garth perfectly. The two AT-AT’s and four AT-ST’s also seemed to be unmanned as well, there was only two active AT-ST’s patrolling the area, so far luck seemed to be on Garth’s side. Garth looked at the rows of parked Imperial landing shuttles, there were just under fifty in total.

Over on the east side of the depot Major Nuen and his troops heard the clicks and started to move into their positions. The hours spent watching the Imperial supply base had allowed the Alliance troops time to formulate an attack strategy. The first targets they had to neutralise were the patrolling Stormtroopers and the static guard positions.

For such a large man, Sergeant Prager was extremely stealthy. He was crawling up on a Stormtrooper manning an E-web emplacement. The Stormtroopers attention was in the other direction and he never heard Prager’s approach. When Prager was within striking distance he slowly rose into a crouch behind the Stormtrooper, with a vibro dagger in his right hand he used his left hand to snap the Stormtroopers head back and then with all his strength rammed the dagger up into the mans throat. The Stormtrooper died without making a sound, Prager gently lowered the lifeless body down to the ground before removing his dagger, Prager wiped the Stormtroopers blood off on his sleeve then sheathed his dagger. Another trooper crawled over to Prager’s location, ready to use the E-web.

All over the compound similar actions were being carried out, Garth watched as another Stormtrooper was silently killed. They had been lucky so far; Garth was hoping that their luck would last long enough for them to destroy the communications array before the depot personnel could raise the alarm. Garth watched as two of his troopers placed explosive charges at the base of the array.

Captain Lon was in the command bunker, he was observing the battle raging in Lyran on the main holo projector and listening to the steady stream of battle chatter that was flowing over the comms network. So far things didn’t appear to be moving as fast as he hoped they would. News of the supply convoys ambush had come through and Gade was getting ready to organise landing shuttles to take more supplies to the front. “Lieutenant Knoll, how many shuttles do you think we will need to send?”

“The way this battle has been going sir I reckon at least thirty, most of it being ammo sir.”

“I think you’re right, once we’ve got the shuttles loaded arrange a TIE Fighter escort for the shuttles, the last thing we need is for these supplies to be shot down.”

“Yes sir.” Knoll went over to one of the operators working at their consoles to get them to pass on the re-supply orders. Lieutenant Knoll had just started speaking to the operator when there was the muffles sound of a blaster being fired.

All the noise in the bunker stopped as everyone looked around wondering what was happening. Gade motioned to the two Stormtroopers stationed at the entrance way. “Go and see what that was.”

The two Stormtroopers obeyed without questioning and headed out the door outside. Several more blaster shots were heard, one of the Stormtroopers came stumbling back into the compound with a large blaster hole in his chest armor. The Stormtrooper fell down to the floor dead, smoke was rising from his armor where he had been hit.

“We’re under attack, get on the comms and call for help.” Gade ordered the comms operator. “Everyone arm yourself!”

Before the comms operator could even start sending out the distress call there was a large explosion. The command bunker shook under the force of the explosion, several of the windows shattered. “Sir, they’ve just taken out the communications array!”

The sounds of blaster fire and carbines being fired on full fire settings rang through the bunker. Gade looked at the people in his bunker; their eyes were all on him. Gade picked up the dead Stormtroopers E-11 carbine. “We go out there and we fight. If we stay in here we’re dead anyway, at least out there we have a chance and we get to take some of those Rebel bastards with us! Follow me.” Gade shoulder the weapon and then ran outside.

Lieutenant Knoll and the others drew their side arms and followed Gade outside.

Garth noticed the Imperials running out from the command bunker, the Imperials started shooting wildly at first. The Imperial that was leading them seemed to be rallying them and organising them. Garth targeted the group with his grenade launcher and squeezed both triggers. The grenades flew through the air and landed smack in the middle of the group of Imperials. The exploding grenades took everyone in the group down, killing or wounding them and effectively taking them out of the fight.

Gade’s ears were ringing with a loud and high pitched whistling noise. He struggled to open his eyes; something seemed to be making the task difficult. Gade managed to open his eyes at last, his vision was blurry but he could make out that he was lying on the ground and on his left cheek. Gade blinked his eyes several times, trying to get them to focus, when they eventually did focus he found himself looking at Lieutenant Knoll. Gade tried to say the Lieutenants name but he couldn’t get his mouth to work. It was as he trying to speak he realised that Lieutenant Knoll was dead, there was part of the Lieutenants head missing. Suddenly pain shot through Gade’s body, his vision blurred again with darkness coming in on his vision from the edges, the next moment there was only darkness.

The attack on the supply depot was going well for Garth’s troops. Sergeant Prager was using his Stouker Concussion Rifle on the AT-STs; Prager had already killed one which was on the ground burning fiercely. The other trooper on the E-web emplacement was putting the weapon to great affect. He had killed the TIE pilots as they had run for their fighters and was now using it on the Stormtroopers trying to exit their barracks.

Lieutenant Rets and a group of troopers where running across some open ground to out flank a squad of Stormtroopers that had managed to find cover. One of her troopers cried out and fell down to the ground, he didn’t move. Lieutenant Rets and the surviving troopers took shelter behind a large container. Her troopers started returning fire at the Stormtroopers, one of them was hit in the face by a laser bolt. Lieutenant Rets looked down at the lifeless body; she couldn’t recognise who the trooper was anymore. She dug her hand into one of her pockets and drew out a thermal detonator. She activated the detonator and threw it at the Stormtroopers. The detonator landed just behind the Stormtroopers and exploded, it was set to go off on impact. The firing from the Stormtroopers stopped, the only sound that was heard was that of blaster fire coming from around the depot.

The battle was quickly over; Garth’s troopers had surprise on their side and overwhelmed the Imperial forces stationed at the depot. The surviving personnel surrendered, even the most loyal Imperial there didn’t fancy dieing for a lost battle. The Imperials were gathered up and quickly searched for weapons; ten soldiers were assigned to guard them. Garth called Major Nuen and Lieutenant Rets over to him. “Lieutenant, I want our dead and wounded gathered up, Major, I want your people setting the charges all over this place.” The two officers saluted then headed off with their section leaders to carry out their tasks. While this was going on, Garth tapped his comm. unit active. “This is Skoshi Dragon to Shield, do you copy?”

After a brief pause there was a reply. “This is Shield, pass your message.”

“Send the rides, I say again, send the rides!”

“Message received Skoshi Dragon, rides are on their way, Shield out.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Imperial troops had managed to enter the outskirts of Lyran, now vicious fire fights between Alliance troops and Imperial Stormtroopers broke out at close quarters. The Alliance forces gave ground grudgingly, making the Imperial forces pay dearly for every step they took forward.

Richard dipped the nose of his B-wing forward and put his cross hairs on a troop carrier and squeezed his trigger, red laser bolts drilled into the moving vehicle and blew it apart. The missile threat indicator started beeping in Richard’s helmet; something was trying to get a lock on him. Using his right thumb, Richard pressed one of the flight sticks buttons. An AT-AA appeared in his C.M.D. Richard flicked his weapons over to torpedoes and headed towards the anti air unit. The warning tone became a continuous noise; the AT-AA had gotten a lock on Richard’s B-wing. Laser fire came up from the AT-AA; Richard used his rudder to skid his B-wing out of the firing line but still keeping his cross hairs on the Imperial unit. His targeting computer registered the torpedo was locked on target and ready to fire, Richard pressed his trigger and sent the torpedo on its way. The blue torpedo tracked perfectly and hit the AT-AA just behind the driver’s compartment; the explosion took out two Mobile Artillery units that where next to the AT-AA.

Lieutenant Colonel Odom and his men used their jet packs to drop themselves into the streets of Lyran. Several of the Dark Troopers bringing up the rear were targeted by Vanguard troopers who had been tasked with dealing with them. The missiles easily tracked the Dark Troopers; seven of Odom’s men were killed before they had even set foot in Lyran. Once on the ground though it was a different matter, the Dark Troopers armor was able to take a great deal of blaster fire before it became harmful for the Imperial inside, the same could not be said for the Alliance soldiers. The assault cannons and seeker missiles used by the Dark Troopers tore through the Alliance soldiers. It was only when a T4-B tank and MPTL-2A artillery tank turned up and started laying down fire on the Imperial Dark Troopers that the Alliance forces were able to reorganise themselves to deal with the threat. The tanks had cost Ziff ten of his men and had allowed the Rebels to take shelter; Ziff ordered a group of his men to deal with the artillery tank. Eight Dark Troopers targeted the MPTL-2A and fired their seeker missiles at it. The artillery tanks armor wasn’t strong enough to withstand the barrage and was destroyed, a fireball rolling up into the sky. Rockets from the T4-B tank hit the front two Dark Troopers and blew them apart. The surviving six, used their jet packs to retreat out of the tanks firing line only to come under attack by the Vanguard units. One Dark Troopers jet pack was destroyed by a missile, the Imperial fell, flailing his arms wildly and slammed into the ground.

Elise ducked down as blaster bolts blew chunks out of the wall above her head. In her section of Lyran several units of Stormtroopers had managed to get a foot hold and now Elise and her people were fighting a savage close quarter’s battle. Elise rose up and aimed her Blas Tech 265 rifle at a group of advancing Stormtroopers, she used a full energy pack on the group and managed to kill or wound most of them. Elise ejected the spent energy cartridge and quickly replaced it with a fully charged one.

Irena came running over to Elise’s position, weaving as she ran, trying to spoil any Stormtroopers aim that was targeting her. Several blaster bolts came dangerously close to hitting her, but Irena managed to make it safely over to Elise.

“Are you ok Commander?” Elise asked.

Irena took in a few deep gulps of air to get her breath back before speaking. “Yes Ma’am. Just letting you know we’ve got Dark Troopers behind our position and to the left. They’re in sector five at the moment; some of our Vanguard units have joined the roving units to help them out.”

An artillery shell from a Mobile Artillery unit landed close to their position causing everyone to duck down. One of Elise’s troopers was manning an E-web cannon on the floor above and targeted the artillery unit. The laser bolts hit the artillery unit; the gunner jumped out of his seat and made a run for cover. The explosion of the artillery piece knocked the gunner to the ground; before he could recover the trooper manning the E-web had targeted him and sent a dozen scarlet laser bolts into him.

Elise dusted herself down before she risked a look over the barricades she was sheltering behind.

Irena was lying prone on the floor, using the sight on her Blas Tech 265 rifle, in her scope the white helmet of a Stormtrooper appeared. Irena let out half her breath before pulling the trigger. The laser bolt hit right between the Stormtroopers eyes, the Imperial dropped down to the ground dead.

Captain Kawl ducked back and looked at the Stormtrooper that was lying on the ground next to him, smoke was still rising from the hole between the mans eyes where the laser bolt had just hit, Gideon didn’t even bother to check to see if the man was still alive. The fighting was already more fierce than anything that had taken place at Ewenib and Eidola, Gideon had already lost half of his men, to keep his force at strength he had grouped together the survivors of three other decimated units. Gideon flinched as an enemy bomber flew by over head, he half expected a bomb to be dropped on his position at any moment. This thought galvanised Gideon into action, he called over one of his Sergeants. “Sergeant, take three squads and try and flank around and get into that building.”

“Yes sir.” The Sergeant got his squads together and signalled to Gideon that he was ready.

Gideon gave the order for the rest of his men to lay down covering fire.

Elise saw the three squads of Stormtroopers move out from their location. She looked at the direction they were running and saw the building they intended to enter. Elise started to shout out an order to target the group of Stormtroopers but she never managed to get the order out. The laser bolt hit her in right side and slammed her into the wall. Elise let out a scream of pain before she slowly slid down the wall leaving a bloody smear on the wall as she collapsed down to the ground.

Irena heard the scream and turned to see her commanding officer on the ground clutching her right side. “MEDIC!” Irena shouted at the top of her voice as she went over to Elise. Irena ripped open a field dressing from Elise’s field pack and pressed it on the wound to try and stop the bleeding. The dressing went red instantly as the blood soaked into it.

Elise pulled Irena close into her with her left hand. “We’re being out flanked!” Elise pointed weakly towards the building that the Stormtroopers were entering.

Irena caught a glimpse of two Stormtroopers darting through a doorway, into the building. She snatched a thermal detonator from Elise’s webbing and activated it. She lobbed the detonator through the doorway. The detonator exploded on contact and Irena was rewarded with screams coming from inside the building.

The medic ran over to Elise and took over from Irena and got to work on Elise’s injury. “I need to get her back to the med post otherwise she’s not going to make it!”

Irena pointed at the two closest troopers. “You two, get the Colonel to the aid post then get back here on the double.”

“Yes Ma’am.” The two troopers and the medic got ready to move Elise. Elise waved them off and called Irena over again. In a weak voice she spoke to Irena. “There were three squads. You’re in command.” Elise coughed once and blood came out of her mouth.

The medic pushed Irena out of the way. “We’ve got to go now!” The three of them picked up Elise and headed off to the medical post.

The B-wing in front of Steve’s disappeared in a huge ball of flame. Steve had no idea which unfortunate pilot from Legion squadron who had just died. Steve pulled his flight stick to the right and dodged the falling debris from the doomed bomber. Steve spotted a Heavy Artillery platform and dumb fired a torpedo at it. The torpedo hit just in front of the Imperial vehicle. The explosion flipped the vehicle upside down. Smoke started to rise from the artillery unit, the driver and gunner tried to crawl from under the wreckage. Before either of them had managed to get out of the vehicle, it exploded killing them both instantly, black smoke rising up into the sky. Steve noticed ten T-47 Air speeders had joined the battle, they were currently engaging the AT-ATs. One of the speeders was shot down by an AT-AA, Steve targeted the anti air vehicle and fired a torpedo at it. The crew of the AT-AA didn’t even know they had been targeted and died as they tried to shoot down another T-47.

Paul South watched as his torpedoes tore into the AT-AT’s armor then detonated, destroying the huge lumbering vehicle. Paul was pleased with how the battle was going; he didn’t have to be anyone’s wingman as the battle had turned into a completely chaotic mess with everyone doing their own thing and this was how Paul liked it, on his own. A TIE Bomber was on his port wing, Paul used his rudder to slide his B-wing in behind the Imperial ship and opened fire, the TIE blew apart, its remains crashing down into the forest below. Paul swung his B-wing back towards Lyran to make another pass on the advancing Imperial forces. He had just gotten his bomber lined up on a group of AT-ST’s when his flight stick was wrenched out of his hand. The B-wing started spinning wildly; Paul noticed red warning lights flashing on and off, he reached up for the ejection cords and pulled them. The cockpit separated from the main body of the B-wing, which spiralled down into a troop carrier and exploded. The two parachutes deployed and gently brought the B-wing’s cockpit down to the ground. As soon as the cockpit touched down, Paul pressed the quick release button on his crash webbing and opened his canopy. He ran for the tree line as fast as his legs would carry him. Laser bolts started to whip past his head and smack into the trees, blowing off chunks of bark. Several splinters flew into Paul’s face, stinging him like insects. Paul dodged around another tree as the laser bolts continued to track him as he tried desperately to head back to Alliance lines. Paul risked a glance over his shoulder to see if he was being pursued, he saw the white figures of Imperial Stormtroopers behind him giving chase. Paul had been looking over his shoulder too long and ran straight into the back of a Stormtrooper who was advancing towards Lyran. The collision sent both men sprawling to the forest floor; Paul’s head was snapped back and his helmet went flying off, the Stormtrooper lost his grip on his E-11 carbine as he landed. Paul quickly shook off the effects of the impact, he could taste blood on his lips, it seemed to be coming from his nose. Paul turned over onto his back and noticed that the Stormtrooper was already getting up. The Stormtrooper looked down at Paul as he lay there on the ground. Paul couldn’t read the Imperials expression as the other man still had his helmet on.

The Stormtrooper quickly looked for his E-11 carbine and saw it just a few feet away from where he was stood; Paul made a move to draw a blaster from his right hip.

His hand came away empty, the realisation that he hadn’t flown with his blaster and that it was still onboard the Morning Star made his stomach churn. His mind flashed back to the briefing that Major Sweet had given him and the other new members about carrying a weapon, Paul had simply ignored the other mans advice, now he wished that he had paid closer attention. He saw the Stormtroopers carbine lying within lunging distance and went for it.

The Stormtrooper saw Paul’s actions and reacted instinctively and kicked Paul in the face. A shower of blood came from Paul’s mouth as the Stormtroopers boot connected with his jaw. The Stormtrooper quickly snatched up his E-11 and aimed it at Paul.

Paul was in agony and rolled around on the floor, he knew his jaw was broken by the way it grinded when he tried to move his mouth to spit out the blood and teeth that were swilling around in his mouth. Paul managed to dribble out the teeth and blood, before rolling over onto his back. He noticed the Stormtrooper standing in front of him with his carbine aimed at his chest. Paul tried to raise his hands in surrender.

The Stormtrooper took the movement to be another hostile act and squeezed his trigger twice.

The two laser bolts burned through Paul’s chest and into the ground below him. The pain only lasted for a while before Flight Officer South died.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

General Garner watched the battle from the cockpit of the shuttle. Black smoke was rising from both Imperial and Rebel positions. Things appeared to be going in the Imperials favour as more troops were now entering the town in force. The pilot started the landing cycle and brought the shuttle down in a clearing. As soon as the shuttle had landed the doors on either side of the shuttle opened up. Major Sestina was the first to exit, she held her E-11 carbine at the ready, she was followed by four Stormtroopers then General Garner exited, he was followed by another four Stormtroopers. The group headed towards a troop carrier that was configured as a command vehicle. The landing shuttle powered up its engines to leave. The pilot kicked in the shuttles repulsors lifting it up into the air. Two of the escorting TIE Fighters over head exploded, the small group of Imperials looked up to see the remaining four TIE Fighters heading away at maximum speed pursued by two A-wings. The pilot hit the switch to deploy the wings on his shuttle so he could exit the area. Ion and laser bolts started pummelling the shuttles shields, General Garner looked in the direction the weapons fire was coming from and saw a Y-wing diving in on the landing shuttle. The shields on the shuttle didn’t last long against the combined weapons fire and failed. Taking more hits than it could handle, the shuttle exploded while it was still hovering just off the ground. Shrapnel flew everywhere and pinged off the troop carriers armor. One of the Stormtroopers was hit by a large piece of shrapnel and was more or less cut in half as the metal shot through him. The gunner in the converted troop carrier opened fire at the Y-wing as it flew by, the green laser bolts missing the Rebel bomber as the pilot flew out of range.

Paul spotted two TIE Bombers heading towards Lyran as he pulled away from the shuttle he had just shot down; he ignored the laser fire coming from the troop carrier. Paul called back to Shade. “Shade designate those two bombers as targets one and two.”

Shade did as he was ordered; the lead bomber in the C.M.D. had a one placed in the bottom of the screen.

Paul placed the bomber in the centre of his cross hairs, and waited for it to go green. As soon as he was in range, Paul squeezed the trigger on his flight stick. The combined fire of laser and Ions tore into the Imperial bomber. The TIE exploded and in the process damaged the other TIE Bomber. Although damaged by the explosion the other TIE kept on heading towards Lyran, Paul opened fire on the damaged bomber and was rewarded with the port wing being destroyed. The Imperial pilot knew his ship was doomed and ejected from it before the bomber came crashing down into the forest and exploded.

An AT-AA gunner saw Paul’s Y-wing heading back towards Lyran and targeted it. He soon had a lock on the Rebel bomber and opened fire.

The first few shots missed the Y-wing but the exploding laser shells rocked the bomber enough for Paul to grab hold of the flight stick with both hands to regain control of his ship. The shields on the Y-wing started to drop as more shells detonated around the ship. “Shade, redirect shield energy into the engines!”

Shade let out a shrill whistle as he did what Paul told him to do.

Paul dipped the Y-wings nose down and dived down towards the ground, just before he hit the ground, Paul pulled up on his flight stick and flew just a few feet above the ground.

The AT-AA stopped firing as the gunner lost sight of the Y-wing which had gone below the tree line. The gunner checked his scope for other targets; he saw a red blip on his scope showing another Rebel ship close by, he turned his gun in that direction and looked himself. He saw the T-47 flying right towards him, its laser cannons opened fire. The AT-AA disappeared in a large explosion.

With the shield energy being redirected to the engines, Paul’s Y-wing was rocketing along at low level. Paul noticed that Stormtroopers were firing at him as he went by, some of their shots hitting his ship but not doing too much damage. Paul switched his weapons system over to torpedoes and dumb fired a torpedo at an AT-ST. The small walker was blown apart when the torpedo hit it. Paul switched back to lasers and strafed enemy units as he flew towards Lyran, the lasers hit a Mobile Artillery unit and destroyed it. Paul’s Y-wing flashed by an AT-AT as he fired another torpedo at a troop carrier. The detonating torpedo flipped the troop carrier up into the air before the vehicle came crashing down and exploded. Paul was pitched forward as his Y-wing was hit, Shade let out a screech. Paul hauled back on his flight stick with all his strength, his Y-wing rose up into the air trailing flames and smoke from his port engine. Paul quickly killed the power to the engine, the Y-wing shook as it took more ground fire. Paul opened his comms. “This is Blue three, I’ve been hit, I’m going down, I say again, going down hard!” Paul shut down his comms and looked over to the droid ejection button. “Head for Lyran little fella!” Paul’s fist smashed down on the button and Shade was shot out of the droid slot before he could say anything.

Shade let out a screech as he soared up into the air. Shade carried on going up for another second until gravity took hold of him and started pulling him down. Shade activated a programme that he had never used before and had hoped that he would never have to. On either side of his legs, a panel opened and a tiny jet engine deployed, Shade used the tiny jets to slow his decent down and bring him safely down to the ground. Shade saw Paul’s Y-wing hit the ground near the edge of the road next to the forest. The port engine was ripped off in the crash and exploded; the rest of the bomber came to a halt after sliding along the ground. Smoke started to rise from the wrecked ship, Shade let out a mournful whistle. He touched down on the ground and housed the tiny jets. His domed head turned a full three hundred and sixty degrees as he scanned the area. He pin pointed the closest Imperial units and headed away from them as he followed the final orders Paul had given him and headed towards Lyran.

Paul could taste the blood coming from the split in his top lip. He opened his eyes as he came round. His eyes focused on his flight instruments; they were dark and not working. He winced as he brought his head up and looked out of canopy, and saw the ground. The realisation that he had crashed and was still alive came flooding into Paul. He quickly undid his crash webbing and took off his helmet before opening the canopy. A blaster bolt zinged off the canopy’s armor followed by several other shots. Paul dived out of the cockpit and took shelter behind the nose of his bomber, which had partially dug itself into the ground. Paul drew his DL-44 from his holster and snapped off a couple of shots in the direction of the advancing Stormtroopers before ducking back behind cover. The level of incoming fire intensified as more Stormtroopers started shooting at the trapped pilot. Lying down flat on his stomach, Paul inched himself out and fired off a series of shots at the Stormtroopers, one took a shot to his stomach and collapsed down pressing both hands to the smoking wound, another took a blaster bolt to his right shin, the force of the impact spun him round before he fell down to the ground screaming. The other Stormtroopers stopped advancing and fell down to the ground and opened fire again. Paul rolled back into cover as the bolts ate into the Y-wings armor. Above the noise he heard the whine of a Speeder bikes approaching engine. Paul turned towards the sound and saw a Scout trooper approaching from behind the crashed Y-wing. Paul aimed and fired, the blaster bolt caught the Scout Trooper in the throat, the Scout trooper was pitched backwards and off his Speeder bike. The bike stopped and hovered near Paul as the Scout Trooper thrashed around on the floor dying. Paul took the chance; he holstered his DL-44 and sprinted for the hovering Speeder bike. He jumped onto the bike and opened the throttles to maximum; the bike sped away from the crashed Y-wing. Blaster bolts started zipping past Paul’s head, so Paul started zig zagging the bike to spoil the Stormtroopers aim. A blaster bolt still managed to graze Paul’s left thigh as he made his escape. Instantly Paul’s thigh started throbbing from the pain.

Irena ordered two squads to go and deal with the surviving Stormtroopers that had entered the building. She heard blaster fire as her units engaged the Imperials at close quarters. There was an explosion on the second floor, the remains of a Stormtrooper came flying out of the window and landed a few feet from Irena’s position. Movement from the Imperial lines caught her attention; it looked like another group of Stormtroopers were going to try and make it across to the building. Irena raised her rifle and fired at the troopers. She managed to kill two of them before she was forced to take cover from return fire.

The gunner manning the E-web on the floor above saw what was going on and turned the weapon on them. The heavy laser bolts tore through the Stormtroopers armor killing most of the unit and forcing the survivors to take shelter.

Irena popped out the spent energy mag and slotted a fresh one in. Weapons fire was still coming from the building next to her location but not to the same extent it had been a few minutes ago. Her comms unit crackled to life.

“That was the last Imperial, what are our orders?”

“Did you take any casualties?”

“Three, all K.I.A., no wounded.”

Irena was pleased that so few of her people had died retaking the building, she had expected more casualties. “Secure the building and take up firing positions, the Imps seem to want that place real bad.”

“Yes Ma’am.” The link went dead.

Alex pressed her fire button and sent another salvo towards the Imperial lines. Her target this time was two AT-ST’s. The warheads impacted on and around the two walkers. One of the torpedoes went through the open hatch on top of the AT-ST and blew the head apart completely. The other walker took hits to its legs and collapsed to the ground before exploding. Alex hit the button to house the firing tubes. “Site three, move!” Alex’s driver gunned the engines and headed to the new firing position as fast as the MPTL-2A would go. Alex and one other artillery tank were the only survivors from the original unit the rest had been destroyed by Imperial counter battery fire. The artillery tank reached its destination, Alex pressed the button to deploy the firing tubes once more. Alliance spotters were sending targets and co-ordinates to all the MPTL-2As, Alex selected a target that was within her weapons range. It was an Imperial Heavy Artillery unit; Alex Defiantly wanted this Imp dead. The targeting computer showed that the vehicle was locked in and the weapons were ready to fire, Alex pressed the fire button. The tank shook as the torpedoes left the launch tubes and headed towards the target.

A TIE Bomber saw the torpedoes launching from the jungle and head towards the Imperial lines. He immediately put his weapons system over to his rockets and fired at where the torpedoes had come from.

The artillery tank had just started moving when the rocket hit the ground near the tank and detonated. The artillery tank was thrown on to its side and rolled over once, Alex let out a scream as she was thrown about the cockpit of the tank. The tank finally came to a rest allowing Alex to try and escape the burning vehicle. Alex let out another scream as she tried to move; her leg had been skewered by a piece of metal from the tank and was now pinning her in place. She was about to call out to her driver for help but when Alex looked at him she knew there was no point. Her driver was dead; the part of the cockpit where he had been seated had been crushed and had killed him instantly. The fire in the tank was getting worse; it wouldn’t be long now before the fire reached the ammunition. Alex reached into her pocket and pulled out the tiny disc, she activated it and the holo of her daughter appeared above the disc. Alex felt the tears falling from her eyes as she looked at the holo of her daughter. “I’m sorry little one. I’ll see you soon.” The fire reached the torpedoes, the MPTL-2A exploded, several trees nearby were flattened by the explosion.

Paul activated the Speeder bikes cannon and sent a hail of fire into a group of Stormtroopers as he sped towards Lyran. He could see the town now through the smoke; the place was being hammered by the approaching Imperial units. Paul zipped the bike between an AT-ST’s legs, laser bolts flashed past him once more. Paul steered the bike towards a building occupied by Alliance forces.

The AT-AT that Colonel Sandoval was in targeted a T-47 and fired, the back of the Air Speeder erupted in flame as it was hit by the weapons fire from the walker. Grice watched the stricken speeder plummet down into the ground and exploded. Grice turned his attention back to the battle; his forces were meeting stiffer than expected resistance from the Rebel defenders. Grice activated his comm. unit and opened a link to Captain Kawl.

Captain Kawl and his men were laying down suppressing fire on the Rebels when Colonel Sandoval’s communication came through. Gideon took a small holo transmitter from his utility belt and activated it, the image of Colonel Sandoval’s head and upper body appeared.

“Report Captain Kawl.”

“Sir, we’re pinned down at the moment, we could do with some heavy support. The Rebels have managed to dig themselves in secure firing positions. I’ve lost over five squads trying to get my men across and establish a foot hold.”

The image of Captain Kawl flickered in the holo display as something exploded nearby. “I’m redirecting some heavy units to your location Captain, is there anything else?”

“Yes sir, I’m going to need more Stormtroopers at this location to manage the breakthrough once the heavies arrive.”

“I’ll see what I can do Captain.” Before Grice could say anything else, he heard the familiar noise of a speeder bike getting closer.

Paul had noticed a large group of Stormtroopers firing on an Alliance position. Paul aimed the Speeder bike at the Imperials and opened up the throttle fully, he used his vibro knife to jam the throttle at this setting.

The Stormtroopers heard the noise and turned towards it. It took a few seconds for them to realise what was happening and for them to open fire on the approaching Speeder bike.

Paul flung himself from the Speeder bike as it hurtled towards the Imperials and blaster bolts started to hit the bike. Paul hit the ground hard and skidded to a stop. The Speeder bike ploughed into the Stormtroopers and exploded as it hit the wall they had been taking cover behind.

The noise of the explosion came through on Colonel Sandoval’s end and a brief glimpse of the explosion before the feed from the holo was lost. “Captain Kawl, are you there? Captain Kawl respond!” There was only silence. Grice turned to the AT-AT’s pilot. “Set course for Captain Kawl’s last location at maximum speed.”

“Yes sir.”

Colonel Sandoval started putting through orders for Imperial reinforcements to be sent to Gideon’s last known location.

Paul let out a groan as he lay on the ground, his ribs were really sore and it felt like his lip had burst open again. Paul moved his arms and legs experimentally to see if he could still move, everything still seemed to be working so Paul rolled over onto his stomach and started to get up. Blood started to flow from the cut on his lip and run down his chin and drip down onto the ground.

Gideon opened his eyes, the first image he saw the body of one of his men. Part of the wall had collapsed on top of him, but this time he was able to free himself. The area was covered in the burning wreckage of the Speeder bike and his men, Gideon saw the Rebel that had caused the carnage rising to his feet nearby. Gideon searched for a carbine and found one near a dead Stormtrooper, he snatched up the blaster rifle and aimed in the general direction of the Rebel and opened fire.

The first bolt zinged by Paul’s head by a few feet. Paul turned towards the direction the shot had come from and saw a Stormtrooper in badly damaged armor shooting and walking towards him. “Oh crap!” Paul started running for cover as more shots came his way. Paul dived behind some rubble and took cover, he reached down for his DL-44 but all his hand found was air. Paul looked back to were he had landed and saw his pistol lying on the ground. “Hell’s teeth!” Paul didn’t have any weapons, his vibro knife had been destroyed when he used it to jam open the throttle on the Speeder bike. He looked around for anything that could be used as a weapon and saw a twisted piece of metal, Paul picked it up.

Gideon saw the Rebel scrambling about behind the rubble and sent another hail of blaster fire into the rubble. Gideon started advancing towards the trapped Rebel again, firing a burst into the rubble every now and then.

Paul winced as the shots kept on coming in and chucks of stone were blasted apart. The sound of the blaster fire increased and then there was silence. Figuring that the Stormtroopers weapon had run dry Paul rose up with the piece of metal held high in his right hand and got ready to run and attack the Stormtrooper as he reloaded. The metal fell from Paul’s raised hand and clanged down to the ground.

“Hey flyboy, I thought you were supposed to come and rescue me!”

“Damn if you ain’t the most gorgeous sight I’ve ever seen!” Irena was stood behind the body of the Stormtrooper that had been trying to kill Paul; she was flanked by four troopers, who were covering the immediate area.

Gideon heard the voices but could no longer see; he felt himself feeling sleepy but couldn’t do anything to stop the sensation. The sound of the voices seemed to coming further and further away, the last sound Gideon ever heard was that of footsteps walking away from him.

As Paul, Irena and the others headed back to the Alliance positions, Paul stopped to pick up his blaster. He lowered the blaster into his holster and made sure the securing strap was in place before he started walking again.

Chapter Thirty

Garth watched as the two Bantha transporters headed towards the Imperial depot just above the tree canopy. As soon as the transporters where over a suitable landing site, the pilots kicked in their repulsors and set their ships down. The boarding ramps let out a hiss of compressed air as they started to lower. Captain Nolan walked down the boarding ramp of the lead Bantha followed by his team. Kapp walked over to Garth’s location and threw up a quick salute. “Congratulations sir, looks like you managed to pull it off.”

Garth returned the salute. “Thanks Captain Nolan, if you could supervise the loading of our dead and wounded while I just make sure of some things here before we pull out.”

“At once sir.” Kapp started to move off to carry out his orders.

Garth called after him. “Oh by the way Captain, we’ve got some Imperial wounded as well as prisoners, they’re coming too.”

“Yes sir.”

Garth headed over to Major Nuen. “Major are all the charges in place?”

“Yes sir, we’ve used some of the Imperial ones as well when we run out, we’ve tied their detonation frequency into this one remote.” Major Nuen threw the remote to Colonel Twain.

Garth caught the remote in his left hand before he put it in one of his combat vest pockets. “Gather everyone up, we leave in two minutes.”

“Yes sir.” Major Jackson started rounding up the Alliance soldiers.

Gade was aware that his body was moving; in fact it felt to him that he was floating. Gade had often heard that when you ascended to another reality, he wondered now if this was happening to him. All of a sudden he felt his body going lower and then bumped to a stop. Gade started hearing voices now, coming from all around him, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. He struggled to open his eyes but couldn’t manage it, just then his vision returned as something opened one of his eyes. All of a sudden his vision was filled with a bright light, and then as soon as it had appeared it was gone. Gade tried to focus on the blurry image in front of him. His vision swam into focus and Gade saw a Rebel medic holding a light stick in his hand. The reality of the situation hit Gade almost as hard as the fragments from the exploding grenades had, he was wounded and being taken prisoner by the Rebels. It was too much for Gade’s mind to handle and he slipped back into unconsciousness.

Colonel Twain and Captain Nolan were stood at the foot of the boarding ramp of the Bantha transporter as the rest of Garth’s troops boarded. As the last few troopers boarded both transporters Garth and Kapp walked up the boarding ramp and headed up to the cockpit. Garth stood behind the pilot. “We’re all aboard, let’s get out of here.”

“You got it Colonel.” The pilot started the take off sequence and activated the repulsors lifting the huge transporter up into the air. The pilot activated the main engines and started heading away from the depot.

Garth spoke to the pilot again. “Can you show me the depot in the display?”

“Yes sir.” The pilot pressed a key on his console and the image of the depot appeared in the display.

Garth fished out the remote from his combat vest. He turned the remote on and flicked the guard off the trigger. Using his right thumb, he activated the trigger sending the signal to the explosives placed throughout the depot.

As one, the explosives detonated. The explosion was that bright and intense the display went white. The sound of the explosion reached Garth and everyone else in the two Bantha’s heading away from the Imperial depot, Imperial forces occupying Ewenib also heard the explosion and wondered what it was. Four Scout Troopers on Speeder bikes were dispatched from Ewenib to find out what had caused the explosion. The displays resolution started to return, the picture it showed was one of flames, smoke and destruction. The whole depot was burning fiercely, thick black smoke was billowing up into the sky and could been seen for miles around.

Garth flicked the safety cover over the firing trigger then powered off the device before pocketing the remote once more in his combat vest.

Lieutenant Colonel Odom took cover as one of his men was blown apart just in front of him; a T1-B tank had joined the fray and had just killed the trooper using its missiles. Ziff fired his assault cannon at the Rebel tank, his shots were absorbed by the tanks shield. Ziff swore; things were going from bad to worse for his unit. The Rebels had managed to take out a large number of his men with their Vanguard units. Ziff had ordered his men to eliminate any Vanguard soldier they with extreme prejudice, but it seemed that there seemed to be an endless supply of the Rebel rocket soldiers in Lyran. Ziff spotted one of the enemy rocket soldiers taking cover in a building; he aimed his weapon and fired a seeker missile. The missile streaked into the building and exploded, the body of the Vanguard trooper was blown through remains of a window before hitting the ground. Ziff’s action drew fire from the T4-B tank that was in the area, the wall that Ziff had taken cover behind was blasted to pieces as the heavy laser bolts burned into it. Ziff activated his jet pack and rocketed up to the top of a building before his cover was destroyed. Ziff’s comms burst into life.

“Sir this is Captain Scos, my unit and another are pinned down and are unable to escape, requesting help.”

“What’s your location Captain?”

“Two blocks west of you location sir, they’ve got us pinned inside the town’s bank. We’ve tried blasting our way through the walls but they’re reinforced and our missiles don’t have the strength to break through!”

The sound of heavy weapons fire came of the comm. channel followed by a scream. “Hold on Captain, we’re on our way. This is Colonel Odom to all units; we have friendlies trapped and needing assistance, form up on me.” Ziff used his tongue to close down the comms.

The Dark Troopers fought their way to their commander’s location, several of them being killed in the process.

Ziff did a quick head count of his men, there were only twenty three including himself, along with the two units trapped in the bank, Ziff was down to about thirty men. Ziff could hardly believe the casualties his people had taken already and the fight was only a couple of hours old. Ziff activated his comms with his tongue. “Ok, here’s how we do it, two units will lay down a suppressing fire while the rest of us go in and get Captain Scos and his people out. Let’s go.” Ziff and his men jetted over to the banks location, they saw the bank below them, it was being pounded by artillery units and tanks.

The unit ordered to provide covering fire had gotten themselves in place on top of a building near by.

Ziff gave the order for them to open fire.

The Alliance units had been so focused on the trapped Dark Trooper units taking shelter in the bank that they hadn’t noticed the others arriving. The first they knew about the Dark trooper reinforcements was when one of the MPTL-4A’s exploded.

Ziff gave the order to go in and rescue the trapped Imperials. The Dark Troopers dropped down to the ground only using their jet packs when they were almost at the ground. Ziff and his men entered the bank, firing at the Rebel positions as they moved. Ziff spotted the trap Imperials, with a unit of his men made his way to their location, whilst the others returned fire at the Rebels. Five of the trapped Dark troopers were dead, their armor ripped open by heavy weapons fire and thermal detonators. Ziff made his way over to Captain Scos and the surviving troopers. “Let’s move Captain, we’re leaving!”

Captain Scos and the three surviving Dark Troopers aimed their weapons at Ziff and the other Dark Troopers that had come in with him. “Drop your weapons Colonel, its over.” From the vault a platoon of Vanguard troopers emerged with their weapons aimed at the Ziff and his men.

Ziff looked up at the balcony level and saw two more platoons of Vanguard soldiers all aiming their weapons at him. “What?”

The Dark Trooper that Ziff had assumed was Captain Scos heard the confusion in Ziff’s voice even through the voice that came through was distorted by the comm. unit. “Your Captain Scos was killed along with the rest of his men when they failed to surrender; we just borrowed the intact armor to bring you and the rest of your people here. Now lower your weapons, I won’t ask again.”

Ziff felt the anger build up inside of him, he had been tricked and lead his men into a trap. The other Dark Troopers were waiting to see what their commanding officer was going to do. From outside there was a loud explosion as the four Dark troopers that had been laying down covering fire were wiped out by torpedoes fired from two MPTL-4A’s. Ziff raised his weapon to fire.

The fire fight was savage and short and extremely one sided, the Alliance soldiers had the advantage and used it. As the last shots died away and the smoke cleared, Lieutenant Colonel Odom and his men lay dead or dieing on the floor of the ruined bank. The Alliance soldiers quickly checked the enemy soldiers before gathering up their own dead and wounded and leaving the bank.

Onboard the Gorgon, Admiral Beruss was watching the battle for Lyran on a holo display. The feed was being transmitted to his ship from one of the converted troop carriers. The Admiral was pleased by the progress the Imperial ground units appeared to be making against the Rebels.

Ashby was stood next to the Admiral; he was also watching the battle. Ashby noticed the communications officer suddenly press her hand to the comm. unit in her ear. The look on her face suggested that what she was hearing wasn’t good. Ashby excused himself and went over to the comms officer work station. “Is there a problem Ensign?”

“I think there might be sir. You need to hear this; it’s on comms channel four.”

Ashby keyed his own comms unit to channel four and listened to the transmission which he caught part way through. “…eat, Imperial Center has fallen to Rebel forces. The planet’s shields are down and our space forces have surrendered.” There was a brief pause before the message started repeating again. “This is Imperial command to all Imperial forces. Imperial Center has fallen to Rebel forces, I repeat, Imperial Center has fallen to Rebel forces.” Color drained from the X.O.’s face as he pulled the comms unit from his ear. He looked down at the comms officer. “This was transmitted on channel four?”

“Yes sir.”

“Verify it, immediately!” Ashby walked back over to Admiral Beruss as the comms officer set about verifying the transmission. “Sir, I think you need to hear this.”

“What is it Mister Melaes?”

“It’ll be better if you listen sir.”

Admiral Beruss took the comm. unit and listened to the communication. The expression on Kavil’s face suddenly changed from its normal impassive state to one of disbelief and then quickly turned to one of anger. “What channel is this coming in on?”

“Channel four sir; it’s being transmitted in the open!”

“Have you authenticated the source of the signal?”

“I’ve got the comms officer doing that right now Admiral.” The two men both headed over to the comms officers work station. “Have you verified the source of the signal yet, Ensign?”

“Yes sir, I’ve ran the check eight times and signal has Defiantly originated from Imperial Centre. It’s real!”

“Ensign, I’m ordering you to stay quiet about this, speak to no one, is that understood?”

“Yes sir.”

“Also I want you to block that signal.”

“Yes sir.” The Ensign started pressing buttons on her console to try and jam the signal.

Kavil marched over to the tactical station and spoke to the officer stationed there. “Has the Rebel fleet made any movements?”

“No sir, they’re still in their holding patterns.”

“I want to be informed immediately if any of them move at all, is that clear?”

“Yes sir, at once sir.”

Admiral Beruss motioned for Ashby to follow him into his ready room. Kavil waited for the doors to shut before he spoke. “I don’t know how much longer we’ve got before the Rebels pick up that signal, but as soon as they do, you can bet they’ll attack.”

“Yes sir, what are your orders?” This was one of the times that Ashby was glad he wasn’t left with the responsibility of command.

“Put me through to General Garner, he needs to be informed of this right away.”

“At once sir.” The X.O. quickly got the connection open to General Garner. “Sir I have General Garner on comm. channel eighteen.”

“Jaxx, its Kavil, are you somewhere secure?”

“I’m in a command vehicle near the front, that’s as secure as I can get at the moment Admiral.”

“Jaxx I need you to go somewhere were you won’t be overheard.”

“One moment Admiral.” General Garner exited the command vehicle and walked several meters away from the vehicle, Major Sestina followed him outside and drew her E-11 Carbine to keep the General covered. “Ok Admiral, I’m away from everyone else, what’s going on?”

“A few minutes ago we just picked up a message from Imperial Centre being transmitted in the clear on channel four stating that the Rebels have seized the planet”

Jaxx couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Admiral I take it you’ve confirmed this and that it’s not just a Rebel trick.”

“It’s been confirmed Jaxx.”

Jaxx was silent for a moment as he tried to absorb the news, before finding his voice again. “Admiral, what are your orders?”

“General my orders are this, evacuate as many as your people as you can and head back to the fleet. Abandon equipment if necessary, just save as many as you can and get them back.”

Before General Garner could respond, one of the officers came running out of the command vehicle towards General Garner. “Sir, the Rebels have completely destroyed the supply depot!”

“What! Has this been confirmed?”

“Yes sir, forces in Ewenib dispatched some Scout Troopers to investigate an explosion that was heard in the city, the troopers have just reported back in that the depot has been wiped out.”

General Garner waved the officer away before he relayed the message to Admiral Beruss. “What do you suggest now Kavil?”

“You and your command staff can’t be captured Jaxx, you need to get as many shuttles together as you can and get out of there.”

“Understood, what about the rest?”

“Tell them to surrender; the Rebels will treat them fairly. There’s no point them dying for an Empire that no longer exists. Jaxx we don’t have much time before the Rebel fleet hears the message and makes a move on us, you need to hurry.”

Jaxx let out a long sigh. “Understood Admiral, Garner out.” He motioned for Leonia to come over to him and quickly told her what the Admiral had reported to him.

“If we do make it off Balfron sir, where will we go?”

“I don’t know Leonia, that’ll be for the Admiral to decide.” General Garner headed back into the command vehicle and then suddenly came to a halt. Jaxx slammed his right fist into his left hand. “Damn it I can’t just run and abandon my people, if there’s going to be any surrendering then I’ll be the one doing it.” Jaxx continued on to the command vehicle, once inside he located the communications officer. “Ensign, I want you to get in touch with the Rebels General so that I can surrender to him.” The ensign’s eyes went wide at the Generals remarks. “Sir, did I hear you right, to surrender to the Rebels?”

“Yes you did. Now hurry up, the more you delay the more Imperial lives will be lost.”

The Ensign got busy at her station and was soon speaking into her comms unit trying to get in touch with the Rebel command.

Colonel Sandoval was nearing the last known location of Captain Kawl. Grice had put together a force of four AT-ATs, twelve AT-STs, Six Heavy Artillery Platforms and ten Troop transporters.

The six Heavy Artillery units deployed into their firing mode and began firing straight away on the Rebel positions. The first set of shells landed short of their targets, the gunners quickly re-calculated their firing solutions and fired again. This time the weapons fire was accurate and came down on the Rebel positions.

Irena and Paul took cover as the building next to them was raised to the ground by the artillery shells, chunks of rubble fell near their location. Irena risked a glance over the barricades. “We’ve got a whole heap of Imperial heavy armor coming down on our location!”

“Great just what we need; you got any heavy weapons here?”

“Not much, a few Vanguard troopers and the E-web cannon up there.” Irena pointed to the window above where the cannon could be seen sticking out of the window. Another artillery barrage came down causing everyone to duck. This time it was followed up by weapons fire from the walkers.

There was a scream from one of the Alliance soldiers as he was hit by a laser bolt from an AT-ST. The man fell heavily down on the ground. Paul rushed out and grabbed hold of the mans combat webbing and dragged him to the relative safety of the barricades. Paul pressed two fingers on the side of the mans neck, checking for a pulse, there was none. Paul took the dead soldiers Blas Tech 265 rifle and ammo belt, he looped the ammo belt over his shoulder and wore it like a bandolier.

The ten Imperial Troop carriers started advancing on the Rebel positions, with the walkers providing covering fire. The gunners in the Troop carriers were also firing towards the Rebel positions.

Paul ducked down and edged out to the sides of the barricades; he sighted his rifle on one of the gunners in the approaching Troop carriers and fired. The laser bolt hit the Stormtrooper just below his left eye and blew the rear of helmet apart as the laser bolt burst through it. Paul rolled back into cover as enemy weapons fire started to blast away at where he had just been.

“You trying to get yourself killed?” Irena asked.

“Nope, just trying to improve the situation. We could really do with some heavy fire power here.” Paul started to edge out once more before he suddenly stopped and let out a laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Irena looked puzzled; their current situation was hardly one to be laughing at.

“I’m a bloody fool that’s what. You still got that comm. unit I gave you?”

Irena quickly searched her pockets until she found the comm. unit and then handed the device to Paul.

Paul activated the comm. unit. “Shade, do you copy little fella?”

Several harsh whistles and beeps were the reply.

“Yes I’m glad you’re ok too. Listen I need you to get in touch with Thantos R2 unit and get Thantos to contact me on this channel, and you need to do it fast.”

There were several more whistles from the comm. unit before the connection went dead.

After thirty seconds the comm. unit beeped, Paul activated the unit. “Thantos is that you?”

“Yes sir. We thought you were dead Major.”

“No such luck, but that might change soon. Are the other two Y-wings still alive?”

“Yes sir, we’re still fighting fit.”

“Good, you guys still got torpedoes?”

“I’ve got three left, not sure about the others, why?”

“I need you and the others to do a strike mission; otherwise our position is going to be over run! Get your R2 unit to triangulate our location and do your run coming in from the north.”

“You got it Major, I’ll be in touch. Thantos out.”

More artillery shells landed nearby making everyone take cover again. The shockwaves from the explosions was felt by everyone nearby, and several people’s ear drums burst due to the pressure wave. Blood was streaming down from both of Irena’s nostrils. Irena reached up and wiped the blood away but two more lines of blood started to run down over her lips. “Great, I’m going to be tasting and spitting blood for ages now!”

“You still look damn hot to me babe.” The comm. unit beeped again, Paul activated it.

“Sir we’re inbound on your location, E.T.A. is thirty seconds, we’re coming in hot.”

“Copy Blue five, bring the rain!”

Thantos lead the three Y-wings towards the Imperial targets; he selected his torpedoes and targeted an AT-AT. His gun sight went green and Thantos pressed the fire button on his flight stick. The torpedo shot out of the right launch tube and streaked towards the AT-AT. The torpedo struck the rear of the large walker and completely destroyed the rear section. The AT-AT collapsed down to the ground and exploded.

Colonel Sandoval heard the explosion of the destroyed AT-AT, the sounds of two other large explosions quickly followed the first as two more AT-AT’s were destroyed.

Thantos fired a torpedo at the remaining AT-AT; the torpedo was targeted on upper body of the walker and had no difficulty hitting its target.

Grice felt the torpedo impact and instinctively turned in that direction. The last image that Grice ever saw was that of a wall of flame rushing towards him. For a brief moment Grice felt the heat, of the flames as they washed over him. The head of the AT-AT exploded as the force of the explosion proved too much for the walkers armor to handle. The dead walker collapsed to the ground, destroying one of the Heavy Artillery Platforms as it came crashing down on it.

The three Y-wings commenced a strafing run on the Troop carriers managing to destroy five of them before they had to pull out and loop back to start another run. Thantos targeted an Artillery vehicle and fired his last torpedo at it. The torpedo hit on the vehicles main weapon and detonated. Thantos put his cross hairs on an AT-ST and opened fire, the laser bolts burned into the light armor at the rear of the AT-ST and into the crew cab before exploding the head of the Scout walker.

The surviving Imperial units reversed their course and started to withdraw from the area. The Y-wings came in for a third strafing run on the Imperial armor, by the time this was over only five AT-ST’s and two Troop carriers had survived and managed to withdraw.

Paul activated the comm. unit. “Nice work Thantos, pass on my thanks to the other two.”

“Yes sir. We’re heading back to rearm and refuel, but give me a shout if you need anymore close air support.”

“Will do Blue five, safe flying, Blue three out.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Onboard the Maria, Admiral Ull walked over to the communications officer. The woman had just called him over and by the sound of her voice it was something urgent.

“Sir, about an hour ago the Imperial fleet started jamming communications on an Imperial frequency, it took me some time but I think you’re going to want to hear this Admiral.”

“Put it on main speakers Lieutenant.”

“Yes sir.” The communications officer pushed a few keys to activate the transmission. There was a lot of static in the transmission due to the Imperial jamming but the message was clear enough, Alliance forces had captured Coruscant.

“Have you been able to verify the signals authenticity?”

“Yes Admiral, it originated from Coruscant, it’s genuine.”

“So that was why Ackbar couldn’t send us anymore reinforcements!” Admiral Ull was speaking to himself more than the communications officer. Corben went over to the tactical station. “Has the Imperial fleet made any movements?”

“No sir, they’re still holding steady.”

“Let me know if they start to move.”

“Yes sir.”

Colonel Ibixm came running into General Glaive’s office without being told to come in.

This wasn’t lost on Leif, his rippled slightly as the Mon Calamari Colonel stood at the front of his desk sporting a huge smile. “What can I do for you Colonel?”

“Sir, I think you’d better come through to the main operations room, we just received an incoming communication that I think you’re going to want to take.”

Again Leif’s fur rippled. “This had better be important Colonel. Who is it?”

“It’s the commander of the Imperial forces on Balfron, he wants to discuss terms of surrendering to you.”

Leif’s eye went wide with astonishment. “You’re certain it’s Defiantly the Imperial commander?”

“Yes sir, we’re certain. You’ll probably find this information pleasing as well; a little over two hours ago Alliance forces took control of Coruscant.”

Leif couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Has this information been verified?”

“Yes sir, Admiral Ull has checked the signals origins and it has been authenticated.”

Leif stood up and moved round to the front of his desk. “I guess I better go and speak to the Imperial commander and discuss how he would like to surrender!”

In the command vehicle the communications officer received the incoming communication from General Glaive, he patched it through to General Garner’s comm. unit. “This is General Jaxx Garner, who am I speaking to please?”

“This is General Leif Glaive, commander of Alliance forces on Balfron. What can I do for you General Garner?”

“As I’m sure you are aware General, Imperial Centre has fallen and your troops have destroyed our depot effectively stranding us on this planet. For those reasons I am asking for an end to all hostilities.”

“I see, well General here are my terms and they are none negotiable. You are to issue an immediate cease fire order to all your troops and get them to pull back to one kilometre outside of Lyran, once that is done and the cease fire has taken affect you will personally surrender to me. If your troops do not cooperate then I can promise you that swift and lethal actions will be taken against them.”

There was silence for a while before General Garner came back on the comms. “I find your terms acceptable General Glaive, I will issue the cease fire order right away. I will be in touch with you again. Will I be able to reach you on the same channel?”

“You will. I will also order my troops to cease fire, but remember what I said; my troops will defend themselves if they feel threatened by yours.”

“Message received loud and clear General, General Garner out.” Jaxx closed down the link to the Rebel General. Jaxx spoke to the communications officer again. “I want you to open up a channel to all our forces so I can pass the cease fire order.”

“Yes sir.” The officer quickly opened the channel for General Garner. “You’re on sir.”

Jaxx took in a deep breath before speaking. “This is General Garner to all Imperial units. A short while ago, Rebel forces attacked and destroyed the supply depot, all equipment there was destroyed, consequently the majority of our shuttles have been destroyed. To make matters worse, it is my sad duty to inform you that Imperial Centre has fallen into Rebel hands. I am therefore ordering our forces to cease fire immediately and surrender to the Rebels; I will not ask anyone to continue fighting for a lost Empire. I can assure you that the Rebels will treat you fairly. I’m sorry that I can’t save you, as you all deserve better than this, Admiral Beruss has therefore ordered myself and all command staff to return to the fleet and withdraw from the system. I however am not going to run; I will share the same fate as the people under my command. Abide by the cease fire and I have been promised by the Rebel General that you will all be safe, however know this, if you do break the terms of the cease fire, the Rebel General has promised that all such incidents will be dealt with lethal force. I urge everyone to do as I’ve ordered so that in time we may see our families again, General Garner out.”

Along the battle front of Lyran stunned Imperials had listened to General Garner tell them that Imperial Centre was now in Rebel hands and that he wanted them to surrender. Section commanders started issuing orders to cease fire and fall back; soon there was only small pockets of fighting still going on in Lyran. Most of these were dealt with by the Alliance troops swiftly and efficiently and in most cases the Imperials did surrender after a number of their colleagues had been killed.

Major Jackson was dealing with a group of die hard Stormtroopers that had taken shelter inside a damaged building. Despite a number of the Stormtroopers being killed, the others showed no sign of surrendering. “Smithy, full speed ahead, I’m calling time on this.”

“You got it boss.”

The T4-B tank started moving towards the building, the Stormtroopers inside turned their attention to the approaching tank. The laser bolts didn’t do any real damage; most of them were deflected by the tanks strong armor. The T4-B smashed through the front wall of the building and carried on moving forward, several of the Stormtroopers never had a chance to find cover and were crushed by tank. The tank carried on through the building and smashed an exit for itself through the back wall. Once outside and in the open Major Jackson ordered Lowe to fire a rocket barrage into the ruins.

Lowe swivelled the turret until it was facing the building they had just smashed through and fired the rockets into it. The explosions blew out rubble and bits of Stormtrooper armor into the open. “I think that’s got them Major.”

“I hope so Lowe, I hope so.”

Onboard the Gorgon, Admiral Beruss was in his ready room, the comms officer had rerouted a transmission from General Garner there. The Generals holo image appeared in the middle of the room. “Jaxx I hope you’re contacting me to tell me that you’re on your way.”

“I’m afraid not Admiral. I’m staying.”

“Jaxx have you taken leave of your senses! Those Rebels will have a propaganda field day if you surrender to them.”

“Maybe they will, but there was no way I could abandon the people that have served loyally under me, even if it means my own freedom.”

“Jaxx you’re a good man, a good officer, the Empire still needs people like you if the Empire is ever going to reclaim the galaxy.”

“The Empire I served died at Endor, Kavil. Today was just another of the Empires death rattles, it’s over for me. What will you do now?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen myself as the Warlord type. I think this might be the perfect opportunity for me to reflect on things, see what’s out there.” Kavil stopped talking, there wasn’t really anything left to say.

The silence was almost deafening to Jaxx, until he remembered about the shuttles and TIE’s. “There are some shuttles and several TIE’s heading back up to the fleet, do you have time to pick them up before you go?”

Kavil was snapped out of his thoughts and back to reality. “Yes but not much, they better hurry.”

“I’ll let them know to speed it up. Goodbye Admiral Beruss, it’s been an honour serving under you.” Jaxx threw up a salute to the Admirals holo image. Kavil returned the salute. “The honour was mine General. Good luck.” Kavil killed the transmission; the Generals holo image flickered twice and then disappeared.

Onboard the Maria the tactical officer had called Admiral Ull over to his station. “Sir, I’m picking up six shuttles, four TIE Fighters and two TIE Bombers coming up from Balfron and heading in the Imperial fleets direction. I’m also getting readings from the Imperial warships they seem to be powering up”

Admiral Ull took a quick glance at the display and then started issuing orders to the crew on the bridge. “Bring the fleet to red alert. Scramble our fighters. Set shields to maximum. Bring the weapons on line.” The lighting on the bridged dimmed down to combat levels as an alarm klaxon started sounding throughout the ship.

Onboard the Morning Star the alert order had just come through and the same thing was happening. On the flight deck the pilots from Red squadron were running towards their fighters. Jamie hurdled over a pile of storage crates that were in his path to his fighter instead of going around them.

Rob quickly got himself strapped in and did an emergency engine start on his A-wing, once he was sure that his A-wing was ready he opened the comm. channel to the squadron. “Once we exit the hanger, form up on me and then we’ll head to our assigned location.” Rob eased the throttles forward and guided his fighter out of the hanger.

Chris had activated his repulsors and was waiting to exit, he flicked the switch to retract his landing gear, the lights went from green to red indicating that all three of the X-wings gear was housed and away. “Well Fate, here we go again!”

Fate beeped and whistled a reply.

Chris looked down on his display to see what the droid had said. Chris let out a sigh. “Yes Fate, I’ll try not to give you such a bumpy ride this time.”

Admiral Ull was still at the tactical officer’s station, he watched the shuttles and TIE’s dock with the Imperial flagship. As soon as the last ship had docked the Gorgon started moving. Admiral Ull walked back over to his command chair and sat in it. “Stand by people this could be them preparing to make an attack move!” The rest of the Imperial fleet also started moving. “What’s their heading?”

The tactical officer quickly plotted the course that the enemy ships were on. “Sir, if they stay on their current course they’ll be clear to jump to hyperspace in just under seven minutes.”

“Very well, let me know if they even twitch a meter off their present course.”

“Aye Admiral.” The minutes went slowly by, as everyone waited to see if the Imperials were leaving the system or if this was an elaborate deception. The tactical officer was watching the ships on his display, suddenly the Imperial flagship started accelerating and then in an instant it had disappeared into hyperspace. “Admiral, the Imperial flagship has just jumped into hyperspace! Correction two more ships have just jumped.” The officer watched as one by one the Imperial fleet jumped out of the system, all except one. “Admiral I’m showing one Imperial warship still in the system, it’s one of the Loronar Strike Cruisers, the Malevolent. Sir, they’re signalling us!”

“Comms put them through.”

An image of a middle aged man in Imperial fleet green uniform was projected by the holo generator on the bridge. “I am Captain Kane, commander of the Malevolent, who am I addressing please?”

“This is Admiral Ull, commander of the Third fleet. What can I do for you Captain?”

“After careful consideration, my crew and I would like to come over to the side of the Alliance, as a show of good faith on our behalf, I offer this ship and everything on it as proof of our intentions.”

Admiral Ull had to hold back the smile that threatened to break out on his face. The Imperial Captain was doing all the right things so that he and his crew were not classed as prisoners. “Captain Kane, I appreciate your generous offer. In order for us to proceed you will first have to comply with some necessary rules. Firstly power down your weapons and shields, after that is done, you will come into range of the fleet and then power down your engines and finally you will confine all members of your crew to their quarters and surrender your ship to the crew that I shuttle over. If any of these instructions are not followed or you deviate even slightly from them, I will take that as a hostile act and deal with it accordingly. Do you understand and accept these terms Captain Kane?”

“Admiral I find your terms reasonable and acceptable, I look forward to meeting with you.”

“Thank you Captain Kane.” Admiral Ull made a chopping motion with his right hand to signal the comms officer to stop the transmission. Captain Kane’s image flickered and then vanished. Admiral Ull turned to his first officer. “Get a boarding party put together, make sure they’re heavily armed, I don’t think Captain Kane will give us any trouble but let’s not take any chances.”

Back on Balfron, the cease fire was in affect and holding, the Imperial forces had withdrawn to a kilometre away from Lyran and were holding their position and not making any further moves. Most of the Imperials were still coming to terms with the fact that Imperial City had fallen and their Empire had collapsed around them.

General Garner and Major Sestina were not with the main body of Imperial troops they had been told to wait at Lyran were General Glaive would accept their surrender. The two Imperial officers were being closely watched by a dozen heavily armed Alliance soldiers. Jaxx heard the sound of and approaching shuttle and looked up to see a Lambda-class shuttle heading in their direction. The shuttles wings started to sweep up as the pilot started the landing sequence. Jaxx turned to face Leonia. “I’m sorry Major, but it looks like serving me has ended your career after all.”

Leonia was silent for a moment. “That may be true General, but at least it had an honourable end to it, how many of us can say that at the end of the day?”

Jaxx smiled. “You’re a good officer Major and a credit to your uniform; it’s been a privilege to have known you.”

“You too sir.”

The shuttle completed its landing and the boarding ramp began to lower. Once the ramp had fully lowered, Leif started to walk down it, followed by Colonel Ibixm.

As soon as the two Imperial officers saw General Glaive they came to attention and saluted.

Leif walked towards the two Imperials and stood before them both. He looked at both of them before returning the salute.

General Garner spoke first. “General Glaive as commander of Alliance forces on Balfron I formally surrender to you.” Using his left hand, Jaxx slowly withdrew his blaster; he took hold of the barrel and extended it towards General Glaive.

“General Garner, as commander of Alliance forces on Balfron I accept your surrender on behalf of the Alliance.” Leif accepted the offered blaster and took it by the hand grip, he looked down at the blaster, it had been polished to a high finish.

“What happens now?” Jaxx asked.

“You and your senior officers will be debriefed at some length I imagine, I’m sure the Intelligence people will have Questions for you to answer, but you will be treated fairly; you have my word on that, all of your people. I’ll see to it that your wounded are given medical treatment if your own supplies are low.”

“Thank you General. You fought well, who knows, if Imperial City hadn’t fallen, maybe it would have been you asking me for a cease fire and surrender.”

“Maybe General, maybe.”

Epilogue

It had been a week since hostilities had ended on Balfron. The cost in lives was still being calculated, and an accurate figure would probably not be reached for some time, if at all. The Imperials had over twenty three thousand dead. Alliance forces had lost over twelve thousand dead. It was the civilian population that came off worst; there was over three hundred and fifty thousand dead. Most of the civilian casualties had been taken when Ewenib and Eidola were attacked. Supply and aide convoys had started arriving the other day to help the civilians made homeless by the conflict; but it was going to take a lot of time and healing before things went back to how they used to be.

Irena was in the hospital in Keibakia, she was still dressed in her combat uniform and her rifle was slung over her right shoulder. Although the fighting had stopped and Irena and the others had time to rest now, her uniform still showed the signs that she been fighting. Irena was walking past the rows of filled beds, although the fighting had ended a week ago, people were still being treated for their injuries. Medical droids were busily going from one patient to another, checking to see how the patient was doing. Irena looked down at the data pad in her hand again; the person she wanted should be in the next row ahead. Irena made her way to the foot of the bed. “Good morning Ma’am.”

Elise Nosnern’s eyes flickered open. “Irena?”

“Yes Ma’am, good to see you’re doing ok, last time I saw you, it didn’t look too good. Sorry it’s taken so long for me to come and see you, we’ve only just been released off the line, now that all the Imperials have been interned.”

“Are you ok?”

“Yes, all I got was a few bumps and bruises, and they’ve mostly gone now as well.”

“What about the rest of the unit?”

“We lost some good people towards the end, our area was hit pretty hard, but luckily the majority of us got out this unharmed.”

“I suppose that’s something else I should be grateful for then.”

“Yes Ma’am. Oh I just remembered, the doctor says that you’re fit enough to be shipped back to the Morning Star, you’ll be transferred to the ships medical bay to finish off your treatment, you’re going home.”

A smile came to Elise’s face at the mention of going back up to the Morning Star, after all this time it was the closest thing to home for her. “So tell me what happened after I was hit.”

Irena came around and sat gently down on the edge of the bed and started going over the events on the last day of the conflict. The two women talked for several hours until two medical orderlies came for Elise to take her to a shuttle that would transport her back up to the Morning Star with several other wounded soldiers also based there.

Colonel Twain shuffled his feet discreetly; he had been stood at attention now for over five minutes. It had been a long time since he had been at one of these ceremonies. Garth sneaked a glance at the man on his left, he looked as equally as uncomfortable as Garth. Garth’s attention was brought back to the present when he heard the assembled group start applauding.

General Glaive stepped down from behind the podium and made his way towards Colonel Twain. Colonel Ibixm followed behind the General carrying a single small case, there were two other officers following the Colonel who were carrying a number of similar sized cases. General Glaive stopped in front of Colonel Twain and smiled; he turned and faced Colonel Ibixm who had opened the medal case for the General. Leif reached into the case and removed the medal by its long ribbon with both hands. The microphone attached to the General’s collar meant that the assembled audience heard what he said to Garth. “Colonel Twain, for your actions in destroying the Imperial supply base and denying them further resources for battle it give me great honour to bestow on you on behalf of the Chief of State, the Alliance Medal of Honour.” Leif held out the medal as Garth slightly bowed forward, Leif then slipped it over Garth’s head and let the medals ribbon settle on the back of his neck. Leif waited for Garth to straighten up again before speaking again. “Congratulations Colonel.”

“Thank you sir.” There was a round of applause from the assembled audience for Colonel Twain.

Leif shook Garth’s hand before moving on to the next person in the line. “Major Jackson, you played a significant role in organising our forces breakout when they were encircled by Imperial forces in Eidola and also the defense of Lyran. Your leadership, skill and courage has not gone unnoticed, on behalf of the Chief of State you are awarded the Alliance Medal of Honour.” Leif repeated the process of placing the medal around Zorn’s neck as he had just done for Garth. “Congratulations Major.”

“Thank you General.” There was another round of applause from the audience for Major Zorn.

The medal ceremony went on for another fifteen minutes. Garth and Zorn were the only two people awarded the Alliance’s top award. A dozen Alliance troopers were awarded the Mantooine Medal, seven Alliance servicemen were awarded the Burdine Cluster and finally six Alliance pilots were awarded the Kalidor Crescent.

General Glaive returned to the podium after he had awarded the final medal. “It is thanks to men and women like you that I am able to dispense these small tokens of the Alliance’s gratitude for your skill, bravery and actions throughout this conflict.” Leif paused for a moment as the audience started to clap, after the applause died down he carried on. “We should also never forget the sacrifices made by those that are no longer with us. They believed in the freedom that Alliance stands for; they died fighting for that belief. We must now look to the rebuilding of Balfron, so that the proud people that live here can try and carry on with their lives again and so that the healing process can begin. We can only hope that this is the last time the Empire tries to impose its will on a planet that said no to tyranny and dictatorship, but if it is not, then rest assured the Alliance will be there to stand up for the right of the individual and for freedom.” The room erupted into thunderous applause at the end of General Glaive’s speech.

It was just over an hour since General Glaive had presented the medals, Captain Twill was sat on a storage crate; he was still dressed in dress uniform from the medal ceremony. He was looking at his T-47 Air speeder, most of the damage had been repaired and the majority of the blaster burns on the ship had been cleaned off. Twill was admiring the kill markings that had been added just under the cockpit, there were five showing AT-AT kills, three AT-AA kills, nineteen troop carrier kills, seven AT-ST kills and one Landing Shuttle kill.

“We did some serious damage!”

The voice had come from behind Twill, he didn’t turn around though as he recognised Nia’s voice. “I was just sitting back and looking at our handiwork. Considering there was only our squadron of T-47’s planet side, we did one hell of a job Nia.”

“The General obviously feels the same, that’s why he gave us one of these each.” Nia prodded her Mantooine Medallion with her index finger.

“I guess so, I haven’t really thought about it in those sorts of terms.” Twill paused for a moment before carrying on. “We lost some good people Nia, I was just remembering them.”

Nia came over and sat next to Twill on the storage crate. “What was that thing that Lasgo used to do, just before she’d get in her ship?”

Twill and Nia started talking about their fallen friends and were soon laughing as they reminisced about things those people used to do.

The next day the troops from the Morning Star were informed that they were being shipped back up to their ship. Irena was busy organising the move, making sure that everything would be ready for their departure time. The majority of the troops were still encamped at Lyran; two Bantha-class Troop Carrier Assault Shuttles had been assigned to take the troops back up to the Morning Star. Irena’s comm. unit beeped twice, someone was trying to get hold of her. “Commander Hesh speaking.”

“Hey honey, how’s it going?”

A smile spread across Irena’s face as Paul’s voice came over the speaker. “Fine babe, just busy making sure this lot are ready to go back to the ship, what about you?”

“Pretty good, Steve’s brother, Mike is being released from the hospital at Bossivepolis and will be on one of the Bantha’s going up so Steve has decided to ride up on the transport with him. He’s asked me to pilot his B-wing back since I crashed my ride. Oh you’ll also have one other passenger to look after as well.”

“Who’ll that be?”

“Shade, no droid slot for him in a B-wing, the little guy wasn’t pleased I can tell you that much.”

Irena laughed as she imagined the scolding Paul would have gotten from Shade. “After shooting him out of the droid slot from your last ship and now flying a B-wing he probably thinks you want rid of him.”

“Yeah something like that. Anyway just to let you know that it’s going to be Blue squadron escorting you guys home; thought you’d be interested.”

“I feel safer all ready, hot shot. See you soon.” Irena made a kissing noise.

“See you up there babe.” Paul gave a kiss back before closing down his comm. unit.

The journey back to the Morning Star went without incident; the two Bantha-class Troop Carrier Assault Shuttles docked on either side of the Morning Star. The transporter that Mike and Steve were on docked as close to the medical bay as possible, and Mike was taken straight there. The Surviving bombers from Blue squadron passed through the Mag Con force field into the hanger and touched down.

Richard popped the canopy on his B-wing, he took a deep breath of the filtered air that coursed through the ship, there were none of the smells in the air that had been present on Balfron but that didn’t matter to Richard, right now the familiar smells and sounds of the Morning Star’s hanger meant he was home.

Rob would have been down on the hanger to welcome back the returning bomber pilots but he was in his office, busy dealing with a situation that demanded his immediate attention. “Miss Maxfield I must urge you to reconsider.”

“I’m sorry sir, but my mind is made up on this matter, I have no other alternative but to hand in my resignation.”

“Chelsey, please don’t do anything hasty that you will regret.”

“Sir, Rob, I don’t want to leave the squadron, but what choice do I have? The Morning Star isn’t going to be going after Admiral Beruss and his fleet and if Chad has been captured by them, then I’ll never find him!”

“Chelsey I understand your frustration, all I’m asking for is for you to hold off on your resignation for one day, will you do that for me please?”

Chelsey thought over her commanding officer’s request for a while. “Very well, one day only and then I’m gone.”

“Thank you Miss Maxfield, is there anything else?”

“No I think that’s more than enough for now don’t you?”

“Indeed!”

Chelsey saluted Rob before leaving his office.

Rob leaned back in his chair, unsure of what to do next, but whatever it was he had a day to come up with something.

It was some time later, Richard was sat in his office, he’d just finished writing letters to the families of the pilots who had been killed in the conflict. Richard looked down at the five data pads, he hoped that what he had written would be enough to convey and express his sadness and sympathies to the families of the dead pilots. Richard activated his console and started reading about the trail taking place on Coruscant. According to what Richard had read earlier, Rogue squadron’s Executive Officer was on trial for killing one of their own. This Tycho Celchu was accused of sending the flight codes of Corran Horn’s Z-95 to the Imperials and letting them kill him. It seemed that the fall of Coruscant had completely overshadowed what had happened on Balfron and now this trial made certain that news of Balfron was pushed even further back, Richard shook his head, there was a knock on the door. “Come in.”

Steve entered the small office; he was holding two data pads in his right hand.

“What can I do for you Steve?” Richard deactivated his console.

“I’ve brought Mike’s discharge papers with me; he’s been certified unfit for flight duties by the medics.” Steve handed Richard one of the data pads.

Richard scrolled through the information on the screen, due to Mike’s injuries the likelihood of Mike ever getting in a fighters cockpit again were very small. “That’s a shame; I know how much your brother loved flying. How’s he coping with the new limbs?”

“The eye piece is fine, he’s just having to learn how to walk again, but the medics reckon he’ll be fully mobile again in another week or so. He’s remarkably upbeat about the whole thing, he tells me that he’s lucky to be alive and that he’s not going to waste the second chance he’s been given.”

“He’ll be missed from the Squadron, that’s us down to six pilots now.”

Steve shuffled his feet uncomfortably when Richard said that. “I’m afraid not sir, you’re down to five pilots.”

“I beg your pardon?”

Steve handed Richard the other data pad that he had been holding. “I’m requesting a transfer to a bomber training wing effective immediately.”

Steve sat with his mouth slightly open, he was too shocked to say anything at first, in the end he managed one word. “Why?”

“I can’t do this anymore Richard. Seeing all those people die from our squadron and around me, it got me thinking, I’m flying on borrowed time. How much longer have I got left until some Imperial gets lucky and you’re sending my family one of those data pads!”

“Come on Steve, it’s normal to feel like this after what we’ve just been through especially with your brother being injured as well.”

“I’m sorry Richard but I’ve thought long and hard about this, I have to get off front line duty.” Steve paused for a moment, the look on Richards face said that he wasn’t about to give up just yet. Steve carried on before Richard could start speaking. “Another thing, Sooli and I are married, she’s also pregnant. I refuse to make my new wife a widow and leave my unborn child without a father. My mind is made up Richard, and so is Sooli, she’s handing in her resignation to Captain Ru’kaart right now.”

Richard sat quietly in his chair as he took in the news that Steve had just told him, finally he smiled and reached over his desk to shake Steve’s hand. “Congratulations Steve, on both counts. You’re going to be missed here.”

“I’m going to miss this place and everyone here, but I’ve got to do this, you understand don’t you?”

“I do, and if I were in your shoes, who’s to say I wouldn’t be doing exactly the same thing as you. Transfer accepted Major Michadick.”

“Thank you sir.” Steve placed his data pad on the desk then left the room.

This left Richard with a very weak squadron. Richard activated his comm. unit and called the Captain. “Sir, this Colonel Vogel, I’ve got a problem that I think needs addressing with you.”

Captain Ru’kaarts voice came back over the comm. unit. “Colonel I was just about call Colonel Baden, I need to speak to both of you anyway, be in my ready room in ten minutes.”

“Yes sir, ten minutes.” The link went dead.

Richard, Rob and Captain Ru’kaart were in the Captain’s ready room for several hours, when both squadron leaders emerged neither one of them looked particularly happy.

Rob placed a hand on Richard’s left shoulder. “Come on, let’s call everyone in, we might as well get this over and done with.” The two men headed for the main briefing room that both squadrons used when planning a joint mission. Rob used his comm. unit to put out a call for all pilots to assemble in the briefing room. Five minutes later the pilots were all gathered in the briefing room, wondering what was going on. Rob stepped up to the podium and the room went quiet as everyone waited to hear what he had to say. “Thank you for all coming. We know that those of you in Blue squadron haven’t been long back on board but this needs addressing now and couldn’t wait. I’ll start off with some news that’s important to Red squadron before I hand you over to Colonel Vogel. Major Maxfield, please stand up.”

Chelsey reluctantly stood up.

“Thank you. For those of you that don’t know, Chelsey’s brother Chad may have been taken prisoner by the departing Imperial fleet. Major Maxfield here is wanting to pursue these Imperials and rescue her brother if he is with them and alive. This is a problem as the Morning Star hasn’t been tasked with that mission, Major Maxfield felt that her only course of action left to her would be to resign and pursue them personally. I then asked Major Maxfield to give me a days grace on her resignation, to which I’m happy to say she did, and I’m even happier to now make this offer to Major Maxfield in the presence of everyone. I’ve been informed by Captain Ru’kaart that several ships from the Third fleet have now been tasked with tracking down the Imperial fleet; the lead ship in this small task force will be the Redemption. The Redemption will be backed up by the Squallo and the Anvil once they’ve both been repaired. This brings me to the part that directly concerns Major Maxfield, the Squadron leader for Eclipse Squadron, which is based onboard the Redemption, was unfortunately killed in combat. That means their looking for a new C.O. Major Maxfield, fancy the job?”

Chelsey could hardly believe what she was hearing. “Are you serious?”

“Indeed I am Miss Maxfield, I can’t think of a better way to track down your brother, can you?”

“No sir, I can’t. I accept the offer and request to transfer over to Eclipse squadron.”

“Permission granted, congratulations Lieutenant Colonel Maxfield, you ship out at the end of the day, good luck.”

Chelsey sat back down as people in the room clapped for her.

“Before I finish, I would also like to take this opportunity to offi