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 pos