The Galactic Empire is in disarray.
With the Rebel Alliance's sights set on overtaking the Imperial capitol of CORUSCANT, planets throughout the galaxy are rallying to join the cause.
With the aid of veteran Rebel fighter LUKE SKYWALKER, the Imperial Starfleet has been chased to the far reaches of the galaxy and now remains hidden.
Amongst the conflict, one decorated Imperial leader wishes to defect to the Rebellion. Princess LEIA ORGANA hopes this will offer vital information in defeating the Empire once and for all…
The malachite colored orb of Dantooine had a milky haze swathed around its surface. It was the fourth planet in the system of the same name, which sat on the fringes of the Raioballo sector. It was a desolate part of the galaxy, and didn't see much in the way of galactic traffic. To some, it was a particularly beautiful region of space, with the sun Dina shedding its light on the close-quarters sibling planets of Camooine and Bannakon – though to some species the vibrant hues of blue and green were nothing but nausea-inducing.
Where the daylight of Dantooine met shadow, a dagger-shaped contraption rested like a camouflaged predator waiting to pounce. It was a twisted titan comprised of multi-layered ferroceramic plating, jagged and unnatural in shape – such were the traits of an Imperial -class Star Destroyer. It once epitomized the face of the Galactic Empire, but now such a flagship was only a mere reminder that they were not completely eradicated from the galaxy. From the underside of the Star Destroyer's hull appeared a small white dot, glistening with reflections as it lowered itself from its mothership at an unhurried pace. At least, that's what it looked like from a hundred klicks away.
Upon closer inspection, the vessel was a Lambda-class Imperial transport shuttle that the Star Destroyer had deposited in its slow-moving wake. Accompanying the shuttle were two TIE Fighters, dark in colour and nearly impossible to see from a reasonable distance. The boxy-looking craft were positioned on both the port and starboard of the shuttle, and their twin-ion engines emitted a mechanical roar that overpowered any noise the shuttle may have been generating.
The shuttle itself had long, triangular wings that were folded upward and directed inward toward the center of the ship. As it moved farther away however, the wings rolled outward and extended beneath the belly of the ship with a supplementary robotic sigh. The shuttle then suddenly gained speed and with its entourage, thrusted forward toward the creamy green skies of Dantooine. Soon, all that could be seen from the Star Destroyer's position in space was a single white dot fading into the planet's obscurity.
With the TIE Fighters' distance from the shuttle mathematically sound to the port and starboard, the trio of craft were quickly consumed by the planet's spatial jurisdiction – the only view available from inside the cockpits would have been the vague shapes of Dantooine's numbered but sprawling continents.
But it was then, when the journey of the Imperial convoy took an unexpected turn. Flashing across the port side of the shuttle was an enfilade of splattering crimson laser fire. The beads of red moved quickly enough that the naked eye could barely trace them and soon enough were piercing the hull of the TIE Fighter on the starboard side. The blasts first chewed holes through the diamond-shaped wing, before ripping through into the central ball that was the starfighter's cockpit. The pilot inside would have died instantly, shortly before the craft became a spinning ball of orange and red flame. Although the explosion was short lived as the vacuum of space extinguished all possibilities of an encore, another would soon be present. The remaining TIE Fighter had only started to break away from the shuttle in a desperate effort to evade the enemy laser bolts when it too was sent to oblivion.
Following the shuttle's wake, which was still unscathed, two Rebel X-wing snubfighters crossed paths and began an arc that would eventually loop them back onto the tail of the shuttle. They were odd-looking craft only to those that weren't familiar with the exploits of the Rebel Alliance, for these snubfighters were used in almost every instance of space combat between the Empire and the aforementioned Rebels. The nose of the fighters were both long and thin, sporting a red stripe and small Rebel logo in the shape of a crescent. The stern of the ship was constructed in an 'X' like its namesake, with four wings protruding in all directions at forty-five degree angles. Aligning the end of each wing was a laser cannon, the source of the TIE Fighters' destruction.
The Lambda -class shuttle still remained untouched as the Rebel fighters circled around and set the Imperial target in their sights. But they did not fire.
Emerging from behind the dual X-wings, was a formation of three other Rebel ships similar in aesthetic but different in shape. These ships were much more robust, with the cockpits at the front of the vessel followed by two thick stems containing the sublight engines. The ships emitted a whine as they gained on the shuttle, and the X-wings seemed to clear a path that gave them a direct line of sight to the target. The Y-wings, as they were called, tightened up their formation and levelled with the stern of the shuttle so a perfect horizontal line could be drawn between them. It was then that the Y-wings released their answer to the X-wings' cannon fire, a shimmering sapphire bolt of energy. They fired a handful of times each, and soon the shuttle was victim to a splattering of blue ion cannon fire. These blasts wouldn't damage the ship in a physical sense, but they would render its internal flight systems useless. It wasn't long before the shuttle came to a complete halt, and those inside were now defenceless. The shuttle rolled up on its starboard wing and drifted toward Dantooine, soon to be at the mercy of the planet's gravitational pull should the Rebels not have intervened further.
Intervene further they did, as a looming shadow crept over the hull of the shuttle. The ship became engulfed in black, as the red and white mother ship of the Rebel snubfighters crept overhead. Using an invisible tractor beam, the bigger ship clutched the shuttle and drew it in. The now upside down Imperial ship was powerless to resist.
The bigger ship in question was a CR90 Corellian Corvette – also known as a blockade runner – named the Zurillion VI. The CR90s weren't traditionally large enough to contain a docking bay to house other spacecraft, but in this particular instance one had been outfitted in the abdominal region of the ship's underside. It stuck out like an ugly power generator fastened to the udder of a Kyluukian dhulbeest, but its purpose was in functionality over aesthetic. The inside of it was littered with raised platforms for aircraft boarding and crates of munitions to be supplied to Rebel outposts on the outer rim, but the central ferrocrete deck was void of any equipment – with the exception of its current occupant, the Lambda -class transport shuttle. The Zurillion VI had levelled the ship's angle using its tractor beam, and its landing gear had already been manually lowered. This was odd, as it was unheard of that any Imperial vessel would be willingly boarded by the Rebellion.
Rebel soldiers quickly filled the docking bay, pouring from all available access tunnels. Their combat-grade boots clanged on the ship floor as they ran accompanied by the rustling and jingling of their attached gear. A mass of bodies surrounded the shuttle in an almost perfect circle, as if they'd rehearsed this for a complete lunar cycle. All blaster pistol barrels faced the hidden boarding ramp of the shuttle, ready to open fire on a moments' notice.
"Hold" a voice sounded over the disciplined silence once all the troops were positioned. Through the sea of pale green uniforms and at times, patchy armor, an aisle of bodies parted as a human woman dressed in white made her way through the crowd. She was followed by her bodyguard, a solidly built Iridonian Zabrak holding a rifle that rivalled the size of any other weapon in the room. As the soldiers near the front of the crowd parted, Princess Leia Organa came through and stood before the shuttle, eyeing it closely. There was an alert anxiousness in her eyes, as the thought of several possibilities swept through her head like laser bolts. Her chestnut hair was tied back, wrapped around her head tightly as if every intention had been made to prevent a single strain from slipping down inadvertently. The white vest she wore was interwoven with a complicated zigzag pattern with a single Rebellion insignia atop the left breast, both prestigious and a sign of authority.
"Captain?" she asked, not breaking her eye-line with the shuttle.
"Confirmed your highness – all systems aboard the shuttle are disabled" came back a voice.
"Lower the boarding ramp" Leia ordered hastily.
"Lowering" returned a different voice. Two troops approached the shuttle from either side and each placed a small, stumpy device on the grey underside of the hull. When activated by a remote device, there was a quick spark and the boarding ramp dropped from the shuttle abruptly. It crashed on the floor of the docking bay hard enough that it would have left a large indent. With unrelenting pace, Rebel soldiers flooded into the shuttle. Leia eyed their movements carefully before looking back at the Iridonian guard over her shoulder. She had noticed a squelch coming from the comlink attached to his headset. The communication device was surely customized to fit around the complicated structure of the Iridonian's head, as the species by nature produced thorny stalagmite-like protrusions from their skulls. His beady yellow eyes flashed in her direction as he held a russet hand up to his ear.
"Star Destroyer, headed our way. We're out of time" he said clearly. The entire docking bay heard him. Leia nodded. She had expected this – not quite this soon, but had expected it nonetheless. The Star Destroyer on the far side of Dantooine would still be a few minutes out of range before they could fire upon the Zurillion VI, but time was of the essence.
"They were closer than we thought. Set our course for the evacuation point" she told him. "Wait until they're within range, and get the backup squadrons to cover our escape vector."
The Iridonian did not respond. Instead, he used his time to get back in contact with the bridge. Leia turned her attention back toward the shuttle.
First came out the Imperial pilot and co-pilot, both human males – two crew was standard for a Lambda. They were dressed in black Imperial starfleet uniforms, each seemed to have a few decorations of war indicated by their varied colored insignias. Both had a blaster nozzles wedged in the crevices of their necks. Last was the guest of honour – an Imperial Grand Moff.
The Grand Moffs were the highest form governmental authority in the Galactic Empire. Previously, it was a power that was rivalled by only the Emperor himself; but since his rule had all but come to an end, the Grand Moffs now led what remained of the Empire.
Leia eyed the figure that walked down the boarding ramp, held at gunpoint like the others. Although most of the Imperial administrative responsibilities were undoubtedly undertaken by males, this Grand Moff was a human woman. Her hair was a fiery vermilion not unlike the laser fire discharged from the Rebel snubfighters, cut short. Her skin was a deep brown, closer to the colour of Leia's eyes and hair than anything else in the ship. She was brought before Leia by the troops behind her, standing at least a full foot taller than the princess.
"Grand Moff Aredis" Leia spoke.
"An honour to meet your acquaintance, Princess" the Imperial replied, her voice deep and resonating. Their eyes locked – each one studying the other. The bright emerald eyes of the Imperial woman had a calmness about them which could not go unnoticed by Leia. The Alderaanian princess gestured toward the troops behind Aredis with a twitch of her head, and they moved to the front of the Grand Moff to place standard-issue energy binders around her wrists. Aredis appeared surprised, but quickly squashed her emotional response. Leia began walking toward the edge of the docking bay down the aisle clear of troops, and Aredis' new captors made an effort to follow suit – directing the Imperial to walk alongside the princess.
"You'll forgive the reception. The Rebellion doesn't take any chances, not even these days" Leia said.
"It is understandable. One can never be too careful."
Leia's Iridonian guard picked up footpace as he reached the nearby access tunnel. He touched his headset to initiate a signal.
"Prisoners are secure. Call in the backup and get us out of here."
Starlight twinkled along the curvature of Dantooine as the Star Destroyer soared through the system as fast as its engines would allow. The five Rebel snubfighters were maintaining a circuit in the vicinity of the Zurillion VI which was nearing the destination at which it could make the jump into hyperspace. It was only minutes off.
Already the Star Destroyer had scrambled its TIE Fighter squadrons, sending a mass of grey buzzing worker bees across the axis of Dantooine to converge on the Rebel ships and pepper the Rebel ship with laserfire. Five small snubfighters and a Corellian Corvette were no match for a Star Destroyer boasting a wave of TIE Fighters.
As they drew closer, the TIEs began to open fire on the Rebel convoy. Shards of glittering harlequin blades pierced through the blackness to wreak havoc on the defending X and Y-wings. Although shielded, under this magnitude of assault the small Rebel ships would not be in existence for much longer.
It was fortuitous for the Rebels that a collection of mixed snubfighters dropped out of hyperspace a few hundred klicks out on the far side of Dantooine before the situation turned dire. Miscellaneous ships of various shapes and colors poured into the fray. They resembled more a compilation of scrapheap amalgamations than a squadron of capable spacecraft. Leading the pack was yet another red and white X-wing fighter, noticeably further out front than all the others – but this one had something very different about it than its counterparts. It was piloted by Luke Skywalker.
Inside the cockpit of his X-wing, Luke's cool blue eyes scanned the battlefield beneath the yellow-tinted blast-shield that framed the top of his face. It was attached to a battered and grazed Rebel fighter-pilot helmet that boasted many stories. It belonged to someone else once whom Luke did not know, and had only undergone a few minor modifications since. A few extra achievements painted near the back here and there, but it was mostly the same helmet he had been given before his life in a combat-capable spacecraft had even begun. Unapologetic Rebel logos decorated the top of the helmet, one on the left slant and one on the right, and a bold red and white stripe aligned the middle.
"Cut across the middle, draw their fire away from the cruiser" he said over the comm channel. "Rogue Squadron, take point zero zero six, Red Squadron, you're with me."
"Copy Red Leader" came another voice over the comms. Luke hammered in commands to his control console as his X-wing closed to within range of the attacking TIE Fighters. He lowered his voice as he spoke to his astromech droid, housed in a compartment topside of the X-wing.
"Artoo, all shields double-front, but watch out for that crossfire – I'll leave it to you."
R2-D2, a cylinder dome of blue and white, chirped a robotic confirmation of Luke's command. As per design of the X-wing, the droid's upper dome was raised up just enough from the hull of the X-wing so that his visual sensors could get a more up-close readout of combat situations. The compact head of the droid scanned back and forth in all directions, analysing all possible angles of enemy fire and developing complex mathematical formulas in which he could use to form a shield-distribution strategy for the upcoming battle. Artoo then looked back toward the stern of the craft, noticing that the other pilots of Red Squadron began to break off from the main group and follow Luke's X-wing as he turned. This created a perfect split down the middle of the group, as the rest of the fighters veered away on a right angle and approached the Star Destroyer.
Luke noticed that the swarm of TIE Fighters had been alerted to their presence, and they began to divert their course from the escaping Zurillion VI. They would never catch it now. As the squadron of TIEs – separated into groups of four – turned to face the approaching fighters of Red Squadron, Luke lined up one of them in his sights and opened fire. Orange-red pellets streaked across the open space from all four wings of his craft. Before long, they were eating through the light and unshielded armor of the TIE. It exploded. Luke immediately banked his craft to starboard to avoid the retaliation fire from the deceased TIE's wingmates, and now the nose of his craft pointed toward a second group. He opened fire again, the crackling pop of his laser cannons reverberating through the cockpit and flashing bursts of light onto his face. The rest of Red Squadron followed suit, and it wasn't long before the Rebel and Imperial craft were completely interweaved with one another. Both harlequin and vermilion laserfire glittered through the dogfight in a spectacular display. The TIEs' numbers begun to decline.
The Imperial Star Destroyer sat on the fringes of the entangled swarm and directed all turbolaser fire recklessly into the center of the conflict, willing to destroy both Rebel and Imperial ships to pick off what enemies they could. They were angry.
"Rogue Leader, can you concentrate all your fire on the port side of that Destroyer? We just need a few more seconds."
"Copy Luke" a squelched voice came back over the comms. It was a big ask –the Star Destroyer's turrets were both accurate and unrelenting, a deadly combination. Off his starboard side, Luke saw a group of X-wings take a tight turn out of the dogfight and line up in a scattered formation as they approached the blazing turrets of the dagger-shaped behemoth. There had to be at least twenty turrets strewn across the Star Destroyer surface at different angles and heights, and there were only about ten fighters taking them head on.
"Steady Rogues, let's keep that space. Use a beta attack pattern" the same voice sounded through the comms. Luke bit his lower lip as he watched the assortment of Rebel fighters approach.
"Thanks Wedge" he said. He watched as the Rogues closed in, some of them taking a few hits from the bright green laser fire en route. They banked, rolled and tried whatever manoeuvres they could, but that some fighters would take a blow to their shields was inevitable.
A buzzing twitter out of Artoo brought Luke's attention back into the dogfight. Some harlequin laser fire flashed across his bow, and he rolled the X-wing up on its port side, turning hard. Ahead, he could see the Zurillion VI clear the battlefield and that the enemy laserfire was burning out before it could hit the ship.
"Cruiser's out of range, let's get out of here" he informed the group. He checked the status of Artoo on his read-outs. "Artoo, lock in the location of the jump."
"That's it Rogues, let's get clear" Wedge ordered his group. The fighters of Rogue Squadron scrambled away from the Star Destroyer. As the bow of the Imperial mothership turned to pursue them, some forward turrets caught the side of a Rebel Y-wing and disintegrated one of its sublight engines. There was a brief and desperate yell over the comms, and then nothing. This was followed by the dismemberment of the Rebel craft as it was ravaged by Imperial laserfire. It sparked and flashed orange for a passing moment before disappearing into nothing. Nobody said anything, and the Star Destroyer and TIEs continued their pursuits. Luke, hanging back in the dogfight as the other Rebel craft made for their escape trajectory, spotted the Zurillion VI far in the distance, as its engines flashed a magnificent burst or white. For a moment that he would have missed if he'd blinked, Luke saw the Corvette stretch out as if it were an elastic substance, and then launch forward into nothingness. It had made the jump to lightspeed.
"Cruiser is clear" he said. Escaping X-wings and Y-wings, as well as some other craft, filled his viewport as they raced through space to the same spot the Zurillion VI had previously occupied. Their pink and red sublight engines dotted the darkness.
Observing the complexion of the soon-to-end battle from his cockpit, Luke felt a cold air fill his lungs and clench his insides. He gasped and jerked forward in his seat a little, inadvertently rocking the control yoke of his X-wing forward, sending the ship on a downward arc. The feeling only grew colder, till he felt the icy point pierce the front of his chest. There was nothing but his life support unit attached to his front, yet the presence felt as physically real as any injury he'd ever sustained.
"Artoo!" he cried out to his droid, struggling to maintain control. "Take control of the ship!"
Artoo squealed back at him as he did what his master asked and brought the X-wing back level with his ally craft. Luke clenched his chest and doubled-over, his helmet almost banging against the panel in front of him. Artoo inquired what was going on, but Luke could not reply – the air was being sucked out of him. Amongst his agony, he peeked up through the viewport to make sure his companions were well on their way out of the Dantooine system.
"Luke, are you alright!?" a desperate Wedge asked.
"Get clear! All craft get clear!" Luke screamed. It was a simple formula – if the Rebel snubfighters didn't leave the system, the Imperials would eventually destroy them all.
Luke felt a gravitational force clutch on to him, and pull him to the left side of the cockpit. With what leeway his fastening harness would allow, his body flung up against the side of the viewport like a ragdoll and he cried with pain. When his eye line came back up to the front of the craft, he saw the remaining Rebel craft make the jump to lightspeed. They were safe. Artoo continued to squeal, warning him of the colossal amount of fighters behind him. It was too late – Luke had lost consciousness. The initial blasts of Imperial fire destroyed two of the four X-wing engines, and they fizzled out. As a result, the X-wing spun out of control and Artoo was forced to try and stabilize the balance of the craft. The astromech talked to himself in an effort to calm his overheating processors, and pointed the nose of the ship toward Dantooine while it spiralled violently. As he changed the ship's path, some laserfire screeched overhead and narrowly missed blowing the top off the droid. Another direct blast propelled the ship forward and it gained momentum, surging toward Dantooine's milky skies in a ball of sparks and the ship's miscellaneous systems started to fail. The gravitational pull of the planet finally started to take effect, and Artoo diverted what power the shields had left and dedicated it to the sublight engines to get them out of range faster. The port side wings were mostly intact and closed themselves up horizontal to the ship's body, connecting together. The starboard wings were skeletal representations of what they once were, with cables and pieces of substructure flying everywhere. They wouldn't move – and that was going to be a problem when they hit Dantooine's atmosphere.
The TIEs were still pursuing, not far off. They sent a few hopeful shots in the direction of the X-wing, but they strayed wide. When the twisting nose of the ship breached the mesosphere and a vortex of blurry flame formed at the bow, the ship began a serpentine trajectory toward the planet's surface. Artoo couldn't pick up the TIEs with his visual scanning, and that's all that was available considering all other read-outs were no longer functional. The Imperials must have assumed that the pilot was as good as dead, though if they'd known it was none other than Skywalker, perhaps they would have persisted.
