Time on Coruscant – 2 Days

Time After Grievous Retreat – 3 Days

The skies over Coruscant were lightly clouded, and shrouded in a fading golden light, which was being devoured by the darkness of night creeping in on the horizon. The dusk air left a calm wind blowing over the immense high rise buildings that stretched over the landscape, which had little affect on immense structures that stood before it.

Filling the air however was more then just clouds. Plumes of smoke rose from many buildings, where the still burning wreckage of fighters, tanks, cruisers, and all manner of war material resided as the Battle of Coruscant slowly came to a close.

The sound of air traffic was slowly being heard again. Though the loudest craft were the occasional thundering Cruiser, many speeders were in motion again. Whether they were assisting in the recovery efforts, transporting troops to the few remaining pockets of resistance, or just citizens attempting to pick up where they left off, the sound of normalcy slowly came back.

Adding to the sound of the few aerial vehicles were a trio of Alpha-3 Nimbus Class Fighters, commonly referred to as V-Wings. They bore the Red markings of Republic Fighters as they flew in formation over the cityscape at a cruising pace.

They were Flight 17 of the 287th Squadron, which was attached to the 592nd Carrier Battlegroup. The squadron was made up entirely of enlisted pilots, as were many in the Republic Navy. They were however given the nickname of Night Flyers, and not for endearing reasons.

The 287th Squadron had a habit since the start of the war of showing up very late to battles, since their commanders didn't like to expend their forces until risk was extremely low, generally believing that since Clones were bread to fight and die, they should be sent into the fray first. So if a battle would be viewed on a day long cycle, the 287th would only fly at night, hence they were given the name.

This battle had been no different. The Separatist forces had smashed into the system without warning with a huge force, probably the largest they'd ever deployed since the war began. The battle was long and hard, with immeasurable casualties on both sides. But as the Republic pulled in more and more reinforcements the Separatist fleet was slowly overwhelmed, and was forced to retreat.

The Separatist retreat occurred one day before the 287th Squadron had finally arrived. It had more to do with their distance from Coruscant at the time. So while the sheer majority of the fighting was over, there were still pockets of resistance all over the planet, and their job was to help with mopping it all up.

This suited Zanna Gashon just fine, as she flew with Flight 17.

At age twenty four, the Chiss woman was not very keen on dying for the Republic, especially since she had only been signed on to fight for a year. The nature of fighter combat was brutal enough, and knowing that the enemy fighters generally felt no fear was price enough to pay just given the taxing nature on ones own mind.

"You're a frelling moron, Jorkis." Zanna said into her ceiled helmet. "If they thought they was anything serious going on they wouldn't have called us in."

"I'm just saying, this battle was a little bigger then your average Mid Rim shavit skirmish." The voice Jorkis answered back in a civilized tone. The sound carried an undertone of electric whirring that came from the translation device that the Ithorian wore. "I mean this is the Republic Capitol after all."

Zanna shook her head. "Even still, their entire fleet was smashed to bits and bugged out. I heard a rumor that Grievous himself got himself killed when his flagship blew up."

"Man, I hope so." Came a younger voice of a boy named Reppi, who was their most recent attachment.

"Don't get your hopes too high, new kid." Jorkis replied. "The Clanker General escaped before, and in that chaos I wouldn't be surprised if he did it again.

"I know." Reppi replied. "I just want this war to be over."

"What do you care, Reppi?" Zanna asked. "You just got here."

"Yeah, Kid. You even got a kill yet?" Jorkis asked.

Reppi was a reinforcement for Flight 17. Their previous flight leader had gotten shot down two weeks earlier. Though he survived, he was badly wounded. Zanna was now the flight leader as she had a months worth of seniority over Jorkis. Reppi had just gotten out of flight school and was dropped off with them within the last ten days.

"No, but that doesn't mean I want the war to go on till I get one." Reppi responded sourly. "A lot of people have died in this war. I think it's gone on long enough. I just want to do what I can to finish it and get back to the way things were."

"Listen to that, Zanna." Jorkis laughed. "We got a dreamer."

"Don't have to tell me, Jorkis." Zanna answered, shaking her head again, this time with a smile. She then looked over to Reppi's V-Wing. "Look kid, this war's gonna go on as long as it has to. The best we can do is keep flying and not get shot down. And if you do get shot down, then make sure you…"

Zanna was suddenly cut off by the sound of fighter control coming in through their coms and she stopped immediately to hear.

"Flight 17, Flight 17. This is 287th Bird Watcher. Do you copy?" The fighter control officer said.

"We copy, Bird Watcher, over." Zanna called back.

"The word of the day is Chain Lightning. We've got a heavy resistance pocket that's giving our ground pounders some trouble. Their requesting air support and you're the closest thing we got. Sending coordinates to you now." Fighter Control stated.

"Roger that, Bird Watcher. Shifting course now." Zanna answered, moving the controls and having her V-Wing drift hard to the left. The other two followed suit immediately. "ETA in five minutes. Any details on the situation?"

"A lot of marching on a big bridge. You should be the only air though, so I wouldn't worry." Fighter Control elaborated.

"Good to know, Bird Watcher. We'll get back to you once the situation is under control. Flight 17 out." Zanna concluded.

"Big bridge, he says. I wonder if we have clearance to blow it?" Jorkis mused.

"We're the Republic, Jorkis." Reppi spat. "That's our bridge!"

"That's right, Jorkis, it is our bridge." Zanna grinned. "Of course can blow it."

Reppi audibly groaned amidst a shower of chuckles between Zanna and Jorkis.

The three fighters increased speed significantly as they raced to give support. The screams of their engines echoing off the infinite number of buildings that were below them.

As they moved closer to their target area, the amount of smoke that was in the air seemed to increase. And as the smoke increased, there too was the image of fire, which showed that they were getting closer to what remained of the battle on the ground.

"Buildings are sizzling." Jorkis commented. "We must be close."

"Lets see how close." Zanna replied, switching her com to an open channel. "This is Republic Air to Bridge fighters. Anyone receiving?"

Immediately there was a response from the very familiar voice of a Clone Trooper. "Receiving you Republic Air, this is Lieutenant CL-918, commanding forces on the bridge."

"Situation report, Lieutenant. We need one now." Zanna demanded rather nonchalantly.

"We caught a great big Sep army in a trap on the bridge. We were gonna blow it, but something went wrong in the detonation and the bridge didn't drop as planned." As the Lieutenant spoke, the sound of blaster fire and other voices identical to his own in a controlled panic were heard. "Now we're holding on the other side, but we're about to be over run!"

"Roger that, Lieutenant. We'll be on top of you in sixty seconds. Danger close, so take cover." Zanna mentioned.

"Copy that. Do whatever you have to do." The Lieutenant replied, and cut his com.

"Told you we could blow the bridge, New Kid." Jorkis giggled a strange mechanical giggle from his translator.

"Keep it tight, guys. Arm proton bombs." Zanna ordered.

As she spoke, she moved her fingers at her own console. Switching fire control to open up the small bomb bay doors underneath her craft, she prepared the small number of heavy weapons to drop the moment she triggered them.

"Coming up on the operating zone now." Zanna continued. "Bomb at will when over the target area."

"This'll be like playing Vralonn Ball." Jorkis commented, given the similarity to a common cantina game revolving around knocking over pegs by tossing a ball at them.

And then before the trio of V-Wings there appeared an immense bridge, which cascaded over a series of smaller buildings right below it. The bridge had no suspension and only tall railings at either side. It ran in between a number of much taller buildings, but was a dense as any of them were.

Unlike a normal day, rather then being full of landspeeders, the bridge was covered almost entirely with a massive army of droids that were steadily marching in the same direction that the fighters were heading.

Streaks of red and blue blaster fire were tossed at the head of the line, which ion mortars and missiles were launched back and forth.

From their high vantage point however, the battle seemed rather small to the three fighters. But that was about to change as they made their final approach.

Without a word all three prepared themselves. Things could get tight, and they'd likely be dealing with fire from the bridge the moment they flew passed. But that was their job, and it was nothing that their deflector shields would not be able to handle.

Zanna brought her fighter in low, and the others followed behind her. They dropped quickly, the screaming from their engines becoming that much louder as they did. They lined up into a perfectly tight triangle formation, their speeds syncing up to hold it.

They got closer and closer, and Zanna placed her finger on the fire control. And just as they moved over the first of the droids on the bridge, she pressed down and the V-Wing began to release four proton bombs at half second intervals.

THWAAAAAAAAAM THWAAAAAAAAAM THWAAAAAAAM THWAAAAAM

The bombs fell one by one and immediately exploded into a teal and red flame. The impact was not noticeable from the fighters altitude as they sped by, but all twelve bombs struck the bridge with an immense force, each one incinerating hundreds of droids as it did.

As the bombs went off the trio lifted up and began to bank right.

"Move around for another pass. Sweep up the stragglers." Zanna ordered.

The fighters split off in separate directions to move back to the bridge. And as they came around Zanna was able to assess the damage.

The bridge had huge chunks blown out of it. Where each of the bombs had landed there was a large crater, and heaps of scorched metal limbs. But there were many droids still attempting to march forward.

So Zanna took the lead, diving straight back down. She held her trigger down and her V-Wing began to fire out rapid blue bolts down upon the bridge.

As she did, she could see a separate set of streaks running just beside her own. It was fast and harsh and the droids were being devastated by the onslaught, clearly having no way to defend against such an unexpected barrage.

And as they moved past Zanna smiled, still holding down the trigger.

"Well that was easy." She said.

But no sooner did she get the words out, did her proximity alarms start going off.

WA WA WA WA WA WA

But Zanna didn't need the alarms to tell her, she could see what was coming.

A missile, with a hot purple aft-jet, spewing black smoke was racing towards her.

She had no more then a second to react. The missile was headed right in her direction. The alarms blared, and adrenaline raced through her body.

"Missile!" She roared, spinning the craft to the right.

"Duck!" Jorkis roared, dropping his craft into a dive.

The two made it just out of the way of the oncoming missile, narrowly avoiding its affects. But one of their number did not.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Came the sound of Reppi, his final words being reduced to a horrific cry of terror.

VWAM!

The sound of the explosion echoed throughout the metallic landscape, overshadowing the number of blaster shots that were still heard all around.

Zanna and Jorkis didn't even call out to see what had happened, they both knew. The New Kid, Reppi, had not been remotely fast enough to respond to the counter attack. Whether it was because his reflexes weren't honed enough, or he was just not paying attention would never be known. The only thing they knew was that his V-Wing was reduced to a burning piece of metal that was cascading downward toward the buildings below.

But Zanna did not have time to grieve, nor did she really want to. She just wanted to get out of there and so both she and Jorkis left at full speed.

As they drifted away the dusk light slowly was overtaken by night.

"Poor kid." Jorkis said with a sorrow in his tone.

"Yeah…" Zanna said the only thing she could think of in that moment.

There was a long pause between them and Jorkis spoke again.

"What was the rest of what you were gonna tell him?" Jorkis inquired.

"What? Rest of what?" Zanna asked.

"You said to make sure of something if you do get shot down, before the Bird Watcher came on." Jorkis clarified. "What was it?"

There was a momentary silence before Zanna finally answered.

"I was just gonna say… make sure it wasn't for nothing." Zanna concluded.

The two spent the duration of the flight back to their home carrier in a relative silence.