Loneh, planet surface
Main factory facility, launch area
"Intercept squadrons scramble, Resistance fighters in orbit targeting the defence network. Launch and destroy."
Across the main assembly area, docked transport crews watched as TIE fighters screamed into space from their hanger bays. Stormtroopers assembled across the landing area couldn't help but give a few sideways glances at the sudden alertness of the base's facility.
Up in the main command tower, officers scrambled across their workstations to coordinate with the ships in orbit.
General Hux strode onto the command deck, issuing orders to the launch coordinators as he passed by towards the main viewport, expression sharp as he ordered to them:
"Launch the Defender squadrons, where there's a handful attacking there may be more waiting to aide them. I want no shortfalls in this interception."
As the First Order officer rushed to the nearest station to begin issuing the launch orders, General Hux glanced out as the hanger doors a way's away, across towards the actual assembly plant, began to open.
Within the assembly plant's deployment hangers, moving forwards on their launch rails, the pilots in these tri-winged fighters activated their drives. Before the fuel and power lines were detached, the black and silver painted wings glistening under Loneh's sun and snow reflected light, before they screamed skywards in a plume of displaced air from the facility, engines screaming their usual wail as they pierced the low cloud banks.
A hangover from the Imperial era, a design made more efficient and improved from its original version, it was the long ranged and high speed assault fighter of the First Order, the TIE/FO Defender. Shields and a hyperdrive made it equivalent, if not slightly more powerful, than any Starfighter the resistance or Republic could muster, and the added capability of warhead launchers made it a useful attack craft.
Loneh, orbital space
The orbiting defence satellite realigned its missile launchers, the sensor lights flickering and sending unseen signals to its other networked defence satellites and any First order ships in orbit.
Training its laser turrets to the incoming signals as the last one dropped from hyperspace, the green beams fired up, sweeping the space before it as the gnat like fighters closed in fast.
A barrage of laser fire was hurled back in its direction, and seconds later the satellite was ripped to pieces as it fired off the first missile, the projectile screaming forwards and missing the A-wing flight as it screamed past the debris cloud left by the destroyed satellite.
"Another one gone! Get that missile off lock before it gives us too much trouble!"
"Copy, jamming its sensors."
The flight of a dozen A-wings further accelerated across the planet's orbit, the single missile trailing the flight from the debris cloud flickering its sensor lights for a few moments before stoppings its manoeuvres, shooting off in a straight line and away from the fighters, rendered useless as a weapon.
"Watch it, TIEs inbound. Looks like we've got their attention!"
As the leader of Green Wing peered out of her cockpit, she glimpsed the distant daggerlike silhouette of a Resurgence class Star Destroyer far ahead, and tiny specks that she knew were incoming TIE fighters screaming towards them in the usual numerical advantage they enjoyed, another trait borrowed from the Imperial days.
"Keep tight, don't let them catch us, just a few more of their satellites and we'll give a hole for the others to-."
"More marks inbound from the planet surface, can't ID them though!"
Using her scanners, and later looking out of her cockpit, Green Leader's eyes widened as she saw the first of these new fighters screaming towards them, the tri-winged design with outward facing folded array wings unlike the usual First Order craft she'd encountered.
"Full power to engines, these ones are as fast as us! Make a head on run, right through them, head for the planet!"
Breaking to loop around, screaming towards the incoming TIE Defenders, the A-wings grouped close, as Green Leader comm'd in:
"Black Leader, this is Green Squadron, First Order's got some new tech we can't outrun, we can't give you more of an opening than we already made."
"Copy Green Squadron, hang tight, we're just a few parsecs out, won't be a minute!"
"You'd better not be more than that!" Green Leader rebuked, as she saw the tri-winged frames come into her eyesight, half a second away from meeting them head on.
A brief skirmish of lasers flew at them, one A-wing clipped on the wing spiralling out of control as the two flights passed by at a breakneck pace. Not a half second after they passed, the TIE Defenders were pulling around to give chase, while the A-wings dove for the planet.
Further out however, more Resistance Fighters dropped out of Hyperspace, screaming towards the planet as well, Black and Blue squadrons screamed towards Loneh, wings folded together for faster speed to their engines.
Adjusting the controls on his jammers, Poe comm'd to all fighters in the squadrons behind him as they flew in formation, the distant specks of the squadrons visibly only on his scanners.
"Now or never everyone. No word on the base shields being down, but lets try and make hell for them while we give them a chance."
BB-8 whistled through the comms, as the droid swivelled in its mount to sight the fighters ahead. The flock of TIE fighters that had been joining the TIE Defenders in pursuing the faster A-wings peeled off, veering to intercept the more numerous, inbound X-wings.
"All craft full power down onto the planet, then break into your usual teams, wait for the word to attack the factory."
Their red sublight drives glowing, the hail of laser fire catching them from the broadside missed them considerably, the flock of TIE fighters veering to join the chase as the X-wings screamed down.
"Black Flight, let's get those new ships off Green flight."
"Copy Black Leader, we've got your back."
Smiling slightly, Poe rolled his X-wing slowly as he dove with Black flight, the thin atmosphere of Loneh beginning to head the leading edges of his craft's ray shields enough to be visibly as a faint orange glow against their blue energy sheen.
Main command facility, vehicle service bay
Darting from the service elevator they'd taken, the four quickly saw the snowspeeder sitting near their exit point, having unloaded some supply crates a few minutes ago.
Finn pulled out his blaster, firing off a stun round at the Stormtrooper that first noticed them right as Rey fired her own stolen blaster. Finn's shot sent the trooper sprawling, but the red blast from Rey's blaster fried a hole through his lower right neck, clearly killing him.
Glancing at one another, Rey and Finn exchanged a look of conflict as Han shot the other Stormtrooper, Chewbacca darting past to roughly shove the supply crate off the speeder and onto the ground. With a groan, the Wookie gestured from them to climb aboard as the alarms from across the base warned of a Resistance attack.
"Try not to leave too many bodies kid, it leaves a trail right to us." Han nagged sardonically, pockering his DL-44 blaster as Chewbacca gunned the speeder to accelerate out onto the snowy plains, following the mag tube line towards the distant factory facility.
"They're just Stormtroopers, not like they treated me so kindly."
"We shouldn't really give ourselves away until after we've blown the shield generator."
"You betrayed them, but why are you not really willing to shoot them to kill?"
"Who said I'm not!?" Finn asked, leaning aggressively towards Rey for a moment, before she gestured to his blaster:
"You used a stun shot, that's-."
Her eyes widened at the familiar lightsaber on Finn's belt, her own then narrowing as she pointed at it sharply:
"Where did you get that?"
"Han gave it to me. He trusts me with it, and his life."
"Still seeing about that big shot." Han retorted, while he masked his face from the snow whipping up from their fast speed across the snowy plains. Finn turned to Rey with a semi-pleading, semi determined look:
"Betraying them isn't something I'll be fully comfortable with after just a few days. But I insisted we come get you, it was my idea instead of going straight to the shields."
"Why?" Rey asked sceptically, to which Finn turned away slightly before remarking:
"You were taken by the Order, I know what that's like. Most Stormtroopers were taken from a young age, too young for it to hurt most of the time, but you at least knew your childhood, your family. I couldn't stand by knowing you were losing what I never had."
Rey's judging expression turned softer, as she admitted quietly to Finn from her seated position:
"I didn't really have much of either to be honest…"
"How did you escape anyway? You seemed to get out fine without us." Finn suddenly asked, turning to Rey with a quizzical expression. At this, she shrugged her shoulders with a look of self-puzzlement:
"It's complicated, you wouldn't believe it if I told you…"
"Hey, swap stories later." Han interjected, pointing to an inbound First Order snowspeeder coming up on their rear.
The engines flared up, but as they looked on, Rey shook her head, thinking:
"We don't have time for this, you got anything we can hit them with?"
As Finn began to raise his blaster rifle towards the distant snowspeeder, about to fire, Han put a hand on his shoulder, remarking with a smirk:
"Yes we do."
Pulling a hand into the bag he was carrying, while Chewbacca kept the speeder going fast at high speed, Han handed one of the small bombs to Finn, who shared a wry look with Han before twisting one of the dials on it, and swiftly tossing it out of the back of the snowspeeder.
Rolling to a stop, the small bomb rested as their speeder tore off parallel to the Mag-tube, while behind them, the First order Stormtroopers began to fire their first few shots at the distant stolen speeder.
As their speeder came up however, the bomb ticked in detection, and a large plume of snow and thermal blasts ripped the ground apart, flipping the snowspeeder violently over end to catapult the troopers who weren't caught by shrapnel to a sudden crash into the snow.
Far ahead, the stolen speeder carried on, while in the distance, flak guns opened up on a few dogfights breaking out across the nearby plains and mountains.
Loneh, volcanic plains
The distant factory superstructure loomed on the horizon, but out here, the lava fields venting from the volcanic systems churning under the planet surface bled to the surface.
The black charred landscape was pocked with veins and small streams of red lava, their fumes shimmering against the cold snow flecked air.
At one of the First Order mining facility's, siphoning off the mineral rich lava for its uses, the usual hovercraft pulling the loads of unprocessed Kyber crystal ore loads were parked safely as the Stormtroopers rallied out, and the support staff went to their bunkers.
The anti-air battery lit up the sky with heavy rounds, the green pulses firing skywards towards the distant fighters to explode in flak bursts all around.
High above, piercing the cloud cover, the flak bursts surrounded one of many small dogfights that had broken out from the scattered squadrons of Resistance and First Order pilots.
Rolling his X-wing, Poe saw one of the normal TIE fighters go barrelling down in smoke, one wing gone, to crash into the lava strewn black plains below, as he kept up chase of the TIE Defender still on the tail of Green Leader.
"Get him off me Black Leader!"
"Hang on Green Leader, just keep still for just a moment!"
Weaving sideways, rolling and swooping to and fro over the snow bordered lava plains, Poe clenched his jaw as he saw the Defender miss his laser sights yet again, while it unleashed another barrage towards the desperately weaving A-wing.
Diving low, the A-wing rustled up some streams of lava flecks as it roared overhead, the TIE Defender keeping higher up as it fired.
Diving slightly, Poe squeezed the trigger, and gave a loud whoop as one of its tri-wings was blasted off, and the TIE Defender went spinning to smash into the ground half a second later by its low flying.
"You're clear Green Leader! Regroup and get ready for the shields going down."
"Watch it Black Leader, you've got pair of tails. We're coming to get them!"
In its socket, BB-8 tweeted loudly as it saw a trio of fighters on Poe's tail, two normal TIE fighters, and behind them, approaching faster, a TIE Defender.
Making a pass for the nearby mountain canyons, Poe saw thw flak from the nearby mining facility AA gun fade, while the TIE Defender pulled ahead of the normal Fighters. But from above, Blacks 3, 4 and 5 roared down, S-foils split as their lasers rained down. The leading TIE Defender was cut to ribbons, crashing into the nearby snow-covered mountain slope it was pulling to soar over.
One TIE fighter was damaged, a fiery smoke trail now behind it as it peeled away, keeping low, while the other TIE veered to immediately give chase to the two Black flight X-wings. Black 4 remained behind, in formation with Poe as he pulled up.
But from above, as it pierced the cloud banks, a TIE Defender screamed down, lasers cutting Black 4 to pieces for them to rain upon the mountain banks, whilst Poe dove away into the canyons, snow rising as he kept low towards the mountain walls, the TIE Defender giving chase.
"B get that turret going, I'll keep his sights off us!"
The little droid beeped as it set to work, hacking into the X-wings systems as it deployed the underside mounted blaster turret, aiming it around to fire on the chasing TIE Defender.
Pulling hard around the canyon wall, Poe rolled the X-wing as another burst of laser fire missed his wings, stray rocks from both the Defender's lasers, and his own tail gun's fire hitting rocks they flew past already, scattering into the snowy crevices alone.
BB-8 beeped as a few shots deflected off the Defender's forward shields, Poe grunting loudly as he pulled them into a half loop and roll:
"Shut it down B, his shields are too strong, forward cannons or more will do it."
Pulling sharply down and to the right, Poe dove into yet another series of corkscrews, yet the TIE Defender kept pace, periodically firing off laser bursts. As the chase became more of a weave upwards and downwards, Poe fired off a few bursts of his own, only for neither to get a true aim on the other.
"Come on, what's taking the shield so long..?"
BB-8 whistled in frantic agreement, as they pulled into a dive, the Defender and Poe spiralling towards the lava vein leaking mountains as they tried to get a firing line on the other.
Loneh, main factory complex
Screaming overhead, one of the X-wings weaved hopelessly as one of the TIE Defenders fired bursts at it, only for a flak gun to blast the X-wing in the side enough to stop its movements, the Defender's lasers slicing its left wings off and send it spinning to the ground. The X-wing collided with the base's particle shielding, sending ripples across its surface as it deflected to fall onto the snowy grounds outside its perimeter.
Higher above, more laser bursts from ground fire filled the skies as one A-wing pilot, in a bid of frustration, let loose a barrage of laser fire upon the shields, the trail of ripples only serving as a last insult before a pair of TIE fighters got onto its tail and began to chase it skywards.
Further away, another X-wing pilot desperately manuevered to avoid the flak guns, as it shot down a First Order TIE Fighter to send it spiralling to a crash a half kilometre from where a stolen snowspeeder was pulling up to the factory's less frequented side entrances.
The speeder coming to a stop as the TIE fighter crashed in the snow a visible distance away, Han got out first, while Rey and Finn both leapt out, Chewbacca carrying the other bag of mini bombs they'd brought as sabotage. Overhead though, the dogfighting happening above and others further away only served as a grim reminder of what remained to be done.
"We have to move, they can't keep this up for long." Han spoke up, as Chewbacca growled in agreement, arming his bowcaster. Looking around, Rey turned to Finn, giving a hesitant, but entrusting look as she asked him:
"Well, where now?"
"Service hatch, droids use it mostly. This way."
Finn pulled on ahead, as Rey followed him after a slight pause, looking down slightly before following the ex-stormtrooper. Bringing up the rear, Han spoke to Chewbacca briskly:
"Make sure the ship's ready to pick us up, we don't wanna hang round long."
Grumbling as if not to be nagged, Chewbacca set about some signals on his wrist communicator while Finn pulled open a small service hatch with his hands, ducking down to walk with his head low while Rey, Han and then Chewbacca came in after him, though the Wookie had to crawl due to his larger height.
Overhead though, the dogfight raged still, the shields holding strong.
Loneh Factory, upper levels
Striding across the walkway, Kylo Ren milled about absentmindedly almost, helmeted head turning to and fro as he gazed upon the lines of military equipment being assembled and readied in the massive complex before him.
TIE Fighters and newer Defenders, armour panels of the reflective prototypes used to devastating effect against the Hosnian Prime capital city, assembly lines putting together yet to be completed ground vehicle prototypes.
Yet his mind couldn't be further from the pride others might feel at this sight, at least for those involved with the First Order.
"Han Solo…" Kylo mused, his head turning slightly, the predatory tone in his voice giving his mask an insidious, unseen menace, like an animal smelling prey from afar.
"Sir, intrusion detected in the lower levels of the complex, headed towards the generator levels. We suspect they were also involved in incursions in one of the mining facilities and the detention facility."
"Mobilise security squads to the generator level, this is likely a sabotage operation by the Resistance. No prisoners."
Not even bothering to wait for the First Order officer to give his salute to him, Kylo Ren strode away towards the walkway's elevator structures, his dark figure imposing even amidst the factory's vast depths.
Further expanding the vehicle roster, the First Order fields the TIE Defender, or a variant suited to them which, like the normal TIE, is simply upgraded from what the Imperials had. As a limited fighter, it would be in reserve at more important targets, or defending one place of its manufacture.
A key asset to this reimagining is this. Now that Poe is a more established character, whatever dogfighting he gets involved in actually has some weight to it. But for added bonus, to make him seem less like an unparalleled pilot, I figured at least one First Order pilot, in a fighter that can match the T-70 or more, should give Poe a hard time. An ace to ace confrontation. After all, in Legends lore Tie Defender pilots in the empire were picked from the best, so the same would apply to First Order practices with better fighter craft.
On the ground meanwhile, there's a slight conflict of ideals, but not to an annoying degree that the official TFA did avoid to its credit. Rey's a little too trigger happy, Finn's hesitant due to too many old friends. This aggressive disposition towards the Order on Rey's part will come into play later as a contrast of her own struggles against another foe. But she sheds her distrust in wake of hearing why Finn came after her, relating to his turn. She has a character arc that involves a change in her initially withdrawn personality, hesitant to help others unless necessary, and distrusting those that wronged her.
But as for their ease of passage between the detention/command facility and the factory, a big Resistance aerial assault would be enough of a distraction. Something in TFA that they did do, but not emphasize enough to avoid more obvious plot holes.
Also, a brief speeder chase, but subverted as an action 'scene' with a simple mine bomb blowing up their pursuers.
Reviews welcomed, but from here on I will try and publish chapters more regularly. I'm nearly finished with this story anyway, just a few more chapters at the rate I'm going.