Chapter 7: Back Home
Surpassing the siblings' expectations, and proving that Han wasn't lying, the Falcon reached the edge of mandalorian space in less than seven hours.
The freighter was approached by a small naval squad of ships from the Coalition, which could then relay the news that the Bridgers were alive and well. Jaral then also instructed the Coalition to clear the Hydian Way, so the Death Star wouldn't run into allied forces.
After another couple of hours, the Falcon finally entered the Yavin system.
"This is Grand Marshall Jaral Bridger, requesting permission to land at Command. Transmitting codes, now." the woman said, then her omni-tool lightened up and she sent the codes.
A few moments of silence followed as the controller elaborated the request.
"Permission granted. Welcome back, ma'am." the man eventually said.
Thus, the Falcon began descending. The ship flew over the deep forests of the 4th moon until they could all see the main temple in the distance. Following the vector given by the control tower, the Falcon was then directed to the landing zone and finally touched down. The siblings were the first to walk out of the access ramp, with Jaral having already put on her uniform that she was keeping in the omni-tool's storage.
Waiting for the group to descend was Rhino Squad, the squad of Rangers who used to escort Jaral for the last few months, but who she sent on another mission when the time to attack Scarif came.
"Grand Marshall. General. It's good to see you again." Lieutenant Poshur said as they all saluted.
Jaral and Ezra returned the gesture.
"Thanks, Lieutenant. We need to deliver the plans, quickly." the woman said.
"Of course. Take a seat." he invited, indicating a couple of small coaches that were waiting for the group.
The siblings made sure to keep their new apprentices close to them and then the small convoy headed inside the temple, with the Rangers jogging to keep the overall slow pace.
And all around, the Jedi attracted the gazes of everybody.
"Look, it's the Bridgers."
"What? Where?"
"Holy kriff, it's them! We're on a roll, now!"
They tried to hide it, but honestly they were quite flattered to know that everybody put so much hope in them and how much spirits rose the moment they appeared.
As they entered the hangar, despite it being filled with X-Wings and Y-Wings, there was a small group of honor guards deployed on a line to greet both the siblings and Princess Leia. The coaches kept going until they met the last commanding officer left on Yavin: General Dodonna.
The General made the salute to the Bridgers, who returned it, then a small bow to Leia.
"Your Highness. When we heard about Alderaan, we feared the worst." he said.
"Alas, mourning will have to wait, General." Leia replied. "The Death Star is coming this way, we need to find that weak spot, immediately."
Jaral thus turned toward Private Olbien and Corporal Nelunia. "Take R2 to maintenance and have them extract the plans from his memory."
"Yes, ma'am." Olbien dutifully replied as R2 started to follow them.
"General, call up Doctor Erso, this will be much faster with his counseling." the Grand Marshall added.
"Yes, Marshall." the old man said.
Finally, the woman turned toward the other people waiting next to the coach. "Ezra, why don't you show Luke around a little? Mister Solo, be patient and I'll have your payment sent as fast as we can."
"Fair enough." Ezra replied before motioning Luke to follow him and Hand and Chewbacca went to wait next to a group of crates.
Jaral instead went straight to the Command Center, along the way being greeted with happily surprised faces and salutes, to which she smiled in return.
As she finally reached the command room, the guard yelled "Ten-hut!" and everybody who could afford to delay their work for two seconds stood up and saluted eagerly.
Jaral returned it and spoke. "Thank you, gentlemen. It's good to be home."
An approving murmur followed as everyone went back to their duties. Jaral then approached the holotable, where Dodonna and the few staff officers left on Yavin were waiting for her.
"It's really good to have you back, Marshall." Dodonna said sincerely. "Honestly, many were starting to lose hope that you were still alive."
"I'm fine, General. And I hope you guys are ready, because we're about to face doomsday."
"What do you mean?"
Jaral sternly looked into the General's eyes. "We got captured by Death Star itself. We managed to escape, but the Empire hid a tracker on the freighter that brought us here."
The realization hit the officers.
"You mean...The Empire knows we're here?" Dodonna asked.
"Yes, and that's what I'm counting on."
"Excuse me?"
"We came to learn that Wilhulff Tarkin is in charge of the Death Star, and if I know him, he will bring the station right here to try and blow up this moon."
"Wait...without an escort?"
Jaral made a confident nod. "After all, why would they need it? Unless we have a giant super-laser to shoot at it, even the Protector would barely make a dent on it. However, they will not expect us to attack with just fighters."
The officers looked at each other. It sounded crazy, but it made sense.
"We're with you, Marshall. All the way to the end." Dodonna reassured.
Jaral acknowledged the support and leaned on the holotable. "Have the plans been downloaded yet?"
"Just a second." one of the officers said as he tapped some buttons on the table. "They are sending it right now, Marshall, just a few more seconds."
"Bring the plans up as soon as you can. Have we reached Doctor Erso?"
"Yes ma'am, he's on standby."
"Good. Patch him through." she ordered.
The officer obeyed and the hologram of Galen Erso, now wearing a uniform of the Alliance Intelligence, appeared.
"Grand Marshall. It's good to see you're alive." the old man said.
"I can't die right now, Doctor. Now, do we have those plans?"
"Coming up with them now, ma'am." the officer replied before a hologram of the Death Star finally appeared, with the chance of showing every single room and small component of the moon-sized station.
"Alright." Jaral said. "Doctor, show us this weak spot."
From the distance, Galen was given the chance to interact with the hologram and started tapping a set of coordinates on his own keyboard. Soon enough, the hologram zoomed on a zone around the equator of the Death Star and highlighted a trench running along it.
"Here. There are many trenches like this, mostly used to provide a blowhole for the generators. However, at the end of it lies the trap." Galen said. Then the hologram changed angle to show a perfectly straight line going from the hole at the end of the trench right toward the center of the station.
"This canal goes directly to the main reactor. A well-placed proton torpedo could hit the reactor and set out a chain reaction that will destroy the entire station from the inside."
Jaral hummed. "This will require a very precise strike." she commented.
"This was the best I could do before the other engineers could grow suspicious." Galen defended himself.
"Of course, I wasn't judging you, Doctor. You already did more than enough to give us a chance."
Jaral leaned on the table with her hands and observed the plans, while the rest of the officers waited for her instructions.
After pondering a few seconds, she spoke again. "Call the Fleet." she ordered. "See if our allies can provide us more fighters, we're gonna need every hands possible. And I also want Rogue Squadron sent here."
"If we divert too many forces, we might lose Lianna." Dodonna warned.
"And if we fail here, we lose everything." the Grand Marshall calmly stated. "We will hardly have another shot at destroying the Death Star, and perhaps they will notice the flaw built by Doctor Erso and plug it in the meantime, we can't risk it."
Those words were enough to convince the officers, and a call to the Joint Fleet was issued immediately.
"And here we got the lodgings. Well, I don't know how long they will be since Jari seems set on abandoning the base if we destroy the Death Star, but for the next few days, we'll find you a bunk." Ezra jovially said to his new fellow Jedi.
Luke looked at everything with the eyes of someone who had seen nothing but wastelands of sands his entire life, gazing around and wowing at pretty much every little detail that seemed new to him.
"You're well organized." was his comment.
"You don't win a war with enthusiasm alone." Ezra said. "Now…" he inspected the doors, then opened one of them, revealing a single room that was still almost empty, save for a bunk bed and a crate for personal belongings. "This one is unregistered, so I guess we'll put you here in the meantime."
The blonde guy stepped inside the room and looked around. "Ok. Not that I brought many things with me."
"Acclimatize a little and get prepared." said Ezra. "It's time to see how good of a pilot you are."
The prospect seemed to make Luke pretty excited. He quickly discarded the poncho he had with him, put the lightsaber into the crate, sealed the door, then he was led into the main hangar. Ezra brought him to the Quartermaster, who issued Luke with an orange pilot suit and the helmet.
Ezra then led his friend in the middle of the fighters, all parked and being loaded up or undergoing maintenance by the technicians.
The Jedi Knight led the Padawan to one of the reserve X-Wings, those that were not assigned to anyone and made a gesture to show it to Luke.
As they crouched to pass under the left foils of the snub fighter, a voice suddenly called out.
"Hey Luke!"
The young farmer turned around with a jolt, signal that he probably recognized the voice, while Ezra turned around calmly, intrigued by the situation.
"Biggs!?" Luke exclaimed with a wide smile.
One of the pilots, with a pair of thin, black mustaches walked to Luke and the two put an arm on each other's back, then they walked past the foils so they could stand up.
"I don't believe it. How are ya?" Biggs asked. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, I got picked up by him." Luke joked, pointing at Ezra, who was standing patiently next to them.
Biggs thus realized that his superior was there and stood at attention. "Oh, sorry, General."
"At ease, pilot." Ezra said with a nod. "I get you two know each other?"
"This is Biggs Darklighter." Luke explained. "He and I grew up together on Tatooine before he left for the Imperial Academy."
"And now you're here as well." Biggs said to Luke. "I thought your uncle wouldn't let you go away, though?"
The remembrance hit Luke, who hesitated a few seconds before explaining. "He's dead. The Empire killed both him and my aunt while I was away with Ezra and Jaral."
"Oh...I'm sorry." his friend said with consternation.
"Thanks. But doesn't matter now. I'm here, and I want the Empire to pay for its crimes." Luke sternly said.
"Then you're in the right place. Are you going to do the test flight?"
"Ezra said it's protocol." Luke shrugged.
Biggs then turned toward his superior. "Sir, I guarantee, Luke is the best bush pilot in the whole Outer Rim."
Ezra made an amused expression. "Then I guess we better show it to everyone. Hop on." he said, and Luke eagerly obeyed.
After he climbed up the small stair and being brought up to speed by Biggs over the commands of an X-Wing, Luke put on his helmet and started to warm up the engines while Ezra got aboard his own new X-Wing.
The Jedi had always relied on the Silver Bullet for space battles, but this time, the Gauntlet wasn't going to be available, so he would have to use one of the reserve fighters as well. Good thing that he still trained with them regularly, so he was accustomed to the controls.
So, before long, the two were in the air, making the test flight with Ezra leading and Luke dutifully following in formation.
Indeed, Luke showed much promise, quickly picking up and flying that craft like a veteran pilot.
After they landed again, they found Biggs and some other pilots of Red Squadron, including the Leader, who were watching with interest.
"You still got it, pal!" Biggs exclaimed as he vigorously patted Luke on the shoulder.
Ezra, quickly reached the group and turned toward Red Leader.
"Captain, there is your reinforcements." he said jovially.
Red Leader thus went to shake hands with Luke. "Welcome to the Rebellion, Skywalker."
"Thank you, Captain."
Ezra then put a hand on Luke's shoulder. "I'm heading back to Command to see what my sis is up to. Take your time to meet your comrades, I'll meet you again in the mess hall."
"All right, see you later." he replied with a smile.
So the young Knight left Luke to meet the other rebels and walked toward the elevator. People were clearly happy to see him again, as they all whispered praises and saluted him eagerly.
Passing and saluting back quickly, Ezra reached the elevator and ascended to the floor of the control room, where he found Jaral at the holotable, surrounded by Dodonna and other officers, while the hologram of Admiral Edrix was standing over the device.
"The INS Newton and her Task Force will be able to reach Yavin in two rotations. That's all I can spare, at the moment." the Turian explained.
"It's already much more than I was hoping for, Admiral. Just focus on keeping the imperial fleet busy." Jaral answered.
"We will, though at the moment the opposite is true. You weren't joking when you warned us about Grand Admiral Tanis."
"Is it that bad?"
"We just lost Rhen Var in a matter of hours. His fleet has hit us when we expected it, but not how we expected it. This man is truly a formidable opponent." Edrix said with a calm tone.
"It almost seems like you admire him." Jaral noted.
"One must always give respect to the enemy, especially if he is as skillful as this one. But don't worry, Marshall, I'll find a way to stall him, nonetheless."
"Copy that. Good luck, Admiral."
The Turian nodded. "You too, Marshall. By the way, I suggest you call back home. General Syndulla ha...insistently requested updates on your status and I couldn't give them."
Jaral chuckled. "Sounds like Hera. I'll do it."
"May the spirits guard over you." the turian concluded before closing the transmission.
Ezra had already neared his sister, who turned around and faced him. "I heard you brought Luke on the test flight, how did it go?" she asked nicely.
"The kid is as good as he said, I already assigned him to Red Squadron."
"Good. As you probably heard, I asked for reinforcements, now we can only wait."
"You sure that the Death Star is coming here?"
Jaral sighed silently, slightly discouraged from what she was about to say. "The long range scanners have already picked up a massive object moving away from Alderaan and toward the Hydian Way. I have no doubt it is the Death Star." she explained with a whisper, then lowering her head.
"You ok?" Ezra asked calmly.
"Yeah. It's just...all of this feels a bit overwhelming." his sister said.
"Well, if you need to vent it out, remember that I'm always here to listen."
Jaral chuckled. "Right. How about we try to call Lothal, in the meantime?"
Ezra made a lopsided grin. "Sounds awesome."
"Nice shot." Thabo commented as Jordan finished demolishing the last target of the firing range with a precise burst from his Mattock rifle.
Jordan expelled the thermal clip and put the safe back on the weapon. "Your turn now." he simply said as he headed to deliver the rifle to turian quartermaster of the ship.
Then he dematerialized his armor, and while Thabo started his round of target practice, the Captain's omni-tool started to beep. To his surprise, he noticed that not only it was a call from Yavin, it was a multi-call directed toward Lothal as well, at the 'Bridger Tower' complex.
"Guys, if you need me, I'll be in my quarters." he announced to his two Legionnaires, who nodded and returned to their small competition.
Jordan took the elevator, which quickly took him to the highest deck, that of the Captain's Cabin.
The Legionnaire entered and reached the terminal, using his omni-tool to activate the video feed that soon projected on one side the faces of his children, and soon enough, the crew of the Ghost quickly joined the call.
"Hello there." Ezra started with a quip tone.
The others smiled or chuckled for the joy of simply being able to see them again.
Eventually, it was Mira who spoke up. "You took your time." she quipped back.
"Hey, were you not worried about us?" her son joked.
"As if. You two have gone through so many absurdities. I never doubted you two for a second."
Jaral chuckled. "Thanks, mom. At least somebody believes in us, here."
"I wasn't worried neither." Darvos quipped.
"Yeah, right." Sabine poked him. "But seriously, what happened? We heard that you first lost then found the princess again, or something like it?"
The siblings quickly looked at each other. "Well, I hope you got some free time, because this explanation might take a while."
"I ain't going anywhere, if you couldn't tell." Hera said with joyful sarcasm, making the siblings notice that she was laying on a hospital bed as it was evening in the capital.
"Oh, Hera, how are you doing?" Ezra asked more seriously this time.
"I'm fine. Your mother has ordered all the nurses here to not let me out of the wing." Hera joked.
"If I didn't do that, you'd have already left for Yavin." Mira replied.
"Which is the last thing you should do." Zeb added.
"That all of you should do, honestly." Ezra finished.
After that, the siblings explained what happened to them in the last few days. How the Tantive IV was boarded by the Empire, their escape on Tatooine, their meeting with Luke and Obi-Wan and their recent capture and escape from the Death Star.
All things that left the rest of the group staggered, except Jordan who had already heard the last part from them.
"What happened to General Kenobi?" Rex asked with a hint of doubt.
The siblings slightly lowered their heads.
"He gave his life to let us escape." Ezra simply said, making the old clone do a grieving expression.
"I see." was all he said.
"So what happens with Luke, now?" Jordan asked.
"It's clear Master Kenobi wanted us to take care of his training." Jaral explained. "I'm pretty sure that's one of the reasons why he knighted us right before we reached Alderaan."
They had left this detail out, so everybody widened their eyes.
"What?!" was pretty much the collective word, followed by chuckles of pride.
"Why you didn't tell us?" Jordan asked, unable to remove his grin.
The siblings just shrugged. "It's not as a big deal as it sounds like. Sure, it is satisfying for us, but it's just a title." said Ezra.
"Well, it was about time, nonetheless." Rex commented.
"You earned it, guys." Hera said. "I'm sure Kanan is watching proudly over you, right now."
The siblings accepted the compliments with their lopsided grin.
"So what are you up to, now?" Jordan asked.
"We're waiting for the Death Star to come at us." Jaral simply stated. "Admiral Edrix has granted us a carrier task force to help us in the upcoming fight, but he also said that he is planning something to tie down the imperial fleet in your sector, Dad. You'll soon receive your orders."
"I see."
"Wait a second." Darvos intervened. "We should be there too. If we take the Silver Bullet we can reach Yavin in a couple of days."
"Darvos, no." Jaral sternly replied. "If you want to help, then you have to crack the imperial codes and find out what Iulius is up to. To give us a fighting chance, we need the Death Star to come without an escort fleet."
"But…"
"She's right, Darvos." Jordan intervened. "It'll already be difficult to punch a hole into the line of fighters of the Death Star, so we must keep their fleet occupied elsewhere."
Faced with hard facts, Darvos had to resign himself.
"Just for the record," added Sabine. "I'm not happy either. Just...don't you guys die right now, okay?"
"Pinky promise." Ezra replied in an encouraging tone.
"Don't worry about us, people." Jaral tried to encourage. "We have no intention of dying. Take care of Lothal, for now."
"We will." Mira promised. "Be careful, kids. We'll be waiting for you."
One after the other, the rest of the participants in the call logged out, though Jordan quickly understood that Jaral and Ezra were most likely going to make private calls with their spouses.
"Guys." Jordan said to recall the siblings, who stayed to listen.
"Whatever is going to happen in the next days...I want you to know that I'm proud of you. For everything you've done until now." he said in a calm and sincere tone.
The siblings seemed to be caught off-guard. Perhaps they didn't expect him to say such thing at that exact moment, but they still appreciated as they smiled at him.
"We love you, Dad." they replied in chorus before finally saying goodbye.
Left in the silence of his cabin, Jordan made a quiet sigh and leaned against the wall behind him.
Once again, his kids were going against impossible odds, but this time, he would not be able to be there to help them. Unlike the liberation of Lothal and the battle of Scarif, this time he would be thousands of light-years away from them, simply keeping the enemy distracted while his children would have to fight a super-weapon the size of a moon armed with a super-laser and Jupiter knew how many turrets and fighters.
The thought bothered him, but he didn't let that harm his resolve. If his kids wanted him to distract the imperial fleet, then by the Gods, he was going to raise hell against it.
He left the cabin and took the elevator to Deck 2.
"Right on cue, sir." Salazar said as he saw him step out of the elevator. "We just received our new orders from Command. We need to make a quick recon over Rhen Var and report back."
Jordan stepped onto his platform and stared at the projection of Andromeda in front of him.
"Good. All hands ready for the jump. Rut, get us at the edge of the system."
"Affirmative, Captain."
Silently, the Constantinople rolled her engine and flew away from the main formation of the Joint Fleet, until she was away from the gravitational field of the system and could finally jump to hyperspace.
December 27
Most of the shock regarding Alderaan seemed to have subsided aboard the Admonitor, though Iulius knew that some of his men were seriously questioning their loyalty to the Empire. However, most of them had come to his office in the last two days and ensured him that, while they were still confused about the legitimacy of destroying Alderaan, they were still ready to follow their Grand Admiral wherever he went. In return, Iulius thanked them and promised to stay quiet about their doubts, which he did.
He really needed that loyalty, because the fleet was now ready to proceed with the next phase of his campaign. Standing at the edge of the Columex system, the Admonitor was surrounded by various patrol cruisers, frigates and line cruisers of her escort. On her flanks stood the Star Destroyers Allecto and Tyranny with their own formations.
Qathora was standing on his right side, as always, her hands gently interlocked in front of her belly, in her usual pose that clearly denoted that she wasn't a soldier, just Iulius' personal servant. Somehow, the Grand Admiral believed that she had noted this small detail much more clearly after Alderaan, and now she was holding that pose proudly, as an act of small defiance against the Empire she hated.
This was, however, just a minor detail that only Iulius would be able to distinguish. As always, everybody saw Qathora but never actually looked at her with a suspicious eye.
Then Commander Krybos walked on the plank between the two pits, where the operators were working dutifully, and stood a little behind Iulius' left shoulder.
"All ships accounted for, sir. We're ready to make the jump at your command."
"What about Admiral Versio and Captain Bolo?" Iulius asked.
"The Admiral has already reported in. His Division stands ready to attack the Galidraan system. Captain Bolo's Task Force is ready to cover the rear."
In the two-pronged attack planned, the 101st had two different systems to capture before getting to Lianna.
Iulius was going to take most of the fleet and directly engage a rebel skirmishing fleet detected around the system of Arcan, right before Lianna, while Versio would conduct his naval division toward Galidraan, a system that linked Felucia with the Perlimian Trade Route. Since Felucia was now hosting a Federal Fleet, identified as the 12th, it was necessary to take Galidraan to secure the left flank of the fleet.
The right flank should have already been secured by the Auril Sector Fleet protecting the crossroad planet of Murkhana, which stood on two major hyperspace lanes without which the Coalition could not hope to attack the 101st in the rear quickly enough.
Bolo and his Task Force had been redeployed behind Versio's division, and tasked with securing Galidraan after the Admiral had taken it, so the Eviscerator could reinforce the main fleet at Arcan.
The plan was simple, but executing it was going to be something else entirely.
The Federation had frigates like the Constantinople that could easily spy on the imperial forces without being detected, and Iulius was sure that the Coalition knew that he was coming: the fact that they had deployed a skirmish fleet around Arcan was to slow him down while their forces amassed around Lianna. ISB reports said that the INS Protector, the super-dreadnought of the Federation, was there as well.
But he couldn't give up now. He might've grown dissatisfied with the leadership above him, but Iulius could not allow the enemies of the Empire he still looked up to unchallenged. If he could take Lianna, he would split the Coalition in two, since he now knew that the main rebel base was in the Gordian Reach.
Of course, the enemies knew that very well, and they were certainly going to fight till the bitter end.
"Relay the order. Make the jump." he calmly stated.
Krybos nodded and turned around to say the order loudly.
In the middle of the room, Colmas started the hyperdrive and synchronized with the helmsmen of the other ships. Ten seconds later, the ships in front of the viewport disappeared into the void, then the stars in front of the Admonitor started to bend into the blue tunnel of hyperspace.
With just 20 minutes to prepare, Iulius walked back to the holotable in the command room and went to check on the reports of the Navy.
The one flagged as the most important was about the Death Star. Iulius quickly read it and was left stunned.
The Death Star was traveling through hyperspace and heading straight for the Yavin system, where the rebel base had finally been uncovered.
'Alone?' Iulius thought, unable to understand.
Sure, the Death Star had a firepower equal to half of the Imperial Navy, but the rebels now had the plans of the station. Surely they must had a plan to destroy it, especially with the Bridgers in charge.
He closed the report and tried not to think about it. He could only hope that all those defenses on the station would serve their purpose.
Otherwise, there was also the report of a scouting party coming from the Death Star. They were sent to investigate the confession of Princess Leia regarding Dantooine, but all they had found after two days of travel were only trenches abandoned by some time.
Now those poor devils would have had to wait, because their base was literally moving toward the opposite side of the galaxy and their transport couldn't catch up without refueling.
For everything else that he could care about, it seemed like the Coalition was simply waiting for him to make the first move. There was also the confirmation that leading the enemy fleets were the two top Admirals of the Coalition: Admiral Edrix for the Imperial Federation and Admiral Ackbar for the Rebellion.
Iulius already had the track record for Ackbar: he had fought in the civil war of his planet during the Clone Wars and then became one of the most capable leaders of the exiled Mon Cala fleet. He served under the previous commander of the Rebel Fleet, Raddus, and was a brilliant defensive tactician.
About Edrix, all Iulius knew he learned by interviewing the federal officers he had captured in the previous battles and the data on their omni-tools. This Turian was almost 90 years old, which still wasn't that advanced of an age for his species, and was a career officer just like Iulius.
While the most brilliant maneuvers that led to the liberation of Mon Cala came from Jaral Bridger, Edrix still demolished entire sector fleets on his own in the following months, so he wasn't an opponent to underestimate. His favorite tactic seemed to be exploiting the superior range of the Federal ships to weaken the imperial ones. While the Rebel fleet pinned their enemies down, the Federals usually tried to envelop them and bombard from a safe distance.
Iulius had seen that at Columex. And right there he had learned the most effective tactic: ignore the federal ships and engage the rebel ones so closely that their allies wouldn't dare to shoot.
As he devised the scenarios in his mind, the voice of Lieutenant Ree reached him.
"Grand Admiral. Five minutes until exit."
Iulius made a slow nod. "Thanks, Lieutenant." he said. "Bring up the holomap of the system."
Ciena obeyed, and as the fleet prepared itself, Iulius started to analyze what he knew about the forces he was about to clash with.