LEIA stared into the black expanse.
She placed a hand on the cool viewport that separated her from cold space, fingers covering Kurge-class frigates as they lazily hung beside her MonCal flagship, the Endured.
Leia was no stranger to loss. She had felt it from a young age. She felt it after Alderaan. During the Unification Wars, she had felt it nearly every day as friends old and new died under the crucible of cataclysmic unrest and turmoil.
And yet..
her mind conjured Han's smile, his laugh. She felt almost as if he could still hear him. Even when he was far away, across star systems.. He had always come back. But now-
Leia shut her eyelids as tears threatened to fall, dragging fingers into a tight fist.
This is the last thing I need to be doing right now. With everything else on the line..
Han's death hit her with renewed vigor almost every day. Even the temporary victory with Starkiller was mired- nothing else seemed to matter. For better or worse, they had been on the run for nearly a year.
Holdo saved them at Rhen Var. But the Chancellor immediately pursued their arrest. Her fleet was able to escape without immediate harm, as the Alliance had the grace not to fire upon her.
With that said, she knew that Holdo wouldn't stop until the Vanguard was snuffed out. Even as a defeated force, their existence challenged the authority of the Galactic Alliance now that it was publicly known.
No hope.
Leia grinned.
These thoughts aren't mine. This pain isn't my weakness.
Almost as if on cue her bridge officer approached from behind. She turned, nodding at the Ithorian who stood nearly a meter and a half taller.
"Officer Slezo," Leia saluted.
"General Organa," Slezo grumbled from a vocabulator that jutted from his gills.
He continued without needing Leia's prompting- a learned behavior.
"Commander Dameron has reported that sectors within your designated systems remain.. clear of military activity."
Leia gritted her teeth.
The First Order was gone.
It was a small force aided by and large by Starkiller's forge, an ancient factory built by old Sith. The forges were industries of war within themselves, able to create massive fleets at the cost of a planet's core.
But now this "Central Confederation of Ren"- a faction of systems joined by a shadowy cult seeping from the corpses of her old enemies. These Ren base themselves on the outskirts of known space, precariously close to the Unknown Regions.
But if they didn't have any sort of fighting power-
What could they be planning?
Leia knew it wasn't possible that the Centrists had peaceful, if not overtly secessionist ideals.
She did allow herself a small humor.
I'm glad I'm not the Chancellor dealing with this.
Leia, despite herself, pitied Holdo. The poor girl was no doubt at her wits end. It was in situations like these that leaders find themselves making impossible decisions. If Holdo was too aggressive, then cries of the Empire returning would sound.
Too lenient? Then it would be reported that the inefficient ways of the Clone War bureaucracy had returned. There was no clear answer, no matter what one did- it would lead to conflict.
Leia sighed, returning her attention back to Slezo.
"Where's Poe's squadron now?" She asked.
"They're docking as we speak."
"Then why don't you escort me to him?" Leia said with a smirk.
Slezo nodded, chuckling deeply.
"Of course."
The docking bays were rife with activity as various craft hissed into landing. Technicians ran snaking pipes into exhaust ports, drawing heat from idle engines.
Leia stood underneath Poe's black T-70 X-wing, smiling at the handsome pilot as his cockpit whispered open. BB-8 chattered happily, swirling his one eye towards the Vanguard general.
Poe climbed down from his craft, hugging Leia warmly. He smelt vaguely of fresh wood, white teeth gleaming in the light of the docking bay.
"It's been too long." Poe said.
"Six months." Leia answered shortly.
Poe separated, furrowing his brow.
"General.." He began.
Leia nodded.
"I know. You didn't find anything." She finished curtly.
"From what we saw during our scans.. they're just.. building." Poe said.
Leia raised an eyebrow.
"Building?"
Poe nodded.
"Temples. Shrines. Every system we visited had them. It's not overt military..but.. it's not good."
Temples and Shrines?
"Well I can't thank you enough, Poe. I need to stop depending on you like this."
Dameron's grin returned.
"For royalty, I'll-"
The hangar lights suddenly darkened as an echoing boom erupted from the bowels of the Endured.
Alarms began blaring instantly, filling Leia's ears as Poe covered her. He spoke, but she didn't hear him. More blasts rocked the craft, sending Leia tumbling to the ground as machinery creaked.
Pilots scrambled about her as she rose to her feet. Selzo, who had returned to the bridge, sizzled into view from Leia's com.
"What's going on?" Leia shouted over the carnage. Poe took up space beside her as Selzo spoke.
"We're not sure. New fighters- nearly sinear by the looks of them. They're cutting into our shiel-"
A massive, belting roar was heard from Selzo's comm. Leia and Poe both leaned forward as the Ithoran brought a gloved hand to his chest.
"Force help us.." Slezo stammered. Flashes illuminated Leia's face- fires borne from the explosions of Vanguard frigates.
"Selzo! What is it? What happened?"
Selzo, frozen with fear, said nothing.
"I have to go out there." Poe said.
"I know." Leia responded.
She ducked away from Poe as he clambered back into a waiting X-Wing. She then hurried to the bridge, dreading to find out what it was that had even the great Officer Slezo mute with horror.
Hell.
Blood dripped across Poe's forehead, gleaming as it smeared his visor. A battered T-70 rattled as it over extended engines while BB-8 screamed within Poe's ear.
"I know, buddy I know." Poe said, forming a facsimile of a grin across a weary face.
Vanguard frigates burned.
Black fires ate away at reinforced Kurge hulls. X-wings twirled between floating cores of metallic refuse, while frozen bodies drifted peacefully amongst screams of unknown fighters.
The enemy had seemingly jumped from hyperspace, undetected by any Vanguard sensors. The craft bore solar wings similar to old Tie interceptor models, but with a longer hull and a segmented cockpit painted in swirling symbols.
"Black four, Black five do you read?" Poe spoke as he swerved his controls, dipping his craft under a Kurge-Class as it exploded in a bellow of black flame.
"I'm here." A voice responded. Poe's nav blipped as an ebony B-Wing formed up beside him.
Black five.
"Good to see you're still with us, Mōzon." Poe said, palpable relief giving his voice an endearingly natured hue.
Mōzon Glaemhado chuckled, running a hand through her black hair as she adjusted her helm.
"I wouldn't die before taking at least twenty with me. I've only got seven so far." Her voice was low, a beautiful tremor reverberating between Poe's eyes.
Another ship, a fellow T-70, formed at Poe's right as they crossed burning cruisers.
Meanwhile, attacking fighters strafed Vanguard cruisers. Curved laser cannons spit streams of onyx superheated light, causing whatever they touched to erupt in plumes of sputtering ebony flame.
"Good to see you too, Joma." Poe grinned, fire illuminating a false smile.
Black four's gruff voice sounded over the low impact thuds of explosions that filled Poe's viewscreen.
"Good? It'll be good once someone tells us what the hell is going on!" Joma screamed as the trio banked left, separating as a horde of fighters flew between them.
Mōzon cooled her engines, slowing as Joma sped ahead. The fighters followed him, lasers passing harmlessly between the bent wings of his custom T-70. Poe flipped his craft, tumbling in the great expanse. Mōzon steadily picked off the fighters that took Joma's bait.
Black four suddenly propelled upwards, S-foils coming to a screeching close as smoke billowed from his engines. He led six remaining fighters back towards Poe, forming a crescent with his ship across the stars while adjoining with Mōzon as she gained altitude.
Poe gracefully worked at his controls, distinctive tings indicative of X-wing laser cells ringing from outside his cockpit.
Black four and five followed suit, firing at the gathered fighters, helpless to react while solar wings crumbled.
"We need to regroup with the Endured." Poe said affirmatively, eyeing Organa's craft in the distance. Swarms of enemy fighters harried the massive Mon Calamari cruiser. The ship's engines were destroyed, leaving smoking craters within a punctured beige hull.
They had been deployed to the advance fleet, which was also under attack. Leia thought the initial assault was the extent of their enemies' power.
It hadn't been a bad decision- the Endured was paired with seven Kurge-class frigates, but it was also married to the gem of the Vanguard fleet- an Imperial Class II destroyer, the Daunted. However, their enemy bore a second deployment of fighters.
The additional attacks shredded the advance and rear fleets. Now, it was only the core fleet left.
Surviving pilots retreated here, finding instead a steady grave.
Poe swallowed heavily, shifting his attention to Daunted.
The Class II was the only vessel that hadn't completely crumbled in black flames. It positioned itself diagonally across Endured, shielding it from a portion of enemy fire while turbolasers shot exploding shells into diving gnats.
Around them, allies died. Their cries filled shared comm channels, desperate pleas for help or support unable to be reciprocated.
They were too separated, spread too thin as superior numbers and weapons whittled yelping resolve.
Poe could feel fear begin to grope at his throat. But he ignored the bleak hopelessness gnawing at his mind, circling the Endured as he let off rounds of laserfire, crippling all that dared to cross him.
"General Organa!" Poe breathlessly shouted into his comm.
"Poe.." a tired voice replied.
It was empty, almost vacant sounding. He was stunned.
Is this the General?
"We can still win this Leia! Trust me! Believe in me!" Poe desperately fired into enemy craft while the Endured sloughed off layer after layer of skin. Each explosion shuddered chunks of streaming debris into space, sentients desperately flailing until a star's bleak cold took them.
"I'm sorry." Leia said.
Poe didn't understand.
"W-what? No, don't give up. We-"
"I'm not giving up." Leia's dead voice chilled Poe more than any battle could.
A white flash crossed Dameron's brown pupils.
In the very next second, sound exploded.
The largest cruiser Poe had ever seen curled into existence, gravity pulling in nearby debris that broke apart across smooth Alliance steel. The vessel was clearly a Destroyer class, but Poe had never seen one quite like this.
It rivaled the size of a Super Star Destroyer, and possessed a three tiered command bridge that was reminiscent of a pronged and blinking crown.
Along the hull, a red mark spread from an arrow-shaped body all the way to the high control towers. Behind it Defender Class destroyers blinked from hyperspace in shattering splashes. The ships, normally behemoths in their own right, were dwarfed by the supercapital dreadnought, its shadow blanketing even the stars themselves.
For the first time, communications were nearly silent-
"It's the Sungrace."
Mōzon gasped into her comm.
Poe's eyes were suddenly drawn to the sound of popping explosions following bright green streaks. BB-8 chirped with confused excitement.
You don't understand what this means.
The Sungrace unleashed a torrent of fire onto the scene below, instantly scattering their unknown adversaries.
But that was the least of their troubles now.
Poe froze, unable to move his ship.
How could she?
The only way the Alliance could be here is if Leia contacted them.
Leia had betrayed him.
Betrayed everyone.
Leia did something she swore she would never do. She promised Poe- promised she'd never give him up to-
"Chancellor Holdo.." Joma whispered in awe, marveling at the war hero and Jedi that brought salvation for all- all but the saviors.