3
Anakin Solo let the computer cut his Hyperspace engine for him, and immediately opened himself to the force. Directly in front of him he felt the gigantic blob of Yuuzhan Vong life signs, thanks to his lambent crystal. Mixed with them were the normal sentient signs of New Republic citizens, as well as the bright force presence of Kyp Durron.
"Fiver, set shields to maximum and activate the inertial compensation shields," Anakin ordered the R-7 astromech droid. As he did, he activated his laser systems and dialled his interior inertial compensator down to ninety-seven percent.
"Okay, Little Brother, let's get into contact with the Rogues," Jania called to him over the comm system.
"Affirmative, sticks," Anakin responded. Recalling their instructions, Anakin an Jania did not fit into any of Uncle Luke's fighter squadrons, so they were to join up with Colonel Darklighter and assist Rogue Squadron in any way they could. Jania had assured Uncle Luke that they would be allowed into the squadron, and Anakin could only hope that was the case. Otherwise, they were to form a three ship flight with Kyp Durron. Jania had been hoping against hope that it would not come to that.
One of the first things Anakin noticed about the battle raging in front of him was the Viscount-class cruiser present at the battle. The massive four-kilometre long vessel was the largest ever produced by the Mon Calamari, and boasted every system the Mon Calamari cruisers were famous for and more. The ship easily dwarfed the largest ship the Yuuzhan Vong had to offer for Commenor. Maybe this ship, and the ten fighter squadron assigned to her, could go some way to actually winning this battle.
Other than the Viscount, the battle involved all of battle group three – which contained three Bothan Assault cruisers and an Imperial-class Star Destroyer – and two other MC-90 Calamari Cruisers that belonged to battle group five. In excess of thirty Corellian Gunships were in support roles, but they stuck close to the big cruisers. They were primarily to pick off any Coralskippers that wanted to try and batter the shields down. So far it seemed to be effective.
Just to his left, Anakin saw his Uncle Luke's fighter drop from the cargo bay of the Jade Shadow and glide majestically to the head of the formation. His voice resonated from the general channel, "May the force be with you. All of you."
And you too, Uncle Luke.
Anakin flicked his comm channel just in time to hear his sister calling to the Rogues.
"Colonel Darklighter, this is Lieutenant Jania Solo travelling with Anakin Solo. We request permission to join Rogue Squadron for the duration of this mission. Come back," she announced. There was a burst of static, and then the familiar sound of an encrypt program running.
"Sticks, this is Colonel Darklighter. You and your brother are welcome to form up. You're twelve, and Anakin, you'll have to be designated Rogue thirteen for now," He said quickly. Anakin smiled.
"Affirmative lead," he responded, bringing his XJ-3 fighter around to vector toward the rest of the Rogues. Jania's voice now, on a private channel to him. "Alright, Thirteen. We're a wing pair now. Follow my lead, keep your senses open, and whatever you do don't get shot up, okay?" she instructed.
"Yes, Sticks," he responded. The fact that they were a wing pair meant that Rogue Eleven must have been killed. Anakin wondered if Jania knew who that was. Of course she did, she knows every Rogue back to front, no matter how new they are.
They were fast approaching the battle now, and Anakin was able to distinguish individual Yuuzhan Vong ships and their pilots from each other. Though their signals were distorted, they were none the less loud and very present. It was a sense that would give Anakin an unprecedented advantage in flight.
"Three ahead. You take number three," Jania ordered. Their force connection to each other meant that they could also communicate much quicker than any other Rogue. Jania had designated each skip a number, sent that to Anakin, and then ordered him to take the third.
"Affirmative," he said. He didn't want to waste his torpedoes or shadow bombs, so he set his lasers for quad fire and angled in at the same degree as his sister. His targeting reticule went red, and he tightened down on the trigger. A single laser bolt skitted away a hair before the other three, distracting the Dovin Basal shield system. His three laser bolts hit home, forcing the skip into an uncontrolled dive. Seconds later, it broke apart.
He checked his readout, and found Jania had taken her two skips already. He exhaled in astonishment. His sister was good.
His danger sense tingled, and he sensed five skips inbound on them. Four of them converged on Jania's X-wing. "Sticks, dive, now!" he shouted. Jania nosed down instinctively, and throttled to maximum. Anakin let the force guide his hand, and pulled around to fire on the skips following her. He was cued by the mystical power, and tightened the trigger. A blue torpedo streaked away into the centre of the four skips. I don't remember selecting torpedoes.
The warhead exploded violently, utterly disintegrating the four ships. Excellent, four down. Now he only needed worry about the one on his tail. Strange, he could no longer sense it. "Thanks, Little Brother. You're clear," Jania reported to him.
"Thanks, Sticks."
"The Ralroost is taking hits, Little Brother. Follow me on that frigate analog," she ordered. Anakin didn't reply, merely kept pace with her manoeuvre. By force agreement, they both utilised their shadow bombs.
At the same time, Jania and Anakin unleashed a pair of shadow bombs each. They immediately turned and vectored away, but still guided their bombs at the frigate. In his mind, Anakin could see the coral frigate incinerating as a bright orange flare erupted behind him. A flare in his danger sense prompted him to dodge out of the way of a magma missile and a skip on his tail. Setting his throttle back and cutting sharply left, Anakin got the ship in his sights. Tightening on his trigger, he blew it out of existence.
Excellent. That was a total of five skips. He was an ace of Rogue Squadron already.
"Don't celebrate too long, Little Brother. We've got six skips converging on lead. We've got to aid him, now." Jania stated. Her voice was very professional, emotionless. For the first time, Anakin truly admired his sister for what she did. She was one of the best fighter pilots in the galaxy, and a real hero.
"Affirmative, Sticks. After you," he replied.
Swooping in toward the X-wing marked Rogue Leader, Anakin and Jania each took three targets, using lasers only. Jania set her lasers for dual fire, while Anakin remained on quad shot. Jania's first skip evaporated, then her second. Her third looped away, and tried to take a bead on its new attacker. All of this before Anakin had even managed to centre his first skip in his sights.
He tightened his trigger, and sheared target one into two pieces. Then both of the other skips broke in opposite directions, switching their targets from Colonel Darklighter to Anakin. Letting the force guide his course of action, Anakin nosed right and fired a quad blast just above the skip – just as the pilot suddenly climbed to get out of his sights. All four shots struck home, burning and melting coral.
An instant later, he slammed his yoke forward and went into a sharp dive. He couldn't understand why he had done it – his target skip had banked right to get behind him. But, as any sensible Jedi would do, he trusted in the force. It was only a second before he had his explanation.
A high concentration of plasma balls and magma missiles cut through the spot he would have been had he not dived. Their source was what seemed to be a corvette analog, but it bristled with greater numbers of smaller weapons. This must have been the Yuuzhan Vong equivalent of a Lancer Frigate. To save confusion, he had Fiver designate it as the Lancer.
He felt his target ship's life sign wink out in the force – Jania had cut back around and taken it out. He spoke quickly to her. "Sticks, Cover me on a run against the Lancer," he instructed. Even though he was under her command, such a request was quite acceptable.
To his surprise, Colonel Darklighter's voice answered him "you are covered, Thirteen."
"On both sides, Little Brother," Jania's voice. Anakin smiled, and brought his reticule around to face the big ship. The smaller weapons on the ship were also much faster than the big launchers on other Vong Ships. It meant that trying to get a clear shot at the Lancer would be difficult at best.
Jinking at every opportunity, letting the force guide which way he ducked or juked, Anakin prepared a single shadow bomb. That was all that would be required to put the Lancer out of commission. Two skips began heading directly for him, their plasma weapons closing to range. Ah, Jania…
One second before they would have been able to hit him, Gavin and Jania both pumped two quad bursts into each of their targets. Colonel Darklighter's skip detonated in a brilliant coral cloud, but Jania's managed to absorb both bursts with its Dovin Basal. It was still forced to pull out, though.
Waiting for his cue from the force, Anakin got a good grip on the torpedo in his banks. And then it was time – the angle perfect, the Lancer's weapons on recycle, the distance between ships optimal. He released the shadow bomb and swooped away, Colonel Darklighter and Jania keeping with his every move.
"Thirteen, why didn't you fire?" the Colonel's voice asked, sounding clam but irritated.
"I did fire, lead," Anakin informed him. He had forgotten that Shadow bombs were still a relatively new innovation on behalf of the Jedi. The results would speak for themselves, however. Still directing the bomb behind him, he felt it reach the bulkhead of the Lancer. Behind him was the familiar brilliant orange flash, and he didn't need the force to imagine Colonel Darklighter's surprised yet satisfied expression.
"Neat trick, Thirteen. Sticks, Rogue seven is without wingman. Help him out. Thirteen, form up on me," Colonel Darklighter ordered. An excited grin on his face, Anakin throttled up to maximum.
"Yes, sir," he complied.
* * *
"Two from above, Corran," Luke Skywalker warned his fellow Jedi pilot. He saw Corran's ship dive, and thought no more of it. Corran was among the most capable pilots in the galaxy, he could handle himself.
His danger sense flared, and he found himself climbing 90 degrees to his previous course. A flight of four Coralskippers zipped past his exhaust, and then looped around to follow him again. Settling into the force, Luke cut sharply to starboard, bringing his throttle back to one third. It gave him a turning circle that surpassed anything the skips could manage at their speed, and he found himself immediately in a good position to fire.
His lasers set to quad shot, he fired once – and scored a kill. He fired a second time.
Two Kills.
Banking to port, he fired a third time and scored a third kill. Just he took aim on the final skip, Corran Horn's cycling lasers burned through it, rendering it inoperable.
"Thanks, Corran," Luke said.
"Returning a favour, Farmboy," Corran replied.
There was a crackle on his comm coming from the general fleet frequency. "This is Admiral Traest Kre'fey on the Ralroost. We are taking hits from a Cruiser Analog and are loosing shields. We need help now," the Bothan Admiral's voice was calm, but Luke felt the strong tension that registered in the force. Their ship would not last long.
"Rogue Squadron responding," he heard Colonel Darklighter's voice. Not surprising, the Ralroost is their mothership. Luke knew that Anakin and Jania would also be participating in the assault, and ached to join them. Their efforts, however, were tied up here distracting a Skip carrier from the Viscount.
"Sabers, Wild Knights, Kyp's Dozen, continue your attacks. Shadow, Horn, on me," he ordered. Luke could sense Mara's relief that she would be going to aid the Rogues, and also Corran's mild inconvenience to be pulled out of his current battle.
The three ships formed up, and blasted off to save the Ralroost.
* * *
As Anakin approached the Cruiser analog that was relentlessly chewing through the Ralroost's shields he got an increased sense of timidity. The Coralskippers seemed concentrated, and there was barely a second when his danger sense wasn't screaming at him. Bouncing his X-wing, rolling, banking, juking, skipping, inverting – anything to stay out of the way of magma missiles and plasma balls.
If Colonel Darklighter can do it without the force, then I will be just fine, Anakin reassured himself.
The Ralroost's shields were at approximately forty three percent efficiency, and failing by about six percent with every thirty seconds. It did not have long.
"Sticks, Thirteen – the Rogues have you covered. Make a full-speed run at the cruiser analog using those shadow bombs of yours and then fall back. Unload as much as you can on the first run," Colonel Darklighter ordered.
"Affirmative," Jania responded for both of them. Accelerating to full throttle, Anakin opened himself fully to the force and again let it guide his piloting. His shadow bombs armed, he approached the gigantic cruiser from its starboard underside. He waited for his cue, and kept wary for Coralskippers.
"Little Brother, come back around and head in at my new angle. Shadow bombs ineffective from this side," Jania ordered. Not questioning his more experienced sister, Anakin banked away and positioned himself at the angle his sister had designated.
He immediately saw why. The cruiser analog was swelled at both ends, too thick for even shadow bombs to do significant damage to. However, from this angle he had a clear shot at the centre of the big cruiser where the Yorik coral was thinnest. From this point of view, the ship should break in half.
Instead of waiting for a force cue, this time Anakin simply fired his four bombs after Jania did hers. Neither pilot dared stay close to the cruiser while the bombs were inbound, and headed back to where the rest of the Rogues were tied up shooting out Coralskippers.
For all the distance between the cruiser and his X-wing, the shock wave was still strong enough to rock the craft and threaten to stall it. Luckily, it stayed online and at full power. A quick check of his rear vision showed the cruiser badly damaged, and slowly drifting into two halves. That victory was soured, however, when he noticed the escape pods spewing from the Ralroost.
"Appreciate the help, Rogues, but our systems are at zero functionality. I've given the order to abandon ship. Cover us, if you can," Admiral Kre'fey's voice asked. The positive response from Colonel Darklighter belied the fact that three rogues had died in that assault on the cruiser.
"Count on us, Admiral," he responded.
"We're here to cover you, Admiral," came a new voice. Anakin recognised it as his uncle's, and immediately stretched out through the force to find him. There he was, along with his aunt Mara and Corran Horn, scattering a new wave of inbound Skips.
Their arrival made Anakin feel just that much safer, but something in the force was nagging at him. At this rate, the battle would never be won.
* * *
Corran Horn swooped down behind a skip and vaped it with a perfectly position quad burst from his lasers. From the Ralroost, the first of the escape pods was launching. The Bothan assault cruisers had a very convenient system of launching their escape pods in waves, designed for specifically this situation. A tight knot of escape pods was much easier to defend than a string of single pods.
"Kre'fey here. We're going to run for the Viscount and land in her reserve fighter bay on the starboard side. Distance between ships can be covered in three minutes. Each wave will launch at five minute intervals to give the fighters time to run cover and regroup," he informed the covering fighters.
"Affirmative, Admiral," Gavin Darklighter answered on behalf of all the X-wings.
"Corran, five coming in planetside. They're ours," Luke instructed him, pulling in front and to the right of Corran's fighter. He sent a confirmation through the force, and throttled up even with him.
It was easy for Corran to bracket the leader of the formation, but he sensed that Luke had already targeted that one. He dropped down a couple of metres, and centred his sights on the centre skip. Setting his lasers to cycle, Corran opened at maximum range, every so often snagging the fighter in front or behind of his target skip.
While the Dovin Basals were distracted, Corran fired one of five remaining torpedoes. It streaked away, closing the distance between them in seconds. The explosion of the warhead destroyed the centre fighter and the two skips either side of it, but the final and first fighters got away cleanly.
Flicking his weapons back to quad fire, he accelerated to maximum and began tracking the last fighter – he sensed Luke fire on and destroy the leader. The fifth fighter began a lazy loop that seemed like tactical suicide to Corran. It would bring him directly into his laser brackets. Well, I can't help it if the Vong pilots are that depressed. Waiting for the right time, his finger hovered on the trigger.
Corran only had a seconds warning.
"Corran, Dive, now!" a familiar but momentarily forgotten voice screamed at him.
Slamming his ship into a downward spiral and accelerating past what was recommended safe by the inertial compensator, he almost managed to completely avoid the torrent of magma missiles and plasma discharges that sizzled through the space he had just occupied.
"Clearing your back," the voice said again. He recognised it now, as Gavin Darklighter's, an old squadmate from when he was with the Rogues.
"Thanks, kid," he said. There was a burst of static that could have been a snort or just interference. Because of his fighter pilot's ego, Corran took it that Gavin was amused. With that thought, Corran cut back around to help in the clearing of his back.
