After using the short time he had bought by influencing some employees of the medical center, it was finally time. Time for the Jedi Luke Skywalker to finally surrender to both the Master of Evil and the Empire, as all should have been from the start.
The sinister being pushed the communications button and relayed his orders.
After making sure that Luke was all right, wasn't going to faint, didn't want to take a nap, and didn't want a glass of water, Leia allowed the conversation to continue, though she still kept a sharp eye on her brother. She debated calling an emergency meeting and telling the Council about the new threat, but then she decided that she needed proof before doing so.
And she was about to get some proof, although it wasn't the kind she expected.
"And then the gornt said, 'Why not?' And—" Han was cut off in the middle of his joke by Leia's comlink, which demanded her attention.
As Leia pulled up her comlink, she neglected to notice the look of surprise and concentration on his brother-in-law's face.
Scowling, Han told Mara and Luke, "That's her private comlink. They're not supposed to use it unless there's an emergency...It's probably Ackbar, concerned about some reckless smuggler who g—"
Leia hushed her husband with her hand, carrying on a conversation with the caller before finally stating, "We're on our way."
"What is it?" Han shot to his feet. He had a bad feeling about what she was going to say, and he knew that it more than likely had to do with the being Luke had sensed.
Her face grim, Leia turned to him and told him what Luke already knew via the Force. "Coruscant's under attack."
And so, after having received a little more information, Han and Chewie went off to the Falcon, Leia off to Mon Mothma's side, and Luke and Mara off to the Jade's Fire. Mara Jade wasn't happy about his touching her pride and joy, but she wasn't happy about the fleet of Star Destroyers above Coruscant either.
Mara took the controls, and Luke took the guns. They got clearance from a panicked young human, and the Jade's Fire shot toward space.
"Holy—"
"Sith," Mara finished for Luke.
And 'Holy Sith' pretty much summed it all up.
There were more battle-ready Star Destroyers out above Coruscant than should have been in existence, and there were also several new, powerful ships that the Republic had never encountered.
Although they didn't know it, the strange fighters that came buzzing out of the Star Destroyers were Tatin Fighters, and the big ships that weren't quite Victory-Class Star Destroyer-size had been dubbed Imperial Assault Frigates, a sort of mockery of the Rebel Assault Frigates. But the Imperial Assault Frigates had four times as much firepower as Rebel Assault Frigates, and they possessed even better shields.
There were also various ships buzzing around and causing havoc for the ships that the Republic sent to defend the planet. They looked like they had been scrounged up from an old shipyard or belonged to hired mercenaries, but despite their seemingly unorganized appearance they packed quite a punch.
The line of TIE Fighters, Bombers, Interceptors, and other Imperial fighters that came out of the Star Destroyers seemed to never end, and the continually arriving reinforcements that came from Coruscant had trouble keeping them at bay.
Mumbling incoherently, Luke sent off a few blasts at two TIE Fighters, and he noted with satisfaction that both blew up.
But he was not pleased to see that their place was taken by two more TIEs and the strange Tatin Fighters that he had never seen before.
Mara twisted the Jade's Fire to avoid their fire, and Luke managed to graze one before hitting his head on the wall. "Watch it!" he exclaimed.
"Deal with it, Skywalker," came the redhead's reply as she dodged more laser bolts. "A little more pain'll do you good. It might teach you a Jedi lesson or some such nonsense."
"Woohoo!" a voice shouted over the comm as a TIE left their plane of existence.
"Solo always has tried to show off," Mara snorted. "Too bad he's never succeeded."
"Well, let's show him what showing off really is!" Luke grinned, plunging into the Force for better accuracy.
Time seemed to slow down for him, and pinpointing the exact spot he should shoot at to extinguish the lifeforce of enemy fighters was easier than ever.
One, two, three...Five fighters down.
"Not bad for a farmboy," Mara whistled.
But his concentration was fully focused on one thing: annihilation.
Thinking about it later, he grudgingly admitted to himself that he might have been dabbling in the Dark Side, since all he'd been thinking about was the kill. But then he argued with himself that he was focused on killing to prevent deaths.
Whatever the motives, his mind was determinedly on the track of killing the attackers.
"My emperor?" the Imperial Captain swallowed. He gained a nod from the figure before him, and he continued to speak. "Thirty percent of Coruscant's defense fleet has been eradicated, but reinforcements have come out of hyperspace. Shall we send out more TIE Fighters?"
"No," the man before the nervous officer rumbled. "But send out the H'tis Fighters I recently designed."
"But, my lord, they have not yet been tested against enemy f—" the brave but slightly nervous man was cut off.
"All the better, Captain Piett. Let the Rebels be the first to discover their true power."
"Yes, m'lord."
"What in blazes are those?!" Mara snarled as the first of the H'tis Fighters poured out of the only Super-Class Star Destroyer in the Imperial fleet.
The fighters were more agile than sabercats and had immensely powerful blasters. Unfortunately, none of the blasts that Republic forces spat out at them seemed to have any effect.
"Beats me," Luke shouted, trying to track a particularly evasive TIE Interceptor with his guns. "But it looks we're about to find out."
"That's really reassuring, Skywalker. Surely, you couldn't be more tactical and say something like, 'Beats me, but we'll blow them out of the sky'? No, not you. You'd think you confident Jedi would try to—"
"Mara!"
"Yes?"
"Shut up and fly the ship."
Han Solo let out a war-cry as he blasted another fighter out of the sky. Chewbacca rolled his eyes but concentrated on flying.
"General Solo," the comm unit crackled.
"Private Solo here," Han said, emphasizing the fact that he was no longer on the New Republic's payroll.
"A squadron of X-wings, Y-wings, and a few miscellaneous ships are going to make a run on the Star Destroyer on—" the woman rattled off the coordinates. "Will you join them?"
"Sure. Why not?" Han answered. He cut off the comm. "What would be more fun than making a suicide run on an Imperial-Class Star Destroyer? Too bad it isn't the much bigger Super-Class Star Destroyer with a few more teeth," he grumbled sarcastically.
Then Han turned a little more serious. "You hear them, Chewie?" he yelled at his copilot. "We're going for a ride!"
Put simply, the battle was harsh. The New Republic's forces were greatly outnumbered by the Imperials—the NR had assumed, wrongly, that Imperial forces were dwindling down when in actuality they had been gathering together in great numbers. However, it had not been so long since the Rebellion that the New Republic forces forgot how to fight a battle when the odds were against them.
They put up the fight of their life, and during the battle, the blood of many Imperial and New Republic lives was shed.
It seemed that no one was winning, and no one was losing...
But many...were dying.
The Jade's Fire was also asked to go on a run against a Star Destroyer, though they were taking on the Super-Class Star Destroyer, the Eradicator. Luke sent out a stream of laser bolts after a H'tis Fighter before blasting at the gargantuan Eradicator. Suddenly, the ship was jarred, and Mara cursed.
"What happened?" Luke asked, almost afraid of the answer, for the dark presence was nearer than ever.
"Tractor beam," she answered shortly.
"Stang." Luke was silent a moment. "I don't suppose we could try that umm, one maneuver—"
"The one that had you stranded in space where you could have permanently stayed or been picked up by Imperials if it hadn't been for me?"
"All right. So it was a bad idea."
"No, really?" Mara's voice dripped with sarcasm.
"We have them, my emperor," Piett stated.
"Good."
"Time is growing short," the solemn Jedi told the woman and alien before him. "They will soon be captured by him, and I fear the worst."
"Hate to ask you this, we do, but our only choice, it is," the alien said in an almost mournful voice.
"I thought the request would be best coming from the both of us...I know going through with it may dig up painful memories, but it would be even more painful to not try to take methods of prevention."
The woman remained silent, and the alien spoke, "If with his plan he continues, then doomed are we all. Help you must, for the final breaking point you could be."
Closing her eyes with a pained expression, the woman whispered, "I will go."