Space hung around them like a veil. Clear and soft, it hid their intentions in stillness.
The squadrons split into their formations, diving away from each other like the points of a compass. Lingering by the side of the Queen of Air, Elenia saw few of her fellow Sabres. They were to her back, to her far side – across or under the assault ship. In the distance she could see tiny blue-lit engines of the other cards as they protected their own ships.
Haluki 5 was before her as they fell into its gravity. The holos made it look orange, but it was a steel color. Seen through the blue aura of atmosphere patches of green almost looked like overgrown ponds.
The blue became fainter, and then transparent as they entered high orbit.
That was her cue.
She drifted easily to port. The orbital platform came into view.
Lead's voice crackled through the comm, "Keep it busy."
Elenia circled around, putting a decent angular distance between her and the platform. She throttled into a dive, fingers itching to pull the trigger. She waited. They all had their tricks and this was as good a time as any to practice hers.
She adjusted the shallowness of her angle, allowing herself to dive past the capsule, toward the atmosphere. Before she hit, she leveled and cut the engines – bouncing off the very thin air with her shields. Elenia came at the platform from beneath, which was admittedly where most of the guns were.
"Did those mods hold, Three?" asked Emitai.
She grinned, "Roger, Six. Worked like a charm, my favorite trick did."
She didn't have too long to gloat; the automated guns had been activated and she was hurtling toward them. Firing would be advisable. Elenia took her own advice, letting loose pulses of laser fire at the gun embankment.
The platform returned fire. She jinked starboard, arcing through flashes of red as the guns tracked her. She dodged back from its range, lurking in the relative safe zone between the angular ranges of two sets of guns.
"Nice to see you again," wheezed Keir, hovering nearby. "You're insane. You know that, right?"
"The guns are the weak point in the armor," she retorted.
"Like I said, insane."
Lead's modified Aethersprite streaked past, splashing red laser fire on the shell of the platform. He dove underneath, path swerving and dodging like a nervous waveform. Elenia saw lines between plates light up hotly in his aftermath.
"Ten, Eleven, Twelve – form up for an attack run," commanded Fyvve's voice.
Elenia didn't see them nearby; they were on the other side. The Queen] was preparing to launch the gunships and landers. Not much longer then before they could begin their attack in earnest.
Fyvve's squad outlined the capsule in bright fire. Elenia squinted against it until her astromech adjusted the opacity of her canopy.
"Thanks, R8."
It beeped humbly in response.
She commed Keir, "So, Four, wanna go again?"
"Not the way you do."
She dove anyway, wheedling into her mike as she did so, "You know you want to . . ."
Keir swore and followed her.
She again targeted the guns as she swooped past. The guns followed her movements; she was too busy dodging to get any hits in. Keir tailed her, his own fire splashing against the gun turret.
It glowed briefly before the coolants dispersed the heat.
Elenia laughed as they flew to another safe zone, "That's team work, that is."
A few other Sabres idled next to them. Elenia eyed the fighters, waiting for the inevitable "cut the chatter" command. Instead, Lead informed them, "Troop deployment is over. Looks like our escort service is closed for business."
There were a few wry snickers as they reformed into their squads. Sidling her 'sprite up beside Lead's, she asked, "So what's the plan, Master?"
There was a staticky pause, "We move together. Target the guns and the seams between the plates – they're thin, but you can see them if you look. Break it apart. Make it overheat."
Guns blazing, they went back in. Elenia followed Lead's trail, hitting the bright spots his lasers opened up. She knew Keir was doing the same behind her, and Hurana behind him.
Space seemed baked with laser fire. Fyvve's squad soared down and around Elenia's 'sprite and she swore she felt a shudder. An explosion seared the top of the capsule as she came over it – Mully's squad arced from it. The squads ringed the capsule like crashing satellites.
She kept squeezing the trigger. A bright flash scored above her canopy. She dipped down. A laser gazed her underside. She rolled away and back, juked down and then up and then spiraled down. The gun before her was red and then white. It exploded before her eyes.
"Back off!"
For a moment she thought it was a reprimand. Then she saw the seams of the platform glow white. Lead's 'sprite tumbled past hers, falling toward the planet. She joined him in a controlled dive.
"R8, shade to maximum!"
The platform exploded vividly against the stars as she fell, orange and yellow licking toward the circle of the sky.
₪₪₪
Tellan watched an intricately painted Aethersprite arc away from the explosion through the dimness of his canopy, not entirely aware what he was witnessing. Then he saw other Aethersprites behind it, wings cutting lines through the air, and he remembered.
One pilot pulled away from beside him. He hadn't expected that.
When the Aethersprites were out of visual range, following a curved path to just beyond the target sites, only half of the squadron remained. Tellan wasn't sure who – he had lost track of that in the battle. And he hadn't particularly distinguished between them before the battle either.
A voice hissed at him from the comm, "This is Flask Leader. You Sabres need a little help out there?"
"Negative, Flask. We finished it off," replied Lieutenant Kadru's cultured tones.
"On our own," cut in Ensign Jagur.
He knew two who had stayed now. The Ensign was no surprise, considering the scene he'd made. Tellan would not have suspected Lieutenant Kadru, however. She had seemed on Ensign Tuppins' side.
"Hey, just wondering why you were lazing around down there," replied Flask Leader.
They hadn't noticed. Nor had Tellan, to be truthful. At once the squadron wakened themselves and turned their noses from the paths their fellows had followed. They accelerated to the tier of space the other squadrons occupied.
It was not that Tellan did not understand. He had seen this impetuousness of spirit in others, and a number of holovids. He had also seen their irreverence and silly hijinks and he knew, admittedly more from the vids than the people, that it was a defense mechanism.
But it was not his.
In the mean time, it seemed the Coins were trying to recruit his squadron into a game of Maro Volo.
₪₪₪
Anakin could see lines of white armor along the horizon, closing on their target. They were highlighted against the gray planetary soil. Still, he adjusted his course. If he could see them, they might see him.
They were arcing wide around both the stage of the attack and the targeted locations. Toward where Anakin hoped the droid controls had been laid.
"Hey, Master," started Elenia and he really did try not to tense at the title, "the battle's over there."
Anakin felt a momentary pang of regret. Maybe he should have spent the extra time with them explaining his plan rather than arguing with them.
"We're not going to the battle, Three." He ignored the whirr of relief from his astromech. "We're trying to stop it. Look for protrusions from the landscape. Anything that doesn't quite look like it belongs, it could be the droid control center."
Understandably, after the Battle of Naboo, the Trade Federation had become interested in decentralizing the often-targeted control centers of the droids – removing them from the ships their crews manned. In the early days of the Clone War, this plan had manifested in small orbital stations like that which the Sabres had just nicely exploded. However, since permanent outposts had been established, the risk of proclaiming a droid army to visitors by leaving the control in orbit had become too high.
His pilots took his orders to heart; Anakin watched as several indecently shaped pillars of rock were summarily strafed and destroyed. For his part he watched for the more likely depressions of earth and set R10 to scan for unusual energy signatures.
He flew lower, hugging the contours of the surface, and barrel rolled for a better look.
Upright again, he was in the midst of melting a suspicious patch of dirt when his comm crackled.
"Milord," started Fyvve, with some shock, "I don't think those belong."
He snapped his attention forward – toward the battle site. Before him, nearly hidden in gray shades that blended with the dull steel of the soil, lay an armada of Separatist ships.
Anakin swore colorfully in Huttese.
"Sir?"
Anakin flipped the comm to all ships, "We've got trouble down here. Capital ships. Sector 24, lat 45.22 long 95.18."
There was a buzz of shock over the comm But Anakin didn't have the time. Snub fighters were spilling from the ship bays.
The fighters were small, little more than an engine and a gun, and not particularly equipped for atmospheric combat. Separatist tactics usually relied on numbers rather than any sort of skill.
Anakin accelerated into the black cloud of fighters. The other squadrons would arrive soon, but he needed to keep as many Separatist fighters from the army as he could.
₪₪₪
It was already a pitched battle when Obi-Wan heard Anakin's warning on the gunship comm. His lieutenant had checked in from the mine; ricochet and tight spaces were making for slow going. On the ground beneath him, Obi-Wan's clones were fighting apace with expectations, but that encouraged him no more than death ever did.
When Obi-Wan heard Anakin's words, his very first thought was, What in blazes are you doing in Sector 24? But that was swiftly followed by disheartening realization, You were right.
In the distance he could see flashes of laser fire. He could only imagine the destruction his former Padawan was wreaking on the automated fighters. Despite himself, he smiled slightly. There was nothing Anakin hated more than machines flying by themselves.
Then he saw the fighters that got past Anakin streaking toward his troops.
"Pilot, evasive maneuvers." He needn't have worried about his gunship; the fighters targeted the land troops. "Shoot them down," he corrected himself, even as he knew that a gunship was no match for the speed or agility of a small fighter.
He could only watch as his troops were strafed.
₪₪₪
With the full assembly of squadrons, the automated fighters became easy work, but Anakin was not surprised when he heard the order for retreat.
The Sabres broke off to cover the troops as they fled to their transports. They had to move quickly, before the Separatist ships mobilized and launched.
As Anakin watched the first transports lift off for their own capital ships, maintaining relatively low altitude nearby, Flask Leader's voice came over his comm.
"How'd you know, Skywalker?"
I didn't, Anakin frowned to himself
Based on characters and situations created by George Lucas, copyright Lucasfilm Ltd. Not for sale, no copyright infringement intended.