Ch – 5 – waking and fighting

Loren frowned, the expression looking out of place on her beautiful visage. She had her head lying on Sean's chest and was silently studying him. I can't bring myself to hate him, even if I tried I couldn't. Burned into her mind was her hate for the empire and everything it stood for but that didn't apply to the men she had grown to know. The squadron was an extended family which she had never had, and Sean was her best friend though she sometimes caught herself thinking of him as more.

She knew that today was the first day of active service for Sean and his team. They were going to be thrown against the rebels and the pirates in the sector like a finely crafted spear. She knew he would kill rebels, people she looked up too, but she still could not hate him for it, any of it. Sighing she leaned into the crook of his arm for a few moments of peace before the hell of the day was cast upon them.

The pilots had gathered into the new squadron ready room. They were all now members of the newly formed Imperial Knights. Their shoulder patches showing a finely crafted sword with the imperial ensign set in the handle.

Sean took his time moving his eyes from face to face, his friends, his pilots. They had all eaten and were sitting in small groups chatting. For most of the pilots it seemed like an eternity before they heard the klaxon sound. After it did the chief's voice boomed through out the ship, "Attention all hands, rebel corvettes have attacked the orbital base on Sheridan, battle stations, we will enter the system in ten minuets; fighters prepare for launch."

Everyone in the room jumped up and ran for the door at the same time.

The Rebel corvettes Vindicator, Indefatigable, and Glory came out of hyperspace surrounded by their fighter screen of X-wings. The two attached A-wings flew out to point and the ships lumbered forward. The X-wings made torpedo runs to soften up the instillation then the bigger ships attacked. They flew around the station fairing cannons and torpedoes, along with the fighters. The heavy weapons on the station were ineffectual against the swarm of small fast ships and the space around it turned green as its shields buckled. The whole station shook, and parts of the armor ran down the sides in rivers of molten metal. Air leaked out and burned from hull breaches, and the hanger blew apart before most of the fighters could launch. Those few that did were cut to pieces because they were alone and didn't know what to do without orders.

Aboard the bridge of the Indefatigable same time

"Sir, the station is coming apart, it has lost all weapons and cannot sustain its orbit. Estimate it will break up in the atmosphere in five minuets."

"Understood, get us out of here."

Before the order could be passed along, space coughed up a Victory class star destroyer.

Cursing, the rebel captain called out, "Belay my last, X-wings hold off the bombers as long as possible then get out of here, corvettes make for the rally point now!"

The TIE interceptors from the Knights pounced on the A-wings before they were able to retreat and both were destroyed in seconds by the massive volume of fire. Then the interceptors broke off into fire teams and tried to make an end run around the X-wings. The X-wing commander smartly had only part of his force move to them. In this time the rest of the command had launched from the fury and was bearing down on the line of X-wings. The interceptors broke from fire teams to wing pairs and got into their formation before the superior firepower of the rebel ships could be effective. Jinking to avoid missiles and shots the X-wings were kept from taking a meaningful part of the second dogfight happening a short distance away.

The main flight of X-wings had killed two TIE fighters but they had already lost a ship and they were being driven back by the well coordinated TIE fire teams. Despite their attempts to get through they hadn't been able to get at the bombers in the middle of the formation.

Seconds later the bombers reached torpedo range to the retreating corvettes as they began to make the transition to hyperspace. The Glory suffered twelve strikes to the engine room and exploded in a huge flash.

The remaining ships broke up and made it to hyperspace. The TIE interceptors had killed the other two x-wings sent to hold them off.

"Knights check in." Sean called out as soon as the rebels had fled. Three people would never check in. The rebel losses were far worse, five star fighters and a corvette.