Hello once again, my friends, and welcome back. It brings me immeasurable happiness that you enjoy my tales so. Great triumphs and great falls so often accompany one another, but it is important to remember that no matter how bleak the future seems, there is always a glimmer of hope.

We pick up exactly where we left off. The First Order reigns. Having destroyed the fleet and capital of the peaceful New Republic in one fell swoop, Supreme Leader Snoke now deploys his merciless legions to seize military control of the world.

Only General Leia Organa's band of Resistance fighters stand against the rising tyranny, certain that Jedi Master Luke Skywalker will return and restore a spark of hope to the fight.

But the Resistance has been exposed. As the First Order speeds toward the rebel base, the brave heroes mount a desperate escape.

Under the late morning sun off the coast of D'Qar, the ships of the Resistance fleet steamed away in a long convoy the likes of which hadn't been seen since the age of the Rebellion. The Mon Calamari built Raddus led the evacuation, with an obsolete hammerhead cargo frigate, a Bunkerbuster corvette, the medical frigate Anodyne, and dozens of transport airships trailing behind. Together, they turned coal and steam into speed, heading for the rendezvous near Naboo while escorts of crosswings flew overhead.

On the ground, remaining personnel debated what they could afford to leave behind.

"...there are still thirty crates of cannon shells in Bunker C."

"Forget the munitions, there's no time. Just get everyone on the transports."

All chatter ceased at the distant soft boom of large Hyperion gates opening off shore. Five First Order capital ships emerged with their metal prows pointed directly at the convoy. In the middle of the formation was the Siege Dreadnought Fulminatrix.

The deck officer of the Raddus turned to Poe. "They found us."

Poe blew out his cheeks. "Well, we knew that was coming." He put on his pilot helmet and tapped his comm crystal. "Connix, what's your status?"

"Still loading the last batch of transports."

"I'll buy you some time."

On the bridge of the Finalizer, Captain Edrison Peavey sneered at the Resistance's pathetic excuse for a fleet. He turned to General Armitage Hux. "We've caught them in the middle of their evacuation."

Hux scowled. "I have my orders from Supreme Leader Snoke himself. This is where we snuff out the Resistance once and for all. Tell Captain Canady to run out his dreadnought's guns. Obliterate their base, shoot down their flying machines, and annihilate their fleet."

The two colossal fore and aft siege cannon turrets on the Fulminatrix's top deck slowly rotated towards D'Qar. Inside, elevators, cranes, and winches raised titanic shells into the open cannon breeches. So large were these shells that not even two men would have the combined arm span to fully encircle them. Bags filled with powder enough to feed the guns of an entire army followed and the breeches were sealed.

Before Hux could give Canady the order to fire, the Finalizer's chief communications officer interrupted. "General, Resistance crosswing approaching."

Hux frowned. "A single crosswing?"

He looked to Captain Peavey, who shrugged in bewilderment.

In his cradle behind Poe Dameron, Bibi-Eit beeped and warbled nervously.

Poe slowed his crosswing Black One by another degree. "Happy beeps here, buddy, come on. We've pulled crazier stunts than this."

General Leia Organa's voice came over his comm crystal. "Just for the record, Commander Dameron, I'm with the automaton on this one."

"Thank you for your support, General," Poe said sarcastically. He heaved a deep breath. "Happy beeps."

Poe stroked his comm crystal until the tuned it to the First Order's hailing channel. "Attention. This is Commander Poe Dameron of the New Republic fleet. I have an urgent communiqué for General Hugs."

Hux glared out at the slowly circling crosswing. "Patch him through." He waited for the communications officer's signal. "This is General Armitage Hux of the First Order. The New Republic is no more. Your fleet is nothing but rebel scum and war criminals. Tell your precious princess there will be no terms, there will be no surrender."

A pause.

"Hi, I'm holding for General Hugs?"

"This is Hux. You and your friends are doomed. We will wipe your filth from the face of the world."

Another pause.

"...Okay, I'll hold."

The red haired general blinked. "Hello?"

"Hello? Yup, I'm still here."

Captain Peavey raised an annoyed eyebrow.

Hux whipped his head to the comms officer. "Can he hear me?"

She nodded.

"He can," General Hux huffed.

"Hugs," Poe's voice said, "with an 'H.' Skinny guy. Kinda pasty."

"I can hear you. Can you hear me?"

Poe looked down at the runes for his magic missiles. Just two more locks to go. "Look, I can't hold forever. If you reach him, tell him Leia has an urgent message for him..."

Captain Peavey leaned over to Hux. "I believe he's tooling with you, sir."

"...about his mother," Poe finished.

All of Armitage Hux's composure and decorum vanished. "Open fire!"

The final rune turned from orange to green. "Showtime." Poe opened his throttle and hurtled towards the Fulminatrix with his engine cycling faster than it was ever designed to.

Captain Peavey frowned. "He's... going for the dreadnought."

Hux chuckled. "He's insane."

Poe hooted at the speed at which he was flying. "Whoo! That Corellian white oil's got a kick!"

Just off the Fulminatrix's bow, Poe pressed the first two runes. A pair of magic missiles launched from under his bottom set of wings and shot towards the antiair batteries they had locked onto. Again and again, Poe loosed the missiles, leaving vibrant blue tails behind them. Batteries up and down the Fulminatrix's deck exploded into balls of fire even as they tried in vain to take the crosswing down.

"All right," said Poe. "Tallie, batteries are almost neutralized. Cobalt Squadron is clear to start approach."

"Copy that, Poe."

Hux shook with silent rage as he watched. "Captain Canady! Why aren't you blasting that damn thing?!"

"That 'damn thing' is too small and at too close range. We need to scramble our fighters..." Canady cut the communication and stormed away. "...five bloody minutes ago."

Canady's lieutenant caught up to him. "He'll never penetrate our armor."

"He's not trying to penetrate our armor. He's clearing out the antiair batteries."

Poe loosed his penultimate missile and rolled to the side to avoid flying through the resultant fireball. "One cannon left. And here comes the parade."

A score of TIE fighters screamed towards Poe from the port side of the Fulminatrix. Bibi-Eit trilled in alarm as a skilled TIE pilot and his wingmen maneuvered behind Black One.

Poe swore. "Yeah, yeah! I see him!" He rolled, pitched, and yawed, trying to escape his pursuers.

A stream of shots from the TIE Ace streaked towards Poe with a glancing hit striking the rail holding the last missile. Poe pressed the rune to loose the missile only to hear a fizzle from his right wing.

"No, no, no! Damn it! Bibi-Eit, the missile's stuck! We gotta take out that last battery or our bombers are toast! Try and work your magic, buddy."

Bibi-Eit lowered his cradle and rolled inside the cramped fuselage, lighting his mage lamp as he went. The little micronaut looked up the inside of the lower right wing and honed in on the damaged rail connector. He extended a pair of grasping claws to try bending it back into shape.

Captain Canady marched to the Fulminatrix's gunnery control officer. "Are the siege cannons ready?"

"Loaded and sighted, sir."

"What are we waiting for? Fire on that base!"

Roaring louder than a thunderclap, the enormous guns unleashed their shells. So powerful was the recoil from the firing that the Fulminatrix shifted sideways and momentarily listed.

The Resistance members on the last airship transport watched the arc of the shells in terror. The pilot gunned the engines, praying that he had enough of a head start.

The first shell impacted near the medical bunker, sending an unimaginable amount of soil, stone, and metal into the sky. The second shot hit closer to the docks, leaving an enormous crater that immediately started to flood with seawater. Two rounds was all it took to completely wipe all trace of the base from the world.

The shockwaves from the blasts violently shook the airship, eliciting screams from those aboard. Several tears in the drumskin tight canvas skin appeared, but the tibanna gas bladders beneath mercifully stayed intact. The pilot pointed his bow towards the escaping fleet

Aboard the Raddus, a broadcast crystal chimed. "The last transport is in the air. The evacuation is complete."

Leia breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. She tapped her comm crystal. "You did it, Poe. Now get the squadron back here so we can get out of this place."

"No, General! We can do this. We have the chance to take out a Siege Dreadnought. So long as this thing exists it's a persistent threat to the fleet and any new base we try to establish. We can't let it get away!"

"Disengage now, Commander. That is an or-"

Poe turned off his comm crystal.

Leia grunted in exasperation. Threepio turned his head towards her.

"Wipe that nervous look off your face, Threepio."

"Oh. Well, I will certainly try, General."

Poe's flying had shaken the TIE Ace's wingmen, but not the Ace himself. Time was running out. He needed to not only take out the antiair battery but also thin out the TIEs before the bombers arrived. "Let's go, Bibi-Eit! It's now or never!"

Bibi-Eit had made little headway into bending the rail back into shape. What he needed was a hammer, but with neither one available nor a hand to hold it, the little micronaut decided to use what he had. He turned his head around and slammed the back of his head into the rail several times.

Though crudely done, the rail had been straightened enough. Poe pressed the rune again and hooted as the missile streaked towards the final battery.

The fireball hadn't even dissipated before Poe pulled a tight turn to engage the TIE fighters. The Ace was the first to feel Poe's guns, with a half-dozen more going down in flames within the next minute.

Poe roared, riding a wave of adrenaline. "All clear! Bring the bombs!"

One of the Fulminatrix's bridge officers stiffened. "Captain, Resistance bombers inbound."

Canady spat a vulgarity. "Of course they are."

The Skyfortress was a cargo airship modified into military use as a heavy bomber in the last days of the Rebellion against the Empire. Each Skyfortress had an omnidirectional ball turret on the top and bottom and had its vertically stacked cargo hold retrofitted to hold racks of hundreds of glass fuze bombs. They were slow but devastating and capable of destroying even the most heavily armored or shield warded targets.

The sound of propellers droned as ten Skyfortresses and their crosswing escorts made their approach. Tallie Lintra of Blue Squadron led them from the front in her inherited bladewing.

"Bombers, keep that tight formation. Fighters, protect the bombers. It's not every day we get a shot at a dreadnought, so let's make this count."

"Copy that, Blue Leader," said Finch Dallow of the Cobalt Hammer. "You get us there, we'll give it to them."

"TIEs incoming."

Tallie smirked. "Gunners, look alive."

The ball turret gunners of the Skyfortresses were the first to open fire, but it mattered very little as within seconds, the TIEs and crosswings alike filled the sky with explosive shot. A cacaphony of gunfire, exploding flying machines, and overlapping comms chatter drowned out everything else. The light shield wards around one of the Skyfortresses shattered and flames engulfed the envelope while the pilot sent out an unheard distress call.

"Reload the cannons," Captain Canady snarled. "Target their flagship."

The Fulminatrix's main guns started their turn towards the Raddus while another pair of shells rode their elevators.

Bibi-Eit chirped a warning to Poe.

"I see it. Tallie, they're turning the guns towards the fleet."

"Copy that. We're almost there." Tallie switched channels. "Bombardiers, begin your drop sequences."

The bomb bay doors of each Skyfortress opened in turn. Inside the lead bomber, the bombardier looked past the hundreds of vertically stacked bombs and watched the Fulminatrix's bow pass below. "I've got a visual on the target. We're approaching the sweet spot."

The bombardier pushed himself to his feet and collected a brass cylinder from nearby. He pressed his thumb against a rune on the side and a point of red light appeared on every one of his bombs. This same action occurred on all other Skyfortresses as well.

A TIE fighter started a strafing run towards one of the outermost Skyfortresses. His shots burst against the bomber's shield wards, which swirled with irredescence, but held. The gunner in the top turret fired a burst from his Moze gun and struck the First Order sky pilot. Almost immediately, the TIE rolled over and crashed into the Skyfortress' bomb bay, shattering the ward and detonating the hundreds of armed bombs.

Shockwaves, flaming shrapnel, and bombs flew in all directions. With as tight a formation as the bombers were in, a chain reaction was unavoidable. Massive explosions tore through one Skyfortress after another until all but one of them fell burning from of the air.

In the bottom turret of the Skyfortress Cobalt Hammer, Paige Tico stared in open-mouthed horror as every single other airship in the squadron went down with all crew. In the blink of an eye, dozens of friends that she had served alongside for years perished in flames.

Captain Canady sneered at the conflagration. Some of the burning bombers had crashed onto the Fulminatrix's deck, but that was nothing. Once the Resistance "fleet" was on the way to the seafloor, then he'd send out fire crews.

"Sir. Main guns sighted in. Forty seconds to fire."

Canady smiled with smug satisfaction, them frowned in dismay. One bomber had avoided the fate of its squadron mates and was still heading for its target. "Destroy that last bomber!"

TIEs and crosswings circled around the Cobalt Hammer as it neared the Fulminatrix's forward main cannon. Poe did a double take upon looking at the bottom of the final Skyfortress. "Cobalt Hammer, come in. You're almost over the target. Why aren't your bay doors open? You're the only bomber left, it's all up to you!"

Paige climbed out of her ball turret and into the bottom level of the bomb bay, pressing the rune to open the bay doors as she stood. She crossed the short gantry, passing the vertical bomb racks and looked up the ladder leading to the body of the airship. Sprawled over the edge of the hatch with her arm hanging down was the bombardier, Nix. Paige called out Nix's name, but she did not move.

"Cobalt Hammer," Poe shouted into his comm crystal. "Drop your payload now!"

Paige put her hands and feet on the ladder and started to climb. It took only a few seconds to reach the top and the unconscious but still breathing Nix. Next to her was the brass bomb controller and Paige reached out her hand to grab it.

A strafing run from a TIE fighter shattered the Cobalt Hammer's shield ward. Finch Dallow opened his mouth to yell, but a Moze shell punched through his cockpit's glass canopy and exploded before he made a sound.

The blast violently shook the Hammer and Paige lost her footing on the ladder. She fell and landed hard on the gantry below. Several holes in the gas bladders started to leak tibanna.

Paige opened her eyes with a gasp. Her shoulder had dislocated and all she could hear was a high pitched ringing, but neither of those things seemed as important as the brass controller sitting precariously over the edge of the hatch above her.

Paige shifted herself towards the ladder and cried out at the pain in her shoulder. She kicked the ladder, rattling it and making the controller twitch. She planted a second kick, harder this time, and the controller tilted.

Poe yelled in anguish as the Cobalt Hammer passed over the leading edge of the cannon turret. Inside the Fulminatrix, Captain Canady ordered the guns to fire.

Paige kicked the ladder again and again only for the controller to tilt but never fall. She touched her crescent shaped Haysian electrum medallion and kicked one more time.

As the controller finally fell, the tibanna leaking from the gas bladders ignited. The brass cylinder tumbled and struck a ladder rung on the way down all while flames spread through the upper level of the airship. Paige watched the controller tumble past her as she rolled over.

Paige wrapped her fingers around the cylinder at the last possible moment. With a perfect view of the Fulminatrix's forward cannon, she pressed the release rune.

Tallie cheered at the sight of hundreds of bombs free falling and exploding against the Fulminatrix's siege cannon. The bombs blasted through the armored shell of the turret and more exploded inside. The explosions ripped down the shell elevator, detonating the magazine.

Paige clutched her medallion tightly and closed her eyes. Her last thoughts were of her sister.

A catastrophic blast tore through the Fulminatrix, breaking her spine, tearing off her bow and obliterating her superstructure. On the four Star Destroyers, every window facing the dreadnought shattered. Poe watched awestruck while the biggest mushroom shaped cloud he had ever seen rose skywards while metal debris rained down.

Elation spread across the bridge of the Raddus. "Direct hit! Dreadnought down!"

Leia sighed with relief and sat down. She was not as jubilant as her comrades. Poe's reckless plan had succeeded, but it had cost them dearly. Twelve crosswings and an old bladewing were all that remained of the sixty-five flying machines they had had before the Battle of Ilum.

Armitage Hux's mouth twitched as he helplessly watched the four Resistance ships slip into Hyperion gates. The communications officer cleared her throat. "General? Supreme Leader Snoke is making contact from his ship."

Hux tried to act calm, but the twitching of his mouth increased. "Excellent... I'll take it in my chambers." He turned on his heel and started towards the back of the bridge.

The floor panels concealing the large bridge communication font slid open and the head of Supreme Leader Snoke took form in front of the red haired officer. "General Hux."

The General's facial twitching increased by another magnitude. "Ah. Good. Supreme Lead-"

An unseen force violently pulled Hux face first to the floor of the bridge and dragged him to the edge of the font.

"My disappointment in your performance cannot be overstated," Snoke growled in a low tone.

Hux pushed himself to his knees and flicked his hair out of his face. "They can't get away, Supreme Leader. We have them tied on the end of a string."

A vast inverted lightning storm filled the sky of some ancient dark land. The bolts arced between a thousand impossible ships while beast and machine weaved between them. At the storm's epicenter was a titanic citadel of ice and stone with one person daring to stand before the tempest.

"Rey!" Finn awoke from his nightmare with a violent start and grunted when his forehead connected with the curved glass canopy of his medical capsule. He reached up to his forehead, realizing as he did that he was wearing a translucent bacta suit.

Finn placed his hands on the canopy and pushed. Although it was a little heavy, it hinged open easily. He tried to roll onto his side to get out of his bed. The weight of the bacta shifted as he did and he fell to the floor with a wet thud and a groan of displeasure.

As he clumsily stood back up, he saw that outside the window of whatever room he was in, the cool colors of a Hyperion stream streaked past. Deciding to try to find out where he was, Finn waddled his way out the open door and into the empty hallway.

Poe climbed out of Black One's cockpit and knelt in front of Bibi-Eit. "Well done, pal."

The micronaut chirped happily, then leaned to look around Poe. He beeped out his observation.

Poe frowned. "'Finn naked leaking bag'? What? How hard did you hit your head against that rail?"

Bibi-Eit chirped for Poe to look behind him.

Passing by in the corridor outside the hangar door was a very confused Finn dressed in a leaking whale bladder bacta suit with tangled tubing dragging behind. "Oh."

Poe rushed out to Finn and gently put his hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Finn! Finn, buddy. It's so good to see you!"

Finn turned towards Poe and a spurt of bacta hit him in the chest. It was as Poe looked down at the leak that he noticed how translucent the suit actually was.

"Uh... Let's... We need to get you dressed. Come on." Poe led him through the bustling halls, wishing he had something to help Finn preserve his dignity. "You must have a thousand questions."

Finn did, but one more than any other sat at the forefront of his mind. "Where's Rey?"