Disclaimer: Characters are not the property of the author but of George Lucas.
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Chapter 9: First Contact
The rebel fleet was a motley collection of various ships. There were various frigates, a recently recommissioned dreadnaught, two very new cruisers of Mon Calamari design that had been deemed flawed and abruptly halted. The fighters were largely made up of Koennar Y-wings, and Z-95 Head-hunters. Heavily modified cargo ships of Corellian design served as gun boats, they included a lot of the famous YT series of freighters mostly YT-1350's and 1400, but a few of the newer 2300's were in the group. From his place in a Y-wing Jordo overlooked the rag tag group that he was in charge of. Many of them would probably die today. Most were probably unaware of how poorly this up coming battle would go. From the other side of Kessel familiar but frightening angular ships began to emerge from hyperspace.
Jordo flipped on his com, "Form up," he said, "Time to prove that skills out does numbers."
Jordo didn't believe a word he had just said. The clone army of the Empire was highly skilled. This was going to be slaughter, at least until they retreated down to the planet. Down there they held excellent fortifications underground in the spice mine caves.
"Deploy fighter screen," Jordo ordered.
At once all the fighters soared forward. Jordo's Y-wing was usually equipped with a gunner for the ion turret who also served a bombardier. However, his fighter had been modified to hold additional proton torpedoes. As the clone army's fighters approached Jordo felt two familiar presences.
"They're here," Jordo muttered to himself, although he was not rather surprised.
Several contacts began to appear on his target computer. Jordo took a deep breath to focus himself and then picked a target.
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Onboard the Victory Star Destroyer Scourge Padme and Anakin stood on the command deck watching as the fighters from both sides engaged, beginning the battle.
"This won't be much of a battle," Anakin said, "It will be a slaughter."
"That's even more exciting," Padme said.
"Lord Vader, Lady Traya, the fighters have begun to engage," the sensors officer reported.
"Excellent," Padme said.
"How long until we engage the capital ships?" Anakin asked the helmsman.
"About 10 minutes at the most," the helmsman replied.
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Jordo pulled his Y-wing up into a tight twisting loop and found himself right on the tail of an enemy fighter. He opened fire with his laser cannons and rolled right to avoid the debris. So far he'd managed to take out sixteen enemy fighters on his own, but they just kept on coming. His shields took a hit from some laser fire but Jordo was able to pull away before any damage could be done. He looked back to see three enemies flying in formation behind him.
To his right was the Kessel black hole cluster. They were the result of a star cluster near Kessel that had failed. Now Kessel and its sun slowly orbited the cluster in a centuries long orbit. The cluster was incredibly dangerous to ships passing to closely. Jordo rolled to starboard and began taking his Y-wing straight towards the black hole cluster. The imperial fighters followed closely behind. Jordo juked and weaved to avoid their laser fire and watch some what perturbed as the lasers were slowed and bent as they were sucked down the nearest black hole.
"Let's see how good you guys really are," Jordo muttered to himself as he flew straight towards the event horizon.
The enemy fighters began closing in on his slower Y-wing. Suddenly Jordo killed his main engines, fired his reverse thrusters, pulled up ninety degrees and then fired his main engines again. The three enemy fighters went shooting past him closer to the black hole. The slowly turned around but their movements were going slower and slower as they were being sucked down into the event horizon. Jordo quickly rejoined the fray taking out another enemy fighter.
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Jordo was once again being chased by enemy fighters. He flew to gain some cover by slipping past the dreadnaught, which was under heavy fire from three Star Destroyers. Suddenly his ship was buffeted by a shockwave. Jordo looked back to see the Dreadnaught had exploded, taking the enemy fighters with it. A few escape pods were falling down to Kessel's surface.
"Fall back," Jordo ordered over the com.
The few remaining fighter craft broke from their attack runs and descended down to Kessel's cratered surface. Escape pods and shuttles began leaving the remaining capital ships. Jordo took his own fighter and quickly descended down to the surface.
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"The cowards are retreating," Padme snorted on the command deck of Scourge.
"While they may be cowards the retreat is a tactically sound tactic," Anakin said, "Kessel is filled with caves and tunnels that are quite easily defended. It will be difficult to wipe them out with out destroying the entire planet."
"Then we'll just have to send in troops after them," Padme said, "I'll accompany them."
With that she turned and left the bridge. Anakin watched as she left, the cloak of her armour swirling behind her as she disappeared into the turbolift.
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Jordo was the last fighter to land on Kessel. Just after he had exited his ship enemy fighters swooped in and destroyed his Y-wing as it sat on the ground. Jordo quickly hurried into the tunnels. Jordo swiftly made his way to strong point Omega. The strong points were arranged with five strong points surrounding Omega, which was to be the final stand and which was also the most heavily fortified position. Jordo found his way to the Omega command center.
"What's the situation like?" Jordo asked an officer passing by.
"Enemy troops have only just landed," the officer replied. "Strong points Alpha and Beta are reporting contacts. Delta, Gamma and Epsilon are reporting incoming enemies but no combat yet."
"Alright," Jordo said, "Please inform me of any sudden changes."
"Sir!" one of the communications officers called from across the room, "We've just lost contact with strong point Alpha."
"Already?" Jordo asked worriedly, "Is there possible com jamming? Check for jamming frequencies."
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"Strong point Alpha come in! Strong point Alpha please respond." The com in strong point Alpha yelled.
A black gauntlet grabbed the dead communications officer and pulled him away from the com system and then shut the com off.
"Round up prisoners for interrogation and get them on a shuttle back to the ship," Padme ordered, "Kill the wounded leave only the healthy."
She turned and began down a darkened tunnel towards another strong point; her crimson lightsaber lighting the tunnel as a squad of twenty clone troopers followed behind.
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Doesn't look good for our heroes. Did the ruse work and was Obi-wan's attacks else where successful? Review and find out.