Daala could feel the tension spreading across the bridge of the Tyrant's Fist. It was an extremely subtle sensation given the commendable efficiency and discipline she had drilled into her crew over the years, and a fairly common thing for commanders to sense before combat. For even the relative safety provided by heavily armored capital ships didn't remove that underlying fear of death that could rarely be extinguished completely from sentients. But her faith in the men and women under her command remained unshakable, and she took pride in that.
The Tyrant's Fist floated with its usual intimidating grace above a blue-and-green planet's western hemisphere, more specifically above the continent known as Prytis. The Flagship of Daala's fleet was flanked, as usual, by The Avenger and The Retaliator. The Rogue Admiral studied the viewscreen displaying the formations of her ships with familiar satisfaction in her forces.
Orbiting the star of the Bakura system, the world uncreatively named Bakura was the third and most important planet in said system. The blue-and-green world was also the preeminent commercial hub of wild space. Isolated enough to stay off the rebellion's radar, but still affording their forces some much needed resources with ease. She had to commend Moff Rammus for a location well-chosen.
Even ignoring Bakura's strategic location and commercial status, the planet's own resources had been a considerable boon to them. The isolated world was known for several products ranging from namana fruit and its derivatives, to repulsorlift coils. And even though it frowned on the usage of droids, it thankfully allowed trade of their parts.
Daala frowned at the viewscreen. Something wasn't quite right. "Tell Admriral Traan to bring his forces a little closer together." She ordered her second-in-command. "And have him move them two hundred klicks towards the equator. That region needs maximum defensive flexibility."
"Yes, Ma'am. Right away." Captain Teriss said with her usual, almost-upbeat attitude. A promising young officer from Corellia, Teriss had been with Daala's fleet since her graduation from The Carida Academy, and had quickly made her way through the ranks after gaining Daala's attention. In many ways, the rogue admiral saw much of her younger self in Teriss, and sought to do for her what Tarkin had done for Nataasi.
"Orders relayed, Ma'am." The young woman said as she returned a minute later.
Nataasi smiled at that. "Good. We're ready now. But do try to make one more check up on the crew. It shouldn't be long."
"Yes, Ma'am." Teriss said, then seemed to pause. "Permission to speak freely, Ma'am?"
Daala's smile softened. "Permission granted, Captain." The Admiral had always encouraged Teriss to ask freely and express her doubts. She found it to be an effective teaching method that made subordinates more receptive, even if it hadn't been Governor Tarkin's preferred policy.
"Are you certain we can handle them when they arrive?" The young woman asked hesitantly. "Their recent campaigns–"
"There is never certainty in war, Captain." Daala interrupted firmly. "The Death Stars proved that the hard way. If one is only willing to go into battles they are certain to win, then one shouldn't bother with the military in my experience."
Teriss held on to her composure. "Understood, Ma'am. My apologies."
"No need to apologize." Daala said. "Like I once told you, good commanders only go into battles they at least have a chance at winning. And good leaders must choose their engagements wisely. As to your original question, we have a highly reliable estimation of their forces. And with our surprise reserves, we should be able to handle them comfortably."
The youthful enthusiasm seemed to return to Teriss. "Understood, Ma'am. I didn't mean to doubt you. I just–"
"They're here!" A young male voice semi-yelled from the crew pits, although his voice held no panic. "They dropped out of hyperspace at the edge of the system. Orders, Admiral?"
Glancing out of the viewports, Daala detected the light from Bakura's star reflecting off the rebel capital ships. Her viewscreen confirmed the intimidating size of the task force, which would've concerned Daala much more under different circumstances. Instead she gave a predatory smirk.
"They're a little earlier than expected." She said confidently, feeling the bloodlust rise within her. This time, she knew she wouldn't be caught off guard.
And with one more glance out of the viewports, she turned to deliver her final orders.
The Nubian Sol emerged from lightspeed in the shadow of Kashyyyk's Fury, a gigantic Mon Calamari cruiser that was only somewhat smaller than Admiral Ackbar's famed Home One. The Mon Calamari capital ships, modified corellian corvettes and various models of starfighters were all common sights among the rebellion's naval forces, making the Sol seem extremely out-of-place. One would not normally suspect just how effective the royal luxury yacht truly was in a fight.
Standing behind the pilot seat, Luke could already see the pandemonium on its way to begin behind the transparisteel as starfighters raced ahead of them. And Bakura might as well have been Coruscant given the amount of capital ships surrounding the blue-and-green planet.
"Guess they knew we were coming." Lando commented with a hint of sarcasm from his place in said pilot seat. The sullustan co-pilot next to him chittered something in his native tongue.
"Don't sweat it, pal. Even if they knew, this is still a picnic after Endor." Lando said in an attempt to put Major Nunb at ease, before addressing Luke. "Your merry band ready back there?" He asked.
"As ready as one could be for this one." the young Jedi said with the slightest trace of worry. "What they're about to walk into won't exactly be easy."
"Normally, It'd be suicide." Lando acknowledged with his usual debonair grin. "With you leading the mission it's a just a stroll. Let's not pretend it's your first time raiding ships with with scrappy pathfinders, Commander."
"Let's hope you're right for their sake." Luke said calmly. As much as the young Jedi appreciated the faith his friends placed in him, he didn't like how half of the rebellion seemed to think he was some invincible force of nature sometimes.
Lando flashed another of his pearly white grins. "Kid, I've been a gambler long enough to know a winning card when I see one. You'll do fine." He said before reaching for his communit. "This is Calrissian from the
Nubian Sol. Gold and Green squadrons with me. We're clearing the way for some Novas."
"Copy that, Sol. About to converge." Came Gold Leader's voice over the comms, and Luke found himself appreciating the usual confidence in Evaan Verlaine's voice. The Alderaanian pilot was among the best in the fleet, and despite her abrasive attitude, the young jedi always appreciated having her around. Green Leader's following confirmation was also a small source of confidence, since L'ulo L'ampar was another pilot the Rogues appreciated flying with.
"You'd better head back, Luke. Won't be long now." Lando said, and the Jedi reluctantly agreed. The snub jockey inside him longed to be out in the dogfights, but he had a bigger role to play this time. And so with a quick acknowledgement, the young commander left the cockpit.
As a J-type Nubian Starship, the royal yacht once used by the monarchs of Naboo hadn't always been combat-worthy. Designed primarily for Luxury and resilience, it had been heavily modified by Darth Vader before being retrieved from his fortress on Mustafar. The Alliance had then made further modifications to convert it into a unique gunship/dropship hybrid. This included the two opposing rows of military-style seats occupied by the commandos in the forward hold.
Stepping into that section of the ship, Luke quietly took his seat next to their last-minute recruit and buckled his restraint harness. Mara Jade's lips curved slightly at his arrival, probably because he was the only one in the room she actually knew. And they both frowned as a tremor spread across the hull.
"Assuming this is first contact." Jade commented before nodding towards the Astromech lying next to Luke's seat. "Are you sure it's a good idea to bring the droid? I get that he's pretty handy, but astromechs aren't exactly nimble during commando work."
Luke smiled confidently at her. "You'd be surprised when it comes to this one."
"How does it look out there, sir?" Lieutenant Nolt asked stoically after a minute or so of silence. But Luke could feel the subtle fear every member of the squad was pushing back.
"Nothing we didn't handle before, Lieutenant." The Jedi answered, doing his best to project confidence in both his voice and The Force. Nothing that would be invasive to the minds of his men, but enough to calm their psyches and give them faith that they would succeed. Although he didn't miss the way Jade raised her eyebrow subtly.
The space surrounding Bakura held the usual semi-controlled chaos that characterized space battles. Dozens of starfighters dashed across the distances between the larger ships. And while the X-Wings and A-Wings kept the TIEs busy, B-Wings and Y-Wings escorted the Nova-class gunships for staffing and bombing runs on the enemy capital ships whenever an opportunity presented itself.
Thirty minutes into the battle, two star destroyers were already too crippled to fight, while only a single rebel corvette had been forced to retreat. Han thought that the odds seemed on their side so far. Not that he ever gave those much thought.
Stealing a quick glance at his HUD display, he saw a swarm of TIEs dashing towards the Falcon. Chewie barked a warning as Han sent their ship into evasive maneuvers that allowed one of the gunners to take down two of the eyeballs. The remaining three attempted to maneuver back for another run, only for two X-Wings to cut them off and turn them into flaming scrap.
"That's twelve to nine, Solo." Rogue Leader's voice came over the comms. "Guess we're both slipping."
Han smirked at the familiar corellian gusto. "Well, we're the ones who keep going after the gnats while the big ones go for the vultures. Now gather your flyboys, Antilles." he said before adjusting his comm frequency. "Rogue and Renegade squadrons with me. We're clearing omega flight's path for the Judicator."
Chewbacca growled a question about the hull integrity of said star destroyer as Han turned the Falcon around. "Don't think it can handle another run, old pal."
"I've got an eyeball on my tail." came the voice of Rogue Seven, and Han relaxed somewhat when he saw Tycho Celchu's A-Wing appear seemingly out of nowhere behind the enemy starfighter. A few shots from the rebel pilot turned another TIE into space debris.
"Thanks, Tych." Came Wes Jansen's voice again."You just bought yourself two weeks of pranks immunity."
"If you don't cut the chatter, Seven. You'll be buying three weeks of kitchen duty." Wedge warned."Now do as the General said and clear the way."
As per usual, Jansen was undeterred by the threat."Yub yub, Commander."
Han shook his head before focusing solely on clearing the way to the Judicator. Somewhat accurate to his earlier assessment, the star destroyer only required two runs by Omega flight to become reduced into an obsolete pile of durasteel and electronics. Proton bombs and turbolasers penetrated the capital ship's shields and melted through its hull in several key positions, leaving the ship with little more than life support available.
Han grinned as he led the starfighters away from their prey. A few years ago, taking down an Imperial-class star destroyer had been an incident rare enough to warrant celebration. Now, it was an all too common sight in battles. The Nova gunships, despite being little larger than the Falcon, were proving effective against the metal behemoths, thanks to the new lasers developed by the Mon Calamari.
Years ago, such tactical thoughts would've been utterly foreign to Han's mind. But then again, that applied to much of his current mindset. Had anyone told him back then that he would someday join a cause, become a leader, come to believe in the force and get engaged to the most amazing woman in the Galaxy, he would've laughed all the way to Kessel.
And, yes, there were days where Han missed the lighter burdens of his former life. The way of the wanderer, back when it was just him and Chewie against the Galaxy, doing whatever it was that pleased them when they had the money to spare. But he also knew that even though his life had changed, he never truly had. He was still the same man, albeit more able to sleep soundly at night or look himself in the mirror. And despite the new responsibilities and burdens and annoying command structures, he wouldn't change a thing about his life. And no matter what, he was going to build a better Galaxy for his kid to grow up in.
The Falcon and its escort were heading to defend one of the rebellion's capital ships when the alarm on their HUD flared, and his wookiee co-pilot growled a curse. Han spun the corellian freighter around to view the new arrivals and had to resist the urge to do the same. Dropping almost directly above and behind the star destroyers defending Bakura, ten CIS Lucrehulk-class battleships had emerged from hyperspace, Vulture droids bleeding out of their hangers.
Now was the tricky part of the operation. And tricky it was.
Flying alongside Alpha flight and escorted by dozens of snub fighters, the Nubian Sol had to perform a lot of careful maneuvers before it managed to land in one of the Lucrehulks' hangars. The first hour of the battle was nearing its conclusion, and the arrival of the ancient giants could turn the tide for a while. Luke's mission was to put a dent into this new factor.
As he and his men removed their harnesses and got up, they heard the faint sound of blaster fire as the Sol's miniature cannon cleared the hanger from droids. Luke gave his commandos a quick hand signal and led them down the ramp into a hanger now filled with droid debris and scorch marks. Turning towards the cockpit, he gave Lando a quick salute before focusing on his men once more.
"You each know your role and what to expect." He said. "I sense only three lifeforms on this ship, and all three are on the bridge. We move fast and hit them before they figure out why we're really here."
After receiving nods and "Yes, Sir"s from everyone aside from Jade, Luke led the commandos out of the hanger as the roar of the Sol's engines echoed down the hallway they took. It didn't take long for the first wave of droids to arrive, and Luke's lightsaber was ready at hand before a door slid open to reveal the squad of B1 battle droids. Artoo blew a raspberry at a near hit as the red blaster bolts ricocheted harmlessly from the green blade, and the droids were swiftly felled by the commandos' fire alongside their own. Luke wasn't surprised that Rex had brought down the most droids, given the clone's familiarity with the conditions.
Signaling the commandos to keep moving, Luke did his best to ignore the mild sense of awe that washed over him. He knew that any Jedi from the clone wars could've handled those droids, and probably quicker than he had. But the Jedi were now gone, and so their feats were all the more impressive after such a long absence. And it was Luke's burden to live up to the legacy those Jedi had left behind.
More and more waves of droids came at them as they made their way across the Lucrehulk, and Luke was grateful that none of his men had fallen to their baster fire. Clever application of The Force, EMPs and close quarters grenades allowed them to clear the larger squadrons, while Luke and Mara's lightsabers kept the soldiers protected and sliced through the occasional B2 unit that would survive all the blasterfire.
More than once, Luke found himself grateful for the tactics Rex had suggested.
As they entered one of the engineering stations, Luke took a moment to get a measure of their situation as the door was locked. The three life forms on the bridge were beginning to radiate panic and confusion, although those were tempered by the usual military discipline. "Alright Gavon. See if you can get us a little privacy."
"Sir. Yes, Sir." the young man said as he attached one of his datapads to the largest console in the room. Despite being the youngest member of the squad, Gavon had a somewhat extensive resume when it came to field missions. After making sure the door to the station was properly locked down from the inside, the young lieutenant took to slicing into the Lucrehulk's systems diligently, with Luke blue-and-white Astromech plugging into the console to render aid.
"Estimation, Rex?" Luke asked, and the wizened old man stroked his chin in a way that reminded him of old Ben.
"The ship seemed rather undermanned, sir." the clone stated. "Unless they're diverting the droids elsewhere, I don't think the Empire kept much ground forces on this ship when they stowed it away."
"I second that." Jade said. "Only three human officers on board? Rammus is clearly in over his head. He has enough personnel to make these antiques effective enough in a space battle, but he doesn't have officers to spare and I doubt he has the droids rither."
Luke nodded. Both judgments seemed sound to him. "They likely still have enough to flush us out soon. Let's hope we don't run into any unwanted surprises."
"I'm as far into their system as I can get." Gavon announced, drawing everyone's attention. "Not much I can access from here, but I should be able to bring down their camfeed network. Should take them at least fifteen minutes to bring it back online."
Rex looked at the map on his datapad. "That should be enough if we head to hangar 13C. Anything we can use there?"
Gavin's hands moved across the console again, and his face lit up. "Seems like there's a standard emergency shuttle in that one."
Rex scowled a bit. "I would've preferred something more battle worthy, but it should do. If I knew the neimoidians, it would be at least heavily shielded." the clone explained "Any resistance?"
Gavon's hands did their magic once more, and this time he almost grimaced at what he found. "Not much between here and the hangar, but we already have three squads heading for us down the hallway. The good news is that they took the bait, most of their forces seem to be converging at the central reactor room."
Luke studied the map on the console and the displayed troop movements. If all went well, they might just be able to pull this off. "We seperate here." He said to the commandos as he pointed to a 'fork' on the map. "Like Gavon said, you should hopefully meet minimum resistance between here and the hanger."
The troops gave their usual acknowledgements, and Luke was both honored and burdened by the faith he could sense they had in those words. "Good job, Gavon." he complimented the younger man.
The younger man grinned at the praise and patted the astromech next to him. "I wouldn't have been able to do it without this little guy. He's surprisingly good at this given how old he seems."
"Tell me something I don't know." Rex said with a smirk. One that Luke mirrored before turning towards his men to prepare them one more time for the final leg of the mission.
Gial Ackbar had been many things throughout his life: A Captain of the Mon Cala royal guard, a slave to an imperial Grand Moff, an Admiral of the rebellion's fleet, and now Supreme Admiral of the Alliance navy. His life had always been a series of losses, tragedies, triumphs…… and victories snatched from the jaws of defeat.
And now, after all these years, the greatest victory might be finally at hand.
There were days on which Gial felt crushed by the heavy burdens of his role. More times than he could count had he sent men to die and kill in the name of the rebellion. He would often remind himself of the Empire's atrocities; of the necessity of the rebellion he'd dedicated his life to. But none of that spared him the guilt commanders and soldiers knew all too well. War was always a tragedy for everyone involved. A game with no true Victor. A plague unleashed on the conscripts and the innocents, often by the worst of sapiens.
He could only hope that the current plague would soon finally end.
"Tell gamma flight to withdraw from its attack run." He ordered Captain Namo. "And tell Captain Borna to adjust the vector of his cruiser by eight degrees to starboard."
"Yes, Sir." The younger Mon Cala said. "Although I think perhaps Gamma flight should go for one more attack run. I don't think The Scorcher could handle–"
"Taking down a single star destroyer isn't worth losing the entire squad." Ackbar barked with urgency, but no trace of anger. "Those Lucrehulks aren't as slow as they seem, Captain. And we want them to think they have us on the defense."
"Sir. Yes, Sir." Namo said before turning around to pass on Ackbar's instructions. The gleaming halls of Home One contained only the finest personnel of the rebellion, which meant Gial's former second-in-command had been needed elsewhere after his promotion to admiral. Captain Namo was an intelligent officer, but his inexperience in running battles of that scale meant he was not yet up to the standard set by his predecessor.
Glancing at one of his viewscreens, Ackbar saw that the ETA of their own surprise reserves was mere seconds. The Supreme Admiral gave the Mon Calamari equivalent of a devlish grin. "They're here." One of the crew shouted, and the tension spread across the bridge like fire.
Dropping out of lightspeed, a squadron of ten Imperial-class star destroyers emerged and began to take formation alongside Ackbar's forces.
The bluish, holographic image of a man dressed in the olive-green uniform of an imperial Admiral appeared before Gial. "Admiral Ackbar." The man greeted cordially "I see you have the situation well at hand. Hopefully we weren't too late."
"Not at all, Admiral Rogriss." The supreme leader of the alliance navy said with pride. "We've even managed to save some for you.".
Author's Notes:
And so the battle begins. Hopefully, Ackbar's last line was more badass than cheesy. I can't believe I originally intended this battle to take place over one chapter.
As usual, let me know what you think. Likes/Dislikes/thoughts...it will mean the world and get the next chapter here faster.