Disclaimers: All right reserved of the originals "Star Wars" Characters, Names, Places, etc., to George Lucas / Disney. I pledge to return all characters after the story is complete.

Warning: Major Spoilers of TRoS.

Note: This is a Reylo FanFiction (slow-burn)

Author's Note:

A tiny chapter to have a small glance on what was happening in the battle between the Resistance and the Final Order, while Rey and Ben faced Palpatine. We will be back on track after this chapter. I cannot wait to start writing the next Chapter. ^_^

「Act 11: Exegol 」

「 Air Battle」

Exegol, 35 ABY

Poe's X-wing was the first ship that exited hyperspace, and he finally caught his sight of Exegol. He had to admit it was the deadest, ugliest planet he had ever seen in a long while. He wondered if Exegol had always been this way or if it was the enormous fleet of Star Destroyers that killed the place.

A second later popped into view several fighters. "Welcome to Exegol," he announced drily. "Let's begin!" came his voice as he observed the Sith Fleet. He already knew they were outnumbered. Yet that didn't scare him, they had always been less in number, and they found their way to win.

"Look at that!" said Ackbar, who angled his Y-wing closer to Poe, determined to keep his new acting general alive at any cost.

Tyce showed up next flying her own Y-wing "No sign of the Falcon allies." she noted.

"Find that navigation tower. Help will be here by the time we take it down!" Poe ordered with confidence. He sighed, wishing secretly, 'Please be here by the time we take it down.'

The discovery that Emperor Darth Sidious was still alive had raised the terror inside the resistance. However, in compare to the massive fleet the Emperor had constructed, it was nothing. Now the Resistance found the legendary hidden world of the Sith, as Rey successfully transmitted the coordinates to the Resistance, allowing them to navigate there along a safe passage.

The battle began as the Resistance arrived at Exegol with their forces to take the navigation towers down. Poe and Finn opted to launch a ground assault over an air assault to disable the navigation towers while avoiding the Final Order from tracking them. Pryde from the First Order frowned as he watched more spacecraft popping out of hyperspace all around them. The Resistance's ships were more than reported. It seemed that the Resistance managed to cobble together a small fleet, one he wouldn't underestimate.

"How did they manage to get here?" Admiral Griss quizzed, staring at the spacecraft which kept popping up.

Pryde muttered, annoyed under his breath. "I need another transmission channel to the fleet," he ordered loudly.

Exegol's atmosphere made the wide transmissions tricky. It also seemed to mess with their sensors, which meant they'd need visual confirmation to eliminate the Resistance's threat. He would do whatever he had to, use any resources at his disposal, to end this final, futile act of the rebellion.

"You're on, General," said his communications officer.

Pryde coughed and cleared his throat and then spoke, "Nothing will stop the Final Order fleet from ascending! Scramble fighters! Cannons: Fire at will!"

Poe escaped hit after hit as thousands of simultaneous cannon blasts lit up the sky like a nova. To his left, a fighter was stripped of its hull until it finally exploded into a fireball. A glance revealed that they lost several fighters in just that first volley, and with sensors so unreliable, he had no idea who would die next.

This was the price of leadership.

The acting General had not the luxury of grief or regret. What mattered now was finishing the mission. "Stay at their altitude," he uttered into his headset. "They can't fire on us without hitting each other."

Following Poe's lead, the rest dived hard, dodging all the way, toward the endless sea of Destroyers. They swooped into the corridors created by the ships' hulls, almost daring them to fire.

"Incoming TIE's," warned Wexley, an Poe was glad to hear his voice. That was one survivor confirmation.

Meanwhile, General Finn's ground team was tasked with taking out another navigation tower while the air team commanded by General Poe Dameron was to defend them. However, the Final Order realized the Resistance was targeting another navigation tower on Exegol. General Enric Pryde had the navigation signal's source switched to his command ship, forcing the Resistance's ground team to land on his Star Destroyer. The Resistance was nearly crushed.

"Heads up," shouted a pilot.

A structure rose before them in the distance, tall slavery and imposing as Finn and Rose's team had finally reached the navigation tower. "I see it! I've for a visual on the nav tower!" Finn yelled loudly.

Poe heard him and responded from somewhere high above, "Lander prep to unload the ground team at the base of the tower!"

A light flashed atop the tower as Finn and his crew approached in the lander. Then the light went off and stayed off. Watching what was happening, Finn had a bad feeling. He couldn't explain what it was, but he could sense it.

"Finn, we're good to go," Jannah said as she stepped next to him.

"Thanks for helping!" Finn told her. She was about to tell him something as suddenly an alarm beeped in the cockpit.

"The navigation tower. It's been deactivated." Tyce informed them over the comm.

"What?" Finn exclaimed.

"They switched. They're not transmitting from that tower anymore," she clarified.

"The ships need that signal now. It's got to be coming from somewhere else!" said Snap.

Finn listened to them as something got his attention. He was inexplicably drawn upward to the side. The steadfast. The only Star Destroyer that was not part of the Sith Fleet.

"Call off the ground invasion," ordered Poe, which was a smart move, because if the fleet had transferred the signal, it meant that the First Order knew that Finn and his team were coming.

"No!" cried out, Finn. "The signal's coming from that command ship."

"How do you know?" asked Jannah.

"It's ... a feeling," he confirmed.

Up above, the Resistance was taking heavy losses, as Finn and Poe continued to lead the fight. A TIE dagger shot down Temmin Wexley. Poe realized that they were losing the battle. When hope was almost lost, General Lando Calrissian and Chewbacca arrived on the Millennium Falcon with a massive makeshift fleet of over 16000 ships from across the galaxy. Lando Calrissian's arrival brightened the galaxy as many of the Resistance ships from points all across the galaxy showed up. The galaxy fleet then proceeded to join the battle against the Final Order. Finn and Jannah blew up the command ship, destroying the Sith fleet's signal from deploying off Exegol. In contrast, the galaxy fleet and starfighters destroyed a large number of Sith Star Destroyers.

Meanwhile, Rey was faced with a confrontation of wills as the desire to save the Resistance and her uneasiness of being a Palpatine collided in her mind. With the Sith loyalists chanting, Sidious prepared to be struck down by Rey.

The Emperor smirked, thinking that Rey was nearly his. She felt it. A presence making known to her, even though the cloud of evil, rage, and terror. She gazed off into the distance for a moment shielding her thoughts. Kylo Ren had given her a lot of practice at shielding her thoughts. She faced the Emperor, filling her mind with thoughts of surrender.

The Emperor smiled, "Good," he said, "It is time for a scavenger to rise as an Empress. Strike me down and pledge yourself as a Sith."

「Upcoming Chapter: Act Twelf」

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