Chapter 40 - Desperate Measures
Takodana
Outskirts of the Jedi Temple
"Ones, where the hell are you at with that shield generator?"
"Sorry mum, this damn thing is blasted! I'm working as fast as I can!"
Phasma whirled around as she saw a blur of brown closing in on her position, firing blindly into them as bodies started dropping all around her, friendlies and enemies. An explosion rocked behind her and she rolled forward, but not before she felt the all too familiar hot poker of pain ran up her thigh. She had no time to react as another assault team attempted to clear the breach. One rounded the corner, both of their weapons raised and firing as the Ranger dropped.
She smelled the burning flesh long before the pain echoed from her shoulder.
"Work faster!" she hissed as she fought on desperately despite the injury. Even now, a corpsman was attempting to treat her wounds and she wasn't being the most cooperative of patients.
"Damnit lady, would you hold still!?"
Phasma saw the flash of something in the distance in her peripherals; pulling the corpsman down as a bolt whipped past her head and stuck the wall behind her. She quickly returned fire, ducking in and out of cover while hoping to draw the sniper into revealing his position.
"I got him!" a pirate shouted, loading a rocket launcher to take him out.
"No damnit, stay down!"
A flash of a sapphire struck and the pirate slumped to the floor. Phasma scurried out, shooting to draw the attention of the sniper as the corpsman pulled the grenadier away. She ducked back when a second shot from a different direction nearly blew her head off. She cursed, pulling out a rod to snake around her cover before that was shot from her hand.
"Three snipers," she cursed before dropping into her comm, "Phasma to all units, I need a heavy weapon crew to fall back to my position."
"Negative, ma'am," Hevy's voice came online, "we're pinned down here, too! I got buggers tryna to rush my position-grenade!"
She swung around, seeing an explosion in the distance. The corpsman's face grew into a snarl as he applied a gel-bacta bandage to the downed grenadier, and took off at a running crouch across the yard.
"KEEP ME COVERED!" the corpsman shouted, Twenty-Three reaching over and pulling him down.
"You crazy bastard! You could've gotten hit!"
"Just keep me covered, buckethead!"
Phasma suddenly heard something snap, and she swung her head around to see a team of brown figures crawling up the hill through the tall grass. She immediately tried to bring her weapon up to engage before sniper fire blew apart the column next to her and she whirled back as the debris slashed her across the cheek.
She heard the enemy now running to overrun their position, explosives flying over the wall into the midst of the courtyard. Madly, she and several others raced to toss them back, getting a grazing bolt across her back for her trouble.
Then a boisterous voice came on the line, "Raptor 3 to Raider 1, I'm coming up on your 3 o'clock with friendlies! Get your heads down, hell's coming through!"
A series of explosions rocked the position in front of her, the vibrations jolting her like bad turbulence as these were followed by screams and blaster fire. Moments later, remnants of a battered but still fighting platoon soon rushed past her, many of them bearing wounded barely holding on.
Below them, Raptor 3 was marching up the hill backwards, unleashing every ounce of its firepower into the hills, ruins and treelines surrounding them. "Come on, show me what you got!" he shouted over his intercom, "You think you can take me!? Bring it on!"
A pair of rockets struck the side of his cockpit, smoke and fragmentation billowing out. The walker stumbled, nearly fell, but kept on fighting regardless.
"Is that… all you… got?" the pilot coughed into his mike, sounding like he was hacking up blood.
"Raptor, get out of there!" Phasma roared as she and several other pirates rose from cover and started shooting at the enemy squads now closing the distance.
"Good idea!" and Raptor 3 spun on its heels to leap over the ruins into the midst of the courtyard, it's armor a ruin of smoke and smelted arma-plate. Already, the corpsman was ripping open the caved-in armored door amidst enemy fire, finding the pilot a bloody pincushion of fragmentation and burns.
He shot them a mad bloody grin regardless, his thumb raised. "Just... stim me up, doc. I… I can take it."
"Rocket, get down!" someone shouted as bodies were sent sailing all over the place. "Get to cover, damnit!"
"Hell with that!" The walker's cockpit door slammed shut as the blackened armor glass slits were kicked out. In another moment, Raptor 3 was bouncing all over the hill, providing fire as he went. "You want some of this!? Bring it on! I'm right here!"
It was then that despite the insanity of the war raging around them, the damn pirates started singing "Corellian Ladies" again. It was loud, boisterous and utterly insane, and yet Phasma found it strangely comforting.
"You guys are mental, you know that?" Ones shouted over the line, "Bloody institutional!"
"Damn right we are!" Hevy chuckled back, "Better to go out singin' than anything else!"
"ARTILLERY!" someone screamed. Phasma wrenched her head up, seeing and hearing the arching shapes of death coming to bury them.
"ONES!" The whine of death echoed through the air, everyone scrambling to cover that wouldn't save them.
"Got-" the rest of the troopers words were drowned by the mother of all explosions. Phasma's ears rang like feudal world bells, the world black as pitch… and then she saw the shimmering blue light above a second too close for comfort. Moments later another barrage struck the line followed by another. The shield held.
"Lass, I could bloody kiss you!" Hevy laughed maniacally, his voice like an echo chamber. An exchange between them went, something about stealing beds and throwing people on them, but Phasma wasn't listening. She felt a relief sweeter than anything else. They were going to make it, but now it was time for her to do her job.
"Everybody," she breathed into her mike, "this isn't over. Collect your ammo, tend the wounded, set sentries. And for pity's sake, get Raptor some proper medical attention."
"When are reinforcements comin' in, cap'n?"
"Hopefully? Soon," she sighed as she rose to her feet, walking the perimeter and noting the blaster fire had stopped. Below, she saw the enemy coming up through the grass and she tensed for a second wave, but it didn't come. They were collecting their dead and wounded.
"So that's why they stopped," she mused softly. She considered engaging them now while they had the chance, but she shook her head. They needed the respite, too. She spotted Chief Petty Officer Mako addressing some of his men, and she came to his shoulder. "How are we doing?"
"Splendid, ma'am," he replied with a tight smile, "everybody's wounded, half of 'em in a bad way. We're almost out of grenades, half-low on ammo, surrounded with a shield that could go down at any moment. But hey, least the boys can still sing."
"Heh, there is that. We just have to hold out a little longer."
"Define longer, though? We're cut off from the landing zone."
"They'll find a way, Chief. You pirates are nothing if not full of surprises."
"Damn straight. I-" he suddenly stopped when they all heard something beeping loudly. Immediately, everybody went to the perimeter to see the enemy moving away with their wounded, and yet the beeping was getting louder. "Whose monitor?"
"Mine!" a pirate came up with his heart detector, showing a single signal growing larger and larger not three yards away. Slowly, everyone moved in tandem until they were standing over a patch of the courtyard, their weapons drawn. "I think they're underneath us!"
Suddenly, the entire ground started to shake before it split apart and black cylinders were thrown through the air. The air was choked with smoke, blinded by flashes and ringing like bells. Then a warping ball of fire reached out and engulfed three of the pirates standing on the perimeter. The horrible smell of cooking flesh and the screams of agonizing death stunned them all for the precious seconds for the enemy to come piling at them like a human tidal wave.
Phasma reacted quickly, firing point-blank at a dark mass and watching it materialize into a body crashing into her. More tackled into the men, shooting and hacking with drawn knives. A pair crashed into Ones, bowing her over. Another went into Twenty-Three, who threw the Ranger into a wall and kicked another back before something tackled him from behind.
Phasma rose to shoot them off, but something knocked her to the floor. A knife was in her face, a split second reaction causing it to miss her as she threw an elbow at her attacker. He stumbled, but then raised the blade again to stab her in the sternum. She threw her hand forward, trying to trap the arm as she pushed into his shoulder with her free hand, tumbling them both over.
She came on top then, throwing a punch the Ranger quickly caught before landing a boot in her face that sent her sprawling. Blood exploded from her nose, but rage replaced the pain. The Ranger was going for his sidearm, and she knew he wouldn't miss at this distance. Her hand went for the Messer at her hip, closing the distance as she swung the vibro-sword.
The blade caught him in the hand, chopping off the forefinger and thumb along with the rest of blaster. The Ranger screamed, and she closed the distance to finish him off. Amazingly the Ranger fought on, thrusting his knife forward and deflecting the overhead chop aimed for his head. Phasma however merely swung with the motion, finishing him off with a deft thrust.
She looked up, spotting a Ranger grabbing Mako from behind. She swung the single-edged longsword into him, nearly chopping the Ranger in half before she spun and slashed the arm off another. Then something struck her in the chest, the smell of burning polymer causing her to gag as she sent to the floor.
Something kicked her hard in the head and the sword flew from her hand; the gleaming finish of a blaster pistol inches from her face. Strangely, the end didn't come, and she saw the man scrutinizing her for a moment. "You're not a pirate, are you?"
Phasma's eyes went around to see everybody else in the same predicament. The man holding her commed his mike, "Boss, we've taken back the hill, and I think we've got First Order prisoners here. What-"
He was suddenly interrupted by a garbled warning, and their eyes ran up to the sky. Phasma took a moment and saw it: a series of scarlet red meteorites crashing through the upper atmosphere and coming down fast. Seconds later, the red hot tear-shaped structures slammed into the ground in a shower of dust and stone. Blasters went up as the sound of hydraulic doors falling echoed followed by a piercing, mechanical growl. "Enemy Meatbags identified. Engaging!"
A torrent of terrible blaster fire followed as the gleaming silver forms of B2 Super Battle Droids emerged from the smoke like wrathful specters. Above them, the roar of gunships flew overhead, tearing into the woods ahead. The second wave had arrived, and Phasma let out a sigh of relief. They'd made it.
Amidst the storm of gunships descending into the enemy, one made a left turn out of formation and began a descent into the forest. Inside, the organic occupants clutched their weapons nervously as the doors to the dropship opened to reveal the world below. Kylo Ren was glad he was wearing the helm. He didn't want the others to see his face and the expression he bore.
"Approaching insertion zone, m'lord," the pilots voice rang in his ear, and he acknowledged. Time was of the essence now, and they'd entered the most critical stage of the operation. The dropship came to a halt over a broken down aquifer and he leapt out at a run, landing in the midst of the field with a cat's grace.
He ignited his lightsaber, stretching out his sense into the treeline ahead but found nothing. A grim smile crossed his face: the plan was working. He signalled above, and the Commando Droids leapt in after him while their human equivalents repelled via fast ropes.
Kylo commed the Gunship Pilot, "Return to the battlefield. Your job's done here," he then turned to his fellows, "Follow me and stay close."
They double-timed it through the ancient moss covered ruins and fortifications, following the trail of the aquifer until they found themselves at the back of a star-shaped fortress. Above, they saw several guards quietly patrolling the ramparts.
"On me," Kylo commanded as he thrust his hands forward and ripped the guards down, the Storm Commandos dropping them with precise blaster shots before they had a chance to scream. Levitating the bodies under cover, the strike team moved out into the open courtyard.
"What now?" SC-011 asked, flexing her aim about carefully.
"This," Kylo stretched out with the Force and a piece of the stoned floor slid up out of the ground with a dull scrape, revealing the hidden canal below.
"Whoa," SC-080 gasped, "you see that, L? I wouldn't have guessed."
"I did, Eighty. M'lord, how did you know about this?"
"Because I've been here before," he replied, jumping down into the canal and leading the way into the darkness. His visor's night vision came online, coating the tight concrete tunnel in a sea of green. "This was part of an intricate plumbing system that the ancient founders of this place built."
"So this is a sewer," L sighed, running her hand through the knee high water, "much cleaner than I thought it would be."
"It hasn't been used in the years since the Jedi moved here and renovated the Temple to more modern standards."
"Still pretty damn impressive," Eighty boomed, "I mean, they had to build this by hand. Damn impressive. So, what did the Jedi use it for now?"
"Recently? An escape route, and that is precisely what I'm counting on." They came around a bend saw their route blocked off by a large rock pile and a collapsed roof. However, they noticed the ground too dropped off, and the water was still flowing.
L groaned, "We're not gonna swim through that, are we?"
Kylo smirked behind the mask, "If wounded Jedi Masters and Padawans could swim it, then I'm sure you can too."
"He's got you there, L," Eighty chuckled.
"Oh shut up," she growled as they dived into the depths below, eventually coming up to what appeared to be a main junction line leading up. The stone tunnels appeared younger or at least better kept, but that also meant more used. "What an incredible smell you've discovered."
"Ah, the bogs on Tyyrr were worse," Eighty chuckled, "and those had bugs! Gah, I hate bugs!"
"Lord Kylo," one of the Commando droids addressed, "motion sensors detect movement above us at-"
"I know. We're under the main water grid now. We'll follow this line up, and that'll connect us with the line to the shower rooms."
Kylo sensed a smirk on L's face, "Ones'll wish she was here, then," she held up her chronowatch, "we've got 33 minutes to get this done, m'lord."
"Then keep up," and he took the lead, leaping directly up into the next tunnel system. Kylo held up a fist and they all ducked back into the shadows as they heard heavy footfalls echoing off the stone.
Their weapons readied tightly, they observed four men moving past them in a patrol pattern. They were not like the Rangers they'd seen before, instead garbed in full armor-harnesses painted gray and black with red visored helmets shaped like skulls. Even their strides seemed unworldly, like imperceivable blurs always in motion.
"Who the hell are these guys?" Eighty asked quietly through their comm's.
"Antarian Paladins," Kylo Ren replied, "even paramilitaries who work for the Jedi need their own counter to someone like me."
When they'd moved on, the commandos and SIth moved out. Another minute of trudging through slime coated and rat infested tunnels later, they finally reached the ladder leading up to their entry point.
"Sense anything?" Eighty asked.
"I'm sensing a lot of things, Trooper, there are a lot of minds here. But it seems clear enough."
"Good enough, let's move," and they ascended the ladder, quickly fanning out into defensive positions along a steam-aired square-room with two entrances. "Where to?"
Before Kylo could answer, he suddenly tensed. "Oh hell."
Vents running along the bottom of the walls suddenly popped open, and a thick green smoke began hissing through. Kylo knew that wasn't their only response considering he and the others had filter masks, and he was proven right when the doors suddenly opened and grenades were thrown through.
"Cover!" he shouted as he raised his hands to catch the explosives, but before he could throw them back the doors closed again. Kylo threw them instead to the far side of the room, everybody else falling back to the other side when they detonated. The concussive force was deafening, even as Kylo Ren threw up a protective Force barrier to dissipate the damage.
A split second after, the doors opened again and blurs of movement rushed into the room. The crack of ozone and the dull hum of shock mauls filled the air, the electrical patterns running blue arcs around the room like the ectoplasma of phantoms.
"You came to the wrong shower room, Sithspawn!" a modulated voice growled as the enemy closed in.
"Here they come. Get ready."
The HUD in Finn's helmet confirmed as much, marking out the company of reinforcements coming straight for them. His hands tightened around his weapons as his senses now expanding to their fullest potential. He could hear the pirates shared whispers and curses, and if he focused hard enough smell their perspiration.
It was unnerving as it was inhuman, but he took it as it was.
"McKensy, hit the betties."
"Wake up, sweetie. You're dead."
The explosions rang out with thunderous reports and turned the land into a literal meat grinder. The mine's ball-bearings ripped through wood and flesh alike; smoke, soot and screams of agony and confusion filling the air as the Sergeant Major's voice rang out through the comms, "Engage!"
"OOHAH!" was the collective scream as a half platoon's worth of green armored men rose from the underbush to take the enemy by surprise. Blasterfire, grenades, rockets and sniper fire tore into pirate ratings with devastating effect. It was the perfect ambush, and Finn wasn't so much thinking as he was reacting to the coming situation.
Targets came into view and he shot them down, tossing grenades out when the chance came and watching his flanks for an attack. It was all instinctual, beat into him over decades of study and training, and in a strange way Finn found himself enjoying the situation. He was in the company of truly professional soldiers who knew how to operate as a flawless system where every man knew his part and function.
Despite the superficial differences in methods, the uniforms and gear, and even with the general signals they used, Finn found himself fitting into things like a glove. Yet, something about the whole thing felt different, and it was more than just a heightened sense of things. It was the way the world danced with the violence, the tell tale sounds of things happening or… about to happen.
That realization hit him when he saw the enemy ahead drawing their weapons on him. Their movements were somehow predictable, like he knew exactly where they would be seconds later. To this, he moved just a few inches to the side in a barely registered movement and a trail of blaster bolts whipped past his head to scorch the tree behind him.
"You… how could you miss!?"
"He moved!"
"If we survive this, you're puttin' more hours at the range!"
"If," Finn replied, and in that moment he ignited Lor San's lightsaber. It's brilliant cyan blade was met by the grim determination in his eyes. Now he understood, and so did the enemy.
"T-two Jedi!? The bounty only said one!"
"Nevermind that, kill him!"
They opened fire and Finn charged, his body moved the necessary inches to allow bolts to fly past him. He retaliated in kind, his blaster barking as he closed in with his blade singing its death tune. An arm fell, a flash of crimson filled his vision, the ground came rolling over as his fist struck something soft and hard. It all became a massive blur to him as his training, and something else, took over.
The smell of ozone and the shade of blue marked the world as screams echoed and were just as suddenly silenced. It had lasted fifteen seconds, but to Finn it had been only been a heartbeat. He let out a breath he hadn't been holding, his eyes becoming wide at the sight of the dead and dismembered.
"By the Force, kiddo," he heard behind him, actually feeling the non-com's face turn somewhere between horror and awe, "damn. I guess that settles it, you do have the gift."
Finn stared into the plasma, holding what was not his but was given to him anyway for purposes he was only beginning to understand. "For better or for worse, I suppose I do, Sergeant Major"
"Drop pods incoming!"
They had to look no further than up to see blazing trails arcing across the void and coming straight down. By the trajectory, they had seconds, and it made Finn realize the enemy must've had a support ship somewhere close by.
"Fall back and regroup!" Merrick called over his comm, "Finn, you're with me."
They only got twenty yards before the first of the pods came down with a billowing crash that shook the ground tremendously, their doors ejecting to unleash their droid occupants. The next several minutes became a running engagement, and Finn discovered that the droids old subroutines prioritized shooting him over the others. He took full advantage of that, keeping his blade ignited to draw their fire while the others closed in and took them out one by one.
The strategy wasn't flawless, and his armor was soon riddled with scorch marks as his body ached. Still, it was buying the others time.
"Droideka!" someone shouted, and Finn heard the distinctive report of their movement through the forest. They came into sight, curled up in their ball forms as they lept in from above. In a heartbeat, he took aim and blasted the one on the left in an explosion of fiber-metal.. He turned to do the same to the one on the right but found it literally transforming in midair.
It hit the ground with a loud thud, it's shield up and it's blaster armed before he could stop it. All he could do was run as the crab-like droid chased him through the ruins with an unending barrage that soon had him pinned.
"Hey! Eat this!" and the distinctive explosion of a rocket impacting drew Finn out just enough to see that droids shields were still up! It spun and fired into the hills behind it, the troopers taking potshots followed by grenades that just bounced off its shields.
Finn spotted Merrick run past its distracted flank and rolled a detonator at a slowed pace that would bypass its shielding, only it didn't. It just bounced off and Merrick had to dive down a ravine to avoid being torn to pieces. "Damnit! The pirates must've adjusted its frequency!"
"Yeah, but its cannons are still poking through the shield! I think someone could probably walk through it!"
"Good luck getting someone to do that, MakTarversh!"
"Keep it distracted," Finn said through the comm, "I'll do it."
He'd never faced a droideka in battle, but he'd seen enough simulations about them to have an understanding of its one glaring weakness: it had the tendency to tunnel-vision due to its unspoken purpose of fighting Jedi. That would give him a very small window before it swung around, and Finn ran for all he was worth.
There was a subconscious level of control in his movements he found startling as his footfalls fell softer than they should've, but this too was something he accepted and leveraged. He took a low-wall at a leap, landing just behind the droid. It had been too loud though, and the droid began to pivot his way. Panic screamed for him to run, but his ice cold discipline forced him to keep his stride to just a casual walk.
The cannons were almost on him, and with one step Finn was in. He grabbed the weapon arm by the ball joint and wrenched it up to place the emitter of his saber flush against the head. A single ignition followed, the shields crackled out and the crab-like figure crashed to the floor with a flutter of moss and leaves.
Finn would've let out a restrained breath, but then he felt something tremble within him: a warning that was mental that soon became physical as he felt the ground shake again, but not to the level it had with the drop pod assault a few minutes earlier. "Sergeant Major, we need to move. Something else is coming."
There was a sudden flash of crimson ahead followed by more as trees started falling down in ruin. Ahead, he saw a fireteam comprised both of humanoids and their Ewok sniper team them fleeing in their direction.
"Chicken Walker! Chicken Walker!" their translated babble screamed over the comm, and soon a pair of the old Imperial Scout Walkers came thundering through the underbrush.
"Come back 'ere, you little bastards!" one of them roared as he unleashed a torrent of grenades, "I'm gonna tenderize ya and cook you over a spidel!"
"Chalk 4, draw them towards our position! Everybody, get on their flanks and put rockets up their pipes!"
Immediately, the troopers took to cover and began firing at the bipedal tanks with everything they had. Moments later, the flash of rockets from the troopers disposable launchers roared out and struck the walkers with a loud cacophony. The black smoke cleared however and the walkers were still coming, Finn recognizing the layers of cage-like slat armor bolted onto the frame being the cause.
Now pair were tearing their way through and blasting anybody who got in their way. In a matter of seconds, they were going to be right on top of them, and Finn could already feel the pirate company coming in behind.
"Fall back! Bounding Overwatch! Fall back!" Merrick ordered, and the squads began leapfrogging while peppering the enemy with blaster fire and their remaining explosives. Even the Ewoks and their support crews tried to target their weak points with sniper fire. Nothing they threw at the walkers seemed to stop them, and they were quickly being run down.
It took exactly three seconds for Finn to consider the insanity of what he was going to do, and then he charged.
"Hey, what's the crazy Jedi doing!?"
"Finn, get the hell back here!"
He wasn't listening. He put his entire focus into the task ahead and soon the Force did the rest. He ignited his lightsaber, and the walkers soon took notice. "Jedi! Blast him!"
Finn reacted as his brain processed what the walkers would do in the next few seconds. He bobbed and weaved, leaping and bounding over terrain as the heavy blaster cannons followed him just a second too late. He could feel the hot wood and dirt tearing into his arms and legs as he did so, but he fought back the pain and kept going.
"He's goin' under! Outlaw, flank-!"
But it was too late. Finn was under the walker's firing arc and he swung his blade. The hot plasma struck the walkers skeletal left leg and seared straight through. As the walker groaned from the shifting weights, he spun on the ball of his foot and cleaved through the right leg. In moments, the walker slid forward and crashed face first into the ground.
That however left Finn exposed to the second Walker, and he only had the mental reaction to dive for the fallen walker. The bolts tracked him and struck the armor, throwing him back with the concussive force and sending melted fragments screaming at him. The horror of Slip dying in his arms flashed through his mind as he expected the next few seconds to be his last.
The fragmentation however stopped just shy of his body, and Finn realized he was floating! A small grin parted his lips as he was dropped to the floor, and the cloud of floating metal fragments were sent flying back into the AT-ST, tearing its main cannons apart.
Rey stepped out from the shadows, her hand extended in a challenge as the pirate walker snarled, "You wench! Eat this!" and grenades were launched from its sponson cannon. She merely moved her hand up just a little and they were stopped in midair before being thrown right back to its sender.
To its testament, it's armor held amidst the heavy explosion but she wasn't done. With a simple flick of the wrist, an internal wire inside the drive motor was ripped out and the walker stumbled about before crashing into the ground.
A moment later, a rocket tore through the underbrush and finished it off with a dazzling explosion. Finn turned to see Han Solo up on the hill, a smoking launcher in his arms as a company of Rangers led by Chewbacca flooded from the ground like ants. They crashed into the advancing Pirate infantry, engaging them in close combat with even Chewbacca throwing men around like ragdolls.
To his further amazement, they were quickly followed by a fleet of speeder bikes that caught them in a pincer move. Finn's unspoken question was answered as Han descended the hill, "Rangers had 'em underground. Took 'em forever to get 'em ready though. Sergeant Major, what's the status of your men?"
"Ready for revenge, sir," he replied, fixing a bayonet on his blaster rifle, "where you need us?"
Han gestured to the left flank, "We'll cut these chumps off from their their LZ. Rey, Finn, you're with them."
"Oohah, sir," and the troopers took off at a run. Before Rey could join them, Finn caught her by the hand. After a moment of unspoken revelation, she nodded and looked upward at the battle taking place above.
"Black 3, watch your six! Black 4, move ahead and support Black 7! Black 2, you're on me! We're going after those bombers!"
"Acknowledged, Black Leader," Deliah's voice echoed through Poe's comms, "that's only if I can keep up at this point!"
Poe grudgingly acknowledged that without saying so. Already he had 43 kills to his name, and that was quickly made 44 as his blaster cannons tore apart a droid fighter by the wings and sent it floating in the void. Of course, he'd chalked it up to the fighters being nothing like the Strikers the First Order had fielded against him on Jakku, but he knew there was something more to it.
He was an experienced pilot, and he'd flown more combat missions than most in his generation. Yet, there was a measure of control foriegn to him, almost farsight in nature, and he recognized it for what it was. The Old Man had certainly talked enough about it with his stories about Luke and his former wingman, Corran Horn.
"Then try to keep up then, Black 2," Poe grinned behind his pressure mask, taking in the extra oxygen as he pulled the throttled and rocketed towards his targets. These were making an attack run on the Kenobi, and Poe and Deliah quickly cut across their bow to split them up. Their blaster bolts quickly ripped the first bomber in line before the other filed off, their escorts moving to chase them away.
"Line 'em up for me, Black Leader! I'm gonna catch your score!"
"As you wish, m'lady," and Poe spun around to race towards Deliah's X-Wing with the fighters in pursuit.
Oh no, Poe! BB-8 growled in binary, Last time you tried this, I nearly got my head taken off!
"Oh please, that'd be an improvement! Besides, she's not gonna kill us… right?"
"Make catching your score a lot easier. Get ready to pull the throttle, I'm gonna hit 'em with canister shot."
"Okay, this could go bad. BB-8, divert all additional power to forward shields."
Your girlfriend's gonna get us killed, he grumbled as they flew straight for several seconds before Poe pulled the dime and raced straight upward. As he cleared, Deliah fired a pair of canister missiles. Against shielded targets, the fragmentation weapons were moot, but these weren't shielded. The subsonic munitions erupted just ahead of their targets, and soon ripped them up like fine liver.
"26," Deliah said over the comm, "You'd best watch yourself, Black Leader."
"In your dreams, 2."
"Black Leader, this is Black 3!" Snap called, "Me and 4 are cleared out and we're coming to you!"
"10-4, Black 3. Rally on me, and let's take these punks out."
Without their escorts, the hyena bombers proved no match for the combined four T-70 X-Wings as they were turned into a floating scrap pile.
"Black Leader, this is Silver Leader," another voice entered his comm, and Poe spotted a squadron of K-Wing bombers coming at them from the Kenobi's hangar bays, "we are rearmed and looking to hurt something. Care to join us?"
"Gladly. Black Squadron, rally on me. We got-"
Poe, do you hear me?
It was Rey's voice, and Poe stifled his surprise enough to ask, I do. What's going on?
Poe, the pirates have deployed a support ship above the Temple and are raining down drop pods. I think they might get desperate enough to glass us at this point.
That grim thought sent a shiver down his spine. The only reason the pirates hadn't done that yet was because they didn't want to risk glassing the map to the Forge, too. But if things were getting desperate enough, they might just chance it.
Understood. I'll see what I can do.
"Black Leader, what's wrong?" Silver Leader came on the line. Poe quickly explained, and he actually felt the Bomber Leader scoff, "That ship would have to be in the very back of the formation, and we have no idea where exactly. There's no way that-"
"Black Leader," Lu'lu interrupted, "I see a squadron of bombers and fighters moving away from the battlefield towards the planet. I'm reckoning they're goin' where we need to be goin'."
Poe nodded, eyeing his tactical display. They were right under the enemy fleet, probably to try and avoid detection. If they followed their path, they might be able to punch clear through the blockade. He sent a coded tactical package to the Kenobi's fighter control and then hit his comm.
"Silver Leader, it's up to you. It's your bombers we'll need. But if we're gonna do this, we need do it now. We can't wait for the Old Man's approval."
There was a notable silence for several seconds before the bomber commander chuckled, "Kriff it, let's do it. Just make sure you keep us covered when we do. Don't let the gunnery crews have all the fun after all."
"Hyena bombers are inbound, cap'n," Sydow's XO reported as the tactical feed came online. The Crimson Corsair pursed his lips tightly. Every minute, Antilles and his forces were slowly squeezing his blockade like a tightening fist, and he'd already suffered heavy losses. He checked his watch, the time reading 19 minutes. They should've been out by now, and his eyes ran to the monitors on the ground.
Phasma and her reinforced company were trying to force their way towards the Temple but we're meeting heavy resistance. The supporting company had been stopped dead in it tracks in the forest outside the Temple, and the head cams from the Commando Droids supporting Lord Kylo were incomprehensible blurs of motion that no one could discern.
In short, things had gone to hell in a handbasket, and Sydow had authorized a laser guided fire mission directly on the Temple grounds. These had been loaded with bunker-buster and fragmentation munitions. He hoped that would be enough.
"C-cap'n, there is a squad of flying torpedo boxes following the Hyena Bombers!" his comm officer reported. Sydow swung his chair, and spotted the two squadrons coming under the main blockade. Already, the other ships of the picket line were trying to shoot them down, but most of the ships there were either out of position or were too badly damaged.
The few fighter reserves they had were being scrambled to plug the gap, but they were not going to stop the enemy in time before they hit the rear of the formation.
"Contact The Rylothian Heart. Warn 'em what's coming."
"Cap'n, bombers have hit atmo and are approachin' target areas. Escorts are still on them."
Sydow sighed at that as the feed came through. By the skin of their teeth, they could pull this off and get the hell out of here before the New Republic came in force. That hope died almost as soon as it came to be when anti-aircraft fire suddenly struck the approaching squadron.
"What the Seven Corellian Hells!?" Bonnie exclaimed, "Their defenses are supposed to be down!"
Sydow's brow creased. The quickly cutting feed of the fighters and bombers showed they were not being cut to pieces by blaster fire, but instead by what could only be slugthrower munition. He needed to be sure, and ordered for The Rylothian Heart's telemetry. In a moment, the hazy imagery showed what he feared: triple barrelled man-powered ballistic anti-aircraft guns, and they were scattered throughout the valley in disguised firepits.
The imagery soon brought a cold smile to his craggy face. "Clever gits. First, they let us land so we can't glass 'em, and now they bring out the guns we're about to bomb them. And I wager those X-Wings and torpedo boxes are meant for the Heart."
"Sounds like they learned from you, sir," Bonnie shook her head, "what do we do? We can't just pull out without the map."
His eyes watched the monitor. The X-Wings and K-Wings were closing in on The Rylothian Heart, and he knew that the Acclamator II-Class Assault Cruiser wasn't going to be able to stand up long against the K-Wings. The undersized gunships were designed to kill the best the Empire had in its heyday.
He ran through his options, and none of them were good. He could try to pull back into a tighter blockade, but such a repositioning threatened to expose his already badly beat fleet. And at this point, he couldn't afford to pull out more of his squadrons or try to land more troops.
They were out of time.
"No we can't, Bonnie," he said at last, "so I'm gonna do the damnable thing. Contact The Rylothian Heart, and order her to fire on the Temple grounds."
The horror on her face was one he knew all too well, "Cap'n, our boys are down there!"
"And they're dying, Bonnie, just as we are. We cannot let this job die, too. Dispatch a warning to the boys, and commence the orbital bombardment."
"Yes sir," she whispered as she set about her task. Sydow stared down at the planet, and behind his mask began to weep. If there truly was an afterlife, he hoped the ghost of his boys would forgive him for what he had to do. That Phasma would forgive him.
"Rylothian Heart reports bombardment in 60 seconds, sir!"
Sydow nodded, and steeled himself for what came next.
A note from the Authors:
Hey everybody, this is JSailer and Squasher here. Currently, we've hit the end of our backlog, as we are still writing Chapter 40. We will work to get it done and hopefully recover our chapter lead by the next publishing date, the 29th of September. However, this may be subject to change, and I will post an update if it is. We'd also like to thank Kaiju Alpha, Terminator57, and darth Queidus for their reviews. One other thing, a while back one of our commenters suggested the possibility of setting up a discord channel to help hash out ideas and talk about reviews more indepth. Is this something you'd all like to see?