Hey everybird! What's up!?

Been awhile since I last updated this story, but back at it and I think I'm going to focus on this for about a week since Star Wars Day, on May the Fourth, is coming on and also The Clone Wars hype is really on my mind!

So I hope you don't mind and without further ado, lets get back to the action!

Chapter 8: Continuing Struggles

(Blu's POV)

"Anything Jewel?" I asked my droid as she replied with a negative on reaching dad, at which point I knew it was best to trust that he will make it out of here in one piece, but if I focused too much on him I wasn't going to make it out, needing to focus on the here and now.

And I really needed to be, with the fleet being fully engaged by TIE fighters launched from the two star destroyers and trying to fight them off as our small trio of X-Wings were still around the star destroyers, who were not concerned about us at the moment, us posing a far less danger than the rest of the fleet.

"So what do we do Blu?" Roberto asked as I thought, but as I was thinking, the voice of Red Leader came on.

"We're going in." Red Leader spoke as I watched the X-Wings of Red Squadron charge at the shield gate, blasting apart the laser turrets which dotted the surface of the structure, flying above and through, losing a couple of fighters in the process.

"Should we join Red Squadron sir?" Blue Twelve asked me.

"No, they can handle that themselves, we're here where we can make a difference." I said as I made my decision. "Prepare proton torpedoes and charge up your laser cannons, target the destroyers and do as much damage as possible, try to take the TIE pressure off Red and Gold Squadrons and bring them to us." I gave out my orders.

"Three X-Wings against two massive star destroyers, I'm in." Roberto causally replied as Blue Twelve gave her full agreement.

Even thought this plan would most likely result in us dying, it would be a great help to our fleet as I resigned myself to the possible fact that this would be the last fight of my life.

"Well Jewel, this might be it." I told my droid. "If it is, it was an honor to have you as my co-pilot." I said sincerely as Jewel replied in the same way.

(David's POV)

So far our entry in the battle on the ground was making a terrific difference as the massive AT walkers' weakness clearly showed, with the X and U-Wings taking its toll on them. As the Squadron circled above, the U-Wing's gunners were shooting the door blasters, rippling into one of the legs of a walker, destroying it and causing the tall walker to lose its balance and topple to the ground. While that was happening, the X-Wings tore into another, the powerful quad lasers turning the body of the walker into scrap metal and cutting it in half.

"Great job Blue Squadron, that was the last of the walkers." I congratulated the pilots on their work, but I knew this was far from over as the Imperials were of course not going to let have air superiority and were by now fully scrambling their TIE wings to counter us. "Keep alert, expect TIEs any minute now." I told the squadron as they acknowledged me, staying together in their pairs and keeping a full 360 degree lookout.

With the few minutes I had without anything important to worry about around me, I thought about Blu, how he was doing, he must be having a much harder time than I was currently, if in fact he was still alive and fighting, but something told me he was and giving it all he could.

"Any chance reaching Blu, Evelyn?" I asked my droid as she replied with a negative, of course comms were completely blocked with the shield gate now running and separating us. "Hang in there son…"

(Blu's POV)

"Come on!" I shouted as I flew upwards towards the exposed bridge of one of the destroyers, a trio of TIEs hot on my tail as I dodged their fire while keeping the crosshairs locked onto one of the spherical shield generators, pressing the trigger and holding it down, watching the generator blow up as I flew up and through the debris and dived, the TIEs still on me.

"I got you Blu!" Roberto shouted through comms as he came in from behind the TIEs as I escaped, flying beneath the star destroyer's hull, picking off one of them as he and Blue Twelve watched my back.

"Thanks Roberto, glad you're here." I replied as I looked towards the shield gate where Red and Gold Squadrons were.

Our effort was clearly paying off as the Imperials had to keep a number of TIEs on us instead of the fleet, to protect their pair of star destroyers. As we continued our fight, I looked to see the Y-Wings of Gold Squadron preparing for a run against the shield gate, taking the precious time as they dived down in formation with only the intact laser emplacements still left to worry about. A couple of them were shot down, but they were too close and moving too fast as they began dropping proton bombs to hopefully damage it enough.

Only as their bombing run was happening, the TIE fighter wings from the shield gate hangars were now fully ready and now added a fresh and massive wave of TIEs to the fight. Roberto, Blue Twelve, and I were currently making our way back to the fleet to join the fight there when the TIE wave launched and were now right behind us, wasting no time in filling the void of space with green laser fire.

"More fighters, from up." I told the two X-Wings with me as the TIEs swarmed now around the fleet, focusing their fire on Raddus' flagship.

"Well this is just great…" Roberto spoke through comms.

"Shut it Roberto, start blasting those TIEs and keep them off the fleet." I ordered as I took a deep breath as this fight just keeps getting more and more difficult, how we were going to win this I had no idea…

(David's POV)

With air superiority accomplished for the time being, it was now time to help out the forces on the ground more directly as our U-Wings had troops more than ready to fight.

"U-Wings, reinforce those troops on the beach." I ordered the troop transports as I spotted friendly forces down below. "All fighters, on me. We have to shield them from air attack." I said as the couple of U-Wings carefully landed down near our friendly forces, disembarking fresh infantry reinforcements who charged out with blasters at the ready.

And just in time too as incoming contacts were fast approaching, the TIEs I expected coming in to clear the skies of any Rebel fighters, of course they were facing a tough bunch of pilots. However they were no ordinary TIEs as unlike normal TIE starfghters, their two solar panel wings were in a more horizontal position than the usual vertical one, something even I haven't seen before. However I assumed they still had the same weakness as normal TIEs as I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the dogfights that would happen in the skies.

"Keep making sure our shields are operational Evelyn, we're going to really need them." I told my droid as I held firmly onto the trigger for the quad laser cannons, ready to fight it out against these new TIEs.

And I'll leave it off on there and we'll resume again back to Blu in the next chapter!

I hope you enjoyed and with that…

See everybird later!