Chapter 24:
On the main deck of the Fellfire, Armitage Hux was fidgeting.
"Sergeant Elkarr, why don't I already have Captain Peavey online?" he railed at the operator.
"I'm trying to contact him General, but the Finalizer is …"
"General!" Corporal Cherm, responsible for the sensors, suddenly cut off his colleague. "Several ships have just come out of hyperspace!"
Hux rushed towards him to see around twenty points of light flashing on the radars.
"What do we have?" he asked without taking his eyes off the screens in front of him.
"CR90 corvettes and CC9600 Corellian frigates, X-wings, B-wing starfighters, a Starfortress MG-100 and a Mon Calamari star cruiser. There are also bombers."
The ships obviously belonged to the Resistance, and Armitage's eyes widened. He had a hard time imagining that a handful of rebel vessels were planning to attack his fleet. He had heard Poe Dameron's fool's statement via the Holonet too, but he had believed it to be just a bluff. An empty declaration to make the galaxy believe that the Rebellion still had a breath of life.
However, here they were, before him. Although Hux found their little attempt ridiculous, the timing was bad. He had better things to do right now than deal with these pitiful pests.
"Their starfighters have started firing on the Ravenous and the Desolation. And part of their bomber fleet is approaching the Harbinger."
Hux's face was now contorted with anger. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice. He had the opportunity to get rid of them once again, and he knew he could rely on the firepower of his warships as well as his TIE squadrons to do so.
He climbed back on deck and watched through the large panoramic bay as the Resistance ships advanced and enemy missiles attempted to pierce their high-tech shields.
"Send all our starfighters and arm all the cannons," he ordered. "Reduce this band of renegades to dust immediately."
OoooooO
The beams of the turbolasers streaked the void of space all around him. His cockpit vibrated and the noise of the ionic guns of the First Order destroyers was deafening. The shock wave of a turret exploding to his left made him shift slightly from his trajectory and he corrected his position by tightening his fingers on the handle and pulling to the right with all his strength. Too bad he wasn't in his trusty Black One. That starship had exploded with the rest of the other X-wings when Kylo Ren had launched a deadly torpedo into the Raddus hangar four months earlier. But it didn't matter. No time to give in to nostalgia when a pair of TIE fighters was chasing and shooting at you. He made several loops to avoid being atomized by his pursuers and yelled in the com for the attention of BB-8:
"BB! Bypass the auxiliary thruster circuit, I need more speed!"
The droid propped up in its usual place at the back of the cockpit and released a series of beeps before plunging its telescopic arm into the heart of the electrical system to accomplish what was asked of it.
"Nell, Wexley, protect the bombers with your squadrons!" Poe cried after opening his internal transmission channel. "We must secure their approach to the destroyers! Merken and A'Min, I'm counting on you to destroy the ventral cannons on their dreadnoughts. If they manage to fire, Theed is lost and so are our friends."
"Copy that," the pilots responded one after the other.
The few reinforcements led respectively by Merken Jas and Girden A'Min rushed towards the Merciless and the Sovereign. Meanwhile, the rest of the A-wing and B-wing battalions under Poe's command were struggling with the enemy fighters while trying to cause maximum damage to the First Order space fortresses. The gun batteries on the rebel cruisers were firing continuously, and those on the Hux's ships were replying. They had to buy enough time for the freighters to recover the maximum number of people on Naboo. If they could allow hundreds or even thousands of innocent civilians to flee, then it was worth it. The group of transporters, led by Leia and Chewie, had taken advantage of the surprise attack and the few minutes of camouflage offered by the jammers developed by Rose. They had evaded the First Order radars and rushed straight to Theed. They were fifty in all, and each had received his instructions to go to a very specific region of Naboo. Poe was now simply praying that they'd accomplish their mission as fast as possible.
The trills of BB-8 resounded in his helmet. A laser shot had brushed against its photoreceptors and the little droid was shaken. The fighters behind them were tough. Dameron had done the most delicate maneuvers to try to throw them off, but to no avail - they were hanging on like Ralltiir's leeches. Poe plunged sideways, along the gigantic structure of an enemy destroyer, the TIEs still in his wake. The pilot then spotted one of the turrets ready to fire in the distance. He abruptly forked and went up along a narrow trench dug in the hull. The enemy followed him blindly.
Perfect.
He pulled hard on the handle to come out and find himself in front of the glowing cannon mouth. He barely escaped the hellish fire that came out of it, but as he had expected, the two starfighters after him were not so lucky and were vaporized by their own flagship.
"How nice of you to give us a hand, Hux!" Poe laughed, turning around to destroy the turret that had just saved him.
But when he then glanced to his port side, it was to see Kaiden Scorbo's A-Wing explode in a spray of flame. Two other rebel ships were destroyed. A couple of bombers farther on suffered the same fate. More and more deadly swarms of TIEs escaped from the destroyers' hangars and pounded the Allied corvettes and cruisers, whose shields were beginning to weaken.
The Starfortress MG-100 called "Holdo" was the brand-new flagship of the Resistance. Its construction in the Mylvayne shipyards had been kept secret and had been completed only a few days earlier. Admiral Dupp Zar was at the head of the crew and right now, the vessel was directing all its turbolasers at the Subjugator, a First Order destroyer in their sights. But the enemy's protective screens seemed impenetrable.
The space all around them was nothing more than a vast battlefield dotted with metallic debris, burning plasma and missiles firing in all directions. For the moment, Resistance forces were holding on. But for how long?
OoooooO
The troop shuttle 453-XTZ2 landed in the middle of the Theed spaceport. When the access ramp lowered, the stormtroopers who were waiting in close ranks to embark were a little surprised to see Elias Ren, the right-hand man of their Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, descend. The squadron leader raised his fist to tell them not to move and walked up alone to meet him.
He froze at attention in front of him and noticed that the knight had his hand on the saber hanging from his belt.
"Sir, apologies…" the soldier stammered, a little confused by the defensive attitude of the Sith, "But we haven't been informed of your arrival. It was intended that this unit would evacuate on board the carrier you just left. Have orders been changed?"
Elias stared at the trooper's white and black helmet. He couldn't see his face, but he felt that the infantryman was wondering why the First Order second-in-command had a split lip and a bruise on his cheek. Good. The soldiers on Naboo had not yet been informed of what had happened on board the Finalizer. So he had to hurry before Hux discovered he was there and asked the men still present at the palace to ...
A soldier was running in their direction, blaster rifle in hand.
Elias' body tensed.
Too late. Perhaps Hux had informed them, after all.
But the stormtrooper came to a halt and saluted them before announcing in a panicked voice: "Stormtrooper JT-1088 to the report. We just received a transmission from the destroyer Finalizer. Resistance ships are attacking the fleet."
The helmeted head of the squadron leader then turned to Elias, awaiting some directive to be followed, and there followed a moment of hesitation.
The Resistance was attacking the Armada? Unbelievable. It was too good to be true. He had to take advantage of the fact that people still believed he was part of the command circle.
But as the Sith was about to respond, something on the skyline caught his eye. Above the vast green expanse of the forest, a formation of several vessels was heading towards the spaceport, and they weren't part of the First Order fleet.
Elias closed his eyes and then projected his mind towards the durasteel cabins. The crews were reduced, about twenty people in each ship. But there were also three faster starfighters flying alongside in support, which were on them in a few seconds. When they started shooting at a group of TT-BTs stationed on one of the landing strips, panic invaded the area. The stormtroopers desperately sought cover. Elias' first reflex was to scrutinize the various launch pads to locate Sylla's command shuttle. The transport was not here, so surely it was parked in the royal hangar.
Kriff ... So he had to go up to the palace to find the young woman.
If she had followed his instructions, the bomb was now in the throne room, protected by the force field. As for the holocron, it was well hidden in the inside pocket of his coat.
"Prepare to strike back!" Elias yelled. "Use all the armored vehicles available and shoot down these ships, is that understood?"
"Yes, sir," confirmed the squadron chief, who ran to join his men.
Elias set off in turn on the airstrip. The spaceport was still under fire from the three rebel B-wings, but he arrived safely in front of one of the turbolifts leading to the palace. All he had to do was find Sylla and leave this cursed planet aboard the command shuttle.
OooooO
More than half of the cargo ships were on their way to the capital. The starfighters were distracting the bulk of the First Order infantry concentrated at the foot of the cliff. The rest of the transports had reached other major cities on the continent. Nobody could miss the arrival of the Resistance ships now, proudly displaying their logo, a symbol of freedom throughout the galaxy. Everyone in Theed had heard Poe Dameron's message. And the withdrawal of the First Order's troops only confirmed that the pilot had told the truth. A disastrous fate awaited Naboo, if not all the occupants of the Chommel system, and those freighters were their only hope of escaping the total annihilation of their world.
Chewie flew over the capital and barely dodged a M6-TT shot. He passed the palace and headed north, towards the Gungan refuge.
Leia felt sadness and panic take hold of her again. She couldn't help but think back to that terrible day when, trapped aboard the Death Star, she had stood by as a helpless witness to the destruction of Alderaan. This endless war which she had waged practically all her life had really decided to take everything from her: her biological and adoptive parents, Han, her son, her brother and now Naboo? As if she hadn't been punished enough …
This beautiful place was her mother's home planet. It was the place where Anakin and Padmé had loved each other, had married and had been able to be happy before everything turned bad. She had planned to end her days here, in her mother's house, when the galaxy was finally at peace, or when she, too, no longer had the strength to fight.
Everything was so peaceful, so beautiful there. She regretted so much that she had not been able to take advantage of it when she had the opportunity. With Han, with Ben ...
With a swift gesture, she wiped away a tear and focused on what she had to do. She could not falter - not now. They were there to save as many people as possible. Their cargo ship was intended to retrieve all the occupants of the refuge, and that is what they were going to do.
The shiny waters of the lake soon appeared, as did the small clearing in which the Millennium Falcon had landed a few days before. Leia swiveled in her co-pilot seat to address Korch and Sergeant Silks in the back.
"We must proceed to boarding as quickly as possible."
"Yes, ma'am!" the soldier retorted.
As the landing gear touched the ground, dozens of figures emerged from the forest. The freighter had managed to contact the refuge, and all the survivors had abandoned the underwater bubbles to reach the woods and the meeting point. The ramp lowered, revealing the silhouette of Leia, who watched them approach.
Megarana and King Miggi Tan were leading the group. Maz was led on a stretcher carried by Ferr Cox and one of his soldiers, Finn and Rose following them. The Gungan and Naboo refugees then began to enter the freighter. Once inside the ship, the young queen could not help taking the rebel princess in her arms. The Gungan king also thanked her warmly.
"Praise the Force, Maz, aren't you ashamed to scare us like that?" Leia exclaimed when the stretcher bearers passed in front of her.
The orange-skinned little woman, still very weak, winked at her and smiled.
"I am hale and hearty, my dear!"
Leia had time to gently shake her friend's hand before Maz was carried away to join the others. She then went to meet Finn and Rose.
"I am so happy that you're all well."
"We're also happy to see you, General," the young woman replied.
"How is it up there? Any news from the Millennium Falcon?" Finn worried.
"Our men are holding on, and the Falcon is on its way."
"Come on, Finn," Rose whispered tenderly, "We have to go help them settle into the ship."
The young man stepped onto the ramp in front of her, sighing. She knew he wanted to join the fray, alongside Poe, C'ai, Cova ...Their family members were fighting over their heads and were ready to risk everything for them. Rose then closed her eyes and gently stroked the crescent-shaped pendant hanging from her neck.
OoooO
Elias and Sylla met at the foot of the grand staircase leading to the royal office.
"Elias? What are you doing here?! Why are rebels starfighters firing on the spaceport? And Yehnu ... I felt that he…"
The blond knight perceived the slight tremor in the young woman's voice.
"Yehnu attacked me, Sylla. He joined forces with Hux to overthrow me. I think they have been plotting together for quite some time. So I had to kill him."
"Yehnu ally with Hux?" The young woman had a hard time hiding her confusion.
"You and I can no longer return to the Finalizer," Elias continued. "Hux showed all the officers the video of Snoke's murder and he got another one in which the four of you were attacking Kylo. All the soldiers of the First Order are therefore also aware that we have deceived them for months."
"But they must have seen that Hux was there too when we …"
"He used the situation to his advantage and took power. I could not do anything to stop him. And on top of this, the Resistance is now attacking the fleet in orbit. We have to get out of here."
Sylla took a deep breath and stared at her master. She was now bubbling with a dull rage. She was on his side, and he had to admit to having underestimated her. He never thought she would be the last to stay, at the end.
"Sylla, listen. For the moment we have to retreat. But I swear Hux will pay for what he did."
Elias tightened his fingers on Sylla's shoulder, and the intensity of his gaze testified that he would keep his promise. The young woman nodded, and the blond Knight smiled.
"Have you done what I asked?"
"I was about to deploy the force field when I saw the starfighters attacking the troops. Then I felt your presence and decided to come and find you," she replied.
"Very well. In that case, let's finish the job before leaving this place. Once we're far from here, you and I will activate the holocron. Hux, the First Order and the Resistance will no longer be a problem for us."
OooooO
Poe had always been certain of one thing: he would quit this world at the controls of an X-wing. As late as possible, he hoped, but he didn't see himself dying any other way.
And now, finally, that moment had arrived.
Two new TIEs were sticking close to him from behind. His left propellant was about to fail and a laser shot had damaged his cooling system. Acrid smoke was gradually invading the cockpit.
BB-8 didn't even beep anymore. The poor droid was content to keep the shields active to allow his master to hold out a little longer.
Poe made a desperate turn to the left, trying to shake off the starfighters. But he knew very well that it was useless. Their sighting systems had just locked on his ship. His air brakes were no longer working and all the alarms on his dashboard were howling. He was going to be atomized in a few seconds.
But suddenly one of the TIEs chasing him turned into a fireball.
Poe couldn't believe his eyes. Who had shot?
A second detonation sounded and the pilot was suddenly rid of his second attacker.
On his right, the familiar silhouette of the Millennium Falcon emerged, her cannons letting loose a continuous stream of fire straight ahead.
"Poe, don't you have anything to say?" Rey's voice echoed in his headset.
"By all the stars of the galaxy, Rey! I've never been so happy to hear you, you can believe me!"
The Corellian freighter operated an incredible maneuver to avoid the firing of turbolasers from a First Order battleship, then made a large U-turn before taking up position near Poe's starfighter, the shields of which had just dropped.
"Wow! Finn and BB-8 told me you were good, but I'm particularly impressed," the rebel said.
"I sincerely appreciate the compliment, Dameron."
The voice that answered was not Rey's this time. Poe's jaw tightened, as did his hand on the controls of his X-wing. The young woman was not in command of the Millennium Falcon. It was Kylo Ren.
"Your X-wing is ruined. You have to take cover," Ren added.
BB-8, in place behind the cockpit, stridulated energetically. He totally agreed with Kylo Ren.
"Ok, I'll go back to the Holdo. It's our flagship," Poe sighed.
"We'll cover you."
The atmosphere inside the cockpit had become unbreathable. Poe didn't know what to say anymore and was content to keep his starfighter stable while the Falcon escorted him to the rebel ship. To talk, as if nothing had happened, with the one who had killed Lor San Tekka, had ordered the massacre of so many innocent people, had killed his own father, and had tortured him without mercy, would have seemed inconceivable to him a few months ago. And today, Kylo Ren had just saved his life.
Kylo Ren… who was actually Ben Solo.
The smoke was starting to burn his eyes and lungs. The extraction system must also have failed, not to mention the abnormal rattling that resounded under his seat, and which was anything but reassuring. Poe then hastened to add into his transmitter:
"You must get to Theed and make sure that the evacuation progresses. We'll continue to fight here. And tell them to hurry up."
"Poe, we can help here a little more." The scavenger had joined the conversation again.
"Rey, do what I say!" he retorted before starting to cough.
This time he could not escape it, he quickly adjusted the oxygen mask recovered from the small compartment to his right and took a deep breath before hearing Ben Solo announce to him:
"As soon as you are safe, we'll head for Theed."
The Falcon fired again to ward off enemy fighters who wanted to hinder their progress towards the Holdo. Finally, they arrived safely near the StarFortress, and the shields were lowered so that the X-wing could enter the hangar. Two seconds before it touched the ground, the ship's two engines failed simultaneously and it landed abruptly but without too much damage on the runway. The cockpit window opened and the smoke was expelled from within.
Poe Dameron was finally able to breathe normally, so he opened communications one last time with the Falcon, which was now heading towards Naboo.
"Rey, Solo ... Thanks. Thank you both."
OooooO
The minute the Millennium Falcon entered the atmosphere of the planet, a feeling of unease had taken hold of him. Did Rey feel it too?
The tension increased as they got closer to the surface, and Ben knew exactly what it was. He would have recognized their energy signatures among a thousand others: Elias and Sylla. They were there. On Naboo.
But what were they doing here? Why weren't they on one of the First Order ships? They had to warn the Resistance fighters on the planet.
The green domes and obelisks of the capital were soon in sight.
"Ben…" Rey had just burst in behind him in the cockpit, a little breathless. "I feel something ... or someone ... the Dark Side. Here."
"Elias and Sylla are at Theed," he confirmed in an annoyed tone.
Rey then sat on his right and reactivated communications.
"This is the Millennium Falcon. We are on our way to Theed. Do you copy?"
"Rey, it's Leia. We are on board one of our cargo ships, ready to take off."
The connection was bad. The young woman could barely hear the words of the elder, drowned as they were in sounds of crackling and static.
"We have recovered all the refugees. Finn, Rose and Maz are with me."
"Good, but you must leave the planet as soon as possible! Elias Ren is on Naboo."
"What? Where? At Theed?"
"Ben and I felt his presence."
A short silence followed the young woman's words.
"If he's here, then …" the general stammered. But her son did not let her finish. In a solemn and strong voice, he announced firmly:
"Leia, he may have brought the bomb with him and decided to drop it somewhere in Theed. I don't know why, but I have a bad feeling. Also, the Falcon's sensors indicate that there are still one or two squadrons of infantrymen near the palace. First Order forces are responding to your starfighter attacks from the spaceport."
Ben glanced over at his companion, and realized when she nodded her head that they were both thinking the same thing.
"Rey and I are going to land, find him and try to stop him. You, you get out of here and you make the jump to hyperspace."
Hearing her son address her directly touched the princess right in the heart. She was in the middle of the transport's cockpit, surrounded by the other rebels, who dared not say a word. The crackling on the channel became worse, and Leia was suddenly seized with indescribable terror. Ben and Rey were about to confront Elias in an attempt to stop the destruction of an entire system. Ben had come back to the Light. She felt it now in the depths of her being, through the Force, through her mother's instinct. This return was synonymous with hope. The hope of one day seeing her son again, of holding his hand again, of finally telling him all the things she'd needed to confess to him for so long ...
Unfortunately, that hope was in danger of going up in smoke. Again. She then made a superhuman effort to keep her voice from trembling.
"Ben, Rey, you can't go alone! This is crazy!" Interference on the line intensified. "Ben!" she repeated. "Do you copy? Ben!" she almost screamed, and Chewie, seated in the pilot seat, let out a dejected groan. Communications had been cut off, and she felt Finn fidgeting behind her too.
"We must call them back!" the ex-stormtrooper cried. "They can't do this! Or we have to go help them!"
"We can't do that, Finn! We must leave now," one of the members of the Naboo Council objected, thinking above all of the hundred refugees who were waiting in the hold.
Leia's face regained its natural impassiveness. She had found herself in much more critical situations and she felt all eyes were on her. She may have been "removed" from her rank of general, but not here. Not now.
Here and now, she was Leia Organa again, leader of the Resistance, and everyone acted as if it had never been otherwise.
"This transport will take off," she cut off. "Chewie, I'm counting on you to defy the laws of gravity and move this ship away from the Chommel system as quickly as possible. You have to contact the other freighters and tell them to do the same."
Finn was about to protest again, but Leia intervened before he had time to open his mouth.
"But before that, all the people who volunteer to go to Theed, to lend a hand to Rey and my son are invited to follow me. We'll gather weapons in the hold and find the speeders hidden in the woods."
Silks' and Korch's jaws dropped as Finn let out a little victory cry.
"We will come with you," Ferr Cox said, flanked by his six fellow Gungans.
"I'm coming too," Rose exclaimed.
Finn's face fell, but he couldn't imagine preventing her from taking part in the expedition after being the first to offer to go. Leia gave the group a nod.
"We? Am I to understand that you intend to go there too, Leia?" Silks asked, a little surprised.
No need for an answer. The look that the general gave him was sufficiently explicit. Finn and Rose had already left the cockpit. Ferr Cox and his men followed. A groaning Chewie then got up from his seat and walked past Leia to disappear into the back of the ship.
Did she really think the Wookie was going to let her go to Theed without him? A tender smile appeared unbidden on Leia's face.
"Sergeant Silks, you are apparently the new pilot of the freighter," she announced. "Please lead all these people to safety."
OoooooO