Earlier….

Captain Glissando considered himself pretty lucky to have been promoted to day shift by his young leaders. Over the course of the past six months he'd become mighty fond of the Jedi so he was very concerned to see both TIE Silencers streak away from the Redemption toward what would surely prove to be the biggest and bloodiest battle in the history of the galaxy.

His fear for the pair turned to despair fifteen minutes later when he heard Ben Solo's voice bellow Rey's name through the bridge's intercom which was set to monitor fleet-wide communications. The entire bridge crew came to a halt, faces registering shock and grief at the sound of that anguished cry. The relief was palpable as they heard Ben's voice vanquish their greatest fear. She was still alive... Drifting toward the hot zone and spinning out of control, but still alive.

Tears soaked every face in the room as they listened to Ben's side of the conversation and many hearts broke as they heard him react to the shocking news of his unborn twins.

"Gentlemen…" Gliss said as calmly as he could. "We can't leave her out there." He looked around and saw hope beginning to spark to life on the faces around him. "I know we were ordered to hang back, but that was when it was assumed that she'd be on board. General Solo tasked us to protect his family. If anyone objects to me countermanding his order to stay away from the main fight, speak now and your objection will be noted."

Nobody spoke up.

"Alright." He nodded absently. "Get us moving."

The Redemption was by far the largest ship in the Federation fleet, measuring nearly thirty clicks from bow to stern and more than twice that from port to starboard so moving through the cluster of much smaller battleships was a slow and painstaking process.

"Be careful not to hit our fighters, but clear us a path through this horde." Glissando instructed as the Redemption approached the several kilometer wide light fighter battleground between the battleships and Soul Reaper.

By the time they made it through the crush of battleships and light fighters Rey's disabled fighter was surrounded by a swarm of darting friendly fighters. Suddenly her protective forces scrambled away. "Magnify her ship." He ordered, his guts twisted at the possibilities of why her escort had cut out.

A heartbeat after the broken Silencer appeared at half-scale on the viewing holo the TIE's cockpit burst open and Rey, purple bladed staff a blur, ejected into open space, carving half the intact solar array off as she went. Redemption's bridge crew cheered as the Millenium Falcon swooped in and scooped her up.

"Sir, Soul Reaper's manueverability has been severely damaged, but it is turning towards us." The pilot, a young man Glissando knew as Polliver said grimly.

"Evasive manuevers, lets see if we can keep it's attention long enough to save lives." Glissando ordered. "We're the biggest and closest ship to them, lets make sure they don't forget that for even a second." He turned to Perez. "Mr. Perez, all guns on target, aim for the fleetkiller." Perez nodded grimly and relayed the message to the gunner's channel. "If we're going rogue, we may as well make it count." Glissando added then grasped his shaking hands behind his back to prowl around the bridge. "Keep us ahead of that weapon or we wont need to worry about a reprimand from Kylo Ren." He told the pilot.

Though he thought of the Jedi as Ben Solo these days, he was well aware of the young man's potential to lose his temper when his orders were flouted or ignored. Ben Solo may be a nicer version when his wife was present, but he'd proven several times in the past half year that Kylo Ren was still there, just below the surface, ready to make his displeasure known when the inevitable stress of this protracted game of cat and mouse became unbearable. Not more than a week ago the recently promoted General had fatally Force crushed an inept engineer's throat when the man had tried to lie his way out of a relatively minor mistake. Though Glissando had his reservations about General Solo's ability to control his temper, he held Rey Solo in the highest respect for her ability to sooth her husband's inner demons. He just hoped that she was present when Ben found out about this insubordination.

"Sir, Soul Reaper is powering up it's planet killer weapon." Cried a tech from across the bridge.

"How long until it fires?" Glissando barked, rushing over to read the tech's screen for himself.

"Judging by the power fluctuations, no more than twenty minutes, sir." The tech said grimly.

"Polliver, let's see if we can tempt him to turn away from the planet. Get behind him and take us in close enough for maximum effectiveness on our guns." Glissando ordered. "Lure him as far out of firing position as you can."

"Yes, Captain." The barely more than a teenager's voice clearly conveyed his grasp on the gravity of the situation.

Despite their best efforts and an extensive amount of firepower Soul Reaper refused to be tempted off it's aim.

For several tense minutes Glissando paced and worried, worried and paced. It had been more than an hour since Ben Solo had last been seen or heard from, nearly half that time since the ancient freighter carrying his wife had disappeared into the Soul Reaper. Glissando had a bad feeling that General Solo had failed in his mission and been captured or killed.

Despite the General's last order being to take out the fleetkiller weapon the giant blue bolts were still firing at full capacity. Nothing big enough to damage it could get close enough to do so. "How many battleships have we lost?" Glissando asked for the first time.

"A little over a thousand of our best, Sir."

"And how many light fighters?" He asked grimacing.

"Over one hundred thousand, Sir." Came the grim reply.

"If that planet gets destroyed, Soul Reaper will have a pathway out of here… all those hundreds of thousands of people will have died in vain." Glissando's throat was tight. "Polliver, get us into position to concentrate all guns on the planetkiller weapon."

The tech monitoring the planetkiller piped in before Polliver could even respond. "Captain, planetkiller is less than 5 minutes from fully powered according to the latest readings." He called out grimly. "Sir, we can't destroy it in that time."

Glissando's face suddenly appeared ten years older as he looked to Perez and commanded, "Order a full emergency evacuation, get as many people off of this ship in the next 5 minutes as you can." He looked around at the gaping faces. "That includes all of you."

"Sir, with respect," Polliver said hessitantly as several crewmen dashed out the door. "If you're thinking what I think you're thinking… have you lost your mind?"

"Possibly, Polliver." Glissando said grimly. "Get to a shuttle, tell the Solos it was my honor and pleasure to serve with them."

"Sir, you can't pilot this ship…" Polliver argued.

"Let me worry about that." Glissando said dismissively. "Get yourself to safety, son."

"Sir… No, Sir." Polliver said firmly. "I'm not leaving this bridge."

Glissando's chin wobbled a fraction, "You're a young man, Polliver. If you stay here, you wont be getting any older."

"Understood, Sir." Polliver's voice was full of bravado despite the fact that his eyes were full of fear.

Glissando looked around the bridge, about half the crew remained. "Go, men. You're not needed here any longer. Get as far from this ship as you can."

A few waivered but then fled the bridge until only Glissando, Polliver, and Perez remained. "Mr. Perez, we wont be needing you either."

"Yes you will." Perez said, tapping on the comstation screen. "Attention Federation Forces," He said in a loud ringing voice. "The planetkiller weapon is about to fire, if it does, we've lost. Redemption is the only vessel in a position to prevent the destruction of Aaronia and the subsequent escape of Soul Reaper, we are currently evacuating as many people as we can, please save as many as you can." Soul Reaper's large round depression began to glow a bright emerald green around the edges. "Good luck, and Godspeed." Perez signed off.

"Gentlemen, it has been an honor serving with you." Polliver said as he turned the ship to a final approach vector.

"The honor was ours, Ned." Perez said, stepping away from his console to watch as the edges of the planetkiller's depression disappeared from view.

"Punch it." Gliss said as everything including the other two men turned green from the glare of the weapon's bolt.

Polliver slammed the sublight acceleration lever into maximum and Redemption shot forward, slamming into the much larger ship's primary weapon with enough force to destroy both the weapon and the Redemption.