Trillions of vid screens across thousands of star systems interrupted "this program to bring you breaking news." All across the galaxy, jaws dropped to watch a vid clip of Jedi Skywalker kissing his first apprentice like there was no tomorrow. Thousands of regional forces jumped into action before the ten-second clip looped to its second run. Wubak babbled casually about the inferred juice as the clip continued to play behind her shoulder in a loop, again and again and again and again. . . .
Her Holiness Ro'Salia turned her palms to the ceiling and prayed at the sky with a smile.
Vice President Tesseoni ran through the hall and dove into the Situation Room with shouts.
Ambassador Cagharten interrupted the scolding Moff by pulling out a blaster and shooting him in the face.
Prince Petra dropped out of hyperspace to see the firefight already in full force over Flan and hooted with excitement.
Baron Flintob stared at the screen and began to chortle at the vid clip. "You're in trouble now, boy." It was all very humorous until he began to hear explosions in the sky overhead.
Secretary Woody didn't see any of it because he was asleep, probably due to the hypodermic needle Clarissa was now pulling out of his shoulder. She shoved him from his chair to crumble to the floor, and she reached over his desk to punch open the comm to give the orders herself.
Within seconds of each other, six planetary battles commenced, and that happened within seconds of the Alliance fleet slamming out of hyperspace in the form of a five-pointed star over the rat's nest of Coruscant.
One minute.
Kess expected to have to fire immediately upon seeing the planet, but reminded herself that's not how sieges worked. Organized strands of civilian and shipping traffic began to scatter as if the Alliance had entered on a strong wind. She glanced around to see this star formation constrict into a tighter knot. Out there against the black-gold jewel, wedges of white began to move, angling out and aiming all available Star Destroyers to meet the attackers head on.
Two minutes.
Nik sat in the Supreme Chancellor's chair but the robes and helmet hid the fact that he was strapped into it. Jakobi continued to throw his voice with grandiose display in his long-winded speech, but system representatives began to shift and fuss and murmur as if they were an animal herd skittering at an impending earthquake. Jakobi paused to inhale for controlling shout at them all, but an Air Raid Alarm drowned out his voice.
Three minutes.
Teams of fighters and blockade runners curled forward to bring the five points of formation into a shallow bowl as they slowly advanced. Most of the civilian ships managed their chance to flee, but that gave time for the Empire to rush angrily closer. Obtuse triangles of Imperial ships shoved ahead to meet the Alliance nose to nose, and all rebel eyes watched it with hard silence. Just as the TIE fighters drew close enough to be visible with the naked eye (but still out of reach to lock target and fire) Admiral Ackbar shouted into the eerie silence of the open com. "Break!"
Five triangles of fighter and blockade gnats cut away from the heart of the pentagon-shaped cruiser and battleship fleet. Red and green bolts shot at each other like they were spitting each other in the face. TIEs angled hard to rush in front of the fighters, but now could only take up chase as the petals of the star formation drifted out over the planet's wide curve.
Four minutes.
Luke angled hard up with Rogue Group and sailed toward the north end of the planet. He fired only at TIE fighters that got in his way, but spent most of his time dodging other ships, quickly leaving Rogue Group to twist into a swarm without him. He skidded along the deck of a Star Destroyer, dodging shots from its forward guns like he was a skipping rock, and soon left the battle behind him to race for the planet.
Five minutes.
Kess tried to aim back for a shot as the Millennium Falcon angled hard to port to sailed west with their gang, during which she accidently hit a member of Blue Group with her piss poor aim. In a lightening move that surprised even her, she lifted her hand and Force Yanked the ejection seat of the other pilot just before his X-Wing splintered into flame. But that gave her an idea. Instead of putting her hands back on the turret triggers, she put both hands out at the nearest TIE fighter screaming in chase, and yanked his ejection handle too. Shots silenced and TIE sailed dead ahead from that point forward. The Millennium Falcon easily curved out of its way and angled for the planet below.
With the heart and soul of the big cruisers drawing in and taking the brunt of Imperial defense forces, five leaves of fighter and blockade groups spread out to attack the five nearest shield gates.
Six minutes.
System representatives flooded the walkways of the Senate Dome only to find the exterior doors already locked. Jakobi silenced the Air Raid siren inside the building and called out over the loudspeaker. "The Convention Center is secure. This is the safest building on the planet. You're Emperor commands you to sit back down!"
Hidden inside the helmet, Nik's eyes turned up with stunned confusion at what was happening, but he found only a distant lamp built into the dome ceiling. The little pin light would have blinded him were he not in the shielded visor, but the light sprayed over the tinting like a five-pointed star, as if it was trying to yell at him. Brightness? But the brightness shrank farther away when Jakobi jammed down the spire controls and the whole central stamen of the flower-shaped room shrank quickly into the floor.
Seven minutes.
Hardly visible to Han's naked eyes, TIE fighters popped tiny pieces of themselves out into space. He didn't notice at first that the two-second-spaced pops preceded the silence of their guns, but the resulting dead sticks were obvious. "What the hell is going on?" He shouted into the comm.
"I'm ejecting them!" Kess shouted back. Her words caused a pregnant pause between pops, but the ejections soon resumed.
Han smiled rough as he aimed around a now dead TIE with new understanding.
Eight minutes.
Luke flipped a 180 and flew upside down over the curve of the planetary shield, racing far away from the attack of the gate. Looking up, he could see the city traffic had already thinned and stragglers continued to scramble for cover before the onslaught. Artoo spat a reminder at Luke not to scrape the droid's dome on the shield. Luke adjusted away a few more feet to give the guy some headroom, but continued to rush over the expansive surface and center himself directly over the Palace.
Nine minutes.
Blockade runners and tiny fleet aides tried to dodge shots from surface guns of five gates all while trying to fire back, but blast shots splintered against the shield in futility. They flew in flowing circles as if in the diagram of gravitational poles swooping away and over in again to fire more useless shots at the center point of each gate. An A-wing cut it too close and crashed against the transparent surface. A blockade runner was hit and dove smack down into the gate gun that killed it. And still the gate held.
Ten minutes.
Four Star Destroyers managed to evade enough of the Alliance attack to about-face it back toward the planet. They opened every gun to shower the petals of fighters with blast shots, and these guys didn't care if they hit allies along the way.
Eleven minutes.
"Come on!" Han growled, sailing his ship over the glistening shield with a party of several others at his flank. The Imperial Palace was already out of view underneath him, and he would have to pull up and face the battle in order circle around again and remain in position above it.
Like a shot out of the dark, a single X-wing yanked into the sky before the two smashed face to face into each other. Kess saw only a glimpse of the top of it before it disappeared, but she smiled to know who it was.
"Twelve minutes!" Lando shouted over the comm and pulled the Lady Luck around for a gentle circle over the Palace Precinct.
Luke scooped overhead only long enough to find one of the Star Destroyers narrowing in on their little growing swarm, and shoved down toward the planet again in tight circle before the massive thing could get a lock. "Star Destroyer coming down on top of us!" He shouted as he angled down and port, banking into formation with the Lady Luck's wide circle over the shield.
Thirteen minutes.
Kess searched out of the dome view of the turret for anything else she could dismantle or disable, but all the TIEs were gone, and she didn't know enough, nor was she precise enough, to manage any similar feat with an unseen Star Destroyer coming at them from other side of the ship. She searched the stretch of the shield below for an idea of something she could do, but only saw the black pointed breast of the Imperial Palace spreading like a tumor on the pewter city surface beneath her.
Fourteen minutes.
Han yanked the Millennium Falcon up as if he was going to fly right at the face of the Star Destroyer, but shoved it into a spiral back to the surface, flattening out at the last minute to join the seven other random ships now swarming in a circle like a flock of birds trying to land.
Fifteen minutes.
Kess caught a glimpse of the Star Destroyer in the move and continued to stare at it when the Millennium Falcon banked in to join the circle. They were all upside down, showing their undersides to the approaching Star Destroyer as if in defiance, but Kess knew full well it was so all eyes could watch that shield and dive the split second it was out of their way.
Sixteen minutes.
As they dodged blast shots in waiting, that Star Destroyer came closer, firing everything it had at the little swarm. It inched forward as if prepared to smash itself against the shield just to swat these annoying flies. Kess picked up the turret triggers and squeezed out bolts at machine-gun speed, but her laser shots helplessly sizzled against the Star Destroyer's shield. One of the many green bolts shot quickly at her face.
"Kess! Get out of there!" Han shouted amidst his flying. Kess found she'd already yanked herself out of the chair and huddled in the corner of the turret as the green bolt sizzled over the turret dome and sprayed the Falcon's shields. But these shields weren't going to last long against all of that. The only thing they had in their favor was speed and company.
As more green bolts shot her way, Kess crawled quickly out of the gun turret and secured the hatch completely closed.
Seventeen minutes—
The thin veil of planetary shield retreated like a slow-popping bubble of soap. In this sector alone, eight ships and two troop transports fell toward the planet as if they'd lost their fight against gravity . . . and the Star Destroyer followed them down.
As Kess managed her way back to the cockpit, she heard the hull shudder continuously. Vanech still fired everything he had against the Star Destroyer behind them. She gripped onto the chair behind Chewie and watched them fly fast for the surface like they intended a head-on collision with the planet. She watched amidst her struggling to strap in. Luke's X-wing was out there dashing back and forth as if dancing to avoid the shots coming at them from behind. Lando's Lady Luck was out there scooping back and forth to prevent the enemies from locking on. Crix's troop transports were getting smashed like a pancake between the planetary guns and the destroyer's guns, but his shields were holding.
It felt like a long time to fall before the details of city surface began to take shape, but by then skyscrapers reached out for them like fingers trying to grab them out of the sky.
Green shots angled away and faded when the Star Destroyer took evasive maneuvers to pull up, and still the tiny crew raced for the surface for a few beats longer. With widened eyes, Kess gripped her straps and set her boots hard on the deck as Han shouted the command. "Brace for maneuvers!"
One by one, per the specific capabilities of each ship, they dropped their asses and slammed on thrusters to stop before they crashed into buildings below. Kess tried to keep her eyes open and see where the others ended up, but her eyes slammed shut at the blow. Her stomach flipped at the spinning gravity. The Falcon bounced against surface with a small crash as landing gear smashed beneath them.
"Shit." Han cussed and quickly softened his speed and angle for his next attempt. He angled the ship into the bowl of a large, open plaza, and dropped them down in skidding splat, ending finally to rest lopsided against the duracrete, pinching the Falcon's own access ramp closed by its own weight.