A/N: Here comes one of the more intense chapters! To my reviewers and subscribers, I can't thank you enough! Love you all :)
Chapter 11
Starkiller
For the third time in as many days, Vara flew through hyperspace ready for battle. They still had to wait for Han, Finn, and Chewie to get the shields down, but the squadron had their trajectories. All they were waiting for was the okay from base. They hovered silently, the radio all quiet, the tension palpable. For the thousandth time, Vara checked her missiles, making sure she was fully loaded and primed.
"Roger, Base," Poe said over the comms. His voice was stoic and calm. "Red squad, Blue squad, take my lead."
"Dropping out of lightspeed," Vara replied, her team following close behind. The planet they were closing in on was snowy and mountainous, reminding Vara of the mountains of Hosnian Prime. One of her first flights had been over those mountains. She pushed the fighter forward, the memory only encouraging her.
"Almost in range," Poe called out. The excitement was definitely building in his voice. "Hit the target dead center, as many runs as we can get!"
"Approaching target," Wexley said. The teams extended their foils, creating the signature 'X' with their wings. A huge hexagonal platform was on the ground before them, almost inviting them to fire on it. Vara was completely dialed in, going into flight mode. Something about the world around her changed when she entered the battlefield, as if there was nothing outside those boundaries and all that mattered was the task at hand. She had really noticed it for the first time when she'd encountered her first set of pirates with the Rapiers in Mirrin airspace. Poe called it her 'sky zone.'
"All right, let's light it up!" Poe signaled, and the X-wings all sent out their first round of heavy missiles on the oscillator. Vara sent hers off and pulled up, flying dangerously close to the surface. They were going down as close as they could to ensure accuracy.
"Direct hit!" she cried, glancing behind her to see where her team was.
"But no damage," Red Two protested.
"Yeah, we gotta keep hitting it," Poe replied. "Another bombing run. Remember, when that sun is gone, the weapon will be ready to fire. As long as there's light, we got a chance."
R9 squawked from behind Vara, and she looked out of her cockpit window. What she saw made her wince. "Guys, we got a lot of company!"
A full squad of TIE fighters was approaching fast. Almost like it was planned, six of the X-wings broke off and headed for them, Vara included.
"Here we go, R9," she said, flipping back over to her lasers. "Let's get 'em." Vara pulled up a little, flying just above the range of the TIEs, and as she got closer, she pushed her nose down and fired. The TIEs couldn't pull up in time to aim at her, and she took out three before dodging through the group of First Order fighters with a barrel roll. The rest of the Squadron behind her managed to shoot down five more before having to loop back around.
"Take notes, kids," Poe called out. "That's how it's done!"
Vara's adrenaline surged as she turned tightly to face the fighters again. "Make another pass as soon as you can," she called over the comms. "Take out as many as we can, let them take shots on the oscillator."
"Roger, Red One," the squad replied. Turning to face the swarm of TIE fighters, Vara angled to make a loop around them, aiming about halfway through the group. The good thing about the First Order was that they were predictable. The TIEs usually stayed grouped together, easy to maneuver around and to aim at. They were easier to shoot down in greater numbers, but they were harder to break apart and single out. Vara liked to try and cut one out of the herd, but it was nearly impossible with this many.
"Arlo's been hit!" Red Three cried.
"Watch out for ground fire," Blue Leader called.
"Red Leader, can you take out those cannons?" Poe asked. "I need you to do it fast."
"On it," Vara replied. She pulled up and gained altitude, waiting just a moment for the ground cannons to find other targets before diving back down. She trusted her fliers to be able to avoid them while she locked on and took them out while they were focused elsewhere, greatly lowering her chances of being taken out herself.
Another X-wing was taken down just as she started spiraling downwards, firing at the cannons. That was five of her comrades so far. This was not going as well as she'd hoped. Something drastic was going to have to happen or they were done for.
Making a loop around the oscillator, Vara shot out the ground cannons, firing exactly twice at each of them. She'd destroyed seven out of the nine that she'd spotted when she began to notice the darkness. It was creeping in slowly, taking away the glint of the snow and making it just a little harder to spot the TIEs. The sun above them was fading dangerously quickly.
"All units, fire on the oscillator! We need that thing taken out now!" Poe shouted. Vara swooped upwards and made a pass at the hexagon, switching back to her own bombs. As she got closer, a huge explosion erupted from the inside of the structure.
"There's some damage, but not enough," she said. "Keep going!" She shook her head as a drop of sweat fell from her brow. "Come on," she growled under her breath. She shot down a passing TIE fighter as she headed for the oscillator again, ducking past Poe's ship in the blink of an eye. A moment later, and she heard R9 cry out again.
"Damnit," she said, looking behind her and seeing the three TIEs that R9 had yelled about. "I have three on my tail," she called, looking for help.
"On you, Red Leader," Wexley called back, and she saw his blue-lined X-wing pull behind her. He took out one, then another, but was not quite fast enough to get to the last one before one of its lasers brushed the back of Vara's ship.
"I'm hit," she said, flipping off alarms and diverting power from the bottom two engines. "Not bad. Losing power faster than normal. Otherwise I'm fine," she called over the radio. "Good to keep going."
"Keep an eye on it, Red Leader," Poe responded.
"Don't worry about me," she said. "Let's keep hitting that target." She fired another set of bombs, plunging through a fireball as she pulled up again.
"We just lost Red Two," Wexley said.
"We're overwhelmed," Red Three responded nervously. "What do we do? It isn't working," she said.
Vara pulled around, checking where all of her remaining fliers were. She spied something, done by the internal explosion from a few moments before. "Black Leader, there's a brand new hole in that oscillator. Looks like our friends got in." She thought of Han, Finn and Chewie, wondering if they had found Rey yet, wondering if they were even still alive.
"Red Four, Red Six, cover us," Poe ordered. "Everybody else, hit the target hard. Give it everything you've got!"
Vara fell in behind Poe, heading straight for the oscillator. The power supply for her ship was running low, going on one-third of what it should have been. This run was going to be the last one they got either way. They dove towards the breach, funneling into a straightaway that led into the oscillator. Vara dodged the lasers from the inner cannons with difficulty, reacting as faster than she thought she could but only just in time. The pilot behind her wasn't fast enough, and before Red Four could take out the cannons, he was shot down. Vara fired a set of lasers just underneath Poe's ship, sending them straight past him and into the final cannon.
"All teams," their Commander said over the radio. "I'm going in. Pull up and cover me."
Vara's heart fluttered. He was preparing to go into the actual oscillator and take it out once and for all. There was no way of telling if he would come out again.
"Copy that, Black Leader," Vara responded. There was so much she wanted to say, more than she could even think of, but no room to say it. "Good luck, Poe."
As ordered, she pulled up and nearly ran head-on into a TIE fighter, managing to fire on pure instinct and blast it before she flew through the explosion. She focused forward, giving chase to each TIE she saw and taking it out. Six had fallen to her lasers when she saw a huge fireball spit from the oscillator. For a moment, she flew slowly forward in awe, waiting. Relief flooded her when she saw the black ship spin up and out of the structure, trailing a bit of smoke that faded into the cold sky around it.
"Yes, Poe!" she cried, accelerating forward and chasing another fighter down. She followed him upwards, the rest of their team behind them, as the oscillator exploded in a final, huge blast that blinded her for just a moment. As they started away from the planet, multiple explosions began to erupt from the surface, breaking down the weapon.
Following Poe closely, the team came up out of the planet's atmosphere and back into space. The planet behind them began to crumble.
"All teams, I got eyes on them," Poe called when he spied the Millennium Falcon.
"Yes!" Wexley cried with relief. Vara cheered and R9 whistled with joy, his worry disappearing for a moment, before giving Vara a readout of her power supply and damage.
"Running low on power, Black Leader," she said, giving Poe an update as the planet began to break down. "I'm going to make it away from the planet but not to hyperspeed. It's my thrust engines. Two of the four are out. I have to hang back for now and call for pickup."
"Blue Leader," Poe signaled. "Take them back. I'll stay with Red Leader. My job's done here."
"Copy, Poe. See you back at base."
The other five X-wings followed the Millennium Falcon into hyperspace, stretching and disappearing.
"Are you sure you don't want to go celebrate with them?" Vara asked. She knew that was the first thing she wanted to do. Being there when everyone landed after a mission as spectacular as that one was the best reward anyone could get.
"It's all right. There's already a freighter en route to get us. With any luck we'll be there ten minutes after they land." Poe voice had finally relaxed. Vara reminded herself that she could do that, too. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
"R9, want to take control?" The droid beeped an affirmative, and Vara ran her hands under her visor and rubbed her eyes. "Poe, we did it. You did it," she sighed, shaking a little.
"Come on, we did it," he said. "I couldn't have gotten in there without you guys covering me. That TIE fighter you took out right there was heading straight for me."
All Vara could do was laugh, and after a second, Poe joined her. They laughed together for a moment, letting out all of the stress and tension and anxiety. They were the only two ships in visual range, seemingly alone in space. The feeling was strangely comforting.
"Look, there it goes," Vara said between breaths. Starkiller base finally exploded, the blast brilliant in the blackness of space. Vara watched the orange and yellow fire curl around itself, taking a deep breath. It didn't heal the pain she felt at the loss of her family - nothing ever would - but it felt damn good.
"Oddly beautiful," Poe said quietly.
"Not oddly. It's beautiful to see that thing gone," she replied. "But you're right. It's captivating. It goes without saying, but I'm glad you made it out of there, Poe," she added.
"I was so scared when I saw you get hit, Vara."
"You saw that? It was just a graze, honestly, but I'm pretty sure it managed to take out my bottom two thrusters."
"Yeah, I saw it. I almost had a heart attack."
"Come on, you would have finished without me," she scoffed. "But thank you. I think I held my breath the whole time you were in that oscillator." Just like that flight back from when they stole the Hevurion Grace, she had to remind herself to relax her muscles. "I can't believe we did that, Poe."
"We did it, though. We always come through," he said proudly. He pulled his ship alongside hers, waving a little through the cockpit windows.
"Close as we can get right now, huh?" she said with a sigh.
"Just you wait until we get out of these ships. Speaking of which." A small freighter popped into the space before them, beckoning.
"Black Leader, Red Leader, come in," a familiar voice echoed over the radio.
"Iolo! It's so good to hear you over that radio!" Vara cried. "I missed you!"
"Hey, Kilo, you get yourself shot?"
"Don't start with me, Arana," she said, angling into the freighter's hangar and pulling in slowly. "Do I have to remind you how many times I've saved your ass?"
"No, ma'am," he replied smoothly. "I'll meet you in here and you two can tell me all about it."
Vara landed, hit the release for R9 and popped open the cockpit, pulling off her helmet. The air had grown stale in her ship and she breathed deeply through her nose, taking in the oxygen that didn't taste like her own sweat and recycled air. She climbed up and out of the ship, stretching her legs, knees popping.
"Get down here!" Iolo said from the hangar floor. There was a big, welcoming smile on his face. They hadn't seen each other since the Hevurion Grace mission because Iolo was stationed elsewhere in the system leading Dagger Squadron. Vara hopped down from her ship while Poe landed and hugged Iolo tightly around his ribs.
"Heard you guys did well."
"Ask him when he gets out. He finished it."
"Of course he did," Iolo said, rolling his eyes. "Okay, R4, you can take us out of here. They're both landed and safe," he said into his comm. The freighter shuddered a little around them as it got going again, heading back to D'Qar. "Hey, I also wanted to say I'm sorry. When I heard about Hosnian, I thought of you and Vorik and your parents…" he said, trailing off.
"Thanks, Iolo." She nudged him a little, her eyes suddenly sad. "They liked you." She really didn't know what to say to him, but her heart swelled a little when he put his hand on her shoulder.
"There he is!" Poe's voice came from the cockpit of the black X-wing. He climbed down his ladder and almost ran over to them, hugging Iolo roughly. BB-8 followed behind, chirping happily and bumping Vara on the leg. "Thanks for picking us up, man. Good to see you."
"You too, Commander. You save the day again?"
"It's my job," Poe shrugged. "Excuse me for a second," he said, suddenly wrapping his arms around Vara's waist. He leaned her back, dipping her like a ballroom dancer and kissing her, right in front of Iolo. It didn't matter that they were both sweaty and exhausted, or that they had just almost been killed. She was back in his arms, and it got better and better each time.
"Whoa, hey!" the Keshian Captain cried. "I missed something here, right?"
Vara, almost as stunned as he was, grabbed hold of Poe's flight vest as he pulled her back up. His dark eyes looked excitedly into hers, a smirk playing across his face. "I told you, just wait until we got out of those ships." He looked at Iolo with that same smirk. "We'll fill you in, bud. Got anything to drink for the flight back?"
"Let's go to the cabin." Iolo ushered them away, the ship flying smoothly in hyperspeed. "Now, tell me when this happened and why you didn't tell me immediately."