Darth Vader and Thrawn watched out of the Vengeance's viewport as the blue streaks of Hyperspace reverted into stars. A bluish-green dot easily stood out from the gas giant planet that it orbited, giving the Imperials an easy view of their target. Despite the majority of the eight-day trip being over, the trip to their target would take an additional twenty minutes. Vader lowered his helmeted head to look into the crew pit.
"What are the sensors picking up Ensign Hallebeck?" Vader asked.
The ensign checked his monitor, making sure the information he was about to give his commander was accurate. "Sensors show no sign of enemy ships in the area, Lord Vader. However, they may very well be hiding behind the gas giant itself."
"No, they're not," Captain Thrawn coolly answered. "They aren't there because that is where we expect them to be." Thrawn stood up from his command chair and exited the room. He reappeared a minute later in the command pit and walked up to the sensor screen. "The Rebellion has always prided itself on sneak attacks, only in the past few months have they actually been bold enough to strike us head on." Thrawn pointed to a position to the "left" of the fleet on the screen. "They'll strike at us here," he said after a moment of thought. "Send one of the Victory-class Star Destroyers and two Dreadnaughts to intercept them. Tell all of the pilots and ground troops to prepare for launch." He looked up at Darth Vader. "With your permission, of course."
"Do so," Vader commanded. "I shall report to my own landing craft. I will lead the ground battle personally…"
"Get those things loaded up right now!" Lt. Renna Vicines ordered her troops as the last of the A5 Dreadnaughts backed their way into their landing crafts aboard the Ravager. Her section was slightly behind in preparing for the battle, an unfortunate result of Mara attempting to slice into the classified battle plans that only the command officers of the Imperial Star Destroyers had access to. Being off schedule would only make things worse; it would draw unwanted attention to her that could easily blow her cover. After a few more minutes, Renna was finally sitting in the command chair of the final Juggernaut that had been loaded up into a landing craft. It was time for battle…
The last of the Rebel transports were being hastily loaded as Luke Skywalker finished the final item on his preflight checklist. The Imperial fleet had jumped into the system several minutes ago and the planetary sensors had already picked up a mass of signals that had to be TIE fighters and what appeared to be landing craft. If the retaking of the Imperial facility in the jungle had been the test of the new Jedi, this conflict would be the real test of the recently reformed fighter squadrons. "All right Rogues, report in."
"Rogue Two, standing by," Wedge Antilles replied as his fighter left the hangar floor.
"Leader, this is Five. I'm good to go," Wes Janson reported in.
"Rogue Seven, standing by," Hobbie replied. "Let's get them before they get us."
Luke overheard the other members of Rogue Flight report in as he himself steered his X-wing towards the multiple blinking signals that were displayed on his targeting computer. They were still a long distance away, still in space and heading towards the planet. "Artoo, designate the landing craft as the primary targets," he ordered the blue astromech droid. He then relayed the order to everyone under his command. "Lock S-foils into attack position," he ordered as he flipped the switch on the top control panel of his craft.
Admiral Ackbar stared at the space in front of him, amazed at what had transpired. What was supposed to be empty space was now occupied by three capital ships, a Victory-class Star Destroyer and two Dreadnaught-class heavy cruisers were roughly ten kilometers away from Home One and one of the Rebellion's own Dreadnaughts; New Hope. "Raise shields!" Ackbar exclaimed, causing one of the other Mon Calamari officers on the bridge of the vessel to follow the order. "Get the pilots to their fighters, we have to take those ships out!"
Red streaks of turbolaser fire were already beginning to pour out from Home One as it began targeting the Victory Star Destroyer, causing bright flashes of light to emit from the ship as they impacted upon the shields. The Star Destroyer responded in kind, a torrent of green coming from the knife-like Imperial capital ship as it sped towards Home One. Ackbar could easily feel the sounds of the enemy fire impacting on the shields as he sat in his command chair. Whoever was in command of the Imperial fleet was either very intelligent, or the Rebels had a traitor in their ranks. He silently hoped that it was the latter…
Thrawn watched from his own command chair as the battle began several kilometers away when the Rebel fleet had jumped into his ambush. "Ensign, how many rebel capital ships are there?" he asked, wondering whether or not reinforcements should be sent.
"Sensors show one heavily modified Mon Cal Cruiser that's much larger than the others we've seen before, two regular Mon Cal cruisers, a Dreadnaught of their own, and four Corellian-made corvettes. We're also beginning to pick up several smaller figures; looks like starfighters, sir," Ensign Hallebeck reported.
Thrawn arched his eyebrows. They were certainly better armed than the early intelligence had suggested. All they were supposed to see were several transport ships and possibly one of two Mon Calamari ships, not this much resistance. "Send two squadrons of TIE fighters to help them," Thrawn ordered. "And keep those landing craft well guarded…"
"I've got a visual on the landing craft," Rogue Four reported as she squinted her eyes to get a better look at the craft that was just now entering the atmosphere. In the distance the landing craft appeared to be large black boxes, but every pilot knew that their looks were deceiving. If they managed to land on the ground, their payload could quickly be delivered, a payload that the ground troops would have difficulty in repelling. Also in the distance were several Sentinel-class landing craft that carried over six squads of Stormtroopers in a single ship.
"Lock on to the foremost landing craft," Luke Skywalker ordered as a wave of TIE fighters flew towards them with lasers blazing. "Rogues Two, Eleven, Nine, and Five; keep those TIEs off of our backs." Luke heard their affirmative responses as he switched his weapons to proton torpedoes. As he turned on his targeting computer, Luke also flicked the switch that removed a torpedo launcher from the fire-link. He could hear a TIE fighter explode to starboard as Wedge scored his first kill of the day, and the landing craft grew larger in his view.
The single tone of the X-wing's targeting computer establishing a missile lock rang through his helmet, and the craft itself blinked red in Luke's vision. "Fire," Luke simply ordered. Eight red streaks emerged from the X-wings, the propulsion systems creating white contrails as they soared towards the landing craft. Three of the proton torpedoes slammed into the shields of the landing craft, sending brilliant explosions several meters away from the ship and disabling the shields. Four other torpedoes all impacted on the ship's front, one of which slammed into the command center of the craft while another destroyed a majority of the main loading ramp. Deprived of controls and suffering from some decompression, the landing craft began its plummet towards the surface of the moon.
"Lieutenant, one of our Juggernaut-deploying landing craft has been shot down," the pilot of Renna Vicines landing craft informed her as the ground slowly approached.
"We'll have to make do," she answered. "Try to hasten our landing, and tell those TIEs to cover us!"
"Will do, sir," the pilot replied.
Obi-Wan Kenobi stood next to Leia Organa inside of the war room in the Great Temple, paying careful attention to the holographic display showing the ground portion of the battle. All three of his students had a major role to play in the ongoing battle and Obi-Wan's concern was to their emotional states. In battle there was always the possibility of letting the Dark Side creep in, and while more experienced Jedi where able to keep the Dark Side at bay, those with little training were far more susceptible. As he had told his students previously, even he had used the Dark Side in battle. And with Keyan having battled with the Dark Side in the past and Kyle, much to Obi-Wan's chagrin, still seething from the murder of his father, the Dark Side could very easily overcome them in this battle. The only one that Obi-Wan didn't fully worry about falling at the moment was Luke, and he hoped that his trust in the boy was well placed.
"All ground personnel, Imperials have landed. I repeat, Imperials have landed," a rebel officer reported to his charges as a holographic representation of a Sentinel and another landing craft that no doubt held some sort of Imperial war vehicle touched down nearly a meter away from him. While the starfighters had had some success in shooting down the first few landing craft, the numerous TIEs and gunboats had eventually forced the X-wings to switch their concentration from the mission and to saving their own lives. He glanced over to the holoemitter containing the space battle and watched as a Victory-class Star Destroyer continued firing upon Ackbar's fleet.
"Concentrate all fire power on that Victory!" Keyan Farlander heard Admiral Ackbar order both the capital ships and the starfighters through his helmet's intercom. He turned his new X-wing, a recent acquisition that had arrived with the fleet several days ago, towards the gray wedge that now stood out against the red planet of Yavin.
"You heard the Admiral," Keyan addressed his squadron over the intercom. "Swarm on that thing the second its shields are down. Conserve your torpedoes, we're going to need them…"
"I copy, Blue Leader," one of the other pilots replied, his affirmation soon being repeated by the ten other sentients in his squadron. "We've got TIEs incoming!" the same pilot exclaimed as a squadron of the Imperial starfighters rapidly closed on the group of Alliance capital ships.
"Blue Squadron, let's take them out," Keyan ordered. A few Force-assisted maneuvers later, Keyan found the opposing leader's TIE inside of sights. Keyan quickly switched the fire-linking of his lasers from four to two for a more rapid rate of fire. A quick squeeze of the trigger sent two laser shots toward the TIE, only for their target to juke out of the way at the last second. Keyan quickly began pursuit of the fighter, trying his physical best to realign his lasers on the TIE fighter. A double tap of the trigger sent two pairs of fire towards the enemy fighter, the second shot merely clipping the right solar panel of the craft, barely enough to even shake the TIE. Luckily, Keyan's next shot was able to firmly connect with the TIE, sending a green explosion into to space that quickly died.
The TIE fighter that Luke shot down spiraled into the jungle of Yavin 4 before finally exploding upon contact with a tree. The victor turned his attention back to the battle, checking his sensor screen for the nearest target and found it to be a small group of three TIE fighters about half a kilometer away. He turned his ship towards them and silently focused on bringing them down. Artoo's shrill warning alerted Luke to the TIE fighter on his tail, and the quick shots that raced underneath his X-wing sent a rush of adrenaline through his system. He looked down to check his altitude and then suddenly pulled back on his control stick. The sky filled his vision as his shoulders dug in the crash webbing. After finishing his loop, Luke fired a quad shot into the TIE fighter's middle section, completely destroying the vessel.
Luke whipped his fighter around to pursue another TIE, which had broken off from the group. A quick squeeze of the trigger sent that TIE plummeting towards the ground. "Transports Alpha-1138 and Kappa-2243 are ready to leave the planet," Luke heard an officer inside of the Temple report. "Rogue Flight, prepare to escort them."
"Rogues, let's return to base," Luke said over his intercom. "The evacuation has begun."
Vader stood next to one of the Vengeance's AT-ATs at his landing zone ten kilometers from the Great Temple. Already the ground war was about to begin as Ravager's Juggernauts and AT-STs were already on their way towards the rebel base. He knew that one of Palpatine's puppets was there, and he knew that her mission was to spy upon him. If worse came to worse, a simple gesture would be all it took to kill her. If it came to that. However, at the moment she was still useful, and unaware of Vader's true reason for this attack. For him, this mission was less about the total destruction of the Rebellion, and more about Kenobi. He had already sensed a few extra Force-sensitives on the planet, an easy task due to all of them using the Force to help them in battle. There was no doubt that Kenobi had been training them; a futile attempt at resurrecting the Jedi Order that had betrayed the Empire.
He boarded the AT-AT, standing next to the commander's position, an intimidating posture that befitted the vehicle he was sitting in. While the Juggernaut was far more useful in a jungle battle than an AT-AT, primarily due to the Juggernaut's ability to simply mow most obstructions while the AT-AT had to maneuver around them, he had chosen the large walker over the wheeled vehicle for several reasons. The towering AT-AT was far more intimidating than a simple battle tank, the sight of a giant mechanical behemoth slowly marching towards you was a severe blow to morale. The Juggernauts, although an older model, also served as a painful reminder of his life as a Jedi. Even though early models of the craft he rode in now were present during the Clone Wars, the Juggernaut had seen much more use. He had even once commanded a battle from the craft.
"General," Darth Vader ordered the commander of the walker. "Begin our march to the Temple…"