"I copy, Control," Keyan Farlander reported in to the flight controller aboard the Independence as he received the order to launch starfighters. "Blue Squadron report in. This is Leader, four lit and in the green," he commed, listening as similar comments filled the air of his cockpit as the rest of Blue Squadron reported their spacecraft as "Go."
He allowed himself a quick glance at the holo of Lynia Delline, the half-human woman whom he had fallen in love with during his time in the Alliance. She was onboard the Independence at that very moment, and Keyan couldn't help but feel worried for her. He shook his head, trying to get thoughts that could easily lead to the Dark Side in this battle out of his head. He needed his thoughts to be clear. No fear should cloud his judgment, no anger towards the enemy. He also thought that those who first set those rules down had never been in a dogfight… Although it had been Master Kenobi who had formally taught him that maxim, and his skill in a starfighter was almost legendary.
"Sir, you're holding us up," Blue Three said, breaking Keyan out of his thoughts.
"I don't hold people up, consider it a Force thing," Keyan bluffed, explaining his slight drifting. "Pair up into your usual flights and launch on my mark. Mark."
Twelve X-wings rose up off of the hangar floor, repulsorlifts humming perfectly as the ships flew their way through the blue magcon shield that separated them from the harsh vacuum of space. Keyan's ship led, followed closely by Blues Five, Eight, and Eleven—the members of One Flight. Two and Three Flight were next, sticking close together in their respective groups.
Outside of the 1.2 km long Mon Calamari made starship, Keyan could already see the reddish flashes of light emitting from the three Star Destroyers as they opened fire upon the ship in which he had just flown out of. There were two Vics and one Imp out there, far too much of a threat to the snubfighter squadrons than they were to them.
"Shields up," Keyan ordered as ForKay scanned the immediate area for danger. It wasn't long before a green circle appeared around his X-wing on the console. "Lock s-foils into attack position," he added, flipped a switch above his head. A targeting bracket soon followed, appearing on the HUD of the X-wing as the two s-foils on each side of the fighter parted.
"Leader, Five," Keyan heard a fellow pilot report in to him through the public comm channel, "my R3 unit is picking up multiple signals coming from the area around the Destroyers, could be TIEs."
Keyan looked at his sensor scope and easily confirmed the sighting that one of his wingmates had spotted. "I copy, Five," Keyan responded. "Switch shields to double-front. Keep them there until we get within 80 meters of them, then level them out." There was one major advantage that X-wings and most other Alliance starfighters had against their Imperial counterparts: shields. In a head on fight—like what was about to transpire—X-wings had a much better chance of survival than a TIE fighter.
The blips on the screen were almost too numerous to count, but Keyan knew the rough amount of starfighter squadrons that could have been stored inside of those Destroyers. Each Vic could hold one squadron, while the Imp could easily hold six. Eight squadrons against five. Ninety-six starfighters to fifty. "I've got a very bad feeling about this," Keyan whispered as the TIEs slowly became visible to the naked eye; a giant cloud of bluish-gray that temporarily blotted out the stars. "May the Force be with us," he prayed, shutting his eyes and hoping that the Force would let him survive the battle, and bring along as many of his friends and copilots that he could.
Admiral Hallos looked at the three enemy ships that were heading not towards him, but towards his most convenient escape route. It would be near impossible to escape any other way; the fuel expenditure and other factors making it extremely difficult.
"Have our fighters launched?" he asked, his Mon Calamari accent becoming thicker as the nervousness of the battle situation intensified.
"Yes, sir," an officer reported, wishing that the vessel hadn't been half-stocked with fighters.
"Have our gunners concentrate a majority of our firepower on that Imperial Star Destroyer," Hallos commanded. "Those Vics still pack a punch, but they're the least of our worries." He watched and listened as his tactical officer relayed the order to the gunners. "Tell all non-essential personnel to congregate in the middle of the ship," he added. "I don't want any unneeded deaths."
"Sir, incoming fighters," the sensor operator reported. "They're engaging ours! We're also picking up bombers!"
Admiral Hallos let loose a curse in his own language.
"I copy that Command," Keyan replied to the voice in his ear. "Blue Squadron, this is Leader. We have a squadron of bombers headed towards the Independence. I repeat: we have dupes inbound."
"Two here; I take it that it's up to us to make sure that they don't turn our ship into slag?" another one of Keyan's wingmates said.
"That's our current orders, Two," Keyan replied. "Two Flight, on me. Three Flight, wait a few seconds before following us. Maybe we can hit them off guard…"
Keyan boosted his throttle, increasing his speed and causing the other members of One and Two Flight to do the same. With a small whistle, Forkay alerted the pilot Jedi that he had already painted the incoming bomber squadron as primary target. There was no doubt that the other astromech droids were doing the same thing. Battle would begin shortly.
He studied the console in front of him, checking to make sure that his lasers were currently fire-linked into dual-fire mode, making sure that he was flying at the correct attack speed, one quick glance at the holo. He closed his eyes, feeling the Force flow over him as he relaxed, almost sinking into the cushion of his chair. He cleared his mind of all distractions as the TIE bombers fired their laser cannon towards him and his squadron. He didn't hear the sounds of the green laser fire headed towards his ship, or hear the scream of the TIEs that flew past him. He felt them, however.
His finger squeezed the trigger automatically, sending two red blasts towards a target that he couldn't see. A target that was soon bisected by his laser fire. The Force moved his right arm left, sending the craft onto its port s-foil. A quick pull on the flight stick sent his X-wing turning towards the back of the bomber squadron. "Their support is here," he could barely hear another one of his pilots report, referring to TIE fighters that followed behind the bombers.
The rocking of his X-wing as one of the protecting TIE fighters glanced his shields, barely doing any damage, but it was enough to break Keyan's concentration. His Force-induced trance dropped, leaving him relatively on his own. He slowly exhaled, calming himself once again. It was for the better, he realized, remembering how giving himself up completely to the Force had resulted in having to eject over Yavin 4.
"One Flight, how are you doing?" he asked.
"Not as good as you were, sir," Blue Two replied. "We could barely keep up with you."
Now they know how the Rogues feel, Keyan thought as he vaporized a TIE fighter. Except that they have to work twice as hard to keep up with Luke. In the initial stages of training as a Jedi, it had been obvious that Keyan was the better combat pilot. As Luke had gotten more and more used to combat flying, however, Keyan quickly got used to being second best.
"I've got one on my tail!" Blue Five exclaimed, his Rodian accent thickening. "I can't…" the rest of the sentence degenerated into a language that Keyan couldn't understand—probably Rodian or Huttese. The despair and fear in his voice was enough to get the message across, however.
"I copy, Five," Keyan replied, shifting his X-wing to intercept the TIE on his wingmate's tail. He could see the black solar panel of the Imperial fighter as it chased the gray X-wing throughout space. He lead the TIE fighter using both his experience behind the flight stick of an X-wing as well as the Force. Fire now, he felt, prompting him to fire upon the Imperial. Two fire-linked laser cannons fired towards the TIE, converging a few meters from the panel. The shot hit the upper portion of the panel, reducing a portion of it into quickly cooling slag and sending what remained into space. The TIE fighter spiraled into space, unable to completely control itself.
The turbolaser fire began to soar between the four capital ships, the distance at this point still causing almost every single shot to miss. Admiral Hallos watched as the three Star Destroyers grew ever larger in the viewport, the gray triangles standing out immensely against the backdrop of stars behind them. A few lucky shots pinged against the shields, yet the damage caused was minimal. The Mon Calamari wished that he could concentrate all shields to the front of the vessel, but the swarming squadrons of TIE fighters that swarmed around the ship like bloodsucking pests on various worlds prevented that.
"Sir, we have incoming missiles!" an officer reported, seeing multiple sensor contacts on his screen that weren't there a second previously.
Seven missiles arced towards the Mon Calamari cruiser, one from each of the surviving bombers that had been launched from the Vengeance. They exploded meters away from the hull, stopped by the shield that absorbed all of the energy outputted by the explosion.
"Starboard shields weakened by 8, admiral," a crewmember stated.
It'll get worse by the time we reach those Star Destroyers, Hallos grimly thought.
"Order Blue Squadron to take those bombers out!" he ordered.
"We already have, sir," the flight control officer reported.
"At last, we have them trapped!" Jerec exclaimed as he watched the carnage begin to unfold before him. The fighters had already engaged the rebels, and battle had begun.
"We do, Lord Jerec," Thrawn replied, studying the movements of the rebel ship as it moved towards them. Mon Calamari vessels were considered to be works of art by those that made them, and works of art were what Thrawn studied. He had always believed that fundamental flaws and other tactical options could be found in studying the art of a species or culture, and from his experiences it appeared that he was correct. The main problem, however, was that singularly Rebel artworks were hard to find. One couldn't simply look at an Alderaanian of Chandrilan work of art and gain any real rebel tactics in them; the artist that created that work may have been an ardent supporter of the Empire. Now, he had a genuinely rebel piece of art to study.
"Lord Jerec, I would suggest moving the nearest Victory Star Destroyer a few degrees towards us. I believe that they will attempt to force into a position in which friendly fire may be maximized. Narrow the gap and it won't happen."
"Iron Fist, this is Vengeance," Jerec said over the holocommunications device, a portly mustachioed Imperial officer in a captain's uniform answering. "Close up towards us, Captain Thrawn believes that the rebels are attempting something."
"We will do as ordered, Lord Jerec," the captain replied.