Replies to author notes the likes of which I could not reply to personally because they were anonymous: Usernames are Irrelevant: I am surprised you picked that up because it seems no one else did, don't assume that means it's true though. Perhaps I just want you to think that…….. for those of you who don't get what I am saying, read the review, for those of you who do not want to read the review, read the chapter, then when you are finished you can either read the review or not, but I recommend you do submit a review for yourself, detailing how much you loved or hated, or thought something in the middle of loving or hating the chapter in the review. Savvy? Okay I'm done and that wasn't even confusing, anyway just read the chapter.
Chapter 12: One Last Time
In the wars and battles of those ancient beings that inhabited the galaxy millions, billions, trillions of years ago there would have been the beating of drums before the horn was blown and the battle began. As Obi-Wan stood, draped in the midnight black robes of the Sith, wearing the mask of Darth Revan, and gazing out at the Rebel fleet before the emerald moon that was Yavin he could hear the drums beating. They sped up and grew louder and louder, his anxiousness that he masked well grew with them. The sound stopped immediately as he turned to see Admiral Piett.
"Orders sir?" Piett asked.
"Obviously we do not have to confirm the Rebels are here." Obi-Wan said, more to himself. "How long before the Death Star is within firing range?"
"About thirty minutes sir." Piett replied. "I think Admiral Motti was somewhat frustrated that you decided to go attack the Rebels before he fired."
"Well then he is clumsy as he is stupid. He's also a traitor, I trust now that his actions are predictable but when this is over we will have to take him out."
"I see, again sir, orders?"
"Let no one get past the defensive line, even the most insignificant ship. We've got them in a stranglehold. Avoid sending any ships to go broadside as it will create a hole ships could potentially slip through or perhaps open more. Understood Admiral Piett?"
"Aye sir," Piett replied, saluting.
"Excellent, ready my advanced X1 TIE fighter, I trust you can handle things from here, I also sense a presence… ready my ship Admiral. No further orders."
"Already being done sir." Piett said as he turned to face the crew. "Power up the deflector shields, load the turbo laser batteries, make sure you transfer the engine power to the forward deflector shields, I doubt we will need to go anywhere. Instruct all ships not to go broadside and hold the line. I don't want anything to get through!"
XxX
Anakin, Mace Windu, Luke, and Admiral Ackbar stood on the bridge of the Rebel Alliance flagship, a Mon Calamari Cruiser, modified with more fire power than the average Imperail Class Star Destroyer. It was called Home One. Among the four, two others were elsewhere in the battlefield, Leia was prepping to take an X-Wing class fighter out and Master Yoda was aboard the Dauntless, observing Captain Tarkin.
"I'm going out there." Luke announced and promptly left the bridge. Anakin did not argue but turned to Ackbar.
"What's your assessment Admiral?" Anakin asked.
"Obviously the Imperials greatly outnumber us with capitol ships thus they also outnumber us with fighters. From what I understand ETA for the Death Star to fire is about thirty minutes. You'll need to go out there and gather Rogue Squadron quickly, the Imperials haven't opened fire yet but I doubt they will wait for long."
"I agree." Anakin said, looking out of the view ports once more. There he saw the Imperial fleet, the iron gray hulls of the star destroyers seemed impregnable, and numerous, the mammoth dark blue super star destroyer before them looked daunting to overcome and would likely not be defeated, and on top of that several trillion miles away, though it only looked like a couple thousand feet, the Death Star could be seen, a tiny sliver of its silvery-gray hull peeked out from behind the gas planet of Yavin, it, along with the fleet and came out of space behind the planet and came around to face them, forming a curved line to hold any rebel ships back from reaching the super weapon, the super star destroyer at the head of the line. On board Anakin sensed the person he knew he had to face.
"Alright Admiral, I'm leaving." Anakin said.
"May the Force be with you." Mace Windu and Ackbar said in grim unison.
XxX
The first shots of battle were fired just as Obi-Wan entered space along with an armada of TIE fighters and TIE interceptors behind him. The first thing he saw was the huge Mon Calamari cruiser, obviously the flag ship, and the innumerable amount of X-Wings pouring from it. Of course the cruiser paled in size to the Executor but it was still a sight to behold. Obi-Wan pushed forward on the throttle and shot towards the advancing line of rebel fighters, his armada of TIE fighters close behind him.
He watched the red, grid like target screen below him until he saw an X-Wing come into range, he promptly locked onto it and let off two missiles, then he pulled up and the lines of rebel ships and TIE fighters collided, breaking apart into separate little dogfights. Space was now alight with laser fire, huge streaming bolts from capitol ships colliding into one another, and small insignificant blasts from fighters, tearing apart their tiny enemies. Obi-Wan got on the tail of another X-Wing and fired; his green blasts of laser grazed the top canopy but did little damage as they were absorbed by the deflector shield. The X-Wing then pulled up slightly, out of the crosshairs. Obi-Wan gritted his teeth.
"The Force is strong with this one." He muttered, though the pilot on the receiving end of his potshots was not nearly strong enough to be considered Force sensitive. Finally, for a fraction of a second the X-Wing was within the crosshairs, Obi-Wan pulled back on the firing trigger and the X-Wing exploded into a red-orange cloud of superheated gas which he flew his X1 through. He smiled.
"Lord Vader," Piett's voice said through his comm.
"What is it admiral I busy killing people, you know how I don't like to be interrupted when I'm killing people."
"Sorry Lord Vader, I too am busy, I am… hold a moment will you? Concentrate all fire on the cruisers starboard turbo laser batteries! If it's foolish enough to pull hard to starboard then blow out its starboard weapons! Now as I was saying Lord Vader I have a report in you might find helpful, ETA for the Death Star to fire, twenty minutes."
"Very good Admiral," Obi-Wan said as he blew another X-Wing out of space, and guided his ship into a death roll as a B-Wing fired off two missiles at him. He pulled up sharply and looped back around to his previous course, the missiles lost his heat signature and switched to the nearest, largest source of heat which happened to be an Imperial Class Star Destroyer, they collided with the hull but inflicted no damage. "Now get back to destroying that cruiser."
"Yes sir," Piett said and cut the transmission.
As the seconds ticked away Obi-Wan shot more fighters into space dust. His comm beeped again and he hissed in irritation, however it was not Piett, it wasn't even an Imperial; he was intercepting a quick burst transmission… from Anakin.
"This is General Skywalker calling all of Rogue Squadron, regroup with me, we don't have much time, we have to commence operations. Red Squadron and Gold Squadron, reform behind me so we can slip through the line." Anakin's voice said, though it was fuzzy with static and Obi-Wan's ears range with a huge explosion. He looked up through the top of his canopy for a moment to see a Corellian Corvette that had gone broadside with a Tartan Patrol Cruiser (which was against orders though Obi-Wan did not particularly care since in his mind Tartan Cruisers were totally dispensable, they were not really even capitol ships) explode into a ball of superheated gas, its engines created an earsplitting boom as they blasted into space dust, though the sound was muffled it was still quite loud.
Obi-Wan then turned his attention to Anakin and locked onto the coordinates that the fool was broadcasting. He made a sharp turn right, destroyed an A-Wing and sped off towards the underside of the large Rebel capitol ship which Anakin was under. Several dozen X-Wings were headed there too, as were several TIE interceptors that apparently intercepted the transmission as well. Anakin was a fool not to encrypt it, although there were only about seventeen minutes left until the Death Star was in range so that proved the theory that desperate times call for desperate measures.
The unsuspected X-Wing that held Anakin was now in Obi-Wan's sight, he fired off one, two, three, four missiles, now everyone would see the best pilot in the Jedi Order die in a space battle, it was a pity though, and Obi-Wan's only regret that he could not kill Anakin personally, after he sent that horrible assassin woman to destroy the holochrons in Darth Plagueis's tomb, preventing him from resurrecting his only love in the universe, Siri.
XxX
Alarms blared in Anakin's cockpit, he looked down at his screen to see in horror that four missiles were headed towards him, he noticed a new type of TIE fighter off in the distance, it was that fighter that fired the shots… it was Obi-Wan. Anakin quickly pulled back on the yoke and shot up. Luckily his faithful droid R2-D2 was serving as his astromech today.
"Okay R2, we're gonna go into an old trick here, standby reverse thrusters." Anakin said, he waited for a split second to see if the missiles would get off his tail, no, they were still on him and closing in fast! Hopefully this trick would not fail him…. He launched his ship into a sharp roll; the missiles followed the hot exhaust of the engines and circled around one another before colliding into each other an exploding. Taking a second to inhale a large amount of air Anakin switched his comms on while kicking his ship into gear and zooming away from Rogue Squadron, Obi-Wan was hot on his tail.
"Luke!" Anakin cried through the comm. "Luke, do you copy?!"
"I copy dad, you want us to take out the guy on your tail?"
"No, he's Darth Vader, Luke, the Sith Lord. I'm authorizing you to lead Rogue Squadron on with the plan, take Red Squadron and Gold Squadron too, you're in command of them all."
"Alright, DAD LOOK OUT!"
"Damn it!" Anakin said whilst switching off comms, two more missiles were on his tail. It was time for Obi-Wan to eat some now. Anakin banked upward sharply, flew upside down right over Obi-Wan's advanced new war toy and came down behind it, he unleashed a volley of laser fire on the Sith Lord's ship. Somehow Obi-Wan managed to dodge them all, he death rolled hard to the right, Anakin kept on him and opened fire again, he never actually intended to hit Obi-Wan; this was just a distraction.
"Lock onto him R2." Anakin commanded.
The droid returned a questioning beep.
"Do it!"
R2 replied with an acknowledgement and the crosshairs on Anakin's targeting computer locked onto Obi-Wan's ship. Anakin stopped his relentless fire attack and without a seconds hesitation… launched two proton torpedoes, locked onto the heat signature of Obi-Wan's engines. He tailed Obi-Wan and watched as the missiles closed—
The engines of the advanced X1 TIE craft shut down and Obi-Wan dived down. Anakin smashed balled up fists into his armrests as the torpedoes overshot and drilled into the hull of a Nebulon-B frigate. Anakin dived down after Obi-Wan, naively expecting him to switch his engines back on, instead, like the missiles Anakin overshot Obi-Wan's ship and once again found the Sith Lord on his tail.
"Come now my padawan, you've always been a great pilot, what is wrong?" came a deep mechanical voice from his comm, it was Obi-Wan.
Anakin had no retort and was dismayed to see Obi-Wan open fire, he dodged to the left, the blasts of laser overshot him, to the right, up down, death roll… everything, Obi-Wan did not let up, finally Anakin banked up hard, Obi-Wan was never one for taking risks, at least as a Jedi. He sped towards the hull of that same frigate he had unintentionally shot, when he was a mere centimeters above its bottom hull he pulled up, skimming its surface. To his utter shock Obi-Wan mirrored his move.
"You have certainly become a damn good pilot, Vader." Anakin said through his comm, knowing Obi-Wan was listening.
"You don't know the power of the dark side Anakin." Obi-Wan, or was it actually, undeniably, the unchangeable Vader? Was Anakin kidding himself, referring to that man as Obi-Wan all these years? Was Vader, or Obi-Wan, kidding himself?
"Yeah and I don't want to." Anakin retorted, breaking his train of thought.
"I tried Anakin, I tried to make you see reason just there, but you did not listen, you never listen!"
"Apparently neither do you! You remember the old Jedi prophecy? I'm the chosen one you Sith moron! I'm supposed to kill you!"
"Supposed to kill me, what is this Anakin, your third, maybe fourth attempt? And you haven't even so much as exchanged words with my master in twenty years."
"You're different than when I knew you."
"And you haven't changed my padawan, the weakness of your Jedi ilk. I think this conversation is over Anakin, you've let your guard slip; you're getting careless my padawan, is that perhaps because you don't want to kill me?"
"You forced my hand Obi-Wan! Of course I don't want to kill you; you were my friend, my mentor."
"Now I'm your enemy, your sworn foe, and you force my hand."
Anakin pulled up quickly and came around behind Obi-Wan, but not in time, his left engine blew out thanks to a blast of laser from Obi-Wan's ship. When he was on his master's tail he squeezed off a shot and blew out Obi-Wan's life support while turning of his other engine to prevent himself from spinning out of control.
"How long can you hold your breath master?"
Obi-Wan didn't reply, he banked sharply and skimmed up the side of the cruiser's hull, with what little momentum he had left from his engines propelling him at high speeds moments ago Anakin followed and watched as his enemy slipped inside a hanger bay, Anakin followed leaping out of his ship as he touched down on the metal floor. The bay was completely empty, save for the engineless X-Wing, the TIE craft without life support, and a Y-wing that was currently unused.
Anakin watched as Obi-Wan leapt out of his craft, draped in Sith robes and the mask of an ancient Sith that replaced the face of the master he had once known, the burned, scarred face. He sensed Obi-Wan's intent, the Y-wing.
"Don't even think about it." Anakin bit icily, activating his cerulean blade.
"Obviously it's now out of the question since you insist on blocking me from my exit." Obi-Wan shot back, extending a blade as red as all the Jedi blood he had spilt. "But you'll never defeat me, and your son will never reach the Death Star in time, my Admiral is very helpful, his name is Piett and before I landed he told me there are only fifteen minutes left until Yavin IV goes up in flames."
"Well I have a bit of a problem then, so I guess we'd better get started."
With a slash of blue crashing onto crimson, they did.
XxX
Luke was at the lead of Rogue Squadron, Wedge was covering his right flank and Biggs was covering his left, the rest of the squadron was behind him, Red Squadron and Gold Squadron flew ahead of them, the hull of the Death Star completely filled their view ports, with each passing second their wide view of it narrowed and the details became more defined.
"Rogue One," a voice on the comm system said. It was Luke's call sign.
"What is it Red Five?" Luke asked.
"Several TIE fighters approaching your squadron's left flank."
"I see them." Luke replied. "Rouge Five, Rouge Six, move to intercept, the rest of you stay with me."
Just then the TIE fighters and the guns on the hull of the Death Star opened fire in well timed unison.
Perfect.
"Gold Squadron," Luke called. As he pulled up, flying mere feet above the hull of the Death Star which was sadly full of protruding towers and structures, he weaved between them, avoiding the fire from the turbo laser batteries, Rogue Squadron stayed tight on his tail, all of Red Squadron was busy, and most were in dogfights with TIE fighters.
"Copy Rouge One," Gold Leader acknowledged.
"Take care of those turbo lasers, I'm going in the trench, Wedge, Biggs, cover me, the rest of you guys do what you can against those towers and TIE's."
"Copy Luke," Wedge and Biggs said in unison.
"I copy Rouge One," Gold Leader said. Gold Squadron, and the remainder of Rouge Squadron then broke away and Luke, Wedge, and Biggs dropped into the trench. Soon the Death Star would be no more.
XxX
"Admiral Motti," said a captains voice from behind. Motti turned from gazing out of the view port on the Death Star's main control room.
"Yes captain?" Motti asked.
"We will be in range in approximately thirteen minutes." the captain reported.
"Excellent."
"However several squadrons of X-Wings have slipped through our line and are near the trench, three have broken off from the main group. I have studied the plans of the area where they are myself sir, there is indeed a vulnerability. We may not even get to fire our laser, shall I prepare your ship?"
"I think you overestimate their chances captain. Send out another squadron of TIE fighters to deal with them."
Ugh! Nearly 3000 words without these author notes. I hope you got your fill for now because I could take a couple days the post the next one which could be just as long or longer! Oh and your welcome for the cliffy with Obi-Wan and Anakin's fighter, ha ha ha!