Hey, everybody. Here we go with the next Terran Alliance EU story.

Let's get to it.

Chapter 1

(May 23, 2026)

In the sky over a relatively obscure volcanic planet, the day is anything but peaceful. The sky is being torn apart by ferocious fighting. A trio of TIE Interceptors streak low over a lava lake, trying desperately to escape. A second later, an SF-15 Space Eagle streaks low over the lava lake in hot pursuit.

In the cockpit, Captain Jonathan Page smirks as he watches the TIEs try to escape from him. He switches over to his Sidewinders and squeezes the trigger, launching one of them. THe missile shreds one of the TIEs. He then switches over to his laser cannons before squeezing off two quick bursts, shooting down both. Jonathan then snaps up into a climbing left turn. He glances around and sees the rest of the squadron streaking all over the sky, engaging dozens more TIE fighters.

In the 7 years since the end of the Galactic Civil War, the Hammer Squadron had been continuously deployed across the Andromeda Galaxy to hunt down Imperial remnants. Now, once again, they had been sent after another remnant. This was a relatively minor mission. A former colonel in the ISB had taken control of a small force and used it to build up a criminal enterprise on this planet. The Squadron had been sent to eliminate the facility and the remnant in one blow.

Jonathan sees a TIE passing in front of his nose and quickly turns to go after it. Jonathan quickly centers the TIE in his gunsight and squeezes the trigger, firing a burst from his laser cannons that blow the TIE to pieces.

However, a second later, laser bolts go flying past his canopy. Jonathan glances back and sees two TIE fighters directly on his tail. Jonathan quickly reverses his turn, throwing the TIE pilots off guard. They quickly get behind him again, but now they've lost the advantage and can't quite get their sights centered on Jonathan's fighter.

"I could use some help," Jonathan calls over the radio.

"Don't worry, boss." Jonathan looks behind him again just in time to see an SF-15 drop in behind the TIEs and blow both of them to pieces with its laser cannons.

"You owe me one, Johnny boy," comes the cocky voice over the radio.

"Don't think too highly of yourself, Rick," Jonathan chuckles in return.

Rick Saunders is a relatively new addition to the Hammer Squadron, and has been Jonathan's wingman for the last 6 months. After the war, Jonathan had continued flying with Abigail as his wingman, even after he became squadron commander in 2022. However, they had also kept up their romance, and had married in 2023. Abigail had left the squadron and retired from the military the following year after almost 14 years of service when she got pregnant with their first child, and now served as an advisor at Lockheed Martin. Jonathan had then flown with another one of his good buddies from the squadron before his friend transferred out to become a flight instructor six months ago, at which point Jonathan had selected Rick as his new wingman. Despite Rick being the newest member of the squadron, Jonathan saw some elements of his younger self in Rick and wanted to take Rick under his wing and see just how good Rick could get. So far, Rick hasn't disappointed his expectations.

Rick forms up on Jonathan's 5 o clock, about 800 yards behind him, and the two streak back into the furball. A TIE fighter flashes past Jonathan's nose, and without altering course, Jonathan fires his laser cannons, blowing it to smithereens. Jonathan then sees half a dozen TIE fighters flying after two of his squadronmates.

Jonathan noses down and banks right. The TIEs are not turning very tightly, and Jonathan is quickly on their tail. Two TIEs notice him and break off the chase, but Rick breaks away from Jonathan to pursue them.

Jonathan stays focused on his targets. He quickly centers his gunsights on the trailer and squeezes the trigger, blowing it into vapor. He then shifts to another and again blows it apart with a few bolts.

The other two TIE fighters try to turn to escape from Jonatha, but both are still well within Jonathan's reach. With little effort, Jonathan reverses his turn and remains on their tail. Squeezing the trigger, he blows one of them to pieces, then the other.

As Jonathan soars over the fireball and looks for another target, four of the Hammers make their move against the main target. Two of them dive their SF-15s towards a large set of doors that the Imps use to move goods in and out of the facility. Both SF-15s drop a pair of 1,000 pound bombs. The bombs impact all around the doors, blasting through the rock the doors are embedded in, sending the battered doors tumbling down the cliff face.

"Hammer 1, this is Hammer 11. Path is clear!" the leader of the pair calls out over the radio.

"Copy that. Hammer 3, you are cleared hot!" Jonathan calls out over the radio.

Hammer 3, an Israeli Commander named Giora Salama, wings over and dives his SF-15 towards the new opening into the cliff while his wingman stays perched high above him, ready to keep any TIEs away from him. One TIE fighter tries to pursue him, but Hammer 4 dives after it and vaporizes the fighter with his laser cannons.

Commander Salama had been chosen for this task because out of the entire squadron, he was the best at flying through physical obstacles and had the sharpest reflexes of anybody in the squadron. And he needed that for this task.

Salama checks behind him one last time just to be safe, then flies through the opening and into the facility. Thankfully, due to rudimentary outlines of the facility provided by a defector, they know that this massive corridor into the facility is just big enough for his SF-15 due to the size of some of the goods produced here. At the far end of the corridor, there is a thick steel wall, on the other side of which is the massive reactor chamber. And that is his target.

Salama holds the SF-15 steady, banking slightly every few seconds to allow one of his wings to go over an obstacle in the way. At times, his wings pass within six inches of an obstacle. His backseater looks out at the side of the canopy at one point and sees dust on the floor of the corridor kicking up in the slipstream of his right wingtip as the wingtip passes just 7 inches from the ground. He feels a sense of anxiety, but tries to just trust in Salama's skill.

Finally, Salama sees the wall up ahead. "Alright. Wall up ahead. Target the torps," he says. His backseater looks at his targeting screen as he powers up the fighter's proton torpedo launchers. He locks the targeting system onto the wall, then calls out, "Target locked!"

Salama squeezes the trigger, and four proton torpedoes launch, leaving him with just two torpedoes left. The launched torpedoes streak up ahead and impact the wall one after another. Salama watches intently, waiting for the rubble and smoke to clear enough to see if it worked. Soon enough, although there is still some smoke in the air, his Helmet-Mounted Display is able to see through what's left and show that the proton torpedoes successfully breached the wall, leaving an opening just big enough for an SF-15.

Salama holds his course, flying right through the gap and into the reactor chamber. Immediately, Salama targets and fires his last two proton torpedoes at the reactor on the far side of the room. As soon as the torpedoes leave the launch tubes, Salama turns slightly left, then snaps hard to the right, lowering his flaps and popping his air brakes as he chops the throttle. His speed is cut in half in a second as he cranks the SF-15 around as hard as he can. As the SF-15 is turning, his backseater looks over at the reactor and sees the torpedoes hit home, blowing it to pieces.

"We gotta get out of here!" the backseater calls out. Salama holds the stick in a tight turn, taking only another moment before the hole in the wall appears off his nose. Salama flies back through the hole, this time his wings missing hitting the wall by just two and a half inches. Salama throttles up and heads for the opening as behind him, the loss of the reactor sees lava beginning to surge up into the facility.

It takes only moments to reach the opening. The rest of the squadron starts cheering like crazy as Salama's SF-15 streaks out of the opening in the cliff.

"Yeehaw, hell of a show, Giora!" Jonathan shouts over the radio with a laugh.

Salama pulls up his SF-15 and zoom climbs. As he does, behind him, lava continues to surge up into the facility as a series of explosions tear through parts of the facility. It's clear now that the deadly blow has been struck. Jonathan watches for a second later before he calls out, "Alright boys. Let's finish up the fighters and then head home!"

With only a few more TIE fighters still airborne, it takes only seconds before they have all been shot down. As the last one is blown to vapor, the squadron all forms up and heads up out of the atmosphere.

"Alright, boys. Let's go home," Jonathan says with a smile. Once more, the Hammer Squadron has completed a successful mission. In the process, he had added 14 more TIE fighters to his kill record, leaving it at 459 kills. Given the Hammers' main rival, the 352nd Starfighter Wing, had been deployed a lot less since the war, this meant that Jonathan had surpassed Paul Moga as the highest scoring Terran fighter ace of all time

Right then, Jonathan's commlink beeps and and a hologram of Admiral Michael Boyle, the vice commander of the Andromeda Fleet, appears before him.

"Admiral. What's the news?" Jonathan asks, realizing something must have happened in Boyle is calling him now.

"Captain Page, you've been ordered back to Naboo. We have a special mission for the squadron, and you'll be working with a Jedi. You are to return to Naboo to rendezvous with your new teammate and receive your orders for this new mission," Boyle says.

"Copy that, Admiral," Jonathan says before cutting the transmission. He then gets on the radio and calls out, "Alright, guys. Admiral Boyle just said they have a new mission for us. Let's head back to Naboo and find out what it is." He then pushes his hyperspace throttles forward, and the SF-15 jumps into hyperspace, the rest of the Hammer Squadron following close behind.

And, I'll end the first chapter there.

The next chapter will introduce the Jedi who'll be working with the Hammer Squadron, and it is a Jedi you know from The Terran Alliance Strikes Back. We won't figure out what the special mission is until Chapter 4.

Next chapter will be up soon. Until it's up, please leave a review and stay tuned.