Captain Danka of the Rebel Alliance's Air Corp ran across the deckplates toward his Y-Wing bomber. The Imps had set up a torture camp a few miles outside of Duna City, and were systematically executing witnesses to the Duna City Massacre there, under the guise of a medical camp. He was to lead a flight of bombers that would blow this camp up and save all of the soldiers and civilians who were being killed there. Command had been reluctant to do this, but once they heard the Empire was executing civilians too, they gave the go-ahead.
He climbed the ladder and jumped into the cockpit, nodding to his bombardier, Lieutenant Frisk.
"We ready Captain?" Frisk asked.
"Just about. I'm going through the final pre-flight check, and the ground crew needs to cut us loose." He said, waving his hand to the thick fuel hoses sticking out of the Y-Wing's engines.
"System check complete. What kind of bombs are we using Frisk?"
"I selected High Yield Incendiaries for this mission, because if they are gassing people down there, we don't want that shit in the atmosphere."
"Nice. We're good to go Fisk." Danka tapped his helmet, activating the built in mike. "This is Awken Leader, I'm flight ready."
"Roger that. We are opening the magnetic field."
The shimmering blue field guarding the flight hanger from the deadly vacuum of space flexed and disappeared, allowing the Y-Wing to leave the hanger.
"This is Awken Leader, I've hit the black."
"Roger that Lead, Awkens 2-9 are in formation at the rendezvous point and awaiting your go-ahead."
"Copy that."
Danka's Y-Wing streaked across space toward the rendezvous point above the Rebel frigate Republic's Spirit. He saw five Y-Wings and their four X-Wing escorts floating in space, awaiting his command to bomb the target.
"Awken Flight, this is Awken Leader, I'm joining the formation. All ships report in."
"Awken 2 standing by."
"Awken 3 is good to go."
"Awken 4 is mission capable sir."
"Awken 5 awaits your orders."
"Awken Escort Leader here, ready to go."
"Awken Escort 7, ready to kick some ass!"
"Awken Escort 8, finger on the trigger sir!"
"Awken Escort 9 is combat ready."
"This is Awken leader, let's stay professional 7."
"Yes sir, sorry sir."
"All right, we're good. Command, Awken Flight is mission ready."
"Roger that. Godspeed."
The fighters sped off toward the planet, leaving the Spirit behind. Danka could see the infamous triangle shape of an Imperial Star Destroyer on his ship's scanner.
"Awken flight, I'm picking up an Imp Destroyer. We're gonna need to go dark, so it doesn't pick us up."
"Roger that lead."
The engines of the fighters flickered out and they drifted slowly toward the planet, using small puffs from their sublight engines to guide them closer to the planet.
Danka watched the screen nervously, hoping the ship wouldn't pick them up.
The triangle representing the ship never moved, but he did see two small dots with TIE tags start moving away from the ship, in their direction.
"Awken flight, full power to engines! I'm picking up two TIEs and they're headed straight toward us! Move!"
A brilliant blue light stormed from the ship's engines and the fighters shot forward toward the surface.
Ensign Fuller of the Imperial Navy ran toward Captain Dex clutching a sheaf of computer printouts.
"Captain! The scanners are detecting 10 rebel ships headed to the surface!"
"What is their projected course Ensign?"
"According to the computer, the SWIFT that was set up near Duna City. We think they're going to bomb it."
"Hmm…those Rebels speak of self righteousness and human rights, but they're going to bomb a hospital? Be sure to send this to the ISB, I'm sure they would like to be able to use this in some Anti-Rebel propaganda. Good work Ensign. Inform Major Dirkens of the ISB that there is some enemy movement onscreen he may want to take a look at."
Fuller looked up and saw the projected bombing run of the Rebel fighters on the main screen.
"Yes sir. Thank you sir."
Captain Danka steered his fighter through the clouds, admiring the view out his cockpit bubble. Suddenly, a laser bolt ripped through the air and blew an S foil off of the X-Wing flying next to him.
"This is Awken Escort 8, I've lost my third foil."
"Can you still fly?" inquired Danka
"Yes sir, but I'll have to keep my wings closed. I really won't be of any use to you."
Danka considered it. "All right. Pull out and head back the the Spirit."
He saw the X-Wing peel off of the formation, trailing smoke from its broken wing.
"Yes sir. Awken Escort 8 has left formation." he said
Danka keyed his mike. "Command, this is Awken leader, be aware that Awken Escort 8 has left the formation and is heading back to the Spirit due to a damaged S-Foil."
"Roger that Awken Lead."
Frisk tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey sir?" He asked, "Why only one shot?"
"Hmm?"
"I said, why did the Imps only take one shot?"
Danka snapped his head up.
"Awken Flight, take evasive action, Ack-Ack pattern Gamma!" He screamed into his radio.
The fighters all shot in different directions, eventually coming to rest in a constantly shifting pattern that kept the X-Wings on the outside and the Y-Wings on the inside.
"Awken Lead, this is Command, what is going on?"
"The S-Foil, it was damaged by Anti-Aircraft fire!"
"Copy that, but our charts show no Imperial Anti Aircraft batteries in your area."
"I don't know what to tell you command, but its there."
"All right, we'll keep an eye out."
The ships continued their evasive patterns for an hour, until Danka ordered them stopped because he was afraid they wouldn't have enough fuel to get home if they kept taxing the engines like that.
"Awken Flight, this is Awken Lead. We're coming up on the target zone."
"Okay Lead, we'll fly a strafing run on the target and then you can blow them to Kessel!"
"Sounds good Escort Lead."
The three X-Wings split off and their cannons blazed death on the Imperial camp. Danka saw the red bolts stitching lines in the dirt, swallowing anyone who happened to be unlucky enough to get in their way. Finally, the X-Wings pulled up.
"It's all clear Awken Leader."
Danka shoved the joystick down, hard, and the Y-Wing nosedived toward the ground at over 200 mph. He pulled out of the dive and shot across the blood red plains, blowing chunks out of the ground with his nose mounted cannons.
"Do your thing Frisk!" he screamed over the roar of the engines, noting in the back of his head that he'd have to talk to the ground crew about the soundproofing in the cockpit.
"Wait for it… wait for it…" Frisk muttered, his face partially obscured by the boxy targeting computer in front of his head.
"Now!" he yelled, mashing his thumbs on the bomb-release yoke, and Danka pulled up slightly, bringing the Y-Wing above the explosive ceiling. Eight proton torpedoes shot out of the tubes mounted on the bottom of the fighter, and rocketed toward the base. They detonated in a flash of white. Danka had been trained not to stare at the explosion from a bombing run, because it could throw off his pilot's eye, but Frisk whooped as the main compound building, marked with red diamonds that supposedly meant a medical facility, exploded. Both men's visor's polarized to compensate for the sudden change in light, and Danka gritted his teeth as he steered the ship away from the blast. Even so, the left engine was seared by the intense heat, blackening the baffles and causing the starfighter to groan as the armor plating on the engine warped.
"Cutting it a little close there aren't we sir?" Frisk said, half-jokingly.
"I was gonna say the same thing to you Lieutenant!" Danka muttered, his teeth still mashed together from the intense concentration of piloting a ship at speeds upwards of 1,000 mph and not hitting anything.
Frisk laughed and tapped his mike. "This is Awken Flight, bombing run is complete, we're heading home!"
The ships fell back into formation and streaked toward the Spirit, confidant they had played a key role in crippling the Empire on Sarva VI.
Okay, so I finally got this finished and posted, sorry about the long delay. I had a serious case of writer's block as to how to tell this next part.