(A/N) Can't believe it's taken me this long to update, everything's been crazy with exams since Christmas but I should have more time to write from now on. Reviews are much appreciated so please, feel free to let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!

The majority of characters and locations used in this work of fiction are property of George Lucas, LucasArts and the Star Wars franchise. All the copyrights associated with this story belong to them. Only the ideas contained within this story are the property of the author. No profit is being earned by the writer of this story. Lawsuits are not welcome here.

Lethal Alliance

Luke Skywalker swore, bringing his x-wing upwards in a sharp loop, ending up behind the TIE fighter that had been attacking him. "This is just like Endor all over again!" he muttered, shooting the fighter down, shaking his head.

Several klicks away, aboard the Home One, Leia Organa suppressed a sigh. "Wedge will come through," she muttered. "You know he will. He's never failed us before." Beside her, another female human laughed. She was older than Leia, but retained an air of beauty and power, her red hair contrasting starkly with the younger woman's brown curls. "What about his last attempt to take down the planet's shields. Because they still appear pretty functional to me." Leia snorted, rolling her eyes upwards.

"Princess Organa is right. Commander Antilles is one of our most dependable soldiers. He will not fail us." This came from a Mon Calamari, Admiral Ackbar, the Supreme Commander of the Alliance. He turned back to his battle plans, and began arguing with the Bothan commander, Borsk Fey'lya over battle strategy. Again. The two were polar opposites, the Bothan's aggressive and brash qualities starkly contrasting with that of his more conservative and wary Mon Calamari counterpart. Naturally, they despised each other. However, they were the two most gifted strategists that the Alliance had, so they had been thrust together once again. This battle would require all of their expertise; this battle would lend a fatal blow to the already crumbling Empire. Leia looked out on planet they had besieged, taking in the enormity of the battle, the two massive fleets facing off, the brief, awkward moment as both sides size each other up before the inevitable terror, destruction and death that is large-scale warfare.

"Coruscant must fall." She murmured. "We've come too far to fail now…" Beside here, the other woman nodded in agreement. "I know, Leia. And you're right, Wedge won't fail. His squad consist of some of our best soldiers. They've pulled off more difficult things in the past." Leia sighed, her shoulders sagging. "Thanks Mon. It's just….to be so close….and not too be able to do anything. It's just hard, okay?"

Mon Mothma put her hand on the younger woman's shoulders, squeezing it sympathetically. "I just wish your father was here to see how far we've come. He would be so proud of what you've achieved."

Leia nodded, fighting back tears as she remembered her father – no, her fathers – her adoptive father, the bravest, kindest man she had ever known, and her biological one, who had redeemed himself in the end. He had found the light again. She blinked the tears away and turned back to Mon, steely eyed. "Then let's win this."

She walked over to the communicator and leaned down low. "Luke, Han, Lando. Just hang in there. Once the shields are down the rest of the fleet will arrive. All you have to do is to keep their fleet busy. Wedge has his mission, you have yours."

She stood back and murmured. "May the force be with us all."

"Kriff-it! We've been noticed!" a female Twi'lek called down to the leader of Rogue squadron, Commander Wedge Antilles, her lekku twitching in agitation, one pale, one metallic, a prostethic reminder of her slave past. He glanced up from the screen, indicating the distance the satellite that they were controlling still had to travel until it was in range of their target. It was a good plan, even if it was dangerous. After all, dangerous was Rogue Squadron's speciality. They had successfully hacked the Orbital Solar Energy Transfer Satellite 2711, mainly thanks to the Twi'lek and her droid. Wedge had initially been unhappy with their inclusion on this mission but there was no doubt in his mind now. They couldn't have done it without them.

"How many?" He yelled up to her. She signalled back that there were three squads of stormtroopers on their way. Wedge swore and activated his comm unit. "Corran! You've got company. Saren's spotted three squads. Fall back."

The comm unit crackled. "We can take them, sir. Just give the order."

Wedge sighed in exasperation. "I've given the order Corran. Fall back immediately!"

The comm unit crackled once more. "Roger that."

Wedge looked back up to the platform where Rianna Saren stood on guard next to her droid. Wedge had to admit; whoever had built that droid had done a good job. It had hacked through the system's defences faster than he had expected and was currently redirecting the satellite's orbit while monitoring the building for inquisitive stormtroopers, as there could be little doubt that someone had noticed their infiltration. Ten more minutes though, and that would cease to matter. Ten more minutes, and the planet's shields would finally be down.

"Saren! Can your droid seal the blast doors?" He yelled up to her, a plan formulating in his mind, though these hopes were dashed when she shook her head ruefully, yelling back, "He can't hack the blast doors without diverting his energy from controlling the satellite. Maybe in a few minutes when the satellite's in position!"

Wedge swore to himself. "Ok then, prepare yourselves for incoming hostiles!" he yelled to his men. "Be prepared to take up defensive positions once Corran's squad come through!"

The sound of blasterfire reached Wedge's ears as Corran Horn and his squad fell back into the main control room, pursued by two dozen or so stormtroopers. He ordered his troops into the planned defensive positions, then making his way up to the platform where Rianna stood, her vantage point giving her a clear shot of the stormtroopers as they fought their way in, which she made good use of, dispatching three before they realised what was happening. They dived for cover and trained their fire on her position, identifying the new threat, causing her to dive back behind one of the satellite terminals.

Wedge slowly made his way over to her, alternating between hiding behind cover and exchanging fire with the enemy troopers. More and more stormtroopers replaced those that had fallen, as the group pinned down at the entrance gained their reinforcements, and they slowly began to make ground into the room. "I thought we were facing three squads! Does that look like three kriffing squads to you?" he yelled to her, making his voice heard over the blasterfire, jerking his thumb towards the besieged entrance.

Rianna frowned. "They were followed by more. Apparently the Empire thinks that a giant satellite going off on its own is something they don't really want." She screamed back to him, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She stood up, firing on the troopers below when a stray bolt pierced the screen of the terminal she had crouching behind and struck her in the head, sending her sprawling. Wedge froze in shock as her droid left its terminal and rushed to her side, whirring in a way that, if Wedge didn't know better, he would have described as terror. He slid under the barrier separating him from her and grabbed her hand, searching for a pulse. She groaned and opened her eyes, coughing a few times as she took in her surroundings. "That," she groaned, raising her hand to her prosthetic lek which had taken the hit and was severely scorched, the metallic surface melted and scorched where the blast had hit it. "Was not fun."

Her droid chirped sympathetically and she placed her hand on its head, patting it reassuringly. "It's ok Zeeo." She murmured, pushing it away. "I'm ok, get back to work."

The droid seemed unconvinced but went back to its post and resumed its task. The stormtroopers had made their way into the room at this stage, with Corran's men and the other groups falling back onto the platforms, which had been designated as the last line of defence. Their numbers had been whittled down, and many were nursing injuries. Despite this Wedge knew that each one would fight to the death, however, he could not quell his rising sense of despair as more stormtroopers continued to pour through the entrance.

They firefight continued, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Corran go down with a blast to the hip, his men were tiring, few were still unharmed. He briefly contemplated surrendering, hoping to buy the seconds Saren's droid needed to complete the redirection of the satellite when the screams started to ring out from behind the stormtroopers, from the corridor they had entered through. The troopers started to act oddly, losing interest in Wedge's battered group and concentrating on the threat that lay behind them.

Then Wedge heard it. A noise underneath the sounds of blasterfire and screaming, a noise he had only heard a few times before, while fighting alongside Luke Skywalker.

It was the noise of a lightsaber.

"No way." He murmured, unable to process this thought, until a wide grin spread across his features. "No kriffing way."

He could see it now, a yellow glow shining from behind the mass of stormtroopers. He and his men, reinvigorated by this turn of events, redoubled their efforts in attacking what troopers where still concentrating on them, bringing them down even as the bearer of the lightsaber slashed his way into the room, deflecting the troopers fire as if they were of little consequence, slicing his way through the mass of bodies in a way Wedge doubted even Luke would be able to pull off, making this battle look graceful, elegant and easy.

The figure waved his arm and several troopers went sprawling and were quickly mopped up by Wedge and his team. It made quick work of the remaining troopers, his lightsaber weaving a path of death with every motion. The last trooper attempted to back away from the figure but made the mistake of firing, despite witnessing the ease at with it had blocked all of the rest. The lightsaber flicked upwards, and the blast was redirected towards the trooper, striking him in the chest.

The figure turned towards Wedge, and he was shocked to see a man even younger than himself staring out from his from underneath the brown hooded robes. The man nodded and turned his back on Wedge, exiting through the corridor he had just fought his way through, leaving Wedge and his men in a room filled with dead stormtroopers. Zeeo whirred triumphantly and Rianna happily confirmed "The satellite's in position. Now we just have to see if this'll work."

Wedge just smiled. "It'll work Saren. It'll work." His smile grew even wider.

The Jedi had returned.