Chapter 7:
The nav-computer beeped, signaling that they were reaching their destination. Echobe brought the ship out of hyperspace far from the glowing, green-blue planet. The squadron came out of hyperspace just behind.
"Commander Echobe," crackled the radio. An Alliance soldier sitting at the communications station replied for Echobe.
"Starscream here."
"This is Alpha 1. We are in position, and awaiting orders."
"Standby," replied the soldier, "Scanning area for suitable asteroid."
The soldier scanned the nearby vicinity for a piece of rock large enough to hide an entire squadron of ships, plus the bulky, triangular freighter. It took several minutes until he found one, several thousand miles from their location. Slowly, and under Impulse power, they moved as one towards the drifting, dead, space-rock. It was like a mountain drifting through space. It lazily rolled and tumbled in the darkness with no particular orbit, being tossed this way and that through the eons by whatever gravitational forces it stumbled upon.
"All squadrons attach to the asteroid and await orders," said the soldier at communications.
One by one the ships found their places like bees on a honeycomb. The Starscream was the last to set down. Then, on order, all engines were cut off, and they became one with the asteroid, as far as Imperial radar was concerned. Echobe fed the coordinates of the approximate location of the base to all of the corresponding ships.
At Echobe's command, the communications officer sent the orders to the squadron, and with a single, heavy push of the thrusters of all the ships at once they pushed the rock towards the nondescript location where the laboratory was supposedly in orbit. The asteroid no longer tumbled aimlessly as Alliance pilots fought in a symphony of thruster blasts to keep the rock under control. With a group effort, like a crew paddling a boat to get it ashore against the surf, they pushed the mountainous rock towards the shadow of Kashyyyk, the engines fired in a synchronized algorithm to keep the asteroid stable, and to hold the shadow over them to hide in.
"We're going to look pretty ridiculous if we get caught like this," joked Echobe.
Makaashyya laughed.
Echobe wished at that moment that Yaminul were there. He thought of how Yaminul would have translated what he would say to the others and the protestations he would have offered. Instead, Echobe had to rely on mostly on hand signals, and the faith in those under his command to understand the mission, since very few with him could translate Shyriiwook. The soldiers under his command were loyal, and they respected Echobe, he had no doubt, but there was a shadow being cast, as surely as the shadow that was hiding them, an unnerving quietness between everyone.
The soldiers and pilots talked in hushed tones as the rock tumbled with them on it. They reminisced, and laughed, others went over procedures, but there was something wrong that Echobe couldn't pinpoint. Echobe rectified in his mind that it was a combination of the late Yaminul, and the fate that awaited Makaashyya, and of finally reaching the apex of what he and Burmar had started that was ultimately overwhelming his thoughts. One way or another, Echobe knew this was the end of the Empire's program. He would avenge Ulchewbuk's murder, his parent's murder, all of those who had been killed. If his plan failed, the Starscream had been loaded with enough explosives to destroy a Star Destroyer. Echobe was determined to end it one way or another.
Everyone knew of what Echobe intended if the mission failed. He would order them to retreat while he detonated the Starscream. But even for those that never experienced the horrors in the prison, they knew enough through briefing and through the stories that had run through the Alliance, that the base must be destroyed even if they all died doing it. Which, to Echobe, was an abhorrent justification, and killing all of those in the prison, enemy or not made him sick. But Echobe convinced himself that he would not let it come to that, that one way or another everything would be ok. Echobe thought somehow by letting himself be sacrificed, he would insure the safety of everyone else. Echobe stepped onto the Starscream fully accepting that it may be his final trip, and the feeling that he felt he knew he was going to die gave him a sense of calm.
As long as everyone else makes it out it will be worth it, he told himself.
The asteroid then shifted, sounding a sensor alarm, jarring the squadron, and bringing Echobe out of his wandering thoughts. A quick scan by the soldier sitting at the communications told them that the asteroid wasn't entirely stable.
Echobe rolled his eyes.
The mountain-sized rock had started to release gas into space. No longer tumbling on its axis, the one side facing the sun warmed, and caused frozen compounds to thaw and release. Echobe brought up a viewscreen from a camera atop the Starscream. He panned the camera side to side. They were still hidden within the asteroids shadow, but when Echobe looked to the rear of them the rock was developing a tail. Echobe could see vapor escaping from over the horizon of the asteroid facing the sun. The fumes coiled and rolled over the ships, while not flammable, the tail was steadily growing out into space behind them making the asteroid an interesting site to anyone who happened to look.
"Wonderful," said Echobe, clearly not surprised that things were going wrong. Echobe turned the viewscreen to the soldier sitting at the console.
"Wonderful," said the soldier.
Echobe alerted all of the ships of the situation through his second in command sitting in the cockpit. Even without Echobe's order, everyone one of the Alliance pilots were already watching their radar for Imperial ships.
The rock required little more encouragement from the engines of its Alliance companions to drift evenly towards their location. On the sensors, blips showed the blockade on the far side of the planet like a predator waiting on the other side of a tree waiting for its prey to break and run. The Alliance squadron knew that they only needed to make it into the planet's shadow, and they would be safe from being noticed by the blockade. The tail of the asteroid turned comet stretched miles and miles behind them. Had Echobe seen from the safety of the planet as a sky watcher he would be impressed, but being on the comet made him despise it for conspiring to undo their plans.
Time passed, and so did thousands of miles of space between them and their destination. Soon they would be in the shadow of Kashyyyk. Makaashyya sighed as she looked out the windshield. A few lights were lit in the once grand cities of Kashyyyk. She wished she could go back, that she could live out her life with Echobe and die there, but she had ruined any chance of that back on Dathomir. She wished even more for Echobe to be able to go back and see his home. If throwing herself into the atmosphere would pardon him, she would have done it.
"Nearing the shadow of Kashyyyk," said Echobe's second in command.
Echobe continued to look out the windshield and took quick glances at the viewscreen as he panned the camera all around the ship. The next few minutes passed all the more slowly waiting in anticipation for the cover of the planet's shadow. The tail of the comet stretched hundreds, if not thousands of miles behind them. The ships were covered in moisture from the defrosting chemicals in the rock. Echobe quickly reminded the squadron to be weary of possible freezing of ship components, another problem that Echobe shook his head at that could possibly cause their downfall. Failed thrusters or clogged exhaust ports would cause huge problems for them, he knew. Slowly, they drifted by the inch it seemed into Kashyyyk's blanket of shadow.
Echobe breathed a sign of relief and looked away from the camera, as did everyone one else in the cockpit. The soldier sitting at communications plotted out the comets course, verifying the trajectory. When the path was deemed suitable, Echobe ordered all ships to go into shutdown, leaving only backup systems and system heaters on.
They then began the final leg, all the while hoping that the information Zav-Halis provided was valid. Before them, space spread out like a calm sea, the stars winking in the distance. Rays of the sun flanked Kashyyyk, and in the shadow of the planet, one hardly needed a cloaking device, it was nearly devoid of all light. The only anomaly was the comet that came into being where one was wasn't before. The tension had eased a bit, and even some casual whispering conversation broke out among the pilots. Makaashyya broke the silence in the cockpit of the Starscream.
"Back on Tatooine," she began. Echobe looked at her and nodded.
"Yeah?"
"I killed people under your command, your friends. You suspected me from the beginning. Why did you give me a chance?"
Echobe breathed and thought for a moment.
"I never said I forgive you."
Those words stung Makaashyya.
"But I remember hearing your mind in Jabba's palace. The feelings I felt were fear. I felt how scared and alone and confused you were. Anyone else in your position that had been lied to by an insane witch would have done the same. Everyone deserves a chance." Echobe and Makaashyya smiled at each other, then a proximity alert lit up the cockpit.
Echobe jerked his head to look at the radar screen. Emerging out of the blackness of space was a small three-ship convoy. An Imperial freighter flanked by two TIE Interceptors. Immediately, Echobe ordered all ships to go into complete shutdown and radio silence. All at once, as if there was a power outage, the lights in the cockpit of the Starscream and all other ships winked out like spent candles swallowed by the eternal night of space.
The convoy approached from seemingly out of nowhere and was fast approaching their location. The convoy could barely be seen. Everyone was turning their heads about trying to get a look. It was like an impression moving underneath the dark sheet of space, the Imperial vessels were barely visible, only slightly more so as they approached. Everyone was as silent as the asteroid they were riding on as the convoy approached dangerously close to the comet. A passive scan swept the area from the Imperial ships. Beams of invisible energy bounced off of the comet and returned the results of various minerals and chemicals. Everyone held their breath as they watched the convoy pass them by. The convoy came to a slow stop, adjusted course a few degrees and entered the hyperspace tunnel.
Echobe immediately plotted the course of the convoy from where they had come from, which was in the general area where the prison was supposed to be. Echobe sent the coordinates to all ships. With a small course correction of the comet, they followed to where the Imperial convoy emerged.
They continued meandering on their course, following the invisible trail the Imperial convoy had left for them, for what seemed like hours, until a significant gravity source appeared on the radar of the Starscream. A passive scan revealed nothing, but the unmistakable presence of a gravity-creating object occupied the space where the prison was supposed to be. In agreement with everyone in the cockpit, Echobe notified the squadron and then hurriedly went to the cargo bay where the EMP device waited. Echobe activated it, and slid it into the bomb bay doors and dropped the EMP onto the surface of the comet where it then dug into the rock with its robotic arms.
Echobe ran back to the cockpit, and told everyone to brace for the explosion. Slowly they approached the gravity well on the radar screen until they were mere miles away from it. The gravity well then shifted position slightly to veer away from the strange comet coming towards it, and that verified for the Alliance squadron that they had indeed found their target. Echobe ordered a final shutdown of all ships to avoid EMP burnout.
Echobe waited until the comet was almost alongside the prison, and on his command, he ordered all ships to detach, giving the comet one final thrust in the direction of the prison. The squadron of Alliance ships drifted off of the comet like debris and drifted along in the tail. The gravity well on their scanners stopped moving after having safely cleared the rock coming towards it, and that's when EMP bomb went off sending waves of blue energy coursing out into space like surf on an ocean. An electrical current slammed into the gravity well that was the prison, shorting out the cloaking device, and revealing the anomaly for what it really was, but also destroying the cloaking device of the turret emplacement orbiting the Imperial laboratory prison, that immediately began to search for a target.
Immediately, the Alliance ships that were drifting in the tail powered up except for one that was still attached to the piece of rock. Its systems had frozen and failed to come online, its landing skids failed to retract, the EMP blast had destroyed all of the ship's circuitry and it drifted along helpless with the comet. The pilot screamed into the dead radio for help. The turret emplacement started firing at the comet, chipping off pieces like a chisel until it turned it and the stranded Alliance pilot to dust. All of the other Alliance ships powered up and broke away from the comet's tail. The Starscream went headlong for the prison flanked by two Y-wings. The rest of the ships started attacking the turrets on the prison, and others attacked the turret emplacement.
Alliance ships, spewing red cannon bolts, flew at the large Imperial prison like an angry nest of hornets attacking an enemy hive. One, then two, Alliance ships vaporized from the laser blasts of the defense turret. Two Y-wings came at the turret and unloaded their missile payloads into it, the heavy armor of the turret shredded, but the weapon emplacement continued to fire without pause destroying the engines of one Y-wing and sending it drifting off into space helpless. A second Y-wing was scorched by hot laser bolts, but was undamaged. Several other ships came about and attacked the heavily armored turret. Though the shields had been destroyed by the blast of the EMP bomb, the damage being done to it was insufficient to disable it quickly.
The remains of the comet coalesced into a lazy orbit around the Imperial prison forcing several Alliance pilots to veer out of the way. Ship sized boulders whirled about and into the path of turret fire acting as a natural shield, and saving the lives of several Alliance pilots. Groups of A-wings darted at incredible speed, drawing the fire coming from the prison's defenses, and forcing it to accidentally attack their own turret emplacement, further damaging it.
The Alliance gunners in the Starscream started by trying to disable the turrets of the Imperial prison while keeping an eye out for reinforcements. Makaashyya was steadily targeting the turrets with the forward laser cannons, and the missile turret on the Starscream, scoring several hits, disabling a few, but the number of cannons housed on the prison seemed innumerable. One exploded, but it barely tore a seam in the endless curtain of laser fire. A-wings easily avoided the onslaught with their incredible speed, but Y-wings had the most trouble swooping in for a bombing run and pulling back before they were overtaken. Echobe spun the Starscream in wide-arching strafing runs on the hangar doors of the base. Though its shields down, the heavily armored doors took volley after volley without buckling.
"Take out the hangar doors, Starscream has you covered," said the communications officer repeating Echobe's orders. A few seconds later, the Y-wings banked around and came at the scarred blast doors of the laboratory, their laser cannons spitting volatile bolts of red, and streaming missiles. The Starscream flanked them to protect the Alliance Y-wings with stronger armor and shields. Makaashyya unleashed the full force of the Starscream's forward lasers. At the last second before collision, Echobe pulled pack hard on the controls and skirted up the hull of the laboratory. The Y-wings then unleashed their payloads into the buckling hangar doors finally destroying them.
Echobe looped the Starscream back towards the Imperial laboratory, and went full speed into the hangar. The emergency force field came up just as the Starscream barreled in. Echobe used the emergency thrusters to stop the big freighter before it collided with the opposite wall. He then spun the ship around, and quickly set it down, platform facing inwards.
Outside, the turret emplacement was on its last legs as it was bombarded by blast after blast of the quicker and far more agile A-wings. The turret could hardly keep up as the Alliance picked at the remains of the barely functioning turret like hungry fish, biting pieces of metallic flesh off. The squadron flew in groups of two and circled the prison making strafing runs, trying to wear down Imperial defenses. An A-wing succumbed to the blinding streak of laser fire coming from the Imperial base, but the remaining A-wings dealt the deathblow to the turret, sending shards of scrap into space. They then focused their attention on the prison.
Far in the distance behind them, sunlight glinted off of incoming metallic shapes. It wasn't until the objects appeared on the Alliance's shorter-range assault radar that the objects were noticed. Red warning lights inside Alliance cockpits flashed as a group of TIE interceptors, followed by groups of TIE fighters, destroyed two Y-wings, turning them into metallic dust. A group of interceptors joined the fray, birthed from the much larger object coming to join the fight.
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Echobe lowered the platform and ordered everyone out and to begin securing the prison. They ran out from the platform to cover positions. The hangar was empty. Blast doors on both sides of the control tower that lead into the station were closed. The emergency force field shielding the hangar from the vacuum of space held. Echobe ran out, Makaashyya followed, and so did the remaining Alliance soldiers in the cockpit. Echobe unsheathed his Ryyk Blade and his E-11 blaster, and Makaashyya her lightsaber. Bilebelch, the small, but ferocious rancor followed the group out of the Starscream. L7 trailed behind them all. The Alliance soldiers waited for Echobe's orders.
Echobe scanned the hangar and found it empty of life signs. With a two-fingered point motion towards the blast doors, soldiers separated into two groups. Makaashyya went with one group. Echobe and Bilebelch went with the other. The two Wookiees gave each other a fleeting look before they separated. Makaashyya activated her crimson lightsaber, and led the charge for the door. She thrust the saber forward and stabbed into the middle of the blast door.
Echobe's team went for the other door.
The roaring rancor already knew what to do, he ran at the door, and with his shoulder, he rammed into the blast door making it bulge at the point of impact, and opening a small way at the seam. The rancor reached into the crack with his clawed hands and began tearing the door from its moorings. With a final pull the rancor ripped the blast door open wide enough to allow himself and the Alliance soldiers in. The blaster fire began immediately from the defending Imperials on the other side of the door. The Alliance soldiers put their backs to the walls and started firing blindly inside. Bilebelch was stunned by the initial volley of fire as a few bolts found softer spots on the animal, but Bilebelch shook them off and squeezed into the door, his mouth agape, his roar drowning out the violent sound of blaster fire, and stunning the Imperial troops inside.
Makaashyya let the door melt around her lightsaber, and with shot from a blaster the door blew apart and sent molten metal inwards towards the waiting Imperial soldiers, severely burning many of them that stood too close. Makaashyya flung aside all bolts that came at them as she cleared the way for Alliance troops to enter and return fire. The blaster bolts quickly overwhelmed the lightsaber-wielding Wookiee and found their mark in Alliance soldiers. Imperial Stormtroopers funneled into the passageway in a torrent. The blaster bolts were like falling stars, scorching and scarring the walls, and killing Alliance soldiers. Makaashyya pushed forward, despite the projectiles threatening to overcome her, to get the Alliance soldiers past the door to allow them to take cover in the doorways that lined the hallway.
Echobe followed alongside Bilebelch firing blaster bolts from his old E-11 blaster as fast as it would repeat. Bilebelch was stung in the face by a few bolts, but they only served to further enrage the rancor. Alliance soldiers and Imperial troopers fired at each other in a blinding barrage, the whites of the walls glowed red and green with blaster bolts, and were quickly being scorched black. Hundreds upon hundreds of blaster bolts shot to and fro, from enemy to enemy, in violent dance until the stalemate broke with the death of an Alliance soldier, then an Imperial trooper, and another Imperial and another, and then another Alliance soldier.
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The TIE Interceptors danced around the slower B-wings, while the remaining A-wings followed up behind Interceptors. An X-wing exploded from enemy fire. Two Interceptors collided with one another after being hit by A-wing missiles. The remaining turrets of the Imperial prison lost their effectiveness trying to avoid firing upon their own ships. Then in the distance, more TIE fighters started to come into radar range. The remaining Alliance pilots formed into groups of two, trying to do away with the first squad of Interceptors, and readying to receive the incoming.
By groups of two, Alliance pilots flew on each other's wings, unleashing a barrage against their Imperial enemies. Another TIE succumbed to Alliance fire sending it flying into a turret of the prison and destroying both. An X-wing took out an Interceptor, flew through the fiery debris, and took out another. Each side fought to dominate the other, but the weak and unshielded TIE fighters were no match for the superior Alliance ships, and the Interceptors quickly dwindled in number. The battle was in Alliance's favor as Imperial ships blew apart the quicker.
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Bilebelch didn't stop his charge into Imperial fire that had begun to penetrate his flesh. His thick blood started to splatter the gray walls. The rancor let out a roar that echoed throughout both passageways, making the Imperial soldiers in both hesitate for one fatal instant. Alliance soldiers unleashed a barrage of fire and downed several distracted Imperials. Bilebelch grabbed a trooper in his massive hand and slammed the unfortunate Imperial against the wall. The white armor did nothing to protect the bones from shattering in his body, the life left him before he even hit the ground. Bilebelch reached for another, swinging his claws at the Imperial's midsection and tearing through the white armor like paper. Bilebelch was in blood frenzy, ignoring blaster bolts and shredding Imperial troopers to pieces. Alliance soldiers shot around the rancor knowing to stay out of the animal's way, but using him as cover. Echobe tried to draw the rancor back for fear of his safety as the amount of blood the rancor started to lose was beginning to worry him, but the rancor could not be stopped.
Makaashyya pushed past the door and Alliance soldiers poured in behind her closing the gap. Makaashyya cut the first Imperial in her way in half at the waist, the second one, she severed his arms from his body leaving him to flop helplessly in pain on the floor, an Alliance soldier finished him off with a blaster bolt to the head, but caught one to the chest himself and dropped dead. Makaashyya dealt with the Imperial that fired the shot by beheading him. She slowly walked on, swatting away blaster bolts and doing her best to protect those behind her. A turret then dropped out of the ceiling and pinned the Alliance to the walls. Makaashyya flung off the first few bolts, and then caught one in the leg. She called up the force as she stumbled back, and with great concentration, she ripped the turret from its moorings and sent the turret spinning, and spitting out sparks into the group of Imperials, forcing them draw back.
Another ceiling turret dropped out of the ceiling onto the rancor's head, further enraging the animal. He reached up with his mouth and bit it from its fixture. Just then, an Imperial shot an EMP beam at the rancor, knocking the creature to his knees for a few moments. Echobe leapt onto and from Bilebelch's knee, and jumped at the Imperial, bringing the Ryyk Blade down on his head, splitting the helmet in two. Then Echobe was violently slammed back by a blaster bolt that entered his shoulder, and knocking the breath from him.
Echobe coughed and gasped, trying to catch his breath, but it failed to come. Bilebelch shook his head and recovered, but not before a volley of Alliance fire took out several more Imperials, and then Bilebelch was back up and in the battle, running again into the fray. Echobe was dazed for a moment, but his breathing slowly turned to normal. He had dropped his blaster, but his Ryyk Blade was still in his hand, his mind was cloudy, but a few moments of blinking his eyes and trying to breath deeply, he pulled himself back up to his feet, grabbed his blaster, and went back into the fight.
Makaashyya was still trying to clear the way for Alliance soldiers. The Imperial's were quickly drawing back unable to penetrate the Wookiee's defenses, but keeping her in place. Alliance soldiers behind her were still dying, but not as quickly as Imperial troopers. She cut them down, or pushed them into each other or into the wall with the force, knocking them senseless. Alliance soldiers flanked her, shooting the ones she downed, and providing cover fire to suppress the Stormtroopers that seemed to fill the hallway.
An Alliance soldier and R2-L7 at Echobe's rear guard busied themselves trying to slice a computer near one of the doors to try to get a floor plan layout.
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The Alliance pilots thought that the battle had started to turn in their favor when the stars in the distance were suddenly blotted out. The Alliance squadron worked to disable the prison's remaining turrets after the destruction of the last of the TIE fighters. Then their radar revealed a triangular, larger than any fighter, and coming in from the distance behind them from where the TIE fighters had emerged. The gray monolith, hidden by Kashyyyk's shadow, was ominous, and every Alliance pilot knew what it was and they scrambled to get into some kind of defensible formation. The lead pilot radioed to Echobe's second in command.
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The radio, on Echobe's second in command's, belt buzzed loudly with an Alliance pilot's voice. The blaster fire, and Bilebelch's roaring, drowned out all noise, and it took several minutes for Echobe's second to hear the faint squawking on the radio. By then the Alliance pilots outside were in combat with the Star Destroyer.
"Sir!" yelled the Alliance soldier to Echobe. "Sir!" he repeated, and ran, with radio in hand, towards Echobe who was ducking behind a doorway in the endless hallway.
"Sir! Radio communication sir!"
Echobe grabbed the radio.
"Star Destroyer engaged, we will hold them off as long as possible, hurry up!" Screamed the radio. Echobe hand-signaled for the Alliance technician next to L7, who was slicing the computer, to speed up.
The soldier put his finger up.
"One second!"
The look on Echobe's face would have made everyone laugh if they all were not facing death.
Blaster fire raged about as Echobe then gave the Alliance soldier a more ferocious look. It took more than a second before the soldier ran to Echobe with a layout of the base on a datapad. Echobe snatched the datapad from the oddly calm Alliance soldier, then picked up his radio and contacted Makaashyya.
Makaashyya answered her radio after hearing Echobe trying to talk over the background of blaster fire, yelling, Bilebelch's roaring, and the cries of the dying.
"We have a layout. These passageways extend to a freight elevator. Down is the prisoner cells and laboratory, up is the command stations and bridge. Split your team up into two, I'll do the same; we will meet at the elevator. Teams two will merge and get the prisoners out. You and me will go to the control room and do what we can to disable this place and help outside, a Star Destroyer has shown up."
"I got it," said Makaashyya hurriedly and loudly, breathing heavily as she deflected blaster fire. Makaashyya split her team up into two uneven groups, quickly and breathlessly explaining the situation to her translator, and then he to everyone else. Most just shook their heads in exasperation, the shadow of defeat crept upon them when hearing about the Star Destroyer.
Echobe had his second in command explain the orders.
Imperial Stormtrooper bodies littered the hallway, as did Alliance to a smaller degree. Blood, Imperial and creature, smeared the walls from Bilebelch's ravenous and unrelenting attacks on unfortunate Imperials. They pushed forward with renewed vigor and desperation, knowing that their friends outside were dying and up against something totally unexpected and unprepared for.
In one big push to get to the elevator, both teams surged forward. Several more Imperials were killed. A few more Alliance soldiers fell as well. Makaashyya slashed at her enemies with calculated fury. Bilebelch crushed, slashed, and shattered Imperial bodies with all the ferocity from the most ferocious rancor one could ever hope to not cross paths with. They all fought as if they had nothing to lose. The Alliance soldiers fought along side their clawed, lightsaber, and sword-wielding comrades, decimating Imperials with abandon.
Echobe forced himself to ignore his distaste for killing.
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With the prison's defenses destroyed, the remaining Alliance squadron faced a far greater threat, but the Star Destroyer did not deploy the hundreds of TIE fighters the Alliance pilots knew were waiting within the belly of the beast. Either because the captain of the Star Destroyer was confused about the presence of Alliance pilots in the area, or confused about an unmarked, unregistered, and undoubtedly, Imperial station hanging lone on the opposite side of the blockade.
Alliance and Imperial hesitated, each waited for the other to make the first move. The Star Destroyer started to turn its flank in an offensive maneuver. The Alliance pilots took advantage of the prolonged hesitation on the part of the Imperial Star Destroyer, and formed into a star pattern to break at the huge, wedge-shaped target with all that they had left.
Seconds passed as both groups hung in space before the movement, like a moment trapped in the iciness of time and space waiting, for the other to blink. The Star Destroyer flinched, and started firing their weapons batteries at the Alliance. The Alliance pilots immediately went into action before the bolts reached them. They swarmed at the Star Destroyer from all angles in a star formation, battering the interdictor gravity-wells, the communications tower, the engines, and the shield generators all at once. The shields of the giant ship held, but lost power from the initial blast, and were unable recover to full strength in time to repel the second wave of fire. The Alliance pilots swarmed about the ship like hungry predators, trying to force the Star Destroyer to drop its shields for mere seconds to unleash support TIE fighters, and giving the Alliance their chance at attacking it unprotected, but it did not, and the Alliance continued to batter the Destroyer, dodging out of the way of any bolts that came near them. They seemed unstoppable.
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Echobe could see the end of the hall, and the elevator waiting to receive them. The Imperials were slowly being driven back. Their numbers had been depleted, and reinforcements stopped coming.
The Alliance all breathed a sigh of relief that the battle was starting to slow. They walked over and past the dead, kicking some out of their way. Echobe did his best to restrain the rancor. A massing of Stormtroopers gathered at the end of the hallway near the elevator for a final stand. They held their fire until the Alliance got closer, and then they released their fire, pinning Alliance against the walls once again. In both halls, Makaashyya and Bilebelch didn't relent. They led the charge into the line of Stormtroopers. Blaster bolts bounced harmlessly off of hide and lightsaber, and with the Alliance soldiers following behind, the walls of soldiers and troopers, in each hall, collided like opposing waves on an ocean.
Makaashyya swung, and severed a Stormtrooper diagonally. Bilebelch swung and sent a Stormtrooper flying into the wall with a sickening, wet and crunchy thud. Soldiers collided with troopers, and the firefight turned into a brutal hand-to-hand battle for victory. Rifle butts slammed into white helmets, fists connected with unprotected Alliance jaws, blades flashed and blood spilled. Bilebelch tore through the line of Stormtroopers and made it to the elevator, then turned around for another run.
Makaashyya cut down Imperial Stormtroopers like tall grass. They fell to her feet in gruesome heaps. The Alliance quickly turned the battle to their favor on the inside.
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Alliance pilots were still busy trying to force the Star Destroyer to lower shields, which had been significantly weakened at soft points from constant bombardment. Turbo laser cannons failed to find their targets, but opposing fire began to penetrate the shields protecting the Star Destroyer's thruster cowl. Then, in a panic, the shields lowered for a brief fatal moment, releasing support TIE fighters into the fray.
The Alliance had enough time for a strafing run on vital points of the Star Destroyer during the lapse in shielding before the barrage of TIE fighter return fire came in a curtain of green. Alliance blaster bolts went straight for their targets but missed, striking the unprotected Star Destroyer before it could re-raise shields. Explosions broke out along the surface of the giant. The Alliance pilots didn't stop their assault despite their dwindling numbers and raised shields. They used the incompetence of the Imperial fighters to strike at their own. The Alliance caught the Imperials up in a game of cat and mouse, staying close enough to the Star Destroyer to use their own fire against them, and close enough for the fire of the Star Destroyer to provide dangerous obstacles for TIE fighters. They hung on the Star Destroyer as close as they could, pecking at the growing wounds of the great ship.
One thruster caught fire and was immediately shut down. Fire from Alliance and accidental Imperial fire repeatedly hammered the communications array. A piece broke off and drifted into space almost colliding with an Alliance vessel.
The gravity-well interdictors quickly shredded under the fury of Alliance fire, the metal armor disintegrated, exposing the gravity core to space after a final blow of torpedoes, rendering the Star Destroyer's capability of creating its anti-hyperspace gravity field useless. The concussion of the gravity-well's collapse could be felt throughout the prison. TIE fighters exploded everywhere, disabled ones were pulled into the Star Destroyer's gravity, and others drifted into the larger prison.
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The floor of the prison shuddered. The entire complex creaked and swayed, metal plates making up the floor shivered in the moorings.
The hand-to-hand fighting had subsided by then, and only a few now remained of the once large Imperial resistance. Those still alive were bound and thrown aside and knocked unconscious. Makaashyya and Echobe separated their teams, sending two groups down towards the cells and laboratory to rescue the prisoners, the other two smaller groups up to the bridge.
The teams sent to rescue prisoners converged when the groups reached the lowest floor. Unlike the passage above, red lights flashed in alarm all over. The team quickly raced along to the end of the corridor in the opposite direction they came down the original hallway from, and to a blast door that separated them from the cells and laboratory. L7 rolled up to the door on command, and plugged into the computer and started to slice it.
Echobe followed Bilebelch off the elevator with his group and met up with Makaashyya and her team in the upper hallway from the elevator. They then backtracked in the opposite direction of the lower hallway they had just conquered. The halls were white and unstained. There was no resistance. Only red, flashing, warning lights greeted them. At the end of the hall was a door, unlike the blast door from below, just a standard door, and didn't seem to be locked. They took cover against the walls with Bilebelch standing just behind them in the middle of the hall. Echobe activate the door's control panel and it opened unimpeded and with no firing in response.
**********
The fight against the Star Destroyer was steadily falling into the hands of the Alliance. They hooted and hollered as explosion after explosion, and TIE fighter after TIE fighter, went up in a fiery ball. They fought like they had nothing to lose, and with the calculation and determination that made them feel invincible. Alliance pilots died, but the living continued to batter the Imperials with relentlessness. They smelled blood, and were going to feast on the remains of the Star Destroyer.
**********
On the lower floor, the beeped and whistled excitedly. The door security sliced, and it lifted slowly into its housing revealing the room, and the stench behind it. Like the same scene of the other two prisons, this one was just on a much larger scale. The bodies were everywhere. When the doors opened, the Imperial doctors and scientists cowered in the corner, terrified for their lives. The Alliance soldiers quickly secured the area, and bound the scientist's wrists. It took a few moments for the uninitiated Alliance soldiers to realize what they were surrounded by. The bodies stared out at them with empty eyes, as if pleading for release from their misery. Patients strapped to tables grasped at the horrified Alliance soldiers with what limbs they had left as their robotic limbs squirmed and flopped about of their own volition, like they were being eaten alive, assimilated by a mechanical parasite. Several Alliance soldiers got sick. The others couldn't help but cover their mouths to stop themselves from puking, as their rifles dangled limp and useless in their hands.
L7's panicked beeping, whirring, and whistling helped bring them back into focus, and they then started gathering up the survivors. Screams of pain, and relief, filled the laboratory as the prisoners realized they were being released. The Alliance team gathered up survivors and the dead not wanting to leave anyone behind. The squad leader contacted Echobe, informing him of the situation, and they began transporting the victims. An Alliance soldier hotwired a repulsor-lift freight mover sitting in a corner to transport the victims who were far too numerous to be taken with the few hands the Alliance had left. The soldier hovered the repulsor-lift mover just outside the door and they all started loading it up with prisoners.
The scene was chaos.
Victims that had been totally mutilated by experimentation started going into heart failure, convulsions, and seizures with the move. Alliance soldiers carried stretchers as a medic, sitting on his knees atop the stretched, tried to resuscitate them. Entire life support systems had to be loaded onto the mover. The bacta tanks were busted open and the dead were collected. The survivors, those that could walk on their own, screamed with grief and horror at what they saw, but they held together and did their best to help their Alliance rescuers to gather up victims and help keep them alive and calm. Even those that could barely stand on their own tried to help.
When they had loaded everyone, and regrettably stacked up the dead like wood on the rear of the freight mover, they started to slowly make their way out. The mover, too full to hold the soldiers and a few mobile survivors, ran along side. The Alliance had blasters drawn and ready to attack anyone who got in their way. They made their way to the freight elevator and back to the original hallway, and then back down the hall towards the hangar, gathering the Alliance dead, and the unconscious Imperials along the way. A few Stormtroopers who were late to the fight had backtracked and started taking shots at them, killing a victim, and wounding a soldier, but were quickly put down by opposing fire.
L7 was first onto the Starscream. The droid rolled straight into the cockpit to power up the ship. The freight mover followed up shortly after and hovered up slowly towards the Starscream's lowered platform. A few alliance soldiers took cover positions to protect the move, while the others, victim and soldier alike, started getting the multitudes of immobile survivors onto the Starscream, and connecting those with life support systems to the ships internal power. The bodies of the dead, prisoners and Alliance soldiers, were moved to the refrigeration compartments loading them to full.
The Starscream quickly filled up with the bodies of the living and the dead, leaving little room for the Alliance soldiers and rancor yet to return despite the losses they had already sustained. The ship started to smell of bacta, blood, and sweaty desperation. Several victims died during the transfer, soldiers and survivors did their best to revive them, most attempts failed. The leader of the squad updated Echobe of the situation but received no reply. Cover positions were taken around the Starscream, and they waited for Echobe, Makaashyya, and the rest of the team to arrive.
**********
The Alliance pilots continued to whittle at the failing Star Destroyer, but had yet to succumb. It fired in a wild panic trying to fend off the hungry ships that threatened to kill it. TIE fighter numbers dwindled, had broken formation, and were scattered and confused at what to do to stop the hemorrhaging Star Destroyer. The shield generator began to fail, its support structure collapsed, several thrusters erupted, and sections of the Star Destroyer's hull had been breached and were bleeding its contents into space. Electricity arched through the hull of the ship as main power conduits broke.
**********
The doors blocking Echobe and Makaashyya's team opened lazily, revealing the huge, rectangular, transparisteel windows lining the upper deck of the command bridge that showed the raging battle outside. They could see the Star Destroyer failing and venting plumes of fire into space, and the remaining Alliance pilots struggling to stay alive, or at least bring the Imperial ship down with them.
The command bridge opened up like an auditorium, a railing separated the upper deck that was skirted by windows, below that was the main control deck with computer terminals and empty seats before them. One lone Imperial officer stood before the rows of computers, his hands behind his back, and looking up at the battle outside. Next to him stood a tall droid-like thing facing away from them. It was obviously the finished product one of the many experiments that had been conducted within the prison. It stood next to the Imperial, straight, and as motionless as a plank. Most of its actual body was gone, but some pieces of raw pink flesh could be seen in between the patches of thin and mangled fur that still remained, in between that could be seen exposed pieces of robotic machinery.
Echobe held Bilebelch back, calling to the rancor's mind to subdue him. The rancor, scorched, bleeding, and angry, reluctantly obeyed, but growled fiercely, and ready to kill. The Alliance soldiers secured the area and aimed their blasters at the Imperial, and the thing, and waited for Echobe's orders. Echobe and Makaashyya slowly approached the Imperial. The Imperial watched the battle a few more seconds, ignoring those behind him. Just before he turned to face the Alliance invaders, Makaashyya reeled with a stabbing pain in her mind. Her heart skipped beats, and felt as if it was being crushed within her. Her breath stopped in her throat like an invisible enemy was trying to strangle her.
Echobe went to her side and grabbed her before she collapsed.
The Imperial turned to face them.
Makaashyya's mind raced as she immediately recognized the Imperial officer. The images, much like the nightmares she used to have before Echobe saved her, came to her mind in a flood. Standing there before them was the Imperial officer from Dathomir. The one who commanded the construction of the prison, the one who ordered the killing of so many Wookiees and the sundering of Wookiee families, forcing them to labor, and destroying their lives and freedom. The one who had ordered the Wookiee slaves to line up so many times to punish them, the one whom Syymbacca almost killed to protect his sister. He stood before them without the slightest hint of pity, compassion, or guilt, full of self-righteousness.
The Imperial spoke hushed words to the thing standing next to him, and then it turned in a clunky, robotic movement to face them. And turn did the remains of Makaashyya's brother. The one who had saved her from the fate that he now suffered, that she did not wait to witness, she instead ran into the jungle of Dathomir to escape the horror of seeing her brother dead. But there Syymbacca stood, empty eyed, and dead. His robotic limbs whirred impulsively. He registered no recognition of Makaashyya. He only stared forward in zombie-like unconsciousness.
Makaashyya's mind was aflame.
Her thoughts came unbidden into Echobe's mind, and he clearly saw and felt the pain that had driven Makaashyya to the darkside, and that had almost driven her mad.
Makaashyya's eyes burned with the darkside as when Echobe saw them when they fought outside the cave hideout on Tatooine. He stepped back, the Alliance soldiers mimicked him, unsure of what to do, but kept their blasters trained on the Imperial, and the abomination before them, waiting for one or the other to make the first fatal move.
"I am amazed you remember me, Makaashyya."
She was stunned when she heard the Imperial speak her name.
"Yes. Your brother told me much during our conversations. Our relationship has been quite educational. He was the first, the first success. His memory intact, totally under my control, the cognitive abilities remain, but his drive is empty, his individuality is mine, he is little more than a computer emulation of your brother without all of the bothersome emotions. He spoke much about you during his recovery, though fragmented from the damage done to his brain, but still useful."
The healed wound caused by the blaster bolt that ended his life was in plain view.
"And I see that you have brought my pet with you." The Imperial looked to Echobe. "Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get one of those things? You have caused me a great deal of frustration and credits."
Bilebelch growled, death was on his mind, but Echobe kept the rancor in check, and was horrified by the human standing before them, and horrified to realize that if anyone deserved to die the Imperial before them did.
Makaashyya had trouble hearing the Imperial speak. The rage and sorrow burned her to her soul. The pain so loud it nearly drowned out all else, sight, sound, and thought. She felt as if she were slipping away. She couldn't take her eyes off of her brother, or what once was her brother. She heard the darkside calling to her. All at once the years of nightmares came back to corrupt her.
**********
The Star Destroyer keeled on its right side, and all but one of its engines had erupted in explosion. An explosion within had severed the one remaining thruster's controls from the bridge, and it burned erratically, but steadily, and forced the giant into a spin towards the gravity of the largest, nearest object.
The Alliance pilots didn't stop battering open wounds. The TIE fighters had all but been destroyed. Some tried to scramble for the blockade, but their radio signals were jammed and with the Alliance pilots in pursuit there was no escape.
**********
The squadron leader outside contacted Echobe, breathing heavily.
"Sir, the Star Destroyer has been disabled, but it is out of control and heading straight for the station, you must get out, you must evacuate, do you read, over?"
Static. The transmission garbled.
Echobe picked up the radio and whispered into it, trying to tell the Alliance pilots to get clear.
The Imperial next to what was Makaashyya's brother, continued to talk, his hands still behind his back.
"I have been looking forward to our meeting, Makaashyya, though under different circumstances. You were meant to be one of the experiments if not for your Dathomir witches, and your rebel friends. You and your sibling would have made for a unique experiment, ones that had failed to this point."
Echobe flinched.
He remembered his parents drifting in the foul bacta, he remembered reading the details of their torture, the so-called experiments. Echobe was disgusted over the motivation of it all, and he found it hard to believe that anyone could be capable of such things, but the evidence stood before him in defiance of Echobe's judgment. His parents were mutilated and tortured by the very concepts thought up by the human standing before him. Bilebelch was just another byproduct of the same evil, another casualty of the war. But despite it all, Echobe couldn't muster the rage and anger to kill the Imperial. That anger, and rage, and hate, instead manifested in the once darkside corrupted Wookiee beside him.
"So now I assume you wish to arrest me, take me back to your headquarters, perhaps trial me and execute me," said the Imperial with the accumulated arrogance of all the Imperial conspirators they had ever encountered. "You will have to destroy my experiment first. He is completely subservient to me, though I think you will find that he has retained his memory of you, but the emotion we have successfully repressed. His mind had been hardwired to do whatever I wish."
The Imperial gestured towards Makaashyya in a commanding way. Syymbacca's footfalls were heavy and metallic. His robotic arms were remorseless, clamping appendages. He reached out to give Makaashyya her death. Syymbacca's face, what was left of it, smiled. His eyes were not empty anymore, Makaashyya saw recognition in them, or so she hoped.
"Dear sister," spoke Syymbacca, his voice as well had been altered. A mechanical, shadowy, reflection of what it once was and the comfort it once gave her. "It has been such a long time since you ran away from me, dear sister."
The blinding tears welled up in Makaashyya's eyes. The lightsaber hung limp and useless from her hand. Her legs, her lip, her body trembled as her ruined Wookiee brother shambled towards her
"I always wondered why you left me there in the mud, sister. After all the times I helped you, and you just run away like that from me," Syymbacca accused, but without bitterness, without sympathy, just as a computer was programmed to say it. Makaashyya shook her head in disbelief.
"No, you don't mean that. I didn't want to leave you there, I was so scared." Makaashyya fell to her knees.
Echobe and Bilebelch took a step forward unsure of what to do. Bilebelch wanted blood, and to the Wookiee's shame, he wanted it as well.
"I was so scared," she repeated to her self more than to Syymbacca. "How could I have known? I couldn't stay there after what had happened to you, I had to get away."
"And you did get away," said Syymbacca. His robotic voice reverberating with programmed mockery, almost just like an Imperial, in their arrogance and distain for the Wookiees, would say it. He spat the words. "You have been quite busy gathering more for the experiments. Almost in the same way you offered me up to them, dear sister." Makaashyya cried into her hands. She had dropped the lightsaber. She was collapsing in on herself. Echobe could feel her mind reeling, but also felt the warning to stay back. Echobe also held the bloodied Bilebelch back, which otherwise would not have hesitated to rip the Imperial's, and Syymbacca's head from their bodies without a second thought.
"So now after all these years we are together again, sister. If only our family were here," lamented Syymbacca with coldness. "Come to me now, sister. Let me hold you and wipe your tears away, and give you the solace you deserve." The words were devoid of care, but instead with programmed hatred, of the coldness of chemical and mechanical alterations that had been done to the Wookiee. His lethal metal appendages clamped threateningly, ringing like a bell.
Makaashyya, with eyes full of tears, looked up to Syymbacca who now stood over her. Echobe raised his blaster, as did his soldiers behind him, Bilebelch crouched to prepare to lunge.
"It's time to go home now dear sister," said Syymbacca.
He raised his robotic arm towards her, and in a split second before Echobe could react, before his soldiers or Bilebelch could react, but not before Makaashyya, a blaster transformed out of Syymbacca's arm. Makaashyya knew what was coming. She called her lightsaber to her hand quicker than thought, and cut off Syymbacca's arm then drove the burning blade up into her brother's midsection, and across the chest, severing the connections from his spine to his half-flesh half-robotic body. Syymbacca staggered to the floor and collapsed. Before he even hit the ground, before anyone had even realized what Makaashyya had just done, she lunged at the Imperial who also tried to draw a blaster on her.
The Imperial's legs, arms, and head, were severed before the pain could even register to his brain. His life left him before the blood even touched the metal floor. Makaashyya stood over the Imperial's body as he stared up at her with soulless eyes, the lightsaber comfortingly hummed in her hand. She looked to Echobe who looked back at her with questioning, care-filled eyes, but he said nothing. He was unsure of what to do for her, unsure if there was anything he could do. He could still feel the pain within her burning as bright as a star, and within that, the darkside waited.
Echobe looked over his shoulder and ordered the Alliance soldiers out, and they were all too glad to leave. Bilebelch stayed against Echobe's wishes, but Echobe scolded the rancor and forced him to follow the others. The rancor walked backwards slowly, inched his way out, his feelings hurt. He then reluctantly turned and followed the Alliance soldiers who were already heading towards the elevator. Bilebelch constantly looked back over his shoulder as he walked away.
The Star Destroyer steadily grew larger in the windows as it careened helplessly towards the prison. Explosions tore through the hull of the once grand ship. The Alliance pilots could also been seen buzzing around it, unable to do anything but yell warnings into their radios. Echobe paid the chatter no attention.
Makaashyya went to Syymbacca in almost the same dazed shamble as he went to her. He was still alive, or rather he merely functioned, Makaashyya couldn't tell which one was true. She knelt at the body of her brother. His limbs were useless. The gaping, scorched hole in his mid-section stunk of burnt flesh and molten metal. His robotic assembly pulsed and convulsed with residual electricity, but with no guiding operation. She cradled him in her arms and held his head to her chest and stroked his face. The fur on her gentle face was streaked with tears. She set the lightsaber on the floor beside her. She touched her lips to Syymbacca's forehead to comfort him, as he had done so many times for her before.
Echobe's radio screamed in near panic, but he still ignored it.
"We have to go, Makaashyya. This place is going to be destroyed, bring him with us, but we must go now," Echobe pled, expecting her to pick up Syymbacca and follow him. But Makaashyya looked up to Echobe with weary, reddish-orange eyes. Syymbacca stared empty-eyed at Echobe. An uneasy and unsettling feeling washed over Echobe, making his heart flip inside his chest, his nerves became hyper-sensitive, his stomach churned. Echobe started walking towards her, but Makaashyya shook her head in refusal. The thoughts from her mind were confusing, but he felt something slipping away, the strange apparition he felt earlier manifest.
"You must go," she said under her breath as she shook her head. It's over."
Echobe paid no attention to the desperate cries of his radio, or to Makaashyya's demand, he went to her. Makaashyya continued to shake her head and gave Echobe a look that stopped him in his tracks. In disbelief, in denial, Echobe shook his head in refusal.
"I'm sorry," she said, and raised her hand. The next thing Echobe knew he was being thrown backwards with unrestrained force. Makaashyya's image quickly shrunk in the distance. The blow pushed him through the air and sent him sailing out of the control room and far past the door. Echobe skidded on the ground, hard, but recovered quickly and ran back towards the room. The doors began to shut, and the last Echobe saw inside the control room was the tear-streaked face of Makaashyya holding her brother like an infant, as Syymbacca had done for her in the past. Then the doors closed with finality, the control panel exploded into a shower of sparks. Echobe hit the door with his shoulder and pounded on it with his powerful fists, but it didn't budge. He yelled for Makaashyya, he pleaded with her to come out, he begged, he hammered the door, but there was no answer.
Echobe lowered his head.
"No, don't do this!" he yelled at the door, unable to accept that he was powerless.
The roar of Bilebelch brought Echobe back to reality. The rancor was waiting at the end of the hall near the elevator, stomping his feet impatiently, waiting for him to come along. Echobe hesitated. eddDDSDSDF He nearly called Bilebelch to him to tear the door open, but he knew time was almost up for them. He scratched at the door with his claws, gouging the door in one final act of defiance, and then he ran towards Bilebelch half-heartedly, looking back, hoping to see Makaashyya to change her mind and emerge from the sealed doors, but he knew she had made her decision.
Echobe then ran as fast as he could to Bilebelch and the waiting elevator. The radio still screamed with the voices of Alliance soldiers and pilots, yelling for Echobe to hurry up. When Echobe reached Bilebelch, the rancor ran along side of him, and they both got onto the elevator. By that time the station was beginning to tremble, but the elevator was unaffected and continued its descent to the hallway leading back to the hanger.
It stopped at its final destination, and rancor and Wookiee ran off the elevator and down the hall, beyond the bodies of the dead Imperials, towards the waiting Starscream and the Alliance soldiers who were yelling and waving for the Wookiee and rancor as they held defensive positions around the ship. The Star Destroyer consumed the view of space from the destroyed hangar doors. Pieces of debris had broken off from the Star Destroyer and started to penetrate the emergency force field that sheltered the hangar from space.
Echobe ran in first and headed straight for the cockpit, then Bilebelch crammed himself inside, then the Alliance soldiers, pushing the rancor from behind to pile in, and the platform closed as the last soldier entered. The Starscream was packed with people and rancor. The Star Destroyer was just outside the hangar, merely meters from impact. Echobe lifted the ship from the deck, spun around, and blasted off and out into space, scraping the hull against the underside of the Star Destroyer as it impacted with the hangar opening. One moment, the hangar crumpled, the next moment, the hangar no longer existed. Echobe, Bilebelch, and the Alliance, sped off into space, and the remaining Alliance ships followed as Echobe quickly plotted a hyperspace route, as did the rest of the squadron.
**********
Makaashyya stared at the sealed doors for many moments after forcing Echobe out, regretting that it was the last time she would see him. She missed him the second the doors closed. She desired for the future they may have had. She wished all things could have been different. She wished that they could have met, as they should have, in peace, on Kashyyyk, no war, no force, just them. She stroked Syymbacca's head. His body twitched, and his breathing slowed to almost nothing. She could sense thought in his mind and she basked in it while cradling him. Giving her brother one last comfort as his last thought gave to her. Then he stopped breathing.
She then thought of Echobe as she watched the Star Destroyer follow its course of destruction towards the prison in unstoppable collision. She didn't even try to stop the inevitable with her considerable power in the force. She just smiled, and called out to Echobe, hoping he would hear her, that she would hear him one final time. She felt his mind racing, and filled with many of the same thoughts, regrets, and desires, as her own, but for one great difference. She saw the other side of the force clearly for the first time. For that shining moment it drowned out the darkside within her. She basked in its warmth, and she listened to it calling her name on the wind. She didn't make an effort to stop her tears, no longer of sorrow, or of horror, or anger, or pain, but of happiness, and regret, and realization.
She kissed her brother's forehead and held his body. The emerald glow of Kashyyyk came into view in the huge transparisteel windows of the bridge just before Star Destroyer blotted it out and impacted, pushing the station askew, hiding the planet from her again. Makaashyya savored the memory of Kashyyyk and of her home that she had been banished from. That last vision gave her peace. The colors of Kashyyyk in green, blue, white, and all of the variations contained within, stood out as never before, opening its arms wide to receive its two long lost children.
"Look, brother," Makaashyya said, her eyes wide and tear-blurred, and a smile on her face. "We're going home."
The Stardestroyer settled deep into the Imperial prison. A few brief moments passed as reactors failed, fires caught, hull integrity collapsed.
Echobe heard Makaashyya's mind call out to him with love, regret, but also satisfaction. Her minds echoed into his.
I've chosen my destiny. I am safe now. Goodbye, dear Echobe, she said with all the love that she could send to him across the growing distance between them. Then she was gone.
Both ship and station exploded, vaporizing both, turning the once grand structures to dust. The shockwave traveled in all directions, and the vapor-like debris entered Kashyyyk's atmosphere, mingled with the planet as it landed or burned up. Some became locked into Kashyyyk's orbit.
Echobe looked back one last time. Makaashyya's voice faded as the explosion spread out in all directions and quickly cleared. With eyes full of tears, he took the Starscream into hyperspace for Mon calamari. His Alliance soldiers followed.