The next few hours after the speech were a rush of preparations. Ahsoka was busy refueling and doing quick maintenance work on the Riptide, while Winter and Luke packed. Between clothes, gear, and supplies, the process took about two hours.

When they were finished, Breha met them in the hangar. She carried a small satchel, though both Luke and Winter knew they couldn't persuade her to come. Alderaan needed a leader. Luke wasn't that leader, and Breha was. The Empire couldn't touch her without risking a true planetary revolt.

Their mother set the satchel down, and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "I know this is difficult, but I have the greatest of faith in both of you. Winter?"

The white-haired girl tilted her head to one side. "Yes, Mother?"

"Keep your brother safe." She smiled. "He's too fool-hardy for his own good."

Luke made a gasp of mock-astonishment. "Mother, I'm right here."

"My point exactly, Luke." She said, and squeezed his shoulder. "You're a natural leader, but you are a piece of iron that still needs to be formed. Restraint and temperance are skills that any leader needs to know."

She took her hands off of them, and she lifted the satchel. "While most of our assets have been frozen by the Empire, we do have some things even the Imperial Security Bureau isn't entirely aware of. Half a million credits in untraceable credsticks, most importantly."

Winter frowned as she accepted the bag. "Even I didn't know we had that much hidden away from the Imperials."

She smiled. "You would be surprised what a parent can hide from a daughter, even one with a holographic memory."

Winter broke a rare smile, and she slung the satchel over her shoulder. "We'll be careful." She promised. "And we will be back."

Breha nodded. "May the Force be with you both."

"Whatever you do, Mom, stay safe." Luke said.

Ahsoka called down from the ramp. "Sorry to break up the family moment, but I've just picked up incoming ships. Looks like a landing craft and escorts."

"Go," Breha said. "I promise I'll contact you when I can find a way to securely do it."

Luke and Winter embraced their mother, and Luke had a sinking suspicion that it would be a long time before they embraced again. They boarded the Riptide, where Ahsoka handed each of them a headset.

"We should expect the Imps won't want us to leave. Winter, Luke, remember your weapons training? Get into the turrets. I'll be calling out targets, and I'll need you two to hold them off before we can escape atmosphere and even try to jump to lightspeed."

"Where are we going?" Winter asked.

Ahsoka shook her head. "Just know I'm taking you somewhere safe." She said, and gestured to the center of the ship, where the ladder to the dorsal and ventral turrets was stationed. "Just keep talking and keep shooting." She said.

Luke and Winter made a quick rush to the turret ladder. Luke went first, scaling up to the dorsal turret, while Winter went down onto the belly turret.

As the ship's engines started up, Luke checked his readouts. The cannon's energy banks were fully charged, routed right from the main core of the ship. He adjusted his headset, which put a small Heads-Up Display in the corner of his eye. It displayed the scopes for the turret's field of fire, and also any relevant tactical data Ahsoka would feed him.

The ship started to lift off the hangar bay, and flew out from the mountain estate into the twilight sky. The sky was a beautiful orange, something that was lost in Luke in the depression of the moment. Then he saw the fighters.

An Imperial Sentinel-class landing craft, a bulkier version of the Lambda shuttles, was at the back of the pack. It was escorted by two flights of the standard TIE/LN Fighter, unshielded craft that relied on agility and speed to do their work.

"Luke, Winter, time for callsigns. We don't need the Empire suspecting who's on board." Ahsoka's voice filtered through the headset. "Luke, Lever. Winter, Targeter."

"What about you?" Luke asked.

"Fulcrum," Ahsoka said immediately. "Eyes up! We've got fighters incoming, two clicks."

Luke remembered his most basic atmospheric combat training. Outside of about a kilometer, the laser cannons on a TIE Fighter wouldn't be much use. The Riptide's quad laser turrets packed a bigger punch, but only had a smaller incremental range. "I see them. Eight TIEs and a lander." He reported back.

"Good, good." Ahsoka said. "Keep talking, kids. Communication is vital. Lever, once they get to one-point-five clicks, start firing into the TIE flights. Scatter them so they can't focus their firepower on strafing runs."

"Copy, Fulcrum." Luke studied the closing fighters. Both flights of four ships were arranged in a diamond formation, with the lead at the fore, two ships in the middle, and one aft. He brought up the leader for the left flights and he started to pepper the air with scarlet laser bolts. The satisfying crack of the laser cannon pounded in his ears, the rumble of the atmosphere scattering his shots before he could settle the cannon.

None of the bolts hit, but the left flight scattered. Luke tapped the side of the cannon, swiveling it a few degrees to the right before depressing the trigger again. Another spattering of red bolts shot out. The right flight's leader broke, and the right group scattered only to reform a few seconds later.

Then all hell broke loose.

The left flight scattered, barreling down for the belly of the ship. "Targeter, one of the flights is going for the underside. Incoming!"

Green lances of energy came from the first flight, splashing across the shields of the Riptide. The ship shook, but the shields held. Luke started to pour bolts back at the tightly-formed group. Whoever was leading that group certainly had their act together. He tried acquiring a lock on any of the fighters, but the preternaturally quick TIEs juked, moving as one and veering away to circle around for another run.

"Sithspit!"

"Keep it cool, Lever." Ahsoka shot back. "Let it come to you."

"That flight that hit the deck's coming up for a run." More shots rocked the nimble Riptide, but Winter's shots brought better results. "One down, Fulcrum!"

"Good work, good work, Targeter." Ahsoka said. The ship broke to starboard, swinging it out of range of the Sentinel's forward guns, then started to climb. "Lever, we've got that first flight coming in from aft."

Luke swung the turret back to look right at the incoming TIEs. The scream of their engines filled his ears as they grew closer and closer. "I've got them."

"Hold your fire until they're at 200 meters. TIEs have tiny profiles, and they're an easier shot from the side if you can get them."

"Copy, Fulcrum." Luke kept his finger off the trigger, watching as the flight of TIEs streaked closer.

Green laser bolts slammed into the Riptide, its large surface area from the top providing an easy target. The Riptide rocked on each shot, and Luke knew that the shields wouldn't hold much longer.

Luke waited until he could hear the screech of the twin ion engines draw closer. He saw the glare of the transaristeel of the cockpits, and checked his figures. 200 meters and closing.

He pulled on the trigger, starting at the left-most fighter. The spattering of scarlet bolts slammed into the TIE, catching it on one of the solar panels. It spun down away from its wing mates, dropping like a rock.

Luke didn't think on it for long. He swung the turret as the TIEs shot past him, catching two more as they flew past. One exploded in a fiery ball of plasma while another careened down to the surface. "Three down, Fulcrum."

"Targeter here. My group is veering off. It looks like we've scared them off."

Ahsoka let a little sigh escape her. "Good. We'll break atmosphere in two minutes. Keep your eyes open for more fighters."

They didn't have any more disturbances until they broke atmosphere. The next thing Luke saw on his sensors that wasn't local traffic, he reported. "I see two ships. Ten clicks out. Assault gunboats, they look like."

Ahsoka's voice came a minute later. "They're the new StarWing craft. They don't have the speed to take us on before we head off to lightspeed. Lever, get down into the cockpit. Targeter, check on the engine room. I want to make sure there wasn't any damage from that attack. Our shields didn't hold everything."

Luke took off the headset, setting it on the rest near the turret. He descended the ladder, then ran up to the cockpit. He slid back into the co-pilot's chair, and he looked over to Ahsoka.

She glanced back at him for a moment. "You did good work up there. Both of you. Now, time to get to work on astrogation." She gestured to the navicomputer. "I need you to make the first of three jumps that we'll have to do. The first is a system called Doldrums. The coordinates should be in the history of the computer."

Luke pulled it up. "Doldrums?"

"Dead star in the system. It's useless and worthless, but there's enough background radiation in the system it'll shake off most pursuers."

Luke started to calculate the jump to lightspeed. AS he did though, he watched the StarWing's distance close, rapidly. "Ahsoka…"

"Keep calm, Luke, the StarWings aren't in range. Except for their concussion missiles." She added that last part as an afterthought. "Don't worry about it."

He wasn't done when the missile alert started beeping. "Sithspit!" Ahsoka started to juke the ship. Both of them knew that the Riptide was too big a target to lose the lock. Ahsoka just needed to keep it away long enough to let Luke finish.

That wasn't lost on Luke as he tried to finish the calculations. He watched as the navicomputer rerouted their jump around a nebula, then watched as it flashed to a blue 'route locked' screen.

"We're in!"

Ahsoka leaned over to engage the hyperdrive as the first missile crashed into the hull of the ship. She punched the ignition for the hyperdrive, and the stars streaked by them as they made the jump to lightspeed. The blue whirlpool of hyperspace floated by them, and Ahsoka turned away from the chair. "That wasn't good. Let's check on the damage."

The two of them walked back to the aft of the ship, where Winter had a datapadd and toolkit out. "That missile got us good. Direct hit on the port fuselage. Between that and the TIEs, I don't think we've got enough juice to hit the Outer Rim without going along some of the major trade routes."

Ahsoka sighed. "We'll drop out in Doldrums, and we'll do some repairs there. I don't think we can reach the Fortressa in our current state." She cradled her jaw with her hand. "We've got a few days until we reach Doldrums. Just buckled down, do what repairs we need. I'll think of something." She promised.

Luke only hoped that the Riptide would hold together until then.