Note: Rearranged the last few chapters into chronological order
"Brand," came the call over the comms, "We have incomming, multiple vectors."
"Stay with me Slammer," he responded calmly as he brought his fighter around to join the other members of Bravo flight on CAP, "What do we have?"
"Corvette and a half dozen TIEs."
"Lance, Thorn," he ordered, "Form up."
The dark paneling of their new fighters gave him a grin.
Their alliance with part of the Geonosians had paid fruit in the form of some serious upgrades to their fighter compiment, taking the ETA-2 design to an entirely new level.
"Twilight," he stated, "We have incomming traitors, request ARC support to deal with their cap ship."
"Are you sure you can deal with the fighters without help?" Rex's voice came through clearly.
"Four on six," Brand stated, "They'd have to be pretty lucky to keep up in those flying caskets of theirs."
"Understood, deploying ARC's to deal with the corvette."
"Roger that," he grinned, "Bravo, lock S-foils into attack positions and accelerate to attack speed."
"Understood bossman," Thorn responded as the wings of the four fighter extended.
"We do this the easy way, pare them down with missiles, then we go guns."
"Let's show these bastards why they can't match us!" Lance howled.
"Cut the chatter Lance," he ordered, "We can have that later without letting the traitors get close."
He glanced over his shoulder at the silver and black dome of his astromech, "You ready buddy?"
A whistle in response as he brought his targeting computer online and armed a pair of concussion missiles while bringing them up to dual fire mode.
"Bravo lead," he stated with a grin, "Locked on the closest bandit."
The other three echoed his chime as the first flashes of turbolaser fire from the twilight flashed through the stars while the droid chimed in that the heavy support was launching from the underbelly.
"Bravo flight," he ordered, "Unleash hell."
Eight iridescent streams of flame burst into existance as the concussion missiles rocketed through the void at the enemy in a flash they could barely track.
"Switch to cannons and clear the survivors."
"Roger."
The nearest TIE took a missile straight in the cockpit window and the warhead jammed in, its thrusters sending the fighter into an erratic path as its systemsattempted to compensate for the dud weapon only to have its right panel slam into its twin ripping the fragile craft to pieces in a blast of debris and flared fuel before burning out just as quickly, a momentary star in the sky.
Another broke, trying to evade the weapons homing in like firaxin sharks after a bleeding fish, only managing to move enough to be hit dead on in the side.
One managed to make it around and make a run for it by pulling behind another, letting that fighter take the missiles intended for it as well as the ones aimed there, vaporizing plasteel blossomed in its place before Lance's first shots severed one of the panels and sent it out of control.
"Split by pairs," Brand ordered in an instant, "I've got the one on the left."
Affirmatives flashed from the other three as they broke, each passing cleanly through the gaps in the sheets of cover fire the star destroyer gave.
"Bossman," Slammer stated, "I've got green."
"Take the shot," he responded in a flash while flaring vertical to let his wingman take the lead and fire burning streams of energy that cut through the enemy fighter as easily as a lightsaber through tinnies.
"Good," a grin under the helmet as his eyes flashed across the horizon to track the remaining TIE and his sqadmates in pursuit only to catch it heading right towards his partner, "Slammer, hit the deck."
Bursts and flashes as the shields flickered.
"Well, the bugs do good work," Slammer chuckled, "In the 2's I'd have been droid bait."
Lance and Thorn split, one under and one over to pass Slammer and converge their fire on the last one, shots ripping it apart in the mixed streams of energy bursts.
"Alright boys," Brand ordered, "Now move to cover the ARC's, they've got a big boy to down, then we go home."
"Understood."