Present, interrogation room aboard the Mon Cal cruiser Home One, Bilbringi Shipyards

"Do you still wear that buckle?"

I reached down and detached the buckle from my waist and put it on the table between us, Deanna looked at it for a moment before a smile played across her face.

"I envy you, in the middle of all that killing you found someone you cared for and who cared for you in turn."

"Am I right in assuming you lost your lover on Alderaan?"

She tensed, but nodded eventually, "he was on planet visiting family while I was off planet with friends after graduation. We'd promised to see each other as soon as I got back, then the news came that the entire planet and everyone on it had been destroyed by the Rebellion."

"Did you believe it?"

"Not at first, I couldn't see how anything, or anyone for that matter, could destroy an entire planet. Then I went back, and saw the asteroid field that used to be my home, at first I hated the Rebellion, but over time I began to piece together the truth, until just after Hoth I finally had everything I needed to prove who had really been behind it. I joined the Rebellion shortly afterwards."

I nodded, there was nothing I had experienced that could compare with the loss she suffered; I returned the buckle to my belt as she took a moment more in her memories. My throat had gotten dry again, so I took the break to down the water while waiting for her to come back to the present.

When she finally did, there was a renewed energy on her face. "So, what happened then?"

"We made the jump separate of the Knight and caught the Rebel Fleet in the middle of mass confusion as they tried to reorganize after breaking off their initial attack run…."

Approximately five years earlier, Endor orbit above the Sanctuary Moon

Garin's defender dropped back into realspace almost instantly, the jump hadn't even been a single light-year. He found himself staring at a surprising sight, a mass of Rebel warships scrambling in all directions to avoid collision with each other and the shield guarding the Death Star. Now they had a third problem, an Imperial fleet in their escape vector.

"Holy space," Toth's said, "that's a lot of ships."

There were murmurs of agreement from other members of Hades, Garin hadn't realized that the Rebellion had enough large warships but there they were, he counted half a dozen of the large Mon Cals, and several smaller model Calamaris as well. Then there were dozens of other warships, corvettes, gunships, and frigates. The Mon Cals were the biggest warships in attendance, though he did spy a few ships which could have been other cruiser types, or carriers, he wasn't sure which.

"All fighters," Admiral Piett commanded over the comms. "Engage at your discretion; wipe this scum from the Emperor's sight."

"You heard him Hades, happy hunting." Stele said stoically, his Avengers pulling away from the rest of Hades and moving in parallel with them towards the oncoming Rebel fighters."

The first wave of Imperial fighters was comprised of the models that had independent hyperdrives which meant that they'd be fighting the Rebel fighters alone before their allies arrived. In that initial firefight, the Imperials would be outnumbered if only for moments.

Garin keyed his comms, "Hades, prepare for fire pattern 271, set for proximity detonation."

He received confirmation en masse from everyone except Shrike squadron, not that he cared about them; they never trained with the rest of the unit so they were more or less on their own and Garin was fine with their exclusion, it was their own fault for feeling that all the training time that the rest of the wing put itself through was a waste. He watched the distance tick down as the Rebel fighters approached and then keyed his comms again.

"271 execute!"

They'd developed this attack pattern in honor of the first tour of duty that the 'five old men' as the unit tended to call Garin and his friends had survived. It was a blanket dumb fire similar to what Station 271 had done repeatedly during the Rusanni Campaign. It was designed to deal with overwhelming numbers and worked very well, because there was no missile lock warning, just a wave of munitions coming at you that detonated once they got within proximity of a target. Given the swarm of fighters coming at them, there was no better tactic. Every ship in Hades opened fire with linked missile tubes and fifty-three missiles rocketed out towards the oncoming fighters. The Rebels reacted as expected, without a missile lock warning they didn't realize what was happening at first, and when they did they broke every which way in an attempt to avoid the barrage of missiles. Very few of the missiles hit anything, but they weren't meant to they were set to detonate within ten meters of anything after the first thirty meters from launch. The attack wasn't designed to kill so much as it was to maim and disorient.

It did so beautifully, and Hades and the rest of the first wave of Imperial fighters moved in against a broken front of Rebel fighters, it gave those pilots smart enough the chance to plow through the Rebels and sow enough confusion for the second wave of Fighters, Interceptors, and Bombers that would be joining shortly. The battle soon dissolved into an all out free-for-all, there were literally thousands of fighters twisting and turning each trying to kill and stay alive. It was all out chaos there was no time to reform with allies or to check your kill score. All you could do was try not to get yourself hulled.

"Does anyone else think this is insane?" Someone called over the unit channel.

Garin had to agree with whoever had called out as he spun out from under the nose of a B-wing and dropped behind it, letting the Rebel fighter have a healthy dose of cannon fire before rolling away as another Rebel fighter moved in behind him. He did a double take as something heavy opened fire on him and he rolled away to see a Corellian YT-1300* rocket past him its gun turrets blazing, he'd never seen one of those move that fast before. The Rebels had apparently brought freighters along as attack platforms; he rolled away from the freighter as a stream of TIEs followed after it, concentrating instead on the fighters. The Rebels weren't being stupid, he had to hand them that, they were drawing the Imperial fighters closer to their capital ships, and they were making mincemeat of dozens of TIEs with their cannons. Part of the problem he'd found was that there were so many friendlies that he could barely get a shot off without risking fratricide, granted if he found a Shrike in his sights he wouldn't so much as blink if he 'accidentally' killed one of them.

The battle had been raging for ten minutes by then, the Imperial capital ships were hanging back, letting their fighters do most of the fighting when a bright green flash caught his attention and nearly made him collide with a friendly.

"Did anyone see what the hell just happened?" He called.

"This is Harth, the station opened fire, I repeat, the battle station has begun firing on the Rebel fleet; it just destroyed a Mouse** with one shot."

Garin swore, what kind of weapon did that station mount that could flatten a Mon Cal in one hit? He answered himself bitterly; it was the same kind of weapon that could flatten a planet. What was he doing here? He flew along the hull of a Rebel carrier, skimming too close to be targeted effectively as he searched for his next target. An A-wing came jetting towards him and he keyed his beam weapon, latching onto the Rebel fighter and using it as a pivot, spinning around in a circle around the captured fighter and firing repeatedly into the helpless fighter, watching it disintegrate under the barrage. He let the tractor go and shot off in another direction just as laserfire peppered his shields threateningly, there was another blast from the battle station and another Rebel Mon Cal went up less than a hundred meters from his position, the shockwave rattled his controls and he fought to regain command of his ship.

"Hades, stay clear of the Rebel warsh—"

He didn't finish, gritting his teeth as the side of the Mon Cal he was flying past erupted and swarms of munitions*** soared out towards him and the dozens of other TIEs around him. He keyed his flare and chaff launchers, pulling away from the barrage, most of the fighters that had been with him weren't so quite and they were blown to pieces. He didn't bother resending his earlier message, there wasn't much point everyone would understand the half issued warning.

"All fighters, the Rebels are attempting to flee through the fleet, move to provide cover and continue to engage."

Piett's voice was a bit of a wake up call and Garin checked his sensors, sure enough, the Rebel fleet was moving towards the superior number of Imperial Warships, the battle station fired a final shot before the Rebel ships drew into range of the Star Destroyers. It was a suicidal move, but it was a better move than staying in the open with where the weapon on the battle station could target them freely. He flew past a broken hulk that had been a Rebel frigate and rolled over to fire at the flight of X-wings beneath him, raking their shields with his cannons before speeding past them. With the Rebel capital ships engaged at point blank with their Imperial counterparts flying between the massive ships was a death wish as they exchanged salvos of coherent energy and munitions barrages. The Rebel charge had forced the Imperial formation to disperse come to avoid collisions with the enemy and each other, which had opened up corridors for fighters to fly in relative safety, accepting of course the other side's fighters.

Garin scored another kill when he noticed that a group of fighters had broken off from the main battle, lead by what looked like the same YT-1300 from earlier. He considered pursuing but there were already about a dozen other TIEs in pursuit and he had other matters to worry about, a Star Destroyer's bridge erupted in front of him as he pulled over the hull. The Rebels were giving a good show of it, he had to hand them that, but they had to know there was no way in space they could hope to outfight the Imperial Fleet arrayed against them. What exactly did they hope to accomplish it wasn't like they could escape with the Immobilizer cruisers on the outskirts of the battle, their gravity wells effectively shut off any chance of escape. The battle was quickly turning into another free for all with pockets of capital ships being isolated from others and beating each other into darkened hulls, all the while the fighters raced in and around the behemoths. Garin had taken down nine fighters already and had no doubt that he'd be moving into the double digits by days end at the rate things were going.

"Oh damn, Gar, the Executor is hit!" Toth said, "her shields are down!"

Garin pulled a loop, firing a missile at his pursuer and watching as the X-wing raced off in an attempt to avoid the murderous projectile, he came around just in time to watch the Executor's bridge go up in a short lived burst of flame. Somewhere during the battle, three of the Mon Cal Cruisers and numerous smaller ships had ganged up on the Super and had apparently done enough damage to take down her shields. He watched as the dagger shaped warship began listing, falling steadily towards the surface of the battle station, he kept his engines on full, soaring through the battle as he watched the tip of the Destroyer slam into the battle station's hull. He checked his scanners, the Rebels had taken a pounding, but they'd so managed to take down five Imperial or Imperator Star Destroyers, as well as several smaller warships and now the Executor. They were still outnumbered and outgunned, but they'd just gutted the fleet's chain of command, the effects were immediate as various captains and admirals began clamoring orders that no one paid any attention to.

Garin keyed his comms, "Iriana?"

"Here sir, we just saw the Executor go up." She sounded shaken, Garin didn't blame her.

"I know, I was right above her, I want you to withdraw the Knight to the outskirts of the battle, if the gravity wells go down jump clear and we'll come find you."

"I will not leave you all here to die sir." She said stonily.

"I'm not asking you to, I'm asking you to give us a place to come home to. Follow your orders Captain."

"Yes sir, stay alive, I don't want to explain to Chief Kerrila that you won't be coming back."

Garin resisted the urge to reach down for the buckle that Daru had given him before the battle. "Copy that, good luck Captain."

And then the entire world seemed to turn upside down as a jaw shattering explosion tore through space, Garin's head snapped around to see the battle station erupt in a massive fireball that sent a shock wave out that tore across the fleets fighting around it. The battle seemed to pause as what had just happened began to fully sink in, had the Emperor and Vader both been aboard that thing? And if they had, and were both dead, what was the fleet fighting for now?

"This is Captain Pellaeon of the Chimaera, all Imperial ships receiving this message are to retrieve their fighters and retreat, I repeat, all Imperial ships are to withdraw from the combat zone."

This declaration was followed moments later by another command, "belay that order, this is Grand Admiral Teshik, rally to the Eleemosynary we will avenge the Emperor and secure a future for our Empire!"

If Piett's death had caused chaos, this conflict of orders brought absolute anarchy and soon it was every ship for itself as each was faced with the options of fight or flight in the face of a renewed Rebel assault.

Present, interrogation room aboard the Mon Cal Cruiser Home One, Bilbringi Shipyards

"I was there you know," I looked at her idly, "I was aboard the Defiance, I was an analyst, I remember watching the Liberty being destroyed. The thought that we could all be vaporized in the blink of an eye was horrifying."

She looked at me as I watched her, "what did you do when the orders were given?"

I smiled slowly, "we had to choose, fight for the Empire, or flee for the Empire."

"Given your opinions about the Empire, I would think that you would flee and survive rather than stay and fight."

I nodded, sighing and chuckling, "yes, that would be the natural reaction to that situation. I don't really know what happened, but we decided to stay and fight alongside the Grand Admiral. We didn't know him, we weren't loyal to him, but he was willing to stand his ground and fight to the end even if it meant death. I suppose we just respected that, because without a word from anyone, Hades formed on the Eleemosynary and continued to fight, even when four fifths of the fleet had fled we continued to fight…."

Approximately five years earlier, Endor orbit above the Sanctuary Moon

Garin was sweating, his body covered in salt as he panted, they'd been fighting now for over three hours and it looked like the Grand Admiral's last stand was finally coming to a close, the Eleemosynary was disabled and what capital ships remained around her were too badly damaged to continue the fight. Hades had done what it could, he wasn't even sure if they'd lost anyone, and if so, how many. He was too exhausted to think about that.

"Hades, this is Commander Stele, all units fall back to the Black Knight; we are withdrawing."

Garin cast a last look at the disabled Eleemosynary and saluted the Grand Admiral, he'd tried to defend the Empire he served to the very end and that was worth recognition even if it was in vain.

"This is Wyvern Lead, I'm hit, I've lost my engines and thrusters are non-responsive, I'm falling towards the moon, I need help!"

"All ships," Stele said coolly, "ignore any distress calls and return to base."

"Maarek," Vic'que pleaded, "please don't leave me here! I don't want to die!"

"You're an Imperial pilot Lieutenant Sajuuk, act like one, Stele out."

Garin swore, he keyed the private channel, "if anyone tries to follow me, blast them and then get clear."

"Wait, Gar what are you planning?" Toth asked, he sounded as haggard as Garin felt.

"I don't know; just keep the Shrikes off me."

"Roger," Harth responded.

"We've got your back leader," Matrin and Kalan said together.

With that, Garin twisted his control yoke and headed towards the Sanctuary Moon, locking onto Vic'que's Avenger as it fell towards the atmosphere uncontrollably.

Author's Note: I did some basic calculations just to get an idea of the kind of fighter forces we're dealing with here, each Imperator and Imperial class Star Destroyer carries six squadrons. According to the source material I am going off of there were about thirty (no exact count) Star Destroyers of these two classes (I am not counting the other four Star Destroyer classes present at the battle: Victory I/II, Executor, and Tector [note: the Tector does not carry fighters]) present at the battle. If we assume that each of these Destroyers had the usual compliment, we are looking at 2160 odd Imperial fighter craft and that is only from those two classes. Counting the twelve squadrons that the Executor carried and add to that the various other ship classes, many of which carried at least one or two and in some cases three squadrons (in the case of the Vindicator Cruiser and Escort Carrier six) we're looking at well over 2500 fighters (possibly over 4000 depending on cap count). In comparison, the Rebels had somewhere around 500 fighters (source material says 500+ but the classes of warships deployed by the Rebel fleet could have carried a much larger compliment of upwards of 1000. It is very hard to estimate their strength given that the count on the number and type of Rebel caps at the battle is even harder to determine than the Imperial composition. Plus it is uncertain how much of the fleet had a full complement of fighters given economic and personnel restrictions on the Alliance it is possible that they did indeed only have 500 some fighters). Anyone want to do the odds on that one? Granted, the Rebel fighters were universally more durable than their Imperial counterparts, even the weakest Rebel fighter present, the Z-95 Headhunter could take more hits than a TIE fighter; but even given that Rebel fighters could absorb considerably more damage than their counterparts and were generally more advanced fighting platforms (accepting the odd advanced fighter types like those flown by Hades and other elite units; these made up such a small percentage of the deployed fighter force as to hardly matter), that is still a hell of a gap in numbers to overcome.

*Yes, that is the Millennium Falcon

**Mouse: slang for Mon Calamari Cruiser which was coded as MCC or 'Mice', hence 'Mouse,' in the Imperial Fleet Registry.

***Many Mon Cal Cruisers and other Rebel warships had fake blisters that were actually one shot ordnance pods that could be triggered at oncoming fighters, firing dozens of munitions of various types at the unfortunate attackers.