Leia collapsed to the ground as she felt her twin brother's death through the Force. Tears began to flow. An officer ran to her side, not understanding what happened to her.
She did not care what anyone on the bridge thought now, the pain was unbearable. The tears that would come at a later time broke through at this moment, not willing to submit to Leia's will. The loss of her mother, the loss of her home planet, the loss of her son to the dark side, the loss of Han, and now her brother-the pain that had gripped her for years, finally mastered her as the last wall of her impregnable defenses crumbled. She had kept her composure for the Rebellion, then the Senate, and now the Resistance; but now it all came crashing down, just as the Resistance forces were also crashing.
The tears fell. She crouched on the floor alone and wept.
….
Finn, Poe, Chewbacca, and Kylo Ren struggled to get to the Millennium Falcon and hurried on board. The star destroyer shook with the repeated hits, which resulted in scattered personnel that took little notice of the fleeing Resistance soldiers. Many ran past, not recognizing Kylo Ren with his mask off. Poe quickly took the pilot's seat and started the engines. BB-8 closed the rear ramp, and the Falcon launched out of the loading bay.
Upon exiting it was evident that the Resistance was losing, TIE fighters having had filled the space battlefield with destroyed remnants of B-Wings and Naboo fighters.
"There must be hundreds of TIEs!" Poe said.
"Do you think you can get us out of here so we can jump to hyperspace?" Finn asked.
"Can a bantha shed fur?" Poe replied, and dove to avoid turbolaser fire. "Get on the guns, you two."
Chewbacca and Finn ran to the dorsal and ventral gun turrets. Kylo Ren sat in the passenger bay, strapped in, too weak to do anything else.
The Millennium Falcon dove, rose and veered to avoid fire, Finn and Chewbacca shooting down any TIE fighters that came into their crosshairs. The shields had taken some glancing hits, but nothing that posed any major threat. Poe was good at what he did, but still, he was finding it difficult to move away from the star destroyer.
Then the Falcon shook violently. Everyone on board gasped at the hit.
"What was that!" Finn shouted.
"Looks like we've got someone on our tail," Poe replied. "Not a TIE either."
Kiam, the last of the knights of Ren, had spotted the Falcon exiting the Finalizer and had made sure to chase it down. Kiam, an excellent pilot, sought his prey with the resoluteness of a katarn on the hunt.
Poe steered the Falcon up abruptly to evade the pursuit craft. Kiam matched the move effortlessly and fired. Another hit contacted the rear shields. Poe corkscrewed to evade further lasers, then barrel-rolled to turn the Falcon on its side, pulled up, and sped away at the pursuit craft's starboard. Kiam matched his moves again with almost instantaneous reaction-time.
"This guy's good," Poe said, a bead of sweat falling on his temple.
Finn and Chewbacca tried to hit him, but Kiam was apt at dodging every shot.
Poe looped around some TIEs, trying to put something in between. Kiam fired and blasted one of the TIEs away in an attempt to get a clear shot, then repeatedly fired on the Falcon. He hit the Falcon again, the concussion jolting it to port.
"We can't take much more of this," Finn called down.
"Hold on," Poe cried. "I've got an idea."
This whole dogfight was in the shadow of the Finalizer, and stray turbo blasts ricocheted off the Falcon. Poe continued erratically flying the Falcon, searching for an opportunity.
"There!" he said to BB-8.
They were flying under the belly of the Finalizer; and ahead of them were four TIE fighters flying in formation, not currently engaged in battle. He punched the engines to full speed, turned on his side in relation to the TIEs, and slipped between them. He then slowed to taxi in front of them. They began firing almost immediately.
"Are you crazy!" Finn called down, trying to shoot the TIEs.
"Don't shoot them!" Poe yelled, more serious than usual. He spun the Falcon to evade laser fire, but they still were hit a few times. The Falcon's shields went down. Kiam was behind the TIEs without a clean shot. They were approaching the edge of the star destroyer above them. Kiam fired and took out the two center TIEs, the explosion obstructing his view for a moment. Poe cut the Falcon upward around the edge of the star destroyer. Kiam streaking through the orange gas bursts followed, but when turning the corner he found that the Falcon was gone.
He slowed his ship a little, confused as to where they could have gone. He reasoned that it must have jumped to hyperspace when laser fired blasted out of the flight bay he was next to. Poe had flown the Falcon into one of the port side flight bays. Chewbacca and Finn fired relentlessly. Dozens of laser blasts hit Kiam's ship. He turned to evade, but it was too late. His pursuit craft ended in an explosion of metal debris.
The Falcon dashed out of the bay and tried to get clear of the star destroyer. The major space battle was in front of them, so he turned to head in the opposite direction.
Finn sighed in relief at finally seeing clear space in front of him, but it was too soon. Another hit from the star destroyer hit the rear engines, the deflector shields being depleted. The Falcon began to spin uncontrollably. Alarms activated, and a red light flashed throughout the ship. Poe tried to get it under control unsuccessfully. The Falcon was dead in space, reeling wildly.
Finn and Chewbacca returned to the cockpit.
"The engine is about to blow," Poe said, fear on his face. "It's going to be over real soon."
Finn thought quick then ran to the back a moment and returned with oxygen masks.
"Put these on," he said. "And turn off the engines. Then we will decompress the cabin. If any oxygen gets to the burning engine, we all go up in flames. Then set the distress beacon. Maybe we die here, but we'll at least get a little time in case anyone is looking."
They all put on their masks. The engine was turned off, and the cabin decompressed. The artificial gravity ceased, their bodies becoming weightless. The lights died out, and the Falcon spun silently in the vacuum of space. It was eerily silent in the darkness, awaiting their deaths. The battle waged on around them and eventually passed, leaving the Falcon alone, while the radio beacon continually thumped.
….
The officers on the deck of the Endurance were concerned about their general. The commander had taken up charge of the bridge.
"Follow behind the Courage," Commander Kale ordered.
Leia was inconsolable and unable to command the fleet. Commander Kale gave her a moment out of respect, but he was going to have to remove her shortly.
Leia held her face in her hands and gave up hope.
"Leia," a familiar voice spoke. No one heard it but her.
Commander Kale motioned to another officer to help Leia up off the floor.
"Leia," the voice came again. Leia dropped her hands.
"Luke?" she said. Wet trails of tears went down her face.
The officers came to her and put their hands under her arms to help her away.
She resisted.
"Leia, not all is lost." Luke's voice said.
Her eyes widened.
Luke continued. "There is still-"
"Hope," Leia finished the sentence. She stood up, wiped her face and looked to Commander Kale.
"Is everything alright, General?" Kale asked.
"Yes, I'm alright." She replied. With new strength, she announced, "the First Order will not have the Endurance as a prize today."
….
Leia's and Ackbar's cruisers rushed toward the asteroid field as the ring of star destroyers continued to follow firing into the Resistance ships. There was no escape except through the asteroids.
"Full speed ahead, all firepower on the asteroids in front of us. Let's punch a hole through for the general to escape," Ackbar ordered.
Most of the cruiser's turbolasers were not operational due to the escaping crew, but a few were still manned. What remained fired on the asteroids, destroying as many as possible.
"All energy to the forward deflector shields!" Ackbar called out.
Leia's cruiser had reinforced their rear deflector shields and was trying to shoot past Ackbar's cruiser in an attempt to clear even more asteroids. However, there was no hope of destroying them all.
Not far into the asteroid belt, large asteroids began pelting Ackbar's shields, quickly depleting the remaining reserves. The cruiser continued forward, creating an empty wake behind it. Asteroids crashed into the forward hull, causing explosions and gaping holes. The cruiser jolted with each impact. Baleful and impending in the viewscreen, one large asteroid, almost the size of a small moon approached.
Ackbar looked with dismay at the mammoth.
"Full speed!" he called out again.
The Courage, on its inescapable course, drew nearer to the grim planetoid and crashed into the asteroid, crushing the hull completely, debris flinging toward the command deck.
Ackbar reticently witnessed the asteroid debris rolling down the dorsal spine of the ship toward him. It crashed through the command deck viewscreen, destroying it, the crew giving their lives for a greater purpose.
The remains of the ship swung to the side and pushed the large asteroid with it, its engines still firing non-directionally.
They had made it halfway through the Vergesso asteroids. The ring of star destroyers was left behind, but one of them was chasing them through the wake.
Leia's cruiser had twenty-five percent shields remaining. She, having mastered her feelings did not have time to grieve the loss of Gial Ackbar, but continued with the escape.
"All fire ahead on any asteroids," she commanded. "We are not out of this yet."
They blasted away hundreds of asteroids, but still, some were getting through to damage the shields. The pursuing star destroyer also firing from behind.
"Keep both aft and forward shields up, but redirect power to the front as they weaken," she said to her command deck.
"Ten percent shields," an officer announced.
"Almost there," Leia whispered under her breath. Asteroids continued to explode in front of them.
"Five percent shields."
She could see the open space ahead, only a kilometer at most away.
"We've lost shields," the officer said.
The cruiser jolted forward with a hit from behind.
Only a few asteroids left.
"Jump to hyperspace!" She ordered as the last few of the asteroids vaporized with the cruiser fire and her ship disappeared into the blue-white of hyperspace.
….
The Millennium Falcon spun silently in space, the battle having moved on toward the asteroids. It was left alone except for the companionship of other dead snub fighters. The masks the occupants had on were for emergencies and only meant to be used for up to thirty minutes. Twenty minutes had elapsed already. Finn desired to say something to Poe and Chewbacca but could not, the vacuum in the cockpit preventing any dialogue.
Finn hoped against all reason that someone might pick up on his distress beacon before they suffocated. If they had more time, they might freeze to death, he concluded to himself. He stared out the cockpit window, waiting for anything and hoping. With the spinning it was hard to see anything moving unless it was near, although he thought there might have been something getting closer. Every time the view of the asteroid belt filled the cockpit window, there seemed to be an object getting bigger. An asteroid, he thought. It moved on its own. A ship, he inferred.
A Corellian freighter with its auxiliary starfighter attached, the Ghost, came into view the next time the Falcon spun around. Finn had not seen this ship before, but he hoped it was with the Resistance. He waved to Poe and Chewbacca to look.
The Ghost matched the rotation of the Falcon and made an air-lock seal with the top hatch. In a few moments, the top hatch opened; and Sabine moved through the passenger bay. She motioned everyone to get out. Chewbacca helped Kylo Ren. The rest, including BB-8, evacuated into the Ghost. Once inside, the doors closed; and the cabin pressurized.
Sabine took off her helmet. "Good thing you had that distress beacon on. We were about to get out of here when we picked it up."
"Thank you," Finn said.
"Don't thank me," she said, "Boba wanted to check it out."
"That's just how I find my business," Boba walked in.
He noticed Kylo Ren. "And it looks like a good catch too."
Sabine eyed him with disdain, hoping he was not thinking about making a profit on this.
"Whose idea was it to empty the cabin air pressure on that ship?" Boba asked.
"Mine," Finn said.
"Come here and look," Boba said. He brought him to the cockpit.
Finn looked out. The damage to the Falcon was much worse than he had thought. The rear engine had a huge gaping hole, and sparks could be seen flickering throughout.
"That was a good move," Boba said. "You would have blown up for sure."
Finn was astonished.
"Now what?" Finn asked.
"Time to get you back to the general," he said. "Everybody strap in!"
He sat down and hit the hyperdrive.