Chapter 8: Canceling the Doomsday
December 30.
Staring outside one of the observatories of the INS Newton, Jaral lost herself a bit seeing the fain lights of the fighters speeding in the distance, not so far from the carrier herself.
The red gas giant was on the other side of the ship at the moment, and it was obscuring the local star. In fact, if it wasn't for the visual emulators of the window, she wouldn't be able to see a thing.
Recent reports had signaled that the Death Star had arrived as far as it could along the Hydian Way and was now heading toward Yavin. Everything would be decided in a little more than a rotation.
Then the door slid open behind her. She turned her head and saw Wedge, with his pilot suit on but no helmet, as he made the salute.
"Marshall, all squadrons are gathered." he reported.
She simply nodded and walked outside, walking in her armor, her helmet dematerialized so she could show her face. Along the way to the briefing room the crewmen of the Alliance saluted her, even a couple of Legionnaires of the Marine detachment of the carrier.
Despite having seen many Legionnaires time and again, she always felt impressed by them: in the Rebellion, she and Ezra were considered the best warriors, and yet, she always felt like most Legionnaires, people with the same modified genes as her, could easily take her down, if they wanted.
Especially the taller ones, the so-called 'Aquilae'.
She had only learned that fairly recently, but there were two kind of Legionnaires. The Aquilae, like her father, were trained since their infancy and received all genetic therapies; then there were the 'Evocatii', regular soldiers who had undergone genetic modifications and installment of cybernetic implants to become much stronger.
The latter were a fairly new unit, created only by reverse-engineering some of the Reapers' tech. They made up for cheaper super-soldiers, and while they still remained much more powerful than the regular human soldiers (who still received some genetic modifications since it was a habit of every army in the Milky Way) they couldn't hold a candle to the Aquilae, who had trained their entire lives and their gene therapies had brought them pretty much on a superior stage of human evolution.
Thinking of these details helped her distract and ease all the tension that was building up in her heart.
Finally they reached the room, where a vast assortment of aliens of the coalition were sitting on the seats or standing up, looking at the big screen at the opposite end of the room.
"Marshall on deck!" Wedge exclaimed.
Immediately everybody stood up and made the salute, whether or noth they managed to face her.
"At ease." Jaral calmly said as she walked past the crowd to reach the holographic board.
Next to it stood Ezra. He, too, with only his helmet dematerialized. Then there was a salarian intelligence officer and the captain of the ship, a quarian. Then there was also a staff officer from Yavin who was standing next to Ezra.
Jaral went on the left side of the board. The salarian stepped aside to leave her some room.
"All right, let's start the briefing." Jaral said, pointing a finger at the board, instructing Jinx to bring up the plans of the Death Star.
As the image of the Death Star's external shell appeared, Jaral started explaining.
"The Death Star is heavily shielded and carries a firepower of conventional weapons that could easily destroy a fleet. However, the Empire has the bad habit of not considering a group of fighters enough of a threat, and they are so stupid that they left a political prisoner build their most expensive project."
The board zoomed into the zone signaled by Galen Erso.
"Thanks to Doctor Erso, there is a fuse right in the middle of this thing, and all we need is a single, well-placed proton torpedo to light it.
"That said, it's not gonna be easy." she said while turning toward the board.
The board started to show the trench. "We will have to send a small group of fighters into this trench and skim the surface up to this point. The target area is only two meters wide. It's a small exhaust port right below the main port. The shaft leads directly to the reactor system. A precise hit will start a chain reaction that will destroy the station."
The hologram concluded with an explosion replacing the model of the Death Star.
"Now, according to the data Jinx recovered when we were on the Death Star, that section of the station has at least 300 TIE Fighters ready to react, and others might arrive from nearby sectors, so only a fraction of our fighters will actually go into the trench.
"Me and General Bridger will lead Red and Gold Squadrons to the attack run. The rest of you will form a perimeter around the area of the trench and engage the enemy fighters. Once it'll be confirmed that a proton torpedo entered the exhaust port and hit the reactor, we will have to get out of there quickly."
The hologram disappeared, letting the board returning to the desktop.
"Questions?" Jaral asked.
A turian pilot raised a hand. Jaral nodded, so the guy spoke. "What kind of defenses should we expect on the surface of the station?"
"Mostly heavy turbolasers and anti-ship cannons. They're designed to target vessels, not snub fighters, but that doesn't mean they don't hurt. It's safe to assume that they will shoot us until the TIEs are in the air, then they won't risk hitting their allies."
Then a rebel pilot received the right to speak.
"Ma'am, can we actually hit that target? Two meters is quite a long shot even for our computers."
"That is why we will need a perimeter around the trench. While the TIEs are held at bay, the squadrons can attempt more attack runs, if necessary."
Then silence fell. Nobody had other questions to pose.
"All right. We'll run simulated dogfights for today. The Death Star is supposed to arrive in 15 hours, so get prepared...and may the Force be with us all."
"You heard her." the quarian Captain said. "Get to the hangar."
All pilots stood up and a bit of clattering followed as they all stepped out. The siblings waited at the whiteboard, watching as Luke, too, left the room with the rest of Red Squadron.
Then the control tower suddenly called Jaral.
"Grand Marshall. There is a freighter asking for permission to dock, the captain insists that he knows you."
The siblings looked at each other. Though with a bit of difficulty, they believed they knew who that was.
"Is the captain some Han Solo guy?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Then you can let him in. Inform Captain Zekiah and let me know if you're letting him on the carrier."
"Right away, ma'am."
"Now that's what I call a surprise." Ezra quipped.
"We still don't know why he came back." Jaral warned.
"Why else would he come back? He already took his payment and left two days ago."
"I'll judge when I'll speak with him. Come on." his sister replied before walking toward the door.
The siblings dematerialized their armors, wanting to appear friendly with the new guests, and started walking toward the main hangar area, figuring that the Falcon could only fit into one of the bigger ones.
And so it was. The Falcon was allowed to land into the main hangar, and before the siblings could reach it, they met Han and Chewbacca in the corridor right before the hangar.
"Forgot something?" Jaral quipped.
Han murmured amused, then lowered his head a bit as if he was searching for the right words to say.
"Well...you know...I figured that, if you don't destroy that station this time, the Empire will win, and I've already helped the Rebellion quite a lot."
"Yeah," Ezra joked. "and they saw you pretty clearly on the Death Star. If not Jabba, the Empire will surely send someone after you."
Chewie lamented the fact.
"So I guessed...perhaps you might use a pilot of amazing talent like this one." Han said.
The siblings chuckled.
"Besides, I can't let Luke get all the glory if you make this." the smuggler added.
Jaral thus extended a hand. "Welcome to the Rebellion, Han Solo."
The corellian eagerly shook the hand, while Ezra greeted Chewbacca next to them.
"Come on, Luke will be happy to see you again." the brother said, so they all walked back into the hangar, where the squadrons were preparing for the exercise.
The offensive had started very well. Galidraan and Arcan had been reconquered and the Rebel fleet around the latter had suffered considerable losses thanks to an aggressive and lightning move from Iulius, which forced them to retreat.
Now, though, with the 101st rallied around Arcan, Iulius looked at the final objective of his campaign: Lianna.
This was going to be the hardest battle of his career, so far, and the Grand Admiral was looking pensively out of the viewport of the bridge, losing himself into the blue tunnel of hyperspace.
According to the ISB intel, the coalition's fleet waiting around the planet was twice the size of his own and included a turian dreadnought.
No accurate intel had come out regarding the Protector, which was honestly making Iulius unsettled. If that ship was waiting right at the end of the hyperlane it would shred his fleet in seconds.
"Leaving hyperspace in 20 seconds." Nash announced from the pit.
"All hands prepare for battle." Iulius said, still staring outside of the transparisteel. Krybos relayed the order and the siren soon sounded all over the ship.
Iulius closed his eyes and took some deep, silent breaths. When he reopened them, the tunnel was already dissipating.
The Grand Admiral walked back toward the holotable while he ordered a scanning of the area to begin. It thus became clear that the coalition had deployed its forces on three different lines: the first was among some orbital shipyards that had been conquered from the Empire and were now used to resupply the Joint Fleet.
The second line of defense was centered around a powerful station: a Fire-Star-class orbital defense platform, also conquered from the Empire and which hosted a powerful arsenal of long-range kinetic weapons, turbolasers and torpedoes.
That station also covered the access toward the most forward operative base of the coalition, which had its flanks covered by a pretty dense asteroid field and the dreadnought was orbiting right in front of it.
"Sir, we detect at least 30 enemy cruisers, 20 heavy cruisers, 10 frigates. We're trying to determine the number of fighters." Ciena reported.
"Launch ours, for now." Iulius ordered to one of his officers, who immediately relayed the order. "We shall use the shipyards for cover. Order our skirmishers to charge forward. Main ships, assume Voronian formation 4 and advance."
His orders were promptly obeyed. The fleet, made perfect by the constant drills, quickly got into formation and started the advance, but still gave time for Iulius to contact the Eviscerator.
"Admiral Versio, load your stormtroopers on the Corvus. When we get past the first line, I want the Inferno to storm that Fire-Star. The Eviscerator will provide cover fire for them."
The old officer dutifully nodded. "Understood, Grand Admiral. Just open us a path and we will give you that station."
Iulius made a nod and turned toward the holotable again, realizing that his rush tactic was being effective. The coalition's forces were not expecting him to send the Star Destroyers on the first wave, because normally he wouldn't do that, and were being pushed back.
Nonetheless, they scrambled fighters and bombers, and the ion cannons hit the ISD leading the charge: the Adjudicator.
After a heated battle, the surviving allied forces were forced to retreat quite disorderly toward the defense platform after losing most of the (actually few) capital ships deployed there. The imperials lost two corvettes, a Lancer and two light cruisers, not to mention a few dozens of fighters. All-in-all, acceptable losses, given the situation.
Now it was time to get to the Fire-Star.
"Deploy the missile cruiser." Iulius ordered and Ciena relayed the order.
Three Broadside-class cruisers 'kdb-1' thus quickly arrived from the waiting zone in hyperspace and pointed their tubes toward the UACT ships that were gathering around the station.
Using the cover of the main battle force, the cruisers remained fairly hidden to the visual sensors of the coalition until it was too late.
The cruisers shot various salvos of missiles that exploded in the middle of the enemy line, causing massive casualties especially among the fighters and bombers, which were much more exposed to the violent shockwave of the explosions, also damaging some corvettes and smaller frigates.
"Maintain formation. Engage the enemy."
The TIE fighters and interceptors sprinted forward to attack what was left of the allied counterparts, all while the ships clashed in a furious broadside fight. Going with Iulius' tactic of 'hugging' the enemy, the imperial vessels simply searched for the fray, engaging the enemy ships at almost point blank. This made the battle more chaotic and the crew of the Fire-Star hesitated to fire, risking to hit their comrades.
Iulius kept the Admonitor at a safe distance, only providing long-range support, but then a rebel MC75 spotted them and managed to break away from the frenzied fight in front of the passage to charge straight at the Star Destroyer.
"Sir, should I prepare the Proton Beam?" Krybos asked.
"Yes, Commander. Prepare to target their engines as soon as they show them." Iulius calmly instructed.
"Yes, sir."
The Mon Calamari cruiser soon was in range and the cannonades flew from one side to the other.
"Order the bombers to scramble and target their shield generators." Iulius ordered, since the two squads of bombers of the Admonitor had been left in reserve exactly for a situation like this. They were supposed to act as precision weapons of the Destroyer, so the main batteries could quickly dispose of the threat.
The charge proved to be fatal for the rebels. Without the escort of its own fighters, the MC75 was quickly immobilized by the bombers and the proton beam, then the Admonitor focused most of the energy into the main batteries and they made short work of the rebel cruiser.
"Give the signal to Admiral Versio." the Grand Admiral instructed as he saw the enemy ship burn and fall to pieces.
As instructed, the Eviscerator had already loaded its contingent of stormtroopers aboard the Corvus, which now nimbly flew among the UACT ships too distracted to notice a small corvette and slipped past the main line of battle.
The Eviscerator managed to get a good angle from which it could fire toward the enemy line but also quickly intervene to help the Corvus, if necessary, but that proved to be not necessary. The Raider used her own cloaking the device to sneak right next to a CR90 corvette that was guarding the main access to the Fire-Star and caught it so close that the volley of turbolasers easily bypassed the deflector shields and hit the main reactor, making it blow up almost immediately.
Soon enough, the Corvus docked at the platform.
"Commander Versio to Admonitor." the voice of Iden spoke through the comlink. "We're boarding the defense platform."
"Acknowledged, Commander. Good hunting." Iulius replied, then turned toward Krybos. "We need to keep them distracted. Push the attack."
The officer nodded and went to do his job.
This fight was much more brutal. It costed more ships to Iulius, including the Allecto being severely damaged and forced to withdraw, but in the end, the superior firepower of the imperial vessels at short range gave them the upper hand, and when the boarding party took finally control of the command center of the Fire-Star, the UACT fleet found itself trapped on all sides.
Unfortunately for Iulius, the allied commander had probably already understood what was going on and had ordered the major cruisers to withdraw to the last line of defense.
The Grand Admiral took another look at the holotable. Something was definitely off.
"Any sign of the super-dreadnought?" he asked to Maurice, the radar operator.
The man shook his head. "Negative, sir."
Iulius hummed thoughtfully. "This doesn't make sense. They can't have only that dreadnought lying around."
"Sir, the dreadnought is turning away." Krybos alerted.
Iulius immediately set his gaze on the sensors and noticed that. While a few cruisers and frigates were still orbiting around the last space station, which by the way was also heavily armed, the dreadnought was turning around toward Lianna and its green surface.
This Iulius could not allow. That dreadnought had been bombarding them until now, and he wasn't going to allow her to continue harassing his fleet from a safe position.
"Send the fighters to intercept. The Adjudicator will give chase with the skirmishers. Star Destroyers regroup around the Admonitor and prepare for a final assault." he said calmly.
The fleet moved flawlessly to obey the Grand Admiral. Getting in the small space left by the two asteroid fields, the vanguard clashed once again with the coalition forces. The Federation deployed the last fighters and interceptors they had left, but at this point the TIEs could enjoy a superiority in numbers, and they managed to open an attack corridor for the bombers to hit the dreadnought.
Exploiting the angle of the giant vessel, the bombers targeted the engines repeatedly, and while the battle raged and projectiles of plasma flew all around, the turian ship lost one of her propellers.
Iulius observed the situation. With the dreadnought fleeing away, the coalition didn't have enough ships that could focus fire on the Adjudicator and her escort, and the Star Destroyer inflicted heavy casualties.
But while morale on the imperial fleet was raising, Iulius was still bothered.
Where the heck was the rest of their fleet? Lianna was vital to the UACT, they should've had way more ships to defend it.
"Sir, all Star Destroyers are in position." Krybos reported.
"Hold position." Iulius stated, staggering his second.
"Sir?"
"There's something wrong...this area looks perfect for an ambush. Send the Eviscerator, the Tribune, the Oppressor and the Hammerer to secure our flanks."
Still baffled, Krybos nonetheless turned toward his console and sent the instructions.
In the distance, the battle was going well. The Adjudicator had arrived pretty much beneath the space station after destroying its cannons, and the enemy fleet was scattering away using the other passage.
Right at that moment, Maurice jumped on his feet and reported with a bit of panic. "Sir, there's a massive force coming from behind the planet. Presence of the super-dreadnought confirmed."
Iulius eyes widened a little, though he still retained his focused expression.
"Tell the Adjudicator to fall back immediately." he ordered.
But as he said that, the reinforce fleet opened fire exactly in between the asteroid fields.
The INS Protector also opened fire with her insane amount of weapons, hitting both imperial vessels and the debris of the allied fleet.
The turian dreadnought used what was left of her engines to turn her port side and fire as well.
And with sheer luck, the Adjudicator was hit right in the middle of the hull, causing heavy damage to the reactor core.
The imperial vessels started to fall back, but the Adjudicator seemed unable to move, and the enemy was closing in.
"Tanis to Adjudicator, do you copy?" Iulius asked in his comlink.
After a few statics followed, the captain of the trapped Star Destroyer answered. "We read you, Grand Admiral."
"Status report."
"The cooling system is gone and commands are barely responding."
"Hold on, I'm sending you reinforcements."
"Negative, sir. I've already ordered to abandon ship. I'll ram the ship against those bastards."
Iulius quickly realized the intention of his subordinate, and they made sense. In fact, they could be exactly what he needed to salvage as much as he could from this situation.
"Understood, Captain. I appreciate what you're doing." he said in bit of a painful tone.
"Don't worry, sir. It's been an honor." the other officer said with a genuine respect. "Please, just save my men."
"You have my word." Iulius solemnly promised.
As the UACT fleet neared to counterattack, many escape pods left the Adjudicator. Once all of them were away, the Star Destroyer veered her point toward the space station, but rammed against it quite softly.
Instead of just exploding against it, the captain had decided to push the structure for as much as he could toward the pass between the asteroids.
The allied fleet noticed it and the ships focused fire on the Adjudicator, but the ISD lasted long enough for her commander to get exactly where he wanted and activate the sequence of self-destruction.
A minute later, the triangular ship exploded with abrupt violence, and soon it ignited a chain reaction into the space station as well.
Iulius could only observe the final act of one of his officers, and vowed to himself not to let that sacrifice go to waste.
"Qathora, tell the Corvus and the other frigates to enact search & rescue of our escape pods." Iulius coldly said.
The Togruta obeyed, while Iulius assessed the situation at the holotable.
Now that was the bulk of the allied fleet, and it outnumbered his forces 4:1.
"Send word to the Imperial Command on Coruscant." he said to Ciena. "We need reinforcements."
The dark-skinned woman nodded and started to type the message to send. For the moment, things entered into stall.
December 31.
"Ma'am...it's the Death Star." an operator said to Jaral in the command room of the Newton reported.
Tension knocked on the Grand Marshall's heart, but her discipline allowed her to ignore it and focus on the moment.
"On screen."
The holotable showed a 3d diorama of the system. The Death Star had come out on the opposite side of the gas giant, meaning that it had to cross the orbit of another planet of the system and then also fly around Yavin to be in firing range of the moon where the rebel base was.
"Lieutenant, how much before it reaches the moon?" she asked to the rebel officer next to her.
The man quickly made some calculations, then replied. "I'd say an hour and a half, ma'am."
Jaral absorbed the information, then went on. "All hands to battle stations. Get the fighters ready."
The alarm soon resonated inside the ship, and the other light carriers were warned as well. Jaral materialized her armor, except her helmet, and started to walk toward the hangar, where her own X-Wing was.
"Marshall." captain Zekiah said before she left the command room. The quarian made the salute and pronounced a wish of good luck of his people. "Keelah se'lai."
The woman returned the salute, then walked away.
Along the way, she found Ezra and Luke that were jogging toward the hangar with their suits on, but waited for her when they spotted her.
"So here we are." Luke said with a bit of hesitation.
"How are you feeling?" Jaral asked gently.
"Thrilled...scared…but I believe we can do this." Luke replied.
Jaral made a lopsided grin. "Sounds like my brother already infected you with his undying optimism."
Ezra and Luke chuckled. "A Jedi must always keep his emotions in check in front of danger." he defended himself.
"Yeah. The Force will better be with us, today." Jaral commented.
"I'm sure it will." Luke said confidently.
Jaral felt a bit reassured at those words as they finally reached the main hangar. Their X-Wings were still hanging on the clamps on the roof and would be prepared shortly. The room was bustling with activity. Pilots and workers of the two factions going back and forth to replenish the fighters, make the last checks and loading the astromechs on the rebel fighters.
"I'll go check on my squadron." Luke said, and jogged toward Biggs and other members of Red Squadron.
The siblings were left at the door. Jaral felt like it was time to say something, so she and Ezra walked up the stairs to the upper platform, where everyone could easily hear her.
"Everyone." she said loudly. Everybody recognized her voice and they gathered under her pretty high pedestal to listen.
"Today." she started, then stopped a moment to organize the words. "Today...at the limits of any hope. In the face of an overwhelming enemy, we have decided not only to believe in ourselves, but in each other."
The people were listening with great attention, already captivated.
"Today, the hopes of billions of people lay on our shoulders. Men, women, children in the womb of their mothers are counting on us for a future. A future free from the terror of the Empire and its cruel tools of fear and death." her tone was becoming increasingly passionate and the soldiers seemed to get those words wholly.
"They thought they could break us with fear. They thought we would have surrendered after all they've done and plan to do to us and our loved ones. They destroyed Alderaan. They destroyed Jedha, but we will stop them here!
"Today we are canceling our Doomsday!"
A cheer erupted, applause and heated shouts. Soon, everybody returned to their mansions with a fire in their chest and morale soared. The speech had also been broadcast to all ships and even down on Rebel Command, where Leia and the officers were waiting.
"You haven't lost your touch." Ezra quipped behind his helmet.
Jaral made a lopsided grin and finally materialized her own helmet. "I'll see you up there, brother." she said, and the two embraced.
They separated and went to their own X-Wings.
In twenty minutes. All fighters in all hangars had given the green signal.
"All squadrons, you're clear to take off." Captain Zekiah said.
With the siblings at their head, Red and Gold Squadron took off, followed by an escort of Systems Alliance's fighters. In total, the allied forces counted 170 snub fighters, but the attack group was only 20 units strong, since they still hadn't fully recovered from their losses at Scarif.
Nonetheless, everybody was ready to do anything to take down the Death Star. The fighters departed from the Newton and started to fly around the gas giant, flying toward the bringer of their Doomsday.