Chapter 19

(Space)

Leading his group towards Lando's squadron, Jacen ordered his droid to raise power to the shields. He then fired the fighter's cannons as he entered the fight. At first, the skips didn't notice the new ships, as they were already engaged with the X and Y-Wings. But that changed when several skips were destroyed. This led the Vong to switch targets, and they turned and fired on the Jedi fighters.

"Alright everyone, split up into pairs and watch your wing mates' backs," Jacen ordered as Lowie flew with him against the enemy.

Streams of plasma and laser fire filled this area of space as both groups attacked each other. As the fighting intensifed, Lando sent a few of his ships to back up the rescuers, while he returned to shooting the asteroids that were heading planet-side.

(Eclipse Station)

"Hurry up, we don't know how long we've got!" Cilghal ordered as she helped escort the students into one of the shuttles. All around the hanger, other Jedi scrambled to finish the evacuation. Threepio did his part as he loaded the smaller students into the Jade Shadow and Lady Luck, the personal ships of Lando and Mara.

"Okay, that's almost-"he began to say, but was cut off by a loud BOOM! The hanger shook violently as another asteroid crashed into the surface above them. Pieces of the ceiling crashed down, and the area was filled with dust and debris. Some of those trying to escape made it to safety, but others were not so fortunate.

"Quick, get them out!" yelled Kirana Ti, a fellow Jedi master as she and others pulled and pushed the rocks away. Among those hit, she saw that five had made it. But three didn't, and she felt their absence in the Force.

"Those injured will be patched up later. Keep them together. We need to gather the deceased," said Streen, a friend of Kirana Ti. Following his command, she and her fellow Jedi moved the injured to safety, while the others gathered the bodies into another ship.

"Threepio come here!" Cilghal called to the golden droid. "Contact Lando and tell him we need to leave now!"

"I'll do my best, Master Cilghal," he responded, then hurried off to the control room.

Once there, he found the communication station destroyed, crushed by the impact of the asteroid. "Oh dear!" cried the droid as he surveyed the destruction. It appeared all of the droids and personnel had vanquished from the impact. However, as he started to walk through the rubble, Threepio heard a soft groan and saw a hand push its way out of the debris. He quickly made his way over to the hand.

"Hold on, I'm here," Threepio called. He reached down and grabbed hold of the dirt-covered hand. With a careful tug he pulled out the survivor, a young woman with tan skin. She had a large, bloody gash on her forehead.

The injured young woman attempted to speak, but Threepio stopped her.

"Don't speak. Let's get you to safety," he told her. "Here, lean on me."

Threepio helped the young woman back to the hanger, where they walked onto the Jade Shadow. After he placed her in a cot, Threepio went to the cockpit where he activated the ship's communication system.

"General Calrissian, do you copy, please answer," he asked into the receiver.

"Threepio! I'm busy at this time." Lando said to him in an annoyed tone.

"I'm aware, sir, but the command center has been damaged," Threepio said, then he told Lando about the injured Jedi.

"…Alright here's what we're going to do. I'll have our new support bring their ships to come get you all. You and others take off soon. And be sure to activate the little surprise before leaving," explained Lando.

After ending the communication, Threepio went to tell Cilghal about what happened and about Lando's plan.

"Ok then, I'll go activate the countdown. Threepio, go get the Shadow to take off. I'll have Master Solusar join you as your copilot," Cilghal said to him then took off.

(Venator: Alpha)

"General Kota's taken down another of their support ships, but he is having trouble with the main warships," one of the droids said to Jaina as she watched the battle. Then she heard another voice as Lando contacted her to provide an update on the situation.

'Great, just what we need!' she thought to herself while trying to think of a reply. Rex was also trying to think of a way they could get through the enemy's position. Then an idea came to him as he looked up the Venator's inventory.

"Let's see if there is one onboard…yes there it is. Right where it should be," he said to himself, then contacted the crews in the lower hanger. He requested what he needed, then turned to Jaina. "

Tell the General to keep the enemy busy for a bit. I've got a plan on how to break through their ships," he said. Handing her a spare commlink, Rex sprang for the turbolift leaving Jaina to wonder what he had in mind.

Minutes later, Rex arrived at the hangar where he asked several Blue marked B1's to join him. The small group made their way over to the lift, where the item he asked for was being brought up: a Self-Propelled Heavy Artillery.

"Get this onto the runway," Rex ordered as they climbed into the cockpit.

Starting up the engines, the heavy walker came to life as it moved forward for a bit before stopping.

"Power up the cannon, Be ready to fire on my command." Pulling out the commlink, Rex told Jaina to open the covers for the front hangers.

"Whatever you are going to do captain, better do it quick," Jania stated as she watched the covers retract.

"Will do, inform our pilots to stay clear of the enemy warships," she heard Rex say, then waited to see what would happen.

"Raise it upwards, target the one in the middle." The cannon did that as it powered up.

"We're at full power sir," one of the Droids said.

"Fire at will!" responded Rex as the droids did so.

Five beams of blue energy came together from the cannon's head, which formed a strong beam that shot forward and hit the front of the middle Vong cruiser, which went straight through it.

After the first shot hit it, Rex ordered the cannon to fire again. Which it did as another beam hit the ship again, followed by another which caused explosions to occur throughout the enemy ship. Within minutes, the whole ship exploded into fragments and crashed into the other Vong ships.

Seeing this from the bridge, Jaina was in awe at seeing what happened. "Excellent job Captain, we broke through. General Kota is on his way now and so are we," she said into the commlink.

"Copy that," Rex replied as he smiled at this victory.

(Miid Ro'ik: Dynasty)

Those who had seen this were horrified at seeing the infidels destroy one of their Miid Ro'iks with ease. Seething with anger, Vak was trying to figure out what just happened. But nothing came to him as he heard one of his officers speak up. "Sir the enemy is heading towards the planet. Most likely to rescue the Jeedai down there,"

"Not if we destroy their base first!" Vak stated as he ordered that the ship pursue those ships. Then he called up the rest of his fleet and commanded to have as many asteroids as possible be sent downward at once.

(Eclipse Station)

"Attention all hands, evacuation has commenced. Be ready to depart," the voice of the computer said as Cilghal input the final codes for the station's self-destruct from a portable terminal.

Once she was done, the device started a count down which showed about four minutes remained. After seeing this, the healer ran towards the Lady Luck. Once inside, she headed up to the cockpit where her copilot awaited her. "Let's go!" Cilghal stated as the ship took off with the Jade Shadow as they followed the other shuttles out.

Flying through the rocky walls was tricky, as the fleet of ships had to make several turns left and right. Then they headed upwards for a few feet, then emerged at high speeds going towards the space.

As the Luck and Shadow emerged next, Cilghal saw several Asteroids continue to head downwards, one of which was heading their way. Seeing this, she got onto the comms to the shuttles near her.

"Break off from the others. We're going to take an alternate route." Following her lead, the other shuttles followed the Lady Luck as they dodged the incoming asteroids. Some small pieces of the bigger rocks dinged against the ships as they flew by.

Back in the station, the countdown was ending as the numbers got to ten. 'Nine, eight, seven, six,' the computer's timer showed. Above the surface, the group of asteroids was about to crash down as the countdown ended. 'Five, four, three, two, one,'

Inside the station's power room, the device set up by the Jedi in case of discovery by the enemy went off as it set off a chain reaction that erupted all through the station. As it reached the hanger bay, the fire shot through the tunnels had high speeds, causing the surface to burst upwards, creating a large cloud of smoke and rock.

Picking this up from the ship's sensors. Cilghal hoped that the enemy would assume their quarry was killed by the explosion.

(Space)

Once they were in space, the group saw that the other shuttles were heading towards an Orange Star Destroyer and several others nearby. Seeing it puzzled the Jedi healer, but she put that aside as the scanners saw that swarms of skips and two Vong cruisers were heading their way.

"Master Cilghal, our path is becoming blocked by the enemy ships. We must find another way," the voice of Threepio said from the Jade Shadow.

Agreeing with the droid, Cilghal looked for another route to take, then saw near the Asteroid Belt was a Mon Cala Cruiser and other ships that were engaged in battle. But it didn't look as dangerous as the one nearby.

"Threepio heads towards the belt. Our salvation lies there," she said to him as they led the way, with the other ships following.

Nearby, Ahsoka and Padme were busy shooting at the skips as they provided cover for the shuttles that made it up from the planet.

"Okay, so far so…huh what is it?" She was saying when her droid interrupted her. Looking at the screen, Ahsoka saw that he had noticed the other groups of shuttles veering away.

"Padme, we got a group of transports heading towards where Juno is."

"I see it too, I'll let her know she's about to have company soon," snswered Padme who then switched channels.

(Mon Cala Crusier)

"Did I hear you correctly?" Juno asked after hearing what Padme said.

"You heard me, a group of shuttles are headed your way. Ahsoka is contacting Jacen and those with him to provide cover," answered Padme.

"Copy that, we will be ready for them," Juno said, then turned to Anakin, Tahiri, Tenal, and Alema who were monitoring the ship's systems with the droids. "You four head down to the hanger, we've got company coming," she said to them.