Fires of Hope
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
The Battle of Exegol (Final Battle of The Rise of Skywalker)
The battle for the fate of the galaxy was raging outside his window, but Urcos Furdam was too busy flipping switches in the cockpit of the Tantive IV to glance outside. He needn't worry though, the pilot in the seat to his left was a legend. If anybody could get them out of this furball, it was Nien Numb. The hero of the battles of Endor and Starkiller Base, was piloting the late Princess of Alderaan's flagship through the chaos in the atmosphere high above the dark, turbulent skies of the mysterious Sith world of Exegol.
X-Wings and TIE Daggers exploding like fireflies in the sky right out the view screen, Nien made a hard right to avoid running into friendly ships. He called out to Urcos for more power to the front deflectors just in case they did run into anybody. For any poor soul out in front, the last thing going through their mind would be the Tantive IV's shields.
The controls glowed and flashed as the power transferred from lesser systems to the shields. "Power is moving, boss!" Urcos threw Nien a sly smile. They were a good team. They could predict movements and even tell how urgent a call was based on the tone of each other's voice. The ship might fly with other people at the controls, but with Nien Numb and Urcos Furdam at the controls, the Tantive IV flew.
How much longer would she fly? That was hard to say. Outside the battle wasn't going well. More and more of Urcos' friends were screaming out, crying for help, only to be blasted into space dust.
"Snap! Snap!" Urcos heard General Dameron call out frantically. "No!" another call on the radio. Whoever Snap was, it didn't sound like that they made it. The Tantive then shuddered from a hit on its starboard side, sending sparks erupting out of the control panel right in front of Urcos Furdam's face.
Everything went white, and white it stayed. Heat seared the flesh on his face, and then his hands. The force of the explosion launched Urcos out of his seat and onto the hard paneling of the floor. Urcos' screams then filled the cockpit over all the alarms as medics rushed in and started treating him on the spot. As the screams and alarms started to die down a very familiar voice crackled through the speakers.
"But there are more of us, Poe. There are more of us."
"Was that General Calrissian?" someone behind Nien asked excitedly.
"Did he do it?" the medic working on Urcos' eyes asked under her breath, only for her, but overheard by the man with the wounded eyes.
"You bet he did!" Nien Numb banked the Tantive as he laughed to join the massive formation following his friend.
"Get me up." Urcos raised his arms so he could be lifted, but no one grabbed him. "Get me up." He called again. "If my console still works, I can still work."
Hands scooped under Urcos Furdam's shoulders and raised him to his feet, slowly then he was led back to his seat. Sitting back down, he ran his hands over the panel and switches in front of him. The console was damaged, but still functioning, just like him.
"All right, Nien. What do you need?"
The outlook of the battle had drastically changed since the arrival of the Galaxy Fleet, more and more of the Final Order's star destroyers fell from the sky, saving whole planets from certain doom.
Nien called out to Urcos for more power to the weapons as they finished off another one of the Final Order's so-called unstoppable ships.
"You got it boss, more punch on its way." he hands slid over all of the controls to the right switches and made sure they were in their appropriate positions. The cannons responded by sending louder and harder shudders through the hull of the old Corellian Corvette.
If only Leia were here to lead this ship in the final battle. She should be here, hands gripping the consoles on the bridge tight as she barked out orders. After all this was her ship. She should be here.
Suddenly, another shudder, but this one was different, constant. Almost all power dropped away suddenly from the Tantive as lightning surrounded the ship. Falling from the sky with all the grace of brick, the Tantive nosed toward the ground.
"Nien! What's happening?" Urcos screamed as he felt the ship continue its crash-dive into Exegol. "Throttle the engines back and power to the front stabilizers!" he was thinking of everything in the books on what to do to recover from a dive.
"There's nothing! No power!" Nien called back as his arms strained on the control yoke in front of him. This couldn't be it, Nien thought, Not when we are this close. Even though nothing was responding Nien also was going over everything he knew on dive recovery. This wasn't the Millenium Falcon, or an X-Wing, this ship was a big beast, and now she was starting to rumble like one.
"What's that?" someone one behind Urcos called, he thought it might have been the young woman named Elana he had been seeing in the cockpit of the Tantive as of late. Even in this, what Urcos correctly figured to be the last moments of his life, he couldn't stop thinking about her light brown hair. How she smiled at him as they took off from Ajan Kloss, and how it made his heart soar higher than the Tantive itself.
The rumble grew more intense as the ground grew larger in front of them still. The outlook didn't look good, but everyone was still doing their jobs in the cockpit of the Tantive IV. This crew was a well oiled machine, and if they went down, it wouldn't be because they were inexperienced. They would do the job until the bitter end. No matter how near it seemed now.
BANG! A massive explosion in the rear of the ship made Urcos think the ship had snapped in half. When the force lightning of the Dark Lord of the Sith himself had hit the Tantive, it had ruptured fuel lines on the top right engine causing a leak that had finally caught. And it took the whole right side of the engine cluster with it.
Fire raced through the corridors and halls, searing the pure white halls of this battered and beaten corvette. Flames licked the last of the Alderaan Royal Seal, and the portrait of Bail Organa, his wife Breha, and at the time, a nine year old Leia with a small red and white droid on her left shoulder. And now, it turned to ash in Leia's private quarters.
As the final minute of his life began, Urcos still couldn't get that smile out of his head. He reached his right hand behind him, reaching out to Elana, maybe hoping to transfer the peace of mind to her in these final moments.
Instead he felt her hand calmly slide into his, and then he saw the smile on her face again. It was as clear in his head as he remembered, just a perfect moment. Urcos Furdam let out a soft chuckle. "We're still gonna win." he whispered through a sly smile. They themselves were that fire that Poe Dameron had spoken of on Crait. A fire that had already caught throughout the galaxy. "We're still gonna win." he gripped Elana's hand a little tighter.
Fire swept through the cockpit, and a final explosion rang out. And the Tantive IV was no more. The ship that had been here since the beginning of the events that would lead to the victory of the Battle of Yavin was nothing more than a flaming heap. But what it stood for, and what Leia Organa stood for, that was why they were going to win.