FIVE MINUTES EARLIER
Location: Aboard the Light Transport Ship "Majestic Fortune" in orbit above the planet Naboo.
Dena had been so sure that leaving Naboo... Leaving Luke, was the right choice! For once, doubt had not clouded her mind with guilt and indecision...Until now!
She had been at "full thrusters" ever since she talked to Luke; there had been no time to slow down and think. She had made the journey into town by speeder bike (C-3PO, uncharacteristically silent, had ridden in the speeder's sidecar), and had promptly hired the first pilot she could find to take her to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. She had barely a moment to even breathe, let alone think about what she was doing.
But just then, sitting in the copilot's chair of The Majestic Fortune, her mind couldn't help ruminating over her decision. When it was all said in done, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was "running away".
What did Luke really think of her? Was she really the future of the Balance or was she just a weakling that he wanted out of his way? Or Did he...
Her intrusive thoughts were themselves intruded upon by an alarm sounding from Captain Maverick's console. The man was the very epitome of "small time owner/operator". The guy couldn't even afford a copilot! Apparently, that role was filled by any passenger unfortunate enough to be stuck with him as their captain.
"What's the Alarm for?" She asked
"Just the proximity sensors, sweetheart ." He said in his easy going manner
"It looks like some hotshot pilot just brought that shuttle out of hyperspace, right into orbit... Gutsy! I LOVE IT!" He said with a wide grin, which showcased his brilliant white teeth... All 3 of them.
She wasn't 100 percent sure, but deductive reasoning led her to believe...
"I need you to hail that ship! They're ... friends (she hoped)."
"Comm active! Go ahead Darlin!" He said.
Without hesitation, she spoke into her console's mic. "This is Dena Yus aboard The Majestic Fortune, to Jedi Shuttle. Please respond!"
Maybe she had guessed wr... The crackle of the transport's speakers put to rest any doubts of the shuttle's identity.
"This is Master Tekli" said the little voice of the Chadra-Fan. "It is good to hear your voice Dena."
Dena had to agree. She had spent a year, living with the Jedi enclave, and had really felt at home in their presence; the first real home she had ever known.
But this was no time for extended reunions.
"Master Tekli. I'm glad you've come. Master Skywalker is no longer at the lake house, I'm sending you his current location... now.
A second later, Tekli confirmed: "We got it Dena!"
Relief swept over her. Yes! Backup. Luke would have a shuttle full of Jedi for support, not to mention Jaina (the Jedi's greatest champion) and Han, Leia, Ben...
That relief was only a few seconds old when it died an unceremonious death. Looking out the main viewport, as far as the eye could see, hundreds of ships just appeared out of nowhere.
No! Not out nowhere: The ships had just exited hyperspace.
And not ships! Not exactly. They were... Drones!
Dena barely had to look at the sensor readout to identify them. She had worked for Lando for over a year, as head manager over one of his mining operations. She was quite familiar with Tendrando's many gadgets.
They were about 1/4 the size of a modern starfighter, but they still packed a mean punch!
After their in system jump, the drones began a systematic approach toward the planet, attacking every satellite, space station, and ship they encountered.
"Master Tekli!" Dena called out into the comm.
"We See them! If you're going to jump, you better do it now!" The Healer replied.
No! Dena had no doubt that she was 100% non force sensitive, but she could no longer keep ignoring the feeling that kept nagging her from the corner of her mind. How was Luke supposed to get his needed backup if that Jedi shuttle was blown apart by this pilotless squadron.
"We're not going anywhere!" Was Dena's resolute answer.
"We're not!" Asked Captain Maverick, with eyebrow raised.
"No!" She said
"Ok!" Was his only reply.
To Dena that felt a little bit too easy. Maybe, he was the kinda guy who didn't like to turn his back on a good fight. Maybe, he was a huge fan of the Jedi (there was a lot more love for the Jedi these days) Whatever his reasons Captain was ready and eager to take part in her slightly suicidal shenanigans, and that was all that mattered.
"This thing have weapons?" She asked
"We got Two turrets, but zero gunners." He said, sporting that toothless grin again.
"I'll take the port turret!" She said, rolling her eyes. She was no gunner... No fighter, period! But she supposed, a lousy gunner was better than no gunner at all.
"If I may be permitted, Miss Yus..." Said an almost forgotten synthetic voice. "I shall operate the starboard turret."
"I thought protocol droids lacked the fine reflexes to operate turbo lasers, 3P0."
With a contrite tone, he replied: "In the past I may have... Overstated that particular handicap.
I find that since Artoo's... Sacrifice, his voice is still running through my circuits, and since he is not here to follow through on his most foolish suggestions, I feel it is my duty to accomplish them in his absence."
She place a hand on his chest and said: "I understand." And she did. After all, it was Luke's heroism that had awakened the hero inside of her, that she never knew existed.
In less than two minutes she was strapped in and ready. And not a moment too soon! The Drones were closing fast. Over the gunner's headset, she heard a familiar Bothan's voice comming from the Jedi shuttle: "Ok Majestic Fortune! Fighters incoming! We have the twin forward cannons, but this tin can is so slow, we might as well be riding a 3 legged Bantha. We'll snipe targets in front of us, but we cant defend ourselves against attack. Thats your Job! Provide us with cover and together, maybe we can save some of these ships and stations."
"Roger that!" Captan Maverick's voice rang out over Dena's headset.
Space lit up with streaks of deadly red and blue as the two craft engaged the drones.
A single drone wasn't overly dangerous, but neither was a single Dathomirian fire ant; enough of them, however, could devour a Rancor.
Indeed! The drones resembled a swarm, hitting anything in their way. Thankfully some of the ships were able to fight back but not all of them. Whatever couldn't fight or flee simply died, usually in a ball of flame and debris.
The two ships headed for a nearby station that was only minimally armed. Dena and C3PO kept the drones off their back with a steady stream of cover fire, while the shuttle went on a search and destroy rampage, destroying huge swaths of drones with each pass. But it wasn't enough! The swarm was closing in like a tightening noose. The hits on the ship's shields had gone from far and few between, to a near rhythmic consistency.
She could hear alarms and cursing coming from the cockpit. "It won't be long now!" She thought to herself. Then to her shock, a nearby drone that had been avoiding her strafing fire, spontaneously erupted in flames.
No! Not spontaneously! The explosion was caused by green laser canon fire from...
An N-1star fighter streaked acrossed Dena's field of vision, giving her much needed hope. Only on Naboo, would they pack state of the art technology into a vehicle that looked like it belonged in the old republic era. At that moment, Dena didn't care what the thing looked like. All she knew was that the newly arrived squadron of N-1's made them equal to the enemy they faced... Balance!
Onboard the Jedi shuttle, Yaqeel Saav'etu, shouted: "What the Kriff?" Nobody was offended by her salty language because
1) It was Yaqueel
2) Everyone else was inwardly asking the same thing.
The trademark yellow star fighters seemed to come out of nowhere, blasting away drones that had been attacking the two ships. "Stick with them, Yaqeel." Master Tekli said.
She silently acknowledged the command by matching Manoeuvres with the incoming squadron and taking up a position at its rear.
Josat was just beginning, what would've been, a 10 minute verbal rambling of the N-1's role in galactic history, when the mini holoprojector that was built into the co-pilot's console, glowed to life. There, in blue translucent form, was Naboo's current Monarch.
"Queen Vestunia" Tekli started, with a slight bow. "Master Jedi." She bowed her head in return. I have just been informed of the current attack in orbit. We are deeply grateful for your assistance in trying to defend our ships and stations. Please be aware that I have ordered 1 of our 2 palace squadrons to back you up.
"Thank you, your highness. They already here and are making themselves quite useful." Said the little chadra-fan.
The Queen continued: "We don't have an Army Proper, or a true Navy, but we do know the reason for this Attack: Luke Skywalker! His enemies now seek to destroy him and we cannot allow this. He is a true Son of Naboo, and his destruction would surely mean the destruction of all of. Thus, whatever help we can provide, we will not hesitate."
"We won't. May the force be with Naboo."
With that the hologram dispersed into thin air.
The battle had just gone from a foolishly heroic endeavour, to more of a fair fight. That being said she knew the offer was more symbolic than anything substantial. As the queen had acknowledged, their fighting forces were pretty much non-existent. The Palace guard was their only equivalent to a defence force, and most of them would be needed to protect the innocent civilians from the ensuing battle. She didn't know what else was coming, but she knew this was only the start. If Malgus's reputation was anything to go on, the next few hours would be bloody.
It was already bloody. It was true that the enemy numbers were dropping, but so were N-1's. With disturbing regularity, one of the blue alley dots, representing a royal starfighter, would wink out. "Hold on!" Yaqeel growled out as she banked the shuttle sharply, to avoid an exploding star fighter.
The next 3 minutes would see all but two of Naboo's Fighters destroyed. Thankfully most of the pilots would survive their EV ejection, if they could be picked up by a palace guard's support shuttle within the next hour. They had succeed, though, in that they had protected the Jedi shuttle and light transport, and that they had managed to take out the majority of the enemy drones. But it wasn't enough. There was still about 30 or 40 left unscathed, and they had now reformed into a smaller version of the earlier swarm.
The maelstrom of enemies overwhelmed both ships, pushing them to the limit. Alarms started blaring. Console lights that had previously been green, now switched to red. The booms from canon impacts to the (now unshielded) hull, signaled the shuttle's impending doom.
Just then, Captain Mavericks voice came over the comms. The transmission was full of static and sharp bursts of interference(due to the inundation of weapon's fire), but his words somehow got through.
"I've had enough of this poodoo! You got engines still?"
Without thinking where he was going with this, Yaqeel instinctively rattled off the shuttle's status:
"Hyperdrive, gone! Manoeuvring and main thrusters, gone!"
"Bloah!" He muttered, out of frustration.
"Wait! You got one thruster left!" He exclaimed, with a resurgence of hope in his voice. "The Cockpit!" Both him and Yaqeel yelled at the same time.
Without being prompted by his master, Josat yelled back into the shuttle's main hold for the rest of the crew to join them into the cockpit. The cockpit... Which doubled as an escape pod.
This functioned had skipped her mind, since in most cases, deploying it meant the death of any assault team the shuttle had in its hold (a cowardly feature as far as Yaqeel was concerned). This time, however, it was a feasible option. After cramming Seha and Lowbacca into the shuttle's command centre. Master Tekli slammed down the launch button with her diminutive fist, sending the life pod hurtling away from the swarm and toward the looming planet.
The wounded Majestic Fortune, still had one last burst of main thrusters left in her, and Captain Maverick used every ounce of it, as he sent his ship hurtling after the shuttle's disembodied head. Before that, however, he had left a gift behind for the swarm.
Seconds later, a vibrant blue glow appeared in the centre of the swarm. And then... Nothing!
This was almost instantly followed by a devastating release of explosive energy, in the form of a destructive wave, that proceed to devour the cloud of remaining drones.
"Sonic charge! I like this guy" Yaqeel growled in admiration, as both crews headed planet side.
As they entered Naboo's atmosphere, a variation of the phrase "Out of the Plamsa storm and into the Black hole." crossed everyone's mind.