Chapter 17: Danger in the Sky

Hundreds of miles above Tatooine, the First Order's fleet had been engaging the New Republic vessels that had remained in the system for nearly three solar hours, and while three Star Destroyers had been crippled in the ensuing battle, one Star Defender; the Republic-class Illustrious II had been destroyed. Two other Star Defenders were half-crippled, while ten Munificent-class frigates were attempting to weave through the enemy lines and knock out the firepower of the Star Destroyers. Their attack saw three of the frigates impaired by ion blasts from the concealed cannons of the Star Destroyers, but two frigates managed to damage the Devastator's firepower extensively. The CR-90 cruisers, led by the crew of the newly built Tantive V, were flanking the Star Destroyers with orders to target the shield generators before the Star Defenders unleashed more laserfire on the invaders.

The Star Destroyers were moving to cut off the smaller cruisers from the main force of the New Republic, but as they prepared to drive the wedge, the New Republic fleet that had attempted to capture Supreme Leader Snoke at Nevarro emerged from hyperspace and moved to outflank the First Order's invasion force. The Liberation led the fleet to a position where the First Order could not open fire on them without drawing their attack away from the first fleet, and then the New Republic began their desperate gambit to divide the First Order's strength.

Aboard the Devastator, Grand Moff Gideon was beside himself with displeasure at this turn of events. He had planned to surprise the New Republic fighters by sending the Dark Troopers at them, but with the fleet that had just come from Nevarro hammering his ships, the mechanical soldiers could not march orderly to the hangar doors as the blaster bolts from the Star Defenders were causing the city-sized vessel to tremble dangerously.

"Why aren't the Dark Troopers on the attack?!" he bellowed to Admiral Milestar.

"We can't maintain this position, sir!" the admiral replied. "Our starboard flank is in range of those Republic ships, and each shot is destabilizing us!"

"Then order the fleet to move at them! Set all deflectors double-front and get the Dark Troopers into flight!" Moff Gideon spluttered.

Admiral Milestar gave his superior a look of abashed submission and answered, "Yes, sir."

The Star Destroyers used their portside boosters to face the newcomers, and at the signal code from the Devastator, the forty First Order warships initiated a slow charge. On the Liberation's bridge, Lando saw the Star Destroyers moving into attack formation and ordered, "Get the crews to their fighters and fire up the forward cannons! I want those Star Destroyers tenderized like Mon Cala sardine fritters!"

With that order, the fighter crews scrambled to the hangar bays while the crews refueled and rearmed the snub ships with all speed. Ahsoka, Ezra, Tor Solaris, Mawlekk, and Lung-Seek were the first to exit the hangar bay upon sending the code for launch procedures to the bridge, and then from each Star Defender that had received Lando's order, thousands of fighters; X-wings, Y-wings, A-wings, B-wings, C-wings, and H-wings flew in a steady stream toward the oncoming Star Destroyers. However, the first signals that the pilots' scanners picked up was all it took for their engagement to turn to chaos.

"TIE fighters coming in!" Ezra alerted. He then banked sharply to starboard as thousands of First Order TIE fighters seemingly lunged out of the emptiness of space and swarmed over the New Republic fleet like rabid hawk-bats. Wedge Antilles and Horton Salm flew alongside Ezra, blasting several TIE fighters as they soared unwittingly into their cannon ranges while pursuing other targets. In seconds, Ezra and his two companions were near the bridge of the Devastator, and Ezra ordered, "Red Two, Red Four, fire on those shield generators! Use your new discord missiles!"

Wedge piloted his X-wing fighter for the portside generator while Horton targeted the starboard before pulling a set of switches. From a pair of hatches above the top wings and under the bottom wings of their fighters, a set of cannons launched a single missile each, which streaked toward the Star Destroyer and hit the unprotected shield generators as Wedge and Horton cleared the area.

On the bridge of the Devastator, the crews felt a violent shuddering as the ship's power shut in sparse locations. One officer checked the damage report and cried to Moff Gideon, "Sir, they've knocked out the bridge deflector shield! One direct hit on the bridge and we're done for!"

Moff Gideon swore under his breath and barked, "Move the ship to the rear lines! And send the Dark Troopers after those Republic scum!"

A soft-sounding beep resounded from the dash holopad, and despite his jarred nerves, Moff Gideon patched the communication through to the Devastator. A First Order officer appeared and reported, "Sir, the New Republic has sent a contingency force to attack our main outpost. Two Jedi are with them, and we can confirm that one of them is Skywalker. Moreover, they've brought the Tusken savages into this fight and have taken down the walkers we've sent out, two of which seem to be taken over."

"Hold out as long as you can! The Dark Troopers will take care of them!" he answered sharply.

The officer gave a salute and deactivated the transmission, whereon Moff Gideon turned to face General Ekron. "We have an unexpected turn of events to deal with. Send the Dark Troopers to Outpost Palpatine. Skywalker and his little band must be dealt with."

General Ekron looked out the viewports on the oncoming Star Defenders and said, "Sir, shouldn't we consider their usefulness here? If the Republic ships break through…"

"That's an order, General!" rapped the Grand Moff, now feeling his patience thinning to the critical point.

General Ekron held his tongue and nodded before going to the control console and sending a new directive to the Dark Troopers as they finally managed to exit the hangar doors of the Devastator.

…

Lando watched the fighters fly over, under, and around the First Order vessels, exchanging blaster fire with every TIE fighter they could catch off guard. Finally, he said, "All forward cannons, set for range fifteen hundred!"

The bridge officers sent the coordinates to the gunners near the bow of the Star Defender and one Dressellian officer, Karrimerro, confirmed, "Range marked and ready, General Calrissian."

"All cannons to full power!" Lando commanded.

"Marked and locked in," a Gran officer named Aak Roe reported.

As the First Order's vessels drew nearer, Lando waited until they were just under eight thousand meters away, and then gave the signal. "Fire!"

The Star Defenders fired a volley of thousands of laserbolts on the encroaching Star Destroyers. For most of the ships, their deflectors shields withstood this initial assault, but the Devastator took a rough blow below the bridge. Stormtroopers and officers had the floor swept from under them, and those lucky enough to brace themselves with hand irons barely held on as the upper decks of the Star Destroyer trembled. On the bridge, Moff Gideon ordered the maintenance crews to attempt a power reroute to restore shielding on the bridge. Then he heard one deck officer call, "Grand Moff Gideon, the Dark Troopers are headed for Outpost Palpatine as your command was."

The ghost of a smile drifted over Gideon's face and he said, "Good. Order my fighter ready. I'm going down there to see that the New Republic scum don't get away with their attack." Rounding on Admiral Milestar, he added curtly, "Admiral, the bridge is yours."

Argus Milestar nodded and immediately ordered the Devastator to dispatch another squad of fighters to keep the New Republic occupied while Moff Gideon went with his Dark Troopers to deal with Luke and his company on the planet.

…

Ahsoka Tano and Ezra Bridger led Tor Solaris, Mawlekk, and Lung-Seek on a bombing run over the First Order's fleet. All around them, turbolaser blasts spat into the starry tapestry of space as they weaved through the defenses of the city-sized vessels. With their efforts, a squad of X-wings and C-wings equipped with proton bombs decimated the weapon systems of two Star Destroyers early on in the battle; the Assimilator and the Invigorator. They were returning to the field of dogfights raging between the two fleets when Ezra's astromech droid beeped into the communication panel.

"What is it, R5?" replied Ezra to his mechanical companion. R5-D3 bleeped and tweeted his message through, and the younger Jedi hailed Ahsoka's frequency. "Ahsoka, the Dark Troopers are headed for the planet's surface! And R5 is detecting a lone fighter going after them!"

Ahsoka needed no scanner to understand the intention behind this unforeseen development. She said with trepidation, "Luke's party is down there."

Ahsoka immediately contacted the Liberation and said, "General Calrissian, this is Gold Leader. Those mechanical troopers we encountered on Nevarro are headed for Tatooine, and we have reason to believe that they are going after Luke's party at the First Order's outpost. We have to send a cruiser to take them out. Not sure our fighters' cannons will be enough to slow them down."

"Negative. Too risky, Ahsoka," came Lando's response. "We break formation, and the First Order's TIE fighters will get through the lines too easily. We have to hold them here."

"Not a problem, General," came the voice of Tor Solaris, who was now leading a force of X-wings and Y-wings under the Devastator. He sighted the lone TIE Infiltrator moving away from the battle and sensed that the pilot was connected in some way to the maneuver of the Dark Troopers. He hit the thrusters and soared between the hail of crimson and jade blaster bolts to catch the lone TIE fighter that was preparing to enter the atmosphere of Tatooine. The pilots in Tor's squad took this unorthodox maneuver as a command to pursue this fighter and followed their squad leader's example. Tor did not bother to call them off, for he had reason to believe that the pilot of this TIE fighter was intentionally avoiding the battle to aid the First Order on the planet's surface.

Inside the cockpit of his TIE Infiltrator, Moff Gideon remained behind his Dark Troopers to ensure that they reached the surface of Tatooine without the meddlers of the New Republic attempting to stop them. He had reason to hope that they would reach the surface even if blaster fire was turned on them; his Dark Troopers were designed with Mandalorian iron, which could repel firepower up to the magnitude of an A280 blaster rifle. The metal also ensured that the Dark Troopers would suffer no ill effect from passing through the atmosphere, but the lingering question on his mind was how well Mandalorian iron could withstand blaster bolts from a starfighter's cannons. Before he could question the implications, Moff Gideon was nearly blinded by the fiery glare of a blaster bolt dissipating mere micrometers from his right solar array wing. A glance at his scope told him that he was being pursued by a party of fighters, and they weren't TIEs.

Those blasted Republic scum don't know when to leave well enough alone, the Grand Moff thought scowlingly. With that, he threw his Infiltrator into a tight loop and activated the cloaking device, which the First Order had installed on the Infiltrator-class TIE fighters for stealth missions. But while Moff Gideon's fighter was now undetected by the pursuing New Republic fighters, their pilots could still follow the ion trail of the TIE's engines.

Tor Solaris followed Moff Gideon's maneuver and searched through the Force to find him. Closing in on the fleeing Tie, he fired more laser blasts as he banked to the right and the left to catch Moff Gideon off guard. The TIE Infiltrator narrowly dodged the incoming shots and responded with fire on the pursuing ships. One unlucky X-wing pilot lurched ahead before turning in an attempt to fire back, but the instant he turned around, the pilot was caught in a green hail of laser from Moff Gideon and his fighter was blown into fragments of molten metal and superheated vapor.

Gideon was about to turn fire on one of the Y-wings when another X-wing appeared in his sights and fired on him, and he veered sharply away from the laserbolts and escaped with only a bit of carbon scouring on the left solar array wing. He then turned to continue his flight toward Tatooine to see that his Dark Troopers kept the First Order's grip on Tatooine in place, bobbing and weaving to evade incoming blaster bolts. However, he had reckoned without Tor Solaris.

The TIE Infiltrator suddenly jerked as if caught in a tractor beam, and Moff Gideon saw fragments of durasteel and plastoid on his left wing. The temperature gauge was in the red range, and that's when the Grand Moff knew he had been hit. He disengaged from the battle and continued his flight path to Tatooine, though his fighter was rapidly losing fuel as one of the fuselages had been damaged in the blast. He reached the atmosphere, and Moff Gideon fought hard to keep his damaged TIE fighter from succumbing to Tatooine's gravity altogether. However, the fighter was heating up to the point where the mechanical systems were ready to go haywire, and the TIE's lack of shielding did not stop the flames even after the TIE Infiltrator was out of the danger of being torched to a crisp.

On the ground, a pack of half-panicked Jawas threw themselves over the sand dunes as Moff Gideon's TIE fighter thundered overhead. Finally, the out-of-control vessel slammed into the desert floor, losing its right solar array wing, and it rolled roughly along the ground until it bounced off of a large heap of rock, damaging the other wing even further, and it finally skidded to a stop in the sand.

Moff Gideon felt his head, and then rose from his seat. Thankfully, he had endured no fractured bones, no bleeding cuts, and no sign of a concussion. The only damage he had accrued was a few bruises that the Grand Moff would not bother to trouble any physician with. Wasting no further time, he opened the hatch of his downed TIE Infiltrator and was nearly blinded by the enhanced glare of Tatooine's twin suns. After taking a moment to let his eyes adjust to the dizzying display of light, Moff Gideon leapt from the roof of his disabled fighter and began trudging away from the wreck toward the nearest settlement where he could purchase a speeder and reach the outpost from there. He paid no mind to the Jawas, who were now curiously approaching his damaged TIE fighter in the hopes of salvaging some goods that could turn them a decent profit. He would find another way off of this forsaken planet, if fate was not to deny it to him.

A/N: Hi, everyone. I'm glad to be able to continue writing this rewrite of Star Wars' Episode VII, and I hope you're all still enjoying the reading. Feel free to review and favorite if you wish, and keep an eye out, 'cause Chapter 18 will bring the event of the battle you've all been waiting for: a classic lightsaber duel!