Hey, everybody. I am sorry about the long break. But, I was busy focusing on my final exams and finishing all of my homework. But, at last, I can return to writing because, as of this week, I have officially completed my bachelor's degree! I have finally finished college!
As of now, I am searching for a full time job in my degree field, but it may take some time to find one. So, until further notice, I'll be able to start writing at my old frequency again.
Alright. Let's get back to it.
Jedi Kyle Katarn: He'll return soon enough
Chapter 69- Desperate Attempt
(December 2, 2051)
Blaster bolts are streaking all around him as Daniel snaps the control stick back and forth, weaving through the volleys of laser fire. A TIE fighter flashes past him, and Daniel squeezes the trigger. His laser cannons spring to life, blowing the TIE fighter to pieces. Daniel immediately snaps into a Split S, knowing he has to keep moving.
As Daniel levels off again, another TIE flashes past his nose. Again, Daniel squeezes the trigger, vaporizing the TIE with a burst of laser fire. He swivels his head, and sees a squadron of SFA-181s making a run on a Maxima class heavy cruiser just ahead of him. He quickly pushes that out of his mind and returns his attention to the battle around him.
The so called "Great Stalemate" of the 2nd Galactic Civil War has been going on for 2 years now. Despite efforts by both sides to break the stalemate, the territorial lines have remained pretty much the same. And as could be expected, the First Order's Supreme Leader, Kylo Ren, was growing impatient. Finally, as 2051 was winding down towards its ending, Kylo had decided to try his hand at the task that two factions before him had failed at: attacking the home of the Terran Alliance. By now, the First Order had learned that the Terrans were engaged in their own war at home, and Kylo Ren figured they had a chance if the Alliance was so distracted. The First Order was not even certain if they intended to attack Terra directly, or simply attempt to send a fleet into the Milky Way to attack lesser planets and destroy the Alliance's supply lines.
However, they never even made it to the Andromeda Galaxy. Terran intelligence agents working under Galen Andor had managed to intercept transmission and other preparations for the attack and sent a warning to Grand Admiral Page. Terran tracking stations had managed to pick up the First Order's movements, and Jonathan had dispatched every available ship to establish a defense around the wormhole leading between galaxies, hoping to prevent the First Order from even reaching the Milky Way.
When the First Order's invasion fleet, numbering a little over a thousand various vessels, reached the wormhole after exploiting what they thought was a gap in the Alliance's defenses, they instead found themselves faced with a massive Terran Alliance fleet numbering over 700 ships waiting for them, including the Vanguard and the Enterprise. A massive space battle, the largest since the Battle of Jakku, began as the Terran sought to defend the gateway to their home.
The battle has now been going on for almost a day. Losses favor the Terrans, but the battle is not over.
Throughout the battle, the Hammer Squadron has taken the lead in the fight, downing hundreds of TIEs and being responsible for destroying multiple warships all on their own. Daniel himself has shot down over a hundred TIE fighters and bombers since the battle began. And that number is only growing.
Daniel streaks low under the hull of a Resurgent that's currently engaging the battleship Torfa. He squeezes the trigger to fire his laser cannons as he waves across the hull, avoiding hitting weapons batteries on the ship's undersides. His laser cannons pummel the batteries in his way, and while most resist his fire thanks to the ship's shields, a few are destroyed.
Daniel streaks out from under the hull of the battlecruiser and swivels his head, looking for a new target. He spots a flight of TIE bombers heading in the direction of the battlecruiser Shinano and immediately turns to engage them.
Suddenly, he hears a transmission over the squadron frequency. "This is Hammer 12. I've got a bandit on my six and he ain't leaving!"
Daniel scans the space around him after glancing down at his radar to get an idea of Hammer 12's location. It doesn't take him too long to spot Hammer 12, currently zooming past another Resurgent, with a fighter on his tail. The fighter resembles a TIE Silencer, but with some modifications and noticeable differences. Daniel quickly recognizes it from recent intelligence reports. A new TIE interceptor design based on the new TIE Whisper: The TIE Whisper Interceptor.
As Daniel starts turning in the direction to help Hammer 12, he watches as 12 begins serious evasive action. However, the TIE keeps right on its tail with no trouble at all, following through every maneuver with ease. After only a few seconds, the TIE opens fire, its dozen laser cannons spraying fire right at Hammer 12. And only a second later, several bolts hit 12's tail, which bursts into flame as the Mustang begins to spiral out of control. Only a second later, the Mustang explodes with a burst of static on the squadron frequency.
Daniel stares in shock, watching the ball of smoke and debris from the exploded Mustang. As he watches, Hammer 16 comes speeding in, laser cannons blazing. However, the Whisper Interceptor dodges the bolts with great ease, and in just a second, is behind Hammer 16. A few more bolts of laser fire, and Hammer 16's right wing is blown off. The fighter goes spinning out of control, with 16 managing to eject just before the Mustang explodes, hoping that the tech of the ejection seat will be able to keep him alive long enough to be rescued.
Daniel watches in horror as a second of his squadronmates is destroyed by this TIE. As he watches, it dawns on him who is in the cockpit. The best pilot in the First Order, the only one who can match every pilot thrown against him. "Ren," he mutters.
After a moment, Daniel's scowl increases tenfold, and he shoves the throttles to full power, streaking towards what he now knows is Kylo Ren's fighter. "Alright, Ren. This is it. You've met your match now. Let's do this," he growls as he tightens his grip on the control stick, ready to engage Kylo Ren.
In the cockpit of his TIE, Kylo Ren sees Daniel's Mustang streaking towards him. Thinking it will be another easy kill, Kylo turns to engage Daniel and starts firing his laser cannons at the incoming Mustang, but Daniel snaps the stick over and stomps the rudder controls, barrel rolling up and over the incoming laser fire. Daniel fires a volley in return, but Kylo increases speed and noses down to avoid the fire.
The Mustang and Whisper Interceptor pass at incredible speed before each pilot snaps the stick in tight, turning tight to get on each other's tail. Although the Mustang is incredibly agile with its thrust vectoring technology, the Whisper Interceptor is just as agile. The two fighters turn around each other. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, Kylo starts gaining on Daniel.
"I don't think so!" Daniel growls as he starts to realize this. Thinking quickly, he suddenly reverses his turn. Although initially caught off guard, Kylo quickly reverses his turn, sliding in on Daniel's tail. However, right as he's about to get a firing angle on Daniel's fighter, Daniel shoves the throttles into full afterburner, extending far from Kylo's fighter. Then, before Kylo can respond with his own burst of speed, Daniel pulls his nose up, splitting the throttles as he shoves one forward and yanks the other back to idle, cutting his nose around extremely tightly, looping his fighter around and back towards Kylo.
In just two seconds, the two fighters are merging again. Daniel squeezes the trigger at almost the same time as Kylo does, the two spraying laser fire at each other while weaving from side to side to avoid getting hit. The two fighters merge again without hitting each other, and once again turn towards each other to try and get on each other's tail. This time, however, Kylo starts the turn a little early, and Daniel quickly realizes that Kylo is going to be on his tail very soon.
As Kylo gets within range, he flips his armament switch and squeezes it, muttering to himself, "Goodbye, Hammer." A second later, a missile pops out of his left wing and launches, streaking towards Daniel's Mustang.
An alarm blares in Daniel's headset, and his astro droid trills in warning. "S***!" Daniel curses loudly before his training takes over. Daniel pushes the throttles forward, giving him a few more seconds to respond. Then, he flips the switch that deploys a cloud of countermeasures behind him. Daniel then flips the Mustang over into a Split S, diving and reversing direction in second. The rapid change in direction, covered by the countermeasures, fools the missile, which goes sailing off into space.
Daniel is already trying to gain a missile lock himself. Using his HMD, he looks up at Kylo's fighter as he tries to pull his nose up towards it. Hearing a faint tone in his headset, he decides to take the shot and squeezes the trigger. Despite Kylo's fighter already being about 60 degrees of his nose and that number increasing, the missile manages to lock as it launches. The missiles streaks off the rail and starts curving up towards Kylo's fighter. Daniel watches the missile track its way up towards the TIE. But Kylo manuevers his fighter towards Daniel's, further increasing the angle. As Daniel watches, the missile tries to manuever towards its target, but just misses the mark. Kylo tries firing another round of laser fire, but the bolts just miss Daniel's Mustang.
As the dogfight between Daniel and Kylo Ren continues, others are beginning to take notice. Crewmen on surrounding ships not engrossed in the duties of battle are watching the dance of death between the two fighters as it unfolds, and some of Daniel's squadronmates are circling the dogfight, watching it, wanting to assist, but knowing that doing so could just introduce chaos into the situation and end up making things worse. As he circles, the squadron commander, Captain Parker, calls out over the squadron's frequency, "Keep all TIEs away from Daniel. And if things go wrong, we have his back, understood?"
"Yes, sir!" the four other Hammer Squadron pilots circling the ongoing dogfight call out over the frequency.
Even as this is playing out over his radio, Daniel has completely tuned it out, focused only on the dogfight. His eyes are outside the cockpit as he holds the stick in his gut, his Mustang turning about as tight as it can. However, Kylo's TIE is slowly gaining on him.
"Alright, that's enough of that!" Daniel snarls as a new idea comes to him. Daniel eases his turn slightly, allowing Kylo to catch up with him. Then, as Kylo almost has a firing angle on Daniel, Daniel makes his move. His arms flash around the cockpit as he snaps his engines back almost to idle before stomping the rudder controls and snapping the stick around. The Mustang enters a Kvuchov's Bell maneuver, seemingly stalled in midair as it rotates around. Kylo starts maneuvering to compensate for the move, but as Daniel's Mustang tumbles through the air, Daniel squeezes the trigger and fires his laser cannons. Bolts fly in every direction, and one clips one of Kylo's wings. The wing starts to smoke from the damage as the fighter's stability begins to deteriorate.
Kylo tries to steady his fighter while regaining his situational awareness, but Daniel has already steadied his fighter and leveled it off behind Kylo's fighter. Daniel smirks as he throttles up and closes on Kylo's fighter. Switching over to his missiles, he squeezes the trigger and ripple fires two Sidewinders at Kylo's fighter. However, Kylo throws the fighter into a series of rolls while deploying countermeasures, and the missiles are decoyed away.
Daniel growls as he continues to pursue Kylo. Kylo tries to maneuver away from Daniel, but the instability to the airframe from the damage on his wing restricts his motion without losing control of his fighter. Daniel closes the distance on Kylo's fighter, the two turning tighter and tighter. As Daniel gets closer to Kylo, Kylo starts jinking back and forth, even though doing so threatens his control over his fighter. But Daniel sticks with him, trying to get his pipper on target.
Finally, as Kylo holds a jink to the right a little longer to ensure he can maintain control of his fighter, Daniel gets a momentary firing angle. "Gotcha," he growls as he squeezes the trigger.
Daniel's laser cannons spring to life. A bolt disperses against the remaining shields on the fighter before a second bolt hits the engines. Two more bolts then hit the wing root of the right wing, breaking the wing clean off.
The TIE begins to spin out of control. Kylo immediately knows that his fighter is finished, and he flips the switch to eject. The top of his fighter is blown away before he is rocketed out of the disintegrating fighter. A shield encompasses his body to protect him from the harshness of space. He watches Daniel's Mustang streak past him, his rage boiling over at having been bested. Kylo watches Daniel fly away before turning his attention to a nearby Resurgent. Reaching out with the Force, Kylo begins pulling himself towards the battlecruiser.
Meanwhile, Daniel glances back to see Kylo's fighter come apart completely. "Yee-haw!" he cheers. Not only is this his 104th kill of the battle, but he had bested Kylo Ren in one of the fiercest dogfights of the war.
"Nice work, Daniel!" Captain Parker cheers over the radio.
As the Hammer Squadron celebrates Daniel's victory over Kylo Ren, Admiral Jacobsen is monitoring the course of the battle from his position on the bridge of the Enterprise. So far, the Enterprise has only been using her conventional weapons against the ships of the First Order's fleet. But now, as many Terran ships are suffering from heavy damage, he's decided that the time has come to use the Enterprise's most powerful weapon.
"Weapons, begin charging the superlaser!" Jacobsen orders.
"Yes, sir!" the weapons officers respond. In a second, the superlaser begins charging.
Jacobsen waits patiently for the superlaser to charge. After only a few minutes, the weapons officers call out, "Admiral, weapon is ready!"
"Pick target and fire at will!" Admiral Jacobsen orders.
The weapons officers lock onto a Mandator-IV Siege Dreadnought just up ahead and feed course correction information to the navigation officer, who alters the ship's course to ensure the superlaser is aimed properly. Once proper alignment is confirmed, the weapons officers initiate the firing sequence. The firing system draws power from the kyber crystals, and the power soon surges over the threshold. Tributary beams shoot down three shafts to meet right at the prow of the ship, combining into one beam before it shoots out into space. The beam connects with the Mandator, and the massive ship is vaporized in an instant. Combat slows for a few moments as shock rushes through both fleets. The First Order had been unaware of the existence of the superlaser, and even many of the Terran crews didn't know about it. Crew from both fleets watch in shock at the fireball from the destruction of the dreadnought.
On the flagship of the First Order's fleet, the commander of the fleet, Allegiant General Pryde, one of the few remaining old Imperials in First Order service, is the first to recover. He recognizes the futility of fighting against such a massive fleet that includes the Enterprise when he doesn't have an overwhelming numbers advantage. "Signal all vessels! Retreat at once! Retreat into hyperspace as soon as free from interdictor influence. Rendezvous at Corellia!" he orders.
The orders are quickly relayed throughout the First Order's fleet. But the chaos of battle still reigns, and most crews are still trying to recover from the shock of what they just witnessed. And all the while, the Enterprise is recharging its superlaser.
When the superlaser fires again 5 minutes after the first firing, this time destroying a Resurgent, the sight is enough to galvanize the rest of the First Order's fleet. Across the fleet, vessels begin turning away and assuming courses to take them out of range of Terran interdiction cruisers, which are all being kept safe behind the rest of the fleet to keep them out of weapons range.
Over the following few hours, the First Order's fleet retreats one by one into hyperspace as they are able to get out of range of the interdiction fields. The Terran fleet maintains its pursuit the entire time, continuing to attack without relent. And all the while, the Enterprise continues firing its superlaser every 5 minutes, destroying a ship with every shot. In the end, the Enterprise claims over 20 ships with its superlaser before the last survivor of the First Order's fleet retreats into hyperspace.
At last, the battle to protect the wormhole has ended. Despite the loss of almost 150 ships and vast numbers of fighters and bombers, the Terrans had emerged victorious. Almost 500 of the First Order's ships were destroyed, and 32 more were disabled and later captured by the Terrans, overall amounting to about half of the fleet. Although not an overwhelming victory, it has dealt a major blow to the First Order's war machine.
Even as the news of the victory reaches Naboo, Jonathan is already planning his next move.
And, I'll end the chapter there. I hope you liked this one.
I couldn't go forever without showing Kylo Ren as a pilot, and so I figured that it was about time to show him facing off with our star pilot, Daniel. I hope their dogfight was not a disappointment.
Alright. Next chapter will be up relatively soon. Until it is up, please leave a review, and stay tuned.