Hey, everybody. I'm back with another chapter. Sorry it took so long. I'd intended to finish this sooner, but I'll tell you, going through a divorce messes with you like nothing else. To those guest reviewers who have complained about my lack of updates, well, wait until you go through a divorce and see how it affects you. Even now, I'm not back to normal, but I'm trying to get back into writing more and more. Some of you may have seen the new story called Civil War I posted on Wattpad (which I encourage you all to check out), but I decided I didn't want to just focus on that story.
Alright. Let's get to the chapter and wrap up the Battle of Exegol.
Jedi Kyle Katarn: Ben has more Force potential than Luke, but has yet to overtake his father in terms of how powerful he actually is. Rey is powerful, but not as powerful as either Luke or Ben. Their daughter, Vestara, however, has a Force potential beyond anything seen, except maybe Anakin. And we'll see that in the sequel to this story.
Chapter 93- Complete Destruction
(Airspace over Exegol)
Another explosion rocks the bridge of the Enterprise as Jonathan watches similar explosions tearing through the Super Star Destroyer of the Dark Empire that the Enterprise is engaged with, which has now been identified as the Eclipse, the former flagship of Emperor Palpatine. Currently, the Enterprise, Hood, and the Lusankya are all engaging the Eclipse, determined to destroy the cohesion of the remaining fleet with the destruction of their flagship.
"Grand Admiral, we've got a fire breaking out in the engine spaces!" an officer calls out.
"Bring the bow around 5 degrees and order two fire crews to the engine spaces!" Jonathan orders. Jonathan's orders are relayed, and the helmsman brings the bow around to further protect the engines from turbolaser fire from the Eclipse.
Outside, as turbolaser fire is streaking through space, the Hammer Squadron bears down on the Eclipse. The Squadron had just re-armed aboard the Vanguard, and the pilots are now ready to start their attacks on the Eclipse.
In his cockpit, Daniel is focused on the massive warship up ahead. That is, until he spots three TIE Daggers coming in straight at him. Daniel switches back over to his laser cannons. He snaps the stick back and forth to avoid incoming laser fire from the TIEs, firing quick, precise bursts of laser fire to down two of the TIEs. As Daniel flies past the third, he snaps the stick in tight and pulls back on the engines, causing his Mustang to basically backflip. And right as he's pointed backwards, he squeezes the trigger, and a burst of laser fire down the TIE. He soon rights the Mustang and rejoins the squadron, now with 63 kills for the day.
"Hammers, focus your attacks on the engines!" Captain Parker calls over the radio as he banks his Mustang towards the stern of the Eclipse.
Daniel dives to avoid a hail of turbolaser fire before pulling up and circling around towards the stern. As he does, he sees several turbolaser mounts on the underside of the vessel turning in his direction. Daniel switches the armament control to his proton torpedo launchers and fires three torpedoes. They tear into the Eclipse, penetrating the ship's weakened shields and tearing through the mounts, destroying four in total and blasting small craters in the hull.
Daniel comes around the stern of the Eclipse, where he sees that his squadronmates are already blasting away at the engines while a few of them are holding off TIE fighters trying to interfere with the squadron.
Daniel focuses his attention on the engines. Keeping his armament switch on his proton torpedoes, Daniel rapid-fires his 5 remaining torpedoes into the rear-most engines. The torpedoes impact one after the other, the explosions rocking the rear part of the massive ship. The shields protecting the engines partially fail, and one of the engines is destroyed while another one is damaged.
Daniel streaks under the burning stern of the ship and whips his fighter around, scanning for any aerial targets while the rest of his squadronmates focus on the engines. He quickly spots a pair of TIEs pursuing Hammer 3 and banks to intercept. Quickly locking up one of the TIEs, he launches a missile that quickly shreds the TIE into scraps of metal. He then smoothly switches over to his laser cannons as he closes the distance with the remaining TIE. Centering his gunsight squarely on the TIE, he squeezes the trigger. A flurry of laser bolts blast the remaining TIE to vapor. Daniel smirks a bit as he barrels past the debris.
Meanwhile, aboard the Hood, Admiral Pellaeon is carefully monitoring his ship's fire on the Eclipse. After so long, to be back in a real battle is a somewhat exhilarating feeling.
"Sir, our squadrons report more effective attacks surrounding the flag bridge! They believe the shields surrounding the bridge are wearing down," one of the bridge officers calls out.
"Focus all turbolaser fire on the bridge and bring the ship up 300 feet!" Pellaeon orders without hesitation. Despite his age, his mind is still as sharp as ever.
The helmsman quickly begins to pull the Hood up slightly to give the gunners a better line of fire on the bridge. As the Hood rises, the gunners all begin to aim their weapons towards the bridge. Volleys of turbolaser fire begin to slam into the bridge and the surrounding hull. Most of the bolts are deflected by shields, but not all of them, and some craters are blasted into the surrounding hull.
On the bridge of the Enterprise, Jonathan notices the Hood shifting its position and starting to fire on the bridge. Seeing the opportunity, he orders, "Volley launch cruise missiles and bring the bow around 5 degrees! Focus all fire on the stern!" Jonathan figures if he can finish the destruction of the engines and cause further damage to the stern while the Hood is pummeling the bridge, the Eclipse will finally fall.
The Enterprise's weapons officers begin launching the ship's remaining cruise missiles. Dozens of missiles smash into the hull of the Eclipse as the Enterprise fires all of its weapons with a line of fire on the stern. Thousands of turbolaser bolts and a number of railgun projectiles tear into the stern of the Eclipse. As the Enterprise and Hood continue to pummel the rear half of the Eclipse, with the Lusankya firing on the forward half of the Eclipse, the massive Super Star Destroyer continues to fight back. But bit by bit, the shields are being worn down to nothing as chunks are blasted away from the ship.
Then, in one formation, the Dambusters come streaking in towards the Eclipse. The Hammer Squadron and the Blue Nosers quickly assembly around the bombers to protect them from TIE fighters as the bombers start their bombing runs. Weaving from side to side, the bombers advance towards the bridge and stern of the Eclipse, avoiding all incoming laser fire, their mastery over their bombers easily clear.
The first of the bombers reaches its targets and punches out its full load of bombs on the bridge. As the bombs blast into the hull, hammering away at the shields, the next few bombers eject their bombloads. Hundreds of bombs impact the bridge and the stern, and it doesn't take long before the hammering punishment overwhelms the shields, and the bombs begin blasting into the hull without restriction, and dozens of bombs demolish the flag bridge as a series of explosions run around the stern to destroy several of the engines.
Massive flames rise from the destroyed bridge. Although the Eclipse has been modified during its exile to have a secondary bridge and steering system deeper in the ship, it has some drawbacks that make it a less capable command center than the main bridge. And with the loss of the admiral who was on the bridge, the Dark Empire has lost its main military commander.
On the Enterprise, Jonathan watches as flames begin to engulf the rear of the Eclipse. A grin crosses his face as he watches the flagship of the Emperor begin to burn.
(The surface)
On the surface of Exegol, under the massive bulk of the Citadel, in the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon, Anakin and Ronen are anxiously waiting at the controls. The two had easily killed all of the Knights of Ren and Shadow Guards, before they had further explored the Citadel. They took a number of photographs and also grabbed some artifacts from the laboratory, as well as recovering the body of Kylo Ren. They had received a brief message during this process from Jaina, instructing them to return to the Falcon and wait for the others to return to the ship. However, it's been a little while since they arrived at the Falcon, and they've heard nothing from Ben, Rey, or Jaina.
Anakin looks over at Ronen. "Think we should go in after them? We haven't heard anything from them in a while, and I'm still worried by that explosion sound we heard earlier," Anakin says in a slightly worried tone.
Ronen looks like he's concerned too. But, he then glances out the viewport again, and a look of relief comes over the old ASAT commando's face. "Actually, I think they're okay," he says.
Anakin looks out of the viewpoint, and feels a great sense of relief come over him as he says several figures emerging from under the Citadel. As they come out from under the Citadel, Anakin is able to see that it's Ben and Rey, supporting Jaina between them, who is still unconscious from Darth Bane's attack.
"Rev her up, David! I'll go help 'em out!" Anakin says before he races out of the cockpit.
As Ronen starts up the engines and readies the Falcon for takeoff, Anakin sprints down the boarding ramp and hurries over towards his friends. As he gets closer to them, he can see that Ben and Rey are absolutely worn out and struggling to hold up Jaina.
"Boy am I relieved to see you guys. Let me take her," Anakin says in an urgent tone. He quickly takes Jaina from them and picks her up to carry her back aboard the Falcon. He hurries back to the Falcon ahead of Ben and Rey, who slump a bit from the relief.
Ben and Rey look at each other with relief. "We're gonna be okay," Rey says, the emotions of the last few hours rushing over her, her eyes watering a bit.
"Yeah. Now let's get out of here," Ben says with the greatest tone of relief Rey has ever heard in her husband's voice.
"Yes, let's," Rey responds. And together, the two stumble towards the Falcon.
The couple stumbles up the boarding ramp as they hear the engines rev. As soon as they get to the top of the ramp, the ramp raises and closes. A second later, the Falcon lifts off the ground as Ronen pulls up on the controls. As he does, Anakin, who had set Jaina down on one of the bunks in the passenger bay, settles into the cockpit beside Ronen.
Ronen and Anakin carefully guide the Falcon up into Exegol's upper atmosphere. As they continue to climb, Anakin activates the radio and tries to contact the Enterprise. It takes a moment before the holoprojector activates, projecting an image of Jonathan.
"Grand Admiral Page, it's Major Hall," Anakin says.
"Major. Good to see you alive," Jonathan says.
"Grand Admiral, the Emperor is dead. All five of us have escaped. We're airborne in the Millenium Falcon and climbing to orbit. I don't know if there's any secret forces left in the Citadel or not, or possibly another body for the Emperor. Recommend a strike on the Citadel as soon as possible," Anakin says.
"Copy that, Major. You're cleared to make your approach and land on the Enterprise. We'll handle the Citadel," Jonathan says before cutting the call.
(The Enterprise)
Jonathan turns away from the comms table. "Helmsman, new course! Bring the bow down and around. I want the bow aimed at the Citadel on the surface," Jonathan orders.
As the helmsman begins to change the ship's course, Jonathan calls out, "Cease firing all weapons, and ready the superlaser!"
Within seconds, all of the Enterprise's weapons batteries cease firing, with the exception of laser CIWS mounts, which are defending against TIE fighters still trying to attack the Enterprise. It takes a few minutes before the Enterprise has angled down towards the surface of Exegol, its bow aimed directly at the Citadel.
"Shut down all systems save the engines and the shields, and divert all power to the superlaser!" Jonathan orders.
The crew hurries to carry out Jonathan's orders. In a matter of minutes, most of the systems aboard the Enterprise, including the weapons, have shut down to allow all possible power to be diverted to the superlaser. One of the weapons officers calls out, "Grand Admiral, superlaser is ready!"
"Charge the weapon!" Jonathan orders.
The weapons officers manning the superlaser begin flipping switches and pressing buttons to start the process of charging the superlaser. It takes a minute before one of the officers calls out, "Grand Admiral, weapon is ready!"
"Fire at will!" Jonathan orders.
Several of the officers flip a few more remaining switches. At the bow of the Enterprise, the tributary beams shoot out from the laser tubes, meeting together in front of the prow. The beams combine together in one large ball. A brief second passes, and then the beam of the superlaser shoots out from the Enterprise.
The beam of the superlaser shoots down through the atmosphere of Exegol before connecting with the Citadel. In an instant, the Citadel vanishes in a massive fireball. Aboard the Enterprise, and other ships of both fleets, personnel watch in awe as an explosion of incredible size envelops the Citadel and spreads across the surface. Massive chunks of Exegol's surface are blasted away from the surface of the planet. The fireball continues to expand, tearing up the surface of Exegol as it goes. A few who have watched videos from Imperial archives of the devastations of Jeddha and Scariff during the Galactic Civil War feel a sense of deja vu, the expanding fireball looking just like the ones at those two devastated planets.
Jonathan watches with satisfaction as the explosion tears its way through Exegol's surface. At last, the last of the ancient Sith strongholds has been destroyed. And with luck, all remaining traces of the old Emperor are gone forever, disintegrated by the firepower of the Enterprise.
"Grand Admiral, the Millenium Falcon is approaching!" one of the radar officers calls out.
"Good. Allow them to land! And return power to all systems! Resume firing!" Jonathan orders.
Right then, a series of missiles from some starfighters and turbolaser bolts from the Hood tear into the stern of the Eclipse, and a series of massive explosions tear through the stern of the massive warship. Slowly, the burning Eclipse begins to fall towards the surface of Exegol.
"Sir, Eclipse is going down!" one of the officers on the bridge of the Enterprise yells out.
"Good. Now, destroy the rest,' Jonathan says, mainly to himself as he watches the burning Eclipse fall towards Exegol. The flagship of the Dark Empire, along with its Emperor, are destroyed. And now, the Dark Empire itself will fall.
At last, the Battle of Exegol lies securely in the hands of the Allies as the Sith have finally been brought to their end.
And, I'll end the chapter there.
I hope this was a good chapter, and was a satisfying end to Exegol. Of course, next chapter will show the actual end of the battle, but, as I said, victory is guaranteed for the Allies at this point.
Given the past gaps in updates, I won't make a promise of exactly when I'll have the next update up, but I'll try to get it up as soon as possible. Until then, please leave a review, and stay tuned!