Skies of Fire: The Battle of Endor

[Eluna Thals]

"Green Five, beginning my attack run."

Eluna switched deflectors to double front screens, in anticipation of the cooking they were likely to get by hot-throttling down the gullet of the super star destroyer Executor. Her Y-wing held the right flank of a bomber run freshly launched from Home One to press home their gains on the Imperial flagship.

"Stagger your approach Green Eight" Brento Mallk, Green Leader spoke on a static-warbled battle comm.

"Look at the size of that thing." Another Green commented to nobody in particular.

"Cut the chatter Green two, accelerate to attack speed. Sweep point blank across midships to the conning tower and give them hell."

Eluna got a tap on her shoulder. Her gunner, Arik Ventrell jerked a thumb 6 o'clock.

"We got company. TIE escort from the Interdictor's peeling off."

Eluna nodded. "They're concentrating fighters on the line. We must be making more of a dent than we thought."

She switched her comm on.

"Green Leader, fighters approaching from aft."

"Stay on target, Green Five. Red group's running interference for us."

True to form, a wolf pack of X-wings cut into the column of TIE fighters with impeccable timing, cutting off their pursuit.

Eluna turned her attention forward again. The Executor filled her viewscreen.

"This is it..."

The bomber's of Green group surged forward, amid a maelstrom of defensive batteries from the Super Star Destroyer.

And then the conning tower burst into a ball of fire.

[Milivikal k'Vik]

k'Vik dusted another eyeball, her particle shields crackling momentarily with the impact of light debris.

She snapped her A-Wing out of a roll.
"Blue group I want you to keep those B-Wings clean, five and I will watch your sixes."

"Orange you're clear for your run."
"Roger Blue."

"Watch that Victory, Blues, she looks like she's giving cover for a launch."
"Blue Five form on me."
"Roger Lead."
Mili dumped the throttle, and Five kept close. Helvin? She briefly tried to remember his name before they closed into VSD's turbolaser range and the pair of A-wings went evasive. The blast pattern was sloppy. For the past few minutes the Imperials seemed to be strangely uncoordinated. Mili's fighter slipped under the bow of the VSD, a mere 5 meters from the hull. Sure enough, a squad of eyeballs and squints emerged from the bay, in hot pursuit. The pair of A-wings looped around the super-structure and back twoards the Orange and Blue groups. k'Vik angled her cannons down, and did a half-reverse. A pair of fighters shot by, one instantly annihilated. She rolled and dumped the throttle again. Half of the TIEs went to engage the B-Wings. Blue Four and Seven picked up the eyeball on Five, the quad cannons making short work of the unshielded craft.

"Blue Leader, you've picked up a Squint!" Green bolts illumitated her cockpit. The nose of her fighter dipped down and she could feel the blood pool in her head before the comphensators kicked in. She kicked the rudder hard right and then left, countering the repeating rate of the TIE's blasters.
"Six, clean me!" This one was good, but too focused on her. Six broke pursuit, turned and blindsided the squint, turning the craft into vapor. Mili looked over her shoulder and watched the Exector dissapear.

"Green Leader, check in." Command quiried.

"Torpedoes away!" echoed Orange Leader, the twelve B-Wings letting fly a volley of twenty four at the VSD's shield towers.

"Four, Seven, I want you with me. Everyone else with Orange."
The B-Wings broke formation, straffing the bridge of the Victory class.

[Jarek Tarrk]

"Grey 2, there is a bogey on your tail!", Jarek yelled over the intercom.

"Roger that Grey leader, I'll shake him!"

Jarek reduced the engine throttle slightly to increase the turnrate of his X-Wing, and lined up the target reticula with the TIE fighter chasing his team mate, Grey 2. With a firm squeeze of his thumb, he pressed the firing trigger, and the 4 Taim & Bak IX4 Laser Cannons bursted into life in a rain of plasma.

<font color=yellow size=3>Booooooom!</font>

The enemy fighter exploded into a spectacle of sparks, and a fireball lit up the cold dark void of space.

"2 Interceptors approaching from that Star Destroyer!", grey 3 shouted.

"Brake off in scissor pattern!", Jarek replied.

Shortly afterwards, 2 more explosions followed as the Interceptors blew up from the capable dogfighting of the X-wings, and the path to the ISD was temporarily clear..

"Form on my wing, diamond formation. Lock target computers on the ISD shielgenerator. Proton torpedos!"

The wing of fighters rapidly moved in on the Star Destroyer "Invincible"..

[Mirax Kirret]

Mirax bit another nail just before pulling her gloves on tight and then latching her helmet in place over her head. A double tap from her tech made her turn her head to acknowledge him with a thumbs-up.

He deftly slid down the loading ladder as the cockpit canopy to her X-Wing sealed around her. A warble and toot came from behind her as her astromech droid made a query.

"I'm sure we'll be alright, Arsee. We've done this countless times before."

Well, countless was a bit of an exageration. She'd only been with the Rebellion for about four years, and in those years, there had been several battles. But it was only recently she had earned her stripes and shed the skin of being considered a rookie.

As the X-Wing hovered over the bay's deck, she angled it towards the bay's opening, easing the joystick forward to move the ship out into the dogfight.

It happened so quickly. There was a huge fireball that blossomed just outside of the bay, where the shields for the bay's opening were located. It rattled her inside her ship and caused Arsee to squeel.

She gunned the engines, letting her ship escape the inscreasing fireball in the bay. She hadn't thought the ship had been doing that badly, but looking back over her shoulder, she saw it had split in two. Yeah, that was kinda bad... and she had been lucky to get out of there when she had.

Looking forward again, she nearly jumped out of her skin as something thudded against her windshield. Taking a closer look, she saw it was her tech, free-floating in space. He'd been sucked out into space when the shields had been destroyed around the bay opening. Her stomache churned.

There'll be time to mourn later. Time later.

Shaking the image from her thoughts, she angled her ship with the others that had been able to make it out of the bay, and joined in the battle.

[Eluna Thals]

"Green Eight; I'm passing through Executor's point defense."

The heavens became a rainbow shower of glittering light. Eluna heard the chatter on her comm in a blur of information, passing through the static of a billion blaster bolts.

"Stay on target."

"Lost Green Nine!"

"Pull up!"

"Almost...there."

"Close up formation. No room for sloppy flying."

"Watch it Tagge, two slipped through, 14 degrees below."

It all changed when the conning tower blew.

"We've got primaries and secondaries on the main conning tower."

Eluna snapped matter-of-factly, watching the port side deflector dome and the command deck burn.

Green Leader was the first to confirm.

"Their point defenses are breached. Something big hit paydirt."

"It wasn't us!" Green four remarked in suprise.

"Well whatever it was..." Eluna's eyes scanned the length of the immense flagship. "...it flash-fried the helm in a bad way. The ship is listing directly into the Death Star's gravity well. If they don't adjust trajectory, they'll impact."

"A ship that size?" Green 2 balked. "There's no way. Redundant control should kick in."

"Well it's not." Eluna shook her head, banking her bomber off of it's run. "Skipper, we gotta cut bait. We stay on this run we're gonna follow it and everyone on board to hell."

Even the defending TIEs had gotten the idea, and they'd started swarming wide of the Executor's berth, Red group's X-Wings chasing all the way.

"We'll never get another chance at this, Green Five." Green Leader warned.

Eluna glanced back at her gunner. His facial expression indicated that he gave her full support. Meanwhile, Executor's yaw worsened due south. What was speculation seconds before was now a very real threat.

"Commander, there's a difference between a suicide mission and plain suicide. I got a bad feeling about this."

Silence....

"Yeah. I think you're right. Green wing, peel off. Dump all your juice to boosters and disengage! Our Bogey's taking a dive!"

Eluna exhaled in a release of artificial stress, and immediately dumped her deflector and weapon power into her engine reserve, sling-shotting her Y-wing in a tight bank that 180'ed it away from the sinking Executor

"Get out of there Green six. Disengage!" She warded the rest of her wingmen off the kill. They had to leave in one hell of a hurry!

[Milivikal k'Vik]

The Victory Class Destroyer tried desperately to head towards the rest of it’s fleet. It had been caught out alone, trying to sweep behind the Rebel task force. Milivikal swept her fighter behind the capital ship and watched as the main engines flickered.

“Blue Lead, this one is cooked.”
“Affirmative Orange.”
Mili adjusted her sensors for a wide/long general sweep.

“Blue Group, form up.” She said, easing off the throttle so the X-Wings could catch up. “Keep it tight, I want a neat stack until we engage.”

“Command, this is Blue Leader, we’re done with the straggler.”

“Blue Group we’ve got a wing of bombers closing in on the Liberty..” k’Vik could hear the impacts of trade fire with another capital ship.
“One concussion missile is two kills. Contact in twenty.” She said, and returned the sensors to combat mode. Her eyes went wide. A group of TIEs were coming around Home One.

“Scatter scatter!” She yelled and watched in horror as Blue Five was caught flatfooted. Mili pulled her craft away, skating the Mon Cal cruiser. She narrowed her eyes and kicked the left rudder, and killed the left engine for a moment, which spun the A-Wing at the two squints in pursuit, putting blaster bolts through each cockpit.

“I need help!” Three yelped as a pair of blaster bolts immolated the X-Wing’s rear deflectors.
“Keep it neat, Three.” Mili flicked her concussion missiles to ready.
b-beep b-beep b-beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
“Cee-em away.” She said coldly, the missile streaking towards the TIEs.
“Left, Three!” Obediently, the X-Wing jerked left. The TIE pilot saw his threat displays scream, turning the cockpit red for a moment before the darkness. The explosion blew the left wing neatly into the other TIE, who attempted to limp away until Six made short work of it.
“Good shot, Six. Let’s get those bombers.” She wove her A-Wing around an ISD dueling with Home One to the winged Liberty and engaged the now-unescorted Bombers. Her sensors gave her a solid lock tone.
“Cee-em away.” She let the missile go. Her A-Wing jerked violently with the impact of a blast. Frell! Mili pulled evasive, the rest of the green bolts passing away, but the compensators were not working. She could feel her eyelids pulled down and the blood drain from her head. Quad laser fire was followed by a whoop when the rest of her squad took down most of the bombers. The A-Wing dove towards the Liberty’s engines, with the TIE close behind.

“Keep close, you bastard.” She muttered. The A-Wing bounced through the ion wash, tumbling violently but systematically. The Interceptor tumbled while Mili recovered and blasted it.

[Hunk]

(slightly earlier in the battle, before the destruction of the Executor)

“Gotcha now, sucka.”

The four laserblasts converged on the bomber, tearing through it like paper. Unfazed, its three wing mates continued on their course, missiles streaming out of their ordinance bays. Cringing, Hunk saw them impacting the nearest Mon-Cal cruiser, rocking the giant ship with explosions upon explosions. Too late, he swept in behind the remaining bombers, easing back on the throttle to match their speed. Methodically, he cut down two of them before the last broke off in standard evasive maneuver. He started give chase when his attention was drawn to his scope and the pair of blips on his six. Green blasts streaking past him confirmed his fears.

“Let me guess, R4, Interceptors?”

Bleep beep boop

“Brown 4, Brown 9, I’ve got two squints on my back, can you see them?”

Nothing. No reply. He pulled into a steep turn, rolling and banking in a vain attempt to shake his pursuers. He supposed their comm units may be malfunctioning, but deep in the pit of his stomach he knew that he was now the only remaining member of his group of X-wings. Faces flashed through his head, fellow pilots that had moved on. His group had engaged a squad of TIE Defenders. Unfamilar with the firepower and durability of the new Imperial craft, they hadn't stood a chance.

His ship was rocked as the Interceptors closed in, his rear deflectors down to 50%. The damn things could fly circles around him--he needed help and he needed it bad. Looks like he’d be seeing the rest of his flight group sooner than he thought.

[Hunk]

Another volley hit him, tearing through his remaining shields. In an instant he lost his hyperdrive, his targetting computer, and any caution he had left.

He pulled all power from his lasers and directed them to the engines in a last ditch gamble, flying staight at the nearest capital ship, an ISD. He dodged back forth nimbly as the squints fell in behind him, his view obscured by a curtain of errant laserblasts. As the star destroyer's laser turrets began to draw a bead on him, he pulled back hard on the stick and cut all power to the engines. Even with the inertial dampeners online, the bank sent his stomach to his feet as multiple g's assaulted his body.

Surpassing his wildest dreams, the two Interceptors had been following too closely and overshot him. One was vaporized by the ISD with a blast meant for the X-wing, but the other dodged the deadly volley. Several shots found Hunk's ship in it's stalled state, slicing through the nose of the sleek craft. Just a few more hits would do him in, but at least he had the remaining enemy in front of him now.

He armed his torpedoes and brought the X-Wing about, zeroing in on the remaining squint; but without a targetting computer he was forced to shoot from the hip. With a whispered prayer he pulled the trigger.

...and saw the torpedo miss the target, and head towards the Star Destroyer

"R4, I need those shields back online NOW. Our luck's just run out, I think."

[Tal Kellison]

“Sir, several of the rebel cruisers are advancing upon the Executor’s position, should we move to intercept?” Commander Kellison relayed the message from one of the crewmen. They had been one of the last ships to be brought into the battle and he was anxious to engage the enemy.

“Negative,” Captain Farard replied, “Our orders are to hold here and prevent any rebel ships from escaping. Shadow Squadron has been deployed. We’ve done our part.”

The mere mention of the fighter group’s name started Kellison’s blood boiling. Just yesterday, Lt. Emmerick had left a portion of the navy’s famous gruel in the Commander’s best boots, a fact he became aware of only after putting them on. What was that the rest of them called him, “Ripper”? Oh, he’d give that name a new meaning after he ripped the insubordinate pilot a new—

“Kellison! Stop sulking down in the pits, I need you up here,” Farard’s voice rang out, causing Kal’s face to flush in embarrassment. He glanced up and saw the Captain standing proudly on the gangway that split the command deck in two--a true example of Imperial dignity. But what side was it on which Farard preferred him to stand? For the life of him, Kellison couldn’t remember. He quickly drew out his chance cube: blue for his left, red for his right. He tossed the cube lightly on the console and snatched it up in one smooth motion.

Red. Ok then, right it was.

He made his way to the elevated platform and took his place on the Captain’s right, arms clasped behind him, feet together, back straight. Look at him now, second in command on an Imperial Star Destroyer; his father would be so proud.

A technician’s voice broke the uneasy silence on the bridge. ”Sir, we’re experiencing some minor problems with the power relays to the bridge deflector shields. They seem to be cutting out for a fraction of a second every few cycles.”

“Cadet,” the captain replied in a condescending tone, “do you honestly believe the rebels are so skilled as to be able to take advantage of such an insignificant weakness? They lack the intelligence and the skill for such tactics. Just look how blindly they stumbled into this trap. Make a note of it, we’ll take care of this problem later.”

Kellison smiled inwardly. The Captain was right, the battle was going splendidly. Truly this would be a glorious day for the Empire.

Sir,” this time it was the tactical officer,” we have our first catch of the day, a single X-Wing approaching.”

“Excellent, I’m sure the forward batteries will make short work of him.”

A bright flash lit the space outside the viewing window. Sure enough, the X-Wing had obviously been destroyed.

”Captain, incoming warhead!”

Kellison and the rest of the command deck crew were thrown from their feet as an explosion rocked the tower. The sickening groan of twisting metal was the only warning before a section of the ceiling collapsed with a deafening roar, moments later. After regaining his senses, Kellison pushed himself to his feet; anxious to retake control of the situation. A sticky-slick feeling on his hand caught his attention. Looking down he saw his hand red with blood from the pool that was rapidly darkening the floor around a fallen bulkhead. Underneath, Captain Farard lay, the life crushed from his body. The Commander stumbled backwards. Stricken, his face drawn and pale, Kellison called to the communications officer.

“Contact Admiral Kosal, inform him we have a…a situation.”

[Biff Dronsom]

Amidst the hail of blaster fire, the remainder of Yellow squadron arched across the sky. Three of the twelve man group had already fallen to the Empires guns. Instructed to provide a constant bombardment of the Imperial fighters, they dove their X-wings into the heat of battle, fighting it out until the end. Among them was a young pilot by the name of Biff. It was his fourth run. He’d already taken a number of direct hits and felt the aftershock of a misplaced missile, debris impacted with his ships outer hull.

“Yellow 4, two TIEs on your tail.”

“Sithspit!”

Biff veered the X-wing left then right, barreling it back and forth to allude the targeting computers of the advancing fighters. The TIEs veered ahead in pincer formation.

“Cover! Someone cover me!”

“Copy. Yellow 6, coming in for-…KRSSSH!”

The communication line cut with a boom. Another blip disappeared off the sensor screen. Hissing through gritted teeth, Biff angled the X-wing upwards sharply, executing a loop-de-loop that took him out of the TIEs trap, narrowly avoiding a barrage of energy bolts. The fighters didn’t give up so easily, however. Looking over his shoulder, Dronsom saw that they – plus another – had latched onto him tightly.

“Three fighters?! What did I do to deserve this?”

A volley of scatter fire sprayed out from the X-wings gun turrets. The shots weren’t powerful, but hopefully they’d be warning enough to dissuade the TIEs from keeping such close quarters. Sure enough, one fighter peeled away, turning its attention elsewhere, to the rest of the dwindling Yellow squadron. The others, however, were not so easily lost…

[Eluna Thals]

"HANG ON!!!"

The black of space went white. A supernova. The death of a star. The birth of destruction. The keel of Executor pierced the surface of the Death Star, opening a geyser of fire the likes of which she'd never seen. Millions of tons of durasteel and other components erupted into space, shattering the superstructure of the flagship star destroyer, as superheated metal and burning space fuel whirled about in a hellish cyclone.

"EVASIVES!!!"

Eluna banked hard enough to make her gunner groan aloud. Burning deck plates and monstrous superstructure components whirled above, below, and all around. Occasionally, they smashed into each other, bursting apart in smaller and equally violent fireballs, spewing floatsam and detritus everywhere. A nearby Imperial Carrack cruiser was too slow to evade, and was chewed apart by two scissoring deck partitions, blossoming into destruction.

"Commander! I need an escape vector!"

Her console was flickering red with threat alerts. Fore, aft, ventral, dorsal, starboard, port. The gods of war had become real, tangible, and insatiable.

"Green Five, lock on to my signal and prepare for an emergency burnoff!"

The signal from Green Leader was garbled and nearly indecipherable.

Eluna maintained her evasives, ready to follow Green Leader into an opening in the debris field, when his own bomber was hit squarely by a tumbling deck plate, shearing his starboard nacelle off the fuselage.

"I'm hit...GYAAAAAA!!!"

Green leader spiraled into a tailspin, exploding upon impact with another large hull section.

Eluna gulped heavily. It was a symptom of her personality programming to mimic human behavior. She knew it, but it felt natural and instinctive to her.

She switched on an all-points squadron channel.

"This is Green Five. Lost Green Leader. All units make best escape vectors to clear the impact zone. Every ship for itself!"

At this, her gunner objected.

"Luna, we can't leave 'em behind. Who knows where the rest are?"

"We stay and we're dead. I don't know if we can even make it out in once piece, much less keep track of the rest of our wing. I'm activating our beacon. If we've got a good vector, they can ride our coattails. If not, we'll never be able to write home about it!"

Another stomach-turning banking maneuver bent Eluna's Y-wing around flaming debris. The storm was weakening, but still strong beyond comprehension.

[Tarn Ardsul]

“Brown 4, Brown 9, I’ve got two squints on my back, can you see them?”

Ardsul would have liked to respond but his comm had been on the fritz since being side swiped by his wingmate. Both he and Erik, Brown 9, came under heavy fire from a pair of Interceptors. Erik didn't make it. The laser cannon knocked out his left S-foils, causing his X-wing to spiral out of control and be easily blown to bits by that TIE. Ardsul was not quick enough to evade and his own fighter was forced into an uncontrollable forward roll. Ironically, it saved his life since he was now difficult to target.

As R2 worked on stabilizing the X-wing, Ardsul switched to the targeting computer and locked onto one of the Interceptors. "C'mon girl, don't fail me now."

Just before his nose came around for another pass, all four linked laser canons opened fire. The barrage left the enemy pilot little room for maneuvering. Red laser bolts peppered the fighter, tearing through his shields and destroyed the squint with one mighty explosion.

Now, only one TIE was hot on his tail as R2 got his X-wing straightened out and beeped incessantly.

"You worry about the comm. I'll worry about that fighter."

More whirls of disapproval came.

"I know. Switch power from the cannons to the shields. I got a plan."

R2 screamed.

"What?! I know what I'm doing. Just keep concentrating on the shields!" Just on the tip of his display was the silhouette of Hunk's starfighter, along with that of another Interceptor. Hunk was dead in space and was going to be, literally, if someone didn't help him.

Coming around, Ardsul flew between various friendly and enemy fire. That TIE was keeping up with him and apparently gaining speed. It was really pissing him off. "All right. If that's how you wanna play. Fine."

He banked hard and descended straight down towards Hunk. R2 screamed again. This time, Ardsul ignored his droid and toggled power between the engines and shields. Enemy fire was displaced by the deflectors. "Good. You're still behind me. C'mon. Almost there...."

His eyes were glued to the display. Calculating the exact time to ... "NOW!" ... pull up. Both Interceptors were introduced to one each other and were destroyed upon impact.

R2 chittered excitedly. He fixed the comm.

"Hey Hunk! Brown 4 here. Sorry about the delay." He buzzed passed the stalled fighter. "Get that bucket of bolts moving already will ya before more company arrives."

[Jarek Tarrk]

Meanwhile..

Jarek peered out of the canopy as the squadron of fighters lined up in attack formation, flying towards their target. He tried the breath calm, and focus on the situation at hand. The silhouette of the Imperator II Class Star Destroyer Invincible grew increasingly larger on the viewscreen as they got closer. Then, suddenly, warning lights flashed red on the instrumental panel of Jareks X-wing. Enemy target lock.

"Heavy incoming turbolaser fire! Evasive action. Approach the bridge from rear vector. Prepare for launching torpedos. Quick before more fighters arrive!"

The Star Destroyers Taim & Bak XX-9 turbolasers flared into light, slow and bulky enough to evade for small and swift ships like starfighters in control of alert and able pilots. However, due their power, just one direct hit could prove certain death. The fighters swerved from side to side, avoiding the trails of plasma. One fighter got hit, spun out of control before crashing into the hull of the massive ship.

"Gray 7 is down.."

"Stay focused. Regain target lock, and fire proton torpedos!", Jarek shouted into the comm.

A cluster of torpedos launched from the group of X-wings. The Krupx MG7-A Proton torpedos guidance computers homed on their target; the 2 KDY ISD-72x deflector shield generator domes. In a spectacle of explosions, the warheads exploded on impact..

"Allmost there.. it wont take long before the shields are down!"

Then at that moment, there was a bright flash approximately 2 klicks away as the Executor crashed into the surface of the Death Star.

"What in the..", Jarek said surprised as he covered his eyes momentarily from the bright light. Then came a series of explosions from the giant space station, followed by large pieces of debris being flinged out all over system like a rapidly expanding asteroid field. Allmost hypnotized he gazed upon the distant carnage, and the incoming chunks of metal.

"This is Green Five. Lost Green Leader. All units make best escape vectors to clear the impact zone. Every ship for itself!". The voice called over Jareks headset. At the same time, several new blips appeared on the radar screen. Multiple squads of incoming enemy fighters and capital ships..

"There are too many of them.. disengage and clear the area. Watch out for metal debris coming from that battlestation. Plot rendezvous point into navigation computers. Move out!"

"Roger that Gray leader"

Jareks R2 droid chirped a moaning sound, calculating the navigation points.

[Radzyn Boomtown]

"Golds nine, and seven you're with me.....set up for attack run on that star destroyer off the port point."

"Copy that boss, sliding up beside you." The pilot known as Boomer responded as his Y-wing got into formation along side his flight leader. Split second explosions erupted around the trio as they sped towards the designated target. The Victory class star destroyer loomed ahead as it traded shots with a MC80. All around them, the battle ensued. As they approached at an angle, green incandescent light reached out from the Victory class. Several flashed by his fighter and made the ride in choppy as they exploded around them.

"Tighten it up seven, dont give them an easy target."

"I'm trying...there's just too many coming at us!"

Radzyn glanced over to his left and watched as gold seven tried to adjust his position in the formation. Deciding to keep his attention on the path ahead of them, Radzyn jukes his Y-wing to the right as a couple shots zip past. Phew...that was close. He thought as the turbolaser screens got more intense.

"Switching power to front deflector shields.... " Radzyn announced as they passed over the hull of the giant craft. A gloved hand reached over and clicked a few buttons and switches bringing the targeting computer online. "....Computer on...target aquired......" The turbulence in the fighter got worse as more turbolaser fire reached out to them.

"Gold nine, we got company. Fighters coming in on our five."

"Copy gold five.....keep them off of my back... R3, re-route some of the power to the rear.....something tells me we're gonna need it."

The chirping response of his astromech droid housed in the rear of the fuselage behind the ION turret came across over the incoherant chatter of the rest of the battle. the Y-wing skimmed the surface of the Star Destroyer's topside and the target, an area below the command bridge got bigger every second they got closer. Eyes squinting as he kept the fighter moving, Radzyn watched the tiny targeting screen count down the range electronically as the barrage of lasers flew madly about. His concentration was cut short for a split second as an X-wing appeared on the right side of his craft and was engulfed in a quick blossom of fire and death. The TIE fighter flew over him and Radz looked back to try and track that fighter.

"Stay sharp, Nine!" The voice of his flight leader came across. Gritting his teeth, Radzyn kept the fighter on track. More explosions rocked the fighter on it's path. "Frak! There's too much flying about!"

" Steady on gold nine.... almost there."

"We got company!" Gold Seven called out as the flight of TIEs arrived from their five o'clock position. The two other Y-wings engaged them as Radzyn flew on.

"I got one!" .... "You picked one up on your tail Seven! Bank right...bank right!" ......" I can't shake 'im!! I can't sh...AHHH!! ..." "Lost Seven! I got the second one, and the other two are on my backside"!

Radzyn winced as his fellow pilot became a memory. "Stay sharp back there boss, I can't do this alo..." The eruption of fire and the short scream of death blared over his headset and Radzyn looked back over his shoulder as best he could. Two TIEs closed in on him. "....Frak....R3, use the ION turret and keep them off our back." The chirp and whistle of the droid replied and the turret above whirred to a new position. "Any second now...." He talked to himself as the ranged closed down. The firing of the ION turret made him glance back. One of the TIE fighters spun out of control. "Nice shot R3.... keep doing that and we'll be switching seats next sortie." Radzyn joked as he looked back at the targeting computer screen, which was in front of his face and off to the right.

His fingers gripped the controls and he bit his lip as Radzyn squeezed off two proton torpedos. Along with the two projectiles, red beams lanced out repeatedly from the nose of his Y-wing as he pulled up and to the right. The explosion was brief and did it's damage. He opened up a hole in the hull to the command bridge. Small in size but doing it's job. Soon it would open larger as oxygen forced it's way out into the cold vaccum of space. And in tow, the TIE fighter remaining from the intercepting group. And he brought a couple of friends.

"Keep them busy R3! Try to lose them in the chaos!"

The Y-wing lead the three TIEs away from the wounded capital ship and back into the melee buzzing around them. And hopefully he could get the attention of a bored fellow pilot who wanted a couple kills under their belt.

[Milivikal k'Vik]

Milivikal was squished into her seat. The seat groaned and trembled from the g-forces. Her arms trembled while she gripped the controls. Her fading eyes tracked a squint through the ceiling of her canopy, fighting the blackout as the blood pooled into her feet. The TIE broke away, letting her breathe again, and pulled up right into her adjusted line of fire.

Flying without compensators was exhausting.

“Hel-scchchchhchchcchchck.” static filled her headset until the comm. system killed the channel. Oh no.

“Blue group for… frack!” In the brief moment of respite she picked up another TIE fighter. This was chaos! She dove at a Star Destroyer, hoping to pull him along, but it was just a pot shot. Mili peeled off and looped under. A squadron of TIEs was in mid-launch, still being tractored out. She didn’t bother waiting for a lock, and just let the missile go.

Mili tailed Blue Three, which gave her brief cover to check the comm. list. She had lost Two, Five and Seven. Her eight fighter squadron was just five now. They were beating the Imperials eighteen to one, but it didn’t seem to matter.

A continent of surface chunks of the Death Star peeled away, but the explosions stopped. She pounced on a trio of eyeballs that seemed to be chasing a Y-Wing, and vaped two of three before any evasive action was taken.

“unnuhhhh” k’Vik managed, chasing the last fighter. The g-meter, if she had been able to make it out, was pegged at 10.5. He broke left, and the A-Wing’s superior yaw rate did him in.

[Radzyn Boomtown]

Two marks winked off his scanner as the milisecond flashes from behind illuminated his console. R3 beeped and chirped and Radzyn smirked as the readings showed a "friendly" coming in behind him. Switching off the targeting computer, Radzyn angled the fighter up and juked it hard left.

"Hang on back there.....R3 hurry up with the fire controls! Can't do much without it!"

The droid worked fast, but in a dog fight it wasn't fast enough. Radzyn took the reigns of the turret and came up on the wing of the A-wing who saved his hide. With his flight gone, he thought it was best with safety in numbers. Now, why he was flying this wreck waiting to happen? Oh yeah, because they needed the pilots for heavy attack runs. He should've stayed where he was in his X-wing and not volunteered for one of the empty spots on the roster of Gold squadron.

The beeping took him out of his thought as the fire control came back online. Giving the turret control back to his droid, Radzyn glanced over at the A-Wing he sped alongside of and gave a nod and "thumbs up".

Red light reached out in pulses from the nose guns of his Y-wing, taking another TIE in the wing panel as it flew across his point. The flat hexagonal wing parted from the main bubble section and the fighter spun off uncontrollably towards another Imperial capital ship below. R3 kept busy with fighters behind and to the sides as the little droid used the turret above as his pilot owner knew he could.

The Y-wing slid below the fighters of Blue group, but stayed with them. With Radzyn being the last of his flight, he had to find a new home or not make it back from this.

[Lion El' Jonson]

Compared to the unbridled fury of starfighter combat, Lion felt relatively civilised on the bridge of his flagship, the Allegiance, as it knifed its way through the battlezone. A Dauntless-class Command Cruiser, she rivaled Home One for sheer size and firepower. The demise of the Executor had evoked a cheer from the crew, but even so Lion knew this was still a delicate situation, which could either be won or lost by one decision.

All of the planning, all of the simulations, everything went out the window the second the Alliance fleet slammed head-on into the might of the Imperial Navy, and although Lion didn't like to admit it, this had turned into a slugging match...and he hated slugging matches.

Admiral Ackbar had brought his battlegroups in first, driving back the Imperial line, and Lion and the other Admirals had quickly followed, attempting to drill their forces through breaches in the defensive cordon. Lion had gathered his fleet around the Allegiance and was now driving hard for the nearest enemy.

"Communications, instruct the Naritus, Mon Sendan, and Orthavan to form on us. All escort vessels are to assume their designated positions. Helm, increase speed to full. We're going to knife through the Imperial line, then double back and smash them from behind."

There was hurried acknowledgement from both stations.

"Starfighter command, instruct Dragon Wing and Shade Wing to use the fleet for cover. I don't want them being chopped up in the opening salvos. As soon as we're through, instruct them to pick their targets and go; it's going to be a free-for-all. Tactical, lock potential targets into the computers, and coordinate with our battlegroup."

The immense Allegiance slowly picked up speed, while her companion MC-80s sidled up alongside her, easily keeping pace. Other vessels: dreadnoughts, Nebulon-B frigates, corvettes, all of them assumed positions with which to protect their charges. Nearly two wings of starfighters hugged the hulls of their carriers, using the overlapping shield banks for protection. The battlegroup was still well within Ackbar's line, but that was about to change.

As the fleet continued to make for a hole in the line, Imperial forces quickly realized what Lion intended to do. Ships began disengaging and moving to plug the hole.

"Keep us steady, helmsman." cautioned Lion, as the Allegiance charged headlong for a region that was significantly more crowded than before. "Update our course; head for that pair of Imperator II Star Destroyers at the center of their formation. They're our primary targets."

Just as he said this, the fleet cleared Ackbar's cordon, and battle was joined. A massive salvo of turbolaser fire greeted Lion's battlegroup, as a quintet of Imperial cruisers encountered Lion's fleet. Two Impstar II's (the fleet's targets) sat at the middle of the formation, flanked by three Victory-class vessels and a veritable cloud of TIEs.

"Helmsman, plot a course that will bring us between both ImpStar Deuces. Guns, open fire."

The fleet began returning fire, as they continued toward the Imperial formation. Somewhere to Lion's left, a Corellian Corvette exploded spectacularly as its reactor was breached, while a Nebulon-B frigate was bisected by a remarkably accurate volley of turbolaser fire from one of the VicStars. We can mourn later Lion reminded himself. Then the TIEs hit. Their inital salvo lacked accuracy, but several Rebellion starfighters exploded regardless.

"We're through the crossfire. Starfighter Command, instruct all squadrons to break and engage. Keep those TIEs away from the command cruisers." Lion instructed.

"Coming up on maximum-effectiveness firing point in 45 seconds, Admiral." said tactical.

"Relay a countdown to the other ships. When that timer hits zero, I want full volleys on both ImpStar deuces. We need to make a new hole, and we need to do it now." The Allegiance rocked, as if to underscore the urgency.

"Shields down to 81%, sir. There's a breach in the port ventral shield. Bringing a backup online to compensate." reported tactical.

The fleet continued, despite the fierce walls of fire put up by the Imperial formation. The timer continued to count down, until...

"All ships, open fire!" instructed Lion.

Massive sheets of energy poured from the Rebellion fleet as they delivered huge broadsides to the ImpStar Deuces. The two ships appeared to give as well as they got, however, as with a massive explosion the Mon Sendan's reactor was breached, and power failed spectacularly throughout the ship, leaving her drifting in space. The Alliance and Imperial battlegroups continued to exchange fire, neither willing to give the other an inch of space.

[Mirax Kirret]

While she was surrounded by several squadrons, she suddenly felt alone. Most of her squad hadn't made it out of the Mon Cal they'd been in before it'd split apart.

She'd been happy to notice one half had made it's way to greet a listing ISD, catching it's side, and tearing off a chunk of it. The other half made it's way down into the atmosphere of Endor.

Listening to her comm, she tried to filter through the sttic and voices. There were so many of them, it was hard to decipher what should be done next.

She looked out her viewport at the moment the SSD Executor hit the Death Star. It was an awesome and terrible explosion, ripping large chunks away from the massive space station. Some ship were caught in the ensuing spray of metal and debris, while other deftly maneuvered out of the way.

She was going to maintain her position as most of the fighters were heading in her direction, when she heard a familiar voice over the comm. Yellow 4 had already been out in the battle, having left the ship they had both been stationed out several minutes before she'd been clearance to take off.

Veering her ship towards his ship, she switched over her comm to Yellow Squadron's frequency in an attempt to concentrate on him without being overwhelmed by the other squadron's frequencies.

"Yellow 4, this is Yellow 10. Angle your ship towards me."

She accelerated her ship toward Yellow 4's evading X-Wing, as he tried to shake the persistant TIE Fighter on his tail. The TIE's laser kept getting more accurate as they nearly skimmed his S-foils. Yellow 4 complied, though he maintained his evasive maneuvers, making it difficult to place his ship on a precise angle towards her.

While the TIE kept busy on Yellow 4's tail, she targeted the TIE and readied a quad volley of turbo laser. She'd have to be quick and precise so as not to hit Yellow 4. When they were practically on top of each other, she yelled into the comm "Bank starboard!" as she let the volley fly.

Yellow 4 obediently complied instantly, baring the TIE to the four red anger laser heading towards it. The TIE's pilot was good as he instantly banked towards Yellow 4... but not quick enough. Two of the four lasers hit the support pylon attached to one of the solar panels and with the force of the turn the TIE had taken, it was too much stress on the ship. The solar panel flew off, sending the TIE spiraling out of control.

"You're all clear, 4." She brought her arm half-way up to wipe a drop of sweat rolling down her forehead when she realized the helmet she wore would prevent that. Frowning and unfrowning, she was able to keep the sweat from making her forehead itch, and angled her ship into a wingman position behnd and to the side of Yellow 4.

[Arinna Ceyan]

Structured chaos that was the only words that could describe the view from her X-Wing cockpit. This had planned to be a possible hit on the Empire that if it worked could bring them to their knees. Instead it appeared their surprise attack was not much of a surprise. Apparently the shield to the death star was still intact and Tie Fighters buzzed everywhere destroying fellow Rebel Pilots and damaging the hulls of their larger counterparts. Holding tightly to the yoke she closely followed her wingman White 4. Tie fighters seemed to be buzzing like gnats on a bantha out here and finding a target for them to take out wasn't all that difficult. Only problem was the more there where the more likely it was neither that she nor any other of the Rebel Pilots would be leveling this bit of space again. The commlink in her customized helmet crackled to life with orders and the occasional scream from of a fellow pilot whose ship had just been vaped by the Ties buzzing about.

Five of which was now in line of site of her wingman White 4. The other's X-wings engine lights glowed crimson and filled most of her cockpit's view. Glancing down to her target screen her wingman focused on one and if he would move just a few meters to her right Ari knew she would be open to fire upon a few of those Ties herself. Leeku twitched in annoyance at not being able to vape any of the Ties as of yet. But she was doing what she was suppose to though if only he would move just a bit she could help him out so much more then just cover his butt.

"Four swing right."

She watched as he did that and a Tie almost instantly came into target and she started to fire hitting its center with a few replaced red energy bursts of her laser. The Tie apparently had already sustained one damage because it blew up after only a few shots. Small smile appeared on her face as she again covered White 4. The smile did not last long though when the shrill scream of her R6 unit came over the comm. One glance at her targeting screen showed that two Ties where now trying to target her. Swearing under her breath her Leeku twitched in aggitation.

"White 4 break left I have two on my tail."

"Understood White 5."

She watched her wingman break left and as he did Arinna turned a hard right. Lowering her speed in mid turn she pushed down on the yoke causing her ship, which was turning right to jerk down in a much harder turn. The Ties still followed her though the move did give her a few moments to breath.

"R6 reroute power to back reflector screens."

[Hunk]

"Hey Hunk! Brown 4 here. Sorry about the delay." He buzzed passed the stalled fighter. "Get that bucket of bolts moving already will ya before more company arrives."

"Ardsul, I swear, you're a more beautiful sight than that topless Twi'lek dancer from the other day. Just cover me for a few more seconds; I have to stabilize my deflectors.” He paused for a moment, as his engines flickered back to life. He quickly brought his ship around, coming up on Brown 4’s wing. “You had me worried back there, buddy. I thought I was the only one left.”

“Ok, I’ve got shields, engines, blasters, and a death wish. How about we raise some hell?”

[TieFighterPilot181st]

An X-wing screamed through the never-edning night of space. Stars whirred by as Lieutenant Yamagi threw his X-Wing into a dive to pursue a couple of TIE bombers that were making a run on one of the Alliance's cruisers. The lumbering bombers sideslipped in an effort to dodge the Lieutenant, however the craft proved too ungainly and Yamagi depresed the trigger. Verdant red beams of energy shot from Tie's fighter and chewed into the double hull of one of the bombers and ignited the store of munitions inside. Right as he was about to line up for a shot on the second bomber, a volley of turbolaser blasts sizzled up from one of the cruiser's blisters . Tie barely managed to evade and flicked on his comm to communicate to the cruiser.

"Damn it, this is Black Five to Mon Karren Control! Tell your gunners to stop shooting the X-Wing off your port side, I'm a friendly dammit!" Tie shouted into the comm as another blast came uncomfortingly close.

Two TIE fighters took this moment of distraction on Tie's part to dive on the X-Wing, green gouts of energy spattering across the distance between them. Two blasts found their mark, however the shields of Tie's X-Wing held firm for the moment. Switching power to his rear deflectors,he banked the fighter into a tight turn to deal with these new adversaries.

[Arinna Ceyan]

Blue eyes gazed down at the screens in the cockpit of her X-wing. Glowing brightly they showed that one her R6 unit had switched power to her back reflector screens and two the Tie pilots swarming behind her were decent pilots, very decent. Every erratic move that she made they seemed to echo a split second later. Lekku twitching she kicked her engines into full power causing her body to lurch forward by the sudden increase in inertia. Jerking the yoke of her ship randomly green splashes of light flashed past her cockpit. They where getting close to close for comfort though they where missing her now Ari was slowly running out of tricks to keep them from missing her. And it was only a matter of time before her they would start testing the strength of her deflectors, a test she would only be able to pass for a short period of time.

The shudder of the yoke in her hands and quick glance of her blue eyes told her that that was the first test and so far they were holding. Biting her lip one of her hands again rested on the throttle and subtly powered it down slowly. The moment the ships speed changed she jerked the yoke to a hard right and throttled down the power even more. Flipping out of the turn she again throttled up and pushed the yoke down. Even as she did that green flashes of energy again flashed past her cockpit view. She could give these Ties some credit they were resilient.

“White four where in the Sith are you? Have two bogies on my tail can’t shake them need assistance.”

“I’ll be there as soon as possible White 5.”

Ok he was coming just she hoped it would be before the Ties turned her X-wing into dust. Adjusting the throttle once more as she flipped into another turn she glanced back down to her targeting screen where the friendlies where in green and enemies in red. Two red dots followed her ship while a green dot that she hoped was White 4 was approaching from her side. Pushing the yoke towards the green dot she throttled up and headed towards the other ship as well as she could while maintaining a somewhat erratic pattern.

“White 5 have one of the Ties in my sites. Break hard right…….now.”

The moment he said now she yanked hard on the yoke and after moments the two red dots on her targeting screen became one.

"Nice shooting White 5 one more to go."

[Tarn Ardsul]

"Ardsul, I swear, you're a more beautiful sight than that topless Twi'lek dancer from the other day. Just cover me for a few more seconds; I have to stabilize my deflectors.”

Ardsul snorted into the comm, "If you kiss me when you see me, I'm going to punch you in the face."

The two of them were old friends, always laying into each other.

“Ok, I’ve got shields, engines, blasters, and a death wish. How about we raise some hell?”

"Unfortunately while I was covering your fat butt, I didn't see any. Perhaps this area is clear." Two blips hit his radar. "Oh wait. Look at that. Dren! Check one-five-ten mark two-six-three. Two Defenders. Probably the ones that took out your wing when I lost radio."

His went into evasives and pushed his X-wing hard. Those Defenders were fast and deadly and more then likely the last thing he and Hunk were going to see.

[Eluna Thals]

"Green Five to Green Group. Green Group, all points form up on me!"

Eluna wiped a trail of red from her nose and lips. Somewhere when she escaped the debris field, she'd face-planted on her controls, breaking her nose and lacerating her upper lip. Her gunner got it worse, now unconcious and slumped against her left shoulder.

"Green Five to Green Group. Come in, Green group."

Worry beset Eluna's face, as she stopped dodging durasteel scrap and resumed dodging enemy fighters. She switched her comm frequency to general channels.

"Green Five to all wings. Lost Bymer, lost Mallk. My squadron is battle-ineffective. Requesting rally point nearest my position - portside of Executor Collision Zone. I've still got something resembling a fighter, might as well try and put her to use."

Her thoughts momentarily drifted back to her squadron mates, hoping that at least a few made it out of that maelstrom.

A pair of TIE's overshot her position from above, and presented her some targets of opportunity to vent her frustrations on. Transferring full weapon control away from her injured gunner, Eluna worked both tasks, and chased the fighters down, burning them into fading embers.

[Radzyn Boomtown]

Boomer had veered off from Blue Squadron's grouping and joined the formation of another Y-wing and a B-wing. The madness outside of his canopy was overwhelming, countless of lives being extinguished every second. Red and green coherant lights of death flashed everywhere. The trio came up upon a small group of TIEs veering off from the larger formation they were in. The voice over his comm-system brought his attention to the situation.

"Heads up! They're heading for the medical frigate"

Changing his vector, Boomer replied as well as the other pilot. "I'm on it.... " "Right with you."

Y-wings flanked either side of the B-wing as they accelerated to intercept the attacking TIEs. Hazel eyes averted from the forward viewpoint to the targeting computer on his main console. Making his adjustments, Boomer fought to place the electronic silouette within the targeting recticle. A steady flux in beeping meant he was getting there. As the TIE was pegged and it's image flashed within the illuminated crosshairs, gloved fingers applied pressure to the firing buttons and a strobe effect in crimson lit the front of his fighter and contacted the bulbous fuselage of his enemy.

The imperial fighter and it's pilot were engulfed in a spilt second fireball, obliterated into spacedust.

The trio followed the rest and got them before they did much damage to the medical ship. Each fighter took their chosen targets and split up from their formation and one after the other, the TIEs vanished into nothingness as they succumbed to the onslaught of the rebel fighters. The canopy of the Y-wing illuminated for a few seconds as the Imperial fighter he chased down from the medical frigate disintergrated and Boomer flew through the aftermath of that explosion. Regrouping with the other two fighters, his yellow marked fighter slid into position as they circled around and headed for the neighboring Nebula class.


"Scratch another Imp from the roster.... so many of them out there, it's getting to be like shooting womprats in a hole." The disembodied voice of the other Y-wing came over.

"For us too.... they've taken alot of our squadrons with them." Radzyn replied.

"Well they forgot to take us wi....." The crackle of the comm made Radzyn wince and jerk his head slightly at the feedback. As the other Y-wing erupted into bits of shrapnel and flame. The B-wing cut left, and Radz juked his ride at a hard angle, downward and to the left. Circling around, Boomer pulled the controls back and began to ascend. Coming up behind the flight of interceptors, Radz squeezed off and volley of red beams and took one of the interceptors in the right wing panel. The fighter was engulfed in a field of arcing electricity and it began a tumble. It's new trajectory took it right into it's buddy craft and both vanished into a chaotic mix of lit fuel and metal.

R3's high pitched scream followed with a rocky lurch of the fighter. Boomer had a bogie on his tail and took a few up the aft. Gritting his teeth, Radz throttled up. With the TIE in pursuit, Boomer closed in on another Imperial......the ION engines glowed before him as he closed the distance. The other craft behind him was coming up fast as well and again his Y-wing shuddered at the in coming blasts from the cannons of the enemy.

R3 warbled a warning and before Radz could react a shower of sparks burst from the right of his cockpit.

"Frelling he..! R3, that last hit took out the hard points again....see if you can get it back!" Slamming his gloved hand on the console, Boomer cussed and got the ION turret online. Keeping up with the fighter in front, he targeted the one behind them... "Let's see how you deal with this buckethead." Launching a proton torpedo, Boomer took out the one in front. Then depressing the button, painted the rear enemy with a volley from his ION cannon. The TIE lost it's operation systems and spun out of control. Hitting the debris from it's fellow craft, caused it to change direction and spin off towards the melee elsewhere.

As Boomer checked his craft for how badly he sustained damage, another voice came over the comm system of his helmet. "Green Five to all wings. Lost Bymer, lost Mallk. My squadron is battle-ineffective. Requesting rally point nearest my position - portside of Executor Collision Zone. I've still got something resembling a fighter, might as well try and put her to use."

Shaking his head at the damage listing, Boomer keyed her in. "Copy that Green Five...Gold Nine enroute to rendezvous point...portside Executor collision zone....ETA, forty seconds...."

The Y-wing's thrusters glowed brighter and he cut through space like a blade. "R3, hurry up with the hard points...will need them soon. All I got are a couple torpedos left....and that my metal friend is not enough." The astromechs response made him smirk. "No, and that won't be enough either."

[Hunk]

Unfortunately for Hunk, both the Defenders seemed to zero on him and he soon found himself having to pull out every trick in the book just to stay alive. The X-wings were just no match for the TIE Defenders when a skilled Imperial was in the cockpit. Brown 4 managed to get in a few shots, but the situation was beginning to look hopeless.

"R4, set the deflectors to double-back and divert all power from the blasters to keep them up. My hands are a little full keeping us from becoming space debr--Damnit, Ardsul, you almost burned my face off with that last volley! Shoot them, not me!"

"Well if you would fly in one direction for more than a half a second I could line myself up better for a shot. I'm going to come around for another pass. Turn to .04, I'll see if I can line it up."

"I'm sorry, pretty boy. Would you like me to sit still again? I'm sure they would make a much easier target then. I wouldn't want you to have to do any actual worrrrrrrrk," the last word was drawn out into a groan as Hunk pulled a stomach turning twist and bank.

Once again, Ardsul tried to help Hunk, but was unable to come around in time. It was just too hard to coordinate their movemnts. Hunk's words echoed in his head..."sit still again"...

"Hey, are you about done playing? Because I think I have an idea. Do you pick me up on your scope?"

Hunk quickly glanced over, "Aye, I see you. I also see two Defenders uncomfortably close."

"I'm cutting my engines. Keep your eye on my position; I'm pointing right at the shield generators of that nearest VSD. I want you to bring our new friends right in front of me so I can say hello."

Hunk guffawed loudly. "I see, so I do all the work and you get all the glory. Sounds like the usual plan to me. Ok, get ready, here we come."

[Biff Dronsom]

Biff breathed a mighty sigh of relief as, thanks to Yellow 10, the TIEs on his tail vanished into little more than space dust. Thanks were in order, yet just as the rookie pilot was about to comm. through to his saviour Mirax, a distress call came over the open channel.

"Green Five to all wings. Lost Bymer, lost Mallk. My squadron is battle-ineffective. Requesting rally point nearest my position - portside of Executor Collision Zone. I've still got something resembling a fighter, might as well try and put her to use."

Gold Nine sounded off over the radio, yet there were no other immediate responses.

“Copy, Green Five. This is Yellow Four and Ten, en route to your position.”

[Arinna Ceyan]

Jinxing the yoke more Arinna started to cork screw her ship giving a rather dizzying effect of the battlefield before her. The other red blimp on her targeting screen still held fast to her trajectory while a small green blimp behind the other slowly decreased the distance between the. The flash of green near her cockpit cause her lekku to twitch with frustration, frustration because she knew if White 4 who was now firing at the Tie did not hit him soon enough it would be she who will soon to be vaped and not him.

A small jolt that caused her body to lurch forward and press the restraint strapping her in her chair into her shoulders. A quick glance showed that the hit was bad as she thought it would. Her shields where down to 20 percent. One more hit like that and her shields would be gone.

"R6 see what you can do about the shields."

Slapping hard right she swore under her breath at a small realization that there was a good chance she was just fighting the inevitable they were out numbered and few were going to make it out of here alive. Shaking the deadly thoughts out of her head she swore once more at the thoughts that could very well get her killed.

"White 4 hope you get a good shot in soon shields are down to 20 percent."

The only response she received form her fellow pilot was a laugh as the red dot on her target screened disappeared. Unfortunately as her eyes watched the screen two more replaced them and was now behind White 5. About to yell that he had two on his tail, but it was to late a yell over the comm system confirmed what had happened. Frowning she twisted around one of the larger Rebel ships using that ship as cover as she contemplated on how to proceed.

"Green Five to all wings. Lost Bymer, lost Mallk. My squadron is battle-ineffective. Requesting rally point nearest my position -portside of Executor Collision Zone. I've still got something resembling a fighter, might as well try and put her to use."

The moment she heard the message she flipped her ship around she headed for the coordinates given.

"Understood Green five, white 5 heading your way."

[TieFighterPilot181st]

The two TIEs that were pursuing Yamagi were quite good. They worked together as a team, one always trying to herd him into the field of fire of the other. Tie sideslipped to barely avoid a blast from one of them, the bright flashes of energy passing by a bit too close. Rolling the X-Wing onto its port S-foil, Tie dove towards a Rebel Nebulon-B that was dueling with a Victory Class Star Destroyer. A storm of turbolaser fire and the fiery trails of concussion missiles filled the gap between the two ships as they passed stem to stern mercilessly pounding each other. Tie swerved through the torrent of destruction, the two Imperial starfighters following doggedly behind firing when they could. A stray blast from the fighters or a turbolaser rocked Tie's X-Wings as the aft shields absorbed the attack. The three fighters exited the firezone between the two capital ships still engaged.

Tie called for help over his comm, but during the course of the fight he had seen eight members of his squadron destroyed, two forced to eject and the other two had been split up from him. He was on his own for now, unless some other rebel though to help him. Taking a quick look at his sensors display showed the two red blips of the Imperial fighters closing fast. The two were split apart far enough to cover each other but not enough so that one lucky burst would take them both out. Tie could take advantage of that. Suddenly he cut power to engines slowing him rapidly. The two TIE fighters caught off guard by the suddeness of Tie's move shot past. They both tried looping around but Tie expected that and fired a burst at one of them, that severed the ball cockpit from its port solar starboard wing, sending the fighter out of control. He settled himself and now looked for the second TIE that was still out there.

[Milivikal k'Vik]

Milivikal banked her fighter back into the cover of her regrouped squadron. For a moment, the Blue Squadron was a rock in a typhoon. The battle swirled around them, the TIE pilots seemed to be confused at the sudden emergence of a delta-v showing up in the midst of the ships. Blasts flared impotently between the ships while k’Vik gave orders.

“Pair up. We’re playing bantha and dragon. Four, with me. Three, Six, Eight, I want Six to play grain. Keep it clean, Blues.”
“Aff, Lead.” Milivikal adjusted the power from her blasters back into the shields and engines. Her weapons were now recharging at a half-rate.
“Break.”

She quickly picked up a pair of eyeballs and matched their speed. Her A-Wing nimbly dodged the green bolts while she pulled them towards Blue Four.
“Now.” Milivikal said calmly.
The X-Wing suddenly broke pursuit of a TIE Interceptor and enveloped the pair of TIE Fighters in a burst of quad-cannon fire.
“Nice, Four.”

She dove as four TIEs closed in, and then rolled and pulled up. Something wet dribbled onto her lower lip. Mili reflexively licked it. It tasted metallic. Four broke again, but this time only one of the pursuers stayed with her. Four put bolts through two of them, but the leader got through, destroying the right stabilizer. For a moment, the X-Wing looked like it was going to maintain its heading.
“Oh frell." Four suddenly broke into the path of the TIE. The pair collided, detonating the munitions in the fighters. She winced from the bright explosion.

“Lead we need help!” Krasst! k’Vik could hear warning sirens flare up in Eight’s X-Wing.
“Coming.” The A-wing was handily outrunning her pursuing
“Sithspi…” the static cut out after a moment, and Six’s fighter disappeared on her tactical display.

“Eight keep moving. I’m on the way.” Her A-Wing lined up the pair of Interceptors, and put a pair of bolts into each, scant seconds apart.

“All craft, engage hyperdrives and regroup at the rendezvous point.”
“I’ll cover, you, Eight, get clear.” Her A-Wing dove, and her vision became increasingly red in her pursuit of TIE Fighters while the Rebel craft winked out. The remainder of her squadron quickly disappeared.

The group of fighters covering the lone survivor of Green winked out, too, as did the many capital ships. Friendly dots disappeared from her scope, which was becoming difficult to see. In fact, it was becoming difficult to move.

k’Vik’s vision began to fade faster. The warm haze was impossible to fight. Her hands began to slide off the controls.

Continued here. (http://www.swforums.net/forum/showthread.php?threadid=38710#post722984)