The two battered opposing fleets dispensed with fancy maneuvering and barreled straight at one another. Both commanders knew that all the tricks and clever stratagems were over. Both sides had lost too many ships and pilots, and all that was left to decide was how many of the shipyards would be intact after the final clash of arms. A cloud of TIE fighters, TIE bombers, TIE interceptors, and heavily armed shuttles spread out from the Drive Yards in a last ditch attempt to break the New Republic’s cruiser flotilla. The formation was met in kind with every fighter the New Republic fleet could throw back at them.
Li and Stramm’s X-wings shot out in front of the formation and engaged in a deadly dance with TIE fighter after TIE fighter. Gina had to admit that they were a very effective team.
“Stick close Fanty; let’s earn our pay.”
“Roger that, boss.”
Moonsong led her pilots through a hail of laser fire towards a damaged Imperial light carrier. She relayed an attack pattern to the rest of her pilots; and like a well-oiled machine, they slotted past the TIE fighters and unleashed their devastating payload into the carrier’s open hangar. The carrier exploded, debris and flame shot in all directions.
“Good work people! Let’s regroup, and let’s find a new target.”
Even as she spoke those words, Moonsong was scanning: she saw that the New Republic fleet was taking quite a beating. Her carrier, the Amalthea, was limping away trailing drive plasma. That did not look good at all. If they were caught out here beyond carrier-range, they were either going to get picked off by Imps or run out of fuel... or both.
But then the situation abruptly changed. As one, the Imperial forces broke off and scattered in all directions. Those vessels too damaged to flee transmitted code designating the signal for surrender.
“My god... They’re surrendering...”
“We did it!” Gina leaned back in her acceleration chair and closed her eyes. Pure relief flooded her body as the whoops and yells of her pilots filled her comm-set. Finally the commodore’s voice came over the fleet-wide channel:
“All New Republic forces, I have just accepted the surrender of the Kuat Drive Yards from Moff Maksim. I repeat: we have accepted their surrender.” Gina gazed out the cockpit window at the splintered yet still-mighty ring. Fires raged across it, surrounded by the debris of hundreds of fighters and starships. Against the lights of the fires and explosions, that debris looked like a gigantic asteroid field. It was so beautiful that it was easy to forget it was nothing but tombs for fighters on both sides. Moonsong took a deep breath.
“Okay... Let’s go home.”
She turned, and her squadron swung into formation behind her.
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From Star Wars Insider 168 (October 2016)
Blade Squadron: Kuat Page 2
