The New Adventures of Nomi Darklighter

Chapter 108 - Battle of Exegol

When the ragtag Resistance fleet re-entered real space at Exegol, the battle was already in full swing.
Judging by the floating debris, things were not looking good for the vastly outnumbered Resistance forces present. The masses of destroyers they were trying to defeat were firing relentlessly on them. They were unable to inflict heavy damage on the much larger ships and their weapon systems.

Nomi switched her comm to the battle frequency set by Lando Calrissian, while the fighters already there continued their attacks.
The Jedi Master felt the presence of the dark side emanating from the planet itself everywhere. But it wasn't just the planet Exegol. There was a presence she hadn't felt in decades: the Emperor.
Over comm, she heard Poe Dameron's voice, filled with despair and sadness.
"I thought we have a shot. But there's just too many of them."
So Poe was still alive and had led his pilots into a battle they couldn't win alone.
Then she heard Lando speak, and she knew very well that this would give new hope.
"There are more of us, Poe. There are more of us."
"Look at this."
The commander noticed the amazement in Dameron's voice.
Lando laughed heartily and flew the Millennium Falcon between the assembled ships towards the front line.
Nomi was staring at the enemy fleet, giving orders to her pilots on where to attack, when she heard someone tell them to go for the ISDs' underbelly cannons.
"I agree with that. Let's destroy those damn cannons before they can do any more damage. Think of Kijimi. This must never happen again."
She steered the Aquarius towards the nearest destroyer while Corran went to the gun turret, sat down, put on the headset and strapped in.
"Stay sharp, I'm going in."
"Copy that, leader," replied her son, who was adjusting his sights.
Leader, you didn't use names when you were in combat. They had to limit the odds of the enemy being able to track them if the attack failed.
"We're with you, leader, keeping those pesky TIEs at bay," the commander heard her husband's voice.
She saw the Outrider attacking a bunch of enemy fighters, taking them out one by one. The TIEs also scored hits, but the modified shields of the YT-2400 were holding.
Nomi concentrated again on the task at hand and approached the destroyer's underbelly. The capital ship's turbolaser batteries opened a fierce defensive fire, but Corran pummeled the shield with constant laser fire, supported by the Trader's Luck with his sister at the helm, until it faltered.
They disabled the laser batteries and headed for the gigantic underbelly cannon.
Corran watched the crosshairs carefully and then fired. The cannon exploded in a fireball, setting off a chain reaction that destroyed the entire ship.
Cheers could be heard over the comms, but there was no time to rejoice in the victory. The commander steered her freighter to attack the next destroyer.
Nomi's Resistance cell fought together and took out several ISDs. The commander listened to the comm traffic of those who had landed on one of the enemy ships, but she didn't pay much attention as she was busy with her own tasks in her sector of the battlefield.

Suddenly, blue Force lightning came from the surface of Exegol, taking out fighters and even the CR90 corvette that was part of Poe Dameron's fleet.
Nomi's freighter was hit full force by the lightning and went into a spin.
The instruments on her console acted up and she struggled to stabilize the Aquarius. A quick glance through the cockpit window showed her that the other ships in the nearby area were experiencing the same problem. The commander heard her son cursing as he was pressed into his harness.
"Hold on, Corran," she said, still struggling to regain control.
The Jedi Master sensed the dark side even more strongly and was fairly certain that it was the Emperor himself who was attacking the Resistance fleet from the surface.
There was despair and fear of death, but she also sensed hope among her comrades.

Concentrating and with the help of the Force, Nomi finally managed to bring the Aquarius back under control. She breathed a sigh of relief, but realized at the same moment that something must be going on, because suddenly the lightning stopped.
Hearing the voices of her family members asking each other if they were all right, the commander was relieved when they all confirmed that they were.
She was steering her freighter towards the nearest destroyer, which, unlike the Resistance ships, had been untouched by the Force lightning, when she was hailed by her eldest.
"You feel that too, leader?" Dash Jr.'s question came over the comm.
Her son was right, there was something in the Force that she had never felt before.
The two aspects of the Force were being used to an extent that only very powerful Force users were capable of. It was the battle of darkness against light, manifested in two people. Nomi was pretty sure that one of them was the Emperor, but who was the one who represented the light side of the Force in this battle?
But there was no time to think about it.
"Yes," she replied curtly, suppressing the emotions she sensed in the Force as she engaged the destroyer. Corran was still in the gun turret, firing several salvoes at the shields, which gave way when they could no longer withstand the constant barrage.
"One more pass and we'll have them, Mama," came his voice over the intercom.
"Copy that," Nomi replied and flew at full throttle towards the underbelly cannon.
It was becoming increasingly difficult to block out the emotions emanating from the two people on the planet below.
Corran fired another barrage. The cannon exploded and the chain reaction that followed destroyed the entire ship. He hadn't told his mother what he was sensing in the Force and that he was struggling to keep the emotions in check. But he was sure that all the Force-sensitive family members sensed it too. It was hard to focus on the task at hand, but he did what needed to be done anyway.
His mother steered the Aquarius away from the explosion to avoid being caught up in the aftermath.

Then everything happened in quick succession. The overwhelming power of the dark side suddenly vanished, and the boarding party on the Imperial command ship reached its destination. Without its guidance signal, the other destroyers were unable to leave Exegol's orbit and were literally sitting ducks.
Now it was a piece of cake to take them out one by one. The debris from the destroyed enemy ships rained down on the planet's surface as a single X-wing took off and ascended to join the victorious Resistance fleet.
The commander heard the call sign Rogue 5, the call sign of Luke Skywalker during the Galactic Civil War, but it wasn't him.
Corran unstrapped, took off the headset, left the gunner's seat and went to the cockpit. There he sat down in the co-pilot's seat at his mother's side.
"We did it," he said and took a deep breath.
"Yes, we did it, Corran," the Jedi Master replied as the coordinates of the new Resistance base were entered into the Aquarius' nav computer.
A short time later, they made the jump into hyperspace.