Star Wars: The Bane Of Hope (Varados trilogy book 2)

Chapter Five: The Beginning of the End

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6004 ABY, The Elixir

"Battle stations, soldiers!" Varados yelled into his ship-wide intercom, "Schism fleet incoming!"

He ran to his personal hangar, where his lieutenants, Kronos, Hades, and Thanatos, along with their squadrons, were stationed. The new cyborg, Theseus E3-01 was there, but would be leading a platoon of SpecForce troopers, guarding the hangar.

"Are the ships prepared, Kronos?" Varados asked.

"Yes, my lord." Kronos replied.

"Very good." Varados said, before climbing into his ship, a Meta-class Advanced Starfighter.

After doing pre-flight checks, the squadrons took off and headed for the area where the Schism ships would be exiting hyperspace momentarily.

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6004 ABY, bridge of the Rainbow Valentine, just outside of the Elixir system

"Sir, we will be exiting hyperspace momentarily, and all fighters on all ships have reported that they are ready for the attack." An officer reported to Admiral Xann Gal.

"Very good. When we exit hyperspace, put us in the back, farthest from their ships." Xann replied.

"Yes sir." The officer replied, before relaying those commands to the pilots of the Rainbow Valentine and all of the other ships.

As the ships exited hyperspace, one of the ships that had yet to exit hyperspace, the Event Horizon, reported reactor core issues. All eyes were on the viewport, as the ship came out of hyperspace, pretty far from the rest of the fleet. Right after the Event Horizon exited hyperspace, another ship, the Altec Landing exited right next to it. The bridge of the Altec Landing got a warning from the Event Horizon, that the reactor was going to blow up momentarily, and that a few of the escape pods were malfunctioning as well. Starfighters started pouring out of the ship, in an attempt to escape certain doom, but it was to no avail. Once some fighters and a few shuttles had escaped both ships, the Event Horizon exploded, killing everyone on board it, and sending a shockwave that expanded outward, engulfing most of the fighters and shuttles, and the Altec Lansing in flames. Debris shot outward, destroying even more ships, and most of the other ships. Distress calls came pouring in from surviving escape pods, shuttles, and fighters. The closest ship, the Return Service, started moving in on the wounded ships, using their tractor beams to haul the ships in.

"We must attack!" Xann yelled into the comms, as well as speaking into the comm he used to relay orders to Darth Varados, "It's now or never!"

After he said that, ships started pouring out at the Elixir. Xann felt the remote for the electron pulse in his pocket. "No. Not yet." He thought to himself as the ships engaged in combat, he thought, "The battle has begun."