The Death Star has been destroyed. While the Coalition celebrates, Ezra and Jaral return to Lothal, to spend some time with their family and introduce Luke to the ways of the Jedi. But the Empire is far from broken, as Grand Admiral Tanis and his fl...
"We're entering the atmosphere, hang on." the captain of the Liberator announced. Since the vessels were in a rush, they didn't have the time to take the slow approach. The allied fighters fighting above the volcano of Dromund Kaas couldn't hold on much longer without support.
"Prepare my X-Wing." Jaral ordered before turning toward Cal and Ahsoka. "You two get on the Mantis and stand ready."
"You got it, ma'am." Cal replied before heading out with the Togruta.
"Jari...be careful." Darvos said with a bit of apprehension.
Jaral quickly smiled at him then walked toward the main hangar, where another squadron of X-Wings was preparing for launch. The Jedi headed toward her good old fighter, standing out with its unique color scheme and with the astromech beeping at her from its socket.
"I know, Raze. It's been a long time." she quipped as she stood next to the stair and assumed a T-pose.
A team of engineers rushed to dress her up with a modular pilot suit. Since her armor was useless, now, the mechanics had come up with this temporary solution to allow her to fly, including a helmet to let her use the fighter's sensors. When they finished putting the pieces on her body, one of the engineers lifted a thumb as he looked at a datapad.
"All systems green, ma'am." he said.
"Thank you." Jaral kindly replied before climbing into the cockpit.
She started the engines and closed it, preparing for launch. Raze ensured that the ship was loaded and ready, so as soon as the control room gave them the ok, Jaral and the squadron lifted their vehicles and headed out, diving into the skies of Dromund toward the place where the battle was taking place. It was night on that side of the planet, so it was singularly amazing to see how just the lava brewing in the caldera was illuminating the imperial ships. They were mostly frigates and small cruisers surrounding the Xyston, probably because the latter was already consuming most of their fuel by staying so close to the surface, thus having to fight with the gravity as well.
Jaral then entered the fight, acting mostly on her own as an independent jolly and intervening to save single allied pilots that were being picked on by imperial formations. Months of staying behind a holo-table had not reduced her skill with the piloting stick.
As the allies finally started making a huge hole in the line of TIEs, Jaral was taken by surprise as the cannon beneath the Xyston suddenly emanated a red light, aiming at one of the major frigates of the New Republic. Jaral quickly got out of the way and looked as the cannon fired a beam of energy toward the ship, even though it was way beyond the usual range of a turbolaser.
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As soon as it was hit, the frigate's shields failed and the ship exploded violently leaving no traces of it.
"What the hell was that?" one of the pilots exclaimed in the comlink.
