There was a dozen of them, suspended over the planet like daggers to the throat of Corellia.
Luna sagged in her chair. She had let herself feel some hope, some small spark in the darkness of her mind that told her not to give up. Looking at the star destroyers ahead of her, she felt that spark fizzle out and die.
'What do we do?' she asked, her voice hollow.
She looked over to Face, beside her. His mouth was working, like he was chewing on an idea. 'We go somewhere else,' he said simply, working the controls to the nav computer. Somehow, watching him go about his work calmly, like it was just another day at the office, felt comforting, and she sat back up, her back straight, suddenly ashamed that she had given up just like that. She cleared her throat. 'Where are we going?' she asked, and was pleased to hear her sound steady.
'Kuat,' Face said firmly. 'Corellia is a big target, but undefended. Of course they'd take it easily. The First Order will have likely already gone to the shipyards of Kuat, but they'd meet much stiffer opposition. We can link up with the forces there. Oh, but one thing first.' he reached over to the panel in front of Luna and flicked the transponder signal off, then on again. Before, it had identified them as a civilian vessel. Now it identified them as a New Republic Navy cruiser. 'If we're doing this, we're going to do this with the proper colours. No more pretending.' he smiled at her as he said this, and Luna felt something swell in her chest. Not patriotism - she had never really been the flag waving kind. If she had to put a word to it, it would be kinship, but even then it wasn't entirely correct. The feeling of being part of something bigger than herself, a family, standing against those who would hurt those she loved.
Something bleeped on the sensor, and she saw one of the star destroyers turn towards them. Face toggled the yoke on its x axis, causing the cruiser to wiggle its sides up and down - in this context, a mocking gesture. Then he turned the ship around, pulled the hyperspace activator, sending them back into hyperspace in a flicker of pseudomotion.
While Kuat was on a different hyperspace lane, it was close enough, relatively speaking, that it was a short trip and one they made in good time.
Face had warned the others to suit up and ready their fighters, to be ready to jump into a potentially hostile situation, expecting to see the shipyards being hotly contested. As they dropped out of hyperspace, Luna saw that he was half right. It had been hotly contested - and the New Republic had lost. Dozens more star destroyers flew through the debris of countless shattered New Republic ships, their lifeless hulks floating through space. He stood them down, leaving the system barely a minute after arriving.
Coruscant, once the jewel in the crown of the Old Republic, was their next port of call. It still shone brightly, and the cannons of the First Order fleet orbiting above it shone even brighter. Another jump, another system already claimed. Another jump, more First Order met them. Luna could hardly believe what she had seen. It was barely half a day since the destruction of Hosnian Prime and it seemed that the First Order had taken over half the galaxy already. They jumped into hyperspace again, entrusting that hyperspace itself would keep them safe until they could think of a safe port of call.
'The problem,' said 'Ro'vena, as they sat around the big table in the salon, 'is that we're heading towards First Order space. We should be going away, like to Ryloth.
'And how long before the First Order comes knocking there, too?' said Garan savagely. He and Rana were from Drall, one of the five planets in the Corellian system known collectively as the Five Brothers, and both the twins had not taken seeing their home system under First Order rule at all well.
'It will give us more time to plan, to think of our next move,' said Ro'vena heatedly. Both she and Garan were on leaning close to each other in front of Rana, who sat morosely between them. 'And besides, we Twi'lek have a long history of brave warriors. We have been fighting dictators for decades. My great gandparents were great warriors against the Seperatists. My own mother fought against the Empire, and now I fight the First Order. We do not bow so easily.'
'And neither do us Corellians,' snarled Garan, 'but you saw the First Order there. How long can we stay at Ryloth before we have to move on again?'
'So what is your plan?' Ro'vena asked. 'Go into the First Order territory? Because the way we're going, we'll end up there soon enough.'
'Soon enough,' retorted Garan, 'everywhere will be First Order territory.'
'She's right,' said Luna, sitting opposite them, on Face's right hand side. The two feuding pilots turned to her quizzically, then so did the others.
'What do you mean?' asked Face.
Luna looked around the table, then sat up straighter. She cleared her throat. 'We should go into First Order territory.'
She saw Garan and Ro'vena share a look that seemed to saw, has she finally lost it? The others looked sceptical too. She stood and keyed on the galaxy map in the centre of the table. She waved at the New Republic section of the map. 'We don't know where the First Order is, or what they've taken. We don't know where they'll show up next, and from where. It makes planning our next move nearly impossible.' She then zoomed in on the area of First Order of space they had recently called home. 'But here, we know exactly where the First Order is.'
'Everwhere,' piped up Face, smiling as if it were a minor thing.
Luna nodded, her face serious. 'Exactly. We know what to expect.' she looked around to see still dubious faces. 'And besides, that was our original mission anyway. Go behind enemy lines and disrupt them. Right now, we're just looking for allies and no idea where to look. We're wasting time, for a goal we don't even know is possible, and since we're just one squadron we'd probably end up doing an insignificant amount of damage anyway. But if we stick to what we know, we can make a difference. Maybe enough to help whoever is still out there,buy them time to reform, give them a chance to fight back, score real hits.'
Silence descended on the table. 'That's utterly insane,' said Face. 'I like it.'
