They raced back to the outpost, hoping to not be spotted by the incoming Star Destroyer, or if they were, that the newcomers would think nothing of it.
'Everyone into your fighters,' said Face, into his comm. 'If they want to board then there's no point keeping up the ruse and we'll need to make a quick exit.'
'Someone tell Garan to take the Nest and hide it in the asteroid field,' Luna ordered.
'I'm already on it,' replied Garan himself.
'And you stay out here,' Face said to Luna as he piloted his own TIE into the hangar. Luna was ready to follow him in, but pulled out of her landing run.
'Copy that, Face,' she said, bringing her fighter up and over the outpost to head deeper into the asteroid field. She had an idea of what he was thinking, and was proved right when he went on to elaborate: 'that's it, stay hidden. We might need you to provide a distraction, if we need to get out of here quickly.'
Luna checked the star destroyer's inbound course, saw it was coming into the system from her port, and swung her TIE around, heading to her port, too, hopping from asteroid to asteroid, hiding in their sensor shadows, hoping that the capital ship would barely be able to see her emerging from each blind spot, trying to manoeuvre herself so that she would be able to attack the ship from behind. She didn't realistically think that she could take on a ship of that magnitude by herself, but hoped that the unexpected attack vector would prove confusing for them. She hoped. As she nestled behind a small asteroid, facing the outpost, she caught a glimpse of their cruiser ducking behind a larger one. She saw her own fighter was already attached to the rack on its underbelly. She made a mental note to thank whoever had the forethought to do that.
'Listening outpost AA23 to unidentified Star Destroyer,' said Face. 'Greetings. What brings you to our system?'
The mixture of Face's pleasant tone with the stern seriousness expected of First Order officers made Luna smile, but it was quickly wiped off of her face when the star destroyer replied. 'Nexu Squadron,' said a deep voice in reply, 'you are outmatched. Outnumbered. Beaten. Surrender or be destroyed.
'Sithspit,' Luna swore, powering up her weapons.
Face was unfazed. 'Sorry, I think you have a case of mistaken identity.'
'Foolish man,' said the voice. 'The outpost shows clear signs of battle damage. Your antenna is gone, your cannons are so much slag. Do you really think me that stupid?'
'Little bit, yeah,' said Face. Luna snorted, then watched as the other Nexus poored out of the hangar and flew away from open space, away from the star destroyer, and into the asteroid field. She saw the Nest power up its engines and burst out of its hiding spot, joining the others. She tuned her sensors to send out a navpoint ping on the Nexu's encrypted channel, letting them know where she was, but she stayed in place. A moment later she saw Face's Z-'ceptor rush out of the hangar and race away to join the others. The star destroyer let out a blistering hail of fire, chasing him away and utterly destroying the outpost in the process. Then, from the underside, came a dozen TIE fighters.
'Surrender,' said the deep voice again, 'or be destroyed by my Krayt Squadron.'
'What did you just say?' said Face sharply. Perhaps it was just warping over the comm, but to Luna his voice sounded strained. She put the thought out of her mind as she saw the Nexus making their way through the asteroid field, coming to her position, then passing her by. Still she stay hidden.
'Tycho,' said Face. 'Tycho, are you there?'
Luna tensed as she saw the first enemy TIEs incoming and then, as the first flight passed her, she sped out of her hiding spot, her cannons blazing, taking the second flight by surprise. She grinned behind her helmet as one erupted into a fireball. There was a wail over the comm but she paid it no mind as the enemies scattered. she picked one, guessed that it was going right and shot where it would be, and a moment later her shots hit satisfyingly home.
'Pull back,' said Face, panicked, 'Luna pull back right now!'
'What?' said Luna, shocked. She had just destroyed two and the others were in disarray. They had to push their advantage before they could reform. This was the plan. Why would he change that?
She wasn't the only one confused. Several Nexus - Three Flight, their ship tags popping up on her HUD - had started to rush into the fray, but pulled up short at Face's words. That hesitation cost them.
The last of the TIEs were upon them. They came hard and fast in a tight, disciplined formation, coordinating their fire and in moments they had stripped away the shields of Rana's A-wing, then piercing her armour, her engines exploding, and Rana was no more.
