The Nexu's Nest dropped out of hyperspace in a flicker of pseudomotion and quickly spotted its target dead ahead - the fleeing First Order shuttle.
'All right, Uglies,' Luna said over her comm. 'You know the music, time to dance,' she detached her X-Defender from the starfighter rack, dropping down from the Nest's belly before her engines came to life, and she felt the surge of power course through the starfighter's body as she raced off after her target. Her radar pinged as the other Uglies came to life behind her.
The shuttle flew at top speed - away from them, but more importantly, towards the planet. Glee Anselm lay ahead of them, a blue marble hanging in the vastness of space.
'Head's up, Nexus,' Tarrik warned them from the cockpit of the Nest. 'I'm picking up four star destroyers in orbit around the planet.'
'Acknowledged, Nest, and thanks,' Luna replied. 'You heard him. No one outstay their welcome. Get in, get out.'
Her orders were met with a series of clicks over the comm, and she wiggled her wings in response. Ahead, the shuttle turned from a small pinprick of light, indistinguishable from the field of stars behind it, to a small model of a shuttle, gaining in size as they crept up on it. It was still out of range of their blasters, but that didn't stop her from sending a few laser bolts after it, which flew wide and became lost in the vastness of space. Behind her, her fellow Nexus sent their own shots, which did nothing more than announce their presence..
'One star destroyer responding,' Tarrik informed them. 'Sending a query to the shuttle.'
'Time to up the ante,' Luna murmured, and maxed out her speed.
'Mind if I join you?' a rough sounding voice announced over the ship's comm.
'Vix!' Luna beamed.
'Great to have you back, big guy!' Hoshi squealed in delight.
Tarrik was less than delighted. 'You should be in bed.'
'Only if you join me,' Vix parried, and made a sound that Luna could only describe as 'kissy noises, a sound which was chorused by a number of the other Nexus.
'I mean to recuperate,' Tarrik sighed, exasperated. 'To rest. Not...anything else.'
Even through the dead air, Luna could hear his blush, and it took all her strength not to join in on the gentle ribbing. She was the leader now. She had to be above that. The thought reminded her, inevitably, of Face, and immediately darkened her mood. 'Less of that, Nexus. We still have a mission to finish,' she punctuated her words with another round of shots, this time impacting against the shuttles' shields. 'Vix, if you can, take control of the turrets. If anything gets close on your run, send them packing.'
'Aye aye, boss,' Vix said happily, and then very loudly kissed Tarrik, leading to childish whoops from the others.
Something pinged her long range sensors, and she saw one of the star destroyers leaving the planet's orbit to intercept them. 'Head's up. We have incoming. Let's make this look good.'
'Leader, if there's one thing I can do, it's make it look good,' Ro'vena raced her A-wing ahead to take the lead, her blasters flashing, scoring hits on its shields, then passing by and swinging back round to rejoin the squadron.
'Garan, you're up next,' Luna said. 'Garan?'
'Roger,' he replied dully, coming up beside Luna's Ugly, taking a few quick shots, then dropping back. She frowned at his retreating Ugly. He was supposed to have popped the shields.
She opened a private link to Hoshi's Z-95. 'Is Garan doing okay?'
'Not even a little,' Hoshi's reply was so quick and ready that it surprised Luna. 'His guilt is overwhelming. Almost like a wall of emotion.'
Luna winced. 'That sounds painful to try to sense, I'm sorry.'
'Mhmm. But just imagine what it's like to feel.'
Luna nodded, then cut the channel. She dropped back to allow the other Nexus space to take their shots.
'TIEs incoming,' Tarrik warned.
The First Order shuttle was on its approach to the planet below, so she paid that warning little attention. It was time to wrap things up. She switched her comm to an open frequency. 'All units, all in. Say again, all in,' she ordered, letting off a full volley of blaster bolts, which were quickly joined by the other Nexus. She had just a moment to spot the empty crates being dropped out of the back of the shuttle, before the shots connected, hiding the shuttle behind a wall of fire. As it dissipated, the back end of the shuttle was on fire, smoke trailing from the engines, and the shuttle listed dangerously to the side. The Fenndys, piloting the shuttle, had heard her command and timed it perfectly. It looked like it had taken a dangerous amount of damage.
'Mayday, mayday, mayday,' Khenan all but screamed over the comm. 'First Order shuttle-' the channel fizzled with interference. 'We're going down! Repeat, we're going down!'
'All units, break!' Luna ordered, turning her X-Defender up to face the oncoming TIEs, the other Nexus joining her. Only Tarrik in the Nest stayed on course, following the shuttle as it entered the atmosphere.
The squadron reformed just in time to present a united front to the enemy TIEs, then splitting up into their own flights as the first wave engaged, then passed them by, the battled joined.
'I have two on my tail,' Ka'iulani warned, and Luna and Hoshi turned to intercept, driving off Ka'iulani's pursuers. The princess shook her wings in appreciation. Luna reciprocated, then flew off to help Ro'vena and Garan, who were having difficulty in tacking their own opposing flight. The TIEs had numbers on their side, which was good for the Nexus, because it gave them plenty of reasons to back out of the flight. Luna let the melee continue for a few minutes, for appearance's sake, but once she saw the Nest return from out of the atmosphere, she gave the order to disengage and link back up with the Nest. She and Hoshi were the last to do so, but once they were safely locked onto the rack, Tarrik took them out and away from the battle, jumping into hyperspace the moment he found a window.
'Good work, Tarrik,' she said to him, once she had joined him in the cockpit. 'How did the Fenndys get on?'
'Difficulty to say,' he said, relinquishing the captain's chair for Luna, which she took. She had taken the captain's chair plenty of times while piloting, but she hadn't quite got used to sitting there as squadron leader. 'It looked like a terrible, absolutely awful, horrific crash. So I'd say it was a success.'
Luna made a face at him as she checked their course, putting in the next set of coordinates. 'What about their sent messages? What did they say?'
'Oh just the usual,' Tarrik leaned against the bulkhead, his arms crossed, a slight smirk on his lips. '"Help, help, we're out of control. Oh god, we're going into the water, we're going to crash into the water, please help."'
'Tarrik,' Luna warned.
The doctor sighed. 'No coded messages to abort or indicate trouble,' he replied formally. 'Last received message was "bailling out at 1,000. May the Force help us", which, I'll have you know, is a terrible code phrase. I could have thought of something much better.'
Luna rolled her eyes. 'Next time, I'll let you pick the passphrases. I know you've been reading Face's holonovels,' she smirked, and sat back in relief. The code phrase meant that the Fenndys had successfully made their infiltration look like a doomed crash landing, and that they were bailing out to land in the ocean using an escape pod. An escape pod that would, she hoped, be found days later having not survived the impact into the water, leading the First Order to believe that all those aboard had perished at sea. The navicomputer bleeped, and she input the new coordinates.
It was a few hours later before they dropped back out of hyperspace to find Scipio ahead of them. They didn't make landfall. Instead, they headed to a predetermined pick up point at the edge of the system to meet Mara, who had been surveilling Hastaati base, trying to find any information about Face. There was just one problem.
Mara was nowhere to be found.
