The Returning Knight: A Star Wars Story

Chapter 20: Great Find

"Commander! The reinforcements have arrived!" The radar officer informed Leia. 'Just in time.' She thought. Leia looked out of the bridge of her Cruiser as the mighty Scutum and two dozen corvettes and six light cruisers lined up alongside her. "Establish contact." She ordered. The holo terminal lit up with him on the other side. "Leia." He greeted me. "Hello." She replied with a smile. "Go to the back for resupply." He ordered. Her task force moved back to the class four transports in the back of his fleet. 

"What is the strategy?" She asked. "You position your pair of cruisers in a way that your deflector shields cover the prow of the Scutum except the super heavy cannon." He explained. "And you set full power to it?" She asked. "Precisely." He replied. "When do we start?" She said with enthusiasm. "Patience. Resupply will take a few days then we can start the assault on the shipyards." He cautioned. "As you see fit." She said with a sigh.

Following full resupply, she had her crew and herself fully rest before moving into position for the assault. 

"Divert all power to the cannon and Fire!" Sigil ordered with enthusiasim in his voice in an attempt to boost the morale of his crew. The cannon of the Scutum began its firing sequence. Its reputation for blowing up star destroyers, earned it the name 'Star popper'. The star popper continued its hammering of the shield until it began glowing red and faded. The next bolt slammed into a second deflector shield however. The onslaught however didn't pause and as the star popper was about to push through the second, the first one appeared. "Pause!" He ordered. "This won't work." He stated. "Something wrong?" Leia asked. "Yes this shield will regenerate no matter our hammering." He explained. "Maybe we could use asteroids to weaken it." Leia suggested. "Genius!" He declared. "Lieutenant Qishik, order three Arquitens to bring me asteroids with their tractor beams." He stated. "Yes sir." He replied. Three days later, five large asteroids were dragged back from other parts of the system.

"What do I say sir?" Qushik questioned. "Tell them to thrust forwards then point their prow up before releasing their lock. Also have the cannon ready to fire." He replied.

Within a few minutes, the asteroids slammed into the shield around the shipyards and overrode it's limits as the first layer faded and the second one got critical but couldn't regenerate as star popper did away with it and struck the mega structure. In a few short minutes, the structure had melted as his gun made a viewpoint all the way through to the surface.

"Order all ships to lock their beams on the right side of the shipyards' melted edge." He said. "What is your plan?" Leia said, questioning his sanity. "You'll see." He reassured.

 "Sir all ships have reported a lock." Qishik said after a few minutes. "Pull!" He ordered. I unison, the entire flotilla, began pulling on the superstructure with full power on the shipyards built above the mining world. The superstructure slowly drifted towards them on one side as the other neared the planet. Within seven hours, the other half of the superstructure, ahd gotten close enough where it fell into the gravitational pull of Cardune. The personnel had evacuated three hours into his procedure but he couldn't risk such a vital target in their rear being left alone and watched as it crashed into the planet. "Turn off!" He ordered.

"Sir, our scanners are detecting several ships in our rear. They will exit in five minutes." His radar officer informed. "How many?" he asked. The officer gulped "four star destroyer sized vessels and a dreadnought sized one."

"Get us out of here!" He shouted. "We don't have clearance!" His pilot informed. "All ships move to the other side of the planet." Was his second order. "What's happening?!" Leia demanded. "Death squadron. They seem to have caught up to us." He informed her, trying to keep his cool. "What?!" She said in a panik. "Divert all power to engines and charge up hyperdrives. Go to the other side of the planet." He ordered. "Understood." She replied with more composure. He could feel a dark presence in his rear approaching. It was Darth Vader. 'So be it.' He thought to himself.