Accismus⋆౨ৎ˚⟡.• Anakin Skywalker⋆౨ৎ˚⟡.•

117.

The Empire were advancing, and the Resistance that remained in the hanger waited in agony. The captain left the last line of defense to the control room with a promise to return with good news. But even as a politician, Padme Amidala struggled to lie without a painful twist in her stomach. It never got any easier to look at her team, and vow that she would find a solution to their seemingly hopeless situation. 

So, when Padme arrived at the control room with Ahsoka and C3-PO in tow, the captain barged in with an immediate address to her righthand man.

'What do you have, lieutenant?'

Padme approached the man with a stern look. With the Jedi and droid behind her, the captain looked through the hologram on the hologram pad The lieutenant pushed himself to stand tall at his captain's arrival, but from his hesitancy to answer, the group could see that the news was not good.

'Ma'am... I have done as you asked,' the lieutenant said, his fingers threading through each other in a nervous fidget.

'And?'

While awaiting his answer, Ahsoka looked at the hologram of the Imperial star destroyer. It's triangular shape spun in a slow rotation and the dodgey connection made its form flicker in and out of transmission. Seeing the ship on a hologram was nothing compared to what Ahsoka would face out in space, but it still unnerved her to think she would be facing one soon enough. Even if the plans weren't yet solid, Ahsoka knew that the star destroyer was her next target, and she feared its monstrosity in physical and in hologram form.

'There is a possibility of blowing a star destroyer up, but...' the lieutenant paused and swallowed at Padme's raised eyebrow. 'It would require a delicate operation and a great deal of luck.'

'Show me.'

As Padme stepped forward to be by the hologram pad, Ahsoka did the same. C3-PO remained behind the two women and the rebel lieutenant rushed to zoom in on the star destroyer's interior. The destroyer expanded as if the group were flying into the ship's makeup, and the mechanical parts of the destroyer came into view. 

'The first hurdle will be to destroy the destroyer's shields. We won't get anywhere close with them still functional, and shooting them down will take a great deal of work. I don't know how many ships we have left, but...'

After a look from his captain, the lieutenant didn't continue the topic futher.

'Once the shields are down, there is one fault that is installed in all Imperial carrier ships that we can aim for. This is the exhaust port-' the man gestured to the small space in between the hologram's two mechanical parts. '- that is no bigger than ten metres wide. If we could, and this is a massive 'if', M'Lady-'

The lieutenant looked at Padme through the hologram.

'-if we could fire a blast into this small exhaust, we could trigger a reaction that would set fire to the destroyer.'

Ahsoka walked around the hologram pad with her arms crossed over her chest. She eyed the small space between the destroyer's parts and tried to picture herself in the TIE fighter's cockpit. If the Force was on her side, and the Resistance were able to drop the shields, Ahsoka would have to aim a blast into a tiny space on the kilometre-wide star destroyer. And, if the Force was feeling especially generous, the blast would ignite the exhaust port and blow up the entire ship in a great explosion.

It seemed impossible; even more impossible than anything Ahsoka had ever done before.

'If I might interupt,' C3-PO began, and Ahsoka knew what was coming. 'The chances of successfully bringing down the destroyer's shields are incredibly low at our current state, and for Miss Tano to articulate such a blast, is nearing towards a fantasy. I don't mean to be such a negative Nautolan, but I fear that this attempt will only lead to the last of the Resistance being obliterated.'