The New Adventures of Nomi Darklighter

Chapter 53 - Attack by the First Order

Unable to sleep, Corran left the pilots' ready room as the Admiral Raddus emerged from hyperspace.
He was walking along the hallways to his quarters when the siren began to wail. The young Jedi knew immediately that they were under attack. There was no time to think about who and why.
His training as a fighter pilot kicked in and he hurried back to the hangar. On the way there, he saw Poe accompanied by his faithful astromech droid BB-8.
Just as Corran had almost reached the hangar, a huge explosion was heard and he saw BB-8 and Poe Dameron being flung away by the pressure. The blast doors closed with a loud bang to prevent the flames from spreading to the rest of the ship.
The young Rendar blinked away the tears, not knowing whether they were caused by the grief for his dead comrades or by the acrid smoke from the fire hanging in the hallway. His comrades had not even had the chance to fly into battle.
But there was no time to mourn. He looked out a nearby viewport and saw First Order TIEs flying strafing runs. There was no way to stop them. Corran clenched and unclenched his fists in impotent fury.

The Admiral Raddus was shaking under the shelling. Corran wondered how much longer the shields would hold before they failed and they were doomed. He rushed to the bridge to ask for orders now that all the fighters in the hangar had been destroyed.
The Jedi was almost at his destination when he heard another explosion. When he reached the place where the bridge had been seconds before, there was only chaos and a gaping hole behind the blast door.
Corran's heart sank when he saw this. There was no way there were any survivors. General Organa, Admiral Ackbar, everyone on duty on the bridge had vanished in the blink of an eye. He swallowed hard and turned away.
Should it really end here? He had no idea how they were going to carry on without the general's inspiring spirit.
And then the miracle happened. The general managed to get back on board from the cold vacuum of space. It was a miracle for everyone else, except for Corran. He was pretty sure she had used the Force. The Jedi wondered how, because his mother had told him that Leia Organa always refused to train with her brother. Had she been training in secret?
Corran noticed that the attack ended as abruptly as it had begun.

The flagship of the Resistance was crippled, but not inoperable. All functions were redirected to the ventral emergency bridge. From now on, the command center was located there. It was a command center that lacked a commander. General Organa was either in a deep coma or already dead.
There were lots of rumors circulating and everyone was wondering who would now take over the leadership of the Resistance.
But they were soon to learn about the general's condition as they gathered in the makeshift command center.
Everyone gathered had their own assumptions and it was a hubbub of voices until Commander D'Acy entered the room and clarified the general's condition.
Then there was the question of temporary leadership during General Organa's recovery process. Corran expected that Poe would be given this responsible role. But the commander presented them Vice Admiral Holdo as their new leader instead of Dameron.

Not everyone welcomed the change of command, as no one on board the Admiral Raddus really knew her. She had been transferred from the Ninka to take command of the Resistance flagship and the entire Resistance.
Corran watched Dameron from a distance and could see the conflicted emotions on the man's face.
As those gathered left the emergency bridge, the Jedi saw Dameron approach the vice admiral. He hoped his friend wouldn't get himself into trouble again.