Star Wars: Duel of the Fates

Chapter 29

Poe took out the last turret on the intact Star Destroyer and looked across to see the Millennium Falcon and Wrobie's A-Wing being hounded by the three remaining Knights of Ren.

"Finn...Wrobie: I'm coming to you," he said over the com.

"Help would be very much appreciated!" Finn yelled.

Poe spun his X-Wing out and arced towards the Falcon, peppering the Interceptors with heavy blaster cannon fire.

"Countdown starting now," Rose's voice was patched into their coms units, "ten, nine, eight..."

Cardo spiralled violently above the Falcon, as Ushar shot at them from below.

"...six, five..."

Chewie accelerated forwards as Wrobie tried to shake the pursuing Trudgen, with Poe shooting at the knights from the side.

"...three, two, one."

"What are they doing?" Hux asked walking briskly to the viewport.

The chief petty officer couldn't make sense of the readings, "Every one of their ships has powered down."

"Why would they-" Hux froze, "Send an order to all of our vessels: turn everything off now!"

He stared in horror at the front of the Resistance cruiser where a small bright white light grew more and more intense.

"Send the order now!" Hux screamed, "Every fighter, Star Destroyer, throughout this dreadnought. I want every system off."

A pale speckled shockwave burst out from the light, travelling through the nearest ships and towards them.

"General," the chief petty officer tried to explain, "Most of our systems need to undergo a shutdown process-"

"Then initiate them!"

"Some of them take up to half an hour."

Hux watched in horror as the wave passed through the powered down Resistance ships with ease, but caught on every single First Order vessel. Each of them in turn went dark as the shockwave continued around them, like a large boulder disrupting the flow of a stream.

When the shockwave hit the dreadnought, it shunted backwards as the energy coursed through it and everything lost power.

Hux looked around the dim bridge, the only light coming through the viewport.

Kylo found himself alone in the pitch black throne room, now only illuminated by his red lightsaber.

He marched onto the bridge, lifting Hux, "What is happening?"

Hux choked, the feeling of constriction making him dizzy as his feet kicked in the air, "They've...discharged some kind of device...it's taken out...all of our ships."

Kylo's eyes scanned the halted battle outside, his lightsaber still active in his hand, "Can we still track them through hyperspace?"

Hux shook his head.

"I was assured that our systems were infallible!" Kylo snarled, tightening his grip.

"I will deal....with the person responsible myself."

Hux's face was going a bright crimson, so Kylo dropped him back onto the ground unceremoniously.

He caught himself awkwardly; his hand resting on his now free throat.

"See that you do!" Kylo said stalking away.

When Rey heard the systems coming on around the rest of the cruiser, she used the force to turn the power back on inside the generator room.

The lights flickered; dim for a moment before shining to full strength revealing that Kylo Ren was gone.

Rey clutched at her shoulder and stumbled to the comlink, "Did it work?"

No response came.

She tried to stave off the panic she could feel rising in her chest, "Hello! This is Rey in the generator room: did it work?"

"Enemy ships disabled," Connix said, "Preparing to go to hyperspace now."

Sagging back with relief, she picked up her lightsaber and walked out through the doors.

Poe felt the wave moving over his X-Wing, causing nothing more than a slight tremor.

He looked on in awe as the wave continued past him, the thin shimmering tendrils like a web stretching and shifting.

Flipping the switches, he activated his ship.

"BB-8, are you with me?" he asked. When he got no response he looked over his shoulder, "BB-8?"

A single bleep sounded as the droids systems came back online, his eyepiece assessing their situation.

"Glad to have you back. You had me worried for a moment," he said, "This is Black One, does anyone read me?"

"That was more than fifteen seconds," Snap replied.

Poe laughed despite everything, "Can someone confirm if we've knocked out all their ships?"

"All of them are down," Connix said from the cruisers bridge.

"Are the cruisers engines operational?"

"Yes, Black One."

"Then let's get out of here. Every ship jump to our agreed rendezvous."

"Copy Black Leader."

All around him their ships jumped to lightspeed.

"Can anyone see the Knights of Ren?" Finn asked.

"That's a negative," Wrobie replied, "They must be hiding somewhere."

"How brave of them," Finn muttered.

Chewie grumbled over the com.

"Ok Chewie," Finn said, "We'll see you guys at the rendezvous."

"See you there," Snap said.

One by one they disappeared.

"Commander D'Arcy, releasing probe droid now," Poe said pulling up to the remains of a Y-Wing, "BB-8, drop it here."

A metallic black droid flew away from his X-Wing and settled in the wreckage.

The cruiser angled in line with their new trajectory, levelling a series of red bolts from the autocannons on the paralysed Star Destroyers and dreadnought behind them. A moment later they went to lightspeed, leaving their enemies ships damaged and on fire.

"Ok BB-8, once the last one is gone, we get to go. While we're waiting..." he said, targeting a squadron of TIE bombers currently floating aimlessly and launched a series of missiles at them. They exploded in warm orange light.

BB-8 beeped loudly.

"I heard you the first time, buddy. Jumping to hyperspace...now."