Star Wars- In another Life.

Chapter 34- So it Commences

General Poe Dameron sat in the cockpit of Black Leader. BB-8 sat in his ship's droid compartment. Black Squadron followed behind; it was almost like old times. Ahead of him, Admiral Ackbar had taken the prime position, first into the blood net. Through his canopy, Poe couldn't help but look at the red honeycomb of hexes. They were flying slowly; there was no hyperspace here. It wasn't safe. This crimson passage through the anomalies of the Unknown Regions seemed angry. Poe held the controls steady with both hands as the ship's interior shook, and his sensor indicators flashed wildly. In the droid compartment, BB-8 squealed.

"Yeah, Yeah, I know," Poe answered, silencing some of the blaring alarms. "Happy beeps, buddy, happy beeps."

In the Falcon Han, Chewbacca and Calrissian flew behind Admiral Nunb. This section of space wasn't entirely unfamiliar to either of them; they'd flown through worse. The Kessel Run required them to navigate a cluster of black holes known as 'the Maw'. There'd been that incident with Leia where they'd flown into the belly of a giant gastropod, stopping to hide until Han realised their error; they were in a sleeping Exogorth! No, this was not the worst flight by a long stretch, but it certainly wasn't pleasant, and the Falcon creaked and groaned in complaint.
"Been a while since we flew in anything this interesting," Han exclaimed, and Chewie yipped his agreement.

The fleet slowly emerged from the blood net, finally entering standard space to jump to lightspeed. It wouldn't be long now. Admiral Statura watched the light streak past the heads of technicians through the viewing ports.

"Black Squadron, with me!" Poe yelled as each of his pilots checked in.

"Blue Squadron, engage!" Ackbar requested.

"Red Squadron, with the Falcon, protect the bombers," Nunb commanded.

Squadrons of X-wings went to their flanking positions as bombers headed for the nearest Dreadnoughts. The remainder of the array of ships making up the Resistance, Y-Wings, B-Wings and A-Wings, gunships and freighters all took their positions around the main cruisers. They would need to defend their bombers, squadrons and cruisers from the Tie-fighters that would inevitably be released as their attack on the Dreadnought's deadly autocannons began.

"Let's do some damage!" Han cried as they headed for the Dreadnoughts closest to their location, those seemingly at the back of the large pack of ships which were currently not engaged in combat. Han intended to make that position short-lived as he flew full-speed at the Dreadnoughts.

"You may engage Bronze Squadron," Admiral Statura stated.

Each member of Wexley's Bronze squadron exited the cruiser before moving deftly around the Dreadnought's hull closest to them.

On the Raddus, Admiral Holdo checked for the fifth time, or perhaps it was the sixth, the bombing squadron information. The bombers were their best hope. She was prepared, but she didn't want to miss a thing. This was the battle to end all battles. Jumping out of hyperspace, the Admiral looked up, ready to evade, but what she saw gave her a moment's pause. It wasn't the sight of the dead, grey planet shrouded in massive dark storm clouds that made her hesitate, nor the jagged blue light that ripped through the clouds. It was what the streaks of blue light illuminated near the planet's surface- ships beyond counting, Imperial Star Crusiers and Dreadnoughts as far as the eye could see. Ben Solo had informed them that the First Order numbers were vast, but the sight of the scale of the enemy before Amylin made her heart leap to her throat in fear.

"Hope is like the sun. If you only believe it when you can see it, you'll never make it through the night," Amylin whispered to herself.

"I'm sorry, Admiral?" Commander Connix asked, wondering if she was supposed to be privy to what Admiral Holdo had said.