Star Wars: Rise of the Empire

Chapter 10: The Battle of Kuat Drive Yards

Pagonn Elshires POV:

"It's madness. Madness, I tell you. Thrawn is good, I admit. But he can't be that good." Grey rants on about the new mission, while our fighters are being prepared.

"We have our orders." Shen comments before having another coughing attack. I give him a few pats on the back and he thanks me.

"Yeah, stop whining. We can do this." says Vonreg.

"Think of it this way: When we take the Shipyard, the Reputation of Titan Squadron will go through the roof. We are already famous, but after this... we will be living legends." Rella tries to convice him. But Grey does not budge.

"I still think this is madness" he sighs "But we will have to trust him on that one."

Sergeant Waylin walks up to us "Are you ready?"

We check our gear one more time and give him a thumps up "Titan is ready."

"Excellent. Now, Grey and Pagonn will take the Interceptors over there. Sol gets the TIE Reaper. Shen and Vonreg, you'll get the Standard Fighter."

"No bombers this time?" Grey asks him.

Waylin just shrugs "I'm just following my orders. Now get in, you have a big fight ahead."

He walks off to assign the other pilots, while Grey turns to us "I'll keep this short. Today will be harsh. We fought the rebels her enot to long ago and we were defeated. Now it is time to take back what's ours. This will probably be our biggest and most difficult battle yet. But you are the best Squadron the Empire has to offer. Every one of you is worth ten of these rebels. Just do the job you were trained to do. Then, we will win."

He raises his fist and shouts our motto "Unrelenting Might!"

We raise our fists as well and repeat after him before climbing into our respective fighters. Before entering the cockpit however, I look over to Rella, who looks at me as well. She blows me a kiss and I "catch" it. Some may find these gestures silly but it truly warms my heart. And then, we climb into our fighters to face the dangers of space once again.

After placing my lucky charm on the wall and checking my systems, the fighter is equipped with missiles and flares, the holocom to my left lights up and Captain Kerrill appears.

"Titan, listen closely: Your orders are to destroy the Turbolaser satellites surounding the yard." A hologram of these satellites shows up. "These guns are strong enough to blast giant holes into our Capital ships with just one salvo once their shields are down. Cruisers and Raiders will protect the Destroyers from enemy fighters, so you will take care of that problem. Your missiles and rockets should do the job just fine. But keep your distance from these..." The hologram shows a different kind of turret. "They have guided missilies, so be careful. Our ships will deal with them. Once the outer defenses are gone, you will protect the ground troops landing on the shipyards."

"Roger that." Grey says.

As we jump out of hyperspace, we are waiting for the command. Using Thrawns stealth technology, we get as close as possible before striking at them.

"Wait for it.... Wait for it....NOW!" we hear of the comms and fly out of the hangar to attack.

The Defenders are taken completely by suprise and we attack the first satellites. However, my lasers prove useless against the thick armor, so I switch to rockets. After two salvos, the job is done.

I make a shark turn to attack the next one, but a warning sound goes of in the cockpit, alerting me to the dangers of incoming missiles. It appears I've come to close to the wrong turret, so I deploy flares and the alarm goes quiet. Lucky me.