Ready for more? Here is the next chapter, and now it really hits the fan...

First Strike
Storm over Tatooine: Episode Three

"Stand by, this jump is shorter than you'd think."

Warns Peliares bracing himself in the Captain's chair of the Rogue's Venture. Beyond the cockpit's viewport the swirling blue maelstrom of hyperspace. Sure enough, in a moment the navi-computer sounds an alert and the young Ensign gets a grip of the hyperdrive throttle.

"Exiting hyperspace in... 3... 2... 1"

Pushing forward on the throttle the storm outside is instantly replaced by a web of streaking needle thin light that then in turn shifts to the familiar starfield of normal space, but they are still travelling at phenomenal speed as they decelerate to sublight, the orb of Tatooine begins in their view as a small spec, but within a second is already filling the viewport. This sort of tight combat jump really showed how long a distance it takes to achieve normal velocity once ejected from hyperspace with millions of kilometers covered in the blink of an eye. The jump calculations had been spot on, the desert planet now lay like a vast sea of gold beneath them, and the Imperial Star Destroyer loomed menacingly before them, just out of weapons range, but close enough to be considered a surprise attack. The strike force would hopefully be engaging before the Imperials had time to react. Peliares matched speed with the advancing cruisers as they secured themselves in normal space and commenced the attack.

"Right, time to hold position until we're given clearance to make our run."

His second in command Rocorro nods an affirmative as he checks his systems optimising them for the combat to come, flipping a bank of overhead switches he looks across the nose of the Corellian Freighter as the strike force's compliment of starfighters thunders by.

"There they go. Good luck guys."

Red Squadron streaks away from the fleet heading towards their target. Falling into a standard delta configuration, the Y-Wings they were charged with protecting then fell in behind in a tight formation a column two a breast giving the appearance of an arrow, with a head of X-Wings followed by a shaft of Y-Wings. Red Leader studies his readings and sees that the first wave of TIEs have already deployed from the vast ventral hanger bays of the Imperial Destroyer before them.

"Damn, that is a fast reaction time."

He mutters to himself before he opens a channel to his squadron and barks his orders.

"Stay in tight formation boys and hold the line. Lock 'S' foils in attack position."

Red Leader studies his sensor readings in these last moments before first contact with the enemy, a swarm of TIE Fighters heading straight for them, these will be the rookie pilots then, any TIE pilot who has survived long enough to become a veteran knows that a head on assault against the Alliance's heavier shielded starfighters was practically suicide in everything but name, the smart TIE pilots will be in that secondary wave blossoming out just behind the first arcing far out to either side, these would be the dangerous pilots with the aim of coming around and falling in behind you to out flank your position, these will be the good pilots that you really needed to worry about. This first clash was always the most unpredictable where no matter how keen your flying and gunnery skills were it could all come to a most violent end all too quickly. It boiled down in the end to a question of luck, or the Force or whatever deity you chose to believe in. He personally found the best option was to stack luck as far in his own favour as possible, switching his shield configuration to double front and his laser cannon's firing sequence to cyclical meaning less powerful bolts, but a higher rate of fire. And as for the TIE pilot who has to go toe to toe with him? Well that's just plain unlucky.

Then all hell breaks loose as the first salvo in a storm of laser fire is released, crimson and emerald hot light fills the vacuum between them, one, two, then three TIE pilots meet their fiery fate, and then the opposing squadrons of fighters clash fully, the distance between them eaten up in seconds, a TIE zeros in on Red Leader's X-Wing and locks in dead ahead of the craft spitting deadly green laser fire. Red Leader holds fast and squeezes off two salvos at the last possible moment insuring he has a clean shot resulting in the enemy fighter erupting into a violent ball of super heated gases just before contact, the glowing debris bouncing off of his shields as he punches through. His wingman isn't so lucky and out of the corner of his eye he sees the fellow X-Wing shatter explosively as it collides with an Imperial fighter. Panicked comms chatter comes in over the speakers.

"We lost Red Two!!"

Red Leader opens up again lighting up another TIE fighter in the first wave before grimly responding over the squad's comm channel.

"Cut the chatter Red Four, keep this frequency clear. Brake now!!"

On his order the squadron of X-Wings splits in two, half braking hard to port, the others doing the same in the opposite direction, the manoeuvre arcing them away from the Star Destroyer in the distance and pulling into view the second wave of TIEs attempting to outflank them. The Y-Wings now given a clear shot with the space now opened up before them by the vacating X-Wings allows them to open up with all they have quickly vaping the remainder of the first wave of TIE Fighters in a hail of concentrated laser fire.

Red Leader's X-Wing swoops in behind a pack of the TIEs attempting to outflank the Rebel starfighter forces, as he matches course he makes minor adjustments, tightening his arc to enable him to close in on the faster ships, the starfield swirls disorientatingly around him with only the target ahead as a constant. Today he aims to continue to earn the call sign he once had before becoming Red Leader, Angel, as in Guardian due to the fact that he has almost never lost a ship that he has been charged with protecting. He holds his fire not wanting to spook his prey before he can achieve a clean shot. The TIE pulls out of the turn and straightens up just aft of the last Y-Wing in the group and then is reduced to an expanding cloud of plasma as Angel sinks two shots into the ball like cockpit, he then rolls up to port keeping the same heading and lances the first target's wingman with hot light. There are several other flashes as more TIE Fighters suffer the same fate. One closes in on the rear Y-Wing and manages to open fire scoring a glancing hit on the starboard engine nacelle before the bomber's gunner gets a bead on him and returns fire eliminating the threat and splashing glowing debris over the forward screens of Red Squadron's fighters. The remaining TIEs decide quite wisely that they are not in the most tactically advantageous position sandwiched between pursuing X-Wings to the rear and the Y-Wings aft gunners before them, and bug out, splitting up and away from their target. The X-Wings pull up and try and stay with their targets, but with the faster and more manoeuvrable TIE Fighters this proves difficult, and Angel doesn't want them getting lead into a skirmish situation, too unpredictable to say the least, it would be hard to control the squad if they all got pulled out of formation into individual dogfights.

"Red Squadron, stay on mission, we're tasked with keeping Gold Squadron's tail clean so they can perform their attack run. That is our job, so stick to it."

He looks down to his sensor display and sees new targets flickering into view at the edge of his focused combat sensor range, new fighters were launching from the Star Destroyer and heading their way fast. At this point the Y-Wings path would cross a few klicks ahead of the nearest Lancer Frigate which had held it's position in formation with the ISD. Unusual that it hadn't turned to face the advancing strike force, and then he saw it, the Lancer's anti-fighter batteries were all trained on the ISD, once the Y-Wings passed the vessel and turned to commence their attack run they might find themselves in trouble, but first things first.

"Red Squadron open up with everything you have and create a firewall between Gold Squadron and the new wave of TIEs, we've got to disrupt their approach long enough for Gold to get to their target."

The X-Wings fire across the path of the approaching TIEs forcing them to abandon their attack vector on Gold Squadron as several of them venture fatally into the stream of laserbolts, Angel spots the remaining fighters that they had engaged earlier coming around for another pass and arcing into a firing position behind them.

"Red Three you're with me, evasive plan theta."

Slamming hard on the retro thrusters and at the same time pulling back on the stick, Angel and his new wingman flip swiftly up and over as a pair of TIE Fighters swoop in from behind, their deadly laser fire finding its mark across the engineering panel of one X-Wing, tearing through the astromech droid and detonating the upper port thruster assembly, the fighter spins out of control and is then hit by another burst bringing the pilot's trauma to a most violent end. Angel's fighter comes back down from its tight loop right behind the lead TIE and dispatches the enemy vessel with some crimson hued instant vengeance. The other TIE jinks just enough to evade Red Three's stream of fire and pulls back on target long enough to send a concentrated burst of fire at the last Y-Wing just beyond the lead X-Wings causing it to erupt into an fiery expanding ball of gas, the debris scattering from this forcing the X-Wings to break formation and cut short their suppressive fire on the TIEs approaching from the Star Destroyer. Red Leader curses under his breath as his wingman a moment later gets the clean shot in which ends the chaos caused by the last TIE Fighter of the first wave. But their job is done, with the new wave of enemy fighters scattered the Y-Wings are close enough to the Imperial cruiser to make their attack run.

"Good work Red Squadron, the Y-Wings are through. We are now free to engage the enemy at will, stick with your wingman and stay safe guys."

Angel then switches comms frequencies to the fleet command channel and is patched through to the Commodore.

"Command, this is Red Leader, Gold Squadron are through the ISD's fighter screen and are preparing to make their attack run. We have one Lancer holding position this side of the Destroyer, suspect it's going to attempt to catch our bombers in a crossfire with the ISD, might be a good time to give them something else to think about."

"Noted Red Leader, we're about to deal with that problem. Good job getting those bombers through, now keep those fighters busy."

Responds the Commodore from the bridge of the Vigilance. Turning in his command chair he studies a tactical display intently. He then addresses a bridge officer to his side.

“Commander, jam all Imperial military comm frequencies. I don’t want any transmissions leaving the system.”

He the turns back to his tactical display. He has slowed down the Nebulon-Bs and sent in the more nimble Corvettes, he can't risk his heavier ships taking too much fire from that ISD, so until the heavy guns are down he plans to hold position just within the longest range of his vessel's main guns. He sees from the display that they have just crept into range. Time to give the order.

"All cruisers open fire!"

A storm of red hot light crosses the vastness of space between the two flotillas and soon detonations can be seen dancing across the hulls of the ISD and the nearest Lancer Frigate. The Corellian Corvette Kandokaar Rising climbs above the rest of the fleet as it advances on the target, achieving the desired angle the cruiser then alters course and commences to dive towards the closest Lancer, cleverly positioning the Imperial light cruiser between it and the Star destroyer's heavier guns and then lets rip with her own turbolasers. The Lancer's dorsal turbolaser turret turns and fires on the approaching vessel, but other than that makes no move to avoid the attack holding its position. The Star Destroyer then opens up on the attacking fleet with her starboard bank of heavy turbolasers, not focusing on one target but just throwing the full force of its weaponry against the enemy.

The Commodore tenses up as the wall of emerald fire heads their way.

"All hands brace for impact!"

The hardy battle cruiser then rocks under the onslaught of Imperial fire, but the Commodore's tactics have proven sound, keeping his craft head on to the Star Destroyer has reduced their targetable silhouette and the majority of the heavy weapons fire sizzles past through empty space, but the shots that do find their mark serve as a harsh reminder as to why the Star Destroyer is the most feared class of warship in the galaxy.

"Damage report!"

Another salvo sweeps across the stars followed by more devastating impacts. An officer dutifully responds from his console to the left of the Commodore.

"Minimal damage, sir. Shields are holding for now, but are down to thirty percent."

The Alliance craft return fire causing blossoms of fire and plasma to flare up over the distant enemy vessels hulls.

"And our fire's effect on them?"

Another bridge officer to his right responds.

"From what our scanners can detect the Lancer Frigate is taking a pummelling, shields are still operational, but in a severely weakened state and they are starting to take structural damage. The Star Destroyer's shields however have so far appeared unaffected by our weapons fire at this range, we're registering zero penetration. We're just not getting through."

The commanding officer slams the armrest of the command chair in frustration, he had feared this would be the case, but had hoped against all hope that the reports of the strength of Star Destroyer shielding had been exaggerated. Looking once more to his tactical screen he notices that the Imperial commander hasn't made any attempt to manoeuvre his vessel to face them, evidently not wanting to lose the time on target that shifting position would cost them, or perhaps just too arrogant, thinking that he would only need to use half of his vessel's arsenal of weapons to defeat this upstart band of Rebel spacecraft that had the audacity to attack. Either way this was bad, if he couldn't get the vessels of the Imperial blockade to give him their full attention there was no way that the Rogue's Venture would stand any chance of punching through. Obviously he'd have to raise the odds.

"All cruisers advance on target best possible speed, lets close with the enemy and see if we can't hit them harder at close range. Concentrate all fire on that Frigate, at least we know that is hurting, so let’s take it out of play. Once that is down concentrate all fire on that ISD. Let’s make the Captain aware that we require his full attention. Now where are those Y-Wings? We need those heavy turbolasers taken down as quickly as possible. If we move in and they are still up they will tear us to pieces. So now would be a good time to take care of business Gold Squadron."

"Working on that now command, Gold Squadron on final approach for our attack run."

Comes Gold Leader's voice over the communication panel's speakers above the cacophony of sound coming from various alarms and other ship wide reports coming in. The Commodore keys to the fighter bomber squadron's comms frequency via the panel on his command chair.

"Acknowledged Gold Leader, may the Force be with you."

And with us, thinks the commanding officer to himself, because if Gold Squadron can't disable those guns before the rest of the fleet closes into close combat range they were all going to be in a whole world of hurt.

Gold Leader switches to his squad’s combat frequency, the bone grey mass of the Imperial Star Destroyer now completely filling the view beyond his Y-Wing's cockpit, they were now arcing to port and lining up with the leading starboard edge of the mile long behemoth close enough now to make out the minutest details on the surface down to the hull panelling. He arms his torpedoes. This was it.

"Stay tight and low boys, we want to scratch the hull paint off our bellies on this one and keep out of those turbolaser turret firing arcs."

Looking up and to the left he can see the long blocky form of the Lancer Frigate now between them and the Rebel strike fleet almost silhouetted by the impact detonations coming in from concentrated Rebel weapons fire. He then adds to his orders.

"Those of you with gunners have them switch to ion cannons and try and disrupt that Lancer's targeting systems, we'll be hurting if we get caught in a crossfire. Good luck lads, and let’s get through this in one piece."

With that he turns in his flight seat to the gunner sat behind him in the cramped cockpit.

"Well here we go again."

Gold Leader turns back to face the oppressively massive target ahead seeing powerful crimson shots from the Rebel fleet's capital ships bounce harmlessly off the heavily armoured hull, and pushes forwards on the stick and leads the squad into a heart wrenching dive which closes even closer to the Star Destroyer's surface below them pulling out at the last possible second, weaving at full attack speed between the many built up areas rising out of the grey hull heading relentlessly towards the bank of heavy turbolasers situated towards the rear of the ship. Green laserbolts fly overhead, but with targets at this speed and range the cruiser's turbolasers prove mostly ineffective. Blue rays blast away from the topside mounted secondary cannons of the two man Y-Wings, the successful hits splashing the Lancer Frigate's hull with tendrils of charged ion energy, but still the vessel's anti-fighter batteries open up on the speeding Rebel craft, their stray shots bouncing harmlessly off the Star Destroyers formidable shielding. Gold six is unlucky and just has time to curse under his breath as twin emerald green laserbolts lance through his port engine nacelle causing it to explode spectacularly before the impact spins him into a collision with the Star Destroyer's hull. The remaining ships of Gold Squadron skilfully dodge both the obstacles of the ISD's surface and the rain of death showering them from above until finally the massive forms of the heavy turbolasers come into view.

A sudden ruddy glow to his right notifies Gold Leader that he has just lost his wingman Gold Three. Gritting his teeth he reaches down to the panel beside him and activates his targeting computer, the viewfinder extends forward and flips down over his eyes and he monitors the readout illustrating their closing target.

"Gold Squadron, activate targeting computers, maintain evasive manoeuvres but stay on target. Once the first cannon is confirmed down automatically shift target to the next in sequence. Alright boys, lets do this!"

The first of the massive disc mounted heavy turbolaser arrays looms ahead, the grey surface of the Star Destroyer so close beneath them now that it is nothing but a blur, and then the targeting computer marks eight hundred metres, the optimum firing range for the starfighters' proton torpedoes with a steadily beeping alarm. A flash of orange and a lurching of his craft let’s the pilot know in no uncertain terms that his shields have just deflected a near miss. Lucky, lucky, he thinks to himself as he shifts back on target, and then Gold Leader releases his first volley of torps.

"Torpedoes away!"

He reports and is followed by the same announcement coming in one by one from the remaining ships in his squad. The target ahead disappears under the fiery onslaught of the heavy ordnance. Pulling up and away from their first attack run the fighter bombers clear the rear of the Star Destroyer revealing the mighty vessels massive blazing engines below them like a cluster of harshly bright cold stars. Banking over to port, Gold Leader swings around attempting to get visual confirmation of the status of their target. His heart sinks as the last of the torpedoes detonations clear to reveal...

"Command, the guns are still up, I repeat, the guns are still up. Our torpedoes didn't even scratch the surface, they must have really robust particle shielding over those things. We need new orders Command."

Gold Leader then picks up on something very interesting being displayed across his sensor readout screen as his course brings the Lancer Frigate above into view.

"Not to worry Command, new target acquired. Looks like the Lancer's shields are fully angled towards the fleet leaving their flanks exposed. How unfortunate for them."

He then locks in a sensitive looking target area around the engineering block and transmits the targeting data to his squad. Switching to the squad's channel he relays his orders.

"Time for some payback boys. Lock in to the new targeting co-ordinates I'm sending you and follow me in."

The Y-Wings elegantly swoop up, over and around as one, speeding up towards the lower aft section of the Lancer. The gunnery crews aboard the Imperial vessel pick up on this new threat at the last minute as the tight formation of fighters suddenly falls seemingly out of nowhere into their firing arc. They open up with everything they have hurling deadly hot green light towards the new aggressors. Gold Leader gently jinks from side to side throwing off the gunners aim while sailing calmly through the heavy storm of fire all around them, and once again comes within range of his chosen target and fires.

"Torpedoes away!"

He pulls up and rolls sharply to the left skimming over the port side of the Lancer's hull just as his torpedoes strike their target resulting in a satisfying explosion that rips through the armoured hull plating of the vessel with ease. Gold Leader then arcs his craft around for a better view of the devastating onslaught being brought down upon the Imperial vessel as his squad's torpedoes also hit their mark tearing the aft section apart. Engines failing, the frigate starts to list to one side lazily, its thrusters all but disintegrated in the blasts. He then looks up to see the Alliance Corvette Kandokaar Rising charging at full speed towards the flailing ship all cannons blazing. With the shields and pretty much all other systems now inoperative the Corvette's concentrated salvo deals the final deathblow for the Lancer which erupts just as the Corvette pulls out of it's dive and skims through the edge of the blast. Gold Leader instinctively shields his eyes from the blossoming explosion as it sends glowing debris across space bouncing off the nearby Star Destroyer's hull.

Aboard the Vigilance the Commodore jumps from his seat striking the air triumphantly with his fist as the ball of fast expanding superheated fiery gas lights up the battlefield before him.

"Yes!! Excellent work people. That should certainly get their attention. All ships concentrate your fire on that Star Destroyer, let’s see if we can't soften those shields up some. Rogue's Venture? I don't think you're going to get a better opportunity than this. You're up."

Aboard the Rogue's Venture Ensign Peliares feels a cold knot in his stomach as he hears the Commodore's words. This was his time to shine. Of course there was also the very real possibility that this was his time to die. He then hears another voice that snaps him out of such thoughts.

"Peliares, are you still with us? Gotta go now man."

He looks over at his co-pilot and then back at the chaos of the space battle that lies before them, all uncertainty replaced with steely resolve. Adjusting the Corellian Freighter’s heading to match the course mapped out for their descent to the Tatooine surface.

"Well I guess this is it. Here goes nothing."

The Ensign then guns the vessel's engines the drive matrix enveloped beneath a searing white glow as the craft rockets off towards the vast desert world below and the formidable Imperial blockade ahead.

Here comes another chapter of spacebound battle mayhem.

First Strike
Storm over Tatooine: Episode Four

The Commodore monitors his tactical display and sees a small flashing blue dot break away from the collection of blips that represents his fleet, and looking up out of the Vigilance's bridge viewport he sees the engine glow of a YT-1300 Freighter speed off away from them heading towards the planet Tatooine below, and hopefully far enough from the action of the battle before them to evade detection by Imperial forces. It's mission? To bring home safely the Rebel troops currently stranded on that desert world. The Commodore flips a switch on his command chair's armrest keying in to the ship to ship frequency between his flag ship and the Corvette named Monitor II.

"Captain Raag, manoeuvre your ship on a favourable vector with Rogue's Venture, do not actively follow them or give away their position in any way, continue to engage the enemy in this battle, but just place yourself so that should you be called on to assist them should they get into trouble you'll be able to render that assistance in a timely fashion."

An affirmative response comes over the speakers from the Monitor II’s Captain, and the light capital ship commences to shift it's position, pulling out to the starboard edge of the strike force, it's bank of eleven powerful looking boosters flaring as the craft accelerates just a touch to move it ahead of the main bulk of the fleet while still holding it's heading towards the Imperial Star Destroyer before them. It then opens fire on the massive target as the three Nebulon-B Frigates also let loose with their main guns, splashing formidable amounts of energy across the hull of the mighty enemy vessel. The Commodore notices that the steady rhythmic thrum of the ISD's heavy guns battering their own hull has missed a beat. Why was the fleet not still under fire? A quick check of his tac display soon reveals the answer. With the closest Imperial Lancer Frigate destroyed, it was no longer covering the Kandokaar Rising from the Star Destroyer's heavy turbolaser batteries. A fact which the Imperial gunnery crews now took full advantage of. With her shields already depleted from her battle with the Lancer, not to mention half flying through its devastating explosion, she wouldn't last long against that kind of firepower. The Commodore looked up to see the powerful emerald turbolaser fire raking across the hull of the Corellian Corvette as it completed a sharp turn to starboard resulting in it matching the current heading of the Star Destroyer just beneath it.

"Haul your pie out of there Captain."

The Corvette engines flare up so brightly that it can be clearly seen from the Vigilance, and the Rebel Blockade Runner now dwarfed by the Imperial vessel starts to speed away from it, but a final devastating barrage from all of the Star Destroyer's starboard heavy turbolaser banks tears the smaller ship apart, power cores within ruptured the ship erupts scattering glowing debris across the dorsal hull of the Imperial warship.

The Commodore turns his head away as the bright flare lights up his command ship's bridge. He has to take a moment, drowning out all the noise and chatter of the command deck to achieve silence, a moments silence with his thoughts, hundreds of good men just went down with that ship, a ship and men that the Alliance could ill afford to loose. Was this mission a mistake? Could the Alliance ever hope to win an engagement of this nature? Was there ever any hope at all?

Then sound thunders back in again like an overwhelming wave, alarms blaring, bridge crew frantically reporting in from their stations. The Commodore's second in command, Commander Nault hands him a datapad. He looks up and takes it and studies it for a moment as the senior bridge officer explains.

"Commodore, I believe we have something. These are the sensor readings from Gold Squadron during their first attack run on the Star Destroyer. It would seem to indicate that while the vessel's shields are indeed formidable they are not entirely impenetrable."

The Commodore's face lights up with the realisation of what this means as he reads the data before him, they now have a chance, there is hope.

"And you are sure these readings are accurate?"

The Commander nods an affirmative, the Commodore hands him back his datapad.

"Very good, do you think you can make the necessary calculations for a co-ordinated attack to take full advantage of these findings?"

Taking back the pad the officer responds.

"I believe so sir."

"Then make it happen Commander."

The officer then turns and heads back quickly to his station. The Commodore keys his communications panel to Gold Squadron's frequency.

"Gold Leader, bring your lads back to the fleet for re-arming, we have a new target for you."

There is a crackle of static followed by a distorted response.

"Roger that command, on our way back to the barn now."

The Commodore then looks up once more viewing the fierce battle raging ahead as a fresh volley of green turbolaser fire rains across his fleet and tenses for impact. The deck plates shake accompanied by a distant rumble, a control panel bursts away in a shower of sparks behind him with deck officers swiftly moving in to quell the fire and repair any damage. The punishment being handed out by the Star Destroyer was starting to take its toll on his ships. Yes they had hope now, but would it be enough?

Aboard the Rogue's Venture Lieutenant Rocorro shields his eyes as a ship is reduced to a rapidly expanding ball of gas and flaming debris just ahead of the Imperial Star Destroyer that now looms in the distance above them. Their course took them several clicks clear across her bow. It appears as if the intensity of the battle may have just bought them enough time to get clear.

"I believe that was one of ours. The Kandokaar Rising I think. "

Peliares glances up at the Imperial vessel in time to see the glowing remnants of the Rebel craft scatter across the void and fade, and then focuses once more on the planet ahead. Tatooine now filled their viewport, the bright gold of the desert surface dimming as the systems binary stars began to sink beyond the surface of the unforgiving world beneath them. It looks like they are in the clear and that they just might actually make it, but it couldn't be that easy? Could it?

As if in answer to the Ensign's unvoiced question an alarm goes off within the cockpit. He looks at Rocorro almost accusingly awaiting a response. The Lieutenant scans his instrument board searching for the cause of the alarm.

"I don't know, give me a second to... Wait, looks like a proximity alarm, but I can't see where... Whoah! Straight in front of us, the other Lancer Frigate!"

Peliares peers ahead of the Venture but sees nothing... Except the blinding light of the first of the two setting suns. He swiftly activates an anti-glare tint on the cockpit's transparasteel viewport, and then within the orb of the lowest sun on the horizon he just makes out silhouette of the Imperial light cruiser headed straight for them, cleverly concealed with the suns to its rear. The Ensign can only manage a whisper to his command crew.

"Guys? I think we're in trouble."

Then a storm of laser fire is hurled their way, anti-fighter and turbolaser cannons blazing. The first shots hit the Corellian Freighter before the stunned Ensign can holler.

"Shields up!!"

Rocorro complies and the vessel's deflector screens activate lessening the concussive force of the blasts, orange flares of energy indicating where near misses bounce off the craft's force field. Peliares then pulls back on the controls adjusting their course so that they now head straight for the enemy ship. Rocorro turns shocked to Peliares, flinching as another near miss glances off of the shields before the cockpit.

"Peliares? What are you doing?!"

The Ensign focused dead ahead on the enemy ship doesn't move his head to look at as his second in command as he responds.

"I'm heading straight for them, this should minimise the target we present their gunners."

Rocorro looks unconvinced by this tactic to say the least.

"And what happens when we reach them?"

Peliares cocks his head as if thinking this through a little, but remains focused ahead.

"Well I don't know. I haven't really thought that far ahead. I guess we fly by real close, and with the time it'll take them to about turn we'll be home free? Or on the planet at least."

Rocorro snorts at this before realising this situation isn't the least bit funny and looks forward towards the Imperial cruiser looming not so far away.

"Well that's assuming we haven't been blown to smithereens before that point."

Another salvo of anti-fighter cannon fire splashes across their deflector screens causing a few more alarms to commence blaring out at them. Peliares then executes a barrel roll manoeuvre attempting to throw the gunners' aim off. A turbolaser shot glances off their belly sending a teeth rattling rumble throughout the whole ship, he then commences to spin in the other direction as multiple laserbolts sizzle close by the highly customized freighter.

"Okay, that was a little too close. Rocorro order our gunners to return fire."

The Lieutenant keys the intra-ship com channel but once again sounds unconvinced.

"Alright, but our weapons won't put much of a dent in their shields."

Peliares glances fleetingly at Rocorro a flame of anger sparking briefly in his eyes.

"Stop questioning my orders Lieutenant, just do it. The energy bursts from our weapons fire might just be enough to disrupt their targeting sensors or distract the gunners, it's worth a shot isn't it?"

Rocorro nods apologetically and relays the order. The ventral and dorsal gunners then rotate to try and bring the target of the fast approaching Imperial cruiser into range. The ventral gunner reports back that he has no target, but the dorsal gunner just about brings the blocky nose of the Lancer Frigate into his firing arc.

"I've got the shot, I'm taking it."

Twin crimson laser blasts streak away from the Venture, and Peliares and Rocorro freeze in their seats gobsmacked as two impressive explosive impacts register on the Lancer's forward shields. They look at each other in shock. Peliares is the first to speak.

"Uh....Maybe the Venture had an upgrade or two I didn't read about?"

The gunner also sits in the gun well in shock. He has fired similar weapons to this many times before, but never with results such as these. He swivels his turret to look aft just as another powerful salvo of turbolaser fire sizzles close over the hull of the Venture, behind it? The Corellian Corvette Monitor II rumbling into the fray at quite a pace. The gunner happily turns back towards the Imperial cruiser and adds his own fire to that of their reinforcements as he reports to the Venture's command crew.

"We've got company, and it's the friendly kind for a change."

Peliares splits his attention between hurling the nimble freighter around to avoid incoming enemy fire and the communications panel as a message comes in on the Alliance fleet channel.

"Monitor II to Rogue's Venture, we've got your back and will try and provide cover, just try to fly a little less erratically so we can more safely shoot around you okay?"

"Roger that Monitor II, will do, thanks for the assist."

Responds the Ensign before cutting the link. He then looks at Rocorro exasperated.

"Is he crazy? Any less erratic and we'd have been blown to bits long ago. I guess I could hold off on the barrel rolls."

"Please do."

Comes a weak sounding whimper from behind them. Peliares looks over his shoulder at the officer manning the engineering console, he looks a little pale to say the least. The Ensign then limits his evasive manoeuvres to shifts from side to side allowing the Corvette to utilise both of her heavy guns, the two twin turbolasers launching salvos that streak above and beneath the jinking freighter devastatingly hitting their mark on the Imperial ship. The Lancer returns fire again, the gap between the craft rapidly growing smaller. And then the unthinkable happens, a turbolaser blast makes full contact with the Venture, the impact practically throws all aboard to the deck plates, Peliares is thrown forward over the control panel by the sheer kinetic force. The engineering panel behind them explodes in protest throwing the already ill looking officer manning it to the floor unconscious. The Ensign desperately tries to regain his composure and throws himself back into his command chair and grabs the yoke and brings the vessel under control again.

"Damage report?!"

Rocorro instinctively shields his eyes as another burst of sparks showers him from the engineering console behind him. Turning the other way he signals to the crewman manning the navigation console.

"You! Get him to sickbay!"

The Officer nods and drags his fallen comrade through the door to the rear of cockpit, coughing as he breathes in too much of the acrid smoke choked air. Rocorro then turns back to his console and tries to get some sort of meaningful response from his instrument panel.

"Primary diagnostics are down, seeing what readings I can re-route to this terminal. Looks like the shields are shot, that last blast burnt out all our deflector screen systems, they are totally fried."

The Lieutenant coughs as he too succumbs to the noxious fumes in the cockpit. Peliares attempts to continue his evasive manoeuvres in his mildly dazed state.

"All other systems appear to still be fully operational from what I can tell, but we'll need a report from engineering to be sure. One thing is certain we can't afford to take another hit like that without shields."

As if fate is mocking him as he utters these words another turbolaser blast rips into the ship throwing the vessel into an uncontrolled off axis spin, more panels in the cockpit explode in protest as the stars beyond the canopy swirl sickeningly around them. Peliares through herculean effort manages to bring the ship back under control and settles back into a course heading directly for the Imperial Lancer Frigate, its cannons still throwing everything it has at the two Rebel vessels bearing down on it. Rocorro wipes blood and grime from his face, that last impact had caused him to knock his head against a nearby panel. Wiping the blood off his hand and onto his trouser leg he looks at his console and sees nothing but red alert lights flashing across the board.

"Well that's it now, all bets are off."

Peliares looks grimly over through the thickening fog at his co-pilot.

"I need more than that, what did that last shot cost us?"

The Lieutenant studies his display screen.

"I've got nothing. Diagnostics are completely off line now. We don't appear to be venting atmosphere though, so we still have hull integrity.... Ahhh."

Rocorro looks up and through the canopy to see physical evidence of that last impact.

"Looks like we took that last hit in the dorsal cargo load lifter housing, took a good sized chunk out of it too."

The Ensign has a quick glance over to his left to see the heavily damaged section of hull, sparks and debris gushing from the gaping hole, and then focuses once more on the Imperial vessel ahead. Rocorro turns to Peliares trying to gain his attention.

"Ensign, if we take another hit like that we're done for, you must know that..."

A comms transmission comes over the speakers from the Captain of the Monitor II, he sounds justifiably concerned.

"Rogue's Venture, come in. Looks like you guys took a couple of bad hits there. Are you still able to complete your mission? Rogue's Venture, are you receiving me?"

Peliares and Rocorro lock gazes for a moment, the Ensign scowling at the Lieutenant almost daring him to say something, and then his gaze softens, the angry fire leaving his eyes, and he nods to the communication panel giving Rocorro permission to reply, and turns back to the view of space ahead. Rocorro keys the comlink to respond.

"Monitor II, Rogue's Venture receiving you. I'm afraid that last hit really shook us up, most primary systems are shot, shields have failed, I don't believe we can complete the mission as further damage will undoubtedly end our mission for us real quick."

There is a moment of static before a reply comes back over the speakers.

"Roger that Venture. We'll try and provide you some exit cover to get you out of here. Make for clear space and make the jump to the rendezvous point. Break high right on my mark..."

Suddenly the fire returns to Peliares' eyes and he turns back to Rocorro.

"Lieutenant, arm all our concussion missiles, maximum yield."

The Lieutenant looks at him in horror.

"Are you crazy? We'll...."

Peliares cuts him off.

"Just do it Lieutenant! We're still getting out of here."

Rocorro complies just as the Captain's order comes over the speaker.

"...Mark!"

Peliares presses down on the firing pommel of the Venture's yoke and a rapid stream of concussion missiles is released from between the cargo loading mandibles of the Corellian freighter just before it pulls up and away from the closing Imperial cruiser. The Corvette fires her ventral turbolasers before jinking to the left allowing the Venture to pass above her to the right. The Lancer releases a concentrated burst of turbolaser fire at the retreating freighter just as the Corvette jinks back on target, the laser fire tears into the Corellian vessel's dorsal turbolaser turret sending debris spinning back into and shattering the primary sensor array antenna behind it. Again the Monitor II releases a barrage of fire at the Imperial ship which hit home on the Lancer's forward hull just ahead of the salvo of concussion missiles, the first of which punch through the vessel's hull plating with ease, the following ordnance pass through the initial explosion to detonate further within the ship, and the Monitor II swiftly rolls to the left and passes off the Lancer's starboard side just as the internal explosions get the better of the Imperial cruiser and it erupts spectacularly, hull plating ruptures and shatters under the blast and is sent out into the void like shrapnel. The aft section of the Corvette takes the brunt of the blast and is tossed aside by the explosion almost like a child's toy spinning end over end.

Aboard the ship Captain Raag holds onto his command seat for dear life as the universe spirals uncontrollably beyond the bridge's viewport, debris and any command crew not lucky enough to be sitting in a seat are hurled around the small room. He barks his orders as the shadow enveloped dark side of Tatooine sweeps across the viewscreen again.

"Boost the inertial dampers to maximum power, and fire all starboard thrusters, we've got to get out of this spin!"

His second in command reaches across the helm console with great effort fighting against the erratic gravitational forces tugging at the ship. Reaching a large red lit button he slams it with his palm. The emergency enhanced inertial dampers kick in instantly, and even though this doesn't stop the vessel's flat spin it does at least make the experience less disorientating and stressful. The debris falls to the floor only slightly sliding around on the deck plates now, as do the crewmen who had moments earlier been flying across the room, now they lay still no doubt knocked unconscious in the initial impact. The helmsman then fires the Corvette's manoeuvring and breaking thrusters in an effort to compensate for the hellish spin that the craft finds itself in. Slowly but surely the vessel rights itself and shifts from a spin into a moderately controlled dive towards the planet's surface.

"Captain, I've managed to stabilise the ship out of the flat spin, but that explosion took out over half our thrusters. I can try and take us in for a controlled descent, but it doesn't look too promising."

The Captain releases his vice like grip on his command chair, breathes a sigh of relief and congratulates his first officer.

"Good work Commander. Communications, patch me through to the Commodore."

The bridge officer nods to his superior to let him know the channel is open.

"Commodore, Captain Raag reporting in. Rogue's Venture blockade run unsuccessful, enemy Lancer destroyed, but the Monitor II is heavily damaged. We are going to attempt a controlled descent to the rendezvous co-ordinates and meet up with our combat unit planet side. Most likely outcome if we do manage to land is that the Monitor II will not be able to lift off again, so evac possibilities negligible at best. At the very least our fleet troops will be able to re-enforce those on the ground. This is the Monitor II signing off."

With that the Captain signals for the communications officer to cut the transmission and then he gazes grimly out the viewport at the land swiftly accelerating towards them. His first officer looks over his shoulder as he struggles at the vessel's helm.

"Controlled descent Captain? We'll be lucky if we don't hit them and that town they're holed up in like a missile, vaporizing the lot."

The Captain half smiles as the details of the desert start to become visible, as does a small adobe settlement.

"Heh, it is a good job you're a fine pilot Commander, because I clearly don't keep you around for your rosy outlook on life.

All hands brace for impact!!"