Battle of Dantooine

Draklor Zurieth and Marddin arrived on the barren asteroid of Byobuq. "Why did we come back here? Don't you think someone would think of looking for us here?" Marddin asked.
"Let them look. I can hide us. We will not be found." Draklor said. He raised his arms and began an incantation. Soon, the ground began to quake. A large fissure opened up to reveal the underground lair that Draklor had created many years before. "Come young man. Your training can now begin in full scale."
"But, when do you plan on coming out to join up with Palpatine and Domino de Devastator?"
"In time, they will seek me out. I have foreseen it. It will come before a large battle occurs. A battle involving much more than technology and machinery. A battle of the Force." Draklor and Marddin went underground and the fissure closed above them.

A small Rebel Alliance base had been reopened on Dantooine. A space station orbited the planet along with 5 capital ships. On the planet, there were 10 hangars all loaded with X-Wings and B-Wings. 25,000 troops currently occupied the base on Dantooine. Operations on board the Rebel space station had been going slow.

The capital ships orbited the planet at different orbits so the planet would have an eye at every angle. Suddenly, as if a wave of electricity surged through all the radar equipment on board the space station, every sensor panel started showing ships coming in out of hyperspace. "Captain, we have enemy ships coming out hyperspace in sector 4," a lieutenant said.

"Report," the captain replied. "Three Imperial Star Destroyers and what appears to be… wait… yes. Confirmed. Three ISDs and two of those Hapan Battle Dragons the Empire captured from the battle of Hapes." "Looks like we have got serious trouble. Call in the orbiting ships and Radio for backup. Scramble the fighters from the ground and prepare the ground forces for a potential ground assault," the Captain ordered to a nearby Major awaiting orders. 'What in the galaxy are these invaders here for?' the Captain thought to himself. 'I know they knew about this base, but it is so remote and small that only some mercenary would want to try to take this place. But what would a mercenary be doing with Hapan Battle Dragons?' TIE fighters, bombers, and Interceptors were on their way in. The battle had begun!

Rafaella stared into the darkness for a moment, wondering what De Devastator was up to now. Then she punched in the familiar coordinates. It didn't look as if much more was going to happen, so they might as well head back to Metârian for a while. Lin and Taista needed new ships, and she had some important things to do...*I'll be back soon, don't worry!* Lin growled worriedly. What was Devastator up to? Then Taista rushed into the room: "Where are we going? Are we going to do something about Devastator?" "No. We're going home for a while." Taista screeched in disappointment, then ran out, slamming the door...

Tashannoc sat in a room that was hundreds of meters below the surface of Mon Calamari, and tried not to think of the number of atmospheres of pressure that were trying at this moment to blow in the walls and drown and squish them all. He would much rather be up a tree than in this room full of the Rebellions top military officials. Leia Organa Solo and her husband were there, as was Mon Mothma, who was still the backbone of the Rebellion. Somehow, Fey'lya had been conveniently omitted from the guest list, which suited Tashannoc just fine. Ackbar looked very proud about whatever was going to happen, and at precisely 14:00 Galactic Standard Time (Tasha didn't even want to think what time it was locally: planetary revolutionary differentials gave him a headache), the lights dimmed and the presentation began.

"As you all know, since Incom produced the E-wing ten years ago, there hasn't been a significant advance in our fighter craft, which was fine when the best the Empire had to offer was a few TIEs and some Advanced. However, as the Empire is starting to improve their fighters by leaps and bounds, it is time that we make an attempt to stay at the forefront of technology. Therefore, the Mon Calamari in conjunction with Incom, have designed the new O-Wing fighter!" With that the screen behind Ackbar lit up, and the standard slick military propaganda production film started to play. The fighter itself, on the other hand, was far from standard. It was shaped like a large cocoon, bulged on one end and tapering down at the nose. There were four wings about three quarters of the way down the fuselage that collapsed into the hull of the ship, then pulled out and formed a sort of ring. There was no mistaking the Mon Cal hand in the organic design of this ship.

As the test shots continued, so did Ackbar: "The O-Wing is faster and more maneuverable than the A or E wings, has a thicker hull and stronger shields than the B-Wing. However, due to renovations during the production of this ship, the cost per fighter is less than that of a K or E wing, making it ideal for our purposes." Another Admiral in the middle somewhere, Tashannoc forgot his name, said, "This is wonderful Admiral, but our fighters haven't been the problem. We still don't have any ships that even begin to match a Super Star destroyer, except for the few that we've stolen, and those are starting to fall apart beyond repair. What are we going to do about that?" "I'm glad you asked, as it moves me directly into my next topic. Perhaps you noticed the unusual landing gear on the O-wing, and the fact that the pilot enters from the bottom of the ship. There is a very good reason for this. The ships are designed to work in standard hangar bays, but they also can land directly on small pits on the hull of the new MC-2600 Super Heavy Cruiser." With those words, the fighter on the screen landed and melded with the skin of a larger ship, seeming to be part of it. As the shot moved away, the fighter faded into obscurity as a huge ship of Mon Calamari design appeared. "The MC-2600 is comparable, even superior in firepower to a Super Star Destroyer. We currently have five of these ships ready for use, each with a full compliment of O-Wing fighters. There are additional O wing squadrons available for select ships, where they will be the most useful. That is all for today, Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you for your time." With that, the lights came up and the entire audience, including Tashannoc, were stunned. A spattering of applause started, which soon became wholeheartedly enthusiastic. As the group broke up, Chewbacca found Tashannoc, and struck up a conversation.

"Tashannoc, how have you been." "I've been well. I was just home, and saw your family. They said to tell you that they miss you, and hope you can find time to visit soon. Your son is becoming quite a young Wookiee." Chewbacca swelled a little with pride. "Thank you. You know, you ought to think about getting a family sometime." "No, I don't think so. My sister is family enough." "I suppose so. Who do you think will be getting those O-Wing squadrons? Or the Twenty-Six Hundred's? I can imagine a lot of the bases and Fleets would love the protection one of those would offer." "Well, I don't know about the 2600's, but I know I'd love a wing of the O-wings on the Gift. Neb just lost his X-wing at Mechis III, and I'm sure he'd appreciate the new ships." "That's a safe bet, Tasha. You have some of the best pilots in the fleet there. How do you do it?" "I have to chalk that one up to Neb. He knows who to ask and how to entice. I just sign the checks." Tasha smiled, and so did Chewie. Chewie glanced over and saw Han and Leia leaving. "I'd better get going. It was good seeing you again." "Yeah, hopefully it won't be so long next time."

Tashannoc was happy as he left Mon Calamari in the Rolling Thunder. He didn't get one squadron of O-wings, he got two. They were going to be on the Gift when he got back to the platform base. Deployment of the 2600's was still secret though. As Tashannoc thought about it he decided that he'd pick up Neb on the way back and show him the new fighters. That was when the distress call came in from Dantooine. Okay, so maybe Neb would have to wait. He sent a message to the Gift to be ready to go as soon as he docked, and hit the hyperdrive.

Rachel O'Conner stood on the command deck of the Imperial Star Destroyer, Knightfall, watching the tactical displays intently. "Die, Rebel scum," she whispered in a low growl. She desperately wanted to be in a TIE fighter, or down on the surface with the Walkers, but they needed her here. She noted a squad of X-wings moving to intercept the TIEs she had sent out, recognized the attack pattern. "A classic elliptical defense pattern," she muttered to herself. "They're not asking for a fight, merely expecting one. Well, we'll give them one hell of a battle.

They have information I must get." Turning to the comm officer, she said, "Order Black Squadron to move into attack pattern Gamma. Tell them they are free to pick their targets, but they must not allow the enemy to prevent the bombers from reaching the planet." She turned away as the comm officer acknowledged her orders, then thought better of it and looked back at him. "And release Grey Squadron. All others will stand by until further notice." The officer nodded and began relaying her orders.

Lieutenant Rahms' scopes didn't pick up the TIEs until they had left the ISD far behind, roaring in toward Red Squadron like a pack of angry neks. "More enemy fighters on their way in!" He yelled into his voice pickup. "Don't let 'em get past you." He swung his fighter up and around as the first TIE targeted him as its prey. Green turbolaser shots sliced through space as Rahms spun his fighter out of the way. Flipping the X-wing over into an elongated barrel roll, he brought the squint into his sights.

"Gotcha!" he muttered as the targeting crosshair went red. He squeezed the trigger, then watched as the TIE exploded into an expanding fireball. He pulled his fighter around and picked out his next target--a squint hot on Red 5's tail. "Egwene, you've picked up a squint!" Rahms heard Lorne announce over the comm. "I know, I know!" Egwene's voice mirrored her fear. "I can't shake him!" "Hold on, Egwene, I'm coming," Rahms assured her as he moved in for the kill. Somehow he knew he wouldn't make it in time, but he had to try. He was almost within range when Egwene gave a sharp cry that was abruptly cut short by the explosion that obliterated her ship. "Damn!" Rahms cursed his slowness even as he hunted the Interceptor down and destroyed it. He plunged the X-wing down at the next TIE in range, determined to somehow avenge his comrade's death. _Of all the people who could have died, Egwene probably deserved it the least. She was just a kid, had her whole life ahead of her. Now she'll never enjoy it. He grimaced at the thought, and silently vowed to kill every Imp alive for her. But he never followed through on his promise. His anger blinded him to the fact that he had picked up not one, but three TIEs intent on destroying him. He suddenly realized that Lorne was squawking at him to wake up and pay attention, but it was already too late. A single blast from one of the pursuing ships sent him to join Egwene in eternity.

"NO!" Rachel could not contain her anger. "Those blasted Rebels are still holding our bombers back. I want two more squads released ASAP. Those ships MUST get to the planet." "Commander!" A red-faced officer came jogging up to her, puffing and panting as though he had run a few miles in the desert. "Look at this!" He handed her a datapad. She glanced at it once, almost gave it back, then took a second look. A malicious glint came into her eye as a cruel smile slowly spread across her face. "Thank you, Ensign." The smile turned into a cold sneer. "All right people, listen up, here's what we're going to do..."

"WHERE?" Thix yelled and grabbed his helmet. Hendrikson followed Thix as he jogged towards the turbolifts and the hangar. "Thix, it's disturbing, but you can't leave without backup! At least wait for Green squadron!" "No way! My life is Dantooine and Yavin IV, I can't let one get destroyed!" Thix jumped in the lift and pressed a button. Hendrikson barely made it in before the door closed. "Thix, you'll get yourself killed! It'll be a slaughter!" "That's the spirit!" "No, YOUR slaughter!" "Oh, so? If Dantooine falls, so does half of me. I'm going, and you can't stop me." The lift opened and Thix ran at a fast pace towards his X-Wing. Becky was sitting by her X-Wing and looked up as he ran past her. "Hey Thix-" "Sorry, can't talk right now, personal emergency!" Hendrikson yelled from the lift; "Thix! I order you to stop!" "So court-martial me, when I get back!" He jumped in the fighter and revved the engines, maneuvering the craft out of the hangar. He locked in the coordinates to Dantooine and made the jump to hyperspace.

Back on the base, Hendrikson swore. "Why couldn't he just LISTEN?" Two Green squadron pilots ran up. "Hey, where'd Barkon get to?" "He just decided to make a flight to Dantooine, and probably his own death. Think you can help him out?" "Death? Danger? Let's go!" The two pilots jumped into their X-Wings and fired them up, intent on following Thix. Becky and another pilot from Yellow group followed suit. A petty contribution of fighters, but until the carriers and MCs were scrambled, they were alone....

The only defense around Dantooine at the moment was the space station and one of the capital ships. The other 4 were sluggish in making their way to the battle. This gave the Imperials the supreme advantage at the moment. The 2 Hapan Battle Dragons flanked the sides of the one Rebel Capital ship. They pummeled it with everything they had. However, the capital managed to hold it's own. Meanwhile, two of the ISDs routed the space station. Several Corellian Corvettes were docked there being repaired and upgraded. None at the moment were space worthy. The Imperials fired away at them, turning them into useless junk with ease. The third Star Destroyer stayed back a ways. It took pot shots at the space station. It was the command ship with Rachel O'Connor, a woman half crazed with power and the Dark Side. Another capital ship of the Rebellion finally made it's way up to the fight. Leaving the 1st capital ship, which was near dead, was a Hapan Battle Dragon.

"Open fire on that drifting Rebel heavy cruiser," Rachel ordered. "We want to make sure it doesn't come back on line to haunt us." With that, the commanding ISD fired upon it. The cruiser could not hold off the pounding from a Battle Dragon and an ISD and within moments, it erupted into particles. The second Battle Dragon joined its counter piece to fight the new Capital ship.

Down on the planet, two Imperial Walkers had landed. They had minimal resistance as the Rebels had scrambled all their fighters to space. Three ion cannons were firing rapidly from the ground at the Star Destroyers above. The walkers made their way across the base towards the cannon. One of the cannons pivoted and aimed at the first AT-AT and fired. The walker fell to the ground and burned....

Hendrikson cursed again as the four other fighters zoomed off in pursuit of Thix. Grabbing a microphone, he issued orders over the intercom, scrambling the fighters and the Lightbringer. If another capital ship was needed, he'd call in the Remember Ord Mantell. Hendrikson watched as pilots ran to their ships. He realized he couldn't wait for the Lightbringer to pick him up, so he boarded an assault shuttle and piloted his way out of the hangar. He made the jump to hyperspace a minute before the other squadrons did.

Hendrikson came out of hyperspace into a firestorm. Thix and the four others had just made contact with the enemy about a click ahead of him and green and red laser fire lanced out. Before he had a chance to react, TIEs swooped in and blasted at his shuttle. Hendrikson heard an explosion in the back of the ship and his shuttle cartwheeled away, towards Dantooine.

BOOOOMM!! Hendrikson heard his shuttle break apart beneath him as he floated down slowly on a parachute. He could barely make out the shapes of the fighters and capital ships above him. He cursed the bad luck that was leaving him here. Upon hitting the ground, Hendrikson drew his blaster and looked around. Off in the distance, he saw an AT-AT smoldering on the ground. He grabbed up his chute and began jogging towards the spot. Up in the sky, there was a flash as a fighter disappeared in a flash of fire.

Hordes of TIEs swooped and swirled around the space station. The X and B-Wings from the ground were finally reaching the battle in their full numbers. While this did lend aid to the beleaguered and battered space station, the ground was now wide open for attack. The remaining 3 capital ships of the Rebellion had finally made their way around to the battle. The Hapan Battle Dragons had nearly finished off the heavy cruiser they were working on when two of the converging capital ships came in from behind one of the Hapan Dragons. They opened fire like nothing before, totally knocking the Battle Dragon off-line. It drifted into the hull of the near dead heavy cruiser that was still being bombarded by the other Battle Dragon, causing a massive explosion as the two ships collided. The remaining Battle Dragon hurried away from the explosion and the incoming Capital ships. Now, there were 3 ISDs and one Battle Dragon remaining. To hold them off were three Rebel capital ships and the space station.

TIE fighter pilot, Lieutenant Knox, led his team of TIE Interceptors into battle. He alone had already picked off 5 X-Wings and 6 B-Wings. He and his crew would certainly get great appraisal for their effort at this battle. He flew his Interceptor under the space station knocking out laser turrets as he flew by. An X-Wing jumped on his tail and had him laser locked for a second, but Knox's superior flying knowledge got him out of this one. He flew his Interceptor between the support arms of a communications satellite on the underside of the space station. The X-wing tried to follow, but was unsuccessful as it crashed into the satellite, destroying both pursuer and satellite. 'Mark up another one for me. Ha ha.' Knox thought as he flew back into the battle.

Bjiatocah and her strike force were some of the first to scramble when they heard the distress call. Not waiting for her brother, they had taken off in their specialized transport, loaded with their repulsorlift attack vehicles: fast maneuverable land craft with mounted heavy weapons, perfect for taking out imperial walkers. When they left hyperspace, their fighter escort covered them while they headed for the base on the planet's surface. The planetary shields were lowered for the briefest of moments as they were allowed to land. Bjiatocah was glad that the Rebellion had learned something from Hoth, and the generators weren't out in the open, easy to destroy. As they made planetfall, she looked over at the Ion cannon. 'Why wasn't it firing?' she wondered. Her question was answered when a double shot blazed through the atmosphere at some imperial ship far above.

As soon as she was on the ground, they unloaded the 'lifts, as well as her own heavily modified speeder bike. Once her men were loaded three to a lift on the six lifts, they took off towards the approaching walkers. Finding a relatively isolated walker, they set to work. Bjiatocah took point, distracting the cannon fire of the walker, as her men circled around to the back and sides, and got to work. Heavy armor piercing rockets were launched at the AT-ATs' belly, causing it to smoke and shudder. Then a pair of the lifts focused on the vulnerable knee and ankle joints of one of the front legs. As the knee exploded, another blast near the back quarter sent the walker crashing to the ground. As the group retreated, a couple more well placed rockets easily took care of the walker, causing it to sent shrapnel flying everywhere. As they went to use their pack tactics on another walker, the cannon fire intensified. Bjiatocah realized that they had adapted already to her favorite tactic, and she was impressed with these imperials, or at least their commander. She fingered something under her armor that she had 'borrowed' from her brother, and had another idea. "Fall back into the forest to the west" she yelled. "I have an idea!" Her men enthusiastically obeyed her order, grinning from ear to ear. They always liked her ideas.

When Tashannoc made it to the bridge of the Gift, the screen already showed the blue of hyperspace. "Did Lerma make it on board before we left?" he asked the captain. "No sir. He left on important business to Tatooine. He left you a note in your quarters. I think it had something to do with the listening device he found in your quarters." Listening device? Lerma had said there was something he wanted to talk to Tasha about, but there hadn't been time lately. Curious as to what was going on, he headed to his quarters to look at Lerma's note.

As the battle began to rage on Dantooine, Neb Calluna's dreams intensified, and the voice started up again. He wanted to tell Tashannoc, to see if he could help. But how did he tell his friend and teacher that he thought he was going insane?

Yodaa drifted some more.

Draklor continued training the young Marddin. Marddin could now levitate himself.

More Imperial Walkers landed to find 2 had already been destroyed and a third was being worked over pretty well. All in all, 11 AT-ATs made their way towards the base, taking out the Ion cannons of the Rebellion which could not cope with 11 walkers. Giving the transports cover were the TIE Bombers, which had begun wrecking havoc upon the base just as the second walker had gone down.

Up in space, Knox and his group of Interceptors were doing quite well. Of the original 8 from the group, 5 remained although unbeknownst to the enemy, a 6th flew with them as decoy. His weapons systems went dead with a near deadly hit. A new group of Rebels had come in from Hyperspace, but the majority of them went planet side. The last Hapan Battle Dragon went one on one with a Rebel Heavy Cruiser. It wasn't holding out too well.

The other two rebel cruisers had moved in to engage the ISDs that were bombarding the space station. Taken by surprise, the ISDs were shaken pretty hard at first with ion bombardment. However, due to the superior design of a Star Destroyer, they soon had things under control and were causing as much damage to the Rebels as they were to them. The space station continued to take a serious beating as masses of TIEs swarmed around it. The command ISD still stayed back, taking pot shots occasionally at the space station. It was as if it were waiting for some sort of surprise… or waiting to release some surprise for the Rebels. X-Wings and B-Wings continued to fight the invaders. An X took out a TIE that careened into a hangar area in the space station. The pilots of the TIEs were flying extremely close to the space station for that purpose; to make suicide dives if they were struck. Another blast from the command ISD took out the orbital control engines of the space station. Slowly, it began to drift away from Dantooine.....

Tashannoc's Gift cruised out of hyperspace, accompanied by a Nebulon B2 frigate and the captured ISD Rectifier, now running at 100% operating capability. The three ships launched their fighters, then moved into position next to the space station. The station's mass was keeping it in something close to orbit, but it was nonetheless slowly drifting. Once the three capital ships were in position, Tashannoc gave the order to activate the tractor beams, using the three huge ships to keep the Station in a semblance of its position. Tashannoc had read Lerma's report on the device found in his computer and had come to the conclusion that it had somehow been planted there by Domino, which would explain how he knew the location of the staff. Tashannoc gave command of the Gift to the captain, and took the Rolling Thunder out to join the fighters. However, the fighter crews didn't need a lot of help. The TIEs were completely confused by the new O-Wings, and were having trouble scoring hits on the ships shields, let alone destroying one. The rebels, disheartened by the damage to the station, had their morale boosted as the Imperial fighters were routed. 'I'm glad this isn't Omega Squadron,' Tasha thought. 'They were tough. Even I was having trouble avoiding their pilots.' Manning the guns from the cockpit, Tashannoc drew a bead on a pair of Interceptors and got them both.

On board the captured Sovereign class Destroyer, Neb's head was filled with the voice. 'Why don't you help your friends? You know you can do it. Don't you care about them. They're going to die and it will be your fault. Don't you want to save them?' Over and over again the words kept coming. He'd secluded himself in his room, and the crew was beginning to wonder about him. Let them wonder, it was safer this way.

Bjiatocah had explained her plan to her team, and if anyone else had suggested it, they would have thought it was nuts. However, it wasn't anyone else, it was the Major. As they prepared to strike, one of them muttered, "It's like crossing the streams, man," which got a chuckle out of the rest of the group. With two additional men on her speederbike, Bjiatocah was ready to attack. "GO!!"

Hendrikson crouched down near a building at the settlement/base on Dantooine, breathing in ragged gasps. What was that? A kilometer? Two? Three? Probably two clicks, hard running. Man, that was some tough stuff. He watched as the AT-ATs slowly advanced on the base, and he pulled a thermal detonator out of his pocket, looked at it, and threw it over his shoulder. Lot of good it would do. He looked at his heavy blaster. Pfft. Nothing against those behemoths. The colonists were running by him at a frenzied pace, headed to the hangars to board shuttles and speeders away from the battle area. Hendrikson was about to follow them when he saw a beautiful sight. In the hangar nearest him was a fully modified Incom Airspeeder, modified to hold two blasters, an ejector seat and light (extremely light, he thought as he saw the generators) shield capability. He jumped in and got ready to take off. At least now he'd show up on those walker's scopes, and maybe if he was lucky be a minor annoyance before they shot him down. He grinned. What a day. What.. a.. day.

Thix pulled his X-Wing up in a loop around an advancing TIE. He would have targeted it but it made a quick escape. Thix used this moment to call to the four who followed him. "What do you think you're doing? I'm the only one insane enough to try and do something like defend this place by myself without reinforcements! You could get yourselves killed!" The only reply he received were two curt "Uh-huh" and "Sure." Thix rolled his X-Wing over again and brought himself to bear on a gunboat, taking out its' shields with a missile, then perforating the gunboat itself with laser fire. The arrival of the Gift and her escort spurred on the Rebels all over, and Thix could only hope that the Lightbringer and Remember Ord Mantell got here soon enough...

"My Lord, we have received a request to bolster the forces that are engaged at Dantooine! What size of a reinforcement group should I send? Omega group perhaps?" Domino really didn't have time to worry about such trivial matters, but he put down his dinner utensil and looked Daliwhel in the eye. "Admiral, the battle is going fine, I assure you! We will not send reinforcements from our location. The contingent that is there, and the units arriving from Kessel in an hour should be more than enough!" Domino picked up his fork and continued eating his "ENERGIZING" meal.

Rachel stared at the battle unfolding before her. More Rebel ships had arrived, bringing with them more chaos and a good chance for defeat. NO! She would not let herself think that. She had never failed before, and she never would. In a haze of building anger, she ordered more fighters released. She squeezed her eyes shut, fighting the sudden urge that came from a hidden part of her that she did not want to face. _Quell the anger!_ The voice was not her own, but that of the woman she had been...before. She did not know what she really wanted, and she did not know who she was anymore. Was she an Imperial commander, or that other woman, the one with a husband and three children? _You are Imperial,_ she reminded herself, overcoming the desires of the other hidden half of herself. _Now go beat the Rebel scum into submission._ She opened her eyes to find that even though the space station had now been obliterated, her ships were taking heavy fire from the Rebels. As she watched, the Hapan Battle Dragon vanished into a ball of vivid flames. "NO!" She yelled as the anger inside her boiled like magma in a volcano. The bridge crew turned to look at her in surprise--she had never let her emotions get the better of her before--but her eyes were fixed on the Rebel ship that had destroyed the Battle Dragon. She raised her fist, feeling dark power coarse through her like a tidal wave of burning energy. She felt as if she could not stop herself, could not control the anger that had reached its zenith inside her. She reached out without any conscious thought, using the Force to _squeeze_, crushing the Rebel ship with all her might. As the Rebel cruiser crumpled in on itself and exploded, she sank into the chair behind her, realizing with sudden horror what she had done. In the next moment, the reinforcements from Kessel arrived. Rachel felt sick. She stood weakly and said in as strong a voice as she could muster, "Lieutenant Norytz, you have the bridge." She left the command deck casually, without explaining herself. As soon as she was away from all prying eyes, she fled, and did not stop running until she reached her quarters, where she collapsed in a horror-stricken heap.

The impact of Rachel's outburst swept along the Force, spreading out across the galaxy. Domino de Devastator felt the disturbance, the unexplained rage and destruction, and tried to pinpoint it. Dantooine. It came from Dantooine. Even more shocking, it came from a woman who had assured him time and time again that she was not Force-sensitive. Rachel O'Conner.

On Yavin 4, Kyp Durron awoke from a nightmarish sleep to be assaulted with a wave of tainted Force-power. He recognized the individual behind the disturbance immediately. "Marina," he whispered, his heart aching terribly. "Oh, Marina, what have you done?"

Thix saw the cruiser crumble under the strength of the dark side blow, and the next instant he was hit by the waves of dark side energy. "Aghh!" He let go of the joystick and put his hands to his head, allowing his X-Wing to go into a spin. Being this close to the exothermic reaction of the cruiser and the energy had hit him hard. The fact that he was still a trainee and couldn't control the pain was worse. The ship spun towards an ISD, and Thix saw through a haze of pain that within a few seconds he would crash into the shields of the ship. ~Clear your mind!!~ Thix heard in his head. ~Don't think about the pain! Let it wash away!~ "What ARE you talking about?" Thix said to the voice through gritted teeth. He was only a hundred meters from the shields. IGNORE THE PAIN! "Listen pal, if you can't tell, I'm trying to pull myself out of a spin, here--" He stopped. While talking, he had focused his mind on the being, and for a split second, he had felt nothing. Thix tried to focus his mind on Dantooine below him and it DID seem to ease the force crushing his mind. He managed to pull his X-Wing up and out of the path of danger seconds before he would have been destroyed. As he flew to safety away from the ISDs turbolaser, the pain faded completely away. "That was TOO close."

Hendrikson flew his speeder in a wide loop around to flank the AT-AT's. He fired a few bursts from his heavy lasers, in some places scoring lucky hits that burned out circuitry but in most places just scorching the hulls. "Haha, eat this you giant banthas!" Hendrikson tuned in on the Imp's military frequency to listen to what they were saying, but got only static. "Jammers!" He said aloud. He fired another round of shots at a walker's head. A pair of bursts perforated the neck joint and Hendrikson saw the head of the walker fall limply down, and continue walking like nothing happened. THAT one was out of business, being unable to fire. He grinned. While battles cost lives, it was fun if you survived.

"Dantooine?" Rafaella asked the man kneeling before her. "Yes, my Lady" "Then it's Dantooine we're heading for. Tell the others." He ran for the door..."And... there's no need to kneel and/or call me Lady..." He nodded, and vanished. Sighing, Rafaella made her way to the Hope. Lin had already readied her new ship, as of yet unnamed. Taista was ready too, she noticed and surveyed the hangar carefully. Then she pointed at three more captains, telling them to get ready. She was still shaken after the trembling she'd noticed in the Force. Something was definitely amiss on Dantooine, and she intended to find out what. Silently the small fleet prepared to leave for Dantooine, waiting for the navicomputers to finish their calculations. Then they made the jump to hyperspace, many of them spoiling for a fight...

As the Rebel ship exploded and crumpled in, a voice was heard over Knox's radio systems saying, "Yeah Yeah, Destroy Destroy!" Knox could not help but grin at the satisfaction he had gotten from watching that ship blow. "Alright boys," he said to his group of Interceptors, "Let's head down planet side and give our guys in the Walkers some cover." The Interceptors plunged though the atmosphere and into the battle. They were greeted with a Rebel assault gunboat on the way in. Knox flew in behind it to take it out as he ordered the rest of his group to go on. With all guns blazing, Knox attacked. "Welcome to the school of hard Knox! Rebel Scum!" He yelled as he blasted the gunboat to shreds.

Down at the ground battle, the TIE Bombers were making short work of the landing fields and hangars of the base. They still received minimal resistance from Rebel aircraft as most were in space trying to protect the space station. Knox's group of Interceptors was the first group to go planet side. They engaged what was left of the X-wings and B-Wings. Knox's group took a heavy toll early as only Knox and his wingman made it out alive. They headed back out to space. Meanwhile, The AT-ATs had stopped to release their troops. The Walkers continued to give cover fire as the Stormtroopers advanced to take the base.

Meanwhile, Yodaa drifted and drifted. He felt the massive wave of Dark Energy that destroyed the rebel heavy cruiser.

Marddin awoke in a sweat. He wanted to go home, home to his friends.

Rachel O'Conner stepped back onto the command deck about an hour after she had left to find the battle still raging. _Light forgive me,_ she thought to herself. _I must keep my position here, even if it means I kill a few Rebels._ She quickly and expertly surveyed the scene, then made her decision. The reinforcements from Kessel were holding up well against the Rebel ships, but neither side seemed to be winning. Perhaps if she used the Force to help the Imperials along, it would not taint her. Still, her true loyalties lay with the Rebellion, but if she helped them too much someone would know, and she couldn't let that happen. "Commander." It was Lieutenant Norytz, standing just behind and to the side of her. She looked at him. "Yes, Lieutenant?" "The _Warhead_ has been destroyed. I thought you'd like to know." Rachel bit her lip and nodded. There went one of her three original ISDs. If she was going to join the battle as an Imperial, it had better be now. She cleared her mind of all thoughts that were not Imperial and set to work. Under her orders, the _Knightfall_ moved forward to assault the _Remember Ord Mantell_, even as the Kessel ships sent out more fighter cover. She commanded more walkers to the surface. When the _Knightfall_ was hit by an ion blast that disabled it severely, she realized that her ship would be out of the fight for a while to come. But she would not let it be destroyed by any Rebels in the ship that continued to attack the _Knightfall_. She reached out with the Force, tweaking a few of the _Remember Ord Mantell_'s systems just enough so that it was unable to fire a single weapon. They still had their shields, and if another Imperial ship ended up destroying them...it wouldn't be her fault. She just wanted to survive. And if she was simply keeping herself alive, it couldn't be wrong. Or could it?

Tashannoc felt the tweak in the Force, at the same time that he saw the fighters and bombers head for the surface. He sent a detachment of X wings and O wings to take care of them, those being his best craft for atmospheric dogfighting. "Its a good thing those imps are even less maneuverable in the air than they are in space" he muttered. He brought the Rolling Thunder up alongside the Remember Ord Mantell, and focused on the light side of the force, undoing whatever it was that the, woman?, on the Imperial ship was doing. Soon the ROM started firing again, much to the amazement of the imperial fightercraft that had been having a field day taking pot shots at the shielding. "I'll have to keep my eyes open, and keep this one from causing too much mischief. Maybe if Rafaella shows up here, together we can shut her down." He received a message from the Gift: The Neb B2 frigate had been destroyed under heavy fire from an ISD, and the strain on the tractor beams was taking its toll on the two other ships. "Okay, let her go. Help to evacuate any personnel who want to abandon, and let the others try to fix those stabilizers." "It's already done sir. Most hopeful estimate on the stabilizers is about 2 hours." "Hopefully this will be over before then." Tashannoc went back to work cleaning the skies of Imperial craft.

The addition of the Rebel fighter craft caused the skies to erupt in a mass of confusion. This was just what Bjiatocah was waiting for. She sent out her six lift vehicles to take random shots at the 8 remaining walkers and the recently unloaded ground troops, with the focus being on not being hit. She herself took her bike with the extra load of two more men, and took off at high speed at a trio of walkers that were closest to her position. The lift vehicles were seen as the paramount threat and were taking the brunt of the fire, dodging so quickly and randomly that they weren't hit. Bjiatocah reached into the folds of her armor and removed her brother's old lightsaber, which she had been practicing with for just an occasion. Driving with one hand, she took the bike towards the legs of one of the walkers, and with a burst of speed the lightsaber severed the two legs on one side sufficiently for the walker to fall on its side. She repeated the maneuver, this time from behind, on the next Walker.

"All right, boys, now for some fun!" She took the speederbike up to the level of the head of the third of the walkers, and leapt off while one of her men held the bike steady above the head, and the other joined her with his blaster ready. She cut a hole in the top of the head of the AT-AT, and stepped back as the Sergeant flooded the control compartment with high level stun blasts. She and the corporal dropped in and tossed the bodies out the top, then she made sure that the rest of the walker was clear, and since the troops had already been offloaded, it was. She climbed out, took over the speeder, and the Corporal with her dropped into the cockpit. The two took control of the AT-AT, and wheeled it around to fire on the imperial ground troops and the other AT-ATs. Bjiatocah stashed her bike in the hold and joined the men in the cockpit, enjoying the view from up high, as the blasts from her AT-AT destroyed a walker to their left. Her men let out a cheer, just as one of the lift vehicles was hit by a lucky shot from an Imperial walker. The men jumped free just in time. Fortunately, all of them survived and they were soon picked up by their compatriots. The ground battle was going much better than the battle in space, and that suited her just fine. The bombers had taken out the hangar bays on the outskirts of the base, but luckily, they couldn't bomb through the shields of the base. And that was because they didn't know where to look to take out the shields.

On the Sovereign class destroyer, Neb Calluna made a decision. His friends needed him. He strode onto the bridge and commanded that the ship be set on a course for Dantooine. At the objections of the crew, he reminded them who was in command, and made sure that no one wanted to be court martialed for treason. As the ship entered hyperspace, he realized that the voice in his head had stopped for a while. New reports showed that the Superlaser had been taken offline for other repairs, but he doubted that he'd need it to take out the ISDs he'd have to deal with.

Thix watched as the Knightfall engaged the ROM. As the battle continued between the two crafts, he realized that he was going to have to do something. The Lightbringer and ROM both knew Thix had authority over a portion of the fighter squadrons, but not over the Mon Cals themselves. What they didn't know, however, was that Hendrikson had slipped him authorization codes in an event such as this, where the Major wasn't around. Thix punched in the code and discussed the plan with the captain of the Lightbringer. The captain believed it was a solid plan; if there were any reinforcements coming besides those here already, wouldn't they have already arrived? "Remember, cap, don't destroy the ship. Disable it. Take out the turbolasers, the ion cannons, the tractor beams, everything! I want it defenseless!" "I know.. One question: why now? The ship is already dead. It will take technicians at least a half-hour to repair shocked systems." "The one who destroyed the Nixxoffen is in there. He or she may know of a way to.. speed repairs. Hurry!" Thix frowned. He disliked the way this may turn out. The Knightfall was still drifting harmlessly in space. Thix heard that immortal command over the comm: "Fire." Ion blasts rocked the Knightfall, further deadening it. Precise blasts or laser lanced out, blowing turbolasers and defending TIEs into space dust. Thix felt like a cheater almost; attacking the defenseless ship. But so war went. He glanced at his monitors. 34% of the turbolasers destroyed, 80% Ion cannons destroyed, and there were no tractor beams left. "Captain, finish the turbolasers but then move to take out the hangars. Don't mind the Ion Cannons." "Roger that."

Thix suddenly saw a visage of doom. A Neb B2 frigate, belonging to the Empire, worked it's way up behind the ROM. Thix shouted a warning, as the ROM's shields were already low. Half the lasers on the Mon Cal swiveled to meet the new threat. The two capital ships duked it out, evenly matched. This set back the amount of time it would take to disable the Knightfall....

Thix took an assessment of the battle. The Rebels had 5 capital ships in system and the Empire had 4. However, the Imps had what seemed like an endless number of TIEs. He really hoped that they had seen the last of reinforcements. Hopefully Hendrikson, if he were still alive, had the two carriers at the ready....

An Imperial Walker began to fire upon other walkers. One driver in a still functional walker radioed another. "Do you see that?" the other replied. "Yeah, let's take it out. It's already emptied the troops, but has been taken over by Rebel Scum." The two walkers moved up behind the AT-AT firing on Imperials. Instead of firing on it, they decided to ram it and knock it over. It fell to the ground. The drivers of the two laughed as they watched a Wookiee and two other Rebels make an escape. "Our boys oughta be finding that shield generator pretty soon," one driver said to his comrade. The other replied, "Yeah, I'm ready to swipe all that communications gear for our new base. That's all we're supposed to do here right? Raise hell and swipe the goods?" "Yeah, that's it. When we get the goods, and after we kick a little more tail, we're outta here." Off to the west, there was a massive explosion. "I believe that's it," the first driver said. "Yep. Let's go on into the base." The AT-ATs moved into the base area. Already bombers had taken out many of the small complexes on this new Rebel base. Here, they met their maximum resistance from Rebel troops. Rebels swarmed everywhere. The Walkers fired in random and scored anywhere they shot. Stormtroopers were taking names. More transports carrying troops from the ISDs were constantly landing.

Up in space, the Knightfall finally came back on line. With the Remember Ord Mantell was busy with another ship, the Knightfall moved away from that threat and headed toward the space station. 'Wreck havoc and let them know the Empire will not tolerate them any longer is our job. We are almost done here. As soon as we get that equipment, we head off to our second objective,' Rachel O'Connor thought as she watched the battle go her way....

Yodaa drifted in space looking for a baby sitter for the summer.... *EDITOR'S NOTE: What in the Heck does that mean?*

Domino looked up from his dark practices with a twinge of curiosity in his eyes. He reached out with the Force and found Rachel O'Conner at Dantooine. 'Wielding the Force? No matter how often I probed her, and questioned her, I found nothing. I must work closely with her!' Domino went back to work. He had just completed work on his Sith Concentration talisman, endowing it with an ensnarement field as well! With this he could further pursue his studies of Sith alchemy and perform his great task at hand. He began to feed on the fears and hatred of the species of the planet, knowing that he would need all of the strength he could muster!

"Curses!" the smuggler said. "It's the Rebels this time around. Smugglers never win...." He wove down, touching the afterburner panel to transfer some laser energy over to his engines. The shot propelled his Lambda shuttle out of the path of the Z-95's guns. With a quick cut of the engine power, Arcana turned a full half-circle and dumb-fired a concussion missile at the veering Rebel craft. The craft shattered into pieces as Arcana charged through the ruins of the ship. "Rebel pilots are scum," he said as he fired off a volley of laser fire into the head of the other Z-95 headhunter. The premature X-wing fighter crumbled under the modified lasers and fell apart into a collection of wings and fuselage. Arcana rammed his ship into the remains of the headhunter. The last ship was an A-wing. These craft were much more difficult to target. The pilot fired four times, reducing Arcana's forward shield down to a mere twenty percent. Arcana pulled up and switched his weapons to his missile launcher. He clicked the button again to load the highly illegal advanced targeting missile. After a few more evasive maneuvers, Arcana pulled his craft around, locking the A-wing in his sights.

He fired.

The last A-wing simply blew into bits as it fell apart due to the force of his targeting missile. Unfortunately, it was his last missile. Arcana checked his damage, sighing in relief as the computer told him that he had only lost some chips off of his hull. No cargo and no equipment had been damaged. Domino de Devastator wouldn't want those Cigars crushed up.

Arcana checked his navicomputer once again. He hit his hyperspace lever and watched the stars stretch from realspace into hyperspace. Hopefully, he would not be entering another battle soon.

"I want that space station obliterated as soon as possible," Rachel snapped. Her patience was wearing thin--both with her crew and with herself. She wanted to KILL, but something kept stopping her. She felt like reaching out like she had earlier, to _crush_ the Rebel ships...but no. She couldn't do that. It would be...wrong. Dangerous for her, even. Still...she blinked as she noticed a tiny explosion off to port, almost too small to see. She could feel something, an almost imperceptible twinge of Force-power.
Someone--a Rebel pilot--was Force-sensitive. Rachel's eyes widened at the realization. She thought of what this could mean for the Empire, if he could be trained and turned to the dark side...and what it would mean for the Jedi. She forced herself to return to reality, and the battle. She found it a little hard to concentrate on the battle, but she managed to do well enough.

Hendrikson heard a sputtering noise and turned to look. "Holy-!" He must've had a close encounter with a laser blast and not noticed it. His engine was flaming! He tried to pull up, but his joystick didn't respond. Losing altitude, he popped the canopy and looked down at the advancing ground. He couldn't steer so.. he slowed the craft as much as he could to save on broken bones, and jumped. He hit the ground with a sickening "THWUCK!" and heard his bones snapping. He saw his airspeeder crash a hundred or so feet ahead of him engulfed in flame. Off to his right he saw a downed walker with a Wookiee and human fleeing it. He realized they must be Rebels like himself. He managed to shout a feeble "Help!" before darkness engulfed him.

Bjiatocah was peeved. Her bike was trapped in the knocked over walker. Oh, well, acceptable losses. As her team came to pick her up, she informed them of what the Imps were up to. "They didn't even think that I'd be listening to their communications. That's what they're here for, the communications equipment in the base. I just got a communiqué. They got an artillery depot, not the shields. They don't have any idea where to look to start finding the generator. What we're going to do is make sure that the Imps don't get their hands on it. We're a lot faster than they are, so let's get going."

The rebel troops had support from the fighters in the air, which were easily taking out the few bombers that were left. The bombers could hardly maneuver in the heavy atmosphere of the planet. The Major reached the communications center quickly. "EVERYBODY OUT! There's a transport coming that will get you out of here. Take the newest, best comm equipment, but leave enough of the standard stuff to make it look good. No, scratch that. Leave it all. I have an idea . . ."

Up in orbit, things were not going nearly as well. The fighters were holding their own, but the Capital ships were outnumbered at least 3 to 1, and getting pummeled. Fortunately, the Imps were now focusing on the almost defunct and abandoned space station which wasn't much more than slag floating in space. Tashannoc was only half focused on the Imperial ships, more interested in countering anything the Force user on the Imperial side did. It wasn't Domino, it was a woman, but she was very powerful in her own right. Why wasn't she using that power? Tasha gently probed, lightly enough to avoid detection. There was so much conflict! Maybe she could be turned to the light side.

The fleets continued to clash, and the Rebels weren't sure what more could go wrong. Then, about a dozen container vessels popped out of hyperspace, and dumped out TIE after TIE! Now there had to be between 5 and 8 thousand Imperial Fighter craft all told, in orbit and on the surface. The surviving Rebels now had one word on their minds. Toast.

The Sovereign class destroyer exited hyperspace well out of Turbolaser range. Neb wasn't pleased.
"Who calculated that jump?" "Sorry, sir," the navigation officer pleaded, "But with a ship this size, I wasn't sure how safe it was to exit close to a large planetary body." "All right, that was good thinking. Move into firing range. If only there was something I could do now." Then the voice returned. 'Oh, but there is, you just don't know it. You can save your friends, just let me help you, guide you. Open yourself up to me. Who is that,' Neb wondered. 'I am a friend. TRUST me.'

Believing he had nothing to lose, Neb trusted the voice, and suddenly saw it all. How to reach out into the pilots of the Imperial fightercraft and get them to start firing on each other, and the Capital ships while he was at it. He reached out and felt each of the 6,846 minds of the pilots at once, and turned them against each other. This left the surface forces at an advantage, and let the Rebel fighters attack as they wanted to. "I never knew this was possible!" Neb exclaimed.

Tashannoc felt the new presence, very familiar as it was his student. What was Neb doing there? Then he felt the strange tremor in the Force. "But NOBODY is supposed to be able to do that anymore!" he exclaimed, as he realized that Neb was using Jedi Battle Meditation!