Skye Legacy Ep. 3 | "Storm over Ryloth"
An even longer time ago, in a galaxy just as far away...
Cecilia and Alexis sit in the flight briefing room while their squadron leader goes over the mission plan.
"Ok Shadow Squadron, Imperial Intelligence has detected that there is a group of terrorists operating near Ryloth and they are supplying the Twi'leks on the ground. The overall mission is to either destroy the Twi'lek groups that have been targeted or to destroy the group supporting them when they come to their aid. The plan is twofold, part one, the planetary garrison has received more squadrons as reinforcements, and they are going to be launching bombing missions against the rebel towns that we have identified. This should draw the other rebels out of the shadows to try and help them, and when this happens, the fleet will strike by dropping out of Hyperspace right onto of the rebel fleet. Once this has happened, Shadow Squadron is going to launch to take out any squadrons that try to make it to the planet below to try and take out our bombers, any questions?"
Cecilia shakes her head while glancing at the other pilots of the squadron, most of them like her and Alexis fresh out of the academy with only the lead flight made up of experienced pilots. The squadron leader nods as the squadron has no questions for him.
"Ok then, pilots to your ready stations prepare for combat launch!"
The squadron pilots begin to make their way to their ready stations while the final preparations are being made on their TIE Interceptors.
Nicole nods to the Intelligence officer when they finish their briefing before her Squadron leader steps up to resume talking.
"Ok then pilots, that is the situation as we know it we know the Empire is preparing a trap, so we are going to spring a trap, but it is going to be ours. The plan is as follows though, we are going to escort a group of transports to Ryloth before the start of the Imperial bombing so we can evacuate the non-combatants and the injured while delivering supplies and commando teams to the Ryloth cell, we are going to slip in under the nose of the Empire. Once we have helped the evacuation, hopefully well before the bombing begins, we are then going to wait for the bombers to begin their mission and then spring a trap on them as we expect them to be unescorted so we should make short work of them."
The squadron leader pauses for a moment while looking around at the faces of the pilots before resuming.
"While we are doing this the other squadrons should have launched their attack on the Imperial fleet that is going to try and ambush them to keep them occupied until the reinforcements arrive. If there are no questions pilots to your fighters."
And with that Nicole and the other pilots quickly hurry to their fighters where the final preparations have just been completed for them. Nicole quickly climbs up and into the cockpit of her X-Wing while her R2 droid is lowered in. Once she was settled in her cockpit, she pulls her helmet on before closing the canopy of her X-Wing as she signals to the ground crew that she is good to go, the X-wings slowly start to take off from the planetary base and forming up with the three GR75s in orbit.
"All wings report in."
"Sabre 10, standing by."
"Sabre 7, standing by."
"Sabre 3, standing by."
"Sabre 6, standing by."
"Sabre 9, standing by."
"Sabre 2, standing by."
"Sabre 11, standing by."
Nicole quickly chimes in with her check-in.
"Sabre 5, standing by."
"Sabre 8, standing by."
"Sabre 2, standing by."
"Sabre 4, standing by."
"Command, Saber squadron is standing by."
"Copy that Sabre lead, transports are standing by as well. Your nav computer has the flight vector for the dead zone in the sensor network."
"Copy that command, will see you on the other side then."
"Afirm Sabre lead, happy hunting."
Sabre Squadron and the GR75's break off from the rest of the fleet as they move onto the flight vector they were provided by the Twi'lek rebels on Ryloth who should have opened a gap in the Empires sensor network to let them fly in.
"Squadron stay tight on the flight vector, the gap in the sensor network is not very wide, but it is wide enough to get our transports through."
As the squadron gets into position on the flight, Nicole glances out either side of her cockpit, taking a moment to look at the X-wings forming up around her, a small smile on her face moments before they jump to lightspeed.
The squadron drops out of hyperspace in high orbit over Ryloth, with the X-Wings grouped together by their flights around the GR75's.
"Ok Sabre, stay tight we still need to get down to surface, but so far it looks with the Twi'leks have been able to take out this bit of the sensor grid. Each flight stay with your transports as we reach the landing zones."
Nicole glances out of her cockpit at her flight and the transport they had been assigned to escort down to the planet.
"Copy that Sabre lead, Green flight stay close the GR75. ETA 10 mikes to the LZ."
The X-wings and GR75's slowly fly towards the surface of the planet, doing everything they can to avoid detection from the Imperial sensor grid. They manage to enter the atmosphere of Ryloth without being detected by the sensor towers or the Imperial ships in orbit and with them in the planet's atmosphere they split off into their flights and the transport they are transporting to the landing zones near the Twi'lek resistance camps.
As the ships get closer, they begin to be signalled by the Twi'leks to guide them into the landing zones they have created for the supplies and evacuation.
"Look alive Sabre, once we have landed do what you can to help organise the LZ with the unloading, and them get the evacuees moving, we have roughly 30 minutes at a minimum until the bombers start their attack. So let's get a move on."
Nicole signals to her flight to begin landing around the GR75 as Sabre lead speaks, the moment her X-Wing has touched down on the planet she pops the cockpit and is jumping out of her X-Wing.
"Ok Green flight, you heard Sabre lead. 7 and 8 you two help around the LZ, myself and 6 are going to head into the town to help with the evacuation. Let's get to it, I want us away well before the bombers arrive."
Her flight acknowledges her orders, with Sabre 6 hurrying to catch up to Nicole as the two of them start to head into the town while Sabre 7 and 8 help to organise the supplies coming off the GR75 and onto the transports to take them off the new camps they have set up. While Nicole enters the town, she watches the stream of Twi'leks with only their basic and essential items quickly heading towards the landing zone for evacuation.
"Sabre 5, I'm going to head to the edge of town up on that hill to take a look out quickly."
Sabre 6 points off at a hill just on the edge of the town that they were in.
"Aye you do that Sabre 6, keep an eye out for the bombers, and any stragglers just don't take too long."
"Copy that Sabre 5, will be quick about it."
With that Sabre 6 breaks off at a quick jog towards the hill as they start to pull their macrobinoculars. Nicole frowns slightly as she watches them head off before she hears a faint cry coming from between the buildings in the opposite direction from Sabre 6. She slowly starts to move towards the sound, with her unclipping the cover over her blaster pistols holster, her hand hovering just above it.
"Hello? Whos there?"
She slowly moves around the corner when she sees two Twi'lek girls leaning against the wall, both of them frozen starting at Nicole in fear. Nicole manages to recognise their fear, as she moves slowly and deliberately crouching down onto her heels, removing her pilot's helmet while she does so.
"It's ok, I'm a pilot with Sabre squadron we are here to help evacuate you somewhere safe, I'm Nicole Skye."
The Twi'leks look between each other for a moment, while they seem to stop being as tense and start to relax in her presence, with that happening it becomes evident that one of them has injured their ankle. The one with the injured ankle, who is leaning on the uninjured Twi'lek speaks first in a quite heavily accented and slightly shaky galactic basic.
"I'm Nalan Eyan, and this is my sister Ardana..."
Nicole looks at Nalan's ankle before she slowly starts to move towards them her helmet now clipped to her belt.
"A pleasure to meet you Nalan and Ardana, just wish it could have been under better circumstances. So Nalan, how is that ankle? It doesn't look good."
Nalan shakes her head slightly while looking at Nicole, with Ardana still supporting her.
"I think I might have broken it..."
Nicole nods slightly, while she moves her hands to lightly run them over Nalans ankle.
"Yeah that feels like that is broken, let's get you to the transport..."
Nicole is suddenly cut off as her comlink activates.
"Sabre 6 to Sabre Squadron got TIE bombers inbound, eta to contact 1 mike."
Nicole quickly glances over her shoulder at the horizon where she can see the shadow of the TIE bombers approaching.
"Sabre lead to Sabre Squadron, get to your X-Wings now prepare for taking off."
"Copy that Sabre Lead, Sabre 5 to Green flight prepare for taking myself and Sabre 6 are inbound to the LZ."
With that Nicole looks down at the Nalan and Ardana.
"Right, that is our queue to get a move on. Nalan, I assume you are unable to walk quickly."
Nicole quickly bends down to pick Nalan up into her arms to carry her back to the landing zone, as Nalan lets out a small yelp of surprise at the speed that Nicole moved. With the speed that Nicole moved her helmet almost came unclipped from her belt, causing her to unclip it fully and place it on Nalans head to keep it secure.
"Nalan, hold on, we are going to be moving quickly. Ardana, try and stay as close as you can."
Nalan and Ardana both nod slightly, with Nalan put her arms around Nicole to hold on when Nicole takes off at a sprint through the town with the sound of the TIE bombers getting closer and closer. Nicole comes skidding around a corner as she gets closer to the landing zone when suddenly the TIE bombers start to drop their bombs on the town, Nalan lets out a small yell of panic when a building in between Nicole and Ardana gets hit and collapses into the street blocking the path between them. Nicole stops quickly as she looks backwards at the rubble before she sets off again and arrives at the landing zone shortly after placing Nalan down when she does so.
"Ok, Nalan these people here will help you from here. Don't worry about Ardana I'm sure she will be ok."
Nalan is still in a bit of shock while she watches the TIE bombers continue to bomb the town, she is brought of it for a moment when Nicole removes her helmet from Nalans head and straps it on before she sprints off and leaps into her X-Wing.
"Sabre 5, standing by."
"Sabre 5, this is Sabre lead. As soon as your flight is standing by take off and engage those bombers."
"Copy that Sabre lead. Green flight we all good for launch?"
"Affirm Sabre 5, we are all good to go."
"Copy that, green flight take off and prepare for combat."
With that, her flight of X-Wings take off as the final group of Twi'leks start to get loaded into the GR75 as the last ground transports head off into the mountains.
"Green flight, form up on me. Lock S-foils in attack position."
As Green flight forms up on Nicole the two other flights of X-wings taking off and forming up seconds behind her flight. The TIE bombers take a moment to realise that there is a Squadron of X-Wings after them and at that moment the X-Wings had already completed their first pass against them and shot a flight of them down. The GR75's start to take off not long after the X-Wings have, the TIE bombers take a chance with the X-Wings chasing them to try and engage the transports, they are lucky and manage to get past and shoot down the transport the red flight was escorting. However, seconds later Sabre Squadron was able to shoot down the last of the bombers as they form up around the GR75's before they turn to exit Ryloths atmosphere.
However, as they approach the edge of the atmosphere, a squadron of TIE Interceptors pounces down on them from above strafing the GR75's and splitting the X-Wings into their flights.
"This is Sabre 3, I'm hit I've lost my stabiliser!"
"Sabre 3, try and hold it together. Sabre Squadron stay sharp and keep your eyes peeled, my sensors have lost them."
As Sabre Squadron fans out around the transports as they continue to try to exit the atmosphere of Ryloth, the TIE interceptors come back around strafing the rebels again and managing to shoot down one of the X-Wings.
"Damn it, Sabre 3 is down!"
"This is Sabre 5, got eyes on the TIE's, Green flight is in pursuit."
With that Nicole and her flight break off in pursuit of the Interceptors as they chase them down, using their speed to catch up with one of the flights of Interceptors and using their quad cannons to engage and punch through them, quickly shooting down two of them.
"Green flight, evasive manoeuvre break now!"
Nicole manages to shout her command over the flight comms seconds before she throws her X-wing over it's left wing into a roll to dodge a flight of Interceptors that came down on them from above. She frowns for a moment when her X-Wing and the lead interceptor pass by each, she looks up out of the top of her cockpit canopy at the Interceptor when they move past each other.
"Green flight form up on me, we are going after that flight. Their leader is mine, don't try to engage them."
"Copy that Sabre 5, on you."
Green flight manages to reform on Nicole while they chase the new flight of TIE Interceptors, two of the Interceptors break of with Sabre 7 and 8 in pursuit of them while Nicole and Sabre 6 stay with the other two. Nicole manages to get a few pot shots off at the lead TIE, while Sabre 6 stays tight against the other TIE causing it to break away from the one Nicole is chasing in an attempt to shake Sabre 6 off them.
"This is Sabre lead to Sabre Squadron we are exiting the atmosphere now, all craft return to the formation and prepare for the immediate jump to hyperspace."
Nicole grimaces before she takes one final burst at the TIE before breaking off and heading back towards the GR75's at full speed.
"Green flight you heard Sabre lead, reform with the squadron."
The TIE Interceptors continue to keep the pressure up against the X-Wings but the more damaged ones, including the one that Nicole had been chasing start to head towards the surface of the planet. Sabre squadron soon manages to break into the planets orbit where it sees the ships from their cell engaged with the Imperials at long range.
"This is Sabre lead to command, we have achieved planetary escape and are about to make the jump to lightspeed."
"Copy that sabre lead, as soon as you are away we will make the jump as well."
"Rodger that command, making the jump. Okay, Sabres form up, prepare for the jump to lightspeed."
With that, the remaining X-Wings of Sabre squadron, having lost three in the dogfight form up around the GR75's as they lock their S-foils together before they make the jump with the rest of Rebel ships making the jump as soon as the transports are away.