Love and Redemption: Hero's Return Part 4

Love and Redemption: Hero's Return Part 4

As Canderous and Jaden led their troops to the surface in the APC Gunships, Carth and Revan rallied the fleet and moved to engage the True Sith Navy. As they drew closer, Revan launched the Ebon Hawk out of the Spearhead's hangar to take command of the fighter-squadrons. His own squadron, Gold Squadron, was entirely comprised of Republic Assault-Fighters, which gave them a significant advantage in firepower and armor. The others were either Aurek "A" Light-Fighters, or a combination of both types. On the Ebon Hawk with Revan were HK-47, acting as copilot, and his several brothers manning the other stations and defense-turrets. Bastila and Carth had been transported by shuttle to the Phalanx, an Inexpugnable-class tactical command ship, in order for Bastila's Battle Meditation to properly work and Carth to relay commands to the fleet faster and with more accuracy.

As Revan pulled his squadron into formation, Carth established a secure link with the fleet. 

"Squadron Leaders, report in," he commanded.

"Gold Leader, standing by," Revan responded.

"Red Leader, standing by."

"Green Leader, standing by."

"Gray Leader, standing by."

Revan immediately called in the next command. "All squadrons, charge-up weapons and assume attack positions."

As the Republic Fleet quickly shifted into formation and charged the enemy, the True Sith turned and accelerated toward their oncoming foes. When the spherical True Sith ships came closer, the men and women of the Republic's fleet widened their eyes in disbelief as they got a good look at the enemy.

"Look at the size of those things!" a fighter pilot stated with breathless wonder.

"Cut the chatter Red 2!" Red Leader snapped over the comm. "Enemy fighters coming in."

Waves upon waves of True Sith fighters raced toward the Republic fleet and opened fire with gold blaster-fire. Revan punched the accelerator, and Gold Squadron rocketed into battle with Red, Green, and Gray close behind. As Revan blasted apart a True Sith fighter, unofficially dubbed the "True" fighter by the Republic forces, he thought to himself, Well, this is it.

* * * * *

Canderous led his squad in a sprint to a pile of rubble to take cover from the incoming blaster fire. As soon as a lull presented itself, the Mandalorian Warriors defended their proud legacy and released a firestorm that cooked the Sith at the end of the street to a crisp! Jaden and Brianna charged past the Mandos to clear the corner of remaining enemies, their lightsabers humming almost as if in anticipation.

Brianna lept with stunning grace over the heads of the Sith attempting to slash her in half with their frighteningly unusual lightsabers. With several dance like strikes, the two enemies fell before Brianna's silver, curved-lightsabers. Jaden spun double-bladed lightsaber in a torrent of slashes, cutting the remaining enemies into ribbons.

A Republic squad rushed up to establish a line of fire, aiming their weapons in all directions. This allowed Jaden to rally their forces and give further orders.

"Brianna, hold this corner with Alpha Squad and Beta Squad so we can lead the refugees down a safe path to the evacuation ships. Canderous," he turned to the Mandalorians. "We'll take Gamma and Delta while Bralor leads Eta and Theta to secure and evacuate any refugees we find."

"Oya! Oya, ner'vode! (Hunt! Hunt, my brothers!)" Canderous cried to his kin. "Honor and glory to your clans!"

With fierce yells, Bralor and his squads ran off in one direction while Jaden and Canderous led their own in another. Brianna stayed behind as ordered to hold the corner as blaster bolts flew around her head and explosions light the night in spectacular flashes. She saw her loves brown cloak whip around a corner with the Mandalorians and disappear from sight as she silently prayed to the Force for his safety.

* * * * *

"Right there, right there! Over."

"Copy, I see them!"

"This is Red Five, I'm going in."

"He's all over me! I can't, AAAUGH--"

The voices coming over the battlenet came almost without end; one right after the other. This was the most fierce intense battle Revan had ever participated in, even more than Malachor V! Making a U-turn as a formation of True Fighters screamed over the Ebon Hawk, he brought his guns to bear and fired. One of the fighters' wings came off, making it spin and collide with another, while the remaining fighter exploded brilliantly with a hit to it's torpedo magazine. Revan could hear the cheers of HK's brothers throughout the ship.

"Mocking Query: How many kills have you gotten today?" one asked.

"Intimidating Response: More than you, wise-guy," the other retorted.

Revan turned the Ebon Hawk toward one of the large enemy capital ships and accelerated towards it. He quickly opened a frequency and began to speak.

"Gold group, Grey group, form up and follow me. Carth, I'm beginning an attack run on the capital ships. Over."

"Copy, Revan," Carth responded from his command chair on the Phalanx's bridge. "We'll make a diversionary attack on those carriers to draw away their fighter support. Over."

"Wilco. Green Leader, provide support for Home One. Over."

"Copy, Gold Leader."

The Ebon Hawk, flanked by Aurek and assault fighters, charged toward the enemy ship. HK-47 did a scan over the vessel to locate any weaknesses they could exploit.

"Exclamation: Master, I seem to have located the bridge shield-generator," he stated as enemy fighters swarmed past the Hawk. "It is located just below that platform of turrets.

"Warning: Make your shots precise, Master, it's only three meters wide."

"I see it," Revan muttered. "Oh, this gonna easy..."

With directed proton-torpedo fire on the small target from Grey and Gold groups, the shield generator quickly turned into a ball of flame on the side of the True Sith capital ship. Onboard its bridge, an officer with black crystal clusters on his left cheek made his report to the captain.

"Sir, we've lost our bridge deflector shields!"

"Increase power to the forward batteries. I don't want anything getting through!" the captain responded with haste. "Increase forward firepower--!"

Too late. More proton-torpedo salvos from the Ebon Hawk turned the bridge into a reflection of its shield generator, and the capital ship began listing off-course right toward another of its sister-ships. The two collided with a tremendous explosion, sending shockwaves into the surrounding vessels! Cheers rang out all over the Republic Fleet as the crewmen witnessed the glorious event. But from his own ship, the Sith'ari roared with fury...