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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2915072" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 367Though it was rough, Two Flight managed to get into the covering fire of the two small gunships’ batteries in a few long, but at the same time disturbingly short, minutes. By now, all of them were at least slightly rattled from either neither misses of strong hits to the shields. Jyren’s X-Wing was holding together thanks to the quick reactions of his astromech readjusting a few systems. Rea’s shields were at half and, while her astromech was working on it, it was likely to remain that way for a long while thanks to her taking a good hit to the rear generator. Seven and Eight were in similar shape, with weakened shields and somewhat off stabilizers, but all were able to keep up with the hectic pace set by the squadron of Coralskippers that were having serious trouble taking down just four X-Wings.    And in a blaze of turbolasers, rock, and flame, the skips disappeared. Or at least, the group that had been pursuing Two Flight did. There were still hundred more littering the Agamar system, moving in perfectly coordinated waves and mowing through most anything in their path. A few small groups managed to stay alive, but it was mostly thanks to the larger capital ships that were able to blast straight through the Coralskippers’ defenses instead of needing the precise aiming and firing techniques that the starfighters required.    “Thanks, Talon,” Jyren said over the comm to the nearest of the two gunships after the pursuing skips had been taken down, “Where do you need us?”    The comm cracked for a few long seconds before there was a response, “We’re going to make a run for the Vong frigates and try to catch them off guard....” static took over the line a moment, then, “...skips incoming straight for us.”    Jyren quickly switched over to his flight’s comm frequency as he led the X-Wings down to come up in front of the two medium sized gunships and the squadron of sluggish Y-Wings in between, “Eight, give me a bearing on the skips.”    The Mon Calamari pilot, Zephyr Eight, didn’t take more than a few seconds to do a short scan of the nearby area, “Looks like twenty or so breaking off from the Araddon and coming in from behind us.”    “And another large group coming out from the Vong’s cruisers,” Zephyr Two cut in quickly, and Jyren couldn’t help a quick glance over to where his Twi’lek wingmate was. Why he continued to do that was beyond him...old habit, maybe.    After switching back to the main frequency, Jyren said, “Talon, we’re just four X-Wings. We can’t hold off all of these skips on our own.”    “We’re too close to the Vong to turn back now, Zephyr Two,” came the response from the Corellian Gunship, “Already sent out a call for some extra help but we’ll have to make do until they get here.”    Jyren did not like that. He also didn’t like that, from the sound of it, whoever was talking to him from the Talon seemed to have no problem with it at all. Had they not been paying any attention to this fight at all?!    But there wasn’t really much of a choice, anyway. Even if he wanted to break away and call of this attack on the Vong cruisers, they were cut off and would have to fight it out anyway. Jyren bit his lip and shook his head to himself, trying to hold himself inwards in the Force as reaching out with that just made the whole situation that much more unnerving. He knew what it felt like with all those Vong out there, but there was no way in hell he was going to have that constant feeling of emptiness surrounding him when they were about to be overwhelmed with skips.    “What are we going to do, Two?” the nervous, but still strong voice of the Duros pilot, Zephyr Seven, cut Jyren’s thoughts off. It was probably for the best. At least it was an easy question to answer.    “We’re going to stick together and we’re going to keep the skips off of the Y-Wings and the gunships until we get some help,” Jyren said simply before doing a quick check on his own sensor panel. Then, confirming that the skips coming from the Vong cruisers would reach them first, brought his X-Wing up towards the front of the two cruisers, which weren’t even adjusting their courses to bring the majority of their batteries to bear on the attackers.Oh well. After a while, it just didn’t matter anymore. They would do what they could.    Glancing back to the other three X-Wings, Jyren said, “Stick close and keep your eyes open. Our best bet is going to be using the gunships cannons...so we’ll try to draw the skips straight into their lines of fire. Got that?”    All three responded quickly. That response was all their was time for, as it was suddenly apparent just how fast the Coralskippers could move. The brief moments of relative peace they’d been given vanished in a blaze of red-orange flames that erupted in a huge wave straight for them.    The viewport became a blur as Jyren maneuvered to avoid the stream of fire coming from who-knew-how-many skips. There was a yell of surprise over the comm, which Jyren interpreted as some kind of orders on where to maneuver. However, he couldn’t make any sense of it in the sudden eruption of chaos. And he didn’t want to, either.    Instead, Jyren’s focus came on a single voice that cut off the one from the Talon. It lasted only half a second, but it was just long enough for Jyren to identify it as Zephyr Seven. He didn’t need to check his sensor panel to see that the rear X-Wing in their formation was no longer there. He didn’t even need the Force. Jyren knew that sound all too well.    The new Zephyr squadron had just taken its first casualty. Another kid that would be forgotten even by his own squadron was dead. Jyren didn’t know whether to blame the command structure, himself, the Duros pilot who’s name he couldn’t even remember, or the Yuuzhan Vong for starting this damned war. It didn’t matter, though. Blame wouldn’t change the fact that he was dead and wasn’t coming back.    And all of a sudden, as the wall of Coralskippers closed in and Jyren did his very best not to lose the two other pilots with him, Jyren just wanted to be anywhere else. He wanted to see his family again...he wanted to be back on Alraxia just for one more day. Just one more day to spend with Marix, Toby, and the little twins. But...but those were the kind of thoughts that had plagued him many years ago. These days he was no foolish enough to think he could just wish for something and have it come true. He was going to have to make it happen.    If he wanted another day with any of them, Jyren was going to have to stay alive...and he wasn’t going to just ditch these kids in the Zephyrs with him. They had as much of a right to make it out of this as he did...maybe even more.     And then the second group of skips came in from behind to flank the small group of ships.</blockquote>

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