Chapter 1: Empire Falling

The violent hum of the TIE Defender's ion engines was a comfort little else in Roland's life could match. Things had changed so quickly, it had been a little more than a year since the Emperor's death in the Battle of Endor. All that was left of the loyal Empire was here. Jakku. This was the largest engagement since Endor, this was the Galactic Empire's final stand.

Roland took hold of the controls and throttled his Defender out of the Star Destroyer's hangar. "Grave Squadron, form up on my lead." Roland was a captain now, he and Grave squadron were the last four TIE Defenders in the Imperial fleet.

"On your six Captain Ward." Shan Osis reported proudly. Her voice was strong, Roland smiled under his helmet. He will fight hard today, to kiss her again as they did in the hanger bay only minutes ago. The Rebel fleet was approaching weapons range. The Imperial Remnant was outnumbered. Roland was confident that Grand Moff Rand's defensive strategy would hold. The Imperial Dreadnought, Ravager, was the center of the Star Destroyer formation with the thirty-seven other Star Destroyers encircling it.

He could see the rebel fleet now. Counsellor to the Empire Gallius Rax interrupted all Imperial comms.

"Loyal soldiers of the Galactic Empire, madness is at our door. Ruffians and barbarians of the Rebel Alliance have claimed for themselves a government of no legitimacy, a government given over to corrosion, chaos, and the corruption born of alien minds and radical terroristic teachings. It was our own Emperor Palpatine who showed us the weakness that presents itself when a Republic becomes sick with the disease of craven politics and the illness of elite oligarchs who force their agendas upon us.

"With the death of our beloved Emperor, our own Empire was cast into disorder. It gave strength to the illegitimate, and emboldened them with a fraudulent claim of bringing peace and justice to the galaxy—and yet, for so long, who have been the champions of peace? The only war visited upon the galaxy has been the one brought by the criminal Rebel Alliance.

"Scattered and lost, we could have perished. After attacking Chandrila and injuring the fraudulent politicians who seek to steal the sanctity of our galaxy, I brought us here to Jakku, unifying our people and our powers in this faraway world—a hard world that has tested our mettle and forged us and sharpened us into a stronger blade. A blade with which we will slit the throats of the traitors that crawl on their bellies toward our door. Soon they come! Soon they try to finish what they started. They want to end the Empire. They want to set up as a tumour on a healthy body, leeching the blood while growing fatter like a parasite. They deny our legitimacy. They lie about the stability and sanity we created for the galaxy. For those are their truest weapons: deception and delusion. We must not give in. We must not believe that they are right. We must see them as they are:

"Brutes and barbarians! They are subhuman. They are alien to us in the truest sense of the word and are deserving of no mercy from us. This is our zero hour, and I call you now to do your duty by the light of the glorious Galactic Empire. The battle to come is not a fight for Jakku or even a fight for the Empire. It is a fight for all the galaxy. If we fail here, we fail everywhere. We fail our loved ones. We fail our children. We fail all who crave constancy and light in these dark times.

"We pursue no other aim than freedom from oppression, liberty from lies, emancipation from depravity.

"Today is the day we fight back and reclaim our galaxy.

"Today is the day the New Republic dies at the Empire's hand.

"Today we take our future!

"The battle is upon us. Go! Go and drag them down to the ground and break their necks with your boots! Take their heads! End their tyranny!"

Squadrons of Republic fighters descended on the Imperial formation. Grave Squadron watched as the armada of TIE Fighters, Bombers and Interceptors flew out of the wall formed around the Ravager to meet them.

Roland leads his squad through engagement maneuvers on targets that slipped through the great wall of Star Destroyers. What little work they could do was quick with the Defender's each wielding three pairs of heavy cannons. For some time Grave Squadron could do nothing but wait, their primary objective was to defend the Ravager.

Above them, the Star Destroyer, Punishment, shifted its position and Grave Squadron watched as the Ravager let loose with a salvo of every turbo laser it could out through the gap the Punishment had made. Despite the New Republic fleet's numbers, the dreadnought Ravager as the largest and most powerful on the battlefield. The frigate the Ravager targeted was instantly engulfed in fire and disintegrated a moment later. The Punishment unhesitantly repositioned itself to then close the gap.

It was working! Grand Moff Rand's strategy was working.

The battle had been raging for over seven hours. The New Republic fleet had closed the distance and the encircling Star Destroyers and formed a tighter formation around the Ravager but it seemed to make little difference in the defensive strategy. Roland understood that the situation was fragile. He was exhausted, and Grave Squadron was now only three. Lieutenant Laio was shot down by a loose B-Wing that slipped through the tenth salvo maneuver twelve minutes ago.

Reports were coming in that the damage above was getting extensive. Star Destroyers were mighty but not invincible. Roland let loose a barrage of cannon fire on a Y-Wing charging at him. The Y-Wing's own return fire shuck Roland in his cockpit but the damage was only to his ship's shields. His victim, however, was torn apart, the left engine exploded and the remains of the Y-Wing began spiralling down towards Jakku's surface. The comm channels set an unceasing background noise. Commands, Reports, acknowledgements. Screams. Many screams. An intense layer of anger was setting in, An A-Wing shot out across his viewport form his four o'clock. "Osis, take care of that one!"

"Affirmative!"

Roland piloted his Defender to intersect the path of an X-Wing heading in the same direction. He gained target lock as he approached the X-Wing from its seven o'clock, he triggered a pair of concussion missiles and let the missiles do the rest of the work. Entering a climb to find the new hole these Republic fighters where exploiting. A wide communication over the Imperial channels came through. "The Punishment is down, the Punishment is down." The targeting computer reported the destruction of the X-Wing. Roland slammed the bottom of his right fist onto the bare spot on his console. The pain shot through his hand up to his shoulder, it felt good.

"Grave Squadron, report!"

"On your eight sir, engaging Y-Wing." Senior Lieutenant Showers reported with a dose of hatred.

"A-Wing down, on your five, engaging another!" Junior Lieutenant Osis reported with stress in her voice.

"Affirmative, engage at will Grave Squadron!"
Then Roland saw it. The void. A hole in the wall. A failure. He clenched his jaw and squeezed his controls straining his fingers. The massive ship was charging right for him. A New Republic battleship, a Starhawk. "No! The battleship is charging the Ravager!" He triggered a proton torpedo and twisted the controls to fly his Defender to the left, out of the way of the charging battleship. The Starhawk launched past him continuing on its course.

The Republic battleship began unleashing its cannons against the Ravager. The damage was minimal, the Imperial Dreadnought was just too big, too powerful for a lone ship to threaten it. The Ravager then unleashed its own barrage of emerald fire. The Starhawk was disabled, it was falling towards Jakku's surface. The wound in the wall was now bleeding. Republic fighters came streaming in in waves.

Roland brought his Defender around to engage the fighters. He unleashed his weapons in a rage. The comm channels were screaming with damage reports. Roland reacted before he realized what was happening. The Ravager was descending towards Jakku. He was grinding his teeth, sweat burning his eyes. A burst of his cannons annihilates a Y-Wing. The dreadnought was being pulled towards the surface. Grand Moff Rand himself came over the comms. "We are caught in an advanced tractor beam, they will target our engines with fighters, all active squadrons move to defend the Ravager!"

"Grave Squadron, drop targets and move in to defend the engines!"

"Immediately Captain!" Osis hastily replied.
He could tell the Ravager was fighting the tractor beam. The enemy fighters were slipping through the cracks of the wall of Star Destroyers from every direction. What other TIE fighters where left swarmed towards the engines as well. Blaster fire of reds and greens flew around like a typhoon. Missiles and torpedoes peppered the arena with explosions and fire.

Grave Squadron flew through the hellscape towards the engines. X-Wings, B-Wings, A-Wings and Y-Wings. Engaging TIE Fighters, Interceptors and Bombers. Roland fired a torpedo at a Y-Wing once the targeting computer confirmed a lock, he then switched targets with short angle change to his left and shot a salvo of his own heavy emerald fire at an A-Wing's rear.

"Captain, I got one on my tail!" Showers broke in. Roland punched on his brakes and took a climb to the right to come around and try to catch the Republic slime before another friend was taken from him. He armed his concussion missiles and moved to catch the X-Wing on Showers'. The X-Wing left out a stream of bolts from its own heavy cannons, they tore through the shields of Showers' TIE Defender. Roland achieved target lock and fired! Two simultaneous explosions incinerated the X-Wing, but the Defenders's ion engines were disabled and were in free fall towards the planet. "I have failed you capta…" static cut the comms to Senior Lieutenant Showers as his Defender burned up and fell apart in atmosphere.

"Not another! These Republic swine!" Roland was fighting tears. "Osis! What are those engines on the Ravager looking like?"

"Engine three is out, backups are disabled! Captain, we can't save it!"

"This is not over Osis! The Empire doesn't die like this!"

"Roland! Look around you!" He couldn't, not the way she wanted him to. He triggered his cannons to burn down a B-Wing. As the bastard ship exploded, Roland could not help himself to look left as the last of the Ravager's golden-red burn of its engines faded after a final strafing run from a Y-Wing's torpedoes. In the next moment, they exploded from there bases. The Ravager's decent hastened as Jakku's gravity and the tractor beam from the falling Starhawk ripped it out of space.

Roland was afraid. Holding his breath he adjusted his course to see the wall of Star Destroyers still above him. "Nooo! No!"
The wall was broken, ships had joined the Ravager in free fall, themselves to damaged. Others were engaging Republic vessels at near point-blank range. Another jumped into hyperspace to escape. "Fools! Traitors! You have ruined us all!"

"Captain! Get a hold on yourself! We are still fighting!" Osis was right, the Republic wants him to break. He can't let them win his mind.

He shifted his controls to engage another Y-Wing. A quick salvo burned through the cockpit. "Rebel scum." His ship shook as a passing A-Wing finished what was left of his shields. "Osis, my shields are down!" He turned to try and catch the A-Wing who targeted him. His sensors let up with an incoming missile warning. "Krif!" He tried an evasive dive to throw off the lock to no avail, he had only seconds. "Osis, I…"

His head hurt, he coughed and pain shot up his right side. He caught his shallow breaths and opened his eyes. His cockpit was ripped open and he was laying in his command chair staring up into the night sky. "The stars are so bright here, I never noticed." No. They are falling. The last of the Empire. Falling. He was afraid.