EPISODE I - TWENTY-FOUR: With a little help

The first two Resistance X-Wings exited hyperspace just beyond one of the old Imperial ships on sentry duty. The two fighters were soon accompanied by three more and the Blue Kaadu. Dom Browhar was counting on a lack of TIE fighters on the Star Destroyer and that they would be able to get down to Aporoth and start taking out some of the above-ground First Order targets that dotted the landscape near the harvester facility.

Browhar checked his scopes for any approaching fighters. "All wings," he began. "I don't know about you, but I'm not picking anything up on my instruments. Let's hope we get an easy ride down to the surface."

"I copy that, Dom," responded Jai. "How you holding up there, Lady One-Arm?"

Paloame wasn't amused. "Lady One-Arm? That's Lieutenant One-Arm to you, Womahil." Jai laughed at her salty retort. "And if you need to know, I guess I'm doing fine. It's a good thing that I am mostly capable of flying a starfighter with either hand on the control stick." Feege cut in with a comment of his own. "And yes, I have a droid to pick up the slack. Is there anything else you gentlemen would like to add?"

"Nope," Jai countered with palpable amusement in his voice.

"Yes," shouted Dom. "We've got company. Check your scopes--there's a flight of fighters approaching on your eight!"

Feege glanced at his scope and then his shoulder. "I see 'em."

ZP-QA quickly rolled himself through the Blue Kaadu and plugged himself into the gunner station's auxiliary port below the cockpit. He got the cannons primed and linked into the tracking system. Silara Narvo took evasive action, pushing the freighter ahead of the X-Wings and allowing them to cover her as best as they could. "I'm not going to be that effective in the fight, so I'm making a run for the surface--hopefully without taking too much damage. I'm going down to find a remote spot to land this thing in and will await instructions from our ground team!"

"I copy that, Sil," Jai acknowledged. "In the meantime, I've got two on my tail. Anyone available to give me an assist?"

Dom swung his fighter around in a hard turn and a roll. "I'm on my way!"

Jai tried to keep some distance between himself and the two First Order fighters. Understanding that they were directly behind him, he purposely alternated his speed and attitude, hoping to throw off their targeting computers. "Dom... are you back there?"

"Yeah, I'm behind them. I'm trying to line them up so I don't accidentally hit you. Do you think you could hold still for a minute?"

Womahil winced. "A minute? No. You think this is something you can do a little quicker?"

"Maybe." Browhar clenched his jaw, focusing in on the lead ship. "I'm going to try to pick off the one directly behind you. Once I dust that one, pull to your left and immediately pull to your right."

"You got it!"

Dom opened fire, clipping the long-range antenna. He took another shot, which landed on the starboard power trunking. This hit caused the corresponding hexagonal solar panel to disengage from the cockpit as the fighter exploded. The panel flew back and hit the second fighter, destroying it in the impact.

Jai Womahil could see the flash of the explosion in his periphery and performed the maneuver suggested by Dom. 

"Nice dance moves there, Jai!"

"Did you get him?" Jai shouted, turning his head around and trying to see if there was still a fighter pursuing him. 

"Yeah, you completely missed it! Got the lead and the debris got his wingman."

Jai smirked. "Fancy." 

Pal's voice buzzed through their exchange. "Great," she sighed. "None of you saw what I just did, did you?"

"Did we miss a proud moment?" inquired the Rodian pilot. 

"I saw it," answered Niono Barg.

"Thanks, Barg. At least someone saw it." Another enemy fighter popped up in Paloame's proximity. "Whoops, gotta go!"

A big smile quickly worked its way across Browhar's face. He was pleased with the odds--the First Order obviously equipped each sentry ship with just enough fighters to police any incoming vessels and not to defend themselves against any intentional attacks. They'd launched only six fighters against their five and of those six, only three remained. He spotted one of the remaining three heading straight for the Delphidian and responded by putting his own craft into a steep dive to intercept it. 

At that moment a massive triangular star cruiser entered realspace. The forward section of the craft almost smashed into Feege's X-Wing. The Rodian squeaked in terror as he performed an evasive measure to save his ship and himself. "What in blazes is that thing?" he cried.

Before the other pilots in Trickster Squadron could acknowledge either the ship or Feege's question, a familiar voice crackled across their comm systems.

"That's a Resurgent-class Star Destroyer," the voice shouted. "Welcome to the new era."

"Wait. 'Crash', is that you?" Jai asked.

"I told you I hate that name," the voice emphatically responded.

Dom burst into laughter. "Oh, nice! Dameron is here! What the hell brings you to our little problem?"

"Do you guys ever shut up? We intercepted your communications as you were leaving Brudall and caught up with you. It looks like it's a good thing we did." A passing TIE fighter crossed Poe's sights. "Hold on."

Dameron's X-Wing swooped down to engage the pursuant fighter. He fired off a round of decisive shots that connected with and destroyed the First Order ship.

"Okay... Blue Squadron, split up and fire some shots at the atmospheric shield generators on those landing bays. If you blow those, the doors will shut and prevent the First Order from launching any fighters. I'm gonna guess that unlike their sentry ships, this one is armed to the teeth!" Poe put his X-Wing into a reverse loop and headed toward the massive ship. "Trickster Squadron, head down to get your job done. We'll join you once we take care of this monster up here. Good luck!"

"Just a heads up, Trickster Squadron--looks like we missed one," shouted Temmin Wexley. "A shuttle just launched from one of the bays, but we can't get to it and seal up that destroyer. If you can keep ahead of it, you can stay out of range of its cannons."

Most of Snap's warning made it through to Trickster Squadron before the planet's unique radiation sphere scrambled it. The five pilots gunned the thrusters on their ships and immediately split formation upon entering the planet's atmosphere. It would be difficult for the shuttle to hunt down each individual ship if it decided to take pursuit and moreover, it was unlikely that the shuttle's pilot was aware that there was more than one group of fighters to worry about.