SW Goldsaber at Endor: To Kill a Legend

Orbiting Endor's Sanctuary Moon

Green fire lit up space all around Quinn's battered starfighter as she maneuvered through the blinding melee of Alliance and Imperial fighters. The Death Star's superlaser reached out and  annihilated another of the massive Mon Calamari cruisers, the Blue Reef, and all Quinn could do was watch the beautiful ship be vaporized. Damn it, they were being annihilated out here, that was the third ship that the Death Star had claimed since its activation had been revealed. This was insane, they couldn't fight out here like this! Her only real consolation was that her daughter Orchid was 'safely' inside of Jaeriel's starfighter which was at that very moment flying on her wing.
“All craft, close with the Imperial fleet and engage.”
Quinn frowned as Admiral Ackbar's voice gave the order. Close with the star destroyers and their support ships? Were they crazy? They'd be torn to shreds! Not to mention that even with most of the Alliance fleet here they still did not have enough ships to match the Empire for numbers! She thought for a moment of again asking Jaeriel to flee with Orchid but stopped herself, knowing that Jaeriel would refuse and like as not be insulted by the repeated question. Sighing, she hit her com.
“Jaeriel, are you with me?”
“Right on your wing.” the mandalorian girl replied.
“Okay then, Gold Saber squadron Gold Saber leader, close with the Imperial fleet and do as much damage as you can,” she hesitated a moment and then added. “May the Force be with you.”
Her squadron, or what was left of it, rogered up and along with the rest of the Alliance forces turned towards the star destroyers and their support ships, accelerating in amongst them. Maybe the Empire would be less willing to fire the Death Star's deadly weapon within the ranks of its own fleet...or maybe not. It was something at least.
“Mom?” Orchid called from Jaeriel's fighter.
“I'm here Orchid.”
“Are we going to die?”
“No.” Quinn answered instantly, surprised by the vehemence in her voice. “We're not going to die here.”
“Are you sure?” Orchid asked worriedly.
“Positive.” Quinn replied as she rolled her fighter through a series of firing runs against Imperial fighters trying to get targeting locks on her allies. “We're going to be fine Orchid, do you understand me? Just fine.”

“Jae?”
“Not now Orchid!” Jaeriel growled as she pulled away from a TIE Interceptor on their six.
“But Jae—“
“—dammit Orchid shut up!” Jaeriel snapped, immediately regretting her outburst. “I'm sorry,” she said emotionally as the Ace in the Hole pulled beyond the weapons range of the pursuing Interceptor, buying them a moment. “But I'm trying to fight Orchid, I can't concentrate if you're asking me questions.”
“I—I understand,” the chiss girl replied, evidently shaken by Jaeriel's outburst.
Jaeriel scowled inside of her helmet, its targeting systems syncing with her fighter's sensors to give her a better picture of the battlespace than the standard Alliance helmet could ever do. There were times when she really loved her parents—her father specifically in this case—for all the equipment they'd packed into her beskar'gam.
“Orchid?” she called as she locked her cluster missiles onto a swarming mass of TIEs.
She got a solid tone from her missile lock and depressed the firing stud on her joystick, loosing a pair of the deadly munitions. As she watched the two missiles break apart into twelve sub-munitions which each darted out after their own targets, scattering the TIEs before her.
“Orchid, listen to me,” Jaeriel said gently. “I'm scared alright? That's why I snapped, I'm sorry.”
There was a long pause in which Jaeriel continued to maneuver and fight against the swarming enemies amidst the massive cannons of the capital ships that were slugging it out around them. The great warships weren't meant to close like this, such close combat was reminiscent of an earlier age of warfare when ships had to close to point blank range because of the difficulty of targeting their opponents over the vast distances of space. Normally these monsters would have slugged it out over kilometers instead of the klick or less that they were fighting at now.
“You're really scared?”
Orchid's voice sent a jolt through Jaeriel who hadn't expected the other girl to start speaking again.
She nodded in reply. “Yeah, I'm really scared.”
“Mom says we're going to be fine.” Orchid said.
Jaeriel gritted her teeth as she blew apart a flight of bombers aiming for a friendly corvette. She didn't know what to say to Orchid, she couldn't rightfully tell her that Quinn was wrong...she didn't want to ruin Orchid's faith in her mother. Mother. Jaeriel recalled her own mother, Aira-ty Nokta. She wondered what she'd say if she could see her now? Probably that she'd told her so and that going off to fight the Empire was suicidal...even her father had told her that what she was doing was going to be difficult, perhaps even impossible...but he'd still told her to follow her heart. She remembered the last conversation she had with her mother before she'd left home. For the first time since Jaeriel could really remember, they'd held one another lovingly and...well...it had felt good to know that her mother loved her, despite all their fights.
Quinn reminded her of her mother in some ways...she was kinder sure, but there was that same fierce protectiveness within her own mother that both women possessed and alongside it a gentleness which might be hidden at times but was always there.
“Hey Orchid,” Jaeriel called as she rolled back into formation with Quinn's starfighter.
“Yeah?”
“Remember what I said earlier?”
“Umm,” Orchid hesitated. “We're going to kick their shebs?”
The girl sounded so adorably embarrassed when saying it that Jaeriel couldn't help but smile.
“Yeah, we're going to do exactly that kiddo, let's get 'em!”

“Gold Saber leader, Gray Talon leader.”
Quinn hit her com. “Send it for Gold Saber.”
“We've got a target, you and your boys are closest, want to jump in and jam them a little for us?”
Quinn frowned and looked at her sensors, spying Gray Talon squadron behind and 'above' her relative position.
“What have you got?”
“It's the Devastator.”
Quinn's insides iced over. “THE Devastator?”
“Yeah, she's alone, her escorts are gone and she's been forced out from the cover of the other ISDs, interested in killing her?”
Quinn's features turned fierce, the Devastator had a lot to answer for, and it was the 501st Legion's—Vader's Fist—home ship. Even if they all died here, killing that monster would strike a psychological blow the Empire would never forget.
“Yeah, Gold Saber is in, what have we got?”
“A bunch of slims and crosses from all over the place, better hurry, we're forming for our attack run.”
“Copy that, we're on our way.” Quinn switched to her unit's link. “Gold Saber's, if you can follow me, we're going to kill us a monster.”
Jaeriel's voice cut in on their personal circuit.
“Quinn, what's up?”
“We're taking the Devastator down.” Quinn replied.
The girl's voice was noticeably shaken as she replied.
“Are you serious?”
Quinn smiled. “Dead serious, you don't have to come, I'd rather you stayed clear with Orchid.”
“Spit!” Jaeriel snapped in reply. “If you're going to get yourself killed then I'm at least going to see you off!”
Quinn nodded, sighing nervously.
“Let's go with no one dies today alright?”
“A lot of people have already died.” replied Jaeriel grimly. “We're with you.”
Nodding again, Quinn turned her A-wing over and joined with the mixed force of B-wing assault fighters and A-wing interceptors as they formed on the star destroyer. Its weapon batteries were lighting the space around it vividly and she could see its shields sparking from weapon impacts. She was indeed isolated and without escorts. Exactly the state a star destroyer should not be in when this many starfighters were about.
“Here we go.” she said to no one in particular as the Alliance fighters accelerated on their attack runs.

Jaeriel watched as the Devastator grew in size, wondering if the gunners aboard her realized yet what was heading their way. She considered switching to her cluster missiles but then decided against it. The munitions were great against unshielded and unarmored targets like TIEs but against a star destroyer they'd be little more than a nuisance. It was better to let the crosses and their torpedoes do the killing. A sudden scream from her target lock warning told her they'd been noticed and she watched in mounting alarm as a barrage of missiles soared out from the Devastator's flanks and torpedoes sailed out of her prow. Since when had an ImpStar carried missiles!? She triggered her flares and chaff as did several other fighters around her and then executed a series of jinking rolls in an attempt to lose whatever munition might target her craft.
“JAE!” shrieked Orchid over the comlink.
“Not now!” Jaeriel barked. “Trying not to get us killed here!”
Orchid went silent as Jaeriel spun her A-wing 'down' away from the star destroyer before she came back beneath its keel having evaded the warhead barrage. Now though she had to cope with the star destroyer's cannons as she closed within their range. Above her she saw the B-wing's loosing their own volleys of torpedoes in response to the Devastator's attack. She checked her range as she continued to jink back and forth in an attempt to evade the big Imperial guns. Just a moment longer...one klick. If she was flying a standard A-wing this would have been maximum range for her lasers but the Ace didn't have laser cannons, it instead carried twin dual autoblasters and their max range was around point-seven klick which she was entering...NOW!
She depressed her firing studs and a flurry of fire spat from her weapons. The trade off between the laser cannons and the autoblasters was range for rate of fire. Not even the lightest laser cannon could match the amount of energy she could pump into a target and she watched as the combined fire of her own weapons and those of the other attacking starfighters peppered the Devastator's shields, red and blue lights from laser, blaster and ion bolts flashing across the shielding in purple patterning as it absorbed and dispersed their shots. Then something happened, Jaeriel saw the shields crackle and drop, she could only assume that some of the torpedoes had gotten through as the star destroyer's defenses failed and her shots began striking hull plating.
“Come on!” she shouted. “Die you monster!”
From her angle beneath the ship's keel she couldn't see the torpedo attack but she didn't need to as a portion of the hull over her head bulged suddenly and erupted, belching fire and atmosphere into space where it was quickly snuffed out.
“HAHAHAAA!” Jaeriel shouted in jubilation as more explosions rocked the crippled star destroyer's hull. “I am painting an ISD kill marker on tonight!”
“Only half of one.” Quinn admonished, causing Jaeriel to blush as she realized she'd said that out loud over the net. “Now get back here!”
Jaeriel pulled back on her flight stick, finding Quinn's gold A-wing. She winced as she looked at the charred and pockmarked surface.
“Quinn your fighter looks like slag.”
“She's still fighting.” Quinn replied. “Come on, we've got more Imperials to kill.”
Jaeriel nodded, but before she could reply an excited shout came over the battle net.
“Red Group Gold Group all fighters follow me!” General Calrissian's voice called out.
“What is he talking about?” Jaeriel asked in confusion.
“The shields,” she heard Quinn breathe in sudden relief. “The shields are down!”
Jaeriel checked the position of the Millenium Falcon. “We can't join the attack force, we're too far out of position.”
“That's fine, we'll just make sure we do as much damage out here as we can while they destroy that thing!” Quinn replied as she switched to the squadron link. “Gold Saber, our comrades are commencing their trench run, do not let them down!”
“Jae, what's happening?” Orchid called.
Jaeriel took a breath and smiled as she dove back into the fighting amidst the Rebel and Imperial capital ships.
“We just might have a chance to win this thing.” she replied. “Ready kiddo?”
“Uh huh.” Orchid said. “I'm right here.”
“Alright then,” Jaeriel said as she targeted a Starwing gunboat. “Hang on!”