Binary Skies

Chapter 16: It's Complicated

"All right, I need you to prepare us to jump for Kupoh and tell me which gravity projector on that interdictor is blocking our path to it right now."

"Wait, are you suggesting we attack the Interdictor by ourselves?" Nakari asked, voice rising again.

"It's either that or let them catch us. I don't think they'll respond to a polite request to stand down. And this is one of the old models; we should go before they have time to get reinforcements here. Right now it's unescorted and only has twenty-four fighters."

"Only twenty-four? We're one ship with a couple of blasters and a few missiles!"

"That's all we need. And the TIE fighter pilots might be on lunch break or something, so we should be clear for a minute or two. We have speed and surprise on our side."

Before anyone could argue, Luke pointed the nose down toward the interdictor and accelerated to a breathtaking full attack speed that was much faster than Luke's X-Wing.

Anakin armed their weapons like Luke asked, then signaled readiness. "Give them hell, Son."

The Interdictor's batteries swung up and began to fire from quad laser canons. However, it was just for show as most of them were not in the proper field of fire. The first squad of TIEs flew out of the cockpit, and Nakari had a brief panic attack.

"Let's get out of here! This is insane!"

"It's only insane if you don't have a plan. I think of this as risky." he turned his attention elsewhere. "Artoo, which gravity projector should I target?"

Its port side, our starboard.

"Both of them?"

Yes.

"That complicates things."

Nakari shot Luke a look. "What, and they weren't complicated before? That cruiser has to be shielded."

Anakin pursed his lips. "It is, but it's also one of the older Immobilizer models. The Empire's been using them against the Alliance in raids. And while they have a varied collection of twelve shields, we can take out the particle shield generators for the port side. That's when we go after the gravity projectors with whatever we've got left."

Nakari gaped. "While dodging TIE fighters and quad lasers? Do you even hear yourself?"

Anakin felt Luke spin the ship away from what he assumed were the enemy fighters, and then shrugged. "I never said it would be easy, but we can do this."

Nakari shook her head. "No, let's just get to the edge of the Interdiction field and run for it!" She turned hopefully to Luke.

Luke, however, had already thought about that. If he hadn't been in the back making a caf, they might have had that opportunity, but since he hadn't been in the cockpit they had lost the precious seconds they would have needed to do that. He shook his head. "No, they sucked us in too close. The TIEs are already on us."

Nakari turned her head and saw the vast assortment of death headed their way, jerking in her seat with an exclamation of, "Gah!" once she saw Luke's point that it truly was too late for that.

Luke wove through the first six TIEs, successfully avoiding their fire and head on collisions. He winged another with their laser cannons, causing it to careen and take out a second one with it. Twenty-two fighters left. As he flew with the TIEs, Luke's mind further assessed their situation with the Interdictor. Their lone ship couldn't weaken the shields enough to punch through with their laser cannons, but if they timed it right with their special weapon from Rodia, they might just stand a chance. He'd theorized the possibility of taking out certain classes of Star Destroyers with Wedge after his one simulation right before he officially joined the Rebel Alliance, and it looked like he was about to be putting those theories to the test. Had they not been so desperate, he wouldn't have tried it, but he was not about to let the Interdictor take them now. Plunging into the Force, Luke slipped into his non-thinking state of awareness, anticipation, and reaction, sliding the Desert Jewel into an attack vector that minimized the ships profile to the Interdictor's gunners and led them straight to the portside shield generators.