Built on Hope (Cassian Andor FF)

10. Battle of Fresia Part II

None of them eased his conscious.

He raced to the flight controls, turning on the ship and putting on the communications headset quickly. The screams coming from the other side of the comms channel only heightened his urgency to get off the ground. Cassian tried not to move his side too much as he frantically reached for the controls to make the ship take flight.

The anti-aircraft turrets immediately emerged from the corners of the buildings once they noticed Cassian fly into the air. The medium-sized round turrets raised their guns at the ship, but saw it as Imperial owned. They reverted back to resting position, waiting for unsuspecting ships to fly out from the X-Wing hangar.

Cassian fired the ship's cannons at the turrets, blowing a few up on impact. He nodded his head, answering the orders that trailed through his mind. He focused on the next few turrets, maneuvering through the turret's blasts as they aimed for him.

Aim. Hit. Destroyed.

"Get ready to take off," he ordered over comms to the squadron as he took out the last few turrets. He glanced down towards the battlegrounds, subconsciously searching for Talia.

The sharp firing of the vehicle cannons sounded so far away. The booming of laser impacts on the sand vibrated the earth under Talia's feet as she sprinted. All she could hear vividly was the thunder of her heartbeat. Her feet pounded against the earth; her legs burned from all the energy she was using up. She fired her blaster blindly at the vehicles to keep their attention on her.

Talia slid to a stop when she saw storm troopers and cadets headed in her direction. Her hand clawed at the sand below her to gain traction, and she quickly jerked in the other direction. One of the tanks fired. The blast impacted in the dirt behind Talia, and sent her flying. She hit the ground hard, and rolled to a stop, her body unmoving.

Urgency shot through Cassian's system. He shouted without thinking, "No!" Was it quick? Is she in agony? She risks her life to save me, and this is the end she gets? Cassian's thoughts formed a runaway train, which only made him focus harder on clearing the battlefield. Talia's actions had to be worth something.

The X-Wings broke out of the hangar, twirling up into the air for the first time. Streaks of gray smoke from the engines mixed with the air. The higher the X-Wings got, the more the smoke froze into small ice crystals. The air cooled the hot smoke too quickly, and that's how it reacted. Cassian stared at the sight for a moment, amazed and excited simultaneously at such a feat of technology. The Senators will love these.

The AT-ST walkers and TIE maulers aimed their sights at the new ships and attacked. The bolts flew into the sky, and almost hit their targets, but the X-Wings flew too fast. This was something new. The Empire hadn't faced ships like these before. The TIE fighters were always on their side. Now, the Rebellion found their own ships that matched that speed and agility.

The ground forces joined in on the battle, shooting up and firing in sync with one another. Sirens went off from the academy, and pilots were shipping off in TIE fighters to join the action. The X-Wings scattered, flying off in different directions to avoid enemy fire.

The TIE fighters soon caught up, and a dogfight began. There were blasts going left and right. Blurs of red and green bolts showered the sky. Imperials shot up from down on the ground, and yelled orders to hold position. Cassian rained on their parade and shot in a straight line to scatter their forces. The other pilots yelled for help over comms as they frantically hit buttons on the consoles. The fear took over as all of them realized that they knew nothing about these ships and how to use them to their full potential.

Cassian focused on the TIE fighters for a moment, but realized this was all too much. They may have gone in way over their heads on this mission. Either that, or they underestimated the surrounding Imperial outposts that would be present. "You need to get the ships back to base," Captain Andor called out on comms.