Star Wars: Heir to the Sith (Part 1) (#Wattys2018 shortlist)

Chapter 55: "I don't think you have to get quite so close to the ground . . ."

"Hal?" Ella said. "Don't shoot at anything. That will give our position away in this mist. We're coming up to a chasm - it's the narrowest point of the canyon. The fighters will have to come through in single file. When we're through the other side they will be lined up. They'll be as easy as hitting a bantha with a blaster at point blank range!"

"I've never seen a bantha," Hal replied meekly. "And I've never shot anything at point blank range . . ."

"Hardly forged from the same mould as Tarkin is he?" Cor murmured.

Ella ignored the jibe.

"Just fire when I tell you, Hal. Not before," she instructed him. The Nova raced forward, swerving in elegant curves and banking around ancient rock formations, with Ella flying from the memory of her previous adventures evading the palace guards more than anything in the living moment.

She brought the Nova up sharp as they approached Garrand's Wart, a name Ella had given the formation after receiving a frustrating lecture from the King, and one of which only her and Tayre knew.

It was her waypoint for what lay beyond.

"Hal? Wake up. We're going to break cover and head for the chasm. Hold fire until I say." She turned to the wookie. "Sal - angle the deflector shields. Give maximum power to the rear plates."

Ella felt the currents of energy shift in the Nova as her co-pilot did as she requested.

Then she pulled the column back, and the Nova rose at speed from the mists.

The TIEs were on them within in an instant.

Green fire cascaded to the right and left. More tore through the air above them.

Ella put the Nova into a spin, and the enemy fire fell off and reduced in intensity as the pilots sought to match her course.

"Oh dear," Chip murmured, looking at the walls of the chasm fast approaching. "Do you really think we'll fit through that?"

Cor put her wings over her eyes and gave a high pitched chirp.

Ella turned the Nova side on, in a vertical approach, holding the ship steady as they entered the chasm. On her speeder bike this was an easy enough path, but in something the size of the Nova . . .

She clenched her jaw and held her nerve.

The rough faces of the rock passed by both above and below her, with only metres to spare on either side.

Sal made a growl that ended in a whimper.

"We're nearly through the worse of it," she murmured. "Stay focused."

A single green blaster bolt shot overhead and vanished beyond. It was panic fire, Ella realised. The TIE pilots would have to be putting all their concentration into staying away from the chasm's walls, for they were as wide as the Nova was tall.

Ella increased the throttle and the Nova surged forward.

"Get ready Hal!" she said. "We'll be through in a few more seconds. Then I'll bring her up sharp. That will give you a good chance to pick them off as they approach the end of the chasm."

She didn't wait for his reply as the chasm widened. She spun the Nova ninety degrees so it was flying once more in a horizontal plane.

In the open, she forced the ship down and then jerked roughly back, ignoring the cries of unease from the cockpit's other occupants, presenting the top of the ship to the ongoing TIEs.

And giving Hal the best opportunity she could to line them up.

"Go Hal!" she screamed.

The heavy cannonade erupted from behind her, reverberating around the ship in a heavy 'thump-thump-thump' as the outrigged turret loosened off its shots.