Star Wars: Heir to the Sith (Part 3)

Chapter 24: "Will they make it off the ship, do you think?"

Tayre tracked the path of the ion torpedo as it sped toward the Malevolent's upper hull, slightly forward of the raised bridge.

"That's all I've got!" the rebel pilot said as the small triangular fighter craft pulled up, twisting away amidst several green tongues of fire that raced up from the Star Destroyer's deck.

She lost sight of the torpedo a second before it hit.

An eruption of bright orange flame was lost under a cloud of metallic debris. A blue fire flared across the ship's upper hull, racing up the shoulder of the bridge only to die and wane from her view. In a second of peculiar certainty, Tayre noticed how the green lines from the ship's turrets ceased.

And one second of quiet continued into two.

"Situation?" Pyke whispered from her right in the sudden silence.

"Malevolent's power distribution is failing," an Imperial officer replied. So tense was the atmosphere that he didn't even have to raise his voice. "They are suffering outages all across the hull." He gaped at his screen and a look of recognition turned to amazement. "Sir! I think they've lost their turbolasers!"

"Tell the Alliance to run one of their sensor ships over its hull," Pyke commanded. "We need to be certain it's not a trick."

"We can't wait!" Tayre snapped. "We have to hammer them now to ensure they surrender. We–"

"If we commit all our fighters on that assumption then we could lose too many of them," Pyke said coldly. "I will not risk the battle on such an assumption."

"Sir," the Imperial officer standing over the sensor console spoke up. "The Jyn Erso is closing on the Malevolent. The rebels are lining their fighters up to strafe both of her shield domes."

Tayre checked her own tactical display. The rebel ships were forming into line behind a B-Wing on a course that would take them above the Malevolent's bridge, approaching from the side. This would enable the ships to get a shot at both shield generators as they passed overhead.

But it was also a highly predictable angle of attack.

If those turbo lasers were still active . . .

It was a desperate gamble from the rebels, but now they had taken it, she realised they should do everything to pivot the odds in their favour.

"Captain Pyke, if our TIEs commit to an attack run on the port shield generator they would still have a chance to evade any incoming fire. And it might just be enough to knock the Malevolent's generator out entirely . . ."

Pyke's face froze in a quick calculation of risks and benefits.

"Do it," he ordered. "Have our attack wing approach from the aft section to target the port generator. Tell them to hit the generator the second after the last rebel of the line passes over - there's no point in risking a collision."

The Jyn Erso pummelled the Malevolent from its new position of only a few hundred metres away. For the first time Tayre saw the pitted battle scars across its facing dome and spiky turrets, only a third of which were still operating. The capital ship swung into its position in a drunken manner. She realised then that the Martyr class vessel was committed in a battle to the death.

A transmission notice appeared on her screen.

It was from the Malevolent's commander.

"If you do not break off your attacks immediately, we will execute every single prisoner aboard." His voice reeked of desperation. "We have the royal family of Farsalt and I have personally ordered them to be shot if you do not halt–"