Kyber Heart - Poe Dameron

Chapter 58

The journey to Exegol was a quiet one. Silence reigned over the comms, save for standard procedure check-ins between pilots and leaders. No one dared quip or crack a half-hearted joke, pass a comment, even breathe too loudly for fear it would upset their already pitiful odds of winning.

The cockpits of the fighters had never felt more claustrophobic; each one thick with smell of anxiety, mixed with the common scents of each pilot.

The journey itself was no easy task. The space between them and Exegol was filled with clouds of red gas and stardust, housing the remains of various megafauna. From the inside, they looked more like caves. The red light from the environment felt like it was trying to swallow them.

With every shake of her ship navigating the treacherous route, Nova winced.

BB-6 too was ill at ease, frantically running a system check every time they brushed too close to something or shook in a particularly violent fashion.

"I know it's a rough ride," Poe said. "But stay locked on Rey's course."

Nova glanced over her readings, chewing the inside of her cheek as they neared the point of their final hyperspace jump. The white and blue light had barely surrounded her before the fleet was dropping again, straight into Exegol's upper atmosphere.

The sight they were met with made their hearts drop to their stomachs, and their blood run like ice in their veins. Everything around them turned blue, shadows and flashes of lightning dancing across their faces.

Below them lay the Final Order. Over a thousand Star Destroyers, each one armed to the teeth with weaponry capable of wiping out whole planets.

The Resistance had expected big – the Final Order was bigger.

"Look at that fleet..." Poe said, voicing the only thought present in anyone's mind.

If it sounded hopeless before, it looked even more so now.

The First Order opened fire on them almost instantly, forcing them to scatter into action – or rather evasion.

"Damn it!" Nova swerved her ship, narrowly avoiding getting caught in the flames of the exploding B-Wing beside her.

"Welcome to Exegol!" Poe exclaimed dryly.

The couple dived together, their ships spinning in sync with one another. The black and green paintjob on Nova's ship posed a contrast to the orange and white of Poe's.

"Watch your starboard, Wexley!" Lel warned, barely dodging the off-course A-Wing careening towards her and Snap.

"Get to their altitude!" Nova ordered. "They can't fire on us without hitting each other!"

"Copy that, General!" The confirmation echoed across the fleet.

"Don't give up! Help is coming!" Poe assured.

Nova chewed the inside of her cheek, trying to keep the doubt in the back of her mind at bay. With each screaming flash of lightning, dread shot down her spine. She had seen them before, haunting her nightmares, her visions.

The board was set. All that remained was for the players to make their moves. Until, eventually, one side would lose. There would be no draw.

The fleet followed the dive of the Generals, weaving through the barrage of fire, closer and closer to the surface. Their target soon came into view, nestles securely into the hard, dusty surface of the planet.

"I've got a visual on the tower," Finn confirmed.

Locating the target was one thing, launching the attack was another. And the swarm of enemy fighters launched to intercept them at every angle, seemingly a hundred from every Star Destroyer, was not going to make it easy. Not that they had expected the First Order to just let them waltz in and blow up their armada.