POV: The Battle of Endor

Disclaimer: This small story is from the point of view of an anonymous X-Wing pilot. As he tries to relate his opinions on telling how the events of that day appear in his mind, please understand that this story does not refer to the squadron's that were originated on CIS (CompuServe).

In less than a second the space was full of enemy fighters. Lieutenant Rolan Kazanna was so scared as the rest of the pilots watched the incredible wall of fire expand in front of them. No matter how many hours of training one could have behind them, how many battles against the same foes survived, the fear was so far the strongest feeling. Even before the TIEs could reach the Rebel fleet, the order in the formation was broken, each pilot trying to evade and engage the enemy at the same time. Rolan moved the stick with violence to his left and immediately back to his right again. His X-Wing just barely escaping from colliding into a TIE interceptor and his own wingman by mere meters. The intercom was full of exclamations, making it almost impossible to understand the orders from the squadron leaders.

"Draw their fire away from the cruisers!" the order came from General Calrissian, on board the Milenium Falcon, a YT-1300 modified transport looking strange between the rest of the fighters.

That's easier said than done! Rolan thought while shooting over a TIE flying rapidly out of his sight, and failing. "Damn!"

There was no time to find his wingman, only to hope he was not too far. Several bright red dots on his right display showed that the same number of TIEs were on his tail. He looped his X-Wing desperately, trying to situate some of them where he could get a good aim. Three shots managed to connect with his rear deflectors before he was even able to evade them. The only good thing about fighting against so many adversaries was that they were always in risk of shooting down one of his own ships. One of the TIEs maneuvered to get out of his comrades line of fire, instead he entered into Rolans's sight enough to be reached by the four lasers of the X-Wing.

"Eat this!" cried Rolan while elevating his ship over the exploding TIE and its dangerous debris. One of the remaining TIEs took some impact from it, suffering several hull damages, but Rolan didn't notice it. Instead, he turned again looking at his right display while compensating the punished rear shields with energy from his lasers. During a short interval, he could see the unfinished Death Star, seeming vulnerable with her opened side, but untouchable while the deflector shield kept working. They had been told that the shield generator would be destroyed by the commandos there on the Endor's moon before they started their attack, but he had seen two X-Wings disappear against the invisible wall, and a moment later the hell had begun.

After the first two minutes of confusion, the space was now a bit clearer and he was wondering why those big Star Destroyers were not participating in the battle. Just as he was deep into thought, a huge detonation impacted against his fighter, consuming almost all the shields power and throwing him spinning wildly. When he was able to recover the ships control, Oidar saw that the Calamari Cruiser Oceania was not where she had been a moment ago.

"The Death Star is working!" was the cry in the intercom. Rolan had not been in the battle of Yavin. Although he was told that the first Death Star had destroyed the entire planet of Alderaan with a single shot, it was still hard to believe. But now...a Calamari Cruiser MC80, 1200 meters long with it's impressive weaponry, a crew of hundreds of people and nothing remained of any of that! The sweat ran cold from head to toe and only the instinct gave him the reflexes to continue evading the fire from the TIEs that were after him.

Without hesitation, Rolan did what he had been told. His R2 unit beeped frantically, indicating that a TIE interceptor had been destroyed by his wingman, Gray 35.

"Thanks a lot, Den!" said Rolan seeing now in his display a green dot between the group of red dots. "I just didn't know if you were near!"

"Yes, I'm here, but I don't think I can resist too much more. I'm seriously damaged here!"

His astromech was confirming that. Den's X-Wing had hull damage, and her shields were under 20 percent. Rolan felt angry with himself. All this time Den had been doing his job, trying to keep Rolan's tail clean of enemies, but there was nobody to do the same for him. He had almost been destroyed. The fear disappeared and a great determination took it's place.

"Put your ship at my twelve o'clock, now I'll cover you while you recover some of your shields!"

"I wont *even* say no!" was Den's answer as he passed under Rolan's ship while sending all the weapons energy to the battered shields.

Another Rebel ship exploded under the Death Star's fire. Then Admiral Ackbar's voice was heard through all the fighters comm-links.

To be at close range of a Super Star Destroyer seemed suicidal, but at the same time it was the only chance to evade the Death Star, because it couldn't shoot without risk for the Imperial ships. The Star Destroyer gunners would need to be extremately careful when shooting against the Rebel forces without damaging their own fighters or at least that was what Rolan believed. When the nearest Star Destroyer opened fire against Den and himself it destroyed one of the TIEs that was hunting them instead.

There was no answer. The next laser bolt made Den's X-Wing explode in a million fragments.

"Noooooooooo.......!" cried Rolan. If Den would had been behind him like he was moments ago, that ball of fire would had been his own ship. Den had saved him one more time and it would be the *last* time.

Once again, there was no time to regret. Without even stopping to jink to evade the TIEs and the Star Destroyer's guns Rolan saw one X-Wing launching missiles against one of the towers containing the Destroyer's shield generators. He pulled the stick furiously, directing his fighter towards the other tower and selecting dual missiles. When the tower was already filling all his front view, he pressed the fire button and maneuvered just in time to avoid crashing just after his missiles did. That tower surely had suffered some previous damages because it exploded immediately. Violently trapping two TIEs fighters and causing the loss of the rear shields of Rolan's X-Wing within seconds.

Rolan didn't even look back. He tried to compensate his rear shields with the front ones, but that was not much help at all. The good news was that he was momentaneously free from any pursuing TIEs and he used those precious seconds to recharge his shields a bit. While doing so, he crossed with two B-Wings and a Y-Wing that were attacking the now unshielded Star Destroyer with all their torpedoes. The happy beeps from the R2 unit said what Rolan wanted to hear: one less Star Destroyer to worry about!

The Rebels situation was desperate, but at least, they now had the initiative. It seemed that the main objetive was not just the Death Star, and the Imperial Capital Ships were now the new one. The Rebel cruisers were trying to put the Imperial Star Destroyers between them and the Death Star. The tactic was obtaining some success, because the shots from the huge station were now rare. However, the losses had been very severe and the superiority of the Imperial fleet was painfully clear.

"The shield is down! Commence attack on the Death Star's main reactor." "I love the commandos!" Rolan thought.

"We're on our way." this came from General Calrissian, Gold leader. "Red Group, Gold Group, all fighters follow me!"

That left Green and Gray squadrons to protect the remaining Cruisers and Frigates; and to avoid that most of the Imperial fighters would follow Red and Gold inside the Death Star. Rolan looked at his shields panel and felt better finding that he had recovered his primaries. Along with some other pilots, he launched his X-Wing against a significant group of TIEs that were leaving the battle to go after the Millenium Falcon and its escorts.

It was evident that the Imperials had not expected that the Death Star's protective shield could fail and the confusion was dominating their actions. While targeting a TIE interceptor, Rolan thought that probably the orders had been given from the Death Star and whoever was at command (maybe it was true after all that the Emperor was there!) now had a few things to think about with those ships penetrating in the heart of the battle station. The Rebel pilot concentrated on his job and shot down the Interceptor with several laser blast and immediately targeted the one on his right. His R2 unit warned him that several ships, mostly shuttles and transports, were abandoning the Death Star.

A wave of hope inundated the rebels. They were now fighting with more intensity, if that was even possible.

"We've got to give those fighters more time!" again the Admiral Ackbar's voice. "Concentrate all fire on that Super Star Destroyer."

Rolan had not seen a Super Star Destroyer until now. "A Death Star and a Super Star Destroyer the same day," the X-Wing pilot said to himself. "If I survive today, I'll have something to tell my grandchildren!" Some of the TIEs he was pursuing were changing their routes and running away. "It seems that nobody wants to be near the Death Star," thought Rolan, and turned his X-Wing to face the Super Star Destroyer, but a new threat made him change his mind. Four TIE Advanced coming from the Death Star were joining the battle and they engaged the fighters that were now attacking the huge Imperial Ship.

"This is Gray 21..." said Rolan into the intercom, "I have four TIE Advanced incoming... No, there are four more! Can someone help?"

"Ok, take the four that are just arriving and I'll do my best with the rest." Rolan replied

"Sure!" said Gray 12, with a tone of confidence that would sound strange in someone who was engaging four TIEs advanced alone, but the feeling was common in that moment in all the rebel pilots, forgetting the fear and desperation of just some minutes ago.

Rolan didn't bother to target a TIE in particular, he shot repeatedly against all the group, buying more speed with some of the shields energy. He didn't shoot down any of the TIEs, but he got his first objective, to force them to break their attack against the B-Wings that was poundering the Super Star Destroyer. An A-Wing appeared from somewhere and managed to destroy one of the touched TIEs. R2 identified the A-Wing as Green Leader.

"R2, target the one with the lower shields!" Rolan ordered to his astromech. He launched against the fighter selected by the droid, trying not to worry about the one who was now at his tail. The A-Wing was after the one who was attacking against the B-Wings.

"Be careful, Green leader!" Rolan told the A-Wing pilot. "You've got three more after your tail!"