A week had passed, the final strategy meeting had taken place, everyone knew what role they'd have during the battle.
The ponies had unsurprisingly been given no role at all in the battle, they'd just be observing while the Rebels did the heavy lifting.
The fleet was almost at Equestria, only a few minutes and the battle would begin, a battle to liberate the ponies of Equestria.
New Intel had unfortunately suggested that the Empire had reinforced the planet with additional support vessels and two Star Destroyers with a few more ships on their way.
Rainbow Dash would normally love dangerous moments this would be no exception at first glance, but the young pegasi weren't enthusiastic as she always was, she was curious. What could happen? Will I die? Were some of the questions that floated freely throughout the head.
For others like Luna and Cadance, they were only thinking about getting to reunite with Celestia and Shining Armor.
But those three weren't the only having thoughts like that. Twilight Sparkle thought about how Equestria had changed over the year, was it just like before? Was it completely new and had high-rise buildings left and right with no sight of vegetation?
Rarity was thinking about what clothes people were wearing now, Fluttershy about the animals and hoping to see none of them affected by the tyranny of the Empire, Applejack was thinking about getting to reunite with her big brother and her grandma but also the quiet and beautiful country life. Lastly, Pinkie Pie was thinking about nothing, just parties?
The fleet was moments away from exiting hyperspace, moments before it'd engage the enemy fleet: The Imperial Navy.
Them it was heard.
"All men, man your battle stations. This is not a drill, we will be leaving hyperspace shortly.
The announcement said.
Following this, footsteps of the Rebel soldiers could be heard, running to their battle stations whether it was a communications outpost or the Ion Cannons.
An alarm could be heard as well. It wasn't a loud one like the abandon ship ones but it still was quite loud, probably to inform the listener that battle is coming.
| - - - - - - - |
The loud noises of the hyperdrive stopped and a strong braking force could be felt, not strong enough to send someone flying but strong enough to inform that you've arrived at the destination.
Immediately the sounds of the Corvette's engines running. Its role was to destroy enemy fighters before they could reach the vulnerable parts of the capital ship, the MC80 'Resurgence'
The noises of the A-Wings leaving the hangars of the Corvette made it seem like this would be a battle that's going to last for ages, though in reality, it wouldn't.
The pilots of the rebellion were often less experienced than their Imperial Counterparts, but the motivation they received and the advanced starfighters made it an even fight.
One of those pilots was Takar, an X-Wing pilot flying as Red 6, he defected from the Empire after the Battle of Scarif, seeing the horror that the Death Star could do and not feel right about being on the side that was responsible for the atrocities.
"Red Six, reporting in," Takar said.
"Alright Red Squadron, let's show the empire what we got! Attack the Shield Generators on that Star Destroyer to the left!" His Squadron Leader said.
Takar complied with the orders and turned to his left, following the other X-Wings and preparing for an attack run.
Immediately though he was met by thousands of TIEs, including some TIE Phantoms he saw.
The Turbo lasers fired at the X-Wing, almost hitting Red Six. But Takar, being an experienced pilot was able to avoid the flak, being able to complete his bombing run and damage one of the Shield Generators.
"That's a hit!" His Squadron Leader said.
"Yeah, but no damage Red Leader," Takar said.
"Still a hit, let's keep hitting and we might get some damage!"
Takar chuckled quietly and added additional thrust to the engines, he spotted a TIE Bomber to his right and decided to destroy it.
He moved the control stick to the right slightly, then looking at the aim assistant for the target to get into the middle of the screen so he could fire.
He watched as the target went right, left, right and left a couple of times on the little screen, but then it steadied and landed right in the middle of the screen.
Without further hesitation, Takar pressed a button on the control stick to fire.
The shots hit the TIE Bomber with precise accuracy. The left wing began to smoke and then collapsed.
The Bomber began going turning sharply to the left and exploded after having traveled almost down to the atmosphere of the planet.
Takar pulled up, having his X-Wing head towards the same shield generator he hit earlier.
But then a problem occurred...
A red warning light began to flash in the cockpit, followed by a rather quiet alarm.
"I'm losing engine power!"
High Admiral Vosh had been wise, he had placed the fleet inside of the gravitational pull zone of the planet which meant that Takara's X-Wing would be pulled by the gravitational force into the Star Destroyer and die.
"R-8, do something!"
The T-65B X-Wing began to plummet down towards the Star Destroyer.
Takar tried one last time to get his engines running but it was too late.
The X-Wing smashed into the Star Destroyer, an explosion coming from the destroyed fighter. Takar was gone.
"Red Six is down!"
On the opposite side of the battlefield was Jonua, an Imperial Ace pilot flying the dangerous TIE Defender.
Jonua had been in the empire for the past 7 years and she had enjoyed all her time in it.
She grew up in Vardos, a pro-Imperial world renowned for producing elite Imperial soldiers such as Commander Iden Versio of Inferno Squad.
Jonua accelerated her TIE Defender to max speed and spotted two rebel Y-Wing Bombers heading her way.
She quickly rolled left, managing to avoid a collision.
She then turned her fighter around and was right behind the two bombers, right where she wanted to be. She locked into the left one, firing proton torpedos at the Bomber and witnessing it explode and disappear.
She then locked onto the next one and with the powerful and fast firing canons of the Defender she took out the last bomber in a matter of seconds.
"Job well done." She said to herself.
| - - - - - - - |
"Commander, the Imperial Star Destroyer has locked us into its tractor beam!" An officer shouted across the deck.
"Poodoo... Get us some fighters to destroy the source so that we can break free!"
Fogles responded, before running over to the intercom.
"Alert, we've been caught in a tractor beam. I want all Fleet Troopers to secure all entrance points onboard this Corvette, do not let them enter this ship!"
Fogles turned it off and ran back to where he was earlier, he looked out the window and could see how the Corvette was nearly inside the hangar of the Star Destroyer.
Fogles had to make a decision, he knew that the royalties of the planet were onboard his vessel and was about to be boarded, he had to make a decision and time wasn't on his side.
"Get those monarchs into an escape pod towards the planet. We cannot risk their captivity." Fogles ordered.
| - - - - - - - |
A Rebel Fleet Trooper holding his DH-17 Blaster in one hand was following his friend who held an A280-CFE and the same uniform. The fleet trooper's name was Zinn.
The iconic white hat, a black vest, a blue shirt and some dark pants. The Uniform was stood out against all other uniforms and it was no question why.
The two soldiers reached the rooms of the ponies, just as they could begin to hear blaster shots from a corridor nearby.
The trooper ordered his friend to get the rooms longer down the hallway while he'd get ones here.
The young soldier pressed the button to open the door and saw the white unicorn with a purple mane sitting in her bed.
"We're getting you out of here, it's an emergency. Come on!" The rebel soldier yelled, but not high enough to alert the Stormtroopers not far from them.
The rebel soldier did the same to the other rooms, getting the ponies out and once he saw that he and his friend had all of them they ran towards the escape pods.
Zinn soldier checked his corners, seeing that it was clear he told the group and his friend to continue moving and to cross the corridor.
Once they got into the escape pods room he closed the door and locked it by doing the classic 'shoot the door control'.
"Alright, this is how we'll do it. The tallest of you go into Pod 1, the others into Pod 2, I and my friend will go into Pod 3. Got it?"
"Yes, we understand." The dark blue pony answered.
All of them did as told, entering the correct pod that they were assigned to.
Zinn first checked to see if all pods were correctly sealed before launching them, he checked pod number ones but had to cancel checking the other pod when he saw that the Stormtroopers had destroyed the door leading to the escape pods and began firing at him. (Rewrite this part)
Zinn quickly ran into his escape pod and closed the door, once he saw that it was sealed he pressed two buttons that launched all the other pods, he knew that the Stormtroopers would report to the Star Destroyer that he and the ponies had escaped in pods, therefore he launched additional ones in an attempt to lure the Empire into shooting down the wrong ones.
The pod shoot out of the ship and began heading down towards the planetary surface.
Out of the small window on the escape pod, you could see how close they were to getting obliterated and having their dead bodies left to freeze in the vacuum of space.
Though suddenly the front began to heat up, indicating that the escape pod was entering the atmosphere and mere moments from hitting the ground.
Zinn pushed a button to slow down the descent of the pod for a safe landing.
"I suggest you brace..." Zinn said to his friend.
The escape pod carrying Twilight, Cadance, and Luna had already hit the ground with a successful landing. The other one carrying the Main 6 except for Twilight had also already landed but had a rougher landing, fortunately, no one got hurt.
Zinn's pod was mere moments from hitting the ground.
He looked at his friend one last time before being felt the hard impact with the ground, for him it felt like he was inside a Corvette about to be destroyed. And he had already been in such situation.
"Are you okay?" Zinn asked.
"Yeah, yeah." His friend Relio, said.
"Good to hear, let's get out and see if they're okay."
Relio did the honors of opening the door.
The escape pod's door began to open, white smoke came out as it was unpressurized.
Zinn stepped out and was greeted by the sight of the space battle above, he saw how one of the Nebulon-B Frigates was disabled and started heading downwards towards the planet for a crash.
His friend Relio stepped out.
A part of the engines fell off and crashed about 200 meters from them, the
Frigate hit the ground and a minor explosion followed, Zinn took his micro binoculars and observed the crash site.
He witnessed the crashed frigate and saw that it had crashed on a railroad leading up to a mountain where a city laid.
Relio looked to his right and saw the ponies.
"Glad to know you're all safe, now we better get out of here before the Empire arrives," Relio said.
| - - - - - - - |
High Admiral Vosh was on the bridge of his Star Destroyer The 'Behemoth'. One of the Empire's many Star Destroyers.
He was observing the battle looking for potential targets to weaken the enemy fleet.
His second in command, Captain Reeech approached him.
"Sir, the..." Reeech was trying to say but was struggling to find the words to describe something.
"Spit it out Captain," Vosh demanded.
"The Menacer is reporting a loss of hydraulics and critical damage to the Shield Generator. Captain Mapona is requesting fighter cover while they repair, what shall we do?"
"Send TIE Fighter Squadron 17, 18 and TIE Interceptor Squadron 6. That should be enough for now, but for safety have the Menacer back up a little so it won't be the main target for the Y-Wing Bombers." Vosh ordered.
"Yes, sir."
Reeech walked to one of the control pits on the bridge to give the Communications Chief his orders.
Then Reeech would supervise the men on the bridge, making sure they were doing their jobs.
Vosh looked at the MC80 Liberty Type Cruiser that served as the flagship for the Rebel Fleet.
He then looked to the left of the Cruiser and saw the 'Nightwing' taking lots of fire from the MC80 and the Support ships in the enemy fleet.
Vosh stepped up and pressed and held a red button to open a communications bridge towards the Star Destroyer.
"Commander, move out of the area. You're going to be destroyed within the next few minutes if you don't move." Vosh said.
"But sir, we've captured a rebel ship. If we want to get out of fast we'd need to drop it!" The Commander on the other ship argued.
"Then let go off the ship at once and regroup with the fleet, we cannot underestimate our enemy." Vosh finished.
Vosh looked once more at the MC80 and saw how it was undamaged from this battle. His frustration grew and without hesitation, Vosh ordered all available TIE Bombers to attack the
MC80 starting with the shield generator, then the Communications Relay and finally the engines.
"I smell victory. And it smells really good." Vosh muttered.
| - - - - - - - |
Shortly after the Escape pods had hit the ground the FOB not far from the location was scrambling all it's available forces for the intervention of the Rebel escape. Inside of the Command Center was Captain Hutska. Captain Hutska was not an ordinary captain of the Imperial Ground Forces Division. He was a part of the Imperial Security Bureau also known as the ISB. He was currently undercover as Captain Hutska but his real name and rank were Agent Quirks.
"The Nightwing reported escape pods launching from the captured Corvette, they believe the pods landed south of the base. Now let's move it and kill whatever escaped!" The Undercover ISB Officer said to his men over the intercom at the Forward Operating Base.
The gates of the base opened and immediately two speeder bikes manned by two Biker Scouts were gone from the base. Their destination was south of the base, as orders had said to destroy the escaped rebels and whatever they took with them.
The agile and fast speeder bike would get to the location of the crashed escape pods within a few minutes easy, the terrain was mostly flat and there were no obstacles unlike Endor which required you to be extremely careful or you'd end up crashing into a tree and dying.
The Speeder Bikes were almost at their destination when suddenly one of the Biker Scouts was shot in the chest and fell off his bike. The scout was hit where his heart was located and therefore he died immediately.
In response, the other biker scout began firing at the direction the bolt came from.
He made sure to slow down his bike so that the primary guns wouldn't lose their accuracy at the high speed the bike was traveling.
The Scout fired a laser barrage before his guns overheated, just in that time the same Rebel who had killed his friend shot again and hit the scout's left pelvic bone.
"Gah!" The scout screamed in pain.
The Scout looked at the direction where the shot had been taken and slowly saw a rebel soldier holding an A280-CFE in the sniper configuration coming up to him.
The rebel aimed his blaster at the scout.
"Please don't!" The Biker scout begged.
The scout then saw a second rebel followed by a cyan pony that was hovering in the air coming up from a ditch.
"Gun down Relio, we need to get out of here before more Imperials come." The other rebel said.
"But he might just report our position!" Relio responded.
"Well that's a risk we gotta take. Come on!" The other rebel began running towards the forest ahead.
The Biker scout would take off his helmet, breathing heavily and looking around to see if reinforcements were approaching.
When he didn't see any he decided to contact the FOB to inform them he was injured.
"This is TK-9980, I've been badly injured and my squadmate has been killed. I request help immediately."
TK-9980 waited for a response...
"Copy that TK-9980, we're tracking your homing beacon and are dispatching a Medical Evac to assist," The Officer on the opposite side of the comlink said.
| - - - - - - - |
"Sir, Moff Raythe is requesting a status report on the battle." The Lieutenant said.
"Tell him that I am unavailable at the moment."
"Yes, sir."
The MC80 Liberty Type Cruiser had begun taking damage, but it hardly wasn't enough to destroy it. The Rebel fighters were doing a darn good job of defending their only capital ship in the fleet.
Then a window in the Imperial Defense opened, the Menacer's shield generators were disabled and now was the time to strike.
Rebel Y-Wing Bombers began their bombing run and fired their proton torpedoes at the Turbolaser gun emplacements.
Though before one of the Y-Wing bombers could release its payload it got hit, the left engine blew up and fell off and the Bomber began going down in a spiral.
The Y-Wing began to slowly stabilize itself but it wasn't enough, the bomber crashed into one of the large engines on the Star Destroyer.
The result was quite spectacular, the proton torpedo mixed with the explosion from the destroyed Y-Wing was barely enough to cause a chain reaction and have the engines explode.
Because the engines were now destroyed the Star Destroyer began to be pulled by Equestria's gravitational force down towards the surface.
Darren Vosh looked on in disbelief.
The Star Destroyer began to heat up and escape pods could be seen launching from the doomed ship.
Then the ship crashed.
It hit the ground hard. The front of the ship exploded while the middle section managed to reduce the impact force.
The Menacer was now a useless piece of junk lying in the woodlands as a reminder of the space battle that was starting to come to an end.
The debris was either going to stay there forever or be salvaged by the Rebellion to preserve Equestria's delicate environment.
Back in space Vosh's forces were starting to be depleted.
All of his available TIE's were nearly gone with only a few squadrons remaining.
The Rebels meanwhile had lost a few squadrons but were still outnumbering the Imperial forces.
Although the Empire was losing the Starfighter battle, they were winning the ship to ship battle.
The Imperial Fleet still had three Star Destroyers. The Nightwing, The Emperor's Wrath and Vosh's flagship The Behemoth
And he, of course, had two more Victory-class Star Destroyers and some support vessels like the Arquintens class Light Cruisers which were dealing damage to the rebel fighters and combating the Corvettes of the Rebel Fleet.
Suddenly a second MC80 followed by a third came out of hyperspace to the Empire's surprise.
The two ships began to immediately fire at the Imperial fleet and Vosh quickly alerted that the Nightwing was taking heavy damage.
The High Admiral wasn't about to let go of the system and give it to the Rebellion.
He knew that he had lost, but he wasn't going down without causing damage to the planet.
"Order all fighters to attack the capital ships, and prepare all available ships for an orbital bombardment," Vosh ordered.
The ship began to tilt as to position itself for the orbital bombardment.
Once the three Star Destroyers were in position the High Admiral gave the order to fire.
The underbelly gun emplacements began to fire down at the planet.
The city of Baltimare was unfortunate to be caught in the orbital bombardment...
The city had been flattened, all buildings and residents were no more.
Baltimare no longer existed...
| - - - - - - - |
The Nightwing was gone, the Star Destroyer had been destroyed and the debris came falling down like meteorites.
Meanwhile, the Behemoth and the Emperor's Wrath had escaped the system with the Emperor's Wrath being in need of major repairs.
The two remaining ships were not alone though.
They were followed by two Victory Class Star Destroyers, three Arquintens Class Light Cruisers and one Interdictor Class Star Destroyer that had joined the battle late to change the odds back in the Empire's favor.
Equestria's space defense was gone, what remained of the Imperials was on the planet only.
Though some of the forces had already evacuated.
The time for the ground invasion had begun.
But the Rebellion knew it'd be difficult.
The Empire's ground presence still outnumbered and outgunned the available rebel forces but the Rebels did have the advantage of aid superiority. The only problems were that an estimated number of 12 Squadrons had made it down to the planet to escape the space battle and support the ground forces. There also was one Victory Class Star Destroyer in the Atmosphere escorted by four Arquintens class Light Cruisers, but the Imperials knew that those ships wouldn't be enough to contain the Rebel Forces.