//------------------------------//
// Loose Ends 
// Story: The Dragon and the Force 
// by FenrisianBrony 
//------------------------------//

	Spike formed up on Solaris’s right side, holding his fighter in position as they moved forward, the republic pilots moving behind the two Jedi. As Spike watched, he saw the Eagle shoot out of the hanger, joining with a group of ships and shooting forward.

Looking out of his cockpit, Spike saw that there were a lot more ships here that seemed to be combat ready than they had originally thought, and even now ships were turning to face the republic battlefleet. Swarms of fighters were pouring out of the space station, and Spike knew that this fight was going to be brutal, much more so than their escape.

“Spike, stay tight on my wing and follow me. We’ll fly through the fighters and split them up.” Solaris ordered over the comm.

“Affirmative master.” Spike nodded, before gunning the engine in tandem with Solaris.

Spike breathed in sharply as the enemy fighters closed in, a few shots coming dangerously close to his ship. His heart beat intensified as terror gripped him, and for a moment, he seriously considered turning and fleeing. Then the fighters were on him.

Spike kept close to his master as the enemy formation split apart, firing wildly as they sped past each other. Spike saw at least one republic ship get hit, and saw the pilot struggling to regain control, before he smashed into a slaver fighter, destroying both of them in an all-consuming fireball, which was quickly snuffed out by the void of space.

“Spike, return fire.” Solaris grunted over the sound of her own weapons blazing.

“I’m sorry.” Spike whispered to himself, before pulling the trigger on the wheel, spitting forth a gout of lasers.

One of the beams struck a craft, causing it to falter, but before anything could finish it off, the two groups were past each other. Banking hard, Spike followed Solaris, slamming himself back into his seat as he came upon the fighter’s rear. Solaris opened fire, catching them unaware, and after a moment’s hesitation, Spike fired as well. The two laser cannons on either side of his cockpit spat death as he positioned his craft for a better firing position, hitting another craft square in the engines. The fighter began spinning, and Spike fascinated at the morbid spectacle. That was before the fighter exploded, and Spike was instantly disgusted by himself.

“Spike, corvette coming up on your six, come about and avoid its fire.” Solaris ordered, before arcing upwards with her ship, looping over Spikes head in his cockpit.

Following his masters lead, Spike spun the ship in a loop, getting another look at the battle. The republic battleships had already moved into position, and were pounding the space station with lasers, giving as good as they got from the cityscapes defences. The other ships however were not doing so well, and the republic battle line had been broken up, causing each ship to fight numerous one on one duels as opposed to assisting each other to take down single targets.

As Spike watched, a ship took a direct hit on its flickering shields, and began to break apart, the explosions being held in an magnified by the faltering shield that had once protected it, until finally it to gave out, and the ship became nothing more than an airless hulk floating in space.

“Spike! How’s the uplink coming?” Solaris yelled over the comm.

Glancing down, Spike looked at the little chip stuck into his cockpits control panel, checking the little read-out beneath it. “Two minutes!”

“Make it go faster! We’re getting torn apart.” Solaris grunted, before Spike watched a fighter catch onto her tail, following her as she attempted to shake them off.

“Master, one on your tail.” Spike said, rolling his craft to behind the second fighter, trying to get a lock.

Spike twisted his craft through the void, trying in vain to keep the fighter in his cross hair long enough to get a shot off, even as the fighter fired at his master. Solaris avoided the shot, rolling so she was flying completely inverted, before shooting away below her pursuer.

Diving, Spike followed the fighter as it levelled out, heading towards the planet thousands of kilometres away.

“Got a lock!” Spike yelled triumphantly over the radio.

“Push the damn button Spike!” Solaris yelled.

With a sigh, Spike thumbed the second trigger on his joystick, and a small missile spat out from underneath his craft, arcing towards the craft, before exploding and taking the unfortunate pilot with it.

“Good. How’s the upload coming?” Solaris asked.

Looking down quickly, Spike saw that the panel beneath the chip had gone green. “It’s green, systems nominal and checked out.” Spike replied quickly.

“What are you waiting for?” Solaris asked, banking her ship and avoiding another flurry of shots, Spike doing the same. “Take their guns off line.”

With a nod, more to himself than the others, Spike flipped a few switches, before flipping a final switch.

The result was instantaneous, and as Spike watched, the laser fire from the station cut out, leaving the struggling battleships unopposed. Taking advantage of the new opening, the battleships renewed their fire, now able to divert shield power to the weapons, as no other ship could hope to hurt the behemoths.

Spikes mission on board the space station had been simple, once he had freed himself, he had headed through the air ducts and corridors of the station, avoiding detection before finally reaching the fire control centre. With some help from Spike, the guards had decided it was the perfect time for a nap, and Spike had begun the process of uploading a virus into the system. 

Unfortunately, the alarm had sounded before he could finish the upload, but he had made the link, and now it was just a matter of time before it was uploaded wirelessly. It would have been quicker with a hard link, but if he had left it then it would never had gotten activated. None of that mattered now though, as more fighters locked onto his position, separating him from his master, and forcing him to run.

Spike suddenly found himself in the midst of a pitched battle between fighters, all swarming above and around him, trying to catch their prey amongst the swarm of targets. Even in the few seconds Spike was watching, he saw a fighter explode in a bright flash of light, and silently hoped that it was not a republic ship.

Gripping his controls hard, Spike flew directly into the mass of fighters, searching for some way he could help. Within seconds, a fighter was on him.

“Blast. Master?” He called out, but he got nothing in response, there was no help coming for him.

His pursuer was good, it’s hail of shots only just missing Spike as he just managed to dodge out the way, cursing that he hadn’t spent more time learning how to fly this thing like his master. Twice, Spike closed his eyes while executing a move, sure that he was going to be hit and that that was it, before he opened them again to find that by some miracle he had survived. 

Cursing, Spike tried to shake the fighter, but every time he made a move, it was just behind him, never managing to get a good shot off, but given time Spike was sure his luck would run out. Banking towards a duelling pair of ships, Spike was forced to duck underneath the pair as a hail of shots lashed out towards him. Pulling back hard, Spike shot up between the two ships, glad that their anti-fighter defences were more occupied with the larger vessel than him, and managed to buy himself some time from his pursuer. 

Looping around, Spike watched as the confused ship sped past him, slowing a couple of kilometres away before turning back to get back towards the battle. Now however, Spike was on his tail. 

It was not easy following a target in space where they could go any way they wanted to, and quickly reach high speeds or slow to a crawl. Using the force as his ally though, like Solaris had taught him, Spike managed to keep on the ships tail, keeping himself on target. However, actually hitting the craft was going to be a different matter entirely, and when Spike began to fire, his shots would always miss by hundreds of meters. It was like trying to catch a parasprite in his claws with his eyes closed.

Spike grunted in frustration as his quarry flew past another republic ship, blasting it apart without even slowing. Whoever this guy was, he was damn good, and couldn’t be left unchecked. As he watched, his enemy loop, drop and corkscrew through space, firing off the odd shot at targets, and either outright destroying targets or simply crippling them for others to destroy. Growling, Spike desperately tried to figure out if there was any pattern he could anticipate to allow him to take this guy out. He hated the idea of having to destroy the fighter, but its pilot had already killed at least ten others in the short time Spike had been chasing him. He couldn’t be let off.

With a start and a grin, Spike finally found something tangible that he could work with.  Every time the fighter finished corkscrew, he would always instantly follow up with a loop to the right, before continuing. All Spike had to do was wait. With a snarl, Spike pulled the trigger once, spitting a single unguided missile out into space.

The fighter just pulled out of a corkscrew, and just as Spike had predicted, took a loop to the right. There was a blinding flash which filled Spikes vision for a second. When he could see again, only shattered fragments of the fighter remained, slowly spinning as they drifted lifelessly in space.

Disgusted with the feeling of satisfaction he felt, Spike caught sight of his master, and flew down beside her, forming up on her left side. Suddenly, a massive explosion lit up the void, and Spike pulled his ship around to look at the space station, or rather, what was left of it.

Without its guns, the two battleships had moved in closer, pounding it relentlessly as its shields began to fail, before cutting out entirely, allowing the battleships to rain death down upon its surface. Spike hoped that there were no slaves on board, he didn’t want any innocents to die.

As soon the station broke apart, it was like a switch had been flipped inside the heads of their enemies. No more were they fighting tooth and nail against the republic, now the fighters were fleeing back to their mother ships, landing as the ships themselves tried to break off from combat. Without the station occupying their guns, the battleships turned and began to harry the smaller ships with long range bracket fire.

Their spirits broken, the ships began to jump to hyperspace, fleeing from the losing battle, until only a single ship remained.

Its engines were shorted out, and it was burning in several places. The guns however, which had been firing not a moment ago, had ceased. A second later, Spike heard a crackle in his radio headset.

“This is captain Jarcob of the Resolute, issuing a general call to all forces in the area. All forces under the patronage of Lady Kalia, disengage and stand down. I repeat, all forces…stand down.”

The captain seemed genuinely upset by the order, and although not all the fighters gave up, some wishing to fight to the very last, it had the desired effect, and the majority of the craft stopped fireing, retreating to try and land in the damaged ship.

“Spike?” Came the voice of Solaris through the comm system.

“Yes master?” Spike replied wearily.

“Meet me on board the flagship. We have a lot to discuss.” She said bluntly.

As soon as she finished speaking, she turned her fighter and sped back towards one of the battleships. Spike didn’t know how she told the two apart, but decided not to question it, as he slowly followed his master back to the ship. If this was how space battles usually went, Spike could not see why his master loved them so much.