High above Vontor, the Believer strike craft were closing in on the shipyards. The Bothan leader of Vornskr Squadron gave his orders quickly and concisely. “Lock S-foils in attack position, screen formation around the bombers.”

Immediately, the X-wings began to weave around the bomber formation in a seemingly random fashion, though they did not appear disorganized in the slightest. It made them more difficult to target as they protected their charges. Other Believer interceptors flew in formation farther out, but the Vornskr squadron was at the core of their attack. 

One of the X-wing pilots was a young Human woman who gave a chuckle as she looked out of the window of her cockpit. “Never would have thought I’d see the day we’d be escorting TIEs.” She said through her squadron’s comms. 

[i]”Tell me about it.”[/i] A Rodian voice answered back in Huttese, coming from one of the X-wings at the back of their formation. 

The Bothan’s voice came in quickly, and firmly. “Clear this channel. Turrets ahead, bearing 324. Let’s thin them out.” 

The squadron sprang into action, boosting ahead of the bombers while keeping up their weaving movements. Though, they had no issue coordinating volleys of laser fire onto the point-defense systems in their path. Even with a well-executed attack, they could not destroy them all, but they could reduce the pressure the bombers would face. They kept moving enough to make it difficult for the shipyard defenses to focus down one target, and the shots that did hit were not immediately fatal. For this mission in particular, the X-wings had been refitted to replace their hyperdrives with stronger deflector shields to allow them to be more aggressive in their attack. 

Even with the best plan they could execute, the Believers could not make their approach without losses. The bombers were armored, but the station turrets still took out two, and damaged one enough that it was forced to pull out of the attack run. The other interceptor squadrons took a few losses, but they were not the focus of the Cartel forces at the moment. 

The Bothan’s voice was loud and commanding over their radios. “Get the heat off those bombers! We won’t be able to punch through the station’s armor without them. We can’t afford to lose too many.”

“And, you know, the people inside them.” The Human woman added. 

“Vornskr 3, clear the channel.” He replied tersely. 

The X-wings, along with the other interceptors, continued to clear the way ahead of the bombers as best as they could, but were soon surprised with one of the bombers near the rear suddenly exploding. As they had flown past one of the hangers towards their target, a Cartel fighter squadron that had not previously launched with the rest of the fleet flew out behind them and immediately began to target their most vital ships. 

“Behind us! Peel back, now!” The Bothan ordered, and in impressively short order, the entirety of Vornskr squadron was pulling sharp turns to meet the fighters head-on. Their ability to focus fire was almost second nature. Three of the X-wings concentrated fire on the closest fighter tailing the bombers, and two targeted the one just behind it. The Cartel squadron were slow, but tough Rihkxyrk class fighters, but the concentrated fire from multiple X-wings tore them apart all the same. The remaining three fighters in the Cartel squadron had only a few seconds to react as the X-wings flew past them, and the decision they made was to keep their focus on the bombers. Despite the armor on the TIE bombers, the heavily armed Cartel fighters had more than enough firepower to take down two more before the X-wings could turn back and get on their tail. However, once in that position, they were in trouble. They attempted to break off and fly around the shipyards to cover their retreat, but the X-wings could easily out-turn them, and Vornskr squadron’s pilots were easily skilled enough to take advantage of the opportunity. The remainder of the Cartel squadron were either severely damaged, or destroyed outright. 

The surviving bombers came up on their target in short order, and any remaining point-defense turrets were not enough to stop them from releasing their payload. As they flew over, a veritable rain of proton torpedoes bombarded their target: the fuel storage. For obvious reasons, it was one of the more armored parts of the shipyards, but that was why they were using dedicated bombers to punch through the hardpoint. There was a light show of fiery explosions, melting through the hull and sending pieces flying off into space. All of the Believer ships had pulled away from the station as fast as their engines would take them, but despite everything they had hit the station with, there was no grand explosion chasing them. They had punched through most of the hull and started more than a few fires, but there was no chain reaction with the fuel itself. 

As he looked back out of his cockpit, there was a grimace across the Bothan’s face. “Damn, no detonation. We lost too many bombers, we’ll have to pull out.” 

The Rodian’s green skin seemed to almost glow orange as he looked out at the fires. [i]”Are you sure? Look at that damage, the fires. It wouldn’t take much to finish it off.”[/i]

Before the Bothan could even say a word, the Human woman’s X-wing was already diving down towards the station. “On it.” She said before promptly lowering the volume of her own headset. 

“Vornskr 3, break off! It’s too dangerous!” The Bothan ordered, which was wholly ignored. Though, he did not expect her to listen, in truth. “Sithspit, just…give her cover.” 

Some of the faster moving interceptors from the Cartel’s main defense fleet were beginning to reach the station again, but the rest of Vornskr squadron, and the other Believer interceptors, were quick to run interference as Vornskr 3 skimmed along just a few meters above the shipyard’s hull towards the breach, evading blaster turrets and obstacles alike. She kept evasive as her targeting computer made the calculations to lock the target, then, just as she skimmed through the flames above the breach, the craft released two proton torpedoes and pulled up with the tightest turn that an X-wing could manage. 

The chain reaction was immediate, and its explosion far larger than the initial bombing run. A large chunk of the shipyards broke off from the detonation itself, and the explosions continued on down the fuel lines for a time before they could finally be contained. There were enough safety features built into the station to at least prevent it from being destroyed entirely by such an attack, but it still caused severe damage. 

For Vornskr 3, her X-wing was engulfed by the flames of the explosion as the rest of the squadron watched on, the seconds passing like hours. After a few, tense moments, her X-wing emerged from the cloud, charred, but intact. 

“Vornskr 3, you are an insubordinate fool and you’re going to get yourself killed.” The Bothan stated in an almost matter-of-fact tone. “But we have a mission to complete. One more objective. Have you taken any damage, or do we need to get you back to the carrier?”

The Human woman took a look down at the blinking warning lights on her display panels, then muted herself as she gave a glance backwards. “R4, you can get those deflectors back up again soon, right?” The astromech, already dealing with putting out fires and rerouting electronics, let out a few loud beeps that conveyed something close to “absolutely not.” 

The Human let out a hum, then flipped back on her radio. “I’m good, we can see it through.” She replied, prompting immediate, angered beeps from her astromech. “Ah, don’t worry bud, I have faith in you.”