Well at first.

Ric followed close behind Phoenix Five as they approached the star destroyer. The Victory Class was already starting to open its missile bays, and a screen of at least twenty TIEs stood between them. Aside from the three Y-wings in Ric’s squadron, they were also escorted by four X-wings. Though they were outnumbered, Ric wasn’t too worried about her chances against the TIEs. While their ships were heavily shielded, TIEs were infamous for being literal screaming mettle **** traps. It didn’t take much to take them down.

Once they came into firing range, Ric leveled her ship at one of the TIEs and opened fire with her nose gun. The TIE got several shots off before taking a direct hit to the cockpit, the round glass shattering as the blaster sheered into the vessel. Grac took down another two TIEs with the cockpit mounted gun, blasting the first one on their approaches and another as they flew past.

As they approached the V2, Ric and the other bombers opened fire on the ship before it could fire its missiles. The star destroyer’s lights flickered, and its bow began to sink as it lost power to most of it’s maneuvering thrusters. Next, the Y-wings fallowed up with their bombs, striking the command tower and the bridge. The V2 went limp and continued it’s nose dive while its command tower went up in flames. Ric could feel the shockwaves of the star destroyer’s shield generators exploding as she flew past the bridge.

Almost immediately after finishing their bombing run, another group of TIE’s streamed towards them, only to be gunned down by their X-wing escort. As remaining, the TIEs tried to brake off Grac, and the other Y-wing gunners were able to take down two more that go to close to their guns.

While Ric and her bombers were able to take down the V2 with little effort, the same couldn’t be said about the Imperil. Its hull and shields were a lot stronger than the V2 and was easily able to shake off the ion blast from Y-wings. Looking over at Phenix One’s squad as they came out from behind the Imperial, she could see smoke rising from at least three of their ships and that they were down an X-wing.

“Jack, are you alright?” Phenix Five called out to Phenix One.

“We got a few hits off, but not enough to bring it down,” Jack replied. “Dell, try to make a run on their engines.”

It was then that Ric noticed the sound of TIEs screeching towards them. “Phoenix One, I have several TIE Interceptors on your left,” one of the pilots called out.

“Red Five, take them out!” Dell ordered.

Though just as lightly armored as regular TIEs, the Intercepts were a lot faster and much harder to hit. While Jack’s Y-Wings did their best to drive the TIE’s off with their gunners, they were unable to stop them from destroying one of their bombers. Thankfully the X-wings were able to drive them off before they could do any more damage.

With the TIE’s out of the way, Ric made her way towards the Imperial’s engines. “Another easy attack run?” she heard Phenix Six call out, “Come on, Jack, give us something more challenging.”

“Cut the chatter, Yur!” said Dell sternly, “Now form up and take out those engines.”

Ric thought about adding to Yur’s comment but decided to hold it in until after the battle. Yur wasn’t the only one that noticed that Jack was sending them on easy attack runs, or at least the easier ones. Grac must have sensed what she was thinking. “It’s your first battle,” he told her, “Do you honestly think we are going to send a bunch of rookies to take down a superstar destroyer, let alone an Imperil?”

Ric grunted a little at Grac’s comment before turning back to the engines. Once they were in range, she and the other two Y-wings blasted them with their ion guns fallowed by their bombs. Several of the large engines went up in flames and singed the underbellies of the three Y-wings.

Ric cleared the smoke and the flames she spotted another group of TIE interceptor heading right for them. The Y-wings took a few hits to their hull, one bolt glazing very close to Ric’s cockpit, but they were able to pass through the squadron.

“Red Leader, I need you on those Interceptors!” Dell ordered, “They are too fast for our gunners to hit!”

“We’re on them,” Red leader replied. A few moments later, Red Leader and a two more X-wings zoomed passed Ric in pursuit of the Interceptors. However, unlike with the TIEs, the Interceptors were able to get turned around and **** the X-wings into a dog fight. They made quick work of Red Leader’s wingmen and were now pursuing him relentlessly.

“Red Five, I lost Red two and Three along with two of my engines!” Red Leader called out over the com, what is your status!”

“Red Five and Seven are down,” said a stressed male voice over the com, “Eight isn’t looking too good.”

“This is Phenix Leader,” called Jack, “We were able to make a successful run on the port side guns, but the bridge is still up. We are also getting reports of another Star Destroy on an intercept course. All ships return to the Challenger, we’ve done all we can.”

“Red Leader, I’m on my way to help,” said Red Five as he moved towards the swarm of Interceptors.”

“Stay back, Keit, these fighters are a lot better than they look!” Red Leader replied.

Looking out her window, Ric could see that Red Leader’s X-wing was on fire and currently being chased by two interceptors. Meanwhile, Keit’s ship was diving towards them. It didn’t look like he planned on listening to his commanding officer’s orders.