Missions - Battle Report of Mission 1

Mission 1 – Escort

Biggs just couldn’t believe it. The whole fleet was gone – annihilated by Imp forces that came from nowhere but definitively knew what they were doing. There was no questioning: someone had leaked their flight plan. There was no other explanation for such a perfect ambush. The Imperials hadn’t even needed an Interdictor cruiser, they just lay down their ambush at the worst moment, just as they were near enough from planet Dagobah. The senator’s corvette never got a chance to get away from the planet mass to reach a hyperspace vector.
Still, overwhelmed by the Imp forces, they had hold their ground.
The price had been too high for Biggs to consider; out of the two X-wing squadrons and the fully manned corvette, only Biggs’ and Luke’s X-wing remained. But the senator was safe, tucked in a damaged shuttle. And, at least, they got rid of all the attackers…
- “Biggs, I got 3 eyeballs coming in at full speed!”

Luke was right, they were still not done here. Three dots just appeared on Biggs’ display. Three TIE fighters wouldn’t usually be a worry for Luke and him, but they needed to keep the senator shuttle safe, which would be tricky.
- “I see them, Luke. I’ll play babysitter for the senator’s shuttle while you go for them. You just need to buy us enough time to reach hyperspace speed.
- You’ve got it”. And Luke was already quitting their formation to rush ahead of the danger.

Biggs couldn’t do anything else but watch. Luke’s X-wing and the nearest Tie Fighter were already trading fire but with no damage done. The eyeball seemed to be juking and evading like mad and, even with the help of the Force, Luke didn’t manage to put some damage in.
- Be careful Biggs. Those are not your standard eyeballs. They’re more agile than anything I’ve seen before!” Great, exactly what they needed!
But Biggs didn’t have time to give it more thought: the Ties were already on them and gunning for the senator’s shuttle. While Luke was taking the flank to put some damage on one of the eyeball, Biggs was busy trying to put his X-wing between the sight of the eyeballs and their prize.

Luke finally managed to get a hit on the first Tie, but didn’t kill it outright. And Biggs had to sustain fire from two eyeballs, the last one managed to get through him and get a hit on the shuttle’s shields. But just after an evasive manoeuver, Biggs got his sight on the Tie fighter that Luke had already damaged and threw all he could, hitting several times with his quad lasers. The eyeball finally shattered in a gratifying explosion.

- Yeah! I got him, Luke. Two to go!
- Yes. No. Wait a minute.” But Biggs didn’t need Luke’s warning, his droid was already alerting him about a new Tie fighter, still at the limit of his scanner, but converging at full speed to their position.
- I’m staying with the shuttle”, Biggs shouted on their private channel. “And I’ll deal with the newcomer. You keep harassing the others”.
Before he even had time to finish speaking, Luke had barrel-rolled in position to flank the remaining two eyeballs and Biggs only had to follow the slow pace of the shuttle… and make himself the biggest target in the area…

While Luke managed to hit his target, the eyeball refused to die on the spot and was still gunning for Biggs. Only one Tie managed to take a shot on the shuttle, to no avail. The others all went for Biggs.
The shields took most of the blunt, but Biggs was shaken by an explosion on his left side. His droid immediately launched a status check. Everything was still operational, but the X-wing wouldn’t be able to withstand more damage.
Biggs, reduced the power for his engine while still keeping up with the shuttle and asked his droid to boost his shields to max power. It was far from nominal, but it would give him at least some amount of protection.

- Luke! I need some support here, I’ve got two eyeballs tailing me and the other one is gunning for the senator!
- I’m on it.” Luke's answer was, as always, calm and detached. But Biggs could still hear the strain his friend was under in his voice, and couldn’t help marvel at the piloting skill he was displaying. Barrel-rolling back and boosting ahead in the same move, Luke put himself just behind the two eyeballs.
But they were definitively not facing novices. Luke’s fire went wild, his lasers illuminating the eyeball, without touching it.
Meanwhile, Biggs lost his shields again, but managed to evade the worst. The senator’s shuttle was also getting hammered. Its shields were still holding out, but for how long?

It now felt to Biggs like he was part of a strange convoy. The shuttle was leading, with Biggs just after, trying to give it as best protection as he could, with all the eyeballs gunning for him and Luke chasing them.

Biggs felt two successive explosions. The first one was good news: one of the eyeball just behind him was badly hit by Luke’s lasers, but was not out of the fight yet! The second explosion was really bad news. His droid had just been hit and died in a screeching noise. Without his droid, there was no way Biggs would be able to get anything out of his already spent shields. The situation looked more and more grim.

At last, Luke managed to put a direct hit on his target and the eyeball closest to Biggs exploded in a ball of flames that felt too close for comfort.
Nearly at the same time, the other two eyeballs got theirs lasers converging on Biggs’ X-wing. There was nothing else for him to do but to eject before his X-Wing exploded. In his space suit, Biggs couldn’t influence the combat one way or another, but he got the satisfaction to see the shuttle entering hyperspace!
- “Hey Luke!” he pleaded, “when you’re done with the remaining eyeballs, you won’t forget to ask for a rescue?!”