Episode IX The Legacy of the Sith

General Leia had mobilized the entire army and navy of the Resistance. Every system of the Western Reaches and the neighboring systems of the Outer Rim had given their support. Refugees from Kashyyyk and Mon Calamari had also offered help, their planets having been recently subdued by the First Order.

Shortly before the assault, almost a hundred two-man minesweepers exited hyperspace.   Their unique reinforced plastoid shell made them invisible to magnetic mines, however, they were vulnerable to any other type of attack.  Signature cloaks hid them from scans as well, and their small drone-like size helped them avoid visual detection.   

To the minesweeper crews, it was unusual that large swaths were already cleared; a detail that they recognized meant the First Order was mobilizing their forces.  The Resistance Navy could not be contacted with this detail while they sped through hyperspace, so the crews could only remove what mines they were able and wait for the impending invasion.  

In a moment, as if removing a veil, the skies above Coruscant filled with Resistance star cruisers, destroyers, and individual fighters pressing their attack into the planet. Only then, was the command informed that the First Order Navy was active.

 The First Order commanders were surprised at first, as they were readying for a battle in the Modell system, not here.  Still, they were able to compensate and ordered the star destroyers to empty laser cannons on the enemy while the snub-fighters were manned and fled from their hangar bays as if the destroyers jettisoned their trash. 

The space battle raged in green and red lines and darting snubs, but the objective of the Resistance was to drop soldiers on the ground, and their forces bore down with that desperate intent. Thousands of transports carrying soldiers made their way to the surface, escorted by squadrons of X-Wing, B-Wing, and A-Wing fighters.  Ion cannons from the capital ships fired around them to incapacitate surface anti-spacecraft defenses.  

Green TIE fire destroyed transport after transport as they descended, the First Order ships outnumbering the Resistance ten-to-one.   Each Resistance transport, that exploded in yellow bursts took fifty soldiers with it; fifty soldiers that died before even firing a single shot.  Other transports after becoming immobilized from enemy fire, drifted helplessly and created obstacles for the rest until TIE fire finished the job.

 At most, thirty percent, just over a thousand of the transports pushed through the First Order line, and those barely avoided laser fire and exploding ships. Once in the atmosphere, they were prevented from flying closer than a mile north of their desired target, the First Order Palace. The skies surrounding the palace were thick with TIEs, surface-to-air turbolasers, and First Order AT-AT's that protected the surface.

The transports had to land deep in the narrow city alleys to be protected from the surface fire, as X-Wings maneuvered through the alleys and attempted to clear the way for the transports to deploy their soldiers. The transports landed, deployed, and then rose to allow another transport into the alley. Many of the transports and soldiers were easy targets for First Order clone troopers deployed into the alleys. They gunned down Resistance soldiers before they had even exited the transports, red fire cutting into them as their door ramps dropped. Occasionally an X-Wing dove in to bomb the attacking clones, while other X-Wings were shot down, crashing into high rises, their exploding plumes erupting from the opposite side. The few contingents of men, Twi'leks, Wookiees, and other species that survived rushed down the alley toward the palace.

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Rey charged at Ben, the dark side compelling her.

Seeing that Finn had no weapon, Ben quickly grabbed Anakin's lightsaber from his hip and tossed it to Finn. "Finn, catch!"