Luke and Leia - Twins [1]

21: Battle

Even from a far distance the Death Star looked enormous, and Luke felt his stomach doing somersaults as he saw it. So he looked down at his cockpit, feeling slightly better when he was reminded of the controls that were only slightly different from ones he was used to.

"Lock S-foils in attack position." Red Leader commanded, and Luke, like the other pilots around him, popped open the wings of his fighter to have it make the X shape it was appropriately named after.

"We're passing through their magnetic field." Their leader informed, and Luke adjusted his controls as he felt the subtle shift. "Hold tight."

The ship started to be battered with the Death Star's long range towers, and Luke raised his deflector shields seconds before Red Leader told them to do so. The flashing green would be enough to make anyone feel overwhelmed, as Wedge proved in the awe of his voice. "Look at the size of that thing!" He exclaimed, and Luke could detect fear in his voice.

"Cut the chatter, Red Two." Red Leader barked. "Accelerate to attack speed, this is it boys!l

Luke narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip as his X-Wing sped up substantially, and he realized with a trace of a smile that this ship really was similar to his old T-16. Maybe he wasn't completely out of his element after all.

With a newfound rush of confidence he tested his controls a bit, twirling a bit and speeding up and slowing down to see how responsive the ship was to an abrupt change. He saw other pilots do the same, and out of the corner of his eye he saw the Y-Wing squadron come into formation with them for awhile as they drew closer.

"Red Leader, this is Gold Leader."

"I copy, Gold Leader." Luke's leader acknowledged the Y-Wings, and Luke sighed and steadied himself. This was really about to happen.

"We're starting for the target shaft now." Gold Leader declared, and the two fighter groups diverged as the X-Wings moved to draw the station's fire away from the Y-Wings. Luke's blue eyes grew wider and wider until they'd practically reached the surface of the Death Star, and he blew out a long, shaky breath as he dove with the rest of them.

"Heavy fire, boss!" Wedge exclaimed over the headsets, and Luke couldn't agree more. "Twenty degrees."

"I see it, stay low." Red Leader ordered, and the X-Wings broke formation and skimmed across the Death Star. Luke could see Wedge near him at the beginning but he soon dove off as well. Finally, it was up to him.

Luke felt like he was falling as his X-Wing did a drastic nosedive down onto the surface of the space station. "This is Red Five, I'm going in!"

He shot at a tower in front of him, and watched in satisfaction as it exploded in front of him. But that satisfaction immediately faded, replaced by terror when he realized he wasn't going to be able to evade the fireball that followed.

"Luke, pull up!" Biggs exclaimed anxiously, and Luke sucked in a large breath before squeezing his eyes shut and pulling up. He let out the breath as he realized his controls were still all intact afterwards. "Are you alright?"

"I got a little cooked but I'm okay." Luke responded, still a bit breathless. That was way too close for comfort.

The TIEs started to fly out at this point, and Luke knew he'd really have to stay focused now. He narrowed his eyes and jolted his hand clenching the stick to the side, twirling past one TIE and leading it away. The TIE followed Luke, and his only goal for the moment was to evade until he could loop around and get the ship in his sights.

Luke felt his head fly back against the seat as he sped up so abruptly that even Artoo was taken aback, letting out a barrage of indignant beeps and whistles. But Luke ignored him, instead focusing on cutting his speed and swerving to the side so the TIE would zoom right past him.