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There went their whole plan. They were relying on taking out that tower so they could proceed. Now, they were lost. Without a strict plan to follow, people were difficult to lead. "What?" Cel hissed.
"Those ships need that signal, it's gotta be coming from somewhere." Another pilot spoke.
"They're not stupid, they figured out what we were doing. They won't make the new source an easy target." Celestia spoke.
"Call of the ground invasion!" Poe barked out.
There was a pause on the comms. "Comms, people, we need comms!" Celestia urged her people to tell them what was going on and give them insight on the battle.
"The nav signal's coming from that command ship," Finn pinged the ship on everyone's screens, "that's our drop zone."
"You wanna launch a ground invasion on a Star Destroyer?" One pilot was finding this order quite questionable.
"I don't want to, but we can't take out that ship's nav system from the air. Give us cover. We gotta keep that fleet there till help arrives." Finn sounded out of breath, as if he was already readying himself to be deployed.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! You can't just call the shots. I'll only be okay with this if there's a unanimous vote with the other generals." The same female pilot--that was weary of Finn's plan--said.
"Yes! I vote yes." Poe sputtered out to not waste anymore time.
Celestia took a moment to process the plan. She recalled what Poe had told her. She needed to trust. If they were going to win, she needed to be risky. Then, she spoke. "Let's end this," Celestia growled into her mic.
"You heard the General! All Wings, cover that lander," Poe ordered.
* * *
With much haste, they deployed the troop carriers carrying the ground teams. They were brute and fast. All the pilots flying the X-Wings could do was keep the enemy fighters from targeting the ground troops at that point.
Poe and Cel felt useless flying around taking down mere fighters while Finn was risking his life on the Destroyer. Suddenly, the destroyers began powering on their thrusters. "Those thrusters are hot. How are we doing?" Poe questioned Finn, trying to constantly get info from him.
The commotion amongst the fighters had died down a bit, but that's when Cel's anxiety peaked. She knew it was the calm before the storm. Soon there would be a surge, and she had to be ready. "We're gonna blow our way in, and take out that nav tower," Finn told the play to Poe.
Cel heard blasts and explosions in the background coming from Finn's mic. She even heard BB-8's little chirping. "You let that droid get hurt, I'll have your neck, Finn," Cel warned him as she nervously looked down at the destroyer to spot Finn about to throw a bomb in the ship.
"Alright, alright," Finn replied.
Cel cruised over the destroyer and watched as the ship began to tremble once the bomb was launched inside. The tower powered down. "Nice one, Finn! Nav signal's down, but not for long," Poe announced through the comms.
Backup had yet to arrive, but, the team was still distracted enough to not worry too much just yet. Poe flew his ship right beside Cel's and shot her a worried look. He didn't want to speak through the comms and worry the others. She nodded curtly at him and gave him a reassuring look that told him, they'll come. She didn't believe it, she hadn't believed it from the start, but she couldn't tell him she told him so and get him all freaked out in the middle of a battle.
"We gotta hit them, stay alive!" Cel instructed her team as they flew directly toward the enemy fleet who now had their shields and nav tower down.
The fighters were being picked off one by one as they neared closer and closer to the ships. No one was coming. No one was coming. Dread rushed over Cel. She considered fleeing, but, regardless, she'd still get shot down out of the sky. They were unprepared and were relying on allies that were filled with fear.
Suddenly, this light energy overcame Celestia. It was a sense of good energy... of hope. On Cel's screen, various new ships began appearing on the map. Cel straightened up as she eyed the little pings on the map. Her eyes widened. She looked through her windshield and spotted hundreds, no, thousands of allied ships of all different shapes and sizes appearing behind them to fight.
Goosebumps covered Celestia's body and her cheeks went cold. There were hundreds of thousands of them. It was a beautiful sight to see. She nearly cried. When despair had fallen on them, their allies came to help. She was not only touched because they had saved them, but she was also touched because, for the first time, she could physically see who she was fighting for that entire time. For all of those people. And all of those people believed in them. In the Resistance. In the fight.
"There are more of us," She heard the deep, comforting voice of Lando himself over her com. She let out a sigh of relief and held back the happy tears from spilling over. She hadn't even said anything, but he knew exactly what to say as if he had read her mind.
"Lando fucking Calrissian, I never thought hearing those words would make me so happy," she breathed out into her mic.
"Woooohooo!" Poe exclaimed with joy. "Look at this! Cel!!" He shouted.
"I see it, Poe!" Her mouth was tearing at the edges from smiling so damn much.
"Hit those underbelly canons, every one we knock out is a world saved!" Poe wasted no time to send instruction to their new allies that had just connected to their frequencies. And with just as much haste, their allies locked onto a target and swooped toward it to blow it off the destroyers.
With each explosion heard, Cel grew more hopeful. The tides were turning against the First Order and she loved to see it. One by one the canons were taken out. With the canons, down went the destroyers... and soon the command ship was about to be taken down, too. They were going to win, they had to win. The enemies were weak, their fleet were stuck in their positions. There was nothing left for them to do. The rest was out of their control, it was all up to Rey now that Luke and Leia were gone.
