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But despite the painful losses scattered across the entire battle zone, the trend was clear.

There were only two points at which that trend threatened to reverse itself. The first was when the phantoms vanished, allowing the Yevethan ships to focus their fire on the real threats. The second came near the end, when the last eleven thrustships began launching their trifoil fighters—fighters that screamed toward the New Republic vessels, diving through shield gaps opened for them by the Yevethan batteries and hurling themselves against their targets as suicide missiles.

In a matter of only five minutes, half a dozen of the vessels engaging the remnant of the Yevethan fleet were either destroyed or forced to withdraw. Mandjur was among the ships that came to fill the gaps, but it was struck twice near the stern before it could launch even half of its interceptors. It began to drift, crippled and vulnerable, its engines dead and its aft shields gone.

In the moments after the twin impacts rattled the cruiser, Mallar ran to join a group of pilots, deck crew, and droids who were trying to clear a damaged E-wing from the mouth of the flight deck. Their chatter told him what was happening outside the ship and decided his course.

Ever since coming aboard Mandjur, he had been eyeing Captain Tegett’s X-wing. Painted a vivid red, it sat in a reserved tie-down slot under the broad transparencies of the flight control office. And when the debris was finally cleared and the undamaged interceptors began to move forward to launch, Mallar ran to the red X-wing instead of back to his shuttle.

When the flight operations chief cleared him to start engines instead of trying to chase him away, Mallar knew just how dire the ship’s plight was. Using the power of his ship’s signature appearance, he edged into line between two E-wings, and not long after got the green ball to launch.

“Four coming in!” Mallar heard over his cockpit comm as Mandjur fell away behind him. “This is Blue Five—I need help back here!”

Hauling the X-wing around sharply toward the cruiser’s stern, Mallar had a moment of dizziness. He heard Ackbar’s voice echoing in his thoughts. Don’t try to turn with them—use your speed, know your strengths and your limits. He saw Polneye burning before his eyes.

Thanks for the lessons, Admiral, he thought. Thanks for the chance. As Mallar thumbed the squawk button he saw an E-wing turning with him and another coming up from behind to settle on his starboard wing.

“This is Red Leader,” he said with quiet confidence. “On my way, Blue Five, with company. Take the first one—we’ll get the rest.”

Then he pushed the throttles ahead, and the fighter leaped forward with an eagerness that matched his own.

The reports that came in from the intelligence sources scattered through the outer regions of the cluster all mirrored each other: The ships that had been orbiting the destroyed colonies were gone. Asset analysis would later show that those same ships were among those that had reinforced the fleets at N’zoth, Wakiza, Z’fell, and the other large-population worlds.

The reports that came in from the task forces sent to those worlds mirrored the experience at N’zoth: The Imperial ships turned and jumped out without apparent cause or explanation, but not a single Yevethan vessel surrendered or fled. Every last thrustship had fought relentlessly, taking the fight to the Fleet as the aggressor, until it was destroyed.

A’baht had never seen the like of it in thirty years of soldiering, and it left him shaken.

“It has always been enough, in the past, to defeat the enemy,” he said to Morano in the privacy of the now-quiet situation room. “I’ve never known an enemy who forced me to utterly destroy him. By the end, I was looking for ways not to have to destroy those last few ships. If they had given me any chance to spare them, shown any hesitation, even just broken contact and fallen back—”

“They never gave us a chance,” said Morano, shaking his head. “You can’t show mercy to someone who’s going for your throat.”

“No,” A’baht said.

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