"Bravo two, this is Bravo One. Tighten up the formation. We are now entering the atmosphere". ordered Bravo One, also known as Bravo Leader.

"Roger that, Bravo Leader." reported Bravo two as he tightened in close to his wingman.

"Any sign of hostiles yet, Bravo Leader?" asked Fire One. That would be the Illustrious Cruiser that had accompanied them into the system.

"As of right now, we are negative for bogeys and bandits. We have so far encountered three commercial freighters, all outbound, and no harm to our operation, over." reported Bravo Leader.

"Very well then, Bravo Leader. Proceed with your mission." ordered Fire One.

"Copy that, HQ. Beginning Dive." replied Bravo One.

Bravo One and Two both began a steep dive in their modified TIE Scimitars, angling for a domed building just outside of a major enemy military base. The enemy was at their lowest state of readiness, and it would cost them dearly, as they had just now detected the approach of the TIE Scimitars. But it was far too late.

"Release one. Release two. Two, repeat Two away." said Bravo Leader as he released two concussion warheads modified with deep penetration equipment, and pulled away.

"Release one. Release two. Two, repeat two away." repeated Bravo Two as he also released two concussion warheads similary modified, and pulled away.

Four bright flashes lit up the plateu a moment later, followed by one larger explosion, then silence. Bravo Leader re-oriented his bomber to where he could see what was left of the building, a Planeterey Ion Cannon. Nothing but smoldering wreckage, including the somewhat recognizable but badly bent and useless barrel of the cannon. Moments later, Bravo Leader made his report.

"This is Bravo Leader, calling Fire One. Two Scimitars outbound. Enemy target destroyed." reported Bravo Leader.

"Nice work, Bravo Leader. Bravo Three and Four, begin your dives, now!" ordered Fire One.

As Bravo Leader began his climb with his wingmate back out of the atmosphere, he sighted the shapes of Bravo's Three and Four's Scimitars as they dived into the atmosphere, streaking for their targets with deadly accuracy. Their target was the military base, which even now was preparing their inter-planetery missiles for a strike on the now detected capital ships of the Imperial fleet. The silo doors were just opening, as the Scimitars screamed in.

"Release one. Release two. Two, repeat two away." said Bravo Three as he released two proton bombs and pulled up and away.

"Release one. Release two. Two, repeat two away." said Bravo Four as he released two proton bombs, and pulled up and away.

Four proton bombs smacked into the silos, three going through the opened silo doors, to detonate among the missiles themselves. Four loud reports were immediatly heard, along with first three more explosions, and then twelve, and finally, twenty five were heard. All of the enemy missiles had been destroyed on the ground. In addition, the fourth proton bomb had landed a little off target, but it was still a good shot, for it landed amongst a group of enemy hovertanks, parked outside the main depot, which immediatly detonated, causing one big secondary explosion, and destroying all twenty five of the base's complement of tanks.

Having seen the detonation and the resulting carnage, Bravo Three and Bravo Four made their way out of the atmosphere, and reported their success to Fire One.

Then it was the turns of Bravo Five and Six, who were to bomb a Military Spaceport.........

Ten minutes later, and fifteen after the attacks had begun, it was over for this part of the operation. One squadron of TIE Scimitars, twelve bombers, had been deployed from the Illustrious Cruiser Inflackable, and had attacked the six most important military installations on the planet's suface. As well as crippling the enemy's ability to shoot down the capital ships, starfighters, and eventual landing shuttles of the fleet, they had reduced their military by twenty five percent, destroy fifty hovertanks, and killing fifty thousand enemy infantry. But it was known that this operation would attract the attention of local worlds, who had a defense treaty set up with the planet that the Imperials were laying into. Within moments, spies placed weeks earlier on those worlds reported numerous units of starfighters, and captial ships forming up, and preparing to head out.

Sometime later, the fleet arrived over the world the Imperials were laying siege to. It consisted, in differental waves, of three Defender class Star Destroyers, ten Escort type frigates, and fifteen picket vessels. Supporting them were as many as one hundred forty four starfighters, totalling twelve squadrons in all. Arrayed against them was the rest of the Fire squadron. Fire two, which was another Illustrious class Cruiser, Fire's Three and Four, both Strike class cruisers, and finally, Fire Five, an Imperial Duece class Star Destroyer. The ship's were fully equipped with starfighters, and presented seven squadrons of TIE Defenders against the enemy forces. The two fleet's jockeyed for battle, the former not realising that the latter basically already had them defeated.........

Meanwhile, Fire One was readying the shuttles needed to land the beachead force on the surface of the planet, and readying the one squadron of Starfighters that would be needed to escort them in, to assault the planet of Almar........

The Illustrious cruiser Inflackable leaned to starboard, allowing the shuttles within the cruiser to slip out unnoticed and protected from any enemy fighters. Right now a detachment of thirty six fighters from the main enemy fleet, consisting of twenty four headhunters backed up by twelve sturdy and old, but slow as heck, Y-wing starfighters. The cruiser charged up it's shields, and readied it's weapons to face the fighters. Already the turbolaser batteries were firing ranged bursts that exploded near the starfighters. The cruiser readied it's missiles for launch against the starfighters. Then, as the small convoy of shuttles with their fighter escort banked away from the cruiser, and towards the planet, the headhunters broke course with their intercept with the cruiser, and headed towards the fighter escorted convoy. The Y-wings kept on coming towards the cruiser. The Y-wings fired their proton torpedoes in one large volley at the cruiser, twenty four torpedoes in all coming at the cruiser. The cruiser also fired, reutrning their twenty four with twenty four of it's own proton torpedoes, two per a starfighter. The cruiser's flechette launchers then went to work, bursting chaff clouds, and fields of particles, and debris. Some torpedoes deviated from their course and exploded, taking other torpedoes with them. In the end, twelve torpedoes survived to slam into the cruiser's shields, damaging them by forty percent. The Y-wings then tried to evade, but most were too slow to do so. Eleven of the Y-wings were destroyed, and the last one was badly damaged. Precise gunnery from a turbolaser battery finished it off. Finally, power was rerouted from the garbage, and other non-essiental systems and into the shields, quickly reinforcing them to full power.

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The twenty four Headhunters approached the shuttles. The twelve TIE Defenders broke off from the main formation. They came in on an attack vector to hit the Headhunters with missiles. The Headhunters also armed their missiles and took aim at the advancing TIEs. The Defenders fired, and so did the Headhunters. Then both formations fired laser cannons for a brief second before deploying whatever countermeasures they had on hand, and breaking down and away. Three TIE Defenders were struck by one missile apiece, and lost their shields. Ten Headhunters were struck by missiles, with four being destroyed, and five others being badly damaged and forced to withdraw, leaving one without shields. A dogfight then ensued, in which the Defenders superority in firepower, speed, and manueverability gave them a vast edge against the headhunters. Four Headhunters were quickly destroyed for the loss of no Defenders. The remaining Headhunters then broke up into two groups. Nine Headhunters went for the shuttles, while the other two kept dogfighting. The latter two were quickly destroyed, but not before they gave their comrades the time needed to begin their assault on the Imperial shuttles. But as they learned, the shuttles weren't exactly helpless. Thier laser cannons opened up in a massed volley, taking down two Headhunters on their first pass. The other Headhunters looped around the shuttles and came up from behind, preparing to fire linked missiles at them that would surely spell the doom of a few of the shuttles. Had not the Headhunters forgetting about something important, that is. And that was the TIE Defenders, rapidly coming up from behind. The Headhunters, flying straight for thier locks, were sitting ducks for the Defenders. All seven remaining Headhunters were destroyed in one pass. With just a little shield damage to a few of the shuttles, the Defenders formed up once more, and escorted the shuttles towards the planet.

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In the meantime, Bravo flight was coming back to the cruiser Inflackable in order to reload, and rearm. They were cleared to land in the bay of the cruiser two at a time. Bravo One was the last one to set down in the hangar bay. After docking, the Scimitar Assault Bombers were quickly reloaded. But the pilots were quickly suprised to see proton torpedoes being reloaded instead of more proton bombs. The reason became apparent a moment later as the commander of the cruiser came over their comm channels, and broadcasted a message to them, explaining that they were needed to combat the enemy fleet that had come into the system. The Inflackable is joining in the fight, and the Strike Cruiser Havoc will replace her in assisting and coordinating the ground assault teams and starfighters. Within a short period of time, the bombers were ready to take off, but the order wasn't given quite yet. The commander of the cruiser wanted to wait until the enemy fighters were beaten and scattered until he gave the order for his bombers to be launched.

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The enemy fleet was now within twenty five kilometers of the Imperial fleet. As they approached, starfighters dispatched by both sides were already mixing it up, explosions signaling the deaths of brave pilots as the two fleets drew ever nearer......

The starfighters continued their valiant effort against one another. In the middle of it all were three veteran Imperial squadrons, called squadrons Azure, Blade, and Crimson. They were mixing it up with four squadrons of headhunters, and one modern squadron of X-wings, all flying as though they were at least at the novice level of pilots, if not higher.

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"Blade Lead, this is Blade two, I show four bandits inbound on approach vector with us." reported Blade two.

"Right. Blade Three, Blade Four, execute Mini-Marg manuever.......now." ordered Blade Lead.

Blade three and four then split up, and came in on an approach vector of opposite sides to the incoming flight of fighters, four headhunters. It was a classic Marg Sabl manuever, called a Mini-Marg by Blade Leader because it was only executed by two fighters. Blades three and four opened up with missiles first, firing four, then following up with fullisades of laser and ion cannon fire. One headhunter was hit with three missiles, exploding violently. Two more headhunters were damaged by the laser and ion cannon fire as Blade Three and four finished up their manuever. Then Blade one and two opened fire on the approaching headhunters, detonating one, the undamaged one, with two concussion missiles, and then finishing off the other two damaged ones with more laser and ion cannon fire. The flight group of four TIE Defenders then formed up, and looked around for more prey to be had. They couldn't find any, so they headed off towards one of the incoming capital warships. Since the Destroyer, and cruisers would be gunning for the larger Defender class Star Destroyers, they chose instead to go for one of the smaller ships. The escort carriers would pose no threat, since they had already launched their full complement of fighters, and bombers, and were tagged targets of opportunity as a result. This left the picket vessels. Bringing up his sensors, Blade one identified one picket ship, an older IPV-2 systems patrol craft, and selected that as the primary target.

"Blades two, three, and four, the following picket ship is our primary target. Switch to missiles, linked pair, and wait for my order to fire." ordered Blade one.

The range steadily scrolled down until it reached three kilometers, from which the picket ship took notice of them, and swung two of it's turbolasers around to fire at them.

"Blades, fire!" ordered Blade one.

"Blade one, one missile, two missiles away!" reported Blade one to Command.

"Blade two, one missile, two missiles away!" reported Blade two to Command.

"Blade three, one missile, two missiles away!" reported Blade Three to Command.

"Blade four, one missile, two missiles away!" reported Blade Four to Command.

Eight concussion missiles streaked in on the Inter Planterey Vehicle Patrol Craft type two, and detonated against it's shields. A blinking light drew Blade one's eyes down to his screen. First off, the ship had been identified as the Ota IV, useless information that would be filed away for intelligence. The second was that the missiles had detonated, and the picket ship's shields were down, with two missiles having gotten through, and destroying it's shield generators.

"Blade flight one, let's finish it. Blades three and four, target and eliminate enemy weaponry. Blade two, on me. Let's target bridge, and engines." ordered Blade one.

Blade three and four streaked in towards the enemy weaponry, a turbolaser turret on the top, and on the bottom, and fired their linked laser and ion cannons, causing both weapons to either explode, and/or melt into slag. With that done both ships winged away and awaited further orders as Blades one and two streaked in, and destroyed the bridge in a series of laser blasts. Looping around, they then targeted the engines with their ion cannons, stopping the craft dead in space. Blade one then recieved orders from Command, ordering them away from the picket ship. It would be captured later and it's crew interrogated. The four TIE Defenders of Blade flight one were then ordered back to the Decimator, to be refueled, and re-armed.....

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Blade five streaked around in a tight loop as the X-wing turned on it's axis in order to follow him. He streaked through the debris cloud that once was Blade six, having his shields whittled down by constant laser fire, and then having a proton torpedo finish him off. The X-wing that had fired the killing shot was now on his tail, and was clearly a veteran pilot. It had started out as an engagement between a flight of four X-wing starfighters, and four TIE Defenders of Blade flight two. On the first pass, one X-wing had been vaped by a trio of missiles. Now, with Blade six gone, it was back down to even odds, three on three. Blade five grimaced as the X-wing came at him head to head. At optimal range, they each fired their complement of four laser cannons at each other. Blade five them smiled. Now it was time for the TIE Defender's superiority to come into play. He trigged several blasts from the ion cannons, and a scythe of blue fire washed over the X-wing. Breaking apart, Blade five noticed that the X-wing was having difficulty manuevering. He whipped quickly around, and settled in on the X-wing's tail. A few blasts of laser fire broke apart the X-wing's reinforced stern shields, and then the TIE Defender fired a concussion missile that quickly detonated against the X-wing's exposed rear, blasting apart the S-foils, and engines, and destroying the fighter quickly and utterly. With Blade six avenged, Blade five turned around to check on the progress of his comrades.

Blade seven and Blade eight were going head to head with each other, an X-wing on both of their tails. Blade five frowned at first, then smiled as he realized what his men were up to. Blade seven and Blade eight both fired linked concussion missiles at each other, without acquiring a targeting lock, and then both dove as they crossed each other's paths. The missiles streaked by, missing each other by mere meters, and slammed into both of the X-wings. The X-wings began to break apart, and then exploded as they slammed into one another. With that flight eliminated, Blade flight two began to search for more targets.....

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Blade nine, ten, and twelve, having eliminated two groups of six X-wings a piece with a cost of only Blade eleven, headed in towards the enemy picket ship. It was a Corellian Engineering Corporations Gunship, a very formidable enemy indeed. Blade nine was the leader of Blade flight group three, and as they approached the gunship, he began to issue orders.

"Okay people, here is what's gonna happen. Link your concussion missiles to linked pair, and fire two barrages at that Gunship. At that point we'll split up. Blade twelve, target the gunship's engines. Blade ten, target the gunship's missile tubes. I'll handle the quad laser cannons. Be juking and jiving at all times, because we'll be under some heavy fire. Good luck, and good hunting." ordered Blade nine.

The three TIE Defenders fired two times, launching a total of twelve concussion missiles at the gunship. The gunship opened fire right then with it's quad laser cannons, and the three Defenders broke up, with Blade ten losing a little shield power in the process. Blade ten streaked in on the gunship as the missiles hit, and opened fire with his laser and ion cannons linked together, targeting two of the rear missiles tubes. As he pulled away, a bright flash enveloped the rear of the gunship, having it's store of missiles detonated. The gunship was then crippled as Blade twelve finished off it's engines. Finally, Blade nine streaked in, and after twelve quick burst, silenced it's six quad laser cannons.

"All ships, right now, fire on the core!" ordered Blade nine.

The three TIE Defenders fired their lasers and ion cannons on the ship's core, punching through and causing it to go critical as they pulled out. In the resulting explosion and spray of debris, Blade ten was lost, but the gunship was destroyed. With that over, the fighters were called back to the Star Destroyer......

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Commodore Braxus watched from the display screens as numerous starfighters approached his Destroyer. The officer in charge of sensors and communications came to report.

"Sir, our starfighters have decimated the enemy squadrons, destroying or damaging many X-wings, and headhunters. Likewise, our screen destroyed many Y-wings, and B-wings before they withdrew. Our captial ships suffered no damage. In addition, some of our starfighters continued on to assault enemy picket ships. Sensors and communications agree that two IPV-2 Systems Patrol Craft were disabled, and that three Corellian Engineering Corporation Gunships were destroyed or crippled." reported the officer.

Braxus just nodded at this, and then began the preparations for ship to ship combat as the enemy fleet closed in........

The Imperial fleet formed into two different lines of battle. In Line abreast formation sat the Star Destroyer Decimator, flanking it on port side a Strike class cruiser. Next to them, in column formation, sat a pair of Illustrious class Fast Attack cruisers. The enemy group broke up into two squadrons as well. One Defender and five DP-20 Gunships broke off to go after the Illustrious cruisers, while two Defenders, and 5 DP-20s went after the Star Destroyer, and Strike cruiser. Since the latter group of enemy starships was nominally the more powerful one, it was this one that the bombers would target.

The Illustrious Crusiers, the Inflackable, and Inexorable, both veterans of many campaigns, and battles, advanced on the enemy Defender class Star Destroyer, leaving the gunships ignored as of right now.

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On board the cruiser Inflackable.......

Captian Wheeler turned from the sensors station to the viewport, watching the Defender class Star Destroyer edge ever closer to his ship.

"Status of weapons and shields?" asked the captian.

"Shields are at full power, with rerouter stations powered up, and standing by." reported shields.

"Guns are at full power, with torpedo tubes fully loaded, and reloads standing by." reported guns.

"Good, communicate with the Inexorable. We engage at 10 kilometers, repeat, 10 kilometers. Start by launching all torpedoes at topside shields, then follow up with ion cannon fire to command pylon, and hangar bay, and turbolaser fire on topside shields." ordered Captian Wheeler.

"Inflackable[/b] copys your orders, captian." reported the communications officer.

The range steadily closed, until at 10 kilometers, when the ship shuddered as all of her torpedoes were fired simultaneously. At the same time, dark blue streaks emerged from the cruiser Inflack as she fired all of her torpedoes as well. Ninety Six torpedoes streaked in at the enemy Defender class Star Destroyer. Explosions lit up the topside of the Star Destroyer as the torpedoes impacted against the enemy shields.

"Status of the enemy Star Destroyer's shields?" requested captian Wheeler.

"Topside shields are down to five percent sir." reported sensors.

"All ships, open fire on assigned targets." ordered captian Wheeler.

Both Illustrious cruisers opened fire on the enemy Star Destroyer, green turbolaser fire, and blue ion cannon fire streaking down into the enemy Destroyer's hull.

"Sir, incoming missiles from the gunships. I read twenty concussion missiles, incoming!" screamed the sensors officer.

"Guns, activate the flechette launchers. Have them shoot down the incoming missiles." ordered Admiral Kraken.

The flechette launchers board the cruiser came to life, throwing clouds of shrapnel, and particles into the paths of the incoming missile warheads. Some of them were fooled, and detonated, taking others out nearby. Ten missiles were destroyed out of twenty. Those ten hit the shields, weakening them by 15%. Then the Defender Star Destroyer opened fire, targeting the part of the shields that the missile strike weakened. Turbolaser and ion cannon blasts weakened the shields even further, and disabled a few systems here and there.

But the fire from the Illustrious cruisers were taking their toll on the Star Destroyer. The bridge and shield generators had long since been disabled, leaving the Star Destroyer without any shields. Now it was time for the four starfighter squadrons of the two cruisers to make their presence known to the enemy Star Destroyer. They consisted of Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie squadrons, all TIE Defenders, and Enigma squadron, a squadron of TIE Scimitars. The Defender Star Destroyer's hangar bays were being sprayed with ion cannon fire to prevent the launch of enemy interceptors. The Star Destroyer attempted to launch thirty six A-wings. Of these, only eleven escaped the launching bays without being disabled. They joined three gunships in trying to block the paths of the incoming starfighter squadrons.

Alpha and Bravo squadrons broke off to deal with the enemy gunships, while Charlie squadron dealt with the enemy A-wings. This left Engima squadron free to make their runs on the Defender class Star Destroyer. Alpha and Bravo squadrons fired linked proton torpedoes at the Gunships, which opened fire with their quad laser cannons on the enemy TIE Defenders. Five TIE Defenders, four from Alpha, and one from Bravo Squadrons, were destroyed before the wave of forty eight proton torpedoes arrived. Explosions flared over both of the gunships, and in the end, one was destroyed, and another one was disabled. This left on gunship to deal with. But where was it? Coming up fast behind the bombers! It's quad lasers cannons lanced out, catching one bomber by suprise and detonating it in a fiery cloud of debris. The TIE Defenders roared in at the last gunship, and fired another forty eight proton torpedoes, this time all them being targeting at one ship. Several small and one large explosion later, the enemy gunship was eliminated. A series of explosions off to their left came to an end, and Charlie squadron reformed up with the group, with three of it's TIE Defenders missing. One A-wing was shown on sensors, in fast retreat to the hyperspace point where the enemy Escort Carriers awaited.

The Imperial Navy TIE Scimitar bombers opened fire, both of them firing linked space bombs, powerful warheads that were extremley difficult to track and fire on. The TIE Defenders launched their last salvo of torpedoes as well, sixty two proton torpedoes streaking out of their tubes, and heading in towards the enemy Defender Destroyer. Twelve torpedoes were shot down by the enemy anti-missile stations before the torpedo salvo hit the enemy destroyer, detonating all along the topside of her hull, opening great gaps, and causing many secondary explosions. A report from the Illustrious cruiser Inexorable stated that her hull seemed to be at twenty five percent capacity. Then the space bombs arrived.

A series of bright explosions completley enveloped the topside of the Defender class Star Destroyer, followed by an even brighter explosion that enveloped first the hangar bay, then the entire ship. The controllers on the cruisers knew that the Star Destroyer's reactor core must have gone critical, and overloaded, and so ordered their starfighter squadrons away from the Defender before debris could affect them. When the explosion faded, the Destroyer had been split in half, with the bow being the largest,and most intact piece of the ship. The stern was a mess of wreckage. Only eleven escape pods were counted as having launched from the ship. The two remaining gunships now turned about, and sought to flee the battle. The Scimitar bombers pursued, launching their last pair of space bombs before turning away, the Illustrious cruisers following with another salvo of ninety six proton torpedoes. One gunship managed to shoot down some of the missiles, and evade the space bombs through some brilliant manuevers. The other gunship was hit full on, losing it's shields, and turning end for end before the reactor went critical and detonated, destroying the gunship. With the enemy ships eliminated, the Illustrious cruisers recharged their shields with power diverted from elsewhere, and the ships set off to help their comrades after recovering their remaining TIE Defenders, and TIE Scimitars.

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Aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer Decimator

The engagement with the enemy starfighter squadrons from the Escort Carriers had gone well, but now they had to contend with the enemy interceptors from the two Defender Star Destroyers, making a starfighter missile strike on the enemy ships, difficult, at best. But still, they had to try, and the target was the Defender Destroyer going after the Strike cruiser Nymph. The Nymph was currently firing on the enemy gunships, two of them, which had rushed ahead to engage the Strike cruiser, and weaken her shields in preparation for the enemy Destroyer to strike the killing blow. From the launching bays of the Decimator came four squadrons of starfighters, the three TIE Defender squadrons from the earlier engagement, plus one squadron of TIE Scimitars. The enemy Defender squadron that they were headed towards launched all six of it's squadrons of A-wings, making the jobs of their TIE Defender squadrons all the more harder for them.

The TIE Defender squadrons attempted to make things easier by lauching single linked proton torpedoes at the A-wings as they came in. Following up with laser and ion cannon fire, they managed to destroy seventeen A-wings, and disabled a further five in the opening moments of this intense battle. Half of the TIE Defenders stayed behind to duel with the A-wings that stayed to duel with the Defenders, while the other half stayed with the bombers. The A-wings split up, some going after the TIE Defenders guarding the Scimitar bombers, while others dueled with the Defenders that stayed behind. It was now that the Defender Squadrons executed the Double Cross Manuever. The TIE Defenders that were flying with the Bombers turned back, and targeted the A-wings that stayed behind to duel with the other Defenders with missiles. The Defenders who stayed behind to duel with the enemy A-wings then targeted the ones heading to attack the ones that were flying escort with the bombers with missiles of their own. Both groups fired. Twenty more A-wings were then destroyed by the missiles, and with follow up fire from laser and ion cannons. Five TIE Defenders were destroyed by the A-wings during this manuever as well. Eighteen fully fuctional A-wings remained, squared off against Twenty six TIE Defenders, down ten ships, some from this engagement, and others from the earlier engagement. A melee of laser and ion cannon duels between the A-wings and the TIE Defender ensued, since the TIE Defenders didn't wish to waste any more torpedoes on the A-wing squadrons. In the end, nine A-wings were in high retreat to the Escort Carriers, with three more TIE Defenders having been destroyed, and one more forced to withdraw with heavy damage. With that, the twenty two remaining TIE Defenders formed up with the TIE Scimitars, and launched their remaining proton torpedoes at the enemy Defender class Star Destroyer, eighty eight proton torpedoes streaking out and closing the distance between the fighters and the Destroyer in two waves of forty four each. Then the TIE Scimitars fired their magazines, unleashing forty eight space bombs to drift towards the enemy Star Destroyer.

The torpedoes arrived first, twenty of them being destroyed by anti-missile stations. These managed to collapse the topside shields of the Star Destroyer, allowing the space bombs to impact the hull of the Star Destroyer. Many medium explosions, and one large one later, the enemy Defender class Star Destroyer was destroyed, joining a similar fate to the first Defender Star Destroyer. Moments later another bright explosion brought the eyes of the pilots around to behind their ships. One of the two Gunships engaging the Strike cruiser had detonated under it's intense turbolaser and ion cannon fire. The other Gunship then broke off and attempted to flee. Attempted was correct in that, about halfway to the jump point, it was intercepted by a salvo of ninety six proton torpedoes that tore away it's weakened shields, and ravaged it's frail hull until it could stand no more, and detonated in a spray of fire and debris.

The Illustrious cruisers, having finished their work, were arriving on the scene to help out. With that force eliminated, the only enemy forces left besides the escort carriers and various units of starfighters retreating to them were the forces assaulting the Star Destroyer. Of these, the three remaining enemy gunships were all either destroyed or crippled, and the Defender Star Destroyer had taken heavy damage. It then began to withdraw, deploying all of it's A-wings to attack the Star Destroyer in it's stead, to cover it's retreat.The Star Destroyer countered by launching it's remaining two squadrons of starfighters, TIE Defenders low on numbers. One squadron had seven Defenders remaining, the other six. The remaining starfighters from the strike on the second Defender joined the battle over the Star Destroyer, twenty two TIE Defenders lending their assistance, along with two squadrons from the Illustrious cruisers. In the end, all the A-wings were vanquished, losing eleven TIE Defenders in the process as the cheap trade off. The Defender managed to escape though, along with the Escort Carriers that managed to rescue forty three of the remaining starfighters. But that didn't matter. What did was that the Battle of Almar had been won. The cleanup was now beginning.