30th August... a day that will go down in history!

It was a mission of utmost importance to the Rebels. Splinter bands of brigands revolting against the Warlord of Borleias had issued many a plea for aid from the Rebel Alliance, but their fighter squadrons were scraping the bottom of the barrel to send what they could to escort the transport convoy through. In the van, though, Imperial intelligence discovered that Wedge Antilles, Wes Janson and Luke Skywalker were leading a mixed squadron of various fighters, to which Lord Vader did not hesitate to sortie his infamous Black Squadron to deal with the troublesome Rogues. With the Rebels, though, were Ibtisam and Ten Numb, B-Wing rookie aces who were making names for themselves, Garven Dreis, another hawkeyed X-Wing rookie, Horton Salm, a mid-ranking assault fighter pilot who would forever swear by his trusty Y-Wing even to his days as General of the Alliance... and Etahn A'Baht, a genuine rookie next to his squadron colleagues, flying the prototype E-Wing, a fighter so couched in secrecy that none but Wedge even knew of its existence. But needs must acquire resources and blessings from where they came, and the patchwork squadron took in this young and loquacious pilot and his curious craft. And the ship they had to protect was a lowly GR-75... the Bright Hope, with its recently upgraded defence systems and communications arrays.

Confronting these heroes and would-be heroes were a fearsome collection of Imperial veterans, all of whom pulled rank over their lesser colleagues to try their hand against some of the Rebellion's best. The Emperor himself lazily waved his approval for two of his best bodyguards, the grim efficient Kir Kanos and the cold cruel Carnor Jax, while Cive Rashon, currently on leave at a spa on the other side of the system, took the opportunity to add to her kill count, and the bounty hunter Kath Scarlet heard through the many ears her Binayre Pirates had over the systems so close to Imperial Centre and could not pass up so inviting a chance to reap the rewards of a captured transport. But first on the scene were Baron Soontir Fel and his first squadron leader, Turr Phennir, who had been called in by Vader to support. The Sith Lord himself landed to briefly detail the mission to his band of bloodthirsty elites, with his favoured wingmen, the three Black Squadron veterans (Black 2, 3 & 4) in tow. And in the shadows stood the man known only by his callsign, Echo, watching the proceedings silently, expressionlessly...

No sooner was this done and the arrival of the rest of the Imperial forces that word came that the Rebel vanguard approached, so Vader ordered his squadron out without waiting for Colonel Jendon's shuttle to arrive in support. In an attempt to screen their approach, Wedge had the Rebels move in behind an asteroid field, but this ad hoc ruse did little to deter the onrushing Imperial fighters. Black 3 rushed too far and was clipped by an asteroid and promptly ran into the fire of three X-Wings, Black 4 vainly trying to remain close to support his colleague. On the other side of the field, Carnor Jax's reputation and his signature red TIE Interceptor was singled out by the vengeful B-wing pilots who rendered the Royal Guard's ship a speeding wreck. But he gave as good as he got, with timely backing from his rival, Kanos, severely compromising Ibtisam's shielding. Echo decloaked too late to have an effect and he raged at Phennir's arrogance at flying in his way.

Rashon seemed to be still in holiday mode as she flew recklessly by her standards and Wedge sharply put paid to her complacency, getting a direct hit that drove her back into the asteroid she had almost crashed into. She bailed out, hoping that Jendon's shuttle would happen by soon. But she had no such luck. The luck belonged to the B-Wing pilots, who weathered all sorts of ordnance, but this gave little chance to return fire on the advancing Imperial fighters. Instead, it was now that everyone who was fighting paid attention to an unknown and cumbersome looking ship. The Rebels found themselves flooded with targeting information from Etahn's E-Wing, accompanied by his encouraging chatter, and their hits carried more weight on the increasingly infuriated Imperial pilots, who returned Etahn's flying with contempt. Even the normally acerbic Salm felt surprise that his shots dealt more damage than was normal.

Even so, the Rebels looked on with concern as Carnor callously fired upon the transport as he passed, but the seemingly defenceless hulk soon showed its teeth. The coms operator was furiously working away with his slicing tools and took advantage of the Imperials' preoccupation with their flying. As Black 2, Mauler Mithel, turned to open up on Luke, the transport's slice-hack jolted his ship, but the determined ace fired away regardless and a lucky shot forced the young Jedi to abandon his ship, the force of the exploding ship sending him floating towards the almost stricken transport, whose crew struggled to maintain shield integrity. And the deathblow was done to Ibtisam by the 181st's XO as they weaved their way towards the Imperial's true target.

His commander, though, was undone by Etahn's tricksy flying and his turn forced him to duck out of the way, right into the flightpath of the transport. His Interceptor was smashed to smithereens as the damaged hulk ploughed through. A timely slice-hack meant they also had the last laugh on Carnor Jax, whose ship promptly flew out of control, spiralling away. The Rebels celebrated at the fall of these Imperial heroes, but their celebrations were cut short when Black 4 sniped Wes Janson from behind an asteroid after Kath had fired a salvo at the veteran ace. In response, Wedge jinked in and avenged Luke by downing Vader's wingman, finally realising his ship had been granted fire and manoeuvrability that allowed for such outmanoeuvring. But even for him, this carried him to far as Kath's battered Firespray fired first dropped a seismic charge and then fired upon him, disabling his X-Wing. The blast would've killed Darth Vader, but his ship was sent speeding down by yet another slice-hack by the GR-75's crew, so the blast caught Wedge, Ten Numb and Horton Salm. Ten Numb, close by, was shocked to find Echo directly behind him and the Sullustan was mercilessly shot down. Garven Dreis, so concerned by Carnor and finally allowed to fly freely was caught by the vengeful Turr Phennir and coldly dispatched before the Sabre Squadron Leader turned his attention to his next target.

But as he looked out ahead of his cockpit, debris was strewn everywhere. His colleagues were floundering and needed help, while the Rebel transport was a smouldering crawling wreck. Kath had long since decided that the venture was no longer worth her while and quickly made herself scarce. Black 4 was in little shape to continue, but Echo thirsted for another victim, but fuel was low and only one ship remained untouched by violence, and that was a Rebel one. Turr marked this E-Wing and whoever its pilot was... he would see it burn, one day soon...