Warning: Character Death...sorry.

"And then they destroyed the death star." The incessant chatter of his co-pilot is starting to give Daryl a migraine. He's been going on and on and on about the heroism of Han Solo and how he's supposed to be the best pilot in the entire galaxy. Noah is a good kid, that much he can see but his over eagerness and his fanboy tendencies is starting to grate on Daryl's nerves.

The silence and solitude; those were the reason why Daryl prefers to fly alone. Not only is Noah crowding Daryl's space but he's also filling it with unnecessary noise and right now Daryl is debating if it would be a good idea to tie the kid up and lock him in a closet until they arrive.

The navicomputer beeped interrupted his plans of how to get rid of the kid signalling that they are .2 parsecs away from the hyperspace route. Noah noticing this as well warned the others inside the cabin to prepare for the incoming jump. He then made a last minute check on the hyperdrive engine panel to ensure a smooth jump before giving Daryl an ok signal.

"The kid's useful when needed to be at least." Daryl thought as he quickly engaged the lightspeed and entered the hyperspace.

"I never really liked the feeling of the hyperspace. It feels like I'm being pulled to different directions." Noah commented as he studied the stream of stars passing from the cockpits viewport. Daryl harrumphed in acknowledgement as he engaged the autopilot.

"Better get used to it kid if you wanna be as good as Han Solo as you said you did." Daryl stated while he exited the cockpit. They'll be jumping from one hyperspace to another for two days straight before they can get to the Hospian System, Daryl's sure that the kid will get used to that weird feeling of travelling through hyperspace by the end of the trip.

He bumped into someone as soon as he stepped out of the cockpit catching her before she fell face first of the floor. He was shocked to see it was Beth who is now wrapped around him arms.

"Daryl" Beth exclaimed happily as soon she saw it was him that caught her. She tried not to flinch when he quickly disentangled his arms as if she burned him and continued "I was just about to find you and Noah to tell you that the afternoon meal is ready."

"Great, I'm starving!" Noah cried out as he too exited the cockpit and went straight to where the kitchen is located.

"Ya'll just go ahead somebody needs to stay here at the cockpit anyway. I'll just eat after he's done." Daryl said thumbs pointing at the retreating back of his co-pilot.

"Nonsense! Your autopilot is fully functional and is fully capable of traversing the hyperspace on its own therefore there is no reason why you shouldn't be dining with us while the meal is still hot." Beth said not leaving a room for argument. She grabbed Daryl's hand and pulled him to the direction Noah went.

Everyone is already seated when the two arrived.

"Commander Dixon, I glad to see you could join us." The Queen greeted him in her usual stoic voice. Beth immediately took a seat on the right side of the queen while Daryl took the one right across from her.

"Let us begin." The Queen directed as soon as everyone is seated and everyone soon enjoyed the delectable meal in front of them.

"So Commander Dixon, maybe you could entertain us with your tales of gallantry from facing the First Order." An overeager handmaiden asked catching Daryl and everyone else's attention.

"There is nothing entertaining about a war." Daryl stated his expression hardening. He knows that the handmaiden meant no harm about her question but he's not fond of people romanticising the happenings of the war. There is nothing entertaining about seeing innocent people suffer and die.

Everyone who joined the Resistance knew the prices that they themselves must pay to bring back the peace in the Galaxy. His own brother paid the price when the First Order took down his star fighter, blown to star dust right in front of Daryl's own eyes.

Daryl excused himself to the Queen and everyone in the table before leaving the dining area.

Beth who was discussing with the Amy in hush tones glared at Joan silently admonishing her handmaiden for her lack of tact. The girl looked down sputtering an apology to Commander Dixon retreating back.

Beth could see the pain and grief in his eyes and she can't help but feel bad for him. She can't even begin to imagine what he's been through and all that he's lost because of the war.

'All the more reason why she needs to put an end to it.' She thought.

If only she can somehow convince the Republic to support General Organa's armada into combating the First Order. However, most of the Republic dismissed the General as a war monger devaluing all the things she has done to bring democracy back.

So far she and the late Senator Kala had gained the full support of around 30 Systems but most of them were huge supporters of the Alliance of Free Planets back when the Empire was still in power so convincing them to join forces is easy but convincing the other systems has proved to be a huge problem.

Having come from the great house of Naberrie gave Beth wide political connections. That along with her political aptitude gave her an advantage into reorganizing all political figures into supporting the Resistance Force once more.

The First Order had discovered the Resistance's secret base of operations. Luckily they had most of their transport ships have already evacuated, even before their enemies can create a blockade above the planet's surface.

Daryl and his brother Merle, followed by the other Resistance pilots, were marching to their starfighters. The plan was to have a whole squadron of starfighters assault the forming blockade and allow the rest of the Resistance ship to take off.

They know that not all will survive long enough to get to the rendezvous point but with the fleet closing in they had no other choice but to buy them some time to escape, a costly prize that the soldiers pay in with their own lives. But that is the ugly truth of the war; the life of one in exchange for the life of many.

"Good luck out there Lil' brother." Merle clapped his brother's shoulder before he running across the hanger to his starfighter.

"You too, Merle." Daryl nodded to his brother before he himself climbed up his own ship; his astromech beeping signalling its readiness for take-off.

"Time to kick some First Order bitch ass." Daryl heard Merle's booming voice from his comm device which was met with loud whooping from the rest of the fighters. Soon the first line of fighter took off into space to launch the first assault against enemy ship.

He too took-off in full speed out of the hangar, passed the surface of the planet.

Daryl hated this part of his duty. He was first and foremost the Commander of the Ground Infantry, he is better with blaster combat and devising ground assault than he is at flying, but on cases such as this he is called upon to assist Dameron in air assault.

Resistance pilots swarmed left and right inflicting as much damage as they could to create the needed gap to allow escape. The space lit up from the exchange of laser blasts and the occasional explosion of ships that were blown to dust.

Daryl launched his torpedo launchers to the incoming TIE fighters to his right and maneuvered his ship away from the blast before attacking another assailant all while he search for soft spots in the formation of the blockade and coordinated with his own fleet on the best course of attack. He may not be as good a pilot as Dameron but he has the best darn aim.

After what seemed to be hours of battle Dameron finally gave the signal to the rest of the troops to escape. "Blue, Cobalt and Red squad. I want you to escort all vessels out of the battle field. The rest of you, keep them at bay." He commanded the troops.

It won't be long now until the last of the Resistance fleet escape and all fighters were to retreat and rendezvous with the rest en route to D'Qar.

Daryl has just gotten rid of one of the TIE fighters coming close to one of their vessels when he noticed three more chasing his tail. He tried to fire back at them the with laser canons but their shields are quite impenetrable.

"Green One to Green squad; I have three fighters are in my tail. Kriff! I can't shake em loose." Daryl called for help to his own fleet as his ship shook from their blasts and his astromech beeped warning him that his shield was down by 30%.

"Sithspit!" he cursed manoeuvring his ship away from the onslaught of the enemy's laser canons.

"Don't worry Lil' bro. I got ya." Merle said and like the cavalry his brother blast off one of the three TIE fighters before the rest of the fleet came to dispose of the others.

"Well, look at that. This is the twelfth time I saved your skimpy ass Lil' bro. I say you own me another pint of Calamari Whiskey." Merle bragged as they fought side-by-side firing at any fighter attempting to get close to the escaping fleet.

"Green squad, engage lightspeed en route to rendezvous point." Daryl commanded to his fleet as soon as he saw the last of the Resistance freighter jump to hyperspace.

"Nah, I say we blow them up and end this once and for all." The cocky voice of Merle responded dismissing his clear order.

"Merle, don't be a laserbrain and stick to the plan." Daryl gritted his teeth getting more frustrated as he watched the other squadrons exit the battlefield leaving only his crew behind.

"You mean the plan where we run away with our tail between our legs? Hell naw. There's only a handful of em left, I say we take em all out and end this once and for all." He smirked as he took down another First Order scum.

"Merle, I am your commanding officer and I order you to engage your lightspeed." An enraged Daryl bellowed at Merle over the commlink. Daryl seldom uses his authority over his brother, but his brother will be spacedust in a matter of minutes due to his stupidity unless he do something.

"You know your title ain't meant squat to me." Merle ignored his brother's command and sped away engaging crossfire against the First Order troops. His brother may be have been given title by that old harpy but he's still the eldest of the two which makes him in-charge.

"Green squad, engage lightspeed towards rendezvous point." He ordered the rest of his squadron. "I'll get Merle outta here."

"But Dar-"

"It's an order." He yelled gruffly cutting off the protest of one of his pilot. He had to make sure that all of them get out safely before he sped off to follow his fodderbrain brother.

"Merle, what the Sith's shit are you thinking?" Daryl seethed. Merle obnoxiously laughed in response as more of TIE fighters he's fighting explodes.

"Finally come to join in the fun baby brother?" Merle absolutely hates Daryl's tendency to always follow whatever that wench who calls herself general ordered him to do. Merle hates being ordered around; always preferring to do things his own way.

It's true that unlike Dameron, the Dixon brother's reason for enlisting in the Resistance is far from altruistic. They joined to escape their good for nothing father. But Merle, unlike Daryl, can never seem to cope with a military lifestyle.

So it truly irked him when his younger brother was made Commander giving him authority over his own older brother. It really made Merle envious when his once snot nosed little brother rose in the ranks. In response Merle deliberately defies all of Daryl's command.

"Come on, Lil brother. We can end this war once and for all." Merle declared confidently chasing after the retreating TIE fighters but his bravado was quickly dashed when the First Order's Resurgent-class Star Destroyer came into view. "I-is that-"

"The Finalizer." Daryl confirmed.

"Sith spit!" Merle cursed himself finally realizing the mess he put himself into. There is no way two star fighters can battle an entire capital ship. He knew in that moment that this is his end but he'd make sure that his little brother won't pay for his stupidity. "You go ahead lil' bro, I'll try to keep them at bay while you escape."

"No! I ain't leaving you behind!" Daryl yelled back and soon more TIE fighters were deployed to either destroy them or capture them. He doesn't know which was worse.

"Don't be a dunderhead! Leave while you still can!" Merle yelled, he cursed the Dixon stubbornness when he saw his brother joined in the fight instead.

He was outnumbered and TIE fighters are coming in strong but their fire power was nothing compared to the turbolasers blasts coming from the Finalizer. Daryl and Merle are doing the best they can to the avoid onslaught of both the Star Destroyer and the TIE fighters.

One TIE fighter managed to blew off Daryl's astromech's dome forcing him to fly manually while shooting down his enemies. It was slowing him down which made him an easy target. The people manning the Finalizer's bridge must have noticed this as well which was why the next onslaught of ion cannon of was locked on him.

Finally accepting his fate, he watched the red laser came to him in slow motion. Daryl thought that when a person dies he'd see his life pass before his eyes but none of that happened. Which is a good thing; for he wouldn't want to relive the childhood beatings he got from his pa or watch helpless as his ma burned to death.

All of the sudden his Merle's X-wing came up shielding him from the blast. The ion blast caused his ship's electronic system to malfunction causing Merle to lose control of his ship. His ship started spinning uncontrollably until it crashed with another TIE fighter.

"Merle! Noooo!" Daryl screamed in anguish as he watched his brother's starship exploded right in front of his eyes.

Daryl feels deadened.

His mind completely blacked out.

He was surrounded. His shield is already badly damaged from the constant assault of the TIE fighters' turbolasers. But to be honest, he doesn't care. What's the use of fighting when it won't be long until he met the same fate as his brother.

He hardly noticed when a huge barrage of laser blasts from Resistance fleet led by Poe Dameron came just in time to save his ass. Or when their capital ship's tractor beam pulled him in. Or when he was pulled out of his ship and rushed into the med bay.

He was just numb. Uncaring.