Kytra had just pulled out of her run when her scopes picked up a TIE fighter in close proximity. She craned her neck to get a visual, praying it wasn't on her tail.

What she saw was, perhaps, worse. The fighter was about to strafe the very same street she had just attacked! Evidently there was a call for air support on both sides, though it did strike her as odd that the TIE had broken formation in order to make the strike. The thought was quickly pushed aside however, as she began to set up her approach. "Gizka, stabilise the repulsors" She said to her astromech as she swung the hefty Y-Wing around in a wide turn that would leave it pointing roughly at where she expected the TIE to end its run. A repulsor assisted turn might've given her a shot on the enemy before it had a chance to really damage the alliance position, but such a quick shot would also be without target lock, relying entirely on Kytra's aim. She was not confident enough with that to risk such a stressful manoeuvre on it, especially so soon after pushing her craft in the same way.

Instead, when Kytra came out of the turn, the TIE had just finished its run and while it pulled up her targeting computer began to work its way past the electronic jamming all fighters employed as a countermeasure against a solid lock. She used the moment to check the readout on her Ion cannons. Both indicated enough alignment to fire, and the turret was already locked forward, mimicing the same firing trajectory as the nose mounted lasers. The weapons focusing crystals were prone to being shaken out of alignment during flight, and Kytra had long ago ensured that a constant diagnostic was being run so she would know the instant the weapon became inoperable. The moment she heard the tone indicating a target lock she pressed her thumb down on the button that would fire the twin Ion cannons at the TIE, being rewarded by the sight of the mirage-like pale energy pulse streaking towards the black form of the enemy from above her cockpit.

The relentless warnings of the TIE's instruments told Anya that she wasn't as lucky as she thought, pulling up and away from the surface. Someone had a lock! Without bothering to check what exactly she was dealing with, she pushed the TIE Fighter further and dived out of her flight path, back toward the surface again. The fragile machine shook as gravity took its toll on the mass-produced frame, but the risk of challenging gravity was better than getting turned into a human meteor by the stream of ion energy that had so narrowly missed the left wing. Again taking another tight manoeuvre at speed, the TIE swung down close to the battling forces below, trying to get an angle on the one who nearly killed her...

Continuing with her 'overconfident rookie' style of flying, as the TIE met the Y-Wing visually, Anya began to fire the laser cannons as if they were some kind of machine-shotgun, not quite aiming but definitely hoping to score a lucky hit, or shake the other pilot's morale. But these actions were a dead giveaway - she had nowhere near the skill of some of the Rebel pilots. This was nothing like wasting pirate ships en masse... Finally, Anya had realised this was what war really felt like. The adrenaline rush overwhelmed the discipline she'd learned to fly with, the idea that she might kill or be killed in the next few moments blurred out the sound of the flight leader's coordinations to his squadron. Right now, it seemed as if the whole battle was centred around herself, and the pilot of that Y-Wing...

Kytra couldn’t decide whether the TIE pilot was extremely skilled or extremely lucky when the black craft managed to dip back towards the ground barely an instant before the crippling Ion blast struck. The TIE pilot pulled around quickly, faster than Kytra’s lumbering Y-Wing could keep up with, and proceeded to answer both Kytra’s fire and question of her foes skill with a sloppy spray of laser blasts that could best be described as ‘aimed in her general direction.’

Unfortunately, such erratic fire was hard to predict, and in such a large and unwieldy craft as she was, Kytra found it impossible to avoid every blast, despite her best attempts to swerve. One of the green laser blasts found its mark on the top of the right engine pod, and there was a flash as it struck the deflector shields. An alarm began beeping insistently to inform Kytra of the partially depleted state of her shields, and a quick glance showed that the hit had drained her rear deflector, already weakened from being in atmosphere, to a measly thirty percent. There would no doubt be some superficial scoring on the ships plating too, but for now there was no permanent harm done. Nonetheless, she would have to keep the TIE on the defensive until Gizka could allocate enough energy to fully regenerate the shield or another hit to the rear of the ship would cause significant damage.

She threw the repulsors on full once again and adjusted her ships heading sharpy to by the tens of degrees she needed to get a bead, gritting her teeth as the crafts inertial dampeners struggled to contend with the G-forces exerted by the manoeuvre. Several secondary alarms blared at her indicating overheating components, but she ignored them and focused on the TIE ahead. Her computer only had a partial lock, but at close range her aim could make up for the rest. She waited until she was sure of the shot before pulling the trigger, sending a pair of red laser bolts towards the TIE, hoping it would either destroy or at least drive her foe away.

A surge of elation flowed through Kytra as she saw the impact of her weapons on the TIE’s wing, though it was slightly dampened when the craft did not explode or break apart. Her shot had been slightly off center, and by some miracle the ship had not come apart, holding together despite the smoke billowing from the impact site. To the pilots credit, the craft only wobbled rather than spinning out of control as it looked like it wanted to. All this Kytra saw in hardly a moment as the craft streaked past her, forcing her to swerve to avoid an impact with one of the TIE’s large wings, but it was enough for her to tell the fight was over. Much as she would have loved to finish her stricken foe, her scopes already indicated the injured craft was making best speed away from her, and she could not turn nearly fast enough to pursue.

Not that the thought of pursuit had long to occupy her mind. Above the city the clouds had darkened, and to Kytra’s horror they suddenly began billowing and parting to make way for the sharp edge of an Imperial Star Destroyer’s keel. It broke the clouds with the majesty of the greatest of Alderaanian Thranta, and even as fear once again crept into Kytra’s breast, she could not help but admire the sight.

No sooner had the mighty craft come to a rest above the city than the cavernous launch bays disgorged a black swarm of TIE fighters, buzzing around the craft in a manner akin to the drones of the blighted Kiliks, overwhelming the remaining Alliance fighters with sheer numbers and filling the sky with the distinctive shriek that so often spelled doom for many a valiant rebel soldier. During the battle Kytra had managed to end up quite a distance away from the main engagement zone, and it was by virtue of that alone that she avoided a swift and ignoble death, but even now her scopes were picking up multiple contacts at long range. She had to act quickly, or she would surely be destroyed.