Twokinds ARCHIVE Forums

(Note: This fanfiction was started before the "New Sith Order" was revelaed in the Legacy series of Star Wars Novels. The two are unrelated.)

( PS: For those who don't want to wait for me to post it in this forum:
http://www.swrebellion.com/forums/posts3773-0.html )

The Alliance to Restore the Republic failed. Their leaders such as Mon Mothma, Ackbar and Fey'lya were killed before they could gain momentum. The Immortal Emperor Palpatine, sustained through clone bodies, reigns supreme in all but the most wayward parts of the galaxy. Young citizens of the Empire are taking on the mantle of protecting it having never faced a widespread Rebellion. Behind it all the New Order of the Sith flourishes kept in check only by The Emperor and his select few champions.

From beyond the farthest reaches of the Outer Rim an enemy is waiting, ready to conquer a galaxy long promised. Ready to free it of the technology of the Empire, and doom it's inhabitants to eternal pain or death...




"All Pilots to ready stations!" Blared the voice of the ship's flight controller over the intra-ship com system.

Admiral Dorja stood looking through the forward viewports of the Star Destroyer Ardent as hyperspace swirled past. Behind and below him the bridge officers and crew went through system checks and prepared command and control systems.

Out beyond the swirling lights were the six other destroyers that made up his taskforce. Two mark two Imperial class destroyers and four upgraded Victory II Destroyers. He had desperately wanted to wait an extra day for the droid fighter equipped escort carriers to arrive and join his fleet but that delay for this mission was too great.

Bastion, a well populated and loyal system in the outer rim territories had sent a general distress signal stating that the system had come under attack by an alien force of unknown origin. That was the only information that had reached a nearby patrol frigate before the signal cut off. The Frigate had dispatched it's two hyperspace capable Gunboats to jump to Bastion and determine the nature of the emergency further while the Frigate jumped core ward to report. Neither gunboats reported in at the assigned time.

Over the past month pirate and insurgent groups had been attacking hypercom communication platforms through the outer rim and even into the colonies. Contact with several key positions was starting to become spotty at best. It had been more than two weeks now since the last report from Yaga Minor. Fearing that enough rebel cells had massed to attack the shipyard and had cut off communications, he had begun to assemble a group to perform a recon in force when the distress signal arrived.

The Twenty six squadrons of starfighters his fleet carried would be more than a match for any rebel force they encountered. Still, it paid to be cautious and he hadn't stayed alive this long by recklessly jumping into situations he wasn’t prepared for. Dorja wondered who or what the alien attackers could be. Surely the Chiss would have sent some warning if there was something coming in from the unknown regions. If it was the Chiss themselves attacking then the Emperor would already have been screaming for the heads of every one of the blue skinned humanoids.

+++

They emerged at the edge of the system and began scans directed toward the systems inhabited planet.
"Status report please. How many rebels are we dealing with?"

Commander Wintle looked up from the crew pit. "Sir it's odd. We've found debris in orbit with enough mass to match Bastion's defence forces but no active Ion signatures."
"Hmm... let me see a magnified view."
A small view screen built into the wall activated showing a grainy image of Bastion. Small flecks of debris could be seen where they passed across the face of the planet.
"You're sure there's no sign of rebel ships in the system? There must be an Ion wake or some remains from a fleet large enough to do this."

"Nothing sir. Only a few asteroids in a high orbit."

"I want a full load out on our TIE Gauntlets. Equip as many as possible with shield pods and arm all of them with missiles. The Gunboats and Skiprays will escort us as we make the jump in system. Same orders to all ships."

+++

The fleet reverted with the ISD's in a wide delta formation and two Victory's above, the remaining two below.

"Sensors, find me something useful."

"Main population centers appear to have suffered orbital bombardment. Pattern is inconsistent with any in the databanks."

"Blast." Muttered Dorja to himself.

"Is it possible they suffered a directed asteroid bombardment?" Asked Wintle, directing his attention both to the Admiral and the sensors operator. "We did detect asteroids in orbit after all."

"Movement from the asteroid and debris field sir."

Wintle spun on his heel. "Weapons can you get a lock?"

"Negative sir no definitive contacts."

Dorja held up hand towards the Commander. "We'll hold our fire until we can get a good look at the intruders. Same order to all ships."

"Aye sir! Permission to have Interceptors form up into independent strike units."

"Very well, but include the strike units as part of our fighter screen for the moment, deploy our squadrons in a defensive formation. Only launch the strikes units if they try to run for it."

The Destroyers continued in closer to the gravity well for five minutes. "Sensors tell me you have a contact sorted out from those rocks." Whispered the Commander.

"I'm sorry sir but whenever I positively identify an object that appears to be moving under power, it just turns out to be an asteroid fragment. I've logged nearly two hundred of them."

"Admiral, it's no good. The asteroid fragments are interfering with sensor locks. It's like they're moving under their own power."

"Lieutenant, put some of the images of the asteroid fragments up on the main screen. Scroll through them, perhaps we'll find a thruster unit staring back at us."

Images began to blink up on the screen, one replacing another in rapid succession. Dorja began to frown. There was something wrong here, something he'd overlooked. The smaller asteroid fragments all looked very similar. All had the same basic shape, almost as if-

"Hyperspace reversions detected aft! Multiple contacts!"

001

"Shields to full, get an image on the screen."

Turning toward them were six large rounded asteroid like shapes, just like the ones now visible through the forward viewports. Two larger ones the size of an Imperator and four smaller ones closer in size to a Mon Cal star cruiser. The ships, for they were certainly space faring vessels, all had what appeared to be large coral like growths coming out of them. Then the branch like growths started dropping small specks into space.

"Magnify one of the objects they're dropping."
An image just like that of one of the small asteroid fragments popped up on screen.

The asteroid ships in orbit of Bastion went active then, two more analogous to Mon Cal Cruisers and several around the size of frigates or Carrack cruisers.

"They could just ram us and we'd never stand a chance." Dorja cursed "Helm. Plot a jump to the edge of the system. Prepare to recover fighters."

The Helmsman had started into the necessary calculations for a jump when a red light went off on his console. "Artificial gravity well detected sir."

"Son of the Sith. Tell our Fighters to engage at will."
"This should be interesting." commented Wintle. "Ideas Admiral?"
"Run like hell first and foremost. Victory Destroyers come about and engage the ships in our aft. ISD's are to reverse engines put down a screen of fire towards the ships coming up from orbit."

+ + +

"We're ordered to engage at will." Said the Wing leader. "Major Fel, take your two Gauntlet squadrons and help screen the Destroyers. Interceptors with me."

Several squadrons of Interceptors broke ranks and charged ahead toward the oncoming lumps of rock.
"Gauntlet Squadrons 241 and 242 with me." Commanded Jag Fel. "We'll stay with the Gunboats and Skiprays covering this flank."

As Jag watched, the four Victory Destroyers came about, running their sublight dives to maximum. It took him a moment to realise they were not accelerating as quickly as they should have been. Then sensors showed active tractor beams between the ships. The Victory's were towing the ISD's backwards out of orbit. The larger Destroyers diverting engine power to tractor beams and weapons.

Turbolaser were now filling space with bright green bolts of destructive energy. Jag watched for detonations or other tell tale signs of weapons impacts but none appeared. The Turbolaser bolts simply vanished before they reached the rocky surface of the oncoming ships. The rocks the size of large frigates were fast closing with the fleeing Destroyer group.

Meanwhile the TIE Interceptors had engaged the first line of asteroid fighters. Though maneuverable, the unshielded fighters were fast taking damage from some kind of plasma weaponry. Com chatter showed that the TIE sensors were having trouble locking onto the rocky targets.
"Major Fel to Wing leader, recommend fighters switch to ground attack sensors. It may help with target locks."
"Good thinking Major. You heard him, get to it."

+ + +

"Fighters are now fully engaged. There's too many enemy ships for them to hold them back."

"Pull the Interceptors back to the main screen. Send the Gauntlets out to help them if you have to. And see if you can penetrate those defences."

"Sir! Cavalcade reports something is striping their forward shields."

"Gravity readings are all over the board sir, not just the interdictor."

The ship shook slightly for a moment and the forward shields disappeared. "Begin a restart on the forward shields. Try extending the inertial compensators to include the shields. Tell the shielded fighters and other destroyers to do the same."

Orange gold plasma poured out from the Frigate analogs and fighters, hitting the unshielded bow of Cavalcade. Secondary explosions tore through the starboard gundecks leaving a trail of debris. A second volley struck near the ship's command platform and heavy Turbolasers. Then two formations of fighters fought their way through the defensive screen and poured fire into the bridge.

"Shields back up sir." Called the operations officer. The board showing shield strength was illuminated in orange.
"Cavalcade is still responding sir, there were crew in the secondary bridge to take over."

"Target the nearest Frigate analog. Both ships hit it with everything."

002

Excellently written. Shoot me for a Hutt, but IIRC isn't the general curse 'sithspawn'.

Again, beautifully written.

*drools over TIE Gauntlet* dang that thing looks mean.

+ + +

Jag Fel was flying for his life. The information on extending the range of the inertial compensator field had come too late for nearly half of the Tie Gauntlet fighters. Luckily the blastboats had held back far enough that they received the information in time. The fighter screen was fast becoming useless as evidenced by the fires burning aboard Cavalcade.

Jag, a squadron member, and a blastboat they had been shadowing were using their combined fire to batter past the tiny black singularities the enemy asteroid fighters used for shields. They were killing fighters one at a time but not nearly fast enough.

Cavalcade and Ardent both concentrated their Turbolaser fire on a nearby frigate, overwhelming it's defences and boiling away hull material into space. When Turbolaser bolts finally exploded forth from the opposite side of the ship, the Frigate began to break up.

The Victory Destroyers were faring poorly though. Their fighter squadrons were being decimated and shields were fast slipping away under plasma hits. Ardent and Cavalcade's fighter squadrons were now being driven away from their mother ships by walls of fighters.

+ + +

Things were turning grim.
"We're not getting out of this one in one piece Commander."
"Aye sir."

"Sensors have you located the interdictors?"

"Yes sir! They're the four Cruiser Analogs aft of us."
"And the two other ships?"
"The larger ones appear to be acting as carriers. They're literally throwing fighter analogs and similar sized missiles into the Victory destroyers."

Dorja looked at the status readouts on the Vic's. The shields were down to thirty percent on three of the ships and failing on the fourth.

"Helm... set a collision course for one of the interdictors, tell Cavalcade and the Victory destroyers to do the same."

"This is going to be messy sir."
"It's already messy Wintle. I'm trying to see that someone gets out of here alive."

The ISD's spun about, taking and giving more fire on their flanks as they turned.

"Tell the less damaged Vic's to hold back a bit and to ignore the carriers. If a Destroyer loses shields they're to make best speed into the nearest interdictor."

The first Victory Destroyer, it's hull flaming and badly deformed, struck it's target before exploding spectacularly. The Interdictor was cracked in two with bodies and debris streaming away in every direction. A second Vic, still being hit by the carriers struck it's target. The third destroyer had lost engines and was being picked apart.
"Tell Bier to fall back and cover us. And tell Cavalcade to get any shuttles off while they can."

Cavalcade flew past the broken Victory destroyer using it's now expanding debris cloud for cover. All remaining cannon and batteries fired wildly. The last of her starboard batteries disappeared under fire from the cruiser analog and a trailing frigate, but the port shields held long enough for her to put two devastating broadsides into one carrier.
One last transmission came from the ship on an open frequency; 'For the Empire.'
Then her bow hit her target. The starboard supports buckled more quickly than the port and the Destroyer crumpled in on it's side as the bow stabbed into the heart of the enemy ship. The Sublight drives sputtered out and failed to explode.

"Hit that last interdictor with everything we have left!"

Ardent and Bier were being hit from all sides by fighters. Two assault shuttles dropped from the main bay, headed straight for the interdictor. About halfway to the ship, space troopers launched from the shuttles, firing torpedoes and E-webs.

"What are those shuttles doing?"

"They're carrying Nergon-14 charges!" Shouted Wintle over increasing damage alarms.

A void opened in front of the assault shuttles but the quick thinking crews detonated their explosives before the ships could be dragged in. Two large fireballs expanded, then were sucked into the defensive void.

"Gravity well intensity has dropped by half sir." Reported sensors. "Their interdiction field may be tied to their defences."

"Gunnery concentrate on their bow."

Gaps were starting to appear in the Ardent`s shields. Plasma flames from fighters were burning holes in the topside hull. Turbo laser bolts still poured forth from both remaining Destroyers as they closed with the last interdictor. The interdictor started taking hits with increasing frequency, it's voids tiring under the stress.

"Interdictor is retreating sir, their Grav-well is down."

"Helm give us a course roughly sixty degrees up from our current axis and prepare a hyperspace jump. We need to get out of range of the Carriers. Any Hyperspace capable fighters are to get out now."

The two ships pulled away, the Carriers raking their undersides with fire while the Frigate analogs continued to pound the aft shields. The Victory Destroyer's aft shields finally fell, allowing direct hits to the engines.

"The Bier has lost it's port engine. They're turning to hold our back."

The smaller Destroyer had just completed it's turn when it was hit by the combined fire of six ships. The port side exploded open like it had been made out of paper.

"Helm, jump us out at your earliest available moment." The wreckage of the Bier wouldn't give them much cover for long, they needed to jump and now.

"Hyperspace jump in ten seconds."
"The fighters sir?" Asked the Commander.
"We have thirty thousand people on this ship." Was Dorja's only reply.
The other man nodded in understanding.
"Three... Two... one..."

The stars elongated for the second or so hyperspace jump that dropped them at the edge of the system.

003

+ + +

"Hyperspace capable fighters are to jump out-system immediately." Came the Flight controller's voice.
Jag knew what that meant right away. They're going to leave the other fighters.
"Remaining Gauntlets, try to get to the nearest blastboats! Use the underside docking mount to hitch a ride if you can."

Jag and his wing mate blasted through another fighter that had been moving in to harass the Skipray they had been covering. "Dev, I want you to dock with that Skipray, I'll cover."

"Negative sir, I've been hulled by debris. No atmosphere in the cockpit."
With no atmosphere in the TIE cockpit a pilot wouldn't be able to withstand the cold of space for very long, even with their flight suit intact.

"Get going sir, before the Skipray jumps."
With out any choice Jag goosed the thrusters swinging his Tie in below the Skipray then thrusting up just enough to connect with the docking connector.

Dev's Tie turned and headed straight for a group of six incoming fighters. Three sensor blips blinked out before the Skipray entered hyperspace.

+ + +

"Shields are back up to ten percent and the bridge tower shields are mostly intact. There are thirty medium sized hull breaches and fifty small hull ruptures, the largest of which are clustered near the main reactors. Half of the weapons are operational, none of the quadlasers survived. Hypercom can't connect to any of the main relays and sensors have taken damage as well.
Lastly, several of our blastboats and fighters have emerged from hyperspace relatively close by sir. Some of the blastboats are carrying Tie's on their docking connectors."

Dorja rubbed his temples as he listened to the Commander's report.
"Get the Ties onboard. What's that status of our hyperdrives?"

"Operational. The hyperdrives did suffer damage but the engineering crews are still determining how much."

"We'll have to risk another jump. I'm amazed we haven't been pursued already."

"Cavalcade didn't explode sir. It's possible they could be combing the wreckage for survivors."

"There's nothing we could do for them if anyone survived. Plot a series of jumps to take us back to the Battle Group rendezvous point. Jump as soon as the Tie's are aboard... and have the highest ranking pilot still alive report to my office."

With that Dorja turned and strode from the command platform back to his ready room.

+ + +

Six Tie series craft entered the main bay of the once mighty Imperial Two Star Destroyer Ardent. One scarred Tie Interceptor and five almost equally battered Tie Gauntlets were all that remained.

Jag had seen the rips in the Destroyer's hull and other damage on approach. Most ships he had seen in this condition had been used as gunnery target practice for the Super Star Destroyer crews. The main bay had taken little damage but it still had a haunting sensation to it. Never in his career had he seen a Star Destroyer's bay so empty of fighters.

As he popped the hatch upon landing, twice the usual number of techs scrambled over to inspect the fighter. He barely had time to climb down to the deck before a voice ushered from the overhead speakers.
"All hands stand by for hyperspace entry. Will the ranking pilot please report to the bridge. Ranking pilot report to the bridge."

Jag glanced between the other pilots that had made it. Two were flight officers and the others Lieutenants. He pointed to a senior Lieutenant from one of the other ships. "You, find out how many reserve or replacement pilots there are on Ardent and ask the techs about spare fighters. I'm needed on the bridge." With that Jag moved off towards one of the turbolifts as fast as protocol would allow.

004 (out of a current 059)

+ + +

The soft but fast clicks of boots on the deck plates heralded Jag's approach.
"Major." Saluted Commander Wintle. "The Admiral is waiting for you in his ready room." He gestured to a door off the starboard aft portion of the bridge.
"You can go right in."

Jag had barely walked through the door and was just beginning another salute when the Admiral spoke.

"Have a seat Major."

Once he was seated Dorja slid a small crystal shot glass across the desk toward him then raised his own.
"I'm promoting you to Colonel and placing you in command of our starfighter forces Mr. Fel. Normally I'd say congratulations but these arn't the best circumstances." The Admiral downed his glass then continued.
"I want your insight on these new enemies."

Jag paused long enough to compose himself before starting in. "They are not invincible, which should help morale in the long run."
"Yes. We did prove that much. Four enemy ships destroyed but at the cost of five Destroyers."

"I believe our starfighter squadrons could match them if properly trained to counter their tactics, but we would need a numerical superiority of three to one."

"The new Tie Gauntlets seemed to fare well. If we were to face them with a majority of advanced fighters?"
"The odds would be closer to two to one then. The shield stripping tactics of theirs will eventually break the inertial compensators of a fighter. Missiles seem to be quite useless against their defences, only massed fire seemed to work for us. Firing too many shots for their voids to intercept all of them."

"Did you see any evidence that their defenses might be linked to their propulsion?"

"Hard to say sir. Most of us were maneuvering at lower speeds or pacing the blastboats."

"When we stared scoring heavier hits on the last interdictor the gravity well began to decrease in intensity. If we could find a way to use this against them..."

"We could request a Dominator from the nearest over sector fleet. That would be one way to prove the hypothesis."

Dorja threw his head back and laughed. "Major..." The Admiral closed his eyes for a second. "Colonel, I'll be lucky if I lose just my command for this debacle. I've been a cautious Commander my entire career and the only reason I've made it this far is because I get results. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer but I never lose ships."
He stood, straightened his uniform, then looked at a display screen on the wall.
"Today I was overconfident in the abilities of my fleet... and it got them killed."

"Permission to speak freely sir?" Asked Jag.
"Go ahead."
"You did what you could to save as many Imperial lives as possible. It's possible none of us would have escaped. More than thirty thousand people survived today because of you. Thirty thousand people who have an idea how to fight this enemy."

005

"Hyperspace signature detected aft."
"They followed us through another jump." Commented Wintle, before the bridge shook from the impact of plasma weapons hitting the shields.
"Ranged shot, superficial shield damage."

They had performed more than a dozen jumps over the past two days. Most of the bridge crew besides the navigator and helmsman had lost track of where they were.

"What are we looking at this time."
"This system seems to have a series of very dense debris belts in the middle to inner system."

"It'll do. Helm plot a course to take us through the densest sections of the belts then a slingshot trajectory around the star."
"Aye."

"We have incoming Shards. Four squadrons." The few pilots remaining had taken to calling the enemy fighters 'shards' since they had so easily and repeatedly been mistaken for asteroid fragments at Bastion. Techs had been working non-stop, upgrading target recognition programs to pick out the similar yet slightly variable shapes of the fighters.

"Tell Colonel Fel to hold his launch until they get within one thousand kilometres. Status of the Capital ships?"
If possible the Capital ships varied between each other even more than the fighters. Some of the same basic type might have what looked to be a large well healed scar while another might have a bulge in the hull filled with plasma emitters. Then there were the coral like outgrowths which not only had more weapons most of the time, but acted as a docking array for more fighters.
"One Carrier, three Cruiser analogs and two Frigate analogs. The same ones from Bastion again sir. Wait, correction. I'm now detecting what appear to be corvette analogs. Two of them."
Sithspit.
"Time to intercept?"
"The Corvettes and the damaged cruiser analog will reach us just after we enter the belt. The others are matching our speed."

+ + +

Eight Tie craft launched from the main bay of Ardent, six Gauntlets and two Interceptors. The tech crews had been able to fabricate two more starfighters using spare parts and other materials kept aboard to replace losses.
"All fighters stay in formation until we reach the belt. Use your speed and maneuverability to your advantage. If you take damage then return to the ship, we cant afford vehicle losses this time."

The ties held back with the Ardent until the incoming fighters reached weapons range. The Destroyer's few aft batteries opened up to support the ties, then the two lines of fighters were swarming toward and around each other. The two Interceptors each stayed near a shielded Gauntlet pair, using the other ships for cover if needed.

Instead of missile pods the Gauntlets had been fitted with an additional tie solar array wing and laser cannon bumping the total cannon up to six. Using single fire the outfitted ties were bound to score a hit on the enemy fighters eventually just through sheer total fire. Despite the obviously incredible flying talent these remaining pilots had it didn't take long before they started to take damage.

+ + +

"Entering the belt." Reported the Commander. "We are now within weapons range of the Cruiser analog but the enemy fighters harassing us may prevent them from firing."

"Good, we needed a break." Dorja marched up to the forward viewports to get a better view. "Use the tractor beams to try and redirect some of the asteroids that we pass. Try and drop them into the cruiser's flight path."
After a moment studying the floating rocks and debris ahead he spoke again. "Tell our people to mind the asteroids and not to fall behind."

The bridge began to shake continuously under hits from enemy fighters.
"We cant keep taking hits like this sir." Whispered Wintle to Dorja.

"I know that Commander but we need to find the perfect... there!"
The Admiral, stabbed a finger at a particular group of asteroids on the scanner displays.

"Helm! Swing us close to those larger asteroids twenty degrees to port, then put our engine wash over them."

"Another plan?"
"Something I saw a smuggler do once. Prepare to direct all shields aft and put available power to engines."

+ + +

Four Ties still looped and fought with four times their number of shards. The others had withdrawn to the Ardent after taking damage. Most of the pilots concentration now was on keeping fighters away from the Main landing bay. One shard had already entered the bay while an Interceptor was landing. The interceptor pilot had spotted the shard in time to shoot it down but debris had blown a hole in the top of the bay.

"Ardent to Fel. Colonel, keep your fighters away from the aft end of the ship. We're expecting heavy incoming fire."

"Understood." Replied Fel as he dodged around a large rock and back toward the bay.

+ + +

"Changing course forty one mark twenty seven. Bringing sublight drives to one hundred and five percent." Reported the helmsman.
"Directing weapons power to engines and shields. Doubling aft shields." Said the operations officer seconds later.

The deck vibrated under the strain of the engines.

Dorja looked over to Wintle "Here's where the fun begins Commander. Hang on to something."

"Incoming fire from the cruiser."
"Brace!"
The bridge shook heavily as the plasma struck the reinforced shields.
Behind them the ship's engine wash began heating the cluster of asteroids.

"The fighters have withdrawn to a safe distance."
"More good news. Sensors status on the asteroids."

"The... the asteroids are deforming, they're... They're exploding sir! Debris is hitting the Cruiser and corvette analogs."

"That'll do then." Said Dorja sounding wearied. "Bring the fighters back aboard and get us out of here."
"Permission to throttle down to safe levels sir?"

"No, continue to pour on the speed until we're in mid slingshot around this system's star. Once we're out of sensor contact with the enemy change course and enter hyperspace on a different heading."

Wintle caught on right away. "If they follow the course set by our slingshot they'll end up jumping to a totally different system."

"Exactly. But only if it works. Despite that last trick these people don't seem like fools."

"Cruiser analog has broken up sir. Fighters are retreating to the carrier."

006

+ + +

"From what we have been able to determine, the alien fleet is no longer perusing us."

"Now all we need to do is get back to the fleet, Commander."
Dorja paced behind his desk, something he never would have allowed himself to do on the bridge. "A good three weeks in a repair dock and a wing of starfighters are all we need before getting back into the action. If I'm able to retain my command that is."

"You have a loyal Imperial crew Admiral. Everyone I've spoke to believes you'll get us back to the fleet."

"Thank you Commander. Now, we need to find a way station of some kind with more supplies. There are only so many hyperlanes from Bastion and it's surrounding sectors back to our rendevous point. There is a good bet that those lanes could be watched and we wouldn't stand a chance in a straight up fight. How close are we to Yaga Minor?"

Wintle leaned forward and sorted through several hardcopy star charts then compared them to his datapad. "We can get there in two jumps. Say eighteen hours if we don’t lose any more hyperdrive efficiency."

"Equip two of the Gauntlets with hyperdrives, one of them with a recon package. We'll drop out between systems, say twelve light hours out. Then the recon fighters go in."

+ + +

Jag Fel's fighter dropped out of hyperspace followed shortly after by his wing mate Tarth Elsin. Jag's fighter had been fitted with two high power sensor pods on it's hard points. External belly tanks had been fitted to increase the range of the fighters. Since the hyperdrive module used the same port that the shield module normally did Jag's fighter had reduced defences.

Tarth's fighter had one of the prototype combined shield/missile pods equipped but the shields were only half the normal power. The other mount had a wing laser, giving the fighter an off balance look. If they were attacked Jag would have to rely on his wing mate for support.
To add insult to injury the Tie's lasers had to the powered down while the sensors were in use as their emissions caused interference.

They had entered the system at the orbital distance of the system's largest gas giant. The planet was on the far side of the system at this point of it's orbit.

"Anything on the sensors yet sir?" asked Tarth who had wisely switched to burst transmission.
"Not at the moment, they're taking a bit to warm up. Loop out to thirty kilometres to be sure you're not interfering with my scans."
"Aye sir."

After a minute of silence the sensors finished coming up to full power. Jag focused the sensors in on Yaga Minor hoping to find signs the shipyard was still intact. At this range even the high powered sensors could distinguish little. The planet itself was covered in thick clouds obscuring the view of the planet below. He keyed his com.

"Tarth, do you know what kind of weather is normal for Yaga Minor?"

"Not really sir, I'm from Tynna. The only other worlds I know much about are in the core."

"I can't find any signs of the shipyard from here, but I'm betting it's already been taken out. I can't even find any navigational beacons."

"We arn't in any gravity wells here. We could try to raise someone on the com and if any trouble shows up we jump to hyperspace."

"You plot a jump for us while I try communications." The whole situation struck Jag as odd. If Yaga Minor had been attacked then they should have been able to raise the small base at Garqi. That should have sent word back to a dozen worlds and brought a much faster response even with the holonet transceivers being ravaged. Despite all of this Bastion had been able to get off a distress signal that reached a fleet group. It was still odd.

He set the gain on the communications systems to maximum and keyed it on. "This is Colonel Jag Fel to any Imperial forces in the Yaga Minor system, please respond. Any Imperial vehicles or vessels respond please."

The com remained silent except for background radiation.

"Sir..." came Tarth's voice "I've got the jump plotted."

"We'll wait a minute." Jag responded before switching back to the high gain signal. "This is Colonel Jag Fel off of the Star Destroyer Ardent. Any Imperial survivors please respond..."

A light crackle issued through the com unit for a moment then subsided. Seconds later the crackle reappeared, again disappearing seconds later. The third time the crackling sounded very much like Imperial encryption code but was still so garbled that that the computer could make no sense out of it.
Then the sensors pinged with an IFF contact.
"I've got something coming up out of the gas giant's atmosphere. The IFF looks Imperial but it might be a trap, get ready to jump."

"Th-- i- L---t--an-- C--and-- Dav-- of--he V---icat-- C--ise-- Se--na--"

"I don't think it's a trap sir."
"Keep your hand on the hyperdrive lever either way."

"T--s is Lieutenant C----ander Davis of t--- ----dicator Cruiser Sev---r to Impe--al resc-- party plea-- respon-. I repeat, this is L-eutenant Comm-nder Davis of t-e Vindicator Cruiser Sevana-. Imperial rescue party please respond."

Jag directed the com toward the gas giant. There was no point in having the entire system listening in if he needed to give co-ordinates.

"This is Colonel Fel. It's good to hear you Commander."
"It's good to be heard Colonel. Some of us were starting the wonder if the fleet would ever come for us. Two weeks can feel like a long time."

So can five days, thought Jag. "Commander, can you tell us how you were hit?"

"It was odd, we had some kind of weird Mynock infestation. They started chewing on the communications arrays, then there was an asteroid bombardment."

"Asteroid bombardment?"

"Yeah. The ships in orbit tried to force them off with tractor beams and then lasers but they just kept accelerating. Once the orbital platforms and the shields had been hit these weird ships made of processed rock showed up. Before we knew it the big Destroyers all lost their shields. The carriers were all hit before they could prep droid fighters."

"Why didn't you jump to Garqi to warn the fleet?"

"We were on the wrong side of the system and more gravity wells were appearing every minute. We wouldn't have survived a jump."

"Fine. Commander when you get out of the gas giant's gravity well jump your ship roughly towards Bastion for a distance of twelve light hours. Understood?"

"Acknowledged."

007

+ + +

"Hyperspace signatures detected at one hundred thousand kilometres." Reported the sensors officer.

"Helm, are we ready to jump?" Asked Wintle.
"Aye sir. We can jump to hyperspace with ten seconds notice."

The doors to the Admiral's ready room hissed open and Dorja strode out onto the bridge. "What do we have Commander? Is it the recon flight?"
Wintle turned his attention back to the sensors officer.
"Sensors, what have we got?"

"Something cruiser sized coming in. I've got our recon fighters..." The officer paused to double check the board then continued. "And a Vindicator class cruiser. IFF shows her as the Sevanar, part of Yaga Minor's patrol fleet."

"Any more contacts?" Questioned the Admiral.
"No sir."
"We are being hailed sir."

"I'll take it at the aft bridge station." Replied Dorja turning towards the back of the bridge. "Patch Colonel Fel in while you're at it."
He reached the terminal in a handful of strides and activated the holopad.
"This is Admiral Dorja, to whom do I have the pleasure of addresing?

"Lieutenant Commander Mynar Davis sir."

"What's the status of Yaga Minor and your ship Commander?"
"The Sevanar is fully operational, our complete starfighter compliment is still intact. As for Yaga Minor we don't fully know what state it's in."
"If I may sir?" broke in Jag.

"Go ahead Colonel."

"The entire fleet and the shipyards except for the Sevanar must have been destroyed sir. There were no contacts remaining in orbit nor were there any navigational becons left. The planet is shrouded in heavy cloud cover and I wasn't about to go any closer to the planet after what happened at Bastion."

"Understood. Any orbital debris whatsoever?"

"No sir. It must have been pushed into the atmosphere."

"...Commander Davis, Colonel Fel, I want you both aboard the Ardent within the hour. I'm calling a planning briefing. Commander, transfer a squadron of Interceptors to the Ardent when you come aboard. Have the head of your fighter wing at the briefing. Dorja out."

+ + +

The Sevanar came along side Ardent, taking up position to port of the larger ship. Several things about the ship were confusing Davis. The larger Destroyer didn't maintain a CAP of hyperdrive equipped fighters like most did. It was also odd that there were no support cruisers for a ship with an Admiral aboard.

Everything started to become clear when his shuttle approached Ardent's landing bay. Holes the size of blastboats peppered the hull, and one great tear in the hull was nearly the size of his ship's command tower. There was a starfighter sized crater in the ceiling of the main landing bay. Besides all of that, the main bay was very nearly empty. The shuttle set down just as the squadron of Interceptors entered the bay, headed for the landing racks.

When he reached the bottom of the shuttle's landing ramp there was a junior Imperial Army officer and four storm troopers standing at attention. The army officer waited until the Sevanar's starfighter commander joined Davis at the bottom of the ramp before speaking.

"Welcome aboard the Ardent sirs. I'll direct you to the briefing room where the Admiral is waiting."

"Lead on." Replied Davis, returning the salute.

+ + +

Dorja sat at the head of a large table with Wintle on his left and Jag on his right. The stormtrooper commander entered, taking a seat next to Jag, then a minute later Commander Davis and his CAG enterd. Dorja waited until they were all seated then began.

"Gentlemen we are facing an enemy quite unlike anything the Empire has encountered before. They use strange technology and tactics almost unheard of. Yaga Minor has been cut off for close to three standard weeks. In that time no communications reached the fleet groups of other nearby sectors. Pirates and insurgents have crippled the holonet where they could in co-ordinated strikes.
Commander Davis when exactally did the battle at Yaga Minor occur?"

"Approximately eighteen days ago."

"The last registered communications out of Garqi were twenty days ago. Our engagement at Bastion took place five days ago now. How long after Bastion was first hit did we arrive there?"

Wintle scrolled through his datapad then looked up. "We estimate three or four days previous to our arrival, but those could be off by as much as a day."

"So we have a large fleet hitting the shipyard and the surrounding systems then relocating to Bastion. It's possible they have hit the inhabited systems between those two worlds and those with hyperlanes leading out of the area. Commander Davis, did you bring your sensor reconds of the battle?"

"Yes Admiral. Because of our position they are not the most accurate though."

Davis plugged his datapad into the holopad that made up the center of the table. A slightly grainy image appeared showing the rocky ovoid shapes that the Ardent's crew had become familiar with.

"Once the asteroid bombardment was finished we were able to pick out the ships from the rocks. There were two big ones both larger than an Imperator, and four the size of Mon Cal cruisers."

"Sounds like the Carrier group that tried to interdict us as Bastion." said Wintle.

"There were more ships through the system." Continued Davis. "Interdictors. We picked them up when we tried to plot a jump to Garqi. A whole string of them across the other side of the system."

"Were you able to get visual confirmation on any of the other interdictors Commander?"

"No Sir. We had watched the opening phase of the battle through video feeds from the shipyards. When the Destroyers all went down in the first volley I decided it wasn't worth losing the ship by jumping into a one sided a battle like that. When we couldn't jump out I ordered us into the gas giant's atmosphere. It's not designed for it but a Vindicator can stay alive in the atmosphere for quite some time. I figured that given enough time either an Imperial response force would come or they would move their interdictors."

Dorja thought for a moment, staring at the images on the holo projector. Davis might have been charged with cowardice in the face of the enemy by other Commanders or Admirals. He'd seen men executed for less in the Imperial Navy. But the young man had essentially made the same choice he had at Bastion and now the Empire had information on how two fleet actions had taken place.

"Commander I think you did the right thing. Judging by the gravity well readings you might have been facing as many as six Cruiser Analogs if you had jumped. On top of that you had no idea how the enemy systems worked. You surely would have been destroyed."

"Thank you sir."

"Now, how do these enemy systems work? We have some basic defenses that let us stay alive long enough to run. We need more."

Wintle cleared his throat. "I've had a group of junior officers working on analysing everything that happened at Bastion. Some of the spare relief pilots helped as well. Everything points to a powerful combined gravity control system. It can be used for propulsion, for defence by forming microscopic singularities, for offence by striping a target ship of it's shields, and lastly for interdiction. We can use inertial compensators to prevent shields striping but it puts a great deal of strain on the system.
One of the pilots suggested using laser cannon shots to spread out the void defenses for the heavier turbolaser shots."

The stormtrooper commander spoke up. "Sir's I watched the sensor feeds when the assault shuttles made their run. For all we know the ship might be one giant projector, there could be no limit to the number of voids they put up."

It was Jag's turn this time. "The fact that mass fire tactics have worked at all suggest that they might only be able to block so many shots at a time. If we were to equip fighters with additional lower power cannon it might allow the heavier bolts through more often."

"Talk to the flight techs about it after the meeting Colonel." Suggested Dorja. "If you feel it's worth the risk to try, go ahead. Now, their plasma weaponry."

Wintle resumed. "It looks to be rock superheated to a plasma state. Shields can handle it as if it were normal turbolaser shots, but they become very dangerous if we lose shields. Once it impacts the hull it can continue melting it's way through until it cools enough. The only real defence we have is keeping the shields up."

"Fine. What about those carriers. We saw them launching larger objects before."

"We believe those were unmanned fighters or some kind of directed cruise missiles." Wintle keyed the holoprojector to the appropriate scene. "As you can see here this Carrier is literaly throwing starfighter or similar sized chunks into a Destroyer. We took a half dozen hits from these as well. A correctly placed salvo of these might be able to take down a destroyer's wepons on one side."

"Anything we can do about them?"

"Push them away with tractor beams and have fighters shoot them down. As these large missiles are also propelled by the same kind of gravitic system as the other ships, they have the same singularity defenses."

Groans of frustration issued from both starfighter pilots present.

008

+ + +

"So potentially anything Rimward of the Atrivis sector may have been taken." Dorja summed up.

"Potentially." Agreed Wintle. "We still don't know if they're coming out of the Unknown Regions or from the Rim. That Yaga Minor was hit first would suggest the Unknown Regions."

"If we knew they were coming in from the Unknown Regions we could swing back around Bastion and over to Helska. Likewise if we knew they were coming from the rim we could get out by way of Nirauan. Either way could be useless."

"We could scout a route through Dantooine and over to Gravlex Med." Suggested Commander Devis. "Both systems are uninhabited, and we might find some abandoned ship repair facilities at the latter."

"Is there anything at Dantooine?" Asked Fel.

"No." Dorja was quick to reply. "There was a Rebel base there some thirty years ago. It was already abandoned before we found it."

"Would these aliens use it?"

"We haven't even seen them take any planets yet. Just bombard them." Stormtrooper head Taulen interjected.

Dorja waved everyone quiet.
"In either case the Raioballo sector would seem like a good place to break through. The sector has enough population that they have a full size sector fleet. If even a fraction of them have survived we'll have a large enough fighting force to get back to the Mid Rim. Commander Devis what do you have in the way of scout craft?"

"We have six old Star Wing Assault Gunboats sir."

"We'll have our hyperspace jumps end short by a few minutes and send two Gunboats in ahead of us. Let's get moving."

+ + +

It didn't take long for the Admiral to find a flaw in using the old Gunboats as scouts. Their sensor packages had not been upgraded in more than ten years and were woefully short ranged. The Ardent didn't carry sensor equipment for these older model fighters, only tie craft or Blastboats.

"Alien Cruiser Analog and two Frigate Analogs detected in orbit of Dantooine." Reported sensors once they had dropped out of hyperspace.

"Have they seen us?"

"It doesn't look like it. They appear to be sending landing craft down to the surface."
"Make a note of where they're sending down troops. We may be back in a few weeks to... investigate."

Wintle walked up to the Admiral's position at the forward view ports. "I'm sure Mr. Taulen would be interested in volunteering for that mission if given the chance sir."

"He just wants to fight something on solid ground. He's not Spacetrooper qualified or he would have been out with the assault shuttles at Bastion."

"Jumping to Gravlex Med in ten seconds... nine... eight..."

+ + +

Hours later with four jumps behind them the Ardent and Sevanar reverted to real space in the middle of the Anx Minor system.

"No contacts in system."
Wintle checked over the sensor boards then looked to Dorja.
"Awfully quiet sir."

The older man nodded. "Status of the ship docks?"

"They're all powered down. No activity. No life signs."

"We'll have to chance it. Have Colonel Fel take a recon flight and make a visual inspection of the station."

+ + +

The two Capital ships were approaching the outer edges of Gravlex Med's gravity well when Fel's Tie flight reached the station.

"It looks to be in bad shape Admiral. Most of the slipways and docking arms are damaged. One third of the station is open to space. External cargo modules have been left empty or blown open. All weapons emplacements look as if they were destroyed by Tie fighter attack runs."

Dorja turned to Wintle. "Rebels hijacked the Chimaera from here years ago. The platform wasn't worth repairing so it was decommissioned. Sometimes training squadrons jump out here and practice strafing runs."

"I couldn't argue if another squadron was to show up Sir."

Jag's voice came over the com again.
"We found a slip that might be able to handle the Ardent. It's only partially damaged and the surrounding sections still have atmosphere."

"I want troopers and repair teams assessing that dock ASAP. Launch our fighters, they're to perform a CAP, but keep Gauntlet flight two in the forward launch bay. Have the other fighters dock aboard the Sevanar when needed. Inform Commander Davis to position his ship just outside the gravity well of the planet and to scan for incoming ships."

+ + +

Within two hours the Star Destroyer had been swung into position and backed into the remaining functional slipway on the station. Crews were already moving the giant docking and construction arms into place. The crews already knew their orders; get the hull patched as fast as possible. These repairs were to be quick and dirty.

"The repair teams have found spare parts for Tie craft as well as lasers and Turbolaser assemblies. They were deeper inside the station in sections not damaged by strafing."

"Any estimates for patching the worst of the hull breaches? We can always fit the Turbolasers while in deep space."

Wintle scanned his datapad for the total time estimates.
"The crew chiefs are looking at five hours minimum. Normally this would be a job taking weeks sir."

"I know Commander. Time estimates if we were to fit the Turbolasers?"

"It would push time requirements up to twelve hours if there weren’t any delays. So say fourteen with delays factored in."

"I want contingency plans made for evacuating our people from the station if we have to get out in a hurry."

"We have that in place sir. We moved an AT-AT barge and two shuttles over to the station."

Dorja smirked.
"It seems as if you have everything in order here Commander. I'll be in my ready room. Inform me if anything changes."

+ + +

Half way into the repair work one of the sentry pilots uttered the words everyone had been dreading.
"Enemy contact detected. We have incoming fighters."

Wintle didn’t even wait to find out what the enemies were. "Admiral to the bridge!" He called out then started checking on the repair progress. The repair teams were one quarter of the way into welding on a large piece of armour plate near the reactors. They couldn't stop and leave it half finished.

Dorja stormed onto the bridge at that point looking half asleep.
"What do we have and where are they coming from?"

"The contacts are coming up from the planet."

"I thought the planet wasn't habitable."
"It isn't habitable sir." Insisted Wintle.

"Put the contacts on the screen. Sensors what are they?"

"They're coming in fast. A-wings. We now have Rebel IFF contacts. Looks like three full squadrons."

009

"Have the hanger crew equip the second Gauntlet flight with missiles. Pull the interceptors back. Those little shooting stars can be death on Interceptors if we give them a chance. Raise shields and extend them around our slipway."

Turbo lasers that could still fire despite the docking arms were crewed. Shields began to power up. Stormtroopers armed with shoulder fired missiles and torpedoes clambered into position on the outside of the station.

"The missile equipped Gauntlets will be ready in three minutes."

Admiral Dorja picked up him com. "Colonel Fel, try to keep as many of our pilots and fighters alive as possible."

"Understood Admiral. Shielded fighters up front. We'll break their formation for the Interceptors to jump them."

+ + +

The scratch built A-wing fighters were closing fast. Using their impressive speed to try and gain any advantage. At maximum range half of the tiny fighters fired concussion missiles.

"Break! Break!" Yelled out a half dozen pilots over the com.
"Fold formation!" Came Fel's distinctive voice. "Use lasers to shoot down the missiles!"

A flurry of laser and ion Cannon fire started, then ball explosions began appearing.
The designators for one Gunboat and four Interceptors blinked out before the two lines of fighters crossed and merged into a rolling dogfight. One full squadron of A-wings blasted right through the engagement, lasers firing, and out toward the shipyard.

The gunboats fired torpedoes after the A-wing squadron before having to break off. Half the Rebel squadron fell back, targeting the missiles with lasers. At the same time Gauntlet Flight One broke free of the main engagement and headed after the squad. The trailing A-wing group had just destroyed the last torpedoes when Jag Fel's flight caught up to them.
Three of the Rebel fighters never survived the first pass, the six laser cannon on each Gauntlet fast chewing through their weak shields. The return fire punched through a gauntlet's shields and sheared off a wing sending it out of control.

There wasn't time for Jag's flight to stop and dogfight with the survivors. They had to get ahead and stop the other A-wing group. The three A-wings were about to turn in pursuit when the missile locks of Gunboats drew their attention again.
+ + +

"Time until Flight two launches?" Asked Dorja.
"Thirty second."

Out ahead of the Destroyer six A-wings fired Heavy Rockets and torpedoes.

"Gunnery-"
"Already on them sir."

Turbolasers opened fire on the missiles. Most of the bolts missed and those that did hit struck the slower Heavy Rockets. Six Torpedo detonations blossomed against the forward shields.
"Dropping Ventral shields for fighter launch."
Four Gauntlets armed with missile pods dropped fast from the forward launch bay. Before the Destroyer’s shields had even come back up the Ties were firing pairs of missiles at the Rebels. Each overlapping their missile fire.

The A-wings broke formation and spiralled down toward the new threat. Most fired lasers while dodging heavily, blasting the missiles or out manoeuvring them. One unfortunate fighter caught six missiles simultaneously, turning into a bright orange fiery smear.

Instead of turning to shoot down the remaining missiles, or battle the Gauntlet flight the surviving Rebels all flew straight for the nearest points on the ship docks. They reached the nearest docking arms and hull sections just at the missiles caught up, and used them to block their line of sight. Bright ball explosions lit up the dock next to Ardent.

"Tell the Stormtroopers to stay alert. They may try terrain following tactics."

Gauntlet Flight One soon caught up with the second flight. "Break by pairs, one laser equipped fighter and one missile equipped fighter."
Jag didn't sound happy from what the other pilots could tell.
"We'll have to hunt them down."

Out at the main engagement the fighting was in a stalemate. Nearly a squadron of Interceptors was destroyed or so badly damaged they were out of the fighting. The A-wings would have had the advantage by now were it not for the Gunboats and the older Tie Avenger unit from Sevanar.

"Colonel Fel, this is Admiral Dorja. No pressure but we're going to need help at the main engagement, and soon. Find those fighters."

+ + +

"No Pressure." Jag muttered under his breath.
Sensors were going to be near useless here, but sure enough down below he could see a fighter making a surface run towards the Destroyer.

"Gee Five, on me." He called into the com letting his wing know to stay close. Then he heeled his fighter over and dove towards the likely intercept point. Before they could accurately judge where the A-wing was going to go, a Stormtrooper noticed the fighter and launched a missile at it.
"Sithspit." Cursed Jag as the A-wing broke off, using a half melted communications array for cover.

They followed the fighter into a large empty slipway filled with broken or disintegrating docking arms. Instead of heading into the tangle of armatures the fighter instead flew through a blown out cargo hatch and into the station.

"Fel to Ardent. A-wings are inside the station. We are pursuing them."
Com static increased as they entered the structure. For all he knew the Admiral could have ordered them out and they wouldn’t know.

As they came around an intersection in the main cargo module conveyer way we spotted the A-wing up ahead. Artificial gravity still seemed to be on in places forcing them to bring up repulsors to stay in the middle of the corridor and limiting top speed. There were some sparks from ahead and the A-wing turned a corner.

"Prepare to increase speed once we get around the corner."

Before they reached the corner a particular piece of debris sitting on the floor of the conveyer way stood out. It was shinier than the surrounding carbon scored metals and debris. The Torpedo the A-wing had dropped on a timer exploded. The forward shields disappeared off of both Gauntlets and debris pelted them.

They missed the turn the first A-wing had taken and the corridor ahead was straight for some distance. Then laser bolts from a second A-wing hit their aft shields.

Jag swore again. If they turned in place in the narrow conveyer way the A-wing could shoot them through their unshielded front.
"Increase speed!"
With no other options Jag began firing lasers into the ceiling as they passed. Debris began raining down but the tie's were moving fast enough to get under it before it could reach the floor. The A-wing was forced to either slow or risk running into half melted Durasteel support braces at several hundred meters per second. At the next intersection Jag and his wing went off in different directions.

+ + +

"We've accounted for all but three of the A-wings attacking us sir." Reported Wintle. "And the surviving fighters at the main engagement are now running. Apparently they've seen that their attack squadron won't be able to harm the ship."

Dorja sighed.
"Dispatch recovery shuttles. I want any extra starfighter debris, rebel or Imperial, brought aboard. We might be able to cobble a fighter out of it all. How many A-wings escaped?"

"Five out of the nearly two and a half squadrons in the main fight."

"And our vehicle losses?"

"Heavy. We're down to four Gunboats, four Avengers and six Interceptors. All of those are in need of repairs."

"Pilots?"

"Many of our Tie pilots managed to eject but neither of the Gunboat pilots survived."

"Find me some Rebel pilots Commander. I wouldn't mind having a talk with some. "

010

+ + +

The A-wing crept forward on repulsors. Floodlight, transponder, and active sensors powered down to prevent detection. Few of the overhead lights in the cargo corridors still worked after years of abandonment and those that did were very dim. Rays of light were reflected into parts of the station interior through holes in the hull. Shadows and debris made even intact walls seem ominous.

The pilot used manoeuvring jets, thrusting forward instead of lighting up the powerful Novaldex engines and creating a visible light source. Something glinted in the shadows to the right. There was a hole in the wall that had been obscured because of the darkness. Inside was a cargo hold filled with old Tie parts. The pilot was about to continue forward again when he noticed that the blast marks surrounding the hole were much newer.

When the Rebel pilot turned to look more closely at the Tie parts Jag fired. Despite the closeness, the Gauntlet's laser convergence system put the linked fire from all six cannon in a fifty centimetre area.
Right through the cockpit bubble canopy.

The A-wing dropped to the floor, wisps of smoke trailing from it as escaping oxygen in the life systems allowed a small fire a few seconds of life.

Jag brought all of the systems back up and punched up power to the com system. "Fel to any Imperial units, scratch one Rebel."

"Copy that Colonel." Came the voice of one of his pilots, probably Tarth Elsin. The signal was faint and scratchy but still understandable. "We only have one more fighter to account for. The Admiral want's you to know tha-... Uh oh."

"Report Lieutenant."

"I found the last fighter... it's empty."

Jag scrolled through the command menu then locked onto the IFF signal Tarth's fighter was putting out.
"Hold your position, I'm coming to you. Can you describe the area?"

"It's off a tertiary intersection. A tight fit. The fighter is sitting in an abandoned machine shop. Let me just move my fighter to get a better look."

"Don't get yourself killed. Keep your eyes open."

"I've been scanning that area on full active. There is no one here. Oh my..." There was a pause of five or six seconds, each of which Jag expected to end with his pilot screaming for help.
"Sir It looks like the missile loading ports have been opened on the A-wing. It's a fairly large bore system, Heavy Rockets by the look of it. There are spent casings for two and room for two... maybe four more."

"I'm almost there. Is anything missing from the shop?"

"There... there is a patch of floor that's clear of debris. It looks about the size of a repulsor cart."

+ + +

Dorja fumed.
"Commander I want checks to be sure that everyone that goes aboard the station is armed and prepared for enemy contact. There may only be one Rebel aboard but that Rebel has weapons capable of seriously harming our ship."

"We've pulled some of the Stormtroopers that we had assigned to use missile launchers outside the station to patrol it's interior. Colonel Fel and his wing man are on their way back to the Ardent to rearm. He also reported another cash of Tie parts but they were much older than the others we've found."

"The stations and shipyards in this part of the galaxy used to keep a compliment of TIE/ln fighters before they were phased out. The Interceptors might not have been cheap enough for the station Commander at the time so he kept a stockpile. That's my theory."

"Sir, the Rebels use older model Tie craft sometimes if they can't build their own. We know there are elements hiding on the planet and that a Star Destroyer was hijacked from this station before it was decommissioned. They may have been maintaining this slipway for all these years."

"Training flights have strafed this station a hundred times. The instructors would notice if parts were repaired..." Dorja turned and gave the younger man a sideways glance. "Unless some of the instructors were traitors."

"I'll file an Intelligence report when we get back sir."

"With this new threat I doubt we'll ever spare the ships to properly search that planet for bases. We're certainly in no shape to start random bombardments and have a few squadrons swarm up at us."

"No sir."

The Admiral stood looking out the forward viewports at the toxic clouds shrouding the surface of the planet below.

"When the last of our damaged or destroyed vehicles have been recovered send a team to pick up the two A-wings in the station. One is supposed to be undamaged the other needing only minimal repair. If we have to we can press them into service."

+ + +

Wing pairs of Tie Gauntlet's flew patrols around the slipway and Ardent. Jag and his wingman had been ordered to land and get four hours sleep once they had returned from their search and destroy mission. Now they were back out on patrol while the other pilots took their short rest shift. It had been five hours since the last A-wing fighter had been found empty.

Jag and Tarth were waiting for clearance to go back into the station and begin a search for the Rebel. Before that happened the hanger techs had to finish repairs on some of the Interceptors to fly CAP in their place.

The repair work on the Ardent was becoming noticeable. Many of the largest gaps and holes in the hull had been covered by grey unpainted armour plate. Lower priority items like the hole in the ceiling of the main bay had not even been looked at yet.

The AT-AT crews knowing they would be of little use in a space battle had suggested mounting the heads of their vehicles in the holes left by the destroyed quad laser mounts. Given another thirty minutes the Ardent would have her external weapons increased by eight Laser Cannon. The now disabled vehicles were being cut into scrap to patch smaller holes if there was enough time.

With most of the raw materials now moved to the Ardent, or soon to be placed aboard, the station was fast becoming Stormtrooper territory. Somehow without the notice of the ship’s senior officers the troopers had moved two AT-ST's over to the station and set them up in the cargo mover corridors. The sight of the walkers inside the station had improved the morale of those still working inside, so the senior officers had decided to ignore how useless they would actually be.

An hour passed before messages started to come in on one of the main Stormtrooper Com bands.
"This is DV-493, I believe I've spotted the Rebel. I'm farther into the station, almost to the main axis."
The launch bay techs were still not finished the repairs to the Interceptors so Jag held his breath and waited.
"DV-493, attempt to capture the Rebel if you can. We have troops converging on your general area."
"Roger..." Reported the trooper. Within seconds he was back on. "Wait something is wrong."

A large explosion rocked the centerline of the station about where the trooper's transmission had been coming from. After that the transmissions became a mess.
"Rebel on a hover sled!"
"Fire!"
"AT-ST is moving up."

Flashes of cannon fire back-lit the interior through viewports and holes in the hull. There were dozens of blue flashes and then things began to quiet down.

+ + +

"Akeyiro Taulen to Ardent come in." Came the voice of the ship's trooper commander.
"This is Dorja go ahead." Replied the Admiral into his comlink.
"The station is secure. We have the Rebel... Alive."

011

+ + +

Another hour had passed since the Rebel had been captured. Dorja listened to Trooper Taulen's report over the com in his ready room.
"Casualties were not as bad as they could have been. One trooper killed and three others wounded. We were lucky that none of the other warheads on the hoversled exploded. An AT-ST driver had shot a big enough hole in the flooring in front of the cart that it couldn't avoid it. The driver was ejected from the sled from the impact then a dozen of my troopers stunned her."

"Fine. Start moving your men back to the ship. We're spending far too long here and pushing our luck. If any of your men can help with the repair work get them on it. If we arn't finished the basic repairs in six hours we are going to launch."

"Aye sir. I'll still keep a small force of my men posted through the station interior near the dock. I'll talk to the repair crew Chief about sending some troopers to move the blast deflector panels into place. Should assist with a fast launch. Taulen out."

Once the channel had closed Dorja leaned back in his chair. He was getting too old for this. It hadn't even been a full day since they docked here yet it felt like they were never going to leave.

+ + +

Dorja woke with a start to the sounds of "Admiral to the bridge" blaring over the inter-ship com. He had fallen asleep leaning back in his chair and had been that way for several hours.

The door to his ready room hissed open at his approach, a brisk stride fast getting him up to the command walkway.

Wintle turned to him as he approached. "Sevanar reports ships hypering into the system. Imperial and civilian IFF contacts."

"What kind of ships are they?"

"An older Destroyer... Right to Rule, a Carrack cruiser, Civilian passenger liners, freighters and light transport craft."

"Get me the Captain of that Destroyer."
“Channel open.” called the com officer.
"This is the Destroyer Ardent hailing Right to Rule, please respond."
"This is Right to Rule, Captain Cheyden Graal commanding. We are escorting refugees fleeing the Raioballo sector."

Dorja gestured to his com and a second later the communications officer in the pit below gave a thumbs up.

"Captain this is Admiral Dorja. I need to know a number of things right away. First, are you being pursued?"

"Affirmative. We've been beating off attacks for days now. Ever since the sector fleet was wiped out. Some of the larger Civilian transports were able to lift in time so we have been attempting to cover their escape."
Dorja cursed to himself. They had probably lead a fleet right to them.

"Captain how far behind you do you think enemy forces are?"

"We navigated through a system full of high gravity worlds at sublight. It might have bought us an hour."

Dorja put his hand over the com pickup. "Commander have the repair teams finish anything that wont hold up to space flight but otherwise halt repairs and begin pulling in our people. Ready fighters. Have our CAP head out to the refugee fleet's position."

Dorja took his hand off the pickup and continued with the Destroyer's Captain. "Captain what do you have in the way of starfighters?"

"A squadron of shielded TIE/ln Fighters, a few Interceptors and four Defenders. The civilian ships have a few Uglies."

"And your ship?"

"We're a flying wreck. There are only two Turbolasers left and they're not working so well. We did figure out how to keep our shields from being ripped off. Came too late to save the sector fleet though."

"Captain we're going to link up with your convoy in a short while. Our escort will come out to provide you cover. Dorja out."

Wintle turned from the station he had been working at during the conversation. "Admiral, the repair teams report that they will have that last sections secured and be aboard within twenty minutes. All of the large and mid sized breaches have been patched."

"Start bringing the last of the troopers aboard. Start disengaging the docking clamps. Launch all of our fighters when they're ready and send out Sevanar to guard those ships.
We are getting the hell out of here."

+ + +

"Space tight doors sealed. Disengaging docking clamps."

The twelve remaining heavy docking arms released and lifted up and away from the hull. Four on each side of the ship surrounded by space dock.

"Blast deflection plates are in place." Reported one of the remaining troopers on the station. "You are clear to engage sublight drives Ardent."

The helmsman must have been nervous about the impending arrival of enemy forces because within seconds of activation the drives had reached full power. The blast deflectors redirected the worst of the Destroyer's engine wash preventing damage to the station. Once Ardent had cleared the slipway the Destroyer began a hard turn to bring the nose of the ship away from the planet and around toward the convoy now moving across the system.

Minutes later an Assault shuttle left the station carrying the last troopers and technicians.

Dorja directed the badly damaged Right to Rule to take up the lead of the convoy while Ardent and the other military ships formed the rear guard. Many of the fighters from the convoy needed to be transferred to Sevanar for repairs as the older Destroyer had lost most of their machine shops during attacks.
Dorja wondered something about the refugees.
"Captain are all of the ships in the convoy from the Raioballo sector?"
"Not all of them. There are two ships from Dubrillion that joined our convoy at Dantooine."

"Did you encounter the three enemy ships that were in orbit of the planet?"

"No sir. There were no ships in the system when we arrived but they may have been on the far side of the planet. We were too busy trying to plot our next jump while we still had a head start."

"Commander we're jumping to Agamar correct?" Asked Dorja turning to find Wintle.

"Yes sir." Replied the younger man.

"How many lanes are there from this system to Agamar?"
"Direct routes? Just one."
"Find us another route, even if it takes three or four jumps."
The Commander nodded and moved off.

The sensors officer swivelled to face the senior officers. "Enemy contact detected. They’ve jumped in from Dantooine."

"I suggest you find that new route quickly Commander."

012

“New Course plotted. All Civilian ships will be ready to jump in two minutes.”
Dorja checked the chronometer then the rate of approach of the enemy ships. “We should be able to jump without any interference. Prepare to recover fighters.”

“New enemy Contacts.” Shouted the sensors officer.

Wintle checked over the sensor readouts. "One Cruiser and two Frigate Analogs moving to cut off the convoy. They jumped in from the main route to Agamar."

"What have we got behind us?"

"Three Frigate analogs, one Carrier and six corvettes. Fighters are closing from astern."

"Can we jump before the ships from ahead get within range?"

"Negative, they're generating a gravity well. It's edge is cutting off our new route."

They just didn’t have the firepower to beat a cruiser and it's escorts before the other enemy ships caught up.
"Tell Right to Rule to abandon ship. They're so set a collision course for the Cruiser analog. Launch recovery vehicles. Helm, get us to the head of the convoy."

"The rear guard sir?"

"Sevanar and the light cruisers can hold them off long enough for us to jump."

Right to Rule and Ardent accelerated, the newer Destroyer fast overtaking the civilian liners and reaching the head of the convoy.

"Fighters arriving from ahead."

The Ardent's gunners opened fire on the starfighters. Green Turbolaser blasts flashing out at the advancing swarm of fighters.

Ahead the Right to Rule was launching escape pods, shuttles, transports, even crewmen in EVA suits. The Assault shuttles maneuvered to give cover fire to the less armed vehicles. Two Turbolasers fired from the battered hull, each shot being absorbed by the tiny voids protecting the Cruiser. Support fire from Ardent flashed all around the shields of the wounded Destroyer, scaring away fighters and keeping the attention of the Frigates.

Right to Rule still maintained maximum acceleration, reaching impressive speed for such an old ship. Fighters were firing on the ship's engines and all three enemy ships were pouring plasma into the forward shields. The shields finally failed and one giant ball of plasma stored up by the cruiser blew the command tower clean off.

At the last second the cruiser dropped it's gravity well and put all of it's strength to one giant singularity. The Destroyer’s forward prow shrunk into the point where it contacted the mini black hole. Other parts of the ship were far enough away and moving with enough speed that they were thrown into a fast slingshot orbit. The aft hull of the Destroyer surrounding the engines was accelerated enough that the debris achieved escape velocity from the near edges of the hole. A wave of Star Destroyer debris whipped around the Cruiser Analog’s own defences at close to light speed, literally shredding it’s hull.

"Interdictor eliminated."

"Helm take us right down the middle between those two Frigates. Guns, take out those ships."

+ + +

The Imperial starfighters were outmatched more than two to one. They were so desperate that one of the pilots of a downed Interceptor had agreed to flying the captured A-wing. He was now single-handedly drawing the attention of more than a full squadron of shards, using the tiny fighter's incredible speed to dodge their attempts at catching him.

The A-wing lead a formation of shards right in front of the Assault Gunboats. A volley of torpedoes shook up the formation, destroying two fighters and leaving four others vulnerable to fire from the escorting Interceptors. Three more enemy fighters exploded from laser hits.

"Show off." Muttered Jag.

Even with that minor victory things were going badly. The shielded Tie fighters were forced to work in groups of four for their limited weapons to have any effect. Each Defender was working with an Avenger and an Interceptor making things interesting. The Gauntlets were flying in pairs, giving assistance to the other fighters were they could and trying to chase shards away from the civilian ships.

Things became an even bigger mess when escape pods and recovery vehicles from the Right to Rule began to arrive. The Assault and Lambda shuttles were able to provide some help though. Then plasma fire from two fighters punched through the top wing of a Lamb and sent it spinning out of control. The tractor beam on an Action Transport caught the shuttle and pulled it inside it's shields.

Up ahead two emerald green cones of fire marked the Ardent's position as she started slugging it out with two Frigate analogs. At the back of the convoy the aft Turbolasers of Sevanar were starting to take pot shots at the three oncoming Frigates. The two light cruisers were starting to move farther up, trying to clear away the worst concentrations of enemy fighters.

Jag and his wing dove straight into a formation of shards lining up for an attack run on the largest of the civilian liners. The sudden attack forced the group to break off and spiral around trying to find the Gauntlets. Instead of continuing on in a straight line Jag brought them around a Star Galleon and in behind one of the groups of fighters that had split off. One Shard exploded under the cycling fire of the two fighters and the other shards broke off.

The other two smaller formations were now on an intercept course with the Gauntlets, firing a hail of small plasma shots at them. One shot slammed into shields and another nicked a wingtip. The two Tie's dodged and weaved but maintained a predetermined direction. So fixated on the weaving targets were the perusing shards, that they didn't notice their proximity to a Carrack cruiser until it was almost too late.

The gunners had held ready for closer range and began firing when they could see individual fighters by eye. Turbolasers, Ion Cannon and Quad lasers opened fire knocking out half of the enemy fighters in the group. The rest went evasive, corkscrewing away in different directions and back to other groups of fighters.

Ahead, one of the Frigates battling Ardent exploded in a fiery mess of golden plasma. The other, it's hull now showing a dozen scorch marks broke off. The Ardent came about, keeping fire from it's bow batteries on the fleeing Frigate.
"All ships this is Admiral Dorja. You are clear to jump. Pass our position and engage hyperdrive. We will hold position until all civilian ships that can escape have done so."

The largest civilian ship, a big SoroSuub built luxury liner named Twilight Wanderer was now taking fire to her engines from starfighter attacks. "Gauntlets, concentrate your defence around the Twilight Wanderer. Most of the crew from Right to Rule are aboard."

The first ships at the head of the formation began their runs up to hyperspace. Before long the Twilight Wanderer was within weapons range of Ardent and the Destroyer began carefully putting fire into groups of fighters. Most ships were passing the liner and making their jumps, the light cruisers tightened their formation around the large ship. When the Sevanar caught up to the liner the enemy fighters broke off and headed for the carrier.

Even so Ardent continued to pour sheets of fire towards the fleeing fighters and approaching Frigates.

"Recover fighters! Get aboard the Ardent or Sevanar."

Before Twilight Wanderer even passed below Ardent, the Destroyer had already begun a turn to put it's nose in line for the hyperspace jump. At long last the final Civilian ship jumped out followed closely by both light cruisers.


"Direct all shields aft." Ordered Dorja as the ship was shook by a plasma blast.
"All hyperdrive systems report operational, preparing to jump."

Dozens of fighters latched into landing racks or set down in the main bays of the two ships.
Impossibly long seconds ticked by before the awaited words came from the crew pits.

"Main bay secure."
"All fighters recovered!"

"Punch it!"

013

+ + +

Hyperspace swirled past the bridge viewports much as they had for the past untold hours. Crew went through their duty shifts, keeping rested and alert young officers at the necessary bridge stations. Even Commander Wintle had opted to take a respite while Lt. Commander Kerrick now stood in. It would be six more hours before they dropped out of hyperspace near Toprawa.
Then he felt the all to familiar surge through the deck plating.

"Premature hyperspace reversion!" Shouted the helmsman as the Ardent was yanked out of hyperspace by it’s safety interrupts. Ahead were the other ships of the convoy and a dark green gas giant planet. Wintle and the navigators on the Ardent didn't make foul ups in hyperspace jumps. The Commander had been in charge of a hyperspace mapping ship before his transfer to Destroyers. Something was wrong.
"Report!"

Kerrick was fast to respond. "Our course for Toprawa was altered somehow. It's possible it was off by as much as four degrees."
The operations officer was quick to chime in. "That’s near impossible sir. Someone would have had to slice into our systems to cause an error that big."

"We may have been vulnerable when docked to the station." Kerrick suggested. "We linked our systems into the remaining operational computers around the slipway."

"Did our systems pick up any slicer programs trying to get into our computers from the station?"

"There's no way to be sure. We powered down whole sections of the ship while we were conducting repairs. A program could have drawn power from the station's reserves to run secondary computer backups. The main computer can sometimes detect even that kind of infiltration but we had it turned off for nearly an hour at one point while re-initializing the processors and sensor arrays."

"When were the computers turned off." Dorja directly asked the officer.
The younger man grimaced. "Just before the Rebel attack."

"I think I'll have to have a talk with our Prisoner later. For now we need to find out where we are and find a safe haven for these civilians. Ops, try and see if you can track down any slicer programs floating around. Check into the backups if you have to. Commander lets get this convoy into a high orbit around the gas giant. I want to be ready to get out of the gravity well if we need to jump again."

"Yes sir."

+ + +


"Contacts." Called out sensors. "Bayonet class light cruiser and a CC-9600 Frigate. IFF marks them as independents. Mercenaries."

"There are private defence fleets in this area not allied with the Rebels." Mused the Admiral. "Try checking the database for a match."
“Aye sir.”

"We are being hailed." Said Communications.

Dorja turned to Kerrick. "Here's where we find the fleet's disposition Lieutenant. Are they going to ask for our surrender? Or ask if we need assistance..."
"I think I much preferred the simplicities of running ship operations sir."
"You get used to it." Whispered the old man. "On the main screen please."

"This is Captain Nei Folen of the Frigate Paragon to incoming Star Destroyer, please respond."

"This is Admiral Dorja of the Destroyer Ardent. We are… some what lost to put it bluntly. May I ask the reason for a pocket Battleship like your own being in this system?"

There was little delay in the other ship Captain’s response. It must have been a question he received fairly often.
"We are part of a defence force assembled to protect the mining settlements in this system from pirate attacks. This system has been suffering from raids for the past ten years. The miners hire on Mercenary forces on extended contracts."

Dorja glanced off to the side as a nearby screen started scrolling information on this particular mercenary band. The numbers and types of ships were enough to make even a Star Destroyer think twice about tackling the group. He turned his attention back to the Captain.

"Can we trouble you for a Hypercom uplink? We've been out of contact with the Imperial fleet for an extended period."

The Captain frowned. "We lost Hypercom communications and contacts about two weeks ago. We have still been getting news in from transports and other ships that perform stopovers. The Hypercom blackouts seem to be widespread. Communications is patchy all the way from the Mid-rim to the Corporate sector. Most of the Hydian Way still has communications though."

"We need navigation routes to the nearest Imperial stronghold. I also need to speak to whoever is the leader of the Mining concerns in this system. It's likely to affect the future of operations in this system. We also have civilians aboard several transports. Some of them may need supplies and medical attention."

"Understood. The Main administration and civilian center is on an asteroid on the far side of the system. You should find a Nav beacon at two nine oh mark three five one. I hope you'll understand if we escort you in."

"It's quite alright. I hope to talk to you again once our business with the local government is concluded."

The transmission ended, the holo display going blank.
"Mr. Kerrick, get hold of the officers and crew from Right to Rule aboard Twilight Wanderer. I want to start moving them to the other military ships. Any experienced damage control and engineering teams are to help repair Wanderer. I don't want it slowing us down if we have to make another jump."

"I'll get right on it." Responded Kerrick who got right to work contacting the ship.

"Admiral." Called the sensors officer. "One of the freighters is breaking formation. It's headed for open space."

Dorja walked around the command walkway until he had a clear view of the sensors screen in the crew pit.
“It’s an Action V transport. Modified with weapons.”

“Incoming signal from the transport.”
“Put it on.”

A human male’s voice issued from the speakers sounding like he was on the verge of laughter. "Thank you Imperial watch dogs, for getting us away from whatever those things were. I'm certain we would have died without your assistance."

"The transport is accelerating much faster than a ship of that class is rated for." Whispered the sensors officer. Our CAP won’t get to within weapons range before they jump.”

"In our gratitude we'll give you a head start before telling any rebels we know where to find you. Before we jump here's a little rhyme to remember us by.

‘Dorja the cautious, Dorja the fool
Dorja's so old his lip's running with drool.’
Ha!
Good luck and May the Force be with you. Haha!"

The ship’s sensor contact winked out as it entered hyperspace.

"Take us to the asteroid station helm. We can't go chasing after some insane Rebel while there’s more important things to do."

+ + +

Jag Fel stepped onto the bridge of the Ardent wearing a light duty uniform instead of a Flight suit for the first time in days. It seemed like an eternity since the last time he'd been here. This time it was very different. The bridge was a riot of activity with nearly double the normal number of personnel present. Captain Cheyden Graal of Right to Rule stood talking to Dorja. Both men turned at his approach.

Jag snapped off a salute when he came to a stop in front of the two men. "Admiral, Captain." He nodded to each man in turn.

"Thank you for joining us Colonel. Captain Graal was just telling me about his ship's encounters with the enemy. You can carry on Captain, Colonel Fel has heard or seen other stories like yours before."

Graal glanced to take note of what his crewmen were doing then continued. "As I was saying, we had just taken a full broadside from an Alien Frigate analog. There was electromagnetic feedback and one of the consoles exploded killing the captain. Admiral Varsin was still alive at that time as he commands from a modified carrier.
The Admiral had been able to get sensor reports from the newer Destroyers before they were destroyed. The older ISD's don’t have sensor systems that are as sophisticated. The newer ships had more accurately detected the shifting gravity events when their shields were stripped.
I rolled the Right to Rule to hit the frigate we were battling with our undamaged starboard weapons. We damaged it forcing it off but we took return hits without our shields losing more Turbolasers. The Admiral then contacted us, telling how to protect our shields and promoting me to full Captain. He ordered us, the last Destroyer left, to jump out of the system and try to reach command. We took two undamaged light cruisers with us."

"You found the Civilians after that?" Questioned Dorja.

"Yes. We'd seen them escaping during the battle. It was easier just to stay with them as we ran."

"Well I don't have another ship to give you Captain. It seems like your command tour was a short one."

"It was long enough to make a difference sir, but I have been thinking."

"Go ahead."

"Other than her engine problems the Twilight Wanderer is a sturdy ship. It's of the same type that Rebels used to capture and convert into heavy cruisers."

"Dauntless, yes. Those things could be pests. You have plans for the ship?"

"Yes sir. We could keep the remainder of my crew that are still aboard her there for now. We could acquire some weapons from the Mercenaries and my crew and I would stay here, refit the ship and help defend this system until Imperial Fleets can get here."

"It seems like a waste of a passenger liner that could move thousands of a people out of the area."

"The Twilight Wanderer has a newer hyperdrive system. It's roughly of the same type that the ISDII uses. I noticed that you've been having trouble with your drives when I was talking to some of the bridge crew. You're maximum speed is reduced to that of slow civilian ships. Take the drives from Twilight Wanderer and leave it here."

Dorja exhaled then turned to Fel. "Colonel what do you think of the idea?"

Jag was slightly surprised to be put on the spot. "Well... this is navy matter and a command level decision, but I would be inclined to go with the Captain's plan. If we can mount the drive fast enough we could reach Imperial forces much more quickly."

"Very well Captain. It seems your plan must have merit if even Colonel Fel agrees with it. We'll move the hyperdrive over once we reach the asteroid base. Now if you'll excuse us Captain I need to talk to my starfighter commander."

"Sir." Saluted Graal before spinning on his heal and marching off of the bridge.

Dorja walked to the bridge viewports and waved for Jag to follow. "Colonel how are our starfighter forces faring?"

"Sufficient to repel a light rebel attack sir. We are not ready for a large battle again. We have forty one fighters if we include the small number of Uglies, most of those are damaged. We might be able to get ten more fighters using the debris of destroyed or crippled vehicles."

"Pilots?"

"We don't have enough. Fifty or so total. Not enough to properly rest them and maintain a CAP. It was ok at Gravlex Med because we had military ships that could last long enough for the pilots to get out of bunks and to their fighters if we really needed. But now-"

"Now we have civies to look after." Dorja cut him off. “Try to keep a CAP of four fighters minimum. It's not enough I know but it will have to do. Try and find some more pilots too. Check if any random officers or crewmen have Tie qualification."

"I did some checking already sir. Lt. Commander Devis of the Sevanar is qualified in the Tie Defender."

"You've got one of your Gauntlet pilots flying that A-wing don’t you? See if Devis can handle a Gauntlet if he wants to."

014