“Accelerate thrust, flank speed, twenty percent downward to two one point seven three!” Grand Admiral Tethys shouted out her orders to her helm, not bothering with the shipboard comm after watching the ‘Temple Garden’ fail to capitalize on the opportunity to incapacitate the Executor’s hangar operations. She did not hesitate to take advantage of the opening. “All forward batteries fire at will!!” She turned her head from her real time perspective of the ships position through the forward viewport to hail the Tacnet her techs had enabled linking the Fifth Fleet with her own contingent. “Shesa. Bardan. Take up positions on our rear, match for speed but only decrease downward angle ten degrees. We will not give him an exit.” Tethys felt the tingling vibrations of victory race up her arms as the chaos she had inherited began to situate itself into the order she was engineering.
“Ma’am, that will line them both up with his forward torpedo arrays.” Vice Admiral Rae Sloan advised..
Tethys raised her head to convey the message to the Captains again but paused, “agreed Sloane but our wayward Captain out there isn’t going to risk suicide with the balance of his fleet so far out of range.
“But they are closing quickly Grand Admiral.”
Tethys spun to the holotable as she felt the first slight vibrations from the forward turbo laser batteries. Padding quickly to the image, she placed her hands around the curved lip of the table and launched into her visual assessment. She knew the opponent well as she studied the tight grouping of red blips as the separate fleets began to converge upon themselves five hundred thousand kilometers distant, “Shallah.” She said to herself, “what are you attempting?”
“Ma’am, is that Reece out there with her?” Sloane was at her heels, her attention drawn to the Secutor class Star Destroyer crossing paths with the old Venetor Shallah commanded.
“Most likely.” She said without turning her attention toward her second in command. “Which means Cellukt is responsible for all this chaos.”
“If that is indeed the case Ma’am, we need to be wary of Reece’s fighter wings.” Sloane responded with a subtle mumbling.
Tethys half turned to the young woman in her charge, “we need to be warry of all four elements Rae, they have everyone positioned in line with their strengths.”
The sound of quizzical thought, an expressed harumph that escaped Sloan’s lips caused Tethys to turn to her fully. “You have already forgotten Vomend planet side have you?” She asked, her eyes narrowing in disappointment, Sloan’s dark pigmentation glowing with a trace of red at the mention of Vomend, for whom she had truly not accounted.
“Rae, they do have the capability to wage orbital battle with lethal acuity, which must be adjusted for.” Tethys breathed out a heavy sigh as she turned back toward the holoimage, watching patiently as the blue pattern of live events refreshed itself. She narrowed her eyes again as she focused on the contingent of blockade vessels, noting the divide forming between the screening Star Destroyers immediately behind her own position. The image waved through another refresh cycle as three additional squares materialized within the image, the three Destroyers she had assigned flanking maneuvers. She raised her head once again to address the Tacnet, “Gunderson, target his sub light array only. I don’t want you wasting time trying to penetrate the energy shielding on their hyperdrive.”
“Copy Ma’am.” A rough voice returned to her ear bead; distortion coupled with the electronic modulation causing the words to take on a menacing tone.
“Grand Admiral, you need to hear this.” A comms technician voiced in her ear bead; Tethys turned her attention to the communications console array toward the rear of the command deck. She shook her head slightly as she nodded toward the energetic young woman.
“Sir, our shields are sixty percent and declining rapidly. Drex and Naughtly can only hold off incoming phalanx for a time. May I suggest you give the Grand Admiral an opening to continue fire while we correct and account for the converging fleets outward.”
“And allow these miscreants to dictate our actions fully? Have you lost the nerve to take the fight to the enemy now?”
“Sir, I only suggest we present this vessel as an option for Lord Vader to return to…”
“And now prognosticating our demise! Have we a fleet Captain?”
“A fleet that is currently en route to account for the multiple threats you have ignored since the outset of this campaign!”
“How dare you Captain! This is grounds for court martial!”
Tethys felt the pangs of rage Piett must have been suppressing as her own flared fully, pumping adrenaline through her body and wanting nothing more than the opportunity to choke the life from the daft Admiral. “Give me a line on that Ensign, I want the entirety of Executor to hear this.”
Several finger taps over illuminated keys before her and a toggle of a switch, the Ensign turned to her Grand Admiral with a thumbs up.
“On that I can certainly agree. For the time being Admiral, you are relieved of duty. Captain, the ship is yours.” She finished, motioning to the comms technician to end the outbound feed shaking her head feverishly as she turned back toward the holo display wondering what it would take to arrest this Captain Piett from Lord Vaders command and give him charge over her own fleet. To her surprise the emerging squares that had been present within the holoimage where not present after the image refreshed its real time view. ‘That’s odd.’ She thought to herself.
“Ma’am!” One of Tethys’s technicians shouted from his analysis pit close by.
“Speak!” She shouted back without turning, staring blankly into the image, watching as the colors bled into themselves, the specific geometries of friend and foe warping into an abstract illusion of presence.
“Temple Garden has ceased firing!”
She lifted her head and turned slowly to the technician, her mind wandering down separate wamprat holes of possibility. Tethys looked past the technician and squinted her eyes to look upon the massive vessel through the forward viewport, the numerous turbo laser blasts from Executor and Ravager littering the shielding surrounding the Mon Cal liner. The creases that had formed in the corners of her eyes pulled tight as they began to open wide, her mouth following suit as comprehension began taking form. The voices of various crew members as well as her own Vice Admiral questioning what she was seeing fading in her ears as she saw the blasts slam into the shielding surrounding Temple Garden without the residual disbursement of energy coursing perpendicular to the blast’s trajectory in waves of diminishing threat. The blasts were absorbed in tight concentric circles surrounding the impact trajectory and being funneled into the hull of the ship through large circular appendages. She whipped her head back to the analysis pit, one eye forward to the viewport.
“Is that vessel large enough to incorporate an oscillating device?”
“Running the numbers Ma’am.” The same technician responded immediately.
The change within Haisava Tethys was palpable as the earlier tingle of premature excitement began to erode from the finely sharpened blade of underestimation. She raised a hand to her forehead and began rubbing vigorously at her temple flesh as she realized she had just possibly made the same mistake her Vice Admiral had.
✦
“Shallah, we’re losing shields faster than we’re making any progress with our laser batteries, the armor on Executor is only magnified by the strength of its own shielding. They are beginning to target our sub light capability so it’s now or never.” Nohk said through the device attached around her montral.
Shallah felt the urge to yell out her frustration but knew continuity of forward operations depended upon her ability to maintain her own discipline. “Copy Nohk, give me one more rotation and we will be in range.” She responded with a finger pressed to her throat, the fingernail threatening to draw blood in the process as she spun to the left bank of data pits contained within the port tower bridge of the Old Lady.
“We need more speed gentlemen.” She said to the group of mixed species crew that occupied each data station, monitoring screen and control console. “We have approximately thirty seconds to get ourselves within torpedo range of Executor.” She returned her finger to her throat. “Reece. How much more time do you need to launch your wings?”
“Shallah, you realize once we do we’re committed fully.” He responded with a slight hesitation, her mind understanding his meaning implicitly.
“I do Reece. We cannot hold off in preparation for what might materialize. Vomend’s success will be determined by our ability to restrict his opponent’s reinforcement attempts and understand that threat can come from any of those Star Destroyers out there.”
“I do Shallah. Give me another thirty seconds.” Reece responded, her right montral returning his reply as her left conveyed the shout from her forward data pit.
“Ma’am we’re in range.” The senior member of the tactical station alerted his Captain.
‘Now or never indeed Nohk.’ She whispered to herself. “All forward torpedo banks fire!” She shouted, doing her best to suppress the fury that coursed through her veins. She would have gladly traded places with Nohk for the mission had Vomend not suggested the unusual tactic of placing the least aggressive Commander in charge of the floating chaos that Temple Garden represented. But she did have to admit to herself that nothing this group did was either customary or field tested, and that fact would be incredibly annoying to defend.
“Nohk, prepare your oscillators and engage your energy shield. We’re coming in hot!” She said as she turned and walked with a measure of conviction toward the view forward. She placed a hand astride a vertical beam inlaid into the clear transparisteel as she narrowed her eyes toward the eight streaks of blue carrying their ordinance toward the Imperial behemoth. A slight lurch in her vessel causing her to brace herself with that same hand as another volley of eight blue streaks following the same course through the diminishing distance between the Old Lady and Executor made the same deadly promise of continuing annoyance. She knew the torpedoes would cause minimal, if any, damage, but that wasn’t the point. ‘Take the bait Ozzel…’ she thought to herself as tiny black specs began to take shape between herself and the brilliant swirls of oranges, yellows, and lazy streaks of red that Ambria boasted to the galaxy. “Prove me right you tog’na ki.” She said for anyone listening as she continued staring out after the linear streaks of propellant gases, following them with narrowing eyes in the hopes of catching the impossible signs of impact.
Shallah turned to head back toward the holoimage, her eyes training on the upper left corner of the orbital representation. “Where are you?” She had expected the emergence of the three Star Destroyers that had gone dark toward the beginning of the encounter some time ago but had yet to show.
“Piers, why am I not seeing those dark SD’s? Did we miss something?”
“No Cap, we didn’t.” A frail and aged voice responded. Her choice for comm’s specialist, the man was three times her age, blind and occasionally dove into tirades and rants in efforts to close arguments from fifty years prior but was the most gifted signal and transponder analyst any of them had ever worked with, “Cap, I do have a scrambled signal coming in I cannot decipher.”
“Play over comms Piers.” Shallah responded as she continued studying the holoimage.
A warbling static laced feed echoed through the entirety of the command deck that changed in amplitude and effect as the old man continued spiraling knobs with a withered hand placed against an earmuff plastered to his head. The sounds mingled before melding into a trio of trading whispers, overlapping themselves into incoherent garble.
“Cap, I am working on it. This is the first time I have ever encountered audio encryption.” Piers said with an almost youthful exuberance. “It’s a matter of isolation as the signal is RF.”
Shallah turned fully to the man some twenty meters away and began walking toward him. She could see him working furiously on the various dials and switches, an effort to combine the coded terminus for the aged comms method. “RF?”
“I would wager it’s either alliance or rebel in origin Cap.” Piers added.
“Why?” She asked.
“Because Imperials wouldn’t use it, nor would they be monitoring it.”
Shallah couldn’t argue the assessment as the audio throughout her bridge continued to carry the eerie whispers throughout its entirety. She did recognize the pattern that Piers clearly did as the audio began to slow down in synchronicity. He was then able to isolate three separate signals within the original and played them individually. A gleeful chirp came from the man as he spun his gaze toward his approaching Captain.
“Ma’am…” He began before she cut him off.
“Captain, Piers, Captain.” “Yeah, ok. It is the same message Shallah.” He said excitedly.
Shallah rolled her eyes slightly as she waited patiently for the man to get the point.
“Listen.” He said, trimming off the secondary and tertiary repetitions.
“Rotucexe no ecnegrevnoc deeps knalf, steelf rouy elbmarcs. Tnenimmi ecapsrepyh morf tnaced, xis ruoy no taerht eht hctaw.” Resounded through the command deck, everyone halting in their activities as all eyes turned to their Captain and comms specialist.
“What language is that?” Shallah asked as the old man halted the relay, letting the dying echoes of the strange message fall away.
She half expected a quizzical look in response as he lifted his head to face her completely, shocking her with a crazed smile stretching across his withered features, his glazed milky eyes consuming her fully. “The same we are speaking now Shallah, just not in a way we would expect.”
“Piers….”She began.
“Listen Cap.” He said as his hand found a large silver dial. He punched its center and turned it slightly counterclockwise.
“Watch the threat on your six, decant from hyperspace imminent. Scramble your fleets, flank speed convergence on Executor.”
A squelched high pitch whine emanated from the ear bead astride her right montral, “What?” She said a little too loudly.
“Shallah, were receiving a highly encrypted message source unknown.” “I know Reece, we’ve already worked through it.” She said before relaying the contents of the work Piers had done.
“We haven’t gotten that far.” He responded.
“Send it over.” She replied tapping Piers on the shoulder, “I have another for you Piers.”
“That’s old man to you young lady.” Piers said, his withered smile stretching further across his cheeks as he plastered his hand over his ear again and began working the dials before him. Through the same process he isolated the original message and played it over the Old Lady’s feed to their shard Tacnet.
“Launch your fighter contingent, scramble the fleet and converge on Executor.”
“Get that Reece?” Shallah asked, her finger pinching at her throat again.
“I did too.” Nohk returned.
“Old man I need to know how confident you are in your assessment.” Shallah said quietly to the comms specialist.
“If you’re asking whether I believe this is Imperial or not, it isn’t.”
“Reece, launch your fighter contingent. Now! All vessels converge on Executor flank speed. Now or never Nohk….engage!” She shouted, letting all her pent-up frustration loose with the verbal volley. Knowing full well she had just issued what may just be her final order.
✦
“We cannot maneuver in time Captain and Ravager is too far below us.” Tamm all but screamed at his Captain.
“Lucidity it is then Freebo, you heard Shallah.” Nohk returned without betraying the annoyance brewing within over his lack of practical options. “All hands prepare for Oscillation discharge. Energy shield retraction on my mark.” He looked toward the Sullustan who always had a worried expression. “Tamm, get us out of here the moment that discharge finalizes.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice Captain.” Freebo Tamm said with a look toward the navicomputer display screen.
The continuing barrage from the converging Star Destroyers rang through the command deck, adding to the whirring pitch of the Oscillators as they consumed the lethal energy within.
“Open forward doors!” Nohk shouted, his voice in contention with the building hum of the concentrating energy. A heavy clank thudded through the vessel’s framework as illumination across the bridge flickered slightly from the activation of both the oscillation mechanism and the layers of magnetic ray shielding designed to ensure the ships integrity. A mechanical roar ensued drowning out all other sounds as the forward door mechanism accelerated through its ranges to come to a halt with a frame shuddering thud at maximum exposure causing a deafening metallic bang and final clank to punctuate the inevitable.
“On your mark Captain.” Tamm said with a wavering hand over the deactivation switch for the ship’s energy shield.
“All hands prepare for incoming fire.” Nohk shouted without need, the command deck registering an eerie silence following the cacophony of noise. “Open a channel to Executor.”
Freebo turned to him with a dour expression, his upper lips coated in saliva. “Open Sir.”
“Executor, this is Temple Garden….checking out.” Nohk said with a smile. “Mark!”
Freebo dropped his hand without thinking, as incoming turbo laser fire bombarded the vessel from all angles, violently rocking the ship with a cadence of spasms and lurches nearly shaking the Devaronian from his perch. Several sections of ducting loosed themselves from stanchions above them as they crashed into consoles and brought torrents of wire with them. Wildly sparking data centers and monitoring equipment began to flare with chaotic incendiary reports as screens smashed and technicians were rocked from their feet. The chaos lasted only a few seconds before Nohk screamed again. “FIRE!”
There was no wavering hesitancy or flare of indecision as the forward viewport was filled with a blinding green light. Everyone brought their hands up, ducked behind console banks or placed data pads before them as the intensity of the encroaching light threatened to steal every ounce of vision they possessed. Just as quickly as it had flooded them it receded as the state of silence was vacated by a thundering roar that caused hands to switch from eyes to ears, Nohk himself fell from his seat with a knee planted on the decking below him. The roar grew to unbearable levels as the ship began to vibrate with an intensity none of them had expected. For a moment Nohk Cellukt was certain he had just brought doom upon thousands of his compatriots before the light receded completely, the sound died to a high-pitched ringing in everyone’s ears and the bone jarring vibrations ceased completely. Everyone that could had fixated their gazes upon the brilliant white circle of destruction that had been the Star Destroyer Lucidity.
“Lytte get us the hell out of here!” Nohk shouted after arresting his attention away from their cataclysmic results.
“Yyyessss Sir!” The helmsman stammered, saliva dripping from his lips as he wrapped both hands around the drive yoke and slammed it forward, transforming the view from awe inspiring destruction to the swirling whites and blues of hyperspace.
✦
“Sir, has he already forgotten about the advancing threat?” A junior signals analyst said, his youthful voice wavered, betraying his attempts to steady himself.
‘My sentiments exactly’ Captain Piett thought to himself as he watched the technicians screen adjust for both the increasing speed and vectors of the advancing fleet thrown askew by the crooked starboard cant the Executor was enacting. ‘Ozzel you fool.’ He almost said aloud, gripping the rail to the console banks left as he eyed his Admiral. “Sir, I would suggest discretion in committing so fully to a single target, for the sake of one you’re exposing our hangar decks to incoming torpedo fire.” He finally said, unwilling to simply say nothing in the face of the tactical blunder.
“When I want your opinion Captain, I will ask for it.” Admiral Ozzel returned with a snark, his jowls slack as he looked down the bridge of his nose at his Captain in the crew pit below him.
“Sir, I only maintain that General Veers is still waiting on the bulk of his unit’s planet side.” Piett responded with growing frustration, suppressing the sudden urge to unholster his firearm.
“Tethys has graciously committed her own ground forces toward that endeavor Captain.”
Piett could feel his heart hammering in his chest, ‘only because you’ve put us in this position!’ he thought, “Admiral at least commit several of the screening Star Destroyers to protecting our hangar decks, your executed position has left us exposed.” He was running out of patience for diplomacy.
Ozzel turned slowly to stare out the foreword viewport watching as the Mon Calamari behemoth rolled slowly, firing from every turbo laser emplacement the ship had to offer as they lined up with the Imperial Dreadnought, peppering the entire upper deck of the Executor with unending bolts of both red and blue energy. “Very good Captain.” He said, turning his attention back down toward the ship’s Captain. “As you see fit.”
Although not necessarily a victory in Piett’s eyes, at least it was an admission of the Admiral’s zealousness, he tapped at his throat. “Defiance, Corvair, Severance, converge to intercept incoming fire from outbound fleet, screen our toe midships. It is imperative we can service our forces ground side.” Piett said with his crisp clean accent, providing no excuse, nor rebuttal, for or from the assigned ships Captains. He ascended the short steps out of the analysis pit and turned his attention forward through the viewport, watching as the battle silently played out before him. Converging hyphens of energy trading places with one another, neither ship causing any sustainable damage to the other, for the moment. He understood what the Admiral was trying to accomplish but also understood the insanity the attempt defined. Turning into the makeshift warship with all top side turbo laser batteries firing away was a mistake he wasn’t sure he could rectify in time. He squinted his eyes as he slowly approached the Admiral’s side before the thick transparisteel. “Sir, our shields are sixty percent and declining rapidly. Drex and Naughtly can only hold off incoming phalanx for a time. May I suggest you give the Grand Admiral an opening to continue fire while we correct and account for the converging fleets outward.”
Admiral Ozzel wheeled around to look upon his Captain fully, “and allow these miscreants to dictate our actions fully? Have you lost the nerve to take the fight to the enemy now?” He recited, spittle forming at the corners of his mouth as his beady eyes seemed to disappear further into his skull.
“Sir, I only suggest we present this vessel as an option for Lord Vader to return to…” Piett found the words despite his building frustration.
Ozzel cut him off, “and now prognosticating our demise! Have we a fleet Captain?”
Piett felt the internal tether release, the suppression of his aggravation give way to contemptible rage, “A fleet that is currently en route to account for the multiple threats you have ignored since the outset of this campaign!”
“How dare you Captain!” Ozzel began, his face reddening at a feverish pace. “This is grounds for court martial!”
“On that I can certainly agree.” Grand Admiral Tethys voiced over the entirety of the shipboard comm. “For the time being Admiral, you are relieved of duty. Captain, the ship is yours.” She finished, the twang of electronic static doing nothing to conceal her adamant tone.
Ozzel could say nothing as his mustache furrowed from the contortions his face involuntarily conveyed. The flushing anger that had previously reddened his face gained a burning quality that he could feel on the ridges of his own ears. But he knew he could say nothing. He could only investigate the blank, deceptively vacant, expression of Captain Piett and blow out his fueled rage in an exasperated wordless breath before turning to remove himself from the command deck. He knew any further action on his part could very well lead him to his own court martial in the eyes of the Grand Admiral. ‘Well played Tethys, well played.’ He thought to himself, averting the gaze of every officer and enlisted conscript by staring at his own feet as he shuffled them toward the turbolift banks. The walk seemed to take forever as he was left to silent contemplation and jumbled thoughts that weren’t cohesive by any stretch. He reached the lift and entered as the door slid open, without turning to face his crew he disappeared from their view with the quiet hiss of the door actuators.
Piett stared after the man for a few more seconds before returning his view forward, the contest of laser fire continuing despite the tumult he had been engaged in. Within the blink of his eyes, the enemy vessel stopped firing. Piett canted his head to the side and watched through narrowing eyes as turbo laser fire from the Executor bombarded the Mon Calamari ship from stem to stern. He cast a glance down to his right through the viewport to see Ravager enacting the same seen from her position below them. Returning his gaze to the heavily modified warship, he watched as circular protrusions emerged from several ports along the entire axis of the ship’s hull. The pit of his stomach fell from its position as he wheeled around suddenly, “cease fire! Thirty-degree shift Port!”
“Sir?”
Not entirely sure who had questioned him he rushed to his helmsman and cooly repeated his order, “we need distance between us and that ship...now!” He had seen emerging technologies within discretionary intelligence briefings and knew what oscillator collectors looked like. ‘That.’ He said to himself as he tapped his throat. “Mayhew, secure hangar operations and brace for impact! All hands secure your positions!”
Piett swung his gaze forward again, watching as the Mon Cal liner consumed the continuing turbo laser fire from the Ravager for a split second before the green hyphens began finding purchase on the ship’s hull plating. Vacuous explosions tore through the meek durasteel, fragmented explosions that sucked themselves out of existence as quickly as they flared to life. Before he could comprehend the damage the ship must be sustaining he was blinded by a bright green flash that consumed the entirety of the transparisteel, causing everyone looking forward to shield their eyes as they turned from the brilliance with squawks of discomfort, surprise, and shock.
Piett felt ripples pass under his feet, tremors that vibrated through the skeletal superstructure of the Executor with rhythmic consequence. Several console banks sparked and flashed as their electrical connections were severed. He could hear the clanking of metal on metal as parts broke free and fell from their places of origin. Despite his growing curiosity he knew this was only the beginning and refrained from moving from his position as he held onto the upper thrust bar atop the helms control console. On cue, a seismic burst flared through the ship, shattering control screens and causing most personnel to clamp hands tightly over their ears. He felt something warm and wet drip onto his neck and risked breaking a hand free from the death grip he had enacted on the thrust bar to streak a finger over his ear. Droplets of blood adorned his fingertips as he smeared the thin trickle of free-flowing liquid across his cheek. Piett looked up and into the eyes of the helmsman directly in front of him, small trails of blood tracing their ways down his cheeks. The man’s eyes suddenly closed tight to the shared pains they were all suffering. Piett looked down to see the man clinging tightly to the helms control yokes. Both hands continuing to carry out and maintain his Captains orders despite the obvious pain and agony he was enduring. Piett could only hear a sharp ringing in his ears as he slowly spun his head toward the viewport, the ship that had consumed the transparisteel was gone, leaving him with a clear view of the planet below.