Into the Chaos Ch. 01

Then I used the Force to drag the two smugglers manning the weapon down from the small building they had used as a weapon platform.

I walked closer, lightfoil at the ready, but after I had parried the first few laser shots, they didn't even try to enter melee combat or run away. They simply surrendered.

I arrived back at our position with the two prisoners as the APC group had returned and to their credit, they had already loaded the wounded and unconscious Lieutenant Sigan into the back of it along with two other wounded troopers.

Leaving the practical details to the troopers, I had a chat with the prisoners, using the Force to make them more likely to reveal vital details and to ensure them that everything would turn out for the better.

That proved to be an exceptional good idea and I had the Comm operator connect me with the Phoenix right away. As usual, I got hold of the tactical officer. "Lieutenant Meistrin, two prisoners just informed me that the pirates have no less than three warships. The main ship is a cruiser with a dozen starfighters, but I don't know the exact class of cruiser. I do know that it's commanded by a Sith, who goes by the name of Lord Mahaw. The other ships are a Fury-class Imperial interceptor and a modified D5-Mantis Patrol Craft. I'm not familiar with the D5, but both patrol crafts and Interceptors are bad news. In addition, they have a modified freighter to haul the goods, most likely a Dynamic class. On the bright side, only a few of the crew are Imperials. The rest are pirates."

To Junior Lieutenant Meistrin's credit, she didn't curse one single time. At least not out loud. Patrol ships were usually smallish ships, around 30 meters long, and well-armed and armoured for their size, while Interceptors were tad larger and faster, but just as well equipped as a patrol ship. The only drawback was that since they were made to take down smaller ships, they usually sported dual or heavy lasers and not turbolasers.

The Phoenix might be a capital ship, but as a Frigate it was the smallest class in the entire navy and the cruiser alone would be a hard fight. Add two minor war ships and a freighter to it and the scenario became a nightmare.

I continued. "According to the prisoners, the ships are hidden in the ultrachrome refining facility four clicks southeast of here."

Which meant that not only were the enemy ships close to impossible to find with a scanner, the presence of our own people also made an orbital bombardment or attack out of the question.

On the bright side, if they were invisible to the scanners, they had to be powered down, which meant, that we had time to get our collected asses out of the system and call in some reinforcement.

Lieutenant Meistrin interrupted my thoughts. "Pardon me, Commander, but the cruiser just came out of hiding from behind the second moon and our Talon Interceptors are being attacked by Sith Starfighters. I'll get back to you later. Phoenix out."

Thoughtful, I leaned back against the wall. Even if the Phoenix managed to win the fight, and it had to since it couldn't outrun a cruiser, chances were, that it would be too damaged to enter hyperspace, which again meant that we would be stuck here for a long time.

Even worse, if the Sith came out victorious, they would have the high ground and we would have to hide. A notorious hard job, with a Sith force user over our heads.

Also, the other ships might be powered down for now, but as soon as the battle above us started, they would power up and join the battle, spelling defeat for us.

Plans and options ran through my mind as I watched the dropship land and the APC being loaded into it, while the troopers kept a tight perimeter.

There was only one way out of this and that was to ensure that the space-battle continued to be a one-on-one battle. As far as I had read, Sith Interceptors, or starfighters as the Sith called them, didn't have any shields and as ours did, they should have a good chance of winning that part of the battle, after which they could help the Phoenix.

Taking a decision, I pushed away from the wall. "Comm, get me the Black Dragons in the Commlink. Pilot, we're about to do something so stupid it might even work, so buckle up, coz this is going to be a bumpy ride!"

"Yes, sir."

Five minutes later, the ground zipped past us, as the dropship flew so low, that we were between the buildings and not above them.

Since Lieutenant Sigan was still out, I had taken the seat behind the pilots, enabling me to see what was going on.

The pilot muttered something to himself, as the dropships left wing clipped the top on an antenna, he clearly hadn't seen. On the other hand, even if he had seen it, he wouldn't have had time to react. Knowing that we weren't far from our destination, I chuckled. "No harm done. You're doing fine."

He didn't have time to answer, but his shoulders became a little less tense, so I looked at the monitor showing the rear view. The Black Dragons dropship was trailing us perfectly.

"There they are..." said the co-pilot and checked his read-out. "Two of them are running power-up cycles, but none of them are hot yet."

Nodding, I quickly looked at the scene. The three ships were parked in a triangle in an open area between taller buildings, with the pirates camping between them. Roughly the same size, the Mantis and the Fury almost couldn't be more different in regard to design. The Fury was flat, angular and wide, with two wing-like prongs that stretched out to double the length of the main hull. Normally, Sith ships are with predominantly black, with crimson accents, but this one was dark red.

The Mantis was tall, with a narrow, elongated fuselage with a swept-back, tapered profile and smooth, curving lines, and a matte grey colour scheme, but the most noteworthy detail of its design was the retractable weapon foils that was folded up on each side of the craft.

"Execute the plan."

The pilot took a deep breath and nodded.

On the ground, I could see pirates running towards their ships as the two dropships came screaming into view. A few of them of them tried to shoot, but the blaster bolts bounced of the shield like gentle rain. The return fire from the gunners didn't as it ripped through several heavy weapons that had been set up as a perimeter guard. More a military tactic than a pirate. Even more surprising was the number of bodies on the ground. As far as I could see, there were a lot more bodies than our attack could account for.

That was a concern for later I decided. "Land now."

With a short nod, the pilot expertly landed the dropship right on the Fury-class Imperial interceptor. The repulsorlift engines lifted the dropships just enough to kept it from damaging the Fury, but there was still a screech of metal against metal as the cargo door opened and the APC drover out onto the hull.

I nodded to myself. The Fury class was a sturdy ship, but even the sturdiest ship would have trouble take off with a dropship on top of it, which of cause was the plan.

A little further away, I could see the Black Dragons dropship land on the Mantis, causing the patrol ship to sag and cramming the landing gear into the ground, as the cargo door opened, and the Black Dragons jumped onto the hull, while the APC's side-gun gave supportive fire.

There wasn't any time to waste, so I got out of the seat, ran to the troop compartment and out on the hull of the Fury.

Several of the pirates on the ground were shooting in our direction, but the blaster bolts were easily parried and a moment later a trooper shot one of them, causing the rest to take cover. Not that it helped them since they were caught in a crossfire between my two squads on one side and the Black Dragons on the other side.

Ignoring them, I jumped down from the back end of the ship, using the Force to land safely on the ground in front of the open access-ramp to the Fury, which completely took the two guards there by surprise, as they were busy trying to shoot at the Black Dragons on the other ship. The lightfoil made glowing arches in the air as I took them out.

A group of three armed pirates appeared from within the ship. I reached out with the Force and sent them flying over my head and onto the ground between the ships before I ventured inside.

Finding a hatch leading to the top didn't take long, and soon I had a group, as well as one of the pilots from the dropship, along with me, as we headed towards the control room.

I had expected tough resistance, but the majority of the crew was already dead and most of them looked like their heads had been blown off... from the inside.

For a second, I pondered what had happened, but then realized that the dead crew must have been slaves, with an explosive device set into them to prevent them from running away. Those devices must have been keyed to the vital signs of the Sith and when the masters died, so did many of the slaves, as their devices activated. As far as I could see, there were no officers among the exploded persons, which indicated that the higher-ranking slaves were keyed to another circuit.

Most likely the main ship or the Sith commanding it.

It also meant that they would do anything in their power to prevent us from winning, because loosing would mean death.

I activated the comm. "Lieutenant Yaki. Do you have a signal interrupter on your dropship?"

"What, sir?" came the stunned response back, but then she said. "Yes, sir. Standard Issue, but..."

"Activate it now." I interrupted. "Set it to cycle through as many frequencies as possible and block the active ones, except our commlinks."

"Yes, sir."

We were almost at the cockpit, when there were several muted explosions and a moment later the Comm link activated. "Sir, the pirates just blew up!"

"Good. Secure the ships and see if you can find our people. They might have been taken as slaves. Also, some of the pirates might still be alive, so don't let your guard down." I changed channel. "Pilots, I want the APC into the dropship and both dropships on the ground ASAP. I'm sending them out to tell our people that they're safe for now."

"Yes, sir!"

I nodded to myself. The whole operation had gone way more painless than I had expected, but we weren't in the clear yet. If the cruiser won the battle above us, getting away would not be an easy task.

Old as they were, both the Fury and the Mantis were fine ships as far as I remembered from the datasheets, but compared to a cruiser, they were outgunned. On the bright side, most pirated modified their ships to take down large freighters, so there was a possibility, that these ships had greater firepower than I assumed.

Looking at the locked cockpit door in front of me, I ignited the lightfoil and stepped back. "Ready?"

The pilot nodded and lifted his sidearm. "Ready, sir."

Extending my free hand towards the lock, I focused on the Force and a moment later, a stream of purple lightning left the palm of my hand, hit the lock and both fried and overloaded the electronics.

There was a 'click', as the lock disengaged and then the doors opened.

The troopers rushed inside, weapons at the ready. That turned out to be unnecessary: The cockpit only contained four dead and headless bodies. It was a mess, but it was better than being shot at.

Activating the commlink again, I said. "The Fury is ours. Progress report."

The ship rocked as the dropship lifted off and at the same time, I heard Yaki say. "The Mantis is ours, Commander, and we'll get to the freighter in a moment. We can see moment in the cockpit, so whatever you did, didn't affect them."

"Roger. Have the dropships cover them with their heavy weapons, but don't shoot. Some of our people might be in there."

I pondered the situation for a moment. For all intent and purpose, this fight was over. Without ships, the rest of the renegades were easy picking, and the freighter didn't have a chance against two warships. "Comm, tell the Phoenix, that the enemy isn't going to get reinforcement from down here."

"Yes, sir!" came the enthusiastic reply.

Closing the commlink again, I looked at the gunner's station. As far as I remembered from the datafiles, the Fury-class had two dual laser turrets, one on each wingtip, but not only had these been upgraded to light turbolasers, the schematics showed a forward-facing Ion-cannon as well as a point-defence laser cannon turret on each side, for added protection.

Walking over to communications, I took of my helmet and looked at the labels, which were thankfully written in basic.

I pressed the one named freighter and a moment later a beautiful human woman appeared on the view screen. To my surprise, she was scantily dressed, reviling way more flesh and curves than any other uniform I had ever seen before and the dress only enhanced the fact, that she was nicely built. She also had fiery red hair that looked like it was sat in a ponytail and for a moment I didn't say anything as I took the unusual sight in. It was the first time I had ever seen anybody with red hair.

Unless I missed my guess, which was based on the limited knowledge I had about Sith society, female slaves to male masters were often forced to wear revealing clothes and were taken whenever their master chose to. However, if the woman on the view screen was a slave, that begged the question why she haven't blown up with the rest of them. Still, she did wear the insignia of a captain, so I had to assume that she was one.

I got hold of myself and switched to Basic, the most spoken language in the universe. "Captain, I'm Lieutenant Commander Thalen. Two warships and a couple of dropships are aiming at your ship. Please surrender you ship, before more blood has to be spilled."

"I'm Captain Samko." Her eyes glanced to one side for a moment, before they returned to me. "What will happen to my crew, if we surrender, Lieutenant Commander Thalen?"

Since it was a good question, I pondered that for a moment. The penalty for being a pirate was usually prison, unless evidence showed that they had murdered people, in which case the penalty was death. On the other hand, as slaves, the crew at the freighter haven't had a choice and that changed at many of the laws involved.

"Have you or your crew been involved in murdering our citizens?"

Captain Samko shook her head. "No, we're only here to haul any loot, though I have to say, that we have about twenty-five of your people in the cargo area right now." She smiled humourlessly. "So please warn your people not to be trigger happy."

With slavery being widespread in the Sith Empire, that didn't surprise me. To pirates, people was just another merchandise to sell on the black marked.

"You're slaves yourselves, right?"

She nodded shortly, so I continued. "Who's your master and what countermeasures have been used to keep you from running away?"

"Lord Mahaw." She hesitated. "He's commanding the warship you must know about by now. We have lost the signal to him, but this ship has a built-in signal replicator for situations like this and as long as we're in the ship, we're safe."

"Very well, Captain. Here's the deal. If you surrender and you have done nothing here but petty theft under the command of your master, I'll not only have the explosive device removed, so you're free, I'll also let you go free and have you transported to the nearest star port of your choice."

To my surprise, she shook her head. "Sorry, Commander, but the device cannot be removed. It has been placed there with The Force and is powered by our own lifeforce. Even your best techs can't do anything about it."

Now there was a statement, that didn't make sense. There was no reason for a Sith to go to those lengths for a simple crew on a relatively old freighter. Both of which could be easily replaced.

It was far more likely, that the Sith had done nothing of the kind, but persuaded Captain Samko and her crew, that he had.

I ignited the lightfoil and held it up so she could see it, since most people tend to associate lightfoils and light sabres with force-users, despite that there was nothing to keep ordinary people from using them. Force users were just better at it. "I'm fairly sure, I can make it happen. Will you allow me to try?"

She looked dumbstruck for a moment, but there was a slight smile when she finally nodded. "Indeed, I will, Lieutenant Commander Thalen."

"I'll come to your ship now."

"You will be most welcome, sir."

"Thalen out."

I closed the view screen and turned around. "I'll go to the freighter. Prepare both ships for take-off and check that the dropship didn't make any permanent damage. And fix that door."

"Yes Sir!"

As I walked down the corridor again, I asked the computer to give me a quick update on humans. They were the most numerous species in the galaxy and as such there were classes on the naval academy devoted to them, but it had been years since I attended those classes and I wanted to make sure that I haven't forgotten anything or stepped on any racial taboos.

A moment later the computer said. "Humans exhibit a wide range of characteristics. Their appearances vary drastically from one individual to the next, with skin tones ranging from the darkest ebony to the fairest ivory, though they don't come red, blue, or green. Eyes come in a kaleidoscope of colours, while hair textures and shades are equally diverse. Their bodies display a remarkable resilience, able to thrive in a multitude of environments, from scorching deserts to icy tundras. They're known for their astonishing adaptability, both physically and culturally, and as such, the Human race doesn't have any general taboos, but rather localized ones, depending on the culture and religion they grew up in."

I snorted to myself. That didn't tell me anything I couldn't remember, so I would just have to go with the flow on this one.

Walking out of the Fury-class ship, I contacted Lieutenant Yaki, explained the situation, and had her meet me at the freighter. No reason to go alone into a potential enemy ship.

Just to be on the safe side, I used a moment to concentrate on feeling the flow of the Force around me, but everything felt normal, without the disturbances, that indicated another Force user. Then I turned my attention towards the Dynamic-class freighter and discovered that looked surprisingly streamlined for a freighter, with a tapered nose and angular wings that most likely housed the engines and various other systems.

This one had certainly seen better day, but still looked solid and the access ramp opened without a sound, revealing a clean and well-lit interior as well as Captain Samko and another human woman bearing the insignia of a pilot. The revealing clothes were gone and instead they were dressed in standard jumpsuits.

"Welcome to the Cool Cat, Lieutenant Commander." Captain Samko said...

In my commlink, I heard Yaki mumble. "Come into my house, said the spider to the fly."

... and gestured us inside. "This is Georgina Writ, my pilot."

"Thank you, Captain." I said and followed the two of them as they turned and walked further inside the ship. A shiver ran down my spine, but I suppressed it.

For millennia, the only non-Chiss my race had encountered had been races trying to conquer us if given half the chance, so we tended to be both careful and cautious when dealing with other races. Following a non-Chiss into unknown territory was one of those things that I wouldn't normally do, but this time I didn't have a choice.

Not only was it my duty to try to liberate those Chiss taken as prisoners, but we also needed some of technicians to staff the ships if we were to aid Phoenix.

Fortunately, space is huge, and I didn't doubt that Captain Doran was fighting a running battle, where the Talon Interceptors could concentrate on the enemy starfighters in an effort to eliminate those before he would try to enter combat range.