Print Page - Jokers Wild

Chapter One: First Contact

Major B'Lain'Throwd sat at his bridge station on the Hornet as the swirling blue tunnel of hyperspace collapsed and gave way to the star-streaks of emergence. The carrier glided effortlessly through space, their emergence unremarked as the helmsman made a subtle adjustment and brought the ship's sub-light engines to full power for their approach to Syvris. In the distance, still just a speck, was the moon itself, the shadowport not yet visible from their position. A quick glance at the board showed the ready flihgt - Silver Flight, in this case - all in the green and ready to launch on a moment's notice if there were trouble. The rest of the squadron was at "plus five" state, the ships prepped and ready, droids and pilots standing by. He was no exception, suited up in his flight suite rather than the more comfortable ship-board uniform the rest of the crew wore.

The Captain, Lt. Colonel Er'Wyn'Nath was in his "thinking pose" - sitting back in his command chair, arms crossed across his chest, right hand idly stroking his short beard while he studied the forward viewer intently. The Captain was going gray and kept his hair cropped neat and short to keep the salt-and-pepper in check. The Shadow Port on the moon Syvris had long been a haven for smugglers and so-called "free traders", a literal hotbed of thieves and villany. That had all ended two years earlier, when Darth Vader led his Death Squadron in a raid on the Shadowport, capturing or killing most of the chief smugglers and virtually wiping out the port faclities. In the aftermath of the raid, which came because the smugglers were moving supplies for the Rebel Alliance, the Mak'Tor had sent a small relief force to aid the destitute survivors in recovering and rebuilding.

Since then the port had recovered some of its former glory - and infamy - but no where near its capacity. Still, it was utterly lawless and a place one approached only with caution. The Captain abandoned his pose and turned to the communications officer. "Hail the outpost on the primary channel. Use the Mak'Tor code Kage Lo provided."

"Aye." The comm officer had the hail prepared and with a few keystrokes the encrypted message was winging its way through space to the distant port. "Message away."

"And now we wait." Nath swivelled to face his CAG. "So, Blain, are you ready for this?"

"Jokers are wild, sir." Blain answered with a smile. "Once we get an acknowledgement we'll launch. Lt. Naith will take the Major down in her bird. With your permission, ma'am?" He nodded to Major El'Lynn'Mack, the ship's XO and the only other Knight aboard the ship. Like the second lieutenant, Major Mack was a Knight and an Armsman. By law the Armsman's oath overrode even the Knight's oaths of loyalty to the Mak'Tor order, but in practice having the Mak'Tor Kage as the Defense Minister tended to negate the two oaths from coming into conflict.

Major Mack smiled and nodded. "Lt. Naith is an acceptable pilot, Blain. It will make Koawan Sif'an'Cam more comfortable as well, I think, and hopefully free her tongue on what she really wants and needs for security here."

Nath nodded, back in his thinking pose. "Very good. Go ahead and make your preparations, Elynn. Assuming the Mak'Tor mission is on their toes we should be getting a response in ... seven minutes. I want to launch immediately."

"Yes sir." Elynn replied. She locked down her station and left the bridge, headed toward the flight deck.

B'Lain keyed his headest live and opened a channel to the flight deck. "Joker One to Joker Nine."

"Go One."

"XO is headed your way, Jan. Get her down safe and watch your backs, you hear?"

"You got it, One." Jan replied and cut the channel. B'Lain smiled. Two Mak'Tor Knights in the Shadow port, both women, alone. Maker, I wish I could be there to see it!

<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>

The man approaching actually looked nice. His clothes were clean and neat, his hair in place, and he didn't reak of alcohol or drugs. Despite this and the smooth look on his face he, like the previous dozen or so men who'd approached them on their short walk from their landing pad, simply radiated lechery in the force. The Major sighed. "Your turn, Lieutenant."

"Ma'am" Jan'a replied. She didn't give this one a chance even to speak. As his mouth opened to begin his proposition, she simply raised a finger. Reaching into his mind, she said. "Go home to your wife. Be satisfied."

The man blinked twice and his mouth closed with a snap. He suddenly looked around nervously, mumbled an apology, and walked away with a purposeful step.

El'Lynn grinned. "Nice one. Bit of a risk, though. How did you..."

"Wedding band on his left finger. That plus his overall look suggested one of the few well-off types around here 'slumming' and looking for something on the side. Kinda made me mad, actually." The younger woman wrinkled her nose a bit. "Not sure I actually did his wife any favors."

"You will have if it sticks." El'Lynn replied. "We should be getting close. The clinic is on this street, very near the port." She scanned the addresses as they walked, chuckling as yet another drunk man rose to address them, only to fall unconscious in his advanced inebriation. "I just wish I knew what we're doing to attract so much attention? Its not like we're dressed for a night on the town, after all." She indicated her flight suit, identical to her pilot's. The Men-At-Arms pilots wore a loose-fitting flight suite made of light-gray "second skin" nano-tech smart-fabric that allowed survival in virtually any environment including the vacuum of space for a minimum of eight hours. With a fully operational ejection pack, a pilot forced to eject in space could expect to survive for up to 48 hours before running out of breathable air. The suite was striped with reflective strips of high-vis yellow and carried no insignia or markings. Large cargo pockets carried - and concealed - their DL-44 blasters as well as the women's light sabers. While there was nothing visible to mark them out as anything special, the suites were baggy and generally formless, and far from flattering. Yet it had taken the first man - a drunk dock worker - less than twenty seconds to proposition them once they left the landing pad, and there had been a steady stream of offers from all types of men since they left their fighter with Blue.

"You're women. There are twelve men to each woman in this place. A pretty face is more than enough." The individual, wrapped in a hooded gray cloak, emerged from the shadow of a doorway and spoke with a smooth - and feminine - contralto voice. "Major Mack, I presume?"

El'Lynn stepped forward slightly. "I am. Koawan Cam?"

The gray form bowed in acknowlegement, and delicate hands rose to push back the cowel, revealing a thin face with high cheekbones and piercing green eyes framed by flowing amber tresses. "At your service, Mistress Mack."

El'Lynn returned the bow and waved Jan'a forward. "Koawan Cam, may I introduce my companion, Lieutenant Jan'a'Naith." Jan'a stepped forward and traded greetings with the Koawan, who turned her eyes back to El'Lynn.

"It is good to meet you both. Please, come in." The Koawan turned and led them back through the portal from which she'd appeared, El'Lynn and Jan'a close on her heals.

A battered-looking blast door opened smoothly before them and it was as if they'd teleported. The area outside could only charitably be called a neighborhood. Most would call it a slum, and it looked the part with dusty, dirty streets and decayed and decrepit buildings. But once inside... The walls were clean and brightly colored, the corridors were well lit and there were plants and natural light everywhere. Koawan Cam shed her outer robe, revealing the light gray robes of a Mak'Tor Knight as she led them across an airy and inviting atrium and into an equally comfortable, if small, office. "Please, sit." She said, indicating comfortable chairs.

"Thank you." El'Lynn replied as the three women sat down. "So, Koawan Cam, as you know the Kage has sent us out to patrol this area, and we wanted to make a courtesy call and find out what we can do to enhance your security here on Syvris."

The Koawan leaned back in her chair, fingers steepled, and regarded the pair. "So... Now we're worried about security. I've been pestering the Chiefs for more patrols for months, and then one of Silman's pets gets kidnapped..." She cut herself off, blew out a sigh, and smiled. "Sorry. Just a little frustration. But you're here now. What do we need? Basically we need our supply lines to be secure. With good supply, we can keep to ourselves and keep our heads down. The Houses that were hit by Mellichae were located because they were out in the public eye trying to acquire medical supplies to keep their Houses open. In fact three of the five raids were conducted on small parties that were following up on offers of support. If you can keep the pirates away from my supplies I can handle anything else locally."

El'Lynn nodded. "I think we can do that. Our primary mission is piracy suppression along the trade routes. Is there anything else you need?"

"Just a heads-up if anything unusual or threatening happens." She gave El'Lynn a very level look. "Another expedition by your cousin, for example."

El'Lynn managed to keep her face impassive at the dig. "I am assuming you mean Meanowan Master Ka'A'Mack?" The Koawan nodded slightly. "I'll ... do my best to keep you informed. The Meanowan Master doesn't necessarily answer to Central Command."

"From where I sit the Maenowan doesn't answer to anyone." Koawan Cam shot back, making no real effort to hide her dislike. "In fact, he doesn't seem to answer to anyone at all."

"Master Karmack is a good man! He's just trying to keep the Mak'Tor and M'Tzigon safe!" Jan'a blurted out. "Why would you say such things about him?"

Koawan Cam shook her head. "I have no doubt his intentions are good. But the Mak'Tor have existed in relative peace and safety for six hundred years by being discrete and indescript. The wisdom of this was proven when the Emperor launched the Jedi Purge - and the Mak'Tor were virtually untouched. But Master Karmack's recent high-profile missions have drawn attention to both himself and the Mak'Tor as a whole. We are no longer safely anonmymous. And he's made enemies. While I appreciate his efforts to safeguard our Order, I would have preferred if he would simply have left well-enough alone. So, if he decides to do something again..." She sat back, leaving the thought lingering.

Jan'a started to respond again but El'Lynn gently squeezed her knee, silencing her. "We will of course pass on any news we can, Koawan. Until then, if you have any further supply problems please let us know."
l
"Of course." Koawan Cam seemed to relax slightly at El'Lynn's concillatory tone. "Now, may I offer you any refreshment?"

El'Lynn rose and smiled. "No, I am afraid we must be going. We have ... another appointment to keep before we depart."

"Oh?" The Koawen's eyebrows rose. "Anything I should know about?"

El'Lynn smiled a cold smile. "Not if you're intent on keeping your head down." El'Lynn saw the Koawen's eyes harden and she relented a bit. "Honestly it is need-to-know, but I'll do what I can to have you read in."

The Koawan was obviously not happy with her answer, but she nodded her acceptance. "Very well. Walk in harmony, Major."

"Walk in harmony, Koawan." El'Lynn replied. She and Jan'a bowed respectfully and left, showing themselves out.

Once they were back in the street Jan'a commented angrily. "Of all the nerve..."

El'Lynn stilled the younger Knight. "Calm. She as reason to be angry ... and suspicious. No sense getting angry with her over it."

"As you wish, ma'am." Jan'a replied. "Are you going to try to get her more information about our ... other mission?"

El'Lynn looked around speculatively before nodding. "Yes. The odds of the two missions overlapping are small but real. She deserves to know about the possible threat. Speaking of which..." She pulled out her datapad and consulted the encrypted file loaded to it. "We've got about an hour to make our next appointment. I want to give the site a look before then. Lets get moving..."

<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>

The 'cantina' was in a marginally nicer part of the port than the Mak'Tor Healing House, but that only made it more dangerous. No one in the slums had anything worth stealing nor any money to buy anything with, so the area was generally devoid of thieves and hustlers. This area, however, was a much more active "red light district". The frequency of approaches had eased somewhat as well as there were many 'appropriately dressed' professional girls about to draw potential suitor's attention away. Still as they sat at the main bar with untouched drinks they were accosted by the occasional inquiry from the men patronizing the place.

"No, I don't want to see your Correllian cruiser." Jan'a snapped at the latest attempt, and El'Lynn covered a smile by lifting her drink and pretending to take a sip. The liquer was dark amber and was so raw that she suspected it would make an excellent paint stripper, whatever it may taste like.

The soft, smooth voice that invaded her left ear, opposite Jan'a, took her by surprise. "What's a nice girl like you doing in a gin-joint like this?"

El'Lynn started slightly but managed not to spill her drink. A quick look in the dirty mirror revealed a sight she had not expected: a besilisk in what she could only call a "buckaneer" outfit, complete with blue suede, four-armed jacket with gold piping and white pants with a brilliant crimson sash. The besalisk's crest was colored crimson to match his sash and his left eye was covered by a black eye-patch. El'Lynn took this all in within a moment before turning with a brillian smile. "Just looking for trouble. You wouldn't happen to know him, would you?"

"Intimately." The Besalisk replied, giving her an openly lacivious look. "I'd be happy to introduce you."

El'Lynn let her smile broaden and completed the code phrases. "I'd be happy to be introduced." She nudged Jan'a as the Besalisk smiled broadly and gestured for them to follow him. The women abandoned their drinks on the bar and followed the garishly dressed alien to the back of the bar and through a door which led to private "entertainment" rooms. He continued to grin lecherously as they preceded him into the room. Once the door closed one of his hands shot up making a "shush" gesture while his lower pair of hands extracted a small device from within his sash. With a deft twist the device was activated and filled the room with a hum which climbed quickly in pitch until it was out of aural range. After several more seconds the light on the box went from red to green and the besalisk let out a long breath. "Good." He set the device down and extended a hand to each of them. "I am Glonar D'Kev of the Sons of Kessel. You must be Major El'Lynn'Mack and Lieutenant Jan'a'Naith of the M'Tzigon Confederation Men-at-Arms."

The women accepted the hand-shakes. "You are well informed, Master D'Kev." El'Lynn replied. "When the contact documents said to expect a flamboyantly dressed free trader' I must admit I didn't expect ... this." She indicated his bright clothing.

The Besalisk laughed. "Its amazing. The best way to stay hidden in this place is to dress like a peacock and act like a buffoon. These thieves and slavers all think I'm one of them. In fact, they probably think I'm 'assessing merchandise' right now. I expect several purchase orders when we leave." He waved a hand dismissively. "But time is short. Scrubber has informed me of your mission. I have communications protocols and encryption algorithsm for your ship. There are several small operations in the works in this area. I will be in touch soon with more details and any requests for support."

El'Lynn took the data crystal from the Besalisk. "Very well. Now, how do we get out of here without becoming "Merchandise"?"

The Besalisk grinned wide again. "Right this way, ma'am." he said, gesturing toward the back of the room. He picked up the device on the table and pressed a certain place ... and a small door opened up. "Go through there, and quick. The tunnel will open on the street right outside the port."

El'Lynn nodded and ducked into the tunnel, followed by Jan'a. As the door closed behind them small lights came on, lighting the way. "Well, lets go."

Ten minutes of walking and a quick dash later, and they were back at the port and boarding Jan'a's fighter. Neither woman said anything until they were clear of the atmosphere and well on their way back to the Essex. Jan'a broke the silence.

"Well. That was ... interesting."

El'Lynn nodded, still deep in thought. "Yes, it was. I just hope your Kage knew what he was doing when he committed us to this mission." And that we don't get killed finding out he didn't...

Chapter Two: Friend or Foe

"All Jokers, Joker One. Formation Delta-two. Gold high. Execute." B'Lain watched as Joker flight shifted smoothly into formation. Delta-two was a large triangle, with each flihgt of four at one point. "Gold high" put his own Gold flight above the other two and version two had them forward as well, so his flight of four ARC-170's were now above and in front, with a supporting flight of four behind and below them on the right and left.

Ahead of them the evidence of battle were just coming into visual range. The bulk freighter seemed to hang in space, slow-moving and ponderous, but it was putting out a far larger volume of fire than one might expect. Around it a half-dozen specks of fire danced, avoiding the freighter's fire and hammering back with ion bolts whenever they could line up a shot.

"This is the SS Cohen calling Mayday. We are under attack by pirates and require assistance! Anyone in range, please respond..." the automated message was cycling through the civilian and military bands, repeating the freighter's call for help. From behind him the Hornet's comm officer continued to respond, but thus far the crew of the freighter - the Cohen, apparently - had failed to acknowledge them.

In their defense, they did seem to be a bit preoccupied...

B'Lain toggled his own transmitter. "Eagle this is Joker One, we have a visual on the frieghter and it is under attack. We are closing to assist."

"Eagle confirms. We are at maximum thrust and right behind you. We should be on station in zero-seven mikes. Jokers wild."

"Understood Jokers are wild." B'Lain responded. He toggled the squadron frequency. "Heads up Jokers. Weapons free, but keep an eye on your IFF. We still don't know who's who, lets not compound an error by blowing someone away we might later wish we hadn't."

A chorus of confirmations came back and B'Lain checked his own tactical computer: Two minutes to engagement range. That meant they had to stay alive five minutes before the Hornet closed up and joined them. Almost no time at all in most cases, but in combat...

Five minutes was an eternity.

"Jokers, keep up your scanning. As soon as anyone has a visual or ID on the bogies sing out."

********

"Joker seven to Joker five: Boss, I have eyes on what looks like a Skip-Ray blast boat, closing from nine o'clock low."

Jace overrode his sensor array's scan pattern and trained out low and left. His screen immediately lit up with four blips colored yellow for "unknown". "Good eye, Coleson." He toggled to the command loop. "Joker 5 to Joker 1: Eyes on four bogeys, ID Skip-ray blast boats, coming in fast and hot..." His screen blinked as the icons changed from yellow to red, the vector data indicating more speed and a new course. "Scratch that, one! Bogeys have turned to engage us and are showing hostile!"

B'Lain's head snapped around and he made visual contact on the Skip-rays. "Understood. Joker Silver, break and engage. Bronze, close up on my lead, low trail position." B'Lain turned back to the primary target, now less than a minute away. He could see the specks of the fighters dancing around the freighter but still no ID on them. "C'mon... Make an ID..."

********

"Roger One. Silver Wild." Jace activated his flight link. "Silver, form on me. Silver is wild!"

"Rog-o!"
"Roger"
"Roger-roger"

Jace screamed into the turn, his flight in a tight diamond formation. "Silver, take 'em head-on and break with your target. Shields double-front."

Space between the two formations suddenly erupted in color as red, blue and green bolts slammed back and forth between them. The augmented shields of the Mak'Tor ARC fighters held, allowing the heavy fighters to survive and close. At 1000 meters the Skip-Ray blast boats suddenly broke formation, scattering on independant courses. The Mak'Tor fighters followed suite, each fighter taking one of the boats as his target.

The pursuit - it was no longer a battle - didn't last long as the faster fighters overhauled their targets and took them out one by one.

"Joker Seven - splash one!"
"JOker Six - splash one target!"
"Joker Eight - target destroyed."

Jace, on their leader, pulled a series of high-gee yo-yos and barrel rolls as the boat dodged and jinxed. Unlike the other three the pilot didn't just try to run flat-out, instead using his lower speed to his advantage, combining crash thrust reversals with hard turns in an effort to force Jace to over-shoot. But Jace didn't budge, using his own bag of tricks to maintain his trail position until...

Energy erupted from the fighter's cannons and Jace relaxed. "Joker Five, target destroyed. All targets destroyed. Silver flight form on me. Tight diamond formation. Lets get see if we can help Gold and Bronze."

The four fighters reformed, leaving spreading clouds of debris behind them. Jace settled on course and took a moment to isolate a close image he'd gotten of his target. The picture was grainy, but detailed enough for his needs. "Five to One: Skip, be advised, the Skip Rays were carrying Black Suns markings. Say again: The Skip-Rays belonged to the Black Suns."

********

B'Lain suppressed the urge to curse. "Black Suns. Joy...." His tactical display showed Silver flight trailing them, they would arrive about the same time as the Hornet. They were very close now... "Jokers Gold and Bronze - tactical spread! Ion cannons only, drive a wedge between the fighters and the freighter. I want good IDs on SOMEONE before we start..." He paused as his tactical display suddenly changed again - the six yellow sparks of the attacking fighters suddenly turning the friendly blue of allied units. "What the ..."

"Joker flight, this is Xanadu Black." a gravelly voice announced in his headset. "I declare Wilberforce. Say again: Wilberforce."

B'Lain punched the recognition chart and scanned down the list. "I copy Wilberforce. Counter: Tubman."

There was a pause, then the voice came back with a far friendlier tone. "Copy Tubman. Welcome to the party Joker."

"Jokers are wild." B'Lain replied. "Care to illuminate the situation, Xanadu?"

"This bulk freighter is hauling mainly food and water but there are also forty-seven slaves on board, headed for the mines and brothels of Unagin and Hollastin." Xanadu replied. "We're trying to stop it now, to board it and liberate our fellows."

B'Lain nodded. "Understood." He switched frequencies. "Jokers, new target. The freighter is a slaver. Target weapons and drives, Ion cannons only. Engage." The new ARC-170-MXZs had a pair of ion cannons in the nose, supplementing the heavy laser cannons in the wings. B'Lain broke off, cleared the space around him, made sure he had ion cannons selected, and dove in, lining up on one of the defensive cannon emplacements. He fired, raking the site and silencing the guns, then shifted targets and took out a reaction thruster quad before pulling out and rolling away.

The other pilots of Joker flight had similar success, making short work of the freighter's drive and defensive fire. "Target neutralized, Xanadu." B'Lain called as the last red spark died and the freighter went fully ballistic. "Eagle is one minute out, boarding party is standing by."

"Joker, Xanadu, no need. We have assault shuttles on the way. We can handle it from here."

B'Lain grinned. "Negative Xanadu. My Captain is worried that the crew may decide to ... dispose of the cargo. He has boarders launching now. Don't worry, we will turn the ship, crew and cargo over to you when your boarding parties arrive."

Xanadu - B'Lain could now clearly see the gaggle of Tie Avengers in a loose formation nearby - wasn't happy but he simply sighed. "Very well, Joker. I will relay to our boarders and inform you when they arrive. Xanadu out."

B'Lain smiled. "You bet, Xanaxu. Joker Out."

********

"Aurek-3 through -12, secure the bay." Ziach'ch said as he stepped down the shuttle's ramp. "The rest o' y' hold here and wait fer orders!" The scarred Besalisk roared his orders before coming to a stop at the bottom of the ramp. "Well, now, isn't that a site fer sore eyes..."

Along the edge of the bay were two rows of men, crew and officers, kneeling with their hands on the heads. They were being covered by a trio of Men-At-Arms in standard Marine uniforms. Another pair of officers with holstered side-arms smiled and came to attention, saluting the bemused Sons operative. "Master Ziach'ch! Welcome aboard. I am Warrent Ja'Ay'Cam of the M'Tzigon Men-At-Arms. My men have control of the ship and have made repairs to her drive and navigation systems. We stand ready to turn her over to you, sir."

Ziach'ch waved a sketchy salute back at the crisp young officer. "Thank ye, sir. To what do we owe the pleasure of this ... assistance?"

The two officers share a sideways glance before the second, older officer spoke. "Tell Scrubber that the Mak'Tor and Men-At-Arms are happy to help with Wilberforce ... and that Jokers are wild."

Ziach'ch grinned and nodded, his good eye gleaming. "I will pass that along, Mister...?"

"Blain."

Chapter Three: Search and Rescue

Jace was sitting in the wardroom, his side-arm broken down on a cloth while he polished carbon scoring from the power feed contacts. He looked up as Jan and the XO entered the compartment. The two women, sweat-soaked and flush from a work-out, wandered over. "Jace, your gun is broken!"

"No joke..." Jace said, concentrating on cleaning the contacts. "The Master-At-Arms had a firing range set up in our bay for my flight to update our qualifications, and one of my power packs malfunctioned. Just about burned my hand with the waste heat and it did a number on these contacts. But, with a little borax, a little Hoppies #9 and some elbow grease..." Jace gave the power coupler a final swipe and lifted it for inspection. "There! Good as new!"

While Jen inspected the coupler El'Lynn was giving the rest of the components a closer look. "Jace, is that a Blastek A180?"

Jace beamed. "Yes ma'am. The CAG gave me permission to carry it instead of the DL-44 as long as I could qualify with it on standard, stun and ion settings." Jace displayed his qualification badge. "Just made it, even with the malfunction."

El'Lynn laid the trigger assembly back down and imparted a smile on the pilot. "Well done. You wouldn't happen to know if they have any mid-rats laid out?"

"Just some sandwiches. Cold cuts and cheese, I think." Jace replied. He recovered the power coupling from Jan and waved them on. "I'm sure cookie will be glad of customers. He's been popping out every few minutes trying to entice someone into ordering."

"Well, lets not disappoint the Chief then. Jan?" El'Lynn replied.

Jan wiped her brow. "No, thanks. I'm just gonna grab a protein shake and park for a minute."

"Suit yourself. See you on the bridge for the swing shift."

"Aye-aye, Ma'am." Jan replied, collapsing into a chair. "Oy... Jace, what have I done?"

"I'm sure I have no idea what you could possibly mean, Lieutenant." Jace replied. "Perhaps if you would elaborate...?"

Jan crossed her arms on the table and rested her chin on her wrists. "Ellen asked me for a sparring match."

Jace looked up from his examination of the part. "And?"

Jan threw up her hands emphatically. "And I agreed! How could I be such an idiot..."

Jace set the power coupling down and leaned back. "And she kicked your butt?"

"No!" Jan blew a stray strand of hair out of her eyes. "She's pretty good, but you could tell she was rusty. Not at all what I expected from someone trained in the Mack clan salles..."

Jace was unmoved. "So, what's the problem?"

Jan's eyes widened in surprise. "Jace, she's a Mack! Worse she's also a superior officer. I can't very well start telling her what to do, how to improve..."

Jace let his eyes narrow a bit. "Why not?"

Jan nearly squeeked. "Why not? How can you say that? Don't you know who she is? Who her cousin is?"

Jace snorted. "If you mean Meanowan Ka'A'Mack, yes, I know who he is. But that doesn't matter." Jace leaned forward, his demeanor intent. "Jan, why do you think the XO asked you for a match?"

"Umm..." Jan blinked. "I ... don't know. I hadn't really thought about it. Maybe because there's no one else..."

"...to spar with." Jace finished for her. "Which would mean?"

Jan blinked again. "That she's rusty ... out of practice..."

Jace nodded. "Exactly. Now think: If you had to spend a long period of time away from your bird, would you be offended if one of your flight officers pointed out mistakes you made while you were working back up?"

Jan sat and stared while her mind worked. "Well ... no. Not at all. In fact, I would expect it."

Jace sat back again, arms crossed now and a grin on his face. "Exactly. And Major Mack expects the same from you, Lieutenant."

Jan was nodding now. "Ok... OK. But ... how should I go about it?"

Jace's face nearly split now. "Oh, that's easy. Kick her butt."

Jan saw the light dancing in her superior's eyes and her own grin grew. "Aye-aye, sir."

Jace gathered his parts and quickly re-assembled his blaster. "There, good as new..." He re-holstered it and nodded at Jan's saber. "So, you any good with that thing?"

Jan laughed. "Well, if you'd like a demonstration..."

The wail of the GQ alarm cut her off. "General Quarters! General Quarters! Pilots to the ready room!"

Jace and Jan were out of the ward room and down the hall before the last word was spoken.

****

"This was received seven minutes ago." B'Lain said to the assembled pilots. A couple stood in the back, still pulling on flight gear, but all of them had been in the room less than three minutes after the alarm had rung. These are good people I have here... He depressed the key on his podium, activating the recording.

"Th... Xanadu seven. We are twelv...of Dubrava. Heavy casualties. We need assistance ... punching out everywhere, not sure how we can track them all down..." the recording dropped off into static.

B'Lain turned back to the room. "Based on signal strength and direction Tactical places them at this juntion." B'Lain activated a holomap of the space between Syvris and Dubrava. There was a blinking carat marking common way-point abot half-way between the two planets where the Triellus Trade Route took a bend and ships had to drop sub-light, reorient, and jump back into hyper. It was a also a hot-bed of pirate activity and a prime location to lay in wait for known smugglers - or slavers. "We believe the Sons of Kessel had this waypoint picketted, looking for slavers..."

"Just like we have it picketted looking for pirates." Interjected Jer'I'Cam, a grizzled vet who served as B'Lain's wingman and was the senior non-commissioned Armsman in the unit.

"Exactly, Jeri. Apparently they found something and bit off more than they could chew. Captain Nath is going to execute a micro-jump in ... four minutes." Collectively the pilots set timers on their padds. "We will ride the jump in the tubes and launch on emergence. This is officially a Search and Rescue mission, but be prepared for anything. Whoever tore up Xanadu might still be around, and anything that can take on a dozen Tie Avengers is a serious customer indeed. Questions?"

"Sir, do we have any data on Xanadu's transpoders or rescue frequencies?" Jo'Nas asked.

"We have a list of transponder codes from our contact on Syvris. They are being uploaded to your birds as we speak." B'Lain turned and fixed Jan'A with his eyes. "Any non-standard scanning techniques will also be appreciated."

Jan blushed but managed to simply nod. "Aye, I'll do whatever I can, sir."

"Good." B'Lain killed the hologram. "Now, man your birds. We jump in ... two minutes."

******

Space exploded with pseudo-motion, a blue-white flash of emergence energy fleeing before the Hornet as it emerged from hyperspace. Seconds later twelve ARC-170-MXZ fighers burst from the launch tubes, followed closely by a pair of small boarding shuttles.

"Spread out, globular formation. We're still a little short of battle site, so anyone who ejected should be in front of us." B'Lain called. "Clock positions, One through Twelve, shuttles in the middle..."

Jan moved her ship to the 9 o'clock position and shaped her course to maximize sensor range. The fighters ended up in a circle around the Hornet, sensor ranges overlapping by 10%, with the two boarding shuttles and the Hornet covering the center with their sensors to create a giant sensor net in space. But now that she was on course... "Blue, take the wheel and mind the sensors. I want to try a force scan."

Blue beeped an acknowledgement and Jan felt the fighter shake gently as the droid confirmed positive control. With a final check of her instruments, Jan sat back and closed her eyes, opening herself to the force while humming a perception motif.

******

B'Lain scanned his instruments again, noting the time. seven hours... The team was on its fourteenth leg now, its wide globular pattern criss-crossing the battle site. They'd found enough debris to confirm they were in the right place, but nothing anywhere near intact.

And no survivors.

"Eddie, take the wheel for a bit." B'Lain said. The fighter shook slightly as the droid took the controls and B'Lain rubbed his eyes briefly before switching to his tactical view. The track was plotted in three dimensions with all of the small debris hits they'd had. The pieces were scattered across the track but concentrated closer to the far end. B'Lain activated his comm. "JOker ONe to Eagle."

"Eagle here. Go Joker." Captain Nath replied instantly.

"Eagle, I think we should extend the next leg and shift the grid toward that end, centered on the debris hits."

There was a short pause before the Captain came back. "Makes sense to me, Joker. Any luck wiht Joker Nine?"

"No, sir." B'Lain replied. "She's still trying but so far nothing."

"Understood." Nath sighed. "We've been trying to raise anyone who might have survived, but so far no luck. They were either wiped out or the survivors jumped out."

B'Lain shuddered at that. Being left behind to die alone in space was one of the risks - and special fears - of all starfighter pilots. B'Lain didn't care who they were, he was determined to do his best to recover anyone who might still be alive post-fight. "Well, whatever happend to them we'll keep looking. Coming up on the turn."

"Affirmative. Eagle out."

B'Lain switched back to his scanners. "Pilot's ship." he said. "Joker flight, prepare for turn..."

******

Jace yawned and resisted the urge to rub his eyes. They were gritty with fatigue, and some part of him wanted to scrub them vigorously. Experience, however, taught him that the temporary relief would only make the return of the scratchiness worse. So he settled for blinking and another sip of his swindling supply of cafe. "Squeaker, I think..."

His sensors suddenly lit up with contacts. "Bingo! Joker Five to Joker One: Contact! I have a large contact bearing zero-two-seven mark three-three-eight relative. Its just come into range, marking it Ghost One." Jace tapped the screen and entered the tag, transmitting the target's location to the squadron and the carrier. "Request permission to break formation and check it out."

"Granted. Do a fly-by and report. Six and Four, shift and close the sensor gap."

Jace heard the other pilots acknowledge as he kicked his throttle up and centered his nose on the target. "Finally..."

******

"Finally..." Ellen breathed, unconsciously echoing Jace. "Fourteen hours... How did they get so far off?"

"Look at the velocity." Captain Nath remarked, pointing out the shifting position of Joker 5's contact. "No delta-v, but they're moving like a bat out of hell."

"That's going to make recovery difficult, skipper." Ellen replied. "Should we break formation and use the Hornet?"

Nath took a drink from his cafe mug and nodded. "Looks like the only way..." A status change lit up on the plot.

"Joker 5 to Eagle: Status change. I have multiple transponders!" Jace's voice was excited. "I count five distinct transponder codes and I'm also getting a weak return now from what appears to be a fighter hull."

The Captain leaned in, intent on what Jace was telling him. "Understood. Proceed to visual identification. Eagle to Joker One."

"Joker One"

"Blain, I think your boy has our survivors. From the look of it they were moving quickly and someone with a partially functioning ship gathered the rest into one place."

There was a pause followed by a sigh. "Concur. And if we're wrong it doesn't really matter. Anyone we haven't found by now..."

The bridge was silent. "Agreed."

"Very well. Silver flight, move to support Joker 5. All other Jokers, return to base."

Nath turned to his XO. "Ellen, sorte the boarding shuttles to support Silver and put us on course for the contact. Blain and his boys can match velocity for docking."

"Aye, sir." Ellen said, turning to the helm.

Nath crossed his arms as his ship shifted course and speed. Five contacts. Only five... But five was better than none...

******

B'Lain stood in the bay as the boarding shuttle docked. Inside were six Sons of Kessel, pilots all and all wounded to some extent or another. The fighter had indeed been a badly mauled Tie Avenger, no life support but it had working thrusters.

B'Lain waved the shuttle pilot over as medical teams began off-loading the Sons pilots. "So, what's the story?"

"They're all out now, but one of the pilots we picked up, named Grifter, said that the pilot of Xanadu Seven, goes by Ringo, used what was left of his fighter's manueverability to gather the survivors of his flight and keep them together while sending out a distress call. He said they were on patrol and were ambushed by "hundreds" of enemy fighters."

B'Lain snorted. "Not likely."

"No sir." the shuttle pilot agreed. "One of my guys managed to pull the flight data recorder from the fighter before we left, so hopefully we can get an ID."

B'Lain nodded again, wobbly with fatigue. "Good work." he yawned. "Get your bird locked down and get some rest. Its been a very long day."

The shuttle pilot saluted and left the CAG, who moved slowly and carefully to the lift, nothing left on his mind save a quick stop in the refresher and some sleep...

Chapter Four: Right Place, Right Time

"Attention!" Jan called as B'Lain entered the ready room with Jace right behind him. The noice of conversation ended as the assembled pilots all turned to the front and snapped to attention.

"Be seated." B'Lain said immediately. Jace broke off and took his seat at the front-right corner of the room, traditional position of the squadron XO, while B'Lain plugged data capsule into the room's holographic projection system. "Thank you for coming. I trust everyone is well rested?"

There were some groans: It has been twelve hours since Silver Flight had recovered from their Search and Rescue mission, and most of them had spent the majority of that time asleep, but none of them really felt rested and recovered after nearly sixteen hours in the cockpit. Still, they were rested, and they needed to know what they may be up against.

"Good! As you know we recovered six members of the Sons of Kessel, pilots of Xanadu flight. We've gotten more information from the Sons in the last few hours, and we can confirm that te flight consisted of twelve Tie Avenger fighters patrolling the waypoint. They had a list of targets believed to be slavers. When one of these slavers showed up, they would stop it and then call in boarding
shuttles to take control of the ship, take off any slaves, and ... 'dispense Justice'. From what we've learned this usually means executing the officers and taking DNA samples from the rest of the crew. If they find that crew on another slaver, they execute them as well."

B'Lain paused to let his pilots absorb that information. The policy wasn't radically different than the Mak'Tor's own, and was more reasonable than they ahd really expected. Master Er'Lav Racc's influence, no doubt... "However, things ... didn't work out as planned for them on this mission."

The holoprojector sprang to life, projecting an image of a typical bulk freighter. "This is the freighter Y'Nok. It was on Xanadu's list as a probable slaver out of Circumtore. However, when Xanadu flight approached it, this happened." The image suddenly animated, with tactical overlay from a hud, presubably that of Xanadu 7. As the freighter grew the screen suddenly erupted with flashes of fire from heavy hits and near misses. The freighter disappeared from the view as the fighter began maneuvering radically, and there was a flash of light as something passed very close aboard. The stars spun crazily before settling again, this time with another fighter centered in the sites - and much closer. B'Lain froze the image, which was a little blurry but sharp enough for easy
identification.

"That's a Rihkzyrk Assault Fighter." Jan said, making the identification. "Fast, maneuverable, good weapons and armor..."

"And no hyper drive." Jo'Nas'Klu added. "Where did it come from? Did they launch from the freighter?"

"We're not sure which ship served as a carrier, but no launch was detected from the freighter. Xanadu flight was badly mauled in the first attack, which came in without warning. Ringo managed to gather up six of their pilots, but the other six were either killed outright or lost on vectors he couldn't match." B'Lain keyed in a few more commands and brought up two fighter images, each rotating
slowly on three axis with a scrolling list of statistics next to it. "These two fighter types were verified from Xanadu 7's tactical recorder, and perhaps a third. There were six Rihkzyrk Assault Fighters operating in groups of three, nine Kihraxz light fighters also operating in groups of three, and at least one pair and perhaps two pair of a third type that we cannot identify from the emissions signature picked up. That's at least seventeen and perhaps nineteen fighters, all operating from an unknown ship or ships."

"That's half-again our own numbers." Jace interjected. "Stiff odds."

"Yes. Worse, they're still out here somewhere ... and in two hours we may be seeing them again."

"Two hours? What happens in two hours?" Jen asked.

"The Mirabella arrives, on her way to Teth."

*****

"Launch the aurek shell."

The Hornet shuddered as a dozen recon drones launched from purpose-built tubes along the hull. From the command chair El'Lynn watched as the first shell of a drones spread out along the ship's horizontal axis. "Reload and prep for besh shell launch."

"Prepped and ready." the tactical officer reported from his station.

"Launch the besh shell." El'Lynn replied. Another shudder passed through the ship and another dozen drones spread out, this time on the ship's vertical axis. "Reload and prep for the cresh shell."

"Prepped and ready."

"Launch the cresh shell." Again the shudder as a second layer of twelve drones sped away, reinforcing the Aurek shell. "Reload and prep for the dorn shell."

"Prepped and ready."

"Launch the dorn shell." A final shudder and the second layer for the vertical shell was away. "Status of drone shell."

"All drones are on assigned courses and in the green. Shell will be on-station in seven minutes."

"Very well." El'Lynn depressed a key on the arm of the command chair. "Captain, drone shell is deployed. In seven minutes we'll have eyes on everything within the volume of the junction."

"Good. The Mirabella is due in an hour. Go to battle stations in fourty-five minutes."

"Aye sir."

******

B'Lain settled into the cockpit of his fighter and took his helmet from his crew chief. "Thanks To'Bias. Any glitches?"

"No sir. You're good to go." The Master Chief reached out and tapped the R-4 unit nestled behind him. "Eddie, take care of the Major for me, eh?"

Eddie rotated his dome around and beeped back a string of mirthful tweets.

"Mother hens, every one..." B'Lain muttered under his breath. He settled his helmet on his head as To'Bias, chuckling, made his harness and life support connections. "Joker One to all Jokers, comm check."

"Two"
"Three"
"Four"
"Five"
"Six"
"Seven"
"Eight"
"Nine"
"Ten"
"Eleven"
"Twelve"

"Comm check complete. Jokers, prepare for launch." B'Lain hit the command circuit. "Bridge, Joker flight requesting permission to launch."

Captain Nath was now suited and in command, with Major Mack in the Combat Information Center, which functioned as both the primary information processing node for the ship in battle as well as the secondary command center should the bridge be damaged. "Jokers, this is the Captain. We expect the Mirabella to arrive in ten minutes. You may launch when ready."

"Jokers wild, Captain." B'Lain replied. He switched back to the squadron frequency. "Jokers, launch sequence Alpha. Launch now ... now ... NOW." B'Lain settled his head into the rest and hit slammed the fighter's throttle to full-Emergency power. The surge in power tripped the launch tube's e-mag catapult, tossing the Major and his ship out of the tube at almost 50 MGLT. Opposite him Jake launched as well, with their respective squadrons rippling out behind them. Bronze followed up, launching last and splitting directions due to their positions in alternate bays.

It took B'Lain almost ten full seconds to recover from the launch. As always he found himself well clear of the ship and already turning on course under Eddie's control. "Joker One, recovering... Form on me, formation Bravo."

Formation Bravo was a loose combat spread, each flight in eschelon and spaced well apart but within mutual support range. The fighters came around and slowly formed up, pulling ahead of the Hornet as they did so. Five minutes after launch they had a wide separation and the fighters were cruising in "stealth" mode, using chemical station-keeping thrusters and no emissions,their sensors powered down and thier HUDs being fed by the drone shell.

"Y'know, this is going to be a huge disappointment if no one shows up..." Jace murmered to himself. The R2 unit riding behind him booped and chuckled. "Yeah, you're right. A little disappointment is good for everyone now and again."

******

Space exploded with light as a ship stretched through the psuedo-motion of hyperspace emergence, brilliant blue energy sheeting away as the ship plunged back into normal space. The Mirabella had started life as a Republic Light Assault Cruiser, Cresh variant.

One of four such ships purchased by the Men-At-Arms as they decommissioned, the ship had been overhauled and given upgraded engines and greater cargo capacity. The defensive shields and deflector screens were retained as well as the anti-fighter laser cannons, but the ship was primarily a fast transport with a class 1 hyper drive and enough armor and firepower to beat off a normal pirate attack.

B'Lain noted his squadron's tragectory and felt a deep sense of satisfaction. They'd nailed the emergence time and course and were now coasting, virtually invisible, right on top of the Mirabella. B'Lain wasn't sure why the Mirabella was so special. As far as he knew it was just carrying medical supplies and some Knights to reinforce the medical missions along the Triellus Trade Route, ending at Teth, where it would make a courtesy call on the Sons of Kessel, deliver supplies and then head home. Or so they'd been told. But when D'Kev had warned them that the Black Sun were interested in Mak'Tor shipping, followed by the attack on Xanadu squadron...

The response from Captain Nath had been decisive, but illogical. B'Lain had suggested they give the Mirabella an escort. Nath had insisted that wasn't necessary. Nor could B'Lain understand why they didn't have a gunslinger along. A frigate or even a couple of the modified CEC XS Stock Light freighters to escort it would have been enought to dissuade anything but a capital ship. But no such escort had been dispatched...

B'Lain shook it off. Such decisions were above his pay grade. His job, here and now, was to protect the Mirabella from any attack that might materialize at this unique choke point. Now, would anyone show up to play?"Come out come out wherever you are..."

******

They missed the launch. The carrier vessel, a modified freighter, had been sitting doggo for weeks, drifting near the junction but far enough away that unless you knew EXACTLY where to look you'd never notice her. What saved the day was the arrival of additional units - four Ixiyen-class fast attack craft which dropped out of hyperspace and joined the mixed formation of Rihkxyrk Assault Fighters and Kihraxz light fighters. The attackers streaked in, sure that the enemy was unaware of their presence and confident of their ability to carry out their mission.

******

"Joker Nine to Joker One, I have eyes on the target. Bearing two-seven-seven mark two-eight-five..."

B'lain plotted the position on his tactical display. The enemy fighters were coming in from below and to the left. "Eyes up. Bronze has lead. Attack plan Joker-three. Jokers are wild."

The lead ships lit off their own targeting systems just as the Jokers came to life and dove down toward them, passing the Mirabella as they boosted to full power. The freighter was maneuvering radically, bringing her own defensive firepower to bear on the threat as B'Lain passed. "Here we go..."

******

Jan felt a surge of pure joy flow through her and the song rose in exaltation as her flight took the lead in the attack. "Blue, boost our forward shields for this pass. Bronze, follow me through and hammer them!" She lined up on the lead ship, a Rihkxyrk, and hammered it with her heavy lasers. The Black Suns fighter had time to get off a single proton torpedo - aimed at the freighter - before disintegrating, blown apart as her fire caught the second torp just as it left the tubes.

"WOO HOO!!!!" Jan shreiked, lining up another shot. "Splash one!" She squeezed, catching one of the lighter Kihraxz fighters this time and tearing it apart with concentrated fire. "Splash two!

Behind her Bronze flight lined up targets and tore them apart as the ambushers became the ambushed. "Splash one Rihkxyrk!"

"Two! I got two!"

"Scratch one Ixiyen!"

Jan dodged and skittered, snap-shooting a concussion missile into another Ixiyen for damage. "Bronze, reform at point two, form a wedge and hi..."

The combined fire of the remaining Ixiyen fast attack craft converged on Joker 9. The ARC-170-MXZ fighter came apart under their hammering cannons, scattering debris in all directions. The two Black Suns star fighters didn't wait to count coup and jumped back into hyperspace.

They were the only two Black Suns fighters to escape as the rest of Joker Squadron tore through the gaggle of fighters, disorganized and scattered by Jan's attack. The freighter, still unnoticed, quietly turned and jumped away as well.

The Jokers never saw her. Gold squadron stayed with the Mirabella as silver started search and rescue. Jokers nine and ten were missing, and eleven, damaged was being escorted back to the Hornet by twelve.

B'Lain, jaw set, held his course and maintained formation on the Mirabella, but his attention was on Jace's comm as he coordinated the search.

******

Forty-seven minutes after the failed ambush, the Mirabella reached the end of the junction and jumped back into hyperspace, on her way to Dubraya.

The mission was a success.

Chapter 5: Right Place, Wrong Time

B'Lain stood in the starboard hanger bay with his arms crossed, brooding. Before him, in bay six, sat the mangled wreck of Joker 10. Joker 9 hadn't even had enough debris left to recover... Thank the Maker Blue's transponder worked! Still, with Jokers 9 and 10 destroyed that left him down two ships. And while Jo'Nas had survived, his Joker 11 was still being repaired in the port-side bay ... which was only possible thanks to the recovery of the wreck of Joker 10.

B'Lain sighed. Silver linings...

******

Jan blinked as white light flooded her vision. "Wha...." She tried to sit up but the effort proved to be beyond her ability - and the short struggle to achieve it wore her out. "Owie..." A tentative tweet next to her drew her attention away from the spike of pain in her head. "Blue? Is that you?"

Blue responded with a long series of tweats and twitters. "Whoa... Slow down. I can't keep up with you..." Blue repeated the sequence but more slowly, the droid equivelent of over-enunciating. "Thank you... So we're back on the ship? What happened to No'Lan?"

Blue's tweets were minor key as he reported the loss of Joker 10. "No..." A tear trickled down Jan's cheek. "I need..."

"You need to rest, Lieutenant." Master Healer K'Lain swept into the room. "You're a very lucky woman."

"Lucky.." Jan couldn't keep the hurt out of her voice. "How am I lucky?"

K'Lain sat next to her. "Well, for one, your buddy here managed to hang onto your tether. Had you become separated, Blue would have come back ... and you would not have. Your transponder was destroyed by the same hit that crushed your arm and shoulder."

"My ... shoulder?" Jan tried to roll her shoulders. Her right shoulder responded normally but her left...

Her left shoulder was ... empty. No pain, but a numbness where she should have an arm. "What happened?"

K'Lain grimaced. "Your fighter disintegrated. From what Blue showed us a chunk of the hull tore through your shoulder. The sealing foam held long enough for Blue to attach a repair strip over it and he stopped several other small leaks with spray sealer. He also administered anti-shock and blood volume drugs manually via the suit interface before you were picked up." The healer patted Blue on the top of his dome. "You've got one clever droid here, Lieutenant. He saved your life."

Jan blinked and nodded. "Yes, he's a keeper." She let her head sink back into the pillow. "So ... now what? I guess my saber practice will have to wait..."

K'Lain chuckled. "Yes, I am afraid so. Fortunately, five days in the bacta tank with a healer in attendance has pretty well restored the surviving tissues. Your shoulder is mainly intact, the ribs are all there... We have a couple of implant options that will give you full function and usage. We can go over them tomorrow. For now, my girl, get some sleep."

"Yes sir..." Jan replied, already fading out.

******

The Hornet erupted into normal space, bleeding energy at the end of her psuedo-motion "stretch" as her sensors reached out into the void around her. After the battle with the Black Sun they'd moved along the Triellus Trade Route, closer to Teth. The ship had just emerged on another of the barely charted bends along the route, this one between Dubrava and Barab. A ship like the Hornet, in good repair and with a fully functional navi-computer or an astromech droid on board might only spend a few minutes in these places, just enough time to get their bearings, re-orient, and jump back into hyper.

But most of the tramps that moved along the Triellus were anything but "in good repair". Old, riddled with faults, they were often lucky to be able to get into hyperspace at all, and it was not at all strange to find one of them sitting at a point like this for hours or days, either making repairs or just recharging their hyperdrive while the astrogator made calculations for the next jump - sometimes by hand.

And sometimes they arrived ... and never left.

The report came from tactical, as the real-space sensors started reporting in. "Sir, sensors are picking up a large metallic object, close aboard. Very low energy signature, but what we're seeing looks like residual energy from a powered-down drive. The target is cold, sir. No heat signature."

The Captain swivelled his chair toward CIC. "El'Lynn, lets get the ready flight in space. And lets get the boarding shuttle ready to go as well."

"Aye, Captain!" El'Lynn replied. "Joker Flight, scramble! Red Team, scramble!"

In the starboard bay Jace dropped lightly into the cockpit of his fighter, plugged in his comm and life support leads, and started running the start-up sequence. "Joker 5 to Silver flight: Report."

"Joker Seven, running pre-flight. Tam and Gil are entering their fighters now."

"Understood." Jace felt the hum of his ship coming to life. As he watched his instruments climb into the green he patiently counted down from twenty. "Joker 5 to Siver flight: Report."

"Six spooling up."
"Seven ready to launch"
"Eight spooling up."

Jace waited another ten-count then keyed his comm. "Joker 5, we are ready to launch."

"Jokers, bridge, launch in three-zero seconds. Target is bearing zero-one-seven mark zero-five-two, 150 kay clicks."

"Roger." Jace responded, plugging the contact into the flight's data net. "Online."

"Launch in fifteen. Rules of Engagement Cobra in effect."

"Copy ROE Cobra. Jokers are Cobra."

"Launching in five ... four ... three ... two ... Launch enabled."

"Joker five to Silver: Launch now ... now ... now!" Jace called on the team net, then hit his own launch key. The e-mag catapult threw his fighter into space with its normal fury, and Jace came out of the gray-out with his team streaming behind him. "Joker 5 ... recovering."

"Joker six ... recovering."
"Joker seven ... recovering."
"Joker eight ... wants to die..."

Jace smiled despite himself. "Eight, say again?"

"Joker eight recovering."

"Thank you eight! Silver, form on me, loose diamond. Throttles at 50%. Lets see what we've got."

The fighters arranged themselves into a diamond formation. Jace had the lead, with six and seven on his right and left respectively, flying behind and below his fighter, with eight directly below him and stepped down another 'layer'. When flying "tight" the ships would be only about two meters apart. In the combat-friendly "loose" formation they were stacked 100 meters apart. From his vantage point Jace expected to be able to pick out the target against the inky blackness of space ... but he could not.

"Joker 5, 20k clicks to target." B'lain called from the CIC. "Red team is launching now. Do you have eyes yet?"

"No joy, CAG." Jace called. "Just the sensor returns from Hornet's primary search systems."

"Very well. Keep your visual scanning active. If the target is truly dead you may not see it until the very last minute."

"Aye." Jace passed the instructions to his flight, and they began a retro-burn to slow down their closing rate, aiming for a zero/zero intercept with the target at about 500 meters.

It wasn't until they were nearly on top of it that they saw it - a battered looking YV-100 freighter drifting in space. There were no lights or power signature, not even the normal anti-collision lights or the strobe most civilian craft carried for emergencies. The ship was very slowly turning on all three axis, just ... drifting.

"Hornet, Five. We have a visual. Ship is a YV-100 light freighter and appears to be derelict. No power signature, no heat, no lights. Nothing."

"Understood. Red Team is two minutes out. Cover them while they conduct boarding operations."

"Roger. Jokers on cover."

******

The boarding went quickly. The freighter hull had been stripped. No cargo remained, no food, no air, no water. Even the power pack and main components for the drive had been taken. What had remained on board was blood.

A lot of blood.

B'Lain was in the ward room with the Captain and XO. None of them were happy. "DNA scans confirm blood from at least seven individuals. Four human, one Twi'Lek, and two Gran." El'Lynn said, her voice almost hollow. "No bodies, but there's enough blood to confirm that they all died on board. Two of the humans and Twi'Lek died together, in one of the cargo bays, and we have additional DNA contributions from at least a dozen others that don't match any of the blood samples."

Nath's voice was gravelly with barely contained fury. "So we have a group of pirates able to put at least twelve men on board a freighter, willing to rape and murder everyone on board, who then stripped the hull bare and left it cold and lifeless." He visibly gathered himself before looking at his XO and CAG. "Once we find them we can identify them. I want these bastards." He rose and headed for the bridge. "Lets go find them."

Chapter Six: Hornet's Nest

"Are you sure you're up to this?" B'Lain asked, concern coloring his voice. The pale face and drawn features of the woman sitting in CIC only added to his concern. "You've only been out of the soup for a day, and you have at least two more procedures..."

Jan smiled up at Major Throwd and did her best to look healthy and hale. She knew she was failing miserably, but she did it anyway, humming an augmentation motif sub-vocally that let her sit up straight and hold her head high. "Sir, I'm ... functional."

B'Lain cocked his head. "I see you're 'functional' Lieutenant. But are you up to the job?"

"Yes sir. The initial implants are complete, and its going to take a week or two for the deltoid and pectoral interweaving to heal enough for R-23 to do the limb implant. In the mean time I hold down the controller station in CIC so you can be out with the patrols." Jan leaned forward, mustering all the sincerity she could. "Sir, I can do this. I need to do this, after..." Her eyes darkened as she replayed the scenes from the last boarding back. Unlike the first two ships, the third freighter they'd come across hadn't been completely stripped and the condition of the crew had been the stuff of nightmares.

B'lain saw the shadow flicker across the young officer's eyes and knew exactly what caused them. With a sigh he relented. "Very well, but if you even THINK you need to take a break, you get relief! I don't want you collapsing at a critical moment because you pushed yourself to far."

"Yes sir." Jan turned back to her station. "I'll get the search grids squared away and downloaded to the Jokers in time for launch."

"Very good." B'Lain turned and headed toward the ready-room. At the hatch he turned back. "And Jan? Thank you." He said. "Or should I call you "Castle"?"

"Castle it is, Joker One." Jan replied, her smile brilliant. "Now go find us some pirates to swat."

******

The holomap floated in the darkened ready-room, three red dots strobing along the Triellus Trade Route, strung out between Dubrava and Syvris. A fourth now hung on the Hollastin Run, between Syvris and Unagin. "This is the latest. Same MO, same result." B'Lain sat back and rubbed his forehead wearily. "The only difference this time was that they left in a hurry. We found the bodies in-place, and the power and life support systems were intact as well. A small customs crew from Syvris took possession of the ship after our forensic teams made their sweep, but the real find is this." B'Lain zoomed the view into the last site and tapped keys, illuminating a faint red trail leading away from the ship. "This ion signature shows the exit of the pirate ship, which appears to be something very much like a CR-90 blockade runner."

Nath sat forward at that. "A CR-90? That gives them at least as much firepower as the Hornet. Any evidence of fighter escort?"

B'Lain shook his head. "No sir. It appears to be a lone raider."

"Ok then. How long ago?"

B'Lain's face now lit up with a wolf grin. "No more than ten hours, sir. Closer to eight. If we move smartly, we might be able to catch them at the next junction."

Nath looked closely at the map. "One problem, Major. The next junction is in Hutt space."

"Very true sir. I didn't realize we were worrying about jurisdiction."

the Captain shot his CAG a very old-fashioned look. "I don't give a fig for jurisdiction! I'm worried about possible Hutt reinforcements." Nath scowled down at the map. "We're three jumps out from Tsyk..."

B'Lain crossed his arms. "It would take a fighter squadron at least two or three hours just to make the jumps and get to the junction. We will have plenty of time to get in, hit our target, and get back out."

Nath remained where he was, unmoving, for long minutes. Finally he stirred and spoke. "Lets go get them. B'Lain, get your squadron ready." he keyed open a comm line. "Captain to the bridge."

"Bridge, Mack here."

"El'Lynn, set course for junction Hollister 2-A-27. Once you have it, have R3-J2 plot jumps further up the junction to Tsyk and back from there to Syvris. We will be able to pursue or retreat, as needed."

"Aye sir, we should have a course in a few minutes."

"Very good. Captain out." Nath turned back to B'Lain. "We'll jump within the hour. Good hunting, Major."

B'Lain stood, his grin deadly. "Jokers are wild, sir."

******

The Hornet burst out of the blue tunnel of hyperspace - and directly into a swirling dogfight.

"Jokers, crash launch stage 2, GO GO GO!" B'Lain called, flipping a switch and launching. The catapult, on stage two, was stepped well back allowing the pilot to maintain full consciousness and control through the launch. Joker One burst out of its tube, the remaining ships of Gold flight and the two functional Bronze flight ships immediately behind him. On the opposite side of the Hornet Jace led the four ships of Silver flight on a reciprocal heading.

The entire "ripple" launch took exactly 3.7 seconds. At 4 seconds after Joker One's launch the Hornet's shields and deflector screens snapped up.

"Jokers Wild! All Jokers, break into elements, break and attack!" B'Lain called, reefing his own control column hard right to line up a Hutt fighter. He was peripherally aware of a battered YT-1300 light freighter maneuvering frantically, trading shots with what looked like a DP-20 frigate. They'd expected that ... but not the swirling swarm of fighters! "Joker One to Castle! Give me a bogey count!"

******

Jen sat in CIC, watching the holographic plot resolve as the Hornet's sensors caught up with space around it. "I'm reading ... seven M12-L Kimogila heavy fighters, five G1-M4 Dunelizard fighters and four Krayt Gunships... One frigate, looks like a DP-20 Frigate. And a light freighter manuevering like a scalded rock weazel..." Her good hand flew over the keyboard frantically. "Uploading tactical to all Jokers. The freighter's hyperdrive is charging..."

In space the cork-screwing YT-1300 suddenly steadied on course, generally pointed back toward Tsyk, and leaped forward into hyperspace. Two of the Krayt Gunships, caught in its wake, went out of control and collided, destroying one while the other recovered and limped away, trailing atmosphere and energy.

"The freighter has jumped away." Jan said. "Enemy frigate is turning to engage the Hornet."

******

B'Lain twitched his stick and unleashed his weapons on the Kimogila in front of him. The Hutt fighter staggered, large sections of wing coming off as its drive flared and died. The fighter tumbled and B'Lain let it go, shifting his focus to the leader of the two-ship element. "Jerry, stay close..."

"Roger, lead." Joker 2 responded crisply. B'Lain twitched his fighter again on instict as angry red blaster bolts flew past his cockpit and deflected off his shields. He hauled his ARC-170 through a screaming turn, spoiling the aim of whoever was shooting at him even as he lined up a shot on another fighter.

"All Jokers, local defense. Keep 'em off the Hornet!"

******

Captain Nath watched the Jokers plunge into the fight as his ship started to manuever. "Angle deflectors! Tactical, bearing to the Hutt fig!"

"Hutt frigate bearing zero-zero-one mark zero-one-zero. She's dead-ahead, sir!" The tactical officer replied. "Moving port-to-starboard in-plane!"

Nath leaned forward, intent. "Come right ten points. Forward batteries, open fire as you bear. Stand by torpedoes."

The bridge hummed as the Hornet threw herself into battle.

******

In space Major B'Lain'Throwd was in the fight of his life. He corkscrewed through space, totally defensive, three fighters on his tail. Thirty seconds after he'd engaged another flight of six heavy fighters - more Kimogilas - had shown up. They'd driven a wedge between Gold flight and the Hornet, hammering the carrier with a blistering strafing run before Jace led Silver around and drove them off. Gold found itself alone with the first group of fighters, and space swirled with ion trails, green and red energy bolts and concussion missiles. The Jokers were doing well, dishing out more damage than they were taking, but the enemy just kept coming...

"Jerry, what's your status?" B'Lain called. Static responded. "Jerry! Respond!"

Space seemed to rip apart as the Hutt frigate suddenly screamed close aboard, headed straight for the Hornet. B'Lain cursed quietly, snap-shooting a spread of proton torpedoes at the ship while continuing his evasion pattern, working for another solid shot.

Fighting to the end.

******

Nath picked himself up off the deck, wiping blood out of his eyes. A gash on his forehead flowed freely and he pressed the heel of his left hand against it to stanch it. "Damage report!"

"Port bay depressurized. We lost a launch tube and catapult. The bay crew are sealing the breach and expect to be able to re-pressurize in a few minutes. Fires are already being put out. Main power is down to the port side, weapons, sensors, everything is down. Engineering is tracing the power busses now looking for the break."

Nath collapsed back into his command chair. "Very well. Come left, keep our Starboard side pointed toward the enemy frigate. Tactical, how hard did we hit it?"

"Hard, sir. She's moving off, tumbling slightly, and her active emissions are nearly gone. I'm also getting atmosphere..."

"Captain! Incoming blips! Four new targets just emerged from hyper!" Jan in CIC called, using voice power through the hatch instead of the intercom. "They're breaching pods!"

Nath smashed down the all-hands intercom. "This is the Captain! Set internal condition Zulu! I repeat, Zulu, Zulu, Zulu. Prepare to repel boarders." He closed the com. '"Helm, continue your turn, I want our active weapons focused on those pods now!"

The Hornet continued to reel, trying to bring her remaining weapons to bear in time.

******

"Incoming pods! Silver, turn and engage!" Jace called, not sure if he even had anyone left to respond. With a deft twist he managed to barrel-roll and reverse on his current target and blew it away. He turned toward the pods, looking for target lock. "Missiles away!"

Two concussion missiles streaked forward, tracking on the nearest pods. The incoming pods jinxed, maneuvering as hard as they could manage, but it did them no good. Both missiles went home, shattering both pods.

"Splash two pods!" Jace called. "I'll see if I can get another pass..." He came around, but before he could acquire the remaining pods a trio of Dunelizard fighters locked onto him. "Three bogeys! Castle, Joker Five is defensive..."

Jace began radical maneuvers, fighting three-on-one, and while he wasn't losing he also lost his intercept vector in the process of survival.

Two pods bored in, swiftly closing distance on the Hornet.

*****

"Coming around ... coming around ... ON TARGET!" The tactical officer narrated the Hornet's desperate turn.

"Open fire!" Nath ordered.

Defensive fire began, but it was far thinner than it should have been. Nath's jaw tightened. "Concentrate your fire on the port target."

"Aye." the fire concentrated, peppering the incoming pod. The pod staggered, shedding debris, and finally exploded about 80 meters off the ship. "Destroyed!"

"Shift fire!" Nath barked, and the red sparks shifted focus, but it was far to late. Like a massive hammer the final boarding pod slammed into the side of the "Hornet", penetrating the starboard fighter bay and coming to rest in contact with the core hull.

"Pressure drop in the starboard bay! Emergency force fields in place."

"Inner hull breach! Boarders are outside CIC!"

Nath hammered down the intercom. "Intruder Alert! Hostiles are near CIC. Case Zulu is in effect!"

******

Jan was nearly knocked out of her seat by the impact of the pod. She caught herself and stood, reaching out with her senses. "Twelve boarders..." She felt the determination in the CIC crew around her as the hatch into the starboard bays started to spark with energy release. There were no marines in the compartment, they were stationed on the bridge and in the bays themselves. If they were alive, they would need a minute or two before they could re-organize and hit the boarding party in the flank.

It's up to us... We need to keep them out of CIC, away from the bridge... Jan felt the weakness in her body, the residual pain and the way the loss of the arm threw off her balance and kinesthetics. She calmly accepted it ... and set it aside. Eyes calm, body confident, she drew her light saber and ignited it. The pink glow and quiet hum filled the compartment, serving as a beacon for the ratings and techs around her. "Ready boys?"

A soft growl answered her question - one of anticipation and aggression where there had been mainly fear only a moment before. Oh yes, Major. I'm up to it...

The door failed and a boarder decked out in Mandalorian style armor appeared in the smoke, blaster firing. Jan deflected the bolts, her saber whirling into a pink shield as her fellows filled the gap with energy and death. The Mandalorian mercenaries pressed forward, thickening their fire and spreading it wide. Jan intercepted what she could but some of the men behind her fell. Keep them out of CIC... With a cry she leaped forward, a wave-front of force energy hammering back the man who'd stepped into the gap, crushing him against the far bulkhead. Jan followed the wave through the hatch, reckless in her attack. She thrust forward, impaling what appeared to be the boarding team's leader through the chest, then carved a precise sweep to her right which decapitated a mando on that side. She continued the sweep, bring the blade back around in time to deflect fire from her left, bouncing it back into the team firing it.

For a second there was balance, Jan's blade deflecting fire and reaping limbs. Then one of the blaster bolts got through and slammed into her right thigh. Jan fell, dropping her saber as her hand clamped down on the wound. She screamed, and looked up, wide eyes staring into a black muzzle at point-blank range.

"Time to die, Jedi bitch."

******

Jace squeezed his trigger, cutting down another Dunelizard fighter. He'd lost track of everyone else, was simply dodging and weaving like a crazy man and seizing what opportunities he could to strike back. He'd seen the final pod breach the ship and the Hornet was tumbling slightly, helm control apparently lost as the crew fought the boarders. Still, only one pod made it in, and the Jokers were still in action, slowly but surely thinning out the fighters...

A warning beep on his console made him groan. He looked up just in time to see the emergence pseudo-motion of more fighters - another dozen or so - emerging from hyperspace.

With grim determination Jace reefed his fighter around, snapping off another quick shot - a miss this time - as he began working his way toward the new arrivals...

Jokers are wild...

Chapter Seven: Favor Returned

B'Lain felt his ship shudder as his shields shrugged off another glancing blow - just - and he turned hard into the fire, weaving through the angry red sparks. Another bolt clipped his shield and an alarm wailed as his port screen went down completely but he managed to use the inertia from the hit to swing his nose around and into his target. He squeezed the trigger, unleashing his own heavy lasers, and the Kimogila fighter blew apart, the fragments slamming into the second fighter on the leader's wing and shrugging it aside as he powered past on a totally new vector. "Splash one Kimogila..."

Who am I reporting to? No one is listening... The Hornet was tumbling slowly in space, trailing tracers of atmosphere and water like blood. There were no comms from the ship, no indication of what was happening as her crew desperately fought for their life against boarders. And now...

He saw one of the other Jokers, whirling like a dirvish through the heart of the enemy formation, suddenly angle toward the newcomers emerging from hyperspace. Must be Jace. He's the only oen audacious enough to actually angle for an attack under these conditions!

Or maybe not the only one... B'Lain swung around, catching the crippled Kimogila with a follow-up volley of fire before twisting his own fighter's course into a cork-screw intercept. "Jokers are wild..."

******

Jace watched as red light lit space around him. Angry sparks streaked past, disappearing into the void ahead as eh closed with the new contacts. Then, suddenly and inexplicably, they stopped. Jace risked a look over his shoulder and saw his pursuers had broken off and turned back toward the Hornet. Probably leaving me for the new guys...

Jace brought his shield double-front and prepped for a high-speed head-on pass. He intended to open up at maximum range, hoping to disrupt the formation and maybe get lucky, but something about the new fighters made him hesitate and hold his fire...

"Attention Joker Squadron! This is Sons of Kessel Commander Ornil of Hammer Squadron on board the SNS Liberator. Stand by while we ... tidy up a bit."

Jace held his fire and watched with a surge of hope as a quad of TIE Avangers streaked past him, overtaking the Hutt fighters. Jace throttled back to 75% and stabalized his shields, turning through a graceful, standard turn to look back toward the swirling battle where a sudden eruption of green energy overwhelmed the Hutt fighter force. He saw another Joker fighter emerge from the same wave and turned to close. "Joker Five to nearby Joker, please identify..."

"Joker Five, this is One. Form up. I want to do a fly-by on the Hornet and see if we can ascertain their status."

"Aye, One! Forming!" Jace replied, rolling in on B'Lain's wing. As they headed toward the HornetJace felt relief. No matter what had happened, how bad it was, there were still Jokers. The Squadron would live...

******

Jan flinched at the sound of the blaster. To her amazement, she saw a bolt slam into the mercenary's armor, driving him back and twisting him sideways. His finger curled on his firing stud and she felt the heat of his blaster bolt slam past her head and over her shoulder. Before it really registered - he missed - she gathered a desperate force push together and gave him a shove backward. The Mandalorian mercenary flew backward, landing on his butt. As he got back to his feet more blaster bolts slammed him back, turning his chest into a smoking crater.

The Marines had arrived.

Jan pushed herself back, still clutching her leg, desperately stanching the flow of blood with her one good hand. She managed to hang onto consciousness long enough for one of the marines to lay her down gently and move her hand, replacing it with a proper pressure bandage. "Medic!"

"Don't worry, trooper..." she said weakly, patting his arm with a bloody palm. "I'll be fine. This ship has a fine doctor..."

******

B'Lain felt the tight band around his chest loosen as the Hornet suddenly stopped its slow tumble and came back under full control. "Joker One to Castle. Come in Castle..."

There was a crackle, then a familiar voice answered. "Joker One, Hornet Actual. CIC and flight control are off the air. The boarders hit CIC and we took heavy casualties. No report on fatalities. We're still getting everything sorted here, but it looks like we have some friendlies in the area. Can you confirm?"

"Joker One, I confirm. Hammer flight from the Sons of Kessel are on station, a dozen TIEs backed up by a Raider-class corvette. From the looks of it the Corvette is about to board the DP-20 frigate." B'Lain chopped his trottle as they closed on the Hornet.

"Sir, are you secure?"

"Joker, Citadel is secure. We are secure from Zulu." Nath replied. "We expect to have the fighter bays ready for your birds in two-zero minutes."

"Two-zero minutes, understood. I'll gather up my Jokers. Anything you can do to expedite will be appreciated, I have some sick birds out here."

"Understood, Joker One. Hornet Actual out."

B'Lain flipped back to the general fighter push. "Joker One to all Jokers: Sound off. Rally on the Hornet. I repeat: Sound off and rally on the Hornet."

Slowly the dispersed fighters of Joker squadron gathered. B'Lain heaved another sigh of relief as Joker Two limped up, waggling its wings, a long black scar marking where a glancing hit had destroyed its transmitter. By the time the Hornet was ready for docking manuevers enough Jokers had come home for B'Lain to start thinking in terms of being an effective fighting unit again - weaker, yes, but still effective.

Maybe we should call ourselves 'Phoenix'...

******

El'Lynn'Mack snapped to attention as the airlock opened. "Commander, welcome aboard the Hornet! She snapped off a smart salute, which the Kel Dor female returned with aplomb.

"Glad to be here, Major." The Kel Dor looked around, taking in the damage and evidence of recent, hasty repairs. "For a bit there we weren't sure if there was going to be a 'here' to be at."

"Nor were we." El'Lynn replied. "Your team's arrival was certainly welcome."

"The Maker moves in mysterious ways..." Ornil said, smiling at the Armswoman's reaction. "Does my belief surprise you?"

El'Lynn blushed. "Um... Yes, actually. My experience has been that most people think my beliefs are at best quaint, at worst..."

Ornil adopted a serious look. "You'll find that most of the Sons believe in one diety or another, and belief in the Maker is pretty univeral. When you come from the type of hell-holes that most of us survived you have to have faith in something bigger than yourself or you give up entirely. When you toss in someone with the integrity of Belanger, well..." Ornil shrugged. "Ken left me his Book of the Way and I promised to read it. It made a lot of sense. There you go."

El'Lynn laughed. "Sounds about right, but my "Ken" was a very persistent cleric named Father Di'Mitri. And speaking of 'fathers', the Captain is waiting for us, if you'll follow me?"

"After you, Major." Ornil replied, following the shorter human down the short passage to the briefing room.

******

"Jace..." Jan was groggy from pain meds. "You made it! Good!"

"And so did you! Not for lack of trying to get yourself killed, I might add." Jace patted her on the good arm. "Looks like you're going to need some more body work, though."

"Yeah. Doc says they can fix the leg when they attach the arm in a couple of days." Jan replied. "In the mean time, I'm stuck here. Any chance you can smuggle me in some pizza?"

Jace laughed. "Anything you want, kid..."

******

B'Lain shook Ornil's hand. "Thanks for your help, Commander. Your team are top notch."

"Always a pleasure. We freed a dozen slaves from the Zorba and have a prize crew on her getting her ready to head back to Aethis Minor. She will be a valuable addition to the fleet." Ornil beamed with pride. "Thank you for not blowing her apart. Our Sirs and Sirras liberated from her give you their thanks for your restraint."

"You're welcome." B'Lain replied. "Meanwhile, I have a half-dozen pilots who are alive now that wouldn't have been if your team hadn't shown up. Thank you."

"I believe the pilots of Xanadu would say 'we're even', Major." Ornil replied. "I must depart, the Liberator is preparing to pull out for our next objective. Thank you for offering to escort our prize back to Syvris, I believe they will be able to find their own way home from there."

"It is our pleasure. Good hunting, Hammer." B'Lain stepped back and saluted, which Ornil returned smartly before she left for her shuttle.

B'Lain grabbed a fresh cup of coffee as he re-entered the room. "So ... are we ready to head back to Syvris?"

El'Lynn nodded. "Hyper drive and navigation are 100%. Primary power is back online and we're down two launch bays in the port hanger and one launch bay to starboard. All primary and secondary weapons are back online, but we're short on torpedoes. We have seven concussion missiles and five proton torpedoes left in the magazines."

Captain Nath sat back and looked at B'Lain. "How many of your birds are healthy?"

"I have two flights, sir. Eight total. We're about out of spares, however. We can maintain a normal operations tempo for about three more weeks before birds start dying from simple maintenance issues." B'Lain replied. "We're down to two concussion missiles per ship as well. Any chance of picking up spares and replacements at Syvris?"

"We're scheduled to meet a replenishment ship in nine days at Syvris." Nath replied. "The Hathaway, actually. She'll be carrying reinforcements and supplies for the medical mission as well. HQ was informed of our earlier losses but I didn't get word of any new fighters or pilots for your squadron."

B'Lain nodded. "Fair enough."

Nath stood and B'Lain and El'Lynn followed suit. "El'Lynn, set course for Syvris. Lets get this show on the road. I'll be in sickbay, getting this cut stitched up." Nath briefly touched the bandage on his forehead. "Let's get out of here."

"Aye, sir."

Chapter Eight: Refit

The Hornet coasted into orbit, only a few hundred meters away from the replentishment ship Hathaway, and Captain Nath couldn't help but breath a sigh of relief. "Obital station-keeping, helm."

"Orbital station-keeping aye. Helm set to automatic station-keeping." the helmsman reported. Nath felt the last bit of momentum bleed away and the Hornet settled into her parking orbit. "Comm, hail the Hathaway please."

"Aye." The rating at the communications station tapped commands and paused, then turned back to Nath. "Hathaway on channel 3, Captain."

"At my station." Nath said, looking down as a small flat-screen display deployed from his left arm rest. The screen lit with the face of a man in a heavy ship work-suit and the insignia of a civilian ship's captain. "Captain Ja'Red'Schoop, MCS Hathaway"

"Captain! Captain Nath of the Hornet. I'd be lying if I didn't say we're very glad to see you! If you could walk me through the process we're ready to get started."

Schoop sat back in his own command chair and grinned. "Understood. My pilot is already on his way to a shuttle to transfer to your ship. He will conn your ship through docking manuevers with the repair modules on our starboard side. The port-side modules are spare parts and a fully equipped medical suite. We're expecting a few reconstructions from the medical mission, but we've also brought some specifically requested hardware for Lt. Naith as well."

"Excellent! I'll let Master Healer K'Lain know. I imagine he'll be contacting your medical team shortly to coordinate treatment."

"Very good. Meanwhile, our shuttle is just launching. You should have our pilot on board in ten minutes."

Nath noted the new target on the tactical display. "We have him on scope now. I guess I'll see you in an hour or so. Nath out."

The screen winked out and Nath hit another button. "Bridge to Officer of the Deck."

"OOD Ensign Ro."

"Ro, we have a pilot coming in. Should be docking in the next few minutes. Please escort them to the bridge once they arrive."

"Aye, sir. OOD out."

Nath closed the connection and leaned back, his eyes involuntarily scanning the collection of yellow and orange highlights on the status board, indicating moderate to severe damage. "Soon..."

******

Master Healer K'Lain entered sick-bay with a wide smile. "Good news, Lieutenant!"

Jan sat up straighter in the bed. "You finally added junk pizza to the sick bay menu!"

K'Lain stopped short, a look of mock horror on his face. "Maker, no! And bite your tongue for saying so!" he chucked as Jan smiled at their running joke and sat next to her bed. "I just got off the line with Master Healer Ce'Lain'Tor. He's on board the Hathaway and he has your arm."

"That is good news!" Jan replied. "When are we transferring?"

"The Hornet is preparing to dock with the Hathaway as we speak. Once the ships are hard-docked we'll transfer to their medical suite. We should be able to do the procedure tomorrow morning." He leaned back, falling into a more serious mood. "I just hope the software is 100%. There were a few little glitches in the preliminary load with the chest implants and shoulder..."

Jan swatted him with her good hand. "Stop that! They were incredibly minor and the heuristic functions kicked in and corrected them in less than a day! If the arm functions that well I'll be thrilled!"

K'Lain relented. "You're right of course. So, we'll be back in about an hour to transfer. Any requests before I go and make sure everything is good on their end?"

"Yes, actually." Jan's eyes twinkled. "See if they can whistle up some pizza?"

<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>

"Its taken a week but we're finally back up to full loads for ammo stores and spares. We should have all the faults on the birds cleared as well before the Hornet undocks next week, but we'll still only have eight operational birds and one spare." Jace said, leaning back with his coffee mug. He and B'Lain were ensconced in the pilot's ready room, going over the list of stores and spares the Hathaway could provide. To their surprise that list had included two brand-new ARC-170-MXZ fighters to begin bringing them back up to stength. Unfortunately they'd had to permanently down-check one of their current flock with serious frame damage. They would be leaving it with the Hathaway's engineers to see if they could return it to combat readiness, but it would leave them at 2/3 strength.

"It is what it is, Jace. We'll make due. We'll re-organize around Gold and Silver and put Bronze on inactive reserve for now, with Lt. Naith as it's only member."

"Jan will hate that." Jace replied. "She's only been out of the body-and-fender shop for four days and she's already spending a couple of hours a day in the simulators. If she thinks you're benching her..."

"I'll deal with Jan." B'Lain replied. "I know she wants to get back into space, but we have a different assignment in mind for her, at least until we get four new birds and some pilots to fill out our tee-oh-ee."

Jace chuckled. "Well, better you than me. I've seen her with that glow-stick of hers and I'd rather not be anywhere nearby when you break the news."

B'Lain leaned back with a grin. "Who said I was breaking anything to her?"

******

Jan parried high, feeling the shock of impact transfer through her new left arm into her new left shoulder. The cybernetic limb was still strange, the sensations it reported back to her felt ... alien. Wrong. Like feeling a touch through a thick layer of rubber or cloth instead of on your skin. But it was strong and fast, calibrated to keep up with her movements even when she was using the force
to augment her speed and strength.

Like now.

With a deft wrist-flip she torqued her saber around her opponent's and pinned the blade, driving her back. "Hnnnggggaaa!" She augmented her disengagement move with a powerful force push, which caught her opponent in the pit of her stomach, sending her sprawling onto her back. In a flash Jan was on her, her pink blade against her throat, ready to strike. "Yield!"

El'Lynn raised her hands in defeat. "I yield! I yield!" She retracted her own blade and reached up with her left hand. "Help me up, will you?"

Jan stood and reached down, gripping the XO's hand and pulling her to her feet. She still had to concentrate a bit to make sure she didn't squeeze to hard, but even that was already getting easier, the hand feeling more and more natural with usage...

El'Lynn wiped sweat from her brow. "Nice move. I'm amazed at how quickly you've mastered its movements."

"Part of that is programming, but most of it is thanks to Master K'Lain. He had the forthought to make a complete neural map of my shoulder with as many individual movements as we could manage before he sent the specs back to M'Tzigon. Of course, not everything is natural..." Jan extended the arm, which had a very natural looking external covering, and she gave a command that would have, with her natural hand, caused her thumb to touch the tip of her pinky finger. Now, however...

A hidden panel on the outer fore-arm opened and a blaster barrel popped up. El'Lynn gave a low whistle. "Niiiiiice...."

"Yeah. Not exactly original equipment." Jan retracted the blaster, restoring the arm to a normal appearance. "The chassis is song-steel, so its incredibly strong, and the blaster has an interface that will put an aiming pip on my HUD if I have a tactical helmet on. And if there's no interface, I can activate a laser pointer to give myself an aim point-of-reference."

"Song steel..." El'Lynn murmered, her eyes opaque as she thought back through their previous flurry of strokes. "So that's how you did it! You blocked one of my striked with an outer forearm block!"

Jan grinned sheepishly. "Guilty. The arm can take it, though. It would take several repeated strikes at the same point to damage the arm enough to cause loss of function. All I'd get from a single hit is a cosmetic burn to the surface."

"Cheater." El'Lynn replied, smiling to take the sting out. Jan replied with a stuck-out tongue. El'Lynn laughed but then sobered. "Jan ... I need to ask a favor of you."

"This sounds omnious..." Jan replied.

"Not ominous, but it might be ... unpleasant." El'Lynn replied. "You know the Hathaway didn't bring enough fighters to bring Joker Squadron back up to full strength and no new pilots were embarked either, right?" Jan nodded, so El'Lynn continued. "In light of those realities and another engineering casualty to one of the fighters, the CAG won't have enough birds for you to fly. So the Captain and I would like to ask you to accept a temporary assignment until such time as we do get more fighters and pilots to bring your flight back online."

Jan crossed her arms across her chest. "I already have a TDY assignment in CIC."

El'Lynn nodded. "Agreed, but its a slot normally held down by a senior non-com. What I want to offer you requires an officer, someone with ground combat training and experience, someone who's willing to act aggressively and on her own initiative in fluid situations with minimal guidance." El'Lynn took a deep breath and plunged. "Jan, I need someone to lead our Marines."

Jan didn't move or speak for long seconds. Finally, she grinned. "Is that it? I thought you had something really nasty you wanted me to do, like latrine duty or ships pursor or something."

El'Wynn relaxed adn smiled. "So you'll take it then?"

Jan nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Just one question. Does the Marine mess serve junk pizza?"

<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>

"Helm, prepare to cast off." Captain Nath sat in his brand new command chair, surrounded by upgraded and improved displays. The bridge, still familiar, had also been upgraded during the refit, each station receiving its own face-lift with the installation of better displays driven by new controlling software. Overall the refit had taken three weeks, and while the rest had been welcome nearly everyone was itching to get back into action.

"Prepare to cast off, aye. Physical moorings are cleared, standing by to clear bow and stern tractors." The helmsman reported. His board had also been upgraded, but the familiar control stick remained and her hand hovered over it, ready to initate movement orders at Nath's command.

"Clear all moorings." Nath replied. He swivelled to the tactical station. "Initiate break-away, one-quarter thrusters, port ninety, zero elevation." The low thruster setting would prevent reaction gasses from damaging the Hathwaway as they moved sideways, directly away from the replentishment ship. Nath waited as the Hornet moved slowly away from the Hathaway, allowing a gap of several hundred meters to develop between the ships.

Once they were clear Nath issued his next commands. "Helm, come to course 226 mark 98. Full thrust. Engage."

"Two-two-six mark nine-eight aye. Coming around." The helmsman brought the ship around with her stick, laying the course expertly. "Full thrust engaged."

The Hornet lept away from the planet, breaking orbit and heading for the edge of the system, on course for the first leg to Arami.

The Jokers were back on patrol.

Chapter 9: Black Ops

A month of patrolling back and forth between Syvris and Teth had produced several close calls but no actual encounters. The Jokers had on several occasions launched to intercept armed ships only to have the raiders turn and flee into hyperspace. ON the three round trips they'd made they had accumulated a small gaggle of light freighters, with the numbers growing each time.

This trip, their fourth since refitting, was no exception. As they emerged from hyperspace between Dubrava and Barab space around them erupted in blue-white energy as eleven light freighters of various types emerged nearby, spread out slightly by calculation variables and safety rules. As the informal convoy slowly gathered back together B'Lain pondered their orders once again. "Jokers, prepare for launch."

The request had come in via courier from Syvris on a hand-delivered and encrypted data chip. Glonar D'Kev has been as flamboyant in appearance as always, but his eyes had been serious as he'd relayed the request from Scrubber.

"Colonel Nath, Major Throwd, I greet you! I am sending this request to you in the hand of one of my most trusted couriers. It appears that Hammer Flight has encountered more resistance than expected on their current patrol and will not be available to screen a relief convoy we're expecting from one of our more ... sensitive allies. This ally is very secretive and wish to maintain their anonymity. Normally one of our task groups would escort them, providing a screen against prying eyes and sensors as well as raiders, but at this time none of our units are in a position to provide this escort. We would therefore like to request your services."

You will meet the convoy at grid U.01242394 by 12.00204987. Discretion is a must! The convoy will have your transpoders and will fall in 5000 meters astern of the Hornet. No communications are to be initiated with the convoy. No scans are to be directed at the convoy. No fighter should come within targeting scanner range of the convoy's ship. And no records of the convoy of any kind are to be kept."

"If you cannot accept this mission, please respond in kind. Your help and discretion in this matter are greatly appreciated. Please accept in advance the thanks of both Scrubber and myself for your discretion and assistance in this matter. D'Kev out."

The Captain, considering the help they'd received from Hammer flight earlier as well as the ongoing desire to build a friendly working relationship with the Sons of Kessel had decided to take the mission despite the obvious cloak-and-dagger aspects. B'Lain didn't harbor the same misgivings - it was perfectly understandable to him how a rich benefactor of the Sons of Kessel would go to great lengths to keep their identity a secret - but he WAS worried about the curiousity of his own pilots ... and the gaggle of 'free traders' they'd picked up.

At least they had a plan for one of them...

As he finished his pre-launch checklist he heard Major Mack on the general inter-ship frequency. "Attention Imperial forces! This convoy is under the protection of the M'Tzigon Republic! Your stealth fields have failed! Recall your fighters and stand down your Star Destroyers or we will be forced to fire on you and your ships!"

B'Lain chuckled as the message went out, followed almost immediately by Captain Nath on the scrambled convoy channel they'd set up before leaving Syvris. "Attention Attention Attention! Incoming Imperial forces, two Star Destroyers backed up by a pair of frigates! Please make your jumps immediately! We will occupy them here long enough for you to make your escapes. Good luck. Hornet out."

"Jokers, launch!" B'Lain said, adding his own punctuation to the deception. The two active flights of Joker squadron leapt into space, turning and accellerating toward a common point. B'Lain shook off the near-black-out of the launch and laughed out loud as one-by-one the privateer light freighters turned and leaped into hyperspace, leaving the Hornet all alone.

"There they go..." Jace said. "I cannot believe that worked."

"Be glad it did. The last thing we needed was for Scrubber's secretive benefactors jumping into a gaggle of semi-legitimate 'free traders'. They'd have been all over them looking to make a buck." B'Lain shot back. "Now, lets get formed up and remind your folks to keep their eyes - and their scanners - pointed outward."

"Aye sir!" Jace dropped off their private link, passing orders, as did B'Lain. Throttled back now, the Jokers took about a half-hour to recover from the crash launch and get comfortably on-station in forward screening positions. Once in place, they settled down for what they hoped would be a short patrol.

*******

"Emergence!" the tech in CIC called. "Bridge, we have multiple emergence signals bearing one-seven-nine mark three-five-five."

Nath swivelled toward tactical. "Confirm: How many ships?"

El'Lynn looked up from the tactical position. "Seven, four in the mega-ton range and three smaller signatures out front." El'Lynn's brow furrowed. "That's odd... I have a clear contact on the freighters, but the other three..."

Nath nodded. "Tactical, secure scanning. That's our target. Shift scanning forward and to the flanks. Make sure the Delta drones are beyond the convoy and relay their feed to cover the rear. Lets not make our guests uncomfortable."

"Aye sir!" El'Lynn replied. Nath turned to the helm. "Helm, ahead standard speed." Nath turned back to El'Lynn. "Its a three hour flight to the next jump point. We'll recover the Jokers ten minutes before we reach it."

El'Lynn nodded, passing orders to flight ops and on to B'Lain and his pilots. Nath swivelled back forward and sat back with his fingers steepled. "Only five jumps to Teth. Piece of cake..."

********

They were twelve minutes away from the last jump when it all went sideways. B'Lain was about to turn his flight back and prepare to dock when a blip appeared on his long-range sensors. "Eagle, Joker One: I have an emergence signature! Bearing zero-eight-two mark zero-eight-seven!" B'Lain looked up and over his right shoulder. "Jokers, form on me! Attack formation Delta!"

Behind them the Hornet swung around as well, angling up and to the right, moving to intercept. "Jace, I count a dozen Skip-Rays and another dozen Dekard transports behind them."

"Confirm lead! Looks like we're outnumbered again..."

"Always. B'Lain to Eagle: We have a dozen Skip-Rays coming in, with assault transports behind them. We'll thin them down but there's going to be leakers."

"Understood, Jokers. We'll get the stragglers. Jokers are Wild."

"Understood." B'Lain flipped frequencies again. "One to all Jokers: Jokers are Wild. Go for the Skip-Rays!"

********

The Jokers streaked through the Skip Ray formation, dodging and weaving as ion bolts and laser blasts filled space with energy. Shields took hits but then it was the ARC-170's turn and the Jokers hammered back, concentrating their fire in pairs on four targets. Three of those targets disintegrated, blown apart, while a fourth tumbled on, intact but bleeding air and without drive power.

B'Lain led his Jokers around for a second pass, shifting from the extended diamond "Delta" formation to a a pair of extended columns in the "baker" formation. Each flight of four singled out a pair of Skip Rays and again took them on two-to-one, this time also exploiting the much higher manueverability of the ARC-170s to avoid the bulk of the blast boat's fire. This time two of the Jokers took enough damage to peel out of formation and head back toward the Hornet but all four of their targets were again destroyed.

"Joker One to Joker Five: Jace, stay on the Skip Rays! Keep them harried and off-balance, and pick them off. We're going after the Dekards." As the fighters had engaged the Dekard transports had steadily closed on the convoy, swinging wide around the Hornet to avoid it's guns. B'Lain broke off, leading Jokers 3 and 4 in a spread-V formation to engage these transports. He was closing and almost in range when two more ships emerged from hyperspace and turned to attack. "Joker Gold break break break!"

The Joker fighters scattered as the the two ships - both Interceptor IV class frigates - pulled up on either side of the gaggle of transports, covering them with their massed laser fire. Gold flight made a few runs at the frigates, but they couldn't get enough heavy hits in to disable them and the massed return fire was to heavy. On the second pass Joker 3 was disabled, his drive down, and B'Lain ordered Joker 4 to grapple and tow him back to the Hornet while he harrassed them with concussion missiles. The Hornet was to far away to support, moving up fast but by the time she generated an intercept the transports would be on top of the convoy. And then...

All fire suddenly ceased from both Frigates, as well as the constant jinxing they'd been doing. Before B'Lain could come around and get a read on them a feminine voice came up on the general comm frequency: “Enemy Frigates have been pacified, you may send boarding parties, expect no resistance." No ID, no close, no radio procedures. Just the declaration - and silence.

B'Lain arched up over the near Frigate, noting that the turrets no longer tracked him. "Eagle, Joker One. Frigates appear to be neutralized. Beginning attack run." Apparently unaware that the ships on either flank were suddenly off the air the double column of RZ-52 Dekard transports plodded on, attempting to close with the convoy and board. B'Lain throttled back and rolled in, taking his time. "Like killing baby seals..."

He opened fire, starting at the rear of the column and working forward, swinging his fire back and forth, marching destruction from the tail of the colum to the head. He made a single, slow pass leaving nothing but death and spreading debris in his wake. As he pulled out he found himself pointed directly at the convoy. He quickly turned away, remembering their orders, but he couldn't help but make a visual inspection as he turned away.

The four freighters were ... unique. They were roughly triangular shaped, typical of both Chiss and the Empire's capital ship construction, but with the smooth lines of a Mon-Cal ships and Kuati drives. The odd hybrid was both efficient looking and visually pleasing to the eye. B'Lain also got what he thought must be the smaller escorts, but other than a vaguely wedge-shaped blackness he couldn't make out any details or localize them. Before he could make a more detailed search the ships suddenly leaped into hyperspace, leaving the Hornet and her fighters behind as they made their final jump to Teth.

Eagle to all Jokers: Boarders are away, heading for the frigates. Please provide cover."

B'Lain arced back around, picking up the two boarding shuttles moving away from the Hornet. Jace, still with three fighters, had already swung around to provide top-cover, so B'Lain throttled back, matching velocities with the frigates and initiating a detailed scan of the target.

********

Jan rode the lead boarding shuttle, a hulking Marine in powered battle armor at her shoulder. She'd begun training with the armor as well, but for this mission she'd decided to go with what she was familiar with and wore the song-steel armor of her Knighthood. Her saber hung on her belt as well: She would lead the Marines, but she was and always would be a Knight. Her primary weapon was a part of her and nothing would change that. MAster Sgt. To'Mas'Crin was in total aggreement. "We're one minute out, ma'am."

"Thank you, Sergent." Jan moved forward. "Stations."

"Marines! ON YOUR FEET!" To'Mas barked, standing the squad up. Twelve marines, plus the Sergent and Jan, weren't much of a boarding party for a frigate, but it was all they could spare. And if it really were disabled... "Lock and load! We're going in hot."

Jan approached the hatch only to feel a hand on her arm. "Ma'am, let Corporal Jin take point, if you please." Corporal Al'An'Jin was probably the only person on the shuttle larger than Sgt. Crin himself, and he cradled a massive plasma rifle in his mechanically augmented arms.

"By all means." Jan replied, stepping aside so the four man "point" team could crowd the hatch. With a jerk and a clang that rang through the hull like a bell the shuttle hard-docked with the Frigate at an air-lock. Standard schematics put them very near the ship's bridge. A green light indicated a good seal and the hatch opened. Corporal Jin followed his massive cannon through and into the space beyond, covered by the rest of his fire team. Jan and Sgt. Crin followed, Jan igniting her saber as she stepped through the hatch. "Any movement?"

"None." Jin replied.

"Move on, Corp. Ares, with me. Jin move to the bridge, we'll provide cover and support. Leeds, overwatch for the El Tee."

Jan smiled at the big Sergent, who grinned back and moved up to support Jin's crew, already moving on the bridge. Jan waited a second for Corporal Ez'Ra'Leeds to form and deploy his fire team before moving over to a control station where three bodies lay.

"What in the blazes..." One of Leed's riflemen hissed. Corp, there's two more over here. They're headless, Corp."

Jan knelt next to the bodies before her. The deck was covered in a thick pool of congealing blood, and again, there were no heads.

The heads were just ... gone. "Maker ... what happened here?"

Her radio crackled. "El Tee, Crin. The bridge is secure. It looks like the ship is fully functional, ma'am, but..." he paused for a second before continuing. "Ma'am, its a mess up here. Bodies everywhere, blood by the bucket full, but..."

"No heads." Jan replied. "We found the same thing here." Jan stood up. "Have Ares get the ship under control and prepare a flight plan back to Sylvis. Take Jin and secure engineering. We're heading for the docking bay."

"Understood. Crin out."

Jan suppressed a shudder and looked over at the lifts. She looked at her troopers, noting their stares at the blood. These were young troops, first time in combat... "Leeds, fall in. We're heading to the flight bays. Two junctions in, then down three flights. Take point."

"Aye ma'am." The corporal said, loudly. "You heard her, Marines! Two-by-two, El-Tee in the middle. Lets move!"

The barked commands snapped the young squad out of their reverie and they moved swiftly through the ship. No one stopped to stare again, but they all went out of their way to avoid walking through the puddles of sticky, red blood.

And there were a lot of puddles...

********

Two hours later B'Lain was back on board the Hornet sitting at the briefing table with Captain Nath and Major Mack. "We had five birds with damage, two serious, but they'll all be flight-ready again by tomorrow. Fortunately only one pilot was injured and that was minor. Master Healer K'Lain has a bacta patch on him, should be ready to fly before his bird is repaired."

Nath sighed and sat back. "That's good news. Scrubber sent word confirming that the convoy arrived safely. No mention of their involvement with the fight but he was effervescent in his praise for our efforts." Nath looked at his CAG and XO. "Anyone else a little ... uneasy about the capabilities of these folks?"

"More than a little." El'Lynn replied. "I know we weren't supposed to scan or pry, but after that radio call I tried to reach out and get some kind of sense of them in the force. All I hit was a black hole. I'd heard stories, rumors mostly but some tidbits were confirmed by Jan, that the Mak'Tor had a knight with the Sons under cover recently and he encountered a ... body guard, I guess, with extraordinary capabilities as well as small, arrow-shaped ships that were nearly invisible and seemed to be highly advanced."

"I've heard similar things." B'Lain injected. "Though it might be from the same source."

"No, I've also heard rumors, mainly about the invisible ships." Nath sighed again. "But stealth tech is one thing. We've had to fight enemies with superior tech before, and we've always managed to find a way to win. But how do you fight someone who can make your head just ... disappear?"

B'Lain and El'Lynn exchanged looks with each other then looked back at the Captain. No one spoke: there was nothing to say.

Finally Nath drained his coffee and rose. "Well. Prize crews are on board. We'll escort the frigates back to Syvris, then figure out what to do with them. I'll be on the bridge."

Sorry for the delay! This one took a while....

Chapter 10: Wilberforce
Part 1

Electronics Tech Si'Mone'Kel sat back and rubbed her eyes. A quick glance at the chrono confirmed what her gritty eyes were telling her: She'd been at this for nearly 14 hours straight. She sat back and rubbed her eyes for a moment before standing. "Coffee... I need coffee..."

Ten minutes later, properly caffinated and invigorated by some vigorous movement she was back at her station. Sipping on the triple-espresso-shot latte the mid-watch cook had prepared for her Simone returned to her work, sifting through the computer logs and records recovered from the Interceptor frigates. The two ships were riding in orbit now, with minimal crews aboard, not far from the Hornet itself. Rumor was that...

She shook herself away from the wool-gathering as something caught her eye. That's odd... She was deep into the ship's logistics logs, pouring through spare parts and consummables looking for "anything unusual". When she'd started the assignment Lt. Naith hadn't been able to give her anything more specific, just to keep her eyes open for anomolies and that she 'had a feeling' something important would present itself. She'd been skeptical - it sounded like a load of mystical mumbo-jumbo to her - but this was certainly unusual...

"Computer, cross-reference record AN-224-272 through -287 with navigation logs." she said, noting the spike in consummable usage at the ends of several runs, particularly in oxygen. They'd pushed the limits of their storage capacity in both food and air ... but the trips hadn't been very long...

A chime indicated her search results were back and Simone pulled up the navigation logs. "Four round trips, none longer than a week ... but they used up a month's worth of food, water and air on each trip..." She scanned the origination and destinations for each trip. "And eighty percent of that was on each of these outbound legs. The return trips are right on the normal curve for the crew. So what were they hauling?"

She closed the navigational logs and opened the cargo manifest. She scanned down the list, looking for the corresponding mission records. "Maker..." her hand was trembling when she keyed the comm. "Lieutenant? Simone. I found something..."

******

"...we traced the shipments back to this location." Jan said, highlighting a small dot on the holographic map. "Its in the Magatesso System, but well out from the inhabited worlds. There's a complex system of transshippment habitats there. It looks like the Hutts are running the slaves in and the Black Suns are using smaller transports to break the shipments into smaller consignments and move them out to various locations across their network. The platforms themselves are operated by the Zann corporation, but these outlying habitats are the only ones being utilized in this ... venture ... and the personnel appear to be drawn exclusively from the Black Sun organization, with a few liasons from the Hutt cartel as well."

B'Lain sat back, frowning. "Why use the Interceptors as transports? Even considering they were transporting slaves cramming thirty into quarters designed for five had to be taxing in the extreme on the ship's environmental systems."

"It was, which is actually why we found it. I had ET-4 Kel looking for anomolies in the records of the ships. Something told me there was something there, so I had her go over them with a fine-toothed comb. She found a spike in their logistics that didn't make sense and followed up."

"That was good work." B'Lain replied.

"So I told her. She's still digging, but we've been able to confirm that the passengers were pleasure slaves being transported to different Black Sun establishments across the Outer Rim, as well as consignments destined for ... private owners." Jan's face locked down, but her voice wavered with emotion as she continued. "We have logged evidence of at least one consigment that was ... spaced ... when the buyers reniged on the deal. Seems the ship didn't have enough air, food or water to bring them home, and the site was to remote for alternative buyers to be arranged so..."

El'Lynn blanched. "Spaced??? Just like that?"

Jan nodded, her eyes dangerous. "Yes. Just like that. And Captain, according to the last entries we found, another large consignment is coming in from the Hutts in two weeks."

Captain Nath's face hardened. "Two weeks..." His eyes turned to his XO. "El'Lynn, reach out to Glonar D'Kev. I need to talk to him."

******

"Captain, thank you for agreeing to see me in person." The Besalisk was as gregarious and flambouyant as El'Lynn's report had indicated. He had responded to the Captain's request for a meeting with an offer to see him aboard the Hornet. Nath wondered if the man was marginally gifted in the force, as his very demeanor seemed to indicate that he had some kind of insider information about Nath's request. His words seemed to confirm that. "I assumed, from the urgent tone of Ms. Mack's voice, that your desire for consultation might conern topics of a ... delicate nature, shall we say? It seemed prudent to conduct such a conversation away from prying eyes and ears."

"Mr. D'Kev, I appreciate your discretion and candor." Nath replied, noting how the Besalisk's smile broadened at the word "discretion".

"It is no bother, Captain. I needed to get off-planet for a bit anyway. It was about time for one of my ... excursions ... and your ship is far more comfortable and convenient than my normal conveyance."

Nath found himself returning D'Kev's grin. "Indeed. Well, Mr. D'Kev, I have a request for your associates. My team have uncovered evidence of a significant slave trafficing hub in a nearby system. I intend to attack this hub and destroy it, but our intelligence indicates that a large consignment of slaves will likely be present at the time of our attack. My command does not have the transport capacity to recover these people, and we would be hard-pressed to supply the boarding parties to take the platforms and take them off."

"I see. What do you require from us, Captain?" D'Kev's face was uncommonly thoughtful as Nath continued.

"Transports for the liberated slaves, with sufficient escorts for their security, and any assault troops or fighter support you can spare."

D'Kev nodded and his face was grave. "I will pass your request on ... but while I expect Scrubber will be able to send transports with a small - a VERY small - security escort, our current exposure in ongoing operations precludes troops or significant military assets."

Nath nodded. "I understand. Whatever you can manage, then. We will just have to adapt our plan to what is available."

"Your flexibility is greatly appreciated, Captain!" D'Kev replied, his smile returning. "Now ... I have a communication to send. Looks like I get to spend part of my trip in that less-than-desirable venue after all!" He rose and bowed, sweeping his feathered hat off in a flourish before sweeping out of the room.

Nath, rising, called after him. "Let me know ASAP, D'Kev!"

"Of course!" the Besalisk replied over his shoulder, already well down the hallway.

Nath chuckled and sat back down. "Thespian..."

******

Three days later Nath had D'Kev's answer when no less than six Sentinel class transport shuttles dropped out of hyperspace, escorted by a flight of TIE Avenger fighters. The group had sent a brief message before settling into a parking orbit around the system primary, well away from Syvris and its prying eyes.

The briefing room was full when he entered. "Attention on deck!" officers sprang to their feet, snapping to attention as he came to the lecturn.

"As you were." Nath said, waving them back into their seats. Present were El'Lynn and B'Lain, his two primary subordinates, as well as Jace'N'Cam, the Joker's XO and Jan'A'Naith in her capacity as commander of his Marines. In addition two Sons of Kessel - Captain Joran Flyd, the senior commander of the transport contingent, and Lieutenant Slee, the Gran pilot in command of the Sons' escorts.

Across the back a third group was also assembled. Koawan Cam had sent her personal regrets, but had allowed six Mak'Tor Knights - a quarter of her recently bolstered security force - to join Jan'A and her Marines as part of the boarding party. The knights were wearing their armor and were ready for battle, grim-faced with purpose. I guess even Mistress Cam doesn't like the idea of over a hundred 'pleasure slaves' being shipped through space so near M'Tzigon... Nath was suddenly very glad that El'Lynn had pushed for and gotten permission to read Koawan Cam in on Wilberforce.

"We will be moving out in 12 hours in what has been designated Operation Neptune. The target is a series of deep-space habitats and assembled transports gathered in the Magatesso System. Intelligence confirms that there will be a new consignment of slaves shipped to this distribution node out of Hutt space within the week. We believe that most if not all of these slaves will still be present when we arrive. Records recovered from captured Black Sun ships show that the platforms have a local defensive garrision of twelve Supa fighters, backed up by defensive satellites mounting a pair of heavy lasers and a targeting array. There may be multiple light ships on station as well, including Interceptor frigates. To compensate for this, we will be employing our pair of captured frigates as well. One will be under the command of Major Mack, the other will be commanded by Commander Lo'Ryn'Xir." Er'Wyn'Nath nodded to his XO and Chief Engineer in turn. Lo'Ryn had spent two days equipping both frigates with an extensive automation system which would allow each ship to be fought by a five-man skeleton crew. Their extra firepower would make this incursion possible.

Nath turned his attention to B'Lain. "Major Throwd will lead his Joker squadron in, clearing the enemy fighters and destroying any defensive satellites in the area. The Hornet and the captured Interceptor frigates will engage any defending frigates. We will attempt to force any transports to surrender, but any ship that will not heave to will be destroyed."

"when the defenders are cleared away our Marines will board. This effort will be augmented by Koawan Xandir and his band, who will board in conjunction with Lt. Naith and our company of marines. We will use our transports for this boarding action."

"Once the platforms are secured the Sons of Kessel will move forward and dock, taking off the liberated slaves and any prisoners we take. Once they are clear, we will withdraw, blowing the platforms as we go. Are there any questions on this overview?"

The room was quiet and Nath nodded. "Very well. Major Mack will begin going over the nuts and bolts of the operation." Nath sat and as the XO began breaking down the details he relaxed slightly as he read the mood of the room. He was no Mak'Tor, but he could feel the confidence and competence in the room. Soon Wilberforce would strike another blow for freedom - and further cement good relations with the Sons of Kessel.

Chapter 10: Wilberforce
Part 2

Space erupted with blue lightning as a trio of ships dropped from hyperspace, emerging from the visual stretch of psuedo-motion in tight formation. In front the pair of captured Interceptor IV frigates were in tight formation, cloe enough that the emergence was dangerous. And immediately behind, tucked in the shadow of the two, rode the Hornet.

"Hail the station." El'Lynn said from her command chair. She was doubling up as her frigate's tac officer, but her hands were idle for the moment.

"Hailing." from the communications console the engineer sent the recognition codes they'd extracted from the ship's computer. They wanted to get as close as possible before opening hostilities, both to maximize the shock value of the attack and to minimize the likelyhood of a rash action on the part of the platform crew. Like spacing the slaves...

They waited through two tense minutes or a response before finally getting the expected automated IFF response. The two dozen yellow dots representing the station's orbital defenses went green on her display and the two fighters on standing patrol peeled off from their intercept course. "We've been cleared through to mooring stations, sir."

El'Lynn released the breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Very good. All ahead one third. No reason to hurry." They moved in, maintaining the tight formation, the frigates continuing to screen the Hornet from the station's sensors. "Now, lets hope they stay fat, dumb and happy long enough..."

******

Nath was having similar thoughts on the bridge of his ship. "Tactical, keep a sharp eye. I want the turbolaser batteries laid on any capital ships that turn up. Passive only! Lets not give the game away..."

"Aye, sir." The tactical officer replied, updating his plot from passives after verifying that his active systems were locked in standby mode. "Three Interceptor class frigates, seven transports, and one Nebulon-B cruiser identified. All are in standby mode except two of the transports, which appear to be loading and preparing to depart."

"Understood" Nath replied. He keyed open his com. "Joker One, Eagle. Be advised we have a Nebulon-B parked out here. I'd be grateful if your boys could take her out quickly."

"Will do. Jokers are wild, sir. We'll make the Nebbie a priority when we launch." B'Lain replied. His pilots were primed and ready. The launch would be a half-power launch, allowing them to form up and manuever much faster while still allowing them to clear the formation quickly. "Jokers standing by to launch on your command, Eagle."

"Stand by, Jokers. The target is still asleep. I want to get as close as possible before waking them up."

******

The tight formation continued to close at a leisurely pace, moving ever closer to its objective. Jan'a used a calming motif, allowing the motif to cover herself and her squads of marines. They were loaded into two boarding shuttles, twenty-four troops in each shuttle, arrayed in unpowered armor. A third shuttle, smaller and faster, contained the Mak'Tor knights and would launch with them immediately after the fighters launched. The objective was to get aboard the platform as quickly as possible and take it over, hopefully in time to prevent any atrocities from being committed. Jan'a rolled her head, loosening her shoulders, and checked her gear. All of her marines and the Mak'Tor Knights has gear that would give them up to a half-hour of life support and protect them from the ravages of vacuum exposure in the case of a loss of atmosphere on the station. She didn't want to think about what would happen to the slaves, who undoubtedly did not have such gear, if such a breach occurred.

Check complete, she sat back, unable to relax despite the motif. She could hear the melody of the song becoming more lively, the rhythm and harmony increasing in tempo and complexity. Any time now...

******

"Comm request from the station, ma'am!"

El'Lynn sat up straight and turned toward the communications station. "Is it automated or live?"

"Live, ma'am. Someone named Jrouk is asking for 'Commander Jung', ma'am."

El'Lynn tensed. Jung had been in command of this ship, according to the records. If someone was asking for him in person... She looked over her board. The station was in range of their weapons now... She and Captain Nath had talked aobut this contigency before jumping in, and they agreed to launch pre-emptively in the face of imminent discovery. She turned back to the communications station. "Ignore him. Send the execution signal to Hornet. Firing in ten seconds."

******

Jan'a tenses as the launch warning sounded. For a moment she felt an intense longing to be back in her fighter, heading out with the Jokers... She sighed and squared her shoulders. Yes, she missed flying ... but she had a job to do. Focus on the job. She looked around the cramped interior of the lander, meeting the eyes of her marines...

My Marines...

"We're about to launch folks. Get ready to dance..." She called, leaning back and crossing her arms over her shock harness.

The Marine's answer echoed in the compartment: "HOO-RAH!"

******

B'Lain grunted and shook off the near-blackout of launch. He turned his fighter toward the massive Nebulon-B, gold flight forming around him. "OK, Jokers, just like we sketched this out. Gold and Silver flights hammer the Nebulon-B until enemy fighters appear, then we switch to space superiority. Jokers, sound off!"

"Two is Wild"
"Three is Wild"
"Four is Wild"
"Five is Wild!"
"Six is Wild."
"Seven is Wild."
"Eight is Wild."

"Jokers are wild! Lets dance..." B'Lain slammed his throttle to 100% and rolled in on the Nebulon B as fire erupted from the frigates behind him, hammering away at the defensive sattelites which were just coming to life.

******

Jan'a felt the last Joker fighter launch, as slight shudder from the catapult as it was thrown into space. She counted to ten and it was their turn.

The boarding shuttle was an NL-42 "Battle Taxi", basically an armored sphere with a boarding hatch in the nose, an engine in the rear, and a pair of heavy blaster turrets port and starboard. The interior was cramped and the pilot sat uncharacteristically in the rear, in what could only be charitably called "engineering" and used a full VR helmet system to fly the ship. His companion was the shuttle's system engineer and gunner, and used a similar helmet to point the guns.

The troop compartment was also cramped, with just enough room for a full 24-man platoon, if you squeezed. Normally the taxi would take a squad - 12 men plus an officer - for nomral boarding operations, but todayw was far from normal and Jan'a had squeezed in as many of her Marines as she could manage. Fortunately, the ride was short...

The taxi lurched as it was launched, its initial accelleration far less than the Jokers in their fighters, and the pair of NL-42s turned toward their objective, going to full throttle as they did so. Jan'a had her helmet's HUD connected to the taxi's sensor array, allowing her to see 'outside' using the same inputs as the crew. She looked around, spotted the second NL-42 forming on her, its platoon under the command of MAster Sgt. To'Mas'Crin. She suddenly missed having the hulking sergent at her side, but she shook it off. Another, smaller shuttle closed on them as well: the Mak'Tor contigent.

The question washed through Jan'a's mind: would the Knights be able to mesh smoothly with her Marines? She'd only had a brief conversation with their senior knigth, Koawan Jas'Xhon'Xir. The six knights were all dedicated to the mission and were individually capable, but they had no experience in small-unit tactics...

Jan'a caught herself and chuckled quietly. Here I am, a junior Koawan, questioning the competence of six knights, two of whom are eligible for promotion to Meanowan! Talk about being captured by the system... Jan'a had been immersed in the Marine culture for several months now, learning their ways, their tactics, and absorbing their attitudes. Despite her armor and her saber, she suddenly realized that she thought of herself not as a Knight or a fighter pilot, but as a Marine.

And that was a good thing...

"Something funny, ma'am?" Her platoon Sgt, a grizzled veteran named Ram'Ond'Blake aka "Blackie", regarded her with his characteristicly inscrutable gaze.

"No, Blackie, I was just wondering if the Mak'Tor will be able to keep up with us."

Blackie turned his head, looking at the Knight's landing craft through his own HUD. "I'm sure they will do their best, ma'am."

"I'm sure. They're best is pretty good, you know."

Blackie gave her another look. "As the Lieutenant says."

Jan'a chuckled again and looked back at the station, sheathed now in the firey death of its supporting satellites. "Ninety seconds to contact, then I guess we'll find out."

"Yes ma'am."

******

B'Lain ignored the boarding parties. His focus was on the Nebulon-B. "Jokers, attack in line astern. Sequenced attacks. Designating target ... now." He locked his system on the point where the long, thin middle hull met the forward section and transmitted his target to the entire squadron. "Beginning run now..."

The eight Joker fighters extended in a line, each taking their targeting informaion from B'Lain's targeting system. B'Lain streaked in, hammering his chosen target with his lasers while he relased a proton torpedo. The torpedo streaked in and detonated, shattering armor and scattering debris but not penetrating the hull.

One by one the Jokers each made their passes, stripping away the Nebulon's armor and weakening the structure. as Joker seven strafed the ship it suddenly let go, coming apart in a shower of sparks, debris and escaping air. Joker eight held his fire as the frigate came apart, the halves spinning away from each other spilling air ... and bodies.

"Splash one frigate!" B'Lain reported. He noted a new rash of icons on his HUD. "Jokers, tally ho! Fighters coming up from the platform. Break and attack."

******

"Bogey two is disabled, shifting fire to bogey three." Tactical reported. On the screen two of the icons representing Interceptor IV frigates were now drifting, their red icons ringed with flashing blue rings indicating targets disabled by ion cannon fire.

"Very well. Status on the Nebulon-B?" Nash replied, turning toward the tactical station.

"Nebulon-B is destroyed."

"Very good. Transports?"

"Six transports have surrendered and are powered down. The seventh is making a run for it, Major Mack is in pursuit."

"Excellent. Fighters?"

"There are a dozen Supa fighters launching from the station's outer platform. Jokers are moving to intercept."

"Boarding parties?"

"Ten seconds from hull contact."

Very well. Carry on." Nash turned back toward the main display, his chin in his hands. Things were going very well. So why do I feel like the other shoe is about to drop?

******

"Impact in five ... four ... three ..." Jan'a braced herself at the pilot's warning. "... two ... one ..." With a clang the battle taxi made contact with the hull of the platform. Magnetic grapples activated, binding the hull to the side of the station and foam sealant created an air-tight seal around the forward lock. Before the clang of the hull impact died Jan'a was moving, unlocking her harness and springing forward. Normal SOP was for the ship's inner lock to open and the marines to place breaching chord on the hull, a directed thermite reaction that could cut through over a meter of battle steel. It was also very dangerous and more than one taxi full of marines had taken casualties from it. The thermite strip was effective but only used if no better option existed.

Fortunately, Jan'a had a better option. With the characteristic snap-hiss of its kind her lightsaber ignited and she plunged it through the hull of the station, opening the portal in a matter of seconds. "Let's go Marines!"

Chapter 10: Wilberforce
Part 3

The hole was still shedding droplets of molten metal as the Marines charged through it. To'Mas led his platoon through it, his first squad spreading out left and right to cover the breach while the second squad formed on him and prepared to move into the station. "Mamba Two, on me. Mamba One, seal the plug and follow along."

To'Mas led second squad forward into the corridors, headed for the station's engineering section, as the first squad lifted the circular metal plug back into place and re-sealed the breach behind them. The NL-42 completed the patch by coating the exterior with a quick-hardening resin before releasing its grapples and backing away from the station's hull.

******

Jan'a carefully lifted the metal plug back into place and held it while the marines covered the scar with the breaching patch. "Sealed. The taxi is pulling away."

"Very well. Where are the..." A nudge in the force drew her attention. "Ah, speak of the devil, and he appears!"

Koawan Xandir grinned, his Knights spreading out behind him. "Ma'am." he replied, using his lit vermillion blade to salute with a flourish. Jan'a returned the salute with a grin of her own: her 'date of rank' in the Order was four years earlier than Xandir's, but her position put her in command of both the Marines and the senior Knights. Normally the Mak'Tor would have expected to assume command of the operation, with the Men-At-Arms in support of them, but with Jan'a's unique position command was squarely in the hands of the Marines ... for a change.

There you go thinking like a Marine again... "Xandir, To'Mas is headed for the station's engineering spaces. We need to find the hostages and get them to the exfil points. Can your Knights act as scouts for my Marines?"

"Yes, ma'am." Xandir turned to his Knights. "Jo, Els, fan left. Sam, Kyss, right. Scan and overwatch. Mike, you're with me." the Knights fanned out, moving silently and nearly invisible within their force cloaks. Jan'a nodded and turned to her second. "Well, Blackie, lets move out."

"Yes ma'am! Viper team, left with Koawan Jo, Cobra team, right with Sam. Python team, form on the El-Tee. Move Marines!" The non-com bellowed and the two fire squads split into their previously briefed combat teams. Each team had four members of the 1st platoon's heavy weapons group armed with heavy blasters and grenade launchers and four of second platoon's standard riflemen. All of the Men-At-Arms were also carrying their song-steel energy pikes, in case close-quarters combat was needed.

Jan'a waited for half of her team to move forward before stepping into the gap and allowing the other four troopers to fill in behind them. Like Koawan Xir out ahead she opened herself to the force, readhing out, sensing and searching while also listening to the guiding motifs of the ever-present song...

The sudden eruption of a frantic tempo and erratic melody gave her a few seconds warning. "Contact Left!"

The Black Sun security troops charged down a side corridor, firing as they came. The Marines went to cover and returned fire. Jan'a's saber ignited and formed a pink wall in front of her. Red bolts deflected from it and back up the corridor, driving Black Sun warriors into cover. Additional noises of combat told her that other security details had also engaged her Marines as well as the Knights scouting for them. "Blackie, report!"

"Ambush suppressed, we're almost ready to ..." The non-com paused for a moment. "Correction. Counter-fire going out now."

At the intersection two grenade launchers, quiet to this point, opened up, filling the corridor with clouds of anti-energy aerosols and deadly fragments. Explosions marched down the corridor and Jan'a felt the security teams die under the hammer of the advancing grenades...

"Cease fire, Blackie! Enemy is down." She called, simultaneously slapping the Grenadier immediately in front of her on the top of the helmet. "Koawan Xandir, status?"

"We're through. Ambush repulsed, no casualties. You might want to swing left, Jo has a sniff."

"Copy." Jan'a replied, extending her own senses in that direction. Where... There! She suddenly had them, a mass of scared minds in a transfer module labeled "livestock" on the maps. "Got 'em! Viper is on point, Python in support. Cobra, break off and secure our exfil pathway. Viper will secure the bay. Pyton will escort the hostages out while Cobra secures the our exit. Move!"

Without hesitation the Marines with Jan'a plunged into the corridor they'd just filled with gas and shrapnel, charging over the bodies of their foes as they moved to support Team Viper, about to make contact with their objective.

******

"Transport is heaving to, ma'am. They've agreed to slave their controls to our station here and return to the station."

El'Lynn grinned. "Good! And it only took reducing their shields to 8% to get them to comply! Well done, guns!" she could feel the pride and satisfaction of the skeleton crew around them as they ran down the last transport. The ship was a GR-75 and could carry 40 passengers ... or twice as many slaves. Likely it wasn't fully loaded however, and it had run until El'Lynn's Interceptor IV had been in position to destroy it. Now they turned back, flying in tight formation, the transport's controls slaved to the helm on the Interceptor IV. "Comm, notify Eagle One that we're on our way back."

"Yes ma'am."

******

With a blaze of blue glory and stretching pseudomotion the Sons of Kessel transports emerged from hyperspace with their small fighter escort. After conducting a quick electronic hand-shake with the M'Tzigon forces the transports headed directly for the livestock handling modules of the mostly-pacified station at full thrust.

******

"Joker Seven, you have one on your tail. Prepare to break left on my command." B'Lain called, lining himself up behind the jinxing pair of fighters. "One, he's all over me! I can't shake him!" Jo'Nas had a slight edge of panic in his voice as he replied. He was dancing his fighter all over the place, and mostly generating misses, but the pilot of this particular Supa was several cuts above his fellows. He clung doggedly to Joker Seven, never quite lining the Joker fighter up ... but never quite missing, either.

Joker Seven's rear shields were in the red as B'Lain finally lined up his shot. "Seven, break now!"

Seven gave up his mongoose jinxing and pulled hard left. The Supa turned to follow ... and ran right into B'Lain's fire. Heavy energy bolts hammered the Supa and it exploded, scattering debris and vomiting atmosphere as it blew violently apart.

"Splash one Supa." B'Lain called. "Jokers, form up and..."

He was cut off by a priority alarm from the Hornet. "Eagle One to Jokers! Enemy fighters incoming, bearing 227 mark 22! Two squadrons of heavies coming in from the neighboring platform! Turn and engage!"

B'Lain pulled his fighter onto the designated heading and his sensor screen filled with targets. He checked his fuel state - good - and his weapons state - one torpedo left - and slammed his throttle forward. "OK, Jokers, you heard the man! Jokers are wild!"

******

The enemy fighters launched from another, near-by platform. during the planning phase they'd hoped that the Black Suns activity would be limited to the one platform, but apparently they had fighters stationed on neighboring Zann Cosortium platforms as well. Or the Zann Consortium wasn't just leasing the platform to the Black Sun - they were in fact business partners.

Which could be very, very bad...

Captain Nath leaned forward, studying the plot intently. Everything inside him screamed that he needed to do something ... but experience taught him that just doing something without at least taking a little time to think was the course to serious blunders. There may not be a lot of time, but there was always at least a little time to thing.

Even if it were only a few seconds.

Nath noted the launch position, the enemy fighters splitting into two groups. One group of 12 was headed for the Jokers, intent on engaging them. They outnumbered B'Lain's group 3 to 2 and they were fresh, while B'Lain's fighters had depleted most of their missiles against the Nebulon-B. The other group was headed toward the Sons of Kessel ships - transports, slow, fat and weak, with only a single flight of TIEs to keep the attackers away. But if he came about, pushed his ship...

"Helm, set heading 191 mark 8 and come to full emergency thrust. Gunners, stand by for long-range suppression fire."

The Hornet turned, breaking formation with the remaining Interceptor IV frigate, and leaped ahead with all the speed of her class. "El'Lynn, Er'Wyn. Return to station as planned and form up with Lo'Ryn. Support the evacuation and protect the Sons of Kessel transports as they reach you. We're going to help out their fighter screen."

The radio crackled with her reply. "Aye, sir. Be ... careful."

Nath grinned. "Oh, I have NO intention of being careful, Commander. None whatsoever..."

******

B'Lain had time to form the Jokers into pairs before they clashed head-on with the first group of fighters. "StarVipers! Watch out for buzz droids!"

Energy criss-crossed space and missiles flew, but it soon became apparent that none of the dreaded Pistoeka Sabotage Droids, also known as "buzz" droids, were being launched. "Probably means these are Black Sun boys after all. Zann would have deployed the little buggers by now..."

"If its all the same, I'll just count my blessings and pass up on analysis." Jace interjected. "These StarVipers are ... Splash one!"

"I'm hit. Mayday ma...skkkt"

B'Lain glanced down at his board and saw Joker 3 ringed in solid red. "Eagle this is Joker One, declaring Dutchman Dutchman Dutchman! Deploy SAR."

"Unable" came the terse reply. "We'll get the rescue craft out of the bays as soon as we can, but we're heavily engaged."

B'Lain didn't answer, he just swung around and hammered his own target with energy, blowing it apart. "Jokers, heads up! Three is Dutchman ... anyone have a trace?"

Silence replied.

******

The Hornet slammed into the enemy fighter formation behind a flurry of energy. The enemy appeared to be taken totally by surprise, intent on their target and not keeping up good situational awareness. Target fixation ... I'll take it ... Nath thought to himself as his gunners destroyed half the enemy targets in the first ten seconds of the engagement. The remaining fighters broke off in six diffent directions. Nath's helmsman, on his own initiative, swung the ship up and around, selecting a course that kept two of the fleeing fighters in their range. The guns hammered again, and both fighters died. "Good shooting, Guns!

Helm, come around and intercept the Sons of Kessel transports. We'll escort them in."

"Aye, sir!" The Hornet swung around again, moving more like an oversized fighter than a carrier, returning to hover protectively over the Son's transports while Lt. Slee led his fighters out to destroy the remaining attackers.

Nath noted the final destruction of the attack force and sighed. "Flight, launch the ready pinnace. Its probably to late, but maybe we can still track down that Dutchman..."

******

Jan'a felt ... on edge. There was tension in the Song, an edge to the melody that wouldn't allow her to relax. A quick glance at Koawan Xandir showed the same unease on his own face. His apprentice, "Mike", seemed oblivious to it, but he was taking his queue from his master, staying alert and keeping his attention focused outward. Probably not all that easy for the young man...

The rescued slaves were moving in column down the corridor, and they were indeed 'pleasure' slaves. Mostly female, all gorgeous ... and very lacking in modest covering. Jan'a had already made a call to the incoming transports to have blankets and clothing available for them, but for now they just needed to get them to the exfil...

"That's the last of them." Koawan Sam said, following the last slaves down the corridor. He had his partner, Knight Kyss, in a fireman's carry. The Knight's face was a mask of pain, her left arm and leg displaying severe blaster burns. When they'd arrived the two Knights had broken in and disabled the guards, quickly and efficienty, destroying the "special security measures" - a hatch that could be blown, ejecting everyone in the compartment into space - in the process. Knight Kyss had taken hits, however. Sam was wounded as well, but the hits were less critical and he was able to squelch the pain with a strong healing song, at least for the moment.

"Good." Jan'a looked down the corridor. "Python, continue overwatch of the hostages. Viper, begin falling back. Lets get off this station..."

******

To'Mas extracted from the engineering section of the station, satisified with their work. The stations controls would remain locked for twelve hours, the weapons systems and sensors off-line, the reactors at minimal power outputs, giving them plenty of time to clear the station. The slicer program was elegant and effective: He really needed to make a point of sitting down with the El-Tee and finding out where she'd acquired it...

The blaster bolt that slammed into his temple was the first of many as a fresh security force hit the withdrawing marines. Within seconds several were down and an intense firefight was building.

******

Screaming in the corridor ahead erupted in time to the sudden, furious melody that spiked though the song. Jan'a shook it off and pressed her earpiece deeper into her ear as firing erupted in addition to the building screams. "Python, report!"

"Security force hitting us from a side corridor. Jewels and Cole were out there on the flank, they just went off the air and then we were being engaged..."

Jan'a was sprinting now, Xandir running with her. "Python, coil on my position! Viper, Cobra - get these people on those transports!" The Sons transports had docked and loading was beginning. "To'Mas, what's your status?" Jan'a waited a moment, then repeated. "To'Mas, status!"

Nothing. "Any Mamba units, respond! Status!"

"We are under heavy fire! Sgt. Crin is down. I have a half-dozen dead and twice as many wounded."

Jan'a blanched. To'mas dead? "Corporal, can you make the exfil?"

"Yes ma'am. We've consolidated our position and we're beating the attack off. We'll be moving again in a few seconds."

"Very well. Prioritize on the wounded and get to the exfil, Marine."

"Can Do, Ma'am."

Jan'a brought her attention back to the present. Three members of her Team Python were firing now, suppressing the attack, but blaster bolts continued to hammer through the junction. The fleeing slaves could not pass, and every second they delayed made it more likey another group of security troops would hit them somewhere else. Jan'a looked at Xandir and Mike. "You boys up for some saber work?"

Xandir grinned. "After you, ma'am."

Jan'a grinned back. "Python, Viper - hold and cover. Follow the hostages out to the exfil. Koawan Xandir, Teidowan M'Ike and I will meet you there." Jan'a sang her battle song, wrapping herself in force enegy, and with a war cry leaped into the corridor, the two Knights on her heals.

******

Nath felt himself relax slightly as Captain Flyd broke away from the station and headed out. His own transports had picked up his Marines and returned them to the Hornet, and the Jokers were docking even as they moved away from the station and headed toward their jump coordinates. Initial reports indicated that they'd liberated 163 slaves, mostly young women. An additional thirty-seven heavy labor slaves had been on the fleeing transport, which was now under the control of a Sons of Kessel prize crew. In exchange the cost had been low but painful: two of the Jokers lost in the counter-attack and over a dozen Marines and two Knights killed. Three more Knights and a further dozen Marines had been killed, including Jan'a and Xandir, who's counter-attack had allowed for the final clearing of the slaves through the exfiltration points.

As the Hornet accellerated away from the station, the transports loaded with former slaves, he sighed again. Yes, it had cost them. But it was worth it.

Freedom always was.

******

Jace poked his head into sickbay, a grin splitting his face. "I heard you were back in the body-and-fender shop."

Jan'a made a face at him from her bed. "Yeah. No replacement parts this time, but Doc says the leg is going to require a couple of days in the bacta tank."

Jan'a grimaced. "I hate the bacta tank..."

Jace laughed. "Well, that's better than waking up to find out you're suddenly more machine than human." He patted her shoulder. "You jarheads did good in there, kid. Real good."

"Thanks." Jan'a looked around dramatically. "Jace, can you do something for me?"

Jace leaned back easily. "Um, sure. What do you need?"

Jan'a smiled. "Can you have a pizza waiting for me when they pull me out of the bacta? I get so hungry in there..."

Chapter 11: Counter-Strike

Two weeks had passed since the raid on the Magatesso System, during which the Jokers had again consolidated. Post-battle checks had shown Joker Two was no longer combat worthy and the last spare fighter was activated. With only six fighters remaining, B'Lain retained two pilots for Gold as Jokers 1, 2 and 3 while Jace took the other two and retained Jokers 5, 6 and 7. Jan'a also re-organized her Marines into two squads, with fifteen Marines in 1st squad and fourteen in 2nd squad under Sgt Ram'Ond'Blake. Blackie had not been happy about the promotion, but as always he did his job with efficiency and skill.

Er'Wyn'Nath sat in his command chair on the bridge of the Hornet and tried very hard not to brood. He was more than a little concerned at the reduction of their striking power. Fortunately the ship itself was fully functional, if a little empty. But with their losses their overall offensive power had been significantly reduced. He'd already sent one request for rotation home for refit and repair. After a week he was almost ready to send a second. Maybe if he...

An alarm sounded from the Tactical section. "Status?"

El'Lynn was manning the tactical station, freeing that officer for duty in engineering. "Emergence, strong signal, possibly two ships..."

"Sir, incoming message!" the comm officer reported. "Gold channel, militia code, Alpha-seven priority!"

"Syncronize channels and initiate simultaneous decryption." Nath replied, keeping his voice calm. He waited as the Comm officer found the appropriate algorythm and went through the hand-shaking the protocol required. "El'Lynn, anything else on those ships?"

"Definitely two ships, light cruiser range... The engines and power systems are giving off signatures consistent with M'Tzigon refits..."

"Sir, channel open."

Nath pointed at the screen, which reconfigured to show a woman wearing the uniform of a Men-At-Arms Major. She had blood from a ragged cut on her forehead flowing down her cheek, mixed with soot. "This is Major Ky'Ria'Cam of the M'Tzigon Militia Ship WindSong with the MMS Saber. We are five jumps out of Daluuj. We are under attack, estimate less than two minutes before pursuit emerges. Requesting assistance. We have damage and wounded."

Nath felt his pulse quicken as adrenaline flooded his system. "Major Cam, this is Captain Nath of the Hornet. We are headed your way. What are the number and disposition of enemy forces in pursuit?"

"Captain... Thank the Maker! We were following up a Wilberforce lead when we were hit by four assault ships, a Nebulon-B supported by three CR-90s and two dozen fighters. We lost the Holocron and our fighter screen but took out the Nebulon-B and one of the CR-90s. We jumped away but they are tracking us somehow. We've been engaged in a running fire-fight ever since. I think they're down to about a half-dozen fighters but the they've picked up another CR-90 along the way. If they follow form we'll be hit by three CR-90s and their remaining fighters in about ... sixty seconds."

Nath nodded, turned toward the tactical section. "Battle Stations. Scramble the Jokers now." He turned back toward the screen as the bridge went red and alarm klaxons sounded. "Major, do you have any identification on your pursuers?"

"Markings on the fighters match the Black Sun, but the ships are all carrying Zann Consortium insignia."

"Zann..." Nath looked at El'Lynn. "Why am I not surprised that Tyber Zann is mixed up in the slave trade? Well... lets see if we can't spring a trap for our 'friends'. Major, can you fight? Manuever?"

"Yes sir. We're at about seventy percent combat capacity, but our missile tubes are dry."

Nath shot El'Lynn a inquiring look. "Sir, the ships are both Republic Light Assault Cruisers, Aurek type, with modifications consistent with M'Tzigon navy ships. They're equipped with four twin-configuration heavy laser turrets and four combination turbo-laser and ion cannon turrets as well as a pair of missile tubes."

Nath nodded. "Very well. Major, come to heading 224 mark 14 relative. That will turn you broadside to any emergence following you in and put you above them. We'll close and cross on the opposite side and above, giving us enfilade fire without interference on their cruisers while my fighters finish off their screen."

"Very good. Thank you, Captain." The young woman on the screen relaxed visibly. "With your help..."

"We're not out of the woods yet." Nath replied, a smile on his face. "But we're getting there. Start your maneuver and prepare to engage."

Nath swung back toward tactical. "Status?"

El'Lynn straightened, pressing an ear bud into her ear. "We are at Battle Stations, all positions manned and ready. Joker One will be ready to launch in twenty seconds."

"Very well." Nath settled into his seat. "Helm, full emergency accelleration toward emergence. I want to be as close as possible when the enemy shows up. Tactical, do what you can to make us look like one of those LACs, and launch a Mocking Bird drone configured to look like a LAC-A as well. Lets see if we can't sow a little confusion..."

Nath steepled his fingers as his crew went to work. You want to fight to keep people in slavery? Bring it on...

"Joker One: Launching Now ... Now ... NOW!"

******

B'Lain checked his tactical display. "Jokers, sound off."

"Joker Two, online."
"Joker Three, up."
"Joker Five, up."
"Joker Six, up."
"Joker Seven, yo!"

B'Lain angled downward and to the right. "Two and Three, form on me. Jace, take your flight to the left and low. We'll go low and hit them in a crossing pattern after they emerge."

"On it." Jace replied, his reduced flight forming on him as he also angled down and left of the Hornet.

B'Lain checkd his board again - everything was in the green - and flexed his fingers. "Eagle, Joker One: Jokers are wild."

******

Space erupted with the blue flare of escaping energy and the streaks of pseudomotion. A screen of four Vaksai fighters with two Ixiyen fighters burst into real-space, with a trio of CR-90 corvettes right behind. There was no hesitation from the fighters - they immediately turned toward the two LACs and started to close. They clearly knew where their targets were and were not fooled by Nath's attempt to fool them.

In fact, it became clear a few moments later that the fighters were completely target fixated. They bored in on the cruisers without deviation, cutting right in front of B'Lain's three ARC-170s. "Jokers, start with the trailers and take 'em!"

B'Lain rolled in on the lead Ixiyen and didn't bother with his lasers, instead firing a pair of concussion missiles at point-blank range. The two missiles streaked home and exploded, turning the deadly fighter into a spreading cloud of debris. Joker 3 did the same with the other Ixiyen while Two took down one of the Vaksai's. Before the lead fighters had time to react the Joker flight were on them, hammering away at their shields with their heavy lasers.

One by one the remaining Vaksai's fell to the ambush. None of them managed to fire back or fire on the cruisers. "Well done, Jokers! Tally Ho!" B'lain called, dropping his targeting ring on the trailing CR-90. "All Jokers: Attack my target!"

******

Jace made a slight adjustment to his flight path. He's anticipated B'Lain's target choice and was already lined up with the trailing CR-90 corvette. The blockade runner, renouned for its speed and manueverability, was thrusting ahead at full speed, in a loose formation with the other two ships. However, like the fighters, it was locked onto its targets unwaveringly. While the fighters had surprised them they had appeared close to the LACs and so it was easy to believe they'd come from there, left-overs or a reserve now deployed in a last-ditch effort to defeat the pursuit.

Jace and his wings didn't even have targeting systems pointed at them as the CR-90s maneuvered. "Proton torpedoes, full spread ... fire!"

Six torpedoes streaked away from the fighters, spreading slightly as they guided independently on the corvette. At the last moment the corvette jinxed up and away, generating a miss on one of the torpedoes, but the other five hit and exploded. Two hit at the stern, gutting the engine cluster, while two more slammed into the bow. One low amid-ships and stove in the salon pod, rupturing the hull while the hits forward cut the ship's neck at the forward gun turrets. The bridge tumbled away independently, the crew ejected into space, as the bulk of the ship twisted away, airless and powerless.

"Joker five to Eagle: Scratch one Corvette!" Jace called. "Sorry to steal your target, Joker One!"

B'Lain laughed. "No apology necessary, Jace. Nice shooting!" B'Lain moved his targeting circle to the next corvette. "Lets bag another, shall we?"

******

Shock rolled through the surviving Zann officers as first their fighters, then one of their corvettes were destroyed by enemies they hadn't even seen. The two ships split apart, manuevering frantically, their guns searching for targets. Since both fighter attacks had come from below they also broke high in a bid to distance themselves from the invisible, deadly fighters.

Major Cam rolled her ships with the corvette breaking left, hammering it with the combined turbo-laser firepower of the two Light Assault Cruisers. The two ships made short work of the corvette's shields, and for once the CR-90's speed couldn't save it. Five of its eight engines wrecked, streaming air, the corvette swung around and the power spike of its hyper drive registered ... just before the ship exploded.

The Saber, already more heavily damaged and cutting the pursuit curve more closely to maintain its firing range, caught two substantial fragments. Its own port-side engine pod exploded, knocking the center-line engine out as well and sending the ship into a tumble, streaming atmosphere and debris as its thrusters fired frantically to regain attitude control. The WindSong faired better but her guns went silent as another solid fragment slammed into her amid-ships and severed the power runs feeding her guns.

On the right the Hornet closed on the final ship. "Stand by guns, lock torpedoes."

"Proton torpedoes locked, guns laid in and standing by." El'Lynn reported from tactical.

"Fire." Nath replied.

El'Lynn lifted a plastic shield and depressed a flashing green key. Immediately the Hornet's two torpedo tubes spat out a pair of proton torpedoes each, fired in rapid succession. Simultaneously the forward turbolasers opened up, hammering the Zann corvette with close-range energy fire. The CR-90's shields flared under the hammer of the Hornet's guns, the angle preventing a reply. The torpedo tubes were part of the refit that had turned the Hornet into a carrier and were mounted below the fighter bays in slim pods. Each was equipped with a six torpedo magazine and could fire the torpedoes individually or in pairs, as El'Lynn had programmed them. Like the oversized bays where the fighters were carried these tubes were additions to the core CR-90 space frame, and while they hampered the ship's speed and maneuverability they greatly enhanced her firepower.

That firepower was now decisive as the torpedoes struck the weakened shields. The explosions overwhelmed their protection and ripped into the corvette, wrecking her engines and power systems. Unlike her sisters this corvette did not explode but she did tumble, thrust gone and air streaming from rents in her armor.

Nath keyed his intercom. "Eagle to Python: Launch boarding party."

Jan'a's affirmative response washed over Nath as he leaned forward, chin cradled on his fists as he watched his Marines approach the crippled ship.

******

Nath stood as Major Cam and another officer stepped through the hatch into the Hornet's briefing room. "Welcome back aboard the Hornet Captain." Nath said, extending his hand. "How is your ship?"

"Windsong is operational again, sir. Three days isn't much time but we've run replacement power runs and everything seems to be functioning again. I wouldn't call us 'combat worthy', the hull patches are paper thin, but we can move and fight if necessary." Major Cam turned and introduced the officer with her. "Sir, let me introduce Major Av'Ram'Listz, Chief Engineer and acting CO of MSS Sabre."

Nath extended his hand to the man. He was utterly average - average height, build, hazel eyes, brown hair - but there was a twinkle in his eye that even the dire responsibility he'd inherited couldn't extinguish. "Its good to meet you, Captain."

"Sir." Avram took his hand. "Thank you for the engineering support and the healers. Without their help neither my ship or crew would have faired as well as they did. I apologize for taking so long to report, but with our damage..."

Nath waved him off. "I understand. How are your repairs coming?"

"Well, we have Engine Two back online but One is gone. We've locked it down for now, we'll have to get her into a slip back home for a full replacement, probably need to replace most of the mounting members as well. But we can move at about 30% power and our hyper-drive is finally back online as well."

Nath nodded, gesturing toward seats around the conference table. "Good. Master Healer K'Lain, with support from the Mak'Tor mission on Syvris has all but the most critically wounded ambulatory again. You should have most of them back aboard in a few hours."

Avram leaned forward on the table. "That's good to hear, sir, but why the rush? Wouldn't it be better to let them convalesce a bit longer before bringing them back aboard ship?"

Nath nodded. "Yes, but that's not an option." He slid a padd across the table for them to read. "New orders from the Chiefs: We are to cease and desist all Wilberforce activities and return to the home system for refit, repair and redeployment."

Ky'Ria read the padd then passed it to Avram. "The orders are signed by General Cliff, not the Secretary. I wonder what happened..."

"Our orders were sealed. Cliff probably found out about them and countermanded. He's always been more of an isolationist." Avram replied.

"Damn. Just when we were doing some real good out here for a change..."

"Maybe, but we took a pounding too. I don't know about you, Av, but I never wanted to get command of my own ship this way. Captain Lo was a good man." For a moment Ky'Ria's green eyes were haunted by memory but she shrugged it off. "And we can all use refit and repair. Even the Hornet.

"That we can." Nath replied. "I just wish they were sending someone out to take our place..."

"I think I can handle that." Glonar D'Kev rumbled from the doorway. "Captains! Welcome to Syvris!" The flamboyant Basilisk swept into the room, decked out in a blazingly bright red and orange suit that made him look like a cross between a cavalier and a clown. His good eye lit on Major Cam, quickly evaluating her slim figure, green eyes and auburn hair. "Oh, the prizes this job denies me..."

"D'Kev, our Sons of Kessel liason." Nath said. "D'Kev, Majors Cam and Listz, commanding the two cruisers that arrived the other day."

"Pleased to meet you both!" D'Kev replied, sweeping his hat off his head and bowing while simultaneously pumping both Major's hands. "Let me offer you both the hospitality of my night club on Syvris. Best booze in the sector!"

"That's enough, D'Kev. What did you mean by 'I think I can handle that.'?" Nath said, pointing at another chair.

D'Kev settled his bulk into the human-sized seat gingerly and grinned a disturbingly predatory grin. "Just exactly what I said. Scrubber has been appraised of your shifting tactical stance and wanted me to inform you that within a few hours of your departure a pair of Raider II Corvettes, supported by eight TIE Avenger fighters. We will keep the Healers safe until you can return."

Nath blinked in surprise. "Well. That's ... generous of you. Very generous."

D'Kev stood and smiled, a genuinely warm smile this time. "Captain, you've brought hundreds of our Sirs and Sirras home to us. This is the least we can do in return." He turned, stepped through the doorway, and looked back into the room. "Safe journey to you all, and may the Maker guide you. And whatever you do ... watch your backs."

Saber Forum

General Chat => Fan Fiction and Art => Topic started by: Karmack on March 30, 2018, 06:34:23 PM