TIE-Fighter 2: Battle Lines
Eight planets circled the small, yellow star. Four solids, three gas-giants and a captured rock that barely qualified as a planet. As well as a total of thirty-seven moons and myriads of asteroids concentrated in a belt between the fourth and the fifth world. Three of the four solid planets were within the zone that allowed the development of life, but only on number three evolution had progressed beyond simple algae and fungi. So far the system was barren of sentient life and in that way it wasn't any different from billions of other systems within the galaxy.
If there was sentient life to be found, it had to come from elsewhere.
--
With a flicker of pseudo-motion the Imperial frigate left the realm of hyperspace and started to cruise at medium speed into the system. With a length of seven hundred fifty meters and a maximum width of four hundred sixty the dagger-shaped vessel and its siblings were currently the largest class of frigates within the Imperial Starfleet. They belonged to the Acclamator-line of vessels, but where the original Acclamators had been devoted to the transportation of troops during the clone-wars the frigate-version was dedicated towards space-combat and space-patrol. Wedge-like planes and a hangar-bay on the ventral side as well as heavy armour-plating were the most notable differences. The protruding bulb towards the stern of the ship was testimony of a much larger and more powerful hypermatter-reactor than those used aboard the troop-transports. With a consumption of seven thousand six hundred tons of fuel per second at maximum reactor-output the vessels power-production was almost comparable to a light destroyer during the clone-wars.
At the Imperial Navy Headquarter on Coruscant this particular vessel was registered as ISS-Acc2F-Foerost-13,214. What meant, that it was an Imperial Starship, a frigate of the Acclamator-II-class and the 13,214th ship of its type built at the shipyards of Foerost.
Within the local sector-group and its crew the ship was known as "Privateer's Bane".
--
Entering the bridge of the "Privateer's Bane" Lieutenant-Commander Orkadi Chromme allowed himself a small moment to make a cursory glance over the large room. The members of the bridge-crew were sitting or standing on their stations, doing their jobs in the calm, concentrated way Chromme had come to expect from them. It wasn't the more relaxed atmosphere found aboard many of the smaller ships within the sector-group, where long tours of duty and relatively small crews allowed the people to become familiar with and comfortable around each other, but it also wasn't the stiff and tense enviroment where someone as eccentric and demanding as Darth Vader was breathing down your neck. No, it was the air of professionalism and confidence only stern, but also fair task-masters like Commander Tanikov and Chromme himself were able to inspire in the men and women of their crew. The Lieutenant-Commander had graduated among the top of his class, but the fine intricacies of how to inspire discipline - in other words leading - hundreds of people was an art form Chromme had only started to learn under Tanikow. The combat-performance of the "Privateer's Bane" and her crew were the highest within the local sector-group and it was only a question of time until Tanikov would get the promotion to Captain and the offer to commandeer a bigger ship.
For a brief moment Chromme wondered if he would follow Tanikov as his XO aboard a Star Destroyer, but he doubted it. The admiralty of the sector wouldn't allow the "Privateer's Bane" to loose both of its two most senior officers. And while it wasn't unheard of or even unusual for some officers to rise on the career-ladder in the shadow of an superior officer in some regions of the galaxy the local sector wasn't among them. No, as soon as Tanikov was on the way towards bigger things the "Privateer's Bane" would be Chromme's and he would be on his own. Not that the Lieutenant-Commander had a problem with that. The Chromme's were a prominent and influential core-world family, but had suffered the fallout of a political affair when Orkadi had graduated and as a result he had found himself serving aboard a small ship in the Rim-territories and not a more prestigious command within the core. Far from wallowing in self-pity and twiddling his thumbs Orkadi had gritted his teeth together and started to work his way up on his own. In a surprisingly short amount of time he had reached his current position and he was confident, that the "Privateer's Bane" wouldn't be the end of it. In that case it would be a good thing, that he wasn't too closely connected to Tanikov. No matter how good the Commander was, his career would always be overshadowed by the little fact that he had been born on a mud hole in the Outer Rim. Tanikov would get a Star Destroyer to captain, perhaps even become an Admiral in command of a Superiority-Fleet, but he would never advance above the sector-level. Chromme on the other hand might get himself a Star Cruiser or even battle cruiser in one of the many battle groups one day, if he played his cards right, but that was the future.
At the moment it was the present, that demanded his attention. Tanikov wasn't sitting in the chair reserved for the captain, but standing next to the ring of holo- and command-displays surrounding it, studying a tactical image of the system. Walking over to his superior officer Chromme nodded his head in a silent greeting and - giving the holo a look-over - said in a slightly sarcastic voice.
"Yellow sun, four rocks, three gas-balls and a number of asteroids. Haven't we just left this place?"
"No, that was three rocks and five gas-balls." Tanikov answered mildly. "I know our current mission isn't as exiting as controlling the traffic and inspecting the freights on the sectors major hyperlanes, but we weren't covering our self with glory doing these things, too."
"I know, Sir, I just can't help myself. After fighting pirates and chasing down smugglers for so long, not to mention the handful of insurgencies we managed to stamp out investigating the loss of a probe-droid seems a little dull." Chromme would never admit it, but he was eager for an argument. Unfortunately Tanikov wouldn't have it.
"I would consider it a sign of our continued success, that there are no pirates and smugglers to hunt at the moment. We either caught and sent them to Kessel or they went into other sectors searching for safer grounds. With the eradication of the last uprising the locals should have finally learned that attempts at resistance are pointless. Now that peace and order are restored nothing should prevent our worlds to prosper and it is our duty to ensure it stays that way. What demands constant vigilance on our part and that means investigating everything out of the ordinary. Including a probe-droid, that didn't sent its final report before its self-destruction." The Commander reprimanded.
"Yes Sir." Chromme answered, suppressing a sigh. He had to admit that his superior was right. The galaxy was a large place. Too large to be effectively supervised even by the rapidly and ever growing Imperial Starfleet. As a consequence the ships and fleets of His Imperial Majesty were concentrated around the known population- and industrial-centres and the space-lanes connecting them. Remote and supposed to be uninhabited systems like the one the "Privateer's Bane" was currently cruising through received a lot less attention in the form of more or less regular sweeps by a ship on patrol or, if no ship was available, by automated probes. The probe-droids carried enough fuel for one or two sweeps through the system, were programmed to make regular reports and - once they were out of fuel - were supposed to destroy themselves. Before its self-destruction the droid would sent its final transmission, which included a special code-sequence signalling the initiation of the self-destruct. Aside from preventing potential enemies getting their hands on Imperial technology the purpose of this procedure was to let the empire know, that its automated spies were no longer watching. Probe-droids were mass-manufactured and it was cheaper to have them destroyed and launch new ones into space, than to collect and refuel them.
However when a probe-droid failed to deliver its final report it was necessary to investigate the where, how and why. Which was why the "Privateer's Bane", a seven-hundred-fifty meter long vessel, crewed by more than thousand men and women had spent fuel worth several ten thousand credits to reach its current location.
"So what do you think happened? Are we looking at a malfunctioning transmitter or an unfortunate run-in with the local fauna? The last report from the probe was from a planetary surface, so it can't have been an asteroid." Chromme asked.
"At its current level the local fauna isn't worth much, so it has to be a broken transmitter. Or something from outside the system. In which case your wishes for some action will come true." Tanikov looked at his watch and then on the hologram again. The "Privateer's Bane" was now thirty light minutes from the fourth planet away. "We'd better be careful. Have a flight of TIEs looking for our missing droid, while we stay in a safe position. And lets wake our crewers from their naps."
With that the Commander sat down in his chair and pressed a button. The next moment the annoying sound of alarm-klaxons wailed over the bridge and through the entire ship, informing everyone aboard the frigate about the switch from ready to combat-status. In the hangar-section pilots rushed from their ready-rooms to their fighters and additional gunners arrived at their turbolaser-stations. In the control-station of the vessels main reactor technicians and engineers prepared the sleeping heart of the "Privateer's Bane" to run on maximum output, while the non-essential sections of the ship were closed down. Astromechs and other repair-droids left their storage-rooms and readied themselves to support the damage-control-parties spread over the frigate. Thirty seconds after being activated the alarm-klaxons shut down and another thirty-five seconds later the last department of the ship had reported its ready-status to the bridge.
"One minute, five seconds." Chromme reported from his own control-station. "That is twelve seconds below our current record."
"And five below what the Admirals would view as "at peak performance". We need to do this more often. Now have those TIEs on their way." Tanikov admonished.
"Yes, Captain." Chromme answered.