Chapter Two.
It was forty minutes later when Farman's shuttle docked in the hanger bay of the Tidal Whip. He and captain Delcove stepped out to be greeted by Captain Admar, the Mon Cal in command of the ship. Many people found the fish headed Mon Calamari slightly odd, disconcerting at least, Farman had always found them reassuring, first an example of why he had joined the Rebel Alliance, and after that as a symbol of continued peace between non humans and humans.
He shook hands with the captain and let himself be led to the briefing room. When he entered, the twenty or so officers already in the room greeted him. He acknowledged them with a slight nod and headed to the center of the room.
Once every one had arrived he raised his hands for silence and the several side conversations died.
"Gentle Beings," he said. "We have just take a major loss, Coruscant has been captured and our fleets have been scattered. In light of this I'm declaring this an open floor. If you have a question ask it, if you an idea voice it. We need some way to survive and we need it soon so lets get going." A Bothan in a captain's uniform raised his hand. Farman nodded to him and he asked his question. "Sir, why are we stopping here? Should we not get further away?"
Farman heard the murmuring of assent from many of the junior officers. "I'll tell you why we are hear, but first let me ask a question. What is the main thing we need right now?"
A woman in the back stood up. "As I see it sir, we need time to make repairs and to heal."
Farman nodded. "Right, now does any one know where we are?"
"We are at a Mothball facility for Clone wars era equipment. One that obviously has not been found by pirates or the like." A distinctly female voice stated from the door. Farman looked to the door, and saw a woman leaning against the frame. She was wearing her black hair short and her grey captain's uniform was immaculately clean and strait. She was an oddity, gray among the tans, whites and orange of the Republic officers. He looked back the rest of the room. "Captain Shevun is correct. This is indeed a mothball facility."
The same Bothan as before again raised his hand. "Sir, why are we here, none of the material stored here will still work."
Captain Delcove turned around in the front row. "Actually, that not true. When we arrived in system commander Farman ordered tech crews to survey each ship. I just got the initial reports. Three of the twelve ships so far surveyed are in perfect working order, and six can be made to work with only basic repairs, the rest need extensive overhauls." He turned to Farman. "Classifications are being sent to you now, sir."
Farman plugged his data pad into the display in the center of the room. And the fuzzy image of nine ships materialized. He highlighted three of them, then looked back at the room. "Who recognizes these ships?"
Six or seven hands went up but again it was Captain Shevun who answered. "That's a pair of Venator-class Star Destroyers and a Trade Federation battle ship. Is the battle ship still equipped with its droid complement?"
Farman smiled inwardly; this imperial sure knew her history, "Top marks again to Captain Shevun. The battle ship is operating at about one third droid complement, mostly pilot droids. These," he highlighted the other six ships. "Are?"
This time it was a younger Mon Cal, who answered. "One is a Providence-class heavy destroyer, four are Acclamator class figates, and last is another Venator-class Star Destoryer."
This time Farman could not contain the smile. "That's correct, along with the ships found here we have found around three hundred droid starfighters."
There was a murmuring of excitement at this. Captain Delcove held up his hands for silence, and Farman nodded his thanks to him. "This my plan. First, all ships that will take less then a week to be repaired by their own crew will do so. All other ships, except the Tidal Whip, The Dervish, and the Perilous, are being classified as secondary importance. Primary on the repair list are the mothballs, those that can be repaired quickly. Those that will take over a month are to be used as scrap. We need every ship we can get up and running and the clone wars stuff is tougher then most of what we got. All ships smaller then Frigate class will be stripped of turbo lasers, these cannons will be placed on the clone wars stuff, either as replacements or as extra weapons. Laser cannons will replace the weapons taken off; I want the capital ships to be able to do as much damage as possible.
Starfighter commanders, start checking your people out on whatever class of fighters are still working, they will be replacing any destroyed fighter. I'll send you an update on that later."
A Gotal officer in the front row raised his hand. "Sir, what about our wounded, we don't have the room for them on our ships and we're going to need their help if this plan is to work."
"I agree, that's why we are shifting Head Quarters to the old archives station in the middle of the fleet, it has some defenses and a fully equipped Med-center. When not on the station the flag will be aboard the Whip. Any more questions?"
When no one voiced any, Farman hit a button on the Holo projector, and the image dissolved into nothingness. "I would like Captains, Shevun, Delcove, Admar, Gerndal, and Felvon to stay, the rest of you are dismissed. Individual orders will be transmitted soon, until they are received act upon the orders I issued just now."
Every one he had not named got up and, with a salute and a bit of grumbling filed out of the room, leaving only the six people he had requested. Captain Admar asked the question on every ones minds. "Sir why are we still here?"
Farman eyed each one of them. "You are here because the plan I just outlined is long term. It will take at least two weeks to get every thing running at a hundred percent again. The repair facilities here are minimal. We need a short-term strategy. I'm open to ideas."
"That Federation battle ship, with a third of its droid complement it can still fly right?" Captain Shevun asked.
"Yes, it has more then enough droids to operate it at full potency."
"Then I have an idea. I have heard that those ships could fire in any direction. We can use its as a mine for the Vong to hit."
Farman looked at her curiously, he opened his mouth, but captain Gerndal beat him to the punch. "Care to explain that?"
Captain Shevun smiled that wolfs smile again. "We have a secret weapon on the Demise, One of Grand Admiral Thrawn's cloaking generators."
This statement was met with a stunned silence. Finally captain Admar shifted his eyes in a Calamari gesture of disbelief. 'That is not possible, intelligence located all of them."
Shevun looked at him with what appeared to be a measure of pity. "do you really think that the program died with Thrawn? We were still experimenting with it long past the truce between our governing bodies. The Demise is the prototype for a new line of battle ships, all with cloaking abilities."
Farman stopped any response from the captains. "We are getting off topic. Captain Shevun, if you would please send me specifications for your ship I would like to look over them. But back the discussion, what is your plan with the federation battle ship?"
"We can transfer the generator over to the battleship. There is only one hyperspace route to this location so, if we put it there, and leave it cloaked, then when the Vong show up, then they fly right past it. Once it is in their center, it will open up. Then we launch what ever ships we have that are combat worthy."
Farman looked at the other captains, who were nodding thoughtfully. "I like it, we have a few of the YVH droids, we can use their friend or foe programs to update the droidfighters. Also, the star fighter training probes, how many do we have." He paused as they answered. "twenty total, aye? Ok, when we were fighting at Fondor, I noticed that several training probes were hit by stray laser fire."
A new voice opened up from off to the left. "And they opened up on everything moving within range. Yes I noticed that as well."
Every one turned to find who had spoken. A young man in a orange flight suit was sitting in one of the top level benches. "who are you, I don't believe you are one of the captains that I named." Farman demanded. The man stood up and headed down to the center where all of the Captains had gathered.
"I am Janson Hammond." He introduced himself. "I was elected to be the spokes person for the Jedi in the fleet."
"Jedi!" Captain Felvon, a bothan, blurted. "You were not invited to this meeting."
Farman shook his head. "No, you were not, yet I am glad you are here, the council of the Jedi is always welcome."
Hammond inclined his head. "If you would allow me, I believe I know where you were going with the training probes."
Farman nodded his accent, and he continued. "You would use the probes to confuse and weaken the Dovin Basals of the vong ships. Is that correct?"
Farman nodded again. "Yes, that was my idea, they can be combined with the droid fighters to do as much damage as possible and slow the enemy forces down while the main fleet moves up. The only problem with this plan is that, due to the sensor blind dual nature of the cloaking shields, we would have no way of telling the droids in the ship when to attack."
"I believe I can be of some assistance there." Hammond offered. "We Jedi have the ability to communicate with each other over long distances. One of us can stay aboard the battle ship, until the order to go is given."
Farman looked at him. "that ship is almost guaranteed to be destroyed, who ever stayed on her would have a very slim chance of getting away safely."
Hammond didn't blink. "I understand the risk involved with this, but I will take this mission."
The planning session ended about an hour later. As Farman sat on his shuttle back to the Reckless, he felt content that, given a day, they would be able to defend them self's from at least a small attack.
