Dark Descent Part 14: The World-killers
By Essem
He could forget for a little while, and be free, as he flew. It wasn't a pretty ship, had little of the charm of his old X-Wing, but the boxy TIE had power to burn. And he burned it, pushing the ship and himself to its limits, making the engines scream. It was the first time in months he'd felt in control of anything.
A second TIE spun through his sights, flipping over in a complete loop, graceful in spite of its ungraceful shape. He grinned and toggled the transmitter on with his chin as he put his ship up and behind the other TIE.
"Enjoying yourself, Sub-commander?"
Petra's voice rang with excitement as she answered him. "My Lord, its fantastic! I've never had so much fun in my life….that is, I mean…"
"Its alright Petra, you're allowed to like it, thought most Imperial officers wouldn't understand. They've lost the joy in flying. Watch your inside turns, you're cutting it a bit fine."
Luke watched Petra swing up alongside him, fitting her side panel neatly next to his. "Sorry, my Lord, but the controls are very touchy, takes a while to get used to them. A lot more oomph than a shaft hoverbike." She laughed suddenly, and Luke felt her pleasure through the Force as she spun the TIE in a circle around him, flipping it over and about, making the black fighter soar. " A whole lot more!"
They danced the dance of flyers, spinning around the void, chasing each other among the huge masses of the Star Destroyers, tiny fish flicking past behemoths. Luke knew Petra was a natural, she had the feel of the ship almost from the first moment she'd sat in it. Captain Oranth might frown at a woman taking out one of his fighters, but Imperial command was exactly that. It had been surprisingly easy to gain permission from the Emperor for Petra to come with him and act as his personal pilot; a small gift, hardly noticed by his Master.
Finally it was time to go back. Luke led the way, taking the TIE in through one of the big ship's many entrances to the main TIE bay. The bay was packed with dozens of fighters and shuttles; the Super Destroyer Imperator had room for hundreds of ships within its generously sized innards.
Janoss was waiting for him when he jumped down; he took Luke's helmet and flight gloves and walked with him across to Petra's ship.
"How did she go, sir?"
Luke had almost grown used to the dry growl of Janoss' voice, but it was a constant reminder of his own weakness - and one that he welcomed. Every word that Janoss spoke would be a warning of how easy it was for him to hurt the innocent.
"She's good, Janoss, very good. If she was at all Force-sensitive she'd be very dangerous."
They reached the TIE just as Petra climbed down and Janoss helped her out of the black helmet. "I hear you did well out there. Was it good?"
"It was WONDERFUL!" She gave Janoss an impulsive hug, then looked about guiltily. No-one seemed to be paying any attention, except for a smiling Luke. "Better even than I imagined. And Lord Reave is the best teacher, very patient. I hope to be as good a pilot one day."
"Sooner than later, Petra. " He answered her cheerful salute with a nod and turned to head for the Bridge with Janoss.
"The Captain said that the final reports are in on the Corda system," Janoss said as they came to a turbolift shaft.
"And?"
"Every planet has been stripped. Down to the bedrock, by the look of it. Most of the vegetation, the useable water, the animals, the ores, even the atmosphere is thinner. Just like all the rest. I'll give them this, whoever they are…they're thorough.
Luke nodded, considering the report in silence as they headed up and across towards the Bridge. They'd been tracking the trail of destruction for weeks through a series of dead, stripped worlds. So far they'd been uninhabited, but there weren't many inhabited worlds on this far part of the rim. The trail, however, was heading inwards and it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened. The probes that Thrawn had first encountered so far out on the rim had been the first incursion of a very nasty foe.
The Admiral was conferring with the Captain when Luke arrived. Both men turned to salute and he responded automatically, slipping into a chair he'd had installed at the very front of the bridge. "Admiral, have we come to any conclusions about these aliens yet? Like, where they're heading for now?"
Thrawn tapped a series of keys on the sensor board and a holographic display of that sector of the galaxy popped into view. A small series of white dots turned yellow and Thrown pointed to them. "These are the systems hit so far. You'll note they form a curving line heading in from the edge of the galaxy. If we extrapolate along this line, and ignore systems without worlds or worlds of minimal value, we've come up with six possible targets."
Before Luke could respond a sub-Commander approached and saluted. An officer never interrupted a command meeting unless it was something warranting an interruption, and Thrawn looked at the younger officer with one eyebrow up. "Yes Sub-Commander?"
"Admiral, we've received a transmission from the Oortrett system. One of the two inhabited planets of that system, Oort Prime, reports sighting an unknown large space force."
The Captain, Admiral and Luke each turned to the hologram, and Thrawn keyed in the system's co-ordinates. A white star blinked red; it was on a line from their current position. Thrawn nodded. "This was one of the possibilities."
"How far?" Luke asked.
"At maximum speed for this group, three days."
"Very well, Admiral. May I suggest we get underway immediately."
Although nominally in command, Luke preferred to make his orders requests. He still had a great deal to learn and Thrawn wasn't an Admiral just because of his nice uniform. The Admiral nodded in silent agreement and turned to give his orders to the Group. In a short time the Super Destroyer, its three Star Destroyer escorts and the small fleet of supply and support ships, were headed towards the Oortrett system.
They came out of hyperspace, three days later, at the outskirts of the system, and immediately registered a large solid blob on all the sensors. Scouts were sent out and they reported back that an unidentified and very large vessel was busy around the smaller of the two colonies. Luke studied the reports with Thrawn and shook his head.
"That thing's the size of a Death Star. If it has the sort of armament and firepower its size suggest, I doubt we can take it out by ourselves."
"Almost certainly not." Thrawn keyed up the images one at a time; it was disc-shaped, bumpy and ugly and big. Smaller irregular shaped ships moved from it back and forth to the planet, carrying, presumably, the mineral and vegetable and animal wealth of the world. Luckily it was a new colony and mostly automated - the few colonists had managed to get away on their own supply ships before the planet killer had arrived. But the second colony world, next inwards towards the sun, had thousands of inhabitants. And nowhere near enough ships.
Thrawn sat back, scratched one eye tiredly and took a deep breath. "As I see it, sir, we have two options; we can attack and hope to slow the main ship down, or we can withdraw and wait for support to arrive. If we attack, we may do enough damage to slow it down. If we're damaged ourselves we may not be able to withdraw."
"Have we tried communicating with them yet? Luke asked.
"Tried on ever frequency we know, used voice call and hologram. No response. If they use vocal or visual communications, they don't seem to want to talk."
Luke studied the system and gauged the distances. "If the Imperator fought a holding action, would there be enough time to evacuate the colony?"
Thrawn looked surprised and Luke frowned.
"They are citizens of the Empire and deserve our protection." Thrawn was obviously surprised and Luke felt a momentary flash of anger. Did everyone think he was a murdering monster? Face it, you are, but not now. Now you have the chance to save some innocent lives. No reason to be annoyed at Thrawn, its not his fault he knows your reputation.
"Admiral, whatever you may have heard of me," Luke said with determined calm, "its probably true. Whatever I am now, I started out on a world not too different from that one. I will not leave them helpless in the path of an invader. What is mine, I protect."
Nodding slowly, the Admiral's ruby eyes studied Luke with interest. "Yes, my Lord, I understand. But if I may be permitted to remind you, there are twice as many people aboard this vessel alone as there are on that planet. If you are considering numbers, that is."
Luke nodded, meeting his stare. "Yes, I have considered that. But the people aboard our ships are fighters, trained and equipped. The colonists are civilians with no arms and no hope. We fight for them. If we run in the face of the enemy, we may as well give up the right to keep what we hold."
Thrawn nodded slowly and Luke wished, not for the first time, that he could fully read the man. For all he knew, Thrawn thought him an idiot but was too polite and cautious to say so. But he rather suspected that if need be, Thrawn would tell make it very clear if he was doing anything really, fatally stupid.
Thrawn called over the other Destroyer Captains and they held a planning session. Luke surprised them by insisting they all speak their minds honestly and offer options and opinions. They were part of a service that frowned on individual thinking and it took them a little while to realise he was serious. Thrawn suggested a joint attack by Imperator and the fleet's newest Destroyer, the Venture, using all 200 TIEs from all the ships, putting one Destroyers in reserve between them and the planet, while the last Destroyer uploaded the colonists. Splitting their forces was a dangerous move but without exact knowledge of what offensive capabilities their enemy possessed, Thrawn considered it too dangerous to keep all of his ships in one place. The fleet's six freighters, all the Shuttles and the colony's own ships, would be able to get the majority of the colonists off in a day.
"A day is a long time," the Admiral said. "A battle can be lost in an hour. But if we plan well, it might work. I just wish we had more information of what we're fighting."
It would take an hour or so to arrive at the point of decision and Thrawn had invited Luke to dine with him, explaining that it could be some time before they had the chance to eat again. They dined alone in Thrawn's private chambers, a large room made more personal by the use of expensive rugs , with artworks set here and there around the walls. Even the dining table and chairs were non-regulation, all dark glossy woods and velvet cushions, comfortable and elegant. Luke could hardly imagine Thrawn in any setting less refined.
"Always ensure that you feed the machine" Thrawn had said, as he'd poured Luke a glass of wine with his usual grace. "Neglect your needs and you endanger your plans." He stopped in mid-pour and stared at Luke, unseeing. "I wonder…." He put the decanter down and turned to his communicator, ignoring Luke's puzzled stare. "Commander, I want a report immediately off all edible materials taken from the various planets. Especially anything that was left behind."
He turned back to Luke and continued poring. "I am unused, My Lord, to having no forward knowledge of my foe. We know all the intelligent races of this Galaxy and I can study them in all their attributes to gain a clearer understanding of how they think. These creatures…I don't even know what they look like."
Luke sipped the wine, watched the Admiral's pale features. "I imagine we'll know more about them in a few hours. If we survive."
"Exactly. I have instructed all Destroyer captains to keep their tractor crews on their toes. I want prisoners - or at the very least carcasses. Anything that will help us understand what we fight."
Luke swirled the wine and looked at Thrawn over the top of the glass. "I'm going out with the TIE squadrons."
Thrawn blinked and his lips pursed. "My Lord….that's a very dangerous idea. I don't believe I can allow that."
Luke knew the time had come to flex a little muscle with this very able officer. He pulled the Darkness to him, slipping it around him like a cloak. The room seemed to dim and turn softly yellow and when he spoke, it was in a low hiss.
"Would you like to reconsider that?"
It was a testing moment. Luke wouldn't deliberately kill Thrawn - they both knew that - but the Dark Force was unpredictable and things sometimes just happened. Even as he watched Thrawn with unblinking concentration, Luke was curious to see how he'd react. It would determine their relationship.
Luke saw and sensed Thrawn's firming resolve. "My Lord…I don't doubt you could swat me like an insect. But I would be remiss in my duty if I failed to point out to you that both your father and the Emperor would gut me if I allowed you to be killed." He took a sip of his wine with a rock-steady hand. "And it would be a stupid waste of a valuable resource."
Luke laughed suddenly. "Thanks. I've been called many things, but never a resource." He sighed and let the Darkness slip away. "I'll be as useful aboard here as piece of furniture. At least in a TIE I could fight."
"On the contrary, your extraordinary abilities will come in very useful. If you cannot reach out from here and touch these creatures, then the Force is a good deal less powerful than I had believed. And you can also, can you not, influence our fighters? I'm sure I heard that Vader and the Emperor could do that?"
Luke remembered hours of training, painful lessons that might just come to some good. He nodded slowly, suddenly enthusiastic. "You could be right." He began to think of the possibilities, then blinked and looked back into Thrawn's watching ruby eyes. "That was very well done, Admiral. "
Thrawn dipped his head slightly. "Thank you, my Lord." He was suddenly relaxed, resting his chin on his hands, looking across at Luke. "Know your enemies, but know your friends better. Then neither can surprise you." And he smiled, very slightly, without a hint of sarcasm, and with unexpected warmth.
Luke had never felt so smoothly out-manoeuvred in his life.