CHAPTER 21

Admiral Melious was sitting at an uncomfortable desk on board the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Widowmaker. All he had was a box of cigars, a few changes of clothes, and a couple of other things that were packed into his emergency escape shuttle.

"Admiral," a voice came in over the comm.

"Go ahead, Commander," Melious said.

"Admiral, we have a report of an attack on the Zamesian system," the Commander reported.

"Number and type of Alliance ships, Commander," Melious queried.

"Sir, I'm not sure that these are Alliance ships. There are three Dreadnoughts, one Strike Cruiser, fifteen Candelier-class Frigates, one Escort Frigate, two Lanler-class Frigates, a modified cargo ship, one old Trade Federation BattleShip, a Victory-class Star Destroyer, and an assortment of medium and small craft," the Commander reported.

"What are Candelier-class and Lanler-class Frigates?" Melious asked.

"They're both made by the Soricans, Sir. The lanler seems to be a light frigate, it's got 19 laser canons and 8 ion cannon. It appears to serve an anti-fighter roll," the Commander reported.

"And the other one?"

"The report is coming in now, Sir. It looks like a medium frigate. The Candelier-class can have 25 or 30 turbolasers. I'm not sure if there were two evolutions of the ship, or if they simply offer the buyer two different options. Let's call them Mark I and Mark II respectively. The Mark I has 25 turbolasers, 10 ion cannon, and holds three squadrons of fighters. The Mark II has 30 turbolasers, 12 ion cannon, and holds two squadrons of fighters."

"Is this the Sorican fleet?"

"We think so, Sir."

Melious thought for a moment.

"What do we have there, Commander?"

"Four Star Destroyers, two Victory-class and two Imperial-class. And another Star Destroyer is on its way, ETA, 46 minutes."

"How long would it take if I dispatched ships from here, Commander?"

"One hour and thirty-three minutes at maximum speed," the Commander answered, having already run the calculation.

"Give me the names of two ships that are ready right now."

"Dark Lord and Impervious, Sir. Do you want me to send them orders to go to the Zamesian System?"

"No. Get me both Captains on a secure channel, in private. Let me know when you have them both."

"Yes, Sir."

Forty-five seconds later the comm sounded again. Melious walked across the dull gray room to the comm and pushed a button.

"Sir, I have them for you," the Commander reported.

"Put them through, Commander," Melious said.

A moment later, the comm beeped, "Dark Lord, Impervious, this is Grand Admiral Melious,"

The two Captains responded with a greeting.

"Listen carefully…"

After Melious gave his orders to the two captains, he switched the channel on his comm.

"Hangar bay, Admiral Melious, has the shuttle arrived yet, to bring me back to the Exar Kun?"

"Admiral, hangar bay, your shuttle is landing now."

"Tell them to stand by, I'm heading over."

He switched off the comm. Then the comm beeped. He switched it back on. "Melious here".

"Admiral, this is General Falkenhayne."

"General, how are things down on the moon?" Melious asked

Out his window, Melious could see the two white arrowheads that were the Dark Lord and the Impervious, disappear as they went to lightspeed.

"We had a setback recently, Admiral, the rebels wiped out one of our regiments, but we can discuss that some other time. Right now, I'm about to launch an assault on the rebels."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Melious asked.

"We could use some TIE fighter and TIE bomber support. Otherwise, just keep them from being resupplied. If you can do that, then they will have to give up sooner or later. But I think that we'll break them in this attack, I'm throwing in everything I've got."

"I'll give you all the TIEs that you need. May the force be with you General."

"And you as well, Admiral."

Now Melious left the office to get to his shuttle.

#

"That's game," Mgaan said, putting the rest of his cards down on the table.

"Good game, man," Drakis said.

"You know you can't beat us without Jarlenski," Gatlin said.

"Please, you guys got so lucky," Drakis replied indignantly.

"You wanna play another?" Gatlin asked.

"Nah, we've been playing for like four hours," Drakis replied.

"What else do you have to do?" Mgaan asked.

"I'm going to go to the bridge," was Drakis' reply.

Mgaan gave him a quizzical look.

"They're not makin you stand watch with all them bandages on, are they?"

"No. I'm just bored. I've been sitting in berthing for three days."

He left berthing and started his long trek up to the bridge. He arrived and saw the doors partially open. They had big holes in the middle of them. He shuddered for a moment, remembering the last time he had been there. He thought of the doors being blown open, the smoke, the bodies…

"Sorry, Sir, didn't see you," a petty officer said as he and another enlisted man almost knocked Drakis over with a large piece sheet of metal that they were carrying off the bridge. Drakis moved to let them pass. Then he walked onto the bridge.

"Hey Drakis, what are you up to?" Jarlenski asked.

"I was bored. Looks like you've got your hands full," Lt. Drakis replied, gesturing towards all of the welders, electricians, mechanics and everyone else making repairs on the bridge.

"Yeah, this is a mess."

Just then, Jarlenski was interrupted.

"Sir, we need to shut off power to that console over there," the young spaceman said.

"You want to disable the conn?" Jarlenski asked, in surprise.

"Yes Sir," the enlisted man said, as if this were not a big deal.

Jarlenski grabbed his data pad and scrolled down.

"Uh, the backup conn is down, DC central is destroyed. So, the answer is no."

"But Sir, it's unsafe to continue to operate the console, it needs to be repaired," the enlisted man pleaded.

"If you shut it down, we won't be able to steer the ship," Jarlenski said, growing a little impatient.

"Yes Sir," the spaceman said, before turning and leaving.

"See what I've been dealing with all day."

"Yeah, looks like fun," Drakis replied. He could see over Jarlenski's shoulder that the young spaceman didn't give up. He was explaining to his chief what had happened. Now the chief was walking up to them. Drakis nodded toward the older man. Jarlenski turned around.

"Sir, can I have a word with you?" the chief asked.

"Yeah, what's up chief?" Jarlenski asked.

"Sir, there are live 440 volt leads hanging out of the conn station. We cannot work on it when it's live. And it's not safe to leave the way it is."

Jarlenski looked at Drakis, "Is there anywhere else we can steer the ship from?"

"Well, there's a backup conn in CDC."

"Is it manned?"

"I'm not sure. We never use it, but it should be manned, considering the circumstances," Drakis replied. "I think that the TAO is qualified, but he's not going to sit there and steer the ship. They must have someone else up there qualified though. All these procedures and stuff, it must say somewhere that they have to have a guy to steer the ship, stationed up there."

"Alright, I'll contact them," Jarlenski sighed.

"Better check with the CO, just to be safe," Drakis added.

#

Tesla, wake up," Lena said in a low voice.

Tesla stirred, "What?"

"Get up, look." She was standing behind a tree.

Tesla rubbed her eyes. Then she took the binoculars from Lena.

"Looks like storm troopers on the other side of the river," she said with a yawn.

"Look, they're closer," Lena pushed the issue

"That's why you woke me up?" Tesla asked, starting to walk away.

Lena pushed the binoculars back to Tesla.

"They're clearing mines and bringing up supplies!"

Tesla took the binoculars back. "I see. Fine, you should call it in, they're preparing to attack. Is there anything else?" Tesla asked, clearly annoyed at being woken up.

"No, go back to sleep! Sorry I bothered you," Lena replied, getting a little irritated with her friend.

Tesla laid back down on the ground, and put her cover over her eyes.

Lena picked up her comm, "Sergeant Bauder, Lena, there's some activity on the other side of the river Orca,"

"Lena, what kind of activity?" was the reply.

"It looks like they're clearing mines and bringing up supplies and reinforcements."

"Ok, I'll let division headquarters know, then I'll be over there."

Just then, Detrick walked up.

"Detrick, take a look at this," Lena said.

Detrick took the binoculars and looked across the river.

"Looks like they're getting ready to advance across the river," Detrick said, without taking his eyes away from the binoculars. "Did you call it in?"

"Yes, Bauder said he is coming after he calls it in to division."

"Lena, here," he said, handing her the binoculars and pointing. "You see those orange and black crates?"

"Yes," she said as she took her eyes away from the binoculars to notice how close to her Detrick was standing.

He pointed again.

"Look behind them and a little higher," he said, trying to keep her focused on work.

"Where exactly?"

Detrick stepped a little closer.

"Right there," he said pointing.

"Oh, right there," she smiled.

"Yes."

Her expression changed, "Is that an Imperial walker behind the trees?"

"It kind of looks like it, doesn't it?"

"I see another one," Lena said, with the binoculars to her eyes. "This one is a scout walker."

Detrick took the binoculars, "where?"

Lena put her hand on his arm, and pointed to a spot, "Right there."

"I see it."

"What do we do?"

"Get everyone up."

"Fine, but you wake Tesla up! She's in one of her moods today."

They roused everyone in the company, and all the soldiers started getting into bunkers and setting up equipment. Sergeant Bauder pulled up on a speeder.

"What's going on, Detrick?"

"We saw a couple of Imperial walkers behind the tree line."

"Alright, looks like everyone is getting ready," Bauder said, looking satisfied.

"Yeah, we got the whole company up."

"I better go let the other companies know."

Just then there was an announcement over the comm. "All Fifth Division troops, this is General Brusilov. Prepare to repel an Imperial assault," he instructed.

"Well, I guess I don't have to call the other companies," Bauder said over the comm.

"What's next?" Detrick asked.

"Well, you go make sure everyone is dug in and in position. I'll go make sure that our artillery is ready and in position."

Detrick ran over to one of the bunkers.

"How we doing guys?" he asked, looking around.

"We're ready," Lena said.

Detrick went to the next section. "Everybody ready here?"

"Oh, we're ready!" Tesla said. "I haven't slept in two days. I can't wait till these Imperials get here!"

"Alright," Detrick said with a hint of a smile.

Tesla's bad attitude gave him a confidence boost for some reason. He walked to the next bunker and checked things out. Once Detrick saw that everyone in his part was good, he reported back to Bauder. Then he started heading back to his bunker.

Detrick caught Lena looking at him as he was heading toward his bunker. Then, the ground in front of him exploded, throwing him down. Lena and Castillo leaped out and pulled Detrick into the bunker.

"Are you ok?!" she asked.

Detrick looked up at his two friends.

"I think I'm ok," he said, as he sat up.

More shots rang out. Detrick stood up.

"Those are heavy guns," he said.

"Yes," Lena said. "They are coming from those Imperial walkers," she added, pointing to the other side of the river.

Detrick could now see the four-legged monsters coming out of the tree line, and into the open.

"Sergeant, they're beginning their assault," Detrick said into the comm.

"I see it," Bauder replied. "I'm two bunkers over from you. I let division know."

Artillery fire rang out from behind their position.

"It's always comforting to hear our own artillery," Detrick said.

"Yeah, it's nice to know that dad is back there taking care of business," Castillo said.

"Why can't artillery be called mom," Lena asked.

A massive blaster bolt exploded on top of their bunker. The top held, but everyone was covered in dirt and dust.

"Air support is mom, artillery is dad," Castillo said as he coughed on some dust. "Get your metaphors straight."

"Who is shooting over there?" Detrick asked.

"It's Tesla," Lena sighed.

They both looked at her, "Why?" Castillo asked.

"She's in a bad mood," Lena answered.

"She's a pretty good shot," Detrick said, looking through the binoculars. "All of her shots are landing on the face of that Imperial walker."

"She's wasting ammo." Lena said.

"She stopped now, I guess she was just getting her frustration out," Castillo said.

"Nope, she started again," Detrick said, as more blaster bolts rang out from Tesla's weapon

"Looks like she found a heavier blaster," Lena added.

"She's drawing a lot of fire," Castillo observed. "She's not stopping though.

"Everyone else in her bunker is getting down, but Tesla isn't scared," Detrick added, admiringly.

"She's not being brave, she's just being stupid. Once she gets in a mood, all her common sense goes out the window," Lena complained.

A heavy artillery shot punctured one of the AT-AT's armor, near the shoulder. The metal monster keeled over and fell on its side. Imperial troops were climbing out of it, trying to avoid fire from rebel speeders. While the TIE fighters buzzed around uselessly, just outside of the rebel shield, unable to help their men.

"Alright! We got one!" Castillo yelled.

"I think we can credit Tesla with that kill," Detrick joked.

"Very funny," Lena said.

The battalion Commander, Colonel Karmidis, came over the comm.

"Once the Imperials reach the river, all troops will open fire."

Some of the storm troopers were advancing on foot, in a skirmish line, next to the Imperial walkers. Others were inside of the Imperial walkers. It was common practice to use infantry with armor. Besides, there weren't enough AT-AT's to carry all of the Imperial troops.

"They're getting close," Lena said.

All the troops stood up and layed their weapons on the ledge of the bunker. The ledge was at ground level, the bunker being dug into the ground.

"I see a trooper stepping into the water," Castillo said.

"Open fire!" Detrick said, just before pulling his own trigger.

A blistering fire opened up from the Alliance troops. The Imperial troops returned with their own fusillade. All this small arms fire being added to the artillery fire, and that coming from the speeders and walkers, created a fierce storm of light and explosions. One that troops on both sides hoped they would survive.

#

Captain Neestas was walking to one of the massive hangar bays of the Exar Kun, to await the Admiral's shuttle. With him, holding his hand was Melious' assistant and bodyguard, Ensign Shek.

"Well, we should probably look professional when we walk into the hangar bay," Shek said.

"Oh, right," Neestas said, letting go of her hand.

They stopped at the end of the p-way, just before walking into the hangar bay. Neestas put his hands on her waist. They kissed. It lasted long enough that someone might have seen them, but Neestas did not care.

"Alright, let's go Captain," she said, with a smile. They walked out into the hangar, past 400 storm troopers, all standing at attention in perfectly neat lines and columns. In light of what had happened with the rebel commandos, Neestas decided that security should be tight. He had assigned three interceptor squadrons to escort the shuttle between the two ships. Now it was here. Neestas and Shek walked up to the shuttle just as it was coming to a stop. Various gases were released from the shuttle as it shut down. Melious walked down the ramp.

"Welcome back, Admiral," Neestas said.

"Captain, Ensign, I'm glad to see that you two are in one piece."

"I didn't think we were going to make it. Luckily, Ensign Shek can do more than just bake."

"Yes, she is quite…" Melious was interrupted by Neestas' comlink.

"Captain, bridge,"

"Go ahead Lieutenant," Neestas replied.

"Sir, we need to take down the conn. The back up is down, so is the one in DC Central. We'll have to steer the ship from the Combat Direction Center," Jarlenski explained.

Neestas thought for a moment.

"The one in CDC isn't manned. Go ahead and get somebody up there. Don't take it off line until the other one is manned. And let me know before you switch it over, and how long it will be down for."

"Problems?" Melious asked.

Neestas rolled his eyes, "Shore duty sounds pretty good right about now."

"Sure does," Grand Admiral Melious said, as he handed his bag to a subordinate.

"How was your stay on the …" Neestas was interrupted by a whistle.

Without waiting for the announcement, or even looking up at one another, they all started to run.

"General quarters, general quarters…" the announcement started.

"Jarlenski, what's going on?!" Neestas yelled into his comm.

"Rebel ships coming out of hyperspace," Lt. Jarlenski replied from the bridge.

"How many," Neestas questioned, as he and the others jumped onto the moving walkway.

"I've got four wings of fighters so far, at least a dozen corvettes, four, no five Calamarian cruisers", the Lieutenant reported the numbers as they came out of lightspeed.

Two minutes later, Melious was in his command center and Neestas was nearby in CDC. "What are we looking at, Commander Grant," Melious asked.

"It's a pretty big fleet, Sir. I think the rebels mean business,"

"Give me numbers Commander," Melious said in exasperation. "Do I have to beg?"

"Seven Mon Cal. cruisers, six Assault Frigates, three Escort Frigates, one Victory-class Star Destroyer, a Strike Cruiser," Grant reported, before Melious cut him off.

"For the Emperor's sake! They don't have to build their own ships, they keep taking ours!" the Admiral exclaimed

Grant replied in the same calm voice that he had been using, "Sir, it appears that they attacked another one of our shipyards. This time at Griton, perhaps it came from there," he explained.

It didn't matter, Melious was over his frustration already.

"So, what's that, seven, plus six is thirteen, plus 3… So, 19 capital ships?" he asked.

"Let me double check, I may have missed…" Grant was cut off again.

"Never mind that," Melious said. He picked up one of the comms, "All ships, get in a wall ahead formation. Launch all TIE squadrons and assault shuttles, prepare to attack," he ordered.

"They're forming a wall too, Sir," Grant informed him.

"What do we have?" Melious asked.

"One Super Star Destroyer, six Imperial-class Star Destroyers, two Victory-class Star Destroyers, two Strike Cruisers, and four Carrack-class Cruisers. For a grand total of 15 capital ships," Grant summarized.

"How long till we make contact?" Melious asked.

"Fighter screens will start to engage in roughly 7 minutes" Grant answered.

"Neestas, what's the status of my flagship?" the Admiral asked.

"Let me check with the bridge, and get back to you," Neestas answered.

"Bridge, CDC, what's the status down there?" Neestas asked.

"Here's the latest we have," Drakis began to answer. "We have about 750 functioning guns, between turbolasers, ion cannon, and quad-lasers. Nine out of sixteen shield generators are functioning," he continued.

"Drakis, what are you doing on the bridge? Who is the Officer of the Deck?" Neestas asked, incredulously.

"Well, I was just visiting the bridge when they sounded general quarters. I'm not sure who is the OOD. It was Jarlenski's watch, but during General Quarters, it's Brag and I'm his backup. However, Brag isn't here yet," Drakis attempted to explain.

Neestas put his hand to his forehead. "Drakis, aren't you injured?"

"Yes Sir, but I'm a lot better now. I can stand the watch if you want me to."

"Fine!" Neestas said, not liking confusion on his ship. "Drakis, you're the OOD, Jarlenski is your backup. When Brag gets there, then he's the OOD," he barked.

"Admiral," Neestas walked over to Melious. "My ship is somewhere around one third to half of its normal strength. The port-side has very few guns. The armor on the portside melted and then cooled again, so it is soft. In some places, it melted off. She's in bad shape is what I'm saying, but she can fight if you need her to," Neestas said with confidence.

"Good, that's what I wanted to hear," Melious said.

"Send a message to the Dark Lord and the Impervious, tell them to come back to Endor," he instructed a communications officer.

"How far away are the Dark Lord and the Impervious?" Neestas asked.

"Two minutes," Melious said. "I never sent them to the Zamesian System, I had a feeling that it might be a diversion."

"It looks like you were right," Neestas said.

"Sir, the rebel fleet is slowing down," an officer reported.

"Waiting for their reinforcements, no doubt," Melious commented.

"So, whose reinforcements are bigger, ours or theirs?" Neestas asked.

"That is the question," Melious said, thoughtfully. "Grant, recall the other four star destroyers," he said.

"How far are those ones?" Neestas asked.

"Five minutes away," Melious said.

#

"Admiral, our cruisers and frigates from Florina and Darius III just showed up," a Lieutenant reported.

"Good," Ackbar replied. "They got here on time. Now where are the Feegians?" he asked. "Instruct those five ships to get into the wall," Ackbar ordered. "Wedge, get your fighters…" Ackbar was cut off.

"Admiral, two more Star Destroyers coming out of hyperspace," an officer reported.

"Sir, that makes eight Imperial-class Star Destroyers and one Super Star Destroyer. This is going to be a really close battle, we could lose our entire fleet," Mar said.

Ackbar looked up at the holo. He saw a few ships starting to fall out of formation, as if they were getting ready for the order to retreat.

"Alliance, Freedom, get back in formation!"

"So, this is what we're doing now, fighting big battles against the Empire?" Mar asked. "Wasn't it you're strategy, that you preached to all of us, that we fight small battles and avoid big ones when we can?"

"Yes Commander, when you can. There are times for caution, and there are times when you have to go all-in."

Then Ackbar picked up the comm, "All ships, increase to ahead two-thirds."

"So it will be," Mar replied, clearly unhappy with Ackbar's decision.

The two fleets maneuvered so that they approached on parallel paths. They would pass right by one another, a very textbook maneuver. The forward tips of the walls of ships continued to draw closer to one another.

"Admiral," Peto leaned in close to Ackbar. "Seeing as we may all be dead soon, may I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead Commander."

"Why did you take that interdictor cruiser?"

"Well," Ackbar chuckled. "I had an idea about how we could use it against that Super Star Destroyer, but the ship's hyperdrive had to be operational for the plan to work. Once I heard that the Exar Kun's hyperdrive had been damaged, I had to scratch the plan. It was a long shot anyway."

"I see."

"Well, we needed an interdictor anyway, so it wasn't a total waste," Ackbar added. "Wedge, keep your fighters close until we make contact," he ordered over the comm.

"Copy, Admiral," Wedge replied. "All fighters lock S-foils in attack position. Maintain this speed and heading until we make contact with their forward elements."

Moments later the fighter screens were at medium range.

"All fighters, you may fire at your discretion," Wedge ordered.

A few seconds passed. Then, at almost exactly the same time, the lead squadrons on both sides opened fire.

"Accelerate to attack speed," Wedge ordered.

Wedge had been given the job of commanding the fighter attack, a role he was becoming more and more familiar with.

The fighters came screaming at eachother, pilots holding their triggers down continuously. X-wings and TIE's blasted each other at point blank range. The two fighter screens tore through each other's ranks. Fighters exploded everywhere, as they passed each other and then came around to engage.

"Alright Admiral, we'll be in range of their Star Destroyers in 30 seconds," Peto informed Ackbar.