23
Ajene Tuvora made her way through the crowd and approached the rear of the black granite monument. She studied it with disgust.
As monuments went, it was fairly well done. The workmanship and design weren't really that bad, if a bit overly dramatic. It was when she considered the intent of the piece that it became harsh and ugly. Instead of honoring the two men it was supposed to memorialize, it was to be used as an instrument of revenge on a man who had probably saved millions, if not billions of lives by destroying a weapon of mass destruction.
Moving around to the front of the shrine, she swallowed hard when she saw Wedge's X-wing sitting there. She'd stood this close to it, just a short time ago, and kissed him goodbye. Now it waited for him one final time. She shivered at the thought, and anger began to build within her.
Turning away from the monument, she checked her wrist chrono and looked around the plaza. It was already somewhat filled with people, and she smiled at the fact that she recognized a significant number of them as members of the underground that she'd met.
Her hand went to the blaster concealed beneath the dark cloak she wore over her nondescript flightsuit. She checked to make sure it was secure and moved into a better position to wait. Across the plaza, she saw Elscol and Sixtus do the same thing. She also checked the vibrobalde strapped to her right forearm under her sleeve.
Without warning an Imperial March blared from hidden speakers, and the plaza was filled with the sound of marching booted feet. The crowd parted as a full compliment of stormtroopers from the garrison marched into the plaza and took their places.
The ceremony was about to begin.
Commander Jarice Cright stood on the bridge of the Querulous and smiled. He loved being in command, albeit temporarily.
This is what I am destined for.
The one great disappointment of Cright's life was that his position on the Querulous was pretty much a dead end assignment. The Arramsetti System, with its four backwater planets, three of which weren't even inhabited, offered nothing of importance that would allow a man to show his worth. And Admiral Turpa wasn't the kind of commanding officer who gave his junior officers much of a chance to shine, preferring instead to further his own career at every opportunity.
"Sir," a young Lieutenant's voice squeaked, as he called up from the sensor screen before him.
"What is it, Mr. Brue?" Cright asked.
"Sir, we've got something here. It just appeared on our scopes."
"Is it the Retribution?"
"Sir...It appears to be..."
The answer died on his lips as the entire main viewport was filled with the 1,600 meter long arrow shape of an Imperial Class Star Destroyer as she reverted to real space. It was immediately followed by two Mon Calamari Cruisers. Alarm klaxons started blaring and people automatically assumed their battle stations as Commander Cright stared open mouthed at the viewport.
"Sir? What are your orders?" Lieutenant Brue's voice moved up an octave.
"Uhh...Launch all TIEs."
"Yes, sir!"
"Come 'round and prepare to engage." Cright began mentally reciting rules of battle, trying to remember what to do. "Inform Admiral Turpa of the situation."
"Sir! There's an incoming message."
"Communications, pipe it up here."
A holo appeared in front of Cright at the forward holocomm station. It was of an older man, impossibly large, even in the holo, a red optical implant where his left eye should have been. "Querulous, this is Captain Booster Terrik of the Errant Venture. You are outgunned and outflanked. Surrender now or face the consequences."
Cright looked at the holo image of Terrik, then back out the viewport, weighing his options. A victory in battle would be the one way of assuring career advancement, and thiswas what he'd trained for. He'd prove once and for all just how much command potential he had.
"Sorry, Terrik. Not today." He slashed his hand across his throat, the universal gesture for the communications officer to cut the signal. "Fire control, concentrate all forward guns on that Star Destroyer. All other turbolasers and ion cannons on the cruisers. Concentrate on knocking a hole in their shields, then go for the main drives and shield generators. Watch out for enemy fighters because they are bound to appear at some point. Until they do, spread our fighters out in standard covering deployment." He looked over his shoulder at Lieutenant Brue, who hadn't moved. "Now, gentlemen!"
"Y...Yessir." Brue's voice didn't sound at all convinced of the wisdom of his orders, but he moved quickly to comply.
On the bridge of the Errant Venture, Booster Terrik shook his head in disbelief at the data scrolling by on the sensor screens. "They're going to take us on. Prepare to take fire!"
He turned to his First Officer, a Mon Calamari named Azzeh. "I want to take her in one piece if possible. Tell the Paladin and Provider to target their navigational deflector and the shield generators. Maybe having their bow slagged will knock some sense into them."
"Yessir." The officer gave the broad, open-mouthed Mon Calamari grin, and went to work.
Booster looked at his wrist chrono, calculating the time until the arrival of the fighters. Beneath his feet, he felt the thuds as the Venture began to take fire from the Querulous and her TIE fighter escort. Then he felt his ship return fire with the few active guns they had. There was a bright flash as the Mon Cals opened up with their turbolasers.
He watched as his lasers and those of his escort hit the bow shields of the Destroyer. They began to glow and waver under the onslaught. Then, as the shields flashed and collapsed, the laser fire burned into the armored hull of the ship. Wispy threads of vaporized metal began to spread from the bow.
Still, the Querulous continued to fire. But she was turning the wrong way, and at least half of her turbolaser batteries faced down towards the planet. The lasers that were pointed in the Venture's direction caused minimal damage to a few of her compartments. Damage control was handling the problem efficiently, and their shields were holding.
"Azzeh?" Booster checked his data screen again. "We don't have time to play with this idiot. Have the cruisers shut him down. Use our ion cannon to try and help take him out."
He looked out the viewport at the other ship. "Querulous, you had your one chance. I won't give you another."
His words trailed off as another Victory Class Star Destroyer jumped into the system. He looked at Azzeh, whose large eyes mirrored his own thoughts.
"I think we're in trouble."
The Venture's bow ion cannon fired wave after wave of blue energy. The two Mon Calamari cruisers swept over the Querulous, one below and one above, firing salvo after salvo of energy into her shields. Cright forced down the panic that had begun to rise in him, even after an Ensign announced that they had lost their bow shields. "Lieutenant, roll us and present them with our undamaged shields. Try and get the Retribution between us and the Star Destroyer."
"Aye, sir."
As the large ship began a painfully slow roll, the ion cannons on one of the Mon Cal ships, the Provider, broke through the aft shield and poured energy over the hull of theQuerulous. The result was immediate and breathtaking as blue lightening slammed into the Star Destroyer, where it crackled and skittered the entire length, height and breadth of the ship. Electronic systems shut down, screens went blank, controls ceased to function, communications quit. Nothing worked. Throughout the entire ship, there was the smell of burning circuitry. They were effectively dead in space. But the arrival of the Retribution brought them some hope that they would be able to restart all of the essential systems before the Venture could finish them off.
Coughing as smoke filled the bridge, Commander Cright fought to keep control. "Mr. Brue. Try to bring up the emergency comm channel. I need to speak with the Captain of theRetribution and Admiral Turpa right now."
"Yessir. We're on it." The Lieutenant's voice was filled with fear.