Chapter 18
Telisk Derner stood on the bridge of the Planet Slayer, surveying the battle against the Rebel fleet from the farthest edge of the Bonadon system. Lord Garinoska had ordered that the largest part of the CSA fleet wait until his direct order to attack.
The Rebel's worldships and skips had destroyed a Victory Star Destroyer and an old Marauder Corvette, in addition to several squadrons of Ties. Switching to Tie fighters and clutches from those ridiculous IRDs had been one of Garinoska's finest decisions. The Ties were cheaper, faster, and more maneuverable than the IRDs. Derner, having been a fighter pilot himself before rising to command and he especially appreciated the switch.
Derner's comm officer yelled across the bridge. "Captain Derner! Lord Garinoska is asking for you."
Derner nodded and hit a button on his computer. A tiny image of Garinoska appeared. "Captain Derner. You may precede to the following coordinates. I will be joining your fleet shortly. Garinoska out."
The image blinked off and Derner began to shout out orders. "Tell Colonel Ardnyon to ready his pilots and be prepared to launch on my mark," he ordered his XO. Then over the comm to the whole CSA fleet, he said, "Commence Operation Maelstrom."
Derner smiled as the Planet Slayer prepared to jump into hyperspace.
Finally he would get his revenge on Han Solo. The man had disgraced his family more than thirty years ago, and now he would finally realize the mistake he had made doing that.
***
Jaina Solo Fel and One Flight sped across the surface of a damaged ImpStar Duece, chasing what was left of a squadron of clutches. The pilots were good, but they didn't stand a chance against the Twin Suns.
The Suns had completed their runs on the ground and had returned to space, helping the Rebel Fleet decimate the small Corporate Sector fleet guarding Bonadon.
Then, out of nowhere, one of her pilots was vaporized by a turbolaser blast. "Where the Sithspawn did that come from?" yelled Twin Suns Three. Then he let out a low groan of realization over the comm, just as Cappie warbled the mechanical equivalent. Her sensor board lit up with hundreds of enemy blips.
Jaina let out an extremely vile curse in Rodian. Twelve Star Destroyers leapt into the battle zone, as well as an Interdictor Cruiser and at the center of it all, a Super Star Destroyer. The mammoth ship was painted so black, she would have mistaken it for empty space except for the yellow lights blinking on it. "Wow, Lead, didn't know you had that bad a mouth," said Requiem jokingly as he and his wingmate, the only remnants of Two Flight formed up on One Flight.
"Now isn't the time for jokes Five," she said dryly. "We're making a run on that Interdictor. With that there, we're never going to get out of this mess alive."
"All ships," came Admiral Kre'fey's voice over the comm, "focus all firepower on that Interdictor cruiser and plot a jump to Rendezvous Point B."
"You heard him folks," said Gavin Darklighter. "Rogue Wing, what's left of Kyp's Dozen is making a run on that Interdictor first. They'll be uploading their telemetry to us so we can finish it off. For now, just stay alive."
A minute passed, seemingly an eternity as the Dozen made their bombing runs and uploaded them to the Rogues. "Rogue Squadron, we're first, then Suns, and Vanguards are finishing it off." The Rogues made their runs and took out a large portion of the Interdictor's dorsal shielding. The Suns went next, losing one pilot in the process, the result of getting too close to his own proton torpedo when it went off. When the Vanguards lined up for their run, explosions were already rippling across the top of the damaged Cruiser. The Vanguards just sweetened the kill, destroying the ship with a tremendous burst of fire.
But when Jaina saw five ships drop out of hyperspace, her blood ran cold. One was a Star Destroyer, twice as big as an SSD. There were only two Star Destroyers in history that had been made that big. It was Eclipse-class Star Destroyer. And flanking it were four Yuuzhan Vong worldships, grown out of a reddish yorik-coral, signifying their allegiance to the Dissidents, a small group of Yuuzhan-Vong that based right at the edge of the passage where the Yuuzhan Vong galaxy joined with the one of the Rebellion. They had remained after the main Yuuzhan Vong fleets had withdrawn, their desire to defeat the 'infidels' over coming their common sense. They harassed the Rebellion every so often, but they never really posed a serious threat.
"All ships jump now!" ordered Tycho Celchu over the comm. Just before she pushed the hyperspace lever forward, Jaina's X-wing was struck by a quad blast from a Tie Interceptor, blowing the hyperdrive motivator.
"Sithspit! Suns! Go on without me! My motivator's been hit." Most of the Rebel capitol ships had already jumped out of the system.
"No way Lead!" said Requiem as he picked a Tie off of her tail.
"Get out of here Suns! That Eclipse is going to power up its gravity well generators any moment now."
"They won't have to," came the calm voice of Corran Horn as a Nebulon-B frigate jumped into the fray nearly on top of the Twin Suns. "Get into the main hanger now!"
"Gladly Radiant." The Radiant was an older ship that had been commissioned as the Jedi flagship after the Yuuzhan Vong had been repelled. Jaina entered the hanger quickly, and a split-second later, the Radiant jumped into lightspeed.
***
Lord Garinoska turned toward the officer in charge of the gravity well projectors. There was some heavy breathing for a few seconds followed by a loud thump as the body hit the floor. Then all was silent.