Star Wars Infinities: The Master
Chapter 21
By: Christopher W. Blaine
e-mail: darth_yoshi@yahoo.com
DISCLAIMER: All of the characters and situations contained in this story are ©2003 by LucasFilm Ltd. They are used here without permission for fan-related entertainment purposes only. This original story is ©2003 by Christopher W. Blaine.
The Battle of Mon Calamari started on the day the Death Star entered the system by the same name. Imperial forces, actually mercenary troops hired by Warlord Thrawn in order to further his ruse, immediately scrambled to meet the forward elements of the Confederate fleet. The Death Star itself remained at the very edge of the system, as far away from any gravitational traps as was possible.
The mercenaries were equipped well enough to battle conventional naval forces. Besides the fifty smaller vessels, ranging from corvettes to Lancer-class frigates to the odd dreadnaught, all of which were under droid control, they had several ships of their own. They also had several squadrons of TIE fighters and droid –controlled star fighters.
Within two hours of the Death Star's arrival in the system, the first shots had been fired as several Confederate star destroyers opened up on the droid vessels. As the Tarkinists expected, the droid ships had not been programmed to react to an attack and one by one they were reduced to space debris by the powerful turbolasers of Admiral Daala's ships.
The first squadrons of mercenary fighters met the squadrons of the Confederation halfway between the Imperial perimeter and the blue planet. It took less than 15 minutes for the battle to become reduced to utter confusion as mercenary TIE Interceptors engaged wave after wave of Confederate TIE fighters and TIE bombers as star destroyers slowly made their way towards the goal of the planet of Mon Calamari.
The mercenaries that Thrawn had contracted were all former Imperials and to their credit, they fought for the planet with ferocity and valor. The Confederation ended up losing most of its fighter craft and one star destroyer fell victim to a torpedo attack. The die had been cast before that battle had been joined, though; the mercenaries never had a chance against the crack Tarkinist's forces.
By the end of the first full day, Tarkinist troops were dropping towards the major cities of the water world. Most floated on the surface and as a demonstration of their power, several star destroyers fired their turbolasers onto the defenseless cities. The few planet-based batteries had been rendered silent by coordinated strikes by bombers that had attacked the power generating plants instead of the weapons themselves.
Confederate troops landed on the cities that were left to find them completely deserted.
"What?" Daala screamed, smacking a well-manicured hand against the armrest. She was seated, with most of her military advisors, in the war room of the Death Star. It had been here that Tarkin had lived as a god; it was also here that she had watched him slip into madness. "What do you mean there is nobody there?" she asked the hologram that was being projected in the center of the round table they sat at.
The soldier in the hologram put a hand up to his ear and did not answer immediately as he received a report. He nodded to someone and then returned his attention to Daala. "We have checked the entire city, my ladyship," the soldier said. In the background, a stormtrooper ran by. "We have sent out probes to scout the buildings and we have also sent divers underneath. We will begin a house to house search as well within the hour."
"Damn it!" Daala hissed and her advisors jumped. The battle had been far too easy and they had all suspected something was wrong. Several of them had tried to dissuade Daala from having the Death Star approach the planet, but she had not wanted to listen. Instead, she wanted to close the distance and relieve the battle station of the rest of its capital vessels. The shipyards of Mon Calamari were to be used to put her entire fleet back into working order while she busied herself with acclimating the populace with the laws and rules of Daala's empire.
"Moff Daala," a general said, hoping to calm her down. "Undoubtedly the Imperials trained the aliens to flee in the event of an attack. They are creatures of the water and a cowardly lot at that."
She sneered from behind her perfect teeth, her face like that of a feral cat. "The shipyards are unmanned! There is nobody to perform the labor! I don't care how cowardly they are!"
"My lady," an admiral pleaded, "may I strongly suggest that we stop the Death Star from any further approach? We will soon be too close to the planet to engage our hyperdrives." The gravity pull of Mon Calamari would not allow them to make a quick escape if it was necessary and most of the naval officers were not allowing themselves to be lulled into any sort of feeling of security. The second Death Star, the Sith Moon, had been destroyed over Endor and Daala had been in command of that station!
Daala's anger was almost palatable. She knew that something was terribly wrong, but for the life of her, she could not understand what it was. She was in command of the most powerful weapon that the Empire had ever produced! "Very well; order sublight engines to all stop," she ordered. The admiral immediately got on his comlink and relayed her instructions. There was no way to tell that the Death Star had stopped moving except for the lowering of the hum of the giant engines that seemed to always be in the background.
"I want our intelligence people going over very single intercepted transmission from the Empire," she told them. "Something is not right here."
"If I may offer, my Moff," the general started. "It could be possible that we are facing what is left of a broken or deserted garrison." Several of the officers around the table shook their heads and spoke aloud that it was a ridiculous statement. Daala held up a hand and told the general to continue.
He smiled and stood up, glowing in the glare of angry looks he was getting from his peers. "I submit that maybe this is what is left of the Imperial navy, that everything else we have heard has been propaganda. How long has it been since we have heard from Thrawn? How many engagements have occurred between the New Order and the New Republic that we have not heard about?"
"Are you actually suggesting that somehow the Armed Forces of the New Order have been so decimated that they have to employ droid-controlled vessels to perform perimeter duty?" one of the assembled officers asked, his voice indicating he was near laughter. "I can't believe it."
The standing general pointed at the officer. "Wasn't it you that gave us a briefing not six standard months ago about rumors of major engagements beyond the Outer Rim? Wasn't Thrawn the one who was sent out there?"
Daala nodded. "I suppose it is possible…"
"Or, maybe," a commander voiced, "this is a trap like so many others have suggested. This is too easy!"
Their leader broke out in hysterical laughter. "That would mean Thrawn has always been one step ahead of me. I doubt that alien is capable of such complex thinking," she said. Many around the table joined in her laughter, but some reserved their amusement.
Suddenly the general quarters alarm sounded, throwing the room into disarray. A voice called over the station's main address system. "We are under attack! Major Imperial fleet has appeared coming out of hyperspace. Grand Moff Daala please report to Battle Control!"
Ten minutes later, Daala marched into a room filled with technicians and officers shouting into comlinks and microphones. Naval troopers were running about, securing hatches and shoving people out of the way. "I want some calm," she ordered and her stormtrooper escort moved out to shut people up.
She stepped over to the Officer of the Deck and put her hands on her slender thighs. Throwing back her hair she barked for a report. The young officer swallowed hard. "A large fleet under the command of Warlord Thrawn has appeared behind us!"
Daala's grin was wicked and feral. "He must have been hiding; I suppose I may have a spy in my organization," she mumbled. There was no time to deal with that at the moment; besides she had intelligence people to handle that. Of course, she would have to kill the department head for allowing such a breach of secrecy.
"Launch fighters," she ordered. "Then turn the fleet around to engage."
She glanced over at the threat board and immediately was alarmed. "They haven't launched fighters?"
"No, my Moff."
"It's a trap," she muttered to herself, as if trying to convince her that her previous logic had absolutely been flawed. No, she told herself, there was no way an inferior alien mind could outwit her! Thrawn may have been a tactical genius, but his strength lay in the moment, not in the long term. Daala knew that it was she that was far more superior, starting from the day she had offered herself to Tarkin. From his first ghoulish touch upon her skin she had been planning for her rise to the throne of the galaxy.
No blue-skinned evolutionary mistake was going to ruin that. "Launch all fighters; every squadron. I want everything that can fly out there. Engage and destroy. TIE bombers are to bring down defensive shields while Skipray Blastboats and assault gunboats will destroy the capital vessels!"
"We could capture…" a voice said from the tactical area.
"No!" she screamed. "We wipe them out, now!" She quickly moved over to weapons control. "Can the super-laser be tuned to fire upon star destroyers?" she asked the lead technician
He nodded and stammered out an answer. "Y-yes, my Moff, but it is impractical. It is like swatting a fly with an asteroid." Daala reached out and grabbed the tech by the throat. She was surprisingly strong; her hands were known throughout the Confederacy for inflicting as much pain as they did pleasure. "You son of bantha! Did I ask for your juvenile commentary?"
The tech choked out a "no" and an officer coughed behind Daala. She released the man and turned to regard the other man. "I would also suggest putting in a call to Captain Katarn's expeditionary force. They may not get here in time, but if this does turn into a particularly bloody struggle, we may need the protection of his fleet."
Daala thought about her lover, now sitting in the Sullust system, dictating terms for the handover of power to a military governor. Then she thought about that other, handsome officer, the one she had left in charge of Corellia. Never had she been more happy in her life then when she left that planet and its good-for-nothing, alien-loving population behind. Admiral Rose had been his name; he had warned of a trap.
Then Daala laughed out loud. "No, Commander; leave Captain Katarn where he is with the other forces. Sullust is a ripe plum and at least we know that its shipyards can be up and running soon enough!" She looked around the room and called everyone to attention. "Before all of you wet yourselves or start sending those last holonet messages to loved ones, remember where you are. This is the mightiest weapon ever created; mightier than the Sith Empire of old! There is nothing in the Imperial arsenal that can even put a dent in this battle station." She smiled and chuckled to herself. "It was, after all, Warlord Thrawn, who pointed out all of the weaknesses in the defenses of the Death Star."
On the bridge of Chimera, Warlord Thrawn looked out the viewscreen at the planet of Mon Calamari, several million kilometers distant. He could make out the Death Star nest to it, barely, and he would occasionally glance over at the holographic battle map to get a better idea of the way the forces were arranged. Palleon came to stand next to him. "The fleet is deployed per your instructions," he commented.
"Excellent," Thrawn said, giving him a nod. "Right now, Daala will be caught between trying to figure out how this could be a trap and her desire to get revenge on me for springing it. If we were facing Tarkin, he would simply ignore us. He would be confident in the power of the Death Star to repel us."
"He would not be wrong; the Death Star easily outguns us," Palleon pointed out. "You were the one who also corrected the deficiency with the exhaust ports for the reactors, making even a strategic star fighter strike impossible."
Thrawn's eyes narrowed. "Yes, a mistake I am willing to admit to. I underestimated Tarkin's desire for power. I assumed that he would have been content to be the Emperor's lackey. I was wrong. He was the only person in the New Order I could not predict until I started to look at what he was most afraid of."
"I don't understand," Palleon said as he watched several stormtroopers enter the bridge. The ship, like the fleet, was at battle readiness and that meant securing the bridge.
"Tarkin feared anonymity, of fading away into history as nothing more than a footnote to the power and glory that was Palpatine's. It made him arrogant; he grabbed for whatever power he could to make a name for himself. I thought him at first to be a zealot to the cause. Instead, now I realize he was a scared little man. Once he had the Death Star, he became to afraid to use it, afraid that we would take it away from him." Thrawn smiled slightly. "Once he tasted power, he knew he would do anything to hold onto it."
"And Daala?"
"Under the proper stewardship, she could have been a fine commander. In fact, I am hoping that the rational side of her, the calm and cool persona that got her where she is today will be whom I address," the leader of the Imperial forces said. He turned slowly and walked back to a command chair had had mounted on the walkway just above the pit. Like the sailing captains of old, he enjoyed being on the bridge and dictating every action. It was not so much micromanagement as it was a symphony of military power.
"Have you managed to punch through their jamming?" he asked the communications officer.
"Not to the Death Star, sir, but we have picked up transmission coming off of Mon Calamari. Your plan worked perfectly, sir," the officer said with no small amount of joy. Thrawn raised an eyebrow at the exuberance the younger man was showing. Palleon was about to tell the other man to regain his bearings when Thrawn, sensing his friend's concern, held up a finger.
"Thank you for the encouragement, Lieutenant," the Warlord said. "Continue to monitor and let me know if the general situation changes." The communications officer acknowledged and went back to his duties. Thrawn leaned over and whispered to Palleon. "For the first time since the start of this civil war, our men are excited. I will do nothing to dampen that spirit. Some battles can be won on will alone."
"Against a Death Star?"
Thrawn shrugged, something that Palleon had never seen him do. "Spirit and a Sun Crusher."
Less than a standard half hour later, Thrawn's ship managed to punch through the electronic jamming. Using command codes built into the Death Star's computer, his people were able to give him access to the command frequency, voice only. "Grand Moff Daala, greetings and welcome to the Imperial world of Mon Calamari," Thrawn's voice boomed into the war room.
Daala stopped sipping at a cup of caf and turned her head to the speaker in the overhead. "That bastard…"
"No doubt you have discovered that for all intents and purposes, Mon Calamari is a dead world for the Tarkin Confederacy. The population have taken to the depths and to several facilities that the Empire has built and maintained there over the last five years." There was a pause and then a wave of static washed through the air. When it was done, Daala noted that the room was completely quiet.
"The shipyards can be made functional again, but it will require extensive refitting and retooling on your part since most of the machinery and controls have been designed for use by Mon Cals and Aqualish species. As you do not have control of any of the mining colonies in this sector either, and you do not possess the firepower to take them from the Empire, you will find that even the simplest repairs shall be difficult."
"Thrawn! I'll kill you!" Daala called out, but the message was not two-way. She quickly turned to the star fighter operations commander. "Get with our comms department and find out which ship this message is coming from. I want every squadron to descend on it immediately!"
The voice of Thrawn continued. "The fleet you destroyed was a collection of mercenaries and droid vessels, costly, but worthwhile to draw you out here for this confrontation. The battle station you command is the property of the Empire, stolen by a foolish old man. Because of his actions, democracists have subverted the ideals of the New Order, ideals you once swore to uphold. The dreams of Palpatine are dying in this civil war as the Empire and Confederation kill without regard.
"Our mighty star fleet, once able to keep the entire galaxy in line, has been reduced to a few dozen capital ships on either side. We are destroying technology. We are destroying all that we built."
"Cry me a river," Daala commented out loud. Inside, though, she heard the truth in Thrawn's words and it started to bother her.
"That is why I am offering you this single chance to surrender the Death Star to me. In exchange, you will be given a top political posting within the Empire, equivalent to my own, only in the civilian sector. All of your officers and crew will be given full Imperial pardons and will be immediately reintegrated, along with the worlds of the Confederacy, back into the New Order."
Daala saw that some of her men were tempted by the offer and she would have been as well if not for the fact they wanted to take her command away and make her into some sort of puppet for Lord Ravage. She had no doubt that the new Emperor would try to bed her, as all men who were over her had tried in the past. Surrendering would allow her men to live; but Daala never really cared about them. They were tools to be used to build her own personal empire.
"If you do not surrender in one hour, then I will destroy the Death Star."
The communication was then cut and several officers started chuckling and encouraged their subordinates to do the same. Very soon, there was a general laughter throughout the room. One soul ventured to speak his mind out loud. "Look out, Warlord Thrawn is going to tear apart the Death Star all by himself!"
The joke was followed by even more raucous laughter. Daala smiled and finished her caf, taking time to slap a tech on the back and tell him to get the star fighters out in space. A few minutes later she walked out of the war room, a stormtrooper escort with her. Next to her was one of her aides. As they quickly marched through the passageways, Daala was taken aback by how normal everything seemed. People were going about their business as if nothing were happening; at least the civilian population was.
Though the Death Star was a military weapon, it was also a military installation, complete with soldiers and their families. It had parks, shopping malls and schools. It was a very small planet, one in which Daala was a god. "We are not surrendering," she said.
"I never thought we were," her aide said. "However, I would like to suggest that we have your personal craft standing by, just in case."
"Just in case of what?" she asked as they stepped to her personal turbolift.
The aide waited until they were in the lift and door was closed. "Thrawn, if anyone, would be the one to have access to any sort of weapon that could damage this space station. As improbable as it seems, Thrawn's previous tactics indicate he does not bluff."
Daala thought about it for a moment. "Perhaps he is suicidal."
"Our intelligence reports indicate otherwise," the aide said as the life stopped and opened. They stepped out into the passageway and made their way quickly towards her private apartment. She intended to change into something a bit more menacing; something with a sidearm. The aide continued his reasoning. "We know that Palpatine was obsessed with super weapons. Even though the Maw Installation was destroyed, there may have been other areas we did not know about. "
"Even so," Daala said as she and the aide entered the apartment, leaving the stormtroopers outside. She trusted the man like he was a lover; in fact, he once had been. She stripped out of her uniform as she spoke. "Even so," she repeated, "we know about most of their projects: Super-class star destroyers, the Eye of Palpatine and even the so-called World Devastators. None of them are a threat to this station. It is too well armed and armored."
The aide took a moment to glance at her nude body. "Still, it would be a shame if anything happened to you. Thrawn is a real threat." The aide then turned to look at a map on the wall. It showed the galaxy as whole without any boundaries. "It does make you wonder why he pulled us all the way out here instead of going after us at Corellia. It is much closer to Imperial Center."
Daala stopped and held her undershirt in her hand, considering the words. "Maybe he's insane."
"Then he would be twice as dangerous."
She finished getting dressed and went over to a small table. Today she was going to have her hair up and out of the way. She could act sexy at a later date; today she was going to get hot and sweaty giving orders and directing a battle, something she was very good. "You're actually afraid, aren't you?"
"I'd rather face Darth Maul than Thrawn."
"I met Darth Maul; I'd rather face Thrawn," she told him. "Still, if you are so concerned, have a shuttle standing by with a jump course for Sullust," she said. She saw his face darken, as he understood that she was returning to Katarn. Obviously he had assumed since she was flirting with him, she was anxious to rekindle their romance.
The aide had been a fling, a diversion as she waited for something better to come along. He had maintained the appropriate discretion, though, and had been awarded with promotion. She had even allowed him to marry whom he wanted instead of directing him towards some union that would benefit her.
"As you command, my Moff," he said with a bow.
Daala dismissed him with a wave and them pulled her comlink out of her breast pocket. She requested star fighter operations. "Yes, ma'am," a voice said from the other end. "We have five squadrons going after a ship identified as the Chimera. It is Thrawn's ship. They still have not launched star fighters. I think they believe we won't actually attack."
"Then that will be Thrawn's first and last mistake," Daala said, a slight giddy tremor in her voice.