Tale 6: Intelligence is as Good as...What?
Chapter 1: Part 1
11:03 A.M. Liberty Cruiser. Three years before the Battle of Corpagia
"Katie!" Bryan exclaimed. He opened his arms wide and then wrapped them around her in a hug. She hugged him back with the same fierceness, and the two hung there a moment in the embrace before Bryan broke off. "How have you been? I haven't seen you in a long time."
His old friend from his theater days beamed brightly up at him. "I'm great! How are you? Your taller!"
Bryan laughed. "Aw, I'm great. It's so nice to see you though. I didn't know you were in the Alliance—not like you wouldn't be completely moral, honest, and very decent, but still..."
Kate laughed delightfully. "Yeah, I know, but yeah, I'm in the Alliance."
An awkward moment of smiling and staring on their parts came next.
"Cool," Bryan said, finally breaking it. "When'd you join?"
"About two years ago."
"Nice. What ship? The Liberty?"
"No. The Skywalker."
"The Skywalker? Shouldn't you be there then?"
She put a finger to her lips, then leaned in towards him. "Shh. Emilie snuck me a personal invite so I could see her again."
"Ah," Bryan said in understanding. He gave her a warning look. "Katie...your not supposed to do that, ya know."
"I know, shut up!" She whispered fiercely.
Bryan broke into a toothy grin. "Just kidding. You can do whatever you want."
She smiled back. "Thank you," she said in a ladies voice.
"Wish we had more time to talk," Bryan said as she gestured her to a bench in the briefing room. "But I think we're startin' here in a second."
They sat down beside each other.
"That's all right. We'll talk later."
"So how have y—"
The lights in the room suddenly dimmed, and the Admirals took their seats in the front row.
"Ah. Later then," Bryan whispered to Kate.
The holoprojector hummed to life at the center of the room, bringing up the image of the Empire's current, three-fourths completed superweapon, the Punisher. Another planet-destroying weapon like the Death Star, it had been under construction for over a year-and-a-half now. Even worse, italways had an immense Imperial fleet guarding it, making it difficult to destroy the dreadful weapon. Even the sight of it would probably be enough to scare off uprisings and riots. Molded in the image of the late Death Star, the Punisher looked like a classic round bomb. It was two-thirds the size of the second Death Star. The spherical surface was dotted with ten separate superlaser firing lenses, and a line at the equator that was the trench that, so far, every Imperial superweapon had had.
Admiral Emilie Rodenski, only recently promoted to Supreme Admiral—commander of the entire Rebel Alliance navy—stood up and approached the holoprojector. She stared at the image with distant but serious eyes. "This is the Punisher; the Empire's new superweapon. It is the most dangerous weapon the Empire have ever began building, and it poses the greatest threat than anything else they have ever thrown at us, including the second Death Star. If we want to win this war, than this will have to be destroyed." She leaned down and pushed a button on the console.
The Punisher suddenly became smaller as the projector reduced its size to include a star map and several other Imperial ships. Miniature Star Destroyers, a Super Star Destroyer, TIE Fighters, Carrack Cruisers, and a few other types of Imperial warships were placed in and around the area of the Punisher; a fleet. Also crammed into the image was a brown planet off to the right side.
"The image you see is of the Ninth moon of the gas giant Deil. Deil Nine is home to an Imperial supply base where the Punisher is being completed as we speak. It's the final construction site, and it's also the place where Punisher is the most vulnerable. Because of hit-and-run missions in the Phias Sector, a decent amount of the Imperial fleet guarding it have been forced away from it." In the hologram, a few of the miniature red ships disappeared. "They leave behind a small fleet of ships, and don't seem like they're expecting an Alliance attack. But we're going to give them one." She pushed in another button. At first, nothing changed. But a few moments later, new miniature images representing a horde of different Alliance starships—from heavy Cruisers to tiny gunships—entered the giant projection on the side opposite the Imperials. They closed in and stopped, however, awfully close to the Star Destroyers. "The attack will commense in shifts. Shift one will drop out of hyperspace at exactly Mark 402-785. The weapon's range will be point-blank, and starfighters will only launch–will launch only after all carriers have dropped out of hyperspace."
Bryan grinned humorously at her correction. Meanwhile, a loud murmur rippled throughout the crowd. He was about to ask how they knew what shifts they were in, but he then remembered the slips of paper that were handed out before he had sat down. The one that had said SHIFT ONE. Damn, he thought.
"Excuse me, Admiral?" said a Haran Commander, "Point-blank? That's crazy! Our ships—"
"—well—"
"—aren't nearly as strong as theirs! How do you expect us to–to beat them at point-blank?"
Emilie looked passively at him. "I don't want to beat them, Commander," she answered. "I want to catch them off guard first, then I want to beat them." She turned her gaze back to the crowd. "Your commanding officers have your shift. Shift one's job is to begin clearing an initial path to the Punisher." The Alliance ships in the projection "fired" into the Imperial formation, and a couple of the Star Destroyers disappeared. Then the ships moved into the hole they had made, now halfway to the superweapon. Then the image abruptly switched to another close-up of the Punisher. "Once shift one has cleared a path, B-Wing's from Gray Squadron will move in to destroy the Punisher by firing proton torpedoes down all five completed superlaser shafts." Blue silhouettes representing proton torpedoes shot down the superlaser shafts, exploding in small flashes of light when they hit the end of the shafts. "The explosions should destroy ninety percent of the infrastructure." A pause before the image reverted back to the battle between the two fleets. "Shift two will drop into the system twenty minutes later at the same points and help cover shift one." More Alliance ships came into the image and began virtually engaging the Imperials. "Shifts three and four will come in ten minutes after the shift before them, and engage the Imperial fleet, along with shift two once their done covering shift one." Even more Alliance ships came. After a moment, Emilie stepped back up to the control console and pressed a button that shut down the projector.
The lights came up again. Another murmur rippled as the people in the room blinked, some rubbing their eyes, some shielding their eyes from the sudden burst of light.
Bryan leaned towards Kate, blinking twice. "Sounds like a decent plan."
"Yeah."
"Are there any questions?" Emilie asked.
Bryan immediately raised his hand.
"Commander Rawling."
"I know the fleet will be a–be a hard challenge even though th–they're depleted in numbers, but what about the Punisher itself? What threat does it pose us in this attack?"
"From what we know," Emilie answered confidently. "Nothing. It poses no threat to us at all because it's not operational."
"How can you be sure about that? Is the intelligence up to date?"
Grumbles escaped some people's lips, while a few others sat up in their seats; all in response to the second question.
Intelligence...lackeys, Bryan thought, feeling a pang of embarrassment at having said that last sentence out loud. Alliance Intelligence had agents everywhere in the Alliance Navy. There were never any natural agents; they were always disguised as navigators, tacticians, engineers, pilots, and even some were captains. For all he knew, Bryan''s closest friends could be Intelligence agents.
Emilie stared at him, also looking somewhat nervous. "It was confirmed and verified yesterday, Commander." She nodded curtly then scanned the room for more hands. "Yes?" she said to a black human sitting in the third row.
"With all due respect, ma'am, we said the same thing about the second Death Star at Endor too."
Murmurs, "yeah"'s, and even a few staunch laughs burst from the crowd.
"But that information was faulty to begin with," Emilie responded, with a hint of doubt. "If I remember correctly..." she let the sentence trail off as she thought about what she was about to say. "The information was faulty," she ended up finishing.
"Palpatine gave us the wrong information on purpose," said another pilot. "He lured us into a trap and nearly destroyed us Admiral."
"Hey now," Bryan interjected. "That doesn't mean that that'll happen again."
"It might though," the man answered.
"The intelligence gathered at Endor was months old by the time the Rebellion attacked," Bryan continued. He gestured at Emilie. "Her's, she said, was verified yesterday, and we're attacking today."
"We—"
"If it wasn't good intelligence then we'd all be going home right now."
"We don't know for sure. That's all I'm saying."
A loud, and somewhat annoyed-sounding murmur escalated from the rest of the crowd.
"All right, that's fine. But at the same time, we don't know if it isn't right either. And I think we should take the chance, if the Punisher is as dangerous as she says."
"Okay," the man said in surrender. "I was just saying."
"All right. I respect your opinion, and I'm sure the Admiral does too."
"Yes," Emilie said with a smile. "I do." She nodded again. "Any other questions?"
None raised their hands.
"All right then. Demand your ships. The attack will be in forty-two minutes, whether you are ready or not. Dismissed."
The crowd began to break up and exit.
"Well, we're attacking the Punisher," Bryan said casually.
"Yeah," Kate said. "It's a bit crazy, though, isn't it? That thing is scary-looking."
Bryan shrugged. "Eh, it shouldn't be that bad hopefully. I don't think its operational yet. The power it would take would be...unmatchable. And they still haven't finished the outer hull yet, so the generators might be exposed."
"That's true."
"Yeah, but I hope she's right. That'd be cool to see something like that explode."
Kate smiled and shook her head slowly.
"What?"
She continued to shake her head. "Nothing."
"What is it?"
They walked out of the room through an alcove.
"Nothing," she said more sharply, still chuckling.
"Come on," Bryan said, stopping in the middle of the hallway. "You know that ain't true. What is it?"
She turned to him, still smiling. "Its just..what you said—it was funny."
"What? It was?"
"Yeah."
Bryan raised an eyebrow.
"Well—you just—you made it sound like the only reason to attack the Punisher is to watch it explode."
His eyebrow stayed up.
"What? It just sounded...weird."
They started walking again. "If you say so. Come on. I'll walk ya to the teleporter. We can talk a little while on the way."