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Chapter Ten: The Moffett Mokk
Admiral Raddus' war cruiser, The Profundity, was under attack. His son Marney Raddek had been drafted into temporary service aboard the big ship under the lowly rank of Ensign, in order to help the crew man the laser canons and other weapons systems. His garbage scow The Polar Carp had been stowed away in the Docking Bay/Service Hangar while Jalleck, Qualle, TT2, and Yabecca had been working on finishing the repairs. At present, however, Jalleck had been assigned the task of aiding the crew to keep the shield generator at optimum efficiency aboard The Profundity with the help of TT2. The rest of the Carp's crew, to their considerable chagrin, had been confined to the Civilians' Living Room.
Admiral Raddus was seated in front of a large transparent window in the Ordinance Pod on his movable command chair and command-box system. He belted out orders to his crew and to the rest of the fleet, which presently consisted of a motley mix of various classes of warships and gunships from Mon Cala and other worlds, their Starfighter Squadrons, and a group of ships known as Hammerhead Corvettes.
A blast was fired from one of the marauding enemy vessels against the flagship, and The Profundity shuddered. The shield generator was up and operating at maximum efficiency, but the MC75 Cruiser was taking a beating anyways. The Admiral had succeeded in repelling the Empire-hired Mercenary Forces away from Mon Cala, but they continued to engage in short, vicious attacks before retreating further and further out of the Calamari system and into Imperial Space.
Ensign Raddek was fairly sure that they were attempting to lure Raddus and his fleet far enough along into enemy-controlled territory that they would be ripe for a surprise attack from the actual Imperial Forces as opposed to their paid minions. Mon Cala was at present still a stronghold for the Rebel Alliance and, after having thrown off the various occupying forces over the years, its people were determined to never again fall under the complete control of The Galactic Empire. Since it was positioned in The Outer Rim territories, it held an advantage over many of the subjugated Core Worlds of the Inner Rim, but attempts to draw the Mon Calamari inwards towards Emperor Palpatine's ever-reaching, iron grasp never seemed to abate. Admiral Raddus, however, was too clever to allow his ego to lead him into the brutish ruses of pirates.
"All ships," he called out, "Retreat, for the present time. We will waste no more fire-power on these moronic imbeciles. All Star-Fighter Squadrons, regroup and return to the hangar once we're out of range. Let them think they've won, while we bide our time developing a new strategy. Prepare to jump into hyperspace on my mark!"
As soon as they were out of range of the Mercenary Forces, the Star-Fighters returned to the Hangar Deck and the Admiral ordered his fleet into hyperspace. After a period of time, the Fleet emerged at a Rebel Star Base known in the Telaris star system as Kelmoon.
"Bring us into orbit around the lunar base," the Admiral ordered his crew before gesturing to Marney to follow him.
He followed his father, feeling like an incompetent fool. He had been a long time away from the Mon Cala Planetary Defense Fleet, and there had been many advances in technology since then. There were also now many more Humans working alongside the Mon Cals since the aquatic world had chosen to support the Alliance fleet by supplying them with warships; and these Rebel Humans seemed to deeply respect Admiral Raddus.
Marney could not help but feel proud of his father for his courageous leadership in the struggle to free the galaxy of oppressive forces. He very much wanted to follow the older male's example and to his own relief, he had at least been able to do his assigned job by following the orders of The Profundity's crew. Nonetheless, he was embarrassed to admit that he would have had not one single clue what to do if he had been in command of the weaponry. His father seemed to sense his thoughts as he led him into his office.
"So, Ensign Raddek, can you see yourself commanding any section of this vessel?" he asked as he sat down at his desk, "or at least serving under those who did?"
Marney remained standing, hanging his head sadly.
"No, Sir," he admitted, "I don't think I'm anywhere near intelligent enough to be a permanent crew member aboard this ship."
"Well," Raddus said to him with a trace of disappointment in his voice, "if that's your assessment of yourself, then I suppose I'd better not offer you a commission with us aboard The Profundity. I was going to do so as a peace offering to your mother, but I'm not recruiting anyone to my crew who has such a low opinion of himself."
"There's no reason why you should, Sir," Marney addressed the admiral stiffly, "and anyways, I thought the War Council had drafted me as a devious spy."
"That's why I've brought you here," Raddus informed him, "to give you your orders. I assume you've got enough command presence to relay them to the rest of your crew once you get back aboard The Polar Toad-fish."
"The Polar Carp, Sir," Marney corrected him in a resigned tone of voice.
Raddus looked at him disdainfully for a moment, and then began to explain his mission in a business-like fashion.
"Captain Raddek, you are to take The Polar Carp and the rest of your crew to an Imperial Base on Rondirak 12, at the edge of the Middle Rim territories. It's a small planet full of forests, swamps, and small salt-water lakes...not terribly important strategically. Most of the Idiot Marauders who have been challenging us are being armed there and sent forth to create whatever havoc they are capable of in Rebel strongholds. It's presided over by a nit-wit Governor who calls himself Moff Malken Mokk...but he's really more of a Mini-Moff to the Empire and so he'd be perfect for you on your very first spy mission for the Rebel Alliance. The Rebel Council, in consultation with the War Council, would like you to do a trash run there and perhaps entertain the troops...I'm told that you and your family like to play instruments, sing, and dance as part of your routine to charm the Imperial soldiers into giving you orphans to take away with your trash. You do that at Rondirak 12, and take whatever kids you can find there. We want you to do everything just as you normally do...but we also want you to do one other thing. We'd like it if you can take this little chip with you and insert it into the central control panel of the Main Base. The chip is so tiny that you can barely see it, and it's been placed in a small insertion gun for you. We have your instructions written into the holographic program-screen on the wrist-band that we're going to give you. You follow the map and the instructions on where to place the information chip. It will feed us continual visual and audio information about what is taking place on the Base from every angle, and it will help us to plan our defense strategies against the Mercenary forces more accurately. It's a dead simple mission, Rad; but if you can prove to us that you can do it, we'll give you more important assignments. Are there any questions?"
Marney stared at his father, slightly overwhelmed by the "dead simple mission". Raddus was ordering not only him but his whole family to risk their lives in this covert "operation" on a world governed by a Joke-Moff.
"Admiral," he asked anxiously, "Is this thing really necessary? If I'm going to be asking my crew to risk their lives, then I want to know for sure that if something goes wrong we're not dying for shit-all."
"Your crew won't be risking their lives, Captain, you will," Raddus told him, "They're to stay with the ship, after you've infiltrated the Base. Once you've completed your mission, you can leave. Your crew can either go without you or pick you up at a prearranged location of your choice. If you plan it right, it should work without a single mishap...the troops on that swamp-ball spend half the time drunk, like their lurching little leader, Moffett Mokk. After you've inserted the chip, you shouldn't have any problem escaping to our own little covert spy base on Rondirak 12; and you can use one of our agent's mini-Starfighters, called a Minista, in order to catch up with your ship—just in case they are forced to leave without you."
Marney sighed, wondering whether it would really be as simple as that.
"Won't the Imperial soldiers discover this 'information chip', Papa?" he asked, dispensing with formalities, "I mean, they must have programs to detect that kind of thing."
"It's a new technology, and those morons aren't likely to find it until we've already collected a substantial amount of information. We're hoping they'll dump a shit-load of pertinent info into our laps through their drunken banter alone. You get your quarren computer programmer to explain it to you, Radka, because I've got to get back to the real-world business of fighting for the Alliance. Good Luck with your new job."
"Yes, Sir," he responded, saluting his father and walking out the door without a single word of farewell.
After all, he reasoned, My own father thinks I'm a complete joke...something like the Alliance's version of Mini-Moffett Mokk.