Legend of the Harp Episode III: The Crucible

by Hemaccabe

The Harp continues to build his own resistance movement with more ships, troops and wealth. However, not every problem can be solved with such tools and some of those problems may test one to the very edge!

11. Chapter 11

Legend of the Harp

By Hemaccabe

Episode III: The Crucible

Chapter 11: The Hope

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

*** Jedi Knight Jors Zaemon, Stygeon Prime, aboard Bearer, above Spire Prison ***

We emerged from a long dark pass just in time to see an octagonally shaped ship insert a team in the fortress.

"Get the droids outside and get the gear in! Buster!" I ordered, perhaps more brusquely then I meant to.

The ship burst into action as the droids raced to the airlock to bring in our gear.

"Get ready to get this bird in the air." I ordered the young Lieutenant in command of the ship as she raced over to find out what was going on.

She raced away, I could hear her ordering into ship's com, "Sound General Quarters! All hands on deck!"

As the gear came in I watched as the octagon-shaped ship's team inserted on a small shuttle to a tiny platform on the side of the prison wall.

I had literally just been considering that platform for insertion when I had seen these interlopers arrive.

The commandoes the shuttle discharged were quickly through the Imperial Storm Trooper guards and inside the facility.

Within minutes, the feeling I had been getting from Mistress Unduli changed. Clearly the interlopers had entered her cell. She was dead! Did the interlopers? No, a moment later I could tell that the presence of Mistress Unduli had been some sort of Force illusion using her corpse and some, possibly Sith, Force trick. It was why I had sensed something had been wrong all along.

Just as I watched the interlopers exfiltrate, somehow getting a large number of local flying creatures to fly interference, the Lieutenant reported, "Ready to lift off."

How had they gotten those flying creatures to help? We had studied all available information on this planet for weeks and had been doing our own observations. We still had no idea that this life form even existed, much less that they might be exploited in that way.

"Get us off the ground, follow that other ship." I ordered.

Great this would now turn into my worst discipline, a space battle.

The shuttle docked with the octagonal ship which began to quickly maneuver for a hyperspace jump. They hassled a bit with some TIEs from the planet. Then they were ready to jump.

Just as the octagonal ship was about to jump, I could see they were about to be jumped by a flight of TIE Bombers they clearly didn't know were there.

"Attack those TIE Bombers!" I ordered into comm as I jumped into Bearer's forehead gun.

I didn't know everything about space combat, but I knew those bombers could fire off a slew of torpedoes that would obliterate the little octagonal ship.

We flew straight through the formation of TIE Bombers. I was pleased to get one of the enemy ships myself.

The surviving TIE bombers scattered and started firing wildly. Several others were destroyed by Bearer's other guns.

"Get us out of here!" I ordered as I could already feel the ship moving to jump.

Just as we pulled away, I could feel one Imperial torpedo hit us.

"Damage report?" I requested into comm.

"We were hit several times by blaster fire and took one solid hit from a torpedo. All hits were absorbed by shields." The Lieutenant reported.

"Good. Are we on course?" I asked.

"We are set to make multiple jumps to ensure there is no successful pursuit by our adversaries." The Lieutenant replied.

"All good. Inform me when we get to home system. I'll be in my quarters." I ordered and crawled out of the gun.

I realized I had just been successful for the first time leading a space battle, such as this skirmish had been. I had forgotten to deploy the Vultures. Of course, that might have slowed our exit, or prevented the hits we absorbed. Live and learn.

I got a shower and some sleep. Then I reviewed all the records from the action. The Empire was becoming less popular by the day. The galaxy was used to certain ideas of freedom of democracy. The Empire was making it more and more clear that those freedoms were going away. The Senate was more and more clearly powerless to confront the Emperor and his abuses. There were already rumors the Senate would soon be dissolved.

There were small micro-resistance groups emerging spontaneously nearly everywhere. The octagonal ship had probably represented one of those. The lead on Mistress Unduli had been broadcast wide by renegade Senator Gall Trayvis. We had been playing it cautious, obviously not everyone was.

The mission, rescuing Mistress Unduli, was officially a failure. As I went to my quarters for a shower and to have my clothing refreshed, I considered. On the bright side, we had gotten some useful intel. We would notify all our contacts that the rumors of Mistress Unduli being alive were false. I could now say with some certainty she was dead. Clearly the Sith and the Empire had been using those rumors while defiling her corpse to lure in resistance, particularly Jedi. They wouldn't be able to do that anymore.

Also, we now knew something about at least one more resistance faction. There might have been one or more Jedi in that group. The move with the flying creatures was very Jedi. Storming that platform, moving through the fortress and breaking that cell implied at least one more. Unfortunately, my insight had been focused so completely on Unduli, I'd missed my chance in the moment to try and connect with them. Still, I might have felt something. It was also possible there were no Jedi and they just got lucky. Maybe they left a string of bodies through that prison fighting their way in and out? Maybe they knew about the flying critters from a previous recon and just put out a scent or food that would lure them along? We would have to find out in our copious free time.

Just as I thought that last bit, the Lieutenant comm'ed down, "We are approaching the Rock in Dandoran system."

We would dock. The crew and militia troopers would swap out. I'd gratefully debark LTCR Pumfrey. Bearer would be serviced; a new crew would be put aboard, and I would be off to my next mission.

While Bearer was being serviced, I tried to contact Furry and Fio. I couldn't get through to either. Furry had left a message that he was going to check on some sort of comm relay thing. It wasn't surprising that communications weren't possible. All sorts of things could cause interference. Castanea was way out there and there was some definite crud in the way, still I would have liked some report. I had to try not to be unreasonably overprotective of Fio. It was hard. I left messages for both and moved on to my next job.

It might have made sense to keep the same troops and crew on Bearer. Start building some operational familiarity. However, the need to train our green Harp Fleet personnel was driving us. We'd bring on another crew of squeaky new spacemen and a new troop of militia. I'd get two new ball droids, the other five got handed back. We'd leave Pumfrey and most of the scanning hardware behind and load up some extra bunks. If I was successful on this mission, I'd be bringing back some new personnel.

Furry had been buying warheads for our top of the line torpedoes for a while from a place called "Baetar."

I read the dossier Furry had prepared for me.

The people of Baetar were predominantly human, but another group that had not come from the main lineage of human societies. The Baetar humans tended to be thinner, taller, slightly more olive skinned with dark complexions. Perhaps a related lineage? Ancient records were sparse. Baetar was the only known location where this lineage existed, though some Baetari humans had moved off world and other humans had moved on.

The Baetar civilization was limited to a single system with a young, hot yellow star. Their system had only limited natural resources. Baetar Prime, the main inhabited world, was dryer, hotter and had heavier gravity than galactic standard. Baetar did have one unusual resource. Probably because it was a particularly ancient civilization, it had a wealth of hyperspace corridors leading to the system.

Over 90% of systems in the Known Galaxy had only one corridor. Dandoran had two. Major worlds would have anywhere from a few to maybe half a dozen? Baetar had dozens making her an extremely strategically valuable location.

Baetar had a seat in the Republic's, and now Empire's, Galactic Senate. Unfortunately, Baetar was surrounded by a number of primitive, aggressive non-human civilizations who all desperately wanted to conquer them, maybe because of the location. Notably the large reptilian Mitzri, small reptilian Heeshem, insect-like Laban, the eel-like Rabi and the arachnid Prus among others. All of these civilizations were many times larger than Baetar and, unlike Baetar's lack of natural resources, her neighbors were major players in the Mining Guild holding a large percentage of the galaxy's proven reserves of fuel. This meant Baetar's enemies had many natural allies in the Senate from their Mining Guild associations and fuel wealth.

During the last days of the Republic, Baetar had endured a number of unfair and inaccurate resolutions being passed against them.

One might also note that during the Clone Wars, despite this treatment, Baetar had been a staunch supporter of the Republic, and quietly, the Jedi. Her neighbors had all sided with the Separatists sending vast wealth, supplies and contingents of troops.

Despite this betrayal of the Republic, Baetar's neighbors had been rehabilitated and become staunch supporters of the Emperor in the Senate. This had resulted in Baetar once again finding herself excluded in the Senate and on the wrong side of many wrong-headed resolutions.

Further, the Baetar practiced Republican democracy in their society and had done so for thousands of years. So, they really believed in it. This resulted in some natural antipathy from our new Emperor.

All of this meant Baetar was a top candidate for open rebellion. The problem was that they were one small, isolated society. Open rebellion could mean a fleet of Star Destroyers knocking on their front door. They didn't want to be another Emberlene or Lasan. So, while Baetar had failed to support the Emperor a number of times on the Senate floor, they were not in open rebellion either.

Baetar did have a substantial military. Despite being a small society with limited natural resources, they were a democracy and had an open economy. This meant they punched well above their weight economically. Baetar had also doubled down on education to help each citizen achieve as much as possible and that had paid off. Baetar's economy was strong from many high-tech exports. Baetar had been one of the first societies in the galaxy to have invested heavily in snub fighters. Baetar had a substantial fleet of home grown fighters, the Kfirs, Lavis and Neshers that had won so many battles for them. They also had a ground military with a substantial reputation.

Unfortunately, that's all they had. Aside from a handful of small gunboats and transports they had no capital ships. Bearer was bigger than anything else they had in their fleet. They did have two space fortresses, Suffone and Doram, not as big as the Rock, but well-armed and considerable positions. Still, they had no transfer station or grav tugs. They didn't have the manpower or the money for more.

Unlike many areas of the galaxy that were relatively peaceful, Baetar's history was one of relentless all-out wars with one or more of their neighboring societies. Between the major wars, they were also engaged in a constant low intensity conflict in the surrounding systems. Still, it was a record of the Baetarians outmaneuvering, outfighting and relentlessly defeating their enemies. It had to be, one loss would mean no more Baetar.

It was not surprising that Baetar had developed some sophisticated military technology, most notably, the torpedo warhead which was Furin's preferred choice for his Silver Bullet torpedoes.

Before I had left for Stygeon Prime I had discussed Baetar with Furin.

"When I discovered their situation, I began to reinforce Baetar economically. Rather than pay them in Credits, we send them shipments of fuel, which is difficult for them to acquire. They were paying anywhere between ten and a hundred times galactic average for fuel. I'm shipping the fuel in and trading it with them for near galactic average. I'm also sending in food, raw materials like gravene and dura steel. I'm also acquiring Scoeti armor and Stentor framing for them which I know they're trying to reverse engineer. They are well paid for the warheads." Furin explained.

"So, what do you want from me?" I asked.

"We need to get them to increase warhead production and sell us more." Furry answered.

"Then why send me, you must have a trade negotiator or someone we could send for such a minor job?" I asked a bit annoyed to be sent on a simple trade mission when I was so busy.

"In addition to warheads, we have something more important we want acquire from Baetar." Furry replied.

"Important enough that I should go?" I replied a bit skeptically. It always seemed Furry was underestimating just how busy I was.

"Yes," Furry replied, "We're always short personnel. We have the Credits to expand the fleet, but not the ships and the manpower. I'm constantly trying to recruit new help."

"What do you have in mind?" I asked.

"Baetar is in a bad position. They don't like the current galactic situation, but if the Empire openly supported their neighbors, they would likely be overrun. Since their neighbors have promised, repeatedly, to massacre every man, woman and child in the system, they must be cautious. So open rebellion is out. However, they would like to oppose the Emperor more vigorously. Also, they know the Emperor might have his Imperial Fleet support their enemies more covertly, which could still be the end for them. They can't oppose the Emperor openly as that would be the end for them. They can't let the Emperor stay either, since that could be the end for them as well. So, they should want to oppose the Emperor clandestinely very much."

"So, what does this have to do with us?" I continued to probe, hoping Furin would get to the point.

"If a group of Baetarians decided, on their own, plausibly deniably by their government, to join our cause, perhaps as independent mercenaries, we could solve each other's problems. They could provide fighter pilots which would add immeasurably to our efforts and we would help give the Emperor better things to worry about than Baetar."

"So, you want me to go there and recruit fighter pilots?"

"Baetar's pilots are some of the best in the galaxy. I want at least a squadron's worth. They can fight for us directly and, between battles, train our green kids."

"Anything else?" I asked.

"I specifically want Gi Ora. He's their best. If he comes, he'll bring other experienced, top quality, pilots with him. If he doesn't come, they'll send us a bunch of much less useful green recruits."

"So, you want me to go to this place that is under constant military threat of annihilation, is completely dependant on their fleet of snub fighters and convince them to give up a squadron's worth of their best pilots. Just how am I supposed to convince them of that?"

"I'm already paying them quite a bit, and as I said before, it's in their long term best interest as well. That should be enough. However, they'll want our next Lola."

"Yeah, we've been waiting forever for that boat and already have jobs lined up for it. Should we really give it up?"

"If you have to, give them the Lola." Furin reaffirmed.

"Don't we need that Lola?"

"We can build another and think, where will that ship be? What will she be doing?"

It was a rhetorical question. The ship would be putting a crimp in the Emperor's plans, but with someone else's crew aboard and being paid on someone else's Credit. We'd get the fighter pilots we needed.

So as preparations were completed, we launched for Baetar.

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