Chapter 20
Tenel Ka raced into her throne room with Ali in tow. Several of her guards were already waiting to escort her from the war room where she was overseeing the battle to a safe haven outside the Palace. Her advisors insisted upon her safety in the event the Mandalorians landed an occupying force, and she grudgingly agreed. When they crossed the throne room towards the back, the doors flew off their hinges and struck the frontmost guards, killing them instantly. Tenel Ka used the Force to deflect the doors away before they could do more damage, and shouted to Ali to run away. The guards started firing at a lone hooded figure that sent the blaster bolts back at the guards with the casual flicks of a red lightsaber. Within seconds, Tenel Ka was alone. She barely noticed that Ali had escaped when the man flicked off his robe to reveal a shaven tattoed head and some nasty dental work.
"When I kill you, Hapes will belong to the Sith," The human said ominously.
"My death has yet to come." Tenel Ka ignited her lightsaber in time to deflect his first attack, barely twirling out of the way as the lunge came in faster than she expected. Before she could catch her footing a series of attacks came in with lightning speed and accuracy that had her back-peddling on her heels and entirely on the defensive. She desperately used the Force to flick fallen blasters and other objects around the throne room at the Sith, but he easily took them out with his lightsaber or telekinesis and still had the time to continue his vicious assault. A powerful slash came from low on her right, across her front and back high to the right that caught her lightsaber and twisted it out of her hand. It landed several metres away leaving her surprised enough that he grabbed her by the throat with the Force to immobilize her.
The Sith Lord stared into her eyes and drew his lightsaber back for the final blow.
"And so the mighty Hapes Cluster falls."
-! #$%^&*()
Jacen's team jumped off the boarding ramp five metres above the main landing platform for the Fountain Palace and the Solo Quest accelerated spaceward immediately. It took some fancy flying on Jaina's part to dodge the anti-aircraft guns, but it was not difficult for a seasoned pilot and Jedi Master. Obviously Jacen's message did not get through. Jacen, Astro and Eriana hit the ground running, using the Force to ease the transition from freefall to full-out sprint. R12-47 drove off the boarding ramp and used his repulsorlifts to cushion his fall. Small thruster packs built into his frame accelerated him at a speed close to that of the Vornskr and Jedi in their all-out sprint towards the front line of the Hapan defences. The guards tried stopping their approach with words and a blaster shot or two, but could do little to stop the four intruders as they vaulted themselves several metres above the guards' heads without slowing.
They approached the second line of defence just outside the palace walls and stopped running to speak to the guards. Jacen saw the highest-ranking officer and jogged over to him, hands held out to his side, as if he was asking for a hug, to indicate he was not a threat.
"Where is the queen?" he asked.
"Who are you?" The officer inquired, grip tightening on his blaster.
"You do not need to know who I am," Jacen said.
"I do not need to know who you are," The officer repeated.
"Queen Tenel Ka is…?"
"…in the throne room, second hallway to the left, five floors down," The officer mindlessly supplied.
"We can go inside."
"They can go inside," The officer called to his troops.
"Thank you."
"No, thank you."
The team continued on using the officer's directions, this time much more cautiously. Lightsabers in hand and senses alert, they jogged at a brisk pace towards the throne room until Astro stopped and whined.
The Jedi enhanced their senses and heard the sounds of lightsabers clashing. Immediately they sprinted towards the throne room.
At what seemed a good opportunity, Astro and Womprat broke off to fulfil their orders. A few moments later Jacen and Eriana broke into the Throne room to the sight of several bodies of Hapan guards littered across the floor and a tattooed man roaring as he shoved his red lightsaber through Tenel Ka's chest.
-! #$%^&*()
Breaking through the atmosphere, Jaina took a moment to marvel at the performance of the Solo Quest, and immediately regretted it as a pair of Mando fighters strafed her port shields, reducing their power by a third. Jaina sensed one of the fighters explode to her right, complimented her companions on the kill, then set after the second fighter. A moment later the combined firepower of the two turrets destroyed the Mando fighter and Jaina smoothly swerved around the explosion while activating the communication array.
"Hapan defence fleet, this is Jedi Master Jaina Solo aboard the Solo Quest requesting permission to join the battle. I am awaiting orders."
"Jedi Solo, welcome to the fight," A female voice replied. "I see you took out two fighters; thanks. They were an escort for the ground forces that our turrets missed. Please form up with Alpha Squadron on our left flank and help with the fighter screen." She rattled off a list of numbers indicating the squadron comm frequency.
"Acknowledged," Jaina switched frequencies while manoeuvring the ship towards the left side of the fleet. "Alpha Leader, this is Solo Quest seeking orders. Command told me you're my boss."
"Solo?" A gruff voice responded. "Any relation to that pirate who married lucky?"
"Yes," Jaina said through clenched teeth. "Call me 'Sticks.' How can I be of service?"
"Good to hear, Sticks," Alpha One responded. "Form up with Flight Three. Nine's your lead.
"Heads up, Alphas; we have a new ally and we have incoming. Ten marks at three-three-five mark two. Flight One, flight Two, form up on me and accelerate to attack speed. Flight Three, you have our backs."
Jaina manoeuvred the Quest behind the four fighters in her flight group with an uneasy feeling and watched the other eight fighters accelerate and engage the Mandalorian fighters. An eye blink later, the fighters tore through each others ranks and explosions erupted from both sides.
"That's our cue, Flight Three," Nine commed. "Lock missiles and close in on the Mandos and engage. Fire at will."
"Jaina, something's wrong," Karth's voice came over the internal comm.
"I sense it too," Jaina confirmed, the sense of unease in her stomach growing. "Be wary, we're going in."
Jaina's flight accelerated towards the oncoming Mandalorian fighters as the enemies turned to engage Flights One and Two. A volley of blaster fire reduced the Mandalorian fighter group to three, and Flight One reduced it to zero. Glancing at her scope, Jaina noticed that Alpha flight was reduced to eight fighters and herself.
"Well done, Alphas," One congratulated, to Jaina's amazement.
Rogue Squadron, these guys are not.
"Lead, Sticks," Jaina commed. "I'm reading a wave of fighters incoming and several support ships. It looks like those fighters were testing us, and now…BREAK! Everyone BREAK!"
The Force made Jaina throttle up hard and yank the controls to starboard as a squadron of Mandalorian fighters decloaked behind Alpha Squadron and immediately opened fire.
-! #$%^&*()
Luke sat back and tried to sigh away his helplessness and frustration. Oddly enough, he felt even more frustrated.
"I understand the shortages, Cal," He said desperately to the holographic image of the Chief of State that was straining his patience. "But Hapes is one of our strongest allies. We need to help them, and two squadrons of fighters are just not enough! There is an entire taskforce on training manoeuvres not nine hours away and thirty percent of the personnel are seasoned veterans."
"I would love to know where you get your information, Skywalker," Cal said darkly. "I didn't even know about that fleet."
"I have some friends on that fleet," Luke said evenly. While true, his information came directly from Jan Ors on Coruscant from Alpha Blue's command centre over an encrypted Jedi frequency, but Cal did not need to know that. "And I know several of them, including General Celchu, owe their lives to the Hapans twice over from the Vong war. I could contact the fleet directly, if you would prefer."
"I should be glad that you are not running against me, Skywalker," Cal grimaced with a hint of a grin. "You would make a formidable politician. I will contact the fleet myself. I only hope they can help."
"May the Force be with you," Luke bowed his head, and flipped to a second channel that started blinking.
"Hey…, way to send us into a…ambush! ... Got the …and we're coming … to Ossus," Han's voice came out of the speakers on Luke's desk with static, and no holo image appeared. "And tell those … working there not to touch my … -ip again! That's the … they fry my life support!"
"Sounds like your comm system is damaged," Luke said. "Are you reading me?"
"Yeah, yeah…ding you fine," Han said. "It's the…ransmitter. Took a nas-… be on Ossus in a couple hours."
"Wait," Luke said, quickly consulting a holo-map, "I just got a request from Jacen and Jaina on Hapes for assistance. Apparently a Mandalorian fleet is attacking, and they need all the help they can get."
Several bursts of static drowned out Han's response, but Luke had a feeling it was a response he did not want to hear.
"Quit playing with that Goldenrod! Yeah, we'll go," Han said dejectedly. "We should be okay. Hapes isn't far."
"Thank you, Han," Luke said gratefully. "Make contact with the Solo Quest when you get there and divide assets as you see fit."
"Yeah, it's not my first party, Kid," Han said sarcastically. "I'll let them know when I'm there."
"Good luck," Luke said, and shut off the comm with a sigh. A moment later Cal Omas's private line begain to blink for his attention again.
What now?
-! #$%^&*()
Blaster bolts diffused across the starboard shielding of the Solo Quest as five of Jaina's remaining squad mates exploded around her and her gunner turrets spat energy back at their attackers.
"Attention Hapan fleet," Jaina yelled while using the Force to unconsciously weave around as many blaster bolts as she could. "Mandos have cloaking capability! Repeat, Mando fighters are cloaked!"
As the Hapan fleet came into view on Jaina's turning arc a moment later, massive explosions across the fleet told her they already knew. Another of her fighters exploded, and her gunners claimed two of the attackers before Jaina's mind recovered from the magnitude of the sudden attack.
"Alphas, form up on me." Jaina said, automatically taking over command. She pushed the fleet out of her mind and focussed on the immediate attackers. Three Mandalorian fighters remained in their vicinity, each tailing their own target, and nothing else was on sensors for twenty kilometres.
"Can't shake them!" One of her pilots yelled out as several blaster bolts destroyed one of his wings.
"I have you!" Jaina called, changing course to intercept. "Change course to zero-niner-eight."
"Got it!" Nelani called over the comm. "Our tail's clear, Jaina."
"Lock onto Mando fighter straight ahead." Jaina replied, arming missiles and targeting the ship. At three kilometres away, the missile was unlikely to hit a fast moving target. However, the Mandalorian changed course once target lock was detected, but did not abandon its target. Jumpy little thing, aren't you?
"Sticks, this is Seven." Jaina's second remaining pilot came across the comm. "I'm clear, how can I help?"
"Seven, good to hear you." Jaina replied. "Form on my wing. We're going after the one chasing Five."
"I'm faster." Seven replied while forming up. "I can intercept."
"Negative." Jaina replied, consulting the Force and easing up on the throttle slightly while playing the missile lock over her target. The Mando ship jumped again. Perfect. "Lock a missile on Five."
"What?" Five and Seven exclaimed together. Another volley of blasts narrowly missed Five.
"Five, change course to zero-three-five and prepare to pull up and dive hard on my mark." Jaina ordered. "Seven, lock your target and fire now!"
A blue plume of light erupted on Jaina's port side and sped towards the other Hapan fighter, which was now facing directly towards the Solo Quest. Jaina locked her targeting system one last time on the Mando, and ordered Five to execute. Five climbed momentarily, causing the missile to jump, then disappeared from view, exposing the Mando fighter as it pulled up to escape the target lock. The missile ploughed directly into the middle of the craft before it could follow Five, shattering the enemy craft as blaster bolts from the twin turrets ensured the ship was dead.
"Five, Seven, form up on my wing." Jaina ordered, surveying the battlefield like nothing had happened while setting a course towards the Hapan fleet. "Status report."
"Seven, here. No damage, three torpedoes remaining. Shields at full."
"Five. No starboard wing or lasers, but engines are operational. Should be okay outside of atmosphere. Five torpedoes left. Shields…" A crackling sound came across the comm followed by a series of Hapan curses. "Shields and fingers fried."
"Sticks," Seven's voice broke into Jaina's thoughts. "Wasn't there an entire wave of ships attacking us before those Mandos hit us from behind? I'm not seeing them on sensors."
"Yes," Jaina replied through clenched teeth. "It was an illusion of some sort to distract us from the cloaked ships. Heads up, we're coming up on the fleet now. We'll strafe across the closest Nova and clear as many fighters as we can, then drop some torps into those gunships on the other side. After that, find a ship to land on, Five. You're in no shape to stay out here."
Jaina surveyed the battle one last time before committing to her attack. Up close, the Hapans appeared to be recovering from the initial attack, and did not sustain as much damage as she initially feared. The surprise attack left several ships with damaged engines while others lacked shields. The Battledragons and Novas fired turbolaser blasts like hailstorms, shredding through the approaching Mandalorian capital ships. Try as they might, the Mandalorians could not keep up with the Hapan rapid-charge turbolasers combined with the tri-turret design. The formerly cloaked gunships lost their element of surprise, and their relatively weak shielding quickly succumbed to the wrath of the Hapan capital ships before they could effectively reduce the defence fighters. The Hapan and Mandalorians fighters seemed to be evenly matched, which left the Hapans with a tactical advantage between capital ships. A console beeped at Jaina, joining the Force in indicating an impending threat. Several hundred yellow blips appeared around the red Mandalorian capital ship blips, accelerating towards the green Hapan ones.
"On second thought, Seven, how good are you at hitting missiles?"