Approximately five years earlier, aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer Admonitor, Outer Rim Territories
"Excuse me, Lieutenant Commander?"
Garin turned to find a young Lieutenant beckoning him over as he stepped out of the briefing room.
"Yes Lieutenant?"
"The Admiral wishes to speak with you," the officer said in a hushed tone, "privately."
Garin nodded and followed the Lieutenant away from the other officers, the pair moved in silence as they moved around to the entrance to the command office attached to the briefing room. The Lieutenant stopped at the door and saluted, taking his leave as Garin stepped inside, returning the salute.
"Thank you Lieutenant."
He found projected images of Zaarin's various toys floating around the room; Thrawn was seated at his desk, leaning back in his chair considering the images as they drifted around the room lazily. Garin spied another figure off towards the door leading to the briefing room but paid them no mind. If he needed to know who they were, he would.
"You wanted to see me Admiral?"
"Yes Lieutenant Commander, I believe you know Commander Stele?"
Garin turned as Thrawn motioned towards the figure by the door; Stele stepped out and offered his hand. Garin shook it, inclining his head respectfully.
"Commander," he turned back to Thrawn. "What can I do for you sir?"
"As you know, the Commander's unit is assigned to engage any forces Zaarin sends against To-Phalion station that he is not a part of."
Garin nodded, remaining silent as he divided his attention between the Admiral and Maarek Stele; the latter was staring at Garin in a very unsettling manner.
"What I need your unit to do Lieutenant Commander is insert the Commander's unit, and provide rapid response if he should find himself in need of assistance."
Stele snorted quietly, he didn't seem to believe there was much that Zaarin could throw into the situation that he wouldn't be able to handle, whether that was arrogance or experience speaking, Garin would have to see.
"Sir, if you don't mind my asking, just what are we baiting Zaarin with?"
"Do you need to know Lieutenant Commander?" Stele asked coolly.
Garin eyed him with an equally cool gaze, "I like to know what I'm supposed to be defending in case I have to find it later."
Stele didn't say anything, but Thrawn saved him the trouble, "a cloaking device. More accurately a corvette equipped with a cloaking device; the Vorknkx. It is an experimental craft obviously, and I imagine that now that Zaarin has the information on it he will want it very badly." A smile played across his features, "after all, what could he accomplish with a functioning cloaking device?"
Quite a lot Garin imagined considering what he was already doing with heavily modified starfighters, he didn't want to think of what Zaarin would do if those fighters could cloak as well.
"I assume it's a ruse to draw him out?"
Thrawn shook his head, "hardly, the prototype is a working model; it has to be if we're to make sure Zaarin makes the mistake of coming for it. Your job, and the job of Commander Stele, is to ensure that he must come for it himself. Any force that does not include the Glory is to be wiped out with prejudice. We need Zaarin himself to make this move; otherwise we're wasting our time."
"What can you tell us about the facility?" Stele asked, Garin's attention refocused on the details.
"Zaarin has already made several scouting sorties against this facility, which means he has spies there already, or another source that gives him accurate information. He has yet to hit it in force and the defensive weapons have done their job and kept him at bay. However the asteroid based turrets are now largely destroyed or disabled with only a handful remaining, I've ordered a minefield deployed in their stead to assist in slowing our esteemed Grand Admiral down, but that is all it can do: slow him."
Thrawn turned to Stele, "your transfer there should appear to be a desperate measure to provide added security against the attacks and to replace, though insufficiently, the remaining turrets that guard the facility."
"Insufficiently," Stele stated questioningly, he sounded offended.
Thrawn cast him an amused glance, the kind that a tutor might give to an overconfident pupil, "while I do not doubt your skill, or the skill of the men under your command, there is little you could realistically do against a concentrated effort by Zaarin's forces. Your Avengers simply do not have the firepower to take on multiple capital ships, though I do not doubt that you would make them pay for their efforts; you would run out of munitions before Zaarin ran out of ships."
Stele still looked like he might disagree but he didn't press the matter, he turned to Garin instead. "My men and I will meet you aboard your ship Lieutenant Commander, I will see you there."
The Commander left the room and Garin let himself breathe a little easier, Thrawn chuckled at the expression of distaste on Garin's face.
"Oh don't judge him too harshly Commander; he is having issues similar to the ones you faced during your last cruise however he is far too loyal to cope with them in the manner that you did."
"Excuse me sir?"
"His faith in the Empire is being shaken, first by Harkov's betrayal and murder of his mentor, and now by Zaarin's continued campaign against the Emperor. Unlike you, he is unwilling to imagine that the Empire he serves might not be everything he dreams it to be."
Garin swallowed nervously, was Thrawn telling him what he thought he was? "Sir I—"
"Do not apologize, you and I are the only two who know about Hades assisting the Rebels, and as I've already said, though it was treasonous, you made a decision based on the information you had available to you. I do not begrudge you your judgment; in fact I applaud your willingness to act. Too many officers are unwilling risk their careers, let alone their lives, for what they may deem to be the correct course. Part of why I formed Hades was to make use of your rather singular ability to take those risks and act."
Garin inclined his head respectfully, "thank you Admiral."
"Oh don't misunderstand Lieutenant Commander; if you ever do something like that publicly there will be little I can do to protect you despite my own opinions. I dearly hope you continue to provide me with those singular skills however, it would be a horrible tragedy to lose the unique ability set that Hades offers."
Garin allowed himself a smile, "and the chance to advance those who you deem vital but have no other options."
Thrawn's eyes flickered for a moment and his expression turned dangerous even as he smiled, "be careful what you assume Durives; the truth, no matter how correct, is not always safe to those who possess it."
Garin straightened and saluted, "yes sir was there anything else?"
"As a matter of fact there is. I trust this to you and you only; I don't know how Zaarin is getting his intelligence and the fewer who know this the better. I am telling you this because it will save you from expending precious resources in chasing down Zaarin should he capture the Vorknkx and escape; pay attention to everything I am going to tell you because I will only say it once."
Garin stood silently and listened to every word the Admiral said, by the end of it he was smiling despite himself and couldn't help but think that Thrawn was the most cunning man he'd ever met.
Present, interrogation room aboard the Mon Cal cruiser Home One, Bilbringi Shipyards
"You can't be serious; Thrawn was taking that big a risk with one of the Empire's secret projects?"
"It was a gamble, but after he explained his plan to me I had no doubt that it would work."
"And just what was his plan, you didn't exactly elaborate."
I chuckled, "what did I say about getting ahead of the story?"
She scowled at me though there was no real anger in her expression, more amused annoyance as he leaned back and beckoned for me to continue.
"Fine, be coy Commander. I'll entertain you for now; we've got plenty of time."
I smiled at her sweetly, she was right that we did have time, how much time though I wasn't entirely sure of, but it should be just enough.
Approximately five years earlier, aboard thecruiser Black Knight, To-Phalion Base
"He's not doing that badly all things considered." Iriana said, standing besides Garin on the bridge of the Knight.
The pair was watching the second wave of Zaarin's attack being mopped up by Stele's squadron. So far, there had been two separate waves, both of which Stele had been able to defeat; during the first wave, the remaining weapons systems that the station and its outlying facilities possessed had been brought down by a spy who had then tried to escape. Stele however had quickly destroyed the saboteur's shuttle and readied his unit for further assaults. He didn't have long to wait, in a matter of hours yet another wave had arrived, this one with light capital ship support and Garin had been ready to move in with a squadron or two to assist until Stele had sent a coded message telling them to stay back. He then proceeded to annihilate this wave as well and was now finishing off the remainder of the force in question.
Garin saw some similarities in himself and Stele, however where he tried to rely more on tactics and outmaneuvering his opponents, Stele seemed to prefer brute force and simply smashing his opponents into oblivion. Thus far that tactic had worked just fine and Garin wasn't going to begrudge Stele his skill in executing it even if it wasn't to his liking.
"Sir, we have a ship dropping into the system," the sensor officer called from the command pit. He looked up at Iriana, licking his lips worriedly, "it's the Glory."
Garin nodded, "that would be my cue the task group is yours Captain."
Iriana smiled, "not exactly how I envisaged my first group command, but I won't complain. Good luck sir."
"You too Captain."
"Sir, hypercom is being jammed." The comms officer called from his terminal.
"The Glory," Iriana said, more of statement than a question.
She and Garin exchanged glances; their goal wasn't to engage the Glory directly, but instead to send a signal to Thrawn when she arrived. With the jamming in place, they couldn't send that signal. They didn't have a task group large enough to take on the Mark Two Imperial, Hades Wing was there, and Stele's Avengers, plus a handful of frigates and corvettes accompanying the Knight. It was an uneven fight to say the least.
"The Glory is deploying Avengers and Defenders, orders?" Kindran asked stoically as he strolled through the command pit.
Garin was silent, without saying a word he was letting Iriana have full command of the situation. She was a Fleet Officer and had much more knowledge when it came to slugging matches between capital ships.
"Stele's squadron will be outmatched and outnumbered if they've brought a full compliment which we must assume they have."
She looked to Garin, "Hades will reinforce Shrike squadron the Knight will lead the assault on the Glory."
"I'll assign Diamond to your command; Harth's boys can try and knock out the communications tower and assist in bringing down the Glory."
She nodded her thanks, "thank you Lieutenant Commander."
Garin wanted to say more, wish her luck or something, but didn't. He had to trust in her command abilities, if he showed doubt or something like it to the crew then it would spread like wildfire. So instead he turned and left the bridge in Iriana and Kindran's hands and headed where he could make a difference, his fighter.
"So what's the plan?" Toth asked as their fighters launched.
"The plan is to give support to the station and to Shrike squadron; Diamond is under the Knight's command until further notice. The Knight will lead the task group against the glory."
"That's suicide!" Protested Vic'que, they were speaking over the command channel thankfully, so no one who wasn't in command would be thrown off.
"Don't you think we realize that? We've being jammed though so we can't call for help, we're lucky that the Knight is boosting out signal so local comms are online."
"Garin," Harth said gravely, "the Knight doesn't have the fight to take on a Deuce, nor do any of the other ships in our task group."
"I know Harth, that's why you need to knock out that comms tower now before they have to slug it out with that thing."
"Copy, it'll be down."
"Gar, this is insane." Toth said nervously.
"We've been in worse," Garin said, sounding confident despite the weight in his gut.
"We had support in those cases sir," Vic'que said, she actually sounded worried instead of just angry.
"Just focus on your objectives," Harth said coolly, "we'll get through this."
"That's our fearless leader!"
"Diamond to the core!"
Harth's voice returned, cold and serious where normally he was lighter when Kalan and Matrin chimed in with their two creds worth of idiocy.
"Both of you, in this case, if you joke around, I will shoot you," Harth paused for a moment, "Lieutenant Sajuuk, do you still want to skin them?"
"Yes sir," Vic'que said.
"If they mouth off again, you can." Harth responded icily.
"Okay, okay, you've made your point!" Matrin said his tone suddenly serious.
"Yeah," Kalan said haughtily. "You're too extreme."
"Shut up, fly." Harth said, and then Diamond's line went dead as the missile boats peeled off.
"You know, even when they're being serious they're still pretty funny." Toth said.
"Luixana, concentrate, we're in trouble here." Vic'que chided.
Before any more useless banter could be made, another voice joined the command channel.
"While I am grateful that you've come to help, if you're going to just mouth off, can you all go get spaced?"
"Shrike leader this is Shadow leader, here to offer assistance." Garin responded.
"How nice, lets see if you can really fly those fighters or if you're just good with your mouth only."
As if in answer, Toth's Gorgons unleashed a furious missile salvo that tore into the enemy Defenders and Avengers with vicious abandon. The enemy fighters wheeled and dodged but their unit cohesion was shot to pieces and they scattered in every direction.
"Hades move to engage, Shrike needs to regroup." Stele said simply.
"We're on it Commander, see you in a moment." Garin responded.
"You will," came the stiff response.
"Jeez, he makes Harth seem warm." Toth muttered.
"At least he can issue effective orders," Vic'que responded defensively.
"Alright that's enough, kill these traitors so we can get to Zaarin, the sooner we deal with them the sooner the Knight is out of harms way."
Even as he said it though, Garin looked at the numbers of enemy fighters and winced, they were up against six squadrons of Avengers and Defenders, and even with the beam weapon he didn't like the odds. Of course there were the three squadrons aboard the frigate accompanying the Knight but those were two TIE fighter units and one of bombers. They wouldn't stand a chance. He watched as the red wedge of the Glory moved towards the blue orb of To-Phalion, and the blue wedges and bars that represented the Knight and her escortmoved to intercept none of them came close to the size of the Mark Two. This was going to be bloody.