Nonconna

"We're clear in five, Admiral."

Admiral Nonconna stretched from his command chair. He gave the signal to raise the blast shields on the forward viewports. The blue swirl of hyperspace began its gradual shift to streaking starlines." He gave himself a moment to adjust. In his opinion, the Commander had requested a far too conservative rendezvous point. Theirs had been a long jump.

"Take us to sublight engines, Lieutenant; we don't want to startle the natives. Rapidly approaching Republic cruisers might give the wrong impression." He cleared his throat. "This is not a pleasure cruise. We've got a deal to make. Look sharp everyone; first impressions are everything."

"Transmission from the Solidarity. It's the Jedi, sir."

"Admiral Nonconna, this is Captain Pott. Master Taan would like to speak with you." Without waiting for a pause, the Jedi moved into the transmission. "Nonconna, I know you've always taken my advice with a grain of salt, but I need you to know that I'm serious. There's something not quite right about all of this."

Nonconna let himself sit in his chair. In his experience with the master, he found him needlessly cryptic, endemic, he had been told, of all the Jedi. Maybe war made a different Jedi. "And what tipped you off, my toothy friend, was it our new commander, or your mystical Force?"

The Whiphid clenched. "It was my padawan that brought the disturbance to my attention."

"So it's just a feeling? Nothing concrete?"

Pregnant pause: "Nothing yet, Nonconna."

"Don't get jittery on me now, Master Jedi," Nonconna said. "We'll contact you when we're clear of hyperspace. Nonconna out."

He killed the transmission. His stump ached, a memory of a war long passed and shuddered at the prospect of the war yet fought. It was worth a check, for an old friend.

"Lieutenant, are we in any position to make any conjectures as to our destination?"

The young officer simply stared impotently at her console. "You mean besides baseless conjecture?" and with a rushed addition, "Sir."

Nonconna laughed. "As I thought. Our Jedi friend is now taking warnings from green younglings. Perhaps he will heed his own council down on the planet."

"Two minute to sublight, Admiral."

"Sir," a young ensign from behind the Lieutenant spoke up. "The Morning Rises is reporting a slight discrepancy in her exit vector."

Nonconna snapped up. "What do you—"

"Kuris confirms. Exit vector's a no-go."

"And the Solidarity?"

"She's no longer with us, Admiral. She must've dropped out.

Of all the damn times not to listen to the Jedi. They must've tipped off Captain Pott.

"One minute to sublight."

"Lieutenant, drop us now. That's an order!"

"We're too close!"

"Engaging sublight in three, two…"

They were dead; they just did not know it yet.

All around him, Republic, Trigonas, and Mandalorian vessels erupted in torrents of turbolaser fire. The scanners were a mess; all communications were sporadic at best. The Kurwis had not responded since they dropped out of hyperspace. Admiral Nonconna assumed the worse. There was too much debris in orbit around Tul Trigonas. Any one of the floating carcasses above the system could be the Kurwis.

All that mattered now was survival, and Nonconna was good at that.

This was a disaster, no two ways about it. The entirety of the Trigonas Fleet was in attendance. It was impossible to tell which fleet arrived first. Nonconna gave himself a moment to analyze the battle. A quick confirmation with the star charts confirmed his suspicions; the Mandalorians jumped from Suul, right where General Suirk had encountered them, and right where Revan had expected them to strike from, eventually. Something did not add up. The Mandalorians would not risk boxing themselves in without first subduing the systems between Suul and Tul Trigonas. It was suicide. Had there been something Revan had not planned for? A change in command? A bold, new leader of this particular fleet could have gambled on a small presence and jumped right to Tul, but that would assume they knew of the details of the system.

There was no doubt in the Admiral's mind; the Mandalorians had been tipped off.

"Incoming frigate, mark two-four-five by three-eighteen, coming up fast, Admiral." Several explosions rocked the bridge of the Stalwart. "They're not stopping for us. Fires on decks nineteen through twenty-seven. Hull integrity of the affected area at forty-four percent."

"And out shields?"

"Forward shields holding at eighty-five percent, Admiral. Recommend subdeck airlocks on the affected region."

"Do it."

A more violent explosion sent the crew of the bridge leering. "They're not giving up, sir."

"Concentrate all fire on the nearest Mandalorian ship. We've got to clear a path for Captain Pott."

The lieutenant's eyes widened in the dim light of her console. "Which one, sir?

Two massive Kyramud class battleships had obliterated their way through the Stalwart's hastily thrown together frigate escort and were now bearing blindly towards the cruiser. The battleships bristled with the explosions of turbolaser batteries.

"Get that frigate off our flank. Forward shields to maximum."

The Stalwart weathered the frontal assault as best she could. A small blip on his tactical projection winked out of existence, signaling the end of the ambitious frigate.

"Sir, the battleships are continuing their barrage."

"They've broken off from the main engagement," Nonconna observed. "See if we can't get any support of our own."

"Morning Rises is responding. She's limping, sir, but Captain Andalii says he can make it over to us."

"Tell him we need to roll out the carpet for our Jedi friends. Ensign, have we found the Solidarity?"

"Andalii is moving to intercept."

"Yes, sir. They're half a lightyear away and holding, waiting on our signal."

"They've got out scent, Lieutenant," Nonconna barked. "Let's give them a chase. We need to hold them off until Captain Andalii can make a screen for us. Pick your targets and fire at will; prioritize any non-Republic ship in our path. Get a message out to the Solidarity. It's now or never. Preferably now, if they're open to suggestions."

The Stalwart banked right, towards the din above the planet. "Message transmitted, Admiral. The Solidarity acknowledges."

"Sir, the battleships are still in pursuit." The lieutenant angled their shield to their exposed flank. As they maneuvered closer into the fray, they could not afford to keep their shields angled away from directly in front of them. Even now, some of the more adventurous Mandalorian ships began to break away from the main engagement. The combined forces of the Republic and the Trigonas seized the moment to counterattack, catching the battleships in a vice and forcing them to return to their previous engagements.

"Admiral Nonconna, this is Captain Andalii. Glad to see me?"

The sight of the smoking Morning Rises filled Nonconna with a profound sadness, lumping in his throat. The wounded ship opened a hellfire on the nearest Kyramud, catching it blind and before it could come about. With her shields angled towards the Stalwart, the Mandalorian battleship was easy pickings for Andalii, and it erupted into a fiery blossom. In the chaos, Nonconna took the cover of the fireball to continue his approach towards the planet.

"Sir, unidentified vessel incoming from hypersapce," the ensign said. "Republic. Hammerhead Class. It's the Solidarity!"

Nonconna checked the tactical readout which floated like a glowing blue chess set. The small blip of green light that was Captain Pott and the Solidarity flickered into existence at the far edge of the map. Her path cleared for the most part, the Solidarity rocketed to take her position behind Nonconna.

"Sir, look!" one of his lieutenants shrieked. The second battleship had made it through the explosion of her mate and had concentrated the entirety of her battery on the Morning Rises.

"Get out of there, Andalii, there's nothing more you can do," Nonconna said.

"Tracking the Solidarity; she's right behind us."

Andalii's voice was interspersed with fits of coughing from what Nonconna imagined to be a thick miasma of smoke pouring into the bridge. The hull of the cruiser looked like torched bantha, flames fed on the oxygen coolant systems and burned even in the vacuum of space.

"Captain Andalii, you will pull your cruiser out of this engagement and make the jump to lightspeed as soon as you're able. That's an order, Captain!"

Andalli hacked into his transmitter. "With all due respect, Admiral, but I'm not done yet." Undaunted, the battleship continued its relentless assault of the Morning Rises, launching volley after volley of turbolaster and torpedoes. For a moment, both ships were still. Nonconna watched the lights in the ship shut down as she lost power. The bottom fin of the bridge snapped and floated off into the void. One of the lieutenants put a hand over her mouth to hide her shock.

"Make it count, Delero," the voice of Andalii etched out. "You better make it down in one goddamn piece."

Suddenly, the entirety of the Morning Rises lit up. Her systems jumpstarted, she angled towards the battleship which scrambled to reorganize her weapons. Nonconna went over the math in his head. It was bold, and the Mandalorians wouldn't be able to react. But at this distance, Andalii could make it.

"May the Force be with you, Triyo," Nonconna stood and removed his hat.

Even as he slowly chocked on the poisonous fumes rushing into the bridge, Andalli managed to laugh. "I better get a damn medal for this."

Clutching to life, the Morning Rises diverted all power to her engines and rocketed toward the remaining battleship. Andalli had killed the shields to give power to the engines and the turbolasers began to rip apart the bridge.

"Come and get me you sonuva—" The transmission dissolved into worthless static and interstellar feedback, and Nonconna watched as the bridge collapsed in flames and was quickly extinguished. What remained of the Morning Rises streaked inexorably towards the battleship. At the precise moment of contact, her entire remaining arsenal detonated into the already weakened shields of the Mandalorian ship. The resulting explosion painted the ink of space red and orange for an incandescent moment and consumed them both.