Greggory Sands stood at the airlock of the Speedy barely able to contain his excitement. This frigate was almost ten times as big as the Speedy and almost as much firepower. The pressures matched and the lock cycled open. As he stepped onto the deck he was startled by a robotic voice he had never heard before greeting him.
"Welcome aboard new commander Greggory Sands"
Pulling the blaster from his hip Greg started scanning for the owner of the voice. The Robotic voice spoke again.
"There is no need for caution new commander Greggory Sands I am this vessels cognitive module this unit along with two hundred other units were installed to automate various functions and systems to cut down on expensive crew requirements."
Calming down slightly as vague memory of other ships like the katana fleet had droid brains installed to cut down on the crew requirements. Holstering the pistol Greg spoke aloud "ok what are current crew requirements and what do I call you?"
"Standard crew for a ship of this class was 900 thanks to the two hundred cognitive modules that have been cut down to only 150 beings. And my designation is Encrypted Defense model E."
After a brief whistle Greg replied "that's quite a cut on crew Eddie give me the status of the ship."
A minute passes with no response "Uhhhh ship?"
"Yes new commander Greggory Sands." the ship responded immediately.
"Just call me Greg for now ok? And did you hear my previous question about ship status?"
"Yes Greg however you called for Eddie I presumed your question was directed at another." the ship replied.
Laughing at the misunderstanding "No Encrypted Defense model E your designation EDE and Eddie sounds like a better name for you than that."
"Understood my designated name is now Eddie." the lights dimmed for a second "system update complete."
After a moment nothing happened "let's try this again. Eddie what's the status of the ship?"
"Ship status is nominal crew aboard is 100 B1 droids, 20 B2 supers, and Ten Droidicas. Life support running at 100%, reactor is running at 98.3%. Weapons are nominal shields at full charge hanger closed empty and pressurized no damage detected." the computer listed off
…
"Hanger? This class of ship didn't have a hanger before can you tell me how many craft you can carry?" Greg asked.
"Yes Sir this ship was augmented when it was acquired before I was installed and normally we carry four Z95 headhunters, four ARC-170s, and four hyena class droid bombers standard although the number could vary depending on the mission" the droid replied.
May have to go shopping for some fighters….
"How about weapons?" Greg inquired.
"Ten quad laser cannons and two tractor beams all tested and register at 100%"
"Is that it?" Greg asked "Seems kinda light for a frigate."
"Normally a frigate of this class has four heavy turbo lasers, three quad laser cannons and two tractor beams but the heavy weapons and crew quarters for three hundred along with storage space were removed to make room for the hanger." the droid informed him.
"This ship is going to be a target for other warships…."Greg thought about that sickening thought for a moment. Might be smarter to just sell it and buy something better. What about the two Gozanti's what can you tell me about them?"
A second passes and then the droid listed off the specs of the two identical cruisers and the removal of the heavy weapons made sense "Gozanti's register as identical. 0 crew aboard 5 of my fellow cognitive modules have rendered crew number needed to 3. Life support running at 100%, reactor is running at 96.7%. Weapons are nominal, shields at full charge, no damage detected.
It paused for a moment before almost reading my thoughts and went on to weapons "two turbo lasers, one laser cannon and a single dual purpose proton torpedo and concussion missile launcher. All fighter carrier ability has been removed to make space for the turbo lasers and a larger reactor."
Ah now the heavy hitters getting removed for a larger air wing makes sense these three ships were built to escort each other and working together I see us being able to win any engagement short of a star destroyer.
Deciding to take it easy for a little while to check in on the ghost crew and see about getting some fighter craft for the new carrier Crimson Nova and its escorts the Stargazer and Star runner.
Wishing the Dorean people well and extending an offer to help anytime they call the four ships jumped to hyperspace.
The three hour trip flashed by as they exited hyperspace above Lothal the reprogrammed transponder codes active identifying them as a luxury freighter with escorts.
The scanner screamed warnings a line of about a dozen green civilian markers showed in local space heading down toward the planet under escort of a full squadron of Ties. The yellow beacons marked the system patrol cruisers around the frigate flagship off to the side however the biggest eye catcher was in several orbits nearly a hundred blue beacon imperial sector ships including nearly fifty Imperial class star destroyers. Before the shock could wear off a squadron of Tie fighters and interceptors surrounded them.
"Freighter Star Wander we are to escort you to an approved landing corridor do not deviate or you will be destroyed the planet of Lothal is under blockade." the squadron leader ordered
"Understood following your squadron to approved landing corridor if you don't mind me asking TIE leader what's going on?" Greg replied maneuvering the Crimson nova to follow the fighters.
"Rebel lockdown actions if your loyal citizens of the empire you have nothing to fea…." without warning the broadcast was interrupted by a powerful planetside signal and a voice Greg instantly knew began to speak
"We have been called criminals but we are not, we are rebels fighting for the people, fighting for you. Im not that old but I remember a time when things were better on Lothal. Maybe not great but never like this. See what the empire have done to your lives your families and your freedom. it's only going to get worse. Unless we stand up and fight back. it wont be easy…"
the broadcast was jammed before anymore could be said but enough was heard to inspire a few foolish armed freighters in the line to open fire on their watchers a dozen ties were turned to balls of expanding debris. A nearby Nebulan targeted them with its turbo lasers the freighters were unable to withstand the firepower of a warship and likewise exploded dozens more fighters and interceptors launched from star destroyers carriers easily tripling the number of ties in space and slowing the line of civilian ships down to a crawl.
As we moved forward slowly the imperials looking for any excuse to blast us into space dust Greg silently hoped the Dorean forgers that had provided the travel documents.
The next ten minutes pass like hours as ship after ship was cleared to proceed until it was our turn.
"Commander Greg" Eddie called out "we are being scanned." The minutes dragged by until nearly three minutes later word came over the coms as the imperials stopped localized jamming.
"Luxury freighter Star Wander and escorts clear to make planet fall." the order came.
Greg blew a huge sigh of relief as his ships sailed past an even dozen Imperial class destroyers and down over the planet just in time to see the final fires of the huge imperial relay station outside of Capital city die out.
So where we are now….
Flying over a city in the direction of Tarkin town Greg sees two ATDPs chasing and shooting at a third with the top open. coming in just a hundred feet or so above rooftop level the rear ATDP explodes from laser fire from the small phantom shuttle. As I watch three figures jump onboard abandoning the walker. Just as the walker that cut them off opens fire on both the shuttle and the walker. I decide to act sending commands to the speedy and its crew of battle droids to break off and engage the walker.
Without a moment's hesitation the speedy does a diving barrel roll under the mass of the frigate and fires a missile. The walker's crew didn't even have time to react before the pod shaped head was blown to pieces leaving the legs standing still before falling down.
"Ghost crew your free and clear we will escort you to safety until then either dock or stay in my mass shadow and maintain comm silence." Greg sent a tight beam message that was extremely unlikely to the detected or overheard. "If you want to talk come aboard."
Greg met them in the hanger fifteen minutes later several kilometers away and not on a direct line to Tarkin town.
Greg met Zeb, Hera, Ezra, and chopper at the door into the hanger flanked by eight B2s that had been left over from enlarging and expanding the squads from five squads to ten full companies of sixteen B1s and a pair of B2 per squad.
"What's with the long faces and where is Kanen?" Greg asked already knowing the answer