Greg supervised the next two days as all the foodstuffs were unpacked and loaded into the galley. Medical supplies were stocked into the med-bay. A dozen crates of spare parts were loaded into the port officer cabin keeping the primary and secondary storage bays empty. The programing of Delta and Echo squads to also serve as the crew of the corvette I had jokingly gave the nickname Speedy Gonzalez after the first flight into low orbit making the trip in less than ten minutes intending to give it a proper name later but the battle droids all began referring to the ship as the Speedy Gonzalez and after hearing the robotic voices say it. Greg busted out laughing and decided that's the name of the ship.
Everything was now ready for the first mission to acquire more firepower. With two hundred and fifty dead Stormtroopers behind them and only a small gunship and thirty battle droids they were no match against the empire. Looking over the historical records from the clone wars the closet place where their might be droids to salvage was the Kamdon system or Dornea. It was currently claimed by the Quarren who immigrated there after the brutal civil war when they initially sided with the confederacy before double crossing them to rejoin the republic and the Mon Calamari.
From what the reports said after the shutdown order went out the Quarren seized control of the droid space station orbiting the volcanic world of Talas as well as the small droid fleet consisting of a single Lucrehulk class battleship, Two Providence-class carriers, and a dozen Munificent class frigates. And word was they still had them in full operation. Word from Cikzoo they were extremely isolationist not trusting or even talking to anyone outside of their own.
Dornea was a more favorable option at least until we can open a dialogue with Kamdon the historical records say there was a small battle near the end of the war only about twenty ships all together and more of a slaughter then battle they destroyed each other leaving only the small Dornean defense fleet but the otherwise lightly populated system was nearly abandoned by the empire and no one goes there since its basically the end of the Prousley's Rim Hyperspace lane.
As Greg stood in the cockpit watching the pair of B2s that had been completely reprogrammed to be pilots start up sequences, Temp Gauges, ship status, weapons condition, Shield strength Etc. the pilot B2 took them up at Greg's orders clearing atmosphere shortly afterward. As they entered the black of space Greg was amazed at the infinity of it all seeing it on screen and witnessing it himself was just awe inspiring leaving a person speechless.
They weren't alone either on the scanner beacons lit up dozens of them fourteen Green were civilian freighters and passenger ships. Eighteen Yellow was imperial system ships from their IDs mostly Gozanti and Arquentens with a single Nebulon-B frigate and twenty-one Blue marked the imperial sector ships four Imperial-I Star destroyers, eight Quasar light carriers, three Nebulon frigates, and six Arquentens.
Our transponder was modified to represent a midsized bulk freighter named the Uxibeasts registered out of the planet Voss. With no red flags raised we jumped for the hour trip through hyperspace. For the next forty-five minutes Gregory continued to learn the flight controls. At five minutes they went to full alert just in case.
The calculations complete Greg listened to the droids count down
3
2
1
The endless streaks of light shortened into the pinpoints lights of stars. And almost immediately they were being fired upon by over a dozen Ties with a hard pressed imperial task force or at least what was left of it anyway. A crippled Star destroyer being escorted by a trio of Arquenten's light cruisers and a pair of Nebulan frigates were being hammered by over thirty blue painted warships of various kinds: including a Lucrehulk and Venator escorted by several other Droid and former Republic ships an odd imperial ship here and there, as well as some of their own ships heavily armed and big monsters easily three times as large as the Speedy.
Positioned all around the wrecked destroyer were what looked like the remains of the imperial task force. Fighter squadrons were running every which way blasting each other with lasers and missiles. Shuttles, gunships, and escape pods were being plucked from space.
"Weapons free on Imperial craft." Greg called out it doesn't look like they need help but a little friendly help would hopefully they would allow them to buy droids and stuff from them.
"Roger Roger." the droids in the laser and Ion cannons called back the guns announcing themselves moment later destroying a pair of Tie fighters and shutting down a Bomber with an ion blast out of their run against a blue painted Nebulan frigate.
Within a few seconds Speedy had claimed another four fighters and a bomber destroyed and a pair of fighters also shut down. An ARC-170 painted in the same oceanic blue came up alongside me and pointed a small dish at us with its hand the radio beeped and a male voice came through.
"Unidentified gunship this is Lieutenant Tbchn A'baht you have entered a combat zone and engaged in comba…" he broke off as a pair of Tie fighters came from below peppering his heavily armored wing with their weak lasers a few times before being blown out of the sky by Gonzolez's laser cannons.
"I understand that Lieutenant and I see your people don't need any help however..." Greg started to reply before braking off as they spun and dived unloading on a Lambda shuttle and its escorting TIE fighters destroying the four ships in short order the ARC staying on Gregs side claiming a bomber. "this is the Gunship Speedy Im sure you and your people won't mind if we help ourselves to some of the fun, Right?" Greg asked with a grin as they made a quick pass over a heavily damaged Nebulan half of its engines destroyed spewing fire and debris from its small hanger bay and its long lightly armored spine firing everything they had at its spine with the help of a pair of torpedoes from the Lieutenants ARC severing the main hull from its engines.
As they spun for another run the transmitter crackled alive "This is Lieutenant Charis Calvert of the frigate Invicta we have killed the Captain and want to surrender." before they had even finished their remaining seven cannons opened fire on other imperial shipping nearby splashing four fighters a bomber and a shuttle.
"I think they mean it lieutenant." Greg said to the Arc pilot
"It does appear that way."A'baht replied voice full of surprise as the frigate as the invicta flushed its torpedo tubes at the star destroyer the projectiles arcing in and slamming into its engines.
The remaining imperials seeing they were being picked off one by one started jumping not even waiting to collect their compliments of fighters. Within a moment they only imperial shipping left was the heavily mauled destroyer, frigate the heavily damaged Invicta and an Arquentens named the Aubretia who was undamaged but had also killed their captain and defected. they were all busy taking aboard the craft left behind who had been willing to surrender or defect about a dozen however had decided they would rather die than betray the Empire and kamikaze (or rather tried to) themselves into the Aubretia but each of the attempts met a turbo laser blast and had been shot down.
The combat over for the moment at least SAR and salvage was underway the beat up Destroyer was under tow by the Venator and a pair of Pelta-class frigates. As Greg watched the ARC from earlier came up off his port side "Speedy, this is Lieutenant A'baht again my commanders would like to speak with you if you're willing?" looking over I nod and he continues "follow me to the Formidable my father the fleet commander will be waiting.