Another Left Turn at Albuquerque
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own amusement – sadly all Robotech and Star Wars characters and concepts remain the property of Harmony Gold, Disney and Lucasfilm Ltd respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Chapter Four
Endurance
Tzarlas IV Orbit, Tzarlas Cluster
A Short Time Later
"Admiral the enemy have finished regrouping and are beginning to advance on our line again."
Standing at the central situation table on the bridge of the Endurance – who had more than earned her name over the course of this fight – Admiral Kalsab Keanuth nodded at the report from the chief sensor officer. He could see it himself a dozen corvettes, four combat outfitted Pelta-class frigates, two Hammerhead-class cruisers and a Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser were beginning to advance towards his battered and bruised forces once again. A storm of Z95 Headhunter fighters – some no doubt configured for anti-capital strikes since the shields on all his ships were now barely functioning and while the Endurance had been a powerful warship, with the best defences possible, when she had first been built the now centuries old Valor-class cruiser was badly under armoured by modern standards and as such with their shields almost gone, after several exchanges with the enemy, it wouldn't take more than a handful of proton torpedoes or concussion missiles to finish them off – driving ahead of them. His remaining fighters all refurbished Aurek-class fighters already moving to intercept, while the handful of other ships he had left three Hammerhead-class cruisers and eight Thranta-class corvettes moved into a new mutual support formation with his ship.
It wasn't much of a force to defend his homeworld, let alone the whole of the Tzarlas Cluster, with.
Not for the first time since this battle had begun, he thought about the reason they were fighting it, and what would happen to his homeworld, and his people should they fail to break the offensive of the coalition of pirates, slavers and other assorted criminal scum from the various criminal organisations in the wider galaxy. They had already seen what they had done to Eras, enslaving the native population and forcing them to strip mine the planet of its vast reserves of three different forms of Spice that were found on the planet. If they destroyed his fleet, well what was left of it, then Tzarlas IV would fall, and the pirates and slavers would have a huge new pool of manpower for not just Spice mining but mining anything else they wanted from the vast, and due to an ancient disaster, largely untapped mineral resources of the Tzarlas Cluster.
The distress signal he had sent earlier had brought his forces some time. Reinforcements in the form of three assault frigates had arrived from Felkor, the Quarren ships arrival catching the pirates off guard and with their screening units and fighters out of position as they had been engaged in bombarding the shield over the capital city. It had let the Quarren destroy two enemy corvettes and one of their cruisers, as well as disable one of the two Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers before the enemy could eliminate them under a deluge of turbolaser, ion cannon and proton torpedo fire. Right before the pirates pulled back to reorganize and regroup their formation.
"Time to weapons range," he asked after a moment, looking at the enemy fleet specifically at the remaining operational Dreadnought-class cruiser. Its compatriot was now drifting dead in space far behind the enemy lines – the victim of a massed volley of ion bolts that had not only stripped away its shields but disabled all systems onboard, a following barrage of concussion missiles and proton torpedoes almost completely gutting it – a small cloud of escape pods around it. He knew that whoever was leading this attack would be aboard that ship. If he could take that thing down the attack would end as the pirates would certainly run for their lives.
Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. Whoever was in charge over there wasn't an idiot and had redeployed some of his Corellian C70 and C90 corvettes to cover his weak spots. The only way to take that heavy cruiser down now would be either a slugging match between them – which the Endurance was no longer really capable of given the amount damage they'd already sustained – or hope that with enough concentrated fire the Force would be kind to them for the first time in fifty years. Kind and let them overwhelm the enemy ships shields and either destroy or disable it.
"One minute fifteen seconds. Fighters are engaging now."
Kalsab nodded he could see the small holograms of the fighter squadrons engaging one another again. Blasts of red laser-generated plasma flashing between them, sometimes splashing against shields but more often than not when they found their mark sending another fighter and its pilot into the eternal embrace of the Force.
"Tactical what's the status of the remaining enemy Dreadnought," he asked, hoping for some good news
"Sensors indicate only minor damage to their forward shield generators and emitters. One of their forward turbolaser batteries is non-functional but all other batteries and banks are still functioning normally. We can't take them sir not in our current condition."
"We have to," Kalsab answered with a grimace as he knew that this was going to be effectively a suicide mission, but they had to take that thing down, "if we take that cruiser down their fleet will lose all cohesion and certainly retreat. As soon as they are within range have all ships concentrate all fire on that Dreadnought."
"Yes sir."
As his orders were relayed a faint thrum of both power and recoil made its way through the hull as their defensive guns opened fire on approaching enemy starfighters. A glance at the tactical display made Kalsab scowl as he saw several enemy fighters had gotten past theirs and were aiming to carry out a bombing run on this ship. They were stubbornly approaching even as the defensive quad cannons bracketed them with hot plasma, more than one fighter flashed out of existence in a burst of flame as the heavier bolts from the Endurance guns scored hits ripping through shields and durasteel armour like they weren't there. Alerts flashed across the hologram as the glowing blue orbs of proton torpedoes separated from two of them and began streaking towards them.
He started to open his mouth to shout for everyone to brace for impact when each torpedo detonated, every projectile being speared by an impossible fast moving bolt of energy that came from somewhere the computer couldn't see. Seconds later all seven remaining Z95's joined the torpedoes in oblivion, reduced to plumes of vaporised metal and ceramic by more of the strange, impossibly fast energy bolts that simply tore through their shields like they weren't there.
"What the? Where did those blasts come from," Kalsab demanded looking over at sensors as he overcame his shock at the speed and efficiency with which the pirate fighters had been destroyed. Whoever was firing at the pirates they had truly excellent gunnery skills, not one shot had missed or been wasted in any way. Every single shot had hit home, and every single shot had been a kill.
"I'm not sure sir sensors aren't detecting anything," the Duros manning the console replied, a moment before the sensors trilled as a several meter thick energy beam – an actual beam and not an elongated bolt like what superheavy turbolasers produced – suddenly shot across space from the same direction the energy pulses had come. The beam passing cleanly between them and the attacking pirate/slaver force, clearly designed to get both their attention. Something that it did admirably for Kalsab as the tactical sensors confirmed that that beam had had an absolutely phenomenal amount of power behind it. Its energy level was so great that it would have ripped right through the Endurance's shields even if they had still been at full power and utterly annihilated them.
It also wasn't a turbolaser but something else entirely. Sensors confirming that it had been some type of particle beam. A type of weapon that was virtually unheard of either here in the Tzarlas Cluster or in the wider galaxy as for thousands of years the turbolaser had been the king of starship weapons.
A moment later the overhead speakers crackled to life and a female human voice, speaking with the strangest accent he had ever heard, spoke. "Attention pirate and slaver vessels," the woman said her voice backed by a notable background humming from the amount of power behind the transmission. Whatever ship it was coming from had to be big, very big. "I am Captain Vanessa Leeds of the United Earth Starship Agamemnon. That last shot was a warning, power down your vessels and prepare to be boarded or be destroyed. You have one minute to comply."
"I've located where the transmission is coming from," sensors reported manipulating the controls on the console. A moment later the hologram brought in an image of three large ships hanging three hundred thousand kilometres out from the battle. It was obviously coming from the external cameras as the sensors showed nothing of the alien ships – as far as the sensors were concerned, they just weren't there – and even the visual feed was being disrupted somehow. There was a continuous almost oily sheen flickering over them breaking up the visual silhouette in some way, it certainly encouraged the eyes to just slide right off them. It was obvious that it was some type of stealth technology but one different to anything he had ever heard of.
The pirates had obviously spotted the newcomers as well and two squadrons of Z95's and two CR90 corvettes were beginning to move towards them. The overhead speakers crackled again.
"Pirate and slaver vessels this is your final warning," Captain Leeds voice said again, Kalsab noting that the accent had improved a bit clearly it was the result of a translation program of some type that was just getting better, "stand down and prepare to be boarded or be destroyed. You have fifteen seconds… ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one. Very well you have chosen your fate, my God have mercy on your souls."
Kalsab frowned and exchanged confused looks with others around the bridge at that statement. Few species directly referred to a god or gods in the galaxy as most faiths were based around the Force and its different aspects. Confusion turned into gasps of shock and awe as the Earth ships opened fire, firing from a range that was just impossible, unleashing a hail of bright blue and white-blue energy beams. The white-blue beams struck the Z95's advancing towards them first and simply annihilated the fighters, utterly vaporising them in nanoseconds. Then the corvettes were hit, and the effect was devastating as for a second shields crackled with electrostatic distortion before collapsing allowing the beams to slice into and cut right through the ships, titanium reinforced durasteel armour offering absolutely no resistance as the intense streams cut through the ships eviscerating the superstructure with an ease that was as terrifying as it was utterly contemptuous.
Within seconds all that was left of the two advancing corvettes was a plume of vaporised metal.
The rest of the pirate and slaver ships were not spared either as more of the lethal blue beams tore into them. In what seemed like seconds all the corvettes and three of the frigates were dead, reduced to clouds of plasma and burning dust. The remaining frigate spun out of control, spewing atmosphere and debris from a deep but perfectly straight gash ripped along its entire length by the beams that had struck it. Obviously shocked, and no doubt now terrified, the remaining pirate and slaver vessels began turning away clearly intending to run.
The Earth ships didn't let them.
Another volley of their powerful, unbelievably long ranged, beam weapons lanced out. Both Hammerheads died in moments as each was struck by dozens of beams of searing energy that overwhelmed their shields and armour in mere moments and tore into the hulls eventually rupturing hypermatter fuel cells with the predictable result as the tachyonic matter returned to its natural faster than light state in an uncontrolled fashion. Resulting in colossal explosions that simply erased the ships from existence.
The fate of the Dreadnought was very different.
While beams from the Earth warships slammed into it and overwhelmed its shields they didn't destroy it. Instead, the barrage was focused entirely on the engines causing the glow of the six engines to die and causing jets of atmosphere and glittering radiation to erupt from the engineering sections. The heavy cruiser lurched forward and then began to spin out of control its running lights dying as the vessel lost all but emergency power as its hypermatter reactor scrammed to prevent detonation. The Earth ships ceased firing, clearly, they wanted to take the ship as intact as possible for some reason and began accelerating. Two of them moving towards Tzarlas IV while the other moved towards the disabled dreadnought.
The whole battle if you could call it that had lasted barely two minutes.
"Admiral they are hailing us," communications reported after a moment as the bridge crew finished processing the impossible speed at which the newcomers had wiped out the enemy force. A shiver of unease ran through the bridge as everyone wondered just what the Earth ships could want from them as payment for helping defeat the pirates/slaver force that had been about to eliminate them and take full control over the whole cluster. Had they eliminated the pirates just to want to take over themselves?
"Put them through," Kalsab ordered, throttling down his unease at the thought of what this Captain Leeds might ask for in return for saving all their necks and stopping the criminal fleet by burning most of it from the stars. Though he also had to wonder just where in the name of the Force they'd come from? The Earth ships certainly weren't from the Republic as what few interactions they'd had with the Galactic Republic – very disappointing interactions at that as the Republic was not what it had once been, not what they had all grown up learning about – after the hyperspace route severed by the Tokai-Los Supernova became navigable again had shown Republic technology hadn't changed much if at all from what it had been several hundred years ago when Tzarlas had become isolated by the supernova which had ended the ambitions of all their ancestors to turn Tzarlas into an industrial and economic powerhouse in this region of the Outer Rim. Certainly, the Republic had nothing like the technology these Earth ships had already shown.
A trapezoidal screen near the hologram table came to life, rippling with static for a moment as like everything else on the Endurance the screen was old before bringing in an image of middle aged human woman. She was wearing a strange white uniform with red and gold highlights and was wearing some odd glass lenses over her eyes.
"Greetings," she said speaking warmly, kindly the sternness that she had exhibited in her voice when dealing with the pirates completely absent. "I am Captain Vanessa Leeds. Do you require assistance?"
"Captain Leeds I am Admiral Kalsab Keanuth thanks for the help against those criminals," Kalsab answered. "We have sustained considerable damage but it's nothing that our astrodroids can't fix and the surface hospitals can deal with our wounded. Still thank you for asking."
"Your welcome admiral," Vanessa answered with a smile before turning serious. "Your distress call indicated that the pirates and slavers were attacking the surface?"
"They did but thankfully some reinforcements arrived from the Quarren settlement on Felkor, three assault frigates. It cost the crews their lives, but they were able to first disable and then mission kill one of the enemies two Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers and destroy a few of their corvettes and starfighters. It forced them to pull back out of range to regroup. Thankfully the Quarren arrived in time before the shield over the capital could fail. I believe that survivors of the frigates in escape pods landed on the surface and are being recovered. They will be well cared for until we can take them back to their home."
"I see. Might I ask what those pirates and slavers were after? In my experience it's rare for so many of that kind of scum to work together."
"Not when they come from three of the biggest criminal organizations in the galaxy," Kalsab answered, "as for what they wanted well my fleet here were the only heavy ships left in this whole star cluster. If they took us down, then they could enslave everyone on Tzarlas IV as they've done with everyone on Eras which is in a nearby system. After that they'd use us to mine everything from Spice to ores anything, and everything, that they could sell in the wider galaxy.
"Though I fear your intervention may have only bought us a small amount of time," he continued noting that Leeds was frowning and didn't look happy at all at what she was hearing. Which was quite encouraging as it meant she probably wasn't going to ask for any unreasonable recompense for helping them. "We know that the crime syndicates have established a base in one of the outer systems of the cluster. They will certainly have more warships and starfighters they're. They'll be back."
"Not if we can do anything about it 'll need to speak to my superiors but I don't doubt that Admiral Hunter will agree to eliminate the pirate base and drive them out of this star cluster," Vanessa replied with a slight predatory smile. She knew full well that Rick would be more than willing to agree to introducing these pirates and slavers to the business end of robotech weapons.
"That… that would be incredibly helpful," Kalsab answered, "I'll speak to our intel people on the ground to see what information they have been able to gather on the pirate base and its defences. Though my government, and the governments of the other worlds in the cluster, will want to know what you want in exchange for helping us."
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Beyond some basic information and maybe some star charts we don't need anything," Vanessa answered, "and we only need that information because we… well you could say that we're not from around here. In fact, due to an accident our small fleet are a very long way from home, with no easy way of returning home. As a result, we need information and maybe someone we can call a friend."
"I believe that can be arranged."
Supreme Chancellors Office
Coruscant, Galactic Republic
That Same Time
"The Tzarlas Cluster? I do not believe that I have heard of that before."
The words of Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine hung pregnant in the air of his office as the seemingly kindly old man who had led the Republic for nearly a decade stared at the group of Jedi sitting across the desk from him. The secret Sith Master was, for one of the few times in his life certainly since Darth Plagues had taken him as his apprentice, genuinely confused as he had never heard of the Tzarlas Cluster before today.
"There is no reason you would Chancellor," Mace Windu answered, "the cluster is extremely remote even by the standards of the Outer Rim. Until fifty years ago the hyperspace lane to the cluster was impassible due to the Tokai-Los supernova. Only recently has it become navigable again albeit with some difficulty due to having to navigate around the neutron star that used to be Tokai-Los."
"I see," Palpatine said making a mental note to have his agents – both his official ones as the supreme chancellor of the Republic and his secret ones – look up information on the Tzarlas Cluster and the events centuries ago that had isolated it from the Republic. It wouldn't do after all for such things to remain unknown to him, especially as he was approaching a very critical phase of the plan that generations of Sith before him – going all the way back to Darth Bane himself – had been working to achieve.
"May I ask then why you are sending an expedition there now," Sheev asked getting to the point of why he had called the senior members of the Jedi High Council to his office. His agents had reported to him that the Jedi Order had just ordered a large number of hypermatter cells – the kind needed to fuel one of their larger ships – be delivered to the temple hangars from Coruscant's main fuel store. Additional agents among the non-Jedi support staff at the temple had also confirmed that the Jedi were preparing one of their handful of Gozanti-class cruisers and a group of long range starfighters for departure.
While there was nothing, he could legally do to stop the Jedi – he wasn't blind to the fact that the Jedi were not actually subservient to the Republic but were only aligned with it – he had been able to summon the Jedi to explain what they were doing. Especially given the current slowly rising tensions with the Separatist movement being so expertly led and manipulated by his current apprentice Darth Tyrannus. Tensions that if all stayed on track would soon lead to the war, he would need to engineer the final downfall of the Jedi, their precious Republic and the rise to supremacy of the Sith.
"A disturbance in the Force there has been," Yoda answered, "centred in the Tzarlas Cluster it is. Someone and something new come to this galaxy has. Investigate it we must."
"Interesting," Palpatine commented with a thoughtful frown. He was of course aware of a slight but growing disturbance in the Force. What was causing it he did not know and so far, it seemed a minor thing but like all experienced users of the Force – be it from the light or the dark – he knew that small disturbances could very easily and very quickly spiral into serious problems. Problems that he really didn't need right now, not with the grand plan so close to its most critical phase of execution. Thus, he found himself readily agreeing with the Jedi that this needed to be investigated, the newcomers causing the disturbance found and assessed. Only then would he be able to determine how he could use them to further his plans.
In fact, this could work to his advantage as it could let him remove some of more disruptive to his plan's elements in the Senate from play. At least for a while, then it would when the time was right be easy to arrange for the clone army being created on Kamino to be discovered by the Jedi. Just in time for the war to begin.
"Very well I see no reason why this shouldn't be investigated indeed I am willing to provide Republic resources to make your preparations much easier," Palpatine replied, "the only thing I ask is that you consent to a delegation from the Senate be allowed to accompany your expedition to Tzarlas. If someone new has arrived in the galaxy and caused the disturbance it would be advantageous to have them along as it would make establishing diplomatic relations between them and the Republic much easier.
"Plus, if as, you say Tzarlas has been isolated for centuries they will no doubt be in need of considerable support from the Republic – support that my predecessors probably did not give them – the Senators will be able to determine just what support is needed so I might arrange it."
"That will be fine chancellor," Mace Windu agreed, quietly relieved that Sheev Palpatine was a lot more reasonable and level-headed about these things than some of his predecessors had been. "We are still selecting which Jedi to send on the mission, we should be done in about two days. Can you have the Senate delegation ready by then?"
"It will be difficult, but I am sure I can make them ready."
"The agreed we are," Yoda replied, "anything more to discuss there is chancellor?"
"Not at this time Master Jedi."
"Then depart we will," Yoda replied standing with the aid of his walking stick. Then he turned and led the way out of the office of the supreme chancellor with the other members of the council who had accompanied him following along behind him. Palpatine watched them go and once they were out of his office gave a slightly evil chuckle that momentarily betrayed his true nature as a dark lord. He could turn this situation to his advantage in more ways than one.
Standing he sent a quick message to Mas Amedda to begin organizing the Senators, while he was dealing with a personal issue – which was their little code for donning his Sith robes and doing dark side business – then he headed for the secret lift that would take him down to the tunnels below 500 República and from there to the industrial district. Once there he would contact his apprentice and give him some new orders that would, the Force willing, further their cause considerably.
Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the dust, I hope you all enjoyed it. Things are going to start getting interesting as Palpatine is scheming in true Sith Lord fashion while the REF fleet gets drawn into the problems of the Tzarlas Cluster and the criminal organizations that have begun plaguing it. Until next time.