"Hmm…"
Ton Lee Sama looked through her electrobinoculars, focusing them in a little, then nodded to herself.
There was no mistaking it. That was a Star Destroyer, in high orbit over Cabarria, along with a pair of smaller escort ships.
There wasn't any news on the HoloNet that suggested there was going to be a crackdown, or anything like that… which was fortunate… but Ton Lee wasn't a Rebel, anyway.
She didn't do that kind of thing.
Instead, she went back inside, then picked up a comm system.
Ton Lee didn't take part in any forbidden activities. She just watched the sky, and told others what she could see.
"Someone please tell me the caff machine is fixed," Commander Harkon requested, entering the bridge.
"It's been fixed for two watches," Lt. Dax informed him.
"Thank goodness," Harkon muttered. "All right – I have the conn."
"You have the conn, sir," one of the other officers said.
"Now tell me if anything's wrong," Harkon added. "And someone get me some caff."
A rating went to go and fetch the commander's coffee, and the woman who'd been watch-standing before him shook her head.
"Nothing of any significance," she replied. "We're in medium orbit, same as before."
"Good, good," Harkon said, hands clasped behind his back, and looked out the window. "I see there's a patrol out."
"Of course, Sir," the woman told him. "Regulations."
"Quite," Harkon agreed. "Quite."
He accepted his cup of caff from the rating, nodding his thanks, and took a sip.
Then another.
"This actually tastes slightly better," he said. "That or I've had so long without a caff machine that I didn't realize quite how much I was missing it."
That got a few desultory chuckles, and Harkon paced around the bridge for another minute or so, sipping his drink occasionally.
"Lieutenant," he said, looking down at Dax. "Your assessment is tomorrow, correct?"
"Yes, sir," Dax agreed. "I'm nervous."
"As you should be, it's an important moment," the higher-ranked officer said. "But you're quite competent enough to advance – you just need to make sure that the Captain sees that."
Dax nodded, thinking about that, and the background murmur of operations of the ISD Galaxion flowed back and forth around them.
Then a raised voice cut the calm.
"Sir!" someone in the bridge pit said. "Enemy fighters!"
"Where?" Harkon demanded, practically dropping his half-empty cup as he looked around for clarification. The alert sirens began to wail, and one of the nearby displays flashed.
"Behind us!" the rating answered. "Patrol is vectoring-"
"What kind of fighters, I need data-"
"Prepare the ready squadron for launch-"
The quiet calm of an evening shift turned into focused cacophony, men and women struggling to do their jobs in a way that had suddenly become urgent, then Harkon saw two three-flights of X-wings slash past either side of the bridge. One of them was just finishing the job of picking apart a two-flight of TIE fighters from the combat space patrol, then they corkscrewed and turned towards another element of the patrol.
Defensive laser turrets began to open up, a few at a time as the systems came online from crews dashing through abbreviated start up sequences, and Harkon's head swung back and forth as he tried to keep track of everything.
"Someone wake the captain!" he snapped. "Tell Outrage and Kismet to move in closer! We need their guns-"
The whole of the Galaxion shook, and electrical discharges snapped and crackled around the nearest consoles. One of them exploded, sending the rating operating it sprawling, and someone shouted for a corpsman.
Harkon tried to ignore it, but a moment later lights began to shut down and the defensive gunfire stopped.
"Report!" he shouted, spotting half a dozen Y-wings banking around with their turrets flaring – a single skilled TIE pilot trying to interfere with their bombing run, but ion cannon bolts disabled the fighter and a moment later an X-wing downed it in a shower of sparks.
"Ion bombs, sir!" Dax reported, from his post in the engineering section. "At least a dozen, we don't have the exact numbers – the reactor's gone into shutdown, I don't know when we'll get it restarted!"
Half a dozen other conversations were going on, shouted reports about what little information they had with the whole of the Galaxion running on emergency power only, and Harkon winced as an X-wing flew right past the bridge.
"Lieutenant Dax," he said. "Personal comlinks should still work – get me a report from engineering!"
"Yes, sir!" Dax replied, then listened to a comlink for a moment.
Harkon made himself wait, looking out the armoured bridge windows as he watched the fighting. One of the X-wing flights seemed to be focused on the hull guns of the Galaxion, clearing away turrets while they were unpowered and the shields were down, but the Y-wings were going for their escorting Acclamators – and there were X-wings following them.
How had they… the strike must have been made with some kind of interim rendezvous. With current enough data you could jump in close to a target point…
"Sir!" Dax called, getting his attention. "Commander Keres in engineering says he's going to try a hot restart. If he can catch it before it's fully cold then we'll have power in less than two minutes – otherwise it'll show him where the damage is!"
"Tell him to be as quick as possible," Harkon said, then there was a crackle from his own comlink.
He snatched it up to his ear. "Bridge here."
"Bridge, this is the flight deck," Commander Perrin reported. "We're trying to get our fighters in space, there's problems with the handling gear and the armoured hatch is locked in place. Permission to deal with that problem?"
Harkon froze, thinking hard.
The flight deck hatch was armoured for a reason.
"Can't you launch through the landing bay?" he asked.
"Transfer from landing to launch and vice versa is by an automated system, and I'm using all the emergency power I have to start up TIE engines!" Perrin said. "Do you want fighters in space ASAP or not?"
"Be ready for it, but don't do it just yet," Harkon said. "Reactor restart is going to be attempted-"
The Galaxion shook slightly.
"Engine flare and shutdown!" Dax called. "Commander Keres says there's serious ion scarring on the control lines – we won't get the main reactor back until that's sorted!"
Harkon winced.
"Do it, Perrin," he said.
"That's all I needed, bridge," Perrin replied, then the line went dead.
Scowling, Harkon looked out the window again, seeing laser blasts and explosions going on around the Outrage. Several TIEs exploded as he watched, shield scatter blazing off the Rebel fighters, then at least one shielded Rebel snubfighter went down as well – but a moment later there was a much brighter explosion, as Outrage exploded from a sequenced barrage of at least a dozen torpedoes.
At least it looked like Kismet was cycling her hangar launches quickly, as there was now a second flight of TIEs coming out of the hangar. That was probably it for how many fighters he was going to get.
"TIEs launched!" someone called, then their tone changed. "Enemy space patrol around the ventral side of the ship – they're being shot down as they come out!"
"What in blazes is going on?" Captain Jered demanded, striding onto the bridge.
Harkon turned, ready to answer, then someone shouted.
"TORPEDOES-"
The whole of the Galaxion heaved upwards, like she'd just been hit by an asteroid, and everyone on the bridge who wasn't already seated ended up sprawling.
"Report!" Captain Jered said, picking himself up from the floor. "Torpedoes where?"
"Ventral side, X-wings," someone said, sounding shaken. "I don't have any reports from the flight deck…"
"Engineering reports serious damage to the spaceframe, sir," Dax added. "I think…"
"Continue, lieutenant," Harkon instructed him.
"I think their torpedoes blew the bomber magazine," Dax said. "If that's happened… the spaceframe is a wreck. Commander Keres says the frame shift has warped the reactor as well – he doesn't think he can fire it up at all."
The engineer swallowed, suddenly sounding very young. "Atmospheric integrity is compromised across most of the ship, the blast doors won't seal."
"Damn," Jered said, very softly.
He was silent for perhaps ten seconds, watching out the window as the Rebel starfighters downed the last few TIEs in the battlespace. Kismet was gone, Harkon noticed – destroyed while he'd been focused elsewhere – and the Rebel starfighters recohered into three-flights and then squadrons, before vanishing in a flare of pseudovelocity as they jumped to hyperspace.
"There's nothing for it," he said. "Abandon ship. And make sure to preserve the data recorders… we'll need them for the court-martial."
AN:
The experience of being on the receiving end of a hit and fade fighter strike.
It's not especially good. Hyper-capable strikefighters are pretty devastating.
Also features space coastwatchers to go with the space carrier strike.