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We'll Face the Storm

"Sir, I'm getting a report from Yaga Minor of increased Rebel activity..." Muscat read from the datapad as it came in. "It looks like they're being scoped out by some forces."

"It's probably a trick," said La Forge. "They want to drag us back there."

"You think so? What if it's not?"

"Well, we can either go all ourselves... Or we could send Zeta or Iota."

"Well," Muscat suggested, "if we send Iota, they can carry some rockets and take down anything large that they come across."

"Yes," La Forge mused, "but Zeta squadron would be better able to deal with any fighters et cetera..."

"I say send Iota," Muscat said. "They're good in a dual purpose role, but Zeta is not. Besides, Zeta is down quite a few pilots these days..."

"Very well. Iota it is. Let's run some more numbers and check if this is really a trick..."

Before long, Lieutenant Alex and his fellow pilots were in the hangar bay getting ready to launch.

Muscat broadcast his voice over the comm system and into their helmets. "Pilots, I hope you understand the nature of this mission. We've concluded that this is probably a trick to lure the Chimaera away. Divide and conquer. But we're in a jam. We set ourselves back massively if we take the Chimaera off the line. The Nemesis & Warhammer can't stand up to the whole Rebel fleet alone. But we can't ignore it all either, because Yaga Minor is a key emplacement for us. And they are finally getting up to full productivity over there.

"So we have elected to send you, Iota. With your gunboats you'll be able to handle anything large that comes in and you'll be able to dogfight at least a little. It's not an ideal situation, but you'll have to deal with things as they come. With any luck it will turn out that there's nothing there and you will be able to pack up and go home.

"But if not, I expect you will all be well prepared. We've given you a load of heavy rockets for this run. They will be useful, I expect. Good luck, pilots. We'll meet up with you on the other side."

General Jansen stood at the front of the briefing room and began to talk with a projection of Dantooine on the screen. "Listen carefully," he began, "because I'm not going to repeat myself, and I'm not going to be happy with you if you're looking at me when we hit the planet asking me what to do next.

"Step one will be handled by Admiral Fel and the Navy boys. They're going to engage the Dantooine space defence forces and clear the way for our drop-off. The VSD Warhammer will be able to orbitally bombard the air defence platform and clear the way for our landings. Well - almost.

"We'll need to slip a shuttle or two in to take out some anti-aircraft defences on the water to be able to land our main force. While we could bombard them from space, that would be needlessly destructive. We're not trying to turn the planet into a pile of slag, and blowing up a bunch of islands would make us rather unpopular with the locals.

"Once the antiaircraft is out of the way, we'll be ready to land our main force and march on the rebel emplacements. After that it should be no trouble at all to collect that last piece of the holocron. I've already given your unit COs a quick briefing so you can ask them what's going on. Get yourselves to the landing craft, gentlemen - or the fighters, if you're a pilot - it's time for some action."

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