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Dark Deception Kills the Light

Commander Laithlis watched as the shiny white dagger of the Victory Star Destroyer first stretched, then began moving at an incredible rate of speed, and finally vanished into the depths of hyperspace. "And there they go."

"Hmmm?" Rear Admiral Wedge looked up from the datapad of orders he'd just received from Vice Admiral Fel.

"The Warhammer's departed already."

"Really? I wasn't aware they'd be ready to go so early."

"I didn't think so either, but I think General Jansen was eager to get underway."

"I noticed some transmissions leaving the ship about half an hour ago."

"Really? Where to?"

"I don't know, but no system I've ever heard of."

"I've got a bad feeling about this, Laith." Wedge put down the datapad.

Laithlis tried to lighten the suddenly grim mood. "Wasn't that from a holovid once?"

Vice Admiral Fel's image in the Chimaera briefing room shimmered and focused. "There you are, Mr. La Forge." Even at half of life-size, the Vice Admiral appeared tall.

"Sir, what can I do for you?"

"Mr. La Forge, we need to make a decision. Interrogation of the prisoners reveals the final destination of the gravity well is Contruum."

"Go on, sir."

"So now you are faced with a choice: You can either pursue or let them go, and have the resupply rendezvous with the Nemesis that is needed."

"How badly is the resupply needed?"

"The situation is not critical, but this is the second postponement, and it shouldn't be put off very much more."

"Okay. Do we have any intel on Contruum?"

Admiral Fel's eyes narrowed. "Very little. But we do think there is a shipyard there, since that's where this gravity well is headed. We can expect, I am sure, capital ships and fighters everywhere. It's very deep in Rebel space and this mission will be very difficult."

"I see."

Fel continued. "either way this is not an easy decision. If you let it go and take the resupply, the Chimaera will be the stronger for it, but the gravity well gets away, and you can be sure it will be used against us if that happens. But on the other hand, going after it will be extremely difficult. Tantamount to a suicide mission."

"Will I have any other support?"

"The VSDs Dominance and Vigilant will be coming along, should you choose to go."

"Okay, Admiral, I know what I'm going to do. We're going to Contruum."

"Are you absolutely sure, Captain? You are very daring. The ship and her crew will need to be at their very best. If your performance is in any way subpar, this will be the last flight of the flagship. Even if your crew performs perfectly it may not be enough."

"I'm sure, sir," said La Forge, his voice remaining firm.

"They say fortune favours the bold, Captain, but they never specify if there's an upper limit to that." Fel continued on, "it will take some additional time to get there, having to meet up with the VSDs and make the long jump. Use the time well. The Chimaera needs to be in the best shape it's ever been in."

"We can do it, Admiral."

"Let us hope that you can, La Forge, for all of our sakes. Vice Admiral Fel out."

The Chimaera headed off in hyperspace to its rendezvous, preparing for the massive, chaotic whirlwind of destruction that Contruum would be...

"Sorry about that!" Splatter helped the technician up.

"Forget it," the technician said as he got his datapad and hydrospanner.

"I'm Splatter, one of the pilots here. Are you new?"

"I'm Lieutenant Hoare, and just get out of my way."

He then ran past Splatter in the very same hurry that had caused the collision in the first place, leaving Splatter to wonder just what his problem was.

General Jansen stood on the bridge of the captured Victory Star Destroyer. "We certainly got it in good condition."

"I agree there. For pirates they took good care of it. And they didn't strip the components when we captured," said Brevet General Jagged Fel.

"I don't know why they did it. But this is better."

"There's still some damage all around, though. Burned wires and such. You can tell this wasn't held by our forces," Jagged said.

"For pirates they're surprisingly organized, so it make sense they treat the ship reasonably well."

Jagged laughed. "Obviously you haven't seen the mess deck."

"I haven't. Is there something I should see?"

"Well, sir, it looks almost like they kept a reindeer in there."

"A reindeer?" Jansen couldn't help being surprised.

"I don't understand it either. But the whole place needs to be exposed to hard vacuum before I'll set foot in it again."

"I'll keep that in mind..."

Jansen was cut off as the ship began to shudder, dropping from hyperspace. Jagged Fel drew his blaster and moved off to the side of the bridge as General Jansen shouted "Who took us out of hyperspace?!?" A conduit shorted above their heads, sending sparks into the crew pit. All the lights on the bridge were shutting down one at a time, indicating systems going offline. "Report! NOW!"

"We've got a systems failure, General, but I don't know how bad it is." Jagged Fel reholstered his blaster and began trying to elicit a response from a console.

It's got to be sabotage," said Jansen.

"Sabotage? But who?"

"It has to be one of the techs."

Jagged Fel swore and headed for the bridge weapons locker.

Up ahead, transports were closing on the VSD. The Warhammer reacted as the first transport began docking procedure, no doubt to send in troops. Jansen took out his hand communicator. "All Imperial troops, prepare for boarding! The Warhammer has been sabotaged! We've got incoming pirates in transports, and they are boarding. I want every last one of them off our ship!"

Commander Vortagh heard Jansen's announcements in the dark of the commandeered Zeta lounge with Lieutenant Steel. "Come on, let's get to the hangar. We've got some transports to blow. We've got to hurry, before the hangar is captured." Vortagh ran out the door and turned the corner quickly.

By the hangar he found Splatter, and Zwibble was already in her fighter. By the time Vortagh was in his fighter the pirates were inside the hangar and firing at Imperial troops. Vortagh powered up and did the speedy power-up self-check. "Launch when ready."

Zeta screamed out of the hangar, passing through the magcon field, the last running system on the Warhammer. Whomever the saboteur was had wanted this to remain on, no doubt to allow the pirates to land their craft aboard. The TIE Advanced slipped out into the vaccuum of space with ease and power. Steel and Splatter followed closely behind, targetting the transports and pushing the throttle to full.

Vortagh hit the comm panel, "Nobody takes my Star Destroyer. Zeta Squadron, Go!"

Wedge's door chimed. "Come in."

The doors parted and Vice Admiral Fel entered.

"Admiral, good to see you again."

"Change in plans. The Chimaera's skipping the rendez-vous. Again."

"Again? Why?"

"They're headed to Contruum to stop the gravity well from being installed."

"Isn't that deep in Rebel space?"

Fel nodded. "It's the nearest thing to a suicide mission. La Forge is very bold."

"So I can tell. What's on our plate? Rescue him?"

"Not quite. The Nemesis is going on patrol. We've got lots of enemies out here and we don't want them to notice that we've got just one Sector Group watching over our whole space."

"Oh, a patrol mission." Wedge was clearly disappointed.

"Well, don't feel so bad, Wedge -- there are sure to be lots of pirates around to blow up, and maybe even some Rebels."

"My trigger finger is fairly itchy. I guess we can make the best of it. How about we set up a little ambush?"

"I like the sounds of it. Go for it, Wedge."

Wedge pulled up the starmap and got to work planning while Fel slipped out the door he came in without being noticed.

Some hours later, Wedge was back on bridge shift. and he'd just settled in with his coffee.

"Good call there, sir, this really worked," said Laithlis as the X-Wings moved into scanning range. "All we need now is their mothership to pick them up."

"Well, we can wait on that. Launch Epsilon squadron... but tell Gimel to board their fighters. It's showtime," said Wedge.

Army Lieutenant Mitchell ducked behind the bulkhead of the ship, peeking out to return fire, and ducking back in. "Sir, there's a lot of them down here! We're gonna need some help!"

"I copy, Lieutenant. Stay calm," General Jansen's voice answered over the comm. "I need all of you to meet up. We have to take this slowly and make our way through. There's a lot of them in the hangar bay, but it looks like Zeta's made it out."

"So no more pirates should be getting in?" asked Jagged Fel.

"We hope," replied Jansen. "Keep your heads down and let's get going."

"Aye sir," answered Mitchell, before opening fire once again.

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