On the fourth day she received a delightful change, apparently the Major was having a pilots meeting or something related, so the crowd volume was low and she got off early enough not to want to pass out. Wiping her hands she walked toward the medical center, she had to get checked on anyway.
It seemed more people from Dantooine were here than the original crew of Retaliation. By the time she'd gotten to the med bank, she'd bumped into Ibran, Alia, an overexcited Thix who was mumbling something to her about reaching the twins too late, and Lowbacca with EmTeeDee.
"Did anyone go home?" she mused as the droid ran a full body scanner on her.
"Please remain still. I have only one more pass." The droid looked at its data pad again and if it were anymore human, it might have frowned.
"Now what?"
"You have a small infection in your rib area. Nothing a biotic wouldn't fix, but I'd like you to stay here for observation for the rest of the day, just in case."
"I need to work on my ship some this afternoon. I managed to get sealant on most of the blasts but the engine is still lagging slightly. Can't you just give me the medicine and I check in later?"
"No, I must ask that you cancel your plans and rest. I am putting you on a twelve-hour observation."
"I've gotta leave with or without the medication."
"Why give the droid a hard time?" A deep voice asked. "You know perfectly well you didn't allow your body time enough to heal and you were lucky only to have a mild infection."
"Well, what brings you here Captain O'Neill?"
"I promised Miles I'd keep an eye on you while you're here and I didn't see you in the mess. After some questioning, everyone agreed you headed in this direction so I came to see what was wrong."
"I was just coming in for a medical test and you see my luck." Aria mentally checked off the things she wouldn't be getting around to today.
"I say your luck is better than most." He grinned conspiratorially.
"And why is that?"
"Because I happen to have brought a Sabacc deck along."
"Great, my luck has gone from bad to worse. I am really terrible at Sabacc."
"No," he mimicked surprise, "I never knew."
"Yeah right. Miah probably told everyone he saw how bad I was at this game."
"Well, it seems you have time to improve your game."
"Or part with precious credits."
"This will be a duty free game. No gambling needed."
"You're such a gentleman."
"Not after I start dealing."
"Let me call the mess and let them know I will be on medical leave for the rest of the day."
The game got interesting really quickly. After the Captain won the first few rounds his comlink went off and within minutes, Rick strolled in with a randomizer. It appeared that free Sabacc games were the rave because most of the medical room quickly filled with downtime pilots. After a raucous event with an EmDee unit, a tray of meds, and two pilots, it was decided Aria would be better observed in a private room that fit 20.
The most dazzling entrance was that of Laura O'Neill, brandishing a new Sabacc deck to replace the old one. She was quite tall and slim. Her brown skin was a natural comparison to her blonde streaked auburn hair. She must have been wearing eye crystals because her eye color changed from violet to green to blue depending on her mood. She wore non-standard flight gear, khaki, which made her stand out even more. Everything on her seemed pierced. She had a Corusca gem in her nosepiece and at least three different gems from the Byss system decorating her ear. Aria could not figure out how she missed this woman on Dantooine.
"Uncle, you asked for these." She tossed the cards to him and turned to leave. Siggy bent over and whispered something to her and she started laughing. "Since you put it that way, I'll stay a while."
The Cowboys quickly adopted Aria and decided to teach her the finer points of skimming for Sabacc, since there was no way in the Galaxy she was going to win following the rules.
"Well, in honor of Miles, who we shall now call Miah for the rest of the days of his life--" Rick said, clearing his throat.
"Or yours," Laura interrupted.
"As I was saying, we shall now have a round of random singing, mixed with toneless and offbeat music."
"I think I'm going to enjoy this," Aria said, sitting back to watch the chaos. She knew Miles liked singing and humming and apparently his wingmates enjoyed mimicking him as much as she enjoyed baiting him.
"Her eyes blazed like a sun gone nova," Rick screeched. "Her smile as bright as a---"
Things on the station settled in and Aria was out of the med lab in no time at all and preparing her ship for take off sometime in the next day or two. Overall her stay had been relaxing and she even hummed that awful tune Rick bleated at the first of a long line of ante-free Sabacc games at Aria's quarters. She'd moved from the med center to a storage shed that wasn't in use close to her ship. After the addition of a cot and a table for those intense Sabacc players, her room came to be called the "social black hole".
When the announcement blared in the hangar bay Aria was hanging upside down from the restraints on her landing gear, lubricating a hard to reach joint. Her hair was pulled into a braided ponytail that was then secured in a tight bun.
"Laura?" Aria shouted, she was trying to sit up but her hands were coated with lubricator.
"Hm?" a distracted voice floated down from the ramp.
"Get me a towel, will ya?"
"Mmm." was the only response Aria got. Apparently Darryl's niece had found a new puzzle in the engine system and wouldn't emerge until she solved it.
"We'll do this the hard way." Griping the closed lube tube in her teeth, Aria kicked her feet straight out. With the loss of a stable foothold, her body tumbled to the ground. Quickly she pulled her knees in and her body started twisting. With an "umph" she landed gracefully on her feet.
"So much for taking it easy."
"Mm?" Aria spit out the tube. "Oh hey, Capt. I guess you heard?"
"Yes, I came to gather up the stragglers."
"You know where most of them are and Laura isn't moving, assuming I read that last grunt I heard from her correctly."
"She'll catch up. So Sigmeund isn't "adjusting" anything else in your navicomputer or shield generator?"
"Nope. He finished that two breakfasts ago."
Darryl flashed her an amused smile. "He does tend to eat a lot."
"Hey, no complaints from me as long as he restocks what he consumes."
"I'll make sure of it. Are you going to change your plans?"
"Might, might not. Depends on what they have to say at that meeting."
"See you there then. Try and get Dr. Laura off the engines long enough to make her presence known at the meeting."
"I thought you liked me and then you go and give me an impossible mission."
"Just try will ya?" He jogged away.
"Are they serious?" Rick asked. The surviving Cignas were piled in the social black hole with a few off-duty pilots, playing Sabacc when the priority message came blaring out over the audiovox.
"Seems so." Nro'din grabbed his jacket and hastily threw it on. "Let's hope these new greenies we got to fill four of the seven available positions are available to fly."
One of the greenies, Thomas, expressed his opinion of the Cowboys definition of flying. A few other pilots guffawed at the bravado he showed.
Rick began to swoon around like he'd been shot. "Done in.... gasp.... by.... gasp... a, a... greenie!" With that he poured the remainder of his drink on Thomas' head and rubbed it in for effect. "I'd love to sit here and chat about the finer points of piloting, in your case making the engine go vroom, but duty calls and the ladies love a hero."
"All right. Let's look pretty, Captain ought to be along shortly to tell us to get moving so," Sigmeund stood up to his full height and tipped the Sabacc table, "game over."
"I think I had a pure Sabacc!" another pilot cried, but everyone put up the entertainment and filed out of the room just in time to meet Captain Darryl O'Neill.
"I think you might finally be learning discipline." Darryl looked at the group of Cignas and then Thomas' soaked hair. He turned away before grumbling, "Maybe not." With that he marched toward the briefing room and the group followed.
It took Aria forever to convince Laura to come and in the end she left the brazen fighter pilot tootling with the engine and showed up to the meeting moments before it got started. Spotting Lowie, she squeezed in beside the big Wookiee and asked him had he heard anything about Han or the twins yet. A voice at the head of the room stopped his answer.
"Thank you all for coming."
Aria snapped to attention.
Mitchell sighed. "Should have guessed it would be you Carter. What the heck are yo-"
"Hey Mitch! We got word that the Imps are planning to attack Ord Pardron! They've requested any volunteers who want to lend a helping hand, preferably in the area of ground forces! Let's go, there's a meeting in a few minutes!"
Mitchell scrambled to his bed and yanked his jumpsuit off the floor then stopped. "Wait a minute! Now what's happening!?"
Carter burst out laughing. "I don't know why I try Mitch. Just get dressed and follow me, I'll explain the rest later." Mitchell shrugged and finished zipping up the jumpsuit. "Alright, let's go." With that he followed Carter out the door to the meeting.
"Thank you Major," one of Intelligence's nondescript types stepped forward from the assembled military brass. "As you all know, the Alliance keeps heavily defended bases around our major supply lanes. The existence of these bases is well-known to the Empire, who mostly regards them as Alliance strongholds, and to any third-party planets that might be interested in joining the Alliance cause."
Commander Varson pulled a pointing device from his utility belt and pressed a button on the handle. A holographic display sprang to life behind him and it drew every eye.
The hologram consisted of a planet, highlighted by a bright green aura, surrounded by various other dim green planets and some red ones as well. The planet in the middle was bordered on the top by a wavy pink line that hopscotched several planets in its' path. On the bottom was a blue line that ran much more smoothly.
"This is Ord Pardron," Varson continued, indicating the appropriate part of the hologram with the pointer. "Hit once by Grand Admiral Thrawn a decade or so ago and left mostly alone since. It's our most well-defended base inside the Abrion/Dufilvian Sector area and it guards one major Alliance convoy lane as well as one secret smuggling route originating from Ukio. Ukio is one of the top five suppliers of foodstuffs in the Empire, and the bare runoff that we get from smugglers who run that route feeds several Rimworld militias for weeks."
The audience began digesting what they'd heard as Varson manipulated the pointer device. When he'd finished, the holo had zoomed in to include the planet and the blue line. "A few weeks ago, one of our troop convoys was intercepted along the Merlan-Sluis Van Run. A substitute carrier was sent in its place to Ord Pardron. The carrier turned out to be full of Imperial troops."
A murmur of surprise and concern rippled through the audience. "So what happened?"
Varson chuckled, although there was very little humor to his tone. "The Imperials tried to pose as the units on the convoy. We were lucky enough to have some people on Ord Pardron who knew the real soldiers in the convoy. They alerted us to the presence of the imposters, who were confined." A frown creased the Intelligence officer's face. "Although there are three missing from the original group that we have yet to locate."
A snort drifted over the audience. "Bet they tried to pass themselves off as defectors," someone said.
"In fact, that was the story ninety percent of them came up with," Varson replied. "And its' been the biggest sticking point in the whole affair. Some of the saboteurs have admitted to being Imperial agents, but that doesn't mean that the defecting group couldn't have been infiltrated. So far we've only come up with the name of Silvan Regius as any type of Imperial link."
Varson turned back to the hologram. He lifted the pointer to a winking light. "That's where we think the convoy was intercepted. There's another convoy with several Calamari Cruisers due to pass through that area soon. It's carrying some experimental devices and we have base reinforcements tailing it just in case it falls under attack."
"But I digress." Varson paused again and let the audience assimilate more of what he'd told them. He flicked a third button on his pointer and the hologram zoomed in on Ord Pardron. "What we really believe is that the imposters were trained saboteur teams sent to bring down the base defenses in preparation for a major attack. Our preliminary questioning indicates that most of the imposters do have training in those areas."
"So they're going to hit the base?" a melodic Bothan voice queried.
Lance stepped forward and nodded. "Seeing as how the Fury attack group was detached from normal duty, we're sort of extra at this point. The units who are ready the fastest will end up being our advance defense force, with the remainder of the Fury group to follow later. Our job will be to proceed to Ord Pardron and reinforce the defenses until the imminent danger is past. Based on our tactical analysis, we've projected that the Imperials will hit the base sometime within the next few days."
"Neb, it wouldn't be prudent. You'll be with General Bel Iblis on his bridge. Jeffy will do just fine commanding the squadron. If we'd had another week, I'd have no problems with it, but I won't let you endanger your own life and the lives of others by rushing into battle when you aren't ready. Besides, if things go poorly, we may need your concentration on the Peregrine's bridge."
"Okay, Tasha, you're right. I don't like it, but I'll go with it. Say, you haven't had any visions about this, have you?"
"No, Neb. Which isn't to say that I haven't tried, but the Galaxy is in a severe state of flux right now. Getting a grasp on what the future holds is more difficult now than ever."
"General Bel Iblis, this just in for you sir."
On board the Peregrine, Bel Iblis was preparing to leave. One of his duty officers handed him a transmission. He read it and frowned.
The man, having served with Garm for years and having been privy to certain information, asked, "What is it sir, is something wrong?"
"It's a couple of messages. One from Mon Cal to Ord Pardron, the other a confirmation. It seems that some of the ringleaders out of the imposters were shipped to Mon Cal for interrogation. The rest were executed."
"What's wrong with that, sir?"
"Well, I'm just not sure that I agree with the tactics. On the other hand, this is a tricky situation. We can't afford to have a couple transports worth of Imperial saboteurs with the potential to destroy the base."
"Yes, sir." The officer said, and then went back to his duties, and Bel Iblis went about trying to get his fleet ready to leave soon.
Thix had contacted Jacen and Jaina and backed up his story; Jarkov had been set as a secondary target and Kashyyyk on alert.
All in all, everything was working out well, with no sarcasm intended. Nemesis Squadron had received new ships, but lacked new pilots. Their strength was down to a little over half power.
Coordination would be a problem, Thix noticed. He discussed this with Grant. New pilots would surely be provided for any upcoming battle, but they would be new to the squadron, and any commander worth his weight in wheat would realize that there were countless problems available to surface for a squadron with fresh members. Namely, coordination, as he had mentioned before.
It would be nigh impossible to get a functioning capability down before any altercation between the Imperials and Rebels would ensure, Thix was sure of that fact.
But they'd better get practicing.
"Where could they be?"
"Intel reports that the Rebels have not made any opposing moves against us since they left the mining facilities on Fury, sir."
"That baffles me, I admit. I believed that the Rebels would have attacked us before now.." Jarkov puzzled over this change in events.
"Still, from now on we should double or triple our patrols and guards, and open our trade more to boost our monetary income. The Rebels won't forget us, nor shall I forget them."
"Sir, with the complement of air protection we are sending, is it natural to assume there will be several definitive ground strikes ops teams?" Laura asked.
Lance looked troubled, he didn't recognize the female with the shocking pierce job but she hit the crux of the situation. "For now, all we know is that the Imperial moles have been apprehended. We are unsure of what their objectives are or were but for safety reasons, we are going to send in a few of our ground ops teams, those not on the injured list."
Darryl smiled, apparently his niece decided to join the party, albeit late, after all.
A few more questions passed by toning up the expected conflict and narrowing down the plan of action. Finally the group was dismissed and ordered to ready their fighters. All ground ops teams that were participating needed to report to Hendrikson's assistant and be in the hangar bay in fifteen minutes.
Garm assembled his first group rather quickly and they were off Retaliation in less than an hour. The Cigna squad found a place in Bel Iblis' group while the carrier was in hyperspace. Soon the warning klaxon went off for hyperspace reentry and everyone scrambled to their fighters. Before the stars had settled back into real space, the first wave of defenders roared out of the hangar bays.
"Cignas, form up on me." Darryl assessed the defensive emplacements and decided to avoid occupying space near the larger transports. "We're going to do this real delicate like. Two on one. I want you to stay paired throughout the entire engagement unless an act of the Force prevents it. Acknowledge my command."
The Cignas went through roll call and prepared to assemble. Within moments, the defense of Ord Pardron was underway...again.
Specter had finally reached environmental control. He now remembered why he hated Mon Calamarian Cruisers. He almost went down the wrong hallway three times, then suddenly remembered which way was the correct one. Upon reaching environmental control, he stepped back into a small alcove while he examined the area. Quickly, he put some red paint on his hands, rubbed his hair around, and then wiped his hands on his pants. He discarded his blast helmet and ran down the corridor looking much like a battered Rebel guard. "They're coming!" he shouted to the two guards at the doorway to the station. "Get ready!"
The two guards reacted instantly, diving to the sides and raising their blaster rifles to fire at the troops who would be coming around the corner any minute. Specter took out his silenced blaster pistol, whirled to the side as if he too would take up a position in front of the door, but stopped halfway and shot the man there in the face. The thud he made as he hit the floor caught the attention of the other guard, but a swift back kick put the guard off balance and a shot from Specter's pistol silenced the man.
Rummaging through the dead men's belongings, Specter found a keycard. "There we go." He slid the keycard through the scanner and the door opened. Rather than enter the room and try and work things out manually, Specter simply tossed a high-yield explosive charge into the room, with a timer set for 10 seconds. He slapped the 'close' button and activated the magnetic clamps on his boots. The ensuing explosion blew the door from its hinges.
It also shut down the artificial gravity and air supply feed for the ship.
There would be people at the auxiliary controls soon, Specter knew. He sprinted down the hallway as fast as he could and entered the nearest turbolift.
He was now headed for cargo bay 224-41-B.
The captain on the bridge of the cruiser was doing his best. His starfighters were good, but the surprise element had caught them in their fighter bays. His units had reacted fairly well though, and his MC was bearing down upon what appeared to be the lead ship when suddenly the artificial gravity cut off and he found himself floating off the floor.
"What's going on?" he shouted at the nearest officer. "Explosion in environmental control, sir! It... it looks like it came from inside the ship!"
"Get a detachment down there now! Restore the gravity with the auxiliary controls and also send some guards to cargo bay 224-41-B. If there's a saboteur on the ship, as I suspect, he'll be after what's there."
"What IS there, sir?"
"I'll tell you if we ever get a chance to deliver it."
Meanwhile, at the mostly unnoticed mining planet of Sillesk...
Lieutenant Vega sped towards his commanding officer's form on the military observation deck. "Tac analysis just in. They might be able to take the station!" he reported.
The older man turned towards the advancing armada of enemy ships. He stared out the window for a moment and then his shoulders slumped. "We'll do the best we can, but with only one Golan 'Novagun' against all those ships, we're in trouble, even with the radiation to assist."
Vega's mind scrambled for a solution. "What about the inner ring's defenses?" he suggested.
"No good. The radiation would ionize them when they came in and they'd get vaped by that fleet." The was a pause while the Commander-in-Chief of Sillesk's military forces thought the idea out further. "It takes thirty standard minutes to depolarize the control circuits even if we did manage to keep them safe."
A sigh escaped worried lips. "We need Imperial assistance now; the best we can possibly get on short notice. Send a transmission on this frequency. Hopefully it'll reach Wooram's son, Rigel."
Vega snarled. "Blasted traitor, opening us up for attack. He'll pay."
"We can hope."
MOVE ON TO PART II
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