Doing battle on a major hyperspace lane always carried with it the danger of someone or something simply traveling by and getting involved. Sometimes that was an Imperial Navy patrol. More often it was simple, ordinary traffic of any of thousands of different types.
This was ordinary traffic. Alien, but ordinary.
The Ithorians were, by far, the most environmentally sensitive race known in the galaxy. They didn't even live on their own planet for fear of their footsteps defiling it. Instead they had gravitated their entire species into giant repulsor cities, hovering over the landscape and moving constantly to avoid blocking too much sunlight.
Even that was too much for some Ithorians. They couldn't even bear to cast a shadow on their homeworld. So they'd outfitted their repulsor cities with sublight drives and explored their system. But that quickly got boring without living beauty close up, so most swiftly took the next step and added hyperdrives.
Apparently it was okay to hover over others' worlds, enjoying their natural wonder while casting shadows and walking on the ground and gasp maybe even touching a few plants in their native habitat! (There was an Ithorian, commonly called a hammerhead, visible in the cantina of Mos Eisely on Tatooine during Episode IV. It was an unresolved question whether he was there to relax because there wasn't much plant life to endanger, or he was just trapped and didn't have a way off that rock).
An Ithorian herdship had appeared out of hyperspace, an entire city outfitted with drives and looming larger than most Star Destroyers as it continued, unchecked, its mighty velocity imparted by a poorly navigated hyperjump. A herdship is a garden and a greenhouse as much as it is a city, and they steer as well as most normal buildings, which is to say not well. And it was aimed, unfortunately, straight for the Moff's little cruiser.
Nabiki saw the onrushing herdship with barely enough time to gasp before the collision. Instead of gasping, she put her helmet on.
Collisions in space happen. Navigational accidents happen. It was generally wise not to hang too closely to a warp point for few of a first hand experience with both.
Transparasteel domes dozens of times the size of her light cruiser caught the Carrack and shattered, instantly evacuating their contained atmosphere and exposing their gardens to space. A spindly tower speared the vessel as it passed the city, snapping off as the ship continued its tumble through the herdship and shattering more domes.
Environmental safeguards meant for creating natural environments for the vast, carefully managed botanical gardens were ill-suited to the massive damage the collision with Nabiki's spacecraft committed. Faster than automates could react the air was lost to space and the entire population of the herdship perished. The impact, so much worse than a laser blast, had inflicted vast casualties on the Carrack as well.
Shampoo gasped, dizzy with vertigo in the moment of their passing. Deaths of thousands happened before, but it was always a little disorienting to Jedi when it happened close up to a people not expecting it.
At that moment, her cruisers had not only stunned Nabiki's remaining Dreadnought with their ion batteries, but their combined turbolaser barrage sliced through the Tapani ship's shields and scored a lucky hit on their main reactor. The frigate detonated in a fantastic explosion.
Bart was already maneuvering her Flamberges to avoid the ramming attack, with their drive speed so much higher it was a trivial task once he'd guessed that was the intent. With the opportunity thus presented, he had the two Flamberge cruisers it passed between open fire with their missile launchers. Eighty launchers between them had the bulk ship reduced to barely navigable scrap, which another volley caused to erupt in another fantastic explosion.
The two remaining cruisers, both former luxury ships, saw they were now alone. The small ships had been individually disabled before the Jedi's ships recommenced their batteries against them. Both Dreadnoughts were now out of commission with Flamberge ships moving in place to board them. The Bulk Cruiser lost. Their Moff's ship was not responding to any hails, which revealed the severity of their crash, and the last of the tax freighters had succumbed to the boarding droids and was even now jumping to hyperspace, while their ally was now small hunks of floating particles expanding from a blown-out shell.
Seeing themselves about to be surrounded by ships of superior speed and firepower, they surrendered, negotiating for terms.
All during the fight those displays on their controls, designed for fish eyes covering slightly different spectrums, had been degrading their role in combat badly. They didn't get much in negotiation.
===========
There wasn't much that could be done about the Tapani ship, nor the ruins of the bulk cruiser - both of which were steadily spreading out in clouds of debris they made certain not to disturb.
Both liners they boarded, taking control even though they'd never penetrated the former luxury ships' shields. The Dreadnoughts were already in motion, under control by prize crews from Shampoo's ships. The fleet of small corvettes and things was under tow while Mancuso's Dreadnought supplied skeleton crews to run them.
Nabiki's cutthroats were loaded into cargo bays under heavy guard and sealed in with minimal facilities, until Bart's ship could drop them off as involuntary colonists as it went with the Jedi's fleet.
They'd also be taking along that herdship, run by crewmen wearing vacuum suits, which wasn't the worst duty, but sure was unpleasant. They couldn't exactly leave a huge ship like that, with a light cruiser stuck in the front of it, lying around here to complicate their story. The ionized fighters were already pulled aboard ships that could carry them out as well. And the tac officer to suggest that was already looking forward to enjoying his reward.
The fleet was already taking off for their journey through deep space while the purple haired Jedi met in the shuttle bay for a goodbye.
"It's simple, ma'am." Bart was telling the Jedi, standing at the ramp of an Imperial shuttle with a few of his crew, specially chosen for this assignment. "It doesn't take long, hearing about men you've known, who've dedicated their whole life to the service, getting some political-appointee admiral shouting in their faces about making sure they'll never work in a junk scow from here on... it doesn't take long to develop a real sour attitude about the way this whole New Order operates."
He indicated the men going with him. "These men know how to keep their mouths shut, and they know how to fake a debriefing. We'll tell the fleet we got jumped by the Tapani ship turning traitor on us, trying to steal the cargo, and how in the battle both ships got blown to hell. There's no way anybody's recognizing that cloud of wreckage out there as a simple bulk cruiser, and even if they did convene an inquiry all they'll see about the Tapani is that it got shot up by Dreadnought turbolasers. Our story'll be that an energy fire got most of our crew, and our ship finished off by a catastrophic overload, but not before we got the Tapani doing it. We'll say their men got away with the tax ships."
Bart Mancuso straightened himself taller. "There's a court martial for me in it, that's certain. But they'll take my story, too, and that covers your tracks. Not to mention the Tapani sector is all cut up into noble houses, and the one this scow belonged to was a bunch of sneaky traitors that somehow got high in imperial favor. This'll cost 'em that, I'm sure. Nobody I've talked to has any doubt House Mecetti is capable of this kind of backstabbing." He gave a wry grin. "You might even say it was their trademark."
He shrugged. "So anyway, these boys I've got going with me are all old navy brats, like me. We know the families, the old naval folks who've been in this for duty, love and honor - something the fleet hasn't got now that Palpatine's in charge, and they're all feeling the squeeze. You get Sairune or some of the other decent planets to set up their own picket fleets and we'll spread the word. You'll be flooded with men; everyone from deck crewmen though junior officers all the way up to admirals. I'm sure you'll find some way to siphon the ones you'll need off to this secret navy you're building."
He shared a roguish grin with the Jedi. "Just save a berth for me, will ya?"
Shampoo gave the startled man a fast and friendly hug. "Shampoo save. Bart Mancuso come back to find his crew running twenty five ships! And he in charge! Stay safe, hokay?"
The Commodore saluted. "Yes ma'am."
She watched the shuttle depart, speeding off into hyperspace where a man would ruin his career to save her secret. It was a somber moment, yet a joyful one too as it gave so many wonderful opportunities, not just to her, but to those loyal navy men being treated horribly by disloyal and greedy masters.
There was, of course, also the fact that she'd helped her husband's cause enormously by providing this supply of well-trained crews. She was planning to get very well rewarded for that by a grateful hubby, and soon.
Her captain stepped up beside her. "Where to now, ma'am?"
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(Posted Thu, 25 Mar 2004 00:54)
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