Two dozen TIE squadrons between the four Imperials could account for her whole force of cruisers between them, not even needing the Star Destroyers to help.
She was going to account for half of those fighters herself.
The Jedi concentrated through the Force. She'd never been the expert on this some Jedi were, and was exerting herself to the utmost, using skills she had picked up by necessity through years on the run from the Empire. The inkling nudged her and she hit the button to terminate the jump, sprayed lines of hyperspace disappearing in a flash of motion that left her Dreadnought hovering in space just below one of the two ISDs not subject to her main cruiser attack, just before the flash of motion from her Flamberge ships dropping out of their own hyperspace jumps to begin their raid.
Not even pausing to witness their attack, Shampoo hit the control setup wired temporarily to her nav station and jumped into hyperspace again only two seconds later.
Behind her vanished Dreadnought, missiles launched from a blister pack (a rack of one-shot concussion missiles, taken from her Flamberge's armories and rigged to the outside of this ship) sped through a short distance from her now vanished location and impacted heavily on the unshielded hangar of the targeted ISD. Burning wreckage and flames were the result, crippling their ability to afford a launch of TIEs.
The second small hyperjump was terminated even before the starfields had reached their full extent of stretched starlines, leaving them halfway across the supply yards under the second ISD not yet subject to a Flamberge attack. The spread of the defending forces had been mandated by Imperial regulations to provide proper coverage in place of an attack. Shampoo was lucky, because if they'd been any closer together even her Jedi reflexes could not have made so short a hyperjump between.
A second blister pack was launched, depleting her supply, and the Dreadnought jumped a third time, this one going out of system and away. The triple-jump had taken her nearly on a straight line through the supply depot's defenses. But no course could have been plotted that would have let her strike three times the same way.
Once outside the star facilities' scanning range, the Dreadnought dropped again from jump and began the laborious process of turning the old ship around.
When she did jump back in-system it was broadcasting an Imperial ID code and Mancuso's crew, wearing Imperial uniforms, began broadcasting orders to the cargo fleet to fall back behind the depot and the defense station, sheltering between them and the planet while the Dreadnought moved to position itself to add to their protection.
They then launched TIEs from the Dreadnought's previously empty hangar decks, piloted by volunteers, which struck out playing 'defense force' and began to herd the cargo ships together.
And as easy as that, they'd cut off the cargo fleet from escaping.
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(Posted Sat, 10 Apr 2004 09:10)
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