Stars of Glory

Chapter 5- Plans for the Future

The Terran fleet held its position as the Imperial ships made for the edge of the system before jumping out. Before there was even a thousand kilometers between the two forces the salvage crafts had separated from their mother ships and had begun tearing into the wreckage of the battle like half starved hyenas. The military forces were the most organized, homing in on their own alert beacons first, and then picking up anything in the immediate area. The Clans were the strictest of them all, limiting their own crafts to salvaging Clan ships alone, and even then they tended to shy away from ships belonging to rival clans. Several did salvage allied craft, but only if the ship was mostly intact or if there was a live pilot onboard who needed rescuing.

The mercenary forces, on the other hand, were much freer in their operations. Operating under armed company escorts, they approached what ever wreckage they could get closer to. The smartest ones deliberately shied away from the Clan ships, not wanting to antagonize the Clan warriors who were flying all over space. Most were deliberately hunting for Imperial craft, especially the rather intact ones that had been “killed” by loss of pilot rather then by structural loss. These were rare though, the weak frames of the TIE fighters not being able to take much punishment from the explosive packed missiles the Terran forces had been using. Of all the ships that were deemed salvageable, most still had live pilots inside of them. A few were taken prisoners, in the misguided assumption they could be used as hostages for exchange at a later point in time, but most were taken care of quietly. No one was worried about trouble over the executions, as the bodies were all properly disposed of. Out the airlock and into the vacuum.

* * *

Marcus circled the area he had been scouting for the fifth time in a row. He had tracked the shadow fighter back this far, then had lost it by accident. He mentally cursed the mercenary salvage craft that had buzzed his fighter, but it had been partially his fault. He had turned off most of the active tracking systems so that his quarry didn’t know he was following. The salvage craft had mistaken him for just another drifting wreck, and Clan technology was prized amongst the mercenary crews for its effectiveness, not to mention the high price it could be resold for.

Now though, he was stuck. The fighter had disappeared, and he had been unable to determine where it went. There were at least three ships it might have docked at already, and another four that it might be docking at presently. As it was, there was no way for him to tell where it might have gone. Shaking his head, he broke from his circling pattern, triggered all his systems so the salvage crews would know he was an active craft, then turned and headed back to his ship.

The Jade Falcon was still heavily damaged from her earlier fight with the Star Destroyers, and thus had stayed near the back of the fleet when the attack had been launched against the main Imperial force. By a stroke of luck he had just begun to maneuver when the Gauntlet had broken from the surface, so she had been out of the path of the Gauntlet’s guns. Had she held course, it was more then likely that she would have been destroyed. As it was, she had managed to get away from the battle with out taking any more new damage. This was fortunate for Marcus, as it meant he didn’t have any new problems to worry about as he made his way in for the landing.

The flight deck had been cleared earlier of wreckage from the first fight, but even then Marcus grimaced when he saw how empty the hold was. Of the fifteen fighters that had originally been docked there, only eight remained, including his own battered craft. He guided it back to the landing section, and then lightly applied the VTOL system to guide his fighter back to the deck. Once it was in place a guide cart locked onto the nose, and backed his fighter into the waiting pen. As soon as the engines had finished powering down the area began to swarm with technicians and weapons crews, and all intent on getting the craft combat ready as soon as possible. Just because the Imperial ships had fled the system didn’t mean they wouldn’t be back, and for all anyone knew, they were going to bring friends.

Marcus popped the canopy and stood up in his seat. He had been in the cockpit for close to six hours now, and his muscles were sore from maintaining the same position. Like any Clan warrior he wasn’t one to complain, but had anyone asked he would have admitted that finally being able to stretch his legs was a good thing. He was bending over backwards to get the kinks out of his back when he noticed the small object attached to his fighter, right behind the rear of the canopy. It wasn’t all that large, no bigger then his helmet. Turning around he leaned out over the edge of his fighter and looked at it. It didn’t seem to be a device of any sort, more like a small package. He tried to tug on it, and felt a small resistance as it came away. Turning it over in his hands, he looked at it again. There was a small seam running around the center line of the device, and two small buttons, one on either side. Having nothing better to do, he pressed the two buttons, when it suddenly occurred to him that it might be some sort of bomb planted by the enemy. By the time this occurred to him it was too late. The device gave a small hiss, and the top popped off. He recoiled out of instinct, but it failed to explode as expected. Instead, when he looked down he saw a small data card lying on a cloth. He picked it up and turned it over several times, wondering what it was.

Finally coming to a decision he wrapped the data card back up in the cloth and tucked it into the pocket of his flight suit. He hopped out of the cockpit, bracing himself as he landed against the deck. Fortunately the hangar was being kept in a low gravity mode so that the weapons crews could work faster and he hit the deck with all the force of a dropped feather. He stopped by the flight officer to account for his presence on board the ship, and then headed to the debriefing room. He wasn’t sure how long it was going to take them, but even if the others had come in earlier, he was sure they would have waited for the last to get in.

* * *

Karl took his seat around the round table, nodding to the others in the room. He recognized several of the other Clan khans, as well as the Davion and Draconis combine commanders. Of the Rebel leaders he recognized General Rieekan, Mon Mothma, and Princess Leia, but the two pilots he didn’t recognize. One was a youth of no more then twenty, with sandy blond hair and a light build. The other was heavier set, but in the muscle rather then fat manner expected of a person who took care of himself. The third man he didn’t recognize at all, but from the common clothes he was wearing as well as the ease with which he selected the corner to sit in, he assumed the man was with the Rebel intelligence division.

He leaned back in the chair and shut his eyes while he waited for the talking to die down. This was the third meeting they had tried to have since the departure of the Imperials, but the military in this new galaxy was just as prone to the laws of chaos as it had been in the Terran sphere. He had personally just spent the last three hours trying to calm down a feud between the Wolves and Ravens over salvage rights, and while he was no fan of the Wolves personally, he was convinced the Ravens were a bunch of bloody idiots. There were plenty of salvage opportunities after the battle, so there was no reason for the Ravens to try to steal from the Wolves, over for the fact that the Ravens were a bunch of bloody opportunistic scavengers.

All stupidity aside, he was glad the battle had gone so well. For facing an unknown foe, the loss of only a few cruisers and frigates in a pitched battle, with what the Rebels assured him where main fleet battleships, was a good thing. He wasn’t sure why the enemy had run before engaging more with their ships, though he had heard a report about a group of fighters who had moved from the main battle to cripple the enemy shields. That might have had something to do with it, since it seemed the ships in this galaxy depended upon energy state shields rather then the solid forms used on the Terran craft.

That was another odd thing. They were no longer the Clans and the Inner Sphere. As far as most people were concerned they were all Terrans. And it seemed to be sticking. The Inner Sphere compliment was already making modifications to their standards to in some manner bear the Terran name. The Clans were still against it somewhat, wanting to hold on to the identities they had known since the days of Kerensky

Personally, Karl thought that the move to being known as Terrans was a good thing. The Clans could keep their identities of course, but if they were going to all stand together, and it seemed like it, considering they had found themselves in the middle of a brand new war, then it made sense for their allies to be able to refer to them collectively as something. If anyone else had a problem with this, well, the Falcons would do as he said, and the Wolves would probably agree with him. If both of the two main Clans made their policies the same, then the others would follow suit, if for no other reason then to avoid having to deal with a Trial against the Falcons or Wolves.

Finally, the side conversations began to quiet down. Karl opened his eyes and sat up straight. He noticed several of the other Clan leaders doing the same thing, and wondered whether the Rebel leaders were feeling slighted. Considering they were still talking to one another, albeit out the corner of their mouths, he doubted they had even noticed. If they did, then they could request a trial. Granted, they would have to get in line, but…meh, he was tired of dealing with all the politics that had come with the migration. He would be more then willing to settle any more problems at the end of one of his mech’s guns.

“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us. First, we must extend our thanks for your help in repelling the Imperials.” Karl nodded at Mon Mothma as she began to speak. Personally he was curious as to what it was the Rebels had done to help them repel the Imperials, but that was another story. “This meeting was called so that we of the Rebellion could better understand our new comrades in arms, and to make several decisions about how to proceed.” She continued. “First, we must decide what to do with all the equipment your men have been salvaging.”
“There is nothing to decide. Right of salvage was declared at the beginning of hostilities, and all the salvage areas have now been…clearly defined.” said the head of the Snow Ravens. Karl honestly could not remember the woman’s name. That particular Clan had gone through more khans in the past few years then any other three Clans combined.
“Yes, we understand that your…organizations have some rather unique approaches to how to distribute salvage. I would like to point out, however, that Hoth is a Alliance held world, and anything in orbit is then under our jurisdiction.” Mon Mothma countered.
“Hoth would now be an Imperial planet if it were not for the actions of our forces. As it stands, Wolf supports the Ravens in this.” Karl nodded to the Khan of the Wolves. It was a smart move to show unity before the Rebels. Now Karl had to play the diplomat and make sure this went well.
“I am afraid, Commander Mothma, that my fellow Khans are quite correct in this. Salvage belongs to those who inflicted final damage to the unit. In a battle such as this, where there were many participating units, and there is no clear way to determine who is responsible for which kills, it is appropriate to assign regions to be salvaged based on the batchall and honors claimed in combat.” Karl was talking to Mon Mothma, though it was the Khan of the Ravens that he was looking at. The woman blushed at the rebuke, clearly understanding the relevance of the remark to her Clan’s actions after the battle.
“Yes, we understand this; however, we need those supplies!” Mon Mothma replied.
“And I am sure that we will be able to come to some sort of reasonable agreement regarding compensation. However, and I will be quite clear on this point, there were no Alliance ships involved with either of the two battles today. You and your rebellion have no claim on any of the salvaged ships, though I am sure there will be various groups who did participate who will be more then willing to negotiate for their captured prizes. Rights of salvage have been a clear kept rule of war in the Terran systems for the last several hundred years. Even the Inner Sphere nations, who know nothing of Clan honor, follow and obey these rules. You would do well to heed them as well.” Karl finished. This time he was looking at Mon Mothma, and now the woman looked somewhat flushed. Whether she was embarrassed as a result of his lecture, or was simply angry with him, he really couldn’t tell.
“And how do you suppose we begin to make such arrangements?” Mon Mothma asked.
“I am sure I can put you in touch with several interested parties. As it stands, Aurelius will probably be more then happy to make some arrangement for the staffing of that monstrosity he captured. He will also probably be more then willing to sell any of the captured crafts that were on board, the fighters at the least. He does not use fighters in his missions, and when he does he out sources the problem to another mercenary company.” Karl replied.
“So it must be then. Fine, we shall simply have to find something of value to offer these mercenaries. Do you have any idea on what that would be?” Mon Mothma asked.
“Again, simple. They will be looking for the same things as the rest of the fleets. At the moment fresh food is probably tops on their lists, followed closely by a hospitable planet to bunk down on.” Karl answered.
“This is good. That brings us to the second problem. What do we do with your fleet?” Mon Mothma asked. It was the Davion commander that answered the question that had been plaguing the rest of the group.
“Well, first and foremost we need a planet, preferably one with an Earth-like atmosphere. It needs to be able to support human life, as well as stock animals and food crops. Any planet will do, as long as it meets those conditions. Current status is not all that important. A group of forestry mechs can clear enough wood for a small sized town rather quickly, and we really only need to just begin to off load the colonists.” He explained.
“Well, how many colonists do you have?” General Rieekan asked. “If it is a small lot, we should be able to tuck them in on just about any of the Rebellion worlds. At the worst case scenario, we ship them to the Mon Calamari. Their world is a bit damp, but they should have room for a few thousand colonists somewhere.”
“I am afraid we have more then ‘just a few thousand’ colonists to take care of. The total is somewhere between six hundred and fifty thousand to an even seven hundred thousand people. A virgin world would be preferable, if for no other reason then that will leave them room to expand as well.” Karl pointed out.

The room fell silent as every one paused to consider this. The situation on board the colony ships was not as bad as it might have been. The original plan for the mission had called for at least ten years worth of supplies to be carried by the expedition fleet. They had only been able to pack around eight years worth when all was said and done, but that still left them plenty of supplies, even after the rationing rules had been suspended upon the discovery of Hoth.

So there was no hurry for the commanders to find a home world for the colonists. They just wanted to take care of that as quickly as possible. Once that was done, they could begin setting up the manufacturing processes that were going to be needed if they were going to have to perform in a lengthy war. The Terrans had been rather free with the missiles and bullets so far, but there were only so many of them to go around. They had, perhaps, enough solid munitions to fight another five such battles. Even if the prefabricated factories were assembled today, there would still be the equivalent of a Terran month before there was enough of a supply ready to keep them in fighting condition. Finally, it was the sandy haired blond kid who spoke.

“Why don’t we send them to the Yavin system? I know its not exactly virgin territory, but the planet is close enough to what they’re looking for isn’t it?” the boy suggested.
“I believe you maybe right Luke. But we don’t know if the Imperials are still maintaining an active presence there for them to worry about.” General Rieekan commented.
“What is your name son?” Karl asked the young man.
“Luke Skywalker sir. I’m one of the pilots in Rogue squadron, alongside Wedge here.” Luke motioned to the heavyset man with the dark hair, and Karl nodded to him.
“What exactly is the Yavin system?” Karl asked.
“A series of small jungle moons orbiting a large gas giant. They are quite suitable for human life. There is, however, a small problem.” Mon Mothma explained.
“Life is merely the challenge of over coming problems in the quest for perfection. What triviality do we have to deal with?” Asked the Draconis Combine commander.
“Well gentlemen, the situation is thus. We, the Rebellion, used to maintain an active base on the fourth moon of the system. It was meant to be a permanent base, but we ran into a slight problem. The Empire had built a new space station which was also a super weapon capable of destroying an entire planet with one massive energy blast. There was a battle, and we managed to destroy the space station, but the Imperials did not take the loss of their new weapon well. They launched an immediate invasion of the system, similar to the one you gentlemen recently interrupted.” General Rieekan explained. “We managed to escape and separate into different areas, with a large portion of the fleet separating. The leaders of the Alliance came here, to Hoth. We have maintained active sweeps of the Yavin system, mostly so that we might eventually reclaim the base when we had the man power to take it. As of the current moment, the Empire is maintaining a small picket fleet to keep us out of the system.” He finished.
“Well, that shall be no problem. As long as the fleet is not the size of the one we just finished with, we should be all right. We may suffer some light losses, but hopefully we should survive with all of our WarShips intact.” The Davion commander responded.
“So then the Yavin system it is. When do we wish to leave?” Asked the Wolf Khan.
“The colonists will want some down time. I say we give them three days, and then move for the Yavin system. It will also allow us some time for our astrogation sections to chart the paths for this new galaxy.” Karl suggested. He turned to General Rieekan next. “I hope you can provide us with any navigation data that your forces may have available. Anything you can offer will be much appreciated.”
General Rieekan nodded. “We shall. This war will be that much easier if we don’t have to worry about misplacing your forces when the time comes for action.”
“Agreed. Spread the word then. Make sure all of the combat ships are prepared for action. I want full load outs on all ships. We shall spare nothing in the quest for our new home. All who stand before our path will either aid us, or perish in flame and vacuum.” Karl declared.

“That brings us to the second portion of this meeting. What is the status of supplies for your fleet?” General Rieekan asked.
“When it comes to the general supplies required for keeping people alive. When it comes to the military supplies, we are slightly worse off. If we are expected to fight many more battles such as the ones we recently fought, we will have a problem. We normally use our battlemechs for solving our disputes. As such, we are better supplied for them then we are for the space forces. We will be able to fight maybe a half dozen more battles like the one fought earlier, unless we find a way to resupply soon.” Karl replied. “If we can set up a base on the Yavin planets, we should be able to get several factories set up, and then should be able to convert some of the raw materials that we brought with us. It will not be a permanent solution, but it should be enough to maintain an active presence until new sources can be secured.”
“Are the solid weapons systems the only ones you have to worry about? Surely you will be running out of tibanna gas soon for your energy weapons.” Wedge asked.
“What is this tibanna you speak of?” The Combine commander asked.
“Tibanna is the gas we use to power our blasters. It gives them the extra ability to damage the shields. They can not normally punch through on their own, but given enough time they eventually overload the defending systems. You mean you don’t use tibanna in your weapons?” Wedge asked incredulously.
“No, our weapons are based off of a hydrogen and argon mix. The entire purpose of the mix is to store the energy before it is released as a laser.” The Raven Khan responded.
“I wonder, what would it do to try and arm ourselves with this tibanna?” Mused the Wolves Khan.
“Tibanna huh? I know the guy you want to deal with then. Real scoundrel, but he’s in the best position to be dealing with.” This was from the casually dressed man resting in the corner.
“And you are?” The Davion commander asked.
“Name’s Han Solo. Captain of the Millennium Falcon, fast ship this Alliance has. As I was saying, I know a guy who can set you up with some tibanna. Guy name of Lando Calrissian. He’s the mayor or some such of Cloud City on Bespin. They’re the leading producers of the gas, so he should be able to cut you a good deal.” Han finished.
“Then it is agreed. To Bespin we shall send a delegation.” Karl announced.
“But who? All of our ships will be needed for the invasion of the Yavin system.” The Davion commander mentioned.
“I think I know just the man. Aurelius will be glad for the new job. Besides, that new ship of his might just come in handy…” Karl finished with a grin on his face.