Stars of Glory

Chapter 7

At least a week had passed since the Battle for Hoth, though Karl couldn’t tell what time it was. His ability to keep track of time mentally, a useful ability for any commander, had been screwed with way too many times over the past few days. He had been jumping around from ship to ship, trying to keep the various details of Operation Homecoming in order. Normally an operation of this size would kept as top secret as possible, though he knew he could trust any of his clansmen explicitly, but this time there had been no point. The size of the Imperial task force guarding the Yavin system was at this point an unknown factor, and so the decision made had been a simple one. They were simply going to throw the might of the entire Terran fleet at anything that happened to be in system. That had been the easy part. The hard part was in the coordinating of the various fleets and their locations in the coming battle.

The Rebels did not have any source of dependent information on the Imperial forces, but they could almost guarantee that it would be a stationary force instead of a rotating one. This was both a good thing and a bad thing. A stationary force meant that they would undoubtedly face a larger force then if then if the Yavin system was part of a patrolled route. This meant they would face heavier opposition, and more likely take heavier casualties. This was going to be mitigated, hopefully, by the use of total and overwhelming force on the part of the attackers. And if it was a stationary force, then things would be a lot easier after the battle. Messages took time to travel through space, and the Rebels had initially selected Yavin as a base system because it didn’t have a relay point for the intergalactic communications network. Instead, they had been able to manage their own communications in relative secrecy. If the Imperials had not done anything to correct this situation, which was unlikely considering the cost of such relays and the remote location of Yavin, then they would have to send a regular broadcast when they realized they were under attack. The Terran forces would be jamming of course, but there was no solid guarantee that they would block it. If a signal did get out, then they would have until a fleet could be dispatched to dislodge them from the system, which would prove rather difficult. And if a signal didn’t get out, then they would be even happier. If that was the case, then they would be able to sit on their new real estate and fortify their holdings. And if there was one thing the war torn nations of the Terran galaxy knew how to do, it was militarize a planet. Given a steady supply of resources, then they would easily turn the Yavin system into a regular shooting gallery if the Imperials tried to invade. Since this would, for all intents and purposes, be the new home world for the Terrans, they planned on defending it to the hilt. Stationary and orbital defenses were already being constructed onboard the factory ships, and the first batch would be ready with in the next two weeks. They would be nothing more then simple beam weapon platforms, and not even long lived ones, but they would be active as soon as they were placed, which would be the important bit.

In order to prevent a ship from jumping to hyperspace, and thus alerting the Imperials in a more timely manner, the Terrans were planning on attacking in an unimaginative sphere formation. The first of the attackers had arrived in their positions two days ago, and were simply waiting for their mission clocks to count down to zero hour. Or at least, that is what Karl hoped. If they were going through any of the chaos he was currently dealing with, then the attack was going to be an uncoordinated mess. His sole hope was that the forces that had been dispatched early had been the Clan WarShips and carrier Jumpships. He had stayed behind with the battered Jade Falcon, and was trying to get the various mercenary and Inner Sphere ships to cooperate. The commanders of the Inner Sphere forces were doing what they could, but there were several professional rivalries that had caused them to redraw the battle lines at least three times, so that they could make sure that everyone was shooting at Imperials instead of Terrans. The various mercenary commands were even worse. Half wanted to be paid in credits, half wanted to be paid in land, and they all wanted to pick their own locations in the battle sphere, so that they could all have the best opportunity to loot as they saw it. He had accommodated some, promised others the moon, and had told some of them to just suck it up and deal with it. He wished that he had kept Aurelius around for dealing with the other mercenaries, but he knew that he had sent his friend on a slightly more vital mission. Though he did miss the presence of the other man’s Star Destroyer.

He glanced out the window as the white form of the re-christened Star Destroyer flew past to take its position. It had been named the Second Coming of Jupiter, in honor of the WarShip that had fallen during the beginning battle. Though she had not been out right destroyed, there had been little left of the original Jupiter save for armor and a life support system that was having a difficult time operating, as numerous hull breaches meant that it was trying to make empty space breathable. Karl had ordered the ship to be stripped then abandoned, its surviving crew transferred to the captured Star Destroyer. Once the salvage crews had taken what they could, including the battlecomp and sensor package, both of which had been reinstalled on the Star Destroyer, he had ordered the ship destroyed. The task had been carried out by three other Jade Falcon WarShips, each one laying a broadside into the ship’s hull. The final salvo had been fired by the Jupiter’s sister ship, the Mars, which had finally pushed it into the gravity well of Hoth. All of the Jade Falcon ships maintained their positions above the ship’s descent to Hoth, each and every serving crew member holding a silent attention for the dying ship. The heat of reentry melted close the holes in her hull, turning her into a silvery bullet as she plunged to the planet’s surface. The heat of her body flash vaporized a large stretch of ice field, carving a grave in the body of the planet she died over. It rained for a minute as the initial vapor began to condense above her, but the chill air of Hoth soon turned it into a mournful snowfall. Now her namesake had been assigned to the protection of the damaged Jade Falcon, so that the enemy’s tool might find redemption in the hands of those who would wield justice and freedom with out mercy.

He turned around and glanced at the clock above his head. There were two digital readouts, the first being the standard time, as based off of the Terran rotation. It was currently claiming the time to be quarter past one in the morning, but that didn’t really mean anything to him in the depths of space. Morning, noon, and night were luxuries only those with both feet on the ground could afford. His interest was captured by the second read out, which was the mission clock counting down. It read a little over five hours until the mission was go, and he wondered what to do. He could stand there and pace, which would inevitably drive Irina insane, or he could go and try and take a nap. He wasn’t going to be doing anything during this particular battle, other then standing on the bridge and worry. In a way it was a little unnerving, knowing that he was the leader of the people dying around him, and that his fate likewise rested in their hands, and yet there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. He knew that he knew almost nothing about the intricacies of a space battle, other then the fact that it was a good thing if all of his ships survived, and all of the other ships went down in flames. He was a mech commander, born and bred. No Khan had been anything but. He couldn’t think about the battlefield in the same terms as his pilots and captains. He fought battles in only two dimensions. Granted, jump jets and holding the high ground also factored into a battle between two forces of mechs, but not much. Jump jets didn’t really add an extra dimension, so much as they granted a way to pass from point A to point C with out having to pass through point B, or anything else that might be occupying said point. And neither did holding the high ground. The merely affected the angle the battle was fought at.

Yet the pilots had to think in three dimensions, which made for a much harder going. A mech had to worry about a single circle in a fight. Everything could be broken down into left, right, forward, back, or any combination of any one of the first two with one of the last two. In space, things were much more difficult, as the vertical dimension was added into it. Something could be ahead and to the left, as it might be in a mech, but that same thing could also be below a ship’s point of reference, something a mech pilot almost never had to worry about. It was also a critical point. Mechs had the ability to fire at almost anything that came with in range, as long as said target didn’t do something like run up its back, and even then there were several mechs and pilots capable of doing so. Ships, on the other hand, had blind spots that could only be covered by another ship, and then that ship had blind spots that needed to be covered. Fighters could also be used for this purpose. But eventually you ended up with a ship that wasn’t going to have some of its blind spots covered. Some one had to be stuck on the outside of the formation, and any blind spot that a fighter could protect was also a blind spot that a fighter could hit. Those were the risks inherent to space combat, and Karl was personally, if silently, thankful that he didn’t have to worry about them.

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Yavin was a fairly isolated post, whose only significance had been its role as a rebel out post. It had been abandoned, but the Emperor had not wanted to leave it for the Rebels to ever occupy if they chose to return for it. The post was held by three Star Destroyers, in this case the Dark Storm, Imperial Glory, and Dark Tide, the Dark Storm’s sister ship. They were in fact part of a trio of ships which normally operated together, but their third, the Dark Ocean, had returned to their station of origin early, the result of frequent problems in her main power plants. Had it been any other part of the ship then it would not have been such a big deal, but a power plant was possibly the most dangerous piece of equipment on board a Star Destroyer, even more dangerous then their guns.

Each power plant was fusion based. This meant that at the heart of each of the plants was a tiny sun, and the only thing keeping it from turning lethal was the casing of the power plant. There was a common joke amongst the engineers responsible for the maintenance of the power plants: That their charges were held together by eighty percent engineering, nineteen percent work, and one percent bloody good luck. It was the eternal lament of any one who had ever been involved in a bureaucracy run power unit: Why did they let the lowest bidder build something that had the power to vaporize the entire ship? It was something they would never understand, and as long as they kept the ships from blowing up no one cared about their opinions. If they did let a ship blow up, then there was no one around to criticize them for lack of effort. That at least was seen as a small blessing.

Since the Yavin system was for all intents and purposes devoid of any interesting life the three ships had clustered around the moons of Yavin. Dark Storm and Dark Tide were staying relatively close to one another, as their crew liked to communicate and play various net games amongst themselves. Keeping the ships in close proximity cut down on the lag time between emissions, which in turn kept morale up. Since happy crews rarely complained, the officers on board both ships were more then happy to allow the fraternizing to continue. The Imperial Glory, not a part of the camaraderie, had taken up a post on the far side of the planet. The official reasoning was that this allowed the ship to cover a blind spot in the sensor network that had been thrown up, but in reality it was to keep the Imperial Glory’s crew away from the crews of the other two ships, whom the Glory’s captain had deemed irresponsible and dishonorable. None of the three ships were prepared fro combat, even though they were technically maintaining a combat position. Ever since the rebels had departed the Yavin system the only ones with anything to do had been the teams assigned to looting the various temples and buildings the rebels had been using as their base. Even they weren’t getting much, as the rebels had pretty thoroughly cleaned out everything they could, right down to incinerating their trash. All in all, it made the posting to the Yavin system rather uneventful, and thus boring.

It was that boredom which caused the Imperials the most harm. The sensor technicians had gotten so used to staring at nothing that they missed the first contacts on their boards. Some had fallen asleep, others simply hadn’t been paying attention. Which meant that when they did finally notice the alarms going off and the sensor contacts designated as unidentified enemy ships the Terran fleet was already past the point of no return. In the panic that ensued more harm was done to the retaliation effort then any of the losses that would later be suffered. Each of the three ships reacted differently, and this lack of a coordinated response would also be costly.

The Terran fleet had arranged itself around the extremes of the Yavin system, going in as far as they could with the spatial telemetry they had access too. The biggest problem they faced was gravitational disturbance from the planets and other bodies with in the solar system, so they had decided to simply remove them from the equations. Instead of trying to enter mid system, which would have given them the element of surprise, they jumped into the fringe of the system. This would give the Imperials time to respond to the attack, but since they had overwhelming numbers on their side they were willing to take the risk. Each of the Star Destroyers responded to the approaching Terrans in a different manner. The captain of the Dark Tide gave the order for his ship to hold position, waiting to see what the Dark Storm would do. The Dark Storm broke for the roof of the sphere formed by the Terran ships, hoping to break through the thin spot in the top of the formation of ships. The Imperial Glory instead broke for the center of the system, hoping to use the planetary bodies to disguise their presence from some of the attackers. The one thing the three ships did do right was launch all of their fighters at the same time.

The reasoning behind launching the fighters was simple. First, the rebels only had a limited number of ships. It was a mistake, but the captains and sensor technicians had already decided that at least half of the readings were false positives, ghosts created by some sort of rebel device. The fighters would thus accomplish several tasks. First, they would confirm which of the sensor contacts were real targets and which were false. Second, they would engage the rebel ships until the Star Destroyers could close with in range. Finally, they would occupy the rebel fighters, either by directly attacking the rebel fleet ships, which would have the added benefit of overloading the rebel shields, or by intercepting any fighter groups that might try for the Star Destroyers.

The TIEs were fast, and were closing the distance between the two forces much faster then the slower fleet ships. This wasn’t a matter of speed, though the TIEs were undoubtedly the fastest ships in the system. It was instead a matter of acceleration. There is no friction or air resistance in space, which means there is no true way to stop a ship other then by applying an equal amount of force in the opposite direction. Ships would maintain constant thrust, which in turn would cause them to continue accelerating in single direction, until they either turned off their engines, which merely caused them to stop accelerating, or until they applied thrust to another angle, which simply caused them to change direction. To stop a ship, thrust had to be applied in the opposite direction of which the ship was traveling. This was normally circumvented by not stopping the ship, was that would require as much time, space, and energy as it had taken to get up to that level of acceleration. Instead, most ships merely found handy planet or space station and matched velocities. The TIE fighters had less mass then their Star Destroyer homes, but could put out over a short time an almost equal amount of force. This gave them an impressive rate of acceleration and speed, as well as superior maneuvering. They raced forward from the Star Destroyers like clouds of angry bees. They had been content to peacefully sit around their hives, but now they would bring pain to those who had disturbed them.

TIE fighters were small, and reasonably under equipped. They weren’t meant to sustain any sort of prolonged engagement. Instead they were supposed to serve as a harassing force for their respective mother ship. They had a rudimentary radar system as well as a targeting system, but any advanced tactical data was supposed to be handed down from above. So it wasn’t surprising that they missed the waiting ambush. Had they more advanced sensors, then it would have been easy for them to spot the waiting Terran fighters.

The plan had been a simple one. The Terran fighters had been launched ten hours before the rest of the mission, their carrier ships staying out side the range of the Imperial sensors. The technicians aboard the Second Coming had had plenty of time to analyze the Imperial technology, and had been able to give an estimate on the extended range of those sensors. Like all wise military men they had over estimated the range, simply for the sake of caution. The Terrans could have launched from closer into the system, but as it was it wasn’t necessary. The fighters, once launched, had burned their engines at their maximum levels for thirty seconds, then turned off all power, save for the minimal amount necessary to maintain life support. One out of every fifteen fighters was made an exception, allowed active sensors and communications. It would be up to these fighters to note when it was time for the ghosting fighters to light off their active systems. The energy emissions from the fighters was weak enough to be hidden behind the various background noise produced by the rest of the universe, so they had managed to avoid detection by the Star Destroyers.

The aerospace fighters kicked off their engines once the TIEs had closed to with in one thousand kilometers. Their engines hadn’t been truly off, merely as close as they could possibly manage. Once they were pushed back to full operation the Terran fighters lit up and leaped forward at the same time. It looked a rather lot like a sudden volley of laser fire, and the TIE pilots reacted to it as such. They broke by unit away from the Terran fighters, which was the worst thing they could do. Realizing they had apparently confused their opponents, the aerospace fighters opened fire as fast as they could lock down targets. It wasn’t hard, considering how rich the target environment was. The only thing was that there weren’t quite enough targets to go around. Fortunately that wasn’t a problem, as not all of the fighters had reached the area or even gone active again. Quite a number were still dead flying towards Yavin and her moons.

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Marcus slammed into the back of his seat as his fighter tried to rock in two directions at once. The engines kicking over had slammed forward, but the missile launch had pushed the fighter backwards. As it was he was glad the enemy fighters were headed in the away from him. He recovered after a few seconds, and immediately began to try and lock down a target for his computers. A lot of the missiles in the first salvo had missed, and would hopefully be recovered, as they would soon be a scarce resource. This meant that he had to actually wait for a lock in combat, instead of trying to herd his opponents into his fire.

He actually considered himself somewhat lucky. He had been promoted to Jade 2 at the end of the last battle, in light of the casualties his group had suffered. He would have been promoted to Jade 1, but he had not quite had the seniority or rank for it. As it was, he was now second in command, and while he didn’t quite hope he got another promotion at the end of this battle, it was a possibility. He only hoped that such a promotion wouldn’t require him to leave Jade Flight. He would rather be second in command of the Jades then take command of another flight. Any other flight just wouldn’t have the prestige of his current posting.

His computer began to blare the lock tone, and he let off another ten LRMs at the TIE fighter which had been unlucky enough to get locked onto. He watched as missiles shattered the enemy fighter, then banked away as Jade 4 and Jade 5 rocketed past him into the heart of the enemy formation, their lasers blasting away. He hadn’t had the time to learn their names yet, and it already seemed like they were going to get themselves killed. He didn’t even need his sensors to tell him about the group of TIE fighters that had circled around his flight mates. Silently cursing their stupidity he brought his fighter about in a bank so tight he never would have tried it in atmosphere. His computer immediately began to track the targets, and he let off a series of missile flights towards the outside elements of the enemy formation. Two of the TIEs exploded on contact with his missiles, but the other had managed to dodge slightly out of the way. It didn’t help too much though, as the proximity fuses in the missiles detonated them anyway. Shrapnel tore through the TIE fighter’s wing. The damaged fighter spun away, just as Marcus managed to get the other two fighters in his sights. Before he could fire Jade 4 and Jade 5 broke away from each other, apparently trying to split up their attackers.

He cursed at this development. He decided the best thing to do was try and pursue at least one of the fighters, as his missiles hadn’t finished cycling yet. He chose the one chasing Jade 4, since it was the closer of the two targets. He began to cycle through his lasers, letting the smaller pulse lasers fire over and over again. The TIE began to dodge the intermittent bursts of laser fire, but there were three guns firing in the space around it, not leaving it much maneuvering room. His missiles chimed, telling him they had finished cycling, but he ignored them. He could simply fire and let it go, but he only had so many to go around, and the TIE was well with in range of his main laser cannons. He waited a few more seconds, then fired them both, giving it a ten second difference between shots. As he had predicted the TIE dodged the first shot, only for the second of his heavy laser bursts to hit it right between the engines. The TIE disintegrated in a ball of fire as it’s on board atmosphere detonated, and Marcus smiled. That battle was still just beginning and he had already claimed five kills. He was really going to have to talk with the others about rewriting the ace rules. He banked around to try and chase after the TIE hunting Jade 5 while Jade 4 formed up on his starboard wing. The other fighter was visibly damaged, and he could see some of the ship’s armor flaking off as they hurried to rescue their sister. Unfortunately, they would be too late.

They managed to line up on the two fighters just as the TIE put another burst of laser fire into Jade 5’s rear. The last of the armor protecting the aerospace fighter’s engines melted away and several bolts scored home on the engine itself. Parts meant to regulate the power flow exploded from the hits, and Jade 5 exploded when her engine died its fiery death. Marcus began to swear as he watched the fighter die, and swept his ship onto a bearing to hunt down the TIE fighter responsible for Jade 5’s death. He had almost gotten a lock when the TIE exploded from a pair of missile impacts. He hadn’t seen any fire from behind him, so he discounted Jade 4. He scanned his sensors, but they showed nothing which might have taken the shot. He looked up just in time to see the unfamiliar stars disappear and reappear, just as they had during the battle over Hoth.

Marcus smiled as he realized what that meant. It seemed his phantom guardian angel had returned to keep him safe. He brought his fighter around as he watched the stars blur in the wake of exploding TIE fighters. Staying close to the phantom fighter had served him well in the last battle, time to see if it would do so again.

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Karl grinned as he read the sensor read outs. Second Coming and the Jade Falcon had passed half way into the system, and their sensors had finally gotten a decent reading on the enemy positions. The fighters were all over the place, which was to be expected. What truly pleased him was the fact that the enemy had conveniently split itself up, which was likely going to shorten the length of the battle. It was a simple point. By splitting themselves up the Imperials allowed the Terrans to bring more guns to bear on fewer targets. Karl was already considering offering them terms of surrender, but wasn’t quite sure they’d be accepted quite so quickly. He decided to wait until they had destroyed at least one of the three battleships. Once one had been destroyed he was sure that the others would quickly surrender.

“Sir, the Second Coming of Jupiter is requesting permission to advance to the front of the battle line.” One of the com technicians called out.
Karl nodded in response. “Aye, give them the order. Tell them their Khan wishes them much honor in battle.”
“Aye, sir. Message sent.” The com tech replied.
“Do you think it is wise to allow our escort to advance ahead of us?” Irina asked from her seat in the middle of the bridge. Karl had been standing behind it, bracing himself with one hand, in case the ship was attacked.
“I do not see what we have to worry about. The three ships are scattered about the system, and will thus be easy pickings for our forces. The Yavin system is ours.” Karl declared.
“Then why are you not calling for their surrender?” Irina asked.
“We might know what fate lies in store for them, but at least two of their number seem to believe they can put up a fight. Once we have shown them the error of their ways I will call for their surrender.” Karl explained.
“And if they do not accept your demands?”
“Then we shall scatter their bodies amongst the planets of our new home.”

The Dark Tide and Dark Storm were the first to engage the Terrans. The Dark Tide was holding the rear for the Dark Storm, and both ships had passed into the midst of the fighter battle. Their TIEs had been reduced to about seventy five percent of their original number, but neither captain was worried about that. TIEs were meant to be expendable, and they would simply be replaced once they had made it back to an Imperial base. They began to lash out at the smaller aerospace fighters with their cannons, but it was not quite an effective tactic. It was rather similar to trying to kill a fly using a baseball bat. Many of their shots missed, simply because the target was smaller then expected. On the other hand, the times they did manage to hit the aerospace fighters tended to leave no remains of the target. The Terran WarShips and Jumpships had been losing as well, and they had finally reached the outer limits to their missile batteries. Unsurprisingly, they decided to open fire at that point. Thousands of missiles poured from the ships, all fixed on the Dark Storm. The missiles accelerated as quickly to their maximum speeds, each intent on smashing into their target, mixing their kinetic energy with that of their mounted explosives. Unlike the smaller missiles mounted by the fighters these missiles didn’t try and avoid anti-missile fire. It was assumed any target they would be launched at would be able to destroy at least half their number, but when launched in such large volleys it was expected that at least some would get through. So why waste fuel on useless maneuvering?

As it was, such fuel would have been wasted, as the Star Destroyers didn’t mount any anti-missile system. They were built for combat against energy based weapons, and their defenses were built with that in mind. They had top of the line energy shields, and armor capable of partially deflecting energy blasts. Missiles, outside of the proton torpedoes, were generally useless against the larger capital ships, a result of their small size. Proton torpedoes were effective, but by the time they reached the Star Destroyer were effectively an energy based weapon anyway. The Terrans had come to the same conclusions, but had taken a different approach. Instead of switching over to purely energy based warfare, they had decided to improve the missiles. If they were slow enough to be countered by anti-missile fire, then they were made faster. If they were too small to really hurt a capital ship, they were made bigger. Eventually, missiles were made on a scale that made them practical even for the capital ships to mount. Now such shipkiller missiles were a common tool of war.

So it was a very under prepared Dark Storm the missiles targeted, and then hammered.

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Captain Nazarul was tossed across to the bridge of the Dark Storm as the missiles slammed into his ship. The leading edge of the missiles had been blunted by the shields, and once they realized what was coming extra power had been diverted to the upper and front shields. In the end, it hadn’t really helped. The shields had been able to take more punishment then normal, but as missiles exploded again and again it simply buckled and went away. The remaining missiles rained in, with nothing left to thwart them. The ship couldn’t dodge and had no defenses left except for her armor. The shield sphere was the first part to be destroyed, its weak superstructure particularly vulnerable to the missiles. It wasn’t the only part to be totaled though. The Dark Storm was a large target, and no portion of her was left untouched. Missiles proceeded to rip into the ship for a full minute. Armor was torn, vaporized, and blown off. Weapon emplacements exploded as missiles found them and set off the various energy banks and plasma relays such large guns required. The top of the Dark Storm disappeared in a holocaust of flame, and even after the missiles had stopped flame continued to pour out of holes torn into the ship’s hull.

“Status report!” Captain Nazarul called out as he picked himself up off the deck. Most of his crew wasn’t moving. He assumed those who didn’t respond were already dead.
“Sir, we have lost shields, and over seventy percent of our weapons are destroyed. We can not take another attack like that.” One of the surviving technicians reported. Nazarul wanted to curse, but his discipline kept himself from doing so in front of a member of his command.
“Signal the Dark Tide then. Tell them we are lost, and they are on their own. Then sound abandon ship. I will require fifteen minutes to reach my escape pod. So I will give the crew sixteen minutes to evacuate before the self destruct goes off.” Nazarul ordered.
“Yes sir, sixteen minutes sir. Um, sir…” the technician began.
“Do not worry…Azzas wasn’t it? I will wait until you have had time to broadcast the message before I set the countdown.” Nazarul reassured.
“Thank you sir. With your leave then.” Azzas replied.
“Carry on sailor.” Nazarul nodded towards last surviving communications station. Azzas moved quickly to the station while Nazarul headed to his own command suite. He quickly programmed the self destruct, and then waited for Azzas to remove himself from the communications station. “Ready?” Nazarul asked. Azzas nodded. “Good, then follow me.” Nazarul quickly departed the bridge, heading straight for his escape pod, Azzas following closely behind. They managed to make it through the corridors in relatively safety, which was fortunate considering how much damage the ship had already taken. As the life pod exited the ship Azzas turned to his captain.
“Sir, may I ask something?” Azzas inquired.
“Of course Azzas.” Nazarul replied, indicating his crewman should continue.
“Well, it’s just why…” Azzas began, before blushing and shutting up.
“Didn’t I go down with my ship?” Nazarul asked for him. Azzas nodded, so Nazarul decided to explain. “Well, it is rather simple really. I think such an act is best left for the holodramas. I am quite attached to my life, and am fully prepared to live it as long as possible. I was defeated in battle. This does not worry me in the slightest. What does worry me is how the other side will treat us when they pick us up.” Nazarul explained.
“But sir, surely the Dark Tide will be the ones who rescue us!” Azzas protested.
“While I find your trust in your compatriots rather touching, I must admit I find it a naïve as well. I know Dathkon quite well. The old man is probably ordering his ship to flank speed in order to press the attack.” Nazarul replied. “Which will be futile, considering it only took one solid attack to cripple the Storm. No, if either of the other two ships survives, it will most likely be the Glory and Vorals. He has a good head on his shoulder, and wasn’t moving to engage the way we were. A move I now regret, you should know.”
“Do you think the Imperial Glory will escape sir?” Azzas asked.
“No, I am quite sure that he will surrender. He may or may not try for terms. I hope he doesn’t really.” Nazarul remarked.
“Sir?”
“Opponents tend to be more lenient one you when you don’t antagonize them during your own surrender.”
“Yes sir.”

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It was much as Nazarul predicted. Seeing her sister ship go down in flames well and truly inspired the crew of the Dark Tide for revenge. Captain Dathkon ordered the ship to full speed, as well as opened up with all of his guns. The Dark Tide looked like it was suddenly the heart of a small star as all of her batteries opened up at once. Blue ion bolts followed green blasts of energy towards the oncoming Terrans. Several of the shots managed to find their targets, but the gun crews weren’t coordinating amongst themselves, each one picking their own targets. So while they were hitting the Terran vessels, they weren’t doing enough to cumulative damage to seriously impeded any of the oncoming WarShips.

The Warships, on the other hand, didn’t have that problem. They had closed to a medium range for such a battle, and that meant most of their heavy weapons were now in play. PPC blasts splashed against the Dark Tide’s shields, while heavy lasers and gauss cannons blasted through to tear chunks out of her armor. There were only two things working in the Dark Tide’s favor at the moment. The first was the fact that none of the Terran ships had registered the Dark Storm as a dead target yet. So the ships in the rear were splitting their volleys between the two ships, sparing the Dark Tide the violence of a concentrated attack like the one that had crippled the Dark Storm. The second advantage was the fact that the Dark Tide was now well into the middle of the cloud of fighters. The Terrans knew they had to protect their own, and thus hesitated to unleash any of their larger weapons, for fear of striking one of their own in the bargain.

Dathkon, sensing a weakness that wasn’t there, decided that he might succeed where Nazarul and the Dark Storm hadn’t. The Dark Tide began to maneuver in the midst of the fighters, in an attempt to draw the Terran WarShips closer in. Hopefully then some of the TIE fighters could disengage and begin to attack the bigger targets.

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Marcus found himself racing under the massive hull of the Dark Tide, wondering where his mysterious benefactor was going to take him. He had lost Jade 4 some time ago, and was no longer sure what was happening. He was aware that he had gone bingo on all of his missiles some time ago, and that he was running dangerously low on autocannon ammunition as well. On the up side, he would probably be able to begin painting on the other side of his canopy now. There simply wouldn’t be room left under his port side for more pictures of kills.

Two TIE fighters were flying towards him, and the lead exploded under a salvo from his pulse lasers while the second disintegrated under fire from the phantom fighter. The computer beeped as it registered another kill, and the enemy ships vanished from his sensors. At this point he wasn’t even paying attention to the various reports from his onboard computer. Despite being out of missiles it continued to chime when ever he acquired a lock, and it was either tune it out or go slowly mad from the constant buzzing. He could clearly see the phantom fighter at this point, as it stood out against the white hull of the Star Destroyer above them. He watched it slowly disappear as it dived away from the ship, and followed. It was becoming rather simple to trace its movements visually, though every now and again he found he had lost track of it. He didn’t worry when he did, as the phantom seemed interested in keeping him around, and would circle back so that he could find it again.

He watched as it pulled out of the dive and headed back towards the battleship they had been flying underneath. It seemed to target a dome like structure that occupied a decent sized portion of the ship’s belly, and he watched as the phantom ship opened fire. It seemed there was no shielding on the belly portion of the ships, something Marcus decided to note for future reference. It seemed the phantom craft had held back on some of its missile packs, and proceeded to let fly thirty mounted warheads. They smashed into the dome structure, sending bits and pieces of it flying off into space at the head of a fiery wave. Deciding that if the phantom ship thought it was an important target then it must be, Marcus let fly with his lasers and the last of his autocannon, adding more destruction to the mix. He felt that they must have hit something vital, as there was a series of large detonations inside the blasts that were already pouring out, explosions larger then anything their own weapons were capable of firing.

Marcus smiled as the ship above them began to twist and buckle in its death throes. Catching sight of the phantom ship again, he turned and followed. Today had brought him great honor and victory, as his battlecomp would bear out when he returned to the Jade Falcon. But first, he had a small mystery to solve. Then would the day be truly perfect.

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It hadn’t been the acts of Marcus and the phantom ship alone that had done for the Dark Tide. The reason the ship’s lower shields had been cut off had been the loss of the Dark Storm several moments earlier. The Star Destroyer had finally been finished when the fifth salvo of missiles had managed to punch through to her engine rooms. Despite having been evacuated just moments before the engines had been left on for the self destruct sequence. The missiles in question had in fact hit just as the first of the self destruct charges began to go off. The engines, already set to detonate as part of the self destruct command, went of in a rather spectacular manner, leaving almost no trace of the ship’s existence. The explosions were severe enough that the ship split into several dozen chunks which then scattered about the system as the rode the force of the explosion. The last piece of evidence that the Dark Storm had ever existed, outside of her surviving crew, would be a section of the fore hull that would eventually take up an orbit in the system’s asteroid belt.

With no other targets left, the Terran fleet turned the full force of their attacks against the already battered Dark Tide. Dathkon, finally realizing the danger his ship was in ordered the guns silent and all available power to the engines and forward shields, with the intent of running the gauntlet of Terran ships, and escaping the Yavin system entirely. Unfortunately for the Dark Tide, placing all of the power in its forward shields had left it vulnerable to the attack from below, sealing its fate.

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Captain Vorals, of the Imperial Star Destroyer Imperial Glory, was in a bad mood. He had had a promising career, or at least it had seemed so to him. He had a posting to moderately wealthy system, where he had thwarted a Rebel smuggling scheme. He had been a regular visitor at the Governor’s mansion, and spent much of his time socializing with well to do nobles and other system political figures. Coupled with rather impressive, if not outstanding, marks at the Imperial Academy, and it seemed like he was destined for the rank of Admiral. The only thing that was standing in his way was his relative youth, which even he admitted. After all, he didn’t mind if he wasn’t the youngest Imperial Admiral, as long as he eventually became an Imperial Admiral.

Then had come the posting to the Yavin system. He was supposed to stand as a picket in an out of the way system, filling in for another ship which had had to return to base of engine repairs. Considering the post, he half wondered if it might not have been deliberate sabotage that had caused the malfunction. He had easily considered this posting the dark spot in his career. And now it had gotten worse, as he watched the Dark Tide explode. His was the last ship left, and he knew there was no hope of victory. He turned to his senior communications officer, the taste of what he was about to do bitter in his mouth.

“Call back the surviving fighters, and stand down from all stations. Get me in contact with which ever is the flagship out there. We have no choice. It is time for us to surrender.” He declared.

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“Sir, the enemy fighters are departing the field. We are also receiving a hail from the last enemy ship. What are your orders sir?” the com tech asked. Karl smiled at the news.
“Allow the enemy fighters to retreat. Open the channel with the enemy ship.” Karl ordered.
“Yes sir, the channel is open sir.” The tech reported.
“Thank you.” Karl replied. He then turned so that he was facing the closest of the pick up mikes. “This is Khan Karl Pryde of the Clan Jade Falcon. I hereby order you to stand down and surrender. There will be no conditions presented by your side!” Karl barked.
“This is Captain Vorals of the Imperial Star Destroyer Imperial Glory. I hereby do tender my surrender. May you show us the mercy we would have showed you.” Was the reply. Karl nodded at the formal nature of the reply.
“We shall see about that. Stand down your weapons and fighters, and prepare for a boarding team. Any acts of aggression or other signs of hostility will be met with lethal force on our parts. That is your first and final warnings. We hereby take responsibility for all evacuated personal from your other ships. They will be held as prisoners of war, and treated accordingly.” Karl issued to the surrendering captain. He signaled to the com tech, who promptly cut the communications between the two ships.

“Well folks, welcome to your new home.” Karl said softly. The crew on the bridge broke out in cheers.

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Marcus kept behind the phantom ship, making no move to reveal his presence, though he was almost positive that the phantom ship’s pilot knew he was there. They were cruising past the retreating fighters from both sides, and Marcus ignored the hails he got over his radio questioning his movements. None of them were from the new Jade 1, so he saw no reason to break his radio silence. If one of them had been the new commander, he would simply have spun a story about how he was tracking a damaged enemy craft, so that the pilot might be picked up later, as was Clan tradition. He would have regretted the lie, but as it was it did not become necessary for him to tell it.

He watched as a section of space opened up before him, going from a field of stars to what looked like the inside of a hangar bay. The level of the stealth technology employed by the ship before him was simply amazing, he had never seen the like, even on some of the Inner Sphere special operations vessels that he had had the privilege to inspect. The phantom ship showed up as it landed in the suddenly appearing hold. He began to bank away, when he noticed a strange protrusion sliding out of the hold. It looked vaguely weaponish to him, but he couldn’t be sure.

He was sure, several moments later, when his craft went dead. It simple stopped responding, cruising closer to the cloaked ship. He had lost all power, and wondered what they were going to do with him. If they had wanted to kill him, which he was sure they were more then capable of, then they probably would have by then. Why cripple his ship if they didn’t intend to capture either it, him, or both? And if they were interested in capturing his ship, then what were they going to do with him?

The first of the questions was answered when he spotted a pair of maintenance craft fly out of the hold. One grabbed a hold of each wing, and they guided his craft into a landing in the hangar, using their own thrusters to slow down his fighter. He popped his canopy open almost as soon as they had closed the door behind them. He stood up after unbuckling his safety harness, and looked around the hangar they had landed him in. Standing in front of the two maintenance craft that had grabbed him here a boy and girl who looked to be in their late teens, and if their faces were any indication, were definitely siblings, if not twins. There was an older gentleman wearing a work outfit standing near the main control panel. And there, less then five meters away from his own craft, was the phantom fighter. He watched as the canopy slid back, and the ship’s pilot stood up. She definitely had a fine figure, and when she took of her helmet luxurious brunette hair cascaded down her back. She turned to Marcus, but couldn’t help but stare, especially when she smiled at him.

“Welcome Marcus,” she said, “to the Ragnarok.”

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A/N: Sorry about the long post time, but I write this opposite another story, and try to get at least a chapter of one done a week. This one turned out to be even longer, for what should be obvious reasons. I’ve also turned anonymous reviews back on, so now anyone can leave a criticism or compliment.