Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 181

The trip through hyperspace was relatively uneventful. We spent most of our time getting to know the controls for our new Saber-class tanks. We all spent at least some time at their controls, getting to know the ins and outs, even if we could only move them a few feet in each direction. We also learned about the turret controls. Obviously, we had the actual weapons disabled, so we didn't accidentally blow up the hangar. By the time we arrived at Alpha Base, we all had at least a basic understanding of the tank's controls. 

I definitely needed to reward the clone soldier who was kind enough to show us where the tank's manual was inside the cockpit before we left. Without that, we would have had considerably less success teaching ourselves.  

Arriving at Alpha Base was an interesting experience. First Group was now a sizable group of ships, consisting of the Loyal Hound, Forward Charge, and the Talos Chariot, with the Brick in reserve for insertions. Knowing that this was just one of our groups and that we had grown so much was pretty awesome, but sitting in the cockpit, listening to the pilots communicate, and looking out the viewports to see the two other ships was awesome. Something about maneuvering together, pulling into casual formation, struck a cord in me that, for some reason, just hadn't clicked yet.

The Skyforged was becoming a force to be reckoned with. We weren't quite ready to punch out Star Destroyers, but we would get there eventually.

It only took a moment for us to get permission to land, all three of our ships passing through the planet's defensive fleet, making a beeline for the large Rebel stronghold. Once all our ships had landed, Corvak, Tatnia, Ahsoka, and I were guided into the base, once again riding the wheeled cargo vehicle. They certainly seemed to be handy and made me think getting some similar might be good for the station. We also needed regular transportation for Nirn in general, though our recently gained speeder bikes were due to be sent there in our next delivery of equipment and materials.

We were guided to a meeting room similar to the ones we had worked in before, although the occupants were different. As expected, General Syndulla was there, as were other people I didn't recognize, though their tags showed them to be ship captains. I also recognized Wedge Antilles, Luke's second and command and one of my favorite characters in the entirety of Star Wars. While Ahsoka and Tatnia shook hands with Syndulla, I reached out to Wedge. 

"Good to see you again," I said, referring to the first time we had met, oh so long ago at Thila command, after having just escaped Nar Shaddaa. 

"You as well, Deacon," He said, shaking my hand with a slight look of surprise. "I didn't think you would recognize me." 

"I have an eye for talent," I said with a shrug. "Is Rogue Squadron joining us for this mission?" 

"That's the plan," He said. "Along with Yellow and Mynock Squadrons." 

He gestured to a Twi'lek male and a human woman sitting next to him, both of whom stood and shook my hand. I also shook hands with Hera, during which she introduced the ship captains and the analyst sitting beside her. Once we were all sitting, she began to talk.

"First off, I have been instructed to ask you, Deacon, if you know Luke Skywalker's current location," General Syndulla asked, leaning forward slightly. "He made us aware that he had Jedi business to attend to, that he wanted to discuss it with you, and that it may take some time.; Unfortunately, he has not been in contact with us for more than two weeks."

"I do, he is currently receiving more in-depth training," I explained, internally wincing that no one had considered letting people know he was okay. "Though not from any of the Jedi who joined the Skyforged." 

"Another survivor?" Syndulla asked in surprise. "Who?"

"I will not say," I answered with a frown. "I respect their privacy for now. I can say that I will be picking Luke up from the planet they are on in… three weeks now, minus a few days. He will likely return a few days after that."

"Very well," She said, looking at Wedge with a nod. "It seems you will remain Rogue Leader for this mission." 

"Yes, Ma'am." 

She nodded before tapping some controls before an image popped up on the center holo projector. It wasn't the best quality, as it was clearly taken from far away and blown up as best as possible.

"Since we last discussed this mission, Deacon, we have managed to get a few scans of the system where the repair station is stationed," The General explained, gesturing to the image. "The design is one our analysts recognize as CIS in origin."

The station was broken up into five rectangular sections, each seemingly a quarter the size of Omega station, each one connected, end on end, by a pair of multi-floor thick cylinders, though they were mounted at an angle so together the station had an angular curve to it.

On top of each section were sensor masts and various greeblies, as well smaller hangar bays, though those were harder to make out due to the angle of the scans. Branching out from the rectangular sections were the ship repair ports, two layers of beams and anchor points that would surround the ship being repaired. Three of the repair stations were big enough for decent-sized capital ships, while the remaining two had much smaller bays, with two per rectangle. Because of the angle of each rectangular base, each repair bay had plenty of room to work on ships that were bigger than the bays could fit around, working section by section. 

One of the large bays was occupied, while three of the smaller bays were as well. On top of that, the scans confirmed the presence of a Lucrehulk, as well as a half dozen smaller support ships. 

"That… dammit, that is going to be tough," I said with a wince. "But damn, what a find. What sort of power readings are we getting?" 

"Low power from the Lucrehulk, almost none from the repair station," the general responded. "Our analysts believe the station is fully shut down to save power and resources while the Lucrehulk is on standby, scanning the system."

"Probably the only reason your scans weren't noticed," I pointed out. "They will notice if we start getting close, though. And that Lucrehulk, well, that's going to chew through even one of your larger Mon Cal ships… not to mention that it's from before people forgot how deadly starfighters can be, so it's going to have more than enough point defense systems to hold off three squadrons."

"And that's if the whole ship is empty," Corvak pointed out. "That ship is supposed to have hundreds of droid starfighters on board."

"Exactly," I said, nodding towards my subordinate. "If we go head-on, the only way to beat it is to properly beat it, meaning we overwhelm it with too many ships for it to handle. Otherwise, it's going kill a lot of people." 

"We don't have that option," General Syndulla explained. "We have access to precisely one MC75 Star Cruiser, the Rapid Tides, under the command of Ferila Setano, which is already a significant redistribution of assets. We also have a pair of MC30c frigates and several smaller ships. 

"Seriously?" I asked incredulously. "With all you have to gain from this, that's all you can muster up? That's not nearly enough to cleanly take the station. Hell, it might not be enough to messily take it." 

"It is all the Rebellion can spare at the moment," She explained, not sounding very happy, but clearly resigned to it. "We are stretched thin, and even if we might want this repair platform desperately, we can't just collapse our ship station, drag away resources, and cut down defense fleets."

I mentally bite my tongue, holding back from pointing out that any world that they are holding is only because the Emperor is letting them, defense fleets or not.

"Well, then attacking them outright is not an option," I said with a frown, leaning back and crossing my arms. "I'm not dragging my people to a battle that is a coin flip, and neither should you." 

"Which is why we are having this meeting," She explained, raising an eyebrow at me. "We need to come up with a better idea than a frontal assault. A strategy that can minimize casualties but still give us the repair station on the other side."

"Well… getting rid of the Lucrehulk is our primary concern then," Ahsoka pointed out. "It is the heart of the fleet and most likely the main source of starfighters and firepower," She pointed out. "If we disable it or otherwise remove it from the fight, it sounds like we have enough forces to easily deal with the remaining ships." 

"I wouldn't say it would be easy," One of the captains of our accompanying starships said with a frown. "But certainly a lot less of an issue."

"The first thing we need to ask is, what is the likelihood anyone is still alive on these ships," Wedge pointed out. "Dealing with a living commander is very different from dealing with a droid control-mind." 

"I would agree," General Syndulla agreed with a nod, turning to look at a woman sitting beside her.  "What do we know?" 

"Well, if the ship was stationed there at the end of the Clone Wars, it's been there for over twenty years," The analyst said. "But a ship of that size could have supplies for its organic crew for much longer than that. There's no way to really know."

"A ship that size could contain any number of modifications to sustain its small crew indefinitely," I pointed out. "It would be child's play to turn a hangar into a hydroponics bay. But I think you guys are missing the point. The Lucrehulk design was used exclusively by the Trade Federation." 

"That is true," The analyst agreed with a nod, seemingly genuinely curious about where I was taking this. "What does that mean?"

"Just prior to the Clone Wars, Nemodians had just successfully taken back control of the Trade Federation from Kuati," I explained. "Nute Gunray was eager to put as many of his friends in power as possible, and that included on the capital freighters that cost half a billion credits."

"So this ship's captain was likely a Nemodian," one of the ship's captains stated. "What does that have to do with it likely being empty or not."

"Nemodian culture was all about the drive to succeed, to grow your own power and wealth," Ahsoka said, picking up exactly what I was putting down. "If there was a captain on board that ship, it was likely Nemodian, and there is no way any high-up Nemodian would sit at the helm of such a fleet and not use it to expand his domain. Turn pirate, start a security company, sell the ships to the highest bidder, or even attempt to trade it for favors. For any race, it would be tempting to do any of those things, but for a success-driven Nemodian? Too good to resist, especially after a few years had passed and nobody came to claim the ships."

"So, because the fleet hasn't gone anywhere, that means it must be empty of life," General Syndulla said. "I do not know much about Nemodians, but I can't see any race just sitting and waiting for twenty years, especially out here in an empty system. Thoughts?"

"I will admit, I was functioning under the assumption that the people would have hunkered down and hidden after the Clone Wars ended in the Republic's favor," The analyst responded. "Your interpretation does make a certain amount of sense as well."

"Why would the staff be fully robotic?" Wedge asked. "Alpha Base was because the droids went crazy, right?"

"My guess is that this is an off-the-books operation," I suggested. "The place we found the computer core that contained all of this intel was an off-the-book refuge, designed as a place CIS higher-ups could hide if the war turned south. Alpha Base was off the books as well, just in a different way. It makes sense that this would also be some sort of secret location."

"But to what end?" 

"I have no idea, but it exists for a reason, and it was on a list of hidden, secret assets," I said with a shrug. "If the last raids are any proof, precisely what happened and what is going on at the location will become much more apparent once we are there and can look at the data archives or records. 

"Perhaps we could get back on track?" General Syndulla asked, prompting Wedge to apologize. "How do we get past the active ship? The Lucrehulk is the only ship we could see that had an active energy signature, meaning it is keeping watch. How do we bypass it?"

"Well… If we assume no one is actually home… Why not pretend to be their superior officers?" Tatnia suggested. "There's gotta be a way to trick the droids into thinking we are one of them. If they accept us as actual officers, they would basically do anything that we say... right?"

"We… could probably program a ship to send off CIS signals," General Syndulla agreed. "Would that be enough?"

"I mean… we have droids too," I pointed out, running my hand through my hair as I considered the idea. "Hell, I bet we could even find some old security codes to use. With the right actor, we could convince them we are their new commander, accepting control of the whole system."

"Assuming they don't have pre-existing orders," One of the ship captains pointed out. "They might just get attacked on sight, no matter what credentials you're broadcasting."

"Oh, no, for sure," I agreed readily. "Its razor thin and could go either way. But it's also probably the cleanest idea we are gonna get. If we can shut down the Lucrehulk, even if it alerts everyone else, you guys can mop up the rest of the fleet. Then, once everything is down, we can move on to the station and the ships inside.  It's the definition of high risk, high reward." 

"What happened to no coin flip?" Corvak asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm not saying we should stride into the carnivore's den without a care," I said. "But with the right escape routes in place..."

"I'm not sure if relying on such an all-or-nothing bet is wise," One of the ship captains said, crossing their arms. "The repair dock is a jewel we cannot afford to lose out on. Surely, waiting for more resources to be open for us is better."

"I think… that there is a lot to be gained, and that makes relying on a trick like this risky," General Syndulla said. "But I also agree that it seems like our best chance to outmaneuver this fleet."

She was silent for a moment, considering what she had heard, running it through her head before finally seeming to come to an internal decision.

"Let's spend some more time on Tatnia's idea," She finally said, giving my second-in-command a nod. "If we can come up with a 'plan b' play or find a way to fill in the plan gaps, then we should go with it. If we can't, we can return to the drawing board."