The characters that have appeared in previous Star Wars novels are property of Lucasfilm, Ltd. Captain Amaryl Assay, Admiral Tesh Dorass, First Officer Azzeh, and the name of Tycho's droid belong to the author. Any other characters presented here that have never been seen in a Star Wars novel are property of Iris Bailey. Do not repost anywhere without the permission of the author!
The Errant Venture hung in low orbit above the dirty orange and gray sphere of the gas giant Arramsetti IV. The Star Destroyer overshadowed the two Mon Calamari Star Cruisers that kept formation with her.
Two hours before, Elscol Loro and Sixtus Quinn had arrived in their old transport ship, Forzani’s Pride. Tycho had met them in Booster’s private landing bay. He had wanted to know how they knew he would be able to meet them and have a large enough force to take on a Moff and her Star Destroyer. Elscol had just shrugged. "You’ll see."
A final council of war was about to be held in one of the largest briefing rooms. Sitting at the head of the table, Tycho looked around the room and smiled to himself. It almost feels like old times.
The Captains of the Thyferran cruisers sat with several of their staff, going over information that had been downloaded to their data pads. It had taken some convincing, but with Bror Jace and Captain Assay’s help, he’d managed to talk the ruling council of Thyferra into releasing the two ships to his command so that they could support the rescue effort. They would also be supplying a few hundred infantry troops for the ground side of the operation.
Eight of Rogue Squadron’s pilots sat to one side of the room with the dozen pilots of the Errant Venture’s hastily gathered starfighter squadron. It was made up of pilots of varying skill, their six Z-95 Headhunters, and six Uglies. Those ships, commonly referred to by the slang term Uglies, were cobbled together from whatever spare parts were available, most of the time from various different kinds of fighters. They could be unreliable crafts, sometimes accumulating design flaws from several ships.
Down the table to Tycho’s right sat Wes, Hobbie, Elscol, and Sixtus, speaking together in hushed tones. Wes was showing signs of coming back to his old self, and that worried Tycho to no end. Hobbie, after emerging from the bacta hale and hearty, had insisted on participating in the briefing. He would be flying a borrowed X-wing of the TADF.
Corran, Mirax, Bror, and Ajene sat down the other side of the table. Leaning over Corran and Mirax was the imposing figure of Booster Terrik, owner and Captain of the Errant Venture. He had become a surrogate father to Wedge after his parents had been killed and he was understandably upset over his capture.
Okay, everyone is here. Time to talk battle. Tycho stood up and rapped his knuckles on the tabletop. "If I could have everyone’s attention, it’s time we got started."
With that, the twenty pilots sitting on the far side of the room approached the table in order to be able to hear and see everything that went on. They stood in a group to Tycho’s right, just behind Wes and Hobbie.
"First, for those of you who may not know him, this is Booster Terrik, Captain of the Errant Venture. A good deal of the guns on the Venture are non-operational, so he and his ship are here as a show of power for the Querulous, as well as adding a dozen pilots to the mix and carrying the shuttles containing our ground troops."
Booster nodded to the group.
Corran, his son-in-law, grinned wickedly. "Yeah, and the truly momentous news is that he’s doing all this for free." He ducked just as Booster took a swipe at his head and Mirax laughed. It was good to see the two men in her life only play fighting for a change.
"Colonel, who is the commander of the Querulous? And is she the only ship they’ve got?" Captain Assay spoke up, anxious to get into the details of the coming mission.
"Yes, she’s all they’ve got as far as we know." Tycho signaled to Elscol, and she hit a couple of buttons on her datapad. The holoprojector at the center of the table hummed to life, and a half meter long image of a Victory Class Star Destroyer hovered in the air. "The Interdictor that they used to grab Wedge was returning a favor owed to their commander, Admiral Osiel Turpa. It is not a part of their regular force. I contacted New Republic Intelligence for more information on him. He’s not very well known, but we do know that he’s not much of a military leader. His main claim to power seems to be the fact that he is Moff Lathel Tchlinda’s lover. They are about as viscous a pair as you will ever find."
Elscol consulted her datapad and tapped some more keys. The Star Destroyer disappeared and was replaced by a planet with some small brown continents, predominated by blue oceans. She pointed to the largest continent before speaking. "Our source on the planet has informed us that Turpa will be attending the ceremony tomorrow, and his XO will be in command. A Commander Jarice Cright if our information can be trusted. It seems that he will do everything by the book, and is not particularly good at thinking on his feet."
Tycho spoke up again. "Moff Tchlinda has only that one ship, but we can’t discount the fact that they have some hidden firepower, especially after yesterday’s skirmish. They’re now short more than two squadrons of TIEs, and that will hurt them. We had firepower that she probably didn’t count on, and she may look for additional protection from us."
"So here is how we are going to proceed. The Errant Venture and her two escorts will have the responsibility of dealing with the Querulous and anything else the Moff may throw at them. The Venture’s fighter group is going to be working with Rogue Squadron to keep the Querulous’ TIEs off the three big ships, as well as the ground forces when they head dirtside."
"Everyone has been given specific targets to hit, but any targets of opportunity will also be dealt with accordingly. Elscol, Sixtus, and Major Tuvora will be leading the ground assault. They will be in communication with us from the surface and will be our eyes and ears. Nawara will be in our Lambda class shuttle and will be monitoring communications between us. He will also be assigning targets on an as needed basis."
"One more thing. Rogue Squadron will again be one over full strength tomorrow, since Bror Jace has asked to be included in this mission. He will be designated Rogue Plus. Good to have you fighting with us again, Mr. Jace."
"The pleasure’s all mine." The tall Thyferran nodded to him.
"In order to even the Flights out a bit, Wes and Hobbie will be their own Fourth Flight. Bror, you will join Corran and Ooryl in Three Flight. That will leave you a pilot short, Corran, but I’m sure you’ll be able to make it work."
"He forgot to include Bror’s ego," Gavin whispered to Inyri from his place behind Hobbie. She stifled a laugh, and that caught Tycho’s attention.
"Do you have something to add, Mr. Darklighter?"
Gavin straightened under the gaze of his commanding officer. "No, sir."
"Wes, Hobbie, I know you two will be alright on your own. And Hobbie, please don’t damage the Thyferran X-wing. I don’t have enough credits in my account to pay for it."
There was scattered laughter throughout the group, and Hobbie’s face reddened.
"Mirax, I am afraid that I couldn’t think up a designation for you. I ran out of fancy names. So you will be the Skate for the duration of the mission."
She nodded.
"All right, everyone. I trust you’ve had time to study the data you’ve been supplied. Elscol is going to give you a bit of background that wasn’t covered in the downloads."
Elscol stood and looked over the group. She tucked a strand of auburn hair behind her left ear and began her briefing. "Arramsetti III has been under Imperial rule for about ten years now. The local government sold out to the Empire when two Imperial Star Destroyers showed up in system demanding their surrender. Since Arramsetti had no defense force of its own, having depended on its rather out-of-the-way location as its primary source of protection, the government’s leaders made the wisest choice and surrendered. The Destroyers were prepared to slag the place otherwise.
"The Empire intended to use the planet as a forward staging area for future conquests. Those plans never materialized, however, since the Rebellion gave them plenty to worry about closer to home. The Querulous was left here to control the system while the second Destroyer, Delirium, joined the Imperial fleet at Endor, where it was turned into a flaming wreck.
"Their capital city is Jimmarra, and that is where all of their defenses are located. There is still a large, fairly well equipped garrison there, and it is the local Moff’s, Lathel Tchlinda's, seat of power. Unlike several other females who hold the title of Moff, due to the deaths of husbands or fathers, Tchlinda earned her position. She is smart, ruthless, and has all the warmth and personality of the late, and much beloved, Ysanne Isard."
There was a round of laughter at the comment, and Elscol smiled. Nodding to the big man on her right, she continued. "Sixtus and I, along with a handful of others, have been on planet for about six months. We have been working with New Republic Intelligence, forwarding reports and generally causing problems for the Moff and her group."
Tycho nodded. Now he knew how Elscol had found out where and when to reach him. No doubt she had been in contact with Coruscant, maybe even General Cracken himself, when she found out where Wedge was. In that case she would know exactly what kind of force Tycho had put together.
"The local populace are sick of Tchlinda’s presence on their world and are ready for a change of government. We’ve got everything in place to accomplish that, including a few surprises here and there that I am not at liberty to discuss here."
Tycho raised his eyebrows at that final comment. He had not realized that there were elements to the plan that he was not aware of. He guessed that Elscol, used to working on her own, did not want to share all the details to ensure mission security. But he trusted her implicitly and decided not to press the matter. He just hoped that he would not regret that decision.
"We’ve just been waiting for the right time and set of circumstances to present themselves to make our move. This may not be the right time, but it is certainly the right set of circumstances."
There was a general murmur of agreement from the group.
"In her desire to exact revenge against Wedge Antilles for the deaths of her sons, who were on the Death Star at Endor, she forgot Rule Number One of Imperial survival. Don’t take on Rogue Squadron. Tomorrow, she will learn the full magnitude of her mistake.
"About six hours before your departure for Arramsetti III, Sixtus, Major Tuvora, and myself will be heading back to get everything ready for your arrival. Tycho?"
Tycho nodded. "Thanks, El." He turned to the group he had assembled. "You all know your assignments and what is expected of you. There’s a friend of ours that needs us and we will make sure that we don’t let him down. Are there any questions?"
He paused and looked at the faces of his pilots. "In that case then... Everyone, study the data and get as much rest as possible. We go at 1000 tomorrow and it’s going to be a very busy day."
Tycho looked out over the group one last time. "And thank you all for you efforts. May the Force be with us." He paused and glanced down at the tabletop. "And with Wedge."
Copyright June 13, 2001 by Susan Hill.
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