Back in the Wild

[Gir Quee]

Ibtisam City, Hast

A Mon Calamari and a man wearing a black trenchcoat walked in the ceraglass-enclosed walkway under the ocean, stopping only to observe schools of brightly colored fish swim past their enclosure. It had been slightly over a decade since he had last regularly seen the fish...yet it seemed like only yesterday that he had been a mere deckhand on a fishing vessel. Gir's eyes settled on the end of the corridor and the bio-dome it opened up into.

"The place has changed since I've last been here," mused Gir, "even if the fish are the same."

"You've changed as well," said Yeeli.

"Up and down the rank ladder to be sure," replied the blonde man, "but I don't think that I've changed that much."

Yeeli briefly halted, "Perhaps you might not think so, but your reputation here has changed..."

"What can you tell me about Mothut?"

His old schoolmate continued forward with Gir in tow, "She graduated about four years after us...not too much older than either of us...but I think that if you met her, you'd think that she's actually younger than us."

A brief frown flickered across his face, "Maturity issues?"

"While, she certainly had that reputation earlier in her life," said Yeeli, "but I meant more in terms of energy...you'll just have to wait to see."

He glanced at his wrist chrono, "I suppose that won't be too much longer..."

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir looked up from his wrist chrono to see Yeeli already wading into a throng of pedestrians in the narrow streets of central Ibtisam City. He quickly fell in step behind the mon calamari, but only half paid attention to him. His eyes flitted around the buildings, taking note of what shops and restaurants were still present, and which ones had fallen by the wayside. Quee's eyes searched for one particular sign: a silver "Besh" letter set on a field of shimmering water, but he try as he might, he couldn't find it. They must have moved...Yeeli suddenly stopped and turned around.

"We're here," said the mon calamari, gesturing at the building just to the side of them.

The municipal hall was a six-story building that reached up to almost touch the panels of the protective dome that enclosed this section of the city. After all of his travels, he found the building to be surprisingly plain and almost indistinguishable from the commercial buildings around it. If anything distinguished the hall from the others it was a lack of signs or advertisements. As they entered the building, Gir felt a wave of humidity hit him. Apparently there are more mon calamari here then humans...or a mon calamari sets the environmental controls. Yet the first person they encountered in the halls was a human female with shoulder length red hair and a set of piercing green eyes. Judging by her style of dress and bearing, Gir guessed that she was a mid-ranking bureaucrat of some sort. But as his eyes quickly moved to judge her face, a smile blossomed across it. But it was clear to Gir that the attention wasn't on him, but Keeli.

"I haven't see you around in a while Keeli. Mothut finally managed to reel you in? What kind of bait did it take?"

Keeli let out a whistling sound as he considered her questions, "I can't divulge that piece of information yet...but while I'm here...Mrs. Saele, this is Mister Quee."

"Gir is fine," interjected the blonde man, "I prefer to go by first name when I can."

"I don't like using first names until I get to know someone. Mister Quee, I hope it will be a pleasure to meet you," said Saele slowly, "are you a new resident to Ibtisam City?"

Gir hesitated.

"It's something like that..."

 

[Gir Quee]

“I don't know, I'd say that he's more like a prodigal son,” said a new voice, “long lost, and finally returning to the fold...”

Gir turned his eyes to rest on a surprisingly muscular mon calamari female that he guessed was Mothut, judging by a slight sigh of exasperation from Yeeli. She certainly does have a personality...But before Gir could even begin to size her up, Mothut had already extended a webbed hand, which he grasped.

“...but he's the son we need right now,” continued the female, “I am Councilor Mothut, of course.”

A dark look clouded Saele's face, “One we need?”

“This is Gir Quee, former Supreme Commander of the Galactic Republic military and president of Lucerne Labs,” said the woman, “they almost sound like lofty titles...but Ibtisam City, back in wild space, is his hometown...Should I call you my homeboy?”

Keeli snorted in what Gir guessed was only partially muted derision, “Please councilor, Mister Quee didn't come back here to be the object of some sort of guessing game or show and tell-”

“So it's business as usual, is that it?”

“Yes, yes it is,” defended Keeli, “and we have a conference room set up just to discuss this with the other city councilors and a military attache.”

Gir glanced at his wrist chrono, “We have fifteen minutes before the holo-conference starts.”

“A pity,” said Mothut, “I was just getting into the banter as well...perhaps afterwards we can bring this up again...”

 

[Gir Quee]

Is she just eccentric, or is she toying with me in some other way? Another, more terrifying thought engendered itself in his mind... Or she's unstable...None those assessments provided Gir with any comfort as Keeli herded both Mothut and himself into the conference room. Gir had been expecting it to be a somewhat drab, rectangular room, but instead the room was circular with half-circle bench situated around a relatively large holo-projector. Keeli gestured from them to sit down, taking care in the process to sit between Gir and Mothut.

"Gir," started Keeli, fidgeting with the room's control datapad, "I advise you to keep quiet unless spoken to. These meetings come with currents of undertow threaded within the conversations. I think that you will find it exceptionally easy to end up in the wrong position if you are too quick to speak."

"I will do most of the political talking," informed Mothut plainly, "like Keeli said, don't speak unless spoken to. Stick your base of expertise, ships, shipbuilding, and your company."

Gir nodded, "Got it."

The holo-projector began to flicker and hum. Gir glanced at his chrono. Starting early, are we? The meeting's not for another ten minutes at least...and my chrono is set early...He looked up to see the fuzzy blue visage of another mon calamari coalesce above the holo-projector. He seemed to be wearing some sort of scaled armor that at first glance seemed to be rather archaic. Yet he knew from the Republic's war with the Sith that what seemed to be archaic wasn't necessarily ineffective.

"Greetings Blash'n," said Mothut, "I figure it best to talk with you personally before the others appeared."

The holo-graph of the mon calamari bobbed his head and down in agreement, "Greetings Mothut, Keeli, and Mister Quee. I do not see much in the current proposition to discuss. It seems straightforward."

"I agree. I'm more concerned that Oshtra will try to undermine it with a bid from her city's startup."

"Oh...was she not satisfied with the results of our meeting a fortnight ago?"

"My sources tell me that she is not."

The distant mon calamari sagely shook his head, "This is not a matter for her to wield any undue influence given that startup's performance. If I detect any attempts by her to do so...well...you know full well what would happen...as would she."

"I don't think she'll do it directly. I think she may have Mabettye do her dirty work."

"Duly noted...I will be on the lookout, but you all must realize that both of them should have the opportunity to voice serious and sincere concerns with this enterprise..."

 

[Gir Quee]

"Yes, of course," agreed Mothut.

A series of blinking icons began to appear around the bottom edges of the Blash'n's holographic image. It seemed that the mon calamari commander also noticed them as well judging by his new found downward gaze. Probably the other members of this council waiting to join in on the call...Blash'n's image suddenly shrunk as the other holograms of the council began to populate the holo-projector's emission field. Most of the dozen figures appeared to be mon calamari, but Gir quickly took note that two other humans, a quarren, and a bothan among the councilor ranks. A rough representation of the world's population sample as well...Commander Blash'n ran a webbed hand over a section of his scaled armor before clearing his throat.

"Councilors and esteemed guests, welcome," said the mon calamari commander, "long have we talked about these types of programs, and I find it promising and rewarding that we can see this planning near fruition. Today we have Mister Gir Quee in our presence, a native son of Ibtisam City and president of Lucerne Labs in our presence."

Gir silently nodded in acknowledgement of the commander's greeting.

"Mister Quee is well known to us," said the bothan, "from some of his other exploits, but I feel that his corporate work and ties are not fully understood at this time. Commander Blash'n, if you would elaborate on your intent for his inclusion in these talks."

"Lucerne Labs has cleared our vetting procedure," replied the mon calamari commander, "one of their designs has caught the eye of myself and their commanders. Today we will discuss not only how our nation will require it, but Lucerne Lab's commitment to produce it here on Hast as well."

"It is well and good that we keep our defenses modernized, and of course to bring industry to our world as well," said a mon calamari female with an unusual mottled skin pattern, "but it is premature to include him so soon in the process. No offense to Mister Quee, but I think that this merits more private discussion among the council before we continue."

"Councilor Oshtra," started Mothut, "these plans for the frigate have already passed through the admiralty committee. While I know little of the nature of spaceships, I'm certain that Commander Blash'n and his staff are more than capable of determining its merits and what it will entail to make it a reality."

"Councilors, please," said Blash'n, "we follow the same process as we do for all of our military acquisition technology regardless of the vendors and politics involved. At this time, it is clear to the admiralty committee that we move into the implementation phase. The Dephin-class proposed by Lucerne Labs meets not only our military requirements for a new defense ship, but also brings with it economic opportunities as well. Lucerne Labs has specifically designed it to be able to be built on planet in small shipyards, rather than entitling the use of the orbital shipyards under Aurora Industries's control right now. That benefit itself must not be overlooked. Mister Quee, tell us about the Delphin-class..."

 

[Gir Quee]

"The Delphin-class is based on the hull of the Bolaph-class Luxury Liner that-"

"So it's a converted civilian ship then?" interrupted Oshtra.

But Gir didn't pay her any attention.

"-was a popular product of several municipal yards on Hast over the years," continued Gir, "Much of the Delphin uses the same basic components, but our engineers have refined the basic lines and systems to allow easier production and inclusion of galactic standard technology in the craft. When it is fully built, however, it's mon calamari heritage remains fully clear."

"But," said the bothan, "you mentioned galactic standard technology. this means that the ship, and all of tis stations will be fully usable by other species besides mon calamari?"

"Yes."

"So it could be made as a marketable export product then?"

"Yes."

"Thank you Mister Quee, please continue."

"With its redesign being fully based in galactic standard compatability, we were able to include some proprietary Lucerne Labs products into the design itself, to include our signature electronic warfare weapon, the Erebus-class Jamming Array, as well as our more conventional weapons. The Delphin's advanced shield systems have been procured from the famed Mon Calamari Shipyards while the hull itself will be sourced from the local manufacturers for its ceramasteel frame and multilayered hull plating. Sublight drives will be the same as on the Bolaph-class, which will lessen Hast Defense Force procurement and maintenance expenses, but the hyperdrive is a cutting edge Lucerne Labs model."

"The economic and political considerations that you seem to have put into this design are commendable," stated an elderly mon calamari male, "but as a former commander myself, I would like to hear about its philosophy...as a tactical concept."

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir nodded in understanding as he formulated his words. Potentially dangerous waters to tread into...But if Commodore Blash'n is already onboard with the concept, this should be relatively safe...I think. He cleared his throat and turned his gaze on the older mon calamari councilor.

"The Delphin-class was designed with an understanding of past mon calamari warships of similar size, particularly the MC-30 and the MC-40," said the commander, "like the MC-30, the Dephin is designed to soften up targets from range by using its projectile weaponry. But unlike that frigate, the Delphin sports the durability and broadside gun power of the MC40s."

"So it's a hybrid design," muttered the councilor coolly, leaning back into his chair.

"Councilor Mabettye," said Commodore Blash'n, "Mister Quee simplified the concept of the Delphin when he just spoke, and I feel that in doing so, he did not do it full justice. The Delphin has the redundant shielding technology that put mon calamari vessels at the forefront of the Galactic Civil War and beyond, and combines with it a potent electronic warfare weapon that we will be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. You di fully review the specifications sent to you beforehand, did you not, along with the admiralty board's note?"

Mabettye relented, "I did."

"Do you disagree with any of our thoughts?"

"Commander Blash'n," interrupted Councilor Oshtra, "I think Councilor Mabettye is expressing some concern that is felt by several of us. It may well be an excellent design, but it is unproven, and the qualities in it are our new to us, at least in its current iteration. I think we are risking too much financially to invest in it at this stage."

"The first of its class is already under construction," revealed Gir.

 

[Gir Quee]

"You what?!" burst out Oshtra.

Gir glanced around to the holo-graphic images. Most of the councilor's faces seemed to show some surprise and discomfort. Mothut let out a low-pitched sigh that Gir guessed that only he and Yeeli could hear. But despite the other's reactions, the bothan councilor and Commander Blash'n seemed unperturbed by the relevation.

"How far along is it?" asked Blash'n curiously.

"It's spaceworthy," said the commander,"but it still needs to under go through some trial runs and have some weapon systems fitted to it. I expect that we'll find some teething issues that will need to be addressed before it is put into active duty."

"Commander Blash'n," shrieked Oshtra, "you do not have our authorization for this construction yet."

"I realize this, councilor," said the mon calamari commander, "which means that this vessel isn't destined for us, or Mister Quee is so certain of that design that he knows we will buy one."

"It is for the company, actually," said Gir, "a demonstration ship tends to help settle many of the fears expressed here. Moreover, by actually having practical experience constructing one, we can determine contractual construction dates with more of a measure of certainty."

"Where is it under construction?" asked Mothut.

"At my city's yard," announced the bothan councilor, glancing at his datapad, "I am scheduled for a tour and demonstration in five days, if Mister Quee is willing, I am certain that more of us could attend."

"You can't just build warships on our world without the council's permission."

"It's technically not a warship," replied the bothan, "as constructed right now, the Delphin has an armament rating that puts it within the civilian registry limits."

"Most of the ship's armament will be fitted out in space just outside of Hast's sovereign zone," said Gir.

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir was surprised to see Oshtra and Mabettye turn unusually quiet after that exchange. Councilors Mothut and Rul'krel proceeded to take over much of the remaining conversations, leading both Gir and Commander Blash'n to mostly fade into the background. He had only to answer a few more questions, mainly requests to tour the Delphin, while Blash'n had only to give a brief discourse in how the Delphins would fit in the existing defense forces. Several minutes passed after the official meeting end time before the holo-projector in the room died down, leaving the trio in Ibtisam City alone. Mothut stood up and turned her bulbous eyes to gaze down at him.

"You built one and didn't tell us...not even Yeeli?"

Gir hesitated, "In military operations, I found that a certain amount of discretion is needed to effectively defend sensitive operations. It was simple compartmentalization, since I didn't know the full extent of your loyalties."

Yeeli shook his head as he stood up, but Gir could see the edges of Keeli's lip tugging upwards as a subdued smile, "And you were telling me that you haven't changed at all. But how do you know Councilor Rul'krel?"

"I don't, but a friend of a friend did...a little work and private discussion later, and I was able to get the construction of the Delphin under way."

"Why not have the lead ship constructed here at Ibtisam City?" asked Mothut.

"I guessed that the yards here would be under observation by our political opponents because Ibtisam City is my hometown, so they would guess that I naturally would be more inclined to get started here," said Gir, rising from the bench, "and I figured that they'd start some legal battle or other political maneuvering to put a stop to it. It was a bit of a gamble, but it would have seemed to have paid off."

"Yes...but I'll have you know that I won't be taking you up on that offer for the test cruise," said Mothut, "it would seem that Rul'krel is going to turn it into a municipal event to showcase his city."

Gir nodded, "Understandable. I suppose it will be of more consolation then to know that I intend to have the yards here at Ibtisam City to produce more Delphins than at Uamaw."

A thin-lipped smile crept across Mothut's face, "I will take it, though I suspect that will be harder to publicize than Rul'krel's event...at least for now..."

 

[Gir Quee]

One week later...

Bridge, Delphin-class Frigate Delphin, in orbit via Hast

"I thought they'd leave sooner," said Gir, watching the last shuttle depart from the frigate's docking ring.

Commander Blash'n made a noise that Gir guessed was some sort of chuckling, "Well, please do not fault Councilor Rul'krel too much. He did do a splendid job of keeping this project under wraps for you."

The former Republic admiral nodded, "That is true. It would seem that you were able to keep some of your own movements concealed as well."

"In a way," mused Blash'n, "but it wasn't concealing my intentions so much as simply not mentioning your involvement..."

The two officers moved to stand next a circular holo-projector located just off center of the bridge's midline. Gir tapped a button on his comlink, causing the device to hum before it formed an image of a gray, rocky moon orbiting an amber gas giant. Another tap of the button zoomed the focus into a tiny subsection of the moon no larger than a few acres to reveal a new object: a landed Diamond-class Cruiser.

"The tracking device is still transmitting, at least now for now," said Gir, "and we've traced the Empress of Wun to Rifu VI. They've been there for the last three days."

"The device can't last much longer," guessed Blash'n.

Gir nodded, "We probably have less than four days before it will either lose power or be detected."

"We move on it now then," decided Blash'n.

"Seems a logical choice," agreed Gir, "I'm guessing that you won't want to be onboard while we jump?"

"No, I should get back to my own vessel..."

 

[Gir Quee]

Delphin-class Frigate Delphin, somewhere in deep space

Gir watched the flowing lines of hyperspace travel with a placid face, his mind preoccupied with the tactical possibilities of the joint strike between Commander Blash'n's Hast Defense Forces and the Delphin on the arms runner. In truth, the Diamond-class cruiser wouldn't pose much of a threat to any of their vessels, but if they wanted to capture the ship, and more importantly it's crew, they would likely need every vessel to corner it. The lines of hyperspace travel vanished as the Dephin surged into real space. The gas giant of Rifu with its swirling red and orange clouds crowded most of the starship's viewport, but Gir's eyes quickly scanned the viewport for the dark spot that would be Rifu VI. The moon quickly swung around, as it did so, the Delphin's helmsman took the starship in a dive into the moon's atmosphere.

"No sign of Commander Blash'n's ships," said Horm, his sensor operator, "but our prey is still here."

Gir turned his eyes to the ship's communications officer, "Any communications from the Defense Fleet?"

"No sir."

"We'll have to make our move without them."

Gir paced over to his command chair. Wonder what could have happened to them. Gir had always considered the possibility that Blash'n's force wouldn't have been able to link up with his own. Space was vast, and there were a myriad of things that could delay his arrival, from an unmapped navigational hazards to equipment failures to encountering another hostile force. Yet Blash'n knew the area well and the Hast Defense ships that Gir had observed had been old but well-kept and serviceable designs. That really only left the latter possibility in his initial assessment as a likely option. If that's the case, the odds of it being an accidental encounter this deep in space are low...we could be running into an ambush...

 

[Gir Quee]

Delphin-class Frigate Delphin, Rifu VI's atmosphere

The frigate surged through the moon's thin atmosphere, quickly soaring past craggy peaks and deep cut valleys. Despite the dynamic landscape and what seemed to be several rivers of some liquid, the moon seemed devoid of any wildlife or civilization. Gir kept his eyes on the sensor readout screen, keeping careful watch for any sign that the arms smuggler or any ambushers. But no stray energy or comm signals seemed to emanate from anywhere on the moon. Finally the Delphin passed over a peak to reveal a plateau where the Celerity was last spotted by the defense force's probe droid.

"Still there," murmured Horm, "and entirely powered down...but I'm detecting several life forms on the ship."

"Weapons, prepare the hypervelocity cannon to fire into the Celerity's engine block," decided Gir, "communication's, see if you can pick up any local comlink channels being used or any method of communication they seem to be using. Helm, orient us to jet off from the surface if we need to make a hasty escape."

"On it," said one crewmember.

The others simply bobbed their heads up and down in acknowledgement as they set the ship into motion. The deck seemed to shift under his feet as the helmsman guided the ship's bow to point upwards and through a narrow space between a pair of adjoined mountains. Gir could almost feel the rumbling of gears underneath as the ventral hypervelocity cannon slowly tracked to settle on the rectangular prism that served as the Diamond-class Cruiser's engine block. Initially, they had originally thought to make the hypervelocity cannon a fixed mount because of its relatively prodigious size, but there were times such as now when it was advantageous to have the ship pointed one way and the gun pointed another. still, the pneumatic motors which rotated the gun were not terribly fast at tracking, and Gir half-expected the other ship to start to power up as soon as it realized the Delphin's presence.

"Captain," said Rix, his mon calamari communication's officer, "I've detected several comlink channels in use on the vessel. All of them are encrypted, but some of them seem to exclusively be used by droids to communicate with each other based on their communication's patterns. but one seems to be in use by an organic crew, or at least droids communicating through audio only."

"Can you break into any of them?"

"I'm not that skilled sir," said the mon calamari.

Gir turned to the weapon's officer, "Is the cannon in a position to fire?"

"It is."

"Let's give the Celerity a round then."

 

[Gir Quee]

Even though he stared hard at the Celerity, he didn't see the round cross the wedge-shaped hull before it hit. Part of the engine block seemed to vaporize into nothingness, but Gir's view was quickly obscured by an an expanding ball of glinting shrapnel. He closed his right eyelid and swept a finger across it to scratch an irritation. As his focus returned to the grounded transport, he could see the shrapnel cloud begin to dissipate to reveal a blackened section of hull that resembled his last attempt at cooking a home-cooked meal. His eyes darted among the weapon's emplacements that dotted the ship's hull, but none of them moved in the slightest. The former Republic officer turned to his sensor operator.

"Any power changes on the Celerity?"

"Ah...well aside from the obvious damage caused by our cannon, I'm not seeing a whole lot. Some power being diverted as the ship automatically seals areas exposed to the vacuum...but there doesn't seem to be any activity otherwise."

"Any chatter on the comms?"

"Nothing sir. Not that wasn't already going on. Activity is still here, but it's still going on at the same pace."

"It's like it's abandoned," mused Gir, "do we have any lifeform readings?"

"Well...nothing for certain...I'm not seeing any, but there seems to be some scanner-shielded areas on the ship though. They could be hiding out in there...."

Gir nodded. He had heard tales of smugglers and resistance heroes hiding out in such holds when their ships were captured before attempting to escape. An arms dealer probably would want to keep some of his merchandise off of the radar as well...even in these lawless parts. That thought piqued his interest more than it probably should have, and Gir was beginning to think of various biological weapons and recent reports of stolen technologies. Gir flipped a switch on his headset comlink.

"Oris, are you there?"

A husky voice blared out of his comlink, "Yeah, I'm here. What's the situation?"

"Get your best people in space armor, and get ready for a boarding operation," mused Gir, "it seems that we have a new wreck to explore."

 

[Gir Quee]

Atlas-class Heavy Dropship Typhoon, Rifu VI

Gir tightened the seat restraints once more of the transport's co-pilot seat, half paying attention to the pilot going through the pre-flight checklist. The Typhoon barely fit into the Delphin's relatively small hangar bay, and Gir's mind wandered to the thoughts of previous tight squeezes that he'd seen. Perhaps the most memorable had been a herglic trying to fit through a sullustan-operated freighter in his younger days. He wryly shook the thoughts away as the Typhoon popped through the Delphin's magcon field and dropped down towards the moon's pocked surface. His pilot, a lanky fellow named Arbs let gravity pull the ship in a drop towards the surface before he kicked in the repulsorlift drives. The Typhoon lazily soared towards the Celerity as Oris walked up into the ship's crew compartment from its cargo bay.

"You've got to give us a bigger hangar bay," said the troop commander, "or a smaller shuttles for the next trip."

Gir glanced upwards towards the armored man, "Something wrong with the Typhoon?"

"Just like putting all of our eggs in the same basket...if we're hit...well...let's just say there won't be many of us left..."

Gir nodded. The Delphin wasn't a perfect vessel, and Gir knew that many officers would have preferred to have a more spacious hangar. The ground commanders and logistic professionals wanted more shuttles for transport while many more space combat officers would have preferred for the ship to carry more starfighters and combat craft. But every design had its limit, and Gir knew that Salmakk and his engineering crew had to make sacrifices to get all of the offensive and defensive power packed into its frame. But there were always going to be tradeoffs, and someone would always be unhappy about some aspect of the design. The Typhoon glided in to dock with the stricken Celerity.

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir let the armored spacetroopers filter into the old Diamond-class cruiser before he entered. He drew his blaster and activated his Armatech-built personal shield generator. While not a particularly good man in a firefight, Gir knew that he didn't want to be entirely helpless if a firefight did happen, even if he was going to be relying on other people to win the firefight. Gir rounded a corner and nearly walked into one of the marines wearing the Lab's Vanguard power armor.

"Sir, you shouldn't be by yourself," said Oris, turning around to face him, "let me go with you."

"I don't want to interrupt your work..."

"Not much work here really," replied the soldier, "we haven't encountered anything except for a few maintenance droids. The simple ones that don't even have matrix personalities."

"Find anything interesting in the cargo bays?"

"They're empty."

"Empty?" blurted out Gir, "an empty ship and Commander Blash'ns group didn't make it here...they must have discovered the homing device..."

"A trap?"

"It might have been the bait for Blash'n and his ships...they probably didn't expect another ship to come from a different angle."

"What do we do?"

Gir briefly pondered that thought as they entered the vessel's bridge, "I'm going to start transmitting the ship's logs over to the Delphin. Once we have all of the information on the ship, we leave."

"Yes sir."

 

[Gir Quee]

Most of the Celerity's networks seemed to be unencrypted, and with a direct scomp-link attachment to the ship's computer systems, the R6 unit that was part of the Typhoon's crew was able to quickly arrange a data transfer between the two ships with little difficulty. He briefly glanced at the little droid before turning his attention back to the ship's logs. While many of the ship's newest logs were written in a language he didn't understand, most of the older ones were written in basic. But there seemed to be a big gaps in some sections of the logs, which Gir made wonder if the logs had been altered, or if the ship routinely spent so many years in disuse. Welche's voice began to flow through the headset comlink.

"Sir?"

"What is it?"

"Our passive sensors have detected new sensor signatures entering into orbit with the planet right now. We're looking at three, possibly four unknown vessels up to four hundred meters long. We also have small sensor signatures suggesting that they're accompanied by starfighters or other small support craft."

"Commander Blash'n's ships?"

"We don't know yet for sure, not without active scanning..."

"Which would give us away," muttered Gir, turning his eyes to R6-G1, "R6, how much longer do you need to get everything?"

The droid's cylindrical head rotated back and forth as he tweeted and tootled in response to that query. Why don't we give them vocators that allow them to speak in Basic again? Gir glanced down at the Celerity's dated console to read a translation. That'll work for me.

"Welche, we're going to start boarding the Typhoon right now. R6 says that he's got an automated program running that will allow us to keep receiving information from the Celerity as long as we're in communication's range..."

He glanced at his wrist chrono.

"...we'll be onboard in less then seven standard minutes. It wouldn't hurt to prepare the ship and crew to make a fast getaway."

"I'm not sure if that's possible sir."

He winced, "To fight our way out of this mess, then."

"Yes sir."

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir glanced at his wrist chrono as he strolled onto the bridge of the Delphin. Welche glanced up from his console to look at Gir before walking over to stand next to one of the sunken holo-tanks. As Gir neared it, light coalesced above the projector to form a quartet of several familiar ship designs. The ship in the lead formation seemed to be a rusty-looking Corellian Buccaneer, a relatively pristine Arquitens-class Light cruiser in gaudy blue and yellow livery, and pair of followed shortly by two Mynock-class Assault Boats with the blue trim. Gir let a brief whistling sound escape his lips as he looked over the craft.

"Looks like we've found some more antiques," mused Welche.

"Any idea who they are?"

"Not Commander Blash'n and the Hast Defense Force? We haven't tried using transponder interrogators or anything active yet...this is just from a EPR shot we took just as you were getting onboard."

"What's their course?"

"Straight towards us...or rather, the Celerity," said Welche, glancing at a flatscreen console attached to the holo-tank, "they're about five minutes out."

"We won't be able to move without escaping their notice," commented Gir, "let's hail them."

"Give up the element of surprise?"

"Shoot potential friendlies?" said Gir, "I'm sure we're not the only ones out there looking for Teerik."

"Some of who may not be friendly to either Teerik or us..."

"A distinct possibility," agreed Gir, "but it's a risk I'm willing to take in order to avoid a greater risk..."

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir turned to his attention to the Delphin's communication's officer, a young bothan named Mosse. The bothan swiveled around his chair to face his communication's console, but he quickly turned his chair to face Gir again.

"General frequency, sir?"

Gir nodded, "Probably for the best. Just announce who we are and ask them to identify themselves."

"Aye sir," said the bothan.

Gir pulled up the available statistics on the detected craft to review their capabilities. None of these craft should be overwhelming to the Delphin by their own, but together, they could be a threat. We'll have to be careful that those assault boats getting in our aft...if they're hostile...that is...His eyes darted to Mosse, who repeated a message once more through his headset. Captain Welche glanced at his chrono.

"At this rate, they'll be on us before we get a response," muttered the raven-haired man.

"The hypervelocity cannons charged?"

"They are."

"We'll target the light cruiser with them, especially if we can get it trapped in our tractor beam projectors," said Gir, "otherwise, our priority targets will be the assault boats..."

"The smallest ships?"

"That's what makes them the most dangerous..."

 

[Gir Quee]

"Still no response sir," informed Mosse.

As the bothan spoke, the forms of the incoming vessels rose over the crest of the nearest mountain. Gir eyed them warily. They can now see us and the Celerity...but how will they take it? The Arquitens-class cruiser continued forward while the Buccaneer veered right and the assault boats veered left to encircle the Delphin. Yet they hadn't fired yet, which made Gir curious. They could be debating what to do, just like us...That thought shattered as the newcomers began to open fire, spewing out volleys of angry red bolts at the Directorate warship. Almost immediately, the Delphin began to fire back in turn, with its light quad turbolasers filling up the space between the assault boats with a flurry of emerald bolts. The mass driver cannons began to fire as well, filling the space between them with cannister shot. For all of the volume of fire aimed at the assault boats, only a fraction of it was hitting the relatively quick and agile craft, but Gir knew that each boat wasn't quite as capable of absorbing that amount of fire unlike a dedicated capital ship. The Delphin began to rotate on its Z-axis in attempt to prevent the assault boats from getting to the ship's stern, and to keep its broadside weapons focused on the assault boats.

The ventral hypervelocity cannon turret struggled to keep the Arquitens-class cruiser in its sights. The turret was a cumbersome feature on a ship this small, and in truth it was only capable of tracking exceptionally large vessels like star destroyers or relatively-slow moving objects. Usually the Delphin had to be pointed at the target in order for the turret to maintain its sight picture, but with the Delphin's focus on the small assault boats, it had little chance of getting the Arquitens in its sights. One of the assault boats took a hit to its rectangular panel on its ventral side, causing its repulsorlifts to fail. The craft wavered before plummeting towards the surface in an uncontrolled dive. The other assault boat made a quick pass at the Delphin's now exposed engines, but the durable MCS shielding managed to absorb the brunt of the enemy fire. As it began to bank to make another pass at the engine block, a quartet of concussion missiles surged out of the Delphin's warhead launchers to smash into the assault boat's aft. A ripple of explosions ran across the assault boat from stern to bow before it disappeared into nothingness.

 

[Gir Quee]

Even as the assault boat disappeared in a wave of fire, Gir eyed the Delphin's shield readout screens. Vratik was among the better shield operators he had in the Lab's corporate fleet, and he could see that he was making the most of the Mon Calamari shielding technology to protect the warship against the hereto unanswered attacks from the Corellian Buccaneer and the Arquitens-class Light Cruiser. While both the operator and shield technology were among the better options available, he didn't fully trust in them to bring him out of the engagement unscathed if not supervised. Still, it looks like we're good for the moment...now if we can just get the Delphin to point at the Arquitens...He watched the holo-tank as the hologram of the Delphin rotated to face the Arquitens.

Fire shifted from the many smaller batteries of the Delphin to bear on the light cruiser. Gir could see brief yellow and red flares light up on the old Republic cruiser where its shields were beginning to fail. The deck beneath him seemed to briefly vibrate as both hypervelocity cannons fired in unison. Twin shots spiraled forward to smash into and then through a weakened section to punch into the Arquiten's hull itself just ahead of the bridge. He glanced at a weapon's readout. We'll need some time for the hypervelocity cannons to recharge...As fire slackened from the Arquitens, most of the Delphin's weapons shifted to fire on the Buccaneer, with streams of turbolaser and mass driver cannon fire interrupted by the occasional missile salvo from the Directorate frigate. While well-armed for a corvette, the Buccaneer was not likely to last as long as a ship twice its size in a slugging match. Gir watched as the CEC-made craft circled over to use the stricken Arquitens-class Cruiser for cover before jetting away from the engagement.

Welche cleared his throat, "Should we pursue them?"

Gir shook his head, "We don't have the speed to catch them, nor the proper support craft to pursue them."

Fire shifted once more to bear down on the light cruiser. Already listing from the impact of the hypervelocity cannons, the cruiser struggled to stay in the fight. Renewed fire from the Delphin's smaller weapons began to eat through the failing shields and hit the hull itself. As the cruiser's shields fell, the hypervelocity cannons once more were ready to fire. A pair of parting shots tore through the rectangular portion of the hull that connected the engines to the wedge-shaped prow. A brief cloud of shrapnel briefly concealed the bisection of the vessel before each half of the vessel began to tumble towards the lunar surface. Escape pods shot out of the vessel from all sides, and fire from the cruiser itself finally ceased. Gir watched as one escape pod attempted to leave the moon's gravity well.

"They're either desperate, or their escape pod as a hyperdrive," decided Welche.

"Could be both," mused Gir, "but given how the other pods aren't trying to flee the area, I'd imagine that it's the former. We'll start collecting prisoners and signal for more craft to come pick them up and begin salvage operations."

"You expect to find something valuable?"

"Physically...no. But I expect that at least several of them know something that we do not yet know..."