Down the Rabbit Hole pt. 1 "Tryid Station"

[ADM. Reshmar]

"All right settle down" said admiral Holt as he walked into the Riptides ready room. before him, the strike wing of the ship sat waiting for him to begin the briefing. The joint Republic/Directorate fleet had jumped into hyperspace on its last leg for the last reported location of what was being referred to as Ghost fleet. The mysterious organization behind may of the attack on commerce as well as the attack on the Republic vessel at Kashyyyk had been hard to track and even harder to pin down. Now with the assistance of the Directorate and Admiral Reshmar they had finally gotten the intel they had been long awaiting.

"Alright, Simmons and Yellow squadron will be the tip of the spear today. Once we drop out of hyperspace his squadron will launch and move in to disable the interdiction satellite here" Holt pointed at a location on the three dimensional hologram in the center of the room.

"Gatly and blue squadron will escort yellow in and provide cover fire for them until they have delivered their present and move on to objective 2. Red and green will move in and engage the pirate fleet and distract them until we can get into weapons range. Gold will screen for the frigates as they move in." Holt stopped and brought up a second image as he addressed the other squadron leaders.

"Reeves, Sanches and Listin, You guys got that?" he looked to each making sure they knew their jobs. The second image popped up with the words Objective B on it. "This it Tryid Station, as you can imagine it is not the five star resort we all wish we were relaxing at right now. It is, to quote a great man, a den of filth and villany. This is objective B, and our main objective. Once we have taken the station we will mop up the ships. Its a class 2 station and has limited weapons but it will be chore for our marines once they land. Colonel Dickson, This is you insertions point" Holt pointed out a small hanger on the lower levels of the station. "This is what we are here for."

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

Reshmar sat quietly in the back of the room taking in the meeting. He had joined the hunt for the mysterious group after Holt and one of his agents had butted heads following up different leads which lead to the same place. It was at this time Reshmar had contacted the Republic Admiral and offered his resources and assistance. His ships made up the bulk of the force now moving through hyperspace bound for whatever they were to find on the edge of known space. Holts ships had stayed behind supporting another mission following up a lead on the ship that had destroyed the corvette over Kashyyyk. Around him, the squadron leaders and a few marine officers sat listening to Admiral Holts briefing. A marine next to him raised his hand and asked a question.

"Why not the main hanger boss?" ask the marine as holt took his hand away from the hologram.

"Because this is where our intel says the pirate leader for this area hangs his hat. The main hanger still operates as a civillian hanger, though the pirates run the show they do so from behind closed doors leaving the main sections of the hanger to appear as tough nothing is amiss. They have a private hanger on the lower decks and run their slave auctions from here." Holt said as the image changed once again. A view of the hanger at much closer range showed the weapons batteries flanking the hanger.

"These will be a problem if we do not knock them out." said Holt as he highlighted the weapons emplacemnts. Reshmar looked them over and spoke up.

"I think I can help with that Admiral, once we are in system I will see to the issue. You ust have your marines ready to go once the fighters clear out the interdiction and open a hile for them to insert" said Reshmar not paying attention to everyone in the room now noticing him for the first time.

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

Three hours later the six frigates of the 8th attack squadron dropped out of hyperspace twenty light-minutes outside the Tryid system. Reshmar had only been this far our on the edge of the galaxy once before and then it was not this far. The system they now sat on the edge of was uncharted to even the Mon Calamari. Reshmar had heard of it once before in an intel brief but very little was know of the system beyond the station at its core and the interdiction satellite near its edge. Reshmar sat in the command seat of Riptide looking out at the faint spot in the distance which was the primary of the system. At this distance, it was little more than a bright spot among the other stars in the distance. This far out there were every few such dots of light as the darkness of nothingness lay beyond the edge of the galaxy. Reshmar knew some of the small dots of light were galaxies far beyond the borders of the Corsica galaxy. The vast void of space between Corsica and those distant galaxy's could boggle the mind if one was left to dwell on them.

"Open a fleet wide channel commander" Reshmar said. He knew the squadron leaders and marines would be making their way to their ships and their respective squadrons now. The two ShaShore mk II-class frigates housed the attack wing of the 8th attack squadron. four fighter squadrons, one bomber squadron, and the assault transport squadron would be reading their craft and preparing to launch. Once their commanders were aboard the frigates and with their pilots they would launch and get into position. Reshmar waited for the communications officer to make him aware the channel he had asked for was open then hit the transmit button.

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are setting the counter at twenty two minutes and beginning the countdown on my mark. Set action stations and start your mission profiled countdowns. Once the attack wing jumps we will have fourteen minutes of dead time. Take this time to recheck all stations and reset all boards." Reshmar said as Admiral Holt walked into the CIC of the Riptide. The man took position beside Reshmar and looked over the holo board at the image nor showing fighters launching from the two frigates and forming up into wedge formations.

"I would feel better if we had some heavy support Admiral" said Holt as he looked up from the table. Reshmar continued to watch the fighters form up ignoring the human admiral's comment. The man had wanted to call in an entire destroyer group from Yutan for support. While Reshmar understood the man wanting to go in heavy the time it would have taken to get the ships assembled and ready would have pushed the mission past any favorable outcome. The man he was hoping to capture would not be on the station long. He also had confidence in his frigate group. Holt would have to deal with his feelings on his own time. For now, Reshmar had a mission to execute.

"All squadrons are green adrmial" said the CAG from his station behind Reshmar. Reshmar hit the transmit button one more time to address the entire fleet. "Mission is green for go all squadrons are cleared for jump." said Reshmar. a moment later five of the six squadrons disappeared into hyperspace. "Start the clock commander" said Reshmar as the wait for their jump began. The clock clicked down the second slowly counting down the minutes until they too would jump into the Tryid system.