Lucky Strike (A Star Wars SI)

[Frater Astrotechnicus]

"I'm sure negotiations will go well once we reach Mon Calamari."

Click to shrink...

Mon Calamari is the species and Mon Cala the world
so its either "reach Mon Cala" or " reach the Mon Calamari"
I think

 

[Yacov]

At least their weren't any Dark Sode shenanigans. Just regular betrayal.

 

[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 24

Teskit leaned over the table of the tactical room aboard the Inevitable. Watching the icons of shuttles and gunships transporting parts, droids, and personnel between the ships of the battlegroup. Sure, they'd moved plenty of people off of the Providence, but there were still more that were being transferred to the twin Starbolt's they'd captured.

The Glittering Prizes and Gold Standard were probably the best kept ships that the Ardan PDF possessed. They were relatively new construction, having been purchased by the PDF within the last decade, and while the fighters aboard them were old Z-95 Headhunters, everything else was in near-immaculate condition.

Even better, the two ships weren't in their stock configurations. As was the case with many Corellian manufactured ships, modularity was one of the things that was built in, and the PDF, possessing their minor shipyards for maintenance, shuttle manufacture, and any repairs for their ships, had made some upgrades to the ships.

Adding one more heavy turbolaser, and four lights, the firepower was almost doubled, bringing the Glittering Prizes to a total of three heavy turbolasers and eight lights. While it was at the expense of some speed when all the weapons fired, it would be a welcome addition to the light frigates and escorts. The Gold Standard, however, seemed to have been built around anti-fighter defenses. They'd actually stripped out the two heavy turbolasers and replaced them and the ion cannons with point defenses, quad laser cannons, and anything else that might be helpful against fighter swarms, up to and including an engine overhaul.

The problem lay in the shuffling of personnel around. While Battlegroup Huntress actually had the numbers required to crew the twin CEC light frigates, they'd be shifting well over half of the remaining crew from the Providence over to them.

Out of the 3502 crew members onboard the Dreadnought, they'd first lost three hundred to act as a skeleton crew for the Horizon (Not counting any of the GAR personnel that were aboard). Then, through damage from battles, they'd had another fifty to a hundred casualties before the skirmish in the void around Arda.

That, that had wrought nearly a thousand casualties. With hull breaches, the failure of electrostatic screens, it was a perfect storm that would have killed far more people had the Providence been an original model of the Dreadnought.

As it was, of the two thousand people that were left, more than two thirds were going to be split up among the Assault Carriers, with the last third remaining behind to supervise the now majority droid crew.

There had been nearly a million droids onboard the Adjusted Interest. They were mostly B-1s, with regiments of different models like the engineering droids taking up portions of the tightly packed space. Said engineering droids were the smartest of the droids they'd captured aboard the spherical DH-Omni and taken as war prizes from the factories on the ground of Ord Cestus. Well, them and the battalion of B-2 Super Battle droids that were quickly becoming a favorite of the ground forces.

Of course, Teskit also had the Starfury and Horizon keeping a close eye on the Voidbound. The Carrack that requested to join them hadn't acted suspicious yet, but Teskit didn't trust them in the slightest.

"Get the repair crews over to the Providence," Teskit ordered, stepping up to the communications station and asking for a headset. "Patch me through to Task."

"Aye sir!" The clone officer handed the headset over with one hand while setting things up with the other. "Communications channel established."

"Yes, Captain?" Commander CT-1972 replied.

"Commander. You have you need to get the primary hyperdrive and critical systems operational. We'll patch the holes that are critical and then start jumping. I want us in Lianna before the CIS start searching for us. Run a systems check and give me an ETA on when the repairs. We'll jump when you're ready."

"Yes, sir," Task's voice was filled with exhaustion. "We'll get it done."

"Make sure you cycle everyone through rest cycles," Teskit instructed. "People aren't droids, and we shouldn't expect them to work like it."

"I'll get the systems check and then rotate out, captain," Task replied. "Commander CT-1972, out."

---

The last few days had been a flurry of activity. Ronard had been pulled to go help with the Providence's repairs along with the majority of our engineering staff. Sure, it was basically what I had been doing beforehand, but there wasn't a buffer anymore. Any mistakes were ultimately on me.

Not that it changed the way I did things, because I'd always tried to take that kind of accountability. But I could feel the differing tension in my shoulders and gut.

So, when Aliya came to me with the idea of testing and checking out the grav well generator, I had a response ready.

"No," I looked up from my desk. "And you know why the answer is no."
"Look, we both know that these systems are so old they won't work on modern hyperdrives," She argued. "We should turn one on and check the power draw."

"No," I sighed. "Aliya, you're brilliant, and I know that you want to pull this tech apart to see what makes it tick, but we can't afford to do anything wrong at this point. If we fry any of the power conduits we've repaired, we're back to square one with regards to our defenses and weapons. Now, once we reach the next friendly port with a shipyard, I'll give you free rein to do whatever you want. But until then, keep it turned off."

"Fine," the redhead leaned back in her chair. "So, when are you being made the official captain of this antique?"

"No idea," I shrugged. "I'm fine with where I'm at now, anyway. Besides, Captain Teskit's in charge, if he wants me promoted again, he'll put me in for it."

"Fair enough," Aliya stretched and stood up. "I'll be in my cabin if you need me. Try not to blow anything up while I'm asleep."

"No promises," I chuckled, returning to my paperwork as she walked away. It didn't matter what time or place, the paperwork always seemed to endure.

–
–

Three days later…

"Shit, deploy fighters, move power from engines to shields, and get those turbolasers online!" I ordered, instinctively saying the instructions in English before switching to Basic.

Rhen Var, the first world on the standard hyperlanes that was on our route to Lianna, was filled with ships. Confederacy Munificents, Recusants, and a lone Recusant-Class Dreadnought fought against a fleet of Acclamators, Venators, and other interspersed Republic vessels.

And there was something else about this planet, something tugging at the memories of long-ago played video games in the back of my mind.

"Sir, Captain Teskit is ordering us to move to position 2 in Formation Besh!" Javin, the comms officer reported, interrupting my train of thought and refocusing me.

"You heard him!" I barked. "Take us to formation and fall into place!"

The Horizon shifted and moved to the left flank of the Inevitable, acting as a shield for the Providence behind her.

A few moments went by as Battlegroup Huntress fell into formation, launched fighters and began moving into the system, then the Inevitable was hailed by the local flagship and piped through to the other large ships.

"This is Admiral Wulf Yularen," a familiar voice greeted us. "Captain Teskit, I'm temporarily assuming command until the Separatists are dealt with."

I glanced at the tactical readout and winced. Yularen was barely holding his own, was outnumbered, and the enemy had clearly broken through his lines. There were a couple of ships down on the surface spitting out more and more droids to combat whatever ground forces the Republic had in place.

This system was lost. That was, unless we could do something about it.

"All ships, follow your designated courses," Teskit's voice was firm. "Execute further orders on my command. We're pulling their fleet out of the fire."

 

[Yacov]

I doubt the Admiral was expecting this traveling museum show to come to his aid.

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Andrew1993]

That dreadnought is one tough old bit*ch hope she survives all the way through the war