Ten years, first month, and twenty-sixth day after the Battle of Yavin…
Or the forty-fifth year, first month, and twenty-sixth day after the Great Resynchronization.
(Eight months and eleventh day since the arrival).
Vice Admiral Pellaeon exerted maximum effort to keep his facial expression unchanged after shipbuilder Zion finished expounding his thoughts.
"This is a most valuable specialist, Gilad," the Deputy Supreme Commander reminded himself. "One cannot simply strangle him on the spot."
Gilad involuntarily glanced down at his hands.
Though, on the other hand, why not?
Officially—he was the ruler of the Dominion.
Well, in truth, that information was only for the majority of sentients in the galaxy.
While the command of the regular fleet and much of the upper echelons of the military-civilian administration, of course, knew the truth about "Grand Admiral Thrawn's death in the Battle of Sluis Van."
As they also knew that Gilad was effectively performing the duties of the chief of staff of the Dominion's regular fleet.
And moreover, responsible for logistics.
And had generally turned into something of a quartermaster.
With his battlecruiser, of course, but still, a quartermaster.
One whose mouth was full of concerns, all swirling around how and where to redirect the free resources of the war machine to achieve maximum effect for the benefit of the beloved fleet.
And it was unlikely they would go easy on Pellaeon when Thrawn turned him over to a tribunal for having disposed of the Dominion's only shipbuilder.
Eh…
In times like these, one misses Darth Vader…
"Did you finish?" he clarified with the visitor.
"Yes," Zion replied. "Your decision?"
Pellaeon didn't hesitate even for a moment.
"No," he answered.
"But why?" the shipbuilder instantly boiled over, like an electric kettle on the galley. "My proposal will multiply the combat effectiveness of our Star Destroyers many times over."
"In the case that they don't explode," Pellaeon noted.
"They won't explode!" Zion said firmly.
Then, averting his single organic eye, he added:
"At least they shouldn't…"
"I'm sure those words will be enough to find thirty-seven thousand volunteers willing to board a Star Destroyer and test your experimental technologies," Pellaeon added acidly.
"Actually, I was counting on you providing your Allegiance…" Zion pronounced.
"Haven't you been taken down a peg in a while, shipbuilder?" Pellaeon clarified in a stern tone. "Or has your survival instinct completely shut off? Do you understand what you're proposing?"
"Of course," the shipbuilder affirmed with a nod. "To continue the experiment that began with Captain Tanda Pryl's Star Destroyer Thunderflare…"
"Rein in your endless imagination, shipbuilder!" Pellaeon growled. "Star Destroyers don't exist for you to conduct experiments on them and gut them like a nerf at a slaughterhouse. Especially considering that in the entire fleet, we have only one Allegiance-class battlecruiser!"
"Fine, I'll agree to work on Thunderflare," Zion made a "concession." "It's in repairs right now. I'll assemble a team, and we'll quickly modernize the power plant…"
The shipbuilder fell silent after Pellaeon's fist slammed into the wooden surface of the desk.
"You already have a ton of projects tied up in the design implementation stage," Pellaeon said, raising his voice. "Another project, and one involving the decommissioning of an active destroyer at that—this is practically sabotage!"
"I can easily take any of the Star Destroyers captured at Sluis Van, since you won't hand over Thunderflare or Allegiance," Zion didn't blink an eye. "The only thing is that in that case, project implementation will take longer…"
"Focus on the projects already in progress!" Gilad barked impatiently.
Judging by the fact that one of the stormtrooper guards peeked into the office (and immediately vanished upon meeting the vice admiral's wrathful gaze), he had overdone it with the tone.
"They'll be implemented just fine without me," Zion said with offense in his voice. "Whether it's the Immobilizer or the Dominant…"
"Don't test my patience, shipbuilder," Pellaeon threatened. "You know the rules: first, you deliver at least one finished prototype that passes trials and combat baptism, eliminate the faults identified during experimental operation, and only then get approval for new projects. Neither I nor Grand Admiral Thrawn will tolerate you bombarding us with dozens of projects and jumping to the next ones!"
"But we have a bunch of ships that can be used for the experiment!" Zion persisted. "Fine, I'll agree to a Vindicator-class heavy cruiser and…"
"We're done, Zion!" Gilad barked, unambiguously pointing a finger at the door.
The shipbuilder, sighing in resignation, rose from the chair and extended his hands to retrieve his data chips.
"When Grand Admiral Thrawn returns to headquarters, I'll propose these developments to him," the man said.
"Of course you will," Gilad thought, quickly pressing the data carriers down with his hand. "And until then, instead of overseeing work on the Immobilizer and Dominant, you'll spend all your time refining the projects to present them in a better light."
"This stays with me," Pellaeon cut off, sweeping the chips into the open desk drawer.
The data storage devices landed atop a dozen others that had come to Gilad in a similar fashion.
The red light of the shipbuilder's optical sensor bored straight into the vice admiral.
"Sir, these are my developments," Zion said in a threatening tone.
"As are the ones already in my drawer," Pellaeon agreed. "Continue work on the current projects. Finish them—you'll get any of these," he pointed a finger at the desk drawer. "But first—the Immobilizers and Dominants. No alternatives!"
"Grand Admiral Thrawn, upon learning of my developments, would immediately order such work!" shipbuilder Zion desperately tried to contest the chief of staff's decision.
"When Thrawn returns—we'll revisit this conversation then," Pellaeon assured.
"He clearly won't be pleased that you're not greenlighting promising developments!" Zion wouldn't yield.
"I wouldn't advise trying to guess what decision Thrawn will make when he's informed of all this," Pellaeon said with knowing authority.
"Sir, under conditions where the Alliance and New Republic have ships capable of fighting our Star Destroyers on equal terms, modernization is vital!"
And this argument already sounded more like a plea.
"That's precisely why we're emphasizing Project Triple," Gilad reminded. "What you're proposing is Triple version two point zero, and it won't help us one bit!"
In the regular fleet at the moment, if there were a dozen Star Destroyers of the Imperial-class modernized under the Triple rearmament program, that would already be good.
It was necessary to increase their numbers, not endlessly refit the starships.
"One, two, even ten new Alliance star cruisers or Republic Star Destroyers won't turn the tide of battle if we have at least fifty Imperial Triples in the fleet," Gilad explained. "And if we keep getting new and new modifications with every first shipbuilding breakthrough from our opponents, we'll be stuck with three hundred Ones, Twos, and a dozen Triples. When your Triples stop being a rarity in the fleet—then we'll talk about new modernization. That's it. Don't expect any other decision from me!"
"Sir, but…"
"Objections overruled!" Gilad barked. "About-face! March out of the office! And once you cross the threshold—run to the shuttle and return to Tangrene! I'm expecting reports on the first Immobilizers and Dominants by the end of this month!"
"Aye," it seemed Zion had finally remembered that he was subject to military duty and arguing with the commander was treading on very thin ice of the Deputy Supreme Commander's patience.
When the bulkhead closed behind the shipbuilder, Pellaeon sank into the chair with a sigh of relief.
How did Thrawn manage to remain so unflappable when it came to Zion and his endless experiments-modernizations?
Though, no one knew what the grand admiral did in his apartments besides admiring holographic copies of artworks.
Well, of course, if he admired them constantly.
Though Gilad had noticed more than once that Thrawn didn't spend as much time surrounded by his beloved art as he had before the intelligence raid on Obroa-skai.
But if one removed the grand admiral from this equation, one should think about something else.
For example—Zion's latest initiative.
Gilad reached into the drawer and pulled out the required data crystal.
Inserting it into the appropriate slot on the side panel of the workstation, the vice admiral once again skimmed the shipbuilder Zion's proposed modernization.
In broad strokes, it was another costly set of changes to the Star Destroyers.
To start, citing excerpts from reports on the combat use of the Star Destroyers Shadow and Point of No Return, he proposed following the flight of fancy of that shadowy Republic shipbuilder and installing launchers for ship-to-ship proton torpedoes on all Imperial-class Star Destroyers.
In the bow section, as the Republicans had done with the mentioned ships at Hast shipyards.
With an impressive ammunition load for each of the six launchers.
It seemed like a simple refit, but it would require re-equipping the entire bow of the ship, removing the standard emergency reactor there, which remained the last power source for the ship in case of failure of the main power source—the solar ionization reactor.
Standard on the Imperial, besides the last power source, there were two more—the aforementioned emergency reactor, and energy cells that served to maintain the firing rate of the ship's turbolasers during intense combat.
On the Triples, in addition to them, reactors from ancient SPHAs were installed, providing additional power output for the additionally mounted armament.
The problem was that the emergency reactor was not only the crew's last hope in case of the solar ionization reactor being shot out, but also the equipment that initiated the thermonuclear reaction in it after the main power source was powered up following shutdown.
Energy cells weren't used for such operations due to lack of access to the reactor from them.
The new SPHA power sources also had outputs exclusively to weapons.
Zion proposed fixing this shortcoming—if the emergency reactor was removed, the SPHA reactors would handle the startup cycle.
Fine, suppose that's the case.
It would just require rewiring half the ship's power schematics.
And sometimes that could only be done after part of the Star Destroyer was disassembled down to the frame.
And one would have to reconcile with the idea that until the main power source launched and the thermonuclear reaction stabilized in the man-made star inside the destroyer, half of the Triple's armament would be useless.
And time-wise, that came out to three to six hours with the entire crew working in sync.
Another point—Zion proposed increasing the power of the artillery on the modernized ships by following the path of an experiment. Which Imperial engineers had conducted on Captain Tanda Pryl's Star Destroyer, Thunderflare.
In short, they had connected the starship's armament directly to the hyperdrive, bypassing the energy cells.
This allowed allocating ten percent more energy to each gun on the ship.
But it also had rather unpleasant consequences for the ship commander and his crew.
Because drawing power from the hyperdrive not only made the ship sluggish after clearing the light barrier, effectively downgrading second-class equipment to third-fourth, but was also outright unsafe in the manner envisioned by Imperial safety technicians.
It was a project that hadn't been completed, and currently, Dominion scientists, having examined the installation, were seeking solutions.
And as a third proposal, Zion suggested…
Considering all the above, equipping Triple Star Destroyers with solar ionization reactors from Twos, which had a higher—about twenty percent—power output.
In complex—all these innovations were truly wonderful and necessary, because the new reactor would help compensate for the energy shortage drained from the hyperdrive.
Which, in turn, affected the increase in the power of the guns themselves.
In this simple way, one could boost the combat effectiveness of the Triples by fifteen to twenty percent.
Only a number of problems arose.
To begin with—the prohibitive cost of the updated reactors, which in the Dominion at the moment weren't just not produced—even a factory for their manufacture didn't exist.
For the Ones' solar ionization reactors, which were planned to be converted into the main power elements of the Triples, a separate factory was being built, but it was still far from completion.
No one had planned to produce reactors for Twos, because they cost an order of magnitude more, and the compensatory benefit in terms of energy gain wasn't very significant in the context of ship power.
And they guzzled twenty percent more fuel compared to Ones' reactors, which reduced the ship's autonomy.
Considering that all Twos were eventually to become Triples with corresponding replacements, their reactors were planned to be transferred to Dragons, as had already been done in the case of Booster Terrik's Errant Venture and Sair Yonka's Freedom.
Such replacements allowed Dragons to recharge their main caliber faster, for which rate of fire and ion cannon shot power were paramount.
One couldn't just swap the production specs from Ones' reactors to Twos' and install them on all ships.
A Star Destroyer, whatever it might be, was a complex of power-consuming systems.
Installing an overcapacity power plant there, even spending an extra fifty million, say, was possible.
But it would lead to huge fuel expenditure, unnecessary energy overproduction that needed to be dumped somewhere.
Otherwise, the artificial star that was essentially the solar ionization reactor would simply take out the Star Destroyer's equipment.
That's why Ones' reactors and additional SPHA artillery reactors were installed on Triples—they provided just the percentage energy boost needed for the additional ship armament.
Shipbuilder Zion, as a man of science, perfectly understood that his modernization plan was overly complex.
He hadn't proposed the scheme of "Two's reactor gives extra energy to the hyperdrive, and that, in turn, diverts excess to weapons" for nothing.
There were laws of physics, including energy losses in transmission along power buses.
Efficiency coefficient hadn't been repealed either, and unfortunately, even in the enlightened era of Galactic Empire military engineering, absolute values hadn't been achieved.
And these laws couldn't be changed.
Nor could the physics of the turbolaser, whose power increase when powered by the hyperdrive occurred via feeding anomalous particles generated by the hyperdrive into the weapon.
Direct connection of a Two's solar ionization reactor to such results wouldn't lead.
It would never lead—current turbolasers were already designed with maximum energy efficiency of their construction when powered by standard energy from the reactor.
Power could only be increased by adding exotic materials to the plasma charge formation circuits—anomalous hyperdrive particles, for example, as during the Clone Wars, or something similar.
With the condition that the service life of such weapons unpredictably decreased, and the consequences of possible detonation of the installation in case of breach of the gun's integrity from prolonged use at "maximum performance" principle were downright dismal.
And not just for the gun crew, which vanished faster than it could comprehend what was happening upon a turbolaser tower detonation.
But for half the hull where that turbolaser was mounted.
There had already been such incidents in the Empire—plenty of starships crippled so badly they weren't even restored: sent for scrap.
Yes, without doubt, shipbuilder Zion proposed an innovation, a breakthrough that could increase the power of Triple armament, and possibly all Dominion ships.
The question was only whether it was worth spending funds amounting to half the cost of building a ship to modernize the armament systems for a turbolaser energy output increase of more than ten percent?
This was just the general, superficial view of the problem—reality was far more prosaic and packed with physical formulas a bit more than fully.
Improved reactors on Twos weren't installed out of the goodness of life—but because the number of turbolaser barrels increased by dozens and dozens.
For powering which multiple mechanisms appeared, also requiring power.
On Triples, a successful solution was achieved—powering far more guns with a One's reactor because of massive crew reduction, life support systems, additional reactors obtained, automation implemented, and a significant portion of the infamous "one hundred seventy-four thousand design flaws" resolved, on which colossal energy losses fell.
The best was the enemy of the good, and there was no arguing against that.
Yes, the New Republic and Alliance had improved starships that fought on par with Imperials.
But they hadn't yet clashed in battle with Triples.
Designers and shipbuilders could assure buyers all they wanted that their new ships equaled or even surpassed Imperial mainline starships.
That could only be tested in practice.
The Imperial-Two, according to Kuat designers' assurances, was supposed to single-handedly annihilate Rebel fleets.
What came of those promises ten years after these ships entered Imperial Starfleet service and the Remnants'—was plain to see with the naked eye.
The idea was truly good.
Gilad acknowledged that.
As well as that he himself would like to always have a heftier club at hand than the one the opponent held.
But as a military man, he also understood that no single club decided the outcome of a mass battle.
Sometimes it was better to have several hundred lighter clubs than a couple dozen heavier ones.
But the idea needed to be shown to Thrawn.
As did all of Zion's developments sitting in the desk drawer.
And for now, at minimum, Gilad approved of the idea of installing launchers on Imperials.
Yes, the ships would require refits, but…
The Dominion had a considerable number of Imperial-class Star Destroyers already modernized by Republicans and equipped with torpedo tubes.
If Thrawn approved the idea of mounting launchers and replacing the startup reactor from emergency to SPHA reactors, then modernization to Triples should begin precisely with those destroyers that had undergone "Hast shipyard method" modernization.
At least because the Republicans had already done significant bow refits.
Only there was a problem—they had completely gutted the emergency reactor from the Star Destroyer.
How they managed to start the solar ionization reactor without a startup reactor was a mystery.
And Gilad refused to accept the notion that the vaunted Force had helped the Republicans in this.
***
So.
Even the first use yielded impressive results for a full analysis.
"Well," I said. "Captain Stormaer, your report on the actions of the TIE droids was thorough."
"Thank you, sir," the commander of Abyssal Fury looked at me via hologram, like much of the regular fleet unaware of the location of their Supreme Commander.
"Now to the details," I said. "Did you ascertain the origin of the Interceptor IV frigates?"
Behind this question lurked another: "Have we found the connection between this pirate group and Tyber Zann's organization?"
Stormaer understood me correctly.
Though his face showed he had prepared considerably for a detailed discussion of our version of TIE droids' combat application.
No, that question I would discuss directly with the designers.
"Yes, sir, I did," he replied. "The Void Demons once were part of the Zann Consortium—within a year after Zann discovered Kamino. Then their future commander decided that continuing to be a pawn in others' hands, when Zann began clone production, wasn't his style."
I doubted it—in that case, he simply wouldn't have gotten involved with the large gang that the Zann Consortium originally was.
Pirate bosses preferred to work solo.
Most likely, he and his people feared becoming outright expendable material and being replaced by clones.
Which, as practice with "vulture droids" showed, wasn't far from the truth.
I didn't know if Tyber Zann had cloned his friend Urai Fen or not, but he clearly preferred to multiply elite fighters artificially.
"He stole ten Interceptor IV frigates from Zann when new starships began appearing in the Consortium fleet, and the old ones were relegated to second line, mostly serving as military transports. He relocated to the D'Astan sector, found himself a lair—this was a former mining colony, abandoned due to huge costs of geological operations in that region of space. After that, the gang survived by raiding smugglers, lone traders. After attacking D'Asta family convoys, the fleet took losses and only six ships remained. Since then, they've become more cautious."
Good, suppose.
"Organize transfer of these Interceptors to the baroness's fleet," I ordered.
We had no need for them—I had even transferred the Action captured from Talon Karrde to the baroness's forces, paying for the much-needed ammunition supplies.
Maintaining such non-standard ships for our fleet—expensive.
Despite them naturally having huge cargo holds and decent speed and shielding. But against large raider forces, they were useless—just targets.
Far simpler to use our modernized Triple Acclamators on that front, rearmed with four-gun turbolasers from Victory.
Why exactly four-gun guns were mounted on strike cruisers?
Because those guns had to go somewhere, considering the mass rearmament of this type's Star Destroyers to eight-gun towers from Imperials?
Three Venators rearmed with eight-gun turbolaser towers equipped with V-150 ion cannons and reactors from Imperial-Twos were, of course, magnificent in line combat, practically exceeding all expectations, but I decided that after the demonstration of force at Isen, Acclamators and Venators would make do with four-gun towers.
Mounting eight-gun ones—too wasteful and would require more energy to power the ship. So far, we'd expended all spare Twos' reactors, so the remaining Dragons would be armed differently.
"Your opinion on the Mandalorians' actions?" I inquired of Abyssal Fury.
"These aren't cadre troops," he stated categorically. "Stormtroopers report that the Mandalorians lack discipline, general tactical understanding. They operate in scattered groups. I don't see them as replacements for our stormtroopers. Possibly as commandos or fleet special forces—yes; their small-group tactics are very good. But as regular troops—too independent."
Which was to be expected.
Fortunately, I hadn't intended to test them in such a role anyway.
"In that case, transfer the Mandalorians to General's command," I ordered, reckoning that the former pirate base was already under allied control. "Withdraw your ships and trophies from the Isen IV base to the fleet base on Vinsoth and await further orders. That's all."
"It will be done, sir," Stormaer replied, disconnecting.
When the holoprojector ceased operation, I sat in silence for a few seconds, letting my thoughts form a logical chain.
So, losses among our TIE droids are enormous.
Possibly because we transplanted the "innards" from direct TIE droid platforms into the TIE starfighters available on Venators.
This was done so that Valles Santhe's secret project, undoubtedly produced for Palpatine and his clique on Lianna's orbital assembly lines, wouldn't be revealed prematurely.
Spies report that we received far from all the TIE droids Lady Santhe produced, but only a small portion.
The rest, after our raid on the system, were transferred to Palpatine's representatives.
Meaning, sooner or later, they would act against the Reborn Emperor's enemies.
I called up a volumetric image of the TIE droid over the holographic projector, a certain number of which we'd acquired along with Lianna's orbital assembly bays.
TIE droid.
A combat fighter controlled by an electronic brain, with instantaneous reaction and unquestioning obedience to orders—an enticing idea, often arising in the minds of military specialists across the Galaxy.
The first such machines appeared centuries before the Empire's formation and were especially massively used by the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars years.
In the Empire itself, such a project was hardly considered due to the presence of hundreds of thousands of professional human pilots capable of defeating any "electronic ace."
An additional limitation was also that teaching a droid to fight on equal terms with live pilots meant using advanced artificial intelligence.
And that meant huge expenses, considering just the fact that on a single Imperial-class Star Destroyer in the early years of the Galactic Empire's formation, five squadrons of such machines would be needed.
But soon, after the defeat at Endor and the Empire's schism, there arose a shortage of qualified pilots able to replace the dead and wounded in internecine strife and battles with the strengthening New Republic.
The droid fighter project still wasn't born—because none of the Imperial Remnants possessed sufficient means, production capacities, and intellectual components necessary for full development and implementation into production of a new fighter.
Except, naturally, the territory controlled by the Reborn Emperor.
However, even he didn't do it independently.
The new machine was created by the corporation under Lady Valles Santhe's leadership based on the well-proven past design of the TIE starfighter.
Technical specs allow understanding that the TIE droid possesses the most powerful combat artificial intelligence of its time, suitable for mass production in terms of price-quality ratio.
These droid starfighters can operate solo or in a flight or squadron subordinate to a central computer or live pilot.
The latter concept echoes one of the tactical calculations Captain Mor once sent me.
Though in his case, he proposed using Vulture-class droid starfighters armed by the CIS and acquired by us after the appearance of the Black Pearl and Colicoid Swarm.
Unlike Trade Federation droid starfighters, the TIE droid wouldn't "get lost" if it lost connection with the main computer or its live commander and would independently continue the assigned combat mission.
In specs, it nearly fully replicates the TIE starfighter: roughly the same speed in vacuum and atmosphere, same paired laser cannons and systems.
Thanks to removing the pilot function and necessary systems for him, the geometry and dimensions were partially altered.
But this didn't solve the main problem.
Along with the advantages of "electronic pilots," the TIE droid had their inherent drawbacks.
Like most other droids, the fighter's artificial intelligence wasn't capable of original maneuvers requiring creative thinking and resolution of non-standard situations.
And as combat experience showed—the TIE droid seriously underperformed live pilots in nearly all parameters, despite its superhuman reaction.
The Void Demons faced three models of TIE droids.
Those assembled on Lianna, without changes.
Those that were TIE starfighters but had "electronic brains" from Santhe's inventions.
And those in TIE starfighter form carrying Lieutenant Creb's combat data core in their innards.
All three groups suffered twice the losses planned in trials.
According to Captain Stormaer's report, the pirates didn't even notice the difference, despite a third of the machines differing visually and structurally from the other two.
TIE droids were shot down as quickly as if piloted by extremely untrainable cadet pilots.
Such losses hadn't occurred in the Battle of Smark, when Captain Tanda Pryl had to use her cadets (of whom she was entirely dissatisfied) for the combat task.
Meaning that at a cost of one hundred seventy thousand credits against sixty thousand for a standard TIE starfighter, the former wasn't worth its money or the time to develop the project.
The TIE interceptor, costing us one hundred twenty thousand in production, outright surpassed the project in all parameters.
Which couldn't help but be disheartening.
Of course, the stated sums I took from Lianna's price lists—in reality, Dominion machines were acquired ten to twenty thousand cheaper, at cost, without corporate markups.
But that didn't fix the situation cardinally.
For now, the reasons why Palpatine decided on such a project remained a mystery to me, but I assumed he either counted on TIE droids surpassing their "live" opponents or did it out of desperation, hoping to mass-fill his forces with deadly machines.
Dilemma.
The project, for all its unpretentiousness and outright failure, still seemed attractive to me.
Yes, the first trials failed.
But I didn't want to follow the Empire's path, which adhered to the principle: "If it didn't work right away, no point wasting time on it!"
These machines could at least be used for system patrols or included in escort carrier air wings for convoys moving through little-explored Dominion territories in the northern galaxy.
At minimum, for now, they could easily help us offset the pilot shortage in the Metropolitan Defense Forces while recruits trained.
After all, clone production also took time, and for now, TIE droids would remain in service on Venators, displacing TIE starfighters.
The latter had already firmly shifted to the small craft category for Defense Forces only because we had a huge number of TIE starfighters, and simply scrapping them for metal—foolish.
Modernized machines of the Grand Army of the Republic (except some models) were also methodically withdrawn from our Armed Forces and transferred to our mercenaries, Mandalorians, Baroness D'Asta's allies, who had lost their own small craft production.
We had such a stockpile it would last a couple wars, but piloting training principles on all that Clone Wars-era relicry differed from what TIE-series pilots required.
And since per plan our recruits should either independently or in minutes needed end up defending the Dominion, there was no sense (except some cases) in training them on other small craft.
Retraining—that was also time and no small funds.
We'd already been through that when we mass-transferred pilots from starfighters to interceptors, making the latter the regular fleet's main machine.
In time, perhaps we'd replace starfighters with interceptors in the Defense Forces too, but that wouldn't happen sooner than we had more factories and fewer enemies.
And on the last point, I was working right now.
Chimaera glided through hyperspace, approaching its goal.
The other pieces were also being placed on the grand galactic holochess board.
Soon Tyber Zann would have to make his first move—and our confrontation would begin.
The main thing was to manage it "under the radar," while the Emperor and the rest of the galaxy still believed I was dead.
The time window was very narrow.
The combat ships of the Lucrehulk-class battleship type ordered from Hoersch-Kessel Drive, Inc.—nothing other than excellent military transport starships, each capable of delivering an army to a planet.
Judging by Zann not yet striking the Dominion in revenge for Smark, he was biding until his forces were ready.
One attack that would bring the Dominion to its knees.
Well…
It wouldn't be easy.
Because, considering all circumstances and Tyber Zann's possession of Palpatine's secrets, there were grounds to assume the former master's foe clearly intended to pull several aces from his sleeve.
All I could do now—continue deep reconnaissance, strengthen defenses, and prepare.
As well as—set my own traps.
***
The very first attack wave caught the Republican fleet orbiting Lantilles off guard.
Here significant forces of the New Republic Defense Force's Second Fleet had gathered.
Previously stationed on Kashyyyk, which had served for not a few years as a base for devastating lightning strikes against Imperial forces deployed across the galaxy's eastern quadrant, these ships represented a formidable force and could cause significant trouble for the invasion forces.
The Imperials, as often happened, struck without warning, materializing from hyperspace with their full mass—a nearly suicidal maneuver for such a large flotilla.
Observers noted that their losses from the ill-considered leap through parsecs numbered dozens of small ships, but for the attackers, such sacrifices to the gods of war meant nothing.
On Republican starships, alarm signals had barely sounded, and tens of thousands of sentients had barely taken their places per battle stations, when they discovered themselves under fire from three dozen Imperial-class Star Destroyers, supported by a hundred corvettes, cruisers, and other small ships that crashed into the Second Fleet with full force.
The flagship star cruiser perished first, on which the targeted first strike had been focused.
Under concentrated fire from seven Imperials at once, the ship turned into a supernova in fractions of seconds—the hull couldn't withstand the massed barrage and yielded to turbolaser pressure, exposing dozens of decks.
The subsequent bomber raid and proton torpedo salvos led to detonation of the ship's ammunition and reactors.
At the cost of huge losses among small craft, but the Imperials achieved their goal—centralized command of the Second Fleet was disrupted.
New Republic starships fought each for itself, against whatever opponents fate paired them with.
While junior flagships tried to gain control of the situation, circumstances weren't favoring the New Republic.
Lantillian orbital shipyards came under attack from light Imperial forces, and now the hulks of a dozen Mon Calamari star cruisers under repair blazed there.
They were fated to acquire legendary Lantillian durability after repairs at local yards.
But fate decreed otherwise—the ships were disintegrating into parts.
Despite the Lantillian self-defense forces selflessly charging into counterattack, despite their successful actions in destroying the enemy—the Imperial pilots accomplished their task with "excellence."
By the end of the first hour of battle, the Second Fleet, though suffering colossal losses—over twenty star cruisers, losing an entire division of main class ships in an instant—still retained combat effectiveness as a formation.
And Lantilles hadn't fallen, becoming another planet conquered by the Imperial war machine.
And it wasn't at all because the junior flagships managed to restore any control over the remnants of the ships.
Lantilles' space defense was held only by the Second Fleet's first division, effectively a blocking formation necessary for Republican forces to fall back into the New Republic rear to Bothawui, the new temporary capital.
And those forces were routed.
The First Battle of Lantilles lasted nearly ten standard days, with varying success for each side.
But by the end of that time, the New Republic's Second Fleet first division along with escort vessels ceased to resemble any organized force.
Dozens of mangled hulks, clouds of debris of various sorts, destroyed defense stations, and fleeing New Republic starships that somehow escaped the pressing forces of Imperial Space—all this and more became the last straw for the Lantilles government.
The last line of defense, held by its own fleet, was ready to collapse—even having lost half a dozen Star Destroyers destroyed and twice as many damaged, Imperial Space continued pursuing its goal.
Capturing Lantilles, its depots, shipyards, and industry could turn the planet into an excellent forward outpost for further advance along the Perlemian Trade Route.
The Alliance fleet under General Garm Bel Iblis' command arrived just as the second assault on Lantilles began.
The Second Battle for the planet started with a strike from six of the remaining twelve combat-capable Star Destroyers on the orbital defense station Golan-II, blocking access to the equatorial shipyards.
The ensuing firefight actually served no more than as a distraction—despite their own losses, the Imperials wave after wave directed shuttles with landing troops toward the shipyards.
Lantillians fought desperately, launching ever new squadrons of starfighters to intercept the enemy and reduce the number of hostile soldiers fated to reach the shipyards.
As for stopping the landing, covered by Imperial frigates and corvettes, not to mention ubiquitous TIE starfighters, there was no question.
MC90 Call materialized from hyperspace accompanied by a dozen MC80b in the upper echelon relative to the station.
Squadrons of starfighters and interceptors pouring from the ships' holds, with indiscriminate fire from their guns and launches of proton torpedoes, cumulative missiles, dealt the enemy a tangible blow, while Mon Calamari star cruisers engaged in fierce and tense firefights with enemy Star Destroyers.
Quantitative superiority on the local front sector was on the Alliance soldiers' side, forcing the enemy commander to commit the remaining four Star Destroyers from reserve, reinforced by Vindicator-class heavy cruisers.
The other two destroyers and two dozen escort frigates remained in the rear to secure the damaged dozen Imperial Star Destroyers that had suffered in the First Battle of Lantilles.
Battered and hardly capable of resistance, these ships needed serious repairs, as Lantillian military had managed to disable them by destroying solar ionization reactors.
And it was precisely at this moment, when enemy ships were stretched thin, that General Bel Iblis demonstrated how quickly and thoroughly he had learned the lessons Grand Admiral Thrawn had taught him over the last five months of the previous year.
Galactic Traveler under General Han Solo's command, accompanied by another dozen Corellian corvettes and ten Hapan Battle Dragons, materialized in the rear of the damaged enemy ships, expertly fished from hyperspace via a gravitic mine deployed by the first Falcon to exit hyperspace, under Chewbacca and Calrissian's control.
Hapan Battle Dragon.
And the battle took on new colors.
Primarily, of course, thanks to the gaudily painted Battle Dragons.
Standing on Galactic Traveler's bridge, already locked in close combat with the nearest Imperial Star Destroyer, Han grimaced seeing Hapan Consortium ships gleefully drenching Imperial vessels with streams of golden-crimson energy from all their ion cannons.
"And why the hutts are they wasting time disabling starships when they should be destroying Imps?" he grumbled.
"Prince Isolder is convinced that in our situation, the Alliance could use every single ship we can capture," Leia said, approaching her husband and sensing his irritation. "I think he's right, because the Queen Mother is far from thrilled that part of her fleet left Consortium territory and got involved in a war beyond its borders."
"So in her view—a alliance is when you don't support each other in a tough spot?" Han clarified.
"No," Leia smiled. "In her understanding, the phrase 'alliance relations' takes on an insulting shade when it comes to cooperating with Jedi, whom she hates with all her soul."
"And her heart attack didn't strike when you showed up at Isolder's asking for help defending Lianna?" Han clarified.
"No," Leia replied.
"Pity," Solo sighed. "Does Isolder happen to have any more Imperial Star Destroyers stashed somewhere? That dozen the Hapans gifted before we finally dealt with Zsinj…"
"Were wedding gifts," Leia reminded with a chuckle. "Want me to remind you which of you two I chose?"
"I remember perfectly," her spouse declared. "Even in the joy, I slammed a full package of cumulative missiles into Iron Fist's bridge."
His family, particularly Leia, and the Hapan Consortium were linked by a recent—barely over a year—story of how Hapan Prince Isolder had courted Leia, then just Organa.
The dozen Star Destroyers had been part of the Hapan wedding gifts, but in the end, Leia chose Han, and Isolder found a wife among Dathomir witches, which his mother, the Queen Mother, greatly disliked.
Matriarchy in the Consortium—quite a dangerous thing for men.
So when negotiations on Lianna hit a peculiar logical dead end, and battle raged in orbit of Lantilles where Republicans were losing, the former princess made a quick trip to the Consortium, briefly conferring with the prince, his wife, and the Queen Mother.
The result was that by the time Lantillians "ripened" for talks on joining the Alliance (not a bad choice compared to alternatives: becoming part of the Empire or watching the Second Fleet flee, abandoning them to fate), Prince Isolder convinced his mother to send part of the Hapes Consortium forces to Lantilles.
And not some auxiliary starships, but the real deal—Battle Dragons.
These unusual and gaudily painted ships were the backbone of the Hapan Consortium fleet's power. Hapans always took border security seriously, and this ship was vivid proof.
Han had already witnessed these ships' power in the Battle of Dathomir a bit over a year ago, when Warlord Zsinj and his Iron Fist were finally destroyed.
The Hapes fleet wasn't overly numerous.
As Leia explained, by government decree, each developed planet in the Hapan Consortium had to maintain at least one ship of this type.
Thus, in the early Galactic Civil War period, the number of Battle Dragons didn't exceed sixty-three ships. Though over time these rules were revised, and the Hapes fleet began growing rapidly.
Not least thanks to Grand Admiral Thrawn's campaign, it must be noted.
Each ship, besides minor armament differences, noticeably differed from its sisters with unique gaudy coloring inherent to a specific planet.
Setting aside the ships' whimsical appearance, Hapans deserved credit at minimum for outfitting their armed forces exclusively with starships of their own design and locally manufactured components.
Hapes used only turbolasers and ion cannons of their own development. They didn't excel in accuracy or firing rate, but in power they matched Republic ones (Clone Wars era), and over time even modern Imperial turbolasers.
Hapes turbolaser recharge rate was three times slower than Imperials'. To compensate, a unique technology was applied: guns mounted on "saucer" movable platforms in the lower and upper hull sections.
Their principle involved shifting guns to optimal firing positions.
After firing, the gun immediately withdrew for recharge, yielding place to a new one, while the first recharged.
An armament conveyor scheme, thought up only by Hapans in the galaxy.
Such a firing system allowed partially mitigating the low accuracy of Hapan guns, as during shooting, guns were zeroed on target and subsequent shots landed more precisely. This also enabled higher rate of fire on a single target, which sometimes proved more useful than salvo fire.
Benefits of such shooting were obvious in concentrated fire on one target (for a large ship—on one target section). Thus, the drawback was turned into an advantage. However, when attacking a ship from multiple directions and needing to fire on multiple targets, the low rate of fire could often prove fatal.
Another Battle Dragon drawback was the primitive fire control system.
Bulky and quite outdated computers could track only one target simultaneously. Hence, four FCS computers were installed per ship. Though they took up much space and consumed considerable energy, they allowed attacking four ships at once. For comparison, an Imperial Star Destroyer had no trouble firing at twenty diverse and varied-size targets with guns of various calibers simultaneously.
The applied gravitic mine was also a Hapan development, built on stolen Imperial gravitic well technology and methods of countering hyperspace jumps.
Considering the Alliance (and even New Republic) lacked interdictors stolen by Thrawn in the Battle of Sluis Van, Hapan gravitic mines were a quite simple and cheap alternative.
Of course, there were a few drawbacks.
Unlike interdictor cruisers, gravitic mines operated only as long as they had energy for it.
An important factor was also that deploying such a mine didn't allow all ships to flee into hyperspace.
Which constrained one's own fleet in maneuver. If enemy reinforcements approached the opposing fleet, escape was simply impossible. These mines had another significant drawback—they could be destroyed.
And quite easily at that.
While the same Immobilizer 418 required proper "poking" to achieve suitable results.
Han watched as Hapan starfighters slipped from Battle Dragons' hangars.
Not much by quality, but they could replenish the Alliance's small craft deficit…
True, per Leia's words, in this regard the Queen Mother firmly refused the almost-daughter-in-law.
The argument was something like "over my dead body."
Solo watched as the second enemy Star Destroyer, concentrating fire on the nearest Hapan ship, fairly quickly breached its shields and, before the ship withdrew, managed to punch a considerable number of holes in it.
Yes, Hapan ships had plenty of drawbacks, no hiding the truth.
Possessing solid firepower for their size, the Battle Dragon had comparatively weak shields and armor, and even in threes or fours didn't pose a serious threat to an Imperial Star Destroyer.
Honestly, Han hadn't even suspected how much effort Hapans expended and how many sacrifices were made to repel Grand Admiral Osvald Teshik's attack, whom the Emperor during his reign had sent to subjugate the Consortium.
And how many subsequent attacks they withstood, managing to capture at minimum a dozen Imperial-class Star Destroyers.
Though, to be fair, Han noted that the other Hapan fleet ships weren't such easy prey as the damaged one.
Since the Consortium became part of the New Republic, their tech lag had significantly narrowed, and armament as well as electronics should be more modern on the ships.
So why then had one ship gone out of commission so easily?
"There's the rub," Han drawled, watching the second Star Destroyer begin chasing the damaged ship, zealously firing on the other Hapan Battle Dragons, who sluggishly replied with leisurely fire.
Everything changed the instant the ISD found itself in the "bag" of Hapan warships.
The "damaged" Battle Dragon immediately stopped pretending to be a victim, cloaked in deflectors, and its guns, like the turbolasers and ion cannons of the other Hapan starships, began hosing the destroyer with such intensity that they literally drenched it in streams of ammunition.
By the time Galactic Traveler silenced and carved up its opponent, the Battle Dragons had swarmed their victim, delivering multiple landing shuttles to its hull while fending off or destroying Imperial escort frigates.
"Looks like we've got another Star Destroyer," Leia murmured.
"Even two," Han said dryly, having no slightest desire to yield in anything to his wife's former fiancé. "Boarding parties—begin boarding our destroyer. Gunners—shift fire to the enemy damaged destroyers. Cripple, disable combat capability, and secure for capture by our forces!"
The Second Battle of Lantilles lasted a mere six standard hours.
In its outcome, General Bel Iblis managed to destroy three enemy Star Destroyers out of ten, losing only two of his own cruisers.
Han and Prince Isolder boarded fourteen Star Destroyers, fully exploiting their dire state without active solar ionization reactors.
A dozen escort frigates and heavy cruisers, also falling to the Alliance fleet as trophies, replenished the "collection."
Imperial Space retreated, tail tucked and bloodied, failing to conquer Lantilles.
The Alliance and its allies won this bloody battle, securing the local government's loyalty and strengthening their position on the galactic political stage.
"They're inviting us to a victory celebration over the Empire," Han reported, an hour after the enemy's flight.
He found his wife in their quarters aboard Galactic Traveler, where she had retreated to report to Mon Mothma on Dac.
"Mon Mothma's already en route to us," Leia said, paling as she stepped away from the holoprojector. "They told me Lianna approved joining the Alliance. The escaped Incom engineers have already settled on the planet, and soon we'll get all the necessary military materiel. Of course, if the Liannans don't keep fleeing the planet, disagreeing with their government's decision."
"What made Phillip Santhe change his mind?" Han wondered. "He was waiting for the Empire to show up on Lianna. Did the gut punch we dealt at Lantilles sober him?"
Leia shook her head negatively, looking at her spouse.
Han tensed, seeing fear in his beloved wife's eyes.
"Phillip Santhe was found dead a few days ago," she whispered. "He fell from his residence balcony. They say he leaned on unsecured railings built by contractors for his new home. His son, Kashan Santhe, now heads the corporation."
"That kid we were talking to?"
Leia nodded silently.
"He promised us he'd sort things with his old man," Han felt his fists involuntarily clenching.
He'd lived too long on this plane, involved in endless scams, to just chalk it all up to simple coincidence.
A boy recruited by the Alliance, to whom Mon Mothma's order had stuffed three cartloads of baloney on his ears.
His father, categorically against alliance with the Alliance, but now dead, and at the corporation's helm stood his pro-Alliance son, processed with Rebel propaganda since youth.
Who seemed like a wimp and blabbermouth.
"You don't think that…?" Leia read it all on his face.
"I'm almost certain," Han said firmly. "We clearly won't learn the truth, but my gut says: some brazen ears stick out of this situation. And I'm afraid I don't want to know whose exactly, so as not to completely lose faith in people and start believing what Thrawn told me."
"Me too," Leia said barely audibly, folding her hands in a prayer gesture. "Great Force, Luke, wherever you are, if only you knew how much I need your help and advice right now…"