Ten years, one month, and twenty-six days after the Battle of Yavin…
Or the forty-fifth year, first month, and twenty-sixth day after the Great Resynchronization.
(Eight months and eleven days since the Arrival.)
Vice Admiral Pellaeon made every effort to keep his expression unchanged after shipwright Zion finished presenting his ideas.
"He's a most valuable specialist, Gilad," the Deputy Supreme Commander reminded himself. "You can't just strangle him on the spot."
Gilad involuntarily dropped his gaze to his hands.
Then again, why not?
Officially, he was the ruler of the Dominion.
Well, that information was only for the majority of sentients in the galaxy, admittedly.
But the regular fleet and most of the top military-civilian administration certainly knew the truth about "Grand Admiral Thrawn's death at the Battle of Sluis Van."
As they also knew that Gilad was effectively serving as the Chief of Staff of the Dominion's regular fleet.
And on top of that, he was responsible for logistics.
And had practically turned into a rear-echelon officer.
With his own battlecruiser, of course, but still a rear-echelon officer.
One with his hands full, all revolving around how and where to transfer free resources of the war machine to maximum effect for the benefit of his beloved fleet.
And it was unlikely they would side with Pellaeon when Thrawn court-martialed him for getting rid of the Dominion's only shipwright.
Ah…
Times like this make you miss Darth Vader…
"Are you finished?" he asked the visitor.
"Yes," Zion replied. "Your decision?"
Pellaeon didn't hesitate.
"No," he answered.
"But why?" the shipwright boiled instantly, like an electric kettle in a galley. "My proposal would multiply the combat effectiveness of our Star Destroyers."
"Provided they don't blow up," Pellaeon noted.
"They won't blow up!" Zion said firmly.
Then, looking away with his one 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 technology," Pellaeon added caustically.
"Actually, I was hoping you'd offer your Allegiance…" Zion said.
"Has it been a while since you were thrown down the stairs, shipwright?" Pellaeon asked in a stern tone. "Or has your survival instinct completely shut off? Do you understand what you're proposing?"
"Of course," the shipwright nodded affirmatively. "To continue the experiment that began with Captain Tanda Pryl's Star Destroyer Thunder…"
"Curb your endless imagination, shipwright!" Pellaeon growled. "Star Destroyers don't exist for you to experiment on them and gut them like nerfs at a slaughterhouse. Especially considering that in the entire fleet, we have only one Allegiance\-class battlecruiser!"
"Fine, I agree to work on the Thunder," Zion offered as a "favor." "It's in for repairs anyway. I'll gather a crew and we'll quickly upgrade the power plant…"
The shipwright fell silent after Pellaeon's fist slammed into the wooden desktop.
"You already have a ton of projects in the design and implementation phase," Pellaeon said, raising his voice. "Another project, especially one involving decommissioning an active destroyer, is practically sabotage!"
"I can easily take any of the Star Destroyers captured at Sluis Van, since you don't want to hand over the Thunder or the Allegiance," Zion didn't blink. "Only, in that case, project implementation would take longer…"
"Focus on the projects already in progress!" Gilad barked impatiently.
Judging by the fact that one of the guard shock troopers peeked into the office (and immediately retreated upon meeting the vice admiral's angry glare), he had clearly overdone the tone.
"They'll be implemented just fine without me," Zion said with hurt in his voice. "The Immobilizer, the Dominant…"
"Don't test my patience, shipwright," Pellaeon warned. "You know the rule: first you deliver at least one finished prototype that passes trials and combat testing, you fix the bugs discovered during operational testing, and only then do you get approval for new projects. Neither I nor Grand Admiral Thrawn will tolerate you flooding us with dozens of projects and then starting on new ones!"
"But we have a ton of ships we can use for experiments!" Zion insisted. "Fine, I'll agree to a Vindicator\-class heavy cruiser and…"
"We're done, Zion!" Gilad roared, pointing his finger unmistakably at the door.
The shipwright sighed in defeat, rose from his chair, and reached out to take his data chips.
"When Grand Admiral Thrawn returns to headquarters, I'll propose these developments to him," the man said.
"Oh, sure," Gilad thought, quickly covering the data drives with his hand. "And until then, instead of overseeing the Immobilizer and Dominant projects, you'll spend all your time refining those proposals to present them in a better light."
"These will stay with me," Pellaeon cut him off, sweeping the chips into an open desk drawer.
The data storage devices landed on top of a dozen others that had come to Gilad in the same way.
The red light of the shipwright's optical sensor fixed directly on the vice admiral.
"Sir, those are my developments," Zion said in a threatening tone.
"As are the ones already in my drawer," Pellaeon agreed. "Continue working on the current projects. Finish them, and you can have any of these," he pointed at the drawer. "But first—the Immobilizers and the Dominant. No exceptions!"
"If Grand Admiral Thrawn knew about my developments, he would immediately order such work!" shipwright Zion desperately tried to contest the chief of staff's decision.
"When Thrawn returns, then we'll revisit this conversation," Pellaeon assured him.
"He certainly won't be pleased that you're blocking promising developments!" Zion pressed on.
"I wouldn't advise trying to guess what decision Thrawn will make when he's informed of all this," Pellaeon said knowingly.
"Sir, given that the Alliance and the New Republic now have ships that can fight our Star Destroyers on equal terms, modernization is vitally necessary!"
That argument sounded more like a plea.
"That's precisely why we're focusing on Project Trio," Gilad reminded him. "What you're proposing—a Trio version two-point-oh—won't help us one bit!"
In the regular fleet, if we have a dozen Imperial\-class Star Destroyers upgraded under the Trio rearmament program, that's already good.
We need to increase their numbers, not endlessly rework 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-III-class ships in our fleet," Gilad explained. "But if we keep churning out new modifications with every first shipbuilding breakthrough our opponents make, we'll be stuck with three hundred Imperial-Is, Imperial-IIs, and a dozen Imperial-IIIs. When your IIIs are no longer a rarity in the fleet — then we can talk about a new upgrade. That's it. Don't expect any other decision from me!"
"Sir, but — "
"No objections!" Gilad snapped. "About-face! March out of this office! And once you cross that threshold — run to your shuttle and get back to Tangrene! I expect reports on the first Immobilizers and Dominators by the end of this month!"
"Yes, sir," came the reply. Zion finally remembered that he was conscripted military personnel, and that arguing with his commander meant treading on very thin ice — the patience of the Deputy Supreme Commander.
When the bulkhead closed behind the shipwright, Pellaeon slumped into his chair with a sigh of relief.
How the hell did Thrawn manage to stay so unflappable whenever Zion and his endless experimental upgrades came up?
Though, nobody really knew what the Grand Admiral did in his quarters besides admire holographic copies of art pieces.
Well, assuming he admired them constantly.
Still, Gilad had noticed more than once that Thrawn didn't spend his time surrounded by his beloved art as often as he had before the intel raid on Obroa-Skai.
But, setting the Grand Admiral aside for the moment, he needed to think about something else.
For instance, Zion's latest initiative.
Gilad reached into a drawer and pulled out the requested information crystal.
He inserted it into the corresponding slot on the side panel of his workstation, and the Vice-Admiral once again scanned through the proposed upgrade from shipwright Zion.
In broad strokes, he was proposing yet another costly set of changes to the Star Destroyers.
To begin with, citing excerpts from combat reports on the Star Destroyers Dusk and Point of No Return, he suggested following the train of thought of that gloomy Republic shipwright and installing anti-ship proton torpedo launchers on all Imperial-class Star Destroyers.
In the bow section, just as the Republic had done on the specified vessels at the Hast shipyards.
With a substantial ammunition load for each of the six launchers.
Seemed like a simple refit, but it would require reworking the entire bow section, removing the standard emergency reactor — the last source of power for the ship if the main power source, the solar ionization reactor, failed.
Standard on an Imperial-class, besides the main power source, there were two others: the aforementioned emergency reactor and the energy cells that maintained the turbolasers' prescribed rate of fire during an intense battle.
On the IIIs, in addition to these, they also installed reactors from ancient SPHA artillery pieces, providing extra power for the additional weaponry.
The problem was that the emergency reactor wasn't just the crew's last hope in case the solar ionization reactor was ejected; it was also the equipment that initiated the thermonuclear reaction in the main reactor after it was powered up following a shutdown.
The energy cells weren't used for such operations because they didn't have access to the reactor.
The new power sources from the SPHA units also only supplied the weapons.
Zion proposed fixing this flaw — since the emergency reactor would be removed, the SPHA reactors would handle the startup cycle.
Alright, let's assume that's the case.
All that was needed was to rewire the power distribution schematics for half the ship.
And sometimes that could only be done after part of the Star Destroyer was stripped down to its frame.
Plus, you'd have to accept the fact that until the main power source was online and the thermonuclear reaction in the man-made star inside the destroyer stabilized, half the weaponry on the III would be useless.
And that took anywhere from three to six hours, even with the entire crew working in sync.
The second point — Zion proposed increasing the firepower of the upgraded ships' artillery by following an experimental path. One that Imperial engineers had tested on Captain Tanda Pryl's Star Destroyer, the Thunder.
In short, they had connected the ship's weapons directly to the hyperdrive, bypassing and removing the energy cells.
This freed up ten percent more power for each of the ship's guns.
But it also had some very unpleasant consequences for the ship's commander and crew.
Because drawing power from the hyperdrive not only made the ship sluggish after it broke the light barrier — effectively downgrading the second-class equipment to third or fourth class — but it was also frankly unsafe in the way Imperial safety protocols intended.
It was a project that was never finished, and Dominion scientists were currently examining the installation, looking for a solution.
And then there was Zion's third proposal...
Considering everything above, he suggested equipping the Imperial-III-class Star Destroyers with solar ionization reactors from the Imperial-IIs, which had a higher — roughly twenty percent — power output.
Taken together, all these innovations were indeed excellent and necessary, because the new reactor would help compensate for the power drain from the hyperdrive.
Which, in turn, increased the power of the guns themselves.
In this simple way, the combat effectiveness of the IIIs could be boosted by about fifteen to twenty percent.
But there were a number of problems.
First — the prohibitive cost of the upgraded reactors, which the Dominion currently couldn't even produce — there wasn't even a factory for them.
A separate factory was being built for the Imperial-I solar ionization reactors, which were intended to become the main power units for the IIIs, but it was far from completion.
No one had even planned to produce reactors for the Imperial-IIs, because they were an order of magnitude more expensive, and the compensatory benefit in terms of power gain wasn't very significant in the context of powering the ship.
Plus, they consumed twenty percent more fuel than the Imperial-I reactors, reducing the ship's operational range.
Given that all Imperial-IIs were eventually supposed to be converted into Imperial-IIIs with corresponding replacements, their reactors were planned to be transferred to the Dragons, as had already been done with Booster Terrik's Errant Venture and Sair Yonka's Freedom.
Such replacements allowed the Dragons to recharge their main battery faster — for which the rate of fire and power of the ion cannon's shot were paramount.
You couldn't just change the technical specification from producing Imperial-I reactors to Imperial-II reactors and install them on all ships.
A Star Destroyer, no matter what type, is a complex of power-consuming systems.
Installing a surplus power plant there, even if you spent an extra fifty million credits on it, might be possible.
But it would lead to enormous fuel consumption and unnecessary excess power that would need to go somewhere.
Otherwise, the artificial star — which is essentially what a solar ionization reactor is — would simply fry the Star Destroyer's equipment.
That's why Imperial-IIIs were fitted with Imperial-I reactors and additional reactors from SPHA artillery units — they provided just the percentage of extra power needed for the ship's additional weaponry.
Shipwright Zion, as a man of science, fully understood that his upgrade plan was overly complicated.
He hadn't just proposed the "Imperial-II reactor provides extra power to the hyperdrive, which in turn diverts the surplus to the weapons" scheme for no reason.
There are laws of physics, including energy loss during transmission along power buses.
No one had repealed the concept of efficiency, and unfortunately, even in the enlightened age of military engineering under the Galactic Empire, absolute efficiency had never been achieved.
And these laws couldn't be changed.
Just as you couldn't change the physics of a turbolaser, whose power increase when fed from the hyperdrive occurred by supplying anomalous particles generated during hyperdrive operation directly into the weapon.
Directly connecting an Imperial-II solar ionization reactor wouldn't produce such results.
It never would — current turbolasers were already designed for maximum energy efficiency when fed normal reactor power.
Increasing power could only be achieved by adding exotic materials into the plasma charge formation circuits — anomalous hyperdrive particles, agrocite, for example, like during the Clone Wars, or something similar.
With the caveat that the service life of such a weapon would decrease unpredictably, and the consequences of a potential detonation of the installation during an explosion, due to the weapon's integrity being compromised by prolonged use at "maximum performance" mode, were downright dire.
And not just for the crew member manning the turbolaser, who would vanish faster than he could register what was happening.
But for half the hull where the turbolaser was mounted.
There had been similar precedents in the Empire — plenty of starships were so mangled that they weren't even repaired; they were sent for scrap.
Yes, without a doubt, shipwright Zion was proposing an innovation, a breakthrough that could increase the firepower of the IIIs, and possibly all Dominion ships.
The question was only whether it was worth spending resources equaling half the cost of building the ship just to upgrade its weapons system for a ten percent increase in turbolaser output?
This was just a general, surface-level view of the problem — reality was far more prosaic and a little more than completely packed with physical formulas.
The upgraded reactors weren't installed on the Imperial-IIs because life was good — it was because the number of turbolaser barrels had increased by dozens and dozens.
And to power them, multiple mechanisms had appeared that also required power.
On the Imperial-IIIs, an elegant solution had been found — powering many times more guns with an Imperial-I reactor because the crew size had been drastically reduced, along with the life-support systems, additional reactors were obtained, automation was implemented, and a significant portion of the infamous "one hundred seventy-four thousand design flaws," which accounted for colossal energy losses, had been resolved.
Better is the enemy of good, and you can't argue with that.
Yes, the New Republic and the Alliance now had upgraded starships that fought on par with the Imperials.
But they hadn't yet faced the Imperial-IIIs in battle.
Designers and shipwrights could assure buyers all they wanted that their new ships were equal to or even superior to the Empire's main starships.
The proof could only be found in practice.
The Imperial-II, according to the designers at Kuat, was also supposed to be able to single-handedly destroy Rebel fleets.
What came of those promises, a decade after these ships entered the Imperial Starfleet and served the Remnants, was obvious to the naked eye.
The idea was indeed good.
Gilad admitted that.
Just as he admitted that he too would always like to have a heavier club on hand than the one the enemy was holding.
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 a few hundred lighter clubs than a couple dozen heavier ones.
But the idea needed to be shown to Thrawn.
Along with all of Zion's developments sitting in the desk drawer.
For now, Gilad at least approved of the idea of installing torpedo launchers on the Imperial-class.
Yes, the ships would need refits, but...
The Dominion had a considerable number of Imperial-class Star Destroyers that had already been upgraded by the Republic and fitted with torpedo tubes.
If Thrawn approved the idea of mounting launchers and replacing the startup reactor from the emergency one to the SPHA reactors, then the upgrade to Imperial-IIIs should start precisely with those destroyers that had undergone the "Hast shipyard method modernization."
If only because the Republic had already made significant alterations to the bow section.
But there was a problem — they had completely cut out 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 Republic had been helped by the vaunted Force.
* * *
Well.
Even the first deployment had yielded impressive results for a full analysis.
"Well," I said. "Captain Stormaer, your report on the TIE droid's performance was thorough."
"Thank you, sir," the commander of the Abyss Fury replied, looking at me via hologram, like most of the regular fleet, unaware of their Supreme Commander's location.
"Now, let's move to the details," I said. "Have you determined the origin of the Interceptor IV-class frigates?"
Behind this question lay another: "Has a connection been found between this pirate group and Tyber Zann's organization?"
Stormaer understood me correctly.
Although his face showed he had been much more prepared for a detailed discussion of our version of the TIE droids' combat performance.
No, I would discuss that matter directly with the designers.
"Yes, sir, I have," he replied. "The Void Demons were once part of the Zann Consortium — within a year after Zann discovered Kamino. Then their future commander decided that continuing to be a pawn in someone else's hand, especially once Zann started producing clones, wasn't to his liking."
I doubt that — in that case, he simply wouldn't have gotten involved with a large gang like the Zann Consortium in the first place.
Pirate leaders prefer to work solo.
More likely, he and his men were afraid of becoming obvious expendable assets that would be replaced by clones.
Which, as practice with the "vultures" showed, wasn't far from the truth.
I don't know if Tyber Zann cloned his friend Urai Fen or not, but he clearly preferred to artificially mass-produce elite fighters.
"He stole ten Interceptor IV-class frigates from Zann when new starships started appearing in the Consortium fleet and the old ones took a backseat, mostly serving as military transports. He moved to the D'Astan sector, found himself a lair — a former mining colony abandoned due to the enormous cost of geological operations in that region of space. After that, the gang survived by robbing smugglers and lone traders. After an attack on the D'Asta family convoys, the fleet took losses, and only six ships remained. Since then, they've become more cautious."
Alright, let's assume that.
"Arrange for the transfer of those Interceptors to the Baroness's fleet," I ordered.
We had no use for them — I had even handed over the Actions captured from Talon Karrde to the Baroness's forces, paying for the much-needed ammunition supplies.
Maintaining ships so atypical for our fleet was expensive.
Despite the fact that they, of course, had huge cargo holds and decent speed and protection. But against large raiding forces, they were useless — just targets.
It was far simpler to use our upgraded Acclamator-IIIs for that purpose, rearmed with quad turbolasers from the Victory-class.
Why were quad cannons being mounted on the strike cruisers?
Because you had to put those cannons somewhere, given the mass rearmament of this Star Destroyer type with octuple turrets from the Imperial-class.
Three Venators, rearmed with octuple turbolaser turrets, equipped with V-180 ion cannons and reactors from the Imperial-IIs, were certainly magnificent in a line battle, exceeding all expectations, but I decided that after the show of force at Isen, the Acclamators and Venators would make do with quad turrets.
Installing octuple turrets was too wasteful and would require more power for the ship. For now, we had used up all spare Imperial-II reactors, so the remaining Dragons would be armed differently.
"Your assessment of the Mandalorians' actions?" I asked the Abyss.
"They aren't regular troops," he stated categorically. "The stormtroopers report that the Mandalorians lack discipline and combined-arms 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-unit tactics are quite good. But as regular forces — too independent."
Which was exactly what needed to be proven.
Fortunately, I had never intended to test them in that capacity.
"In that case, transfer the Mandalorians to the General's command," I ordered, figuring the former pirate base was already under allied control. "Pull your ships and the trophies from the Isen IV base back to the fleet base on Vinsoth and await further orders. That will be all."
"It will be done, sir," Stormaer replied, signing off.
When the holoprojector went dark, I sat in silence for a few seconds, letting my thoughts align into a logical chain.
So, our losses among the TIE droids were enormous.
Perhaps the problem was that we had moved the "internals" from the dedicated TIE droid platforms into the existing TIE fighters on the Venators.
This had been done to prevent Valles Santhe's secret project — undoubtedly intended for Palpatine and his clique at the orbital assembly lines on Lianna — from being exposed prematurely.
Intelligence reported that we had received not all the TIE droids that Lady Santhe had produced, but only a small portion.
The rest had been handed over to Palpatine's representatives after our raid on the system.
Which meant that, one way or another, they would be deployed against the enemies of the Revived Emperor.
I brought up a three-dimensional image of a TIE droid over the holographic projector — a certain number of which we had acquired along with the orbital assembly facilities on Lianna.
TIE droid.
A combat starfighter controlled by an electronic brain, with instantaneous reaction times and unquestioning obedience to orders — a tempting idea that had often occurred to military specialists across the Galaxy.
The first such machines had appeared hundreds of years before the Empire's rise and were used massively by the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars.
Within 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 that teaching a droid to fight on equal terms with living pilots required the use of advanced artificial intelligence.
And that was enormously expensive, considering the fact that in the early years of the Galactic Empire, a single Imperial-class Star Destroyer needed as many as five squadrons of such machines.
But soon, after the defeat at Endor and the Empire's fragmentation, a shortage arose of qualified pilots capable of replacing those killed and wounded in the civil wars and battles with the rising New Republic.
The fighter-droid project still never materialized — because none of the Imperial Remnants possessed sufficient funds, production capacity, or intellectual resources necessary for the full-scale development and production of a new starfighter.
Except, of course, the territory controlled by the Revived Emperor.
However, even he didn't undertake it alone.
The new machine was created by a corporation under the leadership of Lady Valles Santhe, based on the well-proven TIE fighter design.
Technical data revealed that the TIE droid possessed the most powerful combat AI of its time that was suitable for mass production in terms of cost-effectiveness.
These fighter droids could operate alone or as part of a flight or squadron subordinate to a central computer or a living pilot.
The latter concept echoed one of the tactical analyses that Captain Mor had once sent me.
Though in his case, he had proposed using Vulture-class fighter droids, which had been in CIS service and were acquired by us after the appearance of the Black Pearl and the Colicoid Swarm.
Unlike the Trade Federation's fighter droids, a TIE droid wouldn't "get confused" if it lost contact with the main computer or its living commander, and would independently continue executing its combat mission.
In terms of characteristics, it almost perfectly matched the TIE fighter: roughly the same speed in vacuum and atmosphere, twin laser cannons and systems.
Thanks to the removal of the pilot function and its necessary systems, 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 also had their inherent flaws.
Like most other droids, the fighter's AI was incapable of original maneuvers requiring creative thinking and solving non-standard situations.
And as combat experience had shown, the TIE droid was seriously inferior to living pilots in almost every respect, even despite its superhuman reactions.
The Void Demons had faced three TIE droid models.
Those assembled on Lianna, without any modifications.
Those that were TIE fighters but had the "electronic brains" that came bundled with Santhe's inventions.
And those that, in the form of TIE fighters, carried the combat data core of Lieutenant Kreb in their innards.
All three groups suffered losses twice as large as planned by the simulations.
According to Captain Stormaer's report, the pirates didn't even notice the difference, despite a third of the machines being visually and structurally distinct from the other two.
TIE droids were shot down as quickly as if they were piloted by utterly incapable trainee pilots.
There hadn't been losses like this at the battle of Smarck, when Captain Tanda Pryl was forced to use her cadets (with whom she was extremely dissatisfied) to complete a combat mission.
Which means that at a cost of one hundred seventy thousand credits versus sixty thousand credits for a standard TIE fighter, the former is worth neither its money nor the time spent developing this project.
The TIE Interceptor, which costs us one hundred twenty thousand credits to produce, completely outperforms the project in every parameter.
Which is rather disheartening.
Of course, I'm taking the stated sums from Lianna's price lists — in reality, the Dominion gets the machines ten to twenty thousand cheaper, at cost, without corporate markups.
But that doesn't exactly fix the situation drastically.
For now, the reasons Palpatine decided to take on such a project remain a mystery to me, but I assume he either expected the TIE droids to surpass their "living" opponents, or he did it out of desperation, hoping to mass-fill his forces with deadly machines.
A dilemma.
For all its unpretentiousness and outright failure, the project still seems attractive to me.
Yes, the first tests failed.
But I don't want to follow the path of the Empire, which adhered to the principle: "If it didn't work the first time, then it's not worth wasting time on it!"
These machines can at least be used for system patrols or included in the air wings of escort ships for caravans moving through the poorly explored territories of the Dominion in the northern galaxy.
At least for now, they can easily help us offset the shortage of pilots in the Metropolis Defense Forces while the recruits are being trained.
After all, clone production also takes time, and for now, TIE droids will remain in service on the Venators, replacing TIE fighters.
The latter have already firmly moved into the small craft category for the Defense Forces, simply because we have a huge number of TIE fighters, and just scrapping them for metal would be foolish.
Modernized Grand Army of the Republic vehicles (with some model exceptions) are also being systematically withdrawn from our Armed Forces and transferred to our mercenaries, Mandalorians, and allies of Baroness D'Asta who have lost their own small craft production.
We have such a stockpile that it would last for a couple of wars, but the pilot training principles for all this Clone Wars-era vintage differ from what is required for pilots of the TIE series.
And since, according to the plan, our recruits must either independently or in moments of need find themselves defending the Dominion, there is no point (except in some cases) in training them to pilot other small craft.
Retraining also takes time and considerable resources.
We already went through this when we mass-reassigned pilots from fighters to interceptors, making the latter the primary machine of the regular fleet.
Over time, perhaps it will be possible to replace fighters with interceptors in the Defense Forces as well, but that won't happen until we have more factories and fewer enemies.
I am currently working on the latter point.
The Chimaera glides through hyperspace, approaching its target.
The other pieces are also being set on the great galactic holochess board.
Very soon, Tyber Zann will have to make his first move — and our confrontation will begin.
The main thing is to do it "on the quiet," while the Emperor and the rest of the galaxy still believe I am dead.
The time window is very narrow.
The Lucrehulk-class battleships ordered from Horsch & Kessel are nothing more than excellent military transport starships, each capable of delivering an army to a planet.
Judging by the fact that Zann hasn't yet struck the Dominion in retaliation for Smarck, he is waiting until his forces are ready.
One attack that is supposed to bring the Dominion to its knees.
Well…
It won't be easy.
Because, given all the circumstances and Tyber Zann's possession of Palpatine's secrets, there is every reason to assume that the enemy of this body's former master clearly intends to pull a few aces out of his sleeve.
All I can do now is continue deep reconnaissance, strengthen defenses, and prepare.
And also — set my own traps.
* * *
The very first wave of attack caught the Republican fleet, wandering in orbit of Lantilles, by surprise.
Considerable forces of the Second Fleet of the New Republic Defense Forces had gathered here.
Previously deployed at Kashyyyk, which served for years as a base during the stage of devastating lightning strikes against Imperial forces deployed throughout the eastern part of the galaxy, these ships represented a formidable force and could cause significant trouble for the invading forces.
The Imperials, as often happens, struck without warning, materializing out of hyperspace with their entire mass, which was almost a suicidal maneuver for such a large flotilla.
Observers noted that their losses from the ill-conceived leap through parsecs amounted to dozens of small ships, but for the attackers, such sacrifices to the gods of war meant nothing.
The alarm signals had barely finished sounding on the Republican starships, and tens of thousands of sentients had barely taken their positions according to the battle stations, when they found themselves under fire from three dozen Imperial-class Star Destroyers, which, supported by a hundred corvettes, cruisers, and other small ships, crashed down on the Second Fleet with their entire mass.
The first to die was the flagship star cruiser, which was actually the target of the deliberate first strike.
Under the concentrated fire of seven Imperial-class ships at once, the vessel turned into a supernova in a matter of seconds — the hull could not withstand the massive bombardment and gave way to the turbolaser pressure, exposing dozens of decks.
The subsequent bomber raid and proton torpedo salvos led to the detonation of the ship's ammunition and reactors.
At the cost of enormous losses among small craft, the Imperials achieved their goal — the centralized command of the Second Fleet was disrupted.
The New Republic starships each fought for themselves, against whatever opponents fate brought them.
While the junior flag officers tried to get the situation under control, circumstances were not favoring the New Republic.
The Lantilles orbital shipyards were attacked by Imperial light forces, and now the hulls of a dozen Mon Calamari star cruisers that were under repair were blazing there.
They were destined to gain legendary Lantilles durability after repairs at the local shipyards.
But fate decided otherwise — the ships were falling apart.
Despite the fact that the Lantilles self-defense forces selflessly rushed into a counterattack, despite their successful actions in destroying the enemy — the Imperial pilots completed their task with flying colors.
By the end of the first hour of battle, the Second Fleet, although it had suffered colossal losses — more than twenty star cruisers, losing one division of main-class ships overnight — still retained combat effectiveness as a formation.
And Lantilles did not fall, becoming yet another planet conquered by the Imperial war machine.
And this was by no means because the junior flag officers managed to somehow restore control over the remnants of the ships.
The space defense of Lantilles was held only by the first division of the Second Fleet, effectively acting as a blocking formation necessary for the Republican forces to retreat to the rear of the New Republic, to Bothawui, the new temporary capital.
And these forces were routed.
The First Battle of Lantilles lasted almost ten standard days, with varying success for each side.
But by the end of that time, the first division of the Second Fleet of the New Republic, along with its escort vessels, ceased to represent anything resembling an organized force.
Dozens of mangled wrecks, clouds of debris of various kinds, destroyed defense stations, and fleeing New Republic starships barely escaping the pressing forces of Imperial Space — all this and much more became the last straw for the Lantilles government.
Held by its own fleet, the last line of defense was ready to collapse — even after losing half a dozen Star Destroyers destroyed and twice as many damaged, Imperial Space continued to realize its goal.
The capture of Lantilles, its warehouses, shipyards, and industry could turn the planet into an excellent outpost for further advancement along the Parlemian Trade Route.
The Alliance fleet under the command of General Garm Bel Iblis arrived just in time for the beginning of the second attempt to storm Lantilles.
The Second Battle for the planet began with a strike by six of the remaining twelve combat-ready Star Destroyers against the Golan-II orbital defense station, which blocked access to the shipyards in the equatorial region.
The ensuing firefight actually served as no more than a distraction — despite their own losses, the Imperials wave after wave sent shuttles with troops to the shipyards.
The Lantillians fought desperately, sending out more and more squadrons of starfighters to intercept the enemy and reduce the number of enemy soldiers destined to reach the shipyards.
There was no question of stopping the landing force, which was covered by Imperial frigates and corvettes, not to mention the ubiquitous TIE fighters.
The MC90 Defiance materialized from hyperspace accompanied by a dozen MC80b in the upper echelon relative to the station.
The squadrons of fighters and interceptors that poured out of the ships' holds, with unscrupulous fire from their cannons and the launch of proton torpedoes and cumulative missiles, dealt a tangible blow to the enemy, while the Mon Calamari star cruisers engaged in a fierce and intense exchange of fire with the enemy Star Destroyers.
The numerical superiority at the local sector of the front was on the side of the Alliance soldiers, which forced the enemy commander to commit the remaining four Star Destroyers from the reserve, reinforcing them with Vindicator-class Heavy Cruisers.
Two other destroyers and two dozen escort frigates remained in the rear to ensure the security of the twelve damaged Imperial Star Destroyers that had suffered in the First Battle of Lantilles.
Battered and barely capable of resistance, these ships needed serious repairs, as the Lantilles military had managed to put them out of action by destroying their solar ionization reactors.
And it was at this moment, when the enemy ships were pulled apart from each other, that General Bel Iblis demonstrated how quickly and thoroughly he had learned the lessons that Grand Admiral Thrawn had taught him over the last five months of the past year.
The Galactic Traveler, under the command of General Han Solo, accompanied by another dozen Corellian corvettes and ten Hapan Battle Dragons, materialized in the rear of the damaged enemy ships, expertly pulled out of hyperspace by a gravity mine deployed by the first Falcon, which had emerged from hyperspace and was under the control of Chewbacca and Calrissian.
Hapan Battle Dragon.
And the battle took on new colors.
First and foremost, of course, thanks to the brightly painted Battle Dragons.
Standing on the bridge of the Galactic Traveler, which had already closed into a clinch with the nearest Imperial Star Destroyer, Han winced as he watched the ships of the Hapes Consortium gleefully shower the Imperial ships with streams of golden-crimson energy from all their ion cannons.
"What the hell are they wasting time disabling starships for when the Imps need to be destroyed?" he grumbled.
"Prince Isolder is confident that in our position, the Alliance will need every single ship we can capture," said Leia, who had approached her husband, sensing his irritation. "I think he's right, because the Queen Mother is far from thrilled that part of her fleet has left Consortium territory and gotten involved in a war beyond its borders."
"So in her opinion, an alliance means you don't support each other in a difficult situation?" Han clarified.
"No," Leia smiled. "In her understanding, the phrase 'allied relations' takes on a shade of insult when it comes to cooperating with the Jedi, whom she hates with all her soul."
"And she didn't have a heart attack when you showed up at Isolder's asking for help defending Lianna?" Han asked.
"No," Leia replied.
"A pity," Solo sighed. "Isolder doesn't happen to have any more Imperial Star Destroyers lying around somewhere? That dozen that the Hapans gave before we finally finished off Zsinj..."
"Were wedding gifts," Leia reminded him with a chuckle. "Need me to remind you which of you two I chose?"
"I remember perfectly," her husband declared. "I even pumped a full payload of cumulative missiles into the bridge of the Iron Fist out of joy."
His family, specifically Leia, and the Hapes Consortium were linked by a recent — just over a year old — story of how Hapan Prince Isolder had courted Leia, then still just Organa.
A dozen Star Destroyers were part of the Hapans' wedding gifts, but in the end, Leia chose Han, and Isolder found himself a wife among the Dathomirian witches, which greatly displeased his mother, the Queen Mother.
The matriarchy in the Consortium is a rather dangerous thing for men.
Therefore, when negotiations on Lianna reached a peculiar logical dead end, and a battle was raging in orbit of Lantilles in which the Republicans were losing, the former princess made a trip to the Consortium, speaking briefly with both the prince, his wife, and the Queen Mother.
The result was that by the time the Lantillians "ripened" for negotiations on joining the Alliance (a good choice compared to the alternatives: becoming part of the Empire or watching the Second Fleet flee, leaving them to their fate), Prince Isolder had persuaded his mother to send part of the forces of the Hapes Consortium to Lantilles.
And not just some auxiliary starships, but the real, genuine Battle Dragons.
These unusual and brightly painted ships form the backbone of the Hapes Consortium fleet. The Hapans have always taken the protection of their borders seriously, and this ship is a clear testament to that.
Han had already had the opportunity to witness the power of these ships in the battle of Dathomir just over a year ago, when warlord Zsinj and his Iron Fist were finally destroyed.
The Hapan fleet is not particularly numerous.
As Leia explained, according to a government decree, every developed planet in the Hapes Consortium must maintain at least one ship of this type.
Thus, in the initial period of the Galactic Civil War, the number of Battle Dragons did not exceed sixty-three ships. Although over time these rules were revised and the Hapan fleet began to grow rapidly.
Not least thanks to Grand Admiral Thrawn's campaign, it must be noted.
Each ship, besides minor differences in armament, was notably distinguished from its brethren by a unique, variegated color scheme characteristic of a particular planet.
Putting aside the fanciful appearance of the ships, the Hapans deserve credit at least for the fact that they equipped their armed forces exclusively with starships of their own design and components manufactured at local factories.
Hapes used only turbolasers and ion cannons of its own design. They were distinguished neither by accuracy nor rate of fire, but their power was not inferior to Republican (from the Clone Wars era) and, over time, even modern Imperial turbolasers.
The recharge rate of Hapan turbolasers was three times lower than Imperial. To compensate for this shortcoming, a unique technology was used on the ship: the cannons were mounted on movable "saucer"-shaped platforms in the lower and upper parts of the ship's hull.
The principle of their operation was to shift the guns into the optimal position for firing.
After a shot was fired, the gun immediately withdrew to reload, making way for a new gun while the first reloaded.
A weapons conveyor system, which only the Hapans had thought of in the galaxy.
This fire control system made it possible to partially eliminate the low accuracy of Hapan cannons, since during firing, the guns were zeroed in on the target and subsequent shots landed more accurately. It also allowed for a higher rate of fire against a single target, which sometimes proved more useful than salvo fire.
The benefits of such firing were obvious when conducting concentrated fire on a single target (in the case of a large ship, on a single section of the target). Thus, a disadvantage was turned into an advantage. However, when attacking a ship from multiple directions simultaneously and needing to fire at multiple targets, the low rate of fire could often prove fatal.
Another drawback of the Battle Dragon was its primitive fire control system.
The cumbersome and rather outdated computers could only track one target at a time. For this reason, four FCS computers were installed on the ship. Although they took up a lot of space and consumed a fair amount of energy, they allowed attacking four ships simultaneously. For comparison, an Imperial Star Destroyer had no difficulty firing at twenty different targets of various types and sizes from cannons of various calibers simultaneously.
The gravity mine used is also a Hapan development, built upon stolen Imperial gravity well technology and methods for countering hyperspace jumps.
Given the Alliance's (and the New Republic's) lack of interdictor ships, stolen by Thrawn at the Battle of Sluis Van, Hapan gravity mines are a very simple and cheap alternative.
Of course, there were a few drawbacks.
Unlike interdictor cruisers, gravity mines only worked as long as they had enough power.
Another important factor was that launching such a mine did not allow all ships to escape into hyperspace.
Which also constrained one's own fleet in maneuver. If reinforcements arrived for the enemy fleet, escape was simply impossible. These mines also had another significant drawback — they could be destroyed.
And very easily at that.
Whereas the same Immobilizer 418 had to be properly "poked at" to achieve a suitable result.
Han watched as Hapan starfighters slipped out of the Battle Dragons' hangars.
Not the best machines in terms of quality, but they could make up for the Alliance's shortage of small craft…
True, according to Leia, on that part, the Queen Mother had flatly refused her erstwhile 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, rather quickly penetrated its shields and, before the ship retreated, managed to put a considerable number of holes in it.
Yes, Hapan ships have many shortcomings, there's no hiding the truth.
Possessing a solid firepower for its size, the Battle Dragon had relatively weak shields and armor, and even in groups of three or four ships, it did not pose a serious threat to an Imperial Star Destroyer.
Frankly, Han didn't even know how much effort the Hapans had expended and how many sacrifices had been made to repel the attack of Grand Admiral Osvald Teshik, whom the Emperor had sent during his reign to subdue the Consortium.
And how many subsequent attacks they had withstood, if they had managed to capture at least a dozen Imperial-class Star Destroyers.
However, in all fairness, Han noticed that the other ships of the Hapan fleet were not such easy prey as the damaged one.
Ever since the Consortium became part of the New Republic, their technological lag had significantly diminished, and the weaponry and electronics on the ships should be more modern.
But then why did one of the ships go out of action so easily?
"So that's how it is," Han drawled, watching as the second Star Destroyer began to pursue the damaged ship, eagerly firing at the other Hapan Battle Dragons, which responded sluggishly with unhurried fire.
Everything changed the moment the Imperial-class Star Destroyer found itself in a "bag" of Hapan warships.
The "damaged" Battle Dragon immediately stopped playing the victim, enveloped itself in deflectors, and its guns, along with the turbolasers and ion cannons of the other Hapan starships, began to pour fire onto the destroyer with such intensity that they literally flooded it with streams of ordnance.
By the time the Galactic Traveler had silenced and dismantled its opponent, the Battle Dragons had already swarmed their victim, delivering numerous shuttles with troops on board, while simultaneously driving off or destroying the Imperial escort frigates.
"Looks like we've got another Star Destroyer," Leia murmured.
"Make it two," Han said dryly, having no desire whatsoever to yield to his wife's former fiancé in anything. "Boarding parties — begin boarding our destroyer. Gunners — shift fire to the enemy's damaged destroyers. Shell them, render them combat-ineffective, and secure them for capture by our forces!"
The Second Battle of Lantilles took only six standard hours.
As a result, 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 capitalizing on their predicament of having no active solar ionization reactor zones.
A dozen escort frigates and heavy cruisers, also acquired by the Alliance Fleet as prizes, joined the collection.
Imperial Space retreated, slinking away in disgrace and washed in blood, ultimately failing to conquer Lantilles.
The Alliance and its allies had won this bloody battle, securing the loyalty of the local government and strengthening their position on the galactic political stage.
"We've been invited to a celebration honoring the victory over the Empire," Han reported an hour after the enemy's retreat.
He found his wife in their quarters aboard the Galactic Traveler, where she had retired to make a report to Dac.
"Mon Mothma is already on her way to us," Leia said, her face pale as she stepped away from the holoprojector. "I've been told that Lianna has given the go-ahead to join the Alliance. The Incom engineers who fled have already settled on the planet, and soon we'll receive all the military assets we need. Of course, unless the Liannans stop fleeing the planet, disagreeing with their government's decision."
"What made Phillip Santhe change his mind?" Han asked in surprise. "He was just waiting for the Empire to show up on Lianna. Did the punch to the gut we gave them at Lantilles sober him up?"
Leia shook her head negatively, looking at her husband.
Han grew wary, seeing fear in his beloved wife's eyes.
"Phillip Santhe was found dead a few days ago," she whispered. "He fell from the balcony of his residence. They say he leaned on a railing that the builders of his new house hadn't properly secured. His son, Kashan Santhe, is now in charge of the corporation."
"That kid we were negotiating with?"
Leia nodded silently.
"He promised us he'd handle the issue with his father," Han said, feeling his fists clench involuntarily.
He had lived in this world too long, involved in countless schemes, to simply write all of this off as a coincidence.
A boy recruited by the Alliance, fed a mountain of lies on Mon Mothma's orders.
His father, who was categorically against an alliance with the Alliance, but now he was dead, and his pro-Alliance son—groomed with rebel propaganda since practically his youth—was at the head of the corporation.
A son who seemed like a bumbling chatterbox.
"You're not thinking that...?" Leia read everything on his face.
"I'm almost certain," Han said firmly. "We'll never know the truth, but my gut tells me someone's brazen ears are sticking out of this situation. And I'm afraid I don't want to know whose, so I don't completely lose faith in people and start believing what Thrawn told me."
"Me neither," Leia said barely audibly, clasping her hands in a prayer-like gesture. "The Force... Luke, wherever you are, you'd know how much I need your help and advice right now..."