"I don't trust him."
Those were Han Solo's first words as he and his wife left the compartment where the meeting with General Madine and a clone of a renowned Jedi had taken place.
"That explains why you nearly broke his face," said Leia, who could barely keep up with her husband's long strides.
Chewbacca, walking beside them, had no such problem, but he preferred to grumpily support his old friend.
"No, it's different," Han declared as they entered the turbrolift cabin. As soon as the doors closed, the Corellian clenched his fists in powerless anger. "I wanted to break his jaw for stealing the Millennium Falcon. But for the guy lying to us, I want to take it up with Madine. But it's not my rank to break the nose of the head of Alliance Intelligence."
"It seems you weren't pleased that Galen fixed the long-range communication system on the ship," Leia said cautiously.
Chewbacca howled something she couldn't understand.
And C-3PO was aboard the Falcon, trying to loosen the tongue of the onboard computer.
Or rather, attempting to do so.
After the ship had been in the hands of Grand Admiral Thrawn, it had undergone a complete formatting while in captivity, and the translator droid was having increasing difficulty deciphering what the computer wanted to say.
The old tin can was becoming more and more cranky with each wipe — in fact, that's why Han never did them.
"Totally agree, Chewie," Han nodded. "He might as well have gone to the Jawas on Tatooine to ask for repairs. I don't know where he found such ham-fisted mechanics, but the Falcon is completely out of sorts. Those lunatics completely cut out the message decryption and security system I installed. All the safety circuits. All the spares...
"Han," Leia addressed him. "Remember I told you about the Jedi technique for calming the mind?
"Yeah, so?" the Corellian raised an eyebrow in a surprised gesture. "What does that have to do with it?
"You also said you're never angry enough to use that mystical stuff," the former princess continued.
"Yes, and I don't intend to go back on my word..." The Wookiee growled softly. "I'm not angry, Chewie!
"Even I know he said 'upset,' not 'angry,'" Leia smiled, taking her husband's hand. "Well, maybe you could try it? For me..."
The Corellian looked at her with the pathetic expression of a nuna cub staring at a snarling, ruthless nexu that had just torn apart the entire brood, including the mother.
A tiny spark of hope that the unscrupulous predator had eaten its fill and was only showing its huge fangs for fun...
"Fine," Solo gave in.
As a sensitive husband, he understood perfectly well that nexus are ruthless.
Taking a breath through his nose to a count of four, he held his breath to a count of seven and exhaled on eight.
Leia kept the mental count, noting that her husband had perfectly remembered the exercise, despite having seen it only a couple of times.
Meanwhile, Han continued the exercise, increasing the gaps between inhales and exhales.
It was especially important to lengthen the latter, but without fanaticism.
With each subsequent breath, Leia felt a growing sensation in her husband that the monstrous tension was leaving him, and his mind was clearing, leaving negative thoughts aside.
Luke had said that the secret of the exercise was not in the ability to control the Force, but in the fact that oxygen deprivation dulls nerve endings.
And the brain switches to something more important than emotions, not allowing the hormones in the blood to take over.
"I'm as calm as a Jedi," Han finally declared.
"Excellent, dear," Leia kissed him on the cheek. "And yes, if you want to know, I also felt that Galen was holding something back.
"Something important?" Solo immediately tensed.
Leia thought.
"Yes," she replied. "It's not betrayal as such. At least that's how I perceive it. But he seems to feel guilty toward us for his silence. And, for some reason, he's angry at General Madine. As if he were to blame for not telling us something..."
"I don't like this," Han shook his head as the turbrolift cabin stopped at the required deck.
The doors slid aside, and after saluting a couple of guards, Han headed down the corridor toward the meeting room.
To where new passengers were waiting for him.
"You know," he suddenly said, stopping at the doors, "I'm even embarrassed that I've been provided with the latest battle cruiser from the Mon Calamari reserves again. Tell me honestly — do you have anything to do with them giving it to me?
Since the Galactic Traveler needed almost a complete overhaul, a new starship was allocated for Han as the operation commander.
Of the same type, MC90, but one of those ships that the Mon Calamari kept in their home fleet, ready to repel an attack on their home sector if it ever happened.
The inhabitants of Dac had just built it to commission for the defense of their homeland, but Bel Iblis somehow managed to convince them that the ship would be better off under the command of General Solo.
The ship bore the name Endor, in honor of the glorious victory over the Galactic Empire that became the prologue to the triumph of democracy.
"Not at all," Leia warned. "I was on vacation, actually.
"But I have a feeling that this ship's next campaign won't end well," Han said sadly. "Sometimes I think I'd be better off carrying cargo on the Falcon. Things go better with it.
"You're too hard on yourself, dear," Leia took her husband's arm. "Unlike the Falcon, no one has stolen the MC90 from you...
"We need to change the subject," Han decided, staring at one point, as he approached the door that slid open at his approach. "Ladies and gentlemen, let's get acquainted. I am General Han Solo, commanding the operation against the Dominion, and the one whose hide will be hung on the Congress flagpole if we don't rid the galaxy of a new version of the Clone Wars.
He looked at the silent men and women of all ages and races before him, then at his wife's bewildered face as she saw at least two dozen beings in traditional Jedi robes, and said loudly:
"Question number one for the assembly: and where have you, ladies and gentlemen, been wandering for the last thirty years?
The pair of Kiffar sitting closest to the general exchanged crooked smiles.
For some reason, Han felt Leia squeeze his hand a little tighter than usual in such a situation.
Or no, it didn't seem that way.
* * *
"You shouldn't have made me do this!" Galen said, staring straight ahead.
He was sitting in a chair in the small conference room of the Endor, where he had been asked to come for a conversation with General Han Solo.
The conversation had gone... so-so.
He had sensed the Corellian's desire to commit violence.
And he was grateful to the former Alderaanian princess for being there, so the meeting had gone without incident.
"It is not your place to tell me what to do," General Madine said coldly, sitting opposite and looking at something on his datapad. "You contacted me yourself. And you agreed to cooperate. Accordingly, following my orders is now also your task.
"My task?" Galen flared up. "I came here to tell about Thrawn's plans! Thrawn, not the generalized Dominion! You made me lie to those I swore to be frank with!
"Swore?" Madine clarified, but his face remained as impassive as a droid's. "Interesting. I don't believe in religions across the galaxy, and I certainly didn't expect you to be one of the faithful. Who did you swear to, if it's not a secret?
"Myself!
"Oh," a polite smile appeared on Madine's face. "Then you can rest easy. No one will reveal that you broke your oath.
"You're mocking me," Galen said bitterly, looking at the shock cuffs on his wrists. "I should have acted differently... I should have told the whole galaxy... I was wrong to listen to you!"
"Now do me a favor and listen one more time," Crix Madine's voice became like ice. "I relayed your words exactly to Mon Mothma and General Bel Iblis. The latter immediately stopped harping on 'I told you he was alive!' and instead of this campaign, rushed off to deal with Moff Getelles, and Mon Mothma actually had a seizure and lay down. And these are only the consequences of voicing intelligence information that, by all standards, needs to be verified! If you think I have an interest out of sheer spite to cover up Thrawn's possible return, you are mistaken. I'm afraid the Alliance simply won't withstand such news against the backdrop of our failures on the front against the Dominion and its allies.
"'Possible'?" Galen clarified. "You said 'Thrawn's possible return'?
To be honest, hearing something like that from Crix Madine was extraordinary.
Mon Mothma became ill from the news that Thrawn was alive?
And Bel Iblis... ran away from the revenge he had been harping on for so long?
Hard to believe.
However...
It could simply be 'operational gamesmanship' on Madine's part, indicating supposedly the reasons for his demand to keep quiet about Thrawn in the company of the Solo couple.
All this was strange...
Galen had imagined his return in different tones.
"You saw no more than a hologram," the chief of Alliance Intelligence replied. "Thrawn in his time already used tricks with holographic transmissions to mislead the New Republic. Falling for his provocation, we lost a star dreadnought and two dozen Star Destroyers, the core of an entire fleet. And I'm sure he pulled this trick more than once. The one who is now at the head of the Dominion is possibly the closest person to the Grand Admiral. Vice Admiral Pellaeon was the commander of Thrawn's flagship. The commander of the starship from which the Grand Admiral's orders emanated. Most likely, he even took part in planning attacks. Possibly he even has a whole archive of information on how Thrawn planned to deal with us. From your story, I believe only one thing — you were allowed to escape.
"Allowed?" Galen was surprised.
"Do you really think that the clone commandos, who are how old now? Over eighty! So, do you think that they, with such rich experience in capturing and eliminating Jedi, simply 'forgot' to keep the right amount of drugs in the medical bay so that you wouldn't wake up until Kamino?" the chief of intelligence asked. "No, that doesn't happen. A performance was staged for you — very, very subtle. In Thrawn's style.
"So he is alive!" Galen exclaimed.
"So," Madine emphasized with his voice, "the one behind your escape thought that you would tell us about it..."
"And that I would blow up their ship, did they foresee that too?" the clone of Galen Marek sneered.
Instead of answering, Madine turned the screen of his datapad to face him.
On it, he saw images of ships.
"Familiar hulls?" Madine clarified.
"Well, yes," Galen answered hesitantly, confused.
"Did you see them onboard the Gozanti?"
"Yes... Only they seemed black..."
"Because their hull is coated or made of a material that makes the starship invisible to scanners," Crix explained, taking the device back. "Imagine for a second that some evil genius orchestrates your escape, makes sure you see what should make the Alliance shudder, allows you to escape from a starship that has landing shuttles with 'stealth coating' onboard. They most likely launched from the ship right after you, waited for the evacuation team or transport, and departed for a new place of duty.
"But... then why was there a hunt for me? For all this?" Galen doubted. "They could have pulled this trick with a fake hologram on anyone!
"Yes, they could," Madine agreed, suspiciously easily. "But for some reason, they chose you. And if I understand anything about Dominion tactics, there are no coincidences in this matter. Therefore, I and my subordinates are not going to rush into declassifying information for the entire Alliance about whether Thrawn survived or not. First, it's worth checking whether we can trust..."
"...me?" Galen clarified. "But you brought Leia Organa-Solo here precisely for that — to use the Force to verify whether I'm telling the truth or not. Isn't that enough?
"You are confident that you are telling the truth," General Madine clarified. "But that does not mean that the information you reported is true. We are already taking a risk by preparing to send an entire fleet to Kamino without any reconnaissance. Only because we trust you. But there are quite a few reasons to go there...
"To find Luke Skywalker and prevent the emergence of a new clone army," Galen nodded understandingly.
"And, if possible, to subjugate Kamino and the nearby Rothana," added General Madine. "We have already suffered huge losses from the actions of Grand Admiral Thrawn and the Dominion as a whole. If there is an opportunity to gain control over strategic objects, we will do it.
"It would have been simpler to bring as many ships here as possible," Galen lamented. "There must be an entire fortress built there by the Dominion...
"The decision and the number of ships sent were made by General Bel Iblis," General Madine cut off. "Your task, Galen, is one. Provide us access to Kamino, and then you can count on being greeted as a hero in the Alliance.
"You'll pass off everything that happened as an undercover operation?" the clone smirked bitterly.
"Exactly," Madine didn't blink. "You helped us greatly by eliminating the jump bases of the Dominion raiders. Now you only need to go ahead, detect and destroy every gravity trap on our path. One by one. Their only defense is mines, but you, as a strong being sensitive to the Force, will be able to dodge them.
"What?!" Galen was taken aback. "You... You want me to fly into a minefield and destroy the ship recognition systems and gravity equipment? So that nothing can pull the starships out of hyperspace? That is sheer madness!
"On the contrary," General Madine countered. "Our Jedi say that this trick is difficult, but ace pilots can do it. Even if it's at the limit of capabilities and the risk of death remains. But, thanks to the fact that we know the principles of defense of this hyperspace route, you will succeed. The machines for your request are already prepared.
"I don't even have a chance to refuse, do I?" Galen asked, looking without malice into the eyes of the chief intelligence officer of the Galactic Alliance. "All those words about being part of the team, part of the Alliance, that you said to me while I was giving information — that's a way to manipulate me, isn't it?
"Mr. Galen, we are not in a cheap melodrama, and I am not a one-off villain," Madine declared in an icy tone. "I spent too long in a miserable Dominion cell to miss the moment when they could still be stopped. They are gaining strength. We are suffering losses. And if their secret to victory lies in the creation of clones, or in training them, then my task is to destroy their plans. With or without your help, it will be done. We have about twenty Jedi, fully trained since the Old Order. Excellent pilots who can direct the Force whenever they wish, not just when the neurons spark in their heads. I am doing you a favor in recognition of what you have done for us — allowing you to participate in something greater than what you have been doing lately. And the massacre you perpetrated at the Dominion's jump bases is actually called the illegal activity of a bounty hunter — at best. At worst — murder of two or more beings, damage to property, destruction of property by means dangerous to the public, and a good dozen other articles of the criminal code that I will gladly hang around your neck if you decide to kick up a fuss now, when we are one step away from such a long-awaited victory over the Dominion...
"There it is, that's what it's about," Galen whispered. "For you, this is no longer a war. You're just stepping over bodies..."
"Eighty-three of my agents tried to infiltrate territories controlled by the Dominion," Madine suddenly said. "Eighty-three packages with their bodies I received from anonymous senders. They were the flower of our Intelligence. I'm not talking about the thousands and thousands of beings who died in battles with these monsters! Not to mention myself..."
Madine stopped short, but Galen understood that he was barely restraining himself.
The man ran his hand energetically through his hair, regaining his composure.
"In short," Madine said in a calmer tone, "you had better help us.
"You have Jedi who can do everything without me," Galen reminded. "If you want to judge me, go ahead. I want to see the jury listen to a prosecutor who, with a serious face, tells them that it was wrong of me to destroy the cargo and personnel of Dominion mercenaries. I'm sure that's exactly what the citizens of the Alliance need right now, isn't it?
Madine looked at him with a penetrating gaze, then grunted in satisfaction.
"You know how to grab a rancor by the scruff of the neck," he praised. "So, are you in? Help me, and I'll help you.
"And if I refuse?
"You'll sit in the brig until we're done, and your information no longer poses a danger of revealing the attack on Kamino," Madine said. "Though, then you won't be able to take revenge on those who, as I've heard, are responsible for your deformity...
"I'm in."
"Well, that's settled, then," Madina said with a smile, unlocking the restraining cuffs. "Let's head to the hangar. I've prepared something special for you. Not the Rogue Shadow, of course, but still good…"
* * *
His career as commander of the Raider might have been small compared to many other Dominion officers, but Valum Vigor had already learned that there was nothing more thankless than asking questions without knowing the full situation.
This thought flashed through his mind as the white-blue flower of hyperspace unfurled, releasing a former Interdictor-class Star Destroyer into realspace.
"Light barrier crossing complete," the watch officer reported. "The alert squadron has cleared the hangar. No enemy contact. We are at the calculated point per orders from the Guardian."
"I'd like to know where that Guardian is," Valum muttered, staring at the empty tactical hologram. If the display was to be believed, the Egon system contained no Dominion ships except the Raider.
But aloud he said something else: "Begin jamming communications. Launch spy droids! Start monitoring all frequencies in the system."
"Yes, sir!"
A couple of seconds later, the watch officer reported: "Long-range communications jammed, sir! Spy droids are deploying — a communication network is already forming."
It would take some time for the practically undetectable Vipers to saturate the area as ordered. Valum didn't know why all this was necessary. But professional curiosity was eating him alive.
"Begin deploying gravity trawls," he ordered. "Use the vectors received from the Guardian."
"Yes, sir!"
It wasn't entirely clear who Grand Admiral Thrawn intended to catch in this forgotten star system, but something interesting was clearly happening here, since Thrawn himself and his Guardian were involved. Hard to say whether the flagship of the Dominion regular fleet was here, since the Grand Admiral preferred to use a cloaking field to maintain anonymity. And the Raider wasn't equipped with a CGT, so Captain Vigor couldn't very well go searching for a nineteen-kilometer invisible ship. Though there was also no evidence that the Guardian was in this system at all.
As far as Valum had studied Dominion combat regulations, it was clearly written that a ship like the Guardian should not travel alone, without escort support ships. This list included Crusader II-class corvettes as the minimum possible escort and cover. Given that the Guardian was far better armed and protected than its conceptual predecessor, the Executor, the choice of Crusaders to reinforce anti-fighter, anti-missile, and anti-torpedo defense was certainly obvious. There was no need to drag along a dozen or two Dominion Star Destroyers.
But at the same time, it remained a mystery why the escort, as well as the old freighters requisitioned from Allied Tion, were in one place, the Raider, requested by Thrawn, in another, and the Guardian with the Grand Admiral himself on board — who knows where. Thrawn didn't bother to explain his orders to subordinates — and it wasn't required. The regulations were written in blood, and there were lines in them that directly stated that a commander was not obliged to reveal the meaning of his orders to subordinates. But the orders were so unusual that you couldn't help but eagerly wonder: "What has the Grand Admiral planned this time?"
And it was this very eagerness that now held Captain Vigor's gaze to the ghostly cones of the gravity projectors, which had opened exactly where ordered.
"Raise deflectors," Valum ordered. "Put the second squadron and the gunners on yellow alert."
Ah, if only he knew what orders the commanders of the escort corvettes had received, who had docked with the arriving freighters before the Raider departed… It made him wonder: did the fact that those freighters looked like trash cans that had survived a rust attack have something to do with the Grand Admiral's plan, or was it just a coincidence?
Minutes of waiting dragged on.
"Starship arrival!" came from the scanners. But Valum could already see it himself. A potbellied freighter, clearly built by Sullustans, having seen its best days back in the Old Republic, emerged from hyperspace a few units from the geostationary orbit of Egon-IX. The ship slowed for a moment, then began to accelerate, closing in on the planet.
"Sir, should we request its identification codes?" the watch officer asked the commander of the barrier destroyer.
"No need," Valum said, squinting at the rust-eaten hull of the starship. He certainly recognized it — one of those that had arrived at the Guardian's escort force parking area. Now it was getting even more interesting.
"Detecting a directional transmission from the surface," the watch officer reported.
"Am I to understand it's not addressed to us, is it?" Captain Vigor clarified with his subordinate.
"No, sir. It's some kind of encrypted request to the transport. We're working on decrypting the data and… Hutt!"
In the lieutenant's place, Valum would have sworn much more strongly. At the very least because not even ten seconds had passed since the transport received the request. Apparently, it didn't know the answer. And whoever was on the surface took measures.
A glowing stream of particles lanced up from the surface, causing the merchant ship's shields to first flare with blinding white light, then, after a second, turn red. By the end of the second second, the old starship seemed to be sawed into pieces, and the glowing particle stream kept shredding the ship into smaller and smaller fragments. Only after only a few hundred pieces of debris remained in orbit instead of the starship did the glowing stream cease.
A tense silence fell over the Raider's bridge.
"Time!" Vigor was the first to snap out of his stupor.
"Sir, I'm sorry…"
"The weapon's firing duration!"
The watch officer blinked once, twice, but by the third second, he buried his eyes in the nearest duty terminal. Vigor felt his insides twist into a tight knot, making him want to wet his dry throat.
"Ten seconds, sir!" the watch officer reported. "The unknown weapon operated for exactly ten seconds…"
Valum licked his dry lips. "It's not entirely unknown, Lieutenant," he said quietly. "Prepare a courier droid. We must inform command that on Egon-IX there is a fully operational…"
* * *
"…HVs-2 hypervelocity gun," Captain Pellaeon heard the Grand Admiral's comment. The commander of the Guardian, which was hovering over the planet's north pole, was concerned about his own ship not encountering such a problem firsthand.
"Well, well," Thrawn's voice carried notes of surprise. "I thought not a single example remained in the galaxy. How interesting. A magnificent demonstration, don't you think, Captain?"
Understatement!
The HVs-2 hypervelocity gun had been developed by the Imperial Department of Military Research in collaboration with the weapon company Time and Back, a leader in turbolaser and other weapon production. Every veteran of the Imperial Starfleet knew that the consortium had built only five such installations. One was located on Carida — back when he was still just Admiral Thrawn, he had installed it there to lure Tyber Zann and his criminal subordinates into a trap. The trap, incidentally, had nearly destroyed the enemy, but at the end everything went wrong. But that was the past. Which, by the way, would guarantee the New Republic or anyone who decided to attack this world an unimaginable number of problems.
Such installations had also been placed on Taris and Mustafar, but their fate was unfortunate — no matter how much Dominion scouts searched, it turned out the guns had simply been removed. The Empire had never disclosed the locations of the other two installations, and after Endor, it turned out that nowhere except Carida did a hypervelocity gun still exist. The developers, along with all the documentation, had vanished without a trace. There was a hypothesis among Dominion scouts that two installations had been moved to Byss. To the two that were already there. Because each one cost such an indecent amount of money that the price of a single set was never listed in any reference manual. But here — one of them was on Egon-IX. And that could only mean one thing — they were in big trouble.
"Second transport arrival detected," the watch officer announced in a didactic tone.
"Right on time," Grand Admiral Thrawn commented, glancing at the ship's chronometer. Another old starship, falling apart from age and the negligence of its previous owners. Another medium-tonnage freighter. Thrawn was literally devouring it with his eyes. And Captain Pellaeon recalled everything he had ever heard about the hypervelocity gun.
A ground-based weapon. It fired bursts of hyper-accelerated solid slugs at a rate of up to one hundred twenty slugs per minute. Despite this, it could sustain continuous fire for no more than ten seconds at a time. And the "slugs" for it were kinetic munitions the size of a human fist. It seemed nothing special… except they were accelerated to such a speed that size mattered little. Only the density of the projectile's metal and the strength of the target ship's hull mattered. The hypervelocity gun's munitions easily pierced (thanks to their rate of fire) the energy shields of any ship. Both deflectors and particle shields were designed to slowly absorb a smaller number of impacts. Once the ship's shields failed, the hypervelocity gun's "slugs" punched through its armor, ultimately damaging the hull and causing decompression.
But all the advantages of the installation were offset by the fact that its defense was an operational drawback. For protection, the installation was equipped with two types of fields — a deflector and a particle shield. They didn't work simultaneously — otherwise, they wouldn't be able to fire at the enemy. But at the same time, a powerful reactor, buried deep in the ground beneath the installation, allowed the shields to mount a brief, yet necessary, defense against any type of weapon. How long the shield could hold, Captain Pellaeon didn't know, but he couldn't imagine it being a long period — otherwise the power plant would have to be truly colossal in size and output. Thus, the only drawback of the gun was its shield, which prevented firing through the particle shield when it was active.
HVs-2 hypervelocity gun.
The second transport burst apart at the third second as well, unable to withstand the onslaught of the ground weapon's slugs.
"Curious," it seemed Grand Admiral Thrawn's eyes burned brighter. "Did you notice that, Captain?"
"The weapon's recharge rate is incredible," the flagship's commander agreed.
"Yes, I thought the same at first," Thrawn marked a point around the enemy base with a laser pointer. "We have ten seconds to model the scanner readings."
Pellaeon didn't ask about the reason for such a time crunch, so he simply gave the necessary order. Markers for both sacrificial starships appeared on the hologram, and then one line rose from the surface, simulating the fire vector of the hypervelocity gun, followed by a second line. A quick replay of the last minutes in orbit around Egon-IX.
"Excellent," Thrawn's stroking of the ysalamiri became insinuating, as if he were trying to penetrate its skin. "Still don't see it, Captain?"
"The trajectories differ," Pellaeon said. "The installation can't be mobile, otherwise we would have detected movement."
"And there isn't just one installation here," Thrawn said.
At the same time, three old freighters emerged from hyperspace. It didn't seem like the Grand Admiral intended to dispose of all the junk found or captured in the Allied Tion sector here. This time they appeared earlier, and along a somewhat different vector. Given that the hypervelocity gun platform rotated horizontally on its axis, attacking new targets wouldn't be a big problem for it. But no reaction. And only after ten seconds did glowing beams lash out from the surface, crashing down on the ships. But they didn't even come close to the carnage the hypervelocity guns had displayed just moments before.
A thought stirred in Pellaeon's memory. "Base RZ7-6113-23," he said.
The Grand Admiral tore his gaze away from the spectacle of the transports approaching under fire from the planet toward the edges of geostationary orbit. "Guess or analysis, Captain?" he inquired.
"Conclusions, sir," Pellaeon replied. "You used a similar tactic when attacking storage base RZ7-6113-23, belonging to Ennix Devian. You're using droid-controlled ships to make the enemy planetary defense reveal itself, and you've also managed to determine its recharge time."
"Correct, Captain," Thrawn nodded. "At RZ7-6113-23, there was a similar but less powerful and less advanced weapon — a simple mass driver, which was initially mistaken for a hypervelocity gun. Only a detailed structural analysis revealed the differences. A cheap imitation, nothing more. However, the operating principle was the same — it was a kinetic weapon that required reloading to fire at the enemy. Note also that they are quite competently hidden — we couldn't detect them during reconnaissance by spy droids. The planetary defense guns, though, yes. And even then, not all of them. The droid identified three units, but at least twelve guns are firing at our target ships. Do you have any other observations, Captain?"
"There are two hypervelocity guns here," Pellaeon said, pointing at the trajectory. "They engaged the sequential targets. If there is a third gun, it's either out of ammunition or damaged."
"How did you figure that out?"
"The delay before engaging the first target was only two seconds, before the second — four seconds, the third target was out of fire for a full ten seconds. This suggests the defense is run by a computer that operates on a sequential scheme. First it accesses the first hypervelocity gun, then the second. Next, I assume the computer tries to fire from a third, possibly even a fourth gun, but a glitch occurs. The first guns are recharging, but the threat to the base persists — so the planetary defense guns are activated."
"Correct," Thrawn nodded. "This base is guarded by four hypervelocity guns, but two of them are either disabled or out of ammunition."
"Sir?" Pellaeon was genuinely surprised.
"Two seconds, Captain," the Grand Admiral explained. "That's exactly how long it took the base's defense computer to fire the first shot. Therefore, it either has data transmission issues or it's not the most modern computer. It spends two seconds per gun, so we get a geometric progression with a denominator of two. The first gun fired after two seconds, the second already after four. The guns fire for ten seconds, but as we see, they take quite a while to reload. So it's no surprise that more than one gun is installed here. It took the computer exactly ten seconds to attack the third wave of target ships. Why so long?"
"Because the first two guns are exhausted, and the second two are either malfunctioning or out of ammunition," Pellaeon finished the thought.
"Exactly, Captain. And the computer needed another two seconds to activate the anti-space defense system. Ten seconds is too short a window for the attackers to organize a full-scale landing that wouldn't be scattered by the planetary defense and anti-air guns," Grand Admiral Thrawn explained his reasoning. "What can we conclude from this analysis about who set up such defensive measures?"
"That he primarily anticipated defense against large ships," Pellaeon added after a moment's thought. "There's absolutely no point in using rare hypervelocity guns against mere freighters — planetary defense guns are enough for them."
"And this may also indicate that the person who organized the defense of this place has only a mediocre connection to the military field," Grand Admiral Thrawn said. "Hypervelocity guns are undoubtedly a powerful argument for destroying an invasion fleet, but at the same time, it's overkill. A combination of anti-air and planetary defense would have been enough for reliable cover. Furthermore," Thrawn pointed to the tactical monitor, which displayed a two-dimensional map of the base's surface and the surrounding space. "Camouflage doesn't work against an observation ship hidden with stygium crystals…"
"It's unlikely that Sate Pestage suspected the appearance of such technologies after the destruction of Eitna II and the disappearance of stygium from free trade," Pellaeon thought. "And it's also unlikely that anyone would dare to use a Super Star Destroyer to spy on an enemy base from orbit… Wait! Surveillance of the orbit?"
"Sir. Does that mean that…" he began, but saw Thrawn silently point to the area littered with debris of the five target ships already destroyed in orbit around Egon-IX. In the cloud of scrap metal that the hypervelocity guns and planetary turbolasers had turned the target ships into, five more starships appeared — equally old and useless transports. The first was immediately destroyed by the hypervelocity gun's fire. The second vanished in similar flame after seven seconds — four of which the base computer needed to activate the second gun, and another three to tear the ship apart. Immediately after, at the prescribed interval, the planetary defense systems activated.
"Excellent," Thrawn concluded. "Captain, give the order for our Scimitars and the Fourth Special Unit to prepare for launch."
"Yes, sir," Pellaeon replied. "What assignments should I give them?"
"All as usual, Captain. The first to destroy, the second to capture. As soon as the fourth wave of target ships arrives in ten minutes, our forces must be ready to begin capturing this base."