The pre-flight check-ups were going smoothly as LCM Vexen entered the Medium Transport.

A bit out of breath the LCM retrieved a detonator switch from one of her flightsuits’ pockets.

“You guys remember that load of HE explosives that were a bit too much too carry?” The LCM said as she was still catching her breath. With several nods coming in from the rest of the squadron she continued. “Well I took the liberty to take some along with me..just in case.” Brandon gave one of that smiles he does so well and said “Looks like we won’t be needing them anyway Vexie dear.” Vexen shot back an evil grin “Oh yeah? Say byebye to the communications room we entered before and again on our way out.” She said as she pressed the button on the detonator. The ground underneath the Transport shook violently as the shockwave from the explosion passed it.

“Holy Sith, what was that?” said Andron, as the Lieutenant Commander came out of the cockpit area.

- “oh nothing much, that was the last chance for that rebel scum to alert the Dreadnought of our little visit.”

Replied Vexen with a triumphant smile. “Thats right!” said Callista while she patted Vexie on the back. “We completely forget about that!” Vexen blushed as she fell silent.

“Well I just came in to tell you guys this baby is ready for take off.” Informed Andron.

Drear had been studying his datapad he brought along from the crashsite in the meantime.

And after a few minutes he looked up and said to the rest of the squad: “Hey you guys, I just found us another valid reason to fry that Dreadnought. It seems that second unidentified coordinate on my pad here is the location of the EMP weapon that was used against us. And guess what..it matches the exact coordinates of that dread in orbit.”

- “Right, let’s get to it then” answered Calli as she joined Andron in the cockpit.”

The medium transport took off, leaving a smoking rebel base behind it and headed west, sticking close to the treetops.

After about an hours flight, Calli’s voice sounded over the Transports’ intercom. “alright Phooners, we reached the 20th degree of longitude, we should’ve cleared the Dreadnoughts sensor range by now. Get ready to break through the atmosphere. The ship, Andron thought, handled supremely for its’ class, as it shot up gracely with a flick of the flightstick. A minute later the planets gravitational pull had been cleared and the jump to hyperspace calculated.

As the craft emerged from the fourth jump, the image of the Dreadnought reappeared on the HUD.

Andron opened a comm channel and spoke: “Dreadnought Haven, this is Colonel Jerv Dasarra aboard the Medium Transport ‘Golden shot’. We request immediate docking with your vessel, our Transport has been severly damaged by a stray meteor and we urgently require repairs.” Several seconds went by in silence and Andron shrugged at his Commander, who was seated in the co-pilots’ chair. Finally the Rebel response came.

“Transport ‘Golden Shot’, this is Captain Traeh Nekorb, you are to land at our facility on the planets’ surface, they will be notified as soon as our transmission is sent.”

Andron cursed a few times, knowing very well that the jig would be up the moment the comms officer on that Dreadnought would not receive an acknowledgement from the base, before reopening the comm channel. “uhm negative, negative Haven, our damage is extensive and I fear we are not capable of sustaining a planetary re-entry intact, we need immediate repairs.” Awaiting a reply, Andron ensured the craft was running at 1/3 speed to backup their story. “’Golden shot’ you are cleared to dock at our main docking port.” Came the rebel reply.

“Acknowledged Haven.” Confirmed the LCM as he smiled to Calli.

Then the sensors aboard the Transport seemed to go berserk. “Damnit,” Andron said “we have multiple incoming craft emerging from hyperspace.” The Scotsman hadn’t even finished his sentence as his Commander saw two Imperial Stardestroyers decelerating from their hyperspace exit. “It’s the Immortal and the Relentless, the Challenge must’ve reported in. Quick head for the Rel, it’s the closest of the two!” screamed Calli as she was nervously jumping up and down on her chair.

- “We cant do that Call,” replied Andron, the stress apparent in his voice “The Dread will cripple us with their EMP as soon as they find out we’re not who we say we are. Their A-wings will make short work of our Transport after that. The only thing we can do is dock with her, disable their EMP and get the Sith out of there before we are blown up by our own forces…To make matters worse, our boys seem to have disabled all use of non-imperial IFF transmissions…”

A splitsecond later the A-wings were spewing out of the Dreadnoughts’ hangarbay, their engines at full throttle.

As a response the two ISD’s launched two squadron’s of TIE’s in almost perfect unity. While the battle of the fighters errupted, the Medium Transport found its’ way to the Dreads’ docking port and began its’ docking procedure.

With a sensor pad in his left hand, while tucking a blaster into his holster with the right hand, Andron made his way to the airlock, followed by the rest of the squad. “Ok, with the battle raging on, I doubt that they will even notice our presence here. I already locked onto the powersource of the EMP device. It’s located between the bridge and the crew quarters deck.” Calli took a look at the pad.

- “Alright, it seems to me that the shortest way to get there undetected is through the maintenance tunnel here, on deck 2. Lead the way Andron.” And with that the squad proceeded through the airlock.

***

RA Ricaud was quietly observing the battle from the bridges’ main view port as the tactical officer gave his report.

“Sir, the battle appears to be going our way, all A-wings are engaged by our fighters.”

- “Very well, launch our Missile Boats immediately, time to take out that Dreadnought.”

Ricaud gave an aproving look at the Missile Boats that were launching from the Stardestroyers’ primary hangarbay.

Commanding a battle that was going his way always made the Rear Admiral feel like a god, directing the battle by mere thought and watching the events unfold as he had foreseen. But Ricaud was whisked away from his thoughts as a panic spread in the sensor division of one of the crew pits.

“Sir!” reported a sensor officer “We have picked up a strong energy emission from the Dreadnought, we’ve lost contact with all our fighters, the instruments are going berserk!” Indeed, all the equipment was worbling out nonsense or worse, nothing at all on the ISD Relentless. – “Get the technical repair crew here on the double!” barked Ricaud, while he stood powerless, watching the A-wings play cat and mouse with the out of control TIE’s.

***

“Damn, we’ll have to make double time, the EMP has been activated.” Stated Andron while the squad was making its’ way through the small maintenance tunnel. “Let me see, the access duct to the electronics room should be to the right of that junction straight ahead.” As the imperials approached the duct, several clicks of blasters being readied echoed through the tunnel system. A fraction later the squad burst out of the duct into the room, blasters at the ready.

The two engineers were caught completely by surprise and the first probably never knew what hit him. The second was not so fortunate, as he shared his companions’ fate with a full awareness of the situation. So one burst and two blaster bolts later, the room had been secured and Vexen was already busy planting the high explosives, which was becoming a familiar process, at the base of the EMP device. “Okidoki” the LCM let out with a sigh of satisfaction “These babies are ready to go.” – “Great job Vexie” spoke the Commander “Time to get to the Transport and blow this baby up.” The squad made its’ way back into the maintenance tunnel and just as the last of them cleared the room, rebel troops burst in the electronics room from the corridor.

“Get that scum, they’re in the maintenance tunnels!” was the starting sign for the ensuing gunfight. As blaster bolts impacted with the inner hull around her, Callista barked out the orders “Goddamnit! They must’ve heard the blaster shots and sent out reinforcements. Blackbird and Domi, provide cover fire. Let’s make our way to that Transport fast!” Typhoon hurried through the tunnels, past the junction and straight on, only to be welcomed by even more blaster-fire. The sound of blasters errupting and bolts hitting the walls of the tunnel was almost unbearable and Calli had to shout at the top of her lungs to get through to the rest of her squad. “Get back to the junction! Go to the left before they have us boxed in!”

***

“We’ve lost these two Sir.” said the rebel medic while pointing at the two dead engineers. The rebel commander expression remained unchanged “They are of no concern, what matters is that our EMP is still intact and operating” He spoke, while he patted the machine as if he was patting one of his men on the back for a job well done. An instant later, a small package caught his glimpse and he crouched to take a closer look. The look on his face changed instantly. “You there!” he pointed at the medical examiner “Get the bombsquad in here NOW!”

The bombsquad arrived in under a minute and while the rest of the squad searched the vicinity for any other explosive devices, two of them were studying the explosives attached to the EMP device.

“Looks like a type two triggering mechanism to me, 2.4, maybe a 2.5.” the higher ranked officer was now carefully studying the wires coming out of the triggering device, which mainly fed directly into the explosives.

- “Yeah, somebody really went overkill here, there’s enough firepower in this package to blow the whole damn forward section off.” Confirmed the other. The higher ranked nodded, as he frowned at an inconsistency in the device. “Hell, this guy bypassed the failsafe.”

- “No he didn’t,” replied his companion “It’s right there, below the secondary power feed. It’s just not exactly where it’s supposed to be.”

“Oh yeah, thanks.” The rebel officer reached for his breastpocket and pulled out a small screwdriver.

While the officer was carefully unscrewing the lid off the misplaced failsafe device, the other lit up the box with a small flashlight. As the last screw came out, the lid popped off, as if a spring had been mounted inside the box. The last thing the surprised bomb squad members heard was a metalic voice stating: “Have a very nice day gentlemen.”

***

Typhoon had barely made it to the junction, now heavily outgunned and under fire from two sides. The squad burst out of the nearest duct, taking up an as defensive position as possible as they entered the new environment. “Andron,” snapped Calli “What’s our position?” The answer came almost instantly as the LCM was already busy observing the pad in his hand. “We’re way off from the main docking collar, I don’t think we’ll be able to make it back to the Transport.” The frown that had formed on his face dissapeared instantly as the Scotsman continued.

“Well looky here,” he said with a smile “we’re next to the crew quarters and the fighterbay.” The faces of rest of the squad lit up as soon as they heard the word ‘fighterbay’. “Alright let’s move it then!” the CMDR said, a new spark of hope coming from her words.

“Damn and I thought my TIE-Advanced was a tight fit,” Vader said as he sank himself into the small cockpit of the nimble A-wing. “Look at this, I can’t even wave at my victims.” Drear gave him an angry glare while entering his vessel, a CUV. There were enough A-wings around, but most of them were in service. So it turned out that one of them had to settle with a Combat Utility Vehicle, a vessel that was as manoeuverable and speedy as a space slug.

The obvious choice was Drear, who had plenty of experience with Tugs and CUV’s.

As Vexie strapped herself in, she was violently shaken about by a distant, yet thundering explosion.

She gave a quick look around to see if everyone had closed off their cockpit yet and was comforted to see that that was the case. Flicking a switch she turned on the comms. “That must be my ‘failsafe’ guys, better take off and clear the hangar as fast as you can, last one out is a fried tomato.” Typhoon didn’t have to hear that twice as half of the squad had already shot off into the vastness of space. Several seconds later the last of the squad in his trusty CUV cleared the hangarbay of the Dreadnought. The huge hulk of the vessel was already spinning violently out of control and several small explosions were visible across the superstructure.

“Ok let’s kick some rebel butt guys” Calli spoke into her comms. She got no reply and figured the non Imperial IFF transmission jammers must’ve been reactivated. But as the LC gazed to her left and right she could see that the comment was redundant. All of the squadron were heavily engaged with the rebels in the similar fighters, except for LCM Drear, who was keeping a safe distance in his trusty space slug.

***

“Sir,” reported the TAC officer “Several reinforcement A-wings have launched from the Dreadnought, they are making their way to the furrball.” Ricaud cursed under his breath as he looked around nervously and, when he eventually noticed that someone was addressing him, he turned to face the Lieutenant who had been calling him from the crew pits. “Our equipment is back online Sir, the EMP must’ve been deactivated!”

The RA quickly turned around once more, to see if the Dreadnought had escaped. Instead he saw the hull of the vessel collapsing and being engulfed in one final spectacular explosion. “What the..” Ricaud was interupted by another officer “Sir, the rebel A-wings are being engaged by their own ships, several A-wings seem to be defending the TIE’s.” RA Ricaud, who was getting dizzy from all the turning, turned once more and clinched to the railing while he issued his next orders. “Deactivate the transmission jammers, see if you can get one of those A-wings on the comms.” Several seconds later a familiar and sarcastic voice sounded over the bridges’ comm unit.

“So nice of you lot to join us, we appreciate the perfectly timed assistance.”

***

“Hey guys” Calli shot over the comms as she saw the last of the rebel A-wings exploding in a ball of fire.

“I got Ricaud here, comms are operational.” – “That’s affirmative Typhoon, good job. Get your butts over here so we can get you back to the Challenge.” Spoke a stressed-out, but relieved RA Ricaud. “That’s a roger Immortal, we’re coming aboard.”

** Epilogue **

Typhoon sat at the cantina with their trusted Commodore, all of them sipping comfortably at a chalquilla.

“well ,” Torres spoke “We did stumble on a rebel base as planned, but as you lot now know, things didn’t go according to plan. I didn’t expect to see the rebels there with some kind of new EMP weapon, which I hope we’ve seen the last of. And I certainly didn’t expect to get shot at! I’m sure we wont be hearing from COMPNOR in a while.”

“So Torrie, how is the wound?” asked a somewhat tipsy LC Callista as she rubbed him over the chest.

- “Doing fine now Calli, just fine.” Said the RA, as his grin broadened to a smile.

“Hey drinks are on the CMDR by the way!” shouted an enthusiastic Jenn. With that the entire squad and their Commodore burst out into laughter, only to race to the bar after it had ceased.