30 BBY
Tan'ya sat at the helm of her dropship, checking over her gear in final preparation. She wore the black plastoids of the House Guard, sized to fit her, though the vacuum sealed body glove beneath it was a little loose on her. Like her men, she had a line of rope coiled up, along with a set of simple carabiners to attach to any narrow surface. It was hardly designed for void warfare, but a quick click could attach her or one of her men to a grill, or a pole, or anything really that might prevent them from being ejected into space. It would be hard to fumble the line into place if the suction was already happening, but with just a few seconds of forewarning it could easily save lives.
She closed her eyes and breathed in and out, steadying herself. In the distance, she could feel Master Sturn's mind doing the same. They waited together, separated by hundreds of kilometers of open space, but so closely attuned in the Force that she could practically hear his pulse. In the distance, closing in towards them were the three enemy ships. The vessels were a buzz of activity, the pirates confident and eager. They only had a hint of nervousness to them, the chance to make money overpowering their fear of the coming engagement.
It was only a matter of time until the pirate fleet decided to confront them. With the obvious advantage the three enemy ships had in weaponry, Tan'ya was certain that the best chance for their ambush working would be as the enemy rounded Serenno itself. By taking shelter behind the moon, Serenno's fleet forced the enemy to close the distance towards them.
Only when the first Corona began to round the corner of the planet did she accelerate her dropship. Simultaneously, Master Sturn did the same. He banked left and right, avoiding the worst of the enemy's blaster fire, but missiles still flickered on impact with the ship's shields. She felt the sweat dripping down his pale skin, and saw the droplet run over what seemed like the edge of a tattoo, just poking over the collar on the back of Sturn's neck.
As Sturn was closing in on the enemy, he rolled the entire dropship like it was a much nimbler craft, before almost fully reversing its directions and using their own afterburners to rapidly decelerate. As they passed over his ship, Tan'ya felt more as she saw the enemy vessel growing larger in her viewscreen.
These crucial seconds were the only chance their dropship had to match speed with the Corona, and lock onto its hull with a magnetic clamp. They were above the enemy, so Tan'ya couldn't see the results of the maneuver, but she felt the relief and jubilation as she rolled and banked, timing her actions perfectly in an identical maneuver to what she saw Sturn pull.
When the clamp made contact with the enemy hold, there was a lurch, and they stopped so suddenly Tan'ya felt the air leave her in a rush. Half a second later, she realized she was still alive and breathed out a sigh of relief. "We're in!" She yelled back to her men, and from the troops behind her came a roar of approval.
Tan'ya reached for her belt, retrieving the ancient Sith lightsaber before lighting it, illuminating the dropship in baleful red light. As loath as she was to appropriate it again from Father's vault, she needed to be armed for the boarding action, and her training saber wasn't going to cut it. Tan'ya came over to where two of her men grunted and heaved, lifting up the hatch from the bottom of the ship, exposing the enemy hull. Once again peering with her mind's eye, Tan'ya did her best to make sure she wasn't about to cut her way through anything dangerous like a plasma vent or an engine coupling, before driving the blade of her lightsaber into the ship's durasteel outer plate.
For a moment, the only illumination in the room was the burning red of her lightsaber, its glow reflecting in the glassy black eyes of her men's eye lenses. No one spoke a word, until the glowing hot circle was cut into the enemy ship. With the Force, Tan'ya pushed the circular hole down into the enemy ship, before dropping in behind it.
Her stomach turned, as she went from the gravity of the drop ship to the gravity of the Corona, falling onto her back, before rolling to her feet. She looked about her, lightsaber raised and at the ready for any blaster bolts that might come towards her, but none came. An alarm was blaring inside the enemy ship, and no doubt there would be defenders here soon to force them out, but her men had precious seconds to scramble through the hole behind her.
Tan'ya had cut through into what seemed like a mess hall. The room was full of chairs and desks, and there was a kitchen visible at one end with no one in it. Tables and benches filled the room, all bolted to the floor to prevent it from tumbling around as the ship maneuvered.
A warning in the Force told Tan'ya of the pirates closing in towards them. Teams of aliens, armed with vibro-cutlasses and packing an assortment of blasters. They weren't moving professionally, but all rushing as an enthusiastic group towards them.
"Sileal, cover that entrance. Hostiles incoming, thirty seconds." Tan'ya pointed at where she knew they would come from, and the sergeant and his team immediately did as ordered. Moving like an efficient machine, a group of five marines positioned themselves at the doorway, grenades primed in their hands. "Mirrun, cover this entrance." Tan'ya indicated a different door. "The rest of you are with me."
At the exact moment the enemy pirates were coming to the mess hall's entrance, Sileal's team opened the door, grenades already thumping to the ground in the midst of an unprepared enemy.
Tan'ya winced at the cold, stomach turning sensation of each mind winking out in the Force. Some of the pirates survived the initial onslaught, wounded but still alive, and crying in agony. It wasn't the first time she'd felt such a thing, but she still wasn't used to it yet. Chiding herself for her weakness, Tan'ya led a dozen of her men through the kitchen, where she used the Force to rip a sink from its mount to gain access to the thin wall behind it. A few quick strokes from her lightsaber, and she cut an alternate exit into the hall that ran alongside the kitchen.
The pirates who had survived the contact from Sileal's team had pulled back into cover, and were just bringing forward detonators of their own to try and flush their human foes out into the open, when suddenly blaster shots started to smash into them from the side. Caught in a pincer between Sileal's defensive position and Tan'ya's flanking maneuver, they had no choice but to flee back the way they came towards the armory.
One of them threw a grenade behind him as he ran, trying to slow her troops, but Tan'ya caught the grenade mid air, and shot it over the man's head into the midst of the retreating aliens. It struck a weequay so hard in the back of his head that several spines broke off and he fell limp to the ground, before the device exploded.
The surviving, shaken, panicking pirates were destined to be run down by the invading marines. With their short barreled, automatic blasters - this Galaxy's equivalent to a submachine gun - two Serrenoan point men closed in, blasting from the hip, not needing to aim at this distance. They made quick work of what remained of the enemy, and in just a few moments their beachhead into the enemy ship was secured.
"Your Highness!" One of the men said, from his accent, a Coruscanti. "This ship's powering its hyperdrive!"
Tan'ya didn't know how he knew that, maybe he detected a difference in the ship's background hum, but it only took her a moment to verify. The Captain of the ship was thinking triumphantly about the ransom her father would pay once he had her prisoner, and on the ship's bridge men were rushing about their stations, minds ringing with preparations for a hyperspace jump.
Tan'ya quickly sent an order to the crew of the drop ship. "Lieutenant, disembark the rest of the men, asap."
Quickly, all remaining members of Tan'ya's team boarded the enemy ship, and secured themselves to the walls with climbing harnesses attached to their combat rigs.
"Dropship, C-3 is about to accelerate to hyperspace, detach now."
There was a shocked pause from the other end. "Your Highness, we can't leave-"
"That's an order, Lieutenant. Confirm my last."
"Confirmed, Your Highness."
The dropship detached, and there was a sudden sharp decompression. All the air in the mess and the surrounding halls was vented into space. The bodies of the defeated pirates were gruesomely sucked out into the void, bones breaking where they collided into each other and the edges of the hole. The power of the vacuum jostled at the House Guard secured outside the mess, but because they were all attached with their climbing lines, no one suffered more than a few bruises.
Once the pressure had subsided and the mess hall was exposed to nothing but vacuum, the House Guard carefully unclipped themselves and moved forward in synchronized, careful steps, never being detached from a wall at any point.
The next room over, more pirates were gathering, blasters aimed at the door to cut down Tan'ya and any of her men that came through the door. She almost felt sympathy for them when she cut a hole in the door, and immediately the room they were in began to vent. The ancient lightsaber itself was only barely kept under Tan'ya's control with a supreme effort in the Force, being right over the high pressure area where the gasses were rushing out. When Tan'ya cut the final piece of the door away, there was no one left inside to fire on her. They'd all heard the alarms blaring and fled to the armory to find pressurized suits.
Of course Tan'ya wouldn't give them time to do that. She and her men quickly bored their way through the ship, beelining for the bridge. The captain saw her and her men approaching on his security feed, and Tan'ya felt fear growing inside him as she came closer and closer. He wasn't wearing any protection, and he was terrified of her cutting through the door. He turned, issuing new orders, and Tan'ya saw the ship's heading change. Instead of moving away from Serenno's gravity well to jump to hyperspace, he was now desperate to get into its atmosphere.
Too little too late. The Captain was unbalanced, panicking. His thoughts were desperately searching for a way to survive, as he hurried over to an emergency kit and tried to pull on the folded up plastic vacuum suit inside. All across the bridge, his crew followed his example, abandoning their posts in a desperate scramble for the emergency suits. Tan'ya didn't give them time.
It took a minute to cut through the bridge door, during which the men inside who hadn't got their suits sealed in time choked in pain as the gasses in their bodies expanded rapidly, rupturing their lungs. Blood vessels across their bodies burst and froze over, as they desperately clawed at their suits seals, trying to close them. The Captain had moved first, and barely managed to get his suit closed in time. Overcome with blind panic, he raised his blaster to fire at Tan'ya only for her to force his blaster towards the ceiling.
He squeezed the trigger hopelessly without a target, desperately using two hands to try and force the weapon down even as he blasted the ceiling, showering the deck with fragments. With her free hand, Tan'ya reached out and pulled at his ankle, breaking the man's finger on the blaster's trigger guard as his full weight was suddenly yanked away from the stationary floating firearm. Kicking and screaming behind his mask, he was dragged across the deck towards her. She let his blaster drop to the floor and drew her lightsaber, its crimson blade flickering to life hungrily. He flailed desperately, ankles slipping on the deck as he futilely tried to scramble away right up until he was pulled straight onto a blade of burning plasma.
It was only after he was dead that Tan'ya put away the lightsaber, and strode straight to the security station. The ship's two dozen remaining marines had just finished swapping to pressurized armor, and were regrouping for another assault on the bridge.
Tan'ya quickly opened up a comline to the remaining enemy marines and whatever other personnel might be listening.
"This is Tan'ya, advisor to the Defence for House Serenno. We have taken the bridge, and are now prepared to offer you terms of surrender."
"This is Bosun Borunda of the Latch." She heard a weequay voice reply, sardonically. "Captain, now I guess. And thank you for the promotion." He chuckled at his own joke, turning to look up at the camera and swaggering with a massive automatic blaster raised above his shoulder in one hand. "Me and my boys would rather die fighting than get taken by your savage animals, you inbred blueblood. Don't worry, when I get up there I'll show I taste better than your daddy."
Clenching her jaw, Tan'ya searched about the bridge until she saw the life support station. It didn't take her more than a few moments to switch off gravity in that section of the ship. The pirates in the armory bounced about in confusion for a few moments, until Tan'ya remotely opened the closest external door, and vented them into Serenno's upper atmosphere. Half a dozen had managed to desperately cling on to the armory racks or a door handle, but the majority were now freefalling hundreds of miles towards the planet's surface.
After a few moments when the air pressure stabilized, Tan'ya closed the door and switched the gravity back on in that section of the ship. The few pirates who'd survived fell to the ground, including Bosun, who'd lost his blaster and had barely managed to hold onto the door frame.
"This is the Advisor to the Defence for House Serenno. We are now prepared to accept your unconditional surrender."
Colonel Gon Seith was fifty four years old, surrounded by younger men, and watching through the darkened visor of his helmet as a jedi's lightsaber cut through a Corona's interior door. They warned him, even before he left Coruscant, they lectured him that speed would be the first thing to go. Then it would be his stamina, then his skills, and finally all he would have left in his body was power, before that too disappeared.
The burning green line of Master Sturn's lightsaber moved down slowly, droplets of molten metal falling to the deck beneath it. Their enemies would know the second the door dropped. If the jedi loses concentration for even a moment, a single grenade falling through that hatchway would kill them all.
When he was younger, he was with Coruscant Security's Tactical Response, and he thought that was a dangerous job. He thought he was the toughest, baddest man on the planet. It had been his wife who persuaded him to retire. It was time to take up Dooku's offer, and step away from the danger. Take up a nice, easy job defending a Count in the Outer Rim, like any Jedi would ever really need him for protection.
Nothing he ever did in the service was even as remotely as dangerous as this.
By far, the most dangerous second of Seith's entire career was when Sturn finished cutting, and the metal door from its frame fell forwards. The second it did, a grenade tumbled into their drop ship, and Seith kicked it with all his might. It wasn't a good kick. The grenade bounced against the wall and skittered into the Corona's interior, and Gon just barely grabbed Sturn out of the door frame, pulling him back, before the explosion went off.
Throwing the shocked Green Jedi behind him, Gon poked his head into the smoking corridor, and blasted even before he had a target. In his hands was a crude machine of wood and metal pipes, and it didn't send out heated plasma, but a burst of smoke and metal pellets. Through the din, he might have heard someone scream, or maybe that was just his ears ringing from the explosion.
The scatterguns were primitive, crude. But they fired in a wide arc, and so had a good chance of hitting even when he didn't have a target. His blast fired, Gon pulled back and another man fired his scattergun down the corridor. Then a third man did. It would have been nice if they hit someone, but right now that was less important. The smoke released by each shot would be the only cover he and his men had when they had to charge up the corridor.
Leaning behind the door frame, Gon switched to his short barreled repeating blaster, flicking the lever to full auto. He swallowed once, holding up a hand to prevent the next man from shooting his scattergun, and then activated the thermal view in his helmet. The smoke from the grenade and scatterguns filled the corridor completely, but with his thermals he could see the blaster bolts flying down the corridor towards him. The corridor ended at a Tee shaped intersection, and he could see four of the bastards glowing red hot as they poked their heads out to fire blindly.
Storming a ship. Storming a blasted ship!
Idiot. What was he doing storming a ship?! He was supposed to be semi-retired!
Concealed by the smoke, and firing with precision, Seith's blaster struck one of the pirates in the shoulder, and a spray of hot matter coated the wall behind him. The man's severed arm smoked on the ground, as Gon fired again to keep their heads down. With all of the enemy hiding, there was nothing left to do but push in.
Without having to give the order, his men fell in behind him, charging forwards, though holding their fire to avoid hitting him in the back. One of the pirates poked his blaster around the corner, firing blindly, but luck was on Gon's side, as his own bursts struck the wall next to the man's hands, and the hot sparks made him pull back with a yelp.
Finally Gon was in close, and came around the edge of the intersection to find the four pirates facing him, armed with blaster pistols. He was sure he was dead in that moment, even as momentum carried him. His burst managed to strike the injured pirate cradling his wrist, but Gon's shoulder slammed into the wall, and he knew this was the moment he died.
Then the Jedi leapt around the corner, blade flicking out in precise slashes to bounce the shots aimed at Gon back to those that fired them. All the pirates were cut down in the blink of an eye.
Gon called out. "Keep moving! Don't give them time, keep moving!"
"Colonel, you're wounded!" Sturn turned to him, concerned. "I didn't sense that grenade, the thrower must have shielded-"
With the blood pounding in his ears, Gon didn't even hear him at first. "I said, move soldier! Go! Go! GO!"
Hopping like a private discovered slacking, Sturn hurried down the corridor, men closing ranks behind him in formation. Only then did Gon glance at his hand.
Oh. Turned out he had been hit. Half his hand was missing, his smoldering pinkie and ring finger visible on the ground beneath him.
With no time to waste, Gon used his good hand to fumble a syringe out of his medkit, and inject himself with bacta. Then he slung his blaster over his shoulder, and swapped to his pistol.
He wasn't retired yet, and he still had a job to do.
The Hammerheads formed up, their barriers still standing, but deteriorating. Hoves glanced at his holocom's chronometer, watching the agonizing passage of a single second, before focusing back on the battle. Two of the Coronas were boarded. Each ship was several hundred meters in diameter, with a number of branching passageways running through them. Assuming everything went perfectly, Hoves knew the Guard could clear a similar sized building in ten minutes.
But they didn't need to clear the ships, just cripple them. Their primary targets would be the voidkin on the bridge, but if that was unreachable then they would target the engines. In the worst case, they were to storm gunnery.
Ship warfare was different from ground warfare; less like combat with the men, almost more like hunting. It took patience, observation, and timing. When fighting men, a simple blade and some aggression could carry the day if things went well, but to charge headlong after the Skraa-bird in the brush would only leave you tired.
If the Rider's shields fell, the missiles from the Coronas would slay them in the blink of an eye. For the moment, the two fleets were at a distance from each other, twisting and writhing in long arcs to avoid fire, while firing in turn. It seemed like the enemy wasn't willing to close the distance, though Hoves wasn't quite sure why. Up close, the enemy would have the most advantage, but then It would be natural for the voidkin to not like or trust each other. Perhaps they were simply cowards.
Each of the Corona's was marked on his tactical display, too far away and too small to be visible to the naked eye, but marked as a red crosshair. Labeled as C1, C2, and C3, Hoves could also see which ones the men were currently aboard. C1 was the current primary target, his ships concentrating fire on it because it was the one his own men weren't aboard. His fleet's coordination seemed to be working in his favor, as C1 pulled away to more easily evade incoming fire.
Then, all of a sudden, C3's canons stopped firing. The ship was still maneuvering towards the planet, but an encrypted message was suddenly sent to the SHG Rider, confirming the ship had been taken.
"Close distance with C1." Hoves ordered his fleet. "Maintain fire patterns."
"Copy."
"Right away."
C1 realized it was being chased, and sensors showed it was now starting to engage its hyperdrive.
"C3 is maneuvering towards us." Someone called out, and Hoves glanced away to see he was right. That was the Princess's ship.
There was some excited chatter about adding the captured ship to their defense fleet.
"The battle's not over yet!" Hoves barked and the bridge fell silent. "The Princess has fulfilled her duty, now focus on yours!" To break off from C1 would give it a chance to escape.
The Coronas were slower than the Hammerhead's outside of hyperspace, and with his cruisers closing in on C1, at last its shield flicked and fell under concentrated fire. Plasma pockmarked the ship's hull, as a trail of fragments drifted behind it, bodies of the crew visible among the debris. It was bleeding now wounded prey leaking its life's essence, hopelessly seeking shelter in the underbrush, and Hoves couldn't help the smile that tugged at the corners of his lips.
"C2 is activating its hyperdrive!" A voice called out.
Gon and his team were still aboard that ship. Hoves rolled the stainer on his tongue, torn for a moment between finishing off the crippled C1 and trying to save those men, but realizing there was nothing he could do. Was he supposed to blast at C2 with his men still aboard?
"Archer, break off and follow C2." Hoves commanded. "Wherever it jumps, follow it, but hold your fire. We'll pick up our boys later."
"Copy." Hoves replied, before turning his ship around to chase his target.
He might not be able to save those men with his blasters, but he'd give his flesh to the village butcher before he let them be sold in Hutt Space!
Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, and what had to be more than a dozen direct hits, the heavily armored C1 lost power. It drifted through space, a cloud of oxygen trailing behind it, as the Rider and the Watcher broke off their attack, and turned around.
Too late though, as C2 was able to jump away, followed shortly by the Archer.
Hoves finally caught up to C2 and the missing men twenty minutes after the battle stopped. It had been the Jedi who sent the report. They'd taken the bridge, though with plenty of casualties.
It was a relief for sure, to recover the surviving guards alive. On their way back to Serenno, he quickly typed up his report for the Princess. It was a victory today, and Hoves relished a successful hunt.
Tan'ya was shocked when she got the casualty report. Of the fifty men who made it aboard C2, only seventeen had come back uninjured. Even Colonel Gon Seith had been seriously injured, all but losing a hand. Her crew hasn't escaped unscathed either, despite her best efforts.
She'd known that storming the enemy ships would be a deadly operation, and that the casualties would be high, but seeing it in front of her, layed out so starkly, was… upsetting. What a waste. What a terrible waste of good men.
Not without any other choice would Tan'ya ever-
Then she stopped herself before she made a promise she couldn't keep. The operation had been a complete success, despite the high casualty rate. The two Coronas they captured intact were a fine prize, rugged ships well suited to the Outer Rim, and from an independent subcontractor well known for their reliable parts. They had some nice firepower, and would augment the Serenno House Fleet.
The problem wasn't that the guard had stormed the enemy ship, it was that they had done so while poorly prepared. With better boarding vessels, weapons better suited for the task, smoke grenades, flashbangs and armor that could take even a single extra blaster round, the casualties suffered today could've been cut in half.
Victory in battle didn't mean the end of war, just that you would survive to see the next one. There was still a lot to do, but once all the prisoners were stowed away and the Coronas were ready to move, Tan'ya would be able to return home.
For now, she quickly wrote up an after action report in bullet points and sent it to her father. She had just finished pulling her captured Corona in formation with the returning Archer, Rider and the second commandeered pirate ship, when she received a call on her ship's holocom from her father.
When she answered, holographic images sprang to life around her, not just of the Count, but Duke Harad, Duchess Satine, Queen Amidala, Master Narec, and Hego Damask were all present. It made sense all the major heads of their alliance would be in a meeting during the first crisis their fledgling empire faced, though they gave no hint of what they had been discussing previously.
"Make your report Tan'ya, we can hear it verbally." Dooku quickly explained to her.
Was he trying to show off to them?
Clamping down her annoyance, Tan'ya quickly explained. "The House Fleet was engaged by three armed Corona frigates, of which two were boarded and captured by the House Guard. The third attempted to flee, but was destroyed." Tan'ya hesitated, before adding. "The House Guard took heavy casualties in the operation."
"Good stuff." Duke Harad congratulated in his chair. "Well done girl, did you command that?"
"Yes, I did, Your Majesty."
"I'll send you a box of cigars." Then he noticed the annoyed look Dooku sent him and added, "Chocolates, then."
"Thank you, Sir, but victory was only possible because of the information you shared with my father, regarding the enemy's plan."
"Ha! Well, at least I learned something useful while my shipyards were getting bombed." Harad grunted, before lighting a cigar, the burning tip glitching out his holographic image for a moment. "Well, what are we going to do now? We're at war, we don't have a fleet we can retaliate with, and they're bound to hit us again."
"We're stable here for now." Duchess Satine answered. "Our domed cities are shielded, and our Protectors were able to drive away the enemy." She hesitated, then added. "I'm afraid they might try to send infiltrators or saboteurs for us next time. We might not have the numbers to repel such a force so easily, if they disperse through the undercity."
"The Temple was well protected. They didn't even try. It's almost a shame; we didn't get a chance to test out the new fighters Mr Damask donated." Ky nodded towards Hego. "And we're more than capable of facing a ground assault."
"This was merely a probing strike." Dooku said, and Tan'ya nodded her head in agreement. "They will return with greater numbers, forces, and resolve soon."
"This was clearly the work of a Hutt." Harad pointed out.
"But which Hutt?" Amidala asked.
"I believe I can be of some assistance here." Hego Damask said. "I have a number of well paid informants in Hutt Space."
"They weren't able to tell us about this attack before it happened though." Duke Harad pointed out flippantly, then blew a smoke ring.
"Indeed." Damask replied, darkly puffing on his own respirator. "I will inform you of what they tell me soon. The other Banking Clan directors have just called me to an emergency meeting of their own, in response to my investments being attacked. I must go now."
"Thank you, Mr Damask." Amidala told him politely. "We will be grateful for whatever you share."
Hego nodded once, then hung up.
"I have my own contacts and Hunters to dispatch." Dooku said. "Tan'ya, begin debriefing the captured pirates, and see what you can learn. In particular, we need a target to strike back at."
"Yes, father. We were able to capture the jump computers intact, so we have a good idea of where they came from."
"Very good. Share the data with the Advisory and we'll see if we can find somewhere to strike back at." Then he hung up.
Amidala and Satine both dropped out at that point, leaving Tan'ya with Duke Harad.
He stared at her displayed image for a moment. "How old are you again?"
"I'm eight years old."
He nodded at that, still regarding her. He took another puff of his cigar, then said. "You should marry my son. He's only a year younger than you."
Tan'ya blinked. Her mind raced with images, the idea of being engaged to a child repulsing her to the point where her skin crawled. After swallowing down a much sharper response, she replied, "I'm sorry, Sir, but that's not a decision I can make."
Harad barked out a laugh. "Well, maybe in a decade or so, huh? Let me know how your interrogation goes." Then he hung up, leaving Tan'ya alone with increasingly dark thoughts regarding the captive pirates, and their comrades' inevitable return.