Trychon stared out into the stars and thought to himself It's a beautiful day. Granted, he realized that weather was pretty irrelevant when in deep space, let alone hyperspace. He looked around at his small command crew. The Stalker by her very nature, did not need a large crew. In fact, for most basic missions it could do without one at all, and that was what set it apart. For a mission such as this one though, having a few more sentient minds (and one assassin droid) to help run it would greatly increase efficiency and deadliness. He could run the ship himself if all it needed to do was shoot down fighters and knock heads with other capital ships, but this mission called for so much more from the The Stalker and Trychon. Delki and Bleetz joined Shyrt, Reed, and the droid in making the command deck as populated as it'd been since Trychon and Raezyr captured it so long ago.
He was confident they were going to achieve their objectives today. He had to be. His new mysterious holocron mentor had told him that a true Sith master was able to increase the effectiveness and loyalty of entire armies with a 'projection' of sorts of their own views and goals. He was no Sith Master yet, and he could feel the predominant unease in their own armada of sorts. He could not blame them or somehow cause their doubts to go away. It didn't matter though. What he and his brother had set in motion was about to come to pass, and he was excited.
"Reverting to realspace in 10 seconds" The computer's voice called out over the comm. The crew watched as the planetary system came into view just as it had in their simulations. Dianna's voice came in next over the speakers. "Command to all hands. I'm going to go ahead and head off all the questions. No, the target is not here. We're here to refuel and head back out. At that point, Control 1 will send out the real coordinates of the target. It's a necessary precaution that I'm sure you all understand. I know we usually handle things openly in my crew, but this was a condition from our mission partners."
Trychon smiled at that. He knew that it was imperative that her crew trust her implicitly... and their trust in the Sith was less important. They didn't mind being a lightning rod of sorts for any doubts or issues from her crew. Everyone had their parts to play. In fact, getting under Zanz's skin was sometimes downright enjoyable.
Everyone was given a chance to record messages to be sent out on a delay, and everyone knew the basics of their mission. The specifics of where exactly they were going were not important to preparations, and could have ruined everything if it had somehow been leaked. Only Trychon, Raezyr, and Dianna knew where they were heading next. Traveling outside the galactic plane was highly rare, and that's exactly what their quarry was counting on. There was fewer dangers outside the plane... there was nothing at all actually. It was viewed as too risky simply because if a ship were to somehow lose power, there was a literal zero chance of anyone finding them.
That was also about the chances of someone happening in on a job like this without stumbling across the information somehow, as they had. Hopefully they would get their timing just right as well. They had enough time to refuel and get on their way... but arriving too early or too late was not an option.
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After their refueling was done, and some of the crew got through grumbling about the false alarm on the first jump, they were on their way with the real final jump. Raezyr steeled his nerves and prepared for what was going to be a hectic few minutes. At least, they were only planning on a few minutes. With the half dozen small freighters and gunships, the dozen fighters, plus the Wraith], The Razor, The Stalker and Di's own freighter... they should be able to take down the Hammerhead cruizer Unity. The one problem was that they were already likely to take on some heavy losses with the two full squadrons that the Unity had.
Taking down the cruizer was a secondary objective. They were going to hit the shuttle hard and quick and try to get in and out without much in the way of losses. If their fighters were able to sustain without taking heavy losses, taking out the larger ship would be a luxury in that it would increase their likelyhood of remaining anonymous in the loss of a very large amount of credits.
They reverted to realspace and the Sith checked his instruments. The rest of the group was coming out of hyperspace right behind him, but there were no other ships there. He began his mental countdown. If the shuttle didn't show up in the next two minutes, they may have come in too early and given them enough time to see them and change their exit point.
It was hard not to hold his breath as the first minute passed by. Zanz grumbled from behind him about 'not liking it.' Raezyr ignored him entirely. He wasn't going to allow his own nerves to overreact to the annoying former soldier.
He silently breathed a sigh of relief as the shuttle appeared just outside their weapons range. He gunned his engines to full and hit his comm. "Mole one to all attack group - Target is in sight. Heading to intercept. Form up behind me as quick as possible. We have to hit them fast."
Zanz was looking at the instruments. "How do we know it's them?"
"Look, sublight for brains..." Raezyr growled "I know you want to see Trychon and I fail so you can wallow in your shallow victory, but it's time to get on board. Who else is going to be showing up right here, right now? Get over your issues and fall in line. Do your job and keep your mouth shut."
All appearances were that Zanz was about to do just that, when the alarms started to sound off. "That'll be the hammerhead." Taggart noted. Then his voice went up several decibel levels. "No, make that two hammerheads! There's a third ship there! Looks to be a frigate! We're humped!"
Dianna seemed to agree. "Command to Control 1 and Mole 1. This mission is a scratch. We can't do this. Huttspit! Let's show them our hyperdrives and meet up elsewhere."
Raezyr didn't know what to say to her, but he wasn't about to back down now. The Shuttle was in range and he began to open fire.
Zanz grabbed his shoulder. "Are you insane?! Do you want everyone to be slaughtered? You heard the command!"
Raezyr motioned for Taggart to take over the controls as he turned around and grabbed Zanz by the neck and slammed him into the wall. He was about to tear the man apart and explain that they may as well try to wait until the enemy was on them before turning and tucking their tails between their legs and running when Trychon's voice made him pause. "Control 1 to Command - Sorry about the delay. This was certainly unexpected and less than optimal, but it was always a possibility. We have contingencies."
"WHAT contingencies? You have an extra fleet?"
One of the freighters chimed in. "The hammerheads are starting to launch fighters..."
"Just give me a second, Command. Hang on..." Raezyr could practically visualize his brother tapping away on his datapad "There!"
Dengar was staring at the controls, dumbfounded. Taggart was bringing the ship around for another pass. "What did he do, Raezyr? Wait! One of the Hammerheads stopped launching fighters! It seems to be having some sort of a malfunction... it's picking up a yaw and starting a lazy spin.... and now it's firing randomly?"
Raezyr pulled Zanz away from the bulkhead long enough to slam him into it again. "We're not backing out. I have a job to do and so do you. You have no say in this mission until you're on that boat and on your way. I'm not even sure you're needed for that, so it's only really Di that's keeping me from ripping out your throat. Stay out of my way." He threw the helpless man onto the floor and resumed his seat.
"What... just happened?" Dengar asked quietly, as though he was afraid to address the Sith directly.
"That spasming hammerhead is the Unity. I thought Trych might have an ace in the hole left for them." He was smiling again as he took over control of his ship, and prepared to unload another salvo at their target.
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