"How are dey doin dis?!" Nal exclaimed as she narrowly dodged yet another turbolaser blast. "I've never heard of a ship dat size taking out so many of our fighters like dat."
"Reach out towards that ship." Val responded with his voice as calm as ever, though strained through exertion. "You'll feel that it's empty. We're fighting a computer."
Recognition dawned on her. Normally, capital ships such as the one they were facing were loaded with primarily quad cannons or turbolasers depending on whether it was geared towards taking on large numbers of fighters or another capital ship, respectively. The weapons on this were clearly for the latter but the accuracy, speed, and anticipation that the guns were tracking and destroying Republic fighters could only be described as... inhuman.
"Dat's an impressive computer dey must have on dat ship. It won't save dem when Captain Moklam gets here to support us."
"It may not have to." Was all that Val had to say in response to her. She looked down and saw that he was right. The capital ship had been able to maneuver and keep itself in between them and the fleeing freighters. The pinpoint weapons fire had been able to keep the fighters from taking the large ship out of commission as well.
Then the freighters did disappear. The capital ship however, began to turn around and return toward the planet.
"Unity to fighter groups Alpha and Theta... put all power to thrusters and get back to us... that damned ship must be trying to get between us and another wave." Moklam was clearly losing patience. He was already furious about their previous encounters with this group. "NOW!"
-------------------
"Are you sure about this?" Trychon asked as he keyed in the next instructions to be sent to the Sith Stalker.
"As sure as I am that you could have been noticed too early by taking off without the rest of us... even if you were just doing a sweep, Tryst." Raezyr commed back, using the codenames he insisted on picking himself this time. "But yes... the only vector we have a shot of getting the rest of the ships out now is if we head straight at the Unity and it's pal. Any other path and the fighters or the big boys will get to us before the Stalker is of any use."
"That's not enough by my calculations, Blade."
"It will be if we can distract those fighters.... we'll break off in tee minus two."
Trychon sighed. The numbers weren't adding up very well, even if they survived a quick skirmish. He watched the timer count down on his panel, and he broke off on Raezyr's tail when the counter hit zero.
Within minutes, they were barreling through the center of the enemy formation. Trychon managed to score a quick kill on one of the lead fighters, but his celebration was quickly interrupted.
"Don't go for the kill. Get shots off at as many of them as you can. If they die, so be it... but we're aiming to disrupt as much as possible. Don't let any of them break away towards the freighters."
Raezyr let instinct take over and fell into a rhythm of fire and switch. The upside was that it was a target rich environment and each time he flicked the switch on his targeting computer to cycle to the next target, it almost instantly locked on. The downside was that there were so many enemy fighters, that he was never sure if his shots were striking or not as he was constantly in evasive maneuvers.
The arrival of the Twilight Stalker had really seemed to throw the Republic forces for a loop with it's precise maneuvering and targeting. Trychon's customized automation program really was a thing of beauty. The unfortunate part was that the enemy had apparently figured out no one was aboard and were starting to regroup.
The small Sith capital ship had provided cover for the first group of escaping freighters, but if the second group didn't hurry up and form up, the Republic would be ready for the next run.
No matter what happened, Trychon and his brother could no longer stay and fend off the attacking fighters. They had to get to that back up data storage site and physically destroy it. Too much precious information was sitting there and they couldn't let it fall into Republic or Jedi hands.
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