In Shadows and Darkness

Chapter 12

Leia resisted the urge to pace the Arcturus' bridge, aware that she was making Wyatt uneasy. Why exactly, she had no idea- everything was going exactly as planned.

They had a positive sighting of Vader's main fleet almost two hours at lightspeed from here, and every other Rim Fleet Destroyer could be accounted for. Nothing was within striking distance, save for the Star Destroyer at Col Din of course, but Madine would let them know the moment that it made any kind of move. Again a stray concern worried at the edges of Leia's mind but she couldn't lock it down, try as she might, her thoughts with Mon Mothma.

"Any problems?" she prompted Wyatt, walking up close to peer out of the viewscreen at the jumble of decrepit freighters waiting for permission to unload. Her eyes locked on the Attin'Cho, clearly visible around the rusting bulk of the freighter between them.

The Mon Calamari shook her head, bulbous eyes remaining on Leia, "None." She replied simply, though her tone indicated she was willing to be led by Leia on this.

But what could she offer? Mon's shuttle had landed and sent back the short confirmation code that all was well, as agreed. The Bothan leader Mon was coming to reassure had accepted the change of venue without rancour, the Attin'Cho making a short jump out and back into the system in order to clear the mass of Bothawuii, the meeting now taking place on his transport, whilst Madine continued to load the Generators from another Bothan transport onto the Rebel freighter Sol.

Everything was going exactly as planned - so why did she have the creeping feeling that....

"Ma'am, I have General Madine on the comm." Leia swing round to the comm officer, but it was Wyatt who spoke first.

"Put it on speaker." She said quickly, stepping to the centre of the small freighter's bridge, "General?"

Madine's voice was tight and urgent as he spoke, "Where's Chief Mothma?"

Leia walked into the mic's pickup range, "She's on the Attin'Cho. Why?"

"The Star Destroyer here - it's The Fury. It isn't part of the Rim Fleet, it's a Core Fleet vessel. It travels with the Peerless!"

That was what had been niggling her - all the Rim Fleet Destroyers were accounted for - how could there be one here? The full meaning of Madine's words seeped in then; the Peerless was Skywalker's Super Star Destroyer. Leia's stomach tightened into a knot. "You're sure?"

"It's not transmitting ID, but the Bothans did a close fly-by. They said it has Torrin manoeuvre thrusters from Soro-Sub. That puts it less than three years old, and it has a mark-nine transmitter array, plus Mytor equatorial heavy gun-emplacements. It's the Fury."

Leia's heart skipped a beat as she turned to Wyatt, breathless, "Contact the Attin'Cho; tell them to get Mon out and go to lightspeed; we'll fly interference. Launch the fighters to protect the Attin'Cho's exit- we'll brief them whilst they fly. Bring us around this thing." She indicated the decrepit freighter before them as the Arcturus' deck-plates began to vibrate, her engines firing into life. Leia turned her thoughts back to Madine, "General, are you finished loading?"

There was a short delay whilst Madine confirmed this, "About three minutes. We're too far in to be able to abort. We'll let you know before we're ready to make the jump to your position."

Leia didn't bother to tell him to hurry.

"Fighters have launched." Wyatt announced sharply, part of the freighter's main viewscreen overlaying with a limited, retro-fitted military-style heads-up tactical.

"Ma'am - the Attin'Cho is powering up. Our fighters are closing to escort positions."

The Attin'Cho had turned ponderously on her axis, coming about toward the stretch of open space when Leia felt something tickle at the back of her thoughts, turning back to the Mon Cal Captain, "Wyatt- did we get confirmation from the Attin'Cho?"

Wyatt frowned at the comm officer, who nodded.

"Yes, Ma-am."

Then why were the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end? "Tell them we need to speak to Chief Mothma- urgently."

The comm officer nodded, passing the request on. Leia turned back to the Attin'Cho, still powering away with Red and Blue fighter groups flying escort.

Something...

"Have they acknowledged the request?" Leia asked.

"Yes Ma-am. They say Chief Mothma's on her way up to the bridge now."

Too slow- Leia shook her head, "Tell them to patch us through to her comlink. Now."

The nervous comm officer nodded, speaking into her pick-up. She glanced up, "They're patching us through now..."

"Put it on speaker."

Everyone waited, the low hiss of background noise indicating that the line was open, the tense, human voice of the Attin'Cho's comm officer announcing, "Standby, Arcturus... Patching you through now........

Leia waited, chewing her nail...

"Standby....................................."

Too slow. Make the choice, Leia - make the call. She watched the Attin'Cho push for open space, Rebel fighters protecting her, almost clear of everything now...

Clear of everything... including them!

"Tell the fighters to pull back - closed frequency. Tell them to take out the Attin'Cho's engines." Everyone on the bridge turned to Leia, horrified. "Do it!"

The comm officer turned to Captain Wyatt for support, but the Mon Cal nodded assent, comm turning back to relay the command, having to repeat it since it was clearly queried by the Flight Commanders, Han's voice clearly audible from where Leia stood; "Command, this is Blue Flight- could you repeat that?"

Seconds later both flights pulled back, turning on a tight axis to come up behind the Attin'Cho.

"Bring us about-" Leia said tightly, "Get us to the Attin'Cho- quickly." If they could get there immediately, they had easily enough firepower to bring the bulky freighter to a stop.

Their viewscreen wheeled in a deliberate, stomach-churning inverted turn as the Arcturus manouevred to bring the Attin'Cho to the centre of the screen again - and all hell broke loose.

Suddenly everything seemed to be moving, several other freighters powering up their engines and starting forward.

"What the hell's happening!!" Wyatt's gravelly voice topped out in surprise.

"I scan three heavy freighters on the move..." an officer announced tightly as previously innocuous freighters suddenly powered forward to barricade the gap between the Arcturus and the Attin'Cho, "They're boxing us out, away from the Attin..."

The rusty bulk freighter which had been creeping in to starboard was powering toward them at a rate of knots now, on an obvious collision course. Twice their size, it forced Wyatt's hand, "All stop- take evasive manoeuvres. Try to bring us over this one." She was indicating the freighter before them which had previously seemed to be trying to do nothing more suspicious than pull ahead in the line, but was now clearly manoeuvring side-on to them, hindering them further, another two freighters to their port side confusing things further by trying hard to get out of the way of what was clearly becoming a ship-to-ship fight.

"Ma-am, we have multiple energy signatures from the forward vessel! What the.. Wait - the freighter's launching TIE's!!"

Their clear exit was gone, blocked in by the bulk of the two merchant vessels now obscuring the Attin'Cho, the Arcturus beginning to manoeuvre in an attempt to keep a clear view, though it was becoming harder s the two unknown freighters closed, the Arcturus's only exit now in the opposite direction to that which the Attin'Cho was flying.

And now the seemingly-innocuous freighter which had been turning side-on before them spewed forth scores of TIE's from its main docking bay, two wings of which came swarming in towards the Arcturus, ion cannons blazing, drawing the A- and X-Wings from their action.

"No!" Leia shouted, stepping forward, "Tell all our fighters to follow orders! Tell them to stop the Attin'Cho before it breaks clear."

She knew damn well that this would leave her freighter vulnerable, but at this point, she had only one objective - and it was presently powering away from her at speed, with the leader fo the Rebel Alliance onboard.

.

Luke watched dispassionately from the bridge of the Attin'Cho as the first wave of TIE's exited from the first of Talon Karrde's hired freighters just aft of his position, drawing the Rebel fighters away from the commandeered Bothan freighter, now in Imperial hands.

The second hired freighter was already moving into an intercept course with the Rebel ship Arcturus, effectively blocking any chance the Rebels had to follow the Attin'Cho, Karrde's third freighter coming up behind them now, though he doubted they'd spotted it as yet.

"Sir, we're clear of the stack- lightspeed co-ordinates programmed." the Imperial Helm Officer looked expectantly to Luke. The whole bridge was now commanded by Imperial military of course, only the original Bothan Captain remaining, four stormtroopers guarding him, just in case some coded acknowledgment had been required whilst the ship began to creep clear of its Rebel counterpart. He'd already pulled two sets of codes from the unwilling Bothan's mind to get Mothma here without suspicion.

"Stay a while yet, Helm." Luke said easily without turning from the battle, which was very pointedly following them as they powered ponderously away from the freighter stack, everything moving painfully slowly compared to the speed and manoeuvrability of Capital Ships. "I want the Rebel ship to remain here until the Fury can pick her up, and she won't do that if she has no reason to stay. Let them think they might just reach us yet."

"Sir, the aft shields are sustaining damage from Rebel fighters." Ops announced, looking up, awaiting orders.

Luke didn't turn, still at ease, unaffected by the news, "Contact Freighter Three- tell them to release their TIE's and send them to our position. Have them engage the Rebel fighters."

Mara took a half step toward him but managed to hold her tongue, worried that they'd lose the prize Luke had planned so carefully to gain, the Bothan ship hardly up to this kind of punishing treatment.

He glanced sideways to her, unruffled, murmuring, "The Fury is minutes away - a few snub-nose fighters can't destroy our engines, land in our only docking bay, fight through ten stormtrooper units, find Mothma and get back to their own ship in that amount of time - but they could jump to lightspeed and escape without her."

"You're risking Mothma to catch Madine." Mara murmured in reply, aware that he was staying here simply to hold the Rebel freighter's interest.

Skywalker turned away dismissively, but that composed voice had a hard edge to it as he spoke, "Let them come- no-one's taking Mothma."

Mara frowned just slightly, wondering whether he actually wanted them to try... this had all gone perfectly; a textbook operation, well-planned but with flexibility, contingencies in place. So much so that in the actual event, he'd had nothing more to do than stand on the bridge and give out orders calculated months in advance. He was spoiling for a fight and she knew it.

The question was; did he? Would he throw it all away simply because he wanted a challenge?

She'd just opened her mouth to voice this when a flicker of motion at the corner of the viewscreen drew both their eyes.

"Sir, the Fury's arrived to port. She's requesting orders."

"Tell her to launch TIE's - see if it will draw the Rebel fighters off us."

"The Fury acknowledges, Sir. They're launching three squadrons now."

"Sir, enemy fighters are driving us off-course- three degrees st..."

"Correct it." Luke ordered, turning to the Helm Officer, the ramshackle freighter beginning to buck slightly beneath their feet as heavy laser fire hit home from close range. "Stay on-course for the lightspeed jump."

He turned back to the comm, "Tell the Fury that the Rebel freighter is boxed in - have her move around to a clear line and engage tractor beams - I want that ship."

He'd barely finished before Ops called out, "Sir, the Alliance fighters are staying with us- we have a partial failure of the aft shields- engine shields are critical."

In the middle of all this pandemonium Luke glanced momentarily at the man, aware that in the pressure of the moment he had said 'Alliance' and not 'Rebel'; making a mental note that the Ops officer may be a Rebel spy. "Tile remaining shields to compensate." he ordered, turning casually away to Comm, "Is the Fury in position?"

"She estimates another minute, Sir."

"Divert power from the forward shields to shore the aft. Tell Freighter One to come up behind our engines to protect us from strafing runs. "

"TIE fighters are engaging the enemy... Sir, the Rebel freighter is pulling away."

Luke turned, "Will she make it clear before the Fury locks on?"

There was a brief, tense pause as Ops ran simulations, "No, Sir. The Fury has the edge."

"Sir, aft shields three and eight have failed- shield four is critical."

The failure of a single shield was bad enough, but manageable by tiling adjacent shields to reduce the unshielded area- if shield four failed combined with three however, it would give a sizeable hole to aim for if the Rebels took another run at the engines. Luke glanced knowingly to Mara; "Time for us to leave, I think."

He didn't bother giving the order; Mara turned instantly to Helm, "Contact Freighter One then engage lightspeed engines."

The stars before them turned to streaks as the Attin'Cho powered away with her prize, leaving the battle behind in a distant blur of light.