Chapter 75

The big day is here when the calendars are set to zero and a new galactic date starts. The rebel fleet is well-equipped and ready to attack the Death Star. The date is sooner than expected because Vader has been giving the rebels information that has led to their great victory, which has led to more effort being placed on building the Death Star.

This will be an easy victory. On our side, we have several Jedi Generals ready with their expertise and experienced fighters. We won't have to rely on one force-aware child to make the impossible shot through a vent leading down to a reactor; we have any number of Jedi who could do that.

The fleet has expensive shield generators, weapons tailored to punch holes in defences, and auto turrets that fire on fighters.

My stealth fleet hovers in place ready to give support. I have been given the rank of Admiral but I know it's just pretty words as I've never been given any pay, in fact, I've used up a lot of wealth just to get to this point.

On the Empire's side, they have an incomplete Deathstar that isn't nearly well enough protected. A shield generator on the planet the Death Star revolves around is constantly shielding the incomplete weapon. There are more construction vasals than Empire destroyers. The biggest problem is the Death Star isn't complete enough to give it one hit, the guts of the weapons are incomplete and won't cause the whole thing to explode, but at least there aren't nearly as many tie fighters about.

The rebels attack in a typical wedge formation allowing for support and retreat. A good start, it was better to be over-prepared than to be overconfident. The start of the attack was to judge the defence of the Death Star and the shield emitting from the planet.

Just like we thought, the shield generator needed to be removed. I insisted on taking command over this part of the attack, it had the greatest chance of success without loss and with my fleet, it would be a breeze. My fleet held position over the planet while I used the force to pinpoint the best place to attack. My droid crew made no noise as they waited for my command and even the two viewing screens that connected to Boba Fett and Padme star ships made zero movements as they both watched me waiting for their commands.

"Scan these coordinates," I say to my crew.

The crew came back to life and with that so did the soft clacking of metal fingers pushing metal buttons.

"Admiral, scan complete. Bunker at coordinates" answered a protocol droid.

"What is the energy output of the bunker" I ask

"Negligible" answered the droid.

The force can be distracted and blocked but only if you use the counterpart of the force. I'm using all of the force, dark, light, grey it's all the same to me. If the force tells me that this is where the shield generator that protects the Death Star is hiding then it most likely is.

What would I do if I wanted to protect a shield generator bunker, I would hide it by redirecting the energy omitting from it. I would make the bunker look like it was just a simple, wasteful, broken-down bunker that couldn't possibly have any use.

"What are the life signs like, include thermal and electromagnet with the life scans" I ordered

"Inconclusive," a droid says

It wasn't difficult to block scans but you needed good technology and manpower to do so. It was massively suspicious that I couldn't scan a broken discarded bunker.

I ordered three ships to come out of stealth and rain down a hail of fire from orbit.

"Scan communications" I ordered.

"Nothing" answered a droid.

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"Stop the attack and fall back into position" I ordered

This was the place, I felt it in my stomach and the force. There was no way in hell that a bunker with enough staff to block scans from a starship wouldn't ask for help from their allies or beg for a ceasefire from whoever was attacking them but there was nothing. They were hiding and doing a fine job of it, it was likely the bunker went deep in the ground to avoid damage from orbit firing and only the first couple of layers were destroyed.

"Fire the bunker busters missiles" I ordered.

Missiles were the poor man's weapon in space battles. Unbelievably slow with any number of ways to block or detonate them before they managed to deliver their payload, but this wasn't space battles.

My bunker buster was a simple design that pierced the ground at high speeds and didn't explode from the excess force because there was a high-powered lightsaber crystal attached to the nose of the missile. The laser softens up the ground to let the missile go further than before. Without the laser, the missile could go ten to twenty meters into the ground before exploding.

The first missile entered the bunker area and slipped into the ground. A few seconds later the earth bulged a little as the explosion caused waves to wash across the surface. A second missile followed the first and caused a bigger bulging of the earth than the first.

That was when I intercepted a message coming from the quiet bunker, a message of extreme distress. Now we were getting somewhere. I pause to watch the starship placements on my screen and see two destroyers peel off the Deathstar defence to position themselves here.

That was enough evidence for my fleet to release twenty bunker-buster missiles in a chucker board formation on this unimportant bunker, after the third collection of missiles the shield generator that protected the death star fizzled out of existence, and with our mission complete my fleet disappeared before the destroyers could counter-attack.

The rebels were having a much better time attacking the Deathstar. Without shields and complete armour, each attack ripped a tiny piece of the huge weapon away. The only thing they had to worry about was the enemy starship and tie fighters but they managed.

It was then at the cusp of victory that a new fleet of Empire starships appeared. The panic I feel from the rebels is thick and they break formation to escape. My fleet is relatively safe as they can't be seen.

I wonder if Empire Palpatine used the unfinished Deathstar to bait the rebels to attack. It would be a risky and costly move but it seems to be paying off. The rebels are fleeing in all different directions and the Empire is concentrating fire on the flagship. There is a small cluster of ships that the Jedi have taken command of who are protecting themself and trying to rally themself into position but the fleet flagship is probably going to be destroyed.

"Permission to intercept and take command," asked Padme.

"Denied, stay in position" I ordered

I turn to Padme's screen, I feel her emotions and can sense she is coming to a decision.

"Don't forget about your children and what I said about making them into tools of war" I warn her.

I can feel her worried mind relax a bit, she doesn't believe me. It has been years since that day when she crawled to my feet to stop me from kidnapping her children and in that time she has only seen me teach her children and protect them. Padme knows how vicious I can be but she doesn't believe I will turn that on her children.

Padme wants to protect the rebels, she had to witness her beloved Republic being twisted into the Empire that it is today and she doesn't want to see that again. Padme has friends in the rebel, both Jedi and normal, she has made relationships by dealing, selling and fighting with them, and she has built a comradeship with them that is strong that only being in near-death situations can grant, she doesn't want to see that come to an end. All of this I can feel.

"If the fleet flagship falls then it will become harder to destroy the Deathstar" Padme says

"Yes it will, stay in position" I reply

"If the Deathstar isn't destroyed then it will become a weapon of mass destruction that may destroy the Grove Collection" Padme says

"Do not mention that over coms" I snap at her.

Padme is visibly shaken by my outburst of anger, she hasn't felt my force anger before and mentioning the Grove over coms was a mistake I won't forgive a second time.

"If the rebels are destroyed then there won't be anyone to buy captured starships" Padme quickly says as she shakes off the fear I installed

"There is always a market for cheap starships, if the rebels don't buy then the Hutts will" I answer with just the smallest hint of anger in my voice.

Padme is losing hope as she watches the flagship, she is on the verge of doing something stupid. She flinches with every shot that hits the flagship, and then it happens.

Padme ignores my orders and places her ship in between the flagship and attacking starships. My Fleet is equipped with the best shields and weapons money can develop and her ship takes a whopping but is still intact. My anger is at an all-time high, not only has Padme disobeyed my orders but she has put my fleet in harm's way. Now the enemy knows without a shadow of a doubt that there are stealth ships in the solo system. With one stupid move, she let the Empire know that the reason their ships disappeared without warning was because of these stealth ships. All the starships in the system feel my anger, the defending Jedi are hopping on their feet because of my anger, the empire ships are pausing in their attack not knowing what the hell they feel, and the fleeing rebels are burning their fuel to escape sooner and Padme is returning fire on the Empire's starships.