Dressel's Open Orbit

The sublight engines took the Coalition fleet close to the Imperials. Two vectors were laid out. The Oathkeeper moved forward, thrusting like a spear, its bridge shielded by the corvettes. And once it was rather close -in space battle's terms- it suddenly raised its back, concealing the hangar and giving the turbolasers a full range.

"Now, full ion cannon barrage on closest vessel. Then, octuple batteries"

The weapon systems and the tripulation chose the nearest target, which was showered on ion cannon fire. The raised hull allowed the octuple batteries to deliver, next, a full salvo, the open space bursting with gree fire, vomited from the powerful guns.

"Execute manouver! Launch!"

The raised hull also meant the ventral hangar was off-sights and, suddenly, starfighters were pouring from behind the destroyer literally covering the whole space around the flagship. The bombers, the Stormbirds and the Avengers of Dac, plummeted from above into the targeted Imperial ship, screened on both sides by captured Interceptors and standard TIEs, the Red Eyeballs and the Dying Suns, while the Pride of Duro, seasoned X-wing squadron, launched from the aft and covered the enemy fighters in concentrated laser fire, x-foils in battle mode. All in all, a well-executed Marg Sabl.

"Prepare deflector shields for incoming laser fire. Then return to standard position"

---

"Commander, vector laid out"

"Understood!"

The bridge of Honor of Dac was bursting with activity. The white-skinned Mon Calamari Gallus Jehengir, the ship's commanding officer, was sitting on the command chair, looking at the battle from the viewport, inspecting the data on the chair's tactical screen.

"Cut their scape route! Sign the Phoenix, Merciful and Companion and instruct them to follow suit, let them be covered by our deflectors and hull"

The four ships had taken an interception vector to cut the Imperials' potential scape, while trying to flank the enemy and divert fire from Ostrenis' flagship, that was in that very moment executing a very aggresive manouver against the enemy fleet's center. The Mon Calamari nodded and keyed orders for the Phoenix's fighter squadrons. The Liberator cruiser delivered its payload, a full wing of well-piloted starfighters, taking off the legacy of one of the Rebel Alliance's most prominent starfighter groups. The Nebulon Bs both used the cover provided by the strong MonCal cruiser to move towards the transports, firing their first barrages in their direction.

One corvette's shields flickered and there was a small explosion were it hit the hull, breaching it. The corvettes' purpose had been to offer protection to the destroyer as it executed the initial manouver, now the admiral wouldn't risk live and assets in defending his own ship, which had better shields and hundred times more firepower.

"Pursuer, here Oathkeeper. Retreat and hide behind the destroyer's shadow. Support role from now on"

Commanded Ostrenis, worried about the corvette's fate. Shields and hull were compromised. The adressed corvette tried to limp behind the destroyer as the much bigger ship manouvered to offer it protection, sending a barrage of blaster fire to deter attackers. Ostrenis' deflector shields absorved most of the damage.

"Corvettes, Corellian Hound manouver. Fighters, rally around them"

The remaining three corvettes separated ways. They were to support with their supressing fast cannon fire the recently started dogfights between the enemy TIEs and the Oathkeeper's fighter wing. The pilots, as instructed, started to use the corvettes as active support, using its shields to protect themselves and fight back, luring TIEs into the arc of fire of the Blockade runners fast turbolasers. The number of enemy casualties was mounting: no wonder why, the Coalition's starfighters were superior, as it had always been the case for the Alliance. Ostrenis then turned his massive flagship to face the Turbulent, exchanging fire with it, while the bombers tried to focus on the 'diving' frigate. On the meanwhile, the Honor of Dac and the frigates were reaching interception point. The powerful MC90 started to deliver its heavy ion ordnance over the transports, shooting to disable them, while the Phoenix's powerful starfighter wing rushed to meet the TIEs in a deadly dance.

Something was blown apart within the Oathkeeper's belly and the ship trembled like a wounded animal, the ships flickering and its axis tilted for a moment, before sublight engines and repulsors corrected themselves. In a moment the shields were again fully functional, albeit in a weakened state.

"Report!"

"Sir, the Vindicator cruiser managed to square a hit dangerously close to the reactor, we have lost a sizable percentage of our working system's functionality. The chain reaction has fried weapon circuits in a sector of the ship"

Replied a concerned Bothan officer.

"Now we have a blind spot... pilot, manouver the ship, lower our axis, cover the blind spot and fire a barrage to the Vindicator"

The destroyer moved accordingly, turning its sharp prow to face the Vindicator, while offering the enemy its right powerful flank, covered by the octuple batteries, which, in turn, delivered a full payload of heavy ordnance.

"All ships, concentrate fire on that target!"

The bombers made another run, but now followed by the heavy artillery of the Oathkeeper, which started to deliver heavy turbolaser bolts across space, targeting the smaller vessel with uncanny ferocity, like a wounded predator. The corvettes took a defensive position, one of them blasting away the enemy fighters daring enough to approach the Oathkeeper's damaged hull. Thus, they couldn't support as effectively the starfighters as before and loses started to be more significant among the Coalition's flying forces, albeit they still had the upper hand: the forte of any fleet of that kind had always been its professional starfighter force, such was the legacy of the Rebel Alliance; Ostrenis knew it and, likely, the enemy commander did as well.

Meanwhile, the Honor of Dac had reached destination. The Nebulon Bs positioned themselves to cut the transports' presumed escape route, while the MonCal ship advanced, daring and surefooted, with its powerful shell shield, a signature trait of the vessel's proud craftsmen and designers. The cruiser engaged both enemy ships head on, using its way more powerful shielding to absorb damage, while the heavy turbolasers batteries fired continuously. The Phoenix squadrons were, literally, swarming whatever starfighters the lesser and smaller Imperial ships were carrying, while the bombers were trying to disable the transports with ion torpedoes.

"One last run, guys"

"Understood, Tail Leader"

"Gotcha"

"Commander, three balls vaporized, you may proceed"

The Twi'lek commander, Velgenbud, piloted the helm of her ship towards the wounded cruiser. Two Y-wings positioned themselves behind the more agile B-wing, ably and daftly evading the enemy incoming supressing laser fire.

"Set your targets and fire"

The B-wing, first to arrive, made its run fast, delivering its deadly payload. The Y-wings followed suit. A large part of the ship erupted as the hull was breached and the cruiser torn, a chain reaction further spread destruction on board, blowing up rather spectacularly, debris filling the vacuum of space. The bombers then headed back to the destroyer's shadow. Suddenly the enemy fleet's will to fight faltered and vanished.

"Sir, we have incoming pleas of surrender by the enemy crews"

The Oathbreaker's tractor beams already dragged on board the escape pods, the tripulations being rounded up and seized by Coalition personel.

"Accept them. Launch the boarding shuttles and seize the ships and their crews"

"Sir, the enemy flagship is trying to jump to hyperspace"

"Let it go, our priority are the captured transports and cruisers"

On the meanwhile, powerful ion bolts had effectively disabled the last transport, which laid in an akward position in the emptyness of space, like a fallen prey. One transport had blown itself: an overzealous commander had prefered death to surrender, but almost none followed him or her in his or her folly.

"Admiral! Transports seized"

Said the MonCal's deep voice on the comm link. The large cruiser had closed their retreat and, now, it was locking its tractor beams on the ships and, like they were gigantic space cattle, grouped them behind the lines, while the ones which had simply surrendered were being seized by the Nebulon B's crewsmembers. Few moments later, all the cargo was in Coalition's hands.

The admiral stood on the bridge, looking through the viewport as the enemy flagship flied away. It was something unusual in the way the Imperials conducted themselves, something that reminded him of old jedi tactics. Worrysome, as he had none to counter such unnatural traits on his fleet. He'd had to discuss it with the High Command.

[Aboard the YT-1930 freighter Daystar]

=Raja=
While his master prepared for final arrival on Dressel, Raja had been equipping himself for his own role in the mission. Seated in the main crew cabin, he replaced the soft shoes that he wore around the academy and aboard ship with some more tactical boots that would provide better ankle support for climbing, hiking, or running across rough terrain. Standing up, he practiced walking back and forth across the cabin as quietly as possible, then nodded to himself. In addition to the personal comlink hanging from his belt, he took a spare from a drawer, keyed it to the ship's frequency, and slipped it into a hidden pocket inside his green robes. Next, he took a pair of macrobinoculars, strapped them to his waist, and snapped his belt with his thumb a couple of times, testing the fit.

Everything was carefully chosen for his role as an observer. But as he took one last look around the cabin, his eye lingered on a blaster hilt that was poking out of a different drawer. Should he? No. No he should not. If Master Frantz wanted him to be armed, he would say so.

Satisfied, he made his way back to the cockpit to join his master for the landing. He was curious to catch his first sight of Dressel.

Entering the cockpit, Raja sensed Mike's focus even before he saw it, and thus did not say a word. Instead, he sat down in the co-pilot's seat, so as to catch the best view of Dressel, and leaned forward in anticipation. Already, he could see the blue tinge of the oceans, and the many small green land-masses that broke up the water. He'd used some of the voyage to dive into the databanks, and he knew Dressel was a moonless world, like Selonia, and the main continent was called Breehara. Raja wondered which of the larger land-masses was Breehara.