Blood of Mandalore

Chapter Four: The Fleet

    Above Nevarro, the small band of Imperial ships are in disarray. The light cruiser broke from formation, descending on the planet with waves of tremors to turn the surface upside down. The laser eats away at all organic and inorganic objects, pulverizing in nanoseconds once the charge meets the surface. Vibrations in the air molded the sound of the attack into horn-like alarms preparing Nevarro for inevitable doom.

    "Isobe Revenant, please respond."

    The three unknown x-wings continue to try and hail the main ship. No reply. They were unable to reach down to the planet, all comms being scrambled and jammed. Instead, they choose to focus on the three remaining passenger ships.

    In one x-wing, Jeasanne sat as secondary pilot. She combed through incomplete transmissions - those halfway received before all communications ceased. The most important one was from Nevarro.

    "Look, Ber," The woman quietly directs the main pilot, "navigation on-world provided us some detail on the ships."

    The pilot huffed and pulled up the display. Three heavily modified passenger ships, one very damaged and incapable light cruiser. All ships were running on fumes, their systems on the slow decline as well. A secondary screen zooms in on the hulls. The same designation: Isobe. They were originally part of a fleet.

    "R3, locate data on an Imperial fleet, designation Isobe."

    The astromech, bottom-loaded in the cockpit due to the x-wing's design, beeps excitedly and blinks furiously with colors as it completes orders. The pilot, Ber, glances back to Jeasanne before looking straight through the reinforced glass.

    "These aren't normal imps. Ships in shambles, going down to be diplomatic and not shoot up the place, something's going on."

    "Well the main ship is making their attack. The rest are hanging back. Maybe they don't have offensive capability?"

Navigation indicated they only jumped through two systems. A ship of that size and power is able to cross through multiple. They severely lacked more than combat capabilities.

    "You heard the transmissions before it went dark." The pilot huffed. "These imps are doing everything they can to be polite and save themselves."

    Ber began flipping switches and pressing buttons, attempting to hail the ships. With no response, he fiddled with the frequency channels. They needed verification. Jeasanne knew Ber was right, they heard everything going on in this meeting thanks to Cara setting up an open line. This was an odd situation. Imperial remnants have taken on a guerilla mindset: they take everything and everyone down with them ever since the fall of the Empire. Jeasanne would expect these people to shoot their way to superiority, to wipe out the settlement and go from there. The beam burrowing into the small planet was far away from the settlement as well, a clear indication they do not want to do harm.

    "Isobe One..." Ber hailed the first small ship to no avail.He continued with the switches and frequency until he found a new active channel.

    "Isobe Two..."

    Nothing on the other side. Yet they were not locked out or disabled. It was still an active channel.

    "Isobe Two, do you copy-?"

    "We're here! We-we need assistance!" A woman frantically replied.

    Immediately, Ber's tone switched. He was and continues to be a soldier storied with priceless experience in the wars. It had been his fate ever since his world was destroyed with the fall of the Republic.