The Returning Knight: A Star Wars Story

Chapter 19: A Pleasent Suprise

The attack group of Admiral Trail, sat dormant in hyperspace just above the world of Foless, waiting for any signs of imperial shipping. "Sir! Our scanners have picked up what seems to be a convoy of ships that just dropped out of hyperspace on the other side of Foless." The radar officer shouted. "There isn't any hyperspace lane leading out from our position. Turn on the jammer and drop out of hyperspace. Put the entire fleet on high alert." He ordered for the entire fleet.

"Sir, our scanners have picked up a massive ship along with three smaller ships exiting hyperspace on the other side of the planet." An imperial officer told his captain. "Order the fleet to raise alertness level to medium." Was the simple reply. 

"Launch a pair of X-wings to scout out ahead." Sigil ordered. His comms officer nodded as he picked up and dialed the frequency of the control tower. Two X-wings exited the hangar of the massive ship and headed for the other side of the planet. "Tell the fighter to go at full speed then to shutdown all systems so as to not be picked up by scanners. Their own hand wrist comm shouldn't trigger the empire." He ordered calmly as he saw the X-wings exit the hangar of the 'Scutum'. The X-wings executed the orders without any problems as they got out of visual range and off the scanners of his destroyer. 

"Sir two more significantly smaller signals appeared for a brief moment before disappearing." The radar technician reported. "Do not inconvenience me with bugs in the software lieutenant." The captain said dismissively. 

"Sir the X-wings are reporting back." Said his comms officer. "Transfer to the terminal lieutenant." He ordered. "On it." He said. The terminal beeped seconds later and Sigil activated it. "Admiral. We have spotted five Arquitens class-light cruisers and a Venator-class star destroyer escorting a convoy of four class 4 container transports." The flight leader reported. 'A surprise to be sure but an unpleasant one at that.' He thought. "Maintain radio silence flight leader." He said. The flight leader and his wing man fell back into silence without uttering a single word. "Prepare to launch all available fighters and transform the bombers to the rear of the fleet and warm up the ion cannons in particular and raise deflector shields." He commanded. The two clone wars era fleets approached each other as the signals became more and more clear. The imperial fleet finally crossed over and could barely see the prow of the 'Scutum'. "Sir it appears to be a Recusant-class destroyer of the larger variant." The radar officer informed. "Raise alert level to maximum and prepare to launch all bombers and four escort squadrons." The imperial captain ordered. 

Sigil took a meditative state and began entering battle meditation to better direct his task force and increase his visual strength by summoning projections of three Munificent class frigates through the force for intimidation purposes.

Both fleets finally were visible to each other. "Lieutenant! Your reports missed three ships!" The admiral demanded an explanation. "Sir our scanners only picked up four signals! They must have cloaking on them!" He scrambled a response. "Call for aid!" The captain ordered. "We can't sir! They have a jammer!" The comms officer informed. "So be it!" He said bitterly. "Launch all the fighters on the Venator and direct them towards the fleet and all other fighters, put them on escort duty!" He ordred.

Sigil could feel as the hanger doors of the venator opened and from it came hundreds of fighters. But his grip on the fleet was firm as he directed it to launch all fighters in a defensive formation and open up with laser cannons and flak batteries. The sheer number of fighters was vast however and his 8 squadrons were hard pressed to keep this up yet they didn't lose morale. The super heavy turbolaser opened up on the venator while the long range ion cannons targeted the fleet convoy to force the escort fleet to stay back with the slowly more disabled convoy. 

"Sir we can't break through their fighter screen!" The control tower reported. "Order bombers to make a suicide run on the bridge!" He demanded in frustration.