The Shadow of the Jedi

11. The Trade

As we received our orders on the job, the Brotherhood was delighted for their first mission, and because they had spent their entire lives training for this moment, it was now time to gain our own honour and safety for others. Our data indicates that the Black Sun syndicate has been stealing resources from numerous corporations, but with each passing year, their attacks get bolder.

As we prepared to enter hyperspace, we needed to provide code names to each spacecraft in our fleet. I dubbed my flagship, the Keldabe Class Battleship, the "Dominator," and the other Crusader Corvettes "Hammer," "Wrath," "Nova," "Guardian," and "Emmisary."

I went over the strategy with each ship as we launched into hyperspace to test our first group of the freshly finished StarViper class. Our present mission is an escort operation, but due to the Black Sun's conditions, we also need to defend the cargo and fully annihilate the approaching raiding group. We must move cautiously with this strike because, while Intel forecasts a small hit-and-run squad, previous events suggest that there may be a considerably greater number.

When we arrived at Planet Rendili's core world sector, I boarded my own ship and headed to the surface to meet with the mission handler. Bengila Urlan, the organisation's leader, arch rival for the Kuat Shipyard, and our handler, is a unique man.

He was grateful that, upon arriving at the Bengila Urlan office, it was not just some random thugs who would accept the assignment, but rather a mandalorian group. When he returns to the subject at hand, he reveals that he is sending supplies to Raxus at the outer rim, but that every time the supply ship approaches the mid-rim at one of their refuelling stations, it is attacked.

Because the fueling station was in Malastare, he reasoned that the attack group might be waiting on the neighbouring planet of Bothawui. As such, we should proceed with caution. I directed the fleet to the coordinates where we would intercept and escort the supply ship after determining where it would leave the planet's surface.

He promised to provide me with three Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers and credits in exchange for the supply ship's safety before I could leave the office and head to my flagship. This is because supply is critical to ensuring a secure trading channel with Raxus.

As soon as I docked my flagship's hangar and left the planet's atmosphere, I gave my crew a briefing on the current situation and told them to be ready for any attack. If this supply is crucial, as he claimed, then we should take this seriously since, should we meet this client's demands, we would have an ally in the core world.

When we finally made contact with the supply ship, we were shown three Gozanti-class cruisers. After the ship joined the fleet formation, we immediately went to Malastare to refuel since it is considerably riskier to travel to Raxus without fuel than it is to sail through space without fuel—the idea is even more ludicrous.

As soon as the supply ship arrived in Malastare to refuel, I issued the order to launch the whole squadron of StarViper classes to ensure the area's security and to keep a low profile so that, in the case of an attack, we could maintain the element of surprise.

After a couple minutes, it was too quiet, and we were sure that it couldn't be too quiet as I ordered my crew to man the ship's weapons and prepare for combat and boarding parties. As a syndicate that is getting bolder, never attack this quiet, as they would attack once we leave our guard open.

After directing the majority of our resources to secure the area, we suddenly hear cries of alarm from the squadron. They are informed that a small fleet of Corvettes and cruisers has just emerged from hyperspace and is battling the squadron. However, they are able to outmanoeuvre the fighters because the StarViper launched the Pistoeka sabotage droid, which allows them to swiftly destroy the fighters and disable the enemy fleet's weapons.