Star Wars_ Darksaber - Kevin J. Anderson [128]
The seventeen Star Destroyers shot out clusters of small satellite transmitters that jockeyed into position around the green moon, forming an interlinked electromagnetic web that disrupted any messages the Jedi trainees might send. The jamming satellites took only moments to lock themselves into position, transmitting an all-clear signal back to the Firestorm.
Pellaeon spoke into the ship-to-ship comm unit, and his voice rang through his fleet. “Strike teams prepare,” he said. “We launch in five minutes. All Terrain Scout Transports and jungle assault vehicles will be the first wave. TIE fighters will provide air cover.
“This is a relatively unpopulated world, and it shouldn’t take us long to finish here. Our victory on Yavin 4 today will be the first large step in the rebirth of a new and even stronger Empire.”
Pellaeon signed off and stood against the bridge railing. He was pleased to be in command of an operation sure to succeed, rather than another doomed last-gasp attempt at Imperial supremacy. Outwardly calm but thrumming with energy inside, Pellaeon pondered the immense Imperial strength Admiral Daala had placed under his control.
He didn’t expect much resistance from a few untested Jedi trainees.
Back at the nexus mustering station in deep space, the Super Star Destroyer Night Hammer prepared for launch. Admiral Daala spent the last frantic moments ensuring that everything had been placed in perfect order for her own decisive assault.
By now Vice Admiral Pellaeon’s fleet should already be attacking the Jedi moon, and she longed to be there with him, taking personal satisfaction with each slaughtered Jedi, each destroyed Rebel building, each burning tree—but she would not alter her plans now. She knew this was the way to strike the greatest psychological blow to the Rebels. Her initial assault had to be an absolutely crushing defeat of the Rebel target.
Right now, simultaneous with this major assault, Colonel Cronus was causing a wealth of damage with surgical hit-and-run strikes at various spots in the galaxy. His swarm of crimson Victory-class ships would roar in with lightning speed, blow up the most convenient targets, then flee into hyperspace again … leaving destruction, confusion, and panic in their wake.
The jungle moon of Yavin with its Jedi training center would be the true symbolic victory, though. Daala smiled, and her green eyes took on a faraway look as she imagined the unskilled wizards under attack by Pellaeon’s hopelessly overwhelming forces; she then imagined the despair they would feel on seeing her enormous ship arrive—like a second mortal blow. Not a rescue, not reinforcements, but a black Super Star Destroyer. Their hopelessness would increase tenfold.
After today, when Daala departed in triumph, the jungle moon of Yavin 4 must be no more than a cinder. Every last Jedi student had to be killed, their bodies strewn about the burning jungle as an unmistakable message to those who would still dare resist the Empire.
As her last order before launching, Daala took the time to rechristen her dark ship, adding a letter to call the Super Star Destroyer the Knight Hammer, just to prove that she did indeed have a sense of humor … so long as it involved the ultimate defeat of the Rebel Alliance.
CHAPTER 46
Dorsk 81 and Kyp Durron arrived back at Yavin 4, broadcasting their constant alarm. They landed their Imperial shuttle near the Great Temple and called the remaining Jedi trainees to arms—barely an hour before Pellacon’s forces arrived.
Dorsk 81’s stomach had been a hard knot since their embattled escape from Admiral Daala’s staging area; he had felt even worse upon seeing the apathetic refusal of his homeworld to accept the possibility of an impending threat. The censure of Dorsk 80 and Dorsk 82 had struck to his core, affecting him even more than his choice to become a Jedi. But he was a Jedi. He could not change that, and he vowed to be the best his potential would allow, as Master Skywalker had taught him.
Dorsk 81 and Kyp stepped out of the stolen Imperial shuttle