Star Wars_ The Black Fleet Crisis 03_ Tyrant's Test - Michael P. Kube-McDowell [91]
The greatest weakness of Tholos was the inexperience of its primate, Par Drann. Like virtually all of his crew, Par Drann had never been in combat—not even to the extent of taking part in the Cleansing. So when the New Republic ships appeared, Par Drann responded out of the old instincts that governed fighting among the nitakka.
Those instincts, as inherently contradictory as they were innately strong, said
the closest threat is the greatest threat—
in a fight of unequal numbers, dispatch your weakest opponent first—
to discourage others from joining a fight against you, charge a newcomer immediately—
hold nothing back when you go to kill—
So it was that Par Drann’s orders to his gun crews kept changing—to attack the gunship that first appeared, then the cruiser that joined the fight, then the vulnerable interceptor screen, then the bombers as they flew past, then the cruiser again as the bombers retreated. The Yevethan fighter pilots obeyed the same dictums, each singling out the nearest target and attacking it fearlessly, but often breaking off an attack when a closer target appeared.
If Tholos and Rizaron had continued their combined attack on Vanguard, they could have destroyed it before the late-arriving cruiser could do either of them harm. If Par Drann had allowed for it, Tholos could have swept the battlefield clean of New Republic fighters and bombers before turning its attention to Indomitable.
And if the Yevethan fighters had pursued Blue Flight toward the shipyard or Black Flight toward Rizaron, the outcome of the battle might have been different. But his Yevethan perspective did not allow Par Drann to recognize the threat they posed—not with Indomitable bearing down on him.
“Thetan nitakka, ko nakaza!” he cried. “To the strongest of us, glory in the kill!”
There was fire aboard Vanguard by the time Black Flight attracted the notice of Rizaron. Battery number eight, a twin-barrel laser cannon, had misfired in a spectacular explosion that gouged the entire gun compartment out of the side of the gunship.
Worse, the snapback from a salvo of Yevethan missiles had left the particle-shield generators dead and burning. The next Yevethan missile would explode against the hull, not the shields, and the thrustship’s ion cannon were playing havoc with power all over the ship.
Captain Inadi viewed the arrival of the bombers with more apprehension than relief. “They’ll never get through,” she said, shaking her head. “Weapons, keep up the counterfire. Let’s help them all we can. Helm, show the enemy our minimum cross section. Systems, give priority to the forward antimissile stations—they have to have power.”
With the help of telescopic holo and the electronic battle plot, Inadi and the bridge crew watched the bombers jinking at high speed through the rain of laser blasts and ion bolts. An E-wing accompanying Black Two took a direct hit and spun out, burning. Black Three disappeared in a sphere of white fire, its escorts peeling away and narrowly escaping the hurtling debris.
Just then, Vanguard shook as though it had been hit.
“Damage control is reporting that the fire in the generator compartment has blown through and ventilated to vacuum.”
“Noted. Weapons, launch all remaining CM-nines,” Inadi said with a frown. “Maybe we can set her up for the knockout.”
Three missiles leaped from the bow launchers, another four from the stern tubes. An eighth, located in a launcher adjacent to the destroyed number eight battery, hung up in the tube, starting a third fire.
“Incoming!” shouted the tracking officer.
The Yevethan thrustship had answered Vanguard’s salvo with one of its own—a cluster of ten more of the swift, powerful missiles that had destroyed the particle-shield generators.
“Helm, get us out of here,” Inadi said grimly.
“I’ll do my best.”
The 190-meter gunship was among the most agile of the New Republic capital vessels,