• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“Gauntlet squadron is out the door, moving to recon position.”

“Any chatter from the Yuuzhan Vong vessel?” Graff asked.

“Negative, sir. No, wait. Scanners now show two ships.”

Again, Graff swiveled to face the holo-imager, where a second, smaller polyhedron was forming alongside the original. “Is that thing a new arrival, or are we observing some sort of mitosis?”

“It appears to be a component of the larger vessel, sir. Vessel one is changing course, bearing for Durren Orbital Station. Module is accelerating to intercept our starfighters. Gauntlet is breaking formation, splitting up into attack elements.”

“Patch me through to Gauntlet leader,” Graff ordered the comm officer.

“Gauntlet leader is patched through,” the woman said.

“Gauntlet One, can you show us what you’re seeing?”

Relayed over the command net annunciator, the squadron leader’s voice was thin sounding and disrupted by bursts of static. “Transmitting. Looks like the galaxy’s biggest decoder ring lost its stone.”

“Will you look at that thing,” someone on the bridge remarked as a real-time image replaced the holosimulation.

“Sir, bio-energy massing in the smaller ship. They have us in target lock.”

Graff engaged the chair’s safety harness. “Brace for impact.”

Effulgent golden light filled the Soothfast’s forward viewports. The ship shook as if snatched and shaken by a giant hand.

“Plasma energy,” the enlisted-rating reported. “Consistent with Yuuzhan Vong–ranged weapons. No damage to vital systems. Shields are holding.”

“Range?”

“Secondary vessel is moving within striking distance, sir.”

Graff gave his command cap a downward tug. “Tell Gauntlet squadron to steer clear. Starboard main batteries, stand by to return fire.”

A retrofitted Proficient-class ship of Corellian design, the Soothfast was 850 meters long, but with only ten heavy turbolasers and twenty ion cannons it was wanting in firepower. Some of the compartmentalization that had originally reinforced the cruiser’s hull had been removed to create a docking bay for starfighters, but even with the fighters the sharp-nosed ship remained an ancillary weapon.

“Gauntlet is clear, sir.”

Graff nodded. “Ready proton torpedoes. Set for detonation at the first hint of gravitic anomalies.”

“Sir, torpedoes are armed as dictated by new protocol.”

“Ready starboard turbolasers,” Graff ordered.

“Sir, turbolasers enabled.”

Graff looked at the weapons officer. “If that ‘stone’ operates true to form, it’ll vacuum the torpedoes, but the lasers stand a good chance of scoring.”

“Understood, Captain.”

Graff pivoted his chair. “Main batteries, commence fire.”

Blinding projectiles streaked into space, followed by lances of blue-green light, converging far in the distance with radiant, strobing flashes.

“Direct hit.”

“Fire,” Graff repeated.

Again, torpedoes and coherent light streamed from the ship and explosions wreathed the enemy ship, vying with the stars for brilliance.

“Cease fire.” Graff glanced at his executive officer. “Let’s hope that softened things up. Commander, tell Gauntlet to begin their run.”

The XO relayed the order over the command net. On the bridge’s main display screen, magnified views showed T-65A3 X-wings and E2 B-wings commencing attack runs against the lapidary ship. Bursts of scarlet laser-fire spewed from the snubfighters’ wingtip cannons, and proton torpedoes loosed by the B-wings blazed radiant pink trails through space. But the enemy ship merely consumed the energy and answered the attack with geysers of molten rock. Resembling shards of mirrored glass, individual hull facets flared to life, then winked out, becoming black as the ship’s background.

“Soothfast, this thing’s going after our shields,” Gauntlet One reported a moment later.

“Gauntlet One, order your fighters to expand the field of the inertial compensators and switch over to new scan and targeting protocols. And keep an eye out for coralskippers.”

“Already done, Soothfast. But shields can’t be expanded enough to compensate for the