III

Colonel Gen'yaa watched distractedly as the technician worked, programming a virtual link from the Wolf's Lair's main computer to the holoprojector banks. The recordings taken from all the ships that composed Wolfshead Leader's last patrol, including not only the flight cameras but every instrument that stored a record on the onboard computers, would be available for immediate recovery and revision. Gen'yaa wouldn't allow anybody to leave the room before she had some questions answered, and they knew it. She hoped to find something in the data to explain what had happened. Something besides the fact that at least one seasoned pilot had ignored - with or without reason, that was what had to be found out - the instructions they all had received for their mission and had opened fire against a civilian vessel. She was not optimistic.

The Bothan woman mentally considered some scenarios about what could happen next, concentrating on the worst ones. Like most of her race, she had been educated to prepare herself for anything, and look for the possible benefit to be obtained from every situation. If that was not possible, the goal was to minimise any losses. In this case, that probably meant that she would have to destroy the careers of some of the people present in this room, in order to free the New Republic - and herself, too - from any responsibility for the death of innocents. She would gladly do that if she found no better options, but even so, she doubted this incident would pass without serious consequences on the political stage.

To understand what was at stake, it was necessary to study the history of this region of space, one of the most contentious in a galaxy always in turmoil. Gen'yaa had read everything she could find about the Viayak cluster, even before the Wolf's Lair was included in the New Republic task force sent to this area a month and a half ago. She would have given half of her medals to avoid this mission. From her point of view, there was very little benefit to be obtained here, and a big deal to lose on the other hand.

The conflict that had brought them here actually started almost two thousand years before, when one of the then-richest planets of the cluster, Balania, had tried to invade Seibergia and failed. When the Balanish military understood that they had fatally underestimated the resistance the Seibergians were able to offer, and the support that they would obtain from the Republic, especially from the nearby system of Corellia, they pulled their forces out. Almost all of them. The first contingent, several thousand men and women, had already been deployed into Seibergian territory, but they could not be recovered. Had they reached their objectives as quickly and cleanly as planned, Balania would expect that the Republic would accept the consummate facts. Now, to save the face and to avoid paying astronomic reparations, Balania argued that these troops were mutineers who had acted without the support of their government, which had never intended to invade Seibergia. That should have been the end of a short war, but the sound of lasers and grenades was still heard on Seibergia. The Balanish soldiers, betrayed and abandoned to their own luck, were equipped and armed well enough to defend themselves and keep the possession of the little piece of territory where they had established their provisional camps, at least for a time. After several bloody but failed attempts to eradicate these offending remnants of the Balanish invasion on their planet, the Seibergians accepted a negotiation. The subsequent treaty, signed with the pretended indifference of Balania and the blessings of the Republic – which had never believed the official Balanish version of events, but longed to stop the bloodshed once and for all -, allowed the survivors of the Balanish expeditionary force to stay if they wanted to, keeping a certain autonomy in the region they had taken, mountainous, poor and isolated nevertheless. They had little chances, if any, of returning to Balania. With no external help or supplies they were condemned to death anyway, so this was the best treaty they were able to get, under the compromise of not fighting the Seibergians again.

They had to work hard to survive, but they quickly adapted themselves to their new reality. They soon changed the weapons for the instruments of agriculture and shepherding, and their offspring was pacific. Those lands they cultivated with so much sacrifice were called, proudly by them, scornfully by the Seibergians, the Balanish Country. With time, some contact with Balania was recovered, but things had changed drastically in this sector. Seibergia didn't waste the opportunity offered by their new buoyant relations with the Republic and the help of Corellia – which found in Seibergia an excellent market for their products, especially starships and machinery -, and prospered. On the other hand, Balania started a slow decadence that led it to lose all of its external colonies, becoming a backward planet in barely a millennium. The heirs of the old invaders, the inhabitants of that Balanish Country, were not feared any more by the Seibergians, but scorned at first, exploited later, and always hated. They stayed there, though, because they had no other place to go.

With the fall of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire, Seibergia reached its peak, being one of the first worlds that openly supported Senator Palpatine when he took the power. For several decades, Seibergia was the politic and administrative head of all the inhabited planets and colonies of the Viayak cluster. The Seibergian president, Doinos Somolovich, found himself appointed as the local Moff, what saved him from the bothering obligation of convoking new elections, and allowed him to stay in the power long after the legal period was over. Unexpectedly, the Seibergian-Balanish found in the Empire an unsuspected protection, because Palpatine would not tolerate too many abuses against human populations – had the Balanish been other than human, the Seibergians could have exterminated them without the Empire moving a single stormtrooper to defend them -. Nevertheless, they were never more than third class citizens in Seibergia, socially excluded, and rejected whenever any of them dared to leave their mountains.

That was until barely months ago.

After the defeat of the Empire at Iberya, and its forced retreat from the nearby planetary systems, Seibergia had seen how the Imperial garrisons on the Viayak cluster had been progressively moved to other places, strategically more important for Coruscant's interests. Sate Pestage, the visible head of the council ruling now the somehow decaying Empire, had given the Seibergians many reassurances of his undying support and sympathy, but had taken the troops and ships away anyway, leaving them defenceless against the advance of the New Republic in the sector. Before the last Imperial ship had departed from the Viayak cluster, several worlds declared their independence from Seibergia, like Eslivan, Balania, Corotaria or Vina Bosolia. Somolovich tried to retain them by all means, including brute force, but he failed nevertheless. One after another, all these worlds managed to break their bonds with Seibergia, but not before some bloody combats were sustained in some of them. The fight was especially terrible in Vina Bosolia, and ended only three months ago. This planed had called for the New Republic assistance, but they had been unable to provide any. Still recovering from the losses suffered at Endor and Mon Calamari, while fighting the Empire's strikes to recover the control on several sectors, the former Rebel Alliance had watched with impotence how Seibergia practiced scorched ground policy on Vina Bosolia.

The Corellian Diktat was now Somolovich's best ally, but he was in a very uncomfortable position here. Corellia had never joined Palpatine, although it had signed a treaty of friendship and mutual co-operation with Coruscant. Its declared neutrality during the civil war between the Empire and the Alliance had resulted to be very profitable – the respective fleets were equipped with Corellian ships, for instance – but it had also divided its population. There were Corellians fighting for both sides. They were more numerous with the Empire, but the Rebel ones – Solo, Antilles...- were more famous. Although still supporting the Empire, the Diktat preferred to avoid a direct confrontation against the New Republic that could even lead to a civilian war in his own planet. As Pestage before him, he ignored Somolovich's calls to help Seibergia in its military adventures.

Seeing in this complicated scenario an opportunity to improve their own situation, the Balanish community on Seibergia decided to ignore Vina Bosolia's recent example and asked for the New Republic help to set themselves free from the Seibergian oppression, tighter than ever now that the Empire was not there to protect them. They demanded that the Balanish Country was considered a part of Balania, which had recently joined the New Republic. Even with the insistence of this planet's ambassadors, who fervently defended their relatives' cause before the Provisional Council, the New Republic did not take the petition too seriously at first. "Independents from their own planet?" "A region of a planet being a part of another one?" These were the answers that the Seibergian-Balanish had to hear every time. In Seibergia almost nobody laughed, though. As remote as the odds of they actually succeeding could be, the only possibility of having the New Republic camping on their own planet was enough to make most of the Seibergians take very seriously the Balanish Country pretensions. In the opinion of many - including Doinos Somolovich and his staff -, the time had come to finally throw the Balanish off the planet. The old hates and resentments, along with an incomprehensible xenophobia – incomprehensible for non-human beings – soon derived in the more or less spontaneous appearance of Seibergian paramilitary groups in and around the Balanish Country, decided to solve the problem in their own way. The Seibergian government officially ignored, and even denied, the existence of these bands, although it was actually giving them material support – weapons, supplies and military trainers -.  Somolovich expected to use the paramilitary to obtain his goal without causing a military intervention from the New Republic - which had timidly threatened to do so in the case of Vina Bosolia -, but that was precisely what they got. The Balanish were in a desperate situation – they were being forced out of their homes and literally massacred – received too much attention from the media for the New Republic to pretend they did not know what was happening there. They were already paying a high price for not helping Vina Bosolia. Several star systems, candidates to join the New Republic, had cancelled their negotiations since then, fearing they would receive no help either in case they were the objective of Imperial reprisals. Mon Mothma, the New Republic president, had seen how the old Alliance dream of a free and united galaxy could never become true if they do nothing for the Seibergian-Balanish and other like them. She found the opposition of those who insisted that they must concentrate on the war against the Empire, and even some voices claiming that the Seibergian had all the right to fight those who pretended to divide their planet. After many internal pressures and endless discussions, an agreement was reached among the members of the Provisional Council. A fleet was sent to help the Balanish, although an actual invasion of  Seibergia was not in the immediate plans.

For the first weeks, the New Republic limited its actions to help protect the convoys of starships carrying Balanish people to Balania, Corotaria or other destinations. Many of these ships were not even hyperspace capable, and considering there were two years light from Seibergia to Balania, the attempt was almost suicide, but the Balanish people were that desperate. The Compassion – Wolf's Lair's search & rescue shuttle - for instance, had made so many trips that several Wolfshead pilots had been taking shifts to fly it, relieving her absolutely exhausted Lumi pilot before she ended up crashing the ship into something. The shuttle itself had seen her engines replaced once to prevent accidents caused by possible fatigued components.  At the same time, in the Balanish Country, camps were being established in the mountains to attend the numerous refugees who could not or would not leave the planet. To do that, unavoidably, New Republic ships had to violate the Seibergian air space. Several Seibergian fighters - standard TIE model - were shot down when they opened fire against the New Republic freighters and its escorts. The obstacles put by the Seibergian armed forces to the New Republic operations, and especially the deployment of mines in several routes out of the system, forced Mon Mothma and the Provisional Council to adopt a more aggressive policy. Five weeks ago, the Wolf's Lair, along with several other warships, was ordered to start a blockade against any non-New Republic military traffic through the Seibergia system, that including any civilian ship transporting weapons, ammunitions or military-grade fuel. Now that she thought about it, Gen'yaa wouldn't have minded if media ships had been added to that list. Things became even more complicated when, after the first appearances of the Balanish guerilla, Seibergian regular troops invaded some areas of the Balanish Country. Gen'yaa received instructions then to send Wolfshead Squadron in search & destroy missions on the planet surface, not only against the paramilitary groups, but against any Seibergian military objective in the Balanish Country. These actions brought angry protests by the Corellian government. At an official level, the New Republic was not at war with Seibergia, but the relationships with its main and most powerful ally, Corellia, were worst than ever before. Many politic analysts thought that the Corellian Diktat was already on the edge, pressed by a growing segment of the population, who accused him of allowing the New Republic to attack unpunished their friends the Seibergians. If that was not enough reason, the blockade was causing economic losses of some importance to the Corellian trade fleets operating in this system, and more seriously to the several ship construction companies with pending orders from the Seibergian Navy.

Gen'yaa could see clearly the hand of the Imperial Intelligence in all this from the very beginning. She would have bet both hands on the assumption that there had been several of their agents infiltrated not only in the Seibergian government, but among the Balanish people. She could easily imagine some of them suggesting the idea of the independence from Seibergia in the first place. She had not the slightest doubt that more of these agents were working to encourage the dissatisfaction in Seibergia and Corellia. Besides eroding the support of the New Republic cause in the galaxy, they pursued another objective, even more obvious, and Sate Pestage seemed closer to it than Emperor Palpatine had ever been: to force Corellia to declare the war on the New Republic, and as a direct consequence, to join the Empire once for all. That would definitely give the Imperial side the strength it needed to beat the New Republic and recover the complete control on the galaxy.

The Diktat was only waiting for - and at the same time fearing - a provocation, an excuse to take an active part in the conflict short of declaring the war at the New Republic. Now Wolfshead Squadron could well have given him one.

Gen'yaa noticed that the technician had finished her work, and that everybody was waiting for her order to play the first recording. She nodded to the technician, and immediately the holoprojector showed the image of two A-Wings and a B-Wing, taken from a second B-Wing. The last tactic used by the Seibergians to disrupt the New Republic efforts was the deployment of spatial mines at several points of the route from Seibergia to Balania. Several New Republic ships had been damaged or destroyed by this cause, and High Command had ordered to all of the starfighter units in the area to deal with this threat as a priority. Following Wolf's Lair's and Wolfshead's Intelligence Officers' analysis, two thirds of the squadron were scattered in a wide area around the planet trying to intercept the Seibergian ships carrying mines, while the other third was reserved to escort the Compassion in its rescue missions. All the craft and pilots available, including the high officers, were being used. This patrol had been composed of the Operations Officer – Moose – and the Tactical Officer – Torpedo – piloting the B-Wings, and Wolfshead Leader – Foxfire- and Gandalf in the A-Wings. The recording they were seeing now was that of Moose's fighter, the one that had shot the fatal torpedoes. The voices of the pilots were clearly audible in the room.

"Leader, this is Five." Torpedo's voice was heard. His B-Wing had been recently refitted with new sensor and communications equipment that would allow it to operate as a command centre. The rest of the patrol was relying on him to detect and identify any new ship entering the area. "I've got four unidentified ships coming from the planet at three-zero-seven."

"Roger, Five." Foxfire's reply sounded. "Tell me when you can distinguish the types."

"I copy, Leader. It's soon to confirm anything, but I would say they are medium size freighters."

"Anyone want to bet they are what we are looking for?" Moose said.

"That I hope," Gandalf commented, "we've been here for so long that I don't know where my butt ends and where the seat begins."

"Leader, this is Five. Correction, there are five ships, I repeat, five ships, coming from three-one-seven."

"All right, Three, Five, lock S-Foils and arm your ion cannons. We might have to disable a couple of them before the rest decide to cooperate. Two-One, you and me are covering the Bs. Be ready to inspect those freighters at any moment."

Several "Aye-aye"s were heard. In the projection area, the A-Wings disappeared in the upper portion of the image, while Torpedo's B-Wing opened its central wings and the cockpit rotated ninety degrees to obtain a better visibility.

"Leader, Five. Confirmed five freighters, no marks, neutral IFF codes."

"Neutral, eh? Let's see how neutral they are. Unidentified ships, this is Wolfshead Leader, from the New Republic. We must verify your cargo and destination. Please, collaborate with us and we won't make you lose more than a couple of minutes." The answer came some seconds after, a human male voice with an unmistakable Corellian accent. Gen'yaa grimaced.

"Wolfshead Leader, we are civilian ships in route to Balania, carrying refugees from the Balanish Country. We are not armed. Please, don't shoot."

"We don't see too many ships carrying refugees these days, Foxy." Moose's voice said. The indicator on the lower left corner of the projection indicated this transmission had been made in the combat channel used by the patrol, so the incoming ships would not hear it.

"Yes. I suppose that almost everything that could fly and that could be bought, rented or stolen by the Balanish tried the journey in the first weeks. Although we can never be sure. All right," the indicator changed indicating that Foxfire was using a broadcast channel again, "slow down to 40 MGLTs and we'll take a scan of your contents. If you're carrying refugees we'll gladly escort you out of the system."

"Negative, Wolfshead Leader. We can't reduce our speed. We think we'll have Seibergian fighters chasing us in no time. Please, if you want to help, then take care of them."

"Seibergian fighters?" Moose exclaimed. "How I would like that for a change! Anyway, I think he is trying to fake us."

"I tend to agree with you." Foxfire answered. "Five?"

"No trace of new ships, Leader."

"That I thought. Civilian ships, this is Wolfshead Leader. We don't detect any fighters in the area. Please, slow down so we can scan your contents and avoid any trouble."

"That's a negative, Wolfshead Leader. I don't care if you can't detect them yet, we are not going to wait for them."

"They are about to enter in our range, Leader." Torpedo informed. "If they stay on their present course, I calculate that we have three minutes to intercept them before they reach a valid jump point."

"Then we won't be discussing it for that long. I'm assigning them provisional numbers on my computer. Transmitting now. Two-One, you and me will inspect target One, Two and Three. Five, Three, targets Four and Five are yours. Close on them, and disable them if they are not carrying what they say."

"As ordered, Leader."

"Civilian ships, this is Wolfshead Leader again. We're going to inspect you with or without your collaboration. Don't make any brisk manoeuvres if you don't want to find a concussion missile in your exhaust port."

"Wolfshead Leader, please, don't do it. Some of these freighters are very battered and their thrusters are not completely reliable. If you approach us too closely we could crash accidentally."

"Good attempt, Corellian, but I'm not biting. If you want to prevent any danger, reduce your speed to 40 MGLTs as indicated and we'll do this smoothly."

"I have visual contact, Leader." Gandalf informed. "I'm almost there."

"Negative, Wolfshead Leader," the freighter pilot insisted. "I repeat that we can't afford to lose that time, or the Seibergians will be able to catch up with us. Please, we..."

"Mines!" Gandalf's voice cried out. "Leader, target One is carrying mines!"

"Closing on targets Four and Five , Leader." Torpedo informed. "Four is the one that is transmitting."

"Target Two is loaded with mines, Leader," Gandalf continued. "I'll give them a pass to soften their shields up a bit."

"Affirmative, Two-One." Foxfire said. "Target Three is carrying mines, too. What a surprise. Three, Five, we'll neutralise the shields of these ones for you. Come and disable them as soon as you finish with yours."

"Roger, Leader." Moose said. "Five is about to reach target Four. I'll pick..." Moose's voice was suddenly interrupted. In the middle of the image an explosion and a row of green bolts illuminated Torpedo's B-Wing's silhouette for an instant before Moose changed his course, with the reflexes of a very veteran pilot, to avoid being hit too.

"I'm hit!" Torpedo exclaimed, although his voice revealed the pilot had his nerves under control. "Target Five has a camouflaged warhead launcher and at least two laser turrets. My shields are out and I've lost engines two and three."

"Get outta there, Torp!" Moose said. "I'll take that son of a rancor for you."

"Negative, Two." Foxfire said. "Disable targets One to Three while Gandalf and I shoot down that one."

"All right, Leader." A hint of anger and frustration could be detected in Moose's voice, and Gen'yaa had no trouble to notice it. She bit her lower lip anticipating what was coming next. The assembly saw how Moose had quickly disabled the first three ships, and changed the projection to Foxfire and Gandalf's points of view to see how they chased and finally destroyed the armed freighter, which had been transporting mines as well. Meanwhile, Torpedo had retreated from the engagement area, while his onboard computer tried to repair as many systems as possible. It was he who gave the alarm call.

"This is Five, Leader. Don't worry about me, but target Four is making a run for it."

"Confirmed, Leader." Gandalf said. "I fear we'll never get him before he reaches his jump point..."

"Negative, Two-One. I'm a lot closer than you." Moose's voice was heard. The female technician operating the holoprojector didn't wait to be asked before changing the view back to Moose's craft. "I still can hit him with proton torpedoes."

"Were you able to inspect it?" Foxfire asked. At that same moment the voice of the Corellian pilot was heard again on the public channel.

"New Republic fighters, please, don't shoot at us. We were not part of that convoy, I repeat, we were not part of that convoy."

"This is Wolfshead Leader. If that were true you wouldn't be running now."

"Negative, Leader, I had no chance."

Moose's reply came through. "Do we need that now? There's no time for more chat, it's an hostile target and we're going to lose them!"

"All right, you don't need to convince me. Light them up."

"Glad you give me your approval, 'cause I shot two seconds ago." Gen'yaa and all the officers present in the room had seen the twin blue trails appearing from the lower corners of the images and now approaching the centre of the hologram, where the target sight had appeared coloured in red since the targeting computer had gotten a firm lock on the escaping freighter. The Captain looked with the corner of her eye at the pilot who had shot those torpedoes some hours ago. His face showed no expression now, while he watched the projection, but his fists were clenched on the table. It was hard to tell in this dim light, but Gen'yaa thought that, on the pilot's side, Wolfshead Leader was paler now. She returned her attention to the projection. Nobody made a sound while an explosion briefly illuminated the centre of the image and then faded.

"Whoaaaaa, just in time!" Moose's voice exclaimed in the recording.

"Yes, fortunately you didn't wait for me," Foxfire answered, "or that damned Corellian would be spreading his mines within the hour."

"He was all an actor." Gandalf commented. "I'll give him that much. I almost believed him."

"That was because you're not as experienced in this work as Moose and me, and have not known as many Corellians either." Foxfire chuckled. "Ah, and that Diktat of theirs say they are not helping the Seibergians to massacre those Balanish fellows..."

"Stop this." Colonel Gen'yaa said harshly. "I think we've seen and heard enough for now."
 
 

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