Bright green bursts of Turbolaser fire from the Destroyer Terminus shattered a corvette analog as the ship pumped out fire in every direction.

Bridge officers had to shout to be heard over the multiple caution and warnings from their stations.
"We are completely surrounded! Two interdictor analogs have jumped in, one off our port aft the other the starboard aft!"

"Signal Superior and standby to launch fighters. Tell Dagith we're going back to back with his ship."
The impact of heavy plasma fire shook the ship.
"Move our Lancer frigates to cover our belly and ha-"
Rhamsec was cut off by an especially heavy impact near the bridge.
"Screen the bridge towers with the Carracks!"

Shield status continued to drop as the ships of Captain Rhamsec's group slowly moved into their new formation. Once the two Destroyers had maneuvered 'back to back' the triangular vessels were able to pour out similar amounts of fire in nearly every direction. While most of the Vong Shards were fast and agile enough to dodge the heavy Turbolaser fire anything larger were forced to pull back slightly buying the Imperial ships valuable seconds.

CSSD Superior and her escorts leapt out of hyperspace, dragged out by the enemy interdictors right in position to attack their fleet. A classic Thrawn Pincer. They had only barely finished reversion when their cannons and batteries opened up. The plasma fire concentrated on Terminus and Contrition lessened soon after as Vong ships and escort fighters exploded under Imperial guns.

"Vong interdictors are pulling out."

"Helm bring us about and put us on a bearing that will bring us below the nearest Interdictor. We'll dump our fighters into the mix when we're right on top of them!"
"Captain, signal from the command ship. The Admiral wants us to break off and jump back to the fleet immediately!"

Arnul slammed his fist on the arm of his command chair. "We have them on the run. Damn it all." he grumbled under his breath.

At length he sighed. "Helm do as he says, let's go."

Twenty minutes later Terminus had rejoined the fleet in orbit of Ord Biniir. Shuttles and cargo tugs littered space around the more heavily damaged capital ships. Mixed squadrons of heavily armed Tie craft patrolled the outer fringes. Before long Superior's group too dropped out of hyperspace on the edges of the planet's gravity well.

"Signal incoming from the command ship."

"Put it through." responded Arnul in a somewhat resigned voice.
The holo image of the Grand Admiral crackled into existence near the command chair.
"You're probably annoyed right now I'm guessing." Burgan said without preamble.

"Something like that." Rhamsec replied running a hand over his bald head.

"You remember second year tactics training?"
"That's getting to be a long time ago."

"There was a particular lesson; it had to do with being decisive. 'If you fight the same foe for too long they will learn all of your tactics.' Have your sensors officer check the last battle site when we're done talking."

"I'll do that. Care to let me in on your overall plan?"

"In 12 hours I'm transferring my flag to Despot. Superior will stay here while we're away. I'm giving you command of a strike group that will microjump to my location when we put out a homing beacon."

"Sounds solid enough, we'll be ready over here."

"This is what I've been saving our fighters for over the past few days Arnul. It's going to be a big one. Burgan out."

The hologram winked out leaving the Captain to contemplate for a moment.

"Sensors get me some scans of our last engagement site. I was lead to believe it could be interesting."

"Aye Sir."

The officer turned and called up the sensor data in greater detail then set about double checking her displays.

"Captain I'm detecting what looks to be three carrier analogs with escort and nearly a thousand starfighters."

"Emperor's black bones." whispered the first officer as he came over to look at the readings.

Rhamsec frowned. "Indeed. That's a huge concentration of force to bring to bear in such a short time. Superior could have been destroyed had more interdictors arrived."

Arnul's first turned to him. "Sir, do you get the feeling that the Grand Admiral and the enemy commander are playing a game of Dejarik in this system?

He thought about it before replying.
"Yes, but this game is played with fire and steel and men's lives. It is a game played for keeps and I'm sure the loser can expect only death or worse."

"I always hated convoy escort missions." commented Wintle. "Waiting to see if any Rebels or Pirates would show up and start strafing the ships you were supposed to protect."

Dorja nodded absently. "Did you ever escort a Bacta Convoy?"

Wintle half chuckled. "Thankfully not. I was glad to hear when their transports were redesigned."

"After Endor they became a major target. Many of the captains that had served at Endor had their records tarnished protecting those damned ships."

"Even you sir?"
"Even me. Pellaeon got off lucky, the Admiralty had him transferred to logistics command and Venka never had to worry as long as he commanded Executor. No one would ever send a Super Star Destroyer to protect cargo ships."

One of the junior officers approached the two men.
"All civilian ships are in formation sirs. The Victory Destroyers are waiting for the fleet to begin moving before taking position."

"Time to get this wagon train rolling then. Helm, let's get the fleet moving, put us on a course out of the system. We'll change course for hyperspace jumps when we receive recon telemetry."

The Fleet of mixed ships were packed relatively close together in a formation resembling a cylinder. Star Destroyers anchored the ends and mid section, while lighter ships like cruisers and frigates filled the gaps. Between the guns on the warships and those on the civilian ships the fleet had multiple overlapping fields of fire in every possible direction.

"Sentry One has dropped out of hyperspace." Reported the sensors officer.
"Right on schedule." nodded the Admiral approvingly.

Over the next few minutes more hyperspace capable fighters and gunboats that had been sent to scout the nearby hyperlanes dropped back in system.

After a few minutes of silence the sensors officer spoke up again. "Sentry two has still not appeared sir, it is officially overdue."
"We'll give them another twenty minutes then we leave without them." decided Dorja.

It was just over five minutes later when the next reports came in.
"Sentry two has jumped in system. It is off course by a considerable margin."
"Incoming transmission."

"Loudspeakers." answered Wintle pointing to the com officer.

The pilot's voice blasted out over the bridge speakers sounding out of breath. "This is Sentry Two! We are being perused by an enemy corvette squadron, ETA of ten minutes or less!"

Dorja stood. "Get all fighters aboard now. Helm take the fleet to hyperspace."

"Aligned for route selection three, transmitting data to fleet." A red lit timer popped up on the command displays scrolling down the number of seconds until all ships would begin their jumps.

"Com, send a data burst to the Bonadan defense force just in case they weren't monitoring our communications."

"Aye sir... signal is away."

The timer scrolled down to zero.
"Commencing hyperspace jump."
The less tightly packed starts of the Tingel Arm were still numerous enough to fill the viewports as they stretched to infinity the instant before the ship transitioned to hyperspace.

Chatter on the bridge remained low for the next few minutes as the crew worked, the familiar hum of hyperspace travel seeming to infuse everything.

"Will they be alight?" Asked the Commander.

Dorja looked up from a pad he was studying. "I'm sure the Corporate Sector can hold off a few corvette analogs."

"What if they choose not to? They've never been the most trustworthy as far as governments go."

"They'll figure things out soon enough." he answered with a weary certainty. 'That or the Inquisitor will make them figure it out.' he thought.

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