Several other commanders in Jacen’s fleet must have had the same idea. They broke off attacks and headed for the Anakin Solo. There were now a six warships converging on the Chimaera, and Niathal tried to guess Daala’s strategy. One advantage of having a completely unexpected and di-verse fleet suddenly emerge in theater was that it plunged everything into chaos, and each commander had to pause and take stock-but that included Daala’s allies. It was crowded space. Niathal had an impression of an ancient maritime battle on Naboo, when ships had been packed too close together to move or fire safely.
“Yes, she’s going to turn as late as she can, “said Niathal.
“Even so, I wouldn’t be the frigate on that bearing there.”
“Did she say Maw Irregular Fleet?”
“She did.”
One destroyer bearing down on Chimaera’s port beam appeared to be targeting her bridge, and a cruiser was on an intercept course from starboard. Chimaera opened fire on both simultaneously, with apparently little effect, and held her course.
“What was that, Vio?” Niathal asked. “Turbolaser?”
“Unknown, ma’am.”
“This isn’t the time to admire what she’s had done in refit, but I haven’t seen anything like that. Sensors? Tell me what Chimaera’s got by way of armaments. I just hope this isn’t some massive bluff and she’s just scrambled everything from the breakers’ yard, because Jacen will sense that very fast.”
Niathal, still monitoring the developing collision, moved to watch one of the holocam feeds from the remotes nearest the Anakin Solo. Chimaera was letting smaller vessels take pot shots at her, which her shields shrugged off, and then she simply targeted the same two vessels that she’d returned fire upon moments earlier.
Niathal waited for signs of impact. What she saw instead was the hull of one ship deforming and then simply bursting apart like a bag of grainmeal, with no accompanying explosion. The aft section was intact, but there was a large enough hole in the hull to span five decks, maybe more, and expose compartments to vacuum.
It was an oddly silent, unfit end for the cruiser. It rang a bell with Niathal.
“Oh, I think Daala’s brought some of her toys with her, “Makin said. He’d been watching in silence.
“Yes, I do believe she has some novel weapons.” Niathal commed the Maw flagship. “Ocean to Chimaera-thank you for your assistance. Are you armed with unconventional weapons?”
“Ocean, confirm that, we have metal-crystal phase shifters…. among other things.”
MCPS weapons altered crystalline structures. An area of the unfortunate destroyer’s hull had simply fractured under the stresses and started to break up. It was as good as a laser strike but penetrated shields.
“Thank you, Chimaera.”
“Daala’s dusted off some of the research projects from the Maw Installation, “Makin said. “No telling what she’s got now.”
“Well, I think we should be telling someone…. because that would dent my morale somewhat if I were the enemy.”
But Daala was sending her own unspoken messages around Jacen’s fleet. Other destroyers were leaving rup-tured, dead GA ships in their wake, with a weapon that conventional shields couldn’t counter.
Jacen surely had to be able to detect what Niathal could-and more, with his Force senses-and he would know that he was dealing with tactics and weapons he’d never faced before.
And the Anakin Solo was now exposed. The battle group ranged around it was being picked off, in an eerily peaceful but equally lethal way; no spectacular explosions breaching hulls, but large voids from crumbling, altered metals that had lost their strength.
There was no way of telling how many ships had MCPS, but that was all part of the tactic: the uncertainty. GA and Imperial vessels were literally bursting open all across the Fondor theater, and any sane commander with one of Daala’s vessels approaching would wonder if he was next.
Niathal chose her moment to comm all ships, hoping that those who’d rushed to Jacen’s side had kept open their links to the flagship.
“Commanders of the GA Third and Fourth fleets who have chosen not to accept my command, “she said. “This is your opportunity to rejoin the legitimate forces of the Galactic Alliance. Power down your weapons and withdraw now to the designated fleet assembly area. I will not, repeat not, take disciplinary action against any commander who withdraws now.”
Niathal sat back and waited to see who would rally to her.
And she kept her gaze on the Anakin Solo, to see what Jacen would do.
Chapter 16
Call me paranoid, but after we’ve dealt with the most immediate problems, I suggest we devote some resources to finding out where Daala is based these days, and where she’s laid up all the technology from the Maw Installation. She might be a welcome sight now, but who’s to say how she’ll feel about us in the future?