Jedi Adventures: Pirate Attack II

Authoress's notes: The following story takes place nearly a year after the events ofJedi Adventures – Alema Rar,in which Alema Rar infiltrates a gang of slavers and kills Schliebak the Hutt, and after Jedi Mistress, in which Jysella Horn becomes Alema Rar's apprentice.Jedi Adventures – Alema Raralso goes by the titlePirate Attack,so this story is a sequel. Please read and enjoy all of my stories, and please leave me feedback, public or via email. - BethanyTHIS STORY IS NON-EROTIC!

Pirate Attack II

"So why are we here, Master?" Jysella Horn asked over the comm as they landed their X-wings in the hangar.

Alema Rar glanced at her HUD before replying. "Because some pirates are being pirates, and I have some experience with these," she answered blandly.

In fact Alema Rar was very familiar with these particular pirates. A little under a year ago she had posed as a slave to kill a slaver, Schliebak the Hutt. Afterwards, she had helped the rest of the gang transition into a legitimate mercenary group. The Jedi Council had only very reluctantly approved of her scheme.

At some point afterwards the mercenaries had moved into piracy. Now Alema Rar and Jysella Horn were being sent to assist the Galactic Alliance fleet tasked with hunting them down. Master Durron had made it clear to Alema Rar that she had better do everything she could to correct the problem.

The Galactic Alliance task force under the command of Captain Hannser had been hunting the pirates for a couple of months. He had a Bothan Assault Cruiser, anAgave-class picket ship, and aRanger-class gunship. On their last engagement, the picket ship had been badly damaged, and had had to go to a shipyard for repairs. The Galactic Alliance had sent aSacheen-class light escort to replace the picket ship. Alema Rar and Jysella rendezvoused with the light escort, and arrived on it. They had also brought their XJ3 X-wings along.

The pirates had aRepublic-class cruiser that normally carried two squadrons starfighters. Theirs had one squadron of E-wings, plus nearly two more of mixed starfighters. Five to eight small to medium-sized freighters were also known to operate with them. Thanks to Alema Rar's help, they had four TIE Avenger starfighters among their compliment. The pirates' starfighters, led by Nyk Faireborne, were very good. They had been a major factor in the damage to the picket ship.

The two Jedi's X-wings landed on the deck in near-perfect unison. By the time they had powered down, the hangar crew had pushed ladders against their cockpits, and began hooking up fuel hoses. A sharp looking naval lieutenant was waiting for then when they climbed down.

"Jedi Alema Rar, Jedi Horn," he greeted them cheerfully. "Welcome aboard. I'm Lieutenant Truitt. If you'll please follow me, Captain Hannser asked me to escort you to his office."

"Lead the way," Alema Rar replied with a nod.

"Captain Hannser, Jedi Alema Rar and her Apprentice are here," Lieutenant Truitt said when they arrived at the Captain's office a few minutes later.

"Please send them in, Lieutenant," Captain Hannser replied as he rose from behind his desk.

"Captain Hannser," Alema Rar said as she entered his office.

"Jedi Rar, Horn," he replied with a nod to each them. Then he glanced at his aide. "That will be all, Lieutenant," he told him.

The sharp Lieutenant nodded, and shut the door as he left. Captain Hannser returned to his desk, and sat down behind it without a word.

"I want to say upfront Jedi Rar, I didn't ask for the Jedi's assistance, nor do I want it. We don't need you."

Alema Rar decided not to mention him messing up her name for the moment. "I assure you Captain, we are only here to help," she told him. She also decided not to mention that the Galactic Alliance Security Council thought he did in fact need the Jedi's help.

"My people have been working very hard on this problem for months. They don't deserve to have a pair of Jedi swoop in at the last minute and steal all the credit."

Alema Rar sensed that he was being truthful, even if his suspicions were misplaced. "That's not what we're here for, Captain," she told him. "We are only here to stop the pirates."

"Fine, but let's get one more thing clear, Jedi Rar," Captain Hannser said gruffly. "This is my fleet, and my mission."

"Of course, Captain," Alema Rar answered with a nod. "Please understand though, that we are not under your command. We are here to help, and support your mission."

Captain Hannser stared at them a moment. "And you need to understand that I won't stand for you interfering with my mission. Since I have no choice in the matter, I'll accept yoursupport, and try to make the best of it."

Alema Rar certainly sympathized with him. He seemed to be genuinely trying to do his best—and she did have something to do with this whole thing anyway.

"Thank you, Captain," she answered with a smile.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

After the meeting, Lieutenant Truitt introduced them to the rest of Captain Hannser's command staff. Alema Rar was mildly surprised to find that his entire command staff was human. While that wasn't exactly unknown in the Galactic Alliance fleet, it wasn't common either. She wondered if it was by design, or just a coincidence. The command staff was happy to share what they had learned with them though, which Alema Rar took as a good sign.

"We can beat them in a fight, but all they do is run," the operations officer, a heavy-set brunette said. "They won't stay near a gravity well long enough for us to disable them."

Alema Rar knew that was common practice for any pirate group. They didn't want battles, they wanted easy prey.

"Their snubfighters are damn good too," Captain Rusill, the highest ranking X-wing pilot, added ruefully. "Especially those four TIE Avengers."

"We can help figure out where they'll be," Jysella Horn said. "They can't have the repair and support facilities that we do."

"The cruiser is the main problem though," Commander Pirkkens interjected. "If we take that out, the rest will just be a mopping-up action."

While Alema Rar pretty much agreed with his assessment, she knew that Nyk was someone to be reckoned with. She knew that the mission wouldn't be complete for her until he was taken care of. After a few minutes, Captain Hannser joined them.

The two Jedi, Captain Hannser, and his staff began going over star charts and debating the merits of different targets in and near the pirates' known area of activity. The military people brought decades of combined experience. Alema Rar had some experience with pirates in general from when she was a slave. She also had some experience with these pirates in particular. More importantly though, she—and Jysella—had the Force.

The pirates had been very active the past several months, which had been the main thing that had drawn the Galactic Alliance's attention to them. They regularly hit two or three targets a week. They also regularly divided their ships, sometimes hitting a target with as few as one of their freighters and a single flight of snubfighters.

Captain Hannser's officers had been building a database of every thing the pirates had stolen, including when, where, and how much. They hoped to use the information to predict where they might strike next. There were still a lot of targets out there. For the next week or so, they chased the pirates. On their third attack, they missed them by mere minutes. Frustrated, the two Jedi and Captain Hannser's command staff retreated back to the situation room to discuss strategy.

Between the two groups they soon had a list of three potential targets. One was a large shipment of high-end consumer electronic components. That had decent security though, and a small window of opportunity. The second potential target consisted of high-grade ore. The security was minimal, but it would take time to move the ore on the black market. The third target they were considering was a smaller transport carrying plikitars. It also had minimal security, no doubt because it didn't have a lot of high-value goods.

"The plikitars are used in their TIE laser assemblies," Jysella pointed out. "They'll definitely want those."

"They can take over the whole ore transport though, and disappear in minutes," Captain Hannser said. "And the ore is basically untraceable on the black market."

"All those electronic components are going to be hard to pass up," the intelligence officer countered.

Alema Rar didn't think they would go after that one. It was just too risky. She did her best to listen to the Force. The problem was, it was leading her to both the ore and plikitars.

"The plikitars are pretty rare," Captain Rusill said. "They can get ore or electronic gear any time."

"I believe they'll try for both the ore and the plikitars," Captain Hannser said in a calm, commanding voice.

"I agree," Alema Rar added after a moment's consideration.

Everyone glanced between her and Captain Hannser without speaking.

"They'll have to divide their forces, but if the ore shipment attack goes smoothly, then they can send back up to the strike on the plikitars," Alema Rar explained.

"Their cruiser is the priority," Captain Hannser informed everyone. "This is our best opportunity to take it out."

Alema Rar really wanted to go after Nyk, but she had to agree with Captain Hannser that the pirates' command ship was the primary target. They quickly formed a plan. The entire task force would ambush theRepublic-class cruiser in the asteroid belt where mining took place, before the ore hauler left. Alema Rar and Jysella would hide in the asteroid belt and hit the ship with shadow bombs to disable it until Captain Hannser arrived with the rest of the task force.

Once that battle was well in hand, Alema Rar would lead the light escort with its squadron of Defenders and a squadron of X-wings from the Bothan Assault Cruiser to ambush the second group of pirates.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Alema Rar was brought out of her Force meditation by Jysella calling her through the Force. She glanced at her screen and saw that the pirates had arrived. The Twi'lek acknowledged her Apprentice through the Force, and began powering up her engines. They had been waiting for nearly three hours.

The two Jedi set down on an asteroid near the ore hauler and quickly powered down their X-wings' systems. They were just inside an abandoned mining shaft. The only things they left on were passive sensors, and their personal comlinks. They didn't think the pirates would be there for several hours, but they wanted to be hidden long before their arrival in case they sent scouts in ahead of time. While they waited, each spent some time in Force meditation while the other kept watch.

The pirates had their cruiser, a squadron of snubfighters, and three smaller freighters. Captain Hannser had a pair of X-wings further away that would be alerting him to the pirates arrival. Alema Rar and Jysella would be conducting a straight forward surgical strike on theRepublic-class cruiser's engines.

As soon as their engines were powered up, the two Jedi headed for the cruiser's stern. They kept most of their systems offline to maximize their stealth. The two Jedi also used the Force to keep themselves from being noticed. The heavy-metal content of the asteroids would also help hide them from the pirates, just as it had helped hide them from the miners. Alema Rar hoped to get close enough to launch the shadow bombs without having to fight their way in.

With twelve starfighter pilots actively looking for threats, plus the crew of the cruiser, it would be a difficult task. Still, they had the Force.

At just over two kilometers out someone noticed them. Suddenly starfighters were changing course to intercept. Alema Rar and Jysella immediately began powering up the rest of their systems—most importantly their shields. A few seconds later, the pirates' cruiser started firing at them.

Dodging a little turbolaser fire from the not-quite-distant ship was easy enough for the two Jedi. Only two of the pirate fighters—B-wings—were close enough to pose a serious threat. After dodging their fire for a few seconds, Alema Rar's lasers were powered up enough to shoot back. She quickly fired off a quad-linked burst at the closest one. It juked to its left, and was hit by another burst from Jysella's X-wing.

Before they could finish the B-wing off, the two Jedi were past them, and lined up on the cruiser's engines. At seven hundred and fifty meters Jysella launched a pair of shadow bombs, followed by Alema Rar a half-second later. They both promptly veered away to keep the pirates attention away from the four bombs.

Since shadow bombs didn't have propellant or guidance systems, the two Jedi had to use the Force to guide them to the target while avoiding the cruiser's turbolaser fire and the other pirates' starfighter lasers, and keeping the shadow bombs from being hit as well.

About twenty seconds later, Jysella's shadow bombs exploded against the cruiser's still-powering-up shields. Alema Rar's passed through the hole, and exploded against the ship's engines, crippling theRepublic-class cruiser.

Alema Rar took a moment to fire at—and hit—a pirate E-wing as she and Jysella circled back around to the cruiser's engines. They each had two more shadow bombs, and there was no point in letting them go to waste.

Once they got back to the aft of the ship, Jysella dropped two more shadow bombs. One hit the re-charging shields, while the other did even more damage to the the cruiser's engines.

Then they flew towards the bow of the ship along its spine. Alema Rar dropped her shadow bombs midway. One hit the shields, creating a hole. The other dropped through, and destroyed their topside shield emitter. Now even if they didn't fire another shot, the pirates would be in a repair dock for at least a month. Since their shadow bombs were all gone, Alema Rar and Jysella occupied themselves by destroying a few pirate snubfighters while they waited for the rest of their task force.

Less than two minutes later—right on schedule—Captain Hannser's X-wings arrived to join the fight. The Bothan Assault Cruiser and Gunship were close behind. With a crippledRepublic-class cruiser and less than one squadron of starfighters, the pirates were badly overmatched against the Bothan Assault Cruiser, Gunship, and three squadrons of X-wings. Then Alema Rar heard the chirp of a a comlink channel opening.

"This is Captain Hannser of the Galactic Alliance Defense Fleet. All hostile ships in the system are hereby ordered to power down and surrender immediately, or face the gravest of consequences," Captain Hannser announced over an open comm channel.

Alema Rar listened to the announcement with detached interest. She, Jysella, Captain Hannser, and his command staff had decided to offer the pirates the chance to surrender, even though they doubted they'd accept. The pirates had a prompt answer.

"Captain kriffin' Hannser, you can take your surrender and shove it up yourSCHUTTAof a Jedi's blue ass!" Captain Tol'Ven screamed over the comm channel.

The point was further made by a salvo of turbolaser fire from theRepublic-class cruiser—directly at Alema Rar's X-wing. Fortunately, the Force had given her a warning, and she was able to juke out of the way in ample time. The nearest turbolaser missed her by more than a dozen meters.

"Wow Master, looks like you really pissed somebody off," Jysella commented over the comlink.

"It happens," Alema Rar replied offhandedly, firing at a pirate X-wing that crossed in front of her nearly a kilometer out.

Alema Rar was mildly surprised Captain Tol'Ven felt that way about her. She had thought she had departed on pretty good terms. She was even more surprised that he knew that it was her that had been after him and his gang of pirates.

The Assault Cruiser and Gunship began firing their turbolasers as soon as they were in range. The pirates returned fire, but it was clear they were overmatched. Alema Rar and Jysella broke off and prepared to enter hyperspace to ambush Nyk and the rest of the pirates. TheSacheen-class light escort, with its squadron of Defender starfighters, were ready to jump with them. Also accompanying them was a squadron of X-wings from the Bothan Assault Cruiser that were jumping on their own, like Alema Rar and Jysella.

Alema Rar and Jysella's astromechs had both double-checked the jump coordinates from the light escort. All Alema Rar had to do was jump, and everyone would follow her. She held her finger over the switch . . . and hesitated. The Force was telling her to wait.

"Master," Jysella said over the comlink. "I think we should wait a minute."

"I feel it too," Alema Rar agreed.

A moment later Alema Rar got a routine inquiry from the light escort requesting a status update. She told them to stand by as she ran through a Jedi calming exercise.

Captain Hannser had the battle well in hand. The rest of the pirates were probably killing innocent people while she sat there wriggling her lekku. Still, the Force was telling her to wait.

Nearly thirty seconds later, Alema Rar felt a surge of danger through the Force, then saw ships exiting hyperspace right in front of her. Before the alarms in her X-wing even began, she knew who they were. The rest of the pirates. Somehow they had arrived early.

Alema Rar opened fire almost before her astromech began identifying them. She destroyed an A-wing before it could even raise its shields. Jysella matched her by taking out a K-wing bomber. The other X-wings in Alema Rar's group began firing as well.

Within thirty seconds nearly two squadrons of pirate starfighters, along with a pair of small freighters had exited hyperspace. The light escort began disgorging its Defender snubfighters to assist. Alema Rar and her forces quickly began decimating the newly arrived pirate snubfighters. A squadron of X-wings from Captain Hannser's ship broke off to assist as well.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"I'm glad you stayed," Captain Hannser told her after the battle. "The second group of pirates would have caused some damage before we had reacted."

"I was only following the Force," Alema Rar replied with a nod.

There weren't any TIE Avengers among the destroyed or captured pirate snubfighters. After interrogating the captured pirates, they had discovered that the four Avengers and two X-wings had escorted the freighters with the plikitars to a secure location to store the stolen parts.

The snubfighters that had escaped the battle had most likely gone straight there and warned them. Captain Hannser decided not to go after them, and saved the intel for later.

Captain Tol'Ven, the Twi'lek in charge of the pirate ship, was unaccounted for as well. Since the bridge had taken a direct hit, and the entire bridge crew was also unaccounted for though, everyone agreed that he was dead.

Alema Rar was pretty sure Nyk had been leading the second attack, and flying one of the Avengers. That meant he was still alive, and had nearly a squadron of snubfighters and several armed small freighters at his disposal. She would have to contact Master Durron, and tell him that she wasn't finished, whether or not Captain Hannser stayed to continue the fight.

Since the Pirates'Republic-class cruiser was destroyed, Captain Hannser and his Bothan Assault cruiser were reassigned. The Galactic Alliance left theSacheen-class light escort with its squadron of Defender starfighters to continue hunting the pirates. Alema Rar made a few HoloNet calls, and secured the gunship for a couple more weeks as well.