Chapter 19: Chapter 19: The Captain and His Coffee

“A bit sweet. Less sugar next time, Ezra.” 

In the bridge of the Lancer-class light cruiser, Captain Jim Porter took a sip of the cup of coffee in his hand before turning to his secretary and making a casual comment. 

“Yes, captain.” 

Ezra was a young woman in her early twenties. She was wearing a blue Republic Navy uniform just like every other crew on the bridge. Despite the fact that this exchange has happened way too many times, she didn't show a sign of impatience. The captain enjoyed demonstrating his authority on small things like this, and Ezra was willing to go along with it as long as she could keep the extremely well-paid and relatively safe job. 

Satisfied, Captain Porter turned back to the situation at hand. 

“All units, report.” 

“The shield generator is online and functioning at peak efficiency.” 

“We are examining the status of the Callisto Engine in the engine room. Both sub-light engines are online and functioning.” 

“All weapon systems are online.”

“All communication systems are functioning properly.”

“The hangar bay is ready to launch squadrons. All pilots are on standby.”

Captain Porter nodded in satisfaction. Oftentimes, ships that exit warp space might suffer internal or external damage for various reasons. Even so many hundred years after warp engines were invented and put to use, there were still so many things the galaxy didn't know about warp space. Often, daring defenders might be waiting for intruders once they jump in and use the side effects of the warp jump against them. 

Jumping right into a killing zone of enemy batteries was a common nightmare for most captains. Luckily, Captain Porter knew that wouldn’t happen here. He wasn’t part of a vanguard sent to assault a heavily defended Imperial world. He was sent on an extraction mission to rescue a bunch of Imperial defectors with a valuable asset. There shouldn't be any Imperial presence in the planet's orbit at all. By all means, it should be a piece of cake. 

“Have we located the Imperial outpost on the planet? What is it called by the Imperials? Morgo IV?” The captain asked. 

“Sir, our scanners have located the research outpost. However, we have also picked up the signature of an Imperial shuttle trying to flee from us. It seems to be a Gazelle class, and it is moving away from us fast.” One of the bridge officers replied. 

“Shuttle? Moving away from us?” Captain Porter raised his eyebrows. Something was wrong. If the shuttle was piloted by Imperial defectors, they should be ready for his ship’s arrival. This could only mean one thing. 

“Sir, should we hail the base or the shuttle?” The communication officer suggested. 

“Do both.” The captain said quietly before turning to the bridge officers in charge of managing the hangar bay. “Scramble a squadron of fighters and send them after the shuttle. Do not engage unless ordered. Keep all other squadrons on high alert.”

“Yes sir.” 

Captain Porter quietly set his cup of coffee down on the counter and snapped back to the cameras. For almost all capital ships in the galaxy, the bridge was usually embedded in the core of the ships underneath layers and layers of armor. It was common in intense fleet battles where a ship’s bridge ended up being one of the only parts of the ship that remained intact. This ship design trait was common for all civilizations in the galaxy. Causes and beliefs rarely stood in the way of practicality. 

The captains and the bridge crew kept an eye on the battlefield via the various advanced scanners embedded all over the vessel. These scanners allowed the commanders to keep track of what was going on on the battlefield better than raw human eyes ever could. 

Despite his minor character flaws, Captain Porter was no amateur in naval warfare. The Republic might be infamous for nepotism and corruption, but it was still rare for completely incompetent individuals to climb to high positions in the Navy. Not when this usually meant a quick and meaningless death for the incompetent commanders and all their crew. In the worst cases, a single incompetent captain could doom an entire fleet. There were always civilian positions for those who wanted to abuse their powers and didn't have the skills to justify that. 

Once it became clear that it might not be an easy victory, the captain quickly focused his attention on the matters at hand and started preparing for a potential fight between capital ships.

---

“How much longer until we can jump?”

Corporal Kendrick demanded from his co-pilot. He could see the signatures of Republic fighters on his scanner. The light cruiser was a Lancer class. The corporal knew Lancer-class light cruisers usually served the role of a starfighter carrier. According to Imperial intel, they usually had one squad of heavy assault fighters, two squads of bombers, two squads of interceptors, and four squads of fighters. That was a total of over a hundred combat spacecraft. 

Of course, at the same time, the Lancer class's firepower was relatively weak compared to Imperial light cruisers of similar tonnage.

If Corporal Kendrick had a few Imperial light cruisers, he would gladly engage the Lancer class and overwhelm it with sheer firepower. But now? They were in a shuttle with no armaments whatsoever, and despite him bringing the sub-light engine to its maximum power, the fighters were closing in fast. Once again, Gazelle class shuttles weren't designed to escape from starfighters. 

“Two to three more minutes.” The co-pilot replied, fully aware of the dangerous situation they were in but refusing to allow it to be a distraction for him. “I can make the jump now, but it’s going to be risky. The engine is not properly tuned for our destination.”

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“I suppose we will have to buy some time then.” Corporal Kendrick looked down at the comms. He could see the Republic cruiser trying to establish contact with them. After a brief moment of hesitation, Corporal Kendrick adjusted the camera so the Wolf insignia on his uniform couldn’t be seen before answering the call. 

The face of Captain Porter appeared on the screen in front of him. There was a clear look of concern on his face. There was no response from the research outpost, which made it clear that something had gone terribly wrong with their plan. This was no longer just a simple extraction mission.

“This is Captain Porter of Republic cruiser G-302. Identify yourself, Imperial.”

He’s young. Hopefully, this means he’s inexperienced. The thought flashed across the corporal’s head before he made his best attempt to put up an act. 

“Thank god you’re finally here! You have no idea what happened down in the outpost!” He tried to pretend to be one of the rebels, hoping that this would prevent the captain from opening fire on the shuttle and killing everyone aboard. 

Captain Porter frowned. “We are detecting activity from your Callisto engine. Power down the engine now or my fighters will open fire on your shuttle.”  

“Don’t shoot us! We have the doctor onboard!” Corporal Kendrick did his best. The young captain felt more decisive than he anticipated. “We are complying now! Just give us a second…” He glanced at the scanner again. The squad of 12 Republic fighters was getting closer. They were S-71 light fighters, designed to counter hostile aerial units. These light fighters were armed with twin energy cannons and guided air-to-air missiles, both of which would be deadly to the shuttle. The shuttle’s shield generator wasn’t built to survive extensive attacks. Hell, the Gazelle shuttles didn't even have flares to buy some time against incoming missiles!

On the other side, Captain Porter turned to one of his bridge crew, who shook her head and told the captain the shuttle has yet to power down its FTL engine. As the fighters were about to reach the shuttle, the captain made one last demand. 

“Imperial shuttle, this is your last warning. Power down the Callisto Engine immediately!”

“We have already shut it down! I don’t know why it isn’t showing up on your scanners!” Corporal Kendrick played the part of a desperate rebel well. “Please…don’t shoot! I didn't survive everything down there just so I can be blown up right now! Please!”

Captain Porter frowned. The scanner still told the same story. He quickly shut off the comms and switched to the communication channel of the fighter squadron. The fighters have already put the shuttle within missile range. 

“Pilots…”

As he was about to say the words, he paused. What if the shuttle was filled with rebels and they did have the asset onboard? How unfortunate would it be if a scanner error made all the plans and sacrifices meaningless? Needless to say, if that happened, his superiors wouldn’t be too happy with him. Then again, if this shuttle was piloted by loyalists…

“Sir?” One of the pilots wondered. “What are your orders?”

Before Captain Porter could make a decision, the signature of the Gazelle-class shuttle suddenly disappeared from the scanner. At that moment, the young captain knew he was tricked. True to their deceptive nature, the Imperials lied and used his caution against him. He never should’ve believed a word they said! Now the Imperials were gone, likely with the asset onboard. All the work was wasted!

As soon as the captain shut off the comms, Corporal Kendrick knew they were out of time. A risky jump was better than certain death. He quickly turned to his co-pilot and gave the order, and the Callisto Engine brought the entire shuttle into warp space and out of the reach of the Republic cruiser.

A part of Captain Porter wanted to pick up his coffee cup and smash it against the carpeted floor of the bridge, but he decided against it. Such an action would only make him look like a clown in front of his bridge crew. People make mistakes. Things happen. What happened here wasn’t really because of his incompetence. 

Plus, in hindsight, there was little he could have done. The fact that the loyalists somehow controlled the asset and fled into orbit with a shuttle meant the plan had failed completely. The Imperial defectors on the planet had the most important role in this plan, and they completely messed up. The only thing he could've done differently was to blow up the shuttle and kill the asset, but they weren't going through all this trouble just to assassinate one of the Imperium's many scientists. 

“Recall the fighters and ready the Callisto Engine. I want to be able to jump at a moment’s notice.” Captain Porter did his best to salvage the situation. He turned to Captain Raymond, the commander of the company of marines stationed aboard the light cruiser. “Captain, dispatch a platoon to the research outpost below. We need to find out what the hell happened…”

Once again, he never got to finish his order before being interrupted. 

“Sir!” One of the bridge crew manning the scanners called out. “Incoming warp jump signatures detected! There are three of them.”

“Imperial reinforcements. The Imperials must have sent out a request for help before leaving the outpost.” Captain Porter immediately realized. He was hoping to learn more about the situation before the Imperials had a chance to react, but sending a searching party to the planet's surface would be too risky now. 

The Lancer class could certainly stand its own against Imperial ships of similar class, but one against three? Even if it was just three destroyers or corvettes, they would be too much for the light cruiser. Imperial ships usually had fewer starship squadrons aboard, but their point defense systems still posed quite a threat to Republic heavy assault fighters and bombers.

Plus, they were inside an Imperial sector. It would be much easier and quicker for their enemies to reinforce this location than for them. 

“Activate the jump as soon as the fighters are back. We are leaving.” The captain sighed before sitting back down in his seat and picking up his cup of coffee. His superiors wouldn't be happy about this...

Beside him, Ezra, who has been quiet the entire time, gently rested another cup of freshly brewed coffee on the desk in front of the captain. 

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