The Swift and her TIEs were way before her own fleet, as Lady Arsec got a bad feeling about this. Where were the skirmisher of the enemy? Were the long range fire. The giant Vader-fleet just sit there. Waiting.
Even as her fleet led valiantly the charge and got her back. They just waited. Should the sensor screen not be full of star fighters by now?
"It's a trap!", she whispered more to herself.
At the same moment the sensor officer screamed
: "Captain, Sera, they just fired a huge barrage of missiles!"
"At this distance?", Captain Slavny's voice sounds irritated, further making Lady Arsec unsure. "
They need two minutes to our fleet and even one minute to reach us."
The shield officer shouted:
"Something is leaching our shields! 87 %! Dropping!"
The sensor officer added:
"Radiation levels are peaking by the salvo! Nuclear weapons!
"Impossible!", Lady Arsec gasped.
"That would be a hideous war crime! They wouldn't start this with an atomic strike, would they?"
All colour drained from her face.
"They would", the Captain said grimly.
"They have no honor. Our fleet will die. We will die in the comfort that an outrage will rally our allies throughout the galaxy because of this cowardly war crime."
The order to lower the shields arrived and the personal message:
'Lady Arsec, do not let your story end, here. Believe me when I say I will see you in the Senate Chambers. There is enough blood on the border. Escape this place. Live.'
Fleeing? With the shame of being the cause of this catastrophe? Her name would be called in the same sentence as the mythical fool Jar Jar Binks who in his idiocy helped Emperor Palpatine to destroy the Old Republic!
Her thoughts raced. The radiation would kill them, even if they would take some of the missiles out. The TIEs would fight on, because they had no shields in the first place and the pilots were in radiation prove spacesuits.
Spacesuits ...
"ALL CREW INTO THE SPACESUITS! NOW!"
She stood from her command chair.
"Aurek Leader! Take out these damned missiles as if they were enemy fighters. We come to your aid in a moment! Every missile down, means more of our comrades will survive!"
"Tsi, copy that! Tsi, engaging missiles."
The seconds felt like eternities.
"Treat the missiles like point defense targets and begin targeting! Show the cowardly womp rats how our old ship type was retrofitted for dogfights!", she ordered as she put on her own spacesuit. Her bridge crew did the same in shifts. The endless drills were paying off.
The sensor officer said.
"First contact by Aurek squadron. Two missiles down. Void! What a giant gamma blitz! This area of space would be hot for unprotected ships the next million years! Missiles now in proximity!"
"Point defense and Chaff locked and loaded!", the weapon stations said one by one.
"Reroute shield power to the engines!", the captain ordered, making the Swift even swifter.
Lady Arsec became her heroic dogfight against soulless machines of mass destruction.
Her crew and the valiant TIE-pilots took out one missile after the other like ordinary starships, creating a vast zone of radiation between the two fleets.
Of course, some missiles would make it through the frenzied firing screen of the Swift and her TIES and each one would bring death and destruction.
The young noble of House Mecetti would have to live with this burden.
But after a moment of suicidal desperation, she had decided to fight back, standing upright and give an example of Tapani leadership even in the face of nuclear warfare.
She tipped a personal message back to her Lord. A message that would be an obligatory lesson in school classes of her sector in ages to come:
"I am your shield, milord, when all shields fail! I am the lightfoil to stop the knives of the backstabbers! I am a Lady of House Mecetti and a young Green Dragon! They will fear my fiery breath!"
And her squadron flew into unparalleled glory, creating a vast zone of radiation. The war criminals had actually helped, bolstering the defenses with their own forbidden weapons.
The damage to the Mecetti fleet was severely diminished by the heroic acts of this tiny vanguard, too many to be listed.
All under her command fought like dragons, one pilot even rerouted all power to the engines and rammed a missile instead of letting it punch through the lines. He saved thousands this day.
And so did they all.
Lady Arsec saw the impact of the remaining missiles in her fleet, and every hit was a hit to her conscience. Sure, she had saved many, but not all.
Her anguish became hatred as she turned and looked at the cowards of the Vader-fleets in the distance.
This war was just a mean to get prestige for her till this moment, but now it was personal!
And if she must resurrect personally the dreaded Mecrosa order of assassins, they would
pay!
Casteban Mecetti