As the Hutt fleet jumped away into hyperspace, the skirmish around Bespin drew to a close.
Of the forty M12-L Kimogila heavy starfighters, five successfully made the jump and escaped. Fourteen were destroyed—some during their retreat, others while still resisting. The remaining twenty-one chose to surrender to the coalition.
And it was right around then that the Falleen pirate—Nym—successfully pulled off a home-raid.
Lock "Revenge" piloted his Havoc—a Skelg H-6 bomber—alone (with two astromech mechanic droids), punched through Cloud City's air-defense net, and dropped ten heavy proton bombs onto two LH-3210 freighters currently undergoing carrier-conversion at Bespin Aerospace (BAE).
"The Shun-class vessel's control center and engine cluster have been completely destroyed—beyond economical repair. The Golden Dragon took severe damage to its cargo holds, but it can still be repaired," BAE director Robert Gross reported.
("Damn it—whose soldier is this?!") Max drew a deep breath. "All right… what about casualties?"
"No casualties," Robert Gross said, visibly relieved. "Once we went to full alert, we immediately evacuated the workers and specialists."
No loss of life in Cloud City was, at least, a small mercy. Because in this skirmish, the Bespin–Corellia coalition paid a brutal price.
Corellian Defense Force:
The expedition flagship, the CR-12 Thranta-class corvette Tyrena, was focus-fired and destroyed by the Hutt battle line. All craft aboard were lost with it: twelve Belbullab-22 starfighters, four Belbullab-24 strike bombers, and four CSS-1 Corellian shuttles. All 300 crew were killed.
The C-80 Sphyrna-class corvette Hammerhead was also focus-fired and destroyed. Because the abandon-ship order came too late, 31 of its 46 crew were killed.
Bespin Mandalorian Armed Forces:
The First Fleet flagship, the MPO-1400 Purr-whale–class light cruiser Broad Silence, was focus-fired and destroyed by the Hutt battle line. Aayla Secura's T-6 Jedi shuttle was destroyed along with it. Because evacuation was timely, only 11 of the ship's 300 crew were killed.
Of those 11, aside from Captain Tracy Reeves—who went down with her ship—the other 10 were pilots from Falcon Squadron. Of the 12 Fang-class starfighters carried aboard, 10 were destroyed, and none of their pilots escaped.
The Gozanti-class light corvettes Glorious and Great were destroyed during anti-armed-freighter / anti-starfighter fighting. All 24 crew across both ships were killed.
Of the four Kom'rk-class heavy starfighters committed by the Navy Screechhawk Independent Squadron, two Mark I and one Mark II were destroyed; of six crew, three were killed.
In the Army Aviation arm, of the twenty-four Z-95 Headhunters from the Passion and Gale squadrons that participated in the frontal penetration, fifteen were destroyed and seven pilots were killed.
Of the forty-eight Z-95 Headhunters from Zeal, Fervor, Zephyr, and Zenith that executed the rear attack, thirty-one were destroyed—and all thirty-one pilots were killed.
At the battle assessment meeting, Max raised his hand. "I have several recommendations. I want the air arm's commanders to work with BAE's expert teams and get back to me as soon as possible."
"I recommend removing the Fang-class starfighter's hyperdrive, and using the freed space to install a deflector-shield generator…"
In the skirmish that had just ended, deflector shields had proven their absolute value.
The unshielded Fang-class starfighters were nearly wiped out. And once a fighter was destroyed, the pilot was effectively guaranteed dead.
The shielded Z-95 Headhunters and Kom'rk-class craft were not only harder to destroy, but even when a ship was about to be lost, the pilot still had a real chance to eject and survive.
As carrier-based fighters, the Fang-class's built-in hyperdrive was almost never used. It could be removed, and the precious volume repurposed for something that actually mattered: a deflector-shield generator.
Max also recommended halting production of the Kom'rk Mark I and Mark II fighter/transports, and upgrading the Kom'rk Mark III into a dedicated fighter-bomber.
The Kom'rk's "multirole" capability was, frankly, a liability. Using an expensive heavy starfighter for transport work was pure waste. And the bulky frame needed to perform transport missions created real disadvantages in combat.
In this engagement, the Bespin Mandalorian starfighter arm also exposed a serious weakness: inadequate anti-ship strike capacity.
Before, when Bespin wasn't fully recognized, they couldn't buy bombers even if they wanted to. Now Bespin was a lawful polity—meaning it could legally produce or procure bombers. That gap had to be fixed, fast.
They needed bombers. And they needed bigger, stronger capital ships.
After the assessment meeting, Max asked Corellian Navy Admiral Berethron—who had been observing—"Can Corellian Engineering Corporation provide us with a frontline warship on the Evona's level?"
"I'm afraid that'll be very difficult." Berethron shook his head grimly. "Under the Ruusan Reformations-era arms-control treaty, cruisers over 600 meters—and anything larger—may mount at most a Class Five hyperdrive, and even then it can only be used within the local sector."
"Corellia isn't as remote as Hutt Space, and CEC isn't some Hutt backyard shop. The Justice Department has on-site inspectors at CEC—there's no easy way to slip past Coruscant's oversight."
Max asked, "Do you think Bespin is far enough from Coruscant?"
"…What are you suggesting?"
"Admiral, take a look." Max snapped his fingers, and a holoprojector threw up an image of a massive shipyard.
"This is…?" Berethron didn't quite follow.
"My intelligence people captured this in the Outer Rim—on Rothana (star chart coordinate: T-15)—while searching for a missing compatriot. The yard is called Rothana Heavy Engineering. On paper, it's a local Rothana company. But after we dug into it, we confirmed it's actually a subsidiary of Kuat Drive Yards."
Berethron's expression tightened. "You're saying…?"
"Exactly." Max nodded. "That shipyard is secretly producing a new class of capital ships—for Coruscant."
"Admiral—ambitious men in Hutt Space, ambitious men on Cato Neimoidia, and ambitious men on Coruscant have already treated the arms-control treaty as toilet paper. They're building up. We Corellians can't afford to stay naive."
PS:
The lore has stated that LH-3210 freighters / Trade Federation battleships can't land on a planet's surface.
But it also states they have atmospheric flight capability.
So—if you're willing to get creative—an LH-3210 can still land. Consider this the author stubbornly handwaving it; no need to overthink the "how did it land?" question.
PPS:
In "Chapter 35: Edge of the Galaxy (II)," the author previously misread a line and wrote the Gozanti's crew as 75 (the next line in the reference was 75 metric tons of cargo). This has been corrected.
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GAME OF THRONES: SECRETS BENEATH THE DREADFORT
🏰🩸 GAME OF THRONES: SECRETS BENEATH THE DREADFORT 🩸🏰
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📢 DARK SECRETS RISE IN THE NORTH! 📢
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Beneath the Dreadfort, old horrors stir.
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Uncover what lies beneath before anyone else does.
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