Even the quantity we managed to acquire on Smarck doesn't particularly lift spirits.
Seven thousand two hundred cloning cylinders and a team of cloners with extensive experience in army production.
For both the Old Republic and the Zann Consortium.
Of course, we'll have to work to get those cylinders onto our lab ships and restart them.
At minimum, we'll need to manufacture a substantial volume of nutrient fluid in which the clones mature.
Precisely procure—conversation with the Kaminoan technician overseeing the installations yielded unexpected revelations.
It turns out this gel-like substance must be changed after each cloning cycle, not every ten as stated in the Imperial documents.
Excellent.
Good thing we have the Langhesi, specializing in bio-genetic experiments and related productions.
Producing the necessary nutrient medium for them won't be an issue.
Though it will cause some extra, but not the most significant, inconveniences.
The worst part is something else—the Kaminoans don't know when or from where the Zann Consortium obtained the Spaarti cloning cylinders.
But there's no doubt—they're exact copies of those scattered across our lab ships.
As I recall, they were manufactured at the Spaarti Creations facility on the planet Kartao.
"Manufactured" is a strong word, though.
Production began during the Clone Wars on Palpatine's orders.
All samples produced, except twenty thousand, were destroyed during the staged crash of a starship carrying Jedi.
Another Palpatine improvisation.
Deliberate smearing of the Order in the eyes of the locals.
We have to consider two possibilities.
First—the not all cloning cylinders were destroyed in the ship's crash per Palpatine's plan.
Second—Spaarti Creations is operational again.
Intelligence has already been ordered to check the latter, though I distinctly remember that in the literature describing that episode, it was clearly stated that the factory was destroyed and beyond repair, as the local workers couldn't restore it.
Well, time will tell.
I postponed the conversation with Orun Wa, the Kaminoan leader, until he leaves the medbay.
Currently, my guards are working with his team, extracting testimonies on what and how happened in the past.
But they have virtually no information on events outside their own labs.
Because they don't care about it.
In return, we learned quite a bit about this species—that information will come in handy for my subsequent talk with Orun Wa.
According to reports, he's quite the manipulator.
Knowledge of his species will allow me to properly interpret his words and pick out the lies that will inevitably be present in a conversation with the senior geneticist.
But that's not for today—Orun Wa will only leave the medbay in a week, by which time we'll already be at Tangrene.
So I have five standard days in reserve to process the data obtained from his team.
All of it, one way or another, relates to human cloning.
And that caveat is important—it indicates that Tyber Zann deliberately focused on duplicating the human species specifically.
This slightly simplifies identification issues for potential clones on the New Republic, Alliance, and similar states' side.
It will be harder with the Imperial Remnants—mostly humans everywhere.
And checking everyone via DNA analysis is ruinously expensive and prohibitively time-consuming.
Well, we have three dozen Kaminoans, not counting Orun Wa.
A full genetic team, including several high-level geneticists.
All had participated in creating clone troopers for the Grand Army of the Republic.
All were on Kamino during the Kaminoan clone uprising.
According to them, immediately after the Empire's victory, the planet's cloning labs were sealed, and clone production occurred only on a small scale and directly under Imperial scientists' control.
Who, judging by the stories, were learning from the Kaminoans.
Curiously, by the time Darth Vader took one of the Kaminoan city-labs for producing Galen Marek clones, all Imperial scientists had already left Kamino.
Where they went—unknown.
But I assume they're all on Byss now.
Darth Vader relied on the Kaminoan scientists' work, though that didn't stop him from stationing a garrison on the planet to secure his project.
After the Battle of Kamino, when General Kota's group and Galen Marek's clone defeated the Empire, a new fleet arrived to secure the planet.
By then, a significant portion of the planet's cloning capacity had either been destroyed in the previous battle or had simply idled and fallen into disrepair.
Because the Imperials forbade servicing cloning cylinders not involved in any experiments.
It was the Imperials, not the Zann Consortium as I previously thought, who installed the minefields and cut the planet off from the rest of the galaxy.
But the criminals still managed to seize control of the planet and produce their own clone soldiers there.
How they breached the minefields—unknown.
I assume they found an approach to those Imperials responsible for that sector.
In the bloody battle on Kamino between Zann Consortium fighters and Imperial forces, up to half the cities were destroyed, including over seventy percent of the remaining cloning cylinders here.
That's... Relatively optimistic.
But if you consider that none of the cloners could name the exact number of cloning cylinders on the planet, it stops being fun.
There could have been a million initially, or a billion—that question requires separate analysis considering the precise count of the Grand Army of the Republic at the initial stage.
Not to mention that during the Clone Wars, the New Republic ordered batch after batch of new soldiers from the planet multiple times.
So, having seized control of the planet, the Zann Consortium successfully repelled Imperial attacks aiming to reclaim it.
According to rumors spread by Tyber Zann's officers in Tipoca City—Kamino's capital—the Consortium destroyed nearly several sectoral Imperial fleets.
I doubt it was exactly like that.
And especially not in open battle—in those days, Zann simply lacked the ships, whose main source was Mandal Motors shipyards.
So most likely, the bulk of the task of destroying the Imperial fleet fell to Kuati mines installed by the Imperials themselves.
And that makes my theory far more viable that these mines can easily be subverted if you know the correct friend-or-foe recognition system code.
The only question is how to obtain the necessary data if Zann Consortium fighters don't surrender.
What happened next on Kamino, Orun Wa's group members don't know.
They had never seen ysalamiri before arriving here, nor heard of any experiments with these lizards.
But they allow that other cloner groups might have done it.
They were evacuated to Smarck shortly before Endor and since then never left the planet or contacted anyone but Makus Kaynif.
Well, I'll have questions for the latter too—and far more than for the Kaminoan.
Currently, he's in a medically induced coma while our doctors scan his body for new "poison vials" and fit a prosthesis to enable verbal contact.
And at the moment, he's the highest-ranking source of information in the criminal syndicate's hierarchy possible.
Well...
In the dry residue, I can say I was almost right in my calculations on when Tyber Zann seized Kamino—it happened a year before the Battle of Endor.
Therefore, if not for the ysalamiri in this equation, we could breathe easy knowing that the clones, however many there were, hadn't been produced yet.
The problem is that Tyber Zann knows about ysalamiri.
He knows they block the Force and that accelerates and stabilizes clone production.
And since it works on Spaarti cloning cylinders, it's clearly worth checking the probability of a similar effect on Kaminoan-designed cloning cylinders.
I'd check.
And the more I learn about Tyber Zann, the more I think we think alike.
Either these actions are simply logical solutions to the issues arising before us in context, or there's some very sinister hidden meaning to all this.
And these patterns unsettle me.
As much as anything can unsettle me.
The situation isn't pleasant.
Dug deep—hit an underground city full of skeleton-filled closets at every turn.
An extremely unpleasant situation.
"Sir," the commlink came alive with Captain Tschel's voice. "All ships, including prizes, report ready to make the jump to lightspeed."
"Understood, Captain," I replied. "The prize starship inspections revealed no tracking devices?"
"No, sir, the techs swept them five times with scanners. If anything's there, it's buried deep. Given our equipment's capabilities—I'd say there's nothing at all."
"Willing to stake your head on it, Captain?" I inquired.
A pause on the other end of the channel.
"No, sir," Tschel replied.
Honest, at least.
"Then proceed as instructed," I said. "The ships are heading to our southeastern borders. Orders to the ship commanders transmitted?"
"All squadrons ready to deploy at your first command, Grand Admiral," the Chimaera's commander reported.
"Consider that command given," I ordered. "We're underway."
"Aye, sir."
The commlink went silent.
I, leaning back from the workstation, reclined in my chair, pondering how effective the devised plan would be.
By my calculations—extremely effective, given the objectively superb bait I'm leaving for Tyber Zann.
Time to check if my assumptions about our similar thinking hold real basis or not.
***
"And our fighters died for this," Admiral Eclipse said slowly, examining the aircraft positioned before her gaze, right in the center of the small hangar bay.
"A novelty," Galen ran a hand through his crew cut. "A pre-production prototype, to be precise."
"A sixteen-meter starfighter," Juno shook her head. "This... is extremely inefficient."
"On the contrary, Admiral Eclipse," a short, plump man approached them—the director of Koensayr Manufacturing. "This is an evolution of our most successful BTL fighter-bomber, which has proven itself excellently over the last thirty years."
"Yeah," Galen smirked. "The wishbone is so reliable and modern a fighter."
"Our machines participated in the attacks on both Death Stars," the Manufacturing director said with offense in his voice. "And during the Clone Wars, it was our bombers that scored the loudest victories."
"No one's arguing that," Juno said. "Just... what is this thing, anyway?!"
"A machine developed over the last few years, designated the K-wing," the facility director said not without pride. "Everything a fighter-bomber pilot would want at hand but was afraid to ask the New Republic for. I think the Alliance deserves this machine—after all, you freed us from working for the Empire."
"Good thing they didn't cut off contact before our government decided to reach out to you," Galen said.
"Actually, we contacted them," the plump man sniffed. "And asked for help in exchange for an alliance. Because the New Republic representatives refused us, citing excessive busyness with the front situation and lack of spare ships."
Galen and Juno exchanged glances.
Well, with phrasings like that, you don't need enemies—allies will scatter on their own.
"How many do you have?" Juno asked.
"A test squadron," the director said. "The machines are expensive—quarter of a million credits apiece, but they're worth it."
"Three million per squadron?" the Jedi blurted in shock. "Isn't that a bit much for bombers?"
"Take my word—they're worth it," the plump man smiled. "You can see how much armament is on it, right?"
"Yeah, enough for a squadron," Galen snorted.
"Twin retractable laser cannon, quad laser turret for enfilade fire, missile launcher, torpedo launcher," Juno listed. "And... another launcher. Did I miss anything?"
K-wing assault starfighter.
"All correct," the director beamed. "You can tell a fine pilot who knows small ships. The last launcher is for anti-shield and plasma torpedoes. Highly effective against strong Imperial Star Destroyer deflector shields. Six torpedoes in a salvo—and the shield section is weakened enough for even a blaster pistol to punch through."
"Impressive," Juno murmured in surprise, clearly impressed.
"And why didn't you use them against Moff Getelles's ships?" Galen asked.
"Because the stormtroopers who landed in advance destroyed our pilots' barracks," the Koensayr Manufacturing director's face darkened. "Combat pilots, test pilots—all dead. Otherwise, we would have given the attackers a proper fight."
"I don't doubt it," Juno stepped closer to the machine, running her hand along the right wing. "From my experience, I can say there are no perfect fighters, especially bombers."
"Then your experience is clearly insufficient," the plump man grinned with utmost smugness.
"Watch your words," Galen advised. "Admiral Eclipse was once a pilot in Darth Vader's Black Squadron."
The Koensayrian paled.
"I think you understand a female pilot didn't get assigned there for her pretty eyes," Galen smirked, watching as Juno critically examined the K-wing. "So you'd better start talking about the machine's pros and cons. The Alliance leadership will clearly heed the admiral's opinion before deciding on new machine purchases. Wishbones are obviously cheaper, and more familiar to Alliance pilots."
"Yes, of course," the plump man nodded vigorously. "Development began after Endor, when the New Republic government realized that in the escalating galactic war vortex, it needed not only to ramp up production of proven fighters and bombers but also to start creating new technology. We heard they're trying to find a replacement for X-wings, tasking Incom, but after the Galactic Republic's fall, Incom had so many new customers galaxy-wide thanks to Republic-arranged advertising for the X-wing and A-wings that it went no further than projects. Apparently still just mockups, but we don't closely follow Incom. Maybe they have a new escort fighter in metal, but that's not quite our profile."
"You mean the E-wing?" Juno inquired, continuing to inspect the fighter-bomber. "From what I heard, the first prototypes were tested last year and sent for refinement."
Galen even knew where his girl could have "heard" that information.
Despite General Kota's group operating independently in recent years, they procured tech from the same places as the New Republic.
Fortunately, the Imperials' weapon and military property control laws were completely ignored and repealed by the republicans in manufacturers' interests.
And now anyone could order a whole fleet from any shipyard—no one would bat an eye.
"Well, I'll be," the director smacked his thick lips. "Thanks, we'll keep that in mind."
"No problem," Juno spotted something in the K-wing's aft section, but the director didn't even glance her way, choosing Galen as the target of his enlightening monologue.
Well, let it be.
The main thing is that Juno would have time to evaluate the new machine and note flaws before the Alliance blindly stuck its nose into Koensayr Manufacturing.
"We were developing a BTL replacement, understanding that wishbones, good as they are, aren't without flaws."
Galen wanted to comment on the last statement but wisely held his tongue.
"Grand Admiral Thrawn's campaign only spurred our development. We concluded we should increase the bomber's armament and adapt it for combat against other fighters, rightly reasoning that it'd be better to use one machine capable of blasting through enemy fighters than take losses. To that end, we installed a deflector and additional armament, including multiple launchers and a twin retractable turret."
"You created a command module," the admiral pointed to the ship's nose, "as an escape pod."
"Correct," the director agreed. "Initially, we thought of sticking to just two pilots and a cabin layout like the wishbone, with pilot and gunner one behind the other, but later abandoned that and expanded the crew to four. Accordingly—pilot, two gunners, and missile armament operator. But you missed something. The command module is equipped with its own generator and low-power engines, allowing the escape pod to reach the command ship independently or fly to base after the starfighter's destruction."
"It's not a starfighter," Juno corrected. "You didn't install a hyperdrive. At least not on this model."
"Yes, habit... Unfortunately, you're right—the ship has so much equipment crammed in that a hyperdrive won't fit."
Considering all BTL variants produced on this planet were equipped with hyperdrives, yes, it could be a slip.
Or—deliberate misdirection.
Galen concentrated on the Force, directing it toward the plump man.
But as it turned out, he felt no trace of annoyance at being exposed.
Just regret for blurting without thinking.
Most likely, they hadn't installed a hyperdrive here, realizing the New Republic had plenty of strike craft capable of traveling the stars and delivering blows.
And a machine with that equipment would cost the buyer prohibitively.
Koensayr Manufacturing bet on the impressive firepower of their new invention.
"I doubt you made the cockpit maneuverable," Juno continued. "If so, it could easily become a target for enemy pilots."
"There's also the option of conventional ejection," the director explained.
In other words—besides escaping in the cockpit, one could save life the usual way, shooting out with the seat from the cabin.
"The ship is close in size and armament to the Imperial Xg-1 strike gunboat," Juno went on. "I think, considering their appearance in the Sluis Van battle and active use by Imperial Space, the gunboat has a competitor."
"You flatter us mercilessly," the director declared. "The Xg-1 can carry forty missiles, torpedoes, and bombs, while our K-wing only twenty-eight."
And if you recall that various wishbone upgrades could carry from eight to ten missiles or torpedoes, progress was evident.
"As for missile-torpedo arsenal variants, there's a wide spectrum of ammunition," the director continued. "Light shaped-charge missiles, high-explosive, fragmentation and fragmentation high-explosive missiles, proton anti-ship torpedoes, thermobaric bombs, and plasma torpedoes, which, as I mentioned, are for punching through deflectors. Additionally, K-wings can be used to lay minefields in space."
And that was very good indeed.
Small space mines, linked into a barrier and nearly invisible to scanners, could seriously harm even a capital ship.
Excellent defensive weapon.
"I think you did right doubling the crew size," Juno summed up. "A pair of sentients with that tech and heap of weapons wouldn't cope."
"The initial project called for far less formidable armament," the plump man explained. "As I said—we revised the concept. Relying on the original machine's two-person crew hoping only for competent escort fighter cover and enemy pilots' cross-eyes during fighter encounters wouldn't benefit our customers."
Honest and straightforward.
It seemed the company leadership decided not to hide anything from those who saved them from occupation, thereby earning a measure of trust.
A bold and correct move.
"Moreover," the company director continued, "practice proved the irrationality of placing the weapons operator behind the pilot, as his field of view was severely limited. We closely observed all Grand Admiral Thrawn's fleet operations and concluded that most of both our and their bombers were shot down precisely on rear approaches. Positioning the weapons operator facing backward allowed us to give him personal visual control of the space."
"Given the short ranges of fighter combat, that's a very smart move," Juno agreed. "Thanks to mounting the forward cannon under the cockpit, you've also ensured that, beyond protecting the forward and lower hemispheres, the quad enfilade turret gunner can effectively engage ground targets, destroying light armor or infantry."
"Yes," the director confirmed. "If you're already creating a heavy machine, why, with that armament and size, deprive it of ground target engagement from onboard weapons? Our designers thought that wrong."
"Speed about eighty meg lights?" Juno asked.
Galen was starting to get bored, realizing he understood little of this dialogue and could grasp even less.
Spaceflight and battles were Juno's element, after all.
"Don't flatter us," the director smiled apologetically. "Seventy meg in space and a thousand kilometers per hour in atmosphere."
Juno winced almost imperceptibly.
"Honestly, I'd advise dropping the 'fighter' prefix from the name," she said. "With all due respect to your designers, this type of fighter the K-wing simply isn't."
"We've thought about that," the director admitted. "For the production model, it'll be designated either 'bomber' or 'torpedo bomber'—for obvious reasons."
Of course.
It hauls both bombs and torpedoes.
"And it has plenty of missiles too," the young woman admiral smiled. "Better call it a 'multirole bomber' after all."
"We'll discuss naming options with the designers," the director assured her. "It's not our style to give flashy names to machines that don't match in fact."
"You've got a real parade of revelations today," Galen said, double-checking the plump man's words with the Force once more.
"We're not the biggest corporation, Mr. Jedi," his interlocutor said with sadness. "We lack influential patrons, and multi-billion-credit orders haven't shone on us for long years—the New Republic preferred repairing old tech over buying new. And the K-wing is far from cheap."
"But it'll give us an edge in battles against the Empire," Juno stated firmly. "The machine isn't perfect, but it's worth the price, considering the volume of armament your engineers crammed into it. I'll talk to Alliance leadership to allocate funds for purchasing these machines."
"I'll be grateful for lobbying our interests," the plump man bowed.
From his appearance, it was clear he started the conversation with clear skepticism, but seeing a professional pilot before him, he warmed up and deployed his best weapon—spoke the truth.
All present understood that the K-wing's cost was high for mass purchases and full rearming of Alliance starships.
But if even one squadron of such machines was aboard a star cruiser, the enemy couldn't hope for an easy victory.
That alone was clearly worth fighting for the machine to find its masters among Alliance pilots.