Operation Shadow Might

[Park Kraken]

"Cease fire," came the order, spoken calmly but strongly into the open channel. A moment later, the turbolasers silenced, their crews obeying the order of their commander. A few last flashes of green entered into the atmosphere, then that was all.

"Time?" asked the same person that had ordered the ceasefire.

"Six hours, ten minutes, standard galactic time," responded another, more junior officer.

"Status of target world?" asked the original speaker once more.

"Sensors indicate the world is sterile and hot," answered the junior officer again.

"Excellent. Secure the fleet from battle stations into yellow alert, and have the replenishment started," ordered the Admiral, the same one that had ordered the ceasefire, and the original order to open fire well before that.

"As you order, Admiral," replied the Vice-Admiral, turning about to completed his tasks.

It was rare to see a Vice-Admiral serving directly under a full Admiral on the same ship, but then this was no ordinary fleet that had been assembled. The Empress was finally getting serious about crushing the Rebellion, and it seemed a series of campaigns was about to begin to target the Rebellion's primary worlds. No mercy was to be given as it might of in the past.

The world below them had no name, only a number attached, and it had no sentient life, just the usual run of the mill prey and predator species and forests, which had been reduced to ash and ashes. Something useful would be brought out of this test, as the world would be strip-mined by the Imperial War Machine, which would no longer have to be careful and considerate of upsetting the natural balance of the world.

He, Admiral Vladimir Parkinus Kraken of the Imperial Navy, often referred to simply as Park Kraken, had seen to that personally. His command, Task Force Maelstrom, had just completed a Base Delta Zero exercise in timing and efficiency upon the surface of the planet, and he was pleased with the results. Next, they would have to do a planet with water as the primary surface, but he was satisfied that this plan of attack could be used to great effect on some of the Rebel planets that they would be paying a visit to sometime in the future. Certainly Sullust would be near the top of the list.

Eighteen Imperial Star Destroyers, divided into six groups of three apiece, along with six times that number of smaller ships and auxiliaries that composed the rest of the individual Task Groups, orbited the planet. The flagship of the group was the slightly older Imperial-II Star Destroyer Suppressor, a veteran ship with a fine crew that had seen useful time serving in the Outer-Rim Territories. Flanking either side of the flagship destroyer was the Avarice and the Agonizer, Captains Sair Yonka and Convarion commanding presently, the latter having just been promoted off an older Victory-II class destroyer. The Vice-Admiral serving under him, Tetrin Rogriss, had previously conned the Agonizer, and would be a useful subordinate to have around for discussions of tactics and hit and fade assaults, such as they were discussing.

It would be fun, hitting back at the Rebels using their own type of warfare against them. They were still selecting targets, as updated by Imperial Intelligence, but their time was drawing close. Soon, Operation Shadow Might would begin, and with it, the end of the Rebellion...

[Park Kraken]

This time, the planet assaulted had been inhabited, and in a manner of speaking, still was. It was a full blown colonized planet, with a wide variety of alien species present, mostly humanoid types. The planet had a population of fifty million, give or take a few hundred thousand, and those were pre-invasion numbers. The planet had a Planetary Defense Navy, composed of a couple of capital ships, a few customs corvettes, and several star fighter squadrons, a mixed bag of newer types and older types, with a couple of Ugly squadrons thrown into the mix.

Imperial Intelligence had indicated no ties to either the Empire or the Rebellion, which is how Admiral Kraken preferred it, for yet another shakedown cruise. This time, the star fighter and ground troop complements of the destroyers would be tested, and tested they were, in top form.

At the beginning, an Imperial Strike Cruiser and two Carrack Cruisers from one of the Task Groups had come out of hyperspace and demanded the surrender of the world and it's absorption into the Empire at large. The mission had succeeded in its primary objectives, namely the sending out of the planet's entire defense force, and the provoking of them into firing the first shots of the conflict. The Imperial Strike Cruiser's shields had held from the incoming fire of the older enemy Rendili Star drive Dreadnought class heavy cruiser long enough for the entire rest of the Imperial Fleet to micro-jump into the system and reduce the planetary defense fleet and star fighter forces to scrap metal, losing less than a squadron's worth of TIE Fighters in the process.

Then, it was the turn of the Ground Assault personnel. Each Star Destroyer had landed an Imperial Army Regiment and a Stormtrooper Regiment, roughly two thirds of what each ship carried in the way of Army Personnel. The Imperial Army, designated the Fifth Army by fleet personnel, had formed up outside the principal enemy capital city, and had proceeded to launch a stunning and overwhelming attack, supported in no smaller measure by six squadrons of TIE Scimitar Assault Bombers, the newest Imperial TIE series star fighter to enter production, replacing the TIE Bomber in its previous role.

The capital city had been leveled, and an estimated eighty percent of the population had died in the attack. Making prodigious use of speeders and shuttles, Imperial Army Brigades and Battalions had launched quick secondary strikes on the other metropolitan areas, not stopping until an estimated ninety percent of the enemy population had been brought to heel, what the mission commander would define as bringing the planet under Imperial Occupation. Roughly two thirds of the planet's population had been culled, and the rest were wounded, suffering, frightened, or captive.

The fact that this planet and its people had done nothing wrong, nothing to warrant such brutality never crossed the mind of the fleet commander. There had been a job that needed doing, and it had been accomplished. Five Planetary Garrison Bases had been deployed, and this planet would be evaluated for further possible uses apart from the original intended uses as a slave market planet for the Imperial War Machine. Their job had been accomplished in splendid detail and execution, and fewer that one hundred Imperial fatalities had been used for it.

Admiral Kraken did have one other detail, one other idea that had formed into his mind. His fleet was painted the standard Imperial White for imposing fear, but he wanted death and destruction to the symbol of his fleet. He made an entry in his data pad, stating that the fleet should be painted solid black with a crimson red Imperial crest adorning their hull. The Shadow Fleet was taking shape and form, and soon it would sneak up on the Rebellion from behind and crush it into the open and vividness of black space...

[Park Kraken]

Imperial Intelligence had pulled a real coup this time. It had started as a routine probe into sales records on a branch of the Corellian Engineering Corporation. One record in particular showed that something wasn't adding up on inventory checks between a depot planet and a distribution center for spare parts for some of the bigger capital warships and freighters that the CEC had either sold or leased to various legitimate corporations or planets with self defense navies. The local Intelligence agent had flagged the discrepancy on her report and sent it flying away to her superior.

From there it had been followed up on with a few scout ships and patrol craft patrolling the corridor, along with some local planetary authorities questioning the freighter crews that were responsible for transporting the spare parts. The patrols and questions revealed no hints of pirate attacks or goods lost to smugglers at some point in transition, nor did it appear that the crews were selling them off at some point in transition, because the freighters always arrived with full loads. Imperial Intelligence almost waved it off at that point, but a team of three agents whom had experience with a similar case in their past kept working at it, trying a few tricks here and there they had learned from the last time.

It became clear the reason for the discrepancy was because some of the parts that arrived at the destination were inspected and declared to be unsuitable for use because of worn or age, even though the parts were shipped out as being brand new. The conclusion the agents came to was that the new parts were dropped off somewhere along the line and replaced with old ones that had been previously used. None of the finance accounts of the crews showed extra credits added, and because of their devout resistance to questioning, Intelligence put a high probability on there being a Rebel connection to the missing spare parts.

Tracking the parts themselves would be too bothersome and might alert the CEC to Imperial Intelligence activities when the inspectors found the bugs on parts that made it through, and would probably kill or fire their carefully infiltrated agent(s). Therefore it was decided to bug the ships themselves, and carefully follow them to planets that didn't make sense for their itinerary to stop at in their trip to the destination worlds.

Intelligence probes had been sent to several suspect worlds, and only one of those had sent back a useful report before self-destructing. On the world of Helios, a once promising mineral mining world that turned out to only have very shallow veins quickly exploited, and then bypassed by everyone and everything else except for a small colony, a small spaceport had been discovered. Three Corellian Corvettes and two freighters, one of them a tracker freighter, had been reported and documented. Two of the Corvettes had previous pictures taken of the Rebel crest on them.

Therefore it now appeared that spare parts were transferred to the Rebel Alliance on Helios, and then used to perform maintenance on their inventory of CEC Capital warships, before the old parts were replaced and then shipped off. Intelligence looked at previous logs of freighters coming into the distribution center that had had large amounts of used parts in their inventories, and discovered three such freighters. Those ships and their crews would be seized by Imperial customs ships; with Intelligence providing the background that those freighters had been seized by pirates with the customs ships unable to intervene before the hijacked vessels made it off into hyperspace, with suitably altered holocam documents as evidence.

With that done, an Imperial Fleet would leap out of hyperspace to deal with the target planet and any Rebel forces present. Because of their current mission, Task Force Maelstrom, aka the Shadow Fleet, would be responsible for the mission. Admiral Vladimir Kraken had already been briefed on the mission and would be leading the overall fleet attack. He had decided to lead Task Group Apex personally into battle, reinforced with ten additional Carrack class Light Cruisers because of the high speed most of the smaller CEC capital warships were known to have. Another Task Group would be deployed in two parts inside of the planetary system, on either side with a pair of Interdictor cruisers, the Constrainer and the Sentinel, using their gravity well projectors to prevent any quick escapes into hyperspace. Following the destruction of any Rebel ships present, Base Delta Zero would be executed upon the world, turning it into a dead zone, unusable and unsuitable for any Rebel use after the Imperial fleet departed the planet.


* * *

Everything was proceeding according to plan. The freighters and their crews had been seized with surprise and without incident. The Interdictors were in place, and now the final pieces to solving this little local puzzle of Rebel mischief was about to be solved and put away, permanently.

Alarms erupted on the bridge of the Suppressor when she exited hyperspace, the Agonizer and the Avarice flanking her on port and starboard, with the Carracks deployed out ahead of them in a line ahead formation. Shields were raised as reports were called in of multiple contacts, a dozen being reported in total. The Rebels had scrambled their ships when the Interdictors had left hyperspace, everything except for a single Corellian Corvette that was too torn apart for maintenance to leave the landing field.

Five Corellian Corvettes and Six Corellian Gunships orbited the planet in a recently formed battle formation, with a solitary Gallofree Medium Transport staying tucked in behind them. Admiral Kraken realized that it was likely the Rebels would ship unused fresh spare parts to other planets for use on CEC ships that served in other Alliance fleets. Considering this planet's location, Intelligence's best guess was that the gunships and corvettes present here were used to escort Mon Calamari cruisers used in the Alliance Battle fleet and Defense Force operating from and guarding Mon Calamari, respectively.

Kraken ordered a minimal screen of TIE Fighters deployed to protect the Imperial ships from any enemy star fighter surprises that might crop up, but refrained from ordering any star fighters to attack. Both the corvette and especially the gunship were good at taking out Imperial fighters, and too many would be lost for too little gain.

"Order the Carrack cruisers to commence their attack run, full speed ahead. Have five of each of the fifteen light cruisers concentrate their firepower on a single corvette or gunship at a time. I want quick and clean kills for minimal losses in exchange. In the meantime, bring the destroyers to orbit over the spaceport. Charge the turbolasers, and prepare to execute Base Delta Zero," ordered Admiral Kraken.

Soon, flashes of turbolaser and ion cannon fire, spattered intermittently with the detonations of concussion missiles fired from the Rebel CEC gunships, lit up local space in the planet's orbit. It was an unfair contest to begin with and only got worse as corvettes and gunships blew up from sustained fire from several of the cruisers at once. The Empire only lost a single Carrack light cruiser, it being destroyed when a pair of gunships launched a missile strike and volleyed the weakened shield area with turbolaser fire, bringing down the shields and piercing the hull armor that set off the reactor in a chain explosion that gutted the cruiser and left her a floating wreck in space.

Five other cruisers suffered damage of some kind or another though, and a few of them would have to return to a nearby shipyard for repairs. Kraken mentally said a prayer for the crew of the Smasher, and then turned his attention to the planet below. Scans indicated five hundred people in and around the spaceport, and a further two thousand five hundred in the colony city a few kilometers away.

"Target the spaceport first, and then walk the destruction into the colony. Expand from there to kill off the survivors who flee, then begin the general bombardment to turn the world into molten slag," ordered Vladimir. The turbolasers onboard the Suppressor fired first, with the Agonizer and Avarice joining in just after the colony was leveled. Within hours the planet was dead, and by that time, all escape pods and Imperial survivors had been recovered. Including the slagged corvette on the ground, the Rebel Alliance had lost twelve valuable capital warships, one freighter, and nearly a thousand personnel, in exchange for one Imperial carrack class light cruiser destroyed and some three hundred Imperials killed in action.

Admiral Kraken was satisfied with the after action reports. He ordered the three matte black painted star destroyers to enter hyperspace, along with the rest of the two Task Groups, as he wondered where his next assignment would take him.

[Park Kraken]

Radioactive Dead Planet



Location: Near Fondor



The Suppressor's Turbolasers fell silent as the last salvo impacted into the orbital dockyard. Once perhaps belonging to a trading company to act as a relay point and interplanetary warehouse, the dockyard had been used to store some of the spare parts from the CEC Company, and when the fleet had exited hyperspace, the station had a single CEC Gunship and a flight of four X-wing class star fighters. The star fighters had fled, with one being disabled and captured with a lucky ion cannon shot from a pursuing Carrack class Light Cruiser. The remaining three had entered hyperspace, and Admiral Kraken had been hoping that it would bring some reinforcements to the party, but three hours had passed without any rapid response Alliance vessels showing up to the ball. Perhaps the X-wing had downloaded sensor content on the entire Imperial Fleet, and the Rebels decided prudence was the better course of the day? It was the correct call for them of course, but a boring call for the Imperial Fleet, which was itching for a real fight against the Rebels.

Admiral Kraken had something in the works for the Shadow Fleet, a real test for Task Force Maelstrom. It was still in the planning stages, but if the plan went ahead and the mission was a success, then his fleet's legacy, and along with it, his legacy would cemented in the hall of heroes in the Imperial Palace of Coruscant. It had been something he had been craving ever since his line of promotions had landed him as a paper pusher in a desk inside the Imperial Palace, and everyday on the way to and home from work, he had passed through the hall to see the decorated Imperial Commanders, from such as Vice Admiral Piett, who had died heroically aboard the Executor at Endor, or Rear Admiral Pelleaon, perishing with distinction onboard the Chimaera during the same said battle. No, Kraken wasn't looking for an early retirement via death in battle, but should it happen, he wished it would happen in the most glorious manner possible.

Far below him, the shattered remnants of the station descending through the atmosphere of the planet in a fireball, striking the surface with such force to cause sensor indicated earthquakes at a magnitude of 8.6 on the Riker scale. With its death, no more Rebel Forces remained within the system, the DP-20 class Gunship having died a quick and brutal death at the hands of the Avarice and Agonizer. The planet was a radioactive dead world, so no damage was done to living life on the planet, for was none left on it when the Imperial Fleet arrived. Intelligence had already picked up on more Rebel activity nearby, but his other ships would be handling that by themselves. For now, they could head to Fondor nearby for reprovision, as well as replacing their incurred losses in Star fighters and Light Cruisers.


***


Asteroid Field


A Few Systems Away From The Suppressor


The Tyrannic exited hyperspace, with the Coldheart and Crimson Cleaver taking up station on either side of her. The Interdictor Immobilizer-418 class Cruiser Constrictor was in the formation as well, and powered up her gravity wells as soon as the Task Group was fully in system. Contacts began to register as the Imperial ships prepared to engage the enemy.

"IFF reports the Bulk Transport Piett in system, along with one Bulk Cruiser, two more Bulk Transports, three CEC CR-90 class Corvettes, and about two dozen Cloakshape class Star fighters. Sensors indicate more Star fighters of the same class launching from a central Asteroid where most of the vessels are located at," Sensors Officer Mikal Gerch reported to the Captain of the Tyrannic.

Conning the Tyrannic, but wearing the rank of a Commodore, Ulandor Pershune turned from the display to the status boards of his flagship. All vessels present except for the Piett showed charging weapons and shields, which wasn't surprising, since the Piett was an unarmed freighter seized less than a day ago by what appeared to be a Pirate raid. The Corvettes hinted at a Rebel connection, but then again, CEC Corvettes were very common sights in fringe groups. Best just to follow orders and destroy the enemy vessels present, just in case.

"Order TIE Fighters to deploy. I want three squadrons to screen the Task Force, with six more TIE Fighter squadrons engaging the enemy head on. Leave the rest in reserve onboard the ships for right now. Bring the Tyrannic and Coldheart up to flank speed, and prepare to engage the enemy. The rest of the fleet will hang back in reserve and protect the Constrictor."

The Imperial Star Destroyers, one of them a newer Mark II model, the other an older Mark I swept through space towards the edge of the Asteroid Field. The Pirate ships emerged from the field to do battle, and almost all of them headed straight for the Coldheart with weapons blazing. The Coldheart opened fire with her heavy turbolaser batteries and ion cannons, focusing firepower on the two bulk freighters, which seemed to have a fair number of concussion missile launchers attached to them.

Commodore Pershune ordered the Tyrannic to focus equally on the three Corellian Corvettes, each Corvette taking fire from about fifteen each of heavy turbolaser batteries and cannons. Two of the Corvettes were destroyed or disabled almost immediately, the last having a good pilot that managed to evade the salvoes for a few minutes more, before the other turbolasers that finished with their targets swung around to help out. Then that Corvette too, was a floating lot of space junk.

Two massive explosions caught Pershune's attention, but it was just first one, and then the second Bulk Freighter exploding as the missile magazines detonated under sustained turbolaser and ion cannon barrages. That left just the Bulk Cruiser and two squadrons of Cloakshape Fighters to deal with, three squadrons of those star fighters having already been destroyed by the wing of TIE Fighters mixed up in the battle. With some surprise, the Commodore noted that the laser cannons previously embarked on the Bulk Cruiser had been replaced with heavy turbolaser cannons, and that the shields had been upgraded as well. It had actually broken through the port shields of the Coldheart, knocking out a few hull emplacements of the latter, but the cruiser had fated itself by placing itself in between the Coldheart and the Tyrannic. Seeming to pretend the latter wasn't there, the Cruiser even rolled to bring its undamaged shields to bear against the Coldheart.

Taking the open invitation like a starving lion, the Tyrannic unleashed a full broadside into the exposed starboard side of the Cruiser, the heavy turbolaser cannons blasting away hull plating while the heavy turbolaser batteries drilled deep into the ship before exploding, hurling tons of debris, parts, weapons, and people out into the cold void of space. The cruiser belatedly opened fire on the Tyrannic, but the shots didn't penetrate the destroyer's shields. On the third broadside, the cruiser lost its power, and the fifth salvo from both the Tyrannic and Coldheart saw the cruiser finally die, with a few escape pods ejecting from the dead ship. A few carefully aimed turbolaser blasts took care of the escape pods too.

With that taken care of, the Tyrannic and the Coldheart blasted the Asteroid Base from a distance, using their turbolasers to turn the base into rubble and charred wreckage. A few passes from the TIE Fighters confirmed that there were no survivors and nothing useable left. The Commodore decided to remain on station for another few hours to see if any Pirates returned home from any other raids. He wouldn't want them to not having a decent homecoming, for sure. With a smile, he turned and headed back to his quarters, thinking how nice it would be to fight some enemy that would really put a good challenge for his entire squadron. If only he knew what the Admiral was considering right now...

[Park Kraken]

Fondor Drive Yards



Location: Fondor


The lights of the Fondor Drive Yards loomed out of the darkness as Task Force Maelstrom finished forming up. The Eighteen Imperial Star Destroyers and Fifty Four smaller Capital Warships would be going into dry dock, with some of the ships being reassigned to other commands, other ships being transferred in, all of the ships reprovisioning, and a few ships being refitted here and there.

The biggest changes would be the loss of three of the Destroyers and their replacement with other ships. The Avarice had received recall orders from the sector fleet she had previously been serving in, the orders signed by the Moff of that sector himself. Replacing her in Task Group Apex would be the Imperial-II Star Destroyer Tyrannic, former flagship of one of the other Task Groups. In addition, the Imperial-I Star Destroyers Coldheart and Crimson Cleaver had been detached from his command. In addition to repairing damage inflicted upon the former, Admiral Kraken had signed orders for both of them to be upgraded to Mark III status, which would require at least a few months to complete, time that he wouldn't be sticking around for.

A new Task Group, composing of three new Imperial-III Star Destroyers would form the new Task Group Blackrose in place of three aforementioned ships. The Invincible, Inflexible, and Dominator were all old Mark-Is that had recently received the upgrades that Coldheart and Crimson Cleaver would now be getting, and were ready to serve in the Imperial Navy once more. Even better, the complement of all three ship's TIE Interceptor squadrons had the newer Mark II Interceptor model, which came with shields and a three warhead capacity torpedo launcher.

Finally, the Carrack class Light Cruisers would be refitted to where ten of their ion cannons would be replaced with AG-2G Quad Laser Cannons, giving them a far more effective anti-star fighter armament, which combined with their quick speed would make them far more useful in the anti-star fighter role than the Lancer class Frigates, of which Task Force Maelstrom had none anyways.

All of this was in preparation for a big upcoming operation. Admiral Kraken was in a conference with the other Vice Admirals and Rear Admirals that commanded various ships and Task Groups in his fleet, talking, discussing, strategizing, and going over ideas and battle plans. Something big was coming together, something that would really hurt the Rebellion. Absolute secrecy was paramount in his plan. No forewarning would be given to the Rebellion via Probe Droids or Intelligence agents inserted into the target system(s) ahead of time. No one but the Task Force leaders would know of the plans. The only request for approval to High Command was a message from Admiral Kraken asking if his current mission to continue crushing the Alliance was to continue to be given a green light, which a short reply later confirmed that it was.

With that, Operation: Shadow Might had come to a close. Several Rebellion worlds had been razed to their foundations, with various capital warships, capital enterprises, and star fighter squadrons decimated for minimal Imperial losses. In addition, Task Force Maelstrom had now been trained up to decent operating standards with the newly integrated crews. Now it was time for the serious work to begin. Now, Operation: Shadowstalker could begin in earnest.


The End