9.050 ABY - Operation: Shadow Strike (Sullust)

[Park Kraken]

Two weeks after the events of Operation: Shadow Might



Near Fondor


The Dark Wedges of sleek destruction slid effortlessly through the blackness of deep space, almost invisible but for the twinkling of hundreds of stars emanating from them, the lights flowing through the viewports dotting the ships. Imperial Star Destroyers, eighteen of them total, all painted a matte black that sharply contrasted with the white of most Destroyers, were in a chevron formation. A passing review, in formation with the other more conventionally painted vessels of the fleet. Six Imperial Strike class Medium Cruisers and three Imperial Interdictor Cruisers, painted the conventional white, followed by nine Dreadnought class Heavy Cruisers painted an older gray, and finally the thirty six Carrack class Light Cruisers, intermixed within the formation and painted their standard white with red stripes. TIE Series Star fighters, easily a hundred squadrons of TIE Fighters, TIE Bombers, TIE Interceptors, and a few of the newer TIE Interceptor Mk II models, all black and navy blue roared here and there in wing pairs of two and flights of four.

It was an impressive show of firepower, perhaps not as great as that boasted by the Endor Fleet, but perhaps more competent in destructive capability. The fleet didn't contain a Super Star Destroyer, or six more Imperial Star Destroyers perhaps, but it did have many smaller capital ships that would be able to parry the Rebel Alliance's motley collection of smaller capital warships and converted freighters, leaving the Destroyers free to pounce on the more formidable targets.

'Build big and quality and your opponent will counter with small and quantity. Vice Versa will be true. The best bet is to mix the two together, which is what Task Force Maelstrom will represent...'

This thought came from the overall Commander of the Shadow Fleet, as it was nicknamed, Admiral Vladimir Park Kraken, known outside of his friends simply as Park Kraken. Ever since his departure from the tenures of paper pushing in the Imperial Capital, he had rotated through several commands, and had bore testament to first improving the overall structure of the Imperial Fleet to better deal with the Rebel Alliance, and then had commanded more personal missions that had led to the destruction at first of pirates and smugglers trying to profit off the Empire's misfortunes, and then had entered into direct combat of the Alliance. Which led him to the here and now.

The vessels of the Shadow Fleet had been a mix of new construction, and ships drawn from either backwater worlds or quietly secreted away from defense fleets where the absence or one or two vessels probably wouldn't be noticed. In some cases, the vessels he had drawn away had been replaced by vessels from his previous commands. For example, two of the Imperial Star Destroyers had been drawn from the Fondor Shipyards Defense Fleet of five Imperial Star Destroyers. Those vessels would have been missed, so a pair of Victory Star Destroyers, one each of the newer Mark III and Mark IV models had been reassigned to the Defense Fleet. It was still weaker than before, but should still be adequate to defend the shipyards from Rebel attack.

His fleet had gone through the rigors of combat and trial, losing a few of the smaller capital ships and some star fighter squadrons here and there. But in exchange for those easily replaceable losses, his fleet was now well coordinated in working with one another, and had tasted the delicious scent of victory over the Rebel Alliance, and of winning battles themselves. The lessons of defeat hadn't been learned yet, but then again, Admiral Kraken wasn't planning to lose, not with a fleet this large and well trained.

His latest plan called for a strike on an important Rebel planet, one with shipyards and factories that aided the Alliance greatly with star fighters and starships for their planetary invasion fleets. One world in particular had come to mind, something that would offer excellent revenge for their role in the Battle of Endor, and would serve as an abject lesson to the Rebellion as to who exactly was still the greatest Empire in this galaxy.

Yes, he had a plan, and it was an excellent one. No forewarning of the operation would be sent to the Rebellion...nor to High Command. The only approval of his plans had come in the form he had submitted to High Command, asking if his primary mission of crushing the Alliance was still on. He had received and affirmative, and so had set this plan into motion. He would be relying mostly on brute strength for this mission. No Imperial Intelligence operatives would be sent in ahead of time, and thus no forewarning would be issued to the Rebels that the Imperials had an increased interest in Sullust should any agents be discovered and captured. No probots or TIE Scouts would do a flyby of the system. Park was counting on sheer surprise and overwhelming firepower to win the day for the Imperial Fleet. That and a little something else he was cooking up as a precursor to the main assault.

Orders were sent out to the various Task Groups. Three of the Task Groups, his own included, were dispatched to a place near Sullust, to await the timing for the time of the main attack. The other three Task Groups received the specific orders to proceed with their assigned missions. Even if the series of decoy strikes about to be undertaken failed in their primary mission of drawing Rebel Defenders away from Sullust, a great deal of useful destruction would be dealt to the Alliance's economy.

As the fleet entered hyperspace, Admiral Kraken tried to calm his nerves. They were committed now, and soon the first phase of what could be the breaking of the Rebellion was about to commence.

[Park Kraken]

Location: Clak'Dor System



The Imperial Star Destroyer Mk II Iron Hand exited hyperspace, with her earlier Mk I sisters the Hammerblow and Velvet Sunderer flanking her on either side. Out ahead of the three destroyers, one Dreadnought and two Carrack class Light Cruisers each dropped out at the three main exit and entry vectors for Clak'Dor IV, the target of the Imperial Mission. This was one of many planets that had up and joined the Rebellion after the Battle of Endor, declaring it's allegiance from an Empire that was at the time in too much disarray to do anything about it. An Imperial response was long overdue, and in fitting with Admiral Kraken's plans, this system would be one of three to feel the brunt of it.

Task Group Stalker, as it was named, was commanded by Rear Admiral Bruno Craydock, who had hoisted his flag onboard the Iron Hand. He was a very determined and competent commander, who's only vice, was a determination to fight on even if he was heavily outnumbered. He didn't know the meaning of the term withdrawal or retreat, even if it was in a strategic rather than a cowardly or fearful sense. Although that vice had cost his previous commands heavily, including the Imperial Star Destroyer Inexorable, destroyed shortly after Endor by an attacking force of Rebel Star fighters that had demolished his Star fighter wing beforehand, it would not be a problem for him here today.

Although the planetary system had joined the Rebellion, its usefulness was limited, having not been fully integrated into the Rebellion as of yet. War material, mainly in the form of foodstuffs and raw supplies, were shipped out to Alliance forces, including of the latter to Sullust in the form of metals and equipment for use in the latter's factories and shipyards. In having yet to decide the main purpose of the world in the grand scheme of things, the defense force that would ultimately be tasked to the planet hadn't yet been assembled. That meant that only patrol and perhaps a few sector fleet ships would be present in the way of combat vessels, unless the sector's pirates were troublesome enough for convoys and their escorts to be deemed necessary for this area of space.

Early on the Dreadnought Bellerophen and her Carrack Cruisers Molten Menace and Shadow's Touch reported an engagement ongoing with a modified Marauder Corvette, apparently oriented towards system patrolling duties. The Marauder had deployed a squadron of older Z-95 Headhunters, but the anti-star fighter weaponry of the Carrack Cruisers and the nearly two squadrons of TIE Fighters present meant the engagement was being handled well. On another vector, the Dreadnought Imperial Tempest and her two Cruisers had each gone after one of three freighters caught all alone, while the third vector saw no action at all, at least for the time being.

The three Star Destroyers took enough of a sedately approach to the main planet as to allow the defenders to concentrate their strength into one area, which is precisely what Craydock wanted them to do. IFF reports came in identifying one Corellian Corvette, two Corellian Gunships, three Gallofree Medium Transports, and a dozen Bulk Freighters forming up into combat formations. Scans revealed that even the latter had minimal armaments of some kind or another, whatever little good that would do them. In addition, roughly five squadrons of star fighters were detected, consisting of two squadrons of X-wings, two squadrons of Y-wings, and one squadron of Cloakshape Fighters.

So those were the pieces the Rebellion had on the board. Very well then, Admiral Craydock moved to counter them. The Hammerblow and Velvet Sunderer were ordered ahead to engage the main enemy force, the two destroyers deploying three squadrons of TIE Fighters each to engage and eliminate the enemy Star fighters. In the meantime, the Iron Hand came about to head over towards the planet itself, and it's most populated cities. Craydock ordered his Destroyers to full speed ahead, knowing that there was a time limit attached to this operation. Having finished their engagements, his Dreadnoughts and Carrack Cruisers were already recovering their TIE Fighters and preparing for their jump into hyperspace.

Turbolaser and Ion Cannon flashes light up space off to the right of the Iron Hand as the two Mark I Star Destroyers engaged the defenders. The latter responded with their own turbolasers, missiles, and laser cannons as the two screens of star fighters engaged one another. Skirting around the edge of the engagement, watching as freighter after freighter was disabled and destroyed by concentrated turbolaser volleys, the Iron Hand achieved proper orbit over Clak'Dor IV and proceeded to unleash a turbolaser bombardment upon the primary capital city, deployed two squadrons of TIE Fighters and the single squadron of TIE Bombers to either strafe or bomb secondary cities and targets of importance.

By the time that the Iron Hand had made a single orbit around the planet, the defending Alliance Fleet had been disposed of, with nothing but wreckage remaining of their pitiful defense fleet. The Hammerblow showed some damage to her port flank where volleys of torpedoes and missiles from the star fighters and gunships had punched through, but the ship's captain reported neglible damage to the ship's fighting integrity. Having recovered the TIE Fighters and TIE Bombers, the Iron Hand formed up with her two companion ships and made for deep space, waiting to launch into hyperspace. Clak'Dor IV's Capital City lay in burning and smoldering ruin, and the rest of the planet was largely blacked out after the power planets were destroyed in bomber attacks. Other cities also burned in the darkness on the far side of the planet.

Having achieved his objective, Admiral Craydock studied the reports from his Task Group. All together, in exchange for the destruction of a half dozen small capital starships and perhaps three times that number in freighters, along with six squadrons of enemy Star fighters, the Imperial Squadron had taken damage to one Star Destroyer and one Carrack class Cruiser, and lost roughly two squadrons worth of TIE Fighters. Deeply satisfied with the reports, Craydock glanced up just as the matte black painted Star Destroyers entered hyperspace, bound for their rendezvous with the rest of Task Force Maelstrom.

[Park Kraken]

Location: Sluis Van System



Of the three diversionary attacks, this was the most risky, a diversionary attack on the shipping of another Alliance Shipyard planet. Task Group Fearsome drew this assignment, and was under strict orders not to engage any significant Alliance vessels present. Rear Admiral Ton Cavour had no problems obeying those orders, not wanting to see his precious fleet damaged before the big battle was to take place.

The fleet had divided up into three groups, each group containing one Imperial Star Destroyer, one Dreadnought, and two Carrack class Light Cruisers. Cavour commanded the central group from his flagship, the Mark II Imperial Star Destroyer Superior. Off the bow of his vessel was the Dreadnought class Heavy Cruiser Tyrant's Broadside, with the Carrack Cruisers Swift Kill and Shadowcleft forming up the diamond formation in their flanking positions. The TIE Fighters from the Dreadnought and two Light Cruisers formed into a screen around the group, the nearly two full squadrons hanging back in defense while the Superior's own complement of three squadrons of TIE Fighters, two squadrons of TIE Interceptors, and one squadron of TIE Bombers took off towards the shipyards, heading out to engage the Rebel Star fighters emerging to defend the facility.

His force had more immediate concerns however, as a Rebel Assault Frigate and a squadron of X-wing class Star fighters was fast approaching from port. IFF told Cavour that this frigate was formerly known as an Imperial Dreadnought called the Virulence, captured by the Rebellion sometime around the Battle of Hoth. Obviously one of many Dreadnoughts converted into the Assault Frigate class, the ship now bore the name of the Congress, and drew into cannon range of the Tyrant's Broadside, both ships lighting up with turbolaser fire, and as they drew closer together, laser cannon fire. The X-wing Squadron engaged the twenty TIE Fighters in a criss-crossing duel, with the two Carrack cruisers moving in to support the Fighters.

The Superior came up along the port side of the Tyrant's Broadside, and moved to engage the Congress on her starboard side. This meant that the Rebel Assault Frigate could unleash all of her weaponry on both of the Imperial ships, but now she was being assaulted from two sides, and couldn't roll to bring any undamaged shields to bear. Rear Admiral Cavour looked down at the sensor display to see three more squadrons of X-wings engaging his Star fighter attack force, with two more Assault Frigates and a Mon Calamari Cruiser starting to depart the shipyards to come to the aid of the Congress. Cavour knew he would be outgunned by the time those ships arrived, so he decided on a course of action. He issued a recall order to his TIE Star fighter Assault Force, ordering them to return home as actions with the X-wings permitted it, and stepped up the attack on the Congress.

By the time his Star fighter force had defeated the X-wings, with nine survivors from the three squadrons retreating to join up with star fighter squadrons incoming from the approaching Mon Cal cruiser, the Congress was a floating wreck. She hadn't exploded a testament to her tough armor and lack of explosive elements present on the ship, apart from the reactor core which had probably been scrammed to avoid a runaway reaction. But she was a corpse of a ship otherwise, no power present, most weaponry disabled or destroyed and multiple hull breaches all along her length, with debris and some escape pods meandering around the Congress. While she could be dragged back into the shipyards and repaired, it would be a lengthy refit. The X-wing squadron that had been escorting it was destroyed, in exchange for the loss of eight TIE Fighters. Of the squadrons returning back to the Superior, ten TIE Interceptors and sixteen TIE Fighters had been lost, along with three TIE Bombers. Heavy losses, but acceptable for the overall mission margin of error.

Admiral Cavour issued the withdrawal orders to all three groups, receiving acknowledgements from the Captains of the Destroyers Freedom's Bane and Viral Legion. Those two groups had to deal mainly with freighters and other intra-system traffic, disabling or destroying some twenty ships in exchange for a few TIE Fighters damaged or destroyed by the weaponry of some of the freighters. With a flash of igniting hyper drive engines, the twelve ships of Task Group Fearsome jumped into hyperspace, leaving a trail of destruction and confusion in their wake.

[Park Kraken]

Location: Sululluub Asteroid Belt




The third diversionary attack, while not necessarily as dangerous as the second one, still held some risk. For the attack was taking place in the same planetary system as the main target world, but there was reasoning in doing this. It was entirely possible that the Rebels would smell a trap if three different planets were attacked in the same general area within roughly the same time period, that indeed these could be decoy attacks in preparation for a larger offensive somewhere in the same region. If that was the case, the attack on the Sululluub Asteroid Belt in the Sullust area was meant to diffuse any suspicion that Sullust might be the true target of the Imperial Offensive.

Rear Admiral Von Markor was the command of Task Group Terror, conning the Imperial Star Destroyer Mark II Dragon's Claw personally, so named after the fearsome Krayt Dragons of Tatooine. The companion Destroyers that flanked his flagship were the older Mark I Star Destroyers Dominator and Doombringer, with three Dreadnoughts and six Carrack class Light Cruisers deployed as an advance screen on the other side of the Asteroid Belt. Inside of the belt, as well as outside and along it were several smelting stations, dissemblers and mining ships, and transports taking the smelted raw materials from the belt to the factories on nearby Sullust.

The three Destroyers immediately deployed their TIE Fighters, three squadrons each, to commence attack on miners, and other vessels inside the asteroid belt, while the Destroyers themselves moved to attack the Smelting and Cargo Stations themselves. Believing the course to be the lesser of two evils, the freighters and transports fled out the belt into the awaiting Dreadnoughts and Carracks, which engaged them with vigor. The stations didn't last long, concentrated turbolaser volleys from the three Destroyers blasting through the shields which protected them primarily from wayward asteroids, and then turning the stations into so much scrap metal.

The TIE Fighters in the meantime had a field day in the Asteroid Belt, losing only a few Star fighters to collisions with the Asteroids themselves while they blasted the miners and other vessels into pieces. With that accomplished the star fighters withdrew from the treacherous belt back to their home vessels, which were now outbound after having finished off the stations. The Dreadnoughts and Light Cruisers were outbound as well, having finished off the freighters. A solitary TIE Fighter from the latter group was destroyed by a Quad Laser blast from one of the freighters, the only loss incurred through enemy action. Including the three TIE Fighters lost in the Belt, that brought total Imperial losses to only a flight of four TIE Fighters, with Rebel losses amounting to six stations, four of them smelters and two cargo transfer docks, along with some thirty mining and blasting craft and perhaps a dozen cargo ships and transports.

The final diversionary attack had been finished. Three Task Groups had each attacked different targets at roughly the same time, and would now be withdrawing Core-ward from the attack points, their vectors roughly aligned where Fondor would be at, farther up the Corellian Trade Spine. The die had now been cast, and even if the Rebels didn't dance to the tune that Admiral Vladimir Park Kraken had strung out for them, a great deal of destruction had been done and terror inspired for minimal losses, an outcome that was a victory in of itself.

[Park Kraken]

Location: Sullust System


Lights and stars in the distance flickered, as if something incredibly fast was streaking by them. Those flickers grew more intense, and then finally the stars themselves disappeared as vessels emerging from hyperspace blocked them out completely. Alarms onboard Alliance Battle stations and the Shipyards began ringing incessantly as the Imperial Armada formed up into combat groups and began advancing upon their position.

Onboard the Imperial Mark II Star Destroyer Suppressor, Admiral Vladimir Kraken silenced the alarm klaxons onboard his flagship with a wave of his hand. His gaze swept across the unhurried crew on the bridge going about their assigned tasks, and then out the viewport at the yellowish planet ahead of them, and the distant forms of the orbital shipyards and space stations ringing around the orbit of the planet.

The Eighteen Imperial Star Destroyers of Task Force Maelstrom had formed into their six independent Task Group formations, six chevron wedges forming an overall line ahead formation. Out ahead of the Destroyers were six of the Dreadnoughts, along with the six Strike class Medium Cruisers and thirty of the Carrack class Light Cruisers. In the middle of the formation, between the screen and the main capital ships, sat the three Interdictor Cruisers, along with an escort of three Dreadnoughts and the remaining six Carrack class Light Cruisers.

Without having to be ordered to, going by the rehearsed plan, the TIE Squadrons were being launched by the respective ships. Rebel Defenders were being detected rising from the surface of Sullust, and deploying from a pair of Golan II Battle stations orbiting near the Shipyards. Other vessels, vessels or armed freighters that didn't react to the decoy attacks executed a half standard day earlier, also deployed whatever they had onboard in the way of Fighter craft.

"Skirmish screen is to proceed to attack speed. Their orders are to engage any enemy ships and the Rebel Star fighters. The Interdiction line will fall behind the Main Body to a distance of five kilometers to screen us from any Rebel ships returning from deployment missions to the decoy worlds. The Main Body is to accelerate to attack speed and commence attack on the Orbital Facilities, followed by the planet itself," ordered Admiral Kraken.

He received a list of acknowledgements from his subordinate vice and Rear Admirals as they clicked off. The Dreadnoughts, Strike Cruisers, Carrack Cruisers, and some sixteen squadrons of TIE Fighters of the Skirmish Screen accelerated to Attack Speed as they surged ahead to engage the Rebel Defenders coming up and out from Sullust. IFF scans showed a number of Sorosuub capital ships, and several squadrons of Star fighters, mostly A-wings it appeared. A few armed freighters and an odd capital ship of other origin here and there that most likely put in to Sullust for repairs or refit was also present.

While the Skirmish Screen was accomplishing this, the Main Body swung clear of the engagement and headed for the Orbital Space Stations, Shipyards, and Battle Stations. A few Star Fighter squadrons, latecomers to the big engagement, swung around to head for this new threat encroaching on their territory.

"Destroyers from Task Groups Stalker and Predator are to detach from the Main Body to attack the two Golan II Battle Platforms. The remaining four Task Groups are to remain in formation to commence attack on the Shipyard and Orbital Space Station platforms," ordered Admiral Kraken.

His gloved hands curled into fists as he glanced left and right at the displays and the viewports to witness the battles taking place. His Skirmish Screen was heavily engaged now, inflicting and taking losses as they battled the Rebel Defenders. Already a goodly number of Star Fighters on each side had been destroyed or disabled and pieces of debris began to fall away from the capital warships as they proceeded into a deadly slugging match.

The Imperial Star Destroyers Obliterator, Punisher, and Razor of Task Group Predator spread out into a loose wedge as they approached the first Golan II Platform. Each Destroyer had deployed a squadron of TIE Interceptors and two squadrons of TIE Fighters, which engaged the latecomers to the party, squadrons of older Y-wings, Z-95 Headhunters, Cloakshape Fighters, and even a few ARC-190s. The former had the advantage in maneuverability and numbers, the latter in shields and stand off weapons. Explosions from Proton Torpedoes and Concussion Missiles signaled the death of several TIE Star fighters, and then the two groups were intermixed as more explosions continued to erupt in the area.

The Obliterator fired a ranging shot against the Golan II, which responded in kind. The other two Destroyers fired their own ranging shots as well as the range closed. When the range closed to the popularly termed kill zone, the range at which the weapons were finally effective, all three Destroyers and the Battle station unleashed most of their complements of weaponry. The station was taking fire from over three hundred weapon emplacements, most of them heavy turbolasers, but was giving back an equal amount of punishment on the three Destroyers with some fifty heavy turbolasers and an alike number of Proton Torpedo Launchers.

A similar story was being laid out a fair distance away, where the Imperial Star Destroyers Iron Hand, Hammerblow, and Velvet Sunderer reached the engagement zone with their target Battle station. Here the battle was similar in a fashion, except there were far fewer Alliance Star fighters present, with the outcome being that the Imperial Fighters were free to strafe and attack the Golan Station itself. Although this station was in more danger of being destroyed quickly, its commander had enough experience and foresight to concentrate all of his weapons on a single Destroyer at a time, with the Velvet Sunderer taking an absolute pounding that it wouldn't be able to sustain for long.

Passing in between the two Battle station engagement zones came the remaining twelve Imperial Star Destroyers of the Shadow Fleet, their black hulls contrasting sharply with the yellowish planet below and the gleaming white and gray surfaces of the stations around them. Hundreds of TIE Fighters, Interceptors, Interceptor Mk IIs, and the debut of the brand new TIE Scimitar Assault Bombers issued from these ships to commence attacks on the smaller stations, while the Destroyers headed for the biggest stations and shipyards themselves.

Admiral Kraken smiled fondly as he viewed the various capital ships and other vessels under construction, refit, repair, or maintenance, trapped within the slipways, helpless against the might of his fleet. An officer walked up to him from the crew pits below, his expression likewise smiling slightly.

"Admiral, our weapons are reporting locked on targets."

"Excellent. You may commence fire when ready. Broadside salvoes only, I want our shots to be very effective and very very deadly," ordered Kraken.

The officer relayed the order, and for a moment, nothing happened. Then space outside the flagship lit up as the Suppressor fired her full weapons complement all at once. Two Shipyard Slips, one to port, and another to starboard, were the targets, each one receiving the concentrated firepower of Twenty Five Heavy Turbolaser Batteries and Twenty One Heavy Turbolaser Cannons, plus Nine Heavy Ion Cannons. These salvoes brought shocking and awe inspiring amounts of destruction to the stations they targeted, the damage being multiplied as the other Destroyers in formation unleashed their own broadsides.

In just a minute, they had reduced one entire Shipyard, its forty slips with about half of them being occupied with now holed and burning ships, into a ruin of molten scrap metal that began to break apart as it succumbed to the gravitational pull of the planet below. Already sparks in the planetary shields began to appear as the first pieces of the former Shipyard began to impact. Admiral Kraken reminded himself this was just the beginning, and soon the shield would be greatly weakened, highly susceptible to a Planetary Bombardment that would see an untold amount of destruction done to the Factories and cities on the planet below.

"Status report," demanded Admiral Kraken. After a few moments of gathering data, the Captain turned around and came over to confer with him.

"Skirmish screen is heavily engaged with defending Alliance vessels. A few enemy capital class ships have sustained heavy damage, but we've suffered some losses among our Carrack class Cruisers, and the Strike Cruisers are starting to feel a few effects as well. TIE Squadron losses are about on par with their own Star fighter losses thanks to the efforts of the Carracks. The Interdiction Group has reported no problems, while amongst our own Group, the Imperial Star Destroyer Velvet Sunderer has taken heavy damage from the one Golan II Platform, with the other five engaged ISDs reporting only minimal to no damage. Star fighter losses are a little more serious here, but are tenable at the moment," reported the Captain.

"Hmm, we're proceeding according to plan then, and even coming out ahead a little bit. Let's step up the attack then, and prepare to launch our assault against their planetary surface. Have our tractor beams go ahead and start dragging the larger pieces of shipyard debris into collision courses with the planetary shields," ordered Admiral Kraken.

Alarms began hooting on the bridge of the Suppressor again, but this time the sensors officer didn't need to be told to deactivate them.

"Report."

"Sir, Interdiction Group reports three groups of Alliance vessels dropping out of hyperspace. One from the direction of the in-system Asteroid Field, the other two on courses from Clak'Dor IV and Sluis Van!" reported the sensors and communications officers.

"Hmm, the reinforcements sent to the decoy planets and installations we attacked. Some of them must have already been enroute back here when the distress call came. No matter, detach the Destroyers from Task Groups Hunter, Terror, and Fearsome to engage one each of the newly arrived Alliance Forces. Task Group Apex will continue the attack against the enemy shipyards," ordered Admiral Kraken.

He watched as nine of the twelve Imperial Star Destroyers in formation of the Main Body broke off, three of each heading off on a separate vector to engage the newcomers to the party, with squadrons of TIE Fighters and TIE Interceptors already boiling from their hangar bays.

[Reshmar]

General Rub Dabba Stood looking out at the imperial fleet from the bridge of the Tiderunner. He slammed his fist on the control panel before him and cursed.

“Frak, I should have known. I was such a fool!”

Dabba had been ordered to Sluis Van but Governor Kilba. He had started to protest but his fear for the ship yards over Sluis Van over powered the gut feeling he had to stay. Now An imperial fleet lay between him and his home.

“Set fleet condition red commander. Open a channel to the Gallant and Yammari.”

General Dabba waited until the communications officer informed him the channel was open. Two halo projections appeared before Dabba; one a human female, the other a sullustian male. Both had served with Dabba since his promotion to Sullustian Defense Command.

“Captain Nubba, Captain Tetania, I assume comms will be jammed soon so lets not waste time. I am sure the planet has sent out a distress signal. I have also sent one out. Elements of Task Force 42 are inbound now as well as three other battle groups. We have to engage and keep the imperials busy long enough for help to arrive.”

Both commanders listened to Dabba’s plan. The saluted and the channel was closed. Each knew their assignment and the impossible chore they had been given.

Tetania’s group, moving in from the Asteroids, was the closest of the group and the lightest. The Frigate Yammari and her four gunship escort had little hope of engaging the imperials. Her mission was instead to turn and move outside the engagement zone and begin rescue operations. The corvettes and the squadron of X-wings supported by Yammari had been deployed to screen the frigate from incoming fighters. Four shuttles had been accompanying the group had been ordered to dock with Yammari to make preparations for rescue and recovery operations. The group broke course and turned to move away from the Destroyers moving to engage.

Captain Nubba’s force had been orders to Clak’Dor IV when the planet was attacked. Now it, like Tiderunner and its group, had returned to find Sallust under full attack. The Gallant and its escorts slowed speed to launch fighters before the engagement. The destroyers were closing and would be upon them before all of the fighters could be launched if the group continued at full speed. The Gallant’s complement of X-wings were now being launch to join the squadron of A-wings and the squadron of Y-wings supported by the Torrent. Three gunship’s moved up in front of the group and prepared to intercept the fighters moving in to attack the group.

General Dabba’s group, consisting of the Tiderunner, the Fortella, and three gunship’s moved in at full speed to engage the group of destroyers moving in. two squadrons of X-wings and six B-wings were being rushed into launch position as the cruiser closed to weapons range with the imperial group. As they moved closer the three gunship’s let lose a salvo of heavy missiles and broke left before entering weapons range of the destroyer. Dabba was waiting for the weapons officer to inform him they were in weapons range, this did not happen. The indication came as the lead destroyer opened fire on the cruiser.

“Return fire!”

Battle had been joined. Now it was a matter of survival.

[Park Kraken]

Sullust Orbit

A section of the planetary shield glowed a brilliant blue as thousands of turbolaser bolts struck home, a heavy bombardment launched by three Imperial Star Destroyers. The bombardment ceased for a moment as several large constructs blocked the path, but this was only several large skeletal remains that used to be a part of the shipyards orbiting above Sullust. The shipyards struck the heavily damaged shield, shattering it as several power stations on the planet below exploded from the energy feedback of the overloaded shield generators. The explosions themselves appeared little different from the volcanic eruptions that was a normal part of life on Sullust, sans the deaths of the people manning the stations.

"Target the star fighter production facilities first. Once those are either gone or heavily damaged, switch to the munitions factories. Warehouses for finished product should be third, with targets of opportunity coming in the form of loading docks and any residential type buildings located above ground. All ships, commence firing," ordered Admiral Kraken.

Unlike the initial bombardment against the planetary shields, when the Suppressor, Agonizer, and Tyrannic had focused all their firepower on one spot, now the turbolaser fire was scattered, with groups of three and four turbolaser batteries and cannons each aiming at one building or complex. With advance warning the Sullustans had taken cover in their warrens and tunnels underground, so casualties weren't as high as Admiral Kraken would've liked, but great destruction was still wrought upon the factories and depots, with occasional lucky strikes penetrating the bedrock to superheat some warrens and steam some Sullustans and others to death, and in other cases tunnels collapsing, burying others alive.

The course the destroyers adjusted themselves to kept them over the same area of planet, as TIE Bombers escorted by some Fighters entered the atmosphere to bomb the projectors in the next section of planet, keeping the shields down in the next bombardment zone. Some resistance was encountered by laser and missile emplacements on the surface, as well as some smaller vessels and atmospheric fighters and patrol craft, but these were largely dealt with in exchange for minimal losses. Task Group Apex was joined by the three Destroyers of Predator and two Destroyers of Stalker a few minutes later as they joined up from the destruction of the two Golan Battle Platforms. Twin detonations occurred on the far side of the planet as the stations impacted with the planetary shields on that side of the planet.

Admiral Kraken glanced at the tracking display, noting the absence of a destroyer in Stalker and that it was the Velvet Sunderer. Out of curiosity as to the fate of the ship more than anything else, he opened a channel to the Commander of Task Group Stalker.

"Rear Admiral Craydock, I notice the lack of Velvet Sunderer in your Task Group. What has become of the ship?"

"Admiral Kraken, I regret to inform you sir of the loss of Velvet Sunderer. She was crippled in the engagement with the Golan Battle station and abandoned by her crew, all of whom were rescued by the other Destroyers in the Task Group. Before he left, the Captain did activate the self-destruct onboard the Destroyer, set to thirty minutes, which is when the Rebel salvagers should just be getting onboard the Sunderer."

"Excellent, most excellent. Sad news for the loss of the vessel, but I will see that Captain promoted for his quick thinking in the face of adverse conditions, we need more commanders like those in charge of our Task Groups. Very well then, she was a heavy loss, but we expected to lose at least three Destroyers in this big operation Craydock, so don't worry about it, just do your best to avenge her loss," commented Kraken. Later he could come down hard on the Rear Admiral, but not now, not in the heat of battle.

"Yes Admiral Kraken, Craydock out," the image of the Rear Admiral didn't show any signs of undue stress as it faded away.

"Admiral, message from Falcon Squadron, the next sector of Planetary Shields has been destroyed. Initial losses appear to be about a dozen TIE Bombers and six TIE Fighters, with another two Bombers and a Fighter damaged."

"Good, move us into position for the next phase of the bombardment, have our companion vessels likewise cease fire to allow their barrels to cool off. We'll keep up an Ion Cannon bombardment and have our TIEs continue to harass their weaponry emplacements. How goes the rest of the battle?" asked Admiral Kraken.

"Having finished with the Golan Battle Platforms, the remaining five Destroyers of Task Groups Predator and Stalker are on course to join with us, which will give us eight Star Destroyers for the next sector of bombardment. The nine Star Destroyers of Task Groups Hunter, Fearsome, and Terror are pulling away from the planet to head out and engage the three incoming Rebel Task Forces. Along the way they've destroyed or heavily damaged any additional shipyards that we missed either by way of orbit. The skirmish screen is still heavily engaged with the Rebel Defense forces, although the latter are beginning to suffer heavy casualties and have mostly capital ships left, while the Interdiction group is still safe."

Park reviewed the various holo representations of the battle. Some of the dreadnoughts and strike cruisers were heavily damaged or crippled, along with several Carrack class Cruisers, in the Skirmish Screen, but the Sullustians had only three Sorosuub capital ships left, all three of which were showing signs of moderate to heavy damage, along with a couple squadrons worth of star fighters. An additional six smaller Sullustians warships and a ton of star fighter debris marked the other remnants of the planetary defense forces that had remained behind when the decoy attacks took place.

"Sir, the incoming Rebels have engaged our Destroyers," spoke up the captain. Park turned to see flashes of explosions and turbolaser fire coming from the feeds of those ships. Two of those groups would quickly be demolished, but the third with a Mon Calamari cruiser might linger for a while. Either way he shouldn’t need to pay too much attention.

[Reshmar]

General Dabba held onto the rail as a full salvo from the lead destroyer pounded the shielding. The Imperials had reached weapons range and opened on the Tiderunner. Her lighter weapons did not have the reach of the heavy turbo laser but at this distance the larger weapons accuracy was not good. The Larger weapons on the Fortella had opened fire immediately as the order was given. Heavy Turbo lasers bolts and massive ion cannon bolts lunged out at the oncoming vessels. Dabba attempted to screen the smaller Munificent frigate from the fire of the approaching ship while attempting to leave its firing arch open to engage the destroyer. From behind the hear Commander Kernt discussing something with the sensor officer.

“What is going on Commander?”

The officer turned to look at the sullustian general. He had the sensor officer patch the new info to the projector displaying a small representation of the battle. Each Destroyer was highlighted in red as was every imperial ship in the system. Other green shapes were what little the Alliance had left. Smaller red and green dots represented fighters. A large pockets of fighters engaged near the skirmish line formed by a large group of Imperial escorts. Other smaller pockets of mixed red and green fighters were spread out over most of the battle. Then like a beacon a group of all red dots came online moving away from Sulon to engage the destroyers.

“Sir we have word from Sulon Command. They have launched their fighters and request orders.”

General Brecklin must have held his fighters back to defend Sulon. General Dabba had mixed feelings about that. His group could have helped defend the yards but they would not have been enough to make a difference at the time. Maybe now with the combined forces of Sulons fighter wing and his they could get into this fight and make a difference.

“Inform General Brecklin he has fighter ops. Patch our wing into his command and have them group up with his people and hit those destroyers hard.”

Another salvo impacted the shields of Tiderunner shaking the ship more then the internal compensator could manage. He sat in the command chair centered on the bridge. The rotating chair could give him full access to all the view ports and displays on the command deck. It also kept him from falling down.

“Have all gunners concentrate fire on that lead destroyer. Send word to our gunship’s, have them unload their missiles, and then assist General Brecklin and his fighters.”

Officer went to work carrying out their orders. The continuous thud of turbo lasers faded into the noise of orders and reports being shouted across the deck. A display to Dabba’s left caught his eye. Captain Tetania’s group was not doing well.

The Nebulon B Frigate has nearly shield less and the small gunship’s had done all they could to draw attention away from the frigate. They had fired all their missiles at the lead destroyer in the group engaging the Yammari. The frigate had fired on the ship in the hopes that the weapons of the frigate and the missiles would breach the destroyers shielding. The shielding seemed to have fallen for a moment then flickers and came back up. Captain Tetania had no choice to order her crew to abandon the Yammari. He frigate had survived Endor and seven battles since. Tetania had hoped for promotion soon. Now it seemed fate had other plans.


Captain Nubba’s force had faired a bit better. It had been further away from the battle when it reverted from hyperspace. The Gallant and her escorts were just now engaging the destroyers sent to deal with them. Nubba was monitoring the battle and watched as the Yammari began to list and fall away from the battle. He averted his eyes as a bright flash lit up the screen. Yammari had exploded as a salvo of heavy turbo lasers hit her amidships. The flash cleared and the image of the aft engines remained. The forward section of the frigate had been reduced to scrap by the heavy weapons and the explosion of the ship. The two sections feel away from each other pulled by Sallust’s Gravity and their own inertial force..

Captain Dabba had witnessed the death of his friend. She had been a good commander, now she like so many more would be nothing but a list of losses in this battle. He would see to her family and that she be remembered for who she was and the good she did for the Alliance.

[Park Kraken]

Task Group Hunter, Sullust System

Rear Admiral Maximilian Van Haushen watched as his ships pounded the enemy Rebel Task Force. All three of his Destroyers were the newly upgraded Mark III models, rebuilds of the old Mk I's, featuring updated shields, weaponry, and replacing most of their ground and shuttle complement with an additional four star fighter squadrons, bringing their total squadron count to ten per a ship. However, only about six squadrons were currently deployed, only to counter the three enemy star fighter squadrons from the frigate and dreadnought.

Currently he had his flagship, the Right to Rule, targeting the enemy Dreadnought, pounding it with turbolaser fire. Already gaps could be seen in the shields of the outdated line ship, and Van Haushen knew it wouldn't last long. The second destroyer in his formation, the Merciless, was pounding the Nebulon-B Frigate, targeting the central spine, which everyone knew wouldn't last long for the Frigate. The third Destroyer, the Indomitable, was picking off the Gunships as they swirled around, firing their turbolasers and missiles at his flagship, which was the only Destroyer being targeted by all the Rebel vessels. His shields were down to 25% capacity in most areas, and Van Haushen dreaded the scorch marks and pockmarks that his beloved Flagship would probably bear before this engagement was over.


Task Group Terror, Sullust System

Vice Admiral Nueys Sloon studied his displays as his Destroyers engaged the enemy force. He had under his command one Mk II ISD, and two Mk I ISD's, with their complement of TIE Star Fighters. The enemy had an MC80 type Star Cruiser, an old Munificent class Star Frigate, and three DP20 Gunships. Ordering the Mk I ISD's to disable the Munificent class Frigate with their heavy array of Ion Cannons, Sloon had his Destroyers concentrate their Turbolasers on the Mon Calamari Cruiser, wanting to see it die very badly. For now he ignored the Gunships, as they and the other Rebel ships poured fire into his flagship, the Mk II ISD Dragon's Claw. Riding behind it in triangle formation were the Mk I's Dominator and Doombringer, with all of their star fighters except the TIE Scouts being deployed, altough the TIE Fighters and TIE Bombers they had left behind back at the planet.

Sloon was worried about the threat of the enemy Star Fighters. He had only nine squadrons of TIE Interceptors present, two of which were the new Mk 2 models with shields and proton torpedo launchers, but they just barely outnumbered the enemy squadrons present.


Task Group Fearsome, Sullust System

Vice Admiral Cavour watched with glee from the bridge of the Mk II Superior as the enemy frigate fell apart before exploding. The four DP20 Gunships that had accompanied her in were harassing his flagship, but the Mk I ISD's Freedom's Bane and Viral Legion were dealing with them, destroying first one, then two.

Having finished his assignment early, he requested additional orders from Admiral Kraken. Recieving them promptly, he ordered his Task Group to return back to the main group, still being harrassed by the surviving Gunships and Star Fighters.


Task Groups Apex, Stalker, and Predator, Sullust Orbit

Admiral Kraken watched as his Destroyers unleashed a new bombardement upon the surface of Sullust. His attention was only half focused on the bombardement though. Watching displays, he noticed with satisfaction one of his groups returning after annihilating a small Rebel Task Force. His other two groups were still engaged, but he would send them no help. He wanted his subordinates to be able to learn to fight independent actions if needed, and there was no time like the present to learn. Soon he would have another three Destroyers back in his main group, bringing to eleven the number of Star Destroyers pounding the surface.

But with mounting Star Fighter losses and Rebel reinforcements trickling in, he would allow only two or three more full orbits before he would order the withdrawal of the Task Force. So far they had lost only one Star Destroyer and perhaps ten smaller capital ships, plus about two hundred TIE Star Fighters, in exchange for heavy Rebel losses, still being calculated and updated. Next, he turned his attention to the Skirmish Screen.


Skirmish Screen, Sullust Orbit

Commodore Erich Dumwalt watched from the bridge of the Imperial Dreadnought Saint Tarkin as his fleet continued to pound the Rebel Defense Forces into dust. Although his ships individually weren't as powerful as the big three SoroSuub Capital Ships present, he made up for what he lacked in quality for quantity. As inevitably happens with Quantity though, he was paying the price with ship losses. He'd started out with Six Dreadnoughts, Six Strike Cruisers, Thirty Carrack Cruisers, and Sixteen Squadrons of TIE Series Star Fighters. Now he was down to Four Dreadnoughts, Four Strike Cruisers, and Twenty Six Carrack Cruisers, plus Eleven Squadrons of Star Fighters.

The Dreadnought Superb had taken a brace of missiles from the Rebel Star Fighters had that overloaded her Reactor, a massive explosion turning the Dreadnought into an ugly wreck. The Dreadnought Bellerophen had taken a heavy pounding and was currently abandoned and crippled. The Loronar Strike Cruisers Corporeal Fallow and Conquistador had been overwhelmed and destroyed in turn by concentrated turbolaser and missile fire. The Carrack Cruisers Destructor, Destroyer, Garrote, and Caravel lay in pieces around the battlefield, while the Vibroblade and Scythe's Caress were crippled and abandoned.

Of the Rebel Force, which had started out with three large capital ships, six smaller capital ships, and six squadrons of Star Fighters, only the three large capital ships and one squadron of Star Fighters remained. The latter were scattered and in retreat, while of the former, two were each being targeted by two Dreadnoughts and two Strike Cruisers, while the third was being blasted on all sides by the Twenty Four Carrack Cruisers, deployed into Squadrons of four each. Even as Erich watched, the SoroSuub Capital Ship targeted by the Carracks began exploding, the Cruisers scattering as chunks of the Capital Ship began flying in all directions.

[Reshmar]

Dabba watched as one of the defending Dauntless cruisers Kindred Moon exploded. The mighty ship had stood its ground against more light cruisers than he cared to count. The pain he felt for his brother and sister sullustians was only eased at a chunk of the starboard hull crashed into a carrack as it tried to escape. It was not an even trade but it did soften the pain he knew his people felt.

The two gunships left in from the Yammagi group were now in retreat. They were attempting to move away from the battle and flank back to join the Tiderunner and its group.

Nubba looked at his displays. The firepower of these ships was frightening. He had faced imperial destroyers before, but these were some new class. They were pounding his ship senseless. Decks had been opened to space, weapons had been decimated and the reactor was leaking now. It was just a matter of time before the tough ship was gone.

Nubba was knocked to his knees as the ship shook violently. A deafening screech and bang overloaded his senses. He gazed up from the deck to see what had happened. The aft shields had been struck by something. He looked around from display to display then found what had happened. The Torrent had been cut in half buy the destroyers. Her aft section had slammed into the Gallant. And cut a gash down her side before the Gallant moved away from the death throws of the smaller frigate. That had been the linchpin in the shields. Now the Gallant was left shieldless under the guns of these new formidable ships. Captain Nubba tried to stand and order his crew to abandon ship but as he got to his knees a wash of air blew past him and then the tingle of heat warmed him. He looked up as a barrage of turbolaser hit the bridge. His last image was the blinding bright light then he and the bridge and all aboard the Gallant were gone.

General Dabba looked away, not wanting to see what was happening. The Torrent had been hit just aft of the forward communications section and split in half like a twig. It hit the Gallant and nearly tore the engines of Captain Nubba's ship. He knew the battle was nearly over. The two dauntless cruiser were standing their ground but they could not hold out for much longer. His group had held but the Fortella had lost power and was adrift. Her main weapons were now out of firing position and her secondary weapons were firing at half power because of the power issue. The gunships and fighters of his group had now meet up with the fighter wing from Sulon and were moving into an attack pattern. A bright flash caught his eye. The Gallant had been enveloped in a massive fireball. Her reactor must have been hit. Dabba looked over his own ships status. The Tiderunners shields were holding but they were not going to hold for long. Just then a voice from behind yelled out.

“New Contact!”

Dabba cursed and looked over at the tactical display. There just spin ward of the Interdictors and the imperial dreadnaughts was a group of contacts.

“The Imperials must have decided eighteen destroyers were not enough to get the job done.”

Dabba felt the pain in his stomach again. More so now than ever. An operations this massive should have been on alliance Intelligence’s radar. He should have had some type of warning. How could Intel not know where twenty star destroyers are. The he heard that same voice as before again.

“IDFF says they are ours captain, It is Captain Ikthoos' group.”

Dabba turned abruptly and looked at the Officer who was standing at the tactical station. The two smiled then went back to work.

“Comm, See if you can patch me into the Starfire.”

Rhinn Ikthoos took a quick analysis of the battle. What he saw was not good. The 402nd was all but gone. He could see on the display that Captain Dubba and the Tiderunner was still in the fight. Then he noticed the two dauntless cruisers engaged by a swarm of medium and light cruisers. As he looked over the display more he felt overwhelmed. Seventeen star destroyers. He knew the rest of the 42nd were en route, all he had to do was pick his battles and hold on for a little while.

“Tactical, plot us a course thru those cruisers, line formation. Lets give those Dauntless' a hand."

"Comm's, Launch a beacon I don’t want us getting jammed. Keep a channel open for fleet and a second channel to the Tiderunner."

" Ops I need to see this better. Launch a flight of long probes. Have them set up out on the systems edge. I need information lieutenant."

"Also have Goleshelm launch its Elint Boat. Lets get a signal out of the system to the rest of the 42nd. They need to know whats going on here before they arrive.”

The crew of the Startide frantically worked to carry out Rhinn's orders. They had a tough fight on their hands. Out numbered and unimaginably outgunned Task force Requiem would do all it could to slow the Imperials down and soften them up for what was to come.

[General Dan]

Utapau System

Fourth Fleet, Task Group 42, First Battle Group

The immense organic form of the MC80 Carrier Dauntless trundled at the fringe of the system's trailing lagrangian point, surrounded by her cruiser, corvette, and attending host of frigates. Between the cruising ranks of warships, bustling fighters began to scramble, picking up speed as they cleared the congestion, headed for the fringes of the battle group. They weren't on patrol orders like they so often were. They were gearing up for something far more serious. The drum beat of open war had sounded sectors away, and thousands of the Alliance's finest were preparing to answer a surprise attack.

Aboard the Dauntless's bridge, the normally bright lights were dimmed, giving the expansive organic space a more confined feel. General Dan Thrule hunched forward in his pivoting command chair that allowed him the ability to move quickly about the various duty stations of his flagship. Far from being at the fringes, however, he sat at the massive holoprojector that dominated the center of the room. A rainbow of readouts and maps met holographic visages of Captains many star systems away from him, as they all convened to discuss the threat they faced.

"Gentlemen, we have commscan from Captain Ikthoos. It confirms what we now know from Clak'Dor, Sluis Van, Sululluub and Greater Sullust, as well as Sullust itself."

A diagram formed up, indicating Imperial Task forces on vector, striking each indicated assignment as they formed up on Sullust at last. That map itself panned in, revealing battlespace data that the 424th group was now returning to the rest of the 42nd Task Force.

"Surprise and brute force. We've been caught completely flat footed in that sector. Fleet is resisting, but they're giving us Hell more or less unchecked."

He looked at each of his "assembled" senior staff, and gruffed.

"I intend to give some of that Hell right on back. Commscan!"

The holograms shifted position, and the sprawling battle of Sullust, as it was being beamed to them in nearly real-time, unfolded around them. Ships big and small maneuvered along vectors, colored appropriately by the IFF.

"Sullust Defense Task Force responded to the feints, and have only now drawn back to locus, but they're under strength and the Imperial commander has only diverted a portion of his Star Destroyers to pursue."

Dan hammered a fist into his open palm for emphasis.

"So we lead in with a sucker punch. Captain Terius, Captain Grov?"

He waited for their acknowledgement, and pointed to Task Force Hunter, at the fringe of the pursuit line.

"I want a coordinated hit right here. We insert danger close, ten kilometer entry, aft quadrant negative Z. Put all of our guns where the least of theirs are, and peel the flanks off that command ship. Open bombardment at will. Keep them close and don't let them orient for an effective shooting solution."

He looked to Captain Ikthoos's holo.

"Captain, harass your zone, you're the closest to our point of entry. When we roll that task force up, we'll meet your vector."

Again, his attention turned to Terius.

"Captain, your bomber elements will coordinate with my own at Z positive bombing runs. We'll hit them high and low. I want your corvette to swarm with Captain Grov's own hunter killers. Nothing makes it out of that chevron alive, gentlemen. Not a mynock.

Whether you realize it or not, I'm about to put you all in harm's way. This is the biggest shooting event any of us have seen since Endor. May fortune smile on us more than it did on those poor souls. Stick to your assignments, and we'll serve the Empire a swift kick in the ass on the way out."

He glanced beyond the crucible, into his own bridge.

"Helm, begin multi-stage navigation calculations. Feed vectors to all ships. We all bury the needle at once."

The holograms winked out at that, and Dauntless began trundling alongside her heavy support ships Egality and Badger. Splitting off from them, the remaining balance of frigates and the corvette moved on to a separate grid, aligning for a slightly different jump. The Mon Cal carrier's entire balance of X-Wings and B-Wings, as well as Egality's own X-wings, ten squadrons in sum, moved still to a third rally point. The command ship finally disgorged her A-Wing squadrons, which held tighter to the heavy capital ships.

"General, hyperspace solutions set. All assignments routed within the battle group."

He swiveled his chair to his comm officer.

"And the remaining battle groups?"

"Their vectors are green too."

Dan grumped. As green as they would ever be. Going danger close meant that they were approximating the vectors of their targets and coming in extremely close to their mark. With luck, this didn't end in a cataclysmic realspace insertion collision. Ten kilometers was dangerous. Five would be madness. So today it was merely spicy sanity.

"Fleet, this is Dan. Hyperdrive checkdowns and weapon checkdowns. We're asses up in the saddle and guns out. Rain Mustafarian hell the moment you see black space again. Dauntless out."

At last, the Alliance commander swiveled his seat to face the viewscreen fully. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Loklorien s'Ilancy, watching over him. He nodded subtly to her. She knew this was his arena. And now it was time to shine. Before him, open space loomed.

"Go."

[Soto Terius]

Sullust System


Hyperspace exploded, the long winding tunnel of extradimensional space shattering into a firework shower of light that seemed to resolve into the pinpricks of stars.

Soto knew otherwise, of course: while no scientist, he knew enough of the basics of hyperlight physics to obliterate any poetry that the notion offered; but it was a nice metaphor.

He watched in silence through the viewports of his Arquitens-class Cruiser as realspace took shape; he waited long enough to see the burning suns of Kuati ion exhausts before his eyes fell to the holodisplay mounted before him. Verdant pinpricks peppered their way into life, representations of various sizings sparking into being as a sizeable chunk of Task Force 42 burst into existance, surrounding the hulking forms of the Imperial Star Destroyers on several fronts. A tug of a smile threatened to form on his face, but he kept it at bay as he imagined the reactions of the Imperial officers aboard those vessels.

"All engines, full reverse," he instructed, knowing that similar instructions were being provided aboard all of the vessels of his battle group as the starships - some boasting far more mass than his relatively light flagship. He felt a slight tug as the inertial compensators failed to fully dampen the force of the reverse thrust, but eons of practice kept him firmly seated in his chair without so much as a twitch.

He watched on the holodisplay as the Horizon - an old Vicstar and the most massive of his group - overshot the Destiny as it's engines failed to slow the attached vessel quite as swiftly as the contemporary Arquitens had done. Some criticised the Fleet Captain for the composition of his Battle Group, all but one of his ships Republic relics from the Clone Wars, save for the mandatory upgrades and modifications they'd recieved under the care of their various subsequent Imperial, Alliance, and Corporate Sector owners; but then those same commentators criticised him for carrying his flag aboard the Destiny rather than aboard his Star Destroyer. Terius had never paid much attention to the opinions of such people, nor did he have much respect for their method of command: he led from the front, never asking anyone to shoulder any more risk than he was willing to take on himself.

He watched in silence as his ships quickly adopted their instructed positions in formation. Six trusted commanders and his own crew awaited on one single instruction from their Fleet Captain. He gave it, without hesitation. "Give the order," he instructed, addressing the communications officer who would relay his instructions to the rest of the 422nd Battle Group. "Fire at will."

A mere instant after the echoed command tumbled from the Lieutenant's lips and into the comms console, azure and crimson fury was unleashed by the ships under his command. The batteries of each ship unleashed angry bolts of turbolaser fire towards the unsuspecting shields on the hindquarters of all three Star Destroyers, the shields that covered their giant, burning engines shimmering with each impact. Waves of ion cannon fire were added by those vessels capable; a moment later the Horizon, along with the DP20 Gunships Sebrus and Stromos, let fly with their first volley of missiles. Soto watched as the indicators for the shield arcs bearing the brunt of the assault changed on his holodisplay, descending from a verdant green towards a sickening more yellow shade.

"Relay to our fighters -" Soto called, addressing the second communications officer, responsible for passing members to the rocket jocks ordered to follow his instructions. Ordinarily the Ensign would have more work coordinating the actions of multiple squadrons with varied mission roles, but for now his job was much easier: every B-Wing and Y-Wing in the entire Task Force was floating in space awaiting his instructions; the A-Wings had joined their cousins from General Dan's force to provide their primary air defense against the TIE Fighters of the Imperial Task Force, while his X-Wings had formed up on the Novgorod under orders to blow the crap out of anything they could lock their guns onto.

The Destiny and her bombers had much the same orders. "- attack formation. Form up on us, and try to keep up."

"Take us in," he added, with a nod towards the helmsman.

A surge of light sprung up in the Destiny's main drives and she surged forward, the diminutive split dagger of her hull diving towards the larger Kuati craft. B-Wings tumbled in pursuit, their unorthadox crucifix design oddly unbalanced and yet strangely graceful at the same time. The stocky Y-Wings from Soto's own forces moved with far less aerobatic style, remaining in stiff formation, the squadron forming a chevron on the Destiny's flanks.

"Any and all targets of opportunity," he instructed to his weapons officer, as the Destiny swooped down on the Star Destroyer that the holodisplay called Indomitable. "The sooner we pop these shields and start taking out those gun turrets, the sooner they'll stop shooting back at us."

[Dou'lesa Grov]

Sullust System

Ride the wind and fight the demon steel shining bright
Standing together forever onwards flames burning strong
Hot wind in hell of pain and sorrow now and ever onwards
We stare into the dawn of a new world

The words were etched high onto the back wall of the bridge, illuminated by a wash of pale green light from the overhead fixtures. The Captain’s personal motto, and the one adopted by every single member of the Nemesis’ two hundred strong crew. Something others in the Alliance had frowned upon, but the 423^rd Battle Group was a unique beast.

Deft application of unorthodox pirate tactics with the precision of military personnel and their efficiency. Captain Grov had worked her way up through the Alliance ranks, much to the consternation of those who knew who her Uncle was. She’d grown up on the bridge of the Malice, however, and learned well.

Dou’lesa sat on the bridge of her flagship, perfectly still in her chair. The multi-level bridge had several extra terminals and data stations installed than the Munificent-class star frigate had originally come with, allowing her a larger bridge crew which she found invaluable. Outside of the panoramic windows, rivers of seemingly liquid light ceased to pour past, resolving into so many distant stars.

And the aft section of one very large Imperial-class Star Destroyer, a precise ten kilometers away.

She rose from her seat as everyone flew into a frenzy of action, holoscreens flaring to life with real-time data and identity markers for every ship in the vicinity. Dark eyes ignored them all for now, looking portside out of the windows. Acheron materialized right on target, within five kilometers of the Nemesis. A grim smile curled her lips as she turned her attentions back to the screens showing ship positions relative to theirs.

“Relay the order…” the Captain began, slanting a glance to the communications officers on her left after checking the incoming scans. “…open fire. Concentrate on the Merciless, who’s so helpfully brandishing her backside at us.”

Tilting her head towards another of the headsetted officers, she opened her mouth to give the order but the stocky Corellian grinned. “Acheron has already started launching all squadrons. Lethe and Styx are away, Moros and Kratos are hot on their heels, Captain.”

Dou’lesa grinned broadly and nodded. The Acheron’s commander had his orders and was executing them as she told him to, as they had left the rendezvous point. “Excellent. Have Phrike and Zelos hold back in our vicinity. Marek, report!”

“Captain, Thanatos and Phobos are flanking the Novgorod-“

She held up her hand to stop him as her boots took her down the steps to peer closer at one of the datastreams. “Tell them to get all of the Preybirds in the air. Have Siren, Telchine, and Nereid form up above them.”

Fingers tapped on the arms of her chair as she returned to it, leaning slightly forward to better appreciate the sight. A barrage of heavy fire lit the Merciless up as if it were so much sky during a Life Day celebration. Her grim smile remained in place.

[Meiers Brecklin]

Nestled like some sleeping giant in the dark side of Sullust's moon, the bulk of the Hornet-class Carrier Marianas swept into view, moving in a graceful arc that brought her up and around to face the unfolding scene before her. It was a deceiving pace that the carrier set, seeming to move steadily without thought to where it was going. Her slender body cut through space with ease, knifing through the blackness with silent intent. Far from any listless newcomer, Marianas held fast on a course that was unshakeable.

Standing at the helm, General Meiers Brecklin watched with an expression that gave away no emotion. The lines in his face had deepened with the years gone by, and his hair - already greying long ago - had maintained the steady decline in color until his mane was a steel grey speckled with the last vestiges of light brown which clung to their original color with a tenacity that the old man couldn't help but admire every time he looked in the mirror.

"We're clear of the sensor shadow, Gen'ral."

"Good."

"All squadrons still on standby, awaiting your orders to deploy."

Meiers gave a hrmph, his eyes still on the view afforded to him through the viewport. A momentary flash of light and a noiseless peel of vacuum thunder heralded the arrival of Task Force 42, and the General allowed his eyes to narrow further. He knew Thrule well enough to anticipate the close entry vectors that his own comm officer was relaying to him - yes, his fellow General was slipping into the battle like a rancor in a crystal shop, his gunports set wide open and his ships driving in like starving anoobas hungry for a prey that was awaiting them. It was - in its' own sense - like the old days.

Only instead of being aboard the bridge of the Etrigan, Meiers was firmly standing on the bridge of the Marianas.

Squaring his shoulder back, the General pushed away from the railing he'd been leaning upon.

"I believe it's time for a good old fashioned 'nuna shoot', don't you, Mister Annen?"

"Yes Sir, Gen'ral"

[General Dan]

Realspace contact, Z-minus 8,000 meters of ISD Merciless

Thundering into view from the slipstream of hyperspace, Dauntless and her heavy cruiser Egality and heavy frigate Badger instantly began full reverse deceleration to bleed off any residual inertia as the massive ventral hull of Merciless loomed large directly in front, her fighter bays and annihilation reactor appearing as tantalizing targets to the heaviest guns in the battle group.

Dauntless's bridge was awash in red lights, as the battle alert klaxons sounded. The commscan officer worked at his terminal, shouting above the din.

"Realspace insertion! Enemy contact direct ahead at eight K!"

Dan's eyes narrowed at the sight, and not a second was wasted.

"Lock priority targets and fire!"

Thunderous barrages of fire from turbolaser and ion batteries lit up in unison, reaching Merciless in short order, splashing across her shielding in torrential sheets of energy spall. A Star Destroyer was capable of taking a monumental amount of damage, but this assault certainly fit that bill. The Imperial warship would have to balance the terms of engagement quickly, rotate her deflectors, or risk losing them in a place she could ill afford to lose shielding. As Alliance ships began their bombardment in earnest, the defensive screen of A-wings kept in close ranks, ready to leap on any TIE fighters foolish enough to venture through the bottleneck of the very bays they were bombing.

Working multiple stations, the commscan officer shouted once more above the din.

"Multiple contacts ahead at fifteen K. Bomber squadrons inbound!"

On the other side of Merciless, a swarm of 120 Alliance fighters pounced. Seven squadrons of X-wings at the tip of the spear dove from on high, ready to murder whatever TIEs were held back as a defensive screen. The remaining B-Wings began a coordinated assault on the star destroyer's conning tower and heavy turbolaser banks, delivering heavy space bombs in a fusilade of ordnance. Whatever X-Wings that weren't busy pursuing TIEs went to work on their own bombing, delivering masses of proton torpedoes to targets of opportunity.

Beyond the initial engagement, the MC30c Star Frigate Dodonna, and Nebulon frigates Nimbus and Starchaser slipped into realspace at Merciless's flank, quickly speeding forward as their own guns bombarded the Star Destroyer at distance. They would keep Merciless blocked into formation, while forming a screening action to shield the current frigate she was attacking. Cruising in reserve behind them, the Assassin Corvette Brigand kept guns at the ready, and held in reserve.

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

"Captain, we've hit realspace!"

Ensign Saine called the insertion as she banked about, the instincts of the Marauder helm telling her to not stay on a constant vector for long.

Captain Cirrsseeto Raurrssatta leaned forward in his chair, ears switched back as he watched the data pour in from the battle. Their insertion put them Z-minus and aft of the Imperial Task Force, a prime spot to assess the terms of engagement and to choose targets.

Lieutenant Mallin was hard at work at his terminal, linking up with the corvettes Thanatos and Phobos from the 423rd, as well as the sister squadrons of X-Wings diverted from Captain Terius to Captain Raurrssatta's zone of engagement.

"Gjive the orrderr to the fjighterrs."

"Deploying, Aye."

Beneath Novgorod as she accelerated to attack speed, a mixed squadron of A-Wings and X-Wings dropped free from the ventral bay at occasional intervals, keeping close to the mothership like a school of skipperfish. The other Marauders began deploying in kind, their respective squadrons forming a defense screen allowing the spear of warfighters from Terius's own balance a free hand at open assault.

"Thjis jis Captajin Raurrssatta. Novgorrod has pojint. Rrally to ourr vectorr. Swjitch to comm frrequency njine."

Suspended in front of his chair was a holographic readout of the battle as it unfolded. He tapped on an airy representation of the port-side destroyer, the Indomitable, causing the hologram to enlarge. Her schematics lined up along her in aurrebesh, and Cirr quickly tapped a few controls at his arm rest.

"Come about forr attack forrmatjion at thjis vectorr. Tarrget destrroyerr jIndomjitable, and fjirre at wjill!"

Like a school of sharks, the Marauders thundered forward quickly, followed in close formation by the many squadrons of fighters at their escort. Cirrsseeto was taking advantage of the Indomitable's flagging shielding to lend firepower to Terius's assault.

With the sublight speed of a fighter, the fast corvette squadron closed distance on Indomitable effortlessly, and their heavy turbolasers and missile ports lit the sky, followed in close order by X-Wings engaging targets of opportunity. A few squadrons moved to pounce on TIEs that were quickly moving to intercept.

"Gunnerry, arrm rrearr tubes wjith djiamond borron warrheads."

Cirrsseeto could see fighters scrambling from Indomitable as they thundered past the ventral hull, continuing to strafe with guns and torpedoes.

"Keep ourr fjighterrs close!"

As tempting as it was to engage fledgling TIE fighters in those few seconds of vulnerability it took them to clear the bay, Cirr wanted open space for what he was about to do, which in this case was to send six diamond boron missiles aft as they finished their first pass, a parting gift sure to slag the first unlucky squadron that tried to form up and counterattack.

[Park Kraken]

Bridge of the Suppressor, Sullust Orbit


Admiral Kraken watched the updates scroll in with interest. Clearly it had been a mistake to not jam communications within the system, as the Rebels used it to launch precise attacks against one of his Task Groups. To divide one's group was to invite defeat in detail, and this was precisely what the Rebels hoped to accomplish. He checked the positions of the ships in Task Group Hunter.

All three destroyers were still pointed outbound from the planet, and well beyond the serious gravity influence of Sullust; as soon as the Interdiction Group dropped its Gravity Wells, the Destroyers would be free to jump into hyperspace. Task Group Terror likewise was now facing heavy opposition, while Fearsome had just rejoined his main bombardment force.

"Looks like we've overstayed our welcome gentlemen. Recall the TIE's from the planet's surface, and break orbit to rendezvous with the Skirmish screen. Have the Immobilizer 418's depart the system immediately, with their escort moving forward to assist the Skirmish screen. Task Groups Hunter and Terror are to maneuver indecently to leave the system immediately, targeting the weakest ships in their enemies groups for maximum destruction," ordered Admiral Kraken.

Scanners and Analysts had already confirmed for him that all of the orbital shipyards had been destroyed, along with an estimated twenty five percent of the groundside installations and cities. Death toll estimates varied from the four to six digit ranges. The Suppressor lifted her bow away from the planet, now even more smoldering than usual, and headed for the distant pinpricks of light as the Imperial Light Forces continued to batter the two remaining Dauntless class Cruisers.



Task Group Hunter


Van Haushen reacted with surprise as the Rebel warships decanted from hyperspace within a few kilometers of his ships on all sides. The Merciless had just killed the enemy escort frigate when she came under a fierce attack, along with Indomitable. He was just about to request instructions from Admiral Kraken when the orders came in over the holocomm. Expedient withdrawal with intent to cause Maximum loss upon enemy vessels present.

"Recall all TIE Star fighters. All vessels are to work their way through the Rebel formation and transit into hyperspace immediately. Merciless, Indomitable, and plot multiple hyperspace vectors out of here to account for necessary last minute maneuvers to get around any Rebel capital ships that might try to block our withdrawal. Lastly, target the smaller Rebel warships for destruction, and use your tractor beams if needed to assist in this endeavor," ordered Van Haushen.

A CR90 Corvette was the first of the new arrivals to feel the wrath of the Empire. Cruising alongside a large Mon Calamari Star Cruiser, she received a salvo of heavy turbolaser fire that gutted her, the little corvette exploding with a whimper. A DP20 Gunship that was picking off TIE Fighters trying to enter the Hangar Bay was next, being sent spinning off into space after a salvo knocked out her engines.

Yet even as this was happening, the sheer number of Rebels present meant his ships would be in for a rough time for the short time of their remainder in the system. A salvo of proton torpedoes from Rebel Bombers struck the forward shields of his flagship, overloading the shields and cratering the Right to Rule on her bow, destroying a small number of weapon mounts.


Task Group Terror


Sloon received his orders with grim acceptance. The enemy MC80 Star Cruiser had been heavily damaged, but was still in functioning form. In the short time he had left while they were in the system, he doubted they could kill it. Therefore, he reluctantly ordered his ships to ceasefire, instead focusing their firepower on the weaker of the new arrivals. There were three modified Bulk Freighters that would make easy prey, judged Sloon. He had one of his Destroyers each target a converted Freighter, while any weapons that couldn't be brought to bear would instead target any other small and weak ship.


Already he had issued recall orders to his remaining TIE Squadrons. The Rebel Star fighter would perhaps get in a torpedo salvo or two against his Destroyers, but they would survive to jump out of the system, no problems there.



[CENTER]Skirmish Screen


Commodore Erich watched as another one of his Strike Cruisers exploded under the sustained fire from one of the remaining Dauntless class Cruisers. The other was largely toothless thanks to his TIE Fighters targeting the weapons emplacements, but those that could still fire were targeting the Carrack Cruisers, forcing another one to withdraw with heavy damage. Then he received the unwelcome news that additional Rebel forces were entering the system, although they posed no threat to his own forces for the time being.

But then came some very, very good news. He would be receiving imminent reinforcements, in the way of three Dreadnoughts and six Carrack Cruisers, hearty and hale from the Interdiction screen, as the 418's entered hyperspace. Not only that, but the eleven remaining Imperial Star Destroyers and their TIE Fighters in orbit would soon be launching a pincer attack on the remaining Dauntless class Cruisers, finishing them off. A smile creased his lips as the decks shuddered with another salvo of fire unleashed from the Saint Tarkin.

[Anne Phoenix]

Aboard the Liberty's Fire, En Route to Sullust

They'd already been enroute to Sullust when the call had came through. The planet was under attack by a major Imperial Fleet, at least a dozen Star Destroyers and thirty other ships. Rear Admiral Phoenix gritted her teeth, thinking about the motley collection of ships under her command. Having outfitted several new ships for service in the 4th Fleet, or the Fighting Fourth as she liked to call it, she was on a delivery run to bring these ships to Sullust for deployment with the other Task Forces. Her own force held the temporary designation of Task Force Tempest.

The three new Vindertan class Dreadnoughts, plus four retrofitted Loronar Strike Cruisers all had skeleton crews manning them. In addition, the A-wings in the Strike Cruiser's bays were pilotless, being delivered fresh from the starfighter factory on Mustafar's surface. What she did have were the three largely automated Dreadnoughts with a full complement of weapons and functioning shields, her own MC40a Star Cruiser with three squadrons of fully manned starfighters, three B2 Escort Frigates with six squadrons of manned starfighters, plus two Corellian Corvettes and four Corellian Gunships.

Decanting from hyperspace, she saw for herself the updated image; the Imperial Fleet seemed to be withdrawing, with one section under concentrated attack by major elements of Task Force 42. As she watched another section of three Destroyers made the jump into hyperspace, leaving behind a heavily damaged MC80 Star Cruiser, a disabled Munificent class Star Frigate, and a few other ships behind, followed moments later by three Interdictor class Cruisers jumping out on the other side of the battlefield.

Scanners detected that the damage had already been done though; no trace could be found of the orbital shipyards and the Golan Battle Platforms that had defended them apart from scattered debris. Unusual heat signatures could be detected on the surface as well, with missing gaps in the Planetary Shield Coverage correlating to their location, indicating heavy orbital bombardement had occured. Gripping the railing as fiery hatred coursed through her veins, Anne settled her sights on the main part of the Imperial Fleet, about to smash through a line of battered Dauntless class Cruisers.

"Deploy all available starfighters and launch a full pursuit of that Imperial Force. Try to save the Dauntless Cruisers if you can," ordered Phoenix. Scanners revealed the wreckage of a Nebulon-B Frigate and a couple of DP20 Gunships nearby, along with escape pods. Anne ordered the partially crewed Strike Cruiser Providence along with the CR90 Corvette Warlock to assist in pod recovery efforts.

[Reshmar]

“They are breaking off general.”

General Dabba looked up to verify what his tactical officer had just said. The Imperial indeed had broken off their attack and were moving away from Sullust. The TIE formations had turned and were working on getting back to the safety of their ships hanger. Hundreds of alliance fighters gave chase in an attempt to deny the imperial pilots this safety. Fortella had moved safety away from the fight was launching rescue shuttles to assist in picking up alliance pilots and escape pods. The rest of Dabba’s group had been destroyed. Thousands dead, many more wounded. The Imperials would have t pay for this he thought. The Destroyers were moving out away from the planet the Tiderunner was in no shape to give chase. Her fight was over now. He had to concentrate on saving what was left of his crew and the Alliance people out there in the debris.

The Startide had take up position at the front of the attack line. The single file line of star ships mover into position between the besieged dauntless cruisers and the Imperial cruiser formation. Once in position the Startide and Paladin focused their fire on the lead dreadnaught in the formation. Heavy Turbolaser fire splashed its shielding causing it to ripple with the stress of the sustained barrage. The smaller escorts targeted fighters moving to engage the group. To their port the two remaining dauntless cruiser had been attacked by a mass fighter swarm. They were engaging smaller strike and carrack cruisers with success and driving the ships from the group engaging them.

“Captain, Interdictors are moving to jump.“ The tactical officer watched his display and the information scrolling in the top right corner. He could see the two cruisers turning and moving away to a jump point. Then he noticed something more important

“Incoming Destroyers, range seventeen hundred kilometers and closing.”

Rhinn looked at the tac. display and saw the star destroyers moving away from Sullust and straight at his group. The remaining forces were engaging the destroyers as they could and giving a couple of them a bad time. Those two would be lucky to make it much farther. That still leaves ten.

“Time to contact?” Rhinn waited for the response. The Startide and Paladin could handle the cruisers, but the incoming destroyers was a completely different story.

“Weapons range in twenty second sir.” The imperials weapons would be on them in seconds. He had taken his group into the worse possible situation. In a crossfire with very little room to escape.

“Shields to forty percent reroute all power to engines.” The ships in his group all received the order. The lowering of their shields would leave them less protected the extra speed would get them out of the way of the oncoming destroyers. A series of explosions appeared on the screen. His group had moved away from the cruiser skirmish force and off into space away from the battle. The Bantha , Thranta, and Gundark were no so lucky. The modified freighters had tried to move away but with the shielding being weakens and them being at the tai of the group they had come under fire from the destroyers as they came within weapons range.

“Navigation, turn us around, Weapons I want a firing solution on that lead destroyer before we have a line of fire on it, Flight control, all squadrons are to break attack and move to harass those destroyers. If we can slow them down the rest of the 42nd can take them out.”

Behind in the mix of fighters and cruisers of the imperial Skirmish group the fighters and bombers of the 424th were faring well. The fighter wing was engaging dreadnaught keeping the point defense confused while the bomber wing came in planting torpedo after torpedo into the old cruisers. The order came and the remaining fourteen bombers and one hundred and forty seven fighters broke off and moved to engage the oncoming destroyers.

Rhinn studied the display the fighters were now moving to engage and the Startide and Paladin were in range and arch to fire. A firing solution was plotted and without delay he gave the order.

“Weapons free, send that lead destroyer to hell gentlemen.”

[General Dan]

421st Battle Group - Engaging ISD Merciless

The CIC was lit up with a field of holograms showing the elements in play. The noose was slipping tight around the Merciless. The ten kilometer bubble given for the hyperspace jump was being ratcheted tightly, bringing Alliance warships close to bear around the starboard flank of Task Force Hunter

"Enemy shielding at 30% ventral, 11% dorsal, 52% aft. They are re-routing."

Dan nodded along with the officer fielding the most recent batch of tactical data available to them.

"Focus forward batteries. Make them double down."

Dauntless, Badger, and Egality continued their murderous barrage, now closing to two kilometers negative Z. Turbolaser and ion blasts focused on the most prominent and vulnerable points on the destroyer, as gaps started to form in the defense. Merciless's TIE screen, recalled to the mother ship, was cut down by the deluge of bombardment fire. The fighters that caught enough sense to break from approach made easy meals for A-Wing headhunters that pounced on their vectors. It made little difference. Already, turbolaser fire was shooting the gaps momentarily created by ion impacts, and those shots found purchase in the landing bays. Superstructure lit up in explosions that began to blossom into secondary detonations within the ship. Ordnance and tibanna stocks hadn't been hit - yet, but unless the situation was controlled quickly, that was just a matter of time. The matter annihilation reactor was faring slightly better, able to rely on understandably-thick armor to rebuff the bombardments that found their way through the shields.

Further above, Merciless was faring no better. Her defensive screen had been mauled, and then withdrawn entirely, leaving her conning tower and heavy gun emplacements ripe targets for X-Wing and B-Wing squadrons that were coming around for new attack runs. Fresh deployments of heavy space bombs overwhelmed sections of the defense grid, allowing follow-up proton torpedoes to actively target the enemy where it hurt. Quad turbolaser emplacements shattered on both sides of the ship in a violent venting of pressurized tibanna. The conning tower took direct shots intended to obliterate the shielding in earnest, but the defense screening here held for the moment.

As Dan watched Merciless pay for Imperial sins, his sensor officer again broke through the maelstrom.

"General, sensors are showing mass field dissipation from the skirmish line."

Dan knew exactly what that meant. The order had been given. He continued to stare ahead, unrelenting hatred shown unguarded on his face as he watched the star destroyer before him wither under his fire.

"No..."

And then a smile.

"...you can't get away. Through the Maw's maelstroms, through Mustafar's fire, and through Hell itself, I'll follow you."

He tapped at the comm at his armrest.

"Frigate line, orders. Accelerate across Merciless's vector, two kilometer picket. Bombardment solutions. This is the General."

The Nebulon-B frigates under the 421st battle group swung off the flanks into the battle in earnest, cutting across the Star Destroyer's approach. As a fresh wave of bomber strikes blew apart heavy guns, the faster and more maneuverable Alliance warships arrayed themselves closely to bear against their enemy.

There would be no retreat for Merciless, and no quarter given.

[Meiers Brecklin]

* * *

The hulk of the Marianas knifed her way into the widening gulf between the 402nd and Task Group Terror, and as Meiers watched, he couldn't help the disapproving glower his face held as he watched the Imperial ships begin to maneuver away.

"They're looking to vacate, Gen'ral."

"Seems so," came his grunted answer before his back straightened and his shoulder squared back.

"Mister Annen, give the word. Tell our pilots that hunting season is open and they are to tag and bag as many as they can get away with."

"And the 402nd, Sir?"

"Let's make ourselves a more enticing target, and let the 402nd catch their breath for now."

The tactical display showed the ships in the Imperial group, their IFF tags marking them as the Dragon's Claw, Dominator, and Doombringer, and the General narrowed his gaze as a small flashing indicator noted Dragon's Claw as the flag ship.

Brecklin spoke to his gunnery sergeant without looking up from his display.

"Turn batteries to seven-five-two-two, Mister Corlew. Target and fire on all three, but try to keep a concentrated barrage on that MK II."

"Aye, Sir."

A maelstrom of fire opened up, like a tidal wave of brilliant, lancing vengeance which crossed the black velvet of space to dance across the crisp lines and white outer skin of the three destroyers. And like a swarm of angry locusts, the fighter squadrons of the Marianas descended upon the recalled TIE's, picking them apart bit by bit, fighter by fighter.

[Dou'lesa Grov]

"They're doing what?"

"Plotting escape vectors, Captain. All of them, it looks like."

"Of course they are, the filthy, motherless bastards. Marek, send Phrike and Zelos to the Triplets and the Angels. Tell Siren she's got lead. Standard pursue and destroy until they make a jump."

Lesa replied tightly, arms crossed and fingers tight along her upper arms. She'd begun pacing again, back and forth along the top tier of her bridge, dark eyes flicking across the scene unfolding outside of her viewports.

She paused, briefly, glancing down at the datascreen of her terminal, watching Thanatos and Phobos as they followed the Novgorod's lead. Nodding to herself, she flicked it back to the latest scan of the Merciless and the damage the General's group was doing to it.

Her grim smile remained.

"Galen, flak guns."

"Loaded with assault concussion missiles as ordered, Captain."

"Fire."

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

"Captain, the mass shadows are dropping. Looks like the Imperial fleet is getting ready to cut and run."

Lieutenant Mallin looked up from his terminal, a grim expression on his face.

"We've got new orders."

Cirrsseeto quickly routed the orders from Dauntless actual to his terminal, giving a glance.

"Tjime to get jin the fjight, then. Sajine, come about. New courrse, one-ejight-njine marrk zerro-one-sjix. Cut acrross that destrroyerr's axjis and prreparre forr an attack rrun!"

Novgorod swung hard around in a tight bank, followed by her sister marauders and their swarm of X-wings. The wolfpack hit full burn, easily overtaking Indomitable's escape vector to swing around and put themselves between the destroyer and open space. Already, Captain Grov's support ships were hemming up the flank, keeping the wounded destroyer tight in line. With Merciless similarly hemmed up, the room to maneuver for both ships was sorely lacking.

Captain Raurrssatta leaned forward in his seat as they approached their target. No longer simply harassing the destroyer, they would now be directly engaging it. An entirely different matter.

"Tactjical, keep ourr deflectorrs on a synchrronous trraverrse. We'rre gojing jin hot."

His ears switched back at the thought, as Novgorod aligned for her attack run. The Captain tapped his secure channel link to the rest of the wolfpack.

"Thjis jis Captajin Raurrssatta. Prreparre forr a djirrect attack. All tubes set to prroton warrheads. Ahead full!"

The wolfpack blazed forward, coming right down Indomitable's throat. Though the destroyers main gun emplacements had been bombed out and her hull was cratered with breaches, they all knew the wounded ship still had some fight left in her.

"Wjiden yourr spacjing, Sajine. Gjive them a lot of tarrgets, rratherr than a few packed jin."

Turbolaser fire ripped through the ether at the attackers, and even the X-Wings weren't safe from the onslaught, as several fighters were vaporized in the angry battery exchange as they lined up targets of opportunity. Upon reaching range, proton torpedoes cut loose, quickly finding their marks as the fighters peeled off to prepare for another strike.

A turbolaser battery lined Novgorod up and cut loose its bombardment. Two shots sailed past portside, but two shots struck direct on the bow. The frigate bucked sharply as another two shots found their mark. Cirr's nails dug trenches in his arm rests as he watched the distance click down...down...down...now!

"Fjirre! All tubes!"

The wolfpack unleashed their strikes in tandem, directing converging warheads to the conning tower. The portside shield generator finally gave up the ghost, blossoming into a fantastic fireball just as a follow-up bombing run from another X-wing squadron diverted their target to take advantage of the opportunity. Warheads hit in concentration near the bridge, shattering bulkheads and hull armor as the bombing run concluded. The wolfpack charged ahead of Indomitable once again, all the while being harassed by dangerous turbolaser volleys. Thanatos took a burst across her stern, and Novgorod took a second, causing sparks to pop from overhead compartments on the bridge.

Cirrsseeto grimaced. So far, so good...but they couldn't keep running down this destroyer's throat indefinitely. They needed a kill, and soon.

[Reshmar]

Paladin came alongside Startide and both fired all they had at the lead Star Destroyer. Shielding rippled as the barrage from the ships found their mark. Seconds later the destroyer found its range and fired on Rhinn's group. They could not hold out for long against the destroyers but if they could slow them just enough.

“All stoop! All power to weapons!”

Rhinn gave the order and the forward heavy batteries doubled in their resolve to bring the shielding down on the lead destroyer. Now six destroyers had split their fire between Startide and Paladin. The ships were taking a pounding but giving as good as they were getting. Sparks exploded from a panel on the aft wall of Startide's bridge. The blue sparks arched to the panels on either side. From his left, Rhinn heard a voice.

“Shields are down!”

The destroyers had unleashed a concentrated Ion barrage on the ships drawing the last of theirs shielding and hitting the bridge. Blue electricity filled the room.

“All power to shields!”

Rhinn was knocked to the floor as heavy turbolaser bolts struck the hull of his flagship. A moment later the shielding came back online as all the power was sent to the backup generators. Startide and Paladin were sitting ducks now. They had done all they could to slow the retreating Imperials. Now they had to survive the battle.

“Startides hurt.”

Colonel Donus looked in the direction of the recusant destroyer to see for himself what his wing man had just informed him of. The ship had lost her shielding and was taking on heavy fire. Then a moment later her shielding was back. The paladin had fared better and was still firing on the Imperials. Startide looked dead to Donus. No running light or internal lights could be seen from this distance. And it seemed to be listing away from Paladin without power.

“OK boys and girls lets see if we can take some of the attention off the ships. Two flight button hook left and engage those TIEs trying to dock. Three Flight stay with me. Were making a run on the command structure of that destroyer the big boys softened up for us.”

The eleven remaining X-wing fighters of Sabre Squadron had closed range and were making their attack run. Out to his left he could see the remaining pilots of Templar, Sarlacc, and Broadsword doing the same. He banked left than back right to avoid a stray turbolaser bolt. He lined up on the foremost destroyer and targeted the command structure near the sensor array and dome. He waited a moment then slide his fighter to the left to avoid another bolt. After he re-aligned himself and locked on he fires three torpedoes then banked hard left and rolled up and over the command structure. An explosion lit up space behind him. He did a roll and banked back to the left to make a second run on the ship. His wing man screamed and a hiss on the comms fallowed as his friend and wing man for seven years was gone.

Three B-wing fighters rolled over the top of the structure fallowing his attack run. He banked left to avoid hitting the last to pull up over the destroyer. He turned back into his second attack pattern and let lose the last of his Torpedoes into the aft of the command structure. He did a barrel roll and moved off away from the ship to assist two flight with the returning TIE fighters. In the distance He saw the second Dauntless heavy cruiser succumb to the fire of the retreating ships and break into three pieces as a massive explosion burnt off the oxygen and flammable gas on the ship. Seconds later the fire was gone leaving what was left of the ship to drift into the gravity well of Sullust. The third Dauntless was moving to engage the retreating imperials. It had fared better in the engagment with the cruiser screen and was trading fire with three Imperial Star Destroyers.

General Dabba sat down in his chair and watched helpless as the Imperials left his area to jump out of the system on the far side. The defense fleet was nearly decimated now. Only one of the Dauntless cruisers was left and it was taking heavy fire. Requiem Task Force had been all but destroyed. The Paladin was now moving away from the battle with Startide in tow. The destroyers still pounding the ships as they moved away from the gravity shadow of Sullust. His fleet was gone. Any ships left of the 402nd were damaged and could not make pursuit of the fleeing imperials. The day had been saved. That is what the Alliance would say. They had repealed the attacking Imperials. He knew better. They had done what they came for. Now they were leaving in victory.

[Park Kraken]

Task Group Hunter, Bridge of the Right To Rule

"Courses plotted and laid in," finally said the chief navigator, and not a moment too soon either. The Alliance Battle group around them was pounding the durasteel out of them, and literally at that, with enemy bombers swarming the Merciless, Indomitable being surrounded by capital ships, and all three destroyers dealing with the remains of the original enemy force.

"All ships, prepare to jump into light speed," spoke the Admiral.

"Sir, enemy frigate screen advancing across our bows!" called out the sensors officer.

The Admiral's eyes strayed between the viewport that kept darkening as turbolaser shots struck the failing bridge deflector shield and the sensor screen by his command chair. Indeed, the remaining Nebulon class Frigates arced across their bows, cutting off three of their avenues of escape, that being directly ahead, to the port, and to the starboard. Fortunately, the enemy only had enough frigates to cover the direct ahead approach, which left them with a few options thanks to the 3D nature of space combat.

Normally they could've blasted their way through the frigates with relative ease, but the Indomitable and Right to Rule had redirected all the power from their weapons into their shields, while Merciless's weapons had been largely picked off in star fighter strafing runs. Their star fighter screen...the Admiral saw only one active TIE star fighter on the board, and that might be a glitch on the screen. The Destroyers had reported between them a total of forty star fighters recovered, many of them damaged to some degree or another, and the gunships he knew would chew any up that tried to re-launch.

Suprisingly though, the new enemies had focused their attacks on only Merciless and Indomitable, leaving his flagship untouched. The Admiral belatedly realised that their enemies goal was to quickly knock out two Destroyers, rather then take on all three before the withdrawal was made. Already the power had been sent from the shields back into the weaponry emplacements, which had been largley untouched.

That left a quick vector change to one of the other two courses as the only option, apart from surrendering and/or scuttling the ships, something he would never do under any circumstances. He examined the two courses available to him. The first was an up trim of fifteen degrees, the latter to the same degree, but down trim instead. Next, he examined the positions of the ships. Merciless might ram a star fighter or two on her way out, but she would survive, the same being said for Right to Rule. Indomitable was the tricky one, but her course out of the system and the Rebel's advance into the system should lend itself to her being clear of the enemy vessels around her, including that large Mon Calamari Star Cruiser.

So, which course to take? The Admiral finally decided on the up trim course, since there was a slight chance that the Destroyers Bridge Towers would ram with the Frigate's downwards protruding superstructure, especially if they tried to stay ahead of the Destroyers.

By the time he had decided, more enemy ships had maneuvered ahead of Indomitable. However, these executed a quick attack run on the Destroyer, inflicting more damage but leaving her bows once again covered only by the frigates. The Admiral realised that his flagship would have to cover the withdrawal of his companion vessels.

"Guns, target the enemy Frigates ahead of Indomitable and Merciless with everything you can bring to bear. We might not be able to kill them, but we can at least put a hurting on their manuevering systems," ordered the Admiral. As he was preparing to send a message for the jump order to the companion vessels, salvoes of fire lanced out from the Right to Rule, blasting through the already weakened shields of the Escort Frigates. The one covering Indomitable had some damage to her engines, while the second Frigate covering Merciless was damaged. This hopefully left the door open for the Imperial ships to escape.

"All ships up trim fifteen degrees and execute immediate jump into hyperspace," ordered the Admiral. Right to Rule came about accordingly and accelerated into hyperspace, striking no star fighters and safely clearing the remains of the enemy Frigate screen by a comfortable margin. Merciless, on the other hand, had never rerouted her weaponry power into her shields, subsequently taking more damage then the other two Destroyers.

When she tried to jump into hyperspace, what can only be assumed to be her reactor core overloaded and went critical, a massive explosion tearing the Destroyer apart and hurling debris in all directions. The explosion was visible as an eclipse of Sullust to the vessels in Task Force Apex, which had just approached the jump point for their exit into hyperspace. A quick look at his screens confirmed to Admiral Kraken of the Merciless's demise. Ironically, the Destroyer had been named for a previous vessel that had died in another big explosion, Admiral Motti's flagship that had been docked with Death Star I when she went up.

A hailstorm of debris ranging in size from nuts and bolts to Lambda class Shuttles expanded outwards at high speed, giving the Rebel star fighters that had been the agents of Merciless's demise little time to react. A score were destroyed instantly, with many more suffering damage or some type or another, a few which were heavily damaged giving time for their pilots to go EV before they too blew up. Shields flickered on the capital ships nearest to the explosion as they too were hit by debris. Apart from the front twenty five meters of the bow, the biggest piece of debris to be found afterwards would be a small five meter section, too blackened and bent to be identified for what it once was.

Although no one would ever know for sure what exactly caused the demise of the Merciless, common speculation would be that the cooling stations for her reactor had been damaged, either by concussion missiles or proton torpedoes fired into the Destroyer's docking bays. The core overheated to dangerous temperatures. A warning should have been issued to the Captain after the final maneuver, but perhaps the engineers were all dead and the automated systems disabled, the latter perhaps by ion cannon fire from the B-wings and Y-wings. Either that or the Captain simply ignored the warnings in favor of getting out of the system. Whatever the case, the power draw for the hyper drives was the final straw that sent the reactor critical, causing the explosion that destroyed the ship and killed all of her twenty seven thousand crew and one thousand miscellaneous personnel. At least, that's one theory, although the one that might become the most widely accepted one over time.

Indomitable too lay where she was. In her final moments, a hail of torpedoes had struck her bridge tower, destroying it and killing her commanding officer before he could either issue the jump order or it could be carried out. The most senior surviving officer was a Lieutenant by the time the secondary bridge was brought online, and he found himself overwhelmed by the need to protect the twenty five thousand personnel under his command who were rapidly dying. He transmitted a furious pleading of surrender while deactivating his ship's weaponry, propulsion, and shields.


Task Group Apex, Bridge of the Suppressor

Three Destroyers had now been lost, one going down with all hands, another surrendering. Still within acceptable limits for the Operational Plan, but only seventy five percent of Sullust's planetary industries and an estimated fifty percent of her ground based population had been wiped out by the bombardment, when the plan called for one hundred on both counts. Looking at it from that perspective, this battle becomes at best a draw, and at worst a defeat, although it certainly didn't feel like one.

The green glow from turbolaser discharges illuminated the bridge, bringing Park's attention away from the sensor screen and his own musings and to the forward viewport, where the Suppressor was now firing on the rear of one of the Dauntless class Cruisers. The eleven Destroyers passed through the enemy formation at a high rate of speed, firing massive broadsides upon the two remaining Heavy Cruisers that wiped them out, one of the Dauntless class ships exploding violently, the other drifting, crippled and becoming abandoned soon judging by the escape pods jettisoning away.

Park made a quick mental calculation as he again studied the sensors board. There were a number of Imperial escape pods that couldn't be recovered by the destroyers on their outbound vectors. Although the Rebels might not be inclined to recover the pods for their prisoners after what the Empire had done here, Park suspected further could be done to seal the deal and prevent any interrogations of Imperial survivors.

"Captain, order the guns to refocus their fire on the Alliance escape pods," ordered Vladimir. Without pausing to wonder why this order was given, the captain carried out his duty. In a mere moment’s time, individual batteries and cannon began targeting the escape pods, which were flying in very predictable courses. Pods met turbolaser bolts and poofed into nothingness, their occupants instantly vaporized. Although the smaller individual pods were hard to target, the larger crew pods were almost all destroyed.

'Let's see the Alliance recover our escape pods now,' thought the Admiral with a grin on his face once again. 'Like shooting Verpines in a hive nest' the analogy brought a chuckle to Vladimir's lips, a chuckle that quickly died when he saw the expression on the Captain's face when he briefly turned to glance at Park.

In the meantime, the Destroyers had passed through the engagement zone and linked up with the surviving Dreadnoughts, Strike Cruisers, and Carrack Cruisers. Park's attention turned again to the sensor screens. With the successful withdrawal of all three Destroyers from Task Group Terror, although they had taken more damage then originally predicted, Alliance forces were converging in his direction from three angles of approach, including a group that had three big ovoid Dreadnoughts whom sensors gave a threat level of three Mark II Imperial Star Destroyers apiece, and the other two groups which each included a large and menacing Mon Calamari Star Cruiser. Star fighters were harassing his ships from the Dreadnought group and the other group in his wake which had attempted to rescue the Sullustian defenders, but their attempts had been for naught. It was all too little, too late for the Alliance fleets now in the system.

Admiral Vladimir Park Kraken's maniacal laugh seemed to trail behind him as the Imperial Fleet accelerated into hyperspace, leaving behind them a devastated world and a planetary system full of debris, death, and suffering. Operation Shadow Strike had come to an end, the Imperial Victory inflicting a severe defeat on the Alliance that it would take a long time to recover from.


Aboard the Velvet Sunderer

The crippled Star Destroyer's countdown timer was nearing the end reach. Just as the timer reached single digits, a series of explosions from stores of tibanna gas tore through the heart of the vessel. Among the extensive damage done by this explosion, a conduit connecting various systems on the bridge to the other parts of the vessel was pierced by shrapnel, cutting through scores of wiring. When the timer reached zero, the signal was sent to detonate the core and remaining combustibles, but it never reached the intended systems, leaving a heavily damaged and crippled Star Destroyer floating in orbit around Sullust.




The End