Duro Retaliation

[Park Kraken]

As many of you know, I've been talking about doing an immediate follow-up thread to the Duro Liberation where TF45, while on interdiction duty, runs into an unexpected Imperial Fleet trying to retake Duro from the Alliance's hands. The ensuing battle sees the destruction of most of TF45 and the injuring of Anne, my alliance character, setting up shenanigans for later threads.

I'm planning on doing this thread solo, as I have the entire thing mapped out in my mind beginning to end. But I do want to touch base with the rest of the board as it will have implications for Duro and Corellia, for although not too many significant Imperial ships will be destroyed, many will be damaged and require months of drydock repair work, as well as the Imperial attempt to retake Duro being thwarted.

The Imperial ships will be organized under the Corellian Oversector Fleet, drawn from various Sector Fleets and will most likely be under the command of Grand Admiral Pitta with Grand Moff ???? (Whoever Fliry Vorru's replacement was in the historical timeline) along for the ride. Towards the end of the thread, I'm planning for the Grand Moff, who would have been interfering in the entire battle, try to have Pitta executed for incompetence, only to find himself executed by my Inquisitor Asssassin for his failure.

There is some room for other people to join the thread towards the end, mainly having another Inquisitor Agent present alongside my Assassin and some Alliance fleet people looking over the battle debris for TF45 survivors after the Imperial Fleet withdraws.

[Captain Untouchable]

There are a few minor bits about the idea that are raising a few flags in my head.

1. Why is the Grand Moff leading this retaliation? Yes, Delgado Xaanan was at Duro... but the planet was lost because of the failure of the Imperial forces assigned to protect it (and because of corruption in Duros society), not because of any "failing" on his part. Having the Grand Moff take the situation out of Delgado's hands makes him "look bad" - if that is going to be done, I'd prefer it if there was a) a good reason for it, and b) adequate roleplay about it, rather than it just being incidental collateral damage from a thread I'm not involved in.

2. Why is Task Force 45 there? TF45 is part of the Fourth Fleet, which is assigned to the Outer Rim. Task Force 45 in particular is assigned to defend Mustafar, which is about as far from Duros as you can get. Yes, Task Force 42 will be involved in the attack on Duros, but as soon as the attack is done they'll go back to Sullust: they're only there for the liberation. Since you expressly stated that TF45 will not be involved in the attack, I was wondering if you had a justification / excuse for them being so far away from where they're meant to be.

3. How does a single Task Force manage to defeat the forces of a Grand Moff? The Imperials know that there is an entire Alliance Fleet guarding Duro: so it seems to me that either a) they're ridiculously cocky and their forces are laughably underpowered, or b) if Task Force 45 can take out that sizeable an Imperial force, it must be overpowered. I'm assuming you must have some sort of cunning plan: I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I knew what that was.

[Park Kraken]

1. Why is the Grand Moff leading this retaliation? Yes, Delgado Xaanan was at Duro... but the planet was lost because of the failure of the Imperial forces assigned to protect it (and because of corruption in Duros society), not because of any "failing" on his part. Having the Grand Moff take the situation out of Delgado's hands makes him "look bad" - if that is going to be done, I'd prefer it if there was a) a good reason for it, and b) adequate roleplay about it, rather than it just being incidental collateral damage from a thread I'm not involved in.

1. The original reason for the failure at Duros was to be because of Moff Xaanan or whoever running away while ordering the remaining Imperial forces to protect him instead of battling the Rebel Fleet. This may have changed or might change though, but the accompanying of the Grand Moff was to facilitate confusion amongst the Imperial Leadership of the Fleet, with a probable reason for him being there is because he personally wants to oversee the driving of the Rebels from one of his major Oversector worlds.

2. TF45 was originally going be involved in the battle, but instead they will be jumping in at the same time as the attack on Duros commences, but they'll be blockading the hyperlanes between Duros and some of the other Imperial planets. The blockade won't actually take effect until after the battle is over and is mainly to capture disrupted shipping. (in other words the Imperial reinforcements will jump in and then jump out again before the blockade takes effect).

3. It's going to be a suprise for both sides when the two fleets come into contact with each other; The Imperial Fleet will come out hyperspace already within shooting range of Alliance forces and it'll basically be a slugfest between the two fleets, with the Alliance coming out on the worst end by far, so in other words the battle will be a tactical Imperial victory, but the Imperial Fleet will be disrupted to the point that the commanding officer decides to withdraw and reorganize rather than trying to push on against the entire Rebel fleet waiting at Duro.

I'll send you a PM with some of the battle outlines, but the Grand Moff will just be bringing what he thinks is adequate (and by all rights what should be adequate) rather than stripping his Oversector of everything available.

[Captain Untouchable]

1. I'm fairly sure that the plan was for the Moff to leave after it was clear that the battle was unwinnable. The Imperials aren't going to lose because the Moff flees: the Moff flees because the Imperials are going to lose. The only thing that has changed is that since the Moff's flagship isn't the Procurator any more, he wont be in the middle of a slugfest when he eventually orders the retreat. Perhaps the whole deal has a slightly more strategic and slightly less cowardly spin on it, but the chain of events is largely the same.

I can appreciate why the Grand Moff would want to lead the attack himself. I'm sure there are plenty of reasons why he thinks he's better suited to lead the mission: perhaps he's an experienced military commander; perhaps he's a pompous ass; perhaps he just doesn't like Delgado. Either way, I would be much happier if we can make sure it isn't something that gets glossed over.

2. In order to help sell TF45's involvement in Duro, perhaps only some of the Moff's reinforcements get through? Having fewer reinforcements than expected arrive is going to help motivate the Imperial retreat; and even if it's just a passing reference in the threat, it'll help establish TF45's role and whereabouts in preparation for this thread.

3. So to paraphrase: the Grand Moff brought "just enough" ships to assure victory over the Alliance; TF45 takes out enough ships for their success to be slightly less certain, and the Empire ultimately decides not to risk it? Perhaps rather than incompetence, there's a disagreement over whether or not they should continue with the mission: the Grand Moff wants his victory, but the Grand Admiral doesn't want to waste ships and lives on an attack that isn't guaranteed to succeed.

I've had another thought as well - I'll bounce back your PM.

[Reshmar]

One thing. If we kill communications out of the system the Grand Moff will not know Duro has fallen until the Moff escapes and gets word to him.


edit.
How is Pitta still alive in this timeline. He is long dead in the canon timeline and I am sure if he would have been around the last 5 years he would not still be fleet commander of the Corellian oversector. Also I Thought Desaria and Millard was the last of the Grand Admirals I could see An NPC High Adrmial or Fleet Admiral, but not a Grand Admiral and certainly not a canon one.

Lets stick to a sector sized force. A sector group is commanded by a High Admiral and would have 24 Star Destroyers. I am sure even if the Moff of the sector came back with half the sector fleet, I.E. 12 Destroyers with escorts, he would have no problems taking back Duro. Along the way TF 45 could engage.

When you are talking about an oversector fleet of an important oversector like this, you are talking about 1/10th more or less of the entire Imperial Navy.

I like the idea but it needs to fit into the whole Corellian Scheme of things. Some of us are wanting the Duro/Corellian thing to be ongoing. How will this fit into that?

[Captain Untouchable]

A few things based on my understanding of the scenario -

While it is the Grand Moff and his Admiral counterpart that are leading the attack, the Imperial force doesn't represent the full might of the Oversector. The Grand Moff has assembled "just enough" ships to guarantee a victory over the Alliance. Task Force 45 doesn't need to defeat all of them: they just need to defeat enough ships for that victory to no longer be guaranteed.
This thread isn't (to my knowledge) happening at the exact same time as Duro: it happens shortly after. This means that the Moff has already escaped, so whether or not the communications are jammed isn't all that relevant. Also though, don't forget that Delgado Xaanan managed to send for reinforcements during the battle: doing that may well have tipped off the Grand Moff anyway.
Regarding how this ties into the ongoing Corellian arc: Delgado Xaanan will be involved in the story. Because the Grand Moff is involved, most of the forces involved in the mission will be drawn from other sectors: Corellia's Imperial forces will not be further depleted. The Empire will have spectacularly failed it's first attempt to recapture Duro, which will force them to rethink their strategies and come at the Rebels in a completely different way. Killing off the Grand Moff handily disposes of any major NPCs who could interfere in those future plans: it means that any future efforts are going to be planned and executed by Delgado Xaanan (a PC), which will make it easier to tie into the ongoing arc.
Regarding the Grand Admiral rank, I think there's a clash between "rank" and "role" here. A Grand Admiral in Star Wars is two things: a) one of ten senior officers who lead the Imperial Navy; b) an Admiral who outranks a High Admiral. When you refer to Millard and Desaria as the "last" of the Grand Admirals, you may well be correct in that they're the last to have the political/leadership role associated with that rank. However, if we still have Oversectors, and if the Oversector needs an Admiral who outranks the High Admirals, "Grand Admiral" is pretty much the only rank that fits the bill. If this means we need to rethink our Imperial ranks, then that's probably a discussion that warrants it's own thread (I'll start one shortly).

Park has clued me in on some bonus details of the plan; we've had some back and forth and have made a few tweaks that I think jive really nicely with both the Duros threads, and the ongoing Corellia plans. In a nutshell, the plan boils down thus: the Grand Admiral brings a lot of ships; TF45 destroys some of those ships; the Imperials don't have enough ships to win without major casualties, so they give up and go home; and TF45 is going to take some pretty major losses along the way. It actually kinda makes sense to leave the numbers a bit vague and squishy for this: all we really needs to know is that the Imperials had "enough" to beat Duro at the start of the thread, but they didn't by the end of it.

[Reshmar]

Awsome, Thanx for the info . I has having problems wrapping my head around it last night.

BTW: generlly speaking an Oversector fleet would have a BIG ship commanding it. At the time of Endor there were 20 Oversector fleets but only a few were massive. And at least 4 were in the core then. As we did not really have a IMperial Cival war here, I assume Oversector Corellia would still have a SSD as its flag. Is that something we want to deal with? Are we just playing it off that it stayed back, or dosnt exsist? Will the Grand Admiral Die?

[Captain Untouchable]

I believe there is an SSD factored into the plan, though the name escapes me.

Bear in mind that the objective of this thread isn't really to "defeat" the Imperials - it's to stop this particular invasion effort, and maybe make them think twice before they embark on another one. Think of the Rebels as being a swarm of bees, and the Imperial fleet being a bear that is attacking their hive. Realistically, the bees don't expect to be able to kill the bear: but if they sting it enough times, the bear may give up and go away. A lot of bees will end up dying in the process too, which makes this a particularly apt metaphor.

Not sure about whether or not the Admiral survives, although from what I inferred, he does.

[Reshmar]

I say Take the SSD down, Kill the admiral and moff on it, and throw a party.

Seriously Though, with Corellia being the focus of so much to come. Taking out the Super Star Destroyer in the oversector would go a long way towards future Fleet threads in the area. With an SSD in play the alliance will keep most of 3rd fleet close to Duro. IF it is gone and the new Grand Admiral would have to work from something smaller allowing 3rd fleet to branch out and say make a hit and run on Nubia or Sacorria or New Plympto in the corellian sector or even other worlds in the Oversector not in the Corellian sector.

[Park Kraken]

Okay question; I'm about 3,500 words into the thread, should I go ahead and start posting stuff now or wait until Duro is finished? The presence of Xanaan aboard the Aggressor and the presence of the Avenger would be the only thing needing to be resolved; All of the other ships and commanders wouldn't be present at Duro.

[Reshmar]

I can see the Avenger escaping but not be ready for another mission in 3 days. The War Eagle is gonna pound on it pretty good. I say keep it around I like the ship. It might come in handy in future Threads but for the Retaliation.

Also is the name for the Procurator final? I will need it in my next post.

[Captain Untouchable]

Having the Avenger in need of repairs actually makes for a pretty good excuse to have Xaanan aboard the Aggressor, so I'm cool for her taking a bit of a beating.

Just go easy on the paint job, okay? I only just had her detailed.

[Reshmar]

Fun Fun. I like the idea of an Interdictor Class Destroyer as a flag. I think we should keep the old girl around.

[Park Kraken]

I believe we settled on the Malevolence as the name for the Procurator.

[Captain Untouchable]

The Procurator isn't the Moff's flagship - an Inderdictor Star Destroyer called Avenger is. Since the Procurator was part of the defense force at Duro, and will likely be heavily damaged or destroyed during the battle, I don't see how it would be involved in this thread.

[Reshmar]

Sorry, I just ask here because i was working on a post with it in it. I should have ask in the Duro thread. I knew Kraken was the one who came up with the name so I ask here.