Imperial Ascension: Fondor

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

The recent Galactic events had come as somewhat of a mild surprise to Thrawn, and an even bigger one to his comrades. The Grand Admiral did not expect the Sith Empire to flee their planets and rid themselves of a fleet. Of course he had counted it as a possibility, but the percentage of possibility was quite small compared to the other options the Sith Empire could have chosen from. This news boosted Imperial morale quite a bit, actually. This disturbed some of the other Imperial admirals. Confidence was one thing in the military, but arrogance was another. It was most often arrogance that got a soldier killed in war or any other kind of combat.

Thrawn had immediately requested a mission from the Diktat, Darth Viscera. As always, Viscera had something for him to do. The Grand Admiral assembled his flotilla and left Coruscant immediately, with his new orders. It was his understanding that the real Grand Admiral Thrawn had visited Fondor before, during his war against the Rebellion. This alone was a good enough reason to accept the orders. The Grand Admiral was still in the process of self-analyzing his psyche. He had the memories of the real Thrawn, but most of them were hazy. It was as if his mind was clouding these unfamiliar thoughts.

In the past few months, the Empire had strengthened its mighty fist by merging with various other groups. The fleet grew and grew with each passing moment. Thrawn had also noticed the amount of uprisings had decreased on some worlds. It seemed that the Empire was headed in an upward direction. One could only wonder if it would achieve what Palpatine's original Empire had achieved all those years ago. Even Grand Admiral Thrawn could not predict that...

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"Ahem...Grand Admiral, sir?" General Mev stood near the doorway of Thrawn's spacious quarters. He wore his Imperial uniform with unmatched pride. During the past month, he had been transferred to the Super Star Destroyer Pandemonium. The man was a competent leader, quite efficient and a skilled TIE pilot himself. It was the rare occasion when Mev actually donned the pilot-suit. He was more comfortable with fulfilling Thrawn's orders. Unlike the other Imperial Admirals, Thrawn allowed feedback and viewed things from different points. What made Mev stand out was his non-chalant attitude to everything. He didn't seem too excited when he met Thrawn, while others in his place accepted the Grand Admiral's hand with wide eyes. Of course he did not resent the Grand Admiral, but the word subordinate barely applied to him.

The blue skinned humanoid was illuminated in the ceiling lights of his quarters. His room shone brightly enough for Mev to see the various holographic paintings pinned up against walls across the room. Some paintings and murals were real, along with a few small sculptures. Most pieces of art were unrecognizable, and definately did not fall under the category of human art. Some looked as if they had been painted by a blind rancor on glitterstim. Mev had been a small fan of art during his post-adolescant years. Before he joined the Imperial Navy, the General had been engaged to a human painter.

"Greetings, General Mev. To what do I owe this visit?" Mev's eyes were torn away from the displays of art and toward the figure near the center of the room. He was seated in a replica of his bridge command chair. In his hand, he held a single glass of red wine, some Corellian mix. Thrawn's eyes were a blood red that blazed with an emotion that could not be described as human. His whole demeanour was quite human, though.

"Nothing important to report, I'm afraid." Mev said dryly. His face bore no emotion, other then slight boredem. "The deck officer says that we will be arriving out of Hyperspace in less then seven minutes."

Thrawn smiled slightly at what Mev had said. The news was important to the black haired Grand Admiral. Mev's direct attitude was amusing in a strange sort of way.

"Excellent work. As soon as we arrive, have the communications officers send messages to each ship in the flotilla. I want the fleet to form up and prepare for anything." Thrawn sipped his wine slightly, savouring the sweet taste.

"As you wish, Grand Admiral." Mev regarded him with an obediant nod.

"Now, perhaps my presence is required on the Bridge." Thrawn set the glass of wine down on the nearest table and stood up. His speckless white uniform shone in the light like a star going supernova.

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"Admiral on bridge!" The stormtrooper squad of six hussled quickly. Three faced the other three across them. They formed an extended doorway at the bridge entrance. Each stormtrooper regarded the Grand Admiral with a nod as he passed by. They held their blaster rifles with pride. The meager men of the Imperial army felt immortal with their blaster rifles at their sides. Stormtroopers were good soldiers, but most were terrible shots. The rebels had shown their worth in a ground battle numerous times in the past.

Perhaps a routine check on the Academy is in order in the near future, Grand Admiral Thrawn made a mental note of it. All turned their head to regard him, one of the Empire's only non-humans. Most of his crew liked his style, and the rest just simply respected him. That, along with their regular jobs was all Thrawn really expected of them. Unlike Vader, he valued his crew and the crew of the other warships under his command.

Thrawn sat down in his command chair and spun around, facing the transparisteel viewports. He studied the tunnel of hyperspace with little interest. It was something he had seen and thought about before, now it held no intrigue. "Hyperspace report?" Thrawn asked, as General Mev stepped beside his command seat.

"I believe tha--" His voice was cut off by the one of the bridge technicians.

"Coming out of Hyperspace in six, five, four, three, two and....one." The bridge technician exclaimed.

"That answers your question sir." Mev stated dryly.

Thrawn answered the General, "Ah, I believe it does General Mev. Order each ship to be on high alert. Have the fleet form up in a crescent moon. Ladies and gentlemen...Welcome to Fondor."

[TGE Naval Officer]

OOC: This is DV, and I am quite bored.

IC:

Star Destroyer Division One of the Imperial Reserve Armada surged forward, its warships angled in a forward crescent. As the fleet began to enter the outer gravitational well of the planet, a variety of starfighter squadrons launched, their courses giving them a clear interdicting route to the invasion fleet. Communications channels crackled to life aboard the Imperial fleet:

Forces of the Galactic Empire, you have entered a restricted zone. This planet is under the control of the Sith Empire Loyalist Front, by order of General Tossk. Withdraw or be fired upon.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

"Forces of the Galactic Empire, you have entered a restricted zone. This planet is under the control of the Sith Empire Loyalist Front, by order of General Tossk. Withdraw or be fired upon."

The Grand Admiral gazed out the bridge viewports deep in thought. The name 'General Tossk' sounded vaguely familiar, but he could not pinpoint where he had heard it before. He wasn't surprised that this planet was still dictated by the loyalists. Although their Sith masters had left, they believed it was still their duty to retain the planets. Such was a fruitless effort when one was against the might of the Galactic Empire. Fondor was quite an important planet to the Empire. A planet that did not deserve to suffer under a loyalist front's rule.

Thrawn simply turned to meet General Mev's gaze. He gave him a nodding approval, rather then wait for Mev to talk. Thrawn knew exactly what his General had in mind. Their next course of action would be standard Imperial procedure when opposing a planetary force. Mev signalled the communications officers on the lower bridges. The fleet was not going to withdraw at all, instead they would advance on the planet Fondor. The communications specialists were sending messages to the other ships in the fleet, and of course Fondor itself.

The starfighter squadrons had already launched from the planet Fondor. According to Thrawn's main datapad, which had been linked to the sensor mainframe, there were 162 TIE fighters in all. The TIE fighters had been divided into three group types. There were 54 TIE Razors, 54 TIE Advanced, and 54 TIE Defenders. Thrawn had expected more, and prepared his fleet for more. He smiled slightly, allowing the edge of his lips to crease. There was nothing wrong with overestimation in a situation like this one. Quietly, he signalled for the General to step forward. Thrawn turned his body to face Mev, who looked on with anticipation.

"Sound the general quarters. Have the ships launch all starfighter squadrons to counter and deal with this threat." Thrawn placed both of his blue skinned hands at the small of his back and paced across the viewports. Mev just simply nodded and began to issue orders. It was only twenty seconds later that the squadrons began to pour out of each ship. The enemy forces were nearing at speed and would engage within a few more seconds. Thrawn turned his back to the bridge and opened his mout to speak.

"Have the Fire class Light Cruisers assist in the starfighter threat. Order all remaining ships to raise their shields, especially their forward shields." Thrawn ordered once again.

"What did you have in mind, sir?" Mev inquired questioningly.

Thrawn waved his hand across the transparisteel viewport. "The enemy forces are too preoccupied to directly deal with our capital ships. We shall continue the invasion as planned."

"All shields up!" Mev ordered through his commlink. "All remaining ships, proceed to primary target Fondor."

[TGE Naval Officer]

Group Captain Teylan Frehn rushed to his starfighter as klaxons sounded all around, bathing the secondary hangar bay of the star destroyer Pandemonium in a light the color of diluted blood.

"Check check." he spoke into the microphone of his TIE helmet, verifying that the squadron frequency was intact and unjammed.

"Copy your freq-check, Captain. Comm lines are clear," came a reply from a squadronmate.

Hydraulics hissed as the cockpit lifted open, and Teylan climbed up the ladder that sat mounted on his starfighter. He strapped himself into the cramped pilot's seat, and hooked his crash webbing in place. That done, his feet found the rests that marked the etheric rudder.

"Zeta Squadron Lead, this is Flight Boss Colonel Dax. Your squadron is in line for launch right after Devil-62 squadron. You have sixty-five seconds. Out.

Teylan took a moment to rest, staring out the ray shields of the hangar bay, and towards the bottom half of the planet Fondor. Small explosions seemed to shatter the void at a certain distance out, and he struggled to analyze what it was he was seeing.

Scatter-type bombardments. The frigates are firing long-range turbolaser pulses as a deterrant, like the proverbial Zhellan grapeshot.

His thoughts dwelled on those turbolaser pulses. Fired at this range, they were never as accurate as one could hope. A lucky shot or near miss would combust your ion exhaust...sort of like pissing on a Tyunian Energy Eel.

Putting those thoughts out of his mind, he switched back to the squadron's frequency.

"...why they always let the DIE Devils go first. Naturally, the few organic pilots that are still around are all Aces, such as yours truly."

"Will you listen to this guy?"

"Zeta squadron, listen up. Launch in twenty seconds, interdict and engage whatever comes our way. Our flight vector is point five one three. Keep your eyes open, and your sensor packages streaming targeting locks to the squadron. Red Group is on me, Ylen gets Blue, and Vrehy leads Green. Good hunting."

As the timer ticked down to zero, Teylan activated his repulsorlift drive. The repulsorcoils took a moment to superheat, before the TIE Defender seemed to shoot five meters above the durasteel flooring of the hangar bay. He shunted power to the forward thrust coils, and the TIE Defender moved forward at a steady pace, assisted by a small tractor beam generator mounted just inside the hangar bay.

The TIE Defender slid gently out of the bay's special malleable ray shields, and the starfighter was out in the void of space. The tractor beam generator angled his starfighter downwards and increased power, an exit maneuver which would leave his comrades without a lethal dose of engine wash. He shunted power away from the repulsors, and lit his ion engine to 80% thrust. In response, the high-performance craft screamed away from the Pandemonium. Had there been any gravity in the void of space, Teylan would have atomized himself with such a high level of acceleration. Instead, the gentle whine of the engines simply rose in pitch.

His sensor display flashed, signifying a positive lock on an enemy fighter. His gaze wandered to that of the command display, and he noticed that his squadronmates all had similar locks.

"Zetas, pick your targets and expend six torps. Save the rest for any priority targets which may come our way."

"Copy, lead," came his reply.

Teylan flipped the lid on his firing stick. With the push of a button, an advanced proton torpedo was away. A look at the sensor display reported similar launches from the rest of Zeta.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

The battle that was beginning to take place outside of the viewports was like a picture just waiting to be painted. The starfighter squadrons had been launched as per ordered and were engaged in battle with the opposing forces. The Fire class Light Frigates had also received their orders and seperated themselves from the first flotilla of the Reserve Armada. They proved to be an invaluable asset when it came to covering the Empire's TIE squadrons. The enemy starfighters were too preoccupied to deal with the Empire TIE threat and the Light Cruisers. It was a sad truth that the TIE squadrons from the Super Star Destroyers alone was enough to deal with Fondor's defenses.

Thrawn sipped at his wine tentatively, while he studied the numbers on his datapad. Currently the datapad read the current losses on both sides of the battle. After a few moments of close study, he lost interest in the statistics and pressed a few buttons on the datapad. He sipped his wine again as he waited for the new screen to load. Thrawn used his free hand to type in a few key commands, accessing his personal databanks. As memory recalled, he had been to Fondor before his untimely demise. It would be easier to pull the information up, rather strain his memory for answers.

To his delight, there was a nice amount of information on Fondor. He opened the file and waited once again as the information slowly displayed itself on the screen. Off to the side, General Mev noticed with slight curiousity as Thrawn worked with his datapad. The information had finished loading on the datapad. Thrawn placed the glass of wine on the floor beside his command chair and took the datapad in two hands. The information read:

<u>Fondor:</u> A planet located in the Mid Rim Territories, Fondor is famous for its shipyards and its military importance. It is located a short distance from a number of trade routes which run from the Core, the Colonies, and the Mid-Rim out to the Outer Rim. Fondor was industrialized millennia before the Battle of Yavin, and much of its surface was scarred from mining and excavation. After the Empire took control of the shipyards, the Super-class Star Destroyer Executor was built there. Fondor was later liberated from Imperial control and used by the New Republic. Six moons orbited Fondor, all of which were mined for raw ores and materials. Over time, the moons were slowly eroded by mining. The capital city of Fondor is named Fondor City and is occupied by the Fondorians. Fondorians are a hairless, humanoid race which are known for their skills with machinery. A hyperspace route (Gandeal-Fondor Hyperlane) was established by the Empire, in order to more efficiently move starships from Fondor to Coruscant. After the Empire abandoned its facilities at Fondor, the route was rarely used because it was unknown to most independent spacers and corporations.

Thrawn set the datapad down in exchange for his glass of wine. He took a small sip, allowing the strong substance to sit in his mouth for a few moments, while his thoughts began to register. This Gandeal-Fondor Hyperlane was an interesting bit of information to Thrawn. He wondered if the Diktat was aware of this route. Perhaps the proper coordinates could be obtained in the Diktat's personal databanks in Imperial City. After all, Coruscant was the Galactic-wide central and held vast amounts of information. Obroa-Skai was also a planet with a great amount of information. It housed libraries, universities and many more educational facilities that the Empire had used to its advantage.

The Grand Admiral focused his thoughts on the battle once again. His fleet was now directly passing through the starfighter battle and on toward the planet Fondor. When they were close enough, he planned to wait until the starfighter threat was nearly dealt with. The Imperial squadrons would loop back and escort the dropships and transport shuttles to Fondor's ground. Stormtroopers and Thrawn's own creation of Grim-Troopers proved to be most effective in securing planets, as they had done in past conquests.

"General, are any of the enemy starfighters trying to fire on the Capital ships?" Thrawn asked Mev, who was obviously waiting for the humanoid to say something.

"Sir, it seems that the enemy forces are preoccupied with our own counterthreat. Our starfighters have done a good job of luring the battle away from our direct path to the planet." Mev responded, proud of his ability to answer all questions that Thrawn threw at him.

The Grand Admiral nodded curtly and stood up from his command chair. He took a few steps toward the forward viewports and marveled the sight of Fondor. The planet loomed up before them, coming closer with each passing second. It was hardly a beautiful planet, in terms of nature. Thrawn knew well that there were other forms of beauty. Fondor and its surrounding area would be an excellent asset to the Galactic Empire. He smiled cautiously at the planet that would soon be forced into Imperial cause.

[Warlord Tossk]

"What do you think of this, Daehlon?" Major-General Tossk asked his aide de camp as he rested in his command chair, protected from the noise, hustle and bustle by an office that sported a transparisteel divider, the only separator. The subterranean bunker which they now plotted in had been prepared decades earlier, designed to withstand all but the most dedicated turbolaser blasts. Men and women clad in Gray lightcoats and black trousers were busy close by, coordinating, communicating, preparing.

Yet that was not what he referred to.

"Sir?" Major Daehlon Quasar questioned, taken aback by the question. A thin, tall man with straight black hair, the Major was not fond of the superfluous. His thorougness, however, redeemed him in the eyes of General Tossk.

"What do you think of all this-our prosecution of the defense of Fondor?"

"Sir, I believe it to be a gallant effort, one worthy of our-"

"We will fail, Daehlon," the General cut in.

"General, if that is your belief, why are we comitting these men to battle?"

"Because, Daehlon. So long as we are able to retain our mobility and field a fighting force of non-negligable size, we can delay their advance. The final Manarai Mountains fort of the Batallions of Zhell, Daehlon. We shall delay them, and in so doing affect their resolve and willingness, and bide our own time. The slayer of Tressk the Despot was a mere skirmisher, Daehlon. Do not forget that."

"Yes, sir."

"Are the defenses ready, Daehlon?"

"They are, sir."

"Good. Prepare the shuttle, and plot an exit vector."