Author's Notes
Hammer Groups, subjects of Hammer Fleets, are groups consisting entirely of Hammerhead cruisers and their local squadrons of Aureks (and shuttles). Hammer Fleets are commanded by Centurion-classes.
Wolfpacks, subjects of Wolf-Fleets, are groups consisting entirely of Foray frigates accompanied by squadrons of hyperspaced-in Starfighters.
Hammer-Fleets control a few Wolfpacks and Wolf-Fleets control a few Hammer groups.
These are irregular formations designed specifically for the battle of Malachor V.
The Vindictive is a Centurion-class Battlecruiser.
Disclaimer: Knowledge of Malachor V and having actually played both KOTORs is recommended. I don't really explain anything.
Wounds of Malachor
Chapter 1 - Malachor V - 3960BBY/21093 Coruscant Republic Founding
Bridge of the Vindictive
I braced instinctively as a heavy rumble passed through the bridge floor. A small alarm attracted my attention to newly scrolling text on a side-display - Dorsal Section 8-9, crashed starfighter, minimal damage. Our escort ships had already shot down the rest. My gaze slipped back to the tactical holo-display in front of me, scanning as battle-chatter interspersed with sudden screams formed background noise from a few comm terminals manned by the bridge command crew.
There.
I tapped a ship on the table, generating a small beep. "Redeemer, Vindictive actual. You've taken too much damage, evacuate and make ramming speed for the Kyramud-class at relative bearing, three-ten oh-thirty. Copy?" I said, cross-selecting and tapping a few runes that appeared shortly. "...Copy, General Surik." the captain of the particular Hammerhead slowly responded. I tapped three more of the class nearby and activated comms. "Titan, Be'nii, Jubilant, cover the Redeemer on it's assault then fall back to your group. Vindictive out." I ordered, pushing a button to clear comms halfway through their affirmatives as I saw another of ours flash and black out, shortly before one of the shining stars visible through the shielded bridge windows detonated silently. I clenched my teeth as one of the flagship Kandosii's defence screens swarmed over another of the squadrons I'd spared to cover Revan - Aurek-Forn - and the screaming in the background peaked momentarily.
Goodbye, Arian.
"Sir! Revan has successfully boarded the flagship!" Comms Officer Ackdool reported. "Good. Recall remaining squadrons." I ordered distractedly as I saw a growing trouble-spot and tapped four holographic group sigils. "Hammer-groups Carida, Onderon, Castell, and Wolfpack Tanaab, this is Vindictive actual." I began as I saw the Redeemer's sigil begin burning forward at full acceleration. "There is a Kandosii bearing in your direction, but more immediately it's escorts have lit thrusters and are speeding forward." I would take advantage of their obvious lapse in judgement, but first. "Carida and Onderon, fall back to Castell and hold for reinforcements, Tanaab - swing back through that squadron of Basilisks around planetary bearing three-fifty and prepare to rush the escorts as they pass. Hammers, support the attack when you receive the reinforcements. Copy?" I asked as I watched the Redeemer's escorts cut through a Jehavey'ir-class blocking their path, to a miniscule chorus of 'Yes, General's. "Vindictive out." I said, looking through the Kandosii's surroundings before frowning and pushing another button, a small holographic man popping up.
"Karath, this is Surik. I have an undefended Kandosii on my half, Sector twenty five-fiver-ten, but my ships are too tied up to handle it now. You have anything?" I asked as I noticed another growing hotspot while silently pulling together a relief force for Hammers Carida, Onderon and Castell through the display. "Hold a moment" Karath responded, as my eyes were dragged once more to the Redeemer, which had held it's course and was now moments away from impact, it's escorts pulling away with their shuttles desperately trying to pick up the Redeemer's escape pods. A moment later it and the Kyramud flashed and blackened on the holo-display, becoming another of the many brief stars above Malachor V.
"Well done." I muttered quietly, seeing the weak-point opposite the planet I had hoped for, before tapping a more significant sigil. "Wolf-fleet three, Vindictive Actual. New Tasking, sector twenty eight nil ten. A weak-point has opened, and I want you to make sure it stays open. Copy, Rear-Admiral Starr?" I asked watching the new hotspot grow in size. It was particularly close to the planet. "Copy, General." he said with a newly formed grin. "Vindictive out." I said, terminating the connection and tapping the sigil for Hammer fleet Ravager. "Ravager, Vindictive Actual, New Tasking. Push forward and exploit the weak point in sector twenty eight nil ten. How copy?" I transmitted to the man in charge of the fleet's namesake. "Good copy, Ravager out." he responded, winking out as Karath popped up again. "General Surik. I've sent six Hammer groups with four Wolfpacks to attack that dreadnaught." he stated, as my eyes widened. Six and four? That was much more than I had expected, and it left him vulnerable. "That will be enough, stay safe until the reinforcements I'll be shifting over hit you. Vindictive out." I ordered, looking back to the main display.
The growing hotspot near the planet was still bleeding ships heavily, and one of the rearguard hammer-groups nearby had just mopped up a flanking attack and was signalling for orders. Tapping comms open with it and two more groups I began issuing them. "Hammer-Groups Manaan and Ithor, Wolfpack Telti, this is Vindictive Actual. Relocate quickly to Hammer-fleet Leviathan, to which you are now assigned." I ordered tapping a few more holographic buttons confirming that they wouldn't be assisting the hotspot. They would likely survive. "Sir!" one of the bridge-crew called. "Vindictive out. What is it?" I asked, stepping back from the display. "Multiple gunship and Basilisk squadrons approaching, relative bearing three hundred, neg-twenty!" he reported tersely. "Have our squadrons returned?" I asked looking back at the display. There they were. "Yes sir, three squadrons-worth remain." the starfighter controller - Lyell - reported. Thirty six. Good enough to delay them. I tapped another rearguard group on the display. "Wolfpack Duro, Vindictive Actual. New Tasking. Make full speed to the Vindictive and repel gunship and Basilisk squadrons, then return to your posting. How copy?" I asked. "Good copy, moving out." came the reply. "Vindictive out." I said terminating the connection before looking to the starfighter controller. "Lieutenant Lyell. A wolfpack is coming in, use our remaining squadrons and our Foray escorts to delay those Mandalorians. They must not reach this ship." I ordered before turning back to the display and seeing the hotspot.
We were about to lose it, but there wasn't yet enough Mandalorians within the estimated range.
Swallowing hard, I tapped another two of my eight fleets, opening communications to both. "Hammer-fleet Alderaan's Pride, Wolf-fleet Four. This is Vindictive Actual. New Tasking. Relocate to sector fifteen-negtwo-nil and reinforce the survivors. Vindictive out." I said, ending the transmission, standing still a moment.
Survivors. The word left me feeling sick.
Shaking myself out of it, I thought of Revan. How close was he and Alek - Malak - to Mandalore? Time to check. Pushing another button next to Karath's, I opened a comm. "Revan. We're beginning to bleed badly. How much more time?" I asked tensely as the sound of a lightsaber came through the comm. "We're halfway through...Activate it when you feel it is best." he responded, breathing hard. I stiffened.
"...Yes sir. Vindictive out." I replied, cutting the transmission. Looking over the strategic situation I saw no outstanding issues I could resolve, and let my hand fall to my saberstaff. It had never failed to bring me comfort, even if only slight, and a slight amount of pride I'd never been able to completely quash both in the skill required to use it and the two unique crystals inside. When I had begun attuning my crystals for the first time, they had turned Viridian; a colour not seen in a lightsaber before or since, and not even the Masters had been able to explain why, or what it meant.
I was brought out of my quiet reveries by the holotable alerting me to a request for orders, and suddenly I could hear the occasional screams in the battle-chatter again. It will be the only time of comfort I will have until this battle ends, I know, and maybe even the last I would ever have. I'd make the calm feeling count.
Leaning forward and examining the group that had requested orders, it was a Hammer-group in the middle of my part of the battlespace. Right in the path of a Mandalorian push away from the planet. Left alone, it's commanding admiral would order it away soon. I tapped it. "Hammer-group Ixtlar, Vindictive Actual. Hold for reinforcements, Vindictive out." I said as I terminated the comms and activated comms to all remaining rearguard groups. "Rearguard, this is Vindictive Actual. All in, move to Hammer-group Ixtlar's position and hold the Mandalorian bastards back. I repeat, Hammer-Group Ixtlar's position. Go. Vindictive out. Helmsman! Take us in with the Rearguard." I ordered, looking up to the stars in front of me. It would happen soon. I looked back to the designing technician, one of the few Zabraks in the fleet. He was radiating anxiety, nerves and hints of guilt both in person and through the Force. Soon. The Mandalorians as a whole were pushing closer to the planet now, planning to burst through our weakened forces there en-mass, not having had luck with any of the outer edges or a flanking assault. Soon our local losses would climb high enough that they wouldn't need one, keeping them right where they are.
I stood still, watching the hololith constantly. "Starfighter count?" I asked, feeling the inertial dampeners fight against the acceleration. "Twenty left, sir." Lyell reported. "Keep them close. We'll need the protection." I stated, staring at the mess in front of me. Hammer-fleet Alderaan's Pride and the wolf-fleet I'd sent were already down to fifty percent trying to hold the Mandalorians near the planet. Mandalore's flagship was still standing off safely away from the planet. The non-Jedi lead Starfighter squadrons had taken heavy losses. The Ravager was taking heavy fire in it's fleet's push against the weak point pushing the Mandalorians into the planet, but even without it it's fleet would hold. We'd already lost almost forty percent of the fleet as a whole. "Arriving on Ixtar's location now, sir." Helmsman Cote reported. "Good. Hold behind them. Weapons, focus on those who focus on us." I ordered as a wolfpack blew past closely enough to see easily and scattered turbolaser fire began impacting on our shields. The Mandalorians had already engaged the mass of Republic ships in the sector, but weren't heavy enough to push through. We would hold, I knew, and a new flashing sigil appeared over the Kandosii that had overextended. I smirked as Karath's ships finally pulverised through the dreadnaught's armour enough to make high-energy contact with it's main reactor, in which one or two ships promptly did so as the reactor broke containment and ignited in the brightest detonation yet seen in the battle, large swathes of the ship vaporising instantly. I keyed a fleet-wide comm. "Dreadnaught down." I stated smugly, before making a brief calculation. "Now. Push them for five minutes more, and we can win the war." I stated simply before terminating the communications, listening to the battlechatter take a celebratory, and then an almost disbelieving tone.
But they fought harder all the same.
New issues began popping up as the minutes went on. Another Kandosii broke from the Planet-side hotspot and headed in our direction. The Ravager was crippled. Our fleet was down to forty percent. The Alderaan's Pride was lost and it's fleet down to thirty percent. Then twenty. Ten. But the Mandalorians were grouping heavily next to the planet, preparing to push around from it through our losses into our rear.
I knew Revan had made it into the bridge of Mandalore's dreadnaught. I knew that the technician, Bao-Dur was ready to activate his weapon.
Closing my eyes and hanging my head back, face to the stars, I felt the lives hovering over the world. Further on I felt the lives upon it. There would be very few survivors, if any at all. Opening them, I turned to the technician who had made the Mandalorian defeat possible. I saw the helpless fear in his eyes. He knew what would happen, and he knew that there had never been another option. For the second time, the Malachor system would bear witness to the horrific culmination of a galactic war.
I nodded to him, eyes never leaving his, and waited as he shakily began working on his terminal. I turned back to the tactical display, showing the Mandalorians beginning to push back. I activated the fleet-wide comms. "All ships. This is Vindictive Actual. Turn your thrusters to the planet and initiate full burn." I ordered, taking a breath. "They have fallen into the trap, and the activation of a superweapon is imminent. Do not attempt Hyperspace." I continued as I took hold of the bars around the holo-display, then dropped my right hand to my saber. "Brace." I simply said, watching as every Republic ship that could still move did so, still firing at the Mandalorians to make sure they kept away. A few even held position.
None in the last of the Hammer-fleet Alderaan's Pride moved away from the planet at all.
It began, I could already feel, in large bolts of lightning. The Navigation console sounded an alarm, likely the hyperspace mass-shadow already extending past us. The lightning on the planet, already scorching and killing places nearby the Mass Shadow Generators, but not directly on them. The bolts of lightning then grew into arcs, a few spanning continents, scarring the world. It hurt, numbly. The planet's gravity had already doubled. And then Quadrupled. The arcs now scratched across the planet, coming into existence even faster than they faded out.
Then it reached more than fifty times it's original gravity and the world screamed in dying pain as I listened and echoed it, feeling it's very earth shattering.
And then it increased exponentially once more, and our ships stopped accelerating and began to slow, as the inertial dampeners on many of the starfighters failed under the shadow and their cockpits imploded, and I could hear and feel nothing but the screaming. The screaming that began to grow, even as it began to cease.
I felt the first of the ships both those full of lives and those not impacting the planet. I felt them like a tear in my mind. I felt them all - those of the Mando'ade who couldn't believe what was happening, some facing their deaths with stoic honour nonetheless - those of the loyal servants of the Galactic Republic, having fought so hard to endure against the Mandalorian onslaught, only to die dashed against a worthless rock.
I felt their screams, and then I felt their silence. Then I began to hear the echo, where the screaming began anew, joining the screams of the living. I reached out frantically, trying to find anything to make it stop - my friends were dying and I could feel it - when I latched onto something close to me and it managed to quieten the sound, if only slightly.
I focused on it entirely. Anything to make them stop screaming. I felt it growing, I felt as it began to burn me, felt as it slowly spread through my body, felt as it grew to blinding in my eyes, but it was all irrelevant, because it made everything bearable.
Then it vanished from my grip - subsumed, and in senseless panic I reached for Anything.
And then Everything came to me, and I broke - shattered - fragmented, under the weight of the unforgiving soulstorm.
This story stuck in my head, and eventually I just had to release a piece of it. Then it kept coming. Still so distracting from Templar.
There is a plot. There is meaning. When I finally finish this, the ending shall be Magnificent.
But that is a long time away, and Templar demands my focus for now.
Author's Notes
Relative Bearing is relative to the particular ship; Bow Straight is 000,0. Starboard Half-Down is 090,-45. There is no vertical bearing above (+-)90. Edit; surfing Star Trek things I found that adding Mark as so; Zero Five Zero, Mark Ten or One One Zero, Neg Twenty fits very well.
Planetary Bearing is zeroed towards the closest planet, vertical bearing optional.
Sectors are three-dimensional points (0,0,0) that I've based loosely on Proximity to Planet, Vertical Inclination (Latitude +-90), and Longitude (+-360). Longitude is pre-determined for the whole fleet, or known planet default.
I also quite appreciate that you never address a superior in the Republic Military as anything other than sir, for diversity reasons. Makes things much simpler.
Finally: Meetra Surik's appearance is basically the story picture's, but with visibly dark brown hair (it might even be that reflective, but I don't play with hair much.), minus the blood-tears (those plot in next chapter) and TOR-Default(probably?) Guardian style armour and robes, because not even Consulars wear robes alone to the Mandalorian Wars and expect to live. Additionally, Surik went into the war as a fresh Knight/late Padawan (I don't know, no point specifying), and she was definitively shaped as a person by war, not peace. She doesn't fit well under the Doctrine Guardian/Sentinel/Consular system, so I won't bother applying it in the future.
I have also never even made it past the tutorial of TOR. I just can't handle that gameplay. Might give it another go sometime.