OPENING MOVES

The forces of the Second Corellian Treaty faced a daunting logistical task as they entered the war. Starting from their peacetime economies and forces, they would have to build up a military machine capable of sustaining multiple simultaneous world wars across the galaxy. Though official records and numbers remain sealed, the Corellian Armed Forces began the war as a relatively small force on the galactic stage. The Corellian Navy had ten Endurance-class carriers, thirteen MC80s, eight Nebula-class Star Destroyers, and an assortment of a few hundred corvettes, destroyers (distinct from the Star Destroyer hull classification), frigates, and cruisers. Corellian Engineering Corporation and the shipyards at Talus and Selonia were perfectly capable of producing starfighters, freighters, and small warships but would take weeks to construct the facilities needed to produce CVs and BBs. For the first month of the war, Corellia would have no way to replace its carriers or Star Destroyers. The Navy would have to be miserly with their use.

In terms of starfighters, Corellian Navy Starfighter Command had the T-65XJ X-wing and the BTL-S7 Y-wing torpedo/scout bomber, produced on license from Incom and Koensayr. The XJ was a divergent branch of the X-wing line, developed along a path parallel to the T-70 and its successors. The XJ kept the general spaceframe and design of the T-65 but with upgrades to its engines, ECM, computers, guns, and ordnance launchers that allowed it to equal or surpass the TIE/FO. The BTL-S7, an evolution of the old Y-wing design, was considered a dependable workhorse with a hefty anti-warship punch but its mediocre agility and speed in this day and age made it unsuited for rigors of modern dogfighting. Together, these craft made up the bulk of CNSFC's carrier wings in the early war. While production output was deemed adequate for the needs of the current fleet, the need for massive fleet buildup meant that production facilities would need to be expanded considerably over the war. CNSFC's General Wedge Antilles also commissioned the development of a new space superiority fighter and new torpedo bomber to replace the existing pre-war designs.

Corellia's pre-war ground forces had been limited in scope. A few dozen divisions of professional, well-trained volunteers made up the ranks of the Corellian Expeditionary Forces. The CEF's troops were veterans who had cut their teeth in anti-piracy actions in the interbellum, but it was clear from the war's outset that the CEF would be numerically inadequate for the war ahead. From Corellia's population of three billion, Bel Iblis would need to raise millions of troops to match the First Order's hordes. And that came with more logistical problems. Existing bases had to be expanded and hundreds more would need to be built to accommodate the new armies. Factories and farms would need to exponentially increase production to keep up with the military's demands for just about everything, from tanks to socks to rations. New starports, space elevators, and orbital dockyards would have to be assembled to contain the hundreds upon hundreds of bulk freighters needed to ferry the troops and their supplies to the fight. Highways would have to be widened to accommodate the millions of supply trucks and fighting vehicles requisitioned for the war effort. Millions of labor droids would need to be constructed or imported as well. And then there was the issue of quality control. How many weeks would need to be shaved off of basic training to ensure that there was enough infantry for the coming fight? What sacrifices would need to be made in the production of blasters, tanks, and artillery pieces to ensure that production could remain sustainable and affordable? With so many volunteers, how many people were left to man the means of production on the home front?

All was not unwell, however. Corellia's arms industry had ensured that the existing CEF still enjoyed some advantages over other galactic powers' troops. Armament Coronet, or ArmaCor, had emerged onto the galactic market as a manufacturer of dependable, affordable, and versatile infantry firearms. Its AC5 series of blaster rifles was unmatched in accuracy, firepower, and range while the AC7 autoblaster series was well-liked for providing infantry squads with a light, reliable support weapon with a fantastic rate of fire and ammunition capacity, though it could never quite match the Imperial E-web's destructive potential or cooling systems. Yutrane-Trackata's T7-A1 Paladin main battle tank, licensed to local producers, formed the backbone of the Corellian armored divisions. It was considered one of the best tanks in the galaxy thanks to its accurate and fast-firing main gun, cutting-edge protective package, and superb acceleration. Its fuel consumption, however, would remain a cause for concern until the development of the engine upgrades featured in the T7-A2 a year after the declaration of war. For most armor historians, the only other MBT that could equal the T7 series in this war was the Remnant's S-3 Warlord main battle tank, which boasted superior mobility due to its repulsorlift design but possessed lighter armor and other defensive systems as a consequence.

Many of the other forces of the Second Corellian Treaty faced their own issues as well. The Duros provided a large navy, capital shipyards, and a skilled Marine Corps, courtesy of their history as a spacefaring species, but they lacked the ground-based punch of their peers. The inhospitable surface of Duro meant that most Duros today continued to live in orbital colonies, where armored warfare and heavy artillery would be inconvenient at best and suicidal at worst. Wookiee shock troops, trackers, and scouts were unmatched by all but the Trandoshans and their fighting vehicles and starfighters were on par with those of other galactic powers but their meager shipyards would be unable to provide much in the way of warships. The Imperial Remnant's logistical situation is still largely classified, but existing publicly available accounts show us a military caught in a transition phase. Its elite Stormtrooper Corps, border fleets, and starfighter squadrons were on the cutting edge of military technology but a great deal of Imperial Army divisions had not yet completed the equipment update phase at the war's beginning. For the first year, dozens of Imperial Army divisions and the Remnant's inner system fleets would go to battle using designs that dated back to the end of the Galactic Civil War. Nonetheless, the Remnant boasted a larger military than its allies at the beginning of the war, which allowed it to better withstand the attrition of costly planetary sieges and the First Order's grand offensives.


SPOTLIGHT: INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATON'S BOB-SERIES

While many historians and holovid producers will sing the praises of the war's guns and starfighters, few give attention to the logistical machine that kept the troops in the fight. Industrial Automaton's Beast of Burden (BOB) series of labor droids was one of the unsung heroes of the war. The BOB was a modular quadrupedal design capable of accomplishing a wide variety of tasks including but not limited to: hauling equipment, carrying support weaponry, carrying wounded, field repairs, salvage, mine-sweeping, and road work. BOB herds were a common sight behind the front lines where they assisted in the work of engineer battalions, artillery batteries, and vehicle maintenance personnel. During the invasion of Kaselta, Corellian rear-echelon units made extensive use of these droids, planing hilly terrain flat to construct massive roads and rail lines leading to the front lines. Remnant forces also used over a million BOBs to assist in the sieges of Jaemus, Entralla, Bescane, and Muunilinst, constructing many of the titanic fortifications that still mark those planets' landscapes today.


The First Order would not wait while Corellia and her allies prepared for war, however. In the weeks after the Treaty, the Seventh Fleet under Admiral Kurita advanced on Remnant space, aiming to take the shipyards of Jaemus and Entralla. First Order forces under Admiral Brom Sartus steamrolled over the disorganized New Republic defenders along the Celanon Spur and Namadii Corridor, laying siege to Dorin and Ord Mantell. Ixtlar and Aargau declared allegiance to the First Order shortly after and laid siege to Sarapin in an attempt to seize control over its energy industry and geothermal power supplies. Three days after the siege began, Sarapin sent out an open distress call.

There was no time to dawdle. On the Coreward front, Bel Iblis split the Corellian Navy into multiple carrier battle groups (CVBGs), each composed of a single Endurance or MC80 backed up by a wolf pack of escorts whose job was to protect the carrier at all costs. They could not afford to enter close-range slugging matches with First Order ships, and thus, were ordered to focus on carrier doctrine. Carrier air wings would form the bulk of the CVBG's offensive punch, while the Nebulae and smaller escorts would focus on defending the carrier from fighters and incoming warships. While the MC CVBGs would remain to defend Corellia and her neighbors, the Endurance CVBGs would go on the hunt. The most notable actions of this phase: CVBG-2 under the carrier Mantooine was sent to disrupt First Order landings at Port Aurum and Sarapin alongside a Mandalorian volunteer force from Clan Ordo; CVBG-8, led by Vespid, would attempt to launch strikes deep into FO-held territory with her bomber squadrons; Endeavor, the intended flagship of CVBG-6, had been damaged during the Hosnian Cataclysm, caught at the system's edge when the planet was destroyed, and would remain under repairs.

On the Imperial front, Pellaeon assigned Admiral Jonah Belisarius and High General Honorius Vauban to counter Kurita's advance. Belisarius and Vauban immediately ordered a fighting retreat of the thinly spread border forces, ordering them to fall back in good order towards Jaemus, Entralla, Bescane, and Muunilinst where they would establish a defense in depth to break the First Order's momentum. Around each star system, Belisarius and his fleet masters established a multilayered spherical defense. At the outermost sphere, patrol vessels and monitors would maintain a complex web of surveillance and report intrusions into the area of operations, retreating inwards towards the next sphere if attacked. The second sphere, composed of a heavier net of cruisers, light carriers, and destroyers, would form the first real layer of resistance, covering the first layer with long-ranged turbolaser and torpedo fire. Beneath that was the final orbital sphere, a densely-packed layer composed of Star Destroyers, armed satellites, Golan defense stations, and whatever superheavy assets Belisarius could acquire from storage, including the torpedo sphere Annihilator and the Executor Resolute. Vauban and his generals oversaw ground defenses. They constructed multilayered trench networks, deployed vast numbers of prefabricated bases, and hastily built defense turrets and artillery positions. From orbit, the surfaces of Jaemus, Entralla, Bescane, and Muunilinst appeared to be covered in scratches (actually trench lines) and pockmarks (actually clusters of artillery pieces, large bunkers dug into the earth, or surface-to-orbit weapon installations). On the fortress world of Bescane, Vauban made his headquarters in the grand redoubt built into the planet's largest mountain range, ordering his engineer battalions to expand the mountains' extensive tunnel networks and hidden siege artillery positions. The orders given to Belisarius and Vauban were simple: Hold to the last man. Let none pass.