Chapter 4 - Hole Punched

Utapau System, high orbit over Utapau

39:3:6 (4 ABY)

1402 hours

Holonovels and holovids liked to paint space battles as big clean conflicts between capital ships and Starfighters. The truth couldn't be furthest from. Space was on fire, red, blue, and green bolts of light skipped back and forth between the Imperials, the Sky Force and their supporters. Though the Imperials had tactical superiority against the capital ships, the Porax class of Starfighter, despite being over 20 years old, simply outclassed every TIE fighter in the field.

Added to their advantage, the Sky Force had starships with actual anti-starfighter roles, the Heavy Cruisers they fielded put up a wall of anti-fighter flack so thick that not a single TIE had made it to the atmosphere in one piece. Without the direct coordination however, this also meant that their former Imperial allies couldn't easily traverse the battle.

"Sky Force Fleet Command this is Red Leader." Vincent commed the lead cruiser as they broke atmosphere. "We are in route to engage the ImpStar," He forwarded trajectory data from his navigational computer. It highlighted their path and where they would intercept the flak line. "We will need you to reduce anti-fighter weaponry targeting this grid for approximately thirty seconds on my mark. The Wraith will move in to intercept any fighters that push through while we make our egress. Do you copy?"

"This is Sky Force Fleet Command, we read you Red Leader. Please advise our weapons operate on a two second delay, we will require an additional period to disengage fire."

"Acknowledge Command." Reaching up the Echani thumbed a few indicator switches, bringing full shields and maneuvering thrusters online now that they were in vacuum. "Red Leader to squadron, we will be penetrating the anti-flack line in five. Four. Three. Mark. One. Now."

The shockwave had begun buffeting against their hulls when suddenly it became quiet, eerily so. The world around them was still afire but in their immediate vicinity there was nothing, then the klaxons rang out. Six TIEs, Special Forces, started bearing down on them, a target lock alarm called out, and was quickly silenced as one of the craft exploded, causing the others to jink away.

The massive arrow shaped hull of the Wraith sped into view, it's anti-fighter lasers lighting up the sky as it formed up in front of the fighter squadron, the ships massive engines letting it keep pace. Another TIE went up, then another. The enemy squad broke away, trying to make towards the planet only to get caught in the wave of Flack that was starting to rapidly recede back into the opening.

Thirty seconds went by in what felt both like a heartbeat and an eternity, but not a single fighter broke ranks from their squad. Loyalty or professionalism Vincent didn't know, nor did he truly care for the moment. The fighters formed up over the Corvette, still keeping pace with the smaller craft as they angled towards the ISD, which sat ominously at the edges of the battlezone. "Red Two. I somehow doubt the engine modifications I'm registering suddenly were authorized. Me thinks we both kept secrets."

"You assume correctly, Red Leader," replied Kev-Mas over comm, "That's a story for another day, but at least it proves quite useful here."

Kev-Mas and his TIE Hunters formed up in front of Vincent and his TIE Avengers to provide defensive coverage against any enemy TIEs that managed to evade the Wraith's laser cannons.

"Formation set and ready to engage on your mark, Red Leader."

"Hunters, move to engage first, draw fire. Wraith prepare to engage in a broadside strafing maneuver along their starboard trench, Avengers, fall behind the Wraith. Link targeting data with their computers, we will make a single pass. Hunters, fall in line after the Wraith takes the brunt of their focus, follow up on our targets, unload all munitions, after this pass, the Shadow of Veils will make it's shot."

With that, Kev-Mas and the other TIE Hunters moved to engage the enemy TIEs that were swarming the ISD. The strategy worked, and the trap was sprung, and immediately after the enemy TIEs left their defensive positions to engage the Hunters the Wraith decloaked and began it's broadside against the ISD's starboard trench. The enemy TIEs then shifted their focus to the Corvette that came out of nowhere attacking the Star Destroyer and the corvette responded immediately after the first shot was sent its way.

The Wraith's broadside maneuver was more a trap than anything. It was not intended to do much damage at all, as the Corvette was designed to fulfill an anti-starfighter role than anything. So when the fighters responded by opening fire on it, the ship was well prepared, and began eliminating enemy TIEs at a rapid rate.

If by luck, by strategy, or sheer stringent attention to imperial doctrine by their opponents the plan seemed to work. Vincent's sensors watched the ISD closely for any deviation from his estimations, so he might call off the attack. The TIEs had broken formation, and the Wraith now sat as a shield between them and Vincent's assault squad. More so, the Star Destroyer's command crew had operated with peak anti-capital ship efficiency. They pumped more power to the starboard ray-shields and their turbolaser batteries came online and began to come to bare.

It was this singular focused nature of the Empire to show an overwhelming act of force against an opponent that left the opening. With power shunted to ray-shields and turbolasers their particle shields felt the strain, after all that was what TIEs were there for. Except they weren't, and now from out behind the ion wake of the Wraith came four other fighters, their targeting computers locked on to the exact points the Wraith's turbolasers had struck, where the ray shields were strongest, and the particle shields were at their weakest.

The missiles flew out, slamming into the trench and detonated. Immediate sections of the outer hull buckled, and Vincent pivoted his craft to his port, bringing the underside in line with the ISD and he thumbed his bomb controls. The energy bomb launcher discharged, a single massive burst displacing the entire charge of the system. It slammed into the ray-shields, their now strained localized emitters flaring in warning, if the Echani's sensors were to be believed. "Hunters, Wraith lock on to my targeting data, and fire."

The Wraith and the Hunters had just finished eliminating the last of the enemy TIEs in the area when Vincent had issued the orders to fire, and they were ready for it. Firing everything they had into the shields of the kilometer long star destroyer, the 7 TIE Hunters and Raider-class corvette launched a barrage of turbolaser, laser, ion cannon and proton torpedo fire upon the Star Destroyer. The assault slammed into the ship and it shuddered as the shields came offline.

The Wraith and Kev-Mas' TIE Hunters made a pass away from the ship, and Kev-Mas informed Vincent of their success. "Red Leader, the shields are down. Feel free to make your assault immediately."

The confirmation reply from Vincent came in the form of a high frequency comm burst, to the squadron it sounded like a burst of static, to another ship, positioned high in polar orbit after dropping off the fighters, it was full of targeting data. A blue bolt lanced across the battle, slower than a laser bolt, but not by much, it slammed into the upper hull of the star destroyer. Arcs of energy flowed out from the impact point, and the assaulting squadron watched as the lights across the dorsal portion of the ship winked and failed.

Another bolt, this one impacting the bridge tower. The massive observation deck's transparent dura-plast windows shattered, the bridge crew was quickly dead of electrical discharges, explosive decompression, if they were lucky. If not, it would be a painful several minutes as the vacuum took them.

The Star Destroyers engines failed, flaring a few times before going cold, leaving the massive hulk to drift, just far enough away from Utapau that gravity did not take it in. Closer towards the planet, the battle was shifting momentum, with the ISD first preoccupied, and now disabled, the lone Victory was out numbered, and beginning to break from the assault. "An important question to ask ourselves," Vincent poised over the comm channel. "Do we need three Star Destroyers?"

"Well like you said before the battle started," replied Kev-Mas, "Salvage is our top priority."

"And it is," The former Inquisitor agreed. "However, do we have the manpower to effectively field three Star Destroyers? If not, do we leave one to the enemy?"

"I believe that would be a question for the Sky Force," the ex-Emperor's hand mused in reply, "Perhaps once the battle is over they'll have more manpower available to crew them."

"Speaking of which," he continued, "I believe that we need to make sure they remember not to destroy that Victory-class."

"Sky Force, this is Commander Colcha," said Kev-Mas over comm to General Vant, "I want to remind you to focus on disabling that ship, not destroying it. Then once the battle is over you might want to check and see if you have the manpower available to field 3 Star Destroyers. Today the Empire came with expectations of taking your planet back, but in reality they gave you a small fleet to command."

"It'll be a stretch Commander, but I'll see what we can do," replied Vant, "We may have to resort to using some relics that were left in Pau City at the end of the Clone Wars."

"You can't be serious," replied Kev-Mas, "I thought the Separatist Droid Factories were all destroyed?"

"All of them but the one here, Commander," replied Vant, "After the Republic drove the Separatists from our planet and disabled the factory, it was still intact. We were working on converting it for our own use, but by the time we got it ready for production the Republic, since then being reformed into an Empire ordered all Droid Factories to be destroyed. Rather than destroy all that hard work, we put it into hiding."

"Why didn't you use it when you retook the planet then? Or for this battle?" replied Kev-Mas.

"The factory is a last resort option for us," explained Vant, "We weren't entirely sure that it would work and it would have been overkill if it did work in those situations. We already had a tactical advantage in both battles."

"Well, I guess you can try putting it to work to help crew these Star Destroyers," replied Kev-Mas, "These ships are your only hope for keeping this planet under your control. The fleet that we just defeated is most likely just a scout fleet based on its size. You can be assured that another much larger fleet is on it's way, and you're going to need to be ready for it."

"Vincent," said Kev-Mas over comms, "You're not going to believe this, but they're going to crew those ships with Battle Droids. Apparently the Imperial Order to destroy all..."

"I do have ears Colcha." The Echani interrupted.

"Alright then," Kev-Mas chuckled, "I guess you already know what's going on then."

"In the meantime however, General, could you order your forces to continue their assault on the Victory, focusing on its engines as it retreats. It is attempting to move beyond the gravity shadow, unfortunately they assaulted in direction of the moon and now have to contend with it. Well, unfortunately for them." Vincent looked back over the orbital data his ship's systems had fed him, "I have a plan to disable the ship, well, incapacitate, giving you time to gather forces to take and repair it, but your continued assault is necessary. Though they should be prepared to stop, you will know when."

"Vincent," Kev-Mas inquired, "We need allies. The Empire is going to retaliate with a larger fleet, and even with 3 Star Destroyers added to our numbers and several Battle Droids, there won't be any chance of us to defeat a full scale invasion fleet. Who hates the Empire more than we do?"

The Echani sighed. "The Alliance to Restore the Republic, The Lothalian Rebels, Phoenix Squadron, various CIS holdouts, the Hutts, the Mandalorians, do you want me to give you all the information I have from Imperial Intelligence? I will, but we have a battle to win first. If that Star Destroyer gets away, we will have it and its relief force to deal with. I need it to focus its shields to the aft."

"What shields?" replied Kev-Mas, "Check again. I think you'll find that Sky Force managed to handle themselves quite well."

The Echani simply sent the sensor data he had to the man's fighter. It showed elevated power levels to the aft, but that shields were holding. "The most recent refit of the Victory two added secondary aft shield generators, they are effectively more heavily shielded against energy weapons than an ISD. The Dreadnoughts are working but the attack must be pressed." Vincent forwarded other data, showing several target points along the ship's bridge tower. "I need the shields that guard the fore of the bridge tower down by another 14% for this to be an effective operation. Trust me."

"Alright," acknowledged Kev-Mas, "Lets clean up this mess then."

With that out of the way, the Dreadnoughts continued their assault, lining up in an advancing broadside line, pounding away at the Victory's aft. Occasionally a blue bolt would spark out from polar orbit, flickering off the ships shields, and the power levels would drop. Vincent and his squadron had formed up, but did not advance, he heard quiet mumbles over comms, Colcha's people he assumed. Then, the number shifted from green to red, as the shields dropped down into the critical mark.

"Go for decapitation."

Before Colcha could inquire what Vincent had meant sensors flared and klaxons went off as another ship appeared, seemingly from nowhere. The Echani knew that Colcha would recognize it right away, the unmistakable silhouette of a VT-49 as it decloaked, hull sparking in purple as the memetic shielding ate away.

Angry green blasts barked out from under the hull, slamming into the bridge tower, the remaining shields it had flaring in an flash. The Decimator pulled up, two contrails spiraling out from it's underside as it banked away. Two explosions erupted on the Bridge Tower, and in a near instant the ship went dark, it's engines failing as it floated quietly forward destined to enter orbit of the planets moons.

"A Camarian Scythe maneuver is not easily performed on a Star Destroyer while it's shields are up see." The Echani said finally, the Decimator continuing its bank as it decelerated, coming into approach on the squadron. The Sky Forces fire rapidly declining as the Star Destroyer floated effectively dead in the water. "But it's easy to catch one by surprise when there's a fleet of Dreadnoughts on their aft and the only ship capable of effectively performing the maneuver doesn't exist anymore. Officially."

"Well aren't you just full of surprises…" commented Kev-Mas, "What's next? You're going to reveal that you're my father?"

"That would be paradoxical as you're older than I am." The Echani suddenly sounded very tired, "The coordination effort this all took was quite, significant." He let out a long breath. "My crew has spent years with me, while not attuned to the force they are attuned to me, my distractions, my emotional state, has been due to coordinating with them not simply through comms but with the Force as well."

The Decimator swung up over Vincent's craft, and lowered a docking collar down, before slowly moving towards the gathering fleet. A small gesture, to keep their commander from having to fly if just for a bit. "You recall how it was, with your Shadow Troopers do you not?" He reached up, and touched the roof of his cockpit, "When the order fell, they were spared by their diligence alone, having found the sabotage long before. I thought it had been a Moff, or an officer who had a grudge against me. In the end, they are nearly all that remains of our Order's legacy."

"In the case of mine," replied Kev-Mas, "I had it a little easier than that. They were spared because they were deemed necessary to my ongoing operations as the Emperor's Hand. The order was given three years before the Emperor selected me to be his hand, so my days as a Shadow Guard were already over… but once a Shadow Guard, always a Shadow Guard. Once a Sun Guard, always a Sun Guard."

There was no immediate response, for a time there was silence as they moved past the first Dreadnought, towards the command ship. "As an Inquisitor, as the 34th brother, I needed no squad. We were self-sufficient, we had a fighter, which I stowed away, a lightsaber, and some droids. Later, as a High Inquisitor, I got a command, but the deed had been done. I knew from the start what had happened, what was happening. So I laid out all these plans… so much for them now."

"How come?" replied Kev-Mas with a hint of curiosity in his voice.

"My plans didn't include you, or a larger ship, a larger crew. Me and Mine. With time, and effort they could, but, I wasn't planning to do this so soon, and I won't abandon you and yours now for my own sake. We are the last of us, the Force knows that. The Force lead me to be on Coruscant, alone with only one other Inquisitor when the Emperor fell, the only two people on Coruscant who could stand up to you. The Force put me here, and I have no doubt that means something." The Echani sat up in his flight chair, as the world around them grew brighter, his fighter was let go, and automated systems settled him into a landing path on the Dreadnoughts main hangar.

Kev-Mas had also put his fighter into automated systems, and the two fighters flew next to each other into the Dreadnought's hangar. "To be honest, ever since the Emperor died I was completely lost as far as what to do with myself," Kev-Mas admitted, "Turns out that being suddenly freed from having your mind enslaved to the most powerful person in the Galaxy makes you go a little nuts. So I'm glad to know at least one of us knows their calling beyond the line of duty that no longer exists..."

There wasn't an immediate response as Vincent's fighter settled to the deck, the large VT-49 coming to rest not far from the Oppressor. In silence the Echani climbed out of his cockpit, stepped into the small hitch that popped out from the side of the eyeball and lowered him down. As he settled to the ground, eight figured, all clad in black Stormtrooper armor filtered quietly out of the Decimator and stood around the now visibly tired Echani.

There were onlookers, Kev-Mas' people, the various members of the skyforce, their attention had to be on them, the black armor was something of a mark on the already dark Imperial legacy. In turn, each man reached up in silence and removed his helmet as Vincent seemed to look on in, his eyes having gone soft. Each man bore marks, scars. They were all wildy different, save two, same face, same eyes, different scars. Kev-Mas would know they were former clone troopers.

The troopers sat their helmets on the Deck and stood in front of them, taking a salute, right arm across the chest, first formed flat over the heart, and bowed slightly. Vincent returned the gesture, and then in an act that caused murmurs in amongst the ranks of the Sky Force, he opened his arms wide as he rose back up, the troopers filing in, forming a massed group hug, armor clanging against armor in the otherwise quiet of the act.

Kev-Mas was just exiting his TIE when he saw the new faces.

"Well that's awkward," Kev-Mas commented to himself, "Obviously Stormtrooper armor was not designed for displays of camaraderie."

Kev-Mas then decided it was important to introduce himself, and went over to greet them.

"Clones, eh?"

"The 375th Shadow Trooper Regiment," One replied as they broke from the group and pointed a thumb at his chest, "Gamma-32, Cav." He then pointed to the other clone. "Gamma-34, Erty." The rest of the troopers had broken up and all turned to address the other man with their attention, Vincent stepped up to the front of the group.

"After they were, unceremoniously discharged, I allowed them to look into a way to stop their accelerated aging." He crossed his arms in front of him and looked the two over. "A group of Troopers who fled the New Order two decades ago had apparently discovered it some time ago, thankfully as Gamma's they are pretty young compared to most clones."

"Well that explains why they're still alive and in working order," commented Kev-Mas, "Quite ironic given the current circumstances though, considering the Sky Force is going to be crewing the Star Destroyers we just captured with Battle Droids - their former enemies."

"Droids weren't our enemies mate." This was Erty speaking up, his voice similar to Cav's clean cut clone, but with an inflection that nobody could quite pinpoint. "Was the buggers programmin' em. Hell Republic used battledroids in several operations, even the B-series. Yer enemy is very rarely the guy on the other line with a blaster, it's the guy in the comfy chair lightyears away."

Vincent cleared his throat, and Erty seemed to step back, "Forgive him, Erty's always been one for learning. He's memorized nearly every battle the 501st and the Open Circle Fleet performed in during the clone wars. He's also more than well aware of what happens when someone else has control of what you can do against your will."

"General order Sixty-Six." Both clones said, rather darkly. "We couldn't…"

Vincent held up a hand, "Like I said, they know all too well."

"Sounds like Erty is everything the Empire feared in an individual," acknowledged Kev-Mas, "A good quality to have, but it makes sense that they were discharged from serving Imperial service. Unfortunate, but that's just the way the Empire was… and that's exactly why we don't stand for that anymore."

"Though now we have to find exactly what it is we stand for." Vincent motioned towards the General, who had finally arrived in the hangar bay. "I think we should inform the General of exactly what damage we dealt to the Star Destroyers, it may take several days for them to be up and operational, well, aside from the one on the surface."

"Agreed," nodded Kev-Mas, "I'll leave that to you, since you seem to have a better grasp of the tactical situation at hand."

Just then General Vant came their way. The Utai then addressed them with a gruff voice, "The Utapaun people cannot thank you enough. You have given us hope, and ensured that our freedom was not short lived."

"Yes, but I'm afraid it's not time to celebrate yet," replied Kev-Mas, "I can assure you that the Empire will be back eventually. It is standard Imperial protocol to always make two attempts at most to capture a planet, and the second attempt always dwarfs the first one in scale. We're going to need to be ready, which is why it is so important that we get these ships we've captured in working order before they strike again. Vincent will give you a detailed rundown of what's in store."

General Vant nodded, and then looked in Vincent's direction, "I'm ready when you are, Commander."

"Right," The Echani dropped his arms and clasped his hands behind his back, and subconsciously took the stance Imperial Officers often take when giving briefings. "Let us begin with the Imperial Star Destroyer. Her damage is mostly to her starboard shielding, a full overhaul would take weeks but power can be restored and she can be placed in an orbital position suitable for granting anti-capital fire away from the planet. This will allow you to double focus the shields in that direction, though I would not fully lower shields on the starboard sections."

"Her crew," he continued, "Is likely working to restore the craft as we speak. Unfortunately for them my vessel the Shadow of Veils is regularly hitting it's main hull with an Ion Cannon. It's bridge is also damaged, an assault from there, down into the ship will allow you to take key sections. Venting atmosphere would also be a viable option, so your droids will be of exceptional use there, as well as the next subject."

"The Victory was hit with a maneuver that we used to use in the Shadow Guard. It normally works on cruisers, but a Victory, even a Victory II, for it's Star Destroyer title, is a large cruiser. We struck their main power distribution center, and atmospheric controls. They have no power, no gravity, and are spending air. A remote override from an outer airlock into the emergency controls to unlock and unseal all the emergency bulkheads will be the priority. Erty is skilled at this, if we can get him an EV suit he can lead a squad of droids. Once the override is complete, a high level command, say a level Thesh override command from an High Inquisitor directing emergency systems to open every outer and inner airlock for an emergency purge? We do that, most if not all of the crew will be dealt with, it's cold, it's cruel, but we are in no position to take prisoners, we can attain a higher moral standard than our Former Empire once your world is safe General."

"At this point my top priority is our freedom and the safety of my people," replied Vant, "As long as that is achieved, morals can be dammed. We will work on getting those droids online though. It is likely that they'll be ready to crew the ships around the same time they are ready to receive them."

Vincent motioned towards Erty and Cav, "Go assist the general's people in getting the droids online. You know more about the than most, since you spent years taking them apart."

"Not so much putting them back together Sir." Cav replied with a grimace.

"True, but you also know what you'll need to infiltrate those two Star Destroyers, so go help them get set up." Vincent then turned back to the General and Kev-Mas. "I will give you an estimate, four days. The Empire is moving to counter dissidence in every sector, the Alliance to Restore the Republic is pushing against the with everything they have."

"It isn't just that sir." One of the other Shadow Troopers spoke up, "As we sat out of system after your message, we listened in on the Holonet and Imperial Command. Corellia is in full rebellion, every ship the Empire had in dock was remotely disabled. A quarter of the sector fleet is locked up, another third is engaged with an alliance of smugglers and what appear to be various criminal syndicates. And then there's your home world sir…"

"What of Eshan?" He was curious, though he'd never seen the world in person.

"They too had large orbital yards like Corellia, but they took it a step further. They not only locked down Imperial ships in dry dock, they have taken control of one of the Bellator-class Dreadnoughts. Last reports from the Commonwealth indicated that the local Imperial Governor had been assassinated and his Flagship, the Minshara was used as target practice by the Bellator as it escaped. In short sir, the Empire is hard pressed. They will return, but they have bigger issues than Utapau right now."

"So this gives us plenty of time to prepare then," said Kev-Mas, "We still need to move quickly, but hopefully this eases tensions so that we don't make too many mistakes out of haste."

General Vant then turned to Vincent and Kev-Mas, "You two have been fighting all day non-stop. I hate to put a stop to your good work, but I do recommend you get some rest. We have set up accommodations for you and we will keep you updated constantly on our progress, but I do think you deserve some rest."