I own none of the TV, movies, books or games mentioned
Galaxy maps are available on request. Just private message me or request one in a review. I highly recommend it for the description of the territory at the end of this chapter is a little bit difficult to visualise unfortunately.
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The GRP doesn't grab Imperial designs because standard Imperial shields/turbolasers are incompatible with the peacekeeper tech on which the entire fleet is based. The HL7 turbolasers address the weapons problem but the only shield/defence screen hybrid that has been produced is to power hungry for the capitol ships as its power requirements increase exponentially with size. It has however been installed on the fighters making them far better protected than any others out there.
Empire space fractured into warlords, independent sectors, hutts, and what will become the Imperial Remnant. The GRP didn't conquer it because the Declaration of Principals forbids wars of conquest. A limited number of border worlds can be assumed to have joined voluntarily. The New Republic continues as in cannon gradually absorbing the warlords and surviving various crises etc…
The Jedi mostly died in Order 66 as in cannon. The only major change is that Palpatine lead the 501st into the temple personally and Obi wan and Yoda trained Luke Starkiller instead. Continuing as in cannon except they are even more distrusted and hated by the people of the New Republic than ever, they are only kept around to defend from the Sith and as a counter to the Astarii. Very few in the government trust them any more.
Wikipedia is a good resource for a very quick overview up to this point and how cannon ends the war. Look up New Republic, New Jedi Order and Yuuzhan Vong War if you want to know more.
Chapter 11 Blood and Iron
4 years ago – Abydos
Supreme System Lord Ra was having a very bad day. After landing on his mining world of Abydos to collect more naquada he had discovered the humans from the first world were here and that they had advanced far enough to harness the power of the atom. His efforts to suppress them had failed and yet another world had now rebelled and pushed him off it, however the worst part of his day was the tactical nuclear warhead that had just been ringed up to his throne room. Ra had just enough time to scream before the device detonated.
Below Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr Daniel Jackson looked up at the new star that briefly appeared in orbit before joining in the celebrations
One Year Later – Republic Citadel
The Security Council sat in silence as Grand Master James Koren paced in front of the semicircular desk that the remaining members occupied
"There can be no doubt" He said "That the war is not going well. Our fixed defences and sector defence fleets are taking a pounding and the Three Strike Fleets are in full retreat after our disastrous attempt at a counter attack. This is why I have called this meeting, several days ago disturbed by the course the war was taking Vasudan Emperor Konsu II came to me with a proposal"
He moved back behind the desk before activating the holoemitter in the centre of the semicircle
"Members of the Security Council. This is Project Arcturus"
One Year Later – Republic Citadel
Astarii Grand Master James Koren slammed the pad down on his part of the desk of the Security Council. Representative Dukat, of the Minbari and fellow permanent council member came over. "I thought we had successfully repelled the Yuuzhan Vongs latest attack on Ceria by intercepting them before they could penetrate to deep into the system" he said concerned
"We did" James answered bitterly "And given the state of the fixed defences all along our borders after the repeated attacks over the last two years that's defiantly a good thing. Unfortunately only 14 ships made it back to our lines"
"14" Dukat gasped "Out of 112!?"
"We can't keep taking these kind of losses" James replied "The New Republics constant 'strategic' retreats are allowing the Yuuzhan Vong to send only token forces against them and keep the pressure up on us, forcing us to spread the fleet out thinly defending the entire frontier. We can't keep this up much longer, we have to go on the offensive and give the fixed defences and sector defence fleets time to recover."
"That is easer said than done" Dukat replied "After all to maintain an offensive of that size we would need a fully functioning staging area for the First, Second and Third Strike Fleets and no system still resisting the Yuuzhan Vong has called for help, their all still in denial just like the New Republic"
"Not any more" Supreme Chancellor Padme Amidala said as she entered the room "Coruscant has just fallen to the Yuuzhan Vong, the New Republic has collapsed."
One Week Later – Corellia
The highest ranked members of the Corellian government looked at each other. Even deep in this government emergency bunker the feeling of despair hung like a dark cloud as it had everywhere since the Fall of Coruscant.
"There's no doubt" one said "Even if the Yuuzhan Vong stop to consolidate their position and recover their losses they are still going to take Corellia, we are the only thing spitting their territory in two. They are going to attack."
"We have nothing left to resist with" another replied "The police forces that are all the New Republic allowed us to keep are not even going to be an issue to a Yuuzan Vong invasion force and they destroyed centrepoint station after the debacle at Fondor."
"The New Republic" the third began but was cut off
"Has collapsed. The few senators that escaped have called back everything they have to defend themselves at Mon Calamari abandoning the other worlds to their fate. There is no one to help us"
The last member spoke slowly "We may have one chance. I have maintained discreet contacts with the GRP since I went there with Mon Mothma and Bail Organa in the first years of the Rebellion. They have successfully repulsed every attack that the Yuuzhan Vong have made on their territory and still have a large and well equipped fleet"
"The GRP is isolationist" another countered "To say nothing of the fact that their Command Carriers are nothing compared to the Star Destroyers. Most likely it is propaganda or they have lost so many of their inferior ships that they have none to spare"
"Perhaps, perhaps not" the first member added "But they would want something big for dispatching ships to aid us."
"Why not Corellia?" the second spoke quietly, he continued quickly before the others could scream at him "We all want the Corellian System to be independent but its just not going to be feasible for generations if ever. The GRP allows the most freedom of all the superpowers, the Corellian fleet can be re-established and we will have full home rule with the GRP controlling only foreign affairs. We can also leave at any time if we hold a referendum and the people decide to do so."
"It would provide a great incentive to aid us" the first mused "The major shipyards of the galaxy are Corellia, Kuat, Fondor, Bilbringi, Mon Calamari and Vasuda. Corellia joining the GRP would effectively double their shipbuilding capacity. But all of this is academic if they are to weak to help us."
"The ships we know are old designs that were being replaced in a fleet wide redesign the new ones seem to be resisting the Yuuzhan Vong well" Bel Iblis replied "Besides we have no other options; there is nothing left to defend us. All we can do is let the entire galaxy know that Corellia calls for aid."
Two days later – Republic Citadel
James Koren stood before the General Assembly to call on them to aid Corellia, he had been speaking for several minuets and was coming to the end of his speech "The entire galaxy knows that a new power is rising, that its victory is at hand, all that remains to be seen is whether that power is the Yuuzhan Vong or us. Since the founding of the Galactic Republic of Planets our guiding principle has been that no race facing extinction or slavery shall stand alone and now we are put to the test, Corellia faces extinction and Corellia calls for aid. We must uphold the principles on which this government was founded, our period of isolation is over. We move now, together, Or not at all."
All around the General Assembly applauded and cheered. The Galactic Republic of Planets was finally ready to emerge from isolation and its first act would be to find the neighbourhood bully and pick a fight.
One week later – PKCC Protector
Aboard the Vengeance Class Peacekeeper Command Carrier (PKCC) Protector the Warmaster of the Peacekeeper Fleet stood before the tactical display. With the collapse of the New Republic the Yuuzhan Vong had captured a great deal of territory which worked to the Peacekeepers advantage as the Yuuzhan Vong had to garrison it, in addition the Fall of Coruscant had inflicted heavy casualties due to the shear size of the defensive fleet, 500,000 capitol ships, and added to the fact that Yuuzhan Vong were not expecting a large force to be at Corellia and it totalled in a decision not to send their entire fleet as they surely would have if they knew that they had the chance to wipe out the GRPs entire offensive capability in one go. They were sending 120,000 ships and their fighter escorts under Warmaster Tasvong La, a large force to be certain but not their entire fleet, and it would soon meet the assembled GRP Strike Fleets totalling 80,000 warships and fighter escorts. As the Yuuzhan Vong had sent their supreme military leader, the best they had, the Peacekeepers felt that they had to respond in kind. This would not just be a battle between Yuuzhan Vong and Peacekeeper but a battle between the two best military tacticians in the galaxy. Warmaster Tasvong La and Warmaster Jha'dur
Warmaster Jha'dur took in the positions of her fleet. The combined First and Second Strike fleets were arranged in the standard GRP formation, the crescent moon, behind them the Third Strike fleet melded into the back of the moon, part of the formation but able to quickly withdraw and redeploy on her orders without compromising the integrity of the formation. Several Command Carriers and smaller ships were missing, kept in reserve for one of the many surprises that Jha'dur was planning for Tasvong La.
James Koren walked up to stand beside her. Jha'dur felt a thrill run through her at the realisation that she was standing in a place that only Sarah Andromeda had stood before. In the C&C of the Peacekeeper flagship commanding an armada that would engage in a battle to bring about the GRP's rise or total ruin. She turned to face him. "As soon as the Yuuzhan Vong Fleet drops out of hyperspace I want your Astarii to begin jamming their yammosk" she said "But I want to keep you and your battle meditation in reserve. If Tasvong La produces any surprises, which I doubt but better to be safe than sorry, we may need it to recover"
"You are unconcerned with Tasvong La's military ability?" James questioned
"No" Jha'dur replied "Just his inventiveness, he can command a campaign and a fleet very well but his tactics don't rise much above 'charge'" James found the predatory smile on Jha'durs face to be very off putting.
Peacekeeper Tornado Class Interceptor
Aeryn Sun was tense and alert in her Tornado class interceptor. The entire fleets strike craft had been deployed already in anticipation of the Yuuzhan Vongs arrival, and arrive they had. Already the Vong fighters were speeding forwards to meet them, interspaced with the Tsunami class space superiority fighters her interceptor squadron was equipped with the rapid firing Subach HL7. A weapon with a well balanced shield/hull damage ratio it was standard ordinance on all fighters but its main use was that unlike some more powerful weapons it was so rapid firing that it had a tendency to overwhelm the coralskippers dovin basalls and actually hit the ships. The fact that its low energy consumption allowed more energy to be diverted to shields and engines was an added bonus.
As the coralskippers approached maximum missile range Aren awaited orders from the Command Carrier, the rotating triangle on her hud clicked down before being encircled by a circle representing a full missile lock. The Protector signalled, Aeryn fired.
PKCC Protector
It was an awe inspiring sight Jha'dur decided. Hundreds of thousands of fighter craft firing two of the Harpoon missiles with their orange trails, there had been concerns of how well the brand new missiles fuzzy logic guidance computer and high speed motor would deal with the coralskippers "But" she thought as many tiny little stars lit up the battlefield "there are apparently no problems there" the depleted uranium coating the warheads had allowed the charge to penetrate the coral armour before exploding. R and D had said that a duo of harpoons would destroy or severely damage any strike craft. They were right.
Peacekeeper Tornado
Aeryn carefully lined up behind another coralskipper before letting lose with her Subachs, purple pulses flew from the three gun ports either side of the cockpit to drive right through the armour of the coralskipper reducing it to fragments that bounced off her shields. Her tornado rocked with the impacts of volcano cannons on her rear shields and she cursed going into a downward spiral while shifting her shield balance so that power was taken from the other three shields and put into her aft ones "Hopefully" she thought "That will allow me to survive long enough to shake him off" She barely had time to glimpse the tsunami before two orange trails sped passed her cockpit and the harpoons punched though the forward armour of the coralskipper following her blowing it to bits. She waggled her wings in thanks before flying off and selecting another target.
Icestorm Light Cruiser Basilisk
Commander John Crichton stood in the C&C of his cruiser, the PKC Basilisk, and watched as the range between the two fleets closed. Meeting the Yuuzhan Vong in the outer system prevented civilian casualties but meant that they had nothing else to shoot at except the Peacekeeper fleet. "Status" he snapped out at his XO
"8,000 km to optimum firing range, ion beam charged, ready to fire, turbolasers charged, ready to fire" Colonel Chianna reported
The PKC Basilisk continued to hurtle through space until Colonel Chianna reported that they had reached optimum firing range.
"Flagship signalling sir – open fire" his communications officer relayed
Across space the purple HL7 turbolasers of the Peacekeeper fleet lashed out against the Yuuzhan Vong cruisers and warships that immediately started firing back
The range continued to close
PKCC Protector
"The high fire rate of our HL7 turbolasers is indeed giving the Yuuzhan Vong defences trouble" Warmaster Jha'dur noticed with satisfaction "Several cruisers are falling out of formation already and our own collapsed-core molybdenum amour is withstanding their volcano cannon fire better than expected. Still there is no need to tempt fate and take casualties unnecessarily" "Order the Hurricane class escort frigates to lay down a full enemy suppression barrage" she ordered "Some of their shots should expend themselves on the shrapnel clouds rather than us"
Fleet wide the Hurricane Escort Frigates moved towards the front line before turning broadside on. Using special multi vector engines they were able to keep pace and at the same time line up all but 5 of their flack guns at the approaching enemy fleet. Those guns burst into life, joined by any of their brothers on the capitol ships that were pointed in the right direction, and created a shrapnel cloud in front of the fleet that began to absorb some of the incoming fire.
Peacekeeper Tornado
Aeryn Sun quickly sent a volley of fire from her six gun ports, each firing a pulse a second, at the duo of coralskippers chasing a tsunami. One exploded immediately but the other rolled out of the way, firing her last two harpoons she blew the fighter to pieces then took stock. She was out of missiles having expended both banks of 15 each and her shields were very weak forcing her to constantly shift power between them to stay alive. "Well here goes nothing" she thought and flew straight and slow for a few seconds, sensing easy prey a coralskipper quickly closed in but the interceptor entered a subspace vortex before it could fire
The subspace drive had been installed on all Peacekeeper strike craft instead of a hyperdrive. Though it meant that the strike craft could not leave the system they launched in without a capitol ship to carry them they could go almost anywhere within the system in seconds. "And that" Aeryn mused as she emerged from subspace 12 million kilometres from the fighting "is much more useful" all around her were hundreds of fighters all at a dead stop. Her fighter shook slightly as the workhorse class rearmament ship docked with her fighter reloading her missile magazines and recharging her shields
"Reloading complete sir, your good to go" came over the com. Aeryn activated her subspace drive and dove back into battle
PKC Basilisk
Commander John Crichton watched the holo display with satisfaction as the fleet entered ion beam range. Bright blue beams erupted from the front of the Icestorms and Firestorms overwhelming Yuuzhan Vong cruisers with many beams impacting on a single ship gouging enough trenches for the ships to simply fall apart. The heavy ion beams of the Command Carriers took an even heavier toll with one shot per ship slicing enemy cruisers in half or punching glowing holes through the warships. Commander Crichton looked uncertainly at an anomaly that seemed to be building behind the Peacekeeper fleet. "Oh bugger" he thought as he realised what it was
PKCC Protector
Had Warmaster Jha'dur ever heard of the American Civil War she would have thought that Warmaster Tasvong La had just pulled a McClellan for just like that old general he had suddenly abandoned all his usual tactics and done something unexpected. "Bugger" Warmaster Jha'dur thought as several hundred Yuuzhan Vong warships and a couple of thousand cruisers dropped out of hyperspace directly behind the Peacekeeper fleet. "Well I didn't become a Warmaster by being inflexible" she thought "I will simply have to write off the traditional Dilgar slashing attacks on the flanks and redeploy the third fleet to deal with them" "Order the Third Strike Fleet to come about and engage rear targets" she ordered
Sensing weakness as the firepower being sent towards them decreased by 1/3 the Yuuzhan Vong fleet in front redoubled its efforts, having caught the Peacekeeper fleet in a crossfire the casualties began to mount.
PKC Basilisk
Commander John Crichton was thrown to the floor as his cruisers defence screen failed and Basilisk began to take hits directly to her armoured hull. "Dam it we have to get out of this crossfire" he thought "The Command Carriers may be able to take it but the cruisers can't and with the Yuuzhan Vong's numbers we don't have many ships to lose" "Bows up 30 degrees" he ordered "they think we're weak? we'll show them how weak we are. Fire the main gun!" The Basilisks ion beam lashed out across space eviscerating an enemy cruiser. The Peacekeeper fleet may have been in trouble but it wasn't going down without a fight
PKCC Protector
Jha'dur was of the opinion that while cursing Tasvong la's sudden acquisition of an imagination would have eased her blood pressure it would look very unseemly so she gritted her teeth and looked at the display trying to find some way to extradite her fleet from the situation it had found itself in. "Well its not going to cause as much damage as I hoped but it's the only way" she thought "Order the Gang Bang" she called out "and send epsilon in the clear
Many had asked why the Command Carrier had such a small fighter compliment, only two more squadrons than an Imperial II SD, when it was more than triple the length. The answer was that as well as hyperspace and subspace drives like the cruisers the Command Carriers also mounted the old style jump engines. The reason for this was the signature Peacekeeper move, the Minbari Gang Bang. Officially known as the Jump point attack the MGB, named after the first race to use it, involved multiple ships jumping into a pre set area, usually the centre of an enemy fleet, to cause widespread damage and chaos allowing the main fleet to charge up and support the newly emerged ships routing the enemy. Jha'dur had redesigned it in case of just such an occurrence as now when drastic action was needed to escape a foolproof enemy trap
As the Command Carriers exited jump space casing widespread casualties amongst the Yuuzhan Vong fleet instead of engaging they immediately shifted power to their subspace drives and ploughed into the vortexes at full speed before the Yuuzhan Vong gunners could recover. Angry at being denied their prey they turned to unleash their fury on the trapped First and Second Strike Fleets. Unfortunately for them they were no longer there.
Peacekeeper Shadow Class Stealth Fighter
Rasten of the Star Riders clan of Minbar ran his hand lovingly over the controls of his stealth fighter. While most pilots considered flying it in combat suicide because of its nonexistent defences, pitiful missile compliment and two gun mounts Rasten saw it more as a challenge. With the inability of any known sensor system to lock on to it enemy pilots had to resort to visual targeting and the razor thin profile made that difficult at best, in the hands of an exceptional pilot the shadow was unsurpassed in a dog fight. Rasten considered himself and exceptional pilot. Having received constant telemetry from the main strike craft battle he had seen the main fleets caught in a cross fire and waited for the orders he felt sure were coming. The flagship signalled epsilon
PKC Basilisk
Commander John Crichton sighed with relief as the subspace vortex's appeared around the smaller enemy fleet that his own Third Strike Fleet was engaging. The crew cheered as the Howitzer class bombers unleashed their Cyclops torpedoes at the Yuuzhan Vong cruisers, massive chunks were vaporised or reduced to a twisted mass of burnt coral, reactors overloaded and magazines exploded and his cruiser slipped into subspace along with the rest of the Third Strike Fleet
Peacekeeper Shadow
Rasten ignored the shockwaves from detonating Cyclops's and cruisers with gaping holes and continued to escort one of the special Howitzer bomber wings. Armed with the Helios torpedo, a very new, very expensive design that used matter and antimatter annihilation to give a yield equal to several Cyclops torpedoes, they ignored the cruisers and made attack runs on the warships at the heart of the Yuuzhan Vong formation. Some Helios's hit the escorting cruisers blasting them into pieces but most hit the warships creating huge craters where their hanger bays, engines and largest concentration of weapons had been.
With their own coralskippers tied up engaging the Peacekeeper tsunamis and tornadoes and devoid of targets due to the absence of the three strike fleets the Yuuzhan Vong fleet recombined, bunching up to try and overlap their anti starfighter defences. Rasten smiled as the First, Second and Third Strike Fleets exited subspace with precision only possible with Astarii battle meditation.
Corellia
When the Peacekeeper fleets emerged from subspace they did so in three dagger formations. Two daggers were on the same 2D plain as the Yuuzhan Vong fleet but were at 90 degree angles to each other. The third was directly above the enemy fleet. With none of their own ships in their sights the Peacekeeper warships were able to open up on the massed target in front of them with every weapon at their disposal. The Yuuzhan Vong had had the Peacekeepers in a crossfire, they were eager to return the favour
At the end of the day one message screamed across the holo net "Tasvong La is dead! The Republic has won! Corellia is free!"
Several hundred thousand more systems joined the GRP in the coming weeks
Two years later
James Koren looked at the two other representatives. He remembered when, a couple of months after the Battle For Corellia, the three of them had met the arrogant ambassador from the newly formed Galactic Alliance. The ambassador had promptly demanded that they all join the Galactic Alliance, aka the New Republic Mk2, in order to give the GA the firepower it needed to fight back. James had relished putting the man in his place by pointing out that the GRP, the Imperial Remnant and the Chiss Ascendancy had already formed an Interstellar Alliance to combat the Yuuzhan Vong and had been doing so for some time.
The spluttering fool had then said that if they weren't going to join then they would leave Galactic Alliance territory at once. The revelation of just how many systems had abandoned the New Republic on its fall and joined the GRP rather than wait for them to get their act together had him ranting about 'stealing systems' for hours. Even today when one of them came up he could still be heard muttering 'their ours', 'unfair' and 'traitors' conveniently forgetting that the Galactic Alliance abandoned them to their fate and expected them to cower until it came back as their 'saviour'. Well those worlds had showed them just what they thought of that.
However the entire galaxy recognised that it was Warmaster Jha'dur who had met with most success against the Yuuzhan Vong and that it was GRP ships and Scarren shock troops that had allowed her to do so. At great expense to James's blood pressure and the GA's pride the Galactic Alliance joined the Interstellar Alliance as junior partners.
Today James had convened a meeting without the Galactic Alliance representative to discuss a possible end to the war without hysterics. He looked over at the Imperial representative. "As we all know" he began "Anakin Skywalker rediscovered Zonama Sekot several months ago and has learned the truth about the Yuuzhan Vong's origins and history. Peacekeeper disruptors have been spreading this knowledge throughout the Yuuzhan Vong ranks for months and they have assassinated Shimmera and his court. Warmaster Nas Choka is completely outmatched and he knows it but I would rather not have to fight hundreds of thousands of ships for a planet that is being teraformed to Yuuzhan Vong standards and has no indigenous population left."
"We need to make sure they know that they are beaten" the Chiss representative said "Otherwise this will all happen again when some maniac says the undefeated army were stabbed in the back by the political class"
"Correct" James allowed "But they all know they are defeated. They have no holdings left except Coruscant, we have pushed them out of everywhere else"
"What peace terms do you propose then?" the Imperial representative asked
"The Yuuzhan Vong are to be limited to a small strip of territory in the core worlds, Coruscant at one end and the Knnroacht Cluster at the other. Zonama Sekot will be allowed to jump into this region to help the Yuuzhan Vong reorganise themselves into a peaceful society. They are allowed to keep only a minimal security force to deter piracy containing no ships larger than cruiser class and this is to be unchanged for a period of no less than 500 years."
"Those are reasonable and more or less what we were going to impose anyway but why should we let them keep Coruscant?" the Imperial representative questioned
"At least they didn't reject it out right" James thought "Because it's worthless" he answered "there is no surviving population or industry, the environment is changed beyond repair and it is going to cost us hundreds of thousands of ships and millions of lives to take nothing more than a damaged empty symbol"
"The Galactic Alliance will not like ceding what they see as their capitol to the Yuuzhan Vong" The Chiss representative warned
"Then they can kill their own troops to get it back, not ours" James replied shortly "We will still provide them with Bacta from Thyferra but if they want Coruscant that desperately then they can continue the war alone"
"There will be a lot of screaming involved" The Imperial representative noted wirily "But better that than millions of our citizens dead for the Galactic Alliances pride"
Four days later the Yuuzhan Vong war was over and Coruscant remained the capitol of the Yuuzhan Vong territory. It appears that, in the Galactic Alliance at least, pride is what you kill other peoples soldiers for, not your own.
Stargate Command
Colonel Jack O'neill was sat at the main computer in the control room of Stargate Command, his hands flying at superhuman speed over the keyboard "On reflection" he thought "Sticking my head in that alien dohicky probably wasn't the brightest idea I have ever had" deep in his subconscious as well as programming in new gate addresses and a program to dial the Asgard homeworld for help he added a command to be sent out with the next correlative update, an update that even the supergates received, activate.
TO BE CONTINUED IN THE SEQUEL
REPUBLIC: INTO THE FIRE
Ok the galaxy map. Better if you review and ask me for it but I'll do my best to describe it here
YV territory - Coruscant and the core worlds west to the Knnroacht Cluster
GRP – border with Chiss Ascendancy almost straight line across from the Knnroacht Cluster the edge of the galaxy. Entire deep core under GRP control. GRP controlled border worlds with GA are Vulpter, Talus and Tralus, Corellia, Froz, Nubia, Aleen, M'haeli, Malastare, Omwat and then the border runs parallel wit the Rimma Trade Route to the edge of the galaxy.
Chiss - Borders with GRP, YV, GA and IR. Border worlds controlled by Chiss are Reecee and Nirauan East border with IR
IR - Border worlds are Yaga Minor, Muunilist, Bastion, Helska, Belkadan. Border continues to edge of the galaxy
GA – Everything else
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