Second-last chapter!
Chapter 14: Of Adven's Adventures
The following are entries from the private holocron of Adven-Turus Skyfighter, Senior Padawan, Jedi Commander:
New Entry: 15:11:8GrS, Praesitlyn Orbit, Star Destroyer Adamant—
Finally this mess is over. I can't say I haven't seen my share of violence, but the battle here was a bloodbath. We lost the Relentless and most of its crew half way through the space engagement. The Mariner has lost all its turbolasers and port drive units as well as two hangars. Admiral Yularen is missing-in-action and well, I just don't want to get into the dirt-side casualties. It'll be bad enough writing up the official report when time comes to it.
It all started before Mortis when Dooku ordered a crony of his to attack the InterGal comm station on Praesitlyn. The Muun – don't know his name – decoyed the local garrison into leaving the comm centre and marching to meet him. With a million B1s on his side he wiped out all but two of General Khamar's troops, jammed all out-system communications and took both the centre and it's staff hostage. Couple of days after that, some rogue called Zozridor Slayke barged in, trying to regain good grace with the Republic or something. In my opinion – if he left it, he should have just stayed away. Anyway he 'bloodied the enemy's nose' and nearly got killed himself. Then Coruscant decided to call in reinforcements under Nejaa Halcyon – this happened around the time when Dooku 'ambushed' us.
Being the only Jedi on the mission, Halcyon was overburdened trying to fight on several fronts while maintaining tactical command – and well, it didn't go well for him. The enemy commander managed to obtain Nejaa's voiceprint and issued orders for the artillery to open fire Halcyon's position. Lucky for us, he managed to send out a distress call. Unlucky for him, the seppies got reinforced and wiped out the guy's entire fleet.
So here we were, five cruisers from Master Anakin's taskforce, three captured separatist warships and – I don't know how he did it, but General Kenobi managed to procure three Victory-class destroyers. Those things are brand new, and part of the precious Victory Fleet. Buuut I guess he could have negotiated Naval Command to near death by boredom. So anyway, our opponents had over one hundred-and thirty cruisers blockading Sluis Van, and around ninety in orbit. To make things worse, our objectives were to: extract Halcyon's forces, rescue the hostages, and defeat the enemy. Nice. And why did I have to bring windbag along? He was going on about proper military form and protocol on all of our meeting until Kenny asked me to stun him. So I did.
The plan we developed was simple: first the three VenStars and the Mariner would jump in and start wreaking havoc. Then, I would lead my two Munificents and Recusant as "reinforcements". I'd open fire on Anakin's ships with low powered lasers and force him toward the planet, then, when everyone was distracted, Master Kenobi would take the Victories and remaining Acclamator and engage the orbiting fleet. I would then order my droids to fire on other separatist ships from amidst their own lines thus giving me both the advantages of surprise and position. Well that was the plan.
Everything moved smoothly until the Red Arrow was hit so bad that it no-longer resembled a Star Destroyer. Then the Mariner began taking fire, and I just had to step in. Three ships suddenly opening up with all batteries upon their supposed confederates will definitely blow their cover. And so it did with me. By the time Masters Windu and Kenobi arrived, I already lost one frigate.
We managed to get our transports through the blockade and land our ground forces, but we lost a company of clones during the drop. Our fighters were outnumbered three to one, and that would have been just fine if not for the fact that half of them were tri-fighters.
It took the loss of three squadrons of fighters and the Relentless for me to be able to implement a new plan. Windu is stubborn, I'll give him that. Well a Recusant's prow turbolaser is enough to change anyone's mind.
Basically I targeted the Adamant and told them that if they didn't give me tactical command I'd blast their bridge open, we'd lose the battle, fail the mission, blah-blah. They were very cooperative, surprisingly so in fact.
Knowing that the Victories packed eighty missile tubes, I ordered them to manoeuvre into optimal firing positions and ordered the gunners to take out all the enemy docking bays. Bereft of starfighter cover, the CIS fleet was largely vulnerable to strafing attacks. Most of our pilots were able to disable the point defence batteries which allowed them pretty much unhindered access to whatever systems needed to be neutralised, be they the reactor, the engines, the ship-to-ship weapons or even the bridges.
Seeing that the space battle was under control I relinquished my command and headed down in the Venture to aid in the ground campaigns. For seven hours we fought swinging lightsabers, shooting blasters and throwing thermal dets. Anakin's – Master Skywalker's mission to free the hostages was a partial success, though the Director was killed. We would have just bombed the comm centre from orbit thus annihilating our opposition but Chancellor Palpatine informed us personallyto take it intact. Why? I have no idea….
When the battle was won – by that I mean when the last clanker was scrap metal – we retrieved Halcyon and his men, what was left of Slayke's, and of course our wounded, before setting up a temporary garrison and retiring to the ships in orbit. Praesitlyn isn't a good place for a vacation.
Strange, at evening meal Master Windu seemed almost sombre, he hardly spoke, and though he tried to hide them, I spotted a few bandages on him. I wonder what was he thinking about? Probably how mean I was. Or that I was too reckless. He'll have to live with that, I saved his sorry shebs a dozen times in one day.
Now I wonder, where to next?
End of entry: 15:11:8.
New Entry: 15:11:10, En route to Rendili—
Yep, that's where we are going, Rendili. Intelligence has it that they elected a new government which signed the system and their home defence fleet over to the CIS. Chancellor Palpatine ordered the Jedi to go and either retrieve or destroy the ships. Rendili StarDrive are famous for their Dreadnaught-class heavy cruisers, and if those things fall into Dooku's hands – well Naval Command would have one big headache. As this operation requires a lot of manpower, we are to rendezvous with Masters Koon and Tiin near Bellassa and head on over to engage in negotiations – hopefully aggressive ones. Who am I kidding? They're always aggressive when we are around!
Oh great, it's Master Windu, looks like he didn't get my point. I better put this thing away before he forces the door open on me.
Holocron: end recording.
End of entry 15:11:10
New Entry: 15:11:11GrS, Rendili orbit, Star Destroyer Adamant—
Intel was correct. The interim government allied themselves with the Separatists. Master Koon took captain Jan Dodona with him to try and persuade the crew of the Mersel Kebir to defect to the Republic – that just sounds wrong, doesn't it? Instead, they had a mutiny on their hands and got themselves arrested.
Well Anakin, Ahsoka and I were campaigning to disable the dreadnaughts but Kenobi, Tiin and Windu didn't let us – that is until two lucrehulks decided to drop in. In the confusion, we boarded the Reckless Venture and flew off. Oh Kenobi was royally pissed when we returned, but the good news was that we succeeded. Using my cloaking device we were able to get behind the enemy's lines and fire surgical torpedoes up their thrusters. Their ships immobilized, the Rendili surrendered.
Now the rest of us are resting while the Negotiator is arranging transports, repairs, rosters, whatever. I like that trade.
End of entry: 15:11:11
New Entry: 15:11:18GrS, Star Destroyer Adamant, near Ord Radama—
I like these new Victory-class cruisers, they are more heavily armed then the VenStars, have a one-point-o hyperdrive and look neater. True the Venators have their advantages like size, hanger space, and have more spacious quarters, the Victories are easier to manoeuvre in battle, and have a lot more projectile batteries. Is it just me, or do explosions look great?
After the mess at Rendili was sorted out, we got a call from the Council ordering us to Ord Radama to win yet another battle for them. As we had not yet restocked our fleet after the losses at Praesitlyn, Master Kenobi arranged to keep five Victories and obtain an Acclamator Mark-II in exchange for our other surviving ships. Mace Windu went with those to Coruscant – and I'm glad he did.
The primary disadvantage of the new Star Destroyer model was that each Victory could only carry two squadrons of fighters at a time. Seeing as how we were outnumbered already with twelve squadrons per Destroyer, two just seemed stupid. We learned that in our first full-scale engagement, no argument.
We dropped out of hyperspace in a drill-bit formation, ready to drive through the orbital blockade and enter the atmosphere. It is said that no plan survives first contact with the enemy, and so it was with us. Our wedge drove through the Munificent picket line with no complications, and we were about to engage the Providence-class destroyers when they suddenly moved aside and revealed four lucrehulks. I hate lucrehulks. Those things are three times the size of VenStars, pack fifteen hundred vultures and more firepower than is strictly fair. So, you do the odds, they got six thousand fighter craft plus whatever's aboard the other cruisers, and we got only ten squadrons. Our fighter screen was swept aside like it wasn't even there leaving us with only one squadron per ship. Five became four when the CIS bombers that got through our screen tore the Return to atoms.
Seeing the battle was a disaster, we recalled our fighters and retreated to our fall-back point outside the system. Master Obi-Wan got me to help him with the capital engagement strategy while Anakin and Ahsoka kicked the rookies off their fighters. According to my tactical analysis we were up against 576 full squadrons with only 17 of ours. They had four Lucrehulks, eight Providences and 11 surviving Munificents, against one assault carrier and four Victories. Great… just great…
We jumped again, this time all ships at once, probably a good idea to. You see, droids always follow a set attack pattern, if it fails, they try again unless ordered otherwise. CIS programmers had to adapt to this flaw, upgrading their STDs (Super Tactical Droids) to account for that in organic adversaries. But as always, clankers are stupid. As humans are not said to repeat a tactic if it fails, the local STD didn't account for the possibility that we would.
Our wedge hurtled toward their picket line, though no turbolasers were fired. The power was equally distributed between forward shields and engines. We were not going to shoot first. The Victory's more powerful shields began taking heavy fire, but still we moved on. Maybe they thought that we would ram them, I don't know, what I do is that some of them began breaking formation out of nervousness, just as I hoped.
With their flanks exposed, the Victories opened up with awe-inspiring salvos of concussion missiles instantly taking out four ships. But the ones hit were not the ones presenting the largest targets, those were left for the equally awesome turbolaser broadsides. "Seven down, four to go!" I remember exclaiming at that moment, just as we lost the Reclaimer from concentrated fire by the destroyers. It appeared we weren't the only ones who mastered the target lock.
On command we launched the first wave of bombers and escorts who pealed apart into four groups and each charged a Providence-Class Destroyer. Big, ugly, lots of flak, but the good thing was that they had to send their own fighters to combat the three Victories tearing up their frigates. By the time the tri-fighters and vultures got to our fleet, we took out two more Munis.
The fifty droid squadrons were just about to come in on strafing runs from the rear when sixty of our best pilots barrelled in, lasers ablaze. The five-to-one odds were further evened by the point-defence batteries on the sterns of each ship.
While that was happening, the Acclamator Assault Ship Master Yaddle offloaded her torps into the remaining frigates and one destroyer, leaving only seven ships to deal with in total. The Sep tactical droid deduced that we were using bombers and that we would be going after the core ships next, so having no better ideas, he released four-hundred squadrons at us.
There was no way that even our best pilots could handle that much enemy craft, no way at all. I ordered a full retreat.
After a thirty minute respite, we were going to go in again. First would come Master Anakin in his fighter and give the exact coordinates for one of the Destroyers, letting Obi-Wan take two Victories in and concentrate fire. Covered by the jump signature of the two larger vessels, the Reckless Venture would drop in, stealth cloaked. I would hang off to the side while Kenobi pulled back before the droids could get their ships to us. After he was out of the way, Ahsoka would take the other VSD and the Acclamator and harass another Providence. When she too withdrew, then would come my turn. I would drift from lucrehulk to lucrehulk, dropping off vac-suited ordinance specialists.
In theory, five megatons worth of baradium yield per each core ship's reactor should account for some big boom. In practice, next time I'll get the clones to just use a couple thermal detonators.
After extracting the boys, I pulled back to a safe distance and had CT-2264 "Bang" push the o-so-tempting red button. The explosions tore apart the lucrehulks as expected, and also took care of the Providence-Class destroyers and the fighters on picket duty. And one strategic Force-nudge sent a significant piece of debris hurtling down atop their ground base.
In all, I just won a space battle and handled a major headache on the ground. With the loss of the dirt-side HQ, taking the planet was a piece of Corellian sweet cake.
End of entry: 15:11:18
New Entry: 15:11:24GrS, Star Destroyer Adamant—
We are currently in transit to Bomis Koori, so I have some time to clean my blasters, get some rest and record this entry. After Ord Radama we were sent to Ossus, then to Clak'Dor VII, and barely had we finished that off, we got a call to Ryloth. Three battles in five days is rather tiring, in fact I can't remember anything from Ossus, and what I can recollect from Clak'Dor are just flashes of me shooting ships down. That's how tired I am. Ryloth is clearer as I've just finished it, but not by much.
Honestly I would have thought that the Separatists had learned their lesson with that Rock. Can't they just … I don't know, go sit on Hoth and debate about selling ice to each other? The space battle went as usual, however we got reinforcements from Master Tiin quick helped slightly. There was nothing really remarkable about it, ships exploding, people dying, pilots screaming in their comms just before getting vaporised… the usual.
This time I actually was so tired that Anakin decided to keep me off the field, not such a good idea on his part actually, coz if I fall asleep on the ground, worst thing that could happen is I could lose a limb from my lightsaber, whereas if I fall asleep in a cockpit, well I am likely to crash into something or other. Somehow I actually managed to not conk out in both the space engagement and the air support. Problem is I think we were supposed to capture the secret enemy hideout, not obliterate it. Oh well, big loss….
End of entry: 15:11:24
New Entry: 15:11:30GrS, Republic Med-centre, Bomis Koori IV—
We dropped on this rock five days ago, yeah it's a record, no other Jedi team has managed to take over a CIS fortress world in under a week … but still it's tiring. If I was being honest, then saying that I had less then forty hours of sleep in the last twelve days – not counting being unconscious some time ago – would be all to true.
By the time we arrived, the 8th Orbital Attack Fleet led by Master Fisto had cleared all enemy vessels in the system, leaving us the tedious task of capturing the planet. Making things worse, HQ just so happened to be ray shielded.
Cody – that's CC-2224 – arranged our cruisers and artillery in formation for a prolonged bombardment while we cleared up the surrounding area. By the end of the fourth day the techs had deduced that we would have to sit here for about three-and-a-bit standard months to penetrate the shield.
Apparently I was mumbling in my sleep for when I awoke the next day Kenobi and Skywalker were gone, and so were my mini grenades…. Upon questioning Ahsoka, I found out that I unwittingly suggested using the sewers to gain entry to the base and take out the generator from inside.
Not too long after that there was a big boom and the shield went down. Unfortunately no-one bothered to tell the orbiting ships that fact and a turbolaser hit an ammunition stack as I was charging in with my troopers. Shockwave ... shrapnel … hard rock … what do I need to say?
The Council called in directing us to Boz Pity not five minutes ago, so hopefully the others will be done cleaning up this place by sundown, apparently the situation there is quite osik…
End of entry: 15:11:30
LFL and Wookieepedia can both grab their collective canon and shove it up their collective shebse (asses)!
Just when I finished writing about Praesytlin they confirmed that it happed not too long after Geonosis. I pride myself on writing honest AUs, but the timelines on these battles are atrocious or non-existant... anyway, this is AU.
And I'm not even starting about the BrS/GrS dating system...
Anyways, till next time and
May the Fiction Be With You