Silence. That's what he heard besides the ringing in his ears. Silence. He felt the rush of air nipping at him as he continued his journey towards the ground.
"Smart bastards snuck in a bomb."Tinto thought as he broke out of his daze. He brought his saber up and activated the red blade before sinking it into the side of the building. He continued down for a few meters before finally starting to slow, though it took him nearly a full minute to slow down enough for him to use the vibroblades hidden in his boots to try and slow down as well.
He managed to slow to a halt about a meter off of the street below, jumping down and dusting off his robes as nonchalantly as possible before starting towards the nearest entrance despite the MPs running towards him to no doubt ask him repeatedly if he was fine.
"Minus the scar I can feel on my face... no fractures, no burns thank the Force... just a nasty gash. Nelson won't let me hear the end of it."
"Did he make it?" Hannah asked as she took a break from making sure all of the security forces inside New Keldabe were mobilized and ready.
"Yeah, he made it to the ground in one piece... should be up here as soon as a turbolift can get him up." Nelson replied, finally pulling his head inside the blown out office and finally pressing the button to activate the blast covers. "I want to know how they got a bomb inside of here though."
"Probably got it in while we were busy fighting off the other assassins. Either way, all three of us are still breathing." Hannah quipped, scowling slightly at some tidbit of security information.
"Security is already screening the building?"
"And I'm already having every civilian here being escorted off the premises. If there are more threats around, we're going to find them."
Uyon ducked to the side as plasma arced towards him. He dived behind a permacrete wall as enemy fire sliced through the air where he was moments before and impacted the shields of a Droideka. The droid promptly returned fire, slagging the permacrete window opening as well as the Crando who fired out of it. For the past 10 minutes Uyon and his men had been fighting for every inch they could get in this power plant facility, bombarded walls, ruined outbuildings, everything was an ambush site or a prime place to put a booby trap.
Ten of his men and two of the droids were already dead or wounded courtesy of Crando grenade traps with another 6 wounded and holding up the rear as best they could.
"Come on boys press forward!" Uyon bellowed before a grenade landed next to him. He ran for his life as it detonated, some of the plasma inside coating his right left arm as plasma rounds from the bugger that threw the grenade impacted his left shoulder and sent him to the ground. "Son of a bitch!"
"Lieutenant!" one of the Corpsman in their group yelled, sprinting over as she did her best not to get hit.
"God damnit!"
"Just hold still and let me treat you, sir." she told him, peeling away what was left of his shoulder pauldron and then getting to work on cutting off the pieces that had fused to his skin.
"Get First Sergeant Grugth up here and make the men push forward until you get thi-gah!" Uyon growled as the corpsman jammed a needle in his arm and put her surgical to work. He only felt the cold plasteel blade for a moment before the anesthetic took effect. "Warning next time. Warning!"
"With respect sir, please quit bitching while I patch you up." she snipped back, continuing with her work as the incoming fire began to slacken. While he continued to get part of his armor cut off of him, he brought up the helmet cam of one of his sergeants to take a look and smiled a little when he saw significantly more bugger corpses on the ground in front of the main complex and the familiar contrail of a LAAT/i that had just passed by out of his visual range.
"LT, we got a foothold in the main entrance. We're going to start sweeping inside while the droids patrol the immediate perimeter." Grugth's voice said through the internal helmet speakers.
"Copy that sarge, get moving and I'll meet up as soon as Corpsman Ramsy is done cutting my arm off."
"Aye aye, sir."
"General, we have a yellow light at the Prospective Ground CP." Fable announced. "Looks like they've almost secured the facility and Uyon is WIA at the moment."
"And the main force?"
"One mile behind them while Centurion Company D is about to meet up with the second lieutenant's force to help them secure and clear the power plant."
"Very well then. Have 12th Squadron peel off and secure the area and get the MPgo ahead and land for Phase 2 troop deployment." General Park replied.
"And the Redemption?" Fable asked.
"Have her hold position above the MPonce she's landed and rotate us 90 degrees left. I want the forward hangar to be facing they way that the flank is moving."
"Aye si- message from Admiral Jacobs."
"On screen." Park told him, looking over from the holotable as the familiar face of Admiral Jacobs appeared.
"General, please tell me things are speeding up."
"Securing our ground command post as we speak and hopefully we'll be able to infiltrate their intelligence networks to shut down the necessary segments of the planetary shield."
"Try and speed things up if you can, this is turning into the Defense of the Syclin Rim all over again."
"Didn't that last for five months, sir?"
"Six and it wasn't fun. Get it done, General." Jacobs replied before the feed cut and Park let out a sigh. Navy officers never seemed to remember just how hard a ground campaign was despite how many marines had their boots on the ground.
"Target locked sir, firing." Tom announced as a beam of pure energy shot from the forward prongs of the Grey Ghost. They were minutes from jumping towards the nearest world with a Transition Gateway for the fleet mobilization when a Crando battle group decided to arrive in force.
"Guns, bring point defense weapons to bear on that bomber group coming towards us. ETA on fighter support?"
"The Black Eyes just finished disabling a heavy destroyer and are en route, five minutes at max."
"Good..." Mendez replied, looking over the tactical overlay being flashed across his glasses. "All ships focus on the bigger ships and work your way down, swat anything aside that gets in your way. Helm, all ahead full to engage the carrier ahead."
"Three escort frigates in our way sir." Ops stated.
"Guns?"
"Commencing Swatting Maneuver." the weapons officer replied as turbolaser fire and proton torpedoes arced towards the smaller vessels. Two of them were knocked out of the way, internal explosions ripping them apart from the inside while the third one met its end as it was split in half as the Grey Ghostrammed it.
"Nice call, smartass." Mendez deadpanned as the shield rippled and reconstituted themselves. "Tom, move us into position."
"Dorsal thrusters firing."
"I swear to Revan if there is another bomb somewhere anywhere near me, I'm going to Force choke a gizka." Nelson growled as he stepped onto the LAAT/m. It was a similar design to the LAAT/i, only with full shielding, a bigger carrying capacity, and improved weapons.
Well, if that's what you called the smallest Mass Drivers the Eclipse could create in place of the top mounted missile launchers that could puncture the unshielded hull of a Crandolian Frigate.
"Swear to Revan?" Hannah asked, stepping on board with him.
"You don't know who he is?"
"I know who he is, I've just never heard someone swear by him."
"Beats swearing by Malak."
"True... Next plan of action?"
"We're heading back to the First Fleet after the Spirit flies by the Republic." Nelson replied as the gunship lifted off from the airfield.
"She's finished?"
"All 29 kilometers. She'll be joining us for the assault on the Crando homeworld once Senth is secured and her trials are finished."
"Torcille gets command, right?" Hannah asked, getting a knowing grin and a small chuckle from her husband, bracing a little as their ride began to leave the atmosphere.
"Do you have any idea how much hell I got from him when we delayed the schedule to make the ship bigger? If he didn't get command of that ship, Jacobs would kick my ass for him."
"Point taken... can't wait to see how the AI in a ship that big acts though. First ship of its size."
"That's why it has three."
"Almost within visual range, Admiral, slowing to one fourth slow."
"Go ahead and get me a connection with her AIs, Joshua."
"We are here, sir." a trio of voices replied at the same time. Three avatars appeared on the holotable behind him next to a representation of the RSSD Republic.
The first AI, Alpha, had chosen the avatar of a Jedi Knight of the Old Republic and had the temperament to match. She was in charge of shields, engines, life support, and all other defensive and support systems.
The second AI, Omega, had decided to make his avatar match that of a Sith Warrior from the times of the Jedi Civil War and acted as such. He was in charge of weapons all throughout the ship ranging from internal defense turrets all the way up to the HBC turrets all along the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the massive warship.
The third AI on the other hand, was an interesting thing to be seen. His chosen form and name was of the famous Jedi that Nelson had sworn by earlier; Darth Revan. He was the balance between the other two AIs and in times of emergency, they would converge their programming and give him total command.
"And I'm ready to try out my guns already!" Omega barked.
"I'm more worried about us being able to move first..." Revan replied calmly. Alpha simply nodded in reply to her 'brother' before looking up at Nelson.
"We're ready for the viewing, sir." she stated, gesturing towards the main viewport as Joshua depolarized the main viewscreen. Nelson looked out and stifled his outwards reaction despite mentally letting out a low whistle when he finally saw the ship he had read so much about.
The RSSD Republicwas 29 kilometers of space black hull with weapons bristling all over it. With a crew of 1 million mixed sentients and droids and enough hangar capacity for every fighter squadron in the First Fleet and five cruiser-class capital ships, she would be the pinnacle of Republic power projection in whichever system she entered.
"Magnificent..." Nelson murmured as the Kindred Spirit moved along the Republic's hull. Dockworkers in powersuits, construction droids, and scaffolding still littered her hull and were visible from the bridge of Ed's ship, but it was still an amazing sight to see.
"Joshua, send an external camera feed directly to Torcille's bridge once she's mobile, please. Revan, is she ready?"
"Say the word and we'll begin the trials."
"Consider the word said."
"All hands prepare to cast off!" Captain Duylio barked. He was only XO while Torcille was aboard the Gangster's Gamble but it was still his duty to get the biggest ship in the Eclipse Fleet out of drydock and floating towards victory. It had been nearly an hour since Grand Admiral Nelson had given the order to move, but all the construction equipment was finally disconnected and all related personnel were at a safe distance, leaving the RSSD Republicready to get moving for the first time since the transition of her hollow hull to and from Forn Site.
"All stations showing green, maneuvering thrusters are firing appropriately."
"All AIs check in."
"Alpha, ready for transition."
"Omega, weapons regrettably at zero percent charge."
"Revan, checking in; all systems are stable."
"Helm, take us out." Duylio ordered once the three avatars appeared on the holobanks in front of the command chairs. Unlike most ships, their were two command chairs, one facing forward for the ranking officer, and another one right behind it facing towards the holotable for the XO.
Everyone aboard felt a shudder as the ship gained momentum at a snails pace. While most ships in hard vacuum didn't take much energy to get moving quickly, the sheer size of the Republicmade moving from a complete stop an arduous task. Mile by mile, she continued forward and 'up' in relativity of Aurek's north pole.
"Engine cores A through G holding steady at 50%; H, I, and J are elevating steadily to 75. Emergency cores are holding at zero."
"Hyperdrive and our jump computers?"
"Spinning up to half power." Revan announced.
"Waiting for your command as to location." the Chief Navigation officer replied. Due to her size, the sheer amount of engine power and three AIs wasn't the only thing that was expanded. Each station had five officers underneath a chief officer, usually a Naval Commander or Army Major depending on the station save Engineering, which had ten.
"Anything from Grand Admiral Nelson?"
"We're joining the First Fleet for our shakedown." Alpha replied. "Just inside Crandolian Space near a star; CS-198."
"Punch in the coordinates and get us moving then. Final station report!"
"Navigation green."
"Weapons holding at zero."
"Shields up at maximum."
"Engines holding steady in the green."
"Communications checking in green."
"Air Control reports all squadrons docked."
"And the XO is ready for launch." Duylio finished, taking a seat in the command chair. "Let's get her moving."
"Aye sir." Alpha replied as the the stars began to get brighter.
"Spinning up the jump drive." Revan stated, stars now slowly turning into lines.
"Ready to swat some flies!" Omega bellowed with a feral grin.
At 1750 hours on Aurex 15th, 5 NRC, the RSSD Republic entered hyperspace for the first time. The third Super Capital of the Eclipse Republic Navy was mobile and fully operational.
"Admiral Torcille, incoming video from Grand Admiral Nelson."
"On screen." Torcille replied as he looked up from his personal datapad. His reaction was instant and ecstatic.
"What ship is that?" one of his bridge officers asked.
"That, lieutenant... is my ship."