Love of a Jedi II
Chapter Fifteen
Naes was standing on the bridge of his ship, leading a fleet that was currently skulking in the outskirts of the Kashyyyk system. He was waiting for the Bothan fleet to show up. In the past two weeks, he had wrapped up the final pilot class for Garm and his new students for the Balance of the Force were wrapping up their training. They were scattered across the fleet, training in converted cargo holds. Just then an alert chimed, Naes looked over at the display and could see that the Bothan fleet was arriving, Thosk Fel'ya was being discreet, coming in at sublight, so that the Imperial scanners would not pick them up as quickly.
Once the Bothan fleet came up alongside his, Naes opened a discreet ship to ship laser link. "Thosk, my old friend how good it is to see you after all these years. The clan is doing well?" Naes knew that with Bothan's the clan was everything. There were times the good of the clan might be put ahead of the good of the species as a whole.
"Absolutely. How strong is the opposition?"
"Our scouts have reported six Star Destroyers, five Star Cruisers, and two Carriers. Plus a sizable garrison on the surface."
"Hmm, this one will be tough. How do you propose we defeat them?"
"I have already sent a Jedi strike team to the surface, composed of twenty people to assist the Wookie's. Our two combined fleets will do a micro jump into the system and engage the Imperial fleet at point blank range. Before we jump, please have all of your fighters prepped for launch, so that as soon as we come out of hyperspace they can be launched."
"Give us ten minutes to prepare. How will we accomplish the pinpoint precision needed for the microjump?"
"If you would be kind enough to slave your hyperdrive with that of my ship, I will handle the navigating and precision needed." Naes could hear a rumble in Thosk Fel'ya's chest, knowing Bothan's as he did, he knew that Thosk was not happy about the proposal but he would accede to the request.
"That is not my first choice, but we will comply."
"Excellent Thosk, May the Force be with you."
Ten Minutes Later…
Naes looked at his combined fleet, he outnumbered this Imperial contingent two to one, the problem was that reinforcements would be difficult to come by. "All units prepare for jump in three, two, one." As soon as the last word was out of his mouth, Naes pushed the button to engage the combined fleet jump sequence and no sooner than he did that and he was pulling back on the jump lever to disengage the jump. In a matter of seconds his fleet had travelled nearly seven and a half light hours. The ships reverted back to real space with the Imperial fleet directly in front of them at point blank range. Naes immediately gave the orders, "All ships open fire with main batteries and launch all fighters."
He then keyed on a separate frequency and said, "Rhea, this is Naes, Operation Storm is a go." With that last order, he set in motion the Wookie assault on the Imperial garrison. With that the Wookie resistance began a frontal assault on the Imperial garrison; joined by Rhea and twenty of his new Jedi recruits. Naes had chosen the recruits with Force talents geared for combat and for those that had the most talent for wielding a lightsaber to assist the Wookie's on the ground.
Naes once more turned his attention to battle before him; though he could feel Rhea and Tara on the ground leading their troops and Ezriel on the adjacent bridge overseeing the starfighter assault. One thing that he had taught his students was a teaching that had fallen by the wayside, a Jedi Battlemeld. Basically it improved the reaction time of his troops, improved their morale, and enhanced their fervor to accomplish the mission objectives. It also enhanced the Force communication between all of the Force users. During their years fighting together in the Clone Wars, Naes, Rhea and Ezriel had unwittingly developed a nascent form of the Battlemeld.
Naes could see from his readouts and by looking at the battle that one Star Destroyer was losing power and would need to fall back; Naes focused his attention on that Star Destroyer and flicked the fingers and wrist on his right hand, causing the Star Destroyer to suddenly veer to the side and crash into a Star Cruiser. Naes seeing the proximity to another Star Cruiser gave a small motion with his hand and pushed the damaged Star Cruiser into another one. He then put the Battlemeld to use and sent out to the commanders of the three damaged ships that they absolutely had to abandon ship in order to save their lives. Soon escape pods were jettisoning from all three ships. Naes then sent orders for boarding teams to claim the ships. He then focused his attention on one of the Star Carriers, this would be more difficult, but he succeeded in convincing its crew to abandon ship as well. With that accomplished, he repositioned his ship for orbital bombardment of the Imperial garrison.
The Battlemeld worked, eventually Naes fleet either captured or destroyed the enemy ships and the garrison on the ground surrendered unconditionally. Soon Wookie technicians would be shuttling up to assist in repairing the damage Naes fleet had incurred as well as repairing the prize ships. Crews would also be trained and shuttled in from throughout the galaxy. And according to plan, not one single Imperial left the system; they were all either killed or captured. Chuundar was on his way up to meet with Naes, along with Thosk, Rhea, Ezriel, Tara, and Garm Bel Iblis via holo.
"Gentlemen and Ladies, we have accomplished our mission objectives. Kashyyyk has been freed, we have captured five additional ships, including two Star Destroyers and two Star Cruisers and a Star Carrier. With the additional fighters that are being sent to us, that should give us a full complement of fighters for our captured prizes. The combined assault fleet suffered minor damage, the battle was a complete surprise and a total rout." Nodding to Thosk, Chuundar, and Garm; Naes continued, "We have also confirmed that a Jedi Battlemeld does tip the balance in a battle. Look at the results; our forces started off relatively even at the start of the battle. We routed the Imperial task force."
Thosk looked around and asked, "And what is your next objective Master Nemelc?"
"We will take the week we need to repair the prize ships and crew them and then we will leave Two Star Cruisers and a Star Destroyer here and launch our attack against the slightly smaller Imperial task force in orbit of Mon Calamari. Our goal at Mon Cala is to capture as many ships as possible. As such we will take as many Wookie volunteers to act as boarding parties."
Garm spoke, "Our scouts and spies are reporting that there are four Star Destroyers and five Star Cruisers in the Mon Cala system. At any one time, three Imperial ships are also docked at the Mon Cala shipyards, Raddus assures me that he already has in place insurgents at the shipyards ready to seize them and any ships undergoing maintenance."
Naes spoke, "Excellent, we will leave the shipyards to the Mon Cala and will concentrate on the task force."
A week later…
Naes and his fleet jumped into the Mon Calamari system, "Launch fighters, all ships locate your target and fire Ion Cannons. Begin prepping Assault Shuttles for launch." He then contacted Ezriel on the Comm, "Ezriel, this is Naes, I am turning over command of the fleet to you. Epic and I will infiltrate one of the Star Destroyers as planned. I will keep you informed, keep an eye on the ships in the yards, the Mon Cala might need help."
Naes shuttle landed in the primary docking bay of the Star Destroyer; "Rhea, this is Naes, I have landed on my Destroyer how goes the rest?"
Rhea answered, "I am on final approach for my Destroyer and Tara just landed on her Destroyer. The remaining Destroyer and five Cruisers will be have twenty Force Users spread between them."
"That is a 10-4, Naes out." Naes motioned to the squad leader and he pressed a button suddenly from underneath each shuttle dropped a combination of B1 and B2 battle droids; all reprogrammed to follow Naes and his troopers orders. He looked to his squad leader, "You take your men and droids to the reactor control room. Epic and I will take my men and droids to the bridge. We will have additional shuttles docking at various parts of the ship to provide confusion and cover for us."
"Aye sir, heading out."
Naes looked at his men and droids and said, "Follow me." With that they left the docking bay and took a parallel path as the other squad, with the exception that the other squad was heading to Reactor Control. Naes and his men were heading to the Bridge, located near the very top of the tower of the Star Destroyer. They would have to traverse over half of the length of the ship. Naes always enjoyed a good challenge.
Before embarking, Naes had his slicer droid jack into a computer terminal and issue conflicting orders to the Stormtroopers stationed aboard ship. That would help scatter resistance and help give Naes and his troops the time needed to reach their objectives with little interference. The good news couldn't last for long, soon enough their scanners told them that a squad of Stormtroopers were around the corner and down a ways; the problem is that they would be spotted before they could get to the bank of lifts. Naes looked to his second in command and said, "We don't have time for this, take your men and the droids and head for the bridge. Leave three men here to help cover me."
"Are you sure about that sir?"
"Go, I have this. I will clear a path for you, there should be a bank of lifts thirty meters to the port side on the next corridor." Naes consulted his wrist comp and went on to say, "You want to head directly to Level 198 Section Gold 10. We will clear a path for you. Epic, go with them and provide cover."
"Aye sir, see you there."
Naes stepped out with his lightsaber lit and called, "Hey Bucket Brigade, looking for me?"
The Stormtroopers looked at him and immediately said, "Get him."
Naes looked and said, "Be sure and take notes." With that he advanced on the troopers with a determined stride. Soon enough the air around him filled with blaster bolts. Without breaking stride he motioned with his free hand and with the Force grabbed a hold of nearly half of the troopers guns and yanked them free and chucked them to the side. At the same time he was swatting aside blaster bolts with his lightsaber. Calling out to the troopers he said, "Get out of my way, do not interfere any more or you will pay the price." A couple of the troopers laughed and Naes said, "OK, have it your way."
With the Force he picked one up and threw him against the ceiling of the corridor, immediately followed by grabbing two more and throwing them against the side of corridor. He could sense that the squad was beginning to waver, half were disarmed. None of their blasters had even come close to touching him and in seconds he had incapacitated three of them. Naes did not relish what he was about to do, but these men were given ample opportunity to run; they had seen a portion of his abilities. With that, he grabbed the nearest one and yanked him towards himself and swept his saber across the trooper. His armor clattered on the deck at Naes feet. The remaining men paused and saw what had just happened to their fellow soldier and they threw their blasters down and ran away from Naes.
About that time, he reached the cross corridor that was their goal to begin with, Naes could hear his squad running up behind him. He looked and said, "I guess it didn't take as long as I had expected. Come on, that was just one squad." With that Naes headed towards the lifts.
Epic looked at the defeated troopers and then over at Naes, trying to process what exactly it was that she had seen. She looked at the second in command, "What just happened?"
"I think he just took out a squad of troops without even breaking a sweat. Did you notice that not a single blast made it past him?"
"Yeah, I saw that too. Let's go. I don't want to keep him waiting."
Just then the lift appeared and they were able to take the lift directly to the bridge.
Naes spoke, "When we get to the bridge, everyone fan out but watch your fire. No need to needlessly damage the delicate equipment."
"Aye Sir."
The lift opened to reveal the bridge of a Star Destroyer. The ship's captain looked at the lift and saw the motley bunch stepping off and immediately asked, "What is the meaning of this intrusion?"
Naes strode right towards him grabbed the captain with the Force and drug him to himself and said, "You are being relieved of duty." With that, Naes tapped the man's forehead and the captain collapsed. Naes looked at around at the bridge and asked, "Who is next?"
Immediately the entire bridge crew shocked at how easily their captain had been incapacitated raised their hands started stepping away from their consoles. "Put binders on them and stick them in the corner and have the droids watch over them." Naes pulled out his comlink, "Ezriel, how goes the operation?"
"We just seized the shipyards no other vessels have been seized as of now."
"I just seized my Star Destroyer. Give the others a little bit of time. Remember, I had a hand in the early design concepts for this class."
"Plus most are not as skilled as you are with a lightsaber."
Naes chuckled, "Well I didn't want to say that, but you know. Naes out."
Naes then keyed to check on his second squad, "Naes to Squad two, report."
"Squad two, we have just secured the reactor room."
"Excellent." Naes flipped the setting on his comlink to the group setting for the squads taking this ship, "This is Group Leader to all boarding squads. Switch on your air filters, we will gas the ship in five minutes."
He looked to one of the crewmen on the lower bridge level and said, "Release the gas shipwide except here on the bridge and in the reactor room."
"Aye sir." With that, the gas was released, knocking out most of the Imperials on the ship.
"Gentlemen, send a squad of our droids here to assist in cleanup downstairs. This ship is secured."
An hour later, Naes was in the main conference room with Thosk Fel'ya, Raddus, Chuundar, Garm Bel Iblis via holo, and Ezriel and Rhea. "Gentlebeings, we have secured the Mon Cala shipyards and freed Kashyyyk. Our next task once we reorganize make any needed repairs is to hit the Kuat shipyards and quickly after that Coruscant. Until today we were able to keep the existence of a group of Force user's secret, that changed today. All of us users drew and used the Force fairly liberally, that just sent up a flare to Palpatine and Vader. Fortunately we are far enough away that they only have a general idea where we are."
Garm looked around and said, "I have already decided that as soon as you begin the assault on Kuat, that Corellia will remove the Imperial presence from our planet as well. That reduces the available shipyards by three, three major yards."
Naes looked around and said, "We are approaching the end game people, be prepared and let's do our assignments to the best of our abilities." He then looked at Rhea and Ezriel and said, "For you guys that means continue training our students. Luminous, Epic, Carus and others have talent to be helpful in the upcoming missions. May the Force be with us."