The Eviscerator, Fais Sector
Admiral Zut Gorky wafted through the various reports he had been sent from the other ships. A few of the ships had minor, superficial repairs to be done, but there was little else that had not been already discussed.
He flipped to the reports from his forces outside the system. His intelligence arm had found no new information about the wearbouts of Earth. Considering there had been no new actions by them for a couple of months, he was wondering if the little raid they had executed was a mere anomaly. But he would still hope for something, anything more about them.
His other fleets had upon his request restrained themselves from even the most minor skirmishes with the Empire, who would be letting their guard down soon. There was little to note from them, with the exception of another minor battleground being found deep off the beaten path. It appeared to be an Imperial supply convoy that had been attacked in deep space by a squadron of old Trade Federation frigates and destroyers. With the Imperial escorts having their old Republic paint jobs barely erased, he reasoned it would have had to have been within the first year of the new order's rise. He knew some of the Imperial commanders had been overconfident when they had first pushed this far into former separatist space, he had defeated quite a number of them himself.
Contrary to popular belief, the separatist cause had not ended when the council had been killed and their droid armies deactivated. While battle droids occupied a large percentage of the CIS's ground forces, most of their ranks were populated by local forces made up of volunteers and conscripts from varois worlds in the confederacy. The same had applied for their fleets, but to less of a degree since most worlds did not possess a significant number of large capital ships (most lacked this capability all together). The same had largely been true for the Republic, oddly enough. Ironically, the popular tale of clones and droids fighting on distant worlds did not constitute the near entirety of fighting during the war.
Ultimately the old battlefield would be salvaged for anything of value, and what remained would be melted down to be turned into armor plating, bulkheads, gun barrels or whatever else the fleet needed. In a rebellion like this, every piece of supply helped and was far more valuable than in a conventional war. Almost everything was far harder to replace in this type of conflict, and every opportunity to acquire more would be taken.
His ground forces also had little out of the ordinary to report. Some minor skirmishes with the Empire, but nothing to cause a stir. Like the fleet, his ground forces were biding their time and preparing for a larger scale response to Imperial activities.
But something stood out from the cell on Garnizon II. They were trying to contact him with the highest priority channel. Something important must be going on, he thought as he entered the encrypted channel.
"Admiral Gorky, I have been contacted by people who claim to be special forces soldiers from Earth." Colonel Jul Zark said. The admiral could see other people huddled around the holotable. Some looked to be his people, but others were dressed in black armor unfamiliar to him. These were probably the soldiers from Earth.
He turned to a figure on the right. "I am Major Petrova of the United Nations Special Operations Force. I am here to tell you Earth's fleet will embark on an offensive into this sector in one month. We are wondering if you could help assist us in the attack."
"How can we confirm you are actually from Earth?" He asked, slightly skeptical. He wanted help from them, but he had to know the way of knowing if they weren't just Imperials in disguise.
"I have a number of extensive documents that detail my heritage and my squadmates. I also came to help arrange a meeting between you and one of our warships. They will discuss our planning for the operation in more detail, and establish more formal diplomatic relations."
"How do I know this is not a trap?"
"We can meet in coordinates inside your territory of your choosing, and you can come after you have verified the area is safe."
Gorky considered his options. While he didn't fully trust these humans of Earth, this was an opportunity he wasn't going to back out of. While part of him was telling him to be more cautious, he ignored those thoughts. Fortune supposedly favored the bold.
"We can work out the details in this meeting and will assist however we can if it means the Empire is pushed out of Zoloch. "
"Excellent. I have 36 of Earth's best soldiers that have all posed as mercenaries, with an additional 36 on Zoloch Prime. We are supposedly searching for rebels like you to eliminate. Of course, that will not happen, but it gives us some plausible deniability for being heavily armed here. I wish to offer my help to your local forces for an uprising on this planet once the fleet begins its push." Petrova said
"That would be good. I will give you the information of our forces on Zoloch Prime so that your soldiers there can link up and coordinate with them." Gorky replied.
"Thank you, Admiral. I am certain that this will make our attack more successful." With that, the transmission ended.
Admiral Gorky was happy for this critical victory and began to make plans for the meeting as well as informing all the Captains in this local fleet. He then began to contact the flag officers in charge of distant fleets, as well as his ground forces. Every ship available would be readied for their crusade into Imperial space.
Major Petrova sighed and looked around the room. They had won a victory and hopefully secured the cooperation of these rebels.
"My troops are staying at the local starport. Do you want them to relocate here?" She asked.
"I would advise against it." Colonel Zark replied. "This facility has limited space, and packing 36 other people in here would lead to some… cramped conditions."
"Until the uprising, none of us will be able to participate in combat against the Empire. But we can still help around here, and plan for that day."
"That would be acceptable." Zark turned to the rest of the squad. "I don't think I've met any of you." He and the other members of the cell began talking about their lives and getting to know each other.
Major Petrova found once again that two peoples from across the galaxy seemed to get along so well. But once again, it would be something to think about later. For the second time in a while, she found herself socializing with other people.