From:Azai Jin
Answers: System Alliance may at this point mobilize more ships than Empire Remnant has in the system, although ships will be smaller. Overall, there will be a great space battle. Note that the System Alliance planned to have 10 fleets before showing up to the Galaxy, and at this point, they have 8. Add to that the losses from a massive battle, rebuilding the colony, those millions of Empire captives after a win, and most likely new technologies and reforms(Dark Empire was described as most technologically advanced in its time.). As for the Rad Nulkess and Renza Vonke, I thought of them as those loyal Imperial idealists. A bit more Paleon and Thrawn style than Tarkin and Vader. I have the same idea of Shepard Twins, but as the story continues to develop, so will they. I envisioned the Eclipse III as that Empire Dreadnought, as seen in the video 'Battle of the Dreadnoughts'. Additionally, New Republic is too busy repairing its own fleet, getting Coruscant back, and much more than dealing with some fleet that might somehow survive the destruction of Byss. The rules with relays still apply to New Republic ships, and that Empire came to SA colony, was just an accident(Epilogue in the previous story explains it.) The story is based mostly on Star Wars Legends, so Asoka is out because I have no idea how to put her there. I also don't want to involve Mara in this as I don't know much about the period between Dark Empire-Caamas Crisis. But I'm going to chew some other ME races as Unknown Regions races with turbolasers only, instead of ME guns. I'll probably throw in races from other Sic-Fics as well.
Interesting facts. Initially, I had planned for the first contact and the actual fight to be at 18 ABY, between SA and Taidans from Homeworld, the moment would be right after the second mission of the campaign, and the Kushans would join the SA. But then some problems started to appear along the way, so I forgot the idea in its original form. But I still want the Kushans to join SA.
Chapter 2
= place: Welnias mining colony; December 6, 2180; 11 ABY=
After Captain Nulkess's task force found a mining colony, it was almost immediately occupied. But since the captain had sent a message to the colony earlier, it surrendered almost immediately. The colony simply had no way of resisting, so the colony leader would make the only rational decision. The occupation of a squad of 2,000 stormtroopers went smoothly, which came as a surprise to the general population as most of them had heard mostly of Empire's crimes and little about their good side.
Rad sent Renze to find any historical and political books she could find for him in advance. After bringing them to his cabin, he spent a lot of time with them. He had been in his cabin for so long that some of them began to worry. So Kandivar went to his cabin.
"Captain, I'm sorry to disturb you." - Kandivar said, entering the captain's cabin.
"Don't worry." - Captain Nulkess said - "You must have been worried why I'm not leaving for so long. I'm right?"
"Yes, sir. Can you explain that?"
"I am looking for information that may be useful to us in the fight."
"From history books?" - The first mate was a bit surprised by the choice.
"They don't have most of the key information in them, but they should probably unravel the mystery of why their ships are so advanced that they equal or even surpass ours."
"They've only known FTL for 30 years."
"But their fighters defeated ours in the first fight, they dealt us several times more losses, despite the fact that we were outnumbered by several times. It shouldn't be possible to achieve this technological level so quickly."
"So?" - asked the confused officer further.
"According to their book, they achieved FTL with the discovery of the outpost of the long-extinct Raakatan civilization. These big relays are what they do, and they bind their entire government territory, the System Alliance. They are also the reason why we are stuck in this system."
"Did you use this to determine the number of their ships or their production capacity?"
"No, but according to the information I have found, they have made contact with two other races that are members of the System Alliance. Oamecini or 'Ichlings' as most call them and Caamasi."
"Wait a second, Caamasi is ..."
"... one of the most important Old Republic species. Here is a write, that they got in touch with them a little over 2 decades ago. This is where the next technological boom comes from. From the hybridization of Galactic and Raakatan technologies, in combination with some of their own original technology. Additionally, these Ichlings gave them another technological boom. I have not yet found information on the exact number of their systems, but the relays are said to link thousands of them. This also explains the almost fanatical struggle of the defenders. They know they won't win, but each day of delay for us is an extra day for their navy to prepare. Earlier, we got information about a small ship the size of a CR-90 Corvette, which reportedly disappeared. Most likely this ship is their scout."
"So what are we doing?"
"As soon as the SA fleet arrives, we give up."
"WHAT!?"
"We have no possibility of a longer fight. Many of our ships are not even fully operational and supplies are very limited. We have no support, logistics or even basic knowledge about the opponent. Can we beat their fleet? Probably yes. Can we conquer them fast enough before they armed each one of their ships? No way. We don't even know how to leave this system, which is more of a resort than a production source for food or ships. Plus, if they're aware of what's happening in the galaxy, they'll most likely ask the Rebels for help, and then we're all over."
"Will you suggest this to the Admiral?"
"No way, he would have killed me on the spot. Many other officers are just waiting for an opportunity to call me a traitor and get rid of me. But there are some officers who can agree to my plan. If Vom does nothing to make the citizens of the SA demand our death, then we should survive."
"What about Oamecini, Ichlings, the other race they met."
"I don't have much information about them yet, but I have found information that they are supposed to be a very small species. Apparently the size of a few centimeters."
"So people are either protect them or conquer them."
"I haven't found the exact information yet, but they are said to have joined the SA in a peaceful manner, so I would be more into the first option. Although we cannot rule out that they have a few tricks up their sleeve."
= place: Milda; the night of December 6-7, 2180; 11 ABY=
The Haunters have not seen action in this war since it began. This was due to many reasons, such as the belief shown by the Imperial captives that it was a human-only planet, the specific character of the individual, or the desire to maximize the initial effect. After the catastrophic losses of almost 25% of the initial military personnel, the setting up of bridgeheads by the Empire for the collapse of the first line of defense and information about the takeover of the Welnias colony, it was considered a good time to deploy this unit.
"Almost time." - said the commander of the 9-man Hunters team, each with ridiculously large for their size explosives attached to their backs - "Let's repeat the plan for the last time. Using our small size and anti-gravity boards, we slip into their camps unnoticed and then place explosives for all Empire's fuel, ammunition and explosives depots. Then we get the hell out of there and at the agreed time we start fireworks, together with other groups. Absolute zero actions of bravado, killing more important officers or destroying vehicles. Our Bombs will probably not destroy the Empire vehicle, even I will plant them in more sensitive places. Is it clear?"
"Sir, yes sir!" - answered the branch. Almost at the same moment, the sound of their watches rang out.
"Let's go." - said the commander and the team began to move towards the Imperial camp. They hovered only a few meters above the ground, which was enough to penetrate all the guards and reach the closest viewpoint in the center of the Empire camp. From there, they quickly spotted a place where ammunition, fuel, and other materials were stored. The group quickly flew over Empire's heads, and thanks to their black uniforms, they were almost imperceptible. After reaching the supplies, they planted the charges in a few slightly distant places, set the timer, and quickly took off. They were no longer worried about looking for the targets and only moved as quickly as possible to the predetermined position. Upon arrival, the commander quickly began communicating with HQ.
"HQ, this is team 17, the charges are placed and everyone is out of the explosion range." - said the commander.
"Team 17, this is HQ. Wait for the fireworks, then you can go back to base." - replied the message from HQ.
After another 10 minutes of waiting, explosions suddenly began. There were only a few small ones at first, but after a while these first explosions set fire to the ammunition, fuel, and other explosives, which also began to explode, causing a chain reaction that almost destroyed all of the Empire's ammunition, fuel, and explosives. In addition, the structures in which Empire soldiers were accommodated were also destroyed, killing many soldiers, stormtroopers and destroying a large number of vehicles. Empire's losses in this campaign have just heavily increased.
= place: Eclipse III; December 7, 2180; 11 ABY=
"What do you mean we can't launch another attack?!" - shouted the furious Admiral Vom - "Yesterday you said that the next whisper would break them, and now you say we can't do it!"
"Sir, their saboteur attack has wiped out our stockpile of ammunition, fuel and many other things. The losses were enormous, we estimate that at least 1,000 soldiers were killed in the explosions, and another 9,000 were injured from burns and shrapnel. In addition, over 500 vehicles have been destroyed or too seriously damaged to be ready for the next few days. We need one planet rotation to properly replace lost supplies and vehicles and remove the wounded from the front lines. We don't even know how they managed to avoid our guards. " the general said.
"Sir, I have theories how they might have managed to slip through our guards." - Nulkess said.
"Speak!" - Vom said.
"From the information obtained from this mining colony, it turns out that there is another species in the SA, the so-called Ichlings. They are small humanoids, only a few centimeters tall. This was probably how they managed to slip through our guards."
"So they sent literal rats to put charges under our ammunition courts." = one of the admirals said.
"Those 'rats' cost us hundreds of dead, thousands of wounded, and huge amounts of equipment." - said an officer whom Nulkess recognized as an old comrade, Colonel Brabav Thros - "No matter what you say about them, they must be well organized and trained. If they are included in their army, we have to assume that such actions will happen much more often."
"Such tiny creatures cannot be seriously any threat to our forces." - another general said.
"Despite our losses, our forces should still have at least 60,000 troops and 8,000 stormtroopers ready to attack at this moment. With air support, they should finish obliterating the first line of defense and occupy the entire planet within one galactic week. Probably faster." - another admiral added.
"Then order an immediate attack and assign as many fighters as needed." - Vom said.
"Yes, sir." - the commanders replied, some with less enthusiasm than most. As they began to diverge, Captain Nulkess hurried over to Colonel Thros.
"Colonel, are you not satisfied with
the orders?" - the captain asked.
"We've known each other since the Grand Admiral Thrawn offensive." - the colonel replied - "He would never allow an immediate attack. It is true that most of the enemy forces have retreated, but to new defensive positions, where there is still a large number of defense turrets. The expected numerical advantage of our forces is 10 to 1, for the current attack, but the losses will be huge and we are not able to replenish them. The fight for this planet is a foregone conclusion, but we have no idea how many more such planets we have to occupy. If we lose as many soldiers in the fight for a holiday resort, how many can we lose in the fight against their world which is actually strategically important?"
"More than we have available." - Nulkess said - "Colonel, no. Brabav, we cannot win this war with SA. We have less than one percent of the Byss fleet, no supplies, no infrastructure, or even the ability to leave the system. And they've known about Empire, they've known about the Rebellion, and they've had that knowledge for at least 20 years. They use this mysterious path to connect hundreds of worlds and thousands of systems. We have no way of winning this war. The sooner we surrender, the more people under our command will survive."
"Such words sound like a betrayal." - said Brabav.
"This is true." - said Rad - "You know, deep inside, that I'm right."
"And you want to exemplify my authority to make our ground troops surrender as soon as possible." - said Brabav - "If it is not possible to win, I will agree. Now I must join our ground troops. It should at least slightly reduce our losses."
"You know that commanding troops on the battlefield is extremely risky."
"As they say at my home. 'If the King doesn't move, then his subjects won't follow.'" - Brabav concluded and they both headed towards each other.
= place: SSV Normandy; December 7, 2180; 11 ABY=
"Admiral, I have the entire inventory of the enemy's fleet." - the navigation officer said.
"Excellent, we can finally bring this information to our command." - said Admiral Anderson happily - "Do we have any more information on the state of Welias or Milda?"
"Unfortunately, nothing about Welias, sir." - the same officer replied - "But it looks like Milda is holding on. The latest information intercepted was about some 'rats' that had blown them a lot of supplies and equipment. We don't have exact numbers, but we're talking about at least several thousand casualties for Empire."
"Bet 50 Alliance Credits they were Haunters." - the weapons officer said.
"I don't bet on the obvious winner." - said the pilot.
"This could be your last bet before you die, so my advice is to apply." - the weapons officer said.
It was not far from the truth. Empire launched one Interdictor-class Star Destroyer with an active gravity field next to each relay in the system. This effectively prevented escape, even though the MassEffect drive or relays. Normandy's Nuke Beam wasn't powerful enough to immobilize a ship about 10 times the size of it, so it was decided on an almost suicidal plan to get out of here. It has been decided to overload the Nuke Beam so that it will have enough power, but there is a high probability that it will not withstand such power pressure and will explode as a result. And even if not, there is still a 100% chance of a radioactive leak onto the ship. But if they fail to do it, they will not risk their 50-man crew, then the System Alliance Grand Fleet will suffer much greater losses in the next battle without this information. Therefore it was decided on this plan, called Operation Philippides. All protective suits that could be found and prepared were dressed.
When the Admiral finally gave the order, the operation began.
Normandy quickly revealed herself and began to ready the weapons, arriving from a point beneath the Empire ships, which foolishly lined up, as if they would automatically see where up and down was. This gave Normandy the time she needed to recharge her gun and accelerate. It was coming very quickly, and despite the ship's radar signature enlargement, a huge increase in temperature inside the ship, and being extremely close to the Imperial Formation, the Normandy still hadn't been fired upon.
On Imperial ships, the news of an attack from below by a small corvette charging straight at a star destroyer, and with so much energy, was unthinkable. Certainly, such primitives couldn't have ships more advanced than the Empire, after being in space for some 3 decades. The information on radar was presented as a simple failure. But then the alarm suddenly sounded.
Normandy fired her only shot and it hit the perfect spot in the small hangar that housed just over a dozen fighters. Since Empire didn't expect a threat from a single ship, they left their ships without activated shields. A blast of nuclear energy pierced the ship right through, causing multiple internal explosions that eventually destroyed the Star Destroyer completely. However, the Normandy was close to the relay by then, and while a few ships tried to fire whatever weapons they had in stock, all of this missed, and the SA ship itself managed to jump through the relay.
A pre-prepared message about the ship's radioactive poisoning and any information about the state of the Empire's fleet and ground units that they managed to obtain was activated on board.