"We are lighting the fire that will burn the Imperial rule of the Ajans Sector down. The more we do now the less we will have to do in the future, and the faster the galaxy will be freed from the boot of the empire."

-Jogm Klanda

Chapter 8: Ajans Burns

Kuat Drive Yards Station KYDS-1892, Inka system, Ajans Sector

The massive orbital space station KYDS-1892 stood as the largest object in the orbit of Inka III. The several thousand-meter-long frames held dozens of docking bays that were designed to transfer lots of cargo from ships to a large network of planetary installations owned by the company and the empire along with other ships in orbit.

One such ship, the BFS 102320 was making its departure from the station with a large load of unrefined ore for the refineries on the Tenklan system.

A small shephapiede shuttle that dated back to the clone wars was watching it intently, and preparing to make a move. As the ship prepared to go into hyperspace, the shuttle would latch on, and once the ship was out of hyperspace a crew of Free Confederacy frogmen and special droids would take control of the massive KDY bulk freighter.

That was exactly what sergeant Jogm Klanda was thinking as he sat in the modernized clone wars era relic along with the rest of the soldiers. It had been hiding behind an asteroid watching the bulk freighter and waited until the ship was about to jump into hyperspace before latching on to it.

After a fairly long ride in hyperspace, the bulk freighter, unaware that it had a boarding force about to take it over, excited hyperspace in System 12718 Gamma.

System 12718 Gamma was an unimportant scrap of nothingness deep in the Ajans sector, with no worlds habitable for humans and none that supported life at all.

It was however a critical hyperspace junction that connected several systems in the sector, including several of its most important like its capital, Ojankans, along with major industrial hubs and population centers such as Ghanda, Tenklan, Meredith, and some others.

Pirates and rebel groups had sometimes hidden in the system to stage attacks, which meant that the Empire had set up a network of sensors that would alert the Empire to any hyperspace travel into the system, and they would dispatch ships to investigate any unscheduled or rebel visits. The hyperspace lanes that the system was off limits to most civilian traffic though companies that did have special relations with the Empire were allowed to pass through.

That explained why they didn't find an issue with the Kuat Drive Yards chartered bulk freighter that had been scheduled for earlier and no Imperial forces were alerted. The freighter coincidentally came in 20 minutes before any large imperial convoy was to arrive.

"Alright everyone, suit up. You all know what we're supposed to do." He said. The strike force of a dozen of the Free Confederacy's best frogmen was assigned to the expeditionary force. They all wore high-quality vac suits that were armored enough to resist some small arms fire but were not too bulky. A number of the Free Confederacy's B3 battle droids that had been modified with a jetpack would also be taking part in the battle.

Suited up, the troops excited the shuttle and moved across the surface of the freighter to one of its airlocks. A group of two moved to the emergency distress beacon and planted a small ion grenade on it along with the main hypercom array. As the group of soldiers emerged onto the ship the comms units were disabled preventing the Imperials from calling for help.

The BFF-1 bulk freighter had only a small crew of 10 which was easily overpowered. The freighter continued on its course, and to anyone, it would seem as if nothing had changed. The battle droids were launched to go to the automated station and disable it.

5 minutes before the Empire lost contact with the automated station that controlled the sensor systems. Even if they would be able to stop the convoy it was probably nothing.

However, the Empire was mistaken. As the Imperial convoy excited hyperspace it came under fire from Bismarck and part of its task force. The Imperial force consisted of a Vindicator Class Cruisers, three Nebulon B Class frigates, and seven raider class corvettes along with two dozen freighters and various other supply ships. Earth's task force that was engaged in the battle consisted of the Bismark, a single heavy cruiser, three destroyers, and two frigates along with an interdictor cruiser and electronic warfare frigate. While they might be outnumbered, Earth brought superior firepower with its larger ships along with a larger and more effective starfighter wing.

Rear Admiral Hunt Godfrey observed the battlefield as his forces advanced on the Imperials. He had the clear element of surprise over the unprepared Imperials.

"Tell the Interceptor to activate its gravity well generators. This convoy isn't getting out of here." He said. "And begin disabling those transports!"

The unprepared Imperials responded sluggishly with a few guns opening up on Earth's fleet and ready TIE fighters being launched to defend the fleet. However by the time they were deployed Earth's fighters had missile locks on them. Most lasted seconds as the fighters unleashed missiles with ion warheads on the various transports, disabling a number of the lightly shields vessels.

Bismarck and the other vessels of Earth focused fire on the imperial combat vessels. Imperial vessels began to fall rapidly as massive amounts of firepower were unleashed on each one. Some of the Imperial vessels including a number of the transports agreed to surrender.

Soon massive transports were exciting hyperspace, which would carry boarding parties to secure the captured ships. 17 of the freighters were disabled along with two corvettes, a frigate, and the Vindicator. As time went on and on, the disabled Imperial vessels were faced with a greater possibility of being lost from turbolaser fire. Soon many were surrendering on top of the ones that had already done so. This made securing them easier as the Imperial personnel was offloaded into several large transports which would head back to Earth space so that the prisoners could undergo rehabilitation and reeducation. The various Imperial ships now were crewed by a small number of Earth's personnel and would also be sent back to Earth-controlled space.

A couple of hours later most of the ships had jumped out, with only a few left such as the heavy cruiser that had significant Imperial resistance onboard. All of Earth's task force remained; however, it had suffered minimal damage in the battle and was here to protect the fleet as it was leaving the area.

Suddenly the bridge of the Bismarck blared with alerts as a dozen ships emerged from hyperspace. An Imperial I Star Destroyer supported by another vindicator, two-strike medium cruisers, four Arquetens light cruisers, and four corvettes emerged from hyperspace. This was likely a rapid reaction force from one of the major Imperial worlds in the sector, as they must be investigating what was going on in the system. The convoy was also supposed to arrive a few hours ago along with other freighters so the Empire would have gotten suspicious.

"Active interdiction field and comm jammers," Hunt ordered the interdictor cruiser and electronic warfare frigate. "And have all ships and fighters concentrate fire on that Star Destroyer."

Soon a second battle was underway as the ISD and its task force engaged Earth's task force. The Star Destroyer and the Bismark went toe to toe in a viscous broadside. Both ships could take a lot of punishment but the Star Destroyer had more armor and shielding overall. The Revenge Class had more redundant shielding similar to Mon Calamari designs, though their protection wasn't far behind the Imperials. The Earth ship somewhat outgunned the ISD but on the broadside couldn't effectively concentrate its firepower as it was more geared towards the forward.

The other ships of Earth were generally more capable than their Imperial counterparts and their missile armed fighters held a decisive edge over TIE fighters. Throughout the entire war so far Earth had lost only a couple hundred fighters compared to thousands by the empire. Even the rebel alliance who's starfighter corps was very impressive didn't have such a good ratio, though in their years of war they had killed far more Imperial fighters. With the Imperial fighters dealt with in less than 10 minutes, Earth soon started attacking the Imperial capital ships, unleashing a barrage of missiles at the fleet of ships. They were able to attack weak points throughout the ships such as the rear of the Imperial Star Destroyer which had less defenses than other parts of ships.

The Imperial fleet meanwhile was starting to lose ships and they couldn't retreat due to the interdictor cruiser. They attempted to attack and destroy it but it kept out of range of their weapons. But they still stayed in range of the gravity field so they would be able to prevent the escape of the Imperials.

Earth was still taking losses however, one destroyer was lost and a frigate critically damaged. It would likely need to be scuttled and its crew shipped back to Earth. Some of the other ships were taking minor damage, such as the heavy cruiser and the Bismark.

"Bring the Glowworm, Daring, and Adriatic around to focus fire on that ISD's flanks." Hunt ordered. The ships soon had done so and unleashed a barrage of turbolaser and ion cannons blasts along with a good number of missiles. The two destroyers and the frigate caused significant damage to the exposed rear of the Star Destroyer and while they came under counterattack from the other imperial ships they where starting to pierce the ISD's shields.

"What's the status of our boarding parties?" Hunt ask3d.

"We can get over 80 percent of them to a target." Captain Braun said.

"I want that Star Destroyer captured. I don't care about the other ships, if we can then that's dandy but if not I'm willing to do so." He said. "We have this down to a science if I'm not mistaken."

"I would agree sir." She replied.

If he had heard the conversation, Colonel Kaj Lheens would have agreed. The Durosian free confederacy officer was the son of two veterans of the clone wars. He commanded forces of both organic soldiers and larger numbers of battle droids, improved and updated with lessons from the Clone Wars.

The droids he commanded were all of the B3 or B4 models, designs that had been developed a bit before the war ended and more so when the Free Confederacy had fled into the depths of the outer rim. The B3 was an updated version of the B2, with improved speed, armor, and two heavier blasters. T they also were more intelligent and cheaper than the B2. This allowed them to be more easily produced, which was a priority for the Free Confederacy who lacked the extensive supply networks of the CIS. Now that the free confederacy had control of a growing number of worlds, they had set up production factories that were churning them out in massive numbers. At this point all of the older B2 models had been scrapped and B1s had either met the same fate or became a number of logistical support droids to help with all kinds of manual tasks.

The B4 on the other hand was an updated model of the BX series of commando droids, improved for the task with one of the most powerful droid brains for its size along with upgrades to armor and its weapons. They were harder to produce due to their advanced components but their effectiveness had been proven time and time again. And more would be produced as the Free Confederacy for access to a much larger industrial base. He did also have a few newer model Droidekas to provide fire support, and their protection and firepower had been upgraded to make them into deadly anti infantry platforms.

His organic troops were a variety of species from human to Wookiee to Mon Calamari and everything in between. These were some of the most effective troops in the Free Confederacy arsenal at least for boarding actions against ships. More skilled than his droids, though the gap had shrunk since the clone wars.

The only rivals for the position of being the best for the job would be some of Earth's marines. This marine force was less experienced but still very well trained and equipped. Although there was a healthy rivalry between the two groups, neither would put each other in jeopardy and both had a great deal of respect for one another.

The force of boarding troops included several hundred of both his and Earth's organic soldiers, along with over a thousand droids which would be landing in the main hangar to lure out most of the imperial forces. The organic troops would sneak in to take the bridge, main engineering, and reactor room which would allow them to vent the ship's atmosphere. They would use this to force the Imperials to surrender and go into a large cargo bay or vent the atmosphere, and if one or multiple of the three places were about to be overwhelmed then the ship would be vented, except those cargo bays. Then the Star Destroyer would be jumped out to be swept for any survivors and sent to be upgraded by Earth in one of their shipyards.

He would be leading from the front today, or at least as close as his troops would let him. He'd be in once the other troops got in as well but since they didn't usually have control of the entire route between the docking ring the shuttle dropped them off at and the bridge where he would be overseeing the operations of the ship.

He had his blaster drawn along with everyone else in the platoon going to reinforce the first platoon of his men that had been sent in to take control of the bridge. It had only been 10 minutes since the first group of soldiers had come through p, and they were almost at the bridge. That platoon had also had to deal with much more imperial opposition than the second group he commanded was encountering, which right now was precisely none.

However, that state of affairs was about to change. A group of hastily armed imperial personnel had set up an ambush as they were approaching the bridge. In fact they could hear the fighting not far from them, and this motley group was probably going to either perform a flank attack or cut off the retreat of the 1st platoon.

Blaster fire rang out as they passed a corner, wounding or killing several of his boarding party. They returned fire in earnest, cutting down several of the ambushers as their attack faltered under a prepared response. Lheens tossed an earth built stun grenade down the corridor that the ambushers were residing in and his soldiers got behind cover and looked away. Soon the ambushers, stunned and unable to respond effectively were cut down in a matter of seconds.

They continued on their path until they ran into the other platoon he had sent, and he soon found its commanding officer, Lieutenant Gzips.

"Gzips, what's your status?" He asked the Lieutenant.

"Making progress sir, though now the opposition is a bit more intense." He replied to Lheens.

"I've got second platoon with me which should help." He said. Blaster fire was being sent in multiple directions as the area near the bridge came under contestation.

"Imperials have locked down the bridge sir," one of the sergeants said. "We've cleared the surrounding presence though.

"Good, can our technical teams override it?

"Maybe sir, they're working on it. We might need to use the laser cutter."

Using laser cutters to breach into the bridge of an ISD was not the best way to capture it. The bridge and the surrounding areas might be secured, but air supply could then not be cut off exclusively to the bridge. It would have to be cut off to some of the nearby areas which would allow some members of the ships crew to survive and potentially counterattack the boarding force. . And with a massive hole in the door grenades could be hurled into the bridge so therefore a more active defense would be needed to protect the boarding party. The few times it had happened it had caused some problems but ultimately the ships were still captured.

"Sir the techs have overridden the controls. We're ready to go in." The sergeant said.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's get going." He said.

Soon the troops had opened the door and stormed the bridge. A few stun grenades and blaster bolts later and the boarding parties had killed or captured everyone on the bridge. It was also reported that other places such as main engineering had been taken.

Lheens looked at the Captain, whose hands were raised in surrender.

"Tell the ship's personnel to all go to the main cargo bays and leave their weapons." He said. "They will be treated fairly if they do."

Soon that had happened, but several thousand of the imperial personnel had refused to surrender or go to the cargo bays.

"Vent the ship, and get ready for additional crewmen to embark." Lheens said. The battle had ended within the desolate star system. All of the Imperial vessels had surrendered or been destroyed, and no one wanted to wait unnecessarily long for more to arrive. "They had their chance." He told the captain.

"What will happen to my crew and I?"

"That's for other people to decide, but it will be fair."

Bismark and her task force soon gathered back at Sogquet's base at HKJIO-10228. The rest of the fleets that had gone to interdict imperial shipping also returned. Some had suffered minor losses but a massive amount of Imperial vessels had been captured. Almost 80 various logistical vessels from small Gozati Class freighters up to a massive Field Secures Container Vessel had all been captured, along with nearly 30 warships. It was already breaking records of being the biggest single amount of tonnage captured by Earth and its allies and one of the most successful pirate heists in recent history. Probably the marines and boarding parties of the ships had had the most casualties but considering the gains they were honestly pretty minimal.

The biggest problem that came from such a bountiful capture was the number of impersonal pros, nearly a hundred thousand in total. Once they got back into friendly space they would be divided up. Some might see them as a drain on resources but they would provide manual labor at a low cost and after enough time and examination would perhaps get a chance to serve in the fleet as time went on.

The mission had been an unmistakable success, and it would surely cause much consternation for imperial sector forces. They would notice that something was going on here. Over a hundred different ships didn't suddenly disappear into nothing at once without something major causing it.

Due to the success of the operation there would be more resources set aside for this campaign. More ships would be coming to join the fleet, more than making up for the few losses.