Chapter 21: The Battle of Mon Calamari
June 10
Preparations were done. The Allied Fleet was ready to jump toward Mon Cala and start the battle to liberate the planet.
Admiral Raddus was adamant that we would bring the Profundity on the frontline, so Jaral was transferred aboard the Protector, which had been brought up over Pammant to participate in the upcoming attack. Not as a spearhead, but actually as a spotter: Jaral had decided to have the Protector to be the first ship to enter the battle. Once arrived into the system, with the help of the numerous AIs on board, the Grand Marshall could direct the first offensive formations to exit hyperspace in more advantageous positions after seeing how the Empire had placed its forces.
The launch of the fleet was expected in 40 minutes. Jaral was on the bridge of the ship, staring out of the viewport. Taking a look at the incredible number and size of the ships under her command always gave her a bit more of confidence in victory. She was using the moment of quiet to try and expand her Battle Meditation. At the previous battle, she had managed to use it to enhance the abilities of the communication officers on the bridge of the Profundityfirst and of the artillerymen later, even if slightly.
Now she was trying to reach the ships next to them. One of them, though, was a Geth cruiser, and since the crew was made of robots, they weren't linked with the Force. If anything, that would require less effort for her.
She could start perceiving the crew on the near frigate, but then her omni-tool beeped. She opened her eyes and noticed that it came from Nimbus.
She turned around. "Admiral, I'll be in the conference room." she announced.
Edrix made an obsequious nod with the head. By now, the Turian deeply respected her both as a Jedi and as a strategist. He had ordered the crew of the Protector to treat her as if she was the Captain.
Not that she needed the support of Edrix to be popular. She had never lost the habit of fraternizing with the troops under her command, neither did Ezra. Whenever she had some free time between a briefing and another, she took some time to go banter with the crewmen and they certainly respected that. Proof to that she could see right at that moment, as every federal soldier she met on her way to the conference room eagerly stepped aside and made the salute. Jaral even met a young female technician who she met a few days before and the two exchanged a quip as Jaral kept walking toward the room.
As she reached the room, the guards saluted her and she returned.
"I need to make a call. No one in or out until I'm finished." she instructed.
"Yes, ma'am." said the Krogan guard on the right, opening the door with the commands.
She stepped in and reached the table in the center of the room while the guard closed the door again.
The young woman sat on the nearest chair and finally opened the communication. The hologram of the Mirialan woman appeared in real scale on the floor of the room.
"Nimbus, what do I owe the pleasure?" she greeted.
"I'm afraid is not quite pleasant. Do you remember the Force-sensitive kids you saved two years ago?"
Jaral barred her eyes. Of course she remembered them: Pipey and Alora. Jaral, Ezra and Kanan had saved them exactly from Nimbus when she was still an Inquisitor and the Fifth Brother. They had given them to Senator Organa, who used his contacts to bring them to safety, but since Nimbus had redeemed herself and put up her spy network, Jaral had asked her to take over the duty, since she herself was a Force-wielder and also knew how to hid them from any other possible Inquisitor.
"Has something happened to them?"
"Not yet, but I'm afraid Vader himself is closing on their position. I need your help to transfer them to Lothal. They will be safe there."
"All right, wait a moment…"
Jaral sent a call request to Ezra, who answered not long after and his hologram appeared as well. He was on the Constantinople, along with Sabine, to train with the Marines. Zeb had gone back to the Ghost for the space battle.
"Sis...Nimbus, what's happening?"
The Mirialan quickly repeated what she just told Jaral, who was instead thinking about what to do.
"And that's it. I need your help to move them, guys. Or even a single one of you."
"Sis…" Ezra started, but Jaral already knew what he wanted to do.
"Yes. Ezra, take the Constantinople and go assist Nimbus wherever she needs you. I can't leave the fleet right now."
Ezra made a firm nod. "Nimbus, send me the coordinates for the meeting, we'll be there as soon as possible."
"Copy that. See you later, Bridger." and the Mirialan disappeared.
Jaral didn't turn around immediately and Ezra could perceive her anxiety. If Vader was really the one closing in, then this mission was going to be extremely dangerous.
"Sis." Ezra said tenderly.
Jaral took a breather and turned around, looking at her brother's eyes. Despite her fear, he was sporting a serene expression.
"We'll be okay. I know I can't defeat Vader, but I can slip away from him." he calmly stated.
Somehow, that sentence made her feel better. The little brother she had known for most of her life would have mindlessly charged into danger and screw the consequences. Kanan had been a great mentor and he taught the Padawan to not be overconfident despite his powers and abilities, and even if Jaral was fearful that Ezra might go back to be too cocky and get himself killed, it looked like he had definitely absorbed Kanan's teachings, and that reassured her.
"I should be there with you…" she murmured.
Ezra made a lopsided grin. "What are you talking about? The fleet wouldn't stand a chance without you leading it."
She giggled sarcastically. "Give some credit to our allies."
"Regardless, this battle is way too important for you to simply up and leave. It would be quite problematic for the rest of the troops."
Jaral let herself slump into the chair and sighed. "I guess you have a point. Without me, I'm afraid Raddus and Edrix might overlap their authorities unnecessarily."
"Exactly. I swear, I'll be in and out. Maybe you'll have already liberated the planet by then." Ezra quipped, making his sister grin.
"The Sector Fleet has still a lot of numbers in this sector. This battle might even take more than a day."
"Wait, really?"
Jaral shook her head. "I told that during the briefing!" she exclaimed with a grin.
Ezra chuckled a bit embarrassed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I know, I still need to work on my attention."
The two giggled, then Ezra decided it was time to go.
"All right, better move, now. I'll try to contact you later."
"Copy that. Call Darvos if I will be unavailable."
Ezra nodded and his hologram disappeared.
Jaral stood up and headed out of the room. She was a bit surprised to find Darvos waiting for her.
"Everything ok?" he asked.
"I think so. Inform the Admirals that the Constantinople will be heading out for a classified mission." Jaral answered as they started to walk back toward the bridge, where Darvos also had a place commanding the comm section, since he knew both the protocols of the Rebellion and of the Federation.
Without questioning her, Darvos tapped on the datapad and removed the Constantinople from the order of battle of the fleet.
"You look worried." he insisted.
Jaral knew that there was no use in trying to lie to him. Darvos might not be a Jedi, but he was very sharp, and after all, he was her husband, one of the few people in the galaxy who could read her like a book.
They didn't stop walking while Jaral answered.
"I should go with them. This mission is dangerous."
"What you're doing here is extremely important." Darvos calmly said.
"Right, right." Jaral said with a bit of annoyance. "I'm the grand leader of the Rebellion, without whom, a ton of grown-ups wouldn't know what to do, right?"
"It's not that they wouldn't know. It's just that they would debate endlessly. You are important because you are the one with the final saying."
Jaral sighed. "I know. Sorry, I guess I'm just a bit tired."
Darvos gently grabbed her wrist and the two stopped.
"I can tell. Have you even slept these last few days? I'm not sure I ever saw you in the cabin."
"I did, Darv, don't worry. I just need less sleep, remember?"
What she couldn't tell, instead, was the last time she could relax. The last time she took some time off-duty was after the battle over Lothal, to celebrate with the others, but that was quite the animated party, not exactly her idea of relaxing.
Perhaps Darvos was reading her mind, because he squeezed her hand and smiled gently at her.
"Ok, hear this. When we free Mon Cala, how about we get some time off? A couple of hours, just a dinner, you and me." he said with a certain enthusiasm.
Jaral was caught a bit off-guard, but she really appreciated it. It had been a while since the two of them had spent some time alone, as husband and wife, and the young woman certainly wanted to do something more 'normal' once in a while.
"It sounds perfect." she whispered.
Darvos smiled a bit wider and let her go. "I will arrange everything. You just focus on the job." he said before jogging away.
Jaral looked at him go, then went back on the bridge with a lopsided grin on her face. As she leaned against the holotable again, Edrix noticed it.
"Is everything all right, Madam?"
She quickly turned her head toward him. "Absolutely, Admiral." and she removed her grin. "Now, let's make another check on the fleet, it's almost time."
"Yes, ma'am." the Admiral replied as he gave the order for a general report on the fleet.
As the Constantinople headed toward the coordinates given by Nimbus in the Ash Worlds Sector, all fleets checked in once again. Since all of them gave green light, Jaral decided they could begin the offensive a little earlier.
She ordered the Protector to jump into hyperspace, together with a large group of Rebel fighter squadrons, since they had hyperdrives and they were needed to immediately target the Imperial defenses.
The jump lasted only 40 seconds, since Pammant was pretty much behind the corner of Mon Calamari.
Jaral took only a moment to admire the blue tunnel and achieve peace of mind, because she was gonna need all of her focus.
The Super-Dreadnought finally left hyperspace in front of Mon Cala. The oceanic planet stood out with its azure waters covered only sparsely by white banks of clouds and only a real small amount of natural atolls. To her knowledge, the only relevant surface structures could be found on floating cities like New Coral City or the now destroyed Dac City, which had been destroyed the Calamari themselves to deprive the Empire of a big starting point from which they could oppress the two civilizations of the planet, who mostly live underwater.
In four years of running around the galaxy, she still hadn't seen a planet made almost entirely of oceans, and she couldn't help but find it beautiful.
However, there was no time to admire that celestial body, because in front of it there was the Imperial Sector Fleet, and it was big.
"All hands, battle stations." Jaral promptly ordered and a second later, the alarm blared on the bridge and the ship. Everyone on board clearly increased the rhythm of their movements.
"Admiral, send in the drones." she said to Edrix, then opened a channel with the starfighters. "This is Grand Marshall Bridger of the Rebel Alliance. All leaders, report in."
"This is Rogue Leader, checking in." the voice of Wedge was the first to break in, followed by all the others.
"This is Red Leader, checking in."
"This is Blue Leader, checking in."
"This is Gold Leader, checking in."
"This is Green Leader, checking in."
"All fighters, take offensive formations and get ready to secure the landing zones." Jaral ordered. "Bombers, stay close to the Protector, we're sending in the drones."
"Drones away." Edrix announced.
From the point of the Protector came out a dense swarm of drones. Most of them were produced by the Geths, who were able to made them even with recycled materials and thus at a very cheap cost that allowed the ship to always replenish her stock.
Jaral looked at her left forearm.
"Jinx, link to my neural implant and communicate with the other AIs."
"Connecting." the AI answered.
Jaral closed her eyes. Like she had practiced in the last few days, she expanded her senses not to simply perceive the presence of other beings on board, but to have a panoramic view of the battle and the system at large.
Such was the power of Battle Meditation. Once mastered, it allowed the user to both have a clear vision of the entire battlefield and managing the allied forces by giving them orders simply with a thought.
Jaral was still very far from mastering it, so she could either use this vision or guarantee better performances to some of her allies, but for the first part of the plan, the deployment of the allied forces, the overview of the front was all she needed.
Because, by using the overview, she could imagine in her mind how and where she wanted the various ship squadrons to position themselves, and Jinx, being connected to her mind, could transmit her wishes to the other AIs, while also transmitting the data of the fleet into her mind. Basically, they were creating a Human-AI hybrid of some sort.
As the data of the drones started to come in, the overview became much more detailed to her. It was like she was watching from the edge of the system, yet she could distinguish the shapes of the ships, the fight going on between the drones and the TIEs, and could perceive all dimensions of movement.
She could also easily spot an asteroid field that obstructed part of the allied front and a few other anomalies that might influence the battle, even the planet's moon.
The Imperial Fleet counted 24 Star Destroyers, 68 cruisers of various size but had very few small ships to counteract the rebel fighters, which was a grave miscalculation even at the battle of Lothal, where the Empire deployed only a handful of Tartan patrol cruisers that were easily taken out.
The Empire had never believed that a galaxy-wide Rebellion could base its strategy around a starfighter corp, and Jaral was determined to make them pay for their shortsightedness.
Using Jinx and her Battle Meditation, Jaral quickly transmitted accurate coordinates for the various formations, but didn't ask all of them to jump at the same time.
For now, she deployed Raddus' battle group and two Alliance's naval divisions, one of which even included an Asari Dreadnought.
First order of business for the Grand Marshall was not to attack directly but to secure another hyperlane: the intersection between Mon Cala and the Mintooine Spur, because in the system of Mintooine, the allied intelligence had signaled the presence of another Imperial fleet that could reinforce the one on Mon Cala in case it suffered losses. As such, Jaral ordered the 9th Division of the Systems Alliance to advance and secure the access to the hyperlane, which was protected by an imperial squadron.
The first wave attacked head-on, pinning the imperials down and then retreated, in the hope of baiting them.
It worked. The Star Destroyer and its escort guarding the imperial outpost moved forward, eager for the kill, then Jaral made another ship squadron intervene by getting out of hyperspace exactly between the rear of the squadron and the small space station.
Caught completely by surprise, the ISD couldn't do anything as a Human dreadnought unleashed a broadside against its engines, immobilizing it while the Alliance ships turned around and destroyed the Imperial squadron in the span of a few minutes.
"No damaged to our ships reported. Nice opening, Marshall." Edrix complimented frankly.
"Thanks, Admiral, but that was just an outpost. We still have a wall of durasteel to go through." Jaral replied calmly.
Meanwhile, the rest of the fleet was coming out of hyperspace at the various coordinates that she sent.
"Marshall," the intelligence officer on her left talked. "the Imperial fleet is taking an offensive formation. Our remaining drones are pulling out."
"Have you found out if Moff Hubi is aboard one of those ships?"
"Negative, ma'am. The Resistance confirms that he's holed up in his bunker in the planetary capital."
"So we don't have to hold back, perfect." Jaral commented. "Send our skirmishers forward and link the data of the drones with the Protector's batteries. Captain, bring the ship to a broadside stance and focus fire on their right wing." she ordered while looking at the holograms moving on the holotable.
The ship's captain obeyed and gave the order to the helmsman and to the artillery officer, while outside, Admiral Raddus led his battle group and the Alliance skirmishers to meet with the first attack of the Empire.
The trip to the coordinates Nimbus gave them took around 20 minutes, during which, Ezra, Sabine and Jordan studied the place where the Mirialan asked to meet them: a trade station, quite big, too.
That wasn't the place where she had hidden the Force-sensitives and their families, of course, but simply a transit point where the Empire had stopped them. In fact, when the frigate left hyperspace, the sensors quickly picked up a Star Destroyer that was patrolling the station. Normally, the Empire wouldn't waste such a ship for a simple trade station in the Outer Rim, so that was proof that Nimbus was telling the truth.
Ezra, Sabine and Jordan had assembled in the strategic room.
"It's too dangerous for the Constantinople to get near the station, but a shuttle should be able to slip by and reach the rendezvous point unnoticed." Undir said.
"I agree." Ezra said. "Me and Sabine will enter the structure and meet up with Nimbus, but you should stay here and be ready to get out."
"You don't want support?" Jordan asked surprised.
"Sorry, Dad, but your equipment would be recognized immediately, even going in with the Kodiak it's going to be dangerous."
"Then what about you?"
"I can go around without my armor. Besides, a smaller group will go more easily under the radar."
Jordan sighed. "All right. Call me if you have to change the plan." the older Legionnaire concluded.
"I'll be careful, I promise." Ezra said, but Jordan gave him a cold look.
"I will make sure he doesn't do anything too stupid." Sabine intervened with a smirk.
"Thank you, Sabine." Jordan replied.
Ezra rolled his eyes and motioned a smirking Sabine to follow him down to the hangar.
"It's not fair." he lamented. "You do even crazier stunts all the time, but nobody questions you."
"Because I know when to stop." his wife quipped.
Ezra simply shook his head and the two bantered lightly all the way to the Kodiak, which then flew out of the hangar and toward the station at a moment when the ISD was patrolling the other side of the station.
The shuttle landed at the established coordinates in a secondary hangar that looked pretty much dismissed, but that was good, because there was nobody there, yet.
The teens stepped out of the shuttle while the pilots turned off the engines. Ezra even took the time to offer a hand to Sabine to help her get down. The girl shook her head slightly, but decided to satisfy her husband's joke.
They walked into the area, but still saw nothing nor anybody.
"Hello?" Ezra said loudly, prompting Sabine to elbow his arm.
"What are you doing?!" she hissed.
Ezra gestured something, but a familiar voice reassured them.
"I thought discretion was supposed to be one of the qualities of the Jedi." Nimbus quipped as she stepped out from the shadows with a small group of four of her mercenaries.
These guys surprised the teens, in particular, because they were wearing strange armors, then Ezra remembered that Nimbus had entered a partnership with the Federation: in exchange for intel, the Federation was handing her equipment. The latter included some armors that apparently belonged to an extremist group called Cerberus which had been destroyed during the Reaper War. Their armors had long languished in the Alliance deposits, since they were effectively good armors, but their sight was enough to have all the non-Humans protest vehemently. Since most of Nimbus agents were humanoids and the armors were easy to adapt to aliens, the Federation decided to hand them over to her organization.
After taking a moment to remember all of this, Ezra turned toward Nimbus and smirked.
"I'm not exactly your conventional Jedi." he quipped.
"For all I know, you and your sister are all that is left. Well, if you don't count Ahsoka." the Mirialan replied.
That name meant that Ezra had to ask. "Have you found her?"
"I have a lead, but we should discuss this after we finish the job. This station is already flooded with stormtroopers."
"Uh, right." Ezra remembered.
The teens let Nimbus and her men escort them out of that hangar and inside one of the sub-levels of the station.
"This section has been abandoned for years. The Empire doesn't believe that someone could actually survive down here, but when they don't find who they want in the main core of the station, they might be tempted to take a look." Nimbus explained as they walked toward another hideout.
In that tiny room there was only a small lantern left in the middle, because if it was the room's regular light, the flux of electric energy might've been detected by the Star Destroyer, while the lantern couldn't be.
Ezra then quickly spotted some familiar faces: Pipey and Alora, now 3 or 4 years old. Respectively held by the mother Oora and the grandmother Darja.
The kids, probably recognizing the presence of Ezra in the Force, looked in his direction and waved with a smile.
But just as Ezra smiled at them as well, he also noticed that they weren't the only ones in the room. He saw another group of people suddenly rising from their spots right next to the walls and walked out of the shadow. There were other four kids of an age ranging from 1 to 6 years old with their families, thus bringing the total of people to 13, 17 if counting Pipey and Alora's families.
Now this was a problem, because the Kodiak could only bring 12 people.
"Nimbus, what's happening?" Ezra asked.
"I'm sorry I hid this, Bridger." she said with a sincere, but calm tone. "But I wasn't sure you would have helped me if you heard this."
"What are you talking about?" Ezra mildly reprimanded her. "You know we help everybody."
"We're going to need the second shuttle, though." Sabine intervened.
Ezra quickly called his father.
"Dad, get on the second shuttle and come down here. There are more civilians that we anticipated."
"Say no more." Jordan answered promptly.
"Okay, they're going to be a bit crammed, but we should be able to load them all on the shuttle waiting in the hangar." Ezra said to everyone in the room. "Everybody, keep calm, we're getting you out of here, you'll be safe."
"Don't be afraid, people." Darja spoke to the other families, which seemed hesitant. "This youngster is a Jedi. They have helped us before." she added indicating Oora and Pipey as well. The Ithorian woman nodded in confirmation.
With the other refugees convinced, Ezra turned to Nimbus while Sabine started to lead them out with the help of the mercenaries.
"Are those kids Force-sensitives as well?" he asked.
Nimbus nodded. "The Inquisitorius had quite the long list of candidates that could become Jedi if not controlled. Once I broke my chains, I decided that I couldn't allow other people to become slaves of the Sith. So I tried to keep as many as possible out of the Empire's reach." she explained.
"Well, I think you did great." Ezra said with a lopsided grin.
The Mirialan made a half-hearted giggle. "I couldn't even protect them by myself."
"None of us can stand up to the Empire alone." the Jedi reassured her. "What's important is that you put the lives of these children in front of your own interests."
Nimbus absorbed that sentence, then made a faint grin. "Thanks, Bridger."
"Come on, aren't we friends a little bit?" Ezra joked. "Just call me Ezra."
Nimbus chuckled. "I thought your sister was too optimist, but you bring the concept to new levels, Ezra."
The Jedi made a small laugh.
"Hey," the voice of Sabine broke in. "dear, I'm glad you're burying the hatchet with your old nemesis, but we got a job to do."
"Oh, right." and they all moved up to secure the column of refugees, leading them toward the hangar.
"I wonder how's it going on Mon Cala." the Jedi commented.
"I'm sure Jari got everything under control." Sabine reassured.
While the Empire had paid dearly their attempted sortie, the blockade was far from being broken.
The allied forces also had suffered considerable losses: the Federation lost a Dreadnought along with other cruisers, and even if they managed to sink two Star Destroyers and quite the number of imperial heavy cruisers, there were still a lot of them that had retreated near their defense satellites around the main space station.
The cannons of the Protector worked real magics in pulverizing the attack force, so Jaral was hoping to replicate that effect for the next phase of the assault.
She had come to see the Protector as a giant piece of artillery: as Undir had explained her, it wasn't fit to be on the frontline, and she agreed. The super-dreadnought was slow, yes, and her point-defense systems were insufficient to protect her from smaller vessels, but she had a ridiculously long range of fire, even for the turbolasers, which usually dissipate after some distance, and the shots packed a lot of damage even at a thousand km, not to mention the physical slugs that simply never stopped in space until they hit something.
There was a hitch, though: From her current position, the Protector risked to hit Mon Calamari's surface, which wasn't protected by a shield. Even the deep oceans wouldn't save the submerged cities of the planet from such firepower. So, Jaral needed the ship being brought in a position where she would have a clear line of fire that would allow to use the entire arsenal without the risk of hitting the planet.
After taking half-an-hour to reorganize her forces, Jaral gave the new instructions.
"Captain, bring the Protector down to Vector -1.8." she ordered.
The Captain must have understood what she wanted to do, because he didn't object. He simply nodded and turned toward the helmsman.
"Admiral Edrix, order all divisions to engage the imperial formation, keep them away from us."
"Yes, ma'am." the Turian answered before executing the order.
Jaral then put her hand on the comlink with the rebel fleet.
"Blue Nova to all Rebel Forces, converge on the Protector and shield it from possible imperial skirmishers." she ordered.
"This is Admiral Raddus, Blue Nova, order acknowledged."
As the Federation renewed the attack by using its ships' superior range, the Protector dived her nose downward, toward Mon Cala's southern pole, and put most of her power into engines and shields, while the Profundity and the Rebel Fleet established a perimeter to defend both the belly and the upper-side of the Super-Dreadnought.
Hera and the Phoenix Group were at the forefront, ready to engage.
It didn't take long for the Imperials to notice the maneuver as well (the Protector was impossible to hide from scanners) and Darvos notified that the Imperials were assembling a small force of cruisers from their reserves to attack them.
10 minutes until the Protector was in position. The Star Destroyers were unable to move as they were engaging the vanguards of the Federation, so the force coming for the Rebel Fleet was made of Arquitens, Acclamator, Carrack cruisers and other heavy frigates, plus their TIE squadrons.
The Protector's fighters had also recalled to their hangars to refuel and defend the ship from any imperial fighter that might have gone through the Rebels, though that seemed, luckily, not to be the case.
Under Hera's experienced command, the rebel squadrons easily kept the imperial ones at bay, as a fight between the Mon Calamari ships and the imperial ones raged over the Protector's bridge.
But then, Jaral suddenly received a message from Ezra through the bond.
"Sis, we might take a bit longer." he started.
"What happened?"
"Luckily there is no Vader, but the Imperials have found us and there were many more refugees that Nimbus wanted to save, so we're waiting for a chance to get away."
"Are you all right?"
"Don't worry for us. We'll head to Lothal once we get away from the system, how are you doing?"
"I might have a plan that will allow us to wipe out the imperial fleet and we're trying to enact it right now."
"I knew you had it. I'll contact you when we reach Lothal."
"All right, don't get shot." Jaral concluded with a quip.
Then she get back to the holotable, assessing the situation. The combat between the grand fleets were still in a stalemate, but the strike force sent against the Protector was being wiped out by the Rebels, though Green Squadron had suffered 80% losses, so Jaral ordered them to withdraw into one of the Super-Dreadnought's hangars while a squadron of Federal fighters took their place.
The cannonades kept going from one side to the other. Both parts suffered losses, but the superior range of the Federation and the better durability of the Rebel fighters against Imperial ones, gave the allied forces a slight edge.
Then, finally, while the Imperial fleet was too busy with the Federal one to care about the behemoth taking place beneath them, the Protector finally reached her destination.
"Grand Marshall, we're in position." the Captain announced.
"Rebel Fleet, clear the line of fire, it's time to finish this battle."
Without hesitation, the rebel ships cleared the way, giving the chance for the Protector to get a lock of the bellies of the Star Destroyer above it.
"All weapons locked on target." the Captain announced.
"Fire!" Jaral eagerly ordered.
At those words, a hellish firestorm was unleashed by the ship. Quad-turbolaser, mass drivers, torpedoes and laser turrets based on the weapons of the Reapers fired at the imperial ships, which were completely exposed.
In the span of a single minute, all imperial ships at the center of the formation were going down in flames, with only the Star Destroyers resisting just a little longer.
Seeing such a devastating firepower, the morale of the remaining imperial ships crumbled. The fire of the Protector even caused extensive damage to the space station and its communication array, which only worsened the confusion among the Imperials.
Jaral could clearly perceive that the imperial commander of the fleet had perished aboard one of the ISD that the ship just destroyed, so she tried to focus on the sense of fear and survival instinct that was kicking into the rest of the fleet.
She didn't need much: just a small push was enough to send the Imperial off in panic.
Seeing that the enemy was retreating, Jaral ordered to suspend fire and to let them run.
A cheer erupted from the operators on the bridge, while the officers shook hands and praised Jaral for her intuition about the power of the Protector.
"I thank you, gentlemen," she replied with modesty. "But we're not done, yet. Have the fleet set a blockade over the planet and call the invasion force in, we need to liberate Mon Cala before the Imperials retaliate on the population." she instructed.
"Right away, ma'am." Edrix replied.
As the officers got back to work, Jaral decided to take a break and went in front of the viewport of the ship. From there, she could see part of the floating cemetery that had been created above her. The holo-projectors on the screen gave her a view of the amounts of debris and carcasses of Star Destroyers and she couldn't help but feel partially sad.
True, those were the enemies and the Empire had done horrible things all around the galaxy. And yet, when she was using what little Battle Meditation she could, she also felt the moment where tens of thousands of lives had been destroyed right after she gave the order to fire with the Protector.
No matter what, she didn't feel like she could ignore such waste of life and she closed her eyes while standing in front of the viewport, as if she wanted to make sure that the Force would grant comfort to all those who died on that day.