Chapter 17

Riots were occurring all over the galaxy from the outer rim planets all the way to Coruscant. For now they were relatively peaceful riots, not even bottles were thrown. People just stood in the streets or rooftops where the Imperial troops could see them and some groups even spray painted their thoughts onto sides of buildings. The Empire couldn't tolerate that much and had a good reason to arrest those groups. Vandalism wouldn't be tolerated, but there was nothing they could do to the peaceful rioters who just stood there.

Word of the riots reached Rebel Command and the UNSC Central as well. Communication between the two galaxies were still unreliable, so it took time for word to reach UNSC Central.

The UNSC Infinity and her fleet were still orbiting Lothal until the Rebellion could spare new ships. Several days after Ezra and Sabine returned to Lothal, Lasky contacted Rebel Command and requested they officially become a new Alliance. The requested scared the rebel leaders, but they agreed to meet in person. Lasky, the captain of Eternity, and even one of the UNSC Central leaders arrived to Yavin to discuss terms.

The UNSC wouldn't get involved in rebuilding processes on other worlds if something like Lothal happened again. That would be left to the citizens of those worlds and to the Rebels. They would provide support in any major engagement with the Empire as well. If an Imperial super fleet shows up, they would be guaranteed to face the UNSC. If it's just a normal SD fleet, the rebels would handle it, though some UNSC frigates and cruisers could possibly be seen there as well. UNSC capital, or super capital ships would not participate.

Several of the Covenant were there as well. After learning that the UNSC and Rebel Alliance were forming an official alliance agreement, they talked among themselves and decided to request a three-way alliance between the two. Granted the UNSC and Covenant were already allies, it was best that they still represent themselves to the Rebellion.

They were quickly dubbed by the public as the Intergalactic Alliance, some saying IA or IGA for short.

When the Empire heard about this, several officers and countless soldiers and pilots began to start thinking of their chances of holding off the UNSC and Rebel forces. They've never seen the Covenant in action and, to them, were mostly just rumors.

"The Rebellion is going to need some more supplies to rebuild their fleet. Unfortunately we are unable to provide said supplies or resources as we'll need them to support our efforts back home," Lasky said.

"Why's that?" the Arbiter asked.

"It's nearing a civil war over there as half of ONI separated and grew hostile against the UNSC and even your people. It would take both our home fleets to fight them off as they've managed to combine all our tech into one class of cruiser. According to reports so far, that's all they have right now for a fleet," Lasky explained.

"Sounds difficult," Arbiter said.

"We also can't just leave this galaxy. We've gotten involved too much to just pull back," Palmer said.

"We don't have enough ships to collect resources fast enough," Hera said.

"I never said I wasn't going to contribute our efforts, just not our resources itself," Lasky began. "We'll give you a hand in all of this. Ships and troops to collect resources. I even heard that we've received some Springhill-class mining ships just yesterday."

"Do you guys know what to search for?" Sabine asked.

"Well that's why we have you guys," Lasky said. "To help us out."

"And here I thought you were helping us," Ezra chuckled.

"We're helping each other in this. It's how alliances work," Palmer said.

"The next place we could hit is Kuat," Sabine said.

"What's there?" Lasky asked.

"The primary Imperial shipyard," Sabine replied. "If we want to end this war fast, I suggest we hit there. Plus resources we could use."

"If it's the primary Imperial shipyard, it would be heavily fortified wouldn't it?" Palmer asked.

"Well... I suppose so," Sabine said.

"The problem with that idea," Roland began, "Is the fact they could be expecting that. They would likely have more ships than usual there."

"Lothal was more than usual," Hera said, "but I see what you mean."

"Ok so Kuat's out of the picture for now, but that doesn't mean we won't hit it at some point. Any other important planets?" Lasky asked.

"There's Abansaz," Kanan said, pointing to a star on the holomap of the galaxy. "There's a factory there. If I remember correctly it's another TIE factory."

"Is it heavily fortified?"

"Not too bad, I don't think," Kanan said.

"It's best if we send probes there," Lasky said.

"Actually, captain," Palmer said. "Eternity thought you didn't know yet, but along with their arrival here they brought a few Sahara-class Prowlers with them. We could send those instead."

"I suppose we could, thank you," Lasky said. "The fact that we have Prowlers changes some things. We could potentially use them to spy on enemy fleet movements."

"Don't forget the Empire has some stealth tech as well," Roland said. "That's what started this whole thing."

"Our cloaking tech makes us invisible to sensors and eyes, but not to physical contact," Hera said.

"Our active camouflage is like that," Palmer said.

"Is the Empire's stealth ships built to hide under an actual radar?" Lasky asked.

"Radar?"

That question made Lasky grin, "I take that as a no. Roland, do we have a radar system on this ship?"

"I'm afraid not, but the Prowlers do," Roland replied.

"Fair enough. Our ships are built to deflect any sort of scanner, plus our active camo making us invisible at a decent range. If they got close they could see the outline of the Prowlers," Lasky explained. "Sounds like the Empire's stealth ships are like that, but if they aren't built to deflect scanners without their stealth modules being active, we might be able to detect them even with their cloak."

"It's unlikely but it's worth a try," Sabine said.

"I've programmed Infinity's scanners to detect stealth ships operating at a certain frequency. Chances are, after that first one, they could have changed the frequency," Roland said.

"It's not that simple," Sabine said. "You might be able to disable their cloak still."

"Let's hope so. We don't want to be tracked again," Lasky said.

"I'll be able to detect anything foreign on Infinity's hull, whether it's cloaked or not," Roland said.

"Good."

"Captain, I'm picking up bits and pieces of live news reports from around the galaxy," a comm officer reported. "One of the planets is placed under full martial law."

"Just like Lothal was. What planet is this?" Lasky asked.

"I don't know exactly..." the officer said.

"Let me take a look," Sabine said as she started working on the comm console.

A few moments passed and Sabine about dropped the headset in shock.

"Sabine?" Ezra asked.

"The Empire's trying to establish martial law on Mandalore," she replied, her voice hollow.

"Your home planet?" Lasky asked, wanting to be clear.

She nodded.

"My world of Ryloth has been under centuries of struggle, whether it's slavery or occupation. My world can wait for now," Hera said, though there was a slight strain in her voice.

"Mandalore's history indicates they've been under countless wars," Palmer said. "I'm sure your people can fight the Empire alone for now."

"That's cold," Roland said.

"She's right," Sabine said. "My people have been through countless wars, but the Empire has nearly brought Mandalore to its knees before."

Ezra nodded, "It's true. She doesn't like talking about it, though."

"You liberated Ezra's homeworld," Hera began. "I say it's Sabine's turn."

"What about your world?" Lasky asked.

"My father is the leader of a well armed resistance movement. If he needed or wanted help, he would have contacted us by now," Hera said. "He's done it in the past."

"Once, but yeah," Kanan said.

"What's the status of the fleet?" Lasky asked. "We're about to take part in another major fight."

"I can see if I can get my people to fight with you, though they don't like outsiders," Sabine said.

"They might like the Spartans, though," Ezra said.

"Maybe but an outsider is still an outsider," Sabine said. "Obviously, I don't really follow that anymore."

"The fleet reports ready. Eternity is willing to send some ships to blockade the planet until we can get orbital gun platforms set up," Roland said.

"We'll depart as soon as they arrive," Lasky said. He pressed a button on his console. "All hands prep for slipspace. Sync your coordinates with Infinity."

A few minutes later, the UNSC Eternity's defense fleet jumped into the Lothal system, bringing with them a few other ships used for building orbital defense platforms.

As soon as they were in, Infinity and her fleet all jumped to slipspace.

"Since my people have never seen you before, it will be likely they would be surprised. Frightened, not usually. Also, since the Empire has declared official martial law on my home, jumping straight in wouldn't be a good idea," Sabine said.

"I understand that, we've been through countless wars ourselves... though we've never really destroyed our home planet with them, but we've been really close to that," Lasky said. "Point being, we know what to do."

Roland opened a holographic map of the galaxy and focused their view on the Mandalore system.

"We know there's nothing over by this moon since we've sent one Prowler there already. This would be a good staging area for the fleet," Lasky said. "Or at least I think it would. If you know a better area, feel free to share."

"Actually if there's nothing there, then that's where I'd go," Sabine said. "But then again, that moon is still within the system, and our scanners pick up anything that jumps inside any system. If you bring us out of slipspace outside the system, in open space, then we'll be good."

"Especially if there's a large group of ships entering the system at the same time," Hera said. "That's an instant alarm for the defending side."

"Alright, outside the system it is," Lasky said.

He had communications between every single ship in his fleet open so the other captains and commanders can hear the plan.

"After we all gather outside the system, we'll send in some probes to get a better idea of what we're up against," Sabine said. "If we send in another Prowler, the slipspace rupture could alert the Imperials, no matter how fast it closes."

"I agree. How fast are your probes?" Lasky asked.

"Pretty fast. We would be getting results within 10 minutes. I'd say that's a good amount of time to get everybody set," Sabine replied.

"Are there any buildings or facilities of importance on the planet?" Palmer asked.

"Well... there's the Imperial Academy, but other than that I really don't know," Sabine said.

"Do we target the Academy?" Ezra asked Sabine.

"Well I'd rather not. I doubt every cadet there would really like the Empire, just like those two cadets you found a while back," Sabine said. "I'm not saying we ignore it, but at least get the cadets to surrender. Any stormtroopers and officers that retaliate, feel free to take them out."

"What if a cadet fires at us?" Chief asked out of nowhere. He was just standing in the corner, out of view from everyone.

"Don't kill them anyway. Subdue them if you can," Sabine said.

"Since they're cadets they wouldn't really know much, so they wouldn't really be prisoners of war," Lasky said.

"I think just returning them to their families would be best. I mean, I'm sure many if not all the cadets there are Mandalorian. Just like you said before, Sabine; a true Mandalorian wouldn't... I forget exactly but a true Mandalorian wouldn't follow the Empire," Ezra said.

"Well that's close enough," Sabine said, smiling at Ezra.

"Alright, so we storm the Academy, get the cadets out of there and take out any guards along the way. Sounds easy enough," Palmer said.

"I'm afraid it's not as easy as it sounds," Sabine said. "That academy has surface to air defense systems and even surface to surface defenses. Then consider the TIEs they have and the walkers and garrison, it's pretty well defended."

"Any AT-AT walkers?" Chief asked.

"I wouldn't think so, but it's entirely likely," Sabine replied.

The Master Chief nodded.

"He's not scared, is he?" Ezra asked quietly.

"Ezra, don't be rude," Sabine hissed.

"Actually," Palmer began, "I've heard a lot about the Chief. He's not afraid of anything, but yet again no Spartan is really afraid. It's just how we were brought up. Now if we could remain a bit more professional, that would be appreciated."

Ezra looked back down at the holotable, "Sorry."

"I'm sure the Chief would like to blow something up anyway," Lasky joked, and the Chief just shrugged.

"Captain," a nav officer began, "we are coming up on the Mandalore system."

"You know the drill, Nav. Drop the fleet outside the system," Lasky ordered.

"Yes sir! Exiting slipspace in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Mark!"

The end of the slipstream appeared and the Infinity slipped back into normal space, several other signatures also appearing around the flagship and disappearing just as fast as they appeared.

"All ships reporting, Captain. Launching probes now."

A faint sound was heard and several probes were launched into the system.

"Probes will be in range in 15 minutes, Captain."

"Good," Lasky said.

"All frigates have reported here," one officer said.

"Cruisers still reporting in," another said quickly after the first.

"All carriers reported here."

"Battleships still reporting."

"Destroyers reporting."

"How many types of ships do you guys have here?" Sabine asked.

"Frigates, destroyers, cruisers, battleships, carriers, and this super carrier," Roland replied easily.

"Alright then," Ezra said.

A few moments passed before all ships in the fleet reported ready. Around that time, the results from the probes were coming in.

"Just as I suspected," Lasky said. "They've got a full blockade set up. No super SDs there, but there's a bunch of regular SDs."

"We're going to have to break that blockade if Infinity is going to deploy ODST troops. We just got lucky at Lothal," Lasky said.

"We'll need two separate teams of fighters," Sabine began. "One team will be taking out TIEs that go after the pods or other ships while another team escorts and defends bomber units. To clear a path, we'll need to bomb their ships out of the way."

"We can have our battleships fire a few MAC rounds into them as well, but it will take time to reload them," Roland said.

"Would Infinity be using her MACs as well?" Ezra asked.

"Not unless we have to," Lasky replied. "In any case an SSD shows up, we need to be ready for it."

"Yes sir," Ezra said.

"When we have an opening, we'll need some spare fighters and bombers deployed to the surface. Soften up their ground defenses before the ground troops get there," Sabine said.

"Once a suitable staging area on the surface is secured, we will be deploying combat vehicles to assist. I want 6 Scorpion tanks and two dozen warthogs on the ground. Those tanks will have to cover our M400 Kodiak tanks. If the enemy force rallies at one point I want our Kodiaks to focus fire on their position," Lasky said.

"I'm sorry, what's the M400 Kodiak?" Sabine asked.

"It's basically heavy artillery," Lasky began to explain.

"That would help, right?" Ezra asked.

"It would, actually," Sabine agreed.

"If any enemy fighters strafe our ground units, we won't have any way to fend them off," Ezra realized. "Yes we'd have fighter and bomber support, but in the event the TIEs..."

Lasky interrupted, "Then we'll send down our Mammoth."

"A what?"

"The M510 Mammoth. It's a very heavy, very large vehicle armed weapons to combat fighters and also warships. It has a mini MAC on it," Lasky explained.

"It's armed with a MAC?" Sabine asked.

Lasky nodded, "That's used for anti-warship strikes. That and it can also be used as the ground unit's mobile command center if need be."

"You guys have everything," Ezra said.

"We like to be prepared," Lasky nodded.

"Do we have anything like that?" Ezra asked Sabine.

"I don't think so," Sabine said.

"How do we know your Mammoth wouldn't be destroyed by Imperial fighters or bombing runs?" Hera asked.

"We don't, but if their weaponry is anything like the Covenants, then we'll hold out just fine," Lasky replied.

"It may not have shielding, but the armor is tough enough for any plasma blast from a Banshee or a Wraith to not even scratch it," Palmer said.

"Well I wouldn't go that far," Lasky said, "but it can take a beating and not slow down. Unless the Empire has a really big gun, it would be nearly indestructible."

"Another problem the Mammoth has," Palmer began, "It's vulnerable to boarding parties. That being said it's going to need a vehicle and infantry escort."

"We can help cover that," Rex said as he entered the bridge.

"I'm sorry, have we met?" Lasky asked.

"I'm not sure, honestly," Rex said. "I was inspecting your Spartan training deck and it reminds me of my days back in the Clone War."

"So you're a veteran? It's an honor, sir," Lasky said.

"You don't need to do that, if anything I'm calling you sir," Rex chuckled. "CT-7567, Clone captain Rex, reporting for duty."

"Rex here is one of our top commanders in the Rebellion," Hera said. "He wanted to be on this mission and I allowed him."

"I don't have a problem with that. So you checked out the Spartan deck; how'd you like it?"

"It's incredible. Traded war stories with a few of your men down there," Rex said.

"Back to business," Palmer said, though she respectfully nodded to Rex afterwards.

"I can't recall ever seeing the Mandalorian surface in person," Rex began, "but with Sabine's help, I believe I may be able to help coordinate the ground troops and staging areas, all while marking strategic objectives."

"That will be very helpful, thank you," Lasky said.

"You can do that on board the Mammoth. Our heavy mobile command center that we're going to deploy after we break through this Imperial blockade," Roland said.

Rex whistled, "That's a pretty strong looking blockade they've got there. You guys sure you can break through that?"

"We're going to have to. We're prepared for it," Lasky said.

"I wish you luck. When are we deploying?"

"As soon as we're all ready," Lasky said. He turned to the Chief. "Get your team ready. Palmer, are your Spartans ready?"

"As ready as they'll ever be," Palmer said.

"Good. I want every Spartan on standby for deployment," Lasky said.

"I almost forgot to mention many Mandalorians that are loyal to the Empire will be there. They'll be the ones flying around in different equipment," Sabine warned.

"Thanks for that," Chief said. "We'll keep our eyes open."

"Captain, are we a go on the Op?" the nav officer asked.

"We are. Send us in," Lasky said.

The Imperial officers watched in horror as nearly a hundred slipspace ruptures appeared in front of them, however they were out of range for the moment.

"Sir, that's a UNSC fleet! What are your orders?"

"Get the fleet into position. They're going to try to break our blockade," the Imperial captain barked. "We can't let them pass."

"All ships have reported in, Captain."

"Good. Carriers, spread out, two on each side of Infinity. I want two battleships, four cruisers, 6 destroyers and 10 frigates per carrier," Lasky said. "I want our smaller ships to protect the capital ships. I want only our battleships to engage at longer ranges. Get our fighters in position around each battle group."

"All ships are moving into position, Captain."

"This isn't what we usually do," Roland said.

"Well we want to make sure we keep them Empire from knowing our real tactics and strategies for as long as we can," Lasky said. "We'll use our normal stuff later on."

Roland nodded, "Yes sir."

"All ships are in position."

"Battleships, as soon as your MACs are in range, you are cleared to engage," Lasky said.

All the carrier battle groups advanced a few hundred meters and the battleships began to open fire on the Imperial Star Destroyers.

"Captain, star cruisers 17, 19, 24, and 25 have taken direct hits from the enemy!"

"Are we in range?"

"Negative, captain."

"How is that possible?" the captain asked.

"I don't know, sir. Do we push the fleet forward?"

"Not the entire fleet. They might be baiting us. Send four groups of four Star Destroyers to engage the enemy battle groups, but do not engage their flagship until every other ship is destroyed."

"Yes sir!"

"Captain Lasky, the enemy is deploying four different SD groups to engage our carrier fleets," Rex said.

"How do you know?"

"Look over there," Rex said, pointing to four groups of Star Destroyers advancing.

"All ships, enemy contacts incoming. Order targets by threat, weapons free," Lasky ordered.

Every single fighter, cruiser, frigate, battleship, and carrier all activated their point defense systems and anti ship armaments, marking the official beginning of another deadly battle.