Chapter 26

Location: Star Destroyer Constant Fury, En Route to Bandomeer

The whooping alarms of the star destroyer got Wain's attention as he went over reports from his gunnery officers giving him the breakdown of their gunnery practices over the past day. Some of the point-defense exercises left much to be desired. His first thought that went through his mind was that he was about to see if his gunners had improved in twenty-four hours. He pulled his cap on and tucked his code cylinders into his chest pockets before opening the door to his quarters and sprinted out towards the ship's auxiliary bridge, his combat station. It didn't take long before he was in it.

"Report ship status!" he called out to the senior lieutenant in the command center.

"All batteries coming online now, fighters are preparing for in-system launch, engineering is answering ready, damage control parties assembling on all decks," the man said, and Wain examined the ship schematic in front of them, where a horizontal and dorsal view of the ship were shown, all sections starting to answer green on the board as crewmen piled into the chairs and control stations along with a handful of officer and a squad of white-armored marines assembled outside the bridge.

"Let me know when all sections answer ready. You there, marine, pass out blasters to the bridge crew now," Wain pointed to the corporal standing in the bridge within the double layered blastdoors.

"Yes sir," the corporal replied through the deep-voice of the helmet speakers.

The man grabbed the Marine next to him and the two opened up the arms locker on the wall by the doors and started passing out the DH-17 Blaster Pistols and their accompanying holsters and holster belts. Wain watched the bridge coming to life and he pulled up a small hologram of the fleet, all hundred and sixty-three ships centered around the Relentless, a Revenge-Class Heavy Carrier. They were forming up into a combat jump formation, Victory and Imperator-Class Star Destroyers leading, it was going to be his first action as XO of the Constant Fury, and he was looking forward to it.

"All stations report green," the lieutenant called out, but Wain saw it on the board.

"Very well, Captain, the ship is ready," Wain called out on the comm to the bridge.

"Very well XO, all stations prepare for jump to hyperspace," Captain Toerry called out to the ship.

Wyatt leaned against the auxiliary bridge's main holographic table. Their crew also braced as the hum of the hyperspace generators activated and the ship launched into hyperspace. A countdown timer came up and it was a mere puddle jump for the fleet, and they all knew that there was going to be a fight waiting for them on the other side, the fact that they would have been going into battle was obvious enough. The ship was soon at the coordinates, and Wain saw that they had dropped out into a hellstorm, ships everywhere, two hundred ninety Separatist warships, mostly small automated attack craft ranging from hundred-meter-long frigates to fifty-meter-long gunships.

The ship was rocked as a flight of four gunships hit the Constant Fury's forward hull with proton cannons in a long-range firing run that costed them two of their number as a CR90 fired into them as it dropped from hyperspace. Red blocks of damage lit up the board and Wain looked at it, knowing that there was going to be issues, those red areas were near the missile magazines.

"Damage forward, ventral hull, hull breaches detected, minor, fires and electrical overloads reported on decks one through five, sections four and six," the damage control officer responded as they saw the reports.

"Evacuate those sections, vent atmosphere to put out the fires, reroute power to secondary conduits," Wain ordered quickly.

"We can do it without venting sir, we've got over a hundred men fighting the fires, they're not spreading, give 'em time."

"They have two minutes to evacuate and then vent those sections, that is an order lieutenant!" Wain snapped immediately, venting was usually something that shouldn't be done in combat, but larger ships like star destroyers could take it. And more importantly heat and missile bunkers don't mix and he wasn't going to waste time to explain that.

Location: Hammerhead Corvette Bittersweet, Bandomeer System

"Enemy fleet is holding off in long-range fire, gunships are targeting the transports," the sensor crewman called out.

"Bring us about, pursuit course" Sato called out, and sat back with a death glare at the gunships that he recognized to be a Separatist take on a pirate design that had reigned over Mykapo for years, killing hundreds, "Target those gunships, aim between their engines, full power to laser cannons.

The fleet had flown into an enemy outer sentry formation, a pair of Attack Wings from the Separatists' two Squadrons whose battleships and star destroyers were out further away, forming into their combat formation. These sentry ships were made up of eight Type-4 Automated frigates and thirty-two Type-5 Automated Gunships, and the Republican Guard had just dropped down into their midst, scattering them and their hundred Scarab-II Starfighters.

Sato was instantly given orders to destroy these enemy attack craft as fighters were scrambled to counter the Scarabs. So he took some initiative and ordered a pursuit course for the enemy gunships. There were four of them now in front of them, being led by the larger frigate that was firing into Republic ships as they fired at them. He could see the reddish orange long twin engines of the gunships. The single proton cannon in the nose and twin heavy laser cannons in the stubby wings tipped with an inward curling piece of hull plate. He had death on his mind, and he wanted these ships dead.

"Fire, fire now!" Sato ordered coldly, and then the ship's four cannons able to fire forward hit the closest ship, punching into the weak shields before punching through, sending burning sparks flowing from the engines as the engines began to sputter.

"Hits, enemy ship's beginning to lose speed."

"Finish them."

Blue laser bolts hit the gunship, and it began to lose all power as pieces of the hull were blown away and then small explosions worked forward and then the nose exploded and the ship fractured and the formation began to weave away towards the enemy fleet. But Sato wanted another one.

"Sir, we can hit another one, there, the frigate, that one's falling behind, it took a hit from one of the star destroyers," his gunnery chief advised, pointing to the right as a limping frigate was making a break for it, its escorting gunships having been destroyed.

"Get it, focus fire and destroy it."

The crew looked at him, noting Sato's new bloodlust. But they obeyed their orders and opened fire, blowing away the ship's chin-mounted targeting sensor first and then began pumping into the hull, blasting pieces away as the ship began to slow, but fired back, swiveling its front guns to fire on the Bittersweet as it pounced. The hundred-meter ship's bow then began to dip and its engines stopped, dying out entirely. Then the ship's weapon stopped firing and it was over.

"Enemy frigate destroyed," the gunner whooped.

But then a single formation of Scarab-II's swooped in, and fired a volley of laser fire, getting in close beneath the shield and then fired into the hammer of the Bittersweet's bow. The hull held, but the ship was rocked, sending the ship's bridge into a shower of sparks and fire as circuits overloaded and plates dislodged and sent multiple members of the crew sprawling over the floor, some with burns after their consoles burst into sparks and flame.

Sato himself was face-down on the deck, blinking slowly as he tried to get the haze from his vision. His ears were ringing, and he could barely move his arms as he tried pulling his arms under himself to get up. He saw a helmeted crewman rush over to him and pull the young officer up and into a sitting position against his chair. Sato saw the man's mouth moving as he yelled at him. But Sato couldn't hear anything. A chief then rushed over, and ordered the man to carry Sato out to medical. Sato now felt numb, through his left arm he couldn't feel anything and his right arm had tingling sensation and saw that he'd been burned badly. His vision began to haze again, this time colored red, and he could finally figure out he must've been pretty banged up.

Lieutenant Kolzaar arrived, and the chief yelled at him and the lieutenant, wide-eyed, nodded in response and ordered something to the navigator who, with one arm entirely limp started calculating a jump to hyperspace. Sato now knew he was being hoisted between two of his crew and tried weakly to get his feet under him, but he was just dragging them along as the two crewmen rushed to get their skipper to medical. Sato saw several more of his crew were stumbling along as well.

"Lieutenant! Sir! We're jumping to hyperspace," he now heard vaguely.

"No, no, keep…fighting…" Sato stammered through barely a whisper as he was forced onto a cot and two injured crewmen fought through their injuries to keep him pinned to the cot as their medical droid started working on him, and an injection of sedative put him slowly under.

Location: Bandomeer City, Planet Bandomeer

The Patriot Force's 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th Patriot Divisions were now on the planet's largest city along with six hundred thousand battle droids. The biological divisions, sixty thousand troops, were all aligned along the main flatlands approaches to the city from the marshy elephant grass-covered fields. It was thought to be nigh impossible to approach with tracked vehicles due to the soft ground, and so they mainly focused on the approaches, harder, drier high ground and three highways that offered plenty of space to attack from.

Sitting up in the veranda of a mall turned combat position was an all-human Jabiimi unit from the 10th Patriot Division. The veranda was home to a weapons squad, two teams of two anti-armor specialists who made use of the large but deadly E-60R Missile Launcher and assistants had six spare missiles in tubes arranged in a special pack. The gunners also had two more of them in tubes strapped against the sides of their packs for rapid reload. Their weapons could knock an LAAT/i right out of the sky from well over five miles away, or it could wreck any piece of armor the Republic could send at them, all but one. Their other two teams had two men in each, a gunner who carried an HOB Heavy Repeating Blaster, the actual cannon, and an assistant who carried the tripod. It was a powerful pair of weapons, able to lay down rapid armor penetrating fire from a long distance, exceeding every standard issue weapon's range, power, and rate of fire. They were set up in a position to take advantage of both weapons.

The ten men, including the squad medic and the squad leader, were all sitting under the cover of the restaurant that the group had made their own little hangout for the time being. It was a nice bar, with all the booze still out and accessible thanks to the rapid nature of their arrival. The owners hadn't managed to hide their stuff, and the ten men were enjoying the wait, putting away a few beers under careful supervision. Jabiimis loved their beer, but drunk soldiers weren't good soldiers.

"I tell ya, I'm not going anywhere, I'll fight to the death for access to this bar!" one of the older men, Sergeant Pitt, declared as he finished putting away his allotted pint of dark brew.

"And now you don't get another for a while sarge," their squad leader, Staff Sergeant Dommis, responded.

"Oh come on, I'm not even close to compromised!"

"Uh…guys? We've got incoming," this time it came from Specialist Teyyez, who had his binos scanning out, and could just make out something coming through the dense rain, a menacing shape now approaching the suburbs of the city.

"What's incoming?" his team lead, Corporal Zeere, asked as they could hear thumping over the sounds of the rain.

"Walkers!"

"I thought the Republican Guard didn't use them?!" Teyyez asked Zeere.

"Do I look like S-2 to you?" the rocket gunner said as he snatched his A280 and slung it over his shoulder and then pulled his E-60R and activated it.

"AT-AT's! New ones!"

Their squad leader lifted his hand to his ear, and gave a roger, "Delta, you two need to move to two-two's position on the position at the overpass at the MSR, they say they've got tanks rolling from the swamp into the city."

"Roger that," Zeere responded, tapping Teyyez on the shoulder, "Let's go big guy, we've got tanks moving into the city on the MSR."

"Cool, let's get 'em," Teyyez responded as he pocketed his rangefinders and then snatched his A280.

The two of them ran back to the entrance, but a screeching sound caught their attention and a blue blob of an artillery proton shell went smashing through the glass wall and exploded inside of the building, sending shards of glass outwards along with dark smoke mixed with lighter dust. The two Separatist troopers had to stop and absorb the shockwave, but were uninjured and sprinted into the now ruined interior. Products ranging from clothes to electronics to snacks were scattered everywhere along with pieces of the tiled floor. Another pair of Separatist soldiers came running towards them, one of them holding up the other one who was trying to limp along, his trousers torn up and dripping blood.

"Where's two-two?" Zeere asked them.

"We just came from there! A whole fekking Guard battalion is attacking right up that road! Two-two's gone!" the unwounded corporal replied.

The two weapons squad troopers looked to one another, but knew that they had to get to that main highway and do something or the Republic might compromise their defenses. Plus they had orders, those orders were to be obeyed. The two-man anti-armor team rushed through the building and then as the two ran Zeere ran around the corner and slipped and fell when the ground seemed to slope suddenly in the thick dust and smoke. Red and blue blaster bolts zipped by outside, glowing in the smoke as Teyyez rushed to his comrade's side and looked for him.

"Zeere!"

"Down here, the floor's fekking gone!" Zeere called out, hanging onto the open crack in the floor, a ravaged scene of rubble and fire below him as he tried getting back up.

"Two-two is very gone!" the second Seppie soldier nodded unhappily and grabbed his NCO and yanked him up.

As soon as Zeere was up a flurry of blue blaster bolts fired up at them and the two dove to the ground and crawled behind cover. Zeere brought his hand to his comm and knew that their CO would need to hear this.

"Actual this is Delta, 2-2 is gone! I say again 2-2 is gone, the building's been blown apart, instructions?"

"Del-…this-Actual, falling ba-, say again fall-," Dommis could barely be heard, but the young gunner heard and understood.

"Copy Actual, falling back to RV, meet you there. We're falling back! Let's get outta here."

"Tank, tank, tank!" Teyyez pointed out rapidly and Zeere saw the column of T-4A's rolling forward into the city with lots of infantry coming up with them, clearing the now-rubble-strewn road's side alleys ahead of the vehicles.

"Get me a rocket ready, let's see if we can get one or two," Zeere ordered and pulled his E-60R out and shouldered it, letting his A280 hang from the buckles on his vest.

Zeere locked his scope into place over his eyes and held the locking button down on the scope that covered both of his eyes and the missile's warhead seeker started locking onto the rear of the furthest T-4 tank which was starting to summit a pile of wreckage, pulling the loose rubble under its treads as it struggled forward. He got an audible beeping in his ear and a box emerged on the tank.

"Clear backblast!" Zeere called out.

"Backblast clear," Teyyez replied.

"Rocket out!"

A sudden whoosh kicked up a large smoke cloud and he saw the missile leap from his launcher and tracked its purple rocket motor and it went right into the rear of the Republic tank and exploded, blowing the vehicle's weak rear hatch wide open and sent the white and red armored infantry near it scrambling for cover.

"Reload, quick!" Zeere ordered as he ducked away from the window and his assistant started the rapid process of opening the rear exhaust shield and ramming a new missile into the launcher.

"Reloaded!"

"New target, tank, right below us!"

"Let's get him," Zeere said and looked down and aimed at the tank that was now stationary, its turret trying to find the source of the destruction of one of its comrades, it was close enough he didn't need to lock on, "Clear backblast!"

"Backblast…oh shit!" Teyyez screamed as he saw a line of white and red Republican Guard Marines storming up the circle stairs behind them and towards them, "Contact rear!"

Zeere swung around and saw the Marines rushing up the stairs and they saw him and Teyyez and leveled their blasters right in their direction. It was odd, he'd been told the Republican Guard troops weren't nearly as intimidating in person, that they were just amateurs with fancy armor. But looking at these Republican Guard Zeere wasn't so sure about that propaganda point, seeing the way these troops moved in their armor and their emotionless T-visor helmets he felt like a machine of war was on its way towards destroying him. So he loosed his loaded rocket right at the squad as it rushed towards him. He didn't even call it out, and the rocket smashed into the rails next to the Republic squad and exploded with an almighty bang that cloaked the stairs in smoke and dust after a bright flash.

"You think I got them?" Zeere asked as he slung his launcher onto his back and pulled out his blaster rifle.

"Oh you think?" Teyyez bit back, and then the two started shuffling towards the balcony rail that overlooked the veranda that the enemy had come in from.

"They're down," Zeere said and then the rail a few feet from them exploded as a Viper Underbarrel Launcher fired from below and shattered it.

Both Separatist soldiers went stumbling backwards onto their backsides and quickly scrambled to their feet and saw, in the clearing dust, a rush of four Republican Guard Marines rushing forward up the stairs Zeere had just blown apart. Teyyez was the first to open fire and Zeere was right behind, firing from the knee at the four enemy marines pushing up the stairs and hit their fireteam leader who crumpled into a heap at the top of the stairs at the second floor, two below them. One of them stopped and loosed a DLT-18 Repeater up at them, sending a stream of blue blaster bolts right past their heads.

"Frag 'em!" Zeere ordered, ducking to the side and behind a metal bench be the rails across the blown open railing from Teyyez.

"Got it, got it!" Teyyez said as he pulled a cylindrical and very poweful fragmentation grenade from his vest and tapped the button and pulled the pin and then tossed it over his head blindly in the direction enemy fire had them pinned down. They heard the helmet-broadcasted calls of 'grenade' sound out a second before the explosive detonated, well below the enemy.

"You missed!"

"It's a harder throw than I thought!"

"Screw it, let's get outta here!"

Both of them scrambled in a low hunch and evacuated, heading back the way they'd come, passing a dozen B1 Battle Droids with a pair of B2's running at the front of their two by seven column. They and the droids got engaged as they passed one another by the same enemy Marines firing from the balcony they'd just retreated from. Both of them dove through a glass storefront and shattered it, landing amongst a group of tables and chairs as the droids, as per programming, spread out into a battle stance and into cover, firing at the Republic troops who downed the first four droids, including the Supers, as they moved.

Zeere felt a stabbing cold pain in his left bicep, and saw a large sliver of glass protruding from the back of his bicep, through his uniform. Blood stained his uniform and he felt it beginning to drip down his arm. However big the glass piece was it was big enough that he felt it scraping against the bone, deep in the muscle tissue.

"Zeere!" Teyyez said as he got to his feet, and saw his team leader with a large piece of glass jutting from his arm, "Oh man…that looks bad! Here," he then reached to pull it out.

"Don't! Don't, it's on the bone, who knows how much I'll start bleeding if it's removed," Zeere stopped him, wincing at the pain.

"Well, good thing I carry CLS," Teyyez reminded him.

A grenade exploding stopped him from pulling out the bag of medical gear on the side of his pack, they were still in combat.

"Reload me," Zeere said as he gingerly got up with his right arm held close to his body, trying to keep it immobile.

He pulled the rocket launcher out and released its scope's fixing pin and flipped the optic to the right side, and replaced the pin, now he could actually use it. The young Corporal lifted the launcher to his shoulder and then waited as Teyyez got another rocket in the tube.

"Cover fire on three," Zeere said quickly, and counted down, "one, two, three!"

"Covering!"

The two ducked outside the broken window, and Teyyez laid down a stream of fire that forced the enemy to duck back into cover. They saw that more of their foes had reached them, and that a more dense target area was presented. Zeere fired his rocket which exploded against the floor across the hall from them and swamped the area in smoke.

"Run!"

The two jumped out, now grasping their rifles as they got to a flight of stairs. But the building shook violently as they got to the foot of the stairs. Both soldiers looked to one another as the floor jolted and large cracks opened up around them. They looked behind them and then saw a trio of Republic AT-AT's firing into the mall's front façade, at ground level, pummeling their building with enough explosive force that the very structure of the five-story building was now compromised. The floor then collapsed, and sent the two sliding down to the floor and into a growing pile of rubble and debris from the products of a sports store. The light went out as the sounds of destruction closed in on the two.

Location: Star Destroyer Constant Fury

"Enemy Star Destroyer is closing on our port side!" a sensors officer called out to Wain,

"Bring power conduits to port, prepare for heavy shield stress, reserve damage control parties on standby to move to port side," Wain ordered rapidly, preparing for the broadside exchanges about to be unleashed.

"Aye commander," the chief next to him sounded off as the ship lightly rocked from a long-range salvo of turbolaser fire.

"Bow shields took the strikes, no damage reported."

"Very well."

"Enemy star destroyer closing, all port batteries are holding fire for synchronized broadside," the reserve gunnery officer, a lieutenant senior grade, called out to Wain, giving him a play-by-play of the battle.

"Sir! Enemy gunships and frigates forming on our starboard side," a sensors operator alerted him, and Wain looked at the holotable and saw the movement taking shape.

"Captain," Wain called up to the captain, "enemy small attack craft forming for a broadside attack, starboard side."

"Bridge aye, we see them, the cruisers are moving in to screen our starboard side," Captain Toerry replied from the bridge.

"Recommend we have the Contrite move in for an attack on the enemy star destroyer's starboard, time their volleys with our broadsides," Wain put forward, requesting an attack run by their new Corellian Destroyer, the Contrite, which was nearby, trading long-range fire with a pair of smaller Separatist cruisers.

"I've requested it, doesn't look like they're coming. Any word on the Bittersweet?"

Wain scoffed inwardly, that tiny corvette had taken damage and had jumped, it was just a Hammerhead. However Captain Toerry was still concerned, she was one of their escorts after all.

"Negative sir, no word from the rendezvous point. The Bittersweet never arrived."

"Enemy star destroyer in range, enemy small craft are formed and accelerating towards our ventral side," a sensor man called up.

"Clever," Wain noted, looking at the pattern, "Starboard ventral batteries, prepare for spread fire, bracket those attack ships when they come in range, compact their formation for the cruisers."

The enemy Star Destroyer closed with them on their port side, attempting to elicit a rotation of the Constant Fury's port side, opening up their ventral hangar to attack by a formation of a dozen automated gunships and frigates to make cannon runs against the vulnerable opening or risk losing a gun battle against the enemy capital ship by not rotating to face it with their main batteries and stronger dorsal hull armor and shields. But they had escorts for this purpose, four Arquitens Light Cruisers rushed forward, pouring powerful blue bolts of hate and discontent against the approaching small craft as Guard F-Wings hit them from the Separatists' flank. The attack wing began falling to pieces as the two opposing Star Destroyers, both equally matched began crossing one another's noses.

Wain had taken the textbook precautions for this point-blank engagement, he'd prepped the damage control teams for action to port, he'd routed power to the proper conduits and braced the port-side shielding, and he'd taken nominal command of the starboard side batteries so the captain could fully handle the battle with the enemy capital ship. Now, he felt the first hammerblows of this new enemy class of ship.

The first shot from the enemy ship blasted into the Constant Fury, gouging away the overhanging hull plate and shearing off a section of the bowsprit.

"Sir, hull breaches in section one, deck five, fires reported."

"Move a bow damage control team to the area. Deploy fire suppression."

"Aye sir!"

Then the two ships unloaded on each other. The red-painted Republic Star Destroyer fired a wall of medium and heavy turbolasers into the side of the enemy ship, gouging away sections of the strong hull plate. The same was done to them, enemy flak guns fired into the Constant Fury at point blank range and the ship rocked violently, making Wain steady himself as he forced himself to pull up the ship's overlay on the holotable and looked at the ship's damage control status.

"By the Force," he said to himself, amazed at the pounding they were taking and seeing yellow and orange boxes lighting up along the port side with a few red ones scattered in the worst-hit areas. But so far no black boxes, indicating complete loss of signal and a dead compartment, open to space itself, all hands inside being lost, "Damage control respond by priority. Team leaders have local fire suppression authority, get the fires under control and keep the power to the guns. Engineering, XO, status?"

"This is engineering," he heard the chief engineer call out from the comm, "The reactor's at ninety-percent capacity."

"How long can you hold one-hundred percent?" Wyatt asked.

"A few hours sir."

"Go to a hundred percent on the reactor, route that power to the port batteries."

Wain didn't want to risk rerouting power from the starboard side, he still had guns firing out at a smaller but still potentially dangerous flight of enemy ships. He didn't want to report any weakness. He also knew the shield capacitors couldn't handle much more power, especially if any components ended up getting damaged which was fully possible in this vicious fight.

"Enemy ship is losing power!" someone called out, and then a startling order came over the comms.

"XO, we have orders, board that ship," Captain Toerry called out as Wain looked at the holotable and changed the view to look at the enemy ship, and was surprised to see that their ship had ripped it a new one alongside Y-Wing bombers.

"Am I leading the boarding party sir?" Wain asked.

"That's an affirmative. Once the Seppies are out of the system you'll take a company of Marines and secure that ship, the usual, engineering, bridge, any officers or data we want intact."

"Copy captain. The droid fleet?"

"Pulling back, we've destroyed many of their smaller ships and all of their larger ships seem to be damaged," the captain responded, "Looks like a missed opportunity to wipe out an enemy fleet while we have numbers on our side."

"We've done it then, orbit is secured."

"Just get my ship's damage contained," he responded.

"Working on it."

I think that's enough for this one. Sorry for the massive delay. My Arma 3 Realism Unit's been demanding a lot of effort from me writing-wise. It's been a lot of fun and very informative, so I'll be using that in my stories as well. Hopefully I'll be getting more written soon, we're in our December break, so I'll be able to focus on my fan fiction again.

Next Chapter Preview: Round one goes to the Republican Guard. Round two is about to begin.