AN: I am going to take this opportunity to bitch about Star Wars classifications. They all supposedly use the Anaxes war college, but half the things they classify are called something else. For example, the consular class cruiser is also called the consular class frigate, but in actuality is a corvette. Trying to keep the classifications right is giving me the worst migraine when the sources disagree with one another. Having given up, I'll just use what the wiki calls them, but Star Wars characters tend to misidentify things (see: Everyone calling literally everything a cruiser) so if I call something by the wrong name its either because the character calls it that or because I mixed it up in my head.
AN Part two: Sorry for the wait, I had a rather concerning family emergency that took a little resolving. Did you know someone can go into cardiac arrest a dozen times in three days? I do now! Anayways, I wish that was a decent excuse but what you see was mostly done before then, with a little added on recently. I just am not as good at writing Anakin as I am random general #6790891. Its probably because Star Wars is primarily consumed via TV (especially with all the recent cartoon series) while 40k is mostly writing based, which is easier to express thoughts and get into a character's head in. Well, that or because most of my SW reading was Thrawn era. That led to me stalling for most of July before I decided to just break it off here and post another chapter later. Its already 8k words so it should be enough. Anyways, comment response time!
-SolarBlaster: Thanks! Wasn't exactly an English major, but wanted to write this anyways, so I'm happy its passable enough that my failtastic grammar doesn't get in the way.
-last admiral: Hopefully my Anakin is passable. I have a character arc planned out for him, so he will survive (at least for a little while). It won't be a fun time for him though, or Padme especially given she is an enemy politician in a galaxy that considers a passable assassin to me a multi ton 14 foot tall invisible psychic lizard-bug with scythe arms.
-PotatoGod69: All they need is an entrenching tool, the superior melee option.
-FORGEmaster: A good question. While the black dragons are awesome (and also in the middle of an attempted purge by the inquisition because they are the most unhelpful organization ever) and the marines malevolent would be great thematically (oh god just threw up in my mouth) the real question is who would cause the most character death~
Lessu, 7 days post convergence
Leaning out of the cupola of his pride and joy, the ancient stormlord superheavy tank that had served as his mount for almost the full century and a half he had lived, Colonel Patton of the Minervan 63rd sigh in contentment. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing a pleasant breeze on his face, and they were actually adequately supplied for once. It was a wonderful day to kill Xenos. It would be even better if they could actually get a move on.
In the two days since the siege had started, they had been plagued by one failure after another. First, the brat now in charge of Colonel Jurgen's regiment refused to shoot anywhere near this "VIP" they were supposed to retrieve as a secondary objective, meaning if these Xenos were anything like the usual bunch they managed to save all their elites by cramming them next to their cowardly leaders. Then, it turned out the enemy's tanks were small enough they could be hidden in the central plaza where the upstart LT wouldn't fire, and those tanks had enough range to bombard the Mechanicus bridge crews as they worked. It had taken some rather dangerous looking stunts involving low flying Valkyries and missile launchers to discourage that. Then, as it turned out, one of the key construction units broke down and the Martians refused to fix it without spending half the day flicking oils on it.
Well, they had their bridge now, and with nothing better to do the useless equipment and personnel, like the artillery regiment, were being ferried back to orbit. They might have to get out of here in a hurry after all. It was unlikely the flyboys claimed, there is no way a fleet will get here before the operation is over they said. Of course, now that they had made such claims the fleet was probably in system, that's just how things worked in the guard.
Patton drummed his fingers on the edge of the cupola, impatience starting to take its toll. They had one, final holdup before they could leave. The red robed nuisances had decided they wanted to take the constructs back with them and wouldn't move off the bridge until he agreed. As in, most of them, if not all. Now, Patton was no priest, but that sounded heretical to him. Wasn't there some rule about messing with Xenos tech?
They were shouting at him, and he was ignoring them. It was fairly easy actually, as while the salamanders had been returned to orbit as the cleansing of the villages was over, he still had just over 4,800 tanks idling outside the besieged city, and the sound of that many engines was more than enough to drown out even the most determined adept. For a moment he was tempted to just run the…man? Was it still a man? Well, run the whatever it was over with his thirteen plus meter long tank. If pressed by his subordinates later, he would say that souring relations with the mechanicus was a bad idea, but in truth there was over a meter of clearance below his tank. The adept would just duck, and with those strange insectoid legs he wasn't sure his tank could move fast enough to avoid the now angry adept or his likely increased tirade.
It suddenly struck him, did tech priests need to breathe? The Colonel realized with dawning horror the answer was likely no, and if that was the case he might be here until the fleet arrived. Fine then. No other option. "You can come magos but stay behind us. I won't stop firing just because you wander into the way. The infantry will escort you."
The red robed questionably human individuals chittered happily in their foul machine language and moved out of the way, at last allowing him passage to the thoroughly leveled city. The front wall was identifiable only by the foundation it had left behind clearly separating the rubble in the dirt from the rubble in the dirt that used to have people in it. The fact that everything on their way in was splattered brown didn't help. He didn't know why the enemy thought the natives would make good ablative armor, but all the dried blood wasn't helping the place's appeal any.
The front of the tank column was taken up by the mobile bunkers the good general had "acquired" on Nihilas. He wasn't sure how he had acquired the ammo and fuel as well given those had been stored in orbit, but he certainly wasn't complaining. They were all durable enough to endure any ambushes, and more importantly all equipped with a dozer blade like most Kreig tanks. Following them were the regiments surviving dozer equipped tanks formed up in rows of fifteen. Six rows behind the Ragnaroks and Leman Russes his own tank came flanked by the regiments own superheavies. As they reached what appeared to have been a park of some sort, they began to come upon the first barely intact buildings and accordingly began to split.
The layout of the city obtained by the fleet in orbit showed that it had what could be termed as three routes. The outer ring on the ground was accessed by going right, and likely where the civilian populace had lived. To the left was a ramp that would spiral up to the top of the city, likely where the nobility lived. The center path lead to city center, and the VIP.
The column would split into three, taking roughly a third of the tanks down each path. The infantry and Hellhounds and would clear the buildings as the tanks up front cleared any enemy armor. The Macharius heavy tanks would guard the backline from ambushes and lead the way out once they were done here.
Patton signaled the advance, his column taking the center path. It seemed to have been built the best, as past the piles of rubble there was still a gate some distance ahead, and a twenty meter tall wall attached to it. If the enemy had anything in the way of tactical planning, they would at least attempt an ambush there. The 5 Ragnaroks that took up the vanguard ground to a halt about ten meters from the gate, battle cannons aimed at the dull grey structure. Blasting through the gate was obviously what the enemy planned on them doing, so naturally they would refuse to oblige them.
The walls of the city were, by imperial standards, rather thin. As such rather than find another hidden entryway they would simply go through them. Breaking from the armored column the Colonel took his tank ten meters to the left of the massive gate, eyeing craters on the wall as he did so. This looked like the right place. As combat was about to resume, no matter how much he loved commanding from the turret like back in his days as a Russ commander he simply had to be elsewhere to be truly effective. Descending several levels as briskly as was safe, he slid into the command center of the tank. Now surrounded by tactical displays, vox suites, and a thousand other useful devices, he was as effective as any coward hiding himself in a command bunker. As he set himself down in his command throne, he gave a single order; "Floor it!"
The walls of Lessu were meant to withstand many things but ramming by a superheavy tank was not one of them. As the section of wall collapsed round him Patton retreated fully into the tank's interior, closing the hatch behind him. As useful as the pintle mounted heavy stubber was, in all likelihood they were about to get hit hard. The display in front of him seemed to agree with that assessment. As the tank cleared the new pile of ruble he could see ranks of the tan skeletal constructs favored by the enemy turn in unison to face him, a good number of which carried tubes, likely rocket launchers of some sort. For whatever reason they were lined up as if getting ready for a parade, all out in the open without even the barest attempts at cover, despite having more than enough time to dig trenches or drag debris from elsewhere. Behind them were the much faster to turn arrow shaped enemy tanks and a few tall four-legged walkers.
The stormlord plowed right through the first rank of constructs, crushing any that did not flee under its massive treads. As it made for the gate it swept its roaring megabolter across the infantry who lacking cover simply had no hope of surviving, hundreds of shells blasting meter wide holes in the ground and sending tan metallic shards flying everywhere like the worlds largest frag grenade. Simultaneously his two lascannons opened up and began picking off the walkers, piercing right through the hideously exposed cores. His heavy bolters, with a lack of anything better to do, began targeting the still standing houses in the vicinity, as the enemy had likely hidden more useful troops in them.
As the tank roared towards the gate Patton took in his surroundings. The area was mostly open ground save for the houses lining the mountainside. About fifty meters from the gate was another gate, but this one was set into the mountain and seemed to be made of a likely higher quality, darker material. Behind him the Colonel could see Leman Russ variants streaming through the hole he made and veering off to either side so casualties wouldn't stop the flow of traffic, something that wouldn't be a problem in a moment.
As Patton reached the gate he turned the front of his tank towards it and quickly began blowing the hinges with his lascannons. At this point the enemy had begun returning fire, the constructs spewing a hail of useless red bolts towards the imperial armor. The surviving walkers however seemed much more effective, each sweep of a glowing red beam setting one or two imperial tanks ablaze while the large turreted hovertanks began gun duels with Russes, ones the hovertanks didn't seem to be very successful with, as the most they elicited from the Russes was a dent while the imperial tanks in turn merrily cut a swathe through their ranks.
As the last hinge was destroyed the gate fell forwards with a massive thud the five Ragnaroks slowly chugged their way forwards, ignoring all besides the second gate in front of them. Already they had begun to hammer it with their battlecannons while their escorting tanks fanned out, letting guardsmen and hellhounds pass behind them. Their dozer blades meant for clearing rubble were now put to use sweeping through the growing piles of tan construct parts.
The enemy however was not content to fall apart so easily. The first sign of warning the Colonel got was more than a score of smoke trails blinding his rear visual displays, quickly followed by panicked cursing taking over the vox net. Quickly pivoting his chair to examine the tanks right side visuals, he spied the source of the regiments newest batch of troubles. Easily distinguishable by the massive wheels on each side of the vehicle, out of the smoke came rapidly firing fast moving vehicles with large racks on their back. It seemed the enemy had missile tanks. Wonderful.
It didn't look like the missiles quite measured up to the Krak missiles of the guard, but there were a lot of them. Patton saw a leading Russ take a missile to the side and raise slightly off the ground, then begin turning its turret towards the source of said missiles only to be hit by three more and explode. The enemy infantry seemed to be recovering from the shock as well, and more and more of their rocket troopers began hitting the mark. From the buildings near the mountainside came larger, darker versions with heads sunk into their chests, capable of firing multiple rockets from their wrists without reloading.
While more and more Russes began transforming into smoking pyres the advancing Ragnaroks continued their advance, seemingly impervious to the missiles of the enemy. A sea of light brown uniforms were converging around them, Tallarn squads using the tanks as cover from the hail of enemy fire the air was filled with. Other squads hugged Russes, active or burning as they tried to bring up their heavy weapons specialists. One squad managed to hit a missile tank as it dodged past the Ragnaroks, their melta sheering its wheels from the frame and sending its now separate sections tumbling through masses of the tan constructs.
Some soldiers however had no such concerns for personal safety. Clothed in uniforms not dissimilar to his own grey Minervan armor, a knot of about a hundred Kreig guardsmen charged past the tanks, firing their stronger but slower Lucius pattern lasguns with expert precision. Like the crew of the Ragnaroks, the scattered survivors of the destroyed Kreig regiments of Nihilas had been swept up by General Al'rahem. The munitorum had written them off after a charge deep into the heart of the enemy and lacking a regiment to return to they had latched on to the nearest group of imperials.
Like their tank crews the Kreigers charged on with no apparent concern for their own lives, slamming into the advancing elite constructs in a wave of faith and fury. As his tank completed its turn he saw more than one of the constructs go down with an entrenching tool stabbed through its sunken head as the Kreigers swept through them, the Xenos constructs being simply no match for such determined attackers.
As the weapons of his superheavy tank lashed out, tearing a dozen enemy vehicles in two he couldn't help but struck by the fanaticism of such a disregard for personal safety. All guardsmen had at least some strong degree of faith, there was a saying that went something along the lines of there being no soldier with low amounts of faith on the battlefield or something like that, but for most it was somewhat restrained. The general, like most of Tallarn stock was a devout man, and had a shrine in his personal quarters. Occasionally, he would lead a group prayer before a major assault, but it never distracted from the battle. The new girl, the Valhallan Colonel, would chant benedictions and desperate prayers for salvation and strength during those fits of battle fatigue she thought none of the others could see. For him though, it had always been more of secular matter.
As his heavy bolters tore a walker's limbs off, he wondered if it was an effigy to their gods. It was dissimilar enough to the other vehicles that it might be the case. Most Xenos had them, and he had fought the archenemy enough time to realize that the gods of others were no mere figments of a deranged imagination. He had seen weirdboyz invoke the wrath of the Ork patrons to tear titans in two and witnessed the power of the Necron deities reduce entire regiments to ash. So if that was true, and the Ecclesiarchy was spouting nonsense (which given the members he had met didn't surprise him much) then what did that say about the Emperor?
The Kreigers had cleared a path to the gates over the broken bodies of thousands of constructs and as such the Ragnaroks began hammering it with their battle cannons, eager to get at the Xenos within. The Minervan Colonel considered helping them, but as he did a trio of missile tanks swerved past, their underslung guns cutting several squads of Tallarn troopers down. As his lascannons began tracking the vehicles, he scowled, not pleased at all at being distracted from his philosophical musings. The way he saw it, the Emperor was humanities benefactor, and like the gods of other species His fate was tied to the mortals that worshipped Him. It was likely more of the relationship between the Admech and the rest of the Imperium than anything else, one of mutual aid and reliance, but not understanding or true comradery.
The missile tanks didn't last long, as it was remarkably hard to dodge lasers, and so his tank kept turning until it faced a battery of hovertanks. While no match for a Russ individually, it seemed sheer weigh of numbers let them reduce dozens of the Imperium's MBT to burning wrecks. Even with near fifty of them huddled together though, with his Stormlord there was simply to great a difference in quality and soon the battery was torn apart via a storm of megabolter fire.
As the last gates started to come down due to the barrage of battlecannon fire, he wondered if the Xenos in there was praying. It might be heretical, but he didn't hate Xenos, not really. Most were just trying to make their own way in the galaxy, worshipped their own gods like the Imperium did the Emperor, and generally just wanted to live happy lives like the citizens he protected did. For every Khrave or Slaugth, there were a thousand Naiads or Jokaero. Even the weird ones like the Kroot weren't that bad once you got to know them.
But the galaxy was cruel, and even if they did decide to risk allowing the existence of other species despite what it could lead to there would never truly be peace. They would take resources humanity need to survive, interfere with operations humanity needed to complete, and be at risk from chaos and genestealer corruption, and that wasn't considering what their gods would do to compete with the Emperor. Perhaps if the galaxy could see peace one day it might be possible to coexist, but even then there could only be one at the top of the pile, and no matter their possible good intentions humanity could never cede that position to any other. It was nothing personal, but at the end of the day it was humanity or Xenos, and each group would always choose to fight for their own over all others.
As he had the tank to scythe down another formation of constructs he noticed that the Tallarn infantrymen had made it to the mountainside buildings. They stood back, ready to cut down any surviving constructs that fled the buildings as the hellhounds, safety now mostly assured by the decimation of enemy armored units, began turning the buildings into blazing pyres. The houses quickly lost structural integrity as they did and collapsed, crushing any constructs that did not flee into the waiting guns of the Tallarn guardsmen. With the tanks routed and infantry mostly cut down, the anti-tank weapons fire began to fizzle out, not yet stopped but reduced enough that it was a threat only to the unwary.
The tank column was spreading out now, chasing retreating missile tanks across the inner ring. The last gates, now full of dents and the occasional hole, fell inwards with a massive thud. Tallarn infantrymen continued to follow the flow of tanks into the ring, one platoon escorting a group of red robed figures. The tech priests were surrounded by servitors that they would hand pieces of construct to, as well as the occasional intact model. Several broke from the group to begin pilfering what they could from tank wreckage, while the head magos skittered over to Patton's tank, following it as it advanced towards the fallen gates.
The Kreigers hadn't bothered to wait for them. The Ragnaroks and accompanying infantry had charged straight into the gap, much to their detriment. The gate had been flanked by several batteries of smaller walkers, four legged like their larger counterparts, and the lead Ragnarok was finally overwhelmed. It burst into flame but kept going, its crew managing to drive over a walker on its way to the wall before it finally ground to a halt. Even burning alive, the sons and daughters of Kreig refused to stop fighting.
The second and third Ragnaroks did better, their durable frames allowing them to absorb the punishing volley of walker fire and advance to the center of the chamber, battle cannons firing all the while. They reaped a heavy toll on the small walkers before they did, but upon reaching the center rockets flew at them from every angle, detonating both tanks within seconds of each other. By this point the Kreig infantrymen had finished off the small walkers and were advancing to the center of the open area, a circle about fifty meters across ringed by twelve columns and hemmed in by walls of brown mountain stone. Dead ahead was an opening on the other side of the mountain, indicating this was likely a shuttle bay of some sort. Unfortunately for the Xenos, it was bereft of any such craft for the creature to flee from.
The fourth and fifth Ragnaroks advanced with no more caution than its compatriots, perhaps eager to join Him on Terra as their comrades had. However, having fired their first shots the now revealed rocket constructs needed time to reload, time the fourth and fifth heavy tanks had no intention of giving them. The tanks opened up with their heavy stubbers and battle cannons, even angling to allow their hull mounted lascannons to over penetrate a few poor constructs. As the death corps troopers ran up to join them, the Xenos unleashed their final line of defenses.
As the return fire began to scythe down the skeletal constructs eight bronze and grey balls erupted from their ranks, rolling into firing positions away from the battle cannons of the heavy tanks. They quickly unfolded to an odd insectoid appearance dissimilar to any other construct yet seen, resembling three quarters of an empty circle with stubby legs and two arms for weapon emplacements. They quickly began firing into the infantry with a pair of twin linked guns, each shot claiming a kill. As the Kreigers returned fire a blue dome appeared around the constructs.
Void Shields. They could put shields on something so small and apparently mass produce the model. As far as the Colonel new, such devices when miniaturized were extremely rare, and were always in short supply. Most officers he knew would give multiple limbs for a rosarius, yet here a xenos species was handing them out to infantry. Beside him he heard the magos give an electronic squeal and rush into the chamber. Patton cursed, unable to follow due to the Stormlord's immense size. If the magos got himself killed it would mean dire things for his regiment.
The Ragnaroks, having finished the skeletal constructs off, were now turning to engage the constructs massacring their brethren. One of the constructs had fallen when, but either poor luck or insufficient planning, it had set itself up near the largest concentration of surviving Kreigers. Though whittled down to about fifty men from the earlier charge and the current ambush, the Lucius pattern lasgun was a powerful weapon and with twenty such guns focusing on it the first construct fell, its shields overwhelmed.
Seeing the tanks preparing to engage them, the constructs quickly began repositioning. Two were close enough to walk behind nearby columns, firing all the while, but most were only able to do so if they dropped their shields and returned to their ball form for additional speed. Only for one was this a viable option though, as it was positioned out of the firing arcs of both the tanks and the Kreigers. It spun towards the exit, no doubt trying to flank the tanks only to receive a full body tackle from the good magos. It was quickly wrapped in his mechadendrites and disabled, the magos chittering happily as he began quickly retreating with his(?) prize.
The others, unable to return to their initial form due to the continued barrage of Kreig lasfire, slowly retreated towards pillars of their own far to slowly. One was shattered by a battle cannon shell, shield simply unable to stop such a powerful blow, while another two were overwhelmed by a deluge of heavy stubber rounds. The last exposed construct was unfortunate enough to fall into the fourth Ragnarok's frontal arc and was bisected by its lascannon.
The surviving constructs had not been idle in this time though and used the distraction their brethren provided to reposition. Now flanking both the tanks and the infantry they resumed firing into the Kreigers. Many were cut down as they turned to face the survivors, though they were no longer alone. The Tallarn infantry had at last caught up and streaming around the Stormlord guarding the entrance they opened fire on the shielded foes, providing support for the now charging Kreigers.
One construct went down to the combined fire, though not before reaping a bloody toll on the advancing infantry, while the last was saved from annihilation as the Kreig charge reached it, the Tallarn infantry unwilling to risk hitting their fellows. The first Kreig guardsmen hit the shield, frying it and himself in the process. The second stabbed the construct through the center with his bayonet and rocked it while the third impacted it in much the same way and bore it to the ground. The surviving Kreigers gathered around the construct and rapidly and repeatedly stabbed it with their bayonets, even after it had become evident it was no more.
The Tallarn infantry stopped by the now thouroughly eviscerated construct, some to examined it and the officers to question the Kreigers about the status of the VIP. Speaking of, Patton couldn't see the creature anywhere. They better not have splattered the thing by accident or high command would be…displeased. The Kreigers, anti-social as ever, began examining the room rather than replying, which was answer enough. Perhaps a hidden door?
As it turned out, the creature was instead cowering behind one of the pillars. The Kreigers, all seventeen of them, moved as one, having noticed an area of the room where the constructs had avoided standing, in retrospect likely to avoid a tank shell killing the Xenos by accident. The first thing Patton noticed about the thing was that it was not very fast. It tried to flee the Kreigers once they rounded the pillar it was hiding behind but didn't make it more than a meter before the sergeant caught up to it with a brisk walk and threw it to the floor.
The other Kreigers, having likely decided by internal squad vox, surrounded the Xenos quickly and grabbed each of its limbs, four to each and picked up its flailing body. The sergeant led them out of the room, ignoring what sounded like pleading in whatever language it spoke. As it got closer he saw it was clad in blue and silver armored robe, its body entirely covered except the head, which was mostly covered by a mask of some sort. Its thrashing was as pathetic to behold as it likely was in effectiveness. The creature was quickly carried out of sight, its destination one of the first landers to return to orbit.
Having as he began to reverse, he received vox notifications from the other Stomrlords that their columns had finished their sweeps. The lower circle of the city had been emptied, and that column had already begun to head for the dropships. The upper column however had discovered a tunnel of some sort. The tank commander believed that was where Al'rahem's fleeing targets intended to surface.
As he was about to order the commander to leave the matter to the hellhounds, a priority vox from orbit came in. "This is Patton, proceed." The other end was filled with static, but the words were still as clear as if spoken from within arms reach. "This is Admiral Steten Colonel. I can't reach the general, so you'll have to do. When you can, tell him the Xenos liberation fleet is here and he better hurry his ass up because they have a few more ships than we thought they would."
Patton sighed, casting his eyes to the screens showing the stars. Already, he could see the telltale flashes of the fleet in orbit firing their lances at whatever was headed his way. It should be weeks away they had said, we won't be here when they arrive they said. He sighed again, louder this time as he motioned to his first vox officer to open a channel to the rest of the regiment. That was life in the guard for you. "Right men, change of plans, Captain Bradley go get the chimeras before they get taken to orbit, we are going to need to get the Tallarn regiment out of here in a hurry. Captain Lee, take you column and set up a perimeter around the landing zone. Requisition any of the Hydras still on world. Everyone else clear the streets as soon as you can, and for the Emperor's sake SOMEONE GET ME THE GENERAL!"
oOo
As the blues and whites of hyperspace abruptly switched to the black of realspace, General Anakin Skywalker was once again struck by the enormity of the fleet before him. It was the biggest fleet he had ever seen, the biggest so far in the clone wars as far as he knew for that matter.
It was definitely one of the most diverse. As far as he could tell, every class of ship in active service was present here. He could see swarms of Consular-class frigates, four dozen total at the fleet's vanguard followed by thirty Arquitens-class light cruisers and twenty of the confusingly named Dreadnaught-class heavy cruisers as well as sixteen of the new Victory-class star destroyers.
These vanguard ships were spread out in an arrow formation around the core of the fleet, which in turn was comprised of six Venator-class star destroyers, three Procurator-class battlecruisers, and one of the new Praetor-class battlecruisers in a second arrow formation, his new flagship the Resolute II to be exact. Inside the two arrows were ten Acclamator-class assault ships, packed to the brim with clone reinforcements for the beleaguered planet just now appearing in front of his bridge. All told they had 78 escorts, 42 cruisers, and 4 battlecruisers for a total of 124 ships.
The fleet arrayed against him looked like someone had put far too much effort into building the ships. They looked more like cathedrals than vessels meant for combat, but unlike his own fleet the ships were all mostly the same appearance wise, with sloping armored prows, lines of broadside guns and a vaguely boxlike shape. There were very few of their ships compared to the armada he commanded, but the enemy fleet was very high in tonnage.
Not a single ship in the enemy fleet was below Venator in size. The enemy actually had more venator sized ships than he did, double the amount in fact. They had another six ships bigger than a venator but still in the star destroyer size bracket, and four battlecruisers. The battlecruisers were all much bigger than his Procurators, two almost matching his Praetor in size and two half a kilometer bigger, further widening the tonnage disparity. The worst part of the twenty three ship fleet though was its centerpiece.
A dreadnought. They had a dreadnought. When the fleet had been dispatched to aid Ryloth, all they had know was the invaders were a fleet strong enough to defeat the separatist fleet and that the last scan detected at least 23 vessels in it. Dreadnoughts were not something seen before in the clone wars, given the classification had only been created by Anaxes recently. Only seven were supposed to exist, yet here one was, sitting in front of him.
The vessel was smaller than the ones belonging to the republic, a "mere" five kilometers to their eight, but that didn't change the fact it looked like the thing could tear a hole in his fleet singlehandedly. The cruiser sized cannon on its bow in particular was making him nervous. But he didn't have time for nervousness, as the situation on the planet had deteriorated immensely just before he had arrived.
Before they had lost contact with them, the remaining ground forces accompanying the surviving Twileks reported that their camp had been found and they were retreating up the only undiscovered tunnel, the one that went to Lessu. The problem was the city was likely in the enemy's hands at this point, which meant they were walking right into the guns of a genocidal army. Not that they had a choice with the second one at their backs, but if he couldn't force his way through and reinforce them they would be destroyed.
The sensors didn't detect life anywhere but in that city, so they were likely the only ones left. Anakin clenched his fists hard enough for the nails to pierce his skin at that thought. So many innocent people, murdered for no reason! It was monstrous. It also meant he couldn't afford to use a careful or even moderately sensible strategy. He had to go all in if the troops were to get to the surface in time to save Twilek lives and doing so would likely cost many clone lives in exchange.
He looked to his left and saw Admiral Yularen grimacing, likely having come to the same conclusion. "I've already ordered the fighters and bombers launched General Skywalker" the admiral said, eyes not turning from the transparasteel viewport "I kept a few squads back to guard the transports, but the majority are to target that dreadnought".
Already vast swarms of fighters and bombers were rising from the fleet's star destroyers, thousand upon thousands streaming towards the enemy fleet in an intimidating display. In retaliation, the enemy launched their own strike craft, though it seemed only two of the vessels were carriers in any capacity. Anakin was about to remark on the strangeness of such a doctrinal choice when he got a better look at the "strikecraft" the enemy was deploying.
"Admiral, are these scans accurate? Are the enemy actually deploying corvettes from their carriers?!" Anakin's voice, like his thoughts, were incredulous. The craft spewing from the battlecruiser were over ten times the length of the V-19 torrents his own fleet was carrying and looked more like something meant to engage smaller capital ships than anything a carrier had any right to hold. "Not quite" the admiral replied, a tinge of shock entering his voice "but very close".
The immense enemy fighters were heavily outnumbered but in turn heavily outgunned their republic counterparts by a wide margin. They threw out curtains of fire towards the approaching torrents, the streaks of laser and missiles illuminating the void as the massive ships opened up on the republic starfighters. The torrents responded in turn, their numbers allowing them to easily match the volume of fire as they swarmed the human fighters.
Those same numbers allowed the bomber wings to pass mostly unimpeded, as the human starfighters were to busy dealing with Anakin's fighters to intercept them. As they closed in on the enemy dreadnought, its point defense roared to life about a thousand kilometers out, and in so doing proved to be as excessive as everything else about the fleet.
Kilometer wide explosions blossomed in space as the first bomber wave and escorting fighters ran straight into a wall of defense that in retrospect Anakin felt he should have realized would have to be excessively over the top to defend against small capitol ship spewing carriers. The first wave simply disappeared along with the rest of the Jedi's expectations about how space battles were supposed to go while the second wave began to desperately scatter and search for more effective approach vectors.
At that point he the vanguard fleet had entered weapons range and tried to support the beleaguered strikecraft, frigates and light cruisers moving up to lend their guns to the fighter brawl while the cruisers moved in to engage the enemy capitol ships. At this point the enemy's warships began to open fire, vast burning beams of crimson and blue being supported by for some reason incredibly large physical shells. While the enemy star destroyers and battle cruisers had turned to broadside the incoming republic vessels, the dreadnaught remained still, prow pointing towards the heart of the fleet, giving Anakin a terrible feeling deep in his gut.
As the capitol ships clashed the immense tonnage difference began to tell, especially since most of his larger ships stayed back in the second wave due to lacking the speed of the vanguard vessels. Arquitens and Consulars were torn apart, pierced either by the large beam weapons or battered to pieced by the projectiles. Some were taken apart by wings of the imperial strikecraft, close enough in size to make a dent individually in a wing they too out massed the smaller warships. Within a matter of minutes, the consular were pulled apart and the Arquitens were cut in down to twenty ships, but the time they had bought allowed the heavy vanguard vessels to move into engagement range.
The Victorys and Dreadnoughts did better, the much sturdier shields of the capitol ships resisting the barrage for a time as they fired back with storms of turbolaser blasts. As they held position over their ground forces, likely to cover them from the incoming strikecraft, the human ships could not dodge and one of the venator sized ships went down, falling into the atmosphere as its engines failed it firing all the way. A second was blown in half with a brilliant white flash, likely due to a hit of some critical component like a generator.
The ships were much more durable than they had any right to be though and survived many times the length any similar ship would be once they lost their shields. They weren't going easy, and already five dreadnoughts and a pair of victories had been reduced to drifting wreckage. The tide should be about to turn though, as the larger capitol ships including his Resolute II were finally in range to bombard the so far stationary dreadnought.
Suddenly, the dreadnought's power surged and the ship at last began to move, aligning its massive cannon with his flagship. The vessel surged with power and a feeling of dread seemed to suffuse the bridge of the battlecruiser. Admiral Yularen quickly reacted, shouting "Hard to starboard! Quickly!" Anakin felt his flagship lurch under his feet as the emergency turn tilted the entire vessel enough that the enemy fleet appeared to be diagonal in relation to him.
The turn was just in time as something massive screamed past the Resolute II, streaking right through where the vessel had previously been and impacting the head Acclamator head on. Anakin couldn't see what had happened with the angle his flaghip was currently at but felt tens of thousands of beings simply disappear through the force in an instant. "Admiral, we detected a massive gravitational distortion just now" one of the clone officers began, before hesitating "Sir, it…it looked like a blackhole. Whatever it was, it took out 4 of the Acclamators."
Silence reigned on the bridge, the shock inflicted by the statement stunning both the Jedi and the bridge crew. "Well" Anakin started, nervousness suffusing his voice "at least we know why they valued that cannon over their main guns now." Anakin's mind was racing as he said this, still shocked by the sudden loss of so many lives and the fact the enemy dreadnaught shot black holes. From horrifying crimes to impossible weaponry, what kind of monster were they facing here?
"Admiral, its heading our way!" Alarmed, Anakin looked back towards the holographic display table and saw the dreadnought thundering out of the human empire's formation on a direct collision course with his own flagship. Any ships that got in its way it simply plowed through with its armored hull, smashing aside the few remaining Arquitens in this manner. A pair of victories moved up to broadside the ship only to get torn apart in a single barrage as it opened fire. On it came, paying seemingly no attention to the drifting carcasses of the ships that it left in its wake.
"We can't let that ship get to the Acclamators" while obvious, Anakin wasn't sure how else to prod Wulf for suggestions. "I'm not sure we can stop it" was not the response he had been hoping to hear, but it was the one he got. "I'm going to call all our capitol ships back to try and stall it, but that's probably what it wants." Anakin paused, not sure what the admiral meant by that until it suddenly struck him "This is a diversion! He's trying to get us away from the battleline, and the only reason he would do that is if there was something they needed to protect, something that is vulnerable enough the battleline and its fire would only endanger it. Admiral they must be evacuating the troops which means…they must be almost done down there!"
It seemed the Twileks had even less time then he had thought. "My thoughts exactly" Wulf confirmed "we need to get as many men down there right now as we can and try to get the Acclamators in later. I'm ordering the fighter to form up and escort every LAAT our fleet has down to that city. Its going to be uncomfortably close, but the alternative is to let these monsters complete their genocide. Not only would such an act be unthinkable, but the fact our largest fleet lost on its first deployment would destroy what is left of morale. Get down there General Skywalker before all is lost!"
"Got it Admiral!" Anakin shouted over his shoulder as he started running for the hanger. The vast bay was filled with clones streaming into various gunships, but even with the mass of bodies present it was easy for him to pick Rex out of the army clones with the force and quickly jog over to where he and his squad were getting into their gunship. Anakin quickly jumped in as the door began to close, feeling the LAAT leave the ground as he did. "Almost missed out on all the fun sir" said Rex, the clone captain moving to grab one of the ceiling grips "almost thought you were going to stay behind." Anakin smirked, Rex's mood managing to chase the dread that had plagued him since the Dreadnought fired away. "And leave you boys to get all the kills? Wouldn't dream of it. Besides, snips would never let me hear the end of it."
The squad accompanying them broke into laughter which only increased in volume once his padawan made herself known from his wrist comm "as it is, it seems I am stuck babysitting him, as the big strong Jedi Knight wouldn't come out and fly with the rest of us." Anakin huffed good naturedly "If I went out there and stole all the kills I would have to deal with your sulking, and then this mission might actually get difficult."
Before she could respond the gunship jolted, swerving hard back and forth in what Anakin immediately recognized as evasive maneuvers. "We're going through the warships AA now sir, you guy better hold on back there!" the pilot yelled, sounding more stressed than usual, which was expected. Anakin grimaced and raised his wrist comm to his face "What's the fighter coverage looking like Ashoka?" The sounds of combat were audible from the other side of the conversation, indicating she was likely taking fire.
"Not good, while they aren't willing to enter their ships' AA fire we can't follow either, so your on your own while we are stuck back where we started. Good luck Master!"
The boxy gunship jolted again, and Anakin nearly fell over. As he recovered, he gritted his teeth. He couldn't tell what was going on out there but with what he had seen of the murderous AA fire very few of his ships would be getting through this unscathed. Then a stronger jolt hit, one much more familiar to all aboard. They had hit atmosphere.
"All right men listen up." he began "We are about to drop into an active combat zone, one that is VERY hot. There will probably be another layer of flak" a statement which was interrupted by a sudden eruption of countless nearby explosions that were likely to be said flak "and our heavy support will be lacking because the Acclamators can't get through yet. We have to get the Twileks out of here so we'll be dropping right onto where they will be coming out from underground. There will be a heavy concentration of enemy armor there, so get your thermal detonators ready. You boys ready for this?"
The clones roared in affirmation as the LAAT came to a sudden halt, its doors sliding open. The squad and Jedi jumped out, blasters coming up and lightsaber igniting with its distinctive snap-hiss. The sight that greeted them was a city in ruins and rank after rank of tan uniformed troops supported by boxy tracked tanks. Some were burning wrecks hit by the staffing republic gunships while some were trying to return fire. Most were advancing towards the republic drop zone firing as they came.
As he and Rex's squad headed towards the nearest pile of rubble for cover, he saw a tank the size of a house crash through the ruins of what was likely a restaurant a week or so ago. As the monstrous tank ground towards spewing death it was momentarily engulfed in a series of explosions as gunship missiles burst on its armored hide. The tank burst from the smoke cloud with a few fires burning on its hull and its guns upturned, seeking its attackers. That was the chance he had been waiting for.
As the first Twileks started running from the caves into what they must have thought would be safety his squad began to fall back to cover them, now (temporarily) safe from the behemoth of a tank's guns. Another set of dropships swooped down to unload, some crashing and burning in the process, something he had seen many times before. Yet for some strange reason, no matter how much he tried, he couldn't help but feel this campaign would be different from all that had come before. That something dark was about to be unleashed, and nothing would ever really be the same again.
Perhaps it was a warning from the force, or just some premonition the dreadnought had triggered in his subconscious, but when he looked out onto the sea of human troopers and tanks in front of him, he couldn't help but be reminded of Geonosis all those months before. He shook his head, dispelling the image. It was probably just nerves, and besides when had he ever cared about what might happen or the dire warnings of others. Whatever this group of humans wanted, it couldn't possibly be as bad as the Confederacy or the Sith, right?