20 Years Before the Battle of Yavin - The Clone Wars rage…
Outer Rim - Elom System
"General! We are reading sixteen enemy vessels that just emerged from hyperspace." The clone officer's voice was tense. "They, they emerged at the edge of the hyperlimit, General."
"I see them. Order all fighters in the squadron to launch as soon as they can fly. What's the status of the ships planetside?" Jedi Knight Dunsem Tudd stood calmly, staring out the transparisteel viewport of the Venator he commanded.
The clone in charge of comms read the latest report, then flinched. "Not good, General. They're still offloading troops and taking on the transparisteel shipments that the mission requires us to collect. They won't be ready to launch for at least ten minutes."
Tudd frowned. "Tell them that they need to double their efforts. Leave the shipments. We need those ships at our side." Indeed they did. Tudd's ships in orbit were still deep enough in the planet's gravity well that they were inside the hyperlimit, meaning that they couldn't just make the jump to hyperspace. And the Separatist ships had emerged nearly right at the hyperlimit.
The Communications officer nodded, then relayed the orders. A moment later, he turned to Tudd, his face showing controlled fear. "They report that their engines are cold, and will take a couple of minutes to fully start, sir."
Tudd's frown deepened. His squadron was trapped. He needed those seven Acclamators in space now. He just hoped that the ships he had now could hold out long enough for them to arrive. 'Not a great chance of that,' he thought. His ships were too spread apart to form a strong formation. This would not go well.
Commodore Obarrel stared out the transparisteel viewport, noting the positions of her five foes. The Venator was already deploying fighters. Just great. Not that she expected anything less. The officers in charge of the Republic's most powerful vessels were usually competent.
"Right, then." She turned to the droid at the comm panel. "All ships ready weapons and deploy fighter droids in standard amounts. We have a couple of minutes at most before we get in range. Jam their long-range transmissions, but don't waste the energy to try and jam their short-range tight beams. Their short-range comms are too powerful to be jammed with our equipment."
Pausing for a moment to look at the tactical display of the battle, she came to a decision. "Section 2, head for the Venator. Section 1 will join you." Section 1 was the location of the Iron Thunder. As much as she hated risking her command vessel to attack the Venator herself, she had her reasons. Separatist High Command loved it when the commanding officer of a force personally dealt with their Republic opponent. The stupidity annoyed her, but she needed that promotion. Anything that made High Command like her more had to be done.
"Section 3, attack the Arquitens-class cruiser, then attack the Acclamators once the Arquitens is destroyed. Section 4, attack the Acclamators." Section 3 held the Gold Talon. Hopefully the reactors would not be strained by the easy kills. Arquitens-class were no match for Munificents, especially with fighter backup, and the 4 Munificents of Section 4 would easily match the three Acclamators until Section 3 arrived. The various sections pointed towards each of their ordered foes.
She brought her hands together. Coming to a decision, she once again addressed the fleet. "Section 3, transfer half of your Vulture droids to Sections 1 and 2." She needed an excess of fighters if she wanted to make any headway through the starfighter swarm that was rapidly taking shape around the Venator. She waited for the tactical screen to show the fighters around Sections 1 and 2, watching as the distance between her ships and the enemy shrunk by the second.
The lights on the tactical screen went green, and her mouth drew tight. "We have range. All ships, fire on your targets, attack pattern Death Blossom. Section 3, keep fighters in defensive pattern Shell." She then brought one hand back to her knee, tapping her fingers on the joint as she kept an eye on the tactical screens.
The starfighters from each Section except 3 formed a spiral around each of their capital ship groups, appearing from the front to be some exotic flower. Then the fighters curved back inwards and either began to fire at the incoming Republic V-19 Torrent starfighters, or began strafing the Acclamators. All the Munificents fired their double heavy turbolasers. This formation disregarded ion cannons in favor of outright firepower; it was meant to end situations quickly.
"Commodore." One of the droids manning the redundant tactical readouts turned to her. "The Arquitens-class has been destroyed." Obarrel grinned, taking her eyes off of her ships on the readout, and turned her gaze on the enemy. As such she missed the red light that began to flash on the screen to her side.
In the Engineering section of Gold Talon, the droids were slipping into a noticeable state of panic.
"Engineering to Bridge, the port reactor has come online and won't shut down. Please contact the Commodore immediately for instructions!"
"Engineering to Bridge, oh Maker! The port reactor has entered into a feedback loop with the starboard reactor and we can't shut it do-"
And the reactors detonated, turning the Gold Talon into a molten slug of durasteel.
On the bridge of the Venator Fortitude, Tudd listened to several different officers giving various reports all at once.
"General! The Evening Sky is gone!"
"General, the Acclamators on the surface report that they are taking off, and will reach the battle shortly."
"General, the Steadfast Falcon, Supernova, and Cloudless Horizon are taking heavy fire." The officer flinched, then corrected himself. "The Steadfast Falcon is gone, sir."
"One of the Separatist vessels has been destroyed, General."
"One of the Separatist vessels is hailing us, General."
The officer in charge of Operations aboard the Fortitude interjected. "General, the forward shields are-"
The ship rocked, sending several standing officers to the ground. Tudd lost his footing, but quickly recovered.
Tudd smiled thinly. "Mixed reports then. The shields are still holding?"
The clone stood as well, and nodded. "For now, General. They won't last much longer though, not under a barrage like this." The unstated 'We might not last until the Acclamators arrive' hung in the air like a plague.
Tudd frowned, and turned back to the communications officer. "Are they still jamming our long-range transmissions?"
The communications officer checked a reading on his panel., then turned to Tudd, his face grim. "Yes, General."
Tudd clicked his tongue. "Contact the Acclamators. Tell them to prepare a blockade running formation. If this ship falls, tell them to use it. We have to try and get some word back to the Republic that the Elom system has been lost."
"Section 3. Status report," Obarrel growled, her right hand clenching into a fist.
"Gold Talon has been destroyed, Commodore." She bit back a curse while the droid continued. "The three remaining ships report minor to moderate hull damage from the explosion, but are capable of continuing to fight."
Obarrel released the breath that she had been holding. That could have been worse. "Order Section 3 to form the triad defense, but moving fighters to defend the undersides of the ships. Keep them on track to attack the Acclamator group." Section 4 had the Acclamators on the ropes. One of them was destroyed, and the other two looked like they would soon follow.
As the droid at Communications relayed her orders to a shaken Section 3, Obarrel watched as Sections 1 and 2 continued their assault on the Venator, which by this point had lost all of its fighters.
"Section 2, move back from the Venator, and cease firing. Section 1, move towards the Venator and hail them. Keep all turbolasers aimed towards the twin bridges, and wait for my command." The Venator noticed that they stopped firing, and did the same. She turned towards the Communications droid. "Are they responding?"
The droid turned its head to face her. "Yes, Commodore. I will activate the channel on your orders."
She grinned. "Good. Put them through." She raised herself out of her chair, a largely pointless gesture given that this ultimatum would be verbal.
"Republic vessels. This is Commodore Errin Obarrel of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Surrender unconditionally and your lives will be spared. Otherwise, all your ships will be crushed beneath my heel." She stomped her metal foot heavily into the deck for effect. "This is your only chance." Her voice was firm, but not harsh.
The voice from the Venator sounded almost incredulous for a moment, but quickly shifted to a more neutral tone. "This is General Dunsem Tudd. I am afraid that I cannot take advantage of your generosity, Commodore. The Republic will never surrender to the Separatists. Goodbye, Commodore." The channel With that, the Venator resumed firing, all the turbolasers firing at different targets. None of them stood a chance of rupturing the shields on the Munificents that way, not with the amount of time that they had left.
"Sections 1 and 2, concentrate all fire on the starboard bridge!" Obarrel's tone betrayed her annoyance. A General. A Jedi, then. She snorted as the eight heavy turbolasers all converged on the Venator's command bridge. Typical Jedi hubris. So few of them surrendered, and their slave army suffered for it.
"General, the shields are fail-"
The command bridge turned to slag and ash under the combined firepower.
The only thing that survived was a single sapphire-blue kyber crystal, blown towards the planet by the force of the explosion. Once free of the fires and destruction, it fell towards the surface, soon to be lost to the clouds.
Obarrel watched with satisfaction as the Venator began to fall towards the planet, then hardened her expression. "Target the port bridge." She watched as it, too, turned to a ball of plasma. "Fire one round of ion cannons, target the base of the bridges." She watched as the shots raced towards the dying ship and impacted, scrambling the backup systems that they desperately needed to get the ship back to fighting condition. The Venator stopped firing, and began to fall in earnest, sparks racing across its hull.
She turned to look at the tactical display, and saw that the last Acclamator had been reduced to dust, with Section 4 reporting only minor damage. Section 3 reported almost no further damage. Sections 1 and 2 reported only minor hull damage and some shield strain. The only casualties so far had been a good section of her fighter droids, and the Gold Talon. She allowed herself a grin. This was good.
Too good to be true, it turned out. "Commodore, we are detecting several ships approaching from the surface. Seven Acclamator-class vessels, moving in what appears to be a blockade running formation. They will reach us in less than two minutes" She swore she heard a tint of annoyance in the droid's voice. Not that she blamed it, in this instance.
"Sections 1,2, and 4, split into pairs. Section 3, remain in your Triad. All pairs, form a wide ring around Section 3, and prepare to release all firepower on the Acclamators." Firing all of the weapons at once would strain the reactors somewhat after the battle that they had just had, and the ring would dilute her firepower, but she had to keep those Acclamators from escaping. A wide net-like blockade would do that.
The Munificents formed their large ring, each pair spaced at sixty-degree intervals from each other. Not a moment too soon. The Acclamators breached the atmosphere all at once, and accelerated towards the hyperlimit. Obarrel wondered why they hadn't altered their path. Perhaps they had originally been meant as backup for the Venator. That would have explained why the Jedi did not surrender. Whatever the reason, they were here now.
Obarrel observed the approaching vessels. The Acclamators were in a curious formation. Five of them formed a rough cylinder, with one in the center slightly ahead of the rest. The five at the edge were firing all weapons, much like her ships were. They were taking rather heavy blows. Their shields couldn't be far from giving out. So what was their plan? She started, and checked the display. The droid had said seven ships. That formation only had six. Where was the seventh?
She tensed, letting a touch of concern color her tone. "All ships, concentrate fire on the ship in the center, but keep the pressure on the outside ships. Keep scanners active for the seventh ship." She watched as the first ship on the outside of the formation began to falter, then explode. The ship at the front of the formation took its place, absorbing the fire that her ships were pouring into it. It wasn't firing back, she realized.
The ships were rapidly approaching her position. She had to do something. "All ships, launch all remaining fighters and send them to cut off the incoming enemies." She refused to believe that her voice sounded desperate. She began to sweat as the ships grew ever closer to her own, which hung near the edge of the hyperlimit.
Another Acclamator exploded, and she saw what was inside the cylinder. The final Acclamator. She nearly slapped herself. Of course. Not that it mattered now, she thought. Its companions were about to fall. And fall they did. The four remaining shell Acclamators turned to dust nearly in unison, and the final Acclamator soared out of the wreckage like a demon from the underworld, its engines glowing with the signs of overheating. She flinched, knowing what was about to happen.
The Acclamator shot between her ships, and shimmered for the briefest of moments before vanishing, its point-six class hyperdrive carrying it far beyond her reach.
Obarrel grimaced. "Kriff." The ship at the center had probably been carrying a load of valuable ore shipments to be processed by Republic factories. That would not make High Command happy. She paced back to her command chair, and sat down heavily. She turned to the droid at Communications. "Patch me through to High Command. I need to make my report."
While she waited for the highly secured and encrypted channels to be prepared, she considered with some gratitude that at least she wouldn't have to lead the ground assault. She would probably be summoned to meet with a representative of High Command personally once the mining and security ships arrived. She groaned, tipping her had back. What a week.
AN: Here's the next Chapter of Sparks That Set The Future Alight, one of the many stories set in this new Saga. More are coming obviously, see Profile for more information. Only a couple of chapters left. Long and short range comms work differently. Long-range (between star systems) requires hypernode points, while short-range (Ship-to-ship, planet-to-orbit, the like) work with tightly beamed subspace radio, which require different equipment to jam them. These Munificents are designed to stop ships from contacting reinforcements. As for the gravity limiting hyperspace jumps, gravity affects the quantum bubbles that hyperdrives produce, so the bubbles destabilize and fail when the ship moves through a part of hyperspace that corresponds to a big enough gravity well in realspace. I'm giving Rogue One a one-time pass here, but know that if I did remake Rogue One, which I am not, that is probably one of the only scenes I would alter. Also taking liberties with the bridge on Munificents. They have a few more screens than in canon. I do not own anything that is officially part of Star Wars, Legends or Canon. I do not claim ownership of any of the property of Lucasfilm, Disney, or any published authors. I am not making any money from this story.