Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
The Terran campaign is now officially going to begin. This chapter will start with the space battle and the Separatists beginning their landings. There will then be 9 major battles on Earth, each one covered by one chapter, followed by one last chapter to finish the campaign.
Let's get started.
CMac54: The final chapter of the campaign will be Chapter 19.
the mysterious Mr.E: Iraq, Libya, and North Korea will be under UN governance under the end of the campaign. You'll see their fates after the campaign in Chapter 20.
DeutshceReich: The Republic does already know about the existence of nuclear weapons. What I meant is that Terra isn't going to share the secrets of how to make them.
brandonack96: The Republic is going to turn into the Empire at the same time it did in canon, in 19 BBY. Correspondingly, that'll be around mid-1994 in Earth time.
Chapter 9- The Attack Begins
(Pentagon, January 9, 1992)
"Your forces have continuously reported on the progress of the Separatist fleet. Apparently, several more ships have appeared, bringing the fleet total to 64. They passed Mars not long ago. We estimate they'll reach Earth in about 3 hours," General Sullivan says.
Anakin nods grimly. He, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Mace, Yoda, Rex, and Cody are in a command room deep in the Pentagon with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"What's our readiness?" Anakin asks.
"All US forces are at DEFCON 1. Our fleet has sortied, our pilots are sitting in their cockpits ready to go, and our troops are prepared to move anywhere they're needed at a moment's notice. Reports from the rest of our allies show similar levels of readiness across the globe. When those droids start landing here, we'll be ready for them," General Sullivan responds.
"What's the status on the new nuclear weapons?" Mace asks.
"Our manufacturers say they're almost ready. They could be ready for deployment within the next few days, but we may be able to have one or two ready within 30 hours," Air Force Chief of Staff General Merrill McPeak responds.
"Do we have any idea where they're likely to land?" Rex asks.
"No. I think it's safe to assume there will likely be at least one landing on each continent," General Sullivan responds.
"Agreed," Anakin says.
"Well, I think we should head up. We're going to need to be ready to move wherever we're need at a moment's notice," Obi-Wan says.
"I agree. Let's move," Mace says before leading the Jedi and two clones out of the room.
(Earth orbit, 1.5 hours later)
"All hands, prepare for battle!" Admiral Yularen shouts as the Separatist fleet approaches.
On all of the ships of the task force, clones and other officers are preparing for battle. In the Venators' hangar bays, pilots are sitting in their cockpits, ready to take off.
As Admiral Yularen watches the scopes, he's waiting for the Separatists to get close enough. Finally, as they do, he orders, "Launch all fighters!"
On each of the Venators, their hangar bay doors open, and V-Wings, ARC-170s, Eta-2s, and Y-Wings begin streaming out and heading towards the Separatist fleet.
On board his command ship, the Invisible Hand, General Grievous chuckles to himself. The Republic fleet protecting this planet is much smaller than his fleet. As he watches, he sees fighters beginning to launch from the Republic ships.
"Launch fighters and bombers. All ships, open fire as soon as we are in range," Grievous orders.
Grievous' order is relayed across the fleet. Separatist ships, particularly the Lucrehulks, begin launching hundreds of Vulture Droids, Tri-fighters, and Hyena bombers.
The fighters are the first to clash. Laser bolts streak through space as the Republic and Separatist fighters streak past each other. Bombers from both sides try and press on towards their targets as the fighters clash with each other. Some fighters from both sides attempt to pursue the bombers.
As both sides watch, it's becoming clear that the Separatists have a clear numbers advantage. In a desperate bid to get some of their Y-Wings through, the clone fighter pilots decide to ignore the Hyenas for the most part and concentrate on keeping the Vultures and Tri-fighters off their Y-Wings.
The tactic works, and almost a hundred Y-Wings are able to break through and close on the Separatist fleet. At the same time, over two hundred Hyenas are able to break away as well and close on the Republic ships.
Ships on both sides open fire with their point-defense weapons. The Y-Wings and Hyenas try and weave their way through the barrage of laser fire. The Hyenas, more merciless in their approach, are easier targets, and begin to be picked off more rapidly than the Y-Wings. Even still, there are too many Hyenas from the Republic's ships to destroy them all.
As bombers from both sides get within range, they begin firing proton torpedoes, focusing on a few ships in an effort to cause maximum damage to the targets. Those bombers that have proton bombs continue to get closer in order to drop them.
In a matter of minutes, both fleets have been hit hard. The Separatists have lost two Munificent class frigates and suffered damage to a third. Meanwhile, the Republic have lost two Venators, with two more damaged.
By now, the fleets have closed to within range. On board the Resolute, Admiral Yularen gives the order, "Open fire!" At the same time, on the Invisible Hand, General Grievous gives the same order.
Both fleets open fire on the other at almost the same time. Both sides know the inevitable outcome. But the Republic is determined to fight to the last.
Down on the ground, in the Pentagon, US officers are monitoring the situation through satellite cameras. As they analyze the number of ships on both sides, and the amount of turbolaser fire coming from each fleet, they start to realize who the situation favors.
"They're not gonna last that long. They're too outnumbered," one of the officers says.
"I agree. The question is how long they'll last, and how much damage they'll be able to do to the Seps," another officer says.
In orbit, the battle is turning against the Republic. Some of the smaller Separatist ships, such as Munificent class frigates and Recusant class destroyers, begin to blow apart under the hammering of Republic turbolaser fire. However, at the same time, Venators are beginning to explode after taking many hits from turbolasers.
At the same time, the fighter situation is not much better. Hopelessly outnumbered, and without further support, the Republic fighters are falling fast. Their efforts have claimed many Vultures and Tri-fighters, but they are still outnumbered, and falling fast.
Aboard the Resolute, Admiral Yularen realizes now just how bad things are. Out of the 31 Venators available at the start of the battle, 17 have already been destroyed, with most of the rest damaged and still taking a beating.
Back on the ground, Anakin is tuned into the battle as well. As he watches, he sees the ship numbers of the Republic task force dropping.
Finally, when there are only 8 Venators left, Anakin activates his commlink and contacts the Resolute. "Admiral Yularen! I see your situation! There's nothing more you can do! Get out of the system and find some place to regroup!" Part of him wants them to stay and keep fighting to cause as much damage to the Separatists as possible. But, at this point, the 8 remaining Venators won't be able to do much, and it would be more beneficial to keep them intact and repair them later.
On board the Resolute, Admiral Yularen sighs, admitting defeat. "Okay. All remaining ships, let's get out of here," he orders. The order is passed to the rest of the fleet. Of the other 7 surviving ships, only 5 can make the jump. The remaining two have suffered too much damage, and can no longer make a hyperspace jump.
A minute later, the 6 remaining hyperspace capable ships, including the Resolute, make the jump to hyperspace. The remaining two Venators in orbit continue to fire for several more minutes before they finally succumb to the turbolaser fire.
The initial battle in Earth orbit is now over. Of the 64 Separatist ships at the start of the battle, 48 are still intact, though 21 of them have varying degrees of damage.
On the ground, in the Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs are watching this. As they see the remaining Venators jump to hyperspace, General McPeak looks at one of the aides and says, "Send out the alert across the world. The Seps are coming." He pauses for a moment, then says, "And contact NORAD command. Send out the word. All interceptor force fighters, scramble."
The alert is sent out across the world. In every country in the Terran Alliance, rulers brace themselves for the attack, and send out similar orders to their air forces.
The Separatist fleet makes their way closer to Earth, setting up position in orbit. Aboard the Invisible Hand, General Grievous laughs as he looks at a map of Earth, gathered using their sensors. He can see a massive number of military units on the planet, particularly in two regions on two different continents. He doesn't know it, but those two regions are the United States and the Soviet Union.
"Prepare the landing forces! And dispatch fighters and bombers to begin attacking, starting in these two areas!" Grievous orders, pointing to the US and the USSR.
The order is sent across the Separatist fleet, and the droid armies begin their final preparations for landing. At the same time, two forces of 600 craft leave their ships and head for the surface. Each force is comprised of 250 Vulture Droids, 200 Tri-fighters, and 150 Hyenas.
The force heading for the US enters the atmosphere first, streaking down towards the surface. Unknown to them, Earth has had some time to set up defenses since the last Venators retreated.
Ahead of the force, gathering at 30,000 feet, is America's first line of defense, called by some the interceptor force. A total of 160 F-15C Eagles, from airbases across the US, are ready to take on the attacking force.
The Eagle pilots pick up the incoming force on radar as it descends through 60,000 feet. In the lead Eagle the commander of the force, Lt. Col. Randy Bigum, calls out over the radio, "Everybody lock up bandits!" In their cockpits, each Eagle pilots locks up a target on radar.
"Fox Three!" Bigum calls over the radio as an AIM-120 AMRAAM, a brand new missile in the US arsenal, falls away from his jet and ignites, streaking up into the sky. A chorus of missile launch calls come from the rest of the Eagle pilots, with most of the calls being "Fox One" to indicate the launch of an AIM-7 Sparrow, with only a few calls of "Fox Three" to indicate the launch of AMRAAMs.
Pretty soon, 160 missiles are in the air and headed towards their targets. At first, the droid fighters and bombers don't realize the danger they're in. It's not until the missiles have closed to within about 10 miles that the droids begin to pick them up. The Vultures, Tri-fighters, and Hyenas try to begin evasive maneuvers, but by now, the missiles are too close and closing at about one mile every one and a half seconds.
Soon, the first missile, Bigum's AMRAAM, finds its target, a Hyena, and destroys it. The Separatist formation descends into chaos as more missiles begin finding their targets. Some missiles malfunction, some lose lock on their targets, and some are targeted on the same targets. After about two minutes, the 160 missiles launched have claimed 126 kills.
The Eagles are now afterburners and streaking towards the incoming force at over Mach 1 while continuing to accelerate. Each pilot starts locking up a new target, firing as soon as they have a lock.
By the time the Eagles make visual contact with the attacking force, they've shot down 289 of the attacking force, leaving just 311 more. Of these 311, only 74 are Hyenas, with 108 Tri-fighters and 128 Vultures.
As the two sides come within visual range, the Vultures and Tri-fighters move to engage, and begin firing their laser cannons as soon as they come within range.
The Eagles try and dodge and weave their way through the laser fire. Several are lost, but almost all of the Eagles manage to make it to the merge.
The two forces streak past each other, then the fighters start turning towards each other to re-engage as the remaining Hyenas continue down to find more targets. Thirty two Eagles break away from the formation to pursue the Hyenas, while the rest begin engaging the Vultures and Tri-fighters.
The result was the largest single dogfight so far fought in Earth's skies, with a total of 127 F-15Cs fighting against 236 Vulture droids and Tri-fighters.
Grievous' initial belief was that any fighters on this planet would not be a challenge. As Grievous, from the bridge of the Invisible Hand, watches the unfolding battle, he realizes just how wrong he was. The F-15s are able to keep up with and even outrun his fighters, and their missiles are tearing apart the droid fighters. Even their 20mm cannons are quickly proved to still be very effective. Add to that, the Eagles are extremely agile, and in atmosphere can outturn their enemies.
Their numerical superiority gives the droids a slight advantage, and F-15s begin to fall from the sky. However, it quickly becomes apparent that despite their seeming technological advantage, they can't gain enough of an advantage to defeat the Eagles.
As Grievous realizes how badly this is going, he checks quickly on the other strike force, and realizes they're not faring any better. The Soviets had scrambled MiG-25 and MiG-31 interceptors, which had gotten off a quick hit against the droid fighters. The MiGs lack of agility had made them easier targets, causing them to suffer far more losses than the American F-15s, and allow some Hyenas to get through and begin bombing the city of Volgograd. However, the MiGs had delayed them long enough, and now Su-27 Flankers have arrived and are driving the droid fighters back.
Looking between the two air battles, Grievous realizes this first attack is not going to work. "Call our bombers back! But instruct fighters to remain on station to cover landings! Dispatch more fighters to escort landing ships!" he orders.
Across the Separatist fleet, C-9979 landing ships begin heading down towards the planet's surface. As they descend into the atmosphere, they meet the 78 surviving bombers from both strike forces returning to the fleet.
Across the world, radar stations pick up the landing ships. However, with the remaining fighters of the first strike forces, and the Vultures and Tri-fighters escorting the landing ships, the remaining airborne fighters are unable to intercept them.
From their position in the Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs watch satellites plot the path of the landing forces. There are 9 distinct forces, and slowly they come down. The first one heads for Germany. The rest head for Argentina, Nigeria, the western US, Australia, the Persian Gulf area, the area of Volgograd, the eastern US, and the area near Vladivostok in the eastern USSR.
The first air battles may have been a success, with almost a thousand droid fighters and bombers destroyed for the lose of only 64 F-15s, 62 MiG-25s, 77 MiG-31s, and 21 Su-27s. But now, the real battles are about to begin.
"We're in it now," General Sullivan says.
And, I'll end there. I hope I did this chapter well, and didn't rush it.
This chapter shows something I've believed for a while. Earth's fighters do have on advantage that the Separatist's fighters don't really have. And that is missiles. They can strike from well beyond visual range, and even when within visual range, can strike from beyond a Vulture or Tri-fighter's firing range. I think that in a fight like this, especially when Grievous wasn't expecting much resistance, Terran fighters would do pretty well. My inclusion on F-15s being able out maneuver Vultures and Tri-fighters in atmosphere is purely speculation on my part, but given that F-15s are very agile fighters, I wouldn't be surprised if it were true.
So, the battles begin next chapter. The first will be the Battle of Berlin. Hope you're excited for it. Until then, leave a review, and stay tuned!