Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
So, this will cover the evacuation from Yavin 4. This will also introduce three new characters. Well, technically, two new characters and the return of a character introduced as a child and now grown up. Also, from now on, all members of the ASAT team are given Army ranks, rather than a mix of Army and Navy ranks, like we saw in the first story with Adams holding a Navy rank and the others holding Army ranks.
Let's get to it.
Guest DCDGojira: Not sure about Stormtrooper Force 99. One species I've made will briefly be mentioned in this chapter. The Vietnamese don't yet know, but they'll know soon. Not sure about Smuggler's moon. We'll see Barriss again at some point.
Guest 221: The war will be slightly longer in this than in canon.
Guest: So, the Alliance still uses some old Clone Wars era Separatist droid models, as well as their own droid designs, which I'm working on. I don't plan on having anything like a space submarine. The role of a bandit raider will be played by Terran light cruisers.
Jedi Kyle Katarn: I still plan on Luke and Leia learning the truth as they did in canon. And I do plan on using more EU material for this. May use the Kilrathi as a species.
Kommando Kronk: Kanan, no. Cal, yes.
Chapter 14- Evacuation
(September 29, 2013)
Adams makes his way into the command center. It's been a week since the destruction of the Death Star. The situation on Yavin 4 is tense, knowing that it won't be long now before the Empire comes after them again.
As he walks into the command center, he sees General Dodonna and General Hera Syndulla watching a projector showing everything in the Yavin system. "Any sign of any Imperial forces?" Adams asks.
"Nothing," Dodonna says. He then looks up at Adams and asks, "Do you think the Terrans will be able to reinforce us?"
"Yes, but I don't know when. In any case, it's clear you can't stay here. When Terran reinforcements arrive, they'll come with the intention of evacuating all rebel forces here on the moon," Adams says.
"Yes, we know. We've already evacuated some of our leadership. And we have all the rest of our forces ready to evacuate if the time comes," Hera says.
"Good. That readiness could mean the difference," Adams says.
(Hyperspace)
Captain Calvin Adams watches as the blue energy of hyperspace streaks past the viewport of the battleship Dreadnought. There's only a parsec left until they arrive in the Yavin system. Once they get there, they'll need to move quickly.
Calvin smiles as he thinks about his father, Admiral Samuel Adams, and looking forward to seeing his dad again after several months apart.
Calvin hears footsteps behind him and turns around to see two of his closest friends approaching: his younger sister, Kelly Adams, and her best friend, Simone Biles. Both of them are members of the Terran Jedi Order. Kelly became a full Jedi Knight almost a year ago, and Simone has been sent on this mission as the final stage of her Trials to become a Jedi Knight.
"Are we getting close, brother?" Kelly asks.
"Yeah. Only one parsec to go," he says.
Kelly smiles. "It'll be good to see Dad again," she says.
Calvin smiles. "I know. And he'll be so happy to finally see you as a fully fledged Jedi Knight," he says. Kelly smiles proudly.
Calvin turns to Simone. "Are you ready for this, Simone?" he asks.
Simone smiles as she nods. "You bet! I'm ready to finally be a Knight!" she says.
Calvin smiles back. "I can tell. You've been working so hard the last few years. Of course, the Council doesn't often allow 16 year olds to take the Trials," he says, drawing a further smile from Simone.
Right then, Admiral Philip Jones, the commander of the task force, walks onto the bridge. Calvin sees him approaching and snaps to attention, saluting the admiral. Admiral Jones returns the salute, then says, "You three will be taking the first shuttle down to the base once we get there. I suggest you get down to the hangar bay as soon as possible."
Calvin nods. "Understood, Admiral," he says. He then motions for Kelly and Simone to follow him before heading out of the bridge and down towards the hangar bay.
As they reach the hangar bay, they find the shuttle already waiting for them. The three board the shuttle and wait for the task force to finally reach the Yavin system.
Not long after, the Dreadnought finally drops out of hyperspace, Yavin appearing out of the viewport. Within seconds, the starfighter carrier TAS Langley and the eight escorting London class Star Destroyers drop out of hyperspace.
On the bridge, Jones watches as the moon of Yavin 4 slowly approaches. As the task force approaches, Jones orders, "Send down the shuttle."
Within two minutes, the shuttle carrying Calvin, Kelly, and Simone lifts off and flies out of the hangar bay, heading down towards Yavin 4 as the task force move to take up covering positions over the moon, and their crews begin preparing more shuttles to evacuate the rebels.
(Rebel base)
"Do we have an ID on the ships?" Adams asks. Just a minute earlier, they'd detected a force of 10 ships dropping out of hyperspace in the system and was now approaching the moon.
"No. The ID codes don't match those of known Imperial ships, but we don't know where they come from," Dodonna says.
Adams shifts position to examine the codes. As he sees the, he breaks out in a grin. "Those are Terran codes," he says.
Only a second later, a transmission breaks through and is heard throughout the command center, "Attention, rebel base. This is Admiral Philip Jones aboard the TAS Dreadnought. The Terran Alliance is here. We're sending a shuttle down with several representatives to speak to you and organize the evacuation. Evacuation efforts will begin soon."
Rebel leaders in the room exchange glances and grins. Adams smiles the biggest before saying, "I'll go greet the representatives." He then turns and walks out of the control room, heading to the outer landing pads.
Walking out of the temple, he passes several parked SF-23 Black Widows before stopping next to a large open spot. As he stands there, Hall walks up with Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie.
"I heard the Terrans are arriving," Leia says.
Adams just smiles and points up towards the sky, where the Terran shuttle has just come into view, descending towards the landing pad.
The shuttle slows down and touches down on the landing pad. As the shuttle powers down, the ramp lowers, and Calvin walks down, followed by Kelly and Simone.
As they reach the bottom of the ramp, Kelly and Calvin spots their father, and break out in smiles. "Dad!" they both call out, and Kelly starts running up to Adams, Calvin following close behind.
Adams smiles and laughs as his daughter and oldest son reach him and hug him tightly. Everyone stands by and watches as the family laughs and embraces.
Finally, the three pull apart, and Adams says, "Well, I'm a little surprised they sent both of you." He then looks at Kelly and says, "You look great, Kelly. And now I can finally tell you how proud I am that you completed the trials."
"Thanks, dad," Kelly says.
Adams smiles, then looks over at Simone as she walks over. "Simone. It's good to see you again," he says. Due to her and Kelly's friendship, he met Simone a long time ago, and knows her very well.
"Good to see you too, Admiral Adams," she says.
Adams then looks at Calvin. "Well, son. Is the task force ready?" he asks.
"Yes, dad. The shuttles are being prepped and will be ready to begin the evacuation in half an hour," Calvin says.
Adams nods. "Good. Let's go meet with the leadership and coordinate the evacuation," Adams says. He then puts his arms around his children and leads them towards the main temple.
Once inside the temple, Adams and Calvin speak with General Dodonna, coordinating how to proceed with the evacuation, how to make sure it proceeds efficiently and quickly, as well as to where to go.
Half an hour after Calvin, Kelly, and Simone landed on Yavin 4, the evacuation begins. A fleet of 50 shuttles from the 10 ships of the task force enters the atmosphere of the moon and begin landing on the landing pads surrounding the base. By now, the rebels have begun disassembling their equipment and base facilities, and they now begin loading their equipment onto the shuttles.
As the first load of equipment is being loaded onto the shuttles, Adams watches the progress. "I hope we can get everyone and everything off this rock before the Empire arrives," he whispers to himself.
(Several Hours later)
Admiral Jones watches from the bridge of the Dreadnought as several shuttles fly up the nearby Star Destroyer TAS Columbus, bringing another shipment of equipment up from the moon. Most of the equipment has been evacuated, and they're now ready to begin evacuating the personnel.
"Admiral!"
Jones turns around to see a Torfan officer looking right at him.
"Yes, Commander?" he asks.
"Sir, we're detecting ships approaching the system through hyperspace. Definitely not friendly," the Torfan says.
Jones' face hardens. "Sound general quarters! I want the Dreadnought and Langley protecting the moon, and the Star Destroyers to continue the evacuation," Jones orders.
Jones' order is immediately passed throughout the fleet, and across all 10 ships, alarms begin to sound, calling the crews to general quarters.
Down on the surface, Adams is in the command center, still conversing with the rebel leadership. Suddenly, a transmission breaks through and is heard through the command center, "Attention Base One! This is Admiral Jones aboard the TAS Dreadnought! We have Imperial troops almost ready to come out of hyperspace! We'll keep them at bay, but you might want to accelerate the evacuation!"
Adams turns to General Dodonna. "Send out the word. We need to speed things up!" he says. Dodoona nods and begins to issue the orders.
In orbit, Jones watches out the main viewport as the Star Destroyers move closer to the moon, and Langley moves to take up position behind the Dreadnought.
"Where are those Imperials?" Jones asks.
Before anyone can respond, he sees a fleet of 8 Imperial class Star Destroyers and 3 Victory II class Star Destroyers drop out of hyperspace directly ahead of him.
"Never mind," Jones says.
Jones examines the Imperial fleet. The three Victorys are arranged in a V formation ahead of the 8 Imperials, which are arranged in a line.
"Contact Langley. Tell them to launch all fighters," Jones says to his communications officers. He then turns to the weapons officers and says, "Charge the bombardment cannons and orient the bottom of the ship to those ships. I want the center and right side Victorys targeted first, two cannons on each one."
The orders are relayed. Within seconds, pilots already waiting in their cockpits in the Langley's extensive hangar bays begin powering up their fighters and begin to take off.
Meanwhile, the helmsmen of the Dreadnought slightly alter the ship's course, better orienting the bottom of the ship towards the Imperial fleet. With the ship's new orientation, the Victorys are now fully within the firing arc of the Dreadnought's four massive bombardment cannons.
This is the first time these cannons have been used outside their original testing phase. The cannons are powerful, each bolt equivalent to 50 tons of TNT, and a full volley from all four believed to be capable of crippling, if not completely destroying, an Imperial class Star Destroyer. However, their main drawback is that they are more geared towards planetary bombardment rather than ship to ship engagements. Not only that, but the cannons have an extensive recharge time. Despite how advanced the cannons are in terms of present technology, they are still highly experimental. Due in part to this, and also for safety, the cannons require almost 10 minutes to recharge after each firing. The Alliance is working on updating the design for future battleships, but it is not estimated that the cannons will be under a 5 minute recharge for at least a decade.
However, now is the time to see how they will really fare in combat. Jones walks right up to the viewport to keep the Imperial battle line in view and waits for further information.
Only moments later, a weapons officer calls out, "Admiral! The cannons are charged and aimed!"
"Fire!" Jones says, a slight smile on his face. Another advantage to the cannons is their extended range, allowing them to fire at Imperial ships over three times beyond the range of turbolasers.
Below the ship, the cannons finish their charge, and each fires a massive blast towards their targeted Destroyer. Two blasts slam into the center and right Victorys, and the massive explosions tear the Star Destroyers apart.
Across the other Imperial ships, Imperial officers watch in shock as the two Star Destroyers explode under the impact of the bolts. Then, they begin to see swarms of fighters marking their way away from the Langley and heading towards them.
"Scramble fighters! And open fire as soon as we're in range!" the Imperial admiral in command of the fleet orders from his Star Destroyer.
On board the Dreadnought, Jones shouts, "Return the ship to a level course! Engines full power! Close the range!"
The Dreadnought noses back down, levelling off, and its engines power up, increasing the speed. The range between the Terran battleship and the Imperial fleet begins closing even more rapidly as squadrons of Terran starfighters streak past the ship.
As the Terran starfighters get close to the Imperial fleet, TIE fighters begin to scramble out of the Star Destroyers. However, the leading SF-23s and Su-36s begin locking them up as soon as possible and launching long range missiles. Behind them, SF-15s, Mirage 5000s, and Su-49 Firefoxes also begin firing missiles once they get in range.
As dozens of TIE fighters are exploding, the SF-15s, Mirage 5000s, and Su-49s begin separating into pairs, preparing for their attack runs. The Terrans had developed attack strategies for dealing with Imperial Star Destroyers, which involved hammering away at their shields before attempting to take out the bridges of the ships.
The strike fighters dive, firing missiles and their laser cannons. The missiles and laser bolts slam into the Star Destroyers, hammering away at their shields. A number of the Star Destroyers' shields aren't able to take all the punishment, and a number of their turbolasers are destroyed.
Now, the fighters begin to scatter as the Dreadnought comes within range, and opens fire with her over 1,500 different turbolaser batteries.
Turbolaser bolts fly around the Imperial ships and begin to slam into the already damaged ships. As the ships rock amidst the turbolaser fire, the Imperial admiral in command orders, "Return fire!"
The Imperial ships begin to return fire with their own turbolasers and ion cannons. However, Terran ships are designed with shields based partly off Mon Calamari shield designs, which are superior to Imperial designs. The Imperials began to feel fear as they see that their turbolaser bolts are hardly even affecting the Dreadnought.
For almost eight minutes, the two sides exchange fire. Then, the Dreadnought ceases fire. Before the Imperials can react, the Terran starfighters renew their attack. Before the Imperial ships' shields are able to fully regenerate, the Terran starfighters, joined by some newly launched SB-1B bombers, are able to destroy the bridges of two of the Imperial class Star Destroyers and the remaining Victory, leaving just 5 damaged Imperials left.
As the Terran starfighters were conducting their attack, the Dreadnought had begun altering course again, orienting its bottom towards the Imperial fleet. By now, the bombardment cannons are almost fully recharged. As Admiral Jones watches the starfighters continue their attack, one of the weapons officers says, "Admiral, cannons recharged!"
"Fire!" Jones orders.
The cannons fire again, two cannons targeting one of the remaining Imperials, and the other two targeting another. The two Star Destroyers, already damaged, are torn apart by the blasts.
The Imperial admiral, still alive, recognizes the danger he's in. He's lost all three of his Victorys and four Imperials, and has only claimed a few starfighters and caused some very light damage to the Dreadnought. Deciding he's had enough, the admiral orders the force to withdraw. Immediately, the three remaining Star Destroyers turn around and make the jump to hyperspace.
Admiral Jones smiles as he watches the three Star Destroyers retreat into hyperspace. He walks over to a communications station and pushes a button to contact the rebel base. "Attention, Base One. This is Admiral Jones. We have driven off the Imperial task force with minimal damage to the Dreadnought. But, there could likely be reinforcements on their way. I'd accelerate the evacuation if I were you. I'll keep Dreadnought and Langley in a covering position until the evacuation is complete."
Down on the ground, the rebels look around in surprise that the Dreadnought has already driven off the Imperials. However, Adams and Calvin just smile. Both of them are very aware of the Dreadnought-class' capabilities, as both had personally witnessed combat trials of the ships, and knew how tough they were. Adams feels strongly that even without help from the Langley's massive air wing, it still would've been a relatively easy victory for the Dreadnought.
"Come on, guys! We gotta hurry this up!" Adams says. Dodonna nods, and relays another order to accelerate the evacuation.
The eight London class Star Destroyers descend into the atmosphere of Yavin 4 to decrease the distance the shuttles will have to travel, thereby decreasing the time needed for each trip.
It takes just another hour before the evacuation is complete. As soon as the last rebel is aboard, the 8 Londons ascend back into orbit.
As soon as the task force has reformed into standard hyperspace formation, Admiral Jones again looks straight out of the viewport, and orders, "Make the jump."
The order is relayed across the task force, and in the space of three seconds, all ten ships of the task force make the jump into hyperspace.
(Coruscant)
Emperor Palpatine slowly opens his eyes, looking out the window at the cityscape of Coruscant. He can feel the disturbance in the Force. Not only has the Terran Alliance returned, but their Jedi have returned as well. The fury he has felt the last few days has been incredible since hearing the Terran broadcast.
Suddenly the door to the chamber opens. Palpatine turns around, and sees an officer entering the room.
"What is it?" he demands.
"My lord. We have received word from Admiral Gallion. His force attempted to attack the rebels in the Yavin system. But they encountered a Terran task force in the middle of evacuating the rebels. According to the admiral, seven of ships were destroyed and the others damaged by a single Terran battleship and her air wing, with minimal damage to the Terran ship," one of the officers says.
Fury swells within Palpatine again, and he reaches out with a single hand, choking the officer until he falls dead to the ground. He then turns to look out the window again, and says, "You will regret crossing me, Terrans."
And, I'll end there. Hope you liked that chapter.
So, I hope you liked this battle, and how I introduced the Dreadnought class battleships. I hope you don't think the Dreadnought is too OP, but its over 5 times the size of an Imperial class Star destroyer with a ton of firepower and advanced shields. At range, it would be nearly impossible to destroy with so few ships. However, there aren't a ton of Dreadnoughts in service, so it's not like we'll see the Terrans throwing like 50 of them against the Empire.
So, we got our introduction to Adams' two oldest children, as well as our first celebrity Jedi. For those who don't know, in real life, Simone Biles is an American Olympic gymnast. I thought having someone who is a gymnast in real life be a Jedi in this would be kind of funny. We'll see at least two more celebrity Jedi before the end of this story.
Also, I introduced my first Milky Way species in this chapter: the Torfans. Some of you may recognize that name, and yes, they're pretty much identical in appearance to the Torfans that made an appearance in the Marvel movie Captain Marvel. I may base several species off of aliens from both Marvel and DC comics.
Also, I want to confirm something. Luke's love interest has already been introduced. I won't give away yet who she is, but she has been introduced. I also won't confirm which story she's been introduced in. She might have been introduced in this one or the first one.
So, next chapter will be up soon. Until it is, leave a review, and stay tuned!