Alright, everybody. Here we are. It's time to begin the Imperial attack on Earth.
Let's get to it.
RandomFanAuthor: Some Terran ships have railguns, but only a few.
rangerhero: The numbers will greatly help the Empire in the beginning, but once Thrawn's trap closes, they won't stand a chance.
Guest: There will be more worlds that will join the Alliance.
Jedi Kyle Katarn: The member worlds are more than willing to help fight the Empire, in part because they know that as members of the Terran Alliance, they will be targets of the Empire.
Guest: Waxer and Boil are still in service. We'll see them again soon.
Chapter 46- The Storm Breaks
(March 18, 2016)
As the sun rises on the east coast of the United States, Kelly looks out over New York City. The city is under complete lockdown, with everyone, even civilians, preparing to fight.
It's been a week and a half since Rear Admiral Noonan's report. Given it takes about ten days for ships with the same hyperdrive rating as the Imperial fleet, today is the day that the Imperial fleet is expected to arrive in the system.
The entire planet is ready for the impending attack. Pilots across the world have been sitting in their cockpits for hours, ready for take off at a moment's notice. Aquatic warships across the world have sortied from their bases and are waiting for orders. Soldiers have been on maximum alert for at least 12 hours.
Luke walks up beside Kelly. The two stand in silence for several moments before Luke finally says, "Today is it. They're finally coming."
"Yes," Kelly responds simply. She reaches out and takes hold of Luke's hand. The two stand in silence as they look out over New York City. The city is eerily quiet. It's the calm before the storm.
(Orbit)
On board his flagship, the TAS Warspite, Admiral Jones stares out of the viewport, watching in the direction the Imperial fleet is expected to appear from. Tracking and detection systems built on objects out in the Kuiper Belt will alert the Home Fleet when the Imperial fleet arrives.
The section of the Home Fleet currently in orbit over Earth is comprised of 208 ships. The fleet is led by the battleships Warspite, Yamato, and Arizona, the battlecruisers Renown, Lutzow, Kirov, and Indefatigable, and the starfighter carriers Argus, Langley, and Saratoga. They were escorted by 8 Baltimore class Star Destroyers, 120 London class Star Destroyers, 21 Jutland class heavy cruisers, 34 Anzio class light cruisers, and 15 MC80 cruisers of the Rebel fleet.
Jones' fleet was meant to hold the line at the beginning and buy time for Thrawn's trap to work. However, Jones was concerned. Based on the report, his fleet would be facing almost 4 to 1 odds until the reinforcements arrived. He knew he was going to lose a number of ships. The question was if he could hold the line long enough. If his fleet could hold out until Thrawn's trap snapped close around the Imperial fleet, then the Imperials would be devastated.
Right then, as Jones is about to head back to the CIC to see if there's any updates from Earth or any updates on the Imperial fleet, alarms begin to blare. Jones immediately turns to the bridge and shouts, "What are those alarms?" He has an idea, but needs the confirmation.
"Admiral! Kuiper Belt detection stations have detected Imperial ships approaching the system!" an Israeli officer calls out.
Jones' face grows very serious. "Here we go," he says. He glances around the bridge, and at every single officer who is staring right at him. After several minutes, he looks at his communications officer and says, "Alert Gortney, Dhowan, and Tyson. Let them know that the Imperial fleet is minutes away from entering the system."
The officer nods and hurries to send the message to the other three sections of the Home Fleet. Jones then looks around at everyone else on the bridge and says, "Contact the rest of the fleet. Sound General Quarters."
Everyone on the bridge reacts instantly, reacting exactly as they've been trained to do. Within a few moments, the General Quarters alarms sound on the battleship and every other ship across the fleet. Instantly, the men on every ship react exactly as trained, racing past each other through the corridors of the ship, shouting at each other and racing to get to their battlestations. In the hangars, fighters and bombers start warming up their engines and pilots make their final checks and ground crews make one last check of each craft's ordnance.
Out in the outer part of the solar system, the Executor drops out of hyperspace, followed only moments later by her sister ship, the Annihilator. As the rest of the Imperial fleet begins to drop out of hyperspace, aboard the Executor, Darth Vader watches as Neptune appears out of the viewport. He looks at the blue gas giant, remembering the last time he saw the planet.
Vader waits as the rest of the fleet continues to jump out of hyperspace and re-arrange into a fighting formation. The ships meant to deposit the ground forces will be in the rear of the fleet, while the larger ships will be in the middle of the fleet, surrounded by the smaller warships.
Soon enough, Admiral Piett says, "Lord Vader, the fleet is in position and ready to make its advance."
"Good. Begin advance towards the planet," Vader says. He wishes they could have jumped further into the system, but knows its not safe to jump any further than the asteroid belt, and the Empire's data on the system is not sufficient enough to make a closer jump safe.
The fleet begins its advance further into the system, continually scanning ahead, looking for Terran defenses. As they reach the asteroid belt and begin advancing through it, Vader is slightly confused as to why the Alliance has not set up any defenses further out in the system. However, it also makes sense to him why they wouldn't. The Alliance surely only has limited resources, and knowing the Terrans, they'll keep all of them close to Earth where they can be.
The Imperial fleet safely moves through the asteroid belt and continues on its path, moving past Mars and continuing on their path towards Earth. In the hangars of the ships of the fleets, TIE fighters, interceptors, and bombers begin warming up to fly.
Finally, after an agonizingly long trip, Earth finally appears in the distance. From the bridge of the Executor, Vader feels a mix of strange feelings as he sees the planet he has not seen in 24 years come into view. But reigning above all the emotions he's feeling is the feeling of grim satisfaction, envisioning the destruction he will reign down on Earth.
However, as the Imperial fleet moves in on Earth, Vader quickly sees that it is not defenseless. He sees Admiral Jones' section of the Home Fleet, all 208 ships. Vader is surprised. So far, the largest fleets he has seen from the Terran Alliance have been around 40 ships. He knew the Terrans were surely keeping a large fleet to defend their home. But he has never expected the Terrans to have such a fleet. He knows the Terrans have ships protecting Naboo, and surely have some ships elsewhere. This suggests their overall fleet size is at least 250 ships. Vader finds himself confused how the Terrans could build such a fleet, especially one including battleships and battlecruisers, in such a short amount of time with the resources he remembers.
However, the source of the Terran Starfleet is a mystery that can be solved for a later time. As the Imperial fleet advances, Vader orders, "Prepare to launch all fighters. Continue advance and prepare to open fire."
Aboard the Warspite, Admiral Jones watches as the Imperial fleet approaches. Although he knew the fleet would be massive, seeing it makes him nervous, especially seeing two Super Star Destroyers and a number of dreadnoughts and battlecruisers. However, one thing that especially concerns him is seeing two Onager-class Star Destroyers. If those two ships can get within range of Earth, their heavy cannons could cause extensive damage to targets on Earth.
"Charge the bombardment cannons. Arizona will create a breach in their lines, and Warspite and Yamato will take out those Onagers. All remaining ships, open fire as soon as they're in range, and scramble the air wings," Jones orders.
The order is sent all over the fleet. As the ships of the fleet train their weapons batteries towards the Imperial fleet, fighters and bombers begin to scramble from the hangars.
As the fighters and bombers begin to form up to prepare for their attack runs on the Imperial fleet, the Imperial fleet finally comes within range. Almost in sync, the 208 ships of Jones' fleet fire up their engines and moves towards the Imperial fleet, while almost simultaneously opening fire on the Imperial fleet.
Turbolaser bolts and ion cannon blasts streak through the void of space towards the Imperial fleet. Aboard the Imperial ships, they realize that the Terran ships have opened fire, and within a matter of moments, begin to return fire.
Terran pilots speed through space towards the Imperial fleet. On board the Imperial ships, they see the incoming Terran fighters and hurry to scramble their TIEs.
As the thousands and thousands of TIEs streak away from the Imperial fleet and head towards the incoming Terran fighters, the Terran pilots begin to launch missiles at them. Hundreds of missiles begin blasting TIE after TIE to pieces before the two sides finally merge.
A dogfight of massive proportions begins between the two fleets. TIEs and Terran fighters turning and breaking and diving around in a massive furball.
The two fleets continue to close. As they do, the Arizona fires her bombardment cannons at two Imperial class Star Destroyers, the blasts tearing them apart. Then, the Warspite and Yamato fire their massive bombardment cannons at the two Onager class Star Destroyers amidst the Imperial fleet. The blasts impact the two massive ships, tearing apart the front of the ships and their own massive bombardment cannons. So much of the ships are destroyed by the blasts that the captains of both vessels order their crew to the escape pods.
Aboard the Executor, Vader watches as the blasts from the two battleships tear apart the Onagers. "Emphasize fire on those battleships and prepare the landing forces," he orders before he turns to head down to the hangar.
The Imperial and Terran fleet continue to close the range, firing all the while. The main Imperial warships advance ahead of the ships meant to land the troops, firing away, doing their best to keep the Terran warships distracted.
Aboard the Executor, Vader enters the hangar, and sees the landing craft meant to deposit his forces. Unlike the Separatists, the Empire has planned to deposit troops in just a few countries. Much of the landings will be concentrated in the United States, with additional landings in Russia and Southeast Asia.
"Begin the landings!" Vader declares as he makes his way over to the transport craft.
Across the fleet, the Acclamator class assault ships and Gozanti class cruisers, as well as other Star Destroyers designated to land ground forces, move into position. Then, their hangar bays open and landing craft, carrying both stormtroopers and walkers.
As the landing craft stream out of their mother ships and begin heading down towards Earth, the Imperial fleet is now in orbit over Earth and engaging the Home Fleet. The Imperial ships are now not only having to engage Imperial warships, but also satellites and football field sized defense platforms carrying turbolasers meant to serve as additional defenses.
Vader watches out the viewport of his landing craft as Earth grows closer. He feels a strange feeling he can't place knowing he will soon be on Earth again.
However, he's feeling apprehensive. He can already tell that, for some reasons, Terran starfighters aren't trying to intercept the landing forces. It's clear that the Terrans are letting them land, which makes Vader slightly concerned why. He knows the Terrans enough that he knows they wouldn't do this unless they had a plan. However, he also feels confident that since he knows how the Terrans fight, he and his forces will be able to handle the Terran defenses.
As the landing forces descend into Earth's atmosphere, in orbit, the Terran Star Destroyer TAS St. Petersburg is engaging in a broadside duel with an Imperial class Star Destroyer. The two Star Destroyers fire at each other at almost point blank range, firing as fast as they can. However, in a ship to ship duel, the London class has the advantage. They have more turbolasers than the Imperial class, and they also have cruise missile launchers. The London class also has better shields than the Imperial class.
On board the Imperial ship, the crew are trying desperately to repair any damage they can, but the ship's shields have almost completely failed, and chunks are being blasted out of the ship's hull. On board the bridge of the St. Petersburg, her captain orders, "Call in the fighters!"
A squadron of Mirage 5000s streak in towards the Star Destroyers. Several fire at some of her turbolasers, but most of the squadron begin attack runs towards the rear of the ship, intent on hitting the engines.
Each Mirage streaks in and fires missiles and/or proton torpedoes into the stern of the ship, blasting away at the engines. As the last few Mirages make their runs, the effects of the previous runs set off a chain reaction, and series of large explosions tear apart the engines. The Star Destroyer begins losing power to many systems, and slowly begins falling towards Earth.
"Calculate the impact site of that Star Destroyer," the captain of the St. Petersburg orders.
One of the bridge officers hurries to pinpoint the impact site. After a minute, the officer calls out, "Sir, we estimate the impact site to be in downtown Los Angeles, United States."
"Send out the warning, and move to engage that Star Destroyer!" the captain says, pointing to a nearby Tector class Star Destroyer.
(Pentagon)
In the International Military Command Center deep under the Pentagon, Dempsey, Roughead, and Thrawn all look at the displays showing the progress of the battle in orbit, the position of the landing craft moving into the atmosphere, and the report of the Imperial class Star Destroyer that is soon going to be crashing in Los Angeles.
"I hope your plan works, Thrawn. Because if it doesn't, we're in deep s***," Dempsey says.
"Fear not, Grand General Dempsey. The Empire will not know what hit them. They have no idea what they are about to face," Thrawn says.
And, I'll end there. Hope you liked this.
So, the attack on Earth has begun. I'll spend a few chapters on the ground battles, then get back into orbit and show the affect of Thrawn's trap for the Empire.
So, the next chapter will shown the attack on the crashed Imperial Star Destroyer in Los Angeles. It will be a chapter heavily written with help from one of my loyal readers, Sectrooper. After that, we'll cut over to the main battle, which will take place on the East Coast, and will last for a few chapter.
Next chapter will be up sometime soon. Until it's up, please leave a review, and stay tuned.