Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
Also, for those who have been wondering, I actually am still planning for Jacen Solo to become Kylo Ren, not Darth Caedus, but I'll be doing a lot different stuff with him than the movies did.
Let's get to it.
Peter Hong Kong: I have no plans to do another Earth-Star Wars series.
Starpottergeek: I'm not sure how many children Luke and Kely will have. I have definitive plans for one, but I'm not sure if they'll have more.
DarkerEvening: Still plan for him to be portrayed by Adam Driver, but not sure who would play Jaina. I still plan for Rey, Poe, and Finn to show up, but not sure if I'll include Rose, as I honestly never really saw the point of Rose's character.
Chapter 79- Operation Downfall II
(January 31, 2019)
Aboard the Freedom, in his command center, Rommel looks over his intelligence reports, both from spies and SR-71D runs.
Following the Battle of Jakku, the Terran Joint Command was impressed enough by Rommel's command of Terran forces at Jakku that they decided to assign him command of Terran forces for another, equally important operation. The invasion of Coruscant.
The invasion of Coruscant, codenamed Operation Downfall II, had begun planning as early as 2014, but planning hadn't begun in earnest until the destruction of the second Death Star. Once it became clear that the Empire was on the decline, and infighting was breaking out, the Terran Joint Command decided to begin planning for the invasion of Coruscant, planning for it to be the final blow to the Empire.
The operation, codenamed Operation Downfall II after the planned WWII invasion of Japan, was going to be the biggest operation of the Galactic Civil War. While the Imperial fleet over the planet was actually much smaller than the Imperial fleet at Jakku, the planet had extensive ground defenses, and because of the presence of civilians, orbital bombardment would be impossible, and they would not be able to conduct as much air support for fear of collateral damage. So, the Joint Command planned for this to be the biggest planetary invasion of the war.
The fleet sent to attack Coruscant was substantial. The Combined Fleet, under Thrawn, was comprised of 116 Terran warships and 520 Republic warships, which Thrawn felt would be more than sufficient to defeat the Imperial fleet over Coruscant, which was estimated at about 400 ships.
However, accompanying them would be several hundred transport ships. And on those transports, as well as the Terran warships, was the largest invasion army of the war. A total of 185 divisions, 1 foreign legion, 14 regiments, and 65 brigades, coming from 46 countries on Earth, a clone unit, and four other planets of the Terran Alliance. All in all, just under 4 million troops had been gathered for this operation. It was the largest gathering of Terran troops in one place and for one operation since 1945.
This was going to be the largest invasion of the war, as there were estimated to be a massive defense force, numbering anywhere from 8 to 40 million Imperial troops. While they greatly outnumbered the Terran Forces in numbers alone, the Terrans had much better training, had been preparing for this operation for a very long time, would have air support, and had much better equipment. Rommel knew it was going to be a difficult battle, but he still believes they can do it, especially since they will also have almost a hundred thousand New Republic troops helping them, and a similar number of defected Imperial troops. All in all, the attacking army will be about four and a quarter million troops.
Rommel had been preparing for this operation ever since Jakku. In addition, due to the pure size of the army he was commanding, and also given the fact that there were several hundred generals reporting to him, the Joint Command had promoted Rommel to the rank of Grand General, making Rommel the fifth officer in the Terran Alliance Armed Forces to be promoted to a six star rank, after Grand General Dempsey, Grand Admiral Roughead, Grand Admiral Thrawn, and Grand Admiral Zambellas.
The Combined Fleet is currently in orbit over Onderon. They are preparing for the hyperspace jump to travel to Coruscant. The countdown is about 15 minutes until the jump.
Meanwhile, on the planet below, at an airbase established not far from the Capitol, hundreds of servicemen are gathered on the flightline to watch the first phase of Operation Downfall II. On the flightline, the SF-15 Space Eagles of the 69th Fighter Squadron, SF-23 Black Widows of the 352nd Starfighter Wing, and the SB-1B Lancers of the 617th Bomber Squadron sit waiting for their pilots.
These three elite units have been assigned to make the first strike of the operation. Similar to Operation Thor's Hammer, their goal is to jump into the Coruscant system and get into Coruscant's atmosphere before the planetary shield can be activated. The 69th and 617th will then destroy the shield generators and major command centers and other major defenses to prepare the way for the Combined Fleet and the ground forces.
As the last few preparations are made to the aircraft, the pilots of the three units race out onto the flightline, helmets under their arms.
Among the crowd of pilots, Jonathan and Alex, both with their helmets under their arms, race towards their SF-15s, with Abigail and her WSO right behind them. They race over to where their fighters are parked.
Reaching the fighter, Alex climbs up the ladder and leaps into the backseat. He immediately starts going over the systems as Jonathan starts doing a walkaround. He runs his hand over every inch of the plane. The wings, the underbelly, the weapons attached to the fighter, the engines, the tail, even the tiger's mouth painted on the nose. Examining every inch of the fighter he's flown for the last 7.5 years, making sure she's in good shape.
As Jonathan completes his walkaround, also making sure all of the ordnance is properly secured, he turns around and sees Abigail approaching him.
"Well, this is it," Jonathan says.
"With luck, this could be our last mission of the war," Abigail says.
"Then let's show the Empire what it means to mess with us one more time," Jonathan says with a grin.
Abigail smiles. Then, she does something completely unexpected. She reaches out, grabs Jonathan's face, then pulls him in and kisses him, pulling away a second later. She smiles at him again, then says a bite more quietly, "Just in case." She then turns and hurries back towards her fighter.
Jonathan stares after her for a moment before smiling slightly and hurrying back to his fighter. He walks around and climbs up the ladder before climbing into the cockpit.
"We ready to go?" he asks Alex.
"All systems ready," Alex says.
Jonathan nods, then slides his helmet on and secures his oxygen mask before flipping the switch to lower the canopy.
As the canopy slides down and locks into place, Jonathan hears Alex over his earpiece, "So, you and Abigail, huh?"
"Shut up, Alex," Jonathan says. Alex just chuckles in response.
Jonathan starts up the engines. In a few minutes, all of the systems are up and running and the engines are running at full power. Jonathan carefully lifts the SF-15 off the ground. Across the flightline, the rest of the fighters and bombers all lift off and start climbing up out of atmosphere. Across the flightline, men and women cheer as they watch the Hammer Squadron, the Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney, and the Dambusters get underway.
The strike force, comprised of 58 fighters and 18 bombers, climbs out of Onderon's atmosphere and sets the proper course for the hyperspace jump. As they settle in, Captain Sharvit, the man commanding the strike force, calls out over the radio, "Alright. Jumping to hyperspace in 3. 2. 1. Mark!"
Jonathan shoves the hyperspace throttles forward, and he, along with the rest of the strike force, jumps to hyperspace. Ten minutes later, the Combined Fleet jumps to hyperspace after them.
(February 1, 2019)
"Dropping out of hyperspace in 3, 2, 1, mark!"
Jonathan pulls back on the hyperspace throttles, and the SF-15 drops out of hyperspace, along with the rest of the strike force. Coruscant immediately appears below them.
"Dive!" Sharvit yells over the radio. Every plane in the strike force noses over and dives for the surface, quickly getting under where the planetary shield would cover.
In orbit, a watchman one of the Star Destroyers calls out over the radio to the entire fleet, "Alert! Several Terran squadrons have been spotted dropping out of hyperspace! They're diving towards the planet!"
This transmission is quickly spread around the fleet and down on Coruscant. Immediately, every Imperial military personnel on or over the planet realizes that it is the beginning of the expected attack.
The strike force quickly separates, with the Hammer Squadron and 8 SF-23s from the 352nd going one way, and the Dambusters along with the rest of the Blue Nosers going another way. Almost immediately, the Hammers sperate into their individual flights, with a pair of Black Widows going with each flight. Each flight heads for one of the main shield generators. There are multiple shield generators all over the planet, but destroying the eight generators they are planning to target will be enough to lower the shield.
In his cockpit, Jonathan calls out, "Alex, arm the Paveways!"
A few second later, Jonathan, who is the flight leader of his flight, calls out, "Alright, Saber flight! The shield generator is straight ahead, about 15 miles out! Arm your weapons!"
The 4 SF-15s nose down slightly, accelerating slightly to just over Mach 1, the two accompanying Black Widows keeping about 5,000 feet above them.
As the flight approaches the shield generator, Jonathan quickly realizes that the generator is not unprotected. He can quickly identify 6 TIE fighters and 4 TIE interceptors protecting the generators.
"Commander Shower, can you please handle them?" Jonathan asks.
"Sure thing," the lead SF-23 pilot, Commander Mike Shower, responds. He and his wingman throttle up and streak towards the protecting TIE fighters. The two fighter launch a pair of SIM-120 missiles from several miles out, blowing the four interceptors out of the sky.
The six remaining TIE fighters turn to engage them. Shower blows one of them out of the sky with a Sidewinder before they merge in a flurry of laser fire. The two Black Widows and five remaining TIE fighters quickly get into a sprawling dogfight.
Jonathan and his flight streak past them, nosing down towards the shield generator. From his cockpit, Jonathan calls out, "15 seconds to drop!"
In the backseat, Alex arms the bombs and fires the targeting laser from the SF-15's LANTIRN targeting pod. Second later, Jonathan calls out, "Bombs away!" He presses the pickle button, dropping a pair of 1,000 pound Paveway laser guided bombs.
Next to him, Abigail drops two Paveways herself. A few seconds later, the other two Space Eagles each drop a pair of Paveways as well. The eight bombs fall to the surface, and six strike the generator directly, while two miss by just a few feet, but still close enough to cause damage. Even with two missing, the six that hit directly turn the shield generator into a mass of twisted metal.
The flight pulls out of their attack runs and forms up, turning in the direction of their second generator target and throttling up, quickly breaking Mach 1 and accelerating, their speed levelling off at about Mach 1.5.
Streaking towards the second generator, Jonathan scans the skies, and quickly spots a mass of TIE fighters approaching them. "People, we got a lot of company," Jonathan calls out over the radio. He snaps his SF-15 to the right, the rest of the flight following him.
Alex quickly locks up one of the TIE fighters, and calls out, "Got one locked!" Jonathan squeezes the trigger, firing a SIM-120. Alex quickly locks up a second, and again calls out, "Got another locked!" Jonathan again squeezes the trigger, firing his other SIM-120. Both missiles find their targets, blowing two TIEs apart.
The rest of the flight also fire their SIM-120s, blowing six more TIEs to pieces. They then merge with the remaining ten, firing their laser cannons, with Abigail managing to blow one TIE apart as they merge.
Jonathan snaps into a hard right turn. A TIE quickly appears, flashing past his nose. Jonathan squeezes the trigger, firing his laser cannons, blowing the TIE to dust.
Jonathan continues his turn. He quickly sees another TIE pursuing Saber 4 and lines up behind it. Jonathan quickly locks up the TIE and fires one of his two Sidewinders. The missile tracks smoothly to its target, blowing the TIE to pieces.
Jonathan snaps into a Split S, wanting to keep moving. As he pulls out of his Split S, he spies the last TIE fighter heading straight for him. Jonathan lines it up in his gunsight and fires his laser cannons a split second before the TIE does. His laser bolts hit first, blowing the TIE to pieces, and he manages to barrel roll to avoid the TIE's laser fire.
Scanning the sky, Jonathan sees that there are no more TIE fighters left. Jonathan pulls back up to rendezvous with the rest of the flight. As the other SF-15s form up around him, Jonathan resumes course for the shield generator.
It takes them only a minute to reach the second shield generator. The flight separates into their elements like before, each element making their bombing runs seconds apart. This time, ell eight bombs hit their target, wiping out the generator.
"This is Saber 1, shield generators destroyed!" Jonathan calls out over the radio.
"Hammer Squadron, this is Hammer 1. All shield generators destroyed. Proceed to secondary targets," Captain Sharvit calls over the frequency.
Jonathan pulls into a climb, heading back towards orbit, where their secondary targets, the Golan III defense platforms, are waiting.
As the Hammer Squadron heads up out of the atmosphere, the Dambusters have finished hitting their targets. The bombers, separated into pairs with fighter escorts, have hit the command centers that would have been commanding the Imperial defense of the planet. Now they separate over Coruscant, different bombers targeting concentrations of Imperial walkers, radar stations, and troop concentrations. While most other squadrons would not be authorized to do such bombings in areas with so many civilians, the Dambusters are so good at precision bombing that the Joint Command feels comfortable letting them bomb targets in such populated areas because they know that the Dambusters can avoid civilian casualties much better than any other squadron.
On board the flagship of the Imperial defense fleet, an Assertor class Star Dreadnought, the only heavy ship in the fleet, an Imperial Grand Admiral, Afsheen Makati, one of two remaining Imperial Grand Admirals still in action, is monitoring the situation, watching as reports come in of various targets on the surface being destroyed. As he watches from the bridge of the ship as fighters from the Hammer Squadron destroy a Golan III defense platform with proton torpedoes, one of the bridge officers calls out, "Grand Admiral, we have hundreds of ship coming out of hyperspace in Sector 4!"
"So it begins," Makati says.
(Freedom, minutes earlier)
Aboard the Freedom, Thrawn is watching a board displaying the fleet's progress. The fleet is only a few minutes away from the end of its hyperspace run.
"Admiral Jones!" Thrawn calls out. Jones, his XO and commander of Task Force 36, takes several steps forward.
"Yes, sir?" Jones asks.
"Sound general quarters. Whole fleet to battlestations," Thrawn orders.
"Yes, sir," Jones says with a smile. He then makes his way over to a communications station. This station is tuned into a radio frequency that will broadcast Jones' voice through the loudspeakers of every Terran ship in the fleet.
Jones flips a switch that will also broadcast an alarm across every ship in the fleet. Then, he begins broadcasting his voice as he calls into the transmission system, "General quarters! General quarters! Al hands man your battlestations! General quarters! General quarters! All hands man your battlestations!"
This transmission sets off a wave across the fleet. In every ship, sailors yell and shout to each other as they race past each other through their ship's corridors, racing to their battlestations. Streams of sailors race past and around each other, moving exactly how they've trained hundreds of times. Gunners race to man their weapons as crews in the hangars race to finish arming and fueling the bombers and fighters. Damage control and medical crews are soon at their stations. Within just a few minutes of Jones' call, every Terran ship in the fleet is at general quarters.
One of the Freedom's communications officers calls out, "All ships report battlestations manned and ready."
"Good," Thrawn says simply.
A few minutes later, one of the navigation officers calls out, "Sir, coming out of hyperspace."
Thrawn watches as the blue of hyperspace disappears and Coruscant comes into view up ahead. He just stares at the capital planet of the galaxy he has not seen in almost a decade as the Combined Fleet advances ahead of the transport fleet as fighters and bombers begin warming up in the hangar.
As the Combined Fleet closes the distance between them and the Imperial fleet, Thrawn orders, "Launch the first strike force."
Within a few minutes, 72 SB-1B, B-3, and Tu-800 bombers take off from their ships, along with 100 fighter escorts. Each bomber is equipped with 3 Krayt nuclear missiles.
The bombers and their escorts streak towards the Imperial fleet. The Imperial ships begin launching TIE fighters, which streak out to intercept the bombers. However, what they don't know is that the Krayt has a range of over a thousand miles. The TIEs are still several hundred miles from them when the bombers begin launching their missiles. As soon as each bomber launches its last missile, it turns around and starts heading back to the fleet.
The launching doesn't take too long. In the space of 90 seconds, all 72 bombers have launched their missiles and are heading back to the fleet. A total of 216 Krayts streak towards their targets.
TIE fighters start to see the flashes of light as the missiles streak past them. They start to radio warnings to their ships, but its too late. In only a few more moments, the first missile finds its target, destroying an Imperial II class Star Destroyer. More missiles streak in, hitting their targets and tearing their target ships apart. In just a matter of minutes, over half of the Imperial fleet has been destroyed by the nukes.
The fighters that had been escorting the bombers stay between the fleets, now joined by more fighters, move forward to engage the TIE fighters heading towards them. A massive dogfight breaks out between the two fleets.
The Combined Fleet continues to advance towards Coruscant. As they get just beyond the range of Imperial turbolasers, Thrawn orders, "Fire."
Across the front of the fleet, the five Dreadnought class battleships fire their bombardment cannons. The blasts streak out through space, 18 of the 20 shots finding their targets, destroying three Tector class Star Destroyers and two Imperial I class Star Destroyers.
Moments later, they reach the maximum range of their turbolasers, and the remaining ships of the fleet begin to open fire on the Imperial ships. At the same time, on board both Terran and New Republic ships, boarding parties begin boarding their shuttles, ready to begin boarding Imperial ships once they've been disabled so they can be added to the New Republic fleet.
The Terran task forces spread out, firing their turbolasers and ion cannons as the New Republic forces advance straight ahead.
Aboard the Freedom, Thrawn fixes his focus on the command ship. He knows, according to spies, that Grand Admiral Makati is on board that ship. After a few moments, Thrawn orders, "Scramble four bomber squadrons and 8 fighter squadrons. Order them to attack that dreadnought."
The order is sent out, and within a few minutes, the requested bombers and fighters take off from the carrier TAS Kitty Hawk and start heading for the command ship.
As the strike force approaches, TIE fighters swarm towards them. Two of the escorting fighter squadrons, as well as a squadron of New Republic X-Wings, turn to keep the TIE away from the bombers.
As the strike force approaches the dreadnought, four of the six remaining fighter squadrons streak ahead of the rest of the strike force, arming missiles and proton torpedo launchers. As they streak in, two of them start firing at the weapons batteries, while the other two start targeting the shield generators. They succeed in destroy one of the main shield generators, lowering the shields over the bridge.
As the fighters streak away and start forming a defensive perimeter around the dreadnought to keep the fighters away.
As they do, the bombers begin their bombing runs. Even though several have been shot down, the rest begin their runs, one squadron at a time. Each bomber flies over the ship, ejecting 1,000 pound armor piercing bombs down onto the dreadnought. Hundreds of bombs tear apart the ship's upper deck, destroying many of its weapins batteries. On the bridge, Grand Admiral Makati has just enough time to see a bomb heading right for the bridge before the bomb tears through the viewport and explodes, destroying the bridge.
The bombers pull away from the dreadnought as their bombs set off a series of explosions. Over several minutes, the explosions continue, eventually tearing the ship apart.
On board the Freedom, Thrawn watches as the dreadnought explodes. As he does, he says simply and emotionlessly, "Crush them all."
Two of the Terran task forces move in closer to engage the Imperial fleet at near point blank range along with most of the New Republic fleet. Among these task force is the Freedom, which unleashes its massive firepower on the Imperial fleet, firing its thousands of turbolasers, ion cannons, missile launchers, and railguns at every Imperial ship in range. Star Destroyers and smaller ships begin to crumble under the Freedom's unrelenting fire.
(Hours later)
Ronen grins as he spins his lightsaber, the two blades deflecting every blaster bolt fired at him.
It's been almost 15 hours since the battle began. By now, almost the entire Imperial fleet has been destroyed, except for a handful of ships that had been captured. Ronen is now leading a boarding team to capture the final intact Imperial ship.
Ronen had lead the team, comprised of both New Republic soldiers and US Marines, onto the ship, clearing out stormtroopers and other crewmen. Moving quickly, they had made their way to the bridge, wanting to capture the bridge before the captain could activate the self destruct sequence.
Rounding a corner, Ronen sees the doors onto the bridge are closed. Smirking, he makes his way over and stabs one of the blades of his lightsaber into the door. Ronen moves the lightsaber in a large circle, quickly and easily cutting a large hole in the door.
Ronen and a handful of Marines storm onto the bridge. The Marines quickly fire on every stormtrooper on the bridge, dispatching them easily in just a few seconds. The few other bridge personnel that try to return fire are quickly gunned down.
Recognizing that they're outmatched with a member of the ASAT team on the Marines' side, the remaining men on the bridge put their hands up.
"Hello, gentlemen. We'll be taking control of your ship, if you don't mind," Ronen says.
The Marines hurry to bind all of the men remaining on the bridge as the rest of the boarding party continue to clear the ship. As they do, Ronen makes his ways to the comms center on the bridge. Activating the ship's transmission device, he quickly makes contact with the Freedom.
A hologram of Thrawn appears before him. "Yes, Major?" Thrawn asks.
"Grand Admiral, the bridge is in our control. We'll continue clearing out the Imperial personnel," Ronen says.
"Copy. We will send more boarding forces to aid you," Thrawn responds.
"Thank you, sir," Ronen responds before cutting the transmission. He then heads off of the bridge to assist with clearing the rest of the ship.
Meanwhile, on the Freedom, Thrawn takes a moment to go over the latest report from the surface. Further air attacks, mainly by the Hammer Squadron and other highly skilled strike squadrons, had destroyed several more shield generators, making sure that the Empire couldn't get the planetary shield back online. A few more attacks by the Hammer Squadron and the Dambusters had whittled down Imperial defenses in a few areas, but Imperial forces are still at maximum readiness. However, a number of the landing zones have been cleared or made much more safe for the landings.
"Alright. It's time. Begin the landing operations," Thrawn orders.
The order is sent out over the frequency. Very soon, the transport fleet, comprised of Task Forces 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49, begins advancing towards Coruscant. The five task forces are made up of 172 William F Halsey class ships and 43 Terran warships, mainly Star Destroyers and cruisers, acting as troop transports.
The ships of the task forces descend into the atmosphere of Coruscant. Thousands of TIE fighters and TIE bombers try to attack the descending ships. However, the Terran ships are heavily protected by starfighters and their own anti-starfighter missiles and CIWS batteries, and TIE fighters and bombers are swatted out of the sky in droves.
At one of the landing sites, lookout officers see that there are still stormtroopers around the perimeter of the landing area. So, two of the ships meant to deposit troops at the site halts in midair over the stormtrooper positions, opening their bays. Then, from inside the ships, paratroopers of the American 101st Airborne Division and a few from the 1st Marine Division begin jumping out of the ship. Before long, thousands of American paratroopers are parachuting down onto the surface of Coruscant, with attack helicopters accompanying them.
As the attack helicopters fly low over the ground, Master Gunnery Sergeant Michael Nantz fires his M4 at a stormtrooper directly below him, killing the trooper. Seconds later, Nantz' feet hit the ground, making him the first Terran soldier to set foot on Coruscant in a quarter of a century.
Nantz quickly takes cover behind an abandoned speeder, firing his M4 at a squad of stormtroopers running towards him, killing two of them. Then, three more Marines land around him, and join him in firing on the stormtroopers, killing them in a matter of moments. "Alright men! We hold this spot until the rest of the forces land!" Nantz orders. The Marines set up defensive positions, determined to hold this spot until help arrives.
Across the planet, more landing ships begin to touch down and deploy their forces. All over the planet, Terran ground forces begin to engage the Imperial defense forces. At long last, the liberation of Coruscant has begun.
And, I'll end there. Hope you liked the start of this.
So, obviously, this is a gathering of pretty much as many troops as the Terran Alliance can muster right now, which they will need to take Coruscant. It's actually not as many troops as had been planned for the original Operation Downfall, the planned WWII invasion of Japan, but still an impressive show of force, I think.
Also, I have created a wiki page titled Terran Order of Battle at Coruscant that will list out all the Terran forces present at the battle, in case you're curious.
So, the next chapter will probably be quite a bigger than this one, and will hopefully wrap up this battle. I hope you're excited for it. I'll try and have it up soon. Until it is up, please leave a review, and stay tuned.