Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
Let's get to it.
Starpottergeek: Feel free to send 'em.
Guest: George H W Bush has passed away by thsi point
Guest: I am considering it. I've considered having the Terran Alliance reform into the the Terran Republic and become a more united government. Still unsure
Guest: I see where you're coming from, but if you remember, I mentioned a number of Terran defeats throughout this story, including planets being retaken from them by the Empire. Plus, if you remember, they had Thrawn on their side for much of the war, and he's been known to defeat whole fleets with just a handful of ships. At the same time, they had weapons and technology far superior to that of the Empire, and they have better training (some experts have actually said that if the Empire was real, Earth might be able to defend itself reasonably well by using nuclear weapons and cyber warfare). As for relations between the Alliance and the New Republic, they will be strong for now, but by the time of the sequel trilogy story, relations will be breaking down. However, the Alliance still fights on behalf of allies just like nations of Earth do, even if they necessarily don't have a stake in it. And it's not like they don't get anything for fighting the Empire. Next chapter will actually show what the Terran Alliance received for their role in the war.
Chapter 82- One More Battle
(May 1, 2019)
Aboard the Freedom, Thrawn and Rommel are together standing on the bridge, waiting for the ship to drop out of hyperspace. They are on a special errand as part of their new mission.
Following the signing of the Galactic Concordance, many Imperial forces left in the galaxy surrendered and agreed to the terms of the surrender. However, some had not. A number of these small fragments had fled into hiding. However, one Imperial officer had other plans.
That officer was the final Grand Admiral in the Imperial Navy, Grand Admiral Josef Grunger. Grunger had been one of the officers who wished to take control of the Empire following Palpatine's death. Now, with most of the Empire gone, Grunger had apparently decided to create his own small empire. He had been calling all Imperial forces who would heed his call to a position in the Mid Rim. Mostly, naval forces had answered Grunger's call.
Both the Terran Alliance and the New Republic wanted Grunger taken care of. However, they had a small problem. As of the moment, they didn't know exactly where Gruner was hiding. Grunger was seemingly waiting for further Imperial ships to come to assist him. They wanted to find Grunger while he was still waiting, but weren't sure how to. However, intelligence agents had managed to find someone who they believed knew where Grunger was and how many forces he had, and would be willing to cooperate. The Admiralty had ordered Thrawn to take the Freedom and several other ships to the planet Orinda to find him.
"Sir, coming out of hyperspace," an officer calls out. Moments later, the ships drops out of hyperspace, with Orinda coming into view up ahead. They see a pair of Star Destroyers over the planet. However, as they get closer, they see no sign of aggression. They decide that these two ships must be under the command of their contact.
"Jones, you have command," Thrawn says to his XO, Admiral Jones. He and Rommel then turn and head out of the bridge, making their way down to the hangar. It takes them about twenty minutes of walking and lift rides to reach the hangar, where a Pathfinder is waiting for them. A number of SEALs and SAS are present, and will be accompanying the two officers down to the surface to meet their contact.
The two climb aboard the shuttle. Moments later, the pilots raises the boarding ramp, and the door is closed behind them. The pilot and copiloit then start powering up the engines and the shuttle's various systems. Finally, once the engines are running, the pilot lifts the shuttle off the hangar floor. He guides the shuttle out of the hangar, followed by a squadron of SFA-18s.
The Pathfinder and its fighter escorts descend down into Orinda's atmosphere, heading straight for the location where their contact had agreed to meet them. They fly over one of the smaller cities of Orinda, and the Pathfinder's pilot sets the shuttle down on a landing pad on the outskirts of the city, where a Lambda class shuttle is also parked. The Hornets set up a patrol over the city.
A local employee at the landing pad hurries up to the shuttle and opens the door for them, allowing the pilot to lower the boarding ramp. The eight SAS walk out of the shuttle before Thrawn and Rommel walk down the boarding ramp. The eight SEALs then follow them out.
Thrawn and Rommel walk towards the exit off of the landing pad and into a small meeting chamber situated just off the pad. Upon entering the chamber, they find the man they've been looking for. Admiral Gilad Pellaeon.
"Pellaeon," Thrawn says simply in greeting.
"Grand Admiral Thrawn. It has been many years," Pellaeon says as he stands up.
"Indeed. However, we are not here for a reunion. We are here for business," Thrawn says.
Pellaeon nods simple, then turns to Rommel. He extends his hand and says politely, "Admiral Gilad Pellaeon."
"Grand General Dennis Rommel," Rommel says in response, holding his hand out and shaking Pellaeon's hand.
"Pleasure to meet you. I have of course heard the stories of you," Pellaeon says.
"Good to know I have a reputation," Rommel says.
Pellaeon cracks a small grin. Then, he says, "Well, let's all sit and talk business."
The three officers all sit down. Pellaeon then says, "I was intrigued to receive your message. However, I am willing to exchange the information I have on Grunger, in return for asylum and a place within the Terran Starfleet if I so choose."
"We expected as much, and I have been instructed that your request will be granted provided your intelligence is good," Rommel says.
Pellaeon nods. "I was contacted by Grand Admiral Grunger some time ago with a request to join him in building his empire. I, obviously, refused his request. Grunger seemed to consider me a threat, and sent a team to eliminate me. I went on the run and fled here to Orinda to escape him. However, his message that he sent also contained the location where he is gathering his forces. He is gathering his forces near the Ketaris system. From what I could gather, his flagship is the Megador, a ship from a smaller class of Super Star Destroyer than the Executor class. He has over 80 Imperial and Victory class Star Destroyers, and about a similar number of cruisers. I have also surmised he has around five or six divisions of stormtroopers available, though most of them should be on board his ships."
"Does he know we have contacted you?" Thrawn asks.
"I do not believe so. But with your task force appearing over the planet, I believe it won't be much longer before he begins to suspect that you are onto him. If you are going to strike, it must be soon. I believe he plans to make his move soon," Pellaeon says.
Thrawn and Rommel both nod before Thrawn says, "Thank you for your help, Pellaeon. If it is acceptable to you, we would like to ask you to accompany us to stop Grunger."
"I would be more than willing to accept that request, Thrawn. The two Star Destroyers under my command that are over this planet will join you," Pellaeon says.
They nod, and all three officers stand up. The three shake hands again, and then head out to the landing pad.
"We will return to Coruscant to meet up with the rest of the fleet and prepare for the trip to Ketaris. Follow us there," Thrawn says.
"Very well," Pellaeon says in response. He then moves across the pad to board the Lambda while Thrawn and Rommel move over to the Pathfinder with their guards and board. A minute later, the two shuttles take off.
The Pathfinder makes its way back to the Freedom as Pellaeon's Lamba heads back to one of the Star Destroyers. Within a matter of minutes, both shuttles are back aboard their ships, and both the Terran ships and Pellaeon's ships jump to hyperspace.
(May 4, 2019)
"When we emerge from hyperspace, Task Forces 38 and 42 will engage Grunger's fleet from this direction, and our Task Force, as well as the New Republic fleet and Pellaeon's ships, will attack from this direction. We'll send our bomber squadrons to attack the Megador and keep it distracted while we work on the rest of the fleet," Thrawn says.
"I agree. The bomber strikes will also whittle down the Megador's shields and weapons systems," Pellaeon says over the holo-call.
"Our fleet, with our battlecruisers and the Yamato, should be able to handle the rest of Grunger's fleet easily," Jones says.
"We're only a minute away from the end of the hyperspace run," one of the bridge officers on the Freedom calls out.
"One minute to go. Ensure your forces are ready, Pellaeon," Thrawn says.
"Yes, sir," Pellaeon responds. He then cuts the transmission off.
Thrawn looks out of the viewport, waiting for the fleet to drop out of hyperspace. It's not much longer before the blue of hyperspace lengthens out and the fleet drops out of hyperspace. Out of the viewport, Thrawn can see Ketaris come into view, with Grunger's fleet clearly visible in orbit over the planet.
On board the Megador, one of the bridge officers calls out, "Grand Admiral! A fleet of Terran and New Republic ships have dropped out of hyperspace. We have detected the Terran Super Star Destroyer among the ships of the fleet!"
Grunger turns to the viewport, glaring out of the viewport at the sight of the Terran fleet, and the Freedom in the middle of it. "Thrawn," he says in anger under his breath. He knows well by now that Thrawn has been serving for the Terran Alliance for several years, and that lately, the Freedom has been his flagship, and he's likely to be aboard it now.
The Terran and New Republic ships begin to separate according to Thrawn's orders while scrambling their fighters and bombers. As they cross the limit of their firing range, all of the ship begin to open fire on Grunger's fleet.
Grunger's ships begin to fire back against the Allied fleet as they also begin launching their TIE fighters and bombers. However, Terran and New Republic fighters streak towards the Imperial fleet, and Terran fighter begin launching missiles at long range, blowing TIEs to pieces. More fighters armed with anti ship weapons streak and start attacking Grunger's ships, trying to hit their turbolaser batteries.
As the Terran and New Republic ships continue their attack, moving to either side of the fleet, their strategy begins to work, and Grunger's fleet begins to split, moving to stay in between the Allied task forces and the Megador. However, this continues to play right into Thrawn's plan.
As Thrawn is watching a number of Grunger's ships beginning to crumble under the unrelenting fire they're being subjected to, he orders, "Send the order to the bombers. Order them to attack."
Right behind the ship of Task Force 36, several of the SB-1B bombers of the Dambusters are waiting. The rest of the squadron was sent to attack the Megador, while these four bombers were kept back. These four bombers are each carrying a Krayt nuclear missile in addition to bombs. They are being protected by 16 Black Widows of the 352nd.
Now, the bombers turn towards the Megador with their fighter escorts and start streaking towards the ship. A squadron of TIE interceptors turns towards them to intercept them, but a number of Black Widows move to engage the interceptors, and manage to keep them off of the bombers.
As the bombers press closer to the launch point, another squadron of TIE fighters try to engage them. The Black Widows try to keep the TIEs away, but one of them manages to get close enough and fire, shooting down one of the bombers before it is also destroyed by a Black Widow.
Finally, the remaining three bombers reach the launch point as the fighters attacking the Megador pull back. One by one, each of the three bombers launch their missile.
The three Krayts streak towards the Megador. The first missile impacts the bow just a 100 feet from the tip of the bow, and the explosion tears apart the front of the ship.
On the bridge of the Megador, Grunger watches as the first Krayt hits and explodes, and he turns away to avoid being blinded by the flash. As he does, he sees the other two Krayts coming in, and has just enough time to realize he is doomed before the Krayts strike. One hits just below the bridge, and the other hits about 200 meters forward of the bridge. The two nuclear fireballs tear through the ship, blowing it clean in half and killing Grunger.
Sailors of officers on every ship engaged in the battle watch as the nuclear explosions tear the Megador in half. Instantly, they all know that Grunger has been killed. Many of the Imperial captains begin to surrender, knowing that with the loss of Grunger and the Megador that there is no hope for them. Only a handful of captains continue to fight back, but those few ships are quickly destroyed.
Finally, after only an hour, the battle is over, and the final large scale threat to the New Republic is over. From the bridge of the Freedom, Thrawn takes a moment to take in the satisfaction of knowing the war is finally, in all respects, over.
And, I'll end there.
So, yes, that was the last battle of the Galactic Civil War. Obviously, there are still some mercenaries and minor warlords out there, but it'll mostly be small insurgencies in places from now on.
Next chapter will cover the setting in stone of what the galaxy will be like after the war, and set in stone the relationship between the New Republic and Terran Alliance. It should be up soon. Until then, please leave a review and stay tuned.