Legend of the Harp
Episode III: The Crucible
Chapter 5: Theory and Practice
*Jedi Knight Furin Kazan, Dandoran System, The Rock*
My conversations with Commodore Spruance were, for now, concluded and I had a better understanding of the war we faced before us, as well as a better understanding of why the Alliance was nervous about doing business with me. I left Commodore Spruance on The Rock and proceeded back toward Dandoran on Revenge.
Clearly, a well organized fleet would have an advantage if they were on defense. Nearly every major government that had comprised the Galactic Republic, and many of those which had not, kept a significant military. For the Empire to impose itself, it would need to send a substantial military force to each system, sufficient to overrun the individual system's fleet. Since the local fleet would have the advantage, that would have to be a considerable force.
The Empire would have to move to deal with major potential rivals quickly, lest they become nodes around which resistance could form, such as Corellia and Mandalore. The Empire had. Further, the Empire's strategy to be apparently strong rather than actually strong made sense. Star Destroyers clearly underperformed for a ship of their size. TIE fighters were clearly purchased for their price, not their combat effectiveness. However, a typical system politician would see only massive warships much larger than anything they had and swarms of fighters in far greater numbers than they could deploy. They don't build statues to leaders who lead their people into catastrophic defeat. Further, the Empire didn't have unlimited military resources, but they could certainly mass fleets large enough to overrun any given member government's resistance.
Salient had been an example of such resistance. A well organized and prepared system sized government choosing to go down fighting rather than knuckle under. Salient hadn't been unique. There were plenty of places with Separatist holdouts, restive populations and those who would not set down their principals when it was convenient like Ryloth.
However, the Empire had gotten more than they bargained for at Salient. The Empire had prevailed and set the example that defiance was ruin. However, the Empire had gotten quite the bloody nose. The price of Salient was not one the Empire could pay thousands of times.
My job was to make it as hard as possible for the Empire to impose itself. They had tried to subsume the Corellian fleet and I had given a substantial portion of the fleet a way out. They had wanted to control galactic banking but I had dealt with the Banking Clans. They should have been able to bring Ryloth to heel, but I had been pouring in supplies that had kept Cham in the fight.
I had also been providing supplies to people and groups like Saw Gerrera and his Partisans. The Alliance had condemned Saw's methods as too brutal. I understood why. When the Partisans blew up a school full of children, it didn't encourage the general public to oppose the Empire. Quite the contrary. However, I agreed with Saw's reasoning. The resources that the Empire spent over responding, the negative impression that over response created, the sense that someone was doing something was enough.
I had been following Senators Organa and Mothma's movement as it had blossomed into something called the Alliance. It was the most dangerous threat to the Empire yet because it had the potential to strike at the Empire's greatest weakness, their only apparent strength. Salient and her sister martyrs had demonstrated that strong resistance to the Empire was possible. If enough systems and their militaries banded together, they could challenge the Empire. Those systems might each be numerically inferior, but with qualitatively better ships and troops. If enough of them banded together and committed enough resources, they had the potential to defeat the Empire in open battle.
Of course, each system only had a small military to itself and risked being singled out by the Empire should they join this "Alliance." Getting local governments to join the Alliance, which meant they risked Emberlene treatment, and then commit substantial forces, which meant they would be less well defended at home and thus more vulnerable to Emberlene treatment would be quite the diplomatic trick for Organa and Mothma. Even if the Alliance could assemble a large enough fleet from member government's contributions, before their war was done, it would mean there would likely be more Emberlenes.
Up till now, this new Alliance hadn't wanted the Harp to be openly involved with their movement because of my association with the Partisans and because I was apparently a criminal. It stung, but made sense. I wanted this nascent Alliance to succeed much more than I wanted some empty prestige.
While this nascent Alliance wasn't willing to accept me openly, they were willing to accept ships like a large number of UT-60s in the D variant, GR-75 transports and a squadron of X-Wings. They also accepted large numbers of A-280 rifles, uniforms and a wealth of other equipment. Not to mention endless deliveries of food, fuel and other consumables. I wasn't so low that they couldn't accept that support, as long as I was discreet. I had offered training, it had been declined. Hopefully, they could find bodies to put into that gear.
Now I was going to return to the New Temple and get some work done, then off to Sultoon.
A few hours later saw us landing at the Temple. I wanted to check on my new project, the new generation of Vulture droids.
This project was being overseen by Shield and carried out by my droid workshop at the Temple.
Shield met me at the bottom of my ship's ramp.
"How goes the project?" I began.
"It goes well. The first prototype is complete. When it passes testing successfully, we will begin mass production." Shield replied.
"Excellent. We have a lot of empty berths and could use those craft." I replied.
"I understand." Shield replied.
We had three light carrier/landing ships and a dedicated landing ship. We also had a lot of installations like Elysia, Sultoon, Mustelidae, Emberlene and, not to mention, Dandoran. There was also this Temple and the Stash to think of. We only had so many X-Wings and Epsilon Vultures. More would be better. I could also point out we had another carrier under construction.
I went with Shield to the shop and met our first new Eta class Vulture.
"Welcome aboard." I said to the prototype.
"I am honored to meet the Harp." The Vulture replied in a particularly mechanical voice.
The Eta prototype was a little bigger than the Epsilons we had in inventory. It looked good.
Shield sent the Eta out and it did a very convincing demonstration. The Eta out flew three Epsilons. We wanted to try it against X-Wings, but didn't want to show our hand before absolutely necessary.
We had some X-Wings here at the Temple, so I suited up and took one out. The Eta was very effective. I would guess I could beat him about half the time. Sky used Revenge to practice with the Eta as well. It did well.
After I was back at the station I had a conference with Shield.
"Well it seems like the Eta is doing well." I began.
"Assuming testing goes well, we should be able to go to full production in three weeks. At that point, we should be able to have a completed craft every 62 hours. We have sufficient parts kits to produce 96 craft. All suppliers have been alerted to have additional parts kits ready on short notice." Shield reported.
"Any problems?" I asked.
"The supplier for the torpedo warheads is being recalcitrant on shipment. I have described this problem before." Shield replied.
"Master Zaemon is tasked to deal with that after his current task." I explained then continued, "Prepare me a report on what would be necessary to increase the pace of production. Seems like you have things well in hand. Keep me updated."
I gave Shield my farewell and proceeded to my next errand.
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