Chapter 39
The Chaos Wars:
Battle of Bakura, the Coming of the Warp
"Force be with us"
Gabrielle Sabbath upon seeing the Chaos Armada
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The Bakuran defence forces were split into several battle-groups, each one made out of just over a thousand warships and positioned on the four main defence lines of weapons platforms. Each battle-group was lead by Executer Star Dreadnoughts, Strident Star Defenders, Emperor Battleships, Retribution battleships and finally, leading the main battle-group positioned around Bakura like a shell of armour and weapons was the Blood Raven's Battle-barge, surrounded by its taskforce of marine strike cruisers.
As the first wave of chaos warships appeared out of warp tears at the edge of the system the outer defences of missile and weapon platforms opened fire, spraying hundreds of lances of green and crimson energy into the column of armour that was approaching them. From the platforms and capital-ships among the defences squadrons of Alliance starfighters and bombers launched and came at the chaos ships in small clouds.
In response the chaos cruisers launched their own starfighter squadrons, swarms of Switdeaths and Doomfires flew out of the main formations and clashed with the approaching X-wings, A-wings, Tie defenders and Interceptors. Their meeting was immediately christened by dozens of explosion plumes and tiny lines of laserfire. As the fighters engaged each other teams of Tie Scimitar bombers and Y-wings soared past the skirmishes, climbed high and dived down towards the black silhouettes of the chaos escort ships, corkscrewing and banking left and right to avoid the rail gun and laserfire from the escort ships, several bombers were hit and either went corkscrewing out of control, trailing smoke and pieces of fuselage or exploded outright.
Many bombers made it through and launched their payloads of plasma and proton bombs. The bombs hit their mark, piercing through the void shields and exploding against the heavily armoured hulls, creating craters and in some concentrations opening the ships up to space. Four corvettes and two frigates were destroyed and twice as many suffered damage.
The chaos wave continued on unhindered, taking the combined weapons fire and torpedo clusters of several hundred defence platforms and returning fire with dark lance batteries and plasma torpedoes. Massive blooms of fire signalled the death of a defence platform or the destruction of a warship. In the centre of the outer defences was a massive spire shaped space station, armed to the teeth with two beam cannons, fifty heavy turbolaser batteries and over a hundred smaller laser and ion cannons.
Onboard the defence station Commander Colarsk watched as his main crew of operators worked feverishly at their stations, speaking with the wing commanders and captains. The noise of the computer consoles, alarms and people giving out orders was almost deafening.
"The chaos taskforce is down to half strength"
"We've just lost platforms 10, 12, 15, 19 and 20 in the eastern flank!"
"Launch the second starfighter wave!"
"Bombers break for another run!"
"Rear-Admiral Tennets has reported the destruction of the Mothball and the Firefly"
"Commander the second wave has arrived. I count at least five hundred vessels ranging from gunships to battlecruisers"
Colarsk turned to his holo-table, ignoring the small crowd of strategists around it and hit several buttons on the console, zoomed the hologram towards the warp torn area of space. A column of black silhouettes three time the size of the first wave were rapidly approaching his defensive line, spraying barrages of lance fire into the line of platforms, destroying several more and hitting the space station. The entire superstructure shook violently from the assault and the shields flickered blue, alarms sounded throughout the battle-station, signalling that the shields were reaching critical.
The bombers continued their runs but their numbers were beginning to dwindle against the pure firepower of the second wave. Many were shot down by showers of rail-gun and lasfire. The turbolasers of the platforms and central battle-station continued to fire, destroying several more escorts and clusters of starfighters.
"We're not going to hold" Colarsk said as he shook his head "Order the starfighters and capital-ships to retreat to the second line"
Another series of explosions rocked the battle-station, shattering the shields and pocketing the armoured hull, entire sections became open to space. Masses of equipment and people were spilling through the breaches. The commander found himself mumbling a prayer for each one of them.
A shrill scream made the commander spin around to see one of the operators lying on the floor, blood gushing out of a deep wound in her chest. Looming over her was a truly horrific creature, a mass of purple and pink muscle, blood soaked claws attached to wiry arms and legs and a pair of warped eyes starring mercilessly at the commander. He drew his blaster pistol and fired several shots at the creature, the blaster bolts tearing through its flesh, instead of dying the monster vanished in wisps of red mist.
Keeping his pistol drawn he ran towards the fallen operator just as the Negai female took her last gurgling breath and died. A stream of screams and the sounds of ripping flesh brought his attention to the main crew pit where operators were being torn down by yet more horrific demons, their claws and teeth digging into the operators left and right. Stormtroopers and riflemen spilled into the chamber, pouring blaster bolts into the daemons. They jumped with supernatural grace and started clawing across the transparisteel walls and ceiling of the chamber, diving towards the soldiers and digging into them.
The commander didn't cower as one of the daemons dived at him, he levelled his blaster just as it dived towards him and pulled the trigger, spraying the daemon with crimson bolts and turning it into wisps of red smoke. He turned and was met as a long claw dug into his abdomen, he coughed up blood and levelled his blaster at the ugly mothers face, smiling as the blood trickled down the sides of his mouth.
"I'm taking you with me you ugly Sith-spawning bastard" he said as he pulled the trigger.
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As the chaos vanguard pushed through the outer line of defences the main fleet appeared at the edge of the system, appearing through several hundred warp tears the black mass of vessels blocked out the stars with their great number. From the command deck of his dreaded Planet Killer Abaddon the Despoiler watched with pride as his vanguard fleet made their way past the tattered outer defences, tearing a massive hole in the front line.
The smaller mass of pre-emptive strike vessels were now fast approaching the second line of defences which seemed to be weaker than the first. All that his view-screens could see was a shell of weapon and missile platforms with no larger spherical shaped battle-stations among their number and none of their triangular warships, the second line was going to be easily broken.
As the vanguard approached the second line the platforms opened fire with a powerful barrage of turbolaser, ion and torpedo fire destroying several escort vessels, swarms of starfighters had engaged the fleet and were now dogfighting with their opposites, the space surrounding and within the fleet thick with lasfire and explosion plumes, once or twice a chaos ship would explode from a successful bombing run of an alliance bomber wing but the fleet carried on.
As they came within range of the second line they were immediately assaulted by a sudden increase in the second lines fire. An increase that should have been impossible, as the warmaster strained his eyes to see past the lightshow he noticed distortions within the defensive line, a moment later and a few dozen spherical shaped masses appeared and added their incredible fire with that of the platforms surrounding them. Chaos warships vanished in plumes of fire left and right from the hundred plus added turbolaser batteries. A cruiser received a direct hit to its bridge and started drifting out of the line, trailing smoke and debris.
The chaos warmaster had seen similar methods used before when he fought the Imperium, a few of the corpse emperors followers had used cloaking devices to hide a few of their warships but it had never been done at the scale that it was being used here.
From the command deck of the Alliance flagship, a mammoth Executer dreadnought christened as the Desolator, newly made Alliance Grand Admiral Daala watched with pride as the Golan III defence platforms deactivated their cloaks and opened fire upon the chaos vanguard, dozens of escort corvettes and frigates were incinerated, larger capital-ships were either exploding or drifting, crippled and out of the fight.
She stopped herself from joining her bridge crew in a cheer of triumph, the battle had barely begun. The main mass of chaos warships was approaching, their star blocking mass similar in appearance to a massive monster ready to swallow the entire star system whole.
"Captain signal the battle-group" she ordered to her second in command "We're going to war"
Her battle-group was one of four massive armadas of warships within the Bakura system, tasked to defend it against the forces of chaos. Her force included the Desolator, two Strident-class star defenders, fifty Gauntlet-class star cruisers, two hundred Imperial-class star destroyers, two hundred Liberty-class Mon Calamari star cruisers and over a thousand escort vessels including Providence carriers, Victory star destroyers, Venator star destroyers, Nebulon-B Frigates, Trident frigates along with a mass of other frigates, carriers and corvettes.
"Captain prepare torpedoes and fire"
"Yes milady"
Daala waited as her battle-group launched their torpedoes, thousands of small pinpricks were launched towards the chaos armada, seen to both sides as clouds of pin shaped silhouettes. As they closed in upon the chaos fleet several hundred were intercepted by rail-gun and lasfire from the chaos escorts but enough got through to do their job successfully. Instead of exploding on impact with the enemy ships they exploded several kilometres away, spilling out thousands of small probe droids, their sensors upgraded to make them look like starfighters. They flew straight into the mass of chaos warships and the gunners saw them as starfighters on their sensors.
Within moments the outer waves of chaos warships were firing upon each other with rail-gun, laser and lance fire. Escorts were vaporised left and right by mistaken shots from their supposed allies before the chaos sorcerers of the thousand sons were able to get things under control.
By then Daala's battle-group had made a micro-jump, vanishing from their assembly point and reappearing within the Chaos armada, every weapon battery firing continuously the moment they came out of hyperspace. Several alliance ships accidentally collided with chaos warships as they returned to real-space, ramming their counterparts and exploding in deadly hails of fire and debris, either taking their opponents with them or leaving them seriously damaged.
Swarms of starfighters escaped the alliances hulls, providing support for the capital-ships with strafing and bombing runs. Dozens of chaos vessels were destroyed before they could return fire. From the command deck of the Blood Raven's battlebarge Adjacent Fury Commander Dradus watched as Daala's fleet vanished and reappeared from hyperspace within the chaos armada. Her tactics and strategy was impressive, launching thousands of decoys into the chaos lines and confusing them before launching a quick surprise attack deep within they're fleet formations. Now the alliance was side by side with they're chaos counterparts, pounding each other at point blanc range in an amazing large scale fire fight.
A sudden beam of destructive light shot out from the chaos lines, incinerating everything in and around its path before colliding with the central battle-station, reducing it and the defence platforms around it to they're basic components. From the source of the impressive blast was the fifty kilometre long Planet Killer, its powerful Armageddon gun billowing smoke as it continued its advance, most of the armada continuing on with the super-battleship, leaving a sizeable force to deal with Daala's battle-group.
The armada began to spread out, allowing every available weapon to open fire without an allied ship in the way. Escort ships and defence platforms exploded under each others barrage of weapons fire. Growling under his breath Commander Dradus shouted at the bridge serfs, ordering them to signal the Alliance/Imperium battle-group to advance towards the chaos armada.
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Deep Space
Two hours from Bakura
Grand Admiral Joseph Halos sat on the command chair of his new flagship, watching as the operators and bridge crew of his super star destroyer worked at their consoles. He was in charge of a massive battle-group made out of Hapan and Imperial fleet elements, tasked with reinforcing the beleaguered Bakurans and helping them repel the chaos armada.
He had been warned by the Bakuran holo-net that the battle had started five hours ago and at the moment could go either way, obviously whatever the forces of chaos had for intelligence hadn't been able to decipher they're communications yet. Something didn't seem right to the recently appointed grand admiral however, from the information that the Imperium had given them the chaos legions could mass a force ten times the size of the one invading Bakura if they wanted to take the world.
"Something troubles you Grand Admiral?"
"There's no hiding something from you Jedi is there?" Halos asked as he cranked his head to get a better look at the young woman standing beside him. She was draped in brown robes but the hood was down showing a young woman with long flowing black hair and deep blue eyes. Her name was Gabrielle Sabbath, Gabriel's twin sister and a Jedi master herself. She was a fine Jedi with a keen sense of duty and honour but lacked the strategic finesse of her twin brother.
Although he hated the admit it he actually missed Gabriel, the two of them had been friends since the Yuuzhan Vong wars, when the empire officially declared war on the Yuuzhan Vong he found himself with Gabriel as an advisor and confidant. Counting the years they had spent in the Imperium galaxy they had been working together for just about four years and had become good friends over that time.
"If you try to hide it sir it gets easier to see" Gabrielle replied to his sarcastic question with a mischievous smile and a wink. One thing that he liked about Gabrielle was that she had a mischievous and light hearted personality as opposed to her brothers serious demeanour, that made up for the lack of strategic brilliance.
"Is that so…we'll something doesn't feel right about this chaos invasion"
"I agree" she replied "And so does the force. It is whispering to me, trying to warn me of something but I'm not quite sure what"
The sudden blaring of emergency alarms brought both out of their conversation, the lighting of the bridge began to dim and flash red.
"Emergency hyperspace exit" Halos shouted over the deafening roar of alarms "Order the entire group to do the same thing!!!"
"How far away are we from the Bakuran system" Gabrielle shouted as the alarms were shot off.
"Still an hour and a half away ma'am"
As the battle-group of Imperial star destroyers and Hapan battle-dragons exited hyperspace they should have been able to see the distant star of Bakura shining brightly in front of them. Instead they saw a massive swarm of Chaos warships, numbering in the tens of thousands from gunships and corvettes to battlecruisers and even several battleships.
"Force be with us" Gabrielle breathed as she starred in awe and terror at the array of destructive power arrayed against them.
"The attack on Bakura was a ploy?" Joseph said in disbelief.
"No, they need Bakura" recently made commander Florn replied, his voice barely controlled "This is just thinking ahead, using a massive portion to take Bakura while the rest slip through at the sides"
"All long range turbolasers open fire" Halos bellowed "Contact Bakura, tell them we won't make it to the party"
"Yes sir"
"And contact central HQ" Halos added "We're going to need every fleet squadron they can muster to contain this!!!"
"We can't take on a fleet of that size" Gabrielle said, her voice barely a whisper.
"I agree" Florn replied as the combined Hapan/Imperial battle-group unleashed a powerful barrage of weapons and torpedo fire upon the surprised Chaos warships, incinerating several dozen escort vessels and cruisers "With this force alone they can take every planet up to the inner-rim before the alliance could stop them"
"Only if they pass our second line" Gabrielle replied, referring to a small line of five worlds located past Bakura, the positioning of the systems made them perfect to make an attempt at both containing the invasion if Bakura fell and counterattacking once the alliance had regrouped.
The small line of worlds included the systems of B'Knos, G'rho, Cattamascar, Gymelo and Kammia. Each world had been heavily fortified with both space and ground defenses in case Bakura did fall and were designed to temporarily halt the chaos advance until help from the coalition arrived.
"Order the battle-group to make a tactical withdrawal to Gymelo" Halos shouted as a portion of Chaos ships broke away from the almost sickeningly huge mass and advanced towards his battle-group "We'll regroup there and offer the second line our services!!!"
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Bakura: Eleventh hour
"My lord the plan worked beautifully" Lord Sorcerer Jirvannas said as he approached the warmaster. He was a tall and lean individual, his ancient armour bore the colours and markings of the Thousand Sons with blade-like spikes sticking out of his shoulders, knee caps and elbows, curved blades were attached to his knuckles, specially designed to punch through armour and flesh. His staff was an ancient weapon looking like it was made out of twisted oak with the eight pointed star of chaos crafted at the top. From the eye-visors of his bladed helmet was a pair of blood red eyes which always seemed to shine with the ruinous powers.
"Excellent Jirvannas" Abaddon said as he surveyed the immense battle taking place in front of him. The chaos armada had just broken through the third line of defences and were making their way to the fourth, final and most deadly line of orbital defences surrounding the world known as Bakura. The battle was taking place everywhere, all over the system with their own vessels were well mixed in with the defenders, plumes of explosions and lances of weapons fire were everywhere. Starfighters swarmed around the thousands upon thousands of capital-ships and escorts, either dog-fighting with each other or strafing enemy ships.
A chaos cruiser cracked in two as it was hit by the firepower of four Imperial star destroyers, two Mon Calamari cruisers exploded within seconds of each other as they moved to try and intercept the Planet Killer, their strong shields no match for the thousand plus lance batteries dotting the immense hull of the monster. He saw massive Imperium battleships and similar sized, sleeker Alliance Dreadnoughts side by side with they're chaos counterparts, blasting each other with their impressive arsenals of port and starboard side weapon batteries.
Defence platforms and battle-stations continually firing their weapons and launching their missiles, destroying dozens of chaos vessels and clusters of starfighters and bombers. The main bulk of the armada was approaching the star systems asteroid field, beyond that was the fourth line and beyond that was the blue and green sphere of Bakura
The chaos warmaster smiled viciously, drawing his daemon sword and testing it with a few experimental swings "Now this is a battle!!!"
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To a casual observers eye the asteroid field was empty, save for the thousands of asteroids that floated within it. It wasn't empty, hidden within the asteroid field was the small silhouettes of missile frigates, hundreds of the small ships lay hidden within the belt, their engines and running lights dark as to not draw attention. As the chaos armada passed by a few hundred kilometres away the two hundred plus frigates came to life, their running lights coming on and their engines flaring.
They rose out of the asteroid field and opened fire with their full arsenal of proton torpedoes, each frigate living up to its reputation and firing a thousand each. The torpedo screen flew through the void and into the unsuspecting Chaos armada, blasting over a hundred escort and capital-ship sized vessels to pieces and damaging three times that number
As the armada turned to engage the Imperium/Alliance battle-group, lead by the deadly form of the Adjacent Fury formed up into a dozen massive spears and plunged head on into the armada. Allowing the missile frigates the chance to escape and rearm themselves at the few dozen orbiting rearming and refuelling stations. Within a few moments the Armageddon gun fired again, destroying several dozen coalition warships before colliding with one of the main battle-stations protecting Bakura, vaporising it along with every orbital platform and warship around it.
A large hole was created in the final line and a full squadron of ten Slaughter cruisers soared through it, taking the shots that the surrounding orbital defence platforms were throwing at them and launching their compliments of assault ships and transports. Dozens of orbital strike pods were launched from torpedo tubes on the sides of the cruisers, their compliments of chaos marines and elites screaming for death and destruction.
The battle for Bakura had only just begun!