Chapter 54
Counterattacks
I decided to delete the idea of Warp Angels from this story. Perhaps I am turning this into a Sci-fi pulp by adding something like that in so goodbye
"Preparing to exit hyperspace."
Joseph Halos sat on his leather command throne, watching as the stars returned from the long lines of pure light to their normal pinpricks, signifying his ship's reversion to real space. Halos sighed, thinking that hyperspace had its beauty but could be just as dangerous as the warp, if a course wasn't plotted correctly a ship could crash into a star or enter a black hole. It was also known that ships had vanished from the space lines while still in hyperspace, never to be seen again.
He pressed a few runes on the arm of his command chair and waited, allowing a holographic three dimensional image of the entire star system to appear, showing the planets, moons, asteroid belt, defensive lines and ship concentrations, particularly the black patches which represented Chaos ship concentrations, and the silver and gold which represented the ships of the coalition. Outside of the blockading Chaos ship formations was a growing cluster of gold and silver icons, representing his fleet.
He hit a few more runes, allowing the image to zoom into his fleet's location. His star dreadnought, the Lady of Fate was set in the centre of the formations with Lord Admiral Halcyon's battleship, the Lord Solaris hovering a kilometre to his ship's portside. Spread out over a hundred kilometre area of space was the rest of the coalition fleet, over seven hundred warships ranging in size from capital-ships to escorts.
"All ships report ready and in position."
"Lord Admiral Halcyon reports his crusade is in position and awaiting instructions."
"Good," Halos said as his eyes continued to scan the clusters of Chaos capital-ships and pickets surrounding the Bakura system. They were well positioned with clusters of fifty to a hundred vessels each placed at key points, stopping anyone from within the system from escaping to open space yet also positioned so that reinforcements could be moved from one place to another fairly quickly. There were so many clusters that the grand admiral thought that the enemies' number could be in the thousands. The commander of this blockade knew exactly what he was doing.
"All ships, take up position epsilon beta spearhead," he ordered and watched as the vessels of the taskforce slowly formed up into a spear tip, ready to pierce a chosen enemy ship concentration. He had chosen his target and after a brief pause gave the order to strike.
For a brief moment his ship entered hyperspace and exited again, bringing his dreadnought within firing distance of the nearest enemy ship, a Chaos frigate. The mighty main batteries opened up, spewing beams of destructive death upon the much smaller vessel. It didn't have a chance, exploding a few moments after the bulk of energy weapons hit their mark.
By then the rest of the coalition fleet had arrived and likewise opened fire with every weapon battery at their disposal. The numbers of the Chaos fleet were reduced quickly by the vastly superior numbers of the fleet under both Halos's and Halcyon's command.
Halos briefly checked the main three dimensional resolution before him, verifying the locations of other Chaos fleet groups. Three clusters were closing in on their positions. As he watched the display he quickly barked out orders for certain fleet squadrons to move to interception positions and wait for the enemy to arrive.
Onboard his battleship Halcyon was likewise barking out orders for his own forces to move into positions. The Tech-Priests, servitors and bridge crew of his battleship relayed his orders to the mass of men and women who kept the monstrous leviathan moving. He felt the thrum as his battleships mighty engines came to life, propelling it forward with the fleet towards the opening skirmishes.
By the time the Chaos reinforcements had arrived the fleet had properly positioned itself into two flanks, each one facing the direction where the incoming enemy fleets would be arriving. From his worn leather command throne Halos watched as more clusters of Chaos fleets began to converge on the battle-group's position. He grinned, seeing that they were taking the bait. From the inside of the system he saw the ragtag fleet groups of Bakura's defence force begin to muster on several key locations in an attempt to shatter the blockade in a two pronged attack.
"All ships," he ordered crisply as the first wave of Chaos vessels returned to real space right in front of his formation, "Open fire!"
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"The Adjacent Fury reports ready admiral" her communications officer reported, indicating the massive battlebarge which dwarfed even her flagship. Grand Admiral Alexi Daala scanned the massive fortress of steel with a trained eye, glad that its compliment of Space Marines was on her side. Surrounding both her star dreadnought and the battlebarge was a small shell of Space Marine frigates and strike vessels from several different chapters, waiting impatiently for the chance to shatter the blockade and return to the war that they came here to fight.
Surrounding the impressive shell of Space Marine starships was an even greater shell of vessels from both the Alliance and the Imperium, all battered and charred from continuous skirmishes against their Chaos harassers, but ready to repay the debt in spades. She tore her eyes from the space battle, settling upon the holographic forms of the Bakuran defence council, a group of military leaders including generals, admirals and most impressive of all the highest ranking members of the Space Marine p resence in the fleet.
"Captain Angelos," Daala asked, indicating the massive intimidating holographic form of the elected leader of the space marines in this conflict, "Are the emperors finest ready to take the fight to the enemy?"
"We are ready," Angelos replied impassively, although Daala thought she saw a hint of excitement in his grey eyes.
"All right," Daala began, "All ships, prepare for a short hyperspace jump, be ready to come out with all guns blazing!"
The other commanders nodded and shimmered away as they disengaged their holograms, and Daala sat back in her chair, exhaling a breath as the mass of ships in front of her vanished into hyperspace, followed by her own. The hyperspace jump only took a moment, and when they reverted to real space they found that the battle had started without them.
"Admiral, fleet squadrons all report in and ready"
"Good," Daala replied just noticing the Space Marine strike cruisers and frigates had already started their advance upon the wayward chaos formations. The Adjacent Fury's massive bulk completely filed her vessel's starboard viewports as it lumbered after its escorts, lance batteries already spewing out torrents of death upon the enemy rearguard.
"All ships, battle formations," she ordered, "Wait for the signal to fire and for the Force's sake watch your aim, there are allies in that maelstrom"
Silently the fleet moved into their assigned formations, their weapon batteries quiet and their fighter compliments at standby. Each fleet squadron was made up of three capital-ships in a v-formation with a shell of destroyers, frigates and pickets surrounding them. Wordlessly Daala watched as six Imperial-class Star Destroyers formed up around her dreadnought, their weapon systems primed but waiting for her orders.
The Chaos forces had just noticed their arrival and a full half of their monolithic blockade force were turning to intercept them. The grand admiral mentally calculated the time it would take them to close the gap and considered ordering the fleet to open fire before the formations were complete.
"They are in position admiral,"
"Thank you second officer Tenner," she replied, "Fleet status?"
"Eighty percent in formation and standing by."
"It will have to do," she muttered as the Space Marine contingent speared into the Chaos lines, destroying escorts and blasting through capital-ships, and decided that then now was the perfect time, "Full broadside, all ships open fire!!!"
The fleet erupted in a torrent of well-aimed turbolaser and lance fire, the beams of green, red and orange crossing the void and colliding with enemy ships. Not a single Space Marine vessel was hit and their way was clear thanks to the barrage of the fleet behind them.
The Space Marine captain's voice crackled through the communication systems "You have our thanks for that impressive display grand admiral."
"Don't mention it, Captain," Daala replied with a bit of a grin, as the two warriors had forged a bond of respect during the many months of fire and blood they shared when Bakura was weathering the worst of the Chaos invasion, saving each other's skin so many times that it was nearly impossible to keep track.
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"Brothers!" Gabriel howled as the Adjacent Fury waded through the lines of Chaos ships, creating a path for Daala's forces to follow through, "Let us bring the Emperor's shinning light upon these betrayers! For the Emperor!!!"
There was a thunderous chant throughout the superstructure of the battlebarge from every Space Marine aboard, even the thousands of serfs who made up the crew's compliment added their voices to the chant. They had been cooped up in that little star system for so long that the captain thought they might need to shake off the rust.
The battle-group continued to slice through the chaos lines, the battlebarge leading the charge all the way. They could already see the flashing lasfire and explosions of another distant skirmish. The captain guessed that that was where Halos and Halcyon were, barging through the Chaos armada from the opposite side in an attempt to push through to them. The two opposite forces would eventually meet, and when they did the Chaos blockade would be broken and the forces associated with it shattered.
A much needed major victory for the coalition, the Imperium…the Emperor.
"My lord, there are distortions in space!"
"Where?" Angelos asked, gazing through the bridge viewports for any such phenomena.
"Everywhere!"
An image appeared before the captain, showing a swirling tear appear in the fabric of space itself, like a gaping wound that he had only seen on a handful of occasions, but its meaning remained the same. Quickly the captain spun on his heel, drawing his power-sword with remarkable speed and stabbing into the rotten heart of a muscular warp daemon, it was like nothing that he had ever seen before, fairly human in appearance, a mass of black flesh with two bony arms and legs, a long whip like tail swinging from side to side, spines and horns covered its back and shoulders and a pair of feral yellow eyes that starred hungrily at him before it turned into black mist.
"All hands!" Gabriel bellowed as he tossed his power-sword to his left hand and drew his bolt pistol with the other, "Summon the fleet, prepare to repel borders…and get me those Grey Knights!!!"
Screams of dread and terror resounded from the bridge as more of the black muscled monstrosities appeared there, tearing unsuspecting serfs and servitors apart with tooth and claw. Gabriel aimed his bolter pistol at one and squeezed the trigger. The rounds hit the daemon head on, disintegrating its head. The bridge's Space Marine contingent aimed and fired, spewing bolter rounds upon the monsters, tearing them to pieces in a hail of explosive shells.
Meanwhile on the dreadnought Courageous Daala had been thrown to the floor, being held down by the nearly crushing weight of a black warp daemon. She gritted her teeth and put several rounds into it with her blaster pistol. Again and again she shot the creature point blanc in its abdomen, which was seeping blood onto her admiral's uniform, yet it continued to bear down on her, opening its maw as if to tear her head off her shoulders.
A hail of blaster fire saved her life, striking the creature's side and disintegrating it in a mass of blood and fractured bones. It fell lifelessly on top of her and Daala let out a scream of agony as one of its talons dug into her leg. A group of Alliance marines ran to her side, hefting the creature off her and dragging her away from the carnage.
The bridge's contingent of guards was firing continuously upon the daemonic entities that appeared without warning and started tearing her bridge crew to pieces. She had read extensively on the known kinds of daemons the Imperium encountered, but she had never seen such a beast before. Similar skirmishes were taking place all over the ship, all over the fleet, demoralising them and making many vessels easy prey for the battered but not defeated Chaos warships.
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"What is going on?" Halos growled as he watched ship after ship in Daala's fleet fall without a fight, "Try to raise one of their ships, I don't care which one!"
A fleet frequency came on line, but when the hail was sent there were no responses, only the sounds of near head pounding static. For what seemed like minutes Halos waited, watching as the ships of the fleet continued to pound through the hastily regrouping Chaos blockade. Finally they got an answer.
"Grand Admiral Halos, this is Brother-Captain Angelos."
"Captain," Halos greeted, stopping short when he heard gunfire and the rattling of chain-swords in the background, "What's going on?"
"We're under heavy attack from boarding Chaos daemons," Angelos reported, "We estimate such infiltration to have happened to roughly twenty percent of the total fleet including the Courageous and the Adjacent Fury."
Before he heard the last of the Space Marine's report, Halos heard the snap-hiss of a lightsabre and spun on his command throne in time to see Gabrielle slice through a warp daemon as if she were cutting warm butter with a knife. The creature convulsed and collapsed, slowly disintegrating into black mist.
"We appear to have a similar infestation," the Grand Admiral replied before turning to the ensign on the ship-to-ship communications, "Order all ships to triple interior security, daemon infestation, code red apex delta, shoot on sight!"
"This is the captain speaking," Florn shouted on the ship's communications, "All security and marines to your stations, I repeat all security and marines to your stations, daemon infestation code…"
As Florn relayed the orders throughout the entire ship Halos drew his blaster pistol and set it on his lap, ready for the need to use it at a moments notice. Likewise Gabrielle kept her lightsabre hilt in her hand, unlit but still ready for action. The clicking of magazines and clips being loaded into blasters signalled that the bridge security squads were likewise prepared.
"Take us forward, helmsman," Florn ordered, likewise drawing his pistol and checking its power cell, "All gun batteries fire on anything not bearing coalition markings!!!"
"Yes sir!"
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The Grey Knights entered the battle, peppering daemons with anointed bolter shells from wrist mounted storm bolters and skewered them with their nemesis halberds and nemesis force swords. They moved with such speed and precision that their Space Marine brethren couldn't help but be impressed by their battle skill.
"Hanger clear!"
"Engineering clear!"
"Living quarters clear!"
"Firing control clear!"
As the different decks reported their status Angelos couldn't help but grin slyly. On a normal ship of the Emperor, the daemons may have had a chance, but on a vessel controlled by the Adeptus Astartes, they had no chance. He sheathed his sword and holstered his pistol before starring out upon the firestorm taking place all around them. Many vessels had dealt with the small daemon invasions and continued with the battle, reforming and plunging back into the Chaos lines.
"The Courageous reports that the Grand Admiral has been injured in battle, Brother-Captain, but they are ready to continue."
"Good," Angelos replied. Daala was not the type of warrior who would stop leading her people because of a flesh wound. It was one of the many attributes that he admired in her.
"Brother-Captain, Grand Admiral Halos's flagship is in sight"
"Thank you, mister R Ronaldi," Angelos replied, "Full speed, all guns fire at anything that moves, once our two armadas join this battle is over!"
The battlebarge trudged on, her shields flickering from the constant barrage of weapons fire she took, but she and her escorts were no longer alone. The lull had allowed much of the Bakuran battle-group to rejoin them. Imperial Star Destroyers and Firestorm light cruisers fought side by side, protecting their much bigger charges from the small swarms of enemy starfighters.
Then it happened, the two battle-groups joined, the raw firepower from their guns swatting the remaining Chaos vessels out of the sky like flies. Daala fell into her chair, taking in a breath before exhaling it sharply. She looked down to see the medic had finished cleaning the wound and was now applying the bacta wrap. All around her bridge medics and soldiers were carrying the dead and wounded away, she shook her head. War was a very ugly business.
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By the time Lord Admiral Hunt and Supreme Commander Pallaeon arrived at the Imperial capital the battle was nearing the end of its first day. Clusters of warships battered each other with turbolaser and lance fire, starfighters battled with each other in swarms around capital-ships, orbital defence platforms around space stations.
One thing the Lord Admiral knew from this display of space battle was that the Remnant had failed to stop the eparatists and their traitorous Chaos allies from gaining a foothold in the capital system.
"Battle stations!" he shouted, watching for a moment as the bridge crew went to their tasks, "Raise shields; power up weapons…where is Admiral O'Connell?"
"We can't locate his cruiser my lord!"
"Then locate it!" Hunt growled, "All ships fire at will!!!"
The three hundred warships under his command and the five hundred under the Alliance supreme commander opened up with a withering barrage of destructive beams and torpedoes. The shell of traitor vessels in front of them was ripped asunder by the opening salvo.
Hunt turned his head slightly to see Pallaeon's new flagship, an old civil war era Executer-class Star Dreadnought, as it and the escort vessels surrounding her spewed out a torrent of death at the enemy formations.
The battle group continued its push into the capital system of the Imperial Remnant, mowing down any of the scattered traitor fleets they came across. Eventually their numbers began to swell as more Remnant star destroyers and cruisers joined their ranks.
"My lord admiral, I have located Admiral O'Connell!"
"Then put him through!"
Instead of seeing Admiral O'Connell appear in front of him, Hunt viewed the destroyed husk of his cruiser, which was floating lifelessly in space, its heavily armoured hull charred and pocked in several places, equipment and the dead floated around the lifeless cruiser, their faces blue and their bodies bloated by decompression.
"Damn them!" Hunt hissed, "Damn those traitorous scum, I'll continue to hunt them down until not a single one is left in this galaxy, as the Emperor is my witness!"
"Your orders, sir?"
"Arm the nova cannon!" Hunt bellowed angrily, "Aim it for the biggest traitor vessel you can find and blow it from existence, and order all battlecruisers and battleships to do the same!"
"Aye sir!" the captain replied with a malicious grin.
A few moments later, over twenty nova cannons were discharged, spewing their deadly anti-ship shells into space. Soon, space came alive with unimaginably bright flashes as the shells hit their mark. The Lord Admiral waited, drumming his fingers against the command chair's arm as holoscreen after holoscreen appeared, showing separatist and Chaos warships exploding and breaking up from the deadly act of retaliation.
"Sir, we have more ships coming in."
Hunt growled and started pressing runes on his chair's arm console, bringing up images of hundreds, maybe thousands of flashes, he hit a few more buttons and the image zoomed in, showing pitch black remnant ships and larger chaos vessels.
"I read maybe two thousand enemy ships," one of the serfs called, "Most of them are separatist vessels with over a hundred and fifty Chaos craft within the formations!"
"Emperor be with us!" his captain murmured, tracing the Emperor's insignia across his chest.
"Get me the supreme commander!"
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"Gather the fleet groups around Bastion," Pallaeon barked from his command chair, "We're going to need every ship to repel this one."
"Yes sir!"
"Sir, Lord Admiral Hunt is hailing."
"Put him on."
The Lord Admiral appeared before him, his half mechanical features furrowed in deep thought, "You saw?"
"Yes," Pallaeon replied, "I am assembling all fleet squadrons around Bastion now. Its orbital and ground defences should give us the firepower we need to repel these separatist cowards!"
The Lord Admiral nodded in agreement, "Since this is your home we are fighting for I place the remnants of my fleet in your command."
"Thank you."
As the Lord Admiral's image flickered and vanished Pallaeon calculated the numerical difference in his mind. At that moment the Remnant's loyal fleets were scattered across their territories searching for a traitor armada which was here, at the very heart of the Empire. They were outnumbered two to one in this but the orbital and ground defences were formidable enough to even the odds. If it came to a ground battle the supreme commander knew that the three hundred thousand Imperial regulars and five legions of loyal Stormtroopers could hold out against the traitors' army, but it was the civilian population of over eight billion he was worried about, knowing what Chaos did to the innocent.
"We can't allow this to become a ground battle," Pallaeon said.
"Agreed sir," the captain replied with a nod, "Do you have a plan?"
"A risky one,"
"Will it work?"
"Possibly," Pallaeon said, then barked out an order to revive communications with the Lord Admiral, and as Hunt reappeared, looking as deep in thought as ever before, he asked "T "Tell me, my lord, how many of your ships are hyperdrive equipped?"
"All of them," Hunt replied with a questioning frown, "It was a mandatory refit before we came here."
"Then I have an idea," Pallaeon said before explaining his strategy, when he was finished the Lord Admiral looked at him as if he was insane, then a smile appeared on his face, "You'd make a fine Warmaster, Supreme Commander Gilad Pallaeon."
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"Sir, we have arrived at the last designated point," Admiral Piett said with a crisp salute, "Once the fleet is accounted for we will jump to Bastion."
Anakin turned to face the admiral, a slight smile on his face before nodding, "Thank you, Admiral, tell me when the fleet is ready."
"Yes sir."
As the admiral spun around and started walking back across the command deck, Anakin felt a strange sensation. He shrugged it off and turned back to inspect the stars. Several Jedi were scattered across the bridge and command deck, talking and watching. Jedi masters Plo Koon, Mace Windu, Depa Billiba, Corran Horn and Kit Fisto stood around a holo-table discussing on the proper strategy for the battle ahead, while Yoda stood on the command deck looking into space, it all seemed to alien to Anakin.
"You're having trouble accepting how you and the others could be here," his son said as he came up beside him.
"It is still hard to accept," Anakin replied, his head then fell slightly, a sad smile on his face, "Very hard to accept. I and the others should be dead, my children are older than me, my grandchildren are about the same age as me, and one of them is making the same mistakes I made, only under the pretence that he is doing this for the greater good of the galaxy."
"Don't dwell on the past father," Luke said, his eyes closed and head bowed slightly, "Don't question why you are here, do not think, do not cloud your mind with such confusing thoughts. Since when has the Force been easy to understand? We have tried to learn its secrets for thousands of years and yet we are no closer to understanding it than the hermits of countless millennia ago. Trust in the Force and the answers will come to you in time."
"My son," Anakin said as he turned, placing a hand on Luke's shoulder, "You've become a far wiser and stronger Jedi than I could ever hope to be."
"From you," Luke replied, "That means everything."
Anakin smiled, a smile that for the first time since he had returned was not forced or sad, he nodded to his son and turned back to further gaze upon the endless sea of stars before them. Suddenly he saw several hundred flashes light up the distance. He spun and barked orders to identify the intruders.
"It can't be Chaos, can it?" Fisto asked as he came up beside Anakin, further accompanied by Masters Billiba, Windu, Yoda, Horn, Durron and Koon, "Or the Imperial Seperatists?"
Anakin's head lowered, "We'll know soon enough."
Images appeared showing sleek vessels of a completely alien design. They looked like Star Destroyers, yet their look was completely different from any that he had ever seen before. Ranging from one to five kilometres in length they kept the same basic wedge shape that was common for the class but the command tower had been lowered, partially hidden behind a crevice of hull armour.
"Sir, the lead ship is calling us."
"Put him through," Anakin replied and watched as a holo-screen appeared before them showing a tall humanoid wearing a white uniform with gold embroidering. His hair was jet black and cut in a military style, his skin was a cerulean blue, but what distinguished him were his eyes, which shined crimson red. The stern alien gazed upon the nine masters arrayed before him before speaking.
"I am Admiral Mak'shiro'lathorri, or by my core name, Shiro," he said in heavily accented basic, "We represent the empire you know as the Chiss Ascendancy."
"Greetings, Admiral," Anakin said as he stepped forward, "I am-"
"Anakin Skywalker, yes, we know," Shiro replied, "I and the thousand plus vessels of the 5th Phalanx battle-group have been sent by our noble houses to assist you in the repelling of the Chaos armadas from the galaxy."
"Why would you act now?"
"We have already been attacked by a Chaos fleet sent into the unknown regions," Shiro explained, "We lost three colony worlds to them before they were stopped and driven back to the abyss, over five hundred thousand lives were massacred…the Ascendancy will have vengeance for this unspeakable act!"
"Then, Admiral, join us you may," Yoda spoke up, "For fighting Chaos, we will"
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"All systems check."
"Hyperdrive coordinates set."
"All weapons on standby."
"Lord Admiral Hunt reports his ships are ready."
"Admiral Curry reports all ships ready."
"Admiral Green reports all ships ready."
"Admiral Bradley reports ready."
"Very good," Pallaeon said, before starring at the two thousand plus separatist and Chaos warships arrayed against them. They were coming in slowly, strategically, preparing themselves for a long blockade of the Imperial capital. The supreme commander grinned before sitting forward in his command chair.
"Now."
The stars turned into lines for just a moment, just a moment. Yet within that moment the battle group had crossed a full half of the solar system, within that moment the one thousand Imperial and Imperium ships of war had moved from Bastion to within the traitor fleet itself. As the stars returned to normal and the black masses surrounded them Pallaeon started barking orders.
"Raise shields, choose your targets…FIRE!!!"
Immediately the stars came alive with turbolaser and lance fire as the battle group, now scattered within the enemy armada, cut lose with every weapon at their disposal. Separatist Star Destroyers and Chaos picket ships began exploding and disintegrating under the force of the battle group's guns. Dozens, maybe hundreds of enemy ships were either destroyed or suffered damage before the enemy regained their senses and fired back.
From his command chair on board the battleship Crying Saint,Lord Admiral Hunt laughed as his ship's countless weapons opened fire, destroying or crippling all ships around her. The supreme commander had made a dangerous and potentially disastrous move, but it had paid off. Hunt felt his respect for the old man rise greatly, he wasn't afraid to take risks, the sign of a true military leader.
The enemy ships regained their sanity and returned fire, and Hunt watched as several allied Star Destroyers and his own escorts began to fall one by one. There were just far too many of them, the supreme commander's trick may have given them the chance to strike but the numbers were just too staggering.
"My lord," his captain said, his eyes wide, "Chaos cruisers!"
"Where?"
"Everywhere!"
Swearing he saw that four Chaos battlecruisers had surrounded the battleship, one on each side of the titanic vessel's hull. Lance fire was exchanged continuously between them but the battlecruisers had the Saint in the middle of a kill zone. Slowly the mighty void shields flickered and finally died, allowing lance after lance to strike the thick adamantium armour plating.
"It was a pleasure serving you, my lord."
Hunt fell back in his chair as a fresh wave of explosions shook the very superstructure of the battleship. If this kept up then not even a ship of the Saint's calibre could survive.
"No, Captain," Hunt replied, "The pleasure of having you and the crew of this ship as my subordinates is all mine."
Suddenly two beams of bright green light cascaded from high above, each one piercing through the heavily armoured hull of the two battlecruisers with perfect accuracy and turning them to atoms. The Lord Admiral looked up to see three massive pitch black warships descend upon the battle, and by the Emperor they were massive, each at least seventeen kilometres long. The three super battleships were not alone. A mass of warships was arrayed around them from archaic Star Destroyers to alien ships he had never seen in the archives of this galaxy before.
They entered the battle, punching holes through the enemy lines with their weapon batteries. The three super battleships firing so many turbolaser batteries that it was like they were surrounded by green, blue and red light. Smaller alien Star Destroyers flew past them at three times their supposed speed, cutting into the mass of enemy ships and tearing their formations apart.
As the Lord Admiral watched, a large view-screen came to life showing a being wearing strange white armour, a long white cape draped around his shoulders and a lightsaber hilt at his hip. His breathing was deep and chilling. He spoke, his words bringing an even greater chill up the Lord Admiral's spine.
"I am Darth Vader," the being spoke with power, "And with my return the Empire will be strong again. All of you who turn against the empire for false promises of power have no place in the new order I will forge. You will flee or you will die!"
As if to add to his statement another bright lance of destructive green light fired from the central star dreadnought, soaring through space and colliding with a separatist star cruiser, shearing straight through its hull from the tip of its nose all the way back to the engine nozzles. For a moment it just hung there, like time had suddenly stopped, then it sparked and exploded.
For a moment nothing happened then he began to see the Separatist fleet squadrons break formation and turn, making a run for open space. Slowly the Imperial traitors scattered and fled one by one until only a few hundred Separatist vessels remained with the hundred Chaos ships. It took another hour to win the battle but by its end Hunt had many unanswered questions, and a need to have them answered.
Special thanks to Dungams, who did a great job of putting this chapter through a beta for me.