5. Battle of Bilbringi
"Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter, the statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events." Winston Churchill
As Grand Admiral Thrawn's fleet arrives at Bilbringi to prepare to set a trap for the Rebels, Thrawn instructs his Interdictor cruisers and Interdictor star destroyers to activate their gravity well projectors in anticipation of the imminent Rebel attack, as accurately predicted by Thrawn.
The New Republic assault fleet is pulled out of hyperspace by the interdictor cruisers outside the Bilbringi perimeter.
On the bridge of his flagship New Hope, Admiral Ackbar quickly realized that his fleet had come out of hyperspace too early, and too far out from the Imperial Shipyards. In the distance, a large Imperial fleet is arrayed before the New Republic warships. With several Interdictors being, strategically positioned to prevent any escape.
At once, Admiral Ackbar recognized the trap, Ackbar thinks to himself, Endor all over again, but this time with a Grand Admiral in charge, not good. Admiral Ackbar quickly issues orders to his fleet to adopt defensive positions and for all his startfighters to engage the enemy starfighters.
The Battle of Bilbringi has now begun.
Grand Admiral Thrawn ordered the Interdictor Cruisers Constrainer and Sentinel that were the furthest from the main fleet, to secure from entrapment duty and return to the demarcation line, where they would be better protected. This would become the battles weak point. Then, Grand Admiral Thrawn instructed all Imperial warships to engage the enemy fleet, as per his plan.
The Imperial fleet is arrayed in a bowl-shaped formation with the Interdictors forming the outer ring. As the battle began, the Imperial forces hammer the New Republic warships, which are caught in the confusion, are hastily assembled into a loose battle formation, by Admiral Ackbar.
For much of the early part of the battle, the fight was going clearly in favour of the Imperial fleet.
Unfortunately, for the Empire, the ships of the Smuggler's Alliance was present at Bilbringi, and decided to aid the New Republic fleet by directly attacking the Imperial Shipyards with the help of Rogue Squadron and some New Republic ships. The four Imperial Golan II platforms that protected the shipyards were unable to hold back the swift attack from their rear and the Imperial defensive line is breached.
This tactical change forced the Imperial fleet to divert some of its warships and starfighters to protect the shipyards. Thrawn's second-in-command, Captain Gilad Pellaeon, was dismayed by the sudden change of fortunes, but the Grand Admiral reminded him that the battle was far from over. To regain the initiative for the Imperial fleet, Thrawn planned to execute a tactical manoeuvre, dubbed the "Thrawn Pincer", which would use the Interdictors to bring in more Imperial class star destroyers and other warships directly behind the Rebel fleet.
Despite Grand Admiral Thrawn's genius and before he could initiate the manoeuvre, the Imperial fleet was defeated when Thrawn's bodyguard, a Noghri named Rukh, assassinated him aboard the bridge of the Chimaera at the height of the battle. As Captain Pellaeon read aloud an incoming report from Wayland that indicated that Thrawn's cloning facility was under attack, Rukh temporarily incapacitated the Captain by hitting him on the neck. Rukh then stabbed his long assassin's knife into the back of the Grand Admiral's command chair, pinning and killing the Grand Admiral.
Then Rukh fled Thrawn's command chamber, he would be killed shortly afterwards trying to get off the Chimaera, Rukh would take the existence of another Grand Admiral to the grave, as Rukh had told no one that Teshik is alive.
Thrawn's Command Chamber
In Thrawn's command chamber, Captain Pellaeon had just triggered chamber an alarm, this would summon both Stormtroopers and medics to Thrawn's command chamber. As the wailing of the alarm cuts through the noise of the Chimaera at battle, Pellaeon finally manages to turn his head towards Thrawn.
Thrawn is sitting upright in his chair, his face strangely calm. In the middle of his chest, a dark red stain was spreading across the spotless white of his Grand Admiral's uniform. Glittering in the centre of the stain was the tip of Rukh's, assassin's knife.
Thrawn caught his eye and to Pellaeon's astonishment, the Grand Admiral smiled, Thrawn whispers, "But it was so artistically done."
Thrawn falls silent, the glow of his red eyes slowly but steadily fading, a few seconds' later Thrawn stops breathing.
A few second after Thrawn had stopped breathing, a squad of stormtroopers bursts into Thrawn's room rifles at the ready, followed a few seconds later by a medic team.
One of the medics pauses for a moment next to Captain Pellaeon and asks "Captain, are you injured?", Pellaeon in reply just shakes his head and points to Thrawn, indicating to concentrate on the Grand Admiral, to whom the other medics are already starting to attend to.
The communications officer calls urgently from the bridge, as the medical team arrives. "Captain Pellaeon? The Nemesis and Stormhawk are requesting orders. What shall I tell them?"
Pellaeon looked at the tactical display, at the chaos that had erupted behind the defences of the supposedly secure shipyards, the unexpected need to split his forces to its defence the Rebel fleet taking full advantage of the diversion. In the blink of an eye, the universe had suddenly turned against them.
The main Imperial base in the Bilbringi system was protected well enough and could hold out, Pellaeon thought, Thrawn could still have pulled an Imperial victory out of it. However, Pellaeon was not Thrawn, Pellaeon glanced at Thrawn, was now mostly hidden by the medics working on him dead or alive Thrawn would not be making any decisions right now.
Realizing that he cannot bring victory to this battle but there is another Grand Admiral, who could. Pellaeon says, "Communications send a coded signal to the Invincible II, code Oskar Tango, the frequency and associated codes are in the computer. Then send a signal to all ships to hold their current positions, fresh orders to follow." The Oskar Tango is the code to communicate directly with Grand Admiral Osvald Teshik in an emergency.
The communication operator replies, "Air sir, sending now."
Eleemosynary (also known as the Invincible II)
The star destroyer Eleemosynary along with her newly formed squadron of four Victory II class star destroyers are waiting on the news of Thrawn's victory at Bilbringi. The Eleemosynary is a few light years distance from Bilbringi, Teshik was quite happy for Thrawn to win this battle, as Teshik was happy to remain hidden, just as the two of them had discussed eighteen months ago.
Teshik has been reviewing the resources that are now becoming available to him these include a fully operational production facility on Sanctuary Base to mass produce both the TIE Defender and the TIE Avenger, with the TIE Avenger coming of the new production line much more quickly than the TIE Defender. However, that was to be expected, as the TIE Defender is a much more complicated fighter to mass-produce.
The Eleemosynary own fighter wing consists of 36 TIE Defenders and 36 TIE Avengers, the four Victory II class star destroyers are each equipped with two squadron of TIE Avengers (24 fighters). The crews of the four Victory II class star destroyers are ninety percent clones, with clone production well underway, the Empires manpower problems has been ended.
However, Teshik will soon find out about the loss of Wayland and the death of Thrawn.
Grand Admiral Teshik was waiting for news of Thrawn's victory, when a communications operators says, "Admiral, I am receiving the emergency code, Oskar Tango."
Teshik frowns slightly and says, "Put it through."
In front of Teshik, the image of Captain Pellaeon appears, his voice is rough and he has a red mark on his neck, Pellaeon says, "Admiral, bad news I am afraid, Grand Admiral Thrawn has been attacked by his own bodyguard." Then pausing for a few moments Pellaeon continues, "The battle does not go well, I request your assistance, Sir."
Teshik felt a cold fury inside of him, but he suppressed it, now was not this time for that, Teshik replies, "I am on my way, maintain defensive pattern Kilo seven." Then looking at the tactical feed coming in at the same time, Teshik says, "I will deal with the attack on the Golan II platforms when I arrive, until then you concentrate on the bulk of the Rebel fleet. Once I arrive I will give you more detailed instructions, also have the reserve forces on standby to enter the Bilbringi system, to complete the trap."
Pellaeon replies, "Understood Admiral." With that, the communication is ended, Pellaeon now feels slightly better, as all he has to do is hold out for a short while, he can do that. After all, he may not be a Grand Admiral, but he can dam well fight a holding action, after all, he has been doing that for the five years up to the return of Thrawn and Teshik.
A few moments later the Eleemosynary and her four accompanying Victory II class star destroyers, jumped into hyperspace towards the Bilbringi system.
Chimaera, Main Bridge
After finishing talking with Teshik, Pellaeon had assumed command from the main bridge not Thrawn's command chamber. Pellaeon had told the bridge crew that the medics were working on Thrawn at the moment and that Teshik was on his way, most of the bridge crew had guessed that Teshik was the frequent visitor with Thrawn. Due to their loyalty to Thrawn they had kept this information to themselves.
Captain Pellaeon looked out of the main bridges windows he could see the battle going on between the two fleets he could also see the Chimaera main guns beginning to engage a Rebel frigate.
Looking back at the main bridges tactical display he could see an overview of that battle with the smaller and faster moving dots being starfighters, the blue dots represented Imperial and the red dots the Rebel starfighters, occasionally either a blue or a red dot would disappear, this indicated a kill.
However, he did not have time for sightseeing he had a battle to run until Teshik arrived to take command.
Walking back to his command chair, Captain Pellaeon says, "Communications begin sending defensive orders, to the following groups" then Captain Pellaeon begins to type out orders for the communications operators to send out.
From the communications pit the replies is an "Aye Sir"
Captain Pellaeon thinks to himself, now to hold on long enough until Teshik arrives...
Ten Minutes Later...
Admiral Ackbar was now slightly happier than he had been at the beginning of the battle, with the attack by the Smuggler's Alliance against the Golan II platforms, had eased the pressure against the New Republics fleet however the battle was far from won.
The Imperial fleet is rapidly reorganising itself to deal with this new threat.
Several of the Admiral Ackbar's capital warships had suffered heavy damage during the initial stages of the battle this was not good. The Imperial forces were intact with little or no damage, apart from the damaged Golan II platforms.
One of the sensor operators on the bridge says, "Admiral, I have Imperial warships coming out of hyperspace in sector nine."
Admiral Ackbar looks at the main tactical display, showing a single Imperial class star destroyer along with four Victory class star destroyers. These five warships have come out of hyperspace right on top of the battered Golan II platforms, using the interdictors GWP to pull the star destroyers out of hyperspace at the right moment.
Admiral Ackbar was now much more worried again the battle had shifted again.
Invincible II
After exiting hyperspace, the Eleemosynary and her four Victory class star destroyers, immediately begins to deploy there advanced starfighters.
As the TIE fighters are being deployed Teshik says, "Communications, have our TIE Defenders protect those Golan II platforms, the TIE Avengers are to remain in close defence of my command squadron."
The communications operator replies, "Aye Admiral" then sends the instructions to the fighters.
With the arrive of these five star destroyers, the battle has changed again, with the Smuggler's Alliances forces are now in real danger of being wiped out, as there converted freighters and other ships are no match for five star destroyers and fourteen squadrons of advanced TIE fighters.
At the same time, Teshik begins to start relaying instructions to Captain Pellaeon on what Captain Pellaeon needs to do next, as the warships under Thrawn's command will only obey instruction received from the Chimaera. Teshik is also taking into account the delay in the relaying of his instruction via Captain Pellaeon Teshik has not felt so alive in a long time.
This delay is still causing problems for the Imperial forces, though it is not a major problem, for the moment that is.
Chimaera
With the arrival of the Eleemosynary and her four Victory class star destroyers, the attack against the Golan II platforms has swung back towards the Empire the Imperials "rear" now appears to be getting secured again.
Captain Pellaeon has been for the past few minutes coordinating the battle, although his tactics are not brilliant, they are sound. The Imperial forces are continuing to fight the Rebel fleet and are even making some headway against the Rebels.
Now that Teshik has assumed command, Captain Pellaeon will relay Teshik orders to the rest of the fleet, as it would take too long to explain about Teshik, it is much simpler for Captain Pellaeon to relay Teshik orders.
Captain Pellaeon now feels that this battle is winnable again.
The other bit of news that Captain Pellaeon relayed to Grand Admiral Teshik is that the medics have confirmed that Thrawn is dead.
Home One
Admiral Ackbar is not very happy, the arrival of these five star destroyers have swung the battle back in favour of the Imperial fleet, even though this is a very small advantage for the Imperials.
From the communications pit an operators says, "Admiral, a signal from the Smuggler's Alliance. They say that they cannot hold out very long against five star destroyers and several squadrons of advanced imperial starfighters."
Admiral Ackbar looks at the main display at the fight going on near the battle stations then says, "Have them withdraw from the battle as soon as they are able and add a thank you from me."
The communications operator says, "Aye Admiral, sending now."
Admiral Ackbar watches as the ships of the Smuggler's Alliance begin to break of their engagement and jump into hyperspace once clear of the GWP carrying interdictors this is much easier as the interdictor cruiser GWPs are directed at the Rebel warships and not at the Golan II platforms.
Admiral Ackbar then says, "Communications, have our warships form up into formation Zebra four, with all available starfighters forming a defensive sphere around our capital ships as best as they can. It is time to leave, this battle is not winnable."
The communications operator says, "Aye Admiral, sending orders now."
Admiral Ackbar watches as the New Republic fleet begins to re-orientate itself, Admiral Ackbar plans to leave this battle as soon as the flee has regrouped, Thrawn has pulled of a masterpiece of strategy, this battle is not winnable. Admiral Ackbar also takes note of the Imperial class star destroyer leading the attack forces protecting the battered Golan II platforms, the Invincible II and wonders who is commanding that Imperial squadron?
This star destroyer and its small escort force is performing well Admiral Ackbar assumes that is because it has a good commander and most likely a clone crew. Admiral Ackbar is partially right, though no one in the New Republic fleet yet knows that there is another Grand Admiral still alive or even that Thrawn has been killed.
Eleemosynary
Teshik watches as the last of the remaining Smuggler's Alliance ships jumps into hyperspace, Teshik had let them go, as they were out of the battle that mattered more than pursuing them. The next problem is to eliminate the Rebel fleet, looking at the main display Teshik says, "Have our TIE Defenders return to rearm and refuel."
The communications operator says, "Aye Admiral, sending orders now." The 36 TIE Defenders swing around and head back to the Eleemosynary hanger bay to rearm and refuel, as they had seen the heaviest combat and had used up most of their torpedoes attacking the Smuggler's Alliance ships.
Still looking at the main display Teshik sees that the main point of vulnerability are the two-interdictor cruisers, Constrainer and Sentinel. There is also the need to execute Thrawn's plan to bring in the second wave of warships, to execute what would become known as the "Thrawn pincer."
Teshik says, "Helm, have my command squadron set a course for the Constrainer and Sentinel, we need to provide support, communications have out supporting star destroyers follow us." From the helm and communications pits is a pair of "aye sir", then Teshik command squadron begins to move towards the two-interdictor cruisers, it will take several minutes for the Eleemosynary and her four supporting star destroyers to get into position to provide support for the Constrainer and Sentinel.
Teshik then says, "Communications get me Captain Pellaeon."
A few moments later, the holographic image appears in front of Teshik, Teshik says, "Captain Pellaeon, it is now time to finish this, innate the closing of the trap according to Thrawn's plan."
Captain Pellaeon smiles slightly and replies, "Aye sir, sending the order now."
The Thrawn Pincer is a space warfare tactic developed by Grand Admiral Thrawn. It is based on the Interdictor tactics brilliantly employed by the Grand Admiral to bring reinforcements into his attack on Coruscant and in other battles, including the Battle of Bilbringi.
It starts with a main task force being divided into two. The first group would drop into an enemy system and engage the enemy fleet while the second would jump into a nearby system. When the Imperial fleet activates its gravity well projectors, the commander would then order the second fleet to make a micro-jump through hyperspace, usually behind the enemy fleet using the GWP to the pull the imperial warships out at the right points.
The Rebels were about to be very surprised.
Home One
Admiral Ackbar is now very worried, as he can see that the five star destroyers are re-orientating themselves to move towards the weak point, however so is the New Republic fleet, it is now a race to see who can reach the two interdictors first. The New Republic fleet is at a disadvantage as it can only move as fast as its slowest ship. The Imperials have no such problems is such a battle as they are not the ones who are trying to get away.
As the New Republic Fleet is moving towards the two interdictors a sensor operator says, "Admiral I have a second wave of Imperial warships dropping out of hyperspace."
Admiral Ackbar swings around in his chair to look out of the main bridge window, even at the distance Admiral Ackbar can see the last of the Imperial warships dropping out of hyperspace. Admiral Ackbar thinks to himself, that Thrawn is using the interdictors to pull the Imperial warships out of hyperspace at the right moment and at the right place, very clever.
Admiral Ackbar has now no choice on what to do next, he must preserve the bulk of his fleet, Admiral Ackbar says, "Communications issue an order to all ships are to retreat a flank speed toward exit point Alpha, concentrate all fire when in range on those two interdictor cruisers."
The communications operator says, "Aye Admiral, sending orders now."
A few moments later the New Republic fleet, under intense fire from the newly arrived Imperial warships, as the New Republic fleet heads towards the two-interdictor cruisers, the interdictor cruiser captains can see what is coming towards them (they can't really miss it). They have insufficient warship protection, this leaves the captains with two choices, one be destroyed or two transfer power from the cruisers GWPs to the ships engines and shields and get out of the way of the New Republic fleet.
The two captains choose survival over destruction and transfer power from the cruisers GWPs to the ships engines and shields. Once the GWPs have been powered down, there is nothing to stop the New Republic fleet from jumping into hyperspace.
A few moments later the New Republic fleet begins to rapidly, jump into hyperspace, leaving the Imperial fleet behind, Admiral Ackbar has managed to save most of the fleet (about ninety percent), even though many of the New Republic warships have been damaged to various degrees, as least they have not been captured or destroyed.
The delay between Thrawn's death and Teshik arriving and assuming command was vital in allowing Admiral Ackbar's fleet to escape, otherwise Admiral Ackbar's fleet would have been wiped out and the New Republic would be in a far worse position than it is in now.
Behind them, the Imperials are taking stock of the Battle of Bilbringi, especially Grand Admiral Teshik, who had hoped to remain in the background, this would now have to change or maybe not.
Teshik already has a plan forming on what to do next.
Grand Admiral Teshik, Assuming Command
This first order of business was to summon Thrawn's senior commanders to Bilbringi, to see if they would follow Teshik. This was easier than Teshik expected, as they all would follow Teshik just as they had followed Thrawn, they also agreed to keep the secret that Teshik was alive, as this would be a useful weapon against the New Republic and their fellow Imperials.
With Thrawn's former forces under his control and Vice Admiral Pellaeon acting as Teshik "front man", Teshik would be free to begin rebuilding and expanding Thrawn's former fleet.
General Drost the commander and governor of the Bilbringi was one of the first too fully support Teshik as his new commander. General Drost will have a busy time since the battle in his system with a large number of warships that need to be repaired this has put the work on the twenty new Imperial II class star destroyers on hold. In addition, Teshik has ordered that all old Victory I class star destroyers be upgraded to Victory II standard, as the Victory I class star destroyer is of limited value in space combat.
General Drost is reviewing security at the Bilbringi shipyards as this is the second time he has been caught by the Rebels, General Drost does not want this to happen a third time.
Over the next month, Teshik through Vice Admiral Pellaeon will consolidate Thrawn's holdings (at total of fifteen sectors) in addition Teshik will start an improvement program for Imperial warship production. This will have a long-term goal of rebuilding the Imperial fleet this is much more difficult due to the loss of the cloning facilities.
Teshik is not willing to reveal to anyone outside of his own crew that he has a single cloning cylinder onboard the Eleemosynary, which is in the process of producing a stable clone of him.
The New Republic is also taking stock after the Battle of Bilbringi.
New Republic, post Bilbringi
A week after Bilbringi Admiral Ackbar is briefing the New Republic council on the state of the Empire and the New Republics military capabilities. Admiral Ackbar sees the Battle of Bilbringi as a lost battle as he did not succeed in capturing this major Imperial shipyard, though the New Republic council sees it as an Imperial trap that Admiral Ackbar managed to escape from with a large part of the New Republics fleet.
The New Republic council sees the Battle of Bilbringi as a victory Admiral Ackbar sees it as a defeat.
With the news of the death of Thrawn, will cause great relief within the New Republic, however the news that the forces under Thrawn's command are now being run by his deputy a certain Vice Admiral Pellaeon. This will case great concern, within a few months the New Republic will be in a fight for its very survival.
Admiral Ackbar states that, "None of you need to be reminded that in the past few weeks our war against the remnants of the Empire has changed from what was once called a mopping-up exercise to a battle for our very survival."
Admiral Ackbar goes onto say, "The New Republics military forces sustained considerable losses during the Thrawn campaign with ten percent of our forces being killed, thirty percent wounded but those are just averages. On the worlds Thrawn actually hit, the devastation was much more significant. The Battle of Bilbringi is a case in point, even with Thrawn's death his deputy, Vice Admiral Pellaeon was able to run the battle and force our withdrawal from Bilbringi."
Around the council chamber, there is a mummer of worried voices, all now wonder how long the New Republic has before either, Admiral Pellaeon forces or one of the other Imperial factions attacks them.
With the shipyards at Bilbringi still firmly under Vice Admiral Pellaeon's control along with other key systems such as Bespin and Ukio along with various other holdings. This gives Vice Admiral Pellaeon relatively stable and powerful power base available to him, to repair and replace those warships and fighters that had been either damaged or lost during the recent Battle of Bilbringi.
In reality, the forces under Vice Admiral Pellaeon are under the command of Grand Admiral Teshik, with Teshik using Pellaeon as his front man, with only a few senior Imperial commanders knowing who is really in charge. The rest are happy to follow Pellaeon as the main senior Imperial commanders are following Pellaeon, they also do not want to become part of one of the many Imperial Warlords fiefdoms run by the various Moffs and other Imperial officials.
The Battle of Bilbringi marked the conclusion of the Thrawn campaign. It also marked the beginning of the Teshik campaign. The Teshik campaign would be far more deadly than Thrawn's over the long term, especially after Teshik's clone has reached maturity.
The New Republic would use this lull in the Empire to remove several of the smaller Imperial Warlords, starting with Prince-Admiral Delak Krennel who controls the Ciutric Hegemony. The New Republic would quickly eliminate Prince-Admiral Krennel and liberate the Ciutric Hegemony, from his rule.
During these attacks by the Executor class star dreadnaught Lusankya, under the command of General Wedge Antilles, who is in command of a small battle fleet of warships tasked with dealing with the smaller Imperial Warlords. The Lusankya is the former command ship of Ysanne Isard, that was captured by the New Republic and repaired and is now General Antilles flagship. The New Republic has a second Executor class star dreadnaught the Guardian, this ship is still undergoing extensive repairs and will not be ready for several years yet.
Thrawn maybe dead, but the various Imperial Warlords have been impressed by what Thrawn has been able to achieve with so little and in such a short period of time.
Over the next year, Grand Admiral Teshik would be content to watch and not get involved, with the events that would happen. Instead, Teshik would concentrate on consolidation and internal growth within those sectors that Thrawn had controlled.
With the resources within these sectors Teshik (through Vice Admiral Pellaeon) would make Teshik one of the largest of the Imperial factions remaining, Teshik command was almost equal in size to the Pentastar Alignment.
To be continued.