Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
Let's get to it.
Chapter 15- The Battle Begins
On the bridge of the Executrix, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka are all gathered around a holotable, looking at a projection of Dromund Kaas. Rex is also with them, giving his analysis.
"According to recent surveys of the planet prior to the war, the main fortress from the time of the Sith Empire is still intact in relatively good condition. We expect that Sidious has likely holed himself up there and making it into a palace again," Rex says.
Rex then moves the projection to the areas surrounding the fortress. "The area surrounding the citadel and the ruined city where it was built is mostly jungle, which will slightly complicate combat operations. However, with our new walkers, it may help lessen those problems."
"We will keep the landing ships back while we engage the Separatist fleet. Once we have broken open their fleet's lines, we will begin the landing operation," Anakin says.
Right then, Admiral Yularen walks up. "Generals, we are 5 minutes from the end of our hyperspace run," Yularen says.
"Alright. Signal all ships. Be ready for immediate battle," Anakin orders.
Battlestations alarms sound on the ship, and throughout the fleet. The battle fleet readies all weapons, while the assault ships begin preparing for the landing.
On the bridge, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka watch as the blue of hyperspace rushes past the viewport. Anakin has left the bridge and headed down to the hangar bay. He had decided that he would be most of use in the initial stage of the battle in the cockpit.
As the minutes pass, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka feel the tension building. This is the pivotal moment of the Clone Wars. If they win here, the war will hopefully be over.
Finally, they hear Admiral Yularen call out, "Sir, coming out of hyperspace in 3, 2, 1!" The blue of hyperspace lengthens out, and then the Executrix comes out of hyperspace.
As the Republic battle fleet comes out of hyperspace, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka take stock of the Separatist fleet in orbit over Dromund Kaas. A fleet that numbers about 80 ships. They see about 40 Munificent class frigates and three dozen Recusant class destroyers. They also spot half a dozen Providence class dreadnoughts, 5 Lucrehulk class battleships, a pair of Bulwark class battlecruisers, and, very surprisingly, a Subjugator class cruiser, just like the Malevolence.
"Oh, dear," Obi-Wan says as he sees the Subjugator-class vessel.
Admiral Yularen also notices it and quickly orders, "All vessels open fire. Focus fire on the dreadnoughts and that Subjugator! We must disable that battleship as quick as possible to avoid its ion cannon!"
"Scramble all fighters!" Obi-Wan orders.
Within moments, fighters, already prepped and ready in the hangars, begin streaming out of their ships. And within a minute, the Executrix and multiple Venators open fire, all aiming their fire towards the Subjugator class cruiser.
Leading the fighters is Anakin, flying his Eta-2 interceptor. Anakin is totally focused on the task ahead of him.
As Anakin and the hordes of starfighters and bombers streak towards the Separatist fleet, R2 beeps. "What is it, R2?" Anakin asks.
R2 beeps a few more times. Anakin's face falls and he calls out over the fleet's frequency, "This is General Skywalker! R2 is picking up a major energy spike from that Subjugator! Suspect they are preparing to fire their ion cannon!"
"All fighters, scatter immediately! Stay out of the firing range of that ship's ion cannon! Once we can get within range focus all firepower on the ion cannons!" Anakin orders before pulling hard back on the control stick.
As the fighters scatter, the Subjugator-class vessel fires its first blast from one of its ion cannons. The massive circle of ion energy flies through space, engulfing anything in its path. Most of the fighters that had been in the path of the blast had managed to move out of the way, although a few are caught. However, the capital ships in its path are not so lucky. A Victory class Star Destroyers, 4 Venators, and a Carrack are caught in the blast and disabled.
On the bridge of the Executrix, Obi-Wan frowns as he realizes that six of their ships have already been disabled. "Not the best start," Obi-Wan mutters.
Although the fleet has to take a moment to reform their formation to defend themselves and the disabled warships, the fighters continue their attack. Anakin firms his face as he streaks straight towards the Subjugator. Although his Eta-2 is mostly just useful against enemy starfighters, what he can do is protect the bombers and heavy starfighters as they attack the Subjugator.
Anakin barrel rolls to avoid some incoming turbolaser fire and spots several Vulture droids coming right at him. Anakin fires a volley from his laser cannons, destroying one Vulture droid, then a second. A moment later, he merges with the remaining three Vultures. Anakin turns his fighter as tight as he can in pursuit. The Vultures try to turn with him, but the superior turning ability of Anakin's Eta-2 quickly puts them on their tails. With a grin on his face, Anakin quickly dispatches all three Vultures with quick bursts of laser fire.
Anakin streaks past the balls of wreckage and turns hard, searching for a new target. As he does, he can see down below him that Y-Wing bombers have begun targeting the ion cannon, firing proton torpedoes into the surface and mount of the cannon. However, he also sees a number of Vultures and Tri-fighters swarming around them, trying to engage the bombers. Even as he first looks down, Anakin can see two Y-Wings get destroyed.
Anakin wings over and dives to help the bombers. He quickly spots a Y-Wing on a torpedo run, pursued by a trio of Tri-fighters. The bomber's pilot is jinking the Y-Wing around, trying to avoid the laser bolts from the Tri-fighters.
Anakin smoothly lines up on the Tri-fighters and fires his laser cannons at the rear fighter, blowing it apart in an instant. The other two Tri-fighters don't yet realize Anakin is behind them. That is, until Anakin shoots down the second one.
The lead Tri-fighter now finally realizes that it is under attack and quickly breaks off its pursuit. However, Anakin is on the fighters like glue. With a quick turn, he has a firing angle, and he fires his laser cannons, blowing the Tri-fighter to pieces.
On the bridge of the Executrix, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka are watching the starfighter battle unfold. Then, Admiral Yularen calls over to Obi-Wan, "General Kenobi, we are within range!"
"All batteries, open fire!" Obi-Wan orders.
Obi-Wan's orders are quickly relayed across the fleet. As his orders make their way from ship to ship, the Executrix' dozens of turbolasers and dozens of ion cannons open fire. In just a few minutes, the rest of the fleet opens fire on the Separatists.
The Separatists are quick to return fire. However, the Separatists also realize that they may be outgunned. With the inclusion of the new Imperator and Tector class vessels, that gives the Republic fleet some heavy firepower. However, with a Mandator class dreadnought as well, the Republic have some serious firepower on their side.
As the fleets slowly close the distance, firing all of their batteries at each other, the starfighters continue their deadly dance. As one of the Munificent class frigates begins to crumble under heavy turbolaser fire, Anakin streaks low over the hull of one of the Providence class dreadnoughts. Up ahead in his path, he spots one of the point defense laser cannons and fires his laser cannons. After several volleys of direct fire, the cannon explodes.
Then, laser bolts go flying past Anakin's cockpit. He looks behind him and sees a pair of Vulture droids behind him. Anakin pulls up and cuts his speed as he whips his fighter around. The Vulture droids go shooting past him and Anakin pulls in on their tails. He then blows each one apart with a volley of laser fire.
"Anakin!" he hears Obi-Wan's voice as his holoprojector activates and Obi-Wan's image comes up.
"Yes, Master?" he asks.
"We are focusing fire on the heavier warships and ordering bombers to make renewed runs. We need you and your squads to cover their approach," Obi-Wan says.
"You got it, Master," Anakin says before turning hard to accompany the bombers.
As the bombers begin their intense attacks against the heavier Separatist warships, the fleets have closed to very close range. As the battle gets to extremely close ranges, the Republic Mandator moves to engage the Subjugator class cruiser.
At extremely short range, the Mandator opens fire on the Subjugator, which immediately returns fire. However, the crew of the Separatist warship realize quickly how outgunned they are. The Mandator has well over a thousand weapons batteries. They have close to three times the firepower of the Subjugator. As the battle continues, the Mandator's weapons batteries continue blasting chunks out of the hull and destroying a number of the Subjugator's weapons batteries.
As the Mandator is engaged in a broadside duel with the Subjugator, a new wing of Y-Wing bombers move in on the Subjugator's stern. The Y-Wings begin firing volleys of proton torpedoes into the ship's engines. Explosions tear through the stern of the massive ship, destroying a number of the ship's massive engines and sending a series a of daisy chain explosions further into the stern of the vessel.
Then, two Venator class Star Destroyers move in to join the battle, having destroyed a Munificent class frigate. The Venators begin adding the fire of their turbolaser batteries to the fray, the bolts slamming into the massive ship.
In a matter of minutes, explosions begin to tear into the ship. Daisy chains of explosions extend out from the engines and the ion cannons as turbolaser bolts and proton torpedoes from starfighters and bombers continue impacting the vessel, continuing the explosions. It doesn't take too long before another bombing run hits the bridge of the ship and destroys it. The explosions from the destruction of the bridge finally begin a series of explosions that finally tear apart the ship.
On the bridge of the Executrix, which is currently engaged in a broadside duel with a Providence class dreadnought, Obi-Wan is focused on the battle the Executrix is engaged in. Suddenly, a clone officer calls out, "General, the dreadnought reports it has destroyed the Separatist flagship!"
"Excellent!" Obi-Wan exclaims. He then quickly goes over the numbers in his head. A number of the Separatist warships have already been destroyed, including the Subjugator class cruiser and one of the battlecruisers. More than that, some of the more powerful Star Destroyers have managed to make two holes in the Separatist battle line.
"The time is now. Admiral! Signal the landing operation to begin!" Obi-Wan orders.
"Yes, General," Admiral Yularen responds immediately.
Obi-Wan then pulls out his communicator and makes a call to Anakin. In seconds, Anakin answers the call. "Yes, Master?" he asks.
"Anakin, it's time. We're in position to begin the landing operations. Escort our landing ships to the surface and join us on the ground once our forces have landed," Obi-Wan orders.
"You got it, Master," Anakin says before ending the call.
Obi-Wan then turns to Ahsoka. "Come, Ahsoka. Let's head down to the hangar and make our way down to the surface," Obi-Wan says.
As Obi-Wan and Ahsoka head down to the hangar, across the fleet, the landing ships begin moving through the gaps left by the Republic battle fleet. At the same time, the Jedi Generals board landing craft to head down to the surface.
The battle in space is far from over, but is quickly going in favor of the Republic. However, now the ground battle for Dromund Kaas is about to begin.
And, I'll end the chapter there.
Next chapter will of course be the ground battle, and it will include the confrontation with Palpatine. It will be up in a week or two. Until it is up, please leave a review, and stay tuned!