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Chapter 5
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Part 5
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3 AIF (After Imperial Founding)/
14.08.2552 UNSC Military Calendar/
Reach
Epsilon Eridiani System
Milky Way Galaxy
Finally, the waiting was over! Anakin's nerves were coiled like a spring ready to shatter while he was stuck waiting out the battle in the hangar of the Star Destroyer. All he could do was feel the flow of the Force, which was odd in this place, to say the least, and try to find Padme's familiar signature. With tens of thousands of people in the Senate building, all of whom had their emotions in overload, that was anything but a trivial exercise. The emotions of the dying, not only on this battlefield but across the whole planet, joined with screams of the damned echoing from distant tragedies.
The LAAT howled through dust and hurricane winds thrown up by crashing and exploding warships. A handful of gunships flew below the transports and assault shuttles racing toward the Senate. They opened fire at targets of opportunity. Laser beams and missiles streaked down, touching tattered remains of what must have been a force in the tens of thousands. If it weren't for the Force, Anakin wouldn't know what the gunships were engaging. Visibility was terrible and worsening as yet another alien warship's broken hull hit the ground hard. Explosions lit up the dust, bringing up memories of the third and final Battle of Geonosis.
This time, it wasn't a desperate three-way brawl between the Confederacy, Rogue Droids, and the freshly reformed Imperial military. Instead of that horror show, it was more of a mop-up.
As they approached the Senate, some of the LAATs descended sharply. Side doors opened, and power-armored infantry jumped out, led by Krell. They were about to take in the back the enemy forces that were even now trying to breach into the Senate's lower levels.
Anakin's LAAT instead rose, giving him a great view of scores of small alien ships attached to the building like parasites. The armored alloy the Senate got rebuilt with was scorched and dented as well. There were pieces of blown-up vehicles scattered all over the mushroom-like dome. Here and there, crashed oddly shaped transports still burned. Intact AA emplacements tracked for hostile craft or incoming missiles, while destroyed ones produced columns of smoke. There were hundreds of alien bodies lying broken and burned all over the Senate's roof that Anakin could see when the LAAT went to land.
They were inserting from above because the roof was considered secure. The same couldn't be said for the many hangars spread through the building. Anakin was the first to jump out and didn't bother to wait for the infantry squad that ran after him. He had other priorities.
Obi-Wan was in the lower levels of the Senate. His angry and determined presence shone like a beacon and was yet another distraction Anakin waited to avoid for now. He found the nearest way down – which was a hole melted by a blasting charge and jumped into the building.
Skywalker landed lightly on his feet, holding his ignited lightsaber, ready to parry an incoming attack just in case. He could sense no danger in the dark maintenance corridor. The Knight let his instincts guide him and soon reached an access hatch that had been melted in place. He drew upon the Force and shoved at it with such strength. It burst open and bounced off the far wall with an almighty clang. Behind him, the soldiers cursed the noise as they descended into the corridor.
Anakin paid them no mind and ran into one of the many corridors circling the Senate chamber, then went for the nearest door leading into it. To his mild surprise, it was open. It also had a squad of Senate guards behind it at the ready, pointing their blasters at him.
"Knight Skywalker!" Despite the full-face helmet he borrowed from one of the Star Destroyer's armories, someone did recognize him. "Senator Skywalker thought you might drop by. She should be with the Empress at the Imperial offices."
As far as these people knew, Padme was all right. While that wasn't a guarantee, it was still a piece of excellent news. The coiled anger and fear plaguing him relented a bit. Anakin nodded at the guards and made a beeline towards the Imperial offices, which were nothing less than the former Chancellor's office and suite.
Finally, Anakin got to his destination, only to face a detachment of the Imperial Guard, who didn't appear amused to see him.
"Don't you have enemies to neutralize, Knight?" Their commander demanded in a less than amused tone. The voice was that of a Clone, though Anakin couldn't say he recognized the individual.
Rightfully, many Clones never forgave him for wasting the lives of the 501st during the Second Battle of Geonosis. In the following court martial, being found guilty, as he was, was far from enough penance for some people. Anakin couldn't blame them for that. However, he could easily blame the Clone for standing in his way.
"Let him in, Sergeant. The Empress would have a word with someone who just arrived from Coruscant," The Imperial Guard's CO finally intervened.
Anakin nodded gratefully at the man and hurriedly slid through the opening doors as soon as the soldiers moved aside. The large room beyond had been turned into a kill zone covered by two squads of Imperial Guard and heavy repeating blasters. Finally, Anakin could sense Padme's signature beyond the turmoil in the Force and dashed that way.
His wife was in the Empress' private quarters. She held a blaster pistol with an easy, practiced grip. Padme raised an unamused eyebrow at him, which stretched the scars of molten metal on the side of her face. The Empress sat nearby, clad in a suit of Mandalorian-styled armor, holding a helmet in her lap.
"Why aren't you with Leia and Fay, husband?" Padme demanded. This certainly wasn't the greeting he had hoped for.
"I would like to know that as well, Knight Skywalker," Empress Satine's stark expression mirrored that on Padme's face.
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Obi-Wan finally paused and allowed himself to feel a bit of relief. The counter-attack he led was fast and brutal, giving no time for the enemy to organize. The units holding the lower levels managed to fend off a few probing attacks before the enemy above them found other things to worry about instead of consolidating for a coordinated attack.
Outside, gunships pounded the Covenant ground forces caught in the open below the Senate. Krell, of all beings, led strike teams that jumped on top of the enemy's heads, ensuring they would only be making their way within the building as prisoners. Anakin was here as well. Kenobi could sense his former Padawan. Later, they would have words about that.
"Grenades and clear them away. Make sure to hunt down any other stragglers," Obi-Wan ordered the destruction of the last group of bottled-up enemy infiltrators in the area and turned around, marching towards the Senate chamber.
Behind him, grenades detonated, followed by alien screams and the sounds of a brutal close-in assault—more wasted lives. Would the wars ever end, he wondered.
"This is Emperor Kenobi. I am thankful for the assistance. The Senate is now reasonably secure. I need a status update," Obi-Wan used his Emperor credentials to slice into the battle network of the warships outside.
Once his communicator shook hands with the network, Kenobi got to speak with a communications officer.
"Sir, this is Commander Tavi of the Vigilant. I'm patching you through the Captain!" The voice sounded painfully young and in awe.
That was another damned consequence of the bloody wars. There were too many enlisted and officers in the military who were too young for the positions they held and were promoted due to necessity during the conflict. Many of them were busy learning how to properly do their jobs on the fly, especially the administrative portions vital in peacetime for the functioning of a proper military.
The school of brutal combat didn't select for capable or natural administrators after all.
"Sir, this is Captain Jace Dallin of the Vigilant, at your service! We will have the last enemy ships neutralized momentarily and can commence evacuation procedures safely."
"That's good to know, Captain. What else do I need to know right now?"
"Local situation, we're detecting many presumably hostile ships heading our way. If they don't hold back on account of burning their surviving troops, we won't be able to hold them for long. There's a whole fleet converging on our position. Second, there was heavy combat on Coruscant, presumably to be followed by more fighting. We managed to enter the anomaly before reported enemy reinforcements reached Coruscant. Whatever brought the Senate here replaced it with huge hostile capital ships and enemy army camps. As we left, Admiral Coburn called Case Omega for the Galactic City region."
Obi-Wan winced at that. The thought of anyone throwing that kind of firepower at a place like Coruscant was nightmare fuel.
"Tactical options?" Kenobi demanded.
"Get principal VIPs through the anomaly while engaging in a holding action. Depending on how things turned up back on Coruscant, request that Admiral Coburn dispatches further reinforcements," Dallin suggested.
At this point, the Captain likely had a broader picture of the situation than Kenobi, minus what he learned from their local, new friend.
"Begin evacuation. " Ensure the Empress makes it back to Coruscant in one piece," Obi-Wan ordered.
"What about you, sir?"
"I'm the Emperor. I can't be seen running before the rest of the Senate is evacuated. What assets do you have in play?"
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Part 6
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3 AIF (After Imperial Founding)/
14.08.2552 UNSC Military Calendar/
CIC
Imperial Star Destroyer Vigilant, Palpatine Class
Reach
Epsilon Eridiani System
Milky Way Galaxy
With evacuation underway, the Vigilant took position above the Senate building. Shield operators reconfigured the theater shield, extending and reshaping it to cover the ship, if barely. Her presence would put a stop to any ideas about a ground assault on the building before the evacuation could be completed.
The Emperor was on his way to the CIC after landing in the hangar, followed by a guest with some idea of what they were dealing with. Some information about the ongoing insanity would be excellent, Captain Dallin decided. Until then, he had things to do. Evacuation efforts had to be divided between the Senate and the Victory he lost. Three more ships were already on the way to Coruscant due to suffering significant damage. Dallin wasn't going to risk them against the fleet converging from orbit, and at the same time, he wasn't about to risk sending evacuees on them.
His purpose wasn't just to preserve those ships. Their remaining firepower could be useful in dispatching any survivors from the enemy squadrons that went through the portal. They would also make Dallin's case about needing reinforcements to complete his task as ordered.
It didn't help that he would lose an entire Palpatine class for the coming engagement. However, that was his best option to get the Empress and key Senators back to Coruscant so they could get the government running correctly again. That was Dallin's only sane option, with the Emperor remaining behind for now.
A hundred and thirty ships of various sizes were about to reach orbit above them in a few minutes. Sensor sweeps, as restricted as they were from this close to the surface, revealed that the incoming were indeed Covenant, as the Emperor called them. The only good news there was the lack of super-capitals. They still had over sixty ships as large as a Palpatine class and a handful of three kilometers long beasts, escorted by a smattering of vessels about a Victory in size.
Dallin had a counter, in theory. His two Silencer-equipped Venators could gut portions of that fleet if they ever got in a position to fire. Sadly, the Silencer wasn't something you could use in the atmosphere without disastrous effects. The Captain wasn't confident that what remained of his task force could get to orbit and cover the Venators against the firepower assembling above them.
Even worse, if the enemy secured this side of the anomaly, they could strike at Coruscant in strength again.
Coburn might have been able to win without implementing Case Omega if the Covenant held back on Coruscant as he suspected they did here. If not, he didn't want to imagine the sheer scope of the collateral damage awaiting them back home.
"Captain, we're detecting more incoming ships. They're heading on an intercept course with the Covenant fleet, using the planet's gravity to slingshot around it. Designs… they don't appear to be Covenant. The enemy fleet is reacting. Elements from it are decelerating and presumably attempting to reposition to intercept the incoming ships."
"Isn't that interesting? Attempt hailing the new fleet. Designate it Force Besh," Dallin commanded. He looked at two timers running down. The first displayed how long it was left until the Judicator could depart with precious cargo. The second one showed the estimated time the enemy fleet would be above their heads, ready to rain hell upon them.
It was going to be close.
"We have confirmation, the Empress, Senators Skywalker, and May got on board the Justicator. Members of the Senate's procurement committee and intelligence Commission are embarking on transports as we speak," Tactical reported.
The first group was the key people overseeing and regulating the Imperial budget, arguably the most potent tool the Imperial Senate had to influence policy nowadays. While the Senate by itself could seldom stop the Imperial family from acting without consent, it could make doing so hard, sometimes very hard.
As far as the military was concerned, that was a mixed blessing because the most vicious fights over financing since the war's end were all focused on the military and reconstruction budgets.
To no one's surprise, the relatively intact parts of the Core didn't want to pay more than token sums for the recovery of their rivals or for the Federal military at the expense of their own SDFs and PDFs. This infamous divide created a power vacuum and the conditions necessary for the rise of the Mid-Rim Alliance and the Mandalorian Freehold, which controlled much of the flow of raw resources back to the core, especially vital hyperlanes trade happened on. The deals they cut with recovering and dissenting powers like Corellia, Duro, and even Kuat, which, while diminished, remained a first among equals, was reshaping the balance of power in the galaxy in a way nothing in the Republic's twenty-five thousand years of history managed to do in the long run.
Dallin wondered how the existence of the anomaly compromising Coruscant's security would shake things up. He would be surprised if the capital didn't change as a consequence. Perhaps Alkasan might make another bid for the position? Such upheavals tended to influence the military and what was available to it when it mattered. During the Clone Wars, again and again, petty rivalries forced Republic members to keep their fleets and armies back. Some of it was genuine fear. Most of the time, it was the misguided belief that if they had an intact military when the dust settled while their rivals bled, they would have a better position on the bargaining table. It was even sadly true – such worlds and systems managed to extract concessions to remain loyal. Even worse, it forced the Republic, later, Imperial military to hold back containment units just in case someone decided it was an excellent time to backstab federal authority.
The Captain had the nagging suspicion that history would repeat itself, if not necessary, for the same reasons. No one knew the origin of the anomaly. It might be a permanent fixture, or it could close tomorrow. With that uncertainty, the Empire could afford to risk a limited number of assets on this side. At the same time, it was either fighting the bastards here or on Coruscant.
Dallin pushed thoughts about politics aside, no longer letting them act as a distraction.
"Captain, fifty-two Covenant ships are confirmed turning, presumably to intercept the approaching Fleet Besh," Tactical reported. "Comms?"
"We still can't contact them. If they receive our transmissions, they aren't answering," Commander Tavi shook his head in frustration.
The CIC's armored doors slid open.
"Emperor on deck!" A CIC's security detail trooper barked just as Kenobi marched in, followed by Imperial Guard, a golden protocol droid, and someone in odd-looking armor. A prototype?
"At ease, keep doing your work, people," The Emperor's calm and collected voice shot back. "Captain, this is Noble Six, special forces operative from around here. He has been our source of information about the enemy we ran into, the Covenant."
Finally, answers! Dallin saluted and smiled at his guests.
"What do I need to know about them? Tactics? Goals? Preferred strategic approach? And speaking about being a local, can Noble Six help us identify this new fleet and, if it's his people, get in contact with them?" Dallin rapidly fired relevant questions.
The presence of the protocol droid became apparent when it began translating his words to the soldier in the odd armor.