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Almuhit Maelstrom, Flight Deck, FOS Assaulter. Resurgent Star Destroyer
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General Crisis had been awake since about an hour after midnight. On the eve of past battles he had slept as comfortably as a newborn, confident that the First Order would be victorious. The First Order had reconquered the Home Galaxy and, despite the outliers at StarKiller and Crait, had swept away all before them.
It had been the same at Kazoook and New Gaia. But those had been against colony worlds filled with aboriginal humans and Wookiees which were nothing more than animals.
Today was different. Today they would attack the Empire and forge a war against a civilization whose very foundations were the same as the First Order's.
General Crisis hoped it would prove to be a short war. He didn't think he had the stomach to murder Imperials for too long, but Supreme Leader Vala Ren and the Earthling's President Harris were different matters. They were out for blood.
The aurodium-plated General stood to one side of the Assaulter's flight decks. By 0300 the hangars were full of ground crews and armorers equipping and fueling hundreds of TIE craft in preparation for the morning's attack. Along the sides of the hangars were the pilot ready rooms where TIE pilots guzzled caf and absently chomped on the recently discovered donuts introduced by their new allies in the Confederacy of Earth Nations. They worked in dimly lit conference rooms and went over and over their navigation tables and charts. Poorly mapped images of the target rotated in the middle of image casters in every ready room as commanders assigned attack vectors and specific targets to individual squadrons.
The TIEs were lined up panel to panel along the ready racks running up each wall. TIE/fo, TIE/vn and TIE/sf had their L-s9.6 laser cannons prepped and filled to the brim with premium tibanna from the fleet's dwindling supply that had been brought from the Home Galaxy. TIE/wi, TIE/fb and TIE/ba Interceptors stood at the ready behind the lead TIEs. The fighters were ordered to escort the waves of TIE Whispers on their concussive missile and proton torpedo attacks as well as the new TIE/fb bombers who would bomb the targets from relative altitude.
Nearby, a large group of Confederate observers watched with growing approval as more and more First Order craft were made ready for the attack. They would not be participating in the upcoming battle. How could they when none of their craft were armored or shielded enough to have traversed the Almuhit Maelstrom and survived? In a way, the upcoming attack was the forging of a pact between the two allies.
The First Order's 7th Fleet of Conquest had arrived inside what the Confederates called the Milky Way Galaxy with twenty-three warships. A strange name Crisis never understood even after having it explained to him several times by eager Earth astronomers. Those twenty-three vessels, including the one he was standing inside of at the moment, were all capital ships of the line. They didn't carry any civilian workers nor dockside support staff. They didn't possess manufacturing capabilities nor the means to refine more hypermatter or tibanna. They were sailors and Stormtroopers.
Conquest is what they were built for. It's what they did. And they did it well. Running an Empire . . . well that was a job for those not cut out for the rigors of combat.
The Earth on the other hand, was a world of builders and dreamers. As long as that dream fell in line with President Harris's vision for his planet. In many ways the Confederacy of Earth Nations was even more draconian than the First Order. Their secret police and class system crushed all resistance to their rule.
Having been horribly mauled in a war with the so-called 2nd Galactic Empire several decades ago, the CEN thirsted for revenge. The First Oder had provided them with the technology and plans to upgrade and produce whole new lines of starships over the course of their year-old alliance. Produced in new factories on Earth and smuggled rimward of the Sol System, a new fleet of Confederate ships waited for this attack so that they could be unleashed upon the Empire and prove their loyalty to the First Order-Confederate alliance.
The First Order had given the Earth the blueprints for Gozanti, Recusants, Providences, and even ships as large as Munificent frigates. Ships the First Order would have looked down their nose at back in the Home Galaxy, but the CEN had built by the hundreds, at an immense cost and almost irreversible damage to their own planet. It was well they did as the First Order was in great need of a wide variety of escorts and fleet tenders for its heavier warships. A Star Destroyer was a thing of terror but it could only terrify one planet at a time and the Milky Way was a large place.
Crisis was curious as to how the Earthlings would do once they came to grips with the Empire. None of their forces beyond their observers were here today. They had their own part to play, as did Crisis.
For this critical mission, the 7th Fleet of Conquest had been split in two. General Crisis had accompanied Admiral Jethran into the Almuhit Maelstrom where six Resurgent Star Destroyers and their escort of two Maxima A heavy cruisers were led by Jethran's flagship, the Fatalizer. The Fatalizer, a Mandator IV Siege Dreadnaught and the largest vessel in the 7th Conquest Fleet, along with the Maximas, Kleanse and Hurt, had nearly expended their supply of high grade turbolaser tibanna blasting the fleet's path through the maelstrom. The job had been exhausting for the gunnery crews. Yet, despite their best efforts nearly every warship's shields were hovering around fifty percent from the beating they had undertaken on their journey.
As if to emphasize the damage they had endured the thick blast doors of the hangar started to open. The creak of heavy durasteel gears filled the hangar as the blast doors retracted to reveal the Void. The only thing preventing the rapid decompression of the launch bays and the defenestration of General Crisis was the magcon shield that sealed the hangar. The only reason for the armor plate being retracted was that the Assaulter had finally arrived at the edge of the brutal maelstrom.
Turning his attention away from the battle preparations, Crisis walked over to the edge of the hangar and gazed out into the Void. Five other Resurgents were arrayed in a single battle line while the massive Fatalizer hung in a superior over-watch position from the strike craft. Billowy clouds of pulverized meteorite dust followed each of the warships, testifying to the grueling journey they had undertaken.
Crisis's gaze drifted from the strike force to the system ahead of the fleet. He could just barely make out three worlds and at least a dozen moons ahead of them.
"Kuat." He reverently whispered the name as if it were a ghost of his ancestors. In many ways it was. He wondered again for the millionth time what sort of mysterious power had ripped a piece of Palpatine's Old Empire from the Home Galaxy and deposited it here. How had that same power kidnapped the 7th Fleet of Conquest at nearly the same moment Palpatine had recalled them to Exegol? Had it been the Force, he wondered, knowing he knew very little about the ancient power.
Nal Kuat was their ultimate target today. As it was in the Home Galaxy the Kuati had also become the primary shipwrights in this new place. Spies had revealed that the great KDY rings that circled Nal Kuat were home to not only the Empire's largest drive yards but her most powerful bombardment squadron as well. The desert world was easy to spot as it lay in the center of the system only a few million kilometers ahead of the strike force.
A second world stood at the entrance to the Kuat System and protected the shipyards from any incursion from the Empire's great Bloodstripe Run hyperlane. New Thyfeeria, Crisis assumed from careful study of the latest intelligence reports. No one guessed an enemy would ever be foolish enough to enter the system via the Almuhit. Well they were about to learn who the foolish ones truly were, he mused. His eyes fell on a third world, much further back from Nal Kuat, and just beyond the range of the TIE strike teams. The Earthling intelligence sources knew very little about the place other than it was here. The Confederates weren't even aware of the planet's name.
They would keep an eye on the place during the upcoming raid. Crisis didn't believe the place to be a threat, but nobody ever won a battle by letting their guard down.
Crisis didn't bother to turn at the sound of footsteps. The only one who would dare disturb his thoughts was his adjutant, Commander Obota. The Commander had been shepherding the Confederate observers throughout the morning's preparations and had finally been able to hand the Earthlings off to junior officers. In many ways, Crisis believed Obota's task of making nice with their allies was more stressful than what his TIE pilots would be facing today.
"Good morning, General." Obota greeted Crisis.
"A fine morning to start a war, Commander." Crisis looked over at his aide. It was an envious look. Obota was dressed in his charcoal-grey army uniform which was much more comfortable and far less audacious than the aurodium plated armor Crisis wore.
Obota faced the great expanse of the Kuat System before looking back over his shoulders at his charges. "Can we trust them?"
"Do we have any choice?"
Obota was silent for a few seconds before responding. "Not really. Especially if our choices were either to sail until our fuel ran out or go begging hat in hand to the betrayers that call themselves the 2nd Galactic Empire."
"They should call themselves the 2nd Republic for all their democracy loving tendencies." Crisis added.
"Following a mere girl while Palpatine still breathed. Unnatural."
"We shall right that wrong. This attack today will draw them out. We know they have less than twenty Star Destroyers, nearly all of them Imperial I class, in their entire Empire. Half of them are stationed here at rest. The other attack will charge out of the Sol System and down the Bloodstripe Run. They will be forced to engage in a decisive battle with their weakened fleet and the war will be won. I suspect Supreme Leader Vala Ren will be sitting on the Imperial throne in a matter of a few short months."
"It all seems so simple and I have no doubts our feint here at Nal Kuat will smash the Imperial Fleet, it's just the main attack in the Sol . . ."
"You have little faith in our allies." Crisis finished Obota's thought.
"When we fought the Earthlings at Kazoook it cost us two legions, but they had the help of the Wookiees there. When we faced them again at New Gaia, where they fought on their own, they could hardly be bothered to defend themselves. How do we know they won't fight with the same mettle as their weaker cousins on New Gaia?"
"We don't. But then again they're hardly the same Earthlings we met last year. When we gave them the plans for new corvettes and frigates they nearly stripped their resource poor world bare to build nearly five hundred new ships in the past year. They're thirsty for blood. Imperial blood. Perhaps even thirstier than we were to have our revenge on the New Republic."
"Starkiller granted our vengeance and then the stang Resistance got some of theirs back by blowing it up like a repeat of Endor and Yavin."
"We were lucky we weren't recalled immediately following that or we would have been sucked into that debacle at Crait. But Starkiller was also the reason we need the Earthlings. The First Order is facing severe manpower shortages on the horizon. Until we find a source to mine for our own recruitment, you might as well get used to dealing with their kind because I fear they're here to stay."
"Echuta. We shall see how those new ships of theirs do after their initial attack. I fear Harris chose the most difficult target of the campaign."
"I agree the Earth has tunnel vision when it comes to Mars. It will be a tough nerf steak to swallow with its planetary shield, but they definitely have the troops to take the place once it's down. Meanwhile the Admiral wants our ships to take the gas-refining plant at Jupiter for our own use before we advance out of the Sol System."
"We can't keep relying on the Earthling's gas-mine at Venus. It's tapped beyond its production capacity. Wouldn't be surprised if the Earthlings blow the place up at the rate they're pushing it."
"Earthlings seem to take unnecessary risks without putting a lot of thought into the matter. Recall that they wanted to join us with ships that didn't even have shields."
"They do now. Weak ones, sure. But anything is better than sailing into the Void naked."
"Force save us from our own allies." Crisis chuckled at the over eagerness of the Earthlings. "Enough about our doubts about the Confederates. They have little say in what happens here today. I know Jethran ordered the Hurt and the Kleanse to launch their scout TIEs an hour ago. Have they reported in?"
"Yes. That's why I was able to escape the Earthlings and come report to you, General. They just commed back to the Fatalizer moments ago."
Crisis turned to face the Commander, "And?"
"The Ares isn't here."
"Fierfek." He sighed and looked at Nal Kuat again. They were much too far to pick out individual ships at this distance. Even the ring was a thin line around the planet from here. "She's the only ship they have that can take on the Fatalizer or Mizery. If we had caught her at her moorings we could have ended the war by lunch."
"The two scout craft did report eight Star Destroyers at the rings. They're docked with the drive yards and none of them looked ready to sail. The scouts were undetected as well."
"Good, they'll be sending their mapping data back to the command control centers. We shall go up to the bridge and join Captain Setrauss as soon as the first wave is launched."
"Agreed, General. It's going to be quite a show. I don't think this many TIEs have been in one battle since maybe Endor, and that was before I was even born." Obota smiled in anticipation. "The TIEs also reported several hundred XX-9 turbolaser turrets along the ring."
"Never mind them. Our ships are in no condition to close with the ring itself and our fighters will prove too small of targets for those turrets to hit."
A deck officer dressed in the black utility suit and bubble helmet of the FlightOps ran up to the two officers and saluted. "General, all flight elements are fueled and armed."
"Excellent. Notify the Captain that we can begin launch operations on the Admiral's order." Crisis replied. The hairs on the back of his neck started to stand in anticipation of battle. He could feel his abdominal muscles tighten as the morning's caf and donuts grumbled through his stomach.
"Aye, aye, sir." The deck officer spun around and sprinted away to fulfill Crisis's orders.
Crisis told Obota. "Bring me the three wave leaders."
"Yes, sir." Obota spoke briefly into his own comlink.
The warning klaxon chimed across the hangar as the final TIEs were placed in position. Flight crews waved the Earthling observers out of the way of the launch rails. Deck crew by the dozens stood by the entrances to the many ready rooms as the pilots emerged. Each of the aviators ran from their squadron chart houses and lounges and separated towards their individual craft. The ground crew removed their hats and waved them about as they cheered on the pilots. Even BB and R2 droids let out cheerful beeps and whistles to encourage their human masters.
Three pilots separated from the running mob and headed straight for General Crisis. They were each distinguished from the hundreds of other pilots by the red flight suits and helmets that they wore. As the lead and most experienced ship in the fleet, the Assaulter carried all three wave commanders. The three commanders stopped short of the General, snapped to attention and saluted.
Crisis saluted back and then stepped forward and one by one clasped forearms with each pilot. "Do you have everything you need? Are your troopers ready?"
"Aye, General." They each answered automatically, as he expected they would.
"Commander Qurna," Crisis addressed the highest ranking and only female of the trio. "You will lead Judge Wave and be the primary attack. Your TIE/wi carry the most anti-ship weapons. Star Destroyers will be your primary targets with smaller warships being your secondary objectives. TIE/fo squadrons will attack ground targets along the ring. Their primary focus should be the enemy's TIE hangars."
"Understood, General." Qurna responded. She had been practicing to carry out those very orders for weeks now.
"Commander Ekthar, your Jury Wave will launch thirty minutes after the first wave. You will focus on targets of opportunity among the ships the first wave over-looked as well as civilian sectors and TIE hangars all across the ring with the objective to cause as much chaos and damage as possible."
"It will be done, General." Ekthar saluted a second time.
"And lastly, Commander Calatran. You will lead Executioner Wave. For now you will maintain the fighter cap that protects the fleet. You will take surviving TIEs from Judge and Jury waves and attack fuel depots on the far side of the wing as well as troop barracks and smaller warships as they are identified by our forward elements."
"I can't wait to smash these imposter Imperials' teeth in, sir." Calatran must have had a shark-toothed grin under his helmet to match his bravado, Crisis thought.
"One more thing. The Admiral wanted you three to have these." Crisis held his hand out to Obota who pulled three Tyrian shimmersilk scarves from his pocket. Each of the black scarves contained the six-sided spiked emblem of the First Order. Crisis took the scarves and walked around to the rear of the three pilots. One by one he tied the scarves over the flight commanders' helmets so that the emblem rested directly atop their foreheads.
"Admiral Jethran wants you each to know that for every death you cause, you bring glory to yourselves and Supreme Leader Ren." He told the pilots. He stepped in front of each of them and saluted once more. They sharply returned the salutes. Crisis felt a lump in his throat. With brave pilots such as these, he could conquer a galaxy.
"To your TIEs." He ordered.
The three commanders turned and ran towards their craft. Qurna's was the red TIE/fo at the lead of the hundreds of idling TIEs waiting nervously in the racks behind hers.
Crisis and Obota cleared away from the hangar door. It would be an embarrassing omen for the attack if the First Order's top ground commander got blown out into the Void by an errant TIE panel.
The launch rack officer waved a green lit baton from high atop the racks in the hangar. Obota said something about it but the TIEs were starting to prime their ion engines and the whine from hundreds of machines was near deafening. Suddenly Crisis wasn't jealous of Obota's lack of helmet any longer.
More rack-crew sailors rushed about overhead removing the safety chocks that kept the TIEs in place. Commander Qurna could be seen inside her cockpit giving the thumbs up gesture to the FlightOps controllers at the Hangar's overhead control room. One of them held up a hand with all five fingers extended. He slowly lowered one after another until only one was left.
The deck officer stood with another baton, this one was tinted yellow, held high over his head near the wide bay doors. As soon as control finished their countdown he dropped the baton with an exaggerated swooshing motion.
Ozone filled the hangar as Qurna's TIE/fo shot off the lead launch rail. Three seconds later another TIE followed. The shockwaves from their passing almost pushed Crisis back a few steps as more TIEs, one every few seconds, launched out into the Void. As each TIE raced to join the wave forming outside the deck crews would shout. "First Order! Then Peace!"
They emerged like Dardanellian Locust swarms into a great cloud of fighter craft. Six Resurgents spilled their charges into the Kuat System behind Commander Qurna's fighter. They were nearly panel to panel with some TIEs only three to four meters from their comrades. Speedier fighters and interceptors took the lead while concussion missile carriers and bombers followed closely behind. 1836 TIEs made up the Judge Wave with another 1714 set to follow along with Commander Ekthar's Jury Wave.
General Crisis knew they were the best the First Order had brought along with them. Even stripping the squadrons escorting the Mizery outside the Sol System so that their best pilots were assigned to this mission. Crisis had a momentary doubt about the mission's success. His pilots were irreplaceable. The TIEs were irreplaceable. The Earth was focused on their own lesser space-superiority fighters. A lost TIE was gone forever.
"We need to win this war fast." Crisis muttered after the last TIE in the Judge Wave was launched.
"Sir? Did you say something?" Obota asked.
"Never mind, Commander." Crisis waved off the officer's inquiry. "Shall we go up to the bridge and join Captain Setrauss?"
"Happy to, sir. I'm sure the Captain has a better picture of the attack than whatever we can discern from here in the hangar." Obota replied.
"Yes. We'll have direct contact with the Fatalizer and the Admiral as well." The two officers turned and headed towards the nearest turbolift. They left the deck crew to prepare the momentary launch of Commander Ekthar's Jury Wave.
The turbolift was crowded as several junior officers were herding the Confederate representatives to observation decks where they would be allowed to watch the battle unfold in comfort while sipping from flutes of blossom wine. The Earthlings, even after a year of close partnership, still had trouble reading the rank insignia on Obota's left cuff, but they recognized Crisis's golden armor. They readily made room for the general, even inching away from him to give him as much room as possible inside the turbolift.
General Crisis and Commander Obota reached the command deck a minute later. The first attack wave needed an hour to reach their target so Crisis doubted they had missed anything during their journey to the bridge. Naval Troopers outside the bridge snapped to attention as the two officers entered.
Captain Setrauss, the commander of the Assaulter, was standing at the front of the bridge with his arms crossed behind his back. He turned and smiled at Crisis when the General approached the forward viewports and stood beside the Naval officer. "How was the launch, General."
"Brilliantly executed. Every TIE was launched without complication." Crisis replied.
"Thank you. Both the Slayer and the Hatred had a pair of TIEs stall on their launch racks. Their deck crews are working on repairing them in time to launch with the Jury or Executioner Waves."
"Embarrassing, especially with so many Earthlings here."
"True. I feel like a beast in a menagerie around them sometimes. Have you heard the Admiral's latest proposal?" Setrauss asked. No doubt the Captain, as with the other commanders in the 7th Fleet of Conquest, was concerned with Earthlings training to replace First Order sailors so that they could be freed up for other duties.
"Our focus should be on today's action, Captain." Crisis rebuked the Naval commander. He didn't want to be distracted by fleet politics on the eve of battle.
In the heart of the Kuat System the Jury Wave reached the midway mark to the target. The local star, Tau Ceti, caught their panels as they started to break up into their individual approach vectors. For the length of a breath hold, the hundreds of TIEs looked like a sea of glimmer stones and then they were too far away to discern from the stars anymore.
"Of course, you are correct, General." Setrauss looked to his executive officer. "Activate the feed from the scouts."
Sailors pushed forward several imagecasters. Two of them showed the live feed from the two undetected scouts. They were being rapidly updated with information as targets and defenses were identified and plotted. Crisis spoke to the nearest trooper at the depowered device. "Link us to the cam in Commander Qurna's TIE."
The holographic feed immediately came to life, revealing the rapidly approaching ring system surrounding Nal Kuat. Giant KDY signs in aurabesh were painted or stamped across the massive structure in case anybody doubted who owned the industrial city. The KDY ring was a kilometer thick and two kilometers wide and constructed out of enough durasteel to make another Death Star II. The First Order's allies, the CEN, could only dream of making this much material from their war-ravaged planet.
Qurna's TIE/fo banked towards the military districts of the ring. She leveled off her fighter and hugged the ring tightly as they raced towards their targets. Civilian centers below her fighters were only half lit as residents of the rings slowly woke from their slumber. Massive turbolaser towers looked to be depowered and failed to track the First Order fighters as they raced past the heavy defenses. Along the ring were large turbolifts filled with early morning workers heading to their jobs. The big transports were attached to rails that ran along the outer hulls of the round structure. Bored workers peered out of the turbolifts in confusion as hundreds of TIEs flashed past their viewports.
"We're verifying eight Star Destroyers at target location." Obota reported. "Preliminary analysis matches their signatures to ships that went missing from the 3rd Kuati Fleet ten years after the establishment of the Empire after the end of the Clone Wars."
"My grandsire sailed aboard ships like those." Setrauss added. "Looks like they've been upgraded for planetary bombardment with heavier turbolasers at the sacrifice of much of their hangar spaces."
"Another reason why we shouldn't close in on them with our capital ships just yet." Crisis argued.
"Looks like one is in vacuum dock while the one at the end of the row is powering up her engines." Obota pointed out on the scout holoimage report.
"Reassign the missile and torpedo TIEs away from the vacuum docked vessel. They won't be able to vector a good attack on her hull. The other one is probably just turning over her reactors. Standard practice in port but no reason to suspect we've been detected." Captain Setrauss said.
"Judge Wave is two minutes from attack." A sailor in the crew pit reported.
That announcement was followed by another, "Second Jury Wave is now launching."
"Bring the shields up to full as soon as the last TIE launches." Captain Setrauss ordered his crew. One of his officers looked to be about ready to tell him something but thought better of it. Crisis assumed it was about the shields, which had taken a beating during their traverse of the Almuhit Maelstrom and could barely reach half strength at the moment. It was better than nothing, Crisis thought.
Commander Qurna, being the on-site leader of the attack, was the one given the honor of initiating the assault. She was to do so with a single code word signifying whether or not they had flown into a trap, alerted a defense or some other contingent. In her excitement at seeing a sleeping fleet laid out in front of the Judge Wave she shouted the code word for surprise attack several times.
"Nexu! Nexu! Nexu!"
The wings of TIE craft broke apart as pilots stayed with individual flight leaders. Racing ahead of the concussion missile and proton torpedo carrying TIE Whispers a squadron of TIE/fb bombers were the first to strike as their energy bombs bracketed the enemy TIE field next to a row of parked Star Destroyers. Imperial fighters, still in their launch racks, were caught in explosions that ripped through rows of the parked craft.
General Crisis put his hands against the holoprojector and leaned forward to watch the attack. There was little he could do from here but sit down and watch as a year's worth of planning went into effect.
Further down the ring the first squadron of Whispers reached the massive empty berth that could have only been reserved for the missing Ares. The Whispers banked hard after realizing their assigned target was absent and spotted an unidentified old Venator. The ancient ship was pockmarked with carbon scoring, indicating it was probably a target ship, but that didn't stop the Whispers from attacking it. They launched a wild barrage of missiles and torpedoes at the docked vessel.
Four proton torpedoes slammed into the Venator, claiming the first hits of the day. The other sixteen projectiles missed and missed badly due to the Whispers unplanned turn. One of the torpedoes missed so badly it struck what appeared to be an Auxillia pursuit destroyer in the berth ahead of the Venator.
The Venator's port side blew out releasing great volumes of her pressurized atmosphere. Bodies and debris starting pouring from the stricken ship as she snapped her moorings and started to fall away from the ring and into an unstoppable plummet towards the deserts of Nal Kuat below.
A flash of light took Crisis attention to another attack along the ring as a pair of Whispers made a daring attack on a pair of sleeping Carrack light cruisers. Somehow the First Order pilot had weaved his torpedo past the first ship and into the side of the second. When the explosion went off it was trapped between the two Carrack's closely packed hulls, severely damaging both escorts.
The largest grouping of Whispers had finally arranged itself in single file off of Star Destroyer row. Nearly a hundred TIE/wi vectored in on their targets. They now bore in as the first anti-airspeeder blasters started winking into life around the ring.
They drove on the front of the line, ignoring the Star Destroyer in vacuum dock. At an extremely short range of only a kilometer the first Whisper dropped its proton torpedo towards the second resting Star Destroyer in the line. Crisis held his breath as the first weapon zeroed in on the sleeping warship.
The explosion played out in vivid detail across the holoimage as twelve more torpedoes slammed into the second Star Destroyer. The great holes torn into her starboard side foretold of her doom. Setrauss gasped at the massive damage caused to the Imperial war ship. No Naval Captain wanted to see such a thing happen to a starship, even an enemy's.
The stricken Star Destroyer lost power and started to list as sections of her hull decompressed. She pulled at her moorings until the gangways snapped, tearing great chunks of durasteel from her berth. Like the Venator a moment ago the Imperial I class Star Destroyer started to roll before starting her own death dive towards Nal Kuat.
The first and third Star Destroyers in line fared little better as they each caught a half dozen proton torpedoes. The damage to both ships was only increased due to their shields being deactivated while they were in port. The top superstructure of the first one was completely decapitated, while explosions rippled through the third. Crisis was no expert but he assumed it would take years before the Empire would be able to repair such catastrophic damage.
"We could have done better." Setrauss groused.
"Four capital ships destroyed so far and the attack is only five minutes old, Captain." Crisis pointed out.
"Sure but that attack only had twenty-four hits out of a hundred. Didn't you see all the misses?" The Captain asked. In truth, Crisis had been too focused on the hits to notice the scores of torpedoes that went wildly off into the Void or slammed harmlessly into the heavy plates of the ring.
"The war is still young. We will get better as it goes along." Obota defended the strike force. Crisis assumed his subordinate was correct and returned his attention on the attack.
Captain Setrauss's point was made a few minutes later when another attack squadron of TIE/wi from the Vulgarizer arrived late for the attack. Fourteen slow moving Whispers aimed themselves at the fourth Star Destroyer in line. By now a hailstorm of anti-airspeeder fire was there to meet them as hundreds of Imperial sailors reached their battle stations and started to fight back. Ten of the Whispers were torn apart before they could launch their weapons. Their fiery destruction threw off the aim of the squadron's survivors whose missiles and torpedoes sailed harmlessly beneath the hull of the fourth Star Destroyer.
"Stang, I wish we had homing torpedoes." Crisis complained. He was far more familiar with army and planetary weapons than he was of Naval space-borne devices.
"Tracking is tricky. Even ships in port use passive jammers. You get better results by eye-balling your attack." Setrauss explained the Naval theory. It made some sense but that didn't mean Crisis needed to like the handicap. Those were his pilots out there after all.
It was at that moment that the TIE/fb bombers arrived. Guided in by Commander Qurna, they swept over the line of docked Star Destroyers in groups of twenty. Energy bombs by the dozens fell from the bombers. Launch from their racks to stimulate gravity the bombs hurled towards the ring's parked warships. Armed with proximity fuses the bombs started detonating along the entire length of Star Destroyer row.
Every one of the warships took damage from the attack but it was the seventh in line that really stood out. One bomb struck her aft quarterdeck while a second pierced her armor plating next to her number six turret. The second hit must have struck a magazine or large fuel storage as her armor suddenly bulged outwards for a second before an apocalyptic blast tore the ship in two. On the holoimage it actually appeared as if the Star Destroyer's keel snapped.
Outside the viewport a light as bright as Tau Ceti lit up along the ring for a second. When it died out again very little of the seventh Star Destroyer remained. The sixth Star Destroyer had suffered damage from its sister's fiery death and fire and smoke poured from several locations. Even better the ring section that had been previously next to the seventh ship had been severed, cutting the ring straight through to the other side.
"Karabast." Crisis exclaimed in amazement. The rest of the Assaulter's bridge crew was stricken dumb in awe of the destruction that had just been inflicted.
For a second, it looked as if the eighth Star Destroyer had been knocked from its moorings by the powerful explosion of its sister. But something didn't seem right to Crisis and he peered at the ship for a closer look. "That thing is under way!"
Captain Setrauss shoved Obota out of the way for a better look. "By the Core, you're right, General."
"How? I thought they were all docked." Crisis asked.
"That's the ship we thought was turning over her engines before we attacked, sir." Obota reminded them. "She's got her shields up as well."
"Stang them. Vector in the second wave on that ship." Crisis attempted to order the crew. None of them moved.
"General, you know only the Admiral can countermand standing orders during an assault." Setrauss rebuked Crisis. It stung, how easily the heat of battle caused him to forget doctrine.
"You're right. I'm sure they can see it aboard the Fatalizer as well."
In the end, no orders needed to be sent as the Jury Wave arrived just as the errant Star Destroyer was getting under way. Several squadrons of TIE/fb veered off to bomb the moving warship. They flew through a storm of anti-airspeeder fire and several of the attackers were blown apart before they could drop their bombs.
Once more energy bombs rained down on a Star Destroyer. Most of them impacted harmlessly with the warship's shields, which rippled from the hits. A trio of bombs made it through the Star Destroyer's rear shields and struck her engine thrusters, jamming them hard to port. She had just cleared the lead Star Destroyer in the row when she suddenly veered right and drove her bow into the ring, effectively grounding herself in the side of the drive yard.
Intense anti-airspeeder fire from Star Destroyer row combined with a cloud of smoke, debris and bodies from the destroyed ships caused the second wave of First Order TIEs to have diminishing results with their attacks. Commander Ekthar directed his attackers to pound secondary TIE hangars along the ring as well as attacking smaller escorts in various unattacked berths. Commander Qurna disengaged the Judge Wave and directed them to return to the Resurgents to rearm and refuel for the third Executioner Wave.
The Jury Wave had a rougher time of it. XX-9 turbolaser turrets were starting to return fire all along the ring while Imperial TIEs started to rise up and vape fight with Ekthar's TIE/fo escorts.
"Are those TIE/in fighters and Interceptors?" Obota gasped.
Setrauss nodded his head. "I didn't think anyone had flown one of those models since my father piloted one at Jakku."
The TIE/fo and TIE/sf made short work of their older cousins. Imperial fighters were swept from the sky over the ring as the First Order fighters were not only far more advanced and numerous but they allowed little chances for the ancient Imperial models to take off in the first place. Within an hour most of the initial Imperial TIEs had been wiped from existence but more and more were arriving from distant hangars along the ring every minute. As was the growing amount of anti-airspeeder fire that was starting to weigh on the attackers. Several individual First Order TIEs vanished from the holoimage.
Still they pressed on. Several more Lancer, Nebulon-b, Carrack, Vigils and Star Galleons were destroyed or damaged by the Jury Wave but no more significant damage was inflicted upon the heavier ships in Star Destroyer row during the secondary attack.
Commander Ekthar recalled his wave of TIEs after spending nearly an hour working over the target. The defenders were too worn down to pursue Ekthar's TIEs as they retreated. They left the military district of Nal Kuat's ring battered and bruised. Fires burned in several locations and smoke drifted from nearly every access port along the western half of the ring.
"Send more men down to the hangars to assist the deck crews. I want the next wave rearmed and ready to launch in one hour." Captain Setrauss barked at his officers and sailors.
"Perhaps we should spend that time designating new targets for the Executioner Wave. I'm sure Commander Calatran is champing at the bit to get in there." General Crisis suggested.
"An excellent proposal, General." Setrauss agreed.
They leaned over the edges of the holoimagers with several other officers. Scores of escorts and minor vessels had been left untouched in the attack as were the obvious Stormtrooper and sailor barracks adjacent to the port facilities.
Crisis turned his eye to the massive fuel storage tanks. The bins were heavily armored and well protected against sabotage and air attack. He noted containers of rhydonium, clouzon-36, hypermatter and valuable coaxium all marked clearly with Mining Guild labels. They were to be the primary focus of the Executioner Wave and would require several bombing runs to destroy. He wished he could have deployed the 23rd Legion on the ring to capture the strategic fuel, but would have to settle for denying its use to the Empire. After all, one of the First Order's prizes would be the Empire's gas-mining operation at Jupiter, which had been promised to them by President Harris. Once it was in their hands their critical fuel shortages should be resolved.
While he was studying the fuel storage site in the hologram he noticed three small warships docked well away from any other Imperial Naval or civilian starship. The untouched ships were less than a hundred meters in length, with a hull that was as skinny as a stylus with a sharp pointed bow and small bulbous rear engine compartment. The General couldn't detect any sort of visible weapon system and the strange starships looked too fragile to be escorts or fleet tenders.
He was just about to point out the oddities to Captain Setrauss on the assumption the Naval officer might be more familiar with their class of ship when a sailor in the crew pit called out. "Incoming AAC from the Fatalizer."
Admiral Jethran's visage appeared atop every holoimager inside the command bridge. "Attention all First Order ships. Retrieve and secure all returning TIEs of the strike force. Secure all vessels and prepare to make way for the Sol System."
Crisis immediately moved to the central walkway to face the main Com-Scan projector. He activated it and established a link with the Fatalizer. "Admiral, this is General Crisis aboard the Assaulter. Are we scrubbing the Executioner Wave?"
"Affirmative, General. By my analysis we've achieved nearly all of our strike force's objectives. We are needed back in the Sol System for the Bloodstripe Campaign."
General Crisis looked around the bridge. Officers looked confused and upset. Setrauss and Obota looked scandalized. The enemy was before them and they had been brought to their knees. Another strike would finish them off for good.
"Sir, wouldn't a more aggressive stance here at Nal Kuat make things easier for us as we push down the Bloodstripe?" Crisis asked.
"General, we've already lost over a hundred TIEs in the first two waves, most of them in the second wave. The enemy's ability to down our fighters is growing stronger every minute. I won't risk half of my irreplaceable pilots on secondary targets."
"I understand, sir, but. . ."
"But what, General. You understand nothing. Do you happen to know the location of the Ares? The 3rd wave would take two hours to turn around and strike new targets along the ring. Plenty of time to get escorts into space and missile batteries online. We have little knowledge of the Empire's Bloodstripe Run past this system so as far as we know the Ares could be sitting a parsec away with eight more Star Destroyers at the ready."
General Crisis winced, realizing he had skillfully pulled what was called a General Hux in the First Order, objecting to a proposal from a superior officer, only to have his proposal humiliatingly shot down. Only Supreme Leader Vala Ren could countermand Admiral Jethran, and she was back in the Sol System at the moment.
"General, we've won a great victory here today with minimal cost to us. This raid as well as the deep penetration mission by your 1st Commandos at Palpatine Prime will throw the Empire into disorder. Now is the time of the First Order. The Empire can no longer stop us from grabbing ourselves a piece of this new Galaxy. Now are there any more objections?" Admiral Jethran glared out at the officers of the strike force.
Crisis shook his head and then saluted. "No, Admiral."
"Recall the scouts. Once they are aboard, we shall retrace our path back through the Almuhit and once clear, jump to the Sol System. Hopefully, it will have already fallen into our hands by the time we arrive. All hail the Supreme Leader. All hail Palpatine." Admiral Jethran's image vanished.
The crew went to work busily retrieving TIEs and securing the ship for passage once more into the maelstrom. Captain Setrauss focused on getting his Resurgent ready for the voyage and tried to pretend that Crisis wasn't there after his public dressing down from the Admiral.
Commander Obota stepped to the side of the General and they both looked back out the forward viewport as the Assaulter began a slow turn to port. Despite his helmet, his subordinate could sense when Crisis was worried. "Sir, even without the Executioner Wave, we destroyed an entire squadron of Star Destroyers and wrecked the Empire's primary drive yard. Certainly you can see what we've accomplished here."
General Crisis sighed as the ring grew further and further away. "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping rancor and filled him with a terrible resolve."
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KDY Ring Driveyards, Nal Kuat, Kuat System
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For the inhabitants of the Ring of Nal Kuat, there was nothing unusual in being jerked out of sleep by blasters and energy bombs and low-flying TIEs. The ring was crowded with military bases, and live-blasting drills were commonplace. In the years following the economic turn-around that had followed the Empire-Earth War, the KDY Ring Driveyard was the largest public works project the Empire had undertaken since arriving in the Milky Way. It consisted of three levels, an upper and lower level of pressurized armored buildings that faced out into the Void and an internal open section that contained the ring's travel corridors, parks, academies and business districts. The services had taken to conducting 'simulated combat exercises' that pitted the Navy vs the Stormtrooper Corps vs the Army vs the Armor Corps vs the TIE Corps. On those days, a colossal amount of ammunition was thrown out into the Void, and the ring's houses and civilian districts would shake and rattle as if a planetquake had struck. So when the familiar racket started up, at a little before six in the morning, most of the residents pulled a pillow over their heads, or turned back to their caf and morning broadcasts of the HoloNews and HoloNet and tried to ignore the deep concussive thuds of distant bombs, the heavy booming of anti-airspeeder batteries and the faint rattle of E-WEBs.
But it was soon clear that these were no ordinary exercises. Floors shook, viewports rattled, TIEs roared low over the city districts, and errant shells started falling in civilian zones. Civilians emerged from their homes, many still wearing pajamas and nightshirts. Explosions and escaping pressurized atmosphere could be heard inside the interior of the ring city, and heavy smoke filled Lady Niobe Avenue in the Kuantus District. RescueOp sirens began to blare, and along the western half of the ring, above the Imperial Naval Yards a gigantic pall of oily smoke boiled out into the Void. At viewports around the ring, observers could see an armada of TIE bombers and fighters circling in lazy figure eights. Every so often, a group of the aircraft would coalesce into an orderly attack formation and then individual TIE bombers would peel off, one by one, to begin their bombing runs.
The spectators were impressed: the flyboys were putting on a terrific show. Ten-year old Greedo Farr shouted to his brother. "Wow. Spectacular maneuvers!"
The two younglings climbed a shuura fruit tree in one of the city's hydroponic greenhouses for a better view. His older brother Hype replied, "I gotta admit it looks really realistic, this time."
A Naval trooper waking up at the barracks above the Naval District shook his buddy awake. "This is the best stang drill the bucketheads have ever put on."
His friend wiped the sleep from his eyes and looked out the viewport at the smoke filling the port. "Fierfek. Are they using smoke bombs out there? They're going all out on this one."
At four minutes past six, HoloNet Local 1, interrupted its morning broadcasts of a recorded teenage dance show set to Elvis music. The announcer, Edwa Webley, read a brief statement recalling all military personnel to their bases and stations. Normal programming then resumed, but new interruptions followed every few minutes with announcements calling RescueOps, medical droids, and rescue personnel to work. At 0725, Webley interrupted every Holochannel including the entire local HoloNet. "We interrupt broadcasts to bring you this important news. By the Force, please pay attention. The Ring is under attack. I repeat the Ring is under attack by hostile forces."
He came back on ten minutes later. In a quavering voice he pleaded with his listeners to believe him. "This isn't no clone. This is the real deal. Rebel forces are attacking the Ring. I repeat: this is the real deal!"
Even seasoned military men, veterans of the Empire-Earth War and the Clone Wars found it difficult to believe what they were seeing. They felt a little bewildered and disorientated by what they were seeing as the attack unfolded. The notion that an actual raid was underway was slow to enter their minds.
A TIE approached one of the ships moored against the Ring. A Scout Trooper asked his squadmates, "Why are these TIEs flying so low?"
A nearby anti-airspeeder battery let loose with a barrage of cluster missiles causing another trooper to reply with a question of his own. "Why are the boys blasting at that TIE?"
The TIE pulled away from the missiles at the last second just as a glowing object fell away from its bomb pod. The first Scout Trooper spotted it. "What a stoopa buckethead, he didn't even secure his releasing gear."
The energy bomb fell away to smack into the side of Star Destroyer Storm and explode. "Somebody fierfeked big this time. They loaded live bombs in those TIEs by mistake."
As the TIE rose up out of its attack it revealed itself to be painted in black paint with two red stripes painted vertically across its solar panel. "By the stars! They're really going all out! They even painted a new color scheme on that TIE."
Further along the ring a ship suddenly exploded, causing both Scout Troopers to call out in unison, "What kind of drill is this?"
On the roadway outside the Judicial Arcology in the heart of the ring's Kuantus District, sailors and Stormtroopers were piling into every landspeeder, hover bus, taxi cab and swoop bike they could lay their hands on. The large outer turbolifts running on exterior tracks that circumnavigated the ring were crammed with troopers armed with blasters looking space-ward. RescueOp airspeeders and Kuati city guard on speederbikes raced towards the fires burning in several parts of the ring. Sirens screamed. Repulsar jets scorched the pavement. No one observed the speed limit. On the two lane central tunnel roadway that led to the Naval District every conceivable vehicle was loaded with sailors rushing to get to their duty stations.
For many, the first direct confirmation that an actual attack was occurring was when their turbolifts were strafed by low-flying enemy TIEs. One Naval Gunner was watching out the rear of her turbolift and saw a TIE following them along the tram rail with fire coming out of its chin cannons. "Stop the lift!" she screamed at the droid driver.
The droid did as ordered, causing the TIE to overshoot them. Instead it stitched up the turbolift that was running parallel to their own. The shock of bolts penetrated the turbolift in a hundred places. Its droid was either destroyed or lost control as the lift careened from its track seconds before its right side imploded spilling bodies out into the path of the first turbolift. The Gunner screamed as a dead officer face-planted directly into the other side of her viewport before spinning off into space.
By 0710, just fifteen minutes after the first bombs and proton torpedoes had struck the ships moored to the great KDY Ring Driveyard, the 1st Bombardment Squadron of the Imperial Navy was crippled. Along the western ring, in the anchorage known as Star Destroyer Row, the Star Destroyers lay smashed, burning and blackened, their superstructures and turbolaser turrets leaned over the ring at 45 degrees. So much thick black smoke was billowing out of the stricken ships that observers couldn't see the stars.
The ISD Lightning was holed and burning. Her dorsal armor had peeled back from several torpedo hits and only her mooring lines held her in place. The ISD Desert was smashed and blazing, her paint charred and bubbling, with enormous volumes of smoke pouring from her stricken port side. The ISD Storm and ISD Thought were in better shape, but both had been jammed against their mooring dolphins, immobilized and out of action. The ISD Vision had actually capsized and plummeted towards the planet below. Most of her crew had made it to the life pods in time but nearly six hundred sailors had smashed into the fiery desert of Nal Kuat along with their ship.
The Star Destroyer ISD Hope's aft tibanna magazine had detonated in a mighty thunderclap of light and sound, deep and terrible, sending a second-long burst of heat as hot as a supernova that cleaved straight through the ring section next to it. Seconds after the explosion, burning debris began smashing into the ring and hulls of nearby starships. It continued to impact for an improbably long time. There were durasteel fragments whipping through space, fire, clouds of released hypermatter, the Force knew what else, pieces of transperisteel, pieces of ship deck, canvas and even pieces of bodies.
One Petty Officer stationed at the forward ion turret of the ISD Legacy in back of the Hope saw lots of durasteel and bodies coming at him. He saw a thigh and a leg. He saw fingers. He saw hands. He saw elbows and arms. Much of the Hope was simply gone. The warship in front of him had been turned inside out in an instant. The surviving portion of the hull slipped beneath the ring and slowly fell into the grasp of Nal Kuat's gravity well.
The blast had killed more than ten thousand of the Hope's crew in the blink of an eye, and many of the survivors were so badly burned that their shipmates aboard the life pods did not know how to help them.
One Navy Corpsman thought the wounded were like Rakghouls. They were burned completely white. To him their skin was just as white as if he had taken a bucket of whitewash and painted the skin white. No species was spared as Alderaanian to Zeltron sailors bore the same fate as each other. Their hair, scales and tentacles were burned off. They were moving like droids. Their arms were out, held away from their bodies and they stumped along the surviving decks.
For many along the ring, the most unforgettable sight of all was the sight of enemy TIEs. TIEs that just that morning were believed to be from their own TIE Corps, diving out of the Void in such numbers, they had dimmed the light from Tau Ceti. Who they could be was anyone's guess. The New Mandalorians surely didn't have this many fighters in their entire land. The Earthlings were a joke, with an assortment of third rate space fighters piloted by fifth rate pilots.
But these TIEs were handled brilliantly. The bombers planted their bombs with pinpoint accuracy. The torpedo TIEs came in low and made textbook launches. The black TIE fighters roared in on the tails of the bombers and made deadly strafing runs. If not for the carnage on the ring and in the Naval District, the entire spectacle could have been an air show. Some of the witnesses were amazed with how low the TIEs flew. So low you could throw a limmie ball and hit one. So low that witnesses in the Naval Hospital looked down on the torpedo TIEs as they made their runs on the Imperial Star Destroyers. The enemy pilots were plainly visible in their ball cockpits. Many of the witnesses made surreal eye contact with an enemy pilot. Some of the enemy pilots shrugged almost apologetically; a few even waved. Others made old-fashioned rude finger-thumb gestures that most Kuati had forgotten from the Home Galaxy in favor of the middle fingered gesture made popular by troopers fighting on Earth in the last war.
One Imperial Marine saw a pilot laughing and having a field day. He let go of his control toggles and raised his clasped hands above his head and shake them like a Rakatan gladiator greeting a crowd of fans. Then he grabbed his controls and started blasting again.
As the last enemy TIE craft headed away; strangely towards the unnavigable Almuhit Maelstrom that bordered the Kuat System, the western section of the ring, especially the Naval Yard was littered with drifting flotsam of every description, much of it blackened by flames: uniforms, boots, holobooks, life helmets, mattresses, ladders, life pods, and droids. Inside the ring there was an almost indescribably foul combination of odors, from the oppressive fumes of fuel, the vast billowy clouds of black smoke, the sickly-sweet smell of charred flesh. Millions of gallons of hypermatter had erupted across the Naval Yard, burning despite the vacuum and lack of oxygen in the Void. Sailors in EVO suits and life suits were brought in by the thousands covered in hypermatter fluid. The rank, sour taste of the stuff caused many of them to vomit.
Even on the rings the heat radiating from Star Destroyer Row was almost unendurable, but small launches, shuttles, LAATs, RescueOp boats and even civilian airspeeders plowed directly into the maelstrom in an attempt to rescue survivors. The crew of one LAAT tried to douse the fires with handheld CO2 grenades. Each time they did so the sides of the LAAT broke into flames, which had to be put out before the next run.
The heat was so intense that the RescueOps crew had to lean against the underexposed side of their shuttles to protect themselves. Drifting survivors found salvation in a boat hook, as they were seized by the belts or collar and hauled aboard rescue speeders moments before their oxygen supplies ran out. These rescued sailors were choking on hypermatter, spitting hypermatter, vomiting hypermatter, many were so thoroughly drenched in hypermatter that it was difficult to determine where they had been wounded.
One Snowtrooper pulled a sailor out of the Void and pulled him out of his evo-suit. He began wiping the sailor clean with a singed towel. He couldn't tell if the sailor was a human, Chiss or Pantoran. He laid the sailor in the bottom of his LAAT. When the LAAT was full of wounded they made a return run to the ring with the wounded all pressed together, all in great pain.
At Biel Ductavis Marina on the inner side of the ring from the Naval District, wounded humans and aliens were lifted on stretchers from the speeders. The scene was chaotic. Sailors and officers who had spent the night ashore on the ring pressed forward, hoping to find a transport that could take them back to their starship. Sirens screamed. Naval Corpsmen and Stormtrooper field medics shouted to clear the way for the repulsar stretchers, dead and wounded beings were laid in rows on the permacrete pier.
Private landspeeders and RescueOps ambulances were arriving in great numbers, immobilizing traffic. The wounded were administered a shot of symoxin, slathered in bacta gel and offered a drink of water. Their faces were blackened by smoke or soot, their eyes almost smashed shut. Some had lost all of their hair and most of their skin. It was necessary to strip the burn victims of their clothing, but the hypermatter-soaked fabric had seared into the flesh, and when it was removed, long ribbons of skin came off with it.
Emergency treatment centers were set up in several locations in the military zone, including the Imperial Marine Barracks, the Dispensary and the Fleet Bachelor Officer Quarters. All were soon overwhelmed with casualties. At the mess hall, wounded were laid out on all of the tables, and newly arriving stretchers had to be left out on the patio by the large viewports so that the wounded were forced to watch their burning ships. Some of the sailors looked beyond help, burned flesh and bone showed through the seared mess. Some of the beings were half-clothed, raw meat just hanging from their skeletons. Some cried like younglings, babbling for their mother, father or loved ones.
Lightly wounded sailors and Stormtroopers were wandering around in a daze, refusing to respond when spoken to, resisting violently when others tried to lead them to treatment centers. There were beings who were completely naked but seemed unaware of their nakedness, even in the presence of civilians and Red Sigil nurses.
One Twi'lek sailor, a machinist mate who was fortunate to escape from the Hope with minor wounds, randomly met one of his shipmates at the sick bay at Air Lock 37. The Trandoshan sailor was laying across from the Twi'lek holding his intestines in with his hands. The lizard-man looked at the Twi'lek and uttered. "War sure is hell, isn't it, shipmate?"
The Twi'lek couldn't think of anything better than to grunt back, "Yeah, it sure is." He wasn't bleeding anywhere so he got up, and walked out of there. His shipmate passed away a moment later, all alone.
On the docks and at air locks, the dead were being laid out in two rows, with a walkway down the center. The heads in each row pointed inward, so that the bodies could be identified, either by their faces or their chain codes. Some of the dead sailors had an unnaturally dark pallor, but their bodies showed no visible wounds, which indicated they had been killed by the concussive forces of one of the huge explosions, shattering the blood vessels without breaking their skin.
A TIE pilot who served aboard the ISD Might, had a brother who was a Lieutenant aboard the ISD Thought, who he spent hours searching the bodies for. He would run along the aisle, and knowing his brother's characteristics, would look for him. He knew every little mark on his brother's body. He would get far down the aisle and look close at a corpse. This guy or that guy would look just like his brother. No, that's not him and move on. Well, that guy looks like him but he couldn't see a face. Eventually sheets were brought in to cover the bodies and Shore Patrol Guard forced him away from his fruitless search.
Supremacy Defense Zones 2 and 3 were ghastly sculpture gardens of twisted burning clots of titanium hulls and quadanium solar panels, the remains of TIE/ln wiped out in their hangars. Three hundred and seventy TIEs out of seven hundred stationed on the rings as well as another two hundred in the Bombardment Squadron had been destroyed in the raid. Nearly all of them while still in their racks awaiting their pilots. Zone 6 Hangar lay gutted with its shield generator smashed and exposed to the Void after being struck by three heavy energy bombs. In the Executive Shuttle Hangar, strafed and burning Lambdas were scattered about like a youngling's playthings.
Durasteel plates across the ring were littered with shrapnel and pocked with large craters and carbon scorings, each marking a spot were a thousand kilo bomb had dropped.
Sailors and naval troopers who had been ordered to abandon their ships were milling about in confusion, their uniforms and armor smeared with blood and dried hypermatter fluid. Troopers were in various stages of undress and some plundered the nearby barracks and dependent housing units for clothing. Regular troopers ended up in Captain's uniforms or fine robes suited for an Imperial Senator rather than a cook's mate. Gangs of Naval Troopers, far outnumbering their Stormtrooper brethren, roamed the ring from west to east, bandoliers of tibanna clips slung over their shoulders like Wookiees.
In the base's administration building, there was mass confusion. There was no order, no control, and no authority. Beings were milling around like so many lost nerf.
The Naval Troopers Barracks, a massive duracrete structure atop the ring, was hastily converted into a receiving and billeting center for these itinerate sailors. Sailors who had been pulled out of the freezing Void and clouds of hypermatter gas were instructed to strip-off their hypermatter soaked evo-suits and clothing and place it in trash compactors, and then stand in line for the sonic showers. In many cases hypermatter gas had penetrated so deeply into the sailors' pores and scales that it was nearly impossible to vibrate clean. Some of the worst were rotated between the sonics and hot water showers, usually reserved for officers, to scrub with trillium soap. When that didn't do the trick the sailors were scrubbed with petrol and Old Janx Spirit bottles purloined from the local cantinas. Even after their cleaning the sailors still complained of a thin film that seemed to cover them from head to foot, their eyes smarted from the hypermatter fumes, or that they were plagued with blurred vision or intense headaches for several hours.
The Fleet Quatermaster warehouses, miraculously untouched by the raid, issued clean boots and Navy dungarees to Navy, Stormtrooper and TIE pilot alike. Flimsiwork was ignored, no one was required to sign for anything. A Naval Trooper mess sergeant did his best to feed any hungry sailor or trooper who walked into his mess hall, and the chow line was continuous, with beings lining up for lunch behind others still waiting for breakfast. It was feared that the drinking water may have been poisoned by saboteurs, so sailors drank eblas, soft drinks and the popular Kool-Aid they imported from Earth. Droids were assigned to purify a swimming pool for use by the mess halls. Sailors were grateful to chow down on dry bantha sandwiches and caf made from chlorinated pool water. They were so hungry that not a one of them didn't find it delicious.
A check-in station was set in the first floor of the Naval Trooper Barracks. The name of each abandoned ship and Star Destroyer was stenciled on the wall behind a table staffed by a junior officer. Sailors and officers were told to wait for reassignment. Many were ordered to join cleaning details on the warships and around the base. At Zone 2 Hangar, teams of deck crews removed debris from the hangars and pushed wrecked TIEs out into the Void. Others carried fire extinguishers and CO2 bombs and put out dozens of fires that had sprung up around the base. Troopers and droids were given buckets and told to go pick up shrapnel and scrap metal. There was so much shrapnel around the base and hangars a sailor had to merely bend down and scoop it up with their hands. Engineers set to work fixing busted water mains and electrical relays while a large group of them focused on repairing the damage to the vacuum dock that still contained the ISD Might. Sailors returned to their stricken Star Destroyers with carbonite chests, and began the grisly task of collecting the remains of their slain shipmates.
The shock of the raid was still fresh in everyone's minds, the survivors made a concentrated effort to raise the collective morale. Along Star Destroyer row audicasters aboard each ship blared out "I Don't want to set the Galaxy of fire," and on the ISD Thought, the ship's band performed across the local military com signal while the repair teams worked. The crisis tended to bring out the best in the malingerers, the lazy beings, even the prisoners in the brig, who were ordered out of their cells and put to work.
Everyone worked. Eventually tens of thousands from the civilian districts showed up to pitch in and lend a hand. Even the mayor, and several board members of KDY helped with the wounded and the repair work.
A surprised Stormtrooper spotted Lucious Farnmir driving a bulldozer and directing the recovery work being done by a small platoon of loadlifters. He nudged the Stormtrooper next to him and laughed. "Things are so bad here at Nal Kuat that even the Moffs are working."