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Phobos Orbit, Fortress Planet Mars
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From high atop the Limbo's command bridge, Rear Admiral Knebler watched the handlers finish the hypermatter fuel transfer from the YZ-3000 Fleet Tanker, Tatooine Twins, which was matching speed alongside his own Star Destroyer. Fueling was always the moment when a warship was the most vulnerable.
Or at least it always had been, before Nal Kuat.
A group of four Carrack Light Cruisers circled endlessly as the ISD Limbo and her sister, the ISD Purgatory, topped off their hypermatter and fuel tanks. Their escort's blood was up, Knebler could sense the edginess as he watched their vigorous maneuvers. They reminded him of anxious aak pups yearning for a bone. The Admiral could hardly blame his sailors, after Nal Kuat and the attack on the Empress he wanted to get out there and smash half the Galaxy in retribution. His battlegroup of six warships was more than capable of doing it, too, he was as sure of that as he was of the living Force.
Rear Admiral Anton Knebler hadn't slept a wink since news had reached them alerting them to the raid on the Nal Kuat ring driveyard and the resulting destruction of so many ships. Ships that contained many friends and comrades Knebler had served with ever since Tarkin's Fist had emerged out of the 'big jump'. Every time he closed his eyes he could picture another face that he would never see again.
Someone needed to pay for what happened at Nal Kuat. The question was . . . who?
It still hadn't been a full rotation since the AAC came in from FleetCom at the Rhombus notifying all commands of the attack on Nal Kuat. The Empress was due to address a joint session of the Senate in an hour on Palpatine Prime. He didn't want to miss it for its simple historical value alone, but duty came first. Now, in the darkest hours of the Empire since the assassination of Emperor Yos, the Earth was starting to make threatening noises again. It was the last thing the Fleet needed to deal with at the moment, Knebler mused.
He rubbed his nose in frustration, He hadn't slept in thirty hours standard and was feeling it. He wished he was in his friend Xendor Murp's shoes. FleetIntel would have the latest updates about Nal Kuat's mystery raiders, while little could be learned here in the Mars Squadron on the sheb-end of the Bloodstripe Run.
"You're not thinking about the curse are you?" Captain Chiraneau chuckled.
"Force no. I've told you a hundred times already, I don't believe in hokey superstitions. This ship is not cursed." Admiral Knebler shook his head at such nonsense. He had heard it in one form or another since he had taken command of the flotilla, the Limbo had been cursed by the ghost of Kuantus Kuat.
The Limbo had been one of four Star Destroyers of the Ploo Fleet to make it through the 'big jump' and had served Moff Seco through his rebellion. The most lightly damaged of the two survivors, along with the Purgatory, during the Battle of Four Navies, afterwards her rebellious crew had been split up and reassigned throughout Grand Admiral Yutu's fleet while she had come under the command of Captain Leida Hinter. The Limbo had been the Star Destroyer dispatched to aid the Kuati Moff when pirates stole a large research vessel that to this day had never been recovered or even seen again. When the Limbo had arrived in the Kuat System they had done so at the most inopportune moment. For Moff Kuat was, in the very second of their arrival, hyperjumping directly into their position. His Hammerhead corvette never stood a chance and the Empire lost one of its most loyal supporters and shipwrights in that instant.
Captain Hinter's military career had stalled after that, but she had landed on her feet after the war and become the governor of Mars, the only Fortress World in the Empire, complete with its own Star Destroyer Squadron, Legion and a planetary shield. The Limbo however had gone through a host of Captains, many of them lasting under a year at her helm. Her heavy turbolasers had jammed, the only instance during the entire war, while participating in the retribution mission after Grand Admiral Yutu assassination and it had fallen to the Slash and Purgatory to lay waste to the city of London as they pulled their troopers out of the milquetoast United Protectorate. Her crew and officers soon began to believe their ship was cursed, and the likely culprit was the specter of Moff Kuat, a man who had a hand in designing the entire Imperial class of Star Destroyers.
It was a laugh, to Knebler. He relied on facts, not fairy tales.
"You're absolutely right, Admiral. The old Limbo here has just had a run of bad luck . . ." Chiraneau didn't quite catch himself in time and ran a nervous finger around his uniform's collar when the Rear Admiral glared at his mention of illogical serendipity. ". . . I mean not luck, just poor planning by previous commanders leading to unsatisfactory results."
"Time to change that then, Captain. What is the latest report from the embassy?"
"Ambassador Snoke has evacuated all but five of his most essential aides and two squads of Stormtroopers. They are awaiting our escort before they vacate the post." Chiraneau relayed the latest DiploServe report from Luna.
"Awfully strange the Earthings are getting this hostile at the same moment we came under attack on Nal Kuat." Knebler observed.
"They've been escalating things for months now, sir. FleetIntel believes they've stationed twenty-thousand new troopers on Luna, including many of those elite Legionnaires of theirs. They've harassed and assaulted any member of our staff that have left the embassy grounds. They've cut power to the embassy four times in the past month and they've stopped the ventilation system from circulating air. The embassy staff has had to rely on backup power cores and atmospheric reprocessors. Three days ago, someone on the Confederate side of the base blasted out a viewport on our embassy with a blaster rifle that depressurized an entire wing before the blast door sealed off the section."
"We were lucky no one was in that section when it collapsed."
"Aye, sir. The Ambassador's complaint was met with the Confederate military surrounding the embassy complex and blasting loud music down the shared transition corridors that link the embassy to theirs. They've also brought in walkers that are patrolling the surface around our territory. Several times they've breached over the line marking our zone of control."
"Will they treat with Ambassador Snoke? Surely he's filed complaints." Knebler suggested.
"They've all been refused. They won't consider pulling back their troopers until we fully withdraw from Mars and cancel trade missions with New Mandalore."
"Absurd." Knebler felt his judgement underscored the whole situation. The situation on Luna was growing tense and before too long someone was bound to pull a trigger. "So Ambassador Snoke has decided to withdraw from Luna?"
"Aye, sir. Until cooler heads can prevail on Earth. DiploServe Minister Ratua Dil doesn't want another war accidently kicking off while we are being raided by an unknown enemy."
"Of unknown strength. You and I both studied those ship sighting reports from Nal Kuat."
"Those big sleemos that sat and watched from the Almuhit. Scary as hell that the six Star Destroyers were larger than the Limbo and that really huge one looked half as big as the Ares." Chiraneau hypothesized.
"No doubt. And who knows if that's all of them." Knebler replied.
"Do you think they aren't showing us their complete Sabacc, Admiral?"
"When I served with the Grand Admiral he used to study Earth's tactical doctrines. They may have differed on various subjects but as I recall they all agreed on one thing; you never show your full strength to an enemy. Yutu taught me that it was through the dispositions of a fleet that its condition may be discovered. Conceal your dispositions, and your condition will remain secret, which leads to victory, show your dispositions, and your condition will become patent, which leads to defeat." Knebler was proud that he recalled the old dictum word for word from Yutu's teachings.
"The Grand Admiral may have been on to something there, Admiral. But the Tarkin Doctrine has never failed us. Strength ensures galactic harmony." Chiraneau cited dogmatic protocol left over from the days before the 'big jump'.
Knebler considered the Captain's words. Where was that strength at Nal Kuat? Thousands were dead, cut down while still in their bunks. That force of raiders was still out there and they had proven themselves stronger than the 1st Bombardment Squadron. If they were as dependent on strength as the Empire was, then why hadn't they appeared over Palpatine Prime and demanded our surrender?
"Admiral, Captain," The Bridge Officer interrupted the two senior commanders, "The fuel tenders have finished their work and are casting off the hoses."
Knebler peered outside and down at the Tatooine Twins to verify the report. Indeed, the hypermatter fuel hoses were snapping away from the Limbo's fuel injection ports. The crew of the tanker were quickly retracting the free-floating fuel lines back aboard their own ship. Sailors in Spacetrooper suits released pressurized jets of air that pushed them back towards the Limbo's airlocks. A moment later they were all back aboard.
"Secure for transit. Bring the crew to battle stations. I want every position double-staffed."
"Admiral, the crew have been at General Quarters ever since we received word about Nal Kuat."
Admiral Knebler smirked at the Captain's unnecessary worry. "Then they won't have far to travel. Don't fret, Captain. Once we arrive over Luna it will be in and out, a twenty minute mission."
Tatoonie Twins finished casting off and turned around for its return trip to Mars. The two Carracks, Angela Krin and Reptomammal, shot ahead as the Limbo moved ahead of Purgatory in a small line formation. Behind the two capital ships the Fang of Bos Pity and Zarymok zipped back and forth to protect the Star Destroyers' rear.
Knebler wasted no time advancing on Luna, and at full sublight speed the planet Earth and its solitary moon were soon visible to the naked eye.
The Admiral chuckled when he spotted the dust-filled rings of Luna. They had been created by Seco's forces during the Battle of Four Navies and had spent the last twenty years coalescing into a thick band that circled the moon's equator. The Confederacy of Earth Nations had filed endless complaints about the marring and disfiguration of their satellite. Knebler had seen hundreds of moons and planets with natural rings around them during his naval service and didn't see what the big deal was. Astrocartographers estimated Luna's rings would fade over the next five million years so why should the Earth be so upset over a temporary modification.
"Strange, we're getting very little in the way of Earth's normal jamming efforts." Captain Chiraneau observed while staring down at a monitor in the crew pit.
"Their usual efforts tend to be insufficient." Knebler responded.
"True, Admiral." Their normal efforts primarily consisted of flooding signals traffic with their banal chatter, music and at times, animal noises. Over the years they had strived to match Imperial hyperwave channels and had on occasion proven themselves a nuisance to Imperial Navy vessels that had had to come in close proximity to the Earth. It was such normal behavior on the CEN's part that it was worth mentioning when it didn't occur. "But there seems to be little to nothing happening anywhere on their planet."
"Little to nothing?"
"Well we're still getting civilian channels out of New Mandalore in the southern hemisphere, but all we are detecting from the Confederacy is encrypted military channels back and forth from their station on Luna and bases on Earth."
"Strange." Knebler wondered what the signal interceptions might mean for the embassy on Luna.
"Perhaps that explains where all their ships went." Chiraneau pointed out. Knebler's eyes went slightly wide as he noticed for the first time there didn't seem to be any Confederate vessels in orbit around their home world. It seemed to be standard practice for the Earthlings to keep at least a dozen Revenge Corvettes and at least a couple of their newer Europe frigates in orbit at all times, yet nothing was showing on their scopes.
"Keep the crew on alert. Tell the Carracks to pull back and have Captain Griff bring the Purgatory up along our starboard flank." Knebler ordered, never taking his eyes off the planet and its moon ahead of his task force.
The two massive Star Destroyers pulled abreast of each other. Their escorts fell back ten thousand kilometers and stayed at the ready in case their bigger brethren had need of them. The Purgatory and the Limbo trained their heavy turbolaser batteries on the Earth's moon as they approached the Luna embassy.
"The Embassy Security Chief just reported that he has Ambassador Snoke aboard their last shuttle. All staff have embarked and they are launching now." Chiraneau reported.
"Inform the Purgatory. We shall let the Ambassador's shuttle pass between us and then we shall offer cover for their trip back to Mars." Knebler replied. A moment later he spotted motion across Luna's surface as a small grey form quickly grew into the shape of a Lambda shuttle. The shuttle wasn't wasting any time as it evacuated Luna. Its pilot must have been pushing its SFS-204 ion engines into the red as it raced away from the Earth's satellite. Life sign sensors detected that the shuttle was fully packed with the last of the embassy staff, security team and most assuredly one very relieved Ambassador Snoke. The Lambda flashed its landing and navigation lamps in gratitude as it passed between the two war ships.
The Com-Scan officer in the Limbo's crew pit was the first to detect it. "Sirs, we are receiving a broad-spectrum burst from multiple locations on Earth and Luna. We are being hailed."
"Put it up on the bridge viewscreen." Knebler commanded.
The officer did as he was ordered. A large viewscreen lowered itself from the ceiling on the port side of the bridge. Both Knebler and Chiraneau walked over and stood in front of the device. Static filling the screen instantly turned into the infamous visage of Admiral Ackfar, Defense Minister of the Confederacy of Earth Nations.
The Earthling did not waste time on introductions, "Attention Imperial officers and crew of the two Star Destroyers currently on approach to the Eagle Colony on Earth's Moon. You are in violation of Confederate territory. Any further advancement will be construed as hostile and we will react accordingly." Admiral Ackfar announced.
"Admiral, this is Rear Admiral Knebler of the Limbo. Your threat is futile and meaningless. Any action that hinders the legal movement of my ships is in violation of the Mercury Accords. The Empire has every right for access to its own embassy on Luna."
"Access to Luna has been revoked. Your ambassador has vacated his official residence on our moon which rendered the diplomatic articles of the Accords null and void. Luna is now ours, by right and by action."
"This will not stand, Admiral. When the Empress and the Senate hear of . . ."
"We don't give a rat's ass what the Empress and your Senate have to say about it. Luna is ours and we have the firepower to back that up." Admiral Ackfar declared.
"Who do you think you're talking to? These two ships have enough firepower to level your world." Knebler wanted to reach through the viewscreen and choke the arrogant Earthling."
Admiral Ackfar glared at Knebler. "You have no idea what we are capable of."
The Earthling cut the signal. Had the Earth just declared war on the Empire? It was unclear, but if anyone was insane enough to do so it was President Harris and the lunatic asylum that called itself the Confederacy of Earth Nations.
"Sirs, we are picking up multiple inbound small craft." The FST officer announced.
"Multiple craft emerging from high Earth atmosphere. Four hundred. No, six hundred. Numbers are still coming in." Tachyon detection reported.
"Inbound speeder-craft heading our direction from Luna, At least two hundred. Bearing two-four-zero." The Sensor Array CIC Officer interrupted the other reports. "Speed nine point three sublight with estimated interception in twelve minutes."
"Shields up." Knebler ordered.
An overhead announcement could be heard outside in the bridge access corridor. "Action imminent. All Gunners are to hold their fire until ordered to do so. All damage control parties to their stations."
"It looks like several waves of bombers and torpedo craft escorted by a massive fighter screen." Chiraneau pointed out.
"Put the feed from the medium range sensors on screen." Knebler told the Bridge Officer. The viewscreen where Admiral Ackfar had recently threatened the Limbo and Purgatory now showed the closing mass of Earthling space-superiority fighters.
"Y-wings and X-wings. We always knew they made some of them after the war." Knebler pointed out the Incom copies. Y-Wings had been used in the closing hours of the Empire-Earth War in the Ares Raid and were well known to the Empire.
"Great Vader's Ghost, they've got A-Wings and B-Wings in the wave approaching from Luna." Chiraneau exclaimed. He didn't even wait for Knebler's permission before he manipulated the touch-viewscreen into enlarging the attack emerging from the Earth's moon.
"We've never been briefed about them." Knebler gasped. How could FleetIntel have failed so poorly twice in a single rotation? Once at Nal Kuat and now here with these new Earth models.
The A-wings looked to have been only a single generation removed from the ETA-2 Clone Wars predecessors and still contained a more ball like cockpit than the ones Knebler was more familiar with in the Empire. The speedy fighters zipped ahead of the other three classes of fighters demonstrating their powerful engines and lithe flight controls.
The majority of fighters in the formation were the X-wings, or X1s as the Earth was rumored to call them. They were a basic snubnose fighter with large weapon pods attached to hard points at the tips of their wings. The Earth versions owed a lot to their own fighter designs and stolen plans for Z-95 Headhunters than what the Empire had left behind in the Home Galaxy.
The slower bomber formations filled the Void behind the wings of fighters. The Y-wings looked much improved and upgraded since their last appearance, demonstrating the diligence the Earthlings put into stealing Imperial and New Mandalorian designs. The B-wings were a surprise and Knebler imagined the shock that would ripple through the Rhombus back on Palpatine Prime when news of their existence arrived in the military headquarters. They obviously carried more ordinance than the Y-wings, but could that be enough to penetrate an alert Star Destroyer's shields and armor, Knebler heavily doubted it.
For all their advancement they were still Earth fighters and bombers and piloted by near-human Earthlings. They didn't know or weren't capable of enduring the rigors of space combat. Their bravery was unquestioned but they simply weren't advanced enough to stand against the Imperial Navy.
"None of the types of TIEs that attacked us at Nal Kuat." Chiraneau observed. "Nor are they bringing in any of their capital ships. Sensors are still showing negative ship launches from Earth's surface."
"What can they be playing at? This is absolutely the wrong moment to be pulling the Empire's tail." Knebler referred to the disastrous raid on Nal Kuat the day before.
"Shall I launch our fighter screens?" Chiraneau asked.
"No need. This will be good practice for our gunners."
"We shall blast on your command."
"Hopefully they will come to their senses before it comes to that." Knebler suggested, despite a part of him hoping to wipe the arrogant Earthlings from the Void.
"Enemy fighters are within range of long and medium range anti-speeder batteries." FST announced.
"Hold." Knebler replied.
"Receiving another message from Earth." Com-Scan reported.
"See. Admiral Ackfar has some reason in him after all." Knebler told Captain Chiraneau.
"It's not the Admiral. It's a broadcast of a declaration of war!"
"By the stars! They're mad." It was at that moment that the attack began.
Three waves of twenty-four B-wings from Luna started the attack with heavy hypersonic missile launches from twelve thousand kilometers. The missiles streaked ahead of the waves of fighters like vengeful neebrays.
"Evasive action. Sig-Int jam those guidance systems." Knebler ordered as both the Limbo and the Purgatory turned sharply to avoid the incoming attack.
The attacking formations did not waver when the full impact of the Star Destroyer's jamming efforts fell on them, as they had done many times in the past. Instead they kept their tight professional formations and switched their missile guidance systems to laser-guided. Great puffs of laser energy cut through the attackers, some of the projectiles were fused energy bursts that peppered the Earthling formations with colorful yet deadly explosions.
The first missiles that hit were nuclear. The Star Destroyers had no issue protecting themselves from the atomic blasts. The shields instantly reconfigured to block the electro-magnetic pulse that each nuke released, protecting the hardened systems of each Star Destroyer from harm. It was the second and third squadrons that doomed Knebler's task force. Their missiles were Mercy-bringers.
Forty Mercy-bringers had been salvaged from the depths of the Indian Ocean and the wreck of the Wilderness. The sister of the Limbo and the Purgatory had gone down with Moff Seco following his defeat against the Empress and the Earth had wasted no time in stripping her of everything that was useful, including the forty ion-tipped proton torpedoes that now raked the two Star Destroyers.
Admiral Knebler watched in horror as the Limbo's energy shield suddenly became visible. It rippled with angry energy as great holes appeared in it. The gaps grew for several seconds before the shield burst into a shower of proton sparks. The Purgatory's shield suffered even worse. It overloaded and exploded outwards. The blast wave washed over the Limbo's bow shaking the entire warship like a planetquake.
The B-wings did not give the Star Destroyer's a chance to recover and dropped their bombs as they passed over the two swirling warships. Durasteel armor was designed to absorb or dissipate laser guidance and once the shields were gone the Earthling bombardiers were forced to drop their weapons by dead reckoning to overcome the Imperial jamming defense.
Turning and twisting violently, heeling sharply to starboard and then to port, the Purgatory dodged all but one bomb, which struck her Forward Sensor cluster, killing a dozen sailors, but otherwise not impairing the maneuverability or defenses of the Star Destroyer.
It was at the moment of the B-wing bomb run that Knebler looked out the viewport and saw the attack from Earth pressing in. A flight of ninety Y-wings roared in from the Limbo's port side. They dove in groups of two to three to a range of nearly a kilometer and attacked both of her bows.
Unlike nautical combat, space-borne combat had several important distinctions. A defending ship did not merely have to turn to port or starboard to avoid an attack but could dive and climb as well.
"Dive!" Knebler shouted to the helmsman. The Limbo's nose dipped down as the first torpedoes raced in, narrowly missing the warship as they flashed across the top of her hull. Advanced torpedoes, stolen from the Wilderness or, unknown to the Empire, provided by the First Order, streaked across the Void.
While avoiding what would have been a devastating attack on her bow the Limbo was struck simultaneously twice near her stern, crippling one of her main ion engines and jamming the thrusters of another. The crippled leviathan turned helplessly towards her partner in a jagged circle, smoke and burning hypermatter spewing behind her into the Void.
The Purgatory saw the onrushing danger and climbed. The Limbo lumbered underneath her sister, luckily avoiding a catastrophic mid-battle collision.
The third attack, by torpedo-armed B-wings, descended on the Purgatory. Spared in the first barrage, the Purgatory maneuvered to save herself, and managed to avoid nearly thirty proton torpedoes, but at last she was caught in what the Earthlings called an 'anvil' attack, with proton torpedoes dropped simultaneously from four directions on her bow. No matter which way she turned she bore the brunt of one of the attacks.
Purgatory was struck four times and immediately began to decompress as her compartmental blast doors were blown apart and her sections started to lose atmosphere. Knebler sucked in a wide-eyed breath as a sudden explosion erupted from the Purgatory's mid-decks. He knew in his heart they had lost the Purgatory as she started to roll to port.
"Admiral, its Captain Griff on the hyperwave." Com-scan reported.
"Put him on bridge audicasters." Knebler replied.
Captain Griff's harried and troubled voice came to them from the stricken Purgatory. "We're going down, Admiral. Permission to abandon ship?"
"Aye, Captain." Knebler responded. "You've put on a good show, now save yourselves."
The Purgatory continued through her death roll for another twenty minutes while scores of life pods and shuttles raced away from her wreckage. Sailors climbed into evo-suits and spacetrooper armor and leapt out into the Void to await recovery, hopefully before they froze to death or their oxygen ran out. The Carracks raced in, strangely ignored by the attackers and cautiously picked up survivors.
With the Purgatory gone the next wave of attackers turned to the easier task of putting away the crippled Limbo. As she circled, her superstructure was suddenly hit by a five ton energy bomb that detonated like a miniature star. The blast cracked her hull in several locations and she immediately began to lose atmospheric integrity.
Many sailors were trapped below deck as a fire storm raced through her mid-decks until it reached the Limbo's hangar, causing fully loaded TIEs to explode and burn in their ready racks. Another wave of smaller bombs hit her stern again, ripping open her aft armor and exposing her reactor rooms to the Void. One by one they started to fail and explode, ripping massive holes in the warship.
Carracks raced towards the burning Limbo as she tore apart. Without waiting for orders to do so most of her crew began to abandon ship in reckless fear for their own lives. Fights broke out for crowded life pods and Stormtroopers blasted into groups of sailors that stood in their way.
The Limbo was dying. The Purgatory was gone. The Mars Squadron had been destroyed by the pathetic and underestimated Earthlings. The Galaxy no longer made sense.
Rear Admiral Knebler stood on the bridge. His forehead was bleeding from being slammed into the forward viewport when the largest bomb had struck his ship. He watched in anger as hundreds of untouched Confederate space fighters and bombers broke away from the doomed ships to return safely to their home world.
"Admiral, we need to get you out of here. The Limbo is doomed." Chiraneau shouted his plea. Behind him officers and guards were climbing out of the crew pit and fleeing the bridge for the nearest life pods.
"It's too late, Captain." Knebler looked down at the top of the Limbo's hull where the warship was starting to crack in half.
A flight of X-wings raced past the Limbo's bridge. Imperial jamming must have ceased at just that moment for their flight leader's voice cut into the bridge's comm channel. The Earthling's smug voice grated on Knebler's ears. "We have finished our task now. You may carry on."
"They can't be allowed to get away with this." Chiraneau vowed just as the Limbo gave a massive shutter that almost sent both men to the deck.
Knebler could see the cascading bursts of explosions making their way towards them from the Limbo's hull. As the fireball climbed towards the bridge he faced Chiraneau one last time. "They won't, but it won't be me or you that stops them."
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In a story this big sometimes it's hard to keep track of everybody. So check out the newly updated Tarkin's Fist: Ships of the Line for a full inventory of new vessels, new characters, and a new timeline of events that took place in the 20 years between TFIII and TFIV.
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Up Next- So you say you have a Planetary Shield