Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Star Wars. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it.
Phase 23: Operation Star Hammer
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Part 4
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CIC
CIS dreadnought Vengeance
Randon
A thought brought a composite sensor picture to the front of Admiral Zellick's mind. It was fortunate that along with his promotion and expanded command came a few new implants created by the Techno Union's scientists – they allowed him a full immersion within the fleet's network and thus vastly increased awareness and control over his subordinates. As soon as the enemy began dividing their fleet into smaller task forces, it became clear that the super capital in the centre of the second formation wasn't a star dreadnought despite the way the automated systems initially designated it. Even as more and more sensor platforms died, the vast processing power at Zellick's disposal thanks to half of his command being networked, allowed the Admiral to refine the data he saw and soon he had a comprehensive picture of the enemy fleet.
The super capital was most likely the Alaskan battlecruiser Glory – given the distance, the probability was at seventy five percent. A Guardian refit could be the reason why the long range sensor profile didn't match what the data-base had from pre-war scans. There were four hundred Venator cruisers, two hundred Acclamator Assault ships and a nearly four hundred escorts of various classes. To meet them, Zellick had a hundred battleships, seventy Providence dreadnoughts and a mix of Munificent frigates and Recusant light destroyers.
In theory, the match up of the two fleets wasn't too bad. Depending on the exact modifications the ships had, a Lucrehulk battleship could take on four to six Venators, which gave him a rough parity with the Republic cruisers. The mix of smaller Providence warships and the larger, 'real' two kilometre long dreadnoughts of the class would be more or less enough to go toe to toe with the swarm of assault ships and when all was said and done, he would be at a disadvantage as far as the escorts went.
That battle cruiser was problematic however. While not as bad as a proper star dreadnought, which in the right, or wrong, circumstances could take on a whole sector fleet by themselves, that behemoth would be enough to tilt the battle in the Republic's favour. Ramming attacks might work to mission kill it on the cheap…
The wild card were the locals. Zellick had his orders – the Randon Trade Republic couldn't be allowed to switch sides, nor surrender their fleet intact. With Council Tionni on his side, the Confederate Admiral was confident that even if he couldn't hold the system, he would be able to deal enough damage to the enemy to ensure they won't push deeper in CIS space.
If this was all Veil brought for the battle.
A tight beam transmission struck the CIS fleet from Randon. Comm systems and E-War tasked Droids identified its source and contents as friendly and Zellick patched it through to the CIC.
A hologram of a greying Bothan appeared to the Admiral's right.
"The Randon Senate is voting on surrendering unconditionally or fighting to keep Veil away from the planet. We've got worms in the system – the tally so far is not in our favour. We're going to fix it. Be advised, the odds of being caught or the tampering discovered in the short term are high. I'll advise you if we fail." The transmission cut off.
"Commodore Nep, prepare to execute Operation Fire Break." Zellick transmitted to his XO ridding a modified Lucrehulk battleship.
"Affirmative." The small alien responded promptly in his native language and the Admiral's implants promptly translated it to Basic. "Standing by for Fire Break." On the tactical display, Zellick saw a tenth of his fleet cutting their acceleration a bit. Those ships had practically the whole Vulture compliment of the fleet on board with thousands of the Droid fighters riding on their hulls.
Another mental command ensured Zellick got a private channel with his local counterpart.
"Council Tionni, we're both out of time." The cyborg's altered voice stated calmly. "Will you fight the butcher or prove yourself and your people gutless cowards?"
The old human glared at him. "Anyone with a sense can see that the Sith needs to go. However, I have my world to think about. If we fight and fail to kill him once and for all, all my people will pay the price! This is not my call to make!"
"How many other worlds would have to die? We have the opportunity to face this monster and stop him, here and now!" Zellick pleaded. "He is a Sith and can't be trusted! If they win, the only choice anyone in the galaxy would have is either slow agonizing death for their amusement or a fast one fighting a futile struggle! Haven't you read and seen the histories?! You know as well as I do what hell a Sith victory would mean for the whole galaxy and make no mistake, the Republic, democracy and freedom – they're dead in the Core. It won't be long now before the Sith and their pawns dispense with the charade and announce their Empire! I am ready to fight and die to stop this madness and my officers are ready to lay down their lives to spare Randon and the rest of the galaxy form another Bothawui! Can you say the same, Council Tionni?"
The human looked at Zellick with a frozen expression made of durasteel. The Council opened his mouth to answer when a subordinate announced he had a priority transmission from the planet. Tionni raised up a hand and one of his people put the comm channel on hold.
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Flag bridge
RSN cruiser Praetorian
Randon
Moths of light phased into existence on the bridge to the Council's left and merged into the harried figure of Speaker Ionna. A moment later, the roar of hundreds of arguing Senators blasted from the speakers. Ionna pressed a few buttons on her comm unit and the deafening cacophony became a mere whisper.
"Council, as you can hear, the Senate is divided. We got a very tiny majority for fighting the Sith. This..." She grimaced and there was no hiding how pale her face was. "This really isn't the wish of most of our people. We don't have the super majority necessary to overrule our alliance with the Confederacy, on the other hand, fighting this monster will doom us all. Council, can you win?"
Tionni looked at the tactical plot. He had already ordered his fleet to move between the planet and the approaching Republic armada, however none of his ships went beyond the protective umbrella of the orbital defence network. The Confederate force was shifting formation with its rear slowing down to form a task force that might be invisible to the enemy until they got much closer.
"The correlation of forces is too close for my taste. Against any other opponent – even if they destroy our mobile assets I would pledge that they wouldn't have enough ships left to threaten Randon. With the Sith here and in command? We have to win or at least kill him and that I simply can't guarantee."
"Council, given the vote, I my position compels me to order you to support our allies. However, as a citizen of Randon, I must plead you to stand down. The danger to our people is extreme. Please..."
Tionni looked grimly at the Speaker. Sulla had his duty to his people. Risking them all on the chance of victory…
"I'll do what I must, Speaker." He cut off the connection and restored the one with Admiral Zellick.
The cyborg's optics stared impassively at him. Sulla knew what he had to do – let Veil win this day and hope someone else would be able to kill him, when there weren't billions of people at stake… or when it wasn't your people at stake, a quiet, traitorous voice whispered in the back of his head. At that moment, he could see it – the Confederacy unravelling as system after system surrendered without a fight to avoid Sith repression. If those monsters were allowed to win… how many billions, nay trillions would burn for their own amusement? Would betraying everything he stood for as a person and the will of the Senate as divided as it was be worth it? Would it buy Randon's safety or only doom them all to slow death as Zellick believed?
"Admiral, I have my orders." Sulla bit off. He opened his mouth to announce his cowardice for the galaxy to hear, his betrayal too, then closed it with a click.
"We're out of time, Council. What are you going to do?" Zellick asked. "Who are you? Who are you going to be remembered as? A hero standing against the dark or a coward consigning countless people to the 'mercy' of the Sith?"
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Part 5
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Flag bridge
RNS cruiser Praetorian
Randon
The RNS command net lit up with signals coming from every major combatant in the fleet and the battle stations soon followed suit. The Sith did choke all channels with his demand after all.
While Tionni struggled with making probably the most consequential decision in his life, certain RNS ships took things in their own hands. The light cruiser Void Dancer and her escorts dropped their shields and went dead in space with the only sign of them being alive being the unconditional surrender they broadcasted for the whole system to hear. Two frigate packs followed them in surrender before the cruiser Equilibrium fell out of formation and her power emissions fell like a rock thrown into a pond.
Just like that, the Randon navy began disintegrating. If he had to be honest with himself, the Council felt only relief at the choice being taken out of him.
"This is Council Tionni to all Randon units – stand down." He swallowed his shame as he gave the order.
Both relieved and outraged voices bombarded the Flag from coming from all over the fleet. On the tactical plot, the hundreds of green symbols surrounding Randon blinked from healthy green to blinking orange indicating the radical shift in their status.
"You choose the cowards way then." Admiral Zellick let out a disappointed electronic sigh.
"I do what I must to preserve my people. Even somehow destroying this whole Republic fleet won't guarantee that the Sith won't ravage Randon!" Sulla vented at his Confederate counterpart.
"It is a treason then." Zellick lowered the bunch of equipment that passed for his head nowadays. "Execute Firebreak."
The smaller task force that was falling back behind the rest of the Confederate fleet slowed down even further before suddenly shifting vectors to point at Randon.
Tionni's eyes widened. Zellick couldn't be insane enough to fight a two front war when he was already outnumbered by the Sith forces more than two to one! Then he looked back at the main tactical plot that had Randon's orbital defences coming offline to indicate acceptance of his order for surrender.
"Get the grid back online and turn us around to intercept the Confederate forces! They're about to stab us in the back!" The Council's composure cracked as he shouted the order. He didn't acknowledge that his actions and those of his subordinates at best translated to cowardice in front of the enemy if not outright treason against the Confederacy.
Predictably, the conflicting orders and the chaos already reigning amidst the fleet and orbital defences slowed down reaction times significantly. By the time Zellick's smaller task force jumped at the edge of Randon's gravity well, the great majority of defences were either frozen in indecision, slowed down by chaos and disintegrating command networks or simply refused orders.
Then the Confederate forces launched tens of thousands of upgraded Vulture fighters and bombers before opening fire with every single weapon that could bear on Sulla's people. By the time weapon satellites and battle stations began to die, less than a third of the Randon Navy was able to turn around and begin slowly accelerating towards the incoming enemy. Only a fraction of the defence network opened fire before the Confederacy force blew itself a comfortable large hole through it. Of the handful of Umbrella equipped ships that Sulla had at his disposal, only two were in the battle group that raced to meet the enemy.
All around the Randon fleet, weapon emplacements came online in batches only to die almost as fast as they could be activated by shocked crews. It didn't help that when two of the precious battle stations died under concentrated turbolaser barrages and missile salvoes, so did a significant number of control links. Re-taking control and re-activating of silent platforms took precious time, time the Confederacy wasn't willing to give the Council.
The betrayed CIS forces spent fighter like water – the first wave made of thirty thousand fighters and bombers died punching a hole in the crippled orbital defences and allowed the even larger following waves to swarm over battle stations and Sulla's command.
"Fire plan Death Shield!" The Council hissed through clenched teeth. His capital ships cut off their acceleration while the escorts raced to form a wall between them and incoming swarm. Missiles and point defence did their best, even anti ship weapons spat defiance against the thousands upon thousands small craft coming at them with a suicidal abadon.
The relatively few fighters the Randon ships carried boldly, or suicidally depending on your point of view, flew against the approaching armada hellbent on disrupting their attack runs. Missiles raced against the droid fighters and laser beams stabbed in droves from the Vultures degrading the incoming salvoes.
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Super Vulture SV-95412
Randon
One of the many avenues the Confederacy explored in making their small craft armadas relevant again was extensive networking. While trials and common sense soon proved that once the Vultures came close enough to an enemy fleet, the ECM and jamming would cripple such networks, even a data net small enough to link a single squadron proved to be a boon. It was just that, even combined with the various other upgrades – better weaponry, point defence, smarter droid brains running the fighters, etc… the number needed to successfully break through an upgraded fleet, especially if it had interceptors deployed were prohibitively expensive. The sheer amount of advanced electronics that went into the upgraded Vultures saw to it that the numbers necessary for decisive strikes at the enemy were simply too expensive to justify it. While technically still a bit cheaper compared to using warships to do the same job, the simple truth was that ships could do many things that swarms of fighters couldn't. Not the least of it was that even under the best circumstances, the small craft would be taking prohibitive losses in mission killing enemy capital ships and the same wasn't necessary true for the newer models of Confederate warships.
There were a few exceptions to that conclusion – upgraded Vultures were still very deadly fighters and bombers, thus able to more easily and efficiently win air supperiority when fighting planetside or better survive bombing runs in contested environment. And second… not all opponents the CIS would fight would have their ships outfitted with the Guardian system at least for the foreseeable future.
At Randon, starfighters and bombers saw one of their last successful deployments in the strike craft role before new craft shifted the paradigm of war.
SV-95412 cared little about the factors that saw it upgraded and updated. It didn't know nor cared that soon, at least in space, his kind would be relegated as scouts and space superiority assets to never again be used to strike at enemy warships. What it knew was that his enhanced platform allowed him unheard before performance. Better sensors and the link with its pack-mates gave it an unprecedented situational awareness. Enemy targeting sensors flashed over the Vulture's skin and it immediately went evasive. Its laser defence pod stabbed in the dark guided by its own software packages. Missiles died, soon followed by Vultures from the outer shell of the formation who had to clear the dense network of defence satellites the hard way. While the active defence system combined with the best ECM pods that the Super Vultures could carry without compromising performance helped, there were simply too many of the small unmanned weapon platforms and at best, missiles made a third of their armament. Laser cannons spat their fury in both directions, shields flashed as coherent light tried to pierce them and soon died under the onslaught.
Enemy fighters came in on a direct approach and SV-95412 led its pack-mates to meet them headlong. Within moments of engaging, it knew that while in raw performance the Randon small craft were roughly on par with Republic Torrent fighters, their pilots couldn't compare to the Clones it had engaged on multiple occasions before being pulled back from the front for refit. Now that SV-95412 was smarter and housed within a much more capable body, it was plain to see that both the enemy's reaction times and tactics left something to be desired.
If it could, the Droid would have scoffed in derision. It targeted the enemy squadron's leader and shot a short burst that disintegrated the front half of the saucer shaped craft – something that the Vulture noted with satisfaction while making evasive manoeuvres that would make most organics black out even when their fighters had top of the line inertial dampeners. Within moments SV-95412 passed the incoming enemy and used manoeuvring thrusters to flip around his body. While it continued to coast towards the Randon fleet due to the build up speed, now it was in a perfect position to shoot the enemy from behind – something it did as soon as it acquire them. Four seconds later, SV-95412 erased its third target for the day and flipped around again to face the enemy fleet. Two of its pack-mates died in the brief exchange, thus accompanying over four hundred other Vultures into oblivion. Yet, they took virtually the whole Randon fighter compliment with them leaving the enemy fleet wide open for the rest of the second and the whole third wave – which was made exclusively of Vulture bomber variants loaded with proton torpedoes.
SV-95412 led the Confederate fighters as a screen before the incoming strike craft and they did with a significant portion of the incoming AA fire the hard way – by absorbing it. With the dying defence grid pouring fire in the cauldron from all directions, ten thousand more fighters died to give the bombers a free run, including the rest of SV-95412's pack.
They didn't race to their destruction in vain – with just two Unbrella equipped ships of the line facing them, the strike craft were able to simply absorb the last ditch defensive fire before unleashing hundreds, then thousands of proton torpedoes from what was practically suicidally point blank range.
One moment over thirty major combatants spat their defiance at the swarm before more than enough Vultures to blot out the sky flew around them. An expanding ring of fire surrounded the warships with lances of turbolaser fire punching brief fiery holes through the swarm. That defiance lasted mere moments before close to a thousand torpedoes stuck every targeted Randon warship from the peaked nose to the engines. The two most modern, toughest and Umbrella equipped cruisers were fortunate enough to emerge from the confragration as burning wrecks that had almost all of their compartments crushed and opened to space.
The rest of the warships, especially the escorts – the torpedoes either smashed them to glowing fields of dispersing space debris or into slowly dissipating clouds of gas when hypermatter reactors went critical instead of fizzling off while the ships housing them were rendered to shreds.
Coherent resistance from the Randon navy died with Council Sulla and the Praetorian, thus leaving the rest of the fleet in utter chaos. Two captain tried to rally the remaining ships, others attempted to run or surrender – it didn't matter when the remaining tens of thousand Vultures swarmed them.
Even as Admiral Zellick clashed with the Republic fleet, the forces he designated for Firebreak moved into position to erase Randon's orbital industry to prevent it from falling into Republic hands and make to everyone excruicatingly clear that siding with the "Republic" and the Sith running it would have dire consequences.