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Phase 25: Burning stars
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Part 3
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Flag Bridge
Republic Cruiser Victory
Nanth'ri
A thousand strong fleet smoothly transitioned in real space ready to unleash Armageddon. This was the last good place for the enemy to make a stand before Gyndine, and if we reached that system we would be meeting the second prong of the attack led by my Kuati counterpart. The CIS had to either attempt to defeat us in detail or risk facing our combined forces, which would mean the absolute best case scenario would be a Pyrrhic victory for them.
"I want scouting parties pushed in front of the fleet – find any surprises the enemy has left for us." I ordered.
We've faced only token resistance since taking Randon and defeating the Separatists' fleet there, which happened at higher price than anticipated. The bastards were learning what the Republic had forgotten during the long peace. If it wasn't for my Battle Meditation and the Super Capital ships I had at my disposal, the enemy would have mauled my forces before going down. The losses we suffered were significant anyway, especially in view of the numerical advantage we enjoyed during that battle.
That in turn made me wary – the Confederacy refused to offer open battle and the big question was where did they sent all those ships that should have been garrisoning this part of space…
"It's obvious, General!" One of the Kuati Flag officers I was stuck with exclaimed, from the CIC of his Battle-cruiser. "They've stripped this region of space to gather the fleet we faced at Randon and to bolster their positions in the Core! We'll be able to sweep all the way to Gyndine at least without facing any meaningful opposition!"
"That's the best case scenario," I allowed. It was an option that what passed for our Intelligence service nowadays should have caught up on. Unfortunately, the best it could be said for all but Military intelligence, which was primary concerned with the ground side of the war, Obi-Wan and company on Coruscant were still in the process of vetting people who hadn't outright defected and trying to rebuild our Intel services after the coup attempt. Even worse, what we lost we had to assume the CIS had now. "The Separatists will need to make a stand at Gyndine, if they can't stop us there or inflict enough damage to slow us down significantly, they will have to give up a large part of the Core and thus abandon all the fixed defenses they have been building for months now."
Needless to say, that would be a major waste of resources. Kenobi should be able to sweep away those installations with minimal losses if there were not enough warships to back them up. While speaking, I never averted my eyes for the tactical plot – there was precious little traffic within the system and the only warships we could detect were the local SDF, who were busy hiding behind the orbital defenses – a number of Golan stations and two rings of weapons platforms. All told, we could currently detect about fifty ships of all classes, primary escorts protecting ten cruiser variants. Even backed by the orbital defenses, those forces wouldn't be able to do more than slow us down.
"Give me a channel to the local leadership, both military and civilian." Preferably, my reputation was going to carry the day again and they would surrender. "Set Task Forces one to three into Assault Formation Besh 1. The rest of the fleet will assume a Defensive Formation Arubesh 5 and intervene if the Separatists decide to come out and play."
We couldn't afford to simply ignore the enemy presence in this system, doing so would be leaving a dagger pointed at our supply lines and a ready reserve for any Confederate incursion from Nixor.
"Link established, we've got one Admiral Jobau Brixs and Administrator Keela Umbra ready for you, sir."
"Put them on. Admiral, Administrator." I offered a polite nod to the beings whose images appeared in front of me.
Brixs turned out to be an Insectoid alien from a species I wasn't familiar with – he had an uncanny resemblance to an overgrown mantis with deep blue carapace. Umbra on the other hand was a human woman in her mid fifties. She had a weathered face of someone who spent a lot of time outdoors in the sun and wind, not something you could see among the crust of what passed for "civilized" leadership in this day and age.
"I'm General Delkatar Veil. I'm offering you one chance to surrender peacefully and avoid something unfortunate happening to your world." I offered them a smile that I was sure was anything but reassuring.
"We'll have to decline your gracious offer, General. We won't allow any hostile forces to approach Nanth'ri." The Admiral responded through a translator that spoke in a flat mechanical Basic.
"You really should reconsider. You're a military man, Admiral, you know we can't leave an intact hostile force at a hyper-lane junction. Stand down your ships and defenses and I can promise you, you and your crews will be treated well. Resist, and you will all die."
"There is nothing else to be said then, General." The Administrator said and the connection terminated after those words.
"They're either crazy or know something we don't. I'm betting on the later. The fleet will keep loose formation with all ships maneuvering independently in order to avoid ramming attacks. Task Forces one through three will lead the assault on the planet. Dismantle their defenses from long range." That much should be simple in theory, I built each one of those Task Forces around a Battle-cruiser. or Star Dreadnought.
"General, we just got a priority message! Enemy battle groups are striking all systems on the Trax Tube behind us with the exception of Randon!"
"They decided to take a page of our playbook then." It was a good thing I've left solid detachments to hold those worlds, keep our supply route open and raid the industry in the nearby enemy systems. The downside was that there won't be any reinforcements coming until those attacks were dealt with. "This is obviously a trap, so lets go and spring it."
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CIC
CIS Providence dreadnought "Redemption"
Nanth'ri
Nearly a third of the Confederacy's strategic reserve was at Nanth'ri, hiding behind major celestial bodies. Half of the those forces stood just outside the local star's gravity well, with the rest waiting behind the largest of the two gas giants in the system, which was conveniently currently on the far end of the system in comparison to the exit of the hyper-lane the enemy could use to arrive. TF-1726 was the one put in charge of the Confederacy navy at Nanth'ri and his orders were simple – he had to bleed the enemy, thus slowing them down. If the opportunity presented itself, he was to attempt a decapitation strike against the Sith in charge of the GAR fleet.
What the Tactical Droid wasn't supposed to do was sacrifice his force – he needed to preserve it as a fleet in being at worst and thus able to threaten the enemy's flank in this system. Meanwhile, the forces within the sectors the enemy was attempting to cut off had been pulling back and biding their time until now – they had a simple mission, to fall upon and decimate the Republic's logistics train and gut it. While super capital ships were extremely powerful assets, they did have one glaring weakness when on the offensive – every single one of them used a tremendous amount of fuel to simply move around, especially those designed and built under the restrictions the Republic had placed upon itself. That trait was less pronounced on the Corellian variant, however particularly onerous upon the larger Kuati Battle-cruisers and Star Dreadnoughts. Incidentally, the Tactical Droid was going to face the later…
TF-1726 patiently waited for the enemy to begin their assault upon the primary populated world within the system, then sprang his trap. A decoy force made of units recalled from the slow buildup on the Mid-Rim front jumped to pin down the Republic battle groups attacking the planet. He then sent the fleet hiding behind the star to fix the rest of the Republic armada in place before ordering his remaining forces in action. Their target was obvious – the enemy's supply ships in system.
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Part 4
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CIC
CIS Providence dreadnought "Redemption"
Nanth'ri
It was at Nanth'ri, that TF-1726 learned a lesson in betrayal by a master of the craft, even though it took months of pondering, calculations and studying to properly comprehend it. Later, as he studied news reports, from both sides, as well as intelligence data, the Tactical Droid would wonder how most of the galaxy could be so blind for the truth, just as he was at the time. He would remember that lesson and when the time came, he would put it to good use, but that would be a story for another time.
At Nanth'ri, TF-1726 led his forces to the best of his evolving abilities, became one with a large part of his fleet and struck the enemy again and again, doing his best to maximize his own power at the points where multiple battle groups struck each other before dancing away as fast as their engines could carry them. Whole flotillas danced in and out of hyperspace, sometimes emerging right in the middle of wreckage left from earlier in the battle and taking even more damage, but that was merely the price of doing business.
Unfortunately, the enemy gave as good as it received, and due to the Sith's damnable Battle Meditation, the coordination of the Republic forces weren't really affected by battle damage or even the loss of flagships along with the vital officers tucked on their Flag Bridges. In contrast, jamming, slagged communication arrays and the various tricks the enemy electronic warfare specialists could think of, extracted their toll. Within mere hours, TF-1726's fleet lost nearly half its numbers and was forced to disengage or risk suffering unacceptable level of attrition. While the enemy's loses were significantly lower, thanks to the prevalence of heavier and tougher ships on the Republic's side, the Tactical Droid managed to partially achieve his objective – more than half of the Republic supply train in system was either gone outright or busy making good impression of tiny, short-lived stars as fuel and Tibana gas burned.
More importantly, multiple carefully preserved battle group struck the enemy's supply train up the Trax Tube and over there, there was no Sith to provide the usually green escorts drawn from local PDF forces with the benefit of Battle Meditation.
In the end, the inflicted losses weren't enough to halt the Republic offensive in its tracks. Veil would reach Gyndine just a week behind the Republic's more optimistic schedule, where TK-1726 would attempt to prevent him from threatening the CIS positions in the Core. In order to do so, he would be reinforced by various System Defense Fleets that had avoided action and fled in front of the Republic onslaught. At that point, the Tactical Droid would begin to study the lesson in betrayal Veil already taught him.
In hindsight, it would be clear to TF-1726 that a large reason behind the Republic offensive to reduce the CIS holdings in the Randon-Nanth'ri-Gyndine triangle had little to nothing with actually winning the war…
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Flag Bridge
Republic Cruiser Victory
Nanth'ri
Having a first row seat to her Master's use of Battle Meditation, kept Aria in both awe and a state of diligent observation for hours. She saw and felt hundreds of ships break, their crews often perishing in fire. While the battle unfolded in front of her eyes, she barely kept attention to the holographic windows showing transmitted data from many smaller engagements up the Trax Tube, where the rear echelons meant to complete the encirclement of the pocket, keep it tight and ensure a steady flow of supplies, fought and died as well.
All the while, she didn't have a clue what her Master had concocted through his ambitious plan. Her first clue came in the form of his grim satisfaction as whole SDF contingents died trying to protect their supply train, something that obviously made no sense at all! It was only when the battle for Nanth'ri was practically over, and only the mop up and SAR operations remained, that Aria dared question her Master – once he gently let go of the Battle Meditation and slumped back in his seat.
"You have questions, Apprentice." Even within his mind, his voice sounded weary and tired, yet his whole being glowed with satisfaction of a job well done.
"What did you do, Master?" Aria asked warily.
"Me?" His voice echoed within his mind tinted with amusement.
"This..." Aria made sure he knew what she meant by focusing everything she was at the data feeds from the raids upon the supply line.
"The possibility was accounted for." Veil stated coyly. "We knew that the Confederacy might be reluctant to throw everything they have in the region against us in one set-piece battle."
"While it could have been worse, it could still get worse, the losses the rear-guard battle groups already suffered are nothing to be satisfied about!" Aria snapped.
"They aren't?" There was no mistaking it, her Master was greatly amused at the very idea, which gave Aria a pause.
Astra's mind raced. The possibility was accounted for, Veil said. She knew that, she was in his head while the plans for the offensive were crafted. They were hastily put in place, the whole thing was rushed so much that if it wasn't for his Battle Meditation and the core of ships under the command of that Kuati Admiral, the offensive would have turned into an unmitigated disaster already. You couldn't just pick up hundreds, or worse, in this case, thousands of ships and expect them to act as a proper fleet without weeks if not months of intensive training. However, to be fair, that wasn't what her Master did, was it? The primary force concentrations expected to fight together were either the Kuati or those ships under his personal command where the Battle Meditation could account for the lack of training. However, that wasn't what he meant, not really, was it? Her gaze went for the tactical plot, both the one showing the current situation at Natht'ri and the rest of the Trax Tube.
"Master… what did you do?"
"Not so long, on Coruscant, we betrayed the Republic and all it stood for in order to survive this war and ensure that the future would be ours." Veil began speaking to her in a lecturing tone. "In order to build the future Empire and dispense with the gross incompetence that nearly lost us this war and got us all killed more times that I care to count, certain goals must be achieved. We must force and end to the Clone Wars, obviously. While we are no longer in a good position to achieve a clear military victory, placing ourselves in a better position for a future round two, that much should be within our grasp."
Aria stood dumb-stuck at that statement. She wasn't sure if this was the first time her Master was admitting this to himself or if he had managed to conceal it from her. It was nevertheless a striking admission, especially when they were in the process of turning the war around or so it seemed.
"The Confederacy isn't our only enemy. In fact, right now it isn't necessary the most dangerous to us in the short term."
Those words brought a rough picture of the strategic situation in the Core. While the Confederate advance had been halted, in its aftermath, the Republic had fractured. There were relatively large forces – both ground and naval, which were for all intents and purposes neutralized, because they were too busy keeping an eye on those secessionists to be available to be deployed against the enemy.
That of course meant that the Republic needed for the various SDF forces to be released for deployment en masse, which they already were thanks to the deals struck on Coruscant…
Aria's eyes widened and she stared at the tactical plot through her Master's eyes. He helpfully called up a constantly updating status report of the whole friendly fleet in system. Ninety percent of the casualties suffered during the battle were SDF ships. Those fighting and dying in the Trax Tube were almost exclusively SDF task forces as well. And then Aria knew – the ships doing most of the dying during the rest of this particular campaign under her Master's direct command would be SDF as well, thus preserving loyal GAR units and binding them closer to their commanders who would have brought them through hell relatively intact.
"One of the biggest threats for our continuous well being in the long run are our 'allies' in the Core." Her Master patiently explained. "By the time the dust settles and the guns lay silent, we need as many of them defanged as practical."