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 24: Operation Citadel

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Part 2

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Flag Bridge

Kuati Star Dreadnought Defender

hyperspace en route to Neimoidia

The Second Assault Fleet built at Kuat consisted of five hundred warships concentrated around an armoured fist made of Star Dreadnoughts and older battlecruisers. It was a powerful and respectable force even by the standards of this insane war. Three hundred of them currently tore their way through hyperspace eating the distance between Kuat and Neimoidia at prodigious rate. At the same time, the other, smaller part of the fleet approached battle ravaged Balmorra. The timing was perfect – Intelligence assets confirmed that the enemy forces in the Core had received the message about the fall of Randon, which radically changed the Separatist's strategic situation for the worse. Now the enemy was finally on the back foot and had to make a choice what to defend and what to abandon, the same choice the Separatists had forced the Republic into in the months leading to the CIS Grand Offensive.

A large highly detailed map of the galaxy illuminated the Flag Bridge projected by a huge holo-tank. The massive bulky device served as the hub for the command centre with everything else built around it. On the map, Lantillies, Uyter, Kashyyyk and Randon all blinked green complete with symbols designating powerful fleets holding them along with engineering units busy placing sensor platforms and all kinds of fixed defences. Almost the whole fifth echelon slatted for Operation Star Hammer had a singular purpose – to keep those systems out of enemy hands at all costs. Meanwhile, the other two echelons under General Veil's command struck in the direction of the Core on three vectors highlighted on the map.

First, the remaining elements of the third echelon backed by battle groups from Fourth Assault Fleet, led by Kuat's own Admiral Midori Sanches, advanced down the Trellen Trade route. The latest dispatches confirmed that they had already secured Torn Station and were en route to Quas Killam, the last stop before Umbara itself. The rest of the fleet had struck Tollatin, reporting vicious fighting there between local SDF forces and hastily gathered Confederate reinforcements.

This left Veil's own First Assault Fleet that had wasted no time after its major action at Randon. As soon as its ships refuelled, rearmed and executed emergency repairs, the armada had divided in two huge task forces aimed at Ota and Deysum respectively. The first and smaller one would eventually link up with Sanches' fleet at Terr'Skiar after securing the Ootmian Pabol and the Duantless Run. At the same time the Admiral herself would advance down the Nigut Road taking all worlds in her way. Once the two fleets met, they would strike along Pabol until its end at Gyndine, where if the plan didn't go to hell, they would reunite with Veil for the final push into the Core.

Meanwhile, the General had what strategic planners assumed was the tougher job – he was to capture everything along the Trax Tube until Nanth'ri before striking down the Nanth'ri Road all the way into the Core. He was expected to face major resistance at Nanth'ri itself with the corresponding system being the logical place for the Separatist to gather as many naval assets as possible. It was assumed that the enemy would draw everything they could afford from the western part of the galaxy, thus relieving the pressure upon the Mid-Rim Alliance as a bonus.

The other source of ships the first and second echelons under the General's overall command would face would represent everything the Separatist might draw from the Core. Those forces would either try to slow them down and bleed them dry in multiple running engagements, concentrate on smashing one of the two major prongs of the attack or make a stand at Gyndine and thus if all else failed, prevent a sweeping flanking manoeuvre straight into the Core. That in fact was the biggest strategic opportunity Operation Star Hammer offered – if the Separatists decided to fight for their gains in the Core and thus protect all the investments in fixed defences they made since their Grand Offensive, there might be an opportunity to either cut off Admiral Trench or force him to retreat to avoid encirclement. While something like that actually happening was likely a pipe dream, just the capture and reduction of the enemy aligned worlds in the Triangle would be a grave blow to the Separatists industry and morale. And if the Republic finally caught a break, they might retake critical systems in the Core without having to face large Separatist mobile forces, which would make the liberation of the Corellian system for example a much less bloody affair than anticipated.

The holographic map painted a clear and comprehensive view of the galaxy wide strategic situation. Just a glance was enough to show General Kenobi and his armada watching Trench at Corellia and keeping him honest.

Freshly promoted Admiral Bellinda Konig on the other hand had a different, more immediate mission. She had to finally reduce the Separatist bastion at Neimoidia and finish off the fighting at Balmorra thus securing Kuat's own sector. Once she had achieved her objectives and thus succeeded in Operation Citadel, she would be free to throw her fleet at Commentor. If she could retake said system, then the Republic would finally be able to reinforce multiple cut off sectors and individual planets, not to mention open the other end of the Trellen Trade route. The possibilities only grew from there – if the Admiral she could push a step further and recapture Rasterous, she would break wide open the Zeltros-Manaan-Commentor pocket immediately relieving a large number of cut off Republic worlds, warships and ground units.

One can dream, right? Balmorra and Neimoidia first though.

"We're three minutes out, Admiral. Advanced scouts confirm the screens at Neimoidia are still in place. Our aggressive probes are met by swarms of Vulture droids, both upgraded and vanilla models. We don't have a comprehensive breakdown of the enemy forces in system." Konig's Intelligence officer reported. "ETA of TF Krayt two minutes. We'll be striking both targets on schedule."

"Good. We're going with plan Arubesh." The Admiral confirmed. At least until the enemy showed their hand, she added in her head.

Konig's forces had little training in the more advanced art of manoeuvre space warfare in no small part due to the way Kuati doctrine worked – it was much harder to train for it and execute such stunts when you built the core of your doctrine around ponderous star dreadnoughts and battle cruisers. On the flip side, those usually didn't need any cute tactical manoeuvres, they were built to smash into and through whole fleets and reduce them to burning wrecks and today, Kuat's pride and joy would be deadlier than ever. The war did last long enough and the situation was desperate enough that in the aftermath of the enemy's Grand Offensive the KDY Board of Directors authorised a crash upgrade course that coincided with the installation of the Guardian MK I system in the behemoths. Practically all super capital deployed for Star Hammer had their primary weapons overhauled shattering the now defunct weapons restrictions that plagued the Republic for nearly a thousand years making them more dangerous than ever. That was what the Admiral counted on – she was about to throw an armada at Neimoidia and use the superior firepower and protection of the super capital ships to blow through everything the enemy could throw her way.

"ETA One minute." Tactical stated.

"Shift main holo-tank to tactical display. Prepare to link up with the scouts' sensor suites.

The galaxy map illuminating the compartment dissolved into static before reforming in a still of the Neimoidian home system as of five minutes ago – that was when the ship received the last large data-bust from the scouts.

The Defender exited hyperspace gently, not giving any indication that it had smashed through the dimension barrier.

"We're being pinged by four scout groups, three of them are under heavy small craft attack. Receiving data packages..."

"Launch all fighters, deploy Torrent wings to reinforce the scouts, the rest are on CSP around the fleet. Keep the bombers in reserve for now."

The zoomed out system view rippled as sensors stabilized and began scanning everything in range racing with the data streams coming from the scouts. Konig was not surprised by the almost complete absence of civilian ships in the system. There were just a few dozen present as of the last proper scout update and by now they had either departed, landed safely somewhere or even now ran for the hyper-lane entrance on the far side of the system. That make things a bit simpler – tactical gleefully tagged everything that wasn't a Republic warship as hostile. As far as the enemy presence went, due to the screens masking Neimoidia and its orbital industry, all that could be detected clearly at the moment were swarms of Vultures and a few frigate packs acting as the eyes and ears of the defenders. The tricky thing about said screens was that they worked both ways. On one hand they prevented long range observation in both directions. However, the defenders had in place the required relays and sensor platforms linked to them allowing them to see past their own screens.

"Well, they had to put all those Vultures somewhere." Konig murmured to herself. With the rise of the Guardian system and the CIS counterpart, the Umbrella, using small craft against properly escorted capital ships became a futile waste of lives and resources for little to no gain unless you had truly overwhelming numbers to throw at the enemy. Against a fleet like Konig's? She sincerely doubted that the enemy had concentrated enough of the little bugs to truly threaten her command.

"Rough estimates are hundred and fifty thousand Vultures massing to intercept us. Possibly more behind the screens."

This was one of the largest such deployments since the war began. Unless the enemy had a few orders of magnitude more of them, they could at worst hurt her, however they had no prayer of stopping the onslaught.

It was too bad for the Separatists that she had some new toys to test. After all, for some time the enemy has been doing its best to expend their obsolete droid fighters by throwing them en-mass against the Republic in order to soften the navy's capital ships before the CIS' own fleet units could come to grips with them.

"Fire plan Archer. Let's see what the new missiles can do. The fleet will advance towards Neimoidia at flank speed. Look for minefields and other unpleasant surprise. Keep the formation loose and every ship is to commit independent manoeuvres within to minimize the chances of ramming attacks."

Over a thousand engine pods lit up and Second Assault Fleet charged at Neimoidia.

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Interlude: A special treat

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AN: While my muse still refuses to properly cooperate with RK II, I've jolted down a lot of ideas about the future of this story, its planned sequel - RK III: The Black Rebellion and the Rogue Knight universe in general. Below is a story idea that incorporates some of my ideas of how the galaxy would look after the Clone Wars are finally over.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars of Worm. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial purpose. I make no money from it.

Mandalorian Knights

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Prologue

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Sundari City

Mandalore

Mandalorian Freehold capital world/Federated Galactic Empire member state/

"Good morning, Galaxy!" A pretty blue haired human looking woman smiled at the camera. "I'm Amanda Lawson and this is GNN's In Tune! Today we're broadcasting live from Sundari City on Mandalore, where as you can see behind me, rebuilding efforts proceed apace one year after the end of the Clone Wars! We're on top the damaged Mandal Motors corporate HQ, one of the few buildings that emerged reasonably intact after the fighting on this world finally ended four years ago."

The camera drones zoomed in to show closely the ravaged city-scape behind and the beehive of activity taking place all over – ships, droids and workers in commercial exo-skeletons buzzed over almost every building in sight busy with rebuilding efforts. Yet, all of those paled in comparison to three dozen titanic figures striding with a purpose through wide streets long cleared of debris – the smallest of those behemoths was twenty meters tall with the tallest engineering Mobile Suit towering at thirty five meters.

"Current projections from the Freehold Reclamation Board suggest that preliminary work here in the restored capital would be done in time for the one year anniversary of the Victory Day. Many locals we interviewed during the previous few days claim that they are ready to work like demons to make Sundari safe for the coming celebrations. This year, Mandalore The Restorer and the Clan Council have proclaimed a week long celebrations over the victory in the war, a victory bought in no small part thanks to Mandalorian determination and sacrifices all over the galaxy. The purpose of this long celebrations is to honour not only everyone who sacrificed through the long conflict that not so long ago threatened us all but to allow the Imperial Family to celebrate at home before moving back to the Imperial Capitol of Coruscant for the Galaxy wide holiday on Victory Day. That's right, folks, Empress Satine Kenobi and Emperor Obi-Wan Kenobi will be leading the celebrations here in Sundari in person, right along with Mandalore the Restorer himself, General Delkatar Veil and his wife, the war hero Bo-Katan Veil, the Empress own sister! But that's not all!"

Amanda beamed and walked away from the terrace overlooking the Mandalorian capital. The camera drones followed her graceful movements until she stood in front of a low glass table covered with snacks and beverages.

"Today's special treat is an interview with the Freehold's Financial Minister and CEO of Mandal Motors, Horus Yomaget and two of the leading scientists working for him. They have a stunning announcement to make! It's good to meet you again, Minister Yomaget!"

"Horus please." The middle aged Mandalorian offered a pleasant smile. "Please take a seat, Amanda. I can call you Amanda, right?"

"Of course, Horus. Thank you for hosting us today." Amanda took a seat on one of the arm-chairs around the table and leaned forward. "You said you had something special to announce today. Shoot!"

"Well, we though about making it an official press-conference, however when we heard you're here with In Tune, we though GNN will be perfect for you. After all, you've been almost exclusively fair and honest in reporting throughout the war, not like some of your rivals in the news business."

"Oh, you make me blush Horus. We at GNN had always strived to bring the truth as we know it to the countless beings across the Galaxy." Amanda gushed.

"I'm pleased to announce that we here at Mandal Motors made an extraordinary discovery a few weeks ago. While our Research and Development department in conjunction with the Imperial Technological Bureau followed through on certain projects began under Chancellor Palpatine, our scientists managed to make a breakthrough – they created a stable breach into an alternative dimension near an inhabited world. I'm sure that the Empress and Mandalore the Restorer will be following on this announcement at noon local time, Amanda, along with many details."

"This is in a way of head's up, then Horus?" Lawson asked eagerly.

"Indeed, Amanda. The reason for this is simple, we expect a large furore among a lot of our human citizens, both here in the Freehold and across the galaxy. You see, we've made a peaceful first contact with the locals, exchanged preliminary data and what we've discovered is extraordinary. The world we contacted, called by the locals Earth Bet, is at least in their dimension, Humanity's home world, complete with all the relevant scientific proof – archaeological, palaeontological, biological. Humanity, at least in Earth Bet's reality, evolved there. What's more, we weren't the first people from another dimension they've made a contact with. As we speak, they're in contact with an alternative version of their own world called Earth Aleph..."

"Wow, that's fascinating Hours! What else can you tell us? How was this discovery made? Who were the people who made first contact?! What can you tell our viewers about Earth Bet?"

"Well, Amanda, it all began two weeks ago after our scientists managed to establish a contained and controlled dimensional breach. First we did send a few probe droids and once we had some idea of local language, customs and politics, we dispatched a scouting party made of Mandal Motors security personnel – all experienced and level headed veterans from the war..."