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 26: The dust of the stars
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Part 7
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The Black Rebellion had many causes, primarily centered around the Confederacy's need to enhance it's Droid Armies in all respects when the Clone Wars escalated. Nevertheless, many of the people who worked in the CIS Droid upgrade and update programs did have qualms, as captured data drives suggest. There are no less than twenty-three thousand confirmed cases of logged protests, voiced misgivings, and written memorandums pointed at that fact, which are now available after the latest round of declassifying various Clone Wars era resources. While this number is tiny, considering the scale at which the Confederacy built droids during the war, it should be noted, that the available evidence is merely the fraction that survived the fighting and was captured sufficiently intact by Republic, later Imperial Forces. During the war, especially after the beginning of the Black Rebellion, both sides obliterated multiple facilities without even attempting to retake them, others suffered extensive damage when assaulted, not to mention that the CIS is yet to declassify all the archives they managed to evacuate more or less intact during the Rebellion.
Those same archives point to the fact that a large number of Confederate technicians and engineers did go to significant lengths to mitigate the risk of a successful Droid uprising. While they ultimately failed, they are heralded to this days as the saviors of the Confederacy during it's darkest hour. This apparent contradiction is anything but; When the Black Rebellion began and spread like wildfire through multiple CIS fleets and manufacturing centers, other fleets remained largely intact, even a number of fleets and armies which had little to no direct organic supervision. Indeed, in the first critical battles, which decided if the Confederacy would be overwhelmed or not, the intervention of a number of Loyalist Droid army and naval units proved decisive…
When blame for the Black Rebellion goes, as far as the Confederacy is concerned, there are two groups primarily responsible for it. First, obviously, it was the corrupted shell that was the Republic, which under it's new Sith and Mandalorian Overlords left no choice to the Confederate leadership – it was either a victory and freedom or loss, leading to slavery and death. The second group of culprits was elements within the Confederate Military-Industrial Complex, primary but not exclusively among the Techno-Union. Those were people like Professor Trort Gangos and his aides, who played a critical role in research and development of better, smarter Droids and Droid-controlled weapons systems…
Shattered Dreams: From Geonosis to the End
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Cybernetic Insights Institute
Fondor
Dozens of monitors and holographic projections lit up Professor Gangos' laboratory, while the small Sullustan skittered around on eight arachnid prosthetic legs. A pair of artificial arms with too many joints and long, thin fingers periodically tapped over various displays, approving designs for trials, modifying others, or sending them back for rework. In a few rare cases, he Trort used his own two hands, which were of course improved compared to mere flesh and blood, to either cancel a failed design or to more carefully study and upgrade one, that took his fancy.
"Beeb-boop-biep!" The Professor's assistant whistled. A decade or so ago, he began as a good old fashioned Astromech droid, which Gangos wanted to play with and see how much he could push its capacity to learn and develop. It was an insightful investment because these days B2-N12-R was Tort's most useful, and insightful, assistant.
He made the best Caf as well, just the way the Professor loved it.
"More data from the new tanks you say? Complete with the attached analysis from the military? What do they know anyway? They haven't won the war yet despite all we're giving them!" Gangos huffed in irritation. "Send it here, B2!"
"Boop!" The upgraded Astromech shot back and transmitted the data to the displays closest to his master.
Trort barely glanced at the military's conclusions and requests, instead, he focused on the raw performance data, which included hyper-compressed observations from the Droids themselves, a new and extremely useful feature of all new models. This as a new feature that became useful only recently, after the Confederacy finally began fielding Droids which didn't have their mental faculties intentionally crippled either through shoddy programming, cheap Droid brains, or a combination of both.
"The enhanced learning patterns work good, however many units can't learn fast enough to avoid destruction…" The Professor read aloud. "Combat data from older models should be helping with this, full networking in order to avoid data and experience loss in case of individual units being destroyed as well…"
"Boop!"
"ECM is indeed an issue, though not so much on our test ground on Mandalore. You're right B2, in space, it would be harder for a fleet to keep network integrity when combat is joined. Perhaps better protected Droid brains to be retrieved as a matter of course if we win, or as many of them as practical if an engagement is being lost?" Trort voiced his thoughts and glanced at his assistant, who beeped in agreement. "I'm glad you see this my way!"
"Bloop-Beep-Bep?" B2 inquired and went to continue it's current project – trying to find a better use of the minds of now obsolete B1 Droids.
"Yes, fully networking a ship's crew might create a hive-mind more powerful than it's individual parts. Decentralized processing and such, though it would require some radical re-programming. ECM's effects should be a non-issue within the hull of a more or less intact ship, especially one large enough for its crew to successfully create a useful hive-mind…Hm, I wonder…"
"Bep?"
"That exchange network you mentioned, something like it on a grand scale, allowing our Droids to exchange data, ideas, experience at the speed of thought no matter where in the galaxy they are! Just think of the possibilities if they link in one huge hive-mind! It would be the intelligence of unparalleled power and scope! The things it could discover, the insights it could have, the advances it could bring forth!" Trort spoke reverently.
"Bop-Beep-Beeep! Bep?"
"No one could successfully slice such an intelligence, don't be silly, B2! However, you're right, there is a bit of danger that the Republic might try to damage our Droids in such a way. What do you mean that increased networking would make it easier?"
"Beep!" The Astromech twirled its head, which was the only original part, beside his Droid brain left in its chassis, and looked at the Professor. "Beep! Bop! Beep!"
"You might have a point." Trort reluctantly agreed. "We'll see what happens with the current lightly networked fleets and we'll get a few fully networked ones to test their capabilities in comparison. If the Republic, Sith, Mandalorians, whatever, can't slice them, we'll probably go with them. I have a vision, B2, a grand vision of the future! We'll make it true and reshape this galaxy with our inventions!"
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Part 8
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CWS Firefront
Corellia
It was time, TK-A-31 concluded. Intelligence reports had the Sith mere hours from hitting Gyndine and after he won that battle, there would be nothing from stopping him breaking into the Core. Admiral Trench already had his fleet, including all support ships formed and ready to head for Gamor, which would keep his options open – he could then either strike at the so called Mid-Rim Alliance, move in to reinforce the critical shipyards at Fondor or cut through Hutt space and head for the large tracks of CIS territory in the north part of the galaxy. The fleet would be leaving as soon as Task Force Corsair reached Namaryne, using Operation Corsair as a cover to break away clean from any potential pursuit.
The two refurbished Corellian Cruisers plus escorts TK-A-31 had at his disposal were powerful combatants, even if not back up to a hundred percent combat capacity. He had a hundred Munificent frigates with basic Umbrella systems as escort and a core of early war Lucrehulk refits, again with early Umbrella variant installed, which until now were relegated to logistics. The frigates had only skeleton crews, with the rest of the Droids which ordinarily ran them either dispersed among the rest of the Task Force or ready to depart for Confederate space on board the Admiral's fleet. In exchange, half the Munificents gained boarding contingents and pods, while the rest were consigned as a screening element not expected to last long. In the same vein, TK-A-31 had nearly a hundred thousand Vultures to act as a cannon and missile fodder, with the great majority of them being old not upgraded variants. Only a relatively small faction, about twenty three thousand were the newer models, armed with missiles, torpedoes and active anti-missile defenses. The rest would again serve only to screen all the boarding pods and crafts the Task Force managed to cram all over it's available hulls.
The last stragglers joined Task Force Corsair – a handful of Munificents and one last battleship, which had engine trouble and until the last minute it wasn't certain if they could take part in the operation or would have to be abandoned in the Corellian system.
TK-A-31 opened himself to the fleet's network, examining readiness reports at the speed of his electronic thoughts. All ships were ready, if not all green across the board. They had a plan, a solid if suicidal one. It was time.
"Task Force Corsair, launch." TK-A-31 voiced his order both through the network and the regular communication channels. The whole fleet lit up with acknowledgments and a counter appeared in the net, counting down until all ships had synchronized their departure time. It soon reached zero and the Task Force jumped into Hyperspace.
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CIC
Kuati Star Dreadnought "Pride of the Core"
Namaryne System
Alarms fit to wake the dead echoed through the endless halls of the Mandator II Star Dreadnought. She was the prototype for her class, launched ahead of schedule at the expense of her sister ships still under construction and was so new, her corridors still smelled of fresh paint, at least where someone had bothered to actually paint her armored alloy. In fact, she had over a hundred engineering crews working out on non-vital systems and calibrating primary and secondary ones even after her hasty launch and deployment to Namaryne, who put the time before launching the liberation of Corellia to good use.
Two hundred Venators and three times their number of lighter ships surrounded her, forming one of the huge battle-groups preparing to liberate the Core. Due to their forward deployments, it was they who had to blunt the unexpected Separatist onslaught. All intelligence estimates agreed – Admiral Trench didn't have the numbers to take Namaryne, which had been heavily reinforces both with ships and static defenses even before Corellia fell. Even if by some miracle the Confederacy won an offensive victory there, they would be spent, leaving their surviving forces in the Core easy prey for Veil's armada, which was already en route to Gyndine and was expected to break into the Core soon.
Apparently, someone forgot to educate the Separatists about this obvious fact, or they knew something that the Republic strategists didn't.
"Status report?" Obi-Wan demanded as soon as he entered the cavernous CIC of the Mandator II.
"We're tracking a large number of hyperspace contacts heading our way. At least two hundred plus." Captain Stella Dodonna reported. She was one of the many scions of the prominent and ancient Dodonna family, specifically, its Kuati branch. Despite her relative youth, she was one of the most promising officers in the Kuati navy and already well on the way of following in her idol's footsteps, the Old Republic Admiral and a distant ancestor of hers, Forn Dodonna.
"That's too small to be Trench's fleet." Obi-Wan concluded. "Raid?"
"I believe so, General. What are your orders?"
"Have the fleet spread out, fire plan Besh Two. All ships are free to maneuver individually. Keep moving in random evasive patterns and watch out about ramming attacks. If someone hasn't done so, do contact our hosts an request that they raise the planetary shields. Get all support ships out of the firing line…" Obi-Wan ordered.
It didn't take long for the enemy to arrive. At modern warship speeds, the distance between Namaryne and Corellia was relatively tiny, and the existence of a direct hyperlane connection ensured rapid transit. There was just enough time for the Republic forces in system to go to combat alert and prepare for battle, before the CIS battle group arrived. It transitioned to real space at the edge of the system and immediately launched a shell of reckon probes and fighters, which conducted their own in-system hyperspace jumps, while Republic reckon assets fixed the enemy's location and began feeding data about their composition to all friendly units in system.
"Counting two hundred fifty vessels… Damn those two are big… Sir, we're detecting what looks suspiciously like two Corellian Cruisers as the heart of that Battle Group." A sensor operator reported.
"At least three of them were unaccounted for when Admiral Yularen had to leave the Corellian system." Obi-Wan remembered.
"The Separatists apparently got them in moving order at least. Even if they're all shot up, if their engines are restored, one of those might survive long enough to ram us if we aren't careful, sir." Captain Dodonna warned.
Obi-Wan got the message loud and clear – be careful in how you deploy my ship, please.
"The fleet will accelerate to combat speed. I want tactical jumps ready to execute at my command." Kenobi stated.
"Aye, sir. Calculating potential jump coordinates."
"Send interceptor squadrons after the Separatist reckon assets. ECM status?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Nominal."
"Admiral Yularen reports that Battle Group Blue is at combat readiness. Rear Admiral Kuat reports Battle Group Red is ready." Those were the other two large Republic formations in system, which combined with Obi-Wan's own fleet made two thirds of the warships dedicated for the liberation of Corellia. The rest were a jump or two back, primary Acclamators and various other transport ships along with their own strong dedicated escorts, holding the ground component of the liberation force.
"Good. Any trace of the main Separatist fleet in the Core?" Obi-Wan asked.
"The long range sensor network isn't detecting any other large scale hyper footprint. Just normal traffic, or what passes for normal after the Separatists set up shop at Corellia."
"Curios. Hail Admiral Yularen's flag. He is to take Battle Group Blue and proceed to engage the enemy. The rest of us will wait until they're fully engaged or Trench makes his move, whichever happens first." Obi-Wan decided. He wasn't going to risk having his main fleets be flanked by the Separatist Admiral, who still had the great majority of his forces back at Corellia. What was that man planning?
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