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Thoughts and flashbacks

Regular Conversation

Powerful and Force-Enhanced Dialogue

Chapter 3: The Conquest of Aargau

9 BBY: M3

"Sir! Hyperspace transition complete." The voice of the navigation officer of the Visionary, Darth Vader's flagship for this attack, rang out across the bridge.

"All ships are accounted for," replied the voice of the sensor officer.

"Confirmed, all taskforce vessels report ready," the communications chief responded.

Commander Kilkin turned to Darth Vader, "Lord Vader, all our ships are accounted for, we may proceed at your order."

Darth Vader turned from where he stared out of the Visionary's main viewpoint. "Move the fleet in system and begin scanning for their defensive forces."

Kilkin saluted, turned, and began issuing orders, "All taskforce elements, take formation Esk-4. All ahead standard, move toward the primary planetoid and prepare all scanning vectors. I want the locations of their defensive ships before we enter weapons range."

A chorus of acknowledgments sounded from around the bridge. All that could be heard for several minutes was the low roar of the Gladiator Class Light Star Destroyer's engines and the quiet discussion from the various crewmen that made up the Visionary's Command Staff.

Kilkin was nervous about this operation, though he took great care not to let it show on his face. According to intelligence estimates, his task force was very much outnumbered and possibly outgunned here. Death Squadron, or what was left of it, was currently made up of six Vigil Class Corvette Hunters, Two Gladiator Star Destroyers, and a Vindicator Cruiser. While that sounds quite impressive on paper, this task force was more suited to hunting pirates than attacking a fortified planetary militia with Clone Wars surplus ships. The Aargau Planetary Defense Forces were expected to have at least 10 IPV Patrol Ships, four Arquitens-class light cruisers, an unknown number of fighter and bomber craft, and an Acclamator I Class Assault Ship.

Intelligence also placed a number of Interceptor IV gunships and a full squadron complement for the Acclamator, which could be anything from Arc-170 fighter/bombers to LAAT Gunships, really anything the Republic Navy had access to. That was assuming it was even Clone Wars surplus, their hangers could be stocked with anything from Incom's new X-wings or Imperial TIE Fighters to old Cloakshape fighters, there really was no way to know.

There were a lot of unaccounted-for variables, and that made Kilkin nervous. 'This is no time for self-doubt,' he mentally reprimanded himself, 'You are an officer of the Imperial Navy, it's time to put that academy training to use and find a way to win this battle!' He figured scanning should have results by now. "Scanners. What have we got?"

The tracking officers were all huddled about the Scanner Chief's station. Likely confirming their individual vectors with the Chief's own results. The Sensor Officer replied to his question. "Sir, we've located most of the system's defenders. They have a standard planetary defense station net." It appears they have detected us, and we have 3 groups of their gunships returning to what must be their primary station from patrol routes. The Acclamator I is just off of the same station. They appear to be launching fighters, sir, I'll have their estimates and compositions momentarily. Unfortunately, we have not located the Arquitens Cruisers. It appears they aren't in-system sir."

'Well that's a relief' thought Kilkin, 'Their firepower would likely have been the deciding factor.' Aloud he asked, "And their Defense Net?"

"Mostly Class One Modular Stations Sir. They're arranged in a standard equatorly quarter pattern. We could bypass them, but the gaps are covered by the stations on either side."

Kilkin took a moment to process the information, 'Likely we can engage a single station. That should open up a large enough corridor for a planetary invasion.' Vader took this moment to interject.

"Are there any spatial anomalies nearby?" Vader's Booming Vocoder echoed across the room.

"Yes Lord Vader, there is a small ionized nebula cloud. It is along our attack vector but not directly in our way."

Vader seemed to take in the information, Kilkin took that moment to reassure his commander. "It should not affect our attack Lord Vader, though we will have to orient our fire away from it. Missile guidance won't work properly inside it either. It's as much a hindrance to the defenders as us milord."

The communications Officer took this moment to interject on the discussion, "Sir the defenders are hailing us."

Vader turned toward the communications projector, commanding, "Put them through"
"Yes, My Lord." The projector was filled with a thin Human male, who spoke as soon as the transmission stabilized.

"To all vessels of the Galactic Empire, this is the Planetary Defense Forces of Aargau, you have entered restricted space and must turn back or be fired upon."

Kilkin was shocked, did he not know who he was speaking to?

Vader must have been equally as perturbed, the air around him seemed to grow colder. His Vocodor's tone seemed almost acidic, "This is Lord Vader of the Galactic Empire, you will surrender now and turn over control of this world to the Emperor or suffer my wrath."

The man on screen flinched but seemed to find his resolve, "Respectfully Lord Vader, you are outgunned, and outnumbered here. Withdraw or be destroyed." The projector fizzled out as the transmission was cut.

Kilkin was outraged, but Vader seemed to have calmed down if the Commander's instinct and the return of normal temperatures around him was any indication. He turned to Vader, "My Lord, we can begin our attack at any time, we shall wipe this arrogant fool out and take his planet for the Empire."

Vader ignored the Commander's fervor, distracted by a nudge from the force. 'He isn't arrogant, but he is assured of his victory,' Vader mused. In past times, he would have charged in content that his skill and his ships would see him through any situation.

Vader was much wiser now.

There was something wrong with this situation, his instincts screamed at him, and the force was trying to nudge him to somewhere else on this battlefield.

He turned and surveyed the system's defenders, arrayed around the defensive station closest to their attack vector. Without their cruiser squadron, this fight would be significantly more manageable, but Vader knew Isard wouldn't have taunted him so at the Joint Chief's meeting several weeks ago if her intelligence wasn't ironclad. 'Those ships have not just disappeared, and they would be the decisive matter in this engagement.' The Force was still trying to direct his attention somewhere onto the battlefield, Vader paused a moment, closed his eyes, and using the Force, expanded his awareness.

He pulsed his being until he could feel the fear of the enemy ship crews, and their commander who was confident. He felt this battle was well in hand. There was something else, a patch of determination that wasn't part of the mainstream of feelings. He opened his eyes and found them staring straight at the nebula.

'Of course!' he mentally crowed in victory, he turned to Commander Kilkin, "Commander, order the task force to fire a spread of missiles into the nebula."

Kilkin's eyebrows furrowed, a sign of his confusion. "Sir," he began, "there's nothing there."

Vader was now sure, that there was a trap waiting to be sprung on his ships, and would brook no argument from his commander. "They are there, Commander, the missing cruiser squadron. They plan to engage us from behind after we attack their primary starbase."

Kilkin's eyes widened. 'Now he understands,' thought Vader, 'The ionic properties of the nebula will affect their shields and weapon systems, but will also hide them completely from all scanners.'

Those cruisers were a potent weapon but stuck inside the nebula with no shields, they were vulnerable. Vader planned to exploit that. Kilkin then turned and began issuing the necessary orders.

Within moments Vader saw the taskforce's Vigil Corvettes, each equipped with a fore-mounted concussion missile launcher, launch their payloads. He also felt the shudder as the Visionary's own torpedo bays fired a number of Proton Torpedos into the nebula. Explosions began blossoming immediately; there were ships hidden in the nebula!

"Fire again Commander, add a spread of lasers to finish them off."

Kilkin's grin was predatory, "Yes Sir," he turned back toward the bridge, "All batteries open fire, use our missile trajectories to calculate likely target positions."

The bridge exploded into activity as orders were relayed across the fleet to gunnery crews and ordinance technicians. The Entire fleet began to pour fire into the nebula. Green Turbolasers from the Vindicator, the Gladiator ships adding their own lasers and heavy torpedoes, and the lighter Vigil's firing another round of Concussion Missiles and their own Light Turbolaser batteries. Smaller explosions signified where the missiles hit, while large purple detonations marked a Proton-Torpedo hitting its mark. After a moment there was a larger yellow explosion, it seemed that one of the Arquitens cruisers got an unlucky reactor hit and detonated. The Imperial Fleet had won the first round.

The rest of the battle was a simple operation. In desperation to save their cruiser squadron the rest of the Planetary Militia sallied forth and engaged the Imperial fleet in open space.

Their first mistake.

Their second was attempting to use their massed squadrons to allow their bombers, Z-95 Hullcrackers, to attempt to knock out the shield generators of the Visionary. Kilkin deployed the fleet's own TIE fighters, who more than proved a match for outdated Z-95 craft and their mismatched escort fighters. Cloakshape Squadrons, 2 republic V-wings, and an older Delta 7 squadron were engaged by the 10 squadrons of TIE Fighters in a furball in front of the task force. The Z-95s flew low and below the squadron battle, content that they wouldn't be swarmed by strike craft, only to run into the accurate anti-fighter screen the Vigil's put up.

Each Vigil Corvette was equipped with 5 dual-laser cannon batteries. Combined with their accurate concussion missiles the bombers never really stood a chance. Then the Acclamator and Gunship squadrons tried to push things back in their favor. Unfortunately for them, simple fire superiority was enough to counteract that. The Vigil class is a designated Corvette hunter and had a 6 to 4 advantage over the smaller and weaker Interceptor IVs.

To make things worse, Gladiator Light Star Destroyers carry 2 squadrons of TIE Fighters and 1 Squadron of Skipray Blastboat heavy bombers. Kilkin proved his prowess as a task force commander through his coordination of the 6 corvettes into hunter squadrons that harassed the Interceptor gunships out of position and into the Skipray squadrons. It's worth noting that in terms of tonnage and firepower, the Gladiator itself is weaker but semi-comparable to the Acclamator I. Combine that with the Vindicator and there was more than enough firepower to destroy the assault ship.

That's not to say that everything went perfectly for the Empire. The 10 IPV patrol craft, working in pairs. Were able to destroy 7 squadrons of TIE Fighters, more than half the fleet's total supply of fighter craft. The Empire also lost a single Vigil Corvette, the Fortitude. Both Gladiator Ships had suffered light damage, but the Vindicator would be spending several months in drydock. Its primary Turbolasers were destroyed, and it was retired to the backline where it could be preserved. The battered task force was now approaching the weapons range of their primary defense station.

Kilkin had hailed the station and the PDF Commander looked all but defeated.

"I am willing to discuss terms Lord Vader," the commander's tone was low, broken.

Vader was uncompromising, "You will surrender control of the planetary defenses unconditionally commander, and I may be merciful to your men."

The PDF commander looked like he might try and fight it out, but one glance at the disparity between his lightly armed class 1 station and the battered but intact Imperial Fleet made him seemingly reconsider. The man sighed deeply but nodded, "I accept Lord Vader, the Planetary Defense Forces of Aagau will stand down and allow you and your men to land at the Capital city. We will return to the Empire without any further conflict."

Vader turned to Kilkin, "Commander, make the necessary preparations."

The Holonet broadcasted the news of Darth Vader's Victory over Aargau on every channel. This, many Imperial Newscastors' claimed, was the beginning of their grand liberation of the galaxy from rebels and traitors. Most of the Imperial officers were just glad they had a win under their belt. Aargau ceded its authority to the Galactic Empire again, and soon its banking institutions were being used to fill Imperial coffers. On top of that, the transit route between Rendili and Coruscant was fully secured. It was a small but crucial step toward returning the core to the Empire's control. It also returned Vader to the top spot in the Empire's military hierarchy. Whispers in the Imperial Court and muttering in the Officer's mess were all the same. Vader had won such a crushing naval victory that the planet surrendered without a single shoot needing to be fired from the ground troops. A powerful symbol of Imperial Victory and Imperial might.

If only every battle would be so easy.

(AN) Well, that was a fun bit of writing. I'm still finding my feet when it comes to space battles, I want to give due diligence to Naval procedure, but it's probably not the most exciting thing to read. I'm going to work on balancing. A good part of the military is surprisingly boring, the rest of it is terrifying. Originally this was all supposed to be from Kilkin's perspective, but I want to save the true bridge cacophony for someone who doesn't have Vader standing overhead; plus you can't put Vader in a battle scenario and not take a peek in his head!

Oh also, I don't have a beta, I'm doing my best to make sure everything is spelled right, and everything is consistent. I may not always succeed, planetary and personal names are killers in the Star Wars universe.

Next Time: The Blockade of Kuat and the New Imperial Fleet.